Womp! From WaPo:
House Speaker Paul Ryan will not seek reelection, he tells friends and colleagues
House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) has told friends and several colleagues that he has decided not to seek reelection this year and will soon inform colleagues of his plans, according to several people familiar with his plans.
The decision comes ahead of mid-term elections that were already looking treacherous for Republicans, who risk losing control of the House.
The party has seen a large number of retirements, and Ryan’s exit is certain to sap morale as Republicans seek to contain a surge in enthusiasm from Democrats, whose fortunes have been buoyed by the unpopularity of President Trump.
Kind of hard to overstate the significance of this, even with Trump playing bipolar bumper cars with Putin on Twitter this morning. I’m wicked busy, so I’ll leave y’all to it…
O. Felix Culpa
Brave Sir Ryan ran away, ran away…To cash in at the wingnut trough most likely.
Obligatory: https://youtu.be/BZwuTo7zKM8
schrodingers_cat
How many Beltway courtiers are on the fainting couch, now that their blue eyed boy is gone.
Bostonian
Fear the Stache!!! Woot Woot
jonas
Welp, he got those sweet tax cuts. They’re working on the Catfood — It’s What’s for Dinner Bill of 2018 as we speak. The GOP stands a good chance of losing control of the House later this year. Why not ride off into the sunset and into a fat sinecure at some Koch-funded think tank?
Roger Moore
He’s retiring to spend more time with his money. If I have my way, his lawyers are going to wind up spending more time with his money, and he’s going to get some quality time in a high security prison.
hedgehog mobile
Bye, Felicia!
Karen S.
Is he going Galt?
O. Felix Culpa
@Bostonian: Hmmm, I wonder if it’s also fear the Feds? They seem to be closing in on the GOP Crime Cartel. Maybe there’s some *interesting* material in Cohen’s records about Ryan?
Lapassionara
@jonas: And leave behind a steaming mess of a deficit.
Is there someone around who has the stomach for watching the Fox Morning Show and report back? They are the ones making policy, it seems, and it might be good to forecast whether we will be hitting the streets later on today.
dmsilev
If, as I’m sure we all hope, the Democrats take the House in November, Ryan will get a good chunk of the blame. “By bailing out 7 months before the election, he caused GOP candidates and donors to lose hope, thus ensuring NANCY PELOSI would be running the House next year”.
So sad…
satby
Nananana, nananana, heyheyhey, good-bye!
Major Major Major Major
Well isn’t that just some great news to go to bed with.
Elizabelle
@hedgehog mobile: Perfect! (Now that we know what it means.)
Very, very interesting.
Didn’t someone mention Trump is meeting with the heads of the GOP cartel tonight, or soon? Ryan, McConnell, McCarthy, Cornyn. What a dinner that will be. Where’s a hidden bug, when you need it?
Frankensteinbeck
@jonas:
This. He did the most important half of his duty. He may not have gutted the safety net, but he sure gutted the tax code. I’m sure he has his pick of golden parachutes from the plutocrat set.
@Roger Moore:
I also pray that there is law-breaking corruption in Ryan’s career, and the jaws of justice are waiting for him. If it’s through the RNC, they may be closing on him as we speak.
Elizabelle
Did someone give Andrea Greenspan her smelling salts? Their favorite wonk!
Balconesfault
@O. Felix Culpa: I’m constantly reminded of a comment I read here months ago, can’t remember who by, that suggested that the Trump presidency is like 100 cockroaches standing end on end to reach the kitchen light switch and turn it on.
droog
Dear Jesus:
Please have Roy Moore move to Wisconsin and run for this seat. And make sure to use Steve Bannon to convince him, for bonus laughs.
dmsilev
I’m trying to remember if any Speaker just voluntarily said fuckit and walked away from the job. Recent ones:
Tip O’Neill: Retired after serving as Speaker for 10 years (third longest tenure in US history)
Wright: Forced out due to scandal
Foley: Lost reelection (in the 1994 GOP wave)
Gingrich: Ousted by his caucus after the Clinton impeachment fiasco. Subsequently resigned from Congress
Hastert: After the Democrats took the House in 2006, resigned from Congress rather than serve as Minority Leader
Pelosi: Served as Minority Leader, and is odds-on favorite now to become the next Speaker.
Boehner: “Resigned” from Speakership/Congress because his caucus was about to depose him.
Yarrow
Paul Ryan is a traitor. He thinks not running for reelection is going to save him. It won’t. Tick tock, motherfuckers.
AnotherBruce
Does this mean that Ryan is cancelling his Trump meeting?
O. Felix Culpa
@Balconesfault:
A fitting image. May a thousand lightbulbs beam.
GregB
Paul Ryan is reportedly going to go into private enterprise by in investing in an exciting new start-up known as Soylent Green.
Also, thank God the warmongering Hillary wasn’t elected or we’d be on the threshold of war with Russia.
Frankensteinbeck
@dmsilev:
Resigned willingly because he was sick of the bullshit from morons who didn’t know he was their best friend and singlehandedly responsible for all the successes their extremism accomplished. It’s not ‘forced out’ if he had to go looking for his own replacement.
Roger Moore
@Frankensteinbeck:
I don’t know if there’s monetary corruption- I assume he’s made his quid pro quos subtle enough that they can’t be prosecuted- but he and McConnell deserve to go away forever for blocking public discussion of the Russian election interference. It looks a hell of a lot like a criminal conspiracy to me.
O. Felix Culpa
@satby:
Brings back fond memories of Comiskey Park (it retains that name in my world). Couldn’t be applied to a finer guy.
https://goo.gl/images/26UhLj
Dog Mom
If he has money left in his campaign account, he gets to donate it to others as he sees fit, correct?
Mary G
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
Too chicken to stick around and hand the gavel to Nancy SMASH!
Gin & Tonic
@Roger Moore:
Considering he’s never worked a day in the private sector in his entire life, the source(s) of that money raise quite a few questions, no?
satby
@O. Felix Culpa: I knew the ‘Cagoans would recognize it right away.
Obvious Russian Troll
@Balconesfault: I’d change that slightly: “The Trump presidency is like 100 cockroaches standing end on end to reach the kitchen light switch and turn it *off*.”
Does anybody really think they *want* light to be shed on anything they’re doing?
MattF
I suspect that it’s that little matter of a trillion-dollar annual deficit. Where did that come from, anyhow? Thanks, Obama! Not to mention Hillary!
Snarki, child of Loki
@Elizabelle: “What a dinner that will be. Where’s a hidden bug, when you need it?”
Under Trump’s “hair”, but the audio goes to a recorder inside the Russian embassy.
germy
Maybe McCarthy will be minority leader?
Soon?
TOP123
@Obvious Russian Troll: the fact that it was turning it on against their best interests was part of what amused me about that image.
schrodingers_cat
@Obvious Russian Troll: Not 100 but 100^100.
Frankensteinbeck
@Obvious Russian Troll:
The point of the joke is that they’re such incompetent idiots that they could not be doing a better job of exposing their own corruption if they deliberately tried.
germy
@Balconesfault:
That was me. And it was my finest hour.
It’s been downhill ever since I hit that peak. Now I mostly talk about our cat.
randy khan
I’m sure that this news will do wonders for GOP enthusiasm.
(And I’m waiting for the “He was just a RINO anyway” folks to chime in.)
bystander
Ace reporter Kasie’s Hunt just shouted at Ryan as he walked thru the hall, “Why are you retiring?” To which the goggle eyed homunculus replied, “I’m not.” Poor Kasie spent too long in Advanced Anchor Hairdo Studies and not enough in English ‘n’ stuff.
Roger Moore
@Gin & Tonic:
That’s not true! He drove the Oscar Mayer Weinermobile, and selling their bologna prepared him perfectly for his life in Congress.
Elizabelle
Who wouldn’t love to be hanging out with John Boehner today? Not too early to drink about this one!
WaterGirl
I wonder if this is one more casualty of the misguided “If I’m not in office anymore, maybe Mueller won’t come after me” school of thought. Overly-optimistic on their parts, I hope.
Jeffro
@O. Felix Culpa: @hedgehog mobile: @Karen S.: @Balconesfault:
Win, win, win, win, and oh, WIN.
So much for deep, SERIOUS conservatism thought and wonk-et-try. Who will our Beltway Media anoint as the next “thinking man’s conservative”?
germy
@Roger Moore:
I think he spent a few weeks one summer during college twiddling his thumbs in his uncle’s law office.
Feathers
Jeez. Scalzi just retweeted Boehner announcing he’s joining the board of directors of a marijuana company. World is turning. Turns out Bill Weld (former gov of MA, spotted smoking weed at a Green Day concert while in office) is on the board already. No link coz phone wouldn’t let me paste.
