So, Crazypants had a press conference this afternoon on the shutdown. I’ll spare you clips and long excerpts because it was all lies and nonsense. Here’s a representative sample:
Reporter: Do you have in mind a safety net for [federal workers] who need their checks?
Trump: The safety net is going to be having a strong border because we’re going to be safe.
Trump is reportedly dispatching Pence to negotiate with Democrats over the weekend, but since Pence assured everyone that Trump would sign the last bill 24 hours before Trump refused to sign it and shut down the government, I hope Pelosi and Schumer aren’t wasting their time on that beady-eyed toady. Send an intern instead.
Trump also said he could invoke “national emergency” powers to build the wall, by which I guess he means send the military to seize land and oversee construction? Not sure even the stacked SCOTUS would countenance that kind of power grab.
If you’re a furloughed government worker, my deepest sympathies. Looks like there’s no end in sight.
Open thread!
Quinerly
Pretty sure that was April Ryan who asked the safety net question. I was kinda surprised he called on her when I heard her voice.
Mary G
It’s infuriating that Yutsy and Soonergrunt and all the hard-working professionals who keep this country running are being treated like crap. It’s got to cut down on Twitler’s approval ratings at some point. Doesn’t it?
And he doesn’t give two shits about the wall – they are doing this because it keeps stories about Russia off the front page.
sukabi
He also has been going on about being able to “declare a national emergency if I want”
It’s the only thing he’s been right about…this is a national emergency, started Nov 2016. Escalating seriously now…time to impeach, indict and remove the motherfucker.
A Ghost To Most
Waiting for wifey to be done with colonoscopy. I wish someone would give Mr. Creosote a fire hose colonoscopy.
Gravenstone
We recognize that McConnell is focused on advancing the Republican grift as long as he can. But he’s also up for re-election in 2020. Letting this demi-shutdown drag on for “months” to mollify Trump and his current tantrum is gonna bite him on the ass big time if he’s really that foolish.
Roger Moore
I’m sure the Republicans see hurting those government employees as part of the benefit of the shutdown. Maybe they can even get a bunch of them to quit so they can fill civil service positions with their cronies after the shutdown is over.
Chip Daniels
I’m just calling him “the motherfucker” from now on.
Yarrow
Sometime just after the shutdown happened I caught a pundit on TV opining that the shutdown would only last for a short while and wouldn’t have any lingering impact. Uh huh. No end in sight and Trump refusing to back down about the wall. I can’t imagine how it’s going to end.
Butch
@Chip Daniels: I wish there was an upvote function because you’d get one from me.
When you think about it, the $5 billion he wants won’t even settle the eminent domain lawsuits. Maybe he’ll just send a bunch of contractors and then not pay them. He’s good about that.
jl
As I mentioned in the previous thread, first we need to know whether Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh are on the negotiating team, to see whether they are serious this time about keeping their word on a deal.
And maybe the duck call guy, and McWhatver proud boys dude, and i dunno what other xenophobe bigot thought leaders.
Marcopolo
Whelp, it’s a Friday & I am back to calling my senators (now both R) like its 2017.
For folks who have taken some time away from pestering your congresscritters it’s time to get back to weekly calls. That particularly goes for folks like me—the message I gave both Blunt & Hawley was the Trump Shutdown was on R’s, that the Senate is a co-equal branch of gov’t and McConnell’s deference to Trump wasn’t a good look, and that if they keep kowtowing to Trump that I hope they are prepared to be in the minority in 2021.
Have a nice day all y’all.
rikyrah
LOL
rikyrah
@Roger Moore:
The thing is…there are a lot of Republican government workers in Red States who aren’t getting paid too.
Redshift
@Roger Moore: Yeah, but they do care about government contractors in their States and districts, and they’re going to start hearing from them a lot.
Betty Cracker
@Marcopolo: Good point. Both of my senators are now Republican shit-stains too. Time to rattle some cages.
chris
Shocked? No. Appalled? Yes.
geg6
@Marcopolo:
Yup, time for me to give Pat Toomey some more pain. Going to contact my Indivisible buddies to find out if there is anything happening at any of his local offices at a time I can make it. It will be tough with the students coming back Monday, but I’ll find time somehow.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Roger Moore: Even if you’re not furloughed but are a govt worker who’s working, you’re not getting paid.
Bruuuuce
My favorite story of the day: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez responds to the yutzim criticizing her for dancing back in college by dancing at Congress. I love the new Dams (and she, my very own Rep, is awesome.)
PaulWartenberg
CNN reporting that TSA workers by the hundreds are calling in sick (AKA the Blue Flu). https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/04/politics/shutdown-tsa-screening/index.html
We may see a full-blown strike by federal workers by next week.
geg6
And just for the general good of the blog, I hope everyone is aware that Joy Reid will be interviewing Nancy SMASH tonight at 10pm on MSNBC. I look forward to it.
SFAW
@Chip Daniels:
According to Emily Post or Miss Manners, I believe the proper term is “that motherfucker,” or, out of respect for the office, “The Motherfucker-in-Chief.”
Please also be aware that I typed this comment with my pinkies uplifted. You’re welcome.
Frankensteinbeck
Trump is a sideshow here, and a great one because he thinks he’s the ringmaster. If McConnell lets any of the bills Nancy passed be voted on, the Senate will pass them overwhelmingly and Trump will sign them because he’s a chickenshit who would rather whine about being treated unfairly anyway. That’s what happened with all the budgets so far. This is all about Mitch ‘World’s Biggest Asshole’ McConnell and Trump is his eager fall guy.
PaulWartenberg
@Bruuuuce:
You lucky bastard.
I have a crush on AOC now. I won’t apologize, who can blame me?
geg6
@PaulWartenberg:
I have an old high school friend who works for the TSA in Florida. Going to have to see if she’s been sick. I know she’s been sick and tired of the shitstain squatting in the Oval Office.
jl
@Bruuuuce: OMG, there are HS AND College vids of AOC dancing!? The College vid has the school mascot in it!?
The scandal is exploding faster than she can possibly respond. Has Pelosi said she has 100000000 percent confidence in AOC yet? AOC resigns by the end of the week.
Redshift
@Yarrow: It’s going to end with Trump declaring that some not-Wall funding means he’s “winning,” and not finding out that no one believes him until it’s too late.
But first we have to get to a point where Senate Republicans are feeling enough pain to pass something without Trump’s pre-approval, because no one in the White House, including Trump, can reliably day what Trump will our won’t sign. Another way the “master dealmaker” has thrown away any leverage he had.
Elizabelle
The ones I feel for are the small businesses that provide services to the federal workers. The onsite cafes. Janitorial services. Suppliers.
The feds will eventually get their money, whether they worked through or stayed home. A prolonged shutdown might be enough to finish off a small business.
And aren’t Republicans all about small business? (A: no, of course. But they sure pretend to be.)
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
Shit. Is that a direct quote? The guy has lost it. I mean, he lost it a long time ago, but, shit…
eclare
@geg6: Oooh, thanks! Must see teevee!
Bruuuuce
@PaulWartenberg: I won’t blame you. She is, what the kids used to say, Teh Bomb.
Adam L Silverman
@Mary G: I’ve worked through one shutdown as an emergency essential civil servant. I’ve had two other job opportunities go poof because of potential shutdowns. The contracting officers wouldn’t authorize on boarding anyone on any contract within 90 days of a potential shutdown as they didn’t want to be on the hook for paying the company. Dirty little secret of defense and intel contracts, if the government shuts down, the companies have to be paid regardless. They just don’t have to pay their actual employees. I have a good boss, he’d make sure I was paid, but the contracting officers have become increasingly risk averse because of continuing resolutions and the sequester.
I feel both of their pain, my brother’s who is a civil servant, and a whole lot of former colleagues.
jl
@Redshift: Recent history has shown that Trump’s pre-approval means nothing. And that McConnell’s rancid BS about only considering something that Trump will sign is rancid bad faith BS.
I wonder if any of our brave and clever media will ask McConnell about that. Has anyone yet?
Or would that be disrespecting that miserable fraud’s Senatorial dignity?
hueyplong
@geg6: For the two hours before that interview, you can watch The Caine Mutiny on TCM and tell yourself, yeah, it really is unfair to Queeg for people to compare Trump to him.
