Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Celebrate the fucking wins.

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

You’re just a puppy masquerading as an old coot.

This really is a full service blog.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

Hey Washington Post, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” is supposed to be a warning, not a mission statement.

My right to basic bodily autonomy is not on the table. that’s the new deal.

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

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

You cannot love your country only when you win.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

Dead end MAGA boomers crying about Talyor Swift being a Dem is my kind of music. Turn it up.

Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

We need to vote them all out and restore sane Democratic government.

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

Let’s show the world that autocracy can be defeated.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

When they say they’re pro-life, they don’t mean yours.

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

Oh FFS you might as well trust a 6-year-old with a flamethrower.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls 2 years from now.

You are here: Home / Politics / Politicans / NANCY SMASH! / Thursday Morning Open Thread: Doing the Work

Thursday Morning Open Thread: Doing the Work

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Raven bait! (Srsly — it’s a fun little story, and should be unpaywalled through this link)

Reader Interactions

174Comments

  1. 1.

    PST

    Good morning. I just finished undecorating the Christmas tree. Always a little sad, but on the other hand, it comes at a time when the days are starting to get longer.

  2. 2.

    WereBear

    My favorite part of this is how even our devoted corporate media can’t spin this as anything but an evil clown show.

    People are struggling with loss and illness and financial catastrophe and corporate profiteering in a crisis and these jerks can’t get it together to put pizza on the cafeteria menu two days a week.

  4. 4.

    MattF

    I expect to see McCarthy laying prostrate in the well of the House as members of the Freedom Caucus take turns hitting him in the head with the gavel. But it won’t be enough. The crazies despise him, for…  reasons that can’t be explained.

  5. 5.

    Matt McIrvin

    @PST: For me there’s always a little bit of relief associated with that–all that stressful holiday stuff is over and you can get your life back. It’s like a yearly reenactment of the saying about boats: the two greatest days in a boat owner’s life are the day you take ownership and the day you get rid of the thing. Christmas is our annual boat.

  6. 6.

    Matt McIrvin

    My city has been rebuilding its crumbling bridges, one after another, for the past several years. The one I both dread and anticipate is the Main Street bridge. It’s from 1925 and I think it’s currently scheduled to be demolished for its 100th birthday, which will require a long street closure. Look under it and you can see all the missing chunks of concrete that have fallen off the bottom, exposing the rebar–it’s really scary. I just hope it stays up until then.

  7. 7.

    OzarkHillbilly

    You may have seen the shimmering greens and pinks of the aurora borealis lighting up the night sky, but have you ever heard them? Rare reports of crackling and whooshing noises accompanying auroras have traditionally been dismissed by scientists as folklore, but data gathered in Finland has shown that under the right weather conditions, auroras can be accompanied by a noise.

    I have seen them several times, but I can’t say that I have ever heard them.

  8. 8.

    NorthLeft

    It is really sickening to continually read major media outlets ( in Canada too) refer to a large number /majority of congressional Republicans as moderates. I would love to hear them name who they think are “moderates”. That would probably result in primary challenges for these “moderates”.

    Mr. McCarthy is not a moderate, so how can he lead some mythical group of moderates? Gym Jordan? Dan Crenshaw? Those guys are not moderates.

    How about some new categories; completely insane, totally corrupt, morally bankrupt, and partially crazed?

  10. 10.

    PST

    @Matt McIrvin: This year most of my holiday stress came from COVID starting more than a week before Christmas. My wife and I both had very mild cases, but I had a long rebound after Paxlovid. Yesterday I finally tested negative. So we successively canceled each Christmas, Hanukkah, and New Years Eve party and gathering, always thinking (incorrectly) that we both would soon be negative. We ended up throwing away an awful lot of flowers that no one but us ever saw. Still, it made for some relaxing “just us” time.

  12. 12.

    David 📢 Speaker 📢 Koch☑️

    Those who foolishly sought power by riding the back of the tiger ended up inside

    ~ President Kennedy

  14. 14.

    LiminalOwl

    I wonder how many of the ostensible Democrats arguing that Democratic senators should support moderate Republicans “for the good of the country” grew up in severely abusive families? The argument mirrors the rules that silence talk of incest or beatings “to preserve the family.”  (Comment was intended for last night’s thread, but I fell asleep while writing.)

  17. 17.

    Princess

    Love to see Harris at Calumet Fisheries (best smoked fish anywhere) and so happy that bridge and many more will get attention.

  18. 18.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @LiminalOwl: (Comment was intended for last night’s thread, but I fell asleep while writing.)

    HA! Here’s hoping you got more than the proverbial 40 winks.

  19. 19.

    Matt McIrvin

    @LiminalOwl: It reminds me of how, in school, if you fought back against the bully who was beating you up, both of you would get detention and they’d act as if you’d done something to provoke him.

  21. 21.

    Betty Cracker

    Aw, Sooner got a new pup! I miss stuff like that because of Elon Musk, the flounder-faced fuck-stick.

    Also, POTUS quote: “We’re the greatest nation in the world. How can that be?”

    Sir, maybe we’re not? 🤔

  22. 22.

    prostratedragon

    @Princess: ​ Talk about hearing things humming, it was either that bridge or the one nearest it that was where I first learned that bridges can hum.

  25. 25.

    MattF

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Yeah, me too. The crazies seem to have a philosophical aversion to explaining their motives. “Whereof one cannot speak, one must remain silent” and all that.

  27. 27.

    PST

    @Princess:

    Love to see Harris at Calumet Fisheries (best smoked fish anywhere) and so happy that bridge and many more will get attention.

    Thanks for the tip about Calumet Fisheries. I never heard of it, but now I’m definitely going to give it a try. I am also happy and grateful for the attention to our bridges, but if I know Chicagoans (and I include myself), we will spend a lot more time complaining about the disruption than we do thanking the Democrats for legislation making it possible.

