Republicans in the Senate, the same motherfuckers who straight up stole a Supreme Court seat so they could deprive a hundred million people of their rights, are furious that Democrats are doing something about the environment and national debt and simultaneously boosting American businesses, and feeling that they got played, have decided the best course of action is to kick veterans and gay people:
Sen. Susan Collins, one of a handful of GOP senators working to garner support in her party for a bill to codify gay marriage, said the Democrats’ surprise embrace of a tax and climate change bill made her job much harder.
“I just think the timing could not have been worse and it came totally out of the blue,” the Maine senator told HuffPost Thursday about Senate Democrats’ unveiling of their bill to raise taxes on some companies, boost IRS enforcement and spend the resulting money to fund anti-climate change efforts.
The news that West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) had arrived at an agreement broke like a thunderclap over official Washington early Wednesday night. The bill still faces hurdles, including ensuring all Senate Democrats are on board and will be available to vote on it when it comes to the floor. But if Democrats pull it off, it could be a big political victory for the party and the White House.
Fuck these people.
Baud
To be fair, they’ve always hated gay people.
Baud
There was some discussion about the timing here, but I think they needed to move forward to make sure the ACA subsidies make it into system for planning purposes.
Albatrossity
The Party of Personal Responsibility seems to be the Party of whiny-ass toddlers.
Sorta like their orange cult leader
matt
If they want to know what the Democrats are planning they’re welcome to join the party and try to get elected as a member.
Mike in NC
Pretty sure Maine resident Stephen King based the female villain in “Misery” on Susan Collins.
craigie
Republicans want opposition the way the Harlem Globetrotters had opposition – as entertainment.
Omnes Omnibus
The phones at all of Ron Johnson’s offices went straight to voicemail today. That’s not unusual, but I did want a staffer to explain his postion on the PACT Act to me.
WV Blondie
There’s some iota of irony in the visual that if they pitch their collective fit and hold their breaths, they’ll turn blue …
Jeffro
“The timing could not have been worse and it came totally out of the blue”
oh
oh, you mean…like the ACB nomination/confirmation sprint, just before the Nov 2020 election, Susan Collins? Like that?
Kropacetic
Responsibility is something for plutocrats to pass onto the poor, not something to be expected of Republican officeholders.
SpaceUnit
Technically there’s nothing in the constitution about climate change so I’m sure the Roberts Court will want to weigh in on this legislation.
craigie
@SpaceUnit:
There’s nothing in the Constitution about Roberts, so I guess he should resign.
Starfish
Gary K
I initially read that as “piss.”
lollipopguild
@craigie: There’s nothing in the constitution about steam engines, airplanes. TV and radio and the internet, i guess all of the above are illegal and need to be abolished.
different-church-lady
Are you fuckin’ telling me Susan Collins expressed surprise at something that actually was a surprise?
Michael Cain
@Baud: The whole lot of them are packing up and going home for August, whether the people’s business has been dealt with or not. The reconciliation window closes 9/30. Manchin has waited until the point where it passes now, or not at all.
Ivan X
Can we start calling her Sleepy Susan? I have no specific desire to demean her for her age if she can still do her job, but I don’t like her, and I don’t like Republicans, and it’s more alliterative. Also, after her votes about Trump and Kavanaugh, I don’t really think she can still do her job.
Normally I resist cheap name calling, but I’m feeling petulant myself.
FlyingToaster
I think that it’s a lock now that anyone whose rights are likely to be infringed upon — and isn’t wealthy enough to hop a private place outta their hellhole when they need to exercise rights — is going to show up at the polls this fall. Certainly the summer elections thus far (Charlotte, NC, anyone?) are not going quite as well as expected in column [R].
My biggest hope is that the uni kids see the light and show up too. Everyone’s allowed to be pissed at Democrats for being less than perfect (and the occasional screaming fit at Obama then and Schumer then & now is my personal problem), but one really has to be practical and FUCKING VOTE AGAINST ONE’S ENEMIES.
