As Biden begins to announce his cabinet picks, I have two thoughts.
First, ideology should take a back seat to bureaucratic competence. Job one is cleanup: rooting out Trump ticks that have buried themselves into agencies, and issuing reams of rule making that reverses Trumpy rules. So, when I read this in today’s Post story about his first three picks, I know he’s on the right track:
All three expected nominees have decades-long careers working at the highest levels of government, and a deep respect for institutions.
Second, we need to get our unfuckers into place as soon as possible. McConnell’s simple plan is to make Biden wait months if not years to get all his appointments confirmed. Trump never bothered with confirmations, which isn’t what I’m recommending (because it ends with courts overturning policies). The Democrats have to find a way around that by, say, forcing a Congressional recess if we lose Georgia. Of course, the best thing we can do is win in Georgia, tough as that might be.
ACA Choice space in Abbeville SC
Mallard Filmore
Over on Daily Kos there was this suggestion:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/11/20/1997125/-Time-to-break-one-more-norm-Harris-will-be-the-President-of-the-Senate
“… There is nothing that says anything about a “majority leader” and nothing that gives the Majority Leader any power whatsoever. It has only been customary for the VP to delegate that to voting Senators. But in an era where McConnell has broken so many norms, it is time we break one more norm and return to what the Constitution says. On January 20, Harris should take her rightful place as President of the Senate and discharge those duties such as assigning committees and scheduling votes. I don’t know why this hasn’t come up before. It is right there in the Constitution. …”
trollhattan
Will be keeping an interested eye on Interior, EPA and Education, which have been targeted for dismantlement and/or fire-sale giveaway pricing of controlled assets. I expect Dr. first-lady Jill B will have some sway in who’s selected for Education, to which I will breathe a huge sign of relief plus my offer of exorcism services performed in the offices to rid it of Devos stench.
hitless
If the court overturns a policy, can’t you just keep enforcing the policy anyway? I thought that’s how it worked…I mean, how many troops does the court have?
BerkeleyMom
Murkowski and Romney should pay a visit to Mitch for some math homework. Even the threat of caucusing with the Dems might unclog this drain. For a guy who once wanted to lead the free world, Romney sure is timid about using the power he has now.
trollhattan
@Mallard Filmore:
Interesting. Had no idea but will add the notion of replacing the name Harris with Pence gives me instant dread. But we do need a counter to Turtle if GA does not produce two D senators. (With all 2020’s ticket splitting, any possibility of one going to each party?)
randy khan
The most persistent Trumpoid in my social media feed just posted a comment on one of my election updates saying that Trump should concede. You could have knocked me over with a feather.
RandomMonster
What in the world would a recess accomplish?
taumaturgo
No thanks, this is not competence this is a recycling of well connected lobbyist that continue to fail to the top. Waiting for the resurrection of Panneta, Albright, Hillary and Kerry.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/11/23/should-michele-flournoy-be-secretary-of-defense/
Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix
@BerkeleyMom:
Romney would need a spine implant for that, though Murkowski might do it if she sees an upside in AK for her. I don’t know what that would be, but her fear of a primary challenge just evaporated because AK just passed a referendum eliminating primaries and going to ranked-choice voting. So that would insulate her from a primary challenge but also probably changes her strategy for the next election, which for her, is 2022.
Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix
@RandomMonster:
Recess appointments, which are binding and don’t require a Senate vote.
trollhattan
@RandomMonster:
The children get a little sunlight and fresh air, plus tetherball.
Omnes Omnibus
@taumaturgo: Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.
germy
RandomMonster
@Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix: Ah, got it. Thanks.
RandomMonster
@trollhattan: You mean when I walked around the perimeter of the playground, talking to a friend.
Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix
@germy: They’re just upset because they’re going to have to work to paint horns and a tail on low-profile, DC insider Biden appointees. Don’t worry, they’ll figure out how each of them is a great Satan in a few days.
dimmsdale
Outrage has gotten to be such a go-to feeling for me–when I heard last night something about Rahm Emanuel being considered for a Cabinet post (true or not, who knows) it pinned my outrage needle. And I love the suggestion about pulling the Majority Leader rug out from under McConnell…and hey, wouldn’t his wife have some serious concerns should the IRS take too close a look at her books? It’s REALLY tempting to slip into the politics of revenge and recrimination and subtle blackmail threats (I imagine the IC has access to all the dirt Trump’s operatives have collected from bedroom activities at his Washington hotel, and if the IC does, the Dems might also?)–but then, what kind of a Presidency do we have? I’m sort of steeling myself to watching a bunch of the lesser Republican roaches safely skittering away out of the glare, with their crimes going unpunished in the name of re-establishing norms. Maybe that’s how it SHOULD be; this is really uncharted territory we’re in. I literally don’t know what to expect; I HOPE for justice in some measure, but competence and putting the American people first would be nice too.
taumaturgo
@Omnes Omnibus: Oh, I forgot to drink the kool aid.
germy
The trumpoid is probably gearing up to donate to Trump’s 2024 campaign.
Hildebrand
@Omnes Omnibus: I am stunned, stunned, I tell ya, that Counterpunch doesn’t like Biden’s choices.
Chyron HR
@taumaturgo:
I love how OUTRAGED you dumb fuckers are that your months of diligently reposting anti-Biden memes from 4chan aren’t being rewarded with cushy cabinet appointments.
germy
@Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix:
Yes, they’ve spent months telling their viewers Biden will pick antifa army members for top cabinet posts. And now they have to do the performative “Hmph, not yet it seems. Any day now, though…”
Yarrow
Once Biden is president things change. Court cases will go forward. People who have been afraid to speak up may feel more emboldened. We don’t know how or if those sorts of things may impact Republicans in the Senate.
Eunicecycle
@Yarrow: That’s why I wonder how the hell Trump thinks he’s going to run again in 2024. The tell-all books alone should sink his chances. I suppose he will scream “fake news!” but he can’t dismiss it all.
Matt McIrvin
Basically, the tension here is that there were a lot of bad aspects to the foreign-policy situation pre-Trump, so if you mistrust everyone who was active back then, or has any ties to any of that, then you want a blank slate–really nobody with any on-the-job experience.
But the blank slate was pretty much what Trump himself was promising, and we saw where it got us.
