So–COVID is so far treating me with some kindness. Two nasty days, then yesterday, when it felt like nothing worse than the tail end of a bad cold, with today being pretty similar. Thanks to all the jackals for your kind thoughts.
So I’m up and dressed and at my computer, and wishing everyone a belated happy new year. I gotta think that this is yet another chapter in the why-we-love-vaccines epic. I’m fully jabbed, five doses, with the last being the Moderna bivalent booster in the first week of September. So yeah, I still caught the damn thing, but I am deeply grateful that my experience of it (touching wood) has been this benign. Hope it stays that way.
Anyway, as I tried to consume the entire internet before turning to my manuscript (keyboardscript? pixelscript?) I came across a couple of items that in microcosm capture the absurdity, banal evil, and sheer Hollywood-could-never-write-this-badly-tude of Kevin McCarthy and today’s GOP at large.
First, here is what may be thought of as the price of George Santos’ vote:
The part of [McCarthy’s] proposed changes to House rules that drew the most attention was allowing just five House members to call for a vote at any time on ousting the Speaker; that would render McCarthy beholden to the most extreme members of his caucus, should he get on their wrong side. But buried in the text was another provision that could be highly consequential for the new Congress being sworn in on Tuesday: language that would effectively gut the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE), as the independent panel faces pressure to investigate lawmakers who participated in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
McCarthy et al. are being sneaky about it: they’re not shutting the office down–just making it impossible for it do be anything more than a facade.
McCarthy’s proposal would require OCE to hire its staff for the 118th Congress within 30 days of the resolution’s adoption, a requirement that sources familiar with the process tell TIME would make it exceedingly difficult for the office to have the resources it needs to conduct its investigations, given how long it takes to hire candidates for roles in the federal government. The proposal would also block OCE from hiring new employees over the next two years if someone leaves their position, sources say…
The resolution would also impose eight-year term limits for members of OCE’s eight-member board, which is composed of four Democrats and four Republicans. The move would result in three of the four Democrats being forced to vacate their seats effective immediately. While the new Democratic leader, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, would be able to appoint replacements, the changes could still significantly slow down the panel’s work and zap it of valuable institutional knowledge.
The net result: not just Santos, but a whole lot of January 6 co-conspirators will slide, for the next two years at least.
That’s serious, and I don’t want to make light of it, but hey–the assiduous and unrelenting DC media will fill the gap, amirite?
The next one, though is (in hindsight) just freaking funny, a reminder of how lucky we all were that the 1/6 coup central cadres were such irredeemable drongos:
Then-President Donald Trump wanted to trademark the phrase “Rigged Election!” days after Election Day in 2020, according to emails provided by Jared Kushner to the House select committee…
That desire was handed off to the administration’s czar-of-all-portfolios, the ill-fitting-human-skinsuit-clad Jared:
“Guys – can we do ASAP please?” Kushner wrote.
There was a problem:
Dollman responded: “‘Save America PAC’ is already taken/registered, just confirming that. But we can still file for ‘Save America.’”
Red Lectroid Kushner was decisive:
Kushner’s response, according to the transcript, was: “Go.”
I laugh, I cry, I long for a better timeline.
Open thread, y’all.
Image: Pieter van der Heyden after Hieronymus Bosch, Die Blau Schuyte (The Ship of Fools), 1559.
End of An Era, Start of a New One!
MattF
Loved the shot of that Icelandic lighthouse you posted on Mastodon… There’s something about Icelanders.
cain
Jeezus – the party of “American values” apparently doesn’t give a shit about ethics unless of course it is about Democrats (which honestly, whatever they are accusing Dems are they are probably all doing it anyways, rinse and repeat for 30+ years)
So the House is going to go full MAGA at a time when MAGA is trending downward. I hope the Dems have a plan on how we mitigate the next 2 years because it’s going to be nothing but asshole behavior to distract from their deceit.
ETA – Oh YEAH!!!! #2 – first post of the new year!! Fuck yeah! Good start! 2nd post, on the 3rd day of the first week on the 2nd day working day!
And yes, we have the press to contend with. Maybe with the death twitter, access journalism will have to figure out a new way to fuck around and find out.
Baud
@cain:
Everything is coming up
MilhouseCain.Robmassing
Thank you for saying “belated happy new year” not “happy belated new year.”
WereBear
@MattF: WANT
But I’d have to live on MREs.
Raoul Paste
Tesla stock down 16 points so far
bjacques
Happy slightly used year! I love the Old Master paintings and prints that adorn your posts. I collect old prints like this. Occasionally one flutters by here in Cloggie-land, but I have yet to get my hands on anything by Hieronymous Cock.
The Moar You Know
@MattF: there sure is. When my father was scheduling Air Force flights into Iceland in the late 1960s, one of his concerns was that no black crew could be on the aircraft, and if by accident there were, they could not disembark and touch Icelandic soil. Had to stay on the aircraft.
That has changed at least as far as the military is concerned.
They have a great country and a great society, but it’s not just what you see in the tourism ads.
Baud
@Raoul Paste:
Call that margin!
AWJ
You jest, but I’ve spent more than half a decade feeling like I’m living in the timeline that the time traveller goes back to prevent from coming to be. The one where Biff Tannen runs Hill Valley, the one where the Sentinels kill everyone, the one that made Homura change her look, etc. 2022 was the year that feeling finally started to subside. This post from the wonderful Weekly Sift expresses the feeling of growing relief I’ve been feeling over the past year.
MisterForkbeard
@Raoul Paste: Whoah. Why? They barely missed their delivery targets, though I didn’t see the rest of the reports.
Is it because everyone realizes the cybertruck is a shitshow? I didn’t see any other Musk news in the past few days.