  28. 28.

    artem1s

    @MattF: ​
     

    The crazies despise him, for… reasons that can’t be explained.

    This was always the problem with the 27% strategy. Once the enemy you chose for them disappears, they don’t stop being cray-cray. They go out and find someone else to be crazy about. They add targets to their paranoia list. Sooner or later it was going to come back and bite the GOP in the ass. Especially once they started Tea-shivving their own in the back. Assholes gotta asshole.

  29. 29.

    Betty Cracker

    To paraphrase something Michelle Goldberg said in The Times on McCarthy’s serial humiliations: his mistake was thinking he could get what he wants through submission in a party that prizes dominance. 

  30. 30.

    lowtechcyclist

    @NorthLeft:

    How about some new categories; completely insane, totally corrupt, morally bankrupt, and partially crazed?

    An excellent idea!  And the current division in the House GOP is between the ‘only mostly crazy’ faction and the ‘totally bonkers’ faction.

  31. 31.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Just wrote my Rep (Blaine Luetkemeyer).

    You can probably fill in the blanks enough to capture my sentiments about the clown show.

  32. 32.

    Soprano2

    @Matt McIrvin: That’s an interesting way to think about it. If I had my way we’d finally get a fake tree. We’ve always had a real tree, but they’re getting expensive and they’re a royal PITA to clean up after. It would be nice to have predictability. When I’m putting the stuff up I’m thinking about all the work it will be to take it down and store it back in the attic. I’ve sworn that next year I’m going to go through all of our Christmas stuff and donate everything we have that we don’t use anymore.

  33. 33.

    Tony Jay

    @Betty Cracker:

    To be fair, imaginary America, the one that exists in fiction and the opium dreams of utopian well-wishers, has a good case to claim the title.

    But it’s up against Wakanda, Numenor circa 1500 SA and The Land Where Saucy Dreams Come True in the semi-finals, so that’s a big ask.

  36. 36.

    Geminid

    @NorthLeft: I would not call any Republican Reps “moderate.” I think think the term only has validity in a relative sense, in that 1st CD Congressman Rob Wittman is *more* moderate than Virginia 5th CD Congressman Bob Good, and Texas Congressman Dan Crenshaw might be *more* moderate than Texas Congressman Chip Roy. But Wittman and Crenshaw vote as conservatives.

    So in my own political taxonomy I label Wittman as a “moderate conservative” and Crenshaw as a “conservative,” and I label Good and Roy as “radicals.”

  37. 37.

    Baud

    @Tony Jay:

    As every parent knows, there’s value in saying “I’m very disappointed in you” even though they’re thinking “I know you can’t do any better.”

  38. 38.

    Soprano2

    @NorthLeft: They should say “conservative” and “ultra conservative”, or something like that. I agree, none of those people are “moderate”. A Martinez on “Morning Edition” interviewed Frank Luntz about the current House shitshow this morning. Luntz was mouthing a bunch of crap about how this is “democracy” and how the R coalition is so broad and has diverse viewpoints. I was hoping he would ask Luntz why Pelosi didn’t have this problem even though the Democratic coalition is also “broad” and “diverse”. Of course, he never asked that question. He did press Luntz pretty good, though. The R’s are trying to normalize this, but so far they aren’t succeeding. People know that something that hasn’t happened for 100 years isn’t normal.

  39. 39.

    Supertorrone

    This whole situation reminds me of the Italian presidential election: a qualified majority in the joint chambers is needed, and lawmakers can cast a vote for whomever they can think of, as the vote is held by secret ballot. The process used to be machiavellian in the past, but now Italian politics have become just trash and presidential elections are a huge mess: last January, President Mattarella was (reluctantly) reelected because political parties could not find an alternative. Senate speaker tried to get the nomination and got burned so badly, not even all her MPs voted for her.

    Also, secret ballots are perfect for all kinds of funny incident, but this is a different story.

    Please, don’t become like us!

  41. 41.

    Baud

    @Soprano2:

    It’s not really democracy either.  There are two “electorates” in the House: the majority party and the entire House.  McCarthy has overwhelmingly won over the first electorate. The problem is that the losing faction of that electorate is refusing to accept the results.

  43. 43.

    Tony Jay

    @Baud:

    Point, but that’s never been as popular as the perennial “It’s not your fault, honey, they should never have let those (fill in the blank) kids take part in the first place.”

  44. 44.

    Soprano2

    Real leadership is what Pelosi did – it’s so subtle that you don’t notice it. I think a lot of people thought all that unity in the House the past two years just happened, it was magical! Nothing magical about it, I’m sure it took a lot of bargaining and hard work. Now people are seeing what happens when the leadership is weak or even non-existent.

  46. 46.

    Soprano2

    @Betty Cracker: I agree, he should have stood up to the crazies from the beginning. Striking all those deals with them ahead of time made him look weak, and it seems that there is nothing the R’s despise more than someone who appears weak to them.

  47. 47.

    Nelle

    @Betty Cracker: i get so tired of that “greatest nation” crap.  A bunch of immature little kids needing reassurance that you are the bestest, prettiest princess or the most handsome, strongest guy.  And Daddy loves you the mostest.

    Sigh.  This country is never going to grow up, is it?

  48. 48.

    Baud

    @Soprano2:

    A lot of people have difficulty distinguishing between the idea that Dems should work to prevent harm and the idea that Dems are responsible for failing to prevent harm.

  49. 49.

    Betty Cracker

    @WaterGirl: Thanks for the confirmation that I’m losing my marbles because now that you mention it, I remember that post! I think I even voted “Freddie.” And “Freddie” he is! Oh well, I still say fuck Musk for depriving me of regular Freddie updates via Twitter. ;-)

  51. 51.

