Okay, yeah, not so much a ‘blue wave’ as a failed red one. A blue wall would spoil the joke, though. I keep updating this post on Kevin McCarthy, Speaker Pelosi’s doomed maybe/probable replacement, but it’s what the journalists refer to as ‘a rapidly evolving story’. Not to mention — for us Democrats — schadenfreudeliciously entertaining!
Dana Milbank, at the Washington Post — “Is Kevin McCarthy okay?”:
… A group of House Republican moderates (yes, a few specimens still survive in the wild) met with Kevin McCarthy this week to help him right his listing bid for the speakership. In a show of support, they passed out pro-McCarthy lapel buttons: stars on a field of blue with a red band in the middle that proclaimed, simply, “O.K.”
The letters were meant to signify “Only Kevin,” CNN’s Melanie Zanona reported, as a rejoinder to the Never-McCarthy hard-liners on the right. But the message had an unfortunate double meaning that highlighted the doubts about the always-a-bridesmaid-never-a-bride candidate for speaker. McCarthy is just that: Okay. As in: not great. Not even above average. Just okay…
The “O.K.” buttons may have been the biggest messaging misfire since McCarthy, called a “moron” by Speaker Nancy Pelosi over his resistance to pandemic safety measures, removed all doubt about the charge by selling T-shirts with large letters proudly announcing: “Moron.”…
McCarthy has a knack for garbled messages. If he does succeed in his speakership quest (which is likely, if only for the lack of an alternative), he will earn the distinction of being the first speaker in U.S. history not to speak fluent English…
Now he’s making another lunge for the top job, and words continue to bedevil him. “We’re Christmas season,” he announced this week. We are? He continued: “A talk of the majority right now who wants to put a small continuing resolution to bump all the members up two days before Christmas, to try to vote on a package they cannot read, written by two individuals who will not be here, on spending for the entire government…”
McCarthy, after railing against the omnibus, gets a standing ovation from the ~ dozen Republicans in the chamber.
McGovern responds: "After that speech, it's clear he doesn't have the votes yet."
— Emily Cochrane (@ESCochrane) December 23, 2022
Ed Kilgore, at NYMag — McCarthy Makes Weird Threat to Thwart GOP Senators:
There are two important things we know about the dynamics between House and Senate Republicans heading into the New Year. First, House Republicans are, on average, always more partisan and ideologically extreme than their Senate counterparts because of the way the two chambers operate. The House is characterized by party discipline and the Senate is defined by dealmaking, thanks to the leverage given to the minority by the filibuster. Second, Kevin McCarthy is struggling to become the next Speaker on January 3, and because Republicans only have a four-vote majority, he will need the votes of most of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus.
So heading into the January 3 balloting for Speaker (and likely beyond), McCarthy has a lot of incentive to cut clownish capers illustrating his contempt for the RINO squishes of the upper chamber. But the particular gambit with which the Californian has chosen to express this sentiment is pretty far out there and largely unprecedented: He’s threatening to kill any bill sponsored by a Senate Republican who backs the $1.7 trillion omnibus appropriations bill….
The very next day, the Senate voted to take up the omnibus bill by a 70-25 margin, with 21 Republicans voting “aye.” It’s a pretty good bet all of them, and perhaps more, will vote for the bill’s final passage today or tomorrow. So according to the solemn vow of the top House Republican, any legislation sponsored by these traitors will die in the House that he will soon run (if he’s not purged in favor of someone even less reasonable). The list of alleged crypto-liberals includes not just Mitch McConnell, Susan Collins, and Lisa Murkowski, but John Cornyn, Tom Cotton, Tommy Tuberville, Lindsey Graham, Todd Young, and several other senators who’ve played rounds of golf with Donald Trump and regularly rant and snarl at Democrats…
Human botfly Tara Palmeri, at Puck, ever sensitive to the scent of an open wound:
While Kevin McCarthy has floundered for weeks trying to shore up enough support to become Speaker of the House, perhaps the strongest argument for his bid has been the conspicuous lack of any viable alternative. Sure, there were names floated by the “Never Kevins,” like House Freedom Caucus renegade Andy Biggs, former NASA chief Jim Bridenstine, outgoing House member Lee Zeldin, and even former Speaker Newt Gingrich, but none of these people were going to get more than 10 votes. It was laughable and seemed to indicate that the Freedom Caucus had no real strategy to take down McCarthy beyond extracting a few concessions and delighting in making his life hell for a bunch of news cycles.
Then, earlier this week, one of the five public “Never Kevins” said the quiet part out loud. Matt Gaetz declared that there was another member that his caucus would support for speaker: Steve Scalise. That admission, from the pied piper of the Never Kevin crew to the New York Post, sent chills through the Capitol and indicated that the speaker’s race had a second horse.
By suggesting Scalise, the Never Kevin bloc has subtly demonstrated that they’re not just interested in chaos for chaos’ sake. They have a real viable alternative, and it’s not just anybody: Scalise, after all, is one of the most popular, well-liked members of the House, who came out of the conference vote unanimously elected as Majority Whip, or McCarthy’s No. 2. Meanwhile, McCarthy himself hobbled out of the same vote with at least 36 members not willing to vote for him. “It’s signaling to the conference that we’re not saying we need Lauren Boebert for speaker, we’re saying we would take the number two in leadership,” said a source close to leadership. “Someone that’s very popular in the conference. He’s a legitimate candidate if he were to run.”
