If you missed Biden’s speech last night, do yourself a favor and watch it when you have a moment:
We have no time to waste when it comes to getting this virus under control and building our economy back better. Tune in as I announce my American Rescue Plan. https://t.co/4YAg0nhJMn
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) January 15, 2021
The mister and I, cynical and jaded as we are, nearly wept with relief at hearing a normal elected official discuss national policy in a sane and coherent manner. It kind of felt like this:
To continue the Shawshank Redemption theme, enduring the Trump era has been like “crawling through five hundred yards of shit smelling foulness I can’t even imagine,” but the end is in sight. This time next week, we might no longer be seized with dread at each news alert on our phones or reflexively cringe when the President of the United States speaks. Hope.
Open thread.
PS: Media folks are speculating about whether or not Trump will leave a letter in the Resolute Desk for Biden. Allegedly there have been discussions in the West Wing about it. I hope not because, even if composed entirely in words with no illustrations, Trump’s note would be the equivalent of a crude crayon drawing of male genitalia.
But the speculation got me thinking about the note President Obama left for Trump, which included this:
[W]e are just temporary occupants of this office. That makes us guardians of those democratic institutions and traditions – like rule of law, separation of powers, equal protection and civil liberties – that our forebears fought and bled for. Regardless of the push and pull of daily politics, it’s up to us to leave those instruments of our democracy at least as strong as we found them.
Just like the rest of us, Obama saw the train wreck coming.
Kent
Biden just keeps growing on me. His speeches keep getting better and his gravitas keeps growing. I think we really lucked out here.
matt the somewhat reasonable
Trump must have been pissed when someone on his staff explained to him what the Obama letter meant. Assuming anyone bothered to do that and he didn’t just wad it up and throw it in the trash.
burnspbesq
Unfortunately, the Texas Legislature is in session. Ain’t nuthin’ Joe or Kamala can do about that.
Baud
I’m looking forward to having a president who’s vilified for frivolous reasons again.
marv
Not much of a commenter but I got the vaccine last night and the whole process sort of warmed the cockles of my heart. I became a teacher after 40 (now 68) and was nearly 20 years in a deep rural upper midwest k-12 school. Was asked to come back fulltime at the last minute this fall (a critical teacher-shortage thing). We’ve been in school mostly, except for a fairly long stretch for grades 9-12, now ended. So a few days ago got word we’d have vaccines last night for school personnel, some others in community, etc. The pre-registration online sort of a clusterf*** – enough to give an old guy some anxiety, but the actual process on-site was like near the end of Grapes of Wrath (the film) where the gov. just said, Come on in. Here’s what I especially liked: I understand how there could be bureaucratic problems in crowded areas and some of the vaccines could just go to waste. But when not everybody eligible here opted in (70% Trump country, not surprising), just by word of mouth, first come, first served, all vaccines put to use. As far as side effects – I’m a person who doesn’t think it’s unscientific to ask questions about vaccines. I woke up this morning with some soreness in my arm and ABBA songs playing nonstop in my head. It’s a little sinister.
Phylllis
@burnspbesq: As is the SC legislature. Sigh.
satby
Doesn’t it just figure that the media would focus on speculating about something as frivolous as the traditional letter from president to president instead of the continued investigations of the funding and coordination with insurrectionists?
OzarkHillbilly
Downright satanic if you ask me.
OzarkHillbilly
Last night, I actually slept thru the night for the first time in… I don’t know how long. I wish I knew what I’d done to enable that.
burnspbesq
From the Dept. of Weird Shit to Think About First Thing in the Morning:
I wonder what’s going to become of 59857, Tony Rice’s iconic 1935 Martin D-28.
matt the somewhat reasonable
@marv: I got the vaccine yesterday too thanks to my job working for a health care company. Happy days are here again!
marv
@OzarkHillbilly:
I know – you wouldn’t think even the Forces of Darkness could be that cruel.
satby
@marv: ABBA? I may have to rethink my jab appointment on Monday.
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: yay, you! Enjoy your day.
Salty Sam
Goddammit marv, you’ve just inflicted days worth of earworms on me…
Matt McIrvin
Seems like nobody’s getting the vaccine here in Massachusetts. I wish I knew why. The survivors will reelect Charlie Baker by a huge margin again, I’m sure.
Kristine
And I still can’t wrap my head around the fact that 74 million of my fellow citizens voted for More Wreckage.
I signed up for vaccine notification with the county health department, but under 65 with mild asthma, so it may be a while. Even if it slams me like the second Shingrix shot, it’ll be worth it.
p.a.
https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2020/09/25/fake-social-media-turning-point-usa
Kirk set up, paid for pro-tRump US troll farm
Kristine
@OzarkHillbilly: may it continue.
Betty Cracker
@marv: Good to know the vaccine rollout wasn’t a complete cluster, and congrats on getting the jab!
I was just reading a letter to the editor in the local paper about the massive cockup here caused when hundreds of vaccine-eligible folks showed up in the predawn darkness to line up in cars without adequate direction or facilities to support the effort.
The letter writer said there was no attempt to group people by alphabet or whatever to show up at set times; it was a free-for-all with hundreds of elderly folks driving around in the dark trying to figure out where to go and what to do, and many waited hours in vain. Sounds like your county handled it better.
satby
Oh, and after bitching about the IRS taking the snail mail route of sending a check which hadn’t come as of a week yesterday morning, guess what showed up yesterday afternoon? Just an obvious check in an envelope BTW, not even a cover sheet or letter attached to disguise it. No wonder there’s reports of theft of them, it was like it was deliberately designed to be stolen.
OzarkHillbilly
@marv: Bill Gates on the other hand….
TS (the original)
@OzarkHillbilly:
I find that happens when my brain isn’t swirling around with thoughts related to issues I am really concerned about.