    Soprano2

    @LiminalOwl: Speaking of chronic pain issues, yesterday I started the process of getting referred to the pain clinic. I need something to control what’s become chronic low-level sciatic pain on my right side. I was trying to control it with yoga and other exercise, but that failed. The reason I put this off so long is that I’m afraid I’ll have to waste 10 weeks on physical therapy that won’t do anything for my problem but will convince my insurance company that I need other treatment. It finally got to the point that sometimes it’s affecting my sleep, so I decided I have to bite the bullet and do something. Maybe I’ll get lucky and I won’t have to waste 10 weeks in pain to convince them I need something else. I’ve had injections twice that got rid of similar problems, I’m hoping that will work again.

  53. 53.

    Betty Cracker

    @Nelle: Nope, we never will. I assume all nations have their reflexive chauvinisms, but I’m certain ours is the GOAT!

  54. 54.

    Mimi

    This is not the greatest country in the world. If there even is such a thing, it’s someplace where the government actually helps people who need help without shaming them for needing help.

  55. 55.

    Elizabelle

    @Betty Cracker:  That was a schadenfreudelicious column by Michelle Goldberg.  Starting with the a propos headline.

    FTF NY Times: Leopards Eat Kevin McCarthy’s Face

    As we approach the anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack, it’s been grimly amusing to see that the party of insurrection can’t even manage the orderly transfer of power to itself. Rarely does karma play out so neatly.

    …. of the 20 lawmakers who, as of this writing, have voted against McCarthy, 17 were endorsed by Trump in 2022. Five of them are freshmen — these are people who are part of Trump’s remaking of the Republican Party. Arizona’s Eli Crane, for example, is a former contestant on the business reality show “Shark Tank,” where he pitched bottle openers made of dummy .50-caliber bullets. (“Shoot open some bottles in the manliest way possible,” says an ad for the product.) Florida’s Anna Paulina Luna, an ally of the Trump die-hard Matt Gaetz, is a veteran and former swimsuit model who built a career as a conservative rabble-rouser, most recently running Hispanic outreach for the right-wing outfit Turning Point USA. These people seem to be crafting brands as much as political careers, meaning they benefit from high drama and have little need to work their way through Republican institutions.

    The movement these characters are part of — one McCarthy hoped would carry him to power — isn’t simply ideological. It’s also a set of defiant, paranoid, anti-system attitudes, and a version of politics that prioritizes showboating over legislating. That’s why McCarthy has found himself unable to negotiate with the holdouts. There are no real policy stakes, no concessions he can make on issues. The anti-McCarthy faction’s demands are largely about power and visibility, and whenever he meets those demands, they move the goal posts. …

  56. 56.

    Brit in Chicago

    @Soprano2: Prediction: the more time passes, the more we will appreciate Speaker Pelosi—and it’s started already. I hope in two years we will also begin to appreciate Speaker Jeffries.

  57. 57.

    PaulB

    For those idiots and pundits (but I repeat myself) insisting that the current mess demonstrates that the Republican Party is better because they celebrate diversity of opinion, ask them just what “diversity of opinion” is being demonstrated here? On which subjects do the protagonists disagree? How does the prospective Republican agenda differ between them?

    When answer comes there none, point out that what is being demonstrated here is very simple: Kevin McCarthy desperately wants to be Speaker and 20 burn-it-down anarchists (who agree with him on pretty much every issue and will vote in lockstep with him) don’t want him to be. And neither side has any rhyme or reason for their views: Kevin can’t articulate just why he would be a good Speaker, and the 20 anarchists can’t articulate why he wouldn’t, and why they don’t want him to be.

  60. 60.

    Matt McIrvin

    @PaulB: It’s just more “you’re racist against my racism,” a tactic that goes all the way back to the Civil War.

  61. 61.

    Betty Cracker

    @Elizabelle: Goldberg is excellent — definitely one of my favorite columnists, though I do wish she worked for a more respectable outlet. ;-)

    PS: Goldberg mentions the barking mad Anna Paulina Luna — she’s the MAGA loon who won the seat Charlie Crist vacated to run for governor.

  62. 62.

    NotMax

    @Nelle

    Fries my grits every time Maddow says “the great state of [insert any of 50 state names].”

    Come to think of it, has anyone on the TV ever said, for example, “the great territory of Puerto Rico?”

  63. 63.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Soprano2: We had a fake tree for 2020 and 2021. It was easier in some ways but it had a big problem: turns out a fake tree is a cat jungle gym to an extent that a prickly real tree is not. With a real tree the biggest cat trouble is that they are inexplicably compelled to drink the nasty tree water.

  65. 65.

    Matt McIrvin

    @OzarkHillbilly: My side of the family scaled way back and mostly does charitable donations in lieu of Christmas presents for the grownups. (For my mom, Thanksgiving is the big holiday–she likes to have everyone come down and starts preparing weeks in advance.)

    But my wife’s family still does Christmas big, and they’re local. So it’s a lot.

  66. 66.

    mrmoshpotato

    Biden: It’s embarrassing for the country. The reality is, you know, that to be able to have a congress that can’t function is embarrassing. We’re the greatest nation in the world. How can that be?

    This is immeasurably more diplomatic that the motherfuckers deserve.

  67. 67.

    Nelle

    @OzarkHillbilly: Thanks for this.  I’ve heard them but got weird looks when I tried to describe the crackling sound.  We were camping by the Ambler River, about 55 miles upriver from the village of Ambler, Alaska.  Sort of camping…our friends had a cabin up there. It was September, so dark at night.  We would drink a lot of tea before crawling into the tent, for two reasons.  One, so we could wake up, pee, and see the northern lights (they were quite active then) and, two, so my husband could mark territory by refreshing the pee circle around the tent, to warn the many bears to stay away.

