Deadbeat politician who never shows up for work https://t.co/4k1H38La4n
— Ragnarok Lobster 🐺 (@eclecticbrotha) March 28, 2024
Remember the FBI raid of Mar-a-Lago?
Speaker Johnson funded the brand new FBI HQ which will be used to go after President Trump and every Republican who stands against the Democrat regime.
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) March 26, 2024
And it could not happen to a more deserving little weasel!
Analysis by Paul Kane: House Speaker Johnson (R-La.) faces a unique dilemma as he considers how to handle a proposed security package. He finds himself continuously boxed in by his own side, with legislation — and maybe his job — dependent on the minority. https://t.co/nIPenV8pJD
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) March 28, 2024
Paul Kane, at the Washington Post — “Speaker Johnson’s only path to legislative salvation: House Democrats”:[gift link]
… That’s because his own Republicans have waged a war against the normal proceedings in the House, with a reactionary right-wing faction torpedoing the parliamentary process to govern debate and allow legislation to pass with a simple majority.
In their pursuit of ideological purity, these conservatives have repeatedly forced Johnson’s hand to make deals with Democrats. For must-pass legislation, Johnson uses a legislative calendar that brings bills to the floor that cannot be amended, get very little debate and need a two-thirds majority — which usually requires anywhere from 180 to 200 Democrats and another 80 to 100 Republicans.
Thus, these far-right Republicans have assured an anti-conservative outcome, over and over, leading to bills approved by the Senate’s Democratic majority and a dozen to two dozen mainstream Republicans.
All of which has left Johnson with very little negotiating room as he heads toward next month’s consideration of the security package, with the Senate having approved, with 70 votes, a $95 billion bloc of funds that makes none of the border and immigration changes the House GOP has been demanding for a year.
House Democrats are fully aware of the unusually powerful hand they have despite their minority status.
“Democrats have repeatedly made clear that we will find bipartisan common ground with our Republican colleagues on any issue, whenever and wherever possible, to take care of the business of the American people,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) told reporters March 21 at a news conference.
The next day, on a bill to fund about 70 percent of federal agency budgets, Democrats provided 185 votes and Republicans 101, a handful more than needed to clear the two-thirds majority needed to pass the legislation.
“This is a Chuck Schumer, Democrat-controlled bill,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said during Friday’s debate.
That is true, as the legislation most closely resembled the version of funding bills that won approval last summer by the Senate Appropriations Committee and were supported by Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.).
But Johnson’s options, given how Greene and other fringe Republicans block his moves, were to either shut down the government or pass the legislation with huge Democratic support…
As the House left town Friday for a long spring break, Johnson issued a statement suggesting that he wanted to work on a House version of the Senate’s $95 billion security bill.
“We welcome all ongoing member deliberations over the next two weeks as the House works its will on this matter,” Johnson said.
But Jeffries knows that it will be all but impossible for Johnson to craft anything that can pass the House — unless it has overwhelming support from Democrats, enough of whom so far have only been inclined to support the Schumer-led Senate bill…
Greene has already threatened to force a vote to eject Johnson as speaker if he puts legislation on the floor funding Ukraine — something she has called her own personal “red line” since early last year.
Jeffries knows that there are close to 200 Democrats and probably 100 Republicans, maybe a good bit more, willing to vote for the Senate’s security legislation — enough to clear the two-thirds majority hurdle if the speaker would just go that route.
So Jeffries can essentially dictate the outcome of anything that passes the House regarding Ukraine and the national security package, which includes money to shore up the defenses of Israel and Taiwan…
More delicious details at the link.
At Puck, Tina Nguyen on “Johnson Melancholia”:
For House Republicans, this week marks one of the first true recesses since Kevin McCarthy was ousted last October: Two weeks at home, away from the Capitol Hill pressure cooker, without the looming specter of a speaker election or government shutdown. But it’s also the first time I’ve reached out to my conservative sources—a typically wrathful, perpetually vengeance-minded crew—and found them to be… depressed. “[Our options] are pretty weak so far,” one Republican ally told me, when I asked whether they’d started plotting ways to punish Speaker Mike Johnson for ramming through yet another budget with the help of Democrats. “I mean, they don’t have the votes for anything.”
