Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

If ‘weird’ was the finish line, they ran through the tape and kept running.

Motown is Joe-Town!

The republican caucus is covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.

Jack Smith: “Why did you start campaigning in the middle of my investigation?!”

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

We won’t go back.

We know you aren’t a Democrat but since you seem confused let me help you.

Second rate reporter says what?

Ron DeSantis, the grand wizard, oops, governor of FL.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

A norm that restrains only one side really isn’t a norm – it’s a trap.

Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.

‘Museums aren’t America’s attic for its racist shit.’

Democrats are back in array!

Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls 2 years from now.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

If marriage is the equivalent of selling yourself into slavery, women with self respect should reject the offer.

“The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.”

It’s not hopeless, and we’re not helpless.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / TGIFriday Morning Open Thread: Drafting

TGIFriday Morning Open Thread: Drafting

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(Watch, if only to see what happens when Guerra passes the police officer on the motorcycle leading the pack)

… The bill finances the federal government through Dec. 16 and buys lawmakers more time to agree on legislation setting spending levels for the 2023 fiscal year. It passed by a vote of 72-25 and now goes to the House for consideration. All of the no votes came from Republicans.

As has become routine, lawmakers waited until the final hours before the shutdown deadline to act. But passage of a bill to fund the government was hardly in doubt, particularly after Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin agreed to drop provisions designed to streamline the permitting process for energy projects and greenlight the approval of a pipeline in his home state of West Virginia. Those provisions had drawn opposition from both sides of the political aisle.

Still, the bill merely puts off for a few months the maneuvering that will be required after the midterm election to pass a massive government funding package, as negotiators will have to bridge their differences over spending on hot-button issues such as abortion, border security and climate change…

Full details at the link.

Reader Interactions

137Comments

  3. 3.

    Soprano2

    This person on Twitter spent a lot of time getting footage from various cameras as Ian went across Florida. If you’re interested, there’s a lot to see here.

  4. 4.

    narya

    That’s some serious core strength going on. Also–getting his feet back on the pedals may be the most impressive part.

    The late-night Lizzo thread had me laughing like a fool this morning.  What a joyless bunch of assholes, always looking for fresh grievances to patch the outrage holes in their coats of anger.

  6. 6.

    Soprano2

    Pres. Biden, asked to describe relationship with Gov. DeSantis: “It’s totally irrelevant, but I’ll answer it. Very fine. He complimented me. He thanked me for the immediate response we had. He told me how much he appreciated it, said he was extremely happy with what was going on”

    Man, this could be death to DeSantis’ political career! LOL

  7. 7.

    Soprano2

    @narya: Yeah, it’s crazy – “A black woman played a crystal flute that was a gift to James Madison just to diss conservatives” sounds nutty to pretty much everyone not in their bubble.

  8. 8.

    narya

    @Soprano2: When they could–just hear me out!–rejoice in the LOC having those instruments, that they want people to play, and that someone who knows how to play one of them got a chance to do so! If you want to add that the person who did the playing almost certainly had ancestors who were enslaved, and the original owner of the flute was a slaveholder, well, to me that’s even more joy and more evidence that we can grow and learn from our mistakes. But apparently the anger cloak and outrage pants are more fun?

  9. 9.

    Soprano2

    @narya: At this point I think they actively search for silly things to be outraged about; I think it makes them feel like members of a secret club or something.

  10. 10.

    Matt McIrvin

    God, we are fucking doomed.

    This means we need to hold the House majority or the Republicans will make us default on the debt and destroy the economy so they can get a Republican President in for 2024. They have no motivation to not make it happen, because the voters don’t understand cause and effect.

  11. 11.

    Soprano2

    @Matt McIrvin: I’m seeing people already saying that regardless of what happens in the midterms Democrats in Congress need to fix the debt ceiling problem. I wish they could do a filibuster carve out and just get rid of the fucking thing, it’s a useless exercise. They should just assume the money is budgeted when it’s voted on.

  12. 12.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Soprano2:

    At this point I think they actively search for silly things to be outraged about; I think it makes them feel like members of a secret club or something. 

    40+ years, because the assholes aren’t actually interested in governing for the people.

  13. 13.

