The Commentariat -- Sept. 28, 2015
Internal links removed.
Afternoon Update:
Julie Pace & Vladimir Isachenkov of the AP: "U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin clashed Monday over their competing visions for Syria, with Obama urging a political transition to replace the Syrian president but Putin warning it would be a mistake to abandon the current government." ...
... Everett Rosenfeld of CNBC: "Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday admonished those who supported democratic revolutions in the Middle East, telling the United Nations they led to the rise of a globally ambitious Islamic State."
Nick Gass of Politico: "Under a President Donald Trump, some Americans will pay no income tax and the corporate income tax will fall to 15 percent, while the Treasury Department will maintain or even increase current revenue. And while Trump emphasized the hit the rich would take under his tax plan unveiled Monday, he pairs the closing of loopholes and deductions with such a large rate reduction that it would likely add up to a substantial tax cut for many of the well-to-do. The tax plan 'is going to cost me a fortune,' the billionaire candidate told a gathering of reporters at Trump Tower on Monday morning."
Rachel Feltman of the Washington Post: "NASA on Monday announced the strongest evidence yet for liquid water on [Mars], increasing the possibility that astronauts journeying to Mars could someday rely on the planet's own water for their drinking needs."
Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post: "President Obama blasted Russian President Vladimir Putin's approach to other countries Monday, suggesting in a speech at the U.N. General Assembly that the world's nations must uphold international order in Syria and Ukraine or risk global instability (link missing)":
... Somini Sengupta of the New York Times: "The United Nations General Assembly opens on Monday with all eyes on the war in Syria and the twin crises it has helped spawn: the unyielding spread of the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, and the surge of refugees from the region into Europe. Leaders of the world's most powerful nations are due to speak in the morning at the 70th annual General Assembly debate, including President Obama, followed by Presidents Xi Jinping of China, Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and François Hollande of France.
Michael Gordon of the New York Times: "For the second time this month, Russia moved to expand its political and military influence in the Syria conflict and left the United States scrambling, this time by reaching an understanding, announced on Sunday, with Iraq, Syria and Iran to share intelligence about the Islamic State.Like Russia's earlier move to bolster the government of President Bashar al-Assad by deploying warplanes and tanks to a base near Latakia, Syria, the intelligence-sharing arrangement was sealed without notice to the United States." CW: Hard to believe our good friends in Iraq didn't clue in the U.S. Have they no gratitude for all we did to them?
A brief pause for a message from Earth:
The super moon over the Washington Monument last night. AP photo.
The stages of a 2010 total eclipse.
... Andrew Fazekas of National Geographic: "Everyone with clear skies across the Americas will have a front-row seat Sunday night to a rare total eclipse of the super-harvest moon. On the evening of September 27, three separate lunar events converge. The total eclipse coincides with the full moon nearest the fall equinox, known as the harvest moon. What's more, the moon is at its closest approach to Earth for the year, making it also a supermoon or perigee moon. That's why it's being coined by some as a Super Harvest Blood Moon.... This weekend's blood moon will be the last in a series of four lunar eclipses, dubbed a tetrad, over the last two years. That pattern won't repeat for another 20 years or so." ...
... Chas Danner of New York: "The eclipse will begin at 8:11 pm EST, the total eclipse will start at 10:11 pm, and the peak of the event will happen at 10:47 pm. Those in the Eastern half of the U.S. should be able to see the full event while those in the Western half will be able to see the eclipse at moonrise. If clouds get in the way, NASA will be livestreaming the event as well, because there's nothing like looking at live footage of the moon on the Internet." ...
... MEANWHILE, on A Nearby Planet. Michael Pearson of CNN: "NASA says it has big news for us Monday. "Mars Mystery Solved," the agency's news release touts without offering even a hint as to what mystery they mean." The news may involve water on the planet.
