A President who actually enjoys schmoozing babies!
U.S. President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden visit a vaccine clinic as the U.S. begins distributing COVID vaccines for children as young as 6 months old pic.twitter.com/4PeTaBgHmh
— Reuters (@Reuters) June 22, 2022
.@VP takes her shot at an American University Title IX 50th anniversary field day event. pic.twitter.com/9F3PSQGImV
— Naomi Lim (@naomitlim) June 22, 2022
(Madam VP might take some tips from Attorney-General Maura Healy, another tiny fierce female politician, and Massachusett’s current Democratic candidate for governor… )
First Lady Jill Biden and the FEMA administrator will fly to Florida on Thursday for Surfside's memorial event “in honor and remembrance of the 98 lives lost at the Champlain Towers South on June 24, 2021,” her office says https://t.co/tFp63dCZuv
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) June 22, 2022
… The chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson, told reporters Wednesday that the committee is receiving “a lot of information” — including new documentary film footage of Donald Trump’s final months in office — as its yearlong inquiry intensifies with hearings into the attack on Jan. 6, 2021, and Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election that Democrat Joe Biden won.
The committee is also working on setting up an interview with Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, the conservative activist and wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who has responded to the panel’s request to appear, the chairman said. She was asked to speak to the committee after disclosures of her communications with Trump’s team in the run-up and day of the insurrection at the Capitol…
Thomas has previously said she “can’t wait to clear up misconceptions,” suggesting she would comply with the panel’s request to testify…
The next hearing, set for Thursday, is expected to highlight former Justice Department officials testifying about Trump’s proposals to reject the election results. It would wrap up this month’s work. The committee would start up again in July, Thompson said…
Meanwhile, in a sign of a widening Justice Department investigation, federal law enforcement officials served a round of subpoenas Wednesday related to alternate — or fake — slates of electors who falsely sought to declare Trump the winner in their states in 2020…
And for a change of… gait:
Jeffro
Out of many things to be happy about this morning, I am most happy that DOJ is serving subpoenas re: the fake electors scheme. Those should be some open-and-shut cases and would help broadcast to the public – especially those not watching the J6 hearings – that this was indeed a broad, illegal conspiracy to overturn an election.
raven
For all you Mornin Joe haters he spent the first 20 minutes eviscerating Bowers, Raffensberg and Barr for their “I’d vote for him again”. These motherfuckers hate US more that the do people that would threaten their families. Keep you powder dry.
Baud
And the babies who enjoy it back!
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
rikyrah
Let’s vaccinate those babies
Baud
I’m sure it just fell through the cracks, but it’s odd that there has been no front page mention of the gun legislation in the Senate. Maybe tomorrow, which is when I think the vote will be held.
Baud
@raven:
They need to take a page from our book and run away in disillusionment when there’s a hiccup or imperfection.
Baud
I am pleased AP didn’t sugarcoat this, as the media sometimes does.
oldgold
Seems to be two schools of thought on gun legislation.
1. GOP desperately needed some breathing room. Dems got played, gave it to them for virtually nothing.
or
2. This legislation, while not much, is the camel’s nose in the tent of meaningful gun legislation.
Geminid
@Baud: Yesterday Speaker Pelosi issued a statement saying that the House would promptly vote on the gun safety package as soon the Senate passes it and then send it to President Biden for his signature.
Anne Laurie
For this front-pager, it’s a case of ‘I’ll believe it when I see it.’
I simply don’t trust the Repubs, or Sinemanchin, not to pull the football away at the last minute… if only due to muscle memory!
Happy to be proved wrong, and if I am, I will most certainly post about it.
Baud
@oldgold:
The first point of view is dogma.
Baud
@Anne Laurie:
Does it matter? I thought it cleared the filibuster hurdle. That means Dems can pass it on their own, and there’s no evidence that Manchin will sink it.
ETA: on rereading, I see you mentioned Sinemanchin.*
* I prefer that to Manchinema.
OzarkHillbilly
zhena gogolia
Hubert!!! Namin nuts!
joe has been kissing babies for a long time
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
I like big boas and I cannot lie.
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: Size matters?
raven
@OzarkHillbilly:
I was in this joint years ago. It was a round stage with seats around it and there was a guy drunk and passed our with his head on the stage. The Snake Lady came out with her huge snake and rubbed it against his face. The dude woke up, took a look and I’ve never seen anyone move faster as he hit the door!
The Legendary Snake Lady of Augusta
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: I am not phobic at all about snakes, but this one would give me pause.
@raven: Apparently.
Geminid
@oldgold: Some critics disparage the gun safety package as “crumbs.” I checked out an article in a “progressive” outlet I’ll call Common Screams. The author listed the modest provisions in the legislation, but somehow left out closing the “boyfriend loophole.” This provision would make a misdemeanor assault charge in the case of an intimate partner a disqualifier for gun purchases. There is good evidence that this could save a lot of lives. I think the author of the article knew that including this provision would undercut the “crumbs” argument.
Longtime gun safety advocates like Shannon Watts and Fred Guttenberg are solidly behind this package. I think a lot of the critics care about the issue only insofar as it provides a cudgel with which to slam the “feckless” Democrats. This is more or the case with many other issues these some of these critics cry about.
Tarragon
@raven: It’s not the size of your Boa that matters, it’s where you stick it. The Everglades in this case.
raven
But it is hard to imagine the town without him. It was Mr. Lester who was responsible for the regionally famous striptease act known as The Snake Lady, an unholy pretzel of human and reptilian flesh that titillated many a golfer, soldier and late-teenage boy. The dancer and a boa constrictor or two would emerge with the “Jaws” theme playing. A voice would announce a visitor from the “Devil’s den.”