In truth, Scalise has always been waiting in the wings. And while there have been real questions about whether the five or so “Never Kevin” voters would support any candidate who is not a member of the House Freedom Caucus, their animosity for McCarthy is as much about his personality as his politics. “They just hate Kevin, and he’s not Kevin,” the source said. “Scalise is not going to light the world on fire,” agreed a source on the Hill. “But he’s a super likable guy. And Scalise has benefitted from not putting a marker down as many times as Kevin.” As a source close to leadership put it, “If you’re Scalise you are not lifting a phone for Kevin.” (Scalise’s office declined to comment and pointed to the many statements of support for McCarthy.)…
So how will this all play out? Let’s say that McCarthy walks out onto the House floor on January 3 and is shot down by the five “Never Kevins”—Gaetz, Bob Good, Andy Biggs, Ralph Norman and Matt Rosendale—on the first ballot for speaker. Perhaps he licks his wounds and makes a few deals to hand over more power to the House Freedom Caucus. But what if the initial vote is perceived as a weakness to the seven or so other House Freedom Caucus members who haven’t said publicly they’re “Never Kevin,” but have issued him their own list of demands, like Chip Roy and Scott Perry?…
Politico reported on Tuesday that members have told Scalise to be ready for the moment when McCarthy falters. But really there’s not much Scalise can do. He can’t be seen as provoking the situation at all. He’s publicly behind McCarthy, with statements like this one to CNN: “No, I’m not going to get into speculation. Obviously, our focus is on getting it resolved by January 3. And there’s a lot of conversations that everybody has been having—Kevin [has], surely—with the members who have expressed concerns.”…
As a proud Libertarian, Justin Amash can always be counted on… to be a pest:
Pelosi understood her role and was extremely good at it. https://t.co/BQRgbxk57l
— Jean-Michel Connard (@torriangray) December 19, 2022
And speaking of a tenuous grasp on the English language, clip from a 25-tweet (!) thread:
of their amazing ability to work together in-spite of their differences.
Not us, we’re the Party of Never and it’s ruining everything.
It’s also lying to the base about a “plan” that doesn’t exist, no candidate, & no way of working that I refuse to be part of and silent about.
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) December 20, 2022
Ho-ho-ho!
He's checking his list.
Checking it twice.
Nope. Qevin McCarthy still doesn't have votes to become the Speaker. pic.twitter.com/E4uucWAcde— KAMALA LA LA LA 🎄⛄️ (@KamalaNation) December 18, 2022
War for Ukraine Day 304: Ukrainians’ First Christmas Since the Re-Invasion
WaterGirl
Evil clowns leading the House. I still say we have to fight for every special election for the House and take the House back one seat at a time.
Another Scott
Institutionally, the House hates the Senate, and vice versa. (Nancy and Chuck being on the same page was highly unusual.) Qevin making weird, impossible, statements about bills from the other body is just noise – I’m surprised that Kilgore thinks its significant. The House is going to do what it does, and the Senate is going to do what it does, and each body is going to try to force the hand of the other to get what its leadership wants (e.g. passing a bill and heading out of town so that the other body can’t amend it and send it back before a deadline). Thumbing their nose at the other body is just icing on the cake.
I still think it would be interesting for Qevin to be asked – under oath – about this infamous story (from the WaPo (from May 2017)):
Notice that the context was Ukraine…
I expect McCarthy to be elected, but I expect him to have little or no power over his caucus.
Cheers,
Scott.
MattF
I realize it’s silly to ask, but are there any R moderates? It would only take, say, two or three to completely mess up all these calculations. The ‘Freedom’ Caucus does all the shouting and gets all the ink (or all the pixels), but there could be just a couple of R representatives who are biding their time. Or… maybe not— I just don’t know.
ETA: And no, not Santos.
SpaceUnit
Not gonna be worried about McCarthy tonight. Think I’d rather pour myself a brandy.
But I do want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas.
Kent
@WaterGirl: Of course we fight for every single election. Not just now, but always.
That said, it will be a nice break to blame the GOP and McCarthy for every bit of dysfunction in Congress than to continually get enraged about Manchin and Sinema. That got tiresome.
oatler
@SpaceUnit:
And a Merry Christmas to you and all BJers! . Currently digging Fox weather channel Yule Log, though the Nick Offerman Drinking Lagavulin one is better
mvr
The quotation about Qevin’s remarkable lack of fluency made me giggle out loud.
That we’re only 4 down makes me think the Rs might not keep the house for the whole term. A couple of indictments here, a resignation there and . . .
And there are any number who could be indicted given what we know or suspect.
El Muneco
Do the “moderates” just not realize that the “OK” symbol is a gang sign for neo-Nazis, or are they just, um, OK with the idea?
raven
Christmas card from 55 years ago.
Oh and look, the war on Christmas had already started, even in the military!
Dorothy A. Winsor
@mvr: Josh Marshall was asking if that liar Santos was an American citizen. Santos apparently told some people he was born in Brazil (as opposed to the people he told he was born in NY). So is he naturalized? Show us the birth certificate (or naturalization papers!), Santos. You can’t serve in congress unless you’ve been a citizen for some length of years. I think 7 but possibly 9. That would remove an R, at least temporarily
mvr
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Fingers crossed things work out on that one! That would leave 3 to go.
Poe Larity
Wow, things must be dire if MTG sounds like the rationalist. Even if she has no self-awareness.
Geminid
I bet Lisa Murkowski is shaking in her boots! With laughter.
twbrandt (formerly tom)
@Poe Larity: I was reading her tweets and thinking she’s not wrong (for once).
