Dealing With Republican Sabotage

Paul Krugman has thoughts on how President- elect Biden should deal with Republican obstruction and sabotage:

...[A]lthough Biden is still talking in a comforting way about unity and reaching across the aisle, at some point he’ll need to stop reassuring us that he’s nothing like Trump and start making Republicans pay a political price for their attempts to prevent him from governing.  [snip]

No, what Biden needs to do is what Harry Truman did in 1948, when he built political support by running against “do-nothing” Republicans. And he’ll have a better case than Truman ever did, because today’s Republicans are infinitely more corrupt and less patriotic than the Republicans Truman faced.  

This scenario would be altered significantly should Democrats Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff win the special Senate election in Georgia next month (Stacy Abrams would be happy to have your help on that).  Even if Democrats were to take the Senate, eliminating the filibuster seems out of reach, with conservaDem Sen. Joe Manchin in opposition. 

Regardless, it's already been made clear by Senate Republicans that they'll obstruct Biden's cabinet choices, judicial nominations, and anything else they can to try to make Biden a one- term president, just as they tried with Barack Obama.  We're hopeful Biden's team is planning how to make life miserable for Moscow Mitch McConnell and his party- before- country caucus when they begin their obstruction (we're sure they're smart enough to be well ahead of us on that).  Using every media platform they can to drive home the image of a spiteful, reactionary, recalcitrant Trumpist party in the Senate that's engaged in keeping businesses shuttered, our government from functioning, while thousands of lives hang in the balance must be one of the priorities of this effort.  Biden's election was a mandate, and efforts to sabotage his administration are sabotaging the will of the American people.

Other pressure points must be attacked as well to keep these two- legged rats on defense. With Democrats holding the House, there should be opportunities for Speaker Pelosi and Sen. Schumer to come up with a coordinated strategy to do just that.  They're dealing with a bad faith party that, as Krugman points out, is infinitely more corrupt and less patriotic than ever.  They must deal with it accordingly.

Tweet Of The Day/ Today In Moscow Mitch

(click on embedded chart to enlarge)

Just a quick reminder about all the bills Mitch McConnell is still blocking. pic.twitter.com/I3kpw2jSoB

— David Cicilline (@davidcicilline) October 5, 2019

BONUS:  Meanwhile, Mrs. Moscow Mitch (a.k.a., Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao) is making sure hubby's home state is getting more than it's fair share of her attention when it comes to handing out Federal funds --

In her first 14 months as Transportation secretary, Elaine Chao met with officials from Kentucky, which her husband Mitch McConnell represents in the Senate, vastly more often than those from any other state.

In all, 25 percent of Chao’s scheduled meetings with local officials of any state from January 2017 to March 2018 were with Kentuckians, who make up only about 1.3 percent of the U.S. population. The next closest were Indiana and Georgia, with 6 percent of meetings each, according to Chao’s calendar records, the only ones that have been made public.

At least five of Chao’s 18 meetings with local Kentuckians were requested in emails from McConnell staffers, who alerted Chao’s staffers which of the officials were “friends” or “loyal supporters,” according to records obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.

You can help Drain the Swamp by donating (and voting) for Moscow Mitch's most likely opponent, Amy McGrath, in November 2020.  You could end up getting the extra satisfaction of ending Mrs. Moscow Mitch's grift, too.

Tweets Of The Day -- Just Stop

OMFG.  Again?

Biden at a fundraiser tonight, on his desire to work with the Republican Party post Trump.

“With Trump gone you’re going to begin to see things change. Because these folks know better. They know this isn’t what they’re supposed to be doing."

— Sam Stein (@samstein) June 11, 2019

Merrick “fucking” Garland says hi

— Molly Jong-Fast (@MollyJongFast) June 11, 2019

I fear that treating those Republicans like flying monkeys just waiting for their witch to melt isn’t really banking on a realistic outcome.

— Schooley (@Rschooley) June 11, 2019

Acting as if defeating Trump will magically turn around the years spent turning state legislatures into bad policy incubators is not only much more naive than what I think Biden really believes, it’s a danger to down ballot Democrats fighting these regressive micreants.

— Schooley (@Rschooley) June 11, 2019

To be fair to Biden, he's right: once a Democrat is President, Republicans will suddenly become extremely interested in oversight, accountability, and impeachment, just like they were from 2008-2016 and 1992-2000.

