I'm fascinated by the lack of Mitch McConnell legacy pieces from our elite newsrooms. I mean, they must have his obit in the can, so they must have given this some thought. Or are they tongue-tied about how to politely say he broke the Senate, Supreme Court, and his own party?
— Dan Froomkin (PressWatchers.org) (@froomkin) February 29, 2024
McConnell isn’t even retiring — just ‘stepping down’ from his Leadership position, and not until November. But given the man’s history, it wouldn’t surprise me if he fell victim to the old-fashioned ‘dead within a year’ retirement trope, not least because his ‘fellow’ GOP senators currently hate him almost as much as we Democrats do. Nil nisi bonum doesn’t apply when only an individual’s career / legacy has been murdered, yet I doubt the actual obituaries will be any kinder.
Sen. Mitch McConnell’s legacy will be that he purposefully undermined America’s first Black president, he broke the Supreme Court, he helped elect a fascist President, and he abetted up an insurrection on American soil. https://t.co/TiJDog1enc
— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) February 28, 2024
Bess Levin, for Vanity Fair — “After Thoroughly F**king Over America, Mitch McConnell Decides to Treat Himself to a Break”:
Mitch McConnell announced on Wednesday that he will step down as the GOP’s Senate leader after next November’s elections. At 82, the guy is still alive and kicking, and come November, he’ll still have more than two years left on his current term in office. In other words, we’re not rid of him just yet. But it feels appropriate at this time to talk about legacy and what people will remember about the man when he’s gone, from both DC and the world. So, to be clear: If you remember one thing about Mitch McConnell, it should be that the Kentucky lawmaker, who famously has no principles,* could have rid us of the bubonic plague that is Donald Trump—and simply chose not to.
Cast your minds back to February 2021. A month prior, the president of the United States had incited a literal insurrection in an attempt to stay in power. Shortly thereafter, he was impeached, which was followed by a Senate trial. On the day the votes were cast, McConnell said the following: “There’s no question, none, that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day. No question about it. The people who stormed this building believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions of their president. And having that belief was a foreseeable consequence of the growing crescendo of false statements, conspiracy theories, and reckless hyperbole, which the defeated president kept shouting into the largest megaphone on planet Earth.”
Those words would have been incredibly powerful if not for one thing: Moments before uttering them, McConnell voted to acquit Trump, because he is a shameless hack. As a reminder, had Trump been convicted by the Senate—which, yes, would’ve required more people than just McConnell to vote differently—the 45th president would have been barred from ever running from office again, and we wouldn’t currently be grappling with the very real chance of him winning reelection this fall…
*For a 2020 New Yorker profile of McConnell, reporter Jane Mayer spent months searching “for the larger principles or sense of purpose that animates” the guy. “Finally,” she wrote, “someone who knows him very well told me, ‘Give up. You can look and look for something more in him, but it isn’t there. I wish I could tell you that there is some secret thing that he really believes in, but he doesn’t’.”
Had McConnell retired in January 2021 & led the conviction of Donald Trump his legislative legacy would’ve been about the same & he would’ve saved the country from the anti-democratic threat he saw clearly. We would not be on the precipice we are on now if not for his
cowardice.— Tim Miller (@Timodc) February 28, 2024
Tom Nichols, in the Atlantic:
… One indicator of how far American democracy has fallen is the way Mitch McConnell’s impending retirement has sparked concerns about who will replace him—as if McConnell is some lingering guardrail protecting democracy. (Still, McConnell was known to despise Donald Trump and hasn’t spoken to him for three years, which limited the former president’s reach in the Senate, so it’s not a trivial worry that his replacement may be more MAGA-friendly than he was.) McConnell is the longest-serving Senate leader in U.S. history; he will be remembered as one of the people whose decisions were crucial in bringing American democracy to the edge of destruction. Had McConnell retired a decade ago, he would have gone in the books as just another unremarkable party boss who used his talent for cloakroom politics to ensure that laws were written to protect the wealth and interests of his donors.
McConnell, however, worshipped the Senate and was willing to sell his political soul to stay in it and lead it. A master of legislative maneuvering, he helped create a strange new principle in American politics, in which presidents can nominate justices to the Supreme Court only if the Senate majority leader feels like entertaining that idea. He then led Senate Republicans through two impeachments and two acquittals of Trump, the second after the January 6 insurrection.
