…damn…I know I made a comment about how these might get shorter now we don’t have a news cycle full of this asshole
On Wednesday, Donald J. Trump did what many older New Yorkers do: He retired to Florida.
[…]
The wealthy have long sought to retreat from public life on this chichi barrier island. High society knows a thing or two about discretion, and one could hardly pick a better place for seclusion than a luxurious oceanfront mansion during the glorious South Florida winter.But in seeking refuge in Florida, as so many have done before him, Mr. Trump may find that some in Palm Beach are not exactly eager to embrace the former president as a full-time neighbor, not after he incited a mob of his supporters two weeks ago to storm the U.S. Capitol.
From Commander in Chief to Interloper in Palm Beach [NYT]
[…]
No local leaders met Mr. Trump at the airport, as they might have on an official visit. Only a small group of supporters, many of them former campaign volunteers, waved silently when he walked off the plane. CNN did not carry Air Force One’s landing live.
[,,,]
Several of Mr. Trump’s children and associates are also decamping to South Florida. Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, have reportedly acquired a property on the exclusive island of Indian Creek, north of Miami, and rented an apartment in nearby Surfside. Donald Trump Jr. and his girlfriend, Kimberly Guilfoyle, have been spotted house-hunting in Jupiter, where The Palm Beach Post reported that some neighbors were already objecting to the couple’s possible presence.
[…]
If Mr. Trump intends to live here permanently, there is likely to be some friction. He signed an agreement with Palm Beach in 1993 that said Mar-a-Lago, a private social club, could not be used as a full-time residence, and some neighbors have pressed Palm Beach officials to enforce the pact. Local reporters spotted moving trucks outside of Mar-a-Lago earlier in the week.
…although
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/duty-police-were-part-capitol-mob-some-police-unions-feel-they-can-t-back-them
…well
…there’s a lot to make right
…so…you know what else might make that difficult?
…well, okay
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/01/20/biden-fires-nlrb-peter-robb
…what apart from the endless fuckery of the GOP?
Could 100 days of mask-wearing change the course of the pandemic in the US?
The new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday that the Covid-19 vaccine would not be widely available by late February as the Trump administration previously said.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/new-cdc-director-says-covid-vaccine-won-t-be-in-every-pharmacy-by-late-february
Vaccine supply crunch hits just as distribution ramps up
President Biden, pledging a “full-scale wartime effort” to combat the coronavirus pandemic, signed a string of executive orders and presidential directives on Thursday aimed at combating the worst public health crisis in a century, including new requirements for masks on interstate planes, trains and buses and for international travelers to quarantine after arriving in the United States.
“History is going to measure whether we are up to the task,” [NYT]
[…]
In a 200-page document released earlier Thursday called “National Strategy for the Covid-19 Response and Pandemic Preparedness,” the new administration outlines the kind of centralized federal response that Democrats have long demanded and that President Donald J. Trump refused.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/dr-anthony-fauci-says-he-now-feels-liberated-speak-freely-about-pandemic
…it’ll be because if the last couple of days are anything to go by the new administration is going to do more in a week than the last lot did in a year
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/20/joe-biden-executive-orders-day-one
…or, hell…the whole damn term
President Biden is expected on Friday to significantly increase federal food assistance for millions of hungry families among executive actions intended to stabilize the deterioration of the economy weighed down by the raging coronavirus pandemic.
President Biden to increase federal food benefits among executive actions aimed at stabilizing U.S. economy [WaPo]
[…]
A separate unilateral move aims to help get previously approved stimulus checks into the hands of Americans who haven’t received them yet. And another would ask the Labor Department to make clear that workers who refuse to return to working conditions that could expose them to the coronavirus should be eligible for unemployment insurance.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2021/climate-environment/biden-climate-environment-actions
Biden Orders Sweeping Assessment of Russian Hacking Even While Renewing Nuclear Treaty [NYT]
…assuming they get a chance
…& speaking of obstructive delays as a go-to move
…same old, same old
https://www.propublica.org/article/national-debt-trump
…but let’s not get downhearted…that’s for other people now
Over the past year, former President Donald J. Trump’s family business suffered steep declines in revenue as the pandemic upended the nation’s hospitality industry, according to a financial disclosure report released hours after Mr. Trump departed office on Wednesday.
