Starting at 9 am ET.
House Impeachment Hearings Day 2: Ambassador Yovanovitch
The second day of the House impeachment hearings is scheduled to get started at 9:00 AM EST. Expect more of what we observed on Wednesday. The Democrats on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence focused on fact finding through Ambassador Yovanovitch’s testimony while the Republicans attempt to use the hearing as an information laundry to promote the conspiracy theories and agitprop that they want people to believe exonerates the President.
Here’s the live feed:
Open thread!
House Impeachment Hearings Day 2: Ambassador YovanovitchPost + Comments
Pay attention to the gatekeepers M4A edition
Earlier this week, Senator Wyden (D-OR) laid out a marker on Medicaid for All:
Ron Wyden, who would be chairman of the Finance Committee w a Dem majority, says on m4a at axios event:
“My starting point when we’re in the majority” is “I’m going to support more Medicare-type choices.”
(ie not single payer)— Peter Sullivan (@PeterSullivan4) November 13, 2019
This is important.
Significant institutional elements of the Democratic Party including the Speaker of the House, the Senator who would be the relevant committee chair in any scenario that could see M4A advance, and the marginal votes in any Senate that could plausibly advance M4A are all laying down major markers that they don’t want to go down this route. Instead incremental change and build-out of the ACA is the approach that they are on board with.
click below to see the entire post
Friday Morning Open Thread: Calling A Bribe A Bribe
Per the Washington Post, “Democrats Sharpen Impeachment Case… “:
Friday Morning Open Thread: Calling A Bribe A BribePost + Comments
Just Chillin’
Take a break from fuckery all day, every day. It’ll still be there when you’re ready to deal with it.
Go breathe. Go create something.
The feeling I have is that the constant crap we have to deal with is to prevent us from saying, “hey, we can make the world a bit better”. When we have room to breathe, time to focus on breathing, we have ideas. We gain strength, release anger and tension. We think clearer and for those of us with souls, we feel human and humanity towards others. So stop for a while tonight. Enjoy something. Write a few lines. Laugh at something. Feel unabashedly in love with a person, a story, a piece of music. Forget the bullshit of adulthood and expectations. Be intensely you – and enjoy how great you are.
You earned it. Obligatory cat pic from my library of shots during my tenure in animal behaviour.
Impeachment Inquiry Open Thread: “But No PIZZAZ!”
Susan Hennessey, “Lawfare Executive Editor, Brookings Senior Fellow, CNN National Security and Legal Analyst, Former IC attorney”, yesterday:
As a general matter there is too much focus on optics and too little on substance. But to the extent the Democrats needed to make the case to the public in this hearing, today was an extremely strong showing. And the Republicans offer zero substantive defense of Trump.
“Jonathan Allen, the poor man’s Chris Cillizza“, for NBCNews:
Analysis: The first two witnesses called Wednesday testified to President Trump’s scheme, but lacked the pizzazz necessary to capture public attention.
I AM AN AMERICAN! I LIKE PIZZAZZ! IMPEACHMENT HEARINGS SHOULD HAVE SWORD FIGHTS, TALKING ANIMALS, NINJA STRIPPERS, AND A POST CREDITS SCENE THAT FORESHADOWS THE PLOT OF THE NEXT HEARING!
Margaret Sullivan, at the Washington Post — “Media Beware: Impeachment Hearings Will Be the Trickiest Test of Covering Trump”:
The national media’s shortcomings have been all too obvious in recent years as Donald Trump has gleefully thrown the norms of traditional journalism into a tizzy…
But on Wednesday — as televised impeachment hearings begin in the House of Representatives — journalists need to be on their game. The stakes don’t get much higher when it comes to fulfilling their core mission: informing citizens of what they really need to know.
Here’s a refresher course in what needs to go right.
Stress substance, not speculation. Journalists and pundits love to ponder about how the public is reacting to news, though they aren’t much good at it.
