All the drugmakers that make the 10 prescription medicines subject to the first-ever price negotiations for the U.S. Medicare health program, including Amgen and Novartis , said they signed on to participate in the talks by the Oct. 1 deadline. https://t.co/vHywKTaIGL
— Reuters Health (@Reuters_Health) October 3, 2023
Yep, looks like it’ll be nothing but backstage maneuvers and kabuki for the next week…
HOUSE leaving town now for a week. Speaker elections next Wednesday
— Erik Wasson (@elwasson) October 3, 2023
Today, @LaphonzaB made history as she was sworn into the United States Senate.
Senator Butler has never backed down from a tough fight on behalf of working people. I'm honored to serve alongside my friend and champion for Californians. pic.twitter.com/QCwvteFroq
— Senator Alex Padilla (@SenAlexPadilla) October 3, 2023
New: Number of job openings at US employers unexpectedly surged in August, a sign of continued strength in the labor market, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics. There were an estimated 9.61m open jobs in August up from July's upwardly revised estimate of 8.92m
— Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) October 3, 2023
Mute your phone, if you can’t shut it off this afternoon…
“THIS IS A TEST."
If you have a cell phone or are watching television Wednesday that message will flash across your screen as the federal government tests its emergency alert system used to tell people about emergencies. https://t.co/LrmNLM4l1T
— The Associated Press (@AP) October 4, 2023
… And check your ear protection (and your dog’s) if your neighbors are anti-vaxxers:
NGL, I TOTALLY had "trigger the vaxx Zombie apocalypse with drones and 5g" on my 2023 bingo card. pic.twitter.com/Vw9kQdCeGo
— Fr. Robert Ballecer, SJ (@padresj) October 4, 2023
Mr. Bemused Senior
Good morning. This is only a test.
Baud
Don’t put too much stock in the drug manufacturer thing. They are all challenging the law in court. They need to sign on in case they lose because the law requires them to leave Medicare if they don’t agree to negotiate.
Geminid
Hooray for Senator Butler!
Baud
@Mr. Bemused Senior:
Good morning. You have failed. Please proceed to the nearest local office for processing.
Dorothy A. Winsor
I wish I believed that the person advising others to wear a respirator in that last tweet was trolling the loons, but I fear they’re sincere.
Yesterday was so chock full of news, it was hard to know where to look. A friend told me she clicked over to Fox to see how what they’d chosen to cover and it was something about Hunter Biden’s haircut. Since I don’t speak wingnut, I have no idea what that means.
Scout211
The Daily Show is not back on the air until 10/16, but their team has a nice video up of the GOP leadership team: then and now
Josie
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Probably just as well.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@Scout211: they didn’t need writers for that. Another example of “the jokes write themselves.”
bbleh
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I swear, I had to read them over a couple times to figure out whether they were snark or serious. I’m leaning toward serious, but I’m still not 100% certain.
Thing is, these people love this sort of thing. It lets them feel victimized and slightly scared and yet savvy enough to know The Real Story. If they were a bunch of fifth-graders, I’d say how cute, but in adults it’s positively pathological.
thruppence
WT everloving F? I stand in stunned slackjawed amazement and horror at the obviously stupid things some grown ass people will passionately believe. As do we all, I suppose.
Baud
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Republicans are in full “Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra” territory.
Soprano2
OMG, this interview of Rep. Mark Alford (R-MO-delusional) on NPR about McCarthy and what happens now. I was almost laughing during part of it. He likes the way Republicans do things better than how Pelosi did things (hint Rep. moron, Pelosi actually got things done and didn’t get voted out by crazy people!) because “they’re transparent”. They’ll get a speaker soon, he’s sure of it
I heard some discouraging stuff on another program this morning, where they were talking about yet another useless poll of TFG and Biden voters. One woman said something like “I don’t like any of them, they don’t get anything done for us they only fight with each other”. So discouraging to know how much Biden and the Democrats have done for people that they have no idea about. The press constantly falls down on the job about this.
Ken
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Great, parody’s been dead for years, but now they’re going after even simpler forms of humor. I am referring of course to the classic “Top Headlines” joke:
ABC: McCarthy Out as Speaker
MSNBC: House Republicans Eject McCarthy
CNN: McCarthy Forced Out
Haircut Network: McCarthy Loses Speakership
FOX News: Hunter Biden’s Haircut
Oh, and electoral-vote.com has come through with the trivia I was searching for yesterday: With 270 days in office, McCarthy’s is the third-shortest term as Speaker, after Theodore Pomeroy (1 day — an end-of-term filler) and Michael Kerr (257 days — death in office). But McCarthy still holds the record as the first, and so far only, Speaker to be ejected.
Baud
@Soprano2:
That’s why you say when everyone can see how awful you are.
MattF
The 5G Zombie Vaxx Drone Apocalypse is a highway-crash pileup of a dozen things that can’t possibly be true, even one at a time.
eversor
The House/Speaker mess is still the funniest. I’ve seen someone blow themselves up to blow up something or someone else before and I can grock the logic in that sort of crazy. I’ve never seen someone shoot themselves in the dick for the sake of making a point in public though.
Ken
@Baud: Also when you have absolutely no substance.
Ramalama
People really believe Zombies are walking on Earth? Or do they believe that this test on the phones will create Zombies and then zomg we’re done? Why do I capitalize the Z in Zombie? Could it be that I’m……………………………………………………
Bruce K in ATH-GR
@Baud: Naw, the parable of Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra actually makes sense. The Republicans are closer to “Grblb blabt unt mipt speeb! Oot piffoo blaboo…”
Soprano2
@MattF: It’s hard to believe there are grown-ass people who actually believe such foolishness.
geg6
@Baud:
LOL! I just stumbled over that episode a couple of months ago. Still great.
gene108
I’m really curious which Republican chump(s) put themselves in contention to be Speaker.
Scout211
So far, I don’t see the media falling for the GOP line of blaming the Democrats for the chaos of the GOP House majority. I don’t watch the news, but read many online news sites and the blame is being placed on the GOP this time.
A snippet of CNN analysis: (Long read, but worth a click)
J. Arthur Crank (fka Jerzy Russian)
@Baud: That episode was about a race that exclusively used metaphors/mythologies/tales to communicate. As one might have expected, the episode itself is enabling a similar thing for us in the “real” world.
E.
“Properly grounded Farraday cage” sounds like a tell that this guy is trolling but it’s awfully good.
eversor
@Ramalama:
No. People do believe that 5G is a Chinese/apple/Google/Microsoft mind control trick. Thus creating liberal zombies. Also it hurts your sperm count.