    SFAW

    @Soprano2: ​
     

    Man, this could be death to DeSantis’ political career! LOL

    Don’t be ridiculous.
    What WOULD be death to his career would be either:
    A) Biden (truthfully) saying that DeathSantis asked him to make sure that poor and/or minority areas were well taken care of
    or
    B) DeathSantis himself being caught on a hot mike saying something like that

  14. 14.

    Baud

    @Soprano2: That just seems like a “blame the Dems and let the Republicans off the hook” argument.

    First, the Dems can’t do anything “regardless of what happens in the midterms.”  Dems can only act if they control everything.

    Second, while I agree with the solution, we’ve seen how hard the filibuster is to get rid of.  It’s unlikely we’ll have 50 votes for that, on top of voting rights and abortion.  But that shouldn’t be a reason the GOP escapes accountability for their actions

    ETA: On the first point, I now see how it could be taken to mean act during the lame duck period.  I would be ok with that. Still don’t think Manchin and Sinema would go for it though.

  15. 15.

    Ohio Mom

    I’m betting the bicycle race authorities are about to meet and discuss whether planking and possibly other alternative postures need to be written in or out of the rules.

    Guy deserves an Olympic medal for core strength.

  18. 18.

    SFAW

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    I think it’s funny (so to speak) that Biden is trashed (by RWMFs) because “he’s old,” and Fetterman is getting trashed by RWMFs because of his tats (something I think — although I might be worng — is associated mainly with the youngs). [Moral Authority Newt Fucking Gingrich (MANFuG?) is apparently suggesting that Fetterman’s tats are an homage either to heroin use or the Crips. I guess it’s a good thing Fetterman doesn’t have a tat saying “Still Married to My First Wife.”]

  19. 19.

    Lapassionara

    @Baud: doesn’t the GOP always escape accountability for their actions? Isn’t that the point of DougJ’s NYT pitchbot account?

  20. 20.

    SFAW

    @Ohio Mom: ​

    Guy deserves an Olympic medal for core strength.
    Oh, bullshit. I can do that, and I’m an old, fat, non-athletic old guy. [Yeah, I wrote old twice; what of it, whippersnapper?]
    Of course, when I do it, I’m on the floor, but what’s the diff between that and a bicycle “seat”?]

    ETA: But, yeah, I had the same thought re: the Rules Committees doing that.

  22. 22.

    Baud

    @Lapassionara: No, they don’t always escape accountability.  That’s why the Dems won in 2006, 2008, 2018, and 2020. And maybe the GOP would be even more accountable if we stopped telling the world how unaccountable the GOP is. It’s worth a shot.

  23. 23.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Soprano2: I at least hope that Biden calls this bullshit out for what it is. Obama’s great mistake when the Republicans played debt ceiling chicken was to treat it as some kind of bipartisan opportunity to balance the budget, which was playing on their turf. And we got, effectively, an austerity program which was exactly the wrong thing to do in the recovery from a recession–the best you can say is that it wasn’t as bad as what was going on in Europe. But it was all based on bullshit, which is a bad place to even start.

  24. 24.

    Baud

    @Matt McIrvin:

    You realize that Obama stared down the GOP several times on the debt ceiling after that, right? Why do we forget that in order to cling to our doubts?

    Now, the GOP is more radical now, so maybe the stare down doesn’t work, but I don’t think Biden will start caving into GOP demands on the debt ceiling.  He’s used to dealing with Putin, and understands what happens when you allow people to use nuclear options as threats.

  25. 25.

    Betty Cracker

    Rare kudos to the NYT for this headline:

    DeSantis, Once a ‘No’ on Storm Aid, Petitions a President He’s Bashed

    The Florida governor, who as a congressman opposed aid to victims of Hurricane Sandy, is seeking relief from the Biden administration as Hurricane Ian ravages his own state.

    Also, maybe I’m just paranoid from living in an authoritarian dystopia, but it seems to me that Biden’s remarks on his relationship with DeSantis (irrelevant, but he thanked me) show a canny understanding of the type of dominance politics Trumpy pols like DeSantis practice. Biden basically described a beta dog rolling over for the alpha. Ha!

  26. 26.

    SiubhanDuinne

    (Watch, if only to see what happens when Guerra passes the police officer on the motorcycle leading the pack)

    I’m not really sure what I was expecting, but that wasn’t it.

  27. 27.