In a coincidence that Hollywood would not have allowed in a cheap potboiler script, McConnell announced his plans the same day that the Supreme Court granted a hearing on Trump’s ludicrous legal theory that presidents are unaccountable demigods who can rule at will. McConnell is the one man who, more than anyone else in Washington, made sure that Trump could walk free, run for president again, and then make his appeal for an elective monarchy to a Court whose conservative majority smirks at the idea of accountability…
The best assessment you will ever see of Mitch McConnell’s role in wrecking the country. By the great @howardfineman https://t.co/4am4GY5ntW
— Jonathan Alter (@jonathanalter) February 29, 2024
A view from the center-right, by Howard Fineman — “Mitch McConnell’s Choice”:
… I have had the duty of knowing and studying Mitch McConnell since I first heard of him in the late 1970s when I was a reporter for The Courier-Journal of Louisville. For most of the time, our relations were cordial and businesslike. He was devoted to his staff. He used his muscle to create worthy (if self-glorifying) academic programs at the University of Louisville. He could play the role of Kentucky Gentleman, as he did at the Derby, carefully escorting ladies to better views of the track from the skybox. On a personal level his wife, Elaine Chao, is the soul of graciousness. Mitch could sip a bourbon and offer you some, a humane act. He chose to live in a chic, liberal part of town, and liked to dine at its restaurants before he became an object of ridicule in them.
These small signs, plus my love of Kentucky and a naïve belief that there is “that of God” in all of us, led me to think McConnell could someday surprise me, the Senate, and the world with a “profile in courage” act of statesmanship. There was a prickly bravery to his orneriness. Who knows what that might produce. Time and again I hoped; time and again I was disappointed.
Why? Because early in his Senate career, he adopted as guiding goal the destruction of the social-welfare state as erected by the Roosevelts, Truman, Kennedy, and Johnson. His bleak sense of realism told him he could not get elected president to do that. Instead, he would do it from the Senate by dismantling the federal judiciary that had sanctioned and enabled the liberal state.
He set about building the financial, educational, and political mechanisms necessary to reverse an entire epoch of social progress: luring in big donors such as the Kochs, helping to build the Federalist Society and its law school chapters, offering presidents and presidential candidates his lists of preferred nominees.
He would do anything he had to do to reach his goal of power. He rose by double-crossing everyone in his way when it suited his climbing purpose. He ran for local office in Jefferson County (Louisville) as a self-described “pro-labor” man, then promptly sold out the unions once he won…
Being a Senate bully might have helped the country when Donald Trump came along. But Mitch folded up like a two-dollar suitcase to keep the power he needed for his judicial crusade. In 2015, McConnell privately recoiled at the unpredictable and philosophically confused New Yorker, saying voters would “drop him like a hot rock” once they got a good look at him. When Trump won the nomination, McConnell fell meekly in line.
Mitch’s most infamous moment of testing came during the second impeachment trial of Trump in the Senate for inciting a deadly riot on Jan. 6, 2021. The senator denounced the riot and Trump’s role in it. After a dramatic pause, he said the word “but.” But it wasn’t up to the Congress, but the courts to decide Trump’s fate.
Courts Mitch McConnell had made.
Here's that moment:https://t.co/TCzHlaWDRv
— The Recount (@therecount) February 28, 2024
He’ll be remembered as the man who could’ve rid us of Trump and decided he wanted to be majority leader instead (and then wasn’t.) https://t.co/hz5I6OK2uV
— Reed Galen (@reedgalen) February 29, 2024
Straight out of the incel degenerate hive mind https://t.co/9SFq6wss1F
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) February 29, 2024
Rand Paul has volunteered himself as McConnell’s replacement, much to the delight of his fellow glibertarians / pussbags / #failsons. I take some small solace in knowing Young Prince Rand will be beaten more brutally by the other GOP contenders than he was by his angry neighbor.
McConnell departure leaves GOP's Reagan wing reeling — and some Democrats bracing for what comes after him
Fetterman: “He was part of keeping the Senate from becoming the Jerry Springer show that the House is,”https://t.co/4NRLWuujsV@UrsulaPerano
— Burgess Everett (@burgessev) February 28, 2024
Mitch McConnell stacked the Court, undermined our democracy, and enabled Donald Trump.
And yet – in his absence – the @SenateGOP will invariably select someone more extreme.
With our democracy more fragile than ever, we must select and elect leaders committed to protecting it.
— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) February 28, 2024
Monday Afternoon Open Thread
NoraLenderbee
Stomping the afternoon open thread?
lowtechcyclist
After only 5 minutes! That’s impressive!
dmsilev
@lowtechcyclist: Side effect of Daylights Savings is that afternoon and evening blur together.
Gin & Tonic
I guess the House “Freedom” Caucus does not believe that Ukrainians are deserving of said freedom.
Jeffro
Shannon Watts and Reed Galen pretty much covered it.
