Congress | First Draft

Dec 29 2021

Harry Reid & John Madden, R.I.P.

BERJAYA

I searched in vain for a picture of Harry Reid and John Madden together. Since they died on the same December day, I will always associate these two larger than life characters. There’s something else they shared: They were great Americans.

The featured image shows the principals with the two people I associate most closely with them: Barack Obama and Harry Reid then Ken Stabler and John Madden.

Don’t get me wrong. I loved John Madden as a broadcaster. He was a rare breed: a colorful color commentator. But I will always think of Madden as the head coach of the Oakland Raiders from 1969-1979. My father and I agreed on very little but we shared a passion for the Raiders and their flamboyant coach and QB as you can see from my 2015 tribute to the Snake.

Madden retired from coaching at the age of 42 largely because he didn’t want to coach a Snake Stabler-less Raiders team. The coach and his QB were that close. They were the Sean Payton and Drew Brees of the Seventies.

This isn’t the first time I’ve paired an odd couple in a tribute. In 2019, it was John Paul Stevens and Jim Bouton. What I said about the Stevens-Bouton pairing applies to Madden-Reid:

You’re probably wondering why I paired Justice Stevens and pitcher/author Jim Bouton in a tribute. They’re both people I admired who died recently, that’s why. Besides, I’m notorious for my oddball combinations. It’s time to uncouple this Odd Couple; one that’s almost worthy of the late Neil Simon.

As I did in 2019, we’ll take them in order of demise and use their NYT obits as a framing device.

Breaking News: John Madden, the Hall of Fame football coach who became one of the most recognized ambassadors of the sport, died on Tuesday. He was 85. https://t.co/uBbon2nKip

— The New York Times (@nytimes) December 29, 2021

John Madden loved life and it loved him right back. He went from Super Bowl winning coach to superstar broadcaster and enjoyed every moment of it. To paraphrase the late, great Warren Zevon, he enjoyed every sandwich.

Madden once said that he never worked a day in his life. That’s how much he loved coaching and broadcasting. But Madden was as insightful as he was colorful. The NYT’s Ben Spiegel nailed it in his obituary:

In his irrepressible way, and with his distinctive voice, Madden left an imprint on the sport on par with titans like George Halas, Paul Brown and his coaching idol, Vince Lombardi. Madden’s influence, steeped in Everyman sensibilities and studded with wild gesticulations and paroxysms of onomatopoeia — wham! doink! whoosh! — made the N.F.L. more interesting, more relevant and more fun for over 40 years.

Madden was an uncommon football person. He was warm, gregarious, funny, and quirky. Most Super Bowl winning coaches are buttoned down, humorless, and irascible. John Madden was a character with a capital C. WHAM.

Breaking News: Harry Reid, the Democrat from Nevada who helped steer the Affordable Care Act to passage as Senate majority leader, died on Tuesday. He was 82. https://t.co/MTzW28MSB8

— The New York Times (@nytimes) December 29, 2021

Harry Reid was one of the greatest senators in American history. As a senate leader, he was *almost* as good as Lyndon Johnson who remains the gold standard for legislative leadership.

Reid was a plain-spoken blunt man. He was the rare politician who said what he meant and meant what he said.

His direct approach was rooted in his hardscrabble upbringing:

Even by the standards of the political profession, where against-the-odds biographies are common and modest roots an asset, what Mr. Reid overcame was extraordinary. He was raised in almost Dickensian circumstances in tiny Searchlight, Nev.: His home had no indoor plumbing, his father was an alcoholic miner who eventually died by suicide, and his mother helped the family survive by taking in laundry from local brothels.

Reid entered the senate as a conservative to moderate Democrat. He left the senate as a liberal lion. Why? He listened and evolved with the times. He listened to frustrated Democrats and turned against the filibuster because he wanted to get shit done. Helping people was Harry Reid’s jam.

Former Reid aide Adam Jentleson nailed the essence of his boss in this tweet:

Senator Harry Reid was about family. He never stopped asking about my son, who was born while I worked for him, and I know many others share this experience. His political superpower was comfort in his own skin: he didn’t much care what anyone except his family thought about him.

— Adam Jentleson 🎈 (@AJentleson) December 29, 2021

That reminds me of a short post I wrote about Reid in 2016. The title says it all: Zero Fucks Harry Reid Is The Best Harry Reid.

I paired Reid with Barack Obama because Reid encouraged the young senator to run for president and was an early supporter of his candidacy. Harry was just wild about Barry and the feeling was mutual:

When Harry Reid was nearing the end, his wife Landra asked some of us to share letters that she could read to him. In lieu of a statement, here’s what I wrote to my friend: pic.twitter.com/o6Ll6rzpAX

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) December 29, 2021

When Harry Reid entered politics, Nevada was a ruby red state. Reid’s organizational skills and staunch support of organized labor changed that. Nevada hasn’t voted Republican in a presidential election since 2004. The Silver State is currently represented by 2 Democratic senators and has a Democratic governor. Harry Reid did that.

Like John Madden, Harry Reid was a character with a capital C. What’s not to love about a pol who was a boxer as a young man?

BERJAYA

Harry Reid never lost that pugilistic edge. John Madden was a lover, not a fighter. But they were both badasses. In John Madden’s case, I know that because I read this swell book:

BERJAYA

That concludes this odd couple tribute to two men I admired. John Madden and Harry Reid made the world a better and livelier place. They will be missed.

The last word for this two-headed tribute goes first to Paul Simon for Harry Reid followed by The Kinks for John Madden:

Update: There’s a wonderful piece about Harry Reid at TPM Cafe by Bill Dauster one of his former aides. Who among us wouldn’t like having this said of them?

Harry Reid was a sweet man. Sitting at my desk outside his office, I saw his many kindnesses to people great and small. He would warmly greet me in the morning and wish me good night at the end of every day.

Dec 23 2021

2 Comments

Congress, COVID-19, Food and Drink, Jamie O, Political Crack

A Festivus For The Rest Of Us

This is pernil, and it will be amazing after being roasted for 4-5 hours on Saturday.

First off, The Reason for the Season, at least the reason for today (Festivus):

Yeah, I’d air my grievances but we’d be here a while. Lots of reasons for grievances, including one I’ll aim at a certain senator, with apologies to ol’ Charlie Dickens:

“Spirit! are they yours?” Manchin could say no more.

“They are Man’s,” said the Spirit, looking down upon them. “And they cling to me, appealing from their fathers. This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware of them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased. Deny it!” cried the Spirit, stretching out its hand towards the city. “Slander those who tell it ye! Admit it for your factious purposes, and make it worse! And bide the end!”

“Have they no refuge or resource?” cried Manchin.

“But they’ll use the child credit to buy drugs!” said the Spirit, turning on him for the last time with his own words. “They’ll use paid leave to just go hunting!”

P.S. The actual passage from “A Christmas Carol” is really something in how it remains relevant all these years later, including the part about slandering people who dare point out the ignoring of suffering.

So, there is lots to be doomscrollin’ pissed about right now, including Fake Good Old Boy Joe Manchin’s antics. But there are also some things to be happy about after today’s airing of grievances, moments of grace in a dark time. Right-wing Obsession Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez offered a very nice video that talks about 21 good things that happened in 2021.

Dear Dem communicators: This is very good. It’s upbeat, unifying, and achievement-focused, a template for future Democratic messages. I think she’s a very savvy politician, and if you see her during a hearing, watch her question people. She does not fool around with grandstanding.

And, as she shows in this video, her humanity always comes through in how much she really does care for the American people. For example, in the video, she includes that moment when a certain state’s U.S. senator ran off to Cancun during a massive state-wide power outage, and those darn divisive Democrats raised millions for them, including those “out of touch” big-city Congresspersons. We shouldn’t be shy about tooting our own horn in this way.

So yes, there are things to celebrate. The Democrats are seemingly ready to try to salvage Build Back Better, as Cassandra outlined here. People need it, and it’s good it’s not dead. And while Omicron is certainly scary, we are not slipping back to the dark days of March 2020. We are much better prepared.

My wife and I are celebrating at home on Christmas, with a traditional Puerto Rican Christmas dish, pernil. It’s already in the marinade, as the image above showed. Pernil is a slow-roasted pork shoulder, and something I remember Puerto Rican friends in my old neighborhood of York, Pennsylvania, eating around this time of year. The marinade is different in just about every recipe online as it’s one of those dishes that vary in every household, but my marinade includes sofrito, sour orange juice, and some other good things. With arroz con gandules (rice with pigeon peas) and tostones (flattened and twice-fried unripe sliced plantains which are marvelous), it makes for a merry feast.

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season, and a good 2022. We have a lot of work ahead of us as a nation, but nothing wrong with a recharging break and a celebration.

The last word goes to Vince Guaraldi, whose “Christmastime is Here” recently was the subject of a very nice “CBS Sunday Morning” piece.

Tagged Festivus, Holiday, Manchin

Dec 22 2021

Cassandra, Congress, JOEY B SHARK, Political Crack, So Called Liberal Media, Your President Speaks

The Squeaky Wheel Gets the Grease

BERJAYA

So as a lot of you know, Joe Manchin kind of lost it on Sunday morning and declared the Build Back Better Act dead, and if you missed the ins and outs of it, it was capably handled here at First Draft by Adrastos and JamieO.