In general, I think the sort of leftists who care nearly exclusively about foreign policy are the ones most likely to be so-left-they’re-MAGA. And that includes a lot of leftists who, in the case of the US, naturally care mostly about foreign policy because they don’t live in the US. Thinking of the Guardian here.
schrodingers_cat
Tomato person is disappointed in Biden picks, color me unsurprised.
leeleeFL
@germy: While in High School, I dated a Jehovah’s Witness. Weird, I know. It was a giant F-Off to my Dad! Anyhoo, we broke up, he and his family moved to Bath, New York to await the End times. I think is was supposed to be 1970? Well, when we were all still here they decided they got the date wrong and are still predicting and waiting, AFAIK. Like all Doomsday believers, their mistake is always definitive dates. It makes for shedding of less gullible members, but there are always more wannabees waiting. WTAF is wrong with humans? Life sucks, sure. But why do we always think some of us are CHOSEN to rise above it?
Spanky
@Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix:
BTW, I’m very disappointed that someone else had used “Four Seasons Total Manscaping” before you (or I) thought of it. See SJGrunewald’s tweets at the end of Anne’s post from this AM.
schrodingers_cat
I am seeing a lot of Obama and Biden bashing and talk of “DRONES” on lefty Twitter again. Mirror image MAGAS are at it again.
Cameron
@germy: Radical names? Yeah, right, Joe Biden, Delaware’s own fire-eating Marxist.
prostratedragon
@Hildebrand: [In hushed tones of awe] Counterpunch is still around?!
Yarrow
@Eunicecycle: The tell-all books will be nothing compared to the court cases and his personal debts being called.
Omnes Omnibus
@Matt McIrvin: The leftists who want a blank slate also want a completely isolationist foreign policy which is not tenable in a world where problems like climate change and the pandemic really require a coordinated response by multiple countries.
germy
@Cameron:
That’s how Fox News portrayed him. They warned viewers that if Biden/Harris were elected, we’d turn into a socialist hell hole.
Yarrow
@schrodingers_cat: If we don’t recognize that Russia will also work the left side of our political spectrum in their attempts to divide and destroy us then I don’t really know what to say. Fuck Rose Twitter. With a rusty chainsaw.
leeleeFL
@schrodingers_cat: Amazing, the only place both siderism actually exists is always ignored by the press. If we could just shut the far right and far left up, the quiet would be delicious. Instead of cancelling each other out, they amplify each other! Mystifying!
germy
Matt McIrvin
@leeleeFL: Sometimes they say, well, they got the date right, but the nature of the cataclysm wasn’t quite what we thought it was–it was some kind of hidden transition beneath the surface of things. I think the JWs reacted that way to 1914, because that was one of their major apocalypse dates–turns out the world might not have strictly speaking ended then, but in fact Satan returned to earth in 1914 and has been ruling it ever since. (And, you know, as dates when Satan started ruling the earth go, 1914 is way more plausible than most, so they’ve got that going for them.)
QAnon does similar stuff. I recall after one of their “mass arrests of the bad guys” dates, some decided that all those people had in fact been arrested, secretly tried and executed, but they were all replaced with cloned duplicates.
taumaturgo
@Chyron HR: Chill out friend, cut back on the kool aid.
Starfish
@RandomMonster: Recess appointments.
Horatius
@trollhattan: One of them looks very suspicious and uppity. And this is Georgia. So, it’s quite possible.
mad citizen
@Eunicecycle: When I saw trumpov on teevee the other day at the podium I still saw small shoulder jerking on both sides. His dementia is still working on him. I think any talk of 2024 is just him and his co-criminals playing out the long con.
Jehovah’s Witnesses have predicted the end of the world at least 8 times.
leeleeFL
@Matt McIrvin: Serious need for medicinal intervention there. I have only ever met 2 Q’s. I am stunned by the things they have told me, and equally discomforted by the fact that they performed some great music when they appeared at my workplace. How could we share a love for Buffet and be POLAR opposites on literally EVERYTHING else?!
Chief Oshkosh
And right on cue, WaPo’s never-trumpets (e.g., Jenghazi) are arguing that the Democrats should “come together” with the pro-democracy portion of the GOP in order to stamp out the anti-democracy GOP.
Fuck you, Jen-Jen. The one or two “pro-democracy” Republicans should crawl on their knees to the nearest Democrat, apologize profusely, and then go live on a fucking mountaintop somewhere, never to be heard from again. Get the fuck out of the way so that the rest of us can squash the fascists.
Matt McIrvin
@leeleeFL: Parrotheadedness transcends many things.
leeleeFL
@Chief Oshkosh: one of my fave bosses had this sentiment on his desk…lead, follow, or get the F out of my way! Always loved that
Winston
@trollhattan: No, we need both to tie and make Harris the tiebreaker.
Starfish
@dimmsdale: After Trump, my outrage button is broken, and I am unimpressed by lefties trying to generate outrage out of nothing about a person they first heard of five seconds ago. If you have more enthusiasm for dragging Democrats than supporting Muslims, immigrants, or kids in cages, I don’t think I will take you very seriously.
mad citizen
@germy: I want Biden to absolutely flood the zone with good ideas and everything else they can think of. Change “Operation Warp Speed” (most stupid government name in history) to “Operation True Warp Speed” or something like that.
Watching this I thought, what if Biden announced we are going to explore joining the EU? Heads would explode.
ALurkSupreme
@prostratedragon: I know, right? It actually occurred to me last week to check out what Counterpunch’s voices thought about the recent election, Trump’s refusal to concede, etc., but then I thought, nah.
leeleeFL
@Matt McIrvin: Truth! …”evolution can be mean, there’s no dumbass vaccine” in on my mind quite often lately!
Spanky
@mad citizen:
LeeLee’s comment prompted me to revisit the highly entertaining tale of the Millerites. People never change.
Mai Naem mobile
Don’t expect any huge acts of courage from Romney. Romney has to look out for his private equity pals and the political futures of Thad, Chad, Brad, Biff and Tug.
Matt McIrvin
@Omnes Omnibus: I’m haunted by a comment I saw back during the Bush admin from a lefty who said that he fully recognized that a Ron Paul presidency would basically destroy the United States, but if that was what it took to stop the advance of American empire worldwide, it was a trade he just might take.
Well, we pretty much got that. Not with Ron Paul, but close.
SiubhanDuinne
@Omnes Omnibus:
I needed to see this again. Apt, and perfect in every particular.
Hildebrand
@prostratedragon: I know. But like crab-grass, there are some things that just won’t die. In their heart of hearts, too many on the far side want to be a 21st century Robespierre.
leeleeFL
@Mai Naem mobile: Possibly, Mittens might have grokked that his Ducklings might need an actual Party to be political in. Auntie Ronna will be useless to them
Mai Naem mobile
@mad citizen: Not just come up with good ideas but take credit for them. The Dems don’t do that enough and people don’t pay enough attention to history or even the news to figure out who deserves credit. I remember talking to somebody during the ACA fight who thought Medicare was passed by Reagan!
