No elected official has thrashed a colleague with a cane on Capitol Hill lately, but things are getting spicy in a way that feels very late-1850s. Today there was alleged Repub-on-Repub violence on the House side, and a fistfight almost broke out during a Senate hearing between Teamsters president Sean O’Brien and Repub Senator Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma.
Committee chair Bernie Sanders broke it up — his propensity for shouting coming in handy for once:
I was briefly a Teamster and I despise the Republican Party, so I’m definitely biased. But it sounds like Mullin was being a whiny-ass snowflake who inappropriately brought months-old Twitter trash talk into the hearing, which isn’t a shocker since he’s a member of the party of perpetually aggrieved and obnoxious wankers. An account of how it erupted from NBC News:
The exchange occurred when Mullin, a former MMA fighter, recalled an interaction he had with O’Brien in June on Twitter, now known as X.
At the time, they discussed engaging in an MMA fight for charity after they had gotten into a heated back-and-forth at a previous congressional hearing.
Mullin read aloud O’Brien’s original tweet during the hearing Tuesday, which said: “Greedy CEO who pretends like he’s self made. In reality, just a clown & fraud. Always has been, always will be. Quit the tough guy act in these senate hearings. You know where to find me. Anyplace, Anytime cowboy.”
The tweet also said “#LittleManSyndrome” and showed a photo of Mullin at a debate where he was standing on a pedestal at a podium.
After Sanders gaveled them into silence, the hearing went on, and NBC says the two agreed to have a coffee together. (Hopefully not at a shop with a large plate glass window.)
On the House side, former speaker Kevin McCarthy allegedly elbowed one of the GOP colleagues who deposed him in the kidneys: (WaPo)
…Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) came up behind Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and began yelling in his ear, accusing him of elbowing him in the back as they passed each other in a crowded hallway…
The episode between Burchett and McCarthy was not captured on video but was witnessed by numerous reporters.
“Hey Kevin, why did you walk behind me and elbow me in the back?” Burchett asked as The Washington Post interviewed McCarthy. “You have no guts.”
“I didn’t do that,” McCarthy replied. As Burchett continued to yell, McCarthy laughed and said, “Oh my God.”
Burchett was among eight Republicans who voted to oust McCarthy as House speaker, a rebuke the California lawmaker has bitterly noted, publicly and privately.
“You are so pathetic,” Burchett said before slowing his steps to no longer be directly behind McCarthy.
“Thank you, Tim,” McCarthy said.
Afterward on CNN, Burchett said: “I got elbowed in the back and it kind of caught me off guard cause it was a clean shot to the kidneys.”
Great job, everybody!
Mustang Bobby
Holy Ned, that sounds like stuff I hear out on the playground at school. No, I take that back; our kids are much better behaved than that.
West of the Cascades
Memo to McCarthy: next time, use a knife.
Baud
C’mon, Teamsters. I’m a liberal snowflake and even I wouldn’t have coffee with the guy.
Citizen Alan
Markwayne Mullen is the absolute perfect name for a US Senator from Oklahoma.
In a Joseph Heller novel.
Tom Levenson
I, for one, would welcome an all-in cage match tournament of the GOP house caucus.
Let them sort it out.
catclub
@Baud: Herbal tea?
Jeffro
It’s a good look for the Party of
Elbowed Kidneys Hearing-Room BrawlsPersonal Freedumb!!We all know MAGAts will be thrilled; the nice thing is, our blessed “independents” might just see this as yet more evidence that the GOP can’t
stop wetting itselfgovern and stay home or oh-so-reluctantly pull the lever for President Old Guy. Good!On a side note, my RWNJ dad has now called me 3 times over the past two weeks, asking if my (college-age) kids are out there protesting one way or the other re: Israel, Palestine, Hamas, etc. They’re not/haven’t been, but the urge to yank his chain about it (or drive up and disconnect his cable TV) is definitely growing.
Scout211
Bullies can only bully, they cannot be bullied.
When they inevitably are, in fact bullied, they revert to whiny-assed, sniveling babies. And that is the GOP in a nutshell.
The end.
JCJ
not quite as embarrassing as having Ron Johnson as a senator, but close.
stopthemovie
Ok boys pull down your pants and lay them on the table.
bjacques
Does this count towards the curse of Wayne as a middle name?
Villago Delenda Est
Markwayne here could use some attitude adjustment with a pipe wrench.
Alison Rose
As I said before, maybe men are just too emotional to govern.
Villago Delenda Est
@Scout211: One need look no further than TFG who is incessantly whining about how unfair everything is.
eclare
As someone previously noted, it’s usually not good to threaten Teamsters.
Villago Delenda Est
@Tom Levenson: I’m thinking something along the lines of the championship match in Rollerball: No substitutions, no penalties, no time limit.
Scout211
I don’t watch television news, so I didn’t know that those proffer videos we were seeing in the Fulton County RICO case were leaked videos and were not officially released.
. . .
Baud
Didn’t the Teamsters endorse Reagan?
eclare
@Scout211:
Yep. I was bullied in elementary school. Once I fought back, the bullying stopped. Funny how that works.
RaflW
Sen Klobuchar just Xeeted that her Rules Committee has passed, on a 9-7 vote, a bill that would let 350 promotions get past the scandalous and infuriating Republican blockade.
