Not quite sure where everyone’s gone (where have all the front pagers gone, long time passing…), but it is clearly time for a fresh, clean thread. So here’s a video of Mark Hamill in his voice actor job voicing himself and two of his better known cartoon characters: DC Comics Joker from Batman the Animated Series and the Trickster from the original Flash live action TV show, the animated Justice League Unlimited, and the new Flash live action TV show. But wait, there’s more… Hamill is also voicing Swamp Thing too! So that’s four Mark Hamill voice acting appearances all in one cartoon short! Hamill does Hamill doing Hamill while being Hamill!
Open thread!
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
Pathetic empty crowd Trump Christmas (Photo #1)
Overwhelming crowds at Obama mooslim Christmas (photo #2)
B.B.A.
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: RIGGED! FAKE NEWS! SOMETHING SOMETHING BETA CUCK!
dmsilev
Speaker at the colloquium I attended this afternoon: “As you can see, that optical resonator edge state is just like the honey badger: it doesn’t give a damn”.
Um, ok.
Adam L Silverman
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
Everybody loves baklava!
dmsilev
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: Did you see the pictures of the White House’s
holidayChristmas decorations? Looked like a stage set for an avant-garde production of Macbeth or something.Adam L Silverman
@dmsilev: As they say in the Ranger Regiment: that’s a technique!
?BillinGlendaleCA
Adam@OP:
They’ve been raptured, Adam.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@dmsilev: Digya see Melania walked on a performance of the Nutcracker and looked like she was making a POW video.
(video)
Adam L Silverman
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Well that would explain a lot. Finally a chance for some peace and quiet.
Yarrow
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: Who’s going to be the Spicey of the tree lighting ceremony? “Biggest crowd ever for a tree lighting ceremony!”
?BillinGlendaleCA
I took a hike up to the area above Burbank that burned in September, here’s a couple of pics:
Devastation,
Nature making a comeback!
Mike in DC
Obstruction!
dmsilev
@Adam L Silverman: Unfortunately, the joke fell flat; too many people who didn’t get the reference I guess. Was a pretty interesting talk overall, so no harm done.
Adam L Silverman
@Mike in DC: You okay or do we need to call 911?
Mike in NC
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: Were people charged admission to attend the White House tree lighting this time? Expect that about 10% of DC Metro revenues in 2018 will be siphoned off into a slush fund by Organization Trump.
Adam L Silverman
@dmsilev: These things happen.
SectionH
@?BillinGlendaleCA: This bunch of jackals? Srsly?
Mike in DC
@Adam L Silverman: oh, I’m good. Trump’s lawyers might need some aspirin and water, though. That Times story just makes things worse for their client.
Adam L Silverman
Cry havoc and let slip the tweets of xenophobia!
And so it begins…
Mike J
@Adam L Silverman: The people of our country are the ones who found him not guilty.
Adam L Silverman
@Mike in DC: The pressured senators to end their Russia investigations?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@SectionH: Just the front pagers.
Mike J
@Mike J: Sorry. Of our Country with the weird ass nazi caps. He sometimes forgets he’s not speaking German and caps random nouns.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Mike J: No, it was a Commie jury in San Francisco.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Mike in NC: Only 10%?
NJ Lurker
I’m a long time lurker and first time commenter. This morning, after Betty’s post, I made my first call to my senator Cory Booker-NJ. The woman who answered let me speak with no interruptions. I said I’m happy Senator Booker apposed the tax bill but was disappointed he wasn’t loudly publicly apposing it. I gave my name and zip. As far as senator interactions go should I have said more? What else should I have said? Thanks.
Adam L Silverman
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: @Yarrow: @Mike in NC: Seems like someone wasn’t paying attention the Vice President’s daily bible study again. Mother is going to be quite displeased!
Barbara
@Adam L Silverman: The verdict hardly matters to them. Either outcome would trigger the same response.
