Here's your select committee on the Jan. 6 Capitol riot: pic.twitter.com/3as5e2OlRC
— Olivier Knox (@OKnox) July 1, 2021
I asked Pelosi when the committee will get started and what they would do if McCarthy doesn’t appoint immediately.
“Well, we have a quorum,” she said with a smile.
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) July 1, 2021
Per the Washington Post, official paper for the company town whose monopoly interest is politics:
… Addressing reporters after the group held its first meeting Thursday afternoon, Thompson said that the selected lawmakers plan to begin by inviting police officers who defended the Capitol on Jan. 6 to testify at a hearing.
“The select committee is determined to assemble a comprehensive and authoritative report on the events constituting the January 6th insurrection, the relevant causes of the insurrection and policy recommendations necessary to prevent any reoccurrence of this nightmare in the future,” Thompson said. “Although we eagerly await the arrival of our five other colleagues, many of us hope to begin the process with a hearing in which Capitol Police officers themselves could be able to testify about their experiences.”
Beginning the committee’s work in such a manner “makes a positive statement” to those who put their lives on the line to defend the Capitol and those who work there, Thompson said, noting that the hearing has not yet been scheduled…
Pelosi designed the Jan. 6 select committee to have 13 members, five of whom would be appointed “after consultation with” McCarthy. That means she will maintain the power to overrule any McCarthy pick whom Democrats consider objectionable.
“It was our hope that we could have done this with the bipartisan outside commission,” Pelosi said at a news conference Thursday morning. “Maybe one day that will be possible. . . . But I’m very proud. And, as I say, decisions are liberating. They enable you to go to the next step. And the next step for us has always been to seek and find the truth.”…
Other members may be added later, if McCarthy decides he wants to take part in the process.
— Olivier Knox (@OKnox) July 1, 2021
JUST IN: Speaker Nancy Pelosi says GOP Rep. Liz Cheney "has patriotically agreed to serve" on the House select committee to investigate the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
Read more: https://t.co/a6DyTzOHKc pic.twitter.com/Pw2mwfvqRk
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) July 1, 2021
I'm honored to serve on the January 6th select committee. Our oath to the Constitution must be above partisan politics. pic.twitter.com/LpPoWhBHPx
— Rep. Liz Cheney (@RepLizCheney) July 1, 2021
Thing that’s notable about Lynn Cheney to me isn’t fealty to the constitution or sense of patriotism (which her actions suggest are genuine). It’s that she appears to lack a fear that debilitates most politicians: she doesn’t appear afraid of losing & having to find a new job.
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) July 1, 2021
If Liz Cheney shook my hand, I would count my fingers afterwards… but it’s certainly interesting that Darth Cheney’s favorite daughter has chosen to ally with the ‘enemies’ of the current Republican leadership. My assumption is that there’s lots of power & profit left in the shell of the Permanent GOP, even if the corporation has to be stripped for parts, and Liz Cheney intends to be at the head of the raiding party. After all, the contest to yelp loudest for the wayward affections of The Deplorables and their Leader-in-Exile is not only overcrowded — and unwinnable — it’s undignified.
Worse comes to worst for her, she’s ensured her respectable removal to the sane side of the aisle, or at least a position as a principled Independent (which, after all, has worked very nicely for a certain Senator Sanders from another quirky small-population state). A tiny cynical corner of my brain wonders how much of the material in Daddy Cheney’s infamous man-sized safe catalogs reasons against hanging out with certain members of the existing Republican leadership, but that’s up to the alphabet agencies to parse…
“Politicians demanding loyalty pledges from peers to not investigate the storming of their workplace by people intent to kill them” is about as sick as you can get for democracy. https://t.co/ixy2QQJ8un
— nick (@ntdPhD) July 1, 2021
Kevin McCarthy’s spokesman with another statement on behalf of McCarthy’s office https://t.co/dQ6ls0RCXr
— Lil Brood X ?? (@pleizar) July 1, 2021
i appreciate that kevin mccarthy has given liz cheney every possible reason to sit on the 1/6 committee and to put his own behavior leading up to and on 1/6 first and foremost on the top of her list to be curious about.
— GOLIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachi) July 1, 2021
Baud
It kind of sucks being a Democrat. With so many decent people on our side, it’s harder to stand out like Liz Cheney.
Low Key Swagger
Good morning. I like what Pelosi said about “taking the next step” I’m surrounded by people who appear to be unable to make a single damn decision. I’m a planner, but I try my best to not wait to have every box checked before I take that important first step.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
I’ll pop in here for a bit of OT fun.
Some of the people on my Facebook timeline have been hooting and laughing over the declassified OSS 1944 Simple Sabotage Field Manual on disrupting organizations in countries occupied by the Nazis.
http://svn.cacert.org/CAcert/CAcert_Inc/Board/oss/oss_sabotage.html?fbclid=IwAR3Cvfe1xlMfeBAqSWE0U68gmSoLcb0FD8AO7f55tYc4BmoEywdFU5cqVKY
Reading it is like being at any court hearing, local government hearing, HOA or church council meeting I’ve ever attended. The management section is even better.
The guys who drew it up had to be drinking and guffawing the entire time.
Betty Cracker
I read somewhere that McCarthy already walked back his threat to strip apostates of their committee assignments, but who knows? The orange hand that’s rammed up his ass might make McCarthy’s face hole form the opposite words today.
Y’all, I gotta confess, I don’t believe in karma or cosmic justice of any stripe. But I do believe that an organization that keeps doing stupid, embarrassing and self-destructive things to appease an unhinged, untrustworthy, incompetent and self-obsessed fool will eventually rue the fucking day.
mali muso
TGIF! Glad to see Nancy Smash is moving ahead with this. The wheels of justice and all that. Hope they keep grinding…
Last day at work before I head out for 2 whole weeks! I’ve got plenty to tie up today and just hope that I haven’t forgotten anything that will become urgent halfway through my time off.
Patricia Kayden
Subpoena Kevin McCarthy. What is he hiding? Why is he covering up for insurrectionists?
sanjeevs
Labour won the Batley and Spen by-election by 323 votes.
The odious George Galloway tried to split the Labour vote and attracted some nasty thugs to his campaign.
The winner is the sister of Jo Cox, the Labour MP assassinated by a Brexit supporter.
Raven
Anybody got any lynch?
OzarkHillbilly
Stupid is as stupid does, and no, I am not speaking of Sha’Carri. I am speaking of the barring of a world class athlete from a competition because she violated an outdated rule against the use of an intoxicant that has zero effect on her physical capabilities.
WereBear
If a soulless corporate shill like Liz Cheney, daughter of He-Without-a-Heartbeat-Named-Dick, is ditching the GOP… that warms my utterly functioning heart, which wishes the QOP no good whatsoever.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: Yeah, it’s like I don’t even exist! The media doesn’t pay any attention to me at all!
Another Scott
Good, good. In spite of McQarthy’s efforts, the work will go on.
Relatedly, …
Forward!
Cheers,
Scott.
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone???
Low Key Swagger
@Betty Cracker: HUGE pet peeve of mine. I really hate it when people say “Karma will get them” or employ it when something bad befalls someone deserving. Way too arbitrary. Feels lazy somehow.
mali muso
@OzarkHillbilly: Yeah, I saw that headline this morning. Coming from Virginia where we are day 2 into legalized marijuana, it seemed a bit draconian.
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
Baud
@Low Key Swagger:
I blame John Lennon.
hueyplong
The single most promising thing about this committee is that the person in charge of brainstorming its destruction is McCarthy.
He is well short of replacement value. At some point, the moronization of the GOP House is going to hurt them badly and now seems as good a time as any for that moment to arrive.
Also, am I the only one who nearly had an “accident” over baby Trump’s bowel-loosening, blind panicky rant last night? Hoping for a nightly feature.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Patricia Kayden: Could McCarthy defy a subpoena from the committee and get away with it? Didn’t we see people doing that during the impeachment(s)?
Low Key Swagger
@OzarkHillbilly: I agree with you, except to say that my experience with certain strains of cannabis is that I can get hyper focused. When I played ball, I swear I could sink 9 of ten free throws after partaking. Didn’t always work, but when it did it was a little amazing.
satby
I enjoy being a spectator at the internal GQP war:
Low Key Swagger
@Baud: Well we do kinda all shine on…
satby
@hueyplong: link or quote? Didn’t hear about it.
@rikyrah: ?
Raven
@Baud:
@Low Key Swagger:
NEW YORK (AP) _ Gary McLain, the guard on Villanova’s 1985 NCAA championship team, says he used cocaine during the Final Four that year and was high when the team visited the White House.
McLain detailed his drug dependency and subsequent rehabilitation in a first-person story in the March 16 edition of Sports Illustrated.
NotMax
Happening upon this advertisement prompted wondering — what did people feed their pets during rationing?
@Raven
Firesign Theater is always apropos.
;)
Professor Bigfoot
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: wait- this was *classified?*.
Swear to Gawd, I’ve seen every single one of these things over the last N years… ?
Cheryl Rofer
If you haven’t watched the Times reconstruction of the event, it’s worth the 40 minutes. It has scenes of graphic violence and will raise your blood pressure, but it will prepare you for the testimony. This link is to the video and a print description. I recommend watching the video.
As to Kevin McCarthy, his turn will come. But first we will hear from the Capitol Police on their roles in the event, filling out what the Times has given us. Then we will hear from the law enforcement higher-ups and the National Guard higher-ups about why it took them four hours to get there. Then maybe members of Congress and their staffs, which may include possible collaborationists.
Kay
I went to a Democratic event yesterday- invited, so engaged Democrats who are in county organizations or who hold elected or appointed positions in those organizations so “Party people”. I noticed something I have noticed before and it’s almost an inability to admit that the economy is good. I think this comes from a good place! Obviously people are being “left behind”, our economic structure isn’t as equitable or merit-based as it should be, income inequality, wage insecurity, high rent and housing prices, etc.
But we’re permitted to look at good things too. A tight labor market is really good for working people, although maybe not so good for the 17 small business owners who are interviewed over and over on how “no one wants to work”. Home prices are up, that’s true, but there’s a seller and a buyer and the seller of a 130k house that was valued at 115k a year ago isn’t a freaking millionaire, that’s a working or middle class person who made more on their house. Pumping massive amounts of money into the economy w/covid actually worked. That worked. Biden did a lot of it. He’s about to pump some more in with the monthly payment to people with children.
If we want people to credit Democrats with a strong economy in the midterms we’re going to have to take some credit for it and the best part is that is accurate- it is absolutely cooking where I live- everyone is hiring and people are working and they have money to spend. It is not an accurate reflection of what is happening to talk it down so much. It just isn’t true that the economic picture for working people is bad right now- it’s as good as I have ever seen it. I’ve never seen a jump in wages like this and it’s at the lowest end. A jump in wages is much more profound at the lower end because 5000 more when you make 25 has a larger impact on your life than 5000 more when you make 90. There’s this weird disconnect between the attitudes of actual working people and the advocates for working people – the first are much more optimistic than the second :)
OzarkHillbilly
‘It feels good’: Kashmir folk singer’s rise from dusty street to music star
He has several videos up on youtube. Well worth listening to.
coin operated
@OzarkHillbilly: Several years back some up-n-coming snowboarder had his X games medal stripped after testing positive. They called it a ‘performance enhancing drug’.
Someone (I believe it was Robin Williams) quipped “It’s only performance enhancing if there was a giant fucking Hershey bar at the bottom of the run”
Low Key Swagger
@Raven: Don’t know if you listen to podcasts, but this sounds like a guy destined for a spot on Rex Chapman’s “Charges”.
hueyplong
@satby: I’m a boomer at the beach with his partially understood phone, but if you scroll in Andrew Feinberg’s Twitter acct you’ll get a nice taste.
I’m embarrassed by the extent to which I am enjoying this.
Baud
@Kay:
Yep. Failing to take credit for the Obama economy helped give us Trump.
OzarkHillbilly
@coin operated: Or a bag of Cheetos.
NotMax
@hueyplong
Could work as a line in a Ray Stevens song.
:)
Betty Cracker
@Kay: It’s such a tricky spot for Dems though because of the factors you named: inequality, wage insecurity, etc. The Obama admin suffered from that messaging problem too, but people did feel the improvement enough to reelect him, so we’ve got that going for us.
Maybe one way around that is to share the credit with workers who said you know what, fuck your minimum wage, COVID-exposure job — I deserve more. As we’ve discussed, there’s a lot more to the “worker shortage” than wages — the lack of childcare, etc., is driving it too. But I am seeing a long overdue reset, even in my crappy little Republican county.
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: So beautiful! Makes me miss India.
JPL
@Cheryl Rofer: Rep. Aguilar is talking about the commision on CNN. They led with parts of the NYTimes video. gut wrenching
satby
@Baud: I disagree. Spite and anger at the increased inclusion of minority citizens in every aspect of our society, and especially in the highest office in the land, got us Trump. They vote their spite, not their wallets.
Steeplejack (phone)
@satby:
Eric’s rant.
JPL
@coin operated: ? ?? ?
Kay
@Baud:
I’ve been saying this for a couple of months but the monthly child subsidy is huge. Everyone knows about it. Ask any working class parent about the monthly child subsidy and you will get a detailed explanation. They’re not feeling downtrodden. They went from 11 dollars an hour to 17 dollars an hour and they’re looking at it with a kind of wonder, like “why wasn’t this done before?” :)
I was at a table with a young woman who is currently working for a fairly good local employer who has apps in an interviews with two others, one of which is really good. She’s not despairing. She’s in demand and taking advantage of it. My middle son is on track to make 140k this year. He’s a first year journeyman. He has as much overtime as he can possibly do given 24 hours in a day and that’s without an infrastructure bill. He’s working 7 days a week.
Baud
@satby:
I didn’t mean the failure to take credit was the primary cause. I just think it contributed.
Geminid
I was glad to see that Congresswoman Elaine Luria (VA-2nd) will be on the Select Commitee. A retired Navy officer, Luria represents a southeastern Virginia district, and will face a serious Republican challenger next November.
Elaine Luria is another member of the talented Democratic House class of 2018.
satby
@Steeplejack (phone): Thank you!
Cheryl Rofer
@JPL: Yes, it’s difficult to watch in spots, but it gives a sense of the whole and shows how the Proud Boys and others incited the crowd. One thing I keep thinking about that I didn’t see until at least a month after the event was the size of the crowd. I haven’t seen estimates but would like to. Some of the footage pulls back and shows people coming and coming. It was certainly thousands of people and perhaps tens of thousands.
gvg
@OzarkHillbilly:
If the Olympics organization will test for cannabis and an athlete can’t win while using it, then any national team selection should take it into account. An athlete who trains for years and doesn’t know the rules is a fool. I am not saying the rule in the first place is smart, just that I think we have to follow it.
The only quibble I have is that I have heard the tests that employers use are too sensitive and can catch people who passed through the smoke but didn’t use ot themselves. I also think the employer rules are mostly stupid. Operating heavy machinery or some other tasks should prohibit use within a certain number of hours, not any time in the last month etc. But those laws are internal within the US, not for international competition which involves many countries that still prohibit cannabis.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
What I think it shows them is possibilities. That if they have a government that actually cares about their lives they can live decently. Any government could have given them an increased tax credit for children and paid it out monthly- this one did. They don’t have to live right on the jagged edge. They could have an economy with some room in it to switch jobs or move or train for something else. They don’t have to be so scared all the time- as it turns out they didn’t need the incentive of economic catastrophe every week.
satby
@Baud: Ok, maybe. But they’ve been the spite vote since before “What’s The Matter With Kansas?” was released. A good economy under a Democratic administration just encourages them to think of how much better they imagine it will be with Republicans cutting their taxes more.
Baud
@Kay:
Right. I’m looking forward to seeing how the child tax credit plays politically.
germy
This looks like a Robert Benchley short subject: “How To Declare” or something.
Baud
@satby:
Sure. But every election there are these silly gettable voters who swing or don’t turn out reliably. We shouldn’t be discouraging them from voting Dem by refusing to take credit for our accomplishments.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Professor Bigfoot:
Somebody needs to alert Greenwald about the extent of CIA interference in all of our lives….
Baud
@gvg:
I agree. Dumb and harsh rule, but I presume it was well known.
gvg
@Baud:
The Obama economy wasn’t that good, and taking credit would have hurt not helped. I know he prevented things from being catastrophic, but I have had some economics courses and I paid attention. The republicans prevented a big enough stimulus and they prevented a lot of good reforms. From the ordinary persons point of view though their were a lot of years of financial difficulties, bankruptcies and empty buildings and unfinished projects. People gave up and dropped out of the job seeking numbers. Wages for lower and middle stayed low. So how could Obama have taken credit for that?
A Ghost to Most
@Low Key Swagger: Not just getting in the zone physically, creatively as well. I’m a woodcarver, who works with odd pieces of wood. Weed helps me visualize what’s hidden in the wood. I recently ripped out an old juniper bush, got ripped, and sat looking at the remaining wood. A blue heron materialized from two different pieces. It’s sitting in my living room now, about 40% complete.
Baud
@gvg:
He started from a deep hole. We can imagine how it could have been better, but he left the economy in pretty good shape at the end. So much so that Trump immediately took credit for it. If we can’t take credit for that, we may as well give up.
Dorothy A. Winsor
850K jobs added in June. Go Democrats!
germy
@A Ghost to Most:
Indica or sativa?
NotMax
@Geminid
Not to disparage her in any way but that’s a null set in terms of context. After all, the same can be said of Ronny Jackson.
Low Key Swagger
@A Ghost to Most: Yup, totally agree. I used to write and maintained a blog for over a decade, suddenly I just could no longer write. If I’m a little baked, I can’t stop writing. By the way, I’d love to see that carving sometime.
OzarkHillbilly
I have never been one to follow a rule just because it’s a rule. F that shit. Jus’ sayin’.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay: You must be some kinda Commie.
germy
So I wake up this morning, and brush my teeth. Then I turn on the news and learn my city has issued a boil water advisory because of a broken water main.
The public health notice remains in effect until after two consecutive days of “satisfactory bacteriological sample results are submitted to and acknowledged by the New York State Department of Health”
Frankensteinbeck
GOP elected officials are elected first and foremost to be ‘fuck you, libtards’ assholes. That is what their voters want, far more than any policy position. McCarthy was chosen specifically to be the most determined ‘fuck you, libtards’ asshole in a House caucus of ‘fuck you, libtards’ assholes. Nothing he has done is a surprise from that angle, including sucking up to Trump second only to Gaetz.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: That’s a great way to put it. DeSantis & Co. will screech about socialism but if people see real results in their lives, I don’t think it will stick outside the basket of deplorables.
gene108
@Baud:
The Obama economy was a sellout to neoliberal corporatists who just wanted to sell our jobs to Asia with TPP! You want to take credit for rewarding banksters?!?!
Sarcasm aside, our side is hyper focused on the negatives of how a dynamic treats some people unfairly, or just likes to be contrarian because some facts run counter to what Democrats are selling.
The ability to admit the good outweighs the bad, when some bad exists, is something we do poorly.
hueyplong
@OzarkHillbilly: Haha, that’s what Eric was saying last night.
Immanentize
@Steeplejack (phone): I suspect that the Trump organization lawyers did not approve Eric’s appearance. Or maybe the rest of the family is just smarter?
Kay
@Baud:
Well, it’s not going to play politically at all unless someone takes credit for it. Most people are not engaged politically. When I describe them as “wondering” why ‘this’ wasn’t done before that goes along with not knowing who did it. Quite literally “wondering” :)
It’s anecdotal but the biggest winners in this are younger people- housing supply and costs are the only constraint on that, but interest rates are low so they can buy more house. And the “cure” for a lack of housing is build some housing, which is ALSO good for working people. They build the houses.
NotMax
@germy
One of Benchleys’s Joe McDoakes shorts was “So You Want to Be in Politics.”
Co-starred Phyllis Coates (the original Lois Lane), who is still among us at age 94.
Immanentize
@Cheryl Rofer: Emptywheel has done a good analysis regard some active duty marines who seem to be in well positioned vanguard places in the Capitol. That was the scariest thing I’ve seen about the insurrection.
Ken
Maybe Cheney’s not worried about losing her seat because the “daughter of a conservative politician” slot just opened up on the View?
Soprano2
I think you’re both right. The economy got better and better under Obama, but it was gradual and sluggish due to a too-small recovery act, so I think people didn’t feel it as much. And yes, the election of Obama made a large group of Republicans lose their fucking minds. They don’t mind “those people” being there, as long as “those people” don’t actually have enough power to make any changes. I had a co-worker tell me the other day, when I asked her why she liked Trump, “We had the best economy ever when he was president”, which of course is an exaggeration – I’d say that the economy of the late ’90’s was better. These people’s perception is that the economy sucked until Trump was elected. It’s not true, but it’s what they believe, and Democrats’ inability to trumpet the good economy from every corner of the U.S. helped them feel that way.
Baud
@Kay:
Oh absolutely. Biden should send every family a camdygram from Mongo about this.
Betty Cracker
Speaking of weed, I want in on the highly potent, cheap, state-sanctioned weed all my elderly neighbors have somehow acquired over the last couple of years. Recreational weed is illegal in Florida, and cops still ruin people’s lives over it. Meanwhile, all these perfectly healthy-seeming retirees are high as a fucking kite and meeting up to trade tips on how to get doctors to prescribe specific strains, swapping professionally rolled joints and discussing the merits of local dispensaries. What the hell, man?!?
germy
@NotMax:
No, that wasn’t Benchley. Those shorts starred the same guy who later did the voice of George Jetson.
Benchley did do a short called “How To Vote” where he plays a government official explaining all the work the administration has done.
gene108
@gvg:
Cannabis is still illegal in the U.S. The Feds just look the other way as states legalize it.
Makes for issues with company policy regarding its use, because cannabis use maybe legal at the state level, but it is still illegal at the federal level. Federal laws trump state laws.
germy
@Immanentize:
Don Jr. also gave some interviews. He’s just as angry and incoherent as his brother over the Weisselberg news.
Ivanka is being quiet, though.
Kay
@Soprano2:
What worries me about “the economy doesn’t matter, they vote on racism” is the logical end of that is “nothing we do with the economy matters”, which would tend to make people not do anything.
One thing mattered a lot. They pumped a shit ton of money in so we didn’t sink into 16% unemployment. That mattered and “more money to people on the low end of the scale” is the Democratic argument. We won that argument this time. Tax cuts didn’t avert catastrophe. Subsidies did.
This is a small peek at what an economy designed to work for the 65% of people who are hourly or wage workers could look like. It could look better for them.
Baud
@gene108: I agree. Our messaging is gratuitously terrible at time.
NotMax
@Betty Cracker
What goes up must come down
Spinning Wheel got to go ’round
Talkin’ ’bout your troubles
It’s a cryin’ sin
Ride a painted pony
Let the Spinning Wheel spin
(ref.)
;)
MattF
I haven’t read the above comments, but Re: Cheney, I think one can assume she signed on at least a week or two ago, probably before the select committee was publicly announced. And she won’t just sit there either, IMO. She’s not a nice person.
Immanentize
@germy: Don Jr. really needs to snort through some daddy issues.