  68. 68.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Soprano2:

    I get tired of the idea that it’s the Democrat’s job to rescue Republicans from their own stupidity.

    This.  And yes, we have to clean up after the elephants when the well-being of the country is at stake.  But at least for the next few weeks, nothing meaningful is at stake.  The Dems would be saving the Rethugs from embarrassing the fool out of themselves, and there’s not one reason I can see that the Dems should do that.

    The important thing here is that the nation is getting exposed to the reality of just how dysfunctional the GOP has become.  The longer this goes on, the more this lesson will sink in with people, rather than be forgotten as soon as it’s over.  And the more people come to regard the GOP as a laughingstock, the better.

  69. 69.

    mrmoshpotato

    Just as Kevin McCarthy’s bid for speaker fails for a fourth time, a parade of speakers, Republican and Democrats both, join President Biden and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in Kentucky to talk about the importance of basic governance and bipartisan accomplishments.

    Was McTurtle visited by three ghosts over the holidays?

  70. 70.

    OverTwistWillie

    Well, thank YOU pal! The day I get out of prison, my own brother picks me up in a police car….

  71. 71.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Nelle: When liberals use this patriotic boilerplate it’s aspirational. Look at how Biden does it–it’s kind of like “if they could put a man on the Moon…” It’s really a normative statement about how we should do this or that, not a bullying one about how we’re the greatest so you shouldn’t criticize us.

    It involves a fiction but I’m fine with it. Presidents have to use this kind of talk.

  72. 72.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Baud:

    That peasant government in Holy Grail is clearly the best.

    Nonetheless, the GQPers remind me of Dennis.  “Help, help, I’m being repressed!” at the least inconvenience.

  73. 73.

    mrmoshpotato

    .@VP Harris stopped to get seafood at a local restaurant Calumet Fisheries, which is at the foot of the 95th St bridge in Chicago that the VP announced funding for today.

    An excellent choice!  Makes me want a smoked chub at 8AM.

  74. 74.

    Geminid

    @Soprano2: The unity the Democratic Caucus showed in the last Congress did take a lot of hard work, both by leadership and the members themselves. I trace this unity back to to an event in the previous Congress, the wrenching and acrimonious blow up over emergency border funding in July, 2019. Tempers ran very high for about 8 days until Progressive Caucus Co-Chairman met and made “peace-talk” with Speaker Pelosi.

    That period was a turning point, I think. It might have been the start of a running feud. Instead, I thought the moderate and progressive wings of the party came away from the squabble with a mutual understanding and respect that has endured.

    Of course I am talking about the members themselves here; their respective partisans still feud like the Hatfields and the McCoys.

  75. 75.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Soprano2:The reason I put this off so long is that I’m afraid I’ll have to waste 10 weeks on physical therapy that won’t do anything for my problem but will convince my insurance company that I need other treatment.

    Without a doubt that is in your future. Been there, done that.

    I’ve had injections twice that got rid of similar problems, I’m hoping that will work again.

    But they will probably give you the shot first. Word of warning: I’ve had my shoulders and elbows shot up w/ cortisone so much, the relief I get from them is very limited and sometimes none at all.

  76. 76.

    mrmoshpotato

    @NotMax:

    No January 6 greeting cards in, um, select stores? // 

    To a traitorous bastard

    Wishing you a long and miserable prison sentence.

  78. 78.

    mrmoshpotato

    @NorthLeft:

    How about some new categories; completely insane, totally corrupt, morally bankrupt, and partially crazed? 

    All of them, Katie!

  79. 79.

    Fleeting Expletive

    @OzarkHillbilly: My mom and dad drove the Al-Can highway in a surplus Army truck in 1944 to get married in Oklahoma. My mom always said the northern lights were terrifying across those vast stretches of road–and they crackled, and moaned, and made ghastly sounds choreographed to the waves of light. Thanks for verifying her story.

  81. 81.

    jonas

    @Soprano2: ​
      Luntz’s spin aside, the real division here isn’t between “diverse viewpoints” in some political sense; it’s a division between those Republicans who want to use their power in the House to lower taxes, gut regulations and generally lift the jackboot of government tyranny off the necks of their donor class and other rightwing Republicans who want McCarthy to introduce a bill to impeach Biden and his cabinet every single day of the new term, open carry on the floor of the House, and hold interminable hearings on Hunter Biden’s wang. The former group are “moderates” only in the sense that they still have enough rational thought capability to realize that letting the latter group run things their way for two years is a surefire way straight back into the minority and another term for Biden/Harris come 2024 and under those circumstances, their opportunities to be cartoonish supervillains is greatly diminished.

  83. 83.

    jonas

    @Betty Cracker: ​
      It’s part of the president’s job to be an unabashed booster for the country. Also, to reflexively say “God bless you and God bless America” at the end of any speech.

  84. 84.

    gene108

    @PaulB:

    Republican Party is better because they celebrate diversity of opinion, ask them just what “diversity of opinion” is being demonstrated here? On which subjects do the protagonists disagree? How does the prospective Republican agenda differ between them?

    Willingness to allow a floor vote to pass a budget and raise the debt ceiling, if not everything on the Republican wishlist is included in the bills.

    I don’t mean actually voting for the budget or raising the debt ceiling, but just not getting in the way of a majority of Democrats and a few Republicans that don’t want the government to shut down or the U.S. to default on debt.

    The demands of the 20 holdouts is nothing else, like passing a budget, gets done until everything on the House Republican agenda is enacted, whatever shape that vague agenda may take.

  86. 86.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Mimi:

    This is not the greatest country in the world. If there even is such a thing, it’s someplace where the government actually helps people who need help without shaming them for needing help. 

    We’re the greatest country in the world without universal healthcare!