I think the exit of trump will remove the insomnia of many people.
satby
@TS (the original): I know I’ve been sleeping better since the election. Except for the night of the 6th. I was pretty worked up that night for some reason.
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: I bought a mood lamp and it arrived yesterday. Set it up on my desk post haste and sat under it for about an hour yesterday afternoon. There is a part of me saying, “Hmmmmmm…..”
Basilisc
Obama’s letter reads like point-by-point advice to Trump not to do what he was (on 1/20/17) already doing. Ignoring the rule of law, alienating allies, the works.
Trump apparently showed it around to WH visitors and called it “beautiful”, not getting the criticism: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/09/04/in-parting-letter-obama-urged-trump-to-guard-democratic-institutions-and-traditions/
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: hmmm indeed! We’ve had more sunny days here, maybe I should pay attention to that correlation too.
Ascap_scab
@marv: Now that you have Bill Gates’ chip installed, when do we start calling you ‘Seven of Nine’?
ryk
Went to the doctor yesterday to get my back looked at. The nurses/office staff were talking about how the first shot didn’t affect them at all, but the second made several of them sick for a day or so with mild COVID symptoms. No conspiracies discussed. They all knew that meant the vaccine was working. Weird.
Geminid
@Salty Sam: Earworms suck. Sometimes the only way past is through a better earworm. The theme from “Fiddler on the Roof” works for me.
SFAW
@OzarkHillbilly:
UN-Blech!!!!! Glad to hear it.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
Weird gripe – Biden’s inauguration director was on MJ just now, and while she’s got great spirit and is REALLY easy on the eyes, that VOICE. Completely grating – I imagined what it would be like to be shouted at for failing to separate the recyclables correctly.
I don’t know if it’s a function of my hearing loss and certain tones or what.
And yeah, it’s shallow and awful, but it is what it is….
SFAW
@satby:
Your appointment is with a Jab Creator?
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Geminid:
“Seditioooooooon……”
OzarkHillbilly
US set for flurry of ‘Christian nationalist’ bills advanced by religious right
Rust never sleeps.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@satby: They sent me a debit card.
Cameron
@p.a.: A lot of that going around. https://www.ft.com/content/cb6b3342-a320-486e-b54c-a49ad32f2166
SFAW
I suspect he’ll actually leave two letters: “F” and “U,” written in Sharpie, on a piece of paper showing a Trump “landslide..” *
* Some bullshit official-looking spreadsheet showing the Murderer-in-Chief getting 100,000,000 votes to Biden’s 50,000,000
Kristine
For months now, I’ve been dealing with a different earworm most every day. Songs I love. Songs I hate. I used to watch Merv Griffin or Mike Douglas every weekday after school, and the songs their guests sang occasionally replay. The other day, it was the theme from Mel Brooks “High Anxiety.”
This morning’s entry appears to be the theme from those 70s era Charlie perfume ads. If I could’ve recalled organic chem reactions like I can song lyrics, I’d have gotten that PhD.
Cameron
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: https://youtu.be/wT5kafhG3Qw
SFAW
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
I had been trying, for a number of weeks, to do a SubaruDianne thing for “Tradition.” But since I were a engineer, not a poet/creative-type person, I were not successful, not even close.
Fortunately, there’s Randy Rainbow to save me/us.
ETA: Cameron beat me to it by that much. [holds fingers an inch apart]
Chyron HR
That’s apparently a thing those people do in government buildings now, we can’t rule it out.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@OzarkHillbilly:
The acts of the most fervent American fundamentalists ruined Christianity for me.
I was a happily casual Christian. Not devout, and I gravitated toward the Orthodoxy of my paternal lineage (Lebanese), as opposed to my mom’s penchant for the redneck bullshit that I was raised in. I enjoyed the formality and chanting of the Orthodox liturgy – I felt at peace even though I wasn’t real attached to the theology.
The weirder and more strident the fundamentalists got in the public sphere, the more I examined the actual theology, and realized how stupidly incoherent it was.
I don’t know that I could sit through anything other than a funeral anymore.
Cameron
@Chyron HR: Would be the most intelligent thing he’s done in his whole term.
OzarkHillbilly
‘Kids can handle hard truths’: teachers and their students reckon with capitol attack
SFAW
@Cameron:
Fixed, because using “intelligent” to describe him would be like matter and anti-matter coming in contact. [Well, in a Star Trek universe.]
satby
@SFAW: ??
mrmoshpotato
@Chyron HR: Yup. Given the shitpiles Dump and his shitpile supporters are…
Baud
@Chyron HR:
Further fixed.
MagdaInBlack
@OzarkHillbilly:
While I agree 100%, there are an awful lot of people ( 70+ million?) who don’t want to know or their kids to know the “hard truth” because that would be ” talking bad about your country.”
I am interested in what the response will be to telling those kids the hard truth.
Eta: congratulations on a full nights sleep. Kinda weird, ain’t it =-)
SFAW
@Baud:
To borrow from rikyrah: “No lie told.”
Baud
Steve Schmidt has a nice rant on MJ.
satby
@Baud: I hope that entire disgusting family gets busted for theft of WH artifacts. Just because I want to see their redneck supporters twist themselves into knots trying to justify how it’s ok that their god-king is a petty thief.*
yes, I know they’ve been looting all along, but something like the Lincoln bust is easier to grasp as theft than millions of $$ are, don’t ask me why because I don’t understand it.
Lee
Obama should write a letter and have the staff put it in the desk.
It can either be in addition or in replacement of.
Baud
@satby:
Yes. I’d rather them to go to prison for a long time for something petty than something grand. But I’ll take what I can get.
hueyplong
Don’t much care what the pig does now, other than to leave and await service of process. Wondering whether he’ll respect a norm is like waiting for hours to see if a barnyard animal might raise up on two legs and recite the Gettysburg Address.
