I am pretty sure this is a big Joe Biden deal, but I really don’t completely understand the ruling and the implications of the ruling.
Can the BJ peeps who are attorneys weigh in? (And everyone else, of course!)
Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Columbia
New: DC Circuit unsealed its opinion in the fight over Rep. Scott Perry’s phone records in the Jan. 6 probe — panel rejected both sides’ proposed categorical rules, sent back for “communication-by-communication” reviewhttps://t.co/Abs7Qujoeh
Prev: https://t.co/0Lf4Wk9Hhd pic.twitter.com/5Cuc08QWc7
— Zoe Tillman (@ZoeTillman) September 13, 2023
It sounds to me like it’s mostly good news for the DOJ and Jack Smith, but “it sounds like good news to me” gives me no confidence at all!
Hoping for more info!
Open thread.
Betty
It just means, as I understand it, that the Court must separate out what is legitimate legislative communication from what may be connected to “campaigning” for Trump’s re-election
Roger Moore
@Betty:
This sounds right to me, both in terms of understanding the court’s ruling and that the court made the right call. It’s a classic problem when the government seizes a bunch of stuff. Some of it is responsive to the warrant and some isn’t. This has always been a problem, but it’s much worse with things like phones, where there’s all kinds of information jumbled together and it’s not practical to sort through it during the seizure.
Suzanne
I just saw that the Mittster is declining to run for re-election. What, another six years with those freaks didn’t sound like the best way to spend your retirement?!
narya
@Betty: Agree. I think one proposal was two groups: everything to another legislator/member of Congress was a speech-and-debate-protected communication, everything else was okay. This option means that if Perry is doing something that is provably PLOTTING with members of Congress, they could fight to include it, I suppose. I don’t think Jack is waiting around for Perry’s phone, though.
dmsilev
@Suzanne: He’s both an objectively horrible person and better than any plausible replacement.
Suzanne
@dmsilev: Agree.
I think it’s interesting that the Mormon senators on the GOP side are having a hard time. Flake and Romney, both from prominent LDS families, both bailed. I can see why they find it difficult.
narya
@Suzanne: And Randy Bowers.
laura
Taint Team has entered the chat.
Burnspbesq
I read it as mostly a win for Perry. The tell is the authorship by Rao, one of the worst Trump-nominated judges.
On remand, the district court will have to do a document-by-document in camera review and write a voluminous opinion justifying its conclusions, which will necessarily give Perry a second bite of the apple. This will surely take a while. But Perry will eventually get his. The statute of limitations is his friend, but it’s not that into him.
frosty
Put that sleazy bastard away! I’ve canvassed against him a couple of times with really good Democrats who anyone from any party could get behind. He wins every time, even in his new district. I want him gone. He’s an embarrassment to PA. And even to Pennsyltucky.
NotMax
@Suzanne
Will Utah now hork up someone more whackadoodle than its other senator, Mike Lee?
Magic 8-ball sez: “Sadly, yes.”
ArchTeryx
@Suzanne: Mitt was a weird one. When he ran for President, he seemed to be the first candidate to just resort to lying about everything, even the most trivial matters – the dude couldn’t tell the truth about the color of the sky. That was the technique Trump honed to perfection. Mittens was an absolute choad who wouldn’t have known the truth if it skullf**ked him.
And yet, when push came to shove, he was one of the only ones to stand up for democracy, probably because the Mormons would not do well AT ALL in a straight-up Christian theocracy. They don’t like heathens like the LDS.
The replacement’s pretty much guaranteed to be worse, but probably not as bad as the Christian hacks from places like Texas.
narya
Interesting about the hedge around communications with the executive branch.
jonas
@NotMax: Who was the Never Trumper who tried to take on Lee last time as an independent? Maybe he’ll give it another shot now. He ran a good campaign as I recall, but of course much of Utah is deep in the throes of Trumpism, so it could just be so much pissing in the wind at this point.
piratedan
@NotMax: I present to you…. Senator Lauren Boebert representing the great state of Utah, figure if it worked for Tuberville, why not Lauren whose congressional district is Utah adjacent…. “close enough”.