Dangerman
@MattF: Iceland Lighthouse? Link please!
artem1s
IIRC this was the case under Pelosi too. I think KC is being pressured to lower it to one. And calling for a dismissal vote is not the same thing as getting enough votes to oust him. But yea, MTG and the other attention whores will probably abuse it if she can.
as far as the Ethics committee goes it’s pretty toothless anyway. Let’s see MQuarthy protect them from the DOJ.
Betty Cracker
The fact that the corrupt, would-be House leader of a corrupt AF party has the power to gut the ethics office is just mind boggling. The more hard lessons we learn about how basic governance is structured in this country, the more amazed I am that it didn’t collapse into a dysfunctional heap two centuries ago.
WaterGirl
@Betty Cracker: Nodding at every single point in your paragraph.
Balconesfault
@MisterForkbeard: Tesla’s valuation was hyper inflated because anrgle bargle Musk genius.
It’s on its way to being priced like a company that makes stuff and has expenses and liabilities.
MattF
@Dangerman: I’d like to but don’t know how to link to Mastodon posts. Try this:
Link
ETA: Whoa. It worked. Note that this sort of thing working depends on the three or four servers involved all agreeing on how to do it, so no guarantees.
Ken
@Raoul Paste: Cybertruck rollout having the expected
successeffect.(Though I wasn’t clear about last night’s thread — was there a new marketing push by Tesla yesterday, or was it just Twitter digging up old footage?)
West of the Rockies
@MisterForkbeard:
I’m not aware of any inane Musk declarations or Tweets for a few days. Has someone finally gotten through to him to STFU?
Tom Levenson
@MattF: Thanks. I was just about to go digging for that…
scav
Tidbit I currently giggle at is in the — admittedly few — newspaper-based economic writeups that examine Tesla’s woes, they to a (man) insist that the dip is because investors think Elon is devoting too much time to Birdland and needs to come back (shiwer us with your aura & care as before!) Nowhere is it mentioned that the Birdland Vaudeville of Extravaganza may be the first time investors have seen the management wiles of the unshackled amazing Muskrat on the big screen live and in Technicolor.
Wyatt Salamanca
Kevin McCarthy projects an aura of overpowering stupidity. He’s equally adept at playing both schlemiel and schlimazel. Whenever I observe him being interviewed, I’m always struck by the Zen-like perfection of his vacuousness. I look forward to seeing Kevin endure many incidents of public embarrassment and humiliation over the next two years. A McCarthy speakership will usher in a special era of maximum motherfucking schadenfreude.
Dangerman
@MattF: Whoa. Sleepwalking not allowed. Well, maybe no sleeping involved, since does’t look like a residence.
Adding it to my list.
lowtechcyclist
I’ve got C-SPAN open in another window. Looks like they’re still establishing a quorum. Lots of milling around on the House floor
ETA: The Clerk of the House has gaveled the House to attention. All 434 House members are present in the House.
Leslie
@West of the Rockies: We can only hope. But I have grave doubts about Melon’s ability to STFU about anything for very long.
Also, good morning. :)
Leslie
@lowtechcyclist: Thanks for monitoring. I can’t watch because work, so any updates will be appreciated.
West of the Rockies
@Wyatt Salamanca:
His wife has to be an imbecile if she can watch him conduct himself thusly and not feel mortified.
cleek
same here.
last Tuesday and Wednesday i was low-grade delirious. since then, it’s been a steady ‘3rd day of a bad cold’ feeling.
still testing positive. haven’t left the house since the 24th. still masking to keep my wife healthy. still can’t taste or smell anything most of the time.
Roger Moore
I’m tired of the “McCarthy is forced to buy off the extremists” framing. It’s part of the narrative that the Republicans are basically reasonable and are just being wagged by an extremist tail. The both-sides media likes this interpretation because it fits their existing views.
It’s all BS, though; McCarthy doesn’t have to give in like this. He could play hardball, refuse to give any concessions, and tell the extremists their only choices are him and Hakeem Jeffries. Giving them all these concessions is a conscious choice that reflects his willingness to give the extreme right what they want.
West of the Rockies
@Leslie:
Good morning to you! I hope you’re staying dry and safe in this wild weather.
lowtechcyclist
Nominations time.
Rep. Stefanik has just nominated Kevin McCarthy for Speaker, and is now giving a nominating speech that is bullshit from the word go.
ETA: That was painful to listen to. But now Rep. Aguilar is nominating Hakeem Jeffries.
ETA: He’s a good speaker.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@lowtechcyclist: Dear god, she’s awful. And she’s not one of the nuts, just one of the many opportunists.
MisterForkbeard
@West of the Rockies: I DID hear that he pissed off Catturd2, who is now whining that Twitter is suppressing him moar than evah.
Maybe Elon pissed off the crazy rightwingers and the stock is going down because no one likes him. But nah, he’s still a hero to the truly weird among the right
The Moar You Know
@Roger Moore: Precisely, and it’s what any sane person would have done when faced with this bullshit. I suspect McCarthy is both stupid and personally weak.
cain
@Roger Moore: He is just as extreme – he just doesn’t like being controlled. But I bet his extremist will try to one up him every time. People like Gaetz and Greene don’t give a shit about the institution, or the people they represent, or the country. They just want things to fall into anarchy. They are anarchists.
I would like to see a NYT diner article on why someone would vote for Greene.
Tom Levenson
I have heard from reliable sources* that McCarthy may finally have secured the last votes he needs to get over the hump. The concession that made the difference was his agreement that every time he hears someone shout “Reek!” he will respond “yethhhhh mathhhhhter.”
*Not intended to be a factual statement.