Back to business as usual:
Carol Morello of the Washington Post: "In advance of a meeting with President Obama on Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin labeled U.S. support for rebels in Syria as illegal, and mocked as ineffective a U.S. program that has been unable to train and arm rebels. In an interview with CBS and PBS that was released by the Kremlin, Putin said Syrian President Bashar al-Assad commanded the only legitimate army fighting Islamic State militants in Syria and deserves support from countries combating terrorist groups." ...
... Bradford Richardson of the Hill: "Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview broadcast late Sunday that he does not view President Obama as weak. 'I don't think so at all,' the Russian leader said on CBS's '60 Minutes,' chalking up notions that he disrespects Obama to politics. 'You see, here's the thing. In any country -- and in the United States I believe this happens even more often than in any other country -- foreign political factors are used for domestic political battles,' he said. 'There is a presidential campaign coming up, so they're playing either the Russian card or something else.'" CW: I'm just waiting for wingers to glob onto this one: finally, we have proof that Barack Obama is a commie! Back here in the reality-based world, I find it interesting that Putin is wiser about U.S. politics than many Americans are.
David Jackson of USA Today: "President Obama opened a three-day series of meetings at the United Nations on Sunday by calling on all countries to 'step up' efforts to eradicate poverty, and by scheduling a meeting on Tuesday with Cuban counterpart Raul Castro. Addressing a U.N. meeting on sustainable development, Obama said that the world has made progress on reducing hunger, improving the treatment of disease, and lifting people out of poverty, but challenges remain":
... Somini Sengupta of the New York Times: "President Xi Jinping of China, under pressure over the jailing of women's rights activists, promised on Sunday to 'reaffirm our commitment to gender equality and women's development,' as Secretary General Ban Ki-moon of the United Nations gently reminded world leaders to protect 'human rights defenders.' The remarks came at a conference of global leaders on the 20th anniversary of a landmark United Nations summit meeting in Beijing, where world leaders had promised to change their laws and practices to advance gender equality."
... a leader without followers is simply a man taking a walk.... John Boehner, 2013, on the government shutdown that year
** Paul Krugman: "Bad as [John] Boehner was, he was just a symptom of the underlying malady, the madness that has consumed his party.... The Boehner era has been one in which Republicans have accepted no responsibility for helping to govern the country, in which they have opposed anything and everything the president proposes. What's more, it has been an era of budget blackmail.... Despite all Mr. Boehner's efforts to bring him down, Mr. Obama is looking more and more like a highly successful president.... the controversy over Planned Parenthood that probably triggered the Boehner exit -- shut down the government in response to obviously doctored videos? -- might have been custom-designed to illustrate just how crazy the G.O.P.'s extremists have become, how unrealistic they are about what confrontational politics can accomplish." ...
... ** Be Careful What You Wish for. Norm Ornstein, in the Atlantic, has an excellent summary of What Went Wrong. ...
... CW: I'm sick of this universal meme about how John Boehner could not possibly have controlled his winger caucus. Oh yes he could have. Once he became speaker & the rowdies acted up, all he had to do was work with Democrats. Oh, you say, but he would have lost his speakership. No, not if he had 30 or so votes in his own caucus & Democrats voted for him en masse, a cohesive front Nancy Pelosi, unlike Boehner. can deliver. That's what a statesman & patriot would have done. But Boehner is a self-serving, dimwitted hack. Had Boehner controlled his caucus in this way, he would have isolated teabaggers -- rather than be hostage to them -- & caused some of them to decide they'd like to be inside the tent rather than outside pissing in. Boehner's failure was entirely self-made -- as Krugman points out, from the get-go. BTW, this isn't hindsight. I said this in January 2011, right after Boehner became speaker & the baggers began their assault. So make that boo-fucking-hoo. ...
... Fred Barbash of the Washington Post on the Boehner-Cruz feud. (CW: Barbash couldn't help get in one teeny both-sides-do-it reminder: "...and shifted power to those on the extremes...." Oh, Democratic flamethrowers, wherefore art you?) ...
