There’s only so much can be done with duct tape and baling wire…
The world’s largest aircraft fleet was grounded for hours by a cascading outage in a government system that delayed or cancelled thousands of flights across the U.S.
President Joe Biden has directed the Department of Transportation to investigate. https://t.co/IGLRIZPXou pic.twitter.com/Eu0yLT1xUb
— The Associated Press (@AP) January 11, 2023
The breakdown of a key computer system, which resulted in the suspension of U.S. flight departures on Wednesday, is not the first such issue to hinder Federal Aviation Administration operations, and happened amid efforts to upgrade technology https://t.co/0QPb26fRqq
— Reuters (@Reuters) January 12, 2023
Unless you’re a ranking member of the GOP Death Cult, in which case clouds and shadows are more than enough:
NEW: Legal experts say House Republicans’ bid to probe “ongoing criminal investigations” is a nonstarter for DOJ — and could erode the already strained relationship between the department and the hill.
w/ @nicholaswu12 @jordainchttps://t.co/iZe77BNnJv
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) January 10, 2023
Kevin McCarthy just upholding the traditions of his namesake Joseph McCarthy https://t.co/88ZhYhWkWc
— Ragnarok Lobster (@eclecticbrotha) January 10, 2023
The true purpose of the GOP's new “investigate the investigators” committee?
To undermine legitimate probes of Trump and 1/6 – which implicate the committee's own members.
Kevin McCarthy sacrificed a lot to be Speaker. Our democracy and national security most of all. pic.twitter.com/RjZbeoSKjZ
— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) January 10, 2023
Kevin McCarthy's new "weaponizing of government" committee will actually be weaponized to harass and undermine criminal investigations into Trump. @RepAdamSchiff tells me Republicans granted this power will act as "surrogates for the Trump defense team."https://t.co/sqMc5WjXJn
— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) January 9, 2023
Donald Trump has long excelled at the art of blithely revealing his corrupt designs in public, and at a rally in September, he openly signaled that he fully expected Republicans elected to Congress to thwart the ongoing criminal investigations into, well, himself.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, it turns out, seems eager to honor his end of this corrupt bargain. Or at least the California Republican will go through the motions of honoring it — and given the realities of the right-wing information universe, that might do more for the former president than one might expect…
As speaker, McCarthy has already declared that the GOP-controlled House will target the “weaponization of the FBI.” When the FBI executed a lawful search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home, Republicans treated it as a historic abuse of power, so there’s little doubt the committee will target criminal investigations into Trump.
This will likely entail subpoenas designed to “investigate” the process by which law enforcement sought the Mar-a-Lago search warrant. There will also undoubtedly be subpoenas directed at ongoing criminal investigations into Trump’s efforts to overturn his election loss, and attempts to haul FBI officials before Congress…
You cannot overstate the importance of spectacle to the MAGA right’s overall political project. Much of what this new committee does will be designed to create mere impressions of coverups, of wrongdoings, of all sorts of shady deep state conspiracies.
That will create immense challenges for the mainstream news media, which could feel obliged to treat these GOP efforts as serious “counter-investigations” into what has already been revealed about Trump. This will give them a sheen of legitimacy even before they’ve earned it. But there’s no reason to grant that presumption, given the long trail of flagrant abuses of the public trust we’ve already seen from them.
As if too much of Our Failed Major Media didn’t already have both thumbs and a few fingers weighing the scales in the GOP’s favor…
democrats have become a more ideologically coherent party. republicans have become increasingly ok with murdering their political enemies.
— William B. Fuckley (@opinonhaver) January 12, 2023
On The Road – way2blue – Lamu, Kenya in 2021, 3 of 8
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone 😊😊😊
J R in WV
@rikyrah:
Good Morning, rikyrah, everyone! I’m not usually up and at things this early since retirement…
Michael Bersin
The front page for the republican majority’s House Ways and Means Committee site shows their priorities:
High on your own supply
Hang on for the ride.
Danielx
Good morning…hi ho hi ho it’s off to the periodontist I go. Not the way I’d choose to start the day.
Ella in New Mexico
Good morning!
So far Dry-is January has had 11 successful workdays without alcohol and although it’s still hard to wind down and go to bed last night was the best sleep I’ve had in 3 or 4 years. I’m still kind of grumpy during the day, but it’s getting better. Goal was no alcohol Sunday-Thursday, but now I think I’ll go ahead and limit alcohol to dinner out one time on the weekend if at all for the rest of the month.
