Cocaine Mitch Sets Confused Old Codger Straight
[guest post by JVW]
The past week has seen a great deal of carping from Democrats, beginning with President Joe Biden, that Republicans have the insolence to demand that Democrats alone provide the votes to raise the nation’s debt ceiling. “Why this is unprecedented!” they and their media allies assure the American public, “In the past, the two parties have always joined together to protect our nation’s fiscal standing by agreeing to accept more and more unconscionable debt.” (I might be embellishing the last part just a wee bit.) Here is a representative example of Democrat whining about the mean ol’ Republicans not understanding that raising the debt limit is by hallowed tradition a bipartisan undertaking.
But Cocaine Mitch McConnell is having none of it. Newsweek, of all places, reminds us what the former and (hopefully) future Senate Majority Leader knows: Joe Biden joined with his fellow Democrat Senators three times during the Bush Administration in withholding votes on raising the debt ceiling, forcing the action to be taken entirely with Republican votes. Here is Senator McConnell’s Monday letter to the President:
Dear President Biden:
For many years, our working relationship has been defined not only by our strong disagreements, but also by mutual transparency and respectful candor. I write in that spirit to express concern that our nation is sleepwalking toward significant and avoidable danger because of confusion and inaction from the Speaker of the House and the Senate Democratic Leader concerning basic governing duties.
Since mid-July, Republicans have clearly stated that Democrats will need to raise the debt limit on their own. All year, your party has chosen to pursue staggering, “transformational” spending through unprecedented use of the party-line reconciliation process. Democrats inherited bipartisan trends from COVID relief to appropriations but have chosen to govern alone. Even now, with Americans already facing painful inflation, Democrats are preparing another staggering taxing and spending spree without any Republican input or support.
Bipartisanship is not a light switch that Speaker Pelosi and Leader Schumer may flip on to borrow money and flip off to spend it. Republicans’ position is simple. We have no list of demands. For two and a half months, we have simply warned that since your party wishes to govern alone, it must handle the debt limit alone as well.
As you and I know from shared Senate experience, this is not unusual. The debt limit is often a partisan vote during times of unified government. In 2003, 2004, and 2006, Mr. President, you joined Senate Democrats in opposing debt limit increases and made Republicans do it ourselves. You explained on the Senate floor that your ‘no’ votes did not mean you wanted the majority to let the country default, but rather that the President’s party had to take responsibility for a policy agenda which you opposed. Your view then is our view now.
There is one difference between then and now: Leader Schumer requested and won new powers to repeatedly reuse the fast-track, party-line reconciliation process. As a result, Senate Democrats do not need Republican cooperation in any shape or form to do their job. Democrats do not need our consent to set a vote at 51 instead of 60. Nonpartisan experts confirm that Senate Democrats have every necessary tool to pass a standalone debt limit increase through reconciliation and enough time to do it before late October. As I have warned for months, this is the path they will need to take.
Congressional Democrats have wasted weeks complaining that this relatively brief process would inconvenience their floor schedules. Mr. President, as you know as a Senate veteran, that is not an excuse; it is just a complaint. Republicans will not build Speaker Pelosi and Leader Schumer a shortcut around procedural hurdles they can clear on their own so they have a more convenient path to jam us with a partisan taxing and spending spree.
Mr. President, I have relayed this reality to your Democratic lieutenants for two and a half months. My concern for our country is that Leader Schumer and Speaker Pelosi have done nothing. Either the Democratic leaders simply cannot govern or they would rather play chicken with the U.S. economy than accept reality.
Your Democratic majorities have no plan of their own to avoid default. On Thursday, we narrowly avoided a shutdown by a few hours because Senate Democrats wasted weeks on theatrics before accepting reality. The American people cannot afford the same rudderless drift toward danger with respect to the full faith and credit of our nation.
Mr. President, I respectfully submit that it is time for you to engage directly with congressional Democrats on this matter. Your lieutenants in Congress must understand that you do not want your unified Democratic government to sleepwalk toward an avoidable catastrophe when they have had nearly three months’ notice to do their job.
Game, set, and match to The Turtle. It’s so refreshing when an outright blowhard like Joe Biden, whose selective memory has always been entirely self-serving but at this point in his dotage is completely unmoored from reality, is schooled on the realities of his time misspent mucking around Washington, and is made aware that his half-century of mendacity does indeed have consequences. Just like his former boss Barack Obama learned when he haughtily (but of course everything he did was done haughtily, wasn’t it?) filibustered the nomination of Samuel Alito, only to later decry the GOP’s use of the filibuster against his own judicial nominees. What’s sauce for the goose, as the saying goes.
