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Bob D'A
Trad climber
Taos, NM
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Topic Author's Original Post - Sep 25, 2015 - 08:09am PT
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Good riddance, the republican led congress has basically done nothing in four years for the American people.
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rottingjohnny
Sport climber
Shetville , North of Los Angeles
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Sep 25, 2015 - 08:12am PT
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Yeah...good riddance...Talk about a dishonest , whiny , politician...don't let the door knob hit you as you morph into a lobbyist...
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Craig Fry
Trad climber
So Cal.
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Sep 25, 2015 - 08:12am PT
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Was, 3rd in line as President
and official traitor to the well being of this Country and our Constitution
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10b4me
Social climber
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Sep 25, 2015 - 08:17am PT
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Just hope they don't get some teabagger as the next speaker.
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Craig Fry
Trad climber
So Cal.
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Sep 25, 2015 - 08:27am PT
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The Tide of History Flows Left
by James A. Haught
http://www.commondreams.org/views/2015/09/16/tide-history-flows-left
One of my history-minded friends has a long-range political view summed up in three words: Liberals always win. Complex social struggles may take centuries or decades, he says, but they eventually bring victory for human rights, more democratic liberties and other progressive goals.
Look how long it took to end slavery. Generations of agitation and the horrible Civil War finally brought triumph for liberal abolitionists and defeat for conservative slavery supporters.
Look how long it took for women to gain the right to vote. In the end, liberal suffragettes prevailed, conservative opponents lost.
Look at the long battle to give couples the right to practice birth control. Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger was jailed eight times for the crime of mentioning sex — but she eventually transformed U.S. society. A Supreme Court victory in 1965 struck down contraceptive bans for married couples, and a follow-up victory in 1972 struck them down for unwed ones. Liberals won, conservatives lost.
The same pattern applies to the struggle for Social Security pensions for retirees — and unemployment compensation for the jobless — and equality for blacks — and Medicare and Medicaid — and equality for women — and food stamps for needy families — and expanded health insurance under the Affordable Care Act — and equality for gays — etc. These stormy social conflicts ended the same way: Liberals always win. Conservatives always lose.
Of course, history doesn’t move in a clear, predictable manner. Germany was advanced and modern — yet it sank into the horrors of Nazism. Other setbacks occur. But the overall tide of civilization flows in a progressive direction.
In his landmark book, “The Better Angels of Our Nature,” Harvard University psychologist Steven Pinker concludes that all sorts of human evils — war, genocide, murder, rape, torture, dueling, wife-bashing, attacks on minorities, etc. — have faded enormously from the Western world. International warfare has virtually vanished. Pursuit of such humane goals lies at the heart of the liberal agenda.
When I first became a Charleston news reporter in the 1950s, conservative Bible Belt morality was enforced by West Virginia laws. It was a crime for stores to open on the Sabbath. It was a crime to look at the equivalent of a Playboy magazine, or to read a sexy book. (Does anyone remember when Mayor Jumping John Copenhaver sent cops to raid bookstores selling Peyton Place?)
Back then, it was a felony to be gay, and those who were caught were sent to the old stone prison at Moundsville. Back then, it was a felony for a desperate girl to end a pregnancy. It was illegal for an unmarried couple to share a bedroom. Divorce or unwed pregnancy was an unmentionable disgrace. Jews weren’t allowed into Christian-only country clubs. Public schools had mandatory teacher-led prayer. It was a crime to buy a cocktail or a lottery ticket.
That world disappeared, decade after decade. The culture slowly evolved. Sunday “blue laws” were undone. Teacher-led prayers were banned. Gay sex became legal. Liquor clubs were approved. Abortion became legal. State governments became lottery operators. Censorship ended. Other conservative taboos gradually disappeared.
Within my lifetime, morality flip-flopped. Conservative thou-shalt-nots lost their grip on society. Liberals won — yet it happened so gradually that hardly anyone noticed.
For several decades, the strongest indicator of politics was church membership. White evangelicals voted 70 percent for Mitt Romney. People who don’t attend worship voted 70 percent for Barack Obama. They became the largest group in the Democratic Party base. They’re generally more tolerant.
Today, survey after survey finds American church membership fading, while the young generation pays little heed to religion. Sociologists think the secular trend is unstoppable. People who say their faith is “none” already comprise one-fourth of the adult population — 56 million Americans — and they seem destined someday to be the largest segment. The social tide is flowing away from fundamentalism and its Puritanical agenda.
All these factors support my friend’s maxim that liberals always win. The progressive worldview is called humanism — trying to make life better for all people — and it’s a powerful current.
In 1960, the same year that he won the historic West Virginia Democratic presidential primary, John F. Kennedy said in a famed speech:
“If by a ‘liberal’ they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reaction, someone who cares about the welfare of the people — their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights and their civil liberties — … then I’m proud to say that I’m a liberal.”
