A travel ban period is non-sense. The precedent was set in the beginning. Remember the crush back from Europe? We did not travel ban Ebola. We tested everybody coming and going and brought the sick to University Nebraska Omaha Medical Center for quarantine. I remember this because I worked down the block from the hospital at the time. Always and forever from the beginning, testing, testing, testing. You DO NOT fight an enemy you CAN NOT see. You get beat down by an invisible enemy. Why shut down with no testing? Pointless. You are just blowing any time bought through shut-downs. Masking? Sure, I Love disguises. But all you do is slow down the inevitable with no testing. Vaccines are awesome and wow do awards and monies roll in. But what we need. IS A MIRACLE TESTING SYSTEM. A reliable, easy to administer, easily accessible testing apparatus dreamed up by the best minds in the world.
I had planned to cite so many Scriptures refuting MTG. She has hijacked a sense of righteousness, purity, godliness, Christlikeness.
She exhibits no grace, mercy, humility, sense of godly justice.
No amount of social media photos of her baking in her kitchen, reading her Bible in a chair with soft lamplight, or in a library of law books can redeem her image of a bomb throwing, destructive bully, a soul sister of Steve Bannon…determined to destroy.
She has no respect for duly elected authority. No respect for the rule of law. No desire for decency or peace.
She is ravenous for power. She is dangerous. She is a thuggish bully. She is energized by McCarthy’s impotence.
You're worried that MTG could be the Speaker? Worry anew! There is nothing in the Constitution that requires the Speaker of the House to be an incumbent member of the House. Imagine a worse nightmare instead. Speaker T***p?
But better than worry is to do everything in our power to teach potential voters exactly what each party plans to do, how they and their communities will be affected by policies and laws. Use the wide reach of the Bulwark to teach citizens that their Constitution was written to give its people justice, domestic tranquility - which requires justice for all citizens, to promote our general welfare (which includes protecting our collective water and environment, our collective health - hence vaccinations) and without these few of us can secure the "Blessings of Liberty."
It is critical that publications such as the Bulwark support democracy by giving citizens and voters you are trying to reach hope. Teach voters who want their government to truly protect and defend them that they should not sit out the 2022 elections, that now is the time to get registered and ensure they have any documents their state requires of voters, that independent and fair-minded people will attend each voting location to ensure proper voting procedures that can withstand the inevitable challenges, that each Congress may not accomplish everything on the leading party's agenda. Still, each vote does matter, and the larger the majority of the leading party in BOTH houses, the more likely it is that a ruling party can enact more of its agenda.
I have said here in the past that most contemporary American politics falls into the realm of performance art, more than about actual governing. This is the result of the perverse incentives and structure of our system.
Both sides do this. It is basically a requirement for political survival these days.
Now, before you get all both-sidery on me, there is a key difference between even the performance art of the two sides:
The Democrats performance art is almost always about trying to help people, particularly people who find themselves on the wrong end of the economy or the wrong end of culture--the poor, women, racial minorities, non-Christians, the differently gendered.
GoP performance art is about stepping on these people's faces, with hobnailed boots... and this from, supposedly, a "Christian" oriented party. Maybe they don't really understand Christianity?
There is another important difference...
The Democrats actually try and govern and solve problems. You may not like or agree with their solutions or approaches--but at least they have them and they think about them. They even talk about them enough to bore you to tears.
The GoP has little actual interest in governing. What few solutions they do have to problems are overly simplistic and ineffectual and somehow seem to end up in some form of fairly open and visible graft (at least these days). That's if the Donald doesn't change his mind after talking to the latest kook that has his ear and change things out of the blue..
The only thing that the GoP actually DOES seem to have is the performance art... but apparently that is enough these days.
But at least the taxes are lower, eh?
Remember, in the end, that you get what you pay for. Taxes buy civilization. More cops, better trained cops, faster courts, emergency services, roads, clean water.. the list is pretty long... and invisible until you actually need it... or it goes away.
Again, you get what you pay for. There is no free lunch.
Apparently neither the GoP nor its supporters are actually all that interested in civilization. Unless they can turn a few bucks off it themselves even if they do not actually deliver on it.
Do you want a non-governing government that stokes fear and hate and oppression or do you want a government that is trying to do the right things--even if badly or not quite in the way you like? Policy can be fixed or changed--hatred and oppression and fear are something different.
ABC's take on the Mississippi abortion law, i.er. "Mississippi's near-total abortion ban," is more than a bit misleading. It's a "near-total abortion ban" AFTER 15 weeks. About 95% of abortions, maybe more, happen in the first 15 weeks. (I am estimating because I haven't seen the numbers broken down at 15 weeks. The numbers I've seen are 90% of abortions in the first trimester, 10% in the second, less than 1% in the third. At 15 weeks, you're nearly a month into the second trimester.)