OzarkHillbilly
What can I say except, “Shut your fear mongering mouth. You are one of the idiots who gave us trump.”
eversor
@Scout211:
They just had someone on Morning Joe saying the Democrats should have bailed McCarthy out because the next speaker is going to be crazy as a shithouse rat and the Democrats fucked this up and are going to regret it.
Elizabelle
Is anyone else having a schadenfreude hangover this morning? (Not alcohol-related, here.). But oh so pleasant.
And “Speaker Pro Tempore” Patrick Butthurt Bowtie McHenry throwing Nancy Pelosi out of her hideaway office, with one day’s notice, while she is on the other coast at the funeral for a US Senator?
Priceless. Lest anyone take him with anyone with a smidgeon of gravitas. Bowtied little poser. Petty.
LOL. At them all.
Baud
@eversor:
The abusive spouse schtick again. They’ll learn it doesn’t work soon enough.
J. Arthur Crank (fka Jerzy Russian)
@OzarkHillbilly: Christ, what an asshole!
You would think that with California being “blue” and all of that, the few GOP representatives we do send over to Congress would be moderate, but that is obviously not the case.
Gin & Tonic
Shit, so I have to build a Faraday cage by 2:20 this afternoon? Better get to work.
Scout211
@OzarkHillbilly: Ugh. McClintock has been my rep for over a decade. He only serves as the GOP leadership’s useful idiot. I wish my red district could vote him out, but I don’t see it happening. ☹️
J. Arthur Crank (fka Jerzy Russian)
@eversor:
Is this a paraphrase or an actual quote? If it is an actual quote, I would love to see the clip.
Jeffro
yes, that would be me. =)
still all aglow and tingly!
Mr. Bemused Senior
@J. Arthur Crank (fka Jerzy Russian): the CA GOP went off the rails a long time ago. They have become irrelevant in state politics.
“California leads the nation,” someone said. We can but hope.
dmsilev
@OzarkHillbilly:
I’m not really seeing a downside here.
Ken
@gene108: They don’t really have the option of turning to a former Speaker. electoral-vote notes that four of the last five Republican Speakers left “in some version of a state of war with their own conference”. The fifth is Dennis Hastert, and I don’t think they’re that desperate.
BellyCat
The GOP paymasters obviously called a private meeting to fix this shit.
Jeffro
LOL
My take was gonna be “excited to see ‘Faraday cage’ trend all day today!”
We might have to make it ‘Faraday Cage Day’ every 10/4, just to remember the stupidity, but somehow I suspect we will not have trouble remembering the stupidity for the foreseeable future…
jonas
Remember when Deep Throat wanted to contact Woodward and Bernstein, he would move a flower pot on his apartment balcony? Well, when Hunter wants to signal his dad that the Chinese bribe money will be transferred to their offshore account Friday, he wears his hair short and parted above the ear. If the secret transfer will be Monday, it’s a little longer in the back and parted closer to the top..
dmsilev
@Gin & Tonic:
I have one at work. Actually, I have two. Feel free to stop by and sit inside it. It’ll be kind of boring. And kind of loud, because of the other stuff inside there. And dark; we keep the lights off while running experiments.
Jeffro
Btw this is a nice, fairly succinct reminder of all the reasons that Craven Kev deserved to get what was coming to him:
Ken
@Gin & Tonic: Remember to get the heavy-duty foil, and shiny side out.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@dmsilev: my Faraday cage isn’t properly grounded! AAAaaaa….
jonas
Getting strong Poe’s Law vibes from some of those antivax posts, but, as always, hard to tell…
eversor
@Baud:
Well, to be fair to Morning Joe (and I hate that I am defending them)… I have no doubt the next speaker they put up will be crazy as a shit house rat and the hosts were having none of that arguement.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@dmsilev: Could I build a small one out of aluminum foil and just wear it on my head?
dmsilev
@Mr. Bemused Senior: Common rookie mistake. Proper grounding is essential.
CaseyL
@jonas:
Please tell me you’re kidding. I honestly can’t tell anymore.
dmsilev
@Dorothy A. Winsor: No, it’s been Scientifically Proven that tinfoil hats actually amplify reception of the mind-control rays.
Sorry.
Edit: and I’m not even joking. Not much, anyway. I don’t have the link handy, but some years ago a bunch of grad students at (surprise!) MIT used some fancy RF test equipment to show that tinfoil hats actually improved reception underneath them, basically acting as antennae. I’m sure their advisor was absolutely thrilled to hear that this is how they were using $100k network analyzers and similar.
eversor
@J. Arthur Crank (fka Jerzy Russian):
Paraphrase. Sadly.
SiubhanDuinne
@Elizabelle:
He also apparently kicked Steny Hoyer* out of his hideaway office. What a petty, vengeful, vindictive little shit he is.
*Don’t have a source to link. Saw it over at Digby.
eversor
@SiubhanDuinne:
That was on Morning Joe as well that the Republicans will get revenge for this and Democrats deserve it. Also Ukraine funding is now over so Democrats helped defund Ukraine.
Ken
@dmsilev: But the mind-control rays will be emitted after the 5G signal activates the microchips in the virus, and the tinfoil could block that activation. The problem is, the microchips could be anywhere in your body, so instead of a tinfoil hat you need a full-body suit.
Yarrow
@Scout211:
Agreed. The lead off on the Today Show this morning said “Republicans fighting amongst themselves” or something like that. Didn’t even mention the Democrats until they said they voted to remove McCarthy.
rikyrah
Just ridiculous😠😠
Nicholas Wu (@nicholaswu12) tweeted at 6:58 PM on Tue, Oct 03, 2023:
NEWS – As one of his first acts as the acting speaker, Rep. Patrick McHenry ordered former Speaker Nancy Pelosi to vacate her Capitol hideaway office by Wednesday
“Please vacate the space tomorrow, the room will be re-keyed”
w/ @DaniellaMicaela
Roger Moore
@eversor:
It’s the logic of hostage taking turned on themselves. The Republican party has gotten in the habit of taking hostages to try to force the Democrats to do what they want. It’s only logical that a subset of the party would start taking hostages to make the rest of the party do what they want. Unfortunately, if you threaten to kill the hostages if you don’t get your way, sometimes you’ll actually have to kill them or people won’t take your threats seriously. Too bad, so sad Squeaker McCarthy is the victim this time.
