McConnell's position on government shutdown!

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2021

Unmentioned by Rachel last night: There's no better way for a liberal to become underinformed than by watching Rachel Maddow. Last evening's hapless, then embarrassing outing provides a case in point.

The embarrassment started at 10 P.M., when Rachel and Lawrence staged the latest of their embarrassing "handover" conversations—conversations in which  Lawrence kisses Rachel's keister as her program ends and his program begins.

We'll review a few of those spectacles later in the week. For now, let's forget the embarrassment, turning instead to the lack of information emanating from last night's Maddow Show.

We refer to Our Own Rhodes Scholar's failure to explain the funding deadline which approaches this week. On the front page of today's Washington Post, Tony Romm explained this matter rather clearly, drawing  a crucial distinction which Rachel blew right past all during last night's dimwitted imitation of a "cable news" program.

In fact, two different funding deadlines are approaching. Romm explained the difference between them, then described Mitch McConnell's position on the two deadlines:

ROMM (9/28/21): The most urgent deadline is midnight Thursday, at which point Congress must adopt a measure to fund the government or some federal agencies and operations will shutter starting Friday morning. And lawmakers also must act before mid-October to raise the debt ceiling, or they could risk a first-ever default, potentially destabilizing global markets.

In the hours before the Monday evening vote, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) staked his party’s position—that Republicans are not willing to vote for any measure that raises or suspends the debt ceiling, even if they have no intentions of shutting down the government in the process. GOP lawmakers say raising the borrowing limit, which allows the country to pay its bills, would enable Biden and his Democratic allies to pursue trillions in additional spending and other policy changes they do not support.

“We will support a clean continuing resolution that will prevent a government shutdown,” said McConnell, who has called on Democrats to use their narrow but potent majorities to address the debt ceiling on their own. “We will not provide Republican votes for raising the debt limit.”

Romm is able to walk and chew gum at the same time. Thanks to this skill, he was able to describe the two different deadlines which are approaching:

Deadline this Thursday at midnight: By midnight Thursday, Congress must adopt a measure to fund the government or some federal agencies and operations will shutter starting Friday morning. 

That's one of the approaching deadlines. The other deadline is this:

Deadline in mid-October: By mid-October, Congress must act to raise the debt ceiling, or they could risk a first-ever default, potentially destabilizing global markets.

The second deadline is more consequential. The first arrives this week. 

Regarding McConnell's position on these (two) approaching deadlines, Romm reports the distinction which Rachel blew past in the forty minutes she devoted to budget issues last night:

McConnell has said that Senate Republicans will "support a clean continuing resolution that will prevent a government shutdown" this week. He has also said that Senate Republicans won't vote to raise the debt ceiling—to address the deadline which comes due next month.

We aren't telling you that this is good policy on McConnell's part. We're merely telling you that these are the positions he has stated.

Yesterday's "no" votes by Senate Republicans reflected the fact that the bill under consideration addressed both approaching deadlines. McConnell has said that Republicans will support a "clean" bill to address this week's deadline. 

(In this context, a "clean" bill would be a bill which addresses this week's deadline and nothing else.)

This brings us to Maddow's latest imitation of journalism. Last night, she idiocized and propagandized her way through her program's first forty minutes, focused entirely on budget issues, including the two we've cited.

That said, she never managed to draw the distinction between these two approaching deadlines. Most specifically, she never explained that McConnell has expressed support for addressing the deadline which approaches this week.

Was Rachel being dishonest / disingenuous, or was she simply uninformed? She mugged and clowned in various ways as her latest imitation of journalism proceeded, but we can't tell you what she knew as her latest failed effort proceeded.

Rachel will soon be leaving nightly journalism. This will serve as a major gift to any honest liberal. 

Such people got underinformed by Rachel again last night. Sadly, there's absolutely nothing new about such failed performance.

At 10 P.M., the latest embarrassment with Lawrence began. At some point,  this pseudo-journalistic clown show is slated to reach its end.

Concerning the timing: When did McConnell state his position on the two impending deadlines?

We can't say with precision. That said, Romm's report was filed at 6:57 P.M., two hours before Maddow's show went on the air. 

