Several years back, one of y’all called former Ohio Gov. John Kasich “shellfish allergy Harrison Ford,” and I can’t unsee that. (Thank you!)
That asshole was on MSNBC moments ago, reacting to the Repub clown show in the US House by angrily asking, “Where are the Democrats?”
Kasich is pretending not to know that a radical Repub minority is imposing its will on the US House GOP majority. This is a state of affairs we ordinary citizens know all too well, thanks to the cowardice of Repubs like Kasich.
Josh Marshall (gift link) compares the radical Repub Gaetz-Jordan gang’s tactics to the ritual debt ceiling hostage-taking House Repubs resort to every time they have a House majority and the president is a Democrat. It goes like this: Give us what we want, or the country gets it. Marshall:
This is obviously a fool’s game. Agreeing to play by those rules means you’ve already lost. I don’t particularly care about McCarthy or Scalise who thrived under this system before it consumed them. Who cares about them? But as we discussed a couple days ago, this is just is just a microcosm of the authoritarian pathogen looming over and threatening the whole American Republic. It’s the use of force over systems of rules. So in that sense it matters quite a lot.
It does matter. And the people who finally sack up and call the authoritarians’ bluff will not be found in the Repub Party.
Kasich and even some Dems blame the Democratic House conference for letting Repubs twist in the wind on the speaker vote. I see it differently. The House Dems are refusing to play the fool’s game.
They know the radical Repubs have been running the joint since January, so why should they lift a finger to save McCarthy’s sorry ass? He’s essentially Jordan with a better haircut or Gaetz with a normal forehead. How would helping him help the country break this impasse, which is still invisible to too many people?
Ultimately, only voters can solve this problem. Helping Repubs paper over their dangerous dysfunction just delays that reckoning.
Open thread.
Manyakitty
Meanwhile, we are all just trying to survive
Suzanne
To be fair, I throw up sliiiiiightly less in my mouth when seeing McCarthy, as opposed to Matt Gaetz.
But the point stands: what have you done for us lately? Oh? Nothing? Then get fucked.
Alison Rose
When someone says something like this, whoever they are, I really want news people to ask them, “Why should Democrats be responsible for cleaning up the mess Republicans created?” Unfortunately, a lot of the news people themselves are saying shit like what Kasich said, so that’s not gonna happen.
rikyrah
The utter audacity
Scott MacFarlane (@MacFarlaneNews) posted at 7:52 AM on Tue, Oct 17, 2023:
Attorney for Jan 6 defendant Alex Sheppard continues argument to delay Sheppard from reporting to prison
“It’s not unreasonable for Mr. Sheppard to spend the holidays with his family before serving more than a year of prison time– having never spent any time in jail in the past”
(https://x.com/MacFarlaneNews/status/1714262987039531270?t=cSxTyPoA5OUc5wslVJbqdA&s=03)
rikyrah
Dana Goldstein (@DanaGoldstein) posted at 3:24 PM on Mon, Oct 16, 2023:
Scholastic is allowing book fairs to opt out of 64 titles on race and gender, in response to red state laws restricting instruction. We saw the list. It includes a Black Panther graphic novel; biography of John Lewis; fantasy novel about a Lakota girl. https://t.co/DJvTRuGUka
(https://x.com/DanaGoldstein/status/1714014445318410523?t=oUMBGemwCcKG70UjY6os_w&s=03)
Shalimar
Ken Buck says on MSNBC that there are 8-10 members who promised Jordan their vote in round 1 but not thereafter. He expects there to be more than 20 against when they vote again.
Shalimar
@rikyrah: If he’s going to spend more than a year in prison, he will miss at least one holiday season with family. I don’t really understand why it shouldn’t be this one.
WaterGirl
@rikyrah: Get back to me on that, asshole (obviously not you rikyrah) when they care abut all the black people who are fucking stuck in jail because they can’t afford bail, and haven’t even been convicted of anything.
Gregory
angrily asking, “Where are the Democrats?”
That would be the Democrats that Republican politicians and media mouthpieces everywhere, including the presumptive nominee for president, accuse of being Communists who want to destroy the country?
WaterGirl
@rikyrah: What the hell happened to Scholastic magazine???
Suzanne
@Suzanne: Speaking of THROWING UP IN MY MOUTH, there is a picture of Gym on the splash page of CNN that is uber-gross. He’s making some weird-ass face.
SpaceUnit
Yeah, this is basically the Republicans saying “Nice country you got there, America. Be a shame if someone failed to fund the government.”
And our corporate media is complaining that a protection racket only works if everyone does their part
ETA: Fuck ’em all.
Subsole
@rikyrah:
I have said it before. I will say it again.
These people thought they were going to fight, and win, a full-on race war. Then beat the rest of us into submission and hold us down while they had their way in all things.
Sending them to jail, keeping this nation functioning, preventing the world they are so desperate to bring to pass, is doing them a favor beyond their ability to process.
They do not want to live in the world they are building. They do not have the horsepower.
satby
I applaud the House Dems for hanging tough and letting the sedition caucus twist in the wind, especially since we all know the longer it continues the louder the cries will become asking the Democrats to once again fix what the Republicans broke.
Quinerly
MSNBC loves Kasich. And Chris Christie. I have gotten into the habit of listening to MSNBC on the Tune In App, rather than actually sitting down to watch. Today, I am packing, cleaning up around here so actually have a TV on. I would have loved to have slapped Kasich.
And I have been avoiding actually watching anything out of Israel and Gaza. Now, I am caught in this today. Hospital bombing.
Bibi must go. I think we can all agree on that.