West of the Rockies
@RandomMonster:
That was how I spent a lot of elementary school recesses.
ByRookorbyCrook
@Chief Oshkosh:
Jokes on them. There are no Pro-Democracy GOPers. It’s Turtle and Trump fearers all the way down.
narya
@Chief Oshkosh: Dang; couldn’t even wait until the inaugeration? And I say fuck’em. 80 million people voted for Biden; there are very few reasons for him to Reach Out. I don’t expect scorched earth (though some solid, well-evidenced convictions would NOT be amiss), but I did not vote for you to “reach out” to the people who either supported T* or who only opposed him because he interfered with your particular grift. Lots more atoning to do before we trust you all.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Matt McIrvin
@Spanky: And the Seventh-Day Adventists are the major modern offshoot of that movement. To their credit, their religious dietary restrictions actually make a fair bit of sense and taught us a lot of things about health and diet.
SiubhanDuinne
@Spanky:
Both obligatory and funny as hell.
https://youtu.be/Z3nRjlK3jfY
narya
@Mai Naem mobile: I saw the article about Guitar Center’s bankruptcy this weekend, and waaaaay down in the article was our Old Friend Bain capital. I don’t pretend to understand all this stuff, but it sure sounds like GC would have been fine if not for that.
Salty Sam
My wife fwd’d this to me this morning- anyone else seen it? Any thoughts?
https://blog.usejournal.com/mitch-mcconnell-an-emperor-without-clothes-c0096ac51e36
I’m thinking if this was the case, Biden could have used it during McConnell’s reign of terror during Obama’s terms?
Or was that just “before the gloves came off” ?
Joey Maloney
@Winston: Which suddenly makes (gulp) Joe Manchin the most powerful man in America.
Joey Maloney
@mad citizen:
That’d be “Operation Spore Drive” unless you have a problem with accepting Discovery as canon.
Ken
Article II Section 3 gives the President the power to “convene both Houses, or either of them, and in Case of Disagreement between them, with Respect to the Time of Adjournment, he may adjourn them to such Time as he shall think proper“.
It would require the House to play along by disagreeing on the time of adjournment. Anyone know whether that clause has ever been invoked?
Matt McIrvin
@Joey Maloney: Starfleet has no records of the existence of Operation Spore Drive.
Sloane Ranger
Happy Doctor Who Day everyone!
It was this day, in 1963, that the very first episode “An Unearthly Child” was televised, starring William Harnell as the Doctor, Carole Ann Ford as his granddaughter, Susan, Jacqueline Hill as Barbara Wright and William Russell as Ian Chesterton.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTrOMcx0rUM
VeniceRiley
@mad citizen: OS2Warp lol
Matt McIrvin
@Sloane Ranger: Forever overshadowed by other momentous and terrible events that occurred around that date.
Such as the Seventh Doctor destroying Skaro using the Hand of Omega.
NotMax
@mad citizen
If nominations for that dubious notation are open, Operation Wetback.
Surely others can come up with examples equally or more egregious.
Ken
Well someone’s going to have a bad day, and share it with everyone around him. And dare I hope he’ll try to take revenge on the “traitor” justices by releasing whatever kompromat he ‘s got on them?
randy khan
@germy:
Probably, but I’ll take whatever recognition of reality I can get from her.
mad citizen
@Spanky: Thanks for bringing this up, I have never heard of it (and I just gave some money to wikipedia so don’t feel guilty reading there. Love wikipedia and support it.)
I also now thinking there was a connection between Prince’s religion and his album title Sign ‘O’ The Times. The web pulled up an article about Prince appearing at someone’s door with a Watchtower, etc. Imagine.
zhena gogolia
@germy:
Oh, that is music to my ears! A Secretary of State who can speak a language other than English!!!!
Barbara
@Dorothy A. Winsor: In practical terms, what it means is that any hope Trump had of kicking the issue to the Pennsylvania legislature for certification of an alternative slate of electors is over. As has been said repeatedly, not only would that not have been feasible under Pennsylvania law, the Republican leader of at least one of the chambers has said repeatedly that they will not entertain that possibility.
Another Scott
@Mallard Filmore: The problem with Harris running over Moscow Mitch is the Constitution also says that Congress makes its own rules. They won’t give the VP that much power.
Similarly, the Senate will probably never go on recess again unless there is a vast majority.
There are no magic beans. We have to accept that politics remains a slog and that we have to fight them every single day.
Cheers,
Scott.
Barbara
@germy: One reason I haven’t deleted the deluge of emails I get from the RNC and associated entities is that it gives me some insight into how they are thinking. Right now, they want to know if Lara Trump should run for senate in 2022 (replacing Burr). She is apparently from NC. Just in case anyone is wondering how Trump plans to keep his family tentacles in the Republican party’s operations. They must be kicking themselves for not having discovered how easy it is to pull off grifting with other people’s money when it is donated as part of a political campaign. Unlike investors and lenders, most donors have no way of tracking or evaluating or even complaining about how the money is being used, and the best part is, they don’t expect any kind of actual dollar value repayment.
Sloane Ranger
@Matt McIrvin:
True, but let’s focus on the positives eh? :)
Baud
@randy khan:
I recently saw some pro-Trump people on reddit talking about how the Trump legal team was an embarrassment.
Baud
@Another Scott:
Yeah, I’m tired of one-neat-trickism.
Matt
Ah yes, the exact people who helped pave the way for Trump with their desperate need to “cooperate” with Republicans.
It doesn’t matter one bit how much _they_ “respect institutions”: no amount of standing courtside shouting “but DOGS can’t PLAY BASKETBALL, it’s right here in the RUUUUUULES” is going to stop Air GOP from dunking over and over again.
My prediction for the Biden years: four years of austerity for everybody but banks, cops and oil companies, followed by the election of an honest-to-Gawd fascist and the end of democracy in this country. But hey, we sure did show Bernie and all his dirty hippies what-for!
WaterGirl
@Another Scott: What about Ken’s comment at #69 or thereabouts?
Baud
@narya:
Depends on the reach out. Happy if they want to focus on fighting fascism. Not interested if they want to bargain over Dem policy priorities.
Frank Wilhoit
@Matt McIrvin: There is no such thing as foreign policy. No Americans(*) are capable of comprehending, on any level, the fact that other countries exist. Every mention of any overseas actor (be it a nation-state or be it a pseudophilosophy of polity, such as “Communism”) is an allegory for some domestic faction.
(*) Of course there are exceptions, but insignificantly few.
Baud
The Unfuckers would be a pretty cool band name.