Kay
@Soprano2:
And they could have choices. That’s real opportunity, right? When you’re not 271 dollars away from homeless so you can breathe and think about something other than the gas bill?
That’s what a “safety net” is really for- so you’ll step out a little further knowing you won’t fall to your death if you fail. The biggest difference between middle class people and working class/poor people is the capacity to weather risk. That’s the opportunity piece.
Baud
@Kay: Agree. The economy matters. I think the thing we learned, however, is that the economy doesn’t matter to a large portion of white working class voters that everyone blamed Democrats for not winning over with their economic policies. What we’ve come to appreciate in the last 5 years is that a certain portion of that cohort can’t be won over with economic policies. We can’t recreate the FDR coalition as long as we are committed to civil rights and equality.
Kathleen
Elizabelle
@Kay: Great comments, Kay. Happy to hear them.
OzarkHillbilly
@hueyplong: So did MLK and Gandhi.
NotMax
@germy
Whoopsie. You are correct, brain fuzz on my part. The McDoakes ‘behind the 8=ball’ shorts were the product of Richard Bare, who years later went on to inject the same semi-surreal (in)sensibilities into Green Acres.
Ken
I think there are some Capitol police who would be willing to enforce the subpoena. There might even be a queue of volunteers.
Soprano2
I figure this is going to be the next lazy explanation for why employers can’t find help. I’ve heard more than one person say “If the government would just quit giving those lazy people money maybe they’d get a job”. *sigh* The unemployment rate where I live was 3.7% last time I checked – that’s full employment already! Where are all these “lazy” people who don’t want to work?
A couple of Sundays ago there was an article in the paper about the worker “shortage”, and it was the first one I’ve seen that talked about the student and worker visa problem. They desperately need those workers down in Branson, because a town with less than 4,000 people will never have enough workers for all that tourist stuff that’s open in the summer! The student and worker visas finally started being processed in April, and the employers in Branson say the situation is slowly getting better. I think the 4 year immigration crackdown is a not-enough-discussed contributor to this problem.
MontyTheClipArtMongoose
@Baud: mark david chapman as shiva?
Kathleen
@Betty Cracker: Biden and Co think cutting through the “it doesn’t matter who you vote for” trope a priority. That level of cynicism poses more danger to democracy than the Christo Fascists in my opinion
gene108
@gvg:
Unemployment went from just over 10%, at its worst in 2009, to around 4% at the end of 2016.
The good economic news from the Obama presidency greatly outweighed the bad, despite the horrific struggles people endured in 2009 to 2011.
Also, too: See Baud’s point about our side never taking credit for good news
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly: And how many Olympic medals did they have?
Baud
@Kathleen: I agree.
Ken
Is anyone else hoping that McCarthy will name some people, and Pelosi will reject one or more and casually mention “Congressperson X has already been identified as a person of interest by the committee, so it would be inappropriate for them to serve on it”.
Another Scott
@Cheryl Rofer: The numbers I’ve seen cited were around 20,000.
The organizers were playing fast and loose with the permits, IIRC, saying they expected 6,000 while hoping against hope that 100,000 or more would come. There’s an important thread to follow there, also too.
Cheers,
Scott.
MontyTheClipArtMongoose
@JPL: how many sulzberger advertiser staff took part in the insurrection to restore el jefe to the presidency?
MontyTheClipArtMongoose
@Geminid: talented?
but… but… she’s not down with the squad!
she’s just another forever war neoliberal shill.
germy
@NotMax:
If you ever get a chance to see Benchley’s “How To Vote” I recommend it.
I don’t know if it still gets shown on the classic film networks or not.
Immanentize
I don’t think we really need to win the battle of what “outweighed” what. The Democratic coalition is always going to strive for better lives and more equity. That’s is one of the best parts of the coalition!
But what I hear kay saying (I agree) is we can Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive.
Not in a candy colored way, but just point out: things are better even though they can get better still. We are on the right track.
MontyTheClipArtMongoose
@Baud: no, spicy told us the numbers were faked thru 01/19/2017, but real after that.
Jeffro
Amen! He should be witness #1.
SiubhanDuinne
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
That’s hilarious ??! I love the plethora of “scare quotes.”
Jeffro
excellent summation!
Steeplejack
Well, this is weird. Actually set an alarm this morning so I would be sure to be up to get ready for an appointment with an oral surgeon at 9:30. I was puttering around and just about to get in the shower when I got a call from the doctor’s office saying he was “out sick” today and they’d have to reschedule my appointment. Okay, sure.
But the weird thing is that originally I had an appointment in early June, and they canceled that one because some building repairs had temporarily cut off their water. I thought it was odd that they would reschedule that one for a month later—it seemed like a long time—but whatever. I haven’t seen this guy before; he was a referral from my regular dentist (whom I like a lot).
The woman who called this morning said she had to call the other early appointments ASAP and that she’d call me back to reschedule yet again. So I’m waiting to hear from her. I have slid into the morning routine and am thinking about going out for lunch later, since I had steeled myself to don the tactical gear (pants!) today.
I’m sure all of this is completely normal—well, somewhat normal—but the part of me that has seen too many Law and Order: Criminal Intent episodes is fantasizing about some coked-up doc spiraling down toward some ghastly finish. Hopefully I won’t be in the episode.
It’s gray and cool (70°) here in NoVA after last night’s big storms. Very humid—90%—but that’s not so unusual. Going up only to 80° later today, supposedly. A nice change from the heat.
Ken
Or encouraged it, if they’ve decided he’s going to be the fall guy.
Gin & Tonic
@Raven: Bill Lee. Enough said.
Soprano2
I truly believe there is a relatively small group of people who will vote on racism and that kind of thing no matter how good the economy is, but I think the vast majority of people do pay attention to how the economy is doing and how they personally are doing, and if Democrats improve that and then tell them they improved it, that helps Democrats. After we filed our 2020 taxes, we got a check for the $1,400 stimulus for each of us; before that, we didn’t qualify because our income got distorted in 2019. We got a letter from the Biden administration telling us we should be getting that check due to the American Rescue Plan passed by Democrats in Congress. They need to talk about that constantly! I read somewhere that studies have shown that people need to hear something 7 times before it even begins to sink in, so you can’t just say it once or twice – you have to repeat it over and over again
One place where the Obama administration really fucked up IMHO was with all the bad home mortgages. They didn’t do enough to help people, and the programs they did have were woefully inadequate to the problem. There was a justified feeling among a lot of people that they helped the banks, but not ordinary people, and that was true! It would have helped Democrats a lot if the Obama people had done better in this area, but they were terrified of being pounded on the moral hazard of helping people with bad mortgages (no moral hazard in helping banks, I guess). That was an own goal, and in a way we’re still paying for it.
narya
@A Ghost to Most: I want to see those carvings . . .
Starfish
@Betty Cracker: Before we had decriminalization, all these college students had unspecified back pain. ?
Jeffro
@Cheryl Rofer:
@JPL:
Part of what scared me was seeing all these rebel-yell-hooting nimrods in their fullest glory as they sacked our nation’s Capitol. I mean, you’d have thought they were the ‘tip of the spear’ invading Baghdad or something. Unreal.
That, plus watching that massive crowd wallop police officers – police officers! – over and over again. What scum.
germy
Toot that horn! Toot it!
Ken
@Betty Cracker: I heard a radio commercial yesterday (this is in Illinois) for what sounded like a service that will help people get prescriptions for medical cannabis. Two of the selling points were that you don’t pay the high taxes for the recreational stuff, and if there’s a shortage you get priority.
I may have misunderstood what they were advertising, because “we’ll hook you up with a doctor who will write the scrips” sure sounds illegal.
Soprano2
I heard a story about a woman who became homeless for awhile because she double parked her car for 10 minutes! Her car got towed, and she couldn’t afford to get the car out of the impound because by the time she scraped together the $300 they wanted over $1,000, then she lost her job because she had no car, then she lost her apartment because she had no job. I think most middle class people cannot imagine being in a situation like that.
