Tony, Pretty MuchMay 28, 2023

At first glance, if it holds, it does appear to capture how a mature, shrewd President who's been to the rodeo more than once mostly held his own against a screaming drooling mob fumbling around with open cans of gasoline and cigarette lighters.

Debt ceiling deal reached in principle by Biden and McCarthy to avoid default:
https://www.npr.org/2023/05/27/1177688226/debt-ceiling-deal-biden-mccarthy-latest

Show threadStoney TakesMay 28, 2023
@TonyStark Tony, two questions: could the dems have raised the debt ceiling back in January without this showdown? Can the debt ceiling be raised by executive order and thus avoided the cuts that were insisted upon? Thanks!
Show threadTony, Pretty MuchMay 28, 2023
@Stoneycase No and no.
Show threadStoney TakesMay 28, 2023

@TonyStark Think this was the source that planted the seed. “Untested legal theory”

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/could-biden-avert-debt-default-by-using-14th-amendment-2023-05-02/

Could Biden use the 14th Amendment to raise the debt ceiling?

President Joe Biden on Sunday said he believes he has the legal right to invoke the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution to raise the federal government's $31.4 trillion debt ceiling but does not have the time to do so.

Reuters
Show threadTony, Pretty MuchMay 28, 2023
@Stoneycase Yeah- unfortunately SCOTUS. No point sending it there which is where it would end up and enduring the interim world instability.
Show threadStoney TakesMay 28, 2023
@TonyStark Thanks for that. Seems like we will be adding “unfortunately SCOTUS” as a label going forward to all things progress, logic and / or equality that don’t happen.
Show threadTony, Pretty MuchMay 28, 2023
@Stoneycase Accurate and yet another reason that elections matter and while we on the progressive end can certainly afford discussion, we cannot afford unnecessary division.
Show threadStoney TakesMay 28, 2023
@TonyStark Anything practical that can be done about SCOTUS? What does it take to remove Thomas over his dealings with Crow? Are we stuck with this group until they die? My hope in democracy used to lie with SCOTUS being the adults in the room. That’s out the window
Show threadTony, Pretty MuchMay 28, 2023

@Stoneycase He won’t be removed. We as a country continue to fail to give Democrats enough of a control over Congress to make that happen. And that’s outside of the fact that the Senate is set up poorly to start with.

We had a chance to have a different SCOTUS and people blew it. Those same people want purple unicorns to fly in and fix their problems now. Trump got 3 SCOTUS picks. Probably won’t be fixed in my lifetime unless Democrats get a 2/3 Senate majority.

Show threadStoney TakesMay 28, 2023
@TonyStark I’m struggling with the fact California has two senators. Same as South Dakota. And one is well past her retirement age. It’s frustrating, and as you state, not set up well at all. The idea of expanding SCOTUS kinda frightens me even more. What happens if we expand then end up with more of the Trump federalist society appointments?! 😩
Show threadTony, Pretty MuchMay 28, 2023

@Stoneycase It would have been far better and easier to have avoided this whole situation to begin with and the sooner everyone who isn’t a fan of the oncoming GOP fascism admits that, the better off we’re all going to be.

If we dare to do that, we’d need to be absolutely sure that a Democratic majority has the Senate and I see no reason to believe a lot of people even understand the implications. At least not on social media.

Show threadStoney Takes
@TonyStark I ponder moving from California to a purple state. My vote feels a little trapped / useless here. I’ve never voted for a republican on any level. California, the state, is a mess. Federally, We only have one active senator.
May 28, 2023 at 10:46pmWeb