Not Exactly Holding My Breath

 

US Senate Democratic leaders (Schumer et al.) promised two days ago that they would not provide the votes to get to the needed 60 to pass the Republicans’ stopgap spending plan needed to fund the government past Sept. 30, because the Republicans never involved them in negotiating and writing it. Democratic phones did not ring. Meanwhile, the House is sure to pass the plan, maybe today, with a majority margin of 3 probably, but if the Senate balks -- if Schumer actually follows through and leads a revolt against a thoroughly corrupt system, then we got ourselves an interesting moment in history. My folklore on corporatism sez that high-ranking Democrats always end up supporting the status quo, and they have high-minded goals to justify the vote: It's for the common good. It's to save government itself. It's also the embarrassing weakness of going-along-on-a-bad-sleigh-ride to a shindig where you and your values are irrelevant -- in fact, insulted and stomped on. 

I'm watching this standoff to see if Democrats hang together and actually buck this time.

Schumer offered the Republicans a compromise, hilarious on its face: You'll get Democrats' votes after you add $1 trillion (you read that right!) to the spending plan -- so that we can permanently extend Obamacare subsidies (set to expire at the end of the year) and repair the breach to Medicaid and other health programs inflicted on the public by the BBB (NYTimes). Negotiation counter-punch. And why not start with a very big number? And apply it to programs that Republicans absolutely hate for their proximity to socialism? I'm assuming that Schumer has that caucus unified. It would take only 8 Democratic senators to break ranks to pass the Republican CA.

If there's a government shutdown because Senate Democrats for once refuse to go along and help the Republicans get to 60 -- what's the fallout? Your guess counts with mine. Do Democrats get blamed and booed for wrecking the economy, like the Freedom Caucus did in the government shutdown of 2013? Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe they'll be celebrated for being strong, and for throwing a wrench into a system that has already been effectively subverted, corrupted, and wrecked, where people are targeted for elimination, where there is growing chill over the freedom of speech, and the highest court is an enabler of arbitrary power, which is not allowed in our Republic (but is). 

Can These Bones Live? (Ezekiel 37:3)

Joseph Palermo, a history prof, offers an indictment of sorts of the contemporary national Democratic Party (which I certainly endorse) and a prophecy going forward if things don't change (hat tip: GC):

Right now we are facing one of the worst configurations of unchecked corporate power, militarism, market fundamentalism, and environmental crisis than at any time in our history, and the messaging coming from congressional Democrats right now appears to be that becoming Republican-Lite is the smart path forward.

Palermo's forecast of what the new Republican majority in the U.S. Senate, combined with the old Republican majority in the U.S. House, will attempt come January seems pretty likely:

The Republican-controlled 114th Congress will attempt to privatize everything from the U.S. Postal Service to Social Security. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and his associates will try to gut every social program that benefits working people from Food Stamps to Medicaid. They’ll snuff out sustainable energy investments and plow ahead with expanding fossil fuels. They’ll figure out new ways to sell old wars. They’ll push austerity for anyone who can’t afford to attend a $30,000-a-plate fundraiser. They’ll push “free trade” deals that outsource jobs while leaving American workers holding the bag. They’ll slash unemployment insurance and other “entitlements.” And they’ll ensure that our economy continues to work for the benefit of the richest 1 percent.

Meanwhile, what does (and did) the Democratic power players in Mugstomp-on-the-Potomac do, the Claire McCaskills, the Mary Landrieus, the Kay Hagans?

Unlike the Republicans, Democratic politicians seem to always neglect the care and feeding of their own base. They’re quick to turn against any organized movement from the Left – be it Occupy Wall Street, the World Climate Movement, teachers’ unions, students’ organizations, environmentalists, or the protesters acting in solidarity with the African-American community in Ferguson, Missouri – yet all the while they expect to win their votes.

Which brings Palermo and us to 2016 and the prospects of Hillary at the top of the ticket:

Unless Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders jumps into the Democratic primaries and caucuses and give the party’s base something to vote for, the Democratic constituencies will limp into 2016 just as uninspired as they were 2014. The Republicans’ cynical structural advantages they’ve institutionalized in recent years — infinite access to dark money, gerrymandered districts, voter suppression of minorities and young people – will stand rewarded and putting the brakes on the incessant move toward corporate oligarchy in this country will be even harder to fight back against.

It may be slightly different in North Carolina, with a profoundly disappointing first-term Republican governor running against a power-house Democrat who does not yet appear afraid of his own shadow, unlike those national party types.

North Carolina Ain't the Nation

If current leads hold in still undecided Congressional races across the nation, the Democrats will see a net gain of eight seats in the U.S. House.

But it was in the Senate that the Democrats really kicked it. Republicans lost three Senate seats (so far) that they were supposed to win. Two seats still to be decided, but Dems are leading in both Montana and South Dakota.

While Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner managed a little conciliatory rhetoric last night, aimed in the general direction of the reelected president, Mitch McConnell as the Republican leader in the Senate decided to take a more dickish route in what he said: “The voters have not endorsed the failures or excesses of the president’s first term, they have simply given him more time to finish the job they asked him to do together with a Congress that restored balance to Washington after two years of one-party control." That's both a comma splice and a wordy way of saying, "Eat dirt and die, Mr. President."

Meanwhile, the evolving of the electorate on the issue of civil rights for gays continued apace: The Three Ms -- Maryland, Maine, Minnesota -- all of them exhibited remarkable inclusiveness last night. Maine and Maryland both approved gay marriage, and Minnesota turned down their own version of North Carolina's Amendment One, refusing to define marriage as exclusionary. Plus Washington state seems to have passed Referendum 74, which will legalize gay marriage. Wisconsin elected the first openly gay candidate to the U.S. Senate in Tammy Baldwin.