I didn’t write anything about it because I was so mad all I could do was call his office, yes even on a Sunday when no one was there, to leave a message about how I felt. And I called all 4 of his offices. I was delighted because 2 of them had full voice mails even on a Sunday.

I was delighted because that meant people like me were calling—West Virginia Democrats. I was delighted because I knew that the calls would reach an overwhelming rate on Monday and that that would finally get Manchin’s attention.

One of the problems with social media is that everyone is an expert on stuff they know nothing about. And one of the most fundamental tenets of politics is, as Tip O’Neill loved to say, “All politics is local.” But because butthurt travels even faster than a lie, everyone on social media wants to pile on when someone does something stupid/bad and you end up with everyone calling Manchin’s office and their only accomplishment was to piss Manchin off.

The only thing any given politician cares about is their next election. An onslaught of calls from out-of-state/district voters gums up everything in the office and literally accomplishes nothing. But critical feedback from constituents and influential local groups makes a huge difference. And it’s a Festivus (Eve) miracle because that’s what happened.

Not only were the phone lines jammed on Monday when I called (all 4 of) the office(s), but on Tuesday morning my calls were acknowledged with a form email from the senator’s office. I had not left any info on the phone messages except for my name and the county where I lived, but clearly the staff had moved to a new stage where phone calls were acknowledged (and on my part for the first time ever).

(Now the form email that I got was a bunch of lies and garbage which prompted me to call all the numbers again on Tuesday and tell them that I had read the White House’s response so I didn’t appreciate the Manchin office’s attempt to gaslight me and other constituents, but it was a sign that they were finally listening.)

But the really interesting thing that happened was that the United Mine Workers got involved on Tuesday. The organization published an open letter highlighting the provisions of the BBB that were especially important to its members, and also pushing for the passage of voting rights legislation.

Or, as it played out on CNN:

Uhhh, does Mia Love think that West Virginia and Virginia are the same state? Does she think Joe Manchin represents Virginia? pic.twitter.com/Q0sdXq24Be

— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) December 21, 2021

And then on Tuesday afternoon this happened:

Q Mr. President, you often talk about the importance of keeping your word of trust. Do you believe Senator Manchin kept his word to you? And how do you rebuild trust with progressives in your party to advance your legislation now?

THE PRESIDENT: You know, I told you before — you’ve heard me say this before: Some people think maybe I’m not Irish because I don’t hold a grudge.

Look, I want to get things done. I still think there’s a possibility of getting Build Back Better done.

What I don’t want to do is get into — and Joe went on TV today and — I don’t know if it was TV or not; I’m told he was speaking to the liberal caucus in the House and said, “Joe Biden didn’t mislead you, I misled you.”

And also this:

Q Mr. President, did Senator Manchin break his commitment to you? When you announced the framework, the White House says that all 50 senators were believed to get behind it — all 50 Democratic senators. So, did Senator Manchin break his commitment to you?

THE PRESIDENT: Senator Manchin and I are going to get something done. Thank you.

And then there was this news last night:

After a day of uncertainty, Manchin is, in fact, on the call with Senate Dems tonight as they discuss their path forward, per two sources familiar with the matter

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) December 22, 2021

If you live in WV, call Manchin’s offices and tell him you want him to support BBB.

George Michael can sing me out:

Dec 20 2021

Congress, Economy, Jamie O, Political Crack

“He’s Hurting The Progressive Agenda” Is Horrible Framing Of The Manchin Mess

Mt Hope, West Virginia

This is going to be a far less poetic look at The Joe Manchin Problem than what ADRASTOS offered earlier today, but I wanted to talk about this entire shit-storm from a bit different angle: the awful media framing.

Since everything about American politics seems to be covered as sports, the Build Back Better bill was covered strictly from a political viewpoint, i.e. “horserace political journalism.” This meant that because conservatives have successfully made everything about dollar figures and fake-concern about deficits, the price tag dominated all discussion.

In turn, everyone focused on Manic Pixie Dream Senator Krysten Sinema and Maserati Owner Joe Manchin, who both in their own ways seemed to delight in being the parent who loves telling their kid what they won’t get for Christmas. How much would they slice off it? What would the final dollar number be?

Meanwhile, there was very little in relative terms in the media about what is in the bill. Polls showed that Americans didn’t seem to have any idea what was in it, although what is actually in it is popular. Hard not to see the connection.

This leads us to Manchin’s Sunday bombshell, proverbial turd in the egg nog for the holidays, which he dropped on Fox News. Because of course, he did, blind-siding President Biden along the way.

The blind-siding of Biden is important to my point because a lot of the framing was “bad for the progressive agenda” (as if the bill didn’t have almost all of the moderate Democrats supporting it) and “bad for Democrats.” This is all true, but, it also leaves out a few things.

For starters, it’s bad for Manchin’s constituents. The childcare and early education aspects of the BBB are desperately needed in West Virginia. Also bad, this morning it leaked out how Manchin views low-income West Virginians, and other low-income Americans:

"In recent months, Manchin has told several of his fellow Democrats that he thought parents would waste monthly child tax credit payments on drugs instead of providing for their children." via @ArthurDelaneyHP @taragolshan https://t.co/tffLDsCAyY

— Grace Segers (@Grace_Segers) December 20, 2021

This is classic right-wing-uncle-at-the-dinner-table nonsense. I grew up next to a housing project in a low-income-to-working-class neighborhood, and I had friends who were on welfare but none of the families had drug problems. Yes, there are certainly those who use, but there’s not enough for it to be considered a true problem; indeed, treating it as a real problem ends up being more expensive.

There are so many aspects of the Build Back Better plan that would help a lot of Americans, offer assistance they need. Assistence that many other nations have. But we don’t, because of people like Manchin who talk a good game about how much he “cares about the American people” but in reality demonstrates a deep contempt for them.

It’s really sad, and it will harm more than “the progressive agenda.” It will harm people that I believe Biden sincerely wanted to help.

The last word goes to Iris Dement, whose “Our Town” could be about one of many towns in West Virginia.

Tagged Build Back Better, Manchin

Dec 17 2021

5 Comments

Campaign Notes, Congress, Current Affairs, Dipshit Insurrection, Donald Trump Is, Elections, Immoral Values, Law/Justice, Shapiro, Television

This Is A Fine Mess You’ve Gotten US Into

So there I was the other night sipping my pre-dinner cocktail and multitasking back and forth from my phone to the TV. Chris Hayes of MSNBC was interviewing Dustin Stockton and Jennifer Lawrence (no not that one, the other one), aka, the Bonnie and Clyde of the MAGA world, about their involvement in the January 6th attempted overthrow of the United States government. You can watch the entire interview right here:

Before I go any further, what is it with Trumper women and makeup? Is it their belief that if some is good, more is better, and using a spackling trough as an applicator is best?

But I digress.

Stockton and Lawrence were in the news because they had played a large part in organizing the January 6th so-called “Save America” rally that ended up with the attack on the Capital. Unlike so many others in that group, these two had decided to come clean to the congressional committee investigating the attack and have been handing over texts, emails, and all other kinds of juicy tidbits. A lot of people are worried about what they have said. A lot of congress type people.

Of course in typical Trumper fashion their claim is “we did nothing wrong”. They claim to only have been the organizers of the rally outside the White House that day and only found out the mob was going to march down to the Capital when their chief cook and bottle washer Herr Oberfuhrer Drumpf told them to from behind the cloak of White House and Secret Service safety.

So setting the table means you have nothing to do with serving the dinner. OK, gotcha.

They were shocked, shocked I tell you to discover that Donald Trump would throw them under the bus by pardoning everyone else and leaving them hung out to flutter in the winds of justice. This even after Lawrence says she’d known Trump for a decade.

You’ve known him for a decade and hadn’t figured out he does that to EVERYONE?! It’s just occurring to you that Donald Trump only cares about Donald Trump?! The rest of the non-Trumper world knew that was the case, but it was only after your failed attempt to keep him in power and his subsequently throwing you under a multi axle vehicle that you realized, “hey maybe he’s not such a nice guy”.

I shouldn’t be surprised. A con man is always gonna be a con man. And the biggest defenders a con man can have are the people he conned. It might be because they are still under the influence of the con or it might be because they are subconsciously attempting to justify to themselves the fact they were conned. Whatever the reason, and whatever the evidence mounted to prove the con, they will only under the most demanding of pressure admit to their folly.

So little Dusty, even while he attempts to throw Trump under that multi axle vehicle, also tries to do the “but what abouts” with Hayes over MSNBC’s coverage of the Trump/Russia investigation. Credit Hayes for not buying into that and keeping the interview on as even a keel as could be hoped for. He did what Chris Wallace at the first 2020 Presidential Debate should have done, but then again Wallace had to deal with a crazy person high on anti-COVID drugs (and whatever else he uses) while Hayes only had to deal with a disgruntled man child who had lost his reason for being.

Come to think of it, maybe they were both dealing with the same thing.

