Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

All your base are belong to Tunch.

Prediction: the GOP will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the GOP

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

This really is a full service blog.

Today’s GOP: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

Accountability, motherfuckers.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

Consistently wrong since 2002

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

The revolution will be supervised.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 Coronavirus / Thursday Morning Open Thread: Another Busy Week (& It Ain’t Even Over!)

Thursday Morning Open Thread: Another Busy Week (& It Ain’t Even Over!)

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Holiday gift for everyone:


Normally I’d lead with this, but TaMara did a great job already!


Some fascinating details in this story on the legislative sausage-making that usually doesn’t get seen / reported:

To break one tie vote, Vice President Harris was pulled out of a dinner she was hosting, her motorcade whisking her down Massachusetts Avenue well after business hours. Another time, she was several states away from D.C. when she learned her vote was needed, and hopped a quick flight back before dashing from the steps of Air Force Two to the U.S. Capitol.

With the Senate knotted at 50-50 during the first two years of Harris’s tenure, the vice president has broken 26 ties, including key votes that nudged along or cemented defining policies of the Biden administration. The tiebreaking duties could ease soon, however, now that Democrats grew their advantage in the upper chamber to a still-narrow 51-49 edge in last month’s midterms…

On paper, the two years Harris has spent as a tiebreaker have made her one of history’s most consequential vice presidents, in a role that has often been more ceremonial than substantive. Each time Harris voted, she and the administration won, as President Biden rarely tires of pointing out.

But people close to the vice president say being the chief tiebreaker has come at a cost, tethering Harris to the U.S. Capitol when she could be building her brand and touting successes across the country…

Harris’s supporters have long contended that she would benefit from more occasions when she can showcase the administration’s work.

“The main thing is I wish she was out there more — more visible,” said J.A. Moore, a South Carolina legislator who endorsed Harris’s run for president. “It’s the visibility piece — people want to see her out more. It speaks to the fact that they want to see that representation. They want to see more of her face and her connection with what the administration is doing.”…

In comments earlier this year to the Democratic National Committee, Harris hinted at what she has accomplished by breaking Senate ties, but also, in a chamber that requires 60 votes to pass most legislation, what still remains out of reach.

“In our first year in office, some historians here may know, I actually broke John Adams’s record of casting the most tiebreaking votes in a single term,” she said. But she added, “I cannot wait to cast the deciding vote to break the filibuster on voting rights and reproductive rights.”

Reader Interactions

172Comments

  1. 1.

    OzarkHillbilly

    BLECH!!

    My granddaughters spent the wkend puking and having explosive diarrhea. My DiL thought they were over it so we took them on Monday. Addy girl thru up the chocolate milk my wife gave her upon arrival but it was otherwise an uneventful day.

    Yestermorn, my wife woke up puking her guts out. Spent a good 20-30 minutes in the bathroom holding onto the toilet and crying. I woke up pissing out of my asshole. I also puked twice, once right after drinking half a bottle of doctor recommended gatorade. I was very dehydrated and really needed it to stay down as water alone just wasn’t doing the trick.

    For almost 3 years I have been largely illness free due to masking in public. I had pretty well forgotten how much being sick just really sucks.

    This morn I am feeling fairly normal. The A-D and some prescription drugs the doc ordered have me feeling almost normal. I’m really hoping today is smooth sailing as I have an MRI scheduled for 6:15 tomorrow morn and I’d hate to have to cancel as it took so long to schedule to begin with.

  2. 2.

    Betty Cracker

    Love that Pelosi portrait! I got up way too early (a storm is coming, and the wind woke me up), so I had a chance to watch the “Pelosi in the House” documentary on HBO.

    Well worth watching, but seeing clips of the orange buffoon pretending to be POTUS made my skin crawl. I loved how Pelosi reacted in private just like we did. She was just as horrified and angry.

  6. 6.

    OzarkHillbilly

    The burning question that has troubled me for most of my life has finally been answered: Snakes have clitorises: scientists overcome ‘a massive taboo around female genitalia’

    Female snakes have clitorises, scientists have detailed for the first time in a study of the animal’s sex organs.

    The scientists say previous research had mistaken the organs as scent glands or underdeveloped versions of penises, in a study that criticised the comparatively limited research into female sex organs.

    In a study published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the researchers found that snakes have two individual clitorises – hemiclitores – separated by tissue and hidden by skin on the underside of the tail.

    “Female genitalia are conspicuously overlooked in comparison to their male counterparts, limiting our understanding of sexual reproduction across vertebrate lineages,” the study’s authors wrote.

