CONFIRMED: Nancy Abudu to the Eleventh Circuit.
She’s spent a majority of her career as a civil rights lawyer defending the rights of all Americans, and she will be the first Black woman to ever serve on this court.
An invaluable perspective. pic.twitter.com/CyNCYkXEMf
— Senate Judiciary Committee (@JudiciaryDems) May 18, 2023
The ancient & semi-honorable Friday News Dump tradition has me waiting to post about several breaking stories, not least (*sigh*) Senator Feinstein’s terrible situation. Meanwhile, here’s a post suggesting that some of the not-completely-insane ‘conservatives’ are steeling themselves for four more years of Biden, followed by… well…
Jill Lawrence, at the Bulwark, “13 Ways of Looking at Kamala Harris: Is it time to reset how you think about the vice president?”:
KAMALA HARRIS WAS AMONG FRIENDS at the annual fundraiser gala for EMILY’s List this week. Her smile dazzled as she talked of the “many joys” of being vice president, and her tone was by turns disbelieving and resolute as she described “book bans in this year of our Lord 2023” and “extremists” planning to go national with attacks on legal abortion, voting rights, gay rights, black history lessons, and more. Addressing a hall packed with cheering, applauding women, Harris said she and Joe Biden have been fighting to uphold and protect “hard-won rights and freedoms” for two years, “and now we need to finish the job.”
Is this focused, confident Kamala Harris the one we’ll see for the rest of the 2024 campaign?…
1. She seems like she’d be a fun friend. You can tell from watching her explain how to brine a turkey in a video recorded two days before Thanksgiving 2019 that went viral a year later, when she was vice president-elect. The clip shows Harris seizing the moment—a 90-second commercial break before going live on MSNBC—to answer questions from Washington Post columnist Jonathan Capehart’s husband, Nick…
2. A week after that seemingly carefree turkey tangent, Harris ended her presidential bid. It was a mercy killing for a mismanaged and unconvincing campaign. She had a divided, publicly unhappy staff, shifting positions on key issues, and no compelling rationale for why Democrats should nominate her.
3. Nevertheless, in June 2020, after George Floyd was murdered, I wrote that Biden’s choice came down to then-Rep. Val Demings, the former police chief of Orlando, Florida, or then-Sen. Harris, a former California attorney general and San Francisco district attorney. The idea was that either of them—gun-owning women of color who, like Biden himself, had taken incoming from all sides of the public safety debate—could credibly lead a national project to address racial inequities in policing, criminal justice, and more. I had moved on from the debate unpleasantness. Turns out Biden had, too…
7. The Senate Democrats’ “most acute questioner,” as New York Magazine once called Harris, earned the title by grilling attorneys general, Supreme Court nominees, and a Homeland Security secretary. Imagine her as an aggressive attorney general in a Biden administration or a hard-charging Senate Judiciary Committee chair in a Democratic Senate. Instead, as Biden’s understudy, she drew thankless, unachievable tasks such as getting a voting rights bill through a stalemated Senate and delving into the root causes of surging immigration. She was sent to countless foreign countries where she sank out of sight. She might make a better president for having done all that travel and met all those leaders…
8. Biden’s 2024 announcement video last month showed Harris more than a dozen times. MSNBC host Stephanie Ruhle asked Biden in a May 5 interview, “What are you trying to tell us?” He responded with explicit praise: “Vice President Harris hasn’t gotten the credit she deserves. She was attorney general of the state of California. She has been a United States senator. She is really very, very good. And with everything going on, she hasn’t gotten the attention she deserves.” That was the same day Biden and Harris posted a widely roasted, somewhat goofy photo of themselves going out to lunch together…
10. Was she ever as bad as she seemed? “I’m becoming slightly skeptical of the major narrative about Kamala Harris being so awful,” Mona Charen reflected recently. “Maybe it is time for a reset. Honestly, she has in the past given competent speeches. We’ve all seen her perform far better than she has in the vice presidency.”…
Here’s a fourteenth way to look at Kamala Harris: After a rocky start, maybe she’s found her footing.
You didn’t like switching from steak to salad either, or going to the gym, but it was essential for your survival and you’ve managed to adjust. Maybe those of us who still hope the GOP can be reclaimed from the Freedumb KKKrazies need to suck it up and work to get Biden re-elected.
Don’t know if Lawrence’s arguments will have any influence with her audience… but given the political arc of our own Blogmaster, we can’t reject reformed Republicans too indignantly, assuming they’ve really changed their bad habits.
For two years, President @JoeBiden and I have fought to uphold and protect the fundamental freedoms of the American people.
We have stood together defending freedom and democracy, civil rights, human rights, and women's rights.
And now, we need to finish the job. pic.twitter.com/ke17WfxMLv
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) May 18, 2023
![On The Road - way2blue - Magdalena Island, Chile [March 2023] 4](https://balloon-juice.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/5E-Magdalena-Island-12-March-14-80x80.jpg)
On The Road – way2blue – Magdalena Island, Chile [March 2023]
Manyakitty
I’m almost afraid to see what today’s news dump will hold. At least it’s the end of the week. Whew. That took ages.
eclare
Thanks for the link to the article.
John S.
I’ve been out of the country all week on business and not really able to follow what’s going on with the debt ceiling.
So give it to me straight fellow jackals, how are things looking? Is Biden going to give in to the terrorists and their demands, making the same mistake as Obama?
OzarkHillbilly
Not just US police:
Suffering from dementia, 95 yo, 5’2, 95#s, walking with a walker and a steak knife. How terrifying.
Shalimar
Feinstein’s situation is horrible and I wish Democrats could appoint a replacement to the Judiciary Committee if she retired.
In possibly related wishes, I hope McConnell gets what Feinstein has and lives with it for another decade, fully aware and in constant pain.
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
@OzarkHillbilly: She had a steak knife and all those tough cops could not calmly talk to her and immobilize her arm long enough to make her drop it. Oh my fucking god those poor brave cops /snark
I’m 61 and in poor physical shape and could have probably wrested it away from a woman in her 90s…
eclare
@OzarkHillbilly:
Don’t most people fall when they are tasered? Seems like this injury was totally predictable.
OzarkHillbilly
@EmbraceYourInnerCrone: I think they were in a hurry to get back to their sitcom.
@eclare: I think that was the plan all along.
ColoradoGuy
@eclare: Yeah, that’s kind of the point of Tasering. Full-body convulsions, an immediate fall, loss of bladder control, and not getting up until the Taser is turned off. That’s what it’s designed to do.
Risk of heart attack is not zero.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone😊😊😊
snoey
@OzarkHillbilly: Why do they always think think that these situations have to be resolved now? Just keep clear and wait it out.
JWR
The Dodgers really stepped in it this time, all to appease Bill Donahue’s tender, one might even say snowflake-like sensibilities. Oh well, they asked for it.
The Sisters letter of response.
Betty Cracker
@Shalimar: It is terrible for many reasons, including that this is an ignoble end to an otherwise remarkable career. Some people just don’t know when to leave the party.
But no matter how awful and pathetic the situation, Feinstein’s aides need to wheel her ass onto the floor and make sure she pushes the correct button to register her vote, and they should be as shameless about it as Repubs were when they wheeled drooling, incoherent, incontinent Strom Thurmond into the chamber for that same reason.
Repubs will not let Dems seat a committee replacement if Feinstein resigns. It shouldn’t be up to them, but because the U.S. Senate is a dysfunctional mess and a pit of vipers, that’s a fact. We need judges confirmed, and if Thomas or Alito kick the bucket, Biden needs to be able to confirm a replacement. None of that will be possible without Feinstein. It sucks, but here we are.
Princess
I think Harris would be a fun friend. More to the point, I think she’d be a good president who would share my values. I think she’s been behind a lot of what I most have liked about the Biden presidency.
Where I am more uncertain is her political skills, and that says more about our shallow need to be won than her abilities. Her short primary run was not good. But we forget that she and Biden basically didn’t campaign in 2020 because they were being responsible citizens who weren’t trying to kill us. She’ll get a ton of exposure and experience in 2024. I’m going to bet she’ll surprise us in a good way.
OzarkHillbilly
From Photography for the Ocean – in pictures
Wow. Just wow.
JWR
Lol! ;)
eclare
@Betty Cracker:
Abso-fucking-lutely. Make sure she knows which button to press.
Jesse
@Betty Cracker: my understanding is that, if Feinstein were to retire today, Newsom can simply name her replacement immediately. There’s no approval needed for the replacement.
Maxim
@Jesse: Yes, but that doesn’t mean her replacement would be given her spot on Judiciary. Or that the GOP would allow anyone (except Sinema) onto the committee in her place.
Anne Laurie
Newsom can replace her as a Senator, but he can’t put the new Senator on the Judiciary Committee. And the Repubs have flatly & gleefully announced they will not permit any Democratic replacement before the 2024 election.
JWR
Lindsey’s off his meds again.
And Rudy’s on too many.
OzarkHillbilly
I learned a little more about Billie Jean’s history. She is well aware of what electric shock is and what it does to her.
A couple years ago my wife bought a couple electric fly swatters. I found myself flailing at about a dozen of the little bastards and thought I would teach them all a lesson. I happily went about Zap Zapping them with great joy. About 5 mins into my safari I realized BJ was not at all amused and that she grew more and more agitated with each and every snap of electricity. So I walked over to the DR table and put it down there. When I turned around BJ was no longer in the room. I found her on our bed with every muscle just aquivering. I laid down with her for least 5 mins before she finally settled down and when I got up she shot for the front door. When I opened it for her she found her way to my utility trailer and crawled under it where she remained for a half hour.
This poor sweet girl went thru hell before we got her. I guess I’m gonna have to by an old fashioned fly swatter.
Jesse
@Maxim: good point. But in the vote to seat the replacement in the judiciary committee, doesn’t the replacement also have a say? IOW can Rs actually block the majority Ds from staffing the committee as they please (subject to informal constraints like seniority)? Or even: OK, maybe the replacement doesn’t get that seat. But Ds can nominate some other D for the seat, in line with seniority constraints.
Manyakitty
@OzarkHillbilly: OMG 😳. No fair making me cry first thing in the morning. That poor baby — so glad she ended up with you.
eclare
@OzarkHillbilly:
Awww…poor thing.
Betty Cracker
@Jesse: Apparently it takes 60 votes in the Senate to seat a replacement, so yeah, Repubs have us by the short hairs.
HinTN
@OzarkHillbilly: Yeah, Medusa indeed! That one and the blue wave were amazing for their color and composition.
OzarkHillbilly
@HinTN: The blue wave was my 2nd favorite.
VeniceRiley
Sitting here is jolly olde England getting a cut and color in my Kamala Harris for the People campaign tee and a Karl Strauss Brewery hat and a MARVEL hoodie.
zhena gogolia
@John S.: What are his alternatives, given that the Republicans won the House? Please be specific.
Jesse
@Betty Cracker: didn’t know that, thanks.
JPL
@Shalimar: Mitch could promise to allow a replacement, and then say whoops, changed my mind.
satby
@Shalimar: It’s been reported several times that the Republicans say they’ll block any replacement the Dems try to name to the Judiciary commitee. And then nobody gets confirmed.
And in the meantime, the
sagecrank from Vermont hasn’t voted to confirm several of Biden’s appointees. Odd no one is talking about that.JPL
@JWR: OMG That would insure that the homophobes vote for him.
