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Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Republicans cannot even be trusted with their own money.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

“Just close your eyes and kiss the girl and go where the tilt-a-whirl takes you.” ~OzarkHillbilly

Let the trolls come, and then ignore them. that’s the worst thing you can do to a troll.

I really should read my own blog.

“In the future, this lab will be a museum. do not touch it.”

When you’re a Republican, they let you do it.

“But what about the lurkers?”

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

Republicans do not trust women.

Roe is not about choice. It is about freedom.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

GOP baffled that ‘we don’t care if you die’ is not a winning slogan.

Speaker Mike Johnson is a vile traitor to the House and the Constitution.

People are complicated. Love is not.

If you voted for Trump, you don’t get to speak about ethics, morals, or rule of law.

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

Balloon Juice, where there is always someone who will say you’re doing it wrong.

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

If you still can’t see these things even now, maybe politics isn’t your forte and you should stop writing about it.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

Every one of the “Roberts Six” lied to get on the court.

Petty moves from a petty man.

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You are here: Home / Civil Rights / LGBTQ Rights / LGBTQ Rights Are Human Rights / TGIFriday Morning Open Thread: Small Blessings

TGIFriday Morning Open Thread: Small Blessings

by Anne Laurie|  June 23, 20237:39 am| 164 Comments

This post is in: LGBTQ Rights Are Human Rights, Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat, Republican Politics, Riveted By The Sociological Significance Of It All

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USASOC recognizes June as Pride month, celebrating all LGBTQ+ members in our formations. Throughout American history, LGBTQ+ members have not only fought for the right to serve openly, but have also fought in every major war and conflict. pic.twitter.com/MhwAXyIUD5

— USASOC (@USASOCNews) June 22, 2023

In a strongly worded ruling issued Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle said a Florida rule and statute that banned most Medicaid payments for puberty blockers, hormonal treatments and surgeries were adopted “for political reasons." https://t.co/xmOxF6IOHk

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) June 22, 2023

Another win for the ‘Mind your own business’ faction. Per Politico (where there is no paywall):

… U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle on Wednesday ruled against the ban by using some of the same conclusions and language that he used in another recent decision where he determined three Florida transgender minors could receive “puberty blockers” and other types of gender-affirming care despite a state-enacted prohibition on such treatment for those under the age of 18. In both rulings, Hinkle has stated that “gender identity is real. The record makes this clear.”

This latest decision, however, is not just limited to those who brought a lawsuit against the state. It applies to the mammoth, multibillion-dollar safety net health care program that is paid for by a mix of state and federal tax dollars. Those who filed the initial legal challenge estimated that up to 9,000 Medicaid enrollees in Florida are transgender…

Hinkle ruled that the ban on Medicaid paying for hormone therapy or “puberty blockers” was an equal protection violation and went against federal Medicaid law as well as the Affordable Care Act. He called the restrictions “purposeful” discrimination against transgender individuals and not a “legitimate state interest.” The lawsuit was brought against the state on behalf of two transgender adult men and the families of two transgender minors…

======
And, since we’re winding down towards the weekend, might as well do an update on the latest Freedumb Caucus/Tantrum Carcass shenanigans:

House GOP members not happy with Lauren Boebert for forcing a vote to impeach Joe Biden. In conference, Speaker McCarty argued against it, per attendees. Many are opposed. And even a backer, MTG, critcized Boebert for copying her impeachment resolution, calling her a “copy cat”

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) June 21, 2023

Extry! Extry! Read allll about it!…

What MTG was overheard telling Lauren Boebert on the House floor today:

“I’ve donated to you, I’ve defended you. But you’ve been nothing but a little bitch to me… And you copied my articles of impeachment after I asked you to cosponsor them.”https://t.co/xLvrSRbwc9

— Sam Brodey (@sambrodey) June 21, 2023


Saw this conversation… not sure if it was a friendly one pic.twitter.com/tpz3z2Phtv

— Acyn (@Acyn) June 21, 2023


It’s become clear that MTG is smart enough to understand that, if she wants to stay in Congress long enough to really hog the spotlight Make A Difference, sometimes she’s gonna have to act like an actual politician instead of a reality-show contestant. And she’s got both the (family) money and the well-chosen Congressional district to give her a cushion. Boebert, on the other hand, is just dumb, defiant, and desperate not to go back to her failed cafe and her failed marriage back in Colorado.

Tina Nguyen, at Puck:

… Of course, the food fight is more than just made-for-Twitter sideshow: Their cold war has turned into an actual policy fight, with both women publicly feuding over who gets credit for filing articles of impeachment against Joe Biden. This all seems stupid, because it is, but there will be real consequences for Kevin McCarthy’s speakership, for the G.O.P. agenda, and possibly the 2024 race, too. On Thursday, the House voted along party lines to send Boebert’s resolution to committee, essentially punting the issue. For now, at least…

Greene, who immediately filed articles of impeachment on her very first day in Congress, has nevertheless become something of an outlier in MAGA politics for her vocal support of McCarthy. Generally, it’s anathema for anyone else in her category—grassroots, QAnon-dabbling online personalities with zero political experience, all good qualities to base voters—to support any sort of establishmentarian politician. Laura Loomer, the far-right nationalist and internet personality, now in Trump’s orbit, recently declared that Greene is McCarthy’s “lap dog” and is only using impeachment as a “fundraising grift.”

Boebert, on the other hand, has drifted even further to the right despite barely holding on to her congressional seat by 564 votes. Her impeachment push may be a viable survival strategy, of sorts, in an era when over-the-top attention-seeking brattiness can generate meaningful campaign revenue. “It’s not like there’s going to be a giant cavalcade of PAC checks rolling in to fund her re-elect anytime soon,” noted one source connected to the House hardliner group. “And so she needs to continue to maintain a very robust small-dollar operation. Otherwise, she has no way to fund a campaign which will no doubt be slightly more expensive next go around, because it’s going to be a target for the Dems to take back the majority.”

no fast-casual chain or big box store between Grand Junction and Atlanta is safe from the brewing war between two world champions of getting banned from Applebee’s

— knife-wielding hemophiliac (@NickTagliaferro) June 21, 2023

These two are feminist trailblazers in that they demonstrate that women can also become, as the kids say, 'extremely divorced.' https://t.co/yELS1C8te4

— zeddy (@Zeddary) June 22, 2023

THE NEWS pic.twitter.com/qcMI09C4bF

— worms cited (@christapeterso) June 22, 2023

But seriously:

Hard-right House Republicans pressing to impeach President Joe Biden forced a vote Thursday that sends an impeachment measure to House committees. @scrippsnews #NationalNewshttps://t.co/1g7VHg9GFv

— KMTV 3 News Now (@3NewsNowOmaha) June 23, 2023

Per the Associated Press, “House Republicans push off Biden impeachment bid for now as hard-right clamors for action”;

Eager to impeach President Joe Biden, hard-right House Republicans forced a vote Thursday that sent the matter to congressional committees in a clear demonstration of the challenge that Speaker Kevin McCarthy faces in controlling the majority party.

The ability of single lawmaker in the 435-member House to drive an impeachment resolution this week caught Republicans off guard and many of them viewed it as a distraction from other priorities.

The measure charges Biden with “high crimes and misdemeanors” over his handling of the U.S. border with Mexico.

Rep. Lauren Boebert, backed by allies, was able to use House rules to force a snap vote on such a grave constitutional matter. The 219-208 party-line vote sent her resolution to committees for possible consideration, like any other bill. They are under no obligation to do anything…

The vote capped days of maneuvering by McCarthy, R-Calif., to quell the uprising within his party over a roll call that many did not to take.

A sudden vote to impeach Biden would have been politically difficult for GOP lawmakers and a potentially embarrassing spectacle for McCarthy, splitting his party. In a private meeting Wednesday, McCarthy encouraged lawmakers to consider the traditional process for bringing such consequential legislation forward. Boebert had used what is called a privileged resolution to force the vote.

In the end, McCarthy negotiated a deal with her to send the Biden impeachment resolution for review to the House Judiciary Committee and the House Homeland Security Committee, fending off a vote for some time…

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Reader Interactions

164Comments

  1. 1.

    bbleh

    June 23, 2023 at 7:50 am

    This all seems stupid, because it is, but there will be real consequences for Kevin McCarthy’s speakership…

    [Audience dissolves in hysterical laughter]

    … for the G.O.P. agenda, and possibly the 2024 race, too.

  2. 2.

    AM in NC

    June 23, 2023 at 7:53 am

    I just love how all these freaks want to “IMPEACH”.  But for what high crime or misdemeanor?  Something something border. Or Hunter. Or argle-bargle. It is so clear that there is no actual crime, just GOP hurt fee-fees.