The first time Trump shows actual contrition (I know, not possible, but stay with the hypothetical for a second) the lunatics will be claiming that the real Trump is dead, or in an undisclosed location secured by Patriots, waiting for the moment to strike and end the reign of terror under POC rule.
Matt McIrvin
Any envelope Trump leaves in the desk needs to be destroyed by the bomb squad.
OzarkHillbilly
@MagdaInBlack: My mother had a saying, “If they’re old enough to ask a question, they’re old enough to get the answer.”
hueyplong
@satby: I read somewhere that each president decorates with various cool things. The stuff being taken out yesterday was probably being returned to wherever it came from when placed in the WH for the current oval squatter.
But I’d be really happy to be wrong, so that we can add Count XLIII to the charges.
TS (the original)
@Baud: Shame Steve was on the same team as Sarah Palin. He could have given us some interesting rants back then if that were not the case.
Kristine
@satby: given that one of them tried to sell a stolen lectern on eBay…I’m thinking they’d cheer all sorts of pilferage.
Matt McIrvin
@satby: I was sleeping great over the week between Christmas and New Year’s when I was mostly not paying attention to the news. Right now, I don’t think I’m going to be able to do it until Trump is out, and no longer has access to the nuclear codes, or command of law enforcement and the armed forces. The feeling that he’s going to try one more thing on his way out is too intense.
MagdaInBlack
@OzarkHillbilly: My parents were the same, god bless them.
Baud
@TS (the original):
He has much to atone for. But at least he’s doing it.
satby
@hueyplong: I know someone at the farmers market who worked on the WH curator’s staff and she’s talked about the record keeping and maintenance of the historical items before. There are good records and thefts will be uncovered, but they don’t carry priceless antiques around in their arms unwrapped and unboxed if they’re from the curator’s staff.
Kristine
@hueyplong:
There’ll be occasional announcements of this or that date as The Day, like those about the Mayan calendar dates that predicted the end of the world.
mrmoshpotato
@TS (the original):
Which is why Schmidt and the rest of the Lincoln Project grifters can go to hell – their history – their loooooong history.
satby
@TS (the original): You know which former Republican does great rants? Cole. Take the win when we get one.
Edit: @mrmoshpotato: don’t need to forget history to work with today’s reality. Just take joy in the fact that the Republican monolith is imploding, and Schmidt is helping.
John S.
@MagdaInBlack: It’s a lot harder for kids to live in the same bubble as their parents do. Unless they are home schooled and kept separated from the community, kids will encounter other kids and they will be exposed to ideas and other things that their parents cannot always control.
Jeffery
Obama got the Nobel prize for not being Dubya.
Biden will get the Noble, Pulitzer, Academy Award, Emmy, Tony, Man Booker etc. for not being Little Donald.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Baud:
That had been my first thought as well. I figure it’d be like walking into a house bought at foreclosure.
mrmoshpotato
@Baud:
Beat Joe Joe with the phone that he used to suck Dump’s orange cock with back in 2015/16. (I hope it’s an older, heavy phone. Brrrrrrrrng clang! Or just drop a phone booth on him.)
satby
Which is the point of the growing home school movement. To raise a new generation of Christian, anti-science white supremacists.
Matt McIrvin
@Jeffery:
And they’re never going to do that again–they took so much heat for it, even liberals complaining that Obama didn’t deserve it.
raven
They have got to develop a better way to distribute the vaccine. They lowered the age to 65 her and the system is overwhelmed with requests but they just don’t have the infrastructure to handle them and actually get people the shot. When I got mine there were nothing but white folks there and, believe me, the clients at the health department are not that demographic. I got word of the registration process on the neighborhood list serv from our predominantly educated area. Folks without resources don’t stand a chance as things are.
Dorothy A. Winsor
I’m reading Carl Hiaasen’s SQUEEZE ME, and just came across this passage:
“…what bonded [the Potussies] as a unit was their unshakable devotion to the perpetually beseiged President. Throughout the long deep-state witch hunt–the doctored Minsk defecation video, the phony tax-evasion probe, the counterfeit porn-star diaries, the bogus Moscow skyscraper investigation, the hoax penile-enhancement scandal, the fake witness-tampering charges, and both fraudulent impeachment trials…”
Hiaasen probably thought that “both” was hilariously exaggerated when he wrote it.
mrmoshpotato
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Oh crap. Casa Blanca like Casa Cole. ?
MagdaInBlack
@John S.: I’m thinking of the kind of folks who think the “1619 Project” was a bad thing. Just sayin’
Matt McIrvin
@Kristine: Some of the Q folk are already insisting that Trump has had his secret second inauguration and is beginning his second term as Secret President as we speak.
Van Buren
@marv:
If you change your mind
I’m the first in line
Honey, I’m still free
Take a chance on me
satby
@Matt McIrvin: less than 5 1/2 days now, but he’s so obsessed with ruining his brand / finding a safe hidey hole at this point that it may keep him distracted.
Haroldo
@Matt McIrvin:
I’ve lived in MA for 20 years – I still don’t understand its love affair with Republican governors. And I don’t understand Baker’s wishy-washy response to Covid-19, it being neither fish nor fowl. It’s certainly ineffective.
satby
@Van Buren: oh, damn you ??
?BillinGlendaleCA
@mrmoshpotato: Do you feel the same about Nicolle Wallace?
Quinerly
heard on MSNBC around 4AM (yes, wide awake too early, JoJo got a new toy to celebrate Repeachment Day, “Giggle Ball” ) that my old law school classmate Al Watkins (fresh off of representing the St Louis McCloskeys) is representing the only organic eating, fur wearing QAnon Shaman. He is asking Trump for a pardon since the Shaman was only following Trump’s directions by going to the Capitol on Jan 6.
