“What a day we are having…. As a former director of emergency management, I know a disaster when I see one,” Representative Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) said yesterday in the impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, overseen by the Republican-led House Oversight Committee chaired by James Comer (R-KY).
Women have begun to see that if I go through that doorway, I take everybody through it.
___Dianne Feinstein
'No Child Left Behind' requires states and school districts to ensure that all students are learning and are reaching their highest potential. Special education students should not be left out of these accountability mechanisms.
____Dianne Feinstein
College costs continue to rise, and student loan debt threatens to price many Americans out of a college education and out of the middle class.
___Dianne Feinstein
Today we have a health insurance industry where the first and foremost goal is to maximize profits for shareholders and CEOs, not to cover patients who have fallen ill or to compensate doctors and hospitals for their services. It is an industry that is increasingly concentrated and where Americans are paying more to receive less.
___Dianne Feinstein
I basically believe the medical insurance industry should be nonprofit, not profit-making. There is no way a health reform plan will work when it is implemented by an industry that seeks to return money to shareholders instead of using that money to provide health care.
___Dianne Feinstein
Banning guns addresses a fundamental right of all Americans to feel safe.
___Dianne Feinstein
Congressional overseers and the public must be given appropriate insight into government activities as well as their legal rationale to ensure America's values are being upheld and our interests advanced.
___ Dianne Feinstein
‘James Haas was a San Francisco land use attorney, and a gay man who was not yet out in 1970, when he became an informal advisor to Dianne Feinstein.’
‘He also authored the city’s most abiding epigram about Feinstein’s relationship to the gay community:
“Dianne Feinstein doesn’t care who you sleep with,” he famously quipped, “as long as you’re in bed by 11 o’clock.”
“From her time serving on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors with Harvey Milk to her battle to protect transgender service members, Dianne Feinstein has been a champion for LGBTQ equality and social justice,” Equality California, the nation’s largest statewide gay civil rights organization, said in endorsing her final campaign in 2018. “Senator Feinstein stood with our community back when few others did.” (Politico) See link below.
'Dianne Feinstein, who died Friday at the age of 90, made history as the first woman to become mayor of her hometown of San Francisco.'
'A graduate of Stanford University, Feinstein began her career in politics when she was appointed by Gov. Pat Brown to the California Women's Parole Board in 1960. Nine years later, she was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and was elected president of the board in 1978.'
'She became mayor of San Francisco in 1978 following the assassination of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk. The following year she was elected to the first of two four-year terms.
She was elected to the U.S. Senate in a 1992 special election. becoming California's first female U.S. senator. It was an election cycle that became known as the "Year of the Woman" for the record number of female candidates elected to Congress.'
'Feinstein was re-elected five times and in the 2012 election, she received 7.86 million votes, the most popular votes received by any U.S. Senate candidate in history.'
'President Biden said in a statement. "Often the only woman in the room, Dianne was a role model for so many Americans - a job she took seriously by mentoring countless public servants," Biden said Friday. "Dianne was tough, sharp, always prepared, and never pulled a punch, but she was also a kind and loyal friend, and that's what [First lady] Jill and I will miss the most."
Quiverin' Qevin has shown himself to be a feckless, worthless coward, a political incompetent, a liar who can't be trusted farther than you can see him with your eyes closed. He's hated by both Republicans and Democrats. How the country survives the next 13 months of what he has loosed on us is something I can't figure out.
As to the 48 Fweedumbererasses, they are traitors who have declared war on the United States. They need to be rousted at midnight, and disappear into pretrial detention. Personally, I'd like to see all 137 of the traitors in both houses of Congress arrested.
Thank you Heather. Impeachment is a very serious process which should be reserved for criminal acts such as attempting to extort allies, deep corruption, insurrection, and other major offenses.
Historically, the GOP has used the procedure to attack the Clinton administration, and now, as retribution for the Biden/Harris administration, and the success they have achieved since taking office.
