I have no idea why this was open in a tab in my browser, but damn, this is amazing.
Exactly what I needed today!
No rehashing of the election and no dooming about what’s ahead of us in this otherwise open thread.
I’d Suggest Mitch McConnell Look in a Mirror…
…but I don’t think his kind show up in them. Here’s a headline to stop you in your tracks, via The Financial Times:
“Mitch McConnell: We’re in a Very, Very Dangerous World Right Now”
My immediate thoughts echoed those of reporter Helen Kennedy on Bluesky:
Is he….is he bragging?
— Helen Kennedy (@helenkennedy.bsky.social) December 11, 2024 at 6:32 PM
No, he’s not. He is trying to present himself, at least for the benefit of the FT’s reporter, as the anti-isolationist, brave truth-teller within the GOP. Really. One excerpt:
“McConnell has been Kentucky senator since 1985. Having committed to serving the final two years of his term, he intends to spend the time pushing back against the increasingly isolationist elements of today’s GOP. ‘The cost of deterrence is considerably less than the cost of war,’ he says, reeling off the figures to prove it. In the second world war, the US spent 37 per cent of GDP on the fight. Last year that figure was about 2.7 per cent. His words are targeted directly at Trump and vice-president-elect JD Vance, who have argued that the US should not be spending any more money on Ukraine. . . . Though some of his biggest moments as Senate leader came during Trump’s first presidency, he is no fan of the president-elect.”
Alas! If only he could have done something to stop Trump’s political career in its tracks. Such a shame the opportunity never presented itself more than twice! The sheer unmitigated brass neck of this monster never ceases to amaze. If the GOP sends American democracy into a fatal spiral, there’s a nice, deep, well-dug grave ready for it courtesy of the senior senator from Kentucky.
If you can handle a sharp spike in your blood pressure, you should be able to read the FT article here via a gift link. If not, try this one instead.
I’d Suggest Mitch McConnell Look in a Mirror…Post + Comments (98)
A Few Notes on Efficiency and Getting Credit
I had to go to the gym and run errands this morning, so haven’t even finished reading comments on my earlier post. Still, I want to make two points.
First, I can always tell folks who haven’t worked for a Congressperson or attended a MoC’s town hall because they insist that a given example of government inefficiency shouldn’t count, because it’s state or local. A lot of people, including those motivated enough to attend a town hall, consider “government” as an amorphous mass. I cannot count the number of times I’ve given, or heard given, an explanation of why the DMV or some other local/state agency has nothing to do with the US Government.
Second, government is inefficient and we should be loud and proud about our efforts to make it better. I hate to keep harping on my Obamacare, but my renewal, as usual, was handled poorly by the State of NY. First, they sent me a notice saying I needed to renew, but when I went to the website, they said I had been auto-renewed in the same plan that hasn’t paid me a fucking penny yet will now cost me $1,300 a month. Then, a few weeks later, I get an email saying I need to renew. In between, my insurance carrier notified me that they would be withdrawing over $2,000 in January because that’s what they think my monthly auto-pay is for 2025. I went on the website and renewed (for the same policy that was supposedly auto-renewed) and now we’ll see if the State of NY and the insurance company will figure things out.
I guess my gratitude about Obamacare is, shall we say, tempered by that experience. I’m a well-informed politics knower working part-time with time on my hands to mess with this bullshit. I also have plenty of money. Others with fewer resources and less time might just get a little more heated about it.
Finally, my brother sent me a story from Fox News (not linking, I’m sure you’re disappointed to hear). Headline and subhead:
Watch Trump reverse Biden’s dumpster-fire economy, and then watch Dems try to take credit for the success
When Trump brings the economy back from the brink, Biden and his Democrat allies will deserve no credit
I mention this because there are two things that need to be distinguished: people’s genuine, personal experience of government inefficiency and the economy, and their secondhand “knowledge” of these things via Fox propaganda. Our goal is to push back on the latter without invalidating the lived experience of the former. It’s a tough needle to thread.
A Few Notes on Efficiency and Getting CreditPost + Comments (80)
The D in DOGE is for Dipshit
Krugman is out with his first piece since he quit the Times, and it’s about DOGE. It’s free so you can read it all, but he runs through all the facts that Elon and Vivek don’t know / don’t care about, and he finishes with this:
Now, in the end none of this may matter. The real purpose of DOGE is, arguably, to give Elon Musk an opportunity to strut around, feeling important. And while it’s a clown show, these clowns — unlike some of the other people Trump may put in office — won’t be in a position to inflict major damage on national security, public health and more.
But it is a clown show, and everyone should treat it as such.
