their strategy is hope he dies, which makes for some really strange bedfellows https://t.co/3IbmhPnzws
— kilgore trout, junky horse (@KT_So_It_Goes) May 19, 2021
CNN, “Republicans fear January 6 probe could undercut 2022 midterm message”:
Senior Republicans are making clear they have little interest in moving forward with a sweeping January 6 investigation in part because a detailed probe could become politically damaging and amount to a distraction for their party just as control of Congress is at stake in next year’s midterm elections.
Publicly and privately, Republicans are making that case, with Senate GOP Whip John Thune noting that there’s concern among some GOP members that the findings of the probe “could be weaponized politically and drug into next year.”…
Thune’s comments came moments after Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell announced his opposition on the floor, contending it would duplicate ongoing probes and contending the deal — which was reached between a House Republican and House Democrat — is designed to find a conclusion that would be in “Democrats’ hands.”
The commission would be structured so 10 members — chosen equally between the leaders from both political parties — could report by year’s end on what happened on January 6, as well as the “influencing factors” behind it. Yet Democrats are already discussing Plan B: To create a select committee in the House to investigate the attack, something that wouldn’t need GOP support to establish.
It’s clear that any such an investigation would also look at then-President Donald Trump’s role in promoting the January 6 “Stop the Steal” rally, his lies that the election was stolen and his efforts to subvert the will of voters. Moreover, it could put an uncomfortable focus on some conservative GOP senators and House members who sought to overturn the election results in Congress, while keeping the issue front-and-center as the investigation plays out over the next year.
And there are ample questions about whether House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy would be forced to testify to explain what Trump was saying on January 6 given the two spoke during a heated phone call that day…
… [E]ven if the bill fails in the Senate, a select committee in their chamber would give Democrats unilateral subpoena power and be comprised of members of the House. An outside commission, on the other hand, would not be comprised of sitting lawmakers and would require both sides to agree to issue subpoenas.
Democrats have been resistant to go the route of a select committee, knowing that Republicans would attack such a probe as partisan. But Pelosi made clear Wednesday that if Republicans block the commission in the Senate, the issue isn’t going away — and they may take matters in their own hands.
“I certainly could call for hearings in the House with a majority of the members being Democrats with full subpoena power, with the agenda being determined by the Democrats,” Pelosi told reporters. “But that’s not the path we have chosen to go.” Pelosi added: “It’s a question of, if they don’t want to do this, we will.”…
The same miscreants who made BUT HER EMAILS!!! their banner for the last five years and counting are now whining that, well, their actions just a few months ago could be ‘misconstrued’.
And to avoid the risk of a commission pledged to end with 2021, they’re busy dragging out the process, which makes it all the more likely the eventual commission(s) will still be front-page news in 2022.
Because dragging their feet, and character assassination for clickbait, is all they have left in their political arsenal.
Open Thread
Benw
Go Lakers!!
debbie
If the GOP is allowed to get away with this, they’ll just do it all over again.
debbie
AL, did you see Tim Ryan’s rant on the House floor? Very impressive for a Blue Dog!
Mary G
I dunno, not sure this is going to work out well for them. If they had the same number of members as the Democrats, seems like they could control the narrative a lot better than if only Democrats are deciding. Personally, I’m glad not to have to listen to a lot of both sides and ANTIFA! BLM! THUGS AND MURDERERS! SOCIALISTS! COMMUNISTS! MARXISTS! garbage.
Matt McIrvin
It seems like the Democrats’ message for 2022 is obvious: 2022 is 2024. Trump is coming back. Vote Republicans out of Congress and state legislatures, or they will reinstall Trump against the electorate’s wishes.
Roger Moore
@Mary G:
I think the plan is to refuse to participate and then try to badmouth the commission and its results as a partisan witch hunt. It will probably play pretty well with their base, including the media.
Kelly
Rep Cliff Bentz newly elected by the part of Oregon that wants to be part of Greater Idaho voted in favor of the 1/6 commission. Kinda surprised me.
