Elections Matter

Chris Murphy has put forward a plan that I've liked in some form for a long time: Medicare buy-in for everyone.  I actually prefer something closer to Brian Schatz's plan, which is Medicaid buy-in for all, but that would require taking Medicaid back from the states to really work.  Sanders plan would be so disruptive that even if you could pass it, it would cause a backlash so severe that you'd have 2010 all over again.

A Medicaid/Medicare buy-in would cause private insurance to slowly wither on the vine as more people and companies transitioned to a cheaper, better form of insurance.  Once you reach a critical mass, then you make it tax based rather than payroll based.

The reason we didn't have a public option in the first place was because odious shitsucking troll Joe Lieberman killed it.

I still hate that guy.

So Freaking Tiresome

The WaPo has the usual "Democrats in Disarray" article that practically write themselves at this point.  The endless relitigating of the 2016 primary, the differing visions of what the Democratic Party should stand for, hell, even Nancy Pelosi gets bashed a bit.  Pelosi has been - without a doubt - the best and most efficient Speaker of the House in decades.  She isn't who you want in front of the cameras - I guess Paul Ryan is, for reasons I can't explain - but she's an absolute pro at delivering her caucus.  Hell, even Gutierrez voted for the three month extension yesterday.  All the whinging would-be insurrectionists voted for it, even as they carped to the cameras and the Bernie Bros.

As for whether getting Trump to sign a DREAM Act constitutes a win for Democrats or a win for Trump...I mean, how about a win for three-quarter of a million young people?  As for who will get credit for it, whatever credit Trump gets from the center, he loses from the racist Right.

Legislate.  Govern.  That's your job.  Don't echo the Republican legislative absolutism.

Government Does It's Most Basic Job, Film At Eleven

The Trump-Schumer-Pelosi deal just sailed through Congress.  It insures that the government stays open and doesn't default on its debt (for three months), funds hurricane relief and allows for other pressing matters to come to the fore.

It passed the House 316-90 and the Senate 80-17.  The reason Trump made the deal is apparent in the numbers: All the "no" votes came from Republicans. They even booed and hissed after they passed the damned thing, like the children that they are.

I really hope Trump agrees to the deal that eliminates the debt ceiling altogether.  Watching the Freedumb Caucuses heads explode will make great television.

Google Nation

Franklin Foer makes a good case that tech companies have outstripped the ability of states to regulate them.  The same has been true of finance for years, but now it applies to Google, Apple, Amazon and others.

While his focus on AI will likely draw eyeballs, it's his broader critique of monopoly across the economy that should resonate.  We need a new Clayton Anti-Trust Act for the new Gilded Age.

Could This Be Good News?

Trump and "Chuck and Nancy" might be close to a deal to eliminate the debt ceiling altogether.

The debt ceiling doesn't make any sense, as it's simply about spending money Congress has already appropriated.  Get rid of it.  Take the gun out of the nihilists hands.

Oh FFS

Needless to say, some Democrats - on the Left - have a problem with the deal Schumer and Pelosi cut with Trump yesterday.

Their argument is that Democratic leadership should have tied the DREAM Act to the debt ceiling fight and forced the GOP to either protect the DREAMers or default on the debt.

This is basically Magical Pony Thinking, Jacobin-Style.

There are about 12 legislative days in the September calendar.  In addition to raising the debt ceiling, passing a continuing resolution, reauthorizing the FAA and plugging holes in the CHIP, Luis Gutierrez wants to pass the DREAM Act?  I don't fault his ardor, I fault his math.

Because this deal pushes the debt ceiling off until December, it allows the Democrat to push THAT reckoning off long enough to marshal votes for the DREAM Act of whatever comes next. Or, ideally, there are rumors that the next debt ceiling extension will be the last, by eliminating the debt ceiling altogether.  If Congress appropriates the money, the debt will be paid.  That makes sense and it would end this ridiculous game of chicken we play with America's credit every fall.

You can still use the government shutdown as leverage for DREAM.

You have given yourself an additional two months to get the Lindsay Graham and John McCain's on board with a return to regular order.  And as Ro Khanna notes, copying Ted Cruz's legislative strategy should be the last thing Democrats do.  The Democrats HAVE to be the party of responsible government.  Holding a gun to the head of the American economy is not the behavior of the party of responsible government.

Nevertheless, in typical fashion, the Left has decided to wage war on the Liberals, because they didn't get everything they want yesterday.

Best Take

Martin Longman explains what happened yesterday in perfect detail and summarizes everything just right.  

So there.

And this is why I prefer blogs like his to cable news.

Jeebus Voters

This is really interesting.  Basically it explains why Evangelicals can support a moral dumpster fire like Donald Trump.  It feels very "true."

What's interesting is the decline in White Evangelicals.  Some of that is actuarial.  They are older and older people die.  Some of it is cultural.  Younger people are just more tolerant of the Ghey and worried about climate change.  One factor to keep an eye on that the article can't foresee is whether Trump's Reverse Midas Touch will further destroy the ranks of Evangelicals.

Are you there God, it's me Margaret Donald?

Life Comes At You Fast...

So I was at school, welcoming new students and getting curious updates on my phone.