Amid all the chaos and confusion of daily life, through a thousand contradictory barrages, the struggle for a safer, fairer, more secure, more humane world never ceases. Thank heaven for progressive victories that keep on prevailing.
Thank God for the Pope, Trump and Boehner,
It's the Death Throes on Conservatism
which has done Nothing except create most of problems we have in our Country
What has Conservatism done for us that could be considered good?
If you can answer this question, please do because I never seen an accurate answer.
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EdwardT
Trad climber
Retired
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Sep 25, 2015 - 08:35am PT
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(2015-09-25) — House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) will reportedly resign at the end of October to spend more time with his money.
Sources close to the Republican leader said the hectic schedule of a House Speaker has made Boehner and his money feel like they’re “two ships that pass in the night,” without enough time to “linger together and nurture each other, go fishing.”
“Speaker Boehner has certainly been surrounded by other people’s money, coming and going, but it’s not the same,” an unnamed Congressional aide said. “Sometimes a man needs to say ‘Stop the world, I want to get off,’ and just hold my money, and caress it, and let the bond grow.”
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blahblah
Gym climber
Boulder
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Sep 25, 2015 - 08:52am PT
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Boehner actually looks pretty good when you remember who he replaced!
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Norton
Social climber
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Sep 25, 2015 - 08:56am PT
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because he is not female?
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dirtbag
climber
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Sep 25, 2015 - 08:56am PT
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Guys, this is not a good thing.
We could be stuck with a real hard ass conservative as speaker, one who actually believes that this country could weather a default on our debt.
Boehner has certainly made his fair share of mistakes but at least he had some
sense.
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dee ee
Mountain climber
Of THIS World (Planet Earth)
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Sep 25, 2015 - 09:03am PT
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WHEEEHOOOO!!!
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pyro
Big Wall climber
Calabasas
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Sep 25, 2015 - 09:13am PT
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It's Xmas in LIBERLAND!
[Click to View YouTube Video]
Good man gonna miss the speaker of the house
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pyro
Big Wall climber
Calabasas
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Sep 25, 2015 - 09:16am PT
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Locker sniff more glue in LIBERLAND
Get the drum circle started locker bring ur glue Guns
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Cragar
climber
MSLA - MT
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Sep 25, 2015 - 09:19am PT
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DirtyBag makes sense
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the Fet
climber
Tu-Tok-A-Nu-La
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Sep 25, 2015 - 09:22am PT
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Dirtbag gets it. The biggest problem in the electorate and government is the hard right conservatives who think the country is all about them. They don't have empathy for other people's views and don't understand this country is so successful because it was built on compromise to work for everyone. Boehner is sick of their sh#t and is moving on. I'm not a boehner fan but I feel sorry for the guy trying to run that dysfunctional herd of cats. But he'll be crying al the way to the bank.
It's going to be a battle and a mess in the rep party trying to replace him. Good for dems in 2016, although the hard right will cheer delusionally thinking they'll. get more conservative leadership when it only means their dysfunction is on full display.
But it's bad for the country. Both sides should be moving to the center. When we don't have a reasonable Republican Party that works for all Americans not only do they screw up but they don't provide a good balance to the dems.
It's going to take 20-30 years until the deomographics change enough and the republicans become a minority party for a full decade. The dems will go further left. Then the reps will move to the center and finally start winning again. But we're going to have years of dysfunction coming up I'm afraid.
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Bob D'A
Trad climber
Taos, NM
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Topic Author's Reply - Sep 25, 2015 - 09:22am PT
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"Guys, this is not a good thing.
We could be stuck with a real hard ass conservative as speaker, one who actually believes that this country could weather a default on our debt."
And the end of the republican party if that happens. They are digging their own grave.
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pyro
Big Wall climber
Calabasas
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Sep 25, 2015 - 09:25am PT
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Locker is voting for Eisehowen
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zBrown
Ice climber
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Sep 25, 2015 - 09:32am PT
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Taxing, isn't it, but can't we get a true conservative on board?
Republican President Dwight Eisenhower’s idea of a significant marginal rate cut was to push the top rate down to 91 percent from 92 percent. Corporate taxes hit 50 percent. Jobs proliferated, wages rose, and the economy prospered.
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Norton
Social climber
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Sep 25, 2015 - 09:32am PT
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Locker
stop making sense
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Elcapinyoazz
Social climber
Joshua Tree
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Sep 25, 2015 - 09:38am PT
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Bad news, but I don't blame him. Anybody would get tired of trying to wrangle that caucus full of nutbags.
Boehner was at least, occasionally, willing to stand up and be the adult in his caucus and tell the back bench nutters to pound sand and work with Dems to deal with shutdown shenanigans. But he also wasn't ruthless enough with his crazies, he continually tried to appease them with endless "defund/repeal Obamacare" votes (dozens, at least) and other bullshit time wasting show votes.
So he's still the weepy pumpkin shitbag, but was better than the alternatives on his side. Kevin McCarthy, step right up for your turn at "Who wants to be a Goat Roping Cat Herder"
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