Baud
@Michael Cain:
I thought I read where they were going to vote next week on the reconciliation bill.
schrodingers_cat
On topic: Rs suck and have for a long time.
Off Topic: Is it just me ,or has Steven Colbert become unwatchable with his Biden is old jokes?
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: Reconciliation sounds like what happens after a few couples therapy sessions. Who comes up with this jargon for parliamentary procedures, filibuster, reconciliation, whip etc.
Bobby Thomson
@Ivan X: Sleazy Susan is more descriptive. So damn corrupt.
Omnes Omnibus
@schrodingers_cat: Usually the English.
Dangerman
Republicans were pleased as punch when Mancin was screwing the Democrats…
…now Mancin screwed them and they toss a pisser of a pity party.
Pricks.
Ivan X
@Bobby Thomson: excellent. I’m in. Who is going to send out the talking points?
David 🌈☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
England sites are abuzz reporting Prince William has been carrying on various affairs and has a taste for… (checks notes)… pegging.
The writers for “The Crown” must have a pocket full of four leaf clovers.
RaflW
It’d be really, really delish to get a few veterans to go write in chalk on Ms. Collins’ sidewalk and see how it goes when the cops show up again.
Really make it crystal clear how much the GOP now hates our military folks and especially those who are veterans. But they’ve played games with VA funding for years.
It’s another in a long line of indictments of journalism that the GOP has somehow hung onto the “we support our troops” brand when they won’t spend money to actually care for their health.
Such sh*tbags.
Tom Q
@schrodingers_cat: I’m feeling the same about Colbert’s “Biden is a million years old” shtik. It’s odd, because Colbert has long been upfront that he loves Biden, he was his favorite long before 2020. Maybe he sees it as “I’ve got to mock something about the guy, and this is the most harmless”. But it’s annoying me quite a bit.
Ella in New Mexico
Susan Collins being completely irrelavant anymore is the acutal silver lining here, folks.
She deserves a million more “who gives a fuck you want to pretend you’re an aisle crosser, Susan your time has passed” face slaps.
Dangerman
@David 🌈☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch: He’s been playing cribbage on the side?
Citizen Alan
@Ella in New Mexico:
Not really very much we can do about it for the next 4 years, thanks to the feckless voters of Maine.
RaflW
@FlyingToaster: It’s a long time from now to November, but this tidbit from Fox’s own polling is a very nice pick-me-up for today:
In the U.S. Senate race, Democrat John Fetterman holds an 11-point lead over Republican Mehmet Oz, 47%-36%.
Old Man Shadow
I’d place the odds on Susan Collins and the GOP Fucking us over on gay marriage and veterans to be about 75% anyway and I’d say that has gone up to 90% now even if our leaders capitulated.
RaflW
@Bobby Thomson: Collins strung along pro-choice donors for years. Just a total con-job by a deeply dishonest woman.
zhena gogolia
@Jeffro: DURING the Nov 2020 election
Kent
Other than the ACA stuff, the timing is also that the August recess is upon us and Democrats need to go back to their districts and campaign on actually having accomplished something.
Another Scott
@Baud: Yup, the clock was ticking. E.g. RollCall:
(Emphasis added.)
Deadlines, and elections, focus the mind.
Collins’s bleating is (as we discussed downstairs) the go-to excuse of an abuser. She should be shunned.
Cheers,
Scott.
Ohio Mom
@Tom Q: Trevor Noah also makes “Biden is old” jokes too, and they are just as tiresome as Colbert’s.
I like to think I would laugh at a funny Biden joke but I’m not getting a chance to test my theory.
zhena gogolia
@schrodingers_cat: IT IS NOT JUST YOU. I get it, there’s nothing to make fun of Biden for other than that, and he has to satisfy his bosses that he’s not just making fun of Repubs, but it is so old and unfunny.
