When you combine the Airing of Grievances with the Feats of Strength. pic.twitter.com/k4PIa8pDua
— Clint (@thescrotch) December 18, 2022
Top Quality Midwestern Attitude:
This is what you get when you ask the sports guy to come in to cover a blizzard in the morning show. pic.twitter.com/h0RL9tVQqg
— Mark Woodley (@MarkWoodleyTV) December 22, 2022
Biden is giving a Christmas speech, saying he hopes moments of reflection during the season ease partisan bickering.
"The messages of hope, love, peace and joy, they're also universal –it speaks to all of us," he said. "This Christmas, let's spread a little kindness." pic.twitter.com/daYb2SazFf
— Josh Wingrove (@josh_wingrove) December 22, 2022
BIDEN: “I sincerely hope this holiday season will drain the poison that has infected our politics and set us against one another” pic.twitter.com/EM0HmCh7oe
— Jordan Fabian (@Jordanfabian) December 22, 2022
"Both were grievously underestimated by Putin. Both have risen to the demands of standing up to Russia’s military in ways that have dramatic successes for Ukraine and humiliation for Russia. Both were, perhaps, also underestimated in their own countries when the war began." https://t.co/iyHD0dn8xJ
— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) December 22, 2022
David Rothkopf:
… American support will remain crucial to Ukraine’s ability to defeat Russia and reclaim the land Vladimir Putin is seeking to illegally seize. Zelenskyy’s task was to ensure that support remained unwavering and of the specific nature of which his nation most needs it—in terms of weapons systems, as well as economic and humanitarian aid.
His D.C. meetings began with a meeting with the man who has been his most important partner in this war, President Biden. The two leaders have been linked in ways that would have been impossible to predict just a year ago…
The two are now close partners who will be forever linked in the eyes of history. That is why, to some degree, the meetings at the White House were the easier part of Zelenskyy’s trip. Biden and his team have been unwavering in their support for Ukraine and the president again reiterated his commitment to that support.
He also promised Ukraine more aid, much needed military technologies— including a Patriot missile battery and JDAM precision-guided munition kits—and pledged the U.S. would support Ukraine for the duration its fight with the Russians. Zelenskyy and Biden both affirmed they viewed the ultimate goal to be the permanent assurance of the security and borders of a sovereign Ukraine. The two also demonstrated in their press conference following their meeting, a clearly genuine respect and affinity for one another…
The last audience—Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives—represents the toughest challenge of Zelenskyy’s visit. His appearance before Congress Wednesday night is, in large part, intended to forestall efforts by some on the right that want to cut back on aid to Ukraine.
Those outliers—the far-right fringe members who mouth Putin talking points while hoping for more influence in the next Congress—are seeing their relative influence over the Ukraine issue undercut this week by the fact that the current Congress is expected to approve approximately $45 billion in additional aid for Ukraine—an amount that should support the country’s needs for many months.
That this trip happened at all, and on the terms which the two leaders sought, makes it a success. Zelenskyy elevated his stature and won a reaffirmation of support from his most vital ally. He received a bipartisan commitment for new weapons systems and a massive new tranche of aid. He sent a message to those who might be inclined to cut back on aid to Ukraine in the future that they are in the clear minority. (Which is a good thing for the U.S., given that those Ukraine-skeptics on the right are actually giving aid and comfort to Russian enemies of the Western Alliance and the values it seeks to defend.)…
The only major losers from this trip were Vladimir Putin and the Russian hardliners whose careers and national interests have been permanently damaged by their catastrophic Ukraine blunder. They surely expected the resolve to support Ukraine would wane—but it is showing no sign of doing so yet. Oh, and there’s one other loser, of course. And that would be the former U.S. president who three years ago this week was impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives for trying to blackmail Zelenskyy.
How far we have come in those three years, from the impeachment of our ex-president to the well-deserved welcome Zelenskyy received from the current U.S. president and members of both Houses of Congress. Trump is sinking ever-deeper into disgrace. Zelenskyy is globally acknowledged as a genuine hero who has also recently won recognition, as Biden pointed out in what must be a particularly galling turn of events for Trump, Time magazine’s 2022 selection as Man of the Year.
Why should this be cringey?
It's true.
Is there something wrong with saying something positive?
Maybe we would all be happier if we said more positive and true things. https://t.co/9VQVxPqHNT
— Cheryl Rofer (@CherylRofer) December 23, 2022
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone😊😊😊
rikyrah
How is THE TRUTH cringe?🤔🤔🙄🙄
rikyrah
I like the Sargent tweet👏🏾👏🏾
NotMax
Timely weather music?
Josie
Duncan the corgi rose up to bark a warning to the puppies in the first tweet. He has now gone back to his original sleeping position.
JPL
@rikyrah: I might add that his X-mas speech was excellent. While I listened, I tried to imagine trump giving a similar speech. Did trump even attempt a X-mas speech.
Dorothy A. Winsor
That sports reporter is from the town in Iowa where we used to live. He has no fucks to give
JPL
@NotMax: That’s lovely and thank you for sharing.
OzarkHillbilly
Woodley may have screwed up with that reporting on the weather. Too funny. May now get the job every time.
Delk
Tucker on Lindsey ’s support of Ukraine:
So, it’s really hard to overstate how crazy this is. And you don’t want to play shrink and wonder about, you know, what emptiness at the core of Lindsey Graham’s personal life causes him to identify so strongly with a country he’s not a citizen of. Something’s going on there.
edit: Source
rikyrah
The sports guy doing the weather😂😂😂😂😂
Suzanne
Mark Woodley is hilarious and I hope he has a long career. LMAO.
zhena gogolia
@rikyrah: Yes, Cheryl is absolutely right.
zhena gogolia
@OzarkHillbilly: I love the part about, it’s the same as it was when you asked me five minutes ago.
Ken
Every now and then I see a small dog doing something and think, “Oh you poor thing, that worked when your people were wolves, but now… What have we done to you?”
zhena gogolia
@rikyrah: He’s quoting David Rothkopf. Rothkopf loves Biden.
sab
@Josie: Our across the street neighbors have three corgis, and their household wireless network is corgicity. I don’t know why that amuses me, but it does.
zhena gogolia
@Delk: Oh, so they’re threatening to “expose” him.
And the reaction will be a nationwide collective yawn.
OzarkHillbilly
@zhena gogolia: I’m pretty sure Millhiser is saying that this is the worst thing he can think of to say about Biden. In other words, it’s a compliment x 1,000.
JML
I discovered that all 7 seasons of Hill Street Blues are now available on Prime last night and went down a rabbit hole of Roll Calls. If you think of it as an 80’s period piece, it really holds up well. (maybe not the gangs so much, although seeing David Caruso as “Shamrock” is always hilarious)
That show really knew how to do a running gag.
OzarkHillbilly
@zhena gogolia: That just cracked me up. We’ve all sat thru multiple weather updates where the reporter says the exact same thing s/he said the last time they asked and it gets soooo tiresome. Good on him for pointing out the absurdity.
Josie
@sab: There is something about corgis (including my own) that is just intrinsically funny. Duncan is always making us laugh, and laughter is a much needed feeling.
JPL
@JML: The first episode grabbed my attention. It changed cop shows.
rikyrah
Uh huh😒😒
Ricky Davila (@TheRickyDavila) tweeted at 8:54 AM on Fri, Dec 23, 2022:
There’s a reason why I never share anything Maggie Haberman writes. It’s always been common knowledge that she’s a MAGA Roger Stone Jared Kushner ally and now we have court transcripts to bring it full circle.
(https://twitter.com/TheRickyDavila/status/1606302325118640128?s=02)
Ella in New Mexico
Merry Christmas!
I got an 8 hour lock out from Twitter for telling Donald Spawn Jr that next time his outfitter hands him a fish to hold up for the camera he outta just start slapping himself bloody in the face with it after he posted “Zelensky is basically an ungrateful international welfare queen.” after his speech.