Marcopolo
@Betty Cracker: Yep. I should have added that I’ve also decided political/campaign work is now more or less a year round every year activity. So also time to get your 2018 peeps & groups back together to strategize for 2019 (like the VA state elections) & 2020 elections.
Today I actually received a “get ready to gear back up” letter from my favorite MO state house candidate who lost in Nov. It was great to hear how she’s been busy recruiting folks for local races (city council/school board) that are happening this year.
Fortunately, watching the D’s take control in the House yesterday was a happy, joyful activity that has helped to recharge my “doing political stuff” energy.
Quinerly
@Dorothy A. Winsor: unless you are Border Patrol (and, I guess, ICE). Reporter on MSNBC just said Border Patrol was getting paid. Actually, I think a reporter tried to ask Trump about that at the presser.
Adam L Silverman
@Bruuuuce: Did you mean putzim?
jackmac
Hello Republicans. Some of the laid off federal workers are also your constituents (and there’s another election coming). Ending this fraudulent shutdown is also a chance to do right by them. But something tells me you’ll also miss this opportunity to serve the country and not the Orange Fartcloud.
eric
@SFAW: The ‘MFR’ that way you can say it around Jesus.
jl
@Adam L Silverman: Is not a yutz beneath a putz, and therefore the commenter had it right? I’ve always thought yutz < putz, but I'm a goy.
germy
Tax time will be here soon.
What happens to tax refunds?
Bruuuuce
@jl: Somehow, I suspect that Nancy SMASH has bigger priorities, like kneecapping the Motherhumper-in-Chief. Don’t worry, we have AOC’s back.
The Dangerman
The proper response here is “I triple dog dare you, Motherfucker” and hope he’s watched A Christmas Story.
He’d be impeached, and possibly convicted, before the sun set the next day.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
BC up top:
I believe that would put Cornyn and Cruz in a helluva bind, too. I don’t think TX ranchers are favorably inclined toward eminent domain
ETA: as I saw it, it looked like the reporter prompted him. It’s possible, even probable, that he’d never heard of national emergency powers until that dope put the flea among the bats in trump’s belfry.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Considering those Cons were selected to protect the 1% I would be amazed if they let Trump go nuts on the “Real People”
Bruuuuce
@Adam L Silverman: Not yet. I need to work up a good mad to use that word. Not that it’s an infrequent event, but not yet, today.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Quinerly: All I can say is FBI isn’t being paid.
waspuppet
@SFAW: I dunno — there’s a possible grudging respect behind that term. I go with Fuckhead.
Oh, and a translation:
Bruuuuce
@jl: As a general rule, yes, “yutz” is less insulting than “putz” (with “schmuck” somewhere in between, IMO, though I could see some folks putting it as more so than “putz”).
Ceci n est pas mon nym
I don’t think it’s that thought out. He just has some vague idea, probably from some dark corner of Fox, that any time he wants he can say “it’s an emergency, now I’m a dictator and everybody has to do everything I say”. Kind of like Giuliani, who had an actual emergency on 9/11, declaring that therefore there were no elections and he was mayor for life.
Didn’t work for Giuliani on a city level then, with an actual large-scale terrorist attack. Not going to work for Crazypants when the “emergency” is “The new Speaker was mean to me” and also “She’s a girl!”
Jay
“Pence, top Trump appointees to get raises as federal workers go without pay during shutdown”
https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.thestar.com/amp/news/world/2019/01/04/pence-top-trump-appointees-to-get-raises-as-federal-workers-go-without-pay-during-shutdown.html
Adam L Silverman
@jl: There are only college vids. What was pushed out yesterday as a hit on social media is from when she was a student at BU, not from when she was in high school.
Brachiator
WTF? I mean, seriously, WTF?
God, I wish the Democrats would send a woman-only team. Make Pence squirm and call for Mother….
Adam L Silverman
@jl: Putz and schmuck mean the same thing. A yutz is more like a schlemiel or schmendrick.
Mnemosyne
A little something to cheer you up: new House Rep Katie Hill (D-CA)
found out that fellow freshwoman Rep Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) really wanted the office that had belonged to Shirley Chisholm but had gotten a high number in the office lottery, so Hill claimed Chisholm’s office and then swapped with Pressley. I’m not crying, you’re crying! ??
https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2018/12/219775/ayanna-pressley-shirley-chisholm-office-swap-katie-hill
wvng
“If you’re a furloughed government worker, my deepest sympathies. Looks like there’s no end in sight.” As others have noted, it is far from just federal government workers. In my little corner of WV, being part of the Bay watershed lot of agency personnel and organizations are funded in considerable part by federal dollars. If this continues non profit organizations will shut their doors, state agencies will lay people off. Lot’s of good things being done will just end. .
JMG
TSA workers have started to call in sick in large numbers at some airports. They should do it at all three DC area airports. Let Republican Congresspeople stand in long lines, be seen and photographed cutting to the head of those lines or let ’em take Greyhound back home.
Quinerly
@Adam L Silverman: Reporter on MSNBC said Border Patrol was getting paid. Just checked on line and am seeing reporting agreeing and disagreeing. I guess basic questions if you know… Judicial branch getting paid? Executive branch getting paid? House/Senate, their staffers getting paid? Who else? I’m looking for a one stop shop link. ?
catclub
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
That would be news to me. DOD is among the parts of government that are funded. Why would DOD workers not be paid?
Quinerly
My lol… “Trump has been banned from philanthropy.”
Conservative talk show dude Charlie Sykes on MSNBC.
(AL Sharpton laughed too)
Adam L Silverman
@Quinerly: @Dorothy A. Winsor: No essential personnel who are currently required to work are being paid right now. They will be paid for the work they were required to do as essential personnel once the appropriations bills or a continuing resolution that covers their departments, agencies, bureaus, and offices passes both chambers of Congress and is signed by the President. The non-essential personnel who have been furloughed may or may not be paid depending on whether or not the appropriations bills or a continuing resolution include authorization to pay them for the time that they were furloughed.
Aziz, light!
Today marks my first unpaid pay period as a furloughed fed. I have some reserve and can get by for another month, but I have co-workers who will soon be in big financial trouble.
Bruuuuce
@Adam L Silverman: While the literal meanings are the same, I’ve heard varying opinions as to which is more insulting, which is what I was trying to convey.
Bruuuuce
@Mnemosyne: Two thumbs up for both ladies!
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Adam L Silverman: During one shutdown I was acting supervisor (having the chain of command get down to me was kind of like on Original Star Trek when the command devolved to Sulu. Or to some random Redshirt) and had to wander around finding everybody on staff and getting their consent to a letter of understanding about being furloughed. Pain in the neck, and multiply the waste of time everybody in my agency and every other agency, and you’ve got unrecoverable costs in the multiple millions. Every damn time.
One furlough we managed to skate through and stay open because they’d squirreled away some previous year funds that they were allowed to spend.
My recollection about on-site contractors is that they were not allowed to be on site if the government was officially closed. So it was an unpaid day unless their employer provided an alternate work location they could use.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Brachiator:
Does it really matter, what ever deal Pence makes with the Dems Trump will deliberately undercut just to be a jackass. That’s what happened with the Chines trade negotiations.
Mnemosyne
@Adam L Silverman:
And for those who don’t know their Yiddish, that thing is “peni$.” ?
Also, I think the “high school” rumor about AOC’s video got started because the conservative incels circulating it are just that fucking creepy. ??
rikyrah
@Mnemosyne:
I love this story!
Brachiator
@germy:
The IRS has not yet announced the official start date of the 2019 tax filing season. Last year, it started January 29. The year before, it started January 23. There are contingency plans if the shutdown continues, but these plans also depend on some IRS staffers working unpaid.
Unclear. Some refunds might be delayed.
Amir Khalid
@sukabi:
Did no one tell Trump that the President can’t just invent new presidential powers whenever he feels like it?*
* he asked naively.
Quinerly
@Adam L Silverman: see my #58. My brain is a bit fried so bear with me…. No one who works for our govt is getting an actual pay check right now? Including Congress?
