I understand the frustration of those who are angry at the Democratic Senators who voted with Republicans on this one, but I feel angrier at the voters who put us in this position last November. The reality is that Republicans won't feel shamed by the prospect of their constituents starving or being left without health care. There's no conscience driven way to reach the GOP at this point; they wouldn't be Republicans if they didn't enjoy human suffering. During wartime sieges, people have had to undergo horrific privations and have ended up being forced to eat stuff like dirt, bugs, wallpaper paste, their own pets. But in this situation the food is in the grocery stores, and 40% of those expected to starve are children, with long term consequences for their health. Republicans won't care about them - for them mass starvation is a feature, not a bug - because they don't work for the United States of America or for Americans anymore. The government they are loyal to is angry about the end of slavery, and is angry about human rights, and is angry that our country fought against Hitler; naturally they don't see this situation like we do. So we're going to have to fight them some other way. This was all avoidable - Trump should be in prison. Instead voters gave him the power to destroy us all.
Your anger is well-placed, directed squarely against the blackmailers willing to see all the hostages die rather than incur Trump's wrath. The combination of cowardice, stupidity and absurdity just took all our breaths away. It was never clear how this would end, given the sadism and idiocy that have become Republican hallmarks.
One-third our electorate didn't even bother to show up last November. When one-third the people couldn't care less, a republic simply becomes unsustainable. And those who showed up put a demented moron in the White House a *second* time, and gave his party a majority in both Houses (albeit the slimmest in American history, thanks to gerrymandering). It's they who've determined our short-term fates at least.
Our Founders thought scumbags like Trump would eventually appear on the scene. They never bargained that more than half the Senate would refuse to do its job and not convict a twice-impeached criminal it knew to be guilty of both attempted blackmail and obstruction of justice -- twice in a row. Had those Senators actually done their jobs (save for Mitt Romney), our present reality would be far different.
It's because the left always goes into our favorite sport, "Dem bashing", as soon as Democrats cannot achieve instantaneously all that we want, that one third became so discouraged that they now falsely believe that most Democrats (and most politicians) are "bad guys" so they better turn away from politics altogether.
And if you look at social media and even pundits such as Robert Reich... the knives are out once again.
Most Democrats voted AGAINST opening the government, and one Senator who voted for it isn't even a Democrat, but people don't seem to care. ALL Democrats are now once again rejected with ad hominem arguments such as "they're weak" etc.
It shows how THE main problem in the US is the terribly low political literacy (as Saul Alinsky called it) of the American people, both on the left and on the right.
You're so wrong. The Democrats had insisted on one thing only - the retention of those ACA subsidies. John Stewart on the Daily Show played tapes of two of the senators involved in the capitulation (and that's what it was) completely contradicting themselves. Tim Kaine, senator for Virginia, on NBC's Meet the Press is saying that agreeing to open the government on the promise of a vote on the subsidies in the Senate without a commitment that it would pass or that the House would take it up was "an empty offer". He's now voted for the empty offer. It's empty not least because Trump hates Obamacare and is now talking about replacing it with 'Trump Care'.
Similarly, Stewart showed Jeanne Shaheen, senator for New Hampshire, on CNBC's Squawk Box talking about the dreadful effect of the loss of those ACA subsidies on one of her constituents, who she has just sold down the river for the 'empty offer'.
It's true that Trump doesn't care about the harm he's inflicting on Americans - he's never cared about that. What he and the Republicans do care about is the impact of what they do on their grip on power and the clean sweep in last week's elections for the Democrats was not just a huge boost for the party but also a warning for Republicans in Congress and they showed it with a typically hysterical response.
In the court case on the SNAP payments, Trump was on the verge of having to go to the Supreme Court to ask them to approve his decision to starve hungry Americans. He's so unpopular that he was booed at the Washington Commanders game while swearing in troops.
The argument being deployed by the rebels is that the strategy wasn't working when it WAS working! The polls show that people were blaming Trump and the Republicans for the shutdown. Now they've handed Trump a gilt-edged opportunity to claim victory and still blame the Democrats for the ensuing chaos.
Totally agree! This was betrayal!! You don’t walk away w/a “pinky swear”!!
The good news is this: ‘INDIVISIBLE’ will not stand down. Heads have to roll!! Consider supporting the prodemocracy organization, ‘Indivisible’. They were a major organizer for the ‘NO KINGS’ day protests. Join Indivisible’s organization to: 1. Remove Schumer… 2. Primary any democrat that supports Schumer…and then 3. fight (for roughly the next year) for our winning candidates!! Stand w/‘Indivisible’ and never give up!!!!!!!!!
Yes, bring out the guillotines. That will solve everything. 🙄 Honestly, what is this love of the circular firing squad, the demand to take down those who tried to fight blackmail (and most still did)? What does this get you, other than a pile of messy blood and guts? And Schumer voted no, by the way.
You can keep your vision for a Robespierre-style 'republic' -- count me out.
Thanks to Heather for presenting all the many balls in motion, for providing needed balance on this. Let's not engage in the 'circular firing squad'. Retain the anger, but don't lose sight of the real enemy.
My initial reaction was indeed a simmering pot of anger and disappointment. Let the head catch up to the heart, consider that this may have been an unsatisfying click forward on the ratcheting gear of the long haul. Maybe we won the small battle already. Retain the anger for progressing from this new, incrementally advanced position.
No matter the Senate, was Mike Johnson ever going to allow the ACA to be brought to a vote? In a worthy discussion on The Bulwark between Tim Miller and Will Saletan regarding the recent Senate vote, Miller says you don't play chicken with someone who wants to crash. And then how much longer would the actual suffering go on for Americans who are not "online" like those of us in comments sections
I agree with you, however when someone makes a concession and you disagree that is hardly a guillotine! We are allowed to diverge in our approaches and allowed to voice opinions about why we think it was an unwise move. The difficulty is to thread a needle when we are in a haystack of problematic straws, where is the needle and how and what do we do to find its useful end..? Maybe we are in the wrong haystack all together?! (probably the last is the most likely!) Don't get upset by disagreement that is a feature of democracy.. and of the democratic party..!
No, we’re not end of story. But for people with TDS that certainly a possibility. But here’s another good story.
Do you know what we just discovered James? Amongst all the stories and the quiet about Epstein during Biden’s administration even though the administration had the entire file on their desk for four years and did nothing with it. and the hope for some damning information that never comes and blaming anybody who associated with Jeffrey epstein how about this one for a bombshell.
KATIE COURIC. Which I will get to you in one second.
No but YouTube today showed two clips of Katie Couric trying to get John Federman to hate on Charlie Kirk and persisted and persisted and persisted to get him to say something negative about Charlie Kirk
And then this piece of news came out when Federman refused to take the bait and he’s turned into a real hero and it’s probably one of the hated Democrats right now. Awwwww
One of the top news professionals of her generation actually had dinner at Jeffrey Epstein‘s house after he was convicted of pedophilia!!
Indivisible doesn’t mean we are sheep. But that’s how the Democrats but felt from the beginning on this topic. Until seven smart ones finally ended it and fed the Nady kept our planes flying and paid our military. The Democrats got nothing but 40 days of suffering for the most needed on their watch
Bernie wasn’t cheated out of anything. More Democrats voted for Hillary than for him. And it takes a lot of nerve to expect a party you won’t deign to join to make you their nominee for president.
Since when is "democracy" defined by who picks the presidential candidate? Trump didn't even participate in the 2024 primary debates, remember?
Democracy is defined by the constitutional separation of powers and the independence of Congress.
The current neofascist GOP is installing its opposite: fascism. Or in the words of Mike Johnson, now GOP Reps broke their oath to the Constitution and see it as their job to "codify" the executive orders written by the Heritage Foundation and coming out of the White House.
THAT is what "cheating the base" means.
They also promised to CUT costs. Instead, their Big Bill, which they even call "Beautiful", adds trillions of dollars to the debt ONLY to give billionaires more tax cuts, all while dramatically cutting Medicare, Medicaid, SNAP, and the ACA's tax credits.
THAT is what "cheating the base" means - and cheating the American people, since 79% oppose all these things.
As to Harris: all delegates immediately approved her nomination, as soon as she became the candidate, so that IS a democratically elected nominee (delegates are not "elites" at all - the elites are in the current WH, with the highest number of billionaires ever).
Also, and so much more importantly, Harris ran on a campaign platform supported by not only all Democrats but also most of the American people.
Finally, as to Bernie etc: others here already refuted your claims.
Hey Kathleen, love those marches never saw so many people embarrassing themselves together at one time. But the best thing was the day after each embarrassing useless purposeless Marge stock market shut up both times so please keep those marches alive
Yes, the Democrats insisted on extending the tax credits. Knowing full well that they had NO legal power to get this done. So why did they do it? For once, mere messaging. Trying to make the 2/3 who didn't vote for Democrats in 2024 understand that the GOP is serious about killing their healthcare.
Polls show that they largely succeeded, and now there will be a second round of messaging in December.
As to your idea that we were getting closer to "force" the anti-ACA GOP to continue to support the ACA: where's the concrete evidence backing up your claim... ?
What I said was that the Democrat's strategy of holding out against voting for the Republican CR was working. It was reflected in the polls, in Trump's plummeting approval rating and in those elections last week. The party was energised and confident. Now thanks to these sell-outs all that energy is going to dissipate in recriminations.
You ask me for concrete evidence of something I didn't claim. Let me offer you a challenge. Let's wait and see what these rebels actually achieve as a result of this climbdown. The SNAP changes introduced in the One Big Beautiful Bill have already come into effect which means that thousands who were eligible for help won't be any longer. The promised Senate vote in December on the extension of the tax credits under the American Rescue Plan I predict will deliver nothing at all. So let's wait and see, shall we?
But you see? Your ONLY criteria is "Was it working in the polls?".
I don't blame you for reducing politics to the horse race, after having the legacy media do so for decades. It has become a national habit, regardless of political affiliation.
It's also what is killing democracy in the US today.
"Working", in the democratic sense of the word, means real progress for ordinary citizens.
That was never achievable once "we the people" gave Congress to the only party that had proven, for decades, NOT to want to work for the people.
What was achievable, however, was making that clearer to the two thirds who, once again, thought it wise not to vote or even to vote for the GOP.
But once that point was made clear, why allow the GOP to bulldozer the entire government for many more makes to come? That would have gone directly against the very goal of all good governance: making progress for the people.
As to your "let's wait and see": why would we do that? We've seen it already. The Big Ugly bill passed, and is 100% consistent with what we've seen the GOP do for decades.
And now, on top of it all, they became neofascist, so they SKIP NEGOTIATIONS in Congress. Systematically.
What exactly is the power of the minority in that case, you think (since you seem to believe that it still has power - aside from messaging)?
(As to "energy dissipated in recriminations": I agree. But that's on US, not the Democrats. WE are dissipating our energy in blaming those who didn't have the power to do what we want for not having achieved what we want... )
I agree with you. We need to continue the messaging. Keep hammering away. One of my (many) concerns is that Trump?MAGA will use punishing the American people as a tool. It could happen again. We need to keep the blame game squarely on the sholders of the MAGA.
I don't think the neofascist GOP uses punishing Americans merely as a tool. It's the very core of their entire agenda.
Just read where this all comes from: neoliberalism, a movement created to fight back against the New Deal.
If you read Peter Thiel, Kevin Roberts (Heritage Foundation president), or basically listen carefully to no matter what Republican, they all share the same creed: social security is bad for America, it has to end.
Why?
Because it means taxes and regulations, which, in their eyes, limit the freedom of the wealthiest to do whatever they want. And only allowing the wealthiest to do whatever they want will lead to the best possible society, they believe.
It means abandoning the democratic ideal that is based on the belief that it IS possible to create a society in which everyone thrives. A fascist anthropology assumes that most people are mediocre at best, and only a handful are of superior nature. Allow the mediocre to govern (as in demo-cracy, or government by and for the people) and things cannot but go south. Allow the best to govern and mediocre people will still suffer, but at least now the best can be happy. And that, they believe, IS the best humanity as a whole can achieve.
It's because this is what neofascists believe that they WANT a government shutdown, because that makes it possible for them to destroy democracy so much faster than if they need to do it through the legislative and judicial process, combined with massive fake news and rigging elections.
It will require a lot of real debates among citizens before everyone realizes this. In the meantime, what we CAN do is at least make sure that by 2026, everyone knows that the GOP is laser focused on destroying the ACA and social security and that the only way to stop them is to vote, and vote for Democrats.
YES! Keep up the messaging...GOP wanted to keep SNAP benefits from being distributed, GOP wants your health insurance to be unaffordable, GOP was never going to help the American people in any way. This is becoming clearer and clearer (one would think)
Yes, and the ACA subsidy cuts take effect NOW. Other major cuts to safety net programs like SNAP and Medicaid don't take effect until after the midterms. I am disappointed that the Democrats didn't hold out longer, but I am also fortunate in that the current shutdown has no major effects on my life or my close family members lives.
I’m old and as I said to someone, I have spent almost half a century watching the republicans play the democrats and the democrats not admitting it. Chump is being ruled by P2025, they are ruthless. Democrats caved as Vought knew some would. The rest of the Dem lawmakers should be as livid as I am, but the party is what it is. Impotent and it’s their own fault. Well, I guess I’m still one unless my outrage is not acceptable to the rule bound ostriches.
Trump is hated Obama care ever since it became a lie to the people. It was a total lie. It was totally fictitious and when you talk about narcissism, what a better illustration is naming the thing after yourself . It was supposed to be affordable care, and yet it still needed a subsidy go figure. Now it’s anything but affordable now it’s anything but comprehensive in its coverage and according to statistics it now needs the 25% premium increase and $350 billion just to survive a few more years. Not to mention the subsidies.
People are so lost in the woods. You can’t even see the sky
The Dem Victory List (A Happy Dozen) — Those 8 (well, 7 + 1) votes achieved the following 1.) SNAP suffering ended, 2.) Air Traffic and Air Safety resumed, 3.) increased funding for Indigenous Health Services, 4.) a Democrat-written bill to extend ACA premium tax credits (by mid-December) ** 5.) House of Representatives back to work, 6.) first order of business for the House = administer oath to Adelita Grijalva (D-AZ), 7.) the Senate filibuster rule is still intact (meaning that the R’s still need some D’s to get some things accomplished and if the R’s DIDN’T need D’s, then we will have crowned Trump as our Dictator King, 8.) the final signature on the Epstein files discharge petition can/will happen, 9.) the House will have to vote on the Epstein Files release, 10.) on that release decision, Republican House members will have to decide whether to vote YES (release ‘em) or NO (Guardians Of Pedophiles) or PRESENT (chicken, chicken), 11.) Trump is unhappy, 12.) I am happy that Trump is unhappy.
** In mid-December, a no vote by the R’s bestows ownership of the ACA premium increase to the R’s.
Yup, a DOZEN victories and all I read is bitching about the 8!
Wrll that sounds impressive, but let's run through them.
1) SNAP suffering will not end if the government reopens. The new eligibility and work requirement rules (introduced by the OBBB) came into effect on 1 November. This means that thousands of those people who were eligible for SNAP benefits before then aren't now eligible and will conintue to have to depend on food banks.
2) there is still a dangerous shortage of air traffic controllers. I have seen estimates that there have been 147 air traffic incidents since Trump came to power. Trump has fired hundreds of FAA employees and will doubtless sack some more.
3) increased funding for indigenous health services - that's a plus.
4) the Democrat-written bill on ACA subsidies does not come with a commitment from Senate Republicans to vote for it or that the House will take it up never mind vote for it, so nothing has actually been guaranteed,
5) I'm honestly not sure putting the dysfunctional House of Representatives back to work is anything to crow about.
6) swearing in Adelita Grijalva is undoubtedly a plus, but that should have been done much earlier and the Republicans were on shaky legal grounds refusing to do this.
7) the Senate Republicans were never, ever going to accede to Trump's demand that they end the filibuster.
8) yes, the Epstein files will be released but they should have been released much earlier.
9) see above, I don't think this is an additional plus.
10) ditto, you're just inventing new fake victories for these rebel senators.
11) Trump has indicated that he will sign this bill. He was unhappy because he was being blamed for the shutdown. Now he can claim victory and still blame the Democrats for the ensuing hardship and chaos the hsutdown has caused and that's exactly what he will do.
12) How does your happiness constitute a victory for those senators when virtually the rest of the party is at their throats?
Thanks for your reply, Russell, and please note that you agree that there are MANY pluses that you agree with me on. What concerns and and makes me very unhappy is the seemingly uncontrolled bitching about what has happened and what the potentials are. Please note that the Republicans in the House will have to AGREE with what the Senate just passed. They will have to be on record for a bunch of things they opposed before.
“You have heard the last of me I don’t deal with racist and I’m not gonna respond to anything else that you post so enjoy your time with your racism”
And, no, Poor Rick, I have not tampered with your quote. It is grammatically incorrect, but we all know, you are “a Mensa Mensa Man - we all wanna be a Mensa Man (or Woman)” - and we all know you don’t mind dangling your participles in front of EVERYBODY!! YIKES!!
BUT, if as you have said, “not gonna respond to anything else that you post,” then stop responding to what I post! (DUH - Simple stuff, even for a Mensa. Just keep your mouth shut.) We all know that’s the easy way out, but I was under the assumption that you were a True Mensa! Maybe I should not A$$UME since that might make an A$$ out of U and ME.
Russell, your comments are always well-researched and well thought out. By contrast, I have found EUWDTB's comments to be full of twisted logic and contrarian, having no real purpose but to occupy space in the conversation and draw attention to themself.
Dale, I can understand that many people will be relieved that the government shutdown is likely to end. It has been a disaster for almost everyone (almost because Trump doesn't seem to have been inconvenienced at all). The problem is that the madness doesn't end and the prospect of it ending hasn't been brought any closer by this climbdown and may even have damaged the Democratic party's chances at the midterms. It wasn't worth it.
Russell, my sentiments are similar. I posted the following comment on another forum.
I've read several analyses of the debacle perpetrated by the 8 cowards with nothing to lose. Some were full of disdain; some attempted optimism. Having weighed all those opinions as I've drawn my own conclusion, it is this: Turds do not have silver linings.
I would hope there's a way to punish them, but I doubt it. I suspect Strongly-Worded-Letter Schumer organized this affair, then voted "no" to give himself cover, so don't expect him to discipline the turncoats.
The tragedy is that millions of people suffered anxiety and financial hardship. For nothing.
And knowing what we know about Donald and his party, the temporary suffering their hostages just experienced will soon be made permanent.
I can't believe that it's a coincidence that the exact number of Dems needed, who will face no consequences next year, caved & voted with the GOP to pass the motion. It had to be approved or developed by the leadership, and who knows how many others. The reasoning is becoming clear as mud.
To be fair, besides being booed by the crowd at the Commanders game he was also booed at the U.S. Open Tennis Tournament during his second time in office, but outside his "rallies" he was also widely booed during his first term. Remember, Clinton had over 7M more votes. Were it not for our antiquated Electoral College system, Stupid America would not prevail.
Trump is resorting to just telling lies now about everything. He claims there is no inflation and that prices for gasoline and food are falling, not rising.
At the same time as DoJ lawyers are explaining to the Supreme Court that the government's tariffs are purely regulatory and not imposed to raise revenue, Trump continues to boast about how much is being raked in by his tariffs and is promising a rebate of $2,000 to all lower-income Americans from that revenue (much of which THEY are paying!).
This isn't new. Whenever tRump is speaking, he is lying. In his campaign for the '24 election he liked to target two specific foods (and fuel): bacon and eggs (must be a big breakfast buff along with his passion for Big Macs and other non-nutritious fast foods). Not sure about bacon but I know we were paying ~$5.99/doz for large eggs in March, but Friday my wife says she paid $2.29/doz. The reason for the falling prices have nothing to do with tRump or any policy, it has everything to do with the Avian Flu crisis early this year.
However - and this has nothing to do with Mad Cow Disease - my wife also paid $18 for a 3 lb chuck roast Friday to make Italian Beef. A particular cut of beef which in March - while eggs were pricey - cost only $1.99/lb.
And as an aside, this year my largely liberal suburban neighborhood of about 100 homes contributed nearly three times as much food to our local food drive as we did last year. Doubtless a lot of it will go to surrounding rural areas with lots of low income uneducated MAGAts but that's okay with me as unlike their party, I do not want to see anyone suffer unnecessarily. Maybe they'll think twice about electing heartless monsters. Or not.
The entire Jon Stewart show was great - the two Democratic Representatives were very upfront and open about their feelings - especially as they are both Veterans.
As always - both his Daily Show and his Weekly shows are super.
Spot on! Dem leadership is stuck in a time when traditional negotiations worked. We left that scenario 100% in 2016 when trump first took control of the executive branch. It's way past time when people like Schumer and Kaine need to go fishing and leave the real battle to people who get it.
That's the nub of the thing, Tim. There is no centre ground any more in US politics. The Republican party is now the MAGA party and there's no use bargaining with fanatics.
The defectors have a 'chance' to get paid $500,000 now that they can sue now too, remember? What they did not think about was the grassroots efforts that we Americans were doing to build community and fill gaps, creating networks that were helping. It is not easy, and to think that dt&co will keep promises is bonkers. They are dems in name only. dino-saurs - and need extinction.. we do not need that.
He didn’t make any promises. But if everyone will get into a room on both sides of the aisle together, they can come up with something better than what there is right now. Emanuel‘s brother screwed us all up and Obama went out and lied about it time and time again and people here swallowed it like little Chickies in the nest. If you’d like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. If you like your plan, you can keep your plan. And if you like this little children, I have some candy at home for you. Lololol
You realize you are backing your opinions up with a comedian? Who gets paid for outrageous takes that attract eyeballs to his comedy show. On Comedy Central?
No, she hasn't. She's giving you half the story as she usually does. As I've said many times, she gave up her Monica as a credible historian to becoming a liberal political activist and nothing more.
The Democrats had one piece of leverage and these seven just gave that away. We're out here protesting, making phone calls, writing postcards and emails, and then those seven basically slap us in the face. We need representatives on our side who will stick to their convictions. Yes, there's pain and hurt during this shutdown, but now it's just going to get worse.
how do you leverage a party that gives NOT ONE FUCK about the American people??? WHAT IS THE LEVERAGE? Did you think Mike Johnson was going to wake up one morning and say...aww, these poor people are hungry and won't be able to afford HI..what would Jesus do? The Dems have made many a point here. Time to move on and let the repubs destroy themselves.
I understand your argument, but acquiescing now isn't doing Americans any good in the long-run.
Keep in mind it was the Republicans who gutted civil service. Those people will still be without jobs because that's a whole different issue than the shutdown. Keep in mind it was the Republicans who cut SNAP benefits. This agreement may - repeat MAY - get those funds running again but even if it does, that won't fix the long-term problem of the Republican mindset that Americans don't deserve this 'handout'. Keep in mind it's the Republicans who don't think Americans should have affordable healthcare. This agreement does NOTHING to resolve that. The Democrats had a chance to hold the line at least on the healthcare issue. A thin line, but it was something. I just hope the House Democrats think of the long-term implications and vote accordingly.
The Republicans didn’t got civil service Republicans took away monies. It was supposed to go for civil service, and it went for something else, and it went to ngo’s and it went to third parties, and they pissed the way the money, and I never got to the target. Who cut snap benefits? Well, now there’s a wake up call. By the way, the latest info coming from snap statistics. The average woman in America weighs 142 pounds the average woman in America that’s on snap benefits weighs over 200.
This is not acquiescence. This is intelligence. This is feeding hungry Americans. This is paying American veterans and current military personnel. This is ensuring our air traffic controllers get enough rest so we don’t start having airline collisions. Thinking like that it’s just blind hate. Because sooner or later, this was back up so badly other Democrats, they would live to regret it especially when people aren’t getting fed that needed the most and the only people keeping them from that were seven Democrats and their names would’ve been shouted from the rooftops, not by the left, but by the right.
And then you make these ridiculously absurd Announcements saying that the Republicans don’t want people to have affordable health care how effing stupid is that comment??? Either party, but thought that Way wouldn’t be at all and in power very long.
The problem with the left right now if they don’t want to face reality here’s the reality the ACA had as one of its principles that the subsidies END/EXPIRE/VAMOOOSE… December of this year and that was signed by Barack Hussein Obama. And now you wanna renegotiate and you wanna blame the Republicans for putting that in the bill? Doesn’t get any dumber than that
In my opinion, it’s about a lack of collaborative solidarity. The Dems ARE NOT operating in our best interests. If they were, they would be speaking in a single voice that emphatically calls for specific reforms to our broken system of government. A system that was broken long before the maga mindset took root.
Now that it (the maga mind) has virtually overtaken our democracy, the Dems need to be TOTALLY unified. And the are not.
Why?
Again, in my opinion, self-preservation of their status quo careers, not fighting for the best interests of their constituents (OUR) best interests.
I welcome dialogue on this subject because it is so important that we collaborate on this issue. As deserving as maga needs to be bashed for their views of hate, greed, power and control, it is more important to offer a viable alternative that will resonate with Americans (at least enough to form a strong majority at the polls).
Look at what Zohran Mamdani did in New York City! Two MILLION voters turned out, and yes, his base was powered by young voters over the older folks that have been indoctrinated to accept the neo liberal status quo policies that continue to be regurgitated by the life long, bought and sold politicians.
Regardless of what you think about him and his views HE WON, and now it’s paramount that he is successful enough to prove to the “indoctrinated ones” that his views, and more importantly, his policies have merit.
We need to talk and work together, not agree on everything, but remain united in a progressive cause that can defeat maga and the fascists.
And PLEASE, if you are reading this PLEASE share your thoughts!
That's an extremely cynical outlook on specific human beings.
Imho, the last few decades of Democrats in both DC and at the state level prove that outlook to be entirely wrong.
It's NOT the right question here, however.
The right question is: if you wanted Democrats to continue to give the GOP what it wanted, namely a shutdown and the legal limbo that comes with it and allows them to bulldozer the government much faster, all while installing fascism... WHY did you want that in the first place?
As to Mamdani: he ran as a progressive in a progressive town and won. Nothing new about that. Now, it's our job, as citizens of a democracy, to inform the two thirds of the American people who still either don't vote or vote for the GOP to finally begin to vote for Democrats too.
Help me understand how I am being cynical. And I’m not sure that I understand what you are saying about the shutdown.
The shutdown was the result of an unwillingness by republicans to extend ACA tax credits (that will expire at the end of 2025), and consequently, the gop’s inability to gather 60 votes in the senate to pass the continuing resolution bill, correct?
The dems then formed a bloc that prevented passage until ACA tax credits were extended, and the shutdown began.
So, I did not want dems “to give the gop what it wanted”, I wanted the dems to fight for continuation of the ACA tax credits. The shutdown was a consequence of this (dem) request. I know the gop tried to blame the shutdown on the dems, but do you believe that to be true?
To be clear, technically yes, because dems would not agree with the great big beautiful bill’s cutting of ACA tax credits, their only leverage was to block passage of the continuing resolution and causing the shutdown. But that’s war (waged by the gop on the American People). And as I mentioned in a previous post, with any war there are casualties.
Regarding Mamdani, he is a Democratic Socialist! A far cry from “progressive” in virtually any American city.
Most “progressive” dems are neo liberal status quo politicians and the MAIN REASON why so many people supported maga, or have been sitting home on election day.
And all you need do is review the slurs by the gop and fellow dems about Mamdani being "commuist", "socialist", "Marxist", and of course a Muslim that should be deported.
Mamdani motivated a TWO MILLION VOTER turnout. That’s exactly what is needed to get two-thirds of the American people to vote for dems.
We need to have this dialogue, but also need to be united, not divided (since we compose the two thirds of American voters needed to dismantle maga and the fascist regime.
do you really think the GOP would have reinstated the tax credits? How much longer do you think it would have taken? I guess you dont really think the GOP is as evil as they really are. But I do think this shut down lasted long enough to point out to the American people who cares and who doesn't
Imagining that Democrats do not have our best interests at heart, contrary to all the evidence out there, is cynicism.
You wrote:
"The shutdown was the result of an unwillingness by republicans to extend ACA tax credits (that will expire at the end of 2025), and consequently, the gop’s inability to gather 60 votes in the senate to pass the continuing resolution bill, correct?"
Yes, absolutely correct.
You wrote:
"The dems then formed a bloc that prevented passage until ACA tax credits were extended, and the shutdown began."
That's what they said, indeed.
You wrote:
"The shutdown was a consequence of this (dem) request. I know the gop tried to blame the shutdown on the dems, but do you believe that to be true?"
No, it's entirely false. In a democracy, when the majority party needs at least 8 minority votes, it sits down with the minority, listens to its requests, and then negotiates a compromise between what the minority wants and what the majority wants. A one-year extension of the ACA tax credits was a very reasonable compromise, knowing that 79% of the American people support it, so this request was imposed by the minority as a condition to keep the government open, AND it was actually a majority request, when it comes to the American people. This is also why we all supported Democrats' refusal to keep the government open as along as the GOP didn't compromise.
You wrote:
"To be clear, technically yes, because dems would not agree with the great big beautiful bill’s cutting of ACA tax credits, their only leverage was to block passage of the continuing resolution and causing the shutdown. But that’s war (waged by the gop on the American People). And as I mentioned in a previous post, with any war there are casualties."
This is where we disagree. Democrats never had any leverage whatsoever, in the current, entirely new political environment in DC. What is new is that a neofascist party controls DC. Normally, the leverage the minority party has consists of the fact that neither minority nor majority wants a government shutdown. The majority doesn't want a government shutdown because then it cannot move its agenda through Congress and sign it into law, so it loses precious time. And by not signing it into law, it risks disappointing its own voters, so it may well lose the next elections. So it's in their own benefit to end it asap. THAT is the leverage that the minority party has, in NORMAL circumstances.
When neofascists take over, however, this kind of leverage is entirely gone. What neofascists want IS a government shutdown, because they're not interested in passing legislation through Congress, they govern through executive orders, and their Justices approve that idea. Or as Mike Johnson said, from now on, the job of Congress is merely to "codify" the executive orders Trump signs. In that case, you don't need ANY negotiations in Congress anymore. All that is necessary is that it convenes once a year to pass an omnibus bill that contains all the executive orders of that year, and that's all.
So that's the first reason why today, the minority party has no real leverage whatsoever.
Second reason: what neofascists want is the destruction of the New Deal. The fastest way to achieve this is to just destroy most of the executive branch of government. During a shutdown, you enter a legal grey zone in which the Executive actually has a lot of legal power to do exactly that, whereas outside of a government shutdown, it's much more difficult. So when it comes to "policy", the longer Dems keep the government shut down, the faster the GOP achieves its policy goals.
Third, for democracy to function, voters need to know what the majority is doing so that they can vote them out. But for 25 years now, the GOP has built a massive propaganda machine, which keeps about one third of the country stuck in a totally fake news bubble, where no matter what the GOP does will be celebrated as a huge win for the GOP and the people. That being the fact, all that is needed is for the rest of the country to imagine that Democrats are "bad people" and to turn against them or not even vote, and, even though no one actually wants what they do... they can win elections, again and again.
We vitally need people to understand this, because if not, democracy WILL be gone, over the next 5-10 years (that's what it needed in other countries to fully transform a democracy into a fascist regime). If we get stuck in imagining that Democrats "are not into us", we're actively empowering the GOP to install fascism much faster.
You'd be a lot better if you took fascism out of your vocabulary. In fact, the Democrats hired a consulting firm and pay them $900,000 called thirdway.org who told him
I totally agree with what you are saying here - the dems have placed their own interests above the interests of we the people! They work for the billionaires and corporations to cultivate big donations. They do not work for us this is blatantly obvious. I think we need massive reform in this country. Both parties are corrupt thought the retrumpians are extreme in their corruption. Some how we the people need to seize back our country our government and our money - we are being fleeced every day. The fact that shummer and Jeffries didn't support Mamdani says it all.