TS
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: The replies to the @Acosta tweet are a joy to read
including this one:
@waltshaub
Well, it’s not all due to no-shows. They’re saving two of those seats for the Corinthians
Adam L Silverman
@Mike J: Californians. Fake Americans! Sad!
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Adam L Silverman: San Francisco values, Adam.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
Muh Christmas Tree
Adam L Silverman
@NJ Lurker: You did fine. You were firm, but polite. Got right to the point. And got out of the way.
Barbara
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: The traffic around WH was definitely lighter.
Yarrow
Adam, have you been following Katie Zavadski’s live tweeting of Reza Zarrab’s trial? She’s really funny and it’s entertaining to follow along. It’s also fascinating to see. He’s spilling everything. So many bribes. Money laundering. Lots of stuff about Iran. It’s going to tie into the Russia stuff for sure via Flynn.
They’re being really nice to him. The judge said he didn’t have to wear his prison uniform in court and they got him a shirt and tie. Apparently that kind of good treatment is a sign that he’s giving up the goods on everything.
Today he implicated Erdogan:
I’m not seeing much coverage of it, but it’s really interesting to follow along.
Major Major Major Major
1. why nazis liked decaf
2. I am very pleased with this tweet
jl
@Adam L Silverman: Thanks for the news. I hope some of the BJ legal flying wedge chime in to give their opinion on the case.
I didn’t follow the case very closely. But seems to me after just first couple of days of testimony reported in local news, the prosecutor massively over charged the defendant. And then I heard a news report that I think said the prosecution was pulling an unusual move of offering the jury option to commit on a lower charge if they could accept a different theory of what happened. I think that is what the report said. Anyway, didn’t sound like the prosecution presented a solid case for their original charges.
i guess I wouldn’t be a good prosecutor. I’d start with a lower charge that was serious enough to get the guy deported, but had a better chance for conviction.
TS
@Adam L Silverman: It ALWAYS comes back to the same response – “Imagine if Obama had said this” – President Obama couldn’t comment on a young man’s death, a man being arrested for entering his own home or a mass murder without the GOP outcry of “perverting justice”. Trump actually attacks the judicial system and …. nothing.
Adam L Silverman
@Yarrow: I followed it earlier today before I went to the gym in the afternoon. The one thing she sort of was silly about was this one:
Starts with SIG ends with INT.
Major Major Major Major
@Adam L Silverman: I don’t see what SIGnal INTerrupts have to do with anything ?
Adam L Silverman
@jl: Here’s a real good rundown in this thread from a Federal criminal defense attorney:
opiejeanne
@Adam L Silverman: Not a word about the joy of giving, which is really what Christmas is about. not recognizing how special we all are. who wrote that crap?.
Adam L Silverman
@Major Major Major Major:
Master race my tuchas!
jl
@Major Major Major Major: The why the Nazis liked decaf piece was followed by an article where you can watch a live webcam of a roasting meat log in a gyros joint in Nova Scotia. That is great!
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/nova-scotia-donair-webcam
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Major Major Major Major:
They were already to jittery from the meth.
jl
@Adam L Silverman: thanks
opiejeanne
@Major Major Major Major: Hoho.
How are you doing?
Redshift
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
I tried to get tickets from the lottery for the Christmas tree lighting several times in the Obama years, and only succeeded once, the year that it poured down rain the whole time.
I suspect that in addition to no one wanting to be stuck listening to Trump ramble, it’s also because no good entertainers are willing to appear for a Trump ceremonial event. They had the Beach Boys and I think one other that I’d heard of, and the rest were TV contest winners at best. The hosts were Kathie Lee Gifford and Dean Cain, who presumably was picked because he’s now a professional wingnut.
Yarrow
@Adam L Silverman: I saw that. I read it differently. Like maybe she was asking the question to call attention to the fact that people are being recorded. I find it hard to believe she didn’t have some idea about how, but maybe I misread it.
