I read a depressing sentence somewhere earlier to the effect that the war for Ukraine is being lost in the U.S. Congress. Democrats are saying as much during the ongoing negotiations for aid for Ukraine that are currently linked with border security funding: (WaPo)
“I just don’t think there’s any question that we are about to abandon Ukraine,” said Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), one of the key negotiators on the border package. “When Vladimir Putin marches into Kyiv and into Europe, Republicans will have to live with the fact that our sons and daughters will be over fighting when Vladimir Putin marches into a NATO country. They will rue the day that they decided to play politics.”
Maybe the dwindling handful of GOP Russia hawks would rue that day, but the ascendent Trumpists in the House (and some in the Senate) would welcome a right-wing, ethno-Christianist conquest of Europe. They want that for this continent too and would merrily leave NATO allies to their fate, never mind that it would destroy American credibility in international affairs until the heat death of the sun.
Still, as bad as the situation is, I wonder if Republicans are handing Democrats a political opportunity here by insisting on hardline immigration reform. In purely political terms, if Democrats accept some version of a border crackdown in exchange for foreign aid, they could continue support for Ukraine and defang one of the Republicans’ most potent issues against the president at the same time.
I’m not advocating that path, just noting the possibility. Whether it would even be possible depends on what terms the GOP is offering, and I see maddeningly few specifics in the reporting but assume Republican proposals are horrible. I also assume there will be no good options on the table since we’re negotiating with nihilists. But if anyone can get a least-terrible deal in this situation, maybe it’s Biden.
Open thread.
Baud
We’ve seen in the past that nothing is done (or not done) until it’s done. Everything up to that point is just talk.
Alison Rose
I wish there were a plausible way to explain this to Republican voters. “putin will not stop with Ukraine if we stop supporting Ukraine, and he will eventually move to other European countries, some of which are NATO countries, which means the US would get involved, which means your children or siblings or spouses would be sent off to war to fight the russians because Republicans in Congress didn’t care about stopping him.” But too many of them are either normies who probably barely even understand the war at all, or gullible morons who think Ukraine is run by Nazis and putin is saving them and would never go after any other country.
cain
@Baud: That’s exactly my thought when I ruined my chicken stew yesterday. it’s not done till I get it on a dish!
Jeffro
Dems should absolutely take this “deal” if it means huge amounts of support over a long time horizon for Ukraine.
Take the $$$ and slow-walk the border shit, no matter what it is. What are Republicans going to do, complain about government inefficiency and run on “making government better”? LOL
JMG
the politics of “the border” (funny how there’s only one) dictate that there is no proposal the Republicans can accept from Biden, even their own, as it is meant to be a problem with no solution except Republicans in power. Since “the border” is shorthand for “too many nonwhite people in ths country” there can be no solution except visible cruelty to those seeking to enter the US. That makes the racists feel better and that alone.
cain
@Alison Rose: Or a lot of them just want Russia to win because Russia is anti-gay, pro-christian and essentially anti-woke so to speak.
Soprano2
On NPR this morning Chris Murphy said what the Republicans are asking for is completely closed borders. That’s why it’s so problematic – they’re trying to force all of TFG’s border policies onto the Biden administration.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
“Least-terrible” is underrated.
Baud
@Formerly disgruntled in Oregon: You stole that from my Tinder profile.
Alison Rose
@cain: True. I’d ask those people why they support a man who has caused hundreds (thousands?) of children and babies to be kidnapped from their families and brainwashed into thinking they’re someone else. But I’m sure they’d find a way to excuse that, too. Amoral sacks of fetid garbage, the lot of them.
Soprano2
@Alison Rose: I have a co-worker who is an ex-cop and military reservist who told me last week that we need to stop sending money to Ukraine. I asked him if he knew most of that money was actually being spent to restore the stockpiles of older stuff we were sending to Ukraine, and asked him if it was a good idea for Putin to be able to invade Poland. He scoffed and said that would never happen, and I told him yes it will if he gets Ukraine he won’t stop there, he wants Poland and Georgia and all the Baltics too. If he attacks a NATO state we’ll have to fight them, I wish people understood that!
New Deal democrat
@Jeffro: The risks are vastly asymmetric. Any damage done from accepting border or asylum restrictions will be far easier to undo than the damage of Putin marching through Ukraine.
sdhays
@Soprano2: Not if we leave NATO.
Surly Duff
This! It’s not like there is a single person in this country who is satisfied with current border policy anyway. Negotiate, compromise, get it done, live to fight another day.
Alison Rose
@Soprano2: It’s just amazing to me how easily people live within their fantasy worlds where bad things don’t happen. Like, what about putin’s entire life makes anyone think the dude ever makes a good decision? He is entropy incarnate.
zhena gogolia
@Alison Rose: They think Putin will stop at NATO’s borders.
Baud
@Surly Duff:
Depends on who abandons us because of a compromise. Which depends on what the compromise is.
trollhattan
Former anti-communist party now objectively pro-Soviet-style fascism party. Galling, frankly.
Boris Rasputin (the evil twin)
@Alison Rose: How about “Ukraine: Fighting Russia so we don’t have to.” as a slogan? Gets the point across nicely.
Surly Duff
@Baud: I meant compromise on immigration to get what is needed on Ukraine…. not the other way around.
Alison Rose
@zhena gogolia: But again, why and how do they think that? What has putin ever done to make them think he views the world sensibly? I think it’s more that they WANT to believe that so they can be excused from caring.
Miss Bianca
@Soprano2: What the hell is a “completely closed border”? No legal immigration at all?
eversor
@zhena gogolia:
They want NATO fall. NATO is made up of and controlled by socially liberal nations and that is not compatible with Christianity and the nations are losing their religion rapidly.
They want NATO to fall and the old authoritarian and nationalistic Christendom to return. And they will stop at nothing to do that even if it means selling out everyone and everything.
In the end either Christianity is going away or they are getting what they want. And since we won’t tackle Christianity we might as well get this over with now and give it to them and load ourselves into the trains!
MagdaInBlack
@eversor: How’d you get out of solitary? Bye Bye x 2
Alison Rose
Damn, I thought our bigoted pastry chef had finally been given the perma-boot off to Mars where they belong. Guess not.
CaseyL
The GOP increasingly seem like they’re ALL Russian assets.
The Christofascists want Russia to wage war on Europe, not only because they hate Europe, but also because they are absolutely focused on the End Times, and absolutely determined to bring the End Times about.
The oligarch-funded GOP want Russia to win because they want the US to be an oligarchy.
It’s simply stupid to think the GOP has any vestigial concern for freedom and democracy – here or abroad – when their every action for the past 7 years shows the opposite.
It’s not that “they don’t care.” They do care. They care about destroying liberal democracy wherever it is.
MagdaInBlack
@Miss Bianca: A BIG BEAUTIFUL WALL!