Schumer and Jeffries cannot explicitly endorse a "socialist Democrat" for a simple reason: poll after poll shows that a majority of the American people associate entirely false ideas (and truly scary and bad ideas) with the very word of socialism.
As long as that's the case, officially endorsing a socialist means, concretely, sending out the exact opposite message of what Democrats stand for, you see?
Yes, ALL Democrats FULLY support a democratic socialist agenda.
But no, outside of blue states/cities, we cannot possibly use the WORD "socialist" because we'd immediately lose all elections.
This will only change AFTER "we the people" make sure that more people understand the correct meaning of the word. That's not the job of politicians. Politicians govern. We the people need to engage in the civic debates that are the ONLY way to help people understand how mistaken their associations around this word are.
Again you're wrong and you're putting too much emphasis on the actual word socialist that means nothing to most people they hear it but it means nothing. It's the actions that mean everything and that's why socialism doesn't work and it won't work in America and in my lifetime, I'm hoping it will never come close to happening. And it's not about the word at all
Hm... and those interests are supposed to be? And how exactly did they do so?
You're confounding the fact that they didn't achieve what they can ONLY achieve and DID achieve when they controlled DC (under Biden), with what a minority party can do once those who vow to destroy the ACA are given full control over DC...
This is why progress is so slow in the US. People immediately turn against the only ones making progress as soon as we give them the legal power to do so, whenever the GOP was given the power to block progress...
..except this time the Dems held out for 40 days...and they made their point. The republicans who could have ended it did not, in fact they tried to STARVE Americans who rcv SNAP benefits. It's not over yet. The republicans were never going to end this, not for anything
Democrats SACRIFICED people’s survival fuel (paychecks & SNAP food money) FOR OVER A MONTH and then shit on their suffering by not winning the battle by scoring affordable healthcare benefits.
Trump is willing to burn the country down to get what he wants, but he is not the only one with a say. Democrats have no say… until Republicans need them.
So Democrats manipulated the situation until Republicans needed them and Democrats pissed it away.
Chris Murphy was right, there is NO WAY to save democracy without pain to the masses.
We could rise up and poof the doofs, but that would come with a very heavy price and no guarantee that the power vacuum wouldn’t be filled with another problem. Anarchy is murder on a country.
-OR-
We could - with top notch strategists, intelligence specialists, influencers, and a significant number of people united in the shared misery of this Administration’s agendas - chase away all the people holding Trump & Administration in place (the architects, engineers, enablers, enforcers, and minions).
But the second option would mean:
-Supporting Democrats in manipulating Republicans into a corner again
-Sacrificing our own money, food energy, jobs, safety, and freedom by doing things to make the Administration and their architects, engineers, enablers, enforcers, minions, and wealthy beneficiaries back down.
Like mass economic shutdown by work sit-outs, cancelling companies by putting them (and their workers unfortunately) out of business, protesting despite threats of physical retaliation by law enforcement, employer retaliation, etc.
The longer Trump & Administration are entrenched, the harder it will be to get rid of them AND the more we will suffer. Think: they have ALL of our data. They can prevent us from getting jobs and healthcare and paying bills. They can pass very public lies & convincing AI videos about us and make us targets for crazies. ANYTHING to tyrannize us - to death.
So there is suffering like going hungry and jobless (but with some hope of help from each) and then there is SUFFERING for us and future generations and no hope of help.
It's the Big Beautiful Bill that CUT SNAP massively, and that stopped the extension of the ACA tax credits.
Republicans ALREADY passed this. The GOP did this.
And Democrats have NO leverage whatsoever to make them revert their previous votes (if you think they have, try to ask yourself: WHAT leverage, concretely?).
So this was never ever about truly obtaining the repeal of the BBB. That would never happen. The GOP has laser focused on destroying the ACA for 15 years and now "we the people" gave them full control over DC. So now, they WILL destroy it. They already have, actually. That's just a fact.
To imagine that it will now be destroyed because of DEMOCRATS, that's the very opposite of what is goin on.
As to saying that we could have "saved democracy": how, more precisely? Because the only alternative was a prolonged government shutdown, with a fascist GOP controlling all levels of the government and literally bulldozing democracy MUCH faster than what it can achieve without a government shutdown. So how would helping them do so somehow "save democracy"? Chris Murphy didn't explain this at all.
I love him, but I think many Dems feel obliged to go for basic populism at a time when political literacy is so low... so they just amplify people's anger, probably knowing full well that there was no other solution in the first place...
Thank YOU…. She helped my sanity…. JVL and Heather stepped ‘out of the box’ and gave a serious summation…. At 89, been watching and voting a long time…. They were so helpful! Not vindictive… so I do appreciate you comment and you wrote it well!
YES, I did read her letter. Democrats DID have some leverage in extending the ACA. Republicans know how popular and important affordable healthcare offered by subsidized ACA is. 8 Democrats chose to let the suffering of all the people hurting by the shutdown (directly and indirectly) die in vain.
Did you ignore Chris Murphy’s truthful statement about no way without suffering to fight for democracy?
I LOST MY FUCKING JOB BECAUSE OF TRUMP & ADMINISTRATION AGENDA - so I am not saying what I’m saying as person coming from POV from safe sidelines.
EVERY and ANY advantage must be used wisely and ruthlessly at this point, because the longer these sociopaths stay in the WH, the more entrenched they will become. And the more suffering they will cause.
We either suffer in a fight or we suffer as passive victims. The only difference is, if we fight and win, we can end the suffering.
Just try to back up these false beliefs with evidence and you'll easily see how false they are.
Or ask yourself this: if Democrats would have continued to shut down the government, WHAT would have happened you think?
As to Murphy: he's playing the populist card, because people with beliefs like yours deserve representation too and if not, you'd stop voting for Democrats altogether. But I'm sure he fully knows how false these claims actually are...
This was an act of cowardice by a few who “lost hope” when unity was necessary. It’s telling that only those not up for election voted with the Republicans, because they knew they weren’t representing their constituents’ will.
Or there could be another explanation. Perhaps they agreed to be the sacrificial lambs asked to pass this bill while protecting fellow Democratic Senators who will face elections soon. In any case, they betrayed those they represent.
Yeah, and if you weren't getting paid and you weren't getting your Social Security check and you were a pilot or you were a veteran or you weren't getting fed by snap how would you feel? Where the hell I thought the Democrats were a party of compassion. ? Yikes.
My husband is a disabled veteran and he’s facing delays in care. Inflation has cut deeply into our small SS income. And still we increased our monthly contributions to our local food bank and free clinic. So while we’re not facing loss of income, we’re trying to do our part. When faced with a bully, giving in doesn’t make us safer. I know personally how important the ACA was/is for those with preexisting conditions. My deepest concern is that it will only get worse from here. Medicaid for our most fragile children here in Florida has already been drastically cut back. Most young people here work in the service industries with low pay and no health insurance. This is painfully real to me, which is why I’m willing to fight like hell.
Diane, if the money allocated initially to help people didn’t go to third parties and the money never got to where we’re supposed to go we wouldn’t be having this conversation right now that’s why USAID is gone
Well you have to admit the dems are corrupt as well - the constant begging for money, kowtowing to billionaires and corporations, not fighting for poor and working people, giving women the shaft - why didn't they ever try to get a constitutional amendment of at least a federal law protecting women's body autonomy...
No, that's an utterly cynical and demonstrably false assumption.
After the SC Citizens United ruling, every politician HAS to constantly beg for money, and therefore needs the support of billionaires.
Not all billionaires are pro-fascism, however. Pritzker is radically pro-democracy, as were the 80 billionaires who supported Harris last year.
And Democrats under Biden and Harris just CUT CHILDHOOD POVERTY IN HALF. How is that "not fighting for poor"?
Same thing with working people and women. Each time we give DC to Democrats, they make real, tangible progress.
As to a constitutional amendment: remember, the US is a democracy. Amendments will only happen AFTER "we the people" give Democrats the legal power to do so. Until now, we never did...
Listen, buddy, I don’t know who you are where you come from but suddenly you’re here posing all this BS. The Dems are corrupt. They don’t give a shit about you or me or anybody else. They support industrial military complex and the capitalist society that always turns towards fascism to maintain control and power and money, money money money money!
Terry, You know it! The "democrat" ...errr ahh Democratic Party could have taken a number of 'hot button' issues and used them to polarize the "democratic vote". Protecting women's body autonomy was ripe, but that just got hosed down. Huh? Yup, sure did. Using the word 'democrat' here is to imply that it is just another descriptor.., kinda like 'dirty floor'.., or hill-billy. Just another indescriminate use of words to draw attention for some reason. Democratic Party, could be a meaningful "item". Tea-party fell on its ass a few years back. Wonder why? No leadership. Leadership? Where are we?
It pisses me off to see apologists such as yourself sniffing at us poor rubes with our "terribly low political literacy." It's the obfuscations and deceptions of the political elite on both sides with their "I know better, I've been to Harvard" arrogance that make it next to impossible to see behind the Wizard's curtain.
Most people are sick to death of all the gaslighting and backroom horse trading. We're not economists or political scientists. We don't make a career of chess playing (or more like "Risk" playing). Political science and economics are not any more noble than the myriad other pursuits the masses choose to focus their passions on. We don't spend our entire lives reading the convoluted rationales and interpretations and judgments and prognostications puked out non-stop by influencers, think-tank journals and talking heads, although many of us have been forced of late to engage in much more of that than we would ever need to do if politicians in general were basically honest and upright people.
I don't need to get lost in all of that to see that this is a straight-forward battle between righteousness and unrighteousness, between justice and injustice, between equality and respect for the common good of all people, and the tyranny of wealth and power under the sheep's clothing of a false and corrupted "Christianity" that justifies racism, oppression, and looks down its nose at the poor and suffering, the immigrant and the outsider.
Ms. Richerdson has rightly pointed out that there are a few potential bright points in the situation resulting from that disastrous vote, and it may not be completely hopeless, but it once again has shown the Democrats as the "Party of Capitulation: Hold out long enough against them and they will cave." And with the stakes we're facing, I don't care if I am a politically unsavvy rube, it fills me with rage. And all the oh-so-brilliant political literati would do well to remember (it's a lesson they seem never to learn) that an enraged populace is something to be feared
Well, you’re wrong about Christianity. And unlike the Muslims trying to proselytize everybody into believing like them, the Christians just want to be left alone. They want to be able to practice religion freely like our founders promised. And I’m trying to remember the last time HCR has been correct. It’s been quite a while.
You misunderstand if you think I am against Christianity. I am not at all against the teachings and life and true spirituality preached and demonstrated by Christ. I'm saying that the "Christian" Nationalism bears no witness or resemblance to the Jesus of the Bible. Read Matthew 7: 21-23 and 25:35-45. "Christian" Nationalism represents the perversion of Christianity that commenced with the 'conversion' of Roman Emperor Constantine, when Christianity became perverted to the religion of empire and domination, the religion of power and greed, rather than the foundation of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth that the true Christ came to establish. "Christian" Nationalists love putting the Ten Commandments in schools and public squares, yet in most of what they do ad represent, they violate the Third Commandment: "Thou shall not take the Name of the Lord Thy God in Vain." By their fruits you shall know them.
John at some point, you might want to realize that many religions have become the religion of an empire. And in fact, much more zealous and much more important than even government and its followings
There are people of many countries that are unified their religion and their religious beliefs, and follow them furiously on a daily basis. And it’s not the government that controls that who are the individuals through inculcation.
And I’m sure there are millions of people who disagreed with your assertions but that’s what makes the world go round and that’s why Christianity has many layers and levels and offshoots
Well... I hope that at least being constantly pissed off and feeling so righteous about your own emotions makes you happy?
In the meantime, any evidence to back up your claims?
Because writing vague stuff full of cynical words... anyone can do that. That doesn't exactly make it true, does it?
So with that, why exactly do you think this is a "disastrous vote"? And how would it be possible that opening the government would mean "caving" if keeping it shut down is exactly what the GOP wanted in the first place... ?
These are not normal times. In my opinion, a wholly treasonous force has taken over our government. Their goals, if realized, will be the end of anything most citizens hold of value about America. This is not a time for "politics as usual," and the MAGA regime has made it so. There are good reasons to reopen the government on one level, and they are not unimportant considerations, like people laid off from their jobs can go back to work or those forced to work as slaves without pay during the shutdown can receive their due wages.
On the other hand, it is critically important that someone that has the capacity to do so take a stand in the face of this coup de tete. The shutdown was working. The people were blaming the Republican party for the shutdown, as Trump himself acknowledged. The overwhelming majority of Americans, as witnessed by virtually every poll except the ones that Trump hallucinates, want to see strength in the face of this MAGA travesty, The loss of SNAP benefits for so many was being seen as the vindictiveness of Republicans and their intransigence, their utter lack of concern for the American people and willingness to use them as blackmail. People were applauding the Democrats for finally showing some spine, to declare war on this insanity which is openly and unabashedly trying to destroy all that is good about this nation. And now, because of this vote in which they really got nothing in return, on the backs of the historic electoral win not even a week before, the Dems are left looking weak and cowardly. They were gaining momentum. The GOP wanted the government shut down because they calculated the country would blame the Democrats, but it was going the opposite way. To repeat the cliche, the Democrats once again have snagged defeat from the jaws of victory.
I'll close with this: YES, MY WORDS ARE EMOTIONAL!!!! No apologies. Anyone who sees this happening and is not emotional about it is either so dull as to make one wonder if they have a soul, or probably is (more likely) a MAGA troll
Yes on my FB account many responded that it had to be ALL. OR NOTHING when clearly the decision of those seven Democrats is neither the desire nor the thought patterns of the majority of Democrats. I think it's a cop out because they cannot see shades of gray and diversity in being a supportive of democracy and being creative. I'm angry too but I won't let my anger lead me to throw the baby out with the bathwater! Too much fixation on game theory and either or mentality. Get up and fight for a new day. People didn't get through the Revolution or the great depression or either World Wars by giving up. The real problem is the people who voted for this menace and who can't see how he doesn't care about them either!
Absolutely. You don’t see Republicans behaving this way. They just hunker down and keep on doing their best to gain power. It does make me wonder if a lot of the criticism of Democrats I have seen recently in the comments here and in the MSM are not part of the ongoing Russian troll operation to upend our democracy. it’s not hard to sow discord. Democrats need to stand firm and stand together. I refuse to be a part of this nonsense and even though I am disappointed that the shutdown ended this way I am certainly not angry at the senators that made it happen. They had their reasons and the shutdown has accomplished a lot. Let’s not lose it in acrimony.
Good points but to simplify things a tad: Would you want to be in a fox hole with this person? My answer is no - no to any Maga because they do not have any concept of greater good for the whole community, only for self and people like them. They lack an understanding of history and ethics. My answer to those 8 is no - I can't depend on them to have a backbone. When the chips were down they folded ...but no doubt will ask for money... for those 8 my wallet stays in my pocket. Bottom line for me, we need new parties. The fact that 3 of the 8 were from New England (2 from NH and an independent from Maine) is embarrassing as it is disappointing.
I agree with you. But you are never going to persuade most commenters from divisively blaming Democrats.
Stalin began his war against Nazi Germany by purging his own army. It almost cost him the war. And similarly, we have those so angry over an honest difference of opinion that they’re blaming 7 Dems and an Ind for where we are. And thus hiving 53 Republicans a pass.
I hope we can overcome the drag on the party such folks represent.
It’s been a while since Civics class, but don’t I remember that majorities, not outrage, wins elections?
Robert Reich? Has he been correct about anything in real time? Just like many of these people like Krugman they’re good on paper and theory, but that’s where it ends
The fix was in. You can try to convince me that Schumer was not in on the deal. His Whip (not running in 2026) was a leader in the GOP CR passing. The Whip works for the leader and violated his mission and ethics. Jeanne Shaheen is also not running. Tim Kaine was safe. All others are up in 2028 but think you will have forgotten by then. What a tangled subterfuge. It is disgusting. https://hotbuttons.substack.com/p/pieces-of-8-shit?r=3m1bs
If you look at the voting numbers for Biden and then Harris? The turnout was greater for Biden than for Harris. Three million more votes were cast in 2020. That is off of Dave Leip's site which tracks voting and to which I turn to when I start to wonder what happened.
There is so much more to look at than raw numbers; there is a "why" to them. This country is in no way ready to elect a woman president. More people did not vote than voted in the 2024 election. I believe that both her gender and her race made her unelectable, and Biden did NOT help in that regard by choosing to try to run again when he had said he'd be a one term president.
Interesting but hard to interpret. Paul Krugman has a conversation posted with a statistical polster who is acute, well trained, careful, discriminating and slow to reach conclusions. Forget his name. I could not do it justice. But the upshot is that movements in neither polling nor results correspond well with "identity politics", hot issue oriented messaging, posturing, appeals to prejudice or symbolic associations. What they do correspond or "correlate" well with is voters sense of well being. Pocket book issues. Or as was bandied about by the Bill Clinton administration...."It's the Economy, Stupid". It is people who have something to lose who turn out. Thus inflation loomed large in their discussion as a motivational factor driving turn out. And turn out drives changes in distribution.
More broadly, the message is that fear drives turn out. Turnout, like sample size, is king. And that is something that can not be determined. Admittedly, it is a poor science. Actually, more an art. Poly Sci engineering. "Fortune's a whore. And he's a fool who'll try to swive her."
But so if turn out tells us anything it tells us that something influenced it 2020 moreso, or differently, than it did in 2024, with Biden being the beneficiary of that thing....but only by a very modest margin, as he did not win in a landslide. That something I hypothesize was the onset of COVID, which Trump downplayed, pretended to ignore, blamed alternately on China and Democrats, and avoided taking measures to address for FEAR it would hurt "THE ECONOMY". His fear of losing determined his response. That determined his appeal. And his appeal was consciously to a block of the voting public that he judged had more to lose from being poor than from getting sick...and dying. Who wanted to "let the good times roll".
Was he right to do this by any measure ? No. He was wrong on both counts. The public was alarmed by COVID, rightfully fearful of it, and in need of assurance that public health officials and leaders would protect them from it. Trump registered a 0.0 on that scale. They were also fearful of the economic consequences of the Pandemic. Of it causing them to be out of work. And Trump registered a 0.0 response to that fear as well. And for his lack of understanding and lack of effort he got the boost he deserved from the turn out. Nothing.
By 2025 COVID was behind us and we were left with inflation. Joe Biden was responsible for that. He deserves all the credit, and if you think so, the blame. For paying people not to work is a perfect recipe for inflation. But inflation is the price we paid to avoid a second Great Depression during COVID.
Joe Biden was not on the ballot in 2025. Harris was. There is no apt comparison to be made here because the conditions were completely different. We can not to quick to draw conclusions. But one thing we can say is that a bad debate performance by Joe Biden probably would have made no difference had he not quit the race. If you play with mud you get dirty. He had nothing to gain from it in the first place. But quitting: that did not help turn out. It gave Harris no boost. And there was persistent renewed inflation.
In my humble opinion, Paul Krugman couldn’t find correct today but even with shooting an Azimuth Back another pony neither he or Reich were on the right side of correct
As Montesquieu observed, republican virtue sustains republics. Not to be confused with a Republic of (coerced) Virtue that ushered in a reign of terror in France followed by dictatorship.
Republican virtue meant placing the interests of the republic, and the people within that republic, ahead of self-interest, not necessarily all of the time but when it counts. This ethic has my lost on my erstwhile Party, the Party of Lincoln.
It is understandable to focus anger on Donald Trump, he is undoubtably a disgusting,evil human being. But it the thieves,grifters and incompetents whom he has assembled around him who are carrying out the dreams of every cheater who ever lived. Now this Pulte person,who is apparently so obnoxious that his family does not want him around, has come up with a shell game on mortgages that Trump thinks is the answer to unaffordable housing. Like all of Trumps financial moves this is a boondoggle. Judd Legum did an article this morning that breaks it down into its ridiculous details.
It is the voters who got us here and who still give their fealty to this bunch of morons who bear the blame. Both the ones who vote Republican even if satan himself is the candidate,or those who could not be bothered to fulfill their responsibility as citizens to inform themselves and VOTE.
True, but also "GOP" use of Big Orwellian Lies and"Dirty Tricks" has been growing over the last half-century, along with prioritizing the interests of the very, very wealthy. Trump has been a strangely charismatic standard-bearer for plutocracy, but he did not invent it, nor, if his next hamburger ended is rein, would the vast plutocratic infrastructure that his party has erected.
Trump is such a loose cannon that I think, playing devil's advocate, keeping him was a tactical mistake, and that our biggest failure as a self-governing society was to capitulate on "Citizens United" rather than fight it tooth and nail and demand an end to de facto bribery in our electoral and legislative processes (many Democrats criticized Sanders for prioritizing that focus), and also our passivity as the impetus of anti-trust legislation and financial regulation that had so much to do with the emergence of a strong middle class, was withdrawn or ignored.
“Had those Senators actually done their jobs (save for Mitt Romney), our present reality would be far different.”
Sorry but no it’s not “Senators” it’s “Senator”, singular/ one and that Senator is Mitch McConnell. He voted to acquit nut case after the 2nd impeachment trial and got enough in his caucus to vote to acquit as sell. There should be no doubt that we wouldn’t be in this mess if Trump had been found guilty. McConnell made sure he wouldn’t be.
Hostages? I think there are still ESL classes that you can take there.
If you’re not familiar with ESL classes, they are called English as a second language. You might wanna go see that doctor in Manhattan that just discovered that indeed TDS is a real disease and can be determined in a matter of minutes with a short interview. Sadly, you would pass with flying colors.
And imagine a majority of the voters see it totally different than you and vaulted him into the presidency not once but twice hmmmmm
Awwwwwwww. You folks never seem to learn ever ever and now your party is left of Santa Claus in New York City is about to fall apart decompose in front of your eyes. It’s gonna be funny to watch to the people that you support./?
You’re gonna turn it back into the Europe of the 30s and 40s
Another reality seems to be at play here. Trump was using the shutdown as a way to perform a de facto coup, as a way to force Senate Republicans to end the filibuster in order to pass measures to suppress ALL vote for and by Democrats. He also pardoned all those convicted of crimes related to the 2020 election, signaling he would do so for those who do so in 2026, etc. No mistake Trump did NOT want the shutdown to end, he was using it as a lever to dictatorship.
And to re-write history as well as signal to his MAGA Representatives and Senators that cheating is perfectly okay (and will, of course, be "forgiven" by pardon) as long as it helps HIM stay in power.
Plus. Trump knows that when the House reconvenes and Grejalva is sworn in the clock starts ticking toward his exposure as the slime ball rapist that even his ardent supporters are going to have trouble denying.
And what’s to say he won’t continue to demand Senate Republicans end the filibuster or that they won’t end it!? They have no reason not to anymore. And trust me they will!
They want the “Save Act” bill passed. They want to make sure they win, period! If they can’t do it by gerrymandering they will by passing the “Save Act”!! What better reason to end the filibuster. Once passed they will never lose another election.
True: The Republican party has gradually seceeded from the union, being given permission by the so-called conservative majority on SCOTUS. They barely elected an extortionist to destroy democracy. 47 will continue his criminal assaults. Dem states are the USA. Rs are the confederacy, reborn from it’s dissolution in 1865 as a fascist mafia state oligopoly in league with self labeled “Dark Enlightenment” freaks from Silicon Valley social media / big tech / AI powered super-rich, anti-democracy oligarchs, + the petrochemical & finance industries. Effectively maneuvering around such a malignant hegemon and boycotting them into oblivion is a monumentally large scale and complex project but Dem controlled states produce 70% of National GDP & with the will, has the resources to maneuver the fascists into a socioeconomic death spiral, lead by their bankruptcy king, Da Donald. Dem states need to join forces & concentrate on hastening R’s death spiral.
The same old serpents who threw lavish parties in grand plantation houses while those who labored for them suffered.
What Trump has put on full display in the regime's willingness, even eagerness, to use direct and indirect violence against vulnerable populations. If that isn't evil, what is? We must not dare to let that be ignored or normalized. "Cruelty is the point" and that's the point.
Well someone’s pretty backwards here. You might want to see the success in America is having here and abroad, legendary in nine months to have accomplished so much.
I can't wait till I have time to respond to your stuff. By the way, the production of GDP is morphing tremendously to red states or haven't you noticed people are now fleeing blue states and there's a good reason for that
Angela, I agree that Trump is mostly to blame. I wrote a piece on an article from Journal of Democracy, on Backsliding Democracies like ours and how most blame for them is on the shoulders of the candidate.
I also want to say that I am glad my mayor in Chicago, Mayor Johnson has invited the UN to come to Chicago and see how ICE is violating human rights and how Trump should be tried as a human rights violator. I think saying this outloud will make it harder for other governments from normalizing Trump.
We should however, understand that this vote is just kicking the can down the road on hunger and even air traffic control. If we see Project 2025 as a playbook, like my political book club did, we know that SNAP benefits are going to go down the road anyway, because they are planned to be gotten rid of.
Understand that Christian Nationalists believe that if you are suffering it is because your faith is not good enough and God is allowing this to happen you. In other words you brought this upon yourself. This is the attitude of our government, and was the attitude of the nobility when people lived under governments that had monarchies.
So, in P2025 they discuss getting rid of the Department of Health and Human Services and its functions, and replacing it with a "Department of Life," which is going to oversee that everyone has the "Godly" sexual behavior that they want us to have. That will be a life where women are under the rule of men, and married and submitting, and not having any family planning access, no birth control, no abortion, death of women who have difficult and dangerous which will not be treated, will be viewed as Gods will. Read Katherine Stewart's, "Money, Lies and God" to better understand the religious political strategies behind it.
Not always, but any form of hyper-narcissistic cult belief system easily leads to abuses of power, including genocide. Religion is often cast in that form, but not necessarily. I think that the distinction breaks over hubris vs humility, exclusive self-absorption over empathy and consideration. One can call it "religion" or just human decency, but some things are "evil" no matter who is doing it, and some things are kind. Who would Jesus or any other decent person, "Christian", Muslim, Buddhist, or just plain caring person, deliberately deprive of food or imprison or assassinate with nothing resembling due process? Trump his party's policies are deservedly unpopular, but, were it not for historical precedent similarly sick societies, it is amazing to me that these predators have any "base" left. The "elephant in the room" should trigger alarm for us all.
Not that, but they do want to close departments and get rid of their functions, or move them elsewhere. An example is that they want to close the Dept. of Education and move Regular Ed to the Department of Labor and Special Ed to the Dept of Health and Human Services. But, then they want to close the Dept. of Health and Human Services and turn it into the Dept of Life, which would be concerned with seeing that all areas of life are concerned with upholding their family structure, women's subservience to men, no abortion, couples as breeders, and men getting punished with no access to their children if they don't turn out to be good parents. I am sure they meant "Black" fathers when they wrote this being unable to see how White, male Christian Nationalist men, who rape and beat their wives, or rape and beat their daughters and maybe even sons are not "good" fathers. Well the image is of fathers where parents are not together. It is all filled with irony, and inconsistency, and even contradictions.
If you want to blame some folks how about the seditious 6 on the less than Supreme Court...they gave the felon child rapist immunity for all these crimes we see. And the corruption of this regime is off the charts.
While I, too am angry about those who didn't bother to vote, paving the way for this monstrosity to sit in the Oval Office again...
After these 8 senators did what they did, after my Senator King stated that the current strategy wasn't working, even after witnessing the wave of blue that occurred with election results on Tuesday, and the numbers of voters on Tuesday in an off year...THIS IS WHY! What these 8 did is EXACTLY why people give up on voting.
There have been other signs too, but Tuesday was a neon billboard flashing that the strategy was working, and now those who came out to vote, caught up in the enthusiasm of change, may be asking themselves "What's the point, if they are going to capitulate anyway?" And I can't blame them.
Also, anyone who thinks there will actually be a vote for extending the ACA subsidies is fooling themselves. Johnson won't bother taking it up, so it won't go anywhere anyway.
Well and courageously said, Ms. B. The Christonazi/RepubliKlan regime and the morally imbecilic voters who elected Trump are indeed "angry about the end of slavery...angry about human rights...angry our country fought against Hitler" and in fact are so bottomlessly hateful, they openly brag of their intent to cancel every humanitarian victory our species has achieved. To trust the criminal regime to abide by its ACA and SNAP promises is therefore like trusting Jeffrey Epstein to protect your daughter's chastity, and the traitorous Democrats cannot possibly be that idiotically naive.
Having covered politics off-and-on since the late '50s -- my first paid election coverage, for a Knoxville-area community weekly, was in 1958 -- what I suspect happened was the Democrats recognized the revolutionary potential implicitly expressed by last week's elections, became gravely alarmed and reacted accordingly. The proverbial fly-on-the-wall at their clandestine planning sessions would have no doubt heard an emotionally charged quarrel about who was best positioned to suffer minimal hurt for inflicting maximal damage on the radical optimism so foolishly emergent from last week's election victories. This was the short-lived renewal of seductive delusion the "Democratic" (sic) "Party" -- now as much a wholly owned corporate property as the RepubliKlan Party it serves as a Fifth Column -- might be captured by a Mamdani-led mutiny and thus restored to the social-democratic, New Deal function that enabled FDR to achieve Soviet-caliber humanitarian victories without the attendant years of civil war. But -- as intended -- the Democrats ended that potential, probably forever, by their treachery last night. How so? Because progressive success is a byproduct of rational anticipation of betterment, in this instance inspired by Tuesday's landslide elections, then utterly destroyed by last night's lesson: that no matter how hard we work toward liberation, we will always be betrayed -- just as we have repeatedly been betrayed since 22 November 1963 -- by the only apparatus (seemingly) available for progressive achievement. (Their diabolical skill at maintaining that deception is how the Democrats perpetuate themselves as the most effective counter-revolutionary force in U.S. history -- and maybe in the entire history of our species. The collaborative efforts of supportive education and media assure the moronic majority remains trapped within the deception.) That's why the one effective path to transformation -- the historically irrefutable Marxian recognition that capitalism is (always) the precursor to nazism -- that capitalism (invariably) gravitates toward Auschwitz fulfillment -- is a bridge too far for a nation imprisoned by prideful ignorance. Meanwhile the Democrats' masters can again party on, comforted by the sure knowledge the ultimate lesson of last night's unconditional surrender can be reduced to merely three words: resistance is futile.
Loren, I love this sentence: "The collaborative efforts of supportive education and media assure the moronic majority remains trapped within the deception." Trapped within the deception indeed. Although I would say "willingly supping at the trough of mis and dis information leading to confirmation bias" rather than trapped.
You don't realize the problem with education started this whole thing.
Once this education process was controlled by Democrats country is on its way to over.
Supposed to give people choices you're supposed to give people the ability to think for themselves and all you did was inculcate them for years and now it's coming back to haunt you and they'll be a TP USA chapter on every single high school in college campus in the country that's what happens. It's called a rebound. And it's happening at a rapid right now. They should've never shot Charlie Kirk. He's worth more to the right now than ever.
Excellent assessment here Loren! I was pretty naive thinking the dems actually cared about us but I see know I have been fooled like so many into thinking electing them would actually improve circumstances for the underdog...they really are complicit in destroying democracy!
I guess I’m a socialist! Yes the dems totally support The military industrial complex and capitalism. And capitalism leads to fascism… It’s all about the money and power and control.
Well for 250 years we've been doing pretty well leading the world and almost every category except when we started giving it away when Clinton propose NAFTA and took the nukes out of Ukraine
And he was still one of my favorite president. We are still the shining light that everybody expires for, but you don't get it Terry.
If we open our borders, we'd have a bigger population than India or China we are the Nirvanna on the planet to everybody else and we should realize that
You've learned nothing I wonder if you learned anything in your lifetime you know basket of deplorable didn't work too well either and yet it's more people voted for Trump then against Trump so all those voted for him or what did you call them imbecilic something. Lmao. Just another lost liberal loon.
