“I simply want to do this one thing. Also, I want a bunch of other stuff that would kill the deal.” https://t.co/bYUr4raNqL
— George Callas (@George_A_Callas) December 26, 2020
You’d think the GOP would have some respect for their own political futures, if not for their constituents, but apparently their fealty to Dear Leader trumps all. From the Washington Post:
President Trump on Saturday continued to demand changes to the $900 billion stimulus deal that Democrats and Republicans approved on Dec. 21, raising the odds that the government could shut down on Tuesday and the economy could suffer a devastating shock in the final days of his presidency…
The president’s denunciation of the agreement represented a stunning public broadside against his own treasury secretary, who for four years loyally shielded the president’s tax returns, endured repeated presidential tirades in private, and defended even Trump’s most incendiary and contradictory remarks. Through it all, Mnuchin had emerged with the unique ability to walk a tightrope between Trump and congressional leaders, serving as an emissary in difficult negotiations. That all ended on Tuesday, when Trump posted a video on Twitter ridiculing the agreement…
One day before Trump’s video was released, Mnuchin called the relief package “fabulous” in an interview with CNBC. Mnuchin stressed that the administration would send payments of as much as $2,400 to millions of American households as early as this week. It would have amounted to one of the largest federal cash payment transfers in history outside the Cares Act in March.
Instead, Trump decided to risk torpedoing the effort while raging against congressional Republicans on Twitter for not supporting his effort to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. Trump has also expressed anger at congressional Democrats for not agreeing to a stimulus package before the presidential election…
President-elect Joe Biden on Saturday slammed Trump for refusing to sign the agreement into law.
“It is the day after Christmas, and millions of families don’t know if they’ll be able to make ends meet because of President Donald Trump’s refusal to sign an economic relief bill approved by Congress with an overwhelming and bipartisan majority,” Biden said in a statement. “This abdication of responsibility has devastating consequences.”…
Not feeling any sympathy for Steve Mnuchin, me. Smart, well-connected money guy like him, he knew exactly what he’d get from the Oval Office Occupant, no matter how sycophantic one’s service. Hope the selfies were worth it, Mnuch!
A 2020 Christmas Eve message from Rep. Debbie Dingell.
She didn’t stutter.
2-minutes of pure passion… pic.twitter.com/PIsGPecBOv
— Rex Chapman???? (@RexChapman) December 24, 2020
Historical note, from an unlikely (newly ex-Republican) source:
14 million unemployed people will lose benefits because of this delay but, on the other hand, the president’s tweets aren’t getting enough likes. https://t.co/qPDM3t35Y0
— Josh Barro (@jbarro) December 26, 2020
It is not my style to emote about this — the president has always been like this, even people who voted for him know it, it’s priced in — but man is that selfish.
— Josh Barro (@jbarro) December 26, 2020
It’s just so different from how Trump is approaching this transition.
And Bush had made a lot of terrible mistakes in the lead-up to that. But in the moment, they were trying to do what they could to let the next team to come in and fix things as they saw it.
— Josh Barro (@jbarro) December 26, 2020
dmsilev
One big difference between the 2008 transition and now is that the Democrats held both the House and the Senate back then. No McConnell calling the shots. If Democrats had, even barely, the Senate today, they would have passed this bill or something better months ago, and Trump would have to either sign it or actively veto it, none of this passive-aggressive pocket veto nonsense.
waspuppet
“If everyone would just do exactly as I say at all times, I would be so easy to get along with.”
Does anyone still have any doubts he’s not a domestic abuser?
debbie
@dmsilev:
I read last night about McConnell assuring the mega-donors that he would not allow a single Democratic bill to come to the floor. Unbelievable.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
some discussion in an earlier thread about what Republicans expected from trump. I think Mnuchin was one of those who saw himself as a puppet-master early on. As I recall there were rumors, fairly widespread and I’d guess well-sourced, that he, Mattis and Tillerson had formed a pact that they would resign if one got fired? I’m kind of surprised Mnuchin is still there.
and for pure gossip: His step-mother hates him
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@dmsilev: I think Bush had also pretty much gotten bored with the whole bein’ President thing by the summer of ’08
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
Debbie Dingell for Speaker when Pelosi retires.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Presidentin’ is hard work.
AnotherBruce
He’s going to burn it down time. Also, he has defunded the armed forces. No telling what his buddy Putin has in mind. We really have to take a good look at the 75 day Lame Duck period. From the election to January 20, we are in a dangerous time. It’s a rediculously long time.
Kelly
“I don’t see any method at all, sir.”
Mike in NC
Trump has unofficially checked out. Like Cohen predicted, he’ll stay at his tacky club after the holidays and never set foot in DC again. Have his crap shipped to Palm Beach. He could never be able to look Biden or Obama in the eye and admit he’s the sorest sore loser that ever lost.
Damien
Republicans are the party of “Fuck my whole face, I’m gonna cut off my nose to show it I’m tough.”