Kent
Pegging? Is that a gay thing? I’m not fluent in English boarding school homoerotic lingo.
zhena gogolia
@schrodingers_cat: “whip” appears in Trollope novels, so I think that comes from Parliament.
Villago Delenda Est
In the efgoldman sense.
zhena gogolia
@Ohio Mom: When Colbert puts on the aviators and uses “Jack” a lot, I find it funny.
different-church-lady
@Kent: Doesn’t have to be, exactly.
Kent
She is 69 which is 10 years younger than Biden and probably puts her just above the median age for Senators. She just seems really senile, but it probably isn’t age related. She has always seemed like that.
Basically she is just a Karen
Joseph Patrick Lurker
@Tom Q:
@schrodingers_cat:
Biden’s age is the elephant in the room and it would be a flagrant dereliction of duty by Colbert and other comedians to ignore this issue.
zhena gogolia
@Kent: It’s explained in a thread down below.
But to say that this story is dubiously sourced is being kind. It is somewhere well below the pee tape (or the whitey tape if you will) in credibility.
Omnes Omnibus
@zhena gogolia: Whip comes from whippers in. They are the people who control the hounds in a British fox hunt.
Skepticat
Am I the only one who won’t be totally surprised if Manchin votes against the bill when/if it comes to the floor?
zhena gogolia
@Joseph Patrick Lurker: Does a comedian’s duty include the duty to be funny?
sab
@schrodingers_cat: My 71 year old husband has been commenting for a while that Colbert is too old to be making old people jokes.
Starfish
@Kent: There is a whole internet here for you to search for porn. That was like the entire second reason for the internet, after some nerds doing research.
zhena gogolia
@Omnes Omnibus: But it’s already being used in Parliament in Trollope novels.
Amir Khalid
Help me out here, guys. How are same-sex marriage and climate change connected as issues? Apparently Susan Collins can see that connection, but it completely escapes me.
zhena gogolia
@Starfish: I think “pegging” first appeared on Arpanet.
different-church-lady
@Starfish: The man has a search history to protect.
Starfish
@zhena gogolia: I did not know about it before Dan Savage columns.
sab
@David 🌈☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch: I didn’t really need to know any of that.
different-church-lady
@Amir Khalid: Susan Collins acts like she can see fairies and unicorns, so I wouldn’t question your own vision.
zhena gogolia
@Starfish: I was joking.
different-church-lady
@Starfish: I believe he actually coined the term as a successful response to a challenge.
Kent
@Starfish: But it would be irresponsible not to randomly speculate!
Joseph Patrick Lurker
@zhena gogolia:
Obviously, all art is subjective. From what I’ve seen of Colbert, the Biden age jokes have been pitch perfect.
Spanky
@zhena gogolia: No doubt for research purposes.
Dan B
@Kent: It’s a straight thing. Familiar with the term: strap on?
Ivan X
Look, I don’t think it’s especially funny to make fun of Biden’s oldness, especially by Democrats, but the jokes are not without basis. I think Biden’s been excellent, but when he speaks, he does register as being 104. He probably did before, too, between his stutter and his propensity to put his foot in his mouth, but now he’s got old man voice too. I don’t think any of this makes him not well qualified or diminished in his abilities, and I sure as shit don’t want us to lose elections because our celebrities are reinforcing idiotic news media narratives, but…the dude seems like an old dude. Competent, active, but old. I don’t know why we have to be upset about it or pretend it’s not so. Shit, my father in law is older and he seems younger.
As to why it’s socially acceptable to make fun of old people is a whole separate issue, but even old people do it.
Another Scott
@Amir Khalid: See, that’s where you went wrong. It’s not about “issues” and “good policy” and “what’s best for the future of the country”. It’s about senators being able to have successful fundraisers, and jovial back-slapping conversations on the floor of the fancy clubhouse, and slowing down whatever the House wants to do. And confirming judges that support those things. Anything that makes a Senator uncomfortable makes those other things, except slowing down the House, needlessly difficult.