Baud
@Surly Duff: That’s what I meant too. An immigration compromise will ruffle some feathers among our voters.
cain
@sdhays: If Trump wins he will move to get out of NATO, but I think that requires congressional approval and if we hold any of them it won’t happen – but he will definitely be putting in low energy if any NATO countries get attacked.
jimmiraybob
Alaska. Also too.
Baud
@Alison Rose: Me too. I thought voting for the GOP was his GBCW of BJ.
Eduardo
Let me advocate that path, screaming and yelling.
Immigration is great for this country: legal high skilled immigration, but also low, medium and high skilled immigration from people who take that kind of risks and hardship to improve their lives. Not to talk about the human angle of this. And much more.
But “the border” is a super salient issue and we fucking need to prevent a fascist government. That takes precedence over most anything. Does the Biden people have gotten a sudden critical case of Ben Rodhesism and think this time Maduro will allow free elections? I certainly hope not, but let Maduro pump all the oil he can before 11/2024. I would personally resuscitate, then fellate Fidel Castro if that assures Biden takes NE-02.
And also: the troubles at the border are not uniquely but partially an attack on the US by the governments of Cuba, Nicaragua and most likely Mexico, too.
Plus: Ukraine and Europe alone are important enough to “DO SOMETHING” about the border.
Hoodie
@Alison Rose: Some of them may think (1) Russia has had so much trouble trying to conquer Ukraine that he wouldn’t be able to take on other European states, (2) even if he does, it will just be a few small states that they don’t give a shit about, and (3) Putin will be dead soon enough. What that fails to take into account is that Putin has used to war to change the nature of the Russian state, namely, to turn it back into an imperialist state in which armament production and expansion is prioritized over everything else, and silencing anyone internally who questions that program. Those are institutional changes that will likely outlive Putin unless he is discredited by defeat. In that sense, it may be counterproductive to just reference this in terms of Putin.
cain
@Alison Rose: I thought he self booted after declaring he was voting for Republicans –
Soprano2
@Alison Rose: I think about half of it is “they were bad to TFG, we shouldn’t help them” and half is misguided worries about the budget. That’s why I pointed out that the money is mostly being spent here at home to replenish our stockpiles with newer, better stuff. You’d think some one like that would be in favor of it.
cain
I see Kevin McCarthy is retiring after this year – that means congress is going to be even more shitty with razor thin majority.
Tony Jay
@Miss Bianca:
There was a conversation in the Late Night Thread on this topic in the context of Trumpy’s “Dictator for a Day” admission to a horrified Hannity. I said that basically a “completely closed border” is code for the extreme legal powers they’d have to give themselves to achieve anything close to what they say they want, and it’s those open-ended Emergency Act style powers they really want so they can do ‘other stuff’.
“‘Close The Border’ in the sense MAGAworld mean it would require granting wide-ranging extra-constitutional powers to deny anyone they like exit from or entry to the USA, which would include powers of search and seizure, powers to backtrack actual or potential violations of border security down the line to groups, organisations or individuals suspected of enabling, assisting or supporting efforts to ‘open the border’, powers to access private data records in pursuit of actual or potential border violations, as well as a massive increase in staffing for the bodies who would physically close the border, investigate actual or potential violations of border security and run the centres required to house border security violators…. So, yeah. On Day Two a President Trump would wake up with a couple of national paramilitary militias and the right to arrest, investigate, detain, intern, impound, annex, confiscate, and requisition anyone, anything or anywhere he wants within the USA’s borders. Technically he wouldn’t need to claim dictatorial powers, he’d already have them. How. Very. Clever.”
Shorter – It’s not about the Border. It’s about setting an unobtainable goal to justify unrestricted power to hurt the right people.
Soprano2
@Miss Bianca: That’s what it sounded like to me. Here’s the nut of what he said they want:
Betty Cracker
@eversor: Fuck off.
wjca
Fixed that for you. Because that’s how you show them that Putin isn’t just doing what they want to do at our border.
trollhattan
Early (really early) chatter about a McCarthy replacement, with one comedy farmer floated among the many “who?”s.
JWR
Last night’s Amanpour & Co was quite good on both the threat posed by The Former Guy (& goons), and the systematic destruction of Gaza, which is only beginning to see widespread disease. The first interview was with Tim Alberta, (CNN Videos link), whose latest book is The Kingdom, The Power, And The Glory, the next was with some journalist on the border with Gaza. Didn’t get his name, but powerful stuff.
evodevo
@Miss Bianca: Yes…and Trumpy has made that clear…MAGA only wants Scandinavian white people…
As Durbin explained how deal would impact ppl from Haiti, Trump said, “Haiti? Why do we want people from Haiti here?” Then they got Africa. ‘Why do we want these people from all these shithole countries here? We should have more people from places like Norway.” — Christina Wilkie (@christinawilkie) January 11, 2018
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/how-trump-would-crack-down-immigration-second-term-2023-11-14/
Motivated Seller
Maybe I’m mis-remembering, but Obama negotiated with Congressional Republicans, for ages, over “Improved Border Security” in exchange for other legislative priorities. It never worked. I believe Obama eventually realized that Republicans were negotiating in bad faith; because their true purpose was to make him a one-term President. No amount of accommodation to Republican “concerns” got him anything.
I do not expect appeasing Republican demands over “Improved Border Security” this time will produce anything different.
Perhaps Republicans’ true purpose is to rule. And which is why they are increasingly unwilling to help the democracy of Ukraine defend itself against Russian authoritarian takeover.
Alison Rose
@wjca: Well…not all of those kids are Christians, and some may not be white. Putting it that way would make it sound like those kids were the ones we should care about.
wjca
Immigration restricted to those who are a) (white) northern European, b) Christian (preferably Protestant), and c) state that they are coming to get away from their country’s socialist government.
Tony Jay
@eversor:
And you know the worst thing? You’ll be squashed on that train with all those silly Libs who just wouldn’t listen to your warnings, not even when you proved your seriousness by voting straight Republican (so serious), and you know what they’ll probably be singing?
Hymns.
God Above, won’t that just be awful… for you?
Belafon
@Surly Duff: Like compromising on abortion. Their end goal is the same: end them.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
Being it is an open thread…
I’ve not been able to get out much(bad tire on the Prius that I can’t afford to replace now and sucky weather), so I’ve been working on my processing game, I reprocessed one of my images of M31(the Andromeda galaxy) taken last August at Red Rock.
Alison Rose
@🐾BillinGlendaleCA: HOLY HECK. That is stunning!!
wjca
I don’t think so. We aren’t trying to change how these people see the world — desirable as that would be. Just to leverage their existing beliefs, however noxious, in service of getting the right thing done.
It’s like accepting stupid and repulsive demands about the border in order to get the Ukraine funding done. Unpleasant, but unfortunately probably necessary.
trollhattan
@🐾BillinGlendaleCA:
👍
wjca
@🐾BillinGlendaleCA: That is one awesome photograph!