Frankensteinbeck
@AnotherBruce:
No more than he ever was. None of the shit he’s pulling now is new. We had a five week shutdown just because of his dumbass pride near the beginning of his term. Some of his aides are a little more focused and want to salt the earth for Biden, but they’re pretty stupid, too.
The pardons are new, a clear reaction to his depression, but as offensive as they are, they’re not ‘burn the nation down’ material.
I think our biggest risk is if he doesn’t care enough to sign a budget until Biden takes over.
Formica
Have you got a link for this? My blood pressure isn’t high enough, nor does my head hurt enough. Note: I have zero doubt you are making an authentic statement, I’d just like to follow up.
Gvg
@dmsilev: democrats didn’t get the senate till months later. Al Franken and whoever his opponent was had a long recount fight.
Bush grew up in a political family. He thought it was perfectly normal to have an election transition. Trump was from the beginning delusional about how the Presidency worked and talked about forever. It’s like he was raised in a non American family in a way. He really just doesn’t share a background with us. Not only is he rich, it’s like he really is foreign. Alien to our history. Yeah, a bunch of other Americans supported him, but a lot of them didn’t pay attention to those details. They still knew we were going to have elections.
Elie
I feel Debbie Dingell’s impotent rage and sorrow to the bottom of my toes…
Similar to the truck bomb in Nashville, this destruction by Trump was “intentional” and designed to hurt people — mostly people who could not protect themselves and were/are at his mercy. His favorite targets.
It hurts me so much not to be able to do anything to avoid their pain and suffering at the hands of this/these monsters. It is infuriating to be unable to make those in the GOP legislature pay a price for this. I wish that there was a Milgram experiment button that would deliver a real jolt of electricity to these — “people”. I would be laying on those buttons 24/7! I’d break the damn knobs clear off!
What lessons can we take from this? What can we do to remember and correct this horror? I am so upset and frustrated! They have no decency, no mercy — that has already been said over and over.. I just want to howl…
CaseyL
@Elie: The problem is they keep getting re-elected. It almost seems like the only way they’ll leave is feet first.
And I would be entirely OK with that.
Ksmiami
@Elie: hound GOP officials and enablers every where they go- make it clear that their indecency in DC leads to indecent responses. If you see any of these jerk offs in a restaurant, spit in their food. Cut off Republicans in your life
Kent
On the plus side, shutting down the government will put the brakes on a lot of the last minute “salt the earth” fuckery they are trying to ram through in every damn agency from Census to the EPA. I’ve been through various shutdowns as a Fed and all that paperwork type of stuff basically comes to a halt. There are probably a lot of career civil service folks in various agencies who would use a shutdown as the excuse to lose and delay a lot of that paperwork. And then use it again to delay further when the government reopens (sorry…we got such a backlog now we will get to it when we can).
That’s the only plus side i can think of.
AnotherBruce
@Frankensteinbeck: True, but my main concern is Putin. The lame duck time is an advantangious(sp) time for Vlad, and he really could burn it down.
Major Major Major Major
Speaking of Republicans, I regret to inform you that the scofflaws in the NY Orthodox community are at it again
Punchy
They have nothing to sweat. The GOP base would vote for a Repub who raped and murdered their own grandmother, if that meant not electing some nancy lib. GOP pollys know this; theres simply no action too perverse or harmful to affect the base’s voting habits. So they need not care about looking like a hypocritical shithead, and thus theyre hypocritical shitheads.
Major Major Major Major
@Formica: I saw a tweet saying this yesterday, framed as BREAKING NEWS, but then I noticed it was by a comedian and had a sly Colonel Sanders pun and was probably not real…
Gvg
@Formica: i read it too, last night, but when I just tried to find it for you, I could only find a twitter link that said it was a parody account and the person had been fooled. I don’t know, maybe someone else can confirm or deny. I’ll wait and see.
i also found a politico story that says McConnell now says he will bring all Biden’s nominees to the floor for a vote and some will win, some lose. He also says he has a better relationship with Biden than Schumer had with Trump (so what, Trump is evil). Show me McConnell….
debbie
@Formica:
From Twitter last night, I can’t remember who,sorry.
Another Scott
@Frankensteinbeck: Yeah, the 5-week previous lame-duck shutdown is being memory-holed. It’s astounding.
Donnie is desperate to get his way. He’s looking for every bit of leverage he can find – still. He thinks he still has power to determine the outcome of the election. He thinks he still has power to determine his fate after Uncle Joe takes office (via pardons and his “control” over the GOP and “his justices” and “his generals” and “his Warp Speed vaccines”).
He’s going to try to demand some sort of reward before signing anything else related to the budget and COVID relief.
There has to be a reckoning…
24 DAYS 17 HOURS 50 MINUTES
and counting…
Cheers,
Scott.