It’s unusual for me to have to take a break from something; however, I just had to take break from the routine of reading Dr. Richardson’s LFAA at some hour in the early morning darkness of night and posting my—hopefully rational and somewhat sane—comments. My frustration has been added to now when knowing that it was inevitable that there would be that day to come when Democrats would not have “Madame Speaker” in the House even in the role as just one of 435. I have felt for a long time that she has been a crutch (or crutches) for Senator Schumer. Her knowledge and skills seem beyond comparison!
I realize that I was spoiled by having the wonderful opportunity of spending my time in D.C., on Capitol Hill as a congressional intern in the summer of 1966, during the 89th Congress, one of our country’s most historical and effective Congresses!
“The 89th Congress (1965–1967) passed a burst of domestic legislation that it intended to protect voting rights, promote education, care for the elderly, help clean up the water and the air, promote the arts and humanities, advance automobile and highway safety, and extend a helping hand to the economically disadvantaged. President Johnson dubbed this ambitious agenda ‘The Great Society.’”
The question is when will our Party—elected and non-elected leadership—stop making so many mistakes? What is it that is often said about reformed smokers…I think that something similar needs to be said about some former republicans—listen to some of them, our Democratic Party leaders can learn some important things from them! Some of them have seen and learned from the errors of their former ways! Let’s start with Jennifer Rubin, Rick Wilson, Tim Miller, Miles Taylor, Bill Kristol, Sarah Longwell, David Frum, Joe Scarborough, David Jolly, Michael Steele; to name a few.
''The Government Opens for Business, the Circus Stays''
After 41 days of historic self-sabotage, the Senate has heroically voted to end the nation’s longest government shutdown, proving once again that Congress will act only when its own paychecks are in jeopardy. Eight Democrats joined hands with nearly every Republican to pass a “compromise” bill that restores funding for veterans, farmers, and the ever-beloved institution of Congress itself. Tucked neatly into the legislation is a delightful provision letting eight Republican senators sue the government for up to half a million dollars each because, apparently, accountability now comes with a cash prize.
The bill also restores pay to two million federal workers, meaning the air traffic controllers who have been landing planes out of pure patriotism can finally afford groceries again. SNAP benefits are returning, too, though still with the Republican-approved diet plan of “less food for the poor.” Meanwhile, premium tax credits for health insurance, lifelines for millions, were left behind, because who needs healthcare when you can bask in bipartisan mediocrity?
Democrats who promised not to cave folded like dollar-store lawn chairs, justifying their votes with speeches full of the words “pain” and “hurt.” The nation felt both, mostly from watching moral spines dissolve live on C-SPAN. Senate Majority Leader John Thune promised a future bill to fix things “in December,” which in Congress-speak translates to “never.”
Trump, sulking from Mar-a-Lago after being booed at a Commanders game, blasted air traffic controllers for insufficient loyalty, declaring they had been “bad patriots” for wanting paychecks. He then pardoned everyone involved in his 2020 election coup attempt, because nothing says “law and order” like a preemptive get-out-of-jail-free card for sedition.
Over in the House, Speaker Mike Johnson will now have to recall his long-vacationing members from their taxpayer-funded sabbatical, swear in a Democrat who supports releasing the Epstein files, and somehow pretend this all went according to plan. One imagines a sea of red ties silently praying the lights stay off.
In summary, the government is reopening, but the absurdist drama continues. Americans will get their paychecks and groceries again, the rich will keep their tax breaks, and eight senators may soon cash in for having their phones looked at. It is not governance, it is performance art with pensions. The lights are back on, but the clowns never left... https://essayx.substack.com/p/the-government-opens-for-business
Here in PA the consensus is don’t bother calling John Fetterman’s office because he doesn’t care about his constituents. There is also a rumor 4 people are going to challenge him come primary day. The focus is to the future and un-seating Fetterman. My prayer is to un-seat him with a younger, progressive person and not another Democrat who just goes along with the Party. 🙏🤞
I suspect Tru_p is slowly deteriorating in the same manner as Al Capone did. His thinking and commentaries are bizarre making no sense for a person in the presidency. His closest followers look at him strangely and with a nod just carry onward. There is more to this then what we know of today.
Yes, the gang of seven and one Independent totally capitulated. We are right to be frustrated and angry. But because this administration moves at lighting speed we don't have time to lick our wounds. What we need to do is rally behind the illegal blowing up boats in the Caribbean. My strong belief is that trump wants to start a war to suspend voting in the midterms. Even a number of Republicans are nervous about extrajudicial murders on the high seas. And most countries around the world have condemned this practice. It's about kill first when traditionally the Coast Guard would stop the boat and check the cargo. The buildup of the military in the region is beyond worrisome. Have we heard anything about the survivors from, I believe two boats? There was scant news about the Venezuelan widow with 4 children whose husband was a fisherman who was blown up. Not even sure if this is true or not. The Select Intelligence Committee held a briefing on this and of course Democrats were barred from the hearing. This is about as undemocratic as it gets. Even news from the hearing said no evidence was given? We need to protect our right to vote in the midterms at all costs. Then instead of all the questions, we might get some answers with a Democratic house.
Professor Richardson said in an interview she would usually care less about Epstein except it's important to uncover the truth with the files. Write, call or even visit your Republican representative or if you're out of the district write a post card telling them we want the Epstein files released. Tapes and all. It destroyed a Prince and it's possible it could topple a dictator/president.
And the vote to extend ACA tax credits need to be a roll call. Let's know exactly who is voting for and against. Democracy requires work. Collectively we have power.
JD, yes I agree. There's a silver lining with Republicans redistricting mid decade to squeeze every district they can, to get more Republicans in the House, it is encouraging that as many as 500,000 on voting lists in Georgia are being purged and other states are purging voting lists and if bills like the SAVE act where women who do not have the same last name as their birth certificate could disenfranchise 69 million voters (hopefully that bill will never see the light of day). It shows two things, Republicans are desperate and that the midterm elections might proceed. However it also shows that we have a lot of work to do to get back to fair and honest elections. Even the tactic to have Federal watchers over state elections is an act of intimidation. The right to vote is sacrosanct. It's up to voters to call election officials in their states, join organizations that help with fair and honest elections, if there's a daily or weekly newspaper write letters to the editor and join voting drives. It takes a lot of work and a lot of people to counter all these measures. I believe keeping a Democracy is worth it.
I hope all the POs (pissed offs) will sign on but so many are mesmerized by social media pablum. The other day I read that Kim Kardashian is convinced that the moon landing never happened. Ignorance is epidemic. “Influencers” are worse than Fox
I understand your anger at the Deplorables. Please see my Substack piece ("I'm Sorry You Were Lied To") for how I'm approaching the situation moving forward post-Nov. 5.
Having lived amongst the Christonazis in the Pacific Northwest and and amongst their theocratic predecessors in the Ku Klux South, I know from physically painful, sometimes life-threatening experience a terrible truth far too many progressives either haven't learned or ideologically reject: that the MAGATs are literally incorrigible, and that they embrace RepubliKlan Christonazi/Neoconfederate lies not as a learning experience but as the confirmation of their hatefulness and the authoritative justification both for the hate itself and the murderous violence it encourages.
Seriously? You’re more angry about those who voted last November and “put us in this position” than what those eight Democrat Senators just did?! Really!? Crying over spilt milk?
I couldn’t agree more with your assessment about current day Republicans and where Trump should be, but those eight have sealed our fate. They’re the ones who have capitulated and emboldened Trump. Empowered Trump. Those who voted for him last November now know they were conned. Yet Those eight knew beforehand he was a conman and knew it when they just voted yes. They knew we are going to be more f’d now than during the shut down.
Those eight idiots “think” they got some Short term gains. Trump and his cronies will not honor any if what was just “agreed” upon. He will stop at nothing until he has his full blown Military Dictatorship in place, nothing! And now that these eight have bent their knee that reality is closer than ever.
No it actually happened was you were sealing the fate of 40 million starving people and they opened it up and fed them and paid our veterans and our military and our air Traffic controllers before we had a major accident.
This wasn’t a capitulation. This was common sense.
"The reality is that Republicans won't feel shamed by the prospect of their constituents starving or being left without health care." Very true. But we knew that months ago (or years). But the weeks long shutdown was now shining a spotlight on it so the millions of independent and MAGA voters were finally seeing it too, as proven by last Tuesday's election results. Being angry at the GOP for all their horrible attributes, as you point out, is one thing. The ability to DO something about it is entirely a different matter. Therein lies the power the Dems finally had after last Tuesday, as everyone could see trumpublicans disintegrate into the bowels of public opinion. Then.... Schumer and the gang of eight just pissed it all away. Jon Stewart laid it out quite clearly last night. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFI6MwlLJ08
When we open back up, hold Republicans accountable to have that vote in December. Start sending messages now. It can be a simple message like, “I look forward to your yes vote to pass the extension of ACA premium subsidies that roughly 3/4ths of the country support.”
I added a calendar on my spreadsheet so we can target our calls/letters/emails/faxes to flood offices in an organized manner.
Use/share this spreadsheet (bit.ly/Nokings) as a resource to call/email/write members of Congress, the Cabinet and news organizations. Call. Write. Email. Protest. Unrelentingly. We deserve better ❤️🩹🤍💙
Reach out (beyond your own) to as many in the Senate and House as you can. All of this is bigger than “I only represent my constituents” issues.
One of the balls on Heathers “pool table” is Mike Johnson who states he will not guarantee a vote on the ACA subsidies.
As Heather outlined we’ve gained some ground…there are many good outcomes of this deal, but as we all see, the fight is far from over. Stay strong! 🇺🇸 VOTE 2026
Yeah, that’s nice. Try their bill any other irrelevant or nonsensical news you have for us? What are the smartest man in the cookie jar up there in Washington? And what you don’t realize is how well he’s held a party together more than ever before for the Republicans when the Democrats do this is just a course of business Republicans always collapse, and have the factors but not this time.
People keep asking, if Dems were winning why did they cave?
It seems to me that they had some info that we do not and had to act quickly.
That is the ONLY thing that makes sense.
The Dems did this the day before the ruling for the emergency appeal to SCOTUS on food stamps, SNAP, was supposed to drop on Tuesday (today).
They acted quickly after Jackson's administrative stay that bought some time while waiting for a court ruling.
My guess is that it was not going to be good news so they made the issue moot by voting to reopen and also by funding food stamps for the rest of the year.
Otherwise the administration's siege and intentional starvation of the poor would continue.
Steve Vladeck, law professor and SCOTUS analyst for CNN, had wondered about this as a possibility for Jackson's decision in an analysis a few days ago in his substack.
Angus King (who is Heather's Senator) was on MSNBC defending the vote from himself and seven other either retiring or not up for reelection Democrats.
King has never done anything as my Senator that weren't in the best interests of his constituents and I trust him on this. There is so much Trump and the Republicans broke when they passed the OBBBA last July including the budget which has led to the fastest increase in the national debt in 5 months ever.
There is no question who are the winners from the OBBBA --- the oligarchs especially Trump and his family, multinational corporations and anyone else that's willing to pay to play.
Heather's right about so many pool balls bouncing moving around the table. We're all sick and tired of Mike Johnson hiding the queue ball so that no one could break.
Ask the tens of thousands of travelers who got tried to fly over the past week. This would have been over in a few days if Federal workers were allowed to strike when they were forced to work for free.
Trump's desire to make the people suffer was stronger than Dems' willingness to see the people suffer. Does it really need to be any more complicated than that?
Seen through another lens, Dems had extracted all the political capital they could from the 40-day shutdown -- a miracle the caucus held together that long -- and recognizing that prolonging the shutdown meant prolonging suffering (hungry children, FFS), many more Dem Senators than the Cowardly 7 had decided to pull the trigger and let Schumer know. Schumer gave permission to the Cowardly 7 to break caucus unity to invoke cloture, in order to protect Dem Senators facing re-election and the (understandable) wrath of the Dem base.
Did you watch the news this past weekend and not see a single story about the FAA demanding a reduction in flights to and from 40 of the busiest airports in the world? And almost all of them were hubs.
Imagine flying from anywhere in the US that is not a hub through ANY of these airports. This is an economy buster waiting to happen and a safety nightmare to the nth degree. And it has the potential to affect the movement of cargo which affects virtually all of us. Do you think the Republicans would hesitate to bail out AA, United, Delta, Southwest and a couple of the other large airlines and then allow the smaller airlines to go bankrupt. Isn't this their MO?
I don't know how you can call them the "Cowardly 7", when nothing has happened to offer even a slight glimmer of hope since the shutdown started.
The Republicans are the cowards for doing NOTHING since before the shutdown started.
Yes, the more I ponder this, the more I see these 7 as the adults in the room, forced to make very hard decisions, trying to protect as many of us as they could - from our own ruling party :(
Steve, I'm not willing to confer "adulthood" on the turncoats, but I am willing to concede that they may have had information to which we mere citizens are not privy.
As the expression goes, "time will tell."
One hopes they offered themselves as "sacrificial lambs" for the greater good.
King's story that holding out "wasn't working" seems implausible to me, given the recent widespread Democratic election victories. His advisors should have given him a better explanation.
If there was a good reason for this apparent capitulation, I hope history will give it to us sooner rather than later.
They were "cowardly" because they overtly appeased a dictator. (See Neville Chamberlain 1938-39 for more on that.) Unlike Chamberlain, however, they do not have to resign (Durbin and Hassan are retiring), nor face voters in 2026 (the other 5). Chamberlain had the good grace to resign and wish his successor good luck on the occupation of the remainder of Czechoslovakia.
Some MAGAts are cowardly but more are simply cruel - they enjoy watching suffering for its own sake.
November 5 offers a "glimmer of hope," n'est-ce pas?
It's not like the administration was doing nothing. They were doing everything in their power to compound the damage of the shutdown, with wink and a nod from Republicans in Congress and the $upreme Court. The regime considered it an "emergency" to make people starve, not to prevent it, unless they got their way. That's one hell of a way to run a country.
Very well stated, Charles Bryan. Totally on target. Dems, in TOTAL minority, did really very well—so well that it gives me hope that we can have health care AND keep our democracy if the don’s thugs aren’t allowed to wreck all elections.
Charles, you keep posting to me and then I read some of your stuff and in my opinion you’re outside of your mind. It wasn’t Trump that shut the government down. It was the Democrats and shut it down and it was repeated time and time again by Liberal pundits and buy every single late night TV show narrator, popular ones John Stewart, Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert. All said hey, the Democrats shut it down so don’t have a fantasy about something else when it didn’t happen. And there is nothing to benefit by keeping it shut down either, and they realize that, and at least seven of them got a brain and some guts to think of for themselves and for the many Americans that were starving, and for the pilots and veterans and air traffic controllers etc Government workers
It could be, but it's not necessary at all. What Heather writes above is more than enough to justify the fact that 7 Democrats and one Independent decided to stop hurting the American people.
Just tell those who imagine that Democrats did this "to win" that it wasn't about winning but about making clear what too many people still don't know: the GOP absolutely wants to destroy the ACA and never stopped trying to do so, and they are willing to inflict tremendous damage on the American people (as explained by Heather above) to achieve this.
For once, the goal of Democrats here WAS mere messaging: letting people THAT Vance lied when during the VP debate he claimed that Trump SAVED the ACA during his first term and that he and the GOP have always tried to make HC utterly unaffordable.
Polls showed that that goal was largely achieved.
Obviously, not everyone realizes this basic fact yet. That's why Democrats got the guarantee that there will be a Senate vote on an ACA stand-alone bill soon. It will be the second opportunity for Democrats to do some messaging, knowing that the normal channels for messaging in a democracy (robust media) are all gone.
Apart from that, yes, premiums are already skyrocketing, since the bill that ends the tax credits was already signed into law by Trump. So whatever happened in December, it will be too late for next year. That is NOT Democrats' fault. It's the fault of "we the people", who failed to talk with enough fellow citizens to make them realize that this IS what would happen if we give the government to the GOP once again.
So to anyone who wants to blame DEMOCRATS for stopping the GOP's bulldozer to the New Deal and the US economy: ask what you can do for your country, not what your country can do for you...
They having info that we do not came to my mind the moment I heard the news. I pondered in terms of money, news of lots and lots of money; cryptocurrency. What bothers me about that is I am a realist.
I can't imagine the logistical nightmare the airlines are going through right now. I'm sure you've traveled when a storm has forced delays or cancelation and had to sit in an airport for hours.
And now do that to every major airport and airline in the country.
The airlines are going to lose billions and all because of the stupid ass Republicans that have for years, refused to properly fund the FAA and upgrade their systems.
IMO Justice Jackson is the best and brightest Justice on the Court. When I saw her name was on the stay I researched it and knew what was happening. With these eight all we have is what they say or what we know from life.
I think it is more logical to assume there was a good reason. These are mature and very experienced leaders who are also Dems + one Independent who is often very reasoned in judgement, as well, so I doubt "cream puffs" would apply here as a reason, even if I am wrong about their motive.
They weren’t winning they weren’t winning a damn thing and at least seven of them woke up and realize it this was a dead and move. There was no other possibility other than that Republicans taking control and doing a lot worse in the meantime.
I think you should get things straight. It wasn’t Trump and the GOP that shut down the government and stopped snap from being paid. It was the Democrat party hello. And Scotus wasn’t siding with Trump. He was site. They were siding with a law that apparently applies when the government is shut down. You know it’s really amazing with people like you and I’m not sure I should say that, but the Democrats stick together like superglue all the time the Republicans always splinter always and for the first time in a couple of decades, the Republicans stood together past some really important legislation, and since the Democrats were out of power, they tried everything they could to hurt the Republicans while at the same time hurting the very constituents that they supposedly support Ugly.
The Professor's analogy of "...a cue ball hitting a rack: ..." was perfect. Balls moving "in wildly different directions." Reading it I also heard that cue ball sound like a cracking beam holding up the ceiling above us. I have not heard whether Hillary Clinton has called Tim Kaine yet. I would expect something from her soon. On the other hand maybe she is very sick over it. March in lockstep.
Re read today’s post from HCR. There are nuances in this move by the Dems. Just like the Republicans demanding to have everything their way all the time, it is destructive of our cause to have a temper tantrum over this tactical retreat. There are so many pitfalls for the Republicans down the road with the arrogant way they are “governing” that the end is going be with them in a corner that they cannot bully their way out of. Pragmatism is not surrender.
I agree and I wrote something similar but few are listening, they are so angry, blaming, convinced of their absolutist ideas. Who is open to ways to go forward to save us. I agree these responses are destructive. This takes from the hope and understanding/togetherness we need to save our democracy. Hopefully this will subside.
In politics images is everything. This made the Dems look ridiculous, fractured, broken... I.e., if pragmatic then why are the majority of Dems lacking such practical solutions and realistic outcomes? Is it because they are the ones being ridiculous? Why could they not wait to maybe gain another six or eight to join them? This not only looks bad but it stinks too.
Albert, I think you are overlooking the pool ball that bounced off the table during the break.
Did you not see or hear any of the stories about the thousands of flights that have been canceled due to the reduction of flights at almost every major hub in the country?
I've spent dozens of nights in a hotel room near an airport because of canceled flights. Most of the time, the airline paid for the room and maybe one meal. But sometimes I had to pay.
Many of you have been in similar situations when you travel. And it's exponentially worse for families traveling. The average room for one night close to LaGuardia or Logan is well over $200.
It was the FAA that forced the Democrats end the shutdown more than anything else.
You sound like a traveling businessperson. Most work for a corporation. That makes me think most corporations might not like the closed government any too much. IMO that was our Johnson bar, the pry truck, Democrats had against Republicans; business being stopped! These eight turncoats did not even give cancelled flights one damn day to compel major corporations to flood the White House and Republicans in Congress with calls. This budget it was Obamacare plus Republicans learned SNAP is the soft spot. God how stupid they are, or wait, what else might it be? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIAXG_QcQNU
Kari and nothing that Heather says will change his mind. He will do what they think is necessary and important, having to do with the ACA. Personally, I think the smart thing to do would be to give it a six month extension to give people a chance to find alternatives, while in the meantime, both parties get together and figure out the best move forward to get these people covered elsewhere
How many parts of the Country local co-ops are working together, informing to put forward a alternative healthcare plan
Kari, You are one of the few level-headed folks here, I’ve seen that has at least an objective view of everything and a more accurate view of potential future results. Please read my post above, and I believe that the Congress will find a way to replace or find an alternative way to ensure people under the ACA and give them time to find a place and a cost that meets their needs to whatever extent possible.
15 years. That's how long they promised to have a plan that would achieve exactly what you're saying here. They never showed anything. So what makes you still hope, against all odds, that the people who massively reject the New Deal and now control DC would suddenly come up with a plan to save it... ?
Because it’s called crisis intervention and there’s a call to answer this crisis because the ACA is toast and they’re gonna need to have a replacement. Otherwise they will lose an election.
A lot of things have changed in 15 years. Obama also sold us in with a lie, which is what really bothered me in the first place you can keep your doctor. You can keep your plan bullshit.
If the Democrats ever stopped hating and got together in a room closed doors, it didn't open until they came up with something they would come up with something better than what's out there right now keep in mind 86% of Americans have found a way to insure themselves without using ACA
And I can't keep responding to you if you keep using the wrong fascism, there's no fascism here in America stop using that term as I was saying in my earlier missive the Democrats hard to consulting firm and pay them almost $1 million to tell them how to talk to an American public and use the proper verbiage. First way they tell him to eliminate was fascism don't use it. Period
And I totally agree and so does America, despite your protestations to the contrary.
So it looks likely to be just going back to how it was 10 years ago.
The difference being that from now on people will know that it can be better.
I must say that the supposedly enlightened progressive people in the US are being walked all over by the far more disciplined and cruel reactionary troglodytes.
See 1861 for an earlier iteration of the same ("enlightened progressive people in the US . . . being walked all over by the far more disciplined and cruel reactionary troglodytes"). We all know how that turned out. Let us hope we do not like our forbears have to wait another 3 years for justice and liberty to prevail.
Wrong. What you might want to do instead Kris is evaluate what is happened to the affordable care act it’s coverage it’s premiums and it subsidies and try to determine why Obama put a deadline on the subsidies and white an act called the affordable care act would need a subsidy. The only thing cruel is that Obama lied to the public and said if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor and if you like your plans, you can keep your plan. Lies and fantasies deal with the fact in front of your face by the troglodyte, who came up with this plan in the first place
The only way to save democracy is to get out of our information silos and finally do again what all citizens of all thriving democracies do: have real, respectful debates with those who disagree with us.
There is no other way to create a democratic society and then government.
Further downthread this self-same poster was issuing veiled death threats against attendees of No Kings rallies (reported to page Admins). Are we supposed to respect people who make death threats against us?
Bullshit nobody made any threats against the no kings… protesters. Go ahead and show me. I guess that’s what happens with paranoia sets in and irrational thoughts set’s in.
That’s it turned out The note, kings protesters, self-destructed twice. Another embarrassment and a useless effort, and the day after their effort the stock market shot up twice. If you’re talking about me, I keep urging you to have more no kings protests. So if you wanna describe to me the bail threat, I need a good laugh
You wanna bring me some facts that are worth considering I’m here, but so far there is nobody here that I’ve seen with an open mind. If you mention the name, Trump hates is the first word that comes to mind
There was no deadline on the ACA Premium Tax Credits.
What happened was that the Biden American Rescue Plan and later legislation temporarily altered the subsidy rules by removing the strict 400% Federal Poverty Level limit for a limited period. This had nothing to do with Obama.
I live in Alabama's 3rd Congressional District (MAGA Mike Rogers is Rep.). It's a total and complete waste of time making these calls here. In 2024 Rogers ran UNOPPOSED (!) and all indications thus far are that the AL Democratic Party has no intention of running a candidate against him in 2026. As for Tuberville (retiring in 2026) and Britt, they are both completely and utterly useless and cruel. They lack the milk of human kindness.
What a crime it is that no one will run against them and that the Dems can't find a single young person to at least run. Tuberville is as dumb as a box of rocks and Britt is not much smarter.
I have given the matter much thought. There is first the not-small matter of the $3450 filing fee to run. But far more important is the fact that I have only lived in the district for 2 years and I thus do not feel like I understand the problems and concerns of the people of the district well enough to 'represent' them in government. I am still mulling the situation though. Rogers has not held a town hall in the district since (IIRC) 2017, so he may be ripe for the picking with the right candidate and message.
Miselle, thank you so much for the excellent suggestion about the GoFundMe. I've never had occasion to use it before so will take a look at it as I go about considering the matter.
Just so you have a sense of how bad it is here in Alabama (the state, not just my CD), Tuberville recently said that cuts to SNAP don't concern him because most SNAP recipients are "inner city residents" (code in Alabama-speak for blacks and Latinos). The reality is that between 15-17% of Alabama residents currently receive SNAP benefits. Alabama, it should go without saying, is largely a rural state.
Kari, thank you so much for the link -- much appreciated and now bookmarked. I have a free day tomorrow (Thursday) and plan to check it out thoroughly then.
How wild to run unopposed and maybe again! I don’t think we’ll see many big waves (like a major MAGA Congress member changing their opinions), however I think we can cause little ripples. I’m thinking staff members who hear the same thing over and over via voicemail, phone calls, letter after letter, email after email - maybe they’ll be a little more receptive each time they hear from us. Maybe they’ll talk more about our talking points to friends and family, maybeeee they’ll vote differently. As a collective, our volume matters. And, at the end of the day, if we just annoy and overwhelm some staffers working for people hurting the average American, I’m ok with that too 🙃
Trust me, the staffers working in Rogers' local and DC offices are such smug little pricks and other epithets unfit to print that it raises my blood pressure by several points each time I contact their offices. (Last attempt was to ascertain whether SNAP benefits were being cut off as of October 31.)
It's a lovely thought, but bets are still on them not doing the right thing around Christmas any more than they have before. Up to now, they've been willing to kill the hostages to save themselves from Trump's infantile wrath. Still, it puts them on record -- and yes, there is a slight chance they won't be able to muster anything in December. Worth recalling that the Big Ugly Bill passed by a SINGLE vote in the House in March, and ended up tied in the Senate (with only JD Wanker breaking the tie).
If I were a Republican, I would not be looking forward to December, much less to next year. The odds and the stars both are against me.
Good thing you’re not a republican. Republicans are looking forward to doing something different finally being able to eliminate the ACA for all the lies, a toll and the subsidies that supposedly didn’t need any longer, but still does.
But I guess you can keep your doctor and your plan if you’d like. Uh oh. Or maybe not
I called all eight of the senators who voted for the measure but could leave voicemails for only three of them. The others either weren't taking calls until "office hours", or their mailboxes were already full.
When you call them why? I hope you call to congratulate them because they did with everybody here didn’t want done as everyone here is touting themselves as compassionate walk the same time starving 40 million Americans good call hypocrites
Thank you -- I made calls to all who caved on the shutdown yesterday -- though was unable to leave messages for 2 - one because of a "full mailbox" and the other message said to call back later.
I spent too much time yesterday. I’m old, time is running out. But I will keep on keeping on. I just wish my party were not complicit in their own destruction.
Thank you Megan have passed your incredible information onto a number of people who are now using your resource. It’s now a goal even in our own small group as to how many we contact on a daily, weekly basis. We now tally just left voice mail or actually talked to a human being. Incredible that those who represent have voicemails full or turned off that just don’t want to seem bothered.
Thank you so much for helping share it and to be speaking up so much! I applaud you and your group!
Grrr about voicemails being left full or off! That is why initially I added all the office numbers I could find for each person…but we’ve filled them all 🤣✊
Thanks for your steady, useful information: The Republican party has gradually seceeded from the union, being given permission by the so-called conservative majority on SCOTUS with unprecedented & clearly unconstitutional, antidemocracy decisions. Trump was barely re-elected as an extortionist and wanna-be dictator. He will continue his criminal assaults. Dem states are the USA. Rs are the confederacy, reborn from it’s dissolution in 1865 as a fascist mafia state oligopoly in league with self labeled “Dark Enlightenment” freaks from Silicon Valley social media / big tech / AI powered super-rich, anti-democracy oligarchs, + the petrochemical & finance industries. Effectively maneuvering around such a malignant hegemon and boycotting them into oblivion is a monumentally large scale and complex project but Dem controlled states produce 70% of National GDP & with the will, has the resources to maneuver the fascists into a socioeconomic death spiral, lead by their bankruptcy king, Da Donald. Dem states need to join forces & concentrate on hastening R’s death spiral.
Megan, you put so much time and effort into this, so I hesitate to add to your work. Perhaps others can help with this.
I know that many Congress do not take emails from outside their district. (I once spent an entire afternoon emailing all 50 senators--or at least those I could.) Someone suggested I use an address from their district. How would I know an address to use?
Another suggestion was to use the address of a public building. And so, if anyone wanted to email Durbin, here is the address of Chicago City Hall.
121 N. LaSalle ST, Chicago, IL 60602
To have an address for EVERY rep in Congress would be overwhelming to ask of Megan. How about an address of a public building for just those other 7 senators?
Anyone got suggestions, please post in reply here.
Hi Miselle, that’s why there’s an in-state office address for each Senator/Rep. I use their own office address when I send them a message. I do at the bottom of my message say while I might not be a constituent they should be hearing from me due to a committee they’re on (also on the spreadsheet) :)
I have noticed that, but I wonder if them recognizing their own address makes them dismiss the comment? Of course, using other public building addresses repeatedly would probably make them dismiss the comment as well.
So far they haven’t recognized it. I think the address is purely used to get through with the zipcode. Granted I get generic responses months later thanking me for being a constituent even though the bottom of my messages say I’m not. But making more work for those with ideals not for the average American works for me. Bummer things might not be read, but I keep my emails short to be able to send more
I have shared this spreadsheet with our local indivisible group 'pens to power' (we write letters, postcards (so many!) as well as weekly protesting..) and I used this spreadsheet yesterday to write to Chuck S and the 7 who caved in.. thanks.
The Democrats in the Senate who are caving on the shutdown are insanely misguided (stupid if you prefer). Chuck Schumer is incompetent for failing to hold the caucus together.
Senators were faced with TWO existential threats to their constituents. An immediate threat of hunger by Trump withholding SNAP benefits, and the longer-term threat of unaffordable health care. Senators needed to hold the line to stop both. Trump is now going to SCOTUS to further delay the resumption of SNAP, so it is unclear when the full payments will actually resume. His motive has always been to inflict pain on the poor, and doing it just before Thanksgiving could not gratify his ego more.
There was a way to stop the immediate hunger threat—utilize the millions of people who participated in No Kings and are itching for an active way to fight the Trump administration. Ask them to donate food and volunteer to restock food banks, rev up GoFundMes for every food bank in America, and call for donations directly to them, and call on wealthy Democratic donors to step in. Have Democratic representatives who are all back in their districts during the shutdown, working at food banks, and rallying to raise money.
In other words, show the American people, by their ACTIONS, that Democrats have their backs. You also gain an enormous boost to the No Kings movement in terms of cohesiveness and sense of purpose, and a way of shaming the Republican so-called Christian Nationalists by actually being Christian by feeding the hungry. Great visuals to contrast with Trump’s weekend partying and golfing at Mar-a-Lago, too.
In our community in Maine, people have stepped up! We are supporting our food banks and donating food & money. We will support people who need help! Unfortunately, these actions don’t get covered by news.
In fact, I’m leaving right now to stand out on Main St as we do every Tuesday & today we’re standing with Vets who say NO to T & MAGA!
I agree - and this is what I said on the messages I left for the Senators who caved - flood the food banks with donations and show the Trumpers what doing the right thing looks like.
Indivisible is active at my local food pantry each Friday. I know because I see them there. (It's a little touchy subject, as the food pantry operates out of a church which, for tax purpose, must remain politically neutral.)
