Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

“In the future, this lab will be a museum. don’t touch it.”

Baby steps, because the Republican Party is full of angry babies.

I was promised a recession.

… gradually, and then suddenly.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

I have other things to bitch about but those will have to wait.

Polls are now a reliable indicator of what corporate Republicans want us to think.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

DeSantis transforming Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

How can republicans represent us when they don’t trust women?

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

I conferred with the team and they all agree – still not tired of winning!

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

If you thought you’d already seen people saying the stupidest things possible on the internet, prepare yourselves.

“That’s what the insurrection act is for!”

Tide comes in. Tide goes out. You can’t explain that.

Be a traveling stable for those who can’t find room at the inn.

You are here: Home / Politics / Open Thread (Mendacious Menendez and More)

Open Thread (Mendacious Menendez and More)

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Until this morning, I was only aware of two of the five items on this list from Just Security..

How Dangerous is Menendez to Our National Security?

Short answer? VERY>

Let us count the ways…

  1. Disclosing the United States’ Staffing Blueprint in its Egyptian Embassy
  2. Providing Advance Information on U.S. Military Aid
  3. Ghostwriting a Letter Requesting U.S. Military Aid from the Government of Egypt
  4. Providing a Heads-Up on Questions U.S. Senators Intended to Ask of Egyptian Officials
  5. It’s Impossible to Know How Much Leverage Egypt Continues to Have Over Menendez

Surely his girlfriend – now his wife – who was in the middle of all these things, must have been pivotal in his recruitment.  That’s just my opinion, but it’s hard for me to see otherwise.   Not just in their pocket; definitely in bed with them.

Read the whole thing.  (Just Security)

Also, the polls that we probably won’t hear much about in the media:

Also, I cannot believe that a formal dress code for male senators passed unanimously today.  Seriously?

Open thread.

Reader Interactions

170Comments

  1. 1.

    Jeffro

    Sounds like we need to get rid of the Senate: too many dangers to our national security (Menendez, Tuberville, Hawley, Lee, Johnson, Cotton) and reputation of our country in general (Kennedy, Blackburn, Paul, Grassley, Vance).

    Maybe the rest can hang on as an advisory body of some sort.  Senatorus Emeritus or something like that?  They can still use the gym.

  2. 2.

    Baud

    Hopefully, the clock is ticking on Menendez and soon all the threats to national security will once again be solely on the Republican side.

  4. 4.

    Roger Moore

    One might also reasonably ask how much his previous acquittal had to do with Egypt making him a target.  He was publicly outed as corrupt but left in a position where he had access to all kinds of sensitive information.  He probably saw his acquittal as a green light to engage in even more blatant corruption; he might as well have put a “bribes accepted” sign on his office door.  I wouldn’t be surprised at all to learn this was just the most obvious and easy to prove corruption he was engaged in, and there was plenty of more subtle corruption that can’t be prosecuted because there wasn’t such an obvious quid pro quo.

  5. 5.

    Alison Rose

    I’m sure as soon as Fetterman shows up in formal attire, every other problem will magically disappear.

    I hope he at least wears goofy ties. Maybe one with tiny little middle fingers on it.

  7. 7.

    Shalimar

    The timing of their dating and marriage and her previous relationship with their co-defendant raises the question of whether Nadine Arslanian meeting Menendez in the first place was an intelligence operation.

  8. 8.

    Mousebumples

    Something I saw yesterday indicated that there’s tons of loopholes to exploit in the dress code. We’ll see how Fetterman responds…

  9. 9.

    JML

    @WaterGirl: I assume Turley is suddenly afeared of getting into Dershowitz territory if he keeps shilling for the GOP? Or possibly finally understands what a laughingstock his legal career has turned into?

    The “impeachment” hearings are beyond nonsense. Every time anyone tries to apply logic and reason to them it falls entirely apart, but that’s never been important. they just want to have an excuse to lie about Biden and see if they can make Hunter Biden this iteration of “but her emails!”

  11. 11.

    Spanky

    @WaterGirl:

    Is it opposite day?

    Now on the WaPo op-ed page:

    “The GOP’s Knucklehead caucus courts a shutdown for no good reason.” – By Hugh Hewitt

    What a world.  What a world.