Soprano2
@eversor: It continues to shock me that the press seems to believe only Democrats have agency. This is a fuckup totally of the Republican’s own making; they should not have to depend on Democrats to bail them out of their own fuckery. It’s crazy!
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone 😊😊😊
Jay C
@OzarkHillbilly:
So typical of GOP Congresscritters: a cogent analysis of the issue, promptly pissed in with a malodorous flow of cliche’d hackery: “Woke left control of the Senate”?? SRSLY? “Destroying our economy”? (from the latest figures, they’re doing a pretty poor job of it)… and the perennial “open borders” nonsense…
hueyplong
McHenry is doing this petty shit because doing petty shit to harm someone is really the only thing they’re capable of accomplishing. When your existence is defined by your status as an internet troll, your governing talents are few.
Look for one or two more petty acts as we go forward, so their legion of internet trolls can claim ownership of libs for a FoxNews cycle or two.
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
Craig
@Scout211: CNN, ‘The self-inflicted chaos will hamper the party’s effort to capitalize on President Joe Biden’s vulnerability,’. I wish CNN would point out what they believe is his vulnerability.
Spanky
@Gin & Tonic: And the hardware stores are all out of metal screen!
(Not necessarily factual, btw.)
Elizabelle
@Craig: And what’s more: BIDEN IS STILL AGING.
This very moment. He won’t stop it.
CNN is past circling the drain, aren’t they?
Jeffro
Btw while the headline article is “Interim Speaker Evicts Pelosi From Her Private Office”, if you were a Fox News dot com reader, you might not understand just how much trouble your party was in, much less that the Republican Civil War (as Minority Leader Jeffries puts it) is ON.
The next nine stories:
*not sure why this wasn’t #1?
Anyway, beyond parody.
Eyeroller
@Craig: He’s old and has low approval ratings in most polls. Also the press went berserk over some recent polls with Biden trailing Trump (while ignoring later polls that were the reverse, apparently).
OzarkHillbilly
@Craig: He is ooooooooold.
Cameron
@J. Arthur Crank (fka Jerzy Russian): I think the writers got the idea from a section of Gene Wolfe’s Book of the New Sun, but it might be the other way around. Haven’t read it in many years, but I recall that Severian encounters a tribe whose entire language is phrases from their holy book.
Mike in NC
So Newt Gingrich wrote a column for the WaPo where he denounced Matt Gaetz for being not a nice person. I’d like to see a DNA test to prove they aren’t related.
Yarrow
I thought I saw there was a new poll that showed Biden’s approval rating went into positive territory for the first time in ages. Did I imagine that?
Cameron
@jonas: And if he shaves his head, it means he’s been indicted.
rikyrah
@Scout211:
that was good commentary. And accurate
Jeffro
Meanwhile John Harwood noted this classic from 11 years ago: The Republicans Are The Problem
Elizabelle
@rikyrah: That is just so ugly and petty.
I think Virginia and New Jersey voters are watching this dramarama and can’t mark their ballots for Democrats fast enough. I hope so!
UncleEbeneezer
This! At the end of the day our biggest problem is the willingness of tens of Millions of Americans to vote only out of spite and a desire to punish Women, Black People, Immigrants, Transgender People etc. And those voters are given outsize power by structural design of State/Fed Govts + Gerrymandering.
japa21
@Yarrow:
No. Yesterday Rasmussen (yes, Rasmussen) had him in positive territory. Today he’s back in negative territory. Not by much though.
WaterGirl
@dmsilev: Almost as good as taco trucks on every corner!
Yarrow
Can someone look outside and see if pigs are flying?
Yarrow
@japa21: Thanks.
rikyrah
ridiculous
Haley Taylor Schlitz (@HTaylorSchlitz) tweeted at 6:34 PM on Tue, Oct 03, 2023:
Tarrant County Republicans voted to cut $115,000 in state funds from Girls Inc. of Tarrant County because they teach girls to advocate for social change. Let’s raise the $115k taken away & send a powerful message: we won’t let anyone silence our girls.
https://t.co/EVtvVPwQs4 https://t.co/ofEh5E7kDm
(https://twitter.com/HTaylorSchlitz/status/1709351274171265255?s=02)
Eunicecycle
@E.: I thought that, too, but it’s really hard to tell!
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
If our phones are going to turn us into zombies, I mean in a literal sense, I’d rather be among the first. I’m not fighting goddamn zombies.
Elizabelle
@hueyplong: But, if you’re not one of the whackos, McHenry’s action is so childish.
Underscores: these are not adults. These are not serious people.
Yarrow
@The Kropenhagen Interpretation: Is it bad to be a zombie? Zombies seem like they just wander around trying to get something to eat. Is that bad?
hueyplong
@The Kropenhagen Interpretation: I think our phones are in fact turning us into zombies, just not in the sense these idiots think. They’re already zombies of a sort.
hueyplong
@Elizabelle: Yes, the hope is that “persuadables” will see McHenry for what he is.
catclub
@E.: Ferretday cage, but still pronounced the same.
rikyrah
Ammar Moussa (@ammarmufasa) posted at 8:53 PM on Tue, Oct 03, 2023:
Wow. Former advisor for Paul Ryan and John Boehner lays out the electoral case against Republicans.
“We are not a party fit for governing. We are more fit for being a party in the minority.”
https://t.co/aMX221BGH3
(https://x.com/ammarmufasa/status/1709386255002206426?t=Bml-p8UcSE41jwgbck5cig&s=03)
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
@hueyplong: Nothing wrong with judicious use of your phone. But when you’re getting deep enough into the internet that you see layered, interlocking conspiracies everywhere, time to put it down for a few.
@Yarrow: Sounds like a threat when you’re on the menu.
rikyrah
Ricky Davila (@TheRickyDavila) posted at 8:01 PM on Tue, Oct 03, 2023:
The first order of business that the new acting Speaker Patrick McHenry did was evict Speaker Nancy Pelosi from her Capitol office whilst she’s away in California at Senator Diane Feinstein’s funeral. Every scumbag fascist republican in the House is petty, evil and disgraceful.
(https://x.com/TheRickyDavila/status/1709373246406291923?t=Dp3K7qfzh8EdXy_a6nI56A&s=03)
catclub
@Jeffro: And was promptly blacklisted from any media for stating facts.
OzarkHillbilly
@Yarrow: Can’t help ya, it’s cloudy here.
Yarrow
Deep cut. Check the date.
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
Speaker Pelosi? It’s too early in the day for flashbacks.
rikyrah
Dr. Virgo Season (@DrVirgo1981) posted at 3:59 PM on Tue, Oct 03, 2023:
White supremacy is beating white folks a$$. They ran a whole political party into the ground.
