Cats at 3am (sound by gus johnson) pic.twitter.com/fLJ4p9ICT5
— Bithapi °?· (@bithapi) January 1, 2021
Pelosi's goodbye dear colleague pic.twitter.com/6q9ies18Qh
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) January 2, 2023
"We are about to go in a period of about 24 hours from one of history's most powerful speakers, to one of the most feckless speakers, and it will be interesting to see if he is able to survive, how long he's able to hold on" – @SykesCharlie w/ @NicolleDWallace pic.twitter.com/YMKcE1wIMx
— Deadline White House (@DeadlineWH) January 2, 2023
FWIW — House Democrats tell me they will be at full attendance tomorrow. If that's the case, and if all Republicans show up, the House will be at 434 and McCarthy needs 218 to win.
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) January 2, 2023
John Boehner is going to stay JUST sober enough to absolutely enjoy the shit out of this.
— Cullen Martin (@CulRMartin) January 2, 2023
Kay bait!
Ohio Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur will become the longest-serving woman in its history when Congress convenes Tuesday.
Yet after 40 years, she sometimes feels like an outsider coming from a place and people many colleagues have forgotten.https://t.co/50nGgIrKsn pic.twitter.com/UsatI8Q4ij
— The Associated Press (@AP) January 2, 2023
danielx
Another day, another Republican spectacle.
Dorothy A. Winsor
So do we buy our heads of lettuce now or after the Speaker is elected?
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone 😊😊😊
Steeplejack
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
McCarthy seems more like a cabbage kind of guy to me. 🤔
rikyrah
Kevin still doesn’t have the votes🤣🤣🤣
danielx
@rikyrah:
Good morning!
Steeplejack
@rikyrah:
Good morning! 🙏
eclare
I love how the “what will last longer, a head of lettuce or xyz?” meme has become so widespread.
danielx
Given the humiliation he’s already been through, you have to wonder why McCarthy even wants the job. If he gets the votes, MTG/Gaetz/etc are going to delight in tormenting him the way they want to torment Biden.
clay
Does anyone know what happens if Kevin doesn’t get a majority? Do they keep voting until someone does?
Amir Khalid
@eclare:
I also love that Liz Truss was gone so quickly, Charlie Sykes can’t even remember her name anymore.
rikyrah
🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽for Damar Hamlin 😢😢
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
Geminid
I figured that the intra-party tension over Kevin McCarthy’s bid for Speaker would be resolved by now and he would be narrowly elected on the first vote. Reporting indicates that this is not so and the anti-McCarthy forces may prolong the voting, with an uncertain outcome.
My earlier view was based on a belief that Republicans would be driven by self-interest and would want to get a clean start after such a narrow win in the midterms. They could postpone policy struggles that could not be resolved the first day anyway.
I also could not see why exactly the radicals wanted to take McCarthy’s head. I’m beginning to think it’s just because they can.
Any way you slice it, this will be a ragged start for that caucus and I don’t see how there is any way to go from here but down.
kalakal
Forget lettuce, I’m betting on the mayfly
OzarkHillbilly
Place yer bets, place yer bets… I give him 22 hours.
Only goes to show that once you’ve sold your soul, there is nothing you won’t do in service of the devil.
narya
Today feels like the actual first day of retirement. The last two-to-three weeks of work were a whirlwind, followed by a trip to see my parents, followed by new year’s stuff–in short, one thing after another. Time to start making lists, develop some plans of attacking the pile of small tasks that I never seemed to find time to do (e.g., repair three pieces of clothing that just need a few stitches), etc. No rush, though.
narya
@OzarkHillbilly: Honestly, I cannot imagine wanting something that badly. Also: blech morning to you.
kalakal
@narya: Good for you. Enjoy yourself
Jeffro
“one of the most”?
Charlie, I realize hedging a bit is smart, but surely McCarthy is the most feckless Speaker wannabe this country has ever seen.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@narya: It feels odd to realize there’s time now. I’m still working on genuinely feeling that
eclare
@narya: Yay! Enjoy.
Amir Khalid
@danielx:
The crazies in Kevin’s House caucus don’t want a Speaker to lead them; they want a hostage. Kevin is willing to be that hostage. I don’t understand that either, but there it is.
Spanky
@kalakal: Forget mayflies, I’m betting on a dish of ice cream.
Jeffro
@narya: congrats!
Dorothy A. Winsor
@OzarkHillbilly: McCarthy seems to me to have been selling off bits of his soul for years. When he finally had his goal within reach, everyone knew what he was like and saw there was nothing there
narya
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Yup. I had originally planned to leave in about four months, and planned to spend the time between sorting things mentally. This is a MUCH better option, given the shitshow that is apparently taking place, even if it requires a different approach.