tobie
What an awful panel for anyone who believes in the rule of law. Henderson, Katsas and Rao are three of the most conservative judges on the DC court of appeals. Katsas and Rao were of course appointed by Trump. Henderson was appointed by G. H. W. Bush, but seems to have shifted further right since then. Recall that Henderson and Rao voted to let the DOJ dismiss all charges against Flynn.
laura
Mittens will be free to spend more time with his car elevator, so he’s got that going for him.
jonas
In a sense, he was the first Republican to really lean into the new ethos in political reporting whereby reporters are constantly in a defensive crouch covering conservatives lest they be accused of “liberal bias.” What that meant, though, is that Romney quickly learned that he could just lie like a starched sheet and
stenographersreporters have to just put it out there and then explain that “opinions differ” about lead’s toxicity or whatever rather than push back or call it a lie.Roger Moore
@ArchTeryx:
When you’re surrounded by worms, it’s easy to confuse an exoskeleton for backbone.
jonas
@tobie: Rao is a real fucking piece of work. Up there with that Kazmaryk nutjob in Texas, easily the worst person on the federal bench.
Betty
@frosty: I do think Rick Coplen, Adam’s friend, is running a much better campaign this time. Well organized and doing professional fundraising. Between having a strong opponent and people seeing more of his MAGA madness, I believe we may finally see Perry lose. If anyone is interested, you can donate to Rick Coplen on Act Blue.
Roberto el oso
@jonas: The trajectory tracing the moral and mental disintegration of the GOP presidential candidates, from, say, Reagan on thru Trump, reminds me of that saying about how one goes about losing an immense amount of wealth …. “bit by bit and then all at once”.
ArchTeryx
@Roger Moore: Oh, he did it out of pure self-preservation. He was, IIRC, a senior member of the LDS church. The laity might be all-in on Trumpism but a senior member would have a longer view. He’d know Trumpism would be nothing but bad news, in the long-term, for the Mormons, even if the idiots in the pews didn’t think the leopards would eat THEIR faces.
BlueGuitarist
Scott Perry is beatable!
Trump won that district, PA-10, by 4. Cook rates it likely Republican.
Democratic challengers
Rick Coplen – of whom Adam spoke highly – narrowly lost primary last time to
Shamaine Daniels, also running again, underfunded did about as the well-funded previous Dem.
new candidate recently announced, Mike O’Brien.
down ballot overlaps
PA Senate 15, currently R but redistricted to Biden +15
PA House 88 (trump by 1.5)
We need 3 state senate seats. The other key ones are PAS-37 and 49.
hold state house by only 1 seat.
Suzanne
@ArchTeryx: Yeah, I feel weird about Mitt. (I should note that I grew up in a very LDS place and have many friends/acquaintances who are tangentially related to him. One close enough to be at my wedding.) I used to think he was just utter garbage. And my opinion of him hasn’t really…. improved? But I don’t feel that as strongly as I used to.
The LDS tend to be conservative but the brashness the GOP has adopted in recent years is difficult for them to take, I think. And the anti-immigrant feeling is not a good fit for a group with a recent cultural memory of being othered. There’s always been a significant minority of them who are on the Dem side.
HumboldtBlue
@Suzanne:
Mormons know what Christian persecution feels like.
Elizabelle
@Roberto el oso: That’s a really good analogy. Bit by bit, and then all at once.
BlueGuitarist
@Roberto el oso:
one version:
“gradually, then suddenly”
E Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises
NotMax
@piratedan
Utah elect a woman to the Senate? Maybe in another 100 years.
//
(They did have a female governor, but she succeeded to the post from lt. governor for a truncated term and was denied nomination by her party for a run on her own.)
WaterGirl
@narya: Hedge in which direction? Can you say more?
MattF
@ArchTeryx: There’s a Romney biography scheduled to come out next month. Said to have, um, negative comments about his Senate colleagues. Maybe just marketing, but maybe Romney learned a thing or two from recent events. We shall see.
WaterGirl
@tobie: Can’t Jack Smith take this en banc to the entire court? Because this is just a ruling from 3 conservative justices. Correct?