NYT
Baud
@raven:
As long as The Snake Lady isn’t dressed as a man, it’s all good!
Sure Lurkalot
@raven: I’ve never watched Joe and Mika and the dismal recounts here from time to time don’t lend much temptation, but the fact that these Republicans would all vote for Trump again, along with their animosity towards voting rights, says it all. Someone who incites people to threaten your and others’ families is “at least not a Democrat?” If this is what passes as a hero or even a good citizen, I’ll take a hard pass.
lowtechcyclist
@rikyrah: And a cheery good morning to you!
Good news on the Ukraine front: the HIMARS from the U.S. have at last arrived in Ukraine.
Also, it looks like Ukraine is getting EU candidate status.
Betty Cracker
@Anne Laurie: Same. Passage looks good this time, but I ain’t counting any chickens yet.
@oldgold: IMO, reasonable arguments can be made for both of those points of view. I come down on the “when people are dying of hunger, half a slice of moldy bread is better than nothing” side.
It’s far from a sure thing that Republicans would have paid a political price for their intransigence on guns anyway (past experience, while not dispositive, suggests not), and if the proposed bill can save lives, it’s worth doing.
zhena gogolia
@OzarkHillbilly: gotta read Squeeze me by Carl Hiaasen
zhena gogolia
@Baud: lol
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
I agree with this. The big problem is that the GOP always says “We were willing to deal, but the Dems wouldn’t meet us halfway.” Ergo, it’s the Dems who are politicizing this issue.
What’s a response to this that doesn’t get into the weeds of the negotiating process? We haven’t figured that out yet, which is one reason the GOP isn’t held accountable.
James E Powell
@oldgold:
I’m in Group 1 – If the Rs desperately needed something then the Ds should have exploited it. It was an issue for the midterms that they just gave away.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@OzarkHillbilly: That reminds me of the Carl Hiaasen book, Squeeze Me. A boa plays a role in there too. That book has some funny moments. There’s a group of elderly rich ladies who support the president and call themselves the Potussies.
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: Heh, any article that begins with,
is sure to entertain.
A buddy of mine got to spend a month or 2 wandering about Indonesia. While there he mat a man who”had the most impressive scar” my buddy had ever seen. It circled around his shoulder front and back and had been given to him by most likely a reticulated python. The story the guy told was that the snake attacked him in the jungle some miles away from his village. He had his machete in his free right hand and managed to kill the snake with it. Unfortunately he could not pry it’s jaws apart, so had to cut it’s head off and hike back to his village with the snakes head still attached to his shoulder.
narya
@oldgold: Or: 3. This is what can be accomplished at this point. It’s not everything that we want (e.g., no ban on assault weapons) but it’s what can be passed, and it’s not nothing. I don’t think the Democrats got played–IMHO, that’s only a good reading if one thinks there’s a realistic chance that something better could be passed, and I don’t agree with that.
debbie
@James E Powell:
The NRA’s come out against the proposed legislation. Is it still guaranteed to pass?
Immanentize
@OzarkHillbilly: The western everglades are still a deeply strange place. When I lived in Miami, I used to go for weekends to the Rod and Gun Club in Everglades City. The things I learned there about the fishing systems, small islands, and marijuana trade….
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Sure Lurkalot: And Bowers specified that he’d vote for Trump over Biden. As if Biden was Mao Tse Tung
OzarkHillbilly
@Betty Cracker: As the old Chinese proverb says, “The man who moves a mountain begins with a single stone.”
Baud
@James E Powell:
I’m with BC. The GOP pays no price for failure, and if anything the Dems get blamed for not getting anything done. But we’ll never know for sure.
HinTN
@Immanentize: Carl Hiasson has been mentioned already but this is Randy Wayne White territory for sure.
Baud
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
FWIW, every Republican believes in their core that we would do the same thing if there were a Democratic Trump. And some would! But most of us would not. If anything, we abandon people too easily.
germy shoemangler
“If he is the nominee, if he was up against Biden, I’d vote for him again” — Rusty Bowers on Trump, who he also said orchestrated an illegal and unconstitutional scheme to steal the last election.
Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers receives JFK Profile in Courage Award
David ☘The Establishment☘ Koch
@Baud: Oddly enough the people who say this were apologists for Bernie’s vote to immunize the Ammo Industrial Complex
Betsy
I’m alive two weeks after a horrific car crash – elderly parents and I were traveling on interstate at appx 65 mph when car came across median directly into our path. We were traveling far from home for funeral. Now they are just out of ICU and I’m just out of hospital. I came most of way home yesterday, finish my travel home today.
Need to arrange some in-home nursing help, just a bit so my bandages can be changed and that kind of thing. (I can’t reach or see all of them)
Baud
@David ☘The Establishment☘ Koch:
Yeah, reasonable people (aka Juicers) can disagree, but that doesn’t change the fact that there are a lot of bad faith actors out there.
germy shoemangler
@Betsy:
Horrible. Why was a median across the road?
I’m glad no one was killed.
Baud
@Betsy:
OMG. Glad you are still with us. And your parents.
NotMax
Media note.
Ben Whishaw. Pete Postlethwaite. As if that alone wasn’t enough to pique interest in the five episode first season of Criminal Justice, currently available on Tubi, I’m hard pressed to think what is. (Totally different story and cast for season two, also streaming there.)
NeenerNeener
@Betsy: Yikes! I hope you and your family recover quickly and completely.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Betsy: Holy cow. I’m glad you’re home and healing. Hope your parents are soon home too
zhena gogolia
@Betsy: oh how awful
oldgold
Speaking of snakes, this is a legendary family tale often told when the oldgolds reminisce.
My grandmother carried a basket of clothes in from the clothesline to the bedroom.
She saw a garter snake slither out of the basket. She was deathly afraid of snakes and started screaming.
