Sunday, October 20, 2019

Sunday 'Quid Pro Uh Oh' Funnies








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Wednesday, October 16, 2019

Wieners and loosers

Going short today because recent posts have run a little long.  Seriously; as short as I could.

-- Bernie won.  Bigly.  Even his detractors at Daily Kos approve of the Unclogged, Stented Bern (as reflected in the comments).  A calmer, quieter, yet still smoldering and intense Bern got after Trump, made his case for the GND and M4A, and was applauded by his peers after thanking them for their well wishes.  Then at the conclusion of the debate, the endorsement of the cycle broke.  Not Bill O'Reilly's, either.


That's called momentum.

-- Warren held serve for the most part, but everybody thinks she needs to a) actually have a healthcare plan, and b) defend a little better whatever it is she supports at the moment.

Some talking heads say she won because she survived.  Others say not so much.  Meh.

I did enjoy watching her bust Biden's balls, though ...


-- Biden wasn't the biggest loser, but only because there were two other nasty neoliberals trying to steal his eroding base of voters.


Biden’s most aggressive moment in the debate was his most cringeworthy. After he claimed that he was the only person on the stage who’d gotten big things done, Warren noted that she had ushered in the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the first regulatory agency built in a generation, and did so over the fierce objections of Wall Street. Biden responded by claiming loudly that he had gone to the Senate and secured votes for it. That claim is dubious at best; Biden had no public presence in the debate over the CFPB and people involved with the fight over it say he did little to nothing behind the scenes, either.

In shouting and pointing at Warren and attempting to take credit for her signature achievement, he finished with a verbal pat-on-the-head: “You did a hell of a job at your job,” he told her.

It escapes me as to why any woman with an ounce of self-respect would so much as consider -- any more than one would for Trump -- casting their ballot for Biden.

But there were shittier centrists on the debate stage last night, and their names are Pete Buttigeig and Amy Klobuchar.

-- I wrote yesterday that Boot Edge tops my shit parade.  Everything he did last night, and prior, cemented his standing.

I would have liked seeing him go after Warren on the basis of her disingenuousness on a variety of issues beyond M4A, but she left herself open for that.  Maybe I shouldn't be too picky.  Then again ...


And ...


And ...


I could not be more out on Pocket Change Pete.  But Minnesota Nice is right behind him.



I can't take any more, but the establishments want another serving.

-- So Bernie's a winner, Biden's a wiener and a loser, Boot Edge and Bathroom Book Collector are losers, and Warren gets a draw on my scorecard.

-- Sadly, Beto and Castro did not do what they needed to.  Loosers, not losers.

-- Kamala flopped.  Loser.

(Harris) made a curious decision in choosing to challenge Warren to call on Twitter to suspend Trump’s account, part of a larger discussion about checking the influence of big tech. It seemed to miss the point of the conversation -- holding big tech accountable means kicking trump off Twitter? -- and Warren did not take the bait.

-- Gabbard and Steyer also came up losers on everybody's list.  Booker did the same thing he always does: "Hey y'all, stop fighting".  "I'm a vegan."  "Aren't I a swell guy?"  Looser.  Yang's online cult is growing but nobody knows what it portends.  Wiener.

-- Far and away, the biggest loser was CNN.


The last twenty minutes wasted on some sort of 'let the healing begin' attempt.  Let's not spare the rest of our corporate media's blathering bobbleheads.


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Tuesday, October 15, 2019

Fight Night Four: Flash Points

On the whole, I'd rather not aggravate my carpal tunnel with the remote, going back and forth between this and Cole v. Severino, but I'll be here for ya (tomorrow and on Twitter tonight).

Update: Early start means a fresh elbow. Astros 4, Yankees 1, bottom of the 9th.


The fourth Democratic presidential debate will be on Tuesday, October 15, at 8 pm ET at Otterbein University, outside of Columbus, Ohio, and broadcast by CNN.

So if you've been following the primary to this point, you know that a) it's now a three-person race, with b) the leader, Joe Biden, slowly fading into a tie -- in some recent polls slipping behind -- the steadily rising Elizabeth Warren, followed by Bernie Sanders ... c) who may have lost or gained momentum as a result of his cardiac event, depending on who you listen to, what your bias is toward him, whether you belive the polls accurately represent his strength, etc.

