The Gorsuch Vote

Very annoyed with Democrats opposing Neil Gorsuch, especially if they lead the Republicans to invoke the nuclear option:

• They'll only get a worse candidate if it were to go back to the drawing board.
• I understand they're probably appealing to their base. This is why I think independents are the way to go. Then their only base is their home area.
• Yes, what Repubs did to Garland was frustrating, but they got away with it. 
• Repub hypocrisy is equally frustrating, like the reason Reid did away with the filibuster wasn't because the Repubs obstructed everything and shut down the government. There is a chart that shows that the Repubs filibustered more than twice as much as any previous president in just Obama's first term.
• In short, it would be smart for four more Dems to vote for Gorsuch, to avoid the nuclear option.

45 Notes January 25

1. Dispute over the size of the inaug. Had about 250,000, if I remember correctly.

2. After sworn in on Jan 20, all refs to clim change disappeared from gov webs. Material on disabil also initially disappeared.

3. Dispute over whether pop vot was won because of illeg vots cast, 3 mil votes. So fiend, liar, or lunatic. Lun is someone who really thinks these things are true, who can't bring self to admit deep unpopularity. Liar is a fibber who knows better but just can't help self. Fiend is dis-informator, the Hitler scenario.

4. Protec agenc put on lockdown by Day 5. No information disseminated, collected. Keston pip reinitiated.

45 Notes January 3

These are notes on events relating to the years of the 45th presidency:

• Today we found out that the first action of the new House Republicans (over the objection of their own leadership) is to do away with the independent ethics office or at least severely limit its ability to monitor or prosecute congressmen. Can't see a positive to this. It sure seems like putting the fox in charge of the hen house.
• President elect tweeted (as usual) that North Korea will not get ICBMs. My fear that we are on a countdown to war. I'm taking the alert up for war up to Defcon 3. It won't be with Russia, but North Korea, China, Iran are possibilities.

Heard Karl Rove on Fox and Friends this morning.

• Of course there is the usual rhetoric about how horrible Obamacare is. I truly hope they will come up with something that is better. However, it is very irritating to hear it represented as it is by Fox and others. To cover pre-existing conditions and make possible some of the other provisions, you just have to have people who are relatively well on the plans. Part of the reason it has not been as affordable as hoped is because many Republican states did not opt in. But I hope they can come up with something better. My fear is that they will merely come up with a "selfish" plan that gives low health care to those who have it and leaves the rest back out in the cold.
• To hear Rove talk about Democrats being obstructionist in the new Congress is a joke. Obama wasn't able to get anything done from 2010 on because of the Tea Party Republicans. He wasn't even able to appoint a Supreme Court justice these last 10 months because of the Republicans. 
• And to compare the confirmation process this time around to that of 2008 is absurd. Trump's appointments are the most controversial appointments well beyond my lifetime. He's asked for an exception to how soon a general can serve in a cabinet. He's appointed an oil giant known to be cozy with Putin as Secretary of State. He's appointed an unusual number of former generals to the cabinet. He's appointed someone to energy who has said he wants to get rid of the energy department. He's appointed to Attorney General someone with at least a suspicious past in regard to race. I don't know how far back we would have to go to find a more controversial set of cabinet picks, but it is the responsibility of the Congress to vet these thoroughly. Anything less would be a dereliction of duty.
• Finally, Rove criticized the recovery after the stimulus package in 2009. As far as I can tell, this stimulus had bi-partisan support and saved America from economic catastrophe. It's been pointed out that the stimulus saved millions jobs--far more than any tariff on trade will save.

So there are my notes for today.

The End of Romney

Romney's comments at a private fundraiser could be the nail in the coffin for his candidacy: http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/09/17/controversial-private-fund-raiser-video-shows-candid-romney/?hpt=hp_t1

I can't see him surviving him.  To parrot his words, a high percentage of the American population will vote for him no matter what he says.  But these words capture his position so well that it's hard to believe they won't backfire with whatever few open-minded individuals there might be still in the middle.

Thoughts on Romney

This statement by President Obama today is exactly what I have been thinking on my own: "I can't speak to Governor Romney's motivations. What I can say is that he has signed up for positions, extreme positions, that are very consistent with positions that a number of House Republicans have taken. And whether he actually believes in those or not, I have no doubt that he would carry forward some of the things that he's talked about."

As for the claim that we are not better off economically than we were four years ago, that is quantifiably false.  When Obama took office we were in a negative economic slide of proportions the US had not seen since the Great Depression.  You can speculate whether his actions brought us out as quickly as we could have, although even here you have to reckon with a Republican controlled House that pretty much kept him from doing anything he wanted after Ted Kennedy died.

What you cannot do is say that we are worse than we were four years ago.  Four years ago we were going in a negative direction.  Right now we are going in a positive direction. The debt in itself is not the gauge but the trajectory.

Obamacare constitutional

I thought this cartoon was funny but a little too political for my primary blog:

I stole it from James McGrath.  I am not expert enough to know the full ramifications of Obamacare, a term I don't use pejoratively.  But in general I believe it is good philosophy, as well as good Christianity, for there to be a health care network that is national in scope.

I consider it at least more than a 50% possibility that my father would still be alive if we lived in England, Canada, or Germany.  My father had a serious episode three weeks before his death that in those countries would almost certainly have resulted in a trip to the hospital.  The costs were almost certainly a factor in nothing being done.  Similarly, on the day of his death I believe the 9-1-1 call might have come earlier if the cost of an ambulance and a hospital were not in the equation.

Obama's Risky but Necessary Move

I think we all understand Obama's circumstances. He has to come out on the gay marriage issue, especially after Biden's comments earlier in the week. Most people think this has always been his position, just one he couldn't publicly espouse politically.

But what will be the consequences? Will African-Americans and Latinos still vote for him?  I think in the end they will, not least because he is coming off as reluctantly coming forward.  He's not coming across as a militant on the issue.

The bigger question is his evangelical support.  There are a number of evangelicals who have been able to reconcile his support of abortion with their vote. But will they be able to reconcile his position on gay marriage?  That is a good question.

I suspect in the end that they will because most people have already made up their mind who they are going to vote for in November.