With Joe Manchin starting to waver a bit on his previously-stated belief that $1.5 trillion is as much as ought to be spent in reconciliation, there are still some cards to be played in this whole “saving Biden’s Presidency” exercise. Tune in tomorrow for another tiresome episode of America’s worst soap opera.
– JVW
Questions – and I don’t know the answer:
1. Did Biden vote to filibuster debt increases? Or just vote against them?
2. Is Cocaine Mitch trying to force the Democrats to burn one of their free trips to the reconciliation well, or is this something the Dems can do without burning down their whole painful negotiation amongst themselves?
3. Will the end result be the debt limits are taken out of the “things you can filibuster” list? I can see that happening, and Manchin and Sinema supporting it.
There was a lot of criticism of Mitch for letting the Infrastructure Bill pass. But it looks like his long game there has put the Dems in the mess they find themselves.
Appalled (1a17de) — 10/6/2021 @ 6:59 am> withholding votes on raising the debt ceiling,
This is just nonsense.
If you don’t know the difference between withholding a vote and a filibuster, you shouldn’t be writing about politics.
If you do, you’re lying.
john (cd2753) — 10/6/2021 @ 7:09 amExcept that part where Biden and Democrats never voted to *filibuster* the debt ceiling like Moscow Mitch and his party of America-hating, racist, book banning, science-denying, washed up old GQP Boomers is doing.
Imagine trying to leave out that central difference and embarrassing yourself with a lazy phony screed trying (and failing) to justify Rethugliklans’ selfish, terroristic desire to destroy the economy and working families with default on the debts neocommunist-fascist traitor Trump ran up. With his record deficits, tax cuts for billionaires, worst jobs record ever due to coronavirus lies and incompetence, and trillions in corporate welfare to big banks, rich megachurches, right wing corporations and the corporate farms hurt by Drama Queen Donnie’s anti-capitalist trade war.
Hardly surprising from a party of antigay, climate truther, QAnon hypocrite, a cult that launched a MAGA Terrorist attack to assassinate Mike Pence based on the sore loser election lies now rejected by Dementia Donald’s own Arizona fraudit, judges, crooked lawyers, Supreme Court, Attorney General, Justice Department, and Republican governors and election officials.
No wonder the White House, Senate, House, Arizona and Georgia flipped blue as the forced-birth, antivaxxer, radical extremist Trump right is now rightly despised by single women, suburban moms, educated whites, 2/3 of Asians and Latinos, native Americans, 90%+ of blacks, and a supermajority of youth voters.
Keep digging, Trump trash. #VoteBlue #MAGAIsAMentalDisease #StayWoke
Dude Kembro (9a5256) — 10/6/2021 @ 8:17 am@2 O.o
According to that Newsweek article Biden and Democrats literally voted No on several debt ceiling bills. He even missed a vote and still asked to be symbolically recorded as a ‘No’.
So who’s lying here?
whembly (0a8536) — 10/6/2021 @ 8:34 am@4, Everyone? I don’t think there’s any principled stance left on the debt ceiling. At this point isn’t it entirely a stick the parties try to use to hit each other? A manufactured crisis that creates an opportunity to grandstand.
Time123 (9f42ee) — 10/6/2021 @ 8:45 am#3
Everyone hates it when they have a procedural technicality thing played against them. I seem to remember Trump railing against the filibuster a few years back… The Democrats do have the ability to take the debt limit out of the filibuster if they can get all their Senators to agree. Frankly, that would be a good reform.
Much of the problem the Democrats have is that they are trying to legislate like it’s 1965 an they have just stomped Barry Goldwater and his GOP into the dirt by very large margins. (Thinking of ya, DCSCA.)
Appalled (1a17de) — 10/6/2021 @ 8:45 am@3 What an amazingly weird POV.
Time123 (9f42ee) — 10/6/2021 @ 8:46 am“Mr. President, I respectfully submit that it is time for you to engage directly with congressional Democrats on this matter. Your lieutenants in Congress must understand that you do not want your unified Democratic government to sleepwalk toward an avoidable catastrophe when they have had nearly three months’ notice to do their job.”
—- Yertle Mcturtle
“Lying, dog-faced pony soldier!”
—- Dementia Joe Biden, ROTUS
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 10/6/2021 @ 9:11 amSpecial welcome to the butt-hurt lefties, john and Dude Kembro (I seem to recall that Dude Kembro is a troll from way back who is returning to this blog) who think Cocaine Mitch is the devil incarnate.
and
Senator McConnell addressed this in his letter to President Biden, which you might have seen if you possessed one ounce of the wit to read it. But since you don’t, I’ll quote it here:
Let me write this again for the benefit of our shrill lefty commenters, and I’ll emphasize it just to rub it in: game, set, and match to the Turtle.