Tonight's face-off is co-sponsored by the NYT, and their preview is the best.


Expend one of your ten free looks (that's what the Times gives me each month for not being a subscriber but having a log-in and getting some e-mail from them) and read it.

Old Uncle Joe needs a strong performance.  In an unusually-timed interview later this morning, prodigal son Hunter appeared on teevee for questions about his former Ukraine employment that now threatens the Trump presidency with impeachment.

For the majority of the Democrats running for president, and even one notable surrogate to Joe Biden himself, there is a sense of confusion as to why Hunter is choosing now to finally speak up about the extent of his business ties in Ukraine and China.

“I wouldn’t have put Hunter on the air,” former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, a top surrogate for Biden, told The Daily Beast. “I think the more you respond, the more you’re playing into Donald Trump.”

Rendell, who said was not involved in any discussions about the matter, wondered aloud about the thinking behind it, before doubling down. “There’s a danger in playing Trump’s game,” he said bluntly.

For Team Biden, Hunter’s interview on ABC News’ Good Morning America is an opportunity to clear the air and turn the attention back to the widespread corruption running rampant in the Trump White House. It will also give the younger Biden a chance to present facts in his own words to counter Trump’s misinformation campaign.

[...]

Rival campaigns weren’t so sure.

“This is insane that they would do it,” a senior adviser to a Democratic opponent said.

Multiple aides to 2020 candidates found the timing suspect and speculated that Hunter Biden’s move to go public automatically puts the debate moderators in a position that they can’t ignore it on Tuesday night.

“Everyone else had laid off of Joe Biden,” the senior adviser added. “Now that’s all gone. I would bet $100 it’s the first question. If it is, it’s a major disaster.”

“Why even put it out there to answer for that?,” another rival campaign aide asked. “Now it’s fair game that a moderator can bring it up.”

Biden, flanked by Warren and Sanders, ought to get pummeled by them and by the rest of the field as well.  Warren should finally get some attention from her challengers.

(H)er new status as near co-front-runner comes with fresh pressures. In the earlier debates, other candidates have been more keen to target Biden than her.

Considering she bills herself as the candidate with a plan for everything, Warren's lack of specificity on how to pay for her health care proposal is an obvious target for her rivals.

Some analysts see the omission as a device to allow her to track more to the center in a general election after avoiding alienating liberal voters who want a single-payer health care system and to abolish private insurance.

She has also had some staff problems.




"Rigged", you say?  Surely not again.


So this goes -- although not directly -- to Tulsi Gabbard's boycott threat, and why I remain hopeful she'll bust a Kamala on Warren at some point tonight.

Warren's hypocrisy came into tighter focus yesterday, as Indigenous Peoples Day has overtaken Columbus Day in the socio-politically correct revisionism our American history is undergoing.


Just facts, not attacks.



"Non-binding".




I'll beat this horse until it's dead or the corporate media starts doing the same job on her that they do on Bernie.  Regarding the senator from the Green Mountain State, his mission this evening is to demonstrate he's up to the rigors of campaigning, to say nothing of the job of being president.

As new polling suggests Sanders’ heart attack may harm his chances to win the nomination, his campaign is working to project normalcy, even as Sanders remains at home under doctor’s orders. Sanders is set to make his first public appearance outside of Vermont since the health scare on Tuesday night at the fourth Democratic presidential debate in the suburbs of Columbus, Ohio -- an appearance his campaign hopes will quiet doubts about whether he can win the nomination.

[...]

In a new HuffPost/YouGov survey, 88% of registered voters say they’ve heard at least a little about Sanders having a heart attack. The news appears to have taken a toll on perceptions of his health -- just 19% of voters say they believe he is in good enough physical condition to serve effectively as president for four years. By comparison, 43% believe former Vice President Joe Biden is in adequate health, with 53% saying the same of President Donald Trump and 66% of Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

... Just 28% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning voters say they think Sanders is in physical condition to serve effectively, compared to the 59% who say the same of Biden and the 81% who say the same of Warren.
 