(She opened with a standard six minutes designed to reassure viewers that The Others Are Much, Much Dumber Than We Are and that Nancy Is Just Extremely Smart. We'll guess that market research has shown that her viewers enjoy this type of twaddle.)

Meanwhile, the distinction between the impending deadlines was clearly explained on Anderson Cooper's 8 P.M. program, even as Cooper raced to finish his opening segment so he could transition to endless, pointless chatter about the death of Gabby Petito. Everyone knows about the difference between the two deadlines—everyone but the unfortunate people who watch the Maddow Show.

Maddow didn't seem to know much; Cooper wanted to talk about young woman who was a widely-discussed missing person, even though there was nothing new to say about the ongoing case. This is the pablum we viewers are served by anti-Trump corporate cable as our failing society wheezes and groans toward its appointed end.

Hat tip concerning impending demise: Cassandra, daughter of King Priam and Queen Hecuba and fraternal twin sister of Helenus


17 comments:

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  2. RM is like M. Dowd: unbearable.

    Both serve no purpose.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes but it's openly gay unbearability, therefore progressive!

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    2. Holy homophobia, batman! Has @3:30 never heard of the Log Cabin Republicans?

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    3. It's been said she was one of MSNBC's first openly gay prime time cable news hosts.

      Delete
  3. "There's no better way for a liberal to become underinformed than by watching Rachel Maddow."

    There are any number of ways to become underinformed. Tucker Carlson and all the guys on Fox, for example.

    Implying that Rachel Maddow is the worst news source is just lying.

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  4. "The second deadline is more consequential. "

    Unless you happen to work for the government, or are a government contractor. Lots of folks didn't get paid the last time the government shut down.

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  5. "Was Rachel being dishonest / disingenuous, or was she simply uninformed?"

    Or is it McConnell who is being dishonest / disingenuous about his willingness to support anything proposed by the Democrats?

    Or is Somerby being dishonest / disingenuous when he believes anything McConnell promises?

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  6. "Everyone knows about the difference between the two deadlines—everyone but the unfortunate people who watch the Maddow Show."

    Somerby doesn't quote what Maddow said, so we don't know what he means when he says she "blew past" the distinction that he considers so important. Perhaps the blowing past consisted of nothing beyond talking about the combined bill. But why must EVERY SINGLE cable news show explain the same things, over and over? Does Somerby think that if Maddow doesn't have the same content as everyone else, people will not get the news? That seems like giving Maddow's show too much credit -- that her viewers watch her and no one else.

    If I don't repeatedly explain that Thanksgiving and Christmas are two different holidays, and someone talks about the Holiday Season without distinguishing between them, are those people going to have serious difficulties? I doubt it. But Somerby is terribly worried that when the government gets shut down, no one will understand that the debt ceiling is something unrelated to that event.

    This is another Somerby nothingburger, invented to bash Maddow, because why? Somerby has never fully explained why he hates her so much. But no doubt it has something to do with his mother, who meanly forced him to go to Harvard when he wanted to do standup instead. She was no doubt horrid for helping him dodge the draft, and he has never forgiven her or anyone named Rachel Maddow either.

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  8. Today we see Somerby "defending" McConnell, as if he deserved it! There is no reason to consider McConnell's offer good faith.

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    Replies
    1. If you dig old school borderline confederate types, as Bob always has, I guess there is.

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  9. 'Was Rachel being dishonest / disingenuous, or was she simply uninformed?'

    Is Somerby just a nitpicker, or is he a nitpicking moron, or is he a nitpicking, moronic, liar ?

    Or maybe he is a nitpicking, moronic, lying, envious Trumptard.

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  10. I guess we can be thankful we are spared the gruesome reading of Bob trying to explain the extinction he is drawing and trying to indicate the substantive difference between what appeared on Maddow's program, since there is none. The distinction lies in the fact he hates Maddow.
    WTF McConnell, the kind of old school southern fraud Bob never lost his boy crush on means by "clean", or the ghastly hypocrisy of the his insisting Democrats clean up after the Trump/Republican debt orgy for the rich, we can also be thankful Bob kept his mouth shut about.
    For the record, I also find Maddow and Lawrence's banter very tiresome also.

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  11. This comment has been removed by the author.

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