Delk
Kasich should be more concerned about a
repinsurrectionist from his state not complying with a subpoena.Suzanne
I am having a hard time today. I really, really want to be taking a nap right now.
Why did we create this non-napping society?!
Ken
To which the only suitable response is “We’d love to, and I’m glad we can count on your vote.”
Quinerly
@Suzanne:
He is a gross man. His looks, his mannerisms, expressions. I usually can find something attractive about almost any man. Except Trump, Cruz, and Jordan…oh, Hell, I’ll throw Pence and Gaetz in there too. Disgusting party full of disgusting men.
Jamey
If one of the dissident Repubs votes for “Speaky McSpeakersons” on, like, the 33d ballot, an angel will get their wings.
HumboldtBlue
The news is depressing, here, meet Marlin, the cat-dog.
Geoduck
Re: The Gaza hospital bombing. Both sides are blaming the other for doing it. Hopefully we’ll learn the truth at some point.
kindness
Jordan will lead the House to a no-compromise-hold-my-breath-till-I-turn-blue stance on every single issue. I’m sure the Village Elders and much of the MSM will blame Democrats (it’s their only Go To move) but I suspect the voters will see through it. The Republican party used to hold California hostage all the time (80’s – early 90’s). Back then there was a rule that taxes couldn’t be raised without 2/3 the elected bodies agreeing to it. As inflation was kinda active back there, taxes had to be incrementally raised every year. Eventually California voters figured out it was Republicans making us all look bad. That helped us change the law to simple majority to raise taxes and we’ve had Democratic control of all 3 branches since.
Eunicecycle
I had to change the channel when Kasich started that crap about Democrats. Why should Democrats help them out? They have done nothing but treat the Democrats with scorn and derision.
dmsilev
Where are the Democrats? They’re voting for a sane and reasonable person to be Speaker: Hakeem Jeffries. The Republicans are welcome to join them.
dmsilev
@Eunicecycle: McCarthy never even considered asking Democrats for support. That’s step one. You have to ask people to vote for you. Maybe they’ll want something in return, but at the very very least, you have to ask. He didn’t.
Tony Jay
Where are the Democrats?
Over there, John. In their seats. Voting in unison for their leader in the House.
Still confused? They’re the ones who aren’t jumping up and down on their desks with shit rubbed into their hair.
Now you get it.
Trucmat
If there’s a single litmus test issue for a Democratic vote for Speaker it should be to admit Biden won and Trump lost in 2020. Insurrection is unforgivable.
Democrats owe Jordan only undying scorn.
HumboldtBlue
@kindness:
I think it was 2014 (the elections all run together after a while) when Dems finally got a majority in the Leg and by 2016 it was a super majority, I think.
Anoniminous
@dmsilev:
McCarthy fails the first necessity of a politician: his word is not his bond.
dmsilev
@Anoniminous: Well, there’s that too.
Ramalama
would be hi-larious albeit within the dried kindling of a flammable and failed political party.
Ramalama
@Anoniminous: his word is his Gold bond. You know, for jock itch.
p.a.
Goddamnit, I loved Scholastic books as a child, and the Bookmobile.
West of the Rockies
@Quinerly:
Jordan always looks to me like a guy who has just made a biting comment to someone who didn’t deserve it. A classic bully who is punching down. “Hey, buttface, nice shirt!//” Dur-hur-hur.
rikyrah
@WaterGirl:
I don’t know, but, I’ve been furious ever since I first heard about this. As a kid in school, that book fair was one of my favorite times of the year, because I would pour over the flyer and carefully select the books that I wanted.
Back in my day, there were very few, if any non-White options.
Things had changed completely by the time Peanut went to school. She could do an entire book fair purchase of books by and about non-White people.
AS IT SHOULD BE.
JOHN LEWIS
RUBY BRIDGES
JUSTICE KETANJI BROWN-JACKSON
Books about THEM are being pulled?
PHUCK OUTTA HERE!
CaseyL
@HumboldtBlue:
Ohmigaw, Marlin is adorable.
You know how they say foxes are “dog hardware running cat software”?
Marlin seems to cat hardware running dog software.
Fair Economist
@HumboldtBlue: We held a majority in the CA legislature from I think 1998. But in CA you need 2/3 to do a budget, and we only got a supermajority around 2012. Then suddenly we didn’t have a horrible budget crisis every year.
Another Scott
@dmsilev:
It’s worse than that – he wanted to blame Democrats for shutting down the government when he thought he put a poison pill (no Ukraine funding) in the CR. He thought he would make his bomb-throwers happy (shutting down the government) and be able to blame Democrats for it for a change.
It’s all political games with these monsters, and they’re incompetent at it even while they’re destroying everything.
Grr…,
Scott.
HumboldtBlue
@Fair Economist:
It was 2012, it was Obama’s re-election and Californians finally kicked the GOP to the curb for good.
Quinerly
@HumboldtBlue:
💚
I was going to put up a post about Northern New Mexico’s Marty the Moose. He is the most exciting thing going on in my neck of the woods. One lone bachelor moose looking for love. He has been in NM about a year. Originally spotted not far from me in Pecos…..Ski basin around Christmas… then in Santa Fe and Tesuque this summer. Practically in Cheryl Rofer’s yard at one point. Tranquilized and transported to the NM/Co border about 5 weeks ago. Now making his way back to Santa Fe. Drew a crowd yesterday when he was behind the Lowe’s in Espanola. Moose are not native to NM. And I have learned that moose are not herd animals. A moose requires about 90,000 acres for roaming.
Fake Irishman
@HumboldtBlue:
Dems have had majorities in both chamber of the Cal legislature since the 1960s with a brief interruption after 1994. They first achieved Supermajorities in 2012, lost them in 2014 and got them back in 2018.