Another Scott
@Baud: +1
The House is scheduled to be in session until 12/14.
Similarly for the Senate.
The real work will start this weekend and will continue very early next week. You know that all the reps and senators don’t want this stuff to interfere with getting out of town by the 15th.
We’ll see what happens.
Cheers,
Scott.
cain
@Another Scott:
More like Republicans – they got drinking to do, locker room conversations to have, and probably some criming and grifting to do as well.
trollhattan
@Motivated Seller:
Remember this?
Republicans have been “hay-ull no!” about immigration reform for a LONG time.
cain
They do realize that all those people would vote Democratic, right? They are like total socialists.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@Alison Rose:
@trollhattan:
@wjca: Thanks, I’m pretty happy with it. I used some different software to process it(Siril, it is free and open source), excluded some of the bad sub frames, and found a way to get the edges of the galaxy more blue than yellow.
Almost Retired
@trollhattan: Do you think there’s ANY hope for Democrats in McCarthy’s district? You’re more in touch with the Central Valley than probably almost all of us here.
Everyone says its “Bakersfield,” but it looks like most of the city itself is in another district. So this District gets the oil suburbs and the rural Sierra areas.
The Democrat whose name sounds like Gigolo was trounced by McCarthy last year. Wonder if that’s a name recognition/leadership thing, or if it reflects the district’s mix? Would love to pick this one up — but probably our best bet is for Newsom to drag his feet on setting the date for the special election ( I think he has 70 days).
marklar
Miles Finch : You feeling strong, my friend? Call me elf one more time.
Buddy : [after a pause] He’s an angry elf.
[Miles promptly attacks him]
I’d like to thank eversor for reminding me of that scene. Thanks, buddy!
Another Scott
@Almost Retired:
A lot has happened since that election. Yeah, R+eleventy-seven, but who knows – maybe the people there don’t want another lying clown representing them going forward??
Cheers,
Scott.
JaySinWA
We may not have a truth and reconciliation process but the Wisconsin fake electors lawsuit partial settlement approximates one with the fake electors admitting the election was won by Biden:
https://www.wpr.org/wisconsin-false-electors-admit-improperly-overturn-2020-presidential-election-trump
wjca
And consider that the new guy won’t have the perks of seniority to spread around locally.
Ksmiami
The Republican Party is the enemy of America.
Subsole
@Alison Rose:
They voted enthusiastically for people who did that to Latino children, right here in America.
They’re fine with it.
Almost Retired
@Another Scott: Hope your right, although when it comes to lying clowns, the Republicans seem to have a bad case of coulrophilia (a useful word for the next election cycle). Btw, I misspoke. The Democrat who ran last time and will probably run again is named Marisa Wood and not the Gigolo guy, who would have been a primary challenger.
Hoodie
@Motivated Seller: My memory agrees with yours. I think it will be difficult for Biden to get the kind of deal he finagled out of McCarthy with the present crew. They view this as a no-lose proposition for them. Biden makes the deal and pisses off a key part of his constituency and, ultimately, probably fails as there really is no way to seal the border. Remember, for all his talk about building a wall, Trump really didn’t do anything other than some symbolic cruelty. The difference is that Fox quits talking about it when a republican is president. Biden refuses the deal, he looks like the guy who lost Ukraine. They’ll wager he’ll get blamed because the president always gets blamed for foreign policy failures. They’ll also say he lost Ukraine to save illegal immigrants.
trollhattan
@Almost Retired: I do not, unfortunately. The 2020 redistricting, paired with losing seats, created this R+16 behemoth that nothing is going to crack. There are vulnerable R seats though, and that’s where the money needs to go: 45th, 41st, 40th, 27th, 22nd, 13th, 3rd could be in play, some are even D+ districts.
JoyceH
Nevada grand jury indicts six Trump fake electors.
NorthLeft
Senator Murphy, two points;
1. It won’t be Republican Congress critters’ children who will be fighting in Eastern Europe.
2. There will be absolutely zero accountability for the House’s role in leading to the defeat of Ukraine. The Republicans will point at the Democrats…..whether they are in power or not, to blame for another lost war.
RevRick
@evodevo: We often see the border issue almost exclusively through the lens of race, but scratch beneath MAGA’s imagined fears and you find gender. The border is often paired with the Great Replacement Theory in rightwing hysteria, which plays out in two dimensions. First, white women are failing in their duty to squeeze out sufficient white babies. Second, letting more brown and black men in means more competition for said white women, who might well prefer to fukk those other men and spurn assh0le white guys.
The greater the volume of outrage, the more the likelihood it’s about sex.
Sister Golden Bear
@JaySinWA: And six fake electors were just indicted in Nevada.
It’s the third of seven states where this happened, with investigations also underway in Arizona and New Mexico.
Subsole
@evodevo:
God almighty I wish that fucker would end up in the county hospital. He’d learn right quick why we need immigration. And more of it.
Oh who am I kidding. Assholes like him certainly don’t appreciate caregivers, except as abuse targets. And I wouldn’t wish his ass as a patient on anyone.
Another Scott
@Motivated Seller: @Hoodie:
Aaron Fritschner (a guy on the staff of my Rep) made a good point yesterday:
All the hyperbolic screaming over the last few days about the Democrats not doing what they want seems to me to show that the bomb-throwers know that they have a weak hand. HR-2 isn’t going to be part of the Supplemental, and they know it.
Schumer gave them an out yesterday, saying they could offer an amendment, but they wouldn’t take it because they know they don’t have 60 votes for it.
I don’t know how this ends, but as with all of their previous tantrums (“cut the budget by 30% or we’re going to default!!1”), they have a weak hand and will not get what they want.
To be sure, Democrats won’t get all they want either. But compromise is how this stuff works. And there are too many people who want the Supplemental to pass for there not to be one. What the Border / ICE / stuff looks like probably won’t be good, but it won’t be close to HR-2.
This stuff is always messy before it finally passes.
Cheers,
Scott.
Mike in Pasadena
While reading the special counsel’s evidentiary filing submitted last night, I had the following thought:
Trump is the ultimate personification of the white, trailer trash bigot. Despite his pretensions otherwise with his gold paint everywhere and living room decorated with a gold bust portraying himself as Julius Caesar, he will always be the obese Queens slob, his navel and belly protruding from the bottom of his coffee-stained white t shirt, emerging from his rented trailer, half-burned cigarette hanging from his lips, to throw refuse in his front yard to join his derelict pick up and snarling dog chained to a stake. When a neighbor complains the garbage will attract skunks and racoons, he burps and shouts, “Fuck off, ni-clang!”
JoyceH
@Sister Golden Bear: Are there any investigations going on in the states with Republican AGs? (I think I know the answer to that…)
Sister Golden Bear
@Tony Jay:
And once they repeal birth-right citizenship, they can deport desirables like me — after all, my ancestors who immigrated here in 1638 didn’t have papers doncha know.