Revenues for the Trump Organization fell nearly 38 percent in 2020 [NYT]
…feedback is a bitch
…plus…it’s friday…& for those of us who still get days off that means it’s practically the weekend…so I’m going to go ahead & leave it there for now
…so here’s a pick me up while you’re waiting on that weekend to show up
It was I who naively commented that on Wednesday I was wondering what there would be to talk about now in the DOTs. How could I have forgotten our old friend Mitch McConnell, just overwhelmingly re-elected to a new six-year Senate term. He alone will keep us going until 2027.
I am normally the opposite of naive. I am in general cheery and optimistic, but deeply cynical. I don’t know why I said this, but I recently replied to my Better Half, after he complimented me for foiling some scheme, “I wasn’t born yesterday.” When my oldest brother was my age he was a grandfather three times over, and although I’m childless I am beginning to speak like one.
“You’ve very elderly, Mattie. With great age comes great wisdom. Tell me again where you were when you heard the Titanic went down, but before you do, how many yesterdays ago were you born?” “That’s actually a really interesting question. Let’s see, there are 365 days in an average year, and I’m going to be X in a couple of months, plus there are leap years…” The answer: Just under 21,000. “Oh my God,” I gasped. “I’ll get you something. I picked up a load of lemon seltzer. Vodka and lemon to soothe his lord’s nerves?”
This is a more suitable subject for a NOT, but anyone else care to share approximately how many yesterdays ago they were born? Remember, age is just a number…
…see, now I’m torn about how to answer that…on the one hand there’s all sorts of fun to be had with various interpretations of philosophical hypotheses about time &/or identity/theory of mind…so according to one of xeno’s paradoxes even if you were in fact born yesterday there would still be an infinite amount of time that had passed since then…but according to mctaggart time is unreal anyway…& every cell in our bodies is apparently replaced over something like a seven year cycle…so it’s not exactly certain we’re the same person that we used to be…these are the sorts of pointlessly involved conversations I kind of enjoy & wouldn’t mind getting back to whiling away the hours with
…but the other seemingly endless cul de sac of headscratching conundrums is the problem personified by mitch mcconnell…& part of me wants to go down that route?
…if I understand the thing…& there’s a significant chance I do not, ultimately, understand the thing…on the one hand his side of the argument is that by threatening to incessantly use the procedural-objection-style of filibuster they can force harris to have to spend/waste her time presiding over the senate every damn day just to be able to break any number of votes that might plausibly end up in a tie since that’s the only set of circumstances in which she gets to cast that deciding vote (which is to say a tied vote where she is present)
…but at the same time (assuming the dem side of the aisle can pull together to force that tie) if they follow through on that threat it blows up in their face because then the GOP would lose any chance of coming out on top
…so both sides are essentially threatening the same thing while at the same time neither of them really want that to be the way things go…on the one hand it would make it hard to get anything done because the potential for time wasting is seemingly infinite…but on the other it would seem likely to deny the GOP any kind of a win…so not only does she almost certainly have better things to be doing with her time but even mitch would ultimately rather she was off elsewhere doing that stuff instead
…which leaves the power-sharing thing…which mitch successfully used previously to obstruct things to a degree schumer never seemed to as minority leader…& is why when murkowski made noises about caucusing for the other side I wound up trying & failing to get one or two people I know to see that in anything but a positive light “surely that’s just a bigger advantage for the dems, which can only be a good thing – what are you even going on about?”
…but oddly enough apparently I’m not paid to sit around all day playing with imponderables…which sucks for me but might be a relief to the rest of you?