Roger Moore
@MisterForkbeard:
Because they’re still wildly overvalued. Tesla’s market valuation only makes sense if you assume they can take over a large fraction of the automotive market and squeeze it for much higher profits than any car maker has been able to achieve for a long time. That seems less and less likely as time passes. The big car makers are catching up pretty quickly on the EV front, much faster than Tesla is catching up on the automotive quality front. Tesla falling to the point it gets bought out seems a lot more likely at this point than it taking over the whole automotive market.
MattF
@MisterForkbeard: I suspect that one may invoke a general principle: It is very difficult to find agreement with a group of crazy people. Maybe impossible.
citizen dave
@Wyatt Salamanca: This is so well-said! I just turned on the C-Span live feed and Stefanick was singing KM’s praises; a couple of cuts to KM captured what you describe. I’m thinking, hope he has the votes… couldn’t watch any more and closed the window.
lowtechcyclist
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
I know, right? But she was out there, talking a good right-wing nutjob game. Thank goodness Aguilar’s up now.
CaseyL
Happy to hear Covid is thus far treating you not-horribly (knock wood and fingers crossed you feel much better right quick!).
Re: McCarthy’s Excellent Adventure – the GOP lies, about everything, so I half expect him to sail through on the first ballot.
And that Icelandic lighthouse! Reminds me a bit of a lighthouse here in Washington State, out in Flattery Bay (off the extreme upper left of Washington’s Pacific Coast). It’s another tiny building perched atop an inaccessible tall island, and for years I’ve wondered how people get to and from it. I’ve also wondered if there are lotteries big enough that, if I won one, I could buy the place. Living completely away from humanity has its appeal!
Dorothy A. Winsor
Pete Aguilar is giving a nice speech nominating Jeffries. He’s specific about policies and not name calling the other side, like Stafanik did.
MisterForkbeard
@Roger Moore: Oh, sure. I was just wondering what had triggered this specific drop. They were sure as shit overvalued last week, and they’d actually recovered ~$15. But now that’s gone again.
So what changed between then and now, is my question. If they’re actually valued correctly, I’d say they sit at $40 or less. You could make an argument for $70 by going with ‘future market position potential’, basically just betting that it’s going to go a lot higher if they own the entire EV market and get AI driving working. But even that’s way too high.
CaseyL
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Hah! I didn’t know the Dems would play this Speaker nomination game – maybe they’re required to? – and I love the contrast Aguilar is painting for everyone.
cain
@citizen dave: Was his hands in his pants, hidden from view?
WereBear
@CaseyL: I sent it to a friend who has been working retail the past few years. She fell in love.
Amir Khalid
@Tom Levenson:
Can you really be sure that’s not a factual statement?
lowtechcyclist
Andy Biggs’ name also got placed in nomination. Now they vote.
ETA: This is a roll-call vote; it’ll take a few. The roll is being called in alphabetical order, and each Congressperson-elect (‘-elect’ because they haven’t been sworn in yet by the Speaker) gives the surname of the Speaker candidate they’re voting for.
Into the B’s. Biggs voted for himself, the first Biggs vote. Rep. Bishop of NC also voted for Biggs. And Boebert voted for Gym Jordan. So three GOP votes already for persons other than McCarthy. Odds of a second ballot looking awfully good.
More ETA: Somewhere else in the B’s, there was another vote for someone other than McCarthy or Jeffries. So that’s four.
MisterForkbeard
@MattF: The problem with these chucklefucks (okay, one of MANY problems) is that they perceive not getting their way on anything or suffering a minor inconvenience to be the Worst Thing Ever and clearly a plot to discredit and hurt them.
Which makes it inevitable that they turn on Musk at least temporarily every time they stub their toe.
WereBear
Jackal reminder that my Mastodon address is in my NYM.
zhena gogolia
@cleek: ugh sounds horrible
prostratedragon
A familiar snippet of Water Music. The musicians here seem to be having fun, but I bet there were days when Handel’s band felt like they were playing for that Boschian set.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Andy Biggs has also been nominated. So much for election on the first ballot
WaterGirl
@scav: That is likely the work of the PR fixers in action.
WaterGirl
@cleek: Glad you are on the mend. The taste-smell thing would be awful; I hope yours returns quickly.
Roger Moore
@The Moar You Know:
The point is that he’s giving the concessions because he wants to do those things. Having the craziest of the crazies demand them as the price of his speakership just gives him a permission structure. He gets to maintain some kind of credibility with the media as a non-crazy person, since he was “forced” to do those things. And naturally, the media is happy to go along with the charade because it lets them maintain their bothsides narrative.
West of the Rockies
@cain:
I don’t think they’re anarchists. That is an actual philosophy of sorts. I think they are simply unprincipled, greedy ego-monsters
They want what they want because, dammit, I want it and I am super cool and amazing and deserving!
Dorothy A. Winsor
Did I hear that right? Did Lauren Boebert vote for Jordan?
The Moar You Know
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Biggs believes he deserves the job. He’s not going to vote for Kev, not now or ever. I assume for different reasons Gaetz is in that group as well, probably because Kevin will let him go to jail when that time comes.
Small margins.
Dangerman
There appears to be a lot of looks of extreme constipation in the Republican Caucus; need emergency shipment of Metamucil, stat!
Baud
@Dangerman:
Apt. The GOP is good at blocking things.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
in which Marge Greene stumbles her way to understanding Harry Truman’s old dictum, “If you need a friend in Washington, get a dog”
She’s calling out Matt Gaetz, Chip Roy, Lauren Boebert….
lowtechcyclist
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Yeppers. She’s crazy as a bedbug, so nothing she’d so would surprise me.
ETA: Another vote for Jordan, and another vote for Biggs, somewhere in the C’s. That’s six, so we’re going to see a second ballot.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Dangerman:
Negative, better call up Tractor Supply for some industrial strength horse de-wormer. That’ll clear em’ out!
MattF
@Dangerman: Based on my colonoscopy prep experience, I’d call for polyethylene glycol.
