Making fun of loony Right-Wing republicans was more fun before the country overwhelmingly re-elected them less than 3 months ago. But our dysfunctional government isn't the only thing that stays depressingly the same, so does the tired repetitive columns and rhetoric of New York Times editorial page columnists.
6
Obama should come out in strong support of every GOP agenda, then we could watch as the right wing crazies tied themselves into knots trying to be against what their masters want.
54
For one thing, the Keystone will produce few permanent jobs. Secondly, it is a gift to the over-rich oil industry. The word "pipeline" could be used to define what Congress uses to pass taxpayer money directly to the oil industry. And pharmaceuticals. And Agriculture. And on and on and on. If anyone believes Congress will now be different, they must also believe in the tooth fairy and the Easter bunny.............
82
This insanity will continue unabated until such time as we implement Constitutional term limits (ala the Presidency) on both other branches.....Consider :
1.) Senate or House - 12 total years per person & change both House & Senate to 4 year terms
2.) Supreme Court 20 years & out !
1.) Senate or House - 12 total years per person & change both House & Senate to 4 year terms
2.) Supreme Court 20 years & out !
64
From today's NY Times obit section:
"Prof. Philip E. Converse, Expert on How Voters Decide, Dies at 86
By SAM ROBERTS
Professor Converse, in “The American Voter,” concluded with three co-authors in 1960 that most voters were remarkably uninformed and based their preferences largely on party affiliation."
This timely obit proves that 55 years ago these remarkably uninformed voters spawned future remarkably uninformed kids who've had time to spawn more remarkably uniformed voters, which explains last November's elections.
Full disclosure: 60 years ago I was born remarkably uninformed. I became a Baptist because my mother was a Baptist. I became a Republican because my father was a Republican (except for Geo. Wallace in 68.) But unlike my ShamWow buying friends, in the late 1990s with the rise of Kenneth Starr, I spent a few weeks reexamining my beliefs & found out I was no Baptist & I was no Republican!
About that same time I decided it wasn't good to "feel", that it was very important that I "know" & "think" before I cast any vote. My transformation has made me a new man! Though now that I'm paying attention I'm rarely happy.
Our Congress-critters are neither Republican or Democrat....they're MONEYcrats. None are in Congress to work for you or me. Jimmy Stewart is dead....everyone in Congress got there by raising millions in campaign funds therefore becoming Oligarch tools. Oligarchs want XL because cheap gas won't last. Our system is broken. Praise no one!
"Prof. Philip E. Converse, Expert on How Voters Decide, Dies at 86
By SAM ROBERTS
Professor Converse, in “The American Voter,” concluded with three co-authors in 1960 that most voters were remarkably uninformed and based their preferences largely on party affiliation."
This timely obit proves that 55 years ago these remarkably uninformed voters spawned future remarkably uninformed kids who've had time to spawn more remarkably uniformed voters, which explains last November's elections.
Full disclosure: 60 years ago I was born remarkably uninformed. I became a Baptist because my mother was a Baptist. I became a Republican because my father was a Republican (except for Geo. Wallace in 68.) But unlike my ShamWow buying friends, in the late 1990s with the rise of Kenneth Starr, I spent a few weeks reexamining my beliefs & found out I was no Baptist & I was no Republican!
About that same time I decided it wasn't good to "feel", that it was very important that I "know" & "think" before I cast any vote. My transformation has made me a new man! Though now that I'm paying attention I'm rarely happy.
Our Congress-critters are neither Republican or Democrat....they're MONEYcrats. None are in Congress to work for you or me. Jimmy Stewart is dead....everyone in Congress got there by raising millions in campaign funds therefore becoming Oligarch tools. Oligarchs want XL because cheap gas won't last. Our system is broken. Praise no one!
291
And watch, the nitwit American voters will put them right back in next election.
19
Ted Yoho represents the district that I live in. I Did not nor will I ever vote for him. I refer to him as Ted Yoyo!!
15
Look on the bright side:
How likely is it that a Representative from SC will try to kill a Senator from Massachusetts with a cane?
How many senators and congressmen enter their respective chambers armed to the teeth these days? (Thomas Hart Benton came very close to having a knife fight in the well of the Senate.)
Things are a bit more harmonious that yesteryear -- so far a least.
How likely is it that a Representative from SC will try to kill a Senator from Massachusetts with a cane?
How many senators and congressmen enter their respective chambers armed to the teeth these days? (Thomas Hart Benton came very close to having a knife fight in the well of the Senate.)
Things are a bit more harmonious that yesteryear -- so far a least.
5
Repubs refused to share their toys with Dems when they ruled he Senate. Now they want the Dems to give them all their toys.
22
1. "politicians could make a speech before an assembly of cabbages without noticing that there was anything unusual about the room."
2. "I know polls show the majority of Americans support the oil pipeline, which when completed would run from Canada to the Gulf."
Re:1: It appears that Scalise thought that he was talking to cabbages at that speech. His topic was taxation, and after speaking he left before the Duke proceedings were in action.
If I talk to my political opponents, does that make me a bad guy? It seems that that is all he did, about a topic that had nothing to do with the brouhaha the press is making this out to be.
Re:2: It appears that you are out of sync with 70% of the populace.
2. "I know polls show the majority of Americans support the oil pipeline, which when completed would run from Canada to the Gulf."
Re:1: It appears that Scalise thought that he was talking to cabbages at that speech. His topic was taxation, and after speaking he left before the Duke proceedings were in action.
If I talk to my political opponents, does that make me a bad guy? It seems that that is all he did, about a topic that had nothing to do with the brouhaha the press is making this out to be.
Re:2: It appears that you are out of sync with 70% of the populace.
3
The good news is that the presidential campaigns will be starting in earnest soon and that will give Gail dumpsters full of material to work with. Not too much funny to be found in our new congress.
9
Like the crazy uncle who watches Fox and listens to Rush, things can be so ridiculous that they are funny. Thanks for the laughs, Gail.
23
TV exec: We need a new sitcom. Anyone have an idea?
Employee: I know. How 'bout a sitcom about two ignorant southerners who actually get elected to the House of Representatives! And their names are Yahoo and Goober ! But of course that would never happen in real life.
Employee: I know. How 'bout a sitcom about two ignorant southerners who actually get elected to the House of Representatives! And their names are Yahoo and Goober ! But of course that would never happen in real life.
32
Thank the gods we still have the VETO!
24
I was actually relieved when the new Republican Senate led off with Keystone instead of with restricting a women's right to birth control, healthcare or abortion, which is normally the very first thing they do. I guess they'll do that next week.
67
C'mon, surely you would support gomer for speaker. You would have enough material to last hundreds of years.
12
I still think it's a hoot that the MSM continues to promote the conservative meme that the establishment GOP has beaten back the party's Tea Party wing.
The SOLE Jewish Republican in the House and Senate, Eric Cantor, who just happened to be the party's majority leader, was primaried out of office and elevated to a leadership position is a guy who pals around with David Duke.
Sort of makes you wish for the good old days of Ken Buck's banalities when he was running for the senate against Mike Bennet in 2010. Oh, wait, he just got elected to Congress this past November.
The SOLE Jewish Republican in the House and Senate, Eric Cantor, who just happened to be the party's majority leader, was primaried out of office and elevated to a leadership position is a guy who pals around with David Duke.
Sort of makes you wish for the good old days of Ken Buck's banalities when he was running for the senate against Mike Bennet in 2010. Oh, wait, he just got elected to Congress this past November.
10
Re "Back To The Future" (1/8/2015). I like metaphors, don'y you? Today's mention that former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid missed Tuesday's opening ceremonies in the Senate because he busted himself up falling off an exercise bike presents an appropriate metaphor for the condition of the Democrats in the Senate, at least, and probably for the Party throughout the country. The Republicans have succeeded in finding some young, even though eccentric, blood for its leadership. The Democrats obviously need to overhaul their leadership in both houses of Congress. Bill Potts, Bethesda, MD
20
"...when he suggested that the current rather remarkable strength of the American economy was because of consumer ebullience over the election of a Republican majority in the Senate." Only someone who is delusional and/or a liar could make such a statement, and I think McConnell is too smart to be delusional.
30
While Obama moves to create a changed, more fair society the Republicans' negative response brings to mind Henry Ford's reply when asked why he insisted on building cars despite public criticism he replied "If I asked them, they would insist on faster horses."
31
I try not to listen. After twenty years of force feeding a conservative agenda in the face of every attempt by the Democrats to compromise, the Republicans suddenly want to be bipartisan! They're only bipartisan when they get to set the agenda. I'd be happier if they'd just own up to their tactics and celebrate their success. If you're not my friend, don't act like you are, that's worse.
35
There won't be bipartisan anything done. the Democrats, via Harry Reid, blocked everything passed in the House and, now, the Democrats are, already, vowing to be as intractable as they can on everything the Republicans come up with.
The real party of no is the Democrats and America is starting to see that.
The real party of no is the Democrats and America is starting to see that.
7
There is a global glut of oil, the U.S. is awash in it and the stock market is jittery, yet Keystone XL Pipeline is the rally cry of the Republican party. Really?
Just like the Chatty Kathy doll, if you pull a Republican's string, expect only four or five responses including "Obamacare" with a Sarah Palin sarcastic accent (then roll eyes for a teenage dramatic effect), "Benghazi" with a Lindsey Graham southern twang (then wink at the camera), "Keystone XL pipeline, a job creator" with a Mitch McConnell monotone and lastly "It's Obama's fault" then insert any current even that the public is concerned about. Their tactics are about as flimflam as the local snake oil salesman, yet for some unknown reason they were elected into office as a majority. Can someone from a think tank please explain this to the rest of us, please?
Just like the Chatty Kathy doll, if you pull a Republican's string, expect only four or five responses including "Obamacare" with a Sarah Palin sarcastic accent (then roll eyes for a teenage dramatic effect), "Benghazi" with a Lindsey Graham southern twang (then wink at the camera), "Keystone XL pipeline, a job creator" with a Mitch McConnell monotone and lastly "It's Obama's fault" then insert any current even that the public is concerned about. Their tactics are about as flimflam as the local snake oil salesman, yet for some unknown reason they were elected into office as a majority. Can someone from a think tank please explain this to the rest of us, please?
55
'Bipartisan'. Its one of those terms that has been elevated, now, to the status of 'Shibboleth', a word that means exactly what those who utter it mean - nothing more, nor nothing less. To Republicans, something like: 'My way or the highway!
Ahh me! The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Ahh me! The more things change, the more they stay the same.
15
Let's hope the bipartisan spirit can continue because Congress needs to address "calves the size of cantaloupes" --modify ACA to either tax large calves or to subsidize a pharmaceutical treatment/placebo.
10
In other news, Republicans claim to have invented football, introduce a bill funding the distribution of land mines along the southern border, make petroleum the national beverage, and support the printing of a new thousand dollar bill featuring an unprecedented double portrait of American icons Charles and David Koch.
18
I am more fearful of this Republican government than any other threat this world can offer. Their puppet masters have no limits to their abuse of the 99%.
17
Mediocrity and mendacity.
The American people will get what they voted for.
The American people will get what they voted for.
17
Boehner can see through Scalise’s heart. Didn’t Bush see through Poutine and conclude that he was a wonderful individual? These GOP people have eyes that need to be examined.
17
Gail....first off, we are not your "people"!
Many of us wouldn't even elect you dog-catcher, even with your vast knowledge of dogs on car roofs.
As far as old Keystone is concerned, that ship was sunk in the harbor by our Admiral of Edicts who pronounced it was "dead" in th water. Back to the future, alright!
Many of us wouldn't even elect you dog-catcher, even with your vast knowledge of dogs on car roofs.
As far as old Keystone is concerned, that ship was sunk in the harbor by our Admiral of Edicts who pronounced it was "dead" in th water. Back to the future, alright!
1
The best news from Congress is that Louie Gohmert only got 3 votes, 1 of which was his own. Even the Republicans recognize that he is an idiot.
19
And the Proggies go wild! This section will be a hoot to behold over the next year.