My grandfather was taking a shower. Hearing the screaming he rushed into the bedroom wet and naked.
Grandmother told him she thought the snake went under the bed and fled the room.
Grandfather was down on his knees looking under the bed, when the dog licked his southern orifice. He passed out.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@germy shoemangler: You’re probably joking but just in case, I think Betsy is saying a car crossed the median into their path
Immanentize
@Betsy: that is frightening! I’m glad you and your parents made it through. Heal swiftly.
OzarkHillbilly
@Betsy: Ouch, may the healing continue unimpeded.
germy shoemangler
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
No I wouldn’t joke about something like that. I read the original comment as being a median was in the middle of the road.
I thought maybe there was construction work not properly flagged or something.
Now I’m off to prepare some coffee for myself, as needed.
Betty Cracker
@Betsy: Jesus! Glad you all survived, and I hope y’all recover completely and speedily!
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: Sinema helped write the bill. Here is Chis Murphy thanking her for it.
https://twitter.com/ChrisMurphyCT/status/1539733971772346369?t=8UehfXO25a4vqZIKTcj7SQ&s=19
Ohio Mom
@Betsy: Glad you are on the mend — what a frightening experience. Fingers crossed for your parents as well.
Baud
@schrodingers_cat:
Thanks! Good to know, and good on her.
OzarkHillbilly
@oldgold: Heh. I know the feeling.
Betty Cracker
@oldgold: Hahahaha! Thanks for the first laugh of the day.
Geminid
@germy shoemangler: Regarding Bowers, what he did matters to me, not what he says.
Tony Jay
A LETTER FROM BREXITANNIA
‘One for Sorrow, Two for Joy’
Today is Double By-Election Day here in the UK! When voters in two Conservative seats are being asked to cast their verdict on the leadership… uh… qualities, I suppose, of our (Sub)Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson and his Party of Peculiar Oddballs.
Tiverton and Honiton is a constituency down in rural Somerset, the kind of bucolic bolthole where endless fields of wildflowers bathe bee-clad and shimmering in the morning-duvet warmth of honey-gold sunlight and the only black people for miles around stand motionless outside of traditional grocers with watermelon smiles and coin slots in their shiny heads. Where the main danger to visiting outsiders is the likelihood of being accosted on village greens by roaming gangs of Morris dancers and forced to act the maypole while their besocked assailants dance the traditional dance of cosy paganism. The kind of place that doesn’t so much vote for the Tory Party as it emanates an anthropomorphic representation of what it considers to be quintessentially ‘Tory’, pops it into a suit and tie and packs it off to Westminster every other week to do whatever it is they’re expected to do in the Land of Walls and Windows.
Wakefield, in comparison, is a constituency in Yorkshire that had been Labour since the 1930s until a toxic mixture of Brexit, Brexit and Brexit hollowed out the Labour vote and allowed the Tories to snatch it in 2019. Ironic for a constituency where Thatcher’s war on the mining industry (Unionised, you see) led to generations of mass unemployment, one of the main employers in the area is a vast transport hub specialising in trade from the EU, and the regeneration of the city in the 21st century was funded by (checks notes) European Union grants, a big chunk of Wakefield’s ‘traditionally Labour’ voters decided to listen to the siren song of Nigel Farage and jump ship for the Brexit Party. It didn’t help that the sitting MP in 2019 was an Ultra Blairite who spent most of her time badmouthing the Labour Party as a Marxist terror-cell while simultaneously asking Wakefield’s voters to show their love for her as an individual via the voting booth. Thousands of them stayed home on voting day, the Tories sneaked in, and all was right with the world.
The reason we’re having these by-elections today is because, well, Tory MPs are always a rum bunch of coves at the best of times, and in the Age of Flobalob that’s been dialled up to 11 and the knob snapped off.
As you may remember from previous rants, Tiverton and Honiton lost its ‘Honourable Member’ (Neil Parish) when he was (eventually) exposed by female Tory MPs as having watched porn on his phone in the House of Commons on at least two occasions, this after going on TV calling for strong action to be taken against whoever this unknown miscreant was until his own name was pulled from the hat. The best bit about it was his claim that he’d only stumbled upon the porn sites while googling for information about a new tractor called ‘The Dominator’, which led to a short-term spike in tractor-based sex puns and severe reputational damage to John Deere employees who are now regularly approached online and in meat-space by heavy-machinery ‘fans’ looking for a bit of Hot Gasket action.
Wakefield’s reason for a bye-election is less tittersome. In April Imran Ahmad Khan was found guilty of sexual assault against an underage boy and soon afterwards (reluctantly) resigned as an MP. It’s worth pointing out that this wasn’t the first time he’d been accused of aggressive sexual interest in children, which is why there are still major questions to be asked and answered about the current Government’s decision to put Khan on a panel tasked with reviewing the sexual exploitation of minors after they’d received credible accusations of sexual abuse against him and while the Police were (unbeknownst to the other panel members, including survivors of organised sexual exploitation) investigating him. Maybe they just thought he’d find the subject matter gripping and would be able to bring his relevant expertise to bear. Someone should really ask them about that.
Anyway, that is what’s happening today. There’s a general expectation that the Liberal-Democrats could give the Tories a serious run for their money in Tiverton and Honiton. The constituency’s basic tilt isn’t too far from the North Shropshire seat where the Tories were likewise defending a massive majority last December in the wake of another scandal-ridden MP’s resignation, only to see a 30% swing in the vote elect a Lib-Dem. It’s a big ask, given that the Tories got over 60% of the vote here in 2019, but as the North Shropshire defeat really kick-started the collapse in Flobalob’s Premiership, a similar defeat in Somerset could (and really should) ring the bell for his long overdue knock-out. Even a substantial swing away from the Tories and towards the Lib-Dems would be enough to signal to scores of Tory MPs that their majorities are far from secure while the Bullingdon Bunter squats odorously atop their Party’s standard.