Alison Rose
LOL a rep just voted for “the bad brilliant brother from Brooklyn”
Dorothy A. Winsor
And there’s a second vote for Jordan. I didn’t hear who it was
scav
@WaterGirl: Very likely: many news desks just strip & replace the byline of incoming releases (and sometimes the grep code is replaced by flesh & blood). I freely admit it’s a cheap giggle.
Just wish the hobby hadn’t picked up the background soundtrack of Muskrat Love. I bloody hate that song.
The Moar You Know
@Roger Moore: I might agree if we lived in a world where Republicans of any stripe need justification to be batshit lunatics. They don’t. The media has normalized it all. Today’s example: They’re gonna seat that android “Santos” (not the name he normally goes by, in new developments) for chrissakes and we literally don’t even know his name, or what nationality he is, much less anything else about him.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
So Greene is literally having a meltdown at her fellow MAGAs? That’s incredible. It wasn’t that long ago her Gatez were inseparable buddies. May she piss off every “ally” in the Party
Ken
Or are LED by a SUPER-GENIUS who will CREATE the GREATEST autos in the HISTORY of the WORLD and allow us mere mortals to BUY them and BETA-TEST the self-driving SOFTWARE for HIM.
UN-altered REPRODUCTION and DISSEMINATION, et cetera.
Omnes Omnibus
@Betty Cracker: The system can work just fine as long as everyone agrees on the norms and does throw their wingtips into the works any time they don’t get their way. Once the GOP decided that winning was more important than the rules of the game, it really didn’t matter how the system was designed. They were going to fuck it up. If the system were different, their method of fucking it up would have been different.
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Wake me up when she starts shooting.
Roger Moore
@MisterForkbeard:
Don’t try to make sense of short-term market movement. The shorter term you look at, the more the market is driven by trying to out think the other guy rather than anything related to fundamentals. The collapse over the past year or so probably reflects people deciding Tesla isn’t likely to become the dominant player in the market, with the past month being about losing confidence in Musk as CEO, but even that is just a guess. Trying to figure out why people today are doing the opposite of what they did on Friday is a sucker’s game.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
just turned on MSNBC, there only on the Cs in the roll call and I gather McCarthy has already lost five votes
Andrea Mitchell noting that they can change their votes as long as the roll call lasts, but I think that’s unlikely. They’re making a point.
CaseyL
I know it’s not going to happen, but it does make me smile (giggle, actually) that for now Jeffries is ahead in the count.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Omnes Omnibus:
I agree. There really isn’t some one weird trick. At the end of the day, the Constitution, any constitution, is just a piece of paper
Tom Levenson
@Amir Khalid: The statement may be true. The sources are fictional.
Almost Retired
Had to turn from MSNBC where Andrea Mitchell interrupted the coverage of the vote to try desperately to spit out a coherent sentence, and couldn’t even count the anti-Kevin votes correctly. CNN is much better, with a video tally of the votes.
Betty Cracker
Okay, this is weird:
I guess the late Queen would be better than McCarthy, so…
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Roger Moore:
Do you think the US stock market is also overvalued?
The Moar You Know
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: lol too crazy for the crazies.
In seriousness, she’s got that 2015-level Trump psychopath energy and her colleagues want to stop her now before she is in charge of all of them. Life under Madge would not be pleasant.
M31
@Betty Cracker: any of the late Queen’s late corgis would be better than McCarthy
Dangerman
@MattF: Then there would be a run, um, so to speak, on toilet paper. In an emergency and no TP, there might be an ATM neatby and some kind souls giving out 4 5’s for a 20.
Ken
@lowtechcyclist: Six anti-McCarthy votes while still in the C’s? That means the eventual count should be well short of 218, possibly short of 200.
(Assuming a random-ish distribution, and that the antis didn’t get together and plan this ahead of time — though such a plot would also not be great news for McCarthy.)
Roger Moore
@Omnes Omnibus:
This. You can’t design a system so perfect the people in charge of implementing it can’t screw it up. If you elect enough saboteurs, the system will be sabotaged.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
Haha.
lowtechcyclist
At the end of the F’s, we have 5 votes for Biggs, and 3 for others, at least 2 of which were for Gym Jordan.
Good and Gosar just voted for Biggs. Not only no win, but no plurality for Kevin on this ballot
ETA: Someone just voted for Zeldin
ETA: Whether or not a candidate gets a plurality makes no difference once they don’t get an outright majority, but it has to be rather embarrassing when you’ve already had your stuff moved into the Speaker’s office.
JPL
I’m just surprised that they haven’t nominated trump yet.
Roger Moore
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Vellum, damn it. Important documents back then were engrossed on vellum, which is tougher and more durable than paper.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@lowtechcyclist:
Is this all just to make a point to McCarthy or are they all this disunited?
MisterForkbeard
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Gaetz traded “up” for the younger, less transparently insane Boebert.
Baud
@Roger Moore:
Except Balloon Juice, of course.
CaseyL
@Betty Cracker: With the caveat that I don’t give much of a damn about the Royal Family, it should still be said that a Dead Queen Liz is in any political context better than a living GOPer.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
dmsilev
@Ken: That’d mean Jeffries would end up winning a plurality of the votes, meaning that ‘change the rules so that Speaker only needs a plurality rather than a majority’ won’t get the GOP to OK Kevin.
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Santos should just lie about who he is.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@JPL: just thinking that
@Baud: How do you do? I am Congressman Art Vandelay, East Carolina 13
Alison Rose
@MisterForkbeard:
Well, no surprise there.
scav
@CaseyL: Same could be siad for a Drag Queen Liz, no?
MisterForkbeard
@JPL: I think several republicans did say they’d wait until the second vote before “revealing” alternate candidates.