But I gotta wonder. I suspect there’s a tough bit of work to keep the Tuberville turncoats below 40 votes on the floor.
Delk
And Gaetz threw his own elbow by filing an ethics complaint against the elbow thrower.
Baud
@RaflW:
At least they’ll have to vote on it.
Scout211
Stop making sense, Alison Rose. 😉
RaflW
@Citizen Alan: Can we call him Markwhine? Seems to fit well.
Betty Cracker
@Scout211: Fascinating. I was wondering who leaked them and why. Now it makes sense.
sixthdoctor
Hey, Marky Mark! You gonna take that from Captain Forehead?
Baud
@sixthdoctor: Dude, nothing Republicans do help their constituents.
Dangerman
Memo to McCarthy: Call me when it’s a knee to the Nads. I’m in for a Bill if the opposing Dude has a swell(ing) time.
SiubhanDuinne
@sixthdoctor:
I honestly never thought I would utter these words, but you know what? Matt Gaetz is right.
Baud
Tony Jay
So, I’m assuming that you get called Markwayne Mullen when the the nurse asks “And what are we calling this little fella?”, the tired Mum says “Ask his Daddy”, and her boyfriend says “Mark” while his best friend says “Wayne”?
Betty Cracker
@SiubhanDuinne: Same — such a jarring experience!
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Baud: “Please remove item from the bagging area… Please return item to the bagging area… please remove item from the bagging area… Please, etc.”
My last interaction with one of those things, it didn’t like something or other I scanned, started blinking and saying “Help is on the way”. When it became obvious help was not on the way, I moved to another station, rescanned all my items, checked out, and left, walking past the register that still promised help was on the way.
Baud
@SiubhanDuinne:
@Betty Cracker:
I would have let the Teamsters guy beat his ass until he only had one first name. YMMV.
prostratedragon
I guess there’s no more Fairness Doctrine. From Victor Shi:
@Baud: A blow for common sense.
TriassicSands
We’ve moved from clown show to adolescent clown show. MMA fighter to Republican senator — kind of the perfect career path for a Republican. Next up, toddler clown show.
Manyakitty
@prostratedragon: aren’t they part of the same conglomerate as NBC? What the actual fuck?!
eclare
@Tony Jay:
Ooh, burn!
I worked with a guy who went by John Mark, but as two separate words. He never talked about religion, but I always had the impression there was some kind of religious connection since those are both Gospels.
Kathleen
@Baud: Thank you for the link. I thought I was the only person who struggled with PLU’s and produce. I go full metal deer in headlights whenever I have to self check, because the cashier who helps customers makes a beeline for me, much to my relief. See also self check in for Southwest Airlines. I always enjoy chatting up the cashiers and baggers at Kroger. We have a nice bunch here in our Cincinnati stores.
Alison Rose
@sixthdoctor: Man, imagine having Matt fucking Gaetz tell you to behave better.
Old School
@prostratedragon:
The Washington Post article says the canceled Biden ad-buy was so that Biden ads didn’t air during the Trump interview.
The article refers to the policy as “previously unannounced”,
Geminid
The Party of Ideas:
McCarthy: “Did not.”
Burchett: “Did so.”
McCarthy: “Did not!”
Burchett: “Did so!”
prostratedragon
@Manyakitty: I think Telemondo is the NBC affiliate. Uni seems to be independent and Florida-based — Doral, FL to be precise — though it has NYC corporate offices.
smith
Why on earth would Harrison Floyd’s attorney have Jenna Ellis’ and Sidney Powell’s proffer videos? The ultimate source would have to be either the prosecutor’s office (unlikely) or the attorney(s) for the defendant(s) on tape, wouldn’t it?
Ken
@Old School: I believe that under current doctrine involving corporate governance and shareholder value, Univision’s response to Trump should have been “If you outbid him, we’ll be glad to sell you the ad slots.”
tomtofa
(Edit: reply to #35)
They were bullied by Trump in 2015 when he was a candidate, guess they learned their lesson:
https://www.cnn.com/2015/08/25/politics/donald-trump-megyn-kelly-iowa-rally/index.html
Alison Rose
This seems like a great move:
Looking forward to seeing what she can do for the team.
PaulWartenberg
The Republicans have gone so far into the alpha male Turner Diaries bullshit fantasizing that they think they’re straight up warriors looking to punch everybody like they’re the Second Coming of John Wayne.
The ease at which violence – not just the threat of violence, but the actual fisticuffs – is quick to stir in their minds is rising faster than ever before. The toxic fearmongering and chestbeating in Far Right media for the last 30 years is finally making them think they are action heroes ready to fight and win their revolution… nevermind how such mental breakdowns ended up the last time (1850s leading into full-scale Civil War).
MisterForkbeard
@Scout211: But I was ASSURED that this was clearly a case of the AG leaking videos. How dare this republican codefendant admit to it?
MisterForkbeard
@prostratedragon: Do we know what the reasoning was? At all? (Ah. Was just for the duration of an interview with Trump)
MisterForkbeard
@Old School: This strikes me as a dick move but not too problematic.
@smith: The defendants get copies of the evidence that the prosecution is planning to introduce against them. So they’d have this in general.
smith
Actually, I think the last time was January 6, 2021.
Another Scott
Meanwhile, if you’ve been watching things on C-Span…
Cheers,
Scott.
smith
I wonder if Gaetz’ constituents are aware that he has reversed his positions on both ethics and gratuitous belligerence in Congress?