Wakefield is different. It’s a seat that Labour really, really should take back from the Tories given the current leadership’s complete 180% on the topic of Brexit (from vehemently opposed while they could use it as a stick to beat Corbyn with to ordering all Labour MPs to vote for it and never, ever speak of it ever again in the blink of a senior Party insider’s eye) and two years of speedy rightward drift on the cultural and economic issues we’re constantly being told matter most to ‘reachable voters’. If they can’t point to Johnson’s calamitous failures on the Brexit front and convince Wakefield’s voters that their indecent flirtation with Toryism was a mistake best consigned to the dustbin of history, well, Flobalob may not be the only Party leader staring down the barrel of a no confidence vote this summer.
With these by-elections taking place and knowing their potential significance with regards to Flobby’s future employment prospects, the run up has been akin to standing in front of a woodchipper getting a full-body Buscemi Blast. A proper red-meat deluge. Which I’d absolutely love to go into in more detail, but will have to delay until a later date.
Wish us well, America. This could be a great day.
NotMax
Presuming today’s 50th anniversary of Title IX (which Hawaii’s Rep. Patsy Mink was instrumental in creating and ushering through passage) will be getting front page treatment on its own (hint, hint).
Ken
@Baud: I thought they could have left out “alternate”, and just gone with “fake slates of electors”. But yes, it was nice to see.
germy shoemangler
I agree. What he says is: “Trump is a crook.” What he does is vote for Trump.
Kristine
@Betsy: Oh wow–so glad you’re all recovering.
OzarkHillbilly
@Geminid: What he did is important, so is what he promises to do in the future if faced with a choice of trump or a DEM again.
Immanentize
The intertubes are weird -+ I just got a notification:
I like thinking of Marcel and DW In a book club together complaint about slow sales and cut rate book pricing.
WaterGirl
@Baud: Let’s forgo the awful so-called “debates” and just have all the presidential candidates interact with children and babies and see how the children and babies respond to the candidates.
In fact, let’s do that for the senate and house, too. When your children recoil when you touch them, I’d say that’s a bad sign.
PAM Dirac
@Sure Lurkalot:
I think we need to make the distinction between a heroic act and a hero. I think it is hard to argue that Pence, Bowers, et. al. didn’t act heroically; they were and still are subjected to intense harassment, death threats, and at least in Pence’s case, fairly close to actually being murdered. But their actual actions were about the minimum you would expect for someone following the law and their oath of office and only became heroic due the the monumental corruption of Drumpf and followers. It’s a measure of how awful the situation is that people doing the bare minimum are acting heroically, but if every official acted that way, we would still be in much, much better shape than we are now.
SiubhanDuinne
@Betsy:
Yikes! Wow! I’m so glad you all survived and are healing, but what a terrible thing to go through. Please keep us posted on everyone’s recovery, and best wishes to all of you.
Gin & Tonic
@zhena gogolia: !! Yes. I read that on the flight down to CDMX, and it was great (but everything he writes is great.)
Immanentize
@germy shoemangler: I think all these “I’ll vote for Trump again” jackasses are just polishing their turds. They are hoping, maybe even praying to Constitutional Jesus, that they will never have to actually do what they have said they would. They are four year olds or Scarlett O’Hara.
Geminid
@Tony Jay: Have the local party committees chosen good candidates? I sometimes think British parties might be better off with primaries like we have here, but that method seems to be ruled out.
sab
@Betsy: YIKES!
Dorothy A. Winsor
@OzarkHillbilly: And not just any DEM. We won’t be running AOC. I’m doubtful we’ll even run Harris. He specifically said Joe Biden. Joe Biden!
Of course, this is a guy who says it’s a tenet of his faith that the Constitution is divinely inspired.
NotMax
‘@Betsy
Wishing you and yours full rest and recovery. Raisng a toast to airbags.
Betty Cracker
@Tony Jay: Fingers crossed!
BTW, this should be in a tourism brochure:
It made me want to visit.
germy shoemangler
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Another tenet of his faith is joseph Smith finding some golden plates.
David ☘The Establishment☘ Koch
@Dorothy A. Winsor: say what you will about the tenets of Maoism, at least it’s an ethos
Betty Cracker
@WaterGirl: I would subject candidates to a panel of dogs too. They would have weeded out Trump.
Geminid
@germy shoemangler: What Bowers did was refuse to knuckle under to Trump’s pressure to throw the Arizona election to him.
The issue of whether Bowers is a good or bad person is very important to some but it matters little to me. I make moral judgements too, but I just don’t center them in my thinking.
O. Felix Culpa
@Betsy:
Oh my goodness, so glad that you and your parents survived and are recovering. Sending healing wishes your way.
Soprano2
@Geminid: I’m glad the closure of the boyfriend loophole is in there, because none of the coverage I saw mentioned it so I thought they took it out. That will save lives.
narya
Yeah, all these people were DOING THEIR JOBS. I mean, good for them for not breaking the law and actually doing their jobs, but if their moral compass still enables them to vote for both TFG AND the party that continues to foment insurrection and tell lies and attempt to destroy democracy, well . . . that doesn’t make them heroes.
Elizabelle
WRT these “heroic” Republican election officials: It is a private ballot. They can say all they want. Who knows what they would/will do in the voting booth?
It says something that they are still afraid of Trump’s voters, or feel they need to say “yeah, we still support this guy who may be a criminal; lots of evidence, and I provided some my very self.”
Their identity as Republicans, or their need to try to keep their jobs, supersedes a truly heroic action by these men.