Have courage ye of little faith and of lessor reasoning skills. The Republicans will likely over-reach. But that will only mean back to digging out excuses rather than digging out insults.
Have courage ye of little faith and of lessor reasoning skills. The Republicans will likely over-reach. But that will only mean back to digging out excuses rather than digging out insults.
3
Time and time again Gail Collins turns my frown into a smile, even if it is somewhat uneven with all the irony running through it. She is , as Steve Furman writes, a courageous, brilliant satirist, who writes with clarity, charm and style and skewers so delicately and precisely that even the skewered hardly feel it, but hopefully, are eventually roasted sufficiently to fall from the spit into the forgotten cold ashes of yesterday's barbecue.
20
More lip-service from the clueless tools of big money.
8
Great column. I look forward to many more from you as this congress begins and continues its "work".
7
With clowns like Yoho. Gohmert, and King, it shows just how stupid some in Congress are, and they are the by-product of an even wackier group, the voters who elected them, and those folks are the first to complain about things not going their way, that the government should stay out of their Medicare, and that the government should cut spending, except that their respective states probably get the most federal dollars in military spending, etc.
18
Dick Durban's promise notwithstanding, the Dems must not, under any circumstances, allow themselves to be a "much better minority" than the Repugs. If they do so, they can look forward to permanent minority status.
In the wake of the 2008 and 2012 elections, the Repugs made it abundantly clear that they would hold the machinery of government hostage. Basically, they told the people "if you dare to elect our opponents, we will gum up the works so badly that not a damn thing will get done" and that's pretty much what they did.
If the Dems don't match their game now, people will reason: "I'd rather vote for a Dem, but they won't punish everyone if they don't get a majority, unlike the Repugs. I guess our democracy only works if we let the Repugs lead it."
Which is, I suggest, a very twisted notion of democracy.
Mitch McMonnell's suddenly oozing bipartisanship from every pore. Good for him. There's nobody so zealous as a recent convert, but he's half a decade too late...
In the wake of the 2008 and 2012 elections, the Repugs made it abundantly clear that they would hold the machinery of government hostage. Basically, they told the people "if you dare to elect our opponents, we will gum up the works so badly that not a damn thing will get done" and that's pretty much what they did.
If the Dems don't match their game now, people will reason: "I'd rather vote for a Dem, but they won't punish everyone if they don't get a majority, unlike the Repugs. I guess our democracy only works if we let the Repugs lead it."
Which is, I suggest, a very twisted notion of democracy.
Mitch McMonnell's suddenly oozing bipartisanship from every pore. Good for him. There's nobody so zealous as a recent convert, but he's half a decade too late...
20
yo-ho, yo-ho, a pirate's life for me...
62
The item at the top of the Republican's priority list is an oil pipeline. That should tell people all they need to know about the Republicans.
257
Bipartisanship would be President Obama saying: "My number one priority is making sure Mitch McConnell is a one-term Senate Majority Leader."
326
Stated for prosperity, Mitch McConnel said his main purpose was to defeat President Obama. If that isn't the megalomania Hitler suffered I don't know what is. When are they going to work for the United States of America?
13
Gail Collins may not be a cartoonist, but her columns are in the fine tradition of political satire stretching back to Mark Twain, Will Rogers, and forward to Charlie Hebdo.
15
Comments should now be closed! After reading the 25 comments that were here when I read them at 8:12 am, they all expressed everything that need be said very eloquently.
4
Gutting social security's protection of disability benefits; gutting people's ability to afford health insurance; gutting the government's role in protecting the availabilty of jobs in the national economy; gutting government's regulation of large business polluters that cause global warming; gutting re-regulation of bank's investing their own money in the stock market--how the New Deal protected America from large bank failures after the Great Depression--this is just day one of the new republican millenium in Congress. The vast majority of Americans DO NOT UNDERSTAND how republican destruction of the great safety net for their well-being wil affect them. UNLESS the President takes them on forcefully, consistently and continuously, the Democratic Party is doomed in 2016, and the nation's economy, air quality, and standard of living is on the road to holy hell shortly thereafter. UNLESS the President makes the case to the American people in blunt, main street talk and not law school language, that Republican compromise is "my way or the highway," and the highway wil take us straight to hell, we are all on the road to perdition. Please, Mr. President, people accept what Republicans say unless they hear blunt talk against it from you--the time for "compromise" is long gone. The longer you try to work with them, the more the goal posts move until you are pinned deep in your own end, on an uphill playing field against the wind with time running out on you.
19
To: Ms. Gail Collins
From: The 36% Solution Group
Dear Ms. Collins,
As the spokesperson for the "T.T.S.G.", we are quite pleased with the results of 2014's overwhelming mandate to "git sumthin' dun" in Congress!
Make snarky, snide comments about Mr. Yoho and Mr. Scalise but, rest assured, they have the whole hearted backing of at least part of the 36% of the electorate who voted; the 64% who didn't vote can go create their own "Non-think Tank" if they desire but, right now, the 36% rule is in place, more or less, in a very, very bi-partisan manner.
In fact one of our "planks" is to eliminate these regular old "partisans" from our ranks replacing them with "bi-partisans" as soon as we determine if "bi-partisan" has ANYTHING at all to do with, well, you know, the other "bi's" that may want to marry each other (Our group is re-examining "DOMA" after we conclusively find out the evidence on the "preferences" of other certain "bi-partisans"; a complex issue impossible to explain in so few words).
Otherwise, the country, your paper, yourself and various donors owe a vote of thanks to our organization. We will not rest until our title can be changed to "The 1% Solution Group" (We have provisions for a re-hab center called 'Oligarch's Anonymous" for those well heeled who still have a tiny bit of conscience left; pesky "morality" thing again).
All in all, we can hardly wait for 2016!
Thanks you for your time,
Mr. Ima M. Oneybags
CFO, The 36% Solution Group
From: The 36% Solution Group
Dear Ms. Collins,
As the spokesperson for the "T.T.S.G.", we are quite pleased with the results of 2014's overwhelming mandate to "git sumthin' dun" in Congress!
Make snarky, snide comments about Mr. Yoho and Mr. Scalise but, rest assured, they have the whole hearted backing of at least part of the 36% of the electorate who voted; the 64% who didn't vote can go create their own "Non-think Tank" if they desire but, right now, the 36% rule is in place, more or less, in a very, very bi-partisan manner.
In fact one of our "planks" is to eliminate these regular old "partisans" from our ranks replacing them with "bi-partisans" as soon as we determine if "bi-partisan" has ANYTHING at all to do with, well, you know, the other "bi's" that may want to marry each other (Our group is re-examining "DOMA" after we conclusively find out the evidence on the "preferences" of other certain "bi-partisans"; a complex issue impossible to explain in so few words).
Otherwise, the country, your paper, yourself and various donors owe a vote of thanks to our organization. We will not rest until our title can be changed to "The 1% Solution Group" (We have provisions for a re-hab center called 'Oligarch's Anonymous" for those well heeled who still have a tiny bit of conscience left; pesky "morality" thing again).
All in all, we can hardly wait for 2016!
Thanks you for your time,
Mr. Ima M. Oneybags
CFO, The 36% Solution Group
6
We're all best pals again? How did we get so chummy again when I remember the word Bipartisanship mysteriously went out the door on the day President Obama was elected. Now we're all comfy at last hearing, keeping each other warm and giving hugs and smooches to all. This is heart-warming in itself and a time to remember. as we finalize an agenda for America to become a Police Task Force Working Nation at long last. Whew!
The temperature on this freezing cold day in the Big Apple just went down ten degrees in this apartment, and I am wearing an old bunny fur coat to keep tepidly warm, while thoughts navigate towards happy bankers, Wall Street and our big powerful corporations who are all going to give us better jobs, and give us pay on a 'Snow' day where we can stay blissfully at home and watch an excellent series on Alaska.
The funny thing about Congress is that the members all look alike. No foreigner in their midst and Mr. Boehner may have overdone it with the orange tan. It gives one an added glow and a boost to know that he is also able to look into the heart of Louisiana with bells on his toes.
There does come a time when wonders cease, at least for this American, and although I remain clueless as to the Keystone oil pipeline, apparently a good thing, what my ear is picking up in the background is 'Danny Boy' where the pipes are calling, a tune that continues to make many people weep.
The temperature on this freezing cold day in the Big Apple just went down ten degrees in this apartment, and I am wearing an old bunny fur coat to keep tepidly warm, while thoughts navigate towards happy bankers, Wall Street and our big powerful corporations who are all going to give us better jobs, and give us pay on a 'Snow' day where we can stay blissfully at home and watch an excellent series on Alaska.
The funny thing about Congress is that the members all look alike. No foreigner in their midst and Mr. Boehner may have overdone it with the orange tan. It gives one an added glow and a boost to know that he is also able to look into the heart of Louisiana with bells on his toes.
There does come a time when wonders cease, at least for this American, and although I remain clueless as to the Keystone oil pipeline, apparently a good thing, what my ear is picking up in the background is 'Danny Boy' where the pipes are calling, a tune that continues to make many people weep.
9
"McConnell did interject a moment of levity when he suggested that the current rather remarkable strength of the American economy was because of consumer ebullience over the election of a Republican majority in the Senate."
Open mouth, say something stupid.
Open mouth, say something stupid.
13
Did you hear the other inane comment from the illustrious majority "leader": to wit: "the current cold spell is due to the joy accompanying the repubublican majority and the relocation of hot air to Washington". Or that the republicans engineered it to show the necessity of the pipeline and "drill baby drill".
5
The Democratic Party is just having an After Election Clearance Sale.
A lot of tired old Dems are ready to leave so it's time to make points for after Office employment, like Bill did with deregulation and NAFTA.
After Bill-O, Bush/Cheney and Obama, can anyone possibly be up for Hillary vs. Jeb ?
Thank God the Supreme court has lifted the burden of electing a President from the commoners and given it to the Rich to buy as they chose, as the Founders intended
A lot of tired old Dems are ready to leave so it's time to make points for after Office employment, like Bill did with deregulation and NAFTA.
After Bill-O, Bush/Cheney and Obama, can anyone possibly be up for Hillary vs. Jeb ?
Thank God the Supreme court has lifted the burden of electing a President from the commoners and given it to the Rich to buy as they chose, as the Founders intended
7
Yes, by building a pipeline across a key aquifer, thus putting drinking water in two states in jeopardy, will result in 50 permanent jobs and allow Canadian oil to be shipped to China. By doing this we assure our domestic self-sufficiency in energy and stimulate the economy? Americans are clamoring for this? Did I miss something? As usual Gail focuses upon the key issues.
20
Keystone!
Benghazi!
Keystone!
No, wait.... Benghazi!
But Keystone!
Anything, to cover up the fact we have The Three Stooges running the US Government in Congress now.
That's the cover-up the New York Times should be investigating at this point. It is important. They've lost their knack for slapstick, after all these years. How unfortunate!
Benghazi!
Keystone!
No, wait.... Benghazi!
But Keystone!
Anything, to cover up the fact we have The Three Stooges running the US Government in Congress now.
That's the cover-up the New York Times should be investigating at this point. It is important. They've lost their knack for slapstick, after all these years. How unfortunate!
181
The US needs to upgrade its long distance passenger rail lines.
Recently I rode the TGV in France. It was fast, smooth, comfortable. We made the trip from Paris to Aix faster than I had imagined, all while not traveling at excessive speed--one could enjoy the countryside along the way.
Consider similar trips in the US: travel from San Jose to Los Angeles and you are lucky to arrive on the day scheduled let along within one hour of the scheduled time. TGV was on time to the minute. The trip across the northern plains states is so rough it reminded me to unpaved roads after a downpour in New England. Top speed--20 mph.
Highways also need upgrading so that it is possible to drive to Los Angeles from northern California without having to crawl in stop and go traffic on 5 or 101.
There should be a flat tax on gas and oil that is independent of the price. The tax should be paid for by users and producers. It is time to stop subsidizing oil production.
