That’s what completed your Bingo card? Congratulations! I am still waiting on “President has a coronary event while on his solid gold shitter”.

Trump lawyers claim ICE agents “are facing incessant violent resistance on the streets of Illinois …"

It is no surprise that eyewitness accounts largely dispute these claims, often with video evidence.

So while there are a lot of problems with our ubiquitous surveillance state, the fact that virtually every citizen has an independant surveillance device in their pocket may be the key thing that pulls us out of authoritarianism.

What the Trump administration is doing is no different than what other authoritarian regimes did: lie about their opposition, then use those lies as an excuse to consolidate power. Everyone knew they were lying, but nobody could prove it. But here, we not only have the technology to prove them wrong, but a court system which still has some measure of independence and, in many cases, will not ignore definitive proof.

Will it be enough? That’s still an open question. I can’t say for sure. In the meantime, the best hope for Democracy in America would be if the actuarial tables finally catch up with the man.

OK, so now we know Trump is totally hiding his own diagnosis from the public…

Not just any women, though, these are the ambitious women who have achieved political success on their own, and not just as an accessory to their husbands’ career. As batshit crazy as they are, they own their crazy directly.

Why does their political ambition align with a party who thinks they should all stay at home and cook meals for their men? I can’t explain that. But it seems like this Epstein shit has crossed a line for them.

Since when has he let that stop him?

And to think, all this time my conspiracy theory was that Trump and Clinton were involved in an affair, I was right, but I pegged the wrong Clinton!

What he really means is “Talented Americans cost too much”.

I once had a boss tell me to my face that I had to work three times as hard as the team members in Eastern Europe, because they were paid three times less than I was. Yeah, I didn’t stay long after that.

She said Giuliani claimed to have “immunity” and told “her that he was selling pardons for $2 million, which he and President Trump would split.” The lawsuit did not suggest any pardons were sold.

I see, 50 for him and 50 for the big guy…

we’ve done that before

That watchdog will just get an Official Referral to Kristi Noem, she knows what to do with dogs that won’t cooperate

BOO-URNS

… And they named an airport after him!

I think AOC will make a perfect Presidential candidate, in 2040 or 2048 after a few terms in the Senate. She will still be “young” by Presidential standards. Maybe by then many of the misogynists will have died off.

Don’t get me wrong: she would make an extremely good candidate in 2028 too. But I don’t think she has a chance of winning in the current climate. Too many people won’t vote for a woman right now, but are self-aware enough to know they can’t admit it anymore, so will come up with bullshit reasons why they can’t do it.

If she is on my ballot she is getting my vote, full stop. But I want to keep her for NY for a while longer.

There may be a way to make lemonade out of these lemons. While there are 3 appropriations bills bundled into this package, most of the rest of the appropriations would be on a continuing resolution until the end of the year, which isn’t really a very long time. So, absent some sort of breakthrough with the House, we will be in this same position in January.

If Republicans renege on the December vote, then Democrats can go back to them and say “No, we mean it this time, put back the ACA subsidies or we dont agree to kick the can further. We trusted you once and you lied.”

Meanwhile, in this bill there are explicit guarantees for SNAP funding and protections for federal workers during the shutdown. Yes, those things were already law, but it reinforces things if Trump signs a bill in November and then ignores it in January. Those are the things that made this shutdown especially painful, and the current bill’s passage will limit the pain Trump can inflict.

Basically, I don’t buy into the narrative that Democrats got nothing in exchange. It seems like they got a lot of incremental things, that will help give them leverage when Republicans decide to screw them. In the meantime, Federal workers get back pay to prepare for the next one.

You can’t, at least not yet. They are all either not on the ballot in the midterms (because their term is longer), or have already announced retirement. They are betting on all this blowing over before they have to ask for votes again.

Well, they tried to, but he won, and now they are all going to cozy up to him as long as he keeps winning

The DNC backstabs those folks if they run for President, but would have no problem backing a certain victory for a Senate seat.

Yeah yeah, I know. Trading their votes for the promise of a vote in the future is kinda dumb. But then, there is this nugget buried here:

There is also a negotiation to reinstate all of the federal workers Trump laid off during the shutdown, the report adds.

That might just be worth it, because it would be Congress passing something that puts direct constraints on what the President can do, and daring him to veto it.

Edited to add: don’t sleep on the 3 spending bills that are being negotiated too. This effort looks like a continuing resolution that extends most agencies through the end of the year, but those 3 bills constitute full appropriations for agriculture, military construction and legislative agencies. And it looks like Democrats may have won back some funding for programs that the House budget gutted. This is all from the NYT, if I happen to find a non-paywall link I’ll add it

What do you mean? Making a backroom deal to get the Next One Up across the finish line is exactly how they operate

Hmm, I think even 4 retiring every day seems to be a lot…

I guess there are over 14,000 controllers normally, so if 20 retire a week that’s a turnover of about 1000 per year, or about 7%, just through retirement. That seems high.

But at 20 a day, we might have run through that number just during the shutdown.