Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

The words do not have to be perfect.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

Not all heroes wear capes.

Eh, that’s media spin. biden’s health is fine and he’s doing a good job.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

Presidents are not kings, and Plaintiff is not President.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

Let there be snark.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

Infrastructure week. at last.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

I did not have telepathic declassification on my 2022 bingo card.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 Coronavirus / Repub Stupidity Open Thread: The ‘You Are Not the Boss of Us’ Caucus Strikes Again

Repub Stupidity Open Thread: The ‘You Are Not the Boss of Us’ Caucus Strikes Again

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148Comments

  2. 2.

    lurker

    really, first? sad..

    eta: and just like that, something slips in – much better

    always worry when I see a thread with no comments…

  3. 3.

    Suzanne

    There shouldn’t be a test to vote, but FUCK there clearly needs to be a test to serve in office.

    Cue the meteor.

  5. 5.

    Mike in NC

    Vaccinations for Congress should be mandatory, or maybe worth another $5000 fine for refusing.

  8. 8.

    namekarB

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Rep. Greene doesn’t seem to understand HIPAA(this is my shocked face).

    It is either:

    1. She does understand HIPPA but is performing theater for the faithful or
    2. She flat doesn’t get it and can’t bother to learn

    I would be shocked if someone has not tried to explain how HIPPA only applies to unique circumstances so I am inclined to believe she knows better and also knows her constituents.

  9. 9.

    jackmac

    I’d call them a bunch of spoiled adolescents, but that would be insulting to adolescents.​ So I’ll call them assholes instead.

  10. 10.

    Jerzy Russian

    At this point, I am rooting for the virus when it comes to the minority party in the House.

  11. 11.

    There are those who call me...tim... (Still posh)

    Still awaiting that return to normalcy.
    O, this is it?
    O.
    Okay.

  12. 12.

    namekarB

    Pelosi should have a direct one on one talk with the House Minority leader. Therefore she should go straight away to Mar-a-lago.

  13. 13.

    Jerzy Russian

    @jackmac:

     

    I’d call them a bunch of spoiled adolescents, but that would be insulting to adolescents.​ So I’ll call them assholes instead.

    You can’t win here, since the above is an insult to assholes.

  14. 14.

    Danielx

    Operate heavy machinery?

    Fawwwk, they shouldn’t be allowed to operate a toaster.

  15. 15.

    different-church-lady

    Being assholes for the sake of being assholes is the only value the GOP has left.

  16. 16.

    dmsilev

    I dunno, I think putting the House GOP Caucus at the controls of a bunch of construction vehicles and then stepping back and watching from a safe distance might be exactly the sort of entertainment we can all enjoy.

  19. 19.

    Quinerly

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: she is parroting the on line comments of  small town local newspapers. They are all screaming HIPPA. (Yes, I got bored and fell back on a pre election habit…reading on line wing nut comments in mostly Southern newspapers. After today, though, I’m getting back in the boat… Biden in the truck has truly triggered them. Crazier than usual)

  20. 20.

    Mary G

    Lord, I killed two threads with this post, and it was a lot of work, so I’m putting it here too, cause it was a lot of work going through my ActBlue history and credit card bills.

    @smith:

    Here’s my philosophy, I think the reasons the GOP did so much better than expected in 2020 that Republicans said the hell with covid and did a lot of voter contact, including canvassing, that got more people to the polls than Democrat’s remote contact did. Also, I was very disappointed that I spent a lot of my life savings donating to Cal Cunningham, Sarah whoever in Maine, Jaime Harrison, the woman in Texas, as did a lot of other Democrats, and got squat for it. I don’t want my money going to know-it-all-consultants to spend on their friends’ businesses. The wins in Georgia and Arizona were partly due to good old shoe leather door knocking, voter level, contacts. So I’m trying to cut out the middleman wherever I can.

    Four Directions, which WG is spotlighting in the last thread, did great work on Indian reservations that had a lot to do with D wins in Arizona.

    Very impressed with The New Georgia Project – Stacey Abrams gets all the credit, but there are many hands in the work.

