Burgess Meredith in the Twilight Zone episode "Time Enough at Last".
Brilliant. One of the top TZ episodes ever.

The writing is merely observation since I was a kid reading about WWII.

Your comments are much appreciated.

It's so simple that few "get it"

One cure (from Twilight Zone)

was lying. Maybe the Democratic donors were screaming. I hope not. We need new leadership! Bring on the primaries.

Great plan.

Schumer kneecapped Democrats back in March which would have been the better time to vote no for the CR until there were safeguards for our social safety net.

Schumer went on Chris Hayes and revealed his strategy, Krasnov will burn it all down and then we will win elections.

This is the strategy, but at what cost? What does it mean, Krasnov will burn it all down? Millions dying from loss of healthcare? Raising the retirement age for Social security, gutting the SS trust fund? Cutting millions of dollars from Medicaire? Making more work requirements for Medicaid? Passing the Magat healthcare voucher plan which will be a shit sandwich healthcare plan?

The decision that a handful of Senators made was a political decision not a we are going to fight to save our social safety net decision.

the Schumer strategy may work, but I scheduled my 2nd knee replacement before AI tells me I'm too old.

The bottom line is do folks remember how hard getting the ACA was. We likely won’t get it back. And now the GOP not only reneged on all promises but have now threatened abortion law as well. I want Schumer out as a leader before the next deadline. He was in charge and bears responsibility whether he was complicit or not. Personally, I believe he planned it.

I don’t know if it’s possible but I loathe them more every day.

Will likely not trust us. Why would they bother to vote for us? maybe they vote for a third party or don’t vote at all-stupid plan which only those who have been in office too long would think would work.

Great post!!! I may need knee pads too. Rec

Remember how much shit she got for saying Trump would blow everything up and the revolution would come faster?

Welp. That is an actual electoral strategy embraced by someone in Democratic leadership.

It has been an extremely strange 10 years.

Meant that people were ready to lose their healthcare. I guess I'm just not too smart. And those 8 senators are geniuses. Hello Bedford from North Olmsted

I lived all over as a Gm gypsy and Ohio is my favorite place. I know my neighbors, they cut my grass since I have been sick. The cost of living is good even now.

And even though I lived in the worst part of town by far, Ohio was still a great place in the 70s and 80s for me.

Jobs aplenty, great music scene …. Life long NE Ohioan and Kent State grad here. Now living just north of Youngstown.

Of first bed and breakfast we stayed in after we came was in Cleveland near that famous haunted house.I think it is called the Franklin house. But I digress. He told us how Cleveland was saved really. He and others saved the old theaters and now we have Playhouse Sq second only to Broadway. We may have surpassed it. I know we would have if not for Covid that year. Also the museums are amazing. We have art thousands of years old. We spent days wandering around the ancient Egyptian area. It is free but we donate.

My daughter lives in Tremont. It is pretty expensive. They bought a lovely old house. It was mostly renovated but my son-in-law taught himself and made great improvements. Those farm boys! He is in tech.
Oh I almost forgot, the gentleman from the B&B showed us how Rockefeller had a driveway more than a mile long. He wanted a lake view and I think face the park or maybe he liked a specific road- I can’t remember. It is still there now a road.

I've been to all the museums and studied briefly at the Cleveland Institute of Music. The museums are right by Little Italy.

Rockefeller donated lots of land for parks and the old Liberty Blvd. became MLK.

I was an Eastsider since I was born until I moved in my early 20s. There's lots of interesting history.

Cleveland. I have seen the nutcracker it wasn’t play house. I think it was where concerts were played. It was magical

Me. I will look for it They danced as kids and had never seen Nutcracker done professionally. Like I said it was magical.

Right near the greatest cardiac hospital on planet earth, The Cleveland Clinic.

fighting. They lied We don’t even have Snap.

The Orange sociopath and the Rethugs have been wanting to kill ACA since Obama signed it into law. No filibuster or shutdown was going to persuade or force them to abandon that goal.

With his limp dick in his hand BEGGING for a way out, that EXCLUDED blowing up the fillibuster for Donald.

The polling was showing more and more people were shifting towards blaming both sides. And easy for those who can put food on the table to tell those who can’t or who can’t pay their rent to wait a couple of more weeks in hope that the rebound would cave.