  14. 14.

    Shalimar

    @JML: Turley gets all the attention he wants from the investigations.  That would end if they actually tried to impeach with no evidence and failed.  He hasn’t learned anything except self-promotion.

  16. 16.

    Shalimar

    @WaterGirl: There is still a possibility she really did meet Menendez on her own and they only approached her after the relationship was solid.  But I definitely would be re-examining everything if I was Bob.

  18. 18.

    Yarrow

    Also, I cannot believe that a formal dress code for male senators passed unanimously today. Seriously?

    Why can you not believe this?

  20. 20.

    steve g

    there is such a thing as a Suitsie, which is a single garment made to look like a shirt, jacket, trousers, and tie. It has a zipper behind the shirt button placket, fake sleeve cuffs poking out of the sleeves, and so on. Surely it comes in XXL for Fetterman.

  21. 21.

    Mr. Bemused Senior

    @JML: Every time anyone tries to apply logic and reason to them it falls entirely apart

    Logic is a little tweeting bird, chirping in a meadow. Logic is a wreath of pretty flowers that smell bad.

  24. 24.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    From below and the news that some asshole cut down the Sycamore Gap tree along Hadrian’s Wall…

    Last year me and my wife hiked the entirety of the Wall (and then some).  I took this photo of a French couple’s two little girls making their own little wall in front of the tree.

    http://www.roadkeel.com/~grog/IMG_E6320.JPG

    Like Ozark Hillbilly said in the below thread, I don’t believe in the death penalty but am willing to consider it for the asshole(s) who did this.  In fact, I’d draw and quarter them.

  29. 29.

    Chris

    Open thread, random question to the floor:

    Is there anybody else here who 1) has federal student loans, 2) has been on an income-based repayment plan, and 3) kept making their payments all through Covid?  If so:

    I called the people at Aidvantage yesterday to find out by when I needed to re-certify for the IBR.  The answer I got was that… I’m apparently good through spring 2025, because the fact that I’ve been making payments all along means I have over a year’s worth of payments made in advance.  Does that seem… off to anybody else?  Back before Covid, I used to pay more than I owed regularly, and that never translated into “oh good, you’re paid in advance for the next few months – you don’t need to recertify yet!”  I still needed to recertify at the end of each year.  Why would this be different?

    Kinda want to call them back just to see if a different person gives me the same answer, but thought I’d try and compare notes first.  (I hate spending an hour on hold on the phone, and don’t really want to talk to chatbots).

  32. 32.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @JPL:

    To use a term for such yoots from en episode of ‘Homicide: Life on the Streets’:

    A junior knucklehead.

    He’s lucky I’m not a not-so-benevolent sovereign.

  34. 34.

    cain

    @WaterGirl:

    🤡🤡🤡🎬

    These people are fucking clowns. And now they are going to put a shit ton of people furloughed and this is their priority.

    Our people are idiots for not being angry.

    In Iran, cities organized everywhere fighting the culture police risking their own freedom because rightly the govt wasn’t doing shit other than policing women.

    Less American more Iranian please.

  35. 35.

    sdhays

    @Spanky: “The GOP’s Knucklehead caucus courts a shutdown for no good reason.” – By Hugh Hewitt

    He could have shortened that to “GOP caucus” because they’re all courting it (because they always just limply do whatever the Freedumb Carcass demands) and they’re all knuckleheads.

  36. 36.

    WaterGirl

    “We’ll have a vote a formal dress code for the senate right after all the pending military appointments have been voted on and put through. Right after you knock some sense into your Republican colleagues in the House.”

    What Schumer should have said.

  37. 37.

    eversor

    @Jeffro:

    Rand Paul his been photographed wearing shorts with a tie and jacket for an interview.

    Also if we are going to have dress standards let’s enforce hair cut standards.  Rand Paul is going to fail.  Make them military grooming standards and let’s take Paul out and shave him.

  38. 38.

    NotMax

    Open thread? FYI.

    In a first, researchers have engineered marine bacteria to destroy plastics in seawater

    By combining key traits of two bacterial species, the team created a novel bug that can break down plastics in salty conditions—at room temperature. Source

  41. 41.

