House Republicans brace for a drawn-out speaker fight, via @MariannaReports @maeganvaz https://t.co/kWvPIbC9lu
— Philip Rucker (@PhilipRucker) October 10, 2023
Per the Washington Post, “House Republicans brace for drawn-out speaker fight”:
House Republicans are settling in for what many expect to be a drawn-out and contentious fight for the speaker’s gavel this week, with simmering internal conflicts muddying the path forward for the two declared candidates.
Less than a week after an intraparty clash that saw Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) removed as speaker of the House, Republicans returned to the Capitol on Monday under increased pressure to coalesce around a leader so that the House can begin work to provide aid to Israel after Hamas-backed attacks left hundreds dead and prompted Israel to declare war. Speaker Pro Tempore Patrick T. McHenry (R-N.C.) doesn’t have much authority to do anything besides oversee the election of a new speaker. But some Republicans also have begun back-channel talks with some Democrats to see if both parties could find a way to give McHenry more authority if Republicans cannot coalesce around a speaker this week.
House Republicans are now scrambling to figure out how to govern — and elect a speaker — with only their majority’s votes, while a small group could hold up any progress. The process of electing a speaker has again tested the ideologically fractious conference, with hard-right and moderate lawmakers pushing to ensure their political and electoral needs are represented.
But even the desire to address aid to Israel has not moved the needle toward electing either Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) or Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio). Many Republican lawmakers and aides said neither conservative can garner the 217 votes needed to wield the speaker’s gavel…
Dozens of Republicans, led by Reps. Chip Roy (Tex.) and Brian Fitzpatrick (Pa.), have urged a change in the conference rules to elect a speaker, which say that whoever gets 51 percent of the vote, currently 111, would win the majority party’s support for the speakership. Those members would like to change the rule to raise the threshold to 217, the number needed to win on the House floor, so they can avoid repeated rounds of failed ballots that would display their disagreement to the public…
What, and give up show business?!?
every day the House Rs cannot pick a speaker and resort to long-debunked lies they confirm they and their irresponsible 4-time indicted, national security blabbing cult leader are unfit to serve. The whole world is watching.
— Jennifer Truthful, Not Neutral Rubin 🇺🇦🇮🇱 (@JRubinBlogger) October 9, 2023
Glutton for punishment. https://t.co/OsTXnrY2Vc
— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec) October 9, 2023
On @MeetThePress NOW, McCarthy downplays the prospects of returning as House Speaker.
"No, I'm not a candidate," he says. "Whoever the conference picks, I'm going to support."
But he hasn't ruled it out: "Let the conference decide that… I'm not going to be a player in that." pic.twitter.com/NA9vY1wN3Y
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) October 9, 2023
Jake I'm glad you were able to spend a weekend with your friend and just listen. I think you should be proud of how much you helped to really build him back up. He couldn't do it without you https://t.co/KTalzsdFt0
— The okayest poster there is (@ok_post_guy) October 9, 2023
Punchbowl‘s Jake Sherman is so excited, his colleagues had to hose him down before letting him back into the newsroom — “House Republicans are still a mess”:
House Republicans are entering a critical two-day stretch in their quest to elect a new speaker, and they’re mired in a state of total confusion.
Neither candidate — House Majority Leader Steve Scalise nor Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) — has anywhere near the requisite support to win a majority inside the Republican conference or on the House floor.
During a meeting Monday night in the basement of the Capitol, Republicans aired recriminations from last week’s vote to oust Kevin McCarthy as speaker while scoffing down a pungent barbecue dinner…
At this point, less than half of House Republicans have committed publicly to Scalise or Jordan…
“The world is watching,” House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Michael McCaul (R-Texas) said. “They’re seeing a dysfunctional democracy. This is what the ayatollah wants. It’s what Chairman Xi, when he talks about … that democracy doesn’t work. We need to prove them wrong. And we need to get a speaker by Wednesday.”
Yet inside the House Republican meeting Monday, none of that urgency was evident. Neither Jordan nor Scalise said anything during the meeting, sitting patiently as their allies argued during the more than two-hour session…
Two figures played outsized roles in Monday’s session — McCarthy and his close ally Rep. Patrick McHenry of North Carolina, the current speaker pro tem.
McHenry was diplomatic during the gathering. He spoke briefly about the proposal to change the threshold for electing a speaker, noting that more than 100 Republicans supported the Fitzpatrick-Roy plan, according to members. McHenry and Scalise have had a rough relationship over the last few years. McHenry was once Scalise’s deputy, but he’s drifted toward the McCarthy camp in recent years.
Yet it’s exceedingly clear that the House GOP is getting anxious about being paralyzed once again…
.@timburchett says McCarthy’s name was brought up tonight but he won’t back him.
“There’s anger,” Burchett said about 8 who voted to oust McCarthy. “Some people were mad.”
— John Bresnahan (@bresreports) October 9, 2023
GOP anger over eight Rs who voted to oust McCarthy
Lawler: “Matt Gaetz is frankly a vile person. … He lies directly to folks.“
Van Orden says they need to ‘deal with’ them
Bacon: “All these folks care about is media clicks” pic.twitter.com/1j3vyNAURH— Manu Raju (@mkraju) October 10, 2023
It's true that for an entire generation of Republican elected officials, working is being a main character in a reality tv show. https://t.co/1XQVudQOZU
— ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (@adropboxspace) October 9, 2023
On The Road – ema – Après Friday, Le Déluge
Dorothy A. Winsor
Hey, McCarthy would be willing to go back if you insist! He has promises to make and for sure this time he’ll keep them.
Israel’s immediate needs aside, the government is heading for a shutdown. Nobody’s needs get met then.
Another Scott
Meanwhile, … TheHill.com:
Too close, but a good result.
I hope Gallego is able to push her numbers down to the Crazification Factor as the campaign continues.
Cheers,
Scott.
dmsilev
There’s got to be some sort of parable about a scorpion crossing a river by riding on the back of another scorpion (*), and mid-way across, they all sting each other.
(*) It is, in fact, scorpions all the way down.
p.a.
Guessing Sinema has a cush landing spot picked out at some “Democrats are the real problem/I didn’t leave the Democrats they left MEEEEEE” organization. Would prefer she ends up scraping by on her own Youtube weirdo channel, but as long as she’s gone…
OzarkHillbilly
Huh. Who is missing from this list? It’s right on the tip of my tongue….