    On the serious side, I love this kind of shit. I really doubt It would have ever occurred to me to wonder about it, snake penises either for that matter. I see a future Ig Nobel Prize winner here.

  8. 8.

    Geminid

    The House will be in session today, with last votes expected around 3pm. And Speaker Pelosi will begin one of her last weekly press conferences at 10:45am.

    I learned this from today’s Politico Playbook, which also has a longish item about negotiations among Republican House caucus members regarding Kevin McCarthy’s prospective Speakership.

  10. 10.

    Betty Cracker

    @Geminid: What’s your take on the McCarthy situation? I’ve been assuming the Liberty Loons were smacking McCarthy around for the lulz but would eventually get behind him. Now I’m not so sure. A poisoned chalice in any case!

  16. 16.

    Betty Cracker

    Least surprising headline ever (HuffPo):

    Trump Hoarded Most Of The $147 Million In Small-Donor Money He Raised For Himself

    The much-touted super PAC he created spent only $15 million on GOP candidates in key Senate races, and nothing at all on Herschel Walker’s runoff.

    I don’t deplore the fleecing of that particular flock, but America really does need to get around to regulating campaign funding someday. Apparently it’s okay to just lie about what you’re raising money for and keep all the money.

  17. 17.

    SFAW

    @OzarkHillbilly: ​
     
    BLECH is right. Sorry to hear of your travails, I hope you’re back to 100 percent ASAP. Being sick, even for a youngster like you, is no fun (to put it mildly).

  18. 18.

    SFAW

    @Betty Cracker: ​

    I received a spam e-mail from Andy Insurrectionist Biggs last night; it seemed like he’s still going full-bore to be “Speaker.” I guess it’s possible that it’s just a BS mail to increase his campaign coffers, but the tenor of the mail made me think he’s still “in it to win it.”

  19. 19.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @p.a.: From spiky penises to an extra clitoris, reptile reproductive parts don’t lack for variety.

    Heh. I knew a cave biologist who was an expert on crayfish genitalia. There are a couple of species that are identifiable only thru their penises.

  20. 20.

    SFAW

    @OzarkHillbilly: ​

    I knew a cave biologist who was an expert on crayfish genitalia.

    When I awoke this morning, that sentence was NOT one I ever expected to see.
    ETA: Just noticed your note re: Mrs. Ozark; I hope she’s OK.

  21. 21.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @SFAW: It’s been a while since anybody refferred to me as a “youngster” but I guess it’s all relative. Still, as Indiana Jones so famously said, “It’s not the years, it’s the mileage.”

    @SFAW: The world is a wide and surprising place to exist in.

    ETA Just noticed your note re: Mrs. Ozark; I hope she’s OK.

    So do I. She got up a little bit ago to use the bathroom and we exchanged words before she went back to bed. She seemed better.

  22. 22.

    gene108

    @Betty Cracker:

    I don’t deplore the fleecing of that particular flock, but America really does need to get around to regulating campaign funding someday. Apparently it’s okay to just lie about what you’re raising money for and keep all the money.

    The entire Republican small dollar fundraising apparatus seems built around grift. They started with targeted mailing lists, in the 1980’s, to focus on people who would support right-wing causes.

    Their operating methods and good policies seem to be antithetical.

  23. 23.

    gene108

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Hope you & Mrs. Hillbilly get better soon.

    I remember when my niece and nephew were young, and ended up picking up their daycare crud. I was warned about them being sick, but didn’t think I’d pick it up.

  24. 24.

    Geminid

    Interesting that Vice President Harris spoke of her hopes that she sees votes ending the filibuster for voting rights and reproductive rights. I think that at this point Democrats in the Senate know they can at most achieve “carve outs” and not more general filibuster reform, as in eliminating it generally.

    With the 5-vote Republican Kouse Majority, there may not even be legislation suitable for such carve outs. It’s possible, though, that at times House Democrats might be able to advance legislation by way of a “petion to discharge” signed by 2018 members.

    This House rule is seldom if ever used because the majority caucus typically is cohesive and loyal enough to withstand pressure to pass legislation pushed by the minority. The upcoming Repuican caucus looks to be unusually fractious, though and we may be hearing more about petitions to discharge.*

    More likely, we’ll see occasional defections by purple district Republicans joining the Minority to kill some of the more toxic bills their caucus advances.

     

    *That is, if Republicans don’t eliminate this rule at the beginning of the new Congress. Right now they are hassling  over a different House rule regarding motions to depose a sitting Speaker. That is what today’s Politico Playbook item I mentioned was about.

     

    @Geminid:

  25. 25.

