I’m writing for tomorrow, day 97. I’m hoping fall is upon us, as there is only one hot day forecast in the next ten. Fantasy football players, set your lineups. There is a Thursday Night game this week.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:44 (average 4:35). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From Daily Kos: If anyone doubts the complicity between the mainstream media and the titans of finance, one simply needed to watch Meet The Press with David Gregory yesterday. The seven plus minute segment started with David Gregory stating the obvious: An economy five years ago that was on the brink of collapse is now a high flying economy for the 1 percent and on the brink of collapse for the working middle class.
His guests were then-Secretary of Treasury and past CEO of Goldman Sachs Henry Paulson, CNBC mouthpiece and apologist Maria Bartiromo, and ex-Congressman Barney Frank. Most of the segment was the standard blabber of nonsensical statements on the economy…
…The zinger of the segment however came from Barney Frank’s comment about the bankers. He said:
I do want to add one thing though to your question about those poor beleaguered bankers who have been forced to do so much to keep from not being able to pay their debts, that they can’t lend money. If they really are running businesses that are so stressed that they can’t do their basic work, why are they paying themselves so much money?
That statement left Bartiromo, Paulson and Gregory temporarily speechless with facial expressions that said it all. They were trapped and unable to speak to acknowledge the fact laid out by Frank. Their enslavement to the plutocracy was evident. Gregory had a nervous laugh as Bartiromo again deflected…
OOOPS! Busted!!!!
From NY Times: Details buried in the United Nations report on the Syrian chemical weapons attack point directly at elite military formations loyal to President Bashar al-Assad, some of the strongest findings to date that suggest the government gassed its own people.
The inspectors, instructed to investigate the attack but not to assign blame, nonetheless listed the precise compass directions of flight for two rocket strikes that appeared to lead back toward the government’s elite redoubt in Damascus, Mount Qasioun, which overlooks and protects neighborhoods and Mr. Assad’s presidential palace and where his Republican Guard and the army’s powerful Fourth Division are entrenched…
Tinfoil hats on both sides of the aisle are misrepresenting the contents of this report, to claim there is no justification for military intervention. I also oppose military intervention, but lefties should not be playing fast and loose with the facts. Integrity is how people can tell us from Republicans.
From TPM: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) declared Tuesday that Republicans intend to use the debt limit as "leverage" to extract concessions from Democrats, setting up a direct confrontation with President Barack Obama, who has vowed that raising the debt limit is non-negotiable…
The sabotage and sedition to allow America to default on paying the bills for what Congress has already spent is not just the demesne of the lunatic fringe of the party, aka the base. If it were not Republican policy, Bought Bitch Mitch, the Senate Majority Leader, would not be supporting it.
Cartoon:
20 Responses to “Open Thread–9/19/2013”
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God bless Barney Frank! Wonderful man – would that the world would listen to him!
NYTimes – I agree it does look that way (though sadly one has to be careful, and investigate, never make assumptions). Oh the poor people of Syria – and all the surrounding countries. The article also said this "Rebel forces have never penetrated the major military installations of Mount Qasioun. In tactical and technical terms, they would almost certainly have been unable to organize and fire sustained and complex barrages of rockets from that location undetected. " Seems conclusive.
He is our first openly gay Representative.
Exactly!
Nice Job TC – day 97
How did you do? 5:34
Barney Frank is awesome… 🙂
So glad we bailed them out, Not…!
Thanks!
You'll be beating me soon. (Jerry, patty and Lynn all denied it, when I said they woulds be beating me soon. Now they just do.)
We had to, but we also needed to break up the TBTFs and reinstate Glass=Ateafall.
3:19 Were the fair winds in my favour to get my sailboat off the trailer and into the lake?
3:09 We seem to be doing a lot of sailing lately.
Here Monster, Monster,Monter! 😉
3:22 My sail had a tiny hole in it.
Puzzle — 3:19 Were the fair winds in my favour to get my sailboat off the trailer and into the lake?
Daily Kos — Barney Frank is such a astute man. I wish there were more like him.
Calling a spade, a spade! And everyone else was caught with their pants down. Oops indeed!
NY Times — Is the content of the report the reason that Putin started playing ball over the recovery and destruction of the chemical weapons? After all, he is Syria's ally and has an arms arrangement with Syria worth millions. I am certainly glad that the US government was challenged by the people and the Congress's own ineptitude, which effectively delayed any action other than lobbying.
TPM — McTurtle:
I find it incomprehensible that the CBO and others can show the decline in the deficit, even the continued decline over the next 5 years, but the Republicanus/Teabaggers and the electorate don't acknowledge that. The Republicanus/Teabaggers are somewhat understandable since they want to, and have been, obstructing Mr Obama. I swear those fiscal idiots would argue orange is green and vice versa just to obstruct. But the electorate, the everyday folk, needs to get engaged to understand what's happening and who is screwing them. For the most part, the Republicanus/Teabaggers are the "screwers" and the middle and working class are the "screwees". America, how's it working for you so far?
Republicanus/Teabaggers have shown over and over and over that they cannot be trusted. Defunding Obamacare is tantamount to murdering the sick and elderly who can't afford the excessive medical premiums of health insurance. Not unconditionally extending the debt ceiling is the same as defunding Obamacare in that it will "murder" the economy, kill any recovery and send unemployment higher.
McTurtle opined that "Congress has in fact packaged the debt limit with budgetary reforms several times. " Those "several times" are during the past 4.5 years. If I recall an earlier discussion correctly, prior to the last debacle over the debt ceiling, Congress almost always automatically raised the debt ceiling without all the bear scat of the Obama years. So what's the difference? The obstruction of Mr Obama, the first black president.
Cartoon — Someone surely created a monster on 19/09/82. I don't recall using one but I think I'll try now >^!^<
Nope! I ecpected to be last, ands still do.
Beautiful, huh?
Prior to blacktracking, it was automatic…. Votes by unbanimous consent.
There are even a couple naughty ones,
It's past the midpoint of September. Any apartment updates?
I talked to the gut yesterday. The honcho and the bureaucrat meet on Friday. Unless there is some disagreement about the contract, he c an give me the OK as soon as next week.
This is an obvious tragedy – but who didn't see this coming as a logical conclusion to the NRA mantra of "Guns, Guns, Guns!"
Condolences, of course, … but you got to admit you can't avoid seeing some karma mixed in with a Darwin Award on this story.
Darwin Award indeed! Pathetic.
I'm guessing that both Republicans thought they wered about to shoot an unarmed man.
OMG 4:39! Closest yet! But, today, why not a pirate ship! Avast, me hearties.
Good on you Joanne! Keep at it! What shall we call you? . . . walk the plank? . . . when you win over the rest of us?
What Lynn said. Crushed by the Colorado Crusher?
I haven't watched Meet the Press since shortly after Gregory took over, he is so asinine. I am glad Barney Frank called his number!
I am still opposed to military intervention in Syria. I don't think our involvement will help them and it will certainly be detrimental to us. We are in the sad shape we are due to 12 years of war, and Republican obstructionism.
My greatest political hope is that Mitch will be ditched~
Me too!
So am I.
Now that will be party time!