TS (the original)
@Baud:
I have no problems with anyone who wised up very quickly about trump – at the same time, those who needed an insurrection to give them pause to think, I will never understand.
Betty Cracker
@Baud: I can’t bear to watch MJ because I find arrogant, piggy-eyed Scarborough too repulsive, but I’ll look for the Schmidt rant clip later. Schmidt really does excel at invective. His Twitter curb-stomping of Micro Rubio (and Ted Cruz when that lummox attempted to come to his lil’ buddy’s rescue) was a thing of beauty and a joy forever.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
You’ll love it. If you didn’t know his history, you’d think he was a jackal.
rikyrah
Quinerly
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I forgive both Wallace and Schmidt somewhat. They both have said they couldn’t vote for McCain because of Palin being on the ticket. Neither were invited to McCain’s funeral. As someone said… I take my wins where I can get them. Even fucking David Frum.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone ???
mrmoshpotato
@satby:
Not turning my back on these opportunistic ratfucking bastards.
Matt McIrvin
@Haroldo: We were doing OK in the summer, but most of the Northeast was. Right now Baker seems to be acting like the situation is the same as July.
I don’t know. I guess we’re doing a little better on vaccination than I thought–the state is only releasing numbers weekly and there was another batch reported; we’re around the middle of the pack instead of down there with Alabama. But it’s not great and the increasing lack of transparency is part of what’s irritating. Some of the states that are doing the best at vaccinating people now are actually rural red states where COVID has been ripping through the population–I guess getting the vaccine out is one way to handle it.
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
TS (the original)
@Jeffery: And that isn’t too far from the truth. When he reunites NATO, WHO and all other multinational organisations trump left or trashed, he will be a more than obvious NOBEL winner. Add that to what he is going to do (or try to do) at home he will scoop the pool.
rikyrah
@Betty Cracker:
Schmidt never veers away from what he intends to say. He comes on tv with a purpose and no matter what, he says what he came to say.
Chetan Murthy
@Quinerly: Do any of you remember David Brock? He hunted the Clintons, didn’t he? But by 2004-08, he was a stalwart Dem, founded MMFA, good guy. It took him years of work, but he atoned for his sins, and we treated him decently. Wallace is on her way to doing that. Schmidt has only started. They have a long way to go: Brock’s journey of redemption shows us the length of the path these penitents must walk
They’re not beyond redemption, just as Brock wasn’t.
rikyrah
@Kent:
He really is the man for this moment in time.
rikyrah
@marv:
?????
SFAW
@Haroldo:
Part of it is the Dems running weak campaigners/candidates (Martha Coakley was a good AG, but her campaign was … um … not quite as competent). Part of it is Dems thinking voters will swoon for AGs (Coakley, Scott Harshbarger). Part of it is misogyny (hating on both Coakley and Shannon O’Brien). A significant part of it is that there is a fairly large redneck streak in the Commonwealth. I don’t think there’s one be-all-and-end-all answer.
rikyrah
@matt the somewhat reasonable:
????
rikyrah
@satby:
Go satby ?
Quinerly
@Chetan Murthy: remember Brock well. Even HRC forgave him.
mrmoshpotato
@?BillinGlendaleCA: To hell with War Criminal Bush’s communications director.
snoey
@SFAW: Legislature full of hackish to fully corrupt dems doesn’t help either.
satby
@Chetan Murthy: This.
I watch not just what people say, but what they do too. We have to accept the concept of redemption if we ever want to get past the current clusterfuck we’re in. That means the offenders have to do the work of repairing what they helped break before full trust is restored. The same concept as in any other human exchange. If we mark all people off as irredeemable (and yes some are), then we may as well throw the towel in on a lot of stuff, not just politics.
SFAW
@snoey:
That’s unfair. Billy “No, Whitey’s the Other Brother” Bulger was as pure as the driven asphalt
rikyrah
Starfish
@marv: My mom is in Trump land. She and people ahe knows are getting the vaccine because everyone knows someone who died of COVID-19
Matt McIrvin
@SFAW: On top of the actual MAGA/misogynist contingent here, the state also has a lot of affluent, educated totebagger types who are still convinced that being nonpartisan is a virtue. They mostly vote Democratic, but they’re just itching to support any Republican who seems not to be crazy to demonstrate their nonpartisan bona fides. Governor has become the traditional slot to put them in (I suppose because governors can be less aligned with the national party).
Baud
@rikyrah:
I don’t know that last person but otherwise seems solid.
satby
@rikyrah: @rikyrah: Joe really is… and good morning rikyrah ?
Kristine
@Matt McIrvin: He’ll always be their Secret President.
My God, is that ever going to die out?
Baud
@Kristine:
Yes, but it’ll be a slow process. Trump hasn’t even left office yet.
satby
@Baud: Senior Producer. MSNBC’s @TheLastWord
Baud
@satby:
Not the Twitterer. Vela.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
Thinking about safety from congressional wingers.
Just refuse to recognize them from the podium – every time. Vote for nothing for their districts, and refuse to allow access to the chamber to those who refuse the metal detector.
Kristine
@rikyrah: Good morning ?
Ken
They think JFK Jr. is still alive, so signs aren’t good.
They’ll claim Trump faked his own death so he can continue working in secret. As evidence, they’ll point to the fact he didn’t get a state funeral at the National Cathedral, and that none of the former Presidents showed up for the service.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@SFAW:
For some reason, I had forgotten that he was murdered within hours of arrival at Hazleton. In his 80s. In a wheelchair.
There had to be staff help on that one.
Starfish
@satby: Someone said these objects came from museums and are being returned. Biden will also be loaned things from museums. The accusations are reflecting our own feelings about the people.