Recently I rode the TGV in France. It was fast, smooth, comfortable. We made the trip from Paris to Aix faster than I had imagined, all while not traveling at excessive speed--one could enjoy the countryside along the way.
Consider similar trips in the US: travel from San Jose to Los Angeles and you are lucky to arrive on the day scheduled let along within one hour of the scheduled time. TGV was on time to the minute. The trip across the northern plains states is so rough it reminded me to unpaved roads after a downpour in New England. Top speed--20 mph.
Highways also need upgrading so that it is possible to drive to Los Angeles from northern California without having to crawl in stop and go traffic on 5 or 101.
There should be a flat tax on gas and oil that is independent of the price. The tax should be paid for by users and producers. It is time to stop subsidizing oil production.
10
Regarding the Keystone pipeline, since the oil is going to be shipped and used somewhere anyway, wouldn't it have less energy consumption impact moving it through a pipe than shipping it on trucks or railroad cars? I will grant you that the chances of a major spill are more likely higher with the pipeline. If they build it, advanced computerized sensors should be used to shut it down fast in the event of a break. That's a necessary requirement
After analyzing the situation, the State Department said that building the pipeline was pretty much a wash compared to doing it any other way. As it stands, Keystone has become a political albatross.
After analyzing the situation, the State Department said that building the pipeline was pretty much a wash compared to doing it any other way. As it stands, Keystone has become a political albatross.
1
" If they build it, advanced computerized sensors should be used to shut it down fast in the event of a break. That's a necessary requirement ." I would think a break in the pipline could leak from one shutdown point to another. Given the diameter of the pipe, thousands of barrels of oil leaking out if the shutdown points are even ten miles apart.
5
What James Joyce would do with 'e bull ience'!
I'm ebullient that you're back, Gail.
I feared you felt the futile power of the pen or hope of comity, and went off seeking Dean Swift and the Houyhnhnms.
I'm glad you didn't, and have joyfully returned to your Sisyphean task of trying to bust blockheads.
Vale!
I'm ebullient that you're back, Gail.
I feared you felt the futile power of the pen or hope of comity, and went off seeking Dean Swift and the Houyhnhnms.
I'm glad you didn't, and have joyfully returned to your Sisyphean task of trying to bust blockheads.
Vale!
6
This news just in: ALMOST HALF THE KEYSTONE XL PIPELINE HAS ALREADY BEEN BUILT. The "jobs" that the Dems were supposedly holding up by refusing to approve it have already been here and gone. The pipeline company had close to a billion dollars in pipe and other supplies sitting around and they couldn't wait, not needing federal approval to build inside the states.
The only controversies now are the court case in Nebraska (some people think it might ruing their drinking water for 10,000 yrs. or so) and the decision by the President over whether it will be allowed to cross the US/Canadian border. I think he will say yes, since it would be hypocritical for the world's biggest oil slurping nation to say no.
The reason the Republicans are harping on and on about XL is they have sold a lot of people on how awful they say Obama is by not approving the line sooner and they aren't going to let go until they have smacked him again, again and again. Just like Obamacare, they think they've got a winning issue and, if they could, they would hit him with it even after the pipeline is finished.
This situation calls for some forceful tactical decisions on the part of the President and the willingness to take some serious heat during his last two years in office. Unless he tells the Republicans in Congress what they need to do to "go along to get along", they will continue to try ride rough shod over him and his administration. Being nice to them isn't going to work.
Doug Terry
The only controversies now are the court case in Nebraska (some people think it might ruing their drinking water for 10,000 yrs. or so) and the decision by the President over whether it will be allowed to cross the US/Canadian border. I think he will say yes, since it would be hypocritical for the world's biggest oil slurping nation to say no.
The reason the Republicans are harping on and on about XL is they have sold a lot of people on how awful they say Obama is by not approving the line sooner and they aren't going to let go until they have smacked him again, again and again. Just like Obamacare, they think they've got a winning issue and, if they could, they would hit him with it even after the pipeline is finished.
This situation calls for some forceful tactical decisions on the part of the President and the willingness to take some serious heat during his last two years in office. Unless he tells the Republicans in Congress what they need to do to "go along to get along", they will continue to try ride rough shod over him and his administration. Being nice to them isn't going to work.
Doug Terry
12
The GOP has the choice. Refrain from destroying the success for which Obama is entitled to lay claim to and claim it was their doing in 2016 or damage the working people and enrich the rich and blame it on Democratic obstructionism.
In the 1930's, 40' and 50' people who hold the beliefs and attitudes that are passing as American among the Republican base and its elected government officials would be considered wacky then.
These would be cranks, nuts, paranoids who claim to value their own freedom while demanding either the anarchy of corporate rule or an out and out authoritian and theocratic state. These are people motivated by selfishness, jealousy of others, deemed their inferiors, prejudice and even hatred of those unlike themselves. I don’t recall demands for smaller government during WWII. But we had the KKK, Jim Crow, white only elections in the South which held this nation hostage and as Republicans still do.
We have neo nazi sympathizers in leadership positions and we have Congress people who it is hard to tell if they are deeply ignorant and just plain stupid and live in a comic book world where there is and ongoing and imaginary war between the government of the united states and the patriots who have handguns for which they will defend their freedom. But the never say who they would shoot. I suspect that they mean Democrats and liberals who are all commie terrorists to them, and the majority of America.
In the 1930's, 40' and 50' people who hold the beliefs and attitudes that are passing as American among the Republican base and its elected government officials would be considered wacky then.
These would be cranks, nuts, paranoids who claim to value their own freedom while demanding either the anarchy of corporate rule or an out and out authoritian and theocratic state. These are people motivated by selfishness, jealousy of others, deemed their inferiors, prejudice and even hatred of those unlike themselves. I don’t recall demands for smaller government during WWII. But we had the KKK, Jim Crow, white only elections in the South which held this nation hostage and as Republicans still do.
We have neo nazi sympathizers in leadership positions and we have Congress people who it is hard to tell if they are deeply ignorant and just plain stupid and live in a comic book world where there is and ongoing and imaginary war between the government of the united states and the patriots who have handguns for which they will defend their freedom. But the never say who they would shoot. I suspect that they mean Democrats and liberals who are all commie terrorists to them, and the majority of America.
9
Yo Ho, Yo Ho
It's off to vote we go:
Oil we'll drill,
ACA we'll kill,
Yo Ho, Yo Ho
We'll make big bucks
And fool the clucks,
Yo Ho Yo Ho
Treat us right
we've all the might,
Yo Ho Yo Ho
Our goals beware,
we have no care
for your small share,
Yo Ho Yo Ho
We'll dig for gold,
And wealth untold
Yo Ho Yo Ho
If tears you cry,
We won't ask why
Yo Ho Yo Ho
Two thousand fifteen,
Repubs quite keen
on the D.C. scene
Yo Ho Yo Ho
The economy we'll wreck
and reduce to dreck
Yo Ho Yo Ho
Just hold your breath
As we scare you to death
Yo Ho Yo Ho
Obama's veto threat ?
Impeachment our best bet,
Yo Ho Yo Ho
It's only two years,
so quell your fears.
HRC will dry all tears
Yo Ho Yo Ho
(A doff of the hat to Walt Disney's Snow White, aka HRC, and his seven staunch, hard-working dwarves.)
It's off to vote we go:
Oil we'll drill,
ACA we'll kill,
Yo Ho, Yo Ho
We'll make big bucks
And fool the clucks,
Yo Ho Yo Ho
Treat us right
we've all the might,
Yo Ho Yo Ho
Our goals beware,
we have no care
for your small share,
Yo Ho Yo Ho
We'll dig for gold,
And wealth untold
Yo Ho Yo Ho
If tears you cry,
We won't ask why
Yo Ho Yo Ho
Two thousand fifteen,
Repubs quite keen
on the D.C. scene
Yo Ho Yo Ho
The economy we'll wreck
and reduce to dreck
Yo Ho Yo Ho
Just hold your breath
As we scare you to death
Yo Ho Yo Ho
Obama's veto threat ?
Impeachment our best bet,
Yo Ho Yo Ho
It's only two years,
so quell your fears.
HRC will dry all tears
Yo Ho Yo Ho
(A doff of the hat to Walt Disney's Snow White, aka HRC, and his seven staunch, hard-working dwarves.)
9
And here I though all along it was the Disney boat ride through the "Pirates of the Caribbean".
6
Love the effort but it's Hi Ho for dwarves. Yo Ho is for pirates...
2
Keystone XL should get the go ahead to start construction just about the time the Canadian tar is deemed uneconomic and Keystone decides to walk away from the whole thing.
Which will be just as well. The way our luck is going a pipeline failure will kill off our croplands before global warming can even become an issue.
Which will be just as well. The way our luck is going a pipeline failure will kill off our croplands before global warming can even become an issue.
5
After reading about the attack in Paris, I was upset and thought I would get some relief by reading Gail's column. That was dumb!
I immediately began to hallucinate strange foul odors after reading about consumer ebullience being an effect of Republican poll victories. And then there was the pipeline.
Did you know there have been constant ground tremors near the Dallas Fort Worth Airport, water pollution in many places and that opec was controlling world wide pricing?
I immediately began to hallucinate strange foul odors after reading about consumer ebullience being an effect of Republican poll victories. And then there was the pipeline.
Did you know there have been constant ground tremors near the Dallas Fort Worth Airport, water pollution in many places and that opec was controlling world wide pricing?
6
I think that the worst and least talked about is how these clowns are so isolated from the electorate and that we can turn off the tube for a year, come back to find that nothing has changed. A few less school lunches, fewer people insured, more people flipping burgers, 'tough love as O'Reilly would say!
5
Republicans have a chance – actually, a very limited window of opportunity – to demonstrate in 2015 that they are capable of governing. Regardless of the election victory two months ago, a majority of Americans is a little uncomfortable with the G.O.P. cast of characters now holding sway on Capitol Hill.
Gail Collins adeptly describes some of the odd Republicans now holding leadership roles, but she would need another column to list the full Republican pantheon of strange legislators who will be vying for the limelight this year.
The reason we pay attention to Republican personalities is the lack of interesting ideas offered by the G.O.P. Once you get past cutting taxes for the rich, there’s not much there. Okay, they do want to remove all regulation of businesses except those involved in renewable energy, and they would like to block immigration by people of color. And, we have to admit the Republicans have taken the lead in making voter registration more difficult for people unlikely to vote for Republicans.
Come to think of it, looking at the bizarre personalities of Republicans in the new Congress is less depressing than pondering their ideas.
Gail Collins adeptly describes some of the odd Republicans now holding leadership roles, but she would need another column to list the full Republican pantheon of strange legislators who will be vying for the limelight this year.
The reason we pay attention to Republican personalities is the lack of interesting ideas offered by the G.O.P. Once you get past cutting taxes for the rich, there’s not much there. Okay, they do want to remove all regulation of businesses except those involved in renewable energy, and they would like to block immigration by people of color. And, we have to admit the Republicans have taken the lead in making voter registration more difficult for people unlikely to vote for Republicans.
Come to think of it, looking at the bizarre personalities of Republicans in the new Congress is less depressing than pondering their ideas.
14
Others may see the Republican Congress focusing on Keystone as a deficit despite the fact that nothing can be done while Nebraska is refusing to let it pass through their state. I see it as sheer delight. While they are voting and meeting and bloviating they aren't taking away any more of my rights or funneling any more of my money to big business.
And who are these dim bulbs that think it's a good idea? Seriously? I'm beginning to think the pollsters are focusing on Ted Cruz district with all of this nonsense they spew.
And who are these dim bulbs that think it's a good idea? Seriously? I'm beginning to think the pollsters are focusing on Ted Cruz district with all of this nonsense they spew.
10
Boehner says he knows what is (and was) in Scalise's heart thus: “I know what’s in his heart,” said the speaker."
In 2001, after meeting Vladimir Putin for the first time, then President Bush said, "I looked the man in the eye. I found him to be very straight forward and trustworthy and we had a very good dialogue. I was able to get a sense of his soul."
Why do I get a feeling that reading a person's soul or heart is the GOP way of understanding that person.