Still takes 2/3 to raise taxes and fees, but after 2010 only need a simple majority to pass a budget.
piratedan
@Quinerly: there are times when I wonder how much better our media could be if we got these faceless news programmers out of their comfy sinecures and doing something useful, like resolving the water cleanliness issue of Jackson, Mississippi.
Frankensteinbeck
@Subsole:
I will add only one thing to this correct description: They thought it would be easy. They thought it would be handed to them on a platter, otherwise they were going to wait for someone else to fight their race war for them.
MomSense
@Suzanne:
I blame the Calvinists.
Chris
Harrison Ford is a lifelong Democrat. Using him to refer to any Republican, even with the “shellfish allergy” qualifier, seems ungenerous.
Lyrebird
@rikyrah:
Gee let me guess, I’m guessing Mr. Sheppard is white.
To Betty Cracker or anyone else who needs a brain break from the BS, I found a transcript of Rep. Aguilar’s nomination of Leader Jeffries for Speaker, and it answers the questions quite nicely. (DKos link)
Villago Delenda Est
Kaisch should take a flying leap into the Cuyahoga.
Manyakitty
@Villago Delenda Est: preferably while it was still flammable.
Villago Delenda Est
@Manyakitty: I salute you for inferring precisely what I was implying.
Bupalos
@Villago Delenda Est: Hey! We just got that river cleaned up!!!
Manyakitty
@Villago Delenda Est: great minds and all lol 🔥
Mr. Bemused Senior
@Bupalos: oooh, snap!
Chris
@Frankensteinbeck:
“Easy” is arguably the whole point of far right terrorism. You’re LARPing at the game of civil war and revolution, but with the full expectation that, unlike the people you hate, you’ll never have to worry about experiencing any consequences for it. After all, the cops and all the right-thinking citizens are on your side.
The woman on 1/6 who was heard screaming “they’re killing us, they’re supposed to be killing Antifa, but they’re killing patriots!” was the whole mindset in a nutshell. So was the one interviewed a little while afterwards who said “I’m white, I’ve got a great job, I’m not going to jail!”
matt
The second Democrats help one of the GOP shitheads become Speaker, that Speaker becomes a magical bipartisan Speaker in the media.
FastEdD
@kindness: That was Prop 25-I was hired by the California Federation of Teachers to lobby for it in Sacramento, and to do field organizing to get it passed. We knew it was a BFD at the time, but teachers were mostly for it because we never knew what our budget was ahead of time. We had to “pay off” an R or two just to get a 2/3rds budget passed, and one of the results of the payoff was to state Senator Abel Maldonado (R), the top two jungle primary. Of course, even the payoff that the R’s wanted came around to bite them in the ass. I was at one polling place listening to an R ask, why aren’t there any republicans I can vote for in this office? It was your party’s idea, dumbass.
matt
@Alison Rose: The correct answer is ‘minding their own business while the Republicans fail to mind theirs.’
Quinerly
Conservative men find Taylor Swift, her Swifties, and single women very threatening.
https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/taylor-swift-single-women-right-wing/
matt
@rikyrah: He should spend the holidays with his new jail family.
matt
@Another Scott: He wanted the Democrats to pull the knife he stuck in their backs out and fight his rivals with it.
geg6
@Suzanne:
So it’s a typical picture of him then.
HumboldtBlue
@Quinerly:
Get the fuck outta here! Who would ever make that mistake?
Martin
@Fair Economist: The change came in 2010 when we passed Prop 25 to change the vote requirement to a simple majority. Also the year Jerry was elected. We took a hard blue turn in the wake of Prop 8. I think a lot of non-voters were simply embarrassed by that. And I think Obama resonated better with voters in the state than he did with most other states. We were all-in on ACA as a state – in fact the state gave up on its single payer effort to sign on, so we were to the left of ACA even.
By 2012 we didn’t need a supermajority for the budget, there wasn’t any way for the minority to hostage take, and CA never jumped onto the Tea Party/MAGA train so we (almost uniquely from what I can tell) ran counter to those trends. That’s left the CA GOP with a real problem – they can’t scream about immigration or climate change or the LGBTQ community or most of the MAGA go-tos because the CA electorate is to the left of national Dems on those issues (hell, the last GOP governor is to the left of national Dems on those issues) so they have absolutely no platform and no resonance with voters, outside of the usual ‘I hate the government’ communities. That leaves them with some parochial positions on water rights and regulation, but nobody gives a shit about that at the national level. So they’re completely divorced from the national GOP, which means they’re about as effective as the Greens. CAs religiosity is mostly in the immigrant community, which the national GOP has struggled to capture. My guess is the state electorate gets more and more divorced from the national ‘centrist’ position until the GOP fever breaks.
This is why I said a ways back that I was largely done with national politics. There’s nothing left in national politics except for white christian grievance, and as this blog has long noted, you can’t compromise with the date who wants tire rims and anthrax for dinner. So there’s no discussion worth having there – you just need to break the back of that group. But CA is big enough to carry its own progressive politics against the national tide and simply wait for the country to be ready to catch up. We did that once before with the anti-tax movement that ran in Reagans wake and eventually took over national politics, and by the time the rest of the country had a permanent boner over the idea, we were examining the damage that it had caused and had turned against it. I suspect this is the same cycle but in the other direction, and I think it’s more important right now for CA to develop a policy and implementation playbook that the feds can copy than to try and fight a party that has captured the majority and is still failing to form a government. There’s just nothing for us to do there. It’s a waste of time and effort.