Also, I just wanna add: fuck Mitch McConnell.
H.E.Wolf
A palate cleanser: Bill Moyers’ eulogy for someone very different: Claudia Alta Taylor Johnson.
https://www.congress.gov/110/crec/2007/07/16/modified/CREC-2007-07-16-pt1-PgS9258-2.htm
Bruce K in ATH-GR
I want to get this in early enough to be able to state that I’m not speaking ill of the dead.
I hope Addison Mitchell McConnell II lives long enough to see the unmaking of his works, and then is laid low by maladies that leave him in such agony that he cannot recognize the moment that his earthly suffering ends and his eternal torment begins.
(A curse I once heard for someone else, but I can think of few people more appropriate to be cursed so.)
Baud
I’m happy that turtles will soon be able to reclaim their good name.
BTW, the story about Mitch’s sister in law and the Tesla is pretty horrifying.
hueyplong
@Bruce K in ATH-GR: Seconded. Would it be greedy to bestow the same honors on Trump?
hueyplong
@Baud: That story seems like an obvious font for conspiracy theories.
matt
How about McConnell’s sister in law dying in her Tesla trying to execute a three point turn? https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/angela-chao-mcconnell-report-death-b2510728.htm
Ah, I see Baud already mentioned it. Something wild going on with those folks.
Baud
@hueyplong:
There’s nothing that’s not a font for conspiracy theories these days.
Hoppie
@Bruce K in ATH-GR: May I pedantically point out it is Addison Mitchell McConnell III, of the famous southern Turd family, as comment 13?
currawong
The only good thing that may come out of this is that the Democrats finally drop all of the old conventions that they have held dear but the GOP have overridden at the drop of a hat.
Jeffro
It appears we’ve already got a bloodbath, metaphorically speaking, going on at the RNC.
Not on board with every cent going to trumpov’s legal defense? BUH-BYE!
(I hope the folks who were fired take the long view: who really wants to work for Lara freakin’ Trump?)
scav
@Baud: They are more fun when in their Zapf dingbats native form. The Times New Roman & Aptos pushers are dull.
Steeplejack
@matt:
Bad link. Fixed: “Mitch McConnell’s sister-in-law drowned after accidentally reversing Tesla into ranch pond.”
Omnes Omnibus
@Jeffro: They chose to work for the RNC. Fuck ’em.
KrackenJack
Something I’ve been wondering about the Chubb bond; wouldn’t the Independent Monitor in the NYS fraud trial have to be made aware of the terms of the agreement? Per NBC News: “In his ruling, Engoron said the company must also make the monitor aware of all its holdings and assets and give 30 days’ notice of any restructuring at the company and any plans for ‘disposing or refinancing of significant Trump Organization assets.'”
Unless it’s collateralized by non-Trump Org assets – whatever those may be.
matt
@Steeplejack: Thanks! Sick today, kind of a bum.
MattF
@Jeffro: Article says that Chris LaCivita is the new RNC Chief of Staff, which sounds like a full time job for him. LaCivita was widely regarded as the brains behind Trump’s current campaign, so his getting a new job at the RNC may be rather significant.
hueyplong
To the extent it wasn’t one already, the RNC is fixing to become a “criminal enterprise” in the RICO sense.
Geminid
McConnell made a choice in October of 2020 that I’ve wondered about since: he pushed through Amy Conan Barrett’s Supreme Court nomination. At the time, people speculated that it might have been better to leave it for the Lame Duck session in order to rally the bible thumpers November 8. McConnell had the votes either way.
He could have pushed through another Covid relief bill instead, and that might have helped push Trump across the finish line. Trump lost, and next February Joe Biden signed the $1.9 trillion American Recovery Act.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Jeffro:
Excellent! I knew he would quickly move to secure the cash on hand for Hair Furor and that would mean a lot of firing. I didn’t think of the vendors so that’s just frosting on their shit cake. I wonder how the RNC operatives feel about their demigod now? Couldn’t happen to a more deserving bunch of shitheads.
I bet the people/companies that the RNC owes money to are shitting bricks in their pants right now. Nobody doesn’t pay a bill like Don Trump and they’re about to learn that for themselves.
Geminid
@MattF: LaCivita’s fellow campaign manager Susan Wiles is pretty brainy also. They’ve managed to work together for well over a year and still keep Trump’s confidence. It sounds like Wiles and LaCivita are integrating the National Committee into Trump’s campaign.
Harrison Wesley
Senate Republicans really do have an embarrassment of riches (emphasis on “embarrasment”) in their membership. After her close-up last week, Senator Britt appears poised to dive in.
