While we’re considering whether Cori Bush violated some campaign finance law or other, let’s not forget that the most she’ll ever be guilty of is pulling money from the wrong pile:
Arizona Senator Krysten Sinema has spent an outsize portion of her U.S. Senate office budget on charter private jets.
The former Green Party turned Democrat turned independent politician has reportedly spent roughly $210,000 of her $4.1 million taxpayer-funded budget on private jet travel, shipping herself and her staff around the country, according to a public records analysis by The Daily Beast.
Since 2020, Sinema has booked at least 11 private trips, with almost half of them occurring in 2023 alone. Nearly all of the flights were chartered for travel within the boundaries of Arizona, shuttling Sinema and her staff around the state on one- or two-day trips, reported the Beast.
Of course, this is perfectly legal — Sinema can spend her Senate budget on anything she wishes, and if she wishes to act like a movie star on the taxpayer dime, she can. Similarly, DeadSantis, Trump and the rest can coordinate billions of spending with their superpacs, pay for their legal fees from campaign donations, etc. and nobody bats an eyelash.
Finally, it ain’t no thing to fly as a Senator or Representative. I’ve personally witnessed (at the time) Rep. Stephanie Herseth-Sandlin’s treatment when she and her husband were on the same flight as me. They get the best seats, were kept in a private area until boarding, and then were escorted onto the plane by customer service reps. Sinema could easily have the same treatment, but she’s so shit-pantsed scared of actually talking to one of her constituents that she chose to spend money on a private jet.
(BTW, great subtweet by Ruben Gallego, showing him, his wife and infant child on a commercial flight to DC.)
dmsilev
It’s not at all clear that she’s even running for reelection; apparently, she hasn’t even started gathering signatures to get herself on the general-election ballot, and the deadline isn’t that far off (early April). Maybe the reality that she doesn’t have an actual voter base is starting to sink in.
$8 blue check mistermix
@dmsilev: I think this private jet thing (most of the travel was last year) is a pretty clear signal that, at minimum, she isn’t taking her re-election seriously. I doubt she’s running, and I sure hope Kari Lake runs.
dmsilev
By the way, speaking of beating up on no-hope Senate candidates, the LA Times has a doozy of a story on Steve Garvey, former baseball star and currently the best that the CA GOP can cough up as a candidate. To the shock of precisely zero people who pay attention to the modern Republican Party, it turns out that a guy who promotes himself as the avatar of family values has basically never met two of his children and also for no apparent reason completely ghosted a third one. Oh, and the Times reminds us that those first two mentioned kids were from two different women that he got pregnant, while engaged to a third one.
West of the Cascades
I live in remote southwestern New Mexico, and have a hard time faulting a Senator for using a private jet to get around a big state if the visits were to constituents. There’s no details of what the trips were for in this reporting, just breathless insinuations that somehow travel within the sixth-largest state in the US by private jet is the most horrible thing anyone has ever done. Many areas in Arizona where people live don’t have scheduled commercial air service and would take three or four hours to drive to from Phoenix. Eleven charter trips within Arizona in four years seems … pretty reasonable IF (and I admit with Sinema it’s a big “if”) these trips were to do constituent service.
“Shuttling around the state on one- or two-day trips” is pretty much what an elected official who represents the whole state ought to be doing — seemingly the complaint here is that she got in an airplane for a couple of hours round-trip instead of spending an entire day driving back and forth.
smith
Back in the day, I regularly flew back and forth between DC and Chicago, often coming home on Wednesday, the day Congressfolk frequently leave DC for the “weekend.” I was pretty familiar with the local members of Congress, so a favorite game was “count the Congressmen.” I think I topped out at 5 on the same flight, and I always took note of who was in first class and who was in steerage. I never saw a Dem in first class, never saw a Repug in coach. Though I never actually spoke to any of them, I did sit in the same row once with Blagoivich and his campaign manager and listened in as they plotted his campaign for gov.
The only senator I ever spotted was Henry Hyde, who way overfilled his first class seat looking like a hairy Jabba the Hutt.
Dangerman
Got it? Flaunt it.
Don’t got it? Grift it. Return to Step 1.
Scout211
She filed to run in October.
However, Kari Lake’s campaign reports $308,000 in debt
$8 blue check mistermix
@West of the Cascades:
From the linked article:
There’s a difference between chartering a private jet and chartering an airplane, btw. The latter is much cheaper.