    SFAW

    Re: the actual post: I am grateful that I live(d) in a time when Nancy Pelosi is/was Speaker. She’s pretty amazing. I don’t know how she compares to Sam Rayburn — he was before my time (vis-a-vis following politics), but he’d always been held up as the best/strongest Speaker — but her list of accomplishments is outstanding. And I love her “Fuck me? No, fuck YOU!” (e.g., “Never. Does never work for you?”) responses.

  28. 28.

    HinTN

    @SFAW:

    Never. Does never work for you?

    The best response of all time! I, too, am grateful to have had Speaker Pelosi at the time this country needed her most.

  30. 30.

    Jeffro

    @Betty Cracker:  if the snooze media (or perhaps even better, Pompeo or DeSantis, etc) can’t make hay out of this – that the corrupt orange toddler utterly FLEECED his flock to line his own pockets – I just don’t know what to say.

  31. 31.

    Ken

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Do I need to know this stuff?

    Incorporating it would definitely put you into a niche market, so the real question is how lucrative that market would be.

    If it’s any help, I rather liked Hamilton’s first few “Anita Blake” novels, but as the length of sexual scenes crept up from paragraphs to pages to chapters, I stopped reading them. Likewise with the “Merry Gentry” novels — as I recall, the plot of the last one I read was the title character and her entourage leaving a Fairie mound, a walk of a few hundred yards. The page count is filled out by them stopping to have sex a dozen times.

  32. 32.

    Jeffro

    @OzarkHillbilly: I was a teacher and principal up until ‘13 and the running joke in our family (knock on wood) is that after all that, you STILL can’t get me sick.  =)

    (you can, of course, but I almost always beat whatever’s going around in a day or two)

  33. 33.

    Geminid

    @Betty Cracker: My guess is that the Republicans will elect McCarthy Speaker on the first vote, with five or fewer defectors. I could be wrong, but I think a lot of the pushback against him is symbolic, expressing a more general anti-establishment animus among radical Republicans. The 30 member Freedom Caucus itself is divided on this question, and its McCarthy supporters- Jim Jordan is one- will wrestle enough of their colleagues  into avoiding a discreditable first day on the job, marred by a public fight over this office.

    Between now and Opening Day the Republicans will be wrangling over the caucus and House rules that will condition McCarthy’s Speakership. I think they’ll succeed in patching together a framework for running their rickety machine.

    But they may go through a whole Congress’s worth of infighting before they get to it’s first session. And any unity they achieve that day will, I fear, be shortlived.

  35. 35.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Jeffro: A buddy of mine married a speech pathologist who worked in the county. She always seemed to have at least the sniffles.I really felt for her.

  37. 37.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @Ken: I have to cover my eyes when books have extensive sex scenes, especially if I know the writer. A friend of mine recently published a novel about Lady Godiva. It’s a good book, but cripes, Chris, I really did not need to know that scene was in your head.

  38. 38.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Jeffro: I understand why *parents* don’t do what I’m about to suggest: it’s their own kids, after all.  But …. after having lived thru the pandemic, I wonder why teachers and other staff at schools don’t simply mask year-round.  I mean, we know that kids are the natural reservoir of upper respirator illnesses in humans [ok ok, I kid, I kid] and schools are a concentration of kids …. one would think that teachers would just stay masked around them.

    Maybe my brain has been cooked by the pandemic.

  40. 40.

    narya

    @p.a.: I don’t know that I’d call it an “extra” clitoris . . . just sayin.

    I think, if I pick up embroidery again, that “Never” quote might be one of the early projects. My creative impulses are beginning to wake up (now that work ends TODAY!!11!); my other hesitation is that I neither want more stuff myself nor want to impose it on others who may not want it. But what I might do is embroider for charity, i.e., create a bunch of things and then auction them off to support one charity or another. We’ll see.

  42. 42.

    PAM Dirac

    @Geminid:

    And any unity they achieve that day will, I fear, be shortlived.

     
    I think whatever gets through in the first session will be very fragile. A unified D caucus will probably have some opportunities to get a few useful things done, but I think it is unlikely they will come close to being able to really govern. There is also the orange fart cloud’s legal troubles and the possibility of dragging some other nut jobs into that. Maybe even more useful for the Ds is that a lot of the benefits from the 2022 successes will start showing up in 2023. Infrastructure spending will ramp up, insulin prices caps, and other things which will provide a stark contrast to the lunacy of the nut jobs. We shall see.

  45. 45.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Gin & Tonic: Come now, how else can Baud!2024! expect to win the Republican nomination ?  Lining his pockets is the lowest bar for a Republican Presidential nominee!

  46. 46.