Including Mueller? ?
(I know the essential vs non essential stuff, back pay and all. I still thought there were certain departments/agencies funded)
nasruddin
@Gravenstone:
No
(Or, let’s see some KY polling on this)
J R in WV
@chris:
Isn’t that a crime, perjury? Sworn document, isn’t that under penalty of perjury? Does that still mean the same thing it meant in the previous, honest, age of government?
Oh, wait. Duh!!! Of course not, my bad…!!!
Adam L Silverman
@Brachiator: Kirsten Sinema. She’s already made him very, very uncomfortable. I’m sure Mother made him spend time in the punishment box!
VeniceRiley
I’ve been correcting everyone. Daughterfucker is the more accurate word for him.
sukabi
@Quinerly: thought the other day i saw something about drumpf appropriating (taking from another pot) $$ to pay border patrol.
nasruddin
@Redshift: How do we encourage them? This seems like a good idea.
How are Border Patrol members feeling right now? Didn’t the union endorse Mr Trump in 2016?
tobie
@Elizabelle: I have a friend who’s a biologist in the Dept of Agriculture and a neighbor who works as an oceanographer for NOAA. I need to find out if they’re getting paid. Like just about everyone else in their 40s and 50s they have mortgage payments, car payments, and all sorts of expenses associated with kids. I’m so angry that any federal employee has to live with this uncertainty. What kind of asshole proudly declares he’ll keep the government shut down for months or years?
Amir Khalid
@Adam L Silverman:
I’m confused. My online German dictionary tells me that Putz means stucco and Schmuck means jewellery.
Quinerly
@Adam L Silverman: I hope she didn’t raid your grandmother’s closet for another pink coat. ?
Rumor on BJ is she is going to be a very disappointing senator. “Manchinesque.”
She sure didn’t disappoint yesterday.
SFAW
@waspuppet:
That’s one of the terms I use for him, as well. I was just “trying to be helpful” for Chip.
catclub
@J R in WV:
of course it does. J Kushner was dragged out and arrested for all the lies on his SF86 forms. right? right?
catclub
@tobie:
kind of answered your own question.
CarolDuhart2
Congress is getting paid. Mueller has a separate indefinite appropriation and is getting paid.
Mai Naem mobile
Fuck this motherfucker. How do you even negotiate with the Motherfucker when he has proved to be completely unreliable to make a bargain with him? Seriously, how do you make a deal with somebody like this. I can’t imagine actually making a deal with anybody like this in my real life. Would Tim Cook ,Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates or Warren Buffett make a business deal with somebody like this. The answer is a big fat no!
Bruuuuce
@Amir Khalid: That may be true in German. But in Yiddish, both mean “penis” and are derogatory when used about a person (with the clear implication that the person being insulted is the sort whose behavior towards others is nasty and hurtful)
Amir Khalid
@Aziz, light!:
Aren’t there federal civil-service rules on how long people can be put on furlough/made to work without pay?
Adam L Silverman
@Quinerly: Executive branch employees, as in civil service working in a department, agency, bureau, and/or office in the executive branch that are not currently funded, ie in shutdown, fall into two categories: (emergency) essential and non-essential personnel. The former, essential personnel, are required to work throughout the shutdown and will be paid for their work once the shutdown ends. So they are being paid, but that pay is deferred until either the appropriations bills are passed or an omnibus continuing resolution is passed and signed by the President or Congress overrides the President’s veto. Non-essential personnel are furloughed until the shutdown ends and they may be paid if either the appropriations bills or an omnibus continuing resolution that is passed to reopen those portions of the government in shutdown include a provision to pay the furloughed non-essential personnel. In every previous shutdown the non-essential personnel who were furloughed have been paid. So, yes, the essential personnel are getting paid, however their pay is deferred until the shutdown ends.
JPL
@Adam L Silverman: I saw that earlier and it brought me much joy.
This is the transcript of trump’s rose garden dump
https://twitter.com/familyunequal/status/1081292932660060170
Is it possible for you to open it up for all to enjoy. Maybe enjoy is not the word.
catclub
T
so Defense and Health and Human Services – two big ones – are funded. Energy looks like it is funded. where is EPA? Education looks funded.
trollhattan
@Amir Khalid:
Imagine how bad it was when he took office two years ago. I’ll wager staff spent several hours daily telling him things he was demanding were illegal/impossible/imaginary. .
tobie
@Amir Khalid: Yiddish and German part ways with these two terms. In Yiddish, putz is prick and shmuck is dick. In German Putz is plaster (Stuck is usually there term for stucco molding on ceilings and walls, though Putz can also be used for stucco) and Schmuck of course is jewelry. I grew up in NY and was completely taken aback the first time I went to Germany and saw the word “Schmuck” in shop windows.
jl
@Bruuuuce: @Adam L Silverman: OK. Sorry. Obviously a GIOHH (Goy in Over His Head) incident we have here. I will write down the correct pecking order and try to remember it. I promise.
Bruuuuce
Mr. Mueller’s grand jury has been extended for six months. Clearly, the court isn’t convinced that this is a wild goose chase, despite the repeated protests by the guilty.
J R in WV
@Mnemosyne:
I saw a picture of AOC winning second place in Microbiology in a HS science fair. She was cute and geeky, but really young looking, because she was really young.
No mistake between HS junior and College student…
Oh, year, incels are pervs, so they prolly can’t tell at all…!!!
germy
“And the Beatles were hard men too. Brian Epstein cleaned them up for mass consumption, but they were anything but sissies. They were from Liverpool, which is like Hamburg or Norfolk, Virginia–a hard, sea-farin’ town, all these dockers and sailors around all the time who would beat the piss out of you if you so much as winked at them. Ringo’s from the Dingle, which is like the f***ing Bronx. The Rolling Stones were the mummy’s boys–they were all college students from the outskirts of London. They went to starve in London, but it was by choice, to give themselves some sort of aura of disrespectability. I did like the Stones, but they were never anywhere near the Beatles–not for humour, not for originality, not for songs, not for presentation. All they had was Mick Jagger dancing about. Fair enough, the Stones made great records, but they were always s**t on stage, whereas the Beatles were the gear.”
– Lemmy of Motorhead
thalarctosMaritimus
@Elizabelle: That’s me.
I may lose my temporary tax preparation job very soon because the IRS website thinks I’m typing my correct information for my preparer number wrong, and none of the humans who could resolve this in 2 seconds is there to pick up the phone. My boss is sympathetic, but no ID number means absolutely no working as a tax preparer.
Losing this job won’t be the end of the world, but damn if that motherfucker doesn’t kill everything he touches.
Percysowner
@catclub:
My understanding is that the budget doesn’t cover all departments. Some have already been funded past the end of the shutdown.. The DOD is (possibly) funded already, so not passing the CR doesn’t affect it. I read that the Mueller probe is funded outside of this, so he will keep going, even if the FBI itself is on furlough,
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Mary G:
I believe it will hurt his numbers when the government has been partially shut down for several months, because then it will start to hurt other sectors of society. Hopefully it doesn’t last that long
Mnemosyne
@Amir Khalid:
As tobie said, Yiddish is derived from German, but doesn’t always follow it. This is now making me wonder if the English idiom “family jewels” has its origin way back in Yiddish or if they had independent derivations. ?
Quinerly
@germy: ???
eclare
@Quinerly: What did she do yesterday? I was not aware of the rumor.
cliosfanboy
@Dorothy A. Winsor: my wife is a movie and she just got paid. But her part of the government was funded earlier
louc
What the Dems need to do is repeatedly and loudly remind people that the mofo reneged on a deal that gave MORE money for the wall because he hates Dreamers.
jl
Cheryl and Adam are probably getting requests for posts and explanations at an unreasonable rate, but WTF? Is this another deal where Trump twittered it out and never followed up? Or did other people talk Trump out of the Syrian withdrawal? Or, WTF?
Anyway, Trump’s fault so, get off my back about it. If BJ doesn’t get up a paypal account for national security front poster pay, send the bill to Mr. Trump.