Avoiding that would be a public service…
Don’t let stunts hijack the coverage. If we know anything about Trump’s reaction when things get tough, it’s that he and his allies will haul out some attention-grabbing performance art and its distractions…
Avoid Barr-Letter Syndrome. It was a little over six months ago that Attorney General William P. Barr took it upon himself to summarize the Mueller report in a misleading letter that the news media — pretty much en masse — represented as an accurate summation of the 448-page report about Russian interference in the 2016 election and its aftermath.
You might remember some headlines and news reports that said, essentially, “no collusion, no obstruction.”
Of course, that’s not what the report said, as Mueller himself later tried to set straight…
Beware mealy-mouthed and misleading language. Punditry will be running even more amok than usual once the hearings begin. And we’ll be hearing a lot about what a divided nation we have and how ugly politics has become. We’ll be hearing the term “quid pro quo” endlessly.
As for “polarization,” it’s a kind of false equivalence expressed in a single term, suggested Rosen: “We hear, ‘Oh things are so polarized now,’ when this is really about what’s happened to the Republican Party.”
In a potent Twitter thread last week, Ezra Klein of Vox pointed out that Trump’s abuses are so blatant that he “is the easiest possible test case for ‘Can our system hold a president accountable?’ And we are failing, because Republicans are failing.”
click below to see the entire post
Impeachment Inquiry Open Thread: <em>“But No PIZZAZ!” </em>Post + Comments
Commenting Policy for the New Balloon Juice
Here goes:
First and foremost, Balloon Juice is a community, so our commenting policy is a combination of objective standards as well as some more subjective community standards for decency. So while there will be some very clear lines over which not to cross, there will also be some fuzzy areas that we will deal with when we get to them. It’s not a black and white world, and this is a liberal blog, so you will just have to deal with some nuance.
Punishments:
First Offense: 3 day timeout
Second Offense: 1 week timeout
Third offense: 1 month timeout
Beyond that- Banned.Things that will get you an immediate timeout:
1.) Any of the ism’s- sexism, racism, homophobic outbursts, targeting marginalized groups, etc. We’re not going to put up with personal attacks beyond a joking nature, nor will we tolerate targeted harassment of commenters. Take your shit somewhere else.
2.) Explicit calls for violence. Obviously things said in jest such as “guillotines” or nonsense like that are recognized for the hyperbole they are. But direct, actionable threats or calls for violence are out, for obvious reasons.
3.) Targeted harassment of other commenters or front pagers.
4.) Posting links to inappropriate websites, or sites that compromise a user’s security.
5.) Divulging personal information about a commenter or front pager (real name, address, place of work, etc.)
6.) I am sure you idiots will think of something else so I will just leave this here.Things you should avoid that may lead to punishment:
1.) Just generally being a no life asshole who derails every thread with your own personal hobby horse. Yes, we have the pie filter, but some people don’t like to use it. They shouldn’t have to suffer because some idiot has come in and posted 75 comments on an 80 comment thread that has nothing to do with the original post.
2.) Repeated attempts to derail a conversation. Unlike yours truly, we have actual experts here- Adam, Cheryl, Dave, and others are good at what they do. Weare lucky to have them. When they are trying to have a serious conversation and you are just trolling or being a jerk, you take away from the rest of us. You are stealing a valuable asset- their time and wisdom. It’s selfish, irritating, and I don’t want to see it.
3.) Again, left blank here for other things you all will inevitably come up with.Process for Bans:
If you have been flagged for inappropriate behavior, one of the front pagers will spam your comment. Once that has been done, they will email me, give me a link, and I will figure out what to do. I will consult with them, but I will have the final say, so direct your venom and incoherent tweets and emails at me.A Closing Note:
I absolutely hate that I even have to have these policies, but there it is. I don’t expect it will be too big of a problem, because most of the people self select out and go somewhere else where their nonsense is appreciated (reddit incel forums? Red State? Who knows? Who cares?)