ETA: thank you all for your kind thoughts! It has NOT sunk in yet, except I absolutely notice a drop in stress levels.
apocalipstick
@clay: Pretty much.
Betty Cracker
@rikyrah: I was watching that game when it happened, and I can’t stop thinking about him and his family. I sure hope he pulls through.
SFAW
@kalakal:
If there are enough Santos-like Rethugs — meaning could get indicted, etc. — there might be a different Majority party when the dust clears.
And I’m going to win Mega-Millions tonight.
kalakal
@narya:
That was very much the case with Mrs kalakal when she retired. It was great, she destressed practically instantly
OzarkHillbilly
@narya: Outside of pure ambition, he believes in absolutely nothing.
Blech back atchya.
ps: congrats on the retirement.
eclare
@Betty Cracker: The trainers/ambulance got to him really quickly, I am hopeful.
He has a foundation to provide toys for needy kids. People have donated $3.4M to its GoFundMe page since last night.
kalakal
@SFAW: We can but dream
SFAW
@Amir Khalid:
He probably thinks he’s Sheriff Bart, and can outsmart The Common Clay of the New Congress. Were he smart enough to fog a mirror, I might think he’s not unjustified in thinking that. But it is Kevin, after all.
WaterGirl
@OzarkHillbilly: I can’t wait until the receives his subpoena from Jack Smith about the “there are two people on Putin’s payroll” comment
*subpoena that I hope will be coming, no inside knowledge
comrade scotts agenda of rage
Sitting in the Denver airport enroute to Des Moines, rent a car, then drive up to Ames. First site visit to there for work in 3 years. Screwed up my hotel reservation, booked it 2-5. They email me this morning “where are you?” I looked at the info, see that I screwed this up from the gitgo, emailed them back and they nicely shifted everything forward a day, won’t charge me for last night.
This is the problem with not having traveled much for work over the last 3 years, I’m sloppy at travel arrangements.
WaterGirl
@narya: I think you are entitled to 2 weeks of total vacation from lists and chores. Then you can tackle them. Just do whatever you please for the next 2 weeks. Enjoy your freedom.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: That was nice of the hotel.
PAM Dirac
@Geminid:
Yes and that’s why I don’t see why anyone would “That One Special Trick” that would get Jeffries elected speaker. It is going to be chaos for a while, maybe the whole term, so who wants to try to do anything with that except losers like McCarthy. The next 6 months are going to be very interesting with Jack Smith and all the other assorted legal problems for drumpf. And I think it has been under appreciated that while all this incompetence is gong on the Biden Administration is going to be implementing lots of really good stuff and the indications are they are not going to be shy about it. There might even be a news story or two about inflation is down and the crime statistics don’t look too bad. I’m hoping that by summer there will be a stable group of about a dozen semi-sane Rs that will work with the Ds to produce some sanity saving bills like the debt ceiling and appropriations bills. We shall see.
Betty Cracker
@eclare: I read about the GoFundMe — I’m glad people found a worthy cause to support in his name.
catclub
@clay:
Has trump been nominated yet? How about Newt Gingrich?
Baud
Let the deballing begin!
Geminid
@clay: One scenario is that McCarthy will be nominated again until one side cracks. Observers compare it to a game of chicken.
The Republican caucus will meet privately in about an hour to see if that scenario can be avoided. Then the Congress begins at noon. I am reminded of that movie High Noon, also of the minutes before the Earps and the Clantons shoot it out at the OK corral in My Darling Clemantine.
It could be dramatic. The Democrats will all be there and are expected to remain solid in their support of Hakeem Jeffries. That would be a win for them in there own and public opinion, I think, even though Jeffries has virtually no chance of actually winning the vote.
I’m not sure the Republicans can win today in any respect. The best they can hope for is a draw, both in terms of their morale and of public opinion.
Soprano2
According to the story I heard this morning on NPR, the House can’t do anything until they elect a speaker. Evidently, they can’t even be officially sworn in until they do that.
catclub
@Geminid:
 
Steve Scalise? His statements are backing McCarthy, but ….
WaterGirl
@Betty Cracker: He was my first thought this morning, and I cried. And I’m someone who doesn’t don’t care about football at all. My next thought was for his wife or his mom, who was in the stands. Then I thought about the person who tackled him. How does he go back and play football after this? How do any of them do that? Just shocking.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Yes, I guess. The Speaker has actual constitutional things to do, including serving as second in line of succession to the presidency. Theoretically, the Speaker swears in this congress, I think. There eventually has to be one.