AlaskaReader
I remember when Mitch McConnell, (R-Moscow) took in millions from pro Putin oligarchs and their businesses for McConnell’s super pac. Mitch then went on to push lifting sanctions on his oligarch benefactors along with blocking election security bills meant to blunt and block Putin’s efforts at undermining our national security.
Sanctioned oligarchs and their businesses also funded Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, Ohio Governor John Kasich and Arizona Senator John McCain.
Never elect Republicans.
Mitch may wander off, but he and his fellow Republicans will maintain their ties to Putin.
Ohio Mom
@hueyplong: Maybe she was drunk? She’d been hanging out with friends, maybe they were enjoying adult beverages.
That’s the first thing I thought of, anyway. I could see a conspiracy to keep any toxicology report secret.
arrieve
@Steeplejack: Being trapped in a car is one of my (many) phobias. I’ve ridden in Teslas a couple of times but this story convinced me never to do so again.
The doors and windows won’t open if the car is submerged because the batteries short out, and while there is a manual door release it’s hidden. And the windows are designed to be unbreakable so the first responders couldn’t get into the car.
I also saw a comment that it’s very easy to put the car into reverse without intending to because the Tesla is designed to be “intelligent” and so tends to do what it thinks you should want to do. I don’t know about that. The deathtrap doors are enough of a disincentive.
Baud
@arrieve:
Why are the windows unbreakable? Seems more expensive with an unclear benefit.
suzanne
I have been super-busy for the last few days, but I have been enjoying the insane photo-editing story and conspiracy theories about Kate Middleton today. The internet has totally broken the royal family. LOL.
Baud
@suzanne:
Seems like they broke themselves.
MattF
@Geminid: So… no more RNC.
Mousebumples
I’ll see if I can find the reporting from Bsky over the weekend.
As I recall, yes, she was intoxicated. However, the Tesla doors and windows couldn’t be opened after water shorted out the tech, and the windows couldn’t be broken. She called friends, and 911,and they couldn’t get her out in time.
Mousebumples
@arrieve: better explanation than mine. Thanks.
NotMax
@MattF
Robbing Numbskulls Cash.
//
Mousebumples
@suzanne: apparently William is going public with his married affair partner?
I generally don’t care about royals, but I extra don’t care about him if he watched what went down with his parents and thought, gee, I need my own Camilla.
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/royal-family/lady-rose-hanbury-duchess-cholmondeley-william-kate-b2509900.html
Eta x2 – that link is just about the affair partner, so i am going off gossip that William went public today or recently. TBD…
bjacques
@Bruce K in ATH-GR: undoing the damage Moscow Mitch has left in his wake (so far, and November is months away) could take awhile. Anyway, I’d add he should also live long enough to see himself and his evil works fade into obscurity, like, say, the Crédit Mobilier scandal. Maybe he needs the immortality of Tithonus.
suzanne
@Baud: It blows my mind that they thought this could stay secret. We all know about Photoshop for zits and wrinkles. But, like, these are completely Frankensteined images.
I really care about ethics in photojournalism, okayyyyy?
Jay
@Baud:
a lot of car thefts and thefts from cars start with a broken window. Most car windows, other than the windscreen, (which has a layer of plastic laminated into the center to keep shards of glass from blowing in in a front impact), shatter easily with a sharp strike.
They even make an inexpensive safety tool that allows you to shatter the side or rear windows with one strike, deflate and remove the airbag, and cut the seatbelts
Car thieves love it.
Ksmiami
Fuck him. Rest in Pieces pos
NotMax
@suzanne
“All photographs are accurate. None of them is the truth.”
— Richard Avedon
;)
sab
@arrieve: We don’t have a Tesla, and we have a window breaking tool in the center console, and we gave one to each of the kids when they got their first car. You can buy them at auto parts stores.
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?
@arrieve: Even if there is a manual door release if a significant portion of the doors are submerged the water pressure prevents most, maybe all humans from opening them. We just don’t have the strength to push against that pressure with enough force.
Which is why it’s a good idea to keep an auto glass window breaker in your car because pretty much no cars have manual roll down windows anymore so if the water shorts out the electronics your options are break the glass and swim out or drown. So making the side windows unbreakable is really dumb.
Xavier
The Republicans may find someone more conservative than McConnell but they won’t find anyone better at undermining democracy or at helping Trump.
MattF
@Geminid: More details (gift link) from WaPo.
Baud
@Jay:
Thanks. Seems like a poor trade-off. But I’ve never had my car broken into.
wjca
Let’s face it, they don’t need much staff if all they are going to do is take in money and pass it along to TIFG. When waste money on salaries when it could go to grift instead?
Jeffro
truth!