HumboldtBlue
@dmsilev:
He’s gotta have a humiliation fetish. That he thinks he can use his name and past as a Dodger to get elected is hilarious. No one under 50 knows who he is, nor cares. But now his entire life is going back under the microscope because he actually thinks people will take him seriously as a political candidate.
RaflW
I flew out of DFW on American a number of years ago. Jeb Bush, who was at that point probably the former governor of Florida, but very much a political figure in the public eye, just got on the plane, sat in first class, and from what I could tell in the cheap seats, got left alone (maybe the flight attendants fawned, but left alone by the great unwashed traveling public.)
Sinema may be unpopular, but I doubt she would face more enmity than Jeb.
Scout211
@dmsilev: Well, well, well. The Republican Party in California sure knows how to pick ‘em. Have they even heard of “vetting”? LOL. I guess they assumed that past Dodgers and Padres fame was enough to make him electable. Yikes. I hope this exposure of Garvey’s “family values” is enough to move Katie Porter up to the top two in next months’s primary.
Alison Rose
@dmsilev: Oh no, this will surely tank his chances at winning the election.
And considering his chances were already at 0, that’s pretty bad.
Parfigliano
@West of the Cascades: Wonder what airports this private jet lands at in the rural parts of AZ? Seems finding airports that can handle private jet traffic would be a problem.
HumboldtBlue
Reading, and reading skills are fundamental. Marge Greene never learned that.
trollhattan
@$8 blue check mistermix: If Kari Lake runs, is it worth the cost of tens, perhaps hundreds of thousands of Arizona children traumatized by her ads and appearances?
Think of the children!
She scares me, two states distant.
rikyrah
@dmsilev:
they are always phonies
RaflW
@dmsilev: I can’t believe a Republican seeking office treats his children as props and accessories for his campaign, and was a nasty, cheating, responsibility-dodging creep when the kids were growing up.
It’s so out of character, compared with, say, the Donald-Ivana-Marla-Malania perfect marital bliss.
smith
@Scout211: After Kari Lake’s stunt of blackmailing the AZ Republican Chair to resign using tapes she secretly recorded, she’s none too popular in the party. In fact, she was booed at a recent AZ GQP party gathering. After what she pulled, could any of the GQP leadership trust her?
RedDirtGirl
@HumboldtBlue: Ha Ha!
Sure Lurkalot
There was also a complaint with the FEC filed in May of 2023 regarding using campaign funds for her personal lifestyle.
FEC Complaint – Change for Arizona 5.18.23 (documentcloud.org)
Just shines a searchlight on how we desperately need campaign finance reform and to overturn and bury Citizens United and its precedents. While I’m at it, our circle jerk election cycles which hoover up beaucoup bucks 365/24/7, from willing dupes, our rich overlords and (last and often least) concerned citizens. We can love and take pride in the fact that Juice raises money for candidates and causes, but naive me would prefer a competion of ideas and not money.
wjca
It’s not like the party gets a say. There are multiple Republicans in the primary. Garvey just happens to be the one who polls best. That’s the voters overall (since we have top-two primaries, polls are done the same way), not the party per se.
Of course, there’s a reason the party doesn’t have good people who want to run. But that’s a different discussion.
RaflW
@West of the Cascades: Nitpicking, but for most states, a comfy safe turboprop gets an entourage around on these short hops waaaay more fuel and cost efficiently. A private jet is an ego trip for anything under 4 or 500 miles. More options for regional runways, too.
divF
@smith: The 10 PM Thursday IAD – SFO flight on United was the go-home-for-the-weekend flight for the Bay Area congressional delegation. The members I remember seeing regularly were George Miller III and Ron Dellums – both big guys, and hard to miss.
ETA: Loved the Ruben Gallego pic. I love to sit next to families with babies when I fly – It cheers me up immensely.
Brachiator
@dmsilev:
Most of this is old news and while painful, not especially relevant. The Times should focus more on Garvey’s inexperience and manifest lack of any political knowledge or expertise.
This is one of the reasons that the LA Times is sadly dying as a newspaper. A deep dive into trivia is not good journalism.
scav
Only politician I ever witnessed on a plane was absolutely in back at the stewards’ station, glad-handing everyone he could talk to.
Brachiator
Sinema certainly appears to be a political Diva. I wonder what political business she is conducting on all these trips.