    Beto’s Powered By People is a monster – look at their web site and see all the canvassing, training, and phone banking they are doing right now, today. I know people think Texas is a lost cause, but Georgia turned and all the Californians  moving to the sun belt (lol, no)  will start to tip the balance. I stopped my donation to them, because there’s no Senate race, but I may change my mind.

    Woke Vote holds GOTV boot camps in different regions of the country

    Let America Vote, started by Jason Kander, did amazing work in 2018, but he’s moved on and a lot of what I get from them now is just “send more money” emails, so I am not sure I can recommend again, but I haven’t paid enough attention to say yes or no.

    Movement.Vote is a clearinghouse that collects money and sends all of it on to local mostly Black-led organizations. They are giving to 41 right now in AZ, CO, lots in FL, GA, MI, MN, NV, NC, PA, TX & WI. Each one is listed so if you want to give directly or volunteer you can find them.

    There’s also the oldie-but-goodie Vote Riders, and more, but I think I’m out of links.

  21. 21.

    RaflW

    @Jerzy Russian: Steve Scalise was shot and seriously injured, and it hasn’t changed his views on guns. Probably hardened them, really.

    So unless the virus kills House GOP caucus members, it won’t change things. They’ll just say “it was like a cold, I’m fine” and continue to preen and prance in favor of more Covid.

    And to be clear, the only thing that will change if it kills House GOP members is that they’ll be dead. The prancing and preening will continue among the undead. Er, I mean, the not-dead.

  22. 22.

    Gravenstone

    I can’t hear you through your mask.

    Then clean the shit out of your ears, asshole.

  23. 23.

    Bill Arnold

    If the Republicans really believe that Democrats are evil satanist Marxist atheists, then they must suspect that Democrats understand that (a) Republicans are differentially not getting vaccinated relative to Democrats, (b) anti-masking is strongly correlated with both anti-vaxxing and Republicanism, (3) elections in the US can be very very close (d) lifting the mask mandate is obviously a plot to cheat in the next elections by encouraging Republican voters to die, or be too disabled to get to the polls in a state where the Republicans have made it hard to vote by mail.

    Right? I mean, it’s just Logic! Trust the Science!

  27. 27.

    Jeffro

    I look at that picture and FSM help me the first thought is, “Just one grenade…just. one. grenade.”

    A paint grenade, to be sure, but still…

  28. 28.

    Gravenstone

    @dc: It should multiply by 10 each violation. Willing to bet none of them would be willing to push their luck beyond a third strike.

  29. 29.

    Calouste

    Fractions can increase by increasing the numerator or by decreasing the denominator, while the other stays the same. Either could work in this scenario.

    My assumption is that they are either too lunatic to get vaccinated, or too chickenshit not to. Hard to say which camp has the most.

  30. 30.

    Uncle Jeffy

    I see Louie Gohmert is listed twice- fitting, inasmuch as he’s twice the idiot as any other person on that list.

  31. 31.

    lurker

    @RaflW: sadly, there are a couple of house republicans who succumbed to covid.  At least one was a young (early/mid-30s ish) newly elected representative who did not make it to swearing in.  Did not make any difference.

  32. 32.

    RaflW

    @Mary G: I did 3/4ths of my 2020 cycle giving directly to unglamorous down-ballot races. State Houses & Senates. Funding women and POC challengers to Republicans in ‘lean-R’ US House lists from Cook and such.

    I realize not all of us have the time to research multiple seats, states and candidates, so some ideas for finding candidates to give to directly can be:
    – Run for Something
    – The Collective PAC
    – Your state’s Democratic Party website
    Etc.

    I am looking forward to the Four Directions event, too. I did give to them, and to New Georgia, a Latino turnout group in Houston, and so on.

  33. 33.

    TD

    You know every one of those jerks is smart enough to get secretly vaccinated. Except Greene and Boebert. They really do seem to be abysmally stupid.

  35. 35.

    Benw

    Anyone who is medically able that’s not rushing to get the shot is a fucking moron. Full stop. WTFF?

  36. 36.

    Bill Arnold

    @Quinerly:

    After today, though, I’m getting back in the boat… Biden in the truck has truly triggered them. Crazier than usual

    What are they saying? A twitter search (Biden F-150) sorted by latest first was pretty benign.