Geminid
@Jeffro: “Craven McCarthy.”
Soprano2
@Geminid: I don’t think this is about intra-party tension, though. The MTG part of the party wants McCarthy to know they have him by the short hairs, so he’d better do what they want when they want it. Seems to me it’s a power play, pure and simple. I figure eventually he’ll be speaker, but they’re going to humiliate him first.
opiejeanne
@kalakal: My dad had terrible back problems for years, until he retired. I don’t think he ever had another problem with it, for the next 30 years. Pretty sure it was stress.
WaterGirl
@kalakal: People I knew who retired from the university actually started visibly aging backwards, looking much younger!
catclub
@kalakal:
when everybody is betting on one thing, it often does not happen.
I think he will squeak in and then last at least months.
catclub
@opiejeanne:
I have heard of that with migraines, too.
Soprano2
I’ve thought a lot about this, too. I don’t know how any of them can play again, but I’m sure eventually they will. I doubt that particular game is ever played, though.
I didn’t watch the game, but I saw a recording of what happened. Hopefully the fact that medical intervention was available immediately will mean the outcome will be better for him.
WaterGirl
@Dorothy A. Winsor: If he had screwed up the airline ticket, they would have said fuck you.
Betty Cracker
Does anyone know when the speaker voting starts? I might have to put that on in the background for laughs. I hope Repubs fail to elect a speaker for days and days to maximize the chaos and that McCarthy ends up offering internal organs to the Freedumb Caucus goons (who already have the externals) in increasingly desperate bids to nail down the shittiest temp job in America.
@PAM Dirac: Good point about the coming deployment of spending programs passed in the last congress. That could make for a fine contrast — Biden and/or Harris and Buttigieg cutting ribbons on new bridges while Jim Jordan shrieks about Hunter Biden’s laptop.
Suzanne
@danielx:
I don’t know why anybody wants that job, to be honest. It’s literally incomprehensible to me.
Geminid
@Soprano2: The MTG portion of the party seems to be split. Greene and Jordan have been in McCarthy’s camp for weeks now. It’s a faction within the Freedom Caucus that is digging in its heels.
Betty Cracker
@WaterGirl: It was his mom in the stands, and according to the announcers who were covering events before the game was canceled, the ambulance paused in the tunnel so she could get in and ride with him to the hospital. Maybe that’s a good sign — that they thought it was safe to wait a minute or two? I don’t know.
Another Scott
@Betty Cracker:
Thread from Chief Fox News Congressional Reporter
He says that the Clerk calls things to order at noon.
HTH!
(via Stephen Robinson at Wonkette)
Cheers,
Scott.
Geminid
@Betty Cracker: The Kentucky event tomorrow will have both Biden and McConnell, as well as Beshear and DeWine, the Democratic Governor of Kentucky and Republican Governor of Ohio. The event will celebrate a new bridge between the two states made possible by money in the Infrastructure bill.
Meanwhile, VP Harris will be in Chicago celebrating more infrastructure projects.
Betty Cracker
@Another Scott: Thanks! So, according to that Twitter thread, noon is when the festivities begin but the speaker vote usually kicks off at 2 PM ET. Damn it. I happen to have a conference call scheduled then, but I trust and hope that any entertaining fuckery will be widely available in clip form. ;-)
PAM Dirac
@Betty Cracker:
He was hit in the chest. My wife who works in cardiology says it’s a known syndrome, usually associated with a baseball or lacrosse ball hitting someone in the chest and throwing the heart out of rhythm. The good news is that if you can get the heart back in rhythm before you start killing the brain from lack of oxygen, you usually recover pretty well. The soccer player that went into arrhythmia in the men’s Euros and had CPR and shocks on the field is back playing soccer again. He’s hoping that this guy can have a good recovery.
Kay
I put this in the wrong thread so am repostin it here:
Marcy Kaptur is a good advocate so I think she’s perfectly justified in calling attention to working class people, who are her people (and her voters- I’ve canvassed for her) and part of effective advocacy is making noise and pushing. BUT I think Obama and now Biden have done a lot for the Great Lakes region working class so I wish she would credit them in that article (she does in her stump speeches and town halls). Manufacturing in Ohio is really booming and it’s good wages. It’s just not true anymore that everyone is making 10 an hour with no benefits.
People really do love her, even where I live which is very Republican.I think she has an earned reputation as a smart hard worker who is also, btw, squeaky clean. A big part of her appeal (to me) is I think she’s ethically very solid.