MisterForkbeard
@Matt: I’m just going to leave this here:
What the fuck is wrong with you? Is this a learned helplessness thing, or are you just shitting all over Biden voters and so on for the hell of it?
Mai Naem mobile
@Dorothy A. Winsor: can I just say hahahahahahahahahaha. I know that’s childish but that is all got. Hope Orange Dbag slinks off to Mar A Garbage on Wed evening and never comes back.
Barbara
@Baud: Blaming your loss on a conspiracy between a socialist dictator who has been dead for 7 years and the CIA in cahoots with manufacturers of voting machines should get sane people to shun you.
Baud
@Barbara:
It’s just so interesting what their line in the sand is versus ours.
raven
@Matt: Fuck you and bernie
Spanky
@Baud: Wonder if Rudy’s melting face was the final straw for those chuckleheads.
trollhattan
@Winston:
I know, but am not up on Georgia politics and wondered what the odds are of picking up just one. 2020 has been the year of weird, unexpected outcomes.
NotMax
@Barbara
Yup, it makes no sense without also bringing up fluoridated water.
//
WaterGirl
@Matt: I’m gonna borrow the Omnes line for earlier:
I think this one might get a good workout.
Eolirin
@Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix: Why would Murkowski be concerned about a primary challenge? She lost her last primary and won on a write in campaign.
Barbara
@Baud: QFT. Their line is far, far out there. The funniest thing I read was the Scott Adams thread about how Giuliani and company were “saving” their best evidence for the subsequent proceedings, new lawsuits or appeals or whatever. It made me think back to my very first writing assignment in law school, which was a FRCP 60(b) motion to reopen a proceeding. I sometimes wondered why we were given such an obscure, outlier procedural matter to start our legal writing career, but doing the research for that assignment brought home to me one lesson forever and for all time: You do it fucking right the first time and miss or omit things at your client’s peril, because it is really hard to get a do over. No sane or reasonable attorney would withhold evidence in a lower court in order to get the appeals court to review it. That evidence won’t even make it into the appellate record on review.
natem
Rose Twitter once again losing its mind that Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi haven’t yet summoned the Marshal of the Supreme Court to arrest Emily Murphy, thereby continuing the onslaught of COVID on America and ensuring both sides have blood on their hands.
Yarrow
@Mai Naem mobile: They’ve announced that Trump and Melania are spending Thanksgiving at the White House. It’s kind of hilarious that he’s so unable to face the fact he lost that he can’t even go to Mar-a-Lago and hang out with his fans.
Baud
@Barbara:
They would if they could successfully continue scamming their supporters with tales of future victories over those evil Democrats.
Matt McIrvin
@Matt:
Because they were so much help, and surely woulda won.
NotMax
@Barbara
“Baldrick & Turnipseed, a law corporation. How may I direct your call?”
//
Baud
@natem: Your fault for reading them.
StringOnAStick
@Matt McIrvin: Yeah, I knew that guy too. I quit returning calls or emails once he tried to convince me that becoming a men’s rights supporter would be my true feminist position of I was honest about gender equality. He had a big thing about Enhancing the Contradictions of course, even though he only survived through various government programs and jobs, and munching car rides off others. His anger over not getting M4A drove his anti-Obama campaign.
Frank Wilhoit
@Ken: From the fact that none of the kompromat has ever been released, I deduce that that box has at least two keys.
danielx
@Barbara:
Well, see, there’s your problem right there – putting that whole “conspiracy” thing and “sane people” together in the same sentence.
Barbara
@Baud: Right, but that would not be a legal strategy.
matt
So, this is the part of the story where we get to see if Trump is going to turn on the people who shielded him all this time or not. He is certainly an ingrate, and a churl. We will now see if he’s going to break the Reagan rule and direct his fire at the party that ‘let him down’.
He can’t be too happy about all these judges who he thought were safely rigged pitching his legal team’s filings away in anger.
Bill Arnold
@taumaturgo:
The rant in that piece about testing is not backed by the article it links. (Independent adversarial testing is fine, but the key is continuous testing and some hints (not details) from the adversarial testers about what they’ll be looking for.)
Matt McIrvin
@Barbara:
Appeals courts aren’t even supposed to do that, are they? Get into the facts of the case, beyond what was presented the first time? I mean, absent some sort of extraordinary circumstance.
Baud
@StringOnAStick:
In current politics, there are two kinds of people: Democrats and people who heckle Democrats. Most of the hecklers are conservatives, but not all of them.
matt
@trollhattan: One of the candidates is white, one black so I’d say there’s a significant chance.
Baud
@Barbara:
It borders on being an illegal strategy.
Bill Arnold
@taumaturgo:
You are the one drinking the kool-aid. When reading a rapidly-produced sharply critical piece, always click on the links and otherwise verify the arguments. They might be good, and they might be propaganda.
Yarrow
@Eolirin: That was in 2010 at the height of Sarah Palin’s popularity. Palin supported Murkowski’s primary challenger and that’s why she lost in the primary. In 2016 she handily defeated her primary challengers and won reelection by a wide margin. Not much reason to think 2022 would go any differently for her.
matt
@Matt: I’m just laughing to myself imagining what single-A ballplayers like Sirota and the Brie Lady would be doing now if Sanders had been the candidate and, dreaming the impossible dream, had actually defeated Trump.
Yeah. people with experience are suspect. That’s how you get things done in Washington.
Omnes Omnibus
Test
ETA: Anyone else having problems with ‘nym sticking?
Matt McIrvin
@StringOnAStick:
Oh, yeah, I knew a Ron Paul supporter one of whose beefs against Obama was that Obama personally killed single-payer healthcare. And who, nevertheless, supported Ron “he should die” Paul. Now he’s full MAGA. Would haul off on anyone who talked about Trump and Putin saying that they were “sucking the CIA’s dick”.
To be fair, we should have detected these tendencies back in the 90s when this same guy faked his own death on Usenet just so he could come back and call us a bunch of phonies for publicly mourning him.
MisterForkbeard
@matt: I can agree with this. I don’t know – there’s going to be a LOT of pressure on him to keep quiet from people that he’ll need in the next couple years, but Trump is Trump and I’m sure he’ll haul off on them in some fashion once it’s clear he’s lost.
EDIT: Also, change your nym so you’re not confused with the other, obviously-confused guy. Maybe “matt the mildly reasonable”?
Eolirin
@Yarrow: Sure, my broader point was just that a primary challenge wasn’t a threat to her. Even losing she still holds her seat. She’s not gonna lose it no matter what she does to piss off McConnell.