The thing is, we have seen how fast stuff can get done [amy barret] when Mitch wants to do them. It’s back to the obstructionist playbook. Schumer can try it Biden’s way at first [kumbaya] but we know Mitch is going to play hardball, and he’ll have to answer in kind.
…yeah…& I want to be optimistic but the form guide doesn’t look great
…to some extent I end up hoping that the impeachment thing swings the right way & demonstrates to mitch & his minions that standing up & being counted when it comes to actually helping clean house & get some important shit done might be in their interests…you know…on account of how it’s basically in everybody’s interests…including them & the other mind-bent misanthropes who don’t seem willing to admit that?
For two years I had a next door neighbor who was studying at Columbia in the Philosophy Department. It was PhD level at least, if there’s something beyond PhD? He was from Europe so he was in his 30s (and still in school, and fully funded by the government, lucky guy.) His topic of study was Time as a philosophical construct. I knew that physics got into it but I never realized that time has been contemplated since man first became sentient. He was a fascinating guy but I never saw him around. He was super-serious and probably spent all his time lecturing, in one-on-one confabs with professors, or in the library.
…that sounds like someone who would be interesting to get to talk to…although I guess he might not share that view of the likes of me?
…I distinctly recall how unamused the poor guy stuck trying to give a lecture/tutorial was about that mctaggart thing when confronted (presumably for far from the first time) by students keen to point out that the universe was clearly unfair if they’d had to get up & make their way through the rain to attend a 9 o’clock lecture about how the wasn’t real when if they’d known that to begin with surely they could have stayed in bed until a civilised hour…like noon
I honestly don’t understand the argument for keeping the filibuster. Nuke it. Let government actually get shit done. Are we just strategizing for if Republicans eventually take back the senate? Because honestly, if we’re allowed to actually do some shit, get rid of voter suppression efforts and gerrymandering, that kinda seems unlikely anyway – Republicans have been the minority party for quite some time. But also just fundamentally, the filibuster is kinda bullshit.
…mostly I’d be inclined to agree but I do think I see butcher’s point about both options (keep/ditch) having potentially significant downsides to consider?
…like a lot of stuff it looks pretty different depending on the context…in a legislature operating on good faith in which it’s seen as a last resort to prevent something that ought to be prevented it would appear to have some merit…as a procedural cudgel to beat down the numerical advantage of those elected to a majority who are trying to get shit done today that needed to be done several yesterdays ago it comes off as an albatross
…the one thing that seems certain is that with or without it the mcconnell’s of the world will do whatever they can to screw things up for the majority of the population in an attempt to keep the tail wagging the dog?
I’m just over 18,000 days, so still wet behind the ears.
I’m still torn over the legislative filibuster thing. I know there are plenty of liberals out there who have been screaming to get rid of it for ages. But, I’ve always been more of a long-term thinking person and therefore tend to look askance at permanent solutions to temporary problems–especially if those permanent solutions have the capacity to bite oneself in the ass down the road. Killing the legislative filibuster is one of those situations. You know damned well that the very second Republicans gain control of the Senate again, they will use it to fuck the country over at every turn. Once they gain control over both houses of Congress again, it will be a non-stop ass-fucking without lube while they hold the majority.
That being said, I know I’m one of the louder voices who bitches incessantly about how Republicans run Congress–especially the Senate–even when they are in the minority. So, maybe it is time to eliminate their ability to continue running things so we can actually get some constructive shit done for a change. I’m just not sure I’m willing to accept the certain payback that is to come. After all, look at how Trump and Mitch basically managed to turn the entire federal judicial branch into an arm of the Republican Party for the next several decades at minimum. We have that problem now because Democrats eliminated the filibuster for judicial nominees (minus the SCOTUS) in 2013. Mitch extended it to SCOTUS appointments when he became majority leader again as a logical extension of what we started. That’s why we have a permanent right-wing majority on the bench.