Jeffro
@wjca: I think they need someone to make sure the routing numbers match up to trumpov’s bank account?
Jeffro
🚨 note: I was alerted earlier today by my RWNJ dad that there’s supposed to be a segment on Laura Ingraham’s show tonight that tangentially impacts me…
…so guess what I’m doing right now? 🤮
ETA: What an absolutely demented freak she is. Did y’all know that “big donors” and “plutocrats” are behind BIDENS MEGA BORDER CRISIS? It’s literally ‘I’m rubber, you’re glue’ all the way down…
scav
@Jay: Can’t find it yet, but I recently read that more cars are coming with laminated side windows and thus are getting harder to bust out of, even with tools. I’ll try a bit more for the link. Had to do with testing the common tools to get out.
eta not what I read, but was cited in it. AAA report ca 2018/9 about the laminates in side windows and the tools.
Baud
@Jeffro:
What did you do this time?
Geminid
@MattF: There will still be an RNC next year, probably with a lot of unpaid bills.
Baud
@Geminid:
Repossessed National Committee.
Jay
@Baud:
It’s an entitled douche trade off.
Back when I had a Volkswagon Cabrio, I would leave the doors unlocked, so that thieves wouldn’t slash the top to gain entry, ($3800),
instead they tried* to “bump” the locks with a screwdriver and hammer, ruining the door locks, ($450).
*does not work on VW’s,
the next time they broke the passenger side wing window, ($750).
Morons,………..
Never had a vehicle stolen, but had almost every one broken into at some time.
Baud
@Jay:
Canada sounds awful.
Princess
@Steeplejack: I’m sorry but what? The terrain was so bad the first responder vehicles couldn’t make it out there but her Tesla could? What was she doing driving by the pond anyway? And she had it in R long enough to crash through the embankment?
Jay
https://info.glass.com/laminated-vs-tempered-car-side-windows/
Eyeroller
@Baud: Supposedly to prevent occupants from being ejected in a more typical crash.
Eyeroller
@Mousebumples: To defend King Charles a bit (not that I care about him), Camilla was his first true love. She decided he wasn’t going to be able to marry her, so she moved on. After Diana’s death Charles whined about how “My mother made me marry her” (such a romantic). But it seems pretty clear he pined for Camilla for decades. So at least they got some time together.
I have no idea what’s going on with William, though, and don’t really care.
Princess
@suzanne: Given many of the obviously shopped bits are in a halo around her head, one could wonder if her head was in fact shopped into someone else. It would be irresponsible not to speculate.
Jay
@Baud:
Where I had vehicles broken into were Coquitlam, ( Vancouver suburb, entitled juvie douche), the condo “security parking” on Commercial Drive, ( Vancouver proper, entitled juvie douche), South Burnaby, ( Vancouver suburb, entitled juvie douche).
Never had an issue parking in the scummy areas of the city.
Ontario has gotten it really bad, as there are car theft rings cloning car fobs*, stealing vehicles, loading then in containers and shipping them abroad.
*they can remotely clone you car fob from 20 feet away, even through your closed front door.
MomSense
@dmsilev:
Fuck Daylight Savings and Mitch McConnell.
Also too Paul Ryan. I still loathe that fucking guy. No, there is no honor in a child being hungry. He is a GD sociopath.
MomSense
@Gin & Tonic:
The House “Freedom” Caucus takes their marching orders from Trump/Putin. They are traitors.
AlaskaReader
@Jay: You probably know but a good mechanic can wire in a simple ‘deadman’ switch, locate it on an inside wheel well, or similar ‘hidden’ spot and the fob cloners will be defeated, and for those who value their remote start in cold climates, that deadpan can be put on another remote.
Jackie
@Jeffro: The RNC is officially dead. Henceforth it will be the TNC.
The ensuing blood bath will be brutal. Or entertaining, depending on one’s perspective.
Jay
@Princess:
First Responders made it out there, but could not get through the windows, (no sawsall) or pry open the doors, (no jaws of life).
Most First Responders are not set up to deal with Tesla and like vehicles.
For example, a Tesla caught fire on the Grandville Street bridge. It took 8 tank trucks of water and 6 hours to put the fire out, and the fire burned so hot that it damaged the bridge deck and deck structure.
If your vehicle has laminated windows, if you can’t open the door, you are supposed to try the rear window or the sunroof as those are rarely laminated.
Jeffro
@Jackie: I’m just laying down markers now with folks, so that I can THOROUGHLY enjoy the “told you so” part later
arrieve
@What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?: I was curious about the “putting the car accidentally in reverse” thing, and just saw this on Bluesky.
