I’m in charge of fauna in our household. Bill handles the flora. He’s the landscaper and gardener who has been nurturing seedlings for peppers, cucumbers, eggplants, tomatoes, etc., for more than a month now.
But in December 2022, someone gave me a flowering phalaenopsis orchid, and it was so pretty I decided to see if I could not only keep it alive but maybe get it to flower again. A year and change later, success!
After the initial blooms dropped off, I repotted it. It got a spike before the holidays, then acquired buds that stubbornly refused to open. According to Google, it may have been because I was protecting it from the cold a little too well. It lives on the porch, but I was whisking it indoors when the temps dropped below 60 F.
Apparently exposing it to temps in the 50s triggers blooms. I left it out one night and voila! I probably should have saved this for a garden chat, but I was so excited I had to share.
***
Now for the bums portion of the post. I thought Donald Trump had a planet-sized ego, and he does, but Joe Manchin’s self-regard is similarly scaled, and I’m not sure he has Trump’s excuse of being a deranged narcissist with a compulsion to cultivate external validation lest he confront the existential truth of his own utter worthlessness. Or maybe he does, I dunno:
CNN — Sen. Joe Manchin says he “absolutely” can see himself as president…
You don’t say…
In public, during stops in states such as New Hampshire, South Carolina and Georgia, Manchin says he believes there’s a role for him as a national icon in the “fiscally responsible and socially compassionate” middle, comparable with the role Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders plays for the progressive left…
We already have “a national icon in the ‘fiscally responsible and socially compassionate’ middle” — he lives at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in D.C. He is reducing the debt that exploded under Trump and doing what he can to protect people’s rights in states run by members of the fascist cult party.
Manchin is hoping to get a meeting with Biden to urge the president to change the way he’s campaigning – for example, to focus more on how inflation declined after the more fiscally constrained Inflation Reduction Act that he forced Biden to retrench; or to talk less about climate change and more about energy security…
So Joe Biden — who was a U.S. senator for as long as he wanted the job because he kept getting reelected, who was twice elected VP and who beat an incumbent president to earn the top job — is supposed to listen to Paw-Paw BlackLung, who is retiring now because his home state’s governor, a folksy buffoon whose primary asset is Babydog, was definitely going to bounce Manchin out of his senate seat?
As Biden tries to assert the success of his presidency, Manchin says he shaped “everything” in the president’s agenda. In an interview with CNN as he drove in New Hampshire, Manchin said the country would have been worse off if he hadn’t used the 50-50 Senate to force Biden to do things his way, arguing, “The way it was presented and the way it ended up are two different things.”
Good lord, what an egotistical prick. It sucks that someone from the fascist cult party will replace him, but I look forward to the day when no one gives a shit what Joe Manchin thinks anymore. I hope he wilts like a neglected orchid when denied the attention he so desperately craves.
Open thread.
arrieve
I doubt many people care what Joe Manchin thinks now.
Salty Sam .
Heck Betty, we’re already there…
ETA- ha ha ha @#1
Old School
I’m not a politician, but “Re-elect me because Joe Manchin kept me from passing bills in the form I preferred!” doesn’t strike me as a winning message.
matt
Since Sinema started shutting the fuck up, I think Manchin is now winning the ‘most annoying backstabbing shit’ Golden Scorpion Award among the Democrats in the Senate.
Mai Naem mobile
Joe Manchin needs to retire to spend time with Don Blankenship.
Kind of OT, I cannot listen to Orange Lump for four years if he wins in November. Jeezus. I will block his name on everything I am able to block it on. I will pay money for whoever comes up with some app so that he can he blocked on everything so I do not have to listen to his ugly whiny garbage voice.
Matt McIrvin
So this 76-year-old guy is the new blood the party needs, I guess.
Baud
I can relate.
BeautifulPlumage
That is a very lovely photo! I may take a mini mind vacation or two to your porch today.
Brit in Chicago
What does “socially compassionate” even mean, in terms of policy? Cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid—Yes or No? The right to choose one’s own reproductive health care—Yes or No? And so on.
