The most recent non-fundraising open thread was getting weird, so here’s a Tufted Titmouse to look at:
There’s a piece in The Times today about Nancy Pelosi, and it turns out she’s not only herding House cats, she’s wrangling felines in the Senate too. The legend of Pelosi grows, and honestly, this makes me more optimistic about the fate of the BBB bill.
Another thing that’s got me feeling more optimistic: Senator Sinema has deigned to share her thoughts with the media of late, and although her comments indicate the “Mavericky? Yes-No” decision-tree is still operative, she sounds more conciliatory, almost as if she realizes that pissing off every Democrat in the country is a bad career move. It’s not much to go on, but I’ll take it.
Open thread!
WaterGirl
From your linked article. Talk about an understatement:
In reference to the double-secret Manchin document that Schumer had in his possession since July. That Pelosi knew nothing about.
WaterGirl
And this:
Normal people, good people. (Not on both sides!)
opiejeanne
Thank you very much, I love titmice and we don’t seem to have them here. We get another small wonder: nuthatches. They’re really interesting little birds. They don’t seem to be afraid of us when we work in the garden.
Pelosi is a force of nature, and isn’t Pramila Jayapal also active working the vote in the Senate?
Almost Retired
What makes you think we can’t make this thread weird, too? Hold my beer.
JoyceH
Something that gave me a Glimmer of Hope today – I saw an article that said that Youngkin has announced he won’t interfere with state and local vaccine and mask mandates, and now the VA Republicans have buyer’s remorse. RINO!
Short term, it’s encouraging that VA might not descend into Texas-style MAGA madness, but also encouraging in the long term. If that’s an indication of how Youngkin will actually govern, come 2022 primaries, the Republicans won’t settle for the wink-and-nod-to-the-base corporate candidates but go for the out and proud MAGA ranters, who will be less electable.
WaterGirl
@Almost Retired: hahahahaha
Emerald
Sinema seemed to me to change her tone and shut up a bit just after those five advisors on her Veteran’s committee quit and said why. I had the feeling that got to her. Coincidence?
opiejeanne
@WaterGirl: WTH? What good is a sooper sekrit agreement in this case? She needed to know about that stuff, so what was Schumer thinking???
germy
Michael Cain
I will believe Manchin will vote for a bill that includes climate change money when I see it, and not before. He seems to have been unmovable on that all along.
Kristine
@opiejeanne: I love nuthatches. Mostly white-breasted around here, but on occasion a red-breasted one makes an appearance.I also love chickadees. And the juncos arrives a few weeks ago, so the cold is here to stay.
Winston
I tried to cancel my WAPO subscription of $100/year today and they countered with a $40/year offer, so even though I got to register my dismay with their conservative leaning bent lately, it seemed like a good deal.
Starfish
@WaterGirl: I keep pointing people to that document. Manchin said he was not going to negotiate before October, and we went through months of circus when nothing was going to happen.
SpaceUnit
Kyrsten Sinema needs to work out her validation and self-worth issues on her own time. I don’t think the people of Arizona really wanted a petulant version of Stuart Smalley as their senator.
opiejeanne
@Emerald: I missed that in the midst of all of the other news. I’ll go look it up.
Jeffro
@germy: omg that’s great
I have been following more and more funny accounts on Twitter. It helps break up the nonsense, that’s for sure
Jeffro
@JoyceH: “We bit our tongues and rallied behind you and what did we get? Northam-Lite!” – VA GQPers
If that’s the reaction, I will surely die laughing.
Amanda “trumpov in heels” Chase is readying herself to run for Congress, I see. Keep that crazy front and center, VA Republicans!
opiejeanne
@Kristine: We have black-cap chickadees and juncos and towhees, among others, and a bird we refer to as the BBB: Basic Brown Bird. It’s about the size of the towhee or a robin but shaped differently and doesn’t behave like either. We haven’t been able to identify it from our Roger Tory Peterson, either. We’re about 12 miles east of downtown Seattle, but we’re at the other side of the continent from you. The nuthatches we get have a rosy blush along their sides.
We also have at least one breeding pair of pileated woodpeckers nearby, and we are treated to them drumming on the roof over our bedroom every spring, earlier than we would like.
germy
@Jeffro:
Can you recommend any funny ones?
Betty Cracker
@opiejeanne: Nuthatches are so cool — like little woodpeckers!