Also, too, The Traitor Caucus is going to make a lot of noise, we’re going to have to read headlines and stories where they say and do things to “own the libs” and try and hurt Democrats but it’s not going to work. They’re going to make asses out of themselves for the next 23 or so months, be really irritating and obnoxious, likely try to scare everyone with the debt ceiling thing–but their big noise will be about as dangerous as when my 2 year old grandaughter tries to scare us by roaring like a dinosaur, holding up her tiny hands in claw position.
Good news is that through it all we can be assured of a steady drip of stories of their own woes and pecadillos (Santos, Schlapp…)
The country is sick of them. If we can just find a way to tune them out and keep our eyes on the prize, not get depressed and hopeless about the ugliness they’ll TRY to impose (which will be mostly impotent, dead legislation and bloviating) we’ll take back the House and keep the Senate and White House in 2024.
Thanks to all of you for being my safe, sane space every morning!!
Ceci n est pas mon nym
After a 6 month investigation, DOT finds a programmer at FAA who said “Ok, I know we have a whole testing procedure and don’t modify live code, but it’s only one line of code and I don’t see any way it could screw anything up. What’s the worst that could happen?”
Amir Khalid
Is Speaker Kevin McCarthy related to Joe (and Eugene) McCarthy like his namesake, the late actor Kevin McCarthy?
OzarkHillbilly
Blech.
lowtechcyclist
I’m trying to figure out what possible justification there could be for saying the GOP is getting less extremist.
Steeplejack
@Amir Khalid:
Don’t forget cousin Charlie McCarthy.
dmsilev
@Amir Khalid: No, but he’s directly descended from Charlie McCarthy.
Edit: Beaten by Steeplejack. Curses!
Doug R
One year, the Royal Bank of Canada, one of Canada’s largest banks – decided to upgrade its computer system – instead of using time stamps which when you’re dealing with thousands of miles cross country and 6 1/2 time zones and computers that take a few hundred milliseconds to talk to each other plus millions of transactions a day-to a numbered sequential system.
I think they installed it on a Friday and it crashed by Monday. Then the Ontario payroll came in on Monday, jammed it up more. Then the Government of Canada and Crown Corporations payroll came in on Thursday, even more jam.
Took them a little over a week to clear it up, at least they offered no charge overdraft for that week.
Kay
@lowtechcyclist:
Noah Smith is just awful – the most bland, conventional “both sides” analysis possible. It could be machine-generated. That’s the reason.
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
Baud
@lowtechcyclist:
Hershel Walker conceded.
Matt McIrvin
@Amir Khalid: It’s a very common name, wouldn’t be surprised if there’s little connection.
gene108
@Ella in New Mexico:
I don’t understand where this optimism comes from. In my lifetime Republicans bringing up corruption from Democrats from the Whitewater investigation, the Clinton-Lewinsky affair, Hillary’s email server, John Kerry’s swift boating, and Al Gore’s inventing the internet have all done irreparable damage to Democrats in the short run.
jonas
Apparently more NY pols, including some of the newly elected Republicans (e.g. Brandon Williams) are calling on Santos to step down. This is an absolute disaster for the NY GOP. Their worst nightmare is having him still be down there in DC when it starts raining indictments. The problem is, he knows right now that McCarthy can’t spare him and so will go to the mat to make sure he doesn’t go anywhere. What a little shitweasel.
Amir Khalid
@Matt McIrvin:
One of these days, a TV host should tell Speaker McCarthy how great he was in Invasion of The Body Snatchers.
JMG
@gene108: Of all those you cited, only Hillary’s email server had any demonstrable impact on Democratic performance in elections and not because of Republicans but because of longstanding mainstream political journalism’s hatred of her and subsequent making of the emails the most important in terms of coverage in the 2016 election.
There’s no evidence the Trump purloined documents story, which got huge coverage, had the slightest effect on the 2022 elections, and I’d bet real money the same will be true of the Biden misplaced documents story of 2023 or of any subsequent Republican-generated “scandals.”
Geminid
My sister works for a government contractor and has spent most of her career working on the “NextGen” air traffic control system. She will likely retire before the NextGen system is implemented.
She says it’s complicated.
sab
Heard on MSNBC this morning that whole FAA sustem needs upgradimg but “Congress” ( i.e. GOP in the House) say ‘transparancy’ is needed first. They are probably hoping to take down Buttigieg. This could be interesting. His communication skills v McCarthhy’s crew’s.
Baud
@JMG:
There was an intentional cabal of white dudes who actively worked to knee capped her. The journalists were really bad, but it’s not all on them.
Ken
I’m sorry, there’s an ambiguity. Do you mean Santos or McCarthy?