Elizabelle
@Brachiator: I had never heard the stories, and personal hypocrisy is a story that deserves coverage. Old news about an old guy — we have a lot of younger and transplant voters in California
I don’t find this trivial at all.
karen marie
@West of the Cascades: She took a private plane to an event with Biden and others. Everyone else (except Biden) flew commercial. Kelly is also an AZ senator, and he manages to fly commercial.
raven
Get your feet wetRun with the jet set
Manassas (feat. Stephen Stills) Jet Set
Paul in KY
@dmsilev: Her base is imaginary book/film characters and GQP ratfuckers.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@Elizabelle: I agree. We have to keep in mind that millions of voters make individual decisions and the basis for their decisions varies widely. Maybe we can wish for a more issues-based choice but that’s not the world we live in.
I’m not even sure it would be better.
Another Scott
+1
We were a couple of rows behind Sen. Cornyn on a SouthWest flight from AUS to DCA a few years ago (during Obama’s term). He was in the wing emergency exit row, of course (lots more leg room there).
It was fine.
Until some jackass stood up while we were deplaning and loudly thanked him for all he was doing for the USA (stuff like him fighting everything Obama was trying to do to speed up the recovery from the housing crash) and started applauding. If Cornyn responded, I didn’t see it; he quickly left.
Grr…
Cheers,
Scott.
Brachiator
@Elizabelle:
Garvey was a professional athlete. And like many celebrities, his personal life was far more complicated and ugly than the official publicity that tried to plaster it over.
This was big news at the time. His wife was also a media personality with her own issues and some of the news stories unnecessarily got into her life and caused additional distress. But it sold papers and set tongues clucking.
I think that Garvey is a political featherweight who is going nowhere. But I don’t need to know that he is alienated from some of his children and that they are hurt by this. This is nothing more than petty gossip.
Elizabelle
Retired baseball stars are taking a beating in the Los Angeles Times.
“Socialite” Rebecca Grossman is on trial for running over two young brothers in September 2020, when she was clocked at 81 mph. She did not stop at the scene; the car stopped a quarter mile away.
Her lawyer is trying to blame it on retired LA Dodgers pitcher Scott Erickson, who flew through the intersection previously in his black SUV, and had been drinking that afternoon with Grossman. It appears they were both driving recklessly; almost racing.
Rest in peace, little Mark and Jacob Iskander. Ages 11 and 8 respectively. They were run over while on a walk with their mother and little brother. She heard the crash; did not see it. Mark was thrown 254 feet; his mother testified every bone in his body was broken. He died at the scene.
LA Times:
[There has since been testimony that Grossman’s car parts were found at the death scene.]
I hope she is convicted, and I hope she NEVER gets out. She murdered two little boys with her car, and tore apart a family. Driving 81 mph in downtown LA is whack.
scav
Random news event that at least got a chortle.
Floating sauna rescues motorists whose Tesla plunged into Oslo fjord
Paul in KY
@West of the Cascades: I disagree on Arizona being that big or her time being so busy that she can’t be driven. To me, Alaska, Montana, California & Texas (maybe Nevada) would be ‘flying’ states
Edit: Especially using a jet!
Betty
@$8 blue check mistermix: Five of those 11 trips in 2023 also seems telling.
Paul in KY
@HumboldtBlue: He was soooo smug back when he was playing.
...now I try to be amused
@smith:
My only MoC sighting was Senator Paul Wellstone in coach, greeting people during boarding.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@…now I try to be amused: Mr DAW was once on a flight with Grassley on the jump from Chicago to Waterloo IA. The plane didn’t have classes.
Kelly
Old friend of mine had a job that required air travel out of Portland, often 2~3 weeks a month. Over nearly 20 years he met and talked with most of the Oregon delegation on flights back east. He says Ron Wyden is the most interesting conversationalist.
Paul in KY
@Brachiator: I like that these kids are sending some torpedos into the hypocritical good ship Garvey.
pajaro
back in the day (the aughts}, I commuted between Kansas City and DC. I frequently saw Congresscritters on the plane. (Emanuel Cleaver (Mo) and Sam Brownback (KS) come to mind}. Nobody bothered them. Other than Brownback, who was a Senator, I’m not sure most people knew who they were.
TBone
Important PSA about fighting back (didn’t want to dead thread it). BIFF:
https://www.wonkette.com/p/how-to-biff-a-guide
Mark P.