” You’re locked out because you violated terms of service for promoting harm or violence against someone else blah blah blah take down that mean Tweet now and we’ll call it even”
JPL
@rikyrah: and CNN still has her on.
Ella in New Mexico
@JPL: Mostly because she manages to betray them as well as her readers
Spanky
When even Buffalo has a big problem …
ETA:
All from WaPo.
JML
@JPL: it really did, not always for the better. by showing a grimier side to policing it also enabled all of the cop shows that featured dirty cops doing criminal shit “for the right reason”. Few showrunners later noticed that Hill Street also had a very strong moral core and characters that wrestled with moral ambiguity but also had a central character in Furillo that demanded integrity from his cops.
Daniel J. Travanti was impressively good at doing barely controlled rage.
Love me some Veronica Hamel. Tough, smart, and very very sexy.
Suzanne
SuzMom wanted to go outside (on covered front porch) to feed the birds. She was about to go outside in her damn slippers, but I told her to wear boots. This wind has blown snow all over the porch, so it’s snowy and icy. So five minutes later, I hear her calling for help from the front door. She went outside wearing these cute high heel boots with no fucken traction, not her SNOW BOOTS, which were right by the door, and then she was falling all over the place and freaking out. FUCK! Don’t be an idiot!
zhena gogolia
@JML: OMG, OMG, OMG, I had no idea! I will love watching those again. I adore every single actor on that show.
Ella in New Mexico
@Delk:
Dang, when these people take each other out they pull out all the stops, don’t they? No loyalty what-so-ever if they turn on each other.
Oh well, couldn’t happen to a better turncoat than Lindsay
sab
@Suzanne: Sigh. The only thing worse than kids is parents.
Alison Rose
That Millhiser asshole is the same one who, a couple days ago, wrote an article headlined “Supreme Court Justice Sotomayor and Kagan need to think about retiring” so he can just fuck all the way off with his “cringe”
NotMax
After pumps adamantly avoiding altering prices for months, gasoline has plummeted to $5.09 for regular here.
It’s a holiday miracle! Celebrate!
/half-snark
sab
@NotMax: $2.19 here in Ohio.
geg6
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
He’s hilarious. Love his honesty!
sab
@Alison Rose: I missed that. Worth noting. Thanks.
JML
@NotMax: I gassed up for $2.59 this week.
NotMax
@zhena gogolia
Even at the time could have done without James B. Sikking’s grade-A a-hole caricature. YMMV.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@rikyrah:
Good morning!
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@sab:
Lucky. It’s $2.99 where I live
kalakal
@JML: Thanks for that. I’ll watch, I loved that show
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@NotMax:
God, I dread to think what it was before. It was briefly $5 months ago in Ohio
Leto
This years’ Ukrainian Miss Universe outfit is called “Warrior of Light”. It’s metal AF.
sab
@sab: We are in a city. In the Republican suburb prices are 50cents higher. I guess the gas stations know that Republicans believe what they hear in their media bubbles, which is all about inflation.
Steeplejack
@sab:
I need to gas up the K-Whip today. Last time I passed by a station, regular was $3.05. Will be interesting to see what it is now.
sab
@Leto: Their women have always been tough.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@sab:
I’ve noticed gasoline tends to be more expensive in the suburbs than in the city
@Leto:
Wow, that’s a cool outfit!
JML
@kalakal: I especially loved the Michael Conrad era for his Roll Calls.
They just don’t do cop shows like this any longer. Now it’s copaganda stuff like Chicago PD (which should be a disturbing look at how police units get out of control and become dangerous and lawless groups convinced of their own rectitude and instead it’s played as if we’re supposed to root for people to beat up suspects and violate their rights to “keep people safe”)
JML
@Leto: good grief, she’s a Magic: The Gathering card come to life!
evodevo
@JPL: Yes, this…especially when it turned out that the captain and the lawyer Joyce Davenport were an item….
Josie
@JML:
Oh goodness. I used to love that show. I just went straight to the Prime site and added it to my watch list. Should keep me entertained for quite a while.
NotMax
@JML
Have to go international to avoid the overt copaganda. France and Scandinavia (with a special nod to Finland) still have some fine choices available.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@JML:
God, I hate shows like Chicago PD! I used to have a love-hate relationship with SVU because of that crap.
UnStabler
JML
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): It’s part of why Original Recipe: L&O was better, IMHO.
Apparently the star of Chicago PD was also a real dickwad to my girl Sophia Bush, which is a big part of why she quit. But that show wishes it was half as good as Hill Street.
oatler
@JML:
Or one of those Tarot cards Jane Seymour turns over to show Bond in that voodoo movie.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
Stay warm and safe, jackals..
Here in Philly it’s going to be pretty mild, compared to what the rest of the country is experiencing. We’ve had a little rain the last 24 hours and temps in the 40s. Going down to 9 F tonight and the rain may or may not switch over to snow depending on when the temperature shifts. Nights in the teens for the next few days. But nothing like a winter storm.
We’ll likely get a lot of ice though. Driving to visit family on Christmas Day might get interesting.. No plans to go out other than that.
@Spanky: I used to routinely drive in whiteouts like that. Amazing how stupid we are when young. I’m being overly generous to imply that I’m not stupid now, but at least “driving when you can’t see past your windshield” is no longer on my list.
sab
Husband wanted to know what’s for dinner. Latkes, of course.
Referring to my ancestral Joy of Cooking. Irma Rombauer was Jewish and knew her potato pancakes.
Of course, she was quite reliable on all other aspects of midwestern food.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
Speaking of cop shows, anybody ever watched In the Heat of the Night? It’s actually not bad and can be excellent for a 30 year old show. It also did a sort of serialized storytelling which was rare for the time.
Though, I question how authentic that whole “New South” ethos it had about it
FastEdD
I went to a car show in SoCal a week ago. 1,000 people mostly wearing cheerful holiday attire, like sweaters with messages saying “Peace on Earth, Goodwill Toward Men.” I was thinking how pleasant and wonderful this was, strangers sharing their love of cars and enjoying each other’s company. Then a couple guys show up, one wearing a red cap saying ULTRA MAGA and another a shirt that says “Fuck Your Feelings.” Why would one do that in an environment that really does not call for it? If there is poison in our society I can see where it is coming from.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Yes. Carroll O’Connor’s post Archie Bunker show.
I was very fond of it, especially when Carl Weathers was a character.
Was always amused at how overt racism didn’t seem to be an issue in that little southern town. Especially considering the film they took their name from. I’m not sure anybody even ever mentioned race.
J R in WV
Ukrainian Miss Universe contestant is War Goddess with two-handed battle sword. Russian Spetznaz warriors have no chance — will be dumbstruck until they are sword struck.
Awesome idea for beauty in time of war!
Miss Bianca
@zhena gogolia: So true, and truth is a beautiful thing – especially when it’s wed to epic snark.
Steeplejack
@JML:
Criminal Intent was the crown jewel of the L&O franchise, IMO. Loved Goren and Eames, and I liked the way they brought Mike Logan back from exile on Staten Island. Even got to appreciate Jeff Goldblum, although that took a while.
Miss Bianca
@Leto: Ooh, mamma…
Ocotillo
The thing about Joe’s holiday message of setting aside the poison that separates us is the most likely to hear and/or heed it are the Dem side of the ledger which is always extending a hand only to have it slapped or spit on by the deplorables.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
Racism has come up for sure. But the racists are portrayed as marginalized. It’s hard to put my finger on it. There was a David Duke type character running as independent for US Senate in an episode I saw, the Leftover Man. The solution the episode devised was to simply let the man speak in the public school auditorium and hope people didn’t fall for his bullshit. Because it’s a TV show, few showed up to see him speak
eachother
I have read stories about the polar explorers. I have worked outside in minus 20 degrees. (hard to get anything done.)