Quinerly
Here’s what we know about Jim Jordan and the Ohio State University wrestling scandal
https://www.businessinsider.com/what-happened-jim-jordan-ohio-state-wrestling-sex-abuse-scandal-2023-10?op=1
Sorry about the weird fonts. I’m typing from my phone. Copy/paste.
Jeffro
@rikyrah: seconded here
It’s pointless self-censorship: the RWNJs are still going to find something they don’t like, and they’ll still beat on Scholastic until there are only three books to buy (two versions of the Bible + the kids’ version of “The Art of the Deal”). Now that’s some kinda book fair…
No one’s making anyone buy anything, Scholastic, and for Pete’s sake, OUR market for books is a hell of a lot bigger than THEIR market for books.
artem1s
Yea, I’ve been waiting for the Lincoln Project Grifter to weigh in on the chaos. He was known as King John back when he was governor for a reason. Authoritarian asshole who thinks everyone should bow to his will. He should have been out front on Gym’s many scandals and calling for the R’s to hold him accountable. But of course, only Dems have agency to clean up the R’s messes. Good news is he’s demonstrating exactly why the Dems should never concede an inch on their core issues just to garner a couple of WWC ‘moderate’ NPR votes. They should have never invited him to speak at the Convention and should tell him to go pound sand if he tries to get in the door next year.
Martin
@Quinerly: They should. Taylor Swift did a lot to help beat Trump in 2020 – more than she’s given credit for, IMO.
TriassicSands
@Suzanne:
This just in from the entire population of the planet Earth: Go ahead and nap, Suzanne, we want you rested.
waspuppet
I will say it again:
WHAT
WAS
THE
OFFER?
What has Kevin McCarthy or any Republican offered Hakeem Jeffries or any Democrat in return for their votes? What has been on the table?
All our media stars looked at the Republicans saying “We’ll default on the debt if Biden doesn’t impeach himself” and stroked their nonexistent stubble and said “Interesting ploy.” And that was worse than this, since Republicans had a responsibility to pass a debt ceiling.
Anyone who says “But the Democrats …” when there isn’t an actual offer of ANYTHING on the table, and when Republicans have called Democrats everything but a child of God for 30 years, is just saying it’s everyone else’s responsibility to keep Republicans from looking bad. Which is how it works in families with domestic abuse. Which is exactly how I’ve been describing life with the Republican Party for 20 years now.
sab
@Villago Delenda Est: Kasich lives 200 miles from the Cuyahoga. Have him jump in the Scioto or Olentangy instead
Or maybe the Ohio, since he was born near it.
Hoppie
@kindness: The law is still 2/3rds vote required for a tax increase, if initiated by the legislature or a government agency. Courts ruled that it only requires a simple majority for citizen initiative tax measures.
Quinerly
@Martin:
I wouldn’t recognize a Taylor Swift song if she was standing in my kitchen singing it to me.
But….I like her….I really do. Team Taylor for sure!!!
japa21
@Quinerly: If she was standing in front of me singing, I really doubt I would even be paying any attention to the words.
FastEdD
I just called my CA-40 rep Young Kim’s local office and DC office (I’m a constituent) to express my utter disgust that she voted for Jordan. Got through both times to point out she’s in a district that Joe Biden won and that she voted for a guy who vows to shut down the government. No excuse for that. Off to the Canyon Dems meeting tonight.
mary s
The Democrats have been voting for Hakeem Jeffries. As they should. Since when is one party expected to vote for the other party’s leader? Especially not when the other party has very bad leaders.
FastEdD
@Hoppie: Or a simple majority for a budget, which is why they have been on time every year since Prop 25 passed.
Westyny
@japa21:
I’d rather have Taylor in front of me than a frontal lobotomy.
Glidwrith
@Eunicecycle: I called my D Congress critter and thanked her.
geg6
@Quinerly:
I’m no Swiftie, but I like some of her songs a lot. Give “Lover” a try. It’s a really good song.
https://youtu.be/-BjZmE2gtdo?si=tntflJLZjvYv41gD
arielibra
@rikyrah: I looked up Scholastic’s statement (I adored the book fairs); it does seem a bit weaselly, but trying to thread the needle in order to keep all the books available where possible:
Hoppie
@FastEdD: Indeed, but the initial post was regarding tax increases.
As to the azurifying of California, Pete Wilson had a lot to do with it through his ham-handed anti-Hispanic pandering, which boomeranged.
Eduardo
@Suzanne: you might like this one better https://talkingpointsmemo.com/live-blog/professional-antagonist-tests-whether-he-can-bully-his-way-to-the-speakership?entry=1471400
E.
@geg6: Did I just see Taylor Swift in a credit card commercial? I hate that. She has enough money. Why is she shilling for banks? It’s so disappointing.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@Eduardo: that’s some picture! (Hysterical laughter)
[ETA caption says it’s before the vote; seems to me “after” would be apt.]
WaterGirl
Why don’t 10 of the 18 House reps elected in Biden districts just vote present and be done with it?
rikyrah
@Quinerly:
I don’t doubt it. Ms. Swift has really taken charge of her career, and been able to get back those who swindled her when she was young and naive.
moops
Funny that no media outlet has provided the narrative “give the Dems something in exchange for helping elect a new Speaker”
the default seems to be Dems should do the honorable thing, and the GOP can continue being legislative terrorists.
Matt McIrvin
@Hoppie:
We thought Trump would take that blowback nationwide, but it didn’t really happen, I think because the politics of Spanish-speaking voters are different and varied outside of California.
Geminid
@WaterGirl: Doesn’t there need to be a majority of those present to elect a Speaker? I think Jeffries’ 212 Democratic votes won’t be enough unless some Republicans either stay away or vote for him.