More broadly, a 56% majority of voters say they believe Sanders’ age would make it difficult for him to serve effectively as president, with 44% saying the same of Biden, who was born the year after him. Only a third are similarly concerned about Trump’s age. Warren, perhaps helped by the fact that many voters believe her to be younger than she is, fared best on the metric, with just 16% saying her age would make it difficult for her to serve.

No question it's a tall order.  Nothing he can do to quiet the haters; he must convince the doubters.  He was judged by a harsher standard than "Early Stage Dementia/Bleeding Eye" Biden long before his heart attack, which is probably why he ran himself into the ground demonstrating vigor on the campaign trail.  Now he needs to do only a little bit more than all the others instead of a lot more ... especially in going after his friend.

He hinted at a more aggressive approach toward Warren in an interview with ABC News' This Week on Sunday.

"There are differences between Elizabeth and myself," he said.

"Elizabeth, I think, as you know, has said that she is a capitalist through her bones. I'm not."

If Sanders is to win the nomination he will need to check Warren's momentum amid signs she has eclipsed him after he put issues like economic inequality, Medicare for All, and corporate responsibility at the top of the Democratic agenda in his 2016 presidential bid.

For all the the targets on the front-runners' backs, there should be plenty of shots fired at them from the ones in the rear.  If they're not too busy -- in the short time everybody will have -- shooting at each other, that is.


I expect it to be Boot Edge Edge that will be taking the most potshots at others and receiving the most incoming as well.


I'm certain after tonight's festivities that I'm going to be disliking Snotty Little Petey even more than I do now, and I already can't stand him.


Lily-livered Donkeys are terrified that Beto's call for mandatory gun buybacks and taxing churches who outlaw gay weddings are *clutch pearls, faint* "going to hand re-election to Trump".  At least  Cory Booker punched back at Buttigieg.


Surely there will be some challengers besides Beto and Booker ready to knock Petey flat on his cornucopia of neoliberalism this evening.

Klobuchar, another crappy centrist pretender, got an assist from Bill Maher this past weekend.


Yeah, these are the people who bastardize the word 'progressive'.

As for Steyer and Yang ... well, I would hope they both get the least amount of talk time.

Moving on:

One of the Democrats' billionaires who dropped out months ago is rethinking his candidacy in light of Biden's souffle'-like collapse..


Just what we all were waiting for.

In minor party news:


Okay, that's enough.
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Monday, October 14, 2019

The Weekly Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance could barely stay awake last night until just after midnight, then was too excited to sleep for a couple of hours.


With the Fall Classic just days away, the round-up of the best blog posts, Tweets, and lefty news from around and about our beloved Lone Star State keeps the baseball theme with Socratic Gadfly, who took note of the centennial of the Chicago Black Sox scandal and asked: did Shoeless Joe Jackson do it, along with his teammates?


(This is part 1 of a 3-part series.  Part 2 will look at whether other World Series were thrown, and Part 3 will examine the possibility of this happening today.)

The blood of Joshua Brown, the witness whose testimony helped convict Dallas police officer Amber Guyger in the murder of her neighbor, Botham Jean, was barely dry on the ground when a Fort Worth cop shot and killed Atatiana Jefferson in her home.


What is the appropriate response to these killings at this point?


Is there even an appropriate response at this point?



What would be -- would have been -- the response if all of these violently slain, innocent people had been white and wealthy?


Criminal justice, or a lack thereof, has been on the minds of others also.




And social justice as well.




As Neil Aquino would say, "Everything is connected", and the intersection of social and climate justice was readily apparent in a couple of Houston community hearings this past week.




And in more Texas climate news, LareDOS blogged about the amicus brief the Laredo city council filed in support of the lawsuit by Earthjustice and the Rio Grande International Study Center against Trump's emergency declaration in order to facilitate construction of his border wall.  Downwinders at Risk reports that the only public hearing in the entire country on Trump's rollback of EPA guidelines on methane emissions is scheduled to be held in Dallas this Thursday.  The last day to pre-register to speak is today.  Michaela Morris at Environment Texas watched a video (warning: graphic) of a sea turtle having a straw extracted from its nose, and became a recruit in the war on single-use plastics.


And we DO have some politics news for this edition of the Wrangle.