Press this little link to see what else these scamps were into

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Dec 13 2021

1 Comment

Adrastos, Congress, Dipshit Insurrection, Fog Of Scandal, Law/Justice, Legal Docket, Political Crack

PowerPoint Meadows

BERJAYA

PowerPoint Meadows is not a place. It’s my new nickname for former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows as well as a description of the latest Big Lie mess he finds himself in.

Meadows is claiming executive privilege and plans to assert his Fifth Amendment privilege before the Dipshit Insurrection Committee. The first claim is absurd on its face, the second is his right as an American citizen although his lord and master once said this about that:

BERJAYA

Here’s how the WaPo story about the Coup Plot PowerPoint begins:

A retired U.S. Army colonel who circulated a proposal to challenge the 2020 election, including by declaring a national security emergency and seizing paper ballots, said that he visited the White House on multiple occasions after the election, spoke with President Donald Trump’s chief of staff “maybe eight to 10 times” and briefed several members of Congress on the eve of the Jan. 6 riot.

Phil Waldron, the retired colonel, was working with Trump’s outside lawyers and was part of a team that briefed the lawmakers on a PowerPoint presentation detailing “Options for 6 JAN,” Waldron told The Washington Post. He said his contribution to the presentation focused on his claims of foreign interference in the vote, as did his discussions with the White House.

A version of the presentation made its way to the White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, on Jan. 5. That information surfaced publicly this past week after the congressional committee investigating the insurrection released a letter that said Meadows had turned the document over to the committee.

Waldron was working with Rudy Giuliani and the Willard Hotel coup plotters. The presentation title says it all: Election Fraud, Foreign Interference & Options for 6 JAN. The whole damn presentation can be found at the Internet Archive Wayback Machine.

Here are a few selected slides beginning with PowerPoint Meadows himself:

BERJAYA

Who knew that there was a red embedded in every voting machine?

Those slides give you the gist of Waldron’s report and the wackadoo thinking behind it. The stuff about Smartmatic and Hugo Chavez has been debunked. In fact, the spreaders of it are being sued within an inch of their lives by the company.

The Willard Hotel coup plotters seem to think that putting their crazy claims on PowerPoint would somehow make them plausible. It only does to true believers in the Big Lie. How’s that for an oxymoron?

The MSM is not covering the PowerPoint for what it is: a smoking gun proving the link between outside groups and the Trump White House.

Eric Boehlert does a virtual eye roll over the coverage in his latest Press Run newsletter:

A criminal conspiracy to overthrow last year’s election, the PowerPoint is a heavy-handed plot twist that most Hollywood scriptwriters would dismiss as not being believable. Yet here we are, as Trump plans his re-election run and we learn more about the runaway criminal enterprise he oversaw as president.

We’re learning about it slowly though, and what seems to be reluctantly by the Beltway press, which instead of touting the PowerPoint as a smoking gun that reveals the GOP’s proudly anti-democratic ways, are treating the proposal timidly — an oddity that doesn’t demand much attention. Virtually none of the coverage I’ve seen has included key context, such as quotes from experts on authoritarianism regarding the stunning implications of a White House likely consulting a sabotage plan like that.

Following the Mueller probe made me leery of trumpeting the latest revelations. There were too many dead ends and blind alleys then, but this PowerPoint presentation is different. It’s a justification for the attempted coup on 1/6 as well as a road map for future action.

There are several reasons for Mark Meadows’ refusal to cooperate with the Dipshit Insurrection Committee. One was the blowback from the Impeached Insult Comedian over the debate/COVID story in his book. But the primary reason is the revelation of the Coup Plot PowerPoint and the accusation by Waldron that he met with Meadows on multiple occasions. I’d take the Fifth too if I were him.

That concludes the opening chapter in the curious case of PowerPoint Meadows. It’s fitting that it involves project: all Trumper scandals do. Stay tuned.

The last word goes to Joe Walsh:

Dec 13 2021

1 Comment

Congress, Guns, Law/Justice, Tommy T

Today on Tommy T’s Obsession with the Freeperati – Slim Pickens edition

Not much going on over at Freeperville over the last week (other than delight over the Smollett verdicts), so we’re going to have to dip into some older posts. Buckle up!

We’ll start with – Cave In!

Crisis averted as conservatives cave
My Inbox | Dec 3 | BY TARA PALMERI, RACHAEL BADE, EUGENE DANIELS AND RYAN LIZZA

Posted on 12/3/2021, 6:30:40 AM by RandFan

Presented by Wells Fargo

NO SHUTDOWN — Congress avoided a government shutdown after Senate conservatives dropped their demands to nix President JOE BIDEN’s vaccine mandates in the funding bill — and Senate Majority Leader CHUCK SCHUMER gave them a way out.

All 100 senators agreed late Thursday night to quickly proceed to a bill funding the government through Feb. 18. The breakthrough came after Schumer gave Republicans a vote (with a simple majority threshold) to defund federal vaccination mandates. He did so only because there were two Republicans absent, meaning that even if Sen. JOE MANCHIN (D-W.Va.) sided with Republicans, the amendment would be defeated. (And fail it did, 48-50.)

Conservatives will argue they got something out of this drama: a vote on their issue. In reality, it was a face-saving measure. The far-right started out demanding that Congress effectively scuttle the mandates, then reduced their ask to a mere vote they knew would fail, ensuring smooth passage of a continuing resolution a full 30 hours before the shutdown deadline.

*************************************************************

It’s a shame we couldn’t find ONE senator to gum up the works and object.I only hope they got something more than a DOOMED to fail amendment.

This can’t possibly continue.

1 posted on 12/3/2021, 6:30:40 AM by RandFan

To: RandFan

This can’t possibly continue

And why not?

2 posted on 12/3/2021, 6:32:48 AM by Jim Noble (The nation cannot be saved until the GOP is destroyed)

To: RandFan

“cave”

Hidden in the word “Conservatives” are the words “Vote cavers in”.

6 posted on 12/3/2021, 6:44:33 AM by rightwingcrazy (;-,)

Let me quickly consult my cryptogram decoder :

Be Sure To Drink Your Ovaltine

Hmmm….

To: RandFan

China’s bitch McConnell to the rescue. The ballot box is quickly becoming the other, better box.

3 posted on 12/3/2021, 6:41:30 AM by HYPOCRACY (This is the dystopian future we’ve been waiting for!)

Followed by :

To: HYPOCRACY

I’m counting on the ammo box.

15 posted on 12/3/2021, 6:54:52 AM by HighSierra5 (The only way you know a commie is lying is when they open their pieholes.p)

Box?

Actually, you only need one round.

Nationwide, there are about 100 burglary-homicides every year. When you compare that to more than 18,000 gun suicides, the conclusions seem pretty obvious.

More older stuff after the jump.

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Tagged Clown shoes, Free Republic, Freeperati, Freepers, Freeperville, Freerepublic, Right-wing nutcases, the stupid it burns, Tommy T, TommyT, Wingnuts

Dec 02 2021

Cassandra, Congress, Current Affairs, Law/Justice, Political Crack, Sexism, Stupid Republican Tricks, Supreme Court

The Bastards Are Grinding Me Down

Our fearless leader discussed the oral argument at the Supreme Court about the Mississippi abortion law earlier, but I am not going to tackle any of the legal stuff. I’m not going to tackle it because I am so fucking angry about all of this that I can’t make a cool-headed, analytical post about this bullshit. As the only woman in this motley crew, I have some Thoughts on what happened on Wednesday.

Here’s my disclaimer—I didn’t follow all of it via the audio feed once I saw that Mississippi openly admitted it had expanded its goal from curtailing Roe to striking it down outright since Amy Comey Barrett had been added to SCOTUS and the state Solicitor General no longer had to court Chief Justice John Roberts. Since SCOTUS was all “hey, that’s cool!” I knew it was pointless to engage with any of it.

I got so angry listening for 5 minutes to Clarence Thomas that I thought I was going to literally explode. And that’s even though we already know what the decision will be. Alleged rapist Brett Kavanaugh compared a woman’s autonomy over her own body to Jim Crow, openly saying that SCOTUS had a role in correcting prior legal mistakes. I hope Susan Collins is happy now.

This leads me to the question I ask anti-choice people all the time: where in the Constitution does it say that a woman has fewer rights over her own body than a man does over his? I have NEVER gotten any kind of answer from any anti-choice person, either.

The answer that the anti-choice extremists don’t want to admit to is that they absolutely believe women have fewer rights than men do. It’s as simple as that. Because this country is steeped in sexism, women who are raped are stigmatized by society. But Brett Kavanaugh attempted to rape Christine Blasey Ford and he’s on the fucking Supreme Court. That’s all you need to know to understand the dynamic at work.

The extremist element on the court is going to push abortion to the states, and once that is done, the extremist activists will start pushing SCOTUS to recognize “personhood”, which is Doubleplusgood Newspeak for “the criminalization of abortion”. And then they’ll come for birth control, because Adrastros is 100% right that the extremists are determined to kill Griswold v. Connecticut.