People did already step up to help feed the people. The World Central Kitchen actually are feeding employees at 4 US airports, in addition to Gaza and Jamaica!
With or without a continued shutdown, food banks need additional money and food to support hungry citizens. Economic conditions before the shutdown have required more resources to feed the hungry based on tariffs, loss of jobs, and inflation. People are already giving more to support food banks.
What you are trying to say is people can’t vote their conscience… people have to follow the power of the party rhetoric no matter how wrong or miss guided. I don’t care which side of the aisle you represent. You’ve just taken the brain out of the individual, which is not the purpose of having people from all over the country vote and think.
Yikes.
Be careful when you talk about the no, Kings movement, because as I mentioned before, if you had a king, you wouldn’t be able to have a no kings movement with you because you get your heads chopped off. So there’s your first lack of credulity
That’s one of the more farcical things about the protests!! Secondarily and I bet you didn’t see this coming the day after each of your protests the stock market has gone up substantially… which certainly was not your plan to make the administration look good?
I disagree with you—the Democratic Party leadership failed to engage the overwhelming grassroots support for standing firm to secure the continuation of the ACA subsidies. They had a failure of imagination on how to mobilize their grassroots base to gain their objective. I am sure that they voted their conscience—because they couldn’t see any other choice.
But that is because members of the sclerotic Democratic leadership haven’t learned to use new media effectively and many keep Indivisible and other like organizations at arms length.
Were they listening to the people they were elected to represent?
Tell me about the overwhelming liberal support you mean, like the no Kings march. ? What a joke and fiasco and an embarrassment. It looks like 80-year-old hippies out there singing Kumbaya.
And if there was overwhelming Support to keep people starving, then you wonder why your party is dying because that’s exactly what was going on people that needed most were starving and you wanted to keep them starving
At the last NoKings rally which I attended, a lot of the old hippies I met were Republicans hobbling away from Trump and his policies as fast as they could go. Last Tuesday showed Trump lost Hisplanics, and NoKings is certainly showing he is losing seniors. His “mandates” have always been thin, and are getting significantly thinner by the day.
Since you are also concerned about hunger in America we can start a new countdown on how long until SNAP funds are actually restored to recipients now that the ball is back in the House while Trump’s DOJ is continuing to appeal the funding to SCOTUS.
And now even the Washington Post and other left-wing periodicals are now calling out fake concern about the shutdown and snap. That’s right your own left-wing news media is calling the Dems out for what they call FAUX OUTRAGE. MEAN.
By the way, Jorge here’s how people begin to dislike Trump when the BBC and other medium, which have now lost about 50% of its former viewership start playing games with video and distort the truth and the lemmings here simply believe everything that they post when it’s all a lie
The BBC executive elite just quit because they edited and distorted the truth about what Donald Trump said about January 6. Not only are they leaving the network, but it looks like they’re gonna be a major lawsuit against the BBC. But this is not unusual for your liberal media and the problem with you liberals is you take whatever they tell you to the bank you never check you never fact check you never look for a counterpoint you would make horrible jurors, who in a trial ARE MANDATED to hear both side sides of the story before rendering of the decision but not here no way in hell does it happen here? And that wasn’t the only distortion they made another one about Israel another surprise.
And that’s why CNN and MSNBC both are on the chopping block are getting their names changed lost almost 50% of its viewership and yet people here are still listening to people like Lawrence O’Donnell, who couldn’t find the truth on a map with a magnifying glass.
These networks have lost a huge number of former hosts and narrators who are now unemployed at least CNN to some degree is getting back
Some of its credits by being a little bit more measured and moving a little bit more towards the center embassy MSNBC is lost and that’s why they’re trying to change their name to change their image and in fact, I just found out that the executive who quit the BBC used to be the head executive at MSNBC what a surprise that is like none like no surprise at all
Well, they’re trying to do it as soon as tomorrow night, but it will probably be by the weekend until it happens but it was a good thing that the Democrats realize that shutting down the government was not the answer. And when I see it a number of facts about hunger in America, I linger upon once statistic that bothers me. It indicates that the average weight of a woman in America is 142 pounds but the average weight of a woman who is receiving snap benefits is over 200 pounds. So I wonder what they’re doing with their snap benefits
And where you get the idea that he’s losing seniors is right here and nowhere else don’t point to meaningless polls that have been wrong about Trump at every turn in fact, he was elected with a 31% approval rating. Try to put your arms around that.
OK, are you gonna be mad enough for woman enough to come back here when they restored this weekend or Monday and say yeah they actually restored the benefits or am I never gonna hear from you again as usual when people coward after Trump does what he needs to do to benefit the Americans that needed most.
In fact, he talked about removing people from the streets and giving them housing and giving them psychiatric care because there are too many lost souls in this country and unfortunately, most of them reside in blue states
On second thought, Charles, since you haven’t responded when I’ve asked you a simple question. And into attempt to illustrate where I might’ve made a threat which I did not. …Maybe I should report you to the administration for falsely misleading them that I made veiled threats. Would that make you happy?
nobody’s making veiled death threats, you should probably dial down on the medication a little bit or maybe a lot. It’s not in my nature. But here’s something you should know Charles. Ever since Trump started fighting crime in Chicago and DC the stats are astounding. Here’s just some basics from Chicago and DC is even better
, talk about a stream of dis information. Have you seen the crime statistics in Washington DC and Chicago since Trump posted military there to try to control the crime. Devastatingly positive statistics Moore in DC but even in Chicago incredible. Here’s just a glimpse.
Ever since Trump moved to prevent crime in Chicago homicides are down 16% shootings down 35% robberies down 41% carjacking 48% transit crime down 20%. And the statistics in Washington or even more revealing Washington DC is becoming a livable city again, especially in the worst precinct. And I bet you didn’t hear that “” disinformation from your media.
I agree that each Senator should vote in the way he thinks he'll best represent his constituents. I also, in this case, applaud those eight Senators for having stopped the massive damage the GOP was inflicting on ordinary citizens, deliberately, during the shutdown.
I disagree with what you write about No Kings.
First of all, no Republican is even THINKING about turning the US into a monarchy, so the whole movement clearly got its name wrong.
Secondly, today many countries in the "free world" are constitutional democratic monarchies, so democracy and monarchy can go perfectly together. That's the second reason why indeed, the name of the movement rejecting what the current GOP does to the country is pretty ridiculous.
Third, however, the GOP has been taken over by neofascist ideologues, who, as Johnson formulated it, see the role of Congress to "codify" the executive orders signed by the president (and written by those same ideologues behind the scenes, not elected officials representing their constituents) and see the role of the courts (as Vance said) as merely "advisory".
The difference between fascism and an absolutist (= non-democratic) monarchy is that in a monarchy, ONE person tends to decide everything, whereas in a fascist regime, it's usually an oligarchy that does. But the result is the same, for ordinary citizens: taxation without representation. That's why the No Kings movement is using the fact that, during the first years of a transition from democracy to fascism, many civil rights are still intact, to protest again the installation of fascism and the stealing of the power of citizens to govern themselves. On that, they couldn't be more right.
Trump's Great Gatsby party on October 31 was nothing more than a resuscitation of the Epstein era with its extravagance, conspicuous decadence, and sexual exploitation of women. Epstein may be gone, but Trump's tastes haven't changed.
The proclivity, especially as practiced by the ultra-privileged, is as old as dirt.
Not that I'm anti-sex. I'm in agreement with G. K. Chesterton that "The first two facts which a healthy boy or girl feel about sex are these: first that it is beautiful and then that it is dangerous." I don't care in what configuration. What I find intolerable is exploitation and bullying. Of any sort, but some are examples are more wounding than others.
So, listening to Lawrence O'Donnell's Last Word gave me pause as to what my Senator Kaine and the others were thinking when they voted with Republicans this past weekend. I now believe there is more to it than meets the eye. (18 minutes)
I watched Lawrence tonight, as well. I found it interesting and trusted his take, since he served as a Senate staffer. I had not heard that perspective and am giving it some thought.
I wish the Epstein files were still intact. I wish the Epstein files were not in the custody of Donald Trump‘s apologists. I wish the intact, unredacted and unsanitized Epstein files were released in full to the public prior to the 2026 midterms.
Anyone that flies during the holidays or flies for business should be relieved about this. I haven't seen the O'Donnell piece but Heather's simile about the pool table was perfect.
If each one of us takes action to share that linked Lawrence O’Donnell MSNBC segment to at least one MAGA adherent who we see beginning to splinter off MAGA, the ripples from that segment will be significant. The background O’Donnell gives to the closeted workings of both chambers of our Congress is compelling. The images I now have of the cats in the Mansfield Room and the LBJ Room are indelibly set in my mind.
O’Donnell ends the segment with Jamie Raskin’s letter to Donald Trump. Raskin’s letter is POWERFUL!
Thank you for this clip, Lynnell. Lawrence always has "the last word" for a reason: He Knows. I agree there is much more to this compromise than meets the eye, and that it is necessary. I also think, though, that Republican leadership wants the Epstein files released. With Trump clearly off his rocker and now starving MAGA babies, by adding proof of his raping children Fox News will have to cover it, and the political tide will turn. Because the real Republican goal is to elevate their henchman, J.D. Vance, to the Hitler role, and fully execute (shivers) Project 2025.
Sigh. My wife is so upset over the political scene and garbage flooding out of Washington D.C. that I didn't get a chance to watch either Rachel or Lawrence last night. She'll be at work this afternoon, and I'll watch then.
Morning, Ally! Sorry to hear how upset your wife is. Many of us would say here that she is not alone, seriously.
I'm a game show fan. Today, the Price is Right had a "Veterans" show in honor of Veterans. Now, for the funny part. To honor the troops, one of the prizes was a trip
to - wait for it - Washington, DC! I was like OMG, anywhere but DC!
Anyway, I didn't see Rachel's show, only Lawrence's.
I agree, though I am somewhat skeptical of what seemed like an apology for Schumer. Are they friends? Still, I find Lawrence ODonnell credible, despite the millions he is paid.
So you’re one of the eight that listens to Lawrence O’Donnell? Lololol. Pretty soon he’s gonna join the padded room with Olberman De Niro, and a number of other actors and actresses from Hollywood, who are totally lost.
You poor dears, hanging your hat on epstein. Walking through the desert, almost out of water, and when you come to what you think is going to be the oasis of Epstein, it’s gonna be a dry bottomless well. You should help your people Here worry about 2026.
Democrats get into politics because they want to make the world a better place. They come out of Harvard and Yale with big, honest, idealistic dreams. They believe you can do good and still do well. That a rising tide floats all boats. And that their goodness and inclusiveness will always win the day. How could everyone in the world not understand that they are on the side of the angels? Then they wake up in DC and the mirror cracks.
When handed the legislative ball with a big enough majority, they do what their ethos indicates--pass bills that help Americans. This magical situation, where the Democrats hold the executive branch and both houses by broad majorities and are shored up by a liberal court, is vanishingly rare.
And when these mythical conditions are not met, the Democrats always fold. WHY?
Most behavioral issues are overdetermined. Culture, conditioning, institutional norms, philosophical orientation. All of this comes to play when sussing out the reason the Democrats consistently bring a water balloon to an air war.
The MAGA/GOP have an arsenal of cluster bombs and heat seeking missiles and are not at all hesitant to use them. And if they miss a few, like they did with Hunter Biden, what of it? Most of them land.
The Democrats have an entirely different ethos when it comes to ruthless behavior. The party as a whole has a general discomfort with violence, or even violent rhetoric. Considering the efficaciousness of violence, this gives the Republican Party a big advantage. Given these circumstances, yesterday's news is not at all surprising.
Tump's narcissism is piece of this story, Narcissists are not empathic. While the increasing suffering and fear of SNAP recipients, federal workers, and air travelers worried and angered many, Trump's malignant narcissism served him well and he remained untouched by their suffering.
I don't see any comments about the oligarchs controlling the entire Republican agenda by forcing budget busting budgets through Congress. It seems that almost every comment here gives the Congressional Republicans a pass for passing the worst bill in history last July.
Trump has been bribing people for eight months and is going totally insane and you all are crying over a little spilled milk.
Meanwhile, Trump is fading fast and the carporate media totally ignores it.
Good points, GJ. Ignoring the visible physical and mental decline of ffpotus is beyond negligent. For me, the RepubliKKKans passing their abominable bill coupled with the absolute disaster of this administration are almost indescribably bad/harmful/criminal to us as a people, a country, as well as an individual.
GJ: I have a lot on my stack and FB posts about the oligarchs. And about DT being a mouthpiece. They have the demise of DT factored in, and it won't change anything. Or if it does it will be for the worse.
And if DT becomes an even worse liability than he already is, do you think the oligarchs will push the RepubliKKKans into action or will they allow him to run amok?
I just don't see JD ever being remotely popular as a President if DT is removed from office before 2028.
Right now DT is doing just what he was hired to do.
As for JD--He will be worse, and they DON'T CARE about his popularity. That matters in a democracy, where there are free elections and the people are sovereign.
When they seized power a year ago, that was effectively over. They no longer require the consent of the governed. If we want our sovereignty back we must take it back.
So many moving balls around, indeed, and all so quickly. And some with no balls at all, which I'm sure doesn't even require translation.
In the short-term, it feels like a bitter, crushing moment, particularly in the aftermath of such a strong Blue Wave on November 4. Yet there was never any real script as to how this would end, given the arithmetic of the Senate and the cruelty, sadism and stupidity of Trump and Toads. The inexplicable terror Republican Senators feel for this despicable human being defies all sense and previous norms. He didn't just refuse to negotiate, he spit in everybody's face, fell back on 3-year-old memes involving excrement, and held a Great Gatsby party at Mar-A-Lardo, complete with half-naked women lying in giant martini glasses -- while his Toads mumbled inanities and did nothing.
This setback will last only until the end of January, however. In the meantime, great harm will have taken place as people see their insurance rates skyrocket. Attitudes will have further coalesced -- against him, against them. These are not strong people with long-range tactics. They are reckless, desperate idiots living in one absurd moment after another. They grow weaker by the day. In December, they will go down officially as having voted against not just Obamacare, but against Medicare and Medicaid as well, even when given a second chance. They will be known not just as the party of 'we-don-t-care-do-U?' but the party of brainless dolts -- for none of what they do makes a lick of sense or will solve a single problem.
Betting that the slow-burning rage millions of voters already feel this November will have turned blue-hot by this time next November -- if Donnie Diapers is even still alive by then. My bets are on the continued Democratic momentum to reclaim the country back from tyranny and lunacy.
The terror the Republican legislators feel must have an explanation. They can see the polls. They can see his decline. So how can it be the fear of being primaried? It must be personal. Is it the death threats they receive?
It may be, or fear for the safety of their families, I don't know. He's certainly the monster of their own creation -- why they didn't think the monster would turn on them is a complete mystery to me.
You’re obviously blind to history where most of the people here say they’re really good history buffs. Five times in history a president has taken the White House with both houses of Congress on the same side. EVERY SINGLE TIME THE MIDTERM COMES AROUND THEY LOSE ONE OR BOTH HOUSES. THAT’S HISTORY IN ACTUALITY.
BUT THERE’S A POSSIBILITY THAT THERE COULD BE A CHANGE FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER IN THIS COMING MIDTERM IF AMERICA CONTINUES TO DO WELL IN THE WORLD, LOWER THE DEFICIT BRING PEACE LIKE IT’S BEEN DOING AROUND THE GLOBE AND ECONOMIC SUCCESS TO AMERICA
No one of you guys keep losing you keep talking about the blue wave on November 4. There was no blue wave on November 4…NONE. Two blue states elected two blue members. Now, if a Republican would’ve been elected that would’ve been a wave.
And many people are gonna sit here and watch New York drowned in misery very shortly already people are calling realtors in south Florida and Texas to get the hell out of there before it gets worse.
Thanks Heather for keeping the record of these turbulent times. I see that many people are furious, I don’t argue with that response, but your metaphor of balls suddenly moving in unexpected directions across a billiard table shows us that this story might yet develop in interesting ways. Keep up your good work. Yours, in regard, Anthony.
I'm going to hold my opinion until I see the results of being able to now move the Epstein situation along. Considering England's move against a member of the Royal Family, it will be very difficult for U.S. politicians to leave Trump in office.
trump is a dictator and will do whatever he goddamn wants. None of this matters anymore. The 8 democrats that caved are not running again. Unbelievable even for the dems who always shoot themselves in the foot. The 2002-08 TV series "The Wire" nailed it in the 5 seasons . . . city governance and politics was season 3. Nothing has changed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UXJZgOiVAI
Maybe that is now the Republicans' goal: To "have to" remove Trump from office. He is clearly too cruel. Of course, Vice President Vance may be even more cruel, plus, a bonus: He doesn't have an Epstein noose around his neck.
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. If you’re still waiting for epstein, you might as will be waiting for Godot. lol. And try to pay attention to the Brendan clapper,Comey indictments, and the 30 other subpoenas that have been issued about the Russia hoax. That’ll be a lot more enlightening than waiting for epstein. Let me repeat what I said earlier just for you, Leslie. Epstein is dead. The issue is dead even the victims attorney just had passive words to say about the case so far. I’m sure if there’s any money left in the epstein accounts that the victims will get paid whatever is left but Maybe we should look to Jack ruby… or lee Harvey Oswald to come back from the dead, and tell us their story as well. That’s gonna be a Germaine… not that anything is going to come over the Epstein file that’s going to interest you only injure a huge number of people that deserve injury, but won’t get you any closer to your goal. It’s not gonna make you hate Trump anymore or any less, because nothing is going to come of it
For you, Leslie, I heard a good one today. It said, if you keep spanking yourself, you’re only gonna have yourself to blame when you can’t sit down.
When the House reconvenes, Johnson is going to have to swear in Adelita Grijalva and that means that the discharge petition will go forward and the Epstein files will be released and the full extent of Trump's long and close buddy-buddy association with America's most notorious paedophile will become clear to all.
Meanwhile, Ghislaine Maxwell, another convicted paedophile, is not satisfied with being moved to a low security prison for protecting Trump. She wants a commutation.
As if we need another test on them after voting more than fifty times to repeal ACA and seeing them celebrate doing high fives after some small victories to gut the Act. And don't get me started about cuts in Medicare and Medicaid. Yeah, we'll be surprised if we submit them to another test.
I am a lot angrier at the Republicans, led by Trump and Johnson, who refused to negotiate than I am at the Democrats who decided to reopen the government. It was the Republicans who used food as a political tool. It was Johnson who kept legislators away from their jobs. It was Trump, as pointed out by Heather, who badly behaved as usual during this whole episode.
Phil guess what they’re not the ones that shut down the government so who’s using that starvation as a tool they shut it down and they decided to open it up
The standard operating procedure when you don't have enough votes is to negotiate. Republicans refused. Additionally, the administration could have used reserve funds to keep SNAP going but went to court to avoid that resource, even threatening to punish states who wanted to make up the shortfall. I place full blame on the Republican Congress and the Republican administration. Thanks to the big, ugly bill, ICE got paid but air traffic controllers did not. The former scares people while the latter saves lives.
You can’t negotiate when you have nothing to negotiate with. That’s the first mistake that Democrats made. And the minute most of the people on this thread, realize that they might change their tune. The Democrats had no leverage and no point to make. So this was anything but standard operating procedure based on the circumstances at hand.
And what you’re asking for is contrary to rational thought somebody does something to hurt you, by shutting down the government making it seem like the GOP was at fault and then you’re supposed to do something opposed to your better judgment to help them hurt you more? The blame in reality was squarely on the Democrats for shutting down the government and stopping snap benefits. Why should the Republicans relieve them of that burden?
They did what they had to do and they learned very quickly, although 40 days doesn’t seem very quick that they had nowhere else to go but surrender and open the government. And it wasn’t really a capitulation. It was smart thinking by Seven Democrats who realize it was a dead end street.
You are free to place blame wherever you want unfortunately you’re throwing the blame on the GOP in a black hole… because that just doesn’t fly perhaps maybe in your mind but not in reality
The only people that scared anyone were the Democrats when they shut down the government. 13 times during Biden’s administration, the Republicans agreed not to shut down the government when they had a dispute. 13 times or I guess it was actually 16 times the liberals decided to shut down the government instead of opening it up and paying snap benefits to the people that they supposedly support.
And while you call it a big ugly Bill best thing that happened to this country in a long time And it’s actually a wonder that the Republicans stuck together like the Democrats and normally do and got it done
The fact that Trump’s ratings continue to tank hasn’t seemed to register with GOP senators. Trump, of course, believes he will both live forever and stay in power forever. Is the GOP really as delusional as?? It sure looks like it. I realize they are busy gerrymandering and doing everything they can to prevent Dems from having a voice, but won’t that just stir the will to fight even more? Up to and including physical violence?
I think the GOP leadership is brilliant: Trump has become a liability now as he blatantly starves American children and their voting parents. So they will "begrudgingly" allow the Epstein files to be released, the emperorr to be disrobed (eeeuuuuuww), and the political axe to fall. Then the real Hitler, JD Vance, rises to the throne. So, help us God.
Sandra trumps rating when he got elected was 31% so if you think that’s accurate not to worry since he doesn’t have anything to run on if you pay attention to the law. But if you guys keep acting like this out of the five times that a president inherited both type houses of Congress only to lose it in the midterm. This could be the first time that Trump actually holds both houses of Congress if you’re not careful.
Has the "circular firing squad" of Democrats on this page run out of bullets yet? Hope so. It's getting to be an old and tiresome exercise in self flagellation.
Earth to disappointed Dems. We feel your pain. But the enemy is over that hill on the horizon. How about we go get the bastards instead of beating ourselves up.
We had a Blue Wave victory a week ago today. Let's build on it and focus on who is tearing down this country. We need to regroup. The enemy is chuckling at our divisions.
There is no circular firing squad. It is called change.
As we have learned from Dr. Richardson's able teachings, political parties throughout history have undergone cataclysmic changes. Both major political parties are undergoing stressors, fractures and will most likely reemerge looking different than most of us have lived with. Digging our heels in as a Democratic Party and refusing to read the tea leaves got us into this mess. We kept doing the same thing in the face this nightmare brewing 9 years ago. Refusal to change will not help.
These kinds of discussions are a sign of a healthy democracy. Let's self-examine, sort out what has worked and what has hampered our viability as a serious political entity. Fear of self-examination as a Party will surely doom us and our fight for Democracy in America.
I agree that “discussions” about how to regroup, restrategize and reassert ourselves are healthy and required.
What is not healthy or helpful is fellow Democrats relentlessly attacking each other at every twist and turn of the process.
This recent Senate disappointment is an example. I see both points of view. And then I say: what's next?
That being said, I enjoy and appreciate the passion and persistent energy you bring to these comments. I don't always agree, but as Joyce Vance always concludes “We're in this together.”
They’ll be at vote Ralph.. but it won’t be anything in the wellness. You’re thinking it’ll either be a substitute, an alternative, or a timeline we are offers will be made to join other programs. Epstein and the ACA have a lot in common in my humble opinion
I recommend to you and your other readers Jay Kuo’s most recent Substack post (The Surrender Caucus). I find it a more nuanced and in some ways accurate commentary on the end of the shutdown. Concerning accuracy for instance, when you (and others have done the same ) mention as a “win” or “compromise “ that Republicans have agreed to reinstate workers who’ve been laid off, and restoring back pay, you fail to mention that there is a law that requires Republicans to do that. So, is that what passes for “wins” these days? No mention that it’s actually the law - and never mind there’s no way to ensure they follow through completely (witness threats to air traffic controllers). Whatever happens with the ongoing process, bills, budget etc and whether trump/maga follows the law or agreements or how this affects 2026 elections, there’s no silver lining to the damage done to the Democratic party and the grassroots . From a time when we finally were celebrating our strength and power, greater unity, here we are - a coalition in disarray, angry and fighting amongst ourselves. A real, devastating and wasteful tragedy. Hopefully, we can pick up the pieces and move on.
do you by any chance, see a difference between a news article and actual fact.
They doing like many organizations do their putting forth a piece of news that validates what they’re doing whether or not it’s required or not it’s just informational
I understand the frustration of those who are angry at the Democratic Senators who voted with Republicans on this one, but I feel angrier at the voters who put us in this position last November. The reality is that Republicans won't feel shamed by the prospect of their constituents starving or being left without health care. There's no conscience driven way to reach the GOP at this point; they wouldn't be Republicans if they didn't enjoy human suffering. During wartime sieges, people have had to undergo horrific privations and have ended up being forced to eat stuff like dirt, bugs, wallpaper paste, their own pets. But in this situation the food is in the grocery stores, and 40% of those expected to starve are children, with long term consequences for their health. Republicans won't care about them - for them mass starvation is a feature, not a bug - because they don't work for the United States of America or for Americans anymore. The government they are loyal to is angry about the end of slavery, and is angry about human rights, and is angry that our country fought against Hitler; naturally they don't see this situation like we do. So we're going to have to fight them some other way. This was all avoidable - Trump should be in prison. Instead voters gave him the power to destroy us all.
Your anger is well-placed, directed squarely against the blackmailers willing to see all the hostages die rather than incur Trump's wrath. The combination of cowardice, stupidity and absurdity just took all our breaths away. It was never clear how this would end, given the sadism and idiocy that have become Republican hallmarks.
One-third our electorate didn't even bother to show up last November. When one-third the people couldn't care less, a republic simply becomes unsustainable. And those who showed up put a demented moron in the White House a *second* time, and gave his party a majority in both Houses (albeit the slimmest in American history, thanks to gerrymandering). It's they who've determined our short-term fates at least.
Our Founders thought scumbags like Trump would eventually appear on the scene. They never bargained that more than half the Senate would refuse to do its job and not convict a twice-impeached criminal it knew to be guilty of both attempted blackmail and obstruction of justice -- twice in a row. Had those Senators actually done their jobs (save for Mitt Romney), our present reality would be far different.
It's because the left always goes into our favorite sport, "Dem bashing", as soon as Democrats cannot achieve instantaneously all that we want, that one third became so discouraged that they now falsely believe that most Democrats (and most politicians) are "bad guys" so they better turn away from politics altogether.
And if you look at social media and even pundits such as Robert Reich... the knives are out once again.
Most Democrats voted AGAINST opening the government, and one Senator who voted for it isn't even a Democrat, but people don't seem to care. ALL Democrats are now once again rejected with ad hominem arguments such as "they're weak" etc.
It shows how THE main problem in the US is the terribly low political literacy (as Saul Alinsky called it) of the American people, both on the left and on the right.
You're so wrong. The Democrats had insisted on one thing only - the retention of those ACA subsidies. John Stewart on the Daily Show played tapes of two of the senators involved in the capitulation (and that's what it was) completely contradicting themselves. Tim Kaine, senator for Virginia, on NBC's Meet the Press is saying that agreeing to open the government on the promise of a vote on the subsidies in the Senate without a commitment that it would pass or that the House would take it up was "an empty offer". He's now voted for the empty offer. It's empty not least because Trump hates Obamacare and is now talking about replacing it with 'Trump Care'.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/10/donald-trump-interview-laura-ingraham-economy
Similarly, Stewart showed Jeanne Shaheen, senator for New Hampshire, on CNBC's Squawk Box talking about the dreadful effect of the loss of those ACA subsidies on one of her constituents, who she has just sold down the river for the 'empty offer'.
It's true that Trump doesn't care about the harm he's inflicting on Americans - he's never cared about that. What he and the Republicans do care about is the impact of what they do on their grip on power and the clean sweep in last week's elections for the Democrats was not just a huge boost for the party but also a warning for Republicans in Congress and they showed it with a typically hysterical response.
In the court case on the SNAP payments, Trump was on the verge of having to go to the Supreme Court to ask them to approve his decision to starve hungry Americans. He's so unpopular that he was booed at the Washington Commanders game while swearing in troops.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ekd4vb6b-4
The argument being deployed by the rebels is that the strategy wasn't working when it WAS working! The polls show that people were blaming Trump and the Republicans for the shutdown. Now they've handed Trump a gilt-edged opportunity to claim victory and still blame the Democrats for the ensuing chaos.
Totally agree! This was betrayal!! You don’t walk away w/a “pinky swear”!!
The good news is this: ‘INDIVISIBLE’ will not stand down. Heads have to roll!! Consider supporting the prodemocracy organization, ‘Indivisible’. They were a major organizer for the ‘NO KINGS’ day protests. Join Indivisible’s organization to: 1. Remove Schumer… 2. Primary any democrat that supports Schumer…and then 3. fight (for roughly the next year) for our winning candidates!! Stand w/‘Indivisible’ and never give up!!!!!!!!!
Yes, bring out the guillotines. That will solve everything. 🙄 Honestly, what is this love of the circular firing squad, the demand to take down those who tried to fight blackmail (and most still did)? What does this get you, other than a pile of messy blood and guts? And Schumer voted no, by the way.
You can keep your vision for a Robespierre-style 'republic' -- count me out.
Thanks to Heather for presenting all the many balls in motion, for providing needed balance on this. Let's not engage in the 'circular firing squad'. Retain the anger, but don't lose sight of the real enemy.
My initial reaction was indeed a simmering pot of anger and disappointment. Let the head catch up to the heart, consider that this may have been an unsatisfying click forward on the ratcheting gear of the long haul. Maybe we won the small battle already. Retain the anger for progressing from this new, incrementally advanced position.
No matter the Senate, was Mike Johnson ever going to allow the ACA to be brought to a vote? In a worthy discussion on The Bulwark between Tim Miller and Will Saletan regarding the recent Senate vote, Miller says you don't play chicken with someone who wants to crash. And then how much longer would the actual suffering go on for Americans who are not "online" like those of us in comments sections
I agree, this constant finger-pointing and blame gaming doesn't exactly endear me to the cause. What have we become? What do we really want to become?
I agree with you, however when someone makes a concession and you disagree that is hardly a guillotine! We are allowed to diverge in our approaches and allowed to voice opinions about why we think it was an unwise move. The difficulty is to thread a needle when we are in a haystack of problematic straws, where is the needle and how and what do we do to find its useful end..? Maybe we are in the wrong haystack all together?! (probably the last is the most likely!) Don't get upset by disagreement that is a feature of democracy.. and of the democratic party..!
Not sure it's circular when only seven are lined up on the wall... :)
Yes!! We are facing yet another “Democracy is at stake” election! The only correct course is to attack Dems and ignore Republicans!
Irony alert: do you know the definition of indivisible?
It's not clear criticizing the capitulation of a few Democrats is attacking all Democrats or ignoring the Republicans.
These two things are not mutually exclusive.
No, we’re not end of story. But for people with TDS that certainly a possibility. But here’s another good story.
Do you know what we just discovered James? Amongst all the stories and the quiet about Epstein during Biden’s administration even though the administration had the entire file on their desk for four years and did nothing with it. and the hope for some damning information that never comes and blaming anybody who associated with Jeffrey epstein how about this one for a bombshell.
KATIE COURIC. Which I will get to you in one second.
No but YouTube today showed two clips of Katie Couric trying to get John Federman to hate on Charlie Kirk and persisted and persisted and persisted to get him to say something negative about Charlie Kirk
And then this piece of news came out when Federman refused to take the bait and he’s turned into a real hero and it’s probably one of the hated Democrats right now. Awwwww
One of the top news professionals of her generation actually had dinner at Jeffrey Epstein‘s house after he was convicted of pedophilia!!
Indivisible doesn’t mean we are sheep. But that’s how the Democrats but felt from the beginning on this topic. Until seven smart ones finally ended it and fed the Nady kept our planes flying and paid our military. The Democrats got nothing but 40 days of suffering for the most needed on their watch
PRO- DEMOCRACY ? Calling bullshit.
The DEMOCRATS have cheated the base, the last THREE elections cycles out of choosing a candidate.