They’ve made themselves rather small, on that account.
O. Felix Culpa
@Geminid:
Agreed. I am not a fan of Bowers’ politics, but he and his family were threatened and harassed by Trump and his minions, while his adult daughter was dying at home (she passed away January 28th, 2021 at age 42). It is no small thing that he held firm when so few did, and we are all beneficiaries of his moral choice.
Elizabelle
@Betsy: Wishing you and your parents a complete recovery. How frightening. 65 mph. Wow.
Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg
It’s cluttered COVID brain still, so I wanna talk about the bus that is driving over Arredondo.
Poor slob never should have been in command of the incident or deemed to be in command of the incident. As the head “resource officer”, his job was literally focused on being a glorified principal, in charge of cops that greet students and interact with them on the sort of petty policing issues that students find themselves caught up in. His officers are going to tend to be simple souls vastly predisposed to working with generally law abiding, compliant (or easily made to comply with light physical force) people.
Life or death decisionmaking isn’t part of his skill set.
I pin the blame on the city and state responders that said “Whattaya wanna do Pete, it’s your call? (or something to that effect). I’m guessing that someone from a more appropriate training environment wasn’t presenting options or froze, which is why there’s a stonewall from Abbott.
bjacques
Obligatory snek.
Since this is an open thread, and I missed the one about Jerry Hall divorcing Murdoch before Dominion takes a chunk out of him, I think I mentioned awhile ago that I saw her on BBC’s “Celebrity Antiques Roadtrip”, driving a “classic” early 1970s Buick and picking small antiques to flog for charity. Her prize pick was a Huntley & Palmer tin cookie box shaped like a shelf of books. It sold for crumbs. I have to confess that her blowsy Texas society matron bray made me a little homesick and nostalgic for the days and scandals of Lynn Sakowitz Wyatt, Dr. John and Joan Robinson Hill, Candace Mossler, T. Cullen Davis, and Baron “Ricky” di Portanova.
Geminid
@Soprano2: There was a compromise regarding that loophole. An offender can have his ability to buy firearms restored after five years if he has not committed a similar offence.
Watching the Twitter debate about this provision, I was struck by the number of people whose friends or family members had been killed by boyfriends with assault convictions that would have made them ineligible to buy firearms under the new law.
O. Felix Culpa
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg:
Erm, didn’t that crew just go through a school shooter training just a few months prior?
ETA: Glad that you’re on the road to recovery.
NotMax
‘@Geminid
Serves to highlight the distinction between bravery and heroism.
zhena gogolia
@Geminid: I’m with you. Same on the gun bill too
Soprano2
@Betsy: I’m glad you’re recovering. Sorry you had to go through that.
Brachiator
@OzarkHillbilly:
I am impressed that the snake had eaten an adult white tailed deer.
The size of the snake is impressive, but the 122 developing eggs may give an idea of the scope of the animal control problem.
Kay
For those who aren’t happy with the gun provisions in the senate gun bill, I looked over the bill and I think the mental health piece should be considered 11 billion dollars allocated to new mental health services and clinics – that piece is essentially a mental health care bill.
It’s really a pretty good deal. Democrats took Republican’s insistence that this is a mental health issue and said “okay- let’s fund mental health services!”
Something Democrats wanted to do anyway.
while it might not reduce school shootings there is a connection between gun violence/crime and access to mental health services.
Baud
@Kay:
zhena gogolia
@Elizabelle: I respect Jennifer Rubin and Tom nichols and even Schmidt and the other guy much more but I still am glad they held the line
NotMax
‘@Brachiator
Cut her a break, she’s eating for 123 now.
:)
Brachiator
@Betsy:
Good to hear that you are doing better.
My best to you and your family.
OzarkHillbilly
That was the scary part for me.
Tony Jay
@Geminid:
It’s the Lib-Dems who everyone are expecting to challenge the Tories in Tiverton and Honiton, and they’ve selected a former soldier with a gentle smile to avoid spooking the local Tories. He’s being very circumspect about Brexit and really hammering on the utter incompetence and mendacity of Johnson’s Party, so I think the bookies have got it about right and he’ll win a LOT of angry Tory protest votes.
Sadly (but unsurprisingly) Labour Central ran roughshod over the local Labour group in Wakefield to deny their favoured candidate (a dirty Left winger, yucky poo!) a place on the shortlist and impose a more obedient ‘moderate-centrist’. They’re doing it all over the country whenever they get the chance, which is darkly hilarious to anyone who remembers the years of pearl-clutching outrage splashed across the Press when the current leadership’s cheerleaders regularly (and falsely) accused the previous leadership of trying to impose ‘ideological orthodoxy’ through ‘Stalinist methods’.
Sorry. Sore subject.
Will Mr Lightwood win the seat back? Well, a few weeks ago it was considered a certainty, but since then things have tightened up and there’s a genuine burnt rubber stench of “Have we fucked this up?” emanating from Starmer’s circle of focus-group fanatics. Maybe it would have helped to have a united and dedicated activist base working their arses off for a candidate they believed in, but apparently that’s just ‘Protest Politics’ and not something the current leadership see any value in.
We’ll find out later tonight, either way.
O. Felix Culpa
@OzarkHillbilly:
Same
@NotMax:
LOL.
Geminid
@NotMax: I read that there are long stretches of Everglades roads where night drivers see ‘nary a raccoon, much less a possum. I bet those pythons are hard on armadillos too.
lowtechcyclist
@Betsy: Holy cow, I’m glad you and your folks are all still with us! I hope you all manage to fully recover.
Tony Jay
@Betty Cracker:
” … and then they sever the outsider’s head and thread his or her entrails through their shoe-buckles before retiring to the local inn while singing the ancient folk lament “Wherfore art Thou, My piggie, My lord?” to the solemn beat of a rabbit-skin drum.”