In the meantime President Obama may spearhead expanding healthcare and making it more accessible to more Americans, but has evil in his heart and soul. Actions don't matter, only the GOP's ability to read hearts and souls matters.
In 2001, after meeting Vladimir Putin for the first time, then President Bush said, "I looked the man in the eye. I found him to be very straight forward and trustworthy and we had a very good dialogue. I was able to get a sense of his soul."
Why do I get a feeling that reading a person's soul or heart is the GOP way of understanding that person.
In the meantime President Obama may spearhead expanding healthcare and making it more accessible to more Americans, but has evil in his heart and soul. Actions don't matter, only the GOP's ability to read hearts and souls matters.
10
Happy New Year, Gail. You're about the only one who can make me laugh through my tears at the levels to which our elected representatives have fallen. And thanks for keeping Yoho in our thoughts.
9
Our friends in Canada have pleaded for Keystone to be approved and completed. What's wrong with that? If for no other reason, let's keep Canada happy with us instead of turning them towards the Chinese. Democrats are so narrow-minded.
Taxes on tanning beds? Racist? Is Mr. Yoho a metaphysician? A ghost writer for Antonin Scalia? We think not. That statement reflects the reasoning power of most of the Republican Party, which was compromised during the Bush years and made extinct in the Obama era. Instead, we have constant knee-jerk resistance to any proposals that smack of realistic goals for progress.
That is what they have come to represent — enemies of progress, partisans of resistance. And negativity.
That is what they have come to represent — enemies of progress, partisans of resistance. And negativity.
14
Since the Keystone is only valued by the 1%, the GOP will fight like a rabid dog for it.
13
Gail, on Keystone, never present facts to get in the way of peoples opinions. Cognitive dissonance will make a low level thinker either pull themselves into a shell or they will explode with anger. On Bohner, a shallow man hanging onto the best thing he possibly ever aspired to. Owning a flower shop in Dayton or wherever he slithered out of is ok, but compared to speaker of the house it is just not quite up to par. No, I think we are stuck with him for quite awhile, maybe more than another decade. So hate to depress you but he may end up being landfill like rotted cabbage speaking to a room of real live people before it is over.
2
The people spoke, The Democrats have failed. Let the trash talkin begin from every corner of the Liberal world. Harry Reid should take a few weeks off, then retire.
2
I am glad Ms. Collins can find well-placed humor in this. In reality, this shtick is getting pretty old. In an age where millions of "minds" can be easily manipulated, the uninformed nature of the average American voter is killing us as it is now motivated to vote in an overly partisan way. The problem is less that the idiots we send to DC are idiots. The problem is that the voters have so little respect for (and basic knowledge of) institutions, traditions and principles there is no one being sent to DC to embody these higher causes. When we can no longer tell news from entertainment, this was inevitable. There is no public demand for a higher calling. Even if we do start a conversation about democracy, how long before guns, dictatorship or immigration enters the fray? Lie down, roll over, play dead. Good boy.
At the bottom of all this is the same old problem: we have forsaken democracy for oligarchy. Money rules, which accounts for all the professionally scripted talking points about working together followed by a hard turn into a pipeline that only matters because a bunch of elected yokels who couldn't run a card game successfully are scared out of their wits (what wits they possess) because they may lose campaign cash that will then go to a more witless candidate whose only skill is that he/she is more pliable than the idiot we already have.
We have met the enemy and it is surely us.
At the bottom of all this is the same old problem: we have forsaken democracy for oligarchy. Money rules, which accounts for all the professionally scripted talking points about working together followed by a hard turn into a pipeline that only matters because a bunch of elected yokels who couldn't run a card game successfully are scared out of their wits (what wits they possess) because they may lose campaign cash that will then go to a more witless candidate whose only skill is that he/she is more pliable than the idiot we already have.
We have met the enemy and it is surely us.
11
Sir: You write: "I am glad Ms. Collins can find well-placed humor in this. In reality, this shtick is getting pretty old. "
I disagree.
There are hundreds of sites available for the daily hard news.
Ms. Collins is one of the very few to find humor in the doings and non-doings of our beloved Congress. ("beloved" because they still poll better than root canals and colonoscopies don't they?) We still need humor wherever we can find it.
So keep it up Ms. Collins we need you more than ever.
I disagree.
There are hundreds of sites available for the daily hard news.
Ms. Collins is one of the very few to find humor in the doings and non-doings of our beloved Congress. ("beloved" because they still poll better than root canals and colonoscopies don't they?) We still need humor wherever we can find it.
So keep it up Ms. Collins we need you more than ever.
10
Gail Collins, as usual you make my day. I don't anticipate any stunning displays of "bipartisanship," nor do I expect much progress on any major issues. There is something deeply wrong with this generation of anti-Obama Republicans. Will they be able, or willing, to set aside all that rage and do business sanely? I would like to hope they would. I am not optimistic.
15
McConnell is a sock-puppet of the fossil fuel industry. Fossil fuel oligarchs will make a fossil of democracy and our democratic republic. Until we, the electorate, utterly destroy the Wall Street-Capitol Hill axis, nothing Congress can do will bring any good to the majority of Americans.
18
Although I don't think it could be any less productive it would be great if our President vowed to make the 114th Congress the most unsuccessful in history. After all, turn about is fair play.
5
Gail's op-ed today is humorous, as usual, not by employing satire but rather just reporting the facts, as odd as they are, about our current political majority. I'd say it's a fine argument for the effectiveness of the Chinese government system under Communist rule which seems to at least have a grasp on reality. Instead of Republican kaleidoscopic rambling about tanning beds, poking fun at undocumented workers calves, pushing an unneeded pipeline as a priority and making paranoid rants about terrorist's babies, the Chinese are busy dominating the world economy with visionary precision and a knack for pragmatic leadership. How in the world can this be considered a Democracy when it seems more like sequel from the cult movie, Idiocracy.
12
"However, McConnell did interject a moment of levity when he suggested that the current rather remarkable strength of the American economy was because of consumer ebullience over the election of a Republican majority in the Senate."
The unmitigated gall of these Republicans who have done everything they can do to make Obama, and thereby us, fail, and who will now take credit for the economy. The Republicans, with their tax cuts for the rich, which wiped out the surplus left by Clinton, their deregulation, their expansion of government, their TWO unpaid wars, And then they drove the economy into a ditch.
Why aren't the Democrats out there exclaiming their accomplishments from the mountaintops?
The unmitigated gall of these Republicans who have done everything they can do to make Obama, and thereby us, fail, and who will now take credit for the economy. The Republicans, with their tax cuts for the rich, which wiped out the surplus left by Clinton, their deregulation, their expansion of government, their TWO unpaid wars, And then they drove the economy into a ditch.
Why aren't the Democrats out there exclaiming their accomplishments from the mountaintops?
19
Republicans are noted for promising one thing and delivering another. Vote for lower taxes get the Keystone XL pipeline. Vote for fiscal conservancy get government shut downs and a threat the default on the national debt. Vote for jobs, get bills to cut taxes for the “job providers.” And of course the wonderful thing about Republicans is that they vote in lock step. Independent ideas are verboten. There is not a liberal or a middle of the roader to be found.
I can predict how they will vote on every issue because no matter how they campaigned, which was simply anti Obama, they will promise the voters anything but will deliver what the oligarchs want and have paiid for in advance.
To Republicans there is no such thing as compromise there is only submission. Bipartisan means that the 2 wings of the party agree. Republicans are a corporate owned party and there are a few corporate owned Democrats.
The problem with Republicans is that they believe that the ends justify the means and the ends are rotten and the means are destructive of our democracy. Those who are not with them are against them and they sound like a party we don’t need in America. Yet they are the freedom party and will free us of our liberty, our chance for a better future and free us of the burden of government assisting us when we are in need of help.
I can predict how they will vote on every issue because no matter how they campaigned, which was simply anti Obama, they will promise the voters anything but will deliver what the oligarchs want and have paiid for in advance.
To Republicans there is no such thing as compromise there is only submission. Bipartisan means that the 2 wings of the party agree. Republicans are a corporate owned party and there are a few corporate owned Democrats.
The problem with Republicans is that they believe that the ends justify the means and the ends are rotten and the means are destructive of our democracy. Those who are not with them are against them and they sound like a party we don’t need in America. Yet they are the freedom party and will free us of our liberty, our chance for a better future and free us of the burden of government assisting us when we are in need of help.
34
The man who has done more than anyone to destroy the US Senate, turning it into a worthless, do-nothing institution, now runs it and wants sweetness and light, civility, compromise, comity? Sure.
53
While not without their faults, Democrats (in my observation) generally eschew some tactics that Republicans routinely employ in politics. In other words, there a things that Democrats won't say or do because they refuse to stoop to that level of incivility and ignorance. The problem exists then of how to counter bad actors who are not so constrained. Yet I have no qualms about supporting the losing side as long as it fights for the common good.
I am despondent, though, about the last six years of obstruction and dysfunction which, while laying at the doorstep of Republicans, has been portrayed by the press as being a "both sides do it" issue. I see more of the same in the next two years as an ignorant public continues to lay the blame on the President because he's the guy in charge.
People like Joe Manchin should be tarred and feathered as Democrats. He shamelessly called the Keystone XL bill a "bipartisan" effort. In my estimation Republicans believe that bipartisan "compromise" is total acquiescence with every GOP position. "See? Why can't you just be reasonable, abandon your own principles and agenda, and compromise? Just accept my policy positions. See how this reduces strife in Congress? Oh, by the way, you'll get blamed for any negative consequences."
I am despondent, though, about the last six years of obstruction and dysfunction which, while laying at the doorstep of Republicans, has been portrayed by the press as being a "both sides do it" issue. I see more of the same in the next two years as an ignorant public continues to lay the blame on the President because he's the guy in charge.
People like Joe Manchin should be tarred and feathered as Democrats. He shamelessly called the Keystone XL bill a "bipartisan" effort. In my estimation Republicans believe that bipartisan "compromise" is total acquiescence with every GOP position. "See? Why can't you just be reasonable, abandon your own principles and agenda, and compromise? Just accept my policy positions. See how this reduces strife in Congress? Oh, by the way, you'll get blamed for any negative consequences."
73
The new Congress is out to a roaring bipartisan start: force approval of XL Keystone and increase the hours to define full time employment to 40hrs/week
instead of 30hrs/week.
Two bills Obama said he will veto. The main change from the previous useless Congress is that now both House and Senate will be passing bills that will not become law. Proponents of the 40 hour/week have the nerve to claim that the 30 hr/week encourages businesses to reduce hours below 30 to avoid providing health care insurance as if that was easier than reducing hours from 40 to 39 and thus removing much higher number of workers from that requirement. This is reminiscent of "death panels". Orwellian logic has now become a GOP standard modus operandi, expecting most voters to be dimwitted.
instead of 30hrs/week.
Two bills Obama said he will veto. The main change from the previous useless Congress is that now both House and Senate will be passing bills that will not become law. Proponents of the 40 hour/week have the nerve to claim that the 30 hr/week encourages businesses to reduce hours below 30 to avoid providing health care insurance as if that was easier than reducing hours from 40 to 39 and thus removing much higher number of workers from that requirement. This is reminiscent of "death panels". Orwellian logic has now become a GOP standard modus operandi, expecting most voters to be dimwitted.
63
Oh yes, and in true Orwellian fashion your TV will not work as a government spy machine to make certain that you always follow their (Republican, extreme right wing) views.
2
Lets hope voters wake up from this Orwellian dream, but W was president twice, the first time by appointment, the second time? The GOP seems to be spot on with their assessment most voters, get to the state level and see what we have done with our voting choices.
2
It not humorous. Boehner calls the new Congress a Congress designed to deal with current challenges and to protect the native American interests.
I don't believe him anymore.
He was against Obamacare, now we realize he has shares in medical companies.
He was against immigration, then he persuades everybody to give vote for the bill (ostensibly to prevent shutdown).
US political system requires urgent changes to restore the legitimacy of Washington and the Americans' faith in the opportunities for every American.