Why Biden thinks that shows Republican virtue is anyone's guess.

— Max Kennerly (@MaxKennerly) June 11, 2019

Hey, Joe -- Just stick to hammering Trump, please.  Every time this fantasy rolls out, it deflates Dems who've been awake for the last 10 years -- and who "know better."

BONUS:  Betty Cracker at Balloon Juice has a good write-up on this "Trump is an aberration" strategy.

Tweets Of The Day -- It's Still Mueller Time

We scrubbed through the Mueller report and found at least 30 new instances where Trump and his associates had contacts with Russians.

Pick up today's print NYTimes for a two-page graphic that lays out all 140+ contacts. pic.twitter.com/Z18L9UnVPW

— NYT Graphics (@nytgraphics) April 19, 2019

Lawyers tell shady clients to say “I don't recall” instead of yes/no so they can avoid perjury while stonewalling.

Trump responded to Mueller's written questions with “I don't recall” at least 37 times. pic.twitter.com/uIa36ooOhj

— Mrs. Betty Bowers (@BettyBowers) April 20, 2019

“...you don’t even have to be convicted of a crime to lose your job...your conduct as a public official is clearly out of bounds in your role....Impeachment is about restoring honor and integrity to the office." -@LindseyGrahamSC on the standards for Impeachment in 1999 pic.twitter.com/KRPu3TPtYm

— Amee Vanderpool (@girlsreallyrule) April 19, 2019

14 unnamed cases/investigations referred out by Mueller to other US Attorney’s offices. That’s a lot of prosecutions and potentially many new cooperating witnesses. https://t.co/JpURcYVHeU

— Glenn Kirschner (@glennkirschner2) April 19, 2019

Is anyone else worried that many, if not all, of the 12 criminal investigation referrals that we learned about in the report are under the supervision of the now exposed political hack Barr?

— Claire McCaskill (@clairecmc) April 19, 2019

Trump's "total exoneration" sham has collapsed so spectacularly that his allies are now offering straight-up gibberish to try to explain that collapse away:https://t.co/FN8kLXLW8m pic.twitter.com/Q5eu6b3ix8

— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) April 20, 2019

Entire GOP is responsible for enabling and defending this berserk criminal and keeping him in office. https://t.co/WxAhhclsyI

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) April 19, 2019

Monday Reading

As always, please go to the links for the full articles/ op- eds.

David Von Drehle goes over the history of "Don" Trump's mob associations:

Walter Isaacson and Evan Thomas titled their classic group portrait of Harry S. Truman’s foreign policy team, “The Wise Men.” A book about Donald Trump’s associations might be called “The Wise Guys.” [snip] 

If it seems harsh to compare [Paul] Manafort to a mobster, take it up with President Trump, who got the ball rolling with a tweet before the trial began. “Looking back at history, who was treated worse, [Al] Capone, legendary mob boss . . . or Paul Manafort?” Trump mused. 

And the president ought to know: He has spent plenty of time in mobbed-up milieus. As many journalists have documented — the late Wayne Barrett and decorated investigator David Cay Johnston most deeply — Trump’s trail was blazed through one business after another notorious for corruption by organized crime.

Construction, gambling, boxing promotion, luxury real estate:  Trump's mob associations lace through all his businesses, and as Von Drehle notes, is he acting like he's clean?

Dana Milbank looks at the attempt by the likes of Rep. Devin Nunes and his fellow co- conspirators to impeach Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, and the shrinking cast of those who might serve as impeachment managers:

The House Republicans are ideally positioned to sit in judgment of Rosenstein because of their own unimpeachable conduct. So above reproach are they that one of their first votes after swearing in was an attempt to kill the House ethics office. [snip] 

Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-Tex.), an obvious candidate, resigned over his use of public funds to settle a sexual-harassment lawsuit. 

Rep. Pat Meehan (R-Pa.), another ideal choice, resigned after word got out of a sexual-harassment settlement with a staffer the married congressman called his “soul mate.” 

Rep. Tim Murphy (R-Pa.) also can’t be of use. He resigned over allegations that he urged his mistress to seek an abortion. 

Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) likewise won’t be available. He quit when a former aide alleged that he offered her $5 million to have his child as a surrogate.

And the list goes on.  That's just since 2017.