JMG
@Soprano2: It is still unknown if Hamlin’s cardiac arrest was the result of his collision with Higgins or if it was the result of an undiagnosed prior heart condition, as was the case with soccer player Christian Eriksen (fully recovered) in 2021. The latter is far more common in sports, even in football. Tragically happens to high school players more than once each season. To high school athletes in other sports, too.
Geminid
@Kay: When I read up on Marcy Kaptur this summer I found that Kaptur started doing volunteer wok for the Democratic Party when she was 13 years old. I think that was in 1957.
Kay
I think people have to sort of update their knowlege of manufacturing in the Great Lakes. I know it supposedly “disappeared” but it still employs a ton of people at good wages and one can still go from the floor to (first line) management without a college degree.
Life is not actually a Bruce Springsteen song and it’s not 1992. Manufacturing in Ohio is doing just fine. Kaptur herself rightfully boasts about it with First Solar, a company she boosted for years.
Baud
@Kay: That is what is so frustrating about Ohio’s turn to the right.
Baud
@Geminid: I’m glad MVP won’t have to spend as much time babysitting the Senate.
Kay
@Baud:
Sometimes they go to Florida or Texas and come back because they make more in Ohio and housing is more affordable.
WaterGirl
@Betty Cracker: I so hope he recovers. I felt that last night and this morning, not having any idea who he is or having even seen a photo of him. But after watching that kids-toys video, I am sobbing – just a regular guy not a star, and so present in the moment with the kids, and filled with joy.
lowtechcyclist
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
I’m buying one now, to see if they choose a Speaker before the lettuce wilts!
(ETA: Siri, buy ALL the popcorn!)
If eleven GOPers vote ‘present’ or otherwise don’t vote for an actual person, Hakeem Jeffries would become Speaker with a majority of the votes for actual candidates, which would be cool as shit. (Not gonna happen, I’m sure, but a guy can dream!)
I love the ‘further divides Republican Party’ in that one chyron.
eclare
@PAM Dirac: I was just thinking of the soccer player, Christian Eriksen. He got an implantable defibrillator, hopefully that is all Damar needs.
My mom got one after an arrhythmia, she had it for 30 years, and it never went off.
oldgold
Every damn day Biden has to deal with the toxic former President savagely and cynically undermining his presidency. First it was that Biden’s presidency was illegitimate. Then, it was that Biden was mentally incompetent. Now, the former President is claiming Biden is a corrupt criminal. A good 35% of the nation accepts these baseless ad hominem attacks as fact.
No President has ever had to endure this. The damage to the presidency and our body politic is enormous.
Yet some, I fear Garland may be among them, are hesitant for reasons of tradition, decorum and appearances to criminally proceed against a former President. I disagree. For too long, this malignant narcissist has been spared by concerns over tradition, decorum and appearances while waging a ruthless war against these very concepts.
I see no reason not to indict the former President by Ground Hog’s Day for having stolen classified materials.
Baud
In honor of Obama, the lettuce I’m buying is argula.
Geminid
@Soprano2: I think there is a conflict of interests within the Republican caucus between the twenty or so purple district members and their radical counterparts on the other side of the caucus. Almost all the radicals are in safe seats, but the more moderate members can lose their seats in 2022 and the radicals can sink those members’ chances if they hold sway.
The larger portion of members are in the middle of the caucus. They are conditioned by a conflict as well. If they help the radicals they will likely be in the minority again in 2025 because the Dems will flip those purple district. But if they help the moderates they might not be in Congress at all because they’ll lose primary challenges from the right.
I feel their pain.
geg6
@eclare:
He started that when he played at Pitt. Such a good guy. Hope he’s healing and will be okay.
jonas
Precisely. McCarthy’s basically dutch-auctioning himself off as speaker. It’s just a question of how low he will go.
lowtechcyclist
@narya:
I know what you mean – those past few weeks were probably pretty much the same as any other year.
But this morning…is different. Enjoy!
For both my wife and myself, this is our last January 3rd in the working world. I’ve still got a full year ahead of me, but being able to say even that makes me feel so much lighter.
Miss Bianca
@Geminid: I feel like I really shouldn’t be enjoying the spectacle of Republicans in Rout (as opposed to “Dems in Disarray”) as much as I am. I feel like I ought to be more fucking outraged at what a mockery they’ve made of even the notion of governance. Maybe I’m just suffering from outrage fatigue after a cumulative 40+ years – basically my entire life as a citizen – of watching the GOP get more and more and more authoritarian, and more and more and more willing to sacrifice every supposed American ideal on the bonfire of their vanities.