“Despite reports to the contrary and false narratives surrounding the Syria decision, we are not going anywhere,” State dept off’l.
https://twitter.com/lrozen/status/1081313523148472320
Note: found via Josh Marshall twitter feed.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@jl:
You’re an economist, right? I was hoping I could get your opinion on this passage I read at wiki:
I was looking at the recent stock market declines over the past few months, and I think only a single decline was 4% in the DOW. I’ve also been hearing that the housing market is weakening. In your opinion do you think there’s going to be a recession next year or in 2020, just a correction, or business as usual?
Brachiator
@Adam L Silverman:
He probably enjoyed the punishment box!
Sinema looks a bit like a Kate McKinnon impression of herself.
Mnemosyne
@tobie:
I’ve posted this before, but it’s always fun: James Cagney spoke Yiddish fluently because of where he grew up in NYC. He said it came in very handy during contract negotiations where the studio bosses assumed he didn’t understand their side conferences. ?
Here he is showing off his skills in Taxi!:
https://youtu.be/6rZjmvAULFU
Adam L Silverman
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: Correct on the contractors. Unless the contractor is, him or herself, designated as emergency essential. I’ve been a contractor with that designation.
MCA1
@Frankensteinbeck: Very true. It’s entirely possible, and I would love for it the be the case, that McConnell is using this whole “the Senate won’t take up a vote on anything the President hasn’t signed off on” gambit just to turn the screws on Dotard and humiliate him for awhile. Maybe he’s hoping it gets to the point where he can tell Cheetolini behind the scenes that they’ll override a veto, so take your pick: cave or watch helplessly as Congress neuters you, and he’ll probably have given himself a fig leaf to explain away changing his tune. Orange Marmalade will take the latter, of course, because it means he didn’t cry “uncle” and he can spin a veto as a betrayal, or some bullshit that no one outside the Oval Office will buy, but it will soothe his narcissism. And in the meantime, he looks like a deranged, pathetic moron, twisting in the wind and getting gavel-slapped by Nancy every day until the Turtle decides to end the torture.
This would be one time I applaud McConnell’s utterly amoral fascist tactical genius, though only due to the target. And also because strategically it’s stupid in that it would crack open the rift in the party even further.
But I still doubt it. I think it’s more likely Mitch thinks he can actually win this and the public will eventually start blaming the Democrats for not paying the ransom money.
Uncle Cosmo
@Amir Khalid: Forget it, Jake, it’s Yiddish.
(Srsly, I gather the term “family jewels” has something to do with Schmuck.)
In Berlin with my Significant-Ex, I implored her to take a photo of me in front of a small jewelry shop. “Make sure to get the sign in it,” I said – so I now have a print somewhere of me standing under a sign that read Antiker Schmuck. Who says I have no sense of self-abasement?
thalarctosMaritimus
@germy: the company I work for is telling clients that there may be delays in refunds, as the government is processing returns, but not issuing refunds.
That’s all I know.
sukabi
@Bruuuuce: well if drumpf and company would quit committing new crimes it might have been wrapped up by now. The longer this goes on the more significant the crimes enumerated will be.
Mueller ain’t no Ken Starr, and this isn’t a fishing expedition.
HeleninEire
Feeling excited and happy and sad. The decision to move back was way more fraught with…things.
But still I am 3 weeks away and looking forward to being back in Queens
Oh hey what shall my new nym be? helenbackinqueens?
Adam L Silverman
@Quinerly: Incorrect. The civil servants, senior executives or equivalents, and the political appointees in the parts of the government that are funded are being paid. The essential personnel in the parts of the government which are not currently funded and are in shutdown, which includes DHS, DOJ, FBI, the Coast Guard, BATF, etc, are required to work and will be paid upon the end of the shutdown when the departments, agencies, bureaus, and/or offices in which they work are once again funded. Non-essential personnel who are furloughed may or may not be paid depending on the language in the legislation that ends the shutdown and funds their departments, bureaus, agencies, and/or offices.
mad citizen
I’m a Hoosier, I used to listen to Pence do a Saturday morning radio show back in the day, and one day not too long ago he shook my hand. Anyway, I’ve watched that video twice and I don’t think he was uncomfortable at all. I’m surprised no one is reading into his “humbling, more than I can tell you” comment as a sly reference to something hidden in his character. Anyway, rock on new Senator who looks like Kate McKinnon of snl! At first I thought there was some weird skit happening.
Schlemazel
@Amir Khalid:
in Yiddish both are slang for penis
Immanentize
@Bruuuuce: @jl:
JPL
@jl: Just wait until trump says all the troops are home and his base believes him. The republicans will simply say well the president said they were home.
MCA1
@Mai Naem mobile: The only way to do it would be to literally film the negotiations, up to and including Ivanka reading the text of the bill for him out loud and him agreeing and then shaking hands, get him on video saying “if you bring me this bill, passed by Congress, I will sign it,” physically walking the document straight over to the floor of the House and voting on it, etc. Then if he refused to sign it the next day you release the footage.
germy
@HeleninEire: QueenHelen
HeleninEire
@germy: OMG I think you got it.
Sheila in nc
@catclub: EPA’s appropriation comes from the same bill as Dept of Interior (although EPA is an independent agency). EPA is not funded.
Mary G
Also, he’s giving Pence and a bunch of the uppermost people around him a $10,000 raise. That’s pocket change to Wilbur Ross, Munchkin, DeVos, etc. The janitors who work for contractors will get nothing. It’s Republicans in a nutshell.
schrodingers_cat
@HeleninEire: Helen_Returns
Keith P.
@Chip Daniels: Because “daughterfucker” is unconfirmed.
Fair Economist
@PaulWartenberg: Backups at the airport will kick Republicans where it hurts them.
Citizen Alan
@Quinerly:
Judicial branch has a 3-week grace period that ends on Jan 11, presumably because someone somewhere realized we were ruled by petulant morons.
Adam L Silverman
@sukabi: The President is not empowered to appropriate funding. Only Congress can appropriate and/or reappropriate funding.
HeleninEire
@schrodingers_cat: That’s great too.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@germy: Heh. Beatles vs Stones may be the only Tbogg-bait war I’ve never seen here, and it’s one in which I would remain on the sidelines
Bruuuuce
@sukabi:
Ask a fish to stop breathing water if you want a better chance of compliance
zhena gogolia
MY CALENDARS CAME! I’m inordinately happy.
Pogonip
I live in a military area and so I know many DOD employees. They’re funded.
Trump is now saying the shutdown could last for a year. If that happens, affected employees, especially the essential ones, will leave and it’ll be very difficult to replace them. (HR Lady to person she’s interviewing: “This job pays X, unless the department shuts down because of funding squabbles. In that event, since this position is considered essential, you will have to continue to work, but you won’t be paid until the shutdown is resolved. Congress will probably vote to give you back pay, but that’s not guaranteed.” Would you accept that job?)
Am not sure, but I think the IRS is shut down? Tax time’s a-comin’, folks.
germy
@Mary G: $10,000 is probably what Louise Linton spends in one hour of shopping. It might cover one handbag or two pairs of shoes.
Schlemazel
@Schlemazel:
not just late to the party but better covered above me!
zhena gogolia
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I love them both, but Beatles forever.
Gelfling 545
@Quinerly: It’s not like he ever engaged in any.
Bruuuuce
@Immanentize: Kick off your Sunday shoes!
germy
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
This photo:
https://imgflip.com/i/oppz6
Quinerly
@eclare: some of us on one of last night threads were basically joking around about her clothes choice for her swearing in (plus, I learned she wore a pink tutu to an Iraqi war protest awhile back?… and for the record, I loved her clothes yesterday), her great smile, shoulders, arms, how visibly unconfortable she made Pence. There was gushing in the comments….lots of frivolity. A commenter seemed to scold us because we (I???) didn’t spell her name correctly… Plus told us we would be disappointed in her as a senator… that she was just a wee bit left of Manchin. I think I was called a “dumbfuck” for being so frivolous in praising the new senior senator from Arizona sense of style and whimsy… and for linking to a few on line pieces about her. Just your average BJ after dark thread, I guess. Just seemed so odd at the time. I’m a transplant to Missouri and I can’t imagine Claire ever wearing a pink tutu. ? I was excited!