Haroldo
@SFAW:
I think misogyny plays a large part – looking back at recent governors, only Jane Swift served in that office – and she was only the acting governor, filling in for Cellucci (again, a Repub). And if I recall correctly, she was given a raft of shit (some it deserved, I think).
Were you around for Ed King? Reading about him – he seems ghastly.
P.S. Another MA governor side note: Duval Patrick’s dad was Pat Patrick, a saxophonist in the great Sun Ra’s band.
Betty Cracker
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: I read somewhere that Pelosi imposed fines for members who skip the metal detector — $1K on the first offense and $5K for the second, IIRC. Of course, these feeble-minded gun-humpers could start GoFundMe accounts to get their idiotic fans to cover their fines.
What really needs to happen is a rules change to ban guns from the Capitol unless you’re an on-duty cop or a soldier. It’s just insane that people are allowed to pack weapons in the Capitol; the addition of Q-loons in the ranks just underscores how crazy it already was.
mrmoshpotato
@Matt McIrvin:
When did they stop paying attention to the GOP – 1968 or before?
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
Me too! I took today off just to try and get some sleep and it worked! I don’t think I woke up one single time!
debbie
@ryk:
Pneumonia vaccine’s the same way. First was nothing, second was hives and flu-ishness.
Haroldo
@snoey:
That, too, has become apparent to me in my relatively short time here.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Betty Cracker: The GoFundMe to cover the fines probably wouldn’t be legal, the fines come out of thier paycheck.
Matt McIrvin
@mrmoshpotato: When Trump got in they immediately started talking about how much they missed Mitt Romney circa 2002, and decided they’d much prefer a guy like THAT as President. (Not the Mitt Romney who ran in 2012–that was just a ruse anyway!
(edit: Also I suspect these people really like their tax cuts)
Haroldo
@Matt McIrvin:
As Maine has Susan Collins, MA has its Repub Daddy cross to bear.
Haroldo
@Matt McIrvin:
Duplicate, sorry
Walker
@Betty Cracker:
Those are the fines for not wearing a mask. Not complying with security is 5k and 10k.
geg6
@Betty Cracker:
I believe it’s $5k for first offense and $10k for next one. And it is deducted from their congressional paycheck. They don’t call her Nancy SMASH for nothing.
debbie
@Betty Cracker:
@dick_nixon has got real issues with Rubio too.
montanareddog
@marv: Abba were a Swedish band. Sweden is a socialist hell-hole where the government controls everything including citizens’ bodies. Widespread deployment of the vaccine will also lead to a socialist government takeover of the people’s bodies in the USA. Therefore, the Gates/Soros microchip is configured to play Abba songs in your head. Wake up and smell the coffee, sheeple!
Matt McIrvin
@debbie: @dick_nixon seems to have decided that if Richard Nixon were alive today he would be a crypto-Berniecrat. It’s increasingly odd.
debbie
@Chetan Murthy:
“When you know better, you do better.”
ETA: Brock wrote “The Real Anita Hill.”
debbie
@SFAW:
And part of it is that vaunted Republican value: Racism.
Matt McIrvin
@montanareddog: I thought Sweden was a Nordic bastion of freedom where they made COVID magically go away by ignoring it! I’M SO CONFUSED
debbie
@Matt McIrvin:
I’m not switching out my FB profile pic of a weeping Statue of Liberty anytime soon.
Soprano2
I’m in the process of reading “Educated” by Tara Westover. Whoo boy, her dad was extreme even for Mormons. She managed to pass the ACT and go to Brigham Young without ever going to a real school; in one of her first classes, she asked what the Holocaust was because she didn’t learn anything about it! That’s how isolated they were. It’s an amazing book; it’s a testament to her that she made it out of that insanity.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Matt McIrvin: “It’s a floor wax and a dessert topping!”
germy
I saw that, too. But then someone else said they’re not following museum protocol. Carrying a bust of Lincoln with their bare hands, rather than properly wrapped or boxed. Makes me think it isn’t a legit transfer of rare/old objects.
Soprano2
I wanna know how they wrap their minds around what they believe is the “fact” that Trump knows about a massive child sex trafficking ring, yet he hasn’t lifted a finger to do anything about it. I know there have always been people who believe crazy things, and cults, but I don’t think any of them have been this widespread before.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Betty Cracker:
I remember when the first metal detectors went in at the courthouse – lawyers could bypass them until a couple of clowns in Lexington got into a running gun battle over some woman.
After that, the only ones who could bypass were cops and judges. Even then, there was a close run thing involving three judges which was a funny tale in and of itself.
Basically a pair of judges decided to pair off without the knowledge or consent of their spouses. Lady judge was married to the judge who was president of the term. Late one afternoon, a sheriff walked in on them mid-bone. They begged him not to tell anybody, and he promised to keep it secret, so of course everybody in the courthouse community knew about it within two hours (and this was pre-email early 90s). There was a lot of tension and awkwardness as the judges all proceeded to form factions and subfactions and were constantly bickering among themselves – super entertaining.
Ian R
@Quinerly: Since accepting a pardon is an admission of guilt, actively soliciting for one is certainly a bold strategy for a defense attorney. All the admission of your client’s guilt, none of the escaping legal consequences for it.
Baud
@Soprano2:
They are more organized now because they have national leadership to egg them on.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Ian R:
I wish people would stop saying that.
It isn’t.
danielx
@Ascap_scab:
Don’t sweat it, it’s a Microsoft product – won’t work.
