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 threadGrassroots Joe
@TonyStark @Stoneycase
While it's bad, it isn't quite that bad. We "only" need 51 Senators willing to kill or at least bypass the filibuster to get truly important stuff done:
- #FreedomToVote Act
- Make DC a state (2 more D Senators)
- Expand the Courts (I prefer Elie Mystal's proposal to turn SCOTUS into a bigger version of an appellate court with 25 members & shifting panel of 9 to hear more cases)
- Codify Roe
May 29, 2023 at 1:13amWeb
Show threadTony, Pretty MuchMay 29, 2023

@joeinwynnewood @Stoneycase Thanks, Joe. Of course you’re correct. The wacky uninformed replies I get on Mastodon (and you get them, too) aren’t a reflection of reality, fortunately.

People need to understand the filibuster is a real problem and has blocked progress for decades. Pretending otherwise is foolish.

Show threadGrassroots JoeMay 29, 2023

@TonyStark @Stoneycase
YW.
Imagine what it would be like if we were still on Twitter! 😏

I am a bit surprised at the persistent lack of knowledge on a lot of this stuff. Of course I'm happy to inform folks, but it certainly can get a bit tedious.

For the current topic of uninformed consternation, Kos has done an admirable job of assessing the situation - https://m.dailykos.com/stories/2023/5/28/2171894/-Furious-Freedom-Caucus-vows-to-scuttle-debt-deal.
(Sure wish we could get him posting here...)

Furious Freedom Caucus vows to scuttle debt deal

UPDATE: Sunday, May 28, 2023 · 5:28:39 PM +00:00 · kos No one has seen the fine print, but there is real potential that this deal ends up being far better than the preliminary reports suggest. UPDATE: Sunday, May 28, 2023 · 4:46:44 PM +00:00 · kos Not...

Daily Kos