I'm not convinced abortion, even if Roe is overturned, is going to be a great issue for Democrats in 2022. I think the most likely result of the SCT case is Roe and the arbitrary reliance on viability is scrapped, but the Court draws a new line earlier in the pregnancy which precludes many of those second trimester abortions states are required to allow b/c of Roe, but which are highly unpopular with the public. (I think the Court may also say exceptions for rape, incest, life of the mother must be allowed after 15 weeks.) After that new line which replaces viability states can legislate. Thomas and Alito will file a concurrence saying the Court should have gone further and simply turn the issue over to states w/o the new line limiting its authority. Breyer, Sotomayor and Kagan will dissent saying Roe should not be overturned and the viability standard created by Roe's progeny should remain.
For nearly 50 years I've listened to the media drumbeat that the abortion issue is good for Democrats. Then the Republicans have gone out and beaten the Ds on the issue nearly every election. Quite simply, pro life voters vote on the issue, while pro choice voters often have other priorities. I realize overturning Roe might change those dynamics, but it the issue becomes about those unpopular second trimester abortions...well that's not a good terrain for Democrats to fight.
My analysis assumes that the Court draws a new line. If the Court instead overturns Roe and its progeny, but doesn't draw a new line, instead turning the issue over to the states, that would be the best political environment for the Democrats. I just have doubts the Court goes that far. Not that I couldn't make an argument that abortion should have been an issue completely left to the states from the get go. Just as a practical matter, the Court doing that at this point would be too big of a disruption. The Court likes to take incremental steps.
What is not discussed at all in the media is that if the Mississippi 15 week line is drawn by the Court as the new standard, we are talking very few abortions being "banned." I estimated 5% of abortions are post-15 weeks. But remember this new SCT line would be a floor, not a ceiling. States could always allow abortions after 15 weeks if they so choose. In the most populous states, such as California and New York, they would opt to allow abortion much later in the pregnancy. Thus, at the end of the day, you might be talking maybe 3% of abortions, or less, ultimately affected by the Court's decision. The sky is hardly falling.
The Mean Girl Caucus is the gift that keeps on giving. (On behalf of thinking, well adjusted females, I would like to say that unlike some others....looking at you R's that don't do nuance, I am not the least bit bothered by these female idiots.)
I have long suspected that many people never progress past middle school. The citizens that voted for these idiots should be ashamed and embarrassed, but alas, most of them are likely happy with their choice, if not proud. Coddling the uninformed, uneducated, rubes has led us to this point. Close to 40 years of rightwing talking heads on radio and tv cultivated this nonsense and now we are paying the price.
I have no issue with experts, the highly educated, the "elite" as it were and I think calling out ignorant people, be they men or women, is absolutely necessary.
I'm really not into women's mud wrestling as a voyeuristic sport. I've gotten the message--loud and clear from Bulwark--that GOP is NOT a serious political party. Do you really have to cover political porn?
Regarding the discussion on revising Covid protocols before and after an international flight into the U.S. -- given that Covid continues to evolve, I'd not argue about taking a test a day before a flight and within a few days after, just to be sure. But the idea of quarantining sounds like a bridge too far for me as someone who's been both vaccinated and boosted. I'd be surprised if the administration adds a mandatory quarantine.
The Greene/Mace Twitter spat yesterday was incredibly stupid but emblematic of where the Republican Party stands today. To start, there is not much daylight on the conservative principles and Greene and Mace hold. But there's one important distinction: Nancy Mace feels interests and obligations in her politics that don't revolve around Donald Trump. And in the party personality cult, that's an expellable offense.
To compound this, Mace represents South Carolina's 1st Congressional District, which is Charleston and the surrounding areas. The district only went for Trump by 6% in 2020. Probably safe for Mace in 2022, but maybe not in 2024, especially if Charleston grows. So if the rivalry lasts Greene is doing what Trumpers do best, scaring the suburbs over to the other side.
I admire Mace's willingness to defend herself. But she also seems not to have realized that Greene is the sort of candidate most Republican primary voters want. If I were her I'd get out while the getting is good.
Just a reminder about what separates media on the right from all other media: Chris Cuomo is out of a job, because the extent to which he was helping out his own brother, the Governor of New York, was discovered, and this presented a potential conflict that compromised his ability to do his job with objectivity.
Sean Hannity, who has the same time slot as Cuomo, was on the road headlining campaign events for Donald Trump in 2016.
It's some years hence, but I recall Keith Olbermann being fired from MSNBC, I think when he also held this time slot (it was either 8pm or 9pm) because it was discovered he made donations to Democrats.
On one side, there is real accountability. On the other, with Tucker and Sean, the inmates truly run the asylum. Both sides are confronted with perverse incentives in how they make their money, but they are not equal.