The Democrats could pass a law that guarantees abortion access to women. But the margins in both chambers of Congress are minuscule to none, and the reality is that there are too many Democrats who can’t afford to vote “yes” on a bill like that because as bad as things are, things would be worse with Speaker of the House Marjorie Taylor Greene. So here we are.

Dec 01 2021

Bigotry, Cassandra, Congress, Immoral Values, Political Crack, Stupid Republican Tricks

It’s Not Schadenfreude…

BERJAYA

…unless it comes from the Schaden region of Germany.

Before the main course, the amuse-bouche: You may have noticed Chris “I Ate The Meatloaf” Christie was all over TeeVee last week to promote his book. So far it’s sold fewer than 2300 copies. You hate to see it.

Time for an appetizer: So Dr. Oz, who I never watch because I don’t watch CNN, is running for the Senate seat currently held by Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, who is retiring. There’s one problem: Oz doesn’t live in Pennsylvania. He lives in New Jersey. Now that in itself isn’t disqualifying—my own House rep, the useless Alex “I Spent Campaign Money On A LOT of Chik-Fil-A” Mooney, didn’t live in WV at first, either. Oz recently registered in Philadelphia using his in-laws’ address and voted absentee from that address, but somehow I think that’s going to be a problem for the party that is determined to root out voter fraud.

The whole situation is ridiculous, and his own House rep had a perfect reply to the news:

I want to congratulate my North Jersey constituent Dr. Oz on his run for US Senate in Pennsylvania. I’m sure this fully genuine candidacy will capture the hearts of Pennsylvanians. https://t.co/poMegBfBfC

— Bill Pascrell, Jr. (@PascrellforNJ) November 30, 2021

We’re Americans so we eat our salads before the entrée: The QAnon/Stop The Steal coalition has come apart at the seams. Last week Lin Wood threw Sidney Powell (who may or may not be under investigation) under the bus. As Adrastos wrote about yesterday, Michael Flynn said on a recorded call with Lin Wood that QAnon was “nonsense” and on Monday Wood told all of us.

And now the main course: Lauren Boebert has been telling some really weird fake stories about Ilhan Omar, and one was filmed:

Over the Thanksgiving break, Lauren Boebert said she was recently in a Capitol elevator with Ilhan Omar when a fretful Capitol police officer ran up.

Lauren Boebert said: “Well, she doesn’t have a backpack. We should be fine.”

Boebert then called Ilhan Omar, “jihad squad.” pic.twitter.com/Y7f0nFbnud

— PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 (@patriottakes) November 25, 2021

There is a description of another retelling of it here.

Omar is understandably upset and Boebert won’t apologize. And then Nancy Mace (you remember her, right? She put profanity and fake antifa symbols on her property on Memorial Day and then got as much press coverage as she could) and Marjorie Taylor Greene got themselves involved:

Welcome to Congress pic.twitter.com/UvZDUjd53s

— Shane Goldmacher (@ShaneGoldmacher) November 30, 2021

Things further escalated Tuesday evening:

Nancy Mace to reporters just now: “All I can say to Marjorie Taylor Greene is ‘bless her fucking heart.’”

— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) November 30, 2021

Kevin McCarthy called them in and, uh, it didn’t go well:

McCarthy had a meeting with Greene and Mace and told them to stop. Greene walked out of the meeting, ignored McCarthy, and started telling a reporter that she supports a primary challenge against Mace pic.twitter.com/hJ4yohW2uS

— Acyn (@Acyn) December 1, 2021

You know, this schadenfreude tastes pretty authentic to me.

(As delightful as I am finding all of these comeuppances, I have to say that Boebert and Greene are truly reprehensible and have put Omar’s life in danger (she played a tape of a threatening message a Boebert supporter left for her on Tuesday night), Mace is a compete fake, and it’s shameful that this is how our national legislature operates.)

The reason I am enjoying all of this is that should the Republicans take the House next year, it doesn’t look like Kevin McCarthy is going to be able to get much done. The nuts have taken the reins of power and that’s not a recipe for a successful legislative session.

This seems appropriate, no?

Nov 29 2021

Adrastos, Comedy, Congress, COVID-19, Diary, Dipshit Insurrection, Food and Drink, Political Crack, Television

A Post About Nothing

BERJAYA

I took the long weekend off from politics. It may damage my pundit cred but I’m like a car battery that needs recharging only without jumper cables. As you may have guessed, that’s the set up for an aimless and meandering potpourri post. Monday is often the day I feel aimless and meandering as opposed to manic. I do, however, like the Prince/Bangles song. But it doesn’t fit my mood this chilly morning. I initially called this post Blue Monday, but I believe in truth in advertising so A Post About Nothing it is.

I assume y’all get the Seinfeld reference, so I won’t belabor the point and tell an aimless and meandering story about a night at a Chinese restaurant. We did, however, try to eat at our favorite Chinese eatery way out in Kenna, Brah a few weeks back. But they had storm damage and were only serving takeout from a limited menu. We passed. We go there for the atmosphere. I’m lying: we go there for the Mongolian Beef.

We got a fancy new Samsung smart TV yesterday. Setting it up made me feel dumb. The physical set up was easy enough except when Claire Trevor decided to help. She’s one of those cats who gets into everything. Her tech skills are de minimus, so I shooed her away. It was easy since the TV came in a box within a bigger box. Every day is boxing day for Claire.

Setting up the new TV reminded me of the first time I set up a computer back in the tech stone age. I was intimidated but muddled through. I hate that printed manuals are no longer part of the deal. It’s a pain in the ass to have to use the E-manual on the TV or download a PDF. Holy shit, I sound like a Seinfeld character. Sorry about that. I’ll try and do better.

I’ve spent much of the pandemic being the guy who keeps saying: “It’s not over yet. Don’t spike the ball.” I would rather spike the ball, but the virus is tenacious and keeps bouncing back. Its latest iteration Omicron sounds extra-sinister. It sounds like a sci-fi or comic book villain sprung to viral life, The last thing I want to be is an extra in a comic book movie. There I go again, sounding like a Seinfeld character. It’s a Monday thing.

What political news I’ve seen was bleak. The Man of La Manchin and the Sinematic Senator are being deluged with contributions from GOP donors. We already knew that Unholy Joe was a corrupt piece of shit, but I’ve tended to think of Veda Pierce Sinema as a shallow narcissist desperate for attention. Of course, one can be a shallow narcissist and still be a corrupt piece of shit. Exhibit A is the Impeached Insult Comedian. That’s better, I sound like a cynical Curb Your Enthusiasm character instead of Jerry or George. I identify with Larry David’s shouty agent Jeff who also plays shouty dad Murray on The Goldbergs. I’m feeling shouty right now.

My favorite recent news story involves the Dipshit Insurrection. The headline at TPM almost says it all: Broadway Actor Who Plays Judas In ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ Charged With Storming Capitol Alongside Oath Keepers.

Actually, James Beeks d/b/a James T. Justis is a road show Judas or is that stock company Judas? Beats the hell outta me. I should ask my friend the Stage Mother. She knows from musicals.

It’s also ironic that the road show Judas stormed the Capitol with the Oath Keepers. If I remember my biblical movies correctly, Judas was the ultimate Oath Breaker. And they said that irony was dead.

Speaking of irony, the jailed Judas is a man of many monikers. He has a YouTube page under the name James ‘Delisco’ Beeks. Here he is auditioning for Judas:

Now that was something.

I’d like to conclude this post about nothing with a quote from the hit Billy Preston song Nothing From Nothing:

Nothing from nothing means nothing. You gotta have something, if you wanna be with me.

Obviously, the last word goes to the late Billy Preston and his spectacular Afro:

Nov 23 2021

Adrastos, Campaign Notes, Congress, COVID-19, Fog Of History, Malakatude, Music, Political Crack

Gohmert Gone To Texas

BERJAYA

I’m not sure what Louie Gohmert Piles is praying about in the featured image. If I were the praying sort, I’d pray for the people of Texas. Gohmert is going home to run for Texas Attorney General on an anti-corruption platform. I am not making this up:

“A priority will be election integrity so that every legal vote counts. Though our current AG has had two terms — it seems he really started working harder after so many of his most honorable and very top people in the AG’s office left, complaining of criminal conduct. If you allow me, I will not wait to be my busiest until after some bad press about legal improprieties. I’ll start boldly protecting your rights on day one,” Gohmert said, listing priorities like “unconstitutional mandates,” “parental consent,” immigration at the southern border and voting laws.

It *is* true that Ken Paxton’s picture is in the dictionary next to corrupt piece of shit, but Gohmert Piles is a staunch defender of Matt Gaetz and the Impeached Insult Comedian. It doesn’t get more corrupt than that. Oh well, we in the Gret Stet of Louisiana are used to “conservative reformers.” That was how David Vitter styled himself, after all. That’s right, Diaper Dave called himself a reformer. No wonder I’m leery of that label.

It’s also odd that Gohmert is giving up a safe congressional seat when there’s a good chance that the GOP will take control of the House next year. Perhaps he resents no longer being the craziest House Republican: Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert make him look *almost* sane. He’s still the stupidest member of the House although Louisiana’s Clay Higgins is in contention as well.