The Texas Signal reports that Brad Parscale, Trump's campaign manager,  will visit San Antonio (which just happens to be his home town) tomorrow, ahead of the Dallas rally.  Texas Monthly had a profile of the Mohawked, bearded Parscale a few weeks ago that makes for an interesting read.


Stephen Young at the Dallas Observer explained the unholy trinity of Pete Sessions, Rudy Giuliani, and Ukraine.  Texas Standard took note that the Ukrainian scandal has caught two Texans, Sessions and Rick Perry, in its ever-broadeing web.  Kuff reviewed the 30-day finance reports from the two Houston-area legislative special elections.  Scott Henson at Grits for Breakfast was unimpressed by Greg Abbott's tough talk about homelessness in Austin.



PDiddie at Brains and Eggs had his double edition of the Democratic presidential developments, with the latest on Bernie Sanders and his heart, and then the #EqualityTownHall.  Therese Odell at Foolish Watcher wrapped up another week of impeachment blogging.

And for some updates on Houston's local elections ...


In case you missed it:



One of the state's foremost election law and redistricting authorities, UT professor Steve Bickerstaff, passed away.


Thanks for reading this far.  I've a few light news Tweets to complete this lengthy Wrangle.


Désiré Nizigiyimana at the Rivard Report reminded that refugees from all countries are a big part of the Texas success story.




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Sunday, October 13, 2019

Sunday Funnies








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Friday, October 11, 2019

Twenty Twenty Update: #EqualityTownHall


Today is National Coming Out Day.  Yesterday was Mental Health Awareness Day.  Using the terminology of the times, there's some intersectionality of the two.  Hence, why us straighties should have watched at least some of last night.


Many (straight people) might assume that the big issues for LGBTQ Americans have mostly been solved, or at the least, aren’t pressing enough to warrant a national forum. But, as the Human Rights Campaign has pointed out, there are at least 11 million LGBTQ adults in the U.S., so this debate platform could be a game-changer this election cycle. And there is actually a full slate of pressing social issues that still plague the LGBTQ community and are begging to be addressed.

Even with same-sex marriage legalized, the U.S. military allowing lesbian, gay, and bisexual service members to serve openly [as well as] growing transgender visibility, there are plenty of LGBTQ people who live without a certain level of rights and access that others take for granted. For instance, Congress has failed for more than four decades to pass any basic anti-discrimination law for LGBTQ people, leading to the Supreme Court hearing three potentially landmark queer and transgender cases about job discrimination earlier this week. Meanwhile the Trump administration and its legion of right-wing judges, lobbyists, and supporters have ignited a full-on backlash to stop LGBTQ progress, including repealing policies that were precariously established to begin with, as Congress continued to fail to act (like plans to allow doctors to discriminate against transgenders, repealing transgender service in the military, and no longer defending LGBTQ people in federal discrimination lawsuits, to name a few).

Overall, the reality for LGBTQ Americans remains bleak: Queer youth homelessness has not gone away. Forced conversion therapy has not gone away. The inadequate patchwork of laws to ensure same-sex couples and LGBTQ parents can securely raise their children without incurring legal hurdles is only becoming more precarious. HIV is still a scourge among gay and bisexual men, especially those of color.

This is all happening, though, during two significant, intertwined demographic shifts that the Human Rights Campaign -- the nation's biggest LGBTQ rights organization -- is aiming to take advantage of, with this election cycle. More Americans identify as LGBTQ now than ever in history: a small but meaningful 4.5 percent of the population, according to a 2018 Gallup poll. And all of those people coming out have had a significant political impact on the people in their lives. HRC says a significant number of Democratic voters who are not queer-identified also want to know that the candidates they support will uphold the rights of their friends, coworkers, neighbors and family members who are LGBTQ. This means that candidates wanting to signal to voters that they know how to properly go beyond platitudes could stand to make a good showing at this second candidate forum on LGBTQ issues during this election cycle (the first was a joint effort between The Advocate magazine and GLAAD in September).