What is it that Elvis Costello said? “Well, I used to be disgusted, now I try to be amused…”
lowtechcyclist
@narya:
As President Biden said to that little girl, you have to know what you won’t do in order to win. Assuming Kevin’s even thought about that, I’m sure there’s very little he wouldn’t do.
mrmoshpotato
@danielx:
Edited for accuracy and clarity. :)
Nukular Biskits
Anyone who has ever been owned by cats knows that Bithapi tweet is 100% true.
Geminid
@Miss Bianca: One thing that I notice about the situation in the House Republican caucus is that it reflects fairly well the situation in the Republican Party as a whole. And it’s not at all positive a situation in either.
PAM Dirac
@Miss Bianca:
That’s a good line. I also like the John McLaughlin line “Once again I am disappointed, but not surprised”
mrmoshpotato
@Amir Khalid: LOL! Well put.
WendyBinFL
@Betty Cracker:
@eclare: I heard a sports reporter say this morning that a football player having a heart attack on the field, like Damar Hamlin, has the best possible prospects for recovery, because there are always 20 medical professionals on the sidelines — not just orthopedic specialists, but also an emergency-care team like the folks who administered CPR and oxygen on the field. Praying for his recovery. By the way, he wasn’t tackled, he did the tackling, and from what I’ve heard it was a garden-variety tackle, with no catastrophic head injury. The same reporter said a football player’s body goes through 60 car crashes every Sunday. My son played in high school and college. I hope my grandsons won’t.
cmorenc
@PAM Dirac:
But if Kevin McCarthy does obtain and precariously hold onto the speakership, the same extremist 5+ extremist GOP reps who extracted the 5-vote threshold to move to remove the speaker, will likely exercse that option if McCarthy permits any such Dem + GOP “moderate” coalition-sponsored bill to go forward to a vote, or even get routed to any committee where the bill won’t stay bottled up by the chair or thin majority. There are enough extremist GOP members whose core governing goal is nihlistic dismantlement of much of the federal government and hamstringing it from serving any constructive function beyond their narrow vision of its proper purpose.
PAM Dirac
@cmorenc:
The 5 member threshold is only for holding a vote to remove the Speaker, not to remove the Speaker. If the semi-sane Rs are going to vote with the crazies, nothing is going to get done. But if they don’t, and I think some big money backers will lean on them to do some things like debt ceiling, then some things will get done. The Speaker can’t absolutely prevent things from getting to the floor if a majority want it to get to the floor.
Soprano2
That’s if we can get the press to look away from a shrieking Jim Jordan for even one minute. You know how much the press loves covering a spectacle. I agree it’s a good look for Democrats, for sure. We get stuff done, while R’s obsess about things the average person doesn’t care about.
eclare
@WendyBinFL: Yes. When my mom had a cardiac arrest it took paramedics a little over five minutes to get to her. She had some memory issues after that, but nothing awful.
Trainers were there at his side immediately, and Damar is about thirty years younger than my mom was when she had her arrest, I am optimistic.
eclare
@Soprano2: I think (hope) for the majority of Americans, seeing Gym Jordan in charge of a committee is going to get old *fast*.
People voted for sanity last November.
Geminid
@cmorenc: I the House becomes disfunctional enough we might see Republicans defect from their caucus. Representatives Bacon (NE). Valadeo (CA) and Newhouse (WA) are a likely three and there may be more.
These defectors would likely become Independents and might only help Democrats select a caretaker Speaker that would enable the most essential legislation to be passed. Retired Republican Reps Tom Reed of New York or Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania would fit that role, but there are others I’m sure.
I think that would suit Democratic interests since they will likely be the Majority again in 2025, with 15-35 seat advantage I think.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I heard Sherrod Brown will be there, too
WaterGirl
@oldgold: For what it’s worth, I think you are misreading Merrick Garland. Not that either of us knows him!
Garland is an institutionalist, and certainly indicting a former president is something he is surely loathe to do because it sets a terrible precedent going forward.
But I firmly believe that “no one is above the law” + interfering with the peaceful transition of power + armed insurrection + conspiracy to overthrow the government + stealing presidential documents, top secret and higher + flipping off the government after you are no long president would set an even worse precedent going forward, and that is not going to happen on Merrick Garland’s watch.
eclare
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Excellent! He is up for re-election in 2024.
schrodingers_cat
@Geminid: The “squad” will find ways to vote with the crazy caucus because of their principles.