Frankensteinbeck
@Brit in Chicago:
Make white
peoplecis het men feel comfortable.Mai Naem mobile
@matt: Sinema’s got pics of her with every damned AZ politician/non elected local leader on her social media. Like that’s going to save her Senate seat. Nah, move on. You’re done Kyrsten. Don’t let the door hit your fuschia covered ass.
Alison Rose
That’s funny because exposing me to temperatures in the 50s makes me curl up like a roly-poly.
A friend shared this song on FB and I’d never heard it but 1) this woman’s voice is beautiful, and 2) I FUCKING CONCUR:
(Note: “Ghetto” isn’t a term I would use myself as a person whose melanin went to her hair and nowhere else, but I felt the truth of this message in my fucking bones)
Yarrow
The ego on this motherfucker! He can fuck right off. And then fuck off some more.
trollhattan
Nice! Orchids can be pissy, especially in dry climates like ours, and I feel successful if they just produce a leaf or two/year before the inevitable croaking. Don’t understand the whole grow-in-chips thing.
Our evergreen pears look ready to bloom beginning today, as we’re having a warm spell (70+). Always nice to have an announcement of spring, even if it’s fake as a fake thing since winter will return soon enough.
Geminid
Those TV networks are gonna love Senator Jim Justice. Justice makes Joe Manchin sound like David Niven.
Alison Rose
@Old School: Where are you getting this paraphrase from?
trollhattan
@Yarrow: How many times can we sink that fucking yacht? Let’s get started.
Sister Golden Bear
Re-upping from the almost-dead thread below.
PA Supreme Court Rules Abortion Access Is A Right
Also too, in trans genocide news, Texas AG tries to impose the fugitive
slavetrans healthcare act on other states: Paxton Demands Medical Records Of GA Trans Clinic. As I posted about a few days ago, other Republicans were caught saying the quiet part out loud — that the goal is to ban trans healthcare for all trans people regardless of age.Jeffro
@Yarrow: ah, dang it, you beat me to it!!
(but may I just add one more “fuck this jerk”)
Alison Rose
@Sister Golden Bear: You know, for people who claim to be morally pure, GOPers are disturbingly obsessed with other people’s genitals.
kindness
One should know they’re in trouble when they start believing their own press clippings. Sadly, they rarely see that, but choose to believe their own marketing people.
Jackie
@matt: You mentioned Sinema’s quietness. She’s back in the spotlight in a not so positive way:
smith
@Brit in Chicago: This is old canard you used to hear from well-off tote bagger types, who described themselves as “fiscally conservative and socially liberal.” It’s self-forgiving code for, “My heart bleeds for you poor oppressed folks, and I wish you the best, but don’t ask me to pay to help you out.”
The truth is, to the extent that “fiscally conservative” means, “Don’t make me pay taxes,” it can’t coexist with “socially liberal.”
Yarrow
@Sister Golden Bear: If they succeed in getting medical records from that clinic they certainly won’t stop there. They’ll be demanding women’s medical records just in case they said they had an abortion. Then they’ll lock them up. And that’ll just be the beginning.
West of the Rockies
Can I say that I find Manchin’s face off-putting? I dislike his big chin and pointy nose and dull expression.
Anoniminous
@Brit in Chicago:
Forcing women who have become pregnant after being raped to carry the child to birth.
Jeffery
Too cold a draft and the orchid buds will fall off. I’ve had that happen more than once.
Redshift
Yeah, nothing says “fiscally responsible and socially compassionate” like refusing to vote to continue the biggest reduction of child poverty in history.
Phylllis
Joe Manchin and his shitass daughter can both burn in Hell. It hasn’t been that long ago that many states passed laws requiring schools to always have Epipens on hand* and then the daughter conspired almost immediately to quadruple the price.
*Not a bad thing in and of itself.
Ohio Mom
@smith: I thought “socially liberal” meant “I’m not going to make a fuss if you tell me you’re gay,” and similar culture war issues like, it’s okay if you marry someone of another race, recreational pot is fine, that sort of thing.
Like whoop-de-doo, you’ve joined this century.