It took 50 years at least to get the ACA. It was a brutal process and we lost the house too. I suggest you refresh your memory about how it happened.

Polls showed that the GOP was being blamed. But giving up health care -the ACA means death for millions of Americans. And we will be blamed. Now we get nothing from this bill and they are coming for abortion rights. I would bet Trump will find a way to keep the snap crisis and won’t pay everyone too. It is time our leaders fought for us.

Not just ineffective, but *complicit.*

Keep the government shut down, people can't pay their bills, kids go hungry.

Vote to reopen, Democrats complicit! Primary! Primary!

Right on cue.

That brand new shiny talking point keeps getting repeated - it's "easy for those who can put food on the table to tell those who can’t or who can’t pay their rent to wait a couple of more weeks." We always had some policies on the farm: we will always be the employer of last resort for those who need a fresh start or a second chance; no one in the county goes hungry so long as we are farming. Housing we can help with. But healthcare? We can't help with that, and it is already a horrific nightmare and the ACA was the bare minimum solution. "Can’t pay their rent" - nothing new there. There is massive housing crisis.

The majority of people in the country are suffering and desperate, We help them by standing up to the Republicans. Failing to stand up to the Republicans renders everything else irrelevant.

You can't know that the critics of the surrender are financially comfortable. It is just a way to smear those with whom you disagree. Many of us here, and this is a very poor county, were prepared and willing to tighten our belts and weather the storm, pulling together to help each other, in the hope that the Democrats were finally going to take the fight to the Republican bullies.

Most every day people here see right through this "we were so worried about you getting food that we sold out to the Republicans to help you" bs. The Democratic party leadership pulled the rug right out from under us.

and told THEM to give in or face extreme financing for anyone who wanted to primary the entire GOP caucus in each election cycle.

Barring some kind of miracle, we can't begin to undo the damage until we have a Dem White House in 2029. I suppose there is a ray of hope we take both House & Senate next year, and Trump or Vance don't wield the veto when the public overwhelmingly demands health insurance costs come down.

By the Dems in the Senate. The BS coming out of their mouths sounded like their capitulation. The angry liberals, mad at the Senate Democrats, added to that appearance.

That's all the Republicons wanted. They wanted the appearance of capitulation. It keeps democratic voters surpressed. Make the Dems look weak and there will never be another blue wave.

There was never going to be anything remotely resembling helping the 280,000,000 Americans in the middle and lower class. All our capitalist politicians have their lips firmly planted on the butts of about 0.5% of filthy-rich Americans. You got to wonder what amount of money those capitulating Dems earned for their show.

The Repubs wanted a show and they got it. It was all just pretend.

Consider the following: if the Republican had “caved” (unlikely) they’d be spinning it as a victory. They’re much better at spin than we are.

Stormed where or said what everyone knew. I suppose the non- stop gloating from the GOP, the immediate breaking of their word about the vote and the general sneers, threats and insults from them also helped spread the word. Of course the media would have been happy to report if all else failed.
I will work diligently to get fresh Democrat leaders who will fight with us instead of blowing smoke up our ass…

And the fucking folks who thought up this worthless plan deserve every bit of blowback. It is not the fault of anyone but themselves. I believe the plan was done by Schumer and the GOP knew too. Our leaders gave them a win destroying our momentum and hurting millions of people and I want know why. I don’t buy their self-serving almost noble bullshit excuses. I fucking hope it didn’t involve money. I deserve to know the truth. We all do.

They were angry and rightfully so....I actually identify as more liberal than most. So, I would not make a dig at them. They weren't part of the show. The liberals just responded as appropriate.

And only just realized what a hypocrite I was. You know what pains in the ass the ‘reformed’ are Sorry! Me culpa.

for Schumer and the defectors was eye opening. I don't appreciate being condescended to. And I certainly do not need him or any other talking head to tell me what I should think.

How dare I have "feelings" about being sold out for nothing. Any way you cut it, we got nothing for our troubles but a condescending kick in the face.

Lawrence showed me last night who he is and I've seen enough.

Thank goodness for CSPAN.

