2015 American Politics Thread: The 114th Congress Is in the House!

the house finally gave up on the DHS funding/immigration thing.

coincidentally, this was announced just before netanyahu's address, which will probably dominate the news

aren't they smart

tbh even if it was a slow news day, otherwise, i don't have a good feel for how much people care about the GOP/DHS/immigration shutdown thing. the other day I was trying to explain it to someone who hadn't heard anything about it, and unless you're the author of a book on communicating succinctly, it's nearly impossible to explain in a concise manner. and even after the explanation, the person didn't really care at all. it's hard to get a good read of whether anyone cares about this shit at all. the results of the most recent mid-terms suggest that not many people do.

a handy list:

* April 2011: House Republicans threaten a government shutdown unless Democrats accept GOP demands on spending cuts.

* July 2011: Republicans create the first-ever debt-ceiling crisis, threatening to default on the nation’s debts unless Democrats accept GOP demands on spending cuts.

* September 2011: Republicans threaten another shutdown.

* April 2012: Republicans threaten another shutdown.

* December 2012: Republicans spend months refusing to negotiate in the lead up to the so-called “fiscal cliff.”

* January 2013: Republicans raise the specter of another debt-ceiling crisis.

* September 2013: Republicans threaten another shutdown.

* October 2013: Republicans actually shut down the government.

* February 2014: Republicans raise the specter of another debt-ceiling crisis.

* December 2014: Republicans threaten another shutdown.

* February 2015: Republicans threaten a Department of Homeland Security shutdown.

http://www.salon.com/2015/03/05/the_right_has_fked_up_minds_meet_the_researcher_who_terrifies_gop_congress/

does anyone read much in this vein of "political psychology"? this was a very interesting interview, but my inclination is to think that the types of analyses the interviewee advocates underplay the role of clannishness or group affinity in determining political affiliation.

maybe this has been discussed on (an)other thread(s)

it's hard not to conclude -- even being generous -- that "conservatives" are a bit touched

case in point

http://news.yahoo.com/conservative-case-against-enforcing-immigration-law-120000524.html

"Removing all 11.2 million undocumented immigrants, both forcibly and through Mitt Romney's infamous "self-deportation" policy, would take about 20 years and cost the government between $400 billion and $600 billion. The impact on the economy would be even larger, according to the study: Real GDP would drop by nearly $1.6 trillion and the policy would shave 5.7 percent off economic growth."

and still they won't shut the fuck about it

that's not really what the interview is about, though -- it's a misleading headline, because the interviewee pointedly disclaims that he's talking about social pathology.

although i think it might be relevant insofar as maybe "conservatism" isn't about the sort of quasi-libertarian principles its exponents claim it is about.

nothing much on ile about John Jost, from that Salon article.

the Tom Schweich suicide story is fucked up on so many levels.

http://www.mediaite.com/online/joe-biden-on-ben-carsons-gay-choice-comments-i-mean-jesus-god/

might as well enjoy this

"Removing all 11.2 million undocumented immigrants, both forcibly and through Mitt Romney's infamous "self-deportation" policy, would take about 20 years and cost the government between $400 billion and $600 billion. The impact on the economy would be even larger, according to the study: Real GDP would drop by nearly $1.6 trillion and the policy would shave 5.7 percent off economic growth."

and still they won't shut the fuck about it

they'd probably spout some bullshit about the massive savings generated by these mooching freeloaders being deported or all that 1.6 trillion being redistributed to all the hard working white people who will take the jobs in the fast food restaurants, janitorial services, picking produce in fields and meat processing plants that are vacated........

it's Crooked Dem Fucker Indictment time

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2015/03/06/391255700/source-justice-department-prepares-to-charge-sen-menendez-with-corruption

heeeyyy sup

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/02/mark-dayton-minnesota-governor-profile-scott-walker

turns out a depressed loser who doesn't want anything can't be cowed and can't be hurt (that's always been my read on the guy) (helps to be rich as shit to begin with too)

i always thought herb kohl was a litle like that, only he was also kind of ineffectual

did dayton ever have anything to do with running the target corp? unfortunately like a lot of big-box chains they are known for union-busting, which would seem to cut against dayton's political agenda.

no i don't think so. he's an heir to the original family. the dayton's name isn't on anything anymore (except a parking ramp downtown, in my heart)