Lymie
Pet peeve – use “scoffing” when you mean “scarfing”. Pure ignorance.
satby
And in the Senate, they need to deal with the blocks by Tuberville and the different Rs (Cruz, Paul, Vance) blocking ambassador appointments too. Change the rules and end the obstruction.
Honus
@OzarkHillbilly: yeah, they can’t even pretend anymore that they think a murdering Russian dictator is bad. After all, he’s the savior of their “Christianity”
Betty Cracker
I rarely watch Morning Joe because Scarborough is such an obnoxious ass, but I’ve watched all morning waiting for the DeSantis interview. I’m hoping they’ll ask him to remove a boot and allow the camera to zoom in on the interior.
BellyCat
@Lymie: Agreed. Will also accept “scarfing” to be a winter activity which involves wrapping long, narrow blankets around one’s neck. But, only grudgingly.
Tony Jay
Surely there’s a TV producer out there with enough molten-steel in his sack of Damocles to fund a one-off televised event called Animals vs The House where the GOP majority are all ferried to an island off the coast of some shithole country with few if any health and safety laws (yes, I mean Florida) for what they are told is a billionaire funded ‘Come Together or Hang Separately’ conference, only it turns out that the island has been turned into a Battle Royale style prison where all of the Representatives will be expected to debate, vote on and then vote for a series of funding bills, legislative fixes and rules packages leading up to the final vote for a new Speaker – except every hour a new animal menace is released into their quarters.
We start with bees, work our way up through the animal kingdom, with hungry hyenas, shit-flinging monkeys, a pack of lions, genetically engineered Aurochs, etc, building up to mega-gators and maybe, if they don’t agree on a Speaker in time, a phalanx of Jack Smith trained lawyers with subpoena power asking questions about their roles in the J6 Insurrection.
I don’t know quite why it would be a good idea, but it’s not a bad one, and it would certainly do good business on the streaming channels.
Glidwrith
I’m going to get iron poisoning. The primary culprits for warping our democracy so these twisted people hold power….ugh
schrodingers_cat
From the older deader thread.
Bhakts are embarassing themselves as usual. Proclaiming solidarity for Israel with Hitler’s photo as their avatar.
While BJP’s offical handle using Soros as a big bad pulling the strings behind the scenes where domestic politics is concerned.
Butch
McCarthy would take the squeakership again? Thank you sir may I have another.
Subsole
@Tony Jay:
Sublime.
The only change I would make is to swap hornets for bees. No need to waste good bees.
OzarkHillbilly
Totally pantsed.
Trivia Man
@Lymie: I thought scoffing was just new hipster slang. I would definitely use scarfing for an eating context.
But sometimes I like to use big words, even if I don’t understand them. I think it makes me sound so photosynthesis.
H.E.Wolf
It’s the UK English version of USA English – as in “scoff[ing] the lot”. What I find interesting is which UK terms make it into USA vocabulary, and which don’t. (For instance, lorry and spanner don’t seem to make the cut.)
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/scoff#google_vignette
trnc
Fuck that!
OzarkHillbilly
@Subsole: Africanized bees on the other hand…
Ms. Deranged in AZ
@Lymie: You beat me to it. That bugged me too.
Trivia Man
@H.E.Wolf: some useful British terms I’d like to see migrate over: flat, boot (car), lift, on holiday, nappie.
H.E.Wolf
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Electoral-Vote.com, as usual, has a pretty good write-up as their first item in today’s blog post. Link to that item (the full post is longer):
https://www.electoral-vote.com/evp2023/Items/Oct10-1.html
Ken
House holds 15 votes for Speaker, all of them Jeffries 212, Scalise 107, Jordan 105, Trump 9.
McCarthy rides in on his white horse to save everyone!
House holds additional 15 votes for Speaker, all of them Jeffries 212, Scalise 80, Jordan 78, McCarthy 54, Trump 9.
Tony Jay
@Subsole:
Hornets are good. They’re non-Unionised and so will work for minimum wage.
I also forgot to put in the bit about the GOP Reps being forced to form little clans for self-defence and warmth at night, since they’re also subjected to artificial floods, snowstorms and the odd tornado, but that would inevitably lead to Gaetz and Boebert being strung up, skinned and eaten in the first half-hour and the producer’s notes mention something about “breakout stars who invite ridicule and/or profound feelings of anger in normal people must be kept viable until the concluding hours of the event to maintain viewing figures“, so I may have to rethink that part of the scenario.
Kristine
@Lymie: it’s possible it may not have been the best bbq. Could’ve been mock worthy.
NotMax
Happier thy fortunes! like a rolling stone,
Thy giddy dulness still shall lumber on,
Safe in its heaviness, shall never stray,
But lick up ev’ry blockhead in the way.
– Alexander Pope
.
Shalimar
I am fascinated by the news that McCarthy didn’t show up yesterday. It only takes 5 votes to derail any Republican candidate. If McCarthy refuses to vote for anyone other than himself, he will be showing more backbone than he did at any point during his 9 months as Speaker.
Timill
@H.E.Wolf: Indeed. Perfectly cromulent usage.
Suzanne
@Another Scott: The fact that Lake is within five points of Gallego concerns me. Some of those Sinema people will go the the GOP candidate. But the Arizona GOP is a fuckin’ mess and the leadership is still in thrall to MAGA, even though the voters aren’t. So…. please proceed, assholes?
As for McCarthy…. dude is as craven as they come. Have some fucken self-respect, man. Why do you want that job anyway?
The Thin Black Duke
One of my favorite Harlan Ellison quotes is when he said, “Not everyone is entitled to an opinion. Everyone is entitled to their informed opinion.” I think one of the biggest problems this culture is struggling with right now is when we’re entirely too polite when idiots are spewing bullshit that we know is bullshit. When we stumble across a tweet, soundbite, op-ed or interview that’s trying to amplify bullshit, it either needs to be mocked unmercifully or ignored. The moment a Bill Maher, Joe Rogan, RFK Jr or the latest idiot of the week spews anti-vaccine/transphobia/or whatever type of tinfoil hat nonsense, they need to be laughed out of the room. We should not feel obligated to give them the courtesy of pretending to listen to them. The GOP is incompetent. It’s irresponsible to think otherwise.
Frankensteinbeck
Ah, I see ‘maybe we only need an acting Speaker’ has begun. We’ll see if it takes off. I think it’s likely Republicans will decide to pretend McHenry has all a Speaker’s powers if this drags on and on. Only ‘likely’ though.