    JPL

    @OzarkHillbilly: Wow, little grand imp had a cold and I fortunately managed to stay healthy.  The family picked him up on Sunday, and Monday DIL tested positive for Covid.   It’s just a mild case, but the rest of us who were in contact have to wait it out.

    Get healthy.

  50. 50.

    SFAW

    @Gin & Tonic: ​
     

    So you’re saying Baud’s presidential run could be a scam to line his pockets?

    I was going to point out that it would be unpossible for the Pantsless Candidate, but PAM Dirac beat me to it. Drat!

  51. 51.

    RedDirtGirl

    Our office had it’s first holiday party since the pandemic and it turned into a little super-spreader event! I got it, along with at least 6 other people! I’m not hit too hard, I guess, but the problem is my co-worker is already out for the week for his wife’s surgery, so I have to work from home, even though I’d be better off sleeping! Blech!

  54. 54.

    Tony Jay

    @Ken:

      I rather liked Hamilton’s first few “Anita Blake” novels

    Do not even get me started. They were a pretty fun take on a hardboiled detective operating in an Anne Rice world until Hamilton disappeared up her own vejay and took the entire series with her. Now they’re basically a textbook example of how to utterly destroy a character by Mary-Sueing the bejeebus out of them.

  55. 55.

    Geminid

    @PAM Dirac: In 1948, Harry Truman got good mileage tunning against a “Do Nothing” Republican Congress. In 2024, we may see Joe Biden running against a “Do Nothing”  Republican House.

    I think the Republican House majority will not outlast this Congress.. There are 20 or so purple district members who will be damaged by association with their radical counterparts. Their reelection chances are very slim, I think.

  56. 56.

    SFAW

    @PAM Dirac: ​
     

    There is also the orange fart cloud’s legal troubles and the possibility of dragging some other nut jobs into that.

    His “legal troubles” (as you libtards put it) will pale in comparison to those faced by Sleepy Joe after the hearings on Hunter Biden’s dastardly plan to destroy the Republic via something something mumble mumble something.

  59. 59.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Geminid:

    Out of curiosity, why do you say you fear that unity would be short-lived? Or do you mean it in the sense that, “for the GOP’s hopes”?

  60. 60.

    SFAW

    @Betty Cracker: ​
     

    though I am rooting for total chaos.

    I, on the other hand, am rooting for steel-cage death matches between the Freedom Caucus traitors and the not-Freedom-Caucus traitors. Hilarity would ensue.

  61. 61.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Tony Jay: Tony, I read The Guardian about the nurse’s strike, and …. the Tories really are trying to kill the NHS off, aren’t they?  I mean …. a 20% real decrease in pay for nurses, literally on the back of the pandemic: that’s much worse than benign neglect, more like active sabotage.

    I have a friend who works in London in tech, and basically everyone he knows has private insurance for medical care.  Harbinger of the future, it would seem.

  63. 63.

    Nelle

    We take care of grandchildren two days a week and often catch everything they have.  I console myself that it helps our immune system, whether that is true or not.

    @OzarkHillbilly:

  64. 64.

    JMG

    On the mystery front: My son and his wife left NYC today for Hawaii, where her family lives and her sister is getting married this weekend.He asked me if there were any Hawaiian-based detective stories I could recommend. I replied. jokingly, that Charlie Chan was a Honolulu police detective. He asked where he could find a Chan book. I told him honestly I’d never even seen one such book, all I knew about Chan were the old movies. He found a bundle of Chan books on Amazon for his Kindle. I’m sure they’re racist AF, the movies were, but he’s gonna read ’em on the plane.

  65. 65.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @SFAW: via something something mumble mumble something.

    Go ahead, you can say it. Not sure why you are being shy this time. “Dick pics.”

  66. 66.

    Geminid

    A friend and I took a trip north earlier this week, and as we drove past Scranton, Pa. Debbie pointed out a highway sign:

     President Joe Biden Expressway.

    It was nice to see.

  69. 69.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Goku, hey, been a while since I saw you.  I know before the election we were both feeling pretty dour.  How are you feeling these days about the state of things ?  I have to say, while I still have grave worries, I’m surprised and grateful for the way Americans (even Republicans) seem to have voted to at least preserve our Republic for a few more years.  As the crosstabs come out, it seems like more and more good news.  How about you?

  72. 72.

    SFAW

    @OzarkHillbilly: ​
     
    I have no idea what you’re talking about.

    Actually, I was non-specific because I figure the Partei of Traitors will find myriad bullshit “corrupt” practices to investigate.

  74. 74.

    Geminid

    @Geminid: Debbie and I did well to get back last evening. The I-81 cortidor will be tough driving today. Right now I’m looking at some cold rain, temperature 37°. Thirty miles west in Harrisonburg it’s 32° with an ice storm warning in effect until 10pm tonight.