There’s no manual gearshift. According to Elon the car determines the drive direction based on “obstacles it sees, context, and nav map.” If it’s not the direction you actually want to go in, you have to override on the touchscreen.
Mousebumples
@Eyeroller: yeah, I know that Camilla was his first love, but that’s almost another reason why royalty is so forked up. I don’t love infedility, period, but adding in the spotlight of Fame and Power doesn’t make things better.
Gin & Tonic
@suzanne: I’ve mentioned this here before, but somewhere on my bookshelves is a book entitled The Reconfigured Eye: Visual Truth in the Post-Photographic Era. It was published, if memory serves, in 1992. The issues are not new, but of course they aren’t getting better.
Jackie
@Jeffro: Me, too! One of the rare times I’ll use “told you so!” with glee!😁
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Jay:
I’ve read that some manufacturers are installing laminated glass in the sides of the car to keep people from being ejected (partially or completely) in an accident. I think Tesla is one of the companies doing this. If so, this should be broadcast far and wide so people can plan accordingly.
hueyplong
@Jackie: I’m not interested in the details of the bloodbath but will read the casualty lists with great satisfaction.
MomSense
@Mousebumples:
The person who broke the story about his affair partner, Rose, admitted he was drunk and it isn’t true.
It’s honestly so fucking stupid how people are embracing conspiracy theories.
Jay
@AlaskaReader:
when I had little money, I used a hidden circuit key switch, ($3.59) wired into the fuel pump circuit. On the carb vehicles, they could start the vehicle, and drive it maybe 10 feet, on the EFI vehicles, they couldn’t even start them.
Later, when I was doing okay, added a car alarm/immobilizer and pager to the mix. The pager would alert me if somebody was trying to break in, or it the car was hit while parked.
Adding the car alarm stopped all the entitled juvie douchbags from trying to break in or steal the cars, they just saw the flashing LED and chose a different (easier) target.
The issue with many new cars is that all you need to enter the car or start it, is use the fob or a phone, and you can do it remotely. People are lax about the security and some of the “security” products, (doorbell cameras, etc) have no security.
Another Scott
McConnell told everyone his underlying beliefs about politics decades ago, when he was teaching at the University of Louisville… NPR.org (from 2019):
(Emphasis added.)
He wanted money, he wanted to be able to do what he wanted with the money he got, and he wanted to be able to control who else got money.
That’s it.
Grr…,
Scott.
Nukular Biskits
Good evenin’, y’all.
DST is kickin’ my ass.
lowtechcyclist
@arrieve:
Which I’m sure is really easy to do in a moment of confusion and panic.
That’s fucking crazy. No, I do NOT want a car deciding for me whether I should be going forward or backward.
Jay
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
the glass is etched, it should tell you at the makers mark if it is laminated or tempered.
If the makers mark is illegible. you can roll the window down part way and look at the top of the window. If the window is laminated, you will see the dividing line, (the poly) between the two pieces of glass.
Snarki, child of Loki
Well *I* heard that the “Tesla drowning” incident was a direct result of Moscow Mitch announcing that he’s stepping down from leadership, with Satan sending the message to Mitt: YOUR DEBT MUST BE PAID
cain
@Eyeroller: I’m not sure he pined since I believe the two of them were carrying on while he was still married to Diana.
That poor woman led such a sad life.
Jay
@Snarki, child of Loki:
nope, it was Apartheid Clyde, in the pond, with a Tesla.
Who needs to play Clue,………..
trnc
Correct. Putting politics over the health of the nation is.
karen marie
@matt: I posted this downstairs, forgetting upstairs was here.
Chao’s sister’s Tesla killed her.
Reports that “she thought she was putting it in drive but put it in reverse by mistake” don’t even begin to describe what happened. There is no knob or button in a Tesla for anything, including park/drive/reverse. There’s only a fucking touchscreen with dozens of tiny icons, and it sure as fuck isn’t something you can figure out on the fly or apparently even keep track of, even if you’re a very rich person.
@Mousebumples: The fucking car was the death of her. Check out the link – it’s Tom Socca’s “Indignity.”
Jay
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
the laminated side glass also cuts down on “road noise”,……
so it’s more used on “higher end” vehicles.
Chris T.
@MomSense:
Only one “s” in Daylight Saving Time (they’re saving on S-es).
I’m in the “DST or no-DST, just pick one and stick with it” camp myself.
Ohio Mom
@arrieve: There’s probably no rule that a car has to have a manual gearshift because it seemed obvious there would be one. Like saying there has to be somewhere for the driver to sit.
Everyone here has convinced me. Mitch’s SIL might have been tipsy or more but the car’s engineering doomed her.