    SFAW

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: ​
     
    Mrs. SFAW — a nurse for many years — once commented to me (re: tats) something on the order of “They’re (probably) not going to be young the entire rest of their lives, and tattoos on 80-year-olds don’t look that good.” And that was when the only tats 80-year-olds had were from military service or biker gangs.

    Doesn’t address the over-40 thing. Re: that, I think it’s a combination of the “look at MEEEE!” (imputed) sentiment and the non-prevalence when we were younger. Kinda like “kids these days with their long hair and hippy music,” at some level.

    For what it’s worth: I have a niece with extensive tattoos, and also work with someone (who I believe is over 40) also with extensive tats. Both women have tattoos that are really good, and I could probably look at them all day, because of the tattoos’ intricacy and beauty. But doing that would be creepy.

  28. 28.

    Starfish

    @Baud: I saw it a while back. Various people said, “in cycling, this is known as cheating.” After I saw this video, i saw some kid doing this on the way to school.

  32. 32.

    Soprano2

    @SFAW: I was riffing on how much it pissed conservatives off that Chris Christie thanked Barack Obama after Hurricane Sandy. LOL

  33. 33.

    Soprano2

    @Baud: I now see how it could be taken to mean act during the lame duck period.

    That’s what I meant, sorry it wasn’t clear. They’re saying that regardless of who will control the House or Senate next year Dems should try to fix the debt ceiling problem in the lame duck session to keep Republicans from holding Biden’s whole presidency hostage.  The R’s are already talking about demanding that Biden agree to repeal everything that was passed the last two years in exchange for raising the debt ceiling limit. We need to prevent that from happening if we can because we actually care about what happens to people and the government.

  34. 34.

    Betty Cracker

    From what I’ve seen of his press conferences so far, DeSantis is (as expected) more adept than Trump at impersonating a government official. That said, there is one really gross Trumpian marker — DeSantis will introduce appointees to provide details on recovery operations, and they preface their remarks with paeans to his matchless leadership like a common Pence at a 2017 cabinet meeting. It is to puke, as the kids say.

  35. 35.

    Soprano2

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Well, I used to associate them with people who were in the military or in prison. It’s been hard for me to get used to young people covering their arms and legs and chest and back with tattoos. I keep wondering what they’ll look like in 20 years, and figure there will be a booming business in tattoo removal by then. Perhaps their children will rebel by not getting any tattoos!

  36. 36.

    zhena gogolia

    @Baud: Yesterday the Times had a long article about how Biden got mixed up and was looking in the crowd for that Congresswoman who had been killed in a car crash. I hadn’t heard about the incident anywhere. But they did a deep dive into exactly how Karine Jean-Pierre responded to questions about it, as if it were something like, I don’t know, NUCLEAR THREATS FROM RUSSIA or something.

    ETA: Anybody remember Tim Apple?

  37. 37.

    SFAW

    @Soprano2:

    Understood. And I, in turn, was semi-riffing on the idea that the only thing TFG (for example) could do to lose his base would be to declare, on TV or fake-twitter, that Blacks and browns in this country have gotten screwed because of racism, and that he would/will do everything in his power to fix that.

  39. 39.

    Soprano2

    @zhena gogolia: I saw a video of it, honestly not great. It will feed into the “Biden has dementia” stuff. It’s understandable with all the stuff he has to think about every day that he would have forgotten that she was recently killed in a car accident, but that won’t matter to the haters.

  40. 40.

    catclub

    @SFAW: But, yeah, I had the same thought re: the Rules Committees doing that.

     

    They already forbid sitting on the top tube, and seeing his pedals spinning so that he had a hard time getting clipped back in makes it very likely to happen  soon.

  44. 44.

    Baud

    @Soprano2:

    Remember when Obama was tired from campaigning and said 57 states.  That sustained the right wing for years, and there’s no plausible argument that Obama had dementia.

    The problem isn’t the haters in this instance.  They are a constant. The problem is mainstream media like the NYT.

  48. 48.

    catclub

    Just in case there are more readers: Anyone with experience with TenJet procedure therapy for tennis elbow or other tendonitis?

    Thanks.

  50. 50.

    Betty Cracker

    Speaking of puke, remember how Maggie Haberman’s fellow journos circled the wagons when she took flak for saving tidbits about Trump’s document theft for her book? Politico published a hagiographic screed that reconfigures those wagons into an infinity sign.