    They’d just be pathetic losers if there weren’t so many of them as to represent a real threat to our country.  SMDH

    Also, I usually don’t like to comment on physical traits, but it is funny how Margie Three-Names and Bankrupt Barbie are like reflected opposites of each other: Blonde, brunette. Face that looks like a frying pan, face that looks sharpened to a razor-sharp edge. Big and beefy, tiny and mean.  It’s really funny! They’re the Betty and Veronica of fascism.

  3. 3.

    NotMax

    June 23, 2023 at 7:57 am

    McCarthy needs to install a ball pit to distract the members of the Dum-dum Caucus.

  4. 4.

    Betty Cracker

    June 23, 2023 at 8:03 am

    Greene has cleared the subterranean bar of being more strategic than Boebert, but my sense is both women are still indelibly marked as clowns in the normie mind. So I don’t think an impeachment push by either one will redound to the credit of their party.

    McCarthy’s position on Greene is understandable — he needs her to give him cred with the Freedom Caucus loons. But her new prominence as a Repub can’t be helpful for the party’s image. I mean, we’re talking about a party that was eaten and shat out by Trump, so “image” is relative. Let’s just say they aren’t moving in the right direction.

  5. 5.

    SFAW

    June 23, 2023 at 8:03 am

    @NotMax:

    McCarthy needs to install a  ball pit to distract gags on all the members of the Dum-dum Caucus.

    Fixed

  6. 6.

    rikyrah

    June 23, 2023 at 8:05 am

    Good Morning, Everyone😊😊😊

  7. 7.

    rikyrah

    June 23, 2023 at 8:06 am

    Impeach 46 for what?😠😠

     

    Presidenting while competent?🙄🙄🤔

  8. 8.

    Steeplejack

    June 23, 2023 at 8:07 am

    @rikyrah:

    Good morning! 🙏

  9. 9.

    Kay

    June 23, 2023 at 8:07 am

    @Betty Cracker:

    The polling on the congressional generic ballot is even : 44/44. I know we think it should be 99/1 Dem but “even” is not a good number for the “out” Party. Republicans should be ahead. So this may be one time where that sort of compensatory “we lost but actually it’s GOOD that we lost” thing is correct- they won the House but the downside of that is people see and hear them :)

  10. 10.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    June 23, 2023 at 8:08 am

    Previous thread is about Musk vs. Zuckerberg, and I was rolling my eyes and mumbling “men!” Now this one is Greene vs. Boebert so I have to take it back. At least they ‘re not threatening fisticuffs.

  11. 11.

    Betty

    June 23, 2023 at 8:09 am

    Marge forgot all about that decorum thing she demanded the other day.

  12. 12.

    SFAW

    June 23, 2023 at 8:11 am

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: ​
     

    At least they ‘re not threatening fisticuffs.

    Given their histories, I would think they’d bypass fisticuffs and go straight to AR-15s at dawn.

  13. 13.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    June 23, 2023 at 8:11 am

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Perhaps B vs MTG could be the opening act in the Musk v Zuck battle royale?

  14. 14.

    rikyrah

    June 23, 2023 at 8:11 am

    About Erik Erickson and his latest BULLSHYT whining

    @David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch:

    It doesn’t make any sense. Once again, Republicans don’t want to take responsibility for their actions. Someone else is to blame. They are always looking for someone to get them off the hook and who they can blame. This isn’t Democrats responsibility. If you look at the MSM, they do that shyt too. Go to Democrats, expecting them to solve Republican problems

  15. 15.

    Kay

    June 23, 2023 at 8:12 am

    Boebert is more of a clown and dumber than Greene. I know, but it’s a COMPARISON :)

    Their situations are different too- Greene is gerrymandered in place. Her seat isn’t competitive- she can occupy that for as long as she wants. Boebert’s seat is much less comfy- she always has to be looking for her post-House grift.

  16. 16.

    SFAW

    June 23, 2023 at 8:12 am

    @Betty:

    Re: decorum: maybe she thought she was commenting on the furniture and window treatments in her office?

  17. 17.

    Jeffro

    June 23, 2023 at 8:12 am

    A Biden impeachment that (obviously) goes nowhere will only (obviously) help cement the GQP’s reputation as the party of complete loons.  Obviously.  =)

    In other (obvious) news, Dems should/must run on reproductive rights and women’s health in general.

    Noted earlier this week: Dobbs is having a catastrophic effect on women’s health

    Equally important: GOP candidates – from trumpov on down – can’t make their evangelical base happy and hope to win general elections next November

    so let’s make them choose one way or another!

    During a recent meeting between Donald trump and a group of pastors at the First Church of the Open Bible in Des Moines, one attendee raised concern about the former president’s criticism of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s six-week ban on abortion, asking why he appeared to be backpedaling on the issue.

    trump responded with a defense of his record, telling the group that he had moved “the pro-life issue in a better place of negotiation because of the removal of Roe v. Wade,” recalled pastor Michael Demastus of Des Moines, who helped organize the June 1 meeting.

    That answer fell short for Demastus, who has not picked a 2024 candidate. “For a person like me, this is a core issue,” Demastus said. “I don’t see this as an issue of a utilitarian or pragmatic political ploy so that we get a better bargaining chip. I’m looking at the fact that we’re actually trying to rescue lives.”

    Even as some of the candidates have used their power in government to sharply limit abortion rights, they have at times appeared less than comfortable talking about the issue. trump and former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley have been evasive about how late in a pregnancy they would allow abortion. Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) struggledto answer questions about his position as he launched his campaign in New Hampshire. And DeSantis initially appeared reluctant to discuss the six-week ban that he quietly signed in Florida, though he now mentions it more often and recently criticized Trump for not saying whether he would have signed the bill.

    #1 issue, Dems – this HAS to be the #1 issue this year and next!

  18. 18.

    Baud

    June 23, 2023 at 8:15 am

    @rikyrah:

    Good morning.

  19. 19.

    Baud

    June 23, 2023 at 8:15 am

    @rikyrah:

    Race treason.

  20. 20.

    SFAW

    June 23, 2023 at 8:17 am

    @Baud: ​

    Race Treason.

    Wasn’t he Jonny Quest’s bodyguard/tutor/watchdog?​

  21. 21.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    June 23, 2023 at 8:17 am

    @Kay: Where MTG is concerned, I find I am torn. In office, she is a nightmare, but at least she is an embarrassment to the normies. Out of office, she’d likely be replaced by someone with policies just as bad who is quieter and seems less offensive.

  22. 22.

    OverTwistWillie

    June 23, 2023 at 8:17 am

    James Cameron lays it out:

    https://youtu.be/5XIyin68vEE

  23. 23.

    Baud

    June 23, 2023 at 8:18 am

    @SFAW:

    There’s a blast from the past.

  24. 24.

    Suzanne

    June 23, 2023 at 8:19 am

    @SFAW:

    I would think they’d bypass fisticuffs and go straight to AR-15s at dawn 

    Y’all keep threatening me with a good time.

  25. 25.

    Ken

    June 23, 2023 at 8:20 am

    House GOP members not happy with Lauren Boebert for forcing a vote to impeach Joe Biden.

    “It eats up TV time that could be for my performative schtick!”

  26. 26.

    Kay

    June 23, 2023 at 8:20 am

    I’m off to a CLE with our new hire. I want to tell him he has to wear different shirts- he wears dark dress shirts. One day he had a western shirt with snaps (!). Lol.  He just doesn’t know better – he doesn’t come out of the white dress shirt wearing cohort. I have to figure out some way to tell him. I’ve known his parents for 30 years but I think they would be insulted and I just love them- I can’t risk it. Maybe I can’t tell him and he will just wear horrible “I’m going to prom” shirts his whole career :)

  27. 27.

    bbleh

    June 23, 2023 at 8:21 am

    @NotMax: @Betty Cracker: @SFAW:  but consider for a second McQarthy’s position.  He can’t pass legislation — he doesn’t have the numbers, the Crazies have a veto and are inclined to use it for any reason or no reason at all, and anything he would manage to pass other than the most anodyne would have no chance at all in the Senate — so governing is basically out.

    So what’s left?  The grift.  Separating the fools from their money.  And MTG is an absolute star at that — IIRC she’s like the 3rd highest fundraiser among House Republicans.  And when every seat counts, money talks very loud — especially to the programmable meatsacks — and MTG shares donations widely.

    I’d say he needs her more than she needs him — there’s any number of bland ineffective white men who could stand in to replace him, and it’s not like he does much anyway — and she pretty evidently knows it.

    This is what happens when you put greedy clowns in charge (apologies to actual clowns).  Thank you once again, Republicans!

  28. 28.

    Jeffro

    June 23, 2023 at 8:21 am

    @NotMax: win

     

    @SFAW: WIN

  29. 29.

    SFAW

    June 23, 2023 at 8:22 am

    @Suzanne:

    I live to serve.

  30. 30.

    Baud

    June 23, 2023 at 8:22 am

    @Kay:

    You hired a young Johnny Cash.

  31. 31.

    Matt McIrvin

    June 23, 2023 at 8:27 am

    @AM in NC: The “Biden bribery scandal” with the whistleblower who suddenly died before any evidence of their existence surfaced.

  32. 32.

    lowtechcyclist

    June 23, 2023 at 8:28 am

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    Previous thread is about Musk vs. Zuckerberg, and I was rolling my eyes and mumbling “men!” Now this one is Greene vs. Boebert so I have to take it back. At least they ‘re not threatening fisticuffs.

    Oh, let’s have fisticuffs. Or at least sharp fingernails.  And for musical accompaniment:

    Girl Fight Tonight – Julie Brown – YouTube

  33. 33.

    SFAW

    June 23, 2023 at 8:28 am

    @Kay: ​
     
    I’ll be happy to tell him for you. Although I might not be as “diplomatic” as you’d like.
    More seriously: is he a kid? [Meaning a teenager.] Because if he’s in his 20s, someone should be able to tell him that there’s a kind-of “uniform” that is appropriate for his position, and that significant deviation reflects poorly on him, you, and the company. [This is a law firm, yes? Based on your comment history re: your work, that was my assumption. If I’m wrong, apologies.]

  34. 34.

    SFAW

    June 23, 2023 at 8:31 am

    @Matt McIrvin: ​
     
    Nah, it’s (among other things) “dereliction of duty” related to the border. No Hunter-related stuff. Yet. I think.

  35. 35.

    Ken

    June 23, 2023 at 8:31 am

    @lowtechcyclist: Good choice, but with those two, it’s more likely to be Brown’s Homecoming Queen’s Got a Gun.

  36. 36.

    bbleh

    June 23, 2023 at 8:32 am

    @Matt McIrvin: but … but there’s a memo! That says someone said that some Ukrainian said that other Ukrainians paid Biden money directly! And the FBI has it! Or so sources say.  Without mentioning that the purported memo came from the “files” of Rudy Giuliani.

    Let ’em impeach.  Remember how well that worked for Gingrich.

  37. 37.

    Jeffro

    June 23, 2023 at 8:37 am

    I like this piece by Jamelle Bouie, but it feels like it doesn’t quite capture the extent of the threat to our country and the rule of law:  trump believes the presidency belongs to him

    (link is gifted)

    (Maybe JB’s waiting ’til 2024 to completely ramp up on folks’ (rightful) fears of losing our democracy for good?  Eh, he gets close enough here…)

    Donald trump did not — and does not — recognize any distinction between himself and the office of the presidency. He is it and it is him.

    This view is as close a fundamental rejection of American constitutionalism as you can imagine — and it helps explain much of the former president’s behavior in and out of office. It is why he could not abide any opposition to anything he tried to pursue, why he raged against the “deep state,” why he strained against every limit on his authority, why he rejected the very idea that he could lose the 2020 presidential election and why he decided he could simply take classified documents to his home in Florida.

    For trump, he is the president. He is the government. The documents, in his mind, belonged to him.

    What this means in practical terms is that as trump runs for president, he has promised to bring key parts of the federal government under his control as soon as he takes office. He wants to clear out as much of the executive branch as possible and swap professionals for true believers — a new crop of officials whose chief loyalty is to the power and authority of Donald trump, rather than their office or the letter of the law. And in particular, trump wants to clear house at the Department of Justice, which is investigating him for mishandling those documents.

    …It is not hard to imagine a world where a second-term President trump orders a newly purged and reconstituted Justice Department to investigate any group or individual that happens to be a target of MAGA rage, whether they broke the law or not

    …as the Republican Party has come to shape itself around his person, it has also adopted trump’s worldview, which is to say, the worldview and ideology of the boss. No longer content to run government for business, the Republican Party now hopes to run government as a business.

    But this doesn’t mean greater efficiency or responsiveness or whatever else most people (mistakenly) associate with private industry. It means, instead, government as the fief of a small-business tyrant.

    The next Republican president, in short, will almost certainly be the worst boss you, and American democracy, have ever had.

  38. 38.

    Scout211

    June 23, 2023 at 8:37 am

    See, this is what’s wrong with Democrats in congress. If Schiff would have just scowled at all the GOP reps who voted to censure him yesterday and screamed, “You f*cking little bitches!” he would have gotten so much attention! All the reporters would be calling him and featuring him as their top story. It would have been epic. But no, he didn’t call them names at all!  Not even, “You meanies!”  Democrats in congress are just so timid.

    /s (in case it’s not obvious)

  39. 39.

    Betty Cracker

    June 23, 2023 at 8:38 am

    @Ken: Best line: “Stop it, Debbie, you’re embarrassing me!”

  40. 40.

    bbleh

    June 23, 2023 at 8:38 am

    @Kay: maybe take his side, and be sure to leave it up to him. “Look I don’t like it either — you think I would wear [insert some particularly uncomfortable/unflattering aspect of professional wear] if I didn’t have to? Fact is, people judge you — fairly or not — in part on what you wear, and if you go against the grain, it’ll turn some people against you before they even get a chance to know you.  So it’s up to you, but at this stage, I’d say it might be better to keep a lower profile and keep your eyes and ears open.  Once you know the ropes, then you can tailor your image.”

  41. 41.

    Karen S.

    June 23, 2023 at 8:39 am

    So the girls are fighting. Oh well. They’re both as bad as each other, but as others have pointed out, Empty Green is safer, for now, than Bippity-Boo.

    I’m off to the dentist soon to start work to get a crown. I need two fillings, too, but I’m not sure if he’ll have time to do those today. My current dentist is the grandson of the dentist I started going to when I was 5 years old. The grandson, his dad, and his grandfather have all been good dentists. although mainly what I remember of the grandfather is that his arms and the backs of his hands were really hairy.

  42. 42.

    bbleh

    June 23, 2023 at 8:41 am

    @SFAW: that’s the one they seem to be coalescing around more or less, from what I’ve read. They’ve also been all hot to impeach Mayorkas for the same thing.  And of course the point is not impeachment per se; it’s to boost the megaphone volume on “we hate Brown people very very much so vote for us!!”

  43. 43.

    narya

    June 23, 2023 at 8:41 am

    @Kay: Do him a favor–take him out to lunch or coffee and tell him. If you can, lead with a story of your own. Maybe have some links saved on your phone so you can show him what you mean. Tell him there are no consequences from YOU for not doing it.

  44. 44.

    Uncle Cosmo

    June 23, 2023 at 8:41 am

    @AM in NC: They’re the Betty and Veronica of fascism.

    ROTFLMAO!

    The only thing lacking in that video clip is “Mean” Greene’s big beefy fist hitting Boobird in the throat so hard it bursts out the back of her neck…

  45. 45.

    Cameron

    June 23, 2023 at 8:42 am

    @Kay: Some sort of legal Peter Pan – the law student who never grew up?

  46. 46.

    OzarkHillbilly

    June 23, 2023 at 8:42 am

    Keir Starmer was caught as a student illegally selling ice-creams on French Riviera

    First Boris was drummed out of the House because he lied and now this? The Brits just don’t have what it takes to keep up with the GOP in the corruption.

  47. 47.

    lowtechcyclist

    June 23, 2023 at 8:43 am

    @Ken:

    @lowtechcyclist: Good choice, but with those two, it’s more likely to be Brown’s Homecoming Queen’s Got a Gun.

    Yeah, needs to be a remake, Girl Gunfight Tonight.

  48. 48.

    mrmoshpotato

    June 23, 2023 at 8:43 am

    calling her a “copy cat”

    LOL!  How are these two high school mean girls members of Congress?!

    Added –

    What MTG was overheard telling Lauren Boebert on the House floor today:

    “I’ve donated to you, I’ve defended you. But you’ve been nothing but a little bitch to me… And you copied my articles of impeachment after I asked you to cosponsor them.”

    ROFLMAO!  Speaking of people who need to have a WWE cage match…

  49. 49.

    rikyrah

    June 23, 2023 at 8:46 am

    @Jeffro:

    ICAM

     

    The Democrats need to run on reproductive freedom

  50. 50.

    Raoul Paste

    June 23, 2023 at 8:46 am

    “ war between the two world champions of getting banned at Applebees…”

    Darn good

    Also, if I recall, that Jonny quest character was Race Bannon, not Race Treason.  So, pretty much the same thing..

  51. 51.

    SFAW

    June 23, 2023 at 8:53 am

    @Raoul Paste:

    Also, if I recall, that Jonny quest character was Race Bannon, not Race Treason.

    No shit? Really? I don’t know how I coulda gotten that worng.

    [Yes, I get that it was a setup for your next line.]

  52. 52.

    A Man for All Seaonings (formerly Geeno)

    June 23, 2023 at 8:54 am

    @SFAW: You’re thinking of Racist Bannon who was VP under Trump

  53. 53.

    SFAW

    June 23, 2023 at 8:54 am

    @bbleh: ​
     
    Your way is pretty good, way better than mine.

  54. 54.

    Ken

    June 23, 2023 at 8:56 am

    @Betty Cracker: Kevin McCarthy can do that line in the remake video.

  55. 55.

    Geminid

    June 23, 2023 at 8:56 am

    @Kay: I followed Boebert from the time she beat incumbent Scott Tipton in 2020 primary. She caught my eye because I lived in the VA 5th CD, one of two others that year where a Republican incumbent lost to a more radical challenger (Riggleman vs. Good). Boebert’s sketchy background was raised in the general election, but voters did not pay much attention and she carried the CO 3rd by 6 points, same as Trump.

    But seeing is believing, and last year voters came within a thousand votes of retiring her, even though redistricting made the district more Republican. Boebert almost talked herself out of the best job she’ll ever have. And she seems determined to lose it still.

  56. 56.

    BC in Illinois

    June 23, 2023 at 9:04 am

    @Jeffro:

    Donald Trump did not — and does not — recognize any distinction between himself and the office of the presidency. He is it and it is him.

    Ah . . . the Leadership Principle ( das Führerprinzip ) !

    “The principle can be most succinctly understood to mean that ‘the Führer‘s word is above all written law’ and that governmental policies, decisions, and offices ought to work toward the realization of this end.”

  57. 57.

    waspuppet

    June 23, 2023 at 9:06 am

    @Kay: That’s the thing. All these experts are puzzled over the strategic implications of Boebert’s maneuvers, about how they’re detrimental to her “survival,” and they seem to be glossing over the glaringly obvious fact that, as with Sinema, getting re-elected is not necessarily Boebert’s goal. Sure, if it happens she’ll take it, but the goal is not to have to go back to Colorado and try to get a real job.

  58. 58.

    waspuppet

    June 23, 2023 at 9:08 am

    @Jeffro: Well, sure. That’s how they do things in the countries Trump openly and explicitly prefers to this one.

  59. 59.

    Steve in the ATL

    June 23, 2023 at 9:09 am

    @Kay: under normal circumstances, I would be horrified.  But his dress sounds mild compared to what I saw on my flight to Michigan earlier this week. Guy next to me, for example, was wearing red/yellow sneakers, aqua blue knee socks, paisley shorts, an ab photo t-shirt, and a white cowboy hat.

    Turns out there is an EDM festival in the area this weekend….

  60. 60.

    Chris T.

    June 23, 2023 at 9:10 am

    @AM in NC:

    I just love how all these freaks want to “IMPEACH”. But for what high crime or misdemeanor?

    PEACHINESS! Biden is a peach! So he must be im-peached!

    Of course, the actual reason is “revenge”, but nobody is allowed to say that out loud.

  61. 61.

    mrmoshpotato

    June 23, 2023 at 9:13 am

    @Kay:

    I’m off to a CLE 

    Don’t know why I started humming “We’re Off To See The Wizard” when I read this.

    Say hello to Great Lakes Brewing for me!

  62. 62.

    Albatrossity

    June 23, 2023 at 9:20 am

    I would pay good money to see Ms. Peach Tree Dish or Mr. Gym Jordan or one of the other House Confederate Party members act as an impeachment manager and bring their case to the Senate…

    ‘Twould be a spectacle for the ages!

  63. 63.

    mrmoshpotato

    June 23, 2023 at 9:23 am

    @Steve in the ATL: FAA, I would like to report a fashion crime.

  64. 64.

    bbleh

    June 23, 2023 at 9:26 am

    @Albatrossity: They’d cut each other to ribbons to be the impeachment manager — or ONE of the managers, because flies to sh!t and all that.   But as they say, please proceed!  It would probably boost Biden’s numbers by 10%.

  65. 65.

    Ken

    June 23, 2023 at 9:26 am

    While we’re pondering the idiocy of Greene and Boebert, let us spare a moment to acknowledge the efforts of Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R, did you expect otherwise?), who is attacking the “epic failure of leadership” in the search-and-rescue efforts for the OceanGate sub.

    Best reply I’ve seen so far: “It’s hard to mount a response in 0.01 seconds.”

    Best reply to the reply: “Also when you’re not even called until four hours after they’ve died.”

  66. 66.

    mrmoshpotato

    June 23, 2023 at 9:31 am

    @Ken:

    Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R, did you expect otherwise?), who is attacking the “epic failure of leadership” in the search-and-rescue efforts for the OceanGate sub. 

    Has he blamed Obummer, I mean Biden, yet for them not draining the Atlantic?

  67. 67.

    catclub

    June 23, 2023 at 9:35 am

    @AM in NC: ​
     

    But for what high crime or misdemeanor? Something something border. Or Hunter. Or argle-bargle. It is so clear that there is no actual crime, just GOP hurt fee-fees.

    With Trump the Democrats waited until there was one specific act ( and then a second specific act).

  68. 68.

    rikyrah

    June 23, 2023 at 9:36 am

    @Kay:

     

    can you give him a gift of a couple of the shirts that you’d like to see him in? Take him out to lunch and just  tell him gently. Nothing is wrong with his ‘ style’, but, that, your area is more ‘conservative’, and that you don’t want people’s wrong impressions to affect him negatively.

  69. 69.

    catclub

    June 23, 2023 at 9:37 am

    @Chris T.: ​
     

    Of course, the actual reason is “revenge”, but nobody is allowed to say that out loud.

    Also fundraising off the rubes.

  70. 70.

    Betty Cracker

    June 23, 2023 at 9:37 am

    @waspuppet: Okay, but wouldn’t Boebert’s best path to not having to go back to Colorado and get a real job be reelection? What’s she going to do if she gets bounced? Maybe I’m wrong, but I doubt even Newsmax or OAN would have her as on-screen “talent,” and a lobbyist needs cordial relationships with former colleagues. I think Boebert wants to be reelected, but she’s dumber than a rock and is therefore in danger of blowing it Madison Cawthorn style.

    Sinema is obviously a higher functioning dingbat than Boebert, but my theory is she screwed the pooch too. IMO, the speculation that winning that senate seat was all a play to catapult herself into a lucrative post-politics career as a lobbyist or think-tank sinecure recipient is based on disbelief that the most obvious explanation could be true: she screwed the pooch spectacularly.

  71. 71.

    Layer8Problem

    June 23, 2023 at 9:39 am

    @mrmoshpotato:  Yeah, aren’t there sky marshals to put a stop to that sort of thing, among others?

  72. 72.

    jonas

    June 23, 2023 at 9:40 am

    @Ken: ​
     

    Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R, did you expect otherwise?), who is attacking the “epic failure of leadership” in the search-and-rescue efforts for the OceanGate sub.

    Um, it could be because there was no sub to actually find and rescue, just bits of debris from when it catastrophically imploded at a depth of over 13000 feet. WTF is wrong with these people?

    Oh, that’s right. Republican.

  73. 73.

    UncleEbeneezer

    June 23, 2023 at 9:44 am

    Remember when Biden headed off a railroad strike by backing a contract that not all railroad workers liked, and said he would not stop pushing for the paid sick leave they wanted? This statement is worth reading. 👇

    After months of negotiations, the IBEW’s Railroad members at four of the largest U.S. freight carriers finally have what they’ve long sought but that many working people take for granted: paid sick days.

  74. 74.

    jonas

    June 23, 2023 at 9:44 am

    @AM in NC: ​
      They claim it’s for Biden refusing to “secure” the border or something.

    So now not implementing a policy demanded by the other party is an impeachable offense. Roger that!

  75. 75.

    UncleEbeneezer

    June 23, 2023 at 9:47 am

    “Biden deserves a lot of the credit for achieving this goal for us,” Russo said. “He and his team continued to work behind the scenes to get all of rail labor a fair agreement for paid sick leave.”

    I BETTER SEE SOME APOLOGIES.

  76. 76.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    June 23, 2023 at 9:51 am

    @AM in NC: The motive for impeaching Biden is payback. That, and he’s a Democrat in the White House. Same reasons they were hot to impeach Clinton as payback for Nixon

    ETA: Any Democratic president will have to be squeaky clean because they will not rest until they have, as they see it, evened things up.

  77. 77.

    James E Powell

    June 23, 2023 at 9:51 am

    @Kay:

    Back in the day, a new hire wore shoes of a kind of casual style I cannot describe other than to say “all black tennis shoes” with his suit. A partner called him in, gave him money, and told him to go to Nordstroms and ask the sales people to show him shoes that a lawyer wears. The kid was taken aback, but he did it.

  78. 78.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    June 23, 2023 at 9:55 am

    @James E Powell: One of the better parts of being an English professor was that I could wear whatever I wanted. People expect professors to be eccentric. One of my colleagues once wore his boyscout uniform

  79. 79.

    Redshift

    June 23, 2023 at 9:58 am

    @jonas:

    They claim it’s for Biden refusing to “secure” the border or something.

    Remember, if apprehensions of migrants/drugs/terrists at the border is up, it means there’s a huge invasion because Biden/Dems want “open borders”, and if they’re down, it means there’s a huge invasion that they’re not catching because Biden/Dems want “open borders”.

    So either way, they must be impeached for endangering the country with “open borders” letting in scary brown people.

  80. 80.

    zhena gogolia

    June 23, 2023 at 9:58 am

    @AM in NC:

    They’re the Betty and Veronica of fascism.

    lol!

  81. 81.

    lowtechcyclist

    June 23, 2023 at 10:00 am

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    One of my colleagues once wore his boyscout uniform

    I was 13 when I dropped out of Boy Scouts.  I doubt I could have fit into my Boy Scout uniform when I was 15, even.  Assuming Mom hadn’t already thrown it away.

  82. 82.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    June 23, 2023 at 10:02 am

    @lowtechcyclist: He was a scout leader, I think. He had white hair curled up at the bottom and pointy beard and moustache a la Wild Bill Cody.

  83. 83.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    June 23, 2023 at 10:03 am

    @Betty Cracker:

    Sinema is obviously a higher functioning dingbat than Boebert, but my theory is she screwed the pooch too. IMO, the speculation that winning that senate seat was all a play to catapult herself into a lucrative post-politics career as a lobbyist or think-tank sinecure recipient is based on disbelief that the most obvious explanation could be true: she screwed the pooch spectacularly.

    I sometimes think how easy it would have been for Sinema to hold that seat for life, or at least long enough to manage a very comfortable retirement, as the Sensible Moderate, the Susan Collins of the Dem caucus, but she couldn’t resist look-at-me! stunts like the thumbs-down curtsey and the fuck off ring. There’s something weirdly and fundamentally immature about her

  84. 84.

    Redshift

    June 23, 2023 at 10:04 am

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    One of the better parts of being an English professor was that I could wear whatever I wanted. People expect professors to be eccentric. One of my colleagues once wore his boyscout uniform

    Sigh. Back when Ms. Redshift aspired to be a psychology professor, one of her profs told her if she wanted to be taken seriously, she needed to dress more professionally (implying skirts, panty hose, etc.) He said this while dressed in jeans and cowboy boots.

    Apparently only male psychology professors were allowed to be “eccentric.” In retrospect, that was the beginning of her migration to anthropology.

  85. 85.

    Suzanne

    June 23, 2023 at 10:05 am

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I used to work at a architecture firm based in California, and they had an old rule in the official dress code — that every principal ignored and refused to enforce — about sneakers/athletic footwear not being acceptable. One principal used to wear a three-piece suit with Chuck Taylors.

    I personally wear black Allbirds to work.

  86. 86.

    Roger Moore

    June 23, 2023 at 10:06 am

    @Geminid:

    Boebert almost talked herself out of the best job she’ll ever have. And she seems determined to lose it still.

    She’s a classic example of the Republicans’ dilemma.  On the one hand, they have to swing ever further to the right to please the base and win the primary.  On the other hand, they have to have at least enough credibility with the general electorate to win the general election.  For Republicans in safe districts, this isn’t a big problem; they can act as crazy as they like without fearing the general election.  For someone like Boebert, though, it’s a huge problem.  Pleasing both the base and the general electorate may be impossible.

  87. 87.

    Tony Jay

    June 23, 2023 at 10:06 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    And all of Sir Plastic’s little mouthfunnels online are pretending this is some kind of hatchet-job on their Dear Leader (See? Seeeeee? The Establishment is twying to destwoy him!) rather than a typically bone-stupid attempt by Nu-Lab Zentral Kommand to ‘humanise’ their animatronic figurehead and make him seem less of a glove-puppet for ‘senior Party fugures’.

    Last week the odious Wes Streeting was in the pages of the FTFGuardian underlining his Will to Power and giggling about his binge-drinking tendencies (I’m just like you, gross proles!) for the same reason. They’ve got to make these spiteful nobodies look like they have something about them that isn’t either a lifetime of Establishment arse-licking or a (shorter) lifetime of Blairite-Right corporate arse-licking.

    It may also be a factor that Starmer and Streeting’s eminence grise Peter Mandelson, the Blair-era walking sneer who masterminded the Labour Party end of the ‘Get Corbyn’ campaign was recently outed as a really, really good friend of Jeffrey Epstein. The UK Media are lips zipped on that, but it’s out there.

  88. 88.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    June 23, 2023 at 10:08 am

    @Redshift: It depended somewhat on where I was teaching. When I was at General Motors Institute, I did wear business clothes. That was also partly because it was such a male oriented place, and I needed to establish authority. But once I moved to Iowa State, I could wear whatever I wanted.

  89. 89.

    Tony Jay

    June 23, 2023 at 10:09 am

    As for Empty Greene and Boom-Boom Boebert, can’t we just fast forward to the part where they ‘star’ in a movie about a six-headed megalodon rising from the depths of the Great Salt Lake? Because that’s where this is heading and the bit between then and now is going to suck.

  90. 90.

    Denali5

    June 23, 2023 at 10:10 am

    @Kay

    Could you consider the strategy that the ESL teacher used to used with students who had BO?  Something like a generic “this is the standard dress code for our office”  not terribly defined but not targeted at just one person.

  91. 91.

    James E Powell

    June 23, 2023 at 10:10 am

    @Jeffro:

     trump believes the presidency belongs to him

    Just like the right-wingers believe the government and the country belongs to them. Sadly, most of the political press seems to agree.

  92. 92.

    Geminid

    June 23, 2023 at 10:11 am

    @Betty Cracker: Sinema will land on her feet. Senator is a prestigious job even if many Democrats despise her performance. She can get hired by a hedge fund, or make good money speaking at trade association conventions, or both. I’ve never seen a retired Senator not make good money if they wanted to.

    Boebert on the other hand faces a poor economic future of she loses that seat. She’s unintelligent, uninformed and unbearable.

  93. 93.

    catclub

    June 23, 2023 at 10:13 am

    @Redshift: One of the better parts of being an English professor was that I could wear whatever I wanted.

     

    all the great jobs let you wear something different. I think the example quoted was Captain Kangaroo.

  94. 94.

    Omnes Omnibus

    June 23, 2023 at 10:14 am

    @Steve in the ATL:  On Pledge Day, after the formal ceremony and lunch but before the formal evening round robin with the various sororities, my fraternity would do Pledge Bowling.  More or less, we would dress like that and venture out to a local bowling establishment until they asked us to leave.  Oddly, we needed to book a new place every year.

  95. 95.

    BellyCat

    June 23, 2023 at 10:16 am

    @rikyrah: Impeach 46 for what?😠😠

    Simple. He previously served under a black man AND is not only still fond of said black man he selected a black woman to be #2.

  96. 96.

    Roger Moore

    June 23, 2023 at 10:16 am

    @jonas:

    Um, it could be because there was no sub to actually find and rescue, just bits of debris from when it catastrophically imploded at a depth of over 13000 feet. WTF is wrong with these people?

    And it sounds as if the US Navy knew this almost immediately, since they heard the sound of the implosion using the system they have in place to listen for enemy submarines.  Supposedly they didn’t call off the search immediately because the report wasn’t conclusive, but far more likely they did know but didn’t want to reveal just how good their system is.

  97. 97.

    Betty Cracker

    June 23, 2023 at 10:17 am

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I agree. Possibly it’s an untreated personality disorder or something like that. She’s not stupid and seems to be a fairly skilled opportunist. She could have kept right on being eccentric and self-aggrandizing and doing lame Ted Lasso skits with Mitt Romney for years to come, but somehow she forgot that this all depended on not specifically telling her party’s base to go fuck itself. Oopsie!

  98. 98.

    Geminid

    June 23, 2023 at 10:17 am

    @Geminid: I heard an interview of Boebert early in her first term. What a motormouth! Sebastian Gorka could barely get a word in edgewise,. That was actually not such a bad thing, because Gorka is himself insufferable.

    It was funny though. Gorka did not even try to stop Boebert at the hard break. One second she was babbling away, the next second some lady was selling mattresses.

  99. 99.

    catclub

    June 23, 2023 at 10:19 am

    @Omnes Omnibus: ​
    &nbsp

    ;venture out to a local bowling establishment until they asked us to leave.

    I suspect they were also more drunk than the average bowler there.

  100. 100.

    SFAW

    June 23, 2023 at 10:20 am

    @James E Powell: ​
     

    Back in the day, a new hire wore shoes of a kind of casual style I cannot describe other than to say “all black tennis shoes” with his suit.

    Wow, you worked at the same firm as David Boies when he was a new hire?

  101. 101.

    Citizen Alan

    June 23, 2023 at 10:21 am

    @Kay: Are white dress shirts really the official male lawyer uniform where you are? I frequently wore darker dress shirts with my suits and have seen plenty of other people do so as well. For me, it was a weight thing, since wearing a white button-down shirt means that when I take my coat off, I look like the staypuff marshmallow man.

  102. 102.

    Omnes Omnibus

    June 23, 2023 at 10:22 am

    @catclub: Not when we got there…

  103. 103.

    catclub

    June 23, 2023 at 10:24 am

    @Redshift: Just now, CNN:

    The Supreme Court, in an 8-1 ruling, revived the Biden administration’s immigration guidelines that prioritize which noncitizens to deport, dismissing a challenge from two Republican state attorneys general who argued the policies conflicted with immigration law.

     

    relevant.

  104. 104.

    Matt McIrvin

    June 23, 2023 at 10:24 am

    @jonas: I think some people have this idea that there are bodies to recover, but I imagine the effect would be kind of like being shot from a cannon into a brick wall at supersonic speed.

  105. 105.

    BellyCat

    June 23, 2023 at 10:25 am

    @rikyrah: I see that Baud got there first (and more succinctly) at #19.

  106. 106.

    rikyrah

    June 23, 2023 at 10:25 am

    @jonas:

    They claim it’s for Biden refusing to “secure” the border or something.

     

    While, this on its face is bullshyt, I want for folks to expand their horizons.

    Their obsession with the ‘border’ is, and always has been, racism.

    But, now, watch out for them to creep in how the ‘ cartels’ are such a threat to the United States.

     

    Did you know that every GOP candidate is on record as being willing to invade Mexico with American troops?

    The answer to WHY that is my friends..

     

    THE NATIONALIZED 700 BILLION DOLLARS WORTH OF LITHIUM JUST FOUND IN MEXICO.

     

    Watch out for how much the cartels are going to creep into ‘border ‘ conversations from the GOP.

  107. 107.

    BellyCat

    June 23, 2023 at 10:28 am

    @SFAW: Good thing there are no unwritten rules in the legal profession.

  108. 108.

    Matt McIrvin

    June 23, 2023 at 10:28 am

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: At tech firms, the software engineers tend to dress casually and it’s almost a uniform in itself, but at one bigcorp I got gently reprimanded for wearing shorts in the office–a manager a few levels up didn’t like that, they weren’t really accustomed to having a software operation’s culture in-house.

  109. 109.

    Citizen Alan

    June 23, 2023 at 10:30 am

    @waspuppet: Well. there’s always Onlyfans.

  110. 110.

    Matt McIrvin

    June 23, 2023 at 10:30 am

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: And no result will be enough to even things up. Look at how they still complain about the unfair treatment of Robert Bork–the story grows in the telling.

  111. 111.

    Omnes Omnibus

    June 23, 2023 at 10:30 am

    @Citizen Alan: Light blue is okay as well.  Stripes or pink if you aren’t in court or meeting with clients that day.  Honestly, when I was clerking, at a big firm, or in government, it was just easier.  Gray or blue suit, white/blue shirt, and a non-Trumpy tie.  You can just grab stuff from your closet without having to think too much.  Great if you aren’t a morning person.

    ETA: OTOH, I am wearing jeans and my Jack Purcells today.  Different firms, different rules and Madison is very casual.

  112. 112.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    June 23, 2023 at 10:31 am

    @Matt McIrvin: the scene in the Sopranos where Carmine Lupertazzi told Tony that a don should never wear shorts was reportedly inspired by an actual message to David Chase from a Five Families higher-up

  113. 113.

    Roger Moore

    June 23, 2023 at 10:34 am

    @Redshift:

    Apparently only male psychology professors were allowed to be “eccentric.”

    To be fair, it probably also had something to do with tenure.  Once you have tenure, you can be as eccentric as you like and they can’t really do anything about it.  Until then, you have to follow the rules.

  114. 114.

    Dopey-o

    June 23, 2023 at 10:34 am

    @Kay: I’m off to a CLE with our new hire. I want to tell him he has to wear different shirts- he wears dark dress shirts

    Tell him that he needs to be invisible at this point in his career. Blend in. Ears open, mouth shut.

  115. 115.

    Citizen Alan

    June 23, 2023 at 10:39 am

    @Omnes Omnibus: Well, I suppose I never wore anything more exotic than a blue shirt. Except I did have a very nice maroon shirt that I wore under a black suit with a black that looked pretty snazzy. Though i’m pretty sure I only wore it when I was before a judge who I knew went to mississippi state.

  116. 116.

    Roger Moore

    June 23, 2023 at 10:43 am

    @Matt McIrvin:

    I remember my father (and electrical engineer who specialized in analog IC design) joking that he had been taught that dressing like the boss was the key to success, but he just couldn’t bring himself to wear flip-flops to work.  His company had its roots in Silicon Valley, so it wasn’t too surprising they had such a casual dress code.

  117. 117.

    Redshift

    June 23, 2023 at 10:48 am

    @Matt McIrvin: True story from a software company I worked at:

    Our CEO, who was not generally uptight about dress style, encountered my friend Mark in the hallway, wearing t-shirt, shorts and socks.

    CEO: “Mark, you’re not wearing any shoes.”

    Mark replies brightly: “I’m from Arkansas!”, and offers no further explanation.

  118. 118.

    Dopey-o

    June 23, 2023 at 10:49 am

    @Suzanne: @Dorothy A. Winsor: I used to work at a architecture firm based in California, and they had an old rule in the official dress code — that every principal ignored and refused to enforce — about sneakers/athletic footwear not being acceptable.

    in the 80s, when I worked at a small arch’l firm in Sam Frisco, the Argentine lead architect sneered at my black Addidas.

    I later learned that almost all Argentinian men had that fetish. Told me that a woman in Birkenstocks was unf*******. You know what I mean.

    ETA I was the nerd who brought his own computer into the office. You’d think the IT Department would get a little respect…

  119. 119.

    Redshift

    June 23, 2023 at 10:50 am

    @Roger Moore: i used to wear flip flops to work and then leave them at my desk and walk around barefoot. When casual Fridays became a thing at mainstream companies, I used to joke that for us to have a noticeable casual Friday, we’d have to go naked.

  120. 120.

    catclub

    June 23, 2023 at 10:55 am

    @Matt McIrvin: Look at how they still complain about the unfair treatment of Robert Bork

     

    Bork got a VOTE. Republicans voted against him.  Now, Merrick Garland….

  121. 121.

    Steeplejack

    June 23, 2023 at 11:00 am

    @Kay:

    I’ve read the replies (down to about #110), and people may be overthinking it. The kid might not be making a faulty fashion choice; he might just be clueless. There’s a nonzero chance the only times he’s ever worn a coat and tie was at the prom, relatives’ weddings or funerals, occasional church, etc. Moving to a “dress up every day” environment is a big change. You can’t just “dress for the prom” every day. Fortunately there was no mention of ruffles on the shirts!

    When I got out of college back in the dark ages and went to work for a daily newspaper, my hurdle going from semi-hippie casual to everyday business was shoes. I associated “dress shoes” with suits, and I had to switch from “dressy” dress shoes to “everyday” dress shoes—sensible leather loafers or Oxfords, etc. Nothing too shiny or fancy. And comfortable!

    TL;DR, maybe the kid just needs to be told that there’s a bit of a uniform that goes with the job and here are the guidelines—white or light blue shirt or whatever. You don’t have to bring it up in the context of “let’s fix this horrible choice you’ve been making.” You can still judge him silently in your mind. 😹

  122. 122.

    West of the Rockies

    June 23, 2023 at 11:01 am

    Boebert has a nasty little mouth,  a down-turned gash that exudes malice.

  123. 123.

    Suzanne

    June 23, 2023 at 11:02 am

    @Redshift:

    Mark replies brightly: “I’m from Arkansas!”, and offers no further explanation. 

    So Mr. Suzanne’s mother and her family are from Fayetteville. When his grandfather died, he packed quickly to get out there and then realized, once he landed, that he forgot his black dress shoes. So he looked in his dad’s closet to see if there were dress shoes that he could borrow. Saw that dad only had brown ones. So the morning of the funeral, he went running to Kohl’s, because they opened first, and bought the only pair of black dress shoes that they had.

    Then his dad showed up at the funeral wearing the brown dress shoes.

    Then my MIL’s estate attorney showed up wearing Louboutins (bright red sole, of course).

    Then everyone else showed up, wearing essentially khakis and muddy boots and maaaaaaaybe something as dressy a a polo shirt.

    I was horrified. LOL.

  124. 124.

    UncleEbeneezer

    June 23, 2023 at 11:03 am

    Asians in early America– Asian sailors came to the west coast of America in 1587. Within a century they were settled in colonies from Mexico to Peru:
    Cape Sebastian in Oregon perches above two forested declivities along a rocky patch of the state’s southern coast. Travel there today, and you are likely to miss a roadside marker that reads:

    Spanish navigators were the first to explore the North American Pacific Coast. Beginning fifty years after Columbus discovered the Western continents, Sebastian Vizciano [sic] saw this cape in 1603 and named it after the patron saint of the day of his discovery. Other navigators, Spanish, British, and American, followed a century and a half later.

    Standing before this sign, I winced rather predictably as I read ‘discovery’. But simmering beneath my displeasure with this word was a deeper conviction that Sebastián Vizcaíno’s voyage was, indeed, significant, though not in the ways that the sign suggests. Thousands of miles to the east, in Seville, the old centre of the Spanish Empire, I had stumbled upon Vizcaíno’s voyage in the dusty volumes of treasury records for the port of Acapulco, Mexico. Buried in line after line of winding, Baroque script were curious notations – ‘chino’ and ‘japón’ – next to the names of seven sailors that Vizcaíno had recruited for his voyage up the North American coast. To the tune of carriages rumbling through Seville’s cobbled streets and the crinkle of centuries-old pages turning, I read the names again and again:

    Antón Tomás
    Antonio Bengala
    Francisco Miguel
    Cristóbal Catoya
    Agustín Longalo
    Lucas Cate
    Agustín Sao

    Seven Asian sailors – entombed by an archive and forgotten by human memory – had sailed with Vizcaíno to what is now Oregon. Where in the chronology of Asian American history could these sailors fit? Flip to the beginning of most books on Asian America, and you will find no content earlier than the 19th century. You will be in the world of the Gold Rush, the transcontinental railroad, indenture, and the San Francisco and Los Angeles Chinatowns.

    …

  125. 125.

    Suzanne

    June 23, 2023 at 11:05 am

    @Matt McIrvin: At tech firms, the software engineers tend to dress casually and it’s almost a uniform in itself, but at one bigcorp I got gently reprimanded for wearing shorts in the office–a manager a few levels up didn’t like that, they weren’t really accustomed to having a software operation’s culture in-house.

    The IT and Revit guys at my company all look like they just rolled out of bed. No one says anything to them about it, but they all got moved to an inconspicuous area of the office.

    The engineers got put next to them. LMAO.

    ETA: When I refer to engineers, I mean the real engineers….. electrical, mechanical, structural. Why the IT industry calls people engineers and architects is beyond me.

  126. 126.

    Ruckus

    June 23, 2023 at 11:12 am

    @Betty Cracker:

    I see these clowns as possibly a desperate push for extreme conservative “ideals.” Sure there are conservative folk who will go along, for the “win.” But it seems that even a lot of conservatives are seeing these 2 as being way beyond the pale. A lot of this looks to me to be desperation for conservatism to make some possible movement at all. The only thing that conservative “policies” do any more is take humanity backwards, rather than slowing it down. It’s desperation because it has become painfully obvious that conservatism really is trying to kill off those they don’t like, which is anyone that has more brain power than the salt that they pump into every open wound that they cause to humanity. And this seems to be not just here in the US but around the world. Is it possible that access to information, access to the wider populations is actually showing that humans do not have to accept being fucked over? I think it is possible, if not happening right in front of us. If I’m correct it will be a fight, change doesn’t come easy, and massive change is even harder, but it is necessary to create a better, more equal world.

  127. 127.

    Mr. Bemused Senior

    June 23, 2023 at 11:20 am

    @Suzanne:

    Why the IT industry calls people engineers and architects is beyond me.

    I was lucky to learn about engineering principles fairly early in my career from a senior hardware manager.

    I think it’s a mostly unfulfilled wish that software developers would at least think about these ideas. My experience is it’s unusual.

     

    @Suzanne:

  128. 128.

    evodevo

    June 23, 2023 at 11:24 am

    @AM in NC: When GunBunny Boebert first came on the scene, I remarked how her facial contours, especially the chin, reminded me of the Wicked Witch of the West (played by Margaret Hamilton)…time hasn’t dissuaded me from the opinion either

  129. 129.

    OverTwistWillie

    June 23, 2023 at 11:26 am

    @Matt McIrvin:

    Think a cylinder in internal combustion.

    Gasoline engine compression happens at ~120ish psi. At Titanic depth it is 6000 psi. O2 + fuel + instant pressure = BOOM.

    Not just the Navy knew. The crew on the support ship knew the score. Sub was trying to ascend, boom on sonar, no more signals.

  130. 130.

    Ken

    June 23, 2023 at 11:31 am

    @Omnes Omnibus: my fraternity would do Pledge Bowling.  […]  Oddly, we needed to book a new place every year.

    Was that because of your clothing, or because you were sliding pledges down the lanes into the pins?

  131. 131.

    Ruckus

    June 23, 2023 at 11:35 am

    @rikyrah:

    In a nut shell – Yes.

  132. 132.

    gene108

    June 23, 2023 at 11:36 am

    Republicans impeached President Clinton.

    Republicans wanted to impeach Obama in 2014, but Speaker Boehner squashed those discussions because impeaching Obama would wake up enough non-regular voting Democrats to hurt R’s election chances.

    Theyve submitted articles of impeachment to committees with President Biden.

    TL;DR: Republicans have impeached or seriously thought about impeaching every Dem president for the last 30 years.

  133. 133.

    Ruckus

    June 23, 2023 at 11:37 am

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    At least they ‘re not threatening fisticuffs.

    Publicly.

  134. 134.

    The Moar You Know

    June 23, 2023 at 11:41 am

    There’s something weirdly and fundamentally immature about her

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Sinema did a massive jump in income and social status in a very, very short period of time.  Instead of sitting back quietly and taking a couple of years to figure out how to be the person she had just become, she decided she was smart and special enough to do it her way.

    I too think she has absolutely fucked herself.  Repubs will never vote for her; now, neither will Dems.  And because she’s rejected by both parties, there will be no sweet think-tank gigs.

  135. 135.

    Paul in KY

    June 23, 2023 at 11:53 am

    @Kay: Just say: ‘Jeff, you’re not in the mafia, you’re a lawyer and have to dress like one at this point in your career. If you are as good a lawyer as I think you are, there’ll be a time when you can wear whatever you please. However, that time is not now.’

  136. 136.

    Roger Moore

    June 23, 2023 at 11:58 am

    @Redshift:

    I probably should have said that my father worked for Hewlett Packard and then various spin-off companies, so his company was setting the trend for casual dress code in tech companies, not just following it.

  137. 137.

    Ruckus

    June 23, 2023 at 11:59 am

    @Geminid:

    Boebert almost talked herself out of the best job she’ll ever have. And she seems determined to lose it still.

    I’m going with “She’s not too bright.. More like a 5 watt bulb – in a 100 watt world”

  138. 138.

    Roger Moore

    June 23, 2023 at 12:00 pm

    @catclub:

    As I like to say, the Bork nomination was a deliberate provocation.  He had been promised a Supreme Court nomination in exchange for his role in the Saturday Night Massacre, so Reagan’s nomination was deeply corrupt.  It says a lot about the media that they continue to ignore that facet of the nomination in favor of the Republican story about Bork being rejected for no reason.

  139. 139.

    schrodingers_cat

    June 23, 2023 at 12:02 pm

    @Roger Moore: The media bats for team R. It is dominated by the same demographic that R party favors.

  140. 140.

    Paul in KY

    June 23, 2023 at 12:03 pm

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: That’s sorta veering over into ‘weirdo’.

  141. 141.

    Paul in KY

    June 23, 2023 at 12:06 pm

    @Roger Moore: Also probably good training for the people who do that kind of thing.

  142. 142.

    Ruckus

    June 23, 2023 at 12:07 pm

    @jonas:

    You spelled it wrong.

    It’s Redumblican.

    Rethuglican also works, but then the 2 you are discussing aren’t all that.

  143. 143.

    Paul in KY

    June 23, 2023 at 12:08 pm

    @Matt McIrvin: It’s like a coke can being crushed instantly to something the size of a penny, with you inside at time.

  144. 144.

    Eolirin

    June 23, 2023 at 12:10 pm

    @Suzanne: Because good software developers do need to think at an architectural level (I don’t have a better word for it, even if it’s different than architecture as a profession), and even if it’s digital the overall work and the structure of the work is very analogous to having to deal with real world engineering challenges. And I should note, with just as much consequence to the functional infrastructure of modern life as, say, bridge construction. A hospital’s ability to function is now just as tied to it’s EHR system not falling over and catching fire as it is to the structural engineers making sure the building doesn’t fall over.

    Not that there aren’t a ton of shit software developers and that the terms are subsequently overused.

  145. 145.

    frosty

    June 23, 2023 at 12:15 pm

    @James E Powell: ​&Many years ago a boss gave me a bonus to buy a suit. I went to Jos A Banks and bought one. The first time I wore it was to the interview for the job I left his company for.​

  146. 146.

    Geminid

    June 23, 2023 at 12:16 pm

    @The Moar You Know: Hedge funds would hire Sinema. They owe her, and they can pay better than think tanks. She has other possibilities and will make out fine.

    I think Sinema may have a law degree also, and could be brought into a law firm’s partnership. A Senator can be a prestigious addition to a firm’s letterhead. That’s the route George Allen took after he lost to Jim Webb in 2006, and he did not have that much legal experience.

    An engaged Democrat might exclaim, “Prestige! How can someone say that Sinema has prestige?” But they would be projecting their contempt for Sinema onto the majority of people who do not see things the way engaged Democrats do.

    There is also some people’s desire to see a politician they despise flop after leaving office. Wishful thinking, in my opinion.

  147. 147.

    Eolirin

    June 23, 2023 at 12:19 pm

    @Geminid: The tell will be if she actually runs again. If she actually thinks she can win, she’s just delusional.

    If she steps back and gets a cushy gig in return for the sweet tax breaks she secured for those hedge fund guys, she just didn’t want to be a senator and, having already secured what she actually wanted, was always playing for the exits.

  148. 148.

    Madeleine

    June 23, 2023 at 12:20 pm

    @UncleEbeneezer: Thanks. This is an interesting article, even eye-opening.

  149. 149.

    Ruckus

    June 23, 2023 at 12:31 pm

    52 yrs ago I reported to the ship I served on for 2 yrs. One of the sailors on that ship was gay. At least one. How do I know? I was downtown Charleston one afternoon and saw him making out on the sea wall with someone who was a guy, or the ugliest woman with the breasts of a six year old girl who needed a shave. Also as most everyone else also knew him to be gay, the bet was pretty strong that he was. Being gay was not technically allowed at all in the military. However, there were gay men, and I imagine woman, in the military, because at the minimum the chance that someone gay was drafted or joined was rather largely above zero. And I also never met, out of the almost 300 enlisted men on that ship, anyone who gave a rat’s ass that he was gay. Which is the only part that amazed me. And I’ve known quite a few gay humans that knew my sister. This is not a new thing in any way, shape or form. It’s quite possible that the first gay human possibly was the third human on the planet. Or even one of the first two.

  150. 150.

    Omnes Omnibus

    June 23, 2023 at 12:36 pm

    @Ken: Both and.

  151. 151.

    Geminid

    June 23, 2023 at 12:43 pm

    @Eolirin: I think Sinema wanted to be a Senator for more than one term. But she made a bet: that Arizona Democrats would accept her Centrist stance. After all, Arizona was considered a red state when in 2018 Sinema became the first Democratic Senator elected in Arizona since Dennis DeConcini in the 1980s.

    But Mark Kelly’s and Joe Biden’s wins in 2020 showed Arizona Democrats they could do better, and Kelly’s reelection last year confirmed that. Now Sinema polls a distant third in 3-way matches, and it’s hard to see how she turns that around. Sinema could run as a spoiler, but the 3-way polling shows that she doesn’t hurt Ruben Gallego much if any.

    The scoundrels over at No Labels might be glad to run a Senator like Sinema next year. I don’t think she’d peel off many Democratic voters, though.

  152. 152.

    Ruckus

    June 23, 2023 at 12:48 pm

    @Suzanne:

    I no longer own leather shoes. I do own a suit that I haven’t worn in over 20 yrs and I used to own a tux, which was worn to the yearly awards banquet when I worked in pro sports. Anyone want a black/thin pinstripe  42 long Hart/Schaffner/Marx suit? Pristine condition…

    And BTW the foot wear I most often put on is flip flops. CA does have it’s advantages…

  153. 153.

    Matt McIrvin

    June 23, 2023 at 12:50 pm

    @Suzanne: It wasn’t always like that, at least not everywhere–my father was a systems programmer at General Electric in the 1970s and he wore a suit, shined his shoes and carried a briefcase to work every day.

    I get the impression that the dressing-down started in Silicon Valley around that time. One of the ways Atari attracted engineers and programmers despite being in many ways a sleazy and exploitative place to work was by having this internal party atmosphere, when many of the other companies you could work for still had the classic gray-flannel-suit environment.

  154. 154.

    rikyrah

    June 23, 2023 at 12:52 pm

    @Geminid:

     I think Sinema wanted to be a Senator. But she made a bad bet: that Arizona Democrats would accept her Centrist stance

     

    I consider Tester a centrist and he just doesn’t bother me the way that Sinema does. I don’t think she has any core beliefs. And, she goes out of her way to put up her middle finger to Democrats.

    But, you are correct…2020 and 2022 showed that we can do better in Arizona.

    This ain’t West Virginia where Manchin is all we have.

  155. 155.

    Roger Moore

    June 23, 2023 at 12:57 pm

    @Matt McIrvin: ​
     

    I get the impression that the dressing-down started in Silicon Valley around that time.

    It’s older than that. My father started at HP in 1966, and they had already started going with a much more casual dress code. My impression is that HP was ground zero for a lot of the “Silicon Valley” business style, since so many of the early SV people started at HP before going on to their own companies.

  156. 156.

    dnfree

    June 23, 2023 at 1:12 pm

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: ​
      Back in the day (1970s) there was a very young “professor” in the computer science department at Northern Illinois University who always wore a red sweater, regardless of the season or the weather. He was just known as “red sweater guy” to the students. (He was so young I’m not sure he had even graduated from college.)

  157. 157.

    dnfree

    June 23, 2023 at 1:16 pm

    @Eolirin: ​
    Remember this law from the 1970s?
    Weinberg’s Law
    If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker that came along would destroy civilization.

  158. 158.

    Chris T.

    June 23, 2023 at 1:20 pm

    @rikyrah:

    THE NATIONALIZED 700 BILLION DOLLARS WORTH OF LITHIUM JUST FOUND IN MEXICO.

    That’s a dot of lollars. Er, I mean, a lith of lotium. But anyway lithium is all over the place, on the surface of dried-out desert lakes. The more interesting question is how cheap-and-easy it is to recover it.

  159. 159.

    Origuy

    June 23, 2023 at 1:43 pm

    @UncleEbeneezer: Read 1493, by Charles Mann. The Spanish had a thriving trade with the Chinese through Manila in the 16th century. They were mining silver in Mexico and shipping it out from Acapulco to the Philippines. They brought back silk, porcelain, spices, and other luxury items. A lot of it went back to Europe, but some of it stayed in their colonies. Not surprising that they also brought back crew members from the Far East.

  160. 160.

    StringOnAStick

    June 23, 2023 at 1:49 pm

    @Kay: Just mention to him that white/light colored shirts are so much cooler in the summer, and do it on a roasting hot day so it sinks in.

  161. 161.

    StringOnAStick

    June 23, 2023 at 2:14 pm

    @UncleEbeneezer: Interesting about the Asian sailors on those very early voyages.  We went to the southern Oregon coast last week and like everywhere else we’ve been along this state’s coast, it is incredibly, boat sinkingly rugged with lots of spiky bits of rock sticking out well away from shore, some only visible at low tide.  I suppose that part of why Oregon in general and the coast in particular didn’t experience the incredible growth of California is because access from the sea is so difficult, and especially so back before radar and other technology to avoid nasty sharp rocks and wrecking your ships.

  162. 162.

    The Very Reverend Crimson Fire of Compassion

    June 23, 2023 at 3:11 pm

    @AM in NC: “They’re the Betty and Veronica of fascism.”  This is brilliant.  That is all.

  163. 163.

    SteveinPHX

    June 23, 2023 at 4:21 pm

    @Geminid: ​
     
    I voted for Sinema in the last election. Won’t happen again.
    Dems I talk politics with feel the same way.

  164. 164.

    Kay

    June 23, 2023 at 10:40 pm

    Thank you all for the suggestions on the dress shirt dilemma. I think I am going to ask an older male lawyer I know to talk to him. The lawyer I have in mind is a quiet, kind of formal person but he’s good with people and kind. Also- a good dresser! :)

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