WaterGirl
@Dog Mom: I think he also gets to hold on to it, and perhaps could use it for legal fees, if needed?
scav
Better still, let him not be seeking election without a re- attached as prefix, ever.
still, good start to the day.
rikyrah
Here’s to hoping he winds up in a much deserved orange jumpsuit.
m0nty
@Jeffro:
Won’t he just continue in the role on the Sunday shows? McCain’s not long for this world, they will have slots free.
MattF
@schrodingers_cat: More cockroaches than atoms in the universe. I can see that.
schrodingers_cat
@MattF: Think of them like the quarks of the R political universe.
Immanentize
Ass meet the door. Let it hit you. Another Republican ruined forever by Trump.
But then again, that Germany vs USSR — let them destroy each other thingy didn’t work out so well in the end. We must promote and vote for the Dems we have and the Dems we want.
NotMax
Color me entirely unsurprised.
Gonna use the intervening time to attempt to burnish his reputation for a run for President in 2020 or 2024. Ain’t enough Brasso in the universe to remove the tarnish. Not to mention that he’s dumb as a freight car of rocks.
Balconesfault
@Frankensteinbeck: exactly. Without the Trump presidency all these public sector grifters, and private-sector criminals like Trump and Cohen and Manafort, would likely still be plugging along reaping their money unencumbered by serious investigations. There seems to have been enough sympathy within the FBI for them in the past that they had no real fear of exposure and prosecution. But now Trump has rubbed the FBI’s nose in enough s*** that they seem obligated to finally do something about that rat hole.
TOP123
@germy: outstanding image!
@balconesfault
I’m assuming from your nym that you might have an opinion; how do you feel about booting out some of our reps here in TX in November?
Yarrow
@WaterGirl: Maybe he wants to spend more time with his family before he goes to prison.
O. Felix Culpa
@schrodingers_cat: The internet-winning trophy of the day is awarded.
MattF
@Immanentize: I think, also, that the splits among Dems will get wider. It’s inevitable since Democrats represent pretty much the entire sane political spectrum, and people will have disagreements.
rikyrah
@Yarrow:
Amen.
Amen.
Nicole
There are few people who make me viscerally angry, and he is one of them. As someone who also lost a parent young (younger than he was, in fact), and collected SS survivor benefits (which made college possible for me), the fact that he has been so desperate to gut SS makes me want to punch him.
This makes me happy. I’m not religious, but I may or may not whisper “Please, President Pelosi” every so often.
Shalimar
Paul Ryan is a good man with bipartisan tendencies who can’t stand the current fighting in Washington, I saw Evan Bayh say earlier on MSNBC. I had nothing within reach to throw at the television so it still works now, thank the no labels god.
Balconesfault
@MattF: with lots of encouragement from Russian troll farms feeding the fevered fantasies of the Bernie Bros.
tobie
Erik Erikson had an interview with some wing nut who was complaining that if Pelosi became Madame Speaker again she would mess up the House cafeteria again. I know this is bullshit…but do any of you jackals have any idea what minuscule cafeteria issue he’s referring to. Was it that the workers there should earn a living wage?
MattF
@tobie: I’d guess that Pelosi added vegetarian options to the standard ‘bacon grease with lard’ offerings.
magurakurin
@MattF: but are there really major splits among Dems? Because if you mean Vermont Jesus and his followers…they ain’t Democrats. Nina Turner voted for Jill Stein. Apart from that cult of purity, I don’t see huge rifts in the party at all. Disagreements for sure, but remove the Cult out of the equation and the picture is different.
Balconesfault
@TOP123: it is scary how locked in the Republican and Trump support is in rural Texas. And the gerrymandering engineered by DeLay was particularly genius. I don’t know how many districts might be seriously flippable.
A solid 35 to 40% of this state seems to be convinced that voting for any Democrat at any level is tantamount to killing babies.
Immanentize
@rikyrah: I think we should just state it as fact that the material seized from Trump’s “Attorney and Fixer” (I love how all the news stations report it like that) Cohen was the reason that he had to retire immediately. It would be irresponsible not to connect those dots!
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Shalimar:
I don’t keep firearms close to my TV for a reason.
The Ancient Randonneur
Ryan decided he didn’t want to run for Minority Leader.
magurakurin
@rikyrah: When Yarrow says “tick tock, motherfuckers” I like to imagine that it’s Rick Flair in an Armani suit in the center of the ring and after he says it he lets out a big Rick Flair “woooooh!”
Obvious Russian Troll
@Frankensteinbeck: So you’re saying I missed the joke? Wouldn’t be the first time. I think it’d work either way honestly–the hundred cockroaches is the key image here.
Immanentize
@tobie: Pelosi required venders to give out biodegradable utensils. Republicans demanded plastic.
ETA I am not snarking
MattF
@magurakurin: I think the splits are there but have been overshadowed by the White House circus/whorehouse. Arguing honestly among ourselves would be a good thing, though, IMO.
NotMax
A moment to remember Thomas Pomeroy, who served as Speaker for the grand total of one day in 1869.
Also too, Bob Livingston, Speaker-elect after Gingrich, who resigned under a cloud of adultery before his fingerprints could show up on the gavel.
Balconesfault
@Obvious Russian Troll: again, the whole point is that until these guys got Trump elected, they all seemed completely safe in their grift and graft. They willingly and willfully turned the lights on themselves.
To extend the metaphor, now they’re scattering, and it doesn’t look like they have the critical mass to push the light switch back off.
feebog
Say, what is that big shiny thing sticking up out of the water just ahead? An icerberg? Well full speed ahead then.
Immanentize
@Balconesfault: The Texas question is not going to be solved by getting republicans to vote for Democrats. It will be solved by getting Democrats to vote.
Aleta
Time to feather his nest and insulate it from the sound of people he left out in the wind.
magurakurin
@MattF: In a reasonable way, for sure. Without the Cult it could be done. The minimum wage debate was one example. Arguing and disagree over the details of a wage increase was a good thing. Vowing to never vote because the argument seemed to settle on 12 dollars instead of 15 was insanity. It will be good when that crew moves itself completely into obscurity.
Roger Moore
@Immanentize:
Only his reputation is ruined by Trump. He was already perfectly awful long before Trump came along.
WaterGirl
@Shalimar: As far as I’m concerned, Evan Bayh
canshould leave the public eye and never be seen or heard from him again in politics.japa21
@Shalimar: Why anybody would seek out Bayh’s opinion on anything is beyond me.
germy
All that money he got from the Kochs. Does he have to give it all back now?
(I’d assumed their donations were for his upcoming campaign.)
Karen Potter
@The Ancient Randonneur: There were also reports that ironworker Randy Bryce was looking good for taking Ryan’s place.
O. Felix Culpa
@Immanentize:
This. And not just in Texas.
Balconesfault
@Immanentize: agreed, and as a second step, to get lots and lots of people who Democratic policies benefit to realize that it’s okay to consider themselves a Democrat.
That is what pissed me off the most by the Bernie Sanders attacks on Hillary throughout 2016. There are an awful lot of Voters out there who should have been enthusiastic with Hillary, and not just regarding her as a lesser of two evils, but a big chunk of the liberal base, along with a big chunk of the media pundits, kept telling them that to vote for Hillary you had to hold your nose. And when they were surrounded by hardcore anti-abortion / NRA Fanatics who were screaming at them how evil Hillary was, they just didn’t decide to go to the polls.
NotMax
@WaterGirl
The apple falls incredibly far from the Birch.
;)
Yarrow
@magurakurin: Oh no! You figured it out! My cover is blown.
Balconesfault
@WaterGirl: I felt that way about Bayh ever since he worked his ass off in 2009-2010 to make sure that the ACA was 5 to 10% less popular among Americans.
Elizabelle
LOL. Impending signs of peak wingnut: top 3 headlines in my FB news feed:
hueyplong
The casualty list just got real.
When I heard about Ryan my first thought was about the time some dim GOPer said out loud that a fellow congressman was definitely taking Russian money and ZEGS shut it down.
Rats, ship getting unacquainted.
jackmac
@Nicole: Same situation here. My parents died when I was a kid, so SS Survivors Benefits, especially through college, were a lifeline for me. That’s why I particularly hate that piece of s**t.
Wild Cat
Ryan? Well, if he modifies a tad, he has a great future ahead of him as an AARP centerfold.
MomSense
I probably hate Fuck You Paul Ryan more than all the other Republicans except for McConnell. Ryan gets off on harming the poor, elderly, and infirm. He’s a monster. McConnell’s actions seem designed to destroy our democracy. He has no respect for our constitution. He’s another monster.
