63 Comments

I can forgive a 30 year old for not imagining a world different from today, but for people who are 40 and older, it is astonishing that they cannot see that - all things considered, we are doing pretty well. Even better if we consider the headwinds from COVID and the residual supply chain problems. So inflation may seem stubborn, but it appears that the trends are generally good. And many of us have jobs.

And on the world stage, the US has the respect of its peers.

A legitimate conservative point of view would be supportive. Would recognize that some govt interventions are necessary (as with health care). Yet the GOP simply wants to unravel. To what end? Would Florida's tourist and vacation-home economy survive oil spills on its beaches? Would America really enjoy it if the entire nation experienced the smoggy skies we are seeing right now in the Northeast?

Do we really want to see the large freight rail companies left to their own devices - so to continue to avoid the employment of better safety devices?

None of this says we cannot have a conservative party that reminds liberals that folks need to make money - to run businesses. And they everything bad is not the result of Capitalism gone amok. But the GOP needs to accept that the US today is not the US of 1928 or even 1968.

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Too bad for Haley, but how can anyone praise Trump. You just have to look at that stupid made up face and the bad hair plugs colored orange and his rotund, flabby, weak body and be nauseated.

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I just love the was that the Gang Who Couldn't Shoot Straight keeps hitting their own with friendly fire.

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Anyone who had tried an induction cooktop would dispense with the “save gas stoves” nonsense. I was forced into it because gas infrastructure was not in place for a newly bought house. And FYI, Biden is not senile.

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I don't think the cooks were declawed, they just got a little bit of a pedlaced, Whatever it takes!

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Kudos to Joe Perticone for being able to bear talking with these Repub. House morons and I presume holding his tongue and keeping a straight face. I would simply be incapable of letting moronic lies from some smug politician just lie there without an angry response. I guess that's why they pay Joe the big bucks!

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Would you people quit putting that idiot Ralph Norman in NC. God knows with fools like McHenry and Bishop we have enough fools as it is without shouldering the burden of Norman as well. As for the freedumb caucus they once again cut off their nose to spite their face. How about something about Gym Jordan demanding an outline of the DOJ investigation of t**** and documents what exactly legislative purpose is he pretending to have for this? I expect what he really wants to know about is the sedition investigation and if his name appears, it should.

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Oh well

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It always shows true maturity and gravitas to vote against a bill you're in favor of because you're throwing a temper tantrum. I mean, it's a ridiculous, stupid bill, but it's a ridiculous, stupid bill these idiots want.

The Ralph Norman episode is just a pure distillation of why the GOP is utterly irredeemable. When Joe points out to him that his endorsements of Haley are so flattering to Trump that Trump's team is turning them into ads, Norman doesn't seem to think of this as a problem for him, the GOP, or the candidate he claims to want as the nominee.

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"But messaging bills don’t quite send the right message when your side can’t even get them to the House floor for a vote."

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In actuality, messaging bills serve *no* purpose other than to stir up the base, whether or not it makes it to a floor vote. There is nothing within such a bill that will actually create laws that will accomplish anything worthwhile, that will improve the lives of all Americans - including Magadonians.

It all boils down to "messaging bills = political theater." The House PseudoRepubs, PseudoCons and RINOs are all paper tigers who just act the part of Congresspeople. In fact, IMO, should any of these legislators (and I use the term very loosely) try to introduce legislation that *might* garner bipartisan support they can expect to be Primaried out of office for disloyalty to the cause.

fnord

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The Haley "Campaign" is feckless beyond all belief. South Carolina is one giant mill for Trump sycophants.

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Well, South Carolina was pivotal for Biden, so I forgive their other eccentricities.

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Freedom Caucus gonna Freedom Caucus.

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So the government has the right to regulate a woman’s uterus but not stoves…

Sure, that makes sense.

<\s>

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Stoves are more deserving of “protection and freedom”.

My own propane stove is a right wing nut, begging to stay. It won’t shut up about it.

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I'm fortunate to live with a left-wing induction stove which cares about my health and the health of the planet. Furthermore, it's a lot more pleasant to use.

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Your stove and my stove should form a bipartisan unity ticket!

(My propane naughtiness is because I live off grid. I don’t get enough solar to power anything with a heating element for very long. But I do feel guilty, with this new knowledge of the politics of my stove. And my on-demand propane hot water too! I’m surrounded by right wing appliances!)

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I have always had electric stoves.

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Shhh! Leftie virtue signaling. Don’t let a Republican hear you say that! They now have no choice but to champion gas appliances.

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Actually when I was a teen I was at my grandmother's and we were woken up by my friend who said you could smell the gas outside. Apparently the gas stove had a leak. We could have died from the gas or the apartment could have blown up. I decided to never, ever have a gas stove where I lived.

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“Now they can negotiate further to mend conservatives’ feelings and reconsider, leading to potentially more gas stove votes”.

Oh yes, because this is The Most Pressing Problem.

Please do not call them conservatives. They are christofascists.

And by all means let’s give the RFP (Republican Fascist Party) the majority. They govern so well. I feel perfectly comfortable with the likes of Loud Mouth Chip Roy, Blow Hard Marjorie T Greene, and Loose Cannon Lauren-Get-My-Gun-Boebert having access to the nuclear codes, don’t you? /s

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We have a senile President who outmaneuvered us on the debt ceiling negotiations and, earlier, on not going after Social Security and Medicare.

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On National T!. He owned those heckling Republicans and played them like a fiddle. That's what have 30+ years if legislative experience looks like.