As to his nickname, Louie Gohmert Piles, Michael F, Tommy T, and I have been calling him that or just plain Gohmert Pyle for at least a decade. I added the s because he always looks constipated or some such shit. Now that Gomer Pyle USMC is in reruns on Me TV maybe the kids will get the joke.

Here’s an image Michael F did in 2011 of Louie with Speaker Boner as Sgt. Carter:

BERJAYA

One thing I learned in researching this piece is that Gohmert has a normal-seeming family and three attractive daughters. His middle child, Caroline, is a singer-songwriter who performs under the name BELLSAINT. She emphatically disagrees with his politics and publicly chided Louie Louie for his COVID denialism when he came down with the virus. In 2019, she wrote a song called Much Like My Father:

The song begins with these lines:

“Everybody loves you/But there’s poison in the water / You get away with everything / Much like my father.”

A note about the post title. Gone to Texas or GTT was a phrase in vogue with 19th Century Texas emigrees. They were often folks with something to hide. Hell, even Sam Houston had a checkered past before he did the GTT thing.

If Gohmert Piles is elected Texas Attorney General, he won’t even be the dumbest AG on the Gulf Coast. That honor goes to Louisiana’s Jeff Landry who is as dumb as a bag of hammers and just as obnoxious as Louie Louie. Oh baby, me gotta go.

The last word goes to Caroline Gohmert d/b/a BELLSAINT. WFNEO is an acronym for We Fucking Need Each Other. Other than her dim old dad, who would argue that point?

Nov 19 2021

Adrastos, Bigotry, Congress, Diary, Film, Fog Of History, Gret Stet Politics, Political Crack, Stupid Republican Tricks

Owning The Commies With John Neely Kennedy

Thoughtful pose or nose pick? You decide.

John Neely Kennedy is the phoniest member of the United States Senate. The competition is stiff since Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio are also members of that body. The man I call Neely has cultivated an image as a rube, not a Rubio. It’s a sham: he has degrees from Vanderbilt, University of Virginia law school, and Magdalen College. That’s Oxford, y’all.

Instead of deploying his intellect and erudition, Neely persists in sounding like a cross between Foghorn Leghorn and Mister Haney from Green Acres. He was once called the smartest man in Louisiana government, now he’s mocked as a peckerwood moron. His current style is an insult to voter’s intelligence as well as downright insulting.

I’m something of an expert in explaining and deciphering Neely for a national audience. A 2017 post I wrote about him Drinking Weed Killer With John Neely Kennedy was quoted in the Washington Post. Holy humblebrag, Batman.

I used to find his cornball aphorisms so amusing that I wrote an extended piece about his Neelyisms for Bayou Brief. The Neelyisms aren’t funny anymore.

Since becoming a senator, he’s sounded more and more like a cornpone Insult Comedian. The Neelyisms used to have a scintilla of charm and wit, but they turned uglier than boiled sin during the Trump administration as the man himself might say.

I’ve seen Neely’s style wrongly compared to Andy Griffith. To extend that analogy, Neely has gone from sounding like Sheriff Andy Taylor to Lonesome Rhodes the hick fascist in A Face In The Crowd who said shit like this:

Rednecks, crackers, hillbillies, hausfraus, shut-ins, pea-pickers – everybody that’s got to jump when somebody else blows the whistle. They don’t know it yet, but they’re all gonna be ‘Fighters for Fuller’. They’re mine! I own ’em! They think like I do. Only they’re even more stupid than I am, so I gotta think for ’em.

Like that Lonesome Rhodes quote, Neely’s hick shtick drips with contempt for the people who sent him to Washington.

Neely’s brand as Gret Stet treasurer was as a straight-shooting skinflint who was willing to go toe-to-toe with Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal.

Neely’s brand as a senator is that of a rabid partisan who spouts talking points crafted to own the libs. Yesterday, Neely decided it was time to own the commies.

Senate Republicans suggested on Thursday that a Soviet-trained communist was about to take over a key office in the country’s banking regulation infrastructure.

President Biden nominated Cornell University law professor Saule Omarova to be comptroller of the currency in September. But at her Thursday confirmation hearing, Republican senators played on Omarova’s birth in the former Soviet Union to suggest that she was a Marxist sleeper agent.

“Have you resigned from the young communists?” Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) asked Omarova at the hearing.

Kennedy was referring to Omarova’s early years in the USSR. Born in what is now Kazakhstan, Omarova received the prestigious Lenin scholarship to study at Moscow State University. As a child, she was also a member of the komsomol, the communist youth — a common group to be involved in in the USSR.

It’s all red meat for opponents of Omarova’s candidacy on the Senate Finance Committee, which held a confirmation hearing on Thursday.

“Did you send them a letter resigning?” Kennedy asked, referring to Omarova’s komsomol membership.

Committee Chair Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) interrupted him, saying that Omarova had “renounced her Soviet citizenship.”

Kennedy pressed on with Omarova: “I don’t mean any disrespect — I don’t know whether to call you professor or comrade.”

Neely’s McCarthyite antics covered all the Trumper bases: xenophobia, sexism, racism, and red baiting.

It’s particularly depressing coming from a former Democrat who I voted for twice as state treasurer and in his first senate race when he ran as the most liberal Democrat in the field. I am not making this up.

His past political persona is one reason he poses as a rabid wingnut, he doesn’t want to be primaried from the right by someone like genuine peckerwood Clay Higgins. The other reason is that he’s a rank opportunist as well as a fake hick hack. How’s that for a tongue twister?

John Neely Kennedy spent his political life lusting after a senate seat. He finally achieved his ambition in 2016 on his third try. And what has he done? He became a troll whose only accomplishment is owning first the libs, now the commies. What a disgusting waste of a fine mind.

I wrote a post in 2020 called John Neely Kennedy Can Go Fuck Himself. The sentiment still applies as does the last word by Harry Nilsson:

Nov 19 2021

3 Comments

Congress, Elections, Shapiro

The Other Glimmer Twin

I’ve been living with Jackie Speier for over 40 years.

I don’t mean I’ve physically been living with the woman, but she has been a part of my life for all that time.

I first became aware of her when she was laying beneath the fuselage of an airplane on a remote airstrip in the jungles of Guyana, five bullet holes in her body, watching as her boss Congressman Leo Ryan was gunned down by the insane members of Jim Jones’ Peoples Temple cult. She was 28 years old.

For most of you the name Peoples Temple brings up memories of that horrible day, but for those of us who lived in San Francisco and the Bay Area in the mid to late 1970’s our memories of encounters with the Peoples Temple cultists are a bit more personal. The Peoples Temple fell somewhere between Moonies and Mormons, respectable looking folk trying to make the world a better place through a non-religious religion under the guidance of their leader, the “Reverend” Jim Jones. Jones had insinuated himself into the power structure of SF politics by not only getting his followers to vote as a block, but to then become the “boots on the ground”, getting out the vote, ringing doorbells, planting yard signs. They were on the street corners, in the SFSU quad (where most of my encounters with them were) and seemingly as ubiquitous as Krishnas at the airport. As so often happens those boots suddenly disappeared one day when word got out that dear leader was playing fast and loose with followers money, manna, and marriages. Off they skedaddled to that Guyana jungle where they could be cut off cultists, no worries about this material world or the fact that their families were prevented from getting in touch with them even when their bank accounts were being mysteriously drained. Investigating the families complaints was the reason Congressman Ryan and future Congresswoman Speier ended up on that tarmac.

When she returned and recovered, Speier decided to dedicate her life to public service. Here is where she personally came into my life. She was my county supervisor, assembly person in the state house, then my state senator, then my congressperson. No matter that I moved houses or even counties, she remained my political representative to one legislative body or the other. How about this, in her last election to the state assembly she was the nominee of BOTH the Democratic and the Republican parties. That’s called someone who can bridge the aisles. Would that there were more like her these days.

While a member of the assembly her husband, an emergency room surgeon, was killed in a car crash at the off ramp to Poplar Avenue from the 101 Freeway. Everyone who lived in the area at that time knew that off ramp was a danger zone. In fact I remember telling my sons when they were learning to drive that if I ever heard of them using that off ramp or it’s on ramp section I would personally rip up their licenses. I was not alone, most of my friends told their kids the same thing. By the way that exit was of course the closest one to their high school (shout out to San Mateo High, home of the Bearcats). While most of us would have wallowed in our despair at losing a loved one, Speier took it as a challenge to make not only that off ramp, but all the on and off ramps in her district safer. No one dared deny her.

As a member of Congress she allowed her colleague from the district she shared SF with to get the headlines and ultimately the speakership of the house. I often thought of them as the political version of the Glimmer Twins, Pelosi out in front making the noise necessary to encourage the base, Speier working behind the scenes to get things done for the entire Bay Area. She made sure not only did we in San Mateo county and the southern part of SF get the money to build and rebuild the freeways both real and cyber we so depend on, but also that funds for northern SF and Marin county, Nancy’s turf, got theirs as well. Pelosi is our Jagger, Speier our Richards, sans the whole he’ll outlive us all thing.