I loved yesterday where the translator was so bad that Zarrab stepped in to correct the translator. Hilarious.
Adam L Silverman
@TS: Nothing other than effecting the outcome in the courts. He’s completely screwed himself on his travel bans because he can’t keep his mouth shut. Part of the reason Bergdahl got the sentence he did was because the President’s remarks that he should get the death penalty were considered to be undue command influence. Same thing with the recent Federal court ruling on his proposed by tweet ban on transgender military personnel. The Federal death penalty is going to be off the table for the guy that drove the truck into that crowd in New York about a month ago for the same reason.
Mike in DC
@Adam L Silverman: yep. Along with Comey, the other agency heads, Sessions (probably).
It’s like a perp making triple sure that they satisfy every element of the crime in case they get caught.
Adam L Silverman
@Major Major Major Major: Haven’t you San Franciscans caused enough trouble for one day?
Adam L Silverman
@opiejeanne: It wasn’t the lack of joy of giving, though that is a major omission, rather it is his complete mangling of the story of the conception and birth of Jesus.
Major Major Major Major
@opiejeanne: what a day! Ok for the moment.
Adam L Silverman
@Yarrow: They have problems with the translators some times.
MomSense
@NJ Lurker:
It was just right!
Yarrow
Did this get any notice today?
Adam L Silverman
@Mike in DC: @Yarrow: Sessions knows he’s in trouble. That’s why he went with, depending on who was counting, 22 or so different variants of I don’t recall or I can’t answer that before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence this morning. Including pissing of Congressman Schiff with his I can’t answer to Schiff’s question as to whether the President asked him to or if he ever observed the President try to impede the investigation into Russian interference in the campaign. AG Sessions is answering like this because he’s trying to avoid getting hit with a perjury charge by Mueller. What he doesn’t know, however, is what the information from the counterintel investigation that Mueller has inherited and has access to says about him. As a result any answer he gives that isn’t I don’t know or I can’t recall or I can’t answer that is very, very dangerous. Basically he’s living in fear. And I don’t mean to make light of the problems of prison violence, including sexual assault, as a small, effeminate racist he’s not going to do well in prison. Even in a club fed.
LurkerNoLonger
Late night message to master strategist and legislative genius Mitch McConnell (because I know he’s reading this): You’re bad at your job. And you’re ugly too.
Yarrow
@Adam L Silverman: Things are not going to end well for Jeff Sessions. He doesn’t have a lot of options. Maybe the giant meteor.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Yarrow: it was all over MSNBC
Yarrow
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Glad to hear it. I was mostly focused on the tax bill crap today. Too many disasters all at once. Hard to follow everything.
jl
@Adam L Silverman: I remember that there was a lot of testimony about whether the defendant could have shot the gun by pulling the trigger by accident. The defense claimed he found the gun in a sack or sack, and accidentally pulled the trigger when picking up the sack. The prosecution said that no way that could have happened because pulling trigger far enough to discharge weapon required too much weight. I remember several expert witnesses fighting over that, and whether condition of gun was in when recovered.was informative on that issue.
B.B.A.
@LurkerNoLonger: Honestly, it’s a testament to Mitch’s skill as a legislator that this dog’s turd of a bill is anywhere near passing. Anybody else and the bill doesn’t make it out of committee.
Miss Bianca
@Yarrow: i hope it ends for him soon. Smarmy little shit can’t go to prison fast enough to suit me.
Mike in NC
@Redshift: Funny how often Dean Cain pops up on the Today Show. I suspected his acting career was pretty much over a couple of years ago.
Major Major Major Major
@B.B.A.: Paul Ryan passed his.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
who imagines a two year old asking this question? I do sometimes wonder how bad things got in that family
19,000 people liked that
B.B.A.
@Major Major Major Major: Paul Ryan can afford to lose more than 3 votes.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Major Major Major Major: Paul Ryan also has more control over the Chamber of People’s Deputies(aka, The House; H/T Billmon).