I to believe we’ll end up with a House committee holding hearings well into 2022.
phdesmond
at least the House will have something to do! they have piles of backed-up legislation waiting to go to the Senate.
burnspbesq
If we have to settle for grand jury investigations (and don’t forget, TFG has big-time criminal exposure in Atlanta), I suppose I could live with that.
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
The longer they drag their feet, the longer into the 2024 cycle it goes. They really are that stupid
MobiusKlein
@Benw: Au contraire, mon frere
Go Dubs!!!
StringOnAStick
@Kelly: I was surprised Bentz voted for it too. I’d assumed he was full tilt crazy like most of them but maybe as a new guy in D.C. , what he saw on 1/6 rattled/shamed him. I don’t know much about him, TBH.
Percysowner
@debbie: Ryan is going to make a run to replace Portman. He may be a Blue Dog, but he is a Democrat, so I wish him all the luck and will throw money at him. He might be able to pull it off.
Just Chuck
Benghazi. So fuck you Thune.
rikyrah
@debbie:
Truth
rikyrah
They phucking tried to kill people???
rikyrah
The AG needs to appoint a Special Prosecutor?
MontyTheClipArtMongoose
@debbie: but more progressive than neoliberal nancy pelosi & her fancy ice cream!
MontyTheClipArtMongoose
@Roger Moore: chuck todd is already semi.
Redshift
“I mean, that’s obviously what we would do, and we always assume everyone is as awful as we are…”
MontyTheClipArtMongoose
@StringOnAStick: there’s a shame particle in Antivaxxxia extremist circles?
Omnes Omnibus
@rikyrah: They did kill people.
MontyTheClipArtMongoose
this ends with only remaining 2011 gqp yung gun kevin mc carthy going out like r. “budd” dwyer.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@rikyrah: Why? Can’t DOJ do it on it’s own?
RaflW
I was listening to On Point on WI public radio today, and while the host was obtusely invested in ‘all politics is terrible’ (as in, “I don’t want to say out loud that one party is identifiably the problem”) both guests she had on clearly pointed at the GOP.
A woman lawyer was succinct, spelling out very effectively how Kevin McCarthy would be a material witness and thus has a strong conflict of interest. She said, basically, that no judge would tolerate this sort of thing, but of course congress isn’t bound by such rules or ethics.
Adam L Silverman
The Republican play is to force the Democrats into a Select Committee in the House. At that point they will do the following:
The play here is to make such a circus out of a select committee that the majority of Americans throw up their hands and go “all these people in Congress do is waste time and tax payer dollars”. They already know that the news media folks that cover politics in DC are just dying for a major “both sides are bad, but this is worse for the Democrats” narrative that they can flog. The DC press corps has been trying to create one, but hasn’t had any luck. So if the GOP can feed them one, they’re going to go nuts with it.
And if McConnell can’t prevent 10 GOP senators from supporting the independent commission, he has his own way of shutting it down: he and McCarthy just refuse to name any Republican commissioners. He’s done this with the FEC and a number of other major regulatory agencies. And since no one can actual compel him to fill the appointments that are his to fill, even if he loses the vote, he can prevent the independent commission from ever coming into existence by refusing to fill the GOP commissioners.
I CANNOT emphasize enough just how dangerous this moment is. There is an ongoing, low intensity political war that seeks to overthrow the constitutional order and replace it with it a populist (as in Lipset’s definition of populist*) white, Christian (evangelical) herrenvolk minoritarian managed democracy. This is not going to resolved or won or beaten back because the Democrats have better policy. Or because they’re able to build infrastructure. This is about raw political power and using it. The Republicans and the conservative movement that sustains them is focused on using what raw political power it has to consolidate that power and lock it in. They came very, very, very close in 2020. They are now trying to further rig the political and electoral processes to create even greater asymmetrical advantages for themselves so that if they get the chance again in 2024, they will succeed.
RaflW
@Redshift: Uh, Sen. Thune, if the GOP did nothing wrong, what could be ‘weaponized’?