That includes a viable right-wing plot to vacate the speakership and send Johnson packing. Sure, Marjorie Taylor Greene filed a symbolic motion-to-vacate last Friday, after Johnson waved through the latest minibus over the protests of the hardliners who barely had time to read the bill, much less organize the opposition. And yes, if she manages to get two or three people onboard, she could technically vacate Johnson. (Right now, Greene is on the Twitter warpath, accusing Johnson of funding full-term abortion clinics, and the F.B.I.’s deep-state witch hunting machinery, among other things.) But the members who can think more than two weeks ahead are cold on the idea. “Maybe you’ll have, like, an Eli Crane” backing Greene and an M.T.V., a MAGA-aligned House aide told me. “But Matt Gaetz isn’t going to support it. Byron Donalds isn’t going to support it. [House Freedom Caucus chair] Bob Good, I don’t think he’s there.”
Two strategic reservations are guiding their thinking, I’m told. The first is the immediate downside hardliners discovered the last time around: Electing a Republican speaker is really hard, doing anything without a speaker is effectively prohibited, and finding an alternative to Johnson that every Republican could support is nearly impossible, especially with what is now a one-vote majority. (Rep. Mike Gallagher left Congress last Friday, joining Ken Buck, George Santos, Bill Johnson, and McCarthy as private citizens.)
Second, of course, is the fear that any replacement would almost certainly be worse. “If you vacate Johnson, we’re not electing a Republican Speaker,” a senior G.O.P. aide close to leadership told me bluntly. “Like, we barely elected him. The margins are smaller now… Hell, with the margins as tight as they are, you could accidentally elect [Democratic Minority Leader] Hakeem Jeffries. But more realistically, you end up with some sort of negotiated speaker who is palatable to enough Democrats and enough Republicans for them to become Speaker of the House.” …
House Speaker Mike Johnson is committed to advancing Ukraine aid. But it will be a difficult task https://t.co/VDA5K5znhj
— The Associated Press (@AP) March 27, 2024
“Committed… “, he says:
For over a month, House Speaker Mike Johnson has sat on a funding package that would send desperately needed ammunition and weaponry to Ukraine, mulling how best to gain a grasp of what is expected to be a difficult lift in the House.
The Republican speaker has indicated he will attempt to push for approval of tens of billions in wartime funding for Ukraine, as well as Israel, once the House returns in April. Yet it will be perhaps his most difficult task since he took the speaker’s gavel late last year.
“We’ll turn our attention to it and we won’t delay on that,” the Louisiana representative said of the Ukraine package at a news conference last week…
Rep. Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, called it “devastating” that the House has departed for a two-week break with the aid package left unresolved. He, along with many Democrats, called on Johnson to allow a vote on a Senate-approved bill.
“If you’re serious about helping Ukraine, you just put the bill on the floor and let’s vote — let the House have its will,” he said.
But hardline conservatives in the House, adamantly opposed to aid for Ukraine, are already frustrated with Johnson’s willingness to work with Democrats to pass legislation — so much so that it could cost him his job. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a far-right Republican from Georgia, has filed a motion to vacate Johnson as speaker and warned him not to put Ukraine funding on the House floor…
Baud
Difficult? Put it up for a vote. Done and done.
ETA: Or what Meeks said.
oldster
“Democrats have repeatedly made clear that we will find bipartisan common ground with our Republican colleagues on any issue, whenever and wherever possible, to take care of the business of the American people,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) told reporters
I love that guy. Delivers a clear, crisp message in a clear, authoritative tone.
A different kind of communicator for Buttigieg, but just as good in his own way. Dems are building a bench.
