GOP’s Tightwalk To Avoid Shutdown, A Seed Bank For the Apocalypse, and Bernie’s Chances With Congress

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September 24, 2015

Top Stories


Don’t Look Down! Hill Republicans Walk A Tightrope To Avoid A Gov’t Shutdown

The Gist: With a week to go before the deadline to pass a spending bill expires, GOP Congressional leaders must guide a short-term funding bill through a delicate legislative process.

Kim Davis: I Can’t Resign Because I’ll ‘Lose My Voice’ (VIDEO)

The Gist: The Kentucky clerk explained to Fox’s Megyn Kelly why she won’t resign despite numerous failed attempts to receive an accommodation for her religious beliefs.

Anti-Muslim Activist Says He Plans To Arrest Dem Sen. Debbie Stabenow

The Gist: John Ritzheimer, the man who organized a “Draw Muhammad” contest outside an Arizona mosque, now plans to arrest a Democratic Senator for “treason.”  

From The Reporter’s Notebook


As Tierney Sneed reported, the route for GOP leaders to avert a shutdown is filled with potholes. Budget expert Stan Collender explained via email one way Republican hardliners can disrupt their plans: “The privileged motion to vacate the speakership—the US equivalent of a vote of no confidence—could be offered before the debate on the [continuing resolution that would fund the government], and my understanding is that that vote would take precedence over the [continuing resolution].”

Agree or Disagree?


Josh Marshall argues that “the DC press fixation” on the Hillary Clinton email story “manages to take completely innocuous developments and whip them into portentous new steps in the drama of wrongdoing.”

Say What?!


“If female Dalai Lama come, then that female must be attractive. Otherwise not much use.”

– The Dalai Lama could imagine a female successor, but only an attractive one.

BUZZING: Today in the Hive


From a TPM Prime member: “Will Bernie be more effective at dealing with Congress? Despite his successful record in doing just that (from within), I don’t fool myself that any Democrat will be able to deal with the cancer of Congress as POTUS. But, since that is a point worth conceding from either side, what’s left is how well the next President will represent his/her own vision within the confines of power provided by a co-equal branch of government. Doing that requires the opposite of a compromise candidate. Triangulation will only lead to strangulation. Each of these two candidates has a deep enough record that we can pretty well guess what path they’ll choose to tread. As this understanding becomes more clearly enunciated, Bernie will gain. I still believe that he’s electable.”

Related: A 2013 Q&A with Bernie Sanders on TPM. 

Have something to add? Become a Prime member and join the discussion here.

What We’re Reading


This week, scientists in the Middle East accessed a seed bank designed for the apocalypse. (Slate)

Could fact-checking make politicians more honest? (Pacific Standard Magazine)

A study found that black patients fare better than white patients when both groups get the same healthcare. (The Los Angeles Times)


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