A lot of dust has to settle before a complete assessment of Citizens United can take shape, but on the face of it, conservative groups -- fueled by huge donations from corporations and billionaires -- spent at least $700 million to defeat President Obama. Bottomline might be this: You can't buy a different electorate, or a better candidate, no matter how much money you spend.

Speaking of the deep obsessions with Obama among the deep pockets, you can watch Karl Rove feverishly arguing with Chris Wallace on Fox News last night after the network called Ohio for Obama. The Dark Lord of Dark Money was not a happy camper.

Finally, the "youth vote" did not evaporate. It only concentrated itself.

Face Palm

We'll be in this posture for days, probably, over the gutless wonders in Washington, starting with Mr. President.

Wonder who they think will work for them now. Or even vote for them?

[HT: C.D.]

This British magazine cartoon from the 19th Century is titled "The Bosses of the Senate." The little midgets in the foreground are U.S. Senators of that day, and behind them, with the enormous appetites, are the corporations of that day, labeled variously "Steel Beam Trust," "Copper Trust," "Nail Trust," "Standard Oil," "Iron," "Sugar," Tin," "Coal," etc cetera.

This came to me in an e-mail with the subject line filled in: "Nothing has changed since this was published."

Except, maybe it's worse. Corporations can now openly and legally buy any elected official they please.

Oh Shut Up

Democratic Senators are shocked -- shocked! -- that they were misled by Justices Roberts and Alito in their Supreme Court confirmation hearings.

Which tells you everything you need to know for understanding why the Democratic Senate is such a sump of ineptitude.

Faith Healing

Trying to find some relief from marinating our noggins in the corporatocracy of Washington, D.C., and the craven Democratic Senate, and trying to avoid the growing thought that Democrats are no more capable of reform than the goddamned party of Virginia Foxx, I turn for relief to the obituary of Oral Roberts, the self-aggrandizing faith-healer of yore who died yesterday at the age of 91.

When I was growing up a rawboned teenager in West Texas, the TV in our house was tuned to Oral Roberts every Sunday afternoon. My mother totally gulped that particular display of righteousness, and so did I, wishing to please my mother and, naturally, the Lord.

"Be healed!" he shouted at men and women and little children, holding them firmly by the shoulders and then striking their foreheads with his open palm. Many fell backward, dazed by the power of God or of man and suggestion, into the waiting arms of two strong men strategically positioned for that purpose.

My mother totally believed. So did I, mainly, though there was maybe an occasional wee shadow of a doubt that crept through my synapses even at that age. I had been trained to recognize doubt as the voice of Satan, nothing less. But seeing the man on crutches have his crutches confiscated after being smote on the forehead by the Reverend Roberts, yet still require the strong assistance of those two evangelistic side-men to get back off the stage, could make even a devout 14-year-old risk eternal damnation and say, "Hey, wait a minute."

Well, Oral Roberts, your version of health care is gonna be more in demand, if the Democratic Senate (a.k.a., the for-profit Insurance Industry) has its way, and equally effective, most like.

Eff Them All

The effing Senate Democrats, at the behest of effing Rahm Emanuel, are producing an effing DISASTER of a so-called reform of health insurance, while making effing Joe Lieberman the Supreme Dictator of its contents, which puts us in the effing awkward position of having to applaud the inevitable NO vote that effing Madam Virginia Foxx will cast against whatever piece of shit finally emerges from the combination of the House and Senate bills, because, probably, the effing House Democrats will capitulate too.

What He Said

Michael Moore: "As for the congressional Democrats, what a bunch of losers -- weak, scared, stupid. They had better get a clue pretty quick or the Dark Forces will return."

Distemper Shots Recommended

They're going to need a bigger kennel.

Blue Dogs in the Senate! As though we had not had enough of Democrats Who Really Feel More Comfortable with the Republican Platform.

At least Kay Hagan has so far kept her distance from this crowd.

The Politics of Fear

"Spying on Americans without warrants or judicial approval is an abuse of government power - and that's exactly what this [FISA Amendments Act of 2008] allows. The ACLU will not sit by and let this evisceration of the Fourth Amendment go unchallenged. Electronic surveillance must be conducted in a constitutional manner that affords the greatest possible protection for individual privacy and free speech rights. The new wiretapping law fails to provide fundamental safeguards that the Constitution unambiguously requires."

--ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero, announcing the lawsuit filed to block implementation of the FISA Amendments Act

The FISA Amendments Act of 2008, passed by Senate Democrats on Wednesday and signed by President Bush yesterday, not only legalizes the secret warrantless surveillance program the president approved in late 2001, but it also gives the government new spying powers, including the power to conduct dragnet surveillance of Americans' international communications.

Gutless Democrats, who voted for this abomination:

Baucus of Montana
Bayh of Indiana
Carper of Delaware
Casey of Pennsylvania
Conrad of North Dakota
Feinstein of California
Inouye of Hawaii
Johnson of South Dakota
Kohl of Wisconsin
Landrieu of Louisiana
Lincoln of Arkansas
McCaskill of Missouri
Mikulski of Maryland
Nelson of Florida
Nelson of Nebraska
Obama of Illinois
Pryor of Arkansas
Rockefeller of West Virginia
Salazar of Colorado
Webb of Virginia
Whitehouse of Rhode Island

We've already expressed our anger with the winning Democratic presidential nominee. We note that all the other Democratic senators who ran for president this year voted against this assault on our Constitution ... Clinton, Biden, Dodd, and the nominee of 2004, John Kerry.

We're giving what money we have to give to the ACLU. At least they're willing to stand up for freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution.