Hope you guys are enjoying a nice long weekend.
#RIP
Unknown WWI soldier, found a century later, will now be buried with honors
https://wapo.st/43xVbC6 (gift link)
Debt deal in reach:
What’s in the McCarthy-Biden deal to lift the debt ceiling? Here are 6 takeaways.
https://wapo.st/3C1AUcA (gift link)
nOboDy WaNts tO wOrk!
Police agencies are desperate to hire. But they say few want the job.
https://wapo.st/3oCoRiO (gift link)
Ha, good luck
Elon Musk pulls Twitter from EU Code against disinformation
An EU official warns Twitter that “you can run but you can’t hide” after the move.
https://mashable.com/article/elon-musk-twitter-eu-code-disinformation
Oh that would be cool!
‘There were no rules down here’: New York resurrects popular skate park
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/may/28/brooklyn-banks-skateboarding-gotham-park
NSFW
We are not the same https://t.co/3gPzCcBX8x
— Mt. St. Helens (@MtStHelensWA) May 28, 2023
Have a great day then!
My work is only beginning! I told you that Darren invited Larry Tate over today. Plans have changed, and Mr. Tate will be arriving at 11 am, not for dinner. Larry is flying in from…I think San Francisco. No doubt I’ll learn more. I’m actually very eager to meet this woman (“Larry Tate”) because I’ve heard them talking on speakerphone (of course) and she sounds much more intelligent than the gibberish that comes out of the mouths of network news pundits. I have a couple of ideas that I’m going to run by her myself. Darren also told me that Larry is also like 4 feet tall, surely he’s exaggerating, but just in case I’m going to make sure that everyone is seated, in the living room, at the dining table, at the island bar in the kitchen, up on the roof, wherever, just to make the playing field as level as possible.
Good luck Sam.
She’s here! Flight was early. When does that ever hapen? Larry showed up at 10. She’s absolutely delightful. Darren and Larry just left to take the dog on a tour of the neighborhood. It’s a good thing that we’re getting along so well because we have her until 4 or 5 pm apparently. I haven’t even scratched the surface of the many questions I have and the many stories I could tell. Poor Darren. I’m on my best behavior but Larry and I are doing all the talking.
The whole debt ceiling mess has only exposed how weak McCarthy is. The fire breathers wanted a crash, and if they didn’t get it, gigantic tax cuts, slashed benefits, and an end to the Green New Deal pieces the Democrats passed.
And they all wanted the spectacle of Democrats attacking Biden.
What they’re getting is much more division on their side due to the relatively small concessions Biden made and shrug inducing stuff for them on the campaign trail.
And by going to the mat so early and blinking, McCarthy has shown his weakness for future fights.
One interesting theory I read is that the Fed has the authority to backstop the debt even if the Treasury technically went into default. Another strong possibility is that business lobbyists told McCarthy that default simply was not an option. But it sure seems like McCarthy is just as weak as the Speaker election showed.
Kev McCarthy thought he was a lion, but he’s just a Gazelle in Lion’s fur. The Hyenas of the Q/Stupid/Dipshit/Traitor caucus led Mango Tango Gringo will chase Kev down and maul him.
Kev, last of the so-called “young” guns will not be going out in a blaze of glory more the shame of infamy.
I’m not sure McCarthy even knows who he is. He’s always been whatever his bosses tell him he is, but the party is splitting between toads and flies.
…they got some of their work requirements in there…& manchin got his more-extractive-fossil-fuel-licenses…so some of the concessions were significant in at least some senses of the term if not particularly in a political capital one
…wouldn’t be overly surprised if, say, fetterman wouldn’t vote for it on account of the work requirements thing, though…so I don’t know what odds to give it getting through both houses?
…& much as I’m here all day for dunking on kev…is there anyone that wouldn’t get burned the same way by the burn-it-down brigade?
…they’re that dumb that they think there’s a virtue in advocating that the US behave towards its creditors as though it’s bankrupt…out of vague principles they declare unacceptable because they *risk* bankrupting the state
…it’s logic so circular it’s a wonder they don’t get dizzy & fall over just thinking about it…though I suppose that would require them to think…so…they’re most likely immune?
