Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Bark louder, little dog.

All hail the time of the bunny!

I’m starting to think Jesus may have made a mistake saving people with no questions asked.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

… gradually, and then suddenly.

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

People really shouldn’t expect the government to help after they watched the GOP drown it in a bathtub.

Too little, too late, ftfnyt. fuck all the way off.

If you’re gonna whine, it’s time to resign!

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

The way to stop violence is to stop manufacturing the hatred that fuels it.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

I’m more christian than these people and i’m an atheist.

Well, whatever it is, it’s better than being a Republican.

President Musk and Trump are both poorly raised, coddled 8 year old boys.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

We will not go back.

Celebrate the fucking wins.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

We do not need to pander to people who do not like what we stand for.

Balloon Juice, where there is always someone who will say you’re doing it wrong.

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Sunday Evening Open Thread: Impeachment Programming Notes

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Why I love my senior Senator:

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180Comments

  1. 1.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    Pat Mahomes is a bad hombre

     

    Now you got him…. whoops…. now you don’t

  7. 7.

    Mike in NC

    There might be a popcorn shortage worse than the toilet paper shortage back in April when the trial starts.

  8. 8.

    dmsilev

    Presumably the Senate will allow calling witnesses this time round. Wonder whether T**** will testify in his own defense. Any sane lawyer would strongly advise against it, but ‘sane’ may not be in great supply on his legal team.

  9. 9.

    MoCA Ace

    Theoretically, with all GOP malfeasance there is a point in time, a singularity if you will, between “too soon” and “can’t you just let it go” where criticism is appropriate and consequences are possible. This singularity will swallow the insurrection as sure as it will swallow the orange fart clouds fat ass.

  10. 10.

    Ohio Mom

    My first reaction upon reading, “McConnell welcomes agreement with Schumer…” is, Now what is that scheming snake up to?

    I am hoping for a long, drawn-out trial, with lots of repetition for the more challenged learners out there (I don’t think we are allowed to say “slow learners” anymore).

  11. 11.

    mrmoshpotato

    @dmsilev:

    Wonder whether T**** will testify in his own defense. 

    “I was talking with my daddy Vladdy at the time about the deadly attack on the loser House, and he said there was no attack!  So there!”

  13. 13.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    I think we had a pretty good chance of convicting Trump in the Senate if the timeline could have been sped up. But now all the polling has come in showing Republicans are cool with an assault on our Capitol so their Senators know there will be no political consequences for letting Trump off the hook.

  16. 16.

    JMG

    Could not have gone any faster because Mitch controlled Senate calendar until 4:30 p.m. on Inauguration Day. By then it was already clear Republicans were going to support Trump, which BTW I am not sure is such a shrewd political move by them. A LOT of Senators up in 2022 are setting up a win the primary-lose the general scenario.

  18. 18.

    Llelldorin

    @Just Some Fuckhead: Their voters are cool with it, but it looks like their money isn’t. The threat is less that they’ll lose their seats as that they’ll lose their wingnut welfare checks after they leave office.

  22. 22.

    Leto

    I appreciate my Congresswoman, Madeleine Dean, so much. Very smart, very tough, and 100% not taking any of their shit. 

  24. 24.

    Ken

    @MoCA Ace: Theoretically, with all GOP malfeasance there is a point in time, a singularity if you will, between “too soon” and “can’t you just let it go” where criticism is appropriate and consequences are possible.

    Sounds similar to the moment after every school mass shooting where Republicans switch over from “it’s too soon to politicize this” to “there’s no way we can prevent this“.

  25. 25.

    ceece

    It looks like the insurrection was a super-spreader event, as predicted:

    CNN link

    CNN is reporting that 38 Capitol Police officers have tested positive for Covid since Jan 6th.

  26. 26.

    Chris Johnson

    Just a thought here: given that Trump is Putin’s guy, and given that McConnell is also Putin’s guy.

    Well, some of the craziest right-wingers on Parler are Putin’s guys, while at the SAME TIME some of the noisiest and best-funded (!) left-wingers are Putin’s guys. You can tell them because they bitch about ‘Russiagate’ while also decrying electoralism and insisting the Dems are in fact worse than even Trump.

    This is normal. This is expected. This is all a bunch of propaganda and noise from all sides and is literally what Putin does. It stokes chaos, and that is the goal.

    Trump is pure chaos.

    But MCCONNELL is an intelligent treasonous fuck, who’s turned up in recent months with odd things like mysterious hand injuries, and Mitch can play a more intelligent game than Trump ever could.