LuciaMia
Just add to the stew that Trump always has to have attention; it always has to be about him. Thats why I bet, no matter what’s announced, he WILL show up at the inauguration. How can he resist?
hells littlest angel
He really thinks that if he behaves really, really horribly, he’ll somehow get to stay in office. The Underpants Gnomes were better planners than him.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Gvg: Democrats had a majority in the Senate at the start of the Congress in 2009, they didn’t have a 60 vote majority until Franken’s election was certified. You’re quite right about Trump’s perception of the US Government, Trump is a monarchist.
Major Major Major Major
@debbie: yeah, here it is. Their timeline makes clear it’s a joke
https://twitter.com/octoberferguson/status/1342455303611310081?s=21
ETA saw it when it fooled award winning author Tom Levenson so you’re in good company
debbie
@Formica:
If it was fake, I apologize. I just spent more than five minutes scrolling, only to see that the next post was only from four hours ago. I hate Twitter.
Punchy
@Another Scott: Someone yesterday or so hypothesized that perhaps Trump doesnt believe an inauguration can happen if the govt is shut down, therefore his desire to shut it down. Its all not true, but truth never mattered to Orange Foolius and may explain why he seems to be seeking a shutdown.
Feathers
It would be lovely if Mnuchin dumped the tax returns at 4:59pm on Jan 19. Just a dream, I know. But it is my dream.
debbie
@Major Major Major Major:
I recognize that avatar, thanks. I’ll take your word that it wasn’t legitimate.
Major Major Major Major
@debbie:
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Major Major Major Major: it’s a weird kind of joke because it’s so completely believable as a news story. It would be like “Trump mistakes son for waiter”
zhena gogolia
@Feathers:
What difference would it make?
JaySinWA
I see what you did there.
But I think they fear the base that T has motivated more than T, and see their political future tied to that base.
Another Scott
@Punchy: I wouldn’t be at all surprised if that’s the case. He should know, though, that a government shutdown only affects “non-essential” government business, and a transition of power is certainly an “essential” business.
The existing CR expires on the 28th, IIRC. I wonder what Nancy and Chuck are thinking. Another CR with no other changes would only allow Donnie to delay signing the relief bill even longer. Going without another CR would invite a blame game that the press would be happy to blame on BothSides™. I assume Moscow Mitch is rubbing his bruised fingers together with glee…
Grr…
I hope the sensible voters in Georgia are paying attention!!
Cheers,
Scott.
Major Major Major Major
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: yeah it’s definitely not a good joke.
@Another Scott: “I hope the sensible voters in Georgia are paying attention!!”
But we need a majority ?
SWMBO
@Another Scott:
I’d be just as happy if the desperate ones were paying attention. People who are motivated to come out and put a stop to bullshit that is wrecking their lives.
JaySinWA
@Another Scott:
There aren’t enough sensible voters to make a difference, I am afraid
Or what @Major Major Major Major: said with more levity.
Kent
@Another Scott: What Dems should to tomorrow is take the existing budget/Covid relief bill, swap out the $600 for $2000 and sent the same exact identical bill back to the Senate with that ONE change.
No fucking around with CRs that don’t contain covid relief. Make it a binary choice for the GOP. Pass the budget and covid package with $600 or pass the budget and covid relief with $2000. Pick one.
PsiFighter37
It doesn’t strike me that holding up a bill that Perdue and Loeffler could at least point to and say they voted for, right before their election, is a good idea. Honestly have to think that the GOP is not good at politics at all, and they’ve gotten as lucky as they have because Cheeto is a whisperer for dumbshit poor white people, and because Florida continues to be populated by idiots.
Dopey-o
Another possibility: Tr*mp will do anything to upstage Biden’s inauguration.
Look for an alternative swearing-in live from Mar-e-Coli. Look for gangs of Proud Chads and Broth-Keepers on the streets of DC. to pull the TV cameras. Look for more Nashville-type RV attacks.
raven
Shit, RIP Tony Rice
I’m just a poor wayfaring stranger
Traveling through this world below
There is no sickness, no toil, nor danger
In that bright land to which I go
Kent
@PsiFighter37: I don’t think Trump really cares at all about Perdue and Loeffler. McConnell obviously does, but not Trump. He seems more interested in burning the place down, GOP included.
CliosFanBoy
My wife is a federal employee and her last day before retirement is the 31st. If the government shuts down for the rest of the week starting Tuesday it means she only has to work Monday. She doesn’t want that as there is a lot to do the final week. (and her coworkers are almost all off for the holidays, so she can avoid the sad goodbyes)
jl
@Frankensteinbeck: @PsiFighter37:
I agree with you folks, though we can’t know for sure. As I typed right before Christmas, I think Trump is having a massive sustained tantrum because McConnell and most of the GOP Senate won’t go along with his plan for a desperate plan to overthrow the election when the EC votes are counted in January.