A travel ban period is non-sense. The precedent was set in the beginning. Remember the crush back from Europe? We did not travel ban Ebola. We tested everybody coming and going and brought the sick to University Nebraska Omaha Medical Center for quarantine. I remember this because I worked down the block from the hospital at the time. Always and forever from the beginning, testing, testing, testing. You DO NOT fight an enemy you CAN NOT see. You get beat down by an invisible enemy. Why shut down with no testing? Pointless. You are just blowing any time bought through shut-downs. Masking? Sure, I Love disguises. But all you do is slow down the inevitable with no testing. Vaccines are awesome and wow do awards and monies roll in. But what we need. IS A MIRACLE TESTING SYSTEM. A reliable, easy to administer, easily accessible testing apparatus dreamed up by the best minds in the world.
I had planned to cite so many Scriptures refuting MTG. She has hijacked a sense of righteousness, purity, godliness, Christlikeness.
She exhibits no grace, mercy, humility, sense of godly justice.
No amount of social media photos of her baking in her kitchen, reading her Bible in a chair with soft lamplight, or in a library of law books can redeem her image of a bomb throwing, destructive bully, a soul sister of Steve Bannon…determined to destroy.
She has no respect for duly elected authority. No respect for the rule of law. No desire for decency or peace.
She is ravenous for power. She is dangerous. She is a thuggish bully. She is energized by McCarthy’s impotence.
She will not stop.
You're worried that MTG could be the Speaker? Worry anew! There is nothing in the Constitution that requires the Speaker of the House to be an incumbent member of the House. Imagine a worse nightmare instead. Speaker T***p?
But better than worry is to do everything in our power to teach potential voters exactly what each party plans to do, how they and their communities will be affected by policies and laws. Use the wide reach of the Bulwark to teach citizens that their Constitution was written to give its people justice, domestic tranquility - which requires justice for all citizens, to promote our general welfare (which includes protecting our collective water and environment, our collective health - hence vaccinations) and without these few of us can secure the "Blessings of Liberty."
It is critical that publications such as the Bulwark support democracy by giving citizens and voters you are trying to reach hope. Teach voters who want their government to truly protect and defend them that they should not sit out the 2022 elections, that now is the time to get registered and ensure they have any documents their state requires of voters, that independent and fair-minded people will attend each voting location to ensure proper voting procedures that can withstand the inevitable challenges, that each Congress may not accomplish everything on the leading party's agenda. Still, each vote does matter, and the larger the majority of the leading party in BOTH houses, the more likely it is that a ruling party can enact more of its agenda.
Don't whine! Teach! Organize! Vote!
I have said here in the past that most contemporary American politics falls into the realm of performance art, more than about actual governing. This is the result of the perverse incentives and structure of our system.
Both sides do this. It is basically a requirement for political survival these days.
Now, before you get all both-sidery on me, there is a key difference between even the performance art of the two sides:
The Democrats performance art is almost always about trying to help people, particularly people who find themselves on the wrong end of the economy or the wrong end of culture--the poor, women, racial minorities, non-Christians, the differently gendered.
GoP performance art is about stepping on these people's faces, with hobnailed boots... and this from, supposedly, a "Christian" oriented party. Maybe they don't really understand Christianity?
There is another important difference...
The Democrats actually try and govern and solve problems. You may not like or agree with their solutions or approaches--but at least they have them and they think about them. They even talk about them enough to bore you to tears.
The GoP has little actual interest in governing. What few solutions they do have to problems are overly simplistic and ineffectual and somehow seem to end up in some form of fairly open and visible graft (at least these days). That's if the Donald doesn't change his mind after talking to the latest kook that has his ear and change things out of the blue..
The only thing that the GoP actually DOES seem to have is the performance art... but apparently that is enough these days.
But at least the taxes are lower, eh?
Remember, in the end, that you get what you pay for. Taxes buy civilization. More cops, better trained cops, faster courts, emergency services, roads, clean water.. the list is pretty long... and invisible until you actually need it... or it goes away.
Again, you get what you pay for. There is no free lunch.
Apparently neither the GoP nor its supporters are actually all that interested in civilization. Unless they can turn a few bucks off it themselves even if they do not actually deliver on it.
Do you want a non-governing government that stokes fear and hate and oppression or do you want a government that is trying to do the right things--even if badly or not quite in the way you like? Policy can be fixed or changed--hatred and oppression and fear are something different.
ABC's take on the Mississippi abortion law, i.er. "Mississippi's near-total abortion ban," is more than a bit misleading. It's a "near-total abortion ban" AFTER 15 weeks. About 95% of abortions, maybe more, happen in the first 15 weeks. (I am estimating because I haven't seen the numbers broken down at 15 weeks. The numbers I've seen are 90% of abortions in the first trimester, 10% in the second, less than 1% in the third. At 15 weeks, you're nearly a month into the second trimester.)