UncleEbeneezer
Smith/DOJ sent massive batch of subpoenas re funding of orgs including Ellipse Rally. Tick, tock Ginni…
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/01/11/trump-subpoena-jan6-campaign-officials/
Betty
@jonas: It would be interesting to see a psychoanalysis of Santos. He’s definitely an odd character with more weirdness emerging daily.
sab
@Ken: McCarthy is tall, so its probably Santos.
different-church-lady
Absolutely everything McCarthy is going to let on the floor will be nothing more than be fan service.
Geminid
@jonas: Another problem is that while people can pressure Santos to resign, no one can make him resign.
I guess prosecutors would make resignation part of a plea deal, but I think that prospect is weeks and probably months away. It’s coming, though.
Anonymous At Work
Nice how Politico’s lede did Bothsiderism: GOP launches interference on DOJ process and it would strain relationships with “The Hill [made up of bothsides]”.
different-church-lady
@Ken:
Yes.
lollipopguild
@Betty: He seems to have made a choice to simply lie about everything like trump. It got him elected but now the wheels are coming off.
sdhays
@Geminid: Yeah, he has absolutely no incentive to resign. A plea deal is the only way it happens, and I think for someone like Santos, they’d have to offer him quite a lot to let it go.
Leto
@Geminid: it is. What they’re wanting to do, from a technical standpoint, is fucking hard. I think about how long it took them to develop some of the digital air traffic control equipment for the military, and this was back in the late 90s when I was helping them to install it at Shaw AFB. Those requirements were laid out about a decade previously, then took time to fully develop.
When you wait 50-60 years to finally start upgrading your infrastructure, yeah, it’s going to take some time. Not just the equipment will need replacing, but the facilities will need to be upgraded (HVAC/electrical/cabling) as well as probably new buildings. 5 billion is a drop in the bucket for what probably needs to be done.
Ken
@Geminid: The House, by a two-thirds vote, can force Santos to resign, but I don’t see that happening. Among other things, if the evidence starts getting bad enough to get the necessary Republican votes, the Democrats might decide it’s better for them if the albatross remains around their necks.
p.a.
Rude, but it’s a play on one of their (Fleadom Caucus/conservaturds) favorite terms, and what they did to him; Kevin McCucky.
rikyrah
Aaron Rouse (@AaronRouseVaBch) tweeted at 6:32 PM on Wed, Jan 11, 2023:
. @GovernorVA remarks tonight during the State of the Commonwealth address made one thing clear: He is standing behind his agenda to take VA back half a century. Not on my watch! I’ll always defend women’s repro-rights, support public education, and build an economy for everyone.
(https://twitter.com/AaronRouseVaBch/status/1613333007578075138?t=wubpZ1Vy798tj4_pUQj80A&s=03)
Leto
@sab: Hope Dems continue to hammer home the message connecting Rethugs continued efforts to defund the government with these shitshows. Why is your flight delayed? Republicans. Why is your car broken down after hitting that fucking crater of a pot hole? Republicans. Why is X happening? Republicans. Just non-stop beating them over the head with this.
different-church-lady
@lollipopguild: Is it even a choice, or just a compulsion?
Leto
George Santos claimed to be one of the first people in the US diagnosed with COVID-19. That looks to be bogus too.
Just absolute fucking clown. They belong together. Heard briefly on Morning Blow this morning, Blow bemoaning, “Who was speaking about this (all the lying)? Where was his Dem opponent? Where were the reporters?” One of the other nimrods did say that the local paper there reported on it, and I saw reporting that the Dem candidate had brought it up throughout the campaign. In the end I concluded that it just didn’t matter. People there preferred voting for a lying, stealing, piece of shyte rather than a Dem candidate. Whatchagonnado?
Elizabelle
@Leto: And REPUBLICANS want to defund the IRS, so that we can’t make sufficient updates to our aviation and transportation safety.
It’s true.
Too much wealth at the top; too many gazillionaires; insufficient taxation to support an actual first world economy.
I wish that Fox News would fall, hard. That is a leg to the stool that is keeping these ridiculous Republicans with too much power.
Chief Oshkosh
@jonas:
NY GOP: So corrupt that they continued to support Santos long after they knew he was a criminal and liar, or so inept that they didn’t know anything at all about their candidate, or both?
THAT is what what NY Dems should be saying over and over and over again.
Geminid
@rikyrah: Senator Louise Lucas could respond to Youngkin’s legislative proposals: “Not with my Brick Wall!”
Now I want to see some pics of Youngkin’s speech and see how Senator Lucas took it. She sat behind him and to his left during last year’s speech. People on Twitter had fun posting memes of Lucas staring at Youngkin with red X-Ray eyes.