  90. 90.

    artem1s

    @Soprano2: ​
     

    I’ll have to waste 10 weeks on physical therapy that won’t do anything for my problem but will convince my insurance company that I need other treatment.

    Do the PT. It will help. And they will give you tools to keep the problem from getting worse and help prevent future flair ups. I had a flare up a few years ago that Yoga wasn’t helping. I learned a lot about what underlying cause was and how to keep it from becoming a chronic problem.

  91. 91.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Matt McIrvin: My eldest son’s first xmas was insane. Had to be here for this, there for that, and back again… Never for more than an hour or 2. Not to mention almost getting killed when a car spun out right in front us and I played dodge car on an icy I-44 as it bounced back and forth off the guard rails. Afterwards I put my foot down and declared we would spend Xmas eve with one family, Xmas day with the other. Hurt feelings all around but screw it.

    Post divorce we maintained that compromise. Once my son’s grew up and moved out, and especially after they started building their own families, I opted out all together. It meant nothing at all to me and I knew it meant a lot to their mother and her parents and their in laws so I just made it easy for all.

    I had peace and quiet and they got to see the people for whom it was important without having to fit me in some how..

  92. 92.

    SFAW

    @Soprano2: ​
     

    Luntz was mouthing a bunch of crap about how this is “democracy” and how the R coalition is so broad and has diverse viewpoints.

    Yeah, they’re broad alright: they run the gamut from “not batshit insane, but close” to “completely batshit insane.” Or maybe it’s “America-hating, borderline fascists” to “America-hating total fascists.”
    Of course, as the saying goes: your mileage may vary.

  94. 94.

    WereBear

    @artem1s: I keep my autoimmune in remission with careful diet and supplement strategies to reduce inflammation. Recommended by Dr Terry Wahls who is running studies after she was successful with this strategy.

  95. 95.

    mrmoshpotato

    @WereBear:

    Proof that you can go too far, I suppose. I don’t envy that dude’s next ten years… 

    Why?  Is he in the federal pen for the next ten?

  96. 96.

    oldgold

    I am in the sunny south, on Ponce de Leon’s peculiar peninsula, trying to avoid  the frozen hell of the Hardy Twilight Zone.

    Last night I was invited to a snowbird social gathering. The attending flock was MAGA infested.

    Walking over to this sunset gin swill, I was sternly admonished, “No politics!” “OK, I will confine my conversations to critiquing Paul’s Letters to the Corinthians.”

    Some time thereafter, immediately before being yanked home, I do remember helpfully suggesting the GOP should try naming Kevin McCarthy’s much smarter brother, Charlie, as Speaker. “OG, what does Charlie do?” “He’s a professional dummy.”

  97. 97.

    Geminid

    @Betty Cracker: If you met Joe Biden over coffee and discussed this question I think you two would agree on a more qualified view of this question.

    But there is coffee table talk, and then there is campaign rhetoric. I expect the President to be in campaign mode more or less for the next 22 months, and I don’t expect him to be qualified in his characterization of America. I would be disappointed if he was.

  98. 98.

    OverTwistWillie

    The 95th Street bridge carries US Highways 12 and 20:

    Inspection report (as of August 2017)

    Overall condition: Poor

    Superstructure condition rating:

    Poor (4 out of 9)

    Substructure condition rating:

    Fair (5 out of 9)

    Deck condition rating:

    Satisfactory (6 out of 9)

    Sufficiency rating: 46.8 (out of 100)

  99. 99.

    SFAW

    @Betty Cracker: ​
     

    the seat Charlie Crist vacated to run for governor.

    Not that anyone else would have beaten mini-Hitler last year, but when the F is Charlie “20 years past his sell-by date” Crist going to get the F out of FL politics? I know it’s not rational, but I hate that mofo almost as much as I hate DeathsAnus. [OK, not even close to as much as I hate DeathsAnus, but I wish Crist would read the writing on the wall, and move to Wyoming or Montana.]

  100. 100.

    Tony Jay

    @zzyzx:

    Insert obligatory gif of two members of the Dora Milaje struggling to look sad before laughing so hard they can barely take off in their flying super-car.

  101. 101.

    NotMax

    @OzarkHillbilly

    Reminded me of a visit to NY with a Hawaii friend during a family gathering. Stepsister’s husband physically led him to the liquor, with the accompanying truism “Wanted to show you where it is. Trust me, you’re gonna need it to get through this.”

  102. 102.

    SFAW

    @oldgold: ​
     

    Some time thereafter, immediately before being yanked home, I do remember helpfully suggesting the GOP should try naming Kevin McCarthy’s much smarter brother, Charlie, as Speaker.

    Beautiful.

  104. 104.

    mrmoshpotato

    @oldgold:

    Some time thereafter, immediately before being yanked home, I do remember helpfully suggesting the GOP should try naming Kevin McCarthy’s much smarter brother, Charlie, as Speaker. “OG, what does Charlie do?” “He’s a professional dummy.” 

    Hahahahaha!  Well done!

  105. 105.

    Betty Cracker

    @jonas: I get why every president does it, but IMO, we Americans could use a dose of humility. It’s surely possible to be a booster and express national pride without frequent claims of national supremacy.

  106. 106.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @WereBear: I hadn’t heard that about knees. My arthritis in them is getting worse but I have no idea of alternatives. I’ve been suffering with chronic bursitis in both elbows and shoulders since my mid 20s or so. My latest MRI should some iffy things in there but nothing definitive so he gave me a shot on the off chance that would do the trick. I was happily surprised at the noticeable reduction in pain but it did not go away. I am not sure if I should go back again or not. He’ll no doubt want me to do PT but I can’t really afford it and any benefit is hardly likely to be any more than the last time around.

    sigh

  109. 109.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @jonas:

    Also, to reflexively say “God bless you and God bless America” at the end of any speech.

