Hey gang, hope everyone is having a pretty good week so far!
Noice
US House passes bill to avert government shutdown
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/nov/14/government-shutdown-mike-johnson-proposal
Maybe they should shut down so they can FIGHT
‘Clean shot to the kidneys’: Burchett accuses McCarthy of hallway scuffle
https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2023/11/14/tim-burchett-kevin-mccarthy-hallway-scuffle-intv-sot-manu-raju-cnc-vpx.cnn
Stonks!
Stock futures tick higher after S&P 500 and Nasdaq post best day since April: Live updates
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/11/14/stock-market-today-live-updates.html
Sprots!
USWNT appoints Chelsea’s Emma Hayes as coach on record deal|https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/38841805/uswnt-appoints-chelsea-emma-hayes-coach-record-deal
We don’t deserve dogs
Colorado hiker missing for months found dead with his dog still alive by his side
https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/14/us/colorado-hiker-missing-dog-alive/index.html
Baby muskox!
Have a great day!
Welcome to reality, Mike, where you are now the one who has to be responsible and not just throw bullshit hand grenades and temper tantrums. Whoops, you need those filthy, evil, Democrats to get your bill passed. I can’t wait for the fallout and the complaints that you’re not a “real” conservative. Which honestly is probably correct because real conservatives don’t WANT to govern. They just want to burn shit down.
Love that Bernie was the adult in the room. “You’re a US Senator. Act like it.”
In some ways, the Democrats’ weakness is that they really, truly want the government to function so they will always offer a helping hand. I am not opposed to that because a lot of people are hurt if the government shuts down, but if they really were like “Nah, you all need to pass a real budget, we’re not gonna throw you any life lines” then we’d really get to put the rubber to the road for all the sniveling, selfish fascists who vote for this very thing suddenly having to worry about their Social Security check showing up. Bet that tune would change right quick.
This is the Roodles Ghouliani love tap all over again.
In the shoving undercard both sides are dicks. You don’t shove someone under polite circumstances. And don’t exaggerate the injury, wimpy.
As for Markwayne, no maturity. Can’t even face the fact he is a nepobaby.
Republicans have realized that the wheels have come off the fascism bus, and they’re growing more and more hysterical and unhinged. They have no plan other than “double down on fascism” and it’s failing badly. Comer’s gibbering response to Moskowitz, these stupid brawls breaking out in Congress, sniping and backbiting and generally crazed behavior, all of it is from the pressure of constantly losing and being unable to “accomplish” anything. Trump can’t save them, DeSantis can’t save them, nobody can or will help them.
The ridiculous thing is that even when they’re given an off ramp, they’re too stupid to take it. See the Ohio referendum on abortion. Normal people would say “the voters have spoken and the matter is settled” and move on to giving tax breaks to billionaires. But the Republicans there are scheming to subvert the amendment, which has already been proven to be political suicide.
There’s nobody left who can say, wait, maybe if we compromise we can salvage something. Nope, compromise is a dirty word and they’ll go down with the ship rather than be part of it.
The thing is: people still elect these idiot motherfuckers, and in enough numbers to continue doing considerable damage.
Looks like I have a strike to honor:
‘You can’t beat us’: Starbucks workers to strike in ‘Red Cup Rebellion’
No. 1 with a bullet:
Russia and Israel lead global surge in attacks on civilian water supplies
Hang him high:
Idaho judge issues new arrest warrant for far-right activist Ammon Bundy
The Starbucks thing really pisses me off. They’re whole game plan, ever since the first elections, was to just stonewall the union and run out the clock so they can decertify. That is fucking bullshit. Unfortunately, it also appears to be entirely legal, because America.
They’ve gone judge shopping to try to block a new NLRB rule that overturns a Trump era rule insulating companies like Starbucks from union rules.
https://www.reuters.com/legal/business-groups-sue-us-labor-board-block-contract-franchise-worker-rule-2023-11-09/
It’s worth remembering the next time insulated DC and NYC reporters say clueless things about the GOP backing working class Americans. There are good reporters on local beats who get how the dynamics work, and what the GOP’s demographics really are, but there are a lot of dolts in top positions in the press who see everyone outside their sphere as a knuckle dragger.
Anti-Christ says what?
