In a Politico article about the House shit-show, John Harris describes McCarthy’s rise and fall as follows:
At the start, his speakership was effectively an optical illusion. At the end, it was an exercise in self-abasement.
That’s true the other way around too: McCarthy abased himself at the start, shrinking through 15 humiliating rounds of voting. In desperation, he subjected his office to the whims of firebug toddlers like Matt Gaetz, effectively making his speakership an “optical illusion” at every stage, from beginning to end.
McCarthy’s fate was foreshadowed by that of Boehner and Ryan, whom a radical minority compelled to ride less splintery rails out of office. But the Repub bozos who are lamenting that now, including McCarthy, still don’t seem to comprehend their own culpability in all of this.
I caught a snippet of an NPR report this morning that featured a House GOP backbencher. He complained that the vast majority of his conference supports McCarthy but was thwarted by a radical minority.
We ordinary citizens don’t have to wonder what that’s like. The vast majority of us support sensible gun safety measures, wealthy citizens paying their fair share, bodily autonomy for women, voters choosing their representatives instead of the other way around, etc., only to be thwarted by a radical minority.
Repubs are for minoritarian rule because they can’t compete on policy. They’ve maximized structural advantages in the U.S. Constitution and leveraged state power to impose their will. In doing so, they’ve inflicted fractal damage across the political landscape, at every level, including within their own caucus.
It’s how Repubs do business now, and it was encouraged by amoral clods like McCarthy, who won’t be the last victim of the radical minority. Welcome to the party, pal.
Baud
He was probably referring to Jeffries.
Mr. Bemused Senior
Until enough of them choose to leave the dark side there’s nothing we can do but wait.
Alison Rose
Someone linked in a post yesterday when Randy Rainbow re-upped on Twitter his McCarthy video from January. It was rather prescient!
Sometimes I want to time-travel like 200 years in the future to see what things look like here, but I worry there will just be a swirling vortex in the ocean where the country once was.
Scout211
Steny Hoyer was also booted from his Capitol office.
This is how the crazy caucus means to run the House as the majority party: Hurt the Dems. That seems to be their only agenda and that’s what doomed MyKevin. Not enough Democrat hurt inflicted and too much cooperating with the “enemy.”
gene108
Part of the problem is Reaganomics does not work. Reagan got away with it, in the 1980’s and they’ve stuck to it ever since.
Trump explicitly showed Republican voters, in 2015 primary debates, don’t give a damn about Republican economic dogma on free trade and the magic of the free market to solve everything.
After that pantsing of elected or formerly elected Republicans on national T.V., they have nothing but culture war policies and being as mean and petty as they can get away with.
eclare
What you wrote times infinity. I live in TN. In 2020, the presidential vote was about 60-40 TIFG vs Joe. TN’s congressional rep? Nine. Eight Rethuglicans, one Democrat.
I think an org has filed a lawsuit to challenge the latest redistricting of Nashville, but that gets D’s one more, at most.
Baud
@Alison Rose:
Sounds like the plot to WaterWorld II.
Alison Rose
@Baud: Directed by Kevin Costner’s great-great-great-great-grandchild.
eclare
@Scout211:
Wow. Talk about Mean Girls…
FelonyGovt
A similar thoughtful analysis appeared in the Los Angeles Times this morning. I was happy to read this columnist’s assessment of the situation, including a discussion of why Democrats couldn’t trust McCarthy. Qevin really has no one to blame but himself.
Alison Rose
LOLOL Saint Javelin is selling a sticker that says “Sorry, I bought a Tesla before I knew Elon was an asshole”. That’s perfect, because you can disavow Muskrat’s bullshit while also supporting Ukraine!
eversor
@gene108:
The Republican party is built about three Rs. Religion, Race, and Rich. Their base only cares about the first two. Their donors only care about the third.
But we are in a nation that has had it with the rich and income inequality. A diverse younger generation that views whiteness as a negative. It’s also rapidly de Christianizing and adopting a healthy hostility to religion. So all their arguements fall flat.
White Christian Oligarchy is a product most people don’t want. But they won’t accept that they don’t get it. So all they have is to burn the place down and shoot for a dictatorship.
rikyrah
The MSM has a sad.
Their feelings are hurt.
They really thought Hakeem was gonna play Captain Save-A-Ho with Kevin.
That Hakeem was just gonna ignore the fundamental slight and disrespect shown the Democrats by Kevin – on national tv- not less than 48 hours before.
Baud
@FelonyGovt:
I haven’t reviewed a lot of media.sjmce yesterday, but my impression is that most are reporting this straight, even though we tend to focus on the idiots who want to pin the blame on Dems.
rikyrah
@eversor:
UH HUH
UH HUH
Alison Rose
@rikyrah:
BAHAHAHAHAHAHA
FelonyGovt
@rikyrah: It’s wonderful to see the Democrats hang tough. You’re right, the MSM really thought we were going to bail them out of their own disfunction.
Baud
@Alison Rose:
I’d watch that Marvel movie.
Alison Rose
@Baud: His shield can have the donkey logo flipping the bird.
Steeplejack
@Scout211:
Especially petty since they were told to vacate within a day but then the House shut down for a week.
Betty Cracker
@Baud: That’s my impression too from taking a spin through MSM outlets. The only pundits I saw complaining about Dems throwing McCarthy an anvil are sniveling Repubs.
PS: Has anyone done a wellness check on MTG? I thought she’d be braying on every channel, but if she did, I missed it.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
Well, McCarthy made a deal with the Devil, and as happens regularly in grand opera but all too rarely in reality, Old Scratch called in his marker.
the pollyanna from hell
If you hear lies from a psychopath you might be a (nominated) tool. If you hear truth then you might be a victim. Kevin could not keep these categories straight.
Rusty
We complain, mostly rightly, that the press behaves as if only Democrats have agency. When Republicans act badly it’s somehow the Democrats fault, since apparently only the left has agency. Now the Republicans themselves are acting that way. Instead of being angry at their own party members and punishing them in some way for their behavior, they are lashing out at the Democrats as being at fault for McCarthy’s demise. Pelosi and Hoyer lose their offices as punishment for not supporting McCarthy, and in the “Problem Solvers Caucus” made up of moderate Democrats and Republicans, all the Republicans have quit in anger at the Democrats for not supporting McCarthy. All these problems are inside the Republican tent, but somehow only Democrats have agency to fix them. It’s a bizarre situation, and yet I suspect that there are members of our pundit class and press that at least in part believe this.
Alison Rose
@Betty Cracker: Maybe she’s busy soothing Kevin with a Boebert Special.
Baud
I wonder if any of the multiple institutes for civility in politics will comment on the GOP stripping Pelosi and Hoyer of their offices.
eversor
@Alison Rose:
That entire thing was so stupid. If I’m going to be hurled out of a theater for a lewd sex act I demand it at least be a blow job. A hand job is so 14 years old!
TxTiger
This is a very good analogy. As I said in the earlier open thread, “Republicans can’t govern themselves. Don’t let them govern America.“
jonas
That one’s a beaut, BC!
Darkrose
@rikyrah:
So much this! The Democrats are suppose to be the adults in the room, every day, all day, while the Republicans throw food at each other and smear paint on the walls.
(Captain Save-A-Ho made me snort coffee up my nose at work.)
MattF
A interesting point— that the Republican ‘establishment’ is only now beginning to feel the pain of being at the mercy of a crazed and irresponsible minority-of-a-minority-of-a-minority. However, the commentariat still seeks a way to blame Dems for R malfeasance. Hard to break that habit.
glc
Note to Zelle users
Geminid
@Rusty: It makes some sense for the Republican half of the Problem Solvers Caucus to quit. They have enough problems to solve in their own caucus.
This caucus will probably be reconstituted later in this Congress. Co-Chairmen Josh Gottheimer and Brian Fitzpatrick are probably talking about this.
It will be no big loss if it isn’t though. With the exception of rounding up Republican votes to get the Infrastructure bill passed two years ago, they have had little impact.
bbleh
… a House GOP backbencher … complained that the vast majority of his conference supports McCarthy but was thwarted by a radical minority.