For over forty years she has stood for honesty and integrity in politics. And while I totally understand her desire to step away from the arena and give a new generation their chance, I can’t help but feel that she is stepping away at this moment because she is tired of the rancor currently eating away at the body politic. With all respect to her first husband, she has been the cartilage between the bones of that body, necessary to keeping the entire body healthy and functioning by absorbing the shocks, body blows, and abuse heaped on it from outside forces. As El Grande Hefe de First Draft Adrastos pointed out yesterday she was the sponsor of the censure resolution of the Arizona Arsonist Paul Gosar. I second that her mentor Leo Ryan, friend of Adrastos’ Republican father, namesake of the park where my sons played as kids, would have approved.

She officially stopped being my congressperson earlier this year when we switched our registration from San Mateo to Sonoma. Big Mike Thompson is now my congressperson, another one who tries to build bridges, not burn them down. Compromise, I think I heard someone say, makes us all live in harmony with each other. To Ms. Speier I wish a long life filled with harmony, grace, pleasure, and calm. She has earned all of those after a life in the arena. Come on up to the wine country Jackie, we got a bottle of Sonoma’s finest waiting to share with you.

The last word goes to some musicians from her district with a song that should be her anthem.

Shapiro Out

Nov 18 2021

Adrastos, Bigotry, Congress, Diary, Film, Fog Of History, Political Crack, Stupid Republican Tricks, Teabaggery

The Grotesque Dr. Gosar: Censured & Stripped

BERJAYA

I spend a lot of time thinking about what is and is not funny. Kicking up is funny, kicking down is not. I don’t think lethal as opposed to slapstick violence is funny. That’s why I was unmoved by House GOPers’ specious arguments on behalf of the Grotesque Dr. Gosar.

Speaking of grotesque, a collection of crazies spoke up for their fellow nutjob: Chip Roy, Louis Gohmert Piles. Gym Jordan, Clay Higgins, and Lauren Boebert to name a few. I only watched the second part of the debate so I’m not sure if Matt Gaetz took a break from lusting after jailbait or musing about hiring Kyle Rittenhouse as a clerk to speak. I am not making this up. Owning the libs is all that matters to them.

Nary a single House GOPer defended the Grotesque Dr. Gosar on the merits of the case. House Dems were essentially told to “lighten up, it’s a joke.” If so, it’s one in exceedingly poor taste.

Many House GOPers described the atrocious anime video as a stupid cartoon and something they would not have posted themselves. Republicans ran out of members willing to defend the Grotesque Dr. Gosar before the time allotted for debate expired. That’s what “reserving time” means. They were, however, willing to vote against censure. Schmucks.

The defenses offered reminded me of Republican senators like Lamar Alexander during the first Trump impeachment trial. It’s bad, but the penalty is too severe yadda, yadda, yadda. They’ve gone from defending a cartoon villain to minimizing the dangerous message sent by a cartoon.

KMac proved again that his leadership post is not based on his oratorical prowess. He gave a rambling speech that was pure whataboutism. His focus was on procedure, which is what you argue when the facts are against you. He made the Grotesque Dr. Gosar look like an innocent bystander to Democratic abuses of power: ““The Speaker is burning down the House on her way out the door,”

Are David Byrne, Tina Weymouth, Chris Franz, and Jerry Harrison aware of this?

The worst Republican speech was given by Colorado gun nut, Lauren Boebert, who spoke darkly of conspiracies. Of course, she did. She went after Ilhan Omar. Of course, she did. Here’s their point-counterpoint:

Luckily my dad raised me right, otherwise I might have gone to the floor to talk about this insurrectionist who sleeps with a pervert. I am grateful I was raised to be a decent human and not a deprived person who shamefully defecates & defiles the House of Representatives. 🙏🏽 God https://t.co/F5W9LBzjCZ

— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) November 17, 2021

The best Democratic speeches were given by AOC, Steny Hoyer, and Jackie Speier who was a victim of political violence herself. Speier was wounded in the fatal attack on her mentor, Congressman Leo Ryan after leaving Jonestown. I knew Jackie long ago and have followed her career with great interest. She was the sponsor of the censure resolution. Well done, Jackie. Leo would be proud of you. FYI, Leo Ryan and my father were friends despite their political differences. It’s how America is supposed to work.

Majority Leader Hoyer tried to shame Republicans by invoking the name of former House GOP leader Robert Michel. I met him when I was a congressional aide. He was a warm and friendly man from Peoria Illinois. He retired from politics when Newt Gingrich began to set the tone for their caucus. It’s Newt’s and Donald’s party now. There’s no room for decent conservatives like Bob Michel anymore.

The only thing Republicans seem to believe in is owning the libs. How pathetic is that? They mouth platitudes about freedom, man but all they care about is owning the libs. It’s why they’ve fetishized AOC and the Squad. It makes one wonder if they believe they should literally own AOC and her cohort. Remember: they think the War of the Rebellion was about states rights, not slavery. Freedom, man.

The Grotesque Dr. Gosar’s speech was as awful as it was specious. He threw his staff under the proverbial bus and refused to accept any responsibility. If he had ever once apologized, he would not have been censured and stripped. He could not because it’s all about owning the libs.

We all know that the Grotesque Dr. Gosar cannot be shamed even after what should have been a public humiliation. Censure is rare: Gosar is only the 24th member to be censured. Republicans repeatedly claimed that a Democrat would not be censured by Speaker Pelosi. Another lie: the last member to be censured was Charlie Rangel in 2010 during Pelosi’s first stint as Speaker. I remember it well because it was so painful: Rangel was a well-liked and respected member before his downfall. The Grotesque Dr. Gosar is neither.

Let’s circle back to our dental theme. Sitting through speeches by Republican extremists is akin to root canal surgery, especially when Jacketless Jim Jordan is shouting into the microphone. Putz.

A final note on movie dentists and the featured image. I had forgotten that there was an “is it safe” Marathon Man poster. I remembered that Steve Matin as Dr. Frank Sangster knew how to wear his mask unlike the Grotesque Dr. Gosar. If you haven’t seen it, Novocaine is a swell 3 1/2 star black comedy. Shorter Adrastos: It doesn’t bite the big one.

Speaking of Novocaine, the last word goes to the Eels:

Nov 16 2021

2 Comments

Adrastos, Congress, Film, Fog Of History, Political Crack, Teabaggery

The Grotesque Dr. Gosar

BERJAYA

Dentists have gotten a bad rap in the movies. WC Fields was a randy buffoon in The Dentist and Steve Martin played creepy dentists in Little Shop Of Horrors and Novocaine. The most sinister movie dentist of all was Laurence Olivier in Marathon Man seen above.

Olivier’s character, Szell, was based on the Nazi war criminal Dr. Mengele. I’m not saying that Dr. Paul Gosar, DDS is as bad as Szell but he’s almost as scary and nearly as right-wing. Of course, Szell was fictional and Gosar is real. The truth remains stranger than fiction.

The Grotesque Dr. Gosar upped the ante recently with a tweet that was subsequently deleted. I’m late to this mishigas, so I’ll let TPM’s Summer Concepcion describe it:

Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ), who has ties to the far-right, on Sunday tweeted an anime-themed video that depicts him killing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and attacking President Biden with swords — which drew backlash and demands for Twitter to suspend the GOP congressman’s account.

In his tweet, Gosar writes “Any anime fans out there?” and includes a video that opens with his name underneath Japanese text. The start of the clip appears to be a nod to the opening credits of the Japanese animated series “Attack on Titan,” which centers around a hero who goes on a crusade to take down giant man-eating creatures known as “Titans.”

After showing footage of immigrants at the southern border, a character with Gosar’s face photoshopped onto it scales buildings alongside other cartoon characters with Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Lauren Boebert’s (R-CO) faces. Gosar’s character then slashes a “Titan” with Ocasio-Cortez’s face photoshopped onto it.

Gosar’s character goes onto slinging two swords towards an enemy that has Biden’s face on it.

House Democrats are rightly outraged about this death threat. I almost called it an implicit death threat, but the Grotesque Dr. Gosar is about as subtle as Szell in this legendary scene from Marathon Man:

BERJAYA

Ouch.

Is it safe? Not for House Democrats as long as the likes of the Grotesque Dr. Gosar and his ilk are allowed to roam the corridors of power.

Is it safe? Gosar is one of the Congresscritters suspected to have aided and abetted the Dipshit Insurrectionists.

Is it safe? In the Republican caucus it is. KMac hasn’t so much as admonished the Grotesque Dr. Gosar for having bad taste, let alone for threatening another member.

60 House Democrats have signed a petition urging that Gosar be censured. Expulsion is out of the realm of possibility because it takes a 2/3 vote of the full House.

AOC got to the nub of the problem in an interview with Punchbowl News:

Ocasio-Cortez — who has complained publicly that there’s been no action against Gosar — believes he and other Republicans “are essentially using a national platform to legitimize threats of violence on lower levels, and on the local levels, to intimidate people from participating in our democracy. I believe this is part of a concerted strategy… What we do here, our response, helps inform as a precedent for actions on the local levels.”

Is it safe? Republicans have turned the House into a chamber of horrors straight out of a late era Vincent Price movie. There should be no place for violence in the people’s House. The historical parallels are bone-chilling: most of the violent incidents occurred in the lead up to the Civil War. It increasingly looks that my colleague Cassandra was right to call this a Cold Civil War.