Adam L Silverman
@rikyrah: They did kill people. They will try to kill more people. And they will kill more people.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Adam L Silverman: Silverman, always bringing a ray of sunshine into Balloon Juice. If the Republicans insist on this way of playing politics, they will be playing with a much smaller and poorer United States.
Adam L Silverman
@?BillinGlendaleCA: You want me to tell you what you want to hear or what you need to know?
HumboldtBlue
Fuck the Lakers and fuck the GOP.
Soprano2
@Adam L Silverman: That’s a really long way to say that Democrats are screwed no matter what they do.
Jerzy Russian
@HumboldtBlue: I don’t follow basketball very much, but it seems to me that the Warriors need to start scoring some more runs.
I will throw in an extra “intercourse the GOP” because those always are appropriate.
PJ
I don’t think Pelosi and Schumer have any illusions about what Republicans will do regarding any Congressional investigation of 1/6 – we all saw how TFG’s two impeachments went down. There is no good faith there to work with. DoJ and state AG’s will do their jobs (though I have my doubts about any politicians being prosecuted), but the best case scenario is using 1/6 to batter the Republicans in 2022 to maintain control of Congress.
PJ
@Soprano2: I don’t think we’re screwed, but, as in 2020, it’s going to be up to the electorate to save us from Republican malfeasance. We just need to hammer them with their criminal and anti-democratic behavior relentlessly.
Redshift
@Roger Moore:
Yeah, but that was going to be their MO with any investigation. I’m not sure it makes much difference of it’s an actual one-party investigation, and they lose the ability to muddy the waters by calling loons to testify.
Adam L Silverman
@Soprano2: As long as the Democrats are trying to answer the Republicans revolutionary political warfare (low intensity warfare + political action) with policy and regular order and bipartisanship, then they are and will be. And so will the rest of us. If they recognize what the actual strategic environment is and respond accordingly, they and we have a chance.
HumboldtBlue
These doggos know their best friend, even if they haul him around by his face.
PJ
@Redshift: I think it’s in the Democrats best interests if it’s a one party investigation, so long as they continuously highlight Republican obstruction. Winning 2022 is the goal.
HumboldtBlue
@Jerzy Russian:
I believe Intercourse is a town in Pennsylvania, so you will have to wait until Sunday to see the best team in basketball, the Philadelphia 76ers.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Adam L Silverman: That seems to limited to two Democrats, the senior Senators from WV and AZ.
Adam L Silverman
@?BillinGlendaleCA: They are especially bad cases of the problem.
Jerzy Russian
@HumboldtBlue: Yes, Intercourse is a town in PA, along with Virgin’s Paradise, Bird In Hand, and a few others I am forgetting at the moment.
Soprano2
@Adam L Silverman: What does that look like, a good response?
Adam L Silverman
@Soprano2: It means using the power Democrats have, at all levels of government, to put the Republicans on the defensive. So doing whatever they can do unilaterally when they have the power to do so, they should do. As much as I think my assessment of how McConnell and McCarthy will try to game a select committee or independent commission, the Democrats should just announce select committees in both chambers and start issuing subpoenas ASAP. This by itself will wrong foot the GOP because they expect the Democrats to keep doing what they’re doing.
Moving Manchin and Sinema off of their bipartisanship fetish is something I honestly don’t know how to do, especially for Manchin. You can’t really threaten him with anything. Sinema, however, can be made exceedingly uncomfortable. Schumer should make it very clear he has a primary candidate picked out, ready to go, and ready to be backed by the Democratic Senatorial Committee unless she gets with the program. Manchin can’t be squeezed that way.
At the state level the Democrats need to be proactive, not reactive. Both where they have the majority and governor’s mansion and where they don’t. Where they have the majority they need to lock in making voting as easy as possible immediately. Where they only have the governor’s mansions, the governors need to make it very, very, very clear that they will be vetoing any attempts by the GOP state legislative majorities to screw with the electoral systems and processed. Including dragging their asses back to their state capitols for repeated special sessions if they decide to get cute. Where the Democrats have neither of those things, they need to channel their inner Mitch McConnells and use every possible option to slow things down, gum up the works, etc.