When a leader is in a no win situation, it’s absolutely critical to stop focusing on getting through the next month. They have to build a faction they can fall back on to weather the storm and then try to mount a comeback.
McConnell did it in 2009, and he is trying to move that way now. He has a subcaucus of Trumpists who are just as much toadies as the House weirdos, and the Senate is much, much harder to bring together than the House. The rules give Senators far more opportunities to flaunt leadership, and yet nobody denies McConnell is the boss of the GOP there.
For that matter, Pelosi was able to build loyalty and respect back when the Democrats were in the minority that enabled her to keep her caucus together. She was able to maneuver through challenges from both the remaining Blue Dogs and more liberal members, and to the disappointment of much of the DC establishment, “Dems in disarray!” never took off.
McCarthy showed this week how useless all of his putzing around has been. He has no options now because he has been failing for years.
…sure…& like ’em or not the other two were effective in that regard
…but my question remains if not kev…who in the current crop of GOP types could fulfill that role effectively… because it seems like several of his problems are more about people that aren’t him…so they’d be problems for anyone in that position as things stand
…& I wonder who has a better chance of getting those ducks to line up in a row when they need to?
I think it’s less a question about the elected people and more of a question about the background power players in the GOP. I think part of McConnell’s power comes from his ability to have some serious money players in his back pocket, which insulates his candidates from pressure from people like the Uihleins and Thiels.
Like I said, one possible explanation of McCarthy essentially cashing in his chips early is that there’s a long overdue movement on the funder side. There may be slow waking up to the financial damage they’re facing if they don’t finally try to contain the infection, among at least enough of them to finally act as a counterweight to the ultrarightists.
I don’t want to make this sound like some kind of rosy scenario. Having some Mitch McConnell student emerge with corporate and billionaire funding to run the House is awful, awful stuff. But I think a movement — theoretical at this point, to be sure — presents opportunities for good people to exploit for the benefit of the whole.
It’s just one scenario out of many, of course, but I think whatever happens we’ll have some big surprises.
…I think I get what you mean but the “it’s less a question […] more a question” part threw me a little since “it” was arguably my question that I repeated twice & still have to which that is a tangential response rather than any kind of answer
…I get the context & the part where who’s who & says what in the wings could very well be the determining factor…but that just reinforces the part where it doesn’t seem to me like there’s anyone who could be speaker to that crop that wouldn’t share a lot of mccarthy’s problems when it comes to whipping votes
…anyone who can guarantee the votes he can’t is going to be deep in with the crazies so seems unlikely they’d even muster the results he has…so…I still wonder who has any shot at being better at herding those cats?
Ultimately though Joe fucked up by negotiating with terrorists instead of calling their bluff and telling Yellin to just mint the goddamned coin. They have the authority and they needed to fucking use it instead of giving ground just so we can be the Deal Maker. Now it’ll be the same old bullshit going forward.
…I figure you’re right & all but I don’t really understand why the whole debt ceiling standoff has been held onto…or why given that it hasn’t been put out of everybody’s misery they didn’t take a swing at this before the mid-terms
…got to assume there’s a reason but I don’t know how they ran out two years’ worth of clock on things they thought were a higher priority when the only unpredictable part of the current scenario is how many of the professionally stupid are actually stupid…& whether that’s a big enough number to dump everybody over the cliff
…seems like there’s various hail mary ways to try to mitigate the damage & keep the wheels on if it comes to that…but…even that is going to leave some seismic repercussions?
Nelo Kums is a lesson in hubris.
…it’s morbidly interesting that both he & some of the AI lot seem to think that claiming they can’t abide by the EU regs somehow isn’t the same as saying “it’s essential to our business model & profitability that we break the laws you’re suggesting so those are clearly unfair requirements to impose”
…which seems like a major admission?
Elmo is going down. It’s going to take a while, but he’s going down. It’s just an unending drumbeat of failures, from exploding rockets to nonfunctioning Twitter “town halls.” More and more stockholders are going to get seriously sick of his bullshit, and that’s what will do him in. He was really only useful for his tech bro “cachet,” and that’s rapidly evaporating. Every dismal failure exposes him as a fraud.
If he lost the government subsidies (tax credits for people buying his cars, NASA funding paying for SpaceEx, etc etc), he’d go belly up very very fast.