There seems to be less thought to it than a cockatoo having a tantrum. This cockatoo at least knows it wants to get down from its perch, though why it can’t get down on its own is a mystery to me. I’ve just been watching parrot videos to forget the multiple disastrous messes the US is in.
It’s a Cockatoo Tantrum! *SUBTITLED*
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGTS-oqj94E
I don’t know anything about cockatoos, but this one is reputed to have a good home and is well adjusted and tolerable, as far as cockatoos go, which doesn’t seem to be very far. It’s a rescue bird and horribly abused for a while after its previous owner died. So, the bird has far more inner resources for self-improvement and recovery than Trump does.
Maybe there is a way to get Gotcha into office before Biden takes over?
trnc
6:49pm Dec 26th works, too.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@PsiFighter37:
Floriduh Man.
JPL
@PsiFighter37: Perdue has an ad up saying he voted for it and says help is coming soon. No mention that the president hasn’t signed it. trumpettes will believe anything.
debbie
@Kent:
He is punishing Republicans because they haven’t stood up enough for him. It’s all in his vindictiveness.
jl
The problem with Trump is that he is so irrational and dysfunctional its almost impossible to figure out what he is trying to do, or is able to do. Certainly not anything constructive. Sitting there saying and doing nothing at all until a massive combo spending bill is passed is substandard even by Trump’s own asinine and incompetent approach to bargaining, at leas in the real world outside of the toxic NYC real estate world. It makes old school Soviet kreminology look like adding 2 and 2.
I agree that this can’t help the Georgia race. Maybe if Trump decides to take another couple of fresh dumps that are difficult to flush on the GOP before the special election, that will clarify things.
Frankensteinbeck
@jl:
That is an unusually talkative cockatoo. Not an unusually loud cockatoo. They are screamy little bastards. But few of them use that much human language for the purpose. From its body language, I think that is a tantrum. It’s working itself into a fit about something. The fit is the wordless screaming part. It’s not scared or hurting or even stressed, just being a brat.
The Moar You Know
@raven: worked on a bunch of his guitars, including the famous OG Martin he’s got in the video. Goddamn this year. He’s the second person I know personally who’s died.
raven
@The Moar You Know: Oh man, we’re trying to remember the last time we saw him here. It was after the throat cancer and he wasn’t singing anymore.
Ian
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: She sounds terrible.
Elizabelle
@jl:
I just plain like this language. And yes, to that bird having more self-control than ….
jl
@debbie: I’ve read about fringe textualist and originalist loons in the Trumposphere claiming that Pence can do some random switcheroo of the electoral slates during the count in the Senate, and if enough GOP Senators object to the current slates, some magic will happen.
But I don’t even know of a group of random people has gotten together is some random garage someplace to appoint alternative slates to count. But Trump doesn’t care.
BTW, I don’t understand why the same election result has to be re-officialized and recounted so many times. The electoral college has been outdated and dysfunctional ever since Adams. But even apart from the that, the whole process seems very redundant and clunky.
jl
@Frankensteinbeck: It’s far more well adjusted and well behaved than others I’ve been watching.
I saw one clip where a little brat cockatoo was disappointed because preparations were made for some outside time, but the outing was postponed because of a sudden downpour. The cockatoo went berserk and started throwing everything it could find around the house.
Still better than Trump, since a kid could understand what was motivating the cockatoo.
burnspbesq
@raven:
Damn.
RIP, Tony.
jl
Trump may also be melting down because his flunkies, from high to low, from Kushner to Pence, are just fleeing, and he sees his power evaporating before his eyes. I see some saying that this shows that Trump flunkies have some limits. I am more cynical and think it just means that with the coup plotting devolving into a total fail and toxic dumpster fire, the Trump flunkies see serious life consequences from further lawless BS.
Has Pence even announced when he is leaving on his very very very very important trip on the same day as the Congressional EC count? I don’t think anyone knows if Pence will even be there to preside. Can he delegate that job to someone else if he decides to book the joint at dawn on counting day?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@jl:
Yeah, President Pelosi.
Sm*t Cl*de
@jl
Cockatoos are social animals so no cockatoo kept in isolation is ever going to be well-adjusted. Of course they’re also screechy little bastridges, under any circumstances, so the choice is between a single psychotic screechy little bastridge or a whole flock of well-adjusted screechy little bastridges.
burnspbesq
I think this is the first thing I ever heard Tony play and sing on. I was immediately hooked, and 45 years later I still am.
https://youtu.be/UChaXhy26Fc
nclurker
it’s not incompetence.
it’s an agenda.
it’s sabotage.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@jl: Yup, this is what its like in The Final Days.
JPL
geez Our president is having a giant melt down, and apparently no one cares..
Baud
@JPL:
That’s a good thing.
JPL
@Baud: Ha.. Preet just tweeted that it’s getting easier and easier to just tune him out.
Leto
@JPL: does someone have the little Orphan Annie Dipshit Decoder ring to parse that? Am I buying more Ovaltine? More Trumpov Steaks? Did I win a free flight on Trumpov Airlines?