Frankensteinbeck
@B.B.A.:
A skilled legislator does not schedule a vote he doesn’t have the votes for. A skilled legislator would not be insisting on a version he can’t pass of the easiest bill he could ever offer to his caucus. Senate Republicans badly want to vote for giant tax cuts for the rich, but McConnell just has to demand the most poisonous option imaginable. He sank ACA repeal the same way, by insisting on turning it into ‘gut Medicaid to pay for a tax cut.’
LurkerNoLonger
@B.B.A.: but you agree that he’s ugly?
Major Major Major Major
@B.B.A.: about the same percent of his caucus though, isn’t it?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@LurkerNoLonger: Hear he likes chicken too.
jl
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I suppose he thinks the tweet contains some convoluted reductio ad absurdum ‘gotcha’ dilemma for silly liberals that demonstrates that they are stupid, and it probably takes half an hour to explain.
If anyone can boil it down into a couple of sentences, I’ll take a look Thanks in advance.
Frankensteinbeck
@Major Major Major Major:
Ryan has an extra advantage. He can tell his Representatives that whatever they vote for is meaningless, because it’s DOA in the Senate. They can vote for a can of dog food, tell their constituents and donors they’re true conservatives, and have their hands clean of final legislation.
B.B.A.
@LurkerNoLonger: sure, I got eyes.
B.B.A.
@Frankensteinbeck: He’s caught between a rock and a stupid place, and he still almost made it through.
jl
@Frankensteinbeck: It may also be that McConnell with his fellow depraved flunkies are scrambling to fulfill an impossible list of big donor demands. The only evidence I have for that hypothesis is news reports that the donors are angry that the their tax cut goodies are not bigger.
It is also an possibility that puts the Senate GOPers in the most unfavorable light as craven corrupt cowards and crooks. Which mahybe makes it more likely? The ‘McConnell’s Razor’ test?
Adam L Silverman
@jl: I didn’t follow the trial. If I’m recalling correctly this was a semi-automatic pistol that had been reported stolen by a Federal law enforcement officer. That narrows things down a bit. From what I can tell from a quick online search, BLM issues its officers SIG P226 chambered in .40 S&W (Smith and Wesson). These are DA/SA (Double Action/Single Action). First pull, DA, is a 10 lbs pull. The second is SA and is about 4 and 1/2 lbs pull. The P226 comes with a decocker, not an external safety. If the gun had a round chambered and was cocked, which would have set it for single action, then someone who didn’t know what they were doing could pretty easily shoot the gun (discharge the weapon) without intending too. And if you don’t know anything about firearms that’s an even easier possibility. Moreover, I just checked that Mr. Lopez-Sanchez told CNN that he found the gun wrapped in a t-shirt and was handling it when it went off. If this is the case, then if some of the t-shirt was wrapped around the trigger and a round was loaded in the chamber, it could have easily negligently discharge. There are a number of negligent discharges every year because people get parts of their shirt caught in the trigger/trigger guard when trying to holster at the range, in training, or when simply trying to put their gun in their holster to go about whatever it is they’re going to do. Moreover, the .40 S&W is a snappy caliber. It is a cut down 10mm, is a niche round created for the FBI after the Miami massacre, and shooters either love it or hate it. Personally/professionally I’d rather go with .357 SIG if I wasn’t going to go with either 9mm or .45 ACP.
Anyhow here’s the link to SIG’s page about the P226:
https://www.sigsauer.com/store/p226-nitron-full-size.html
And here’s the link to their video about the pistol:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=82&v=wczZA1OEzkw
And if you’re really interested, here’s Hickock45’s video review if you want to see what the pistol can do in the hands of someone who really knows what they’re doing. This is the P226 Navy, which was the standard issue for the SEALs. It is chambered in 9mm, not .40 S&W.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U32Hqp9QEjo
?BillinGlendaleCA
Yum, cheesecake with strawberries.