But I have to believe that even the worst of them know Trump would be a truly terrible Speaker.
dmsilev
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Possibly both. I don’t think they really know.
Roger Moore
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Probably, especially if interest rates are expected to stay in the same general range where they are. A lot of the market run-up since the Great Financial Crisis has been driven by very low interest rates. Interest rates should be inversely related to P/E ratios, so very low long-term expected interest rates should lead to very high P/E ratios. The rapid increase in interest rates should deflate the P/E ratios. I guess the market hasn’t collapsed because the higher interest rates have coincided with record profitability, but I think the profits will go down sooner than the interest rates.
CaseyL
@scav: OMG, that would be EPIC. A Drag Queen as House Speaker!!
lowtechcyclist
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Fuck-all if I know. Given that virtually the whole caucus is crazy as bedbugs, I’d give the edge to the latter, but I really don’t know.
MisterForkbeard
@Alison Rose: Look, even if she’s not a teenager she is literally on the record with being fine if a dude she’s with exposes himself to minors. Clearly a match made in heaven for Gaetz.
Pete Mack
I got it from a* plumber two years ago next month. Three days of fever followed by five of weakness. Respect it, and rest! Don’t try to power through, because others I know tried, and it cane back with a vengeance.
* “a” plumber, because he is definitely not my plumber anymore.
Baud
Dems in Disarray needs to be officially retired.
Betty Cracker
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I don’t think the concept of independent oversight is “one weird trick.” It’s an actual thing in some organizations, just not Congress, apparently.
Roger Moore
@Baud:
Don’t try to feed me that nonsense. I’ve seen what happens to Balloon Juice when the hamster gets tired.
Alison Rose
Gotta click through to see this pic :)
Roger Moore
@Baud:
He certainly has plenty of practice.
Tom Levenson
@Roger Moore: Another sign that the fundamentals on Tesla as a company are shifting/becoming apparent: https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1138302_used-tesla-prices-are-dropping-fast
Tesla used cars, which were selling for over new vehicle sticker prices, are now diving. Partly that reflects Tesla price cuts (itself a sign of eroding market dominance) and partly the fact that there are alternatives and Muskmobiles are less desirable as a brand or personal statement than they used to be.
As I posted in one of my scarce tweets these days–parking a Tesla in your driveway is the automotive equivalent of wearing an “I’m with stupid” shirt.
Baud
The GOP’s weekly orgy and cocaine party is going to be awkward.
Alison Rose
@Baud: There’s gonna be a lot more of the latter than the former.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Roger Moore:
I’ve read bear markets and these declines can be good for long-term buy and hold investors. My portfolio is diversified across total ex-US international as well as total US as well as 10% total US and total international bonds. I just hate that I missed out on the best bull market in history and future expected returns will be lower than historically for at least the next 10 years. Of course, these forecasts have been wrong before. However, global demographics are aging and that will probably be a headwind for the future.
I can’t afford to invest like some of the Bogleheads can, where they can max out their 401ks, IRAs, AND put money in taxable. I only have access to a Roth.
Sigh, oh well
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Alison Rose: LOL. For a party that just lost the House, the Ds are in a great mood. I saw a twitter pic of Ted Lieu holding up a big bag of popcorn and saying “On my way to the House floor”
lowtechcyclist
@Baud:
I agree, but I don’t know what it takes. The GOP hasn’t been the party of fiscal responsibility since Reagan was elected, but I’d bet more people still think they’re the more fiscally responsible party.
A large part of that, of course, is the way our media frames things.
JoyceH
Side topic while votes going on – last night I followed a couple twitter threads from anti-vaxxers. (And this is the first time I can recall seeing anti-vax threads on twitter.) One was about the Hamlin collapse. Apparently it’s all just a part of the epidemic of healthy young men suddenly dropping dead, due to being vaccinated. Seems this is happening all the time everywhere, but we just don’t hear about it. Okay. Other was anti-vaxxers (who call themselves Pure Bloods – weren’t they the pro-Voldemort Death Eaters in Harry Potter?) not only not getting vaccinated, but being terrified of being around vaccinated people, because – ‘shedding’.
lowtechcyclist
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Dammit, I told Siri to buy ALL the popcorn!
OK, Ted Lieu’s a good guy, he can have some.
Alison Rose
Nancy!!
Amir Khalid
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
I take it all the Ds are voting for Hakeem Jeffries?
CaseyL
Aaaand: A standing O for Nancy Smash as she casts her vote for Hakeem.
Tom Levenson
@Alison Rose: That’s so great.
JPL
@MisterForkbeard: Stafanik would shit if she had to choose between McCarthy and trump.
Baud
@CaseyL:
👍
Soprano2
@WaterGirl: The taste-smell thing is awful; hard to describe to anyone who hasn’t experienced it. I was lucky, I recovered mine fully in about 3 weeks. I hope cleek does the same, it was the worst diet I had ever been on, and it made alcohol taste terrible. Try to imagine drinking vinegar, that was what it was like, and bacon just tasted like salt.
Alison Rose
@Amir Khalid: No question.
lowtechcyclist
@Tom Levenson:
Fixed.
OldDave
And if you look at vellum very closely, you’ll find the plans to build a cow.
CaseyL
Gonna be interesting when they get to Santos…
Amir Khalid
@Amir Khalid:
Jeffries is ahead of Kevin! Oh, my.
lowtechcyclist
@Baud:
It wouldn’t be the first time.
Alison Rose
Click through for video!
EarthWindFire
@Roger Moore: Agreed. Also too these were the same things McCarthy and his fellow “Young Guns” wanted and used back in the day. Something that his Crybaby But He Did It Too! Qaucus wouldn’t hesitate to point out if he tried to play hardball.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Amir Khalid: Yup
CaseyL
Santos just stood up, voted, sat down.
dmsilev
WaPo live blog:
Round three? So much for ‘vote no on the first ballot just to make a statement or whatever and then come around’.
eachother
This is great. 118th Congress is the show. How does it get better for the r’s from here? It doesn’t.