Josie
MTG may not express herself in pristine English, but she understands the strength of the Democratic caucus under Pelosi’s leadership. Her point is well made, that there are individuals in the Republican house that are not good at pulling in the same direction as the others. In contrast, Nancy herded the cats so well that everyone was headed in the same direction. Green’s mistake is thinking that McCarthy (or anyone) could pull that off. The Republicans don’t have a leader that could do what Nancy has done.
raven
Didn’t we used to bitch and moan about the lack of dem discipline?
Geminid
@Geminid: Lisa Murkowski and Mary Peltola are probably plotting how to take Kevin McCarthy’s lunch money while they pants him.
WaterGirl
@Josie:
Thank god they don’t.
WaterGirl
@raven: That was in the before times!
raven
@WaterGirl: summertime, summertime sum sum summertime. . .
NotMax
Scalise is no fool and knows dang well he can wield more influence working the levers and pushing the buttons from behind the curtain, as it were. And with a lump of malleable human Play-Doh like McCarthy hogging the limelight, all the more so.
Josie
@WaterGirl:
I stand corrected. :-)
WaterGirl
@raven: Oh my god, I can’t believe that was a hit!
raven
@WaterGirl: 1958!
Gravenstone
Still do. Please note 99.99% of the time certain parties here mention AOC.
NotMax
@WaterGirl
Ooh Ee Ooh Ah Ah Ting Tang Walla Walla Bing Bang.
:)
raven
@NotMax: without looking it up
My friend the witch doctor told me what to do. . .
And then “Does your chewing gum lose it’s flavor, on the bedpost overnight”!
gwangung
@Geminid: Made me laugh—because there’s a lot of truth there….
Dan B
@NotMax: I was humming that earlier this week. Such a weird song but catchy.
Qrop Non Sequitur
On its face, it sounds pretty easy with two people. I think the key is going for the pants first.
dexwood
@WaterGirl: I remember that song. I was 7 and cranked up my Westinghouse transistor radio to 11!
MagdaInBlack
@NotMax: Noooooooooooooooo…gah, now its stuck.
NotMax
@raven
’58 was a banner year for novelty hits. Beep beep. :)
(And only a scant few years later….)
WaterGirl
@raven: My parents owned a tavern and we lived upstairs, so we not only heard all the songs on the jukebox, but we got to keep the 45s after they were taken out of the jukebox.
Anoniminous
Sugar, Sugar
“SugarOh, honey, honeyYou are my candy girlAnd you got me wanting you”
**barf*
Geminid
@gwangung: Mary Peltola is a formidable politician. My friend Debbie and her wife Diana lived in Alaska for six years before they came back east. I told Debbie about Ms. Peltola’s campaign slogan: “Fish, Family, Freedom.”
“Perfect,” said Debbie.
raven
@NotMax: And 10 years later this had a totally different meaning!
Well I’m so happy that I could flip
Oh how I’d love to take a trip
I’m sorry teacher but zip your lip
Because it’s summertime
raven
@WaterGirl: My dad had a friend who worked at WILL and I got the “cut out” records from there.
Shalimar
I’m really curious about what Justin Amash thinks the role of Speaker is. I can’t think of any definition where Pelosi wasn’t exceptional.
NotMax
@raven
And only a few years prior to ’58:
Day dong da ding-dong
Sha-lang-a-la-lang-a-la-lang-a-la-lang-a-la
Whoa, whoa, bip
Ah bo da do da dip, whoa
Life could be a dream, life could be a dream
Do do do do, sh-boom
.
SpaceUnit
Anyone interested in hearing about a funny Christmas tradition?
From the time I was 15 years old my family went skiing for Christmas. We’d get a cabin at Seven Springs Resort in Western PA’s Laurel Mountains for three or four days. It was nothing too fancy. But the cabins had full kitchens so we could eat in most of the time.
We’d ski on Christmas Day as well. And in the evening nobody much felt like whipping up a big elaborate meal. We went with spaghetti first but at some point switched over to having one of those huge frozen Stouffer’s lasagnas that you could just toss in the oven for about ninety minutes. We’d make a simple tossed salad and boom there was dinner.
This went on for more than twenty years, but at some point the ski vacations became not so very practical. The bad frozen lasagna dinner had taken root though. It was tradition. We always had it, and it was always a running joke.
So we’ll be having frozen lasagna tomorrow, just a smaller one.
dmsilev
There are some House GOP reps who come from Biden-leaning districts. Wonder how they feel about a Speaker, any Speaker, that forces them to dance to the House Freedom Caucus loony-tune. They’re going to have a lot of embarrassment to try to cover up once reelection season rolls around.
Ordinarily, there wouldn’t be enough of them to matter, but given how thin the R majority is and given that some of the lunatics pretty much can’t be appeased, that small group could actually have some influence.
trollhattan
BBC published a mash note (is that used any longer?) to the Webb Telescope, images included. Did not recall it’s exactly one year since launch–Merry Christmas, the world, and amazing job, project team!
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-64051171
raven
@NotMax: Ever see American Hot Wax about Alan Freed and payola. There were so many famous musicians that they never could get it released on DVD. Really fun flick but, for my money, Screamin Jay Hawkins popping out of a coffin with a bone through his nose was tops!
Ceci n est pas mon nym
IANAL but I think this might be a bad legal strategy.
(Insurrectionist out on bail conspires to assassinate 37 FBI agents, including those named on his warrant).
raven
@SpaceUnit: Nice. Nice night in the Steel City too!
