American Politics Thread 2013: I'm a cool Rodham grandma in the USA

yep. those three tea party districts like knives carving into the heart of austin

surprised to see so much of new mexico on that map. i thought it was liberal-ish (for the intermountain west) and hispanic?
--JEFF 22 (Matt P)

There's a lot of libertarians in NM iirc

Xpost

I live in that tiny sliver connecting the two bigger blobs. It sucks!

The bailing started last week. It’ll continue until the 18th (i.e. it’ll likely be priced in, unfortunately).

― Allen (etaeoe), Wednesday, October 9, 2013 1:41 AM (21 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

so. i'm full of shit. dji was flat today. commence meltdown.

Per the thread title, it's telling that Hillary has been totally sitting this mess out.

She's out of the government now. Pushing her opinion out into the media would just look like attention whoring.

For sure. It's just always interesting when massively public figures suddenly turn the switch off and disappear. Obviously she knows she has nothing to gain politically from participating in the current maelstrom.

one side of my family lives in NM and they are the most fucked up tea party supporting group of uneducated people you'll ever meet.

would the Whites have been in the Tea Party

NYTimes:

WASHINGTON — As the government shutdown grinds toward a potential debt default, some of the country’s most influential business executives have come to a conclusion all but unthinkable a few years ago: Their voices are carrying little weight with the House majority that their millions of dollars in campaign contributions helped build and sustain.

Their frustration has grown so intense in recent days that several trade association officials warned in interviews on Wednesday that they were considering helping wage primary campaigns against Republican lawmakers who had worked to engineer the political standoff in Washington.

Woo hoo! probably won't happen. Meanwhile on the other side of the aisle:

Will the Progressive Caucus on the Hill show more backbone than they have in the past in standing up to Obama and Ryan entitlement reform ideas. Here's something from back in January questioning them

http://www.rootsaction.org/news-a-views/576-the-progressive-caucus-enabling-obamas-rightward-moves

whole article is intriguing:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/10/us/business-groups-see-loss-of-sway-over-house-gop.html?hp

While both parties have extreme elements, he suggested, only in the G.O.P. did the extreme element exercise real power. “The extreme right has 90 seats in the House,” Mr. Echevarria said. “Occupy Wall Street has no seats.”

i can't bring myself over to the side that corporate fatcats should use their lobbying power for "good"

Hah, perhaps underscores how bad "bad" has gotten.

We need states full of wacko lefties like me and Hoosteen

to which Bachmann, et al would say, "Congress doesn't need Occupy Wall Street to have seats. Congressional Democrats ARE Occupy Wall Street socialists."

I loved that NYT article, and corporate fatcats primarying tea-partiers would definitely be 'good', if only for the total GOP civil war it would start. But a point that the article sorta raises, but then fails on following up on, is that the corporations helped create this mess, since they themselves turned their lobbying/financing powers extremely right-ward because their financial views are extremely right-wing and out of touch with what most americans want!

Exclamation point! Because everything becomes more true with an exclamation point!!

That tea party map is fascinating. Good luck Kansas/Nebraska.

Politico had an article yesterday that suggested that the corporate powers that be are just eager for entitlement reform and tax reform. Obviously their ideas of reform aren't exactly gonna be conducive to helping the 99%

http://washingtonexaminer.com/new-gop-strategy-offer-deal-on-debt-limit-but-keep-shutdown-fight-going/article/2537083

With Pentagon civilians and many other civilian government workers redefined and back at work, there's less pressure on House Republicans. A full shutdown with no retirement payments and no mail and no air traffic controllers might have have made them blink, but not this

the pressure is applied by the debt limit

But that October 17th (or real damage later debt limit) does not address folks unable to get into NIH experimental cancer treatment sessions now, folks seeking mortgage paperwork now, folks waiting for VA disability claims to be ruled on now. This partial shutdown of government workers is being forgotten despite the consequences

i dont think its being forgotten at all, i mean

http://pixel.nymag.com/imgs/daily/intelligencer/2013/10/09/09-party-unfavorable-ratings.o.jpg/a_560x375.jpg