Oh no no no no no, sorry buddy, this is on ALL of you, every last one of you, for your continuous and ever-more-extreme revanchism, your disdain of compromise and stoking of conflict, and of course your screeching, hysterical demonization of Democrats. Qevin may have bobbled this one pretty spectacularly, but he did it following the rule book you ALL have played by for years. He lied repeatedly to Democrats, blamed them for the actions of his own caucus, and then publicly gave him the back of his hand, and that sealed his fate, but he did all those things with YOUR approval and encouragement. It’s far from clear that he COULD have saved himself even if he had the brains to do it, because you all wouldn’t have let him.
This is all you, Mr. Republican Backbencher. You fked the woodchipper, and now you’ve got us all in a mess. You’d better fix it fast.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
The leopards are eating their own faces!
(wow, how do they do that?)
Miss Bianca
Well said, BC.
jonas
@Rusty: Agree 100%. Basically, McCarthy’s offer to Dems was this: “nothing”. And he also wanted them to put up the fee for the gaming license. But they were supposed to bail him out and save his Speakership?
For what? What was he offering? These people can’t be serious.
trollhattan
Curious if this will fill Iran’s streets with protesters as with the murder of Mahsa Amini. The old men don’t want to let go but the people seem to have their own ideas.
“An accident” sounds a lot like “we didn’t expect her to live.” Sixteen. Girl is sixteen.
Bupalos
@FelonyGovt: Someone really needs to explain to me what this “bail them out” thing is supposed to mean. What water do people perceive the Republican caucus to be taking on? Seems to me the majority of them want to either maim the government through spending cuts or just shut it down. Seems to me they just got their shutdown and now it will be mostly reported as “All Democrats and a handful of Republicans” having done the deed.
I think a lot of folks have convinced themselves that the real problem with Dems is that they don’t adopt republican tactics or play enough hardball, without connecting what those tactics are supposed to result in. We’re the mommy party that has to protect the norms, institutions, and government because WE’RE THE ONLY PARTY THAT WANTS THOSE THINGS TO MEANINGFULLY EXIST.
bbleh
@rikyrah: @FelonyGovt: @Rusty: @Darkrose: … the fundamental slight and disrespect shown the Democrats by Kevin – on national tv- not less than 48 hours before.
Not to mention breaking a deal he negotiated in the name of the entire Republican Party to raise the debt ceiling, or breaking his word to make an impeachment inquiry subject to a vote, or or or …
I continue to believe that, if he had the brains to give the Dems any way to save him, even just by voting present, they would have, because this situation is bad for everyone. But he didn’t — very much the opposite in fact. So as several people have said, he dug his own grave.
Ken
McCarthy may have thought he was in the position of Michael Corleone in that exchange, but he was the Senator.
schrodingers_cat
Why is the damage fractal?
Roger Moore
@Rusty:
If you really believe the Republicans lack agency, that’s a strong argument in favor of not letting them close to the levers of power. People who just can’t help themselves shouldn’t be put anywhere their lack of impulse control would put other people in danger, much less the whole country.
Alison Rose
@glc: I mean…I’m sorry for what happened and Zelle clearly isn’t perfect, but also, they were kind of dumb.
MattF
@glc: That’s a fine story. My sister and BIL have a house in Monterey. It’s a very very very small town that gets buried in snow every winter.
Geminid
@trollhattan: Mahsa Amini, the young woman who beaten by the “Morality Police” and died last September, was also from Iranian Kurdistan. The two cases are eerily alike, except that the newer victim is only 16.
jonas
Expanding on some comments above, the only way the House restores any semblance of functionality for the remainder of the term is if Republicans come to Jeffries with some serious incentives to get Dem votes for a consensus candidate who won’t be a hostage of the Freedom Caucus. No more shutdowns. No more unsanctioned impeachment inquiries. Restore robust ethics rules. Shared committee governance. And finally, no Speaker candidates who were involved in the 1/6 insurrection. This is on Republicans, not Democrats.
Which is of course also why it will never happen and the upcoming speaker election is likely to be another complete shitshow that will probably result in a government shutdown.
Another Scott
@gene108:
Yes, but. Reagan didn’t really get away with it. Even back in the early ’80s, and throughout his term, there were tax increases to try to fill the gigantic hole in the budge cause by the early cuts.
Bloomberg.com:
Yes, the mythology of Reagan cutting taxes fixing everything in the budget and giving us prosperity and SDI-powered unicorns for evermore, amen, is still with us. The GQP wants us to ignore the truth about that, also too, and accept their mythology. It’s a tough battle, but the record does help to push back on it.
Cheers,
Scott.
eversor
@bbleh:
Glad to see that my use of fucking the woodchipper has made it into the common lexicon!
Anoniminous
@schrodingers_cat:
Similar reoccurring pattern(s) of damage at ever decreasing scale.
Anoniminous
@eversor:
Given the size of the Object In Question I suggest “fucking a pencil sharpener” has greater accuracy.
The Thin Black Duke
@bbleh: Kevin still thought he was dealing with “centralist” Democrats, but they were wished into the cornfield along with the “moderate” Republicans.
zhena gogolia
@schrodingers_cat: I’ve been trying to figure that one out too.
trollhattan
@Another Scott: Perhaps the larger problem is they (Republicans) re-draft history in order to keep running the same cons. Trump managed to find Arthur Laffer’s not-dead self and drag him into the 21st century as part of the administration and to give him the utterly discredited presidential medal of freedom.
His contribution? The utter ghoulishness of Reaganomics, reanimated.
Of course he did. This borders on psychopathy.
FastEdD
Good thoughts-the GOP backbencher is getting a tiny taste of what the majority of Americans get every day. Why is it that a voter in Montana or Alaska gets 40 times the power of a voter in California in the Senate? It is a microcosm of our screwed up system.
Ken
@schrodingers_cat: Obviously the damage affects many dimensions of our society. Equally obviously, the damage is not rational. Therefore it cannot be an integer value, so must be of fractal dimension.
eversor
@Anoniminous:
I also have used sticking your cock in an electric pencil sharpener many times in the past. I think woodchipper just has more of a fun image behind it!
Uncle Cosmo
Mmm, I would say more like Resentment, Rage, and Retribution – but you’re not that far wrong.
Captain C
@trollhattan: I’m starting to think Laffer is just a nihillist and a sadist.
eversor
@trollhattan:
He also brought back Stephen Moore. Less well known than Laffer but more more toxic.
At least Kudlow was a coke head at one point. So he knows how to have some fun!
eversor
@Uncle Cosmo:
We can add those as well!
Mr. Bemused Senior
@Uncle Cosmo: selfishness, self importance and self delusion.
ETA the party of self. Or as my grandmother had it, “the Republicans are only for themselves.”
FastEdD
If ya always do what ya always done
Yer always gonna get what you got
If ya always do what ya always done
Yer never gonna get a lot
-chorus of a song I wrote yesterday
Another Scott
@glc: Thanks for the pointer.
That’s a big problem with the internet world at the moment. Everyone (including me) wants everything to be free, because companies tell us everything is free if we watch an ad or let them track us. But when monsters get in the system and steal from us, it’s suddenly – “Oh, sorry, that’s the other guy’s fault. We can’t do anything. Good luck, have a nice day.”
And since on the internet nobody knows you
are a dogare a 14 year old living in Timbuktu, even if someone investigates, you may have no effective recourse.Be careful out there…
Cheers,
Scott.
Uncle Cosmo
Particularly petty as (IIUC) the Speaker Emerita was in CA for Sen Feinstein’s service. Not sure about Steny, his district (MD-05) lies right outside the DC line.
p.a.
I just can’t understand why the party they’ve
labelledlibeled as treasonous communist pedophile-enablers wouldn’t help out Republicans in their time of need!Another Scott
@Another Scott:
budge cause ⇒ budget caused
Me write pretty some day.
Cheers,
Scott.
MisterDancer
@schrodingers_cat: Because we’re seeing the effects of direct Minoritarian Rule on nearly every scale in American Politics.