Geminid
@Eolirin: it was a little bit different than that. Murkowski lost her primary in 2010 to a tea party type challenger, and won the general election as a write-in candidate. That’s hard to do, but I read that she had strong support from Labor unions and Native American Corporations. In 2016 she won the Republican nomination and easily beat the Democratic nominee and the Libertarian candidate, who happened to be the man who edged Murkowski out in the 2010 republican primary.
Matt McIrvin
@MisterForkbeard: too many Online Matts.
MisterForkbeard
@Eolirin: Honestly, if I was Schumer or Biden I’d be offering her a lot to try and get her to caucus with Team D. Even if she votes against us most of the time, getting the leadership away from McConnell would be really useful.
Assuming we can pick off one or two seats in Georgia. Hell, even if we got both we should go for a full-court press to get Murkowski and even (blech) Collins to caucus with us. Not that it would ever happen, but building up some additional headroom would be useful.
narya
@Baud: I’ll accept that. Happily, actually, because I would also argue that their pre-anti-T* history (hello, Max Cleland) helped pave the way for the inroads that fascism has made. It’s a way to clean up the mess you’ve made, for sure.
AnotherBruce
@Eunicecycle: I did some simple math about 2024 chances.
In 2016 he lost the popular vote by roughly 3 million votes.
In 2020 he lost the popular vote by roughly 6 million votes.
I’m thinking he would lose by 10 million votes in the 2024 election.
He really is a loser, I’m glad the rest of the GOP is tied to him.
trollhattan
@natem:
Read that as “arrest Eddy Murphy” and was really confused for a time.
Omnes Omnibus
@Barbara: Malpractice per se. Making a judgment call about what to present is, of course, part of the job. But withholding evidence until later like Napoleon keeping back the Old Guard at Waterloo is cray.
Eolirin
@MisterForkbeard: I can’t see that working with an election coming up. Break votes occasionally, especially if we only need the one, sure. She doesn’t owe them enough that she can’t do that.
Effectively change parties and flip the senate majority in the process? No way. That’s a career ending move even for someone that popular in their home state. Unless she’s decided to retire instead of run again, I can’t see it. AK isn’t slowly becoming blue or anything.
Geminid
There was an interesting story in the noon local news. Over the weekend a man approached two women protesting at trump’s northern Virginia golf course. The women asked him to move away because he wasn’t masked but instead he leaned in and forcefully blew on them. One of the women swore out a complaint, and this morning the police arrested him on an assault charge.
The Moar You Know
@MisterForkbeard: Paid advertisement. Have you not noticed? That “Winston” chode dumping all over the new COVID vaccines the last couple of days? You’re going to see a lot of those, here. This blog may be top 10,000 but it does get read by some heavy hitters.
trollhattan
@Bill Arnold:
Makes even more sense if I substitute kool ade for psilocybin tea.
Miss Bianca
@Mallard Filmore: I love that idea!
VeniceRiley
And the Oxford vaccine makes 3! Got my first tweet ever from a university for my congrats reply. A .gif too. Just adorable. Regular refigeration and 2GBP a dose. A 2 dose regimen, and India is already manufacturing. As more come online for sprin (I am thinking Imperial College, NoVaVax, Johnson&Johnson) we have a good shot at normalcy by Easter.
Geminid
@Matt McIrvin: I fear a Mattastrophe.
WaterGirl
@Omnes Omnibus: Please, no.
Did you clear your cookies? Or comment on BJ from private browsing or whatever your browser calls it?
Those are the only reason why a nym wouldn’t stick. Unless something is messed up.
MCA1
@Eunicecycle: Pardon me for this, but thinking that some sordid details in books would do in Dotard’s electoral chances sounds…rather naive after the last 5 years. He just got 47% of the vote as the 3rd impeached POTUS in the nation’s history, after 4 years of an unrelenting gusher of a thousand scandals and failures, any one of which would have derailed any other president, and surrendering the country to a pandemic. Learning in 2021 that McConnell got into a shouting match with him over the tax bill or something ‘aint gonna do squat. Nor would learning more detail about the exact nature or scope of his corruptions or those of his enablers. Everyone has a sense of how gross they are, and half the country has already indicated it doesn’t care.
There will be other reasons he doesn’t become president again in 2025 – loser stench, criminal record, fear of more narcissistic injury and shame from losing again preventing him from even running. But I humbly submit that post-hoc backstabbing Republican tell-alls will not be among those reasons.
trnc
It’s weird that we are already basically acting as if we have to roll over and take it. If McC doesn’t schedule a vote within 2 weeks of the nominations, Biden should file suit against the senate in federal court and let McC explain why he thinks the vague language of the constitution was intended to allow him to block all nominations unilaterally.
I used to say Biden should just swear them in and put them to work, but given that the courts have already ruled that some of DT’s minions were illegally placed, I suspect the courts wouldn’t accept that and any policies would be in jeopardy.
matt the semi-reasonable
@MisterForkbeard: OK, done.
greenergood
@mad citizen: ‘Watching this I thought, what if Biden announced we are going to explore joining the EU? Heads would explode.’ The line of ambulances stretching from the Houses of Parliament collecting the exploded-head corpses of Brexiteer MPs would extend for miles – and I would rejoice to watch it on the teevee from here in Scottish-land …
stinger
Just now read Cheryl Rofer’s post on the 3 cabinet picks, and have heard about two more today, and the best thing about all of them is that except for Kerry I’ve never heard of them. Not celebrities and not sitting Democratic senators. Just people who know their field. Competence and not (so far) raiding the Senate.
Miss Bianca
@Omnes Omnibus: btw, I have been reading a book called The Borrowed Years about the period between 1938 and 1941 – the lead-up to war in Europe, the eventuality of war in Europe, and the American reaction pre-Pearl Harbor. Have to say it is both illuminating and depressing as hell to see that 1938 really wasn’t all that different from today in terms of the isolationism, racism, anti-immigration sentiment, and classicism that seem to be the warp and woof of our politics on both the right and the left.
What does shock me all over again is the description of *just how bad* the Depression was for most folks, and just how long it persisted – and, surprise surprise, how much of it was due to Republican assholes who insisted on hampering and hindering FDR’s efforts to deal with it.
matt the semi-reasonable
@Geminid: I believe people should have the right to defend themselves with deadly force from this kind of assault.
SFBayAreaGal
@matt the semi-reasonable: I really like your edited nym
Eunicecycle
@MCA1: you’re probably right. It will take all the things you mentioned.
dexwood
@Omnes Omnibus: Yes, for 3 or 4 days now. Firefox, most recent upgrade, on my desktop, but not my phone.
Miss Bianca
@Starfish:
Hear, hear. I’ve already had to pull out my “SERIOUSLY, PEOPLE?!” flamethrower over someone’s posting this “Erin Brockovich says this one guy on the EPA transition team is a *gasp* corporate consultant (narrator voice: Also worked for the EPA for years and years) so let’s all lose our shit about how Biden is pre-emptively selling out the environment!!”