Reconciliation disappearing into the mist.
18 against so far.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@dmsilev: One of them was claiming there’d be a “surprise” nominee added on the second round
trollhattan
@Betty Cracker:
One is amused.
Meanwhile, “statute of limitations” seems to have a different meaning in Brazil.
Alison Rose
LOL Anderson Cooper asking what happens when this vote is done. “Is there a break for crying in the cloakroom?”
Betty Cracker
Anti-McCarthy votes stand at 19 right now, and a CNN analyst is saying that’s even worse than what anti-McCarthy Rep. Bob Good (for nothing) predicted. Hahahaha!
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
Yeah, the media probably would have yawned at a first round loss, but not one that is bigger than expected.
frosty
@West of the Rockies: Nihilists! F*** me. I mean, say what you like about the tenets of [anarchism], Dude, at least it’s an ethos.
MisterForkbeard
@JPL: Nah. Stefanik has no attachment or devotion to anything. She’d be annoyed, but she’d vote for Trump immediately because that’s still where the party power is.
lowtechcyclist
Jeffries 211
McCarthy 202
Biggs 10
Others 9
Ken
@Dorothy A. Winsor: “The Republicans are clowns, gotta laugh” isn’t a bad message for the Dems. When appropriate they can throw in “Not my circus, not my monkeys.”
Alison Rose
YOU CAN’T SIT WITH US, KEVIN
Baud
@lowtechcyclist:
👍
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Ken: It’s such a contrast to the previous House
dmsilev
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Oh, so we’re going full Pro Wrestling then? I wonder who got dibs on hitting McCarthy over the head with a folding chair.
New Deal democrat
I’ve seen enough.
Kevin McCarthy is not going to be the Speaker of the House. HaKeem Jeffries (D) gets the most votes on the 2nd ballot with 212 votes. Andy Biggs gets 10. Others get 9. McCarthy gets 203.
McCarthy is going to start losing more votes on succeeding ballots.
The most likely result is that Steve Scalise is persuaded to step in and wins, once McCarthy falls below ~200 votes on a ballot.
But there is a not-insignificant chance that Democrats step in and become Kingmakers in return for concessions, e.g., a clean debt ceiling increase.
In the meantime, pass the popcorn.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Ken: Here’s Wonkette’s Evan Hurst:
lowtechcyclist
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Ain’t it just? Pelosi and Schumer were operating with razor-thin majorities, and yet they moved mountains. These guys couldn’t run a two-car funeral.
geg6
@trollhattan:
This is for a crime that he pleaded guilty to already, if I recall correctly. He has not met the requirements of the plea and so they are renewing the old warrant. He’s a fugitive from justice as I understand it. It was a fairly petty crime, but he pleaded out if I’m right about that.
WaterGirl
Why only 211 for Hakeem, when we have 212 Dems?
BellyCat
Dearest Jackals… I’m looking to hire someone with PR and social media skills for an explosive issue involving Pennsylvania courts. I’m also in need of a courageous Civil Rights attorney Federally able to file in PA .
It’s time to shine cleansing daylight on at least two decades of possible (likely) deprivation of due process rights in at least one, and possibly more, Pennsylvania courts. This pertains to constitutionally protected civil rights. Lower income and children are the most vulnerable.
I have a staggering amount of evidence (three years of inquiry and research) and have been discussing this with one of our most beloved Jackals (who shall remain nameless, unless they choose otherwise). It is time to appeal to the fourth-estate and the Federal level.
I can be emailed as followed:
To: dcelento at gmail dot com
Subject: Due Process Scandal PA
Any and all thoughts, referrals greatly welcomed.
Alison Rose
I hope the clerk has a lozenge or two before the second ballot.
Alison Rose
@WaterGirl: Says 212 on the CNN screen. Where are you seeing 211?
Ken
@Alison Rose: Mr. Cooper’s joke aside, what does happen now? Do they break for some arm-twisting and/or begging, or vote again immediately?
EDIT: Ideally a dozen Republicans leave in a snit, or because they’re dumb enough to think Jeffries just won.
Alison Rose
@Ken: Well, they’re all milling around the room. I assume Kevin is begging people to change their votes. Like a winner does.
scav
@Ken: Better be breaks: need more popcorn,
Frankensteinbeck
@Roger Moore:
The story of John “Total Obstruction” Boehner. The Teabaggers couldn’t do shit to him if he was willing to work with the Democrats. He handed the lunatics the power and created this ‘tradition’ of House gridlock that everyone now thinks was always normal. And he gets a pass in the media and even here because he said the Teabaggers made him do it.
@Ken:
I think this is a big part of it. One whole Hell of a lot of people believed that self-driving cars were imminent. I remember commenters here talking at length about how the trucking industry was about to be automated out of existence.
It’s not gonna happen, and people are starting to realize it.
Barbara
@Ken: TPM says McCarthy wants to go straight to a second vote but I guess that isn’t determinative.
different-church-lady
Even if he somehow pulls this together, does anyone think Mac actually has any realistic chance of leading this pack of monkeys?
Alison Rose
Scalise and MTG having a chitchat. Pretty sure eavesdropping on that convo would lower your IQ by a few points.
WaterGirl
@Alison Rose: C-SPAN
And then the clerk walked away.
Ken
@Barbara: This is where the Clerk of the House starts demanding concessions, to allow a vote to be held. “Rules, Mr. McCarthy? Until a Speaker is elected, I am the rules.”
Alison Rose
@WaterGirl: Weird, everywhere else I’m seeing 212 and 203. Are they not counting Jeffries’ and McCarthy’s votes?