  75. 75.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Leto: Did you see that announcement of Twitter auctioning off a bunch of furniture, kitchen stuff, etc ?  I looked and saw that some of it was espresso machines and such.  I always wonder if people actually score good deals at auctions like that.  Of course, I already have an espresso machine (had it for 15yr) so not like I’m looking for one, but …. boy I’m curious.

    Man, Mok Se Nul is such a putz.

  77. 77.

    Butch

    Why I think most Beltway journalists are ridiculous people in one short phrase:  Harris should be “building her brand.”

  78. 78.

    Soprano2

    @Chetan Murthy: I think it might cause problems where the kids have a hard time knowing what the teacher is saying, or knowing when the teacher is actually talking. There’s something about seeing whole faces that’s reassuring, I think. I understand why you are saying this, I just don’t think many teachers would believe it was practical, plus wearing a mask all day is not exactly comfortable. It might not be that protective anyway, since lots of teachers have kids of their own.

  79. 79.

    SFAW

    @Leto: ​

    and told staff not to pay vendors

    Many years ago, when I was working for a startup, one of our buyers said she had been asked by a vendor whether we were going to close up shop. She was confused, asked him why he thought that, since we (allegedly) were well funded. He said we had started stretching out our payments, and that was usually a sign that the company was in serious trouble.
    Three months later, the layoffs started, and the company was gone within a year.

  80. 80.

    OzarkHillbilly

    People often root for their opposition to fall into chaos. Most times they are sorry for it when it happens. It is a whole lot easier to throw a fit and destroy things thru petulance (debt limit anyone?) than it is to do something constructive. Sometimes it does turn into an opportunity but often the cost is high. I’m with Geminid here.

    Be careful what you wish for. You just might get it, good and hard.

    Time for a nap. Good day all, and thanx for all the good wishes.

  81. 81.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Chetan Murthy:

    Honestly, I feel the same as you do. 2010 midterms, it definitely was not. It’s incredible too given the economic turmoil. Too often voters have been in a “throw the bums out” mentality whether that was right or not. It’s a shame the House was lost, but the Senate and the state gains we made are very important too.

    Speaking of the cross tabs, I’m curious about those

  83. 83.

    Soprano2

    @OzarkHillbilly: I’m sorry y’all are so sick, that sounds absolutely miserable. After hubby was sick last week I’m holding my breath to see whether I get sick or not. It’ll probably happen just in time for Christmas.

  84. 84.

    R-Jud

    @Geminid: I noticed that sign this summer when my cousin and I took our kids to the Lackawanna Coal Mine museum. “I’m impressed it doesn’t have bullet holes in it!” said my cousin.

  85. 85.

    Soprano2

    @Leto: Yeah, saving money by not paying your rent while you demand that everyone come back to the office, that’s some genius business strategy right there. /s/s/s/s/s

  86. 86.

    PAM Dirac

    @Geminid:

    There are 20 or so purple district members who will be damaged by association with their radical counterparts. Their reelection chances are very slim, I think.

     
    I think it is going to be very interesting to see how much shit they put up with. In principle they could be threatened with a primary, but that is increasingly an empty threat. Everyone knows drumpf won’t put any money behind a primary candidate and it is pretty clear that going full MAGA will cost you the general in a purple or blue district. On the other hand they are Rs and I’m not sure how they are going to position themselves as non-MAGA Rs. Maybe by getting a bunch of stuff done with Ds in this session? I wouldn’t count on it, but it isn’t impossible.

  87. 87.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    Speaking of the cross tabs, I’m curious about those

    I don’t have any links handy, but I’ve seen:

    1. women came out, really came out
    2. the young came out, albeit less than we’d like, but lots more than in previous off-year elections
    3. Latinos (esp. in the southwest, where it was predicted they’d go GrOPer) didn’t go GrOPer at all
    4. Even Republican voters did a lot of ticket-splitting

    Overall, it seems like a  lot of voters realized that, yeah, their way of life was seriously threatened, not in terms of money, but *existentially*.  And they acted like it.  Which, gotta say, I had not expected.

  90. 90.

    Geminid

    @OzarkHillbilly: Well, I am not exactly rooting for Republican unity. When said that I fear their unity will be shortlived, i italicized “fear” to express irony.

    I’m hoping their caucus will resemble the Hatfields and McCoys. In the short run our Senate Majority can mitigate the damage they do. In the medium and long term, they damage they do to their brand could put them back into the Minority for the rest of this deczde.

  94. 94.