... Of course Poltico treats all this as a game of politics, with a top article on "Ted Cruz's big moment."; that is, the "big moment" in which he will try to "shut down the government in response to obviously doctored videos." ...
... Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "Outgoing House Speaker John A. Boehner, in his first one-on-one interview since announcing his resignation last week, compared conservative hard-liners in his party to biblical 'false prophets' who promise more than they can deliver." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Boo Hoo Hoo:
... Bradford Richardson: "Outgoing Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) says there will not be a government shutdown over federal funding for Planned Parenthood. 'No,' Boehner said when asked if there would be a shutdown on CBS's 'Face the Nation' on Sunday. 'The Senate is expected to pass a continuing resolution next week. The House will take up the Senate bill.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Chas Danner (Sept. 26) on how pundits on the right have reacted to Boehner's resignation.
Theodore Schleifer of CNN: "House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi says the group behind the secretly recorded, edited videos that purportedly show Planned Parenthood officials discussing the sale of fetal tissue should be investigated."
Wesley Lowery of the Washington Post: "In a Sunday speech on racial inequality, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) called for broad policing reform -- including de-escalation training and body cameras for all police officers -- and likened the current Black Lives Matter movement to the civil rights movement that won black Americans the right to vote in the 1960s.... Warren's address, delivered at the Edward Kennedy Institute in Boston, was perhaps the most full-throated endorsement to date by a federal lawmaker for the ongoing protest movement, and it drew immediate praise from some of the most visible activists."
Laurie Goodstein & Daniel Wakin of the New York Times: "Pope Francis turned penitent and pastor Sunday on the final day of a visit to the United States, declaring himself 'overwhelmed by shame' at the sexual violation of children by his clergy, embracing inmates at a local jail, urging young people to leave the loneliness of social media and preparing to bid farewell with a huge downtown Mass." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Laurie Goodstein: "At the start of an otherwise joyous and well-received trip to the United States, Pope Francis hit one seriously sour note: He praised American bishops for their handling of the sexual abuse scandal and told priests he felt their pain -- leaving abuse victims stunned and infuriated, asking why he neglected to even acknowledge their anguish. On the last day of his journey, Francis stepped to a lectern [in Philadelphia] before hundreds of seminarians and bishops from around the world and tried to salve the open wound. He said that he had met in private with a group of victims and pledged that 'all responsible will be held accountable.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. When Wingers Are Your Sources, Corrections Are Sure to Follow. Nicholas Confessore of the New York Times: "A document certifying a new employment position for one of Hillary Rodham Clinton's senior aides [Huma Abedin] at the State Department was signed by Mrs. Clinton's then chief of staff, Cheryl D. Mills, according to a copy of the document provided to The New York Times on Sunday. Last week, The Times and other news outlets reported that the document was signed by Mrs. Clinton personally, based on a copy that was obtained by a conservative watchdog group. On the document, Mrs. Clinton's name was printed above the signature in a box intended for the aide's supervisor, but the signature itself was redacted by the State Department, according to the group, Judicial Watch."
Presidential Race
Emily Rauhala of the Washington Post: "Sunday morning, as China president, Xi Jinping, prepared to share his thoughts on women's equality at a U.N. meeting on gender, Hillary Clinton ... re-tweeting a New York Times story about China's record on women's issues, and citing China's arrest of five feminists in March, the presidential candidate called Xi's presence at the summit 'shameless.'... Unsurprisingly, the Internet went bananas, highlighting the gap between how the U.S. and China see rights issues and ironically -- the Internet's remarkable capacity for sexist mud-slinging.... Clinton's comment cut to the heart of a lively debate about what role, if any, China's top leader should have at the UN summit." ...