Any fiscal conservatives who are not screaming about the waste of taxpayer money on what is nothing more than a continuation of the January 6th attack by fringe extremists on the American system are not conservatives at all, but just part of the MAGA sociopathic circus.
Comer, Jordan, Gaetz, and all the others in Congress, as well as State/Local government should be held to account for their actions in subverting the American system, whether through efforts to not certify the 2020 elections, or their work to seriously weaken the U.S. economy (and to align themselves with Putin in his illegal war against Ukraine.)
McCarthy's quest for personal power has subjugated him to everyone. Whether authorizing a ridiculous impeachment, assigning incompetents like Marjorie Taylor Greene to powerful committees, or his fealty to the criminal Trump, if McCarthy refuses to work with the Democrats to prevent the shutdown he is done.
I feel pretty gleeful watching the bad guys lose here, but in the long game this is terrible. I really can't think of a more effective way to turn the US into a one-party government. I hope it doesn't work.
I listened Friday evening to Biden’s full speech from earlier this week in Arizona, and I know he's thinking the same thing. He saved his realest real talk for the audience who was most likely to be chock-full of old school Republicans, and at the same time he was calling out their bullshit he was saying, "come on guys, I know this isn't you."
The top Democrat in America trying to save the Republican party from itself ❤️
Truly difficult to fathom which path Republican's are following; one to nowhere the other defeat. Thanks to the undeniable fact the Republican leadership accepted and are still trumpeting their disgraced leader's lies, they are steadily losing the so called youth vote and as we old white geezers and geezettes die off whatever base they had.
Not so long ago I was concerned with the possibility that Mr Trump could return to the Oval Office, but thanks to the non stop clown show he is headlining, that fear is lagging. I can only trust we have had our fill with the hucksters and charlatans who accompanied him in his term and will pack the House and Senate with reasonable men and women from both parties.
With all this manure there has to be a pony somewhere around here.
Please, please, please Jim Jordan schedule another impeachment hearing ASAP! With the writer’s strike not completely resolved we still don’t have any late night shows to watch for political satire. You’re doing the writer’s work for them.
Not only is this an embarrassment for the American people but an embarrassment on the world stage. We could not look more like a third world country. It is time for a coalition government without Kevin McCarthy who has demonstrated his incapacity to lead.
“To put it mildly, the GOP did not bring their best.” A misnomer, don’t you think? The “Grand Old Party” is a shell, an empty suit, an unfunny joke, a destruction derby, but with the power to make chump’s legal troubles go away - they think. And the cost, America’s hard-earned reputation as a beacon of integrity and sanity in a crazy world. Flawed but trying to do the right thing. May Churchill’s observation still apply. “Americans will always do the right thing, only after they have tried everything else.”
Even among many great Letters, this one is a doozy. I was in a public place yesterday, and the TV was tuned to Fox. I couldn't hear the sound, but I saw the video. The best part was seeing Jamie Raskin without a scarf and clearly wiping up the floor with the committee. Last night I was watching Ari Melber and howled with laughter when James Carville described McCarthy. He said, “You know, when you elect a bowl of Jell-O, what you get is a bowl of Jell-O, and it’s not gonna change! And the reason that they put him in there is because he was a bowl of Jell-O... I mean, at some level, I guess he’s a personable guy. As a human being, in one sense, you have some sympathy for him. And then you think about how craven he is and you say, ‘Nah, I don’t feel sorry for him. The hell with him.’ But I mean, it’s amazing what these people put him through to retain power. But again, I think just like, cruelty is largely the point. I think they enjoy causing Kevin McCarthy pain. I do. I think these are very cruel people.” And cruelty is exactly the point of everything they do. Cruelty and chaos. Meanwhile many military families and the families of federal employees will soon be living without a paycheck because the clown car spent its time pretending they knew how to do an impeachment hearing instead of dealing with the looming government shutdown.