Frankensteinbeck
No. Only someone more clumsy and obvious.
And this is relevant. Mitch was absolutely fantastic at playing the media. He was exactly what the national press idolized – a cutthroat, utterly dishonest and unethical politician who wanted to grind down the faces of the poor, but did all that with a bland smile and jovial, eloquent words. A real Southern gentleman. He was the dignified abusive daddy they want the GOP to be.
@Geminid:
McConnell hates the American people and hates helping them. I’m astonished they managed to get him to approve any relief bill. This is the motherfucker who laughed when asked about the death and suffering caused by Covid.
H.E.Wolf
@Chris T.: ”I’m in the “DST or no-DST, just pick one and stick with it” camp myself.”
It’s been tried. :)
https://www.washingtonian.com/2022/03/15/the-us-tried-permanent-daylight-saving-time-in-the-70s-people-hated-it/
Another Scott
@Eyeroller:
Forsooth! Thou hath slain me!!1
(via AngryBlackLady)
Cheers,
Scott.
Chris T.
@H.E.Wolf: I was around then, and in school so I was affected by this as well, but: it doesn’t matter, for many of us, whether we’re on DST or off DST, we’ll have dark in the mornings and/or in the evenings. Here in the far north of the Pacific NorthWet, it’s gloomy and rainy from about 9 AM to 3 PM, and dark the rest of the time, all winter. Shifting the time zone numbers about still just makes it gloomy and rainy and fully-dark at school start and/or end.
Kathleen
@MomSense: Every time a child got health insurance Paul Ryan tore a wing off of an angel.
WaterGirl
@lowtechcyclist:
Things we never thought we would have to say.
lowtechcyclist
@Chris T.:
I’ve already adapted to DST, I’m almost ready to go to bed at what was 7:40pm EST. It’s rarely taken me more than a couple of days to transition.
I’ve never understood what the hullabaloo was about. I don’t want it to be dark until 8am in the winter, and in the summer I’d rather have daylight between 8pm and 9pm rather than between 4am and 5am. Both of these strike me as no-brainers, and the cost is a couple of days of having to get back in sync twice a year.
I’d do some fine-tuning: if I could wave a magic wand, the ‘spring forward’ would be the last weekend of March rather than the second weekend. And it would also be in the wee hours of Saturday morning rather than Sunday morning, to give those on M-F work schedules an extra day to adapt before the alarm goes off on Monday. And in the fall, the ‘fall back’ would be in the wee hours of Monday rather than Sunday morning, so you’d get that extra hour of sleep before going to work Monday morning.
But that’s really it. The general idea of DST totally makes sense to me, and strikes me as a big gain of usable daylight at minimal cost.
Baud
CBS news headline
Harrison Wesley
Seem to be many who are suffering from P-DST-TSD
lowtechcyclist
@WaterGirl:
Indeed.
cain
@Baud: Well looks like maybe the press is learning. Surprised there isn’t an added “this is bad news for Biden”.
#100 again??! Yeeha!
cain
@Another Scott:
Treating his cancer with herbs? Did they learn nothing from Apple founder Steve Jobs??!
Baud
@cain:
I’m 101 like the dalmatian.
Damn you, Cain!!!!
Odie Hugh Manatee
Regarding the title here, you misspelled “slithers”… ;)
lowtechcyclist
@H.E.Wolf:
TBF, we didn’t try permanent DST in the 1970s. As the article says, we started DST in January 1974 rather than in April on account of the energy crisis.
We were going to try year-round DST, but the opposition was so intense that the law got repealed in time to go back to standard time in October 1974. So we can’t honestly say year-round DST has been tried.
WaterGirl
@Baud: Here’s what to know?
I know, I know! The Republicans will make every attempt to block it!
Did I win?
cmorenc
Who would ever have thought only 10 years ago that in 2024 we would be fondly pining for thr GOP of Reagan, and even Reagan as President? Ok, well Hell no, not really, but you know what I mean – which is how could we have imagined only 10 years ago the GOP and it’s most recent President would become several orders of magnitude worse?
Reagan was at least loyal to his own country and not personally a greedy narcissist out only for himself, though he had a badly misbegotten vision of the interests of his fellow citizens and skewed toward those of the wealthier ones who he saw as makers, not takers. Though likely not personally racist, he nonetheless was not above following Nixon’s cynical “southern strategy”, starting with purposely choosing Philadelphia, Mississipi to kick off his 1980 campaign – in contrast to Trump’s even vastly mote blatantly overt racism anf fanning of racial fears in aggressively inflammatory language. Again, i am not praising Reagan, but rather comparatively putting him in contrast with Trump.