Now does socially liberal mean “I understand concepts like systemic racism,” no.
geg6
This fucking guy. It is to laugh.
Redshift
We’re all well aware of that, and nobody who’s inclined to vote for a Democrat is happy about it. “Joe Biden should talk more about my agenda” coming from one of the two most hated members of the caucus smacks of “take your base for granted and try to bring people over from the other side,” only worse.
Baud
I’m not Sanders fan, but he has actual people outside of the media who cares what he thinks.
Frankly, there arguably is a role for strong, centrist voices, but it really requires having the courage of attacking the GOP on the issues instead of preaching to everyone else to work with them.
Brit in Chicago
@smith: I think in that context “socially liberal” means that I want to be free to smoke dope (and perhaps snort cocaine) and screw anyone I want to.
Interestingly, while “fiscally conservative and socially liberal” gets a lot of press (mostly because there are tech-bros who describe themselves that way) the number of voters in that quadrant is really small. Whereas fiscally liberal and socially conservative gets a lot of support. Those include a lot of the people that supported Trump. The Democrats need to get them back, as Biden well understands—his support of unions goes along with that.
Anoniminous
@Ohio Mom:
{Trigger alert for link!!!!}
Racism? What racism? Nicky Haley assures us racism was never a problem in the US.
WaterGirl
@Jackie:
Just wanted to see that again.
Marmot
@smith:
Yup. “We may even vote for programs to help. But we’re not going to fund those programs.”
Chief Oshkosh
@Phylllis: I’ve always thought that the proper course of life for those two was for dad and daughter to go on a nice, scenic drive down to the dock in dad’s Maserati, drunk as lords, and run it off the dock right onto the deck of dad’s yacht, sinking said yacht and drowning the two asswipes.
ETA: And the rest of us lived happily ever after. The End.
Phylllis
@Anoniminous: Considering in her autobiography she details how difficult it was for her and her family due to racism in her hometown.
Chief Oshkosh
@Phylllis:
Gee, Nikki, don’t you know that the Baby Jesus despises a ladder-puller?
Geminid
@Brit in Chicago: I guessing that it was “socially liberal, fiscally conservative” voters who made Charlie Baker a Governor in Massachusetts and Larry Hogan a Governor oin Maryland. Democrats seem to attract these voters already in Presidential elections.
JoyceH
Manchin is a product of his environment. For years people have hung on his every word, asking probing questions about what he wants and what he thinks. Of course he sees that as a universal recognition of his wisdom, not the genuine exasperation of “how do we get around this pot hole so we can accomplish something?”
You see the same kind of thing in the military, Captains and Colonels and Generals and Admirals retire thinking they’re great leaders – “I just tell people what to do and they do it, no back talk or fussing.” Then they get a civilian job and realize it’s different when not doing what he says and even talking back is NOT illegal.
Sister Golden Bear
@Alison Rose: They think about people’s genitals and homosexual sex far, far more than I do, and I’m a trans lesbian.
Marmot
I just … how is that supposed to work? “The IRA law worked great because I cut it back”?
Does it not occur to the man that it might have been more effective, for longer, if he hadn’t cut it? WTF!
Sister Golden Bear
@Alison Rose: Love it!
In a similar vein: Graham Parker “Waiting for the UFOs.”
smith
It seems to me that a large portion of that group long ago decided that their racism was more valuable to them than their paycheck. Besides, they’ve been reliability informed by Fox “News” that the reason so many good jobs were shipped to China is because immigrants have been flooding the border.
Alison Rose
@Sister Golden Bear: And especially considering this is often directed at trans/enby youth. Like…the right keeps calling us all pedos, but like, my dudes, no one spends more time thinking about what’s under a child’s clothing than all of y’all.
cain
For those of you following along with my wife’s educational journey:
When we last looked at her situation last – she had something in her file and she was facing potentially an ending of her educational journey and having to restart and dealing with the pain and trauma of a repeated cycle of racism and misogyny.