Or make a deal whereby the Democrats join 5 Republicans to vote in a caretaker Speaker like former Rep. Charlie Dent (PA).
Matt McIrvin
@mary s:
When they’re Democrats, evidently. Nobody seems to be taking seriously the idea that a few “sane” Republicans could end this by simply voting for Jeffries. That’s beyond consideration, but Democrats are supposed to vote for some Republican with nothing but further persecution to expect in return.
Chief Oshkosh
@Quinerly: The women ain’t much better…
moops
At the very least, Dems need to make it very clear that we will never help elect Jordan to Speaker, no matter what promises are made. He is completely and utterly never going to have a Dem vote to elect him. He is one of the worst Republicans that can ever be allowed to be Speaker.
WaterGirl
@Geminid: That’s what I thought, but the temporary speaker said majority of people voting.
Voting today was:
212 Hakeem
200 Jordan
20 Other
TOTAL = 432
divided by 2 = 216, so to win with 432 voting, you need 217.
Have 10 Rs vote present…
The TOTAL BECOMES 422
divided by 2 = 211, so with 422 voting, you need 212 to win.
That’s my understanding anyway.
Anoniminous
@moops:
The fact the mediums are owned by plutocrats has NOTHING to do with it. Just one of them coinky-dinkies.
Frankensteinbeck
@arielibra:
It makes sense to me. This isn’t bowing to a public pressure campaign. This is dealing with actual laws that could make bundling all their books together illegal, and worse, put the consequences for that on teachers. So they separated the titles without withdrawing them. It’s not a good solution, as they acknowledge, it’s just the best solution they could think of.
HumboldtBlue
Fox’s Brian Kilmeade caught on a hot mic calling Rep. Don Bacon a “dumbass” for voting McCarthy.
Manyakitty
I can’t remember who suggested it on which thread, but I called my excellent representative Emilia Sykes and thanked her for her hard work. Her staffer and I also engaged in a bonding moment over a dream of Speaker Jeffries.
Geminid
@WaterGirl: Some Republican may grab Rep. McHenry by his bowtie and tell him, “that’s not how this is supposed to work, Patrick!” But maybe he’s gone rogue.
Quinerly
@geg6:
Cool video, for sure. Great lyrics. I’m kinda picky about the female voices I like, though.
She’s no Bonnie Raitt, Kirsty MacColl, Maria Muldaur, Emmylou…..
Carl W
I’m tentatively on the side of Scholastic on this one. If librarians and volunteers really feel they’re in legal jeopardy for putting on a book fair, then it’s probably better to make it easier to put on the best book fair they legally can.
Note that Scholastic can’t force the school to include any particular books in the book fair; it would always be possible to go through and hide certain books behind the counter, or to highlight certain books. So if a school wants to censor, it can. I assume most librarians (even grade school librarians) are anti-book bans, so including these books just makes a lot of extra work for the librarian, under duress; if most librarians in book-banning states are actually pro-book bans, then I’d feel better if Scholastic just shipped all the books and made the librarians do the censorship work themselves.
Full disclosure: in my time volunteering at Scholastic Book Fairs, I have in fact gone through the books to hide some, and to highlight others; but not in any content-based way. Scholastic includes a lot of books that are shrink-wrapped with necklaces, bracelets, figurines, etc.; we noticed one year that a lot of those were stolen during the fair, so in subsequent years we pulled out such books and put them on a special shelf that’s easier to supervise. I’ve also pulled out books that were on sale for $1 and sorted them into a special shelf so that students with an extremely limited budget could still buy a book or two (a pretty much wasted effort; I’m not sure anybody ever bought a book off of that shelf).
arielibra
@Frankensteinbeck: I meant that the text of the statement seems a little CYA to me, but their action seems right —as you say, committed to keeping all the books available where possible.
Quinerly
@Chief Oshkosh:
Well….Michelle Bachman and Palin were attractive. That seems like a lifetime ago.
And, they now have Noem.
Anoniminous
@WaterGirl:
According to what I’ve been able to find the rule is with quorum present a Speaker is elected by members present and voting.
IOW, if those 20 Other votes simply didn’t show Dems could elect Jefferies.
Shalimar
@Quinerly: Maria Muldaur’s daughter Jenni also has a beautiful voice. My favorite is Maria McKee though.
Hoodie
Kasich is a like a lot of anti-Trump Republicans. He bitches about a minority of the GOP holding the party hostage but expects Dems to genuflect to accommodate a few guys like him. Even the further left portions of the Democratic Party don’t expect that; they fell in line with Pelosi. The most the ex-GOP can expect is to be able to throw their lot in with more conservative Dems and get some influence that way, but they don’t get to call the shots. Guys like Kasich fantasize the GOP they knew still exists. It doesn’t and they really have one choice – fascism or democracy. The reason the Dems didn’t bail out McCarthy is because he didn’t offer them anything. Kasich should stop bitching about Dems and start calling out so-called moderate Republicans for not reaching out to the Dems to defang the nutjobs in the GOP conference.
WaterGirl
@Anoniminous: Yes, it appears there is no difference between not showing up for the vote, and being there but voting PRESENT.
So in either case, it would only take 10 Rs to be no-shows or vote Present. See my math at #93.
edit: If I recall correctly, Gaetz or someone voting “present” at the end was what put Kevin over the top in January.
Martin
@WaterGirl: That’s exactly right.
Anoniminous
@WaterGirl:
Oh, sorry. Didn’t see it.
To repay my faux pas …. here’s a classic Taylor Swift duet
Quinerly
@Shalimar:
Jenni does have a great voice.
I should have thrown in Bonnie Bramlett and her voice (and her daughter’s voice is good too)
p.a.