JVW (ee64e4) — 10/6/2021 @ 9:29 am@9 JVW
That’s some serious mic drop there bro…
whembly (0a8536) — 10/6/2021 @ 9:44 amThere is always the trillion dollar coin option, though some disagree.
Obligatory Simpsons reference.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 10/6/2021 @ 9:45 am1. Did Biden vote to filibuster debt increases? Or just vote against them?
2. Is Cocaine Mitch trying to force the Democrats to burn one of their free trips to the reconciliation well, or is this something the Dems can do without burning down their whole painful negotiation amongst themselves?
3. Will the end result be the debt limits are taken out of the “things you can filibuster” list? I can see that happening, and Manchin and Sinema supporting it.
Here’s how I see it:
1. I don’t think the debt limit bills were ever filibustered by the Dems, except that they may have held out for a day or two for strategic reasons. But, as Sen. McConnell is pointing out, Biden’s “no” votes undercut the message that “both parties have to vote to float debt that accrued during past administrations.”
2. I think Dems can vote to raise the debt ceiling by simply ruling that a 51-vote majority will suffice and this vote isn’t subject to the filibuster, just like first Harry Reid and then later Mitch McConnell did with judges. I would imagine Dems don’t want to do this because they understand this could be a precedent that Republicans could later exploit.
3. Yep, exactly.
I criticized Mitch McConnell on the way they blocked a vote on Merrick Garland when President Obama nominated him for the Supreme Court. Not that I didn’t think his confirmation ought to have been blocked — I most certainly did — but I thought that rather than invoking arcane Senate rules (the Reid Rule and all that garbage) as the reason he should have simply said “President Obama has determined that he will rule by questionable Executive Orders and he will not try to reach any compromises with Congress. That being the case, Congress is no longer obligated to dispatch with President Obama’s nominees. Once President Obama returns to the norms of governing, the Senate will too.”
But I think that this is exactly what Sen. McConnell is doing this time. He’s saying, “Look, if the Democrats are going to run roughshod over us with their 50-person ‘majority’ and one tie-breaking vote, then we’re simply not going to participate in any Senate business where budgeting is concerned.” I fully support this notion. Naturally the media and all of our new lefty commenters see this as McConnell yet again “breaking with Washington norms” and all that, but I ask you: who really are the ones who are pushing a nonexistent majority well past its breaking point?
JVW (ee64e4) — 10/6/2021 @ 9:46 am@9 and @12…
Props!!!
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 10/6/2021 @ 10:00 amDemocrats don’t want to raise the debt limit alone, not this close to midterms. So let the lying and GOP-blaming begin!
Hoi Polloi (15cfac) — 10/6/2021 @ 10:15 am# 12
I appreciate political artistry even when practiced by people I don’t especially like. Both Mitch and Nancy Pelosi are good at this game. Joe Biden hasn’t shown any talent for it. Schumer probably lies to people too much to be very successful.
If the debt limit ends up being taken out of the filibuster — it will be trumpeted as a loss for Mitch. Then three years down the road, the Dems will get rolled and the debt limit thing will be one of the reasons.
Appalled (1a17de) — 10/6/2021 @ 10:17 amJVW, comment 12 is just a work of beauty.
Time123 (9f42ee) — 10/6/2021 @ 10:21 am11. In less than two weeks, or maybe three weeks, President Biden will announce a decision to mint a trillion dollar coin or several, but he will not announce it until just before he is ready to do it.
There will be enough time to spare left to actually mint the coin(s) if it or they haven’t already been minted quietly maybe years ago and are sitting in some vault but are just not officially declared to be valid coinage.
That will be the only legal option left.
That will probably sink the Build Back Better bill.
The Supreme Court will refuse to review it immediately, and when they do they will uphold it, like the Legal Tender Act because the alternative is economic chaos worse than that created by the Covid lockdowns et al. Worse than what might have happened in 2008.
I don’t think the Senate will bust the filibuster for this, and if Schumer tries he won’t get the votes. Neither will he get unanimous consent to lift the debt ceiling.
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 10/6/2021 @ 10:36 amAnybody remember Jim Jeffords?
Pouncer (6c33cf) — 10/6/2021 @ 10:44 amThere will be enough time to spare left to actually mint the coin(s) if it or they haven’t already been minted quietly maybe years ago and are sitting in some vault but are just not officially declared to be valid coinage.
Gonna be some epic action movies when a crew consisting of Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds, DaBaby (if he is paroled from woke jail by then), Selena Gomez, Kate Winslet, Zoe Saldana, and Jackie Chan, all under the direction of the international criminal mastermind Judi Dench (who still claims she didn’t know anything about Harvey Weinstein’s aberrant behavior), seek to steal all seven of the trillion dollar coins which are stored in a previously-thought-to-be-inaccessible facility a half-mile underground at Fort Knox. I envision these having four to five sequels.