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/bob-menendez-theory-iran-feds

this is p funny (BUT THEN WHAT IF)

great moments in liberal website photo editing:

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/texas-gop-sign-former-fetus

tbf he looks like a fetus

he also looks like a grown up donkey lips from salute your shorts.

http://www.fanpop.com/images/polls/2127_3_full.jpg

If you had to pinpoint the moment this worldview began to crystallize, it would probably be around the first debt-ceiling showdown, in 2011, when Obama tried repeatedly and desperately to cut a budget deal with House Speaker John Boehner only to realize, eventually, that Boehner did not have the power to negotiate. The administration has now decided that in many cases, even adversarial bargaining fails because the Republican leadership is not capable of planning tactically. “You have to be careful not to presume a lot of strategy for this group,” Pfeiffer said. “I’ve always believed that the fundamental, driving strategic ethos of the Republican House leadership has been, What do we do to get through the next caucus or conference without getting yelled at? We should never assume they have a long game. We used to spend a lot of time thinking that maybe Boehner is saying this to get himself some more room. And it’s like, no, that’s not actually the case. Usually he’s just saying it because he just said it or it’s the easiest thing to solve his immediate problem.”

This analysis puts the administration at odds with the reading of American politics that still dominates much of Washington reporting. Many political journalists imagine that the basic tension for the White House lies between Obama’s liberal base and appealing to Americans at the center, who will be crucial for tipping elections.

Pfeiffer believes the dynamic is, in fact, the opposite: “The incentive structure moves from going after the diminishing middle to motivating the base.” Ever since Republicans took control of the House four years ago, attempts to court Republicans have mostly failed while simultaneously dividing Democratic voters. Obama’s most politically successful maneuvers, by contrast, have all been unilateral and liberal. “Whenever we contemplate bold progressive action,” Pfeiffer said, “whether that’s the president’s endorsement of marriage equality, or coming out strong on power-plant rules to reduce current pollution, on immigration, on net neutrality, you get a lot of hemming and hawing in advance about what this is going to mean: Is this going to alienate people? Is this going to hurt the president’s approval ratings? What will this mean in red states?” And yet this hesitation has always proved overblown: “There’s never been a time when we’ve taken progressive action and regretted it.”

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/03/dan-pfeiffer-exit-interview.html

better late than never, sigh

Usually he’s just saying it because he just said it or it’s the easiest thing to solve his immediate problem.

he's not the brightest oompa loompa

“There’s never been a time when we’ve taken progressive action and regretted it.”

smdh. is it any wonder that half the voting age population never votes.

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2015_03/lets_give_em_something_to_talk054580.php

Kilgore:

I dunno about you, but I’d rather have HRC debating, say, Bernie Sanders or Martin O’Malley than Ron Fournier or the many hounds at Politico. It would feed the hungry media beast in a way that would if nothing else chew up words otherwise available for narrative-driven obsessions of the media’s own choosing that have little or nothing to do with what she’d do as president.

versus
some comments on the posting:

media just wants to obsess on HRC the same way they did on Gore, so no matter what issue a Sanders might raise, they will just focus on HRC alone

I heard the question being asked on npr this morning and it was the stupidest fucking thing I've heard this week

http://thinkprogress.org/world/2015/03/11/3632393/john-kerry-obliterates-marco-rubios-conspiracy-theory-iran/

RUBIO DO U KNO WE ARE FIGHTING ALONGSIDE IRAN IN TIKRIT RIGHT NOW YOU DUMB FUCK

Kilgore seems little concerned about the email thing, while others are a little bit more unhappy, meanwhile Jeb Bush chuckles as his private emails issue was largely uncovered.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/top-democrats-are-alarmed-about-clintons-readiness-for-a-campaign/2015/03/11/36c0763a-c818-11e4-aa1a-86135599fb0f_story.html

http://mediamatters.org/blog/2015/03/11/two-names-the-press-omits-from-email-coverage-c/202847

How about that Secret Service (D'oh):