  37. 37.

    Quinerly

    Rachel Maddow really good tonight. Linda Zhang, chief engineer for the new Ford, is on. She’s been working at Ford since age 19.

  38. 38.

    Mary G

    WaPo has an excellent actually-reported piece in the Health section long read up about people the vaccine isn’t going to be effective on. Not great news for me:

    In St. Louis, Washington University’s Alfred Kim said that although the majority of patients with autoimmune conditions who were studied are mounting a healthy antibody response, about 15 percent had very blunted or undetectable antibody responses. The participants in the study had a wide range of illnesses, including inflammatory bowel disease, systemic lupus and rheumatoid arthritis.

    The original study, which has not yet been peer reviewed, was based on 133 people, but it has now grown to more than 300, with similar results.

    As with the blood cancer study, many of those most severely affected were on B-cell depleting medications, such as rituximab, used to treat certain autoimmune diseases and cancer, or ocrelizumab, a newer drug for multiple sclerosis.

    Patients taking drugs for rheumatoid arthritis were likely to have a moderately reduced response.

    Kim, an assistant professor in the division of rheumatology, said one perplexing finding is that steroid use also appeared to diminish the vaccine response. Although he cautioned that only a small number of patients were involved, he said prednisone, which is used to treat such conditions as arthritis in adults and breathing difficulties in children, appeared to result in a tenfold reduction in antibody production, regardless of the dose given if administered around the time of the vaccine.

    “Right now, we’re telling them to pretend they weren’t vaccinated,” Kim said. “That is the easiest solution but it’s only a short-term one. The step beyond is: What do we do to mitigate this?”

    I’m on both rituximab and steroids, so it’s probably mask on in public for me for the foreseeable future. And I took drugs they give people that have had organs donated for years before that. It’s comforting to know that the scientists are on it.

  41. 41.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    I called out a customer a few weeks ago for this. Politely, of course. A woman tried claiming she couldn’t wear a face mask for medical reasons. I asked her if she has a medical condition why is she going indoors without a mask on during a pandemic?

    She was taken aback and muttered, “You’re not allowed to ask me that!”

    I dropped it at that point as she was not in my line but behind me in another. It’s to laugh. Another older man on another, when questioned along the same lines, said he wasn’t afraid of COVID because “he sees his doctor often”. He did put his mask on when asked, though

    Another guy, middle aged, (coffee shop owner, buying several gallons of milk for his business) was wearing a mask, but he told me he couldn’t wait to take off his mask once the mask mandates were lifted and expressed skepticism that masks worked. I tried to relate my experiences with working with isolation precautions patients during clinicals. Explained that PPE had to be worn in these rooms, which included surgical masks. I asked him why would doctors and nurses wear them if they didn’t work to some degree? Guy mentioned he knew surgeons wore them during surgeries procedures, but he couldn’t seem to grasp the basic concept that a barrier like a surgical mask can lower the spread of viral particles.

    How can people be this stupid?

  43. 43.

    lurker

    @Mary G: is that the kind of treatment that could be interrupted for a brief quarantine (maybe not so brief, like two-three weeks) to allow a shot to take hold in the immune system?

    sounds like an awful predicament – hope there is a work-around

  44. 44.

    dexwood

    Ankle deep end of the gene pool right there in that photograph.  Marjorie Terror Greene front and center.

  45. 45.

    Ruckus

    @Jerzy Russian:

    This is true.

    How about…

    Skin sacks of shit?

    Fucking idiots.

    An idiot, in modern use, is a stupid or foolish person.

    It was formerly a technical term in legal and psychiatric contexts for some kinds of profound intellectual disability where the mental age is two years or less, and the person cannot guard themself against common physical dangers. The term was gradually replaced by the term profound mental retardation (which has itself since been replaced by other terms).[1] Along with terms like moron, imbecile, and cretin, its use to describe people with mental disabilities is archaic and considered to be offensive.

    It’s archaic but idiot does fit. And swearing has to be involved, I mean they are asking for it.

  46. 46.

    trollhattan

    Republicans are the party of ideas. Arizona, for example.