Bernie must retire in 2024 before he declines (@Needle_of_Arya) posted at 4:15 PM on Tue, Oct 03, 2023:
Once they decided to die of Covid en masse so as to somehow prove white biological supremacy, nothing they do is surprising anymore.
Portia McGonagal portiamcgonagal1619 on Insta (@PortiaMcGonagal) posted at 4:15 PM on Tue, Oct 03, 2023:
They would rather die white than live in a pluralistic society.
(https://x.com/PortiaMcGonagal/status/1709316310273028167?t=yBg_4alKEBWvrC0QPxs4jg&s=03)
Shalimar
@eversor: A Republican operative saying something is bad for Democrats is not news. That is what they always say. Why Morning Joe has these assholes on, I have no clue.
Jay C
@Jeffro:
Soprano2
@hueyplong: Again, they seem to have no idea how this kind of thing looks to ordinary people. They look like the petty, hateful people they are.
Yarrow
@The Kropenhagen Interpretation: But if you’re already a zombie, then you’re not on the menu, right? You’re the one doing the eating. Is that bad? I fully admit I’m not all that well versed in zombie lore.
Shalimar
@Yarrow: Trump was nominated for Speaker at least a couple times in those 15 rounds back in January. Never by Gaetz. And Trump never got more than 1 vote iirc.
zhena gogolia
@Yarrow:
Best song ever about zombies:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tmzjaN2DWc
Mr. Bemused Senior
Trump nominated for Speaker.
ELECTION INTERFERENCE!!
Elizabelle
@E.: I thought yesterday’s tweet with Nordic Jesus sitting beside Trump in court was also a parody.
I think some wags put stuff like this out in the hope the gullible will take it viral.
Yarrow
@rikyrah: It’s not smart politics to focus too much on these petty outrages. They do these things in hopes that Democrats and the media will focus on those things and not on their dysfunction. More will be coming, so we shouldn’t be surprised. Acknowledge them and move on.
SFAW
@Yarrow:
If that’s not a sign of the impending Apocalypse, I don’t know what is.
[Actually, Always-Wrong Kristol — or “AWK,” as no one calls him — seems to have modestly/partially turned away from the Partei of Fascists for some time now, at least some of the time. He hasn’t done a Full Rubin, but still, it’s something.]
catclub
Remember, remember the fourth of Octember, Faraday, Tesla and Gauss.
Still a work in progress.
catclub
@Shalimar:
Joe is a republican?
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@jonas: Reminds me of when I learned that my local Giant grocery store in MD had been a spy communications point during the Cold War.
Some KGB colonel writing his memoirs explained that chalk marks on the mailbox there were used for spy signalling.
Jeffro
Given the increase in his violent rhetoric, it wouldn’t shock me to hear that, if nominated as Speaker, trump himself points out to his deranged followers that it puts him 3rd in line for the presidency…
…hint hint MAGA.
Shalimar
@catclub: Joe renounced the Republican party 4 or 5 years ago, but yeah, he’s still the same very-rightwing guy he was before. It’s not surprising the show has lots of fellow travelers.
Jeffro
@catclub: I’m going to put it in my calendar and hopefully have a chuckle next October. =)
Yarrow
@SFAW: I know he has but it still surprises me when I see it. This tweet of his is farther than I’ve seen him go before, although I admit I don’t see much of what he tweets or writes.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
Totally useless op-ed in this mornings NYT by Bob Inglis, who represented SC in the 90s and part of the 00s. He disapproves of the nutty Repubs in Congress. And admits that his own votes for impeachment of Bill Clinton, against climate change (“if Al Gore was for it, I was against it”), and all the rest of the wingnuttery in his day were wrong.
Saw one by Newt Gingrich the other day similarly criticizing the political movement that he helped bring into existence.
Couldn’t one of these people, just once, have their Come To Jesus moment before they do the damage?
artem1s
That list reads like the cover of World Weekly News.
eversor
@Roger Moore:
This is also why you don’t give in to hostage taking. If you’re going to shoot the hostage fucking shoot them and we’ll shoot you right after.
@Soprano2:
The press that we see is mostly pretty well off. While they do not like GOP social/cultural policy they love the economic policy and want the lower classes kept in their place. Due to this, allowing a working class kid to have a competitive chance against their own kids or raising the cost they have to pay the help is a vastly more aggregious sin than any of the nuttery on the GOP side.
It can’t be stated enough that the barely rich and just upper middle class are more panicked than anything of falling down the ladder.
lowtechcyclist
@Yarrow:
You get people to focus on their dysfunction by providing examples. Doing shit like kicking Pelosi out of her office while she’s away at a funeral is an excellent example. They’re doing this one thing, then adjourning for a week, rather than advancing any policy agenda. That’s their dysfunction in action.
rikyrah
Phuck Outta Here:
Bad Faith (@Jeffdc5) posted at 2:50 PM on Tue, Oct 03, 2023:
Katy Tur is demanding the Dems save McCarthy “for the good of the country, getting things done” lol
(https://x.com/Jeffdc5/status/1709294960346816861?t=boBXWVs27lmTrnStLwNOFg&s=03)
ReplyForward
New Deal democrat
While job openings did rebound in the latest report for August, it was vs. a 2+ year low the month before, which was revised even lower. In other words, while openings are over 35% higher than before the pandemic, the trend is still down (Vs. 70% higher 18 months ago).
For the moment, the economic news is rosy but the *trends* in that news are generally not good. Just for example, if the trend in monthly job gains for the past 24 months continues for about another 9 months, we will actually see job losses.
rikyrah
umichvoter (@umichvoter) posted at 2:19 PM on Tue, Oct 03, 2023:
1st Black Woman VP and the 2nd ever black woman in the US senate swearing in the 3rd ever black woman in the US senate. https://t.co/lMUFo0J1Bc
(https://x.com/umichvoter/status/1709286986668761360?t=R4udsuTVZK7l0zwMa6giIg&s=03)
rikyrah
Fred Wellman (@FPWellman) posted at 6:38 PM on Mon, Oct 02, 2023:
Let me be very clear. John Kelly is a racist and bigot. He loved the transgender ban. Loved the Muslim ban. Loved separating immigrant families. He didn’t like Trump’s style. He kept his silence during the election. Don’t you fucking dare try to redeem him now. Hell no.