I think you’re right about Jayapal. She’s been impressive this term.
germy
WaterGirl
@opiejeanne:
I have no clue.
PaulB
I missed the typo thread yesterday, so here is one of my favorites: an HR representative asked us to welcome a new member of the engineering team, telling us that the new member had several cross-platform copulations in her employment history.
germy
Jeffro
@PaulB: the very definition of WUT
?
Sure Lurkalot
@Winston: My Washington Post sub is about up for renewal but I might just quit:
Just make Dems in Disarray your permaheadline.
germy
I like wrens.
Kristine
@opiejeanne:
Here we call them LBJs. Little Brown Jobs. Mostly various types of sparrows–I mix them up regularly even with the Merlin app’s assistance.
I’m always happy to see Eastern towhees at my feeders–they usually stick to the woods. My favorite call is that of the Eastern wood pewee. I call them Little Big Mouths. So loud and distinctive.
One of the best things about winter around here is the abundance of cardinals. A half a dozen bright red males scattered around a bare tree like decorations can brighten a dull, cold day.
Winston
@Sure Lurkalot: Yeah. If you don’t renew, you get a chance to tell them why. So there’s that.
opiejeanne
@Betty Cracker: I was a little skeptical about her at first because the Seattle Times* et al when they wrote about her, they nearly accused her of being a Marxist. It got to be a joke around here, Our Commie Representative, and now I’m impressed as hell. This is what AOC could be, should be, when she grows up**.
I can see Pramila Jayapal as Speaker of the House at some point in the future.
*The Seattle Times leans right, or used to until TFG. They’re a whole lot better these days. I think they’re proud of her now, being our own home-grown mover and shaker.
**I like AOC sometimes, can see great potential, but she gives me a huge pain the rest of the time).
opiejeanne
@germy: That’s an great shot, and that’s an amazing bird!
Betty
@WaterGirl: Very dumb and very sneaky on Schumer’s part. Trust is so critical when you have to navigate this treacherous terrain.
opiejeanne
@Kristine: We used to own a very old little cabin (an actual cabin, not a fancy loghouse calling itself a cabin) in the mountains in Southern California, and there were Western Towhees there. I was a bit surprised when everyone in the area around Lake Arrowhead told me there were none in the area.
Our BBBs are not sparrows, not by any stretch. They’re too big.
Betty Cracker
@opiejeanne: She’s your rep? Lucky dog! Mine is a corrupt old bible-humping Republican shithead.
Betty
@JoyceH: Have those last two seats in the House been decided yet? If the Dems can pick those up along with the Senate, he won’t have the power Texas and Florida Governors have.
Jeffro
@germy: the last couple I added were Simon Holland and Kat Dennings…also Amazing Maps and Terrible Maps.
Some of the fast-food chains’ Twitter accounts are pretty funny, too, but the only one I follow is Wendy’s. =)
SPEAKING OF WHICH (fast food)…I see that Burger King is bring back the original Italian chicken sandwich and now I have all the wrong goals for the week ahead. Well, one wrong goal…
Geminid
@Jeffro: If Kristi Noem is a dollar store Sarah Palin, Amanda Chase would be a yard sale version. Abigail Spanberger would beat her easily, but Republicans think Spanberger’s 7th District seat is vulnerable. They’ll coalesce around the strongest candidate and muscle airheaded Chase aside, just like Youngkin did.
Republicans are also going to go all out against Elaine Luria (VA-2d). In 2018 she flipped the Tidewater seat that was Republican for years. The district Spanberger flipped that year had been in Republican hands since the 1970s. Republicans really want those seats back.
opiejeanne
@Betty Cracker: Not mine, she reps the Seattle city area, but we have a good rep too: Suzan del Bene. You don’t hear a lot about her, although there was something in the national news a couple of weeks ago. I think the good ones who are not the big stars get lost in the crowd sometimes.
Stacy
@JoyceH: Living here in Loudoun County, I figured he was going to go the Mitt Romney GOP direction. After I saw my former GOP Rep. Barbara Comstock on CNN shortly before the election shilling for Youngkin, I think they see him, or his style of pol, as a way out from under Trump. Hit the culture war notes while seemingly being palatable to the normies that live in metro areas. I guess we will see.
zhena gogolia
@opiejeanne: My rep Rosa De Lauro is fantastic. But not a young cutie so gets no attention.