Am the media is learning?

The Boston Globe has been contacting newspaper editorial boards and proposing a "coordinated response" to President Trump's escalating "enemy of the people" rhetoric. 

"We propose to publish an editorial on August 16 on the dangers of the administration's assault on the press and ask others to commit to publishing their own editorials on the same date," The Globe said in its pitch to fellow papers. 

The effort began just a few days ago. 

As of Saturday, "we have more than 100 publications signed up, and I expect that number to grow in the coming days," Marjorie Pritchard, the Globe's deputy editorial page editor, told CNN. 

The American Society of News Editors, the New England Newspaper and Press Association and other groups have helped her spread the word. 

"The response has been overwhelming," Pritchard said. "We have some big newspapers, but the majority are from smaller markets, all enthusiastic about standing up to Trump's assault on journalism."

One day is ... "nice."  Maybe they should consider actions that are not just one- shot wonders to make them feel bold and "relevant," like clearly pointing out in daily reporting what's not normal, what's an outright lie, what's a racist/ sexist/ etc. statement, and so on. That'll really make you bold and relevant, not just feel that way for a day. (Meanwhile, some in the media remain deliberately obtuse -- et tu, CNN?!)

Infidel 753 discusses "Britain's Trump" (and it's not who you might think) and a resurgent sickness in Europe:

For some time now the Labour party has had what is euphemistically described as a "problem" with anti-Semitism, in the form of recurring eruptions of anti-Jewish rhetoric and imagery which then have to be frantically denied, repudiated, or minimized by the leadership -- oddly reminiscent of the "problem" of eruptions of racism in the Republican party here.  [Labour leader Jeremy] Corbyn insists he isn't anti-Semitic, but his attendance at a ceremony honoring members of gangs dedicated to murdering Israeli civilians (and sometimes non-Israeli Jews as well), and some of his other rhetoric, speak for themselves.  The similarity with Trump's frequent verbal "dog whistles" is disturbing.

Many progressives, including us, have significant issues with some of the policies of the right- wing government of Bibi Netanyahu and his Likudniks. What must never happen is for that to bleed into sick anti- Israel/ anti- Semitic bigotry. Ever.

Speaking of Infidel, his link round- up is waiting for you here. Links to lots of interesting topics and discussions for the discerning reader (you!).

Tweets Of The Day - Obstruction

The harder Mueller squeezes the White House and its hyper partisan allies, the louder they blast claims of bias. Much like a whoopee cushion.

— Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) January 24, 2018

There is a difference. A whoopee cushion does not stink. https://t.co/eiIG89flgA

— Norman Ornstein (@NormOrnstein) January 24, 2018

On behalf of historians who'll be writing about this era one day, I'd like to thank @RepMarkMeadows and @RonJohnsonWI for stepping forward to fill the role of "insane partisan hack" in this saga.

Rest assured, gentlemen: Your place in history is secure.

— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) January 24, 2018

Don't forget:

Nunes memo strategy has blessing of @SpeakerRyan.

This has left Dems in position of getting basic facts out to defend career law enforcement professionals against smear campaigns that are backed by GOP leaders and are designed to shield Trump from accountability. https://t.co/dMRPeR1EG2

— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) January 24, 2018

That was a hell of a pro-Clinton conspiracy the Obama Administration, Comey and the FBI we’re engaged in, which culminated in Comey tipping the election ten days out...to Trump.

— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) January 24, 2018

Republicans Ramp Up Mueller Investigation Obstruction With Insane Conspiracies (UPDATED)

As Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation gets closer to un- indicted co- conspirator Donald "Rump" Trump, Republicans and their water- carriers in the right- wing media are getting ever more frantic to assist Rump in obstructing justice. This has taken the tack in recent months of more and more insane efforts to discredit Mueller, the FBI and the Justice Department.