MattF
The House has passed the funding bill.
HeleninEire
For FUCKs sake.
That is all.
bbleh
@MattF: … with the necessary support of the Democrats. All but a handful of them in fact, contra the Republicans.
This is why we need to give Republicans full control of the government again: only they can impose order on the chaos!
bbleh
Speaker Johnson Averts Shutdown,
Passes Early Test Of Leadership
Why Democrats Should Be Worried
A New York Times panel discussion
Ken
@Baud: I suspect part of the “backlash” is to customers who’ve found they can “mis-enter” the produce codes and get organic bananas for regular price. Or dragonfruit for the price of red potatoes, if the self-check supervisor is busy elsewhere.
I think I also read that some enterprising people are printing their own UPC codes on stickers, and re-pricing canned or boxed goods.
Ken
@bbleh: Time to start that pool on when the Motion to Vacate gets filed. I’ll take 2 days, under the assumption they’ll want to spoil Johnson’s Thanksgiving.
Bill Arnold
@Another Scott:
Was not familiar with those acronyms, so for any others who were similarly ignorant,
Legislative Assistant (LA)
Legislative Director (LD)
Chief of Staff (COS)
(via, PDF)
bbleh
@eclare: lol Mullin owns several plumbing and services companies. Such companies typically depend rather heavily on the delivery of materials and parts, sometimes crucially in these days of “just-in-time” supply chain management.
I, for one, would find it entirely coincidental, although richly amusing, if said companies started experiencing repeated and material delays and confusion in their deliveries.
JoyceH
@eclare: when Mark Warner made his first run for Senate, he ran against John Warner. (He lost that one.) His campaign had bumper stickers that said “Mark Not John”. I interviewed him for the local newspaper and mentioned the bumper sticker. He said it turned out to be too obscure – a lot of people thought it was some sort of Biblical reference.
Old School
@Ken: Maybe Johnson talked them into a Covenant Speakership in which they are not allowed to get divorced.
bbleh
@RaflW: let ’em vote against it and hang ’em out to dry. Pretty tough for a Republican when everybody’s pointing and shouting “endangering national security!” And as I understand it, the rule change will stick, so they can try more than once if necessary, maybe after a few quiet kneecappings.
Central Planning
@Ken: These are all reasons I would be a horrible thief. I can’t think like that.
TriassicSands
Since Mullin fought in MMA and seems to be younger (???) and more fit than O’Brien, I wouldn’t recommend that O’Brien fight him. Markwayne is the only member of the Senate without at least a Bachelor’s Djegree. He doesn’t seem like a mental giant to me. Just another thuggish child. Much worse, he’s a Native American who is a Republican. The last NA who was a senator was the loathsome Ben Nighthorse Campbell party switching creep, who was a lifelong Democrat who, after being elected as a Democrat, miraculously discovered when he was in his 50s that he was actually a Republican. He’d been a Democrat all his adult life only discovering decades later, after conveniently being elected as a Democrat, that, having never thought for himself before, he was a Republican. That’s a long time to let your mommy tell you what to do.
Or maybe it was just opportunism.
Note: Being a Republican no matter what your roots is already more than bad enough to warrant utter disgust.
eclare
@bbleh:
No jury would convict. And I would also laugh.
prostratedragon
@MisterForkbeard: They also struck a previously scheduled reply from a Democratic spokesperson. They get no benefit of doubt from me. They knew that what they were up to would look bad, so tried to finesse it.
eclare
@JoyceH:
That’s kind of a weird assumption for a senate race…
Jay
@Ken:
there was consumer backlash from Day 1, some of us realized that the Stores were doing it to cut staff and make us work for them for free.
The Corporate backlash is realizing that the Self Checkout Clerk isn’t paid enough and doesn’t care enough to properly monitor the Self Check out scans. Yes, people are buying pounds of Bulk Organic Cashews and swiping Raw Peanuts, printing their own barcodes and getting filet, New York Strip or T-Bones for the same price as this weeks on sale cheap ground beef.
So Corporate hired “bag checkers” at minimum wage to, like Costco, check receipts against contents, that has not gone over well and in many places was quickly stopped as thousands of complaints poured in.
bbleh
Maybe next time Bernie will just say “ehh, fk it,” and encourage them instead. “Well Senator Waynemark, I think he just said you’re a weenie. Are you gonna sit here and take that? From a union guy?” Tell the press to clear out from in front of the dais and let ’em go at it. Throw things at them occasionally to get them even angrier, and laugh uproariously for the cameras. “Oh, score one for the union — that hadda hurt! My Republican Ranking Member, ladies and gentlemen! Are we sure he meets the age requirement for the Senate? Page — page! A round of drinks for the dais.”
Tony Jay
@eclare:
His parents never managed to give him a sibling so the dog got called Matthew Luke. Taking it for a walk was always an embarrassing debacle.
TriassicSands
No, no, no. If former coaches make good senators,* then the national soccer team should be coached by a former senator. I recommend Charles Grasslet should he ever retire, while alive, from the Senate.