Forgive the run-on, but: From Hate Groups like the “Moms for Liberty” taking over school boards with a loud-but-vocal/voting minority of the population (much less Parents w/Children in those schools), to the many “Red States” which are actually replaying key parts of the Jim Crow cookbook on how to control politics, to now the House, it’s basically the same set of games being played on nearly every level of politics, and in many areas of America.
bbleh
@eversor: oh ima use that in a letter to my very Republican Congress-critter. Too good not to spread around.
Chief Oshkosh
@rikyrah: It’s not so much that Jeffries didn’t ignore the slights and other petty bullshit, it’s that the minority party leadership has an enormous responsibility in who they choose to work with from the majority side. Since the majority has most of the power, the minority leadership, to the degree it can, must help put into place trustworthy partners from the majority and to try to only work with trustworthy people from the majority, even when the two sides fundamentally disagree on issues.
Kevin proved more than once he cannot be trusted. Thus, if an opportunity presents itself to get rid of Kevin as a negotiating partner, it is the responsibility of the minority leadership to use that opportunity.
But yes, Kevin shitting all over the Democrats repeatedly and right up to the time he had to rely on their votes to keep his job probably factored into Jeffries’ decisions and actions.
Tony G
@rikyrah: Institutions tend to become more radical and destructive as they lose power. They act like cornered rats. With every month that passes by, the United States becomes less of a nation of “white”, “Christian” gun fetishists. The right wing knows this, and that’s why for the past forty years they’ve become more and more insane.
bbleh
@Scout211: @Steeplejack: @Baud: McHenry is a humorless little dick. I dunno if you heard his stand-up during the “debate” over the MTV, but it was larded with insults directed at Democrats. I guess this plays well with his constituency, but in a leadership position with a 5-vote margin and at least half a dozen overt rebels, it’s not a very promising strategy imo.
Jertian
@glc: My wife’s bank has been allowing scammers to Zelle money out of her account without her authorization. She’s never used Zelle, and the bank has frozen her account and changed the account. But they keep allowing the zelles to drain her account.
She’s opened a new account at a different bank and plans to close her old bank when she gets some money back.
NotMax
McCarthy = Speaker Demeritus.
Baud
@Jertian:
That’s nuts. I hope she gets her money back.
eversor
@Another Scott:
To wade into a mine field you know one of the reasons Amazon works? They will make things right. If you get shafted by a seller Amazon is going to refund you full stop.
We have a massive homeless problem in my area now where homeless camps are all over the place and growing. This has lead to retail markets pulliing out. As my apartment complex is not gated with security and a front desk it also means rampant package theft. Amazon will send you another item, no questions asked. Other retailers will not. So if we are going to order we are going to do it from Amazon.
MattF
@Chief Oshkosh: I agree that Dems were correct in not saving McCarthy’s ass. That said, the consequences of not saving Kev’s ass will probably be awful.
MattF
@Jertian: Now I want to know how that can happen. How can money be taken from an account, just like that.
JoyceH
Now Jim Jordan is making a run for Speaker. Someone please tell me he’s got no chance.
Betty Cracker
@Another Scott: I saw a column from some wingnut syndication outfit that lauded the GOP House for getting back to Reaganomics recently — bad timing, just before everything went kaboom. But you’re right. It was always bullshit. Reagan tripled the national debt and took the U.S. from largest creditor nation to largest debtor nation. Praising his fiscal discipline is like gushing over Trump’s truthfulness. Which is another absurd thing Repubs do. 🤔
Baud
@JoyceH:
C’mon. Any idiot in their caucus has a chance.
rikyrah
@eversor:
They also follow directions. I live in an Urban area, on a main street. I have a nice row of bushes in front of my house.
Amazon follows directions. I have told them to place my packages behind the bushes.
Yesterday I came home to 6 packages. only the 2 from Amazon were behind the bushes. I’m lucky that I have the other 4
I have left similar instructions for Walmart, but, they don’t listen.
NotMax
@Betty Cracker
Completely OT, you and other Sunshiners might find this of passing interest/amusement: Top 10 SURPRISING Things I Learned Traveling Around Florida for 3 Months.
Lehigh Acres in particular sounds like an absolutely dreadful, stultifying place.
MisterForkbeard
@Jertian: How does that even work? Other people have the ability to just… yoink money directly out of your account?
MisterForkbeard
@JoyceH: Jim Jordan hates democrats, women, and protects pedophiles if it helps his career. He’s a shoe-in.
Honus
@eclare: that’s nothing. The Virginia house delegation was 9-2 and then 8-3 republican for nearly ten years when no republican won a statewide race and the state went for democrats in three presidential elections.
Jeffro
She put out a lengthy statement out on social media today calling for trump to be Speaker and then magically do all the MAGA things.
They want him back as their god-king soooooo badly…
Delk
Brainsssss……
Jeffro
damn…the national alert just went off and here I am, most decidedly not in my Faraday cage, just looking like the tasty zombie snack I never wanted to be…
MattF
Ah! The signal. Are we all zombies now?
Alison Rose
Okay, fuck that. I had muted my phone and have all emergency alerts turned off in settings, but that stupid thing still came through like it was trying to wake the dead.
bbleh
@MattF: well, I suddenly have excellent 5G connectivity …
SiubhanDuinne
Just got the Emergency alert.
It is very loud.
Michael Bersin
Let me guess. Mark Alford (r) – former Kansas City metro area morning television newsreader.
Brachiator
Forgot to turn my phone off. Got the test sound. Fortunately, I had turned the volume down.
Somewhat annoying, but mercifully short.
ETA. Waiting for the Zombie transformation. I haven’t had lunch yet.
zhena gogolia
@Alison Rose: It scared the hell out of me even though I knew it was coming.
HumboldtBlue
I feel funny, what just happened?
Alison Rose
@zhena gogolia: Same!! Should have turned my phone off entirely.
Subsole
@eversor:
I usually say fucking a waffle iron. Or toaster.
NotMax
@Delk
10-4, good bud– AUGH!
Baud
I can’t believe foreign adversaries didn’t launch an attack on the US at the announced time.
Michael Bersin
My phone alarm just went off. No Faraday Cage, but I do have a heavy 1958 steel desk in my office. It was probably designed for “duck and cover”, so I think I’m good…
Brachiator
@JoyceH:
He’s got no chance.
Seriously.
None.
zhena gogolia
@HumboldtBlue:
Reposting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tmzjaN2DWc
bjacques
Fuck. I got Marburg virus. I don’t even live in the US, but was watching CNN international just now while Boehner’s former staffer Maria Whosis was being interviewed and the alert went off in the background.
So when Scalise goes up against Gym Jordan, will the Dems vote uniformly vote Nay to sandbag them both?
HumboldtBlue
I’m sure if Nancy Pelosi had faced a motion to vacate, Republicans would have…sorry I can’t finish this one, can you imagine Nancy Pelosi facing a motion to vacate?
@zhena gogolia:
Lol
SFBayAreaGal
While reading the comments the test alarm went off. Even knowing it was going to happen, I jumped.
Michael Bersin
@Baud:
Peter Sellers – Duchy of Grand Fenwick – The Mouse that Roared (1959)
Baud
@bjacques:
Dems will vote for Jeffries.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@bjacques: My understanding is that the new speaker is elected by a vote of the full house, just as in January. I would also guess that the Ds would nominate Jeffries.
What the Rs do to get a nominee is a mystery to me.
mrmoshpotato
@gene108:
Unsurprising from a party of brats.
Also, too, fuck ’em!
Ken
I am eagerly awaiting the version of “The Night That Panicked America” updated for today’s test, with all the little vignettes showing idiots smashing their phones, hiding in their Faraday cages, and fleeing into the wilderness.
scav
Hey I AM Amish. Got no signal at all!! Can I still play zombie or am I perhaps really dead in a meticulously planned real disaster?
WaterGirl
@glc: That was way too long to read to get to the punch line. Can you summarize the story?
Was someone stupid enough to pay a $30,000 bill through something like Zelle, and then they got ripped off?
If so, how is that Zelle’s fault?
Delk
@NotMax: apt phrase for me.
Frankensteinbeck
Repubs are for minoritarian rule because they can’t compete on policy.
White supremacy specifically contains the belief that they and only they can legitimately hold power and it is their right and duty to cruelly impose their will on the Other. White American evangelicalism contains a pretty similar fundamental precept that any viewpoint other than theirs is evil. The GOP is heavily predisposed to seek minoritarian rule.
@Bupalos:
Sure. First and most importantly, this threatens their being in charge. If there is no Speaker, they are not able to fully wield their power. For what is irrelevant.
Second, the Speaker election drama embarrasses and frustrates them. It turns their assholery on each other, and they are assholes. They hate that they have to do it again.
Third, you are overstating their desire for chaos. They are cowards who really, really hate sticking their neck out, so most of them only want to want to chop bits off government they think they can get away with. Most don’t want a shutdown, they just don’t care as much as we do. It looks bad and hurts their people for no benefit. Only the lunatics think, say, there should be no Post Office. The others would rather sell it or merely punish it as someone to blame an election loss on. Similarly, they just want the FBI to understand Republicans must never be prosecuted for anything, not to shut it down. And so on. Complete funding failure does not suit them.
Fourth, neither does complete stasis. They care about their bullshit theater. They care a lot. They need a Speaker and an at least marginally functional House to run their deranged investigations and pontificate without taking real actions. Those might be risky.
And because they’re assholes who think like domestic abusers, this is the Democrats’ fault for not taking care of them while they hit us for it.
Soprano2
So did anyone turn into a zombie? I yelled that out my office door, and someone started acting like one. LOL
Subsole
@MattF:
No.
I received the MKUltra activation signal, and all I got was Marburg.
thruppence
Huh. 2:30 ET and I don’t FEEL like a Zombie. Feeling a little peckish, though. Uh oh
Soprano2
@MisterForkbeard: You’d be surprised. I’ve been told that banks will take money out of your account when they get what appears to be a valid request. There aren’t any guardrails on that stuff anymore.
Roger Moore
@MattF:
The consequences of saving McCarthy would have been at least as bad. That’s the key thing in all of this. The root cause of all the shit is that the Republicans have sold their soul to stay in power a little longer. All the Democrats’ choices are bad because the situation is bad.
Baud
I don’t feel like a zombie but for some reason the sun is severely burning my skin all of a sudden.
trollhattan
@thruppence: Bwaaaains for bweakfast, bwaaaains for lunch, bwaaaains for suppertime!
Alison Rose
@WaterGirl: This was my exact refrain. The guy freely admits he and his wife were idiots, and like…yeah. They were. They ignored massive red flags that people have known for years were signs of a scam, and they just sent along all this money, and then they tried to get their local police, state police, FBI, banks, and others involved in helping them. He kept calling it theft and I’m like…no one stole money from you, you gave it on your own volition because you were too fucking dumb to realize this was fraud.
Also, they still got their damn pool, and he says near the end that the original contractor “didn’t apologize” and I’m like WHY THE HELL SHOULD HE APOLOGIZE??? The writer is a nitwit.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@MisterDancer:
You mean the “Moms for Liberty” types that have mostly lost in many elections in several states over the past few years?
MattF
@WaterGirl: The big banks that own Zelle know for a fact that it is being used for scams and have apparently not done enough to deal with that fact. 99.9% safe isn’t so great when you’ve got hundreds of millions of customer transactions. Yeah, it’s obvious in retrospect that there was some very funny business going on there, and the people who were scammed should have known better. But theft is still theft.
Jeffro
@glc: great piece, thank you!
(I’m busy forwarding it to friends and relatives just as fast as I can)
Timill
@Jeffro: Well, I suppose he could get elected, but then he’d have to vacate:
zhena gogolia
@Baud:
“Never taken a shortcut before?”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqDy3dXLBO8
WaterGirl
@Jeffro: The alert came on for a second (literally, I think) and a small box with text in it flashed by for just a moment, then the alter cut off and the message was gone, nowhere to be found.
Was that the intention / plan for their alert? I thought there was immediately supposed to be a followup so folks knew it was just a text.
thruppence
@Baud: Vampire! Vampire! Or very white person
Alison Rose
@MattF: I mean, maybe this is recent, but when I used Zelle to send money to Ajabu recently, it gave me like five warnings throughout the process to be sure I was sending money to the right person, to be absolutely positive I really truly wanted to send the money, etc etc. There were enough warnings that I started getting annoyed by it, TBH.
sab
Well, that was exciting. All the phones and tvs alerted. My flip-phone wouldn’t turn off until I went into notifications, dismissed it, then turned the whole phone off. That took a while, so every cat woke up and the pitbull went nuts.
Dobby the cat is now crouched inside his covered litterbox, glaring.
Baud
@thruppence:
You’re obviously not familiar with Blackula.
MattF
@Alison Rose: That’s good news, actually.
Jeffro
Kevin Kruse on the upcoming fight for the Speakership between Steve Scalise and Jim Jordan:
Higher standards plz GOP thank you
mrmoshpotato
@zhena gogolia: Delicious.
Ken
They’ll be voting for Jeffries.
Assuming there are multiple Republican candidates, and we again have days of voting for Speaker because they keep splitting the (R) vote and none of them will withdraw — I confidently predict the usual idiot pundits will say the Democrats should give their 200+ votes to one of the Republicans.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Roger Moore:
How so?
scav
Brains Brains Brains I need entirely new cooking shows!!!!
Must Have Free-range Organic Song-bird friendly Brainns!
WaterGirl
@MattF: Then why can’t these people sue the banks that own Zelle? Or get the powers that be to go after the banks that own Zelle?
Jeffro
@Timill: true, but I think the majority can change the rules pretty easily if they want to?
We’ll just have to see, I guess. Nothing could be more reassuring to normies, I’m sure, than seeing a chaotic and dysfunctional House GOP settle on…trump. His calm demeanor, soaring rhetoric, and measured leadership as the Speaker could be just what brings the party into a new Golden Age of governing.
=)
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
Welp, it looks like the the crazies were right! I now have a hankering for brains 🧠
Oh, and I can stream movies and TV shows directly into my mind with my new 5G connectivity!
Alison Rose
@WaterGirl: In the article, he does say it’s a real passing-the-buck situation, where Zelle (which is very difficult to get a real person from) will say “call your bank” and your bank will say “call Zelle”.
MattF
@WaterGirl: Don’t know, but I’d guess that large teams of high-priced lawyers have examined that question in painstaking detail.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Jeffro:
That’s not even a joke, I think that could legit happen which is scary. At least it’s the right month for horror?
NotMax
FYI.
Brain cake.
;)
MattF
@Jeffro: But also… maybe not.
Roger Moore
@rikyrah:
Most on-line retailers aren’t big enough to run their own delivery service, so they depend on one of the package delivery companies to handle it for them. The package delivery companies don’t really care about what happens to the package after it’s out of their hands. They care most about delivering as many packages as possible, so they just drop the stuff off and skedaddle.
Amazon is different because they mostly control the delivery. They see delivery as an integral part of the sale, so getting the delivery right is part of keeping their customers happy. Amazon wants delivery drivers to pay attention to things that will reduce package theft because it’s Amazon who will pay if the packages are stolen. They want drivers to spend the time it takes to get the package delivered on the first attempt, because they don’t want customers to question the value of paying for Prime when the deliveries don’t happen as scheduled.
sab
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): He breaks his promises, so our guys vote for what he promised and then it doesn’t happen. Like the debt ceiling agreement in May. That was supposedly agreed on and we gave up stuff to get it. Then all we get is a temporary continuing resolution without Ukraine aide, and the start of an impeachment proceeding with no floor vote. There really isn’t any point in propping him up if he cannot or will not deliver what he negotiates.
mrmoshpotato
@Alison Rose: Weird. I had my phone muted and just had the alert with no sound.
bbleh
@MattF: @Roger Moore: @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): @sab: interesting counterfactual. On one hand, this chaos is potentially very bad for Teh Economee, which means bad for Dems and Biden, so *IF* there had been some way to save McQarthy it probably would have been a good thing. OTOH, the problem seems to be, he gave them no way — very much the opposite in fact, up to and including just last weekend — so to have saved him nonetheless would have validated what has been described as his “scorched-earth” approach to dealing with Democrats. From the reports, it seems pretty clear the latter sentiment was dominant at the Dem caucus meeting.