You have the evil but incompetent Rep. Devin "Sherlock" Nunes (R-CA), whose staff wrote a laughable "memo" supposedly detailing improper conduct by the FBI (this is the #releasethememo nothingburger that is more valuable being hidden than being subjected to the light of day):

Republican members have trumpeted the secret document as full of shocking information about FBI misconduct. But Nunes seems to be in no hurry for the document to see the light of day. His failure to make it public—or even share his findings with the Justice Department or FBI for their feedback—evokes his effort last spring to divert focus from suspicious contacts between the Trump campaign and Russia by ginning up a counter-controversy over the “unmasking” of surveillance targets. He never provided any evidence to back up his allegations of wrongdoing, and after reviewing classified material that Nunes touted, both Democrats and Republicans said his claims did not hold water.  (our emphasis)

Again, not that holding water has much to do with the intended effect, which is to sow doubt and distrust. Nunes likely has some skin in the obstruction game, since he was part of Rump's transition team and, therefore, potentially aware of some of the collusion taking place with Russian agents. Moreover, Russian bots have been hyping the phony story via social media, making the dot connection rather easy.

Lately, you also have the related "FBI secret society" nuttery being flogged by -- wait for it -- Fox "News."  The contagion has already spread to one of our dumbest Senators, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin:

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) said Tuesday that the missing text messages between two FBI officials is just further evidence of “corruption” within the FBI and claimed without evidence that top-level agency officials held “secret society” meetings off-site after the election. 

“What this is all about is further evidence of corruption,” he told Fox News Tuesday. 

“It’s more than bias, but corruption at the highest levels of the FBI and that secret society, we have an informant that is talking about a group that were holding secret meetings off-site. There is so much smoke here, there is so much suspicion.”  (our emphasis)

So much smoke, so much suspicion! -- all of which being generated by Nunes, Johnson, Fox "News" and their legions of fellow travelers. You can bet any "secret meetings off- site after the election" were to figure out how to deal with the fact that a Russian asset was just "elected" president.

Meanwhile, it's clear that the closer Mueller is getting to the Oval Office, the more these party- before- country Republicans will be baying their ever more mad scenarios to their fevered base. Sadly, our media will likely be "reporting the controversy" without making clear how this despicable behavior undermines our democratic institutions and the rule of law.

UPDATE:  The "secret society" has now been revealed to be the joke it always was. Sad!

Today's Cartoon - How Republicans Roll

(click on image to enlarge)


(Jen Sorensen, via gocomics.com)

Why You Should Vote Straight Ticket Democrat, Cont.

We're seeing more and more reasons why voting a straight Democratic ticket is the only option to restore some measure of sanity to our federal government.  This remains a good reason. And this. Here's another:

Jason Chaffetz, the Utah congressman wrapping up his first term atop the powerful House Oversight Committee, unendorsed Donald Trump weeks ago. That freed him up to prepare for something else: spending years, come January, probing the record of a President Hillary Clinton. 

“It’s a target-rich environment,” the Republican said in an interview in Salt Lake City’s suburbs. “Even before we get to Day One, we’ve got two years’ worth of material already lined up. She has four years of history at the State Department, and it ain’t good.” 

In a tweet Wednesday night, Chaffetz reaffirmed his distaste for Clinton and his refusal to endorse Trump — but reversed his plans not to vote for the Republican nominee. 

If Republicans retain control of the House, something that GOP-friendly maps make possible even in the event of a Trump loss, Clinton will become the first president since George H.W. Bush to immediately face a House Oversight Committee controlled by the opposition party. (Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama lost Congress later in their presidencies.) 

And other Republican leaders say they support Chaffetz’s efforts — raising the specter of more partisan acrimony between them and the White House for the next four years.

That would be the same publicity hound Rep. Jason "Clouseau" Chaffetz who made a fool of himself this past summer in his quest to kneecap Secretary Clinton with FBI Director (and lifelong Republican) James Comey playing the uncooperative witness.  He also likes to bully women who testify before his committee, again with disastrous results. So, planning more witch hunts seems like a recipe for further humiliation for young Jason.

Of course, Chaffetz and his fellow nihilistic troglodytes are only concerned with doing their part to obstruct and delegitimatize yet another Democratic president. (He's too much of a spineless coward to stand up to neo- fascist nitwit Donald "Rump" Trump, but he's ruff and tuff when it comes to his plans to hamstring a future President Clinton!) Since he and many of his colleagues are in deep red states or are gerrymandered into safe seats by Republican state legislatures, they have nothing to lose and everything to gain by once again refusing to be part of a functioning government. Does that sound like something you want for another 4 to 8 years?