    The piece airily waves away critics, proclaiming with maximum arrogance that they don’t understand how journalism works. Even though many of those critics are journalists and/or professors of journalism themselves.

    It’s an embarrassing article in so many ways, and I say that as someone who believes Haberman gets more vilification than she deserves (I mean in a “don’t hate the player, hate the game” sense).

  51. 51.

    Jeffro

    @Soprano2: Yup…I hope the Dems raise it to a comically high level, like eleventy gazillion or something, just to flex on the GOP and show Americans that the blessed debt limit isn’t a real thing.

  54. 54.

    Jeffro

    @Baud: one of my buddies told Fro Jr, back when Jr was really young, “If you’re going to get a tattoo later in life, do what I did: get a whole-body flesh-colored tattoo”

    I think Jr spent a couple hours that day trying to sort that one out  =P

  55. 55.

    Starfish

    @Betty Cracker: One of my friends who was a journalist gave a better defense of Haberman than all the hacks on Twitter did.

    His said that the fact checking requirements of a newspaper are pretty high, so something that might be “Ivanka said…” may not be up to that high bar. That stuff can go into a book, but it can’t go into a newspaper. Also, some of those rumors become solid facts later. Someone can say that Trump has classified documents at Mar-a-Lago; but if there are no other people saying it too, it might not meet journalistic standards. However, after the FBI has raided Mar-a-Lago and put up the photos, it is fact.

  56. 56.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @Baud: One of my favorite moments from the Obama presidency was when the Rs invited him to address their caucus and let the cameras in. They thought he really was as stupid and uninformed as they claimed. And he wiped the floor with them.

  57. 57.

    Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg

    I’m not a Lizzo fan for various subjective reasons (different strokes and all), but find the notion that a flautist with talent and significant cultural fame is being provided the opportunity to play a historical instrument in an iconic place to be a nice aspirational activity that this country sorely needs.

  58. 58.

    Layer8Problem

    @Matt McIrvin:

    This means we need to hold the House majority or the Republicans will make us default on the debt and destroy the economy so they can get a Republican President in for 2024.

    Just as a thought exercise, if we did lose the mid-terms and the Republicans took the House and said “Nyah-hah-hah!  Now we’ll destroy the economy unless you give in to our list of demands!” and the Democrats went the “don’t give in to hostage-takers” route, how many business leaders, bankers, etc. are going to say “Hey, it’s for a good cause, omelettes, eggs”?  Not everybody’s Auric Goldfinger expecting his pile of gold’s value to go through the roof when the economy bomb drops.  I expect most of them might say something along the lines of “Break our stuff and burn our assets with your little stunt and god help you because you will not have a minute’s peace for the rest of your lives.”

  59. 59.

    WaterGirl

    @Betty Cracker: No surprise there.

    The Scandalous History of America’s Newest Media Baron

    The new owner of Politico, Axel Springer, has a decades-long record of bending journalistic ethics for right-wing causes.

    I don’t understand why Politico isn’t shunned now.

  60. 60.

    zhena gogolia

    @Starfish: I guess that’s why the NYT has been touting their “BREAKING NEWS” of phone calls home by Russian soldiers in Feb-Mar 2022 that I saw in Adam’s posts in Feb-Mar 2022.

  61. 61.

    Lyrebird

    @SFAW: Not just his tattoos, also his hoodie!

    Gingrich should shut his pie hole, but he and Oz are doing such a great job making campaign headlines for Fetterman!

  64. 64.

    kalakal

    While Biden gives a master class in media management Liz Truss demonstrates that there  truly is no beginning to her talents. As the Tories popularity  follows the same arc as the British economy, with polls giving Labour a 33 point lead*, the hapless halfwit emerged from hiding to give a series of interviews at local radio stations around the nation. Presumably the ‘thought’ was that local hicks would easier than the big city Westminster elite. In practice this meant she talked to real journos rather than villagers. The media campaign developed not necessarily to Truss’ advantage. Here’s  some of the  ‘highlights’

    https://www.thepoke.co.uk/2022/09/29/23-funniest-things-people-said-about-liz-trusss-calamitous-local-radio-interviews/

    * If you extrapolate one of the polls to hypothetical electoral results the Tories would have 3 mps.