I still dunno what he was thinking. Yes “compromise” is a dirty word among Republicans, but he could have given the Dems something, just enough for a handful of them to vote “present,” and told any Reps who complained to pound sand. But he didn’t.
Roger Moore
@Jeffro:
Fallacy of the excluded middle!
Scout211
We were both outside so we didn’t hear or see the alert but it was hanging out in notifications on both of our phones.
Chris T.
@Soprano2:
No, but I got the More Blog virus.
Roger Moore
@Jeffro:
Trump wouldn’t take the job if it were offered. Being Speaker is a lot of work, and he’s already going to be overwhelmed with 4 felony trials, a civil fraud trial, and a Presidential campaign.
West of the Rockies
Stupid fucking questions…
Will the OMG, Zombies people be confronted about their idiocy? Will they admit they were wrong? Will their children and neighbors shame them? Will they learn a lesson?
thruppence
Martha Stewart, ahead of her time: Bloody Brain Mold
MattF
OT. Just got delivery of new COVID test kits. You can order them here.
JaySinWA
@Timill: But he’s pre-indicted. Ex post facto kinda sorta, (yes the rule was created before the indictment, but, but, Donny wasn’t the candidate then, besides the election should decide)//
ETA maybe there’s a sealed indictment handy for Gym Jordan.
Anyway
@mrmoshpotato:
Same.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
I get those screamer phone alerts regularly, and in stereo (on both my personal phone and my work phone), whenever there’s something like a wildfire or a heavy weather event. Then again, I’m not in the US, so I didn’t get today’s test.
Dangerman
I don’t feel like a Zombie. Though, to be fair, I’m not sure what a Zombie feels like.
Does it have anything to do with not wearing pants? Baud has been bad influence on me. BAGA.
sdhays
@Jeffro: Honestly, I think it’s more that they don’t have any real clue who should be their leader, so they decide to just stoke Defendant’s ego in the interim. It’s win-win! No way Trump takes a job like Speaker where it’s a lot of work, but he’ll appreciate the thought, and it’s no threat to anyone who actually eventually becomes Speaker/Republican leader because they love them some Trump too.
bbleh
@Chris T.: lol, transmitted by all those high-voltage power lines, right? like e-bola?
Roger Moore
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Basically, the Democrats can’t support McCarthy because he’s repeatedly reneged on their deals. They have to vote against him or they’d be giving their active approval to him breaking his word. By voting against him, they’re letting the next Speaker know he can’t count on them bailing him out if he cheats. Making that point is more important than keeping any specific Republican in the Speaker’s chair.
Ken
Don’t forget murdering his wife and blaming Guilder for it. He’s swamped.
Also don’t forget, being Speaker is a lot of work, but he wouldn’t actually do any of it.
Betty Cracker
@NotMax: He ignored the best parts of the state, which is good. We want them to remain unknown. ;-)
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@sab:
@bbleh:
Oh wow. I hadn’t been following the nitty gritty of that stuff. That makes sense why couldn’t be trusted. That’s really bad that he gave up absolutely nothing. I can see why Dems decided to do what they did. Thanks
Cacti
It’s not so much that Dems didn’t want to save McCarthy, as they wanted to dance and spit on his political grave.
I have no problem with that.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Roger Moore:
Thanks
jonas
@Roger Moore: Not to mention the 4-6 hours of “Executive Time” per day he requires.
sab
@sab: Also, Democrats were supposed to vote on the continuing resolution to fund the government for 45 days when they hadn’t even been given copies of it to read. Just trust McCarthy as to what was in it.
We cannot work with a Speaker like that.
Anyway
@Roger Moore:
Yep, plus it was awesome how Kev got ZERO 0 Dem votes.
JaySinWA
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Funny how these losers seem to get books banned as reported weekly around the country.
Jeffro
@Roger Moore: oh but he was asked about it outside his NYC trial today and said “Yup”
He’s doesn’t care about the work he’s supposed to be doing, not in any job. He just wants another seat of power, in order to inflict his revenge for all the humiliations that have been/are being/are about to be visited upon him.
Shalimar
@Timill: The 4 separate indictments are politically-motivated and fake, to keep Trump from being our next president. None of them count, nor will any future indictments.
I wish I were joking. This is the real excuse hundreds of adults will use for voting for him.
scav
@Roger Moore: On the other hand, he’ll likely believe that being Speaker of the House means he’s immune to any and all gag orders. Speaking is His JOB!!!! All the Speaking!
MattF
@scav: Also, being Speaker would put him in line for the Presidency, after the VP.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Jeffro: Right. Being president is theoretically a lot of work too, but Trump had lots of, what did they call it now? Whatever it was, he was in the residence playing with his phone
ETA: Except that the rules the Rs established when they took over say that someone who’s indicted will “step aside.”
Hoodie
@sab: Yeah, this is what doomed him with the Dems, they had multiple reasons not to trust him. McCarthy wanted to be able to run the House like Pelosi, but he didn’t have anywhere near the chops or the caucus to match it. The problem for the GOP is that they don’t know how to govern, period. They are either charlatans like Gaetz and Jordan (who don’t care about governing) or delusional idiots like the bulk of the caucus who think that a return to the 19th century would be grand. Listening to the various GOP windbags speak the other night, you really got a sense of that. No one takes them seriously about debt after Bush and Trump, but they kept droning on and on about it. To borrow from Logan Roy, they’re not serious people.
bbleh
@Dorothy A. Winsor: “Executive Time”
Frankensteinbeck
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Executive branch bureaucracy. The deep state he complained about who did the actual job while he sat on his lard ass making vague, selfish pronouncements.
The Speaker does not have that level of help. It also doesn’t have the constant ego feeding rewards that Trump got addicted to. I’m sure its a job with plenty of perks, but not on the level he’s used to. It contains almost no holding court like a monarch while people beg for things. It has a lot of sitting in one place and paying attention while people say stuff that doesn’t include your name.
He can’t do it.
Ocotillo
I am late to the thread as I so often am but when running in House races, a postcard with the following should be mailed to registered voters:
unctuous
@Anoniminous: Thought of that too but remember, the hubris of these assholes fucking the woodchipper is such that they think they need a woodchipper. The towed trailer size.
All the better for us to point and laugh at the actual stubby pencil.
SpaceUnit
OT but I see that Giuliani is suing Joe Biden for calling him a Russian pawn. It’ll go nowhere but I’ll shit myself laughing if Joe brings the receipts.
Geminid
@Ken: Even if he had no criminal cases against him, Trump is too lazy and fickle to make a functional Speaker. I think all but a few of his Congressional supporters know this. But even if Trump can’t win, Rep. Greene’s threat to nominate him will be another complication in the Speaker race.
It could really get complicated if Trump endorses someone besides Scalise, like Jordan. Then the fat would be in the fire.
Republicans really need to keep this as much as possible a caucus matter, and not a national party fight. But good luck with that if Trump tries to play Speaker-maker.
unctuous
@WaterGirl: It’s the national missing blonde white girl alert system.
Baud
@SpaceUnit:
“I’m a Russian rook, at least!”
Ruckus
@Rusty:
If repubs actually thought that they were the problem with themselves they’d have 2 choices. Fix themselves or screw everyone else. They chose #2 because of course they can’t be wrong. When their only path turns out to be the worst one, do you or anyone else expect them to change? Some, a few, might but the most won’t because that means they have to admit they were wrong AND accept the consequences. They don’t care that they screw everyone else and a good portion of their own, their owners make money from a crappy government and get to keep a lot of it. It’s what’s good for the wealthiest that is good for them. (I didn’t say it would make any sense to any sort of majority)
WaterGirl
@unctuous: ha!
piratedan
@Anyway: same amount as he got before…. strangely enough.
Shaking my head (ruefully) listening to the cry from the conservative punditry that is lamenting McCarthy not being saved by the Dems when he’s got just a completely tragic history of keeping his word, to anybody.
