Mattress 2.0

There is no Sanctuary!!!

Put your money in pre-War Gibson guitars.

@Dodgerblue: Buy more ammo.

@ManchuCandidate: “World painted blood! No sanctuary!”

@redmanlaw:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0Amt30_QVQ

So, where were we?

Oh, yes. Senate killed Reid bill. Barry & Turtle working on backstab that may pass the Senate, but no telling what happens next door.

Smoke ’em while you got ’em.

@nojo: Two predictions: the deal will only benefit the wealthy, and the Dodgers will lose today.

@Dodgerblue: It’d be hard for them to lose as badly as the Giants did today. 9-0? WTF?

@nojo: For once in his life would Ball-Less Reid call the GOP on their filibuster threats? Once? I’ve now decided that given the terrible cuts to Social Security and Medicare, the few remaining liberals in Congress should vote no and force Obama to whip out his 14th Amendment.

Quote of the day (so far), goes to Rep. Emanuel Cleaver:

The chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus said early reports of the new deal appeared to be “a sugar-coated Satan sandwich.” The Missouri Democrat said the CBC hadn’t yet made a formal declaration that the group would oppose it, “but this is a shady bill.”

Dodgers lost. Obama is on the teevee now trying to sell the deal. Lowest domestic spending since Eisenhower — that’s a good thing? Quick talk, didn’t take questions.

I’ve been in the garden. How badly did we get screwed?

@Mistress Cynica: I’m too upset to come up with a joke, that’s how badly everyone except the top 1% just got fucked.

And it’s going to make the last few years’ worth of state budget drama look like community theatre in comparison, since they are getting fucked too:

That could mean wide-ranging cuts in federal aid to states, affecting everything from the Head Start school readiness program, Meals on Wheels and worker training initiatives to funding for transit agencies and education grants that serve disabled children.

…

Robert Moran, who represents the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, said plans offered by the leaders of the House and Senate each kept a major aid program largely intact. Pell grants, which provide up to $5,550 to low-income students, would sustain cuts, but they would be relatively small, he said.

“I think the higher-education community was probably pleasantly surprised about that,” he said.

But he said colleges still face a double-whammy – federal cuts coming on the heels of deep state cuts. In many university systems around the country, departments have lost funding and class offerings have been reduced.

Barry Toiv, the vice president of public affairs for the Association of American Universities, said continuing to take money out of education would slowly and steadily degrade the quality of the nation’s universities and affect America’s ability to produce the next generation of leaders.

“It’s like termites in the wall, gradually eating away at the underpinnings of our innovation,” he said. “If you do that over a long period of time, at some point you’re no longer leading the world. And eventually, like with termites in the wall, you’re not really going to have a house anymore.”

I’m going to fix myself a cocktail now. I can’t turn on the teevee yet. Maybe I’ll check out immigration policies for New Zealand and Canada.

@Dodgerblue: Catastrophic spending cuts worked great for Herbert Hoover.

@SanFranLefty: That was a nice speech Barry gave when he was nominated. Too bad it was bullshit.

Oh and of course the current US economic data shows that we’re spiraling into another recession. As if the last one actually ended for most people.

@nojo: I guess every public interest lawyer and community organizer sells out eventually. Too bad he had to take 300 million Americans and half of the globe along for the ride. He should have just gone the [insert law firm name] partner route.

Fuck it, I need to do another palate cleanser post of kittehs or puppehs. Nojo, consider yourself warned.

@SanFranLefty: Be my guest. I’ve been strongly considering whether to run nothing but a black box in the morning. I can’t even write my rage right now.

And surely now that corporate profits, CEO pay, wealth inequality and poverty are all at unprecedented highs, the Republicunts and their glassy-eyed, sadistic, hate-crazed supplicants will stop shrieking that Obamar is a communoislamofascist.

@nojo: Consider it done. Pippa is cute. My rage is presently inarticulate, bravo to you to be able to come up with words before you go to bed. I vote black box.

In the meanwhile we can use the catblogging thread for garment rending, hair pulling, cursing, Ballatine Ale pissing, etc. because those little blue kitteh eyes will be staring at us and keeping us from throwing objects at the wall.

Cordwainer Smith’s fictional Underpeople are here now and we are quickly becoming them. The all-powerful top one percent didn’t even have to resort to using animals.

@SanFranLefty: I have no words.

I’m remembering how I felt the night Reagan was elected. I checked out of the Eighties after that.

@nojo: He was Gov of California — twice. He said “taxes should hurt” when he wasn’t paying any. He tried to destroy the University of California, from which I have two degrees and my wife three. He was a nasty, venal tool. You’ve gotta hand it to the Demos — it took a lot of work to lose to a schmuck like that.

I have to stop now, or I’ll start ranting about Kissinger.

So apparently his opening negotiation tactic is to give in to every one of the other side’s demands no matter how psychotic or demonstrably destructive.

You’re a helluva negotiator, Obamar. Don’t let anyone tell you any different.

Well this explains it all:

Mark Mellman, a Democratic pollster, said polling data showed that at this point in his term, Mr. Obama, compared with past Democratic presidents, was doing as well or better with Democratic voters. “Whatever qualms or questions they may have about this policy or that policy, at the end of the day the one thing they’re absolutely certain of — they’re going to hate these Republican candidates,” Mr. Mellman said. “So I’m not honestly all that worried about a solid or enthusiastic base.”

Good thing I read the great FDR biography “Traitor to His Class” while on vacation the last few weeks, because to do so now would make me weep.

The Reuters economic reporter on NPR said our bonds will probably be downgraded anyway, since we have such a dysfunctional government. So really, lose-lose.

@nojo: Oh, please no black box! No! No! No!

Might I suggest some Baby Lucy & Mr. Mittens instead?

(Oops! Fixed link.)

@karen marie has her eyes tight shut: No black box. Found something else.

@¡Andrew!: Barry’s holding us hostage. Sound familiar?

But we’re a long way from Hope & Change. And professional Demrats might note that unenthusiastic people find excuses not to vote.

@Mistress Cynica: our bonds are downgraded already. we’re all fucked. the variable is the relative differences in fucktitude.
i submit mine to you today. i can’t pick up the expensive meds today that keep me behaving and thinking like a rational person–mostly. finances dictate i have to wait til tomorrow. my brain has been downgraded too–to non-essential.

@nojo: We’ll be too busy foraging for food.