Chuck and Joe made Susan uncomfortable. That’s bad in Susan’s opinion. She might have to take a vote that she doesn’t like and not be able to hide behind Moscow Mitch’s genius blocking tactics. The horror – it might affect her prospects for a big payday.
HTH!
:-/
Cheers,
Scott.
Kent
@Joseph Patrick Lurker: No one does a better Biden than the Onion. To whit…
Shirtless Biden Washes Trans Am In White House Driveway
Wyatt Salamanca
@Amir Khalid:
Susan Collins is just your run of the mill doofus.
Starfish
@zhena gogolia: Haven’t read the history of Arpanet but would be zero percent surprised if the DoD people filled it with porn as soon as possible. When did usenet come about, and how many alt.sex groups were there?
David 🌈☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
@Kent:
She always reminded me of Alice Ghostley (only evil)
Ivan X
@Kent: wow. I really thought she was way, way older. But hell, people of all ages can be Sleepy. I know I am.
Omnes Omnibus
@zhena gogolia: Yes, I know. But hunting on horseback with packs of hounds dates back at least as far as the Norman Conquest. Upper class Brits simply took the hunting term and applied it to the party officials who perform similar duties in Parliament.
hueyplong
The mere fact that Collins is being pissy about this would destroy her credibility if in fact she had any. Which she doesn’t. Few things matter less than what Susan Collins has to say now or in the future.
Another Scott
@Starfish:
Wikipedia knows all:
Presumably the parent hierarchy was created before then. I think alt.sex.swedish.chef.bork.bork.bork was later.
Cheers,
Scott.
schrodingers_cat
@zhena gogolia: Yep I have heard of whip and whipping votes in the context of both the British and Indian parliaments. I think filibuster must be American because AFAIK there is no equivalent to it in a parliamentary democracy.
Leto
@Kent: ok, boomer.
Joseph Patrick Lurker
@Ivan X:
I’m shocked that people are shocked that someone would make age jokes about Biden. He looks and sounds very old to me. If folks are annoyed now, just wait until he formally announces his candidacy for 2024.
Omnes Omnibus
@schrodingers_cat: Filibuster.
FlyingToaster
@Kent: The reason I have 30 search engine plugins to Firefox.
Urban Dictionary is your friend, when something sounds like a possible sexual act. For instance, “santorum”.
different-church-lady
@Ivan X:
Well yeah. Because otherwise I’d have nothing to do but sit there quietly.
zeecube
@different-church-lady: Maybe try searching under Simon Pegging?
J R in WV
@Amir Khalid:
Both are totally perverted to Republican Theocratic Fascists. Simple, right?
gwangung
@Another Scott: alt.sex.bondage…one of the useful Usenet groups, I’d say….
Steeplejack
@craigie:
Touché!
catclub
@RaflW:
wow. I Hope it holds up.
Jackie
Nitpick: The marriage bill needs to be defined as The Gay and Interracial Marriage bill. Both marriages are threatened, and both are part of the codification bill.
Another Scott
@gwangung: Indeed. Scouts need to be able to keep their knot-tying skills sharp!!
Cheers,
Scott.
Geminid
@Amir Khalid: Republicans are upset because they voted for the CHIPS+ bill yesterday under the assumption that there would be no Reconciliation bill. Most Republicans favor the Chips bill but McConnell was holding it hostage against a reconciliation bill that would raise taxes. Then Manchin and Schumer’s attempt to write a Reconciliation bill apparently reached an impasse about 12 days ago, a frustrating disappointment. So McConnell greenlighted the bill that socks a lot of money into the computer chip industry and the Senate passed it yesterday.