It seems weird that nobody on the reporting side of affairs keeps receipts on significant items like agreements and promises kept. It’s how everyone in the real world gets along.
SpaceUnit
@Baud:
Russian kook.
Alison Rose
@unctuous: No need to make glib jokes. This wasn’t an Amber Alert test. This was for national emergencies, things like tornadoes or, I don’t know, terrorist attacks.
Jeffro
Btw I just watched a 7-minute clip of Brian Kilmeade of FOX going at it with Tim Burchett (R-TN) and whew…moar infighting pleeze GOP!
It was truly amazing. Kilmeade kept talking over TB, clearly about to blow his stack.
sab
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): My city is having off year elections for important stuff, like mayor, city council and school board.
There is a school board candidates forum tomorrow evening. Got any suggestions for questions?
Jeffro
@Ocotillo: this is excellent, thank you!
different-church-lady
@Baud: Sharp jibe, my friend.
Roger Moore
@bbleh:
He couldn’t afford to tell any Republican to pound sand, because they could just vote against him. He would need to convince two Democrats to vote present for every Republican he pissed off, which is not a good trade for him, but the compromises he would need to convince the Democrats would probably piss off a lot of hard-line Republicans.
Basically, McCarthy’s Speakership was fatally flawed from its inception. He had to make so many compromises to win the position that he was never going to be able to keep it for long. In effect, there are three parties in the House: the Democrats, the Republicans, and the Klown Kar Kaucus. The KKK is small and a natural ally to the Republicans, but they’re in a strong bargaining position because they have enough votes to deny either of the other two parties the majority and they are genuinely happy to burn everything down if they can’t get what they want.
sab
@Alison Rose: My phone went bonkers. LOUDLY ALERT and would not shut up. Scared the cats. Dobby still hasn’t calmed down.
ETA: We do need something like that even locally. It would be nice to get the water boil alerts before we used the water.
Roger Moore
@Hoodie:
I think the core is that the Democrats are the party of government and the Republicans are the party of anarchy. The most extreme Democrats are extreme because they want even more government programs to do good stuff, so they have a strong incentive to vote to keep the government running and for most new stuff that will get by the less extreme members of the party. In contrast, the extreme wing of the Republicans is the most anti-government. In a lot of cases, they can get their desire for less government more effectively by voting for shut downs than they could by trying to keep the government open. That makes it really hard for any Republican leadership to do even the most basic stuff like keeping the lights on.
Frankensteinbeck
@Roger Moore:
It’s astonishing he kept it as long as he did. He crossed the lines the bomb throwers gave him repeatedly. I was shocked when they didn’t evict him after he folded on the debt ceiling.
RaflW
I won’t give him the click, but I noticed that Ross Doubtthat is saying today that Gaetz (age 41) ousting McCarthy (age 58) is because of “the gerontocracy.” I’m sure somehow Hakeem Jeffries (age 53) is part of the problem.
MomSense
@Betty Cracker:
It was bullshit when they called it Horse and Sparrow at the turn of the 20th century. Give the horse some extra oats so he will shit some out for the sparrow to eat.
At least it was a more honest description.
scav
Have to admit, I am multitasking and taking a bit of glee in one L. Fox’s being hauled off to g for gaol specifically after calling for camera-based vandalism presumably fueled by his losing his dedicated camera time at a “news” source. Whiney little guy. What is merrie little engerland coming to if you can’t justify all positions by who’s most shaggable? Just trying to maintain a varied Schaden diet.
Suzanne
@eversor:
Also, they have made returning items ludicrously easy. I am hesitant to make purchases from other places because of this issue.
Ruckus
@Alison Rose:
You and I seem to be on the same page. Phone blasted an alert at full volume and I’m like 3-4 feet from it. At least there was no mistaking that it was happening…. even if one was dead.
Jeffro
WaPo up with a great piece: Ron DeSantis is still running for president. LOL, no way, really? =)
And it starts off like this
The GOP’s billionaire
donorspuppeteers must be beside themselves: how’d we get conned into supporting this clown as our ‘trump alternative’, again?It all brings new meaning to “high on their own supply”. They’ve got about two months left to figure it out.
bbleh
@Roger Moore: well, we’ll never know for sure, but I don’t think a reasonable concession to the Dems would have caused a large-scale revolt among the Reps if it kept Qevin in the chair. There might have been a few more who would have tipped into rebellion, but Jeffries had over 200 potential “present” votes. I don’t think the large majority of the Republicans are so extreme that they would dump a Speaker for ANY deal-making.
The problem I see now is, it’s gonna get worse. They’re working themselves into a lather blaming the Dems for this when it’s their own fault (and Qevin’s most of all), and the next guy is almost certainly gonna have less leeway to cut deals, at least for a while. That bodes ill for appropriations that need to be reconciled with the Senate. I wouldn’t be surprised if they kick the can again and finally roll it all into an “Omnibus.” I just hope any shutdown is brief — for a lot of people’s sake.
RaflW
@rikyrah: Much of the Beltway really does expect Democrats to be the GOP’s chamber maids. Tidy up after them, throw out their muck, and then quietly return to below stairs.
I hope this puts the pundits on notice. Democrats have agency. And the handoff to Leader Jeffries does not mean that the strength and strategic thinking that Madam Pelosi embodied has ended.
Ruckus
@Baud:
I can’t believe foreign adversaries didn’t launch an attack on the US at the announced time.
They would have taken a back seat to the alarm, that’s for sure. I’m glad I wasn’t driving when that went off.
Hoodie
@Roger Moore: There is little difference between the Klown Kar Kaucus and the Republicans except the Klown Kar Kaucus appears to be in it mainly for the lulz, the others are just delusional about there being some sort of groundswell of support for their ideology. As Betty points out, they mistake taking advantage of structural features of the Constitution for popular support. The former doesn’t care about governing, the latter are just idiots. That’s why they don’t simply make deals with the Dems to sideline the Klowns. McCarthy could have done that, but instead shit all over his potential legislative partners.
Suzanne
@Roger Moore:
Agreed. And I don’t know if the next Speaker will do any better.
As much as I am enjoying the Decline and Fall of My Kevin, because he sucks…. I don’t know how much of the D&F is due to his failures of character and leadership…. or just due to the structural, systematic failure of the Republican Party.
japa21
@sab: What is the main purpose of education? And elaborate please.
sab
@sab: Emilia Sykes mother is running. It’s a thankless job and she is a competent serious person, so I am excited about that. But I worry about others. We’re an urban school district with good things but also a lot of problems, and we got some ambitious chaos agents that really messed things up last term. Absolutely destroyed our newly hired superintendant because ( as far as I can tell) she was an uppity woman.
Anyway
@Roger Moore:
He has no respect for the legislative branch/process.
Hoodie
@Jeffro: I suspect DeSantis is mostly staying in because he and Casey like flying around in private jets and dread going back to a shithole like Tallahassee. As long as he keeps going, he can pretend to be relevant. As long as some idiots are willing to pay for it, he’ll keep going.
Frankensteinbeck
@Anyway:
He doesn’t understand it and he certainly isn’t paying attention. Remember his role in budget negotiations during his presidency? He would declare a few priorities, and they would get completely ignored while congress did its own negotiating without him. His rock solid belief that he is the world’s greatest negotiator would only make his complete inability to negotiate worse.
sab
@japa21: Reading, writing, rithmatic, keyboarding, anger management and problem resolution. Also too learning curiousity. And ( this is edgy) tolerance and anti-bullying.
ETA Also too if we can afford it arts and music. I graduated 50 years ago and I know a lot of classmates who made careers out of those silly arts programs we wasted our time on. Musicians, actors, jewellers, painters
ETA Oops, got it. This is my question to them? That is an excellent question. Thank you.
Chief Oshkosh
@Alison Rose: I think the point is that this type of fraud is rampant, it affects the non-rich, and nobody, absolutely nobody, is doing anything to police it (though Senator Warren has been ringing alarm bells for some time).
japa21
@Betty Cracker: My sympathies for how the Rays are doing. Please return the favor this evening when the Brewers are being eliminated.
unctuous
@unctuous: Seriously though, I can’t see a practical use case for it that isn’t already covered by other communication means, including state alerts.