OzarkHillbilly
I hate to admit it, but my estimation of MTG has gone up a notch or 2 from below the basement. Turns out she actually does have a grasp on the reality GOPers face, however tenuous that grasp may be. Which is far more credit that I’d ever given her before.
Josie
@SpaceUnit:
It’s interesting the family traditions that grow up around Christmas. I grew up having tamales on Christmas Eve and raised my boys the same way. So tonight my youngest and I went to the other son’s house so that he and his wife (Italian) could feed us tamales. Poor Anne-she probably never had tamales in her life, but now she is stuck eating them for Christmas Eve forever.
NotMax
@dmsilev
Spoke with 94-year-old Mom who is invited out, if weather is not too bitter, for a typical Jewish Christmas meal tomorrow. That is, with friends at a Chinese restaurant.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Anoniminous:
I remember that one! A genuine hit from “The Archies”, a fake band set up to go along with an Archie-comic based animated show. About the time a young curmudgeonly me decided there was nothing but crap left on Saturday morning cartoons (except for Bugs Bunny)
Then there were The Monkees, a fake band obviously based on The Beatles, and they had a couple of pretty catchy songs too.
raven
@Josie: A great tradition. I didn’t realize that there were fruit tamales until about 20 years ago!
Ceci n est pas mon nym
So we’ve just watched “Glass Onion” on Netflix. Excellent movie, a lot of fun, and a lot of fun upending your expectations of the structure of a murder mystery.
Lots of fun cameos.
Not a spoiler if I tell you that Edward Norton plays a billionaire asshole who has a reputation as a tech genius but who actually is an idiot. Not like anyone currently in the news right?
Also not a spoiler if I tell you there’s a scene with Daniel Craig having a conversation with a character who is from Alabama. I’m presuming that character’s accent is accurate and meant to poke fun at Craig’s.
raven
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: Have you seen “The Wrecking Crew”? Really interesting stuff about the Monkees and about 100 million other bands.
NotMax
@raven
If you
buildwrap it they will come.;)
dmsilev
@NotMax: Ah, good to see the old ways continue!
Im going to be on a plane all day tomorrow, so Christmas dinner will likely be a sandwich from an airport vendor. Festive!
WaterGirl
@OzarkHillbilly: Right until you get to the part about believing in Jewish space lasers.
raven
@NotMax: We used to “build” spliff’s in Negril.
SpaceUnit
@raven:
Thanks. I no longer actually live there, but yeah a big part of my heart still does. Merry Christmas.
dmsilev
@OzarkHillbilly: I’m sure it’s just a passing phase and she’ll be back to her normal insane self shortly.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@raven: On the list! No, never heard of it. Thank you!
raven
@SpaceUnit: Yea, I’m watching because of Franco.
SpaceUnit
@Josie:
Christmas tamales sound awesome! Merry Christmas!
zhena gogolia
@NotMax: The Nash Rambler song inspired this deathless comment:
OzarkHillbilly
Always.
Heh, a couple decades ago, I started doing (caving) project wkends on Turkey day wkends. The first time my wife came with me to one (which is not the same as coming to one that I was putting on)(which is a whole different story) I made our “traditional Thanksgiving feast of Spaghetti and meatballs w/ garlic bread and salad.
Damn, did that shit taste good settin’ round the camp fire. Ever since, that has been our traditional T-day dinner, even if it isn’t around a wilderness campfire.
raven
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: Add “Muscle Shoals” and you’ll learn a great deal about the music biz. Both great films.
zhena gogolia
@NotMax: Oh, no, I listened to the Nash Rambler, but I’m not going to fall for that one!
different-church-lady
That MTG tweet: I’ve seen triple negatives, but before now I don’t think I’ve ever seen an exponential negative.
Geminid
@dmsilev: McCarthy and his goons can put all the pressure they want on those purple district Representatives. But they can’t compel those Reps to vote a certain wày.
There will be defections on major roll call votes, just like there were in the current Congress on the Infrastructure and CHIPS+ bills. I think around 20 Republicans voted with the Democrats on those two bills.
dmsilev
So, has Elon Musk banned NORAD’s Twitter account for doxing Santa yet?
OzarkHillbilly
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: Craig’s accent is far more Texan than Alabama.
zhena gogolia
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: We just started it. It’s fun.
raven
@zhena gogolia:
Emmylou Harris & The Nash Ramblers on Austin City Limits “Roses In the Snow
hervevillechaizelounge
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Congress requires seven years of American citizenship; the Senate requires nine.
I know I’m a little deranged on the subject of MSM malfeasance, but am I the only one convinced the NYT purposely waited until after Santos’ election to drop the exposé?
Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if Santos turns out to have citizenship issues. Although he claims to be gay he married a woman in 2019; perhaps he has a little immigration fraud going on.
One thing I can promise; all attempts to get to the bottom of Santos’ citizenship will be met with MSM handwringing: “Questioning a Santos about his country of origin is the new birtherism—so much for the tolerant left!”
Poe Larity
You know who they should nominate for Speaker? Elon!
OzarkHillbilly
@WaterGirl: I know, but I now suspect that was just shit that spewed out of her mouth without a thought about what those words meant. Which says she still is as dumb as a box of rocks but not quite so stupid as to believe it.
Which again, credit where credit is due, is more credit than I’d ever have given her before.
I think. Now I’m cornfused.
trollhattan
@dmsilev: Those fvckers know what they did!