*Athletes, coaches, and other celebrities, generally, probably shouldn’t be senators. There are exceptions. Bill Bradley and Al Franken. Both were plenty smart enough and possessed good social consciences allowing them to serve effectively. Tubby Tumorville? Nope. Stupid and a very real creep. His coaching background was in telling people what to do…or else.
sab
@Jay: I have a nephew (spouse of a niece.) What you say is absolutley not bullshit.
mvr
Gotta say I found myself thinking that Bernie did a good job in that exchange.
eclare
@Tony Jay:
Hahaha…I have heard much worse names for dogs, where I wonder just how psychotic the owners are.
PaulWartenberg
@bbleh: gods, media pundits have the attention span of a golden retriever.
(Edited a comment, just seeing now on the news that some kind of House CR bill has passed with Democratic support)
prostratedragon
John Mark is mentioned in the New Testament. I learned ages ago that he might be the person for whom the Gospel is named.
Jay
@sab:
Costco doesn’t have the same “shrinkage” problem.
Costco shoppers are members, Costco staff are paid well and well trained, receipts are coded for quick scanning and Costco has always checked receipts.
Plus it’s hard to hide the 55 gallon drum of peanut butter or the box of queen sized frozen waffles in your carts.
bbleh
@Jay: cue Marge Simpson shopping at Monster Mart (“Where Shopping Is A Baffling Ordeal”): “oooh, that’s a great price for 75 pounds of nutmeg!”
TriassicSands
@mvr:
Yes, but I kept feeling, against my better judgment, that Sanders should have a much larger gavel and he should have been hitting Mullin on the head with it to shut him up.
Sanders probably realized that Mullin would go ballistic and attack him. Plus, hitting someone with a gavel (or anything) is a bad idea. During the back and forth, I wanted Sanders to kick Mullin out of the hearing — never happen unless there was actual physical violence.
WaterGirl
@Mustang Bobby:
Don’t you remember? No take backs! :-)
Geminid
Never mind.
Tony Jay
@eclare:
”Adolf! Bad dog! You put Heinrich down and get over here with Herman!”
West of the Rockies
@Geminid:
McCarthy: Shut up, Butt Breath!
Burchett: Shut up, Fanny Face!
prostratedragon
Has it already been posted? Jake Berman’s Lost Subways book is getting a Focus article in the Guardian. Btw, I got my copy recently and it’s a lovely book.
Tony Jay
Has something just been passed in the House? I hear the Republican shutdown has been averted.
eclare
@prostratedragon:
Huh, thanks!
bbleh
@Tony Jay: aside from the gas, yes. Once again Democrats have been forced by the overwhelming manliness of Republicans to vote for a Republican bill so weenie that even manly Republicans couldn’t stomach it. Another bad sign for Biden.
eclare
@Tony Jay:
Hahaha… yes anyone who named their dog that would worry me. Around here I run into a lot of Killers and dogs named after guns.
smith
@Geminid: No poison pills as far as I can tell, with funding at approved 2023 levels (none of the drastic cuts the Treason Caucus was demanding). But, it is “laddered,” different parts of the funding run out at different times:
The interesting thing to me was that passage absolutely was down to Dems, who provided 209 votes for it, as compared to 127 GQP. Could it be the Hastert Rule is finally dying a much-deserved death?
NetheadJay
Speaking of outrageous behaviour and fighting, here’s a story I believe y’all will enjoy. I’ve been a supporter of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) for a long time, they do invaluable work keeping soldiers from being abused/bullied/pressured by fundamentalist activist officers in the ranks. One of their latest cases is a doozy, but thankfully it was resolved quickly and satisfactorily. I’ll just quote from the thank you mail the soldier in the middle of the situation sent after the conclusion:
And here’s the part that really got me laughing:
I have a very clear visual in my head of that commander getting thoroughly dressed down!
Gretchen
Mullins took his wedding ring off as he stood up like he was getting ready to punch. He just got madder and madder when the union guy said stuff like « what are you, 12? »
eclare
@NetheadJay:
Awesome.
Geminid
@Tony Jay: Yes, the Continuing Resolution passed 336-95. According to reporter Jake Sherman, Republicans split 127 Yea to 93 Nay. I think that means all but 2 Democrats voted for the CR.
cckids
Speaking as someone who runs a self-checkout (SCO) at Fred Meyers – a Kroger store – there are pluses and minuses to them. If — IF the stores would limit items to no more than 20 or so, SCO would fulfill it’s original purpose – to get more people through the checkout process quickly. At my store, one attendant watches 6 machines, which isn’t terrible, we can usually keep up and get help to people as needed. It’s all the extra stuff we have to do – checking ID’s, removing security tags from 5-10 pieces of clothing, getting cigarettes (most ridiculous part of the job), that make people have to wait for help.
Fred’s stores are getting more tech that cuts down on theft – sensors that gauge package size as well as weight, the machines saying out loud what produce you’re entering, etc. It will not stop the “organic bananas as regular” crowd. But the other stuff mentioned – people printing UPC’s, etc — those get caught, especially because those people cannot seem to restrict themselves to one item — if you scan 3 lbs of ribeye as 3 lbs of, say, the sale chicken, it may not get caught. If you do it with 5 packages, it will. Greedy assholes.
For me, the upside to working at SCO is; I can do it. I’ve got serious carpal tunnel and sciatica, and could NOT work any longer as a cashier-it is physically a painful, debilitating job. Everyone I know who’s done it over 2-3 years has issues that will require surgery. Because I’m in WA, we get paid decently — just over $24 /hour, and we get to select our schedules, so it is workable alongside my full-time job. Also, I’m not expected to make small talk with the customers, like you need to at a register. WIN.