And the Democratic Party, the groups that support it, etc need to be all over TV, radio, social media hammering this stuff over and over and over and over. By the time Labor Day rolls around the Republican Party needs to be synonymous with anti-American, insurrection, anti-democracy, etc. The Republicans and the conservative movement are already doing this, hell they’ve been doing it for decades, so the Democrats either fight the war where it is or they loose. And if they loose, we all loose.
Just Chuck
@Jerzy Russian: Sadly though, the village of Fucking in Austria recently decided to change its name.
frosty
@Jerzy Russian: Blue Ball, of course!
Adam L Silverman
@frosty: It does have that great little Italian restaurant in what, I think, was originally the train conductor’s house in the parking lot of the SEPTA stop though.
rikyrah
@Adam L Silverman:
I hear you
Which is why I want a Special Prosecutor
rikyrah
@HumboldtBlue:
??????
Adam L Silverman
@rikyrah: That’s basically what Norm Ornstein is calling for. It would depend on who they appoint.
NotMax
@Just Chuck
Canada still has a Swastika.
Every few years there’s a tongue in cheek campaign to change the place name of a California city back to Moron.
rikyrah
@Adam L Silverman:
Sally Yates
Adam L Silverman
I’m going to rack out, catch everyone on the flip.
Mary G
@Adam L Silverman: So what can I do as an old fat disabled woman in CA? I’ve decided to pressure Feinstein/Padilla/My Rep Mike Levin EVERY DAY to TAKE THE FUCKING GLOVES OFF NAOW and crank up donating to Mark Elias’s Democracy Docket, the ACLU, and local orgs in the important states, and of course I preach to the choir here and on Twitter just for psychological uplift. I’m going to start postcards and letters to voters where I can find them. Still doesn’t feel like enough. Any suggestions for more? Phonebank in Texas? Not enough people seem to get that this is war for all the marbles.
Leto
@frosty: I didn’t realize how close I live to that town…
Mary G
@NotMax: You asked how the teen is doing. Personally he is 1000% better psychologically and behaviorally. He’s working as a dishwasher at the local high end tourist spot, started at $14/hour and has already gotten two raises to $18. Has a very nice new not-cray girlfriend and they laugh a lot instead of extreme crying/yelling/drama, which is so good to hear.
Graduating? Who knows? The teachers have called his mom so many times she gave up answering, because he just assured her he had it under control. She is confident enough that she ordered a cap and gown. I plan to offer a bribe tomorrow. Two bribes. One for graduating and one for vaccinating. He does say he doesn’t want to wash dishes any longer than he has to.
Ruckus
@Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant):
This should be repeated often.
The reality is that they shot their wad on 1/6 and they have nothing left but bullshit. Unfortunately they are good at bullshit, because they have a lot of practice.
The thing that we have to acknowledge is that they really, really do not want to govern. They want to control and obfuscate, but actual, real governing is well outside their concept of government. A democracy? That is the last thing they want. And by they I mean the money holders of the republican party. Everyone vote? Are you kidding? They don’t even want their followers voting, but they’ve got them convinced that screwing everyone else is the premise of all government, so it works out OK. Their followers tried an insurrection, which the top end knew about and endorsed, because they were convinced that the party they belong to is the only honest one. Every damn thing they do and say is projection. They always blame the other side for all their BS. It’s the tell. They have to go all the way in, because that’s all they have left. They backed a complete loser, because he said all the racist bits out loud. That ensured that if necessary they could actually get those followers to overthrow the government and install the perfect moron in charge, for little more than the price of admission to Disney World and they’d be set for the rest of their lives. They might still succeed. It’s less likely as each day goes by, but with their moron not in charge still babbling on there is still a chance. They are not going to stop, they have to be stopped. We have to stop them. And we have to do so politically, legally, and properly. That last part is what Nancy and Chuck are doing, everything by the numbers, so that there can be no doubt who makes up the legitiment government and who are the crooks.