Frankensteinbeck
@jl:
He, and most conservatives, do not think asking a woman you work with to come naked to your home is harassing her. Pointing out that a 2 year old can do it is meant to show that the action has no power.
jl
@Adam L Silverman: I remember enough from shooting old kitchen appliances with pistols out in NV boondocks wen visiting my gun nut relative there to understand most of your comment. Thanks.
Edit: and what you say does sound exactly like what the experts were arguing about, as best as I can recall the news reports.
jl
@Frankensteinbeck: Hooo kaayyy…. I beg your pardon, I don’t mean to appear stupid, but I still don’t understand what you’re getting at. Are you sure you have that quite right?
Edit: I think that’s the Cleese line from his Merchant Banker sketch.
Adam L Silverman
@Frankensteinbeck: @Major Major Major Major: @B.B.A.: @jl: The question is going to be wether McConnell tries to jam the House and force them to pass whatever he puts forth as the Senate bill or whether this goes to conference committee for true, actual reconciliation. As opposed to what we call reconciliation just in the Senate to avoid the 60 vote threshold.
MobiusKlein
@Adam L Silverman: There is president for a light sentence. Cheney shot a guy in the face, and the victim had to apologize to Cheney.
Adam L Silverman
@jl: Here’s one more video. It’s Hickock45 doing a comparison of the .40 S&W and the .357 SIG rounds. It’ll give you a better idea, if you are interested, in how the .40 both performs and how a .40 caliber pistol handles. The complaints most people seem to make is that the recoil is hard to handle and control unless one spends a lot of time training. That shooting it, as a result, hurts the hands. That these two things together make controlling where one’s shots go difficult. The FBI has decided to move away from the .40. They’re going to 9mm, which will drive a change to 9mm for Federal, state, and local law enforcement.
Here’s the video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsBGfytvZHE
Adam L Silverman
@MobiusKlein: Not sure that applies here.
Frankensteinbeck
@B.B.A.:
I see it as the opposite. There is literally nothing easier to pass. His entire caucus universally want this. Their base do not mind tax cuts for the rich. He can rig reconciliation to make Democrats irrelevant. He had to demand a truly shitty piece of legislation to make his senators rebel. With a wall full of giant doors, McConnell wants to shove his camel through the eye of a needle.
@jl:
So? If he delivers any large cut, he can declare victory. If he removes Capitol gains taxes and nothing else, his donors will worship him as a god, no matter what they asked for. You’re only suggesting he sucks at both ends of this negotiation process.
And he still could pull it off because, again, there is absolutely nothing easier to get Republicans to vote for than tax cuts. They WANT to eat this shit sandwich, if McConnell could just leave off the damn sardines.
jl
@MobiusKlein: I don’t understand that either. Having to apologize to Cheney is not getting off lightly. That impertinent guy who allowed Cheney to shoot him should have served more time in the clink, but I don’t know if he got off lightly.
prostratedragon
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Already moving at a faster pace?
different-church-lady
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Wait, I missed The Rapture again this year?
different-church-lady
Can anyone explain to me why I cannot fall asleep if I know the alarm is set for earlier than 7am?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@prostratedragon: Yup.
@different-church-lady: Must be in the wrong church.
Frankensteinbeck
@different-church-lady:
Falling asleep is about relaxation. You feel instinctively that you’ll be getting up too soon and are just the tiniest bit too tense to let go.
MobiusKlein
@Adam L Silverman: Making a point that the powerful get a pass when it is “accidental”. And trying a pun with precedent / president.
?BillinGlendaleCA
Once more to the fire area:
Before the fire,
After the fire.
jl
@Adam L Silverman: Thanks. I will look at the last one later. If I watch too many gun youtubes at once, I’m flooded with youtube suggestions for days full of guns guns guns.
I never liked shooting pistols very much. But your comments brings back memories of how different it is from shooting a long gun. Trap shooting with a long gun is fun. I don’t think shooting a pistol is fun if you are trying to hit something that takes any aim.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
How is cutting taxes by $2.2 trillion dollars difficult?