    The drought has some members of the Arizona Legislature wondering if the state should look for a new source of water: the Mississippi River.

    Conservationists wonder if lawmakers should try a different approach.

    As Arizona braces for a drought contingency plan to kick in, the Legislature has floated the idea of damming the Mississippi and piping the water here. The idea received overwhelming support among lawmakers, though it is unclear if the project is viable.

    Sandy Bahr, with the Sierra Club, told KJZZ’s The Show last month the state needs to adjust its thinking about water, especially in times of drought.

    “I think they think there will always be enough money for the next big water project instead of just thinking about how can we conserve water, and live within our means in Arizona,” Bahr said.

    The Legislature has directed the Arizona Secretary of State to contact congressional leaders and several Midwestern governors about the feasibility of the plan.

    -KJZZ

    “Write when you find work.”

    –moms everywhere

  47. 47.

    Quinerly

    @Bill Arnold: I checked in on some coverage in NC small town newspapers. Comment sections to articles posted on the newspapers’ FB sites Mostly comments about Biden being senile and a pedophile. Electric vehicles are Socialist. Actually, wasn’t even looking for that coverage. Was torturing myself with the Andrew Brown story and coverage in Elizabeth City, NC.

  49. 49.

    West of the Rockies

    Willful stupidity coupled with neon arrogance… this is your (their) GOP.

  51. 51.

    Ruckus

    @Gravenstone:

    If they clean the shit out of their ears it will just be replaced instantaneously because they are full of shit. That should be obvious because every time they open their mouths, shit falls out.

  52. 52.

    Salty Sam

    @Bill Arnold: If the Republicans really believe that Democrats are evil satanist Marxist atheists, then they must suspect that Democrats understand that…

    This sounds like The Battle of Wits in “The Princess Bride”.  “Never go up against a Sicilian when DEATH is on the line!”

  53. 53.

    RSA

    @trollhattan:

    As Arizona braces for a drought contingency plan to kick in, the Legislature has floated the idea of damming the Mississippi and piping the water here. The idea received overwhelming support among lawmakers, though it is unclear if the project is viable.

    That’s… amazing.  Do they have maps of the U.S. in Arizona?

  54. 54.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Quinerly:

    Electric vehicles are socialist….

    Do they think easily extractable oil is going to be around forever? Is the internal combustion engine “socialist” to these people? Should we go back to the good old days of horses and carriages?

    I don’t even know what “electric vehicles are socialist” means. Unless it’s in reality a cultural grievance of theirs because god forbid they won’t be able to ruin new diesel trucks with coal rolling in the relative near future

  55. 55.

    Gin & Tonic

    Folks, it’s HIPAA, not HIPPA. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.

    /rant

  56. 56.

    Mary G

    @lurker: There is some kind of long strange protocol to let your disease get bad, have shot 1, wait many weeks, have the treatment, wait many more weeks, have shot 2. I am completely unwilling to let a flare run, so mask it is. There are more studies going on, and California is still mandated to wear masks indoors until June 15, so I’ll be OK.

    Orange County got promoted to the yellow level because our daily new case rate is down to 1.5 people of 100,000 and the positivity rate is 0.9%. So the odds are in my favor, but I hate that I still worry.

  57. 57.

    Ruckus

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    How can people be this stupid?

    When we used IQ as a measurement of intelligence it used to be noticed that half the people had an IQ less than 100 and half had higher. 100 was the mean. We also used words like idiot, moron and they had specific levels of IQ. The point is that not everyone is even at the mean level. Now the average also runs around the mean but I believe it’s less. Take into account how much school really doesn’t teach you, unless you go to college and actually study some tough subjects and you should have the picture. Some people are as dumb as a rock. Some don’t make it that far up the scale.

  61. 61.

    geg6

    @Mary G:

    You should get an antibodies test.  My sister has Crohn’s and her doctor has had her tested post-vax for this very reason.  She’s had all kinds of medications over the almost 45 years since her diagnosis, including steroids, and, thankfully, she seems to be producing enough antibodies.

  62. 62.

    NorthLeft12

    @Ruckus: This brings to mind my favourite George Carlin joke;

    “You know how stupid the average person is? Just imagine that half of the people are stupider than that.”

