Today is the fourth Wednesday of the month and that means that it is of course the day appointed for the regular meeting of Baltimore’s Drinking Liberally chapter. An informal way for Liberals and Progressives to meet up and connect offline to enjoy beer and political/social conversation DL meets every 2nd and 4th Wednesday at Dougherty’s on West Chase Street.

Admission is free and open to anyone with views left of center. Just turn up at 8 pm and ask around. And don’t worry: Dougherty’s isn’t like some certain other places we (used to) like where bar owners go around waving guns at their employees.

So what’s going on in politics anyway? Well, first off we want to bitch and moan about MSNBC moving Hardball to 7pm exclusively. We like Chris Matthews a lot, and along with Rachel Maddow and Chris Hayes he’s the only real talent they’ve got on that network (that is to say, not shared with NBC News). Ed Schultz and Al Sharpton are crummy broadcasters. Sorry, but it’s true. Much as we like Hardball though, we’re not going to miss an hour of baseball to watch it, and even in the offseason waiting until 7 is too late, especially when network news comes on at 6:30.

Obama still wants to bomb Syria. We still think it’s a bad idea. He can stand up in front of the UN all he wants but our mind still has not changed. Looks like theirs hasn’t either.

Ted Cruz is officially the worst person in government right now. A batshit crazy House GOP caucus has sent a bill to the Senate which funds the government but defunds Obamacare knowing that it can’t pass and will never get signed. Big photo op press conference and all. Most of them were acting to follow Senator Cruz’ lead, and Cruz now intends to filibuster a bill that he supports. To filibuster a bill for which he is the only supporter.

And the debt ceiling fight is right around the corner. If you think the GOP is behaving badly risking a shutdown, you ain’t seen nothing yet.

Oh yeah and Al Shabab has captured a Kenyan shopping mall and killed scores of people. So that’s another cold/hot war we’re going to be in before you can draw up a protest sign and send out a tweet.