Book you an AirBnB?
O. Felix Culpa
Sigh. My coffee cup has nary a drop left, and I have chores to do and errands to run so I can get back in time for today’s hearings, 3pm ET, 1pm MT.
Happy day, fellow kids and jackals!
Elizabelle
@Brachiator:
The happiest word in that article about the 215 pound python was “necropsy.”
White Tail Deer Lives Matter! One of these days they are going to find shoes or a belt in a python, not merely hooves.
I wonder if research could ever come up with a burmese python contraceptive? They’re an ecological disaster.
Team Dion.
Irishweaver
Indeed he did; good for him.
Elizabelle
@O. Felix Culpa: See you at the hearings, OFC. Calendar marked.
Geminid
@Tony Jay: Labour Central’s treatment of the Wakefield committee reminds me of how the ayatollahs in Iran regulate which candidates can be on the ballot. I guess the party of Keir Hardy has become the party of Keir Hardly.
Betty Cracker
@Elizabelle: I’ve read about research for that purpose, which I believe should be fully funded!
Sure Lurkalot
@Geminid: Here’s another perspective on Bowers et. al. support of a Trump 2024 run:
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/06/rusty-bowers-and-republican-trump-2024-conundrum/661352/?utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share
WaterGirl
@Betsy: oh my god, so scary and stressful. i am glad you are okay! and by okay I mean alive and recovering. really scary to have your folks in the ICU for that long.
Tony Jay
@Betsy:
Bloody hell and yikes! Glad you’re still with us.
Elizabelle
@zhena gogolia: Yeah but:
Shorter Bowers, Raffensberger, Sterling:
Hard pass. They get props for doing their jobs. They haven’t shown enough moral courage yet to renounce Trump and GOP extremism, although it is a process, and they very well may get there. FWIW, TFG may be ineligible to run in 2024 for a variety of reasons. They may be counting on it.
Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg
@O. Felix Culpa:
Training has to be frequent enough to overcome predisposition. If what you’re used to doing is high fiving seventh graders at the door and escorting the kids making out under the bleachers to the principal’s office, a single round of hypothetical training isn’t going to turn you into John McClain.
Brachiator
@Tony Jay:
Great description.
I think I read somewhere that the Tories have not strongly supported one of the candidates running for office, or standing for election, or whichever action pose is assumed.
I hope that the Conservatives lose and lose bigly.
Mimi
@Soprano2: Boyfriend is defined as either currently cohabiting and/or having had children together. It’s a start, I guess.
WaterGirl
@Betty Cracker: How could I have forgotten the dogs???
Kay
There’s this distinction between “mental health/mental illness” and “trauma induced behavior” that they use with juveniles who are violent – handgun use, crimes, ect- all violent people are not “mentally ill”.
Anyway that’s addressed in the bill with some of the funding going to “mental health services” and some of the funding going to “trauma induced violent behavior” and because I know commentors here have (rightly) objected to all violent/criminal shooters being lumped into “mental illness” I just thought I’d make people aware that there is a distinction and it’s recognized.
lowtechcyclist
@Geminid:
This. Yeah, I think he’s totally fucking nuts to say he’d prefer to let Trump destroy the Republic as long as he was duly elected first, rather than have that wild radical Biden as President.
But at least he insisted, when the game was on the line so to speak, that Trump had to be properly elected first, and that he hadn’t been.
It’s weird (and almost nonsensical in this instance) where some people will draw the line. But at least he and Raffensperger and others had a line that they wouldn’t cross. Like Aaron Burr*, Trump and his hard-core followers have none.
*Or at least the fictionalized version of Burr in Hamilton
Tony Jay
@Geminid:
If I have time I’m going to have to rattle off a rant about how clear it’s becoming that Starmer is not long for his role. He’s pissed off the bulk of the Party membership by lying to them to get elected, failed to challenge Johnson’s Government outside of the occasional solid dig during PMQs and devoted the bulk of his term to ostentatiously attacking the Left of the Party in pursuit of plaudits from the Tory Press.
Even Shadow Cabinet discipline is collapsing – if I had to make a guess I’d suspect that a lot of them either think he’s going to get stitched up by the Durham Police over that ‘Beergate’ nonsense or they think Johnson is going to go for a snap Election and Starmer’s Labour will get caught between centre-Right voters plumping for the Lib-Dems and people on the ostracised Left going Green or just not voting for a Party that wants them expelled anyway.
It’s sad, but it is what it is.
zhena gogolia
@O. Felix Culpa: 3pm? Great! I should be home from the hospital by then if all goes well
Geminid
@Sure Lurkalot: A lot of people’s opinions are influenced by op-eds. Mine generally are not, although Mangy Jay’s have been be an exception.
Brachiator
@Elizabelle:
That will have been one very well-dressed deer. ;)
Apparently there have not been any human deaths related to pythons in Florida. Maybe the gators get them first.
But the danger to other wildlife and the general animal control problem is significant.
germy shoemangler
Jeffro
@germy shoemangler:
@Geminid:
@OzarkHillbilly:
I wonder if anyone in ol’ Rusty’s orbit, or the media, or wherever, will bother to point out that if it’s Biden vs trumpov in 2024, Rusty does have the option to just not vote on the presidential part of his ballot, or to write someone else in.
I mean, if voting for a Democrat is so horrible, compared to the guy who tried to overthrow our country’s government, he ought to consider it. He does have that option. Far too many Rs let themselves off the hook this way and they need to expand their set of options (in addition to raising their standards, obvs.)
Tony Jay
@Brachiator:
The Tory candidate in Wakefield, Nadeem Ahmed, had said that he bitterly regretted his pro-Brexit vote in 2016 and felt he’d been lied to. Bloody hilarious seeing him try to row that one back to stay good with the Flobby Party line that everything about Brexit is just wonderful.