The media have been focusing on the psychodrama between McCarthy and the extremists, while ignoring the one group capable of actually funding the government on the basis of the already draconian agreement on the budget to avert a default earlier this year: the so-called "Problem Solvers."
There are 31 House Republicans in the bipartisan Problem Solvers caucus, many in districts that voted for Biden over Trump. A mere four of them could agree with the Democrats on a discharge petition to force a House floor vote on the bipartisan Senate Continuing Resolution, which they could then pass.
But they have all been silent, as in the "curious incident of the dog in the night" which Sherlock Holmes deduced meant that the dog was friendly to the perpetrator.
Trump’s attack on Milley fuels special counsel’s push for a gag order
Donald Trump has unleashed a social media attack on Mark Milley, suggesting he should have been put to death for treason.
Special counsel Jack Smith’s office argued Friday that Donald Trump’s recent attacks on Gen. Mark Milley and one of their own newly appointed prosecutors bolster their case to put a gag order on the former president ahead of his trial in Washington, D.C.
It looks to me like McCarty is trying to save power he doesn’t have and as a result has put the country in losing position because he wants to be the Speaker. What a sad excuse for a legislator he is. My mother would tell these yahoos they need to go to their rooms and come out when they can act like people. Disgusting behaviors.
I am heartsick that our representatives have been so far unable to find a reasonable way out of this looming government shutdown. It's abuse of the people of the United States who deserve a much higher quality of governance than Republicans are willing to commit to.
I really don't know how you do this everyday, Heather Cox Richardson! Sometimes I just feel exhausted by all the hate and evil swirling around the USA. But, your letters always give me hope that someone is listening and finding a positive direction to go. We always learn from people we admire and respect but some of my best lessons have been from people who I cannot respect. Thank you for pointing us away from these kinds of people.
Outstanding summary by Heather, ending in a simple declarative statement that the government will be shutdown because Trump and extremists want it and McCarthy has put his speakership before country and constituents.
September 29, 2023
Women have begun to see that if I go through that doorway, I take everybody through it.
___Dianne Feinstein
'No Child Left Behind' requires states and school districts to ensure that all students are learning and are reaching their highest potential. Special education students should not be left out of these accountability mechanisms.
____Dianne Feinstein
College costs continue to rise, and student loan debt threatens to price many Americans out of a college education and out of the middle class.
___Dianne Feinstein
Today we have a health insurance industry where the first and foremost goal is to maximize profits for shareholders and CEOs, not to cover patients who have fallen ill or to compensate doctors and hospitals for their services. It is an industry that is increasingly concentrated and where Americans are paying more to receive less.
___Dianne Feinstein
I basically believe the medical insurance industry should be nonprofit, not profit-making. There is no way a health reform plan will work when it is implemented by an industry that seeks to return money to shareholders instead of using that money to provide health care.
___Dianne Feinstein
Banning guns addresses a fundamental right of all Americans to feel safe.
___Dianne Feinstein
Congressional overseers and the public must be given appropriate insight into government activities as well as their legal rationale to ensure America's values are being upheld and our interests advanced.
___ Dianne Feinstein
‘James Haas was a San Francisco land use attorney, and a gay man who was not yet out in 1970, when he became an informal advisor to Dianne Feinstein.’
‘He also authored the city’s most abiding epigram about Feinstein’s relationship to the gay community:
“Dianne Feinstein doesn’t care who you sleep with,” he famously quipped, “as long as you’re in bed by 11 o’clock.”
“From her time serving on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors with Harvey Milk to her battle to protect transgender service members, Dianne Feinstein has been a champion for LGBTQ equality and social justice,” Equality California, the nation’s largest statewide gay civil rights organization, said in endorsing her final campaign in 2018. “Senator Feinstein stood with our community back when few others did.” (Politico) See link below.
'Dianne Feinstein, who died Friday at the age of 90, made history as the first woman to become mayor of her hometown of San Francisco.'