I’m not so sure about the “flying ain’t no thing as a senator” thinking; i was on a flight about 4 months ago out of Neward, that Sen. Cory Booker was on, and he was in the general seating area and boarded after me (I’m UA 1k), probably in group 1. He was seated in 1st class (it was a 787, flight to Denver, a big 1st class seating), as was I. He seemed nice and talkative, and sort of a regular passenger, but not a VIP. And I remember thinking, wow, that’s Cory Booker , he should have some VIP TLC going on; but he didn’t. But then again, I like Cory Booker, and Kristin Sinema is a fraud.
And, btw, traveling commercial sux now, more than ever! Whether u are 1K, in 1st class, or a regular traveler in 38E; flying sucks!!
TBone
@TBone: It does work when speaking, except when the proper response is “fuck right off to that fence, open the gate, and keep fucking straight off.”
HumboldtBlue
Boebert gets roasted by a member of her own party.
trollhattan
@Elizabelle: Ugh.
If you wish to commit murder, then doing it via motor vehicle is your best chance for getting away with it. We simply do not take it as seriously as the various other methods for maiming and killing humans. I’m guessing it makes DAs and juries nervous in that “there but for the grace of god” way.
Kelly
In other news I’ve secured a $250 a month electric subsidy for my 87 year old Mom via Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP). Her only income is Social Security with me chipping in for big things like a new roof. Application process was a weird old administrative burden hurdle. I tried last year but the website said they spent their budget and were not accepting application. I remembered it this winter and called them on the phone Nov 29th. The lady said I needed to send in a paper form they would mail to us. Great send me one. Nope sent out all the November applications I must call back Dec 1. I keep trying to get thru the busy line from 8 am succeeding at 2 pm. All they want is a name and address. Filled out the form rounded up electric bills, tax form, letter from Social Security and a copy of her driver’s licence. Sent it in. Requires 4 to 8 weeks to process and she’s approved maybe in time for her $379 January payment.
Steve in the ATL
@trollhattan: that’s because it’s generally unintentional, unlike, say, shooting or stabbing someone. Thus manslaughter and not murder.
TBone
@Kelly: LIHEAP once “saved” us by dumping a huge pile of coal in the yard for the cabin Heatrola stove instead of helping with the PA Power & Light bills, which were astronomical. They thought they were being funny, I guess? Anyway, I’m glad you’re getting assistance and may it be a good experience going forward!
Elizabelle
@trollhattan: I hope she goes down hard. She did not stop; her car stopped down the road because the airbags went off.
And yes, it’s wrong that penalties for killing someone dead with a car can be way too light.
Jay
Back in the day, to “reward me” for spending 3 years commuting from Vancouver to Milwaukee and Boston, the Company, tried to book me as often as possible, on Midwest Airlines, which at the time had only “Business Class”. That of course, required flying in a Harbour Air Twin Otter Floatplane, to and from Seattle. Once of course, it required me to rent a Crown Victoria in Seattle, and drive it through Snowqualmi Pass back home, because a snowstorm had shut down the PNW.
HumboldtBlue
@trollhattan:
Impairment plays a key role here. Drunk drivers who kill in California are not charged with first degree murder because it’s not premeditated (people will argue it is).
The charge is almost always gross vehicular manslaughter, and the penalties, depending on some circumstances, means anywhere from 4-10 years. I’ve seen sentences of 12, 12.5 and 15 years, but the norm is usually in that 4-10 years range.
Brachiator
@Kelly:
This is great news. I need to check to see if one of my relatives can use this for their parents.
Baud
@trollhattan:
Good advice. Thanks.
NotMax
@TBone
Speaking of PP&L….
;)
Jay
@Kelly:
Oy vey!, our gas and electric bill for mid November to mid January was $47 including taxes.
Soprano2
@trollhattan: That’s certainly true, but if it happened because of a mechanical malfunction or the person had a heart attack or stroke that would be completely different than that it happened because they were going 81 mph and blew through a stop sign. Certainly most people believe they would never do something like that.
Jay
@HumboldtBlue:
run your target down, stay at the scene, chug a mickey of Fireball and wait for the Cops.
Try to make sure it doesn’t look like you have a motive.
Ruviana
@Elizabelle: This didn’t happen downtown, it was in a suburban residential area, which might be even worse since people would be more likely to be out walking.
Suzanne
I hate this lady more than anyone. But I will note that getting around to much of Arizona is a pain in the ass. I used to have one client up in the thriving metropolis of Show Low, and there was one little airline that flew up there from Phoenix. Could fit eight passengers at a time. Sometimes your luggage didn’t come with you. That’s not really feasible for any size group of people, especially when you’re time-constrained.