But, while it's unlikely Democrats will pick up enough seats to win back the House (the average predicted is 8 - 12 seats, not the 30 needed), it's still within the realm of possibility.  What matters is turnout, the margin of Clinton's victory (over 8% could flip the House), and whether those Clinton voters vote straight Democratic ticket.  We hope enough people are tired of the games being played that undercut democratic governance and harm us as a nation to vote Republicans out. The problem goes way beyond Rump and needs to be rooted out, one election at a time.

BONUS: Jamelle Bouie's smart take on this: "The Republican Party has decided to react to Trump by recreating the conditions for another Trump."

Republican Nihilism And The Rise Of Trump

Paul Waldman:

...[T]he Republican willingness — indeed, eagerness — to abandon traditional norms of governing has crippled our political system.

While others might locate a different starting point, I'd argue that the seminal moment of this trend was the "Brooks Brothers riot" that occurred on November 19, 2000, during the counting of the disputed votes in Florida. Worried that election officials recounting votes in Miami-Dade county might produce a result favorable to Al Gore, Republicans sent congressional staffers posing as ordinary Floridians to the offices where the counting was taking place. They proceeded to shout, pound on doors, and generally intimidate the election officials, who eventually became so frightened for their safety that they stopped the counting.

That was just one particularly vivid incident in a remarkable story, in which the election came down to a state governed by the Republican candidate's brother, where the Republican candidate's state co-chair was also the state's chief election official, where the two of them had engineered a "purge" of voter rolls that had disenfranchised thousands of legitimate voters, and where the counting was eventually stopped by five Republican members of the Supreme Court, in what was one of the most absurd and shameful decisions in its history.  [snip]

...[T]he people who have come to dominate the Republican caucuses in the House and Senate arrived in Washington not to make laws, but to tear the institutions of government down. So it's quite alright with them if nothing in Washington works — after all, that only validates their argument to voters that government can't do anything right, and what we should do is continue to undermine it and strip away its protections wherever we can. [snip]

Where does this all lead? To Donald Trump.

When your party proves again and again that it treats governing like a joke, you wind up picking a joke of a candidate to be your nominee for president.

We've left plenty of meat out.  The entire article deserves a read.

Why We Desperately Need A Democratic Senate In 2017

It just gets worse and worse.

Not only is the Senate Republican "leadership" saying they wouldn't bother to meet with a Supreme Court nominee of President Obama's, much less give them a hearing or an up or down vote, Sen. Mitch "Missy McConnell now says the same might be true if a Democrat is elected President in November and the Senate stays in Republican hands!  Tom Levenson expresses our thoughts:

I didn’t think that anything the GOP could do — especially an act as predictable as this — would do more than deepen my weary sense of “they are who we thought they were.” But this feels like a last straw. I’m just done with allowing any framing of this as “just politics” or what have you. I and a majority of my fellow citizens voted President Obama into office twice. The disrespect to him is something he can handle (better than I ever would). But it’s the delegitimizing of my vote, my choice, my place in American democracy that has just gotta stop. The current Republican Party has to be destroyed, root and branch. They are blight on policy, and a boil on the body politic. Time for them to go.

We all know what we need to do by electing a Democratic President.  But that won't do us much good in the face of unprecedented, un- democratic Republican rule in the Senate.  We need to flip that dysfunctional chamber in order to restore some semblance of a working democracy in America. 

Let's start here:  among the most vulnerable Republican Senators hacks up for reelection in November are Ron Johnson (WI), Kelly Ayotte (NH), Ron Kirk (IL), Patrick Toomey (PA) and Rob Portman (OH).  If you're in a position to work for the Democrats opposing them, please do so with all your energy.  If you can donate to any or all of their opponents, please do so, because it will increase the chances of a Democratic Senate in 2017.  Even if you have a Republican Senator who isn't on this list but is running for reelection this year, do whatever you can to retire him/her.  As Levenson says, they're a "boil on the body politic," each and every one of them.

Here are links to Democrats' campaign pages (where there's a leading Democratic challenger):

Russ Feingold (WI)

Maggie Hassan (NH)

Tammy Duckworth (IL)

Ted Strickland (OH)

BONUS:  Nancy LeTourneau has the list of the Republicans' unprecedented abuse of the President and the Constitution.