Nor did any of my other ancestors who arrived before immigration was regulated. So obviously I’m a sleeper agent trying to
weakentrans Amurica from within....now I try to be amused
@RevRick:
Makes sense to me. Right-wing politics is hindbrain politics, and sex is about as hindbrain as it gets.
Jeffro
soooo…that’s a ‘yes’, then? =)
Omnes Omnibus
@eversor: A bigot says what?
Sister Golden Bear
@🐾BillinGlendaleCA: Gorgeous!
SFBayAreaGal
@🐾BillinGlendaleCA: Beautiful.
Baud
@🐾BillinGlendaleCA: Makes me wish I was born in that galaxy instead of this one.
RaflW
Indeed “Republicans will have to live with the fact that our sons and daughters will be over fighting when Vladimir Putin marches into a NATO country” is not a thing that the GOP cares about. At least not in the House, or seemingly among the vast majority of their idiot, shitty voters. Or, to be more precise, they will scream and yell that we should not send our troops over.
Lindsey Graham may splutter and pretend to care, but he’s so thoroughly compromised that I could not give a rat’s ass.
jonas
Putin’s betting that Trump pulls us out of NATO and then it’s free-sailing from there.
Betty Cracker
@Another Scott: I don’t know what will happen, but the scenario you outline is plausible, IMO. I read something a while back about the Biden admin quietly considering measures to address the southern border situation. And that was well before the GOP held foreign aid hostage.
They know they’re getting killed on immigration politically, and in purely political terms, they may lose more votes being perceived as soft on border control than they’d lose by agreeing to some Repub demands. Caveat: my view is probably influenced by living among the deplorati in the state with the most right-leaning Latinos in the country.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@Sister Golden Bear:
@SFBayAreaGal: Thanks.
@Baud: No worries, in a few billion years we will be part of that galaxy. M31 is coming for us.
Tony Jay
@Sister Golden Bear:
Oh, they won’t wait for that, silly. They’ll just use their powers to rip through your social media, travel and banking records looking for ‘proof’ of subversive activities. The fact you’ve transitioned will probably be enough to tie you to banned groups, certainly enough to justify a period of preventive detention while they investigate all the compelling evidence that you once said President-For-Life Donaldus Maximus was a golf cheat.
On balance, I think it would be best if you obliterated them at the ballot-box. Pound their ugly malcontency into powdered guano and spread it ‘pon your lettuce patch.
Chris
I’ve had a bad feeling about Ukraine ever since every NPR-brained person I knew suddenly started bleating the same “gosh, I feel so bad for Ukraine, but I just don’t see how they can win” meme in unison a year ago. It was a sign that the elite consensus was shifting even then.
Old School
Too bad there’s no way to prevent this.
Mike in Pasadena
@Baud: is it in code?
Chris
Democrats never get credit for immigration crackdowns, ever.
Obama gave them plenty for their increased security and explicitly ordered ICE to go all-in on finding and deporting violent offenders of the kind Fox News viewers tell us they’re so concerned about. Nobody cared. As best as I can tell, nobody was even aware that it was happening.
Chris
@Soprano2:
“He won’t attack a NATO country! That would be like attacking the U.S!”
“Really? And if Trump gets reelected and the U.S. is out of NATO?”
matt
@Alison Rose: A lot of them want Russia to win just to piss us off. A lot of the other ones want Russia to win because he pays people they like. I don’t really see a way to talk them out of spite and money.
Sister Golden Bear
@Tony Jay:
I wish you were exaggerating.
One of my biggest fears is that they’ll revoke my passport for “lying” about my gender. One Red State has already doing this retroactively for drivers’ licenses and birth certificates,* regardless of whether trans people went through the process of legally changing their gender.
*Birth certificates are rolled back to the name they were assigned at birth, and DL will only be reissued with the trans people name/gender assigned at birth. The intent is to forcibly out trans people to make the target of all the legalized (and social) discrimination Republicans have been passing.
rikyrah
They don’t want comprehensive immigration reform. To solve the problem would mean that they wouldn’t have it as an issue😒🙄
RaflW
@New Deal democrat: Any damage done from accepting border or asylum restrictions will be in a further fracturing of the Democratic base, more fodder for so-far-left-they’re-rightwing Xitter corps (and bots and Putin-paid trolls) to sow more “Biden sucks on the border now, too” rhetoric.
I don’t have a better suggestion. Republicans not caring at all about any (possible?) blowback in Ukraine makes all of this a horrible situation.
JWR
@Old School:
Yeah, was about to turn off the TV when this came up on NBC. All they’ll still say for now is “multiple victims”.
rikyrah
@Alison Rose:
Ukraine is England 1940. But, instead of being the last country standing, they are the first. We must stop Putin
Brachiator
I like that Schumer has challenged the GOP to offer their own proposals. I look forward to seeing how Biden and the Congressional Democrats deal with this.
I get tired of the GOP focusing on the phony issue of border security as though a wall will solve all problems. The MAGA crowd has bought this hook, line and sinker.
I would like to see the Democrats offer a bill that would impose heavy fines ON BIG BUSINESSES that hire undocumented people. Include some jail time.
Let’s see how the GOP reacts to that.
edited to add 3 important words that were left out.
rikyrah
@zhena gogolia:
That is delusional. He will not stop
RaflW
@Brachiator: I would like to see the Democrats offer a bill that would impose heavy fines on employers of undocumented people. Include some jail time for the CEOs of serial violators.
That’s my take on it. We need immigration just to meet basic economic needs. Criminalize the employment of undocumenteds, and I think we’ll see a revision to lawful immigration in due time.
rikyrah
@🐾BillinGlendaleCA:
Wow
WOW😳😳😳😳
cain
That’s the thing with the GOP and the media – they are only interested in performative shit. Fox News especially doesn’t give a shit about anything other than to make Democrats look bad.
One day, there won’t be enough viewers to make fox news on cable lucrative and I hope that is the day the right wing noise machine has a much harder time finding new people to brainwash.
Hoodie
@Chris: This is generally true. The border is a problem that keeps on giving to Republicans because it can never really be fixed because the problem is not really the border, it’s all the bad stuff going on in places like Nicaragua and Venezuela. Whatever a democratic president does, it will never be sufficient because the right wing media can turn every little border incident into a crisis. They de-emphasize this and pretend they’ve taken care of the problem when a republican is in office. They know their supporters won’t be paying attention unless the right wing media complex tells them to. They love these kind of issues because they can whip up hysteria on them on demand, kind of like they did for decades on abortion until the dog finally caught the car. I’m not sure what the equivalent dog caught the car moment would be for the border.
cain
@zhena gogolia: Hell they won’t stop till they to get our borders!
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@rikyrah: Thanks.