This, to me, is the important point. DOGE is not a department. It’s a glorified commission and the only way it will gain traction is if Congress starts listening to these two dipshits.
Krugman makes the point that the US government is essentially an insurance company with a big army. Any meaningful cuts will have to be to public insurance programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, or we need to cut the defense budget. Republicans will never do the latter, and they’ve been chomping at the bit forever to cut social programs, no matter the almost-certain political cost for doing so.
That’s why it’s dumb for Bernie and Ro Khanna to tweet about Musk having a point, even if their strategy is to agree on cutting defense spending then show a shocked face when it doesn’t happen. But even dumber is for Democrats to join the DOGE caucus in the House and Senate, which Jared Moskowitz has already done. A group supporting Social Security has already started putting up billboards in Moskowitz’ district. I hope that discourages any more of this nonsense.
Anyway, back to the whole DOGE thing, Josh Marshall thinks that Democrats need to be on board with more government efficiency, but DOGE ain’t it:
This post isn’t meant to flesh out all those policy questions [about efficiency]. I bring it up because there are a bunch of ways government more broadly could and really needs to work better. If you’re the party of government, you actually have the biggest interest in getting it to work well. Because in a lot of ways that’s your product.
But the point is that you can’t cede the efficiency and reform brand to people whose real aim in cutting people’s Medicaid and Social Security. Because that’s pretty much where we are at the end of 2024. You’ve got a couple guys who are mostly ignoramuses about what government does, what it’s supposed to do, who relies on it and more and they’re just coming in with what’s mostly the libertarian bullshit they heard from their pals in Silicon Valley. It’s not even like handing the keys over to the Heritage Foundation. Those guys have been thinking about how to do this for decades.
There’s no big takeaway here other than the fact that there are things government should be organized to do better, quicker and more efficiently. (My big thing is standing up transportation infrastructure. But there are other examples.) Every right-minded person should be at war with the DOGE clown show while keeping that fact in mind, front and center.
I think Musk has reached his public expiration date and he’s been showing his ass an awful lot lately. Walz was right to brand him as a dipshit. Cozying up to him is stupid for a lot of reasons, including the fact that people will tire of him pretty quickly.
Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Kennedy Center Honors 2024
US President Joe Biden paid tribute to this year’s Kennedy Center honorees including filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola and rock band the Grateful Dead at the White House https://t.co/oMAfiUmhv9 pic.twitter.com/B6NububYNk
— Reuters (@Reuters) December 9, 2024
Per the Associated Press, “Kennedy Center pays tribute to Coppola, the Grateful Dead, Raitt, Sandoval and The Apollo”:
“Not Fade Away” closed out the Kennedy Center Honors at this year’s ceremony, just as honorees The Grateful Dead had used Buddy Holly’s ode to enduring love to close out hundreds of concerts over the years.
The packed house Sunday night danced in the aisles to the bouncy beat after a night of honoring the Dead and other recipients of the lifetime achievement award for artistic accomplishment: director Francis Ford Coppola, jazz trumpeter Arturo Sandoval and singer-songwriter Bonnie Raitt. The venerable Harlem theater The Apollo, which has launched generations of Black artists, also was recognized.
The annual gala at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts always features personalized tributes with performances and testimonials from fellow artists. Medallions were presented during the traditional Saturday night ceremony at the State Department.
In the first of the night’s tributes, Emmylou Harris and Dave Matthews performed a cover of Raitt’s duet with the late John Prine, “Angel from Montgomery.”…
Coppola received a tribute filled with previous Kennedy Center honorees, including Robert De Niro, Martin Scorsese, Al Pacino and George Lucas. All described an iconoclastic and driven auteur who loved to nurture and support younger filmmakers.
“What Francis does creatively is jump off cliffs,” Lucas said. “When you spend enough time with Francis, you begin to believe you can jump off cliffs, too.”
Sandoval’s tribute featured multiple performances from an all-star band featuring Trombone Shorty and pianist Chucho Valdez from Sandoval’s original band, plus a flamenco dance performance by Timo Nunez. It also included a bit of light roast comedy from actor Andy Garcia…
The official 47th Annual Kennedy Center Honors class photo, Seated: Arturo Sandoval, Francis Ford Coppola, Bonnie Raitt, @BobWeir and #MickeyHart @GratefulDead
Back row: Michelle Ebanks, Kamilah Forbes, Jonelle Procope of Apollo Theater, Bill Kreutzmann (Grateful Dead). pic.twitter.com/ZqLj11AaWI— Gary Carmell (@gcarmell) December 9, 2024
Local paper, the Washington Post, on “A one-night ‘church’ of soul, blues, jazz and jams”:
Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Kennedy Center Honors 2024Post + Comments (85)
War for Ukraine Day 1,021: Bakhmut & Zaporizhzhia
A quick housekeeping note: Overnight my sinus infection decided to kick my dupa. I’ve been resting all day and am just going to run down the basics. I will get to the new survey data from Ukraine once I’m feeling better.