Geminid
@opiejeanne: Very few Representatives make national news. If I want to follow people like Sharice Davids (KS) or Colin Allred (TX) I read articles from local and state media, or in Davids’ case, Native American media.
Kalakal
@opiejeanne:
According to Steven Jay Gould paleontologists have a similar thing the SSB: Small Shelly Bit. Code for really old unidentifiable fossil fragments
realbtl
Not birds but- I live about a mile off the main road in a heavily forested group of 12 houses, probably 150 acres total. It being hunting season the deer are thick on my 5 acres the last few days. Smart deer, it’s all no hunting.
WaterGirl
@Betty: I don’t know about sneaky, but definitely dumb.
Maybe Manchin said “I’ll show you this document with what I want, but you can’t share it with anybody else”.
It would have been dumb for Schumer to go along with that, and Nancy SMASH would never let herself be caught in that trap. Was Schumer dumb enough to do that? I don’t know.
But that seems more believable to me than that he liked the idea of not sharing with Nancy SMASH.
Cameron
This was not something I would have expected.
https://www.texastribune.org/2021/11/02/texas-abortion-law-gun-rights/
Jeffro
@Geminid: we’ll definitely see (re: Chase) – wouldn’t surprise me if she and her followers insist that the party support her “or else we’ll walk”, etc etc. The payback for biting their tongues and supporting Youngkin.
Spanberger and Luria strike me as smart reps who work hard for their districts and who know their districts. I don’t think GQP wackaloons will flip those seats.
cope
I am yet again in bird feeder limbo. When the squirrels don’t get at it, the bears do. For the umpteenth time in the past few years, I am trying to come up with a system that will thwart both. That and trying to keep bees away from the hummingbird feeder.
WaterGirl
@Cameron: Really? I predicted that from day one. It was obvious to me that the same kind of law could be used related to guns and any number of things.
Turnabout is fair play and all.
JoyceH
@Stacy: Yeah, Youngkin walked a tightrope, being Nonthreatening to the swing voters in the suburbs, but whispering the dog whistles to the rabid base. Problem is, that too-cute-by-half trick only works ONCE, because once you win and start governing, one of those two constituencies is going to be disappointed and vow, ‘not going to make that mistake again!’
And since it’s a trick that can only be used once, it kind of amuses me that they wasted it on 2021, rather than holding back till 2022.
mrmoshpotato
@JoyceH:
SAD! Glad for Virginia that he won’t be DeathSantis-terrible. (Oh, he’ll find other things to fuck up, but…)
JoyceH
New subject, non-political. Has anyone here ever sold a car on these online sites like Carvana and Vroom? I happen to have two cars now (I inherited one), and that’s one car too many. But I hate hate hate everything about buying and selling cars! I just don’t understand why, with this one purchase, rather than the buyer stating a price and the seller buying or not, like everything else, with cars you’re supposed to haggle like you’ve been teleported to the souks of Old Baghdad. I see the commercials for the online sites, and it looks like it’s actually 21st century. So – comments? Personal experiences?
Geminid
@Jeffro: I hope you are right. Republicans have high hopes. Spanberger won reelection by only a few thousand votes last year. Luria won more easily. It was a rematch against the Congressman she beat in 2018. This time around he was tainted by charges brought against his 2018 political team. Several had to plead guilty to falsifying petitions for a third party spoiler candidate.
Luria was given a coveted spot on the Armed Services Commitee in her first term. She’ll have four years helping steer money to the 2nd District’s Navy and shipbuilding economy. That will help her reelection prospects.
Elaine Luria will also get national exposure as a member of the Select Committee investigating the January 6 Insurrection. That will help her, at least on the fundraising side.
eclare
@JoyceH: I took a car in to Carmax a long time ago when I was moving and had to get rid of it fast. It was easy.
This way predates all the on-line stuff. Only thing I knew is that I did want to sell it myself, even if it cost me some.
Kristine
@realbtl:
The local state park allows bow hunting from mid-autumn to mid-January (a tightly controlled lottery system). The hunters are limited to sections well away from the trails and the main body of the park, so you know where most of the deer have moved.
Sister Golden Bear
Today is the annual Transgender Day Of Remembrance. 2021 was the deadliest year on record in the U.S. for trans and gender non-conforming people, with at least 48 of us killed. The actual number is likely higher, since even in death too often we’re misgendered and deadnamed by authorities, and sometimes families. As usual, nearly all of the victims were trans women, the vast majority trans women of color, in particular Black trans women.