I stopped believing in the current government and its ability to change our lives for the better.
I don't believe him anymore.
He was against Obamacare, now we realize he has shares in medical companies.
He was against immigration, then he persuades everybody to give vote for the bill (ostensibly to prevent shutdown).
US political system requires urgent changes to restore the legitimacy of Washington and the Americans' faith in the opportunities for every American.
I stopped believing in the current government and its ability to change our lives for the better.
20
Yeah, Tom, me too! -- about the time American voters elected Saint Ronnie to Whitehouse in 1980 and promptly launched America on the slippery-slope to oblivion in the 1980s.
4
Welcome to reality. Better late than never.
Great column Gail. All I can see with all due respect to the GOP is what every Vermonter says: Go Bernie!!
47
We can only hope that something good comes out of the House not laden with unrelated poison pill amendments attached to make a political point and force a veto.
20
It is the innocence of your hope - shared by others in your region - that put these truly evil men in control. Your hope is entirely unwarranted and equally in vain. Wake up.
4
The Republicans truly have a one-two punch in Congress. A large animal vet in the House and an experienced hog castrater in the Senate. The possibilities of other pairings (and projects) just boggles the mind.
62
The Representatives' quips paint an image of failed leadership. Elected officials should not merely reflect the least common denominator in constituents' thinking, or worse, play into cynical stereotyping; political figures should demonstrate what is long-term beneficial for society, which means speaking for time frames longer than the sound bite news cycle or even an election season.
5
Whenever both parties are talking about working together you just know the rich donors are about to get paid off with some kind of trade deal or fixing of the labor markets or corporate tax reform, or maybe all three; and, all the rest of us are about to get ripped off once again.
22
It's just unconscionable how smarmy and hypocritical the Repubs are.
19
Gail, I can see by all your never ending anti-republican columns that you will always defend the Democratic Party but what about over fifty years of the Democrat Robert Byrd.
1
Denigrating Republicans is not the same as adulating Democrats. They both deserve one-way tickets to Coventry.
1
It took me a while to get over the shock of seeing Boehner plant a big smooch on Nancy Pelosi's cheek. From the look on her face it seemed to bother her too. But I digress.
Give them Keystone, they owe the Koch's too much already and maybe that'll shut them up for a while, but tag a few things on to it. The same way they added junk onto the government spending bill. How about Keystone with extended unemployment benefits, restoring the SNAP benefits, a few hundred billion in infrastructure spending, more alternative energy research, a promise to shut the hell up about the ACA?
On the other hand the Democrats could do nothing and just let these clowns keep shooting themselves in the foot. With people like Scalise, Yoho, Ernst, Cruz, Gohmert et al it won't take long
Give them Keystone, they owe the Koch's too much already and maybe that'll shut them up for a while, but tag a few things on to it. The same way they added junk onto the government spending bill. How about Keystone with extended unemployment benefits, restoring the SNAP benefits, a few hundred billion in infrastructure spending, more alternative energy research, a promise to shut the hell up about the ACA?
On the other hand the Democrats could do nothing and just let these clowns keep shooting themselves in the foot. With people like Scalise, Yoho, Ernst, Cruz, Gohmert et al it won't take long
43
If the caliber of our representatives in this country weren't so appalling, frightening and heart breaking we could get some comic relief out of the persons in the House and Senate. Heaven knows the middle class and poor could use some.
17
come on, these people are in it for the salary, the benefits and their value $$$$ to lobbyists. this creates a situation where winning is all that matters.... they do not care about the country.
41
.
.
"Yo-ho!" said the buccaneer doc,
"I don't think John Boehner's a lock!
My new co-alish
Will make the guy wish
He'd gone off to govern Iraq."
But balloting showed he was wrong:
No more than a few went along
(Steve "Not Peter" King,
And other right-wing
Lawmakers who sing Gohmert's song).
So Boehner took over with vim,
Gave Nancy a hug (and she, him).
He punished the fools
Who'd held seats on Rules
As tears filled his ducts to the brim.
I looked up where Boehner's home's at,
And found out he's from Cincinnat'
(A city we hail
For giving us Gail -
But I conclude nothing from that)!
.
"Yo-ho!" said the buccaneer doc,
"I don't think John Boehner's a lock!
My new co-alish
Will make the guy wish
He'd gone off to govern Iraq."
But balloting showed he was wrong:
No more than a few went along
(Steve "Not Peter" King,
And other right-wing
Lawmakers who sing Gohmert's song).
So Boehner took over with vim,
Gave Nancy a hug (and she, him).
He punished the fools
Who'd held seats on Rules
As tears filled his ducts to the brim.
I looked up where Boehner's home's at,
And found out he's from Cincinnat'
(A city we hail
For giving us Gail -
But I conclude nothing from that)!
19
What else would anyone expect from the orange man? About all this challenge by republicans to dems about bipartisanship, what a bunch of rotten baloney. This from the party who made the word compromise a dirty word, it's just too rich. The don't know the meaning of the word bipartisanship. They've confused it with meaning my way or the highway.
30
Louis Gohmert would have been good for the CSPAN ratings and the popcorn industry.
10
Someone really needs to explain to Sen. Richard Durbin why nobody is called "Dick" anymore. I tell people to call me "Mildred" before they call me by that name.
But Gail engages in her own unique levity when she mentions that America became the world's #1 oil producer on Barack Obama's watch. In reality, the man must regard this as one of his worst failures, as he's agitated for cap-and-trade as well as substantially higher gas taxes, in order to shore up a badly weakening green alternative energy sector that's under even more irresistible pressure than usual because of the dirt-cheap cost of carbon based fuels. He's failed at all of this and carbon is king again DESPITE his efforts. But, in true Democratic fashion, let's claim credit for what are in fact Republican victories.
As to Keystone, given the traditionally cyclical nature of oil prices, I suspect that the pipeline will be ready just about when oil is at levels that will sustain exploitation of the Canadian tar treasure.
And as to Boehner, the only truly entertaining part of that re-election as Speaker was that priceless kiss of Nancy Pelosi. You'd think they'd BOTH die of radiation sickness.
But Gail engages in her own unique levity when she mentions that America became the world's #1 oil producer on Barack Obama's watch. In reality, the man must regard this as one of his worst failures, as he's agitated for cap-and-trade as well as substantially higher gas taxes, in order to shore up a badly weakening green alternative energy sector that's under even more irresistible pressure than usual because of the dirt-cheap cost of carbon based fuels. He's failed at all of this and carbon is king again DESPITE his efforts. But, in true Democratic fashion, let's claim credit for what are in fact Republican victories.
As to Keystone, given the traditionally cyclical nature of oil prices, I suspect that the pipeline will be ready just about when oil is at levels that will sustain exploitation of the Canadian tar treasure.
And as to Boehner, the only truly entertaining part of that re-election as Speaker was that priceless kiss of Nancy Pelosi. You'd think they'd BOTH die of radiation sickness.
11
"But, in true Democratic fashion, let's claim credit for what are in fact Republican victories." Let's see, just the other day McConnell said the upswing in the economy was because the Republicans won the midterms, even though the strongest months of the last quarter were those before the election. To be "fair," I guess we can all agree that the slightly lesser growth and slightly lower employment numbers of December, as per ADP, are really caused by the Republican victory in November. Mildred Luettgen, people like you have no shame. And that's from one Richard to another.
20
Dear Richard Luettgen,
My brother is Dick. No problem. Don't be so juvenile. I don't relish more oil pollution but I do appreciate the fact that people pay less and that Putin is on the ropes. Life is a series of trade-offs, not a scoreboard.
For the US, the tar sands may be good for the Koch brothers but bad for us.
No profit but all of the risk.
Do you really believe that there will be no spills from a pipeline of sludge that literally splits the country?
My brother is Dick. No problem. Don't be so juvenile. I don't relish more oil pollution but I do appreciate the fact that people pay less and that Putin is on the ropes. Life is a series of trade-offs, not a scoreboard.
For the US, the tar sands may be good for the Koch brothers but bad for us.
No profit but all of the risk.
Do you really believe that there will be no spills from a pipeline of sludge that literally splits the country?
7
Obama will veto Keystone. He will veto cutting Social Security. But Obama won't veto the TransPacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement; he wants it fast-tracked. The GOP is all for the TPP, Obama is all for the TPP. And we're in trouble, big time.
Look for swift introduction of the TPP under fast-track authority. Coming attractions.
Look for swift introduction of the TPP under fast-track authority. Coming attractions.
17
TPP: Its NAFTA/CAFTA on steroida.
2
A very difficult--and sad-- day to be a cheery political columnist, Ms. Collins. While the US generally doesn't place the same value on "freedom" to poke sticks in the eyes of major institutions such as government, religion and culture as does France, everyone who cares about humor serving a real purpose in a democracy, mourns the murders in France on so many levels.
It is good news (especially in Florida: Speaker Yoho?) that Yoho, Gohmert and Webster weren't successful in doing anything except wasting time on a symbolic vote. On the other hand, that seems to be what much of the next two years will be like in Congress. While some of us think that will be a cause for celebration, given the bills the GOP majority might pass, most Americans probably would like to see some action towards solving actual problems.
I was hoping you might comment on the fast (and sneaky) GOP action to change the CBO. It might have been too easy a target, however.
I do look forward to your 2015 columns; you will certainly have plenty of material.
It is good news (especially in Florida: Speaker Yoho?) that Yoho, Gohmert and Webster weren't successful in doing anything except wasting time on a symbolic vote. On the other hand, that seems to be what much of the next two years will be like in Congress. While some of us think that will be a cause for celebration, given the bills the GOP majority might pass, most Americans probably would like to see some action towards solving actual problems.
I was hoping you might comment on the fast (and sneaky) GOP action to change the CBO. It might have been too easy a target, however.
I do look forward to your 2015 columns; you will certainly have plenty of material.
28
The GOP, as it now exists, consists of anti-government fanatics, anti-tax fanatics, gun fanatics, anti-abortion fanatics, religious fanatics, anti-union and anti-public education fanatics. Also, anti-environment fanatics, anti-science fanatics and anti-global warming fanatics. There is no relationship whatsoever between their meaningless rhetoric, which should be ignored, and their actions when they hold power, which are invariably disastrous to the interests of all but the super-rich. Deja vu all over again, thanks to an incredibly clueless political base endlessly victimizing itself.
138
Along the lines of political absurdities, the picture of Boehner and Pelosi on the front page Wed. was a keeper: in their embrace, she looks like she wants to push him away and he seems ready to hit her with a gavel!
29
thanks for bringing this up. As I took my first sip of morning coffee, I at first glance thought this was a photo of Obama and Pelosi, so tan was Boehner. Then I realized it was Boehner, fresh from an appointment at a tanning booth. I squealed with delight at the audacity of his headlock, and then spontaneously burst into the chorus of the classic carpenter's hit "just like me, they long to be close to you." Needless to say, my day started off great!
2
It is always a pleasure to read what Gail has to say about our country with a perceptive and humorous bent to it. It is good to laugh in the face of so much that is hard to believe but true about our political establishment especially the republican part. Keep up the great reporting Gail.
37
Politically immature? Republicans worrying about political immaturity is like a tiger thinking they can swear off red meat.
40
Haiku
Some wishful thinking:
Send plutocrats to Pluto
On one way ticket.
Some wishful thinking:
Send plutocrats to Pluto
On one way ticket.
19
Don't you love farce?
My fault, I fear.
I thought that you'd want what I want -
Sorry, my dear.
But where are the clowns?
Quick, send in the clowns.
Don't bother, they're here.
Isn't it rich?
Isn't it queer?
Losing my timing this late
In my career?
And where are the clowns?
There ought to be clowns.
Well, maybe next year.
- Stephen Sondheim
My fault, I fear.
I thought that you'd want what I want -
Sorry, my dear.
But where are the clowns?
Quick, send in the clowns.
Don't bother, they're here.
Isn't it rich?
Isn't it queer?
Losing my timing this late
In my career?
And where are the clowns?
There ought to be clowns.
Well, maybe next year.