Kristine Smith
@🐾BillinGlendaleCA: Wow! 🤩
Kay
This strike just keeps getting better and better. Next up- Finland!
Chris
@RaflW:
The simplest solution to immigration has always been open borders. If any immigrant who comes here is instantly eligible for all the same protections as any U.S. immigrant, U.S. employers no longer have any incentive to hire them, which means an instant end to any economic immigration unless it’s actually needed.
With that gone, all that’s left are actual political refugees trying not to get dead or tortured, which will always be a much smaller number.
Conservatives can’t accept this because it means abandoning the government duty of guarding Our Sacred Racial Purity, and also because providing a ready-made force of easily exploitable workers with no legal status is, for a lot of people, the entire point of immigration crackdowns.
WaterGirl
@Another Scott: Can Schumer keep the Senate in session AFTER the 15th if things haven’t been resolved to our satisfaction?
Geminid
@Betty Cracker: The Biden administration’s proposed $100+ billion supplemental bill includes almost $14 in funds for border security. Rep. Ruben Gallego has talked these initiatives up and says they are urgently needed. Gallego singled out efforts to increase interception of Fentanyl shipments as well as improving shelters for migrants as reasons to support Biden’s bill.
Now, Republicans will bargain for some more restrictive provisions and will probably get some in the final bill. I’ll be looking at border state and district Representatives like Gallego and Veronica Escobar to see if they find the compromises to be acceptable.
Basically, if they do, I do. Rep. Escobar is in a safe seat, but Gallego’s opinion is especially important to me. He is trying to win a Senate seat in a border state, and I think he knows the politics of this question as well as the equities.
As someone pointed out, damage done now can mitigated later. But good luck mitigating it if Kari Lake and not Ruben Gallego is the next Senator from Arizona.
wjca
It’s a great self-fulfilling prophecy. If they can’t win, we don’t give them the weapons that they need. So they can win.
Tony Jay
@Sister Golden Bear:
Yup. That’s how the fascists always operate. Law goes out of the window and gets replaced by a vaguely Law-ish sounding sludge of justifications for brutality with added slogans on top. History shows that they’re happy to pretend that they’re ‘just following the rules’, but only as a form of trolling. As soon as the actual Law gets thrown in their faces they drop the act and do whatever the fuck they like anyway.
I’m a peaceful sort of fellow, but I’m all for these gobshites being beaten at the ballot box and then beaten into paste on the forecourt of their Daddy’s car dealership.
lowtechcyclist
@Alison Rose:
I don’t know if we all see the same pies, or each one of us sees something different, but now I want that slice of cheesecake that’s in the place of MagdaInBlack’s response to our old troll.
Baud
@Geminid:
Good. Glad he started low in order to play hardball.
Mike in Pasadena
@🐾BillinGlendaleCA: Hmmm? The weather has been great 10 miles east of Glendale. Maybe you are referring to something other than weather in So Cal?
Alison Rose
@lowtechcyclist: It’s a full dessert cart of pics. I’ve got a cupcake, a multi-fruit tart, something that looks like a wedding cake, etc.
Martin
@Mike in Pasadena: Sucky weather in this context can mean haze, smog, etc. Like eskimos have 14 different words for snow, we can afford 14 different subtypes of ‘sunny and 72’.
Brachiator
Damnit! I previously posted an incomplete message that said the goddam opposite of what I intended.
Should have read:
I like that Schumer has challenged the GOP to offer their own proposals. I look forward to seeing how Biden and the Congressional Democrats deal with this.
I get tired of the GOP focusing on the phony issue of border security as though a wall will solve all problems. The MAGA crowd has bought this hook, line and sinker.
I would like to see the Democrats offer a bill that would impose heavy fines on big businesses which hire undocumented people. Include some jail time.
Let’s see how the GOP reacts to that.
Betty Cracker
@Chris: To frame the discussion, I’d exclude Fox News and its viewers. They aren’t reachable. Among reachable voters, the Biden admin is getting dinged by factions on the left for continuing some of Trump’s anti-migrant policies and blamed by some in the center for not doing enough to secure the border. I don’t know if Dems can do anything to move the needle on the issue. It’s a tough nut to crack for sure. But I don’t exclude the possibility either. We’ll see.
Brachiator
@RaflW:
That’s what I meant to write. I screwed up the edit and didn’t look at the text before posting.
Martin
@Baud: It’s pretty insulting though. Hunter just deposited $1400 in his bank account. The least he could do is offer that much for border security.
cain
@Hoodie:
Which we created in the first place at the behest of some American company. This is where the danger lies when we try to fuck with other countries because some oil or produce company wants have full sway over the markets there.
wjca
Pretty sure this is what you meant to say.
Motivated Seller
@Hoodie:
Sounds like something Henry Kissinger would say!
Unfortunately I think this will play horribly well with Republican faithful, and with endless repetition, it will eventually get picked up by the Foreign Policy Blob–as proof again–that Democrats aren’t “realist” enough.
Jinchi
Unless the Republicans pull the rug out, again.
Senate Republicans were supposed to be in support of Ukraine funding. McConnell was pretty vocal about supporting it only a month ago. The House was supposed to be the roadblock, and this isn’t their deal.
Ksmiami
@Omnes Omnibus: but he’s not entirely wrong. Evangelical Christian politics has been toxic to society
coin operated
I get a kick out of the handwringing over immigration. Big Ag will step in and slap Republicans straight after they’ve made a bit of a fuss. The states that have implemented draconian immigration laws ended up repealing said laws after scaring all the workers off and watching billions of dollars in ag products rot on the ground…and these jackholes think they’re going to implement this on a *national* level?
LOL…good luck. Immigration, legal or illegal, will stop when Big Ag wants it to stop, and not a moment before.
Baud
@Ksmiami:
Then he shouldn’t have voted straight GOP in the last Virginia election.
billcinsd
@Baud: The compromise is, as always, adopt the Republican plan and have them shift the goalposts
wjca
But it doesn’t end the economic incentive to come. Simply because even a, to our eye, insignificant fraction of our base pay can be HUGE for family members still in the old country.
And for employers, it means that, while they may have to pay minimum wages, they have a buffer against having to raise pay above those minimums.
Jørgen
@cain: You wish. We have plenty of fans of confederate America here in Denmark. Trump fans, Reagan fans, you name it. You’re welcome to them.
moops
Promise the GOP anything they ask for on immigration. Then send the money to Ukraine. Then renege on everything. Break your promises. That precedent is standard operating procedure for the GOP these days. Yes, we promise all this stuff in this here bill. It is very possible that the GOP politicians won’t even realize we did something else. They just talk and talk and campaign constantly.
Oh, it seems we ended up spending all the immigration money on fixing the actual system. Whoops.
All pissed off? wailing on Fox News? *shrug* they already cry wolf non-stop about things they make up. Viewers would have no idea what is actually happening.