Then, Shazaam! A few hours later Schumer and Manchin announced that they had finally agreed on a Reconciliation bill that would advance clean energy initiatives, fund health care programs and among other items, raise taxes. This surprised everyone but Manchin and Schumer. Now it appears that Democrats will pass the bill through the process that requires only 50 votes plus VP Harris’s.
Senate Republicans feel ill used. Now they are going on strike more or less. They say they won’t supply votes for any measure, including the bill protecting all marriages. “What of suckers do you think we are?” they ask.
Meanwhile in the House, Speaker Pelosi brought the CHIPS+ bill up for a vote this afternoon. Minority Leader McCarthy sternly warned his members that they must vote Nay in solidarity with the suckered Senators. It’s a popular bill though, so 24 of them told McCarthy to blow out his ass and voted Yea.
Steeplejack
This just in: “Jan. 6 texts missing for Trump Homeland Security’s Wolf and Cuccinelli.”
Article has been de-paywalled (gifted) by yours truly.
Barbara
@Jackie: Gay marriages are threatened, and I’m all in favor of adding interracial marriages to the language of the bill, but honestly, I don’t think they are threatened.
Han
@Joseph Patrick Lurker: Bullshit. Elephant in the room means the thing everyone knows, but no one wants to talk about. There is no lack of people wanting to talk about Biden’s age.
Geminid
@Steeplejack: No surprise with Ken Cuccinelli. That guy’s a low down rat. Easily the worst Virginia Attorney General in my lifetime. I hope he gets prison time over this.
Steeplejack
@Geminid:
Amen. He has long been a sleazy GQP apparatchik. I hope he goes down hard.
opiejeanne
Senator Sanders voted No on the CHIPS bill, saying it favored business too much.
Jackie
@Barbara: Interracial marriages ARE part of the bill. It’s just not mentioned very often in conversation. The bill basically states ALL marriages are equal, but it’s been shortened to the Gay Marriage bill, but it actually specifically has interracial marriages in the title.
https://www.npr.org/2022/07/19/1112213293/house-vote-same-sex-marriage
Anotherlurker
@Kent: Suzy 2-Faced is 1 year younger than me? She does not carry it well. I guess being an asshole can take its toll.
David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
@opiejeanne:
The only business he likes is the NRA
WaterGirl
This post has petulant-children-3 in the URL. This makes me want to go back and find out who the previous petulant children were. But I’m to tired to look.
Speaking of not being able to search on the site…
We haven’t turned on the plugin that handles the searching and we haven’t indexed the site yet. We’ll get there, we’re just not there yet.
WaterGirl
Oh, and I stumbled across the site feedback email messages – I had gotten out of the habit of checking for those when we didn’t have the form!
Anyway, I played catchup on everything you guys had asked about using the form. So check your email if you submitted something.
Goodnight.
Another Scott
@WaterGirl: So that’s why searching for Cole buying his house didn’t go back that far! (55 pages of “This Fucking Old House” but it stops around 2017).
:-)
Thanks for all you do. You’re amazing.
Cheers,
Scott.
Sister Golden Bear
The Republican Christo-fascists want to literally starve queer and trans kids by denying them school lunches.
Republican AGs Sue USDA Because Food Assistance Programs Can’t Discriminate Against LGBTQ Recipients
Steeplejack
@Omnes Omnibus:
Came here to post that and checked first to see if anyone else already had. Hat tip to you.
Not directed at anyone here, of course—or maybe at everyone here, including me—but in the last day or so I saw a funny Twitter comment where someone said that they met a time traveler from the past and told them: “I have a device in my pocket that has access to all of the collected knowledge of humanity, and I use it to argue with people and look at pictures of cats.”
Steeplejack
@Jackie:
“The Marriage Equality Bill.”
Joey Maloney
Hot gay sex involves lots of friction; friction makes heat; heat causes global warming. Easy-peasy.
SFAW
@Jackie:
Semi-nitpick: Mini-Inquisitor Clarence Thomas only targeted Obergefell and Griswold, not Loving.