    I’m calling it now: this is McConnell’s last desperation play to throw Trump under the bus, with the full knowledge and acceptance of Putin, on the grounds that Trump has outlived his usefulness. He failed. McConnell is playing for time, and to keep some measure of control for his treacherous kindred, rather than see them all discredited and abandoned by the political system.

    He’s going to lay it ALL on Trump, as if he had never done anything wrong himself, in an attempt to keep some measure of power.

    I have no idea what’s going to happen, but I think it’s very important that Trump has outlived his usefulness. Now McConnell has to establish that he’s still useful to Russia even while Trump administrates a third terrorist party. I think Mitch will be able to thread that needle. I doubt it’s a good thing, but I think the guy will be able to throw Trump under the bus and pretend there’s daylight between them, when in fact they are still very much on the same side.

  27. 27.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    You have to wonder if insurrection isn’t cause for impeachment, what is? 

    For Moscow Mitch and the other 48 (Yes, credit to Mitt where due) bastards, I’m not sure anything would cause them to convict the Soviet shitpile mobster conman.

    Even with all of the damage caused, Mitch is probably mad that Dump was such an undisciplined manbaby who would rather golf more than destroy more of the government.

  28. 28.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @Chris Johnson: This is McConnell’s last term. He will likely vote to convict Trump because it won’t affect him. But he won’t whip a vote against Trump because it’s Trump’s party and there’s no upside politically for Republicans to convict Trump. The best we could ever hope for a was a “heat of the moment” conviction. That time has passed.

  29. 29.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Ken:

    Sounds similar to the moment after every school mass shooting where Republicans switch over from “it’s too soon to politicize this” to “there’s no way we can prevent this“. 

    I thought that timeline was now “it’s too soon to politicize this” and the next school shooting.

  33. 33.

    Elizabelle

    @Ken:   Speaking of which, there was another mass shooting today. Six dead in Indianapolis, which includes a pregnant woman and her unborn child.

  35. 35.

    HumboldtBlue

    @Frank Wilhoit: 

    I think this stick around for a while. There are five dead Americans whose deaths are at the hands of open insurrectionists acting at the behest of the President to interfere if not overturn the results of an election, The DOJ will be under responsible stewardship for the next four years and my sense of Pelosi and every other Dem is this will be addressed, and it will be done properly.

    Just6 my sense. This was different.

  36. 36.

    Jay

    "Federal law enforcement officials are examining a number of threats aimed at members of Congress as the second trial of former President Donald Trump nears, including ominous chatter about killing legislators or attacking them outside of the U.S. Capitol" t.co/RPT4LG3FG5— Scott Stedman (@ScottMStedman) January 25, 2021

  38. 38.

    Ohio Mom

    Elizabelle: “unborn child”?! This blog is not the sort of antediluvian place where one uses that unscientific term. It’s a fetus.

    I’ll leave it up to the grammar pendents to explain why “pregnant woman and her fetus” is redundant.

  40. 40.

    Kattails

    I’m going to be optimistic and think that there is a ton of evidence that’s been put together about this, that they’re holding close for now.  There are a bunch of pardoned pals who are no longer immune from testifying. I saw someone’s twitter response today, a Trump sychophant said he was the only recent President who hadn’t started a war.  A sitting member of Congress replied to the effect that it hadn’t felt like that when the attack was happening.

    And that is the point.  The Republicans may try to brush this off, but there’s lots and lots of footage. This was an attack on the United States from the inside and if it had gone off better, we would not be sitting here discussing any of this right now.  This country would be in massive turmoil. There’s a house nearby which has an oversized Fuck Biden  flag safely behind the porch screens with a ton of frothing at the mouth other signage.  If our attention span is that goddamned short that we can’t convict for this then this country isn’t worth living in any more, and I have no idea where I would go.

  43. 43.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Kattails:

    a Trump sychophant said he was the only recent President who hadn’t started a war 

    I believe that was the large named-him-after-myself! son.

  44. 44.

    zhena gogolia

    Fucking Haberman is now equating Birx and Fauci. I wish she would just go away and shut up forever.

  45. 45.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    Kansas City, here we go

    They got a crazy way of loving there and I’m gonna get me one

     

    I’ve seen enough, Kansas City is going to the Super Bowl

  50. 50.

    Barbara

    @zhena gogolia: they might not be equal but Fauci also accommodated Trump and he is treated like a hero. It is hard not to see a certain amount of misogyny at work here.

  52. 52.

    MobiusKlein

    @Ohio Mom:

    I’ll leave it up to the grammar pendents to explain why “pregnant woman and her fetus” is redundant

    To distinguish from twins?

  54. 54.