Suzanne
@HumboldtBlue: I think it’s more a temperament thing. Mormons have this very strong cultural value of forced cheer, politeness, gentleness, extreme pleasantness. I think they find the general tenor of MAGA — the fighting, vulgarity, general trashiness, insults — utterly exhausting and not something they want to associate with.
Lots of them will still vote for the evangelicals.
BlueGuitarist
@Betty:
interesting! can you say more about the campaign being better?
Sorry i missed this before i posted my comment at 24
(i’m slow….)
WaterGirl
@BlueGuitarist:
People are saying Adam with no last name. Who is Adam?
BlueGuitarist
@jonas:
Evan McMullin
BlueGuitarist
@WaterGirl:
Adam Silverman
https://balloon-juice.com/2022/04/13/to-answer-commenter-bettys-question-i-know-rick-coplen-hes-good-people-and-if-i-still-lived-in-pa-and-lived-in-his-district-i-would-both-vote-for-him-and-volunteer-to-help-him/
Kelly
Rule 34?
narya
@WaterGirl: They don’t lump communications with the exec branch in with communications with legislative branch–they say that it’s case by case there, too, as it is with the legislative branch, with the Gravel test, which I’m not gonna look up. Basically, if someone can argue that communications are not related to either legislation or to duties for the legislative branch, the government can have ’em. But I am NAL!
NotMax
@Suzanne
There remains a dim smidgen of George in Willard which he’s, fortunately, been unable to exorcize.
oldster
@Roger Moore:
I’m going to steal this.
tobie
@WaterGirl: Other people are more qualified to answer the question about en banc.
But in terms of expedience, it seems like it’s 6 of one, a half dozen of the other. You either appeal and face counter appeals and all this takes time.
Or you accept the ruling and prepare for disputes about whether a message has a legitimate legislative purpose or not. I imagine that the categorization of every important message will be challenged. What a headache.
laura
@Kelly: yep. I’ll look forward to Popehat’s serious trouble, because you know Josh will find any/every excuse to goad Popehat into saying taint team as many times as he can.
Jay
For those interested in the latest Conspiracy Theory in the Reich Wing cesspools that your MAGAt Uncle will be ranting on about at the last nice early fall BBQ,
a debunking,…….
https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2023/09/13/us-neo-nazi-says-he-fought-in-ukraine-records-place-him-in-florida/
catclub
This sounds just like the bankers explanation of buying Collateralized debt obligations. They knew they would end in tears, (i.e they had the longer view) but since they were the only game in town you had to dance while the music was playing.
catclub
@Jay:
but which side did he say he fought for?
cain
@Suzanne: Bain wants him back – and I mean the Batman villain.
catclub
@WaterGirl:
He and Eve were a couple.
Trivia Man
My Mormon family flat out advocates to make the USA a Christian theocracy. I always rebut – once they finish with atheists like me you are 100% next on the list to purge. They refuse to acknowledge that.
Who destroyed Mittens in the SC primary? Evangelicals.
He had a few moments of hone, as did McCain, but overall a net negative and it’s not even close. They pretended to be what trump actually is … and they fell short.
Mai Naem mobile >
@Suzanne: there’s a guy running in the Dem primary for AZ-1(Schweikert’s seat.) His name is Andrew Horne. He’s a dentist, grew up here and his bio says he’s an Eagle Scout which to me is a pretty good sign that he’s LDS. The primary has Andrei Cherny,Amit Shah(rumor that he’s a male Kyrsten Sinema), Marlene Galan Woods(the not Kari Lake ex tv anchor) and Horne. I wonder how many people in the general would assume Horne is related to Tom Horne(he’s not) and vote for him even as a Dem.
WaterGirl
@BlueGuitarist: Thank you.
We are supposed to remember that from 18 months ago? :-)
cain
@jonas: Another worthless fellow Indian. Shame on her and her attacks on the LGBTQ+ community and general racial justice.
Jeffro
@MattF: there is a huge and jaw-dropping piece up in The Atlantic right now…Mitt just let everything fly to McKay Coppins.
I’m reading it now and I think it will have an impact on the last 10-20% of the GOP who just can’t do it any more with trump.