For the most part, you are free to talk about whatever you want. Just don’t be a dick. Treat people decently (I’d say treat them the way you want to be treated but I know some of you self-loathing idiots will take advantage of that), and you will find that people will be good to you in return. A lot of us have known each other for a good long while. We want new people to feel the same way. This is a community. Treat it like one.
This is subject to editing and changes.
Two More Children Are Dead
The death count in the Santa Clarita school shooting is now at two:
A 16-year-old student pulled a gun from his backpack and opened fire on classmates at a high school north of Los Angeles on Thursday morning, striking five people before turning the gun on himself, law enforcement authorities said. Two students, a 16-year-old girl and a 14-year-old boy, died at a hospital.
Emma González, one of the Parkland students who helped form March for Our Lives, tweeted a link to this article in the New England Journal of Medicine this morning:
At the end of an inconspicuous hallway and strategically placed far from the controlled chaos of the trauma room lies a dimly lit waiting area that we in the medical field call “the quiet room.” It is a bland spot; a few soft chairs surround a table that holds a box of crisp institutional tissues. There may be a picture or two on the wall, but generally it is an unassuming room where we physicians tell mothers about the deaths of their children, far too often because of firearm violence.
As we make our way to this room, we recite a careful script; we use words intended to ease this painful first-and-only meeting. The reality is that over the years, we have found that there is no good way to tell a mother that her child has died, especially when the unexpected death might have been avoidable.
We introduce ourselves as the doctor who took care of their child. We take a deep breath, look into their eyes, and quickly break the devastating news — there is no reason to delay. What follows is the visceral, piercing shriek of a mother’s wailing, “Please God, not my baby!” We often weep with these mothers, we sometimes quietly blame ourselves for not being able to do more to save their baby’s life — and when they are alone, as is often the case, we hold them up while they cry.
Two children died today, but hundreds, perhaps thousands of lives were affected, including the paramedics, doctors, nurses and techs who tried to save those kids, and all the other people who knew them.
A Quick Tour of the House
I thought a quick tour might be in order as everyone gets the hang of the new site.
The Right-hand Side
If we move over to the right-hand side, you’ll find a big button. Right now it says Site Feedback; we thought there might be a lot of that for awhile! Pretty soon, though, that will likely say Pet Calendar and will takes us to the call for photos, instructions for submitting the, how to order, when to order, etc. If we had a time machine and could go back a year or so, when our friend was in need, it would have said Leto GoFundMe.
The search box. Once the new site is indexed, we’ll be able to search for things in the comments as well as in the original posts. It takes hours and hours and hours to index, so indexing has not even started at this point. We’ll need to fine-tune some things once we start using it – we can choose how heavily to weigh finds in comments vs. front page posts. So not to worry if search results aren’t exactly what we want right out of the gate.
Not much to say about Recent Comments, except to say they are back.
Balloon Juice Posts gives you 3 different windows to BJ posts since the beginning of time. Every post is assigned to at least one Topic; if a post was assigned to Politics, Open Thread and Climate Change, you will find that post under three boxes in the grid. The author page speaks for itself, I think, and the rest is self-explanatory. Who am I kidding, there will be questions!
Featuring is a fun one. The 5 links under Featuring will change regularly, maybe not like clockwork, but typically about once a month. Except for John Cole, of course. I am making him stay there forever. (Translation: I told John that as blog lord, he should stay in that slot forever, and he grudgingly agreed. Or, alternatively, John wasn’t paying any attention to what I was saying, which might mean that he has no idea that he agreed to that!) But I digress. Any author, current or past, and any category or subcategory or sub-sub-category can be featured over time. By popular demand, our first change will surely be the addition of duck blogging, which means that one of the existing items will be swapped out. But hey, it’s Penelope, we all have to make sacrifices for the greater good.