Bernie got cheated out of the nomination in 2016 and 2020
and the elites picked the candidate in 2024.
Start with a little democracy in your own party before you lecture anyone else.
Bernie wasn’t cheated out of anything. More Democrats voted for Hillary than for him. And it takes a lot of nerve to expect a party you won’t deign to join to make you their nominee for president.
Since when is "democracy" defined by who picks the presidential candidate? Trump didn't even participate in the 2024 primary debates, remember?
Democracy is defined by the constitutional separation of powers and the independence of Congress.
The current neofascist GOP is installing its opposite: fascism. Or in the words of Mike Johnson, now GOP Reps broke their oath to the Constitution and see it as their job to "codify" the executive orders written by the Heritage Foundation and coming out of the White House.
THAT is what "cheating the base" means.
They also promised to CUT costs. Instead, their Big Bill, which they even call "Beautiful", adds trillions of dollars to the debt ONLY to give billionaires more tax cuts, all while dramatically cutting Medicare, Medicaid, SNAP, and the ACA's tax credits.
THAT is what "cheating the base" means - and cheating the American people, since 79% oppose all these things.
As to Harris: all delegates immediately approved her nomination, as soon as she became the candidate, so that IS a democratically elected nominee (delegates are not "elites" at all - the elites are in the current WH, with the highest number of billionaires ever).
Also, and so much more importantly, Harris ran on a campaign platform supported by not only all Democrats but also most of the American people.
Finally, as to Bernie etc: others here already refuted your claims.
'Fissile' would be a more appropriate moniker for the Democratic party.
Says the person encouraging intra-party war.
LOL. I had forgotten this word. Had to look it up. Thanks, you are very right.
Looks like right about now fissile could describe the Republican party, too.
Agreed. D's can't agree on how to distribute a litter of kittens.
Hey Kathleen, love those marches never saw so many people embarrassing themselves together at one time. But the best thing was the day after each embarrassing useless purposeless Marge stock market shut up both times so please keep those marches alive
Yes, the Democrats insisted on extending the tax credits. Knowing full well that they had NO legal power to get this done. So why did they do it? For once, mere messaging. Trying to make the 2/3 who didn't vote for Democrats in 2024 understand that the GOP is serious about killing their healthcare.
Polls show that they largely succeeded, and now there will be a second round of messaging in December.
As to your idea that we were getting closer to "force" the anti-ACA GOP to continue to support the ACA: where's the concrete evidence backing up your claim... ?
I made no such claim.
What I said was that the Democrat's strategy of holding out against voting for the Republican CR was working. It was reflected in the polls, in Trump's plummeting approval rating and in those elections last week. The party was energised and confident. Now thanks to these sell-outs all that energy is going to dissipate in recriminations.
You ask me for concrete evidence of something I didn't claim. Let me offer you a challenge. Let's wait and see what these rebels actually achieve as a result of this climbdown. The SNAP changes introduced in the One Big Beautiful Bill have already come into effect which means that thousands who were eligible for help won't be any longer. The promised Senate vote in December on the extension of the tax credits under the American Rescue Plan I predict will deliver nothing at all. So let's wait and see, shall we?
But you see? Your ONLY criteria is "Was it working in the polls?".
I don't blame you for reducing politics to the horse race, after having the legacy media do so for decades. It has become a national habit, regardless of political affiliation.
It's also what is killing democracy in the US today.
"Working", in the democratic sense of the word, means real progress for ordinary citizens.
That was never achievable once "we the people" gave Congress to the only party that had proven, for decades, NOT to want to work for the people.
What was achievable, however, was making that clearer to the two thirds who, once again, thought it wise not to vote or even to vote for the GOP.
But once that point was made clear, why allow the GOP to bulldozer the entire government for many more makes to come? That would have gone directly against the very goal of all good governance: making progress for the people.
As to your "let's wait and see": why would we do that? We've seen it already. The Big Ugly bill passed, and is 100% consistent with what we've seen the GOP do for decades.
And now, on top of it all, they became neofascist, so they SKIP NEGOTIATIONS in Congress. Systematically.
What exactly is the power of the minority in that case, you think (since you seem to believe that it still has power - aside from messaging)?
How long were furloughed federal employees and those feds deemed essential to go without paychecks?
How long were SNAP beneficiaries supposed to depend on local food banks?
Count me out of the parade of those in the traditional Democratic suicide squad. It does not work.
That's a common tactic with this guy. He's new, possibly a troll. Blames the dems for the shutdown. Has a conspiracy theory. he's that guy.
Yes, let's wait and see. Life is not a sitcom where everything becomes crystal clear at the end of the hour.
In the meanwhile let's cool the Dem bashing.
(As to "energy dissipated in recriminations": I agree. But that's on US, not the Democrats. WE are dissipating our energy in blaming those who didn't have the power to do what we want for not having achieved what we want... )
He often confuses claims with ideas, strategies and tactics. He once promoted surrender earlier.
You are 100% right.
I agree with you. We need to continue the messaging. Keep hammering away. One of my (many) concerns is that Trump?MAGA will use punishing the American people as a tool. It could happen again. We need to keep the blame game squarely on the sholders of the MAGA.
I don't think the neofascist GOP uses punishing Americans merely as a tool. It's the very core of their entire agenda.
Just read where this all comes from: neoliberalism, a movement created to fight back against the New Deal.
If you read Peter Thiel, Kevin Roberts (Heritage Foundation president), or basically listen carefully to no matter what Republican, they all share the same creed: social security is bad for America, it has to end.
Why?
Because it means taxes and regulations, which, in their eyes, limit the freedom of the wealthiest to do whatever they want. And only allowing the wealthiest to do whatever they want will lead to the best possible society, they believe.
It means abandoning the democratic ideal that is based on the belief that it IS possible to create a society in which everyone thrives. A fascist anthropology assumes that most people are mediocre at best, and only a handful are of superior nature. Allow the mediocre to govern (as in demo-cracy, or government by and for the people) and things cannot but go south. Allow the best to govern and mediocre people will still suffer, but at least now the best can be happy. And that, they believe, IS the best humanity as a whole can achieve.
It's because this is what neofascists believe that they WANT a government shutdown, because that makes it possible for them to destroy democracy so much faster than if they need to do it through the legislative and judicial process, combined with massive fake news and rigging elections.
It will require a lot of real debates among citizens before everyone realizes this. In the meantime, what we CAN do is at least make sure that by 2026, everyone knows that the GOP is laser focused on destroying the ACA and social security and that the only way to stop them is to vote, and vote for Democrats.
YES! Keep up the messaging...GOP wanted to keep SNAP benefits from being distributed, GOP wants your health insurance to be unaffordable, GOP was never going to help the American people in any way. This is becoming clearer and clearer (one would think)
Ya think, what have they been doing non stop for a year.
Yes, and the ACA subsidy cuts take effect NOW. Other major cuts to safety net programs like SNAP and Medicaid don't take effect until after the midterms. I am disappointed that the Democrats didn't hold out longer, but I am also fortunate in that the current shutdown has no major effects on my life or my close family members lives.
Why are you disappointed more precisely?
What good did you expect to come from shutting the government down longer?
I would like to thank you for continuing to rely on the polls.
Lmfao. They haven't been right yet In fact when Trump was elected, he had a 31% favor ability rate IN THE POLLS
Dems held hostage by P2025. And seven too cowardly to answer a call or a message. God, I am disgusted. Like an orphan with no home.
I suspect that many Democrat voters will feel the same way as you, and with good reason.
I’m old and as I said to someone, I have spent almost half a century watching the republicans play the democrats and the democrats not admitting it. Chump is being ruled by P2025, they are ruthless. Democrats caved as Vought knew some would. The rest of the Dem lawmakers should be as livid as I am, but the party is what it is. Impotent and it’s their own fault. Well, I guess I’m still one unless my outrage is not acceptable to the rule bound ostriches.
trump doesn't hate Obamacare. He hates Obama. With a passion bordering on insanity.
I think both things can be true.
https://www.protectourcare.org/fact-sheet-trumps-crusade-against-the-aca-continues-with-renewed-attacks-on-the-law-in-his-second-term/
To think that both could be true, one would first have to assume that trump gives a rats patoot about whether ANYONE had health insurance. He doesn't.
Trump is hated Obama care ever since it became a lie to the people. It was a total lie. It was totally fictitious and when you talk about narcissism, what a better illustration is naming the thing after yourself . It was supposed to be affordable care, and yet it still needed a subsidy go figure. Now it’s anything but affordable now it’s anything but comprehensive in its coverage and according to statistics it now needs the 25% premium increase and $350 billion just to survive a few more years. Not to mention the subsidies.
People are so lost in the woods. You can’t even see the sky
The Dem Victory List (A Happy Dozen) — Those 8 (well, 7 + 1) votes achieved the following 1.) SNAP suffering ended, 2.) Air Traffic and Air Safety resumed, 3.) increased funding for Indigenous Health Services, 4.) a Democrat-written bill to extend ACA premium tax credits (by mid-December) ** 5.) House of Representatives back to work, 6.) first order of business for the House = administer oath to Adelita Grijalva (D-AZ), 7.) the Senate filibuster rule is still intact (meaning that the R’s still need some D’s to get some things accomplished and if the R’s DIDN’T need D’s, then we will have crowned Trump as our Dictator King, 8.) the final signature on the Epstein files discharge petition can/will happen, 9.) the House will have to vote on the Epstein Files release, 10.) on that release decision, Republican House members will have to decide whether to vote YES (release ‘em) or NO (Guardians Of Pedophiles) or PRESENT (chicken, chicken), 11.) Trump is unhappy, 12.) I am happy that Trump is unhappy.
** In mid-December, a no vote by the R’s bestows ownership of the ACA premium increase to the R’s.
Yup, a DOZEN victories and all I read is bitching about the 8!
Wrll that sounds impressive, but let's run through them.
1) SNAP suffering will not end if the government reopens. The new eligibility and work requirement rules (introduced by the OBBB) came into effect on 1 November. This means that thousands of those people who were eligible for SNAP benefits before then aren't now eligible and will conintue to have to depend on food banks.
2) there is still a dangerous shortage of air traffic controllers. I have seen estimates that there have been 147 air traffic incidents since Trump came to power. Trump has fired hundreds of FAA employees and will doubtless sack some more.
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/11/10/trump-threatens-replace-air-traffic-controllers-00644514
3) increased funding for indigenous health services - that's a plus.
4) the Democrat-written bill on ACA subsidies does not come with a commitment from Senate Republicans to vote for it or that the House will take it up never mind vote for it, so nothing has actually been guaranteed,
5) I'm honestly not sure putting the dysfunctional House of Representatives back to work is anything to crow about.
6) swearing in Adelita Grijalva is undoubtedly a plus, but that should have been done much earlier and the Republicans were on shaky legal grounds refusing to do this.
7) the Senate Republicans were never, ever going to accede to Trump's demand that they end the filibuster.
8) yes, the Epstein files will be released but they should have been released much earlier.
9) see above, I don't think this is an additional plus.
10) ditto, you're just inventing new fake victories for these rebel senators.
11) Trump has indicated that he will sign this bill. He was unhappy because he was being blamed for the shutdown. Now he can claim victory and still blame the Democrats for the ensuing hardship and chaos the hsutdown has caused and that's exactly what he will do.
12) How does your happiness constitute a victory for those senators when virtually the rest of the party is at their throats?
Not really very much is it in the light of day?
Thanks for your reply, Russell, and please note that you agree that there are MANY pluses that you agree with me on. What concerns and and makes me very unhappy is the seemingly uncontrolled bitching about what has happened and what the potentials are. Please note that the Republicans in the House will have to AGREE with what the Senate just passed. They will have to be on record for a bunch of things they opposed before.
Did you see one of the points in the CR was restituting the Republicans that were spied on by Jack Smith. Ooooops
1.) On September 8, 2025, you said:
“You have heard the last of me I don’t deal with racist and I’m not gonna respond to anything else that you post so enjoy your time with your racism”
And, no, Poor Rick, I have not tampered with your quote. It is grammatically incorrect, but we all know, you are “a Mensa Mensa Man - we all wanna be a Mensa Man (or Woman)” - and we all know you don’t mind dangling your participles in front of EVERYBODY!! YIKES!!
BUT, if as you have said, “not gonna respond to anything else that you post,” then stop responding to what I post! (DUH - Simple stuff, even for a Mensa. Just keep your mouth shut.) We all know that’s the easy way out, but I was under the assumption that you were a True Mensa! Maybe I should not A$$UME since that might make an A$$ out of U and ME.
2.) Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Russell, your comments are always well-researched and well thought out. By contrast, I have found EUWDTB's comments to be full of twisted logic and contrarian, having no real purpose but to occupy space in the conversation and draw attention to themself.
Not a troll, but troll-adjacent.
Dale, I can understand that many people will be relieved that the government shutdown is likely to end. It has been a disaster for almost everyone (almost because Trump doesn't seem to have been inconvenienced at all). The problem is that the madness doesn't end and the prospect of it ending hasn't been brought any closer by this climbdown and may even have damaged the Democratic party's chances at the midterms. It wasn't worth it.
Russell, my sentiments are similar. I posted the following comment on another forum.
I've read several analyses of the debacle perpetrated by the 8 cowards with nothing to lose. Some were full of disdain; some attempted optimism. Having weighed all those opinions as I've drawn my own conclusion, it is this: Turds do not have silver linings.
I would hope there's a way to punish them, but I doubt it. I suspect Strongly-Worded-Letter Schumer organized this affair, then voted "no" to give himself cover, so don't expect him to discipline the turncoats.
The tragedy is that millions of people suffered anxiety and financial hardship. For nothing.
And knowing what we know about Donald and his party, the temporary suffering their hostages just experienced will soon be made permanent.
If only there was a real hell ...
My first reaction to Kaine- glad he was not the VP
No backbone
Agreed, earlier polls showed the blame being split evenly between the two parties, then growing exponentially upon the Republicans.
It's as if the Minutemen had run away after the first shot.
Or if America surrendered after Pearl Harbor, Lincoln after Bull Run, or Churchill after Dunkirk.
Speaker Johnson has already announced he doesn't interpret the surrender of the Democrats as a promise to do anything about the ACA.
Marywayne Mullin has said the same thing to Fox News.
Some will stay the course, some will cut and run.
It's "Damn the Torpedoes!' or "Please don't hurt me!"
I can't believe that it's a coincidence that the exact number of Dems needed, who will face no consequences next year, caved & voted with the GOP to pass the motion. It had to be approved or developed by the leadership, and who knows how many others. The reasoning is becoming clear as mud.
I am aware of the rumours.
What do you think Congress would've done if they weren't getting paid during this event?
They didn't cave this was the smart group in the bunch.
They put America back in business for the American people not against the American people especially those that are hungry
Who was going to the Supreme Court asking them for permission to continue denying food aid to hungry Americans? It wasn't the Democrats.
To be fair, besides being booed by the crowd at the Commanders game he was also booed at the U.S. Open Tennis Tournament during his second time in office, but outside his "rallies" he was also widely booed during his first term. Remember, Clinton had over 7M more votes. Were it not for our antiquated Electoral College system, Stupid America would not prevail.
Trump is resorting to just telling lies now about everything. He claims there is no inflation and that prices for gasoline and food are falling, not rising.
At the same time as DoJ lawyers are explaining to the Supreme Court that the government's tariffs are purely regulatory and not imposed to raise revenue, Trump continues to boast about how much is being raked in by his tariffs and is promising a rebate of $2,000 to all lower-income Americans from that revenue (much of which THEY are paying!).
This isn't new. Whenever tRump is speaking, he is lying. In his campaign for the '24 election he liked to target two specific foods (and fuel): bacon and eggs (must be a big breakfast buff along with his passion for Big Macs and other non-nutritious fast foods). Not sure about bacon but I know we were paying ~$5.99/doz for large eggs in March, but Friday my wife says she paid $2.29/doz. The reason for the falling prices have nothing to do with tRump or any policy, it has everything to do with the Avian Flu crisis early this year.
However - and this has nothing to do with Mad Cow Disease - my wife also paid $18 for a 3 lb chuck roast Friday to make Italian Beef. A particular cut of beef which in March - while eggs were pricey - cost only $1.99/lb.
And as an aside, this year my largely liberal suburban neighborhood of about 100 homes contributed nearly three times as much food to our local food drive as we did last year. Doubtless a lot of it will go to surrounding rural areas with lots of low income uneducated MAGAts but that's okay with me as unlike their party, I do not want to see anyone suffer unnecessarily. Maybe they'll think twice about electing heartless monsters. Or not.
The entire Jon Stewart show was great - the two Democratic Representatives were very upfront and open about their feelings - especially as they are both Veterans.
As always - both his Daily Show and his Weekly shows are super.
I agree, Maggie. He's usually spot on in his analysis.
Spot on! Dem leadership is stuck in a time when traditional negotiations worked. We left that scenario 100% in 2016 when trump first took control of the executive branch. It's way past time when people like Schumer and Kaine need to go fishing and leave the real battle to people who get it.
That's the nub of the thing, Tim. There is no centre ground any more in US politics. The Republican party is now the MAGA party and there's no use bargaining with fanatics.
The people who get it are no e other than the people in Power right now so would be better for them to join in and wish America more success
I thought the US already had the hottest economy in the world?
The defectors have a 'chance' to get paid $500,000 now that they can sue now too, remember? What they did not think about was the grassroots efforts that we Americans were doing to build community and fill gaps, creating networks that were helping. It is not easy, and to think that dt&co will keep promises is bonkers. They are dems in name only. dino-saurs - and need extinction.. we do not need that.
I agree. The message from the 'No Kings' marches doesn't seem to have got through to these senators, especially that pachyderm Fetterman.
Never really dug his act, and that's what it was.
He didn’t make any promises. But if everyone will get into a room on both sides of the aisle together, they can come up with something better than what there is right now. Emanuel‘s brother screwed us all up and Obama went out and lied about it time and time again and people here swallowed it like little Chickies in the nest. If you’d like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. If you like your plan, you can keep your plan. And if you like this little children, I have some candy at home for you. Lololol
I completely agree with you, John!
Thanks, Joe!
I love to watch you guys debating amongst yourselves
It's almost like I can see you playing "marbles in a sandbox
And the marbles Going absolutely nowhere
You realize you are backing your opinions up with a comedian? Who gets paid for outrageous takes that attract eyeballs to his comedy show. On Comedy Central?
Not at all. If you read my comments carefully I am quoting that show as the source only for the two quotes from Democratic senators Kaine and Shaheen.
Good points.
Ms. Richardson has done an excellent, well-balanced review of our current political situation.
It may be time to move on to the Epstein client lists and forcing each Republican senator to deny healthcare coverage to his own constituents.
Much will be revealed for the American voters to consider before next year's midterms.
I think more mud is clinging to MAGA than to Democrats at this point.
I don't know what mud smells like where you live, but my nose tells me it's not mud clinging to MAGA.
No, she hasn't. She's giving you half the story as she usually does. As I've said many times, she gave up her Monica as a credible historian to becoming a liberal political activist and nothing more.
I'm not blaming ALL democrats. Just those seven who voted with the Republicans.
Why?
The Democrats had one piece of leverage and these seven just gave that away. We're out here protesting, making phone calls, writing postcards and emails, and then those seven basically slap us in the face. We need representatives on our side who will stick to their convictions. Yes, there's pain and hurt during this shutdown, but now it's just going to get worse.
Notice how everyone who imagined that democrats had "one piece of leverage" fail to explain what that was.
And Democrats didn't give up their convictions AT ALL, quite the contrary. What makes you think they did... ??
how do you leverage a party that gives NOT ONE FUCK about the American people??? WHAT IS THE LEVERAGE? Did you think Mike Johnson was going to wake up one morning and say...aww, these poor people are hungry and won't be able to afford HI..what would Jesus do? The Dems have made many a point here. Time to move on and let the repubs destroy themselves.
They had absolutely no leverage from the beginning they had zero leverage read my lips zero leverage
Unless you consider working against the American people leverage ?
Debbie, they didn't vote with Republicans. They voted with America to feed the people that needed to be fed and the employees needed to be paid.
I understand your argument, but acquiescing now isn't doing Americans any good in the long-run.
Keep in mind it was the Republicans who gutted civil service. Those people will still be without jobs because that's a whole different issue than the shutdown. Keep in mind it was the Republicans who cut SNAP benefits. This agreement may - repeat MAY - get those funds running again but even if it does, that won't fix the long-term problem of the Republican mindset that Americans don't deserve this 'handout'. Keep in mind it's the Republicans who don't think Americans should have affordable healthcare. This agreement does NOTHING to resolve that. The Democrats had a chance to hold the line at least on the healthcare issue. A thin line, but it was something. I just hope the House Democrats think of the long-term implications and vote accordingly.
The Republicans didn’t got civil service Republicans took away monies. It was supposed to go for civil service, and it went for something else, and it went to ngo’s and it went to third parties, and they pissed the way the money, and I never got to the target. Who cut snap benefits? Well, now there’s a wake up call. By the way, the latest info coming from snap statistics. The average woman in America weighs 142 pounds the average woman in America that’s on snap benefits weighs over 200.
This is not acquiescence. This is intelligence. This is feeding hungry Americans. This is paying American veterans and current military personnel. This is ensuring our air traffic controllers get enough rest so we don’t start having airline collisions. Thinking like that it’s just blind hate. Because sooner or later, this was back up so badly other Democrats, they would live to regret it especially when people aren’t getting fed that needed the most and the only people keeping them from that were seven Democrats and their names would’ve been shouted from the rooftops, not by the left, but by the right.
And then you make these ridiculously absurd Announcements saying that the Republicans don’t want people to have affordable health care how effing stupid is that comment??? Either party, but thought that Way wouldn’t be at all and in power very long.
The problem with the left right now if they don’t want to face reality here’s the reality the ACA had as one of its principles that the subsidies END/EXPIRE/VAMOOOSE… December of this year and that was signed by Barack Hussein Obama. And now you wanna renegotiate and you wanna blame the Republicans for putting that in the bill? Doesn’t get any dumber than that
No, no, no, no, NO!
With all due respect, this is not “Dem bashing”.
In my opinion, it’s about a lack of collaborative solidarity. The Dems ARE NOT operating in our best interests. If they were, they would be speaking in a single voice that emphatically calls for specific reforms to our broken system of government. A system that was broken long before the maga mindset took root.
Now that it (the maga mind) has virtually overtaken our democracy, the Dems need to be TOTALLY unified. And the are not.
Why?
Again, in my opinion, self-preservation of their status quo careers, not fighting for the best interests of their constituents (OUR) best interests.
I welcome dialogue on this subject because it is so important that we collaborate on this issue. As deserving as maga needs to be bashed for their views of hate, greed, power and control, it is more important to offer a viable alternative that will resonate with Americans (at least enough to form a strong majority at the polls).
Look at what Zohran Mamdani did in New York City! Two MILLION voters turned out, and yes, his base was powered by young voters over the older folks that have been indoctrinated to accept the neo liberal status quo policies that continue to be regurgitated by the life long, bought and sold politicians.
Regardless of what you think about him and his views HE WON, and now it’s paramount that he is successful enough to prove to the “indoctrinated ones” that his views, and more importantly, his policies have merit.
We need to talk and work together, not agree on everything, but remain united in a progressive cause that can defeat maga and the fascists.
And PLEASE, if you are reading this PLEASE share your thoughts!
That's an extremely cynical outlook on specific human beings.
Imho, the last few decades of Democrats in both DC and at the state level prove that outlook to be entirely wrong.
It's NOT the right question here, however.
The right question is: if you wanted Democrats to continue to give the GOP what it wanted, namely a shutdown and the legal limbo that comes with it and allows them to bulldozer the government much faster, all while installing fascism... WHY did you want that in the first place?
As to Mamdani: he ran as a progressive in a progressive town and won. Nothing new about that. Now, it's our job, as citizens of a democracy, to inform the two thirds of the American people who still either don't vote or vote for the GOP to finally begin to vote for Democrats too.
Help me understand how I am being cynical. And I’m not sure that I understand what you are saying about the shutdown.
The shutdown was the result of an unwillingness by republicans to extend ACA tax credits (that will expire at the end of 2025), and consequently, the gop’s inability to gather 60 votes in the senate to pass the continuing resolution bill, correct?
The dems then formed a bloc that prevented passage until ACA tax credits were extended, and the shutdown began.
So, I did not want dems “to give the gop what it wanted”, I wanted the dems to fight for continuation of the ACA tax credits. The shutdown was a consequence of this (dem) request. I know the gop tried to blame the shutdown on the dems, but do you believe that to be true?
To be clear, technically yes, because dems would not agree with the great big beautiful bill’s cutting of ACA tax credits, their only leverage was to block passage of the continuing resolution and causing the shutdown. But that’s war (waged by the gop on the American People). And as I mentioned in a previous post, with any war there are casualties.
Regarding Mamdani, he is a Democratic Socialist! A far cry from “progressive” in virtually any American city.
Most “progressive” dems are neo liberal status quo politicians and the MAIN REASON why so many people supported maga, or have been sitting home on election day.
And all you need do is review the slurs by the gop and fellow dems about Mamdani being "commuist", "socialist", "Marxist", and of course a Muslim that should be deported.
Mamdani motivated a TWO MILLION VOTER turnout. That’s exactly what is needed to get two-thirds of the American people to vote for dems.
We need to have this dialogue, but also need to be united, not divided (since we compose the two thirds of American voters needed to dismantle maga and the fascist regime.
do you really think the GOP would have reinstated the tax credits? How much longer do you think it would have taken? I guess you dont really think the GOP is as evil as they really are. But I do think this shut down lasted long enough to point out to the American people who cares and who doesn't
Imagining that Democrats do not have our best interests at heart, contrary to all the evidence out there, is cynicism.
You wrote:
"The shutdown was the result of an unwillingness by republicans to extend ACA tax credits (that will expire at the end of 2025), and consequently, the gop’s inability to gather 60 votes in the senate to pass the continuing resolution bill, correct?"
Yes, absolutely correct.
You wrote:
"The dems then formed a bloc that prevented passage until ACA tax credits were extended, and the shutdown began."
That's what they said, indeed.
You wrote:
"The shutdown was a consequence of this (dem) request. I know the gop tried to blame the shutdown on the dems, but do you believe that to be true?"
No, it's entirely false. In a democracy, when the majority party needs at least 8 minority votes, it sits down with the minority, listens to its requests, and then negotiates a compromise between what the minority wants and what the majority wants. A one-year extension of the ACA tax credits was a very reasonable compromise, knowing that 79% of the American people support it, so this request was imposed by the minority as a condition to keep the government open, AND it was actually a majority request, when it comes to the American people. This is also why we all supported Democrats' refusal to keep the government open as along as the GOP didn't compromise.
You wrote:
"To be clear, technically yes, because dems would not agree with the great big beautiful bill’s cutting of ACA tax credits, their only leverage was to block passage of the continuing resolution and causing the shutdown. But that’s war (waged by the gop on the American People). And as I mentioned in a previous post, with any war there are casualties."
This is where we disagree. Democrats never had any leverage whatsoever, in the current, entirely new political environment in DC. What is new is that a neofascist party controls DC. Normally, the leverage the minority party has consists of the fact that neither minority nor majority wants a government shutdown. The majority doesn't want a government shutdown because then it cannot move its agenda through Congress and sign it into law, so it loses precious time. And by not signing it into law, it risks disappointing its own voters, so it may well lose the next elections. So it's in their own benefit to end it asap. THAT is the leverage that the minority party has, in NORMAL circumstances.
When neofascists take over, however, this kind of leverage is entirely gone. What neofascists want IS a government shutdown, because they're not interested in passing legislation through Congress, they govern through executive orders, and their Justices approve that idea. Or as Mike Johnson said, from now on, the job of Congress is merely to "codify" the executive orders Trump signs. In that case, you don't need ANY negotiations in Congress anymore. All that is necessary is that it convenes once a year to pass an omnibus bill that contains all the executive orders of that year, and that's all.
So that's the first reason why today, the minority party has no real leverage whatsoever.
Second reason: what neofascists want is the destruction of the New Deal. The fastest way to achieve this is to just destroy most of the executive branch of government. During a shutdown, you enter a legal grey zone in which the Executive actually has a lot of legal power to do exactly that, whereas outside of a government shutdown, it's much more difficult. So when it comes to "policy", the longer Dems keep the government shut down, the faster the GOP achieves its policy goals.
Third, for democracy to function, voters need to know what the majority is doing so that they can vote them out. But for 25 years now, the GOP has built a massive propaganda machine, which keeps about one third of the country stuck in a totally fake news bubble, where no matter what the GOP does will be celebrated as a huge win for the GOP and the people. That being the fact, all that is needed is for the rest of the country to imagine that Democrats are "bad people" and to turn against them or not even vote, and, even though no one actually wants what they do... they can win elections, again and again.
We vitally need people to understand this, because if not, democracy WILL be gone, over the next 5-10 years (that's what it needed in other countries to fully transform a democracy into a fascist regime). If we get stuck in imagining that Democrats "are not into us", we're actively empowering the GOP to install fascism much faster.
WOW….. HOPE…. Thank YOU!
YES WE CAN!
And thank YOU for still working for the welfare of all without giving in to cynicism, at 89 years old!
You'd be a lot better if you took fascism out of your vocabulary. In fact, the Democrats hired a consulting firm and pay them $900,000 called thirdway.org who told him
I totally agree with what you are saying here - the dems have placed their own interests above the interests of we the people! They work for the billionaires and corporations to cultivate big donations. They do not work for us this is blatantly obvious. I think we need massive reform in this country. Both parties are corrupt thought the retrumpians are extreme in their corruption. Some how we the people need to seize back our country our government and our money - we are being fleeced every day. The fact that shummer and Jeffries didn't support Mamdani says it all.
Jeffries did come out and support Mamdani in the last week I believe
Schumer and Jeffries cannot explicitly endorse a "socialist Democrat" for a simple reason: poll after poll shows that a majority of the American people associate entirely false ideas (and truly scary and bad ideas) with the very word of socialism.
As long as that's the case, officially endorsing a socialist means, concretely, sending out the exact opposite message of what Democrats stand for, you see?
Yes, ALL Democrats FULLY support a democratic socialist agenda.
But no, outside of blue states/cities, we cannot possibly use the WORD "socialist" because we'd immediately lose all elections.
This will only change AFTER "we the people" make sure that more people understand the correct meaning of the word. That's not the job of politicians. Politicians govern. We the people need to engage in the civic debates that are the ONLY way to help people understand how mistaken their associations around this word are.
It's all quite simple, in the end...
Again you're wrong and you're putting too much emphasis on the actual word socialist that means nothing to most people they hear it but it means nothing. It's the actions that mean everything and that's why socialism doesn't work and it won't work in America and in my lifetime, I'm hoping it will never come close to happening. And it's not about the word at all
THIS IS NOT HELPFUL
Well, the fact that they didn't support, my dummy is a good thing. New York is about to collapse on its own face for many reasons and many fronts
Hm... and those interests are supposed to be? And how exactly did they do so?
You're confounding the fact that they didn't achieve what they can ONLY achieve and DID achieve when they controlled DC (under Biden), with what a minority party can do once those who vow to destroy the ACA are given full control over DC...
This is why progress is so slow in the US. People immediately turn against the only ones making progress as soon as we give them the legal power to do so, whenever the GOP was given the power to block progress...
..except this time the Dems held out for 40 days...and they made their point. The republicans who could have ended it did not, in fact they tried to STARVE Americans who rcv SNAP benefits. It's not over yet. The republicans were never going to end this, not for anything
Yeah, what point did they make?
This case is not “Dem Bashing.
Democrats SACRIFICED people’s survival fuel (paychecks & SNAP food money) FOR OVER A MONTH and then shit on their suffering by not winning the battle by scoring affordable healthcare benefits.