  63. 63.

    Ivan X

    What a bunch of scumholes. I am going to stop visiting this site so that I can imagine commonality between me and people from other places.

  64. 64.

    Gravenstone

    @Ruckus: Which gives rise to that other eternal classic, “you’re so full of shit, your eyes are brown.”

  65. 65.

    lurker

    @Mary G: sorry to hear that – sounds tough either way.  hope they find a way to make things work better on the vaccine aspect of the situation.

    the whole reopening by June 15 should be interesting – not sure of what to make of that.  hoping for the best and planning to take things slowly though.

  66. 66.

    Quinerly

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): who knows what they mean?

    Has anyone checked in with Tucker Carlson? I’m sure it is something he is ranting about. These are the same people who think somebody fed Trump ballots to Arizona chickens and then burned the chickens to hid the “fraud.”

  71. 71.

    namekarB

    @trollhattan:

    The drought has some members of the Arizona Legislature wondering if the state should look for a new source of water: the Mississippi River.

    OMG. Do they plan on a 10 foot dam that stretches from the Appalachians in Alabama to the Rocky Mountains in New Mexico? Lets. see, that only floods about 100 million people so Phoenix can water its lawns

  72. 72.

    Frankensteinbeck

    Republican elected officials were elected by assholes, because they’re assholes, to act like assholes, under the political philosophy that society is increasingly shaming being an asshole and a huge number of people are enraged about that and are willing to defend their right to be an asshole literally to the death.  Although very, very few of them are willing to defend it to the effort.  But if they or their loved ones die without having to get out of their chair, it’s worth it for their god-given, constitutional right to hurt others.

    TL;DR Nothing but ‘lib tears’ matters in Republican politics.

  74. 74.

    BruceFromOhio

    These people campaigned and were duly elected. If they are re-elected again in ’22, it says more about the electorate than it does about the candidates.​
     

    @Frankensteinbeck: ​
     

    TL;DR Nothing but ‘lib tears’ matters in Republican politics.

    There has GOT to be a way to leverage this. These people are dumb as a box of fucking rocks and give all their money to grifting assholes. Its gonna be something really simple.

  75. 75.

    Steve in the ATL

    I stopped by Costco this afternoon to pick up some wine and check out the relaxed mask rules.

    Most people, including moi, were still masked. Unmasked were six in total: two couples, one man, one woman.  All older (60+) and, needless to say, all white.

  83. 83.

    artem1s

    @RSA:

    Do they have maps of the U.S. in Arizona?

    the last time Georgia had a bad drought the legislature dreamed up a scam to move the northern border so they could steal water from Tennessee. All because the governor was afraid to ban filling pools and watering golf courses

    you wouldn’t believe how many times the Great Lakes Consortium States have had to fight off lawsuits from Colorado suing for the right to run water pipe lines from the GLs to Denver.  Water is going to be the cause of more wars than oil in the next century.

  84. 84.

    Kent

    @RSA:As Arizona braces for a drought contingency plan to kick in, the Legislature has floated the idea of damming the Mississippi and piping the water here. The idea received overwhelming support among lawmakers, though it is unclear if the project is viable.

    If it was that easy, trust me, Texas would already be doing it.

  89. 89.

    Steeplejack

    New York attorney general has announced that the investigation into the Trump organization is now a criminal matter, not just civil. Coöperating with the Manhattan district attorney. (Via Lawrence O’Donnell’s show.)

  91. 91.

    trnc

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    I called out a customer a few weeks ago for this. Politely, of course. A woman tried claiming she couldn’t wear a face mask for medical reasons. I asked her if she has a medical condition why is she going indoors without a mask on during a pandemic?

    She was taken aback and muttered, “You’re not allowed to ask me that!”

    Of course, you are completely allowed to ask her that. You weren’t asking what her medical issue was; you were asking her to justify her claim of a medical issue. Which, of course, you didn’t know about until she volunteered that she had one (assuming she was telling the truth, which I doubt).

  95. 95.

    Pete Downunder

    @Kent: As the saying goes “whiskey is for drinking, water is for fighting over”. Often attributed to Mark Twain but there is no evidence he ever said it.