Steeplejack
@Immanentize:
I’m not sure anyone would approve of that appearance, outside of Dad and the most hardcore MAGAts.
Starfish
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: This was truly great and described HOA meetings and school board meetings. Thanks.
Betty Cracker
@Kathleen: I agree 100% that “it doesn’t matter who you vote for” cynicism poses a greater danger to democracy than Christo-fascism — assuming the latter doesn’t succeed in overturning fair elections next time where they failed last time, which is an awfully big IF. But what makes you say eliminating that trope is a priority for the current admin? Not disputing your assertion, just wondering what evidence you’ve seen of it.
germy
Jeffro
this
and this.
Also – 600k+ Americans dead from Covid, and not all of those were folks in nursing homes. Probably just as many with ‘long Covid’ and unable to work.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@Ken: I kind of feel like who would normally enforce those subpoenas is the Justice Department, which is something the Dems ought to think about fixing given that the wrong POTUS + the wrong Attorney General = no subpoena power for Congress. That’s not how it’s supposed to work, but that’s how it did work from January 2017 to January 2021. IMO Congress needs some independent enforcement arm that can enforce subpoenas on the Executive Branch whether or not the Attorney General is on board.
Betty Cracker
@Jeffro: Haven’t seen the NYT vid yet, but I do remember watching the coverage in real time, and it wasn’t at all clear to me back then how big the crowd was. It became clearer in later coverage, but on the day of, I remember thinking it was kind of pathetic because the camera angle I was watching showed one side of the building.
dnfree
@sanjeevs: thank you for sharing this. It’s the kind of thing I probably wouldn’t find out any other way.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@coin operated: We have a dispensary in Takoma – on the DC rather than Maryland side of the border. Someone had the brilliant idea to open up a donut shop in the storefront right next door to the dispensary. Seems like a can’t miss business proposition. A couple doors up is a fish and chip place so they have salty and sweet covered.
Another Scott
@OzarkHillbilly: Charlie is mad enough about it that he’s not even mangling the curse words.
Are they tested for alcohol? Snuff/chewing tobacco? Sugar??
These stupid rules don’t get changed unless someone fights them. Here’s hoping she’s able to go and that the rules change.
Grr…
Cheers,
Scott.
Jeffro
@germy: I’m glad they’re both feeling spry in their old age. They are the outliers, though, and far too much is at stake.
SCOTUS terms should be 18 years and members of Congress should either be term-limited or age-limited. Go play that golf and enjoy your retirement, gentlemen.
Steeplejack
@germy:
Ivanka is quietly helping with the Surfside disaster.
germy
@Steeplejack:
Her public relations person is working overtime on the image rehabilitation…
Jeffro
@Betty Cracker: it looked smallish at the start, on TV…I think that having seen a few DC protests first-hand, I kind of assumed/guessed that there were much larger numbers behind the folks the camera was able to show. And then once they overran the Inaugural stage, that’s when it really started to show.
God bless those Capitol and DC police. The videos make it quite clear what that mob would have done to our Congress and the VP if they’d gotten a hold of them.
Related: Dana Milbank has up a good piece noting that just as his longtime CFO was about to be arrested, trumpov was sorta-tweeting one of his pathetic memos, asking “Who shot Ashli Babbitt?” Um, what? Kind of pulls the whooooole curtain back for anyone who hasn’t figured out trumpov’s m.o. yet. Better still, Milbank notes that this surely, once and for all, establishes for any but the most thoroughly Kool-Aid-soused that trumpov was and is on the side of the insurrectionists and against our country.
germy
Toot that horn! Toot it! Toot it!
Another Scott
@Soprano2: +1
Though I do think lots of middle class people recognize (if they think even a little about it) that luck plays a part in their situation. “Remember Billy from HS? The star that everyone liked, who seemed to have the world as his oyster? I just found out that his life went to hell and he died at 55…” It only takes one mistake, one bit of bad luck, one encounter with a monster with authority, to ruin the rest of one’s life…
Too many systems have been created to punch down. We can fix them, but it’s going to take concerted efforts. Biden-Harris recognizes that (recent signing ceremony):
Cheers,
Scott.
Drdavechemist
@Jeffro: The figure I saw this morning was something like 6.x million jobs needed across the country for full recovery. In Rhode Island, where I have been following the statistics closely and the undercount of excess deaths is near zero, over 80% of the fatalities were over 70. If we assume anything in that ballpark for the rest of the country, the number of deceased workers is less than a quarter of a million. It’s simply not true that businesses can’t hire workers because they died from COVID in numbers big enough to matter.
ETA: you also mention long COVID which might add to the total, but probably still a drop in the bucket, especially since the furloughed workers in the hospitality industry were probably young people who are less susceptible.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@satby: This is true for a significant chunk of the GOP electorate…they’re all convinced the economy is in the toilet again despite the Dow being over 30K and the unemployment rate coming down. If their guy is in charge everything is fine even during an unfolding catastrophe. If not their guy is in charge everything immediately turns to shit.
My hope is that as things continue to normalize their obvious inability to acknowledge reality will cause the non-brainwashed to give them the side eye and vote the other way. I don’t know though. The CRT kerfluffle seems to indicate that Fox News is still the Pied Piper of the narrative – every other new org has to cover some aspect of whatever the rage freakout they’re fomenting regardless of its legitimacy. Case in point – the “worker shortage” narrative has ruled for the past several weeks rather than the “wages are increasing and people are going back to work” narrative.
Geminid
@NotMax: Luria’s service as a surface warfare officer included responsibility for an aircraft carrier’s nuclear propulsion system, and a stateside command. It stood her in good stead as a congressional candidate in the defense-heavy 2nd Virginia Congressional district.
Ronnie Jackson is an outlier.
JPL
@Jeffro: The same representatives who are now saying it was nothing, should thank the capitol police for protecting them. Raven’s representative, Andrew Clyde should be locked in a room and forced to watch it the video.
NotMax
@germy
Yeah, but O’Neill’s liver was 112.
On a good day.
Betty Cracker
@Steeplejack: My God, how gross! According to the FL media I’ve seen, Biden’s visit to Surfside was almost universally praised and appreciated by the locals, so of course that disgusting shit-stain has to dispatch her team of publicists to trumpet her “quiet” assistance. What a fucking sociopath.
JPL
@Betty Cracker: When you do watch it have tums nearby. Better yet, a glass of wine might do the trick.
JPL
@Steeplejack: With all the money she and Jared made while working for the government, donating a few bucks is the least she can do.
Ken
@Steeplejack: I’d guess with silent prayers, but none of that family seem at all religious.
NotMax
@JPL
Surprised she isn’t making calls to collect mink coats for any matrons suddenly rendered condo-less.
Ken
@NotMax: Is she allowed to do that? I thought she and her brothers were barred from charity work — something about misusing funds from a children’s charity they were running. Or does that only apply in New York?
Baud
@Ken:
Donating money isn’t charity work.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
HA!
Immanentize
@NotMax: When I lived in Miami Beach, one of my friend’s family owned a warehouse and storage business (It’s now the cool Wolfson Museum). He said his family did a decent business in resale of mink and other exotic animal coats and stolls post-obituary. My friend bought a monkey skin coat there….
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
“Tip and Ronnie at Tanagra. When the walls fell.”
– By Chris Matthews
Kay
@Soprano2:
I would like Democrats to think about this more deeply and really get clear on an economic approach/platform. We can put this together and make it more coherent.
“Opportunity” is not inconsistent with a safety net. A safety net makes risk-taking possible. We can literally take both sides of this argument- it all works for us and there’s a reason for that- our economic approach is actually better. Trickle down doesn’t work, but ours does work.
Ken
Certainly not the way the Trumps do it.
NotMax
@Immanentize
Just so long as it didn’t come with a monkey’s paw….