I just want to see the source of every cent of both of their PACs and Is like Ryan questioned about using material stolen by Wikileaks in campaign ads. Wouldn’t mind knowing why both of those monsters didn’t put country ahead of their own greed and party when they were told of Russian interference in 2016.
Elizabelle
@hueyplong: It would have been that bright Kevin McCarthy, before wonk Ryan told him to put a sock in it.
Meanwhile, Dana Rohrabacher is still in Congress. For now.
Yarrow
@hueyplong: There’s a reason Paul Ryan shut down McCarthy when he said that and it isn’t because Ryan is so committed to his Republican “family.” Paul Ryan knows all about the treason; he’s complicit. He didn’t want that info getting out. Too bad.
aimai
@O. Felix Culpa: I would not be at all surprised if he is retiring to spend more time with his lawyers. They have to know that if they lose the house, with alltheFBI stuff that is flying around, there isn’t going to be any more extension of comity across party lines. If there is something actionable–and I’d bet my bottom dollar that Ryan’s corruption is pretty deep–someone with prosecuting authority is going to get their hands on the material and its going to put him in serious legal jeopardy.
The Dangerman
Bear with me; just got up. Not even any coffee yet.
Did Trump just tweet a dare to Russia to get into an actual, direct, shooting conflict? Really? Damn, that could be one helluva Wag The Dog.
MattF
@Elizabelle: I was wondering the other day what Nunes was up to. Sounds like he’s not quite realized that from here on, he’s gonna have to fend for himself.
MattF
@aimai: And Ryan can bat those blue eyes as much as he can, but it won’t help.
LAO
@Elizabelle: Boehner is into the marijuana these days.
ET
Just saw a clip of Ryan heading to his announcement and he looked happy, relieved, and like a man who had a huge (tRump) size weight lifted off his shoulders.
Betty Cracker
@magurakurin: I’ve heard folks say Turner voted for Stein and it wouldn’t surprise me at all because she refused to say she backed Clinton and briefly considered being Stein’s running mate. But do you have a link to a source handy? I’ve never seen or read a clip of Turner admitting she voted for Stein.
LAO
@The Dangerman: Don’t worry, he followed up with a truly astoundingly ass-kissing tweet.
O. Felix Culpa
@aimai:
From your keyboard to the BJ deity of choice’s ears!
Ridnik Chrome
I had a crap commute this morning, and arrived at work in a truly foul mood, but this puts a smile on my face. So long, asshole! Don’t let the door hit you on your way out.
ETA @Karen S.: Wins the thread
Ruckus
@Obvious Russian Troll:
It’s extremely appropriate.
Those cockroaches aren’t smart enough to know that they shouldn’t turn on the light. And they are far too dumb to know they shouldn’t have shouted from the rooftops as they were turning it on.
tobie
@Immanentize: Gawd, those guys are assholes. I had forgotten the story that Pelosi requested the removal of non-biodegradeable utensils and styrofoam from the House cafeteria. What jerk would protest something like this?
The Dangerman
@ET:
Damn, need coffee stat; I read that initially as “huge dump”. Hey, that would make me happy and relieved.
Elizabelle
@ET: Zippity doo dah!
A FB friend thinks Ryan is stepping down because of NRA $$$ trail. No idea, but bring that puppy on.
satby
@Immanentize:
plastic is made from petroleum products. The Republicans are very clear about who they work for, always.
Roger Moore
@Immanentize:
Part of which involves removing obstacles deliberately put there by Republicans to keep Democrats from voting. This is why I think the first order of business when the Democrats get back control is a revamped VRA.
germy
@LAO:
So all that booze turned out to be the gateway drug.
O. Felix Culpa
@tobie:
A Republican jerk? But I repeat myself.
jackmac
@O. Felix Culpa: As orchestrated by the great Nancy Faust on the Comiskey Park organ!
tobie
Is Kevin McCarthy’s district (CA 23, covering Bakersfield) competitive? I gather he has four Democratic challengers.
NotMax
Ryan playing the “need to spend more time with my family” card in his statement, touting tax bill and bloating the military budget as accomplishments.
p.a.
Interesting problem in political economy: with so many wingnuts retiring, will the Wingnut Wurlitzer extract a value discount when they clamp on the teat?
O. Felix Culpa
@jackmac: Woot! Loved Nancy. Hate the nasty metal music (or whatever it is) they blare at us now.
ETA: Get off my lawn, etc. etc.
Shalimar
Ryan said it wouldn’t be honest to run for re-election knowing he was going to resign right after the election was over. Maybe the first true, honorable thing Paul Ryan has ever said.
catclub
@O. Felix Culpa:
somebody pointed out that Cohen was on the RNC finance committee. I would also look for news on the NRA- Russia cash connection.
TOP123
@The Dangerman: I haven’t had coffee yet but am awake enough to be horrified by what you wrote!
germy
Good news for Paul Nehlen.
SFAW
@japa21:
Ask Villago, he might be able to help you with that one.
Mike in NC
ZEGS will live in comfortable retirement thanks to the NRA and Russian mafia money. Fuck him.
LAO
@NotMax: My eyes rolled so far back in my head that I have a headache now.
@germy: Indeed excellent news.
catclub
@Shalimar: But announcing his resignation kills ( or at least harms) his fundraising power. I am even more surprised he has killed that – his primary job was fundraising for House elections.
scav
@Immanentize:
Apparently there’s a constituency needing representation. A switch away from styrofoam was noted as a self-evident harbringer of restaurant decline by an otherwise seeming sane & jovial man down the street. (and he objected to a switch to china!)
LAO
And now, my head has exploded. What a load of crap:
Immanentize
@Roger Moore:
This. Re-enacting Section 5 pre-clearance, particularly.
LAO
@catclub: He sure has. I read something this am, that the focus of the GOP fundraising was going to be directed at “saving” the Senate and concede the House.
SiubhanDuinne
@tobie:
She led/signed on to an effort to “green” the cafeteria — organic menu offerings, compostible utensils, energy-saving measures. As soon as the GOP were back in power, they (unsurprisingly) reversed these initiatives.
catclub
@germy:
No, he is the money source for LOTS of House campaigns. His own campaign needs only a fraction of what he takes in.
catclub
@LAO: Yep. The other thing reported is that Ryan is no longer a fit ( at the moment) with the Trumpian GOP.
Elizabelle
@MattF: I want to see Devin Nunes indicted, and hope he gets prison time. He’s a bad one.
Roger Moore
@satby:
An increasing amount of plastic is made from plant-based materials. We’ve stuck with petroleum for a long time because it’s cheap and readily available, but it’s never been the only source of plastics. In fact, the oldest plastics were ones like cellulose acetate that came from plants, so we’re just going back to the way things used to be. Even a lot of the plastics that are currently based on petroleum could be made from other feedstocks if people tried.
JMG
I’ve got to say that the vision of a hopelessly stoned John Boehner is the cheeriest political thought in quite some time.
NotMax
@LAO
All that was missing was “You won’t have Eddie Munster to kick around any more.”
Brachiator
Just recently got up and got my day started, and already the news is blowing up. Ryan bows out? Starving grannies everywhere are breathing a little easier.
And it’s only Wednesday.
schrodingers_cat
Delusional Navarro
LAO
kindness
Ryan is safe/secure. No doubt Scott Walker will name him a Wisconsin judge or something and the Kochs will continue to toss money his way. His work isn’t over. Lobbyist though? I doubt it. Too far a fall from the graces he now lives.
TOP123
@Balconesfault: I’m curious, as it’s hard to tell from Austin, but I also wonder if they’ve worked so hard to fix it for Republicans that the whole thing might be shaky. My delightful Republican Congressman represents a weird long skein of a map from where I live by the Congress bridge within a long walk from the state Capitol down to basically Houston. For the general reader, If you’re not from Texas, look at a map to see what I’m talking about; I’m trying to maintain optimism that it’s weird creaky districts like that that will finally let TX get represented. Yes, we have a ton of the people you describe, but in a state of ~28MM people, we’ve got lots of folks on our side: we need to get out the vote.
Roger Moore
@p.a.:
I predict there will still be good paying jobs in the wingnut welfare circuit, but they’ll only go to the wingnuts with the best, most valuable records, with the rest of the crew scrambling for whatever they can find. OTOH, the Ryan tax cut has given the sponsors of wingnut welfare a lot more money to work with, so they could probably afford the increase in number of recipients without any real trouble.
MattF
@LAO: The notion of ‘assurances’ from the WH being believable is a several steps below hoping that the Tooth Fairy leaves a whole dollar under your pillow rather than just a quarter.