No fluffing way. Dems won’t be in and the same few required to shoot down any Speaker selection will sink this.
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
I doubt it. If they had a week, two weeks, that’s likely. The Republicans are going to be Hellishly tired of this standoff if it goes on longer, and will enter “Just get it over with!” mode to break the gridlock.
Ken
I assume it’s because he’s got a dozen boxes of “Kevin McCarthy — US Speaker” business cards and doesn’t want them to go to waste. At least, that’s as good a reason as any I’ve heard from him.
Torrey
@Lymie:
Here ya go!
jonas
Welp, it looks like former Dodger Steve Harvey has now made it official — he’s running for CA Senate. This is tremendously exciting for 1. southern Californians over 70 who know who he is and 2. people who think having played first base and giving motivational speeches at pharmaceutical sales conventions is qualifying experience for a US Senator. I mean, look at Tommy Tuberville. He’s working out great!
Ken
I think you’re right, but also that too many of them will be saying “Just get it over with by voting for my favored candidate” to actually break the deadlock.
Betty Cracker
FFS, Bari Weiss is on Morning Joe? No wonder I never watch this shitty program. Prediction: Weiss will reprise Pam Geller’s role in the 2023 war on terror reboot, only she won’t be treated like a kook but rather embraced by the MSM.
NotMax
All one needs to know about Scalise.
Geminid
@Another Scott: If Senator Sinema’s numbers stay that low I don’t think she’ll run. She’s got plenty of money for private polling but I think that will reflect public polls.
OzarkHillbilly
I think you are misreading this:
They are speaking of votes among the GOP conference only. DEMs have no say in how the GOP governs themselves.
Geminid
@trnc: There may not be a Speaker by this time next week. But I expect there will be one by Monday, October 24 whether or not Republicans can get their mess together.
H.E.Wolf
;-)
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I’m not sending Gallego any congratulations yet, but damn, that’s funny. I don’t know whether there’s any truth to the idea Sinema thought she could become the next John McCain, but I doubt this kind of self-destruction was her plan. Between incumbency and the purpleness of the state, I think she could have very easily carved herself a niche somewhere between Manchin and Susan Collins, but she was just too obnoxious.
Brit in Chicago
@Another Scott: I’m hoping that Sinema reads polls like this and decides not to run. That might not help the Gallego/Lake margin, but I think it would make a Gallego victory more likely, which in turn makes Democratic control of the Senate more likely.
ETA Geminid’s comment was not up when I started writing the above. I hope it’s right, of course.
H.E.Wolf
I was lucky in that my dad used to travel to the UK for work when my siblings and I were young, and he would bring back Penguin paperback editions of British children’s books… complete with British idioms.
Most of the idioms were clear in context, but “braces” (for suspenders) really threw me.
Raoul Paste
@OzarkHillbilly: I was thinking the exact same thing
Betty Cracker
Did anyone else just watch Joe Scarborough’s interview with Ron DeSantis? Looks like Scarborough wants to get back into politics — as DeSantis’s press sec.
MattF
@Tony Jay: Note, however, that your proposal is very similar to what is currently happening in the present ‘reality’ timeline.
mrmoshpotato
The
call isassholes are coming from inside thehouseparty!Geminid
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Arizona party registrations show Independent at around 34%, more than Democrats but less than Republicans. Sinema’s low polling number shows that Independents aren’t neccesarily going to get behind an independent candidate. On the other hand, Gallego’s number may show some strength among Independents. The “cross tabs” for that poll (if they break them out) could shed light on this.
I’m waiting for the Wason Center’s poll of Virginia registered voters to come out. They usually publish one about this time and another one right before the election. Right now it looks like a close race for both General Assembly houses.
Suzanne
@Ken: My office just switched to digital business cards. I now have a thing that is the size and feel of a credit card with a QR code, so I can show it to people and they can scan it and get my contact info on their phones. I am tempted to drop it in the jar to see if I get a free burrito, but I only get one!
catclub
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
I think McCarthy is in a MUCH better position this time than last january. he can lay down the law that the entire GOP caucus will vote for him if they agree with him as Speaker.
he has no fucks to give or promises he needs to make to gaetz and his group. Basically he is telling the rest of the caucus to beat up the 8 who voted against him on the MTV.
mrmoshpotato
@satby:
Hand them all some alphabet blocks to play with as the adults get down to business.
Redshift
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Unfortunately, they only people whose needs get met are nihilists like Gaetz, who get to preen for their mouth-breather fans about how they stopped the evil government from doing anything.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Trivia Man: I’m seeing more Americans use the term “hoover” as a verb. As in, “he hoovered up all the hors d’oeuvres before anybody else even knew they were on the table”.
We were just in Europe. “Lift” and “WC” just kind of seeped into our vocabularies because those are the words that appear on all the relevant signage next to the local terms. It becomes almost hard to un-say them when you get back home.
Took me the longest time once to find the translation for “baggage check” in the dictionary I was using at the time. I can’t remember how I finally figured out the English term they were using was “left luggage office”
Roger Moore
@jonas:
That’s Steve Garvey, not Steve Harvey.
MattF
@Suzanne: Is it a piece of cardboard that you give to a client or a digital digital business card that you attach to a text or email?
catclub
@Trivia Man:
what is the group word for metal chips produced in machining?
— swarf
jonas
@Roger Moore: Lol! What a typo! I expect we’ll see a number of those this year..
ETA: Just for the record, Steve Harvey would probably make just as good a Senate candidate. I’ll take comedian/motivational speaker over baseball player/motivational speaker any day.
mrmoshpotato
@catclub:
Did he learn to play the guitar? Did he learn to play them drums?
Suzanne
@MattF: It’s plastic, and I only get one. So I am supposed to show it to people so they can scan it, but then I keep the physical object.
I don’t mind. I have boxes of business cards left over from past lives, and I feel so bad throwing them out. But they’re dumb.
I just really want a free burrito.
catclub
@Betty Cracker: Scarborough WAS a Florida republican rep. so why not. How many ex Democratic reps does FOX give a two hour time slot? Your liberal media indeed.
JML
@jonas: That’s Steve Garvey, not Harvey. He probably could have won…30+ years ago, especially if his screwing around never came out.
SteveinPHX
@Brit in Chicago: If she gets crushed in the general election by a margin like that, it will hurt her creds for her future lobbying career.
mrmoshpotato
@BellyCat: Haha, never seen a scarf described as a long, narrow blanket before.
