09/29/23

Good morning! It’s Friday, September 29th.

National coffee day! Thank goodness!

I love coffee. A little for the caffeine, and a lot for just the taste of it. Even though I’ve had a lot of terrible coffee in my life, everyone once in a while you have a really good cup of like… diner coffee. Just black diner coffee. And suddenly you fall in love all over again.

And now, the news.

Shutdown Update

-via Washington Post, NY Times, CBS News, and Twitter

 Today’s news is all about politics and/or politicians, so let’s start with the most important thing… the looming shutdown, the fault of which is, as it almost always is, in the hands of the Republicans.

Here’s something interesting: since 1980, there have been 14 government shut downs. Eight happened under the darling of the Republican party – Ronald Reagan. One under Bush Sr, two under Clinton, one under Obama, and two under Trump.

Eight under Reagan!

At 34 days, Trump’s first shutdown was the longest.

And blame is kind of always in the eye of the beholder. Normally. Though this one… let me tell you... this one is all the House Republicans. Namely Kevin McCarthy and Matt Gaetz. And Kevin is at least pretending like he doesn’t want this. Gaetz is here to have an interesting head to shoulder ratio, and break the government. And guess what? He’s all out of interesting head to shoulder ratio.

McCarthy is also trying to blame Biden for this shutdown but like – babe. You haven’t even given him a budget yet!

He is attempting to turn this into a fight over the Southern border.

Which is wild because like… I’m not sure if he knows (seriously, I’m not sure if he knows, but if the government shuts down, the border is actually not protected. Unfun fact - Air traffic controllers, TSA officers, and Customs and Border Protection agents will remain on the job… without pay. So how secure do we think things will be, when no one’s being paid?

The Senate is open to some things, but the House Republicans want things that will not pass in the Senate. And they refuse to budge on them.

Let me be clear – if the government shuts down at 12:01a on Sunday, this is a failure of the House Republicans, and Republicans at-large who can’t pull their party together.

Biden Impeachment Update

-via NY Times

Meanwhile, while they should be trying to keep the government open, House Republicans are moving forward with their plan to impeach Biden. The first hearing in the impeachment inquiry was Thursday and listen – I don’t think Biden should be impeached. I hate this. Not because I’m in a cult (cough noises, cough noises, Trump-loving Republicans) but because I think it’s a waste of time and money. Especially now. But if they found something, I’d be shocked but then would be like – yikes, okay let’s look into it.

So let’s see how Day One went.

Well, it turns out the Republican star witnesses testified that they had no proof that Biden committed impeachable offenses.

So yeah… day one and we’ve got no smoking gun, and because they’re focused on this, the government might shut down. Your Republican party, friends.

Senate Dress Code

-via AP News

And while the Senate awaits a new budget to peruse, they decided to tackle an equally pressing issue… on Wednesday night, the Senate voted to reverse Schumer’s informal dress code he implemented last week.

It was a bipartisan resolution by my two favorite people (to make fun of)… Joey Manchy and “you’re still here?” Mitt Romney. The new resolution does not specify what women should wear, but the fella must adhere to the following: ”business attire be worn on the floor of the Senate, which for men shall include a coat, tie, and slacks or other long pants.”

Please let Fetterman show up in a coat, tie, and sweatpants which are, factually, “other long pants.”

Biden’s Big Speech

-via CNN

And while the House played politics and the Senate talked fashion, President Biden went out and made an absolutely incredible speech about the current threat to democracy we’re seeing under Trump and his followers, both in office and in the voting booth.

If you didn’t watch the speech, it was news because the president addressed the nation. But it wasn’t news as in something new. But don’t let that downplay the importance of this speech. We are in a genuinely dangerous moment in our democracy and Biden’s right to call it out.

From a political perspective, it was a great speech. Delivered very well, and even the off-the -cuff moments were great. A heckler tried to call him out, for what I’m not totally sure (they were in the balcony, so it was hard to hear) but Biden just told him that if he was willing to “hush up” (direct quote), he’d be willing to talk to him after.

The speech was at the John McCain Institute, and he spent a lot of time talking very lovingly about his friendship with John McCain. He recalled telling John he should run for the Arizona Senate, and then jokingly crossed himself and asked for forgiveness. Then he got really emotional talking about John McCain and his son Beau, who both served in the military and died of cancer.

Truly, one of his best speeches.

And that’s it. That’s the news.

Trump isn’t going to try and move his Georgia case to Federal court, and also he can’t delay his New York money crimes case, as he asked to do. I was going to do a Trump Crime Update Time about it, but I thought Biden’s speech was more important and that’s really all you need to know about Trump anyway.

I’m proud of coffee. It’s always there for me.

But more than that, because you are also always there for me.. I’m proud of you.