Baud
raven
@Leto: Ovaltine, from my home town!
Cameron
@JPL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6Tmn28OyIE&feature=youtu.be
raven
@The Moar You Know: So if I look up his guitar and see the note of who worked on it. . .
Frank Wilhoit
@Frankensteinbeck: This is why we only have South American parrots. (Ruby, our Mexican Red Head Amazon, is on the April page of Calendar A.) Cockatoos are a spectator sport. I’ve been lucky enough to handle a couple of perfectly socialized birds, but they were exceptions. The thing is that they only respond to positive reinforcement, but in practice that means that it is almost impossible to avoid them getting spoiled. The bird in the clip is asking to be picked up and played with. The owner knows better — if she did pick the bird up, then what you see and hear in the clip would become the new baseline ask any time the bird wanted attention. Our macaws do flock calls, morning and evening, but if they yell any other time, we know we need to figure out why.
sdhays
@Kent: I think he also definitely resents that Perdue ran stronger than him and would have won if not for Georgia’s runoff rules. If he has to lose, and he has, he wants to point to Georgia Republicans dragging him down.
sdhays
@Frank Wilhoit: I hear Norwegian blues have beautiful plumage.
jl
@Cameron: Still far more in touch with reality and with far more competence at the activities of daily living than Trump.
But, getting warmer. BJ is resourceful and persistent, and with effort, will find something truly appropriate sooner or later.
Frank Wilhoit
@JPL: Just pretend he’s been Miranda’d and bank everything for the trial(s). Trump has enough chutzpah to submit his tweets in support of an insanity defense.
sdhays
@Baud: Having won the war on Christmas, liberals are now launching a new offensive on Boxing Day.
jl
@Frank Wilhoit: The poor bird was thrown and beaten almost to death before given to the current human owner/guardian/long-suffering servant in an attempt to rescue it. So, given the circumstances, it is a nice cockatoo. Which from my sampling is a very relative thing.
From my viewing over last couple of days, parrots and cockatoos are very interesting birds. They have a different view on life than we primates, and the dogs the cats of this world, other animals that we are more familiar with.
Edit: and a ton of work to keep. I’ve long thought it might be fun to have two budgies some day. But rapidly changing my mind. One parrot advice channel recommended volunteering at a rescue shelter for the parrot curious before thinking further. I might try that avenue.
Frank Wilhoit
@sdhays: They used different props for the TV episode and over time for the stage shows. One prop looks like a stuffed Spix macaw; that one always gives me the shivers.
Baud
For the curious.
Frank Wilhoit
@jl: Search for Irene Pepperberg.
jl
@Frank Wilhoit: Yes, I’ve seen the genius African Gray parrots.
I read an anecdote about a parrot that was given cracker birdy bread, and bananas before. One day it was given a banana chip, and the parrot looked at and said ‘banana cracker?’ I don’t remember what kind of parrot that was.
Ksmiami
@jl: does some magic include another civil war because if the GOP does this, all bets are off all rules are out the window?…
Kristine
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Yeah, I believed it, too. It made total sense.
Brachiator
@Gvg:
Your comments here are quite interesting. Bush was part of the political and economic elite. But I think that Trump is very much American. But he has a very crabbed, unhealthy vision of America, that is made even more warped by the fact that he only cares about himself and his fragile psyche. Trump is kinda rich and has some plutocrat buddies, but he isn’t part of anything larger than himself. There is something essential missing from Trump, an emptiness at the core of his being.
jl
@Ksmiami: I don’t see a city or town or Census designated place in the US called Avignon. Charleston SC seems to have gone for Biden. Trump can set up shop someplace for a presidency in exile, but not one of the best, most terrific and classy, places.
jl
@Brachiator: I guess we can start with Aaron Burr and work our way into weirder historical territory from there. The Confederacy was not nearly chaotic enough, and that is saying something.
Brachiator
@jl:
Of course, in the real world when there is a presidential transition, staffers start getting new jobs and begin to move on to other opportunities. Trump flunkies must flee only because the Orange Beast is trying to keep them down in the bunker with him.
Of course there are a few idiots who don’t understand that it is way past time to get out of Dodge.
Doc Sardonic
@PsiFighter37: Yeah they’re your idiots…Quit sending your fucking parents and grandparents down here. It was a nice state until the Yankees ruined it
Cameron
What, the cowardly tub of shit is going to launch a revolution? Not in this universe.
JPL
@Cameron: I actually thought of a children’s song No body likes me, everybody hates me
Ruckus
@Gvg:
Not foreign, ignorant. I’d say pig ignorant but don’t want to disrespect pigs. And it doesn’t matter if you consider him naturally or willfully ignorant, the end result is the same, he doesn’t care, he’s unwilling/incapable of learning anything. Add in his mental/personality defects and you have someone who just reeks total ignorance. And while age may be some of it, he’s been this way for decades.
jl
@Doc Sardonic: I am hearing news reports of big exodus of individual professionals and corporate headquarters mostly in big IT and more mundane big pharma (distributors) from California into the more enterprising GOP states. Fine with me, since way to many people here and we need fewer asap.