(https://x.com/FPWellman/status/1708989935674437701?t=QQS9ohZXqmde7kIzcxOw0Q&s=03)
rikyrah
lol
Charlotte Clymer (@cmclymer) posted at 11:10 AM on Tue, Oct 03, 2023:
Nancy Pelosi served 2,920 days as Speaker.
Kevin McCarthy lasted 270 days as Speaker.
That’s 27 scaramuccis or 0.093 of a pelosi.
(https://x.com/cmclymer/status/1709239562789171269?t=zSDfHTQhA__m1tsFj_jBDQ&s=03)
Jeffro
More like this please snooze media!
Headline on the Post website right now: McCarthy Ouster Exposes Republican Party’s Destructive Tendencies
ya think?
Michael Bersin
@Soprano2:
Mark Alford (r) is a former Kansas City media market morning television newsreader. He’s dumber than a sack of rocks.
He held a constituent coffee in a small town in the district. A Democrat who attended responded to him when he asked her, “What are your concerns?” She replied, “I want to know how you’re going to get the stench of Trump off you.” He walked away.
He held an open public town hall in the district on August 31st:
Mark Alford (r) – Town Hall – Warrensburg, Missouri – August 31, 2023 – a self-sustaining information feedback loop
Plain and simple, he’s a nut.
eversor
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
I used to live in Dupont Circle DC back in the day. The Safeway there was known as the Soviet Safeway. The shelves were always empty, it was full of Eastern Europeans for no reason, and was thought to be a spy station…. as you know Dupont is right by all the foreign installations.
Dangerman
Hold it. KM got whacked a day before apocalypse? What more proof do you need? I mean, if Sasquatch pops out of the woods today, we’ll all be sorry.
Jeffro
All of which is true. But since the truth = Democrats are good at actually governing, this piece will be labeled as an attack on Republicans.
Keep at it, snooze media! Slowly but surely, you’re learning to just report the facts (without both-sides-ing), even if they are almost uniformly bad for the GOP.
Righteous Hazard
@OzarkHillbilly: I am one of McClintock’s constituents here in the rural Sierra.
The demographics here are such that he is entirely safe from a D challenger, and is almost perfectly safe from losing his seat from a challenger the right.
His district is a 2 weird bands of wipopo, with the lower sierra foothills being very wealthy whites, and the higher being mostly poor and lower middle class whites. His mandate is to bring home tax cut and wealth policy bacon for his wealthy constituents, and only needs to be nominally maga for the rest. Guys like McClintock are only vulnerable if they suffer a prolonged period the GOP being of being out of power.
Yesterday was a disaster for guys like him. Dems won’t win here without a miracle tho, so the district will possibly get an even worse shitheel if he falls.
Yarrow
@lowtechcyclist: Okay, sure. But it has to be framed that way. The above tweet is well into the outrage farming zone, even calling her Speaker, which she isn’t.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@OzarkHillbilly:
Lemmings.
gene108
@Ramalama:
If all cultures cremated their dead, there’d be no cause for concern about zombies.
RaflW
“Nothing but backstage maneuvers and kabuki for the next week”
The worst part of this is that it leaves the Beltway bros with too little else to pretend to report on, so they’ll obsess over the petty bullshit like Steny & Nancy having their pied-a-terre offices snatched.
Press bashing being on of my faves, I will say that I’m a bit shocked that Carl Hulce has penned a column that seems to take McCarthy to task with some accuracy (free link)
That last paragraph is quite something. Evokes Martin Luther, even. And the headline is remarkably frank about the dissension and inability baked into the GOP.
Brachiator
@OzarkHillbilly:
A person capable of introspection might conclude, “maybe we as Republicans need to change, need to reevaluate our priorities and try effective bipartisanship.”
But McClintock is a libertarian leaning idiot who has always been blinded by his ideology.
And so his answer to “the people are rightly repulsed” is “we don’t need to change. We need to become even more repulsive, and then blame the Democrats.”
Soprano2
@Jeffro: Item #2 about a former ESPN host trashing “The View” is hilarious. They are so fucking obsessed with liberal women, it’s pathological.
Captain C
@rikyrah:
What things? The current GQP could fuck up a bake sale if all the goodies were delivered to the site by an actual decent bakery. And McQarthy has proven to be capable of nothing but acting in bad faith and simpering before TFG. Did Katy Tur pull a Maureen Dowd with some pot brownies?
Mr. Bemused Senior
All you need to know about Kevin. Google “adam Schiff kevin McCarthy airplane”
[Most Jackals already know the story, I’m posting just in case.]
The Thin Black Duke
@Soprano2: Jason Whitlock?
OzarkHillbilly
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: They never thought the leopards would eat their faces.
Origuy
If Pelosi’s title is Speaker Emerita, shouldn’t McCarthy’s be Speaker Demeritus?
(Latin scholars are about to parachute in to correct my inflection.)
Scout211
@Righteous Hazard: Well said, neighbor.
It’s frustrating because the district borders changed during redistricting and of course, he moved to the district that encompasses the majority of his old district, so we are stuck with him again.
Part of the CD swings into the western edge of San Joaquin County. The Democrat who ran against him last year was from Manteca, which unfortunately, was a strike against him. You know full well what everyone calls people who are from the Valley: f*cking flatlanders. Yeah, he had no chance.
RaflW
@Brachiator: They might conclude that, but then a guy like Jim Jordan announces he’s running for Speaker and you realize the chaos is one of the central features of the party.
Not sure how we do it, but we have to find ways to tar the GOP senators with this chaos. We need to repulse the baked-in advantages this next Senate cycle has and keep the majority.
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
@Yarrow: Right, this is why I want to be among the forst zombies.
jimmiraybob
I don’t see any discussion on probably the greatest threat to humanity. Are MAGA/Trumpian/Q brains susceptible to zombification and will the zombies eat MAGA/Trumpian/Q brains? This has considerable evolutionary consequences.
Soprano2
@New Deal democrat: I can tell you from personal experience that it’s getting easier for us to hire people at the pub. My new managers said they got 40 applications when they posted server/bartender jobs. A year ago we were lucky to get 5.
RaflW
@lowtechcyclist: The point, and I think the Speaker Emerita’s staff made it well this morning, is to be magnanimous in accepting that the idiot majority can do what it wants, but bluntly point out how crass, petty, and useless their performance of this is (they also made it clear she’s in mourning and out giving comfort to DiFi’s kin and friends, making the GOP look all the more ugly).
Steeplejack
Acting Speaker Patrick McHenry starts strong (video). Little bow-tied prick.
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
They’re what we refer to as “the already infected.”
Not very poetic, I know.