Kelly
@TBone:
@Brachiator:
@Jay:
It was a lot of administrative work she’d never have managed on her own. Considering the likly life circumstances of folks that qualify it’s ridiculous
phein64
Finally, it ain’t no thing to fly as a Senator or Representative.
I don’t know. For years, I flew the Thursday 6 pm out of National to O’Hare, connecting down to Champaign. Our local Congressman, Tim Johnson (R), was frequently on those flights. On one of the last flights before the pandemic, Tim was arguing with the gate agent at the end of the G concourse at O’Hare that he had to be on that flight, he had meetings back in Champaign-Urbana. She calmly told him that the Congressional Travel Office (CTO) booked him on the later flight, this flight was full, and there was nothing she could do. He argued some more, and she just said, contact the CTO.
As boarding was finishing up, I was the last person to walk down the skybridge. As the agent closed the door behind me, many of us shared a small cheer. Not that Tim was a bad guy, just that we’ve all had to scramble to get one-way rentals many times.
WaterGirl
@Kelly: You are a good son.
WaterGirl
@phein64: No, Tim was a bad guy.
Taken4Granite
@smith: Back in the 1990s I was on a DCA-Manchester flight with then-Sen. Bob Smith (R-NH), who was sitting one row behind me in economy class. Smith may have been a wingnut, but he was *our* wingnut; he would occasionally break with the party on issues (such as MTBE contamination) that were important to his constituents.
I can’t believe we got 61 posts into a thread with this title without anyone bringing up, “I’m in the high fidelity first class travelling set/And I think I need a Lear jet“.
Jay
@Suzanne:
Here, the cheat is Flying Clubs. Private Pilot get’s the log hours, you pay for aviation fuel and the rental. Just stay away from the mountains. Aircraft luxury will vary.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@Taken4Granite: but if you ask for a rise it’s no surprise…
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Taken4Granite:
I’d been thinking about it the entire time:
“Everything I know about Lear jets I learned from listening to Pink Floyd’s ‘Money'”
Elizabelle
@Ruviana: Yeah. Saying “downtown” was inaccurate; it happened on Triunfo Canyon Road at Saddle Mountain Drive in Westlake. [ETA: This is out south of Thousand Oaks; not in LA proper. I was really mistaken there; thinking of the wrong “Canyon” Road.]
The family was in a marked crosswalk.
[Not sure where the 81 mph came from, but it’s in another story; maybe later testimony.]
Earlier in the story:
Link to LA Times story with these details. Jury is 9 men and 3 women.
OzarkHillbilly
You misspelled, “on purpose.” Which if a Repub was involved, you can be sure of.
Fake Irishman
@Another Scott:
My wife got stuck sitting behind Ted Cruz on a flight once coming back from DC. He treated the flight attendant exactly how you would expect him to. Also, by the fact he carried an IPad he was watching a movie on to the restroom and back, she strongly suspects he didn’t wash his hands. That kind of freaked her out when she saw him shaking hands with a bunch of admirers after he got off the plane in Houston.
Elizabelle
@Fake Irishman: Typhoid Ted. LOL.
phein64
@WaterGirl: I would take him over Rodney Davis, who was truly malignant, and Mary Miller, who is just plain evil, if those were the only choices. Glad we’re re-districted into a Dem-leaning district.
I knew Tim slightly from his days walking around Lincoln Square, and he would occasionally come to swim meets when his niece was swimming with my oldest for Urbana. Although I can’t think of a thing we agreed on, at least he wasn’t a MAGA type.
Fake Irishman
@Elizabelle:
This was about a week before everything shutdown due to COVID-19 and Ted quarantined because he had been exposed.
Alison Rose
I bet you didn’t realize you needed a rap about chinchillas in your life. BUT YOU DO.
Suzanne
@Fake Irishman:
OH FFS WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE.
I’m gonna think of him as Senator Fecal-Oral from now on.
TBone
@NotMax: heh
Elizabelle
@Fake Irishman: That’s so weird, taking an iPad into the restroom. Airliner lavs are so capacious, as we know.
TBone
@Kelly: exactly why I wished her (and you!) the best, going forward. It’s a lotta hurdles to jump.
catclub
@trollhattan: yep. General knowledge among bicyclists is that you have to have two OTHER violations before you get arrested for killing a cyclist. Speeding AND running red light for example.