  96. 96.

    JoyceH

    Okay, at what age does this start happening? I got a begging letter from my alma mater, only this time instead of asking me to send them some money now, they’re asking me to consider leaving them something in my will. Sort of… took me aback.

  99. 99.

    Soprano2

    @artem1s: At my work we’ve been saying for years now that water is the oil of the 21st century

    I wish the AZ legislature luck with that idiotic idea. The answers will be “no” and “Fuck no you want to do what?”

  103. 103.

    Kent

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: @Kent: Texas probably wouldn’t want to pay for that large of a public project.

    They will for water.  Just like CA.

    Right now San Antonio alone is spending half a billion dollars on a new desalination plant so they can use the brackish water in the local aquifers.  https://www.water-technology.net/projects/saws-brackish-groundwater-desalination-plant-san-antonio/

    There are MASSIVE water projects all over Texas.  The state spends massively on two things.  Water projects and freeways.  Everything else like education, environmental protection, and healthcare gets the short shrift.

  105. 105.

    mrmoshpotato

    Rep. Thomas Massie shouted back: “I can’t hear you” with your mask on.

    Destination F#%Ked – into the Sun!  Fuck these shitstain slapdicks.

  107. 107.

    Another Scott

    @JoyceH: I’ve been getting those for a while too, and not just from my alma maters.  COVID has wrecked all kinds of budgets and they’re shaking every tree they can.

    (Don’t feel bad – when I was in grad school, a fellow 20-something student was getting regular invitations to join AARP.)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  108. 108.

    Citizen Alan

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    Do they think easily extractable oil is going to be around forever?

    Yes. I had an absolutely stupifying conversation with an elderly client years ago and somehow the topic of peak oil came up. And he was absolutely 100% certain that we’d never hit peak oil because “something will happen” to replenish our oil supply.

    And that’s before we get to the not insignificant number of them who base all decisions on the assumption that the Rapture will happen before then.

  109. 109.

    Roger Moore

    @lurker:

    the whole reopening by June 15 should be interesting – not sure of what to make of that.

    I’m worried that it’s Newsom thinking about his recall election rather than what’s right for the state.  I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad idea to reopen the state, but it seems like he has a specific deadline in mind rather than being governed by the public health situation.  I hope at least that there are clear plans for when we’d shut down again if the public health situation gets worse.

  110. 110.

    Jay

    NY AG James was investigating civil tax issues at the Trump Org, as well as Deutsche Bank loans for Trump Tower Chicago and other Trump properties. That the probe is now “criminal in nature” suggests the entire investigation has significantly escalated, not just a minor issue.— Robert J. DeNault (@robertjdenault) May 19, 2021

  111. 111.

    Another Scott

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Popehat the Crusher appears in a puff of smoke…

    This is roughly as significant as me saying “my intentions towards Jennifer Lawrence are no longer purely platonic”

    — EveryKneeShallBowHat (@Popehat) May 19, 2021

    We’ll see, but we shouldn’t get our hopes up.

    [ pout ]

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  112. 112.

    dnfree

    @Mary G: I completely agree with you. I regret the money I sent to people who had tons of money and were probably wasting it on repeated ads on TV and flyers in the mail. There was one local race (county) where we got a giant shiny postcard every day from both the Republican and the Democrat, just slinging mud at each other. She lost—most of the other Democrats at that level won. We voted for her, but we got sick of the mailings. She had too much money, as apparently did the Republican. I’m glad for the money I spent on local races that were close.

  113. 113.

    mrmoshpotato

    @West of the Cascades:

    how about expulsion? 

    Expulsion into the fucking Sun?  So many of these assholes aren’t fit to be treated like adults, much less be legislators.  They’re fucking bratty, shithead children in the US House of Representatives.

  114. 114.

    Roger Moore

    @JoyceH: ​
     

    Okay, at what age does this start happening?

    I think it’s less about your age and more about how aggressive charities are getting in asking for money. Lots of them have started asking about this kind of thing, and even of quite young people.

  115. 115.