Kent
You are forgetting Blue Ball for one… Which is just north of Intercourse and Bird in Hand
Amir Khalid
@Just Chuck:
To Fugging, which in English is not necessarily a different word.
Amir Khalid
It occurs to me that in an inquiry into the 6th January insurrection, the Republican party would be in a position roughly comparable to that of al-Qa’idah in the inquiry into 9/11.
Dan B
@Amir Khalid: Cogent observation. I wonder if the 35 Rep’s are the only innocents.
Sloane Ranger
@Roger Moore: I don’t know. Watching CNN it sounds like they have NMFLTG, providing the Democrats on the Commission keep it factual and have solid witnesses I think there’s a chance we’ll be pleasantly surprised.
Especially if the usual suspects keep spouting lies, which can be easily shown as such. And we know they’ll be lining up to complain that those nasty Capitol police made an unprovoked assault on their constituents, who just wanted to peacefully assemble to petition their representatives.
Amir Khalid
@Sloane Ranger:
their constituents, who just wanted to peacefully assemble to petition their representatives.
Apparently, they were not there on such citizen’s business; per the latest version of the Republican tale, they were just tourists entering in a peacable, orderly fashion to gaze in wonder and awe at the temple of American democracy.
Geminid
@debbie: Actually, Ohio Congressman Tim Ryan is not part of the 19 member House Blue Dog Caucus. He is in the ~100 member New Democrat Coalition. A third caucus, the Progressive Caucus, also has about 100 members.
Geminid
@Percysowner: I think the “Tim Ryan is a Blue Dog” myth came out of the 2018 leadership challenge to Nancy Pelosi by a dozen House members led by Ryan, Seth Moulton (MA), and Kathleen Rice (NY). While the challenge was more generational than ideological in nature, some observers, like the wunderkind Ocasio-Cortez, described the challengers as conservatives. The Blue Dogs are targets of much animosity from some liberals, so painting them as anti-Pelosi was convenient, but I believe that the then 25 member Blue Dog Caucus stayed out of that fight collectively and individually. Tim Ryan is still often misidentified as a Blue Dog..
Martin
@NotMax: I never knew that. My BIL lives in Taft. It’s, uh, not a pleasant place.
Ksmiami
@Adam L Silverman: Exactly but maybe you can use your knowledge and way with words to actually make this point with members of the Democratic Party… do you have any contacts?
Mel
@Kent:
Next stops on that tour: Blueball, Knockemstiff, and Put-in-Bay, and Climax in Ohio, followed by Big Bone Lick in Kentucky, ending with a scenic detour to the town formerly known as Sugartit.
sab
@Geminid: Tim Ryan is my Congressperson and he is not a blue dog. In his mispent youth he was pro-gun and anti- abortion.Otherwise progressive right down the line on every issue. Then he married a woman, who was also a teacher. So he came to his senses on guns (Sandyhook) and reproductive issues
ETA Typical Catholic schoolboy who grew up and met facts in the real world.
sab
@debbie: He is not a blue dog. He has never been a blue dog. He is a progressive who used to be wrong on guns and reproductive rights because parochial schooling.
ETA He was raised by a divorced single mom. He has never been a blue dog.
Gvg
@Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant): when you really are guilty, all investigations are dangerous.
How will we enforce subpoenas? Do we have the will power to jail for contempt? Because lately Congress has been allowing that power to be defied.
lowtechcyclist
@sab:
Um, close enough for government work?
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Gvg:
My approach is simpler – just have a Grand Jury on one of the more violent insurrectionists issue subpoenas to Trump, Greene, Boebert, Pence, Kushner, Ivanka, Miller and McCarthy.
sab
@lowtechcyclist: What is your alternative? A perfect candidate who cannot be elected to dogcatcher? Ryan has worked his way forward. I don’t think just to be elected. I think he had thought this through as a person and a candidate.