... Hillary Clinton appeared on "Meet the Press":
... As Kate M. points out in today's thread, so did Carly Fiorina. You can watch that questions-&-lies session here. Of course if you like dystopian fiction, you might really enjoy Carly's stories. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Washington Post Editors (Sept. 26): "Ms. Fiorina may have deeply felt objections to abortion. That doesn't excuse her use of mistruths * to justify her willingness to shut down the government, which by the way she seems to consider no big deal. 'I'm not aware of any hardship to anyone, other than the veterans trying to get to the World War II memorial,' she said of the last shutdown. When it comes to character and capability, that kind of blithe ignorance is another worrying sign." ...
... * CW: "Mistruths"? Please, people: lies.
Mark Murray of NBC News: "Donald Trump and Ben Carson are running neck and neck in the national Republican presidential horserace, while Carly Fiorina is now tied for third place with Marco Rubio, according to the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll. And on the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton has lost ground to Bernie Sanders -- she leads him by just seven points with Joe Biden in the race, and 15 points without the vice president. That's down from Clinton's 34-point lead over Sanders in July and her whopping 60-point lead in June." ...
... Ed O'Keefe & Matea Gold of the Washington Post: "Jeb Bush is entering a critical phase of his Republican presidential campaign, with top donors warning that the former Florida governor needs to demonstrate growth in the polls over the next month or face serious defections among supporters. The warnings, expressed by numerous senior GOP fundraisers in recent days, come as Bush and an allied super PAC are in the early stages of an aggressive television ad campaign that they believe will help erase doubts about his viability. But Bush continues to battle against a steady decline in the polls, sinking to fifth place at just 7 percent in a national NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released Sunday and similarly languishing in the early states of Iowa and New Hampshire." ...
... Bradford Richardson: "... Jeb Bush on Sunday said he did not mean to insinuate that black voters choose Democrats because they want 'free stuff.' The GOP presidential hopeful said his comments were taken out of context. 'They don't want free stuff, that was my whole point,' Bush said on 'Fox News Sunday.'" CW: Uh-huh. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
** ... Jamil Smith of the New Republic, relying on Jeb!'s own remarks, pegs Bush's inherent racism & general bigotry against "the other." CW: Chances are, you're "the other," too. ...
... Jeb! Hates Children! Annie Lowrey of New York: "Every year, virtually every non-elderly adult* in America pays federal taxes -- about 95.3 percent of them, to be exact. (The remainder are mostly extremely poor individuals.) And every year, virtually every American gets something back, by way of one government program or another, with the math working out to buoy poor Americans on net. Attacking free stuff and handouts and giveaways is an explicit way of attacking the safety net, then, but also a slippery way of attacking the whole idea of progressivity. The meme treats the poor as undeserving.... And as such, 'free stuff' generally means 'stuff going to groups of people that I don't care about, or groups of people I want to shame for their financial situation.' Never mind that the primary beneficiaries of many safety-net programs are children.... Never mind that people rarely criticize the elderly, the rich, or the powerful for all the 'free stuff' they get. ...
... Published August 2013:
... * CW: I think I qualify as an "elderly adult," & I do pay lots o' federal taxes. Even my husband, who is so elderly he is dead, is still paying federal taxes.
... Kyle Cheney of Politico: "The wealthiest Americans would receive sharply higher tax breaks under Jeb Bush's tax proposal, the former Florida governor says, because they pay a disproportionate share of taxes in the first place. 'The simple fact is 1 percent of people pay 40 percent of all the taxes,' Bush said on 'Fox News Sunday.' 'Of course, tax cuts for everybody is going to generate more for people that are paying a lot more. I mean that's just the way it is.'" CW: What we have in Jeb! is a flat-taxer who's pretending not to be a flat-taxer. (Also linked yesterday.)
Margaret Hartmann of New York: "In some ways, Donald Trump's 60 Minutes interview went down exactly as you'd expect: A bemused and somewhat horrified Scott Pelley repeatedly pressed the front-runner for details on his proposals, without much success. But Trump is a true showman, so he kept things interesting by sharing a few unconventional policy proposals." Includes video of full interview. ...