Bobby Thomson
I don’t know who this Noah Smith cat is but David Broder would have been embarrassed to bothsides that hard
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Leto: a local reporter on the Hayes program last night said the Rs were rather surprised to find themselves with a shot last summer, as Lauder super-funded Zeldin’s crime message. It was an open seat in a low turn-out election with a late primary in (probably?) the most expensive media market in the country. All the drama with Nadler and C. Maloney and SP and his shifting district and Dan Goldman vs split progressives ate up the free media attention. Zimmerman does not seem to have been a dynamic, media-attracting candidate.
Leto
@Elizabelle: maybe we would’ve been able to continue to feed school kids free lunches? Nah, it’s good for those little free loading moochers to know what it means to be “hungry”. In every sense of the word.
Congress got rid of a free lunch for all program. That means some students are going hungry
Quinerly
@Betty:
I have run into another person with the same traits…not sure about the stealing….but the same kind of outrageous, unsolicited lies. An old neighbor in St. Louis. I would cringe if I ran into him in the alley between our city homes. You never knew what was coming. Just walk up to you with some seemingly well prepared story about something at his work, a neighbor, a contractor at his house, buying a new vehicle, his dog, crime in the neighborhood, his time in the Navy, even meat specials at the local butcher. All elaborate lies. Cray, cray.
WaterGirl
@jonas: Why do you think the Squeaker can’t spare Santos? Squeaker got his vote for speaker, and that’s all he needed.
What am I missing?
WaterGirl
@sdhays: Agree.
One of the political podcasts I listen to – Jack, Pod Save America, Popehat – said that Santos can use resigning from the House as one of his bargaining chips.
If he resigns before the DOJ charges him, he loses his biggest bargaining chip.
Leto
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
There’s a reason why we don’t talk about, roughly, 150 of the Dem House members. It’s because they’re bland, vanilla, boring-as-shit/ just-get-the-work-done type legislators. Saying “they’re not dynamic” is a bullshit excuse. You had a pathological liar versus… not one. If he’s removed from office because of any of the shit he’s done, great. Otherwise it’s two years of this fuckstick and maybe his low turnout district will have enough buyers remove to do their basic civic duty.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@WaterGirl: in the chaos last week, a small handful of Rs made noises about being principled and independent— Bacon, Mace, Gonzalez, Fitzpatrick. If that trend had held, Santos became a valuable vote. There is no sign now they’ll be anything but good soldiers (Mace looks to be bucking to be the Collins of the House, making noises about her Concerns before voting with leadership), which may or may not weaken Santos’s position.
Quinerly
@Leto:
See my comment at 47. That’s exactly the way that old neighbor of mine was. I just flashed on all the crazy stories he would tell about his health and being the first diagnosed with something. He is Gay. His stories about AIDS related diagnoses and experimental treatments were fantastical and an insult to the community. Around 4 years ago, the neighborhood started making a concerted effort in shunning him. Nothing really sunk in, though.
Geminid
@WaterGirl: I think that at this point McCarthy would like to see Santos go away. Until he does, McCarthy’s gonna be asked about Santo at every press conference. Other Republicans are getting Santos questions too, and bobbing and weaving around them. It’s a very lousy way for the Majority to commence this Congress.
Sad!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
It’s not an “excuse”, it’s what I see as one of the factors in the race, like the fact that it was an open seat in an expensive market. If he’d been a super rich guy with a few million to throw into TV ads, or someone with a colorful personality or backstory that got people interested, it might have made a difference. He did what he could to tell people. He couldn’t make people care.
Matt McIrvin
@Leto: With him it clearly goes far beyond just dishonesty for personal gain–he has to be some kind of compulsive liar.
Amir Khalid
@WaterGirl:
Actually, Kevin can’t afford to let Honest George resign. If he does, there’ll have to be a special election for that House seat, and a Democrat might win. Kevin’s position as Speaker is weak as it is. The last thing Kevin wants is to be blamed for diminishing the Republican House majority from 222-212 to 221-213.
Mike in NC
It’s not Friday yet, so the House GOP still has time this week to vote themselves a healthy pay raise.
Bobby Thomson
@UncleEbeneezer: good, but what took so long?
Geminid
@Amir Khalid: This is a dilemna that cuts both ways for McCarthy. He needs that vote from the NY 3rd, but McCarthy does not need Santos sucking up messaging bandwidth while he’s trying to pursuade the public that House Republicans are changing government for the better. That’s a tough enough sell as it is.
New Deal democrat
There are major separation of powers issues here. As the Federal appellate court recently reminded Judge Loose Cannon, the investigation of crimes is a core Executive function. If the Courts should not trespass into that function, should the Legislature be allowed to?