48 lives cut short and snuffed out forever. 48 voices silenced. Say their names.
Tyianna Alexander, 28
Samuel Edmund Damián Valentín
Bianca “Muffin” Bankz, 30
Dominique Jackson, 30
Fifty Bandz, 21
Alexus Braxton, 45
Chyna Carrillo, 24
Jeffery “JJ” Bright, 16
Jasmine Canady, 22
Jenna Franks, 34
Aidelen Evans, 24
Diamond Kyree Sanders, 23
Rayanna Pardo, 26
Jaida Peterson, 29
Dominque Lucious, 26
Remy Fennell, 28
Tiara Banks, 24
Jahaira DeAlto Balenciaga, 42
Natalia Smüt, 24
Iris Santos, 22
Tiffany Thomas, 38
Keri Washington, 49
Thomas Hardin
Whispering Wind Bear Spirit, 41
Sophie Vásquez, 36
Danny Henson, 31
Serenity Hollis, 24
Poe Delwyn Black, 21
Oliver “Ollie” Taylor, 17
Tierramarie Lewis
EJ Boykin, 23
Taya Ashton, 20
Shai Vanderpump, 23
Miss CoCo, 44
Pooh Johnson, August 23
Zoella Martinez, 20
Disaya Monaee, 27
Brianna Ulmer, 25
Kièr Solomon, 21
Mel Groves, 25
Royal Poetical Starz, 20
Jessi Hart, 42
Jo Acker, 26
Rikkey Outumuro, 39
Jenny De Leon, 25
Marquiisha Lawrence, 28
Angel Naira, 36
Danyale Johnson, 35
Photos and the stories of most of the victims (Naira and Johnson were killed mere days ago, so they’re not on this list).
Photos and the stories of the final two victims this year.
I long for the day when we won’t have any new names to read, when we won’t have any new candles to extinguish.
Today we mourn our dead. Tomorrow we fight like hell for the living.
(Reposting from the morning, since the thread then was almost dead.)
Geminid
@Sister Golden Bear: Thank you for posting this again.
eclare
@Sister Golden Bear: How heartbreaking. I’m so sorry that you and so many others have to suffer this.
Sister Golden Bear
@WaterGirl: I really wish one house in California’s legislature would approve a knock-off of Texas’ law regarding something near and dear to conservatives hearts,* such as guns. Doesn’t need to pass the other house, nor become law. But it would serve as a warning shot across the bow of the SCOTUS that we can play the game too if they decide to fuck around and find out.
*Yes, I know conservatives with hearts is an oxymoron.
mrmoshpotato
@PaulB:
The different systems are definitely talking to each other!
SiubhanDuinne
@Sister Golden Bear:
Heartbreaking. And they’re all so god damned young (I think the oldest age on that list was 49). That’s just a tragic loss of potential, not to mention combined centuries of human happiness. But we need to be reminded of them. Thank you for sharing their names.
eclare
@Sister Golden Bear: Amen, sister.
Dan B
@Sister Golden Bear: Such an awful list and so many were very young.
So many people are too crazy about gender, and sexuality. Young people are much better so perhaps this violence will fade.
Kingeider
@opiejeanne: basic brown likely a Fox sparrow
WaterGirl
@Sister Golden Bear: I want that really badly, also.
I would happily take multiple laws –
– guns
– ratting out your neighbor’s kids for drinking, smoking, using fake IDs,
– reporting possible affairs that you think are happening between people at your church, etc.
Let’s play it out to the logical conclusion and see how much they like it.
I am absolutely furious about this law.
Redshift
@JoyceH:
I hope that’s true. The ones I see only say he won’t interfere with local mask mandates, but don’t say anything about state ones. Still a bit positive, but unless it actually includes state mandates, it doesn’t help with the state university where Ms. Redshift teaches, where they’re expecting to be told they can’t require masks.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@zhena gogolia: I have that Schiff fella.
Ken
@?BillinGlendaleCA: My sympathies.
Chacal Charles Caltrop
@Sister Golden Bear: thank you for this. This is the kind of thing we really need to talk about more.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Ken: Thanks, it’s a cross I must bear.
opiejeanne
@Kingeider: Nope. It’s as big as a robin but slightly slimmer, and it’s solid brown above and solid lighter brown below
It could be a regional color variation of something in the book, but I haven’t figured it out yet because of its size and shape.