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Who could do more push-ups, Trump or Biden?

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Trump couldn't walk 700 feet with other foreign leaders. They had to carry him in a golf cart. Reminds me of the movie Wallie and the people in floaty chairs. On the other hand Biden bikes regularly.

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One of the signal images of the Trump presidency, on Taormina, a picturesque island that people visit *to* stroll, the leaders of the world's greatest democracies all walk and talk together... and Donald Trump putters along behind in his golf cart, looking sour.

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I know. But Biden is old

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Who would win a spelling contest?

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Trump would certainly win a punctuation contest.

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In ALL CAPS.

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They lack self awareness. Inconvenient facts are wasted on them.

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My Kevin would disagree with you:

"Even Speaker Kevin McCarthy testified that Mr. Biden had been “very professional, very smart, very tough” during their talks. "

(from https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/04/us/politics/biden-president-age-2024.html)

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It’s precisely this that Rep. Norman disagrees with when he disparages Biden. Of course, Ralph wasn’t in the room--for good reason!

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What does it make "us" if "we" were beaten by a "senile"? Brain dead?

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Just think of how Biden would be rolling over Republicans if he didn't have dementia!

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Banning gas stoves is still one of those stupid ideas from the Left that will accomplish, well, next to nothing.

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I don't understand why you claim that banning something that is bad for you will accomplish nothing.

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Not clear that it is bad for you.

And the numbers clearly show that doing so accomplishes nothing for climate change if you are generating the electricity by burning fossil fuels.

Oh I am sorry I am wrong. What you are accomplishing is effectively a massive tax increase on the poor and middle class. Republicans don't even push such a regressive tax!

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I have a gas stove, just putting that on the table first; I am fine with my gas stove. However, there is some evidence that gas stoves can cause health consequences, albeit, minor, and these consequences depend on a lot of factors such as ventilation, ceiling height, openness of the kitchen, etc. There are also lots of other impurities in our homes-- mildew, pet dander, dust, chemical residue, etc. that can have (minor) health consequences, too-- likely more than gas stoves. Still, many people have also been influenced quite a bit (including me for a while) by a concerted campaign to make gas stoves seem like the absolute shit when it comes to cooking, and most of us are not top chefs, plus many people do not even really cook at all. It's a dumb issue, overall, because there are bigger fish to fry, but electric and induction stoves are also just fine for home cook use (induction is better than just fine, actually; I used one at a rental in Europe for a while-- water boils so fast!), so the Right getting all worked up about gas stove 'bans' is also pretty dumb, and if there is better technology for health, performance, and the environment, I am not sure it is really so bad to move toward that through phase outs. I dunno-- I guess I am not worked up either way, but my next stove purchase is gonna be induction:)

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Not clear that it is better technology. I record air pollution levels inside and outside. By far the worst air pollution I record in my kitchen is from sauteing or frying on the stove top in olive oil. That isn't from natural gas.

Cooks who use induction stoves seem to really like them. But they cost multiples of what gas stoves and conventional electric stoves cost. Plus the conversion of your home to accomodate the much higher amperage required can cost more than the stove itself. Dems seem to have forgotten about the financial well being of the poor and middle class.

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I DEMAND lead in my paint and my gasoline, just like the Good Lord intended.

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And in the bodies of our children and fellow parishioners and grocery shoppers and concert goers just as He intended when he told Colt and Ruger and Smith & Wesson et al to issue AR-15's to anyone and everyone capable of pulling a trigger.

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Yes, it’s fiddling while Rome burns. And by Rome, I mean the calamitous future of earth from the effects of global warming. Calamitous may be an understatement.

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As far as I'm aware, it was one guy in the CSPC that couldn't even get support from any other members. At most, what's been seriously proposed is further incentivizing the purchase/transition to electric. I think that's a far cry from "the Left wants to raid your house and abscond with your stove."

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California is banning most gas appliances in new construction, and also banning all gasoline-powered vehicles by 2035. Cali isn't yet raiding grandma's kitchen to seize the Hotpoint, but these bans are incredibly tone-deaf for Democrats to enact in a presidential election cycle. It just MAGAnauts a fresh new chant: "Give me gas! Give me gas!"

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Ditto New York State. And New York City has enacted even a more draconian law that will require an expensive conversion to electricity in most multifamily housing. On top of our affordability crisis we have now.

Of course the City exempted its own multifamily public housing.

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Ohhhh, I just realized it wasn't making sense because it's not one issue, it's two. The federal "ban stoves" debacle is because of concerns over health hazards like respiratory diseases and it looks like the state and local regulations are more concerned with emissions due to climate change. It's not a coordinated effort, just happening at the same time.

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The respiratory disease issue is real. But the evidence isn't overwhelming and it is mostly based on decades old studies, many with serious flaws.

The climate change thing is really stupid. Only 15 percent of natural gas usage in the US is residential. Only 20 percent of that is for cooking. Electric stoves are barely more efficient than gas stoves -- and New York City generates most of its electricity from -- natural gas! A massive expense dumped on the middle class to reduce carbon emissions by a fraction of a percent in the city that is already the most energy efficient in the US.

Conservatives sometimes slander progressive policies as virtue signalling. In this case they might be right.

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One example of the problem: Decades ago, most gas appliances had pilot lights. 24/7 burning of gas. I am not sure you can buy a gas stove today with a pilot light. From 168 hours per week of gas burning to around 20?

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True. But I love the freedom caucus shooting its own. Oy.

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