    Jeffro

    @Spanky: he’s terrified that the House GOP loons will make Stealth Glenn Youngkin have to drop the mask and/or drive Democratic voter turnout in Virginia.

    GOOD!

    Temporarily shutting down the federal government isn’t necessarily suicidal politics, but in this case that result seems certain. The Republican holdouts have no discernible, achievable objective here. Unfortunately, they’re doing this just when Republicans in Virginia — home to many federal workers who stand to be furloughed in a shutdown — make their closing pitches to voters that their party should be rewarded with legislative majorities to support Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s education reform and tax reduction plans.”

  42. 42.

    Alison Rose

    @HumboldtBlue: Oh God. I clicked on your link, and in the side bar, I see a “Listen Live in Spaces” box that says “X, antisemitism*, faith, and free speech with @ElonMusk and @BenShapiro”. NO FUCKING THANK YOU.

    (*they have it as anti-Semitism, which is not the way you’re supposed to write it, but quelle surprise that Muskrat doesn’t care)

  45. 45.

    scav

    @WaterGirl: Works both ways.  One side demonstrates they consistently show up to vote, the other only wandering in to name post office substations, wave snowballs and choose tie colors. At least the silly office-wear vote might catch the media eye enough to headline and drae the normie’s attention for a millisecond to the circus.

  46. 46.

    bbleh

    @Alison Rose: lol or an orange suit, or something just horribly mismatched, or something else just to fk with them.

    But no, I think he’s made his point and everybody who isn’t WAY deep in MAGAland understands it.  Although I do like the tie with middle fingers.  Tiny off-white ones on a nice conservative blue field, so you can’t tell until you’re up close.

  50. 50.

    billcinsd

    @Chris: While I don’t have student loans, my guess is that there is a difference between paying more than the minimum and paying payments that are not required. I know on a credit card, paying more by even 3x does not count as extra payments. Paying payments that aren’t required is likely different than paying more, at least to the receiving agency.

  51. 51.

    Mr. Bemused Senior

    @NotMax: you know this kind of tinkering led to disaster on Ringworld.

    [yes, I know it was a deliberate attack 😁 just saying…]

  53. 53.

    billcinsd

    @Jeffro: I don’t know, I can’t see Trump playing sloppy seconds to Cory Lewandowski so Noem is out. MTG is someone Trump would consider too ugly. Lake has loser stench

  55. 55.

    WaterGirl

    @Chris: You are smart to double-check.  In fact, if I were you I would triple check, and write down the dates of the calls and the names of the people you spoke with.

    I once had to pay an extra $875 because of a situation like that.

  56. 56.

    Betty Cracker

    Fetterman should dress like Simone on The Good Place at the welcome party episode (she thought she was hallucinating the whole thing so wore the most ridiculous outfit she could find):

    Open Thread (Mendacious Menendez and More)

    When someone complains, he should say, “But Senator Sinema…”

  58. 58.

    Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg

    @NotMax:

    “What do you mean, it dissolves the elastic and fibers of swimwear? What will we do at Christian beaches in the Carolinas?”

  61. 61.

    UncleEbeneezer

    New York Attorney General Letitia James has revealed her planned witness list for Trump’s civil fraud trial. Names include:

    Donald Trump
    Donald Trump Jr.
    Eric Trump
    Ivanka Trump
    Michael Cohen
    Allen Weisselberg

  62. 62.

    HumboldtBlue

    Oh, and for the baseball fans here (sorry, BoSox fans, the news is shitty), Curt Schilling continues to be one of the shittiest people on the planet.

    Schilling revealed on his podcast that former teammate Tim Wakefield had brain cancer, a fact Wakefield and family wanted private.

    Catherine Varitek, wife of former BoSox catcher, Jason, had short words for Schilling (who is also a neo-Nazi antisemite, BTW).

    Fuck you Curt Schilling, that wasn’t your placee!

  67. 67.

    WaterGirl

    Worth watching:

    Apparently someone on the committee put into the record a FABRICATED image that was supposed to be a screen shot of a text that was explosive.  AOC introduces the ACTUAL real information, along with the context around it, showing that the small part they included in the fabrication was very misleading and did not include context.

    AOC points out that the R could do that because they are protected by the speech and debate clause.