Gin & Tonic
I’m so old I can remember when “hardline conservatives” steadfastly supported what they called “captive nations.”
eclare
@Baud:
It continues to amaze me how invertebrates can walk at all.
SpaceUnit
Johnson should just put the bill up for a vote and let it pass. If the goblins come for his job let them have it. Really can’t image he’s enjoying it all that much.
Baud
@Gin & Tonic:
And hated Russia.
Jackie
I read that MTG is so pissed about Mike Gallagher‘s decision to quit the House AFTER Michigan’s deadline to hold a special election to replace him, she wants the GQP to oust him earlier than his announced retirement date – so Michigan can replace him before the cutoff deadline for a special election.
I wonder if she can muster enough support?
edit: 2/3 majority needed.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@SpaceUnit: I can’t imagine why anyone would want that job. It’s impossible
ETA: It’s not just the tiny majority. Pelosi had small majorities sometimes. It’s the lunacy of their members.
Baud
@Jackie:
Need a ⅔ vote. Dems wouldn’t go for it.
Parfigliano
Tell me how a big chunk of the GOP isnt owned by Putin?
A Ghost to Most
Moses Johnson found himself a burning bush, and jumped in.
MomSense
@Baud:
Isn’t the reason they won’t bring it up for a vote because they are following the rule named for the former speaker Hastert who is a convicted child molester?
wjca
I’m not entirely clear on the minutia of the rules. If Johnson moves the aid bill to the floor, can the nutcases somehow force the vote to vacate the chair to happen first? Or does the aid bill vote happen first?
Baud
@MomSense:
Haven’t they passed other bills with Dem votes.
Tony Jay
It’s delicious.
Until the MAGA Party ousts every single GOP Rep and Senator who would even consider voting with a Democrat for wherever they’ve decided is against MAGA ‘principles’ this week, the margins are too tight for them to rule over the ruin they embody.
So as long as there’s enough Democrats to join with the saner Republicans to pass necessary funding bills during this period of not-Dem majority stasis, the MAGA minority don’t get their fun.
But the further right the MAGAts push their caucus, the more seats they lose to the Democrats, and the more seats they lose to the Democrats the harder they have to push in order to take control of the GOP policy machine, with the vain hope that their preferred ideological gotterdamerung will be attractive to Mr and Missus Average American. And there’s an Election this year, and the GOP has picked Stinkypants McPorridgebrain as its standard bearer.
Basically, I think the Democrats are in with a shot of across the board victories.
Percysowner
They can’t get the votes to pass a freaking bill without Democratic help. I don’t think the Democrats will help MTG get to 2/3 of the House in order to make it easier for the Republicans to keep their majority. He was elected, even if the Republican Party kicks him out that doesn’t get him out of the House itself. \
I may be missing something, but I think he played them and played them good.
Mike in NC
Empty Greene is probably going to be Fat Bastard’s choice for running mate, even if he’d say she’s not his type. We can only dream.
VFX Lurker
@Jackie: Minor correction: Gallagher represents Wisconsin, not Michigan.
Jackie
@Jackie: Found a link, and Gallagher represents Wisconsin, not Michigan.
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4553767-greene-mike-gallagher-expelled-special-election/amp/
wjca
It seems that the Republicans are absolutely determined to lose in November. Perhaps to get back to the put-upon-minority status that they are more comfortable with. That being the case, the Democrats will have their job cut out for them to keep it from happening.
Apathy and/or complacency could possibly do the trick. But it will take work. So the question is, can Democrats somehow manage to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory this year?
cain
@Mike in NC:
They won’t get anyone from the House as it will make things even worse. But if they did pick one they could pick MTG but MTG is doing a great job of making the Dems gain more power
hueyplong
@Mike in NC: Seems like he needs her to be in the House.
different-church-lady
For no particular reason, other than I’m drunk:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maillard_reaction
Jackie
@Baud: That’s good! So MTG can just stew in her own bitterness – as usual! 😁
Baud
MTG would gut Trump like a fish to be president, and Trump knows it.