    What does Biden say, “God bless you, and God protect our troops!”?

    he means that too

  111. 111.

    Bobby Thomson

    The obvious way out of this morass is for 11 Republicans to vote present and allow Jeffries to be elected speaker, only subject to face-saving conditions:

    Republicans are still the majority party and get a majority of members on committees, to be chosen by the outgoing Republican ranking member of each.
    Republicans can force Jeffries to call a vote on any subject with a plurality vote.  (They really, really want the ability to impeach.)
    Rules are to be made by a standing committee of Republicans appointed by Jeffries (who will not appoint any of the bomb throwers).  Organically, these would be the Republicans agreeing to vote Present.

    No matter who the Speaker is, there are going to be enough members (barring …… resignations) to block any Democratic priorities because the crazy caucus will vote with Republicans, and Republicans would retain the ability to put their own legislation forward.  The person second in line for the Presidency would be a Democrat, not a Republican, but otherwise it’s a pretty good deal for Republicans.

    Over the long run, they are going to have expel the 20 from their caucus, knowing that in reality it won’t really make a difference in terms of votes, and also knowing the alternative is to appease them at every turn.  Otherwise, there will be no end to the hostage taking.  The debt ceiling brinkmanship has come home to roost and is now trained on the Republican party itself.

  112. 112.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    The Associated Press @AP 25m

    BREAKING: Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow, a member of the Democratic leadership, has announced that she will not run for a fifth term in 2024, opening up a seat in the key battleground state

  114. 114.

    PST

    @Soprano2:

    It finally got to the point that sometimes it’s affecting my sleep, so I decided I have to bite the bullet and do something.

    For what it’s worth, my orthopedic surgeon buddy often uses this as a rule of decision when I complain about stuff. He tends to be a “first do no harm” kind of guy who waits until an injury is interfering with something important. Good luck.

  115. 115.

    Jeffro

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I just saw that, but my quick take was to not stress too much.

    Michigan seems to be trending back blue-ish, and they certainly have a high-profile trio (if not more) of capable Dem leaders.  The state party seems better organized than ever, too.

  117. 117.

    Tony G

    @Soprano2: I am a frequent listener to NPR (because, as bad as it is, it’s better than whatever else is on the radio).  In my experience, NPR “journalists” ALMOST NEVER ask tough questions to Republicans.

  118. 118.

    Geminid

    @SFAW: Frank Luntz is an advocate and auxiliary for the Republican Party, so I expect this kind of spin by Luntz and his ilk. The news is that this spin is so patently untrue, and that he has to make it anyway.

  121. 121.

    Another Scott

    @Bobby Thomson: It sounds like it’s not over yet.

    Warning – TheHill:

    Lawmakers say the nasty battle over electing a new Speaker portends another potential crisis later this year. The Treasury Department won’t say when exactly the debt limit will expire, but the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates it will need to be raised sometime after July.

    Conservative rebels who blocked McCarthy’s election as Speaker on six consecutive ballots say the Speaker must insist on using the debt limit as leverage to enact major spending reforms — something that Senate Democrats have dismissed as a non-starter over the past decade.

    “Us 20 want changes, and we’re going to stay here until we get it,” Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) told reporters Wednesday. “Could McCarthy all of a sudden morph into a fiscal conservative? We’ll see.”

    “Is he willing to shut the government down rather than raise the debt ceiling? That’s a non-negotiable item,” he added.

    A group of seven conservatives opposed to McCarthy’s bid to become Speaker circulated a “Dear Colleague” letter last month demanding that the next Speaker “commit to not raising the debt ceiling without a concrete plan to cap spending and operate under a budget that balances in 10 years.”

    Senate Republicans, however, warn that debt ceiling legislation with spending caps isn’t going to pass the Democratic-controlled Senate, setting up the two chambers for a stalemate that could put the nation’s credit rating at risk or the federal government on the verge of default.

    “That’s not going to get 60 votes. That’s math,” said a Senate GOP aide, who predicted that “it’s going to be a challenge” to pass legislation to raise the debt limit later this year.

    McCarthy said in October that he would be willing to use the debt limit legislation as leverage to force spending cuts, but conservatives have doubts about how hard he would push it when the stakes are high and default is a real possibility.

    But the bruising battle over electing a Speaker, which has played out over two days, has lawmakers in both parties worried that whoever winds up leading the House Republican majority this year will have a hard time passing debt limit legislation or regular spending bills given the staunch opposition of a small group of conservatives and the party’s slim five-seat majority.

    Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), an adviser to the Senate GOP leadership team, said raising the debt limit, which is expected to expire this summer, “will probably be the single biggest challenge the House will have.”

    (Emphasis added.)

    One has to be careful about reading this, I think. Even the monsters are careful about their language.

    A government “shut down” (which isn’t really a shut-down for most things any more) is very different from a default. The terms are mixed in the story above.

    But we’ll see.

    We know the monsters will try to grab every hostage they can. It’s what they do. Them saying it out loud shouldn’t make us take our eyes off the prize.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  122. 122.

    Nelle

    @jonas: I know that about the boosterism.  I just live among smug people who don’t see it as aspirational, but as a statement of fact and the basis for their condescension and bigotry..

  124. 124.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Geminid: Last time I heard Frank Lutz he was trying to spin himself as some kind of reformed warrior, a la “While of course I deplore Donald Trump, Democrat must acknowledge their role in our current situation…”

    Didn’t he announce at some point when the wheels had fallen off the Bush presidency that he was giving up politics?

    Hey Frank, print yourself out a copy of the GOPAC memo, roll it up real tight, and cram it straight up your ass.

  125. 125.

    Jeffro

    @Soprano2:

    @SFAW:

    @Geminid:

    well, Gen Z (meaning my college-age daughter) is not having any of it…she’s floored that they are this stupid and inept despite having the majority.