Amir Khalid
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
What two-year-old goes to school in the first place?
jl
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Thanks. Beautiful ‘before’ and awful ‘after’ scene. But with your photo skills, and such a nice vantage point, would be interesting to see a sequence over time. Is the place convenient enough to you for you to do that?
Adam L Silverman
@MobiusKlein: I saw that. Well played.
different-church-lady
@Frankensteinbeck: I feel instinctively that my life is futile and that simple everyday functionality is slipping away from me.
I guess I’m a little tense over that…
jl
@different-church-lady: ” Can anyone explain to me why I cannot fall asleep if I know the alarm is set for earlier than 7am? ”
Eager anticipation of that wonderful moment to come tomorrow morning?
NotMax
Look! It’s Hamillton – er, uh, a ton of Hamill.
different-church-lady
@jl:
Yeah, that must be it.
[DOPE SLAPS YOU]
Adam L Silverman
@jl: No worries. Sorry you get bombarded with ads.
As for pistol training, I treat it like the rest of my martial arts weapons training. I also treat it like a type of zen: me, the firearm, the target and bringing it all into harmony. I also do weight training this way. Me, the weight, the exercise, and bringing it all into harmony.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@jl: It’s pretty close, over in the hills above Burbank(right by The Castaway restaurant).
ETA: I just went up the hill a mile to the saddle, I ususally go further, but was time constrained and didn’t want to over do it since Mt. Pinos is tomorrow.
prostratedragon
Some music for this year’s White House Yule log, from a notable Afro-Hungarian-American connection:
Adam L Silverman
@Amir Khalid: Wharton, which believe me, is an Ivy. He’s really smart, bigly smart, just like his grand uncle who was a professor at MIT and explained the power of nuclear to him.
Millard Filmore
@Frankensteinbeck:
Why would McConnell do that? Deliberately sink both the ACA repeal the this tax bill. Is he trying to build up karma points, banking against the time when the shit hits the fan? “I saved the country from disaster TWICE!”
jl
@Adam L Silverman: Weight training is so boring, I have to take that attitude towards it in order to keep it up. Because it works so well at keeping me fit and injury free (so far, knock on wood). But I stay away from ‘getting swole’ stuff that tends to cause injuries. Shooting guns not worth it for me. I’ll stick to mediocre trap shooting when visiting relatives who do that kind of thing.
I do have a sweet and shy relative who used to be in the Navy and joined the base shooting team. She’s shot everything and can opine elegantly on competitive shooting with pistols, rifles, shot guns and assault weapons. I don’t if I ever mentioned that before. She’s come along trap shooting a few times and puts the rest of us to shame.
Adam L Silverman
@different-church-lady: 1) Melatonin to help get your sleep schedule back on track. 2) Find someone who is a professional to talk to and who, if necessary, can refer you to someone who can write you a prescription of your brain chemistry gets too out of whack. If you brain isn’t playing fair, you shouldn’t try to just muddle through.
Things are bad. As I’ve said they’re likely to get worse before they get better. And people who don’t deserve it are going to get hurt/continue to be hurt. But a lot of our institutions are holding up far better than many expected. And our civil society seems to be far more resilient than most expected. Pace yourself, find something diverting and do it regularly. And remember you’re not alone. You’re not imagining that things are rough right now. Nor are you alone in doing small, medium, or large things to make a difference and hold the line.
Adam L Silverman
@jl: I regularly train in case I have to deploy again. I have to be able to qualify and not be a danger to myself or my teammates if I’m sent downrange and I have to defend myself. If not for that I wouldn’t mess with it.
NotMax
@different-church-lady
Hey, there’s always Napflix.
If you have Amazon Prime, they offer an ‘Ambient’ channel, with special ultra- black screen and dozens of choices of nature or rain sounds which run for hours.