Litlebritdifrnt
@tobie: The same kind of jerk who runs his SUV sitting in the driveway all day to counter “protest” Earth day. I still say that Obama could have done us all a favour and made a stern announcement about the dangers of drinking bleach. It would have thinned the herd overnight.
jonas
@MattF:
We all know tofu and kale turn you into a lesbian. It’s in Revelations, people!
SiubhanDuinne
@tobie:
Well………
NotMax
Headlines we’d like to see, #119,846.
Paul Ryan Sees Handwriting On Wall, Turns Tail and Runs Away.
Princess
@droog: Roy Moore won’t. But Paul Nehlen (neo-Nazi who primaried Ryan last time) certainly will.
I hope carny Myers will be the Dem nominee. She is more likely to appeal to the nervous, respectable GOP voters than Bryce is.
DesertFriar
He’s retiring so he won’t be shown as a loser in the up-coming election.
He’ll run for President in 2024 as part of the “Republican Rebranding v6.2”. The MSM will ask him what he can do to fix the country from the Democratic monopoly in the Federal Government. He’ll answer “I’d explain it to you, but it would take too long”. The MSM will swoon and say what a great wonk.
GregB
Paul Ryan is retiring to spend more time kicking homeless people in the teeth.
Roger Moore
@Shalimar:
Not. He’s not running for reelection because he thinks he’s going to lose. Any other story is just a bunch of noble-sounding bullshit intended to gull the rubes.
Elizabelle
@schrodingers_cat: A dispatch from Bizarro World.
Ryan found his voice. He brayed fulsomely in support of the tax cuts giveaway to the rich. Ryan is hardly voiceless. Nor is he honorable.
tobie
@kindness: The RNC was run for some time by the boys from Wisconsin: Ryan, Priebus, and Spicer with plenty of assists from Scott Walker. Nothing would give me greater pleasure than to see all four exposed as a criminal cabal.
rikyrah
@germy:
As long as he pays taxes on it….NOPE.
schrodingers_cat
Was Ryan afraid of losing the primary or the general?
GregB
Breaking news from Haaretz.
Assad forces empty military bases and evacuate airports.
We are on the precipice of some big shit.
rikyrah
@Immanentize:
ABSOLUTE TRUTH
scav
@LAO: What!? You doubt assertations that the psychotic windsock is actually a compass?
dmsilev
@schrodingers_cat: He “found his voice” plenty well enough in the years Before Trump. He was a sociopath then and is a sociopath now.
It kind of saddens me that Pelosi felt compelled to say vaguely nice things about Ryan this morning (“Despite our differences, I commend his steadfast commitment to our country, During his final months, Democrats are hopeful that he joins us to work constructively to advance better futures for all Americans.”). I understand why she did and am not blaming her, but I wish the political environment was such that she could just say “It’s great to know that the Zombie-Eyed Grandmother Slayer won’t be with us much longer. One sociopath down, far too many left to go.”.
Adria McDowell
The RNC was hacked, too. Folks need to remember that.
Ole Paulie “Lies About His Marathon Time, Was Raised Rich, Never Had A Job Outside of D.C., Shakeweight, Doesn’t Know What Leg Day Is” Ryan is caught up in nasty money, too
Couldn’t happen to a worse asshole than this one.
satby
@Roger Moore: I’m aware of that, but the cheapest plastics are petroleum based. I fight with suppliers all the time to try to get them to switch from Styrofoam packing peanuts to the corn based ones.
But I bet the old troglodytes in Congress are less aware of that.
Vhh
@tobie: Paper cups instead of styrofoam. Healthier food options.
Washburn
Wants to spend more time with his teenage children?
That’s nice.
Totally believable, too.
Immanentize
I have beating the “watch the retirements!” drum for months. As of today, 45 (forty five!) Republicans have resigned or are retiring rather than face their district votes in November.
Plus 5 republican Senators have resigned or plan to retire. This is very big.
The numbers for the Dems are 20 House Dems retiring or resigned, one Senator — Franken.
Barbara
And another one and another one and another one bites the dust:
http://www.tampabay.com/florida-politics/buzz/2018/04/11/rep-dennis-ross-is-retiring/
Florida House district in the Lakeland area. I would guess that it is safely Republican, as I have been to Lakeland, but there is also a substantial university community (with the largest number of buildings designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in a single setting in the U.S.) so maybe not as safe as I think. It’s very close to Legoland.
LAO
@Immanentize: Here’s another one to add to the list:
SiubhanDuinne
@NotMax:
I was listening to NPR when Romney announced Ryan as his running mate. One of the hosts was Linda Wertheimer, and she spent several minutes talking about how she had been a sorority sister at college with Ryan’s wife’s mother! It was odd to me that she even mentioned it — I guess it might have been one of those “full-disclosure” things, but then she went on and on about it like a common Andrea Greenspan.
Washburn
@rikyrah:
Yes. There are clearly more democrat leaning people of voting age. Problem is getting them to vote.
GOTV people.
Now is the time to be working on registrations for 2018.
Immanentize
@GregB: I assume that those places are just where Trump told the Russians he intended to strike. Just like last time.
bemused
@Immanentize:
No doubt the same Republicans that stocked up on incandescent light bulbs.
rikyrah
Instead of defending Mueller, some in GOP target him
04/11/18 09:20 AM
By Steve Benen
Late Monday, Donald Trump mused publicly about firing Special Counsel Robert Mueller, which meant there was quite a bit of chatter on Capitol Hill yesterday about what, if anything, lawmakers were prepared to do to shield the investigation from presidential interference.
Most congressional Republicans fell into one of two camps. The first group was made up of GOP lawmakers who shrugged off the president’s comments, assuming he was simply blowing off steam, and that the threat of Trump instigating such a crisis wasn’t real. The second group took the rhetoric a little more seriously, and indirectly warned Trump that even trying to fire Mueller would put his presidency in jeopardy.
But I was especially interested in the third group: the Republicans who aren’t just disinclined to support the special counsel’s work, but who are actually openly hostile toward it.
Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.), for example, seemed surprised when asked about effort to shield the special counsel. “To protect Mueller?” the Georgia Republican said. “I think it’s about time we get to the end of [the] investigation. This looks like an investigation that’s spiraling out of control.”
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) went a little further.
To the extent that reality matters, Mueller didn’t execute the search warrants on Cohen’s office and hotel; the U.S. attorney’s office in New York did.
tobie
@GregB: Thanks for this update. No doubt there will be an expensive fireworks show with lots of Tomahawk missiles fired into Syria in the coming days. The question is what happens after that. This crew has no patience for actual foreign policy.
Jinchi
So does this mean Janesville Republicans are going to be voting for this guy now?
rikyrah
Trump ‘believes’ he can fire Mueller (and he’s taken steps to do so)
04/11/18 08:00 AM—UPDATED 04/11/18 08:14 AM
By Steve Benen
Donald Trump caused a bit of a stir late Monday afternoon, publicly speculating about firing Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Whether the president has the legal authority to do so directly, however, is a subject of some debate.
And yet, there was White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders telling reporters yesterday that Trump “certainly believes he has the power” to oust the special counsel.
There are multiple problems with this. First, by several accounts, it may be wrong. Second, Sanders’ comments suggest this has been the topic of some conversation at the White House, inching Team Trump closer to a possible crisis.
And third, it’s not just an academic exercise – because the president has already reportedly taken steps to fire Mueller. The New York Times reported overnight:
Immanentize
@NotMax:
Eddie Munster with a backwards baseball cap
Barbara
@SiubhanDuinne: Ryan’s wife is wealthy. Her family is from Oklahoma and made a lot of money in real estate. I believe the original scion was her grandfather, and the family was prominent and somewhat politically active as Democrats in Oklahoma. I assume that she changed political orientation after she married Ryan, but I also assume that, like Eric Cantor’s wife, she tries to lead a parallel life that bypasses politics entirely. Cantor’s wife (and mother in law) are ultra liberal Democrats.
NotMax
@satby
Just don’t f*ck with the Senate’s navy bean soup.
:)
rikyrah
Exclusive: Letter shows Mueller asked for Boente interview
Rachel Maddow offers an exclusive look at newly obtained documents, one of which appears to be a letter from former acting attorney general Dana Boente informing the Department of Justice that he has been asked to testify for Robert Mueller’s investigation.
Apr.10.2018
The Moar You Know
Republicans In Disarray, said no headline ever.
bemused
@tobie:
Cleeks’ Law. Anything proposed by liberals is instantly rejected. No lefty, commie, elitist is going to tell them what to do.