Amir Khalid
First I put my palm on my face, and then I laughed out loud.
SpaceUnit
@OzarkHillbilly:
Ha. I’ve found that all food tastes better around a campfire.
Merry Christmas!
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: add another vote for Muscle Shoals, great documentary. I haven’t seen the Wrecking Crew, on the list now.
OzarkHillbilly
@dmsilev: too funny. Social!
Amir Khalid
@Anoniminous:
Try Wilson Pickett’s much better cover version.
opiejeanne
@SpaceUnit: I think those frozen lasagnas used to be a lot better than they are now, but it could also be a faulty memory, due to eating more healthy foods.
OzarkHillbilly
@SpaceUnit: Indeed, always and for ever.
raven
Asshole NFL Network showed Franco’s ceremony and cut away when they started the video tribute,
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
I had an early schedule today at the Home of the Orange apron since we closed at 5pm. At about closing time, I approached one of the managers to ask if they needed anything done since I had completed all my picks. He asked me to help wrangle some shopping carts to line up against some fencing along the front of the store to make it more difficult to steal stuff(plants) out front. While out getting carts a woman was loudly commenting on our lack of customer service since she was told the store was closed(early at 5pm) and that the website gave no indication of this. She got in her Benz SUV and headed off. After arriving home, I checked the website, it showed us closing at 5pm today and also closed tomorrow. Some of our customers lie.
SpaceUnit
@opiejeanne:
They definitely require a certain amount of wine.
Merry Christmas!
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@opiejeanne: The ones from Costco are quite good.
mrmoshpotato
Has Dana Milbank always been so sarcastic?
Amir Khalid
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
A bit of history. The Monkees TV show was created by producer Don Kirshner. But when the members of The Monkees started getting ideas about being a band for realz, Kirshner decided to do The Archies instead, where the band were cartoon characters who would never rebel against him, and the music was done by anonymous session players.
Geminid
@hervevillechaizelounge: What would be wild is if McCarthy’s Speakership comes down to George Santos’s vote. That Speaker vote January 3d could be Santos’s first public appearance in weeks.
opiejeanne
@zhena gogolia: How about “Yummy, Yummy, Yummy, I’ve Got Love in My Tummy “.
sorry. 😊
OzarkHillbilly
@🐾BillinGlendaleCA: In my experience, most “customers” either lie or can’t tell the difference between a lie and an inconvenience.
Amir Khalid
@NotMax:
A funny song in its time, but the humour might seem racist today.
Nukular Biskits
@WaterGirl:
Not 45s, but my grandmother used to work at a donut shop.
During one (?) summer, I would stay with her at the shop until closing time.
I ate more donuts that one or two summers than the entirety of all BJ Jackals, past, present and future, ever will.
Which is why I don’t eat donuts now.
mrmoshpotato
@SpaceUnit:
My aunt and uncle have a couple in-wall ovens side-by-side. My aunt put a frozen lasagna in the oven for dinner one night. Forty-five minutes later, she realized she’d preheated the other oven. Dinner was slightly delayed that night.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@OzarkHillbilly: Working retail has shown me that I overestimated both the intelligence and veracity of my fellow Glendalians.
Geminid
@mrmoshpotato: That’s been Milbank’s style for as long as I can remember. I think it keeps him on the page before the WaPo’s two “serious” Op-ed pages. Milbank seems to have good sources, though
OzarkHillbilly
@🐾BillinGlendaleCA: I never worked retail but I did work rehab, which wasn’t all that different and instructional in it’s own way.
ps: you are a stronger man than I am for doing it without killing anybody.
different-church-lady
I wish I could make eggnog for all of you.
opiejeanne
@OzarkHillbilly: working retail on Christmas Eve takes a little extra patience. Hordes of people who come in an hour before closing and who are unhappy with us for only tripling the registers and cashiers, and they’re desperate for something to give that special someone, and they’re in The Container Store.
The Best Buy was next door, but they closed an hour earlier.
TriassicSands
The sound of screeching brakes…
The idea that the DOJ will be willing to indict and try enough House Republicans to change the majority seems like pure fantasy to me. This is a long-standing, and critical problem. We generally have refused to make legal decisions that will be seen as political.
That is the source of all the reluctance and uncertainty surrounding Trump’s obvious criminality. In his case, the crimes are so obvious and so great, though conviction is hardly a sure thing, that Garland’s hand may be forced. But to then change the majority in the House strikes me as unthinkable (not to me, but to the DOJ). That, by default, puts people above the law.
The other problem, as always, is timing. What are the chances that, even if the DOJ were willing to indict and try Republican House members, the trials and guilty verdicts (hardly guaranteed) would come before the next election? Trump’s M.O. has always been to delay, delay, delay. I think we would see the same thing from any indicted House members.
Steeplejack
@NotMax:
Had a Jewish Christmas takeout dinner myself tonight: egg rolls and beef lo mein.
OzarkHillbilly
@opiejeanne: There is a reason I never have and never would, starting with an extreme lack of patience. Truly, I admire those who can keep their cool in such situations.
While I know I would never actually kill somebody in such a situation, I am not at all sure I could restrain myself from expressing a desire to.
opiejeanne
@Steeplejack: we just finished the same, but in the restaurant. A couple nearby who I think are Jewish, just serenaded their server with a new verse in praise of their food, to the tune of We Wish You a merry Christmas, a short partial verse. It was very amusing.
Steeplejack
@raven:
Yeah, I was tuned in specifically for that. Maybe SportsCenter will cover it later.