Soprano2
I listened to Parler’s chief policy officer Amy Peikoff (a woman, of course) on NPR this morning claiming that of course they don’t tolerate anyone advocating violence or criminal activity on their site. It was surreal listening to her, because I’ve seen some of the stuff they allow on that site! She lied, and lied, and lied……their whole site was founded so that people could post death threats and advocate violence openly, because Facebook and Twitter wouldn’t let them do it! Inskeep pushed back some, but not nearly enough IMHO. I wish he had read some of what is posted on there on the show, and asked her to respond to it. https://www.npr.org/2021/01/15/957141101/parler-insists-it-would-not-knowingly-tolerate-criminal-activity-on-its-site
germy
I wonder if she leaned in while she said that.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Soprano2:
She’s GOT to be a relative of that objectivist loon Leonard Peikoff.
frosty
@Geminid: My earworm killer (okay, substitute): She Caught The Katy, by Taj Mahal. Good tune, I don’t mind having it rattle around in my head.
WaterGirl
@geg6: Have they voted on that fine yet for the metal detector?
Quiltingfool
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Those two judges obviously didn’t understand what “Don’t shit where you eat.” means. Heh.
germy
I hope the First Cat is honored in some way, too.
danielx
@SFAW:
Say also that there’s a largish Irish Catholic streak. I graduated from a Jesuit prep school after being raised as an Episcopalian. Yes, I know, Catholicism light, but we didn’t take it too seriously. But those fucking parochial school types…some of them great people, but a large portion were what I mentally classify as Hibernian ball busters. Misogynist? Oh yes. Four years exposure was quite enough.
OzarkHillbilly
@Betty Cracker:
The fines come out of their paychecks.Pretty sure they could make a tidy profit off a gofundme.?BillinGlendaleCA
@WaterGirl: Where? //
germy
Pentagon Won’t Throw Traditional Farewell Ceremony for Trump
?BillinGlendaleCA
@OzarkHillbilly: They’re limited to 15% of their salary in outside income or $26,100.
germy
They’re combing through the place with six fingers on each hand:
debbie
@germy:
I didn’t realize that that was a tradition, but good.
Have you noticed Pence has been taking on presidential duties over the past couple of days? Almost as if the 25th Amendment had been enacted.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Betty Cracker: I was happy to see that those fines will come directly out of their paychecks. So they can’t use campaign funds to pay them.
danielx
@Chetan Murthy:
It can happen, but admitting you were wrong, taken, had, played for a fool – that demands a lot more hard mental work than most people are willing to do. Admitting you were wrong about some of the most important issues of the day requires critical thinking skills most people aren’t willing to use, if they possess those skills at all.
OzarkHillbilly
I have to ask you to show me, because I know a lot of them make a hell of a lot more than that off insider trading in the stock market.
Geminid
I was glad to hear on local news that Cameron Webb will be joining the White House Covid response team. Webb ran as the Democratic candidate in last year’s VA 5th District congressional race. He lost by five points in the republican drawn district. Webb was a White House Fellow in the last year of the Obama administration. When the republicans took over, Webb was given a desk in a hallway, but he hung in there and still made a contribution before he left to work at the U. Va. Medical Center. Cameron Webb is 38 years old, and has a bright future ahead of him.
germy
@debbie:
A Gentleman’s 25th
Just One More Canuck
@Quinerly: your law school reunions must be ‘fun’
Spanky
@germy:Ceaușescu got a “military-style sendoff”, iirc.
Gin & Tonic
@OzarkHillbilly: Capital gains are not income.
WaterGirl
Hey guys, if you’re willing, please add your vaccine stories to the I Got the Shot! thread in the sidebar.
Link also here for your convenience: I Got the Shot!
Quinerly
@frosty: love Taj. He puts on a great live show.
I miss our old lives. ?
SFAW
@Gin & Tonic:
Except as far as the IRS is concerned. They’re not earned income, but they get included in your AGI, I think. [Not an accountant, nor a tax lawyer, but whatever cap gains I’ve had over the years have gotten taxed. But as with most things, I’m probably worng.]
debbie
@frosty:
Rattle this one.
rikyrah
Salty Sam
Steve Innskeep can eat a bag of salted dicks. He’s one of the worst at soft-selling GOP talking points. Nice Polite Republican indeed.
Quinerly
@Just One More Canuck: AL was quite colorful in law school. He was a shit disturber. Ended up being a pariah when it came to getting hired by any firm when we graduated. In our third year, my class did a roast of our first year contracts professor. The particular professor was the scary, bad ass type prof cut from the mold of the one in “The Paper Chase.” Long story short, Al’s monologue was in poor taste and bordered on homophobic/accusatory/outing. The professor was in his 70’s, never married, and our university was Jesuit. This was 1985. Granted, the professor was an asshole but Al’s “toast” was stupid and reckless.
ET
Lets be honest, if in he left a letter its not like he would have written it.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
Just checked one of the Greek newspapers to try and find an update on vaccinations, and I spotted an article about the Biden plan. The headline called it a “bazooka”, and the text of the article indicated that was not intended as an insult.
Patricia Kayden
Blue lives matter.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@OzarkHillbilly: Well you are from the “Show Me State”…
The Outside Earned Income Limitation Applicable to Members and Senior Staff | House Committee on Ethics
debbie
@Quinerly:
Sounds like his favorite class was Theory of Chutzpah. //
Quinerly
@Ian R: that’s Al!
?BillinGlendaleCA
@WaterGirl: We should call it “I got shot!”.
Patricia Kayden
Gin & Tonic
@SFAW: Should have specified that capital gains are not earned income, which I suspect is what that $26k limitation is.
More coffee needed.
Quinerly
@Soprano2: I just read this secret inauguration shit in the comments of a local newspaper from where I grew up in coastal NC (I am getting out of the boat, less and less, though. Not worth it). These people truly believe this. They are not trolls. In their universe everyone who has been arrested is BLM/Antifa or it is all fake news and 1/6 didn’t happen at all.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Gin & Tonic: From my skimming, that would be correct. Though I think proceeds of a GoFundMe would count against the limit.