Scout211
Gym Jordan has officially declared he is running for speaker. He is the first to make it official. FSM help us all. 😳
OzarkHillbilly
@Righteous Hazard: I’ve got Luetkemeyer. The only way he loses his seat is by death. I’m still gonna send him a nice note congratulating him on the GOP’s inevitable return to minority status.
Manyakitty
@eversor: yeah, Jake Sherman can take his scaremongering bullshit and shove it.
Alison Rose
Go home, FIFA, you’re drunk. It’s one thing for 2026 to be held in the US, Canada, and Mexico. At least we’re neighbors. This is just weird:
It doesn’t say how many teams will qualify, but they’re doing 48 for 2026, so I presume the same here, especially since six countries will automatically get in. This is just stupid.
TxTiger
Republicans can’t govern themselves. Don’t let them govern America.
Westyny
@Yarrow: OMG, I’ve been a zombie all along??
Baud
@Alison Rose:
I look forward to World Cup in Space!
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
@Scout211: Jordan has a well-established history of covering up malfeasance. That’s what counts for necessary job experience in Republican circles. He may be a contender.
Captain C
@Origuy: As per Google Translate, ‘defensus’ is Latin for ‘defenestrated’ so perhaps Speaker Defensus for Our Qevin.
Scout211
Oh, I definitely think he is a contender, if not a front-runner. I read a fawning article somewhere yesterday that claimed he was becoming a “favorite” to his House caucus colleagues. 🤮
Steeplejack
@Scout211:
Awaiting the GoFundMe to buy him a suit coat. So that I can then call him an empty suit with accuracy.
Scout211
@Alison Rose:
I don’t know why, but I see a pot of gold somewhere . . .
BC in Illinois
@Gin & Tonic:
How about a Faraday Hat? [from quora]
Other suggestions include getting a metal trash can with a metal lid. Seems too small for me.
Jeffro
@The Thin Black Duke: nope, Sage Steele.
(covid vaccine mandate opponent and Obama-insulter).
So, from Fox’s perspective, a three-fer: a Black woman slagging ‘The View’. Lib shows are losing everyone with their nonsense!
(hey, whatever helps the cult stay convinced they’re right, right?)
Central Planning
TIL:
What a wonderful timeline to live in!
MomSense
LMAO about the emergency alert activating a 5G/drone/vaccine implanted Marburg Virus.
Holy hell, the stupid is strong.
Chris T.
@Origuy: My Latin is terrible, but looking it up, it’s in the O-declension and is just automatically masculine, so Pelosi is “emeritus” (masculine) despite being female. Note that the gender of a word attached to someone is not related to the sex of the someone.
Anyway, none of that matters since the point is the pun. Consider yourself appropriately pun-ished. 😀
satby
Shit, am I already a zombie?
Chris T.
@Westyny:
Twist: the zombies are the good guys.
Righteous Hazard
Add in the fact that McClintock is a very professional politician who does a good job of constituent service, and he is almost completely unbeatable.
The only threat to him is the wheels coming off of the GOP caucus.
jonas
@Cameron: Lol!
Michael Bersin
@OzarkHillbilly:
Mark Alford (r). Before that it was Vicky Hartzler (r).
This is proof that the deity is punishing me for some infraction i committed in a previous life…
Alison Rose
@Baud: 2034 World Cup played at the North and South Poles and the depths of the Mariana Trench.
Elizabelle
Re the Marburg Virus:
Got to put in a plug for an excellent book, The Hot Zone (wiki link), about medical science racing to deal with Marburg, Ebola, and other deadly infectious viruses. From 1994, expanded from an article in The New Yorker. Past time to read it again. Phenomenally interesting.
Author is Richard Preston. Trivia fact: he is the brother of Douglas Preston, of the Preston and Child bookwriting team. (The Relic, all the Agent Pendergast novels.)
Alison Rose
@Scout211: Because it’s FIFA. The only reason they do anything is money.
Ruckus
@bbleh:
and yet savvy enough to know The Real Story
I’m not sure that a lot of them actually do know. They listen to a very narrow part of the world because many/most of them “think” that the world is going to hell. In a handbasket. There has always been and likely always will be a part of the population that believes this direction of progress for everything, even if they enjoy the new parts of progress. These are people who do not understand new, as in, what’s wrong with the way we did things before. There are more people so there are more in this group. Also you have an entire right side info for idiots concept, which thinks that change is most often bad. Because yes, sometimes it isn’t all that good. But this group has to have nothing change because any change is, to them, an increased risk. I believe that this is one reason, a minor one, that change often takes as long as it does. They don’t see the value in change. How many people do not want/refuse the Covid vaccine, because it’s all a hoax? They have always been a part of humanity but weren’t born when smallpox was the only vaccine we all got and we suffered from and sometimes died from diseases which we now rarely see, and now that the population of the world has grown (how does that happen?) the spread of any new disease is far easier. And you have an entire segment of mass communication that feeds them. I give you faux news, which is no longer alone in this concept and SFB, a deranged old fart who has finally found his people.
Righteous Hazard
@OzarkHillbilly: Yeah, I need to find a way to remind him that he is irrevocably leashed to the worst shitstains in America.
jonas
@BC in Illinois: Here you go.
piratedan
I do have to admit that Morning Joe does get the blood pressure boiling…. ad infinitum, only the Dems have agency….
so… according to some, the 11th dimensional chess that is US Politics boils down to the usual kobiyashi maru reasoning in regards to McCarthy…
The Dems were supposed to “save him” because the alternative would be worse and it would be for the good of the nation appear to be the arguments floated… which would mean that the Dems would support a guy who manufactured this crisis, blamed the Dems for it and this would be after he reneged on the written deal he had with the WH, allowed impeachment proceedings to get launched without a floor vote, censure of another member simply because they didn’t like him (Schiff) all while allowing Santos to remain in place and have no repercussions for other members threatening revolt and murder…. and to top it off, the day before making the rounds to denigrate the Dems on the Sunday shows.
The always could be worse isn’t an idle threat they claim (as evidenced by the Speaker Pro Tempore’s first acts), they could kick off Dems from all committees, no longer include them in the travel junkets and deny them the representation that is called for by the house rules by essentially removing them from all of the features of the government, call it the Jim Jordan government where any notion of good faith dies a thousand deaths.
Sure, that might be fun for the media and the GOP propaganda networks and it would be a gruesome amount of time to endure until the next election for every damn one of us. I can almost imagine GOP purges taking place to remove Dems from office for nonsensical charges (or attempts to do so).