I just see no good options for this problem. Either we allow Republicans to continue operating in bad faith and obstructing actual progress at every turn, or we set ourselves up for a true dystopian future the minute we lose the majority in Congress. Is two years of progress (which honestly would probably only get us back to a reset from 2016) worth it? I don’t know.
The GOP will change the rules any time it suits them.
McConnell’s flip flop on Supreme Court nominations proves it.He invented a rule when Garland was nominated and broke it when ACB was nominated. And nobody in the GOP cared.
The only reason he didn’t kill the filibuster in the past four years is he only wanted to block legislation, not pass anything, and as long as he had the majority he didn’t need to filibuster anything to stop it.
It’s a holdover from the Jim Crow days when the racist Senators wanted to ensure not even the most tepid civil rights laws, like anti-lynching laws, could pass. The GOP will kill it when it suits their purposes, and it needs to go before then.
While racist senators certainly used it to their advantage, that wasn’t the purpose of the filibuster. It was, initially, a loophole that was created in the early 1800s when the Senate eliminated some procedural rules that were gumming up the process. The first time senators used the loophole was to block an attempt by President Jackson to overturn his censure. The modern filibuster (requiring a 2/3 majority to end debate) was created during WW I to arm US merchant ships against German U-boats. The 60 vote majority we have today was adopted in the 70’s to pull some of the power away from the filibuster.
Ultimately, the traditional filibuster isn’t used anymore. Minority party senators aren’t going all Jimmy Stewart for hours at a time–they are mostly (especially Republicans) just threatening to filibuster and Democrats immediately cave in. I think that enforcing an actual filibuster, plus changing the rules so that the filibuster must be relevant to the motion on the floor (rather than just reading the phonebook or some other bullshit), would maintain the Democrats’ ability to avoid getting railroaded the next time they are in the minority, while making it harder for Republicans to keep obstructing progress. You’d have to put up with some grandstanding to rile up the knuckledraggers, but forcing them to debate the merits of the motion would mean they could delay legislation but not block it.
Mitch doesn’t really need to eliminate the filibuster when he becomes majority leader again because he can ram shit through pretty successfully. There are enough chickenshit Democrats who are more worried about trying to pick up Republican votes in their next election, than doing the right thing, to keep things humming along. After all, Mitch has had plenty of opportunities to kill it and he never did. It’s not because of any high-minded political ideal, but simply because he knows he can get what he wants through the Senate when he needs to. When was the last time they had a supermajority in the Senate? Hell, we had one and STILL couldn’t get the big shit passed because our own caucus has too many spinless assholes and/or assholes who are more interested in advancing their political power over helping the country.
…tying it to talking about stuff that might pass for relevant debate of the motion in question would be a great thing…as indeed would be something similar in regards to what you can track onto a particular bill in the first place
…sadly I’m not sure I give either possibility much chance of happening…but if it could be done I think that combo might be almost as positive a step as it would be to somehow cut out the dark money or stop people being able to launder bullshit misinformation through social media to a highly targeted audience of potential voters
…my guess is if they had to stick to the point & bills were a “does what it says on the tin” kind of a deal in the first place it would pretty swiftly seem like a whole new ball game…but I don’t know enough about sport to know how bad a metaphor that might be so I’m going to stop the wishful thinking before I get entirely carried away
The only way we get anything other than executive orders done is kill the filibuster. Pass the voting rights act and you will never have the Rethuglicans have power again. They will scream and yell but the amount of stuff that helps actual people will win over many of the Romney/Sasse kind of old school GOPers.
https://newrepublic.com/article/160946/biden-democrats-filibuster-nuclear-option
This is where I could see eliminating the filibuster as an actual long term solution–if we can pass enough civil rights legislation in the next two years to make it almost impossible for Republicans to win majorities again. The trick, of course, would be to get that shit enacted in time to have an impact on the next election.