I never wanted to explore the poles. Those stories burned memories into my memory. Or live where cold can kill you. But I do.
Buffalo is much closer. Big opportunity to experience polar misery without the complexity of expedition provisioning. The cost of a ship alone in these inflationary times…
Speaking of blizzards, I have a resolution candidate for 2023: Drink sufficient fluids. An evening beer is already part of this fluid resolution. Except on Sunday. And maybe Monday. My intermittent fast days.
NotMax
@sab
Food processors have managed to make the addition of a little knuckle blood a kaput tradition.
“These don’t taste like grandma’s did.”
;)
Starfish
@rikyrah: Some truths like “I really thought Paula Abdul was an excellent muscian when I was in junior high” are just cringe.
UncleEbeneezer
Southland is also an incredible show that didn’t pull punches on the ugly side of policing in the US. Not quite as good as The Wire, but only one notch below, imo.
MomSense
I’m watching Jack Ryan with youngest kid who is just back from Greece and he is loving all of the scenes in Athens. Also hearing his stories about the people he met and I just love this kid. He definitely explored – places and people way outside the university.
Meanwhile the weather outside is frightful and I don’t think any of the presents I ordered will make it on time. So Sunday will be a feast and full of music.
I am team Joe Biden. He has been a freaking amazing president and I love that he has never given up no matter what assholes or crises he has had to confront. Like Obama before him, I really feel that he is the best of us and we are damned lucky he is willing to serve.
Starfish
@rikyrah: How is it going for her as Trump world gets smaller and less relevant?
Kelly
We have about a 1/4″ of ice here in the western Cascade foothills. Temp is a rather tolerable 29f. Forecast to warm to 48f. A few brief power blinks so a few clocks to reset. Not bad at all.
UncleEbeneezer
I assume we are going to get a post at some point about the full Jan 6 Committee report…
If so, this is a great primer on some of the key findings.
Ryan Goodman also notes on Twitter:
“One of the most active parts of Special Counsel Smith’s criminal investigations: The false slate of electors The January 6th Report has new evidence on the individuals driving the false electors scheme:
Donald J. Trump
Mark Meadows
Rudy Giuliani
2. More evidence tying Trump directly into the fake electors scheme. Trump campaign’s Joshua Findlay: President Trump “made it clear that Rudy was in charge of this and that Rudy was executing what he wanted.””
Bill Arnold
@OzarkHillbilly:
The replies by right-wingers in that thread are interesting. Some of them are all-in on underestimating POTUS Biden, and all-in on baseline-reality-denial.
When one seriously underestimates one’s opponents, one is much more likely to lose.
BruceFromOhio
@UncleEbeneezer: I thought Southland was better. Alas it did not last long. Lucy Liu as Officer Tang was a notable character.
BruceFromOhio
How is this person a journalist.
@OzarkHillbilly: Ok, ill give the benefit of the doubt. But sheesh was a choice of words.
mrmoshpotato
This guy was sooooo good spirited. I… Would’ve been canned on air.
kalakal
@Leto: That’s a great outfit
Ksmiami
@FastEdD: at least they’ll be easy targets to spot when the Revolution comes…
@Ocotillo: Yeah, sorry, if you’re a Republican today, you’re just a shitty person. No good will from me.
rikyrah
Uh huh😒😒
Don Lewis (@DonLew87) tweeted at 4:02 PM on Thu, Dec 22, 2022:
Cassidy Hutchinson was concerned about doing an interview with Maggie Haberman. Hutchinson said under oath that the same Trump lawyer who told her to lie – Stefan Passantino – said: “Don’t worry. Like, Maggie’s friendly to us. We’ll be fine.” What does the NYT think of this?
(https://twitter.com/DonLew87/status/1606047649332793344?s=02)
Ksmiami
@MomSense: I think Joe and Obama are tied the best presidents of my lifetime
Starfish
@BruceFromOhio: That surprised me.
I didn’t consider him a journalist, more of a Democratic operative.
He was at ThinkProgress before Vox.
MomSense
@Ksmiami:
Same. The well of strength and faith they draw upon is sooooo deep.
kalakal
@eachother: Have you read The Worst Journey in the World by Apsley Cherry- Garrard? It’s a fantastic book. It’s the most incredible story of surviving in polar conditions, there are bits that are etched in my memory
mrmoshpotato
@Ella in New Mexico: Good on ya! To Hell with that American Psycho shitstain!
rikyrah
Just reading this
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
Ricky Davila (@TheRickyDavila) tweeted at 10:46 AM on Fri, Dec 23, 2022:
It appears that seditious spineless coward Kevin McCarthy doesn’t have the votes to become Speaker. Hell yes.
(https://twitter.com/TheRickyDavila/status/1606330463169024009?s=02)
UncleEbeneezer
@BruceFromOhio: I never finished Southland. But really liked what I saw. The Wire was better. And it’s my birthday so I am right :)
Seriously though, both (along with We Own This City) are essential tv cop shows, imo.
eachother
@NotMax:
“a little knuckle blood” Took me a moment to get this. My first thought was secret ingredient pig knuckle for flavor. My second thought following my laughter was, probably not pig.
;)
Winston
Local forecast in my part of Florida is 28-30 degree lows for a couple of days which should kill the grass until next May or June. Less mowing.
Dorothy A. Winsor
I know Barney Miller was a comedy and so not in the same genre as Hill Street. I like both shows, and I’ve come to appreciate a small detail in Barney Miller. When he gets home, he immediately locks his gun in a high cupboard
Geminid
@rikyrah: It would be wild if McCarthy’s Speakerhip came down to George Santos’s vote!
J R in WV
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
We spent a
yeardecade in Pascagoula MS in 1972. It was iIke going back in time to about 1952, and racism was obvious and rampant everywhere. The nearest liquor store to our apartment had a big sign over the cash register which read:Wife got a job as a reference librarian, she was the only applicant with an actual degree. When an older gentleman from our home town who lived near Wife’s grandparents, and who worked by the business Wife and I worked at when we met dropped by the library to see Wife, she hugged him with great joy to unexpectedly see a family friend from WV. One problem! He was black, with snow white hair.
They wanted to fire her for “An unseemly show of affection for a Negro man!” but realized the look of firing a Navy wife for hugging a guy her father’s age might look, well, racist as fuck and bad also too. But it was not a happy place for us prior to my discharge.
When my ship left Pascagoula for sea trials and shake down cruises after the yard overhaul, he Library Staff just assumed wife would return to WV and live with either her parents (HA-HA!!) or my parents ( also not likely, but not HAHA unlikely.)
But having a job and living in your own home absent a husband to tell you what to do? Unthnkable! How will she ever know what to do next?
Pascagoula MS in 1972 was an open weeping sore on a national anus and I have no reason to suspect it has changed as we see the state capitol with toxic water because it is a majority black city and the white controlled legislature won’t fund the city well enough to support their own capital city.
I know I have submitted this rant before, you can see that it stuck to me pretty hard. At first seemed that there were very few black folks in Pascagoula, it took us a while to figure that the nearby “suburb” of Moss Point was where black folks were supposed to live. It is impossible to cover all the horrible an racist things that continue to bubble up once I open that dumpster file of memories.
I’m trying to stop, but all the horrible memories keep pouring out…
ETA:
There were no Jim Crow laws in WV to speak of, although the 1950s and ’60s had their share of racist traditions. In my last year of high school the Board consolidated both city high schools into a really big new nice facility. There were no fights, and there were black cheerleaders and majorettes
The first time I remember seeing “Whites Only” signs were on the refrigerated water coolers at southern aaaaaaaaaaaafilling stations while touring probably in NC.Probably about 10 yo, visiting parks, outdoor dramas for tourists, Civil War battlefields, etc. Typical Summer vacation road trip
To be fair, and both sides and all,, there were also “
BlasksCommon Racist Slurs Only” on crummy straight water pipe fountains… I asked mom what was all that signage about, it was so abnormal to me, and she leaned forward and in a very low voice said “We shouldn’t talk about it here, we should wait until we’re private. so let it go and don’t mention it to anyone.” My first exposure to Jim Crow and the privileges thereby.Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Cops used to say that was the most realistic cop show on TV
and arguably the best theme song, too
Josie
@UncleEbeneezer:
Happy Birthday!