    Major Major Major Major

    I’m not super thrilled about the posthumous impeachment, I have a feeling squishy voters won’t like it, and I don’t believe it’s crafted to prevent him from holding office again (correct me if I’m wrong), so what’s the point? Yes yes, it’s the Right Thing To Do, but I just don’t actually get it as politics and that is a pretty important factor.

  58. 58.

    Poe Larity

    Facebook goes after the Real Socalists:

    On Friday, Facebook carried out a purge of left-wing, antiwar and progressive pages and accounts, including leading members of the Socialist Equality Party. Facebook gave no explanation why the accounts were disabled or even a public acknowledgement that the deletions had occurred

  59. 59.

    dmsilev

    @Major Major Major Major: ‘Ban from holding office again’ is something the Senate can vote on after a vote to convict, as I understand it. Only takes a majority, and presumably if you’ve cleared the 2/3s threshold for conviction that’s not a big obstacle.

  60. 60.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    @Major Major Major Major:

    SHAPIRO: What would it take to disqualify the former president from holding office in the future? Would a conviction automatically do that?

    KANG: Conviction wouldn’t automatically do that. There’s pretty clear precedent that there are two separate questions. That is conviction and removal for office and then subsequently a disqualification vote. The standard for a conviction is a two-thirds majority. That’s specified by the Constitution. The practice has been to treat the disqualification vote as a majority vote, but those are two different decisions that have to be made by the Senate.

     

    It appears they have a bipartisan majority to disqualify him from future office.

  62. 62.

    NotMax

    @dmsilev

    Also specifically cited in the article of impeachment’s final sentence.

    Donald John Trump thus warrants impeachment and trial, removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust, or profit under the United States. (.pdf)

  63. 63.

    patrick II

    @Major Major Major Major:

    I think even Republicans don’t want him to run again in 2024.  It gives him too much leverage now, and will harm the party in 2024 not to mention the ambitions of some Republican senators.

  64. 64.

    CaseyL

    @Major Major Major Major: My understanding is that a conviction is necessary to having a vote of disqualification from future office.

    I doubt the Senate will convict, because GOP voters are OK with corruption and insurrection, as long as it’s a GOP President committing those crimes.  The GOP has narrowed its voting base to the most egregiously anti-American people in the US: people actively wanting a white ethnostate and people wanting to be oligarchs.

    There are no GOP voters who actually want a better, stronger, more egalitarian US.  If there ever were any such GOP voters, they’ve switched parties by now (to Democratic Party or Independent).

    The only ones left are the dregs of humanity.

  67. 67.

    NotMax

    @dmsilev

    Showing up in a golden faux chain mail Speedo, lion head chapeau and American flag cape*?

    *With the wrong number of stripes and/or stars, natch.

  68. 68.

    Ruckus

    @Kattails:

    and I have no idea where I would go

    And most of us really have no place we can go to. There are actually very few countries that one might actually want to live that allow anyone to just walk in and settle down. Some require that you either have far more than enough money, or that you are young enough to have a working life before you retire and can work at a job that needs whatever talent you have. Some could qualify easily but most of us can not. Now if you are a naturalized citizen you might be able to move back to where you are a citizen, if you want to return.

    I’ve looked into relocating because I’ve traveled a bit of the world and I like a lot of what I’ve seen. And I’ve traveled a lot of the US and some of what I’ve seen does not enthuse me. Much does, it can be a wonderful place to live, of course it helps that I’m white. Of course I have a beard and that makes me an outsider, a lot of places. And I’m very much a liberal so that makes me a marked person in some. This country has played the political game of money and racism for a long time, and it’s changing for the better but I doubt seriously that I’ll see the end of that if I had another entire lifetime. I’d like to be wrong….

  69. 69.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Major Major Major Major: I tend to agree it’s probably not a winner, in strictly political terms, but I’m still for it, because I don’t think it’s a loser. It’s too early to tell how it will play out, we don’t know what evidence will come out, but I don’t think there will be blowback on Dems. Given that last, I’m comfortable moving forward for the sake of Constitutional hygiene and history

    ETA: The House and Senate are both up for grabs in 2022, and I hope Democrats– all Democrats– take a cold, hard, pragmatic look at the results of the last few cycles, and set their course based on those cold, hard calculations

  71. 71.

    Kattails

    @Major Major Major Major: Squishy voters didn’t like them being mean to Herr Hitler after his first attempted insurrection, so they cut him some slack.  Did not turn out well.

    NO, just NO.  The system of legal inequalities in this country must be broken. And I say that as an older white woman who has rarely, but not never, felt its whip.  It won’t happen in one instance but it has to start and truly, if he walks we will absolutely live to regret it.  If Republicans can’t be brought uphold this bare minimum standard of democratic norms then there is no point in elected government.  Which is of course what they want.