WaterGirl
@narya: Okay, that’s helpful, even if you’re not a lawyer.
Jay
@catclub:
Ukraine.
Suzanne
@Mai Naem mobile >: So I went to school with some of the Horne kids. Yes LDS.
Marlene Galan Woods is the widow of Grant Woods, former AG. Grant went to my high school (years before me) and his family attended the same church I did (Presbyterian). Grant and Marlene used to show up on holidays. My impression was generically positive.
Baud
@Jeffro:
Hmm. I wonder if Biden will snare him to speak at the Dem convention.
HumboldtBlue
@Jay:
I read that earlier.
In more good news for us — bad news for Fox:
Jeffro
BlueGuitarist
@Suzanne:
Article in The Atlantic quotes Romney saying
don’t know if he’ll ever get what to do about that
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2023/11/mitt-romney-retiring-senate-trump-mcconnell/675306/
ETA as Jeffro already said,
ArchTeryx
@Trivia Man: They never believe the leopards are going to eat THEIR faces until a whole troop of them show up and start ripping them off. By then it’s far, far too late.
See: Jewish supporters of the NSDAP party. How did that end for them?
Jeffro
cain
@Trivia Man: I would actually say that the Mormon is higher because “they are doing it wrong” eg it is heretical vs atheists who don’t believe in anything – but you know there is always a chance they can be converted back to the “proper” faith.
sab
@Jeffro: I wonder if he wants Coppins to write a book about him. Isn’t Coppins also LDS?
CaseyL
@Jeffro: I just read that, too. A stunning article, but it doesn’t correspond with the general mendacity of his 2012 Presidential campaign.
Well, neither do their voters, so that’s not a problem for them.
Jeffro
McConnell, at least, understands what Dems could…and should…use their eventual majorities for:
The horror!
Dems, take a lesson from ol’ Mitch: when you get power, USE IT.
Jeffro
@sab: he did. The article is made of excerpts from Coppins’ book.
catclub
Romney advertising he is a slow learner.
cain
@BlueGuitarist: Here’s another truth – neither do their constituents. Low grade male chauvinistic white power assholes.
Jeffro
piratedan
can’t link to it, but reading a tweet from Joan Walsh indicating that Angus King warned Romney about some chatter about MAGA wanting to burn down his house on the events of Jan 6th and asked him to take caution. Romney then pinged McConnell to talk about it and McConnell never responded…..
tobie
Hunter Biden’s new legal team is throwing some elbows. They’ve sued former Trump advisor Garrett Ziegler for hacking Hunter’s iPhone. Per emptywheel:
Trivia Man
@Jeffro: Question: Did YOU stand and cheer with the rest, Senator Mittens?
catclub
@BlueGuitarist:
If all the GOP members who still believe in the constitution, rather than Trump and the GOP’s usual lust for power, left, they would have maybe 1% fewer voters.
One is reminded of Adlai Stevenson’s response.
Jeffro
Gravenstone
@Jay: As a neo-Nazi, he probably was claiming he fought on the Russian side.
cain
@tobie: Watching some GOP politicians going to jail for crimes should be a fine counterpoint to whatever circus is happening in the House. Maybe these politicians will flip to save their own asses and point fingers at some of the folks in the House.
Trivia Man
@cain: very similar to the homophobe Muslims loudly and actively joining to pile on trans and gay people. Not just “you will be next” but THEY ARE ACTIVELY TRYING TO DESTROY YOU RIGHT NOW AT THE SAME TIME!
Jeffro
catclub
I cannot decide whether to read the article or wait for the book.
HumboldtBlue
@ArchTeryx:
Well, there was always a future as a kapo in a death camp.
Wyatt Salamanca
@Jeffro:
Mitch McConnell is among the lowest forms of life on this planet.
h/t https://www.mediaite.com/politics/romney-sent-shocking-unanswered-text-warning-mitch-mcconnell-of-trump-fueled-violence-on-jan-6th-per-new-book-excerpt/
karensky
@WaterGirl: Adam Silverman
Jeffro
Romney, disappointing to the end, has a video statement up to Utahans explaining that he’s retiring ’cause he’s old but also LOTS of ‘both sides’ bullshit.