Matt McIrvin
During the George W. Bush era, I recall how the Republicans would just slam through one bill after another with a majority of “50%+1”. That was when they learned to optimize them to be as hardcore as possible–if any Democrats supported them, they knew they were leaving something on the table and should make it more extreme. They moved in lockstep. Democrats just seemed like they were getting steamrolled.
This is the opposite of that. Forget laws, these people can’t even pass a House bill when they have the majority. They can’t even retain a Speaker. And I think it’s because people whose experience of politics began with that constitutional hardball era started getting high on their own supply. They can’t even think about strategy because politics is about messianic fantasies for them.
Eolirin
@Jackie: I don’t think there’s a way for them to have the numbers to do that. I think they’d need a 2/3rds majority and no Democrat is going to go along with it.
different-church-lady
If that were fuckin’ true I’d be bankrupt right now.
different-church-lady
FUCK EVERY GODDAMNED VOTER WHO HAS ENOUGH MONEY FOR SPORTS BETTING AND 60K PICKUP TRUCK WHO’S COMPLAINING ABOUT INFLATION FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU!!!!
brantl
I think those little glasses of his are ahint about who catturd really is.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@different-church-lady: well, you did tell us you’ve been drinking.
Tony Jay
@wjca:
It’s tricky, but they could tell the duskier elements of the solid Dem base that they’ve had their disruptive fun and now they have to swallow a metric shit-ton of tyre rims and anthrax in order to back the Biden/RFG ticket at the election.
But they probably won’t.
Dickeylee
@Jackie: Wisconsin…
MomSense
@Baud:
I think only on continuing resolutions to keep government open and that’s what ended McCarthy’s tenure as speaker and why MTG wants to oust Johnson.
different-church-lady
@Mr. Bemused Senior:
IF THAT IS NOT A ROTATING TAG BY MORNING THERE WILL BE LAWSUITS!!!
RSA
Open thread? Here’s David Simon (of Homicide and The Wire fame) on X, schooling conservative trolls and Republican politicians (but I repeat myself) about the Baltimore Key Bridge collapse. Sample:
Harrison Wesley
@brantl: The original catturd? Because I believe the entity which refers to itself as catturd 2 claims FL for its litterbox.
West of the Rockies
Isn’t MAGA essentially the Tea Party with more (and more stupid) adherents?
Jay
and if you believe that, I have a very recent former bridge to sell you.
Btw, “Law Enforcement” didn’t even make it into the top 25 of the deadliest jobs in the US in 2023. Those guys filling potholes did, along with most of the jobs filled by new immigrants and undocumented labour.
different-church-lady
@Harrison Wesley:
The spooky thing about “Catturd2” is that it implies it’s an improvement over Catturd v.1
different-church-lady
@West of the Rockies: It’s the Tea Party with new and improved.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@different-church-lady: in my experience upgrades are mostly better avoided.
Martin
@Jackie: No. It’s a ⅔ vote to expel a member. Democrats won’t go along with it. Not to mention, the House is on vacation until the deadline.
different-church-lady
@RSA:
Also nominated.
Martin
@different-church-lady: Remember, $80K F-150s are basic goods.
JPL
@Mike in NC: nope. If trump loses, which he will, she’ll run for Senate.
eclare
@Percysowner:
Sounds like that to me! I didn’t realize that he had set his retirement date after the date needed to call for a special election. Sneaky and pissed off!
schrodingers_cat
Has Nikki Haley endorsed the Orange Man yet?
Jackie
OK, got it, everybody! 2/3’s needed! 😉
Scout211
Republican stupidity is also local.
Scout211
Piling on, a balloon-juice tradition! You should feel honored. 😉
NotMax
@different-church-lady
Why there’s not a celebrity chef going under the moniker Maillard Fillmore continues to be a puzzlement.