Matt McIrvin
@Immanentize: electoral-vote.com has a page totalling up the numbers, but it’s already out of date. But it looks like that number for the Democrats is pretty typical for a House election year (and my rep is one of those retiring), whereas the Republicans are way, way above trend.
There are conflicting incentives. If you’re a good party soldier you’d want to retire in a year when your party has the wind at its back, whereas there’s always the temptation to stay in if getting reelected would be a breeze.
randy khan
@Frankensteinbeck:
I think it’s somewhere between forced out and left because he was tired of the shenanigans. He knew that cutting a deal with the Dems to avoid defaulting on the debt was going to make it impossible for him to run the Republican caucus, and eventually would lead to him being deposed. Rather than let that happen, he left.
I’m not remotely a fan of Boehner, but compared to the current crowd he looks like a shining example of patriotism. At least he got that you don’t do something motivated by ideological craziness if it’s going to crater the economy.
California Stars
Very off topic, but any input about whether Nunes actually *can* impeach Rosenstein? Like, is that a thing he can do, or is he just screeching loudly to provide cover?
rikyrah
Exclusive: Handwritten notes appear to back Comey claims on Trump
Rachel Maddow shares exclusive details from what are believed to be former acting assistant attorney general Dana Boente’s handwritten notes taken contemporaneously with talks with James Comey, corroborating Comey’s testimony about what Donald Trump said to him.
Immanentize
@Barbara: 46
rikyrah
Exclusive documents show underpinnings of Trump obstruction case
Jed Shugerman, Fordham University law professor, talks with Rachel Maddow about what conclusions can be drawn from exclusive documents obtained by TRMS, including what are believed to be the handwritten notes of Dana Boente on his conversation with James Comey on Comey’s interactions with Donald Trump.
Omnes Omnibus
@droog: I hope you get lice.
rikyrah
Obstruction seen in reports of Trump desire to fire Mueller
Rep. Adam Schiff, top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committe, talks with Rachel Maddow about new reports about Donald Trump’s desire to fire his way out of the Russia investigation, and the significance of new TRMS reporting that Dana Boente has been summoned to speak to Robert Mueller’s investigators.
Immanentize
@bemused: That’s funny. I actually have two kitchen light light fixtures from the 1950’s that absolutely need 100w incandescent bulbs — until they finally make LED ones small enough to be the size of a regular old bulb. I have a small (dwindling) stock, horded away. I never thought to contact Congresscritters!
rikyrah
UH HUH
UH HUH
Here’s what you need to know about Paul Ryan. His main regret as he leaves Congress is that he failed to take health care away from more people.
— Dan Pfeiffer (@danpfeiffer) April 11, 2018
MomSense
In honor of this blessed retirement event, I’m posting an oldie but goodie.
Live blogging joe biden paul ryan debate without sound
rikyrah
Another one
Rep. Dennis Ross, R-Fla, informed staff this morning he is retiring. https://t.co/GM24cxSbmp
— Alex Leary (@learyreports) April 11, 2018
Fair Economist
@dmsilev:
None, as you point out, which makes me wonder if Ryan faces some threat we don’t know about, like having been caught in the Russia investigation.
Immanentize
@Matt McIrvin: Here is the list I use: it was last updated with Ryan:
The press gallery Casualty List on house.gov
Immanentize
@Fair Economist: Boehner did.
Fair Economist
@rikyrah:
Two in a day and it’s early yet. This deserves a soundtrack.
SiubhanDuinne
@JMG:
Maybe they could re-shoot that scene from Obama’s final WHCD video.
Barbara
@Matt McIrvin: I think the standard thinking is that if you think you can win as an incumbent but the open seat would be a much heavier lift, you stick around until a cycle where the open seat would be easier to retain. This is what Frank Wolf did, in his successful plan to keep VA-10 Republican (currently occupied by the execrable Barbara Comstock, who, I fervently hope, will be gone come January 2019). If the seat is safe, it doesn’t matter when you go. But we are seeing some moves that are at odds with that pattern. Ryan Costello in Eastern Pennsylvania won’t be running again, even though it’s too late for his party to field a stronger candidate than the one who was contesting him in the primary. Paul Ryan’s seat is not safe, especially since the other Republican running is a neo-Nazi. No idea whether a theoretically stronger candidate will enter the field.
NotMax
@Immanentize
They’re out there.
Costco has amazing sale prices on LED bulbs at least once per quarter. Got a pack of eight there for under four bucks.
Fair Economist
@Immanentize: Boehner is kind of a judgement call. He was under very significant pressure and unlikely to keep the Speakership in the next term, at least. It wasn’t just saying “eh, I don’t want to do this anymore” as Ryan’s announcement does (officially).
bemused
@Immanentize:
We have some inlaws that probably did stock up and if I ever see their basement, I’m going to look around to see if my hunch is right, lol. Iirc, I think one of them scoffed and was angry when the energy efficient light bulbs came on the market. It’s that knee jerk reaction they have to almost anything new. Too expensive, forcing us to give up the cheaper option, yadda, yadda, refusing to believe the cost would come down and the new bulbs would last much longer saving money in the longer run. They don’t really like free enterprise and competition as much as they claim to.
Gin & Tonic
@Barbara:
A “scion” is a descendant. So if grandpa made a fortune and pa inherited it, he’s the scion.
Your morning pedantry; you’re welcome.
Barbara
@rikyrah: And failed to force more people to work even longer before qualifying for a much reduced Social Security benefit.
Of course, when he does manage to find a private job for the first time in his life, it will likely be in the capacity of lobbying politicians or working for a company that relies on public contracts.
? Martin
@tobie: No, but these are exceptional times.
Aleta
@tobie: @Immanentize: with an undercurrent of “mess up what we’re doing here”
@MattF: Also, the danger for the Republican party right now is if it splits.
It’s been said that a Republican party split is what kept McCarthy from ascending to even more power, and that the R split helped protect Eisenhower’s power. Eisenhower had already appointed Warren (recess appointment btw), whose court was rehearing and deciding Brown vs BoE during the time of McCarthy’s Sen. hearings. E went on to appoint Brennan, and civil rights progress and liberal history (eventually Voting Rights Act) were made by that court. Our Rw-ers/ libertarians are trying to undo it.
I wonder if some of what we’re seeing now, like some R resignations, is related to manipulations by the Kochs and their ilk and donors like Mercer, to prevent a R split. They’re desperate.
My understanding is that it was also a Congressional R split, Republican opposition, that forced Nixon to resign because his R support was lost and they were ready to impeach.
Barbara
@Gin & Tonic: Actually, thanks! I hate being wrong about vocabulary. Okay, so her grandfather was the original source of the wealth.
Nicole
Jennifer Rubin was pretty blistering. I’m meh on her; I think she’ll return to her screw the poor roots once Trump is gone, but I liked her op-ed today on Ryan, other than the obligatory “both sides do it” regarding tribalism (no, Jen. No they don’t). From the piece:
“Instead of achieving the entire GOP agenda, Ryan will leave a besmirched legacy defined by his decision to back, enable and defend Trump, no matter how objectionable Trump’s rhetoric and conduct. Ryan has come to embody the nasty scourge of tribalism that dominates our politics. The inability to separate partisan loyalty from patriotic obligation — or to assess the interests of the country and the need to defend democratic norms and institutions — is proving to be the downfall of the Republican Party and the principle threat to our liberal (small “l”) democracy. And no one is more responsible for this than Ryan. No one.”
Immanentize
@NotMax: Thank you!!
Chris
Paul Ryan: “Gentlemen, the time has come to act, and act now! I’m leaving.”
Immanentize
@Fair Economist: I think Ryan is in exactly the same place as Boehner, maybe even in a worse place as the Reps may not keep the Speakership. Ryan would be gone in a flash as minority leader if they did not retain the majority. Boehner went out high, Ryan is going out low.
Fair Economist
@japa21:
Yes, why would networks want to inform us what a corrupt incompetent loser thinks of Paul Ryan?
That was a rhetorical question.
Immanentize
@Nicole:
Except for McConnel. Garland.
MoxieM
@SiubhanDuinne: Well–she might have gone to college with ZEGS’s future MIL’s sister or whomever, but she wasn’t a sorority sister: Wellesley doesn’t have them, and never did.
No argument with the spirit of your comment however!
Aleta
@NotMax: thanks for the link
Barbara
@Aleta: During the Watergate era there were still Republican senators from northeastern states, as well as Illinois, and the West Coast (which really didn’t become a liberal bastion until quite recently). There were also southern Democrats (Sam Ervin) and so on. There were dead enders of course, who would have stood by Nixon under any circumstances, but there were many fewer as a proportion of the party and of either branch of Congress. Currently, I think there is a point at which donors (if not the voting base) will signal their willingness to abandon Trump — the tax bill was probably a milestone — and the next milestone might be incumbents getting through Republican primaries and not having to run based on allegiance to Trump. I don’t have any real idea about this, but the casual threats of tariffs and trashing the economy has done a lot and will do more to offset whatever benefit many received from the tax bill.