Cameron
@JoyceH: Shedding? WTF? Is that the Covid Witch of the West – “I’m shedding! Shedding!”
Barbara
@Frankensteinbeck: It can happen in highly controlled environments, e.g., off road industrial or construction sites. Apparently coal mining locations in Australia rely quite a bit on driverless trucks. The army wants them for supply routes to reduce the risk of drivers coming under fire as they did in Iraq.
Ksmiami
@Roger Moore: and that’s why we have to destroy the GOP and purge it from the body politic
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Frankensteinbeck:
Do you think those Amazon delivery drones are still going to be a thing? I have a hard time seeing it
mvr
@Alison Rose:
Perhaps the presiding officer does not vote?
Alison Rose
@mvr: But like I said, other tallies show 212 and 203. CNN kept a running tally graphic on screen during the vote, and it shows 212 and 203.
different-church-lady
@Frankensteinbeck: Every-freakin-body was “autonomous cars autonomous cars autonomous cars!” until that test car killed that woman in Arizona, and then all the autonomous cars buzz disappeared. Not just here but all across the media. Like almost literally just evaporated overnight.
different-church-lady
mvr
@Alison Rose:
Yeah. Don’t know. Not even watching TV. Just following along here and on TPM.
Baud
@Frankensteinbeck: No just cars. People were getting mad at Dems for not having policies to deal with the looming mass unemployment crisis that would be caused by automation.
Geoduck
Well, as usual with my political predictions, I was wrong. I was sure the GOPers would mostly fall in line when it came time for the actual voting. No idea what will finally happen now.
Alison Rose
Ah, here we go
Uncle Cosmo
Kevvie McCarthy, Squeaker of the House…or maybe Sneaker of the House…
Also, if Vova TeenyWeenie is having second thoughts about his unvasion of Ukraine, I propose we call that “boyar’s remorse”…
Dorothy A. Winsor
From Maju Ranu:
Ken
Not while there are butterfly nets, slingshots, and BB guns.
la caterina
@WaterGirl: One of the dems died post-electoin. I forgot which one. Until the special election, we only have 211 votes.
Alison Rose
@la caterina: I don’t know about someone dying, but see my previous comment. We have 212.
randy khan
@la caterina:
It’s actually 212 – with the special election, if it goes as expected, it will be 213. Apparently some tallies stopped before the last couple of votes straggled in.
Suzanne
@different-church-lady: I am not ready to give up on autonomous cars, personally. Human drivers are also terrible. There was a really good piece in Wired about this incident and its aftermath, which I can’t link because paywall.
Alison Rose
Mike in NC
New sitcom coming to NBC: “Everybody Hates Kevin”
Suzanne
@Alison Rose: What a fucking shitshow and embarrassment. LMAO.
I am smirking.
lowtechcyclist
@WaterGirl:
I think C-SPAN’s tally was one off, for both Jeffries and McCarthy. They actually got 212 and 203.
Alison Rose
Gym Jordan spewing all kinds of bullshit
la caterina
@randy khan: You and Allison Rose are correct. I was trying to edit to correct the number to 212 but it didn’t go through.
CaseyL
@Alison Rose: Jordan just did so. I don’t know if that means the defectors who voted for him on the 1st ballot will vote for McCarthy on the 2nd, though.
Hopefully, the House GQP just wants to humiliate McCarthy again.
PAM Dirac
@randy khan:
I wonder if Jamie Raskin kind of snuck in from the back to minimize his exposure now that he is undergoing chemotherapy?
la caterina
It was Dem. Rep. Donald MacEachin of Virginia, who passed away on Nov. 29 after having been re-elected.
Old School
@Mike in NC:
Time to renew “Kevin Can F**k Himself”?
The Moar You Know
Well, if this is the Red Wave I am here to savor.
Alison Rose
shut up please jfc
Frankensteinbeck
@Barbara:
Absolutely, but that’s not going to be an economic game changer, not by any stretch of the imagination. It’s not what was promised or what people believed was on the way. It’s barely a drop in the bucket of what was promised.
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
I seriously, seriously doubt it. Too many potential complications. Birds, griefers, and difficulty finding correct drop off points all leap to mind. Flying one package at a time also sounds super inefficient to me, but logistics problems like that might be overcome.
@different-church-lady:
And that’s a big support pillar pulled away from Musk’s reputation as a genius and why investors thought Tesla was going to one day own the auto industry. Now that he’s showing his ass in public, he needs that kind of support to fall back on, and it no longer exists. Instead he’s making people look at whether self-driving cars will happen instead of just taking his word.
And they’re not. Machine learning has limits. It’s an ‘it works until it doesn’t’ technology, and that’s not good enough for driving a car.
Alison Rose
the American people care about abortion rights, so Jordan will totes support that, right?
Inventor
Already humiliating for McCarthy, with each unsuccessful round, he weakens further.
I think he gets it ultimately, but how low will he have to debase himself before that happens?
Betty Cracker
Jeebus, Jordan is so awful. Talk about scraping the bottom of the barrel!
Ken
And again, and again, and again. “Day ending in a Y” stuff.
Alison Rose
Yeah, Gaetz, sometimes people have to do the job of being in the same room as you
Betty Cracker
Oh, here’s Fivehead!
ETA — Fivehead is terrible, but in his nomination of Jordan, he’s a lot more compelling than Jordan! Hahahaha!
Baud
@CaseyL:
I can’t believe I agree with them on something.
Alison Rose
LOLOL he’s like “the best man for the job is someone who doesn’t want it” OKAY PLAYER
lowtechcyclist
Gym Jordan, who got 6 votes on the first ballot, gave the nominating speech for McCarthy for the second ballot. Aguilar once again nominated Jeffries. Now Matt Gaetz is nominating Gym Jordan
And now the roll call for the first second ballot in 100 years.