The GOP caucus is meeting today and is expected to take no action against the Grotesque Dr. Gosar. Instead, they may go after the 13 GOPers who voted for the BIF. What have they got against fixing roads and bridges? Biden is for it. That’s what.

The Grotesque Dr. Gosar’s siblings believe that he’s mentally ill. His entire political career has been a cry for help, but Arizona voters don’t see it that way: he’s in his sixth term. He belongs, not in the House, but in a snake pit like the ones in old movies with doctors and nurses who make movie dentists look benign.

Is it safe? Not as long as Paul Gosar is in Congress.

Let’s lighten things up and give Steve Martin the last word.

UPDATE: The House plans to vote to censure The Grotesque Dr. Gosar tomorrow. A committee strip is involved as well.

Nov 12 2021

2 Comments

Congress, Current Affairs, Elections, Shapiro, Television

The 19th Avenue Solution

There is an avenue in the city of San Francisco that provides a shining example of confrontations old and new, not only in The City That Knows How but for the rest of the country.

It’s called 19th Avenue.

19th Avenue cuts through the west side of the city, what is sometimes called The Outside Lands, from the southern border to Golden Gate Park. Though you stay on the same street, it magically changes names to Park Presidio when you exit the park and until you get to the Golden Gate Bridge on ramp. Thus it is the main connector from San Mateo County (just south of San Francisco) via Highway 280 to Highway 101, the bridge and over to Marin County.

That’s right, there is no freeway between the south end of The City and the Golden Gate Bridge. It’s one big surface street. Not that they haven’t tried to build a freeway.

Back in the 1950’s when freeway construction was all the rage in California there were plans to build a connector freeway above 19th Avenue to make it simpler for those in the south to get to and across the bridge or vice versa. Those living in the neighborhood of 19th Avenue we firmly against it. Having seen what happened to the areas where freeways had intruded elsewhere in the city and the attendant lowering of not just home values but quality of life values they wanted no part of a freeway.

This was not a Democrat versus Republican thing or a liberal versus conservative thing or even a Downtown SF versus The Outside Lands thing. This was the people living in the area who were saying “Why is our home less important than moving people from outside the southern end of The City to outside the northern end?” versus the forces of progress saying “The state has a vested interest in moving people and goods as quickly and efficiently as possible”.

So what happened? You already know there is no freeway above 19th Avenue, so did the homeowners of the late 1950’s win? Well, sorta. Actually what they did was something so alien today that I sometimes have to convince kids (and by that I mean anyone under 40) that it was possible.

The two sides compromised.

The freeway wasn’t built. But 19th Avenue got a unique makeover of sorts. Just after the Golden Gate Bridge was built the street was widened to accommodate the greater flow of traffic heading to the bridge so it was ready to deal with the volume of traffic. But the state wanted traffic that didn’t get stopped for traffic lights and there are give or take about 25 cross streets, each with a traffic light, along the route.

The first part of the compromise was that the state had The City change the timing on the traffic lights. If you got onto 19th Avenue and maintained a 35mph pace all the way down it, you never got caught at a red light. Go too fast you have to stop. Go too slow you have to stop. Hit it just right, you zipped along without a stop. A freeway without building a freeway.

The second part of the compromise was that in order to accomplish this, the north and south bound lights had a longer than normal “green” section which of course meant that the lights for all the cross streets had longer than normal “red” sections. For the most part those living there didn’t care because they understood that sitting at a red light a bit longer was better than having a monster freeway drowning out the sun.

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Nov 11 2021

Congress, Donald Trump Is, Jamie O

Giving Them Permission

Kyle Rittenhouse is actually not impersonating the Gilbert Gottfried-era AFLAC Duck here but instead having a curiously tear-free sobbing breakdown on the courtroom stand yesterday.

The Kyle Rittenhouse trial is, unfortunately, going exactly as some of us expected. It features a suspiciously sympathetic judge who has the Conservative National Anthem as his ringtone. Yesterday, it also featured the greatest bad crying performance by a right-winger since Beer Guy Brett Kavanaugh demonstrated his fitness for the Supreme Court bench by fake wailing during his confirmation hearing. Based on a few of the images, like the one above, Rittenhouse appears to be less crying and more offering a Gilbert Gottfried impression.

The judge has done some eyebrow-raising things that seem suspiciously sympathetic to the defendant. Rittenhouse has received a tremendous amount of support from the right, such as a Twitter thread vomited out by Meemaw’s Favorite Ohio Senate Candidate, Alleged Author J.D. Vance. Oh, well-meaning libs who were brow-beating me into reading his book back in 2016…do you see now why some of us were telling you he is a grifter playing on well-do-to people’s deep hatred of low-income people? He’s really reasonable, huh? Suckers.

Anyway, Rittenhouse is not the only one who just may get away with a political crime. Grotesque Marvel Supervillain Steve Bannon got contempt dropped on him by Congress for defying a Congressional subpoena. On Monday, after a D.C. district judge shot down Rape and Fast Food Enthusiast Donald Trump’s attempt to stop the National Archives from sending records to the January 6 committee, the committee issued some new subpoenas, including ones to Second-Rate Mob Attorney John Eastman (who, you know, actually wrote a SIX POINT PLAN TO COMMIT A COUP), Character Straight Out of Dr. Strangelove Michael Flynn, and That Other Guy Jason Miller.

At this point, the ball’s in Oddly Cautious Guy Merrick Garland’s court, and it seems like there is not much happening, as Garland has all the urgency of a three-toed sloth on valium. There is a lot of back and forth about what Garland is exactly doing, ranging from a plea for patience from MSNBC’s Go-To Calm-Down-Everyone Pundit, Joyce Vance, to Lefty Word Slinger Eric Lutz’s pondering in Vanity Fair about what’s taking so damn long.

Really, I have no idea what Garland is up to, but chop-chop, Mr. AG. And if he’s one of those The System Is Fine We Must Trust the Institution types like Out of Touch Old Man Stephen Breyer, which I think he might be, we are in a lot of trouble as the right-wing eats those types like they’re a KFC four-piece meal on Trump’s jet. To all you institutionalists: The Mueller Report is nothing more than greasy bones on the tip-top plush carpeting now.

That’s not all as far as dangerous right-wingers seemingly getting away with it. Reuters dropped a remarkable piece of journalism, that frankly was scary as hell, about the Trump supporters who routinely terrorized election officials with death threats. The scary-as-hell part was how law enforcement’s response can be basically summarized in three letters: “meh.” And these guys have no regrets, so it is not too much of a leap to imagine where they might take this next.

It’s odd and maddening why our society is giving such a pass to the far right. You’d see none of the above if this defiance was coming from the left. People would be dead or in jail. Keep in mind, the January 6 insurrection attempt happened largely because law enforcement did not take the threat seriously specifically because it was coming from the right, and not those crazy Antifa types. So, for some reason, despite these people showing up over and over again at rallies armed to the teeth, the threat wasn’t taken seriously enough.

This is sending a really frightening message to not only the elites in the Trumpism circle, but to the rank and file. You can do whatever, and suffer no consequences. You can threaten to kill people, no one will care. You can actually kill people, and not only likely will get away with it, but it also would be a smart career move (does anyone out there really doubt that the world is Kyle Rittenhouse’s oyster now? He’s going to make millions off this via the right-wing fever swamp). You can attempt to completely destroy our elections including supporting and planning an insurrection in the White House itself, and really not much will go on. It’s certainly not hurting Republicans politically.

There’s still time to reverse this. But we need swift and fair justice, something at the moment it feels like our system is incapable of providing and our society is sort of shrugging about at the moment. This likely will not end well.

Last word goes to Joni Mitchell, who sang about how cops treat “derelicts or ladies of the night” as weeds to be pulled while the rich get away with murder.

Tagged January 6, Rittenhouse, threats, Trump

Nov 10 2021

2 Comments

Adrastos, Congress, Dipshit Insurrection, Fog Of History, Fog Of Scandal, Law/Justice, Legal Docket, Political Crack

The Legal Docket: Waiting For Garland

BERJAYA

The Kaiser of Chaos has lost his bid to invoke executive privilege on documents sought by the House Dipshit Insurrection Select Committee. Judge Tanya Chutkan rejected the Former Guy’s argument that he was above the law. That was his effective argument, not his actual one. Even his shitty-n-shifty lawyers wouldn’t make such a specious argument. They dressed it up with legalisms, but it still went down in flames. One could even say it was pantsed…

The ball is now in the Justice Department’s court. On October 21st, the full House of Representatives voted to hold Mr. Unmade Bed dba as Steve Bannon in criminal contempt of Congress for his refusal to comply with Congressional subpoenas. That’s 20 days for the DC US Attorney’s office to decide whether to press the charges in court. The last time such a citation was issued it took 8 days for charges to be brought.

As with most things, the media has gotten this process wrong. The initial decision belongs to the DC US Attorney’s office. Since it’s a high-profile case Attorney General Garland’s role in the process is to confirm or reject the decision made by his subordinates. Presumably, the Bannon case has landed in Judge Garland’s lap by now.

