DL Open Thread: Saturday, September 18, 2021
Rethugs Play Russian Roulette With Debt Ceiling. Because they can, and because everything they do is purely and solely for political gain:
McConnell has declared that Senate Republicans will not vote to increase the Treasury’s authority to continue borrowing, which is the same as voting to allow a default. As he has done before, McConnell has essentially created a new rule out of whole cloth to justify his actions.
“Let me make it perfectly clear. The country must never default. The debt ceiling will need to be raised. But who does that depends on who the American people elect,” McConnell told Punchbowl News on Tuesday, acknowledging he will vote for a policy outcome he says he doesn’t want to occur.
Because Democrats control the White House and both branches of Congress, his argument goes, they alone are responsible for safeguarding the government’s creditworthiness and preventing a potential economic calamity.
No such rule exists, nor has it ever.
In fact, almost every time the debt ceiling has been lifted, it has been done in bipartisan fashion under the regular Senate order that requires at least 60 votes to end debate on the legislation…
McConnell says he doesn’t want to breach the debt limit. He just wants to keep GOP hands clean of all this new spending in advance of the 2022 midterm elections.
Senate Republicans are so united behind McConnell that even their most centrist* cohorts are holding back support for the Democratic plan to pass a new suspension of the debt limit tagged on to a bill to keep federal agencies functioning past the Sept. 30 deadline.
*Everything is relative.
‘Self-Governed’ Individual Returned To Jail. The judge didn’t want to have to do this, but this Jan. 6 insurrectionist refused to comply with any of the requirements which had enabled her to be released on bail in the first place:
“You’re a small business owner. I don’t want to lock you up. I don’t want you to lose your restaurant,” U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden said at an in-person court hearing for Pauline Bauer on Friday. “I’m not concerned about you being a danger to the community but I am very concerned about you being willing to comply with your conditions of release.”
McFadden asked if she would just be willing to check in with her pretrial officer once a week.
“I feel like it’s a violation of my rights, sir,” responded Bauer, who is representing herself against misdemeanor federal charges.
McFadden revoked Bauer’s release, and Bauer was taken out of the courtroom crying and screaming: “No! I’m not going back to jail! Why are you doing this?”
“I don’t like doing this, but you have made it clear that you feel you are above the law,” McFadden said.
Two ‘Bama Anti-Vaxxers–Well, You Know. They claimed they had the Bill Of Rights on their side. Turns out God was away on business elsewhere.
Extreme Right’s Web Provider Gets Hacked. A 180 gigabyte treasure trove?:
As first reported Monday by journalist Steven Monacelli, the hacker claims that “a decade’s worth of data from the company” has been obtained, including all domain purchases, domain transfers, and unredacted website registration data that could shed light on individuals and groups behind extremist or hate sites.
“This dataset is all that’s needed to trace actual ownership and management of the fascist side of the Internet that has eluded researchers, activists, and, well, just about everybody,” the hacker boasted in announcing the attack.
The company has called itself the “Swiss Bank of Domains,” with company CEO Rob Monster (real name?) joking earlier this year to NPR that he’s “the Lex Luthor of the internet.” In that story, Monster likened white supremacist leaders to “shock jocks,” and claimed that while he does not personally think such content needed “to be available to people on the internet” publishing it remained “the decision of our client organizations.” Epik’s clients include Gab, the social networking platform where a user boasted about targeting a Pittsburgh synagogue just before carrying out his deadly assault, and Parler, whose links to the January 6 attack on the US Capitol got it booted by major tech providers.
The Problem With Facebook Is Facebook. The Source? Facebook:
Posts that generate a lot of comments get promoted by the algorithms, but those comments themselves become part of the overall message of the post. Arguments break out. And the more people bicker in the comments, the more prominent the post and the comments become. That’s why you can’t argue with evil, ignorance or craziness on Facebook – it’s counterproductive. Unfortunately, posting reasonable, solid information is also, in a sense, counterproductive: that kind of information receives almost no readers because reasonable posts do not generate irrational or unfounded responses – or they attract destructive or toxic responses, and those comments morph the message as Facebook picks it up and sends it to users’ newsfeeds.
What do you want to talk about?
“Senate Republicans are so united behind McConnell that even their most centrist* cohorts are holding back support for the Democratic plan to pass a new suspension of the debt limit ”
In other words, Coons’ wonderful bipartisan GOP friends are screwing him and his vision of glorious bipartisanship yet again.
Bipartisanship, like conservatism, can never fail — it can only be failed.
Another anti-vaxx loony gets Covid:
https://www.businessinsider.com/laura-loomer-downplayed-covid-19-brutal-case-of-the-virus-2021-9
Turns out Covid is worse than eating ‘bad fajitas’.
Sadness.
Did I ALSO mention that she’s a proud Islamophobe?
Double sadness.