On the other hand, under let’s say a would-be autocrat President and an A.G. like William Barr, what would be the proper method for Congress to exercise its oversight?
Most likely the DOJ is going to tell Gym Jordan to go pound sand, and then the question will be what the Courts will do, and how fast or slow they do it.
lowtechcyclist
@sab:
While I’m hardly Buttigieg’s biggest fan, his communication skills are excellent. Advantage: Pete.
Bex
@Quinerly: I know someone like that. Last time I saw them, they were still at it. Got in serious legal trouble re tall tales, but didn’t stop.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@lowtechcyclist: Also, I think the percentage of people who get screwed by an airline and think “Damn that Pete Butttigieg!” is pretty low.
Alleged reasonable Republican Nancy Mace is introducing a bill that PB should have to fly commercial until the hallowed private sector sorts itself ou
ETA: and if you’re asking yourself, “Isn’t that the one who made a pilgrimage from South Carolina to NYC to stand outside trump tower and film a tic-toc begging trump not to endorse her primary opponent?” Yes, it is.
Barbara
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Is there any reason to believe Pete Buttigieg is not flying commercial service? I know congressional reps (like Mace) often enlist the help of “friends” with private jets to fly them home, but most agency officials can’t get away with doing that.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I assume cabinet secretaries use gov’t planes on official business (see FoxNews fail to make a scandal-– I admire the way PB subtly conveys anger), I don’t know if security concerns keep them off commercial flights all together
kindness
Republicans don’t know what guardrails are. Or at least they refuse to recognize what most of us think they should be. That the Republican leadership has made plain they intend to go after the DOJ in order to muddy the waters/interfere in investigations that reflect poorly on Republicans & Trump, is just odd. We all know the DOJ will tell them to pound sand, and I figure Republicans plan to use that to try and make the the DOJ look bad. It should never fly but with our esteemed MSM and Fox News, it’ll work with most Republicans. How the rest of us take it we’ll just have to wait and see.
Our MSM is going to be the death of our representative democracy.
Jeffro
Exactly this. I didn’t get WBF’s metaphor. It’s not technically – or in any other way – true that both parties are quietly becoming less extremist.
Dems are unified and are pushing policies that are supported by solid majorities of Americans (in some cases, surprisingly large majorities). Republicans are taking performative assholery and running cover for trumpov to new levels.
Jeffro
@rikyrah: good for Rouse!
He ran hard on protecting abortion rights and won easily. VA GOP, please ignore this very obvious lesson and proceed with your nuttery as usual.
Leto
@Quinerly: I think every community has members like that, I know the military does. It’s sad, we recognize the bullshit, and we treat them the same.
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
And we’ve come back around to my original comment. /shrug
@Matt McIrvin: yeah, compulsive liar in addition to: where did his money come from? They’ll probably deep dive on that, and it’ll be interesting to see what everyone turns up.
dww44
@gene108: I think you’re right. Yesterday evening after the reporting of the second batch of classified docs found at Biden’s Delaware residence, my waffly sister texted that it was time for Biden to “go”. I surely hope that he has a good explanation for this sooner rather than later.
What often so damages us is an unwillingness to come out asap and explain and clarify. Out of a fear of over reacting we often don’t react timely enough
Quinerly
I am just heartsick over Jeff Beck’s death. Lots of great pieces on line with remembrances, pictures, video, music. Johnny Depp was at his bedside when he passed away from bacterial meningitis. The Howler Monkeys are screeching he succumbed to the Covid vaccine (no word from anti vaxxers Clapton and Van Morrison) and keep fuckingvwith his Wikipedia page.
Had the pleasure of seeing Jeff Beck about 5 years ago. One of my top 5 shows ever. I was so excited about going to the show since I am huge fan but had never seen him. I was telling my much younger male neighbor how excited I was. He kept looking at me oddly…then finally interrupted me to say, “Kathy, his name is Beck. He just goes by that.”
I still laugh when I think about that. Young hotshot 20 something mansplaining to Grandma. When I recounted the story later I said if you don’t get “it” please don’t make me explain it to you. I’m not sure we can even be friends.
Amazon Prime Music streaming some great stuff. I actually think it has changed up the playlist and order from the last time I said, “Alexa, play Jeff Beff.”
Matt McIrvin
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
100% of them are huge Bernie Sanders fans.
WaterGirl
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: That makes sense. Sadly
Good soldiers in this republican party can all go to hell.
WaterGirl
@Geminid: Works for me!
WaterGirl
@Amir Khalid: That makes sense, too.