I remember when he was trying to live on what foodstamps gave people. He was a big man. Hungry. That wasn’t theater. That was him trying to understand his constituents.
debbie
@Geminid:
His outlook has been that of a blue dog. I should not have capitalized the B and D.
Geminid
@debbie: So, are you saying Tim Ryan is a moderate?
debbie
@Geminid:
Yes. On the continuum that is the Democratic Party, he falls within that area.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Just Chuck: Is “drug” a legit verb form there? I’d say “dragged.”
Geminid
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: I am hoping that investigators devote some of their attention to staffers for Representatives like Goemert, Gosar, Boebert, Greene, and Cawthorne. Some of these are alt-right fanatics who may very well have worked with the insurrectionists. It’s possible that some can be flipped and incriminate their bosses. But regardless, any staffer who helped insurrectionists is especially culpable, I think, and should be severely punished as an example to the ones that aren’t caught.
Kay
Blue Dogs aren’t guns and abortion- they’re deficits and defense:
Ryan doesn’t fit “blue dog” anymore than Marcy Kaptur does.
NotMax
@Dorothy A. Winsor
Ya dance with the one what brung ya.
:)
Geminid
@debbie: The Democratic House Caucus is pretty evenly divided between liberals and moderates. I think this is consistent with the leanings of Democratic voters. The House Caucus had a very wrenching fight in the aftermath of the emergency border funding controversy in July 2019. Emotions were very heated at the time, but I think the the Caucus came out the stronger, with greater understanding between the two wings, and an acknowledgement that each side needs the other if the Party is to succeed. I think most Democratic voters realize this too.
Kay
@Geminid:
Two things happened on guns and abortion in Ohio. Republicans went far Right on both and as a result there was less and less political upside to being a moderate Democrat on either. Pro-gun and anti-abortion people don’t vote for us anyway. Republicans wanted it that way. They wanted to own that whole slice of the electorate so they made the litmus tests on those issues harder and harder for Democrats to pass. Now they do own that slice of the electorate. It’s clarifying and easier in a way.
Geminid
@Kay: On the issues, I believe Tim Ryan positions are virtually identical to those of Senator Sherrod Brown. If Ryan does not win the primary and general election, the reason won’t be his ideological profile.
Kay
@Geminid:
It sort of doesn’t matter anymore but Sherrod and Ryan aren’t in the same group of Ohio politicians because Sherrod was never part of the Catholic European immigrant group and Ryan is aligned with that. Sherrod is different. It’s a class thing, frankly. Sherrod comes out of a higher class. You know how tribes are- there was a Catholic working class Democrat “tribe” of Ohio politicians. Sherrod was never one of them. There was a sort of “class” of Ohio Democrats- mostly urban, all Catholic, who were anti-abortion but economic populists. Ryan is younger than them but he’s in that general group. It can’t be a “group” anymore because they don’t have enough WWC urban Democrats to elect them :)
I think Ryan is a good fit for Ohio. If you object to Ryan you object to the Ohio electorate, which is fine- I object to them myself, often and loudly, but he’s a good fit for the state.
Leaders need followers. Ryan (rightly) dropped the template when it became unusable.
Geminid
@Kay: Have you heard anything about the permitless concealed carry bill the Ohio legislature is considering? (I believe its H.227). When it was introduced, I noticed that one of it’s sponsors said they had to get it done this session, before reapportionment under new rules weakened the current Republican majority.
Permitless concealed carry is an awful idea. Even when Virginia Republican strength peaked 2009-13, gunrights advocates could not push it through, and I’m not sure they even tried. Last year, my moderate-conservative state senator used his pistol packing primary challenger’s support for permitless concealed carry against her in his mailers. He won easily. His district falls mainly in the Shenandoah. Those folks are conservative, but not so radical as Republicans are east of the Blue Ridge, I think.
SFAW
@Adam L Silverman:
But wouldn’t the most appropriate tactical response(s) be illegal? And I don’t think “pounding the shit out of the GQP traitors” (or “more intense” techniques) would play well with the media and the “Independent” voters. Well, maybe if the MSM realized the elected officials from the Partei of Traitors doesn’t respond anything else. But, still …
SFAW
@Jerzy Russian:
Field goals.