I for one am happy for my state to help out as best it can all around these great United States.
Frank Wilhoit
@Brachiator: You’ll have seen a famous quote from Mencken, whose punchline is “…an outright moron.” What he was trying to say is that people vote for candidates whom they identify with. Trump’s voters identify with him, and that particularly means the ignorance and the sadism — the two cornerstones of the peasant mindset.
jl
Trump seems to be running out of die-hard flunkies he can put in place to sabotage and subvert. Can’t be helping his mood.
@EricColumbus
” The Federal Vacancies Reform Act prevents Patel from becoming acting FBI director, because Patel isn’t Senate-confirmed and hasn’t been a DOJ official. Patel would be illegally appointed, and no one would need to follow his orders. ”
https://twitter.com/EricColumbus/status/1342993877859500033
Leto
@jl: they’re all fleeing to the no tax/“right to work” states of the south. Just in case people didn’t already know they don’t give a fuck about their workers.
HRA
I just came on and ave no idea what anyone has previously said above. I will make my way up after I finish here. Trump had already made his wish of actually nothing to his friendly Republicans in the House. They voted against the bill. Most certainly he is keeping the spotlight on himself knowing the $2,000 will not pass and throwing out again. Yes, he does want to shut the government down. He thinks it will stop the inauguration. No one should trust him.
Brachiator
@Frank Wilhoit:
I have consistently noted that Trump supporters love him because he is just as resentful and stupid as he is. Trump has always reminded me of that ignorant and drunken blowhard at the back of the bar who tells you exactly what he would do if he were president. A chunk of the electorate were actually foolish enough to get that guy elected, and the results have been predictably disastrous.
I would not call it a peasant mindset because this kind of militant stupidity is not based on income or social class.
different-church-lady
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Poe’s Law, comedy codicil.
jl
@Leto: I heard that Musk, Uber and Oracle are moving a lot of their corporate stuff out of CA.
In Georgia runoff GOP boycott news: If the following gets up steam, I think worthy of a front post. The Trumpster election Kraken has hatched a new GOP boycott scheme for the Georgia run-off. If enough GOP voters boycott, it will mess up the Dominion voting fraud algorithm, produce negative vote counts, revealing the fraud, forcing SCOTUS to invalidate the whole general election (if I understand it correctly).
@SamWangPhD
‘ Georgia Republicans are being asked to #BoycottGeorgia. Supporters of Trump lawyers Lin Wood and Sidney Powell say by not voting, “there will be so few [votes] that GOP vote totals will go negative… The fraud will be so obvious, SCOTUS can then invalidate [2020].” ‘
https://twitter.com/SamWangPhD/status/1343002800654053376
This and previous tweet is from Josh Marshall’s twitter. He has taken an interest, so a good clearing house maybe for breaking news on how the world historic Dem election fraud will be revealed for any fool to see any day now.
Ksmiami
@Leto: Living in Texas sucks- they’ll find out soon enough how oppressive and unnatural life is here
Baud
@Ksmiami: Even Lubbock?
Frankensteinbeck
@Brachiator:
He’s the Racist Uncle At Thanksgiving president.
MagdaInBlack
@Brachiator: Thank you.
brantl
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Fixed that for you.
jl
@Baud: I don’t want to seem like a bad person. It is horrid that some Californians working for these corporations must suffer in red states to help save The Republick.
I’ll look around to see if there are any charities that will make some care packages to send.
Maybe some red state Baudist chapters where they can seek refuge? That lay-about needs a 50 state strategy.
Baud
@jl:
Why can’t they move to Wyoming or Idaho? It would be a much easier lift.
rikyrah
@Kent:
That is what they intend to do
jl
@Baud: ‘ Why can’t they move to Wyoming or Idaho? It would be a much easier lift. ‘
Good point. More long haul freights through those states. Likely places for Baudist hobos to hop off and get a local movement going.
Tom Levenson
@Major Major Major Major: Errrrr.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@AnotherBruce: And the interregnum period has been shortened! Remember when FDR took over from Hoover, the inauguration was in March. The original delay from election to new admin was because of the slowness of transportation before the invention of anything faster than horseback. Nowadays, you are right, it is ridiculous and dangerous.
Baud
@jl:
Box! Cars! for Baud! has a certain ring to it.
Chetan Murthy
@Baud: Most parts of TX, half the year is spent fleeing from air-conditioned location to air-conditioned location. Hotter than hell. And then there’s goddamn racists. Jesus fuck, the fucking racists.
I grew up there, and it sure hasn’t gotten better in Fort Worth, that’s for sure. Fuuuuuck. No decent parent should raise a child of color in Texas if they can help it. Or at least, only in a majority-minority city and neighborhood. B/c fuck, you’ll damage your child for life.