;)
Amir Khalid
@Steeplejack:
If her help is really on the QT, and she’a just donating to the relief effort, why is her publicist telling the media? It’s so hard to get good help these days.
Kay
@Soprano2:
A coherent thought-through economic approach will also help bridge the ideological factions in the D party, because we can specialize. So the Lefties can take the safety net portion- make that robust- and the centrists and Righties can be the people who say “we want to make it so you don’t need to use the safety net”. We can have both and they can be integrated and operating at the same time.
You can add dental for Medicare and do low interest loans for small business creation. If your small business flops well, you have dental in Medicare to fall back on :)
Joe Manchin can be “start a small business!” and Bernie Sanders can be “dental for Medicare!” and it’s fine- we have both.
NotMax
Oof. Would kind of like to take a stab at getting some sleep, except both knees tonight are working overtime to inform me I apparently am not current on paying protection.
MontyTheClipArtMongoose
@Jeffro: but at least el jefe isn’t a crazy bitch like hillary.
milbank is as bad as cillizza — his partner in shittalk — but escapes our disdain.
Miss Bianca
@Kay: I like the way you think.
satby
@gvg: Honestly, this really is true. I lost my corporate job and was put into foreclosure during the Obama years, ultimately losing my house. I knew who really was to blame, but it wasn’t a great economy for a lot of us. It was poised to be, if another Democratic administration has won.
Ksmiami
@Kay: and one of the biggest conundrums for me is that when a Democratic Party is in power, everyone does better across the board, but no matter how many charts and studies are shown, media still reverts to Republicans. I don’t get it.
Kay
@Soprano2:
I’m going to remember that when we had a tight labor market and wages started to rise and people started to move around jobs looking for higher wages virtually the entire economic punditry class looked at all of that happening and settled on “workers are lazy and featherbedding on their unemplyment benefits”
Come on. This is a bias! On some level they all believe working people are lazy and need fear as an incentive or they won’t work. For them to present this bias as somehow real is just bullshit.
I see you, economists. I see what you did there :)
Steeplejack
@Amir Khalid:
That’s the joke.
Ksmiami
@Kay: How about this: The Democratic economic policies produce more winners and a better society. And we don’t foment insurrection and chaos.
rp
The economy matters when it’s bad. A black guy named Barack Hussein Obama got elected in part because the GOP was in charge during the greatest financial meltdown since the depression. But he and, by extension, Clinton received very little credit for turning the economy around by 2016.
When things are bad, people are more focused on nuts and bolts issues and feeding their families, so racism plays a smaller role. When things are relatively good, they’re more willing to let their freak/trump flag fly because the stakes are lower.
Another Scott
@Kay: I saw a related headline from Reuters this morning, before today’s jobs numbers were released –
https://reut.rs/3wbUcGW
The headline screams that GQP states that ended unemployment benefits early crossed some milestone!! Yet looking at the actual story, it’s kinda meh for their economies (even though it’s punching down on real people).
Gotta carry the MotUs water!!
Grrr…
Cheers,
Scott.
artem1s
Darth, the Bush Crime Family and their spawn don’t give a flying fuck about the GOP or the GQP. The Pentagon, yes. The Beltway inner circle, yes. The Dixiecrats, deplorables, Green Party, Libertarians, Proud Boys, KKK, Christian Right, etc are all temporary tools to be used and discarded as necessary. Liz is setting up the next generation’s access to power and money. Hell the regular GOP is hardly worthy to be invited into their inner circle. Trump, McQuarthy, MTG, Geitz and the rest of the power tools who will never, ever be invited to the country club for the pleasure of getting shot in the face by the Patriarch are the least of Liz’s concerns.
Mike in NC
Am fully expecting some sort of domestic terrorist attack to take place on the Fourth of July, instigated by Trump’s fascist foot soldiers, the Proud Boys and Oathkeepers. Republicans will try to wash their hands of another attempt to install a dictator-for-life, but that is what they want.
artem1s
@Ksmiami:
you answered your own question there. the problem is the everyone, including people of color, women, LGBTQ, etc. The rising tide is supposed on to only float white, male yachts. Not the Unter Menschen in steerage.
satby
@Ksmiami: Because a sizable faction of the voting public doesn’t pay attention to what the parties say about the economy as long as the parties spout the right talking points about their social issues. Abortion is another issue like the economy, IF they really cared about reducing abortions the anti-choicers would vote for the party that reduces abortions: the Democratic party. But they don’t, because for most forced birthers any abortion, for any medical reason or not, is one too many; and the party that refuses to outlaw abortion will never get their vote, out of spite. Incremental change is betrayal to more voters, of both sides, than we logical folks want to admit.
trollhattan
@OzarkHillbilly:
“But, weed lets you run faster” said nobody who understands athletics, ever.
A true shame because she was primed to become one of the faces of these games. A true character and fast as fuck.
Kathleen
@Betty Cracker: It was just something I intuited from Ron Klain’s interview with Nicolle Wallace. And I don’t think “priority” was a good choice of words on my part because I believe Biden and Co put voting rights infrastructure etc as top priorities as well. Maybe it’s more like a sense that they feel this is the first level of the foundation to be put in place and publicized. ‘Set the table” as it were. But give the economic benefits a minute to be digested.
Another Scott
Meanwhile, …
These monsters and their enablers would have us believe that “Equal Justice Under Law” is just a quaint notion, nothing to see here, move along…
Grrr…
Cheers,
Scott.
O. Felix Culpa
NYU Law Professor Daniel Shaviro (and college classmate) on the Trump Org/Weisselberg indictments on Lawrence O’Donnell (MSNBC) last night.
Lyrebird
Open thread, so maybe I can share this here:
Sha’Carri Richardson talked to USA today about getting suspended due to positive test.
I just want to send her a hug and speed up the time until she’s able to compete again!
Did I read somewhere that she’s got a Nike sponsorship? I wish I could afford more of their products, I would buy some and tell them it’s for her.
Omnes Omnibus
@Betty Cracker: OT: I want to apologize for my comment in the Supreme Court thread yesterday. I was trying to point out the silliness of the kind of counterfactuals that were popping up. I failed at that, and it came off as an attack on you. That was never my intention, and I am sorry.
Omnes Omnibus
@rp:
Sadly, this is correct.
Lyrebird
@OzarkHillbilly:
Hey Sir Ozark, I see you are way faster in your replies than I am.
Agreed.
taumaturgo
If your premise is true, why did the Democrats refrained from highlighting the obvious? Why did the economic prosperity messaging fail? Here is a reality check about the macro consequences of Obama’s great economics resulted in more wealth at the top and less at the bottom. Classic neoliberalism.
https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2019/sep/10/stanley-greenberg/did-most-americans-lose-wealth-income-under-barack/
The Mugster
@NotMax: Hill’s Horse Meat, available canned and frozen. My folks fed it to our Giant Schnauzers up to about 1960 or so, when they switched to Ken-L-Ration. The pups loved it!
Just Chuck
Michael Phelps puffed like Willie Nelson. I wonder what the difference between him and Richardson could possibly be to warrant such different treatment…
Betty Cracker
@Omnes Omnibus: Aw, no worries! FWIW, I agree with your point about counterfactuals being pointless. ;-)
stinger
@germy: (Your quote from Dave Wiegel)
I think we need experienced hands on the tiller as we try to recover from the Trump/pandemic debacle. Especially as long as neither the Speaker, Majority Leader, nor Majority Whip do anything embarrassing that can be attributed to old age. The Assistant Speaker and the Caucus Chair are both in their 50s; the Caucus Vice Chair is in his 40s. Those positions are also part of the party leadership. (They might feel a bit like Prince Charles, in his 70s and still not king, but the day must inevitably come….)
dww44
@Kay: Thanks for the informative response. I seriously think your comment should be shared with the likes of Secy of Labor Marty Walsh, who, in an interview with Stephanie Rule on MSNBC this morning, responded kinda in a glass half empty rather than a glass half full manner.