Does anyone think SCOTUS would stand up for this?
Still, I get really tired of watching the media spin this as being the Dems fault thru whatever machinations of “you made me do it” get applied.
Sure Lurkalot
@rikyrah: Katy Tur is Andrea Mitchell in waiting. On the rare (and getting rarer) occasions I turn on MSNBC while having lunch, it is usually an inane Katy Tur take that prompts me to turn it off.
Brit in Chicago
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: “Couldn’t one of these people, just once, have their Come To Jesus moment before they do the damage?”
Thanks! That perfectly expresses something I often feel. I guess it’s good that such people finally see the light, but boy is it aggravating. And the idea that they get praise (or space in the NYT) for it—words fail me.
scav
Ok, I’m jumping in after 179, but how many of us have agreed to staggering out at the proper time moaning “Brains! Brains! Brains!” !??!
Ruckus
@Soprano2:
Their ass may have grown, that doesn’t mean their brains did…..
p.a.
My money is still on Speaker Corpse Reagan…
Righteous Hazard
ffs, I see that mtg, bannon, et al are calling for trump to be the speaker.
First those motherfuckers killed irony, now they coming for the zombie apocalypse genre
Shana
@Yarrow: so Mr. Kristol, who are you voting for in 2024? If you tell me you’re writing someone in rather than voting for Biden then you’re still not serious.
LiminalOwl
@Jeffro: Sure, good buddy.
Brit in Chicago
@Mr. Bemused Senior: I had not heard that story. (I found it at:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/10/12/2057714/-Adam-Schiff-When-it-comes-to-lying-Donald-Trump-and-Kevin-McCarthy-were-made-for-each-other)
It’s truly amazing. Making stuff up without inhibition is clearly how he operates in the world. Now it’s clearer to me why the Democrats had no interest in making a deal with him, which on the surface might have sounded like a good idea.
AlaskaReader
@Jeffro: The writer should never refer to Republicans as ‘reaching an inflection point’,
…for as Republicans, reaching a point of change is an impossibility, their curve is an unending spiral, they are simply incapable of ever redeeming themselves.
jonas
@Yarrow: I don’t know that this is so surprising. Kristol’s been a full-throated Never Trumper since 2016 and several of his fellow travelers like David Frum, Tom Nichols, and Stuart Stevens have expressed similar sentiments: until Republicans break their fever and permanently repudiate Trump and (more importantly) Trumpism, voting Democratic is the only responsible option.
Villago Delenda Est
Yup, the functionally insane are out in force on the Twitter/X (idiotic rebrand) machine.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@Brit in Chicago: my work here is done. 😁
BJ had a book club reading Midnight in Washington and later a Zoom with Adam Schiff (!). The story is in there too.
Alison Rose
@Sure Lurkalot: I loathe her.
Villago Delenda Est
@Alison Rose: FIFA is in a furious competition with the IOC to be the most corrupt sports organization on the planet.
Baud
My rule: If you’re not committed to urging voters to vote Blue, you don’t get to urge Dems to protect you from Republicans.
Brachiator
@jimmiraybob:
Damn! Maybe MAGA/Trumpians don’t have brains, at least not working brains. This might have evolved in order to resist Zombies.
Ken
@Villago Delenda Est: So a day ending in “y”.
OzarkHillbilly
@Michael Bersin: Before the 2022 redistricting I had Jason Smith.
Karma, it is not a beach in N Carolina.
Righteous Hazard
@Baud: Yup, basic foxhole rules apply
OzarkHillbilly
@Righteous Hazard: I suspect that obviously gloating over their situation would get his attention.
Soprano2
@The Thin Black Duke: I don’t know who it is, I just think it’s amazing how obsessed with “The View” some conservatives are.
Steeplejack
@Captain C:
Don’t get me wrong, I think Katy Tur is the nadir of the MSNBC day, but I have to say the @Jeffdc5 tweet linked above is pretty thin stuff. No link or citation, just some guy spouting off and apparently paraphrasing. Not saying he’s wrong, but . . . it’s thin.
MisterDancer
Yep. As much as we needed to vote McCarthy out, Jordan as Speaker would be a horrorshow. Hell, this McHenry asshole is already showing he’s nothing but a bowtie and blowhard, and there’s a Daily Kos article that underlines his long history of screwing anyone he can.
As some point, we — the Democratic Party, and the House Democrats esp. — had to show that we can’t just be expected to eat yet another plate of feces, just to keep lights on. And yesterday was that time.
Anyone who thinks otherwise doesn’t have a firm grasp of how Authoritarianism takes over, in my opinion.
lowtechcyclist
@rikyrah:
Fuck no, Katy Tur needs to demand that McCarthy find four Rethugs to join with him and vote for Jeffries for Speaker, so that the House can function. “For the good of the country, getting things done.”
If the Dems are the party with agency, why should they use it to just prop up the party that people like Tur treat as if it has none? Why keep a party like that in a position where they can routinely screw things up?
Fuck the damn Village, they have their heads as far up their collective asses as the Rethugs themselves do.
Soprano2
@Michael Bersin: I have Eric Burlison, who is actually an insane libertarian. Wanna trade? Before that I had Billy Long, auctioneer.
Baud
@lowtechcyclist:
Exactly right. It is inconceivable to the media that a Republican actually make the effort to reach across the aisle to reduce the power of the bomb throwers.
hueyplong
@MisterDancer: Totally agree. If we’re obliged to vote in favor of someone from the opposing party after he has broken the only promise made to our party and then blamed our party for his own party’s meltdown, seems like we’re already supine and it’s simply hopeless.
The purported Tur quote can be translated as “GOPers are never subject to consequences no matter what and if Dems don’t fix Republican FUBARs at their own cost, the beatings will continue.”
jimmiraybob
@Righteous Hazard: “ffs, I see that mtg, bannon, et al are calling for trump to be the speaker.”
I don’t want to pat myself on the back too hard but I did reveal this prophesy in an earlier thread before today’s revelations.*
They’ve been telegraphing this for a couple of years.
* if you can’t tell, I’m auditioning to get a chapter in the New Trump Testament.
Ruckus
@UncleEbeneezer:
There always has been a segment of humanity that likes/needs simplicity and stability. And there always will be. The problem is that the world moves a hell of a lot faster than it did 50 yrs ago and 100 yrs before that and so on. Communication – like we are doing now is very new in the overall scheme of humanity. And that moving faster means that there is less time to come to grips with humanity’s changes/growth. And there is and always will be a segment that does not have the capacity to move forward faster. We call them conservatives. They like stability, a lack of change. They want to conserve what they know and are unwilling/unable to accept change at the rate it is changing. An example is the large pile of shit that is trump. A relic of the past, the guy that is able to be rich, just because. The fact that his story is basically 1000000% bull and shit is of no interest to them. He’s a fuckup deluxe and he’s still rich. He’s their one, their guy.