Salty Sam
I had a mentor back in the 80’s who was a Southie from Boston, first I’d met or worked with. We initially shared a love of beer and blues- Over time, I was horrified to learn what a racist, misogynistic asshole he really was. The last time I spoke with him, he was raving about W’s “War On Terror” and claiming GWB was “the best thing to ever come out of Texas.”
I appreciate the start he gave me in a trade, but fuck that guy…
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Quiltingfool:
To be fair, and knowing everyone involved, I understand how it all started. She was a spritely, funny woman in her early 40s with a husband who had evolved from being a fun, heavyset guy to an angry 400 lb alcoholic with a compulsive gambling problem – but his dad had been a lifelong judge and the name served well in elections. The paramour was maybe 50, also the son of a judge and brother of a judge, and was married to the sort of good Catholic wife/mother that Louisville churns consistently. She was a little weathered, sweet, and REALLY involved with the kids’ activities (our daughters attended the same fencing program at the time, so I’d gotten to know her fairly well). I had gotten the feeling that the marriage had sort of run its course as marriages often do.
Lacuna Synechdoche
Betty Cracker @ Top:
Just to be pedantic for a moment: Thinking in four dimensions, the translation factor for time into physical distance is the speed of light – i.e., the literal length of a year in miles/kilometers is a light year, or about 9.46 trillion miles.
Which means that traveling through 4 years of the Trump era is less like crawling through 500 yards of shit than it is like crawling through about 37.84 trillion miles of shit.
So, yes, it really has been that long.
OzarkHillbilly
@Gin & Tonic: I love it. What a country.
Quinerly
@debbie: Google his “South Butt” case when he took on “North Face.”
He was already close to a millionaire at 22/23 when he started law school in 1982. Wealthy family. Dad gave him some money when he got out of high school. He started a “chain” of hotdog stands on the West Coast. Don’t remember the whole story now. Kinda doubted it at first in law school but his best friend and eventual law partner confirmed it.
sanjeevs
@Quinerly: I’m not in the legal field. Is this a normal way to profile lawyers at a firm
https://www.kwklaw.net/albert-watkins
OzarkHillbilly
@Gin & Tonic: Either way, it doesn’t really matter. There are probably a thousand and one different ways to get around it limited only by one’s imagination. “My wife/husband earned that money.” or “campaign contribution,” or “college fund for my child”, etc.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@sanjeevs:
Jesus, that is Sidney Powell level batshit. Rather than the customary “Attorney X is a tireless advocate for his/her clients, and understands the anxieties people face in the course of litigation”, this dude went full on crazy.
Just One More Canuck
@Quinerly: i deal with a lot of lawyers in my work – I must know about 30 guys like him (and I do mean guys)
Quinerly
@sanjeevs: yep. That’s from his profile on his firm’s website. His old partner, Mark Kodner, is actually a good guy. He retired young (like I did, in our 50’s). I’m surprised Kodner keeps his name on the firm. I think they have been friends since HS.
OzarkHillbilly
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Yep, and thanx, tho like I just said, if one is creative enough there are no real limits.
Quinerly
@Just One More Canuck: one of the reasons I retired young. ?
hueyplong
@sanjeevs: When I worked at large-ish firms, they didn’t write things up that way. And I once worked at a firm that harbored some of K Starr’s minions.
tybee
@Kristine:
my wife utters those words several times a day – but with more profanity
Spanky
@sanjeevs:
Sounds like he wrote it himself.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Just One More Canuck: Yeah, I’ve known a lot of lawyers like him, especially “expert in all matters”.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@OzarkHillbilly: The “GoFundMe” approach would still be a problem.
WaterGirl
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I’ll see if MazeDancer will make a special sticker just for you. //
Lacuna Synechdoche
@sanjeevs:
Jeepers, he sounds like a lawyer version of Donald Trump – although, Watkins at least sounds somewhat self-aware of it, which, to be fair, is an awareness beyond Donald Trump’s ken.
danielx
@Salty Sam:
Often/mostly wrong, never in doubt.
One of the (supposedly) most important parts of a Jesuit education is learning critical thinking skills, which is something a lot of these guys never really got. Part of that process is more or less constant re-evaluation of your assumptions, something a lot of people are unable and/or unwilling to do. At the time, one of the assumptions that was, um, contradictory was that Catholic doctrine was not to be questioned. Not being Catholic, I was immune to that particular rule. I once got a detention (colloquially known as JUG, Judgment Under God) for remarking that the INRI inscription above a crucifix stood for Initiate Nail Removal Immediately – within the hearing of an old line Jebbie priest. Place went coed a year or two after I graduated, following which a lot of those guys retired – simply could not deal with the prospect of females in the classroom.
It was still a good experience.
Quinerly
I’m assuming that people have read about Sen Tuberville’s interview yesterday. He thinks Biden’s inauguration should be delayed until Covid is under control.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@WaterGirl: Probably plenty of time, I don’t expect the jab until May at the earliest.
germy
SiubhanDuinne
@Quinerly:
Christ, what an asshole.
Baud
@Quinerly: Is he talking about the ceremony or Biden assuming office? Only the latter is seditionist, although Tuberville has already shown that’s what he is.
ETA: The former is just hypocritical.
Another Scott
@satby: My recollection is that departing presidents get to buy (paying somehow-determined fair market value) stuff from the Residence. (e.g. the ginned-up controversies about furniture as the Clintons were leaving). But gifts to the United States or to the Office of the President are property of the US and cannot leave.
Until someone demonstrates that Donnie and Mrs. Donnie are taking stuff in the second category, I’m not going to spend any time on this, myself.
Cheers,
Scott.
Quinerly
According to CNN, Trump is unhappy with the idea of having to ask Biden for permission to use Air Force One for his departure.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Quinerly: Did anybody tell him that even if they did that, Joe Biden would still become President at noon on January 20th?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Quinerly: He can always leave early.
