Meh.
And You May Find Yourself, Living in a Shotgun Shack
Nothing to see here:
The Republican Party has largely abandoned its platform of fiscal restraint, pivoting sharply in a way that could add trillions of dollars in federal debt over the next decade.
Cutting spending to balance the budget was almost religion to the Republican Party for much of the past eight years. But all year long, despite their control of the White House and Congress, Republicans have not taken steps to balance the budget, to overhaul entitlement programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, or to arrest the growth of the country’s $20 trillion in debt.
With the House passing a critical budget resolution this past week, GOP lawmakers are charging forward next week with plans to cut taxes in a way that could add more than $1.5 trillion to the government’s debt over 10 years, with the goal of legislation by early next month. That is on top of an effort to significantly increase military spending. White House officials say their focus is on growing the economy now and dealing with the debt later.
This is nothing new, and not a switch at all. This is the Republican MO, and quite consistent. When they are in power, they spend wildly, enacting irresponsible tax cuts for the rich, blowing up the military budget, and if that doesn’t do the trick, starting a recreational war or two. Then, when they inevitably lose power briefly because of their own hubris, and money is once again tight and the budgets blown out of control from their feckless behavior, they become budget hawks to constrain anything done by liberals.
And the media plays along with it every time, pretending that the GOP and a couple of douchebag bluedogs like Evan Bayh and Harold Ford actually care about the national debt and the deficit. And they fall for it every time. They don’t want to shrink government to the size that they can drown it in the bathtub, they just want to transfer all the money to the Koch and Mercer families bathtubs to roll in it.
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Sunday Morning Open Thread: Musical Interlude
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No garden pics to share this week, and I’m feeling lazy, so have a few Sunday-morning tunes. And if you haven’t already seen Cole’s posts about his neighbors’ wedding, this would be the time…
Apart from holding on to the good true things, what’s on the agenda for the day?
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Wedding Pics
Some pics from the wedding. Gerald’s kids spent the last couple of weeks helping my dad spruce up the back yard, and it looks really good. First, the Koi pond:
The house in the background should look familiar. Next, a picture of the walkway from the deck to the garage:
Here’s a long distance picture of the ceremony in progress:
And a picture of the bride and groom, Taylor, Dominick, and Breanna:
Here’s just a random picture of Breanna running through the yard, and I love it because it reminds me of the Blind Melon Bumblebee Girl:
A photo of my “dates,” Tammy and Sammy (there are no pictures of me because I look like Shrek standing next to Tammy):
And instead of boring you all with all the food, here is the watermelon my dad carved for the fruit basket.
It was so much fun and they are such good people- I’m so happy they live next door to my parents because my dad just loves the boys and my mother loves Breanna, and it’s just nice to have good neighbors. Speaking of the neighbors, the kids are all at grandma’s and they’re still over their partying. I’m on the couch with the dogs.
Open Thread: Oh Joy, Another Crappy Reboot…
Stock Market hits an ALL-TIME high! Unemployment lowest in 16 years! Business and manufacturing enthusiasm at highest level in decades!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2017
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… Of a series nobody enjoyed the *first* time…
Thread, so bear with me. 1) 45's regime is an attempt to re-create the 1920s. Pres. Warren G. Harding was sexually corrupt and not smart.
— Carol Anderson (@ProfCAnderson) October 6, 2017
7) The 1924 National Origins Act banned immigration from Asia, limited it from non-protestant nations & privileged Anglo-Saxon Britain.
— Carol Anderson (@ProfCAnderson) October 6, 2017
11) That "moral rectitude" meant that poverty was solely a personal failing. Charities could step in to help but there was no role for govt
— Carol Anderson (@ProfCAnderson) October 6, 2017
19) MAGA looks backwards and creates a false '20s history of prosperity & peace; when it was anything but. This is 45's recipe for disaster.
— Carol Anderson (@ProfCAnderson) October 6, 2017
Matthew Yglesias, at Vox — “The Harriet Miers of the Fed is ready for a comeback”:
Back in the younger and more innocent days of January, 2006, then-President George W. Bush decided to appoint a nice-looking and well-off young man named Kevin Warsh to a seat on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors that he had no apparent qualification for…
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It Takes a Village
To cater a wedding. Just got back from the wedding (which is literally across the alley in my dad’s back yard with the reception Gerald’s backyard next door). It was very nice, and I will post some more pictures in a bit. but thought I would share a picture or two right now. First, the scramble to get all the quiches and salads and fruit bowls and everything else plated:
That’s a neighbor Anita, my mom, one of Gerald’s kids, Tammy, and my dad. And not the cake:
As pretty as it was, it tasted even better! My dad is a man of many talents.
Sillamäe Again
Here’s a light but crabby post for a Saturday. Fits my mood.
I’ve spent a fair bit of time in Sillamäe, Estonia, and more thinking about it. So when a publication screws up the facts, I feel a need to respond.
This time, it’s Atlas Obscura doing a remarkable job of stuffing errors into a short article.