US Politics: Sorry, we do make the rules.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

52 minutes ago, DMC said:

Looks like McCarthy may have difficulty removing Ilhan Omar from the Foreign Affairs committee as retribution for the Dems removing MTG and Gosar from their assignments.  Two Republican members - Nancy Mace and Victoria Spartz - have already indicated they won't vote to remove her.

I keep hoping, against hope, that the Republican caucus in the House of Representatives will simply collapse.  It’s unlikely but the thought of such warms my heart.

[DMC]

5 minutes ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

I keep hoping, against hope, that the Republican caucus in the House of Representatives will simply collapse.  It’s unlikely but the thought of such warms my heart.

Reminds me of a West Wing quote in episode 2.4, "In This White House:"

Quote

BARTLET:  Leo, as hard as you might try, the Republican Party isn't going anywhere.

LEO:  You don't know that for sure, sir, they could all end up moving to Vancouver.

BARTLET:  I don't think so.

LEO:  Me neither, but being in power means everybody else can take a seat for four years.

 

[BigFatCoward]

10 hours ago, Zorral said:

Republicans in Iowa want to ban food stamp recipients from buying foods like "white bread (gotta be brown), fresh meat (gotta be processed or tinned), white rice (gotta be brown, cooking oil (boil everything?), etc."

Poachers return you all!  Gonna arrest anybody with rabbit meat or venison or wild turkey, goose, duck, squirrel, etc.

Ya the future is definitely not a place I want to live. Particularly with AI chat etc. telling me the noose.

What is the rationale?  I could sort of understand it (not agree) if they were saying 'you must buy healthy stuff', but then why processed/tinned meat?

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

9 minutes ago, DMC said:

Reminds me of a West Wing quote in episode 2.4, "In This White House:"

 

The really pathetic thing is that if our current situation was offered as the basis for season 6 of the West Wing it would have been rejected (at the time) as too absurd to be believable.

 

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

2 minutes ago, BigFatCoward said:

What is the rationale?  I could sort of understand it (not agree) if they were saying 'you must buy healthy stuff', but then why processed/tinned meat?

The rationale, that is poor, is that if you force poor people to eat crappy food they will “pull themselves up by their own bootstraps”.

[DMC]

1 minute ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

The really pathetic thing is that if our current situation was offered as the basis for season 6 of the West Wing it would have been rejected (at the time) as too absurd to be believable.

 

Oh I don't know.  If you're referring to the brokered convention, I distinctly remember in 2008 talking to my DC friends who were also West Wing fans - a couple of which were Republicans that ended up working for very prominent members of the party - about the possibility of nobody from the Republican party gaining a majority of delegates during the primary. 

Obviously this didn't happen - and of course it was decidedly unrealistic - but I wouldn't describe it as absurd.  Same thing goes for the 2012 and 2016 Republican primaries, frankly.  Honestly, if it wasn't for most states having winner-take-all methods for allocating delegates when it comes to Republican primaries, there probably would have been a brokered convention in at least one of those three examples.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

17 minutes ago, DMC said:

Oh I don't know.  If you're referring to the brokered convention, I distinctly remember in 2008 talking to my DC friends who were also West Wing fans - a couple of which were Republicans that ended up working for very prominent members of the party - about the possibility of nobody from the Republican party gaining a majority of delegates during the primary. 

Obviously this didn't happen - and of course it was decidedly unrealistic - but I wouldn't describe it as absurd.  Same thing goes for the 2012 and 2016 Republican primaries, frankly.  Honestly, if it wasn't for most states having winner-take-all methods for allocating delegates when it comes to Republican primaries, there probably would have been a brokered convention in at least one of those three examples.

I mean our current straits as a season of the West Wing.

[BigFatCoward]

34 minutes ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

The rationale, that is poor, is that if you force poor people to eat crappy food they will “pull themselves up by their own bootstraps”.

Yeah, that's my point, they are saying you have to eat brown bread, brown rice etc.   So it half feels like they are saying 'be healthy' but then the are saying eat shite meat.  

[DMC]

10 minutes ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

I mean our current straits as a season of the West Wing.