Betty Cracker
@Jesse: I only found out about it recently due to the Feinstein situation. Prior to that, I assumed the majority party could staff its own committees because why would it work any other way in a democracy? But it’s the U.S. Senate, a thoroughly ridiculous organization, so of course there’s no logic to its functions.
bbleh
@John S.: I see 3 possibilities. The most likely is that some messy, unsatisfying compromise will be reached in which everybody wins some and loses some, Republicans maybe winning a bit more, and which the parties will characterize differently, Republicans as a Total Win and Democrats as a necessary compromise, leading to the usual capering like drunken orangutans on the part of the former and moping on the part of the latter. The more pleasant but unlikely one is that Democrats, with McConnell’s tacit concordance, pull some legislative jiu-jitsu, eg by taking up the House’s bill, gutting it and replacing it with something resembling whatever comes out of Sunday’s meeting but more favorable to Dems, passing it and sending it back to the House to jam the idiots, and ultimately having it, or something close to it, pass, with some Dem votes and with McQarthy publicly complaining but privately assisting in order to avoid meltdown. The very unpleasant and less unlikely one is McQarthy going full Freedumb Caucus, making demands they know Biden can’t accept, and then complaining loudly about the Dems as everything starts to burn. In the first case, we do not have a market crash, in the third we do, and in the second it will remain on a knife’s edge.
bbleh
@Shalimar: @satby: it has also been reported that Lindsey — the Ranking Member on Judiciary — has said he would object to any CURRENT Senator being named as replacement, but if Feinstein resigned and her replacement were named, he would not. Whether you can believe the story, or him if the story is true, is an open question.
Cameron
@JWR: WTF? Rudy wants to send all these perps who are dancing through his head off to Four Seasons Total Landscaping gulag?
Betty Cracker
@satby: Which appointees is cranky Green Mountains grandpa blocking? I read something the other day about him threatening to block HHS appointments who won’t commit to lowering drug prices but have not heard about specific nominees blocked.
Another Scott
@Betty Cracker: +1
I still remember Thurmond serving as President Pro Tempore in the Senate, doing some routine business, and his aid sitting behind him saying, loud enough for the mic to easily pick up, “without objection it’s so ordered”, and Thurmond repeating it. The cycle happened several times…
We need her vote. End of story until things change.
Grr…,
Scott.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@JWR: I read the two quotes from Graham and Rudy and they were so detached from reality that I didn’t know what to say. So I went to take my shower, and now I still don’t know what to say. I think they may believe this.
satby
@bbleh: And no one trusts Lindsey, so DiFi stays.
Plus, anyone who’s ever dealt with a parent with dementia knows how hard it can be to convince them they aren’t able to do things any longer. The elder abuse is all down to Republicans refusing to let anyone take her place because they’re hoping she dies or becomes completely incapacitated first.
Ken
It would be a nice change from the ditzy, hesitant Harris we saw during the 2024 campaign. /s
(Do I really need the snark tag?)
Dorothy A. Winsor
We met with our financial advisor yesterday, and I asked whether they thought the debt ceiling was going to be breached and the markets would crash, etc. They claimed they weren’t worried. I don’t know what to make of that.
satby
@Betty Cracker: I’ll have to look up individual votes… TBC later. But honestly, would anyone be surprised?
There go two miscreants
Here’s something that I have no qualms about regarding as good news this week:
(from FTFNYT via LGM)
Betty Cracker
@Another Scott: I read something years ago where Chelsea Clinton described being seated next to Thurmond during a fancy lunch. She said he kept telling her the key to longevity was to never eat anything bigger than an egg, lol!
narya
@bbleh: I don’t believe him.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@satby: But how long can this go on? 2024 is a long way away for Feinstein.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@There go two miscreants: I read about that. To my delight, Gietzen spent a lot of money trying to stop a vote in favor of abortion rights. When asked about it, he said he’d spent enough that he had to delay repairs on his Cessna. That would be the one that crashed.
Timill
@bbleh: In the House there is also the discharge petition to get a clean increase to the floor.
Outside the House:
Take the 14th. This is Constitution and the limit is only statute.
Mint the coin. Don’t see this happening, when there are other things available
High interest bonds – with a face value of (say) $500 but paying (say) $100/yr interest. At current rates these would sell for about $2000 but only the $500 counts against the debt.
Consols – these have no redemption date or value, but pay interest ($100 again) in perpetuity. Again, sell for $2000 but no impact on the debt.
Something I’ve forgotten…
I think consols are the way to go – as legal as any other bond, but actually reduce the debt if used to replace redeemed bonds.
satby
@Dorothy A. Winsor: He wouldn’t be the only financial guy in denial. This debt ceiling crisis has repeated too many times but been averted at the 11th hour. So the people with clout who should be eviscerating the Republicans for threatening default have become complacent that it will never happen. And that’s not good.
Spanky
Actual WaPo headline this AM:
Without hyperbole, so far as I can tell.
OzarkHillbilly
I had a 2nd incident yesterday that left me enraged.
I was sowing zinnia seeds in my upper flower bed when I heard a woman’s voice at the top of my drive. I could see a car parked there thru the trees and started walking up to see if she needed help (on the way I thought, “This is where the 2nd Amendment assholes get their guns because you just “never know.” I get to the top and find a very distraught young black woman in an Amazon vest standing next to her little white coupe that she was making deliveries in. She is trying to talk to her dispatcher but the phone keeps cutting out. She’s not sure she’s in the right place and even less sure of where she goes next. I look at the 2 packages on the ground and see they are addressed to my wife and reassure her that the packages belong to us.
She gets even more distraught, almost a full blown panic attack with tears running down her cheeks and I realize she is certain that sooner or later some boss cracker with a gun and a hat full of fear and hatred for black people is gonna take a shot at her.
I said, “You’re in a safe place here. You’re in a safe place here. You’re in a…” ad nauseum.
She hangs up her phone and goes into a venting of all her pent up fears and the unfinished thoughts that come with them, just spilling out onto the ground between us. This went on for several minutes and I just let her get it out.
After she settled down a little bit, she said “They just don’t care about us.”
“No they don’t” I said.
“They just don’t care.”
I said, “Fuck ’em. What you need to do is drive down this road about 4 and a half miles, take a right on 185, and go north till you hit I-44, and then drive to your safe place.”
A few more tears and another rant or 3, she got in her car, backed out of my drive and headed home. I hate what this country is doing to us, especially the vulnerable.
Scout211
Gym Jordan’s FBI “whistleblower” hearing yesterday was yet another clown show. Jim Jordan Freaks Out When Dem Confronts Him With House Rules
rikyrah
@Shalimar:
The GOP has already said that they won’t allow a replacement on Judiciary if she resigns.
That means no more judges, which is unacceptable😠
There go two miscreants
@Dorothy A. Winsor: If you are taking monthly or quarterly withdrawals from an IRA or other tax-deferred plan, you may want to hold enough in cash in that account to cover the next 6 months or so. Especially so if you’re at the age where the withdrawals are RMDs.
Personally, I did my (miniscule, in the scheme of things) bit to help hold out against the debt ceiling by accelerating my RMD, taking the full year now and thus paying the tax withholding to the Treasury now.
Another Scott
@Timill:
Google tells me that the Treasury issued consoles in 1877.
Interesting.
Cheers,
Scott.
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: You’re such a good guy OH.
And that poor woman wasn’t wrong. I hope she quits that job.
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
rikyrah
There are different rules for if the Senator from California resigns vs if she dies.
If she resigns…THE GOP DOES NOT HAVE TO ALLOW A REPLACEMENT FOR HER ON THE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE.
rikyrah
@Scout211:
Is this the one being paid by Patel?
Dorothy A. Winsor
@satby: What satby said
JPL
@OzarkHillbilly: That is so sad, but you are right. A lot of people don’t care.
bbleh
@Timill: Re the discharge petition, I don’t give it much of a chance, because it would be a very public defeat for the Republicans which would mean any Republican who voted for it would be cast into the Outer Darkness forever (and maybe have their house firebombed) and I don’t see any of them being willing to do that. And as to the various workarounds — the coins, the bonds, the 14th Amendment — for the WH even to start down one of those paths would shut down all negotiations immediately, which means they’ll do it only if negotiations are dead for some other reason, and in that case everything will have started burning anyway, which is what we should be trying to avoid.
Geminid
@Timill: The discharge petition might be the mechanism by which this problem gets resolved, but it is unlikely to produce a “clean” debt ceiling raise. Republican defectors will likely hold out for token or more substantial cuts, and/or permitting reforms for energy projects.
My understanding is that the the legislation underlying the discharge petition does not include a debt ceiling raise at all. The idea is to amend Rep. DeSaulnier’s bill with a debt ceiling increase if it surmounts procedural hurdles and makes it to the House floor. The new language would have to be accepted by the both Republican defectors and the Democratic Caucus (and also the White House).
There would need to be a parallel agreement by 9 Republican Senators as well, because the bill has to pass in that body. This will be like a legislative Rubic’s Cube, but stuff like this is often done by Congress, although usually for lower stakes.
Jeffro
The Biden campaign is really leaning into having Harris as VP – GOOD. Good on the merits and smart politics.
Full steam ahead, non-crazy party! We’ve got a
mango menacejob to finish!!OzarkHillbilly
@satby: She did. She had mentioned she had a couple more deliveries to make but headed for the highway instead.
Jeffro
@JWR: not even every good deed I have ever done in my entire LIFE has earned me enough good karma for us to face a DeSantis/Huckabee ticket in ’24. Not even close.
Good lord. If DeSantis/Huckabee and trump/Greene go at it for the next 18 months, Biden/Harris might break the 400 EV mark.
JWR
@Scout211:
I enjoyed my jaw hitting the floor when gym shorts Jordan said this:
I’ve seen the video, and Gym shorts was shaking. The GOP clown show isn’t sending their best. Unless this is their best. ;)
Kristine
@OzarkHillbilly: Hoping there’s a Hell with a special place for people who torture animals.
Jeffro
@Shalimar:
@rikyrah:
Biden should just appoint an “acting” replacement on the Committee and watch wingnut heads explode for days. Fuck ’em.
lowtechcyclist
@snoey:
My frequent thought too. This case is one of the more egregious ones, but so often a situation is in the news where the police killed or wounded a person in a situation where all they had to do was sit tight and keep an eye on the person.
kalakal
@OzarkHillbilly: 👍👍👍👍👍👍
Kristine
@VeniceRiley: Sounds like All The Fun!
Scout211
Yes. The three “whistleblower” witnesses received money from Patel. One said it was a “donation” and Goldman then asked if he was a non-profit. He said no. 🤣
Geminid
@bbleh: Republicans who intend to retire anyway are the likelier prospective defectors. Also, Reps. Valedeo (CA) and and Newhouse (WA) have already survived impeaching Trump, and a vote to increase the debt ceiling won’t hurt them as much. They are in “jungle” primary states, and it might even help them. I think Rep. Fitzpatrick (PA) is another possible defector.
None of these Republicans are going to sign the discharge petition until the last minute, though.
Baud
@JWR:
If a Dem had pulled that, it would be leading the national news.
Omnes Omnibus
@Jeffro:
Biden has no power over the inner workings of the Senate.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Scout211: Goldman is a gem. I think this is his first term in the House. Let’s keep him.
Geminid
@Scout211:
Goldman: “Did you receive money from Kash Patel?”
Witness: “He gave me a donation.”
Golman: “A donation?”
WItness: “Yes.”
Goldman: “Are you a charitable organization?”
I usually don’t watch video, but Rep. Goldman’s terse, deadpan questioning is something to see.
Betty Cracker
@Scout211: I’m so glad Rep. Goldman is in the House. He’s done stellar work on these committees. Goldman politely but thoroughly pantsed Matt Taibbi and the other dude who showed up at the “Twitter files” hearing.
Geminid
@Betty Cracker: I still crack up when I think of the exchange between Goldman and Marjory Taylor Greene last month:
Greene: “Point of Personal Inquiry!”
Goldman: “There is no such thing.”
Elizabelle
Good morning, jackals. Here is what I want to know (without having done the research — no coffee yet):
HOW precisely can Senate Republicans refuse to seat a Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, if Dianne Feinstein’s seat becomes vacant through resignation (or even death)?
That sounds bonkers, and yet we are told that is why Feinstein must be propped up, as long as she breathes.
Is it because those seats are set at the time a new Congressional (or Senate) session commences?