    I read someone remarking on a TED kind of talk about climate change that he’d given to a number of extremely wealthy people.  He was shocked to find that they were not interested in the mechanisms or cures but simply how could they protect themselves and would their bodyguards and staff ultimately turn on them at some point.  Disgusting.  Plenty of people think they’d be fine with anarchy.

  74. 74.

    Ohio Mom

    The term “unborn child” is the language of the forced birthers. It promotes an image of a completely formed infant just biding its time in utero, just hanging out until labor starts.

    It obscures the fact that for over half of a pregnancy, a fetus can not be viable outside the womb, and after that, there is a continuum of slowly increasing chances of viability (assuming for most of that time, availability of extreme medical support). It is almost always unlikely that a pregnant woman would be killed but the fetus survive and delivered.

    Claiming that the person who kills a pregnant woman has taken two lives is part of the strategy used by those who would ban abortion, and make criminals out of the women and the doctors.

    Please, let’s not use this language.

  76. 76.

    lgerard

    Since many of the R’s are going to try and weasel a no vote claiming that posthumous impeachment is unconstitutional, it would be interesting to motion the presiding judge to rule on that claim.

    It would add some drama for sure

  78. 78.

    Kattails

    @Ruckus: I know. I thought, maybe New Zealand, where would I get the $$ but you must be UNDER 50. Scotland?  Win the lottery and wave around a lot of dollars?

    I guess that the battle we need to fight, concurrently with this, is voting rights and voter engagement.  And drag Trump over the coals in every way possible.  He has to stink like a fish market a week after the power went out. I do think there are many Dems who took that attack seriously and personally.  It is terrible to say but what might have brought the Reps around is if the mob had succeeded in killing Pence or another one of their own.

  79. 79.

    Ohio Mom

    Major, Major, Major, Major:

    That’s a male cardinal (the females are light brown). They are very common in Ohio (our state bird in fact), and I never tire of seeing that flash of red fly by.

  81. 81.

    randy khan

    @Major Major Major Major:

    I’m not super thrilled about the posthumous impeachment . . .

    On the one hand, I’d agree that a posthumous impeachment is pointless.  On the other hand, if this one actually were posthumous that wouldn’t really be such a terrible thing.  (Yes, I know what you meant, but it was hard to resist.)

  82. 82.

    Poe Larity

    @Kattails:

    He was shocked to find that they were not interested in the mechanisms or cures but simply how could they protect themselves and would their bodyguards and staff ultimately turn on them at some point

    Perhaps the Seasteading movement could incorporate a plank of bringing slavery or indentured servitude back. Aren’t there workers still trapped on cruise ships with no place to go?

    ps. Malta. Was $300K EU a few years back.

  84. 84.

    randy khan

    Semi-OT:  Driving home from the north today, I saw 4 billboards between Baltimore and the Virginia border from the FBI asking for information on insurrectionists. with the very catchy number 1-800-CALL-FBI.

  86. 86.

    Ruckus

    @Major Major Major Major:

    It really shouldn’t be politics. The concept of why he was impeached a second time even though he’d be out of office before he could be tried was because he was impeached for a criminal act, irregardless that he was president. It is politics because this country has politicized nearly every act that any politician does. Even if doing their job in the normal manner. Breaking it down, the racists want to be racists all the time and they elected trump to be the head racist. And we threw him out, as is our right, and they don’t want to recognize that right even though we’ve lived through 4 yrs of his dereliction of duty, including trying to engage an insurrection to stay in power.

    This impeachment is the very basis of a democracy.

    It’s messy but it is absolutely necessary to carry this out. And sure it is political, this country has devolved into a political party and a criminal cabal intent on taking over that democracy. This is how we fight back, we follow the law, we live by the law, not by insurrection, not by giving up and moving on.

  88. 88.

    satby

    @Ohio Mom: news reports say the mother was found alive but despite life-saving efforts both she and the child died. Since it’s fairly routine to deliver by cesarean a terminally injured pregnant woman’s fetus (assuming she doesn’t have a spontaneous delivery due to trauma, also possible) to try to save it, and once delivered it becomes a child, that’s the proper terminology for this situation. And it’s perfectly possible to support abortion rights and be against the murder of pregnant women and their fetuses.

  89. 89.

    RandomMonster

    While knowing nothing of the law, I’ll predict that Trump doesn’t respond at all to anything in the senate trial. What can they do to him? (Would love reassurance that they can do something to him.)

  90. 90.

    Ohio Mom

    Kattails:
    I think the Ted talker telling tales about the ultra wealthy who hired him to tell them how to survive after the climate collapses was Douglas Rushkoff.