I second blue dogcollar – whether we do it or not will not impact whether the GOP does it when they’re in charge. They change the rules whenever it suits them. Time for us to make some actual progress for once rather than letting them rule from the minority. I’m optimistic the next two years will be more progress beyond just a reset to 2016. The last four years have exposed a ton of problems with our system that are getting significant attention now and proposed solutions.
Sorry, I’m really really bored, but it’s Friday, so let’s focus on fun.
The Better Half is highly amused that I am a little over a year older than him, and jokes about my advanced age are evergreen for him. His mind can, at at times, be as quirky as my own. This is one of my favorites.
One night years ago we had people over for dinner, as we often
dodid. While we were sitting around having just finished dessert he said, “Did you know Mattie was in a movie?”“Better Half…”
“Yes, he was a chorus boy in ‘Broadway Babies of 1933.’ There’s this brief tap dancing sequence…”
I threw my napkin at him across the table and said, “That’s enough, I’m cutting you off. I’ll put some coffee on. I’m taking the dog out for a walk. All you smokers, come with me, we’ll take a break. The rest of you can sit here and listen to my husband’s alcoholic deliriums.”
Okay I’ll bite… This Chinese New Year will be the third time my Zodiac animal, the Ox, rolls around for me. I
am stillused to be childishly resentful that my parents did not strategize my conception to birth me during a Tiger or Dragon year because obviously that’s how family planning works.Zodiac Animals Ranked by childhood me: Tiger, Dragon, Dog, Horse, Pig, Rat, Snake, Ox, Rabbit, Goat, Rooster.
@HammerZeitgeist, oh oh I know this – Earth Dog here. Chinese New Year is February 4th, my Feng Shui cures are at the ready, and I will be sure to sit/sleep in an auspicious facing position. I’m not playing the number of days age game, because I’m pretty sure I’d win.
I’m a fire rabbit, which I’ve always felt describes my personality well 🙂
Wait… Third time after your birth year or including? Trying to figure out if you’re a year off from me or over a decade younger…
Third time after my birth year 😉 yay I’m not the only baby of the group!
pig here…lol
nother 10 years to go till my zodiac comes along for the fourth time (not counting birthyear)
I woke up this morning and said to the cat, Chuck Schumer is going to have to grow a pair.
Part of the problem has been that recent Dem Majority Leaders looked and acted like wimps. Schumer, Reid, Daschle? Rep’s won’t take them seriously until they get a guy who looks and talks like Arnold Schwarzenegger.
…maybe arnie would lend chuck that conan sword of his…he might struggle to look the part but I guess the point might be…well…being able to bring the point to bear?
If he is worrying about the press, he needs to understand that the DC press is just a bunch of weak suckups to power, and exercising power is the best way to win them over, not accommodating their fawning over McConnell.
They are so eager to be seen as savvy players that they dodge any chance to do serious analysis and follow the flow of what the accepted wisdom says is savvy. They want to refile the stories they wrote eight years ago that got them pats on the backs from their colleagues, and the editors in particular loathe the possibility that they might need to learn about a new set of rules.
I had a hard day’s night. Finished my night shift rotation for the next month or so. I really hate it, but work pays the bills so I suck it up and head off to work.
Mostly a good week. I’ve been in a good mood all week (because of the Trump defenestration?). I’d like to think that outside politics doesn’t help my mood, but maybe.
GOPer Nazis feeling down? That’s caused by low “T”
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091020181257.htm
Having a hard time getting hard? Well blame low “T” and COVID, GOPers!
Lastly, I’m not shocked that Trump betrayed all the Nazi doofi by not pardoning them for sedition. They were never his “people.” His “people” are status loving money chasing narcissists like himself not Nazis with delusions of adequacy/power/intelligence.
…conversely a low t(-for-trump) count is definitely impacting my mood in a positive fashion
…but congrats for being done with the night-shift for a while…I used to know a few folks who worked a week-on-week-off overnight schedule & it fucked with them to an extent that only an extended period of familiarity with insomnia has really allowed me to understand…so I hope they pay you well because a properly functioning circadian rhythm is a precious thing…I’d almost go as far as to call it priceless?