I agree about The Wire. I would say it is the best of all the shows of that genre. I can’t afford extra movie channels, but, if it was on Prime, I would watch it all over again
MomSense
@rikyrah:
Last week I got together with some knitting friends I hadn’t seen in awhile. We had been close but COVID stopped our regular gatherings and we kind of fell out of touch. Anyway one of them showed me a gift she made for her good friend Maggie and I was at a loss for words . Everyone there was saying how much they liked her and I was completely shocked.
Barbara
@Alison Rose: Yep. It’s quite the admission to state that it makes him cringe to acknowledge that Biden has been an excellent president — basically, admitting that compliments are anathema to a certain kind of public intellectual.
japa21
Yes, it is cold in Chicagoland. Boy did we pick a good time of year to move.
Anyway, as the days in our home of 38 years dwindle down to a precious few and we realize just how much we still have to do, we are going through things at a frantic pace. As we do, we are finding wonderful things, some not so wonderful, and a few items that are interesting
Mrs Japa just brought me a receipt from April 4, 2015. It was for gas we bought at Costco. At that time, the price per gallon was $2.569. Same station today is $2.899. Not really that much difference after 7 plus years.
eachother
@kalakal:
One of the seared forever memories of polar exploration was the Shackleton expedition. Beside the years stuck in solid ice, was of the elk-skin sleeping bags. They were wet and slick with slime.
Pleasant dreams.
Alison Rose
@Barbara: It’s like he’s comparing liking Biden to liking Thomas Kinkade paintings or Nickelback.
MomSense
@Alison Rose:
LOL
Burnspbesq
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Ten cents per kWh. $9.30 for a full charge, which gives me 260 miles of range in the dead of winter.
kalakal
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I liked that show and the theme music’s brilliant. Killer bass line
Steeplejack
@Steeplejack:
Regular gas $2.99 at my usual BP station (in NoVA).
Burnspbesq
Got down to 12 degrees here in suburban Austin overnight. Now a balmy 20.
Josie
@Burnspbesq: Similar in Houston. 17 degrees last night up to 23 now. Outside pipes not working, even though wrapped.
kalakal
@eachother: Lurvley. That sounds appealing
Cherry-Garrard I think described being in extreme cold better than anybody ( he, Bowers, and Wilson were travelling in temperatures that averaged -105 for 5 weeks ). On leaving the tent one morning …
“Once outside, I raised my head to look round and found I could not move it back,” Cherry-Garrard recalled. “My clothing had frozen hard as I stood—perhaps 15 seconds. For four hours I had to pull with my head stuck up, and from that time we all took care to bend down into a pulling position before being frozen in.”
On another occasion he describes his teeth shattering due to the cold
He wrote very well and had a delightful, dry sense of humour
“Polar exploration is at once the cleanest and most isolated way of having a bad time which has been devised,”
hedgehog mobile
@Leto: Callback to St. Olga? Damn, that is metal.
Kelly
@eachother: I did a bit of mountaineering in the Oregon Cascades, starting in high school. When I was 20 my brother, a buddy and I decided to celebrate New Years Day by climbing Mt Hood from Timberline Lodge. It’s mostly a straightforward hike up a long snow slope. Beautiful clear weather we decided to start up at midnight hoping to summit at dawn. That’s what we did in the spring so we could travel on firm snow instead of slush. Seemed like a good idea when we arrived at the Timberline parking lot. Millions of stars, 15f, no wind. Timberline Lodge is at 6,000 feet. The ski lifts ascend to 8540. Somewhere around 8,000 feet the wind started. The temp declined to -15f. The gusts were strong enough to to push me off balance. My little brother was leading. He saw a snow drift that made about a 2 foot windbreak. He laid down in it’s shelter certain we would ridicule him for wimping out. Big Steve was next and snuggled up as tight as he could get. I snuggled in turn. We have to get out here we shouted into each other’s ears over the howling wind. We could barely hear one another. Back down we fled. Dropped out of the wind about halfway down. I had to scrape frost off the inside of the VW bus windshield most of the way home.
WaterGirl
@MomSense: I feel like I’m missing something in that story. ??
Burnspbesq
Pre-ordered a Kindle copy of the committee report. Will get it tomorrow.
Roger Moore
@FastEdD:
I would wonder what environment would ever call for that kind of behavior. That said, they’re obviously trying to provoke conflict so they can feel like victims. It’s a very common approach.
Fake Irishman
@BruceFromOhio:
Having followed Ian on Twitter for a long time, it’s pretty clear he’s saying “cringiest” with his tongue clearly in cheek. he’s mocking savvy folks who just simply know the Biden administration is a mess despite, you know, apl the evidence. Cheryl is quite a smart commentator, as we all know, but she completely missed the snark here.
His understanding of the court’s rightward lurch has been quite good over the last decade and he knows the history well.
The reason why he has suggested Sotomayor and Kagan retire is because the Dems have a window to confirm good young replacements. He was very much in Breyer’s face to retire too.
we can discuss whether Ginsburg should have retired, but if she had stepped down in 2009 or 2013, the court would be a much, much different place today. (Also if Dems had won the Senate in 2014 or 2016 or we weren’t so worried about Hillary’s e-mail server practices….) Also if LBJ hadn’t screwed up Warren’s replacement in 1968, and if I had a unicorn….
Some of our commentors here really need to get context before firing off very strong half-baked opinions (yes yes I know that would violate the jackaltariat’s terms of service…)
Geminid
@kalakal: One of grimmer stories about a northern expedition that I’ve read is fictional:
The British party has a quite stimulating time traveling by ship, train and steamboat to the limit of navigation in the western Canadian wilderness.
Then their many fellow travelers set out on foot, provisioned for the arduous journey to the gold fields. The Lord ànd his party does not join them on the accepted route, though. He has done his own research….
wenchacha
@JML: Vic Hitler, Narcoleptic Comic
Alison Rose
@WaterGirl: The comment she’s responding to is a tweet about Maggie Haberman. Hence the shock!
BruceFromOhio
@UncleEbeneezer: hey! Happy Birthday, Uncle E! Sto lat!
Another Scott
@Fake Irishman: Twitter is horrible for communication and nuance. The tweet is yet another example illustrating the point.
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
Fake Irishman
@Barbara
Millhauser is clearly using snark here. He believes Biden is an excellent president, has always thought that, and he’s not ashamed to admit it, he’s just pretending that it’s “cringey” because it just doesn’t fit in with the Beltway chattering classes savvy takes. He’s mocking them.
I think some of us need to have our irony filters replaced and our snark detectors checked this holiday season. Jiffy Lube has a special going on that I hear….
kalakal
@Geminid: I’ll have to read that, I’m fascinated by Polar travel
Alison Rose
@Fake Irishman: I read the whole article and I see the point on one level, but it comes across as sexist and condescending to tell two young-in-terms-of-SCOTUS-Justices women to go away when both of them likely have at least another 20 years on the bench. If Ian is so concerned about it, he can stop writing and go out and help elect more Democrats.
WaterGirl
@Alison Rose: @MomSense: Ah, thank you. Even the Obama Bros on a recent podcast were critical of people that give Maggie H. a hard time.
I was shocked. And disappointed. Ugh.
I really like Jon Lovett, but it really pisses me off when he talks about how cringe Nancy Pelosi is. He recently named a whole series of times when she was “cringe”.
I was shocked because just a couple of years ago he would close his show with something like “thank god for Nancy Pelosi”. I guess he appreciated her when she was blocking T****, but now she’s cringe.