  93. 93.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Ruckus: My wife and I have looked into New Zealand, Australia, Canada and Ireland. We’re in our 30s, have in-demand jobs and are pretty well off with two young kids, so we’re especially lucky that we could almost certainly get into any of these.

    And we won’t, because I can’t leave my parents here by themselves. :(

     

    EDIT: Ireland is also off the list until we see what Brexit does to it. Wife leans towards Canada for climate reasons.

  94. 94.

    piratedan

    I have serious doubts about those who state that the Dems will lose if they impeach the President over this…

    #1) appearances, this will and SHOULD play well with the Dem base, after all, we know who Trump is and now there’s little illusion regarding what Trump and his minions were willing to do.

    #2) I think we’ll get an idea that this was just one spear on the trident, that these folks had multiple irons in the fire, the Assault on the Capitol, the attempted coup inside the DOJ and I wouldn’t be shocked to learn if there weren’t others… say the Pentagon

    #3) with the impeachment, I think we have a good chance at outing certain especially odious members of Congress for their parts, Boebert, Greene, Biggs, Gosar, Brooks, Cruz and Hawley come immediately to mind and there may be more as we find out who was texting and coordinating.

    #4) and while the usual courtiers will seek their fainting couches, other members of the 4th estate are likely to enjoy the opportunity to lay bare the GOP duplicity.

  95. 95.

    NotMax

    @RandomMonster

    Also too, it is not a legal (as in judicial) trial, it is a political one, so the usual procedures, rules of evidence, etc. of a courtroom do not apply.

  96. 96.

    StringOnAStick

    @Kattails: A friend of mine was looking hard at Portugal before the election.  The article she sent me made it sound like expat paradise but of course it was produced by a company that makes its money changing funds and getting a cut from helping you buy health insurance, moving your stuff, etc.  I found the health insurance thing interesting considering that the article strongly implied health care was free there for noncitizens.  Wouldn’t that mean every ill American without health insurance should buy a one way ticket?

  97. 97.

    Ruckus

    @Kattails:

    I was ready to immigrate to New Zealand in 2003 and have a trade skill that would likely get me a job in a heartbeat. My age kicked my butt. I looked into Costa Rica, could afford it according to the basic costs given, but the reality is that it isn’t as cheap as it sounds. Have a friend living in Panama who says it’s cheaper than Costa Rica and really pretty nice. But I’m staying put, as far as I know, I’ve put in almost another 20 since my first concept of going and have decent healthcare so….

  98. 98.

    Kattails

    @Major Major Major Major: OK so screw the Weimar Republic. The most basic foundation of democracy is that no one, not me, not the military, not the President, can be allowed to incite a mob to violently attack, terrorize, and murder any officials elected by the populace those officials serve; this being separate from basic incitement to murder just any-old-body.  When it becomes an elected official we are now into treason and sedition, because the harm is broader, to the populace in general, and to the safety and security of transacting the business of the government. Balloon Juice knows this very well and I have seen people who’ve gotten carried away with their rhetoric get firmly stepped on.

    If half the body that was attacked is willing to let the whole thing slide, either for personal gain or because they themselves feel threatened, then greed and terrorism are effectively running the show.

  101. 101.

    Ruckus

    @MisterForkbeard:

    I’m the last of the line so that isn’t a worry for me, I’m also twice your age and as you will find out, if you don’t already know, that changes a lot of things about life. I think that acceptance of what is gets a lot easier when you get older and have nearly 6 decades of physical work behind you. Maybe that’s just me….

  102. 102.

    Kattails

    @Ohio Mom: I am dazzled by your memory banks.  I get the anecdotes, particularly if they give me some kind of visual; but I’m shit with names.

  104. 104.

    Princess

    @debbie: Jeet doesn’t even go here. He lives in Canada and always has, apart from one study abroad year in the States a while back. That’s what explains his often colossally bad takes. Yes, the insurrection has faded from memory…in Canada.

  106. 106.

    SFAW

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    You have to wonder if insurrection isn’t cause for impeachment, what is?

    Wearing a tan suit.

    Being a blackity-black black man

    Having a son called Hunter.

    Not being a Republican.

  110. 110.

    Kattails

    @Ruckus: Gotcha, and I have friends and a good rural neighborhood that nonetheless has enough contact with civilization, decent food etc. Not a lot of places I’m hankering to live.  Which is why I would really like to preserve and improve on what I have here, for selfish reasons, and because I don’t want to leave a pile of shit behind me for the next ones along.

    On the other hand I’m a painter, so maybe if I can concentrate and get well known I’d qualify… Hey, did anyone win the billion dollar what was it Megamillions?