Baud
@Quinerly: He could leave sooner. If he resigns now, I’m sure Pence will let him take one more plane ride.
Quinerly
@Baud: I took it as delaying Biden’s taking actual office. It was a radio interview. The piece made mention that Tuberville seemed to be unaware the Constitution calls for the transfer of power on 1/20.
Elizabelle
@Quinerly: Link for the Tuberville interview? And hello to JoJo with his new toy.
Baud
@Quinerly: I’m sure there a a great many things Tuberville is not aware of.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Quinerly: Well, he is in the running for Stupidest Senator. It’s a tight race between him and Ron Johnson.
danielx
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
They do tend to run a little smarter in the Senate. He’d have a lot more competition in the House.
Gin & Tonic
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Haven’t heard a lot from Johnson lately, since OFAC sanctioned all his buddies.
Quinerly
@germy: when I first got out of law school, I worked at one of the oldest continual named firms in St. Louis (all the named partners in the name of the firm were dead, firm had been in business for 60 years) This was 1985. First woman ever hired by the firm. The guys were great but the old boys in other firms that did business with us (I started out in the very male dominated field of worker’s comp defense. We were “captive” to AB Brewery) referred to me as the “token bitch.” As in, “Bill, you sending the token bitch to the Division today to handle the docket.”
Spanky
@SiubhanDuinne:
Enhanced for accuracy.
Quinerly
@?BillinGlendaleCA: remember… Both Rudy and Trump kept trying to call him during the insurrection. Kept getting Mike Lee.
jnfr
@marv:
The ABBA side effect sounds like the worst! But congrats on getting your vaccination!
Another Scott
@rikyrah: Looks like a great team.
Maybe we can finally turn the page on “Bring back Gov. Dr. Dean!!1 He’s the only one who can save us!!11ONE”. :-/
Forward!!
Cheers,
Scott.
WaterGirl
@Quinerly: The public event? Or the inauguration itself?
Because if Biden doesn’t take office, COVID will be under control on the 1st of never.
Quinerly
@Elizabelle: I first read it on Raw Story.
Think this links to it too:
https://www.al.com/news/2021/01/tuberville-says-delay-inauguration-but-date-is-set-by-constitution.html
Just One More Canuck
@germy: I work as a forensic accountant – I expect to be treated like crap by the opposing side when I’m in court. It’s when I’m treated like crap by the lawyer I’m working for that I start to have a problem, and it’s always been men who have done that. They never saw it as an issue, but the next time they wanted something from me, I would give them a ‘fuck off and die’ quote for my fees
NotMax
@germy
“Would have thrown a grand shindig but it turns out you took that money for Wall.”
//
WaterGirl
@Just One More Canuck: Is the” fuck off and die quote” similar to the “fuck you, strong letter to follow” strategy?
Quinerly
Found it… my old classmate, Al Watkins on CNN last night, from Politico:
In an interview on CNN, attorney Albert Watkins said his client, Jacob Chansley, “felt like he was answering the call of our president” when he stormed the nation’s seat of government last Wednesday during a riot that resulted in the deaths of at least five people.
Watkins, Chansley’s attorney, said on Thursday that his client, “like a lot of other disenfranchised people in our country, felt very, very, very solidly in sync” with the president — suggesting Chansley was incited to storm the Capitol in Trump’s name.
“He felt like his voice was, for the first time, being heard,” Watkins said. “And what ended up happening, over the course of the lead-up to the election, over the course of the period from the election to Jan. 6 — it was a driving force by a man he hung his hat on, he hitched his wagon to. He loved Trump. Every word, he listens to him.”
Quinerly
New Pew Poll has Trump’s approval down to 29%.
Hmmmm……Getting there (the magical 27%)
Uncle Cosmo
I would send a HAZMAT team in to recover and decon anything left in the formerly-Resolute-now-Dissolute Desk (and frankly any- & everywhere else) before President Joe sets foot in the Casa Blanca. If Stephen “Reinhard Heydrich’s Mini-me” Miller has any hand in its preparation, there’s a significant chance fine white powder would be wafting out of the corners of the envelope.
jnfr
@germy:
I wondered about that too. Museum workers don’t usually just pick items up in their arms and lug them around unwrapped.
Just One More Canuck
@WaterGirl: It was more like, “I don’t want to work for you, so I’ll give you a really ridiculous fee quote” – no sternly worded letter (or furrowed brow) would follow. A couple of times they have agreed to the quote, which means that everyone else has told them to fuck off
NotMax
@Quinerly
“Your client’s feelings and beliefs are not what the court is adjudicating. Your client’s actions are.”
artem1s
@SFAW:
No staff person would dare bore His Excellency with a spreadsheet! nah, it’s gonna be a map with ALL the states colored in with a red sharpie and that obnoxious signature of his over his “thumbs up” portrait.
Jay C
Looking at the pics of WH staff removing stuff from the building, I think a better question would be if Trump is even going to leave the Resolute Desk there, much less anything in it.
Though I think those screenshots of the Desk being offered on eBay may not be authentic…..
satby
@Starfish: need a better source than “someone said”. Edit: because my source worked for the WH curator.
And again, museums wrap and box for protection before moving items in their collections.
evodevo
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Yep. Nothing like actually reading the Bible or being raised in a fundie religion to convert someone to atheism…
Matt McIrvin
@Soprano2:
Oh, it’s amazing. Some of them think the mass arrests already happened and the people were all executed and replaced with vat-grown clone duplicates.
WaterGirl
@Just One More Canuck: Possibly better than fuck you, strong letter to follow. Not sure it’s more satisfying, but probably smarter. :-)
Just One More Canuck
@WaterGirl: yeah, I’ve drafted a few of those letters, then hit delete