Schlemazel
@HeleninEire:
Helenwaite has always been one of my favorites
“Our complaint manager is Helen Waite. If you have a complaint please go to Helen Waite”
schrodingers_cat
@HeleninEire: You should come up to Massachusetts when you return. You can take the Vermonter from the Penn station, it comes to Northampton, MA.
Pogonip
Pfft. I left out a phrase. The HR Lady was supposed to say, “If the position is NON-essential, you will probably get back pay…” etc.
Darn HR Ladies. ☺️
Immanentize
@Adam L Silverman:
Why did Sinema let Pence slip in the “So help me God?”
Brachiator
@tobie:
Also, Trump keeps trying to blame the Democrats while claiming the shutdown for himself.
And yet, I predict that the idiot pundits on the Sunday shows will dutifully trot out “both sides” arguments.
Adam L Silverman
@Amir Khalid: Yiddish. Both putz and schmuck are Yiddish references to male genitalia. And, of course, we can size the reference up or down. So putz and schmuck are average/standard issue. Pitzella and Schmeckela are way below average. And then you have putzelavich and shmuckalovich, which means you can ring the back doorbell from the curb.
rikyrah
@germy:
Won’t be getting it ??
Quinerly
@Citizen Alan: thanks.
Citizen Alan
@J R in WV:
I’m of the opinion that anyone who self-identifies as an incel should be chemically castrated. After all, they’ve already announced their belief that they should be allowed to have sex with whoever they want whenever they want and god-damn consent. And they imply that they should have the right to go on killing sprees if people don’t give in to their demands. Maybe the solution is do something about their psychotic sex drives.
sukabi
@Adam L Silverman: I realize that but the dumpster fire doesn’t think the rules are for him.
Quinerly
@mad citizen: you can’t spell her name either. ?
Mnemosyne
@Quinerly:
Oh, I think you misread what Suzanne was saying. She was saying that her fellow voters in Arizona are all dumbfucks, not that you’re one. My parents were snowbirds in AZ for 20+ years, so I agree with her assessment that their voters tend to be dumbfucks.
She also said that Sinema is much more of a corporate Democrat than a liberal, so we should be prepared for her to take some dumb stands in the name of “centrism.”
germy
@Immanentize:
He always blurts that out when he’s aroused.
HeleninEire
@schrodingers_cat: LOL. I went on the Vermonter 3 years ago. Was supposed to be in Burlington in 7?? Hours later. It took 10 from NY.
Adam L Silverman
@Quinerly: I guarantee that dress was not from my grandmother’s estate sale! She’s a good fit for a purple state Arizona. She’s going to be progressive on some issues, more moderate on others. Would you prefer to have had Dr. Ward or Joe Airpaio?
Quinerly
@germy: I like you. Let’s hang out. We could do some serious damage somewhere. ?
rikyrah
I’m not crying. You are ???
https://youtu.be/ROoL4_-HH28
Quinerly
@Mnemosyne: no translation needed. But thanks anyway. Hope that cold still doesn’t have you down.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
That’s funny. I wonder if Sam Goldwyn made Goldwynisms in Yiddish.
tobie
@Mnemosyne: Holy Smokes! That was too funny. Had no idea Cagney spoke Yiddish. Thanks for the tip. This reminds me of an elderly Italian-American friend, who grew up in the Bronx and speaks Yiddish fluently because her mother was the shop steward for the milliner’s union.
pattonbt
Re McConnell…..the Democrats need to make him the focus. If anyone thinks McConnell cares about this shutdown and or wall and its impacts, I’ve got a bridge to sell you. This current political theatre is ancillary to his real agenda. He doesn’t care if it goes on forever. And the more he can operate in the darkness on his preferred agenda, the better for McConnell. As much as it would wound Shumer’s pride, he needs to completely withdraw and let Nancy take over. Shumer being involved gives McConnell the cover he wants and needs. Let Nancy push on McConnell hard. Force McConnell into the light and focus on this. Make it publicly McConnell all the time. Trump will trump and will always be there, but the key is McConnell….make him public, make him lead, make him own.
mad citizen
@Quinerly: That’s a clever thing to notice, but yes, I was too lazy to look up to the post again or remember the spelling. Wish she was my Senator, though, she seems like a lot of fun.
trollhattan
We’re slated to host a German exchange student, grade 11, in June. She’s never been to the States I have only a little time to plan how to explain this gigantic mess in a way it’s more or less understandable but doesn’t ruin her visit.
tobie
@germy:
Ouch.
eclare
@Quinerly: I thought her dress was fabulous too. I really don’t see how a bisexual atheist is going to be “Manchinesque”.
kindness
@Amir Khalid: – Need to find a Yiddish dictionary.
Bruuuuce
@Citizen Alan: I’ve considered suggesting this in the past as treatment for rapists. But rape is a crime about power, not about sex (sex is the expression of power of the criminal over the victim), and I believe that self-described incels wouldn’t be deterred in their behavior by something as simple as castration. If anything, I expect it would reinforce their sense of victimization and desire to rectify it violently.
Cheryl Rofer
@jl: That “State Department official” who was off the record today was using the same words that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo used in an interview that is on the State Department website. I don’t know why they do that, and I don’t know why reporters don’t point that out. (Well, I do, sorta, but it’s pusillanimous.) I’m working on a post on Paul Whelan. All that needs to be said about Syria is that it’s Trump’s decision, and nobody else has a clue.
Brachiator
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Hmmm. Let’s see.
Beatles win.
More seriously, less seriously, love ’em both for different reasons.
Adam L Silverman
@Bruuuuce: Nor, as was reported back in December, is he wrapping things up by February.
Quinerly
@Adam L Silverman: no. I adore her (except I did read about her Green Party background and working for Nader in 2000. Ugh.) I was praising her last night, for sure. I guess my humor doesn’t translate well on BJ. And, here in St. Louis, I try very hard to be known for my humor.
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?
I’m a furloughed government worker. I’ve been living well within my means for years so I have a significant savings cushion – enough to last several months, but I was planning on keeping it for retirement, ideally, not spending it down now because some dipshit wants stupid crap and will throw a tantrum until he gets it. I really feel for those who don’t have that cushion though – not everyone is high enough on the federal pay scale to save and the contractors are really SOL. My main worry is if this drags on for months it’s going to get harder to justify paying people who weren’t working for the entire time they weren’t working…I mean, two or three weeks, sure. 3 months of pay for work we didn’t do? Not sure that’s politically feasible for Republicans to approve, so I would guess they will start spinning to justify giving us nothing. That would suck for me but suck worse for people living paycheck to paycheck.
Mnemosyne
@Quinerly:
I’m feeling a little better. I have a very important tea party I have to be at tomorrow, so I’m hoping to rest up tonight and be able to do that tomorrow.
Yes, I said “tea party.” The tiny sandwich and mini dessert kind, not the conservative kind. ? ☕️
Bruuuuce
@kindness: The Joys of Yiddish by Leo Rosten, either the original or the updated version, is both entertaining and informative.
Fair Economist
@eclare: My understanding is that Sinema is libertarian, or at least libertarian-curious. So she will be infuriating with some frequency, but in a different way from Manchin.
Immanentize
@HeleninEire: Queen Helen
Citizen Alan
Meanwhile, I’m just sitting here reeling over all the people who were hysterical over the perfectly ordinary war games in Texas a few years back that meant Obama was about to declare martial law and declare himself dictator but who don’t have the slightest problem with Motherfucker exercising some nebulous “emergency powers” to seize probably hundreds of thousands of square miles from private land owners without any sort of due process.
Bruuuuce
@Adam L Silverman: I never believed he would. There’s just too much going on, and each new datum seems to open three new relevant avenues for his investigation. It takes as long as it takes.
schrodingers_cat
@HeleninEire: It is always late.
Another Scott
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: They’ve been floating the idea of the Pentagon paying for the wall for several weeks. I think they’re just continuing to push the envelope on this, to see how far they can go.
E.g. December 13 – Donnie said that Mexico was going to pay for the wall “one way or the other”.
December 17 – KAC told Dobbs that Donnie was going to get the wall money “one way or another”
December 19 – Donnie says the US Military is going to build the wall.