Alison Rose
@kalakal: Another one on this topic that I would highly recommend is To the Bright Edge of the World by Eowyn Ivey, about the efforts to map the interiors of Alaska:
It also has a dual timeline with portions set, IIRC, roughly in our present time, and there’s a bit of a mixed media aspect as well. That’s a lot to incorporate in one novel, but Ivey handles it very skillfully.
Anyway
@sab:
Many left-wing pundits have PTSD from how RBG’s replacement played out and don’t want to be stuck with a Republican senate when it comes time for a SCOTUS appointment.
Fake Irishman
@Another Scott:
Fair enough, but I thought this one was pretty clear and frankly I expected a bit higher level of understanding from our commentariat….
*Baud walks by with pants on head*
Actually, never mind. That’s on me.
Alison Rose
@WaterGirl: It feels very hipster when people take someone who is very popular and is like “nah they’re embarrassing”. To me, it’s WAY more “cringe” to praise Haberman. She sucks.
Anyway
@Alison Rose:
That’s the author of -Snow Child-, right? Too lazy to look it up …
eachother
@Kelly:
Winter ’91-’92. Thirty below nights. Twenty below days. Went to hook up a furnace. No heat. Faint light. Two inches of frost on the metal case of the furnace. A real below decks horror set.
Was driving a ’66 VW Bug. The oil slugged up. The engine stopped. I walked the rest of the way home in the wind.
Was wiring a house by a river in a cold capturing wooded area. Had to dress to the point I could hardly move. Had to build the service and make some temporary outlets for construction. Everything metal. No heat. Outlets took hours. Service took 2 days. 4/0 copper is stiff and unyielding. Second day brought a 50,000 BTU heater just to work outside.
Good times.
Jinchi
@NotMax: gas here started dropping right about election day. We’re down more than $2.50 a gallon from the peak.
kalakal
@Alison Rose: Great coincidence! I just finished reading it, I really enjoyed it :-).
Spanky
Alistair MacLean’s first novel HMS Ulysses, about a convoy from England to Murmansk during WWII. Bleak.
Another Scott
@eachother: Decades ago there was a guy who lived in Alaska who had a weekly column for AutoWeek. He said the problem with cars and trucks in the cold up there wasn’t keeping the oil warm or the battery from freezing or any of that stuff. It was the tires. They would flat-spot in the cold and if one wasn’t careful the seal would break loose from the wheels (losing all the air) or crack or worse before they warmed up.
That’s cold!
Cheers,
Scott.
Starfish
@Alison Rose: Some of the critique for Haberman is plain old sexism though. There are other reporters that have done the same thing– running cover for Republican nonsense but being deemed serious reporters. However, I do not know any of their names. Usually, they share bylines with Haberman.
kalakal
@Spanky: That’s one hell of a book. Bleak is the very word
cain
@JML:
Highly recommend “3 Pines” on Amazon Prime. It’s been great so far. Lot of interesting complex things – lot of focus on indigenous people abuse, racism by white Christian churches. Some thought provoking stuff all while solving murders.
Kent
Textbook case of psychological projection here. Absolutely textbook.
Kirk Spencer
@Josie: likewise Dallas. Working in an unheated warehouse, at least it’s not outside in the wind.
Kent
I gotta think that he eventually will. They have no viable alternative. None.
Geminid
@kalakal: At 224 pages, Journey is much shorter than a typical Michener novel.
kalakal
I lived for a while in Groningen in the NE Netherlands. In winter we used to skate along the canals, sometimes went to Germany about a 60 mile round trip.
I used to ride my bicycle to work along the canals as well
Fake Irishman
@Alison Rose:
Sotomayor is nearly 70. Kagan I’d agree is a bit young to pressure. But I’m not really sure how it’s sexist when he’s pointing out a long-standing problem that finally bit us bad in 2020. Those are the only two seats we have some control over and we have folks in them who are approaching retirement age He was adamant about Breyer retiring. He knows the history of good justices hanging on too long (see William O Douglas in 1975) or bad ones (Rehnquist) Dahlia Lithwick noted this problem as far back in 2005 when she noted how old John Paul Stevens was.
And I’m all for electing more Democrats, as is Millhauser, but his day job is literally the courts correspondent for Vox. He’s allowed to have opinions on the subject of the court and share them.
(and obviously you’re allowed to disagree with him and I’m allowed to disagree with you, first amendment and all that…)
Qrop Non Sequitur
I went to my friend’s house last week, the last remaining from my old high school friends. But several of my old high school buddies where there being all Trumpy.
In true Trumpy fashion, they didn’t spend their time talking positive about their guy, but disparaging Biden. All the usual remarks we’ve heard a million times. Then they asked me what I thought.
No hesitation, what I always say here. I was skeptical at first but I’m loving Biden. They asked why but two words into realizing I was actually going to answer they changed the subject.
So much winning.
Alison Rose
@Anyway: Yes, and that’s one of my all-time faves!
Barbara
@Fake Irishman: It’s the writer’s job to supply enough context to impart the intended meaning . . .
Alison Rose
@kalakal: Haha, GMTA :)
Kent
Biden is better at the actual job of administering the executive branch including thing like appointing good people to Federal positions and empowering them. Contrast for example:
Secretary of Transportation: Obama appointed GOP Congressman Ray LaHood. Biden appointed Pete Buttigieg.
Secretary of Education: Obama appointed the egregious charter privateer Arne Duncan. Biden appointed public school teacher and administrator Miguel Angel Cardona
Secretary of Defense. Obama kept around Bush’s appointee GOPer Robert Gates. Biden appointed Lloyd Austin
Secretary of Treasury: Obama appointed Timothy Geithner, Biden appointed Janet Yellen.
I love me some Obama as much as anyone. But as a former Federal employee I have to conclude that Biden’s long experience and savvy makes him a better and more effective leader of the executive branch. Obama’s lack of experience and eagerness to tread a middle path led him into egregious mistakes like his “surge” in Afghanistan that I don’t think Biden would have made. And there is the example of Biden forcing Obama’s hand on gay marriage. Although who knows if that was scripted or not. Could have been.
lowtechcyclist
@Fake Irishman:
If you weren’t familiar with his stuff, lacking the background of knowing “he believes Biden is an excellent president, has always thought that, and he’s not ashamed to admit it,” how could you tell which way he meant it?
Are we supposed to have read up on the top several dozen reporters and pundits to know where they’re really coming from when we read a tweet from one of them that a front-pager has posted here at BJ?
Sure Lurkalot
Emptywheel has a long read on her .net page about the J6 committee’s blind spots
I follow her and read a lot of her sometimes convoluted narratives. But lately, she reminds me of someone else in the news who believes his understanding of everything is golden and everyone else is wrong. Also, good number of commenters on her website pounce on anyone with even the narrowest of a varying opinion. YMMV.
https://www.emptywheel.net/2022/12/23/december-27-the-january-6-committees-blind-spots/
Nelle
@Alison Rose: If you haven’t read Margaret Murie and her Alaskan travels with her husband, Olaus, you are in for treat.
Kent
@Sure Lurkalot: I read Emptywheel too.
In defense of the committee I think they understood better than her that you have limited time and bandwidth to make the best case possible and that means you can’t necessarily chase down every single rabbit hole or pull on every single string. They had what, maybe 10 public hearings to make the best possible case and then a report where most people (reporters included) aren’t going to read much past the executive summary. Adding another 50 pages of footnotes and appendices isn’t going to achieve anything. You make your best and strongest case.
JoyceH
Here in rural Virginia, the temperature has dropped below freezing. We got the precip first and then the cold, so no snow. Wind is gusting, blew the front door open – it’s now braced with a ten pound hand weight. I’m feeling very successful – got the tree up and decorated and the guest room habitable, and my cleaner has found a two hour block for me today, so I’m going into the holiday in a good situation. AND! My ‘branch retinal artery occlusion’ seems to be getting better! The problem area in my field of vision is smaller and more blurry than opaque.