He is not gonna be on the DNC stage next summer endorsing President Biden, so…Mitt…doing nothing of importance to end the insurrectionist threat to our country is going to be your final legacy there, buddy.
Suzanne
@sab: Coppins did write a book about him,
Jay
@Gravenstone:
Nope, he claimed to be fighting for Ukraine.
That’s why the wingnut Reich is promoting his claims, to claim Ukraine is full of Nazi’s and is a hub for Nazi’s and the US must stop all aid to Nazi Ukraine.
In reality, during the periods he claimed to be fighting for Ukraine, he was either in jail, in court or on supervised parole in Floriduh! and never left the State.
Despite, time and time again, attacking the US with serial fabulists and conmen as supposed “whistleblowers”, getting exposed, the CT Reich and Wingnuttia never do even a basic vetting of their so called “sources”.
And they won’t. The goal is to flood the zone with Bullshit and rage farm. And Apartheid Clyde is doing his best to assist.
Frankensteinbeck
@ArchTeryx:
That’s right. Obama had trouble with him in that first debate because Romney just straight up lied about his own campaign’s positions. Did a total black is white on all of them. It was bizarre.
BlueGuitarist
@Jeffro:
Obviously they should be urging everyone to vote for Biden!
And while this isn’t important, yikes:
KrackenJack
@Jeffro:
Truly a man with no more fucks to give!
hueyplong
@BlueGuitarist: Ketchup on salmon? That literally cannot be true.
Jay
@BlueGuitarist:
and it was probably Copper River Sockeye,
what a heathen.
Jackie
@ArchTeryx: I wonder if Romney will do a Cheney and Kinzinger and go after TIFG?
Jeffro
@hueyplong:
@Jay:
as long as we’re focused on the truly important matters here, people…
…ketchup is good on salmon cakes. Not filets, but yeah, on salmon cakes it’s pretty good! =)
NOW THEN
How about ol’ Mitt noting that many GOP lawmakers are worried for their/their families’ personal safety if they oppose trump? One would think that an enterprising young reporter could pick that up and run with it. The comments “on background” alone would write the whole article!
Jeffro
@Jackie: he already has a video statement up to his constituents that ‘both sides’ so hard, you’d think Romney was reading straight from the Book of Broder
bbleh
Re Senator Mittens, in today’s WaPo he’s quoted as saying ““We’re probably going to have either Trump or Biden as our next president, and Biden is unable to lead on important matters, and Trump is unwilling to lead on important matters.”
If he’s STILL carrying the bothsides water, then I don’t care how much he “bares his soul” or whatever TF ever. Rather than condemn Trump, straightforwardly, he has to throw a meaningless complaint at Biden too. He’s a liar and he’s a dyed-in-the-wool Republican — champion of tax cuts, ally of capital, and two-faced complainer about the Awful Deficit and how benefits for Those People are going to destroy America. Let him go back to VC-land and stop meeping ineffectively.
@Jackie: I’ll put $100 on the “no” at 5-1 or better.
And re the Perry ruling, it’s more sand in the gears, but I expect Jack “Sure That’s His Real Name” Smith — or at least his Taint Team hee hee hee — has a good idea of what they want to zero in on, so it ain’t like they’re gonna have to litigate the entire message history. Just how crucial it is to his case I got no idea.
Geminid
@Jackie: Romney might wade into the primaries to criticize Trump. The problem is, Romney has little influence now.
And who can he endorse? Romney would probably be fairly comfortable with Asa Hutchinson, but Hutchinson will be lucky to win 10 delegates.
But since he’s on his way out, Romney might cross the aisle and vote with Senate Democratics on rare occasions.
narya
@bbleh: I sometimes wonder if they’ve gotten the communications from the people on the other end of the calls, and they’re carrying this through in part to hide what they already have.
Alison Rose
@bbleh:
I would love someone to ask him on live TV “Okay Senator, list for us the ‘important matters’ on which each man is ‘unwilling to lead’.” Because that is one massively unbalanced see-saw, let me tell you.