Princess
@Quinerly: I knew someone like that in grad school. Compulsive, endless lying. So bizarre. But I don’t think she ever was dishinest in the sense of defrauding people or stealing things the way Santos seems to have been. To me that makes Santos’s issues quite different but IANAE.
apocalipstick
@Amir Khalid: As a retired teacher who had a science fiction elective, I cannot upvote this enough.
J R in WV
I told some fabulous (as in false and fantastic) stories about my summer experiences, but that was in maybe the 3rd grade? and I was trying out my fiction making toolset. I grew out of it by the next summer vacay.
Honest George not so much ~!!~1
ETA to remove some brain fart text…
The Thin Black Duke
What I’m afraid of is what the GOP is trying to do is drive Hunter Biden to commit suicide.
Quinerly
@Princess:
I don’t see how these people hold jobs. In the case of my old neighbor, Chris, he didn’t. Ran through about 4 careers in 10 years then was just supported by his boyfriend who was high up the food chain at Monsanto. They had probably been together 30 years when the boyfriend/husband (they may have finally married) died. Boyfriend/husband was very accepting. Mostly rolled his eyes when Chris would start up.
Quinerly
@Quinerly:
Lots of great Jeff Beck/Joss Stone streaming on Prime Music.
apocalipstick
@Mike in NC: Couldn’t take effect until after 2024.
UncleEbeneezer
@Bobby Thomson: Take this bs to somebody else. I am NOT the one.
laura
@Quinerly: here ya go!
https://youtu.be/gnVhxvomhy
Spouse and I got to sit on the sound board for the Stones at Levi Stadium in 2018 or 19. David the Sound Engineer has a giant analog mixing board and does it all by hand. He shared that he works for the Stones and Jeff Beck. He’s the man I thought of when we got the news yesterday.
cain
@sab: I can’t imagine a workplace where you have a large segment of folks who are absolutely the worst people on the planet – who are not onboard with helping with anything and are interested in chaos and personal grudges to take you down.
rikyrah
@Geminid:
Arrest his crooked azz.
CaseyL
@Princess: My BFF in high school was a compulsive, pathological liar. She caused a lot of damage; not least to my ability to trust people.
Paradoxically, though, I think that friendship also inoculated me against most forms of scams and cults . At some point in a scam or a cult, when the mark starts to suspect Things Are Not Right, the scammers/cult leaders depend on a personal version of the sunk cost fallacy – when the mark is so emotionally invested in the relationship, they refuse to see what’s going on.
Thanks to my HS experience, I don’t have that problem.
MisterDancer
And this is, I suspect, a quiet reason why top-level indictments have been sparer than many want. I suspect the DOJ has felt, since jump, they can afford no holes, no gaps, no mistakes in the paperwork and process. Everything has to be done to the exact law, as much as possible, because no matter how many they throw in jail, there are too many Fellow Travelers in power who’ll make exactly these kinds of attacks.
That is the very opposite of swift justice, I think we can all agree.
Quinerly
@The Thin Black Duke:
That’s been my thought all along. I haven’t said it out loud to anyone though.
WaterGirl
@The Thin Black Duke: I don’t know if that is something they are trying to do or not, but it’s good that Hunter Biden has a strong support system.
gvg
@Quinerly: I had a boss for about a month with this compulsion to lie. Any story you told, he had to top with something similar but better. A coworker said her mother was a nurse at a certain local hospital and he said his wife was a doctor at the same hospital. Turned out his wife was a nurse and the mother knew her. Later he said he wasn’t married when flirting with a customer after we had met his wife and 2 daughters. He could not seem to remember the lies he had already told us or didn’t care. Never seemed to think that anyone could remember or think logically or pick up a phone and ask. He got away with it at first and got the job, because people didn’t check. We weren’t used to being lied to about such easy to check things that obviously would get found out. Who sane would tell lies like that? Turns out there are a few…compulsive liars? He got fired. 17 of the other 18 employees called the owner and said him or us and told all the stories. We thought the owner didn’t believe us because he was laughing while we talked but I guess it was a wild story. Locks changed that night. Owner did believe us. Or maybe he called the other claimed references himself and found out it was lies. Something is different in the heads of people like this. Normal people at first don’t recognize them.
This guy isn’t even a normal deranged lying Republican.
One of the stories I read also made me think his whole family may be kind of crooked…the bad check story.
feebog
@Amir Khalid:
Actually, it’s likely to be 222/213 soon. Special election in VA for a vacant Dem seat. The incumbent died a few weeks after the election. So Santos resigning and his district flipping would result in a 221/214 split. Meaning McCarthy can only lose three votes on any floor vote.