I wish we Americans, their alleged bosses, could have a say in the Senate “rules”, a lot of which were developed to stymie the voters’ best interests and preferences.
eclare
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Wow! Talk about karma!
opiejeanne
@There go two miscreants: He spent $120,000 trying to force a recount in the election in Kansas that rejected the “Value Them Both” anti-abortion initiative, rather than putting that money into his Cessna to make it safe to fly. He could only fly it from an unregulated airfield.
Elizabelle
Ah. Scanning this thread from the bottom up, and I see others have been wondering the same thing. Thank you!
Off to brew some coffee and catch up.
OzarkHillbilly
Words fail.
eclare
@OzarkHillbilly:
That poor woman. Just trying to make a living.
Soprano2
@OzarkHillbilly: OMG, that is so awful. As if she was a danger to them in any way. This fear fear fear training of police needs to stop!
opiejeanne
@bbleh: The House Republicans told McCarthy yesterday to stop negotiations, so I’d say they’re dead right now.
Elizabelle
Why can’t Bill Donahue fly himself into the ground?
I had no sympathy for the late anti-abortion crusader. Public service death, if you ask me. Thanks, Cessna!
eclare
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
He was very impressive in the first impeachment. Yes this is first term.
Interesting tidbit: he is one of the wealthiest members of Congress as he is an heir to the Levi Strauss jeans fortune.
rikyrah
@OzarkHillbilly:
You are good people
OzarkHillbilly
@rikyrah: My wife might disagree. ;-)
bbleh
@opiejeanne: I don’t think so — that was just the Freedumb Caucus, not all of them, and I think it’s about 2/3 posturing and 1/3 pressure.
@Geminid: only way I can see it is if McQarthy secretly approves some of them doing so and then complains angrily when it happens to save face. But (1) it would require threading a very fine needle — it would need pretty much every Dem plus some Republicans willing to be scapegoats — and (2) as you note, by then things would already have begun to burn, and I can easily see McQarthy deciding in the moment just to let them burn and let Biden take the blame. I don’t at all buy the “moderate Republicans to the rescue” scenario by which it would pass with a substantial bipartisan majority of the House; the Republicans are just too far gone, and in any case I think they believe (correctly imo) that a meltdown would hurt Biden and the Dems more than them.
Soprano2
@satby: *sigh* This is my future with my husband, and I’m not looking forward to it. My hope is that when the doctor finally tells him to stop driving he’ll agree and I won’t have a problem with him. Until then, there’s a GPS hidden in his SUV. *sigh* (We had to remove the car from my grandparent’s house to get my grandpa to quit driving.) I’m still waiting for the neuro/psych and MRI people to call me. I had to call the doc’s office because it’s been over 2 weeks, and they said to call them if I hadn’t heard anything by then. This is going to be a struggle, isn’t it?
Kay
@opiejeanne:
Hmmm. The Ohio effort to block a referendum on abortion (which seems to be run 100% by the Catholic Church) is using “Protect Them Both” – I suspect they’re stalking me personally because I’m active in a group that helps women.
I’m so pleased these churches don’t pay taxes so they have funds to run Republican political campaigns. Just thrilled about that.
Geminid
@opiejeanne: I think that was the Freedom Caucus, not all House Republicans, who demanded that McCarthy stop negotiating. There probably are an equal number of caucus members who want a deal, even though they signed on to the House bill.
This conflict was predictable back when McCarthy won the Speakership, but I think it’s a going to be Republican problem. The Freedom Caucus might even try to vacate the Speaker’s Chair, but they could end up with a Speaker very different from the one they want.
Soprano2
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Until she dies or 2024, whichever comes first. Worst case scenario is that she gets sick with something that keeps her in the hospital for months. I’m so pissed, she should have retired in 2018 and let someone else win that seat. That way, her legacy wouldn’t be tarnished in this way and she could be with her family, which would be much better for her than being in D.C.
Amir Khalid
I found this on my YouTube home page: a house cat fought off a human intruder trying to get into his family home. Get Binky a medal.
eclare
@Soprano2:
Oh no, I’m so sorry. My aunt got my uncle to stop driving by agreeing to take him anywhere he wanted to go, anytime, but of course that put pressure on her to always be available.
Best of luck.
Amir Khalid
@rikyrah:
@OzarkHillbilly:
No, rikyrah is indisputably right.
Anne Laurie
Yeah, our rescue Zevon had this problem when he first came to live with us (almost 20 years ago). I checked with my Dog Guru, and she said it was a well-known ‘invisible fence‘ problem. A young or ‘high drive’ dog would crash over the charged barrier and get shocked; then, when they tried to turn around and come back, they’d get shocked again. They’d want to go home, like a good dog, and they’d be punished for trying — high on the list of a sensitive dog’s worst nightmares.
Most dogs, most of the time, would either ‘forgive’ the fence (their owners), or just stay well clear of the wire ever after (until they forgot). And the shock collars were supposed to be set at the lowest level to ‘remind’ the dog, not to actually hurt them. But people are unreliable, and a dog with the temperament to go crashing through a shock field like that is a dog who’ll never trust zippy noises again.
(FWIW, Zevon ‘outgrew’ his distaste for those noises after a couple of years with us, so Billy Jean may forget, in time.)
Another Scott
@Amir Khalid: I thought there would be video of the combat. I am disappoint.
The sleepy-eyed mugshot almost made up for it, though.
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
Geminid
@bbleh: There are no “moderate” Republicans in the House that I can see. There are purple district Republicans, though, and they’re the ones under the most pressure. I think they’ll be goners come November, 2024 anyway.
A debt ceiling bill enabled by a discharge petition will not pass with a substantial bipartisan majority. At best, there will be just enough Republicans to get to 218 votes. There may even be Democrats who dig in their heels, in which case more than 5 Republicans will be needed, like when the Infrastructure bill was passed in November, 2021.
eclare
@Amir Khalid:
Wow! Give Binky a can of tuna!
Delk
RIP Andy Rourke
59 years old.
Fuck Cancer
Another Scott
@OzarkHillbilly: Our rescue dogs would cower if they saw us getting the manual fly swatter. Our Colleen would hide whenever J would put on a belt.
:-(
It’s hard to know what triggers the wee beasties, but they remember trauma.
Good luck with Billie Jean!
Cheers,
Scott.
artem1s
No compelling argument except that she was more experienced and qualified than the do nothing Senator from Vermont.
This right here.. this is the shit we have to push back on starting now. This is almost word for word the crap the FYNYT and other Clinton hating media used to instill doubt in the minds of voters about her electability. They will declare Kamala un-electable for 2028 before this election is even started. And they will continue to use this bullshit to sow doubt about Biden’s administration. What evidence has anyone produced that she ran a terrible campaign? All I saw was someone who raised a ton of money – which was used against her by Rose Twits. And who was unable to get the MSM to take her seriously as a candidate because they were too busy worshipping at the alter of Bern and MAGAt.
They are setting up the disqualifying statements now. ‘Uh, she ran a terrible campaign so I can’t vote for her!” “She’s shrill. She’s a terrible speaker. She can’t relate to voters.” blah blah blah.
The base, the real Dem base, turned out for her in 2020 as much as they turned out for Joe.
bbleh
@Geminid: I reeeely hope it doesn’t come to this. It’s good they have the petition available, but so many things would have to go just right for it to happen. And this isn’t ladling out pork, it’s saving everyone’s bacon — particularly Biden’s imo — and that’s a harder sell.
I’m willing to take a compromise — even if we have to swallow some unpleasant stuff — over a risky play like a petition or the “workarounds.” I don’t think people really understand the consequences of even a near-default, much less an actual one.
Also, I’m stocking up on beer.
Soprano2
@JWR: If you think about it for even one second this makes no sense. If the whistleblower testimony is so compelling, Jordan should want it to be provided to the committee and made public. That they’re hiding it means it’s a nothingburger that they want to use to gin up fear and anger at the FBI.
Kay
Good. I imagine Penguin Random House has the resources to really go after them. Discovery should be interesting. We’re all about to find out that this entire “anti woke” crusade is coming out of a Right wing think tank in California.
All the ninnies shrieking about “cancel culture” were just useful idiots for the Right.
WaterGirl
@JWR: Wow. Together, do two not-quite-human beings make a whole?
Kay
@Soprano2:
It really bothers me that two of the “whistleblowers” used their positions in the FBI to thwart prosecutions of 1/6 rioters. Someone needs to clean up the FBI. They have a real problem with far Right extremists in their ranks. I’m starting to think they rarely solve these Right wing terrorist cases not because they’re incompetent but because they’re on the side of the terrorists. Like the Supreme Court, they don’t seem to be able to police their own. They need an adult to perform oversight. Out. Of. Control.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@bbleh:
What would you be willing to accept? The climate change elements of the IRA being gutted? That’s something neither we or the world can afford
Soprano2
@eclare: Thanks. One good thing is that I’ve almost always had the newer vehicle of the two of us, so I mostly drive us everywhere already. At least there won’t be a fight over that. He’s not a wanderer (my grandpa was one of those, it was horrible and he scared us a few times). He mostly stays at home, with an occasional trip to the grocery store or barber shop. I started driving him to all his appointments, which he’s still mystified by but lets me do it anyway.
Baud
@JWR:
He probably wants the child labor for his campaign.
davecb
@OzarkHillbilly: many years ago, we had a demonstration of how police use a billy-club to disarm or disable people, which was actually part of training on how to use a rifle-butt in a crowd-control situation.
Sound to me like the weapon of choice against a person with a knife: the size and heft of a short-sword, but no sharp edges so striking the assailant’s hand isn’t going to chop it off.
WaterGirl
@OzarkHillbilly: Poor sweet baby.
Soprano2
So NPR broadcast an interview with Vivek Ramaswamy this morning where he talked about making all people between 18-25 take a civics test to vote (unless they spend six months in the military or are a first responder, evidently those people don’t need civics knowledge to be permitted to vote). Of course, the interviewer didn’t ask him the obvious questions, which are a) isn’t this nothing more than an attempt by Republicans to remove the right to vote from people who mostly don’t vote for Republicans and b) why stop at age 25, why shouldn’t every person have to pass a civics test to vote? You could have examples of things TFG voters have said that show they have no idea how government actually works (just look at any Jordan Klepper video, there are plenty of examples there). Why don’t reporters ever ask these obvious questions? Why exempt people in the military and first responders other than that you think they vote for Republicans?
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Soprano2:
I’m so sorry this is happening to you and your husband.
Best of luck to you
WaterGirl
@VeniceRiley: I’ll bet there color and cut is more complicated with the hoodie pulled up!
bbleh
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): budget stuff. Less spending on some things we care about, likely including some headliner loss that would sting and that the Reps would crow about. But better than the alternative imo. A default would be both a practical and a political disaster.
satby
@Soprano2: if you can get him to sign the necessary paperwork for you to control things before he’s fully incapacitated, it would be better. We got my mother to do that; a friend had to go to court to be named guardian of her mother before another family member drained the last of her mother’s assets and left nothing for her eventual long term care needs. After a certain point if they sign things over but already are obviously impaired it goes to litigation anyway. Even congenial families can break down into warring factions under these situations.
schrodingers_cat
To everyone baying for Feinstein’s resignation
If you did not call for the resignation of senators (I am thinking of Kennedy and McCain in this century, not some distant past who were both diagnosed with aggressive brain cancers) who were far sicker than the California senator please STFU. Your misogyny and ageism is showing.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@bbleh:
While I agree it would be a disaster, I’m skeptical there would be a deal that would be both acceptable to Dems and all Republicans. Adam has speculated that there are Republicans who want a default (Gaetz, Greene, etc) not only to hurt Biden but to immediately halt all aid to Ukraine from us and our allies/partners. So, imo, it’s better to go with a workaround like consols to avert this disaster
It only takes 1 Republican to call for a no confidence vote, but still requires a majority House vote to remove the Speaker, right? Would enough Republicans support McCarthy (perhaps with some Dems) to support a deal that isn’t total victory for them to avert default, I wonder?