Leto
@Betty Cracker: was never going to watch that, but MSNBC is currently reporting live from Israel and they’re showing the Iron Dome system live in use.
Suzanne
@SteveinPHX:
One can hope!
hueyplong
@JML: STEVE GARVEY IS NOT MY PADRE
I remember reading that there were bumper stickers saying that after his rash of paternity suits (after moving over to play for San Diego).
Shalimar
@Betty Cracker: I avoided Morning Joe today specifically because I feared that DeSantis was booked so that Scarborough could kiss his ass.
Subsole
@Tony Jay:
Hornets seem like they would be scabs. They’re just assholes all around.
I frankly think MTG and Boebert would end up as warring tribal leaders. It’d be like watching the most toxic streamer drama – but instead of poasting, pointy sticks and very sharp rocks.
@OzarkHillbilly: Hm. I am intrigued by your ideas and would like to read more.
Ken
@mrmoshpotato: As I should have expected, the framing is that they’re only just now noticing that Gaetz and others are “vile people” who only “care about media clicks”. I am reminded of the list that was posted in the Cassidy Hutchinson thread, of all the people who worked in the Trump administration for anywhere up to four years before noticing that he was — well, pick an adjective; their tell-all books offer up plenty of options.
Jackie
@Roger Moore: Nebber mind
jonas
@JML: Roger Moore caught that upthread, too. Stupid qwerty keyboard. I was too young to really follow the Dodgers back then, but I did have a middle school teacher who kept a large cut-out of Garvey taped inside one of her classroom closet doors. He was always known as quite the ladies’ man. Whether he has as much shit in his closet as Herschel Walker or something, I have no idea.
Also no idea where he lies on the “Republican” spectrum, which in California runs from “Schwarzenegger” (heavily-accented, anti-MAGA) to “Mother of God!” (thinks Hitler’s only flaw is that he got too ‘soft’ towards the end). CA has an open primary, but registered D’s outnumber R’s something like 3 to 1.
Ken
I for one welcome them as friends, especially the hyper-vindictive, hunt-you-down, long-as-your-thumb “murder hornets”. Because the alternative is to be their enemy.
mrmoshpotato
@Betty Cracker:
Sounds like it was a good segment. Has your stomach settled down?
WaterGirl
@Tony Jay: if we get to vote on that, count me as a yes.
Tony Jay
@MattF:
Minus the Aurochs. That’s the twist.
mrmoshpotato
@Suzanne:
I won’t be ordering from your office’s restaurant any time soon.
Roger Moore
@Suzanne:
If they were really smart, they’d also embed a NFC chip, so people could get the contact info by tapping it on their phone. NFCs can also be reprogrammed, so they could update your card if you got a promotion, they changed branding, or whatever other thing would make you need an updated card.
jonas
Yeah, well, as we all know, multiple infidelities, sexual assault allegations, and just general misogynistic assholery are a feature, not a bug, in any contemporary Republican candidate*. I expect he’ll lean into it.
* Larry Elder snagged the nomination to challenge Gavin Newsom in History’s Stupidest Recall Election™ after it came out that he had threatened a girlfriend with a gun during a domestic altercation.
SteveinPHX
@Suzanne:
You bet!!
Uncle Cosmo
@Trivia Man:
To replace already useful, serviceable, and comprehensible words & phrases like apartment, trunk, elevator, on vacation, and diaper?** FFS, why???
** Surprised you didn’t plump for serviette to supersede “napkin.”
Roger Moore
@Subsole:
As far as I know, the Hornets are part of the NBAPA the same way as players for all the other teams.
Frankensteinbeck
@OzarkHillbilly:
Pretty sure they can make up whatever internal rules they like, the House rules say that every House member gets a vote and if the dissidents want to vote against McCarthy that GOP caucus decision won’t be worth a rat’s fart.
Tony Jay
@WaterGirl:
It’s the online voting that makes the money. £2 to say which GOP tribal territory gets inundated with lava and/or sharp-horned goats wearing extra-tight genital goads. It’s like a licence to print money!
mrmoshpotato
@Ken:
Only the best people – who have had their heads up their asses for 40+ years – for Dump’s bastard administration!
piratedan
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: remember that polling is coming from TheHill…. so it’s going to be a GOP lean in the numbers. Lake burned some bridges in the GOP with her own election denying antics; which explains some of Sinema’s numbers as being as high as they are. Sinema has burned her Dem bridges effectively in the state for all intents and purposes.
JML
@jonas: I suspect Garvey will run as an old-school Orange County Republican, but mostly spend his time saying very little about anything, just trying to be the smiling bland safe white guy with a popular baseball past and a good smile. A good old days, good old boys candidate…who will go along with whatever the GOP proposes and be a safe vote.
I don’t think he’s much of a threat, the 80’s were a long time ago and no one cares about Steve Garvey now. Not like he can raise the dead and have Tommy Lasorda stump for him, and he wasn’t exactly popular with his teammates.
jonas
@Betty Cracker: Didn’t see the interview, but not surprised, either. Scarborough’s assignment was clearly to give DeSantis’s campaign some much-needed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation in hopes of taking Trump down a peg. But as you and many others have observed, even if DeSantis didn’t have the personality of a dyspeptic toad, there’s still the problem of the GOP base and their cult-like attachment to Trump. I seriously doubt Scarborough addressed that.
Ken
Efficiency, obviously. “Flat” is four letters, “apartment” is nine; and so on. Another example is the way we’ll save four keystrokes by typing “in hospital” instead of “in the hospital”.
Mind you, we lose some of the savings because of the extra U in “colour”, “flavour”, etc.; and the double letters in “travelling” and so forth. But it’s still a net positive.
WaterGirl
@jonas: Dem or R?
Roger Moore
@jonas:
There wasn’t a nomination to snag. Anyone who got 65 signatures and was willing to pay a fee (or got 7000 signatures, which waived the fee) got on the ballot. Republican voters did seem to coalesce around Elder- he got far more votes than anyone else on the “who should replace Newsom if he’s recalled” question, but that’s not the same as winning a nomination.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Heh. I remember when Dems in CO were afraid Elway would run for office, and a brief murmur that Tom Brady would run in MA They also had screwing around problems
Then again, the clearly unwell Herschel Walker gave Raphael Warnock a run for his money.
WaterGirl
@Geminid: what does that mean?
Frankensteinbeck
@Ken:
Maybe for you, but I type the word ‘glamor’ like fifty times a day as an author, not including my private use of the word. The u button is going to fall off my keyboard if we switch to Metric.