JVW (ee64e4) — 10/6/2021 @ 10:54 am> Senator McConnell addressed this in his letter to President Biden
“A rules change means my filibuster is not a filibuster” does not work on any planet in this universe.
I don’t expect a dedicated “conservative” such as yourself to be any better than this, but you’re still lying.
john (cd2753) — 10/6/2021 @ 10:54 amBoy, that’s clear. I expect the MSM editorials to flow from this, accusing the administration of playing politics with the economy. How could they not?
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 10/6/2021 @ 11:08 amjohn is a trool. A tool and a troll.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 10/6/2021 @ 11:09 amDemocrats don’t want to raise the debt limit alone, not this close to midterms.
No one will care. This is an inside-the-beltway argument. And really, they plan on jamming through $5 trillion in new spending without a GOP vote and they are worried about being blamed for avoiding default?
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 10/6/2021 @ 11:12 amRe: 1 (and 12)
Appalled (1a17de) — 10/6/2021 @ 6:59 am
The New York Times had a middle of the front page story about this today:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/05/us/politics/mitch-mcconnell-debt-ceiling.html
And there are other articles and opinion pieces I have read. For one thing the Parliamentarian ruled that there are four possible budget reconciliation bills they can pass this year (two for Fiscal 2021 and two for Fiscal 2022)
He and Senator Obama both voted against it in 2006, but there was no filibuster, but on the other hand, filibusters weren’t so common then. Now every bill has to overcome a filibuster threat, except those specifically immune to it.
In 2006, Senator McConnell, then the number 2 Republican Senator, told the White House that they were two votes short of passing a debt ceiling raise. White House chief of staff Andrew H. Card managed to get two Democratic votes but McConnell was angry at him and passed it with Republican votes. Andrew Card never fund out what, if anything, McConnell wanted in exchange.
There was also no filibuster in 2003 and 2004 (when Democrats were in the majority in the Senate) and there were showdowns in 1995 and 1996 (that also involved a government shutdown coming first) when there was a Republican majority in the Senate, and there was one in 2011, with a Democratic president and a Democratic majority in the Senate.
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 10/6/2021 @ 11:13 am“A rules change means my filibuster is not a filibuster” does not work on any planet in this universe.
You and the Senate Democrats remind me of the child who walks to school, and every day they cross a particular intersection with the help (though hardly needed) of a crossing guard. The crossing guard escorts them across the street, even though there is a crosswalk at a stoplight with a Walk/Don’t Walk sign prominently displayed.
Then one day the child reaches that intersection and the crossing guard isn’t there. The child just stands there helplessly, unable to cross the street. Other people point out that all the child needs to do is hit the button on the Walk/Don’t Walk sign, wait for the light to turn red for oncoming traffic and the Walk sign to alight, and then cross the street by himself. But the child has apparently been conditioned to believe that the street cannot be crossed unless the crossing guard is there.
Come to think of it, I believe I have pretty much summed up modern progressivism.
JVW (ee64e4) — 10/6/2021 @ 11:15 amSammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 10/6/2021 @ 10:36 am:
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 10/6/2021 @ 11:17 amNot really, because they probably have enough to go around but they won;t be able to use reconciliation anyway, unless they quickly come to an agreement.
The deadline for the debt ceiling may not really be October 18, but it may be a practical deadline for getting it into the reconciliation bill.
The New York Times article outlined the problem with using reconciliation to raise the debt limit. Even though it needs only 50 votes, it still needs some time, and it needs tough votes, and any successful amendment sends the bill back to the House.
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 10/6/2021 @ 11:21 amAnd we haven’t even gotten to the hostage-taking add-ons to the debt limit bill. Like where the Dems add DACA normalization to the debt limit and then play chicken with the economy.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 10/6/2021 @ 11:32 amThe end result will be the so-called trillion dollar coin option, except they will probably have to make million dollar coins which will give the Treasury more flexibility.
One point: The value of the on can only be set once.
The legislation authorizing them may have been intended for collection and to be sold for a price much higher than their face value, but they don’t have to be sold for over face value. They could even be sold for less.
I am sure they can be sold to banks or hedge funds.
A trillion dollar coin is probably too much for even J.P. Morgan Chase or Citibank to handle. $100 million coins, maybe not so.
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 10/6/2021 @ 11:37 amThe coin idea is a rotten one — it allows the Executive to take over a piece of the appropriation function — with consequences that are hard to predict.
Unless the Democrats from Arizona and West Virginia are absurd enough to believe that the debt limit gives them some power they don’t already have, they will go with adding this to stuff exempted from the filibuster. Ultimately, the debt limit is a procedural hurdle the Senate has in its power to remove. They’ll remove it rather than hand the power over to Trump for his second term.