Chris
@Motivated Seller:
It’s fascinating how the Foreign Policy Blob goes haywire when a Democrat is in the White House.
Ukraine and the sudden ambivalence some of them had is one example. An earlier one that’s been all but forgotten today is the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s, where people who had happily and unquestioningly cheerled things like Grenada, Panama, Kuwait, were suddenly squirming, using phrases like “another Vietnam,” and generally suddenly sounding like war-averse liberals. (And the war’s largely been memoryholed, which is absolutely insane considering that it’s probably the most morally uncomplicated one we’ve fought since World War Two).
There’s just something that drives them nuts about having to do the same thing for a Democratic president as they did for their dear Strong Republican Daddies.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@Kristine Smith: Thanks much.
@Mike in Pasadena: While the weather has been nice in the daytime, nighttime here has had quite a bit of passing clouds(bad for astro). I have been doing test shots here(partly due to the bum tire on the Prius), and even with the light pollution, I’ve obtained some surprisingly good results. I’ll try again in the next few days(today is my Friday) from here in the city with maybe 3 hours of shooting time on the Orion nebula since it is really bright.
Also the past week or so, the Moon has been an issue(full Moon was a bit over a week ago).
@Martin: It hasn’t been too bad for solar astronomy here, but nighttime has been pretty cloudy, and there is this work thing…
Brachiator
@Chris:
No.
The economies of the home countries have to improve. Otherwise there is always an incentive to come here.
But we also need to spend more to process immigration requests.
wjca
I have to dissent on the “big business” limitation. I’d like to also go after to ultra rich** who, as individuals, employ illegals. Whether as maids or gardeners or caregivers. (It would, after all, be easier to prove than tax fraud.)
** Or even just the moderately rich. But one must start somewhere, and this should start at the top.
CaseyL
The idea of just plain doing what the GOP accuses Biden of doing – opening the borders completely – and then sitting back to see the Right implode does tickle me.
randy khan
@Jeffro:
And, truth be told, they’re going to complain about an open border (which of course we don’t have and never have had) even if Biden implements the most draconian proposal they cn imagine a split second after it’s adopted. So just accept the stupidity as the price for the Ukrainian aid and live with it.
Subsole
@Brachiator:
I would rather they offer severe jail time and fines on people who hire undocumented labor.
The problem is not going to be solved while we keep trampling the people in the situation who have no power. Stomp on the people with power (bisiness owners and hirers) until they use their power to help solve the issue.
Bonus points if we point out that everyone is going to shit their entire spinal column out of their ears when produce stops costing 5 bucks a ton to harvest.
Subsole
@RaflW:
Yep. This. Exactly. Anything else is just performative cruelty visited upon the vulnerable.
Anyway
Obama’s admin was very aggressive about deporting immigrants that were not in status (for various reasons) — to demonstrate good faith to the Rs. Of course it didn’t help.
Subsole
@Hoodie:
About the time they turn on the Irish again.
David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
Stunning news:
Yankees acquire Juan Soto
In happier news, maga having meltdown over Taylor being named Time Person of the Year
Baud
@David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch:
Cruel
summerwinterMartin
@Jeffro: I agree. Biden inherited border wall funding and has been managing it down ever since. There’s a faction of the left that freaks the fuck out every time it surfaces with a ‘no better than Trump’ message, because they aren’t interested in reading what’s been written.
The last time border wall surfaced Biden had rejected the proposal because the wall was too high and it wasn’t portable. Yes, the border wall needs to be portable, so we can move to where it’s better needed.
That border wall funding was passed in 2020, and it’s still being slow walked.
Martin
@Anyway: I think it’s broadly good policy to deport undocumented felons. You’re not going to get Democrats fighting that one.
Brachiator
@Subsole:
That’s what I meant to write and later corrected in another post.
Mai Naem mobile
@CaseyL: that has been going on for several years. Even pre-TFG. Used to be politics overall stopped at the edge of the water. No more. The GOP doesn’t give a flying fuck about anything except for money and power for themselves and their wealthy buds. It’s awful for this country in the short term and really really bad in the long term. It really diminishes the power of the US.
Matt McIrvin
I heard the same thing about abortion in 2004. Give ’em their abortion ban, maybe we can get our other priorities. Nah, I don’t buy it.
Subsole
@Brachiator:
Yeah.
The issue then becomes BigAg. Because my God if you thought they gouged us during Covid…just wait until their cheap, abusable labor pool gets taken away from them.
schrodingers_cat
@Matt McIrvin: Yeah me neither. Its lovely to see so many commenters willing to throw asylum seekers and other desperate people to the mercy of Republican wolves.
Subsole
@Mai Naem mobile:
It’s not even money, now.
Just raw, seething, hideously petty spite.
Martin
@🐾BillinGlendaleCA: My son is getting into photography and is a big space nerd so I expect astrophotography will come along. I may have some questions.
As a first camera he bought a Fuji mirrorless – X-S10 I think. Maybe the model up. He’s having fun with it. Learning a lot.
Gvg
Republicans don’t keep their word, or deals. They also always move the goal post. They don’t actually know what they want so they can’t even state it when trying to deal. There is no deal that can be made except them backing down. I say that because they live in a fantasy land and want things that can’t be accomplished especially not by giving them what they ask for, which they will then blame us for the bad results. They are not in agreement with each other and some of them care about re election so if we give them time they usually collapse under the pressure now and we get some face saving move that gets us something and moves the crisis down the timeline again.
But mainly just remember they don’t keep their deals so their is no point.
pabadger
@🐾BillinGlendaleCA: that is very nice.
Downpuppy
Back to the original post –
There is no possibility. Negotiations stopped because even the most aged, soft, Democrats involved realized that there was no good faith on the other side, just a half assed effort at looking reasonable while making impossible and shifting demands.
Dan B
@cain: Putin, it is speculated, is using anti-LGBTQ propaganda to distract from the failures of the war against Ukraine. Not only were LGBTQ people called a ‘western’ threat to sacred Russia but their organizations are one step from being terrorists. There were massive raids in gay bars where patrons were forced face down on the floor. The next step is likely to be taking children away from LGBTQ families. What will follow?
Lapassionara
@Mai Naem mobile: Bingo. Just wait until the dollar is no longer the global reserve currency. Why would any Republican mess with our international standing, unless they are on Putin’s payroll.
cain
@Dan B:
What will follow is getting a big cheer from the evangelical churches who want the same thing. Russia will happily fund them while also getting them to do other compromising things.
The FBI and the CIA has their work cut out for them – especially when they got congressional leaders also helping.
Brachiator
@wjca:
I suggest this bill only to annoy Republicans. Ultimately, I don’t give a shit about employment restrictions.
In Southern California, almost everyone who can employs undocumented workers. Unions look the other way and accept some undocumented workers on construction projects. There are jokes about MAGA dopes in conservative Orange County, California driving to Home Depot to pick up undocumented day laborers.