Not so long ago, you might have expected a bunch of these candidates to offer nothing but vague statements about ally-ship and equality, but the footprint of the Equality Vote, as the HRC is calling this group of LGBTQ voters and others who care about their rights, belies deeper political understanding on these issues. It’ll be an opportunity for establishment candidates like Joe Biden to show that he has a grasp of the more granular LGBTQ issues beyond marriage equality, of which he became a (perhaps inadvertent) trailblazer under the Obama administration in 2012. Former HUD Secretary Julian Castro has rarely missed a chance to mention marginalized LGBTQ people, particularly trans women of color; this could be a moment for him to further express his understanding. Pete Buttigieg, the first openly gay major Democratic candidate for president, stands to share both personal experiences as he did at the end of the debate in September. Both he and Elizabeth Warren will likely also further define the LGBTQ platform he released Thursday before the event.

And voters will be listening. A wave of politically active Gen Z-ers will be entering the national electorate in 2020 -- and they are the most queer-identified generation in recent history. Following them are Millennials, who also carry a significant proportion of LGBTQ people and have helped define elections since President Obama won his presidency in 2008.

Prior to the forum, Dr. Sanjay Gupta spoke with Bernie Sanders at length about his heart condition, and at the end gave him a few minutes to talk about his lifelong commitment to equal rights.



Sanders, who was speaking from Burlington, apologized again for missing Thursday night's Democratic presidential town hall on LGBTQ issues ...

Asked about the pair of pending Supreme Court decisions related to discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, Sanders promised, if elected, to do "everything that's humanly possible" to guarantee the protections at stake. He also argued that the "intent" of civil rights laws should be clear and include LGBTQ Americans.

"I'm very worried about the right wing in this country now using the argument of freedom of religion to force discrimination," Sanders said.

"We all believe in freedom of religion. We're all proud Americans, everybody has the right to practice their own religion. But we cannot now use the argument that it is my religious belief that, if you're gay, I will not sell you a cake," he said. "And it worries me very much that there is a strong movement trying to bring -- under the guise of freedom of religion -- racism, sexism, homophobia back into this country."

As to the forum's participants, we have winners, losers, and takeaways.

I'll let you read the details if you didn't see it, but you can probably guess that Mayor Pete and E-Liz Warren won the night, and that old Uncle Joe lost again.


Other winners included moderator Anderson Cooper and the protests of black trans women, who were respectfully heard.

Buttigieg’s town hall was interrupted early on by transgender protesters chanting, “Trans people are dying!” “Do something!” And “trans lives matter!” While some in the audience joined in on the chants, others tried to shout them down. Moderator Anderson Cooper did well to diffuse the situation.

“Let me just point out, there is a long and proud tradition and history in the gay and lesbian and transgender community of protest, and we applaud them for their protest,” he said. “And they’re absolutely right to be angry and upset at the lack of attention, particularly in the media on the lives of transgender [people of color]...” His inclusive message set the tone for an evening that saw several protests and interruptions.

The murder of of black trans women in Texas is virtually an epidemic at this time.


Biden, his record of pulling Obama to the left on gay marriage notwithstanding, managed to drive himself into the rhetorical ditch again.  And again.


What does 'homophobic' mean, again?



At least his eye didn't bleed.

Two other losers were moderator Chris Cuomo and his lame pronoun joke, and basically the entire lesbian community.

Not a single question was asked about policies specifically pertaining to lesbians. Meanwhile, bisexual and non-binary people got one question each.

[...]

The town hall was historic in that it brought together candidates for a nationally televised discussion on LGBTQ rights -- and yet lesbians were completely ignored. Every single candidate got a question about HIV transmission, which disproportionately affects gay and bisexual men and trans women, but organizers couldn’t find time for a single question on lesbian issues -- like the unique combination of misogyny and homophobia that leads to male violence against lesbians, or intimate partner violence within queer women’s relationships. It was a glaring oversight and a missed opportunity.

Each letter of LGBTQ has its own unique concerns, and all have been overlooked and marginalized (to put it too kindly) in our society.  Without question, covering all the bases in this ground-breaking forum would be a difficult task.  As we are forced to say often about social progress: this was a big first step .... and there is still a long way to go.

Amy Klobuchar and Beto O'Rourke condemned conversion therapy, saying it should be illegal and describing it as torture.  Beto also declared that he would remove the tax-exempt status of churches that oppose same-sex marriage.  Cory Booker waffled on that question.  (Booker otherwise met with approval on questions like dropping the FDA ban on blood donations from gay men.)  Castro called for his successor at HUD, Ben Carson, to resign over Carson's recent "big hairy men" remarks.