RaflW
@Spanky: Better headline: World watches in horror as Republicans drag US towards possible default
WaterGirl
@rikyrah: Does that mean that if she dies, the Rs DO need to accept a replacement on Judiciary? If so, do they just have to accept the newly-appointed replacement for senator?
Of they can keep saying no to the nominations until they reach the last possible person and then they have to say yes?
WaterGirl
@rikyrah: I think they are all being paid by Patel!
Eolirin
@bbleh: Permitting reform, in a way that also works for green energy projects, and the return of some unspent covid money would be fine. Much more than that is not great. And meaningful concession, rather than something that both sides would have been willing to do anyway just sets us up for more hostage taking.
Ultimately the 14th amendment solution needs to be tested in court, ideally in a way that doesn’t threaten immediate default if it fails. We need this nonsense done away with.
JWR
@Soprano2:
Where’s J. Edgar Hoover when you really do need him? ;)
schrodingers_cat
It was never about the judges. I am wondering this sudden interest in judicial appointments (which are now proceeding apace because DiFi has returned) by the BS left is to get their favorite representative who is famous for her whiteboard appointed as senator because they know she doesn’t have great odds of finishing among the first two in the jungle primary.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@bbleh: The Obama bros predicted something like this yesterday. They said Biden would try to get some budget concession that he’d have had to make anyway in a couple of months as the budget was negotiated. Once the House was in R hands, the need for that was predictable. We’ll have to see how it goes.
WaterGirl
@Geminid: This is the list we came up with in the January thread about House Republicans who got elected in Biden districts.
AZ-01 David Schweikert
AZ-06 Juan Ciscomani
CA-13 John Duarte
CA-22 David Valadao
CA-27 Mike Garcia
CA-40 Young Kim
CA-45 Michelle Steel
NE-02 Don Bacon
NJ-07 Thomas Kean Jr.
NY-01 Nick LaLota
NY-03 George Santos
NY-04 Anthony D’Esposito
NY-17 Michael Lawler
NY-19 Marcus Molinaro
NY-22 Brandon Williams
OR-05 Lori Chavez-DeRemer
PA-01 Brian Fitzpatrick
VA-02 Jen Kiggans
Maybe we need to start putting pressure on them?
schrodingers_cat
@rikyrah: Cash Patel?
Jackie
@Betty Cracker: The only *positive* from TFG’s time in office and the years following, is we’ve learned a shit load of how the government works, how it’s supposed to work; including the *inside baseball* nuances of congress.
Before TFG we didn’t NEED to learn, now to keep our democracy we HAVE to learn!
Eolirin
@Dorothy A. Winsor: We will be in a weaker position in those budget negotiations if we give up too much right now. They will not count what they get out of this as a concession in that negotiation, and so they’ll ask for even more. It’s gotta be an exceptionally small thing.
Scout211
@schrodingers_cat: Yes, Cash Patel.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Betty Cracker: @satby: he’s not blocking anybody but he didn’t show up for that narrow vote on Nancy Abudu, some are saying he ‘withheld’ support, but I don’t know if that just means he wasn’t there
bbleh
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I would not expect all Republicans to vote for ANY deal — probably not even one that gave them all they (currently) say they want, because as you say because there are some who want a disaster, to hurt Biden and to amuse their crazy constituents (and possibly themselves), and because they don’t understand the consequences and they’re just not emotionally equipped for the job. It would have to be something acceptable to “Main Street” Republicans (as currently constituted) and that some — even most — Dems could also vote against. But that would require the Squeaker (and McConnell) to sign on
@Dorothy A. Winsor: yeah, even if the deal wasn’t explicitly budget-plus-debt-limit, that was always in the background. What I think is important, and what I hope the WH holds out for, is a multi-year extension of the debt limit, to avoid another hostage situation in a year.
RaflW
@OzarkHillbilly: Wow.
In the summer of 1985, jobs were not plentiful in Connecticut. I signed up with a ‘hotshot’ type delivery company — using my own car — to just get some sort of work. My first day, I was assigned a large green steel footlocker full of documents. It barely fit in my hatchback. The delivery was to a location with no elevator.
A large steel footlocker full of paper is heavy. I lumbered that f-*er up a couple flights of narrow back stairs. Can’t recall that the receiving folks even offered a nominal tip.
I drove back to the employer, gave them back their hand truck, and said I wanted my morning couple hour’s pay in hand now, ’cause I’m out.
But the key to this story, vs. yours: I was not vulnerable. Yeah having a summer job was something important to my budget. But I lived with my folks and had three squares a day and the main risk in the short term of not having a job was my dad being a grumpy PITA.
Even in a constrained market for hires now, a lot of people don’t have good options for quitting these abusive, sub-living wage contractor jobs like amazon or uber driver.
I really appreciate your quiet witnessing and support of that young woman. I feel for her.
Eolirin
@WaterGirl: Just one thing to note. Speaking only of NY, our maps were so radically different that calling those “Biden” districts is a bit misleading. The composition of voters in most of those districts is substantially different than the ones that voted for him.
And there’s a pretty decent chance that we won’t be running on those maps in 2024. Hochul and James are suing to get them thrown out, and the composition of the court that will hear the challenge just changed to be more favorable.
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Cutting the climate change parts of the IRA is a really bad idea. I have not heard too much about this in the main stream media but Italy, Croatia, and the Balkans are getting absolutely hammered by floods. parts of Italy got 6 months of rain in 36 hours. On concrete-hard parched ground.
The wolf is at the door and we are not and may never be ready:
Brutal floods and landslides in Northern Italy, the Balkans, the Alps, Croatia, Bosnia, and Slovenia
Omnes Omnibus
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: If they had the votes, it doesn’t matter. No Senator is at every vote. Even if he withheld his vote as a performative thing of some kind, it is not the kind of thing to get worked up about. Sausage making isn’t always pretty.
Kay
@schrodingers_cat:
Kennedy only served a year from diagnosis because he only lived a year from diagnosis. He was also completely transparent about his illness and there was a recognition that he probably had just +/- 6 months to live with the brian cancer he had. It isn’t a good comparison.
I didn’t think McCain shoukd resign because I don’t care what they do over on that side. Do not care.
I think we’ll find out that Democratic leaders tried to get her to resign well prior to this latest crisis as we found out about Ginsburg when it came out that both Obama and Leahy had basically begged her to resign. This is kabuki – they have good cops and bad cops.
Craig
@OzarkHillbilly: I worked with Chris Burkard, the surfing photographer, a few years ago. His stuff is amazing. He spent the first part of his career covering the professional surfing tours. He’s funny. He said, I just got sick of flying around to beautiful, tropical beaches, and hanging out with beautiful women, and felt I’d taken every possible picture of that scene. He got some budget out of a surf magazine to start shooting surfing above the Artic Circle. He and his buddies go on pretty crazy safaris, sometimes taking surfboards on snow machines to super remote spots. Some really remarkable photography.
mrmoshpotato
@Another Scott:
What was the 1877-version of Space Invaders like? Asteroids?
Hoodie
@Soprano2: A funny thing about this is that 18-25 year olds probably know more about civics than their parents, seeing as they more recently were in high school and/or college. I can say for sure that I know a lot less about calculus and organic chemistry now than I did at 22.
WaterGirl
@schrodingers_cat: I answered a similar comment from you earlier this week. Wondering if you saw my response?
lowtechcyclist
@There go two miscreants:
What’s the old saying? Something like “I don’t wish death on anyone, but there are some obituaries I will read with great pleasure.”
schrodingers_cat
@WaterGirl: I didn’t can you link it? Thanks.
Mai Naem mobile
@OzarkHillbilly: how awful for her. I can’t imagine having that kind of stress level at a job. I am just glad you were there for her.
Kay
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I think Sanders is right that HHS should get price concessions from drug makers in return for public funding of research. They’re ripping us off. I want a reduction. That’s fair and any private money backing them would ask for a lot more and get a continuing cut. It’s a bargain for them.
Steve in the ATL
@John S.:
Is this code for narcotics distributor?
schrodingers_cat
@Kay: I was mostly referring to media bros some of them ostensibly on our side. Geriatric senators are not new but this deafening crescendo for resignation is reserved for an older woman and not men in similar positions.
Senate Turtle was not seen for weeks but we never heard from anyone insisting that he should resign.
Ailing and old senators should step down but this ganging up on a woman for behavior for which men are given a pass (hanging on to power for too long) is unseemly
Ken
Their job isn’t to ask questions, it’s to faithfully transcribe the material that the interviewee wishes to have published.
zhena gogolia
@OzarkHillbilly: She was lucky she came upon you!
zhena gogolia
@Betty Cracker: I love him. I had no idea he was the heir to Levi-Strauss. He doesn’t act like a MOTU.
Kay
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Sanders ha a specific example- a prostate cancer treatment that was funded by the US public. The drug maker wouldn’t give us, their financial backers, a discount to recoup our investment. I think we should get one. It can be figured. We know what we gave them.
dww44
Geminid
@Eolirin: I think that when people speak of “Biden districts” they’re referring to the 2020 vote totals in the various precincts that make up the new districts. That’s how analysts computed the partisan lean of the new districts going into last year’s elections.
Scout211
@Soprano2: I feel you. 😊
We we’re referred over a year ago to a neurologist who would not call back to schedule. I called the office weekly for about a month. I finally got the receptionist to admit that “Dr. X has your husband’s referral and will call you back if he decides to see him.” Essentially, “Don’t call us, we’ll call you.”
We finally got another referral and saw the new doctor a few weeks ago and he was great. It was well worth the wait. The MRI is next month.
We don’t have the driving issue because Mr. Scout is losing his vision and is not comfortable behind the wheel. I do all the driving and accompany him to all of his appointments and errands. I joke that I now have a part-time job in my retirement. But unlike many spouses or children in my (and your) position, I do feel very much appreciated.
Good luck with the referrals. I hope you can get appointments soon.
Eolirin
@Mai Naem mobile: I rather unfortunately think they have a stress level like that at more than just their job. We’ve created an environment where it isn’t safe for people like her to exist if they step over the wrong invisible boundary line.
This is what guns are doing to us, aided and a abetted by a copious heaping of endemic racism.
zhena gogolia
@Amir Khalid: One night in New Haven, my then-husband and I were up reading in the living room at 2:00 AM. First floor, windows open. All of a sudden, two of our cats leaped onto one of the window sills, and then we heard steps running away. My husband went out to investigate and found a stepladder under the window (it was a high window, even if first-floor). So we credited our cats with scaring away a burglar who probably thought the lights had been left on by people gone on vacation.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Kay: I don’t know why you keep replying to me. I was commenting on the Abudu vote. Nothing else.
schrodingers_cat
@dww44: Really, are you a psychiatrist who diagnoses people from a distance?
Elizabelle
@schrodingers_cat: Newsom had pledged to fill the seat with a black woman. That rules out Katie Porter. I think the great solution would be to appoint Barbara Lee as a caretaker Senator, and then Schiff and Porter duke it out for the 2024 Senate election. That could even have been be an impetus to Barbara Lee declaring for the Senate, to get Newsom’s attention, and put herself at the forefront, should DiFi’s situation go even more south.
One concern about Barbara Lee is just plain her age. I don’t know if California would elect another (almost) octogenarian to a full Senate term. Lee was born in 1946; Adam Schiff in 1960.
Ken
A huge Babbage engine, with over fifty tons of gearing, driven by a massive steam engine. The monochrome display was a grid of square cards which could be rotated to show either black or white.
Mai Naem mobile
@Betty Cracker: i would bet some money that the shoe will be on the other foot in the not so far future. The GOP has their lot of not so healthy looking old farts too. Also, you don’t have to be ancient to have something happen to you. BTW Mitch McConnell doesn’t sound that hot himself. His voice sound weak. I really wonder if he did have a stroke when he took the spill like the rumor was.