its just that torpedoing their partys popularity just doesnt register w a lot of wingnuts i guess

that temporary lifting of the debt limit while keep the shutdown going would be disastrous and i really hope it doesnt happen

a lot of congressional republicans are mostly just concerned w/ not being primaried, if the gop doesn't win the presidency in the next 2 decades or some of their colleagues lose their seats, w/e, they still have a job

a job in the minority

still better than going home to your wisconsin fastfood chain business or w/e

prob not better than lobbying tho

true

the tea party map above is kind of misleading. that giant chunk of kansas is one congressional district - the 1st, representing 672,000 people, 90% white. more people live in that tiny blank area on the right side of the state - the 3rd district, which includes the kansas side of kansas city.

will be very interesting to see if republicans can fuck around long enough to lose the faith of big business

I hope the more "moderate" GOP reps do get primaried, presumably to wingnuts who won't be able to carry their districts. fuck these people.

like there are congresspeople right now who are advocating shutting down the government permanently as a way to grow the economy lmao?

will be very interesting to see if republicans can fuck around long enough to lose the faith of big business

Many of them are intellectually incoherent enough to bemoan the influence of the financial sector and praise mon and pop business but believe somehow that a loosely regulated market place favors that and they're so averse to Marx that his insught that eventually unfettered capitalism ends up in bigger and bigger monopolies cannot be considered or digested.

sounds like they gop wants a six week debt limit increase in exchange for 'talks' and the government will still be shut down

guess federal employees can look forward to another 6 weeks of being unemployed..

this is really a terrible plan

Many of them are intellectually incoherent enough to bemoan the influence of the financial sector and praise mon and pop business but believe somehow that a loosely regulated market place favors that and they're so averse to Marx that his insught that eventually unfettered capitalism ends up in bigger and bigger monopolies cannot be considered or digested.

― The normative power of the factual (Michael White), Thursday, October 10, 2013 4:03 PM (2 minutes ago)

this honestly gets more into the totally bizarro way that the right (in particular, but the left as well at times) has redefined "small business" but that is prob a topic for a different thread

What is SBA's definition of a small business concern?

SBA defines a small business concern as one that is independently owned and operated, is organized for profit, and is not dominant in its field. Depending on the industry, size standard eligibility is based on the average number of employees for the preceding twelve months or on sales volume averaged over a three-year period. Examples of SBA general size standards include the following:

Manufacturing: Maximum number of employees may range from 500 to 1500, depending on the type of product manufactured;
Wholesaling: Maximum number of employees may range from 100 to 500 depending on the particular product being provided;
Services: Annual receipts may not exceed $2.5 to $21.5 million, depending on the particular service being provided;
Retailing: Annual receipts may not exceed $5.0 to $21.0 million, depending on the particular product being provided;
General and Heavy Construction: General construction annual receipts may not exceed $13.5 to $17 million, depending on the type of construction;
Special Trade Construction: Annual receipts may not exceed $7 million; and
Agriculture: Annual receipts may not exceed $0.5 to $9.0 million, depending on the agricultural product.

http://www.sba.gov/content/what-sbas-definition-small-business-concern

just fyi

don't like 95% of small businesses have less than 50 employees? and most of those have like single digits?

OBAMACARE HAS ‘RAPED MY FUTURE,’ COLLEGE GRAD SAYS IN VIRAL LETTER

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/10/09/obamacare-has-raped-my-future-college-grad-says-in-viral-letter/

http://www.theblaze.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Screen-Shot-2013-10-09-at-11.36.42-AM-620x574.jpg

maybe i should start a "we are the 95%" push for small business peeps

--> Dennis Prager

where the hell was she getting full coverage for $75, would've loved that after college

yeah yer pretty much an unbiased source when your first move is to make sure to message your sad story to dennis prager. of course the spin on this will be that it just mystically went viral because OBAMAAAAAAA!

Re small businesses, I thought part of the issue was big companies spinning off "small" divisions with just under the required level of operations to qualify for grants, subsidies, R&D money, etc, but that still report to/benefit the parent company.

12 insane ways obamacare raped my future and went viral