Oh, it's partly sarcasm. Any ranking that says Baton Rouge and Shreveport are better places to live is pretty wacky. I'm an optimist, but the city has big problems. Most people (including, surprisingly, those who live here) don't seem to realize that the city is still recovering from Katrina. I live in a nice part of town, and every block has an abandoned, rotting house or a vacant lot where a house used to be. (We bought a vacant lot and built our retirement home.) Other parts of town are much worse in that regard. The city is forced to keep maintaining the infrastructure (or trying to, anyway) for a big, sprawling city when a big chunk of the population (and tax base) has disappeared. We also pay a "tax" for living mostly below sea level. Other cities don't have to pay to pump storm water and sewage out, they just let it flow downhill. That's a big part of our tax money, and it leaves less to spend on education, police and other nice things, compared to other cities. So lots of structural disadvantages. Poverty? Sure, the state legislature (GOP supermajority) won't institute a minimum wage, so it's $7.25 (the federal minimum). Try to get by on $15,000 a year, much less raise a family. Of course young people turn to crime (doesn't help that the schools suck), and it seems to get worse every day. 11 year old kids doing armed carjackings. The latest trend is for gangsters, unable to locate the guy they want to kill, to kill their women and children instead. Just no regard for human life. Don't get me wrong. I love the place and there really isn't any other place I would have wanted to retire. We chose the city over the suburbs because I wanted our (much higher) taxes to go to the city. I do what I can to help - plant trees, work at the food bank, donate to worthy causes. But as Dr. John observed, there's a mighty big gap between the rich and the poor. And it doesn't help to be a blue island in a red state that wants to punish us for being tolerant. It can be discouraging, and a lot of people are giving up. An article came out today showing that NOLA is the only large metropolitan area in the deep south showing a net loss of college graduates. (Guest column: Could Louisiana attract college graduates? | Opinions and Editorials | nola.com) So people leave and, like your friends, they have an affection for their home town. But there's a reason why they live someplace else and just come home for a visit.
Man, this is a lot to digest. I have to see cities go downhill, I really do. They're the only places POCs can be reasonably safe from conservatism...
Wait until I sell the house, pay off the ex and eliminate all my remaining non-mortgage debt I'll be throwing an "I was a husband, but now I'm a wasband" party
And didn't even have to do any performative protesting or agitation I do that shit for my own amusement
From most accounts, Joe did manage this crisis pretty well and got us out of a potential crisis. Not to mention, it seems that real will split the GOP in Congress with the Freedom Caucus up in arms against it. Good analysis below on Talking points memo. From TPM Reader RC … You were wondering how Biden was able to get such a good deal; in the end all this drama just amounted to getting the budget-negotiation process started early, with the GOP’s main takeaway being something (spending freeze) that their control of the House already guaranteed them via the tool of passing continuing resolutions. Joe did a far better job than anyone imagined he could, for about the 79th time in a row. But that said, the key thing to recognize is that Biden’s hand was much stronger than anyone I read seemed to understand. What the media got right is, if a default destroyed the economy, that would hurt Joe/Dems in the general; even if people in some sense knew it was the GOP’s fault, they’d still mostly follow the heuristic “if things are going well, I’ll vote for the incumbent; if not, throw the bums out!” https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/fedus-ex-machina But consider this: what if a default _isn’t_ devastating for the economy? And what if Joe and Kevin both know it? Well in that case, default is fine for Biden, because he can then blame whatever economic difficulties occur between now and Election Day on the GOP-created default! Of course not all such blame will stick, but the point is, if the default _doesn’t_ meaningfully damage the economy, then it’s a net positive for Joe’s re-election chances, because it means he’ll get at-least-a-little-bit reduced blame for whatever bad things (recession, slow wage growth, inflation, etc.) were going to happen anyway.
Well well....Good luck Kevin! Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) characterized the debt ceiling deal negotiated by Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) as a “turd-sandwich” and vowed to try to stop the resulting bill from making it out of the lower chamber. Said Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) on Twitter: “This ‘deal’ is insanity.” Said Rep. Bob Good (R-VA) on Twitter: “No one claiming to be a conservative could justify a YES vote.”
Sometimes I wonder if the benevolent grandpa Joe regime is so successful because he governs on vibes and tone and lets his team get on with it.
Republicans Won’t Have the Votes to Pass Debt Limit Hike “The White House is kicking its outreach to congressional Democrats into overdrive as it tries to sell lawmakers on President Biden’s debt ceiling deal with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy,” Axios reports. “Democratic votes likely will be necessary to pass the bill through the narrowly divided House led by McCarthy, given the vows from right-wing House Freedom Caucus members to oppose it.” “The Biden administration’s pitch to fellow Democrats is an intellectual appeal on the merits of the bill, rather than trademark D.C. tactics such as legislative horse-trading or high-pressure tactics.”
It shouldn't take much because basically considering your trading or should I say making a deal with a group of mad Men to even get this much is a positive. If they can get 50 moderate Republican votes that will allow both the progressive caucus and the freedom of caucus to vote no on the bill for different reasons but then allow modern Republicans and Democrats to push it through in the name of bipartisanship
The whole question, though, is if McCarthy actually brings up the bill for a vote...what is Scalise's take on this?
President Biden with the perfect response to Doocy Lite’s ridiculous question about pardoning trump.Laughter. 😂 https://t.co/5tOc1Mu722— Jo (@JoJoFromJerz) May 29, 2023
Biden Is Actually Pretty Good at Negotiating New York Times: “Mr. Biden succeeded in stripping the Limit, Save and Grow Act significantly down from what it originally was, to the great consternation of conservative Republicans. Instead of raising the debt ceiling for less than one year while imposing hard caps on discretionary spending for 10 years, the agreement links the two so that the spending limits last just two years, the same as the debt ceiling increase. While Republicans insisted on predicating the limits on a baseline of 2022 spending levels, appropriations adjustments will make it effectively equivalent to the more favorable baseline of 2023.” “As a result, the agreement will pare back anticipated spending over the decade just a fraction of what the Republicans sought…” “Moreover, while Mr. Biden did not advance many new Democratic policy goals in the agreement with Mr. McCarthy, he effectively shielded the bulk of his accomplishments from the first two years of his presidency from Republican efforts to gut them.”
Seriously Joe is that classic inspirational CEO setting the tone while his crack team keep on delivering.
It also helps that the opposition is the legislative equivalent of the Washington Generals. I mean, we have heard that Qevin is dumber than a bag of rocks, and his negotiation team is supported by Giantheadz and Trailer Grease, so their deal proposals must be idiotic, and their negotiation tactics non existent.
Knowing how to negotiate or knowing anything about legislation doesn't get you campaign contributions. It's all about a hot take on Twitter or a sound bite.
Speaking of which... Sounds like the Freedom Caucus is angling to blow up the default deal. They've been hitting Twitter hard about how McCarthy handed them the keys to the House and they won't allow it to go through.
The thing is that they ******** things up even when they are trying to gain power. Watch Hakeem Jeffries end up Speaker of the House.