- Stephen Sondheim
46
Classic Collins. Hopefully someday I can thank her in person for her courage and ability to respect grammar.
19
So far the GOP priorities have included attacking Social Security so that 11 million disabled people might lose 20% of their benefits next year; trying to get the Keystone pipeline passed (which would benefit the Koch brothers an enormous amount given the extent of their Canadian tar sands but would only result in 35 or so U.S. jobs while taking American farmer and rancher's lands and risking environmental disasters); rushing to weaken environmental regulations (again, of great personal benefit to the Kochs whose companies are the #3 polluters); attacking Pres. Obama's immigration executive actions; selling out to the Wall St. bankers again by trying to cancel the financial reforms; trying to take away healthcare from the 20 million Americans who are benefiting from the ACA (according to the NEJM), etc. Harming the environment, the sick, the disabled, the poor, and the middle class should not be such high priorities. Nor should enriching the 1%.
"In a country well governed poverty is something to be ashamed of. In a country badly governed wealth is something to be ashamed of." -Confucius
"In a country well governed poverty is something to be ashamed of. In a country badly governed wealth is something to be ashamed of." -Confucius
41
Oh, this is such good work!
"It would give senators a chance to demand that the United States, which became the No. 1 oil producer in the world during the Obama administration, do something about energy independence. It’s a chance to talk about jobs, even though the actual permanent employment created by the pipeline would be about as large as the opening of a new highway tollbooth."
And who should we interview for the toll-takers?
"It would give senators a chance to demand that the United States, which became the No. 1 oil producer in the world during the Obama administration, do something about energy independence. It’s a chance to talk about jobs, even though the actual permanent employment created by the pipeline would be about as large as the opening of a new highway tollbooth."
And who should we interview for the toll-takers?
28
I would rather see thousands of workers building roads than a pipeline that makes a detour to Wichita to drop off the money.
228
"We ought to be talking about Keystone." Well, no, John dearest, we shouldn't.
Of anything on a new Congress's agenda, this should be the last. The timing is off, the need is absent, and it's such a flagrant sop to international oil companies and lease holders in the tar sands (hello, Koch brothers) it almost takes my breath away.
Politicians (note I refuse to use the word "leaders) in Washington no longer hide their financial allegiances. It's pretty amazing when you think of it. People often suspected they were bought and sold by fat cats, but now we have proof in Keystone. And the Citigroup amendment written by--yes, Citigroup--to roll back one of the most regulations in Dodd Frank, the ability of big banks to speculate with the full protection of the US taxpayer.
The next thing you know, Congress will be passing hats labeled Koch or Adelson to remind legislators just who to reward when the next unnecessary bill comes up for debate.
So, welcome 114th Congress: it's a pretty crowded place these days, with our duly elected "leaders" and their benefactors waiting outside (after all, there are no seats) ready to nail them in that closed door session where laws really get written.
Of anything on a new Congress's agenda, this should be the last. The timing is off, the need is absent, and it's such a flagrant sop to international oil companies and lease holders in the tar sands (hello, Koch brothers) it almost takes my breath away.
Politicians (note I refuse to use the word "leaders) in Washington no longer hide their financial allegiances. It's pretty amazing when you think of it. People often suspected they were bought and sold by fat cats, but now we have proof in Keystone. And the Citigroup amendment written by--yes, Citigroup--to roll back one of the most regulations in Dodd Frank, the ability of big banks to speculate with the full protection of the US taxpayer.
The next thing you know, Congress will be passing hats labeled Koch or Adelson to remind legislators just who to reward when the next unnecessary bill comes up for debate.
So, welcome 114th Congress: it's a pretty crowded place these days, with our duly elected "leaders" and their benefactors waiting outside (after all, there are no seats) ready to nail them in that closed door session where laws really get written.
41
I like the hat idea. It should be a law that our politicians have to wear the hat of their true sponsors. And I doubt any of them could wear a hat that said The People.
4
The low caliber of our political class reflects a low caliber public, who periodically interrupts fantasy football meetings and Netflix series, and, unfortunately, votes. What this distracted public does not get, is that while they are engaging in endless options for entertainment, special interest groups are engaging in the business of making sure their private interests become defined as a public good.
53
It's laughable that McConnell is now preaching about the need for a spirit of bipartisanship in Congress. How convenient of him. Where was this need for "bipartisanship" during President Obama's first term when the nation was in dire economic straits? McConnell was then aggressively spearheading an agenda of total obstructionism. And the sad part was he was very successful with his obstructionist efforts despite a Democratic majority in both the House and the Senate for the first two years of Obama's first term. Of course, his obstructionist efforts continued long after that as well.
I put a lot of the blame on Reid and the Democrats for not taking appropriate measures to end this partisan obstructionism, particularly given the economy's delicate state back then. Instead, Reid should have used the "nuclear option" arguing that the country's welfare was far more important than partisan political chicanery. The Democrats should have at least gone public with their outrage over these Republican ostrructionist tactics. Perhaps the spotlight would have humbled them into a more cooperative spirit.
In any event, here we are now with McConnell, now the Senate majority leader, calling for a spirit of bipartisanship. What a monumental hypocrite! Where was this spirit when the country needed it the most?
I put a lot of the blame on Reid and the Democrats for not taking appropriate measures to end this partisan obstructionism, particularly given the economy's delicate state back then. Instead, Reid should have used the "nuclear option" arguing that the country's welfare was far more important than partisan political chicanery. The Democrats should have at least gone public with their outrage over these Republican ostrructionist tactics. Perhaps the spotlight would have humbled them into a more cooperative spirit.
In any event, here we are now with McConnell, now the Senate majority leader, calling for a spirit of bipartisanship. What a monumental hypocrite! Where was this spirit when the country needed it the most?
50
It is going to be a long cold 2 years going backwards in terms of this Congress doing anything good for America and its people. At least when doing nothing, they were not promoting intentional harm.
Racists, Climate Change Deniers, Gun Control Opponents, Affordable Health Care Haters, Christians in Name Only, Immigration Reform Obstructionists, Voter Suppressionists and haters of the down and out. Not much to proud of here. Not much positive but plenty of negative to look forward to.
Enjoy. We deserve it. We elected them by our own choice, willing ignorance, by hook and by crook (gerrymandering and voter suppression) or by not voting at all.
We let it happen. Remember that in 2016, if this country survives until then.
Racists, Climate Change Deniers, Gun Control Opponents, Affordable Health Care Haters, Christians in Name Only, Immigration Reform Obstructionists, Voter Suppressionists and haters of the down and out. Not much to proud of here. Not much positive but plenty of negative to look forward to.
Enjoy. We deserve it. We elected them by our own choice, willing ignorance, by hook and by crook (gerrymandering and voter suppression) or by not voting at all.
We let it happen. Remember that in 2016, if this country survives until then.
73
An Escher Staircase in a Burning House: Cue the Talking Heads
According to some, the election of the new Congress is analogous to lighting a Molotov cocktail and then neglecting to throw it.
The current Congress, teeming with individuals who would spoil any holiday dinner, has led more than one psychologist to conclude that Americans have decided to throw in the towel and embrace the lunatic within.
"I disagree," says Dr. Greta Murphy, Director of Cognitive Testing at the Institutes for Cognitive Health in Phoenix, Arizona, "Actually, you're seeing what happens when everybody across the nation decides to send Mr. Smith to Washington." Dr. Richardson continued, "In hundreds of voting districts from coast to coast, but mainly in the comb-over portions of America, voters have been exhorted to cast a vote for any individual whose mere presence sends a message to a fictitious place called Washington whose evil ways the voters in [the district] would like to change, even if such change destroys rather than improves it.
"The result is a legislative majority who have been elected in order to protest the legislative body to which they were elected.
"It's like if you tell a child again and again that the antique rocking chair passed down from his grandmother that bears the face of a lion is actually the evil presence that causes his bad dreams. Don't be surprised if you come home one day to find that the child has torched the chair, and with it the house."
According to some, the election of the new Congress is analogous to lighting a Molotov cocktail and then neglecting to throw it.
The current Congress, teeming with individuals who would spoil any holiday dinner, has led more than one psychologist to conclude that Americans have decided to throw in the towel and embrace the lunatic within.
"I disagree," says Dr. Greta Murphy, Director of Cognitive Testing at the Institutes for Cognitive Health in Phoenix, Arizona, "Actually, you're seeing what happens when everybody across the nation decides to send Mr. Smith to Washington." Dr. Richardson continued, "In hundreds of voting districts from coast to coast, but mainly in the comb-over portions of America, voters have been exhorted to cast a vote for any individual whose mere presence sends a message to a fictitious place called Washington whose evil ways the voters in [the district] would like to change, even if such change destroys rather than improves it.
"The result is a legislative majority who have been elected in order to protest the legislative body to which they were elected.
"It's like if you tell a child again and again that the antique rocking chair passed down from his grandmother that bears the face of a lion is actually the evil presence that causes his bad dreams. Don't be surprised if you come home one day to find that the child has torched the chair, and with it the house."
114
It is always far more difficult to undo stupid legislation than to enact it in the first place. These clowns are on a full court press now. Opportunities like this seldom arise.
91
'It is always far more difficult to undo stupid legislation than to enact it in the first place.'
Which is why we still have Obamacare.
Which is why we still have Obamacare.
I do wonder if all those folks who favor the Keystone pipeline know that not one drop of that oil will stay in the country. It will end up in Louisiana refineries and then be shipped off to Asia (mainly China). All those jobs the supporters talk about are in construction and temporary. Any leaks or ruptures will despoil our farms and rivers, and the profits will go to big petroleum interests.
Those folks favoring this project also know, I'm sure, that the Koch brothers own significant shares of the Canadian firms extracting the oil.
Then again ... maybe not. Go here for more: http://arthurreber.com/home/the-keystone-xl-pipeline.html.
Those folks favoring this project also know, I'm sure, that the Koch brothers own significant shares of the Canadian firms extracting the oil.
Then again ... maybe not. Go here for more: http://arthurreber.com/home/the-keystone-xl-pipeline.html.
326
Another point, and I could be wrong...much of this sour crude is going to Port Arthur, which is a tax-free export zone. So not only are we going to pipe Canadian oil to be refined for export, but the the U.S. will not get a dime for it.
3
A lot of people also do not seem to know or care that the pipeline would run through Native American land and they don't want it! The United States would be usurping the property from a sovereign nation.
8
Perhaps the article on today's front page "New Research Links Scores of Earthquakes to Fracking Wells Near a Fault in Ohio" will change some minds in DC. Then again ... not bloody likely.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/08/us/new-research-links-scores-of-earthq...?
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/08/us/new-research-links-scores-of-earthq...?
5
Ms. Collins we appreciate your attempt to humor us as you introduce the priorities and quote those who serve in the Congress of the United States. One wants to cry over the partisanship that explains the economy as faith in a Party that hasn't done anything in years. One wants to cry over improving employment with a pipeline that will provide a tollbooth number of jobs and be laid over valuable water. One wants to cry over KKK affiliations and rallying against taxes on tanning beds because it would be racist. The Congress of the U.S. is composed of a frightening group of men and women. I can't believe I'm saying frightening, but they are clearly not a group speaking about anything I consider important. Yes, we need leadership ready to encourage and promote reusable energy development, fair voting guidelines, a higher minimum wage, improved public education, lower college loan costs...etc.
207
I knew it would be only a matter of minutes before the Republicans tried to take credit for the good economic news (as well as for the fact that the Russian economy has tanked lately and for the sun having come up every morning since Election Day). As for the Keystone Pipeline it seems entirely logical that its most ardent supporters would be the Keystone Cops.
332
Stu Freeman,
The Keystone Cops bit was very good. I can almost hear the music.
The Keystone Cops bit was very good. I can almost hear the music.
5
The high point was Glenn Beck screaming that any Republicans that voted for Boehner instead of Louie Gohmert would be out of his favor. That must have scared at least a few people, because Gohmert did indeed get some votes the better to curry favor with their overlord from the right.