House Rethugs In Disarray Over DHS Funding

Yesterday's last minute vote to fund the Department of Homeland Security for a week shows the weakness of Weeper of the House John "Mr. Tangerine Man" Boehner in controlling the rabidly anti-Government tide within his party caucus.  Instead of adopting the Senate's clean funding bill that separated out the DHS' funding from the right-wing's latest great cause, blocking humane immigration actions by the President, the wingers held firm and only allowed one week of funding.  This will insure the clown show's continuation into March, while more Americans see how reckless the radical Rethuglicans are in dealing with homeland safety and security.

(photo:  "My own caucus gave me a boo-boo")

Morning Reading - Krugman On The Economic Recovery

Paul Krugman talks about the recent strong job numbers and the economic success story that's emerging, but wants us to know it didn't have to take so long to get here:

 ... We could have had a much faster recovery if the U.S. government had ramped up public investment and put more money in the hands of families likely to spend it. But the Obama stimulus was much too small and short-lived — as many of us warned, in advance, it would be — and since 2010 what we have actually seen, thanks to scorched-earth Republican opposition on all fronts, are unprecedented cutbacks in government spending, especially investment, and in government employment.

Also, contrary to the media-amplified phony Republican talking points that President Obama's "anti-business" posture stymied economic growth, Krugman points out:

...[W]e can now say with confidence that the recovery’s weakness had nothing to do with Mr. Obama’s (falsely) alleged anti-business slant. What it reflected, instead, was the damage done by government paralysis — paralysis that has, alas, richly rewarded the very politicians who caused it.

That would be Republican politicians, of course, over to whom a deeply ignorant and malicious slice of voters have turned the legislative branch of government (see "What You Get..." below).

BONUS:   The Republican vandals continue to vandalize.

"Ideology And Investment" - The Cost Of Republican Extremism

(click to enlarge)

(Tom Toles, once great Washington Post Bezos Bugle)

We promise to not pair a Tom Toles cartoon with a commentary again, at least for a few days. But Toles must have read Paul Krugman's op/ed in the New York Times on "Ideology and Investment." Here are a few worthy excerpts:

America used to be a country that built for the future. Sometimes the government built directly: Public projects, from the Erie Canal to the Interstate Highway System, provided the backbone for economic growth. Sometimes it provided incentives to the private sector, like land grants to spur railroad construction. Either way, there was broad support for spending that would make us richer. 

But nowadays we simply won’t invest, even when the need is obvious and the timing couldn’t be better. And don’t tell me that the problem is “political dysfunction” or some other weasel phrase that diffuses the blame. Our inability to invest doesn’t reflect something wrong with “Washington”; it reflects the destructive ideology that has taken over the Republican Party.  [snip]

Yet this didn’t have to happen. The federal government could easily have provided aid to the states to help them spend — in fact, the stimulus bill included such aid, which was one main reason public investment briefly increased. But once the G.O.P. took control of the House, any chance of more money for infrastructure vanished. Once in a while Republicans would talk about wanting to spend more, but they blocked every Obama administration initiative.

And it’s all about ideology, an overwhelming hostility to government spending of any kind. This hostility began as an attack on social programs, especially those that aid the poor, but over time it has broadened into opposition to any kind of spending, no matter how necessary and no matter what the state of the economy.  (our emphasis)

That so many voters appear unaware of the danger, much less the existence of this destructive Republican ideology is, of course, appalling in 21st Century America.  Never mind the cranks, crackpots, racists and know-nothings that comprise the base of the Republican Party;  they'll vote for anyone -- even diaper-wearing fetishists =cough= Vitter =cough= and adulterers =cough= Sanford =cough= -- if there's an "R" next to their name on a ballot.  No, we mean the disengaged, distracted voter who, like the cat in Bill Maher's bit below, responds to the least substantive, most superficial impulses in deciding whether to vote, and for whom.  And so, the vandals and cynics get elected by a minority of motivated knuckle-draggers in combination with the marginally sentient, and the downward spiral continues.

It's a problem in American democracy that's only made worse by a media that caters to the worst instincts of the average voter.

UPDATE:  Case in point for the last observation - this Joni Ernst "tongue-bath" by the increasingly un-readable national news section of the once great Washington Post Bezos Bugle.