Baud
@stinger: I agree.
Immanentize
@germy:
Future Secretary of State Tony Blinken is a kind man. He even did a PSA with Grover about the U.N. Grover “Where is the UNbuilding?’ (which is funny given the title of this post).
Also, his step-father was in Dachau, escaped from a work camp, and was rescued by a black tank platoon in Bavaria. America!
Also, his Twitter handle is Ablinken. Say it out loud. 🎩
zhena gogolia
@raven:
and LBJ!
Frankensteinbeck
@Immanentize:
That proves he’s a Republican!
Miss Bianca
@Matt McIrvin: Actually, much as I hate to say this, even Ron Paul would have been a better POTUS than Trump. In the sense that he could scarcely have been worse.
germy
Biden is building a team:
Miss Bianca
@Hildebrand:
While conveniently ignoring what ended up happening to Robespierre.
MisterForkbeard
@SFBayAreaGal: It’s a good look, I agree.
Joe Falco
@mad citizen:
Well, hell, if we wanted to watch heads explode, have the Biden administration announce a proposal to explore creating an EU-style trade union with all of North and Central America (one currency, unrestricted travel, etc). Pearls will be clutched. Fainting couches filled.
germy
Gin & Tonic
@Omnes Omnibus: Not me.
Baud
@Omnes Omnibus:
I had to re-enter my nym the other day, but it stuck afterwards.
Immanentize
@Matt McIrvin: That one guy could be re-named “Door Matt?”
gwangung
@Matt: Miss me with that, dude…Bernie HAD the nomination in hand, both years. But he’s an incompetent leader and gave it away both time.
Start with a solid 30% and you can build a good coalition from there. But, nah, he couldn’t politick his way out of a wet paper, and he just threw his chances away.
Fair Economist
@trnc:
I’m curious how you think Thomas/Alito/Gorsuch/Kavanaugh/Barrett will rule on that.
MisterForkbeard
@germy: So basically: “Fuck you, we’re running out the clock on this and making you wait a week.”
@Fair Economist: I know that was a rhetorical question, but I’m sure we’ll get a “Sadly, the constitution doesn’t say the Majority Leader can’t do these things, so McConnell is clearly allowed to do it. Originalism!”
Immanentize
@Frankensteinbeck: Ha! I think we Dems should just start saying “Lincoln was a Democrat” and let the Republicans freak the fuck out.
Gin & Tonic
@Immanentize: My son had dinner with Jake Sullivan when the latter visited Fletcher, and was quite impressed.
I know everyone typically responds well to the professional opinions of random people on the Internet.
Immanentize
@Gin & Tonic: I was wondering whether you knew Blinken?
Is your son contemplating the FS now?
Baud
@germy:
My mind read that as Avril Lavigne first time through. Was momentarily confused.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I think the oddest thing about the Bernie Cult is the conviction that voters play no role in elections or politics. There is only the virtuous goals of the Small God of Burlington and his followers, and the Evil Establishment Democrats, and Balloon Juice commenters, who thwart his noble efforts to save the world out of unthinking malice.
Immanentize
@germy: Uh Oh. Mayorkas is a Cuban-American! How is that gonna go over on Ronald Reagan Blvd. in Little Havana, Miami?
germy
@Immanentize:
I knew Winken and Nod, but not Blinken.
Chyron HR
@Matt:
So was Bernie lying when he claimed to be able to force McConnell to do what he wants? Or is he simply refusing to do so out of spite?
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
That’s silly. Our malice was quite thoughtful.
Fair Economist
@MisterForkbeard: We need a solution to the problem of a Senate blocking all appointments. It could be crippling any time in the foreseeable future. There’s no amending the Constitution at present, so the best available might be a law defining “consent” as “The Senate has the privilege of passing a resolution to block confirmable nominees.” That would at least force an oppositional Senate to take public votes and the consequent political hits.
But even that takes a law, which means a Dem Senate and no filibuster.
No way the Supreme Court goes along with a unilateral change.
There go two miscreants
@Miss Bianca: Thanks for the reference; looks like an interesting book. I will add that one to my list.
Miss Bianca
@There go two miscreants: It is fascinating. And huge.
I think Uncle Cosmo was the one who mentioned it a number of weeks ago. Probably the only thing he’s ever said here that I would thank him for!//
Immanentize
Here is that amazing story about Tony Blinken’s Step Father:
Link to unroll on Blinken
Barbara
@Matt McIrvin: It’s not “extraordinary ” to review facts, but the appellate court can’t make new findings, just review the original findings. The standard for overruling over the last few decades has been whether the factual findings are clearly erroneous. It’s a high standard for appellants to traverse.
There go two miscreants
@Miss Bianca: Ah, I would have missed that as I have him pied. I suppose I should toggle more often.
Chief Oshkosh
@Baud:
First, the formerly-Republican pundits are saying that the Democrats must reach out to the pro-democracy Republicans.
Second, the bar for being named a pro-democracy Republican is ridiculously low. The club already includes Romney, Sasse, Murtkowski, Suzy C, and a few of Republican governors, none of whom have especially called out Trump, and more importantly, their fellow Republicans who continue to enable Trump to be Trump. Any of those strike you as people we should be communing with?
So on a very theoretical plane, sure, let’s reach out to the pro-democracy Republicans. In the real world, who might that be?
germy
Immanentize
@Fair Economist: Or, the law could say that any confirmation that goes longer than 90 days without Senate action would be considered consented to.
J R in WV
@RandomMonster:
During a Recess, Recess Appointments may be made by the President, without needing a confirmation vote.
germy
AWOL
@taumaturgo: “Counterpunch?” They’re insane. Go read some Paul Craig Roberts’ anti-Semitic conspiracy theories if that comforts you, but please don’t spread that disease.
scav
@germy: I was assuming he’d bite their heads off, live on TV.
Immanentize
@Barbara: please don’t make me go deep into a discourse on the appellate court standards for reviewing facts, law, and/or mixed questions of fact and law -+ or the habeas standards related to certificates of appealability….
VOR
@danielx: I am forever reminded of the XKCD comic about voting software.
https://xkcd.com/2030/
Immanentize
@Chief Oshkosh: As someone said, reaching out should be an invitation to them, not a visit to them waving a white flag.
“Join us, please.” That’s enough reaching out. One and done.
Immanentize
@germy: Bill Barr favors the execution of the Turkeys.