    I know this won’t happen in real life but a boy can dream

  65. 65.

    Starfish

    @zhena gogolia: I think you are right on this.

    I am Iranian American. I follow a lot of Iranian Americans, journalists, and academics interested in Iran on Twitter. They are posting so many videos, and it is hard to determine “What part of this is true?”

  66. 66.

    cain

    @SFAW: I  dont’ think the tats thing is a culture war that’s going to work out for them. I guess their base are all 70s and 80s year olds before. But GenX and younger boomers, Gen Ys are all tat loving folks, piercings as well.

    Considering that people with even face tats are showing up in public facing jobs..  but you know, these politicians still live like it is the 80s and want to bring society back to the 50s.

  67. 67.

    Miss Bianca

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I don’t hate tattoos, but I do find most of them kind of ugly. I’ve only ever seen a few that I thought weren’t a total waste of ink.

    One of my theater friends says she plans to get one for her 70th birthday, tho, so #notallboomers.

  73. 73.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Baud: I’m not actually afraid he’ll cave, I’m afraid they’ll drop the bomb, because they’ve gone insane and actually believe a default is some kind of gesture of fiscal responsibility. There was already a lot of talk along those lines in 2011 and 2013. Cornball kitchen-table analogies to credit-card limits and cutting off your child’s allowance, etc.

    The saving grace is that I think the Democrats in charge are more willing than they were to call that out for what it is.

  75. 75.

    Ohio Mom

    @SFAW: I heard the same from a PCP doctor. We were both parent chaperones on a junior high field trip and the usually staid assistant principal showed up in shorts, baring a Mickey Mouse tattoo on his calf.

    The doctor shook his head and said, “That’s going to sag and look awful when Mr. AP is older.” And then I had a flash of understanding of the sights seen in a typical day in a doctor’s exam room.

  76. 76.

    J R in WV

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    I think you’re right about tattoos. I saw a tweet the other day in which someone asked why people over 40 hated tattoos.

    I’m definitely  an old, but I don’t hate tats. I admire some artfully done work, and laugh at some terrible stuff someone will have to live with forever. I’ve seen beautiful women with beautiful work that enhanced their  beauty and others that — did not…..

    I’ve considered getting a navy tat, crossed anchors or something like that, but naw, not my style…

    ETA: Wife tells a story from a PT shop. Attractive woman with a rose on her breast, no longer actually young… “I didn’t know it would turn out to be a long-stem rose!”

  79. 79.

    Geminid

    @Jeffro: Hey Jeffro! Were you invited to the Red Vest Retreat at Keswick Hall? Foungkin Youngkin is hosting GOP donors and party luminaries like Newt Gingrich! Newt says Youngkin has all-purpose potential as a Cabinet member, Senator, Vice President or President. The event started yesterday and will finish today.

    On the western side of Albemarle County’s “Hunt” country, the Foxfield Races are all set up and ready for a night and day of rain. I sure hope none of the horses or riders get hurt on a sloppy race course!

  80. 80.

    Kelly

    @Ohio Mom: The popularity of tattoos must have messed up Emergency Medical providers long standing patient evaluation rule of thumb the tooth to tattoo ratio. Any patient with more tattoos than teeth is indestructible.

  81. 81.

    Betty Cracker

    @Starfish: I agree that could make sense as an explanation for why she withheld that material, but in my opinion, the Politico piece fails as an apologia for what is loosely termed “access” journalism more broadly because it doesn’t seriously address that issue at all. It’s the sea the Beltway press swims in so obliviously.

    One remark from the story that illustrates this: when Trump won, a WaPo journo texted “this is great for you” to Haberman. On one level, that’s understandable. If you were a 1930s radio newsperson in NJ assigned to cover the Hindenburg landing, the ensuing disaster would be “great for you.” The trick is to keep “the humanity” at the center of the story, you know? They forgot that part somehow.

  84. 84.

    Belafon

    @SFAW: Fetterman went to Daily Kos and wrote about his tattoos:

    I have nine dates tattooed on my right forearm. Each one is a day on which someone died violently in Braddock, Pennsylvania, while I was mayor. Gun violence and violent crime might be jokes to someone like Carlson, but they are very real to people in towns like Braddock.