The Somerset seat should swing Lib-Dem, it remains to be seen if Starmer’s lot have cost Labour an easy pick-up in Wakefield.
Dorothy A. Winsor
It was my turn to read at my writer group last night. I need to get their comments integrated into my draft and then do some shopping before today’s hearing starts. I believe this is the one about TFG’s attempt to decapitate the Justice Dept
Helen
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg: I agree with you. I think the Public Safety hearings are looking for a scapegoat. They need to find a reason why this disaster happened in this small town, but would never happen in YOUR small town. I really think most small town cops, not to mention school cops, would be totally overwhelmed by the situation regardless of any workshop.
rikyrah
@Jeffro:
Yes…CONSPIRACY
Anyway
One of the sweetest things about Obama and now Biden is how well they interact with babies. Everywhere they go moms thrust their infants at them and they happily accept.
Uncle Cosmo
@Tarragon:
Winston Super Kings (0:26 FTW)… :^D
Elizabelle
@Helen: It’s hard to stop an assault rifle. With a shooter who’s already got the element of surprise working for him.
I wish the cops would be honest. They are not. In a better time, they were against assault weapons for sale to non-military/law enforcement.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I wonder what the overlap is between people who say this and people who say they’ll stay home in November because Biden hasn’t kept Elizabeth Warren’s campaign promises.
topclimber
@James E Powell: If there was much of a track record where GOP intransigence on guns was a factor in even a handful of Congressional elections, your point might be valid.
On the other hand, closing the boyfriend loophole could save lives and lessen anxiety among women–you know, those folks who actually make the difference in putting Dems over the top. Besides being the right thing to do.
ETA because WTF with autocorrect?
Ken
Careful. He may have left out what happens after the dancers finish wrapping up the tourist as a maypole, and they drag out the wickerwork….
(Sigh. Tony got there first.)
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: Yikes!
raven
Scotus coming up.
Betty
@Baud: Murphy was giving Sinema credit for getting it through so she wit be a spoiler this time.
Geminid
@Jeffro: I’m not sure why Bowers said what he said about voting for trump in 2024. He may have wanted to establish his credibility among Republicans as to his testimony, or as to his own political future, or both. Bowers must have known that these remarks would elicit a collective “Ewww!” from Democrats, but that could have been a motivator too!
raven
@Betty Cracker: How Bout Them Dawgs!!!!
Uncle Cosmo
@Betsy: This sort of incident is precisely why, when bidding farewell to friends & family who are leaving, I exhort them to drive, not “safely,” but lucky. When the 18-wheeler just ahead of you jackknifes suddenly – or the oncoming vehicle comes flying across the median into your lane – there’s not a lot “safe driving” can do to mitigate the consequences.
Geminid
@topclimber: Not sure about Congressional elections, but Democrats in Virginia made gun safety a good issue for them in the 2017 and 2019 state elections. Republicans were on the wrong side of public opinion on this issue and they paid a price for that, especially in suburban districts.
Next year, Democrats may well use the gun safety issue to good effect in Virginia’s legislative elections. Pressure from the gun rights side will make Republicans try to roll back the gun safety laws enacted in 2020, and most voters will want these laws protected.
NotMax
Notation ought be made of the devastating earthquake in Afghanistan.
Betty
@narya: This seems to be that take of those working hardest on the issue. Mitch has given it his blessing so that should seal the deal. Cruz is of course opposed because Cruz …
O. Felix Culpa
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg:
I agree that the situation was deadly scary, but if the police knew the kids and their teachers so up close and personal, they should have been motivated to, you know, do something to save them. I’ve seen civilians put themselves in danger in the heat of the moment to rescue strangers. The kids were begging for help for over an hour while these chickenshits stood around. Not letting these trained, armed, shielded (video shows they had at least one), and paid professionals off the hook.
Ken
Now you’ve got me wondering if the plan is:
Though that only works if Murdoch is a defendant – is he? I’m pretty sure Dominion is going after the corporation.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
This is from yesterday. Looks like they’re a tad bit nervous about the news that the National Archives is sending documents to the 1/6 committee (the clip seems to be from MyPillowTV, or whatever they call it)
“I’ve never told anyone this– cause it just happened”
as several people are pointing out, this guy was in one of the highest ranking positions at the Pentagon, one of those Barry McCaffrey used to refer to as “the squirrelly lads” with a wonderful blend of contempt and bewilderment
stinger
@Betsy: How dreadful. I’m glad you’ve recovered enough to check in here. Best wishes for your parents’ continued recovery.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I don’t always do so well at interpreting R speak. So, Patel isn’t talking about what’s going to the J6 committee. He’s saying there are suppressed docs that implicate the Ds in “Russiagate,” whatever that is.
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
I welcome his specific intent to disclose classified material.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I think it’s the Squirrelly Lad yelling “Squirrel” cause somebody at Mar-A-Loco got scared
“As Donald Trump’s Duly Appointed Official Representative to the National Archives, I do hereby and forthwith declare….”
NotMax
‘@Ken
Informative snippet downstairs.
Geminid
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I remember reading a week before the hearings began that Republicans had gone to Bedminster Country Club and huddled up with the proprietor, designing a master plan to counter the January 6 Commitee. Patel’s visit to the National Archives may be part of this plan, which is so subtle I can hardly tell if it exists.
JPL
@Betsy: That is terrifying, and I hope your parents continue on the road to recovery.
Spanky
WaPo headline:
“Consternation”? Really, WaPo? “RAGE” too hard to spell?
I seriously wonder how hard the editors are riding the headline writers to keep the thumb on the scale.