I had to laugh when I found out that the insurrectionists thought that Trump was going to give them pardons. I can’t find the reference right now, but I distinctly remember that as the riot continued, Trump was embarrassed by how shabby and ridiculous his supporters looked. And Qanon Shaman thought he was getting a pardon? Not when Trump has actual criminal accomplices to protect.
My wife was “friended” a few days ago by a MAGA she knew in high school. Of course she didn’t know he was a MAGA until she accepted. He invited her to some group, and then went down a bizarre rabbit hole of MAGAts who are completely detached from reality. Some were posting pleas for Trump to pardon relatives, just like he was actually reading this thread (reading — yeah) and he actually cared.
She told me all this the next day — “Did you know that …” Well, yes, I did. I reminded her of the Texas teacher who was “reporting” illegals on Twitter to Trump, just like it was a crime tips line, and without realizing everybody could see.
The level of delusion among these people is stunning.
That’s probably one of the reasons why all those assholes were so happy mugging for the cameras. They figured they needed to show their buddy Trump they were there so he could pardon them.
It’s really great to wake up, scroll through my news feed, and the biggest scandal I see is that Kylie Jenner is wearing a crop top IN THE WINTER.
It’s going to be a long day… I was up at 6.30 after going to bed at 2. Kids don’t even have school today! Oh, well. Maybe an afternoon nap will happen.
I love the new press secretary. She is honest and personable but quick witted and not going to take these ass clowns shit!
https://www.rawstory.com/joe-biden-press-secretary/
I would also like to suggest we bring in Christopher Titus to speak at the impeachment…
…the penalty is death…or ten grand
…well, I’m not a big fan of the death penalty in general but they do claim allegiance to the party of law & order…so by all means hoist them on their own petard, I guess?
…gotta say, though…felony selfies…that’s a turn of phrase I think might stay with me…& dumb as some of these rhymes-with-petard types seem to be on that side of the aisle I think a sesame street themed explanation of the whole thing might be what the impeachment proceedings need
Solid understatement! But that absolute slew of sackings is a great start. And MyPillow is being dropped by a number of big retailers. This is a good Friday.
Worth waiting for… it’s Fur Face Friday!
https://backtalkvillage.blogspot.com/2021/01/fur-face-friday_22.html?m=1
…can we go ahead & assume once the fur faces arrive it’s officially the weekend?
Absolutely!
Well, shit.
https://apnews.com/article/mlb-baseball-atlanta-braves-hank-aaron-coronavirus-pandemic-0fa32aff826d18bbeb9efedd42cd81a2
I was just listening to Thom Hartmann and learned this amazing info that the caller is trying to get Ro Khanna to sponsor a bill to get America on this.
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/05/how-finland-is-fighting-fake-news-in-the-classroom/
That would be great. The article is fascinating:
“Finland’s government considers the strong public education system as a main tool to resist information warfare against the country,” says Marin Lessenski, Programme Director for European Policies at OSI-Sofia. Widespread critical-thinking skills and a coherent government response are key to resisting fake-news campaigns, he says.
In other news, Republican legislators in Florida want to expand the “school voucher” program that supports “charter schools.” Which involves ending more children to sham schools that don’t actually teach them.
https://www.salon.com/2015/01/01/exposing_the_charter_school_lie_michelle_rhee_louis_c_k_and_the_year_phony_education_reform_revealed_its_true_colors/
https://feaweb.org/news/press-release/florida-charter-schools-lack-proper-oversight/
The GOP is the opposite of the Finnish government. Republicans have been watering down the US educational system for 40-plus years, because a dumber electorate is one that will vote against its own interests and respond to emotional messages, no matter how illogical.
exactly! The whole thing w/ Texas choosing all the books for most of the U.S. is complete bullshit.
I meant sending children. But ending kinda works too.