    Honus

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: between the discussions of sex scenes, snake clitorises, and Ozark’s graphic descriptions of his family’s flu symptoms, I’m kind of thinking I might want to slip over to Jalopnik for a while and check out some old cars.

  95. 95.

    Geminid

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): It was a good friend, not the commenter we miss so much.

    I’ve mentioned this Debbie a couple times in the garden threads. She keeps a couple beehives where I live. One colony swarmed and flew away last June, so she’ll install a new queen with with a few thousand bees next April.

  96. 96.

    Scout211

    I ordered our free COVID tests this morning and checked the expiration dates for the two boxes we have left that were to expire next month. Those expiration dates were extended for a year so I think (hope) we are good for awhile.

    Thanks, Biden!

  97. 97.

    sdhays

    @Leto: Atrios noted this a couple of days ago. The astounding thing is how the press frames “not paying the bills” as “cost-cutting”. As Atrios noted, by that logic, shoplifting is also an innovative way of cutting costs, though it somehow is never described that way.

  98. 98.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Starfish:

    I think my sister told me about the self-published sub-genre of dinosaur erotica. All I remember is the name of that one book Taken by the Pterodactyl 

    LOL!
    Triceratops and Bottoms
    Wet Hot Allosaurus Summer

  99. 99.

    Mai Naem mobile

    @Geminid: i think McCarthy will get the speakership as well. My wish is that one of the Freedumb caucus who texted Meadows wins it and then is very quickly indicted for conspiracy or whatever for 1/6.

  101. 101.

    gene108

    @PAM Dirac:

    Maybe even more useful for the Ds is that a lot of the benefits from the 2022 successes will start showing up in 2023. Infrastructure spending will ramp up, insulin prices caps, and other things which will provide a stark contrast to the lunacy of the nut jobs. We shall see.

    Obama’s terms in office dissuaded me of the idea that Democrats get rewarded for positive policy outcomes. Democrats saved the financial sector via TARP, which Congressional Republicans opposed (I know Bush, Jr. was still President, but Congressional Democrats were the ones taking action), to Obama’s bailing out of the auto industry that saved many Midwestern jobs, and people went hard for Republicans in 2010 and Trump squeaked by in 2016.

    Maybe things will be different this time? I hope so.

  104. 104.

    Ken

    @narya: @p.a.: I think it’s “extra” in the sense of “two”. Many reptiles have two penises, I would guess the females of those species have two clitorises. In embryonic development, the two organs start the same.

    Apologies for any perceived mansplaining, it was not my intent.

    (Oh-ho, the Chrome spell-checker recognizes “mansplaining”!)

  106. 106.

    Chetan Murthy

    @gene108:

    Obama’s terms in office dissuaded me of the idea that Democrats get rewarded for positive policy outcomes.

    OTOH, as our famous Speaker Pelosi said about the ACA, “you have to experience it to see why you want it” (she didn’t add “you doofuses”, b/c she is kind and generous).  And that came to pass: when the GrOPers tried to take the ACA way, Americans got positively enraged.  I kinda count that as a reward.  The problem is that too often good policy takes time to take effect, and the electorate is typically so damn impatient.  But yeah, I’m somewhat hopeful, too.  Esp. all these efforts to bring manufacturing (esp. high-tech and EV) back to our shores — that might have a big impact.

  108. 108.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Ken:

    (Oh-ho, the Chrome spell-checker recognizes “mansplaining”!)

    Does it offer a revision “but this word is always incorrect, b/c men don’t actually do that” (rofl) ?

  110. 110.

    Suzanne

    @SFAW:

    I received a spam e-mail from Andy Insurrectionist Biggs last night; it seemed like he’s still going full-bore to be “Speaker.” 

    Either that, or to be Senator.
    We’ve focused so much on Sinema that we haven’t really dug into the psychos from the GOP who are looking at that seat with hungry eyes.

  111. 111.

    sdhays

    @Mai Naem mobile: When Jeb(!) (and all the other losers in that race) couldn’t be arsed to take on TFG directly in 2016 when he was losing the Presidential nomination to him, I gave up on expecting anyone in the Republican party daring to cross him, no matter how much he was sabotaging their personal dream.

    They know that even if they take him down, they will personally lose.

  115. 115.

    Ken

    @Scout211: What do you mean, you checked the expiration dates and they’ve been extended for a month?  I also have some test kits that expire at the end of the month, it would be handy if I could use them after that.

  116. 116.

    PAM Dirac

    @gene108:

    Maybe things will be different this time? I hope so.