Betty
@Elizabelle: He didn’t know how to pause the movie? He thought someone might steal his iPad if he let go of it? inquiring minds.
TBone
@OzarkHillbilly: bingo!
Jay
https://theins.press/en/politics/268805
rikyrah
@smith:
Are we surprised?
TBone
@Jay: Russian warship fuck off! (Jiminy Cricket this is a disturbing read).
Raven
@phein64: Ah, the old days at Crystal Lake Pool!
Elizabelle
@Betty: It’s a rough airline.
Captain C
@Fake Irishman:
Nothing more or less than they deserve. Especially if they’re the “I’m never washing this hand again!” types.
Citizen Alan
@trollhattan: This is why I don’t think self-driving cars will ever take off: insurance liability and the question of fault. Juries can think “there but for the grace of God” in a vehicular homicide case where the defendant can plausibly blame the death on a split second decision or a mistake that anyone could make. But with a self-driving car? It only operates according to its programming, which means someone at the company made the design choice to program that car to “hit that child-sized object running across the road instead of swerving and possibly hitting another car or a guardrail.”
rikyrah
@Jay:
who is the handler?
MagdaInBlack
@Betty: Taking his porn to the bathrooom……………..
Citizen Alan
@HumboldtBlue: For some reason, I vividly remember a Quincy, M.E. from the 70s in which the bad guy intentionally and with premeditation ran over and killed some guy (I forget the motive, but it wasn’t immediately obvious but something money related) before pulling out a bottle of vodka and chugging it. This was pre-breathalyzer, so the cops had to take him to jail to test him an hour later which point he was over the limit. The genius of the plan was that, at the time, drunk driving laws in California were so lax that he would get at most 6 months in the county jail for drunk driving and most likely just probation.
@Jay: Great minds think alike!
HumboldtBlue
Oregon with a win.
Elizabelle
DeSantis is sending the National Guard to the Texas-Mexico border. Oh joy.
Jay
@rikyrah:
Ilya Vechtomov, FSB Officer, 5th Directorate,
Kelly
@Kelly: I need to replace her heat pump. Subsidies for heat pumps do not apply for replacing an old, dead heat pump and they are non-refundable tax credits. Her income is low enough she pays no income taxes
TBone
@Elizabelle: he shoulda sent his election secret police department. Grrrrr
piratedan
@Suzanne: for those that do not live here, it’s a ways to go to get from Phoenix (which is somewhat centrally located) to anywhere else in the state. If time is supposedly money and you have a full schedule, I could see the need to do so.
The vast majority of peeps are in the two metro areas (Phoenix and Tucson) and drives to most of the other small population centers like Flagstaff, Yuma, Prescott, Kingman etc are a minimum of 90 minutes from Phoenix and easily 3 hours in some cases and longer yet if you’re looking to hit some of more remote area like the Indian Reservations. Then naturally there’s travel back to the home base…. I would imagine that some staff could make them working trips by bus and the like and using phones to do business along the way, but that’s just speculation since I have no idea on how these road shows might go.
You’re right that in some cases a plane just makes sense depending on what’s going on and who you have to see.
HumboldtBlue
@TBone:
That’s what he’s done
TBone
@Kelly: have you looked into this?
https://www.energy.gov/scep/home-energy-rebates-programs
TBone
@HumboldtBlue: I was referring to this:
https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/25/politics/desantis-florida-election-bill-signing/index.html
catclub
they used to say that about murders while driving drunk. That consensus has changed, I think. Getting in a car drunk qualifies as premeditation.
Elizabelle
Meanwhile, DC is going to get some fencing of its own. Per the WaPost:
U.S. to wrap security blanket around D.C. courthouse for Trump trial
Metal fencing could go up as soon as February for Trump’s potential March trial. It will be reminiscent of police barricades erected around the U.S. Capitol before and after the Jan. 6 riot.
[Just had to share that list of cities where he is on trial.]
Protectee. I believe the word is “defendant.”
Serious issue, though. Also with protecting the judges.
Taken4Granite
@HumboldtBlue: IANAL, but my understanding is that in many jurisdictions any death that is the direct result of a felony is considered murder. Of course, this would not apply in states where DUI is a misdemeanor, and mental state is a factor that would come into play.
ETA: I seem to be thinking along similar lines to catclub @ 104.