Reagan’s GOP we miss you- not really, but we could never have dreamed how far into a lethal cesspool your party and its presidential candidate could have fallen from even your standards.
catclub
McConnell is getting blame for all the things he did as majority or minority leader of the Senate GOP.
If they objected to anything he did, he could be booted out of that position. The fact that they did not means that he was doing their business, with their consent. So I don’t blame him as some evil genius for those things as much as the entire GOP senate delegation.
Some body noted that fundraising from Putin to McConnell may be down. I would say THAT is a reason to step down.
Steve in the ATL
@Kathleen: this is why you’re a valued commenter!
Steve in the ATL
@cmorenc:
Can’t agree with that, seeing as how he committed treason to get elected
Jackie
@Harrison Wesley: I don’t suffer with the DLS time – but I’m a morning person, and the extra sunlight hour in the evenings helps me with SAD Syndrome.
Switching back to Standard Time in the fall kicks my SAD into gear – darkness by 4 pm aggregates that. I love evenings outside and love sunsets, but ST means missing sunsets as they happen too early for me. I also miss grilling outdoors as it’s pitch dark by 5:00.
I need to find a paradise near the equator where it doesn’t get too hot or humid 😂
catclub
@Another Scott: and this also explains why he was Senate GOP leader. the leader is typically the best fundraiser, so he can distribute funds to others, who now owe him.
catclub
@Jackie: Find the right altitude on the big mountains of hawaii. or equador?
WaterGirl
@Steve in the ATL: Oh, that little thing? I’m sure the hostages didn’t mind.
WaterGirl
@Steve in the ATL: They have been corrupt for a very long time. Just not this brazen about it. That, and nearly a third of the population hadn’t lost its collective mind.
WaterGirl
@Jackie: Good luck with that last part! :-)
Jackie
@WaterGirl: No kidding! That’s why I said paradise 😉
NotMax
@WaterGirl
No clock changes in Hawaii.
frosty
@Jackie: Try La Paz, Bolivia. OK, not quite a Paradise but it meets your weather and equator requirements. … um, how good are you at breathing at 12,000 feet?
wjca
If you do any significant east-west (airplane) travel, you are already accustomed to having your body temporarily out of sync with the clocks. It’s a pest, perhaps. But I find that 24 hours, and a bit of extra sleep, get me adapted. Even when it’s an 8 or 12 hour time difference.
AlaskaReader
Anywhere close to the Arctic is wholly unsuited for DST. When I’m looking at a minimum of 18 hours of daylight in the summer and conversely, 18 hours of dark in the winter, changing the clock one hour either way is the height of folly.
But thanks to a Republican majority legislature, …here we are.
The whole nation should go to Standard Time and stay there.
Steve Crickmore
“Never wrestle with pigs. You both get dirty and the pig likes it.”
― George Bernard Shaw
RevRick
@Bruce K in ATH-GR: Yes, there’s a tradition of not speaking ill of the dead, so about McConnell’s person, I will say nothing. But about his works, I will say one thing: he has created a new rule, the McConnell rule. It is thusly stated: if the Constitution does not forbid it, you may do it (like saying f-u to a Presidential nominee), and if the Constitution permits it, you should do it maximally.
If the Democrats hold the Senate, regain the House, and we re-elect President Biden, I would modestly suggest they first , carve out an exception to the filibuster for adding states to the union and add two: the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico/Virgin Islands, and also expand Hawaii to include our other Pacific islands territories.
Next, I would carve out a filibuster proof exception for rights-related legislation and pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act and Codify Roe. In addition, in a shot across the bow directed at the Supreme Court, I would add a provision under Article 3, Section 2, stripping the courts of authority to rule on said acts constitutionality.
I would definitely kill Trump’s tax cuts* under Reconciliation, while enacting the Child Care tax credits and college debt relief under that provision as well.
Above all else, I would find ways to utterly neuter McConnell in the minority, so he would have to witness all his handiwork undone. Helplessly.
But I will not speak ill of the dead.
wjca
He ain’t dead yet. So no need to hold back.
Paul in KY
@What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?: Once the interior of the car fills up with water, you can then open the doors. Takes someone with nerves of steel to wait it out and then execute that maneuver.
Paul in KY
@Jay: Had an 83 Celica stolen out of my driveway. Like a dumbass, I had my keys ‘hidden’ in car and they found em & off they went. Did get car recovered and never did that again.
Paul in KY
@Another Scott: In the 1300s, the spare would not be in exile as the courtiers would have treated him much, much better since (back then) there was a real probability that he might end up on throne.
Other than that, great quip :-)