But whether we as employees or customers like it or hate it, Kroger (at least) is determined to keep expanding it. Here in WA and in OR, they’ve added belted SCO machines, to accommodate large orders, and Instacart shoppers. Kroger wants 78% of transactions going through SCO registers, and they are cutting the hours of cashiers to make it happen. It’s all about shareholders and stock prices, they’ve shown repeatedly that they really, really DGAF what their customers would prefer.
*And don’t get me started on inflation attitudes. People are fucking delusional about what they’re paying and how they’re shopping. If you’re buying Wagyu beef, I don’t care if it’s $5 a pound more than it used to be. You obviously don’t have money issues. If you insist on only organic chicken and whatever gold-plated perfection that causes eggs to be $9 a dozen rather than the $2/dozen normal eggs, you do you. But stop bitching about inflation, that ain’t it.
a thousand flouncing lurkers (was fidelio)
As the man said, “It’s a bold strategy, Cotton. Let’s see if it pays off for ’em.”
Bill Arnold
@smith:
To be watched, for sure. The (GOP-“controlled”) House demonstrated very clearly that compromise between parties is a currently-viable option.
JaySinWA
Apparently more viable than compromise between members of the GOP.
SiubhanDuinne
@bbleh:
I honest to Christ can’t tell if that’s a legit head/subhead, or yet another of the Pitchbot’s meringue concoctions.
Bill Arnold
@Geminid:
That vote (the 2 D against was also reported) is also the Democrats telling the Republicans that the Republicans got rolled. LOL.
danielx
@Tom Levenson:
I’d prefer to see them thrown into a pit of rabid wolverines.
Hey, I can dream.
Tony Jay
@bbleh:
@Geminid:
Yowser. Split down the middle the wretched hive of scum and villainy is. I’m sure the Villagers will try to spin this as the unexpected genius of dealmaker Johnson getting one over on the Dems, but basically this is a Democratic-majority CR with half the GOP joining them and half already giving their serial killer-vibe rocking Speaker the finger.
Lovely stuff.
Scout211
Yes, but the recent articles about retail stores changing their self-check procedures do include Costco. Costco has reported many customer complaints that the self-check is very slow compared to the regular check out and can be very frustrating. Costco (like many of the retailers) are planning to add more staff to the self-check lanes to help the customers get through the check out faster.
Last week at Costco, we saw a staff member scanning the customer’s items for them.
SiubhanDuinne
@eclare:
I think it was my grandmother, some female ancestor anyhow, who owned a black-and-white spotted dog she named Helen, purely so she could shout “Helen Dalmatian!” at the top of her voice and her parents couldn’t really punish her for using bad language.
unctuous
The thing is, this is a work place where they are shoving and jabbing each other. This is the model MAGAts want for the country. They want to be able to hit people they don’t like while at work.
Frankensteinbeck
@smith:
Naah, this isn’t new. This is pretty much how it’s been since Boehner. When the GOP has the house they posture and pass insane, dead-on-arrival performative budgets, then at the last minute the Speaker lets something status quo with maybe some meaningless flourish he can call victory be voted on. Democrats and a bunch of Republicans pass it.
It’s what I predicted would happen, although I figured Johnson would want to posture until the Senate shoved a bill down his throat.
Jackie
@Jay: I LOVE self checkout at Costco and I’ll be upset if they stop. I only usually get a few items regularly – not enough to use a cart and hate standing in long lines behind multiple overflowing carts.
Scout211
@Jackie: See my comment at #105. Costco isn’t ending self-check out, but they will be adding staff.
bbleh
@SiubhanDuinne: since I would never consider plagiarizing DougJ, I shall take this as a compliment, for which thank you.
Jay
@Scout211:
Self check at a “warehouse” store always has issues different from your average retail store. Quite often size and volume.
As an ex-Orange worker I know that the cashiers are way faster than self checkouts, the Lumber cashiers are best for heavy or bulky stuff and if there are lines at the tills, and you only have a few things, (25 or less), go to the Tool Rental till.
Geminid
@Tony Jay: So far as I know, this resolution funds Cabinet Departments at the same levels as in the last fiscal year. That budget was produced by a Democratic House Majority and the Senate, so I consider this CR a Democratic win.
Republicans still want their budget fight, but they knew a shutdown going into Thansgiving and Christmas would get a lot of people mad at them. Those are big travel times and people really need functioning airports
Ed. So the next big fights will be over Ukraine aid, Israel aid, disaster relief and border funding.
Tony Jay
@eclare:
“Nice hound. What’s he called?”
“Winchester Glock Heckler-Koch Remington Colt III”
“……………”
“What?”
“Nothing. Just a hell of a name for a Dachshund.”
MisterForkbeard
@a thousand flouncing lurkers (was fidelio): There are strong assumptions here that Mullin would win said fight, but I suppose Gaetz can’t ever do the completely right thing. It would upset his contract with the devil, after all.
Chris T.
@Ken: Yep. That expensive champagne? It’s just carrots, see, here’s the UPC code! Caviar? No, it’s potatoes!
mrmoshpotato
And finger waving?
Baud
@Geminid:
They’ve never before shut down the government in an election year. We’ll see what they want to do now.