;)
Jackie
@JPL: GAWD I HOPE NOT!!!
Jon Ossoff’s term isn’t up until ‘26, and hopefully MTG will have bitterly quit politics by then, because Dems control EVERYTHING!🤞🏻
Jackie
@Scout211: Oh, I do, I do! 😂
topclimber
I believe there are 28 red states. All but 16 have already had primaries.
Does that perhaps mean that GOP house members in 12 states no longer have to worry about being primaried by MAGA?
Cause…maybe: those among them in favor of aid to Ukraine might start showing some testicularity (used here in the non-sexist sense).
Timill
@eclare: It’s even sillier than that: if he quits on or after the second Tuesday in April, the primary and general elections to fill the seat are held on the same dates as the regular primary and general elections.
When is the House next in session? April 9th. The second Tuesday in April…
https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/statutes/statutes/8/50/4/b
https://www.house.gov/legislative-activity/2024-04-10
Jackie
@schrodingers_cat: Nikki’s been very quiet since she suspended her campaign. Like radio silence quiet.
Redshift
Pastor Mike thinks he’s Moses. It looks increasingly likely he’s going to get his tribe their forty years in the wilderness! (If you have enough hubris to believe something like that, at least don’t be dumb enough to think you’re only going to get the good parts…)
Redshift
@topclimber:
Nah, they’ve had their presidential primaries. Congressional primaries are usually (always?) later in the year.
Harrison Wesley
@different-church-lady: “Catturd 2: The Catturdening”
Freemark
@Scout211: Well, in their defense, Gonzaga must sound like a country full of brown melanin-enhanced people to them.
Gwangung
@Scout211: and kept on doubling down when this was pointed out to him.
Jeffro
are ANY of them happy (on the GOP side)? even slightly?
They all seem to fall into two camps: complete psychos who lash out at literally everything (usually, in some sort of lame defense of trumpov, or at best, a “we’re rubber, YOU’RE GLUE!” attack on Dems) or grudging, plodding zombies who know what’s coming this November (and beyond).
MTG, Stefanik, and many of the Fox talking heads are in the former camp. McConnell, Rubio, and many of the Rs who have weakly opposed trumpov at some point are in the latter.
Princess
Someone needs to remind Pastor Mike that Moses never got to see the Promised Land.
Jeffro
Fixed and also here’s your answer: I can’t. Because it is.
Jeffro
Tea Party squared (cubed?) = all of the racism, ten times the nihilism, plus cult-like devotion to a life-long con man who hates who they hate, only out loud.
(so…yes)
RaflW
“Right now, Greene is … accusing Johnson of funding full-term abortion clinics.”
It is still wild to me that news outlets don’t feel like they need to say “…funding full-term abortion clinics (neither the clinics nor the funding of them exist)”. It’s a pretty important thing, I think, to point out that her accusations are 100% unfounded, alarmist claptrap.
mrmoshpotato
@different-church-lady:
Sugarcoating it!
David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
Which one is MTG: is she the one who jacks off people in public places or is she the one who sleeps with her customers?
different-church-lady
@Princess: Naw, let him find out the hard way.
wombat probability cloud
@oldster: Yep, the kids are alright.
Harrison Wesley
@David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch: I thought that was Lauren Boe-boe-boebert
Jeffro
OT but hey, thanks for helping highlight the differences here, GOP!
Republican States Sue Biden Admin In Order to Keep College Grads Poor Forever
(I may have paraphrased that header a bit)
Keep bangin’ Dems!!!
NotMax
@David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
Boebert’s the theater diddler.
Greene is the one obsessed with Hunter’s penis.
topclimber
@Redshift: Six have had legislative primaries too, including Texas and Ohio, two of the three biggest.
It turns out there are 20 GOP states rather than 28.
CaseyL
The GOP has spent 50 years telling people that government is the enemy.
The current crop of MAGAts in office are in the 20s-60s age range, so they grew up marinated in that crap propaganda.
