The mister and I are driving around on several errands. Some idjits put up a Confederate flag as big as a semi truck at the junction of I-75 and I-4. Morons.
What are you up to today?
Florida woman, still rocking a punk rock ethos in the 2020s, which is kind of sad. Betty Cracker has been a Balloon Juice writer since 2012.
by Betty Cracker| 208 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads
The mister and I are driving around on several errands. Some idjits put up a Confederate flag as big as a semi truck at the junction of I-75 and I-4. Morons.
What are you up to today?
by Betty Cracker| 144 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads
Because…damn. We’re eating Chinese take-out and watching “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind,” in which 70s game show producer Chuck Barris is secretly a hit man for the CIA. You?
This post is in: War, War on Terror aka GSAVE®, General Stupidity
#POTUS has authorized #SecDef Hagel to deploy up to 1,500 additional U.S. personnel over the coming months, in a non-combat role to #Iraq.
— U.S. Dept of Defense (@DeptofDefense) November 7, 2014
Haven’t we been training the Iraqi military for 10 years now, to the tune of tens of billions of dollars? They’ve got to be the most trained motherfuckers in the world by now.
This post is in: Music, Open Threads, Politics, Popular Culture, Proud to Be A Democrat, General Stupidity
I’ve got CNN’s sucky app on my phone, and sometimes I’ll see a breaking news alert that disappears as soon as I pick the phone up, before I can read the whole thing. That happened a little while ago, and all I saw was “Loretta Lyn…” — so I assumed Loretta Lynn had died.
I had a sad about that because I like her. But as it turns out, Loretta Lynn is just fine; in fact, the octogenarian recently inked a multi-album deal, according to Rolling Stone.
The “Loretta Lyn…” breaking news message was actually about Loretta Lynch, the US Attorney in Brooklyn who President Obama is supposedly going to nominate to replace Eric Holder as US AG, according to CNN. From what little I could find online about her, Ms. Lynch sounds like a great choice.
So here’s a Loretta Lynn classic to celebrate the nomination of someone who almost shares a name with the First Lady of Country Music.
This post is in: Politics, War on Terror aka GSAVE®
During yesterday’s post-shellacking presser, President Obama mentioned that he would seek Congressional authorization for the ongoing campaign against ISIS instead of continuing to coast on the fumes of the post-9/11 AUMF:
“The world needs to know we are united behind this effort and that the men and women of our military deserve our clear and unified support,” Mr. Obama said, adding that he would begin a dialogue with congressional leaders when they come to the White House on Friday.
Better late than never. The timing is interesting, though. It’s not likely that forcing the Repubs to take a position on this would have affected the midterms, but I don’t understand why it made sense to let them have their cake and eat it too, with McCain and Co. screeching for more bombing and arming of elusive “moderates” on the one hand and the GOP peanut gallery criticizing the administration’s strategy and results on the other.
Well, in any case, the legislative branch is supposed to weigh in on this kind of thing — it’s right there in their pocket Constitutions, I think — and now they’ll have their chance. It’s not only the right thing to do, it might also result in a scrap between the GOP’s neo-con and libertarian factions. I’ll be rooting for injuries in that contest.
by Betty Cracker| 334 Comments
This post is in: Domestic Politics, Don't Mourn, Organize, Don't Trip, Organize, Election 2014, Election 2016, Open Threads, Politics, Republican Stupidity, Fucked-up-edness, General Stupidity
A theory has been percolating around here to the effect that Democrats in red or purple states who failed to fully embrace President Obama and/or the ACA were idiot DINOs who could have made a better showing by being REAL Democrats and endorsing the Obama administration’s agenda. Here’s why I think it’s bullshit.
Charlie Crist embraced President Obama and sang the praises of the ACA. He lost. Allison Grimes was all “Obama who?” She lost. Grimes in Kentucky may have run a tone-deaf, ham-fisted campaign (I honestly don’t know), but it’s just nuts, in my opinion, to think she would have made a better showing had she embraced Obama. There’s every reason to think she would have lost by an even bigger larger margin.
Here’s the thing: Yesterday’s elections were regional contests on a national map that heavily favored the GOP, and they took place in a time of discontent. So the GOP did the smart thing and nationalized the election. They made it all about Obama, and they won big by trashing the president.
You may not like it. I damn sure don’t like it. But that’s what happened, and people who are saying the Dems in red or purple areas should have just doubled down on support for the administration sound just as loopy as the teaturds who were shrieking that Romney and McCain lost because they weren’t enough like Sarah Palin or Ted Cruz.
We’ll see a very different political landscape in 2016 because there is precisely ZERO chance that the Republicans won’t overreach and make a hash of their control of Congress. They’ve demonstrated repeatedly that they have no intention of governing in good faith, and they aren’t going to magically turn into patriots over the next two years.
And if politics over the next two years follows its usual pattern, the future Democratic nominee, whoever she or he is, would be stupid NOT to embrace the president and run on the accomplishments of the Obama administration, such as the ACA. Does that sound contradictory? It’s not.
In 2016, we’ll be in a presidential election year. It’s no knock on Obama to acknowledge that he’s deeply unpopular in some areas and that Democrats who wanted to win regional campaigns like those decided in yesterday’s election couldn’t afford to be seen as close to the administration.
By the same token, a 2016 nominee who wants to win a national election should tailor her campaign strategy to the unique circumstances of a presidential election year and avoid pissing off Obama’s supporters. It ain’t rocket surgery. And anyone who is peddling one strategy or the other exclusively for every scenario is full of crap, in my opinion.
by Betty Cracker| 355 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads, Politics
You can watch it here.
UPDATE: Someone just asked PBO if he regrets not developing more cordial relationships with Republicans in Congress. He allowed himself a sigh of exasperation before giving a sane and measured response. That’s why he’s president and I’m not: I would have grabbed one of the flags and skewered the questioner with the pole.
President Obama’s Post-Thumping PresserPost + Comments (355)