Appalled (1a17de) — 10/6/2021 @ 11:55 ammg freakout in 1..2..
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/06/mitch-mcconnell-may-offer-short-term-debt-ceiling-extension-following-pressure-from-biden.html
urbanleftbehind (c073c9) — 10/6/2021 @ 11:58 amThe Republicans are probably all sticking together because they’ve been cut out of the legislative process and this may be the only way to get back in. And they don’t want to undercut McConnell who may be their best hope of rendering them relevant.
Meanwhile, Senate Budget Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders says that absolutely the debt ceiling rise will not be put into the budget reconciliation bill.
Another problem for the Democrats in using reconciliation is that in a reconciliation bill, they ave to specify a debt limit amount, but in a stand-alone bill the can suspend it (although it’s constitutionality has been questioned – but the debt limit can be set to infinity after all – i.e. any amount of borrowing can be authorized and it can be authorized on the condition that the debt be borrowed before a termination date.)
Another point: Senate Majority Leader actually has no choice but to filibuster, unless at least 10 Republicans vote for the bill. They can pass the sand-alone bill without using reconciliation only by unanimous consent. One Senator can trigger a filibuster, and Senator Ted Cruz has said he would, and there are maybe 3 to 8 Republican Senators willing to object. Senator Roy Blunt of Missouri says there are about 40 to 45 Republican Senators willing to let a debt limit rise so long as they don’t have to cast a vote for it.
Meanwhile President Biden thinks he’s got the progressives down to $2.3 trillion (using fiscal gimmickry like late starts and early sunsets – they already before scheduled a sunset for he expanded child tax credit in 2025, figuring that a newly elected Republican president and Congress wouldn’t dare to kill it.
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 10/6/2021 @ 12:06 pmThe million/billion/trillion dollar coin(s) doesn’t allow anything extra to be appropriated.
It allows extra money to be spent without borrowing or raising taxes, because the Treasury won’t hit the debt limit. Authorizations (often needed) and appropriations still have to be done by Congress.
The thing is, this is like printing money, except it’s not paper.
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 10/6/2021 @ 12:12 pmAbout a single Senator stopping a bill:
One objection was all that was needed to stop the Iron Dome funding bill from going through the Senate
Senator Rand Paul said it should be paid for, and proposed an amendment taking away 1/6 of the money budgeted for aid to Afghanistan.
The Administration wants to continue it, so that teachers and doctors etc can be paid, and maybe people nt selected by the Taliban can be paid. They just want to bypass the Taliban government. I don;t think this has quite been all worked out yet. They want to route it through NGOs.
But that bill can withstand a filibuster or maybe get put back into the military bill. It was taken out to satisfy members of Congress who think Israel is all evil, even though 1) it’s purely a defense against war crimes 2) its absence would promote more deadly wars and 3) The U.S. military is involved with the technology.
But that was the hill some of the progressives chose to die on first and Nancy Pelosi had to cave to preserve her majority for the military bill. I think.
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 10/6/2021 @ 12:17 pm31. That means a filibuster will get cloture.
So no million/billion/trillion dollar coin for now, and there;s stilll trouble for the Build Back Better bill.
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 10/6/2021 @ 12:20 pmOT: University of Colorado hospital suspends the unvaccinated from transplant waiting lists.
Sounds terrible, until you consider that vaccinations give after a transplant are useless, due to anti-rejection drugs. Further, these same drugs make one more susceptible to infection so vaccinations for just about everything are a requirement before transplant.
It’s not just about Covid. Transplant patients tend to die from disease a lot easier than other people, and vaccinations help. A lot. Since there is a shortage of transplant organs, those with a better chance of survival have preference and someone who refuses to increase their chance of survival is S.O.L.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 10/6/2021 @ 12:43 pmLink: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/hospital-system-says-it-will-deny-transplants-to-the-unvaccinated-in-almost-all-situations/ar-AAPb9RA
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 10/6/2021 @ 12:44 pmA trillion dollar coin is probably too much for even J.P. Morgan Chase or Citibank to handle. $100 million coins, maybe not so.
Keep it up and we’ll all have $100 million coins.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 10/6/2021 @ 12:45 pmBiden Banking Nominee Scrubs Karl Marx Paper From Résumé
https://freebeacon.com/biden-administration/biden-banking-nominee-scrubs-karl-marx-paper-from-resume/
Obufman (86020d) — 10/6/2021 @ 1:03 pmAt one time, the living J.P. Morgan bailed out the government twice (which ultimately lead to the Federal Reserve Act).
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 10/6/2021 @ 1:04 pmAt one time, the living J.P. Morgan bailed out the government twice.