ETA: Jacob Javits, for instance, was a Republican. It’s impossible to imagine Javits being a Republican today.
Immanentize
@Immanentize: hit publish, then edit function fail —
McConnell. Garland/Gorsuch (is what it was supposed to say)
germy
@NotMax: I love LEDs.
I’ve got some outside lights that I want to replace with LEDs, but I need to find the kind that don’t mind being enclosed. I think they make a special LED for that.
Elizabelle
NPR at 11:00 am: to effect of “unlike the other retiring Republicans, Ryan was expected to keep his seat.”
Really NPR? Do you know that, for a fact?
NPR. “Not our fault we’re often the last to know.” We are Nice. Polite. Republicans.
Barbara
@Elizabelle: Odds are that Ryan would have won. Not necessarily, it would have been close, but in the end I expect that he would have pulled it off. Of course, his internal polling might have told a different story and his departure might be as simple as that.
? Martin
@bemused: California is very proud of this graph. A lot of people say ‘oh its easy to have low power bills in CA because of the nice climate’ but back in the 70s CAs climate was the same, yet power usage was in line with the nation. That graph is a measure of the state’s embrace of energy consumption, supported by energy policy that incentivizes energy producers to generate less electricity, so the producers are paying for most of the rebates in the state. The CFDs we installed 15 years ago were free. The LEDs that replaced them were also free.
And the climate argument never made much sense to me anyway. Most people don’t heat their house with electricity, but everyone cools with electricity, and some of the most populous parts of the state are desert. Go ask anyone in Riverside Co. (pop 2.5M) if they don’t use their air conditioners much.
So instead of coal we buy fruits, nuts, and yoga. We’re cool with that.
MattF
@Nicole: As Rubin says, Ryan’s protection of Nunes is the giveaway. It’s inexplicable if you buy the concept that Ryan disapproves of Trump. It’s like the little boy who hides in a cardboard box– if you can’t see him, he thinks he’s invisible. Of course the media should have taken note. E.g., someone is protecting Nunes– who could that possibly be?
Immanentize
@Chris:
Hello, I must be going…
Groucho. This is one of the Immp’s favorites since he was three. “Did someone call me Shnorrer?”
trollhattan
@DesertFriar:
Your prediction seems depressingly plausible. A little grey at the temples and he’s Republican presidential timber.
David Evans
@Immanentize: IKEA are selling some very small LED bulbs now. I would think you can probably find some to fit, if you want.
Rommie
@feebog: Full speed into the iceberg probably saves the ship, even if it’s all kinds of messed up. But NO, we’ll ignore reality and try to go around it anyway, and gouge a nice hole down the entire side, the only way you could f*** it up and sink the boat.
Sounds about right.
Nicole
@dmsilev: Eh, good for Pelosi. You know she’s doing the dancing girl GIF back in her office. ;)
ETA: forgot linky to dancing girl!
https://tenor.com/view/dancing-girl-gif-8106936
Fair Economist
@Immanentize:
The “quality” of the retirees is very high too. Several committee chairs and now the speaker. AFAIK, there’s never been a wave of retirements among the people in power in Congress.
Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)
Bye, Felicia.
dww44
@rikyrah: Remember, loser Perdue was among the very first on the Trump bandwagon and got elected because of his last name (Sonny Perdue, current Secy of Agriculture 7 former governor is his cousin) even though the GOP made a big deal about Dem candidate Michelle Nunn riding to high public office on her father’s coattails. Neither one of them had held elected public office before. Michelle was the better candidate, but guess she didn’t really have the stomach for it and returned to the non-profit world. Let’s face it;GOP voters don’t vote for nice people.
I cannot adequately voice my deep disdain and dislike of David Perdue and am not surprised that he thinks Mueller has gone too far. Like his idol, Perdue has no real understanding or appreciation for the rule of law nor of an actual functioning democracy. Our only way forward is to throw these folks out of office. He needs a really good Democrat to run against him in 2020.
Barbara
@DesertFriar: By 2024 no one will remember who Ryan is. I am serious about that. Seizing the moment is a real thing in politics and his moment really would have been 2016. Every other Republican understood that, that’s why so many ran. Not to say he would have bested Trump, but that was the year for him to run.
MattF
@Immanentize: The initial obstacle to LEDs was thermal– you’ve got quite a bit of power going in and quite a bit of heat going out– it took several years to solve that in an economical way, but now it’s done.
Immanentize
@David Evans: Thanks. I need to get to Ikea anyway in the coming weeks.
germy
SiubhanDuinne
@Barbara:
Thanks. Interesting background.
MattF
@germy: I suppose stemming the tide here is up to McConnell now.
Just One More Canuck
@Roger Moore: I was reading this morning about a new type of bottle made from agar (algae and formed into a mould. The liquid keeps the bottle in its shape, and the bottle breaks down once it’s emptied
https://www.sciencealert.com/this-biodegradable-algae-based-water-bottle-breaks-down-when-it-s-empty
Archon
@Nicole: Paul Ryan is scum but no worse then the past few Republican Speakers. The one person most responsible for the current state of our politics in my opinion is Mitch McConnell.
Frankensteinbeck
@randy khan:
It was already impossible for him to run the House. Remember how time and again he tried to pass Republican only budgets and failed, instead having to crawl to the Dems? He was able to pass all kinds of symbolic votes nobody cared about, like repealing Obamacare. He had no control over his caucus, ever.
I want to connect this to @Immanentize:
You are giving Boehner way, way too much credit. Ryan knuckles under and passes budgets and debt increases more willingly than Boehner did. It was Boehner, and no one else, who came up with this insane, twisted version of the so-called Hastert Rule that Hastert himself did not use. Boehner went all in on obstruction to a degree matched only by McConnell. He managed to dump all the blame on the Teabaggers, partly because they wanted it. They had no power, not enough numbers to affect anything, without Boehner going extremist.
Fair Economist
@Elizabelle:
That’s just *so* wrong. There have been lots of retirements this cycle where the Republican was thought to have a clear edge or even almost a guaranteed re-election and wasn’t 65+.
Elizabelle
@Archon: I want McConnell to hang. By his neck. For treason.
Or life in a Supermax. I’m OK with that too.
Ignominy, either way.
Chris Johnson
@Navarro:
He’ll be free to fly to Moscow as fast as he can, his job well done.
Fucker.
Fair Economist
@? Martin: I love California.
Elizabelle
NY Mag:
Somebody needs to tell NPR. Pretty Boy Ryan was not sitting as prettily as he might have liked.
Ridnik Chrome
@Elizabelle: I want McConnell to be placed in stocks and pelted with manure. Because rotten vegetables are too good for him.
WaterGirl
@NotMax: You are right about that, and your wording gave me a chuckle.
WaterGirl
@Balconesfault: I so loathe Evan Bayh.
? Martin
@Fair Economist: We’re not perfect, but we are trying pretty damn hard. A lot of credit to Jerry Brown.
Karen S.
@Ridnik Chrome:
Thanks! I figured it’s either that or he’s retiring to spend more time with his gym equipment.
Nicole
@Archon:
Eh, I might give it to Nixon. Or Reagan. Or Atwater. Sooooo many (all Republican) choices!
But yes, McConnell is a horrible, horrible human being and makes me wish I believed in an afterlife so I could take comfort in the idea that he’d spend eternity miserable.
SiubhanDuinne
@MoxieM:
Ah, might have been a roommate, then; anyhow, someone she knew well. (Now you’re going to tell me they didn’t have rooms at Wellesley.)
Chris Johnson
@Fair Economist: Not caught in the investigation, so much as: in it up to the neck with Russia treason.
And, they just busted one of the RNC finance guys and raided his office.
I don’t think Ryan’s going to stop at resigning. I am unironically expecting him to flee the country, to vanish. He knows what he did.
rikyrah
@Elizabelle:
Come sit by me.
Adria McDowell
@rikyrah: That DJ Khaled gif is gonna get worn out!
Elizabelle
Just had high speed internet installed yesterday. With trepidation. I was enjoying the non-online life for a week. (Read 3.5 books, and started rereading a social/labor history of the 1870s-WW1 — Standing at Armageddon, by Nell Irvin Painter, published in 1987.)
Anyway, today’s wonk Ryan news has been worth every penny and destroyed attentional span.