Two Secret Service agents suspected of driving under the influence and striking a White House security barricade disrupted an active bomb investigation and may have driven over the suspicious package itself, according to current and former government officials familiar with the incident.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/secret-service-agents-disrupted-bomb-investigation-at-white-house/2015/03/12/0eb74590-c8c4-11e4-aa1a-86135599fb0f_story.html?hpid=z1

onion is on it

WASHINGTON—Expressing gratitude for helping her escape certain punishment, Malia Obama quietly thanked two Secret Service agents Thursday for taking the rap after she crashed a government vehicle into a White House barricade while returning from a late-night party. “Thanks so much, you guys; I promise I’ll be way more careful next time,”

Prince Andrew of New York had this guvmint email archiving figured out -- his admin PURGES all official email after 90 days! Til now, I guess. A true Clintonite down to his corpuscles.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/cuomo-calls-policy-criticism-email-purges-29616981

as a paralegal that has to deal with compliance for discovery requests and lawsuits this shit is a circus

if this was something like bank of america instead of the gov't you'd have like 50 different backups of everything

fun charts too

Spending channeled through the tax code tends to overwhelmingly benefit the wealthiest Americans.

According to an analysis of $340 billion in tax subsidies for housing, education, retirement and savings in 2013, the top 1 percent received about $95 billion, more than the $90 billion received by the bottom 80 percent combined, said the Corporation for Enterprise Development, a nonprofit organization that seeks to build assets for low- and moderate-income families.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/18/business/economy/taxes-take-away-but-also-give-back-mostly-to-the-very-rich.html

, the top 1 percent received about $95 billion, more than the $90 billion received by the bottom 80 percent combined

reminds me of this fun chart:

http://www.motherjones.com/files/income-inequality-2.0.gif

I should save up my pennies to buy a lobbyist for myself

seriously though, that's astounding. if everyone receiving a bonus on wall street took half of their crazy bonuses and gave it to a minimum wage employee, it would double the wages of the ~1 million people who work for minimum wage.

^^^ THIS! (Or you should just go to school and better yourself, and get out of that minimum wage job.)

Exactly. And once this House budget proposal passes (with its changes to Medicare and Medicaid), those minimum wage workers will really learn how to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2015/03/18/give-house-republicans-credit-for-producing-a-budget-this-cruel/

Dick Cheney likes lattes. Seated in his favorite brown-leather chair in the sunlit study of his home in McLean, Virginia, the former vice president of the United States can toss back two of the warm java blasts in an hour. They come from a stainless-steel machine in the kitchen and a slender, mustachioed housekeeper named Gus, who serves them in custom-ordered white Starbucks cups outfitted with cardboard Starbucks sleeves.

that's the first paragraph of the playboy interview, apparently (choosing not to click because i'm at work)

I'd prefer a Playboy interview with Gus. xPOST

Two lattes in an hour!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

they keep his heart beating

new from evil angel: dick's warm java blasts vol viii

Was reading on ilm that Azealia Banks was being interviewed in Playboy, didn't realize Cheney as well.

his wife did write softcore porn

http://www.amazon.com/Sisters-Lynne-Cheney/dp/0451112040

lol

What do women want? A new edition of
By A Customer on May 1, 2004
Format: Mass Market Paperback Verified Purchase
Just focus for a moment on the nickname of the husband of the authoress, and it becomes E-Z to understand why Lynne Cheney's throbbing pudenda compelled her to write this novel more than two decades ago. As directed by the Commander in Chief, the White House gynecologist has since infibulated the author. Yet potent testimony of the intensity of gratified female desire remains between the well-thumbed pages of the few yellowing copies of "Sisters" that have not been purchased and burned by Attorney General John Ashcroft and his staff members.

"Sisters" made its debut when Mrs. Cheney was an unknown scribbler, though her words undoubtedly inspired the life choices of her daughter Mary. It is shameful that partisan political pressure upon Lynne's publishing house, as well as her current status as Second Womyn of the United States, keeps this moist, glistening gem from being reissued. Readers across America would find "Sisters" a fine excuse for self-abuse if only this exquisite paean to Sapphic love, as well as to prophylactic-clad heterosexual bonking in the Wild West, became widely available once again! Forty-four bidders attempted to buy a yellowing copy from eBay, yet only one succeeded, at a price beyond rubies.

Obama has ended up following Cheney's worldview nearly to the letter, but I guess just not as lol, and that's what matters.

well he hasn't shot any friends in the face yet

still time tho

Outward Bound w/ Rahm