I talked to Lu last night. She says she will be here today by Noon. Grrr! I’m swamped. I spent the morning collecting the data for tomorrow’s Monthly Report.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 2:55 (average 4:30). To do it click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From Daily Kos: They're in their own little world over in the House Freedom Caucus. They've pretty effectively killed any actual budget coming out of the Congress this year, and now are arguing to kill the lame duck session, even though they haven't worked out all the details of how. If they put their plan into effect, they might just get their government shutdown fight. Before the election.
When the House returns from a two-week recess on April 12, a small group of members are gearing up to stop GOP leadership in both chambers, if they have their way, from holding a legislative session after the November election.
It's not that the members are lazy, though doing away with the postelection session would mean the House would be in session just 17 days for the rest of the year after July 15—and zero past Sept. 30. […]
This surprises me. Given the current Republican meltdown, I think the Republican Party will be in a much stronger position in the lame duck session than they will, after the new Congress takes office. I would think they would want to do as much damage to America as possible during the lame duck session.
From NY Times: San Francisco police officers sent dozens of racist and homophobic text messages in the past several months, even as another group of officers was being investigated by prosecutors for having traded similar messages, the city’s district attorney said Thursday.
The disclosure of the new round of text messages, which includes derogatory references to blacks, Asians, lesbians, gays and transgender people, comes as the Police Department is under federal investigation after complaints that some officers routinely behave in a racially biased manner.
Along with dozens of other police departments around the nation, the San Francisco police — who work in one of the nation’s most culturally diverse cities — have come under scrutiny during the past year.
Officers have been accused of using unnecessary deadly force and brutality, and of focusing enforcement efforts on black neighborhoods while ignoring similar infractions elsewhere. Police critics, including many among the city’s dwindling black population, have held protests and called for the resignation of the police chief, Gregory P. Suhr.
On Thursday, George Gascón, the city’s district attorney, said that the text messages were a worrying sign that the department had a problem with racism and homophobia that was more ingrained than investigators had anticipated.
Every officer who sent of forwarded one or more of these text messages must be terminated in such as a way as to end their law enforcement careers. The only way to get rid of racism and bigotry in our nation’s police departments is to get rid of the racists and bigots.
From Media Matters: Now they tell us the Republican Party is to blame? That the Obama years haven't been gummed up by Both Sides Are To Blame obstruction?
The truth is, anyone with clear vision recognized a long time ago that the GOP has transformed itself since 2009 into an increasingly radical political party, one built on complete and total obstruction. It's a party designed to make governing difficult, if not impossible, and one that plotted seven years ago to shred decades of Beltway protocol and oppose every inch of Obama's two terms. ("If he was for it, we had to be against it," former Republican Ohio Sen. George Voinovich once explained.)
And for some of us, it didn't take Donald Trump's careening campaign to confirm the destructive state of the GOP. But if it's the Trump circus that finally opens some pundits' eyes, so be it.
Recently, Dan Balz, the senior political writer for the Washington Post, seemed to do just that while surveying the unfolding GOP wreckage as the party splinters over Trump's rise. Balz specifically noted that four years ago political scholars Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein examined the breakdown in American politics and zeroed in their blame squarely on Republicans.
"They were ahead of others in describing the underlying causes of polarization as asymmetrical, with the Republican Party — in particular its most hard-line faction — as deserving of far more of the blame for the breakdown in governing," Balz acknowledged.
If I had a nickel for every time I've said that since 2008, I could retire to my own string of mansions. . I wish the Washington Post would get another reporter like that. They really need a pair of Balz.
Cartoon:
13 Responses to “Open Thread–4/1/2016”
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Enjoy your special day Pat!
MM is indeed timely and more clearsighted than most of the media that redefined balanced journalism to repeating talking points equally without any investigation or analyses.
I wonder if it was as bad when Kamala Harris was DA there…I don't remember hearing it then.
HFC lost members a few months ago over their shenagans…do they think fewer of them is supposed to increase their voice and power?
Hope Lu comes.
Happy B-day, Pat A.!
(Bet w/ a birthday on April Fool's Day you're an expert on all the classic pranks.)
My father and stepmother were married April 01. My mother thought that was hysterical and said the 2 fools deserved eachother. She was very bitter, and if she could remember now, she would still be bitter.
2:50 It was a foregone conclusion that you would be shut out! This is Sasquatch country . . . sunshine, snow, comfy chairs. Ah the good life!
Puzzle — 2:50 It was a foregone conclusion that you would be shut out! This is Sasquatch country . . . sunshine, snow, comfy chairs. Ah the good life!
Daily Kos — Dock their pay for not performing their constitutionally mandated jobs! If they succeed in shutting down the government before the election, I hope it comes back to bite them in the ass!! Voters that elected these ultra conservative jackasses need to give their heads a shake!