'A graduate of Stanford University, Feinstein began her career in politics when she was appointed by Gov. Pat Brown to the California Women's Parole Board in 1960. Nine years later, she was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and was elected president of the board in 1978.'
'She became mayor of San Francisco in 1978 following the assassination of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk. The following year she was elected to the first of two four-year terms.
She was elected to the U.S. Senate in a 1992 special election. becoming California's first female U.S. senator. It was an election cycle that became known as the "Year of the Woman" for the record number of female candidates elected to Congress.'
'Feinstein was re-elected five times and in the 2012 election, she received 7.86 million votes, the most popular votes received by any U.S. Senate candidate in history.'
'President Biden said in a statement. "Often the only woman in the room, Dianne was a role model for so many Americans - a job she took seriously by mentoring countless public servants," Biden said Friday. "Dianne was tough, sharp, always prepared, and never pulled a punch, but she was also a kind and loyal friend, and that's what [First lady] Jill and I will miss the most."
For a list of her accomplishments:
https://www.feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/key-accomplishments
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/09/29/dianne-feinstein-legacy-00116902
Quiverin' Qevin has shown himself to be a feckless, worthless coward, a political incompetent, a liar who can't be trusted farther than you can see him with your eyes closed. He's hated by both Republicans and Democrats. How the country survives the next 13 months of what he has loosed on us is something I can't figure out.
As to the 48 Fweedumbererasses, they are traitors who have declared war on the United States. They need to be rousted at midnight, and disappear into pretrial detention. Personally, I'd like to see all 137 of the traitors in both houses of Congress arrested.
Thank you Heather. Impeachment is a very serious process which should be reserved for criminal acts such as attempting to extort allies, deep corruption, insurrection, and other major offenses.
Historically, the GOP has used the procedure to attack the Clinton administration, and now, as retribution for the Biden/Harris administration, and the success they have achieved since taking office.
Any fiscal conservatives who are not screaming about the waste of taxpayer money on what is nothing more than a continuation of the January 6th attack by fringe extremists on the American system are not conservatives at all, but just part of the MAGA sociopathic circus.
Comer, Jordan, Gaetz, and all the others in Congress, as well as State/Local government should be held to account for their actions in subverting the American system, whether through efforts to not certify the 2020 elections, or their work to seriously weaken the U.S. economy (and to align themselves with Putin in his illegal war against Ukraine.)
McCarthy's quest for personal power has subjugated him to everyone. Whether authorizing a ridiculous impeachment, assigning incompetents like Marjorie Taylor Greene to powerful committees, or his fealty to the criminal Trump, if McCarthy refuses to work with the Democrats to prevent the shutdown he is done.
I feel pretty gleeful watching the bad guys lose here, but in the long game this is terrible. I really can't think of a more effective way to turn the US into a one-party government. I hope it doesn't work.
I listened Friday evening to Biden’s full speech from earlier this week in Arizona, and I know he's thinking the same thing. He saved his realest real talk for the audience who was most likely to be chock-full of old school Republicans, and at the same time he was calling out their bullshit he was saying, "come on guys, I know this isn't you."
The top Democrat in America trying to save the Republican party from itself ❤️
Truly difficult to fathom which path Republican's are following; one to nowhere the other defeat. Thanks to the undeniable fact the Republican leadership accepted and are still trumpeting their disgraced leader's lies, they are steadily losing the so called youth vote and as we old white geezers and geezettes die off whatever base they had.
Not so long ago I was concerned with the possibility that Mr Trump could return to the Oval Office, but thanks to the non stop clown show he is headlining, that fear is lagging. I can only trust we have had our fill with the hucksters and charlatans who accompanied him in his term and will pack the House and Senate with reasonable men and women from both parties.
With all this manure there has to be a pony somewhere around here.
Please, please, please Jim Jordan schedule another impeachment hearing ASAP! With the writer’s strike not completely resolved we still don’t have any late night shows to watch for political satire. You’re doing the writer’s work for them.