Was it just Morgan, or did some of the other titans of the time also pitch in?
Ah, just checked out your link and my question is answered there.
JVW (ee64e4) — 10/6/2021 @ 1:12 pmBiden searches for marbles, but soon leaves on a voyage to the far reaches of the known universe…
https://twitter.com/TPostMillennial/status/1445485571346866178?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1445485571346866178%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ace.mu.nu%2F
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 10/6/2021 @ 1:15 pmNothing freaks me out, urbunleftbehind. I’m used to McConnell folding since 2006. It just irritates me. No budget. wtf.
mg (8cbc69) — 10/6/2021 @ 2:52 pm@25
My god you’re on fire.
I’m so stealing this!
whembly (7e0293) — 10/6/2021 @ 2:54 pmThe republicans should attempt to educate the voters on how flucked up the base line accounting system is. The republican party just doesn’t care to change.
mg (8cbc69) — 10/6/2021 @ 3:04 pmJust as I predicted, the one dollar pricing at dollar stores is going the way of the dodo. Dollar Tree was the last of the dollar stores that was holding firm on one dollar pricing, and now it too has succumbed.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/retailwire/2021/10/05/dollar-tree-branches-out-beyond-1-pricing/?sh=7df5cded2c4d
Thanks Trump and Biden!
norcal (b9a35f) — 10/6/2021 @ 4:39 pm> remind me of the child who walks to school
Dude, you’re high. But kinda funny.
Oh, and your hero Mitch just caved.
john (cd2753) — 10/6/2021 @ 4:57 pmnorcal (b9a35f) — 10/6/2021 @ 4:39 pm
That was an easy prediction.
It is a lesson every generation learns and then think it something new. I remember five and dime stores and how my grand parents bemoaned the prices. Grand-dad would have freaked at the thought of a Dollar store.
felipe (484255) — 10/6/2021 @ 5:04 pmBen Franklin five and dime, arts and crafts.
mg (8cbc69) — 10/6/2021 @ 5:32 pm@48 I agree, but it’s not supposed to happens THIS fast. Inflation hasn’t been this bad in over 30 years.
norcal (8aaced) — 10/6/2021 @ 6:14 pmOh, and your hero Mitch just caved.
That’s what Elizabeth Warren said. Given that what really happened is that the Democrats agreed to his proposal to extend the debt ceiling only until December so they would have a little more time to try and get their act together, I would characterize it as only 1/1024th of a cave.
nk (1d9030) — 10/6/2021 @ 6:44 pmOh, and your hero Mitch just caved.
Go over to CNN, the Tass and Pravda of the Democrat Party, and see how they are covering it. Even they are acknowledging that Cocaine Mitch offered the Dems a lifeline and Schumer, et al. had no choice but to accept it. If this is caving then I hope to see a lot more of it from Sen. McConnell. Any more “victories” like this and the Democrats may lose 50 seats in the House and 6 in the Senate next year.
JVW (ee64e4) — 10/6/2021 @ 7:45 pm1/1024 of a cave. Well-played, nk!
norcal (b9a35f) — 10/6/2021 @ 7:50 pmThat sucks about the dollar stores becoming 1.## and $2 …now i need a new hustle to gather quarters for the laundry machines, since it’s much less like to get one or two items at less than 1.25 or 2.25..
And Dodgers walkoff!
urbanleftbehind (c073c9) — 10/6/2021 @ 9:38 pmAnd Dodgers walkoff!
I bet the fans are just leaving the stadium now, hoarse. I was there when Gibson hit his, so I get it entirely.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 10/6/2021 @ 9:55 pmBen Franklin five and dime, arts and crafts.
Woolworths
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 10/6/2021 @ 9:59 pmOut: The Republcians are filibustering the debt limit increase! Do they want us to all die?! What happened to bipartisanship? Country before party!
In: Your hero Mitch just caved.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 10/6/2021 @ 10:03 pmIn: Your hero Mitch just caved.
It’s almost as if deep down inside they actually know how dumb their argument is, but like the good foot soldiers for Soros that they are, they keep at it.
JVW (ee64e4) — 10/6/2021 @ 10:08 pmSoros can’t be very proud of them, either. From Biden on down, the only instances when they haven’t been pathetic are when they were wretched.
nk (1d9030) — 10/6/2021 @ 11:15 pmMitch does not care about the voters. A true pos since 2006.
mg (8cbc69) — 10/7/2021 @ 2:37 amhttps://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2021/10/derek-chauvin-needs-a-lawyer.php
mg (8cbc69) — 10/7/2021 @ 2:48 amThe lawyers in Minnesota are part of the chickenshiff club.