Eolirin
@Geminid: Yes and I’m saying that’s a dumbass thing to do when the partisan make up of the district is this different. NY-17, which borders me, does not even remotely resemble NY-17 in 2020. My own district is completely different.
You need to go finer grained than the distict level to get useful data on the current NY districts. Summing precinct level data is the only way you’re going to get something resembling an accurate accounting of partisan lean.
schrodingers_cat
I don’t think Feinstein is being manipulated by her staff and she has lost her marbles. I think she is clinging to power like many an ailing senator before her and will resign when she is ready. So all this bellyaching is useless.
Kay
@schrodingers_cat:
I disagree. I heard the same thing about Ginsburg until it came out that Obama had personally met with her to get a resignation, then all that talk just disappeared.
This is how it’s done in the private sector too. Delicately. With good cops and bad cops playing assigned roles. It would be best of course if the loved ones of these folks would take this on themselves and treat the elder with dignity by telling him or her the truth but they seem to foist that duty off on the public or co workers.
I loved my paternal grandmother. I helped take her driver’s license away- a very independent woman who had taken care of herself since she was 12 years old. She cried. But I did not want her to kill someone and have that as her legacy.
schrodingers_cat
@Kay: So people who want DiFi to resign is out concern for her and their motives are noble. Is that a good summary of the case you are making?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@schrodingers_cat: As I understand it, even if she were completely gaga, even if she slipped into a coma and the doctors said she wasn’t coming back, I’m pretty sure that short of a 2/3 expulsion vote, there’s nothing anyone can do if she won’t/doesn’t make the decision to resign. I doubt there’s a power of attorney she could give to her daughter or Newsome or Nancy Pelosi’s daughter that would make a resignation-by-proxy legal. There’s no recall for Senators. But IANAL
mrmoshpotato
@WaterGirl:
I’m gonna go with “No.” considering the lack of humanity in both.
lowtechcyclist
@Geminid:
True. All we can do is make sure it’s ready for their signatures when the last minute arrives. And it sounds like we’re doing that.
Geminid
@WaterGirl: I’m not sure those Republicans will respond to pressure from nonconstituents. Maybe groups will run ads in their districts, though. That’s often done when important legislation is at stake.
The most effective pressure will come from Republican business owners and professionals in the districts. Trade groups might organize those people..
tobie
I accept the Democratic ticket as it is. I wasn’t happy when Biden picked Harris but didn’t affect my vote. I believed Biden’s weakness is public speaking, and he needed someone who was eloquent in interviews and inspiring in large public addresses. Harris doesn’t help him there.
Another Scott
@mrmoshpotato: What’s your FAX number? I have a credenza to send you.
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
Baud
@mrmoshpotato:
An 1877 video game would be racist as fuck.
schrodingers_cat
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: This debate is academic. And Biden’s judicial nominees are passing through the committee process so I don’t see what the complaining is about. Because last week it was BUT BUT The judges…
mrmoshpotato
@Ken:
Picturesartist renderings or it didn’t happen. :)Kay
@schrodingers_cat:
No, I think they’re practical. Her loved ones are supposed to take care of her. Since they won’t, they have effectively turned this duty over to her employers who don’t love her and just want her to work. We could have let police eventually take my grandmother’s license away – they brought her home once after she plowed into shrubbery in front of a bank- but it’s not really their job to take care of my family members.
I think the Kennedy situation was unique for a lot of reasons, one of them being Kennedy was an early and important Obama backer and he was diagnosed in Obama’s first year. I think Obama might have objected to pushing him out with only a year to live, tops.
schrodingers_cat
@tobie: She may not inspire you but she is plenty inspirational to the demographic our national media doesn’t see or care about.
WereBear
@Amir Khalid: Thanks, I love those stories :)
Kay
@tobie:
I don’t think she’s a good public speaker either. I have to listen again though because I stopped early on and she may well have improved. It’s something that can be improved and she’s been doing a ton of it now.
Amir Khalid
@JWR:
Never mind J. Edgar, where’s Efrem Zimbalist Jr?
Geminid
@lowtechcyclist: I doubt that there will be 5 Republican votes for a “clean” debt ceiling increase. Democrats will probably have to hammer out an acceptable deal. I assume there are discussions going on now. Josh Gottheimer (NJ) and Brian Fitzpatrick (PA) started talking about a deal back in February.
schrodingers_cat
@Kay: Who is they? Are we even talking about the same people
I don’t think BS bros in the media who have been hounding her forever have her good at heart nor do the or the assorted clowns of MSM who love Ds in disarray stories
And for the record Ro Khanna is also full of shit.
WaterGirl
@schrodingers_cat: I was hoping you had seen it so I wouldn’t have to go looking for it. :-) I’ll see if I can find it.
Jackie
@Scout211:
“The three “whistleblower” witnesses received money from Patel. One said it was a “donation” and Goldman then asked if he was a non-profit. He said no. 🤣“
MSNBC is gleefully replaying this clip over and over – along with other gems from that Hearing 😁
Omnes Omnibus
@Geminid:
I would think that there are about 12 different things moving forward at various speeds. As we get closer and closer to the deadline, some will be abandoned and eventually it will come down to a couple of alternatives.
Kay
@tobie:
Biden is a better public speaker than he was. They used to send him to Toledo during Obama (white working class!) and he was just terrible. Always late too, which drives me fucking crazy. Like, more than an hour late. It’s obnoxious to make a room full of people – who organizers basically dragged out in the middle of the day, not easy to do- wait that long.
schrodingers_cat
@WaterGirl: Or you can just summarize what you said in that comment.
WaterGirl
@Geminid: These days, the offices cannot know where you reside based on the area code of the phone being used to make the call.
So I don’t know why outside callers wouldn’t help.
Omnes Omnibus
OT: Biden signs on to training on F-16s for Ukrainians.
The Moar You Know
@There go two miscreants: who am I to argue with what was obviously God’s will?
or shitty piloting, take your pick
@Dorothy A. Winsor: THAT is the cherry on the cake, thank you so much for that vital bit of info.
WaterGirl
@schrodingers_cat: I basically made 2 points.
First, that we have no control over what the Rs do, so your Republican example of McCain has no bearing on this situation.
As for the Dems, Kennedy’s illness was not keeping us from putting judges in place, which is one of the most important benefits of having the senate. We have to try to rebalance after all the totally unqualified piece of shit judges that Trump put in place.
In short, Kennedy’s illness was not a barrier to anything critical for the Dems.
That’s the how and why of how I think this is different.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@WaterGirl:
I recall during the ACA repeal fight in 2017, office staff asked callers for their ZIP codes and addresses, IIRC
Omnes Omnibus
@WaterGirl:
Ah, the different things are different argument.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@bbleh:
I hope if a deal is reached it’s not too bad
Kay
I’m actually a little perplexed at the constant comment that Biden has “lost a step”. Did these people listen to Joe Biden when he was VP? He was always a sort of wandering speaker who came down hard at odd points that didn’t make sense – never great at it. I think he’s actually better as both a formal speech giver and extemporaneous than he was during Obama’s two terms.
schrodingers_cat
@WaterGirl: She is back and judges are being confirmed. Its her retirement that will create a problem on that account.
Ken
@mrmoshpotato: I stole the whole idea from Sterling and Gibson’s The Difference Engine.
Maxim
GA indictments in August:
”Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis sent a letter Thursday to county Superior Court Chief Judge Ural Glanville indicating that she plans to have much of her staff work remotely for most days during the first three weeks of August and asking that judges not schedule trials and in-person hearings during part of that time. Copied in on the letter are 20 other county officials, including Sheriff Pat Labat, the court clerk and top leaders.”
(AP via TPM)
mrmoshpotato
Wow. Ghost – Phantom of the Opera (Iron Maiden cover)
Another Scott
@Omnes Omnibus: +1
RollCall:
So far, this is looking like every other normal political battle in the closely divided Congress. Sides stake out maximalist positions, there are a few quiet noises of compromise, at the last minute the far ends back down, and an agreement is reached that neither side likes that much but moves the can down the road until the next time. This could still blow up, everything can always blow up, but it looks like the US will not default.
And each side will have ammunition for their arguments that they need to win in 2024 to change things to their liking.
We’re not going to like the “deal” very much. Biden is going to hold out for as much as he can, but we’re going to have to keep our eye on the prizes and work to elect more Democrats no matter what they come up with. Pre-disappointment and getting discouraged is not the way to improve our government and society. We have to fight them every single day.
Forward!!
Cheers,
Scott.
mrmoshpotato
@Ken: Yoink!
WaterGirl
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): That may be true for 2017, but they never ask for mine, so it appears to be no longer true, or at least not universal.
WaterGirl
@Omnes Omnibus: Rotating tag!
Eolirin
@Kay: What they mean is that when he talks, he’s slightly slower at it, and his ability to project is slightly weaker than it used to be, as tends to happen with age, even if he was meandering before and is more coherent now; it’s never about the content of what’s being said, because we never evaluate that.
That would require actually knowing things.
Kay
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
I hope they don’t make a deal. I don’t know why they always do this- make a big show of not making a deal and then make one. It’s the worst possible outcome. If you’re going to make a deal make that decision at the outset so it at least looks like you’re driving the negotiation. I get that it’s a tough spot they are in but to make it worse is just inexplicable to me. I was sort of counting on Biden’s temperament- I think he’s stubborn in a good way. He sticks when he makes a decision. I’m still sort of holding out hope tht his natural tendency to be bullheaded comes thru :)
Geminid
@WaterGirl: I think the staffers ask if you are a constituent. I guess someone could research the district and say, “I’m from Fresno!” if they call say, David Valadeo.
tobie
@schrodingers_cat: I try to speak in my name only. It’s presumptuous to do otherwise. It’s astonishing to me to see the reflexive defensiveness of Harris even in the face of the mildest criticism.
Her presence on the ticket doesn’t make a difference for my vote. Still I reserve the right to be unenthused about her.
JWR
@schrodingers_cat:
You know who else I can think of whose health looks to be about two seconds from midnight? Chuck Grassley. There are times when I almost care about his health, because the media sure don’t. But DiFi? Ooo, don’t touch her! She might break!
Manyakitty
@schrodingers_cat: don’t forget that doddering fool, Chuck Grassley.
Soprano2
@satby: Luckily we did all that when we established our trusts in 2013 – 2014. The gerontologist talked to us about that, which was kind of jarring but which I understood. They want people to do it while they still can. My mom and grandma had to go to court to get guardianship of my grandfather. It was unpleasant.
tobie
@Kay: Don’t Democrats always come late for speeches? It’s annoying as hell.
Biden can be pithy when he wants to. Who can forget his line about Giuliani: “Subject, verb, 9/11”?
Omnes Omnibus
@Geminid:
They never ask me if I am a constituent, but I always start by giving my name and my city.
Eolirin
@JWR: There are consequences to being the party of trying to get things done, instead of the party of no to everything.
But yeah, this is all academic and pointless to go on about because the right time for her to resign if she was going to was prior to the 2022 elections, and things are baked in now. We just have to hope something bad enough to derail anything important doesn’t happen between now and the election.
Kay
@Eolirin:
I’ve said this before but I was impressed with Biden in the debates. He really, really knows this stuff. I’m sure it’s true in other professions too but you see it in lawyers. They just don’t have to work as hard because they know a lot.
The other debaters were working their asses off and Biden would just sort of calmly deliver a completely correct paragraph. You know it when you see it. Everyone talked about Harris’ “zinger” on bussing but Biden was exactly, down to the legal standard, correct. He understands the whole issue. He can just pull that out of his head when he needs it. He did it on immigration too. Fun to watch and made me feel good about voting for him. I thought “he’s really experienced and it shows”.
Baud
@Kay:
It’s propaganda.