There’s a strong possibility that Garland was waiting for a ruling in the Trump executive privilege case before moving against Bannon. If so, the time is nigh to move forward with the criminal charges against the contemptible Bannon.

My legal hero Larry Tribe was on The Last Word with Laurence O’Donnell last night. Merrick Garland was one of his students. Professor Tribe had some unsolicited and unvarnished advice for him:

Now, the only thing I can imagine my former student Merrick Garland thinking why he hasn`t acted already and I really think he should have, he`s smart enough. The case is clear. The statute says when Congress refers someone in contempt of Congress, refers them to prosecution, the U.S. attorney should convene a grand jury. The only possible argument is there are a couple of legal counsel one in 1980 and one in 2008 that suggest that when executive privilege protects the assertion by someone that he or she cannot compile with a congressional subpoena, the department should not prosecute.

Well, perhaps Merrick Garland being a good lawyer and wanting to dot his is and cross his T`s was waiting to hear a court say the executive privilege doesn`t apply to the former president when the current president doesn`t assert that privilege and when there is a legitimate need for the information. If that`s what he was waiting for, he got it tonight and if he does not move immediately will be inexcusable.

Like Professor Tribe, I’ve been patient with Judge Garland thus far. He has the herculean task of restoring DOJ’s good name and the morale of its people. Jeff Beau Sessions, Bill Barr, and the acting AGs brought DOJ into disrepute. It’s not an easy job.

DOJ has made some good moves in the areas of abortion and voting rights BUT it’s been largely silent on the abuses of the Trump regime. My hope has been that they’re methodically investigating the last four years and are keeping quiet so as not to let the bad guys know what they’re up to. The best investigations are opaque, not transparent. I remain cautiously optimistic that that’s the case in this case. That’s a whole lotta cases.

Having said that, it’s time for Garland to piss or get off the pot on the Bannon case. Bannon’s claim of executive privilege is even more laughable than that of the Impeached Insult Comedian. It’s time for the Attorney General to give line prosecutors the green light to go after Bannon and others who flaunt Congressional authority.

I remain less harsh on Garland than many observers. Going after a former president* is not an easy choice. Placing Donald Trump in the dock might inspire the Democratic base BUT it will inflame Trumpers.

A reminder that a convicted felon can still run for president as did Eugene V Debs in 1920. Impeachment and conviction were the only way to permanently bar the Kaiser of Chaos from federal office. That’s why any prosecutorial decision to charge Trump himself should be a legal, not a political one.

I, too, am tired of waiting for Garland. I hope that, unlike Godot, he will show up and go after Trumper scofflaws like Bannon.

The last word goes to The Who:

Nov 10 2021

3 Comments

Cassandra, Congress, Stupid Republican Tricks

Two Paths, Diverging

BERJAYA

So it’s been quite a week for the Democrats with the passage of the bipartisan infrastructure bill and the real possibility of the larger social spending bill. The unemployment numbers last week were great news, and for those who have money in the stock market, the Dow hit a new record high.

This/these Democratic legislative victory/victories were the work of the greatest Speaker of the House of all time, Nancy Pelosi, and her best student, Pramila Jayapal. With sticks, carrots, logic, reason, and a little pressure they put together a bipartisan coalition to complement the bipartisan vote in the Senate.

By the way, I did not have Jayapal on my short list for next SOTH should the Democrats hold the House in 2022, but I absolutely do now. She’s great–she doesn’t get flustered, she sticks firmly to the point she wants to make, she’s upbeat, and she is committed to getting things done.

Once the bipartisan infrastructure bill gets implemented it’s going to be a daily cavalcade of ribbon cuttings and ground breakings in towns and cities across the nation. And 13 House Republicans are going to be able to take part in the festivities without being called out for lying about taking credit for something they actually voted against.

And with those votes those 13 House Republicans helped their party in the mid-terms by taking away an issue their Democratic opponents would have used against them. Given that we don’t know what’s going to happen next November, you would think that Kevin McCarthy would be happy with these representatives. Well, he’s not.

Being a Republican these days is about doing whatever you can to hurt Joe Biden and the Democrats so those 13 reps are in a lot of trouble with McCarthy, and with all of the most deranged members of the GOP. The calls immediately came out to punish the traitors and to strip them of any power in the House. And the knives are out for McCarthy and the GOP whip Steve Scalise for not being able to keep their caucus together.

That just seems like such a weird reaction from people are…politicians. It was a good political move for those 13 reps to vote with the Democrats, and now they’re going to be punished for it. I suppose I should feel a little sorry for them, but I’m not. I like schadenfreude as much as the next person.

The Republicans had their hands full too, but not with historic legislation. First Josh Hawley made masculinity the central value of the party with a weird statement about how video games and pornography were making men effete. I don’t even know what to say about it apart from assuming a lot of elected Republican seem to need a lot of therapy.

Then Paul Gosar tweeted out an awful video in which he attacked Biden with knives and killed Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez. And the Republicans were completely fine with that because that’s also what they are also all about: being truly, and unapologetically, awful.

And that’s not the end of the stuff coming from Gosar’s unhinged mind. There were other offensive and murderous videos in the pipeline:

An account claiming to be the creator of the video shared an unfinished video in which Gosar is seen as a character from another anime called “Death Note” in which the main character has the power to kill people by writing their names in a journal. Gosar is seen killing Biden, Osacio-Cortez and Rep. Bennie Thompson, the Mississippi Democrat who chairs the House Homeland Security Committee. Gosar’s congressional Twitter account follows the supposed “team” member account.

I wasn’t kidding when I said that a lot of these Republicans need a therapist.

Given the battle of the sexes that undergirds this post, I’ll give Bryan Ferry the last word:

Nov 09 2021

Congress, Current Affairs, Economy, Environment, Shapiro, Votes for Women

What’s In A Name?

Once again, conservatives have shown they are better at branding then liberals.

The Squad, the group of six progressive Congress people, Jamaal Bowman of New York, Cori Bush of Missouri, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Ayanna S. Pressley of Massachusetts and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, all voted against the Biden infrastructure bill because it didn’t include the climate change and social services upgrades that have been tossed over into another bill. Okay, it was a procedural move, made only because they knew the bill as amended would pass with or without their votes.

But I want to talk about the name they’ve given themselves. In particular because the eight Republicans (I’ll give them the real party name since they were good guys on this vote) who voted for the bill, Don Bacon of Nebraska, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Andrew Garbarino of New York, Anthony Gonzalez of Ohio, John Katko of New York, Tom Reed of New York, Christopher H. Smith of New Jersey and Fred Upton of Michigan, are calling themselves the Problem Solvers Caucus. Yes, I know there are moderate Democratic members of this caucus, making it somewhat bipartisan, but it’s the Republicans in the caucus that are getting the press while the Democrats are being seen as merely going along with their party’s president.

Let’s face facts. The Squad is what a bunch of urban hipsters would call themselves, a quasi super hero team name that implies something but I couldn’t tell you what. “Hey let’s get The Squad together and go out to that new Indian Mexican fusion spot over on Tenth Avenue”. The Problem Solvers Caucus tells you exactly what they are about. Are they really about problem solving? In the world of politics no title ever truly gives a clear picture as to what the group is about. Except CREEP, the Committee to Re-elect The President, the one that was intricately woven into the Watergate saga. Yeah they were a bunch of CREEPs.

It comes down to perception. The Squad voted against a bill that will give millions of people jobs. The Problem Solvers Caucus voted for giving all those people new jobs, i.e, they solved a problem. Now come later this month when the bill with all the climate change and social services stuff in it comes up for a vote and they vote against it their name might be mud, but for the moment (and in politics it’s all about the moment), it’s the Problem Solvers who solved a problem and the Squad who said we’re not even interested in getting some pork projects for our own home districts, but I’ll have a double whip, no foam half-caf Vente mocha to go. The only thing they gave their districts was the finger. At least that’s how it’s perceived.

And the Repugnicant Party will make sure all the campaign ads, even the ones for the 200 odd members of the House riding the magic Faux News bandwagon who voted against the bill, will tout how they are the party of the Problem Solvers. Those who oppose them, you know those Urban (nee Black), Greedy (nee Jewish), Intellectuals (nee anyone smarter than you), they don’t really have their constituents concerns at heart. It’s nothing but a dog whistle to this week’s flavor of the moment voting bloc, white women with no college education.

Good luck winning re-election or retaining the House running against that.

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Liberal Politics, Media Criticism & General Mayhem

Category Archives: Congress

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PowerPoint Meadows

Today on Tommy T’s Obsession with the Freeperati – Slim Pickens edition

The Bastards Are Grinding Me Down

It’s Not Schadenfreude…

A Post About Nothing

Gohmert Gone To Texas

Owning The Commies With John Neely Kennedy

The Other Glimmer Twin

Shapiro Out

The Grotesque Dr. Gosar: Censured & Stripped

The Grotesque Dr. Gosar

The 19th Avenue Solution

Giving Them Permission

The Legal Docket: Waiting For Garland

Two Paths, Diverging

What’s In A Name?

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