Kate Riga
@Kate_Riga24
Pelosi on her way out: “I think they’re taking lessons in mathematics and learning how to count”
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
Omnes Omnibus
@Shalimar: I’ve got a Lone Justice album on vinyl from 1986 or so. Wheels was such a great song.
mrmoshpotato
Where’s your brain, Johnny? 🖕
sdhays
@WaterGirl: It doesn’t really matter unless they can then also pass new rules. There’s no point in having a coalition speaker (of any kind) unless the motion to vacate rule, at least, is removed from the hands of one person.
PaulWartenberg
something about another vote at 6PM tonight?
Matt McIrvin
@Hoodie: I remember all the excitement about the Squad maybe torpedoing Pelosi’s bid for Speaker. Would there be chaos? Civil war in the party? Didn’t happen. Didn’t remotely happen. There was a challenge from a group of centrists but it didn’t go anywhere.
And, I mean, there are major disagreements within the party. Ask the left wing and the center about Israel/Palestine right now and I’m sure there are going to be some frank exchanges of views. But they can count and they know how to lead. The Republicans don’t; they can only bully and fight and whine.
greenergood
OT: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/10/17/2199352/-Airstrike-at-Al-Ahly-Baptist-Hospital-in-Gaza-200-killed?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=trending&pm_medium=web I’m beginning to believe that the Israeli gov’t (NOT all Israeli population) is willing and able to facilitate a Palestinian holocaust, similar to that of Myanmar, with the Rohingyas <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rohingya_genocide>. as something that ‘just needs to be done’, because Holocaust was the fate of the Jews, and having endured it, then the same fate will need to be imposed on their enemies . I hope I’m very wrong – but it’s difficult to see the Israeli gov’t backing down. Gaza is 2 million; the Holocaust was 6 million – how many hundreds of thousands did US troops kill in Fallujah/Mosul/etc.? If Israel decides to decimate Gaza, it will be forgotten by everyone in 10 years (except, of course, surviving Palestinians), but by then we will have moved to another crisis.
Dan B
@rikyrah: Does Scholastic’s banned list include LGBTQ titles as well? A banned bio of John Lewis is bad enough.
Dorothy A. Winsor
The Pod Save America guys interviewed Hakeem Jeffries today. It’s a good interview.
Carl W
@Dan B: I’m not rikyrah, but: Yes. According to the NYTimes article (https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/16/us/scholastic-book-fair-diversity-censorship.html), the separated books include “a book about different family types, such as adoptive families and families with same-sex parents”.
sab
@Quinerly: I think Taylor Swift does a lot with a good ear and a very limited but not unpleasant voice. The looks don’t hurt, and she obviously works very hard. But a generation from now kids won’t be going wow.
mrmoshpotato
Fuck ’em! Let ’em twist!
Alison Rose
Just got an email from Newsom asking for donations to Andy Beshear’s campaign. I liked this part:
Good point. Kentucky’s population is around 4.5 million, so it probably doesn’t cost as much to campaign and do ad buys and such there as it does in CA, so even a small donation is gonna go a little further.
karen marie
@Alison Rose: People who ask that question of Democrats should instead ask the numerous House GOP members who – just in the last two days – have stated their opposition to cooperating with Democrats on anything.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@Matt McIrvin: Also, the right wing started targeting hispanic communities with misinformation, while we took them for granted.
Ken
@Frankensteinbeck: @Carl W: To help make sure the teachers or librarians putting on the book fair don’t accidentally break the law, perhaps Scholastic could provide a checklist in the form of large posters titled “THE FOLLOWING BOOKS ARE BANNED IN YOUR STATE”, with the list of books that must not be displayed for sale.
The posters should be left up during the sale, to make sure there are no errors when restocking the shelves.
Matt McIrvin
@Quinerly: Arguing about which side’s women are hotter is a road to madness, and the kind of gross thing they do, so I tend to stay away. I think some of it comes down to different subcultural aesthetics when it comes to things like hair and makeup.
HumboldtBlue
Trump should be in custody, he published the home address of Tish James.
cain
@kindness: They exported that to Oregon and we not only got rid of it we got rid of the Republicans too. It’s definitely something that will bite them in the ass.
Their supporting demographic is also shrinking so they are going to have to find a different of folks that they say can identify as white.
Hoodie
@Matt McIrvin: The bottom line seems to be that the bulk of the GOP conference refuse to acknowledge that other people have different, legitimate interests. That’s why they can’t work with each other, let alone with Democrats. They’ve become a party full of adolescent ideologues who live in a Fox News created Never Never Land.
MisterDancer
@PaulWartenberg: TPM says next vote tomorrow AM ET:
cain
@Hoodie: all the blue and yellow dogs are out of the Dem party – they have no one to partner with. Every one of them got replaced by a moderate GOP who then got replaced by a maga person.
MisterDancer
Yep. They gonna come after all of us.
Subsole
@Frankensteinbeck:
You are correct, of course.
They thought the cops and the feds and the army and the vast and awful weight of the US government were going to fight their race war.
They were just gonna go down to the wire at the concentration camps and jeer at the victims.
mrmoshpotato
@E.: Why is John Legend in a stupid, stupid Walmart commercial? And as for all of the NFL players…
Carl W
@Ken: These posters could be right next to the signs explaining how to order books from the book fair online.
WaterGirl
@PaulWartenberg: CSPAN has a Speaker Vote part 2 page up, but they are just taking calls at this point. They do have a clock up that says 1:07 or something. so maybe that fits with 6pm?
edit: Looks like nothing until Wednesday at 11 am.
cain
@HumboldtBlue:
Of course he did. It’s a very mob thing to do. He’s literally asking for someone to get rid of this women.