Uncle Cosmo
@Quinerly: Munchhausen syndrome, y’think mebbe?
There orta be a term for someone who compulsively lies/embellishes in the course of a political campaign – but wait, there is, it’s Republican!
Quinerly
@gvg:
Mother Jones has a new piece up. Just read it.
Quinerly
@laura:
Love the story.
When I click, says “video unavailable.”
Heidi Mom
@Quinerly: I’ve been thinking of that as well, although not in terms of it being a deliberate Republican aim. But now that you mention it . . . .
evodevo
@Quinerly: I wonder if Munchausen’s and sociopathic lying are related psychologically…I’ve known both, and they seemed to be unable to quit, even when confronted.
laura
@Quinerly: give this one a try because it is so very lovely: https://youtu.be/bTBCqmBjNxk
Elizabelle
@The Thin Black Duke:
Yes. I think that is the plan.
And, perhaps, make it too painful for Biden to continue his political career. Since they cannot beat him otherwise.
I think that’s exactly what they are doing, and I despise them for it.
I am hoping karma goes medieval on Republican asses before we come to that point.
Quinerly
@laura:
Works!
Thanks!
CliosFanBoy
@JMG: Did the Gore stuff hurt in 2000? I heard a LOT from normies in 2000 about how Gore would “lie.”
CliosFanBoy
@gvg: I had a high school English teacher like that. She was mean in class so most of the students seemed to dislike her. She used to brag that she used to date our principal’s (adult) son. As it happened our Principal was my Dad’s best friend (and his wife was my Mom’s) and we used to go on vacations together. * As a result I knew the Principal’s son. So I asked him about it. All lies. (evil laugh) So the next time my teacher started bragging about dating the son I raised my hand and said “I know him. He told me you guys never went out. In fact, you weren’t even friend.” Wow, if looks could kill I’d be one dead 17-year-old. But I got a lot of high-fives from my classmates.
* side story. That’s how I read “Black Boy.” Some parent had complained about it being taught in class so the Principal brought it on a trip to read. He let me read it first though.
GibberJack
@Betty: Could be something as simple as a dweeby mediocrity wanting to be someone important. So he lies to make himself bigger. A deep insecurity that will eventually cause him, in the words of Popehat, “big boy problems”.
Santos doesn’t even have a special ability with telling lies. He was successful because our media is lazy and has a narrative to push, and a simple majority of the electorate is also lazy as well as gullible.
He proved yet again Lincoln was wrong, all you need to do is fool enough of the people enough of the time.
Burnspbesq
@UncleEbeneezer:
Depending on the responses, we could see a lot of lawyers for potential defendants subject to motions to disqualify based on conflict of interest. See D.C. Rules of Professional Conduct, Rule 1.8(e).
GibberJack
@GibberJack: I think the big thing is where the 700 grand came from. His claim it was his own money is another easily debunked lie. That’s where he will run into big boy problems.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@GibberJack: I think you’re right but I wonder (I would bet) that the people who gave it to him were a lot smarter than he, and it may be that much harder and take that much longer to find the prosecutable (if that’s a word) act.
Capri
@gvg: Folks like that might be more common than we think. There was a member of my book club like this – had a very dramatic and exciting life, or so she related. It was only after she told identical stories about someone she knew being raped by a policeman – once her granddaughter and once the niece of a friend – that it got to be too much. It was obvious that most of what she told us was made up.
Burnspbesq
@New Deal democrat:
The way this will likely play out:
(1) the committee will ask improper questions; (2) DOJ witnesses will politely decline to answer, citing their obligations under rule 6(e) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure; (3) Jordan will fulminate; (4) committee will vote to recommend contempt-of-congress charges; (5) OLC will issue an opinion saying that the questioned conduct does not amount to contempt, as a matter of law; (6) U.S. Attorney for D.C. will politely tell congress his/her hands are tied by the OLC opinion, and he/she must therefore, oh-so-reluctantly, decline to move forward; (7) Jordan’s head will explode.
Geminid
@GibberJack: “Follow the money,” especially Andrew Intrater’s. Mr. Intrater was Santos’s biggest capaign funder. He is also the cousin and “money manager” of Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg. Some people uncharitably describe Intrater as Vekselberg’s “bagman.”
Vekselberg made the news around Labor Day when FBI agents with a search warrant spent several hours at his Long Island home. They carried out a number of evidence boxes. Vekselberg is involved in all kinds of dubious activities, so it could be this investigation has nothing to do with Santos. But it also could be that the federal investigators already know where Santos’s sudden fortune came from.