Gin & Tonic
@Immanentize: He’s pretty comfortably situated at the moment, professionally-speaking, so FS seems unlikely. But things can change.
germy
@AWOL:
Indeed. Here’s the editor of Counterpunch making what he thinks is good argument against Blinken:
I guess that means they were all best buddies, right?
germy
You’ve got him mixed up with Stephen Miller.
Immanentize
topclimber
@Matt: I see Biden’s foreign policy appointments as evidence that he will be calling the shots and wants able subordinates more than representatives of any particular wing of the party. If his sole trust vector is with corporatists and neocons, as many on the left imply, then indeed that sucks. I prefer to wait and see.
That said, in all the dispute aroused by you and taumaturgo, I must have missed the names of folks you thought would be better. I am not looking to pick a fight, just curious. Who has the chops to restore a battered State Department? Who can build back better our alliances (and forge new ones) and our world image? Who can help carry forward a policy of fewer interventions in other countrys’ revolutions as well as enhancing global efforts to promote human rights–goals that can often be in conflict?
I want Biden to hear alternative voices but ones that accept the reality that the world is a complicated place.
Also, maybe you should wait to give up on Biden until we hear about the rest of the team, Treasury and DHS in particular.
Immanentize
@germy: It’s Stalin versus Trotsky all over again!
ETA. The Dalton School had an excellent Robotics team when my son was kicking ass with his team.
J R in WV
@Matt:
So glad I put you away in the pie safe, will not toggle you out again from curiosity ever! But good to recall why you are in there…
germy
Jeffrey St. Clair, editor of Counterpunch, attended American University in Washington DC.
Same college that Fox News TV anchor Neil Cavuto attended!
Michael Cohen, Trump’s fixer, also went to the same school as St. Clair!!
Counterpunch needs to investigate this immediately.
AWOL
@germy: Thanks. Forgot to add that every Roberts piece lauds his hero, Reagan, who he served. It’s HorseShoelandia on that warped site. Only thing worse is “Democracy Now!”
germy
This is when the snake begins devouring its own tail.
MJS
Michigan Board of Canvasser meeting going well, at least at the start. One of the GOP members is making it clear that they have a duty to certify.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@MJS: Good. Fingers crossed.
J R in WV
@NotMax:
My Great-Aunt Mae was a spinster school teacher who came upon Rodale’s Preservation Magazine (IIRC) and took up vitamins and spring water. Had typhoid back before vaccinations!
She only drank water from a friend’s farm’s spring, and would drive out to the rural farm with a car full of empty bottles to bring home gallons of water in glass containers.
She lived to be 95, died in the early 1980s, so maybe something to it all. I’m no longer getting fluoride in our well water, but the toothpaste has plenty!
Steve in the ATL
@WaterGirl:
Sorry, that was me. I messed up when logging in to my Omnes sockpuppet account!
Peale
@MJS: I think that’s enough then. All they need is one GOP vote. It does not need to be unanimous.
Zzyzx
@MJS:
Paws crossed!
Mallard Filmore
@germy:
Not being the legal type myself, is he admitting to voter fraud?
dmsilev
@MJS: That sounds hopeful.
germy
J R in WV
I hear from a very reliable source (wife on other laptop) that John Kerry will be Biden’s front man on climate change negotiations. Hurray!! Good job picking him for an important post!
Confirmed on Google news, National Security Council member on Climate Change and special envoy… or some such group of responsibilities.
ETA: All solid Marxists so far, am I right? Or corporate stooges? Can we tell the difference? //s
;~)
germy
@Mallard Filmore:
https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/11/22/attorney-heading-up-trump-recount-wants-throw-out-his-own-vote/6382647002/
rikyrah
@schrodingers_cat:
They really don’t think that we didn’t notice how they didn’t say SHYT during Dolt45’s Administration.
And, think that they will begin with the clowning of 46 and DRONNNEEEZZZZ
If they don’t get the ENTIRE PHUCK OUTTA HERE!
germy
germy
trnc
Not sure, since whichever way they rule will be a 2 way street. Sooner or later, there will be a dem senate with a repub prez. At any rate, if anyone has a better suggestion, I’m all for it.
J R in WV
@matt:
One of the candidates is
whiteJewish, one black so I’d say there’s a significant chance.Fixed for you… remember, this is Georgia we’re talking about. White is a very narrow definition down there, just ask my S-I-L — or better, just don’t!
catclub
I think the key time to get fluoride in water is when your teeth are growing. Interestingly, ‘long in the tooth’ apparently does not mean your teeth are growing.
Kent
I think the better tactic would be to issue a presidential declaration stating that if the Senate does not act on a presidential nominee within x-days (say 30 days) then consent is presumed. If they want to vote DOWN a nominee that is always their choice. But that is a much harder lift then simply blocking the vote.
Don’t go to the courts at all. Let McConnell go to the court if he wants to to defend why he refuses to hold and up or down vote. The Senate is supposed to Advise and Consent. If they refuse to even hold hearings they are choosing not to advise, so consent should be presumed.
zhena gogolia
@germy:
Oh, for Christ’s sake. Yes, let’s cancel everyone who went to Dalton, great idea.
schrodingers_cat
@rikyrah: Rose Twitter this morning:
Joe Biden has surrounded himself with warmongers.
They are MAGA left and they can fuck off.
catclub
No particular Georgia expertise, but between the male and female GOP candidate, I predict the male will do better. Although there is some evidence this year that female GOP candidates are doing better than they have in the past.
Spanky
@germy: So he’s admitting to committing a felony. Do I have that right?
J R in WV
@MCA1:
Really hard to run a successful political campaign from inside a jail cell~!!~ isn’t it???
gwangung
As Mikki Kendall points out….
“…there’s only a handful of industries that can prepare you for major government roles. They are all corporate. Because running programs for 350 million people is not entry level, and on the job training should not be an option.”
Joe Falco
@J R in WV: Eugene Debs won a million votes while in jail. With his supporters, I’m sure Trump can easily overtake that. It can be his last claim to fame!
Kent
@J R in WV:Really hard to run a successful political campaign from inside a jail cell~!!~ isn’t it???
It can be done: https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/world/mexico-losing-control/mexico-morelos-mayor-jail-organized-crime/
WaterGirl
@Steve in the ATL: Ha!
Another Scott
@WaterGirl: I’m no expert, but in previous discussions about this, I think the argument was that “recess” and “adjournment” were different.
Cheers,
Scott.
Kent
Also consider the flip side. Corporations are not going anywhere. They will continue to run the world economy in any conceivable future. Do we really want to live in a world in which only conservative Republicans work in corporate America? Would we have a better world if all Democrats avoided corporate jobs?
I rather doubt it.