@48 I agree, but it’s not supposed to happens THIS fast. Inflation hasn’t been this bad in over 30 years.
norcal (8aaced) — 10/6/2021 @ 6:14 pm
Well said! I was going to chastise you because 30 years seems like plenty of cyclical time, until I remembered that 40 years is a generation, so yes, that was fast!
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Kevin M (ab1c11) — 10/6/2021 @ 9:59 pm
Heh, Kevin, I remember the scene in “Oh brother, where art thou?” After clooney’s character is thrown out of a store, the worker yells “and stay out of the Woolsworth!”
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I second norcal’s praise, nk! “1/1024th of a cave” HA!
felipe (484255) — 10/7/2021 @ 3:47 amIt’s a bright cheery morning and the turtle has changed the landscape a bit by allowing the debt limit follies to be pushed back to December. Why should he do such a thing?
1. It could be that he doesn’t want to put the filibuster up for grabs again with possibly unpredictable results.
2. Maybe he just thinks the country doesn’t need a stupid shutdown/debt limit crisis right now. Instead, we should have it for Christmas, just in time for all the pundits to break out their Ebenezer Scrooge references.
3. (My choice) If the focus is on the debt limit, it is not on the moderates vs progressives battle in the Democratic party, and one of Mitch’s jobs is to make sure his party does not get in the way of the Democrats trashing themselves.
Of course, this being Cocaine Mitch. there are reasons 4-28 on why he’s acting this way, which will only become obvious in the fullness of time, but will all be recognized as utterly brilliant.
Appalled (1a17de) — 10/7/2021 @ 6:36 amKevin M,
She’s already had the virus. This is just attempted murder to fit a political agenda.
NJRob (fba4d2) — 10/7/2021 @ 6:51 amKevin M (ab1c11) — 10/6/2021 @ 10:03 pm
He gave the Democrats enough time to actually use the reconciliation process to pass the debt limit increase, he said.
Why not just agree?
First of all, he’s trying to make the Republicans look more united than they are. He can’t actually cave without splitting the Republicans into some supporting cloture and some not, because a few Republicans, like Ted Cruz, are prepared to invoke a filibuster.
Another factor was that they were about to vote that day on a debt ceiling increase, and possibly McConnell was concerned that Manchin might vote to suspend the filibuster for that. Or at least could use that as an argument to Ted Cruz and others to not impede an extenstion of the deadline to December.
What is the purpose of this? I’m trying to understand this because everything is written in shorthand.
The benefit to the Republicans of forcing the Democrats m to use reconciliation (besides as a bargaining chip to let Republicans into the negotiations about taxation and spending) seems to me to possibly be that then they can’t take six months to agree on the big bill if they are going to use that bill to raise the debt ceiling.
Or, alternatively, they use up one reconciliation bill and they have to spend a lot of extra floor time on the debt ceiling and take a lot of extra tough votes.
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 10/7/2021 @ 7:57 am[A] few Republicans, like Ted Cruz, are prepared to invoke a filibuster.
Without 41, they have nothing. I guess he could talk for a while, but Cruz has burned ALL his bridges, so it doesn’t really matter.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 10/7/2021 @ 8:31 amWhat is the purpose of this?
He doesn’t want to f**k up the government (more than it already is) just because it’s now in the hands of twatwaffles?
nk (1d9030) — 10/7/2021 @ 8:31 amHey, it got through! Sorry, JD, if you’re out there, but trademarks are subject to abandonment.
nk (1d9030) — 10/7/2021 @ 8:33 amShe’s already had the virus. This is just attempted murder to fit a political agenda.
When you have 10 organs and 1000 sick people waiting for them, do you really prioritize the person who won’t follow the rules? And there are a lot of rules, put in place to maximize the outcomes. Post-op self-care is important and this lady is demonstrating that she won’t do what is suggested.
What this is, is an attempt by someone on a waiting list to use politics to get to the front of the line since her chances, shot or no shot, are pretty slim in the normal run of things.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 10/7/2021 @ 8:36 amI confess I do not understand why someone would refuse the vaccine. Not one single argument makes sense, other than maybe “I’m afraid of needles.”
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 10/7/2021 @ 8:39 am63. Appalled (1a17de) — 10/7/2021 @ 6:36 am
It was about to come up for a vote that very day. McConnell’s announcement stopped the legislative planning. And I don;t think it’s that McConnell thought Manchin would vote to make an exception for the filibuster, but he could use that as argument
I don;t think he really wants it at all.
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 10/7/2021 @ 8:41 am@70, because they don’t think the problem the vaccine is trying to solve is very serious. They feel covid was exaggerated as a way to usurp political power from them. They don’t believe the people saying covid is serious honestly believe that. They feel like they’re being bullied in many different ways, this included, and insulted in many other ways, by the people saying they need to get vaccinated. They’re tired of all of that and they don’t want to give in to people they feel are dishonest bullies.