  112. 112.

    Kattails

    @debbie: OK where is Albatrossity (sp?) when we need him? I would expect egg-laying to be some months off in the North. Wait WTF am I saying, IT’S A MALE CARDINAL.  Damn, you almost had me with that one.

  113. 113.

    Ohio Mom

    Satby:
    Yes, on rare occasions, a pregnancy is advanced enough and circumstances allow an early delivery when the women dies. We hear about these occasions because they are so unusual.

    That doesn’t mean that using the term “unborn baby” isn’t the anti-abortionist/forced birther’s language. They would like the law to recognize that killing a pregnant woman is killing two people; that opens the door to criminalizing abortion.

    I think framing matters, a lot.

    The news reports I’ve goggled about this mass shooting say that everyone was already dead when the police entered the home (there was an injured boy found nearby) and provide no information on how far along the pregnancy was. We are both talking about tne shooting in Indianapolis early this morning, aren’t we?

  114. 114.

    Jay

    @debbie:

    birds have the ability to fluff up their feathers, trap more air inside, warm it up, and stay warm.

    according to Leopold, the #1 killer of Chickadee’s is a cold rain.

  122. 122.

    Jay

    @Kattails:

    egg laying varies by province, latitude, longitude and altitude across Canada. Earliest I know of is April on the Wet Coast.

    other than poultry farms.

  124. 124.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Jay:

    Eleven digits (including the [often now unnecessary] “1” for a long-distance connection). You’re letting yourself be confused by the xxxx-xxx rather than the xxx-xxxx we’re all used to in North America. But it dials the same.

  127. 127.

    Kattails

    @Jay: Cold rain and birdies–why it’s a good idea to not clear out the thickets and weedy stuff in the fall, it gives them cover in those conditions.  I feel for them in freezing rain, they look so miserable. As for eggs, I’m in New England, April would be pushing it.

    OK the cat has been in here like five times twittering at me, she knows for a fact it’s past bedtime treat time. Better go be a good cat mom.

  128. 128.

    Kattails

    @StringOnAStick: Interesting! Portugal would not be on my radar, but I do enjoy a nice product of their vineyards.  The language is supposed to be a twister though.  How about some of the islands, the Canaries, Mallorca, (both Spain), Madeira (Portugal).

  131. 131.

    scav

    @MisterForkbeard:  I’d think Ireland would be ok post Brexit as they’re still in the EU. Some shuffling about as trade to the UK has gone all pear-shaped, but they can just roll around and shift into the continent that is probably also likewise looking for sources other than the deceased pear. Northern Ireland, now there’s the rub.

  134. 134.

    Ruckus

    @Kattails:

    Was thinking at one point in time about one of the Portuguese island as a landing zone. I’d forgotten about that, but yes it seems a like a great landing spot. I spent 4 months in a navy school with about half the class from other navies, one of them was Portuguese, very nice guy. If he was any hint of the people, it would be a nice place to live.

  136. 136.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Speaking of the NYT: I  don’t know how prominent Singorelli is in NY/media circles, but I have a hunch (and a hope) that this will get under Haberman’s skin, as much for pointing out how thin that skin is as anything. I’m sure in her fantasies she’s played by Rosalind Russell or Jean Arthur. Or at least the amalgam Jennifer Jason Leigh played in The Hudsucker Proxy.

    Michelangelo Signorile@MSignorile ·15m
    I don’t understand why an an editor at the New York Times was fired for tweeting out a rather bland opinion when all Maggie Haberman does on Twitter all damned day is tweet out opinions about every damned thing — and gets into angry spats with people who criticize her.

    Also, please take note that when Haberman finds herself under intense criticism she RTs or compliments Twitter influencers who are friendly to her (basically, those who suck up) as way of keeping them close to her. It’s fascinating to watch.

  137. 137.

    something fabulous

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I’m not especially good on the savvy take, especially when it comes to what will work with Republicans, but I do wonder if the vote to deny him any office in the future wouldn’t help to bring more votes onboard? I mean, remove for the ambitious the possibility of having to run against T? Or putting up with his tweeting onslaught? Seems like they could go to the “with great regret…” position much more easily, if it also served them directly?

  138. 138.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Elizabelle: I hope the official White House response is “we have more important things to talk about”. Let the gossip columnists twist in the wind of uncertainty.

  141. 141.

    StringOnAStick

    @Sister Golden Bear: That’s what I heard as well. I had a patient in her 50’s who ended up marrying a S African and lived there 9 months a year, 3 with her mom here.  I asked her about it and she said it was gorgeous and the health care affordable but rudimentary compared to what Americans are used to. She said it was a trade-off she was ok with though it could be hard if something unfortunate happens.