NotMax
@Jay
Salmon don’t come cheap. A freezerful could well exceed the threshold for reporting as a gift.
There is an exception to Senate rules on accepting gifts from colleagues, but that is applicable only to gifts received on “traditional” occasions (birthdays, weddings and the like). I can’t readily see enough fillets to fill a freezer as qualifying for that exception.
Jay
@Jeffro:
A good salmon cake, made with good salmon, just needs maybe a squeeze of lemon.
Now a patty or a salmon cake made from Chum salmon, often marketed as “Keta”, needs a lot of help, but then Chum Salmon should never be ground up and turned into a patty, it should be either alder smoked, or turned into into alder smoked Indian Candy.
Now a Chum “Keta” filet or portion’s best friend was Red Robinson. 1/2 cup strong Soya sauce, 1/2 cup dark brown sugar, table spoon of Montreal Steak Spice, table spoon of liquid smoke, ziplock bag, marinate for at least an hour. Can be kept in the fridge over night, or frozen if the salmon is fresh.
BBQ on a hot grill, fry in a cast iron frypan, bake in a convection oven.
The pan, grill or tray will be a mess. Pan is the worst, grill you can leave on high and burn the mess off, in the oven, put down some foil on the tray, toss the foil.
In the rankings of salmon for flavor:
#1 Sockeye
#2 Spring
#3 Coho
#4 Atlantic
#5 Pink
#6 Chum
bbleh
@narya: lol in my more optimistic moments I think the same or similar and that at this point Perry’s phone is gravy.
Then again, who knows what other interesting threads they might find.
And given Perry’s outburst concerning the Biden Impeachment Show, I kinda think he’s feeling a little heat.
Suzanne
There’s a lot of good stuff in that Coppins piece. I might even buy the book.
One thing I am unexpectedly enjoying is how much Mittens hates Josh Hawley. Me too, Mittens. Me too.
NotMax
@Jay
Non-stick parchment baking paper a superior choice to foil, IMHO.
lowtechcyclist
@Geminid:
Who cares what he does with the primaries? Barring either a miracle or a disaster, 2024 is going to come down to Biden v. Trump. ETA: And he’s said that’s what he expects.
How can anyone knowledgeable about American politics not be on one side or the other? How can someone who’s been paying attention, let alone deeply involved like he’s been, not choose??
I’d almost have more respect for him if he sold his soul to Trump.
Elizabelle
Gotta catch up on the thread, but it occurs that Mitt Romney is the MSM’s Great Daddy figure, and his retirement is going to have them discussing the fabled GOP party that is in their heads. How its greatness exceeds this MAGAtified grievance and Trump party (and where did he come from?)
Rather than take an honest look at the very excellent POTUS we have right now. No, no, no, cannot do that. They don’t even want to talk with his icky voters. They don’t seem able to find them, and are not looking very hard either.
Suzanne
@hueyplong:
Ever had Mormon food? Funeral potatoes and green Jello? It can absolutely be true.
RaflW
@Jeffro: What Mitt says about the GOP matters, to a few people. But he’s yet again just a p.o.s for sticking the age shiv into Biden today.
F**k you, Mitt. You’re not running again because you know your state is more like Mike Lee than you’d ever wanted, and you can’t bear being whupped by a MAGA in ’24.
Elizabelle
@Alison Rose: That is crazy talk.
Biden is more than able, and willing, and is pretty damn good at understanding what the actual problem is.
TFG is unwilling, true, but he is blisteringly incompetent too.
I think Mitt Romney is telling lies, and shame be upon him for that. I wonder if he really thinks this, or he is just saying this crap so Republicans won’t hit him.
Geminid
@lowtechcyclist: Well, I am a curious person and am interested in a lot of things that others don’t care about.
lowtechcyclist
@Suzanne:
Half of me wants to offer him three pounds of hamburger for every pound of salmon fillet. He can pour all the ketchup he wants on the hamburgers.
Alison Rose
@Elizabelle: It’s so hard to tell with him! He could genuinely believe it, or he could be bullshitting because even though he’s anti-Trump, he’s still also very anti-Democrats. Ugh, he’s annoying.