PaulWartenberg
I’m seeing an argument on Twitter that because of this retirement (but that he’s not stepping down immediately) the House can’t vote on any more legislation. Which sounds very weird and probably wrong, so I need to ask everyone else “DOES THIS MEAN WE’RE SCREWED OR THAT WE CAN PAR-TAY!”
Elizabelle
In moderation. Not sure why.
Citizen Alan
@Balconesfault:
This isn’t the tiniest bit scientific, but my personal estimate is that for every one person who voted for Jill Stein, at least three simply stayed home because they bought the idiotic framing that there was no difference between Democrats and Republicans, but couldn’t be bothered to drive all the way to the polls just to make a protest vote in favor of a third party. That realization is why now, 18 years too late, I am finally wise enough to be embarrassed over voting for Nader in 2000 even though I was in Mississippi and a vote for Gore wouldn’t have helped.
Elizabelle
@rikyrah: We may have to take up knitting. (Mesdames Lafarge.)
Mnemosyne can show us how.
Brachiator
@schrodingers_cat:
Find his voice? I always thought that Ryan was a ventriloquist’s dummy.
Adria McDowell
@Omnes Omnibus: This is the best insult I have ever read on any blog. I really did cackle!
Mandalay
@Nicole:
Well Rubin has that wrong. The answer is Mitch McConnell and it’s not even close.
Chyron HR
@germy:
The Special Counsel Independence and Integrity Act can’t stop Trump from firing the special “council”. (Guy tapping forehead meme image.jpg)
Elizabelle
Direct quote from NPR news recap at noon.
Citizen Alan
@Immanentize:
Even better — to overcome the Constitutional issues (fraudulently) raised by the Roberts Court, they would have to extend the preclearance provisions to every state in the Union. Which in my opinion that they should have done from the start.
Immanentize
@Citizen Alan: I’m with you on that — and I think the constitution would allow that under the elections clause for federal elections. It was the UNFAIRNESS (boo hoo!) of singling out past racist jurisdictions that so upset the court. Sec. 5 preclearance for all suits me fine.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
I’d like to tell a story about Mitch McConnell, one of the major architects of this pickle.
Once upon a time as a very young lawyer, I liked hearing stories from older lawyers in the coffee shop at the courthouse. As a whole, the older lawyers back then drank too much, smoked like chimneys, ate disastrous diets, were allergic to exercise, ignored their women and children, were flexible in their accountability on marriage and taxes, and their personal lives were generally disastrous. Despite all that, though, their legal work was decent, they knew where all the bodies were buried and they could tell stories and histories in ways which were compelling and funny. There was one group of them which I liked a bit better than the rest – their shit was somewhat more together, and they each had held responsible positions in local government and maintained lines of communication within that structure, so their information was, over time, proven on the money over and over again.
Wind the clock back to 1988-1990. Mitch McConnell was coming to the end of his first Senate term, and people were speculating on whether he could get re-elected. At the time I was mildly Republican, and had distinguished my political activism to date by calling McConnell a “Howdy Doody-looking motherfucker” as he was putting some display materials in his car trunk after a local GOP event prior to his initial Senate run. He’d have been the County Judge-Executive for Jefferson County (the county which contained the City of Louisville prior to merger – for all practical purposes his only governing responsibility was for the unincorporated areas consisting of what would now be considered Trump’s base – blue collar tract homes and a few enclaves of wealthy white people).
Anyway, the men I was gleaning this story from were Republicans – all but one of which are dead now. Included in the group were a former city safety director (death by suicide), former police court judge (death by old age), a former city attorney (alive, but looks terrible and is now a raging wingnut) and a serving state senator (died of ALS). What they advised was this – while McConnell was the County Judge-Executive, he had a penchant for underaged males, and that his police driver had caught him and taken photographs. The safety director and state senator both confirmed having seen the photos, and the former police court judge and city lawyer confirmed being told about them roughly contemporaneous with the snaps of the photos. There was a limited production sequence on these photos.
Back in those days, the Bingham family published the Courier Journal. They were unabashedly liberal but also fair minded. Barry Bingham III hated McConnell and viewed him as a threat to pretty much everybody; the words I heard at the time at that coffee table were (this is as close as memory allows) “Barry thinks the sonofabitch has higher aspirations, so he managed to grab hold of all the photos and is keeping them as insurance – he’s let McConnell know that he’ll let him keep being Senator but will let him go no further or the pictures come out of the safe”.
Now, I haven’t seen the photos, but I knew the men who told me the tale, and know that they were not bullshit artists on good gossip like that. Sadly, I suspect that the photos are long gone, and probably disappeared around the time that the Courier Journal got sold. McConnell is still wreaking his havoc, though, and may be doing it for revenge.
Shalimar
@Roger Moore: I think it would be fairer to say that Ryan knows he is retiring and this is his last Congress, so it isn’t worth the risk of loss just to help the party. Which isn’t much different. As Catclub points out, running again and then quitting would definitely be better for the party from a fundraising/leadership perspective. But I still consider it fundamentally dishonest to the voters in his district to run and then quit so they have to immediately pay for another election for the same seat, so I don’t really care how Ryan reaches what I consider to be the honorable position. You’re probably right that his actual reasoning is purely selfish. I am convinced that Ryan is a sociopath.
schrodingers_cat
@Elizabelle: I know how, learned as a teen, for a needlework and sewing class. Just never had the desire to pick it up again.
schrodingers_cat
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Well if one can find the object/s of his affection (interest) who will kiss and tell, photos may be redundant.
Frankensteinbeck
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
I am moderately confident he’s just a mean-ass, racist patrician asshole and feels any America where a black man could become his boss should be burned to the ground.
The Moar You Know
@bemused: I will say this: I have been using LED bulbs since 2006 and converted my house with the exception of one room (on an old-school dimmer) fully in 2011. You do it because it’s the right thing to do, but they don’t last longer than the old incandescents. I’m replacing a couple a year. Someone needs to do the math on that. So far, the winners of the longevity sweepstakes have been the incandescents on the dimmer in the kitchen by a mile. They also use more power than every other light in the house combined. The CFL bulbs in the garage are a close second. All but one that I installed in 2011 are still working.
Some of the old LED bulbs had serious RFI issues and played havoc with both my ham radio hobby and the wireless router. The new ones don’t.
Still the right thing to do, but the tech still needs work.
Mnemosyne
@Elizabelle:
MomSense is the semi-pro — I think she was selling pink hats on Etsy for the women’s march.
germy
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Does Elaine Chao know about this?
Cckids
@Roger Moore: Yes! Re-affirming Democrat’s commitment to EVERYONES voting rights is vital.
As for the Supreme’s argument that Sec. 5 unfairly singles out some districts/states? FINE. Apply it nationwide, all the better. It takes a major argument away from the Repubs, and tells normal people that no, both sides aren’t the same. Bring it on.
Citizen Alan
@Nicole:
I cling irrationally to the belief that there is an afterlife because if I didn’t, I’d give in to despair over the number of demonstrably evil people who will die peacefully in their beds without ever getting the Justice they deserve. Honestly, I care more about there being a hell than I do about there being a heaven.
Matt McIrvin
CNN article with a great graph of retirements.
catclub
@Immanentize:
Except Ruth Ginsberg pointed out in her dissent that almost all the jurisdictions under preclearance were continuing to violate the VRA, plus there was a procedure for getting out of preclearance that those same jurisdictions never were able to complete. The ‘past racists’ were also present racists.
randy khan
@PaulWartenberg:
It’s ridiculously wrong. I mean, first, he isn’t leaving until the end of his term, so there’s no vacancy. But, second, House rules permit someone other than the Speaker to preside, and people other than the Speaker preside all the time. (Ditto for the Senate, where the VP typically isn’t there unless needed to break a tie.)
MoxieM
@SiubhanDuinne: ::snerk:: yes, rooms… but, Smith (on the other hand) doesn’t have dorms, it has “Houses”.
Easy to make fun of the Linda Wertheimers of the world–I think she was a few years before a certain Hillary Rodham at Wellesley–but those women were pioneers, and the willingness and ability to tackle bullshit mountain came in no small part from the community they learned there.
Linda Wertheimer is not Cokie “Bullshit” Roberts Boggs.
Kay
This makes me ridiculously happy. Everyone hates the straight-up evil Republicans but they’re bearable. It’s the wide-eyed sanctimonious frauds that drive me right ’round the bend.
He’ll make a ton of money from wingnuts welfare and with any luck we’ll never have to listen to him again.
germy
Shana
@droog: I believe I saw that there’s already an avowed white supremicist running in the GOP primary for that district. Hello Congressman Ironstasch.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@germy:
Likely, she knows.