  142. 142.

    Martin

    Gotta say, I thought Tampa Bay was a shitty way for Brady to slide into retirement. Didn’t see another SB coming.

  143. 143.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Ruckus: We could do like that guy in O’Hare and live in the airport.

    Heathrow’s not a bad place to hang out in. Sucks for actually trying to make a connection, but the shopping and eating are nice.

  144. 144.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    So, was browsing Twitter and decided to see what my local Republican state representatives are up to.

    Mr. So-called “I’ll work with both sides of the aisle” just after he was elected in 2018, everyone from Dec 29 and Jan 1:

    Senator Michael Rulli
    @michaelrulli

    Dec 29, 2020

    Our small businesses have been destroyed by lockdowns and the American people are hurting. The swamp can find BILLIONS to give away to foreign countries but they tell the American people $600 is the best they can do? Congress is a disgrace. Put Americans FIRST!

    Senator Michael Rulli
    @michaelrulli

    Jan 1

    In 2020, people like Bill DeBlasio killed your small business and locked you inside your home. In 2021, they’re dancing in the streets closed off to the public, open ONLY for the politicians, Hollywood celebrities, and the media. They don’t care about you and they never have

    This POS definitely knows better. I feel like going down to his fucking house, ringing the doorbell, and demanding an explanation from him for this shit. We’re in the middle of a fucking pandemic that has killed 400,000 Americans and he thinks it’s just fine and dandy to post crap like this?!

    Al Cutrona, nepotism hire for his infectious disease doctor father:

    Al Cutrona
    @AlCutrona

    Jan 21

    President Biden stated that he wanted to gradually change oil dependence, provide jobs, and improve relations with our allies. In canceling the Keystone pipeline, you’re eliminating more than 11,000 union jobs and are damaging all three goals. I urge

    @JoeBiden
    to reconsider

    Neither of them have said one goddam word about the 1/6 insurrection

  149. 149.

    Ruckus

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:

    I have spent way too much time in airports. I used to fly for my job, all around the country 30 weeks a year, for 11 yrs. And although I’ve slept on the floor of Hartsfield a couple of times when a flight was canceled because it was actually a lot better than ridding the bus all the way across Atlanta to stay in the cheapest/crappiest motel in the state, sleep for 2, maybe 3 hrs, get up and ride the bus back to the airport, I really, really, really don’t want to do that every day. Or any day actually.

  150. 150.

    Jay

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    BTW, it’s 11,000 temporary jobs, 6 months to a year, if you take Keystone’s leg humpers numbers as fact, not hyperbole.

    according to TC Energy, the Canadian owner of the Keystone Pipeline, it’s 1,000 jobs, 870 temporary, 130, permanent.

  151. 151.

    trnc

    @dmsilev: Wonder whether T**** will testify in his own defense. Any sane lawyer would strongly advise against it, but ‘sane’ may not be in great supply on his legal team.

    Law licenses may not be, either.

  152. 152.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    You beat me to the punch. I’m just so pissed off with these fucks. Cutrona won election, after being appointed by the state GOP, by over 20% over his Dem challenger. He’s the “COO of Northeastern Ohio Infectious Disease Specialists”. His father is a doctor/partner there and probably got him that job in the first place. Cutrona should know better, yet he runs on this “Lockdowns kill the economy, open everything up!” BS. I read in the paper before the insurrection he was even giving credence to the conspiracy theories surrounding the election.

    The apparent, brazen, cynicism of these assholes is something to behold. I used to think at least Rulli was reasonable, but he’s not. It shocks me they’re talking like this and voting the way they do because my area is a traditionally Dem stronghold. Trump only won my county by like 2%. It wasn’t some landslid

    Here’s a Berkeley Beacon piece on Rulli after his win. This is rich:

    A once self-proclaimed “raging liberal,” Rulli understands people’s confusion over his political party as an Emerson graduate. He said he identified as a Democrat until the late 1990s.

    Rulli attributed his transition to the Republican party to an overexposure of bad politics.

    “These Democrats I would be around with were just garbage people,” Rulli said. “They would throw their own staff under the bus, they were constantly trash-talking others… The politicians have a bad reputation for taking bribes.”

    Besides the politics, Rulli said the event that determined his party affiliation came shortly after the 9/11 terrorist attacks when he comforted crying customers in the aisles of one of his grocery stores as CNN played on a store TV.

    “CNN started saying that we sort of asked for it,” Rulli said. “We have a lot of flaws in our history. We have a lot of dark sides in our history. But, the narrative started going that America was to blame. That America’s imperialism brought on 9/11.”