Manyakitty
@EmbraceYourInnerCrone: see also, Ft. Lauderdale a few weeks ago.
schrodingers_cat
@tobie: I also only speak for myself and I find Harris inspirational. And I have also seen the reaction she gets from audiences who flock to see her speak.
If stating this is being defensive in your book, so be it
schrodingers_cat
@JWR: @Manyakitty: Agreed about Chuck G.
bbleh
@Geminid: yup. Auto dealers. Realtors. Regional bankers (!)
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I hope a deal is reached, period! (I think it’s the most likely outcome by a substantial margin, but y’never know with the Crayzee Party …)
@Another Scott: Yup!
And note to Dem politicians, next time we have a trifecta, could we please sh!tcan this nonsense once and for all? I don’t see how it couldn’t be considered relevant to a reconciliation bill given that the Reps have now tied it explicitly to the budget.
PAM Dirac
@Kay:
I’m pretty sure that the example is Xtandi, patented by UCLA. It is in the news because because there was a petition to use the march-in clause of the Bayh-Dole Act to force a price reduction. The problem with that is lawyers and even the authors of the act have said that that isn’t one of the things that the clause was intended to be used for. The deeper problem is that Bayh-Dole gives all the patent ownership and management rights to the official inventors, ie the people who got the grants to to the work. It is true that the taxpayers don’t see a dime of the patent royalties, but that isn’t because the drug company isn’t paying them, it is because all that money is going to UCLA in this case, and grantees generally. Usually whoever is paying for the work controls the patent and gets to make any conditions they want in the license agreement and gets to collect all the royalties, but that isn’t the case for federal government grants. To change that you would have to repeal or dramatically change Bayh-Dole and the people who who scream bloody murder wouldn’t be the drug companies, it would be the universities and research institutions.
Geminid
@Omnes Omnibus: Yeah, I can think of several different ways this will turn out, and a successful discharge petition is just one.
My favorite way would be a successful motion to vacate the Speaker’s Chair, followed by a reorganization of the House under a new Speaker, say Charlie Dent or Tom Reed. Turkish President Erdogan is mad at Ambassador Jeff Flake, so maybe Erdogan will kick Flake out and he can take the job!
But this general scenario is the least likely one, I think.
Eolirin
@Kay: Sure, but the electorate doesn’t generally care about that in this country. We, collectively, respond almost entirely to presentation and affect because we are a deeply uneducated uninformed country. Biden has an old person’s affect, which, you know, he’s old, he should. And it’s becoming more old person feeling as he continues to age.
And since no one, especially in the news media, knows things, that’s all there is to respond to, because the content of his words don’t mean anything to them. That part of it is given equal weight to whatever’s being said by the other person, regardless of how crazy or wrong that other person is. Who’s more correct isn’t even part of the conversation. It’s theater criticism all the way down.
Eolirin
@bbleh: As soon as we don’t have Manchin and Sinema as part of that trifecta, we’ve got a good chance of it. This would not be happening if not for those two.
Omnes Omnibus
Not arguing your point, but could you point out an educated and informed country? Human condition, not a US specific issue.
Another Scott
@bbleh: For good and bad, Congress cannot constrain a future Congress – the monsters can always do monstrous things when they get into power. That’s why we have to keep the monsters out.
Relatedly, … Reuters:
I’ve been watching the FRED graph of 10 year Treasury yields. Maybe it’s the wrong graph, but I’m not seeing any sort of panic about fears of Treasuries becoming worthless.
Cheers,
Scott.
Eolirin
@Omnes Omnibus: I could name lots of countries that are more educated and informed than us, certainly. Deeply was doing the heavy lifting in that sentence.
But it’s a relative thing, sure. And I should say, even in this country, it’s not an evenly distributed problem. There are ways to make things better, and certain parts of the country actively make things worse instead.
Our news media does not need to be like this in particular. That’s a choice that’s been made for reasons of more than just profit margins. And it actively contributes to the problem.
tobie
@schrodingers_cat: I didn’t bring up demographics. You did, and you spoke for others in the process. I’ve kept my thoughts about Harris mostly to myself because the Democratic ticket is what it is and with the Republican Party having embraced fascism Democrats need to win.
kalakal
This week in
sayingbellowing the quiet parts out loud Jacob ” the Haunted Pencil” Rees- Mogg opined on gerrymandering* whilst at the NAT-C** conference.The putrid article announced that it’s a bad idea because the Tories tried it at the last elections and it didn’t work
Mogg is dim
* He’s actually talking about voter suppression not gerrymandering. The Tories introduced voter ID and as a bonus rigged acceptable IDs for their base. eg pensioners bus passes were fine, student IDs were not. In the event a lot of confused pensioners didn’t vote
**Yep, in a master stroke of marketing the ultras in the Tory party are calling themselves the National Conservatives, instantly known to the Great British Public as the Nat-Cs
Kay
@PAM Dirac:
I think the assertiion that US customers are paying more than the rest of the world for drugs is valid and should be addressed. If they’re funding the research they should get a discount, at least equal to the amount they invested. If you make 50k a year and you’re obediently paying your taxes you should be able to get the cancer drug you helped fund to treat your prostrate cancer. I’m glad Sanders is yelling about it- someone should.
They respond to pressure too. As soon as someone in power starts yelling loud enough they magically come up with deep discounts for people who can’t afford the drugs. It works, because they don’t actually want to be regulated and giving some away is cheaper than lower prices across the board.
catclub
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I am confident that I cannot pull out all my investments right before any crash, and then also put my money back in when the recovery starts. So the alternative is just leave them in during both.
ETA: If there is no recovery then we are all dead, anyway.
RinaX
The story that was circulating about veterans staying at a hotel getting evicted to house migrants appears to be some BS.
https://www.syracuse.com/state/2023/05/story-of-veterans-pushed-out-of-ny-hotel-by-migrants-not-true-reports.html
Eolirin
@Another Scott: The most effective way congress has of putting handcuffs on future congresses are constitutional amendments. Which are obviously non-starters in the current environment, cause getting enough states to agree on anything feels nearly impossible, but that’d be the mechanism for it. If the 14th amendment thing ever has to be used and works, that’d be an example of it.
lowtechcyclist
@schrodingers_cat:
Both Ted Kennedy and John McCain were fully capable of doing their jobs, with no loss of mental acuity, until the last few months of their lives.
Feinstein’s mental acuity has been an issue for years already.
Kay
@Eolirin:
I think Biden takes a hit because he looks old. I think he’s crazy-healthy and fit so there’s not a thing he can do about it, but people are reacting to his appearance, as they do.
I actually DO think there’s somethiing he can do – he could use 20 pounds. It wil fiil out his face some and he’ll look younger :)
That’s what I would tell him. “Eat more ice cream!” He’s slender and tall which is great when you’re younger but turns into “thin and frail-appearing” when you’re old.
schrodingers_cat
@tobie: I am part of the demographic that the MSM ignores. I can and will speak for myself and point out that she is quite popular among demographics that the MSM and many leftie blogs ignore as well. I am not speaking for them but about them.
If that makes me presumptuous in your eyes, fine I can live with that. Any way I am done with this conversation.
schrodingers_cat
Biden is old, Harris is uninspiring and a bad speaker, DiFi is senile according to our progressive betters in this comment thread. With friends like these who needs Republicans.
tam1MI
I have no dog in the Feinstein fight, but Kennedy’s illness and death threw a huge monkey wrench into the effort to pass Obamacare.
Eolirin
@Kay: Hah! Probably good advice :)
schrodingers_cat
@tam1MI: Thanks for bringing that up. That has been memory holed by DiFi detractors.
Kay
@schrodingers_cat:
It’s a political blog. We discuss politics. A campaign website is something different.
Juju
@schrodingers_cat: I am caretaker of my mother who has a similar if not exact same type of dementia as Senator Feinstein. My guess is that the Senator is not clinging to power as much as she believes she is just fine. Sometimes, but not as often, she probably realizes she is not just fine, but then forgets that brief thought and goes back to thinking she is fine. As someone who is taking care of a person with dementia, it is mind boggling how fast that person can go from one thought to the opposite so quickly and then not remember a thing at all about what was just said. My mother’s dementia is a dementia where circulation issues have done some damage to the short term memory. If you don’t have short term memory, you don’t have long term memory. Sometimes something that is said will get through, but more often than not it doesn’t. It has taken my mother since July to remember the new rescue girls’ name, and that doesn’t happen all the time. One of the first clues that someone has dementia like that is the constant asking of the same question over and over again.
zhena gogolia
@schrodingers_cat: I’m totally inspired by Biden and Harris. Harris is the first female VP! First VP of color! She’s brilliant, beautiful, and has all the right values!
What is not to like?
catclub
@lowtechcyclist:
 
“Some people are like slinky’s. Not very useful, but it does put a smile on your face to watch them fall down a staircase.”
Kay
Would you guys send this to the New Yorker and see if the cancelled employees get a big article promoting how great they are?
Fat chance. Because the “anti cancel culture movement” is Right wing.
They haven’t uttered a peep about the speech bans in Florida because DeSantis only bans liberal speech. I don’t object to Right wingers being interviewed. I just wish they would admit that they’re Right wingers. This is silly. Own it! I’m out as a liberal and I’m surrounded by Trumpsters where I live.
lowtechcyclist
@mrmoshpotato:
It was an organ with a keyboard.
mrmoshpotato
@lowtechcyclist: Spleen?
tobie
@schrodingers_cat: Sorry, you don’t speak for all Indian Americans. My husband’s from Chennai. We hang out a lot with Tamils. One of our best friends babysat for Kamala and her sister when they would visit Chennai in the summer. In this one circle, I’ve seen no enthusiasm for Harris. I don’t know if this circle is representative or not.
Harris is on the ticket. I get that. I hope the Biden-Harris campaign manager is thinking about how to address (mis)perceptions.
mrmoshpotato
Chris Christie is making a 2024 presidential run?
Time to move some money into popcorn futures!
Ruckus
@ColoradoGuy:
Risk of heart attack is not zero.
Especially in a 90 yr old.
I was in the Shore Patrol for 2 months dealing with men from 18-25ish, who were often drunk, not all that in love with authority, and we had a nightstick and an SP armband. She’s 90, 5’2″ weighs less than 100 lbs, uses a walker, lives in a healthcare facility and they HAD to taser her. I’m less than impressed.
Juju
@tobie: I think the issue is that you seem to be judging the current VP by a different standard than previous VPs. It’s not as if Pence, Biden, or Cheney were awe inspiring speakers. You also seem to think no one here remembers that you make very similar if not identical comments every time the VP’s name come up. It gets old.
MomSense
@tam1MI:
As did Byrd. We couldn’t break the cursed 60 vote threshold for really good legislation like the Cap and Trade/climate change bill that passed the House. It also fucked with ObamaCare, and a lot of other issues.
tobie
@Juju: I’ve haven’t about Harris before. You must be confusing me with someone else
ETA: I’m trying not to focus on negatives but I could easily bring up TV appearances, evolving position on healthcare, stalled initiative on the northern triangle, etc. Other countries are watching. China forged new relations with Honduras in the past two years. We left a vacuum there.
UncleEbeneezer
All this handwringing, fantasizing and speculation about DiFi is just pointless. We want/need judges. So let her do her job until she drops dead, then we’ll take it from there. She’s my Senator and I wish she had retired long ago, but here we are.
We’ll get younger Senators when young people get more engaged and run for office early enough to become Senators before they are very old.
schrodingers_cat
@Kay: I have expressed my opinion not stopped you or anyone else from a political discussion.
Juju
@zhena gogolia: Thank you for that. I think she’s great as well.