Since then, she’s met with her former teachers from her district – the grief and anger coming from her former teachers was heartbreaking. I helped clean her old office – taking down all these notes from children, parents, and teachers wishing her all the best. She had to grief counsel some of these teachers while managing what to do. She did request that the teachers put something in her file to mitigate the entry from the school administration as a way to channel their anger and hurt. But they were _angry_ at the administration to take a empathetic administration when the principal was horrible to them.
Some black guy said something about the arc of moral justice is long or something like that.
Today, the superintendent of her former school system responded to her query and was eager to meet and think about possibilities at the school system. With administration license in hand, I’m excited about what they could offer her. Despite what these assholes have done – she ain’t done with education. She also obtained an opportunity to work with someone who is famous and a book author to possibly look at DEI opportunities and maybe start a consulting company.
There was a darkness, despair, and anger for the past 3 months. But I think we might see some cloud breaking. For myself, I never lost faith that my wife wouldn’t succeed. She always failed upwards.
She’s off for a 5 weeks of mother daughter events. 3 weeks with her mom in India – they are going to Varanasi to led her father’s funeral shroud in the Ganges, her mom always wanted to go to Varanasi but never had a chance since her early 20s. Now, my wife can take her there. She comes back and is taking her daughter to London and Paris as part of her daughter’s 25th birthday. When she comes back – she’s gonna be ok. :-)
ETA the trip to India is a surprise, her mom has no idea she’s going to show up at her place :D
ETA the best revenge is to continue to live well and continuing to rise despite injustice. The best thing is that even after all this – she’s only gained more friends and well wishers.
patrick II
My new yardsign.
MANCHIN/SINEMA
4 MORE YEARS
Betty Cracker
TPM had a report on Sinema the other day. Sounds like she’s not gonna run:
But she’s a flake, so who knows?
Sure Lurkalot
How do you go from slim chance to be reelected in your own state to I can see myself being elected president? That’s a level of delusional ego I cannot wrap my head around.
RevRick
@Brit in Chicago: Yes, that’s definitely a fill in the blank sort of claim. But Manchin reflects the conventional wisdom that eats the brains of many of the savvy in politics and the media.
This is primarily the case with respect to the “deficit!!!” How many tons of ink have been wasted written about how it will bring about our economic doom? And the fact is in 75% of the case, we owe this debt to ourselves. Paying it off would amount to taking the money out of our right pocket and stuffing it in the left.
I personally have several claims on that debt. First and foremost is my monthly Social Security check. Then there’s Medicare. But I also own $40k in Treasuries. And depending on what the interest rates are on them in two years, I probably will just do it again.
Now I am extremely small potatoes in the vast Treasury market (a rounding error of a rounding error), my behavior is quite typical of the market. Treasuries are the safest investment in the world with guaranteed returns. And for that reason, various financial institutions must hold a portion of their assets invested in Treasuries.
Treasuries are worth their weight in gold. No, actually they are worth more. They are quite literally the world gold standard, the benchmark against which all other investments are measured.
We hear so much strum und drang about the federal deficit, but the one we should worry about, we hear nary a peep. And that’s our trade deficit, which is the result of chronically importing more than we export. Now, if we were a normal country, like, say, Argentina, the rest of the world would respond to chronic trade deficits by insisting we jack up our interest rates to kill off the ability to buy imports and drive down the value of our currency to make our exports cheaper. But that’s not the case with the United States!
Since 1980, we have run a chronic trade deficit, so much so that we have purchased trillions of dollars more goods and services over those years than we have exported.
And what has the global response to us shoveling trillions of dollars into their laps? Demands that we do what the world demands Argentina do?
Not at all!
In effect, the world has shrugged and said, “No, we’re good!”
How have we pulled this off?
It’s the secret sauce of US Treasuries, the world’s gold standard. So, what it means is that all those dollars sloshing around the globe are either used to buy some Treasuries or as supplements to their own currency in trade transactions. The world oil markets are, for instance, priced in dollars.
So, we get the extra goods and services and they get our dollars ( backed by those sweet, sweet Treasuries), and they consider that a great deal!