RSA
@Roger Moore:
Cool! I had no idea.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-plastic-from-plants-good-for-the-environment-or-bad/
Comrade
He couldn’t wait long enough to get kicked out by Randy Bryce, SO SAD!
germy
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: So… a union of convenience for the sake of political power (for both of them)?
danielx
The Village is in mourning. Whatever will they do without their favorite Republican policy guy to lend an air of reason to looting and burning?
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@germy:
Absolutely. She’s worse than he is in her own way.
Uncle Cosmo
@bemused: A friend’s very substantial house is entirely lit by incandescents. When I asked him why he hadn’t switched to CFLs or LEDs he said that either type flickers enough (from the AC cycle) to give him headaches. Apparently about 1 in 4,000 people experience this. I don’t know if it’s actual for him or if his libertarian resistance to just about anything “green” is creating a self-fulfilling prophecy…but it looks like if he can wire up his light sockets with DC (e.g. from solar panels) & use LEDs it would solve the problem.
dww44
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Really interesting story and a very believable take on the sexual predilections of the Senator( even tho I had to go check his profile on wikipedia to see if he had/has kids and he does). The pundits have long said that McConnell never aspired to higher office than being a Senator in his beloved Senate. Perhaps the threat of airing dirty laundry tamped down his Presidential amibitions. I believe your sources were correct.
phein55
@Obvious Russian Troll: I heard a variant that went: “Someone turned on the lights at the cockroach factory.”
I think the original imagery of cockroaches standing on end to turn on the light switch is apt, given the incompetence of the swarm and their tendency to scatter when exposed.
The Moar You Know
@Uncle Cosmo: I get this from old CRT computer screens big time and some LED bulbs. Can’t happen with CFLs for a variety of reasons I won’t bore you with.
This would be illegal as shit, against every building code out there (DC is the stuff that stops your heart) and incidentally would fry any modern LED bulb as they are specifically designed to run on 120VAC. There are some places you can get RV LED bulbs that would run on 12VDC but they’re about five years behind the curve as far as color temperature, etc, and not very bright.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@schrodingers_cat:
I waiting for the stern punditial rebuking of Parkland students for bring down the Great Man for daring to question Ryan’s judgment.
Dexfarkin
I wouldn’t be celebrating Ryan’s departure. He was incompetent who managed to help screw up virtually every piece of dangerous legislation the GOP was ready to run through. Even the Tax Bill needed to be bailed out by the Senate.
More importantly, by getting out now, he’s got 6 years to lay low, build his network and start to move towards the nomination in 2024. There’s a reasonable chance the flaming backlash of Trump’s GOP only makes him a footnote, contrasted against much larger, sexier scandals, which these days is pretty much political absolution. We have not seen the last of Ryan by any measure.
lgerard
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
That is an interesting story, but we really need the pictures
One of the things I learned from this book is that when Mitch was in local politics he was a very strong supporter of Planned Parenthood…..how things change!
On arriving in Congress, he also introduced as one of his first bills one of the all time stupidest legislative initiatives ever….a bill authorizing local police to shoot down any planes they thought were engaging in drug trafficking.
That is Gohmert worthy!
Ghost of Joe Lieblings Dog
@Shalimar:
That makes for a genuine WTF moment, for me at least. Since when has Ryan shown any inclination toward even the appearance of honesty?
(I assume the newsies accepted it at face value.)
? Martin
@The Moar You Know:
I’ll argue that point. There’s a lot of variation on LED quality. Reliable ones still cost more. Cheap ones are, well, cheap. We replaced most of ours with LEDs about 6 years ago and have yet to need to replace any. I have some that are a bit older and they’re still going as well. It’s very much a YMMV thing, contingent on what you bought to begin with.
catclub
@The Moar You Know:
This is kind of obvious, but it is also obvious that the LED’s that run on 120VAC have transformers in them to generate DC for the LED, so if you can skip over the AC you can skip over the transformer as well.
Also, 12V DC is not really heart stopping.
catclub
@? Martin:
I know I have replaced CFL’s with LED’s, not sure if I have replaced any LED’s yet. I also write the installation date in sharpie on the ones I install.
lgerard
@Dexfarkin:
I don’t think he can do that. He has been the bete noire of the Bannonites for quite some time, they consider him a RINO. I think the only way back to the national stage for him would be running for governor, Without that, I don’t think he has much of a constituency.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@dww44:
The child (or children – I don’t quite remember) was adopted.
? Martin
@The Moar You Know:
There are codes for DC in most areas now. 12V and 24V DC are the standard, and you need to protect it similarly to an AC circuit. There’s a modest wattage limit for the circuit and you need breakers. You won’t like your refrigerator, microwave, or TV options with a 96W budget, but residential LED lighting works fine.
The issue with DC was that you needed high voltages for long distance transmission, and AC was more appropriate for that. Also, AC transformers were easier to build in the pre digital age. With local power generation (solar) and DC friendly electronics, DC makes a lot more sense now as a household standard.
? Martin
@catclub: Well, don’t touch the terminals on your 12V car battery, because discharging that sure as shit will stop your heart. The usual thinking about AC vs DC is backward. Let-go current for AC is 22 mA but 88 mA for DC. That’s the amount of current that your muscles can take before they involuntarily contract. What usually kills people with electricity is their muscles contract onto the live circuit and they can’t let go. The shock of a short exposure may disrupt your heart but it’ll recover (I’ve done this 3 times). Its the longer exposure that kills. Prolonged exposure disrupts the muscles and they can’t get going again. Part of the challenge with AC is that it cycles and causes arrhythmias and those can take a bit longer for the body to recover from.
Since almost every modern thing uses DC, and since there is a loss for AC-DC conversion, you need to haul around more AC current to deliver a given DC load. If you bypass the conversion step (done twice if you have solar and are generating DC) you get a lot of efficiency gain and as a result you don’t need to be carrying so much wattage through your walls.
The reason we think that DC is more dangerous is because DC is inefficient to transmit over distance, and with higher losses you need to put a lot more current into the line. AC was efficient in the majority of cases in the 19th century. DC is efficient in the majority of cases in the 21st century.
Bobby Thomson
@Bostonian: fuck the stache. Cathy Myers is a better candidate.
Matt McIrvin
In my house, CFLs burned out almost as rapidly as incandescents. Since I started putting in LEDs I think one has died. It’s a huge improvement.
danjos
@O. Felix Culpa: your point raises a question that has been on my mind over the past several days. I hope someone with legal knowledge can chime in. When a search warrant is issued to an attorney, are the search terms very specific so as not to subvert attorney-client privilege for Cohen’s other clients? How is it done? Is there an arbitrator involved? I.would think anything they may find on Ryan would be off limits. So as happy as I am about the Cohen search warrant I suspect it may not be the treasure trove imagined by most.
J R in WV
@Washburn:
There’s that tell of trollism, they can’t help it. They don’t even know how to spell or type the name of our party, they have to go with the derogatory and false word democrat, in those cases where the proper word would be democratic.
The word “democrat” is a noun, the word “democratic” is the proper adjective to describe members of the Democratic party, and the proper word to use with the phrase “democratic leaning people”! English, I don’t think it is their native tongue – not at all. Because they always come to a basic error like this. And this one has political dreadlocks all over it, also too.
Back into the pie vault, Wordsworth, er, uh, Washboard, um, Whatever!
J R in WV
@Immanentize:
“I actually have two kitchen light light fixtures from the 1950’s that absolutely need 100w incandescent bulbs — until they finally make LED ones small enough to be the size of a regular old bulb.”
They have been making light-bulb sized LED lamps for quite a while now. Check out Lowe’s or your local hardware store, which will have a better selection than Kroger’s does.
JoeyJoeJoe Junior Shabadoo
@TOP123: based on your description, Mike McCaul is your guy I guess. The parts of the district between Austin and Houston keep it Republican, though Democrats thought they could win it in 06 or 08. The Dallas area GOP seats are the really precarious ones for them. They packed Dems in two districts there.
J R in WV
@germy:
“I’ve got some outside lights that I want to replace with LEDs…”
I’ve had LED floodlights out on my shop building for years now. I had to replace two of them which physically broke; interestingly the fronts shattered while the cones were intact… The deer sometimes trigger them on, they’re on motion-detector night time only setting.
I’m sure there are LEDs exactly as you need. Look for Cree bulbs on-line, they’re inventors of and patent holders on many manufacturing tricks for LEDs.
Ruckus
@MomSense:
Modified old time saying, to fit the situation.
In for a dime in for millions.
They didn’t sell their souls for cheap, they got good deals for their cheap souls.