A Democratic Party Sick with Dread and Exhausted

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Every morning we are greeted with more evidence that Trump is literally horrible. This morning we have more evidence that he is sticking with the Sean Hannity, cartoon version of the Iranian nuclear arms deal, and appears to be determined to undermine the agreement worked out between Russia, China, Britain, France, Germany and Iran. He is determined to go to war with somebody, and soon. But what is perhaps worse is how there is no congressional opposition to this belligerent child-man in the White House. The Republicans appear ready to pass the latest "health care" monstrosity, and the Democrats are worse than useless. There continues to be no coherent response from Democrats to the daily assaults on our Democratic norms. There is only meekly hopping that the Mueller investigation ...finds "something." Trump and his inner circle of cronies and outer circle of GOP sycophants must be thinking "So what if it does find something? Democrats will never force the issue." And they are right to think that the Democrats have no response. No leadership, no guiding principles and no sway over public opinion. The Democrats have cede their oppositional authority to late night comedians.

Preamble to the United Nations Charter

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The illiterate, ignorant, reckless child in charge of America went the United Nations today to make a speech. Among other things he threatened to kill every human being in North Korea, in the interest of putting "America First." It is a safe bet that he doesn't know why the United Nations exists.

Global Warming’s Shameless Mother F#ckers

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The thing that is missing from every story about Hurricane Irma is the fact...FACT that the destructive power of this storm is directly related to global warming. Instead of any honest reporting on the topic we get men is rain gear endlessly anticipating some juicy shots of destruction, and an administration that simply denies reality.

The stunning Democratic shift on single-payer

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Many thanks to the wild-eyed radical Senator from Vermont for dragging the Democratic Party into a winnable position.
In 2008, no leading Democratic presidential candidate backed single-payer. In 2020, all of them might.
For a bill that does not exist yet and whose details are not public, Bernie Sanders’s new single-payer health care bill sure is popular. First, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) announced her plans to co-sponsor it; then Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) joined in. According to reporting by my Vox colleague Jeff Stein, Cory Booker (D-NJ) has staff working with Sanders and others on formulating the bill. Warren, Sanders, Harris, and Booker are arguably the most famous and most-admired Democratic senators in the country among the party’s base; the betting markets give a 55 percent chance that one of them will be the 2020 nominee for president. Other contenders are getting on board with single-payer — or “Medicare for all,” where the federal government would provide health insurance for every American financed through taxes — as well. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) declared, “We should have Medicare for all,” at a rally against Republican attempts to roll back Obamacare. Meanwhile 117 House Democrats (over 60 percent of the caucus) have co-sponsored HR 676, the Expanded & Improved Medicare For All Act offered every Congress by Rep. John Conyers (D-MI). This is what an emerging party consensus looks like. Over time, some issues become so widely accepted within a party as to be a de facto requirement for anyone aspiring to lead it. No Democrat would run for president, or even for House or Senate minority leader, without supporting the DREAM Act. No Republican would try for a leadership position without supporting repeal of the estate tax.

Trump’s Secret Plan to Save DACA

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Can this shit show get more ridiculous? Trump's lawless AG and magical elf Jeff Sessions, says it is all about following the law (as Joe Arpaio nods in the backround), and having Congress "act" (like that is going to happen.) Then the Republican President folds on that plan and says that he'll fix it in six months when Congress inevitably fails. WHAT THE HOLY FUCK?

Free Market Idiocy on Steroids

If every dollar of tax revenue collected from a successful business corresponds to a dollar decrease in potential economic growth, (and conservative "thinkers" tell us there is a direct correlation while reality tells us no such relationship exists), then the looming explosion in health insurance premiums that will ripple out of the destruction of the ACA should really hit the economy hard.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that it will cut 90 percent of its budget for advertising Obamacare’s open enrollment period and will nearly cut in half the funding for hundreds of navigator groups across the country who provide in-person assistance to people signing up for health insurance. Former HHS officials and health care experts predict the sharply scaled-back outreach effort will significantly depress insurance signups this fall, especially among the young and healthy, causing premiums to skyrocket. “The people who are sick will navigate any obstacle in order to obtain insurance,” Josh Peck, the former chief marketing officer for HHS, told TPM. “They don’t need a reminder because their illness is their reminder every day. But healthy people need and respond to reminders, so this clearly will have a negative impact on the risk pool.”

A bit of bloggy nostalgia

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In 2001 and 2002, I was reading and commenting on Dana Garret's blog and Mike Mathews. There was also someone ...Delacrat? who had a great wit, but didn't stick with it. I was also trolling some Republicans pretty hard. Hube mostly. Like everyone I was shocked and outraged about how terrible George W. Bush was. About how he wanted to invade Iraq on a transparently flimsy pretext and with no plan for the occupation. (Little did I know that the GOP had not yet begun to scrape the bottom of the barrel.) Anyway, my arms were to short to box with GWB, so I decide to keep an eye on Mike Castle who I discovered to be a straight down the line "Yes Man" for Bush in spite of his PR campaign to the contrary. I tricked Liberalgeek into coming aboard, then Pandora and Cassandra, Nemski, Donviti. El Somnambulo was a goldmine of a commenter for a long while before he came on board. Delaware Dem started "Daily Delaware" but decided to come over after a while. Those years were fun. Then Hillary Clinton came along and ruined America with her shit ass campaign. I think that's how it went down. This short piece in technically Delaware reminded me of all of that. Read Steve Newton's post on outing. That's one for the time capsule.