She was trying to get him to admit that the $300.00 per week/month (or whatever it is) was no longer needed and could be put to work in other ways. Redirected to more pressing needs. Walsh didn’t swallow that line and, although I can see why he didn’t (he would’ve been excoriated in the press and by the GOP), he did come across as a bit “woe is me ish”.
Omnes Omnibus
@Just Chuck: Actually, and I may be mistaken, I thought he celebrated post-medalling with weed. That way he was clean during the drug tests.
JPL
@Betty Cracker: What has your governor been smoking? He tried to convince trump to cancel his rally, because of optics, and thanked President Biden.
NotMax
Couple of TCM alerts (all time Eastern).
Tonight at 10:15 p.m., the original Point Blank. At the time it was released I found it overwrought and trying too hard. However my compatriots over the years have consistently disagreed.
July 4th at 3:30 p.m., The Devil’s Disciple. Burt Lancaster, Laurence Olivier and Kirk Douglas exude such an easygoing sense of enjoying themselves that it’s infectious. Oh, and paper dolls too.
Jeffro
@MontyTheClipArtMongoose: nah, trumpov getting elected and then screwing everything up/inflicting massive cruelty right and left/nearly destroying the government woke Milbank up some time ago.
agree on cillizza though, he sucks
debbie
@Lyrebird:
Still, all that work…
catclub
@Mike in NC:
isn’t JUly 4th yet another date that Q promises them Trump will be re-instated into the Presidency?
Ken
@JPL: Did he learn nothing from Chris Christie thanking Obama for the Hurricane Sandy response?
Last night Adam Silverman noted that Biden did the equivalent of shivving DeSantis’ presidential campaign, simply by showing up and “being Biden”.
debbie
@Another Scott:
So while we’re fighting for voting rights, how about we come up with ways to alleviate the difficulties in getting to elections places or ballot boxes? You can’t “harvest” (bullshit term) ballots, but can’t people be transported to the boxes and then driven back home?
Gin & Tonic
Interesting question here:
NotMax
@The Mugster
Thank you muchly for supplying that information. Out of curiosity, would you know if that was a local/regional brand or one available nationally?
Although hard pressed to picture grocers devoting limited freezer space to pet food during the wartime 40s.
Another Scott
Speaking of getting the good news out…
Good, good.
(via harrisonjaime)
Cheers,
Scott.
JPL
@Ken: Being Biden should be a hashtag.
Baud
@Gin & Tonic: Rumsfeld spot on the top of the list will be short-lived thanks to TFG.
Geminid
@Just Chuck: Phelps did not fail a drug test made in conjunction major meet, so all his exposure cost him was a Wheaties cover. I think the sprinter would have been punished also if she happened to be white.
But cannabis should not be treated as a performance enhancing drug. The woman got no advantage, just some relaxation. Besides it’s mood-altering quality, cannabis is also a good non-toxic painkiller. I used to be sorry when pro football players got four game suspensions and worse if they tested dirty for weed. These guys need cannabis if anyone does. But a friend who follows the sport closely tells me that the NFL has lightened up considerably in this area.
Another Scott
In yet more Olympic news, this time in swimming…
Grr…
Cheers,
Scott.
Baud
Via LGM
VeniceRiley
@Kathleen: OMG I misread that and now am going to start calling the cult
Crisco Fascists.
NotMax
@Gin & Tonic
Haldeman? Caspar Weinberger? John Mitchell?
(But I date myself.)
debbie
@NotMax:
I would think Martha Mitchell beat them all with her hands tied behind her back.
Another Scott
Back on topic…
You mean he couldn’t do that?? I’m sure it was just a little misunderstanding. Qualified Immunity surely applies!!
:-/
Cheers,
Scott.
NotMax
@Geminid
And perhaps an opportunity to star in an underwater version of Gymkata.
Which on balance is in no way a bad trade-off.
:)
Ksmiami
@satby: I actually think it’s more a sizable chunk of Americans don’t understand math or economics and that’s by design- those marks aren’t going to be ripe for conning if they’re edumacated…
Soprano2
Yes, but I also think a lot of working people believe they would like to lounge around all the time, watching TV and living off huge unemployment benefits if they could. One of my bartenders told me that she works for a living, and doesn’t mind doing that, but she resents that there are other people out there who can choose not to work because they are getting so much money from the government. There’s a lot of resentment among average working people that “they” are getting away with living cushy lives and not working. They all know someone who’s doing that. She’ll be getting that tax credit money, because she has 4 children! I’ll have to ask her how she feels about that. I think the tax credits are great, because all middle class people with children are getting them so there won’t be resentment that only “those people” are getting help. Republicans would desperately love to make SS and Medicare means-tested, so that they could turn middle class people against them in the same way they turned them against welfare benefits. I agree that we need to make the safety net OK again, because Republicans were really successful at turning middle class people against the idea, even though it could benefit them!
Bex
@Steeplejack (phone): That smarmy Raymond Arroyo, formerly of EWTN, is the worst. Also, last I checked, Eric, if you paint you are allowed to sell your paintings to whomever you want, right?
Kathleen
@VeniceRiley: Between the way my day has been going and I’m reliant on my phone’s keypad Lord only knows what words my fingers will produce.
dww44
@Geminid: I’m impressed with her. I hope she wins next year. Maybe karma will prevail and the most capable and deserving will win, particularly if the GOP goes off the chart and puts forth a candidate from the fringy right.
Miss Bianca
@Another Scott: I like to hope that he could actually be arrested and jailed for that…infraction.
Note, I said, “I like to hope.” It gives me pleasure.
Soprano2
I am firmly convinced that most of the anti-abortion stuff is actually about trying to control young women’s sex lives. Here in MO, the state lege actually tried to outlaw Medicaid from paying for IUD’s and Plan B “because they cause abortions”. If they truly cared about stopping abortions, they would be encouraging every young woman to use safe, effective birth control, but instead they try to make it harder for them to get it! They want all the “sluts” to be terrified of getting pregnant so they’ll stop having “unapproved” sex.
Soprano2
@taumaturgo: You must have missed my comment where I said that the Obama administration mismanaged the mortgage crisis. I never said they were perfect, but it’s demonstrably true that the economy was in much better shape in 2016 than it was in 2009, yet for some reason many people didn’t feel that. I think part of the reason was a failure by Democrats to promote the things they did do right to help the economy.
Old School
@NotMax:
What were Kissinger’s obits like?
He’s what?!?!?
NotMax
@Another Scott
Threw in a more extensive citation last night (link to source there), but this part is worth repetition.
“All we could hear from the other end of the phone was what sounded like someone’s head repeatedly impacting a hard surface.”
Kristine
@satby: I’m watching Kinzinger with interest. I’ve read on more than one occasion that he has his eye on the governorship, and while there are moderate Dems and Indies that I could see voting for him, not sure about the downstaters who appear to be quite, quite Trumpified. Wondering what his internal polling is telling him.
Another Scott
@NotMax: I missed that thread. Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
Cheryl from Maryland
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: I wonder if the Brit TV show from the 1980’s – Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister, has early access to that document
James E Powell
@Baud:
I can never be sure I recall these things accurately, but I think Obama did take credit for the economy – General Motors is alive & Osama bin Laden is dead! – but the ignorant, hateful bigots refused to give him credit for it.
There was a story back in 2016 about some Indiana town where the local industry was absolutely saved by Obama’s recovery act, but the white people at the diner had nothing good to say about him.
Also too, the American people did not transfer their respect or support for Obama to Hillary Clinton.
Just Chuck
@NotMax: I hope they make an example out of the gun dealer too.
germy
Martin
I know a lot of people are upset/confused why Pelosi put Cheney on the committee, but it’s a brilliant move in a few ways.
Pelosi is playing the ‘when the facts are on your side, pound on the facts’ card very hard here.
brantl
@gvg: Because it was way freaking better than it would have been, if the Republicans had been in charge and given all the relief to the rich!