I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he tries to declare some sort of National Emergency to redirect DoD money toward his stupid wall. That’s (kinda) how he’s been able to impose his tariffs and do a bunch of other things (mis-using his CIC powers). But I think he would get a lot of push-back if he tries to do the same thing over this stupid wall. Enough to stop it? Dunno… :-(
I hope Nancy and the House continues to hold strong.
Cheers,
Scott.
Immanentize
@germy: I am so friggin slow. Well done
Adam L Silverman
@jl: It means that State and DOD are trying to keep our regional allies and partners, as well as our 72 allies in the coalition against ISIS from freaking out. Especially the Kurds. I’m guesstimating that the DOD will slow walk the withdrawal as much as possible in the hope that something really bad happens in Syria and then the CENTCOM Commander and the Combined Joint Task Force Commander and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff can get the President to agree to pause his withdrawal.
chopper
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
that’s me. working for no paycheck. wonder if when the checks finally come in i’ll get some interest. lol, no.
J R in WV
@HeleninEire:
HelenNotinEire ??
HeleninNYC ??
QueenHelen ?? I like this one!
Quinerly
@eclare: neither do I. That’s why I was startled when old Joe’s name was brought up by an AZ native. I’m just glad we nabbed that seat. The fact that she is a former Mormon, now Atheist, divorced bi sexual chick who made Pence uncomfortable in his “swimsuit area” (stole that last part from a commenter last night) is just icing on the pink tutu for me. ?
schrodingers_cat
@Mnemosyne: I miss afternoon tea, in India it usually means savory snacks and piping hot tea. Served at around 4.
VOR
@catclub: USDA (Agriculture) being shut down means payments to farmers intended to offset the Trump tariffs are not being made. So Trump voters are being directly affected by the shutdown.
Adam L Silverman
@Brachiator: She’s clearly quite smart, knows that she’s physically attractive, and she not only dressed to impress yesterday, she did it knowing that it would discomfit Pence, which it did.
Chip Daniels
@Adam L Silverman:
*shudders at the unwelcome visual*
Bill Arnold
@Brachiator:
Or a small mixed male/female team, then the males all simultaneously (but randomly! :) have to take a personal phone call or go to the bathroom or something else that removes them from chaperone duty.
Immanentize
@germy:
Are you saying Pence comes in the name of the Lord?
{{Sorry All}}
Quinerly
@Mnemosyne: I’m mesh mounting pennies for the bathroom floor tomorrow. 3,000 down. 10,000 to go. ?
VOR
@Citizen Alan: You are referring to Jade Helm 15. IIRC, it came out that Russia pushed the message of Obama using Jade Helm as cover for a coup, with insanity like Chinese troops positioned in the basements of Texas Wal-Marts. They were surprised how well the messaging worked. Sort of a dry run for 2016 elections.
Quinerly
@Citizen Alan: great comment. So much of this I forget.
sukabi
@What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?: doubt it will last that long. Drumpf will use it until it no longer keeps Mueller out of the news. I expect that Mueller will drop another couple of indictments next week and drumpf is going to need another distraction…agreeing to a deal to get workers working again and grand standing about it would do the trick.
Adam L Silverman
@Mary G: He’s not giving it to them intentionally. That raise is statutorily required from 2011. However, every CR or appropriation since has waived the pay raise from going into effect. By allowing the government to go into a partial shutdown, the legislation that came out of the Senate that included the language suppressing the pay raise, never got signed into law. Basically it means pay raise via presidential incompetence.
Quinerly
@mad citizen: ??
Adam L Silverman
@Keith P.: All three of his wives were someone’s daughters. As were all his mistresses. And the women he’s accused of assaulting.
Steve in the ATL
@HeleninEire: I thought we’d established that it was HelenBed
Mnemosyne
@schrodingers_cat:
I usually prefer afternoon tea, but the group I’m going with needed it to be at 11 am. ?♀️
I was very jealous when I saw my brother-in-law and his boyfriend having afternoon tea at the Drake Hotel in Chicago, which is one of the best afternoon teas in the US. Sigh.
Steeplejack
Jeez, Peggy Noonan is on Ari Melber’s show both-sides-ing the shutdown. (A) Why is she even on there? (B) I wish someone would just shut her down.
Also, I hate her deliberately measured, “caring” tone of voice. Ugh. Over to some dismal Law and Order rerun or HGTV for me.
ETA: Oh, God, she’s coming back later for the “Fall Back Friday” segment. I hope they seat her next to some huge, threatening rap star that gives her the vapors.
LuciaMia
But…but Trumpski assured us that theyre all 100% behind the shutdown!
Quinerly
@Adam L Silverman: thanks!
Another Scott
@Adam L Silverman: AFAIK, it’s (generally) illegal for the federal government to require someone to work without paying them. In that sense, yes, someone who is required to work will eventually be paid.
But they will not get their pay on time as long as the shut-down continues, which, as I’m sure you agree, is not being paid as far as their usual budgeting is concerned.
“I’ll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today!” [/J. Wellington Wimpy] doesn’t work in the real world.
Just offering some additional clarification (which is probably redundant now given the commenters here).
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
Adam L Silverman
@Immanentize: Because shiving him in the eye with one of her stiletto heels on live TV wouldn’t have been considered appropriate. Liz Cheney would’ve had to look cross, which is her default mode, while issuing a public statement about it.//
Mnemosyne
@Citizen Alan:
That’s because they approve of Trump setting up a white supremacist dictatorship. SATSQ.
SiubhanDuinne
@catclub:
I had planned to renew my passport during the first two weeks of January. Anyone know whether they’re being issued in anything resembling a timely manner?
trollhattan
@Immanentize:
You are so NOT sorry, but you should be.
IFC just showed “Full Metal Jacket” and Pence reminds me of the dead VC/NVA soldier the Marines had propped up against the wall for company.
Mary G
Completely OT, but there’s a column in WaPo by another goddamn narcissist – a woman who has been “mommy blogging” about her daughter, who’s now in 4th grade, with actual names and pictures and never told her, leaving the poor child to discover it when she was playing with the laptop she got for Christmas, and even though her daughter has asked her to stop, refuses to. People in the comments are saying she’s also published texts with her husband he thought were private, and also about members of her therapy group with actual names and stories. What a monster.
trollhattan
@LuciaMia:
And, Mexico will pay for the furlough.
schrodingers_cat
@Mary G: The link is broken.
chopper
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
this is something like my 6th? shutdown. they get dumber and dumber every time.
Adam L Silverman
@trollhattan: Start with the Maga-Nope line.
schrodingers_cat
@Mnemosyne: Tea is good any time of the day. My friend who is originally from Delhi makes great masala tea. She brews black tea with black cardamom. It is to die for.
Jay
@Schlemazel:
Helen Hunt
The Midnight Lurker
I always loved having tea in the Rose Garden at the Huntington, then strolling the grounds afterwards. Gorgeous.
Adam L Silverman
@Quinerly: No worries here.
schrodingers_cat
Is there a more insipid and useless TV anchor than Judy Fucking Woodruff of the Snooze Hour.
Immanentize
@trollhattan:
I now show the “duality of man” scene to my first year criminal law students…
James E Powell
@Brachiator:
There’s a very good argument that the Stones did not become a great band until Jagger stopped chasing the Beatles.
Steve in the ATL
@SiubhanDuinne: daughter had appointment this morning and is getting her passport on Tuesday.
Adam L Silverman
@Citizen Alan: That hysteria was promoted as part of a Russian psychological warfare operation.
https://www.texastribune.org/2018/05/03/hysteria-over-jade-helm-exercise-texas-was-fueled-russians-former-cia-/
?BillinGlendaleCA
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: The shutdown in 1995 hurt the Republicans in 1996, the public blamed them for it more that President Clinton. I think it lasted 3 weeks.
jl
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: Nothing I say can, should, by any sane person be taken as investment advice. I don’t know when the next recession will begin. Nothing has ever worked well on forecasting timing of changes in business cycle, except the standing forecast that ‘it will change sooner or later”.