    GregMulka

    To channel some Edward Abbey:

    Water, water, water….There is no shortage of water in the desert but exactly the right amount , a perfect ratio of water to rock, water to sand, insuring that wide free open, generous spacing among plants and animals, homes and towns and cities, which makes the arid West so different from any other part of the nation. There is no lack of water here unless you try to establish a city where no city should be.

  116. 116.

    Martin

    @Roger Moore: From what I understand, they want to get things  down to outbreak levels. At that point contact tracing should be useful to keep things under control without yo-yoing through lockdown states. Plus, this gives the care community some time to recover.

    I have a former staffer that is now an epidemiologist up in Sacramento area. This is what I’ve gleaned from talking with her.

  119. 119.

    smith

    @James E Powell: We haven’t, but Cyrus Vance has them, and if Letitia James is now working with him, she probably does, too. Since tax evasion seems to be a big topic of both investigations, if they go to trial we may get a glimpse then.

  120. 120.

    Gary K

    I have to vent. My wife is reading about a recent death on Facebook, a distant member of her extended family. Everyone’s lining up to say what a gentle and kind lady the deceased was. Yeah, I met her once: the wife of a tobacco company executive, dressed in a full-length mink coat, and the first thing I heard her say was that “Michelle Obama dresses like a whore.”

  121. 121.

    They Call Me Blue

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Now that I’m fully vaccinated I’m back to umpiring baseball games. Sunday my partner for one of the games used that same HIPAA line complaining about his work wanting to know if he’s been vaccinated. I don’t have the energy to argue with these people.

  123. 123.

    dmsilev

    @They Call Me Blue: My employer has been mandating vaccine reporting for a while now; once the vaccines are approved for full non-emergency usage, the mandate will shift to ‘get the shot’. In the meantime, there are some incentives (beyond, you know, being protected from the disease), such as being able to opt out of surveillance testing and being allowed to participate in some larger group events.

  124. 124.

    Mallard Filmore

    @trollhattan:

     

    As Arizona braces for a drought contingency plan to kick in, the Legislature has floated the idea of damming the Mississippi and piping the water here.

    How many years does it take for salt to become a problem? Fresh rain is needed to wash away salt from irrigation.

  125. 125.

    frosty

    @Steve in the ATL: Southern Utah. Hardware store, RV parts, fast food… I was the only one with a mask. Groceries that require masks, about 50%.

    This state is Mississippi with Mormons and not as many Dollar Stores. We hit the road again tomorrow, but not for any place less Republican.

  126. 126.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    there were elections in Pennsylvania today

    Dave Weigel @daveweigel 2h
    Dems hold Scranton area seat that had been trending R, Black progressive unseats mayor of Pittsburgh, Krasner looking solid in Philadelphia. Not much sign of voter backlash after lots of speculation that it was coming.

    Taniel @Taniel 26m

    In Pittsburgh & its county (Allegheny), in today’s elections:
    —voters banned no-knock warrants
    —voters banned solitary confinement in jail
    —Pittsburgh fired its mayor for a progressive challenger
    —4 progressives who ran for judgeships on curbing bail & incarceration won

  128. 128.

    frosty

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: ​I thought the current mayor of Pittsburgh was doing a good job. He did a lot of pushback of Trump, including signing the city up for the Paris accords. Hope the new guy can keep up the momentum and move the city forward some more.​​
     
    ETA That being said, all the other things the voters approved sound positive.

  129. 129.

    trollhattan

    @Steeplejack:

    Tick

    The New York attorney general’s office says it is investigating the Trump Organization “in a criminal capacity”.

    A spokesman for the state’s top prosecutor, Letitia James, said the inquiry into Mr Trump’s property company was “no longer purely civil”.

    Ms James has been scrutinising the ex-Republican president’s financial dealings before he took office.

    The Trumps deny wrongdoing and say the inquiry by a Democratic prosecutor is a political vendetta.

    Ms James’ spokesman, Fabien Levy, told the BBC on Tuesday: “We have informed the Trump Organization that our investigation into the Organization is no longer purely civil in nature.

    “We are now actively investigating the Trump Organization in a criminal capacity, along with the Manhattan DA. We have no additional comment.”