Old School
@Alison Rose:
From the excerpted article:
Alison Rose
@Betty Cracker: God, I hope she doesn’t run. I’ll be glad to never have to think about her again. I’m sure she’ll land a cushy little Fox gig where she can wear her “look at me aren’t I so hip and fun and this is definitely not contrived or on purpose” wardrobe while she preens above her vapid and bullshit chyrons.
Jackie
E Jean Carroll is my hero for standing up to TIFG, and this just elevated her even more! I laughed
We could have fun listing things TIFG would hate his money going to! I’d start with these:
Dog shelters.
Disabled vets organizations.
Burnspbesq
Congrats, MAGAts, you’ve achieved the seemingly impossible. You made me give a shit about Taylor Swift. Not that I’m actually going to listen to any of her music, mind you. But the enemy of my enemy etc.
P.S. if you want to hear some great music by a young female artist, check out the new Sarah Jarosz album.
Alison Rose
@Old School: But you said:
which sounds like you’re putting those words in Biden’s mouth, and none of this is coming from Biden nor would it be. Are you saying you think Manchin seems to think that would be a winning message for Biden? Because Manchin doesn’t want Biden to win — that’s pretty clear to me, no matter what mealymouthed shit he might say at times.
Alison Rose
@Jackie: The Clinton Global Foundation.
mrmoshpotato
Well put!
Jackie
@Alison Rose: Good one!
glc
Useful guide:
What to do if yoo don’t like a book at the library.
Alison Rose
@glc: LOL!
Geminid
I hope Jim Justice keeps Babydog at The Greenbriar once he’s Senator. Justice must have a nice pad there because he owns the place.
Justice can spend the workweek in DC and commute to and from home by rail. Amtrak already runs the Cardinal through White Sulpher Springs 3 times a week. And they could put on a special train for Justice and fill it full of reporters and camera crews. They’d be coming from all over to report on Jim Justice and Babydog. The journalists could also get a little trail riding or flyfishing in while they were down there.
The Thin Black Duke
I remember Manchin putting the brakes on the Child Tax Credit because the recipients would “use the money on drugs”. I hope Manchin and his fucking wannabe yacht hits a big rock and sinks.
mrmoshpotato
@Mai Naem mobile:
I’ll happily help you fund that app development.
mrmoshpotato
@Yarrow:
LOL!
Ken
A lot of politicians look in the mirror and see Presidential material. I assume it’s one of those weird magical mirrors, cursed so the viewer’s own vanity destroys them.
mrmoshpotato
@Alison Rose:
Yup. And that’s been true for a long long time.
Betty Cracker
@Geminid: We’ll lose a vote for most of Biden’s judges after Manchin is gone, but we’ll have Babydog reports.
Hungry Joe
Going back to his run for a seat on the New Castle (Del.) County Council in 1970, Joe Biden has been a candidate in 11 elections — not counting primaries, which are kinda like elections, but kinda not. He’s 11-0.
County Council: 1/1
U.S. Senate: 7/7
Vice President: 2/2
President: 1/1
The results suggest that this guy knows how to campaign.
WaterGirl
@Geminid: Remind me? Who is BabyDog?
Suzanne
I can see myself in a lounge chair, wearing a sarong and leather sandals and a big floppy hat, overlooking the beach in Mexico or maybe the south of France, with a hot shirtless waiter named Rodrigo bringing me fancy cocktails and offering to help me rub tanning oil on my back and shoulders
Come on, let’s make it happen.
stinger
@Jackie: I saw that interview, and she went on to say that she’s thinking of using the money to help other women who’ve been sexually assaulted by TIFG.
I think that would be the best use of all. Provide legal support and keep suing him.
Geminid
@Betty Cracker: If John Tester can just hang on, I’ll one of biggest Babydog fans around. That pup will be up there with Sage, the Navy’s Extended Operational Stress Reduction Canine.
Gravenstone
Because she wanted to see and be seen.
Gravenstone
@Phylllis: But now she needs those same bigots to not feel bad about themselves and actually, maybe possibly vote for her!
Geminid
@WaterGirl: Babydog is Jim Justice’s dog. Or as he might say, “dawg.”
Tony Jay
Biden – “Joe! Great to see ya. Walk with me, let’s talk.”