PAM Dirac
@Kay:
I agree completely. I think the fundamental solution is to put the control of patents that come out of government funded work in the hands of people who are going to negotiate licenses for the benefit of the US people, rather than a specific institution. Unfortunately right now the law is that the government pays for the work and the institution that did the work gets the patent ownership and gets to negotiate the best deal (usually the highest royalty rate) for them and doesn’t have to consider the taxpayers at all. They could if they wanted to, but I’m not aware of any federal grantees that have put price breaks or controls into the licensing agreements. In my opinion the grantee institutions are every bit as much involved in any taxpayer ripoff as the drug companies and every bit as much blame and pressure should be put on them to fix the problem.
schrodingers_cat
@tobie: I never claimed to speak for anyone other than myself. Nor did I mention Indian American in my comment.
I am pretty sure (not 100%) that marrying black man in the 60s didn’t endear Kamala’s mom to strict orthdox Tamil Brahmin community in Chennai.
You don’t like Kamala, we get it.
tobie
@schrodingers_cat: Was this you?
tobie
@schrodingers_cat: Nope, the marriage had nothing to do with it. It’s never come up in conversation with our friends.
schrodingers_cat
@tobie: So where is the lie in that?
You have some Indian friends who don’t like Kamala Harris and are unenthusiastic about her. She sucks ,we get it. Moving on now.
tobie
@schrodingers_cat: You said you were part of the demographic that the MSM ignores. I assumed you meant as an Indian American. If not, I apologize for the assumption but stand by my claim that none of us is in a position to speak for anyone but ourselves. The campaign, however, has access to tons of internal polling and I’m sure will do everything they can to address what they’re seeing in the data.
Burnspbesq
@schrodingers_cat:
FURB.
Mai Naem mobile
@kalakal Nat-Cs – hahaha. Reminds me of how the proposed Antonin Scalia School Of Law at George Mason couldn’t happen.
Juju
@tobie: It’s a possibility, but for some reason your name seemed familiar to me. I’m just tired of the double standard that people seem to have in judging women harshly on superficial issues when very often they don’t judge men the same way.
I’m a big fan of the VP. Anyone who is referred to as the mean lady who made Brett Kavanaugh cry, is fine with me.
Soprano2
@Kay: You’re lucky you could do it that way, we had to physically remove the car from my grandparent’s house. It was the only way to get my grandfather to quit driving it. He could have killed himself or someone else.
Kay
@PAM Dirac:
Thank you for this information. I didn’t know any of this.
In 2000, I volunteered for a clinical trial where I donated bone marrow to a relative and also donated to a clinical trial for bone marrow stem cell research. The relative survived (yay!) and I felt really good about “advancing science” too but my father was (he’s deceased) a huge contrarian and he came to the hospital to tell me they would make a mint off this and they were ripping me off. So, really helpful visit, good job, just yelling at the nurses who had nothing to do with this and embarrassing me, but I shut him down and apologized all around. Now I think he had a bit of a point there. I don’t mind a price that covers costs – I want everyone paid, and paid well- but I do mind an investment where someone else gets all the money return over time.
Geminid
@tobie: I thought the commenter referred to the larger group of female Asian, Black and Hispanic Democrats. They all tend to be ignored by news media, which was the point being made.
Gretchen
What is this new standard that we have to be excited to vote for the VP pick? Was anyone excited to vote for Tim Kaine when Hillary picked him? Al Gore? Walter Mondale? Mike Pence?
tobie
@Geminid: In her first comment, yes. In her second comment on the subject of demographics, no.
schrodingers_cat
@Geminid: Thank you!
Old School
@lowtechcyclist:
Plus people absolutely called for Kennedy and McCain to resign when they got sick.
Or is the issue that it wasn’t the same people as now with Feinstein?
VFX Lurker
@Baud:
No need to go back that far The awful Custer’s Revenge came out in 1982 for the Atari 2600.
Kathleen
@Another Scott: Great comment. Thank you.
zhena gogolia
@Gretchen: JOE LIEBERMAN???
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Gretchen: lots of people still blame Gore for 2000 because of Lieberman; I’d be surprised if Colin Powell didn’t let it be known that summer (and in ’96?) that he had no interest in that particular bucket of warm spit, not knowing that Cheney/Rumsfeld would make his dream job worth even less than that; I think Harris helped Biden, and that trump needed Pence back when people like my fundie-Catholic cousins didn’t trust him (we don’t discuss politics, but I suspect they wrote in somebody else in ’16 and voted happily for him in ’20 based on the SC). I know my tax-obsessed aunt and uncle (other side of the family, less fanatical than the afore-mentioned cousins) voted somewhat reluctantly for Obama in ’08 because of Palin, went back to Romney in ’12 (my aunt died, but my uncle hates trump)
Mai Naem mobile
@Soprano2: Vivek Ramaswamy is trying to score a FOX/podcast/RW radio/CNN/Joe Rogan like gig. Or he’s another idjit who thinks because he was successful in the biosciences, he can be successful in running the US government. One thing I’ve learned from Joe Biden is that presidents should have been involved in government at a high level for a long time and preferably be able lawyers so that they understand the constitution.
Paul in KY
@There go two miscreants: Good. Sorry for his family (assuming he had one) though.
Paul in KY
@Dorothy A. Winsor: That’s ironic.
The Moar You Know
@Ruckus: I’m in my mid-50s, not law enforcement, no military experience, been in exactly one fistfight in my life, and I know how to deal with a situation like this: you just go up to her and take the fucking knife. You might have to dodge a couple of times, those old ladies can be pretty mean, but I would have zero qualms about doing it without any protective gear at all.
Of course, had this happened in America, she just as easily could have ended up with 30-plus rounds of 9mm in her. Cops are so focused on their guns these days they’ve forgotten how to use anything else.
Paul in KY
@opiejeanne: I’m now LOLing at that. Hoist by his own petard.
The Moar You Know
@Kay: maybe. The story of Henrietta Lacks is edifying. Anything the hospital takes out of you is their property and they can sometimes make billions off it, and you get nothing. Settled law. But it doesn’t stop me from going to the hospital or trying to help out!
Paul in KY
@Anne Laurie: My friend had one in his yard for a terrier. Paid his son $20 to put it on his arm and test it. Son said it hurt like hell.
Paul in KY
@davecb: Just put on the gloves they would use when handling a wildcat and disarm her manually.
These cowards would say ‘maybe she could have thrown it at me like a ninja’ as justification. Just pathetic.
Geminid
@Gretchen: I was excited by Tim Kaine being picked in 2016. He’s my Senator though, so I knew more about him than most other Democrats. I knew Kaine’s background, and I had seen how he helped turn Virginia from a red state to a blue one. Demographic change played a part, but we still needed good politicians and Kaine was excellent.
The Moar You Know
@OzarkHillbilly: if it’s legal for him to open carry an AR in public, it is certainly legal for me to also do so, to “stand my ground” and if it were my kid’s bus stop that’s exactly what I’d do.
Their bullshit laws can cut both ways.
Paul in KY
@Kay: Man, do you get a ginormous ego when you get on Supreme Court.
Sure Lurkalot
@Kay: My spouse could eat a tub of ice cream and a pound of bacon every day and not gain weight. Biden might just have that metabolism.
I do think that the USA is not a “respect your elders” country like others, meaning their experience and wisdom. I remember thinking my dear old dad was an old fogey and he died at 67. We idolize youth to a good degree.
Anecdotally I remember a conversation with an Uber driver from Senegal who was pretty incredulous about how elderly are put into facilities on the regular. He spoke of his mother’s health slipping but she was the matriarch of the family and everyone wanted her around for her wisdom and love.
Paul in KY
@schrodingers_cat: I’m from the senitortise’s state & I didn’t want him to resign as they would replace him with that wacko Cameron guy.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Geminid: still strikes me as odd that many of the people who couldn’t bring themselves to vote for That Woman because war-monger didn’t notice she picked a running mate who spent much of his career advocating for limits on unilateral military decisions on the part of POTUS. He should’ve shouted more.
Paul in KY
@Ken: That would have been cool.
Paul in KY
@schrodingers_cat: I think she has senile dementia.
PAM Dirac
@Kay: I think it is very reasonable for volunteers to ask about the patent licensing policies of the institution doing the work. I suspect you wouldn’t get too much information, as it seems that a lot of these institutions are reluctant to admit the money, sometimes large sums of money are involved. For example here’s a press release put out in 2005 when Emory University got over a half Billion dollars as a one time payment in lieu of continuing royalties for an AIDS drug. Emory was in the news more recently when they made a deal with Merck for a COVID drug and there was no mention of money. The situation is very complicated and it isn’t necessarily easy to figure out what a fair deal for the taxpayers is, but it is important to understand that the drug companies do pay money for these drugs and the fairness problem is one of where does this money go or how much is less is paid in exchange for lower prices. And I think it is important for taxpayers and volunteers to demand more transparency in what goes into these licensing deals.
gvg
@schrodingers_cat: I don’t recall stories about McCain or Kennedy answering questions as out of it as Feinstein. I do recall stories about Regan and and even Trump which did make some people including myself think they needed to resign because they were not competent. Trump of course never was.
It also matters that the margin wasn’t one vote or close to that back then. That really has a lot more to do with how seriously voters take the issues.
I agree that society is not fair to women, but I don’t think that is the problem here. And I also think women have just as much of a responsibility as men to be careful. I know a lot of Democrats who were pretty furious about Edwards running when he was also cheating on his wife, because they felt he could have blown our chances.
bbleh
@Another Scott: @Eolirin: you can’t constrain a future Congress, but you CAN get rid of the cap so that, to reinstate it, they’d have to actually pass a bill (and if a Dem is president, override a veto), which is considerably harder than just refusing to do your job
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I’d like at least to get out of volatile stuff like stock funds and into something less vulnerable like money markets until the dust settles. I keep delaying day by day. And today they met again (?!? they weren’t supposed to meet again until Sunday, but noooo) and things took a dip. I wouldn’t expect an outright default in any case — we’d pay interest and a few other things out of incoming tax revenues — but the stock market would go nuts, and that has material knock-on effects (see under 1929), and it would undermine the to-date rock-solid worldwide confidence in the soundness of Treasuries, which would also have material knock-on effects!
Kay
@Sure Lurkalot:
I don’t know. I’m torn about this. I do think a lot of the leaders on the Democratic side are too old- not that they are incompetent but just that they are at an age were even a relatively minor health setback can become a crisis. My husband is really fit. He plays tennis, skis, swims but he’s also something of a physical risk taker and he told me the other day that he realized if he takes a really bad fall on the ski slope he won’t recover like a 50 year old would so he’s going to dial some back because he doesn’t want to be incapacitated when he finally retires. He’s choosing to ski less aggressively because he wants to ski longer. The “not fully recover from accident” part of aging had not even occurred to me. It just makes things so precarious.
Sure Lurkalot
@schrodingers_cat: Biden is 80 and many consider that old. Feinstein’s memory impairment is well documented. Whether people find Harris inspiring or not is just opinion and different strokes for different folks…
As far as I can tell, 99% of the commentariat here is plum pleased with Biden and think Feinstein could be better attending to her health at home but for the intransigence of the Republicans, she can’t.
Fuck the noise if people don’t agree with you they’re worse than the opposition.
Paul in KY
@schrodingers_cat: DiFi is senile (IMO). However, they can just Thurmond her like they did with him. I just want her in Washington delivering the votes her aides tell her to deliver.
Omnes Omnibus
I agree completely.
Kay
@Sure Lurkalot:
I was reminded of this recently when my youngest son broke his ankle backpacking. I took him to get the cast off and the ortho showed me the x ray and it healed REALLY fast. I said “wow- good job” and the ortho said “I’d love to take credit but he’s young. The bone knits right up”. Just can’t avoid aging, any of us.
Paul in KY
@Kay: Really craven by that college. I think I would have just removed it though (assuming it was a good job).