... Jonathan Easley of the Hill: "Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump will release a policy proposal outlining his ideas on tax reform on Monday. Trump will announce the proposed reforms at a press conference at Trump Tower in New York City. 'Essentially, the plan is a major tax reduction for almost all citizens and corporations, in particular, those in the middle and lower income classes,' the Trump campaign said in a statement." CW: Let's see if it's more progressive than Jeb!'s. ...
Sara Jerde of TPM: "CNN 'State of the Union' host Jake Tapper grilled Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson on his comments about Muslims in an interview that aired Sunday until his campaign manager off-screen ended the interview." Includes video. ...
... Kyle Cheney: "Republican presidential hopeful Ben Carson said on Sunday he'd listen to evidence that religion could provide probable cause to search the emails and calls of Syrian refugees in the United States. 'I personally don't feel that way, but I would certainly be willing to listen to somebody who had evidence to the contrary,' Carson said on ABC's 'This Week.' 'I think that's one of the problems, we get to our little corners, and we don't want to listen to anybody.'" CW: Thanks, Dr. Ben, but we already knew you listen to every wacko out there. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Beyond the Beltway
Roberto Robledo of the Salinas Californian: "Vandals defaced statues and gravesites overnight at the Carmel Mission, police said Sunday morning. But almost as swiftly as vandals acted, volunteers showed up to clean the mess and restore the courtyard and cemetery.... Hundreds of visitors who arrived at 11 a.m. for the celebration to commemorate this week's canonization of missionary Junipero Serra by Pope Francis saw only mere hints of paint here and there."
Stupidity Happens. Taryn Asher of Fox 2 Detroit: "A man tried to kill a spider at a gas station using a lighter causing a dangerous fire. Using a lighter to kill the bug, he started a blaze that quickly engulfed the gas pump. He somehow escaped serious injury and the gas station's damage was contained to one pump, which was destroyed.... 'He was sorry,' [station employee] Susan [Adams] said. 'He ... said he didn't know. It is just one of those things that happen - stupidity.' Adams said this serves as a reminder about being careful around gas pumps. Whether it is using a cell phone or static electricity, the smallest spark can cause a gas station fire." CW: Speaking of stupidity, I didn't know a cell phone could start a gas pump fire. So, thanks, Stupid Guy. I learned something, too. And next time, just scooch the spider off your car with a rolled-up newspaper or whatever. Spiders are our friends. Guess you missed reading "Charlotte's Web" as a child. ...
... CW: My little aside above looks a lot like a never-mind. Thanks to D. C. Clark for linking this Snopes investigation. So call me Stupid. Twice.
News Ledes
New York Times: "After months of besieging the northern Afghan provincial capital of Kunduz, Taliban fighters took over the city on Monday just hours after advancing, officials said, as government security forces fully retreated to the city's outlying airport.The Taliban victory, coming suddenly after what had appeared to be a stalemate through the summer, gave the insurgents a military and political prize -- the capture of a major Afghan city -- that has eluded them since 2001."
Bloomberg News: "Investors struggled to assess the repercussions from a rout in Glencore Plc's shares and the scandal at Volkswagen AG, as losses swept through global equity markets and stocks headed for their worst quarter since 2011. Government bonds and the yen jumped as demand for havens rose."
AP: "German prosecutors on Monday opened an investigation against former Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn to establish what his role was in the emissions-rigging scandal that has shaken the world's largest automaker. The investigation will concentrate on the suspicion of fraud committed through the sale of vehicles with manipulated emissions data...."
New York Times: "Even as Germany is assembling an efficient infrastructure to welcome hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing conflict, it has begun installing an equally efficient system for sending home people who have come from poor but safe countries to seek jobs. About 10,000 were repatriated between January and July, more than all of last year, and the pace is quickening."
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Reader Comments (13)
Re cell phones and gas pumps see:
http://www.snopes.com/autos/hazards/gasvapor.asp
Google to find much more of the same.
There's a lot of argument about this, but the science is very clear.