Damage. Your. Child. For. Life.
Frank Wilhoit
@Brachiator: In my usage, “peasant” signifies an attitude toward the sociology of education.
Brachiator
@Frank Wilhoit:
Fair enough.
NotMax
@Brachiator
Pissant mindset.
;)
Jim, Foolish Literalist
schrodingers_cat
@Frankensteinbeck: He is the embodiment of the RW chain emails.
Leto
@Baud: they’re probably headed to Austin as it’s been an alternate IT place for about a decade now. You get the light blue of Cali (mostly liberal folk, good food, smart/educated people) but without having to pay into any of the systems that get you all of that. Lot of IT companies have already done partial relocations there.
jl
@Leto: We’ll see whether the corporate hdqtrs and some subsidiary moves out of CA stick. Some IHMO lawless and/or very arrogant corporations have thrown tantrums over refusal of CA to cater to their every demand and have ‘moved out’, or shut down some, IMHO sketchy, operations.
But, later, turns out it was renting some office space and desks for corporate tax purposes, or later the sketchy operations were opened back up in CA anyway.
I don’t know why that would happen with a dystopian commie hellhole like CA. If Uber and Oracle want to leave, I think CA could do OK without them, but I don’t know much about the fiscal and economic details.
Sister Golden Bear
OT: If you’re looking for a change of pace from the usual holiday movie fare, check the 10 best LGBTQ films of 2020.
I’ve not seen all of them but “Disclosure” and “The Half of It” were amazing. Personally, I would’ve replaced “Happiest Season” (which most queer I know hated) with “Portrait of a Lady on Fire,” which is sensational, with stunning cinematography.
Brachiator
@Leto:
Oracle is moving to Austin, but HP is moving to Houston. There are a lot of universities in both cities that can supply future talent. But I have also read that some of these companies will continue to maintain a presence in California, and also intend to continue with remote work options, so they are not necessarily pulling all their employees with them.
Also, the California exodus is affecting a lot of middle class people. Housing and other living costs are forcing people to move out of the state.
Sister Golden Bear
@jl: I used to work near Oracle. They’re moving their headquarters to Texas but will still have an office here, so I’m not sure how huge an impact it’ll have locally.
The Oracle campus is pretty insular, with its own cafeterias, so the local restaurants won’t take much of a hit. It’ll probably get lost in the bigger hit that local economies will take from companies switching to having a significant number of employees work from home. E.g. Facebook expects that in 5-10 years half their employees will be working remotely, and there’s many other tech companies realize they can save tons of money of with less office space.
Main impact locally may be that locals no longer have to put up with Larry Ellison flying his jet into the San Carlos airport and all hours of the day and night. (Officially there’s a late-night curfew, but Ellison ignores it and just pays the fines.)
J R in WV
@raven:
Tony Rice is a monument to good guitar playing.
2020 SUCKS so bad~!!~ I know my neighbor will take this hard. He rebuilds old guitars etc. And Tony Rice is part of his musical heritage. 2020 sucks, but I’ve said that before.
raven
@J R in WV: I’d say great but that’s just me.
TriassicSands
Probably not, Anne. People like Mnuchin always think they are special. The rules don’t apply to him and he, alone, can bend Trump to his will.
Trump, the worst human being on the planet, is the one for whom the rules are truly meaningless. He has shown how fragile our system is and how inadequate the Constitution is when faced with a corrupt president supported and enabled by an equally corrupt party.
We have no way to ensure success in a system that is failing under the weight of 74,000,000+ voters who are stupid, ignorant, racist, and undemocratic enough to support Donald Trump and the GOP.
Suzanne
I slept in this morning. I am not good at sleeping in a spine-neutral position and I have been waking up in pain every day for the last week. In the Before Times, I went to yoga with some frequency and that helped a lot. I miss yoga classes. Doing it at home is next to impossible with Spawns and doggos around.
The Spawns got really good toys for Christmas. I’ve been, uhhh, testing them.
dmsilev
@jl: So, basically the argument is that the architects of this fraud are piss-poor programmers who don’t understand underflow errors and the like?
catclub
@Feathers: i was thinking about that, too. VERY unlikely.
dmsilev
One of the best parts of Christmas is being able to buy red&green M&Ms at 50% off on the 26th.
Patricia Kayden
catclub
@NotMax: The two peasant mindsets I know of are (I think) from Russia.
Origuy
@Brachiator: Correction, HPE is moving to Houston. That’s Hewlett Packard Enterprise, the servers to supercomputers part of HP before the split five years ago. My office before Covid was in the new HQ in North San Jose. We’ve been working almost entirely from home since then. At the announcement about the move to Houston, we were told that no one would be required to move and that there were no layoffs because of the move.
Probably most of the senior management will move to Houston, where there is already a new office building under construction.