BC in Illinois
@Kent:
You’re probably right. Who else would they get behind? But I’m looking forward to the process being as long, slow, bitter, and divisive as possible.
I’m looking forward to Kevin McC being a S.I.N.O
Speaker in name only. He’s no Nancy Pelosi.
Qrop Non Sequitur
The moderates do, they can partner with the Dems. It wouldn’t require many.
JoyceH
BTW, I’ve got onto Post (or “Post.”) in case Twitter goes the way of Usenet. Just posted my first Post, and noticed the Tip option – you can give people money? People can give YOU money?! And what do you have to do to get people to give you money?
Qrop Non Sequitur
There are options. Unboxing videos, video essays, just flat out begging.
How comfortable are you being in a state of undress on the internet?
lowtechcyclist
@Geminid:
I’ve only read one of his books, Chesapeake, since I live just a few decent Frisbee throws away from it. OK, maybe Aerobie throws.
It had very little to do with the Chesapeake Bay proper. It should have been titled Choptank, the estuary on the east side of the bay where almost the entire book takes place.
OK, he needed a better title than that. But he could have come up with a better one than to name his book after a body of water he largely ignored.
Jay
As it is Festivus, got to work this am in “Snowmageddon III” at 7:15am, after a 1.5 hour transit ride with all of 2 people on a 90 person bus, (not including the driver), Emanuel had unlocked, so I shovelled the doors and walkways clear, loading docks, salted, started work on a 350′ FlexSnake repair, Prabh showed up at 8:30 am, and the Big Bosses called a “snow day” at 9am..
Kayla Rudbek
The pumpkin pie is baked and I’m trying to decide what dessert to make for Christmas Eve dinner at the in-laws. Cranberry orange loaf or mini-cakes would be easiest in terms of ingredients, but I also have a pecan pie crust that would probably go well with some sort of vegan cheesecake filling. The easier cheesecake filling might be a chocolate one, but the cranberry filling looks good too…
Fortunately we don’t have to leave for the exurb’s until after 5 pm tomorrow so I have time to make the dessert tomorrow. Any suggestions from the jackal community?
cain
@Kent:
Obama ran on bipartisanship and getting back to working together – we all cheered when he made those appointments as a sign of how much better we are at this. Our problem was that all of that was to get more white male votes. I think we still try to chase white male votes. We need to stop that.
I’m glad that we are learning and now realizing that there are no good GOP people. If they are still in the GOP at this point – we know that they are all in on fascism.
sab
@NotMax: Lmao. But I still use the old grater because cleaning the cuisinart is such a pain.
WaterGirl
@lowtechcyclist: The same thing happens here on Balloon Juice.
People add tweets in the comments that might be clearly snarky to them, but not to be folks who aren’t following those people on twitter.
Or people make some dry statement about a tweet that appears to be the opposite of what is intended if you don’t know the inside scoop.
It’s everyone playing to the inside track, but not good if you’re actually trying to communicate a particular thing to people who aren’t following all the cool kids you’re following.
Nelle
Thirty-five years ago, in late December 1987, we drove out of Fairbanks in our old Datsun. We had our three year old daughter in her car seat, wrapped in sleeping bags. The temperature was about -38F. We drove for hours in darkness down the Alcan, stopping for night in Haines Junction, Yukon. Then we headed south, through British Columbia, to Haines, Alaska, when we caught the Alaska State ferry to Seattle (five days). We drive to see my parents in Kansas, pausing a day for blizzard road closures in Wyoming. My husband went ahead to a new job in Maryland and to find housing.
Now when my adult children take risks that I think are too much, I think back to a trip where we wouldn’t even see another car for three hours at a time and keep my mouth shut. Fairbanks was a cold place to live.
cain
@Sure Lurkalot:
I caught myself about to attack a journalist who said that the Democrats had a poor track record on mask wearing. I realized that I wasn’t sure if that’s true or not – the Dems track record on vaccines is excellent and I wonder if I was conflating the two and thinking everything was fine.
But the way teh reporter defended herself seemed off. I have to find that post and see if people believe this is true – I tried to do critical thinking instead of a knee jerk response.
UncleEbeneezer
@Sure Lurkalot: Yeah, I take everything she writes with several grains of salt. She’s not quite Seth Abramson levels of “look at me” but she’s definitely on that end of the spectrum. I think Allison Gill (MuellerSheWrote) is a better non-lawyer journalist to follow. She at least regularly interacts with former USA’s/FBI like McCabe, Weissman, Strok etc. who will confirm or correct her based on their experience.
Soprano2
@OzarkHillbilly: I always think it’s crazy when they make people do that. As if we don’t know it’s cold and snowy outside! Just like when they make reporters go to the scene of something that happened hours before – what’s the point, nothing is happening there now. It’s a waste of money.
WaterGirl
@Kent: Yep. Pick your battles.
And don’t pick the battles that other agencies can cover under normal duties as assigned.
Sure Lurkalot
@Kent: Arne Duncan was the shits but despite Secretary Cardona’s fine qualifications, he opined recently that basically, public school education should be rejiggered to be a pipeline for industry. I’ll try to find the quote.
Soprano2
@JPL: Oh yeah, I’ll never forget watching it, and I was in college. Cops NEVER got shot on a cop show before that!
UncleEbeneezer
@Kent: Also there may be stuff that DOJ doesn’t want reported for important reasons.
sab
We adopted my dad’s cat in weather like this. He was our neighbors’ cat and their wife thought it was okay to keep him outside in minus zero weather. He pounded frantically on dad’s window, and we let him in. He never looked back.
UncleEbeneezer
@WaterGirl: This is one of the things that people often misunderstand. This is also DOJ’s policy. So if State AG’s or Civil Suits are working towards something like accessing information, DOJ policy is typically to let those play out first. I remember this being the case that Barb McQuade (or Joyce White Vance) made on SistersInLaw podcast. Referring to the question of “why doesn’t DOJ go hard after X testimony/documents?” and the answer was “because those issues are already in the works of being resolved by other means.”
Soprano2
@JML: I paid $2.50.
Geminid
@lowtechcyclist: I thought Michener’s Poland was pretty good. I learned a lot about a nation I never knew much about.
Soprano2
@FastEdD: I particularly think it’s funny and ironic that the same people who constantly whine about the “degradation” of society now think nothing of wearing shirts and hanging up flags with the word “fuck” on them. We have one of those in our neighborhood, and I wonder about the people around that who have kids. How do they explain that to their kids?
patrick II
Last week I ordered a snowblower from Lowe’s that was supposed to lo delivered on Tuesday. It didn’t happen. They said they would reschedule for Thursday. Didn’t deliver again, but promised to deliver it today (Friday). They called last night and informed me that all deliveries had been cancelled because of the impending snowstorm. They will deliver it next week.8″ or the ground this morning.Thanks a lot.
Gin & Tonic
Here in southern New England, we got torrential rain all night and into the morning, and now I’m seeing peeks of sunshine. Still 50 degrees, but I think that’s going to go down very quickly. Had no power for about three hours, but props to the linemen out in this kind of weather. Little bit of water in the basement, but that’s to be expected in these conditions. Tomorrow will be brisk.
Having 10 people and three dogs in the house, when it’s almost always just the two of us and the dog, is … um …
eachother
@kalakal:
Another: The Terror by Dan Simmons
Fiction. Very real. Very cold. Based on real arctic exploration. Real names and history. Until it gets scary. Where I first came across The Man Who Ate His Boots. by Anthony Brandt. Found the book at the Library sale. Haven’t read yet.
Sir John Franklin. The man who ate his boots. A principle character in the Terror. The Terror is the name of one of the ships. Like Shackleton’s Endurance, well describes their situations. As does eating boots describe the hardship the story is laced with.
@Alison Rose: Thank you for the book recommendation.