    The first one that I tattooed on my arm is “01.16.06.” That’s the date on which Christopher Williams was shot dead while delivering pizzas. This was a man about my age at the time. He had a 12-year-old daughter. I just couldn’t get over the fact that he was never going home to her.

    Another tattoo reads “02.03.07,” the date that 23-month-old Nyia Page was found dead after her father sexually assaulted her and left her in the bitter cold. Her tiny footprints in the snow led an officer to her body. And I have “09.16.13,” the date Derrail Roilton, a father of two, was found dead in the yard next to his mother’s home after being shot three times.

    These murders and tragic deaths in Braddock, and others in similar towns and cities across Pennsylvania, became so normal that they were a talking point in our elected leaders’ speeches and footnotes in media stories.

    That’s why I have these tattoos. They are not some “costume.” They are reminders of the people we have lost and what I am fighting for. Both the dates on my right arm and the “15104” on my left — Braddock’s ZIP code — are personal to me.

     

    https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/9/28/2125787/–PA-Sen-Tucker-Carlson-wants-to-talk-about-my-tattoos-So-let-s-talk-about-them

  86. 86.

    Baud

    @zhena gogolia:

    That seems a little trickier.  It’s important to consider and plan for contingencies that might arise from bad events, but that’s hard to do without looking like your supporting bad events, especially if you stand to benefit in some way.

  89. 89.

    Splitting Image

    @kalakal:

    If you extrapolate one of the polls to hypothetical electoral results the Tories would have 3 mps.

    I know this won’t happen in real life but a boy can dream

    Allow me to introduce you to the Canadian Tories. They won a massive majority in 1984 with 211 seats out of 282, were reduced slightly to 170 in 1988, and the bloodbath in 1993 left them with 2 seats across the country.

    All of the rats bailed out before the 1993 election and left a woman (Kim Campbell) in charge of the party so they could brag about how progressive they were while the voters vented all of their frustrations on her instead of them.

  90. 90.

    Suzanne

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    I saw a tweet the other day in which someone asked why people over 40 hated tattoos.

     

    I am 42, and I do not have any tattoos. I think I am a minority at this point among my friends and colleagues. (I don’t hate them, but I just prefer white space on myself. I feel like tattoos are just not my aesthetic.) I will note that I go to yoga and I would say that 90% of the other people who go have a visible tattoo.

  91. 91.

    Alison Rose 💙🌻💛

    This bit from putin’s speech. Good lordy Lord.

    “Mr. Putin cast the conflict with the West in even more severe terms than in previous speeches, reeling off centuries of Western military actions to denounce the American-led world order as fundamentally evil, corrupt and set on Russia’s destruction.

    “The repression of freedom is taking on the outlines of a ‘reverse religion,’ of real Satanism,” Mr. Putin said, asserting that liberal Western values on matters like gender identity amounted to a “denial of man.”

    I mean. Sure bro. Okay.

    Go fucking DIAF already, would you?

  92. 92.

    Gin & Tonic

    The thing about that cycling video in the top tweet – yes, it’s old, and most likely a setup, but note that he is also on a fixed gear – meaning that the turning of the pedals and the turning of the rear wheel are “fixed,” i.e. he can’t coast or “freewheel” as long as his feet are on the pedals. This is what you have on track bikes, not typical road-racing bikes, where you can stop pedaling and maintain your forward motion. That’s why the cranks keep turning when he takes his feet out of the pedals. So if he is going downhill and accelerating due to gravity, simply removing his feet from the pedals would allow him to go faster, otherwise he’d likely not be able to spin his legs fast enough.

  94. 94.

    Kayla Rudbek

    @Ohio Mom: are we sure that he wasn’t wearing some kind of protective layer on his abdomen, to deal with the road vibration?

     

    @SFAW: the vibration/shock from the road. There’s a reason that road cycling gear includes padded shorts and gloves!

  95. 95.

    Chris T.