What’s the thinking behind featuring? For one thing, we want it to be timely. During ACA Open Enrollment, David Anderson will be under Featuring. When Tom Levenson’s next book comes out, he will be featured. We can feature TaMara’s Recipe posts when her new cookbook comes out. Right now, we want everyone to be able to easily find their beloved On the Road posts. Once you get the hang of the new site, you will know that it’s always at your fingertips under Photo Blogging on the View by Topics page, and something else will be featured. Featuring will almost never include a top-level category; it’s intended to call attention to particular authors or to subcategories the would never see the light of day otherwise, unless you happened upon it in a front page post.
Enough about Featuring. (Two paragraphs!) Hmm. I guess this one makes three!
Calling All Jackals! I’ll say more about this in a separate thread but you will be able to see upcoming meetups and see meetups that have already happened. I put 3 past meetups in there as quick examples, but any past meetup can be included in there if anyone wants to send details and photos. I think John was kind of excited at the thought of an archive of all our past meetups, but it will be up to you guys to supply information if we want to do that. We’ll have to see how it goes with Balloon Juice News – it could be a big hit or land with a dull thud. If you want to know about an upcoming Writer’s Chat, or about upcoming Guest Posts or if you missed the news when Subaru Diane broke her wrist (stop doing that, SD!) you could find it there. Any front-pager can add information to Balloon Juice News, if they are willing. Oh, and Site Feedback is here in addition to up top. This is its permanent home; the top button is only a temporary home for Site Feedback for a few weeks.
The last stop on the right is John’s twitter feed. Just think how much better that will look when front-pagers start adding featured images to their posts!
Let’s not forget the Header and Footer
Balloon Man is back, baby! I missed you, Balloon Man! Rotating tags are back where they belong, in the header. Oh, and if you click on balloon guy from anywhere, you go straight to the front page. Not much more to say about the header, but the footer gets a shoutout. That’s where the blogroll lives. The blogroll is bracketed by lists of published Balloon Juice authors and Balloon Juice artists and artisans who have websites. You can see that work has already started on the author file. Cole will be putting out a call for artists and artisans.
We will be pleased to add your blog, your books and your artist websites to the appropriate lists – more details on how to do that will follow later, because we want information in a certain format so we don’t have to make creating these files our life’s work.
Please read the Comment Policy for the Rules of the Road at Balloon Juice. (As soon as John finishes it.)
Edit: I thought you guys would get tired or ask for cookies if I gave you the whole tour at once. Additional tours this weekend or next week.
Elizabeth Warren Is Doing Something Right
Here’s my first contribution from this side of things. Let’s see if it works.
So far today, two billionaires have become very upset.
I took a screenshot of the Blankfein tweet because I figured that someone would tell him about the racism and he would take it down, but it’s been up for four hours now.
Turd Bevin Finally Concedes
Of course, being the turd he is, he has to be a whining piece of shit on the way out:
Despite conceding, Bevin reiterated his claim Thursday that thousands of absentee ballots were improperly counted, once again without presenting any evidence of his claims.
“These too would not change the outcome,” Bevin said. “It would change it by some thousands, but instead of it being now some thousands, it would be 1,000 or some hundreds but either way it would be the same end result.”
Bevin also took a swipe at the election process at the end of his remarks, saying Secretary of State-elect Michael Adams, a Republican, will have to make the process more transparent.
“There is not any real sense of transparency for how the voting process works,” Bevin said. “What you are going to see is that we do not have checks and balances.”
In case you can’t tell from my measured prose, this unsubstantiated voter fraud talk makes me really angry. Bevin lost a deep red state because voters went to the polls and split tickets to vote him out because even people who can tolerate assholes like McConnell and Trump can’t tolerate him. That’s a hell of an achievement on Bevin’s part, and it has nothing to do with the way ballots were cast, lack of transparency, the cost of tea in China, or the unsubstantiated but probably true allegation that Bevin’s anus is ringed by inflamed hemorrhoids. Good riddance.
Afternoon Fat Cat Open Thread
(No, not the easily-trolled fat cats who just can’t stop giving Sen. Warren free campaign ads…)
This found its way onto my Twitter timeline yesterday, and I just had to share it with y’all.