In what I would characterize as a moonshot declaration, Kamala Harris said she would eradicate AIDS within a generation.  And from the WTF department, Tom Steyer seemed stunned to learn that half of all transgender youth attempt suicide.  Read more about these takeaways here.

Let's wrap this rascal of an Update with this.


This would be a stunt on Major Gabbard's part.  She would do better, quite obviously, to call out the rigging from the Ohio podium she barely earned, and perhaps -- with this cry for attention -- she has enabled a question from a debate moderator next week to do exactly that.  With twelve candidates on stage and talk time extremely short ... if she doesn't get asked about it, she'll have to break it open on somebody's head.

Hopefully Warren's.
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Houston cools off but elections stay hot

Before I get to my regular Friday presidential Update, here's some recent H-Town political news that I don't have to fill next Monday's Wrangle with.

-- Not content to jack with Austin's mayor over the homeless, our legless, gutless governor also wants to bully Sylvester Turner over Harvey funding.  This is Abbott kicking -- err, piling on the HTX honcho in the election-season beatdown that Bill King and Tony Buzbee have been administering.

Abbott needs a hobby during the legislative off-season that doesn't involve shaking down the wealthiest, worst conservatives in the world for six-figure checks.  Any suggestions?

-- Debate night here in Big Greasy.


The 7 p.m. debate will take place at the Morris Cultural Arts Center at Houston Baptist University and air live on KPRC and Telemundo.

Four candidates have confirmed their attendance: Dwight Boykins, Tony Buzbee, Bill King and Sylvester Turner.

To qualify, candidates must have exceeded $50,000 in total political contributions, as reported in official campaign finance reports filed with the city no later than Oct. 7. All candidates who met that requirement were invited to participate.

That left out Sue Lovell ... and all of the rest.  This is the John Cobarruvias method of determining candidate viability, to which I do not subscribe.

-- There was also a debate earlier this week.


-- Speaking of qualifiers, some city council candidates have issues.


You really should click over and read this if you're voting.  Those with the glaring residency fails include Michelle Bolton (District A), Jeremy Darby (D), Anthony Dolcefino (AL4), Van Huynh (F), and George Zoes (also A).  The felons on the ballot are Cynthia Bailey (D), Derrick Broze (mayor), Brad Batteau (AL5), and Ralph Garcia (also AL5).  I found Nelvin Adriatico's explanation of residency acceptable, but YMMV, as it might in each case.

-- Houston Firefighters endorsed just two incumbents, Greg Travis and Michael Kubosh, both Republicans.  In fact their list is heavily weighted with conservatives.  The union passed on giving any of the folks running in B, I, K, or AL1 a thumb's up.


The union has boots on the ground working precincts for their mayoral choice, Dwight Boykins.  And extending their squabble with Turner, 3000 of their rank and file signed a petition declaring 'no confidence' in the fire chief, Sam Peña (who reports only to the mayor).

-- The uncertainty surrounding the state's possible assumption of HISD administration is clouding the local school board races.

This November could bring four new faces to the embattled Houston school board. But candidates are finding uncertainty about the board’s future is one of their biggest challenges on the campaign trail.

Judith Cruz, who is running against board president Diana Davila in District 8, said that as she visits with voters, she’s often asked if there will even be elections because of the looming threat of a state takeover of the Houston Independent School District.

“The question keeps coming up even though I keep addressing it and I feel like others are, but there’s still so many unknowns and it just seems such weird timing to have elections if the state is going to come in,” Cruz said.

It’s widely expected that Texas’ Education Commissioner Mike Morath will replace the elected Houston school board with outside managers either because of poor academic performance at Wheatley High School, which recently received its seventh consecutive failing rating, or because of the board’s behavior and potential violations of state law and its own rules, as alleged in a preliminary state investigation.

-- Last, the conversation over METRO's $3.5 billion bond issue boils down to the usual conservative "no more debt" versus liberal "necessary improvements" back-and-forth.  (I wish good ol' Open Source Dem was around with a 'bond lawyers' take.)
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