    @catclub: zero experience with Tenjet, but looked it up. I’ve had tendon issues in the past and resolved them with cross-friction massage, which is a slower but less invasive version of the same kind of idea. So it probably works. I’d stick with massage if that’s possible though…

  101. 101.

    zhena gogolia

    People are legitimately worried about Russian escalation, the moment that Moscow formally annexes these occupied territories, but remember that Ukraine has already counterattacked Crimea and Russian border territories. Putin didn't fire the nukes when that happened. 🤷‍♂️— Kevin Rothrock (@KevinRothrock) September 30, 2022

  105. 105.

    zhena gogolia

    Russia’s annexation announcement stands in sharp contrast to the military reality on the ground, as Russian forces face envelopment at Lyman. There’s a good chance it will be followed by another defeat and the collapse of that pocket.— Michael Kofman (@KofmanMichael) September 30, 2022

  106. 106.

    prostratedragon

    @narya:  “]  That’s some serious core strength going on. Also–getting his feet back on the pedals may be the most impressive part.”

    Both my thoughts exactly. I think the cycle cop had practiced up also, maybe a bet. Very impressive.

  107. 107.

    Soprano2

    @Baud:The problem is mainstream media like the NYT.

    Yeah, that is true too. They are too willing to amplify any crazy thing the right says about Democrats.

  108. 108.

    UncleEbeneezer

    Newsom signed SB107!

    Fugitive trans laws (and reactions against them) are now a thing. SB107 will protect trans people and trans youth fleeing states passing anti-trans laws like hormone therapy bans and child abuse provisions.

    Incredible.

  111. 111.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @zhena gogolia:

    People are legitimately worried about Russian escalation, the moment that Moscow formally annexes these occupied territories

    I’m not.  Putin knows going into this that absolutely no one in any government recognizes or gives a shit about this.  It will change nothing on the ground.  The Ukrainians won’t stop until they take their whole country back, and they’re doing all the fighting.  None of the rules or escalation that anybody is playing by will change, and he and everyone else knows that includes Putin, because Putin didn’t give a shit about Rules of War anyway.

    I assume this is for a domestic audience, trying to keep the hardcore right wingers from turning on him like they’ve been doing lately.

  113. 113.

    VOR

    @Starfish:His said that the fact checking requirements of a newspaper are pretty high, so something that might be “Ivanka said…” may not be up to that high bar. That stuff can go into a book, but it can’t go into a newspaper.

    Emptywheel wrote about this on her blog and noted it was curious all these book excerpts were being published at non-NYT places. She compared it to the NYT not publishing the material by James Risen on the GWB administration wiretapping without warrants. Maybe the reason is the NYT wasn’t comfortable with Maggie’s sources. This raises the possibility Maggie brought these things to her editors at the time and her editors made a decision not to publish, for whatever reason. And yes, we can speculate on their reasons.

    Emptywheel also has a back and forth with Dan Drezner about the impact of the never ending scandal du jour. I’ve pondered the idea Trump seems to have mastered the Gish Gallop debate technique for scandals. Something outrageous happens, like talk of buying Greenplan or nuking hurricanes, and the next day there is a new scandal. The media drops interest in yesterday’s scandal and writes about the new one.

  114. 114.

    trollhattan

    @Gin & Tonic: Had not noticed the bike setup until you mentioned it. Special added feature: no brakes!

    Mere mortals can’t conceive of how absurdly skilled pro road cyclists are. They have to be, because in the peleton they’re packed together separated sometimes by millimeters and going speeds that would make a Camry driver nervous.

  117. 117.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @VOR: there is definitely a new news bias in the media, but the problem with trump/ism isn’t that people don’t know, it’s that too many people don’t care.

    Think of all the times, from the Billy Bush tape to 1/6, that Republicans thought they had to cut trump loose.

  119. 119.

    Villago Delenda Est

    The wingnutosphere is outraged, OUTRAGED that funding is provided for the untermenschen of Ukraine opposing the glorious Aryan legions of Vlad Putin.

  121. 121.

    trollhattan

    @zhena gogolia:

    It’s looking like Ukraine will soon liberate Lyman–they’re advancing from three directions and Russians are reportedly pulling out (via the lone highway, which Ukraine has mined).

    Putin’s “new” territory is shrinking before his eyes.

    Does not stop him from committing more monstrosities, however.

  123. 123.

    Alison Rose 💙🌻💛

    @UncleEbeneezer: Exactly. Transphobes don’t want to reckon with this because they want to believe the concept doesn’t exist, but it can be traumatic as hell for a trans kid to be forced to continue living as the wrong gender. Plus, the freakouts just get absurd–NO ONE is performing surgery on a fucking child. Hell, it’s barely something that could happen for a 17 year old.