This story is what I wanted Ocean’s 8 to be https://t.co/cB4dMAgeGt
— Iva Dixit (@ivadixit) November 13, 2019
From the NYT…
When airline employees told Mr. Galin that his 22-pound cat, Viktor, was simply too heavy to fly in the passenger cabin on a flight to Vladivostok, in eastern Russia, he devised a plan to ensure his kitty did not wind up in the cargo hold.
…After asking friends for help, he then sourced a 15-pound feline called Fibi, describing her as an “understudy cat.”
When he presented the slimmer pet at check-in, she came under the airline’s limit of eight kilograms, or about 17 pounds… Mr. Galin and Fibi were approved for takeoff.
But unknown to Aeroflot and its staff, Mr. Galin swapped Fibi for his real pet, Viktor, before boarding the plane.
Cute, but there’s an even sillier moment buried in that piece:
The story of the cat swap became so widespread in Russia that it was even mentioned on Wednesday in a daily call between President Vladimir V. Putin and Russian journalists.
Mr. Putin said that the Kremlin did not comment about cats.
Such a terrible policy. One of his many, granted, but…
Open thread!
Surprise, Bitches!
Well, that’s how I was planning to make an entrance. Thanks for ruining it for me, John! *packs away the feather boa*
Some of you know me (in the internet way), some of you don’t (that’s fine). I’ve been a scurrilous member of the Balloonitariat for an unreasonably long amount of time that it’s best I don’t mention for fear of wondering what the heck was I thinking, loitering on internet corners that much instead of becoming a rich tech sociopath and undermining democracy for funsies.
That, by the way, is what I’m wondering about beloved blog host, JC, who must have been on some industrial grade crack to let me have the keys to this place. Ah, well. Too late now! On to the briefest of synopsis on me, your newest blog chew toy.
I am a Kingstonian, born in Jamaica, raised in the wilds of the Queens suburbs of NYC. Which makes me fussy and cynical. Skip ahead a couple of decades – whoa, the things you guys are missing out on. Like, wtf, Georgia? I studied photography & printmaking, becoming one of the first people using computer art, process cameras and silkscreening/photolitho and multiplate monoprints way back in the 1800’s or whenever. I put myself through college by working overnights in print shops and started up as a designer.
Things fall apart, as they do and suddenly I wind up in San Francisco. I was not granted a bikini and blond hair upon landing, which was surprise 1 & it was fucking cold, surprise 2. Started the design and production thing and that went on very well for a while until the economy went ass over teakettle under George “I only seem less horrible now, but I’m still horrible” W. Bush. So tits up everything went and hello, here I am in northernly NorCal that’s not quite so north I have snow, but northern enough that I wear sweaters.
I’m in a relationship with 2 weird cats who were rescued from a local parking lot as little feral kittens. They’re very pretty, a touch headstrong, but loving. Fun fact, I’m convinced all cats are really Japanese so mine tend to have Japanese names.
I’m under/unemployed at the moment, which means I spend a lot of time either looking for voiceover work, or hunting for design or video work. I’m the lead in a sci-fi audiodrama podcast, Ostium and seem to be accruing more podcast roles at a fast clip.
Right now, I’m participating in Script Dash, the screenwriter version of NaNoWriMo. So I won’t be very visible here unless I’m mad, bored while televising a local gov meeting or avoiding writing my script. Mostly, I’ll try to keep threads from getting musty, maybe say something useful or amusing and be boringly analytical. That’s all I got for now because I’m determined to log 10 pages tonight so I’m caught up auditioning for next month’s work while applying for work. Here’s an open thread, have at it. No nudity in the comments please. But if your boss says it’s ok at work, go for it.
Come on Down to the Site Update Thread!
The developers are terrific. They worked 12 hours yesterday getting the site rolled out.
Some issues are already fixed, and others are being worked on as we speak.
FIXED
- Media Library problems for front-pagers
- On the Road couldn’t find images because of the Medial Library issue.