Misterpuff
@Tony Jay: I’m gonna name my next kid Marktwayne.
mrmoshpotato
@Baud: Bubba Bo Bob Brain!
Geminid
@smith: With 127 Republicans voting for and 93 voting against, this seems to me to square with the Hastert Rule.
bbleh
@Tony Jay: The WaPo, and even the Recently More Right-Wing CNN, have mostly dispensed with the lidocaine foam. They’re regularly using words like “chaos” and “challenged” and “ungovernable,” and apart from the routine swipes at Biden (as required by the Codes Of Objectivity, to which all initiates of the Most Savvy Order of Broder are sworn), they’re portraying Democrats — when they do so at all — as calm and level-headed (which of course also means boooringggg, but you can’t have everything) and Republicans as a bunch of unruly middle-schoolers. And there also has been a noticeable shift in tone regarding He Who Pathologically Craves Being Named. (The NYT are still stuck somewhere in the last 5 years, but there are occasional flickers.) As regularly noted, the media will not save us, but perhaps — perhaps! — they may not be quite as active in our destruction as in the recent past.
Tony Jay
@Geminid:
What’s the difference between the House GOP and pizza dough?
Nothing. Nancy taught Hakeem how to roll out both.
eclare
@SiubhanDuinne:
Cute!
eclare
@Jackie:
You can go to Costco and only get a few items? Wow.
Tony Jay
@Misterpuff:
Badum-Tish!
Those waitresses will be tipped tonight.
Tony Jay
@bbleh:
Perhaps it’s sinking in that a Two-Time Trump Ticket is about as welcome as a Kid Rock gig at the Apollo Theatre.
Geminid
@Tony Jay: What’s the difference between the House GOP and a deck of playing cards?
One has only two Jokers.
Matt McIrvin
I avoid self checkout since it seemed like there was a period of years when I could not once complete even a simple self-checkout order at Target without creating some kind of problem that required waiting for human assistance.
(The most frequent trap: the option to get cash back in lieu of going to an ATM. Hey, convenient! I kept forgetting that in the self-checkout lanes, that requires the assistant to come by and unlock the cash drawer to hand you the money.)
Chris T.
@eclare:
I actually do that kind of regularly.
The local Costco put in the self-checkout but it recently became insanely slow, with the need to inspect cards (to stop the “lend a friend your card” problem they apparently have now).
Despite my earlier post, I don’t actually play fake-the-UPC games at the self-checkout. At most places except Safeway I mostly try to use the ones with cashiers, since they usually go faster anyway; the local Safeway tends to have fast-moving self-check-out (and as someone else noted, being in WA-state, our self-check-out monitor people are paid reasonably).
gwangung
@eclare: It takes a will of iron, but…
Martin
@Baud: The Air Traffic Control union (PATCO) endorsed Reagan. He worked hard for that endorsement as well – supporting their push for better wages and working conditions.
Unfortunately, PATCO was suddenly and mysterious disbanded in 1981.
JaySinWA
It seems that the GOP pulled back from the brink quite a bit sooner than prior brushes with shutdown.
Mr. Bemused Senior
I could use some whole nutmeg. Maybe make a few gallons of eggnog. What are eggs going for?
Villago Delenda Est
I think one of the problems with self-checkout is that yes, some shoppers will cheat the system. Because that’s the corporate example for you. They feel no shame at ripping off a corporation that specializes in ripping you off. Chickens have come home to roost.
bbleh
@Tony Jay: “Turns out he fits very nicely into a howitzer. Did I mention he was given to us by my sister-in-law?”
Odie Hugh Manatee
@cckids: “It’s all about shareholders and stock prices, they’ve shown repeatedly that they really, really DGAF what their customers would prefer.”
This is the truth. Fred’s has to squeeze a bit more every year and I’ve seen it happening since Kroger took over. Cutting cashiers is a huge lol as they did that years ago here and while there are none left to cut, I bet they will still cut more.
My wife’s department is constantly raided for help in Clicklist and Grocery since they are deliberately understaffed. The store director offered my wife more hours for her department and she declined, telling him to instead give the hours to Grocery and Clicklist and stop raiding her department for workers. He told her that those departments don’t have the people to use the hours, thus him giving them to her.
Our latest fun is yesterday she got the store director to agree to stand and apologize for insulting her and her department. Corporate was recently there and as a whole, while the store did not did not do well my wife’s department aced the visit and impressed the big wigs. The next day the store director called a huddle and gave the results of the visit to everyone, good and bad. He told everyone there that my wife’s department only did well because she sucked up to corporate.
My wife has zero fucks left to give and after several managers came up to her and told her that what he did was uncalled for, she politely lit into him and got him to agree to come to her department and apologize to everyone.
Fucking Krogerized Fred Meyer sucks balls…
Martin
@prostratedragon: It is a really lovely book.
Chief Oshkosh
@smith: Floyd’s team had requested a boatload of information on all kinds of things. Hell, the lead numbnuts wanted ALL of the voting data for any votes that may have been done on any of the machines that his client may have been in a position to tamper with. I don’t know how much the judge allowed to be given to them, but they were asking for the moon’s kitchen sink.
Gvg
@Jay: not only that, they seemed to need more bag checkers than they replaced clerks. It was slower to leave and my gosh is it insulting to the non thieves. Don’t like it.