Barbara
@Sure Lurkalot: I had to stop following her because she goes down so many rabbit trails she is more likely to impart confusion than understanding. It isn’t easy to achieve clarity when actors are trying their best to obfuscate, but I have found that Marcy herself can lack sufficient perspective to distinguish what is significant from what is not, and often enough just ends up drowning us in detail.
schrodingers_cat
@sab: Put it in the dishwasher.
sab
@schrodingers_cat: I never even thought of doing that. Luddites lack imagination.
Alison Rose
@Kayla Rudbek: Cranberry-orange loaf sounds delicious! I do love that flavor combo
sab
@Nelle: Driving south into Canada with kids. That is adventurous.
Another Scott
@Kent:
Not only that, but there’s the fact that they were actually at the Capitol when it was happening.
Personally, I’m inclined to give people who were there the benefit of the doubt.
Cheers,
Scott.
Josie
@cain:
I agree about “3 Pines.” I found it amusing that the other grandmother (a conservative) said she liked the mystery but was turned off by all the “woke stuff.” That was followed by an interesting conversation between us during which I tried to state my case without losing my temper.
Uncle Cosmo
@kalakal: Read this first – it’s quick.
Geminid
@cain: The problem with evaluating a claim that the Democrats are bad at something is that there are people who will use any issue whatsoever at any time possible as an opportunity to attack Democrats. And I am not talking about Republican critics here.
There are seeming allies who deliver superficially clever critiques that do not hold water upon close examination. They have a receptive audience that will believe them uncritically though.
I’m not saying Democrats are above good faith criticism. But I’ve seen so many bad faith critics that I am sceptical of critics generally.
Mike in NC
We naively decided yesterday would be a good travel day, despite miserable weather everywhere. Our plane to Philadelphia was half an hour late for takeoff, so we missed the connecting flight to Boston by just a few minutes. We were sent to Charlotte, then on to Boston. Instead of landing at 3:30, we landed at Logan at 10:30 PM. At least I was able to collect my suitcase from baggage claim, which was a great relief.
CNN saying that over 4000 flights have been affected nationwide. Currently 54 degrees in Boston, while the temperature in DC is a balmy 11F.
Bought a big bottle of Ukrainian vodka at Total Wine for the holiday, with proceeds going to civilian relief efforts.
UncleEbeneezer
@Barbara: THIS!
PAM Dirac
@Qrop Non Sequitur:
I think the purple district Rs are going to try to stay in a superposition of pro-MAGA and anti-MAGA states for as long as they can. They know going full MAGA will almost certainly kill their chances for re-election, but don’t want to go clearly anti-MAGA until they absolutely have to. With the passage of the spending bill I think there is no absolutely must pass legislation until late summer when the debt ceiling is reached. I’m pretty confident the purple district Rs will help the Ds avoid a default, but the question is will they be sick enough of the crazies and will the power of the crazies have waned enough by then to have the purple Rs join with the Ds in a more substantial way to do some useful governing. I don’t know, but I think there is a least a trend in that direction.
ETA: I think there is no chance the purple Rs will join with the Ds in the early part of this session.
kalakal
@Uncle Cosmo: Thank you, I liked that a lot. Never seen it before
Kent
What moderates? Most of them got tossed out in the primaries for voting to convict Trump in the second impeachment.
Partnering with Dems to elect a Dem speaker would be tantamount to switching parties or caucusing with the Dems like Bernie Sanders and Angus King do over in the Senate. I don’t see any of them doing that.
Kent
I’m familiar with that quote and it was taken out of context. He was essentially saying that HS kids should get educations that actually make them employable. He wasn’t talking about the top-10 percent of kids who are college bound and taking AP classes. He was talking about the other end where far too many kids bounce out of HS with no marketable skills. I currently teach HS in a large diverse school in the poorer side of town. It is a real problem that kids leave HS without the skills that will give them a pathway to the middle class
It is actually one of the oldest debates in public education. We keep going back and forth between two extremes and never get it right.
Barbara
@Kent: Two moderates who supported impeachment actually survived, but I can’t remember their names. The numbers are so close that I suppose it could happen, but controlling the procedural possibilities gives added heft to the party in power to prevent things from even being considered by the whole House, so I think that is probably much more important.
zhena gogolia
@Kent: Biden argued against the surge.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Josie: I’m a big fan of Penny’s books, and the series is quite a bit darker. In the books, Three Pines is a quirky place where you’d want to live. I had to wipe all that out of my mind to enjoy the TV series, which I finally managed to do.
WaterGirl
@patrick II: Irony is not dead.
kalakal
@eachother: Yes, I enjoyed that one a lot. I’m a big fan of Simmons’ Hyperion books so when I saw that one I jumped at it. I really like the way he blended fact & fiction, reminded me of George MacDonald Fraser’s Flashman books in that respect ( though not of course in subject matter ).
Kim Stanley Robinson’s Antarctica is rather fun, mixes near future with history and a lot of environmental background
A good general book on the early Antarctic expeditions is Alan Gurney’s Below the Convergence
WaterGirl
@Gin & Tonic: A lot.
That may be the kindest way of putting it.
japa21
@Kent: Exactly how I understood it as well.
Kent
But they aren’t moderates. Being anti-Trump doesn’t make you a moderate. It just makes you more sane. One of them is Dan Newhouse who represents the 4th District here in Washington. Which is a MAGA district in central Washington that went +19 for Trump in 2020. He is as “moderate” as Liz Cheney if you know what I mean. Zero chance he flips parties. I’m sure he is a solid McCarthy vote.
Kelly
Oregon has begun to thaw from the top down. Temps in the 40’s on the mountain passes and ridge tops. Still freezing where the cold air has pooled in the low lands. A light drizzle is adding the the clear ice layer around here. Ice will probably be gone the afternoon. This is the usual end to our ice storms.
Geminid
@Barbara: I sometimes think that Wheeler could use a good editor. My dream team is Marcy Wheeler and Magdi Jabobs, aka Mangy Jay. An “Empty Jay” or “Mangy Wheeler” project.
Marcy Wheeler has a bit of a “strut” that turns some people off. The main problem I have is with the scope and detail of her reporting. I would need to follow her for months, and write everything on notecards and arrange them in scores of piles, to really know what the hell Wheeler’s talking about on a given day.
Kent
They will just keep their heads down and vote with the party. That is the only reasonable path for new GOPers in purple districts. Let the other firebreathers do their thing and attract all the attention, negative and positive. Their best strategy is to not draw attention to themselves which either a bid to block McCarthy or a bid to caucus with the Dems would most certainly do.
There are zero GOPers for whom the logical path forward is to caucus with the Dems. ZERO. So not going to happen in a million years. That would only make sense if you were planning to switch parties.
Josie
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
That’s interesting and possibly explains why she was upset. I have never read the books, so had no prior ideas about the story. My point to her that the information on mistreatment of indigenous people was never taught in any history class I had and needed to be in current offerings in order to educate people.
Uncle Cosmo
@kalakal: You’re quite welcome. I wrote a 20-page paper on Jarrell’s poetry for an advanced undergraduate course a couple of generations back. “90 North” is arguably the darkest verse I have ever encountered – and I’ve read Gerard Manley Hopkins’ late sonnets…
cain
@Josie:
I love how we now just conflate all that complexity into “woke stuff” – we had “woke stuff” back in the 70s as well. We didn’t call it that back then – looking at how other people who don’t look like them and suffer isn’t woke – it’s providing a perspective.
They sure like the ones where brown people suffer but there is some white savior to help them. :P
cain
@Geminid:
I am as well – but I wanted to make sure that people are criticizing for the right person. I realized I don’t really know how Democrats fare in anti-masking – there was a quote from Nancy Pelosi or some other Democratic pol that we don’t have to mask anymore.