Cannot personally speak to the efficacy of any of the above.
jl
@Adam L Silverman: I have a new physical trainer who is getting me away from just weight training and more into various forms of gymnastics and body weight training. I find that more interesting. And have more motivation to keep up the weight training if I can mix the three up. And, I find gymnastics and body weight harder, but much more interesting and fun, so I will keep it up even though right now it looks like I won’t ever be very good at it.
NotMax
FYWP’d again. Please to release.
Frankensteinbeck
@Millard Filmore:
It makes no sense to think he’s doing it deliberately, although I’ve entertained the notion once or twice just because this is what he would do if he were deliberately trying to scuttle the entire GOP legislative process. Evidence of previous behavior and what I’ve heard about how he runs his caucus suggests he’s a complete fucking asshole who expects everything to be done his way. His Senate has been the least productive, ever. He has a pile of House bills he’s only using as toilet paper. He was great at convincing his fellows to protest vote against anything a black guy wanted, and it turns out that does not translate into being good at anything else. All together, my best guess is that he’s been twiddling his thumbs so that nobody can see that he’s completely out of his depth. When he has to actually do something, the flaws show.
As I append to everything on this topic, I wish this made me confident of his failure, but his Senators want SO BAD to pass a godawful nightmare piece of regressive taxation legislation.
Adam L Silverman
@jl: I primarily use the TRX instead of free weights. Functional strength training. Then I do cardio. A couple of times a year I’ll do free weights for a couple of weeks to shock the system. Which I’m doing right now, which is also my first week back from the sinus infection. I’m very sore.
Adam L Silverman
@NotMax: You’re free.
NotMax
@different-church-lady
Well, there’s always Napflix.
If you have Amazon Prime, they offer an ‘Ambient’ channel with special ultra-dark screen and hours of nature sound, rain sounds and the like.
NotMax
@Adam L. Silverman
Thanks. Figured out what triggered FYWP and re-posted with preventive coding.
Adam L Silverman
@Frankensteinbeck: Correct. He’s not the majority leader because he’s liked, he’s the majority leader because he’s a very prodigious fundraiser and everyone in his caucus owes him. As for what he’s doing: this should be the easiest lift. And it should be easy and doable through regular order and with the Democrats involved. But he’s decided that he won’t do anything that would allow the Democrats in the Senate to work as partners producing something that was palatable to everyone. It is, in many ways, the flip side of his no to everything to deny President Obama any bipartisan wins approach from 2009 through 2016. So instead of actually doing this the right way, which would actually be the easy way, he’s chosen to further degrade and damage the Senate as a legislative body, avoid regular order, and produce a bill that everyone who is an economist or is a specialist in tax law across the political spectrum is convinced is going to produce really bad and damaging results. If there is rhyme or reason to what he’s doing, I’m really not seeing it.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@jl: Shooting guns is BORING, I’ll stick with my cameras.
Mnemosyne
@different-church-lady:
Speaking for myself, it’s because I get anxious that I’ll accidentally sleep through the alarm because I’m waking up earlier than usual, so I keep waking up to make sure I haven’t overslept.
Also, I’m mostly a night owl, so I end up being a little zombified if I have to get up earlier than 7.
Fair Economist
@Frankensteinbeck:
Exactly. If they put out a sunsetted corporate tax cut and estate tax repeal, with some sop to everybody else attached it would sail through, like with W. But no, they put out this crazy bill with a massive forever tax cut for corporations and the very wealthy, and so have to raise all kinds of taxes on other people. Horrific *and* stupid.
Mnemosyne
@Adam L Silverman:
Because of various physical pains right now (turns out what I did to my knee is termed “the unhappy triad” ?), I take a Benadryl before bed along with my ibuprofen. But one Benadryl is actually too strong and leaves me much too groggy the next day, so I started buying the children’s Benadryl, which is half as strong but does the trick without making it hard for me to wake up the next morning.
cwmoss
@?BillinGlendaleCA: He likes chicken the way Hasil Adkins liked hot dogs.