Baud
@Spanky: Usually, newspapers prefer shorter words.
JPL
Bruen 6-3 opinion by Thomas
fk
Spanky
@Baud: Here’s another one, under the first one:
Baud
@Spanky:
Sounds like he should have pushed the GOP to support the Dems original 1/6 Commission plan. Oops.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@JPL: That’s the one about concealed carry in NY? Cripes. Looser gun laws. Just what we need
trollhattan
Speaking of Title IX, the kiddo is part of a panel of athletes proposing a new bill for women’s athletics. She’s on right now–Senator Chris Murphy’s Facebook feed. ETA “Fair Play for Women Act.”
Baud
@trollhattan:
teakay
@Tony Jay: “endless fields of wildflowers bathe bee-clad and shimmering in the morning-duvet warmth of honey-gold sunlight”
It may be a cliche and missing the point, but I find the image lovely. I read it several times.
JPL
@Dorothy A. Winsor: It’s scary and there is a chance that next time they strike down all regulations. This was concealed weapons. CNN said the law was enacted a century ago. geez
Baud
@JPL:
One of those hippy laws.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@JPL: This from people who freak out over demonstrators and erect a big fence around the building they work in
lowtechcyclist
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg:
Wait, why do we have or need police in schools at all, then, unless to be prepared for an eventuality like this?
Fifty years ago when I graduated from high school, one of the assistant principals was in charge of disciplinary issues, and more often than not was someone that few students would have wanted to get in a fight with. Someone like that would seem to be sufficient for the responsibilities you describe, and to call the police if there was trouble beyond his capabilities.
I must admit I wasn’t paying much attention to the gradual inclusion of police in the schools, but I’d been under the impression that one of the big motivators was in case of an active shooter.
Tony Jay
@teakay:
Thanks, I’m rather fond of that one myself. 8>)
frosty
@Betsy: OMG I’m glad you all survived and best wishes as you recover. A car crossing the median is one of my travel nightmares.
teakay
@Tony Jay: It reminded me of Yeats’ “bee loud glade”. I should also add that I greatly enjoy your posts, for both content and style.
Amir Khalid
@Spanky:
Yeah, “consternation” is not the right word at all. Trump isn’t consterned , he’s downright angry.
Tony Jay
@teakay:
High praise
Many thanks. I’m sure that the results of today’s by-elections are going to drag a rant out of me, regardless of the outcome.
Whether I wax poetic about them… that’s to be seen.
Gin & Tonic
Russia’s war is about NATO expansion; no, it’s about “denazification”; no, it’s
Layer8Problem
@Tony Jay: “‘One for Sorrow, Two for Joy’'”
Mm, puts me in mind of the last season of Detectorists.
Gin & Tonic
Damn, too many links in my comment. Anybody at the controls?
Sure Lurkalot
@Geminid: When you hold yourself forth as a pillar of morality and at the same time voice support for an immoral, depraved liar who helped darken your daughter’s last days…it’s not op-eds that inform my views.
Maybe it’s genius to put mostly Republicans front and center in these hearings but it also serves to show them as actors in good faith which most of them are not. They are front and center in denying people fair access to the vote. They have no issue with minority rule, with overturning citizen backed initiatives by legislative fiat, with egregious gerrymanders. If the prevailing wisdom is that they saved our democracy one day, they appear willing to destroy it the next.
teakay
@Tony Jay: You can always go low with a limerick.
UncleEbeneezer
@Baud: Fortunately Dems also get blamed for passing something! There is nothing more reliable in politics than the people claiming that Dems caved, could’ve gotten more etc., going right back to that well no matter what gets passed.
I mean, did Democrats even try to get Republicans/Manchin-ema to repeal the Second Amendment…scoff…
MisterDancer
@Gin & Tonic: Got ya, no worries.
Betsy
Thank you everyone for the kind wishes. Yes, it seems like I have PTSD from it.
Our Subaru Outback seems to have been a safety star.
I want to, but cannot, reply to everyone — thank you. Will try to post an update when relevant :)
Betsy
@germy shoemangler: It was an interstate highway.
catclub
@zhena gogolia: My grandmother found a python wrapped around her water heater in florida. Probably 60 years ago now.
O. Felix Culpa
@catclub:
Eek!
Steeplejack
I’ve been following the GoFundMe drives for Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, the two Georgia poll workers who testified at the January 6 committee hearing on Tuesday. Both drives were started last December but went almost nowhere until Tuesday. I think Ruby Freeman was around $60,000 late Tuesday, and now she’s up to $254,951. Shaye Moss is at $210,921.
These women are heroes, and they deserve every penny they get after all of the pain and suffering they went through—and still are. They are an inspiration to us all. I donated to both drives, and I urge all jackals to consider doing the same, if they can afford it.
Elizabelle
@Betsy: If I may ask, how did the other driver do? Any passengers in that car?
And yay Subaru. You are no doubt alive because of seatbelts and safer cars.
Geminid
@Sure Lurkalot: That’s good to know. But you’re the one who put up the op-ed in response to my views.
Ken
The plan was “lie”, same as it ever was.
Geminid
@Ken: They were lying to themselves if they thought they were going to get a good plan out of trump. He has a certain amount of low cunning, but he’s an idiot when it comes to strategic planning.
The Thin Black Duke
@Geminid: I remember the photograph of those Uvalde cops in body armor and posing with their guns. Fuck ’em.
Liminal Owl
@Betsy: I’m so sorry that you and your family had such a horrible experience. Glad you all survived, and best wishes for continued healing.
if you’re experiencing flashbacks or similar—which would not be surprising—I recommend finding a good EMDR therapist.
Betsy
@Elizabelle: The article I saw said the two occupants of the other vehicle died. I have a hard time processing or putting into words