Baud
@Elizabelle:
He was the GOP’s quintessential liar until Trump came along.
Betty
@BlueGuitarist: In the last election I donated to his campaign but never heard from him. This time i am getting regular updates about his policy positions and meetings he is holding around the district. He included a list of his “sponsors” that includes a few people I know, including a long-time lobbyist at the state level for family planning groups. Big difference.
Mai Naem mobile >
@Suzanne: Grant Woods was a never trumper and Marlene hasn’t been an AZ TV anchor in forever so I am not sure how that would work out in the general. I feel sorry for Cherny because he’s probably the most qualified but may get beat by Woods or Horne by people voting strategically.
Jeffro
He’s up there, but Pence (especially his ‘debate’ with Tim Kaine in 2016) still sticks in my mind as the gold standard.
Tim was like, “what. the actual. fuck.” every time Pence opened his mouth.
Suzanne
@Mai Naem mobile >: Yeah, Grant Woods apparently was considering running for some state office as a Dem before he died.
I like Cherny.
hueyplong
@Suzanne: Boy, I’m never going near Mormon food after you established that ketchup on salmon is a mere warmup to infinitely worse horrors.
stinger
@Jeffro:
I watched Pence’s speech at the Repub National Convention, and that was my response, too. Every sentence a lie.
Suzanne
@hueyplong: Funeral potatoes are good, in a weird way. Reminds me of midcentury-WASP-church-picnic food. Cream-of-whatever soup as an ingredient, baked in your Pyrex!
Elizabelle
@Baud: But “genteel” and “traditional conservative.” Hey, I heard that in the FTF NY Times.
So the lies go down easier.
I have mixed feelings about Romney, because I can see there is some humanity in there, along with the plutocrat values.
Jay
@NotMax:
few Alaskan’s buy salmon. It’s a ritual, and act of “Statehood” to harvest your own. So, does that count as a “reportable gift”?
My Dad bought salmon once in his life. When I was a tween, he bought a “presentation fish” for our Christmas dinner. These are large, 25lb and up, “Tyee” Spring Salmon. They are frozen rock hard with an ice coat, kept for years in a deep freeze, used for banquets, where guests would ooh and awe at the size of the fish, and are a pain to cook right. Get the heat and time wrong, raw on the inside, dry and over cooked on the inside.
So we went downtown to the old Woodwards, Dad bought the salmon, stuck it in the tire well under the lid, pulled the old tick mattress over top, so Tar, our Lab couldn’t get at it, and we headed over to Harkley and Haywood’s Outdoor shop to buy some fishing gear.
When we came back, we discovered that Tar had found the fish, ate about 15lbs of raw frozen salmon, and puked everywhere.
The first time I ever bought a salmon, was in the late 80’s. I was heading out to fish for some Sockeye on the Fraser River. The Commercial Fishermen were on strike, as the Canneries and Processors, because of a glut that year, were only offering $1.25 a fish for Sockeye, so they were selling them for $5 a fish from the sides of the roads. So I bought 10 and ice, stuck them in the cooler, got a receipt, then went on to catch my limit of 2. We ate really well that fall, winter and spring.
I have started fishing again, and we are going to have to buy a small freezer soon.
Geminid
@Mai Naem mobile >: I hope Democrats come up with a good candidate to take on Juan Ciscomani in the Arizona 6th CD. The 6th runs from the eastern edge of Tucson to the New Mexico line. It’s rated R+3, but Ciscomani is a freshman and his radical caucus’s work product will not reflect well on him. Plus, Joe Biden and Ruben Gallego may have coattails in Arizona next year that a strong challenger may be able to ride.
Jay
@NotMax:
Agree, but small 1 bedroom apartment, so storage is very limited. So I have Clingfilm, Ziplocks, Foil.
JCNZ
“When you’re surrounded by worms, it’s easy to confuse an exoskeleton for backbone.”
Insert “like” emoji here!
smintheus
@RaflW: Romney’s pretty damn old as well. He was draft age during the Vietnam War, which is what he spent 3 years in France dodging. That’s how he became a ‘respected’ senior statesman, how he’s able to complain about Trump but not apparently to do anything effective about his crimes.
sab
@Suzanne: My very midwestern husband might like that. He gets excited by meatloaf.