Like their vote against the infrastructure bill.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: I love arugula. It is easy to grow and goes great on pizza too. Compared to lettuce it is flavorful.
Omnes Omnibus
@schrodingers_cat:
This coming Congress will be a test of your assertion vs the theory that Nancy Pelosi released people to vote parochial interests as long as she had votes to win.
jonas
@clay:
A guy on NPR yesterday evening explained that basically *nothing* happens in the House until a speaker is elected. So yes, the only thing they can legally do is just keep voting until someone wins.
schrodingers_cat
@Omnes Omnibus: Do you seriously believe that voting against the infrastructure bill was a popular position with the electorate? And not some misguided notion of purity politics popular with the Red Rose left.
Jeffro
Verily, I am slain (and so early in the morning, too!) LOL
Joey Maloney
Or they figured it wouldn’t matter…</pessimist>
Betty Cracker
@WaterGirl: We were speculating in comments yesterday that Trump’s theft of the classified documents and refusal to give them back may have taken any remaining notion that ex-presidents ought not to be indicted off the table. We’ll have to wait and see, but Trump continuing to harm the country after being voted out may have been egregious and stupid enough to inspire even the most cautious and committed institutionalist to say, “Aww, fuck it!”
Kristine
@narya: Congratulations! Early on I reached the point where I wondered how I fit the old job in because I had so much to do.
Granted, much of that had fallen by the wayside b/c dayjob.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Looks like this reporter has a source in the conference meeting. I suspect this– ‘on first ballot’– gives the game away. They’re going to put on a show but then vote for McCarthy in the second or third?) vote (that’s Ralph Norman, a name I remember but I can’t recall where he’s from. VA?)
ETA:
I’m not a TR scholar but I’ve never associated that phrase with him, though I suppose it’s not wildly out of character from what I recall. I remember Dumbya saying. Zinke was the one who had a flag raised over his office building when he was present, right? Like the British monarch?
Kristine
@SFAW:
Nominated
The Moar You Know
If McCarthy had one ounce of sense, and I realize that’s one more than he’s got, he’d simply call their bluff. One vote, I’m in or out. If I’m out, get someone else.
They’re doing this to McCarthy because he is weak, and they can. If it was Scalise we’d be done already. And I expect in another few days or so, it will be Scalise.
Omnes Omnibus
@schrodingers_cat: I did not say that it was a popular position. I said that they may have voted parochial interests with NP’s okay.
Betty Cracker
Headline at Time:
LOL! Gotta sew up that all-important George Santos vote!
schrodingers_cat
@Omnes Omnibus: My objection to their vote was not that it didn’t have NP’s okay, they probably did. I just find that performative preening tiresome and damaging to the D brand. YMMV
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Prediction: When it’s all done, the House Republican shitshow will be heralded as vibrant democratic debate by the Internet savvy.
Omnes Omnibus
@Betty Cracker: Institutional interests don’t necessarily caution against indictment.
Dorothy A. Winsor
OT but I’m reading DEMON COPPERHEAD, Barbara Kingsolver’s retelling of DAVID COPPERFIELD, in which the narrator is born in a single-wide trailer in Appalachia to a drug addict mother. She transforms Dickens’s outrage over systemic poverty into a contemporary form. It’s really well done. Obviously. It’s Barbara Kingsolver.
JMG
@WendyBinFL: I loved loved loved playing football in high school and am eternally grateful I wasn’t good enough to pursue the sport any further. My children, while active, did not pursue any team sports. Scouting and the outdoors was my son’s preference, solo swimming my daughter’s. So I never had a moral choice to make.
schrodingers_cat
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I love David Copperfield. It is my favorite Dickens. The first English novel (that wasn’t by Enid Blyton) when I was may be 12 IIRC. I have read it twice afterwards.
Betty Cracker
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Good to hear you’re enjoying it. I love Kingsolver and Dickens, so I’m looking forward to reading it.
@Omnes Omnibus: Arguably at this point they require it!
Alison Rose
LOLLLLL
eclare
@Dorothy A. Winsor: That book is on my list. One reviewer wrote that it was the best book of 2022.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Baud: we should have a “Predict DougJ’s tweet!” contest
“Why McCarthy’s Once-in-A-Century Faceplant Is Bad News for Biden”
ETA: @Alison Rose: never ceases to amaze me how news-y it is when somebody in politics says a swear, like it was in third grade
Ken
@Betty Cracker: Though I recognize that probably 95% of the electorate has no idea who George Santos is, I am pleased that he’s become the go-to meme for Republican lies and corruption. (Though I’d be more pleased if TFG, among others, were added to the list.)
raven
@WaterGirl: It has little to do with football, it’s a very rare thing that happens more often in youth baseball.
hueyplong
@Omnes Omnibus: Your theory has yet to have an actual vote exception to it that I know of.