Intrater’s money- if it is Intrater’s- also made its way to Lee Zeldin’s campaign for New York Governor. This may be part of why New York Republicans are now shunning Santos.
GibberJack
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: @Geminid:
Yes, follow the money. There’s got to be a trail.
Ksmiami
@WaterGirl: the GOP is cancer
...now I try to be amused
@GibberJack:
There was a character on the Red Green show who told tall tales about himself. He was the first on the beach on D-Day, that kind of thing. Everyone considered him ridiculous but harmless.
One episode was done documentary-style, with the characters individually talking to the camera. The liar said the worst thing one could be was uninteresting.
...now I try to be amused
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
“Real men test their code in production!” said a developer who is not me.
...now I try to be amused
@Ken:
That may be so, but a vote in favor of Santos wouldn’t look good. The Dems will have to regretfully give up their chew toy.
P Thomas
I know I’m late. Retired air traffic controller. Used to work at a place called a “Flight Service Station”, where we used to process “NOTAMS”. This system is not “50 to 60 years old”, has not been “neglected”, and in the 34 years I worked as a controller (1972-2006) the only time the NOTAM system went down is for the occasional “maintenance”, about 30 minutes in the middle of the night every “56 day cycle”.
So: no, this is not the FAA I started with: teletypes and paper and mountains of physical files. Since about 1985 it has been mainframes and fancy telecommunications. That kept getting better and better and smaller and smaller. The towers I worked in went from toggle switches to touch screens in about 10 years in the 90’s. The FAA telecommunications networks are huge…and run 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, with a reliability that is pretty staggering, actually.
Yes, some of the FAA buildings are old and creaky/leaky and need to be fixed. Yes, some of the telecommunications systems are probably looking a little old compared to the latest and greatest. I don’t know what went wrong with the NOTAM system the other day, but what happened was unprecedented. And, keep it in perspective: the “grounding” of the aircraft lasted about an hour. Planes in the air…stayed in the air and landed when they needed to. We had much worse weather delays and ground stops across California just in the last week due to weather. Or, the ground stops for Florida airports…or ski country airports, etc.
This has nothing to do with Buttigieg, or politics, etc. It is a complex system with thousands of moving parts, and it works very well.
The other reason “upgrades” to these systems are so difficult…is you can’t “turn off” the ATC system to install and test. The whole process is “build a little, fix a little”.
Bill Arnold
@Michael Bersin:
Jason Smith’s (Ways and Means chair) talking points about Bidenflation will soon need a reset. We’ve had 3 months of low month over month inflation, and December 2022 clocked in at minus 0.1 percent. It will take another few quarters for the year to year inflation numbers to drop to near zero. I get that guy’s constituent emails (gmail name collision); he is a lying propagandist. I mean, with lies trivially falsified, with facts and stuff.
The Consumer Price Index in the United States decreased 0.1% month-over-month in December of 2022, the first decline since May of 2020 and beating market forecasts of a flat reading.
NotMax
@P Thomas
Coinky-dinkily, also yesterday –
citizen dave
@P Thomas: This is interesting and helpful. The control systems are similar to how the regional power grids now operate (my work beat)–continuously and sometimes things are very tight. It’s not easy to make changes to the market/control engines.
Bill Arnold
@Bobby Thomson:
Kay is quite accurate. Noah Smith’s shtick is ridiculously formulaic. I don’t know that chatbots are quite up to replicating them (him, but not sure), yet, but they’re getting closer.
From a daily infosec/propaganda/eclectic newsletter put out by The Grugq (The Info Op), pithy, and not wrong:
GibberJack
@NotMax: Another coinky-dink: Southwest airlines’ scheduling system went down recently as well.
Transportation related, and Buttigeig got heat from that too.
A nation’s transportation system is an excellent target, any disruption damages the economy and credibility in the agency and people tasked with running it.
Not saying these are attacks but as Ian Fleming wrote, once is happenstance, twice is coincidence and the third time is enemy action.
Bill Arnold
@Burnspbesq:
I’m impatient. Perhaps we can cut out some of the steps.
EarthWindFire
Along those lines, am I the only one who thinks the Biden classified documents were planted after this time? The Rethugs said that about the 350+ Mar-a-Lardass documents and we know they’re all about projection. I also find it hard to believe that Obama era documents are only being found now. Something feels hinky here.
I hate being this paranoid. I don’t know how Republicans do it without going cra…oops, never mind.
wenchacha
@EarthWindFire: It’s conceivable that any POTUS might accidentally keep classified records. Not sure how much it has happened in the past. I’m not clear on how files that must have had some sort of record of In and Out of Archives were missing all that time. God knows, tfg never found ’em.