Roger Moore
@Uncle Cosmo:
“Flat” has the advantage over “apartment” that it’s a bit more specific. A flat is specifically all on a single floor, while an apartment could spread across multiple floors. So, for example, all the condos in my building are flats, while the building next to mine is townhome-style.
Leto
Regarding British slang/terminology: Avalune and I still use a good bit of it. I still call semi-trucks “lorries” because semi just sounds so damn weird. Big rigs… what am I, 7? Vroom vroom!
Ken
@Frankensteinbeck: It does seem that they’re setting themselves up for a faceplant, not that I object to that. Having found their candidate that can get 51% of the Republican conference vote, they proudly move to the real vote — and the candidate gets 51% of the Republican vote, the other 49% being split among two or three others.
Suzanne
@piratedan:
That’s what I just find mindblowing about this situation. The AZ Dems held their noses and supported her for a while, and she could have had that support for decades, if she had just stopped being so fucken extra. She’s not stupid, and she has historically read the room (the state) well. The fact that she’s blown her goodwill and support so significantly makes me think that she means to do it, and that she doesn’t really want to move forward in politics.
Paul in KY
@Tony Jay: Sorta like Squid Games! Must see TV that would be.
Roger Moore
@JML:
I doubt having played for the Dodgers and Padres will endear Garvey to anyone in Northern California, either. The philandering won’t hurt him with Republicans, but it will keep him from having any appeal beyond the party base, and that isn’t close to enough in California.
Juju
@OzarkHillbilly: Murder hornets!!!
Tony Jay
@Subsole:
Nah. Who’d actually trust the square-headed backstabber to do his share of sentry duty or only take a single portion of toasted termites from the BBQ? And while Boom-Boom would obviously try to make herself… useful… to the tribal tough-guy (for certain values of ‘tough’ relative to, say, the College Republican set) she’s not attractive, young or unwilling enough to keep her out of the cook pot once she actually starts talking.
Greene, however, would be facially-scaring and filing her teeth to points before they got off the boat. Maneaters can smell each other from great distances.
Paul in KY
@NotMax: Mr. Pope is one of my favourite English poets. Thanks for that snippet.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@H.E.Wolf: The one that I was long-time confused about, being a child of the ’70s when wearing jump suits was a thing, was jumper…I was like why are all these Brits still wearing jump suits in all the British-authored books I read? Have they not moved on, fashion-wise? But it turns out that a jumper is what we in the US call a sweater, I eventually realized, like, decades later.
Roger Moore
@Ken:
To put it more succinctly, allowing a nomination by 51% of the conference only works if you can enforce party discipline for everyone to vote for that nominee. Not gonna happen for today’s Republicans.
jonas
@JML: That makes sense. I wonder, though, if some real MAGA choad comes out of the woodwork to challenge him from the right and peels away enough votes that we end up with the top two Democratic candidates (again) going into the general.
If there’s an iron law of
physicspolitics, it’s that the California GOP will never learn any lesson ever, and if they do, it’s always that “our candidate wasn’t right-wing enough.”OzarkHillbilly
@Frankensteinbeck: OK, do the math:
In what world is 111, 51% of 435?
eta: Also this:
It’s about hiding the continued insanity of today’s GOP.
JPL
OT Joey Maloney was the first to post about the Hamas attack, I think. Does anyone know if he has commented again?
Tony Jay
@Paul in KY:
Since Only Murders finished we’ve been looking for an ensemble piece that has unpleasant people dying and a decent amount of suspense. This could be it!
sdhays
I hear it’s a really nice office.
(And I’m only a quarter joking. These clowns seem really hung up on office shit – McQarthy moved in before he had even been elected Squeaker and McHenry petulantly kicked out Pelosi and Hoyer from their nicer offices).
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
Late to the party, but wanted to highlight this lovely snippet of prose:
Editors just slow things down. Who needs ‘em?
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone 😊😊😊
Frankensteinbeck
@OzarkHillbilly:
I have no idea what you’re even saying now. The 51% refers to 51% of the Republican caucus, right? So they’re saying that if 111 Republicans vote for, say, McCarthy, then the rules of the Republican caucus say that they all have to vote for McCarthy. I am saying that this is farting in the wind, because the House rules say the individuals get to vote and the same Republicans who were determined to play spoiler already will wipe their ass with whatever paper the other Republicans hand them to say “See? You gotta!” Then they’ll go on to vote as spoilers.
Roger Moore
@jonas:
The jungle primary tends to destroy party discipline. The Democrats can maintain discipline because they know it’s all they need to guarantee someone from their party wins, and that’s a big enough prize to keep everyone in line. The Republicans have largely given up on statewide offices, so there’s nothing to keep the natural destruction of party discipline from taking over. My guess is there will be at least half a dozen largely indistinguishable Republican candidates for the Senate seat, and none of them will do better than the second best Democrat.
sdhays
Yes…but that’s mostly because of the heavily Republican electorate in Georgia. Other statewide Republicans won easily. They would vote for the devil incarnate (and have) as long as he had an “R” by his name.
Tony Jay
@rikyrah:
Good morning!
And which GOP House member would you most like to see torn apart by baby alligators while the painted headhunters of the Ways And Means Committee chant “Meat! Meat! Meat!” over the pounding of a McHenry-skin bongo drum?
Yes, it is entirely on topic. Why do you ask?
Suzanne
@sdhays:
They really do. I think they’re more drawn to the aesthetics of power than the actual power itself.
I have to say, the older I get, the more I understand why George W. Bush retreats to his ranch and paints and hangs out with his dogs and only sticks his head up from time to time when directly requested.
Ken
They’re all middle managers at heart, fighting for the window office. Or maybe academics, but without the excuse of Sayre’s law (“the politics is so vicious because the stakes are so low”).
Paul in KY
@jonas: I assume he’s running GQP. I always hated that fucker back when he was playing (big Reds fan that I was back then).
stinger
@H.E.Wolf:
Christopher Robin wore braces, and I spent my childhood years feeling both envy of his wonderful animal friends and the 100 aker wood they all played in, and pity for the little boy who, I decided, must be recovering from polio (while occasionally pulling up his shoulder straps).
Bupalos
This person makes their living by writing.
Suzanne
@sdhays:
This is such an important point. The same thing happened in Arizona and I worry that we’re going to get overconfident. The non-MAGA Republican candidates did pretty well in purple states in the last election. There is still plenty of support for Neutral Evil Republicans. So far, we have been lucky, and the Long MAGA is ongoing…. but that won’t be forever. And we shouldn’t fool ourselves into thinking that.