    This timeline – where pretty much the entire republican party is made up of liars and cheats – can be maddening.

  69. 69.

    Jeffro

    I do love that Hugh Hewitt is in a panic over the House GOP.

    YOU IDIOTS!  HOW ARE THE KOCHS SUPPOSED TO SPRINGBOARD ‘SMILIN GLENN’ INTO THE WHITE HOUSE IN 2028 IF YOU SCREW UP VIRGINIA’S 2023 ELECTION FOR HIM?

  77. 77.

    Alison Rose

    One of the rotating tags that just popped up was “He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!” I’m dying to know who this was referring to, if anyone remembers!

  78. 78.

    Scout211

    So it looks like Nadine was his handler and now that they’re married, they will cover for each other.

    Or am I getting this confused with a Netflix series I saw some time ago?

    Yikes!

  79. 79.

    Roger Moore

    @NotMax:

    In a first, researchers have engineered marine bacteria to destroy plastics in seawater

    Nothing could possibly go wrong with this.  Plastic-eating bacteria are no threat to our infrastructure.

  84. 84.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Anoniminous:

    The existence of Information and Communication Technology is unneeded. We can always use clay tablets or papyrus. 

    Don’t forget paper cups and string!

  87. 87.

    scav

    @Anoniminous: It’s certainly true that the existence of wood-disabling bacteria! allied with fungi!, insects! and beavers! doomed the creation of anything structural involving wood.

    Not that it isn’t fun to imagine the consequences for the plastic surgery industry.

  89. 89.

    Geminid

     

     

    @Jeffro: And Virginia is not just home to a lot of federal workers. Now there are also a lot of federal contractors here who will be hurt by a shutdown.

    If a shutdown goes on long enough, the Huntington-Ingalls shipyard will have to start laying off workers. Then the shit will really hit the fan in Tidewater Virginia.

  90. 90.

    Scout211

    20 minutes ago on CNN live updates:

    Republicans in the House, “What impeachment hearing?”

    Some inside the GOP are expressing frustration to CNN in real time with how the House GOP’s first impeachment inquiry hearing is playing out, as the Republican witnesses directly undercut the GOP’s own narrative and admit there is no evidence that President Joe Biden has committed impeachable offenses.

    “You want witnesses that make your case. Picking witnesses that refute House Republicans arguments for impeachment is mind blowing,” one senior GOP aide told CNN. “This is an unmitigated disaster.”

    One GOP lawmaker also expressed some disappointment with their performance thus far, telling CNN: “I wish we had more outbursts.”

    The bar for today’s hearing was set low: Republicans admitted they would not reveal any new evidence, but were hoping to at least make the public case for why their impeachment inquiry is warranted, especially as some of their own members remain skeptical of the push.

    But some Republicans are not even paying attention, as Congress is on the brink of a shutdown – a point Democrats hammered during the hearing.

     “I haven’t watched or listened to a moment of it,” said another GOP lawmaker. There’s a shutdown looming.”

  93. 93.

    Baud

    @Scout211:

     “I haven’t watched or listened to a moment of it,” said another GOP lawmaker. There’s a shutdown looming.”

     
    Uh, the same people are responsible for both.

  94. 94.

    Roger Moore

    @Jeffro:

    Anyway, between Kari Lake, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and Kristi Noem, trump already has all the VP choices he needs. Here’s hoping that he eventually picks one of them based on the guidance of his cellmate, Bruno.

    If Trump is choosing between Lake, Greene, and Noem, I think he’s going to let little Donald do the thinking for him.

  98. 98.

    wjca

    @Alison Rose: I hope he [Fetterman] at least wears goofy ties. Maybe one with tiny little middle fingers on it.

    I incline more to a fist with just the little finger raised: “When you don’t care enough to send the very best.”**

    ** Anybody else care to admit they remember the original ad?  :-)

  99. 99.

    Jeffro

    @Scout211: (House GOP, in mopey teen whiny voice)

    “We were just asking questions, maaaaan.  Chill ouuuut.  You guys are such a drag…”

     

    The finger-pointing is going to be EPIC

  100. 100.