Apparently, Hair Furor has realized that he can't govern with the Republican majorities in the Congress, so he will need Democratic help to keep the country from falling apart.

Therefore, he has agreed to raise the debt ceiling and add three more month onto a continuing resolution that keeps the government open until Christmas.

As Martin Longman has predicted (and is now taking a victory lap) the entire GOP leadership from Trump to McConnell were staring into the abyss.  They had a HUGE workload for September and the Far Right was barking mad about their demands.  Ryan and McConnell (and whatever passes for adult leadership in the White House) knew they had a host of must-pass legislation and a restive group of Teanderthals ready to make a hash of everything.  The only option to keep from defaulting on the debt and keeping the government functioning was to secure Democratic votes.

As Longman notes, McConnell and Ryan can shake their head ruefully as these votes pass and the government is funded because Trump is just such a loose cannon.  In reality, they have to be relieved that they won't be overseeing a sovereign debt crisis and the collapse of the dollar.

The worry was that Trump and the Teanderthals would demand that the debt ceiling increase would come with strings that Democrats couldn't stomach.  And then there would be a default. And that would be a disaster.

Instead, we are going to get a clean debt ceiling increase, push the government shutdown until December and allow the Congress to work on other pieces of must-pass legislation, including the FAA, CHIP and potentially disaster relief (though Harvey relief appears to be covered in this deal).

It also decouples any shitty DACA patch that might have been attached to the debt ceiling.  Now they will have to vote on a real DREAM bill.

Democrats were ecstatic and you can understand why.  As for Republicans, they are furious.  It will be interesting to see how much longer Congressional Republicans can stomach Trump.  He's already "killing the brand."  If he starts siding with Schumer and Pelosi to keep the government funded and DREAMers from being deported...why not impeach the SOB?

Ignoramus

A number of reports suggest that Trump really doesn't know the extent and possible ramification of his actions.  As I suggested the other day, perhaps Trump blunders into a scenario where he forces Congress to do it job.  This will require Congressional Republican leaders to cut deals with Democrats in order to pass what is essentially the Dream Act.  Republicans have boxed themselves in by complaining about Obama's executive overreach in creating DACA.  But DACA covered their own shameful inaction.

Now, Trump has forced them to either pass the Dream Act with Democratic votes or watch communities being torn apart.  You want to turn Texas and Arizona blue?  Kill DACA and fail to pass the Dream Act.

So all we need now is competence in Congress.

Fish Rots From The Head

The EPA under Trump.

Nothing To Add

Josh Marshall makes a very important point: Donald Trump can't even fake empathy.  Admittedly, Trump is "not a politician" who has learned to fake empathy over years of running for office.  But...damn!  How can you flub the easiest of presidential tests: not being an asshole during a disaster?

DACA

There is at least some hints that Congress might actually, you know, do some of that legislating.

Not in September.  September is going to be a triage unit of disaster avoidance.  The debt ceiling has to be raised and some sort of new spending - even a continuing resolution - has to be passed. There is Harvey (and maybe Irma) relief to pass.  And maybe we should find a way not to go to war with North Korea.

Hair Furor has announced that he will end DACA in six months.  DACA stands for Deferred Action for Childhood Something That Starts With A.  Basically, if you were brought to this country when you were a minor, you can stay as long as you go to school, have a job and don't do crimes.  It is a perfectly sane policy implemented by Obama, because the GOP Congress wouldn't act on it.

Now, however, the GOP owns all policy outputs.  Trump's decision to end DACA is heartless and cruel, unless the Congress can pass a bill instituting DACA into law (at this point it was an executive action).  Since DACA has no real legal standing, this is an opportunity for the GOP to blunt some of their negative standing with people under 40.  They can claim credit for making DACA into law.

Of course, the way they are going about it, with Trump threatening to deport a bunch of kids, means that they are unlikely to see any real benefit.  Well played.

Here is a link to my former advisee, Chris Zheng's, Facebook page.   At the link is a fundraiser for United We Dream.  Consider throwing in some coin.

Who The Fuck Is Mark Bray?

Mark Bray teaches at my alma mater.  He is the current leading intellectual voice of antifas.  He has a book!

Inevitably, I'm reminded of my forays onto Twitter to debate anarchists, Bernie Bros and perhaps some antifas supporters about how stupid antifas is as both a tactic and a strategy.  What's dismaying about Bray is that he seems to embrace the ahistorical idea that we are slipping into fascism.  He seems to take the Far Left position that anything to the Left of John McCain is fascism.  The other book review at the above link is about the range from fascism to populism.

There is zero question in my mind that Trump represents a populist movement, rooted heavily in white working class resentment.  His movement is quite old and quite rural.  It represents the dying out areas of America, both literally and figuratively.  Fascism is schematic; it has a plan.  Populism is emotive; it responds to stimulae.

To look at Trump and see fascisms, or for that matter to look at 1500 tiki torch wielding morons and see Germany in 1933 seems to me to represent a real failure to learn real lessons from history.

Nice Message

Literally snatching kids' dreams.

Trump feels pressured to provide red meat to the Deplorables.  They are the only ones sticking by him, so he's going to do some fan service.  That means being heartless to children by ripping them from their homes and schools.

Remember that most of the Deplorables are "Evangelical Christians."

Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.