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2023/11/pastor-john-hagee-says-an-israel-palestinian-peace-deal-will-be-the-work-of-the-anti-christ/
You know what? Good. Senators aren’t special. Tear down the whole idea that these people are elite in any way. I’d love to remove the lingering bias in their favor because they’re “distinguished” and wear suits and various other codes for pleasant, rich and white. If Markwayne — and LMAO, “Markwayne” — wants to show what a big, strong man he is, let him be the shitty, dumb asshole we all know he really is under that “Sen.” tag in front of his name.
…it’s probably wrong of me…but…I can’t help but feel that picking a fight with the teamsters is…not exactly a big-brained tactic…what’s that line from get carter?
…you’re a big man but you’re out of shape – with me it’s a full-time job…now, behave
…I dunno…the actual teamster guy in question didn’t look like he was in peak condition…but…I think my money would still have been against markwayne?
Men like that are always dumb little pissants. Beating your chest to prove how tough you are means inside you realize you’re a sniveling coward. Fascists pretty much always are!
And whether or not specifically the Teamster in question could take Markwayne — god, again LOL, I’ll never get tired of that — maybe check the direction of the wind to see that unions keep winning in big ways with pretty enormous levels of public support and maybe now is not the time to pick a fight?
Markwayne is the sort who drives a damn Pavement Princess of a truck, which will never haul a damn thing except *air* in that truck bed and who *talks* a big game (like Elmo daring everyone and their brother to a fight in a ring–while then claiming he “needs time to heal up” first…
The short dudes who get drunk & try to provoke the quiet tall dude sitting at the bar.
They’re bullies & privileged kids who grew up never *needing* to fight their OWN fight, because mommy & daddy always bailed them put, *or* they had a “family name” to hide behind.
Just *once,* I’d looooove to see an asshat like that *have* to put his money where his mouth is….
I have the feeling, he’d drop like a sucker-punched Richard Spencer😉😂🤣😈
Obligatory because this brings me joy. Always.
Pavement Princess? Ha!
I grew up in a rural area surrounded by battered rusty trucks that hauled everything from stones to manure. That’s a pickup truck.
Not the clean, fresh smelling trucks that don’t do much except haul butts around.
I know that type. Always bragging about their “fighting” skills and how tough they are. Right up to go time.
Faced a Korean version who bragged about his TaekwonDo skillz at Teenage Korean camp and I didn’t get along with because he wouldn’t stop making fun of me (well I was a dork, but I wasn’t going to take shit.) One day we went at it and he landed a pretty damn good first punch to my cheek (fucking stung for a few days), but he didn’t react well when I attempted to clothesline him and throw him to the ground (not all the way Coach taught me to wrestle, but so be it.)
Got him a chokehold in about 30 (?) seconds and would have gladly choked him out (was trying to kick his feet out from under him in one of the dirtier chokeholds-trying to use his weight to cut off his air supply) but my roommates pulled us apart before he went purple.
After that he left me alone.
In a futuristic view, I figured out what MMA fighters would find out a couple of decades later that Taekwondo isn’t worth shit unless you have distance between you and your opponent and you keep that distance otherwise there is no good defense close in against someone who knows Jujitsu or how to wrestle.
Told a friend last night, I would pay for cable again if it meant I could watch Markwayne get yard-saled on C-SPAN.
…so…I kinda assume I’ll never truly get the ways that people take seriously interpretations of the 2nd amendment that just don’t sound remotely credible to me based on the language of the thing…let alone the context when it was written compared to the current state of the availability &/or requirements for firearms in people’s day to day life
…but…I think this might be the closest parallel I’ve yet come across?
…that 100% sounds like some absolute black-is-white 1+1=5 bullshit…even if they actually were trying to protect freedom of faith/worship…they seem to have been pretty clear that allowing religious interests to rule in a political context was inimical to getting either freedom of conviction or a state that wouldn’t wind up being the very sort they just crossed the world to get shut of
…but this shifty, grifty asshole who can’t seem to concoct answers to financial questions that don’t make him look george santos levels of shady consistently says, more or less literally, that what he’s interested in is a full on state capture by evangelical sectarian nutters…& that the voting public should consider that a righteous crusade…what are they gonna do…evict the money lenders & blow up the markets…clearly not…& they aren’t much interested in rendering to caesar that which is caesar’s, either
…when do we get to start calling these people the definition of un-american?