Ah, my bad.  Season 6 features a brokered convention - and the last two thirds revolved around each of the presidential primaries - hence my assumption.

[DMC]

Brian Kilmeade tries out as Biden's press secretary:

Quote

BRIAN KILMEADE: To me, this would be the perfect time to say, listen, our numbers aren’t perfect, but we have better numbers than any other country in the world. And compare yourself to China, compared to Russia, compared to any European nation… You know, Japan’s got this low inflation and people have certain areas. Our numbers look good. And this way you could actually pretend, at least for a few months, that you’re a unifying president.

[Mlle. Zabzie]

12 minutes ago, BigFatCoward said:

Yeah, that's my point, they are saying you have to eat brown bread, brown rice etc.   So it half feels like they are saying 'be healthy' but then the are saying eat shite meat.  

@Zorral and I often disagree, but one thing we do agree on is that often cruelty is the point.

[IheartIheartTesla]

It isnt just Republicans, I see regular citizens bemoaning people on 'food stamps' buying any food that isn't sort of baseline garbage. If you get ice cream I'm sure someone at a checkout line is thinking or posting on social media as to why their tax dollars were going towards such extravagant expenditures. 

No one is ever satisfied with charity or welfare, it has to be charity with riders.

[mormont]

The underlying Puritan urge on food stamps covers both 'it should be healthy' and 'no luxuries', and the two can conflict, as in the 'no fresh meat' rule. But the basic problem is still the same: the idea that food stamps are charity, and charity is an exercise of power. A benevolent one, but still, one where the giver can call the shots. This is why right-wingers tend to like charity over entitlements. 

[Wade1865]

This is why I never offer anyone charity or support welfare, to avoid the moral burden of holding power over others. Let them eat cake if that’s what they prefer; it’s their decision.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

49 minutes ago, DMC said:

Ah, my bad.  Season 6 features a brokered convention - and the last two thirds revolved around each of the presidential primaries - hence my assumption.

I thought there were only 5 season of WW.

[Gaston de Foix]

20 minutes ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

I thought there were only 5 season of WW.

Scott.  Words fail me.  Drop everything and watch Season 6 and 7 now. 

About your broader point, I agree.  Our current politics from 2015 to 2022 would never have been on the WW because that was a show about idealistic, well-meaning people committed to the common good working in politics.  HA HA BLOODY HA

the ghost of Jed Bartlett:  the Speaker will block a clean vote to raise the debt ceiling.  There's not 218 votes in the House to cut entitlements or defense or raise taxes.  And if the Republicans manage to hold together a caucus in the House to cut discretionary spending, the Dem majority in the Senate won't pass it.  If by some miracle that bill passes Congress, I won't sign it.  Tell me how this ends! 

Leo McGarry: We don't always know how it ends! (falls down with a heart attack: apologies to the memory of the incomparable John Spencer).  

[Zorral]

1 hour ago, BigFatCoward said:

What is the rationale?

As many here already commented, the ongoing determination to humiliate, denigrate, hurt, spit on people who aren't wealthy. As the refrain of the reichlican neonazis is constantly, "Cruelty is the point, chaos is the point, insanity is the point, all helps us grab all the headlines and power and destroy the government and all the systems -- which is THE goal --  while hands wring and nothing is done."

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

55 minutes ago, mormont said:

The underlying Puritan urge on food stamps covers both 'it should be healthy' and 'no luxuries', and the two can conflict, as in the 'no fresh meat' rule. But the basic problem is still the same: the idea that food stamps are charity, and charity is an exercise of power. A benevolent one, but still, one where the giver can call the shots. This is why right-wingers tend to like charity over entitlements. 

The correct term is "tax write offs." That's what they actually like, at least the ones with means to make an impact.  

[Varysblackfyre321]

41 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

The correct term is "tax write offs." That's what they actually like, at least the ones with means to make an impact.  

That’s an unfair claim for many of them.

[Mlle. Zabzie]

51 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

The correct term is "tax write offs." That's what they actually like, at least the ones with means to make an impact.  

I'm with @Varysblackfyre321 on this one.  What they like most is controlling the expenditure and also getting the positive externalities of giving.  The tax benefit is certainly important, but it's not the whole story there.