I’ve been guesstimating and speculating that the expansion could have been nursed along through 2020 by putting Obama policies on autopilot, which I thought was the Trump/GOP policy until they passed their tax cut heist and Trump started his insane trade war. Now that Trump/GOP have given us bad policies, I think chances of a recession before 2020 have gone up substantially and are > 50%..
I think stock market moves themselves don’t predict anything reliably. But if you can see stock market changes, bond market changes, real estate market changes, correlating with each other, then that might get you somewhat above 50% in forecasting a change ‘soon’, say, within next two years. There were reports yesterday of Treasury bond yields moving with stock market swings, which hasn’t happened before in this expansion. The residential real estate market has been staggering from signs of a real expansion, to stalling and slumping, ever since this expansion began.
No one knows how to predict the timing of the next recession with any precision.
Read Krugman, DeLong, Dean Baker, and Stglitz, I think they have better records than most macroeconomists, and also good records at predicting how bad upcoming recessions will be.
debbie
Seriously. I recall Trump saying last week (in the Fox interview?) that government workers were all Democrats. Translated, “I don’t give a flying fuck if they all starve to death.”
My sympathies are also very much with the Dems who have to negotiate with Trump. It’s awfully tough when the target moves surprisingly speedily in spite of his considerable girth.
Dems need to tell Trump to his face that he has in fact proven the “Art of the Deal” principle (ie, lie three times and opponents come to believe the lie is a fact) is bullshit, based on the polling which shows a majority of Americans believe he is a liar. Then tell him his ratings will improve if he can bring himself to be honest and to speak truth.
jl
@Cheryl Rofer: @Adam L Silverman: Thanks for info.
Mary G
@schrodingers_cat: Sorry, I fixed.
HeleninEire
@J R in WV: Gotta say HelenotinEire may be my fav.
Mary G
Liz Warren’s got some Twitter game – I think she snagged Obama’s social media guy:
Fair Economist
@jl: What’s that old saw? “The stock market has predicted 10 of the last five recessions” or some such.
We are clearly late cycle but a recession does not look imminent. There are several things that usually happen a year or more before like an upturn in unemployment and an inverted yield curve and we’ve not yet seen them. Probably not 2019 IMO unless the shutdown sets it off; 2020 is possible.
Adam L Silverman
@Another Scott:
Bill Arnold
@tobie:
Could just be that he is suffering from an impairment of emotional empathy. [0]
(Sure, he’s behaving like an asshole but maybe he can’t help it.)
[0] pdf: Lack of empathy in patients with narcissistic personality disorder, and yeah there are professional psychiatrists who publicly argue otherwise about DJT.
Adam L Silverman
@schrodingers_cat: Followed by coordinated DDOS attacks on Balloon Juice.//
debbie
@jl:
Does anyone know whether Pence has spoken up on the withdrawal?
Adam L Silverman
@Immanentize: Jesus tested, Mother approved!
Mnemosyne
@schrodingers_cat:
Oh, I love tea. I drive my coworkers crazy by making lapsang souchong at work — the smoky smell makes them wonder if the building is on fire. ?
@The Midnight Lurker:
People are VERY. UPSET. that they changed the way they do tea at the Huntington. We’re members, but I haven’t gone back for tea to see what all the fuss is about.
trollhattan
@Immanentize:
Epic scene.
Bro and I watched it, neither having seen it in years and alternately laughed and cringed. It holds up well and holy crap, I would have not predicted D’Onofrio’s career arc based on his role. Always a lot to unpack in Kubrick films.
RSA
@Another Scott:
I thought that was good clarification. For those who want more, here’s an explainer; in brief,
I’m in the DoD (Army civilian), and my paycheck arrived as usual. I feel for the people who are furloughed or not receiving a paycheck–one of the main reasons I took a job with the federal government was stability. I hope (!) that the shutdown ends soon.
Brachiator
This news story about Canada health insurance just popped up in my reading list.
Just thought it interesting to see what other countries do.
Emma
@Mnemosyne: That was wonderful!
Adam L Silverman
@Another Scott: Anti-Deficiency Act.
debbie
@Mnemosyne:
I love real tea parties! A friend and I went to High Tea at the Oak Room in the Plaza, before Trump defiled it. I have to say, it would be lovely living that life. It reminded me of Brideshead Revisited.
Steeplejack
@HeleninEire:
HelenoutofEire?
p.a.
@debbie: Military, or fundy birth control?
trollhattan
@Adam L Silverman:
IIRC Trump squeaked “threats to national security” when slapping on his steel and aluminum tariffs. Thank gawd, I feel so much safer.
Cheryl Rofer
trnc
@Yarrow:
I hope it ends with a bunch of libertarians figuring out they’ve been full of shit.
debbie
@Adam L Silverman:
Well, yeah. Her bisexual breasts are practically in his face! I hope his discomfort lasts until he and Mother have packed up the last suitcase when they leave Blair House.
debbie
@p.a.:
Gah! I meant military.
SiubhanDuinne
@Steve in the ATL:
Oh, good news! Thanks.
Amir Khalid
@Brachiator:
The Stones’ version of I Wanna Be Your Man is a hellacious rocket ride, whereas the Beatles’ is but a Sunday drive in a family motor car. I think the Stones win that one.
Another Scott
@HeleninEire: Oh goodness. I’m sorry. :-( I remember how overjoyed you were in moving to the Emerald Isle.
But let me give you an early Welcome Back to the USofA! We need all the help we can get here!!
Cheers,
Scott.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@jl:
I try to read DeLong. I occasionally read Krugman’s NYT op-ed.
I see stock investing as little different than gambling; only people who already have millions to invest make anything at it. The most experience I have at trading stock is using the in-game stock exchange in GTA 5.
I’m worried about graduating into a recession as well as how it would affect how much money I’m going to make. I don’t have many bills, but I have some. The privileges that come with being an adult often aren’t worth the responsibilities that come with it sometimes.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Mnemosyne: A lot of Yiddish seems to be obviously German, but there are clearly influences from other languages. I sort of know the proper way to use the one-word question “Nu?” (which I guess you could express as more or less “so what now?”). One time ran into an article explaining the idiomatic usages of “Nu?” with precisely the meaning(s) as I understand it.
The article was talking about Russian.
I’m sure there are other Russian examples but that’s the only one I know.
SiubhanDuinne
@debbie:
PHRASI– ! Oh, wait, you were talking about Syria, not Sinema.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: Day trading, trying to make money by guessing when to buy and sell on an hour-by-hour basis, is pure gambling.
But investing in mutual funds and letting your money sit there and grow is safe and a wise thing to do. On a month-to-month, even year-to-year basis, it will fluctuate. But the long-term trend is pretty solidly upward so if you only peek at it every 5 years or so the graph looks fine.
debbie
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
The things you cannot control, you should not worry about. Even if you graduate into an economic boom, things could very well go bust at any time over the rest of your life.
chopper
@RSA:
depends on what part of gummint processes your paycheck. mine is through the NFC which is part of USDA so no paychecks.
Suzanne
@Uncle Cosmo:
I have one in front of a local tool and die manufacturer called “Phoenix Small Tool”. It was my Book of Faces image for some time.
Elizabelle
@HeleninEire: Yes. I like that one too.
JPL
@Adam L Silverman: Let him and then the government employees would be paid. My bigger concern is giving into his whims, because then he would find out that temper tantrums work.
JPL
@SiubhanDuinne: You can’t get a marriage license in D.C. though, just in case you wondered about that.
Adam L Silverman
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: There is what almost everyone thinks of as Yiddish, which is basically Hebreo-German. And then there is a Russian variant, which is Hebreo-Russian, though it does include some of the more traditional Yiddish terms. There is also Ladino, which is Hebreo-Spanish (think a Spanish equivalent to Yiddish. There was also Romanesse, which is a Hebreo-Italian with a bit of Latin thrown in that was spoken by the Jews of Rome. Finally, there was a Hebreo-Arabic as well, which is interesting as Hebrew is basically a super simplified form of Arabic.
patrick II
Trump is worth every penny Putin paid for him.
redoubt
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Oh, I better remember. We had to borrow money from my dad to pay rent. (We paid him back.)
jl
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: DeLong has a habit of talking in impenetrable jargon.