Another Scott
(Includes grinning picture of him with grinning Boebert.)
Grr…
Cheers,
Scott.
Another Scott
@James E Powell: +1
Elkhart, IN. (Practically) Totally dependent on RVs.
Cheers,
Scott.
Kay
@dww44:
I’m glad he was somewhere. I hoped he would be a really strong labor secretary. I think that job is under utilized. Someone could do a lot with it. Maybe Walsh will. It’s an area where I think an executive branch appointee could be really aggressive with no political cost or risk to the President. IMO you need someone who wants to be “historic”- a real risk taker. Biden can pretend he’s like a “loose cannon” while actually approving everything :)
I personally would just take the job and run with it, like Cordray did with the consumer protection agency. He used every bit of power he had, and then some.
J R in WV
@OzarkHillbilly:
“…against the use of a
n[ legal ] intoxicant…”Fix’d that for ya… she should get a legal court order requiring them to waive that rule, esp. if she burned it in a place where it is fully legalized. Or ate some edible, whatever. A real shame!
Geminid
@dww44: There is a state Delegate, a woman, who announced last month. Republican honchos like George Allen and Ken Stolle were there. She dosen’t have the baggage her last opponent had, so Republicans will give it their best shot. But I think Luria will win another close race.
Ken
@Gin & Tonic: Someone posted a link to Hunter S. Thompson’s obituary for Nixon last night, if you want a point of comparison.
Kay
@James E Powell:
The Obama campaign people believed the auto bailout had a measurable good effect for them in OH and MI and Romney’s dismissal of it hurt him. They thought it was really important.
tybee
@satby:
https://twitter.com/andrewfeinberg/status/1410740695770353668
Martin
@Soprano2: It’s not about that. Abortion is an invented issue designed to build a coalition that they could control. It’s a simple trade, the GOP will look out for evangelicals, and the church will ramp up anti-abortion ‘morality’ to steer their congregation to the GOP.
The article is worth a read because it also reveals the motive for the GOP to pack the courts in the way that they do, and the ongoing legal slant toward a fictional form of religious liberty.
Gravenstone
@WereBear: She’s not ditching it. She’s trying to position herself to reclaim the burnt remains once the MAGAts finish destroying it from the inside. Imagines herself the Phoenix rising from the ashes.
Gravenstone
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Don’t see it happening, but my dream is multiple Republican members of Congress are called before the committee to discuss their roles on 1/6. They refuse, are found in contempt and ultimately expelled. Downside (other than implausibility) is in most cases, their replacements would likely be demonstrably worse people.
stinger
@James E Powell:
Obama won re-election with 65.9M votes; Clinton got 65.8M (and won by 3M). That’s not a massive drop-off, and after two terms from one party, a switch to the other party isn’t at all unusual in this country.
dark patriot
@Ken: i heard what seems to be the same exact commercial on a ct/ma border radio station. seemed to play 2-3 times an hour
James E Powell
@Martin:
I’d say constructed, but we are in general agreement. It’s the opportunity to call Democrats baby killers, with the added touch of slut-shaming women who don’t look & act like 50s TV moms.
I’m often stunned at the extent to which it is has been successful. Anecdotal, but I know two women with advanced degrees in medical and medical-related fields who were on fire that “Hillary supports abortion on demand in the ninth month!”
sdhays
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: I saw a headline yesterday (I think it was about a poll from NPR, but maybe it was from somewhere else) that CRT wasn’t turning out to really galvanize Republicans the way the Fox “News” is hoping for. I’m afraid I didn’t have a chance to read the article, but there at least seem to be some signals that CRT isn’t actually even half the winner they thought/hoped it would be.
Steeplejack
@Martin:
Good comment.
Soprano2
@Martin: Yeah, I know about that. I think it’s evolved since then. Why else would my state lege try to keep Medicaid from paying for perfectly legal forms of birth control? Mark my words, if they succeed in getting the Supreme Court to allow them to oulaw abortion anywhere, they’re going after birth control methods next on the grounds that they “cause abortions”. They resent the hell out of young women’s sexual freedom, and want to put an end to it.
sdhays
That’s an interesting angle. Is rank based on seniority or something else? Can McCarthy strip Cheney of her rank?
Geminid
@stinger: There were also an unusual amount of third party votes that year, especially for the Libertarian candidate. I suspect some of those voting for Gary Johnson thought Clinton had the election in the bag, and thought they had a free protest vote. Did some of these vote for Biden next time around? I would like to know, but unfortunately exit polling is not what it was.
Steeplejack
@sdhays:
I believe rank is based strictly on seniority and can’t be “stripped.”
The Mugster
@NotMax: Google sez they were based in Topeka, and we lived in Long Island, so…global?
Just Chuck
@Martin: Cheney has more to lose if she does nothing: they’ve already removed her from committees, and there’ll be a gallery of nuts gunning for her in the primaries, which many of her “colleagues” will likely back. They can only offer her carrots now, but the prize she’s after involves their heads on spikes as payback. That’s why McCarthy is dialing back the threats, lest he splinter off a whole caucus worth of Cheneys who also have nothing left to lose.
Martin
@sdhays: They sorta have already, but I can’t imagine a scenario where she isn’t the ranking member. Pelosi has a list of Republicans she won’t veto, and I expect in the end she’ll be the raking republican.
Pelosi really is punishing them for opposing a bipartisan commission which would have allowed the GOP to have vastly more control over things.
J R in WV
@Amir Khalid:
If it’s a secret, it doesn’t count, right??? Duh, guys!!!
Geminid
@Martin: If Fred Upton (R-MI) or John Katko (NY) serve, they would have more seniority than Cheney, but I doubt if that would make any difference. Both Katko and Upton were among the ten Republican House impeachers.
Gravenstone
@Geminid: I believe both have been rather vocal in their desire not to serve on the select committee.
Geminid
@Just Chuck: I think Cheney is still on her commitees; she was just voted out as Conge3rence Chairman, the third ranking leadership post. So far, at least four Republicans are planning to challenge Cheney in the Wyoming primary. The trump people say they want to have him endorse one candidate, possibly a yet unannounced state legislator. Wyoming will not have a runoff unless the legislature passes legislation to create one. I think anti-Cheney Republicans tried a couple months ago and failed. So as far as Cheney is concerned, the more challengers the merrier.
Geminid
@Gravenstone: They both voted against it, so that makes sense.
J R in WV
I once loved the Olympics, back when ABC did the coverage. NBC’s jingo style coverage is terrible, not based on covering the actual sports world wide, they spend most of their time doing terrible livestyle bits on American athletes, many of whom won’t win anything, but who are all telegenic.
Today the international regulator of swimming competition made caps designed to be worn over African style hair illegal. Yesterday the track people disqualified the best track runner of our current time for doing a perfectly legal recreational drug, no more illegal than a beer.
The racism in the Olympics is totally obvious and completely despicable. And NBC won’t way a word about it lest someone not watch their piss-poor coverage of the actual sports, nor their equally terrible “human interest” coverage of only America athletes in the major sports.
They wouldn’t spend 10 minutes on Simone Biles if she wasn’t the greatest gymnastic athlete in all time, she’s way, way too black for NBC. Also way, way too adult for the gymnastic regulators, because they’re all pedophiles and Biles is in her mid 20s now. Surprised they haven’t started subtracting points from her scores because of here extreme age!!
No, won’t be watching NBC Olympic coverage, the whole situation is now vile beyond belief. Racist, ageist, nothing is too slimy for those old white people to do to hate on the black athletes, since fists were raised on the podium in Mexico City back in the day. It’s all about the money now… and the power!
Ken
Right. As the sixth chapter of Matthew says, “When you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets. Hire a publicist.”
Barry
@hueyplong:
“He is well short of replacement value. At some point, the moronization of the GOP House is going to hurt them badly and now seems as good a time as any for that moment to arrive.”
Given their structural advantages, they don’t need smarts.