WaterGirl
@germy:
I choked up when I read that. Oh patriotism and service, how I have missed you!
Citizen Alan
@matt:
They would all have turned on Wilmer the second he strayed from ultra-leftist orthodoxy. Possibly even before his inauguration when he proposed a single person for his cabinet who wasn’t a socialist. ” Bernie Sanders is a sellout and a neo liberal shill,” they would shriek. ” We should have voted for Howie!”
pamelabrown53
@Kent:
IMO, you win top comment ! Exactly right: let Turtle go to court if he decides he can block Biden from staffing his cabinet by ignoring both advising and consenting,
One More Red Nightmare
How cool that our new Secretary of State Antony Blinken has a band. Review of his songs below.
NotMax
@Miss Bianca
Fascinating series available on Prime, Impossible Peace, covering the period between WW1 and 2.
Barbara
@Immanentize: For most cases, law = de novo and facts = clearly erroneous. But most of the lawsuits we are talking about never got to a stage where a judge made findings of fact. In most of these cases, the court is being asked to grant or deny injunctive relief, in which case, the appellate court would basically engage in a de novo review using whatever the standard is in that circuit for granting injunctive relief, but only based on the evidence (affidavits, etc.) that had been before the lower court. I think that’s what the original comment was getting at — the lawyers can’t go in at the appellate stage and argue that the district court was wrong based on a lot of newly alleged facts or affidavits and so on. AT BEST — the appellate court would remand you back to the district court. And a lot of judges would probably say that if you withheld key evidence that probably means you didn’t really need preliminary relief to begin with.
One More Red Nightmare
How cool that our new Secretary of State Antony Blinken has a band. A review of his music at the link.https://www.vice.com/en/article/dy87xx/bidens-secretary-of-state-antony-blinken-band-spotify-review
Omnes Omnibus
@WaterGirl: On my phone. Latest version of Safari.
cckids
Just borrow from The West Wing, and say “Lincoln was a liberal”. Nothing gets through to them anyway, fact-wise, but we may as well try.
jonas
@MCA1: This is right. Half the country thinks the rampant corruption, norm-busting, and endless scandals are a sign of authenticity and bold, outside-the-box thinking.
lowtechcyclist
@WaterGirl:
You mean:
Yeah, that’s what I was going to mention, but both of you beat me to the punch!
Looks like the ‘one neat trick’ to me. Since I in no way resemble a lawyer, let alone a Constitutional lawyer, I’m open to being shown why it wouldn’t actually work.
True, the recess appointments would expire “at the End of their next Session” which has been repeatedly interpreted to mean not the current session, but the following session. IOW, the recess appointments would expire at noon on January 3, 2023.
ETA: This also has the benefit that Biden doesn’t need to go to the courts. Pelosi declares an adjournment, Mitch doesn’t, Biden adjourns Congress for a week, makes his recess appointments, and it’s done.
MisterForkbeard
@Citizen Alan: If I remember right, they did this after Bernie made nice with Biden anyway. So it’s not even a question of “they would do this” – they already did it.
Miss Bianca
@germy: Yeah, and that my mom, who also went to the Dalton School, would have been complicit in whatever nefarious…whatever…that Epstein et al. were up to.
Of course, she went to the Dalton School in the 1930s, but hey – guilt by association, man, guilt by association!
Miss Bianca
@J R in WV: John Kerry?
Waiting for the whining from my lefty betters: “Well, yeah, I wanted Biden to address climate change, but not with that guy!“
Comrade Colette
@J R in WV:
Or from the grave. I will be astonished if that orange fucker is even alive in 2024.
trnc
@Kent: I would be totally down with that idea because it’s essentially what I’ve pushed in the past, but it will likely wind up in court anyway because the senate will just ignore a presidential declaration and say that any policies put in place are illegal. That would create chaos and take more time to deal with, so it seems that getting a ruling from the SC that “advise and consent” does not imply the ability to outright block.
Also, I may be naive, but I’m not sure that MM would feel that blocking all cabinet nominees really works out in his favor. He might prefer to see them placed and then challenge every big ticket policy put in place. He’d probably be more likely to slow walk one or two nominees, such as AG.
Miss Bianca
@catclub: No, ‘long in the tooth’ is probably a reference to horses, whose teeth *do* keep growing as they age. Part of how you can guess how old they are, if you’re savvy enough. Also the origin of the phrase, “never look a gift horse in the mouth”.
Mike in NC
@Comrade Colette: Close to 80 years old and likely broke despite a lifetime of grift. “Trump 2024: Ready for My Dirt Nap” has a nice ring to it.
Timill
@trnc: So recess-appoint Hillary as AG and watch Mitch fall over himself to confirm the permanent appointee…
Matt McIrvin
@Barbara: That makes sense.
cain
@Joe Falco:
LOL the FUD will spread and not just in the U.S. but in Central and South America – “Taco Bell in every corner! destroying our culture! Dumb fuck Americans everywhere!”
But it would actually be a pretty good move IMHO. All the old folks will move down to Argentina or something instead of Florida :D
Matt McIrvin
@Baud: “You don’t need a criminal lawyer, you need a criminal lawyer.”
AnotherBruce
I’m getting antsy about this lack of certification by the partisan assholes that are plugging the dyke in Michigan. It’s pretty obvious that the Trumpers want to win the race to January 20th @ 12:00. It’s hard to ignore what’s going on. Does the Governor have any say in this matter?
sgrAstar
🌑
Ben Cisco
@Omnes Omnibus: TAG!
Ben Cisco
@Mai Naem mobile:
BWAHAAHAAHAA
StringOnAStick
@catclub: “Long in the tooth” means you have periodontal (gum) disease and this infection is eating away the bone and soft tissue that keeps your teeth in place. It also has significant impacts on your general health; increased risk of heart attack and stroke. It raises your level of systemic inflammation, which is always an issue but it appears that people who have higher markers for systemic inflammation have worse outcomes of infected by Covid.
Fluoride is most important when your teeth are still being formed, so into your late teens. It has an intrinsic effect (makes teeth stronger as they are being created) and a topical effect (helps rebuild early decay by sticking Fluoride ions in to places in the Crystal matrix of the tooth where acids from bacteria are causing decay by removing calcium ions). So, it’s useful for adults too.
patrick II
@germy:
I might assert that any bill passed by the house deserves a senate vote. If no vote was forthcoming after 90 days, I would take silence as assent and sign it into law. The Senate would have to proactively say no. Just a twist on what you were saying, but a real democracy doesn’t let one person stop it from functioning without a vote.
@Kent: I didn’t read your comment before I posted mine. I agree. Anything the House passes deserves the respect of an equal and an up or down vote.