Trump is willing to burn the country down to get what he wants, but he is not the only one with a say. Democrats have no say… until Republicans need them.
So Democrats manipulated the situation until Republicans needed them and Democrats pissed it away.
Chris Murphy was right, there is NO WAY to save democracy without pain to the masses.
We could rise up and poof the doofs, but that would come with a very heavy price and no guarantee that the power vacuum wouldn’t be filled with another problem. Anarchy is murder on a country.
-OR-
We could - with top notch strategists, intelligence specialists, influencers, and a significant number of people united in the shared misery of this Administration’s agendas - chase away all the people holding Trump & Administration in place (the architects, engineers, enablers, enforcers, and minions).
But the second option would mean:
-Supporting Democrats in manipulating Republicans into a corner again
-Sacrificing our own money, food energy, jobs, safety, and freedom by doing things to make the Administration and their architects, engineers, enablers, enforcers, minions, and wealthy beneficiaries back down.
Like mass economic shutdown by work sit-outs, cancelling companies by putting them (and their workers unfortunately) out of business, protesting despite threats of physical retaliation by law enforcement, employer retaliation, etc.
The longer Trump & Administration are entrenched, the harder it will be to get rid of them AND the more we will suffer. Think: they have ALL of our data. They can prevent us from getting jobs and healthcare and paying bills. They can pass very public lies & convincing AI videos about us and make us targets for crazies. ANYTHING to tyrannize us - to death.
So there is suffering like going hungry and jobless (but with some hope of help from each) and then there is SUFFERING for us and future generations and no hope of help.
No time to waste. Think it through and decide.
Did you read Heather's Substack above?
It's the Big Beautiful Bill that CUT SNAP massively, and that stopped the extension of the ACA tax credits.
Republicans ALREADY passed this. The GOP did this.
And Democrats have NO leverage whatsoever to make them revert their previous votes (if you think they have, try to ask yourself: WHAT leverage, concretely?).
So this was never ever about truly obtaining the repeal of the BBB. That would never happen. The GOP has laser focused on destroying the ACA for 15 years and now "we the people" gave them full control over DC. So now, they WILL destroy it. They already have, actually. That's just a fact.
To imagine that it will now be destroyed because of DEMOCRATS, that's the very opposite of what is goin on.
As to saying that we could have "saved democracy": how, more precisely? Because the only alternative was a prolonged government shutdown, with a fascist GOP controlling all levels of the government and literally bulldozing democracy MUCH faster than what it can achieve without a government shutdown. So how would helping them do so somehow "save democracy"? Chris Murphy didn't explain this at all.
I love him, but I think many Dems feel obliged to go for basic populism at a time when political literacy is so low... so they just amplify people's anger, probably knowing full well that there was no other solution in the first place...
Thank YOU…. She helped my sanity…. JVL and Heather stepped ‘out of the box’ and gave a serious summation…. At 89, been watching and voting a long time…. They were so helpful! Not vindictive… so I do appreciate you comment and you wrote it well!
YES, I did read her letter. Democrats DID have some leverage in extending the ACA. Republicans know how popular and important affordable healthcare offered by subsidized ACA is. 8 Democrats chose to let the suffering of all the people hurting by the shutdown (directly and indirectly) die in vain.
Did you ignore Chris Murphy’s truthful statement about no way without suffering to fight for democracy?
I LOST MY FUCKING JOB BECAUSE OF TRUMP & ADMINISTRATION AGENDA - so I am not saying what I’m saying as person coming from POV from safe sidelines.
EVERY and ANY advantage must be used wisely and ruthlessly at this point, because the longer these sociopaths stay in the WH, the more entrenched they will become. And the more suffering they will cause.
We either suffer in a fight or we suffer as passive victims. The only difference is, if we fight and win, we can end the suffering.
WAKE UP.
Absurd.
Just try to back up these false beliefs with evidence and you'll easily see how false they are.
Or ask yourself this: if Democrats would have continued to shut down the government, WHAT would have happened you think?
As to Murphy: he's playing the populist card, because people with beliefs like yours deserve representation too and if not, you'd stop voting for Democrats altogether. But I'm sure he fully knows how false these claims actually are...
This was an act of cowardice by a few who “lost hope” when unity was necessary. It’s telling that only those not up for election voted with the Republicans, because they knew they weren’t representing their constituents’ will.
Or there could be another explanation. Perhaps they agreed to be the sacrificial lambs asked to pass this bill while protecting fellow Democratic Senators who will face elections soon. In any case, they betrayed those they represent.
Yeah, and if you weren't getting paid and you weren't getting your Social Security check and you were a pilot or you were a veteran or you weren't getting fed by snap how would you feel? Where the hell I thought the Democrats were a party of compassion. ? Yikes.
My husband is a disabled veteran and he’s facing delays in care. Inflation has cut deeply into our small SS income. And still we increased our monthly contributions to our local food bank and free clinic. So while we’re not facing loss of income, we’re trying to do our part. When faced with a bully, giving in doesn’t make us safer. I know personally how important the ACA was/is for those with preexisting conditions. My deepest concern is that it will only get worse from here. Medicaid for our most fragile children here in Florida has already been drastically cut back. Most young people here work in the service industries with low pay and no health insurance. This is painfully real to me, which is why I’m willing to fight like hell.
Diane, if the money allocated initially to help people didn’t go to third parties and the money never got to where we’re supposed to go we wouldn’t be having this conversation right now that’s why USAID is gone
Well you have to admit the dems are corrupt as well - the constant begging for money, kowtowing to billionaires and corporations, not fighting for poor and working people, giving women the shaft - why didn't they ever try to get a constitutional amendment of at least a federal law protecting women's body autonomy...
No, that's an utterly cynical and demonstrably false assumption.
After the SC Citizens United ruling, every politician HAS to constantly beg for money, and therefore needs the support of billionaires.
Not all billionaires are pro-fascism, however. Pritzker is radically pro-democracy, as were the 80 billionaires who supported Harris last year.
And Democrats under Biden and Harris just CUT CHILDHOOD POVERTY IN HALF. How is that "not fighting for poor"?
Same thing with working people and women. Each time we give DC to Democrats, they make real, tangible progress.
As to a constitutional amendment: remember, the US is a democracy. Amendments will only happen AFTER "we the people" give Democrats the legal power to do so. Until now, we never did...
Listen, buddy, I don’t know who you are where you come from but suddenly you’re here posing all this BS. The Dems are corrupt. They don’t give a shit about you or me or anybody else. They support industrial military complex and the capitalist society that always turns towards fascism to maintain control and power and money, money money money money!
Pritzker is worthless and hollow
Terry, You know it! The "democrat" ...errr ahh Democratic Party could have taken a number of 'hot button' issues and used them to polarize the "democratic vote". Protecting women's body autonomy was ripe, but that just got hosed down. Huh? Yup, sure did. Using the word 'democrat' here is to imply that it is just another descriptor.., kinda like 'dirty floor'.., or hill-billy. Just another indescriminate use of words to draw attention for some reason. Democratic Party, could be a meaningful "item". Tea-party fell on its ass a few years back. Wonder why? No leadership. Leadership? Where are we?
It pisses me off to see apologists such as yourself sniffing at us poor rubes with our "terribly low political literacy." It's the obfuscations and deceptions of the political elite on both sides with their "I know better, I've been to Harvard" arrogance that make it next to impossible to see behind the Wizard's curtain.
Most people are sick to death of all the gaslighting and backroom horse trading. We're not economists or political scientists. We don't make a career of chess playing (or more like "Risk" playing). Political science and economics are not any more noble than the myriad other pursuits the masses choose to focus their passions on. We don't spend our entire lives reading the convoluted rationales and interpretations and judgments and prognostications puked out non-stop by influencers, think-tank journals and talking heads, although many of us have been forced of late to engage in much more of that than we would ever need to do if politicians in general were basically honest and upright people.
I don't need to get lost in all of that to see that this is a straight-forward battle between righteousness and unrighteousness, between justice and injustice, between equality and respect for the common good of all people, and the tyranny of wealth and power under the sheep's clothing of a false and corrupted "Christianity" that justifies racism, oppression, and looks down its nose at the poor and suffering, the immigrant and the outsider.
Ms. Richerdson has rightly pointed out that there are a few potential bright points in the situation resulting from that disastrous vote, and it may not be completely hopeless, but it once again has shown the Democrats as the "Party of Capitulation: Hold out long enough against them and they will cave." And with the stakes we're facing, I don't care if I am a politically unsavvy rube, it fills me with rage. And all the oh-so-brilliant political literati would do well to remember (it's a lesson they seem never to learn) that an enraged populace is something to be feared
Well, you’re wrong about Christianity. And unlike the Muslims trying to proselytize everybody into believing like them, the Christians just want to be left alone. They want to be able to practice religion freely like our founders promised. And I’m trying to remember the last time HCR has been correct. It’s been quite a while.
You misunderstand if you think I am against Christianity. I am not at all against the teachings and life and true spirituality preached and demonstrated by Christ. I'm saying that the "Christian" Nationalism bears no witness or resemblance to the Jesus of the Bible. Read Matthew 7: 21-23 and 25:35-45. "Christian" Nationalism represents the perversion of Christianity that commenced with the 'conversion' of Roman Emperor Constantine, when Christianity became perverted to the religion of empire and domination, the religion of power and greed, rather than the foundation of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth that the true Christ came to establish. "Christian" Nationalists love putting the Ten Commandments in schools and public squares, yet in most of what they do ad represent, they violate the Third Commandment: "Thou shall not take the Name of the Lord Thy God in Vain." By their fruits you shall know them.
John at some point, you might want to realize that many religions have become the religion of an empire. And in fact, much more zealous and much more important than even government and its followings
There are people of many countries that are unified their religion and their religious beliefs, and follow them furiously on a daily basis. And it’s not the government that controls that who are the individuals through inculcation.
And I’m sure there are millions of people who disagreed with your assertions but that’s what makes the world go round and that’s why Christianity has many layers and levels and offshoots
Well... I hope that at least being constantly pissed off and feeling so righteous about your own emotions makes you happy?
In the meantime, any evidence to back up your claims?
Because writing vague stuff full of cynical words... anyone can do that. That doesn't exactly make it true, does it?
So with that, why exactly do you think this is a "disastrous vote"? And how would it be possible that opening the government would mean "caving" if keeping it shut down is exactly what the GOP wanted in the first place... ?
Just some questions...
These are not normal times. In my opinion, a wholly treasonous force has taken over our government. Their goals, if realized, will be the end of anything most citizens hold of value about America. This is not a time for "politics as usual," and the MAGA regime has made it so. There are good reasons to reopen the government on one level, and they are not unimportant considerations, like people laid off from their jobs can go back to work or those forced to work as slaves without pay during the shutdown can receive their due wages.
On the other hand, it is critically important that someone that has the capacity to do so take a stand in the face of this coup de tete. The shutdown was working. The people were blaming the Republican party for the shutdown, as Trump himself acknowledged. The overwhelming majority of Americans, as witnessed by virtually every poll except the ones that Trump hallucinates, want to see strength in the face of this MAGA travesty, The loss of SNAP benefits for so many was being seen as the vindictiveness of Republicans and their intransigence, their utter lack of concern for the American people and willingness to use them as blackmail. People were applauding the Democrats for finally showing some spine, to declare war on this insanity which is openly and unabashedly trying to destroy all that is good about this nation. And now, because of this vote in which they really got nothing in return, on the backs of the historic electoral win not even a week before, the Dems are left looking weak and cowardly. They were gaining momentum. The GOP wanted the government shut down because they calculated the country would blame the Democrats, but it was going the opposite way. To repeat the cliche, the Democrats once again have snagged defeat from the jaws of victory.
I'll close with this: YES, MY WORDS ARE EMOTIONAL!!!! No apologies. Anyone who sees this happening and is not emotional about it is either so dull as to make one wonder if they have a soul, or probably is (more likely) a MAGA troll
Yes on my FB account many responded that it had to be ALL. OR NOTHING when clearly the decision of those seven Democrats is neither the desire nor the thought patterns of the majority of Democrats. I think it's a cop out because they cannot see shades of gray and diversity in being a supportive of democracy and being creative. I'm angry too but I won't let my anger lead me to throw the baby out with the bathwater! Too much fixation on game theory and either or mentality. Get up and fight for a new day. People didn't get through the Revolution or the great depression or either World Wars by giving up. The real problem is the people who voted for this menace and who can't see how he doesn't care about them either!
Absolutely. You don’t see Republicans behaving this way. They just hunker down and keep on doing their best to gain power. It does make me wonder if a lot of the criticism of Democrats I have seen recently in the comments here and in the MSM are not part of the ongoing Russian troll operation to upend our democracy. it’s not hard to sow discord. Democrats need to stand firm and stand together. I refuse to be a part of this nonsense and even though I am disappointed that the shutdown ended this way I am certainly not angry at the senators that made it happen. They had their reasons and the shutdown has accomplished a lot. Let’s not lose it in acrimony.
Good points but to simplify things a tad: Would you want to be in a fox hole with this person? My answer is no - no to any Maga because they do not have any concept of greater good for the whole community, only for self and people like them. They lack an understanding of history and ethics. My answer to those 8 is no - I can't depend on them to have a backbone. When the chips were down they folded ...but no doubt will ask for money... for those 8 my wallet stays in my pocket. Bottom line for me, we need new parties. The fact that 3 of the 8 were from New England (2 from NH and an independent from Maine) is embarrassing as it is disappointing.
I agree with you. But you are never going to persuade most commenters from divisively blaming Democrats.
Stalin began his war against Nazi Germany by purging his own army. It almost cost him the war. And similarly, we have those so angry over an honest difference of opinion that they’re blaming 7 Dems and an Ind for where we are. And thus hiving 53 Republicans a pass.
I hope we can overcome the drag on the party such folks represent.
It’s been a while since Civics class, but don’t I remember that majorities, not outrage, wins elections?
"Achieve instantaneously all that we want..."? Seriously. 50 years of nothing is not "instantaneously."
Our own damn fault. Most of the time, we gave the WH to neoliberals (the GOP) and extremely often, Congress too.
Elections have consequences. When will the left finally understand that... ?
Yeah, yeah, but you forgot to tell all the ignorant people here on this website on which party sol Ali sky used his theory. Ooooooops.
Robert Reich? Has he been correct about anything in real time? Just like many of these people like Krugman they’re good on paper and theory, but that’s where it ends
The fix was in. You can try to convince me that Schumer was not in on the deal. His Whip (not running in 2026) was a leader in the GOP CR passing. The Whip works for the leader and violated his mission and ethics. Jeanne Shaheen is also not running. Tim Kaine was safe. All others are up in 2028 but think you will have forgotten by then. What a tangled subterfuge. It is disgusting. https://hotbuttons.substack.com/p/pieces-of-8-shit?r=3m1bs
Absolutely!
tt's:
If you look at the voting numbers for Biden and then Harris? The turnout was greater for Biden than for Harris. Three million more votes were cast in 2020. That is off of Dave Leip's site which tracks voting and to which I turn to when I start to wonder what happened.
There is so much more to look at than raw numbers; there is a "why" to them. This country is in no way ready to elect a woman president. More people did not vote than voted in the 2024 election. I believe that both her gender and her race made her unelectable, and Biden did NOT help in that regard by choosing to try to run again when he had said he'd be a one term president.
Interesting but hard to interpret. Paul Krugman has a conversation posted with a statistical polster who is acute, well trained, careful, discriminating and slow to reach conclusions. Forget his name. I could not do it justice. But the upshot is that movements in neither polling nor results correspond well with "identity politics", hot issue oriented messaging, posturing, appeals to prejudice or symbolic associations. What they do correspond or "correlate" well with is voters sense of well being. Pocket book issues. Or as was bandied about by the Bill Clinton administration...."It's the Economy, Stupid". It is people who have something to lose who turn out. Thus inflation loomed large in their discussion as a motivational factor driving turn out. And turn out drives changes in distribution.
More broadly, the message is that fear drives turn out. Turnout, like sample size, is king. And that is something that can not be determined. Admittedly, it is a poor science. Actually, more an art. Poly Sci engineering. "Fortune's a whore. And he's a fool who'll try to swive her."
But so if turn out tells us anything it tells us that something influenced it 2020 moreso, or differently, than it did in 2024, with Biden being the beneficiary of that thing....but only by a very modest margin, as he did not win in a landslide. That something I hypothesize was the onset of COVID, which Trump downplayed, pretended to ignore, blamed alternately on China and Democrats, and avoided taking measures to address for FEAR it would hurt "THE ECONOMY". His fear of losing determined his response. That determined his appeal. And his appeal was consciously to a block of the voting public that he judged had more to lose from being poor than from getting sick...and dying. Who wanted to "let the good times roll".
Was he right to do this by any measure ? No. He was wrong on both counts. The public was alarmed by COVID, rightfully fearful of it, and in need of assurance that public health officials and leaders would protect them from it. Trump registered a 0.0 on that scale. They were also fearful of the economic consequences of the Pandemic. Of it causing them to be out of work. And Trump registered a 0.0 response to that fear as well. And for his lack of understanding and lack of effort he got the boost he deserved from the turn out. Nothing.
By 2025 COVID was behind us and we were left with inflation. Joe Biden was responsible for that. He deserves all the credit, and if you think so, the blame. For paying people not to work is a perfect recipe for inflation. But inflation is the price we paid to avoid a second Great Depression during COVID.
Joe Biden was not on the ballot in 2025. Harris was. There is no apt comparison to be made here because the conditions were completely different. We can not to quick to draw conclusions. But one thing we can say is that a bad debate performance by Joe Biden probably would have made no difference had he not quit the race. If you play with mud you get dirty. He had nothing to gain from it in the first place. But quitting: that did not help turn out. It gave Harris no boost. And there was persistent renewed inflation.
In my humble opinion, Paul Krugman couldn’t find correct today but even with shooting an Azimuth Back another pony neither he or Reich were on the right side of correct
As Montesquieu observed, republican virtue sustains republics. Not to be confused with a Republic of (coerced) Virtue that ushered in a reign of terror in France followed by dictatorship.
Republican virtue meant placing the interests of the republic, and the people within that republic, ahead of self-interest, not necessarily all of the time but when it counts. This ethic has my lost on my erstwhile Party, the Party of Lincoln.
demented CRIMINAL
It is understandable to focus anger on Donald Trump, he is undoubtably a disgusting,evil human being. But it the thieves,grifters and incompetents whom he has assembled around him who are carrying out the dreams of every cheater who ever lived. Now this Pulte person,who is apparently so obnoxious that his family does not want him around, has come up with a shell game on mortgages that Trump thinks is the answer to unaffordable housing. Like all of Trumps financial moves this is a boondoggle. Judd Legum did an article this morning that breaks it down into its ridiculous details.
It is the voters who got us here and who still give their fealty to this bunch of morons who bear the blame. Both the ones who vote Republican even if satan himself is the candidate,or those who could not be bothered to fulfill their responsibility as citizens to inform themselves and VOTE.
True, but also "GOP" use of Big Orwellian Lies and"Dirty Tricks" has been growing over the last half-century, along with prioritizing the interests of the very, very wealthy. Trump has been a strangely charismatic standard-bearer for plutocracy, but he did not invent it, nor, if his next hamburger ended is rein, would the vast plutocratic infrastructure that his party has erected.
Trump is such a loose cannon that I think, playing devil's advocate, keeping him was a tactical mistake, and that our biggest failure as a self-governing society was to capitulate on "Citizens United" rather than fight it tooth and nail and demand an end to de facto bribery in our electoral and legislative processes (many Democrats criticized Sanders for prioritizing that focus), and also our passivity as the impetus of anti-trust legislation and financial regulation that had so much to do with the emergence of a strong middle class, was withdrawn or ignored.
Try 2025.
BLACKMAILERS? Calling Bullshit.
DEMOCRATS are out of power at EVERY level. There are consequences to losing ELECTIONS.
You don't have the power to control the direction of government. That's called governance NOT blackmail.
Stop whining.
If you run real candidates who actually care about the middle class, maybe you will win again. Until then its just another DEMOCRATIC loss.
Great post James. These people are so upside down wrong and hateful. It’s just pathetic to watch.
“Had those Senators actually done their jobs (save for Mitt Romney), our present reality would be far different.”
Sorry but no it’s not “Senators” it’s “Senator”, singular/ one and that Senator is Mitch McConnell. He voted to acquit nut case after the 2nd impeachment trial and got enough in his caucus to vote to acquit as sell. There should be no doubt that we wouldn’t be in this mess if Trump had been found guilty. McConnell made sure he wouldn’t be.
Let's not discount the mounting evidence that 2024 (unlike what the accusers have shouted about 2020) was stolen.
Threeeeee more years….threeeeee more years. Threeeeee more years. But did I spell that correctly?
Hostages? I think there are still ESL classes that you can take there.
If you’re not familiar with ESL classes, they are called English as a second language. You might wanna go see that doctor in Manhattan that just discovered that indeed TDS is a real disease and can be determined in a matter of minutes with a short interview. Sadly, you would pass with flying colors.
And imagine a majority of the voters see it totally different than you and vaulted him into the presidency not once but twice hmmmmm
You might want to consider moving out of your cave one of these days
Still living in yesterday, huh? Sad
Besides those who did not vote, how many voted for Trump simply they would not vote for a woman or a black person for presidency/
Awwwwwwww. You folks never seem to learn ever ever and now your party is left of Santa Claus in New York City is about to fall apart decompose in front of your eyes. It’s gonna be funny to watch to the people that you support./?
You’re gonna turn it back into the Europe of the 30s and 40s
Another reality seems to be at play here. Trump was using the shutdown as a way to perform a de facto coup, as a way to force Senate Republicans to end the filibuster in order to pass measures to suppress ALL vote for and by Democrats. He also pardoned all those convicted of crimes related to the 2020 election, signaling he would do so for those who do so in 2026, etc. No mistake Trump did NOT want the shutdown to end, he was using it as a lever to dictatorship.
And to re-write history as well as signal to his MAGA Representatives and Senators that cheating is perfectly okay (and will, of course, be "forgiven" by pardon) as long as it helps HIM stay in power.
The mobster is letting all the mobsters out of prison and sending police to arrest the innocent. This is nightmare stuff.
T L 🤬🤬🤬
Plus. Trump knows that when the House reconvenes and Grejalva is sworn in the clock starts ticking toward his exposure as the slime ball rapist that even his ardent supporters are going to have trouble denying.
Agent orange will next be trying to find a way to oust Thune for refusing to end the filibuster.
Shit
Agree.
I think your assessment rings true, Steve.
And that’s one of the reasons that the Democrats were right to open the government. It was better for everybody not just the starving.
And steve you're finally agreeing that stopping the shut down was a good thing instead of blaming the eighth who did exactly what was needed
And what’s to say he won’t continue to demand Senate Republicans end the filibuster or that they won’t end it!? They have no reason not to anymore. And trust me they will!
They want the “Save Act” bill passed. They want to make sure they win, period! If they can’t do it by gerrymandering they will by passing the “Save Act”!! What better reason to end the filibuster. Once passed they will never lose another election.
True: The Republican party has gradually seceeded from the union, being given permission by the so-called conservative majority on SCOTUS. They barely elected an extortionist to destroy democracy. 47 will continue his criminal assaults. Dem states are the USA. Rs are the confederacy, reborn from it’s dissolution in 1865 as a fascist mafia state oligopoly in league with self labeled “Dark Enlightenment” freaks from Silicon Valley social media / big tech / AI powered super-rich, anti-democracy oligarchs, + the petrochemical & finance industries. Effectively maneuvering around such a malignant hegemon and boycotting them into oblivion is a monumentally large scale and complex project but Dem controlled states produce 70% of National GDP & with the will, has the resources to maneuver the fascists into a socioeconomic death spiral, lead by their bankruptcy king, Da Donald. Dem states need to join forces & concentrate on hastening R’s death spiral.
The old South rides again, complete with sheets
The same old serpents who threw lavish parties in grand plantation houses while those who labored for them suffered.
What Trump has put on full display in the regime's willingness, even eagerness, to use direct and indirect violence against vulnerable populations. If that isn't evil, what is? We must not dare to let that be ignored or normalized. "Cruelty is the point" and that's the point.
Sadly spot-on analysis.
Well someone’s pretty backwards here. You might want to see the success in America is having here and abroad, legendary in nine months to have accomplished so much.
I can't wait till I have time to respond to your stuff. By the way, the production of GDP is morphing tremendously to red states or haven't you noticed people are now fleeing blue states and there's a good reason for that
Angela, I agree that Trump is mostly to blame. I wrote a piece on an article from Journal of Democracy, on Backsliding Democracies like ours and how most blame for them is on the shoulders of the candidate.
https://lindaweide.substack.com/p/backsliding-democracies-like-ours?r=f0qfn
I also want to say that I am glad my mayor in Chicago, Mayor Johnson has invited the UN to come to Chicago and see how ICE is violating human rights and how Trump should be tried as a human rights violator. I think saying this outloud will make it harder for other governments from normalizing Trump.
We should however, understand that this vote is just kicking the can down the road on hunger and even air traffic control. If we see Project 2025 as a playbook, like my political book club did, we know that SNAP benefits are going to go down the road anyway, because they are planned to be gotten rid of.
Understand that Christian Nationalists believe that if you are suffering it is because your faith is not good enough and God is allowing this to happen you. In other words you brought this upon yourself. This is the attitude of our government, and was the attitude of the nobility when people lived under governments that had monarchies.
So, in P2025 they discuss getting rid of the Department of Health and Human Services and its functions, and replacing it with a "Department of Life," which is going to oversee that everyone has the "Godly" sexual behavior that they want us to have. That will be a life where women are under the rule of men, and married and submitting, and not having any family planning access, no birth control, no abortion, death of women who have difficult and dangerous which will not be treated, will be viewed as Gods will. Read Katherine Stewart's, "Money, Lies and God" to better understand the religious political strategies behind it.
Religion is the justification for all evil.
Not always, but any form of hyper-narcissistic cult belief system easily leads to abuses of power, including genocide. Religion is often cast in that form, but not necessarily. I think that the distinction breaks over hubris vs humility, exclusive self-absorption over empathy and consideration. One can call it "religion" or just human decency, but some things are "evil" no matter who is doing it, and some things are kind. Who would Jesus or any other decent person, "Christian", Muslim, Buddhist, or just plain caring person, deliberately deprive of food or imprison or assassinate with nothing resembling due process? Trump his party's policies are deservedly unpopular, but, were it not for historical precedent similarly sick societies, it is amazing to me that these predators have any "base" left. The "elephant in the room" should trigger alarm for us all.
Does P2025 call for government shut downs, and if so, what are the goals?
Only if they can get Dems in the cross-hairs. DONE
Not that, but they do want to close departments and get rid of their functions, or move them elsewhere. An example is that they want to close the Dept. of Education and move Regular Ed to the Department of Labor and Special Ed to the Dept of Health and Human Services. But, then they want to close the Dept. of Health and Human Services and turn it into the Dept of Life, which would be concerned with seeing that all areas of life are concerned with upholding their family structure, women's subservience to men, no abortion, couples as breeders, and men getting punished with no access to their children if they don't turn out to be good parents. I am sure they meant "Black" fathers when they wrote this being unable to see how White, male Christian Nationalist men, who rape and beat their wives, or rape and beat their daughters and maybe even sons are not "good" fathers. Well the image is of fathers where parents are not together. It is all filled with irony, and inconsistency, and even contradictions.
And the myth of a world as fictional and as limited as the world Copernicus inhabited. Or as Margaret Atwood wrote about.
I absolutely love listening to James Talarico on Faith , religion and the so called Christian nationalism. He is amazing
Who is that? Do you have a link?
If you want to blame some folks how about the seditious 6 on the less than Supreme Court...they gave the felon child rapist immunity for all these crimes we see. And the corruption of this regime is off the charts.
Well, you weren't bothered by the Supreme Court when they did Rob V where were you? So capricious.
While I, too am angry about those who didn't bother to vote, paving the way for this monstrosity to sit in the Oval Office again...
After these 8 senators did what they did, after my Senator King stated that the current strategy wasn't working, even after witnessing the wave of blue that occurred with election results on Tuesday, and the numbers of voters on Tuesday in an off year...THIS IS WHY! What these 8 did is EXACTLY why people give up on voting.
There have been other signs too, but Tuesday was a neon billboard flashing that the strategy was working, and now those who came out to vote, caught up in the enthusiasm of change, may be asking themselves "What's the point, if they are going to capitulate anyway?" And I can't blame them.
Also, anyone who thinks there will actually be a vote for extending the ACA subsidies is fooling themselves. Johnson won't bother taking it up, so it won't go anywhere anyway.
Another dreamer we have here. Nothing happened on Tuesday other than blue states voted for BLUE candidates. Nothing more.
In New York is on the verge of collapse, watching and learn
Well and courageously said, Ms. B. The Christonazi/RepubliKlan regime and the morally imbecilic voters who elected Trump are indeed "angry about the end of slavery...angry about human rights...angry our country fought against Hitler" and in fact are so bottomlessly hateful, they openly brag of their intent to cancel every humanitarian victory our species has achieved. To trust the criminal regime to abide by its ACA and SNAP promises is therefore like trusting Jeffrey Epstein to protect your daughter's chastity, and the traitorous Democrats cannot possibly be that idiotically naive.
Having covered politics off-and-on since the late '50s -- my first paid election coverage, for a Knoxville-area community weekly, was in 1958 -- what I suspect happened was the Democrats recognized the revolutionary potential implicitly expressed by last week's elections, became gravely alarmed and reacted accordingly. The proverbial fly-on-the-wall at their clandestine planning sessions would have no doubt heard an emotionally charged quarrel about who was best positioned to suffer minimal hurt for inflicting maximal damage on the radical optimism so foolishly emergent from last week's election victories. This was the short-lived renewal of seductive delusion the "Democratic" (sic) "Party" -- now as much a wholly owned corporate property as the RepubliKlan Party it serves as a Fifth Column -- might be captured by a Mamdani-led mutiny and thus restored to the social-democratic, New Deal function that enabled FDR to achieve Soviet-caliber humanitarian victories without the attendant years of civil war. But -- as intended -- the Democrats ended that potential, probably forever, by their treachery last night. How so? Because progressive success is a byproduct of rational anticipation of betterment, in this instance inspired by Tuesday's landslide elections, then utterly destroyed by last night's lesson: that no matter how hard we work toward liberation, we will always be betrayed -- just as we have repeatedly been betrayed since 22 November 1963 -- by the only apparatus (seemingly) available for progressive achievement. (Their diabolical skill at maintaining that deception is how the Democrats perpetuate themselves as the most effective counter-revolutionary force in U.S. history -- and maybe in the entire history of our species. The collaborative efforts of supportive education and media assure the moronic majority remains trapped within the deception.) That's why the one effective path to transformation -- the historically irrefutable Marxian recognition that capitalism is (always) the precursor to nazism -- that capitalism (invariably) gravitates toward Auschwitz fulfillment -- is a bridge too far for a nation imprisoned by prideful ignorance. Meanwhile the Democrats' masters can again party on, comforted by the sure knowledge the ultimate lesson of last night's unconditional surrender can be reduced to merely three words: resistance is futile.
Loren, I love this sentence: "The collaborative efforts of supportive education and media assure the moronic majority remains trapped within the deception." Trapped within the deception indeed. Although I would say "willingly supping at the trough of mis and dis information leading to confirmation bias" rather than trapped.
Thank you; please also see my response to Charles Bryan, below.
Well put, supping at the trough…
You don't realize the problem with education started this whole thing.
Once this education process was controlled by Democrats country is on its way to over.
Supposed to give people choices you're supposed to give people the ability to think for themselves and all you did was inculcate them for years and now it's coming back to haunt you and they'll be a TP USA chapter on every single high school in college campus in the country that's what happens. It's called a rebound. And it's happening at a rapid right now. They should've never shot Charlie Kirk. He's worth more to the right now than ever.