Jay
@sab:
yeah, but it’s no scalloped potatoes.
RaflW
@Jeffro: Good lord. Romney of 2021 has apparently no memory of the Mittens who ran for president while spouting all the ridiculous RW themes of 2012. How very corn-venient. Or, self serving.
zhena gogolia
@Jackie: No. He won’t.
Citizen Alan
@Jeffro: It would be news to me that his five sons left the GOP. I’d not heard anything about that.
Suzanne
@sab: Go for it. There’s recipes all over the place. I will admit that I enjoyed them the handful of times that I tried them. Very potluck-friendly, of course.
RaflW
@Elizabelle: “unable to lead on important matters” is Mitt-speak for Biden wanting to raise taxes and put some sort of climate change agenda forward.
It’s so smarmy and gross and tone-deaf to the end of democracy, that I end up agreeing with @lowtechcyclist‘s “more respect for him if he sold his soul to Trump.”
MomSense
@ArchTeryx:
He also gave fucking Trump some credibility (not with jackals obviously) by doing fundraisers with him, not pushing back on his private investigators investigating Obama, and dog whistling to the birthers.
Baud
@RaflW:
I don’t know if Mitt cares about climate policy, but he ♥️ low taxes on rich people.
RaflW
@smintheus: I’ll never forgive him for the bitter and disdainful way he’d say Europe while campaigning in 2012 (because every industrialized country but us has national healthcare).
They guy lived it up with aplomb and delight all across that same Europe while raking in bucks as a Bain vulture capitalist. Not to mention his 3 year bike-ride/draft dodge over there.
He’s just been a high class, well crafted sleaze his whole life.
smith
@Baud: Rich people care about climate policy because any serious climate policy is unacceptably inconvenient for them and their piles of money.
RaflW
@Baud: Who makes more billions in profits, and gives more to Republicans like Mitt? The ski industry, or oil & gas conglomerates?
(Yeah, Mitt used to ski, and yeah, Park City contributes to the UT economy, but the ski industry lobby has, to my relatively careful watch, been pretty lousy at turning even one ski-state Republican into anything resembling pro-climate protection)
MomSense
@Suzanne:
Speaking of being friends with LDS folks, his parents were friends a looong time ago. Our kids played together so I knew him when he was a sullen teenager. He was a nice kid!
BlueGuitarist
@Betty:
thanks!
do you have any insights on the local state legislative candidates?
BlueGuitarist
@Geminid:
Kirsten Engel is running against Ciscomani again in AZ-6. Environmental lawyer and former state legislator, she got 49% of the vote last time while vastly outspent. (Unlike AZ-1 doesn’t seem like a contested primary.
a super swing district up and down the ballot.
Overlapping down ballot legislative district 17, state senate and state house candidates also got 49% last time. Gaining a seat will tie the state house and state senate.
aaron
as an attorney who doesnt know the lay of the law in this area: can’t they appoint a special master to do a privelege review, then issue a report that they can litigate.
piratedan
@BlueGuitarist: IIRC Engel was really hurt by an old interview where some statements she had made, came back to be ad fodder by Ciscomani in the general. Ciscomani portrayed himself as a non-threatening family values Conservative in the Doug Ducey school of politicking, which is you can be an asshole as much as you want as long as you’re quiet about it.
As evidenced by the state GOP peers, he keeps a much lower profile and probably hoping to squeak by by not making himself look like a nail that needs to be hammered to the electorate. He didn’t have a record before so it was a straight character battle match. Now that Engel has his voting record to run against, she may have a much better chance imho.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
And for Biden being the most pro-worker President in US history.
Big capital absolutely HATES that.
Mai Naem mobile >
@Geminid: I like Engel but I bet Ciscomani gets some Hispanic votes that normally would go to the Dems because he’s Hispanic. She’s probably headed for bigger things than a lowly congressional seat but Tucson mayor Regina Romero could probably beat Ciscomani. My phone just autocorrected Ciscomani to ‘Cisco man’ haha. Somebody could probably do some creative oppo ad with that.