I think D.C. should be classified as our go to guy for bogus baloney cuz he has cleared up quite of few of these. And speaking of falsities: when I was reading Atlantic's Molly Ball's take on Boehner she mentions Tom Delay as being majority leader and I thought, no, Molly, he was the minority whip (was known as "the hammer") but before I thought of correcting this I looked it up and sure enough he is listed as having been speaker from 2003-2006 or thereabouts before he had to resign because of his part in the casino scandal.
The interview with Ben Carson being interrupted by one of his handlers when Jake wasn't going to let go shows how this particular candidate is being protected just like Carson's own soft spoken cadence cushions his extreme and dangerous views.
PD,
"I endeavor to be of service."
~ P.G. Woodhouse' Jeeves
@P.D.Pepe wrote, "[Tom DeLay] is listed as having been speaker from 2003-2006." Don't know what your source was, but your source was as wrong as mine on cell-phone-ignited gas pump fires. DeLay was never Speaker of the House, even tho many considered him the de facto speaker when Dennis Hastert had the official job.
Marie
@Marie: My source was Wiki which I now have gone back to and it says Delay was House Majority Leader which I took to mean "speaker." I then went back to Molly who also said "majority leader" which makes me wrong on both counts, but right about my first recollection of him NOT being speaker. Yikes! What we learn here in a few hours is amazing––cell phones and majority leaders all on a Monday morning. Maybe it's due to that glorious moon.
Marie,
Excellent comment on how Boehner could have, and failed to, control the wingnuts. Until and unless a new speaker does just as you suggest the paralysis will continue.
I'm still baffled by all the cockeyed optimism about how his resigning is going to usher in a new Era of Good Feeling. Not while the Teabaggers are still there, and continue to display a degree of intellectual depth and emotional maturity that would be disappointing in a kindergarten recess.
And not while even the few relatively sane Republicans are terrified of disputing the lunatic fringe that is their base.
Speaking of Lunacy: every time I have witnessed an eclipse, I have done my little chant and jig to drive away the Dragon that is eating the Sun or Moon. It has always worked, and last night was no exception. Works a damn sight better than Tinkle Down Economics -- so there. QED
Now if I can just find the right incantation to drive out the wingnuts...
When I heard the news this morning that NASA had something exciting to announce about Mars, I was hoping it was that there was plenty of room for a dozen or so Confederate big-mouthed liars. They could each have their own canal! But no such luck.
The report about running water is a bit of a let down.
Does anyone else think that the confederates will soon be working on
Mitch McConnell? Getting rid of President Obama didn't pan out so
well so they must be itching to have a go at some others.
@Forrest Morris: Yep, you're right. I've read several stories about various confederates or tea party groups ready to take on McConnell.
Marie
@D.C. Clark and all The sophisticated VW software tampering scandal has caused me to think again about voting machine software where there is no verifiable paper trail. Here is the most recent information I found in my primitive google search:
https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2015/04/17/tampering-with-us-voting-machine-as-easy-as-abcde-says-virginia-report/
I am not able to comprehend much of the article except for the audit's conclusion that the Virginia machines were far too easy to manipulate. The site Sophus appears to be British.
One irony in the ongoing political debate in the United States is that the term "voter fraud" seems usually to be used to refer to what seems to be an almost non-existent problem of individual machinations. At the same time there seems to be little current discussion of the massive opportunities for fraud presented by voting machines containing privately owned software and machines which produce no reliable and verifiable "paper" trail.
While working briefly on the then Senator Obama's campaign in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania in 2008, I discussed this problem briefly with the alert young man from Indiana who had joined Senator Obama's campaign early on and was then running the Adams County campaign headquarters (where our two sons and I were among the volunteers). He said that the Obama campaign was well aware of the problem but meant to deal with it primarily by winning a tamper proof majority of votes.
Senator Obama lost Adams County in 2008 but by a substantially smaller margin than Senator Kerry in 2004. I like to think the extra votes helped Senator Obama carry the state.