Steeplejack
@Frankensteinbeck:
Bad example. Glamour is correct, or at least preferred (by five to one), even on this side of the Atlantic. But we do use glamorous. Go figure.
Shoulda used flavor.
sdhays
This gives McQarthy waaaayyy too much credit. He was a weak and ineffective leader because 1) he’s very stupid and 2) he agrees with these shitheads. He wants their support. He always had options to put them in their place and avoid getting deposed. He was weak because he didn’t dare.
And a newly re-elected Squeaker would be the same as ever. Stupid and beholden to the shittiest parts of the shittiest party.
sdhays
@Suzanne: Well, considering the last time he stuck his head up and tried to say something about the Russian invasion of Ukraine and ended up mistaking Iraq for Ukraine, I think everyone understands why he doesn’t get out much anymore.
And it’s almost certainly for the best.
Frankensteinbeck
@Steeplejack:
Not according to my editor.
Steeplejack
@JPL:
He did comment again—sometime last night, I think.
He lives in Tel Aviv, so he is relatively safe, I presume.
OzarkHillbilly
@Frankensteinbeck:
Yes, that’s it, that is exactly what I, and they are talking about.
This is the GOP trying to decide on the best way to nominate an individual to be speaker who is guaranteed to win the full House vote on the first ballot. In other words, the current rules say 51% of the GOP is enough, which is how they ended up with McCarthey selling his soul to the gang of 8 and doing so over in an embarrassingly public 15 votes only to get kicked out 9 months later.
They want to now make it so that no individual goes up for a full House vote unless they have first won the votes of 217 Republicans, “the number needed to win on the House floor.” It’s all about optics.
I am not at all sure how that cures the whole “getting kicked out 9 months later embarrassment and I suspect they are just kicking the can down the road to be dealt with when they come to it.
Suzanne
@sdhays: Agreed. It’s better for everyone when he stays in the garage.
Geminid
@WaterGirl: Basically, four possibilities:
1) After flailing for several days, Republicans finally get their mess together and get to 217 votes for a Speaker.
2) After Republicans flail for several days, a small number of Democrats cross over and help a Republican get to 217 (unlikely without approval from Democratic Leadership, I think).
3) After Republicans flail for days, a small group of them cross over to get Jeffries to 217.
4) After Republicans flail etc. a small group of them makes a deal with Democratic leadership to get someone like retired Republican Tom Reed (NY) or Charlie Dent to 217 votes. Don Bacon (R-NE) floated this scenerio in January
I guess what I’m saying is that Republicans will not be left flailing away indefinitely. Something will give and we will have a new Speaker by Monday, October 24.
2liberal
any updates from Cole if he’s getting RIF’d ?
Brachiator
This should be addressed as well. The Senate needs to get its act together. Repost from last night.
I didn’t know about the lack of an ambassador, either. From the Foreign Policy Magazine site:
The Republicans seem to shuttle between the idea that there should be no government at all, and the idea that the GOP is the only legitimate federal government. And then there is the MAGA crowd, who believe that you don’t need ambassadors and advisors when you have the Orange Menace and his vile spawn in charge of things.
Paul in KY
@Suzanne: Which is sort of funny, as the only reason he ran in 1st place was to get all that cool POTUS stuff, like his dad had & who said he would never amount to anything, etc. etc.
Steeplejack
@Frankensteinbeck:
You need a new editor.
sab
@H.E.Wolf: I like wheelie bin and I think it may make it. Push pedal is absurd. So is lorry when we already have truck.
Frankensteinbeck
@OzarkHillbilly:
Okay, they can do their internal vote first, but they’ll have to do it on the House floor publicly or I guarantee they’ll have the count wrong in the final vote. So, nothing actually changes.
Steeplejack
@Bupalos:
Yeah, I’m not even sure pungent works there. It has taken on non-culinary overtones, like “pungent criticism” or “pungent burn pits”—leaning negative. I’m not sure “pungent barbecue” would be a selling point to me.
Maybe piquant would be better, but that might be a stretch for this writer.
cain
@The Thin Black Duke: I think it depends on where you are doing that. On twitter? Forget it. All we are doing is enabling fascism by even debating.. this blog post was enlightening:
https://throwawayopinions.io/the-paradox-of-intolerance.html
MattF
@Steeplejack: I think, also, a glamour is a kind of magic spell that makes a person look beautiful or alters the appearance of something. Or maybe I read too much magical-fantasy by British authors.
Steeplejack
@2liberal:
Nothing so far on his Twitter feed. Nitter version here.
Jinchi
It will be a true strike to their credibility if the Democratic leadership doesn’t back Jim Jordan’s bid for the Speakership.
Steeplejack
@MattF:
Well, that was its original meaning.
Villago Delenda Est
Popcorn vendors are really benefiting from all of this.
Scout211
New filing this morning from Fani Willis re: Chesebro: Link
Frankensteinbeck
@OzarkHillbilly:
The more I think about this, the less sense it makes. They’re talking about a whip count. That’s it. Make sure you have your votes in order before the official vote. That’s not new, Republican Speakers have just been making a fucking pig’s ear of it for a decade. They’re not changing the House rules on whether the votes have to be constant, so literally all they’re doing is saying formally they’ve been incompetent and they’re definitely going to do it right this time, yes, sir.
cain
@Geminid:
What is so special about Oct 24th?
cain
Hope the Speaker fight turns into a ‘yo mama’ fight.
Geminid
@Steeplejack: If Israel and Hezbollah get into a full scale war, Tel Aviv will not be safe. Al Jazeera is a fairly objective source in this area, and they reported a few months ago that Hezbollah has over 100,00 missiles and rockets stored in southern Lebanon. Other analysts agree. Some of these are fairly big and have guidance systems.
Mr. Nasrallah, Hezbollahs leader, has threatened a number of times to level Tel Aviv and Haifa if Israel attacks Hezbollah. They can’t level these cities, but they can inflict a lot of destruction.
Most of these weapons were trucked across Iraq and Syria from Iran. Israel bombs them if they can catch them crossing Syria, but once they reach Southern Lebanon Hezbollah stores them among villages and towns. The residents have no say in the matter because Hezbolla runs the place..