    Jeffro

    @Baud: even trump thinks Vivek’s unbearable

    heck, late at night, in the privacy of his own thoughts, even Vivek thinks Vivek’s unbearable

  105. 105.

    Geminid

    @Shalimar: This could have started as an influence operation. Armenian-Americans are understandably concerned about US foreign policy, and Menendez was seen as an important ally.

    But once someone starts peddling influence, it’s easy to start selling it to foreign entities. And Egypt was in conflict with Turkiye at the time, so an Armenian-American might have justified helping Egypt on the grounds that “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.”

  106. 106.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Yarrow: It’s interesting though – if just because it means that Fetterman voted for it (or abstained?). Maybe he was willing to trash an informal dress code but thinks an actual rule isn’t a bad idea?

    Which, honestly, is great. We relied too much on “oh, republicans just won’t do this thing” and then they just do. Making this point with the dress code is great, if they push it onwards to stuff like emoluments, insider trading, and so on.

  107. 107.

    Brachiator

    Also, I cannot believe that a formal dress code for male senators passed unanimously today.  Seriously?

    The Senate is a strange place, with long traditions.

    Also, no dress code for women?

  108. 108.

    Geminid

    @Jeffro:

    Glenn Youngkin: “We Republicans want Virginians to vote early.”

    Laid-off shipyard worker: “Yeah, well I’ve got plenty of time to vote early now, motherfucker!”

  111. 111.

    eversor

    @Geminid:

    Oh it’s not just that.  Federal workers and contractors are how all the local landlords get paid.  We eat lunch at all the local joints and have our dry cleaning done.  We pay for house cleaners, daycare, go out to movies and concerts, and all sorts of things.

    All that spending, goes poof.  So all that shit like say my local ramen shop which is riddled with defense contractors daily magically has no customers.   It’s a 20 dollar lunch, but it’s pretty much two meals so nobody complains.

    And the immediate beltway area is riddled with small businesses like that as people here are not generally a fan of chains.  They all get royally fucked.

    The saving graces is that most military and federal credit unions extend interest free loans.  So you can draw down 20k of money really fast.  Although given the area that’s not that much for a couple months.  When the shit show ends you can just give what you didn’t spend back and then pay off the loan.  Often instantly, if you get back pay.  If you do not get back pay you’re in a world of hurt.  If you don’t get paid back you are fucked.  People are going to lose their jobs and small businesses will go under and everyone is going to fucking furious over this.

  112. 112.

    Gravenstone

    @HumboldtBlue: That’s horrible for Wakefield and his family. He came across as one of the nicer guys in baseball in his era.  And yes, fuck that motherfucker Schilling.

  114. 114.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    It’s sad a grown ass adult like Fetterman has to be told not to dress like a middle schooler.

  116. 116.

    Roger Moore

    @Baud:

    I do not like the idea of agreeing with Trump.

    There’s nothing inherently wrong with agreeing with Trump, as long as you arrived at your judgment independently.  The problem is when you make your decisions based on what Trump tells you.

  118. 118.

    Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg

    @eversor:

    Wait – how the hell do you get the ramen remainder home without slopping it everywhere?

    And as someone who is absolutely in love with luxe ramen (Ed Lee, the owner of Succotash in DC has some places here in louisville and has had duck ramen on the menu), how do you not just devour the entire thing?

  120. 120.

    Geminid

    @billcinsd: John Fetterman is a team player, and if the rest of his caucus wants to take this issue off the board he’ll go along. My understanding is that Fetterman wore a suit and a tie when he was Lt. Governor and presided over Pennsylvania’s Senate, so this won’t be that much of a stretch for him.

  121. 121.

    Scout211

    @billcinsd:I meant to say, as Fetterman is a Senator, for the vote to be unanimous, he would have had to vote for it

    From what I have read today, Fetterman agreed to the policy after talking with Schumer. He will wear a suit when he’s in chambers but will wear his regular clothes in the hallways and his office and he will vote from the doorway in his regular clothes at times, which he has done before (including the unanimous vote on the dress code).  So not much has changed from before relaxing the dress code.

    Too lazy to provide a link this time.  Sorry.

  122. 122.

    FastEdD

    As long as the Governor can appoint a safe replacement and it can go seamlessly, yeah, Gold Bar needs to go. Now.