Good points, have to agree with most
Excellent assessment here Loren! I was pretty naive thinking the dems actually cared about us but I see know I have been fooled like so many into thinking electing them would actually improve circumstances for the underdog...they really are complicit in destroying democracy!
Thank you. You might also find this analysis of interest: https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2025/11/11/qzvy-n11.html?pk_kwd=wsws-daily-newsletter
I guess I’m a socialist! Yes the dems totally support The military industrial complex and capitalism. And capitalism leads to fascism… It’s all about the money and power and control.
Well for 250 years we've been doing pretty well leading the world and almost every category except when we started giving it away when Clinton propose NAFTA and took the nukes out of Ukraine
And he was still one of my favorite president. We are still the shining light that everybody expires for, but you don't get it Terry.
If we open our borders, we'd have a bigger population than India or China we are the Nirvanna on the planet to everybody else and we should realize that
Some caught that power bug, and their egos have ballooned to bursting. Which I hope happens when they are called to account.
You've learned nothing I wonder if you learned anything in your lifetime you know basket of deplorable didn't work too well either and yet it's more people voted for Trump then against Trump so all those voted for him or what did you call them imbecilic something. Lmao. Just another lost liberal loon.
It’s unusual for me to have to take a break from something; however, I just had to take break from the routine of reading Dr. Richardson’s LFAA at some hour in the early morning darkness of night and posting my—hopefully rational and somewhat sane—comments. My frustration has been added to now when knowing that it was inevitable that there would be that day to come when Democrats would not have “Madame Speaker” in the House even in the role as just one of 435. I have felt for a long time that she has been a crutch (or crutches) for Senator Schumer. Her knowledge and skills seem beyond comparison!
I realize that I was spoiled by having the wonderful opportunity of spending my time in D.C., on Capitol Hill as a congressional intern in the summer of 1966, during the 89th Congress, one of our country’s most historical and effective Congresses!
“The 89th Congress (1965–1967) passed a burst of domestic legislation that it intended to protect voting rights, promote education, care for the elderly, help clean up the water and the air, promote the arts and humanities, advance automobile and highway safety, and extend a helping hand to the economically disadvantaged. President Johnson dubbed this ambitious agenda ‘The Great Society.’”
Source: https://history.house.gov/Congressional-Overview/Profiles/89th/
The question is when will our Party—elected and non-elected leadership—stop making so many mistakes? What is it that is often said about reformed smokers…I think that something similar needs to be said about some former republicans—listen to some of them, our Democratic Party leaders can learn some important things from them! Some of them have seen and learned from the errors of their former ways! Let’s start with Jennifer Rubin, Rick Wilson, Tim Miller, Miles Taylor, Bill Kristol, Sarah Longwell, David Frum, Joe Scarborough, David Jolly, Michael Steele; to name a few.
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Republicans_who_opposed_the_Donald_Trump_2024_presidential_campaign?wprov=sfti1#Other_statewide_elected_officials
I couldn’t agree more. Your party is making mistake after mistake after mistake after mistake but opening the government wasn’t one of them.
What they should do is get behind their president and rocket this country to where it needs to be
''The Government Opens for Business, the Circus Stays''
After 41 days of historic self-sabotage, the Senate has heroically voted to end the nation’s longest government shutdown, proving once again that Congress will act only when its own paychecks are in jeopardy. Eight Democrats joined hands with nearly every Republican to pass a “compromise” bill that restores funding for veterans, farmers, and the ever-beloved institution of Congress itself. Tucked neatly into the legislation is a delightful provision letting eight Republican senators sue the government for up to half a million dollars each because, apparently, accountability now comes with a cash prize.
The bill also restores pay to two million federal workers, meaning the air traffic controllers who have been landing planes out of pure patriotism can finally afford groceries again. SNAP benefits are returning, too, though still with the Republican-approved diet plan of “less food for the poor.” Meanwhile, premium tax credits for health insurance, lifelines for millions, were left behind, because who needs healthcare when you can bask in bipartisan mediocrity?
Democrats who promised not to cave folded like dollar-store lawn chairs, justifying their votes with speeches full of the words “pain” and “hurt.” The nation felt both, mostly from watching moral spines dissolve live on C-SPAN. Senate Majority Leader John Thune promised a future bill to fix things “in December,” which in Congress-speak translates to “never.”
Trump, sulking from Mar-a-Lago after being booed at a Commanders game, blasted air traffic controllers for insufficient loyalty, declaring they had been “bad patriots” for wanting paychecks. He then pardoned everyone involved in his 2020 election coup attempt, because nothing says “law and order” like a preemptive get-out-of-jail-free card for sedition.
Over in the House, Speaker Mike Johnson will now have to recall his long-vacationing members from their taxpayer-funded sabbatical, swear in a Democrat who supports releasing the Epstein files, and somehow pretend this all went according to plan. One imagines a sea of red ties silently praying the lights stay off.
In summary, the government is reopening, but the absurdist drama continues. Americans will get their paychecks and groceries again, the rich will keep their tax breaks, and eight senators may soon cash in for having their phones looked at. It is not governance, it is performance art with pensions. The lights are back on, but the clowns never left... https://essayx.substack.com/p/the-government-opens-for-business
Bipartisan mediocrity, or bipartisan self-immolation
Here in PA the consensus is don’t bother calling John Fetterman’s office because he doesn’t care about his constituents. There is also a rumor 4 people are going to challenge him come primary day. The focus is to the future and un-seating Fetterman. My prayer is to un-seat him with a younger, progressive person and not another Democrat who just goes along with the Party. 🙏🤞
John certainly didn’t go along with the party, Trojan horse
Angela:
I suspect Tru_p is slowly deteriorating in the same manner as Al Capone did. His thinking and commentaries are bizarre making no sense for a person in the presidency. His closest followers look at him strangely and with a nod just carry onward. There is more to this then what we know of today.
Yes, the gang of seven and one Independent totally capitulated. We are right to be frustrated and angry. But because this administration moves at lighting speed we don't have time to lick our wounds. What we need to do is rally behind the illegal blowing up boats in the Caribbean. My strong belief is that trump wants to start a war to suspend voting in the midterms. Even a number of Republicans are nervous about extrajudicial murders on the high seas. And most countries around the world have condemned this practice. It's about kill first when traditionally the Coast Guard would stop the boat and check the cargo. The buildup of the military in the region is beyond worrisome. Have we heard anything about the survivors from, I believe two boats? There was scant news about the Venezuelan widow with 4 children whose husband was a fisherman who was blown up. Not even sure if this is true or not. The Select Intelligence Committee held a briefing on this and of course Democrats were barred from the hearing. This is about as undemocratic as it gets. Even news from the hearing said no evidence was given? We need to protect our right to vote in the midterms at all costs. Then instead of all the questions, we might get some answers with a Democratic house.
Professor Richardson said in an interview she would usually care less about Epstein except it's important to uncover the truth with the files. Write, call or even visit your Republican representative or if you're out of the district write a post card telling them we want the Epstein files released. Tapes and all. It destroyed a Prince and it's possible it could topple a dictator/president.
And the vote to extend ACA tax credits need to be a roll call. Let's know exactly who is voting for and against. Democracy requires work. Collectively we have power.
Plan ahead, pretending that 2026 election will be allowed
JD, yes I agree. There's a silver lining with Republicans redistricting mid decade to squeeze every district they can, to get more Republicans in the House, it is encouraging that as many as 500,000 on voting lists in Georgia are being purged and other states are purging voting lists and if bills like the SAVE act where women who do not have the same last name as their birth certificate could disenfranchise 69 million voters (hopefully that bill will never see the light of day). It shows two things, Republicans are desperate and that the midterm elections might proceed. However it also shows that we have a lot of work to do to get back to fair and honest elections. Even the tactic to have Federal watchers over state elections is an act of intimidation. The right to vote is sacrosanct. It's up to voters to call election officials in their states, join organizations that help with fair and honest elections, if there's a daily or weekly newspaper write letters to the editor and join voting drives. It takes a lot of work and a lot of people to counter all these measures. I believe keeping a Democracy is worth it.
I hope all the POs (pissed offs) will sign on but so many are mesmerized by social media pablum. The other day I read that Kim Kardashian is convinced that the moon landing never happened. Ignorance is epidemic. “Influencers” are worse than Fox
Well said Angela. I'm out of cuss words and trying to keep my rage in check.
I understand your anger at the Deplorables. Please see my Substack piece ("I'm Sorry You Were Lied To") for how I'm approaching the situation moving forward post-Nov. 5.
Having lived amongst the Christonazis in the Pacific Northwest and and amongst their theocratic predecessors in the Ku Klux South, I know from physically painful, sometimes life-threatening experience a terrible truth far too many progressives either haven't learned or ideologically reject: that the MAGATs are literally incorrigible, and that they embrace RepubliKlan Christonazi/Neoconfederate lies not as a learning experience but as the confirmation of their hatefulness and the authoritative justification both for the hate itself and the murderous violence it encourages.
I’m old, truth you tell.
Yoda, you are, hhmmmm
You should stop using that term after all you might wanna realize where this country and how this country is formed and why.
Pacific Northwest is out to lunch right now
Seriously? You’re more angry about those who voted last November and “put us in this position” than what those eight Democrat Senators just did?! Really!? Crying over spilt milk?
I couldn’t agree more with your assessment about current day Republicans and where Trump should be, but those eight have sealed our fate. They’re the ones who have capitulated and emboldened Trump. Empowered Trump. Those who voted for him last November now know they were conned. Yet Those eight knew beforehand he was a conman and knew it when they just voted yes. They knew we are going to be more f’d now than during the shut down.
Those eight idiots “think” they got some Short term gains. Trump and his cronies will not honor any if what was just “agreed” upon. He will stop at nothing until he has his full blown Military Dictatorship in place, nothing! And now that these eight have bent their knee that reality is closer than ever.
No it actually happened was you were sealing the fate of 40 million starving people and they opened it up and fed them and paid our veterans and our military and our air Traffic controllers before we had a major accident.
This wasn’t a capitulation. This was common sense.
"The reality is that Republicans won't feel shamed by the prospect of their constituents starving or being left without health care." Very true. But we knew that months ago (or years). But the weeks long shutdown was now shining a spotlight on it so the millions of independent and MAGA voters were finally seeing it too, as proven by last Tuesday's election results. Being angry at the GOP for all their horrible attributes, as you point out, is one thing. The ability to DO something about it is entirely a different matter. Therein lies the power the Dems finally had after last Tuesday, as everyone could see trumpublicans disintegrate into the bowels of public opinion. Then.... Schumer and the gang of eight just pissed it all away. Jon Stewart laid it out quite clearly last night. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFI6MwlLJ08
When we open back up, hold Republicans accountable to have that vote in December. Start sending messages now. It can be a simple message like, “I look forward to your yes vote to pass the extension of ACA premium subsidies that roughly 3/4ths of the country support.”
I added a calendar on my spreadsheet so we can target our calls/letters/emails/faxes to flood offices in an organized manner.
Use/share this spreadsheet (bit.ly/Nokings) as a resource to call/email/write members of Congress, the Cabinet and news organizations. Call. Write. Email. Protest. Unrelentingly. We deserve better ❤️🩹🤍💙
Reach out (beyond your own) to as many in the Senate and House as you can. All of this is bigger than “I only represent my constituents” issues.
Add a comment to help keep this bumped ✊
Thank you Meaghan!
One of the balls on Heathers “pool table” is Mike Johnson who states he will not guarantee a vote on the ACA subsidies.
As Heather outlined we’ve gained some ground…there are many good outcomes of this deal, but as we all see, the fight is far from over. Stay strong! 🇺🇸 VOTE 2026
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/watch-johnson-says-he-wont-promise-aca-vote-in-the-house-as-part-of-a-shutdown-deal
As we’ve all recognized long ago, while Mike Johnson is as thick as a billiard ball, Mike himself has nothing in his character resembling balls.
Thick as the interior of a "black hole"; so thick it destroys what it touches, and no light can escape.
Jl Graham, you better go back to science class. Holes. Don’t touch anything LMAO.
Good simile !
Yeah, that’s nice. Try their bill any other irrelevant or nonsensical news you have for us? What are the smartest man in the cookie jar up there in Washington? And what you don’t realize is how well he’s held a party together more than ever before for the Republicans when the Democrats do this is just a course of business Republicans always collapse, and have the factors but not this time.
People keep asking, if Dems were winning why did they cave?
It seems to me that they had some info that we do not and had to act quickly.
That is the ONLY thing that makes sense.
The Dems did this the day before the ruling for the emergency appeal to SCOTUS on food stamps, SNAP, was supposed to drop on Tuesday (today).
They acted quickly after Jackson's administrative stay that bought some time while waiting for a court ruling.
My guess is that it was not going to be good news so they made the issue moot by voting to reopen and also by funding food stamps for the rest of the year.
Otherwise the administration's siege and intentional starvation of the poor would continue.
Steve Vladeck, law professor and SCOTUS analyst for CNN, had wondered about this as a possibility for Jackson's decision in an analysis a few days ago in his substack.
https://www.stevevladeck.com/p/190-snap-wtf
Angus King (who is Heather's Senator) was on MSNBC defending the vote from himself and seven other either retiring or not up for reelection Democrats.
King has never done anything as my Senator that weren't in the best interests of his constituents and I trust him on this. There is so much Trump and the Republicans broke when they passed the OBBBA last July including the budget which has led to the fastest increase in the national debt in 5 months ever.
There is no question who are the winners from the OBBBA --- the oligarchs especially Trump and his family, multinational corporations and anyone else that's willing to pay to play.
Heather's right about so many pool balls bouncing moving around the table. We're all sick and tired of Mike Johnson hiding the queue ball so that no one could break.
Ask the tens of thousands of travelers who got tried to fly over the past week. This would have been over in a few days if Federal workers were allowed to strike when they were forced to work for free.
Remembering Reagan, another Republican president, who is the instigator of the air controllers’ problem.
Reagan was the first real useful moron, like all the rethug preznits after him.
HW was at least an educated man, so they tossed him. And we got W. And now dear god trump.
Trump's desire to make the people suffer was stronger than Dems' willingness to see the people suffer. Does it really need to be any more complicated than that?
Seen through another lens, Dems had extracted all the political capital they could from the 40-day shutdown -- a miracle the caucus held together that long -- and recognizing that prolonging the shutdown meant prolonging suffering (hungry children, FFS), many more Dem Senators than the Cowardly 7 had decided to pull the trigger and let Schumer know. Schumer gave permission to the Cowardly 7 to break caucus unity to invoke cloture, in order to protect Dem Senators facing re-election and the (understandable) wrath of the Dem base.
Did you watch the news this past weekend and not see a single story about the FAA demanding a reduction in flights to and from 40 of the busiest airports in the world? And almost all of them were hubs.
Imagine flying from anywhere in the US that is not a hub through ANY of these airports. This is an economy buster waiting to happen and a safety nightmare to the nth degree. And it has the potential to affect the movement of cargo which affects virtually all of us. Do you think the Republicans would hesitate to bail out AA, United, Delta, Southwest and a couple of the other large airlines and then allow the smaller airlines to go bankrupt. Isn't this their MO?
I don't know how you can call them the "Cowardly 7", when nothing has happened to offer even a slight glimmer of hope since the shutdown started.
The Republicans are the cowards for doing NOTHING since before the shutdown started.
Yes, the more I ponder this, the more I see these 7 as the adults in the room, forced to make very hard decisions, trying to protect as many of us as they could - from our own ruling party :(
Steve, I'm not willing to confer "adulthood" on the turncoats, but I am willing to concede that they may have had information to which we mere citizens are not privy.
As the expression goes, "time will tell."
One hopes they offered themselves as "sacrificial lambs" for the greater good.
King's story that holding out "wasn't working" seems implausible to me, given the recent widespread Democratic election victories. His advisors should have given him a better explanation.
If there was a good reason for this apparent capitulation, I hope history will give it to us sooner rather than later.
They were "cowardly" because they overtly appeased a dictator. (See Neville Chamberlain 1938-39 for more on that.) Unlike Chamberlain, however, they do not have to resign (Durbin and Hassan are retiring), nor face voters in 2026 (the other 5). Chamberlain had the good grace to resign and wish his successor good luck on the occupation of the remainder of Czechoslovakia.
Some MAGAts are cowardly but more are simply cruel - they enjoy watching suffering for its own sake.
November 5 offers a "glimmer of hope," n'est-ce pas?
It's not like the administration was doing nothing. They were doing everything in their power to compound the damage of the shutdown, with wink and a nod from Republicans in Congress and the $upreme Court. The regime considered it an "emergency" to make people starve, not to prevent it, unless they got their way. That's one hell of a way to run a country.
Totally J L.
Very well stated, Charles Bryan. Totally on target. Dems, in TOTAL minority, did really very well—so well that it gives me hope that we can have health care AND keep our democracy if the don’s thugs aren’t allowed to wreck all elections.
Was absolutely incredibly poorly stated had no clue at all
Charles, you keep posting to me and then I read some of your stuff and in my opinion you’re outside of your mind. It wasn’t Trump that shut the government down. It was the Democrats and shut it down and it was repeated time and time again by Liberal pundits and buy every single late night TV show narrator, popular ones John Stewart, Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert. All said hey, the Democrats shut it down so don’t have a fantasy about something else when it didn’t happen. And there is nothing to benefit by keeping it shut down either, and they realize that, and at least seven of them got a brain and some guts to think of for themselves and for the many Americans that were starving, and for the pilots and veterans and air traffic controllers etc Government workers
It could be, but it's not necessary at all. What Heather writes above is more than enough to justify the fact that 7 Democrats and one Independent decided to stop hurting the American people.
Just tell those who imagine that Democrats did this "to win" that it wasn't about winning but about making clear what too many people still don't know: the GOP absolutely wants to destroy the ACA and never stopped trying to do so, and they are willing to inflict tremendous damage on the American people (as explained by Heather above) to achieve this.
For once, the goal of Democrats here WAS mere messaging: letting people THAT Vance lied when during the VP debate he claimed that Trump SAVED the ACA during his first term and that he and the GOP have always tried to make HC utterly unaffordable.
Polls showed that that goal was largely achieved.
Obviously, not everyone realizes this basic fact yet. That's why Democrats got the guarantee that there will be a Senate vote on an ACA stand-alone bill soon. It will be the second opportunity for Democrats to do some messaging, knowing that the normal channels for messaging in a democracy (robust media) are all gone.
Apart from that, yes, premiums are already skyrocketing, since the bill that ends the tax credits was already signed into law by Trump. So whatever happened in December, it will be too late for next year. That is NOT Democrats' fault. It's the fault of "we the people", who failed to talk with enough fellow citizens to make them realize that this IS what would happen if we give the government to the GOP once again.
So to anyone who wants to blame DEMOCRATS for stopping the GOP's bulldozer to the New Deal and the US economy: ask what you can do for your country, not what your country can do for you...
Thank you sir for your opportunity, MARK unfortunately, you keep saying this but the close minded liberals here they don’t hear you
They having info that we do not came to my mind the moment I heard the news. I pondered in terms of money, news of lots and lots of money; cryptocurrency. What bothers me about that is I am a realist.
I can't imagine the logistical nightmare the airlines are going through right now. I'm sure you've traveled when a storm has forced delays or cancelation and had to sit in an airport for hours.
And now do that to every major airport and airline in the country.
The airlines are going to lose billions and all because of the stupid ass Republicans that have for years, refused to properly fund the FAA and upgrade their systems.
Steve Vladeck, law professor and SCOTUS analyst for CNN, was wondering about the potential for a bad ruling from SCOTUS a few days ago.
https://www.stevevladeck.com/p/190-snap-wtf
IMO Justice Jackson is the best and brightest Justice on the Court. When I saw her name was on the stay I researched it and knew what was happening. With these eight all we have is what they say or what we know from life.
Well done, EDWUTB! It’s what the senators deserve in understanding. Good connections all around.
Maybe that is true and explains why there is little criticism among senators of Schumer.
Keep looking for logic, hard to believe that these crème puffs are the wizards of the party. Democrats were played, just admit it.
I think it is more logical to assume there was a good reason. These are mature and very experienced leaders who are also Dems + one Independent who is often very reasoned in judgement, as well, so I doubt "cream puffs" would apply here as a reason, even if I am wrong about their motive.
I have been assuming that for 50 years, and it often takes years to find that I should have been more suspicious
We have to go with our own experiences, I think, for sure.
They weren’t winning they weren’t winning a damn thing and at least seven of them woke up and realize it this was a dead and move. There was no other possibility other than that Republicans taking control and doing a lot worse in the meantime.
I think you should get things straight. It wasn’t Trump and the GOP that shut down the government and stopped snap from being paid. It was the Democrat party hello. And Scotus wasn’t siding with Trump. He was site. They were siding with a law that apparently applies when the government is shut down. You know it’s really amazing with people like you and I’m not sure I should say that, but the Democrats stick together like superglue all the time the Republicans always splinter always and for the first time in a couple of decades, the Republicans stood together past some really important legislation, and since the Democrats were out of power, they tried everything they could to hurt the Republicans while at the same time hurting the very constituents that they supposedly support Ugly.
My guess is that Mike Johnson will be taking the roll of Lucy in another version of Lucy and the Football.
The Professor's analogy of "...a cue ball hitting a rack: ..." was perfect. Balls moving "in wildly different directions." Reading it I also heard that cue ball sound like a cracking beam holding up the ceiling above us. I have not heard whether Hillary Clinton has called Tim Kaine yet. I would expect something from her soon. On the other hand maybe she is very sick over it. March in lockstep.
Re read today’s post from HCR. There are nuances in this move by the Dems. Just like the Republicans demanding to have everything their way all the time, it is destructive of our cause to have a temper tantrum over this tactical retreat. There are so many pitfalls for the Republicans down the road with the arrogant way they are “governing” that the end is going be with them in a corner that they cannot bully their way out of. Pragmatism is not surrender.
I agree and I wrote something similar but few are listening, they are so angry, blaming, convinced of their absolutist ideas. Who is open to ways to go forward to save us. I agree these responses are destructive. This takes from the hope and understanding/togetherness we need to save our democracy. Hopefully this will subside.
In politics images is everything. This made the Dems look ridiculous, fractured, broken... I.e., if pragmatic then why are the majority of Dems lacking such practical solutions and realistic outcomes? Is it because they are the ones being ridiculous? Why could they not wait to maybe gain another six or eight to join them? This not only looks bad but it stinks too.
Tim Kaine was her worst mistake as a candidate. I hope she skewers him.
Albert, I think you are overlooking the pool ball that bounced off the table during the break.
Did you not see or hear any of the stories about the thousands of flights that have been canceled due to the reduction of flights at almost every major hub in the country?
I've spent dozens of nights in a hotel room near an airport because of canceled flights. Most of the time, the airline paid for the room and maybe one meal. But sometimes I had to pay.
Many of you have been in similar situations when you travel. And it's exponentially worse for families traveling. The average room for one night close to LaGuardia or Logan is well over $200.
It was the FAA that forced the Democrats end the shutdown more than anything else.
You sound like a traveling businessperson. Most work for a corporation. That makes me think most corporations might not like the closed government any too much. IMO that was our Johnson bar, the pry truck, Democrats had against Republicans; business being stopped! These eight turncoats did not even give cancelled flights one damn day to compel major corporations to flood the White House and Republicans in Congress with calls. This budget it was Obamacare plus Republicans learned SNAP is the soft spot. God how stupid they are, or wait, what else might it be? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIAXG_QcQNU
and of course another one loose is the “crazy eight ball” that spins one way and then another! ;)
Kari and nothing that Heather says will change his mind. He will do what they think is necessary and important, having to do with the ACA. Personally, I think the smart thing to do would be to give it a six month extension to give people a chance to find alternatives, while in the meantime, both parties get together and figure out the best move forward to get these people covered elsewhere
How many parts of the Country local co-ops are working together, informing to put forward a alternative healthcare plan
Kari, You are one of the few level-headed folks here, I’ve seen that has at least an objective view of everything and a more accurate view of potential future results. Please read my post above, and I believe that the Congress will find a way to replace or find an alternative way to ensure people under the ACA and give them time to find a place and a cost that meets their needs to whatever extent possible.
You mean 'Trump Care'? You are a fucking idiot.
15 years. That's how long they promised to have a plan that would achieve exactly what you're saying here. They never showed anything. So what makes you still hope, against all odds, that the people who massively reject the New Deal and now control DC would suddenly come up with a plan to save it... ?
Because it’s called crisis intervention and there’s a call to answer this crisis because the ACA is toast and they’re gonna need to have a replacement. Otherwise they will lose an election.
A lot of things have changed in 15 years. Obama also sold us in with a lie, which is what really bothered me in the first place you can keep your doctor. You can keep your plan bullshit.
If the Democrats ever stopped hating and got together in a room closed doors, it didn't open until they came up with something they would come up with something better than what's out there right now keep in mind 86% of Americans have found a way to insure themselves without using ACA
And I can't keep responding to you if you keep using the wrong fascism, there's no fascism here in America stop using that term as I was saying in my earlier missive the Democrats hard to consulting firm and pay them almost $1 million to tell them how to talk to an American public and use the proper verbiage. First way they tell him to eliminate was fascism don't use it. Period
And I totally agree and so does America, despite your protestations to the contrary.
We are 180° away from fascism
So it looks likely to be just going back to how it was 10 years ago.
The difference being that from now on people will know that it can be better.
I must say that the supposedly enlightened progressive people in the US are being walked all over by the far more disciplined and cruel reactionary troglodytes.
See 1861 for an earlier iteration of the same ("enlightened progressive people in the US . . . being walked all over by the far more disciplined and cruel reactionary troglodytes"). We all know how that turned out. Let us hope we do not like our forbears have to wait another 3 years for justice and liberty to prevail.
Wrong. What you might want to do instead Kris is evaluate what is happened to the affordable care act it’s coverage it’s premiums and it subsidies and try to determine why Obama put a deadline on the subsidies and white an act called the affordable care act would need a subsidy. The only thing cruel is that Obama lied to the public and said if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor and if you like your plans, you can keep your plan. Lies and fantasies deal with the fact in front of your face by the troglodyte, who came up with this plan in the first place
Are you sure you're on the right Substack? Wouldn't you be happier spreading your lies and calumnies on Breitbart or its like?
I am sure that he is on the right Substack.
The only way to save democracy is to get out of our information silos and finally do again what all citizens of all thriving democracies do: have real, respectful debates with those who disagree with us.
There is no other way to create a democratic society and then government.
Further downthread this self-same poster was issuing veiled death threats against attendees of No Kings rallies (reported to page Admins). Are we supposed to respect people who make death threats against us?
Bullshit nobody made any threats against the no kings… protesters. Go ahead and show me. I guess that’s what happens with paranoia sets in and irrational thoughts set’s in.
That’s it turned out The note, kings protesters, self-destructed twice. Another embarrassment and a useless effort, and the day after their effort the stock market shot up twice. If you’re talking about me, I keep urging you to have more no kings protests. So if you wanna describe to me the bail threat, I need a good laugh
Agree- Sender should be ignored. He supports HCR to annoy us.
However there is no respectful debate this poster. He is not open to it.
You wanna bring me some facts that are worth considering I’m here, but so far there is nobody here that I’ve seen with an open mind. If you mention the name, Trump hates is the first word that comes to mind
Why don’t you try proving me wrong there Charles. Do you know why because you can’t and that’s the problem with all the followers here
There was no deadline on the ACA Premium Tax Credits.
What happened was that the Biden American Rescue Plan and later legislation temporarily altered the subsidy rules by removing the strict 400% Federal Poverty Level limit for a limited period. This had nothing to do with Obama.
You are the lying troglodyte.
I live in Alabama's 3rd Congressional District (MAGA Mike Rogers is Rep.). It's a total and complete waste of time making these calls here. In 2024 Rogers ran UNOPPOSED (!) and all indications thus far are that the AL Democratic Party has no intention of running a candidate against him in 2026. As for Tuberville (retiring in 2026) and Britt, they are both completely and utterly useless and cruel. They lack the milk of human kindness.
What a crime it is that no one will run against them and that the Dems can't find a single young person to at least run. Tuberville is as dumb as a box of rocks and Britt is not much smarter.
Why don't you run?
I have given the matter much thought. There is first the not-small matter of the $3450 filing fee to run. But far more important is the fact that I have only lived in the district for 2 years and I thus do not feel like I understand the problems and concerns of the people of the district well enough to 'represent' them in government. I am still mulling the situation though. Rogers has not held a town hall in the district since (IIRC) 2017, so he may be ripe for the picking with the right candidate and message.
Charles, it doesn't sound as those already representing the district are concerned about the problems of the people.
Might consider a gofundme to raise the $3450--I bet plenty of us here would send a few bucks your way.
Perhaps you can run with the same campaign slogan of that young woman who ran in (can't recall, Heather interviewed her, I think) "Katie Can't Win"
Miselle, thank you so much for the excellent suggestion about the GoFundMe. I've never had occasion to use it before so will take a look at it as I go about considering the matter.
Just so you have a sense of how bad it is here in Alabama (the state, not just my CD), Tuberville recently said that cuts to SNAP don't concern him because most SNAP recipients are "inner city residents" (code in Alabama-speak for blacks and Latinos). The reality is that between 15-17% of Alabama residents currently receive SNAP benefits. Alabama, it should go without saying, is largely a rural state.
good luck to you, and keep us posted.
Check out:
https://actionnetwork.org/political-campaigns/
There are many organizations that help candidates effectively run for office.
Kari, thank you so much for the link -- much appreciated and now bookmarked. I have a free day tomorrow (Thursday) and plan to check it out thoroughly then.
How wild to run unopposed and maybe again! I don’t think we’ll see many big waves (like a major MAGA Congress member changing their opinions), however I think we can cause little ripples. I’m thinking staff members who hear the same thing over and over via voicemail, phone calls, letter after letter, email after email - maybe they’ll be a little more receptive each time they hear from us. Maybe they’ll talk more about our talking points to friends and family, maybeeee they’ll vote differently. As a collective, our volume matters. And, at the end of the day, if we just annoy and overwhelm some staffers working for people hurting the average American, I’m ok with that too 🙃
Trust me, the staffers working in Rogers' local and DC offices are such smug little pricks and other epithets unfit to print that it raises my blood pressure by several points each time I contact their offices. (Last attempt was to ascertain whether SNAP benefits were being cut off as of October 31.)
It's a lovely thought, but bets are still on them not doing the right thing around Christmas any more than they have before. Up to now, they've been willing to kill the hostages to save themselves from Trump's infantile wrath. Still, it puts them on record -- and yes, there is a slight chance they won't be able to muster anything in December. Worth recalling that the Big Ugly Bill passed by a SINGLE vote in the House in March, and ended up tied in the Senate (with only JD Wanker breaking the tie).
If I were a Republican, I would not be looking forward to December, much less to next year. The odds and the stars both are against me.
ICTT, they’ll probably take the month off for the holidays 🫤
Good thing you’re not a republican. Republicans are looking forward to doing something different finally being able to eliminate the ACA for all the lies, a toll and the subsidies that supposedly didn’t need any longer, but still does.
But I guess you can keep your doctor and your plan if you’d like. Uh oh. Or maybe not
Thanks, Megan - I'll message that to my Republican ex-reps!
Thank you, Megan Rothery. You’re doing such an outstanding job. It’s a wonderful update you’ve made. You are my hero!
You’re so sweet! Thank you! I appreciate your comments and activism!
I called all eight of the senators who voted for the measure but could leave voicemails for only three of them. The others either weren't taking calls until "office hours", or their mailboxes were already full.
My senator, Durbin, has had "full" mailbox for about a year now.
Suspicious.
It's disgusting. He doesn't care though because he's not running for re-election.
