That’s the thing, though, in western literary culture an archetypal journey story is the Odyssey. The Odyssey is just so old and was so important in Hellenic culture (which became the basis for most of Western culture) that all journey stories after The Odyssey were heavily influenced by it in one way or another.

A few reasons:

1. States are not currency sovereigns in that they do not create and control their own currency. All the money the state uses come from revenues they collect in taxes, fees, sales, etc. This is not the case for a national government, which creates all the money it needs for whatever it wants to spend money on. This gives the national government a lot more spending power than any state could possibly have, regardless of the state’s GDP.

More importantly, though,

2. All states except Vermont have statutory or (state) constitutional requirements to have a balanced budget every year. This means they cannot run a budget surplus or deficit. Any surplus has to be spent or returned to taxpayers and any deficit needs to be resolved that year. This makes it incredibly difficult to run large programs like a M4A over time. When the state runs into a budget shortfall, the M4A system would be the first on the chopping block.

3. Insurance companies fight HARD against anything that hurts their business. This is specifically why Obamacare (the ACA) didn’t include a public option despite Obama campaigning hard for a public option in the 2008 election. Insurance companies got their stooges in the Democratic Party to kill the public option when the ACA debates were going through Congress. They do the same in states when states try to do something about the healthcare industry. And if insurance companies publicly talk about a proposed bill causing them to raise rates or pull out of a market, that’s a huge political stick to swing.

The Odyssey is copied in form all the time. It’s not always referenced as directly, but virtually any adventure story made from a western perspective includes some elements of The Odyssey in a similar manner to how virtually all Eastern adventure stories include some elements of Journey to the West.

I was at the Washington Monument in DC today. It was huge. I’ve been to a lot of protests in DC and this was among the largest. The vibe wasn’t anywhere close to as naively optimistic as the 2017 Women’s March or the various Marches for Science. It wasn’t as confrontational as the 2020 uprising or the 2017 Airport protests against the Muslim Ban. I think the closest vibe I can think of were the 2003 Iraq Invasion protests.

I really hope this is just a beginning and actions get larger and more aggressive.

Whichever you put more alcohol into.

Typically, the only difference between a frozen margarita and one on the rocks is that the frozen has been blended. But they still have the same amount of tequila and triple sec (usually 1 shot of tequila and 2/3 shot of triple sec).

Belgium

Of course, when I went it was part of an school exchange trip when I was 17. I was almost always with a large group of American teenagers with only a few teachers as chaperones. It’s 100% understandable why people wouldn’t want to be particularly friendly to us.

Never?

Yes, I thoroughly enjoy vinegar.

Don’t threaten us with a good time…

1. Belgium for 10 days as part of a school exchange trip in high school. Was a lot of fun. We saw a lot of touristy stuff, but also the first time I was able to legally buy alcohol or go to a bar. That was over 20 years ago and I still have a pair of bowling shoes I stole from a bowling alley on that trip.

2. Belize. I’ve been twice. The first was for 2 weeks when my uncle was marrying a woman from Belize. We spent a week near where her family is from so we could meet that side of the family, then a week on the island where the wedding was. The second time was for a week for a vacation. My friend’s dad owns a house in Belize, so we had a free place to stay. Second trip was MUCH less touristy than the first one, which was nice. We mostly hung out in local bars.

3. Guatemala. During my first trip to Belize we took a day trip to visit Tikal. I really wouldn’t say I “visited” the country as Tikal was the only place we stopped, but my passport got stamped, so I’ll include it.

4. Mexico. Spent a week on vacation. We stayed in Playa del Carmen and did some very touristy things.

5. Costa Rica. Again, for a week. Again, pretty touristy. I liked Costa Rica a lot.

6. China. Went for the first week of my honeymoon. I have friends who live in Beijing. We spent the first half of the week there, mostly going to restaurants, bars, parks, and other places my friends hang out at. We also went to the Great Wall. For the second half of the week we went to Xian to see the Terracotta Soldiers.

7. Malaysia. Spent the second week of our honeymoon here. First few days were on a resort island to do the SUPER honeymoon resort thing. Second half was in Kulala Lumpur where we mostly just wandered around checking out the city.

8. Japan. Spent an hour layover there on our flight home from Malaysia. Again, I wouldn’t really count it, but they stamped my passport.

9. Cuba. Spent a week in Cuba on vacation. By far, the most enjoyable country I’ve ever visited and most fun vacation I’ve ever had. Before getting to the country, the only prep we did was book a room for our first night. Everything else we just figured out along the way and stayed where people suggested might be fun. Also the only country I’ve felt a strong desire to visit again. (Not that the others were bad, but I tend to want to go somewhere I’ve never been when I vacation).

Friendliest country I’ve ever been to was Cuba. Everyone was incredibly nice and helpful with anything we could want. Malaysia was a close second.

Least friendliest was Belgium, but I went as part of a school exchange trip, so I was pretty much always in a large group of mostly teenage Americans with a few teachers. Understandable why people might not have been as friendly.

I’m not claiming the Democrats had full control of anything. And no, a shut down would not have been much faster. It would have been more chaotic, but not faster. And maybe the chaos would have helped get more people into the streets resisting. I don’t know.

But I do know that capitulating to fascists is never a good strategy. There has never once been a situation where capitulating to fascists has resulted in a better outcome. Schumer got played. You got played.

Right, it was lose/lose. Either way bad things are going to happen. So why sign on to participate and take ownership of it? What does anyone gain by that.

The situation would not be worse under a shutdown. It would just be a different type of bad. Trump and Musk are still firing anyone they want without regard to the law or courts. They’re still gutting funding wherever they want.

The ONLY difference between passing this CR and not is that the Vichy Democrats put their stamp of approval on what’s happening now.

I need you to explain why you think it’s a better choice to give Trump the ability to indiscriminately terminate non-essential government employees than to have control of the budget.

Who do you think has control of the budget? Do you really think that by rolling over and giving Trump everything he wants now Schumer will somehow have control of anything in September?

And why do you think passing the CR will stop Trump and Musk from terminating anyone they want? They’re still doing that.

ALL spending bills are “temporary” in that they don’t provide unlimited funds for forever. The CR doesn’t say, “give as much money as is needed until September.” It says “we allocated $XXXX”. And since we know how to predict how much money the government spends, we know that amount of money will run out in September.

This is the same way it works if they passed an appropriations bill. The only difference is that they based spending levels on the previous spending bills rather than on a budget bill.

You have no clue what you’re talking about, which is demonstrated by your repeated use of the term “budget reconciliation bill” as if it applies to anything here. The budget reconciliation process can only happen after an appropriation bill is passed, which this CR was.

So you are admitting that passing the CR did nothing to protect these jobs you seem so concerned for? Then why are you arguing so fervently in favor of Vichy collaborationists?

Why are you pretending like they’re not doing that anyways? There are people right now lined up outside NIH and HHS buildings because DOGE has shut them out and is firing them. The last of the USAID workers lost their jobs yesterday. Yet you’re here pretending like allowing the CR to pass prevented people from losing their jobs? Brother, you’ve been duped into being a collaborationist!

Yes. Let them take the shutdown and own it. You seem to be operating from the premise that a shutdown would have been popular and had no negative political blowback on the fascists. History does not support this assumption.

Make Trump and Musk go tell people that they don’t deserve the services they’d lose from a shutdown. Instead, Schumer said that Democrats agree with all the cuts that were already in the CR.

If you can’t extract concessions, then you let them take the loss alone. Instead, Vichy Schumer just agreed to sign the Democrats on as collaborators.