Search ‘Dean Baker CEPR’ and ‘Stiglitz’
I think best investment to prepare for future recession for not-rich person is networking for future employment. Get out and let people know you will be in the job market. Firms do start shopping for high quality hires at bottom of the job market, there is research on that. But people have to know you are looking and you have promise as a much higher than average employee.
Suzanne
@Mnemosyne: Correct. Arizona is full of dumbfucks. Racist, gun-humping dumbfucks. No one here is a dumbfuck.
The media are also dumbfucks because they routinely butcher the spelling of our new senator’s name, and it makes me realize that they don’t even fact-check the most basic shit.
Kyrsten Sinema is going to vote slightly to the left of Manchin, I predict. I believe that she had the second- or third-most-Trumpy voting records of all of the Dems during her last term in Congress. She voted against Syrian refugees, FFS. She ran for Senate essentially as an independent. But a bad Dem is better than any Republican.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@jl: DeLong is my birth name, so my eye always catches on statements people make about DeLong. As far as I know, I’m not related to Brad. My dad’s family is Canadian.
J R in WV
@J R in WV:
And NO I didn’t see all the other Jackals recommending this nym!!! It just came to me!
Elizabelle
LA Times: Jogger is attacked by a dog, then bitten by the dog’s owner, in the Bay Area
Yikes. Rough day in a Castro Valley park. Woman attacked by a dog (fended it off with pepper spray) and then, things went worse when she encountered the dog’s owner, another woman.
Forensic Files quality photo of the bitemarks on the poor woman’s arm.
Adam L Silverman
@Elizabelle: Normally you’d be expecting this headline to be referring to Florida rather than California.
jl
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I vaguely remember DeLong talking about his family being German or Dutch immigrants that settled along US-Canadian border from way back in Colonial days. This was on his blog, or maybe discussion panel chit-chat at some conference.
So who knows? Maybe you are umpty-ump removed cousins.
SiubhanDuinne
@JPL:
Well, shit, there goes my weekend.
debbie
@Elizabelle:
Attempted manslaughter, and nothing less.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
I forgot about mutual funds! Those sound like something I definitely start investing in after I have my real job. I want to be able to live in relative comfort when I retire, like 50 years from now, and travel beyond the US’ borders at least once. It’s never too early to start planning!
@debbie:
You’re right, but you can’t help but think about people’s lives that have been completely wrecked by forces outside their control and they never recover.
It’s not something I think about a lot! But sometimes.
Elizabelle
@Adam L Silverman: Truly.
jl
@Adam L Silverman: Don’t look back, some large state may be gaining on you.
Better get cracking on your next Florid-duh blog post.
Aleta
I went to see friends in their new house and it turned out a lot like this, except for the dog.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrf9j_Ztzos
trollhattan
@Adam L Silverman:
Castro Valley, Cuba, Florida, connect the dots, sheeple!
Jay
@patrick II:
Wonkette has a good summary up, from Polish “incursions” into Belarus, Macedonia to Afghanistan.
Brachiator
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: When you’re young, I say be lazy. Invest in mutual funds. Split the investment between a fund that buys the broad stock market and a fund that invests in a good mix of growth stocks.
Then, don’t pay much attention to business news unless the revolution comes. You are investing for the long term.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@jl:
That sounds like good advice.
This is what I immediately found about Baker. He sounds like something worth listening to:
Mary G
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: Start now. My housemate found and is using an app called Stash where you can invest as little as $5 in an ETF and learn the lingo. He’s up to a couple of hundred dollars now, and wants to sell out, whereas I am pushing him to put even more in. The earlier you begin investing, even a tiny bit of money, the better. The market always goes up in the long run.
poleaxedbyboatwork
@trnc:
Highly unlikely, imo. The seductiveness of libertarianism for many is it promises beneficial outcomes rooted in a veneration of liberty and freedom from government — just so long as one completely ignores, you know, the entirety of human nature and its history. Libertarianism is the quintessential “wouldn’t-it-be-pretty-to-think-so” ideology. Very much like communism, imo. If only human beings acted like abstract ideas made incarnate, it’d be perfect!
Libertarianism, to me, is nothing more than a childish passive-aggressive means of enjoying the bitter fruits of discrimination while (because you’re a chickenshit) tarting up your pseudo-intellectuality with high-falutin’ “ideas!” so that when the inevitable injustices occur, you can absolve yourself of the responsibility of your “positions”. At least actual, you know, bigots own their ugly revanchist worldview.
imo
Jay
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
About 2 decades ago, I hooked up with a SunLife Advisor.
My RRSP’s that were worth barely what I had paid into them over 3 decades had major returns year after year. (401K to you guys).
If I had started out where I ended up, I would have comfortably retired 20 years ago.
tobie
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: I like De Long and try to read him when I can. Martin Wolf’s op eds in the Financial Times are always interesting, if dark, but the FT is under paywall. Have you tried project-syndicate.org? It seems to be a clearing house for articles on economics that have appeared in the world’s newspapers. I read it pretty regularly during the Euro crisis but have fallen off the wagon. The section on climate and the environment was also very good.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Mary G:
That sounds super cool! I’ll definitely check that out!
@Jay:
Cool! I’ll get an probably get an advisor or something in a few years.
@Brachiator:
That matches what other commenters are saying, re: starting early and doing mutual funds etc. I’ll look into it.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@tobie:
I haven’t, but I’ll put it on my to-do list.
RSA
@poleaxedbyboatwork:
Insightful. When I used to argue with libertarians about how their ideas would work in practice, they often seemed to assume, “Well, if everyone were a libertarian…” It didn’t surprise me that most libertarians were middle-class white guys. (“If the only opinions that counted were those of middle-class white guys…”)
poleaxedbyboatwork
@RSA:
Ya. And if frogs had wings, they woudn’t bump their arses when they hopped.
No better representation of the vacuous bankruptcy of the ideology than Paul fils saying (admitting) he opposed the Civil Rights Act of ’64 cuz it forced — FORCED! I tells ya — folks to treat everyone with equal humanity. (Paul of course cited that it compeled behavior and undermined liberty by stripping folks of their rights. What he don’t say is the right that were impugned is the right to freely discriminate. Because you’re an asshole.)
And that is the crux of the biscuit. Libertarianism seeks to enshrine yer “right” to be a discriminatingly indiscriminate asshole.
Ain’t no wonder it appeals to entitled douchebros. They have the luxury of their “ideology” b/c it touches not their pretty minds nor bodies nor liberty.
Boil it down, it’s the same old story: fuck you, I got mine.
Ruckus
@Gravenstone:
600,000+ people voted for him last time around. He got 60% of the vote. He may not do so well this time but I wouldn’t count him out till it’s all over.
Don’t get me wrong I want him gone, gone, gone, if possible to one of the federal supermax hotels for a restful 5-10 yr vacation.
john fremont
@Pogonip: As Adam Silverman mentioned , many DOD functions are provided by contractors. For example, heavy periodic maintenance on military aircraft is usually outsourced to civilian contracting firms, and their employees won’t stick around if they are not getting their paychecks. Some of the contracting firms will be able to offer the civilian mechanics and machinists contracts with airlines or other commercial aviation operators in the meantime but most of those firms don’t have enough contracts with the commercial sector. That is a loss compounding the fact that many military aircraft are down for parts or are overdue for needed inspections and maintenance.
dww44
@HeleninEire:If you shared this info before now, I missed it. Welcome back and yes, go with the new nym.
Pogonip
@john fremont: The military contractors should be getting paid, since DOD is funded. The guy who cleans the toilets at Ag is probably already seeking another job.
Adam L Silverman
@john fremont: Or, as in the case of the F35, are just a general hazard and major danger to life and limb. And that’s the life and limb of the mechanics and pilots, not the enemy!
Adam L Silverman
@Pogonip: Defense and Intel contractors, unless they’re doing intel work for DHS or DOJ and FBI, are on the job and getting paid.
Karen
@Bruuuuce: “putzeleh”
Also if Trump calls for the National Emergency, doesn’t Martial Law come next?
Anotherlurker
@Adam L Silverman: But not necessarily a momser or a gonif?
Tehanu
@A Ghost To Most:
That’s President* Creosote, isn’t it?