Time123 (9f42ee) — 10/7/2021 @ 8:49 amFeedback / corrections welcome from anyone opposed to the vaccine / vaccine mandate.
Time123 (9f42ee) — 10/7/2021 @ 8:50 amShe’s already had the virus. This is just attempted murder to fit a political agenda.
As much as I might wish to mock that statement, the memory of a Hellfire missile killing an innocent family to momentarily provide political cover for a moonwaffle’s wrinkled old ass is too recent.
nk (1d9030) — 10/7/2021 @ 9:28 ammoonwaffle’s wrinkled old ass
And here I thought Mike Royko was dead.
norcal (b9a35f) — 10/7/2021 @ 3:51 pmRoyko’s coinage was “Governor Moonbeam”. “Moonwaffle” is from another Chicagoan — the former commenter daleyrocks.
nk (1d9030) — 10/7/2021 @ 4:05 pmAnd I don’t know about you all, but it’s been illuminating to me how both the Trumpmuffins and the twatwaffles would rather see the two parties in Congress mud wrestling and mudslinging rather than taking care of the country’s business.
nk (1d9030) — 10/7/2021 @ 4:30 pmnk (1d9030) — 10/7/2021 @ 9:28 am
No, it was a genuine mistake, genuine stupidity, made by lower ranking people than Joe Biden, but people should have realized along time ago no that \American intelligencwe in Afghanistan and Pakistan has been penetrated by |||{akistan’s rogue military intelligence agency, the ISI.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/05/us/politics/cia-informants-killed-captured.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/15/world/asia/15policy.html
I strongly doubted there was going to be a car bomb. I suspect the whole thing was disinformation, and the United States may even have been steered toward that innocent man, although I don’t know much about how they would have done it. There is not even car bomb building expeertise in Afghanistan.
Sammy Finkelman (b434ee) — 10/7/2021 @ 4:53 pm70. Kevin M (ab1c11) — 10/7/2021 @ 8:39 am
Lack of technical expertise combined with fear of unknown side effects and lack of trust in the official experts.
Sammy Finkelman (b434ee) — 10/7/2021 @ 4:55 pmIt’s a bright cheery morning and the turtle has changed the landscape a bit by allowing the debt limit follies to be pushed back to December. Why should he do such a thing?
Regardless of Mitch the B’s possible reason s 1-99, it is clear the Citibank and whoever else is based in Delaware West have enough of a hand up the you know where’s of John Thune and Mike Rounds:
https://www.yahoo.com/gma/senate-votes-raise-debt-limit-003200290.html
urbanleftbehind (c073c9) — 10/7/2021 @ 7:27 pmLack of technical expertise combined with fear of unknown side effects and lack of trust in the official experts.
So: ignorance, fear and a misplaced reliance on the State. I blame the press for all three.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 10/7/2021 @ 9:58 pmAccusing McConnell and some “weak” Republicans for “caving” on the debt limit (something our leftist troll agreed with yesterday) Hannity said:”Mitch McConnell, where is your backbone?” he asked. “Where are your principles?”
McConnell replied: “Mr Hannity, you’re a cretin and a pretty stupid cretin at that.”
But he only said it to himself.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 10/7/2021 @ 10:03 pmI know that Royko came up with Moonbeam, nk. Moonwaffle just struck me as a descendant of Royko’s term, and I thought it was your invention, but I’m thankful to know that daleyrocks came up with it. I miss daleyrocks, happyfeet, and Dmac, who were all Chicagoans, if I remember clearly.
Do you know what happened to them? And, by the way, does anybody know what happened to Dave, the professor at UC Irvine? Or harkin, the guy who used to post snippets from Twitter?
norcal (b9a35f) — 10/7/2021 @ 10:06 pmhappyfeet outstayed his welcome. Not sure about Dave — he just stopped showing up.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 10/8/2021 @ 12:43 ammr. happyfeet was pro mr. Trump
mg (8cbc69) — 10/8/2021 @ 2:22 am“democrats should expect no help from republicans”
mg (8cbc69) — 10/8/2021 @ 2:34 amthat was said by McConnell a few days ago. Liar. Lying to the voters since 2006.
A rope is not enough for this punk.
happyfeet was a Texan by way of California. I had to tell him which Chicago streets rhymed with vagina.
nk (1d9030) — 10/8/2021 @ 5:25 amAt this point its clear that ‘the press” mostly provides an emotional response based on a slanted presentation of current events. Which emotion you want to experience determines which media source follow.
Time123 (9f42ee) — 10/8/2021 @ 5:59 amSo I blame people who don’t take the time seek out an accurate understanding from one of the available sources that don’t do that. Those sources exist, they’re just not as much fun to read.