Frank Wilhoit
@different-church-lady:
Not everybody. Just the ones who don’t know anything about software. (In fairness, that is almost exactly everybody.)
CaseyL
Glad I clicked off just after Jordan said he was nominating McCarthy. I would, on any given day, rather have a colonoscopy than listen to Jim Jordan.
Granted, I’m unconscious for the colonoscopy, but you get my point.
Frank Wilhoit
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Who gave that order? Who had standing to give it?
Martin
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Both. I mean, they are this disunited. I think part of McCarthy’s problem is that even his supporters aren’t strongly behind him. He’s bad at his job and everyone knows it. I suspect most of his support is really about making the party look functional and most of them would back almost anyone in the party.
The compelling case for Nancy was that she could keep the caucus in line. I don’t know what the compelling case for McCarthy is.
Leslie
@Roger Moore:
Rotating tag
WaterGirl
New thread up for the second vote.
Barbara
@Ken: I am genuinely curious as to why they have fixated such antipathy on McCarthy. I don’t like him, but I don’t like any of them.
ETA Will post on next thread . . .
lowtechcyclist
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
What I want to know is, under whose authority were the metal detectors removed? The new Congress hasn’t been sworn in yet. There is no Speaker yet. Who is in a position to give any orders yet?
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Frank Wilhoit: Beats me. Nutcase MTG, for all I know.
OldDave
That’s apparently a feature to some in the GQP.
Matt McIrvin
@scav: Isn’t Musk cannibalizing Tesla’s resources to keep Twitter afloat?
scav
@Frankensteinbeck: Like the automated trucks, drone delivery will possibly make sense in specific, limited contexts. High value, time dependent, the usual suspects. But citizens blahs tchotchke — ordered with similar — when there’s a truck already going next door with a 10 lbs delivery, not so much.
Martin
@different-church-lady: It’s not really because of that accident. It’s because autonomy is a subset of electrification, and electrification has stalled out in a way that wasn’t expected, and autonomy has proven harder to solve. It was thought that once Tesla got more compute power in the cars, that autonomy would surface, and Teslas autonomy is pretty terrible.
Google’s is pretty good, but Google is having trouble figuring out how to monetize it, in part because the EV market isn’t finding the opportunity to lower costs and squeeze autonomy into the savings.
Public policy folks are looking at other options – transit, ebikes, etc. which are garnering more public interest, and are cheaper, easier to implement, etc. and which help with the housing crisis. IOW, the problem is that cars are the problem. That the US builds more 3 car garages than 1 bedroom apartments is a serious, serious problem that smarter cars can’t solve and actually makes worse.
Immanentize
@Frank Wilhoit: i believe the metal detectors placement was a rule of the last Congress which simply dissolved at noon today, without renewal.
Leslie
@Baud:
Also nominated!
Immanentize
@lowtechcyclist: see my comment at 225
Matt McIrvin
@Geoduck: Well, they MOSTLY did. That’s just not good enough.
Martin
@scav: One idea that has been floated is to expand USPS to do same-day delivery on their normal routes. Post offices become hubs for local businesses to bring goods, and USPS which already visits every house in the country simply adds that to their run. Would require legislation but gets local business same-day delivery for very little additional cost. It’s not 1-hour or whatever the drone folks promise, but it’d be very popular.
cain
@lowtechcyclist:
I think only the people who grew up in the 80s believe that – which means a lot of the editors/old journos think that. I don’t think anybody else does if they have been paying attention.
Roger Moore
@Cameron:
IIRC, the belief is that people who were vaccinated actually start producing and shedding viral proteins, and those viral proteins are dangerous to everyone around them. It starts with something true- the vaccines do cause people to start producing spike protein- but then takes it to cuckoo land.
lowtechcyclist
@Immanentize: That makes sense. Thanks!
scav
@Martin: Sound place to start. USPS already does a fair bit of last mile delivery when it makes sense.
lowtechcyclist
We’re in the G’s and Gym already has 10 votes. There will be a 3rd ballot.
Matt McIrvin
@Roger Moore: It’s just typical projection–“no, YOU’RE the ones with a dangerous contagious infection of vaccine!”
Some early weakened-virus vaccines, like one of the early polio ones, would actually be mildly contagious and produce “contact immunity”. But of course an mRNA vaccine is nothing like that.
Roger Moore
@Martin:
This. Coming to this realization is a big thing that set me against Tesla. EVs solve some of the problems of cars, but not enough of them to be worthwhile as anything but an interim measure. Until we build our cities for people rather than for cars, things will keep getting worse.
cain
@Ken: I wish that this was Groundhogs Day for poor Kev – reliving his defeat over and over again. Maybe he’ll learn something just like in Groundhogs day.
James E Powell
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Don’t look back. It just makes you crazy.
Ruckus
@Soprano2:
I haven’t had a sense of smell for a number of years. It’s been completely gone for at least 6 yrs. No one has been able to tell me why it’s gone, but it is. I don’t notice that food tastes different, but it often doesn’t have a lot of taste because some foods are all smell. Garlic for example has almost zero flavor, but a rather intense smell. I used to love garlic, now I don’t bother.
Ruckus
@lowtechcyclist:
They could however create a two car funeral.
Uncle Cosmo
@Barbara: I conjecture that for those applications the trucks either (1) do not convey human beings or (2) do not need to navigate in more than the simplest/most straightforward traffic. Once human lives are jeopardized if a voiture sans chauffeur screws up due to bad programming or (probably worse) has its code hacked to create mass mayhem, Shit Gets Real real quick.
Uncle Cosmo
Now I would, on any given day, rather have Gym Jordan administered a colonoscopy with a rusty chainsaw and no anesthetic than listen to him…YMMV