    Also, too, Hunter Biden’s dick needs to resign the Presidency.

  124. 124.

    eversor

    @Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg:

    They have sealable to go containers at the places here.  So you just dump it in and take it back to the office and then finish it.  This became huge during COVID and they all deliver now.  If you get delivery it typically comes with one container for the broth, one for the noodles, and then the toppings in another.

    There are so many of them and most of them are good that if I want a ramen, pho, soba, or other soup I can place the order and it’s sub ten mins from pickup to home if I work from home.  Grubhub Prime is free with Amazon Prime here and most people have Uber Prime as well.  So there is no delivery fee if you want it taken to you.  So if you want noodles, you have dozens of places to pick from and 15 mins later it magically shows up at your door perfectly fresh!

    I don’t eat big meals.  I tend to just munch all day.  So I’ll devour half of it off the bat and then leave it at my desk and then consume it over about two more hours and have a light dinner salad and I’m good for the day.

    It’s a huge thing here as well.  DC’s noodle game is strong due to the various Asian diasporias around here.

  126. 126.

    Geminid

    @FastEdD: Governor Murphy can appoint a safe replacement for Menendez, but the Senator has to resign first. He’s not like some tin can that can be kicked to the curb. Menendez is more like an anvil that must be levered to the curb.

    But the way I see it, Menendez is on his way out, and that is a matter of when and not if. So I’m not going to get all strung out over the timing because this is not an emergency.

  129. 129.

    Betty Cracker

    @Just Some Fuckhead: It’s sad (not to mention enraging) that the goddamn Senate moves in a swift, bipartisan manner only on a triviality like a dress code. I hope Fetterman has a plan to punk Manchin and Romney in a humiliating way to get his revenge!

  130. 130.

    wjca

    @billcinsd: I meant to say, as Fetterman is a Senator, for the vote to be unanimous, he would have had to vote for it.

    Actually, no.  Someone proposed “unanimous consent”.  And nobody rose up to object.

    For comparison, when the various military promotions came up for the standard unanimous consent, Tuberville did object.  So throwing sand in the gears.

    So all “unanimous” means here is that nobody, including Fetterman, explicitly registered an objection.  There wouldn’t have been an actual vote.

  134. 134.

    Chris

    @WaterGirl:

    Yeah, exactly.  I have no problem with the terms as stated, but I can just picture myself waking up one morning in March 2025 to an email telling me, so sorry, you were misinformed, you actually have a year’s worth of payments due now!

  136. 136.

    wjca

    @Brachiator: Also, no dress code for women?

    Oh, there absolutely is a dress code for women.  One which was revised, not that long ago, so the (Republican) women Senators could wear the sleeveless dresses they favored.  Previously, bare shoulders were not allowed.

  138. 138.

    Scout211

    @Brachiator: Also, no dress code for women?

    They still have the unofficial dress code, which was relaxed by Paul Ryan when he agreed to a change and allow the women the right bare (their) arms.

    ETA: wjca got there first

  142. 142.

    HumboldtBlue

    Summer Lee (quickly becoming one of my favorite congresspeople) has some more smoke for the GOP and their bullshit hearing. The young Democrats are swinging for the fences and connecting!

    Lee: In Comer’s district, Republicans’ shutdown will cost 8,937 of his constituents their paychecks. Jim Jordan’s district, Republican’ shutdown, cost 3,939 of his constituents their paychecks. And Marjorie Taylor Greene, 6,306 of her constituents.

    @Baud:

    I wonder what type of shoes he’s wearing.

  144. 144.

    JaySinWA

    We are going to have to revise and extend the “enormous, mendacious, disembodied anus” song

    ETA on the impending shutdown, it strikes me that McCarthy is living in a Rome played while Nero burned reversal.

  145. 145.

    Scout211

    Meanwhile, the Governor of the People’s Republic of California just signed into law a bill raising the minimum wage for fast food workers to $20 an hour starting in 2024  Link

    SACRAMENTO, Calif. — 

    California fast food workers will be paid at least $20 per hour next year under a new law signed Thursday by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom.

    When it takes effect on April 1, fast food workers in California will have among the highest minimum wages in the country, according to data compiled by the University of California-Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education. The state’s minimum wage for all other workers — $15.50 per hour — is already among the highest in the United States.