(Plenty of people here are probably able to name such examples if they exist)
raven
Commotio Cordis refers to the sudden arrhythmic death caused by a low/mild chest wall impact. Commotio Cordis is seen mostly in athletes between the ages of 8 and 18 who are partaking in sports with projectiles such as baseballs, hockey pucks, or lacrosse balls.
I know this won’t matter to the strong anti-football crowd here so have fun. I think we need to ban all sports and anything that has the slightest risk involved.
raven
@narya: This still can be a helpful book.
The Retirement Maze: What You Should Know Before and After You Retire
WereBear
@narya: At the urging of my friends I now have a merchandise shop, “merch,” which features my cat art devoted to wu wei.
Because cats do it so well.
Wu wei is an ancient Chinese concept literally meaning “inexertion”, “inaction”, or “effortless action”.
Joe Falco
I believe McCarthy will get his coveted Speakership today if after the second vote or so. If “moderate” Republicans had an alternate suggestion for both them and Democrats to vote for, that person would be waiting in the wings already if the promised shitshow of not voting for Kevin from the Feckless Five becomes reality. The court stenographers and gossipmongers would have sniffed it out as I don’t believe a secret that great would be kept longer than a head of lettuce outside on a DC summer day. I would love to be proven wrong though as the sight of McCarthy making a face that he had two bowls of BS in his mouth would make my day (year!).
raven
@Joe Falco: Which bar were you in for the game?
Alison Rose
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Well, in this case, I think it is kind of noteworthy. Cursing in these proceedings and screaming at each other is a little different than just saying “shit” on a hot mic milling around before a press conference.
Joe Falco
@raven: Walkers Pub
EDIT: My friends and I spent some time bar-hopping, but we eventually settled in Walker’s for the last quarter.
eclare
@Alison Rose: And usually when pols curse at each other, they aren’t members of the same party!
The exception is Ted Cruz. Everyone curses at him.
Soprano2
@Kay: Our area is making a big push for manufacturing jobs. The local community college just opened a huge building for training workers for manufacturing jobs. Here’s their Web site https://pmc.otc.edu/ It’s a huge building close to my house, so I watched them build it. I think with the new infrastructure bill their timing is really good.
Tony Jay
Bwaka-Bwaka-Bow-Ba-Bow-Ba-Bow, says the funky bass line.
The fly on that wall is on its third bottle of cheap vodka and way too far gone for therapy to help.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Alison Rose: this is true, the chaos– just in more general contexts it seems to me our hard-boiled political reporters turn into a collective Mrs Grundy when a pol swears.
lowtechcyclist
@schrodingers_cat:
Yeah, tell me about all the legislation they’ve blocked, that would have passed if only they’d voted for it. Seriously, name one bill they’ve killed.
Trying to remember the last time you said boo about Manchin, who spent half this Congress being the Grim Reaper.
raven
@Joe Falco: Aha, there are a bunch of bars like the Manhattan that don’t even have tv’s so I wondered where you ended up.
lowtechcyclist
@schrodingers_cat:
Their votes are there when they’re needed, and to most of us, that’s what matters. What’s tiresome is that you’ve ground this axe down to where it’s more of a club than an axe.
Alison Rose
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Oh for sure. Like how the NYT still won’t print swear words.
Soprano2
@eclare: I totally agree. What I’m concerned about is that the things the Biden administration highlights won’t get covered at all, because actually doing things is boring as opposed to shrieking “Hunter Biden’s laptop” over and over again.
schrodingers_cat
@lowtechcyclist: Google is your friend. It was when Manchin and his buddy from Vt helped tank Neera Tanden’s cabinet appointment. I am no fan of the the W.Va senator but other than him we can’t get a D elected in W. Va. so we have to put up with his antics
Anyone with a D after their name would be elected from deep dark blue districts of these so called “progressives” who vote against progress.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Soprano2: I don’t think Jordan having a higher public profile is good for the Rs. He comes across like a meth-addled Chuckie doll. And James Comer– who will head I forget which committee and is vowing to talk a lot about Hunter Biden– doesn’t strike me as the type who can build a national story, either.
Things stuck to HRC because she was the target of thirty years of abuse and hostility, and not just from the vast right-wing. I think relatively few people outside the Fox-committed, hate Joe Biden, even if they don’t necessarily support him. And I think if you asked people what Joe Biden’s son’s name was, probably 75% of the country couldn’t answer correctly.