Manchin – “Good of you to agree to host this summit, Joe. Our people are watching.”
Biden – “Yeah, that’s right. The Infrastructure bill did extend broadband coverage for half a million homes in West Virginia. Pity we couldn’t get agreement on the funding for more, but, 50/50 Senate Rules, eh? What’s on your mind?”
Manchin – “….I’ve finalised some strategic plans to save the country from President Trump.”
Biden – “You, Dean, and everyone else. (Pats a passing intern on the back) Great work on those education figures, Jayson, keep it up, you’ll have my job one day. (Laughs) So what are you thinking? Push hard on Dobbs? Megaphone their corruption? Take a hard line on treason? Pound the wedges in between that fucking guy’s fanbase and anyone with a brain? You can help us there, Joe. You speak their language.”
Manchin – “….my people have been working on this for months. The plan is you shore up your weaknesses with the moderate centre by acknowledging how much the current recovery owes to my principled stands for fiscal responsibility.”
Biden – “Uh-huh.”
Manchin – “Nothing too out of character. Just a few interviews with the Post and The Times. A sit-down with Chuck Todd. Maybe a line or two in the State of the Union. Really push that you listened to me and see the clear benefits in the current recovery. Show Independents and Heartland Americans that you’ve learned the cost of extremism.”
Biden – “Uh-Huh.”
Manchin – “It should probably culminate in the offer of a major Cabinet post. SOS, Defence. Not the VP slot, not yet anyway, you know what those people are like when you take away their hand-outs, but something meaty. I won’t be able to accept, of course, but the gesture alone should be enough to win the trust of some moderate voters who feel unrepresented and disrespected.”
Biden – “That’s certainly something, Joe. Certainly something. Tell you what, I’ve got to take a meeting now with some people about ending childhood malnutrition in the twenty poorest states. I’ll be sure to tell them how much you’ve helped with that. Leave a number with Mary on your way out, we’ll get back to this sometime soon.”
Manchin – “….but, Joe!”
Biden – “It’s President Joe, Senator.” (Pops on a pair of aviators. Grins.) “Good talking to ya.”
One door closes. Stays closed.
Geminid
@Geminid: Sage is the yellow Lab who deployed for 8 months alongside the crew of the aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford. This was a pilot program intended to help morale during their long deployment to the Mediterranean. The Ford returned to Norfolk ten days ago, so now Sage is back in her Virginia Beach kennel. It’s operated by an outfit called “Mutts With a Mission.”
lowtechcyclist
This is news? I have long understood that practically every sitting Senator and Governor believes they see a future President when they look in the mirror.
Reminds me of the little girl in The Philadelphia Story who, when Cary Grant’s and Katherine Hepburn’s characters get married at the end, thinks to herself, “I did it. I did it all.”
Matt McIrvin
@Brit in Chicago:
To sum up, “fiscally conservative and socially liberal” people have money, which magnifies their voices. The people in the opposite quadrant don’t, but have greater numbers.
I’m not convinced we can get many of the Trump supporters among their numbers back without going full bigot, because that’s what they really care about; it overrides their purely economic interests. We can try, but I think it’s going to come down to differential turnout rather than convincing very many people to switch sides.
TBone
@Jackie: here’s one I donate to:
https://www.theusconstitution.org/
https://www.theusconstitution.org/about-cac/about-us/
Matt McIrvin
(now, there are a lot of “fiscally liberal and socially conservative” people among racial and ethnic minorities, and most of them never supported Trump in the first place, but we do have to keep conservatives from using cultural resentments to erode Democratic support among them, which has happened to some degree.)
Quadrillipede
I try to believe that Joe Manchin is just slightly-below average intelligence and/or incurious enough not to engage too critically with statements that might be abundant in West Virginia. He’s making it harder for me to do that when he says stuff like this.
He voted for KBJ and (some) other judges, which puts him far above any Republan, but still…
artem1s
@Anoniminous:
I’m outraged that it took banning abortion and Dodd to get the MSM to pay attention to the fact that there were over $65K rapes since 2022 in the 14 states that have banned abortion. Maybe these asshole red state governors, AGs and prosecutors should do something about the rape culture in their states and quit sticking their noses into women’s healthcare choices. ASSHOLES!