Time To Do The Right Thing On Immigration, And Damn The Right-Wingers

The New York Times:

If Mr. Obama acts, as he should, and the right wing explodes, it will be worth taking time to consider what Senator Jeff Sessions, Representative Steve King and their hard-core colleagues and allies would have Mr. Obama do. For them, the right number of unauthorized immigrants to welcome is zero; the right time is never. They would let the system rot in place, to maintain the fiction that the country can deport its way to lawfulness. Their dishonesty is repellent, as is their blindness to the lawless status quo, and to the cruelty of denying the hopes of millions whose labor is welcomed but whose humanity is not. 

Mr. Obama’s critics in Congress belong to a branch of government that has chosen to do nothing constructive about immigration — not even to resolve this summer’s crisis of migrant children at the border, which they looked at and punted on, before going on vacation. This is, after all, an election year. They have abandoned a difficult job to the care of Mr. Obama. They are in no position to complain when he does it.

The obstructionist Republican/ New Confederate right-wingers will complain if the President does nothing and they'll complain if he does something.  The President has broad authority on immigration policy, and he should not be afraid to do the right thing.

It's not really about the policy.  It's about a Democrat being in the White House. Oh, and did we mention he's African-American, too?  That's what really chaffs them.  It would drive them nuts if they weren't nuts already.

President's Weekly Address - Expanding Opportunity (And Republican Obstruction)

Here's one of several money quotes:

I’ve taken actions to attract new jobs, lift workers’ wages, help students pay off their loans, and more. And the Republican plan right now is not to do some of this work with me—instead, it’s to sue me. That’s actually what they’re spending their time on. It’s a political stunt that’s going to waste months of America’s time. And by the way, they’re going to pay for it using your hard-earned tax dollars.

The basis for Weeper of the House John "Mr. Tangerine Man" Boehner's threatened law suit?  The President's failure to implement the Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare") quickly enough. Hawhawhaw.

Asymmetric Quote of the Day

"Republicans have become a radical insurgency—ideologically extreme, contemptuous of the inherited policy regime, scornful of compromise, unpersuaded by conventional understanding of facts, evidence, and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of their political opposition. The evidence of this asymmetry is overwhelming." -- Brookings Institution's Thomas Mann, discussing the blatant dishonesty of the Beltway media's "blame both sides" / "false equivalency" story line.  Read Mann's article here, and understand how extremist Republican obstruction is harming the U.S. with the tacit complicity of our broken media.

(h/t to Daily Kos)

7 Million and Counting

As we noted earlier, there are now a confirmed 7-million-plus enrollees in Obamacare, and the numbers are rising as people who had started the application process in the HealthCare.gov system by the deadline are taking advantage of extended enrollment time.  Far from what the Republicans have been calling a "train wreck," Obamacare has overcome a near-disastrous kick-off and is beginning to function the way it was intended.   Most importantly, people who were one operation or diagnosis away from bankruptcy can now get affordable health insurance.  Seven million people (and counting) will have a little more peace of mind, and better health care, thanks to this "train wreck" the Republicans have been so desperate to stop.  Once this nascent success story has a chance to mature and sink in, enrollment during the next open period in November will be something to watch.  Repeal that, suckers! (And, yes, we know the fight is never over.)

Meanwhile, Michael Hiltzik at the L.A. Times has a guide to Republican excuse-making that's worth a read (and a little schadenfreude, too).

BONUS:  Inside and outside the right-wing reality bubble.

Sen. Mitch "Missy" McConnell (Endangered Turtle - KY) bubble world:

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said that “millions of Americans [are] facing higher premiums, canceled plans and the loss of doctors and hospitals they liked as a result of this law.” Once again, he called for it to be scrapped.

Real world:

Obamacare has cut Kentucky's uninsured population by more than 40 percent, signing up roughly 360,000 residents since enrollment opened up on Oct. 1, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal. 

Some 75 percent of them -- 270,000 -- were previously uninsured. That means Kentucky's uninsured population of 640,000 has come down by 42 percent. 

Sunday Reading - Reactions, Anyone?

Here are a few items worth reading today, both bearing on how reactionary right-wing politics are playing out.

First, Steven Perlstein on the recent attempt by the United Auto Workers to unionize a Volkswagen plant in Tennessee, and the fierce push-back by Republicans and fellow 19th Century thinkers:

The success of this [business friendly] model stoked a rising standard of living across much of the Southeast that has become more cosmopolitan and better educated. Yet despite this business-friendly environment, incomes in the region still lag those of the North and West, while unemployment rates in many states are higher than the national average. And those once-grateful and -docile workers are beginning to notice — even in right-to-work states such as Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama and South Carolina, where union membership grew by 19 percent or more last year — the fastest rates in the country.  