PAM Dirac
@Kent:
I agree and I don’t think they will ever formally caucus with the Ds. In the near term with no bills that have to pass, they will prob be pretty successful keeping their heads down, but when the debt ceiling comes up, they won’t really be able to. If the crazies are saying we will raise the debt ceiling only if you agree to gut Social Security, there is no way they can just blend into the background and vote for that. I think in this extreme circumstance they won’t caucus with the Ds, but will vote for a discharge petition or some other one off method to avoid a default. That might (or might not) lead to a few other one off votes to get something useful done. It certainly won’t lead to Ds being able to control the agenda and get most of what they want enacted, but it might lead to lessening the power of the most insane Rs.
NotMax
re: some of the above
Recommend Arctic, with the always excellent Mads Mikkelsen. Currently streaming on Hoopla, Kanopy and Hulu.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Kent:
So then you don’t think these R’s would vote with Dems to avert a debt default?
Geminid
@Kent: I think any Republican defections will happen later in this Congress, if they happen at all.
Newhouse’s is an interesting case though. He is one of two Republicans who won reelection despite voting yes on the second impeachment of Trump. The other is David Valdeo of California. Both survived largely because they are in “jungle primary” states.
I don’t think these two will come over and become Democrats. But if they wanted to they could become Independents and that might even ease their reelection path.
If the Republican caucus becomes unmanageable and dysfunctional enough, I could see Newhouse, Valadeo and a few others like Don Bacon (NE) (who will likely retire anyway) helping Democrats organize the House under some retired Republican* who would finish out the Congress as a caretaker Speaker, so to speak.
This would just be so that the most vital legislation could still be passed in the interim before January, 2025, when (I’m fairly confident) a Democratic Majority lead by Speaker Jeffries will take over.
*Former New York Congressman Tom Read or Arizona Senator Jeff Flake come to mind here, but there are others suitable for the job.
NotMax
@UncleEbeneezer:
Birthday, a happy have.
Josie
How ya feel about no charge? while hardly an exhaustive list, Tubi, Hoopla and Kanopy are all free streaming services. The latter two (if your local library is signed up for either or both) come along as an added perq along with your library card.
Another Scott
Meanwhile, … Liz Dye at Wonkette:
As long as there are no consequences, these monsters can make their millions without any care about who they hurt. Maybe 2022 – finally – marks the beginning of consequences…
Cheers,
Scott.
eachother
@kalakal:
Very cool, canal skating.
Got to bicycle path in-line skate. (It would take me 5 outings to get to Germany.) I always wore pads. Hit sand in FL while improperly zooming on a road. My hubris was quickly terminated. I survived. My wrist healed.
Wouldn’t want to hit sand on a frozen canal either.
PAM Dirac
@Geminid:
That’s the real question; How crazy is it going to get? How crazy is drumpf going to get? I can’t see him doing anything to get is mojo back, because the only thing he is capable of doing is whining and ranting about how unfair everything is and that act is already old, so I think it is going to get easier and easier to go against the crazies and ignore drumpf. Is it going to get easy soon enough to get something useful out of this session? I hope so.
Josie
@NotMax: Thanks. I’ll check them out.(No pun intended)
Geminid
@PAM Dirac: It may not be possible at all to get any ground breaking, progressive legislation out of the House these next two years. But I think it wiill be possible to advance critical legislation like raising the debt ceiling, and to mitigate the damage Republicans will try inflict.
Above and beyond the legislative battles will be the larger political battle over which party will lead the House in the next Congress. I think the Republicans will lose that battle and with it lose 25 to 40 seats in 2024. Their radical wing could very well put them in the Minority for the rest of this decade.
Kent
Voting to extend the debt limit is an entirely different proposition than caucusing with the Democrats to elect a Democratic speaker.
eachother
@Uncle Cosmo:
A reevaluation of choices and circumstances should follow finding one’s self on knees crying in pain, job 1/2 done. Hands must be bare to manipulate material. Fingerless gloves are worthless. Everything’s metal. Frequent exposure of hands to extreme cold created an intolerance of hands to regular winter cold.
The polar explorers faced this extreme cold everyday. I got weekends off.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Kent:
Oh, I guess I misunderstood
Kent
If Trump and the MAGA hordes couldn’t knock out Newhouse then he is basically Congressman for life if he wants to be. No one else will ever be able to mount a serious primary challenge and no Dem will ever beat him in normal conditions. the district is WAY too red. That would be like a Democrat winning a Senate race in Idaho.
Geminid
@Kent: I would not want to see a Democratic Speaker elected under those circumstances. A narrow majority requiring support from a handful of turncoats would not be capable of passing good legislation beyond debt ceiling raises and the like. It would be big enough to get the blame for what it doesn’t pass, though.
November, 2024 is not that far off. I’d rather see the Republicans bear the responsibilty for their incapacity between now and then. There is the possibilty that Democrats may eventually have to work with a caretaker Speaker to avert a trainwreck, but that will not reflect poorly upon them but rather upon the circus the Republicans pretend is a caucus.
Kent
@Geminid: I don’t actually know what would happen in the event that there is no Speaker. Presumably the House could still vote to pass urgent measures even if there is no actual Speaker.
Anyone know? Is a Speaker even required for the House to do business?
JoyceH
@NotMax:
Also, I recently got a Roku, you just pay for the device itself, no recurring charges, and it comes with the Roku channel, which is a lot of stuff you can watch ‘free with ads’ – like old timey TV, in other words. It’s got a lot of great old stuff there – I’m going to try Columbo and Cagney and Lacey, to see if they’re as good as I remembered them being. Oh, and will rewatch The Mentalist, because, well… Simon Baker.
eachother
@Nelle:
Thanks for the book recommendation. Sixth edition. Two In The Far North. Is it fair to think this is a well liked story or they didn’t print enough of them the first 5 times? 4 1/2 stars. It’s digital now. Unlimited supply. Unlike the orange trader’s trading cards. Those are limited. Limited demand. Limited quality. Limited imagination. Nefarious purpose.
I once traveled I-80 in Wyoming. The wind was whipping hard. No snow in December 1972. No other vehicles. I pulled over, opened my doors like sails. In a heavy International Harvester. Got to 60 MPH no problem.
NotMax
@JoyceH
Roku devices rock!
Geminid
@Kent: Sounds like Newhouse can become an Independent if he wanted to. And that whatever he calls himself, he would have the latitude to support reorginizing the House if McCarthy and company run their caucus into the ditch and can’t get unstuck. Valadeo is in a similar position I think.
And then there’s Don Bacon, who has represented Omaha and nearby counties since 2014. Bacon already retired once ten years ago, out of the Air Force as a general. He’s only worked with freshmen like Marge Greene and Lauren Boebert for two years. But after few more months of working with them and the other Freedom Caucus goons, Bacon could flee the caucus out of disgust and desperation. He might not be the only one, either.
I’ve said before that I believe Kevin McCarthy will be elected Speaker on January 3. He might even hold the gavel for the next two years. But I think there is a real possibility that the Republican caucus breaks down and the House finishes this Congress under different management.
Geminid
@Kent: I really don’t know. I bet congressional staffers have been poring over rules and precedents relating to this question.
But I think that if things get really bad, enough Republican defectors would join Democrats in picking some sort of caretaker Speaker who could help get to the end of 2024 without a big trainwreck.
Scout211
The truth is revealed in the J6 report about the 10,000 troops that Trump keeps saying he ordered (as a defense against all the accusations that he did nothing to stop the insurrection).
Those troops were to protect him, not to defend the Capitol. (As we all suspected, of course). Link
Geminid
@Scout211: There was some interesting reporting on this question earlier this year, by the news site JustSecurity. Cheryl Rofer linked to the article, which made me take it seriously. The writers said that General Milley and others at the Pentagon were wary of calling out the DC National Guard because the anomalous status of the DC Guard meant that Trump would have had command authority over it.
Another Scott
@Kent: Made me look. GovInfo.gov:
So there is some procedure available, but who knows how it would work in practice…
Cheers,
Scott.
Tehanu
Minor, or maybe not-so-minor nitpick: not blackmail; extortion.