Obviously, they don’t want government to actually work. Less obviously, they have no idea how to make government work even when they want to.
That’s how you get a bumper crop of politicians who are in it for the social media hits/RW news appearances/grift fund raising. They don’t legislate because legislating is “making government work,” that is a Bad Thing – and also because they don’t know how.
Jackie
@David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch: Maybe both?
Boebert is notoriously known for playing the hanky panky with a date in a theater during a play featuring Beetlejuice.
MTG is known for husband cheating with clients in her fitness gym. Extra curricular gymnastics, if you will.
NotMax
@Jackie
Obligatory?
:)
RaflW
@Jeffro: Not to be pollyanna, but I think an updated variation of Hubert Humphrey’s “happy warrior” moniker could work for quite a few Dems.
Republicans, not just Trump, but seemingly a wide swath of them, are just so bitter, pissed off, with a dark and very distasteful view of America and humanity in general. Its both brittle and a complete turnoff.
Relatedly, Ed Zitron has a fantastic piece up about Musty. “This is not somebody with… excitement about his companies or the world around him, but one of a million boorish conservative men grinding their axes about the problems they’ve created.”
(MTG is a extremely boorish conservative woman, but the point stands.)
PST
@oldster:
I saw Buttigieg interviewed this evening about the Baltimore bridge disaster. He looks a little older and sounds a little less glib. Both are probably good for him politically. Agree about the bench.
HumboldtBlue
@Jackie:
C’mon, Jackie, it takes 2/3 of the house!
Odie Hugh Manatee
I like to refer to Mikey as The House Johnson. Given that, I wonder if some boner pills would stiffen up his spine.
He is quite a dick .
A Lurker
@different-church-lady:
Fyi, $60k is on the low end now for pickups.
I bought a off-lease BMW 3 a few years back for just over $25k. I regularly get comments about my pricy ride from people driving new Ford trucks and Toyota SUVs that I know go for like 2-3x the price of my sedan.
🙄
Jeffro
Seconded!
“Who’s happy…because they’re doing the work? The work of looking. out. for. YOU? DEMS!!1!”
NotMax
@RaflW
Al Smith was the Happy Warrior, a nickname bestowed upon him at the 1924 Democratic convention by FDR
mrmoshpotato
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
Hahaha! Very nice!
Marcopolo
@Jackie: Saw folks told you about the need for a 2/3 vote. But did anyone mention Gallagher is from WI, not MI? The conventional wisdom is he plans to run for Ron Johnson’s senate seat when RJ retires.
Jackie
@NotMax: I ♥️ Tommy James and the Shondells!
Jackie
@HumboldtBlue: 😂
Jackie
@Marcopolo: Yes! 😁
Actually, I corrected myself a few posts later. I feel quite popular tonight!☺️
topclimber
@Jackie: Jackals bite at her ankles, but Jackie stands tall.
PST
Not quite on topic, but a comment on MTG’s lust for her party’s VP nod made me think of it. My prediction of TFG’s pick for running mate is (Tada!) Nicole Shanahan. He’s probably kicking himself right now that he let RFKJ get the jump on him, but surely that loser would be kicked to the curb in a Silicon Valley nanosecond in favor of a candidate who might actually (oh God, I hate to say it) win. And she has everything he lusts after, most particularly, plenty of money and a propensity to spend it on stupid ads.
topclimber
In non-Jackie news: Israeli court ends subsidies for orthodox Jews who avoid military service.
mrmoshpotato
@Jackie: I was hoping for Mony Mony.
Kristine
@Jackie: It’s your lucky night!
RaflW
@NotMax: No reason to doubt that, but it’s a moniker quite commonly associated with HHH as well, and I think the more commonly recalled one.
NotMax
@Jackie
Did someone say popular?
:)
Steve in the ATL
@mrmoshpotato: nah, Hanky Panky is a better song!