This is a disaster and stupid.We lost so much. We got nothing…. Snap, the ACA,Medicaid, and maybe abortion rights now. What will our eight brave Senators want to give away next? I want new leadership now. And I want people to stop telling me this is three dimensional chess not checkers and implying I am too stupid to understand. I can’t help but wonder what some got in return? They got something. This is total bullshit but I am a Democrat… I am going to work primaries and fight for increasing our party, protecting abortion rights, winning new seats and hope 8 senators plus Schumer go back to checkers. Clearly chess isn’t their game.

told us WE were too stupid to understand and mocked us for feeling devastated.

Mandami. Neither Schumer nor Jeffries endorsed Mandami even after the primary. Hell, Trump endorsed Cuomo. And still leadership failed to endorse the Democratic candidate.

I thought O'Donnell was spot-on as to what really happened with negotiations since day one of the shutdown, Shumer convincing the 5 to hold out until after last week's elections, and Tim Caine being the final vote.

I also appreciated his insight on what the minority might expect to achieve by holding out in a shutdown.

His major fault (and it's a big one) was his constant referral to the "6% of Americans who pay Obamacare premiums" -- which implied only a small percent would be affected.

First of all, does that 6% refer only to the heads of households with ACA accounts, leaving out family members who also depend on the subsidies? He also failed to mention that health insurance premiums are likely to skyrocket across the board.

Given all that, the biggest unanswered question is whether the Republicans would ever budge on restoring the ACA subsidies.

He frequently stated that even for seasoned politicians, what the minority party might gain in negotiations to end a shutdown is "only a guess."

My guess is that Republicans in Congress were extremely unlikely to budge on the ACA. They've been trying to kill it ever since Obama signed it into law. They've demonstrated time and time again they don't care if poor people suffer and die.

If Republicans were somehow persuaded or coerced into passing legislation to restore ACA funding in both the Senate and the House, would Trump sign it?

For him, cruelty is the point, and his ego rules whatever bounces around in his head (that, and Stephen Miller whispering in his ear). To sign that bill would be to admit defeat. To actually restore the ACA subsidies would almost certainly require overriding a veto with 13 Republican senators defying Trump.

Tired of hearing this crap. Those who did this, did it for a reason. I want to know why. And it wasn’t for their undying love and concern for us.

I have had enough of this condescending bullshit. I appreciate the effort of course.

I have posted several times here that the ACA literally saved my life. At the time I started looking for insurance I was working a temp job and they did not offer insurance. I had a heart attack several years later, needed stents, and the cost was manageable through the ACA. Thankfully I was eligible for Medicare earlier this year and I hopped right on. But my heart goes out for you and all the others who are in a terrible fix now.

Was self-employed most of adult life; couldn't afford insurance after divorce in 2000.

Started getting sick in 2015. Got ACA in 2017 and finally went to ER. Emergency surgery for Stage IV colon cancer + chemo. (Expected) recurrence in 2019, surgery + chemo.

I tell everyone Obamacare quite literally saved my life. Twice.

fact, I am in the hospital now. The ACA saved my daughter’s life. I well remember how hard it was to get the ACA. It took at least 50 years.
How dare our leaders do this? I had a valve replacement in 23…a genetic bicuspid valve. So a medicine I kept taking Amiaderone caused some lung damage. I wanted to keep taking it. Thinking it kept me out of AFIB. It was a mistake. When the side affects hit, it was awful… second hospital visit in three weeks. We have a plan and the damage is not permanent.

But I have kids who could lose their jobs. and need the ACA. Healthcare is not a want. It is a need so the fact that our leaders basically didn’t have our backs on this matter is both infuriating and heartbreaking.

Either it's just on Star Trek, an imaginary old television show Or only chess master play it.

Anyway I digress, back to your post. I predict lectures that this was “good policy” will be few. However i predict memes and articles about those damn people that didn't show up to give Harris their vote will be the topic of the day. That one works well. Just vague enough.

Anyway. Punt the ball! That should work.

Condescension is no way to keep voters or cultivate new ones

But for some reason "show up and vote for me cause I'm not as bad as the other guy" seems to be number one.

If somebody says, "Don't vote for them 'cause they're evil!", my thinking is, "OK, um, possibly, and what will you do that is better?"

TSF doesn't sign this bill for WEEKS!

Trump can’t delay the bill from becoming law by not signing it “for weeks”. Per the Constitution a bill becomes law automatically if it is not signed within 10 days after it is enacted (excluding Sundays).