There is exploitation of workers in some low wage industries, but other industries where the pay is fair. But raises are less frequent and employers skip out on payroll taxes, and so still save money.
I ran across a guy in a cafe who railed against illegal immigration but admitted that he hired undocumented workers to build an apartment above his garage.
And before the pandemic, the restaurant industry totally depended on undocumented workers. Lots of advertising solely in Spanish language newspapers. I would even notice signs in Spanish in the windows of some businesses advertising for workers.
The hypocrisy is astounding.
But again, as long as there is more opportunity here than in home countries, you are going to have people come here.
cain
@Anyway:
And caused a lot of grief and pain as well. Of course, they also tried to create the DREAMERS who almost got fucked for trusting the government.
Alison Rose
@David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch: Oh cool, so if I wanna be named PotY, all I have to do is write some songs and then date a bigot for a while and never apologize for it. Sweet.
cain
I don’t deny that every country in the Europe doesn’t have their MAGA types. I’ve seen several confederate flags in Germany. A lot of these folks turn hard right thanks to the large number of refugees pouring in from various countries and the culture clash that happens when they do.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@Martin: The important thing is to have fun with it, there is a very steep learning curve, especially as you move from landscape nightscapes to deep space, but the knowledge in each does compliment each other. I just re-watched Astrobackyard’s video on 14 tips for astrophotography this morning, I think his best advice is don’t listen to the internet experts and take pride in your own progress. I mean, can their 10k rig with pixinsight for processing produce better results than I can with my $1500 setup and Siril, sure. But I’m just happy with the progress I’ve achieved on my target, and that is the most important.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@pabadger: Thank you very much.
Jay
Give the MAGAT’s what they want.
Close the Border.
No tourists, trucks, trains, no crossings what so ever. Shut down all the flights to and from the south.
“Oh, when you said “Close the Border”, you didn’t actually mean “Close the Border?”
Well then, I guess we will need new legislation to Open the Border, right? That might take a while.
brendancalling
@Alison Rose: I think you ought to look up TS’s political activity. She’s a Dem—and after telling people to register to vote at a concert appearance (I forget where, too lazy to look) something like 35K people registered.
i was disappointed in that dating choice too, but Travis Kelce is not that guy. She’s pro-LGBTQ, pro-choice, and does not Trump at all.
People make mistakes, but IMO she’s been a force for good.
David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
@Alison Rose:
Shake it off
MagdaInBlack
@Alison Rose: As you and I both know, people sometimes make poor dating choices.
Gavin Newsom?
Alison Rose
@brendancalling: Dude. I was a huge fan of hers for over a decade, I followed I don’t even know how many fan accounts and had absurdly long text exchanges with other Swifties analyzing every word she’s written, and I know more about her history and her politics than you do. I know that she was briefly very outspoken about same-sex rights and then went completely radio silent when anti-trans shit started happening in her own state. I know that she encouraged people to register to vote and then didn’t speak up about when those same people begged her to. And I am not talking about Kelce, I’m talking about Healy, who is a monumental sack of shit and she very proudly dated him, whether for real or PR, and bleated on stage about how she was just the happiest she’s ever been while thousands of her fans, including me, were shocked and upset by what she was doing, and she never said a damn word in explanation.
Please do not assume I don’t know what I’m talking about. Giving up her music was painful for me. I didn’t do it because I knew nothing.
Another Scott
It’s clear from this current picture at the Laredo, TX border crossing that we must do something NOW NOW NOW about the CRISIS at the Border!!11ONE
:-/
(From here.)
I heard Linsey (I think it was) screaming a couple of days ago about 9500 “illegal” people crossing the border EVERY DAY!!1 You know that’s a cherry-picked number.
In 2018, 11M people in cars, and 3.7M pedestrians crossed the border at Laredo, TX. Alone. These people screaming about a CRISIS are off the map – 25% of the total people, or 100% of the pedestrians, crossing the border are not “illegal”.
[eta:] Yes, one crossing vs the whole border. They’re still cherry-picking.
Grr…,
Scott.
schrodingers_cat
@🐾BillinGlendaleCA: Awesome pics. I find night skies most challenging to paint. I am getting better but I don’t think I have nailed it, yet.
way2blue
Ms Betty C. These Republicans think they’d come out on top in such a collapse of American institutions. It’s their fever dream. BTW. You’re channeling Tender, and his musings have merit »
Alison Rose
@MagdaInBlack: If this is meant to be a joke, it failed. Guilfoyle wasn’t a raging nutbag when they were married. That didn’t happen for a long time after. Healy had literally days and weeks prior to Taylor dating him done Nazi salutes on stage, insulted POC and mocked them, made out with teen girls in his audiences, etc. Not the same thing at all.
I don’t wanna derail another thread, so if this is where we’re going, I’m gonna step away. Taylor’s actions caused me and a lot of other fans of hers a lot of distress and I don’t need to be lectured about how we should view her.
trollhattan
Ohio, Florida of the north? Let’s ask Ohio Woman.
MagdaInBlack
@Alison Rose: I was not a joke, Im sorry i responded. Won’t happen again.
schrodingers_cat
Just like with abortion, Rs are not going to stop with people coming over the southern border. They will renew their attacks on the entire immigration apparatus. I haven’t forgotten the Trump years.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@🐾BillinGlendaleCA: This partly to expound on my reply to Martin…
If anyone wants to dip their toes into deep space photography, there are a couple of relatively affordable options that recently came out. Both are smart telescopes that are controlled by your cellphone and both retail for about $500. Both can produce a photo on your phone that may wow your family and friends, both can also save the individual frames for processing(you can produce really good results with good postprocessing).
The first is Dwarf II from Dwarflabs, it has higher resolution and two cameras(wide and telephoto), but has lower light gathering due to the higher resolution sensor. The second is the SeeStar S50 from ZWO, it has lower resolution and a higher zoom(you can’t fit M31 in one shot) and also only shoots in portrait(Dwarf II only shoots in landscape). I think the telescope part is better on the SeeStar S50 and it has a better light pollution filter built into it.
But, if you want to dip your toe into the astro game, they are both good options,
David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
@brendancalling:
I think it was Napoleon who said, “the enemy of my enemy is smoking hawt” (photo)
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@schrodingers_cat: Thanks, it can be pretty hard to process too.
Mike
How about accept the Republikan proposals and insist on a nationwide E-verify requirement? If people can’t jobs, that would slow the border surge a bit. I would think.
cmorenc
@zhena gogolia:
…except that Trump also wants to pull the US out of NATO – although he didn’t actually do that during his presidential term, he behaved like a complete disrespectful asshole in meetings with NATO allies.
Jeffro
Yup.
I just posted something similar on FB to try and wake up my RWNJ-adjacent friends and relatives.