Israel refrains from attacking them now, but if those rockets started flying all bets are off. But Hezbollah will be able to launch a lot of them no matter what. Israel won’t be able to bomb them quickly enough, although they’ll try to.
Villago Delenda Est
And he’s different from Donald Trump how?
WaterGirl
@2liberal: He did not have any news as of 8 pm last night.
Villago Delenda Est
@cain: Well, for one thing, it will be the first time ever that a Tuesday is converted into a Monday, as October 24th falls on a Tuesday this year.
brantl
@Lymie: Yeah, scoffing is coming up scarfing is going down.
Steeplejack
@Geminid:
I get it. The situation is fluid. Hence “relatively.”
Shalimar
@OzarkHillbilly: What they’re trying to do is change the Republican conference rules so that Gaetz and the other misanthropes are forced to vote for whoever gets the most votes in their pre-vote party nominating process. There is no way to force them and they will never agree, so it’s just more pointless bluster.
jonas
@Roger Moore: Yeah, you’re right — I misremembered that. It was more a royal rumble thing in which Elder came out on top, but far short of toppling Newsom. Again, stupidest recall effort in history. Had the GOP simply waited a year and a half and run a non-insane, moderate conservative, Newsom might have actually been in trouble. But no, they had to go all in on Teh Krazy and get their asses kicked. Lessons learned: 0
brantl
@Tony Jay: How will they know the shit-flinging monkeys from the rest of the caucus?
sab
@Suzanne: Excellent point. In Ohio everyone knew that Gov DeWine was actually anti-Trump although quietly so, and boy did he have coat-tails in the general election.
JPL
@Steeplejack: thank you
Matt McIrvin
@Frankensteinbeck: Trump was way ahead of them when he announced he really preferred to just have acting Cabinet members. No confirmation required. Fewer checks and balances.
Geminid
@cain: There is nothing special about the date. I just think its the outside limit of time it will take the the various actors to come up with a Speaker.
If Republicans can’t elect one of theirr own there will be a different solution. The process won’t go on indefinitely.
Brachiator
@jonas:
Interesting. Garvey has a durable, but shrinking fan base, many of whom always wanted to see him get into politics.
I don’t think he has a realistic chance. But I guess his backers are hoping that name recognition helps.
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
jonas
@Geminid: The situation with Hezbollah is pretty terrifying. How Israel fights an all-out war against Hamas without Iran and Hezbollah somehow getting involved as well is making me really, really nervous. I hope all those radical, exempted-from-military-service Haredi sitting in their well-guarded illegal settlements in the West Bank are feeling nice and safe.
Subsole
@Tony Jay:
Let’s be real: half these people would show up with their own conch.
There’d be fatalities in the green room as they battled over whose conch was THE conch.
Omnes Omnibus
@Uncle Cosmo: Aesthetic preference. What’s it to you?
Geminid
@Steeplejack: Sorry, I missed the qualifier. I think it still was good to get that out there so people know how much worse this war could get.
I think there will be ceasefire before too long. It might take weeks, but it is unlikely to take months. The Qataris mediated the last one in May of 2021, and that war went on for 11 days. They’ll probably mediate this one. Turkiye and Egypt will likely join in on the diplomatic front also.
Geminid
@jonas: Half of Netanyahu’s coalition are basically draft dodgers. This has been remarked upon a lot by Israelis.
jonas
@sdhays: McCarthy’s plan seems to have been, roughly:
McCarthy’s all-consuming ego was writing checks his political ass couldn’t cash. He’s not like DUMB, dumb, but a greater political fool there has never been.
artem1s
Chances are the GOP will either jigger their interpretation of the Secret Speaker rules to McHenry work on Israeli funding or they will elect a speaker for however long it takes (a day?) to pass a CR with Israeli funding then MTV his ass out again. I think there’s a better than even chance Qevin’s getting set up by McHenry and/or his pals to be Speaker for a day. Maybe 90/10.
Tony Jay
@brantl:
The actual shit-flinging monkeys will be wearing their cowboy hats the right way around.
@Subsole:
And wouldn’t we all agree that in-group predation is a perfectly cromulent way for the narrow GOP majority to whittle itself away? I think we would. Let’s pitch this.
Steeplejack
@JPL:
Went back and checked. Looks like Joey Maloney last commented yesterday morning.
prostratedragon
Brandi Buchman’s run-down of the Gov’s jury procedure filing before Judge Chutkan
jonas
That war didn’t start off with nearly 1000 dead Israelis and dozens of hostages taken. Unless things go seriously pear-shaped for the IDF, I don’t think Netanyahu can stop the fighting until Hamas is undone as a military threat and political force in Gaza. And can he do that without unleashing a wider regional conflagration? We’re through the looking glass here on this one, I fear.
rikyrah
serenity now![]()
(@MissesDread) posted at 11:06 AM on Mon, Oct 09, 2023:
What’s really funny is, the far left DGAF about poverty.
When’s the last time you saw any of them demanding an increase to SNAP or TANF or SSI ?
Why they obsessed with *Medicare* not MEDICAID?
Why is it “cancel my debt!” and not “expand Pell grants!” ?
serenity now![]()
(@MissesDread) posted at 11:09 AM on Mon, Oct 09, 2023:
These motherfuckers are spoiled middle class brats who went to college with their mom’s credit card and they graduated and mom took the card away and now they want one from the government.
That’s basically it.
None of them even remotely serious about actual poverty.
(https://x.com/MissesDread/status/1711413554933649507?t=O5NJTJUJLer2_shJ-SKKgQ&s=03)
prostratedragon
Roger Parloff on another filing, seeking advance notice from TFG attorneys whether he will try to use advice of counsel defense. Seems an attempt to forstall some of his stall tactics.
Geminid
@jonas: Yes this war is much, much worse than the last one, and Israel will make a concerted effort to destroy Hamas’s military wing. But I don’t think Israel can get those hostages back through bombing and blockading Gaza. They going to have to accept a ceasefire, it seems to me.
But Benjamin Netanyahu may not be Prime Minister by then. I’ve said I don’t think he will survive the aftermath of this war, which I guess is a minority opinion here. But now I’m beginning to wonder if he will be toppled mid-conflict, and replaced by former IDF Chief of Staff and Defense Minister Benny Gantz.
Timill
@Brachiator: The lack of a confirmed ambassador to Israel is a recent thing – the previous incumbent left on July 21 this year, per Wiki.