TBone
@Elizabelle: “protectee” jfc
Redshift
I was on a flight from DC to Chicago with Paul Ryan once. He was the only one I’ve ever seen with secret service (it was when he was Speaker.) I was seated next to one of his secret service guys; he said they can relax on the flight because once the door closes they’re not really responsible for his safety (no risk of weapons) I’m sure they’d jump in if necessary if someone hassled him, but I think they leave it to the airline crew first.
TBone
@Kelly: better link, I haven’t delved deeply into this but
https://www.energy.gov/articles/biden-harris-administration-announces-state-and-tribe-allocations-home-energy-rebate
louc
I can thank former Sen. Bob Corker for my ability to visit my father in Chattanooga. I think it’s because of him that there was a direct flight from DCA to CHA. He was on 1 of my flights, the one back on a Sunday. Of course he glad handed everyone in the waiting area. I had a soft spot for him because of the fabulous (and free) wifi there and commitment to early childhood while mayor. He looks moderate compared to his looney tunes replacement, Marsha Blackburn.
Redshift
@Elizabelle:
I can’t fault the language – for the planning they’re taking about, it doesn’t matter whether he’s the defendant, a witness or a lawyer. But I agree that the main reason for the security is for the judge and court personnel, so that does make it a little odd.
Redshift
I don’t know if it’s a written policy, but it’s well known in DC that Democrats always fly coach, to represent party values.
Paul in KY
@Kelly: Great news!
Paul in KY
@Steve in the ATL: ‘Murder’ would imply some malice. ‘Unintentional’ is not murder, IMO.
Jay
@Citizen Alan:
For me, the key reason we will never have self driving cars, is the state of the roads.
Eg, on Long Lake Road, just before the Knutsford Town Hall, there is a seep from the hill that surfaces under the paved road. In summer and fall, it’s not an issue, it just drains away through the gravel bed downslope. In the winter, it freezes under the road, causing a 2′ to 3′ hump in the road. Not much of an issue as you won’t be driving at normal speeds anyway, because of all the ice and snow. In the spring however, it melts leaving behind a massive pothole trench as the pavement breaks up.
If you come flying in off the 5A Highway, it will rip your axels off, even in a seriously built truck. Long Lake Road has a speed limit of 60kph, but right there, it’s best to slow to 5kph and cross it at an angle.
The pavement plant and the Road Contractor are less than a km from this “feature”, but the “feature” never get’s patched until late May or early June. The “feature” has only been there for 73 years.
Self driving cars require at a minimum, well marked roads, well maintained roads, suitable signage, a broad array of sensor systems on all sides, map interfaces that are accurate, software systems programmed for every possible issue from a ball rolling into the street, to avoiding a bird strike, and they need to be “smart” enough to know the difference between a tar spot on the road and a car destroying pothole.
What is a self driving car to do, when in Winterpeg, in early spring, (early July, that’s a Winnipeg joke), the locals start planting their pothole gardens, shrubbery and forests, (to make the City fix the damn potholes)?
Paul in KY
@Jay: Do y’all live in Key West? In a closet over the local power plant? In another country?
Paul in KY
@Elizabelle: Think he probably wanted to rub out a quick one. Ick..
See MagdaInBlack got there 1st.
S Cerevisiae
@Brachiator: LIHEAP literally saved my life a couple times over the seven or eight years I was getting heating assistance in northern Minnesota. It’s a lot of paperwork the first year but renewal is much simpler, at least in Minnesota.
NotMax
@Fake Irishman
Not to specifically support him but I can understand a Congresscritter choosing not to leave his/her electronic devices vulnerable to snooping.
Ksmiami
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: silly boy, Gulfstreams are so much better…
NotMax
@comrade scotts agenda of rage
“Lear. Fly like a king.”
//
Ksmiami
@Mark P.: eh the flying is ok- (tbf, I’m small and can sleep on takeoff) it’s the time spent in and out of airports now that really sucks
wjca
Currently, they’re digging up the roads around here. (Replacing old water pipes, I believe.) Since one of the two lanes is obstructed, there’s a guy at either end with a sign, which he flips from SLOW to STOP and back, as traffic flow alternates direction in the remaining lane. What does a self-driving car make of that? Does it even recognize it as traffic control?
Detours could be fun, too.
Gravenstone
@Jay: I loved Midwest. Large, comfortable seats. Good meals. And in-flight chocolate chips.