  125. 125.

    Ohio Mom

    @Paul in KY: For some reason I’m reminded of some of the classrooms Ohio Son was in. These teachers had extensive lists of prohibited behaviors and actions.

    You just knew that each one referred back to a specific incident that traumatized the teacher. As a parent reviewing these lists, I was always impressed with the creativity of school children.

  126. 126.

    James E Powell

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    Biden talks like a grown up when he calls his relationship with DeSantis irrelevant. He keeps his eye on business

    And for that 45% of the nation & 100% of the political press despise him.

  127. 127.

    2liberal

    https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/xr0wrm/michael_guerra_adopts_a_plank_position_and/

    this is one of a few illegal positions banned on the Tour De France/similar cycling competitions. It works on non-fixed gear bikes as well. It’s just such a super aerodynamic position.
    Some cyclists in the know claim you can get the *equivalent* of 10-15W of extra power just by shaving your legs, so aerodynamics matter a lot.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xc_Kq-Eqdts – More on illegal positions (including this one)
    https://www.active.com/cycling/articles/will-shaving-your-legs-make-you-a-faster-cyclist – Shaving your legs link

  129. 129.

    lowtechcyclist

    Anyone have any idea whether the Dems still have one more opportunity to pass a bill by reconciliation in this Congress?

    It matters because if they do, life is good: they can pass whatever funding bill all 50 Dem Senators can agree on in December.

    But if they don’t, the GQP can shut down the government in December when it’s two years until the next election and they’d suffer zero consequences for it.

    I’d kinda like to know which universe we’re in here.

  133. 133.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @James E Powell: And for that 45% of the nation & 100% of the political press despise him.

    And for this reason alone the political press should be nuked from orbit.

  134. 134.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Matt McIrvin: ​
     

    @Baud: I’m not actually afraid he’ll cave, I’m afraid they’ll drop the bomb, because they’ve gone insane and actually believe a default is some kind of gesture of fiscal responsibility. There was already a lot of talk along those lines in 2011 and 2013. Cornball kitchen-table analogies to credit-card limits and cutting off your child’s allowance, etc.

    The saving grace is that I think the Democrats in charge are more willing than they were to call that out for what it is.

    Call it out, sure, in order to justify ignoring it.

    There are two well-known approaches for doing so:

    1) The trillion-dollar platinum coin. Sure, it’s basically sleight of hand, but as long as it’s perfectly legal sleight of hand, it beats hell out of letting the GQP basically hold our economy hostage.

    2) The Constitutional approach. Per the Fourteenth Amendment:

    The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned.

    It’s hardly a stretch to say that refusing to honor the debt would be questioning its validity. This is when Biden can have DOJ cook up an opinion that the debt ceiling is in contravention of the Constitution, so his Administration is going to follow the Constitution rather than respect the debt ceiling.

    It’s time to end this charade, once and for all. If the Dems aren’t in a position to raise the debt ceiling to 473 quadrillion dollars, then they need to do one of the above.

  135. 135.

    RevRick

    @Matt McIrvin: Jonathon Chait in New York magazine argues that Democrats should just raise the debt ceiling to $1 quadrillion in the lame duck session if the GOP captures either or both houses, just so the feces-flinging howler monkeys in the GOP caucus can’t burn down the world economy.

  136. 136.

    Geminid

    @lowtechcyclist:

     

    @RevRick: These are inspiring suggestions, and I could see them possibly being enacted in the Congress after the next one; that is, after 2025. For now I  think there will be another 2 trillion dollar increase in the debt limit, after more or less drama.

    That’s not necessarily such a bad thing, I think. The Democratic President and Congress have put through a program of judicious investment in our human and physical capital- “trickle up” economics, so to speak- that I believe will help create a prospering economy and decreasing deficits. This would be a popular outcome, and I think that unless Republicans can steal enough elections they will end up marginilized politically.

    I think Republicans understand this, and that is one reason they lean so heavily into voter suppression and election subversion.

  137. 137.

    Geminid

    @RevRick: Did Mr. Chait explain how Joe Manchin and Kysten Sinema would be persuaded to raise the debt ceiling to a quadrillion dollars in the lame duck session? And  John Tester and Angus King?

    If he did not, he’s just blowing smoke.

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