Also Walmart never had enough clerks and guess what? They also don’t have enough self check out stations. Turns out people are not that efficient, and slow doing it themselves. Been doing a lot of shopping at Target.
CaseyL
I avoid using self check-out for the same reasons as @Jay:.
I also didn’t realize checkers are expected to make small talk with customers! Sometimes they seem chatty, so we chat. Sometimes not. I always say hi, how are you doing, and can tell from the response whether they feel like talking or not. I do appreciate the small talk, but may be less chatty from now on, though, if it’s something the checkers are semi-coerced into doing!
Baud
@CaseyL:
I assume anyone who talks to me is being forced to do so.
kindness
I’m glad the House passed a ‘clean’ CR. I am thinking Speaker Johnson has no intention to ever put forward a bill for additional help to Israel, Ukraine and the rest. Honestly, I think he would prefer everyone got nothing. Guess he doesn’t know most the ‘aid’ money goes to American defense contractors.
Baud
@Martin:
Oops.
Frankensteinbeck
@kindness:
Everyone was telling me the same about the CR.
Chief Oshkosh
Marky-whine vs the Teamster: Great!
California Republican kidney punching Kentucky Republican: Even Mo’ Betta’!
But no love for a Democrat torching a Republican committee chair? C’mon, man!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTreXMBJVsk
Jay
@CaseyL:
It’s part of basic Customer Service, even if it is just a greeting.
The easiest way to prevent shoplifting and shrinkage, is to “Customer Service” the hell out of suspects.
At the tills, basically all retail positions, “knowing” your customers, having even just a basic relationship, creates customer loyalty and increases sales.
cckids
@Odie Hugh Manatee: Wow. Ho-lee shit. Textbook example of how not to treat people.
I transferred to the store I’m at now because of toxic management at my previous store during 2020-21. Nobody should have to put up with some of the crap I’ve seen-and your wife as well. Kroger has a bizarre tendency to hang on to and even promote terrible managers.
cckids
@Jay:
Yeah, no it is not. We’re told that constantly, and maybe, if you have some small-timer, it might work. But we’ve got people just blatantly walking out with carts full of stuff, or scanning a fraction of it, and saying “I brought that other stuff in to return, but the lines are too long.” We’re not allowed to accuse people, or physically stop them. Putting your hand on someone’s cart, or following them out the door will get you fired. Watching someone “too closely” can get you written up if they decide to make a case of it.
It’s infuriating, and lots of employees are taking the attitude “if corporate doesn’t care, why should I?”
I’ve been threatened by a customer who was open carrying a handgun because he had to wait in line for five minutes, and nothing was done. No f-ing way I’m standing up to thieves for Kroger.
Philbert
@Baud: Yes, the Teamsters did endorse Reagan and it was a big thing. Dregulation began under Carter with Sen T Kennedy, starting with trucking, changing it from a solid job to a lifestyle choice. .
Martin
@Odie Hugh Manatee: I mean, the decline of retail in the US is this overfocus on specific metrics, all of which are detrimental to why customers want to shop there.
Retail used to be a place where employees could provide assistance, advice, etc. When I worked retail in the 80s I was trained on how to mark up a suit for tailoring – something that was a free service. You could get help picking out clothes. These were benefits to shopping there. But all that got stripped out chasing margins, and retailers came to the bewildering conclusion that the way to compete with Amazon was to get rid of the employees – the only natural advantage they had over Amazon.
The 14th largest retailer in the US is Apple. They have 10,000 square foot stores that move a billion dollars in merchandise, and if you’ve never been in one, they are staffed to the rafters. My local mall has an extension that has a small Apple Store in it and one night I swung by and noticed how different things were. I counted the Apple Store employees, and it was about even with all of the employees in every other store in the mall combined – including a major department store.
Now, the Apple Store is reliably the most expensive place to buy any piece of Apple kit, all of which is identical to what you can buy at any other store. And yet, it outsells nearly every other retailer that carries their stuff. The formula here is pretty clear – good staffing, easy to get help and advice, nice environment to shop in. These things can be done at any level of retail.
So much retail has just gotten shitty. And the shrinkage? Shrinkage has been 1%-2% for decades, except for a drop during Covid which we have climbed back up to. That 1%-2% is now just an excuse to close stores you previously intended to close because you mismanaged your business. And now I need to find an employee with a key to buy underwear, because it’s locked up? I mean, why wouldn’t I just shop at Amazon?
Jeffro
@stopthemovie:
@bjacques:
@Villago Delenda Est:
@Alison Rose:
4 bulls-eyes in a row – it’s like watching championship darts, or something.
No wonder Dems can’t get on the Sunday shows, we’d be done in 90 seconds and have all that air time left to fill.
different-church-lady
My even no longer can.
Jeffro
Party-switching while in office should trigger an automatic special election, whether for national office or a state legislative seat. Yes, I know there are hurdles galore …we still ought to put it out there and keep at it.
Kay
I love self check out. I get rid of my change so much at the self check out I imagine I will “get caught” – “hey! You’re just getting rid of your change and we know it” :)
It’s addictive. Like feeding a slot machine.
Hoppie
@Bill Arnold: Point-man of staff?