Only rich white people can get away with this kind of shit. The man has influence over millions who any of them are ticking time bomb.
zhena gogolia
I wish Hakeem Jeffries would fucking stop texting me. “Stop2End” and blocking the contact don’t work. they just keep coming. Why they think this is a good strategy, I have no idea.
PaulWartenberg
@MisterDancer:
Jordan and his team must have failed to corner the 20 No votes into a darkened broom closet.
mrmoshpotato
@MisterDancer:
Did these assholes get to 15 failed voting rounds already today?
Eunicecycle
@Glidwrith: good idea! I should do that, too.
Kathleen
@Alison Rose: Beshear’s media campaign is masterful. He is carefully targeting voters with messages specific to their interests. He’s running an excellent ad on a Black owned radio station that talks about healthcare, education, and protecting voter rights. Beautifully done. Then he has a TV ad with a Republican who voted for Bevin but is now voting for Beshear. I’ve seen a lot of signs in Northern Kentucky, which gave him the edge in the last election. I hope he wins.
KenK
As a native Ohioan, f*ck Kasich. The Alfred E. Neuman look-alike was never one of our more enlightened politicians.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@zhena gogolia: I can’t imagine who thinks texting like that is a good idea, but then I think: It must work, or they wouldn’t do it
WaterGirl
@zhena gogolia: I assume you are typing STOP. ??
That has always worked for me.
Quinerly
@Matt McIrvin:
If you look up several posts I was referring to the unattractive, gross men originally. I normally try not to attack other women’s appearances. I was responding to another commenter commenting to me.
sab
Got a call today to confirm the comittment I had made (and forgotten) to hand out leaflets at the Board of Elections for early voting.
I used to canvass on a regular basis, but 2016 a dog tried to attack me. I have dog charisma. Cats are wary but dogs mostly love me and I am very good at dog language. But these assholes in a blue city left their psychotic dog off leash in their yard on a Saturday in pre-election season because they knew what their feral little beast might do. I know dogs so I didn’t get bitten, but I wish I had had mace to blast the little shithead.
So I don’t canvass door to door anymore. Too old to recover from injuries. So I am thrilled to do whatever the suboptimal canvassing is outside of the board of elections.
Quinerly
@sab: 😉
Ruckus
@Quinerly:
The disgusting part is not all looks.
The looks just add to the level of disgusting, taking it up to supremely disgusting….
zhena gogolia
@WaterGirl: Yes, as I said, I’ve texted STOP three times this afternoon, but they keep coming.
sab
@Quinerly: You are smiling at a psychopath who wants to mace a dog? Greetings to Jojo.
Geminid
@cain: The Blue Dogs are still around, although the kennel is somewhat empty. But they differ little from the “moderate” New Democrat Caucus except in branding. And the New Democrat Caucus has a lot of overlap with the Progressive Caucus. I think if you plotted the 212 Democratic Reps by ideology on a graph you’d see a fat bell curve. The factor determining the different branding is how blue the various Representatives’ districts are.
Jay
@sab:
I always blame the owners, not the dog. They are the ones that need to be maced.
Matt McIrvin
@Subsole: Some of them ARE the cops, and that’s always worried me–any real fascist takeover of the US would probably involve police forces turning against the municipal and state governments that employ them, and they’ve got more capability than a bunch of militia randos.
But I think most cops also have a preserve-the-status-quo instinct that works against that–not revolutionaries at heart. I’m not sure how confident I am about that.
Quinerly
@Ruckus:
Yep.
I will say that I am to a point that 99% of the time I can pick out Repug men (my family always called Republicans…Repugs for Repugnants) by looks and mannerisms with the sound off.
Related…I certainly never was a Trump fan in the 1980’s but if you look at some of those old interviews, he doesn’t even look like the person he is now. Mannerisms (and voice, too)
Quinerly
@sab:
Must have missed something. I thought I was winking at your Taylor Swift comment. Apologies for any confusion at my end. Missed the part about macing a pup.
lowtechcyclist
@satby:
And the Dems’ answer to those cries should be, “sure, five GOP votes for Jeffries, and we’ll roll up our sleeves and start fixing stuff.”
I don’t see where ‘solving their little math problem so they can get back to making things worse’ remotely resembles ‘fixing’ anything.
Ken
Is it wrong of me to hope Jordan loses votes in the next round? I haven’t completely shaken off my Catholic upbringing, and still suspect things that feel that good must be wrong.
HumboldtBlue
According to Pelosi the Republicans are taking a lesson in math and learning how to count
Scout211
@zhena gogolia: It sometimes takes several days for the STOP to work. You can block the phone number to make it immediately stop, though. I often have to do that.
zhena gogolia
@Scout211: I did both STOP and block.
WaterGirl
@zhena gogolia: Block would likely have blocked just that particular number, and if these are coming from Text Banks, then the number could change nearly ever time.
Have you tried texting back “STOP fucking texting me!” That might get someone’s attention.
MagdaInBlack
@WaterGirl: That last bit was going to be my suggestion too.
sab
@sab:@Quinerly: That psychopath was me. I wanted to mace a dog?
I still would have maced that dog.
Jackie
@zhena gogolia: That happened to me during the ‘22 elections. I finally realized callers must have overlapping phone number call lists. I texted back; said I’ve already been called by your organization and to delete my number. I “think” it worked; those calls stopped anyway.