Amir Khalid
@opiejeanne:
I’m curious now: do Chinese restaurants over there offer a kosher Christmas menu?
dmsilev
@Amir Khalid: There used to be a Kosher Chinese place near where my parents live, but it closed maybe fifteen or so years ago. That’s the only one I’ve ever seen, but I imagine there are others.
geg6
@raven:
A very good year, if I do say so myself.
Benw
Christmas Eve traditions are done: trifle and sweet potato casserole have been made ahead, gingerbread house is decorated, matching Xmas PJs have been distributed and we’re just waiting for visions of sugar plums to start dancing in the kids’ heads!
@different-church-lady: that would be awesome!
Steeplejack
@opiejeanne:
My favorite place, Hunan Village, is mostly takeout/delivery. They have a tiny “dining room,” but I can’t remember the last time I saw anyone eating there besides staff/family of the proprietors.
One of my Festivus complaints is that I am not in their delivery area, so I have to get takeout.
Steeplejack
@geg6:
When you were born, I’m guessing!
Spanky
My very first job in retail was at Christmas in Kaufman’s flagship department store in downtown Pittsburgh. At Christmas. In the toy department. I can honestly say that it forever cured me of any desire of working retail ever again.
I can remember one bus commute in for the evening shift when the Steelers were playing the Raiders in the first-ever playoff game at Three Rivers. There were at least a couple of radios going in that bus. Man, the ending to that ride was something.
Fifty years ago yesterday …
SFAW
@opiejeanne:
1910 Fruitgum Company?
Steeplejack
@different-church-lady:
I was wanting eggnog the other night and had a Kahlúa and cream with the last of a small bottle of Kahlúa. It was in the ballpark.
Spanky
Apparently 1958 was also the year for the one-eyed, one horned, flying …
mrmoshpotato
@different-church-lady:
You can hand over the recipe. :)
opiejeanne
@Amir Khalid: Where we lived in Southern California a lot of Chinese restaurants were Halal and had signs on the front of their restaurants proclaiming it, so the ones offering a Kosher meal would do something similar, but I don’t think the people at the table near us were worrying about keeping Kosher or they wouldn’t be eating at this particular restaurant.
mrmoshpotato
@opiejeanne:
Did they order pork lo mein? 😁
Ohio Mom
@dmsilev: It’s possible to go to a Chinese restaurant and eat like a vegetarian would, which is what the subset of American Jews who eat “kosher style” do. My MIL is typical of this group. She doesn’t keep kosher, she eats some shellfish but she has never, ever eaten anything from a pig. (No, this makes no sense to me either but it is a victimless crime).
But fundamentalist Orthodox Jews would not eat in any restaurant that wasn’t certified by an orthodox rabbi and didn’t strictly follow all the kosher rules. There’s not enough of them to make a market for a kosher Chinese restaurant and what family with ten or more kids can afford to eat out anyhow?
Ohio Family (weather and roads permitting) will go out to eat Chinese tomorrow because it’s a fun tradition on a day everything else is closed.
sdhays
@OzarkHillbilly: I think the way to frame it is she’s still the raving lunatic we all know and despise, but she’s a much higher functioning one than we realized. It’s like if we discovered Louie Ghomert could tie his own shoelaces. Still batshit stupid, but possessing more basic human skills than expected.
Fortunately, it doesn’t seem likely Boebert will surprise us in that front.
mrmoshpotato
@zhena gogolia:
@opiejeanne: “Splish splash, I was takin’ a bath”
Sister Golden Bear
To my New York jackals, and my non-NY jackals, I offer you one my favorite tales of holiday season magic:
“Grand Central Terminal functions as the mechanical heart of midtown New York City, pumping out several thousand workers and tourists on one beat, then sucking in several thousand more on the next.
The rhythms of the terminal are fascinating.
Beat. Four thousand, inbound from New Haven.
Beat. Three thousand, outbound to Westchester.
Worlds collide on the main floor….”
Enhanced Voting Techniques
IDK Green. maybe because the Democrats are working together boring shit like national policy not just screaming “look at me” as loud as they can?
different-church-lady
@mrmoshpotato:
But of course.
This is straight out of Mr. Boston Platinum Edition. Don’t use electric beaters, use a wisk — I have no idea why it’s better that way, it just is:
6 Eggs
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup golden rum*
1 pint half-and-half
1 pint milk
In a large bowl, beat eggs until light and foamy. Add sugar and salt, beating until thick and lemon colored. Stir in rum, cream, and milk. Chill at least 3 hours. Garnish with a sprinkle of fresh-grated nutmeg on top.
*****
Eggnog is one of those things where once you’ve done home made you’ll never go back to store bought.
*I find Jamaican rum works best in this. (Although tonight I did equal parts Plantation 5 year, Mt. Gay, Cruzan and brandy and it was pretty swell)
Sister Golden Bear
@🐾BillinGlendaleCA: @opiejeanne: Well it’s their fault for waiting until Mary’s water broke to go shopping.
jonas
@Josie:
For the simple reason that there is no honor among thieves. They’re all a bunch of self-serving grifters *way* out of their depth when it comes to the norms of governing or thinking about the best interests of the country as opposed to themselves or their great orange idol.
opiejeanne
@mrmoshpotato: they had something that looked like General Tso’s chicken but there was something that looked like fried shrimp on the plate.
jonas
@different-church-lady: I made some egg nog recently with Pyrat and it was divine.