Forrest,
I've been considering that as well. But getting rid of McConnell will only get them so far unless they retake the Senate. Still, the Modern GOP, i.e., the Confederate Party, take no prisoners and brook no dissension. You agree or you go. And the problem with that is evident in the House.
Boehner, as Marie quite correctly points out, could have, had he chosen his duty as an elected official over fealty to the loonies in his own party, gotten something done and left a record of some substance instead the misbegotten mess he leaves behind. It's likely he knew how to do the job, how legislation is made and the need for compromise, but it's not a given. After all, he stood up for master manipulator and con man Newt Gingrich when Gingrich took out his Contract on America. Nonetheless, the House is without leadership of any kind, at least none that will stand up and be counted on the side that controls that chamber. 'Baggers, Confederates, don't want to govern. The don't know how. "Govern" doesn't appear in the Winger Lexicon. They want to control. And they don't want to have to go through all the tiresome democratic processes to do it.
McConnell knows what it takes to get things done, or used to, but he has become a largely insignificant toady concerned largely with self-preservation. Still, when one considers the idiots who could take his job, and if one further posits that the Senate could be recaptured by the barbarians, that chamber would be as dysfunctional as the House.
Should we end up with the House and Senate controlled by the monkeys and the presidency in the hands of a sane person, we'd have stasis as long as that situation remained.
Should both houses and the White House fall to the crazies, we'd be in immense trouble.
I don't think the whackos are organized enough to get rid of McConnell, but if they did, it would just be more of the same (because, remember Eric Cantor; it's not like he was the Voice of Reason cast out by the infidels. He was just as bad as some of the worst knuckledraggers. He was just better dressed).
Confederate Conundrum.
Whadaya think, kids? Here we have the President of the United States going toe to toe with the Rooskies. Obama vs. Putin at the UN. Not exactly nuc'lar combat, but not tiddlywinks either.
Who do you think the Confederates will stand up for?
SUCH a problem for them.
First, Putin said point blank that the mess in the middle east is directly attributable to The Decider and the guy who had Other Priorities when it was his turn to fight, and their War of Choice. Basically, he's calling out the supporters of the Iraq Clusterfuck, meaning, every last one of them. And you know what? To an extent, he's right: "I cannot help asking those who have forced this situation, do you realize now what you have done?...Policies based on self-conceit and belief in one’s exceptionality and impunity have never been abandoned."
Obama calls the Russian to task for the way he gives international law the bum's rush and does his behind the back dirty work to ensure that dangerous situations stay aflame.
Who to support? America? Or Communist Russia?
There really isn't a decision, is there? If you're a card carrying Confederate, there's no way you could back a Kenyan Mooslim Blah guy who stole your White House, is there? Nope.
And besides, they're already jumping up and down because Putin said a few nice things about Obama (see Marie's link above). In the Confederacy, in the Land of Silly Syllogisms (Putin says nice things about commies. Putin says nice things about Obama. Obama's a commie!!), anything that can be stretched and warped and planed and sanded down to make it look bad for the Horrible Nee-groe, that's the way to go.
Also: UN. Bad, bad, bad. Woulda been better if they'd had their tête-à-tête (oops...no French either!) in the parking lot of a Piggly-Wiggly, or better yet, a Winn-Dixie. But that would only make Confederate perfidy all the more pronounced. Imagine a cartel of Democrats pulling for Gorbachev over Reagan. Confederates would have hunting parties out day and night.
Confederates....how treasonous are thee? Let me count the ways. But first, let me get a new calculator. The last one blew its circuit board trying to work it out.
Here's a must read for anyone who questions whether post 20 week abortions should be legal:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/why-i-had-an-abortion-after-20-weeks/2015/09/20/174495cc-5e2f-11e5-8e9e-dce8a2a2a679_story.html
It is a heart-wrenching first person account of one family's painful experience.