- Email addresses not being saved.
- URL not being saved.
BELIEVED TO BE FIXED, BUT WE NEED CONFIRMATION FROM YOU GUYS
- Reply box sometimes not showing @commenter
IS THIS STILL AN ISSUE?
- new comment sometimes doesn’t show up until you manually refresh
WORKING ON THESE
- “you have been blocked!” when trying to embed a tweet
Please consider the following as if it were in ALL CAPS, BOLD and BRIGHT RED. Oh, and FLASHING!
If you are having issues and want them to be worked on, please provide device specifics: hardware, operating system, browser
Breaking: Saugus High School Shooting
Shooter at Saugus HS. Several injured. LASD resources on site and searching for suspect. Will be locking down area schools. Advise residents to shelter in place and report any suspicious activity
— Undersheriff Tim Murakami (@LASDMurakami) November 14, 2019
There’s been another school shooting. This time at Saugus High School in Santa Clarita, CA. The LA County Sheriffs Office is currently reporting 3 wounded dead. The other schools in the area are on lockdown as the shooter is still at large.
#LASD The following surrounding schools are on lock down Highlands Elementary and Rosedale Elementary in Santa Clarita Valley. https://t.co/unZtMYRrmG
— LA County Sheriffs (@LASDHQ) November 14, 2019
This is an active shooter situation. The suspect described to be a male Asian, black clothing is outstanding.
— SCV Sheriff (@SCVSHERIFF) November 14, 2019
AS A PRECAUTION, ALL SCHOOLS IN WILLIAM S HART DISTRICT ARE BEING PUT ON LOCKDOWN.
— SCV Sheriff (@SCVSHERIFF) November 14, 2019
Here’s the live feed from NBCLA Channel 4:
More to follow as it comes in.
Updated at 11:48 AM EST
This is still a very active situation. Reports of approximately 5 victims being treated. Parents, deputies are on scene everywhere protecting your children.
— SCV Sheriff (@SCVSHERIFF) November 14, 2019
.@LASDHQ tells us weapon was recovered. Unclear if shooter had any other weapons. Anyone near Saugus High School is told to lock doors, call 911 if you see someone suspicious #saugus #schoolshooting https://t.co/Y0c4z1I9Sa
— Adrian Arambulo (@AdrianNBCLA) November 14, 2019
And MSNBC’s Pete Williams has just reported is that law enforcement authorities have informed reporters that the suspect has been found and is no longer a threat, but he is unclear what “no longer a threat” means. And while there are five wounded, there are no fatalities, so that’s a revision.
LA County officials revising number of victims to three. #saugus #schoolshooting @NBCLA https://t.co/IYOmaEfqmn
— Adrian Arambulo (@AdrianNBCLA) November 14, 2019
Updated at 12:40 PM EST
I had to step away for a bit, but here are the most recent updates.
First, the number of victims has been revised again.
UPDATE: Six students are hospitalized after they were shot by a classmate at Santa Clarita's Saugus High School, sheriff says. https://t.co/S0aBKHeSD3 pic.twitter.com/1cEc1ocjAz
— NBC Los Angeles (@NBCLA) November 14, 2019
And the suspect has taken his own life.
UPDATE: Suspect in California high school shooting is dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, @PeteWilliamsNBC reports on @MSNBC.
— NBC News (@NBCNews) November 14, 2019
Update at 12:43 PM EST
The latest information on the suspect from the LA Sheriffs Office contradicts Pete Williams reporting that the suspect is dead.
Update regarding the shooting at #SaugusHigh, suspect is in custody and being treated at a local hospital.
— Alex Villanueva (@LACoSheriff) November 14, 2019
Pete Williams is correcting his reporting on air as I type this.
Update at 1:22 PM EST
The Henry Mayo Hospital also says there are two male victims in critical condition and one male victim in good condition. #NBCLA #saugushighshooting
— Rick Montanez (@RickNBCLA) November 14, 2019
Open thread!