...now I try to be amused
@Geminid:
What a lucky pup. Thousands of people with no dog to love but her.
Matt McIrvin
@Alison Rose: They always wanna be the ones who check, for some reason.
brendancalling
Joe Manchin should take a lump of coal, pop it in his mouth, and suck on it. It’d be a lot better than whatever it is he does now.
...now I try to be amused
FOR THE WORSE.
Honus
@Geminid: to his credit, Justice has been ardently pro-vaccine from the start of Covid, to the point of offering savings bonds to high school kids as an incentive to get vaccinated. He also pushed back in the early days of covid, when West Virginia had zero cases and it was largely confined to coastal cities, telling people that the zero cases was a temporary situation, that covid was coming and people needed to take precautions because West Virginia had an aging and vulnerable population.
rikyrah
Paw-Paw BlackLung
BWA HA AHA HA HA HA HA HA
rikyrah
@Sister Golden Bear:
It’s completely obvious.
WaterGirl
@Tony Jay: LOVE THAT!
Ken
Much more pleasant than the Putin version of that adage: “One door closes, and a window is opened; then you are pushed out the window.”
WaterGirl
@…now I try to be amused: Lowest common denominator.
That’s what Joe Manchin brought to the table.
Quadrillipede
That’s fair (and me too), but if one is going to use that particular term, implying that every human on the planet (regardless of age/race/gender/ability) belongs in one strikes me as probably one of the least problematic ways to use it. 🤔
prostratedragon
Am I really going to have to learn who or what Babydog is?😫
Tony Jay
@Ken:
“The suspect threw himself repeatedly against the road surface below the window in question, causing great distress to my officers, many of whom were bullied by the suspect into assisting him back up the stairs on at least three occasions.”
scav
Iconically, loonybins are full of people who can “absolutely” can see themselves as Napoleon…
Alison Rose
@Quadrillipede: That’s not what the song is saying.
rikyrah
Koch officials tell donors Nikki Haley was the right candidate to back, despite early losses to Trump
By Fredreka Schouten, CNN
3 minute read
Updated 8:45 AM EST, Sun January 28, 2024
uh huh
https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/27/politics/koch-donors-nikki-haley-donald-trump-south-carolina/index.html
Old School
@Alison Rose:
Yes, Manchin’s suggestion is for Biden to campaign about lowering inflation through a bill that Manchin hindered. Biden’s argument is likely that he proposed bill would have done a better job.
(Sorry for being on and off the site. I’m off again now for a bit.)
dirge
Not just a problem for Texans traveling to GA for treatment. If you’re a GA resident who might appear in those files, do not ever travel to or through Texas.
Some states are passing laws to prevent medical record fishing expeditions like this, but I don’t see how you could be confident that someone like Paxton hasn’t gotten your records somehow. Can non-residents passing through TX be detained for an abortion in PA six years ago? Can CPS take your trans kid from you between connecting flights in Houston? Legally, probably not, but do you think Paxton cares about the law? Would you risk it?
I used to joke about being scared to go to various states. Not a joke any more.
Geminid
@…now I try to be amused: Sage turned four years old during the cruise. I think YouTube has video of the birthday party the sailors threw for her.
Geminid
@Honus: I listened to some of Governor Justice’s press conferences during the pandemic, on the Harrisonburg radio station. As you say, Justice was very sound on public health measures, and he never stopped emphasizing how dangerous Covid is.
Justice is also a blast to listen to. He’s just so down-homey. Like I say, the network news people are gonna love Senator Justice.
Jackie
@TBone: Oh, he’d blow a gasket!👍🏻
catclub
Jeff Flake turned out better than expected. Low bar, of course.
West of the Rockies
@prostratedragon:
The question has been answered, Logan Five.
TBone
@Jackie: hahahahaha! I’m hoping E. Jean gets really publicly creative with her new superpower!