Soprano2
@eclare: At this point I think McCarthy wants the job just to say he had it, because who would want the job of managing these crazy people?
lowtechcyclist
@schrodingers_cat:
Huh? What does that have to do with The Squad?
ETA:
Anyone in Congress, we have to put up with until their next election.
Michael Bersin
I’ve started looking through the transcripts of the January 6th committee. I came across this gem in sworn testimony (Kash Patel, starting at page 49]:
“…Q What do you recall — you said Members of Congress didn’t want an armed display. How does that in some way — again, your recollection — reach back to what happened in the summer of 2020?
A I think it stems from, I believe, Chairman Milley at the time walked across Lafayette Square with a sidearm holstered on his military uniform. I believe that’s what that reference was to. And Chairman Milley would have a better idea of those conversations because it impacted him directly…”
I didn’t recall General Milley wearing a sidearm. I checked a number of images. He was wearing his BDUs, but there is no belt or “holstered” sidearm visible.
That is how right wingnuts do business.
“Memory, all alone in the moonlight…”
lowtechcyclist
Eleven minutes to go!
jonas
@Soprano2:
Someone stupid and lacking just enough self-awareness to think he and he alone *can* manage them. IOW, McCarthy, apparently
frosty
LOL, that’s what I did three years ago and there’s barely anything on the lists that’s checked off. You know the meaning of retirement? “I can do that tomorrow.” There’s always another tomorrow.
Enjoy your time and don’t sweat the lists too much.
Soprano2
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: All of that is true, and yet if the press covers it incessantly, as is their habit when things are “dramatic” or “scandalous”, the number of people who are aware of it will go up. I think it will be bad for R’s. I think people are misunderstanding what I’m saying – it’s not going to be good for Republicans for Jim Jordan to have so much exposure, but it’s also not going to be good for Democrats that Biden’s accomplishments are covered up by massive coverage of Republicans shrieking about Hunter Biden’s laptop and Dr. Fauci plotting with Chinese in Wuhan to unleash Covid-19 on all of us.
Kay
@Soprano2:
We’ve had a strong high school trades program for decades. It’s on the same campus as the community college which is also manufacturing- intense. It’s a weird, parochial view that “no one” learns trades anymore or there’s no chance for advancement in manufacturing. In big swathes of the country that simply isn’t true. Young working class white men are in bad shape- I agree. But it isn’t because anyone “abandoned” them. You can make 40k a year here right out of high school. Stay five years and pick up another skill (welding, any of the quality or maintenance certificates) and you can make 70 a year w/a high school diploma.
We had this weird moment locally where Tim Ryan was talking down the economy and we’re all just looking at each other, baffled- it just isn’t true. It’s cooking. If you’re a fabricator- a welder who can make things- and you show up for work consistently and can pass a drug test you’re in super high demand. You’re in the driver’s seat.
Trumpsters in their 50’s and 60’s need to look at why their grown children aren’t launching as adults in a hard way, a real way. It is not a loack of opportunity. I don’t know what’s wrong with these young men. I do know hating women and minorities and immigrants isn’t going to fix it.
Kathleen
@Geminid: Hopefully OH#1 new rep Greg Landsman will be there via Zoom. I heard him talk about it this morning on local news.
Kathleen
PaulB
Where this gets interesting, I think, will be in the votes to raise the debt ceiling and to fund the government. Everything else, any Republican Speaker will go along with, no matter how crazy it is.
Votes to ban CRT? To ban abortion? To ban transgender support of any kind? To ban children at drag shows? All good. Votes to impeach Biden and various members of his administration? Check. Votes to investigate the January 6th Committee? To investigate Hunter Biden? To investigate every aspect of the Biden administration? A-OK.
But a vote to raise the debt ceiling? That’s a different story. The few sane Republicans left know just how much harm a default will cause, even if the crazy ones don’t know and don’t care.
If a Republican Speaker allows an unconditional vote to raise the debt ceiling, the crazy caucus will go nuts and will trigger the doomsday clause to try to oust that Speaker. They will insist on blood before they will raise the debt ceiling, no matter how much harm a default will cause, both domestically and abroad. How that plays out, and whether Republicans will allow a few dozen people to send the country into default, I don’t think anyone can predict.
munira
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Good book – just finished it. What a life some people have to live – harsh.
lowtechcyclist
A little over halfway through the roll call. 7 votes for Biggs, 5 for others besides Jeffries, McCarthy, and Biggs.