See, your problem here is that there is a supposition that reality and facts mean, literally, anything to these fucking nutbags. The only thing–THE ONLY THING–they ever give a shit about is their right wing bullshit. Once you accept that, it’s much easier to see how/why they can keep spewing their crap all day long with a straight face–and not care that the world is burning around them. It also frees us to the reality that you truly can’t negotiate with terrorists, which means Democrats have to–for the fucking love of God–stop acting like they should even bother including those fuckers in ANY policy discussion about ANYTHING. If Democrats have the votes for something, then pass it as is. If they don’t, then “reaching across the aisle” will do nothing but give those pieces of shit legitimacy that they don’t deserve. The best option at that point is to just call a terrorist a terrorist and tell the public if they want certain things out of their government, they will never, ever, ever, ever get them by electing terrorists.
…in fairness my confusion is more with the part where other people give them credence…not that they’re high enough on their own supply to keep a straight face…but otherwise…that’s pretty much an amen from me?
That is true. Who is the bigger problem: the insane person with the blowtorch, or the sane person who thinks if he can just get the crazy person to turn down the blowtorch a single notch everything will be fine?
This is an interesting piece by Dave Weigel, who is one of the better sources of reporting from the ground level, rather than the DC-sourced reporting of most political hacks.
https://www.semafor.com/article/11/14/2023/what-happened-to-woke-how-the-rights-rallying-cry-faded-away
I think it does a good job capturing how little traction “woke” has among the GOP rank and file, and how Democrats have often managed to defuse the issue by keeping their focus on nuts and bolts on popular issues like public education.
I think it misses one key feature about Trump’s loss of focus — he’s busy creating a much more personal vision of persecution. He doesn’t want to waste time claiming Democrats are undermining school boards, he wants the whole election to be attacks on Democrats for a supposed vendetta against him.
I also doubt the paranoia will go away on the activist level for a long time. As long as fundamentalists are a critical part of the GOP’s shock troops, the GOP will be waging a culture war against their demons of LGBTQ people, feminists, accurate history, sex education, and whatever else infects their brains.
I think this obsessiveness may fade over time, in the same way that Southern Baptists stopped pushing alcohol prohibitions, but it’s not happening soon. And if there’s an authoritarian takeover, it may get a lot worse.
…the semafor lot are interesting
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semafor_(website)
…but I think what he’s trying to do is split the difference by leaning as hard as he can on the idea that he’s effectively a surrogate for the bulk of his voters…they get invested because they identify with him like they do the hero of an action movie…the way, say, they’d like to think they’d pull off mel gibson’s role in ransom if their kid got kidnapped…since unlike liam neeson in the taken flicks he doesn’t have a lifetime of specially honed applicable skills
…so orangina angina takes every opportunity to flog the dead horse that he’ll do what they can’t to fight the man before the man comes for them the way it came for him…& let the fact that (for presumably at least some of them) they’d actually be innocent of the things he’s charged with do the work of papering over the part where he so very clearly isn’t by virtue of the same trick dramaturges use to get the view to imagine themselves the protagonist of a piece…so he gets a twofer on the personalized stakes thing…while still being able to rely on them to only retain the parts that push their buttons & not trip over any of the mutually contradictory stuff he also says & does?
Which, so far, seems to be working exactly as planned.
Even if the rank and file don’t get fired up over woke that certainly doesn’t seem to stop the elite idiots from saying it every five seconds.
I think semantics plays a role here as well. “Woke,” as a concept, is tough to define. You’ve got to have clear-cut villains to motivate MAGAs. They don’t operate on metaphors, abstractions, or generalities. That’s why Trump doesn’t bother with the term — he’s just out there labeling people as “vermin,” abandoning coded language, and making his hate speech explicit. That’s what resonates with MAGAs.
TLDR: MAGAs ain’t bright. You gotta spell out your hate or they won’t get it.
If you don’t hit the right note with your dog whistle, it just sounds like a screech. A lot of the GOP just blows.
welp…in totally not related to anything news..that isnt news
i has made a discovery in my new life as guy what smokes out front coz the backdoor is held together by the power of suggestion
people dont listen to their doggos
out of all the dog walkers that walked by me this evening….. only one stopped to look at why the doggo was stopped and staring and found me…
everyone else just powered right on by
not smart to ignore your doggo (i mean…in a case of me its harmless….but they are telling you something when they do that)