Geminid
@catclub: Jeff Flake has been a pretyy decent Ambassador to Turkiye. Relations between the US and Turkiye have been pretty tense in recent years but Flake helped keep them on track. I think it helped that Biden and Erdogan had a good meeting last July, at the Nato summit in Vilnius.
Now that Turkiye has ratified Sweden’s Nato membership and US sales of F-16s to Turkiye seem forthcoming, Flake can probably leave the embassy post before too long.
Suzanne
@Geminid: I think Flake is itching to relaunch his political career, and is just waiting for MAGA fever to break. Honestly, I think he’ll have a good shot at it, if the conditions are right.
Fun fact: Jeff Flake lives not-too-far from where John and Joelle are. His kids went to the (much wealthier) rival of my (much poorer) high school.
geg6
@Burnspbesq:
You really should. I would suggest Folklore or Midnights. Excellent writing. Just excellent.
Citizen Alan
@smith:
I love how mad people get when they say that to me and I respond “Oh, so you’re a Democrat! Because the GOP hasn’t been fiscally conservative or social liberal at any point in the last 30 years.”
Geminid
@Suzanne: Flake is probably a good Ambassador, but he has to come home sometime. He’ll have a lot of options then. He can teach some if he wants to, just to stay active.
Quadrillipede
Shark breeding programs?
Suzanne
@Geminid: Flake is someone I could see running for governor. He grew up in Snowflake (and is in fact a descendant of William Jordan Flake, one of the LDS founders of the town). I don’t think he really comes from significant family wealth. And he lives in Mesa — in a gated community — but it’s still Mesa.
Quadrillipede
@Tony Jay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SqHtWudI24
(Content warning: extremely black comedy from Chris Morris’s Jam)
Quadrillipede
@Alison Rose: I confess that I didn’t listen to the song.
Geminid
@Suzanne: Flake can pile up some family wealth now if he wants to. I’ve never seen an ex-Senator who wanted to make good money not make it. Flake could probably make good money as a university president. That’s a politician’s job these days.
Tony Jay
@Quadrillipede:
Had me at Chris Morris. Guy was waaaaaaaaay ahead of the curve.
Miss Bianca
@Ken: LOL! You sick freak.
I mean that in the best possible way.
Chris
@Matt McIrvin:
This is the actual reason why “fiscally liberal and socially conservative” is a voting bloc that’s never represented. It’s not actually the “fiscally liberal and socially conservative” vote, which gives it credit for being more coherent and thought out than it actually is: it’s the IGMFY vote. And IGMFY voters are highly idiosyncratic and difficult to get playing together. Social conservatives from racial and ethnic minorities are only the most obvious example.
It looks like “fiscally liberal and socially conservative,” but that’s only because most people are neither rich, nor racial or ethnic minorities.
Chris
@Ken:
To be completely fair, this becomes a lot more understandable when you see the sheer number of mediocrities that are in politics.
I’ve never run for office for anything, I’m quite certain that I’d make a terrible president, but compared to Donald Trump, I’d make a fantastic president. And not just Trump. Compared to Dubya, Reagan, Nixon, I’d argue even Eisenhower, you know what, compared to any Republican since TR at least. And not just presidents; compared to any Republican senator, representative, governor, or Supreme Court Justice who took office in the last thirty years at least. And not just Republicans; even compared to Manchin, Lieberman, Bloomberg, and all the rest of these jamokes.
That’s not my high opinion of myself talking; it’s my low opinion of most politicians. As the French say: “when I measure myself, I’m embarrassed. When I compare myself, I’m proud.” (“Quand je me considère, je me méprise. Quand je me compare, je m’admire.”)
I’d make an atrocious president compared to Biden, of course. Or Obama. Or Clinton. Probably even Carter. But then most politicians aren’t Biden, Obama, or Clinton.
Quadrillipede
@Tony Jay: True dat. Nathan Barley is, if anything, more resonant today than when it was first released…
RaflW
Manchin should definitely tour the country in his Maserati. It’d really help him connect with voters.
2liberal
@Jackie:
It’s right on her brand.
Paul in KY
@Geminid: I laughed at that comparision!
Manyakitty
@RaflW: he should take his houseboat.