SectionH
@different-church-lady:
Because you’re tensed up? Something’s different, so yeah, it’s harder to fall asleep. That sucks. I have zero suggestions. I’ve tried Melatonin (doesn’t work), Valerian (might work except for the upset stomach, it’s still the thing I might try again), Ambien for long distance flights… Nah, annoying Zombie state is the best I’ve achieved. I generally just tough it out.
Oh wait, fuck it I do have a suggestion: 2 aspirin works as well as anything for me if I’m at home. I usually take one regular one and one coated. But based on my reactions to things that work for many ppl, that may not help either. Still, it’s a really cheap thing to try.
Sorry if I’m too earnest, but sleep problems are SO not funny. More boring comments, that may be soporific…
Major Major Major Major
@different-church-lady:
In Soviet Russia..
Mary G
@Adam L Silverman: Encouraging saying NO! to everything seems to have become habitual, which isn’t working now they are in charge. It appears they have promised the moon to donors, but different donors disagree on the definition of moon.
Frankensteinbeck
@Adam L Silverman:
I read that he is as big an asshole to his caucus as he looks, that he never takes input and instead hands them a bill and tells them to vote. He’s apparently always been like this. So, I guess what’s happening is ‘Yertle gotta Yertle.’
opiejeanne
@Adam L Silverman: Yeah, I glided right past that because I was not surprised by that at all. .
West of the Rockies (been a while)
Tomorrow would be a fabulous day for a big, ol’ steaming IC leak on Trump. Dear FSM (praise be to his noodly appendages), if you’re listening…
Sab
@Adam L Silverman: I am a tax accountant. This bill is okay to me personally (married, house paid for, no kids) but is otherwise horrific for almost all of my family, and every single one of my tax clients. I keep calling my idiotic Republican Senator (Rob Portman) to tell him he is phucking his base, but he apparently only cares about his donors, because the Kochs spent a gazillion dollars in the summer to trash the admirable Ted Strickland, and Portman won the election. This guy was Bush’s OMB director when they decided deficits don’t matter right before the 2008 financial meltdown. Ohio voters are tribal (i. e. racist) voters and epically not smart ( i. e. we always vote against our lown interests) because race carries all.
SectionH
Hello?
Still don’t know what I did wrong to still be in moderation.
Maybe all the Front Pagers were Raptured…
Redshift
@Mary G:
I think that’s part of it, and also the high level of know-nothing-ism in the modern Republican Party. As opposed to the earlier generation who knew a lot of conservative ideology was a con, many of the current crop have come up in the conservative media bubble where ludicrous ideas go unchallenged as long as they’re the right ideas, so they don’t just lie to the rubes, they firmly believe a lot of things that just aren’t true. Now that they’re in power, those things they promised are slamming up against reality.
As with the ACA repeal, they’ve promised impossible things, and even after they screw over non-Republicans and obviously go against the promises made to the most easily duped, the promises to the super rich are stillin conflict with reality.
Kathleen
@Adam L Silverman: Yet another reason to despise Nazis.
Kathleen
@different-church-lady: I am with you on that. Struggling to stay focused on fact we have power.
TS
@Adam L Silverman: Thanks – at least the lawyers are listening & using trump’s remarks to their clients’ advantage
gene108
@Frankensteinbeck:
Part of McConnell’s and Senate Republicans problem is that within living memory there are two clear cut examples of states cutting taxes, Kansas and Oklahoma, promising huge economic growth to offset the lost revenue, the growth not materializing, then forced to slash services, lay-off teachers, etc, and voters not happy with the politicians, who pushed for the tax cuts, and finally the states are forced to raise taxes again to clean up the mess they made.
I am sure these historical examples weigh on the minds of some Senators.
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman:
if we assume he’s been compromised by Russia, it does make a twisted sort of sense.