I do see it being misused, a catspaw for every pol like W or Trump to goose the nation with fear.
How soon we have forgotten the “color alerts” of the Bush years. What does any reasonable person expect Trump or the next Trump-like figure to make use of it if he had access to such a toy?
Anyone see a useful purpose for this system? And please do not respond with “nuclear war”. Such an alert is not useful, not in any way any of us can do anything about it, and besides everyone in the world would find out quite soon enough.
rikyrah
@sab:
you said it all
japa21
@sab:
Sorry, wasn’t clear. That is a question you should be asking the candidates. Listen for terms like, critical thinking, growth, tolerance of others, etc. Conversely, responding to parents concerns, protection, Christian values, etc.
sab
@japa21: I figured that out eventually, and it is an excellent question.
JML
@Alison Rose: I’m all for turning Elizabeth Warren loose and regulating these P2P folks like Zelle, or Venmo to make sure that people aren’t victimized for being a little too trusting or casual about stuff like this. I don’t exactly feel bad for the pool people (who are clearly quite well off), but I always worry about any area of the financial industry that’s not rigorously regulated.
Crypto is a whole nother ballgame, but all of it is a looming problem for normies. I’m just waiting for the next wall Street fuckup that crashes the economy because we simply don’t fund the SEC like it should be (along with the IRS, etc)
RaflW
@Jeffro: I think she knows there’s no chance of it happening, so it burnishes her MAGA cred with minimal risk.
But to entertain the thought briefly, dang would it be a shitshow’s shitshow. We know that he hasn’t an administrative bone in is body. We know that he only ever does anything if he thinks the angle is gonna benefit him. We know the people who think they can ‘handle’ him basically can’t.
Trump being the Speaker, even for a week, would be a catapult towards further mid-flight disassembly of the nation. But it’d be spectacular!
unctuous
@Alison Rose: See my comment down thread.
Why does someone on the west coast need to take cover for a tornado in the Midwest?
Even the 9-11 attacks were regional, at best.
”I don’t know” hints at the issue. What use cases is this intended for? Because it definitely has the potential to be misused, missing blonde white girl is sort of not really a joke. It’s been done already.
This is the ultimate mainline delivery system for fox news old white people to be afraid! Be afraid!
“OMG it’s terrible what just happened in Peoria! We are all out looking here in Las Cruces for that black sedan!”
Roger Moore
@bbleh:
I think the big question is how big a concession McCarthy would have needed to make to get the Democrats onboard. His big problem was that he had already ruined his credibility with the Democrats, by going back on his word so many times. It was going to take something substantial, like voting on the appropriations agreed on as part of the debt ceiling deal rather than just a 45 day CR, to get the Democrats to take him seriously.
raven
@unctuous: It was a fucking test, what’s your problem?
RaflW
@glc: This scam happened to our HOA. For a lot more money. The employee at the paid, ‘professional’ management company made a stratospheric mistake in not calling the contractor before making the payment, and we as a board got a lawyer at lighting speed and went after our mgt. co.
They ate the loss (the contractor actually ate part of it because their email security sucked and allowed the hackers to break in, read the open contracts, and send the fake invoice with the offshore payment processor) but whateves. We got our project at the agreed price.
But damn, it was a crazy expensive lesson for the mgt. co.
Glidwrith
@Rusty: By not riding to the rescue, we’re refusing to play the role of an abused woman.
raven
Idiots on blogs have the potential for misuse too.
sab
@unctuous: 9/11 wasn’t all that regional. It affected air travel everywhere east of the Mississippi.
We need these alert systems in place everywhere. They layer up from extremely local to nationwide.
East Palestine people in Ohio would have liked to be warned about risks of the derailment before two days after when it hit the news cycle. If an alert system is in place and people know that, the local government cannot pretend that they had no way to alert people.
Uncle Cosmo
I can’t read Cracker’s mind, but…I would conjecture that “fractal” (which btw also echoes “fractious,” another good word for the Thugs’ lowjinks) alludes to the Mandelbrot set, which seems to exhibit the same degree of complexity no matter how much it’s magnified. That is to say the Thugs’ tactics of deflection, dissembling, and barely suppressed threats of violence work pretty much the same at all sizes of government, from the national to the local school boards. But that’s just a guess.
unctuous
@raven: Asking what the intended purpose is for. What’s your problem?
Brachiator
@unctuous:
Good question. You can read about it here at the FEMA site.
I remember that in the past, officials said that if there were an actual emergency, you were expected to tune to a specific AM radio station and maybe a designated TV station for further information. And in the 60s and 70s, practically everyone had a radio in their car and home, and access to a TV. This is no longer the case, and some car manufacturers are lobbying hard to eliminate car radios.
Smartphones may not be quite as ubiquitous as radio, so maybe there are gaps in the national notification system.
Anyway, when we had the huge storm hitting Southern California, we got alerts via smartphones. Similarly, we got earthquake warnings via smartphones, even if it was just a few seconds before the shaking started.
Scout211
@unctuous: The system is sophisticated enough that they can target separate regions. Like our state emergency system, if there is a tornado, severe weather, flood, fire, amber alert, silver alert, escaped convict, etc., only the cell phones in the affected areas are sent the alerts.
Today’s test was sent to all phones, to test the system in case of a nationwide emergency.
Tony G
Night of the short plastic butter knives.
unctuous
@raven: Idiots on blogs don’t get broadcast to every smart device thats powered on in the nation. I only have to read your comments because I choose to.
Ken
“Do you live in the school district” and “Do you have children who go to the district’s schools” would be useful data points.
You could also ask “Should the theory of evolution be taught in science class?” “Yes” is acceptable, a ten-minute diatribe that involves Satan and vaccines is not. Hemming and hawing and dodging the question is possibly worse than the Satan tirade, since it suggests they lack the spine to stand up to lunatics.
bbleh
@Roger Moore: the counterfactual million-dollar question. I think something really dramatic — as btw many commenters were suggesting the Dems demand — might indeed have inspired a large-scale revolt among the Republicans, so the best approach might have been something small enough that he could stare down any whining Republicans but significant enough to convince Dems he was serious (this time) followed by a change in behavior from the previous bad faith and scorched-earth. Given that the present situation is also bad for Dems, that might have been enough to get them to bail him out (this time), with the understanding that the Crazies probably wouldn’t give up completely, and that if Qevin resumed his previous bad behavior then a little birdie might whisper in Gaetz’s ear that the Dems wouldn’t back him again.
OTOH, he had burned a lot of bridges, so maybe it was beyond hope and there was no way out. But by all reports he didn’t try — all I’ve heard about was a DEMAND from the Reps in the “Problem Solvers Caucus” that Dems support him — and with his comments late last week and over the weekend, it could be that the die was cast.
Shalimar
@Suzanne: I think it is sort of both. The fall of McCarthy was because of his lack of character. On the one hand, there was a chance for negotiation with him on things like the debt ceiling because he would do just about anything to stay in power. But anything included constant lying, so he couldn’t be trusted to keep deals.
Whoever takes over for him will be more honest and dependable about what they want, but they will also oppose anything Democrats want because that is where most Republicans are now. The results might end up being worse.
smith
It was entirely too late for that. He had previously agreed to a number of compromises with Dems and then reneged on them. No sane person would continue to make deals with someone who’d consistently proved to be so totally untrustworthy, and Dems as a rule are at least sane.
Scout211
Ask them what their motivation is for running for the school board this year. ex:
“What made you want to become a school board member this year?”
”What would you consider the top [choose your number] issues in our school district that need to be changed and how do you plan to change them?”
Chacal Charles Calthrop
@Baud: time for a medieval invasion force in chain metal armor armed with swords and crossbows from Grand Fenwick….,
sab
@unctuous: I see your point but I think you are misunderstanding the system.
I agree that Amber alerts in the middle of the night from Cleveland when I am asleep in Akron 40 miles away are pointless. And I have had a lot of those.
But this national system is supposedly (sorry, but I believe) built on government ( local, state and national emergency services) and not just police departments talking to each other and communicating badly.