    I’m not sure if I’m entirely comfortable that her primary complaint is that they don’t know how to wield power… =)

  127. 127.

    Geminid

    @Baud: Pete Butregieg is a very talented politician, and he has a solid core of fans who consider him  superb presidential material and want to see him run for President at the first opportunity.

    I think Buttegieg believes in himself but also takes a more measured view. He’s young and has a long window for a Presidential bid. And I think he sees how tough it would be to make the leap from small city Mayor-turned Transportation Secretary to Presidential nominee. He’s also very much a team player I think, and would be inclined to back Vice President Harris as Joe Biden’s successor.

    On the other, Buttegieg’s skill set seems well suited to the Senate. He might find a run for that Michigan seat very attractive. And if he has the Presidential bug, he’d see that seat as a good platform from which to make a run for that office in the next decade.

  128. 128.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Matt McIrvin: ​
      Exactly. As I said in a previous thread, when Biden says “We are better than this” what he is really saying is that “We should/can be better than this.” It is aspirational not descriptive.

  130. 130.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @jonas:

    it’s a division between

    No, it’s not.  It absolutely is not a division between a plutocrat and howler monkey caucus.  Both groups want no taxes and regulations.  Both groups are slavering for Hunter Biden investigations and other dipshittery.  It’s a division between assholes who believe in total war against Democrats, and assholes who got their job by performative screaming that the first group are RINOs because they didn’t win*.  There may be a small group of assholes who are less extreme and just going with the flow in there somewhere.

    I wish people would ditch this idea that the GOP is mainly a plutocrat party using bigotry to control the rubes.  That’s ‘economic anxiety’ for the rich.  Bigotry leads, plutocracy and bigotry are easy allies, and a lot of plutocrats are stone cold bigots themselves.

    *The same green lantern theory bullshit Democrats have so much experience with.

  131. 131.

    Ken

    @Another Scott: a concrete plan to cap spending and operate under a budget that balances in 10 years.

    Unfortunately due to the 22nd Amendment, we can’t re-elect President Clinton who was the last one to balance. However it looks like most Democratic administrations have reduced the deficit. Certainly better than recent Republican administrations, and hugely better than the last Republican trifecta.

  132. 132.

    Wapiti

    @Baud: If McCarthy had the guts for it (and could keep his faction together*), his faction of crazies and the Democrats could just not seat the 20 out-faction. The Dems could even let him keep the gavel, expecting most of the replacements would be Repubs.

    *Not going to happen; it’s McCarthy.

  133. 133.

    SFAW

    @Geminid: ​
     
    Yes, I know. I was just attempting a riff on the “[she] runs the whole gamut of emotions — from A to B” from Dorothy Parker.

  136. 136.

    SFAW

    @Another Scott: ​
     

    Conservative rebels who blocked McCarthy’s election as Speaker on six consecutive ballots say the Speaker must insist on using the debt limit as leverage to enact major spending reforms

    I’m wondering how they’d be if the “spending reforms” included cutting off all Federal aid to districts that elected Rethugs who voted against certifying Biden’s win. I think that would save a TON of money.

  138. 138.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Omnes Omnibus: What it reminds me of is when people talk about the police or the law or the Constitution not doing its job and then someone says “well, it IS doing its job perfectly, because its real job is to oppress minorities/make the rich richer/preserve corporate power” or whatever, and that may be the case, but it doesn’t really point the way forward other than “burn it all down and hope for better”, which is great for making you feel superior but not a political winner.

  139. 139.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Geminid:

    Pete Butregieg is a very talented politician, and he has a solid core of fans who consider him  superb presidential material and want to see him run for President at the first opportunity.

    He also has an online lefty hate squad whose level of antipathy to him I don’t exactly understand.

  140. 140.

    The Moar You Know

    Was McTurtle visited by three ghosts over the holidays?

    @mrmoshpotato: Moscow Mitch is all about bipartisanship when he’s on the losing end of things.

    When he gets 51, he will happily run over all the Dems with a bulldozer if he feels like it.  And has.

  142. 142.

    mrmoshpotato

    @The Moar You Know:

    Moscow Mitch is all about bipartisanship when he’s on the losing end of things.

    When he gets 51, he will happily run over all the Dems with a bulldozer if he feels like it. And has.

    Ah yes.  The craven bastard.

  143. 143.

    Another Scott

    @Matt McIrvin: He worked for McKinsey!!11ONE.  :-/

    Some may remember that I was not a Mayor Pete fan during the primary.  He came off to me as too much of a smooth talker, in far too much of a hurry to claim the big chair without doing the work at the lower levels to show that he knows how to make hard choices (which really are a thing) to get things done within real-world constraints.  Too much like John Edwards for my taste.

    But he’s doing the work now, and showing that there is substance behind his finely crafted sound bites.  That’s good.

    It’s hard to go from cabinet secretary to president.  I assume that he’ll try for elected executive office again (MI governor is an obvious next incremental big step up), or maybe US senate, before directly running for president.  I think he’d lose if he tried to go for president again too soon, but who knows…

    We’ve got a deep bench.  That’s a good thing.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  144. 144.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Matt McIrvin: Good point.  Also, there are certain requirements for political rhetoric in any political system.  Getting overly wound around the axle about exactly how something should have been phrased (which we do here quite often) is, IMO, counterproductive.  In this case, focusing on the “greatest country” rhetoric simply ignores that fact the Biden is calling out the House GOP for being embarrassing which is, again IMO, the heart of his statement.*

    *Yes, he could have left out the “greatest country” part and still made his point, but he’s the professional politician and we aren’t so I’ll defer to his expertise on effective political rhetoric.

  146. 146.