    The statement did not say what turned the inquiry from civil to criminal in nature, or whether the former president himself might be personally implicated in any allegations.

    -BBC

    Tock

  133. 133.

    Wapiti

    @They Call Me Blue: My dentist sent out a email to all of her patients notifying us that we will need to either need to be vaccinated or have a recent negative Covid test for appointments in August and beyond. Good for her; she’s taking care of her staff and making it safer for the patients.

  136. 136.

    Mary G

    @Roger Moore: They’re also scared that Dems will take away raising the stock’s basis upon its owner’s death, meaning nobody pays tax on the appreciation.

  137. 137.

    Calouste

    @Sister Golden Bear: I don’t think the Romans build aqueducts that were 400 miles long (after all Italy is only about 700 miles north to south) but there are parts still standing 2,000 years later.

  141. 141.

    Martin

    @trollhattan: I’m sure the Arizona leg is the first party to consider building a dam on the Mississippi.

    If the AZ leg was worried about water, why are they floating billions in tax breaks for semiconductor fabs to build there. Fabs are a bit famous for consuming a large amount of water. Plus that seems like a pretty good excuse for everyone to tell the AZ leg to go fuck themselves.

  142. 142.

    Lacuna Synecdoche

    Melanie Zanona via Anne Laure @ Top:

    Around 8 or so Republicans are refusing to wear masks & standing by the well of the chamber.

    Among the R’s I’ve spotted refusing to wear a mask thus far:

    —Greene
    —Gohmert
    —Mary Miller
    —Van Duyne
    —Gohmert
    —Massie
    —Norman
    —Boebert
    —Roy

    There are actually people in the world who deserve to come down with Covid-19 and drown to death in their own blood and phlegm. These are they.​

  143. 143.

    evodevo

    @debbie: ​
      Yes….the fundie Satanic Panic died down for “normal” people quite a while ago, but has always been simmering on the back burner for talibangelicals. People for whom critical thinking is alien will always be present for nutjob ideas to take root. I liken it to a virus reservoir in an animal host, that reproduces quietly in the background, and breaks free every few years and crosses over to human hosts. This kind of mass hysteria has always been a problem. We are just seeing the latest iteration…

  144. 144.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    The parts of the body held a plenary meeting to decide which one of them would be the boss. The brain made its case as the seat of reason, the heart as the transporter of lifegiving blood, the lungs as the source of the oxygen for the blood, the kidneys –

    A small squeaky voice piped up: I think I should be boss!

    They turned to look. It was the asshole. And they all laughed and said, Get out of here! So the asshole stalked off and closed up.

    In a few days the toxin buildup reached the point where the brain was befuddled, the heart palpitating, the lungs unable to draw breath…and the parts of the body reconvened and said to the asshole, Okay, okay, you can be boss!

    And the moral of the story is, You don’t need to have a super brain or a big heart or a great set of lungs to be boss. You just have to be an asshole.

     ​

  145. 145.

    matt the somewhat reasonable

    I’d favor a ‘heads on pikes’ approach to this group.

  146. 146.

    Glen Tomkins

    Don’t let them on the floor of the House, or in the building itself.

    Our side has the majority of the House, and with it, the power to exert majoritarian tyranny.  With that power goes the responsibility to make and enforce rules of the House necessary to preserve the health and safety of its members as they go about the people’s business.  The rules need to do all sorts of other things, with the ultimate goal of creating an orderly process for getting the people’s business done, but keeping the members free of threats to their health and safety clearly comes before any other goal of these rules, as a necessary precondition.  Obviously you can’t have free and open debate over what the people’s needs are and how to meet them unless a safe workplace is assured.

    Members who cannot prove that they are vaccinated need to be excluded from the floor, from all committee hearings, from all Congressional offices, and from the Capitol itself.  If these restrictions interfere with their ability to vote, so be it, that’s their choice.

    Of course this is not what our D majority is going to do.  There is indeed this one sense in which both sides do it, that neither party takes the power and responsibility of governing seriously.

  148. 148.

    matt the somewhat reasonable

    @Gary K:

    People will always suck up to rich people, especially when they’re dead and can’t make it cost much.

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