The reasons for the move were mainly because of real estate prices. HPE is incorporated in Delaware, so corporate income tax won’t change.
Sister Golden Bear
@Origuy: And income taxes, which Texas doesn’t have.
Back in the day I worked for a start-up where all the execs were based in Dallas, so they would’ve have to pay state income taxes — even though all the actual workers were based on the West Coast.
jl
@Origuy: Thanks for info. It didn’t occur to me to think about how many of these giant corporations were officially headquartered in corporate tax haven states already.
jl
@dmsilev:
” So, basically the argument is that the architects of this fraud are piss-poor programmers who don’t understand underflow errors and the like? ”
I think that like all good conservatives, the Trump die-hards look to the founders. Madison said on efforts to prevent wars, ‘where anything is to be hoped, everything must be tried’.
And for them, this may be existential war. As noted in some places, the real Kraken for many of the Trumpsters may be still coiled and ready to spring from civil suits and state AG offices.
Ksmiami
@Baud: ironically I’ve had to stop overnight in lubbock a number of times- bland- I’m stuck in Dallas but we will move within the year- did get a snow place in Taos tho… Anyway, I’ve lived all around the US and really really have struggled with the whole TX mantra
TriassicSands
They don’t have to be good at politics. Their supporters are idiots who will believe whatever nonsense they are told or whatever makes them feel better. Our system isn’t broken, it’s been utterly destroyed.
Mary G
@Brachiator: People don’t talk about retirees. It’s just anecdata, but I know four different households around my age who wanted to retire, but haven’t got enough extra income over SS & pensions to live how they want. But they own houses worth hundreds of thousands of dollars more than they paid for them, and they’re selling and buying a smaller, more elder-friendly new house in Texas or Georgia for half the price and investing the profits for income.
2liberal
possibly income taxes for upper management also?
Jay
Now, DC,
In other news,
Brachiator
@Mary G:
Great point. You are totally right here. There are right wing pundits who push the lie that businesses are fleeing California because of excessive regulations and individuals are moving out because of high taxes and “too much” liberalism, but the reasons are more complex than that.
Origuy
@2liberal: Yes, I suppose that’s possible, but so many of the top people were based outside California anyway.
Benw
@dmsilev: haha and Easter candy is practically free the week after
Mary G
Punchy
@Mary G: thats…..just……AWESOME.
Amir Khalid
@Ksmiami:
All I know about Lubbock is that it’s the birthplace of Buddy Holly and Bobby Keys (saxophonist who played with The Rolling Stones).
Suzanne
@Brachiator: I know numerous people who have moved out of CA because of cost of living. Mr. Suzanne is from the Bay Area and I was offered a really good gig in San Jose, but it didn’t pencil out, not by a long shot. The parts of CA that are affordable are the parts I don’t want to live in. The housing crisis is a real thing.
RobertDSC-Mac Mini
@Suzanne:
My estranged sister, her husband, and her MIL all moved to Texas from California this year. Something to do with taxes.
sab
@Suzanne: My brother (the wannabe oligarch) lives in Marin County in a tiny house on a tiny lot that is worth well over a million dollars. And no ocean view. Barely existent public library system. Good schools.
I live in Ohio in a slightly larger house, on a much bigger lot, on a creek, next to a 1000 acre metropark. Good schools. Good libraries. House maybe worth $150,000.
sab
@Suzanne: My husband has a back so horrible that he has had back surgery. Collapsed disks, stenosis, arthritis, scoliosis.
He did some stupid lifting about six weeks ago and could barely stand up the next day.
Called his primary care physician who called a physical therapist who relayed back some exercises that were miraculous. All by telephone.
Maybe your primary care physician can do the same for you.
sab
@Baud: Mack Davis: ” Happiness is Lubbock Texas in the Rearview Mirror.”
Ruckus
@sab:
I moved to OH 25 yrs ago for a job. House in CA had been purchased 10 yrs before for 150K, on a hill that on a clear day we could see Catalina, about 50 miles away. That happened twice. Anyway the house was worth 350K then. In OH I started looking for a house. 250K brought a 3-4 bedroom home on an acre with a creek and woods behind. I brought a house that was bigger than the CA house, on a lot about 50% bigger at least, nicer schools, nice neighborhood, 115K. Sold it 11 yrs later for 157K when I moved back to CA. That house I’d moved out of in CA is now worth 600-650K. There are many, many places it’s far cheaper to live in that most of CA. But more people live here than any other state. There are reasons, both to live here and to not live here.
Bostondreams
@Sister Golden Bear:
i really enjoyed Happiest Season, but I could see how it could be problematic. That seemed a pretty toxic relationship in regards to the closet. But, I could only imagine that terror of coming out and losing your family and how that could warp other relationships.
but Kristen Stewart’s character should have ended up with Riley…
brantl
@Suzanne: Inversion can help with this. What they used to call “gravity boots”.