Geoduck
@Matt McIrvin: I did a headline scan at Redstate, and their big article right now is how AOC and The Squad are once again being Super Embarrassing and Stupid! Fifteen items down they mention in passing that the GOP can’t elect a Speaker.
trnc
@Tony Jay:
Not only that, but dems have said they’re ready to help if they get some reasonable concessions that would help avoid this kind of shitshow every 6 months. So my question for Kasich is whether he has asked republicans to reach out? I think we know the answer to that.
Not likely.
trnc
Is this a trick question? It’s never wrong to hope for Jordan to be continually kicked in the balls (metaphorically speaking. Well, mostly).
geg6
@Quinerly:
To each their own, I guess. I like Bonnie a lot. You can have the rest. Me no likey.
sab
@sab: Dog was kind of nuts too. That was my problem. Dog teeth.
JaySinWA
@trnc: A day without Jim Jordan as speaker is
a good daybetter day than the alternative.Alison Rose
@Kathleen: He seems very well-liked, especially for a Dem in a red state!
Ryan
Democrats never bail them out of this shit. I mean my God, what if Adam Schill went back to his district and admitted he voted for Gym Jordan for Speaker? WTF? Mr. Kasich? Respectfully sir, get your own house in order.
sab
Is macing a dog unpleasant for the dog, or life threatening? Says a lot before I gas the tiny quadruped.
Dogbites for the elderly can also be life threatening.
geg6
@sab:
Hard disagree. Many of her songs are outstanding, lyrically especially. That future generation will relate just as much as the current one does. And I have no problem with her voice. She’s no Ann Wilson or Pat Benatar, who I consider the greatest singers of my generation. But she knows how to write music that suits her voice. And I consider her a better songwriter than either of those two heroes of my youth.
Annie
@mrmoshpotato:
I get the NFL players. Many of them don’t make that much money to start with, a big chunk of those salaries we read about are not guaranteed, and the average NFL career is about 5 years IIRC.
sab
@Quinerly: I have two comments going. Taylor Swift, and nutzo dog who attacked my ankle when I was canvassing.
Completely unrelated. Taylor Swift fans do not bite ankles. As far as I know, they are cool people.
Some Republican dogs in Democratic cities do bite ankles, with enthusiasm.
wjca
It’s rarely possible to attribute an outcome to a single critical decision. But this one comes close.
Jay
@sab:
It’s very unpleasant for a dog, which is why it works, and you often don’t need a lot of spray.
It will have no long term effects for the dog.
sab
@geg6: I need to listen more. When you don’t follow an artist all you see are their hits. Those often aren’t their best work.
From what I have seen of Taylor Swift her hits or whatever are not her best work. If they wete I would be seriously underwhelmed, and a bunch of you I admire love her work. I just’nt have the excellent stuff yet. Small true voice, good dance music. That is all I have seen.
Chief Oshkosh
@Quinerly: it’s the inner rot of their vacuous souls that shines through.
Quinerly
@sab:
All good. I missed the dog stuff. Bouncing around today cleaning out car, packing, dealing with bringing in plants, cleaning koi pond filters. JoJo is now demanding that his ball be thrown. He says he has been patient since 5:30AM. That’s usually our first ball throwing session.
Quinerly
@Chief Oshkosh: good one!
Chief Oshkosh
@Matt McIrvin: read the whole thread
Chris Johnson
@sab: I only know about Taylor Swift from Todd in the Shadows, youtube music reviewer. She ended up quite winning him over, by changing her style a lot, going through a great deal of drama, and being able to put her experience into her music convincingly.
Taylor Swift is the woman who had her Grammy win ruined by Kanye West, saying ‘Imma let you finish but Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time!’. There ended up being even more drama between them, she got painted as wicked and then did music on the theme of ‘okay, so I’m wicked, eff you’, had some rocky relationships, ended up doing an amazing song called ‘Antihero’ where she owned that she was generating some of her own problems (that’s the one that won over critic Todd).
Taylor Swift is genuinely interesting.
Also, she shows strong leftwing politics and openly canvassed for Dems and women’s rights, after starting out as the darling of the alt-right, who thought she was one of theirs in her early days.
From what little I’ve heard, I like her music :)
wjca
Steven Colbert experienced a similar mislabeling from the right. You get the feeling that satire goes right by them.
Dan B
@Carl W: Adoptive families also!? These right wingers are nuts!!!
But we knew that…
sab
@Jay: Yikes. How to mace a dog without damaging it.
Appreciate the info. Wish I hadn’t needed it.
sab
@Dan B: RWNJ s don’t like adoptions.? Like my Dad’s little sister, adopted about 1927. My step-daughter adopted age 10 about 1993. My nephew and my niece, adopted in the early 1970s. John Husted, extreme RWNJ in Ohio and Lt Gov. Also too he is adopted, same as my step-daughter, my aunt and my cousins.
These people are seriously nutz. Without adoption I wouldn’t even have an extended family, but I know that for everyone of them, adopted children, adoptive parents, relinquishing parents, it was the single most traumatizing event of their life. They never get over it
They do not need these sociopathic politicians saying that their difficult decisions were wrong.
dnfree
@zhena gogolia: Just reply “Stop” (no quote marks, just Stop). That’s what Stop2end means. It has worked for me for large numbers of Democrats who seem to have gotten my phone number from ActBlue.
Subsole
@Matt McIrvin:
I think you are probably right.
I wouldn’t bet my ass on that love of order…
Villago Delenda Est
@sab: Gerald R. Ford. Adopted.
patrick Ii
@WaterGirl:
Their are exceptions to blocking by law , so I don’t even try it with po!iticians. However I have found “stop” usually works.
trnc
Very curious to see if he gets a chance to appoint a replacement senator (ahem). He has said that the recent requirement that any replacement be from the same party violates the state constitution, so who knows how that ultimately turns out.