    Rulli said the newscast encouraged him to switch parties.

    “I’m in no way, shape, or form an alt-righter. I shun them whenever I have a chance,” Rulli said. “As far as finances go, I’m very conservative.

    […]

    Looking forward, Rulli strives towards bipartisan goals for his home state.

    “I believe in more freedom. I believe that I should be able to say anything I want to say,” Rulli said. “I’m really into criminal justice reform, I’m really pro-gay rights, I’m really for a lot of things that Republicans don’t go for.”

    That is the kind of future Rulli said he wants for Ohio.

    Oh, you’ll shun them whenever you have a chance (facts not in evidence), but you’ll talk just like them in your tweets. What a phony piece of shit. Believes he should be able to say whatever he wants. Oh you can Senator, just not without consequences, which is what you and your ilk really want

  154. 154.

    Jay

    @Ruckus:

    the idea is you arrive at the airport, but arn’t allowed to leave, ( status).

    pick the right airport, free wifi, good hotel, all services.

    You basically live in the International Arrivals wing. In places like S’pore, pretty nice, includes parks and art.

  157. 157.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: 
    What happened to him? Yarrow too. They came back after the election if memory serves. I’m not on as much as I used to be either, so I might’ve missed them

  162. 162.

    Ruckus

    @Jay:

    So did I on the morning of 9/11. Nice place, downtown, $140/night. That’s an even better story though.

    The other times I was transferring and on the last flight out and it got canceled so we all got put on morning flights. The first time I asked for a room. The floor of the terminal is better,  was far more comfortable and I got to sleep longer.

  163. 163.

    AnotherBruce

    @debbie: Fluffy feathers create dead air space,  which keeps him warm. Kinda like the insulation of outdoor sleeping bags, which after all,  Some bags are insulated with feathers.

  164. 164.

    Amir Khalid

    I’ve been told that Trump can still face criminal charges over the insurrection, regardless of the Senate trial’s outcome and regardless of whether the Senate votes to bar him from office thereafter. The DoJ should indeed come down on him with those criminal charges, since after all he did do the crime.

  165. 165.

    Jay

    @Ruckus:

    did a Milwaukee to Dallas to New Orleans to LA to Vancouver once, trying to get home in the midst of hurricanes, tornados and “mild turbulence”.

    Only sleep in airplane seats. 2 days to get home. Could have rented a car and driven in less time, (Louis was on that work trip, we could have shared driving).

    That’s when I came up with the idea of a vending machine that sold socks, underwear, deodorant, cheap t shirts, BIC shavers, toothbrushes and toothpaste.

  166. 166.

    Ruckus

    @Jay:

    There are airports where you can purchase all of those things. Don’t recall that I’ve been in one that sold all of them but I’d bet there is one.

  167. 167.

    sab

    @Jay: Goku’s Congresscritter is Tim Ryan. Rulli is his state senator, and those guys on the R side tend to be peabrains, because the are term limited so they are out of office long before they learn their job.

  168. 168.

    Yutsano

    @Jay:aWhich leads one to ask: what was a nice Canadian boy like yourself doing on this side of the border anyway? :P

  170. 170.

    NotMax

    @Jay

    Missed connections, cancellations, weather diversions and who knows what else resulted in the 2+ day airline trip from Hell, 1961 version:

    Curitiba, Brazil to São Paulo – turned back due to engine on fire, contingent of armed troops amassed at the airport and along the runway with plans to shoot down the president’s plane which was expected there ‘graciously’ gave in and permitted an emergency landing. President got wind of what was going on, landed elsewhere, so eventually we could continue any way where seating could be found, thusly:

    Curitiba, Brazil to São Paulo
    São Paulo to Rio de Janeiro
    Rio to (then) Surinam
    Surinam to (then) British Guiana
    British Guiana to Panama
    Panama to Mexico City
    Mexico City to Dallas
    Dallas to Newark
    Newark to Manhattan (by train)
    Manhattan to Long Island (another train)
    .

  173. 173.

    Ruckus

    @MisterForkbeard:

    I’ve been north of the UK, in winter, floating around in the North Sea. Beautiful place, just a touch on the cold side. The water temp was in the 30s and yes my bunk was below the water line and against the hull and we had one blanket each.  So Scotland, Ireland are beautiful but the weather is less than surfing weather, not that we here in SoCal have a lot to talk about this evening, it’s 48 deg outside right now.

  178. 178.

    evodevo

    @Major Major Major Major:  It’s a cardinal…we have tons of them here in Ky…also, it must be cold where it is, because it’s got its feathers all fluffed up…the actual bird is NOT fat – very few wild birds are…their lives are too hard…

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