Just as bad as weeks.

You can take that to the bank.

Snap benefits been released?

or as little as a day.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/as-shutdown-ends-states-scramble-to-send-snap-benefits-to-millions

The date on which SNAP benefits typically become available can vary by state, or within a state. For example, in my state, Virginia, SNAP benefits are sent out each month from the 1st to the 7th of the month, based on the last digit of the recipient's case number.

It's already been shown.

for quite a while. I see these people around me here in Texas. And if things keep going the way they have been, with dems caving, they will get it.

I'm going to have to take a break from this website again, because I cannot deal with the folks excusing the cave. We had Trump right where we needed him after clobbering him in off-year elections, and they proceeded to throw away that political capital by caving.

I've been angry since I first read about the eight. I fired off emails explaining my frustration (which I know does nothing) since I'm in Texas. I got on the phone and called Joaquin Castro's office because, down here, finding a Democrat to express your feelings to is a hard thing to do. Castro's office took my comments and he's come out against the cave. I like him a lot. I know that didn't do any real good either, but Dems need to know that their voters are pissed off and he's my only choice to explain that.

I'm tired of the apologists on DU and the constant berating of "get in line and support the party actions" when those actions are clearly not in the best interest of the majority of us. Why is abortion even a consideration on this stupid bill when it's obvious that there are so many children right now that they can't all be fed? So, we want to have MORE hungry children? Makes no sense whatsoever.

It's just plain ludicrous to me. Some of the naivete' that I see on DU (yesterday it was "a humiliated Trump will be forced to sign the bill)" makes me wonder. We should be encouraged to call out the party's mistakes with the intent of changing what needs to be changed and corrected.

This was a colossal mistake - because relying on Republican's to keep their word is sheer stupidity.

I posted last night that if there is some massive strategy in play that *I* (and others) just don't seem to grasp, that I don't want to be hearing about that strategy from Lawrence O'Donnell. I want to be hearing about it from party leaders. And I am not hearing that.

He is a failure at the communications game that’s required in this era.

He’s got to go

I think the majority of us feel this way at this point. We need new blood (and I am in my late sixties). Even *I* see that we need a change in approach.

The bill funds SNAP through the end of the fiscal year — September 30 2026. It replenishes the contingency fund. It also funds— and increases WIC funding.

from using other funds to fully pay for SNAP, leaving it with only the partial payments from the contingency fund.

not the court case.

If/when the bill passes — probably tonight— the court case will become moot.

Thank you!

The Senate voted on it yesterday. And today the threat is there will be no vote on it in the house without removing any abortion provisions in the ACA. Who do you think Tillis, Schumer and his masterful 8 will sacrifice to work this out?

You are conflating two things. There will be a vote on the bill that passed the Senate. Whether and when there is a separate vote on a bill relating to the ACA and what will be in that bill is up in the air. You are conflating two separate things.

8 will sacrifice to remove any abortion provisions in the ACA in their next great meeting of the minds? Also no vote no food stamps today is 100 % correct. And if Trump can't get the ones he's called into the Whore House to change their mind on the Epstein files there probably won't be a vote today because Tiny Mike will be a no show till the get the magic number.

But hey! Great fucking bipartisanship.

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/live-updates/government-shutdown-updates/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=dhfacebook&utm_content=null&entryId=127393258&id=127369640

You wrote that "today the threat is there will be no vote on [ the bill to end the shutdown ] it in the house without removing any abortion provisions in the ACA." That simply is untrue. And while folks cant disagree about the deal to end the shutdown, that doesn't give anyone leeway to make up their own facts.

And you are right, there were no food stamps today. Would there have been food stamps today without the deal? What about tomorrow, a week from now, a month from now? How much pain were you willing to inflict on the 42 million Americans who rely on SNAP? As much as the repubs?

I'm sorry to be so blunt, but some people just can't read the writing on the wall. They are perfectly happy saying the rest of us don't know the facts.

The facts are: Trump gets away with everything that he tries because there is no one that has been big enough to stop him. He doesn't care if something is legal or illegal. He just does what he wants.

And people still act like that's a big surprise? Jeez, after his first term and now the fifth year of the asshole doing it, you'd think that NO ONE would be surprised any more.