When you call them why? I hope you call to congratulate them because they did with everybody here didn’t want done as everyone here is touting themselves as compassionate walk the same time starving 40 million Americans good call hypocrites
Brilliant Megan 👏
Thank you ✊
Thank you -- I made calls to all who caved on the shutdown yesterday -- though was unable to leave messages for 2 - one because of a "full mailbox" and the other message said to call back later.
Good luck, voice mail is full, can’t take more messages. Duh. The traitor dems don’t want to hear from you.
Write letters, send emails and fax. All which can also be found on the spreadsheet. Find a work around if at all possible! ✊
I spent too much time yesterday. I’m old, time is running out. But I will keep on keeping on. I just wish my party were not complicit in their own destruction.
Thank you Megan have passed your incredible information onto a number of people who are now using your resource. It’s now a goal even in our own small group as to how many we contact on a daily, weekly basis. We now tally just left voice mail or actually talked to a human being. Incredible that those who represent have voicemails full or turned off that just don’t want to seem bothered.
Thank you so much for helping share it and to be speaking up so much! I applaud you and your group!
Grrr about voicemails being left full or off! That is why initially I added all the office numbers I could find for each person…but we’ve filled them all 🤣✊
Thanks for your steady, useful information: The Republican party has gradually seceeded from the union, being given permission by the so-called conservative majority on SCOTUS with unprecedented & clearly unconstitutional, antidemocracy decisions. Trump was barely re-elected as an extortionist and wanna-be dictator. He will continue his criminal assaults. Dem states are the USA. Rs are the confederacy, reborn from it’s dissolution in 1865 as a fascist mafia state oligopoly in league with self labeled “Dark Enlightenment” freaks from Silicon Valley social media / big tech / AI powered super-rich, anti-democracy oligarchs, + the petrochemical & finance industries. Effectively maneuvering around such a malignant hegemon and boycotting them into oblivion is a monumentally large scale and complex project but Dem controlled states produce 70% of National GDP & with the will, has the resources to maneuver the fascists into a socioeconomic death spiral, lead by their bankruptcy king, Da Donald. Dem states need to join forces & concentrate on hastening R’s death spiral.
I have a little bit backwards. The republican party currently is the union. And the union right now is in control of the presidency
Megan, you put so much time and effort into this, so I hesitate to add to your work. Perhaps others can help with this.
I know that many Congress do not take emails from outside their district. (I once spent an entire afternoon emailing all 50 senators--or at least those I could.) Someone suggested I use an address from their district. How would I know an address to use?
Another suggestion was to use the address of a public building. And so, if anyone wanted to email Durbin, here is the address of Chicago City Hall.
121 N. LaSalle ST, Chicago, IL 60602
To have an address for EVERY rep in Congress would be overwhelming to ask of Megan. How about an address of a public building for just those other 7 senators?
Anyone got suggestions, please post in reply here.
Hi Miselle, that’s why there’s an in-state office address for each Senator/Rep. I use their own office address when I send them a message. I do at the bottom of my message say while I might not be a constituent they should be hearing from me due to a committee they’re on (also on the spreadsheet) :)
I have noticed that, but I wonder if them recognizing their own address makes them dismiss the comment? Of course, using other public building addresses repeatedly would probably make them dismiss the comment as well.
TRULY appreciate what you do!!
So far they haven’t recognized it. I think the address is purely used to get through with the zipcode. Granted I get generic responses months later thanking me for being a constituent even though the bottom of my messages say I’m not. But making more work for those with ideals not for the average American works for me. Bummer things might not be read, but I keep my emails short to be able to send more
Truly, Megan, you are one of the unsung heroes of this fight.
thx!
As always, thanks.
Hi! Hope my fabulous fellow Oregonian has an amazing day!
I have shared this spreadsheet with our local indivisible group 'pens to power' (we write letters, postcards (so many!) as well as weekly protesting..) and I used this spreadsheet yesterday to write to Chuck S and the 7 who caved in.. thanks.
Thank you for helping share it and for being active right now!
The Democrats in the Senate who are caving on the shutdown are insanely misguided (stupid if you prefer). Chuck Schumer is incompetent for failing to hold the caucus together.
Senators were faced with TWO existential threats to their constituents. An immediate threat of hunger by Trump withholding SNAP benefits, and the longer-term threat of unaffordable health care. Senators needed to hold the line to stop both. Trump is now going to SCOTUS to further delay the resumption of SNAP, so it is unclear when the full payments will actually resume. His motive has always been to inflict pain on the poor, and doing it just before Thanksgiving could not gratify his ego more.
There was a way to stop the immediate hunger threat—utilize the millions of people who participated in No Kings and are itching for an active way to fight the Trump administration. Ask them to donate food and volunteer to restock food banks, rev up GoFundMes for every food bank in America, and call for donations directly to them, and call on wealthy Democratic donors to step in. Have Democratic representatives who are all back in their districts during the shutdown, working at food banks, and rallying to raise money.
In other words, show the American people, by their ACTIONS, that Democrats have their backs. You also gain an enormous boost to the No Kings movement in terms of cohesiveness and sense of purpose, and a way of shaming the Republican so-called Christian Nationalists by actually being Christian by feeding the hungry. Great visuals to contrast with Trump’s weekend partying and golfing at Mar-a-Lago, too.
Here's a FB link from my Dem Rep Suhas Subramanyam, VA-10, who has been traveling around the commonwealth to help support food banks:
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1362380842341177
Morning, Lynell!! Thanks for the link.
In our community in Maine, people have stepped up! We are supporting our food banks and donating food & money. We will support people who need help! Unfortunately, these actions don’t get covered by news.
In fact, I’m leaving right now to stand out on Main St as we do every Tuesday & today we’re standing with Vets who say NO to T & MAGA!
I agree - and this is what I said on the messages I left for the Senators who caved - flood the food banks with donations and show the Trumpers what doing the right thing looks like.
Indivisible is active at my local food pantry each Friday. I know because I see them there. (It's a little touchy subject, as the food pantry operates out of a church which, for tax purpose, must remain politically neutral.)
We can help feed each other but we can't really do the medical care part of it, can we? I can't anyway.
People did already step up to help feed the people. The World Central Kitchen actually are feeding employees at 4 US airports, in addition to Gaza and Jamaica!
With or without a continued shutdown, food banks need additional money and food to support hungry citizens. Economic conditions before the shutdown have required more resources to feed the hungry based on tariffs, loss of jobs, and inflation. People are already giving more to support food banks.
What you are trying to say is people can’t vote their conscience… people have to follow the power of the party rhetoric no matter how wrong or miss guided. I don’t care which side of the aisle you represent. You’ve just taken the brain out of the individual, which is not the purpose of having people from all over the country vote and think.
Yikes.
Be careful when you talk about the no, Kings movement, because as I mentioned before, if you had a king, you wouldn’t be able to have a no kings movement with you because you get your heads chopped off. So there’s your first lack of credulity
That’s one of the more farcical things about the protests!! Secondarily and I bet you didn’t see this coming the day after each of your protests the stock market has gone up substantially… which certainly was not your plan to make the administration look good?
I disagree with you—the Democratic Party leadership failed to engage the overwhelming grassroots support for standing firm to secure the continuation of the ACA subsidies. They had a failure of imagination on how to mobilize their grassroots base to gain their objective. I am sure that they voted their conscience—because they couldn’t see any other choice.
But that is because members of the sclerotic Democratic leadership haven’t learned to use new media effectively and many keep Indivisible and other like organizations at arms length.
Were they listening to the people they were elected to represent?
Tell me about the overwhelming liberal support you mean, like the no Kings march. ? What a joke and fiasco and an embarrassment. It looks like 80-year-old hippies out there singing Kumbaya.
And if there was overwhelming Support to keep people starving, then you wonder why your party is dying because that’s exactly what was going on people that needed most were starving and you wanted to keep them starving
At the last NoKings rally which I attended, a lot of the old hippies I met were Republicans hobbling away from Trump and his policies as fast as they could go. Last Tuesday showed Trump lost Hisplanics, and NoKings is certainly showing he is losing seniors. His “mandates” have always been thin, and are getting significantly thinner by the day.
Since you are also concerned about hunger in America we can start a new countdown on how long until SNAP funds are actually restored to recipients now that the ball is back in the House while Trump’s DOJ is continuing to appeal the funding to SCOTUS.
And now even the Washington Post and other left-wing periodicals are now calling out fake concern about the shutdown and snap. That’s right your own left-wing news media is calling the Dems out for what they call FAUX OUTRAGE. MEAN.
Keep up man!!! Bezos turned WaPo into a MAGA tout sheet ages ago. Half the staff left and is on substack moving up in the most popular lists.
By the way, Jorge here’s how people begin to dislike Trump when the BBC and other medium, which have now lost about 50% of its former viewership start playing games with video and distort the truth and the lemmings here simply believe everything that they post when it’s all a lie
The BBC executive elite just quit because they edited and distorted the truth about what Donald Trump said about January 6. Not only are they leaving the network, but it looks like they’re gonna be a major lawsuit against the BBC. But this is not unusual for your liberal media and the problem with you liberals is you take whatever they tell you to the bank you never check you never fact check you never look for a counterpoint you would make horrible jurors, who in a trial ARE MANDATED to hear both side sides of the story before rendering of the decision but not here no way in hell does it happen here? And that wasn’t the only distortion they made another one about Israel another surprise.
And that’s why CNN and MSNBC both are on the chopping block are getting their names changed lost almost 50% of its viewership and yet people here are still listening to people like Lawrence O’Donnell, who couldn’t find the truth on a map with a magnifying glass.
These networks have lost a huge number of former hosts and narrators who are now unemployed at least CNN to some degree is getting back
Some of its credits by being a little bit more measured and moving a little bit more towards the center embassy MSNBC is lost and that’s why they’re trying to change their name to change their image and in fact, I just found out that the executive who quit the BBC used to be the head executive at MSNBC what a surprise that is like none like no surprise at all
Well, they’re trying to do it as soon as tomorrow night, but it will probably be by the weekend until it happens but it was a good thing that the Democrats realize that shutting down the government was not the answer. And when I see it a number of facts about hunger in America, I linger upon once statistic that bothers me. It indicates that the average weight of a woman in America is 142 pounds but the average weight of a woman who is receiving snap benefits is over 200 pounds. So I wonder what they’re doing with their snap benefits
And where you get the idea that he’s losing seniors is right here and nowhere else don’t point to meaningless polls that have been wrong about Trump at every turn in fact, he was elected with a 31% approval rating. Try to put your arms around that.
OK, are you gonna be mad enough for woman enough to come back here when they restored this weekend or Monday and say yeah they actually restored the benefits or am I never gonna hear from you again as usual when people coward after Trump does what he needs to do to benefit the Americans that needed most.
In fact, he talked about removing people from the streets and giving them housing and giving them psychiatric care because there are too many lost souls in this country and unfortunately, most of them reside in blue states
I've reported you to the Admins for making veiled death threats.
On second thought, Charles, since you haven’t responded when I’ve asked you a simple question. And into attempt to illustrate where I might’ve made a threat which I did not. …Maybe I should report you to the administration for falsely misleading them that I made veiled threats. Would that make you happy?
nobody’s making veiled death threats, you should probably dial down on the medication a little bit or maybe a lot. It’s not in my nature. But here’s something you should know Charles. Ever since Trump started fighting crime in Chicago and DC the stats are astounding. Here’s just some basics from Chicago and DC is even better
, talk about a stream of dis information. Have you seen the crime statistics in Washington DC and Chicago since Trump posted military there to try to control the crime. Devastatingly positive statistics Moore in DC but even in Chicago incredible. Here’s just a glimpse.
Ever since Trump moved to prevent crime in Chicago homicides are down 16% shootings down 35% robberies down 41% carjacking 48% transit crime down 20%. And the statistics in Washington or even more revealing Washington DC is becoming a livable city again, especially in the worst precinct. And I bet you didn’t hear that “” disinformation from your media.
LIKE
REPLY
I agree that each Senator should vote in the way he thinks he'll best represent his constituents. I also, in this case, applaud those eight Senators for having stopped the massive damage the GOP was inflicting on ordinary citizens, deliberately, during the shutdown.
I disagree with what you write about No Kings.
First of all, no Republican is even THINKING about turning the US into a monarchy, so the whole movement clearly got its name wrong.
Secondly, today many countries in the "free world" are constitutional democratic monarchies, so democracy and monarchy can go perfectly together. That's the second reason why indeed, the name of the movement rejecting what the current GOP does to the country is pretty ridiculous.
Third, however, the GOP has been taken over by neofascist ideologues, who, as Johnson formulated it, see the role of Congress to "codify" the executive orders signed by the president (and written by those same ideologues behind the scenes, not elected officials representing their constituents) and see the role of the courts (as Vance said) as merely "advisory".
The difference between fascism and an absolutist (= non-democratic) monarchy is that in a monarchy, ONE person tends to decide everything, whereas in a fascist regime, it's usually an oligarchy that does. But the result is the same, for ordinary citizens: taxation without representation. That's why the No Kings movement is using the fact that, during the first years of a transition from democracy to fascism, many civil rights are still intact, to protest again the installation of fascism and the stealing of the power of citizens to govern themselves. On that, they couldn't be more right.
Trump's Great Gatsby party on October 31 was nothing more than a resuscitation of the Epstein era with its extravagance, conspicuous decadence, and sexual exploitation of women. Epstein may be gone, but Trump's tastes haven't changed.
The proclivity, especially as practiced by the ultra-privileged, is as old as dirt.
Not that I'm anti-sex. I'm in agreement with G. K. Chesterton that "The first two facts which a healthy boy or girl feel about sex are these: first that it is beautiful and then that it is dangerous." I don't care in what configuration. What I find intolerable is exploitation and bullying. Of any sort, but some are examples are more wounding than others.
So, listening to Lawrence O'Donnell's Last Word gave me pause as to what my Senator Kaine and the others were thinking when they voted with Republicans this past weekend. I now believe there is more to it than meets the eye. (18 minutes)
https://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/watch/lawrence-with-trump-s-shutdown-ending-dems-are-closer-than-ever-to-forcing-epstein-files-release-251756613516
I watched Lawrence tonight, as well. I found it interesting and trusted his take, since he served as a Senate staffer. I had not heard that perspective and am giving it some thought.
I wish the Epstein files were still intact. I wish the Epstein files were not in the custody of Donald Trump‘s apologists. I wish the intact, unredacted and unsanitized Epstein files were released in full to the public prior to the 2026 midterms.
If wishes were horses all beggars would ride.
Anyone that flies during the holidays or flies for business should be relieved about this. I haven't seen the O'Donnell piece but Heather's simile about the pool table was perfect.
Thank you, Lynell!
If each one of us takes action to share that linked Lawrence O’Donnell MSNBC segment to at least one MAGA adherent who we see beginning to splinter off MAGA, the ripples from that segment will be significant. The background O’Donnell gives to the closeted workings of both chambers of our Congress is compelling. The images I now have of the cats in the Mansfield Room and the LBJ Room are indelibly set in my mind.
O’Donnell ends the segment with Jamie Raskin’s letter to Donald Trump. Raskin’s letter is POWERFUL!
Rankin or Raskin?
Mea culpa!
Thank you, Emily
Glad you could fix it since your point is well made!
Thank you for this clip, Lynnell. Lawrence always has "the last word" for a reason: He Knows. I agree there is much more to this compromise than meets the eye, and that it is necessary. I also think, though, that Republican leadership wants the Epstein files released. With Trump clearly off his rocker and now starving MAGA babies, by adding proof of his raping children Fox News will have to cover it, and the political tide will turn. Because the real Republican goal is to elevate their henchman, J.D. Vance, to the Hitler role, and fully execute (shivers) Project 2025.
Sigh. My wife is so upset over the political scene and garbage flooding out of Washington D.C. that I didn't get a chance to watch either Rachel or Lawrence last night. She'll be at work this afternoon, and I'll watch then.
Hugs.
Thank you. I need them.
Morning, Ally! Sorry to hear how upset your wife is. Many of us would say here that she is not alone, seriously.
I'm a game show fan. Today, the Price is Right had a "Veterans" show in honor of Veterans. Now, for the funny part. To honor the troops, one of the prizes was a trip
to - wait for it - Washington, DC! I was like OMG, anywhere but DC!
Anyway, I didn't see Rachel's show, only Lawrence's.
I record them both; I have rehearsal on Mondays.
I agree, though I am somewhat skeptical of what seemed like an apology for Schumer. Are they friends? Still, I find Lawrence ODonnell credible, despite the millions he is paid.
Really appreciate the link, Lynell
Thanks, Bonnie!
So you’re one of the eight that listens to Lawrence O’Donnell? Lololol. Pretty soon he’s gonna join the padded room with Olberman De Niro, and a number of other actors and actresses from Hollywood, who are totally lost.
You poor dears, hanging your hat on epstein. Walking through the desert, almost out of water, and when you come to what you think is going to be the oasis of Epstein, it’s gonna be a dry bottomless well. You should help your people Here worry about 2026.
BS Troll
Democrats get into politics because they want to make the world a better place. They come out of Harvard and Yale with big, honest, idealistic dreams. They believe you can do good and still do well. That a rising tide floats all boats. And that their goodness and inclusiveness will always win the day. How could everyone in the world not understand that they are on the side of the angels? Then they wake up in DC and the mirror cracks.
When handed the legislative ball with a big enough majority, they do what their ethos indicates--pass bills that help Americans. This magical situation, where the Democrats hold the executive branch and both houses by broad majorities and are shored up by a liberal court, is vanishingly rare.
And when these mythical conditions are not met, the Democrats always fold. WHY?
Most behavioral issues are overdetermined. Culture, conditioning, institutional norms, philosophical orientation. All of this comes to play when sussing out the reason the Democrats consistently bring a water balloon to an air war.
The MAGA/GOP have an arsenal of cluster bombs and heat seeking missiles and are not at all hesitant to use them. And if they miss a few, like they did with Hunter Biden, what of it? Most of them land.
The Democrats have an entirely different ethos when it comes to ruthless behavior. The party as a whole has a general discomfort with violence, or even violent rhetoric. Considering the efficaciousness of violence, this gives the Republican Party a big advantage. Given these circumstances, yesterday's news is not at all surprising.
Tump's narcissism is piece of this story, Narcissists are not empathic. While the increasing suffering and fear of SNAP recipients, federal workers, and air travelers worried and angered many, Trump's malignant narcissism served him well and he remained untouched by their suffering.
I don't see any comments about the oligarchs controlling the entire Republican agenda by forcing budget busting budgets through Congress. It seems that almost every comment here gives the Congressional Republicans a pass for passing the worst bill in history last July.
Trump has been bribing people for eight months and is going totally insane and you all are crying over a little spilled milk.
Meanwhile, Trump is fading fast and the carporate media totally ignores it.
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgzQcqlCWNPsWjqZCNRpbFkSjrSGf
Good points, GJ. Ignoring the visible physical and mental decline of ffpotus is beyond negligent. For me, the RepubliKKKans passing their abominable bill coupled with the absolute disaster of this administration are almost indescribably bad/harmful/criminal to us as a people, a country, as well as an individual.
GJ: I have a lot on my stack and FB posts about the oligarchs. And about DT being a mouthpiece. They have the demise of DT factored in, and it won't change anything. Or if it does it will be for the worse.
And if DT becomes an even worse liability than he already is, do you think the oligarchs will push the RepubliKKKans into action or will they allow him to run amok?
I just don't see JD ever being remotely popular as a President if DT is removed from office before 2028.
Right now DT is doing just what he was hired to do.
As for JD--He will be worse, and they DON'T CARE about his popularity. That matters in a democracy, where there are free elections and the people are sovereign.
When they seized power a year ago, that was effectively over. They no longer require the consent of the governed. If we want our sovereignty back we must take it back.
So many moving balls around, indeed, and all so quickly. And some with no balls at all, which I'm sure doesn't even require translation.
In the short-term, it feels like a bitter, crushing moment, particularly in the aftermath of such a strong Blue Wave on November 4. Yet there was never any real script as to how this would end, given the arithmetic of the Senate and the cruelty, sadism and stupidity of Trump and Toads. The inexplicable terror Republican Senators feel for this despicable human being defies all sense and previous norms. He didn't just refuse to negotiate, he spit in everybody's face, fell back on 3-year-old memes involving excrement, and held a Great Gatsby party at Mar-A-Lardo, complete with half-naked women lying in giant martini glasses -- while his Toads mumbled inanities and did nothing.
This setback will last only until the end of January, however. In the meantime, great harm will have taken place as people see their insurance rates skyrocket. Attitudes will have further coalesced -- against him, against them. These are not strong people with long-range tactics. They are reckless, desperate idiots living in one absurd moment after another. They grow weaker by the day. In December, they will go down officially as having voted against not just Obamacare, but against Medicare and Medicaid as well, even when given a second chance. They will be known not just as the party of 'we-don-t-care-do-U?' but the party of brainless dolts -- for none of what they do makes a lick of sense or will solve a single problem.
Betting that the slow-burning rage millions of voters already feel this November will have turned blue-hot by this time next November -- if Donnie Diapers is even still alive by then. My bets are on the continued Democratic momentum to reclaim the country back from tyranny and lunacy.
The terror the Republican legislators feel must have an explanation. They can see the polls. They can see his decline. So how can it be the fear of being primaried? It must be personal. Is it the death threats they receive?
It may be, or fear for the safety of their families, I don't know. He's certainly the monster of their own creation -- why they didn't think the monster would turn on them is a complete mystery to me.
I didn’t think the leopards would eat my face!
I do so desperately hope you are right.
You’re obviously blind to history where most of the people here say they’re really good history buffs. Five times in history a president has taken the White House with both houses of Congress on the same side. EVERY SINGLE TIME THE MIDTERM COMES AROUND THEY LOSE ONE OR BOTH HOUSES. THAT’S HISTORY IN ACTUALITY.
BUT THERE’S A POSSIBILITY THAT THERE COULD BE A CHANGE FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER IN THIS COMING MIDTERM IF AMERICA CONTINUES TO DO WELL IN THE WORLD, LOWER THE DEFICIT BRING PEACE LIKE IT’S BEEN DOING AROUND THE GLOBE AND ECONOMIC SUCCESS TO AMERICA
No one of you guys keep losing you keep talking about the blue wave on November 4. There was no blue wave on November 4…NONE. Two blue states elected two blue members. Now, if a Republican would’ve been elected that would’ve been a wave.
And many people are gonna sit here and watch New York drowned in misery very shortly already people are calling realtors in south Florida and Texas to get the hell out of there before it gets worse.
Thanks Heather for keeping the record of these turbulent times. I see that many people are furious, I don’t argue with that response, but your metaphor of balls suddenly moving in unexpected directions across a billiard table shows us that this story might yet develop in interesting ways. Keep up your good work. Yours, in regard, Anthony.
I'm going to hold my opinion until I see the results of being able to now move the Epstein situation along. Considering England's move against a member of the Royal Family, it will be very difficult for U.S. politicians to leave Trump in office.
"Considering England's move against a member of the Royal Family, it will be very difficult for U.S. politicians to leave Trump in office."
Seriously?
trump is a dictator and will do whatever he goddamn wants. None of this matters anymore. The 8 democrats that caved are not running again. Unbelievable even for the dems who always shoot themselves in the foot. The 2002-08 TV series "The Wire" nailed it in the 5 seasons . . . city governance and politics was season 3. Nothing has changed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UXJZgOiVAI
It's not a serious comment lin.
Maybe that is now the Republicans' goal: To "have to" remove Trump from office. He is clearly too cruel. Of course, Vice President Vance may be even more cruel, plus, a bonus: He doesn't have an Epstein noose around his neck.
Are we sure about that?
OH!!
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. If you’re still waiting for epstein, you might as will be waiting for Godot. lol. And try to pay attention to the Brendan clapper,Comey indictments, and the 30 other subpoenas that have been issued about the Russia hoax. That’ll be a lot more enlightening than waiting for epstein. Let me repeat what I said earlier just for you, Leslie. Epstein is dead. The issue is dead even the victims attorney just had passive words to say about the case so far. I’m sure if there’s any money left in the epstein accounts that the victims will get paid whatever is left but Maybe we should look to Jack ruby… or lee Harvey Oswald to come back from the dead, and tell us their story as well. That’s gonna be a Germaine… not that anything is going to come over the Epstein file that’s going to interest you only injure a huge number of people that deserve injury, but won’t get you any closer to your goal. It’s not gonna make you hate Trump anymore or any less, because nothing is going to come of it
For you, Leslie, I heard a good one today. It said, if you keep spanking yourself, you’re only gonna have yourself to blame when you can’t sit down.
When the House reconvenes, Johnson is going to have to swear in Adelita Grijalva and that means that the discharge petition will go forward and the Epstein files will be released and the full extent of Trump's long and close buddy-buddy association with America's most notorious paedophile will become clear to all.
Meanwhile, Ghislaine Maxwell, another convicted paedophile, is not satisfied with being moved to a low security prison for protecting Trump. She wants a commutation.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/10/ghislaine-maxwell-commutation-prison-sentence
And Trump is asking the Supreme Court to set aside the defamation rulings against him in the case of E. Jean Carroll, the woman he sexually assaulted.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/10/trump-supreme-court-e-jean-carroll-lawsuit
I wonder what the evangelical base thinks about all these sordid goings-on with Trump?
Angus King saying "we're putting Republicans to the test on healthcare" is like Linus saying "we're putting Lucy to the test on football."
As if we need another test on them after voting more than fifty times to repeal ACA and seeing them celebrate doing high fives after some small victories to gut the Act. And don't get me started about cuts in Medicare and Medicaid. Yeah, we'll be surprised if we submit them to another test.
I am a lot angrier at the Republicans, led by Trump and Johnson, who refused to negotiate than I am at the Democrats who decided to reopen the government. It was the Republicans who used food as a political tool. It was Johnson who kept legislators away from their jobs. It was Trump, as pointed out by Heather, who badly behaved as usual during this whole episode.
Phil guess what they’re not the ones that shut down the government so who’s using that starvation as a tool they shut it down and they decided to open it up
The standard operating procedure when you don't have enough votes is to negotiate. Republicans refused. Additionally, the administration could have used reserve funds to keep SNAP going but went to court to avoid that resource, even threatening to punish states who wanted to make up the shortfall. I place full blame on the Republican Congress and the Republican administration. Thanks to the big, ugly bill, ICE got paid but air traffic controllers did not. The former scares people while the latter saves lives.
You can’t negotiate when you have nothing to negotiate with. That’s the first mistake that Democrats made. And the minute most of the people on this thread, realize that they might change their tune. The Democrats had no leverage and no point to make. So this was anything but standard operating procedure based on the circumstances at hand.
And what you’re asking for is contrary to rational thought somebody does something to hurt you, by shutting down the government making it seem like the GOP was at fault and then you’re supposed to do something opposed to your better judgment to help them hurt you more? The blame in reality was squarely on the Democrats for shutting down the government and stopping snap benefits. Why should the Republicans relieve them of that burden?
They did what they had to do and they learned very quickly, although 40 days doesn’t seem very quick that they had nowhere else to go but surrender and open the government. And it wasn’t really a capitulation. It was smart thinking by Seven Democrats who realize it was a dead end street.
You are free to place blame wherever you want unfortunately you’re throwing the blame on the GOP in a black hole… because that just doesn’t fly perhaps maybe in your mind but not in reality
The only people that scared anyone were the Democrats when they shut down the government. 13 times during Biden’s administration, the Republicans agreed not to shut down the government when they had a dispute. 13 times or I guess it was actually 16 times the liberals decided to shut down the government instead of opening it up and paying snap benefits to the people that they supposedly support.
And while you call it a big ugly Bill best thing that happened to this country in a long time And it’s actually a wonder that the Republicans stuck together like the Democrats and normally do and got it done
The fact that Trump’s ratings continue to tank hasn’t seemed to register with GOP senators. Trump, of course, believes he will both live forever and stay in power forever. Is the GOP really as delusional as?? It sure looks like it. I realize they are busy gerrymandering and doing everything they can to prevent Dems from having a voice, but won’t that just stir the will to fight even more? Up to and including physical violence?
I think the GOP leadership is brilliant: Trump has become a liability now as he blatantly starves American children and their voting parents. So they will "begrudgingly" allow the Epstein files to be released, the emperorr to be disrobed (eeeuuuuuww), and the political axe to fall. Then the real Hitler, JD Vance, rises to the throne. So, help us God.
Sandra trumps rating when he got elected was 31% so if you think that’s accurate not to worry since he doesn’t have anything to run on if you pay attention to the law. But if you guys keep acting like this out of the five times that a president inherited both type houses of Congress only to lose it in the midterm. This could be the first time that Trump actually holds both houses of Congress if you’re not careful.
BS Troll
Has the "circular firing squad" of Democrats on this page run out of bullets yet? Hope so. It's getting to be an old and tiresome exercise in self flagellation.
Earth to disappointed Dems. We feel your pain. But the enemy is over that hill on the horizon. How about we go get the bastards instead of beating ourselves up.
We had a Blue Wave victory a week ago today. Let's build on it and focus on who is tearing down this country. We need to regroup. The enemy is chuckling at our divisions.
There is no circular firing squad. It is called change.
As we have learned from Dr. Richardson's able teachings, political parties throughout history have undergone cataclysmic changes. Both major political parties are undergoing stressors, fractures and will most likely reemerge looking different than most of us have lived with. Digging our heels in as a Democratic Party and refusing to read the tea leaves got us into this mess. We kept doing the same thing in the face this nightmare brewing 9 years ago. Refusal to change will not help.
These kinds of discussions are a sign of a healthy democracy. Let's self-examine, sort out what has worked and what has hampered our viability as a serious political entity. Fear of self-examination as a Party will surely doom us and our fight for Democracy in America.
I agree that “discussions” about how to regroup, restrategize and reassert ourselves are healthy and required.
What is not healthy or helpful is fellow Democrats relentlessly attacking each other at every twist and turn of the process.
This recent Senate disappointment is an example. I see both points of view. And then I say: what's next?
That being said, I enjoy and appreciate the passion and persistent energy you bring to these comments. I don't always agree, but as Joyce Vance always concludes “We're in this together.”
We will keep on keeping on in this forum and nationally. I enjoy our back and forth, Bill and your always maintaining a collegial tone.
And as I always say. We will prevail.
Best Regards
Republican promises are worth…..?
They’ll be at vote Ralph.. but it won’t be anything in the wellness. You’re thinking it’ll either be a substitute, an alternative, or a timeline we are offers will be made to join other programs. Epstein and the ACA have a lot in common in my humble opinion
They’re both beyond life support
Brilliant analogy, “like a que ball hitting a rack”!
But cue.
I recommend to you and your other readers Jay Kuo’s most recent Substack post (The Surrender Caucus). I find it a more nuanced and in some ways accurate commentary on the end of the shutdown. Concerning accuracy for instance, when you (and others have done the same ) mention as a “win” or “compromise “ that Republicans have agreed to reinstate workers who’ve been laid off, and restoring back pay, you fail to mention that there is a law that requires Republicans to do that. So, is that what passes for “wins” these days? No mention that it’s actually the law - and never mind there’s no way to ensure they follow through completely (witness threats to air traffic controllers). Whatever happens with the ongoing process, bills, budget etc and whether trump/maga follows the law or agreements or how this affects 2026 elections, there’s no silver lining to the damage done to the Democratic party and the grassroots . From a time when we finally were celebrating our strength and power, greater unity, here we are - a coalition in disarray, angry and fighting amongst ourselves. A real, devastating and wasteful tragedy. Hopefully, we can pick up the pieces and move on.
do you by any chance, see a difference between a news article and actual fact.
They doing like many organizations do their putting forth a piece of news that validates what they’re doing whether or not it’s required or not it’s just informational
https://statuskuo.substack.com/p/the-surrender-caucus?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email