  149. 149.

    Alison Rose

    @Scout211: At the presser, after a bunch of others spoke and then Newsom spoke and signed the bill, he asked for questions, but specified that he wanted to start with “on topic” ones and then could answer others later. There were two on-topic questions, both from the same person, and both were just her restating whining bullshit from fast food restaurant owners about how this will make prices go up (which Newsom pointed out didn’t happen before when they said it would) and why it exempted certain places and not others. And apparently no one else had any questions about this pretty major move. Every time, no matter what the reason why they’re there or he’s signing something, all or nearly all of their questions are about totally unrelated shit. Annoying.

  151. 151.

    Jeffro

    @Geminid: BREAKING NEWS: they are really, reeeeally trying to drag Smilin’ Glenn into the race!

    but he doesn’t want to go up against trump!  coward!

     

    Some of the biggest Republican donors in the country will converge next month at the historic Cavalier Hotel in Virginia Beach for a two-day meeting to rally behind Gov. Glenn Youngkin. The closed gathering, named the “Red Vest Retreat” after the fleece Youngkin wore during his 2021 campaign, will begin Oct. 17 and be focused, officially, on the Republican effort to win full control of the General Assembly in Virginia’s upcoming elections. But unofficially, several donors tell me, it will be an opportunity for them to try to push, if not shove, Youngkin into the Republican presidential race.

    Others say they will be busy prodding Youngkin and his allies in phone calls from afar.“He appears to be leaving the door open,” Thomas Peterffy, a billionaire who has already given millions of dollars to Youngkin’s PAC, told me this week. “And if Republicans win in Virginia, maybe we can talk him into it. He obviously wants to see what emerges, what the state of play is.

    The various Youngkin 2024 theories go something like this: If Virginia’s state legislature goes Republican on Nov. 7, Youngkin could claim he flipped a state that Joe Biden won in 2020. If the governor then signaled interest in exploring a run, supporters could rush to collect signatures for him to get on the ballot in delegate-rich states, many of which have December deadlines.
    If he got in, he’d make a play for Iowa and build a campaign with an eye on staying in until the convention.If that isn’t daunting enough, he would have to do it all while Trump takes aim. There are some around Youngkin who say the prospect of relentless attacks from the GOP front-runner could be what keeps him on the sidelines, with one person close to him saying, “Glenn cringes when he thinks about what Trump would do.”

    Yeah for any of them, they have to remember that trump’s running to stay out of prison…and his supporters are violent nuts.  So…I look forward to hearing from the semi-sane wing that perhaps NOT “all of the violence is on the left”. >(

    One thing for all of us to remember (and push on, if/when the time is ever right): should a not-trump candidate win the nomination, then presuming trump is not already dead, the question we MUST keep asking is: “Will you pardon trump?”

    A ‘no’ will crack the GOP.  A ‘yes’ will solidify the Dems and a majority of the independents.  A ‘maybe’ = we have a weasel on our hands and need to harp on that.

    So…best wishes, Glenn!

    And for FSM’s sake all of us in VA better make sure that Nov 7th sends a strong message to the country: look elsewhere for your “conservative” standard-bearer

  153. 153.

    Jeffro

    Youngkin’s push to restrict abortion in Virginia after 15 weeks of pregnancy would be under the microscope from rivals who think he doesn’t want to go far enough and from supporters of abortion rights who think he might as well be Trump. Opposition researchers would dig into his record, and Democrats would happily revive the playbook they used against Mitt Romney in 2012, painting him as out of touch, uber-rich former chief executive.

    Well, maybe not…after all, isn’t the way we treated Romney solely responsible for the rise of trump?

    //

  154. 154.

    sdhays

    @wjca: I wish they could just call for unanimous consent whenever Tubers is out to a big lunch and pass the promotions of everyone still waiting.

  157. 157.

    bbleh

    So apparently the NY appeals court just told Trump to get stuffed on his silly lawsuit against the judge who just found he and the boys committed massive financial fraud, which means the trial (or what’s left of it) will go ahead as planned.

    [sad trombone]

  158. 158.