Scout211
Yesterday on his Truth Social boondoggle, he called Shanahan a dirty word. He called her a liberal! Oh the humanity! But add a few million in with the Veep nomination and he might make an exception to her political leanings.
I still predict it will be JD Vance.
Ken
@Redshift: When does the Lord try to kill Johnson, and is only deterred when Johnson’s wife cuts off the tip of their son’s penis? Exodus 4:24-26, in the spirit of “not just the good parts”.
wjca
Because Putin sees no need to waste money on those who are already useful idiots by nature. Of which there are rather a lot.
Marcopolo
Biden @ the Radio City fundraiser tonight:
”Harry Truman said if you want a friend in Washington, get a dog. I got one and it bit a secret service agent.”
Dark Brandon humor
PST
@Scout211:
We should be so lucky.
Quiltingfool
@Mike in NC: Whenever I hear MTG speak, the first thought I have is “Who asked what the stupid people think?”
Another Scott
@Scout211: For the Thiel connection? Hmm. That kinda makes sense.
TIFG needs money and needs the approval of the bazillionaires. The Mercers and the DeVoseses and a bunch of others helped him last time. He may be desperate to pick someone that can get lots of money dumped on them for him.
It would be stupid for him to pick a senator given how close the body is and how important it is to the RWNJs (judges, etc.), but he does all kinds of stupid stuff. And bazillionaires aren’t especially smart either.
We’ll see.
Cheers,
Scott.
wjca
Why pick anybody for the Thiel connection? Just eliminate the middle man and pick Thiel himself.
mrmoshpotato
@Steve in the ATL: No sir, no. I did not have Hanky Panky running through my head for months for a reason. It was Mony Mony. And I couldn’t remember the lyrics, so I was making up my own lyrics trying to remember what song it was.
RevRick
@different-church-lady: This is the GOP trick of the lie by omission. What’s missing is the accompanying pay raises. (Or, as in my case, Social Security increases).
Another Scott
@wjca: :-)
Wikipedia says he was born in Germany and his parents emigrated when he was young.
Speaking of immigrants…
[ groucho-roll-eyes.gif ]
[ rofl ]
Cheers,
Scott.
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
@Another Scott: Took me a few seconds…
“I’ll be Bach…”
sab
@wjca: Peter Thiel is a German immigrant naturalized US citizen so he is ineligible for VP
ETA Another Scott beat me to it.
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
@sab: Republicans don’t even care whether they won an election, they assert authority. I can’t imagine they much care where their prospective God-Emporer in-waiting was born.
Jackie
@mrmoshpotato: I now always smile when I hear Mony Mony, as my then 17 yr old daughter was driving – the driver chose the radio station – and Mony Mony came on. Needless to say, it wasn’t The Shondells’ version, but close enough, and I started singing along. “YOU know this song?!?!!”
Good times!🥰
wjca
Surely a mind which can declassify documents just by thinking about it can make an immigrant into a natural born citizen jusy be deciding he is. At least if he’s an immigrant from Europe. And has big bucks.
eclare
@The Kropenhagen Interpretation:
Thank you! I never would have gotten that
eclare
@Jackie:
Hehehe…when I was in college in the late 80’s, there was a very raunchy shout out when Billy Idol was between lyrics.
wjca
I confess that I started with “I’ll be Brahms” before I hit the right answer.
Captain C
@Matt McIrvin:
I remember when the Tea Party first came into being and the House ‘Freedom’ Caucus started being nothing but an obstructive body, someone somewhere pointing out that in 1994, when the Gingrich Contract On America demonize-your-opponents-as-evil-enemies strategy began, most of the Republican. congresspeople knew that despite the rhetoric, you ultimately had to get something done (especially once the Gingrich shutdowns backfired). But by 2010, the majority of the Republican caucus had only experienced government in the post-Gingrich era, and had no idea that they were supposed to do anything but extremism and posturing. This has only gotten worse in the 14 years since then.