With 25 Representatives total voting against him--the most since the 19th Century--Boehner quickly moved to expel those rebels from their committee posts. Then there was convicted Republican felon. Representative Michael Grimm who apparently thought he could conceal the fact that he stole $300,000 in payroll taxes and stay in office.
We are really off to a great start with these Republicans. They have governing firmly in hand and are now likely to make real progress toward their dubious goals as long as they don't stumble all over each other and collapse into a dysfunctional clown-pile. Let the games begin.
With 25 Representatives total voting against him--the most since the 19th Century--Boehner quickly moved to expel those rebels from their committee posts. Then there was convicted Republican felon. Representative Michael Grimm who apparently thought he could conceal the fact that he stole $300,000 in payroll taxes and stay in office.
We are really off to a great start with these Republicans. They have governing firmly in hand and are now likely to make real progress toward their dubious goals as long as they don't stumble all over each other and collapse into a dysfunctional clown-pile. Let the games begin.
241
I thought clowns were suppose to be funny, to make us laugh and point out the arrogance, insolence, and abuses of the powerful. These guys just make me want to wretch.
5
Every time I see Glen Beck's name It brings back memories of him as a morning shock jock on the radio in Phoenix.
He would do any outrageous thing for attention then and he hasn't changed at all.
How on earth does a disk jockey from morning radio become the voice of the far right??
Those are not the credentials I would expect ---Oh wait a minute !
He would do any outrageous thing for attention then and he hasn't changed at all.
How on earth does a disk jockey from morning radio become the voice of the far right??
Those are not the credentials I would expect ---Oh wait a minute !
4
Why is it that when Boehner comes out with his plea for partisanship the assembled media and correspondents don't just laugh in his face. We are just too forgiving of these power-hungry buffoons. They are not only not impressive, nor particularly smart, but lie through their teeth and never, ever get called to be responsible for their own form of air pollution. Is it that we are so used to hearing them lie and twist the truth that we don't expect their words to bear any relation to reality?
408
Thank you for that important observation. Journalism has lost its teeth, presumably because once the media was engulfed by mighty corporations, it of course had its ideals twisted to make profits, rather than the dissemination of truth, the prime goal. Can't be calling out politicians for their vapid stupidity and/or laughable attempts to ignore their past behavior, quotes, corruption, etc., if those politicians might retaliate by interfering with corporate policies and profits. Thank you, Gail, for pointing out so much sad irony, but unfortunately I fear the People have been so dumbed down by propaganda and inadequate education that irony is entirely lost on most of them. "Keep Government out of my Medicare!"
18
Never being called to account on lies and disinformation is the fruit of Reagan's elimination of the Fairness Doctrine coupled with the consolidation of media and print outlets in to very few and deeply complimentary hands.
We receive as much propaganda on any given day as any communist or dictatorship lead country in the world ever has. Only, we don't know it because it doesn't come from the government (except during W.s reign). It comes from corporations, who like the pope, can do no wrong.
We receive as much propaganda on any given day as any communist or dictatorship lead country in the world ever has. Only, we don't know it because it doesn't come from the government (except during W.s reign). It comes from corporations, who like the pope, can do no wrong.
16
It is not forgiveness in the press. It is access. Most journalists, especially the ones considered the best, practice access journalism as opposed to investigative journalism. Think Gretchen Morganstern versus Andrew Ross Sorkin. In the former case(GM) you have a brilliant research based reporter digging up the dirt and throwing it back. Read her sunday column and see how many times the perps refuse to talk. Then you have ARS, a sniveling sycophant who will avoid any tough question so as not to upset the "rock start" financial players. In other words, most in the DC press corp are shills, nothing more, nothing less. Good post anyway.
7
Well, the circus got started right on schedule; I really thought it might take a few days at least before the parade of elephants began. That's always a unique part of any circus... and this one looks to be starting out as no exception.
According to this column: "McConnell did interject a moment of levity when he suggested that the current rather remarkable strength of the American economy was because of consumer ebullience over the election of a Republican majority in the Senate". I guess Karl Rove's comment on his Republican administration, that "we create our own reality", a few years before they crashed the economy in 2008, is still de rigueur for Republicans in 2015. Maybe the circus crowd at this performance will actually go for the snow jobs.
Re.Keystone XL: "the Canadian pipeline oil needs to sell for about $85"..... and a barrel of oil closed today around $49. Whoa... it's going to take some real magic tricks to make this one work. But then, as P. T. Barnum, a real expert on circuses put it: "A sucker is born every minute." This may be no way to run a country, but some of the antics cannot help but amuse, which I guess is true of any circus.
According to this column: "McConnell did interject a moment of levity when he suggested that the current rather remarkable strength of the American economy was because of consumer ebullience over the election of a Republican majority in the Senate". I guess Karl Rove's comment on his Republican administration, that "we create our own reality", a few years before they crashed the economy in 2008, is still de rigueur for Republicans in 2015. Maybe the circus crowd at this performance will actually go for the snow jobs.
Re.Keystone XL: "the Canadian pipeline oil needs to sell for about $85"..... and a barrel of oil closed today around $49. Whoa... it's going to take some real magic tricks to make this one work. But then, as P. T. Barnum, a real expert on circuses put it: "A sucker is born every minute." This may be no way to run a country, but some of the antics cannot help but amuse, which I guess is true of any circus.
148
.
I'm no fan of his, but since Kentucky is so close to Cincinnati ...
When McConnell interjected his "moment of levity", it really WAS a moment of levity.
In other words, he was kidding. He wasn't pulling a Rove.
At least, he seemed to be kidding.
I'm no fan of his, but since Kentucky is so close to Cincinnati ...
When McConnell interjected his "moment of levity", it really WAS a moment of levity.
In other words, he was kidding. He wasn't pulling a Rove.
At least, he seemed to be kidding.
2
Colbert quit too soon!
5
So they're losing $36 a barrel? No worries, they'll make it up on volume.
5
Today, when many in Congress talk about bipartisanship they usually mean an agenda that benefits the 1 percent (Exhibit A: the budget that Congress passed last month). Whatever happened to the idea that our elected officials should represent “The People” who elected them to office?
The mainstream media portrays progressive policies as left or far left. Actually, a majority of Americans support these positions and that is where our representatives should be finding common ground:
- Overturning Citizens United and moving to public funding of elections.
- Protecting Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.
- Raising the minimum wage to a living wage.
- Making college affordable once again. In the 60s and 70s, public universities were either free or charged minimal tuition.
- Doing away with tax loopholes so that corporations pay their fair share of taxes and creating new tax brackets for millionaires and billionaires, their effective tax rates are the lowest in decades.
- Reducing the bloated military budget.
- Rewriting our disastrous trade policies.
- Investing in our crumbling infrastructure, creating millions of good jobs.
- Moving away from fossil fuels and to a clean energy economy.
Sen. Bernie Sanders has put forth proposals to deal with the serious problems facing the country:
“The Sanders Agenda for the New Congress”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaVn-JrXlck
“Agenda for America: 12 Steps Forward”
http://www.sanders.senate.gov/agenda/
The mainstream media portrays progressive policies as left or far left. Actually, a majority of Americans support these positions and that is where our representatives should be finding common ground:
- Overturning Citizens United and moving to public funding of elections.
- Protecting Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.
- Raising the minimum wage to a living wage.
- Making college affordable once again. In the 60s and 70s, public universities were either free or charged minimal tuition.
- Doing away with tax loopholes so that corporations pay their fair share of taxes and creating new tax brackets for millionaires and billionaires, their effective tax rates are the lowest in decades.
- Reducing the bloated military budget.
- Rewriting our disastrous trade policies.
- Investing in our crumbling infrastructure, creating millions of good jobs.
- Moving away from fossil fuels and to a clean energy economy.
Sen. Bernie Sanders has put forth proposals to deal with the serious problems facing the country:
“The Sanders Agenda for the New Congress”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaVn-JrXlck
“Agenda for America: 12 Steps Forward”
http://www.sanders.senate.gov/agenda/
369
The only issue I take with your post is the idea that Congress does not represent the people who put them in office. In fact, it represents them extremely well. They are the people who pay for the circus called political campaigns. Unfortunately, unlike in Rome, we do not get the bread to go with it.
9
But the Republicans DO in fact represent the voters who elected them. The Supreme Court has ruled that elections are now a matter of "one dollar, one vote."
8
What a fine group of gifted and talented Up Is Down GOP legislators we have been blessed with in this 114th Congress by our Lord and Savior.
Through the hard and diligent work of fiscal austerity, sequestration, obstructionism, disinformation, GOP Death Panels prohibiting healthcare for poor workers in red states, trickle-down poverty and permanent upward redistribution to the 0.1%, radical right-wing sadomonetarism, nihilistic thinking - and the steadfast belief in Our Holy Father - the economy has flourished --- no thanks to the Satanic Kenyan Commander-in-Chief.
Remember, when in right-wing doubt, consider torture.....torture of prisoners, torture of the economy, torture of your fellow Americans, torture of logic and reason and the truth....torture is the best GOP policy !
If only the Republicans had eliminated the entire federal budget and all regulation, then the economy would have flourished even more....like Somalia's or Yemen's....oh well, there's always 2015 and 2016 for the GOP to pour more nihilism onto the economy to really heat up the GDP.
So let's build that Keystone Pipeline that's profitable only when oil sells for $85 a barrel (and selling for just $50 today); we'll just lavish more federal tax subsidies on Big Oil Inc. to make them whole because the number one priority of the Grand Old Petroleum party is corporate welfare, environmental and intellectual degradation, and creating just 35 full-time pipeline jobs.
Welcome to GOP null set of bright ideas.
Through the hard and diligent work of fiscal austerity, sequestration, obstructionism, disinformation, GOP Death Panels prohibiting healthcare for poor workers in red states, trickle-down poverty and permanent upward redistribution to the 0.1%, radical right-wing sadomonetarism, nihilistic thinking - and the steadfast belief in Our Holy Father - the economy has flourished --- no thanks to the Satanic Kenyan Commander-in-Chief.
Remember, when in right-wing doubt, consider torture.....torture of prisoners, torture of the economy, torture of your fellow Americans, torture of logic and reason and the truth....torture is the best GOP policy !
If only the Republicans had eliminated the entire federal budget and all regulation, then the economy would have flourished even more....like Somalia's or Yemen's....oh well, there's always 2015 and 2016 for the GOP to pour more nihilism onto the economy to really heat up the GDP.
So let's build that Keystone Pipeline that's profitable only when oil sells for $85 a barrel (and selling for just $50 today); we'll just lavish more federal tax subsidies on Big Oil Inc. to make them whole because the number one priority of the Grand Old Petroleum party is corporate welfare, environmental and intellectual degradation, and creating just 35 full-time pipeline jobs.
Welcome to GOP null set of bright ideas.
532
Hopeless, huh?
1
The US is in fact looking more like Yemen with every passing day.
Or Nigeria. Maybe we should be protesting and asking for reparations from Shell Oil, too? Just to get a little ahead of the curve?
Or Nigeria. Maybe we should be protesting and asking for reparations from Shell Oil, too? Just to get a little ahead of the curve?
8
Ecellent take on the times we live in, the only thing you left out was the smell of sulfur and the rattle of pitchforks.
9
I'm glad to hear that Democrats are not planning (they may change their minds shortly) to do unto Republicans what Republicans did unto Democrats. Someone needs to break the obstructionist cycle.
I would not, however, wish to see the Democrats roll over and play dead for the next two years. Perhaps the best strategy is to allow (they have little choice but to allow) the Republicans to pass all the crazy legislation they please, let the President veto it and then do their rhetorical best to sustain those vetoes. That would put every Republican (and also every Democrat) on record for or against those issues. The next round of elections should be very interesting if we had that kind of record to point to.
I would not, however, wish to see the Democrats roll over and play dead for the next two years. Perhaps the best strategy is to allow (they have little choice but to allow) the Republicans to pass all the crazy legislation they please, let the President veto it and then do their rhetorical best to sustain those vetoes. That would put every Republican (and also every Democrat) on record for or against those issues. The next round of elections should be very interesting if we had that kind of record to point to.