NY Times — "Every officer who sent of forwarded one or more of these text messages must be terminated in such as a way as to end their law enforcement careers." Amen!!! There is no place for bigotry and racism in today's society whether you're Drumpf, the Queen of England, or the corner grocer.
Media Matters — "Truth" = certainty, fact, reality, veracity, legitimacy, honesty, integrity. Those are concepts that have absolutely no bearing or relationsip to the Republican party or its members/adherents. The only solution is to excise this Republican rabble. As to the media, the guiding mantra of "if it bleeds it leads" must change. Ethics and integrity are desperately needed. It would seem that the media is afraid of what I don't exactly know. My guess . . . the concentration of power in a very few hands.
Cartoon — Happy Birthday Pat! I hope MolPol and Tabsie are treating you on your birthday!
4:04 Not thinking of ice fishing so soon after pneumonia, I hope?
DKos – And this is not an April Fool prank, like this or this. They are dead serious. I am too. GET THEM OUT!!!
NY Times – The way the KKK and other white supremacist groups made concerted effoert to get hired in Law Enforsement to run as many PDP's as possible, if we do what you siggest (and require a background check to eliminate members of such groups), every PD in the country will be scrambling for qualified candidates. I am just fine with that.
Media Matters – Well, better late than never. (They could also use some Manns and Ornsteins.)
Happy, happy birthday, Pat, pain free and breathing easy, and many more!
I hope Lu got there today!
Daily Kos: "They're in their own little world over in the House Freedom Caucus". That pretty much says it all for me. How do these idiots keep getting elected? They would rather shut down the whole goverment than vote for bills all ready passed. Kind of like the little boy who takes his ball and goes home.
NY Times: Your summary says it all for me. Any officer who is that bigoted should never wear the shield. There are many good police officers and these guys make them look bad, too.
Media Matters: Trump is an example of the old adage that you reap what you sow. The GOP has been sowing dissent to anything that might benefiit the black president for the last 8 years, now that they are fully armed with racism and bigotry their party is falling apart.
Happy Birthday, Pat A. I hope it was great.
It's "Party Time" for Pat A.
Happy Birthday, Ms. Pat.
Enjoy your Special Day with Family & Friends.
Hugzzz…
.
Happy Birthday, Pat! Thank you for being here with us!
It feels as if this presidential campaign has given all the hate groups permission to say and do whatever they wish…. a kind of "if Trump can do it, so can we". It makes us all look bad.
Whoa, I hope Lu has come and gone by now, TomCat, because otherwise you may have to hold your own nose with your paw soon and have one limb less to type with. You must have been in a foul mood by then, because if there's one thing cat's don't like it's being smelly. The only thing cats are known to roll themselves in is catnip and that's only when they're quite high on the stuff. Not like dogs who love to roll around in the most awful things like carrion.
DK: Why are you so surprised by this, TomCat? The House of Freedom caucus really lives in it's own world and there's not one who can hold a rational thought in his head for more than a millisecond. And don't forget, rational people may think that the presidential debacle would also affect Republican elections to Congress in a very negative way, but I'm sure they don't. Besides, they will know more than us about the amount og Gerrymandering, fraud, intimidation and voter disenfranchisement, boosting their confidence in a majority in Congress. So Democrats should leave nothing to chance (well, manipulation and fraud) and go out to vote like never before!
NY: Surprise, surprise…" a worrying sign that the department had a problem with racism and homophobia that was more ingrained than investigators had anticipated." And this is in San Francisco, the city once famous for it's progressiveness, welcoming all who felt persecuted elsewhere. If racism and homophobia is so ingrained here, just imagine how it must be in less progressive cities and towns across America. Republicans have done a really good job on the country these past years.
MM: "In other words, the GOP's radical brand of obstructionism not only doesn't get highlighted as something notable, radical, and dangerous; it's often met with a collective shrug as the press pretends these kind of nonstop impediments are commonplace." Kudos to Eric Boehlert for giving Dan Balz, the senior political writer for the Washington Post, his due for writing honestly about what the GOP has become and how they single handedly obstructed democracy and a working Congress. It's about time the few true and rational conservatives distanced themselves to the destructive insanity of the GOP in it's current form.
I hope you had a great birthday, Pat, and that you'll be able to join us soon again.
Thanks all!! Out od gas. Hugs!!
DK: "Who knows what secrets lie in the heart of man"? Well, "The Shadow" knows, as does Mitch McConnell, and TC's buddy Agent Orange, who got his political comuppance from the very dirtbags he and McConnell courted!
NY Times: How sad is that?!
MM: "The GOP has become an insurgent outlier in American politics. It is ideologically extreme; scornful of compromise; unmoved by conventional understanding of facts, evidence and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition." That about says it…all!
Happy Day, Pat A; many more.