    You are right that there are no guarantees, but I am a bit optimistic for two reasons:
    1) The Ds are much more aggressive about selling their successes and calling out the Rs who try to take credit for things that the Rs tried to kill.
    2) the contrast is much greater. In 2010 you could still make an argument that the Rs were a party reasonably in contact with reality. Now it is clear that the biggest chunk of it are election deniers and Anon conspiracy nuts. Even the wired for R press has difficulty both siding that big a difference.

    Is that going to be enough? We’ll find out.

  118. 118.

    M31

    wonder what the BIG ANNOUNCEMENT is going to be?

    1) new vice president: Some fucking loon, as in an actual bird that screeches nonstop

    2) “I cured Covid by sticking a light bulb up my ass and here are the pictures”

    3) announcing a new slogan: Make America Even Greater Again and Again No Really I Mean It This Time

    4) who cares

  119. 119.

    Scout211

    @Ken: the FDA extended the expiration dates of most of the brands of at-home COVID tests. FDA

    Most have been extended from 12 to 18 months.

  121. 121.

    Ken

    @Scout211: Thanks, very handy. Though it spoils my plan to treat myself to an unnecessary COVID test every Tuesday and Friday for the rest of the year.

  122. 122.

    Leto

    @Chetan Murthy: I did! I would’ve like an Aeron chair, but alas I’m not willing to give that shitlord a single penny.

     

    @sdhays: “Carjacking is the new Uber.” – headline
    Step1: Carjack.
    Step 4: Profit!

  123. 123.

    Scout211

    @M31: I will go with 4) who cares?

    But my guess is, “I am filing a lawsuit against ____________ for ____________.  Because . . . reasons . . .

  124. 124.

    sdhays

    @Ken: At this point, he considers the Republican Party his property, so we won’t see any third-party activity on his part until it is “stolen” from him in a bruising primary.

    I’m not holding my breath on that bruising primary, but conditions are at least favorable.

  125. 125.

    Suzanne

    @PAM Dirac: I have started thinking about the GOP’s inability to break from Trump as “Long MAGA”.

    So much depends on whether or not they can get past it. I have thought — and continue to think — that #TeamNormal GOP candidates (you know, just run-of-the-mill garden-variety assholes) could do very well electorally in many places like PA, GA, AZ in 2024.

    Of course, the challenge is that there’s no selfish advantage in being the one to take on Trump directly. They all need someone else to be the political equivalent of a suicide bomber (or Chris Christie taking out Marco Rubio), and then they imagine themselves sweeping in to reunite the coalition.

  126. 126.

    Matt McIrvin

    @gene108: Obama did get reelected, by a bigger margin than most people expected. But he didn’t have a broad majority of popularity again until the very end of his second term when the eye of Sauron turned from him to Hillary Clinton.

    The pattern for decades has been that Republicans trash everything, we bring in Democrats to clean things up, then eventually we get bored and vote the Republicans back in, because their yelling and chest-beating is more exciting and the people in power like deregulation and low taxes. I don’t know how to break it.

  127. 127.

    PST

    Speaking of infections … My wife tested positive for COVID on Monday. She’s as vaccinated as can be so her symptoms are mild. I spent all day in a car with her Sunday and then slept in the same bed, so I presume the die is cast for me one way or the other, despite our rather ineffectual attempts to isolate from one another since then in our small, loft-like apartment. I’m expecting a mild case, but I wouldn’t be shocked to find that I dodged the bullet. I’m well vaxxed too. My wife is wrestling with the question of taking Paxlovid. It seems like a no brainer at first, but the evidence is weak for healthy, boosted people because their chances of hospitalization are so good to begin with. Her doctors expressed mixed views. There are side effects, including gastrointestinal distress for the lactose intolerant. If I get it, though, I’ll Pax up.

  128. 128.

    JMG

    Oddly, the best thing that could happen to Trump politically is to be indicted. He would then be Ultimate Victim, the top card in the deck of right wing thought. Top THAT, DeSantis!!!

  130. 130.

    prostratedragon

    @Ken: ​ As I sit here assiduously ignoring the eggnog curing in the refridgerator, it strikes me that much is sometimes achieved by mentioning things in passing. The forward motion of the story is maintained, but the reader or viewer has a little bit of intrigue to return to on their own.

  132. 132.

    Tony Jay

    @Chetan Murthy:

    Oh yes, without a doubt. That’s always been their intention.

    And in Nu-New Labour’s poreless scumbag of a Shadow Health-Secretary they have just the right(wing) kind of forward-thinking ‘moderate’ who can’t wait to take over and complete the job for them.

  136. 136.

    Gwangung

    @JMG: Yeah, racist AF. And what’s worth, there’s a real life person, Chang Apano, that Chan was based on….and he was wayyyy more interesting as a character than Chan ever was. 4’ 11”, spoke four languages and wielded a bullwhip way before a certain mainland haole personage in higher ed ever thought of it.