98
Your comment about the next round of elections being "interesting" appears to be based on the supposition that the voters are paying attention to how their favorite politicians vote. Do you believe that the voting public will suddenly take an interest in important issues and then take the time to learn about them so they can make intelligent decisions when ithey vote? (If they vote.) Time has proven that the sound bite efficiency of the right wing media trumps intelligence and nuance in most important elections. The cat herders need to find a way to get a cogent message out to the voters if Democrats are ever going to be a force for progress.
18
Yeah, those Republicans thwarted every progressive attempt by the Democrats and our President to do ANYTHING in the last 4 years, brought the country to the brink of disaster multiple times with their opposition and threats, proudly announced they were going to do what was best for the Party, not what was best for the People, and best of all, their previous presidential administration gave the 1%ers a free ride to destroy our economy (and not one bankster went to jail!) and emptied the US Treasury into the coffers of Haliburton, Blackwater, and the like (and Cheney still walks around and speaks as a free man!!!). And now you want to end the obstructionism to give these corporate operatives support? No. I hope the Democrats take a lesson from the GOP and obstruct, delay, and screw up EVERY PROPOSAL these despicable, blatantly corporate-owned, mendacious dirtbags care to offer. That is the only way to stop the march of the 1% to the top of a world of starving, desperate, uneducated workers ruled by a few rich families.
11
With all the whining about Clinton and Wall Street, who do they think the GOP listens to?
How much damage can they do in two years? If you think some of the things yo are reading about them are dumb, what does that tell you about the voters?
Obama will veto the pipeline, so they will use that to cut the budget. Let us hope he will not give in their blackmail. Lat night Frontline did a show on the NRA. It pointed out, legislators that backed off on gun legislation, rather then standing up to bullying. We do not need cowards in the Democratic party.
It is going to be a rough two years, hang on to your wallet.
How much damage can they do in two years? If you think some of the things yo are reading about them are dumb, what does that tell you about the voters?
Obama will veto the pipeline, so they will use that to cut the budget. Let us hope he will not give in their blackmail. Lat night Frontline did a show on the NRA. It pointed out, legislators that backed off on gun legislation, rather then standing up to bullying. We do not need cowards in the Democratic party.
It is going to be a rough two years, hang on to your wallet.
125
You're fortunate to have a wallet, it's pennies here in a tin can with a discount coupon for Goya beans. President Obama does not do truck with blackmailers ever, and while we are squabbling here over the Congress, he has long moved on, and invited us along, regardless of whether we are Republicans, Democrats or Americans, to rebuild our Nation and create new jobs for all of us, who are willing to roll up our sleeves, and leave in the dust those of us who remain back in the future, and stunned.
7
Here's my prediction: First they will approve the Keystone XL Pipeline, then they will overturn the Affordable Care Act, then they will overturn Obama's Immigration Executive Orders, then they will vote to overturn Social Security and finally they will vote to overturn Medicare and Medicaid. Obama will veto all of it. Then they will vote to Impeach Obama. The rest of his term will be spent defending himself in a bitterly divided Senate. Then Hillary will be elected and whole circus will begin anew. Had enough of divided government, America? No, I didn't think so.
161
A predictable list, and you only omitted to add on this agenda, that they are about to close our borders and eat the last buffaloes.
3
BRAVO, David, you got it all right except for the last 3 sentences. Elect Hillary? Doubt it. (You would make a good Republican, though: maybe they have a job for you.)
1
With Boehner and McConnell now in full control, I lay odds that their manic efforts to "make Obama fail" will dominate their agenda, rather than attacking real problems faced by the country, such as the declining/disappearing Middle Class and the ever widening income and wealth gap between to 1% and the 99%. This will also include continued rear-guard efforts to derail ObamaCare
171
Unfortunately, neither of those men give a hoot about the items you consider important. It doesn't touch them, personally, so why be concerned? We can expect nothing that will benefit the lower (89% of the country) classes from this group. It isn't on their radar.
"Make Obama fail" is just a sideshow to distract the easily distracted public from their real goals: total deregulation of industry and finance, destruction of the EPA and labor laws, gutting of Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid (euphemistically called "reform"), and privatization of all government functions while retaining the external vestiges of democracy. The Congress will remain to do the plutocrats bidding and feather their own beds; thus giving a veneer of representative government. The supremes will continue to carry out the plutocratic agenda; a president will sit it the White House taking orders from the Kochs and their friends. Best of all, we will be allowed to continue to vote to keep up the appearance of a democracy. Most dictatorships do that these days and the end result of each election is known before a single ballot is cast. Welcome to 21st century America. That sound we hear in the distance is Tom Paine, Jefferson, Adams and Franklin rolling in the graves.
"Make Obama fail" is just a sideshow to distract the easily distracted public from their real goals: total deregulation of industry and finance, destruction of the EPA and labor laws, gutting of Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid (euphemistically called "reform"), and privatization of all government functions while retaining the external vestiges of democracy. The Congress will remain to do the plutocrats bidding and feather their own beds; thus giving a veneer of representative government. The supremes will continue to carry out the plutocratic agenda; a president will sit it the White House taking orders from the Kochs and their friends. Best of all, we will be allowed to continue to vote to keep up the appearance of a democracy. Most dictatorships do that these days and the end result of each election is known before a single ballot is cast. Welcome to 21st century America. That sound we hear in the distance is Tom Paine, Jefferson, Adams and Franklin rolling in the graves.
17
It was Webster, Gohmert, Yoho,
And that is how the wind would blow,
But Boehner prevailed,
Yoho was derailed,
And tanning beds received a blow!
It is comforting now to know
We are not saddled with Yoho,
Less comforting though
Boehner runs the show,
The Kochs get returns for their dough!
And that is how the wind would blow,
But Boehner prevailed,
Yoho was derailed,
And tanning beds received a blow!
It is comforting now to know
We are not saddled with Yoho,
Less comforting though
Boehner runs the show,
The Kochs get returns for their dough!
157
Crikey, Gail, why are the Republicans still beating their gums about Keystone XL Pipeline? This is not an important issue at all when zealotry is running amok in France today and is catching fire in other European cities. And the spirit of amity is surely not afoot here in the US. Let's face facts, Republicans are zealots for the right of all Americans to bear arms - they are driven by the NRA and gun lobbies to allow guns in every pocket and purse from coast to coast. Our fundamental rights are on the chopping block because Conservative Republicans have, mirabile dictu, won both houses of Congress. Let's see if they smoke the peace pipe, the Calumet, with President Obama. A hae me doots. Some terrible beast is slouching toward Bethlehem right now, and we, the world's gobsmacked inhabitants, are just bystanders to this new invasion of terrorism, tyranny and oppression by one particular branch of demented religious fanaticism. I guess we should be glad to have Speaker Boehner for another term as Leader; the devil we know is far better than the ones we only know because of their horrific utterances in public. At least Boehner is fairly harmless, riffing about candy and nuts and Christmas every day. Let's be grateful and tug our forelocks, because we could have had a really bad GOP apple as Speaker of the 114th Congress.
68
Nan, I'm on your side but really who was going to get voted for if Boehner hadn't squeaked by? The person with next most votes wins? Gomert would have got enough votes? Maybe they should hire an outside mediator? The Speaker doesn't have to actually be a member of the House does it?
1
Just remember to keep Mr. Boehner sweet and affable with treats and wild turkey, or he may shut down the Government again.
3
"he gave a speech to members of a white supremacy group. “I know what’s in his heart,” said the speaker."
I'm sure the Speaker does know what's in his heart. That's the problem. He's fine with that.
I'm sure the Speaker does know what's in his heart. That's the problem. He's fine with that.
466
Everybody has said that Scalise is NOT a racist. Once again, even if he were talking to Duke's group, how is that different from Democrats talking to a right wing group or Republicans talking to a left wing group, activities that occur all the time especially during elections?
McConnell celebrated his ascendancy to Senate Majority Leader with the bizarre claim that the recent good economic news was the result of GOP leadership, thereby confirming his role as Clown-In-Chief of one of the least respected US government institutions.
Its almost understandable that a leader of the opposition would say anything to score partisan points, but leadership requires well, leadership.
That doesn't seem to be in the GOP DNA.
Its almost understandable that a leader of the opposition would say anything to score partisan points, but leadership requires well, leadership.
That doesn't seem to be in the GOP DNA.
252
Leadership also requires a certain respect for sanity, and that too doesn't seem to be in the GOP DNA.
166
Buried deep within the pipeline legislation are provisions for construction of factories along it's path, every 25 miles or so, to keep the nation supplied with aluminum foil beanies, complete with propellers and antennae. They will receive signals only from Fox, Rush Limbaugh and as yet to be identified aliens. This will allow every American to become exceptional, ignore science, defy logic and eschew common sense.
On another note, I'm told Yahoo is going to hire Ted Yoho, because it's just so appropriate.
On another note, I'm told Yahoo is going to hire Ted Yoho, because it's just so appropriate.
23
They are not insane and therefore know exactly what they are doing. They are just corrupt and venal to the core. They will stop at nothing to gain the semblance of power and the accrual of wealth.
10
.
.
Gail mentioned energy independence, and the fact that in the past 6 years, the US became the world's leading oil producer. I hope someone can answer a question I had along those lines, or at least give me a link with stuff I can understand without having a Ph.D.
My premise is this: Senator Obama promised in August 2008 that his policies would reduce US oil imports from the Middle East and Venezuela to zero in ten years.
I think we can presume that the ten years was not intended to begin running until sometime in January 2009; so let's say we are six years into the 10 years.
So, how are we doing at getting to zero? What percentage of our oil imports are from Venezuela/Middle East?
I was able to find out that our top import partner is Canada, by far; and that both Saudi Arabia and Mexico are high on the list. We also seem to have cut way down on Nigerian oil. But with all the facts and figures, my head started to spin, so I appreciate any help you can give.
.
Gail mentioned energy independence, and the fact that in the past 6 years, the US became the world's leading oil producer. I hope someone can answer a question I had along those lines, or at least give me a link with stuff I can understand without having a Ph.D.
My premise is this: Senator Obama promised in August 2008 that his policies would reduce US oil imports from the Middle East and Venezuela to zero in ten years.
I think we can presume that the ten years was not intended to begin running until sometime in January 2009; so let's say we are six years into the 10 years.
So, how are we doing at getting to zero? What percentage of our oil imports are from Venezuela/Middle East?
I was able to find out that our top import partner is Canada, by far; and that both Saudi Arabia and Mexico are high on the list. We also seem to have cut way down on Nigerian oil. But with all the facts and figures, my head started to spin, so I appreciate any help you can give.
6
MTF - the distinction is that some oil is imported, then exported again as refined products, in the same way parts of other products can be imported, assembled here, then exported. This happens with oil because different grades of oil can only go certain places in the world to be refined.
On a ' net ' basis, the U.S. produced more energy than we consumed, so that ' in total ' we are net exporters, even though we might import 10 million barrels of a certain type of crude that fits our refinery needs, while exporting 11 million barrels to somewhere else.
Not being a PhD, we may have missed some arcane points, but this is the gist :)
On a ' net ' basis, the U.S. produced more energy than we consumed, so that ' in total ' we are net exporters, even though we might import 10 million barrels of a certain type of crude that fits our refinery needs, while exporting 11 million barrels to somewhere else.
Not being a PhD, we may have missed some arcane points, but this is the gist :)
79
US "oil independence" may prove to be a terrible disaster in the long run. It will delay much needed concentration on renewable energies.
Fossil fuels will run out and their continued use will hasten global warming. Other countries, not flush with their own oil production, will be way ahead of us in implementing an energy infrastructure suited for the post-fossils fuel era.
Fossil fuels will run out and their continued use will hasten global warming. Other countries, not flush with their own oil production, will be way ahead of us in implementing an energy infrastructure suited for the post-fossils fuel era.
194
Unfortunately--or perhaps importantly--we're all in the same boat, Claus. If there's a big enough hole in the floor, no amount of bailing water will prevent the boat from sinking, and humanity along with it.
8