JWR
@Amir Khalid:
Oh never mind J. Edgar Hoover OR Efrem Zimbalist Jr, and get me the guys from Hawaiian Eye. They would follow the evidence wherever it led, from the poolrooms to the boardrooms of some of the largest corporations in the world. Anyway, it was a fun TV show, waren’t it? ;)
Paul in KY
@tobie: Your circle is probably not representative of Democrats as a whole.
bbleh
@Juju: same, only it sounds like more advanced here. And yes they do recognize it during moments of clarity, at least to some extent, but those moments become fewer. Judging from physical appearance and the remarks she’s made, I would guess Feinstein’s is fairly advanced, not to the point that she’s fully disoriented most of the time, but I’d guess she’s occasionally materially disoriented and that her memory is very unreliable the large majority of the time
Sorry. It ain’t easy.
Paul in KY
@Soprano2: Surprised a bit you weren’t able to ‘fix’ your grandfather’s car so it would not drive. Maybe he would have ate up chunks of money calling for it to be fixed. etc.
Paul in KY
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Lieberman (spit) was a ‘step on dick’ move by VP Gore. It was supposed to be Sen. Graham (who I can assure you would have gotten FL in the D column). The media fixated on some notebook he kept as a memory aid & VP Gore got scared off him.
Kay
@Paul in KY:
I might remove it too rather than get fired. It seems wholly personal though- they’re not insisting anyone else do it.
I just feel like there are much, much more important problems than “the woke mind virus”. I think this only became a huge issue because elites in media and punditry fucking LOVE it as an issue. They can’t get enough of it.
Mai Naem mobile
@Gretchen: there is no new standard. Its because potential GOP VP Nikki Haley(AKA Nimrata Randhawa) said Biden is for sure going to kick the bucket in his second term and that would make (blackity blackity black)Kamala Harris president.
Paul in KY
@Kay: I actually retired from skiing at 38 after a particularly nasty ‘yard sale’ fall. Skiing is a dangerous sport.
Paul in KY
@Kay: They are stenographers for their GQP bosses (in the main). Repeatedly amazed (in a horrified way) by the nothingburgers the GQP is able to use to whip up their useful idiots.
Propaganda/advertising really works.
Another Scott
@Eolirin: True, but the 18th and 21st Amendments teach us that even Amendments can be repealed. Humans can and do change their minds, and governments have to reflect that (or those governments get replaced – sometimes by popular uprisings).
Laws and norms and the Constitution are only as good as the people willing to follow them. The people are what matters most.
Cheers,
Scott.
Soprano2
@schrodingers_cat: I think she should have retired in 2018 because of her age. I think it was known at that time that her health wasn’t good. There was talk about it at that time. I think people were complacent because they knew that if she had to resign or died a Democrat would take her place; they didn’t envision the situation we’re in now, where we desperately need to get as many judges confirmed as possible, and if she’s not there that grinds to a halt. My biggest concern is that she seems to have dementia, and that can get a lot worse very quickly. I have a friend whose mother has that; she was stable and being cared for at home until she got the flu; after that her health took a turn for the worse very quickly, and now she’s in a memory care center and barely mobile. She is 92. I personally think it was selfish of Feinstein to run for re-election at the age of 85, just as I think the same of Grassley running for re-election at 89.
JWR
@Baud:
The corporations really get their money’s worth with Republicans in control, don’t they? But Jeebus, child labor? Again? When will we ever learn?
Kay
@Paul in KY:
You see the REALLY old men out there though. In their Nordic sweaters with old fashioned skis. He plans on being one of them.
Soprano2
@Juju: Like how my husband asks me almost every night if he has fed the dogs. I’ve had to develop a system to make sure I know the dogs are fed – if I think he’ll do it while I’m gone to Jazzercize, I put the bowls in the sink before I leave. If they’re on the floor with food in them when I come back, then I know he fed them.
bbleh
@Juju: @Soprano2: like how my mom asks me most nights if the dogs have been fed. I’ve given up explaining that she hasn’t had dogs for years, and the only dogs she sees belong to my sister and my niece. Now it’s just “yes, all the dogs have been fed.”
BruceFromOhio
@OzarkHillbilly: thank you, friend, and may Gaia bless your lands, your lives and your loves.
Soprano2
@Paul in KY: It was easier to just sell it because my grandmother couldn’t drive anyway. He probably would have spent hours and hours trying to get it to work.
dnfree
@Soprano2: My father had dementia and knew it yet believed he was a still a safe driver. We got a doctor’s order to have him tested, which cost $400 out of pocket. They tested his physical capabilities (like turning his head to see behind him) as well as driving skills. They directed him to drive from the testing facility (a rehab center) to a destination known to him. He passed all the “driving” rules like stopping at stop signs and signaling turns, but failed to turn where he should have to get to his destination. They PASSED him, and he was quite proud. We thought forgetting where you’re going should be disqualifying, but no.
Two weeks later, his wife said, “I don’t think he should be driving anymore.”
Darkrose
@OzarkHillbilly: You’re a good person.
And yeah, I really hate where we are right now.
dnfree
@schrodingers_cat: I favor the resignation of everyone who persists in trying to do a demanding job when they are obviously developing dementia. The people around them know. In the case of politics, it’s up to the party and the staff and the family to work together. Too often the party values the seniority over the individual, and that doesn’t serve the public.
Darkrose
@schrodingers_cat: She had shingles. As a result she is now suffering from encephalitis. She is clearly not well. As someone who admired her as a trailblazer, this is horrible and ghoulish.
The idea that she shouldn’t step down because Republicans were perfectly happy to trot Strom Thurmond out there is not a good one, because it essentially says 39 million people in California don’t need two working senators. I voted for Feinstein in 2018 because Kevin De Leon had some serious red flags around sexism–turns out he’s also racist and homophobic, so bonus!–but it was clear then that her physical and cognitive abilities were declining. After her husband’s death last year, the decline has been even more pronounced.
It’s irrelevant, since unfortunately, we need her to stay as long as possible. But I don’t understand how it’s sexist to suggest that an 89-year-old woman who is dealing with complications from shingles is no longer able to perform her job and should be able to retire gracefully.
Kathleen
@OzarkHillbilly: What a thoughtful. Kind person you are. Thank you for sharing your story.
Elizabelle
@Darkrose: I think it is elder abuse that the GOP is refusing to seat a replacement on the Judiciary Committee.
That needs to be trumpeted. Make them own that. It is so unfair, and a terrible use of arcane and execrable Senate rules –possibly developed by segregationists — to enforce.
Pin this on the Republicans, where it belongs, just as much as on Feinstein.
If a replacement — of the Democrats’ choosing — were allowed, I think you would see a lot of movement behind the scenes to get Feinstein back to private life, where she belongs.
As it is, it’s easier for the FTF NY Times and BezosWaPost and others to give half the story and turn their readers on the Democrats, when there is a whole other consideration at play.
Biden won the national election. FTF Mitch McConnell did not.
bbleh
@Kathleen: and what a comment on our times that such a (deserved) compliment should be paid.
Personally, I’d be willing to wait another day or three for an Amazon delivery if they’d stop treating their employees like dirt. Evidently I’m not sufficiently in touch with my inner Karen.
Geminid
@dnfree: You state good general principles. But in this particular case, were Feinstein to resign now, the Republicans apparently will not allow another seat in the committee. So Democrats will probably squeeze all the judges they can with their shaky majority.
I think Senator Feinstein will be too feeble to serve many more months, and I hope she retires later this year. Then Democrats will have to do what they can with a divided committee. That’s not ideal, but they made it work well enough in the last Congress.
Scout211
@Darkrose: she is currently suffering from Ramsay Hunt Syndrome. The post shingles encephalitis resolved shortly after being released from the hospital, according to her staff. Link
Ramsay Hunt syndrome is the same virus that affected Justin Bieber and paralyzed part of his face.
Ruckus
@Mai Naem mobile:
Mitch had polio as a child and as someone with a friend who is my age who also had polio as a child, I believe that it is quite possible that his body is no longer holding up. My friend lived with braces and crutches till about 20, everything worked normally for the next 35-40 yrs and then legs started to deteriorate till one is only there for show and the other is weak and she lives in a wheelchair. Mitch’s story may be similar, he went through hell for a number of years and has then walked OK for quite a few decades but the physical after affects of polio may be catching up, and he is 81, 7 yrs older than my friend.
I went to school with a girl also my age who had polio and had leg braces and crutches from kindergarten through the end of high school and yet at our 10 yr reunion she walked into the event normally – no braces, no crutches. Now she didn’t show up at our 50th reunion so I don’t know any more of her story but it’s likely similar to my friends.
My point is, he is getting up there in age, he had a very debilitating disease as a child and like all of us, he has X amount of time. That X is different for all of us but the average for his birth year is a while ago. Not he’s not average he’s lived most of his adult live with very good health care.
Ruckus
@Scout211:
I had encephalitis from having the measles and that was 67 yrs ago. I’ve led a normal life since. Yes she is a fair bit older than me and my brain may be doing whatever it is old brains do, and I believe it would have been nice if she’d retired and not run in 2018, but that’s not the way politics seems to work in this country.
GibberJack
@Another Scott: “signals the White House will come to an agreement with congressional republicans”, not “signals congressional republicans will come to an agreement with the White House”.
It’s always the democrats who only have agency. It’s always on them to fix a crisis.
Paul in KY
@Kay: He is badass!
Paul in KY
@Soprano2: Understand.
Paul in KY
@Darkrose: If she votes the way we want her to and she should, she is a ‘working’ senator.
Given the way the GQP is behaving, you have to go with the senator you have, not the senator you wish you had.
Paul in KY
@Elizabelle: That is a good point. Sen. Feinstein and her family would have to be OK with that, IMO (painting her as needing to retire ASAP).
schrodingers_cat
Its hoot to see progressive betters speculating on the mental acuity of an older woman and pronouncing her senile because she is not following their script.
She was elected. She can step down when she wants.
Chris T.
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Everyone in finance who understands how the world works isn’t worried because it’s obvious that going over the brink would be bad for everyone. The problem is, the R’s who want to go over the brink don’t understand how the world works, while the people who understand finance in the first place don’t understand that these R’s are insane.
Chris T.
@Betty Cracker:
It’s true that eating an absolute minimum of calories (a CRON diet) extends your life. Maybe not in terms of more years, or even days, but it will certainly feel a lot longer. Every day will feel so long and soooo hungry…
Chris T.
@WaterGirl: I’m sure there’s a reason people call him “Kash’n’carry Patel”…
(Possible reasons including: because it’s deserved, and/or because it’s funny)
Chris T.
@EmbraceYourInnerCrone:
And Australia and New Zealand last year, and the exceptional rain/snow this winter on the west coast of the US. The time to take action was 20 years ago. The time to take emergency action was five years ago. I’m not sure what you call it now.
Chris T.
@bbleh:
When Lehman Brothers collapsed, there was a knock-on effect in the money markets that … well, let me just refer you to https://www.investopedia.com/articles/economics/09/money-market-reserve-fund-meltdown.asp here. The upshot of this is that should the Treasury department fail to pay some bill(s), we just don’t know what actually will happen next. Money markets might not be any better than others.
That’s an obvious comeback, but here’s the problem: who gets paid? There’s no legal framework here. When a business fails, creditors queue up in order of seniority. Bondholders and and “senior debentures” get paid earlier—that’s what makes them “senior”. Stockholders get paid last, if ever. But first everything gets frozen, and a bankruptcy court figures out who gets paid, how much, and when.
But the court is a government entity. Do they get paid?
pluky
@JWR:
@zhena gogolia:
His money is old enough to have mellowed. Most MOTU types are nouveaux riches.
GibberJack
@The Moar You Know: Yes this is true for all of us non-2A cultists with a family and kids in school who have other places we need to be. Like, at our job. Or dropping the other kid off somewhere for school, and then our job.
But in practical terms, no, we’re not going to do that. For the reasons above.
As a result we and our children are beholden to a small bunch of absolutist fanatic miscreant fucks who are making us live in their fucked up world.
Paul in KY
@schrodingers_cat: I’m glad we are giving you some amusement. You seem to need it.