SFAW
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
SubaruDianne (or Steve in the WTFKW) might correct me, but I believe “drug” is, for certain situations, the proper conjugation. “I drug his sorry ass outta there” might be the pluperfect of “drag.”
Or it may just be that Thune was worried that his moron supporters would see/hear “drag,” and they’d think he was a pale version of RuPaul.
Kay
@Geminid:
I confess, I no longer follow gun legislation. I think it’s important and I’m glad people advocate on it but where I live it is a lost cause. If I fought about guns I wouldn’t be able to talk to these people at all.
It wasn’t always like this. As late as 2008 I actually attended an Obama event where the Obama organizer spoke with our Steelworkers local about guns but I no longer try. I try not to get shot by the gun nuts I interact with each and every day, is what I do.
Yesterday evening I went bike riding with my husband in the local park. Family in front of us- younger, with two kids on tiny bikes, all helmeted up and safe. As we passed I saw the father had a big gun on his hip. Fucking insane. Gone. I can’t even bother. Moving on.
SFAW
@Kay:
This is not the most distressing thing I’ve ever read from you, not even in the Top 10, but it’s depressing to read (both for the situations you describe, and because it’s not even in my Top 10).
I don’t know how you do it, Kay. I’m glad you don’t let it get to you, at least not too much. It would drive me nuts, or into despair.
evodevo
@Mel: Let’s not forget Beaver Lick, Dingus, Stump Store and Rabbit Hash, either, though those don’t have the same cachet as Blue Ball….(Mr. Evodevo, in his capacity as school psychologist, used to go on home visits to Rabbit Hash and its environs lol – AND I used to deliver mail on Frogtown Rd., though the exact location of Frogtown is unclear…)
Kay
@SFAW:
We have a sign on the law office door where they can’t bring guns in. It’s from a chunk of the Ohio code, where private businesses can opt out of having heavily armed often angry and depressed people on the property. They regularly hide the fucking gun and bring it in anyway. I have exchanges like “Tim, do you have a gun on under your coat? You can’t bring it in here”
We used to hold informal mediations and negotiations in law offices. Obviously tense situations where people come in adversarial and we have to lower the temperature. It changes the environment if one party is ARMED. Now we all go to the law library at the courthouse for those because there’s a metal detector and a sheriff’s deputy checking them for weapons. “Freedom!” my ass. It’s LESS free.
SFAW
@Kay:
But they’re more polite, of course. At least, that’s what Heinlein told me.
Or they would be more polite, if they entered the room with guards pointing loaded weapons at them.
MontyTheClipArtMongoose
@Adam L Silverman: naw. ashli babbitt fucked around & found out.
… & now her heirs have the gall to sue capitol police for wrongful death!
Feckless
It’s Nancy who disrespected the 1/6 dead and injured.
After wasting 4 months in quote unquote negotiations with a bad faith party that are the insurrectionists, it turns out that the GQP opposes the actual commission when it is finally time to vote. wow a bait and switch! Golly the repugs are so crafty and immoral. We’re powerless in the face of there lack of shame!!
surprise surprise surprise Nancy Pelosi blew it again. But but bipartisanship is HOLY!
We could have had a commission on the 7th of January and the GQP would have said the same thing as yesterday no difference but then the country was focused on the attack
she let the moment pass, Republicans never would have, that’s why she should resign.
80% of repugs hate democracy.
80% of the military officers are repugs.
Not establishing truth is a threat to our existence.
Gravenstone
@Feckless: You certainly do live down to your name. Enjoy your time in the pastry shoppe.
SFAW
@Gravenstone:
I was afraid you’d tell him/her to get fecked. At least that way, he/she wouldn’t be going without.
I half-expect him/her to demand that Speaker Pelosi start reciting “In brightest day, in blackest night …” THAT will get the commission created, ASAP
ETA: Did I say “afraid”? Major typo — I meant to write “hoping.”