  137. 137.

    Brachiator

    Get your free COVID tests through USPS, restarting again tomorrow! Please get yours and be careful around vulnerable friends and family this holiday season.

    Just woke up and after checking my mail and browsing news headlines, ran into this thread.

    Just ordered some free tests. Easy as pie. Have some friends and family who have tested positive and recently saw Dr Fauci talk about Covid, flu and respiratory illness. Sad that only 13 percent have got a flu shot.

  139. 139.

    sab

    OT The whatevers in our midst (artists, authors…) is an amazing resource. I am embarrassed even to be here since I am none of the above. I just bought next year Christmas cards and some gorgeous coffee mugs. Not to mention the best skin cream ever. And soap that doesn’t make me itch.

  141. 141.

    Soprano2

    @Scout211: Ooh I need to check that; I have two boxes of tests at home that I thought were expired, so I bought one last week to give hubby a Covid test.

  143. 143.

    Brachiator

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    On the serious side, I love this kind of shit. I really doubt It would have ever occurred to me to wonder about it, snake penises either for that matter. I see a future Ig Nobel Prize winner here.

    I saw this snake story and wondered how there could be a “massive taboo about female genitalia” among scientists. I expect them to get the facts right about animal anatomy if they specialize in this area. No one would think it an IG Nobel level story if it were about a newly discovered venom mechanism.

    Good story with odd undercurrents.

  146. 146.

    J R in WV

    @OzarkHillbilly: ​
     

    Puking, and … I have an MRI scheduled for 6:15 tomorrow morn …

    I had a lumbar MRI scheduled for 6:30 last Monday — they found a disc protruding into the spinal column causing stenosis. Which is causing nerve issues downstream. Neurosurgeon is evaluating the MRI data, same one who worked on Wife’s stenosis in her neck. She is also treating a cousin, sounding like a family affair.

    Best of luck, a shame that we need MRIs at all at our age. It should be a rule that once you’re actually old, nothing else breaks down. Why isn’t that part of the contract?

  147. 147.

    J R in WV

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: ​

    There are dragons in the book I’m currently writing. Do I need to know this stuff?

    Depends upon what age group you target this upcoming book towards. Kindle has quite a few adult aimed books where sexy female shape-shifter dragons interact very closely with a heroic mammalian guy… . . ;~)
    TMI? Sorry! The comment isn’t too bad, is it?​

  153. 153.

    Miss Bianca

    @rikyrah: “Ban porn nationwide”? My God, if there’s one thing that could get incel MAGAts to turn on the Republicans, it would be that!

    Also…seriously? I mean, good luck with that. That snake with two clitori has long since slithered out from under the barn.

  155. 155.

    CaseyL

    @OzarkHillbilly: WTH???  I’m so sorry you and your family went through that, and wonder whatthehell it was.  There are so many weird viruses spreading through the population now.  I hope you all get better real soon!

  164. 164.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @SFAW:

    something mumble mumble something.

    The liberal narrative that conservatives don’t have answers to this stuff is a myth.  They have policies and agenda.  It’s to enforce bigotry and white rule.  They have specifics for Hunter Biden.  They think Hunter is selling US policy to foreigners and Joe gets 10% kickbacks.  Just because what they believe are deranged, destructive fantasies doesn’t mean they have no beliefs.  Hell, they know what their beef with Fauci is.  They think Covid is a bio weapon he created and leaked.

    @JMG:

    the best thing that could happen to Trump politically is to be indicted.

    Maybe.  But the worst would be to go to jail.  He can’t hold rallies in jail.  His communication options are limited.  He can’t campaign and give Republican voters the hate fix that had them clawing to vote for him.  Also, he would be a serious suicide risk.  Narcissists are prone to taking their ball and going home, which extends to their own life if they get the level of whim denial that happens in jail.

  165. 165.

    Soprano2

    @J R in WV: Best of luck, a shame that we need MRIs at all at our age. It should be a rule that once you’re actually old, nothing else breaks down. Why isn’t that part of the contract?

    I agree. I’m pretty sure I need another spinal injection, but I’m not yet ready to waste time going to physical therapy just so I can get a referral to the pain clinic so I can get the injection. It’s nuts, I’m sure physical therapy won’t fix the sciatic pain I’m feeling in my butt, but my doctor says in order to get a referral to the pain clinic I have to do PT first. Insane!

  170. 170.

    Gravenstone

    @rikyrah: Nice to see JD planning to embrace his status as a one term Senator in the minority. Making many loud, petulant noises but never accomplishing a bloody thing.

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