    Jeffro

    Btw we all owe Bob Costa a debt of gratitude for sprinkling these little gems in the “they’re trying to draft Youngkin” piece:

    Drafting Youngkin as a last-minute addition to the sclerotic Republican presidential field is something that has lingered for months as a donor fantasy — a whispered, can-you-imagine gambit rarely meriting much discussion because there has been widespread hope that somebody, anybody, would gain traction against former president Donald Trump. But now, fantasy talk of an audacious, break-the-glass moment for the anti-Trump faction has morphed into not-so-quiet consideration.

     

    The thirsting for Youngkin is not a well-orchestrated power play. It is the latest slapdash scheme in a long search for a standard-bearer and a portrait of the powerlessness so many Republicans feel as Trump plows ahead, shrugging off criminal indictments and outrage over rhetoric they fear is growing dark and dangerous.

  159. 159.

    Jeffro

    btw here’s Frank Bruni pointing out the obvious: the not-trumps are blowing it

    The point is that Trump has zero respect for democracy and has aspirations for autocracy. The point is that he keeps scaling new pinnacles of unhinged. The point is that he needs to win the presidency so that he doesn’t have to worry about living out his days where he belongs: behind bars.
    And perhaps the only shot that any of those seven candidates have to stop him and prevent the irreversible damage he’d do to the United States with four more years is to call a tyrant a tyrant, a liar a liar, an arsonist an arsonist. None of them did.

    Oopsie!  Paging Glenn Youngkin!  Save us, Glenn!  LOL

  161. 161.

    bbleh

    @Jeffro: in some ways you kinda feel sorry for Youngkin.  One of the more important reasons he won was the calendar: VA Gov is elected the year after the President (off-year election), and for the last 50-plus years, every VA gov elected has been of the opposite party from the President elected (or re-elected) except one.  So a Republican won, per normal, and now everybody’s looking to him as the Great White Hope.

    Good luck with that…

  164. 164.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @bbleh: No, one of the main reasons Youngkin won is because he ran an explicitly racist campaign targeting black people and our press fawned all over how clever it was instead of condemning it.

  166. 166.

    Geminid

    @Just Some Fuckhead: I was gonna say, “No, Youngkin won because Terry McAuliffe ran a crappy campaign!”

    But then I realized that the 2021 Virginia Governor campaign is like that movie Rashomon: everyone has a different story.

  167. 167.

    bbleh

    @Just Some Fuckhead: @Geminid: not saying there weren’t OTHER reasons (thus “one”), only that Youngkin won — compared to the large majority of other Republicans in races since 2020 that were at all competitive — and as such he stands out, which leads people to assume he’s super-duper special when in fact he’s a pretty run-of-the-mill extremist-in-“moderate”-clothing Republican who ran a not-at-all unusual campaign at a propitious time.

  168. 168.

    Roger Moore

    @NotMax:

    Drive-thru lines backed up for miles as fast food outlets transition to slow food.

    Anyone who’s seen the local In-N-Out Burger knows you don’t need slow food to create ridiculous backups.  Drive-through restaurants are really bad neighbors.

  169. 169.

    Roger Moore

    @Jeffro:

    It’s hard to know if the not-Trumps don’t want to call out his authoritarianism because they are also authoritarians or if it’s because they’re afraid of Trumps brown polo shirts.  Most likely it’s both.

  170. 170.

    Geminid

    @bbleh: Yeah, Youngkin’s surprising success won him a reputation as a formidable purple-state politician. He was the first Republican to win statewide in 12 years, I think only a even came close. Also, after the 2018 and 2020 elections, Youngkin’s win was a real ray of hope for Republicans nationally.

    But while he fits in with most run-of-the-mill Republican politicians in most respects, Youngkin is an above-average communicator. I could see that, and I could see how Youngkin was an attractive candidate. I figured the election would be close, although I still thought “Terry” would squeak by, like he did in 2013.

    Youngkin was an hardworking and effective retail campaigner, criss-crossing the state to speak before crowds of 30 to 300 people. He also hired a good team- a man and a woman- that ran a shipshape, efficient campaign. I expect they are much in demand now.

    Another big factor: Republicans were hungry in a way Democrats were not. Last year’s elections in New York reminded me of our election the year before.

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