Sister Golden Bear
@Amir Khalid: Not officially, but Chinese restaurants in general are usually deemed “kosher enough” (at least among my Reform friends) because much of the food unintentionally complies with kosher requirements — pork and shrimp dishes obviously exempted.
The tradition of Jewish Christmas began (in NYC I believe) because Chinese restaurants were one of the few open on Christmas Day, plus they were kosher.
TriassicSands
@OzarkHillbilly:
The only time i ever worked retail was in the nineties when I went back to New York to visit an old friend. She had an upscale craft shop with some very beautiful and expensive inventory.
I wasn’t there that long, but I learned pretty quickly just how cheap and unpleasant rich people can be, routinely looking for deals on things they could easily afford, but would rather spend time trying to get discounts they could brag about to their rich friends. My friend, who had spent years dealing with those people, discovered that she could ask me to step in so she could take a break. I did it — without killing anyone — but it certainly wasn’t any fun. I was glad when i left and didn’t have to negotiate prices any longer with jerks (other, less family friendly words are more appropriate).
One item I didn’t handle was a $5,000.00 belt. The prospective buyer wanted to get it as a present for his wife, but he only wanted to spend $3,000.00.
CaseyL
I am going out of town to visit friends tomorrow. We will have Christmas ham.
Today I had a lovely, impromptu visit with another friend. We had tea and some-kind-of-fruit bread (cranberry? Can’t remember). It was relaxed, low key, and refreshing: the first spontaneous, spur of the moment visit I’ve had in years.
frosty
@NotMax: @raven: OMG I remember all these songs. I must be an Old. Why do I feel like I’m 26???
Amir Khalid
@TriassicSands:
I don’t think I could have worked at your friend’s shop. I would have said, “It says five grand on the price tag, sir. Take it or leave it.”
Spanky
@frosty:
The eggnog?
Merry Christmas, everyone!
frosty
@NotMax: The first car I drove was a Nash Metroplitan which is clearly what they meant in this song. Not a Rambler. Kudos to my Dad for buying the first American compact. (With Austin driveline)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nash_Metropolitan
danielx
Merry Christmas! Or whatever sentiment makes you happy.
frosty
@raven: Wrecking Crew is great. I also recommend 20 Feet From Stardom about backup singers. Darlene Love’s story is really good.
Gin & Tonic
Just past midnight here, and a balmy 11 degrees. Since Christmas Eve is what is important in our tradition, everything is done: traditional meal served and eaten, four bottles of wine consumed, dishes washed, presents exchanged, kids stayed up too late and were over-excited, yours truly received some interesting books and a bottle of very good Japanese whisky, now it’s quiet and everyone is in bed, with some having a *very* early departure tomorrow morning. By lunchtime tomorrow, it should be just me, my dear wife and the dogs. Will be much quieter than the last couple of days. While I’ve enjoyed (at times) having the whole brood here, it will be enjoyable to have some peace and quiet as well.
To all for whom tomorrow is the busy and exciting day, enjoy. And for those of you for whom it’s just a Sunday, enjoy that as well.
mrmoshpotato
@different-church-lady: Thanks.
mrmoshpotato
@opiejeanne: Both good choices in my book.
PBK
@Gin & Tonic: Thank you.
Chetan Murthy
Folks (who are still here): thank you all for being here, and for making up this community. I really appreciate all of you, and especially the way you can mix pet blogging with political activism. Thank you all, thank you all. And to all of you, have a Merry Christmas.
Suzanne
So Mr. Suzanne and I are both of Italian descent on our fathers’ side, so we are having lasagna along with prime rib for dinner. I also baked a ricotta cheesecake, so hopefully that is unbad.
I do really miss tamales this time of year. One really good friend in AZ would take orders every year for her mom, who made them from scratch by the hundreds. GOD THEY ARE SO GOOD. Definitely not enough good Mexican food here in western PA. OTOH, I tried a paskhi. Or however the fuck you spell that thing.
Frankensteinbeck
I am continually boggled by the pretense that Kevin McCarthy is some kind of moderate. I guess it’s like with the Purity Left. The moment you get any power you’re establishment, and the target for the folks who scream RINO. So, no matter how extreme and dumbass and crazy your conservatism, you must be a moderate.
Again, the same way Nancy is a corporate neoliberal and a radical socialist simultaneously.
EDIT – And the same way Mitch McConnell and John Fucking Boehner, the architects behind the total obstruction strategy now assumed to have existed forever, are moderates. I mean, they can speak in complete sentences. McCarthy doesn’t have that.
Suzanne
I will also note that I went to hot yoga. 8 degrees outside, about 102 inside.it was alllllllmost enough to make my muscles feel all soupy, but not quite. I was still just slightly crunchy at the end of the hour. Skipping tomorrow, obviously, but I’m going to try to go every day for the next week.
Amir Khalid
@Frankensteinbeck:
Kevin is so spineless, I doubt he can be said to hold any sort of principles at all.
Anotherlurker
@frosty: Also try “Standing In The Shadow of Motown”. It is about “The Funk Brothers”, Motown’s studio musicians.
It is wonderful!
JAFD
@Amir Khalid:
There was a kosher-vegetarian Chinese restaurant across the street from the Philadelphia convention center, and one in Cherry Hill, NJ. Will check if they’re still there, if anyone asks.
mvr
@TriassicSands: Between a special prosecutor who has been put there to partition off charging decisions from political considerations, and the fact that US attorney’s for various districts have some autonomy while the Rs in Congress really are a scummy bunch, along with the fact that the numbers are small, I’m not giving up hope though it isn’t something I’d bet on. Also NY and California have D governors and that one guy from NY is already hiding somewhere from what I’ve been reading. Again, I wouldn’t bet on things working out but I also wouldn’t bet against it at this stage.