Not only is this an embarrassment for the American people but an embarrassment on the world stage. We could not look more like a third world country. It is time for a coalition government without Kevin McCarthy who has demonstrated his incapacity to lead.
“To put it mildly, the GOP did not bring their best.” A misnomer, don’t you think? The “Grand Old Party” is a shell, an empty suit, an unfunny joke, a destruction derby, but with the power to make chump’s legal troubles go away - they think. And the cost, America’s hard-earned reputation as a beacon of integrity and sanity in a crazy world. Flawed but trying to do the right thing. May Churchill’s observation still apply. “Americans will always do the right thing, only after they have tried everything else.”
Even among many great Letters, this one is a doozy. I was in a public place yesterday, and the TV was tuned to Fox. I couldn't hear the sound, but I saw the video. The best part was seeing Jamie Raskin without a scarf and clearly wiping up the floor with the committee. Last night I was watching Ari Melber and howled with laughter when James Carville described McCarthy. He said, “You know, when you elect a bowl of Jell-O, what you get is a bowl of Jell-O, and it’s not gonna change! And the reason that they put him in there is because he was a bowl of Jell-O... I mean, at some level, I guess he’s a personable guy. As a human being, in one sense, you have some sympathy for him. And then you think about how craven he is and you say, ‘Nah, I don’t feel sorry for him. The hell with him.’ But I mean, it’s amazing what these people put him through to retain power. But again, I think just like, cruelty is largely the point. I think they enjoy causing Kevin McCarthy pain. I do. I think these are very cruel people.” And cruelty is exactly the point of everything they do. Cruelty and chaos. Meanwhile many military families and the families of federal employees will soon be living without a paycheck because the clown car spent its time pretending they knew how to do an impeachment hearing instead of dealing with the looming government shutdown.
The media have been focusing on the psychodrama between McCarthy and the extremists, while ignoring the one group capable of actually funding the government on the basis of the already draconian agreement on the budget to avert a default earlier this year: the so-called "Problem Solvers."
There are 31 House Republicans in the bipartisan Problem Solvers caucus, many in districts that voted for Biden over Trump. A mere four of them could agree with the Democrats on a discharge petition to force a House floor vote on the bipartisan Senate Continuing Resolution, which they could then pass.
But they have all been silent, as in the "curious incident of the dog in the night" which Sherlock Holmes deduced meant that the dog was friendly to the perpetrator.
Trump’s attack on Milley fuels special counsel’s push for a gag order
Donald Trump has unleashed a social media attack on Mark Milley, suggesting he should have been put to death for treason.
Special counsel Jack Smith’s office argued Friday that Donald Trump’s recent attacks on Gen. Mark Milley and one of their own newly appointed prosecutors bolster their case to put a gag order on the former president ahead of his trial in Washington, D.C.
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/09/29/trumps-attack-on-milley-fuels-special-counsels-push-for-a-gag-order-00119253
It looks to me like McCarty is trying to save power he doesn’t have and as a result has put the country in losing position because he wants to be the Speaker. What a sad excuse for a legislator he is. My mother would tell these yahoos they need to go to their rooms and come out when they can act like people. Disgusting behaviors.
I am heartsick that our representatives have been so far unable to find a reasonable way out of this looming government shutdown. It's abuse of the people of the United States who deserve a much higher quality of governance than Republicans are willing to commit to.
McCarthy already sold his soul to the devil to get the speakership and now the devil has come to collect.
I really don't know how you do this everyday, Heather Cox Richardson! Sometimes I just feel exhausted by all the hate and evil swirling around the USA. But, your letters always give me hope that someone is listening and finding a positive direction to go. We always learn from people we admire and respect but some of my best lessons have been from people who I cannot respect. Thank you for pointing us away from these kinds of people.
Outstanding summary by Heather, ending in a simple declarative statement that the government will be shutdown because Trump and extremists want it and McCarthy has put his speakership before country and constituents.