    WaterGirl

    @Baud: Yeah, just like Stacey Abrams, Pete would spontaneously combust if he were either in the house or the senate.  Both move way too slowly for them.  They are do-ers.

  148. 148.

    Miss Bianca

    @Another Scott: Yeah, all this goes for me, too. (And I get the McKinsey hate because for a brief, nightmarish period I *worked* for McKinsey.) But he’s managed to impress me since – a lot.

    FWIW, if I still lived in Michigan I would totally support his running for the Senate.

  151. 151.

    Geminid

    @Matt McIrvin: Most Sanders supporters got past their disappointment over the 2020 Presidential primary results. There are still diehards though, and they hate Buttegieg because first, he denied Sanders a win in Iowa that they had hoped would establish momementum. Then, along with Amy Klobucher, Buttegieg endorsed Joe Biden on the eve of the crucial Super Tuesday primaries. That scuppered the Sanders camp’s strategy of winning the nomination with a series of plurality victories in a crowded field.

    The hard core Sanders fans still believe he could have won the nomination and then the general election. So there’s a lot of “would a, could a” going on, and ia lot of it is “would a, could a except for that stinkin’ Mayor Pete!” This helps them deny their candidate’s and their own weaknesses.

    Also, lefties can see that right now is not a good time to try and tear down President Biden, but they can still undermine confidence in the administration by tearing down a cabinet member.

  153. 153.

    Miss Bianca

    On a completely unrelated note, I am sitting here in my jammies having planned to take the whole day off feeling like hammered shit from my latest COVID booster (jabbed yesterday). Because all my previous experiences with the vaccine led me to expect just that. Instead, outside of a few moments of blinding headache last night, and some muscle twinges in both arms…I’m feeling fine. Might even head into the office later today. WTF? Did that happen to anyone else with the bivalent booster?

  155. 155.

    rikyrah

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

     

    BREAKING: Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow, a member of the Democratic leadership, has announced that she will not run for a fifth term in 2024, opening up a seat in the key battleground state

     

    She’s only 72, which is young for the Senate.

    I’ll say it…wish this was coming from DiFi and not Stabenow.

  156. 156.

    Miss Bianca

    @The Moar You Know: Ugh, I was going over my vaccination record at public health yesterday (they pulled up everything from the state going back to 2012!), and I see that I am due for Tdap and MMR boosters, and we discussed the shingles vaccine as well. Which I am dreading like fire, and the only thing that is spurring me forward to get it later this year is the repeated assurances from jackals and others that however bad the vax reaction is, it’s worth it NOT to get shingles. Which I should know anyway because of watching a couple loved ones going through shingles infections. But still…yargh.

  158. 158.

    rikyrah

    @Geminid:

    Then, along with Amy Klobucher, Buttegieg endorsed Joe Biden on the eve of the crucial Super Tuesday primaries. That scuppered the Sanders camp’s strategy of winning the nomination with a series of plurality victories in a crowded field.

     

    Whenever I get down, I go back and watch videos from 2020 South Carolina and 2020 Super Tuesday.

    Cheers me up everytime:)

    LOL

     

    The pain on the Berniebros in the MSM at having to announce all those wins for Biden….priceless…

     

    BWA HA AH AH AH AH AHA HA HA

  160. 160.

    Tony Jay

    @Paul in KY:

    I’d buy my Home Entertainment system in Wakanda, holiday on Numenor, but I’d definitely plant my arse on the The Land Where Saucy Dreams Come True for most of the year.

  161. 161.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Geminid: Oh, so it’s like the people posting snake emojis about Elizabeth Warren, because when she took down Mike Bloomberg at that debate, in some indescribable sense it was really a stab in the back of Bernie Sanders.

  164. 164.

    Geminid

    @Matt McIrvin: Those snake emojis were generated by the dispute between Warren and Sanders over her assertion that at a dinner in late 2019, Sanders tried to dissuade Warren from running by saying a woman could not win the nomination. An account of this meeting was leaked by the Warren camp as the primary rivalry between the two became more intense.

    Then, at an important debate, a less brittle man than Sanders could have defused the situation with a more generous debate answer about the conversation. But Bernie being Bernie, he doubled down and denied that he even could have made such a statement!

    That led to the post-debate confrontation where an incensed Warren asked, “Did you just call me a liar?” and Sanders waved a self-righteous finger at her (invading her space, it seemed to me).

    There was some comic relief when the affable Tom Steyer ambled over with a friendly “hey guys!” Then Steyer saw what was going on, turned on his heels, and went to schmooze with less angry debate participants

    That’s when the snake emojis started coming out, and they stayed out for months. Sanders’ supporters were his own worst enemies, I think.

  165. 165.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Miss Bianca: None of my COVID shots gave me more than a sore shoulder for a couple of days and some headaches and tiredness the following day. But the exact level of severity varied seemingly at random.

    Shingles shot #1 wasn’t that bad, but shingles shot #2 had me laid out and napping through most of the following day. Flu shots tend to give me headaches the same day. I got the bivalent booster and a flu shot at the same time so some of the effects were hard to tease out between the two of them.

  166. 166.

    gvg

    @Matt McIrvin: Um, my cats liked to sleep in the real trees and climb them of course. I will not forget the first dark night I arrived home and noticed the tree had eyes. Maybe your cats so far haven’t liked climbing real ones but generally they do. My solution was to position the tree under a ceiling hook and tie the tip to the ceiling with heavy fish line. Pretty invisible, and the tree can’t tip over.

  168. 168.

    mrmoshpotato

    @gvg:

    Maybe your cats so far haven’t liked climbing real ones but generally they do. My solution was to position the tree under a ceiling hook and tie the tip to the ceiling with heavy fish line. Pretty invisible, and the tree can’t tip over. 

    The kitties were enticed by that line of fish.  🐟🍽️😋

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