Frankensteinbeck
I love Biden. I think he’s a fantastic president. A few Republicans are willing to step across the aisle with him, rather than the absolute, lockstep resistance Obama got. They’re both willing to reach out, and Obama got remarkably good deals when Republicans both owned congress and absolutely had to pass a budget. Maybe there’s something besides negotiating skill that made the difference. If only we knew what’s different between Biden and Obama.
EDIT – Clearly anyone calling GOP leadership ‘moderate’ brings up harsh memories for me.
mvr
@frosty: We had a 1960 Rambler station wagon (American Motors, not a Nash) with push button gear shift on the dash (iirc) when I was a kid. The shop once installed something wrong so the buttons to go forwards made the car go backwards and the one to go backward had it going forwards. That got fixed pretty quickly and no one died.
JAFD
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
There’s a book came out recently, a ‘guide to The Monkees songs’. One thing the author missed: Clarksville, Tennessee was the “station for passengers traveling to Fort Campbell, Kentucky” (from old Official Guide to the Railways and Steamship Lines of North America) and Fort Campbell was where the 101st was stationed before it was ordered to Nam.
frosty
@JAFD: I’ve read that about Clarksville. Why didn’t we know that then? Other protest songs, sure, but this was just presented as mindless pop.
sralloway
Remember this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-oQbA9GL2I
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@mvr: As The Speaker has pointed out, members of the House are never appointed, they’re always replaced in a special election.
mvr
@🐾BillinGlendaleCA:
Thanks for the correction on that.
divF
@NotMax: there is a family story (I have recollection of this) that I walked down the aisle of the church at my uncle’s wedding singing this song. I would have been three or four.
divF
@divF: “no recollection”
opiejeanne
Merry Christmas from the Left Coast. It’s just past midnight, we just finished watching The Glass Onion (that was fun but weird) and we’re off to bed now. Nighty-night, and I hope you all have sweet dreams tonight.
Baud
@opiejeanne:
Back at you. I read about your fall. Take care of yourself.
West of the Rockies
I remain flummoxed that a Kevin McCarthy can look in the mirror and say, “Now there’s a likeable and charismatic leader!”
He should feel deep and abiding shame.
opiejeanne
@Baud: Thanks. The paramedics came and fussed over me, and then my husband took me to the ER near our house because the hospitals in Seattle were already slammed at 6:30pm. Covid more than accidents. 3-9 hour wait for a doctor to see you or to get into a room is the norm now, but closer to 9 hours than 3.
I was relieved when they said I was ok and hustled me out, and on the way past the other rooms I noticed two that had signs: negative pressure rooms. And they were both occupied. That was sobering.
Geminid
@WaterGirl: It would be good if we could take back the House one seat at a time this coming Congress. I’d say “great” except that a. 1 or2 seat Democratic majority might be problematical in a way that Speaker Pelosi’s 5 to 7 seat majority was not.
But I believe that come November, 2024 we will take the House back all at once, and that in 2025 Speaker Hakeem Jeffries will start the new Congress with a Majority of 20 seats or greater.
lowtechcyclist
@raven:
Holy fucking shit! I had no idea that there was a documentary about the legendary Wrecking Crew. I will have to get my hands on that!
Geminid
@lowtechcyclist: I happened to catch a movie about Bryan Wilson. It’s mainly about a later phase of his life but one of the flashbacks is a recording session, and has the younger Wilson complimenting bassist Carol Kaye on her cat glasses.
I looked up Carol Kaye once and was interested to learn that she got tired of playing music sessions and started playing movie scores. I believe Kaye’s work is featured in Bullitt (1969).
SFAW
I am embarrassed to say that I did not “get” the headline (i.e., its musical reference) until this AM. Before having coffee, even.
First “Andrew” McQarthy, then this. in less than 24 hours. Shit. Incipient dementia sucks. Maybe I can blame it on
ObamaHitlaryBiden.Kathleen
Deleted
Kathleen
Deleted.
Kathleen
@Anotherlurker: I cry at the end every time I see it.
Matt
@dmsilev:
That assumes that the sort of reptiles that would run as a Republican have “feelings” or are capable of embarrassment. Seems like a stretch: if they were decent human beings they wouldn’t still be members of the party.
Steeplejack
@lowtechcyclist:
It’s streaming on several sites, including Hulu, Tubi and YouTube.
ETA: There’s also Echo in the Canyon, streaming for free only on Kanopy now.
Miss Bianca
@opiejeanne: I can definitely attest that frozen lasagnas these days are not too shabby- at least, the single-sizers that I pick up for lunch occasionally are quite all right!
Geminid
@Matt: The commenter was talking about actions, not moral status. Purple district Republicans will diverge from the rest of their caucus on some issues out of self-interest, not virtue.
The Lodger
@West of the Rockies: Frankly, I’m flummoxed that Kevin McCarthy can look in the mirror and see anything at all.
evodevo
@TriassicSands:
Yeah…we got tired of that behavior too..what we started doing in our store was raising the price, every time they tried to bargain…marked price 35.95 – “what’ll ya take for it” – “It’s now $45.95” “WHAT??” – “It’s now $55.95” They leave fast lol – saves a lot of time and my temper…