The political and economic melodrama playing out in Chattanooga has revealed that a bit of the old plantation mentality lives on among Southern business and political elites. In the faster-growing and more prosperous regional economies of the North and West, companies are trying to boost performance by increasing employee engagement and empowerment, not suppressing it. Their business strategies are based not on assuring a steady supply of cheap labor but on increasing the number of highly paid and highly skilled workers. Rather than trying to nullify federal labor law and crush what remains of the much-diminished union movement, these companies, like VW, are looking at new models of workplace cooperation and collaboration.  (our emphasis)

Perlstein's piece gives a pretty good overview of the hypocrisy (shocking!) of these right-wingers, but somehow fails to mention why unions (and the UAW in particular) drive the crackpots into a frothing frenzy: labor unions are a pillar of the Democratic Party. So, they'll do whatever they can to forestall, weaken or rollback union incursions into their "plantation."  It's a good read, regardless.

Next up is a piece by Fareed Zakaria, which only could have been written by someone who has just awakened from a 5-year long coma:

I have been described as a centrist. And I freely admit to believing that neither side of the political spectrum has a monopoly on wisdom or virtue. But sometimes, reality points firmly in one direction. Watching the machinations in Washington over the past two weeks, it is now impossible to talk about how both political parties are to blame for the country’s gridlock.

Zakaria notes the cynical/ fearful maneuvering on the immigration reform bill and fingers the party guilty of gridlock (fasten your seat belts!):

And yet it couldn’t get past the central problem in Washington today: the extreme and obstructionist faction within the Republican Party. 

Welcome at long last to reality, Fareed!

Speaking of reality, here's an excellent article by Kim Messick about the struggle in the Republican Party between the "modernists" and the "libertarian fabulists:"

Its virulent alienation from modern life is the foundational fact about the American Right. (It can be argued, of course, that this kind of animus is at the heart of right-wing movements generally.) Once we see this, we can understand both its paranoia and its sense of victimization — as well as its stridency and shrillness. We can also understand its tortured relationship with the “reality-based community” — with the idea that beliefs should be checked against facts, not facts against beliefs. The Right reverses the epistemic order of modern thought: it deduces reality from theory, not theory from reality. Its ontology is as faith-based as its social policy, and has to be. [snip]

Under the influence of the Tea Party and its allies in the media, the Republican Party no longer seeks to govern with caution and realism. It seeks to bring back a lost world. This has created a politics in which policy disputes are simply proxy fights in a much deeper, more fundamental campaign: a war of worldviews. Is it any wonder that the present Congress is on track to be the least productive in the history of the nation? To collaborate constructively, parties must regard each other as legitimate actors within a political system whose structural principles they generally endorse (or at least accept). This condition is not satisfied when one party, under the influence of a revolutionary faction, recoils from basic features of that system. In such cases it will consider those who operate (and cooperate) within the system to be dupes (at best) or traitors (at worst). Constructive collaboration becomes impossible, and politics unravels into paranoia, paralysis and suspicion. Sound familiar?  

Why, yes.  Yes it does.

Boehner Agrees to "Clean" Debt Ceiling Bill

In a big defeat for Teapublicans, Weeper of the House John "Mr. Tangerine Man" Boehner announced this morning that they will bring a "clean" bill to raise the debt ceiling in the House tomorrow.  Boehner indicated that the bill would be supported by a minority of Rethugs and a majority of Dems, thus breaking the "Hastert Rule" that any bill brought in the Rethug-controlled House would have to be supported by a majority of Rethugs.  There are already calls from well-financed teabagger organizations for Boehner to step down as Speaker.

Public opinion has been against both the Government shutdown of last fall and the repeated budget hostage taking by the Rethugs over raising the debt limit (i.e., paying the bills you've already incurred).  While some teabaggers like Sen. Ted "Tailgunner Ted" Cruz and his sidekick Sen. Mike "Mini-me" Lee think that defaulting on the national debt and/or closing the Government is a great idea, most Americans living in the real world are tired of the obstruction and extortion.  The Rethug threats boomeranged on them, and remind us a bit of this classic scene from "Blazing Saddles":