Chacal Charles Calthrop
@Michael Bersin: you got there ahead of me!
unctuous
@Scout211: Finally. An explanation. It’s targetable and can be focused.
That’s got downsides too.
Depends of course on who gets to decide the who where and what. After Trump we must consider this. We are not post MAGA.
Like making medical decisions I think we should ask ourselves, 1) what are the benefits 2) what are the downsides and potential risks and 3) what happens if we do nothing?
We quickly see the upsides to technology, especially those provided by our smart device world. We are still discovering the downsides. We never thought passenger airliners would be flown into buildings. We never thought an insurrection would be fomented and organized via social media.
This technology will be misused.
TriassicSands
@smith:
Compromise, in 2023, is always a potential “dirty word.” When Democrats think about compromising with Republicans they have to consider what it is the GOP wants.
Social Security: The GOP would like to end it or privatize it. What is the compromise with that position. Cut the program in half? Raise the age of eligibility while ignoring that physical jobs can take a huge toll on workers after 20-30 years. Real compromise would be increasing the funding for the program. Turning SS over to profit-driven entities will hardly be compromising. It will be surrender.
Health Care: The GOP doesn’t care if anyone with low income has health insurance or access to care. What is the compromise with that? Obamacare, an inadequate bandaid, was compromise, especially since it was basically a conservative plan. The GOP wants to end it. Compromise?
This list goes on and on. When an opposition party has no solutions to problems and only wants to make things worse, compromise with that position is a dirty word. The Republicans need to have viable alternatives to solving the nation’s problems, but their answers are often denials that a problem exists or simply to remove government from the equation.
Taxes: The U.S. has relatively low taxation, but we get very little (when compared with European democracies) for our money. Compromise is this area is agreement to tax the wealthy more. The GOP wants to give more tax cuts to the wealthy. It’s hardly an improvement to compromise and give the wealthy smaller tax cuts, when what is needed is higher tax rates.
It almost every case, the GOP is representing the causes of our many of our problems. They already have an unjust, unequal society. Is Democratic compromise, agreeing to make things worse?
Hob
@unctuous: You say “Finally. An explanation” as if you had no ability to find out the actual story before opining about it, and it was everyone else’s responsibility to correct your misunderstanding. This, after you had already posted half a dozen comments harping on your incorrect belief that it was about broadcasting regional disasters like tornadoes to irrelevant parts of the country.
And now you’re already moving the goalposts to say that the actual explanation doesn’t matter, because no matter what it’s for, it would have the potential for misuse so you would be against it. Which, since every level of government has the potential to be taken over by tyrants, logically implies you’re against any form of governmental communication system on principle. LITERALLY EVERYTHING HAS THE POTENTIAL FOR MISUSE, we don’t therefore avoid everything.
Captain C
@SpaceUnit: If he’s doing it pro se expect a motion in a few months:
Rudy: “Your honor, I know my motion was never filed, but that’s my attorney’s fault. He was drunk all the time, still is. In fact, he’s drunk right now. I demand a chance to refile.”
Judge: “That attorney was and is you. Denied.”
mrmoshpotato
@japa21: Go D’Backs!
eversor
@Suzanne:
There’s that as well. We just drop it off at Whole Foods and they take care of it for us.
Probably two years back I got a contract with them to help spin up a few things. Me being me these were super TS/SCI data centers but also logistics centers for their retail centers. They paid like fucking crazy. Watching them go up was mind boggling. The sheer scale and percision of how they work is terrifying.
They are a problem and they create problems. But they do actually know what the fuck they are doing. Also very good at it. Which is more than I can say for Elmo Musk. If offered a Tesla contract (and I have been) I’d tell them to shove it up their ass. I did.
smith
@TriassicSands: Yep, it’s still lasagna vs anthrax and tire rims as it has been for years. But the compromise deals Qevin pretended to make with Dems mostly had to do with simply keeping the lights on, and even Qevin could see that failing to do so would be really bad for the GQP, but he couldn’t even honor those deals.
catclub
@Ken:
1. Should the scientific method be taught in science class?
2. Should relevant theories which have been tested by the scientific method be taught in science class?
sab
@Ken: Wow . That could be an issue. I don’t want to be confrontantional, but I want to know what’s up. There are so many nutcases around that the teachers are wary of but I don’t even know exist.
sab
@catclub: I am concerned with elementary school. Science is beyond my paygrade. I got biology from the football coach and he knew less than nothing. And both my parents had biology degrees, and allowed this bad education for me.
Yes I have parental issues.
catclub
You keep using that word ‘tragic’. I don’t think it means what you seem to think it means.
TriassicSands
@smith:
Well, he did honor the agreement to keep the government open, but only after a number of lies and backstabbings. McCarthy behaved similarly with his own party, but most Republicans today are spineless toadies who just want to protect their own piece of the pie. They don’t care about their constituents. My point is that the current conditions in the U.S. are generally such that compromise has to come from the Republican Party, since we have real problems and the GOP has extreme positions on all of them. Sadly, compromise in this situation means that none of the problems can be solved, only chipped away at. In health care, for example, that means that people will die today waiting for an answer. And tomorrow. And…
zhena gogolia
@scav: It is so sad to hear about him. I think he was a talented actor.
Annie
@Steeplejack:
And Nancy Pelosi is here in San Francisco for Dianne Feinstein’s funeral.
sab
@Ken: I live in the school district and I am not about to go on a report where Catholic my bishop told me to go guard and remember every smidge of actual religion I ever learned.
ETA Cannot figure out parents without realuzing how badly positipned they were
zhena gogolia
@scav: I have a subscription to the Guardian, and I signed in. I don’t understand why they keep asking me to contribute money. Doesn’t my subscription mean anything?
sab
Today was scary for a cat and our cat was very scared.
I am glad everyone’s cats were scared and got over it. Also too your bosses scare me. They are clueless.
scav
@zhena gogolia: Meh-eh-aww-eh. I don’t pretend to understand the world, but presume it’s the principle of always asking for more. Ask early and often. The Company Store seems to think I’ll need new sheets at about the frequency of washing them.
Ruckus
@trollhattan:
Perhaps the larger problem is they (Republicans) re-draft history in order to keep running the same cons.
Conservatives seem to want a very limited style of government.
Them and the top and everyone else supporting them.
And our country is not built to work that way. Some other countries at least make no pretense that they are a restrictive country – meaning that everything is restricted to them having everything and everyone else getting doodly squat.
Yes we don’t all get exactly the same amount or own the same amount of stuff but there are supposed to be restrictions on the rich getting so rich that they can purchase whatever they want, even if it is to own/run the country. It’s called progressive taxation, the rate changes according to how much you get paid/have. It is still unequal but it is far more useful to being a democracy.
unctuous
@Hob: What I was referring to was an attempt at explanation rather than bullshit or pooh-poohing the question.
Really this started with a joke, one we all know, how such a system might be misused because we all have seen the missing white girl alerts.
What does it do that isn’t already covered by what we have already? Why is tv, internet news media, social media, texting and all our other delivery systems insufficient? Do we have a new threat we didn’t before? I doubt it.
So it’s a national alert system that can be regionally focused. OK. So, why? Was getting news out a problem before? Not that I can see. Why is this better?
I remember the neocon color alerts. That was supposed to be for our national welfare too.
Here’s an idea. Ask ourselves how January 6th 2020 would have been different if we had this system in place. If ever there was a national crisis appropriate for a national alert system, that was it.
Would we have learned any faster and with more clarity what was happening as it happened? Would it have helped in any way? Or made it worse?
And ask as well, could it have made it worse? Surely it could have. And I believe it would have. The one person who has shown himself to be extremely sharp and quick on recognizing and creatively using new levers to manipulate people is Donald Trump, who would have had the authority to use it.
This new shiny tool reaches everyone in the country. And we thought his tweets got everywhere.
unctuous
@unctuous: Damn. Jan 6 2021. Missed the edit window.
Brachiator
@unctuous:
Answered this at 237.
Ksmiami
@Roger Moore: I believe in game theory we are at the point where the Dems need to throw out the board wrt working with the GOP. There’s only downside for team blue