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
@wjca: I, myself, started puzzling over a generalized notion of Arnold Schwarzenegar whereupon reading groucho eye roll it came to me like lightning from the blue.
Captain C
@David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch: The latter, definitely. Though I wouldn’t be surprised if ‘both’ were correct. Boebert is the one who got filmed vaping and jacking off her date at a musical.
Captain C
@NotMax:
Does anyone know if both her hands were above the table/desk when those pics were being shown in committee?
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
It seems a while now that I, myself, have wanted to know what all the hubbub was about…
Timill
@wjca: I started with “Well, Bruckner was Austrian, too”…
Jackie
For whatever reason, copying/pasting attempts disappear halfway through posting.
This link takes you to stage two of the Biden-Harris needling TIFG’s campaign schedule via social media. It’s funnier than hell; well worth the click!
https://www.rawstory.com/biden-trump-gloves-off/
espierce
@different-church-lady:
Hello, I’d like to subscribe to your newsletter.
Frankensteinbeck
@topclimber:
I was talking about that in an earlier thread. This is a huge cultural shift. Those twin policies of getting to skip national service and get paid for religious education were the backbone of the ultra-orthodox forming a privileged, grotesquely bigoted subculture where it was easy to keep their children following their tradition. I can’t imagine what the political ramifications will be. This goes vastly beyond whether the ultra-orthodox are warmongerers.
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
@Jackie: Hit him with the double basement. Ouch.
Boris Rasputin (the evil twin)
@different-church-lady: No wonder we love you, dear lady.
Gretchen
OMG! Mark Leibovich is on Alex Wagner saying that the Biden event in NYC today that broke the record for one day fundraising is bad for Biden because Obama and Clinton are old news. Where’s Doug J?
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
@Gretchen: Old news?
I have an established history of maintaining decorum around celebrities. I guarantee that to this day I would fangirl out for Obama. He might be the only one.
I’m more impressed with the initial trajectory of Biden’s presidency and that still holds true. The hopenchange left an indelible mark on my soul.
eclare
@Gretchen:
And yeah, absolutely no one likes those too!
According to Gallup, Clinton left office with 66% approval. Obama was at 59%. What losers!
https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/statistics/data/final-presidential-job-approval-ratings
eclare
@eclare:
Damn spellcheck.
Melancholy Jaques
@Jackie:
Tommy James and the Shondells, an underrated band.
Many years later, Billy Idol, Joan Jett, and Tiffany each had a hit with a cover of one of their songs.
eclare
@Jackie:
Wow! That is prime Dark Brandon.
https://x.com/BidenHQ/status/1773417798158479848?s=20
karen marie
@Scout211: He’s going to pick the one least likely to have him sectioned with the 25th amendment.
Kathleen
@mrmoshpotato: i love Crystal Blue Persuasion
Bruce K in ATH-GR
@eclare: Yeah. I read somewhere that part of their advertising campaign is specifically designed to drive TFG crazy (or crazier, anyway) and goad him into losing his temper and doing stupid things. Granted, he’d do stupid things anyway, but there’s no reason for them not to throw him an anvil or two along the way.
sab
@Gretchen: Mark Leibovich has spent his whole life trying to raise cynicism to an art form.
Citizen Alan
@wjca: The evangelicals would not countenance a gay VP. The rest of the nation would not countenance a VP who was an aspiring vampire.
sab
@Citizen Alan: They wouldn’t countenance an out gay VP. They already had another.
WaterGirl
@RSA:
Note to self: Do not piss of David Simon!
Miss Bianca
@RSA: Whoa. Heh heh.
(Reminder to self: Never, ever, let David Simon get that mad at me.)
WaterGirl
@Jackie:
It can feel like people are piling on, but of course everyone is just trying to be helpful and supply the information.
It may be too late, but I did go back and add the 2/3 majority info to your comment.
WaterGirl
@Gretchen: Where’s DougJ? Surely sobbing in a corner. they steal all his material.