Jay
@Kelly:
Here, we have the EnergyStar program. A “guy” comes out to the house, and checks everything, writes up a list, goes back to the office, writes up a “to do” list with all the actions in order of importance, with links underneath each one, links to the various grants, subsidies and loan programs.
The homeowner then applies, get’s approved, gets the work done, keeps the receipts, files a claim.
The same “guy” then inspects the work and either approves it, or authorizes a fix.
I did a job for a pensioner in Salmon Arm. Air seal of the walls and doors, new windows, R50 air sealed attic, old window mount A/C removed, roof vents added, crawlspace insulated, 98% new furnace and ducting, on demand water heater.
Here a big part of the focus of the program is to use/need less energy. No sense in installing a 98% furnace if it’s all leaking out of the walls and attic.
Total bill was $28k, their share was $3.6k.
From approval to us getting paid, 2 weeks.
Jay
@Paul in KY:
Vancouver BC. Been in this place , (apt high up in a concrete highrise) for 5 years now, south facing, never turned on the heat, never needed AC. Don’t mine bitcoins. All appliances are high efficiency, lights are LED’s.
The place is insulated, but not great. Exterior walls are maybe R-13 at best, not including the 6″ of concrete.
Prior to here, with a gap, lived in a Net Zero house in the bush in the Central Interior, that I built where I was my own power company, (wind and solar), water utility, (well and cistern), sewage company, (septic), heat and hot water, (passive solar and a soapstone stove), all in -40 winters and +40c summers.
LiminalOwl
@Steve in the ATL: I know of at least one recent case—no, at least two cases—where the person who brought a gun to a gathering and left it unattended is being tried for murder, rather than manslaughter, of a person who died as a result. Surely driving 81mph in LA, or too fast/carelessly /drunk anywhere that pedestrians can reasonably be expected, is at least equally culpable?
Another Scott
Meanwhile, … TheHill.com:
Politics is slow. Things are happening.
Cheers,
Scott.
Another Scott
Meanwhile, … WhiteHouse.gov:
(Sorry for the folks on a phone – this is kinda long. It will save you a click.)
This is a first, as far as I know.
The AP has more:
Interesting. And overdue.
Cheers,
Scott.
Daoud bin Daoud
@HumboldtBlue: Georgia used to make voters take literacy tests. They really need to make the politicians take the test.
Chief Oshkosh
@Fake Irishman: Goddman…taking your iPad into the airliner toilet. What a schmuck.
ETA: Goddman = Godamn!
trnc
@dmsilev: Maybe Herschel Walker adopted those kids.
WaterGirl
@phein64: Yes, I still have my un-seat Rodney Davis magnetic sticker on my car and I take pleasure in knowing he’s gone.
But Tim still sucked. No one was MAGA back then.
WaterGirl
@Betty: Maybe he didn’t want anyone to see the porn he had on his iPad? It would be irresponsible not to speculate.
edit: had not seen #93 when I wrote that. Great minds and all that.
tcbleu
@RaflW: the flight attendants don’t fawn. they’re way too busy
MagdaInBlack
@WaterGirl: 🤗🙂
wjca
@Another Scott:
Maybe I’m not reading this correctly. But as written it would seem to include pretty much any member of the Israeli government. Being as how they have “failed to act to prevent” the misbehavior being targetted, i.e. settlements in the West Bank.
That could become a very big deal, to put it mildly. Could. If enforced.
Paul in KY
@Jay: Sounds like a sweet crib! Good job getting it! Thank you also for the info. Would love to get up to Vancouver someday.
Paul in KY
@Another Scott: Excellent order by Pres. Biden! Those scummy, weirdo ‘settlers’ are a great impediment to any kind of lasting peace there.
Another Scott
@wjca: I think it’s a shot – across – the – bow. Especially since they didn’t tell Bibi about it in advance.
We’re (the US is) in a tough situation with Israel. We will not let her security be threatened in a meaningful way, so we can’t say we’ll cut them off from weapons. We also have treaty obligations with them, and multi-year defense-related contracts (we pay for Iron Dome, etc., and get some of the technology back in the process – as I understand it). But we cannot let them continue to do stuff that is contrary to our national interests just because their RWNJs demand it to hold onto a tiny majority in their legislature and stay in power.
This EO seems like an excellent way to tell the individual actors that there will indeed be consequences to their individual selves if they don’t straighten up.
It’s kinda brilliant.
Cheers,
Scott.