At no point has it been suggested that the vote on the shutdown ending deal could be delayed unless Democrats agree to an abortion restriction in the ACA negotiations that are supposed to take place. And I will never apologize for pointing out actual facts over alternative facts.

So, we'll see.

No one is asking you to apologize for anything. Some of us just have a different opinion, and that's how the world works. No need to be defensive.

There are two developments. One is the vote on the shutdown ending bill, which is going to take place tonight. The other is a vote on an ACA-related bill -- what that bill contains, when that vote takes place --all up in the air, particularly since the repubs want to include an abortion restriction to that bill. But any suggestion that anyone is threatening to prevent a vote on the shutdown bill unless and until an agreement is reached on the ACA language is just wrong.

We will wait and see what happens. I'm not interested in your take on social media. You don't have to police the board. You really, really don't. You've stated your opinion more than once - and I disagree. Let that be it.

I stand by my assertion that Democrats caved and this is not going to end well for them. I don't believe you have anything that can change my mind after YEARS of watching this happen over and over and over again where Donald Trump is concerned.

Have a great evening, and we will see what transpires.

And that the vote on the shutdown ending bill is unrelated to and not being threatened by the repubs overreach on the ACA bill is a fact, not n opinion.

n/t

Would they have been fed tomorrow, the day after, a week from now, a month from now?
Would they be able to pay their rent, pay their mortgage? Be rehired if they were fired during the shutdown?

So who is to say when SNAP benefits will now be paid.

Democrats have lost the leverage that they had. It was a very bad decision for the eight to trust that the Republicans would keep their word.

Republicans can push the can down the road indefinitely now. That's illegal, you say? Well, of course it is. But that has never stopped this administration, has it?

The repubs were doing that to try and achieve their ends and it was wrong. I"m not sure that our doing it, even for a good cause, is much better.

How long would you be willing to use this leverage to try to force repubs to do something that you have no reason to think that they would do. How did you see this playing out? Did you think the repubs would suddenly grow a conscience and care? While they were being blamed for the shutdown, there are polls suggesting an increasing number of people were shifting to blaming both sides equally. Moreover, the repub base hadn't moved a bit -- they were happy to keep fighting Democrats, even though for many of them, they were cutting off their noses to spite their face -- hardly something that should surprise any of us.

So, again, how did you see this ending and when? Some will ask what was the point -- well, simply letting a clean CR be approved without pressing on the ACA would have been capitulation -- what we accomplished was bringing the ACA issue to the forefront and if the repubs don't yield at some point, they will pay a price at the polls.

Is that clear enough? The Republicans will now use this (i.e., SNAP, etc.) to get anything that they want because they know that Democrats will always cave. They don't care if people die from starvation. You don't pull a bully's nose and then run. You stand toe to toe with that bully and you have to be stronger, tougher and smarter than he is. Otherwise, he is emboldened to keep doing what he is doing.

We had the momentum from the election and we squandered it. Now, instead of people not having benefits for another week or two, down the line, they won't have them at all.

I grow weary of your chastising anyone who might disagree with you. End. Of. Discussion.

We're going to have to disagree on that. After all, the momentum we got going into the election was partially -- but not entirely -- from the shutdown fight. We can and should have the same or greater momentum going into 2026 by forcing the repubs to oppose an ACA enhanced subsidy extension in the weeks and months to come. And we can, if we would just stop spinning this backwards, make the case that 42 million Americans can feed their families for the next year thanks to us, not the repubs.

I get your optimism that the repubs would have caved "in a week or two" -- I just don't see any reason for it.

Democrats are complicit?? In what, exactly?

We are being gaslit by our own party leaders into believing this was somehow a good move on their part. My health insurance for my husband and me will be over $2000 per month with a $10,000 per person deductible if subsidies aren’t extended. I guess we are winning however!



I have zero reason to believe Schumer and the rogue senators will stand up for abortion rights and they’ll hand rethugs their requested restrictions on a silver platter. How will corporate Dems spin that?

some choose to go without insurance.

Man, I knew that car in front of me was going too slow, but THAT slow?

food stamp and Snap part of the problem?

Democrats were playing "...three dimensional chess for the greater good."


"...cowardice and betrayal..." describing Democrats.

MAGA thanks you.