I'm not convinced abortion, even if Roe is overturned, is going to be a great issue for Democrats in 2022. I think the most likely result of the SCT case is Roe and the arbitrary reliance on viability is scrapped, but the Court draws a new line earlier in the pregnancy which precludes many of those second trimester abortions states are required to allow b/c of Roe, but which are highly unpopular with the public. (I think the Court may also say exceptions for rape, incest, life of the mother must be allowed after 15 weeks.) After that new line which replaces viability states can legislate. Thomas and Alito will file a concurrence saying the Court should have gone further and simply turn the issue over to states w/o the new line limiting its authority. Breyer, Sotomayor and Kagan will dissent saying Roe should not be overturned and the viability standard created by Roe's progeny should remain.
For nearly 50 years I've listened to the media drumbeat that the abortion issue is good for Democrats. Then the Republicans have gone out and beaten the Ds on the issue nearly every election. Quite simply, pro life voters vote on the issue, while pro choice voters often have other priorities. I realize overturning Roe might change those dynamics, but it the issue becomes about those unpopular second trimester abortions...well that's not a good terrain for Democrats to fight.
My analysis assumes that the Court draws a new line. If the Court instead overturns Roe and its progeny, but doesn't draw a new line, instead turning the issue over to the states, that would be the best political environment for the Democrats. I just have doubts the Court goes that far. Not that I couldn't make an argument that abortion should have been an issue completely left to the states from the get go. Just as a practical matter, the Court doing that at this point would be too big of a disruption. The Court likes to take incremental steps.
What is not discussed at all in the media is that if the Mississippi 15 week line is drawn by the Court as the new standard, we are talking very few abortions being "banned." I estimated 5% of abortions are post-15 weeks. But remember this new SCT line would be a floor, not a ceiling. States could always allow abortions after 15 weeks if they so choose. In the most populous states, such as California and New York, they would opt to allow abortion much later in the pregnancy. Thus, at the end of the day, you might be talking maybe 3% of abortions, or less, ultimately affected by the Court's decision. The sky is hardly falling.
LOL I just heard Ana Navarro on CNN call MTG a "Bigot Barbie" so perfect
The Mean Girl Caucus is the gift that keeps on giving. (On behalf of thinking, well adjusted females, I would like to say that unlike some others....looking at you R's that don't do nuance, I am not the least bit bothered by these female idiots.)
I have long suspected that many people never progress past middle school. The citizens that voted for these idiots should be ashamed and embarrassed, but alas, most of them are likely happy with their choice, if not proud. Coddling the uninformed, uneducated, rubes has led us to this point. Close to 40 years of rightwing talking heads on radio and tv cultivated this nonsense and now we are paying the price.
I have no issue with experts, the highly educated, the "elite" as it were and I think calling out ignorant people, be they men or women, is absolutely necessary.
I'm really not into women's mud wrestling as a voyeuristic sport. I've gotten the message--loud and clear from Bulwark--that GOP is NOT a serious political party. Do you really have to cover political porn?
Regarding the discussion on revising Covid protocols before and after an international flight into the U.S. -- given that Covid continues to evolve, I'd not argue about taking a test a day before a flight and within a few days after, just to be sure. But the idea of quarantining sounds like a bridge too far for me as someone who's been both vaccinated and boosted. I'd be surprised if the administration adds a mandatory quarantine.
The Greene/Mace Twitter spat yesterday was incredibly stupid but emblematic of where the Republican Party stands today. To start, there is not much daylight on the conservative principles and Greene and Mace hold. But there's one important distinction: Nancy Mace feels interests and obligations in her politics that don't revolve around Donald Trump. And in the party personality cult, that's an expellable offense.
To compound this, Mace represents South Carolina's 1st Congressional District, which is Charleston and the surrounding areas. The district only went for Trump by 6% in 2020. Probably safe for Mace in 2022, but maybe not in 2024, especially if Charleston grows. So if the rivalry lasts Greene is doing what Trumpers do best, scaring the suburbs over to the other side.
I admire Mace's willingness to defend herself. But she also seems not to have realized that Greene is the sort of candidate most Republican primary voters want. If I were her I'd get out while the getting is good.
Just a reminder about what separates media on the right from all other media: Chris Cuomo is out of a job, because the extent to which he was helping out his own brother, the Governor of New York, was discovered, and this presented a potential conflict that compromised his ability to do his job with objectivity.
Sean Hannity, who has the same time slot as Cuomo, was on the road headlining campaign events for Donald Trump in 2016.
It's some years hence, but I recall Keith Olbermann being fired from MSNBC, I think when he also held this time slot (it was either 8pm or 9pm) because it was discovered he made donations to Democrats.
On one side, there is real accountability. On the other, with Tucker and Sean, the inmates truly run the asylum. Both sides are confronted with perverse incentives in how they make their money, but they are not equal.