Roger Moore
@jonas:
Again, though, the jungle primary tends to destroy party discipline. There’s no way for the state party to enforce having just one candidate on the primary ballot. Even if they could, the party leadership is just as crazy as the base, so they’d never nominate a sane, center-left candidate as their one shot. They had that with Schwarzenegger, and the party rebelled against him.
Paul in KY
@rikyrah: Lot of truth in that post, rikyrah!
Matt McIrvin
@Geminid: I’ve been assuming that the American model applies, and having your people be victim to horrifying mass-casualty terrorist attacks vastly strengthens your political position. But maybe the situation in Israel is different.
JPL
@Steeplejack: What a strange little site John created. I remember hearing about the major earthquake in New Zealand here , before the news broke.
Geminid
@Roger Moore: California’ jungle primary system has introduced a new political dynamic. You folks are learning about first hand, and I’ll be watching next year’s Semate election to learn more. Washington has jungle primaries also.
Only two of the six Republicans who voted to impeach Trump and ran for reelection made it into this Congress. They were Valadeo from California and Newhouse from Washigton- both jungle primary states.
Jaime Herrera Butler (WA) did not make the cut in her jungle primary though. That district is now held by Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez.
Eyeroller
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: For American women of a certain age, a “jumper” is a pullover dress, usually worn with a blouse or knit shirt underneath.
“Nappie” would not transfer well since it’s short for “napkin” and we already have a very different meaning for that word. (The original meaning from which both evolved was “large piece of cloth.”) “Diaper” was the name of a type of cloth often used for the article in question. And I refuse to switch to “courgette.” That particular type of squash was bred in Italy so it deserves to be known by its Italian name.
Eyeroller
@Steeplejack: “Pungent” has always had negative undertones and tends to imply “overly spicy or sharp” with reference to food and odors (or odours if you prefer).
Citizen Alan
@Tony Jay: I am reminded of the first season of Big Brother USA in which viewers would decide who got voted out each week. Said viewers generally voted out the shittiest person every week, but then the viewing numbers declined halfway through because it was boring watching a bunch of normal, relatively decent human beings sharing a house. The next season, the switched to housemates voting out each other, and the game incentives switched to rewarding who was the biggest, most manipulative sociopath … and viewership shot way up.
Geminid
@Matt McIrvin: The situation in Israel is much different. People there pay a lot of attention to security matters, and Netanyahu’s flagrant negligence in this matter is obvious.
His government was never that popular to begin with, and its credit has dropped since then. He would be crushed in a new election, but there’s no time for one.
Netanyahu’s Likud party was poised to dump him if he did not win a majority in the last election and I bet they wish they had now. He only pulled off a majority because two opposition parties missed the 3.25% threshold.
So I think his government will fall once this conflict is over, but the Knesset might not wait. As former MK Einat Wilf put it:
Citizen Alan
@jonas:
Was Garvey the one who got a certain amount of mockery for doing the underwear ads? I remember some baseball player in the 70s-80s who was up on billboards lounging seductively on a couch in very tight briefs. I was not quite old enough for that to cause me the conflicted feelings it later would, but I do remember it.
wjca
And they only had him because, as a part of a recall, the election for a replacement for Davis was a one shot, with Schwarzenegger winning with a plurality, not a majority.
Citizen Alan
@Brachiator:
There was a time when I strongly supported Tim Tebow’s football career because I was afraid if he ever quit football, he’d immediately get into politics and become Congressman for Life from some retrograde district in Florida.
Misterpuff
@dmsilev:
Actually, its scorpion on scorpion down to riding on the back of The Base (OK, more scorpions) riding on the back of the Goodwill of the American Public, who are getting stung (f*cked) by the GQP and the Scorpion Party just smiles and says its our nature.
H-Bob
@Tony Jay: “And which GOP House member would you most like to see torn apart by baby alligators while the painted headhunters of the Ways And Means Committee chant “Meat! Meat! Meat!” over the pounding of a McHenry-skin bongo drum?”
All of them, Tony!
Montanareddog
@Lymie: no claims to being a lexicologist of British vs US English, but though both verbs are related to eating , I don’t think they are synonymous.
To scoff it is to eat a dish with gusto – “I scoffed that meat pie”, ” You certainly scoffed those fish and chips!”, “The roast beef and Yorkshire pudding was meh, but we scoffed the spotted dick”
To scarf is to eat gluttonously. “They scarfed the meat pie, the roast beef and Yorkshire pudding and the spotted dick!”
Roberto el oso
Along with the misuse of ‘scoffing’, I would also strongly question the use of ‘pungent’.
Timill
@Citizen Alan: I think Jim Palmer did that, which is not to say he was the only one.
Roberto el oso
@Montanareddog: I am now feeling slightly seasick at the notion that the meal was English BBQ ….
Tony Jay
@Citizen Alan:
Which is a damning indictment of how sadistic people (who enjoy watching reality TV tat) really are.
Though if it were horrible things happening to MAGAts.. I’m okay with that.
Tony Jay
@Roberto el oso:
English BBQ is exactly the same as Australian or American BBQ, only done once a year and in the rain.
Tony Jay
@H-Bob:
Then make it so!
Gravenstone
@Timill: Jockey briefs was Palmer’s ad gig.
NotMax
@Tony Jay
Throw another hedgehog on the barbie!
//
Roger Moore
@Tony Jay:
American and Australian barbecue are different things. Australian barbecue is a way of grilling/broiling meat using an outdoor grill. American barbecue is a way of cooking meat using low, indirect heat, more like smoking than like grilling.
Tony Jay
@Roger Moore:
Yeah, but the joke was that whatever version we do we’re bad at it and it’s always raining anyway.
This is why I don’t tell jokes. Mother was right.
WaterGirl
@Tony Jay: Does that make you some kind of relation to Mike Pence? :: shudder ::
steverinoCT
“He didn’t like her apartment, so he knocked her flat.” –Henny Youngman (ba-dum-bump)
NotMax
@steverinoCT
Flat is for tires (tyres), crepes, tortillas and feet.
Found the exit signs in the London underground a source of amusement, as they long pre-date the arrival of psychedelia: “Way Out.”
;)
Mr. Bemused Senior
@NotMax: “way out” also seen in the last two episodes of the Prisoner (probably you recall it too).
Tony Jay
@WaterGirl:
When I say it, it’s with a sad shake of the head, when Pence says it it’s after he’s sprained his wrist doing ‘that bad thing’ to a video downloaded onto the Evangeliasons website, and you don’t want to – think – about what he’s shaking.
See what I mean about the jokes?