The Ukrainians bled the Russians, specifically the GRU funded, Prigozhin led Wagner PMC including convicts recruited by Prigozhin, at Bakhmut for 10 and a 1/2 months. Here’s what’s left a year and a half later under Russian occupation:
New pics and video of destroyed and Russian-occupied Bakhmut surfaced on Ukrainian and Russian social media accounts. This image was easy to geolocate: near intersection of Nezalezhnosti and Gorbatova; 48.594981, 38.000822; looking east. 🔴 = pic location + view; 🟢 = gas pipe; 🟡 = apartment block.
— Christopher Miller (@christopherjm.bsky.social) December 10, 2024 at 6:55 AM
Then this video of Bakhmut, filmed from SW ‘plane district’, looking NE. Easy to geolocate b/c of distinct view and building with the circles on it, which I passed almost daily en route to work when I lived there. Plus the smoke stack on the center-right and antenna in the distance on Skovorody St.
— Christopher Miller (@christopherjm.bsky.social) December 10, 2024 at 6:59 AM
Stills from the video above.
— Christopher Miller (@christopherjm.bsky.social) December 10, 2024 at 6:59 AM
The Russians committed more genocidal war crimes today by attacking a medical clinic in Zaporizhzia:
At least eight people could still be trapped under the rubble in Zaporizhzhia. Rescue efforts are ongoing on the site of the russian attack.
— Iryna Voichuk (@irynavoichuk.bsky.social) December 10, 2024 at 11:41 AM
3 people were killed and 5 injured after the russian attack on Zaporizhzhia. Rescuers are searching for 6 others trapped under the rubble, according to local authorities
— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) December 10, 2024 at 9:26 AM
They also attacked an IAEA vehicle:
Rashists attacked an IAEA service vehicle with a drone as it was heading for rotation at the occupied Zaporizhzhia NPP. But don’t worry. The IAEA expressed concern and condemned the Russians.
They were lucky the vehicle was armored.
t.me/c/1315043344…— WarTranslated (Dmitri) (@wartranslated.bsky.social) December 10, 2024 at 1:18 PM
Here is President Zelenskyy’s address from earlier today. Video below, English transcript after the jump.
War for Ukraine Day 1,021: Bakhmut & ZaporizhzhiaPost + Comments (16)
Real America vs Made-Up America
Ken White (Popehat) has started writing again at his blog, and he has a piece on why it may be uncouth to celebrate the death of a healthcare CEO, but it sure is American:
America is largely aspirational. We talk big and then, more or less, sometimes strive towards goals like justice, equality, decency. Many people are willing to put their shoulder to the wheel of those aspirations even in the face of the many ways America falls short. I’ve written about a formative experience I had as a young lawyer: attending a naturalization ceremony for Filipino World War II veterans who still exulted to become Americans even after America had betrayed them for decades. Those men still believed in the promise of America despite so many years of broken promises. Many of our greatest citizens have worked to better this country even as it has treated them as less than full Americans or even less than human.
But hope should not be blindness. We can hope that America will be kinder, more graceful, more compassionate, more sincerely devoted to all people being created equal and entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. But the truth is that celebrating the death of other human beings because we hate them or what we think they stand for is absolutely American. To ignore that is fantasy, not aspiration. America remains the country that proclaimed that all men are equal while enshrining slavery, that enacted the First Amendment and the Alien and Sedition Acts in the same decade.
When the shooter was apprehended yesterday, the NYC police commissioner couldn’t wait for one second to celebrate the work of her detectives. I think the rest of us with two eyes and a brain see that a McDonald’s worker in Altoona, PA, deserves at least some of the credit. But, as it turns out, that person might have their claim for the reward denied. Irony died and went to hell when I typed that sentence.
While we’re on the topic of real America versus make-believe America, one of Paul Campos’ friends in the JAG got hold of a 60’s vintage legal manual that appears to be designed to inform officers of the laws of the land. Campos took a screenshot of the page on miscegenation, showing laws against intermarriage of the races that were in effect until Loving v. Virginia in 1967. That’s during the lifetime of many readers of this blog, including me.
Finally, Jamelle Bouie has screenshotted a few comments by Trump voters in a NYT focus group, if you want to see the fantasmagorical reasons they give for their vote. They’re clearly living in made-up America.