It started with “this is how the GOP acts to appease Putin even with trump OUT of power…what would they do if he was back?” and ended with “Ronald Reagan must be rolling over in his grave”
trollhattan
Wednesday in America.
And it’s just three o’clock.
schrodingers_cat
@🐾BillinGlendaleCA: Do you use Photoshop or Light Room?
Jeffro
Yes indeed. “Oh…you sure got me this time, GOP…I guess we will now institute X, Y, and Z at the border…thank you for the $100B+ in Ukraine aid across the next two years…let’s move forward together…”
If he can do it without rolling his eyes on camera, it’s a win
Geminid
So, the Senate just failed to close debate on the Democratic supplemental appropriations package. It was a 50-50 vote, and then Majority Leader Schumer changed his vote to no.
I believe that was a common tactical move that allows Schumer to propose another floor vote on the legislation. Although in this instance another floor vote on this package does not seem likely..
Jeffro
??
Who – in an actual position of power – said this? And back in 2004? Not buying it.
Geminid
@cmorenc: Trump also tried to remove US troops from Germany but was blocked. This was after the 2020 election and would have gotten more attention if so much else wasn’t going on.
schrodingers_cat
@Jeffro: BS called NARAL establishment during the 2016 primaries. Many progressives see issues like immigration, abortion etc to be distractions that keep Ds from pursuing the economic agenda of their liking.
Jeffro
@schrodingers_cat: ok, noted. I’m waiting to hear how 2004 = 2016, and exactly who was ok (on the Dem side) with ‘giving’ Republicans an abortion ban.
SomeRandomGuy
Jack Smith is bringing the goods, proving Trump never intended a peaceful transfer of power if he lost. This has the additional happy effect of making every Republican who supported him look either corrupt, or too stupid for words.
Miss Bianca
@moops: intriguing ideas, newsletter, etc.
TS
Why don’t the democrats just take the lead from the GOP – agree to the demands and then ignore them completely afterwards (Kevin showed them how to do this)
emjayay
@Alison Rose: And China will move on Taiwan.
emjayay
@Alison Rose: And China will move on Taiwan.
Jeffro
@TS: suggested at #4 (and other points) upthread! =)
As with so many other things, we should just give them a taste of their own medicine.
billcinsd
@Jeffro: I have heard and still hear this sort of thing, usually from people I would categorize as “realist centrists”, who think throwing a Dem constituency under the bus is no big deal and shows that they are willing to confront the evil commie left wingers. Were any of these by people with power (Matt didn’t say people with power) I don’t remember. Usually not but some of this goes back 20+ years so who knows
TS
@Jeffro:
Thought I wouldn’t be the first, but in my part of the world I just sat down with the morning coffee & this was the first thing I saw – I haven’t yet read all the comments. Seems to be getting more & more like the happenings 1936-1939. One wonders what the world would have been like if Japan had not attacked Pearl Harbor. Perhaps we will yet find out.
Another Scott
@WaterGirl: Yes, the leader sets the calendar (as I understand it). But presumably Schumer will only keep them around if he sees a path to passing important legislation like the supplemental.
Next week is likely to be critical. [/Tom-Friedman]
We’ll see.
[eta:] TheHill says senators are hoping for Biden and McConnell to find a way out for them.
Cheers,
Scott.
Leto
Speaking of Venezuela, this was posted last night:
I don’t know if they’re doing more than just talk atm, but still not good.
JML
COVID sucks, but at least I got to watch my Aston Villa knock off Citeh today in a pretty dominant performance for a 1-0 win. We’re up to 3rd on the table, I’m over the moon.
Martin
@🐾BillinGlendaleCA: Thanks. I’ll pass that along. He’s an engineer and his ability to analyze a result and adjust is very good. He’s got an intuitive understanding of optics. I don’t think he’ll have trouble with it, but it can be frustrating when you are first getting going and struggling to find success.
brendancalling
@Alison Rose: Just to be clear, I know Kelce isn’t Healey. I was too lazy too look up that prick’s name (I’m on my phone, and my thumbs hurt). But if I sounded like I was assuming—my bad, and I’m sorry. And I didn’t know about the radio silence, which is important to me as the dad of a trans kid. Your points are well-taken, and have been filed away the next time Swift comes up.
And yeah, that’s a huge bummer. I’d turn away too.
planetjanet
@Jeffro: So do you want to put kids in cages in exchange for Ukraine aid? Republicans want to eliminate LEGAL immigration. That is my understanding of what the Republicans are asking for. Detention of asylum claims, including children.
NotMax
FYI.
WaterGirl
@Brachiator: I just added the 3 missing words to your comment.
Dan B
@schrodingers_cat: Some right wing pundit wants to remove all immigrants, including naturalized citizens. I’m not surprised. My sister in law’s country club has zero people of color or even south Asian or East Asian members. Probably no jews. I can understand how they’d be afraid of of northern European white origin. They’ve almost never been in contact.
Sister Golden Bear
@Tony Jay: I like the way you think.
<inserts photo of the woman hitting a Neo-Nazi with her handbag>
schrodingers_cat
@Jeffro: I will Matt McI answer you since that was his original comment.
Rusty
@🐾BillinGlendaleCA: Gorgeous. A nice respite from the doom of abandoning Ukraine and whatever horror the Republicans want at the border. I would be happy to give them their damn wall if it would keep funds flowing to Ukraine, but I know there is no settlement the Republicans would ever accept. They are negotiating in bad faith. Biden could promise to start tearing refugee children from their parents again, and that wouldn’t be enough.
Matt McIrvin
@Jeffro: Honestly it was a blog thing. I was an active commenter on The Poor Man at the time. Bush had just beat Kerry, it was all supposedly about the “values voters” (homophobic backlash, basically) and “The Editors” was despondent, and he made a post saying, basically, the only way he saw the Democrats ever winning elections again was to neutralize some cultural issue by going hard right, and he picked abortion. Said the Dems should run a hardline religious anti-abortion candidate in 2008, because the alternative was eternal neocon rule and endless war.
I kind of flipped out on him. He said he was in the bargaining stage of grief. But he thought it was the only way forward.
In hindsight it seems like it would have been an incredibly unwise way to play it, especially considering that moment was basically George W. Bush’s last second in the sun and everything turned to shit for him in the following months.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@schrodingers_cat: Both,
Gretchen
@Alison Rose: why do you think Travis Kelce is a bigot? I live in Kansas City and have never seen reporting that indicated that. Or are you referring to a previous boyfriend? That might indicate that she learns from mistakes.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@Martin: One thing beginners overlook, the tracking mount is more important than the telescope. You can shoot with a telephoto lens on a mirrorless camera and get really good shots with a good mount. A crappy mount won’t produce good results.
Daoud bin Daoud
@Sister Golden Bear:
@Tony Jay: Remember Madame la Guillotine! (I’m a traditionalist, I know)