It’s like the news business. It is almost no different, in a time that is wildly different, than the back fence rumor mills that use to be how we all communicated – one on one or writing a letter and a postage stamp. And even that took time to communicate. It slowed things down, gave time to those that needed time to accept change. Now change is, in relative terms, instantaneous. There is a reason they are called conservatives. They are not trying to overthrow the government, they are trying to overthrow change. The things that are and always will be with us, growth and change. Their idea of the future is the present. They want to conserve that, the present. But the speed of change is no longer done over a lifetime or three, it can be done far faster, and is.
Bill Arnold
@jonas:
Most of the better ones are parody, but they are mocking True Believers who really do fall for serial failed prophecies.
eversor
@lowtechcyclist:
They keep the media peoples taxes low and make sure the media peoples kids never have to compete with the lower classes.
That’s all it’s about. And the thought of losing that is far more radical than anything else.
Ruckus
@Yarrow:
If that is the BK that it used to be then yes, pigs are flying. Not sure what they are using for wings or if their flying is falling off of high places and landing but pigs are flying.
Eyeroller
@Chris T.: Yes, your Latin is terrible :-) It’s an adjective (strictly speaking, a past participle of a verb) that takes masculine, feminine, or neuter endings depending on what it modifies. Similar to bonus, bona, bonum
Also its literal meaning was “worn out” but that turned into “veteran” or now “retired.”
Reference: The New College Latin and English Dictionary. Old, but Latin isn’t changing :-)
Citizen Alan
@Chris T.: That was, in fact, the twist of I Am Legend by Richard Matheson.
Ruckus
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
Couldn’t one of these people, just once, have their Come To Jesus moment before they do the damage?
It wouldn’t be their come to jesus moment if they saw it from all the visible evidence, it has to hit them upside the head first for them to see it.
sab
@Gin & Tonic: Will tin foil work?
eversor
@Ruckus:
Should we just start punching them in the face as a shortcut then?
Chris T.
@Eyeroller:
Well, I did just use Google, which is so well known for finding the One Correct Answer. 🤪 The entry I found listed only the veteran/retired definition.
DesertFriar
@zhena gogolia: Best song by The Zombies
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2hXBf1DakE
Gin & Tonic
@sab: I got lazy, so I’m going to have to try the Faraday Hat. Wish me luck.
Ruckus
@Brit in Chicago:
No.
They have to see their failure before they will believe what they want can only lead to failure. It’s a very vicious circle. One has to be shit before they can smell shit and at that time they can’t smell anything else because shit now smells normal to them.
unctuous
@Baud: Thought of that immediately too. It’s so damn obvious now. I hope it is as well to normies.
Ruckus
@Brit in Chicago:
There is another theory.
They both know nothing, both have zero ability to learn anything past nothing, so they will always know nothing, unless they have a come to reality moment. Which at their ages seems unlikely.
unctuous
@Gin & Tonic: Lay out a whole roll’s worth of aluminum foil on the floor. Then undress completely, lie down on in the middle of it and roll yourself up in it just by turning over a couple of times. The foil will naturally stick to skin. Don’t forget to make a little hole for breathing (optional).
Done. You’re good to go.
Righteous Hazard
@OzarkHillbilly: I just gave McClintocks office a call. They know me by now, but I went ahead and listed my wipipo bona fides anyways; Christian, little league board member, etc. Put on my best community leader voice, upstanding, rock-ribbed, conservative sounding.
Then told them that their caucus disgraced themselves and their country, and that if they can’t govern themselves. they had no place governing America, politely thanked guy who answered the phone and laid a God Bless America on him before ending the call.
Felt good
sab
@Gin & Tonic: How does the grounding work? What if I just put the cellphones, the internet thingy and the cablebox in the microwave?
lowtechcyclist
@DesertFriar:
Dead thread, but fuck yeah. “She’s Not There” is this marvelous little piece of mid-1960s perfection.
Manyakitty
@sab: lol. Wanna try for another meetup? Message me on Instagram — there should be several waiting for you 😜
Kristine
@DesertFriar: I love that one, but Time of the Season is my fave.
Kosh III
OMG It’s true! vaxx Zombie apocalypse
I just heard it and now I must
Exterminate!
Exterminate!
Exterminate!
brantl
@rikyrah: They’re more fit to be an extinct party.
brantl
@Shalimar: Because Boring Joe us still sort of a semi-asshole?
unctuous
@Soprano2: I think the bigger underlying issue is they really don’t understand or value agency. Except their own, and only when it can benefit them. It’s merely a tool for them to employ selectively to avoid or excuse their own responsibility. Others then have agency. Otherwise, no. It’s one way only. Look at what you made me do.
If consent is as I see it as an exercise of agency, then it is unsurprising this attitude mirrors their demonstrated lack of understanding of consent, which we have often seen by their frequent inability or refusal to recognize or respect consent — most especially, the refusal to grant or withdrawal of by other persons especially women. Literally, grabbing ‘em by the pussy. Power for the exercise of power’s sake. They understand that, and that is probably all they truly understand.
They don’t just not get consent, or agency, they reject it, dismiss or denigrate it.
It is a party with the ethos of dictators, despots, abusers rapists and pedophiles.
Hob
@Elizabelle: The Hot Zone is an entertainingly written book, but it shouldn’t be used as a source of information about ebola. See: How The Hot Zone Created the Worst Myths About Ebola
The only acknowledgment I’ve seen by Preston that his science was shoddy was in this interview, where 1. he only mentioned a single relatively trivial error, and 2. he went on to say that the really terrifying thing about ebola is that it’s “invisible … a monster without a face”, a hilariously meaningless statement that made it sound like he was unclear on the concept of infectious disease in general.
Betsy
@Soprano2: I heard that too. Was shaking my head at his gullibility (not the right word) — his having been left behind by decades, maybe that’s it — he talked about wanting to get things done and govern for the people — delusional!
sab
@Manyakitty: Yes I do. Also too Watergirl has my e-mail which I am bad about checking unless I am warned. I found an OhioMom message months after she sent it. You sent me yours on instagram, but your message evaporated before I got a chance to respond. ( My understamding now is that is a feature not a bug in instagram?)