Jeffro
@Geminid:
I’m wondering what the strategy (such as it is) is here…it looks to my layman’s eyes like the Speaker is trying to either pick periodic fights across an election year and see if/when he can make the Dems/Biden look bad, or if he’s trying to make the GOP look reasonable long enough to ride Biden’s supposedly bad poll numbers in to November. (Or both?). Or to just hang in there long enough to get the hang of the job/survive?
Either way, it doesn’t resemble good government in the slightest.
Chief Oshkosh
@Martin:
I just lived this exact scenario, and it was jarring. I recently shopped at a Kohl’s while traveling because I did a poor job of packing. What a pain in the ass. Just confirmed my year’s old choice of being an early adapter of this thing called “Prime.”
zhena gogolia
@Jeffro: Right, it’s amazing!
TriassicSands
@Jeffro: Special election…
I agree.
TriassicSands
To me, Johnson’s two tiered funding plan sounds suspiciously like a way to have two partial government shutdowns instead of one total (near) shutdown.
Jay
@cckids:
we wern’t allowed to chase or confront customers either, but the “oh they were returns, but the line was to long” scam was stopped by a receipt ask. If they declined, you let them leave and an LPO/AssMan/Manager dealt with it.
Our issues were with coordinated grab and runs, (often fire doors), or the stealth petty thieves, (mostly because they would take high value concealable items into the washrooms, flush the packaging and security tags down the toilets, which would clog them for days to weeks).
“Customer Servicing the Hell Out of them” was basically asking constantly if they needed help finding stuff, asking what their project was, did they need advice, etc. Basically keeping an eye on them and then calling an LPO/AssMan/Manager when the $300 pack of lithium batteries disappeared into the backpack or duffel.
“We”, Tool Rental “lost” 3 Hilti coring rigs. UnderStaffed would leave through the side door to finish a rental or receive a return of the lot rentals, (ladders, lawn eqpt, Rental Vans, excavators, trailers, Skid Steers) and leave the door propped open. The thief/thieves would use wire cutters to remove the security tag and exit stage right. Because the store relied on part time students that knew nothing about tools, and didn’t care, nobody noticed until I did my walk around and noticed we should have had two, only had one, and then checked to see if there was an open rental contract.
I always exited out the side door, made sure it closed, then re-entered the store through the lumber bay, 25 feet longer path, but it allowed the alarms to do their work. I tried to train the other’s to do the same, no luck.
First time I took two weeks off, 27 tools “disappeared” and nobody noticed.
I always did several walk arounds every shift, because broken tools would be put back on the shelf with no repair ticket, or because nobody noticed they were broken. As a result, I always had an inventory in my head.
Frankensteinbeck
@Jeffro:
“I got the crazy caucus support by being an evil godbotherer and the not-insane caucus’s vote by assuring them I’m not so nuts I want a shutdown.”
@TriassicSands:
I can’t possibly imagine Senate Dems or Biden signing onto a separated spending package. This is a fig leaf. There is always a fig leaf, since we don’t control the House and can’t completely get our way.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@cckids:
I just picked my wife up from work and she told me that the Store Director had a meeting with the corporate head of A&P (loss prevention for others here) and HR in his office today. After the meeting he told one of his managers that he would be taking a few days off, then he was escorted from the building. Suspension or ?, we’ll see!
We’re having drinks to celebrate after dinner tonight.
Manyakitty
@prostratedragon: oh, that’s right. Thank you!
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Martin:
All of this, I agree. It’s all about squeezing the $$$ and that’s it, no more help than necessary or even at all. It’s all about more dividends for the executives and shareholders, fuck everything else.
Squeeze and squeeze more. One day they are going to find nothing left to squeeze and then they will part out the business and sell off the assets. It’s the American way.
Jay
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
The usual practice in this sort of case is a “paid suspension” while they “investigate”*. If they bring somebody in from HR from another store for the “hearing”, it’s a firing for cause. If it’s the normal HR person, it’s at best a slap on the wrist.
*investigate often means write up every possible infraction*, even make up some if needed,
*Orange has dress codes, conduct codes, code codes, safety codes, to the point that anybody could be fired for anything at any time “for cause”. Getting a paper cut and putting a bandaid on it with out calling the Manager, your Assman, your DS, First Aid and filing a WCB report, was a firing offence.
And you thought the 178 page “Term of Service” fineprint was bad.
Jackie
@eclare: I’m a single person, so typically it’s just coffee, a few frozen items and rotisserie chicken 😁 Twice a year I do paper products, laundry items, vitamins and the like. Gas once a month. It’s still way cheaper than retail stores overall.
Origuy
California prohibits self-checkout if you’re purchasing alcohol or tobacco. My Costco run usually includes a bottle of something or other, so I usually go to a staffed checkstand. The Walmart I go to occasionally, once had such a long line for self-check that the nearby jewelry counter was taking anyone who didn’t need to weigh produce.
Origuy
On the topic of the Capitol Hill Fight Club, I’m hoping to see a Photoshop with bundled-up Bernie in an MMA Octagon as referee. (Do they have referees in MMA? I’ve never watched more than a few minutes.)
prostratedragon
@Origuy: “Do they have referees in MMA? ”
Yes they do, for some reason.
HumboldtBlue
This is still the best clip to come out of that hearing.
Mr. Bemused Senior
What, no ten-gallon vat of olive oil for $3.99 that won’t even fit into your kitchen cabinet?
Tony Jay
@bbleh:
“And that, children, is when Uncle Buck really became President of Fun.”