U.S. Senate Results

Republicans will regain the Senate majority. As of 8:00 am ET Wednesday, they hold at least 52 seats.

Unless otherwise indicated, the AP has called these races:

California. Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff is projected to win. Schiff will have won both the general election and a special election to fill the seat of former Sen. Dianne Feinstein, deceased, which is currently held by Laphonza Butler, a "placeholder" appointed by Gov. Gavin Newsom (D). Schiff will be seated immediately.

Connecticut: Democrat Chris Murphy is projected to win re-election.

Delaware: Democrat Lisa Blunt is projected to win.

Florida: Republican Rick Scott is projected to win re-election.

Hawaii. Democratic Sen. Mazie Hirono is projected to win re-election.

Indiana: Republican Jim Banks is projected to win.

Maine: Independent Sen. Angus King is projected to win re-election. King caucuses with Democrats.

Maryland. Democrat Angela Alsobrooks is projected to win over former Republican Gov. Larry Hogan. Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin (D) is retiring.

Massachusetts: Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren is projected to win re-election.

Michigan: Democratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin is projected to win.

Minnesota. Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar is projected to win re-election.

Mississippi: Republican Roger Wicker is projected to win re-election.

Missouri. Republican Road Runner Sen. Josh Hawley is projected to win re-election.

Montana. Republican Tim Somebody-Shot-Me-Sometime Sheehy is projected to have defeated Sen. Jon Tester.

Nebraska. Republican Sen. Deb Fischer has held off a challenge from an Independent candidate.

Nebraska. Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts is projected to win re-election. This is a special election.

Nevada: Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen is (at long last) projected to win re-election.

New Jersey: Democrat Rep. Andy Kim is projected to win the seat previously vacated by Democrat Bob Menendez, who resigned in disgrace after being convicted on federal bribery & corruption charges. Kim will be the first Korean-American to hold a U.S. Senate seat.

New Mexico. Democratic Sen. Martin Heinrich is projected to win re-election.

New York. Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand is projected to win re-election.

North Dakota. Republican Sen. Kevin Kramer is projected to win re-election.

Ohio. Republican Bernie Moreno is projected to have defeated Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown. This is the second pick-up for Republicans Tuesday.

Rhode Island: Democrat Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse is projected to win re-election.

Tennessee: Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn is projected to win re-election.

Texas: Republic Sen. Ted Cruz, the most unpopular U.S. senator, is projcted to win re-election.

Utah. Republican Rep. John Curtis is projected to win the seat currently held by Sen. Mitt Romney (R).

Vermont: Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders is projected to win re-election.

Virginia. Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine is projected by NBC News to win re-election.

Washington. Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell is projected to win re-election.

West Virginia: Republican Gov. Jim Justice is projected to win the seat currently held by Independent Joe Manchin, who is retiring.

Wisconsin. Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin is projected to win re-election. Hurrah!

Wyoming. Republican Sen. John Barrasso is projected to win re-election.

U.S. House Results

By 11:15 pm ET Friday, the AP had called 208 seats for Democrats & 216 seats for Republicans.

Gubernatorial Results

Delaware: Democrat Matt Meyer is projected to win.

Indiana: Republican Sen. Mike Braun is projected to win.

Montana. Horrible person Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte is projected to win re-election.

New Hampshire. Republican Kelly Ayotte, a former U.S. Senator is projected to win.

North Carolina. Democrat Josh Stein is projected to win, besting Trump-endorsed radical loon Mark Robinson.

North Dakota. Republican U.S. Rep. Kelly Armstrong is projected to win.

Utah. Republican Gov. Spencer Cox is projected to win re-election.

Vermont: Republican Phil Scott is projected to win re-election.

Washington: Democrat Bob Ferguson, the Washington State attorney general, is projected to win.

West Virginia: Republican Philip Morrisey is projected to win.

Other Results

Colorado. NBC News projects that the abortions-rights constitutional amendment will pass.

Florida. NBC News projected the abortion-rights state constitutional amendment will fail.

Georgia. Fani Willis is projected to win re-election as Fulton County District Attorney.

Missouri. The New York Times projects that Missouri voters have passed a measure to protect abortion rights.

Nebraska. New York Times: "A ballot amendment prohibiting abortion beyond the first three months of pregnancy passed in Nebraska, according to The Associated Press, outpolling a competing measure that would have established a right to abortion until fetal viability."

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

The Ledes

Saturday, November 9, 2024

New York Times: “About 100 firefighters were working to put out a brush fire in a heavily wooded section of Prospect Park in Brooklyn on Friday night, prompting officials to warn residents to stay away as they used drones to identify hot spots.... Mayor Eric Adams said in a post on X that the city was under a red flag warning for fire risk on Friday night because of dry conditions and strong winds.”

The Wires
powered by Surfing Waves
The Ledes

Friday, November 8, 2024

Washington Post: French Resistance fighter Madeleine “Riffaud ... died Nov. 6 at her home in Paris at 100.... As part of the Resistance, she collected guns, organized sabotage missions, recruited fighters and once shot and killed a German officer on a Sunday afternoon on a bridge over the Seine as crowds watched.” She was among the Resistance fighters who, backed by Free French units & U.S. forces, freed Paris from the Germans in August 1944. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Now, Trump will do his best to render meaningless the sacrifices & suffering of Riffaud & millions of others. And who cares? After all, those who gave of themselves for freedom and self-governance are suckers and losers.

Public Service Announcement

Washington Post: "Americans can again order free rapid coronavirus tests by mail, the Biden administration announced Thursday. People can request four free at-home tests per household through covidtests.gov. They will begin shipping Monday. The move comes ahead of an expected winter wave of coronavirus cases. The September revival of the free testing program is in line with the Biden administration’s strategy to respond to the coronavirus as part of a broader public health campaign to protect Americans from respiratory viruses, including influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), that surge every fall and winter. But free tests were not mailed during the summer wave, which wastewater surveillance data shows is now receding."

Help!

To keep the Conversation going, please help me by linking news articles, opinion pieces and other political content in today's Comments section.

Link Code:   <a href="URL">text</a>

OR here's a link generator. The one I had posted died, then Akhilleus found one, but it too bit the dust. He found yet another, which I've linked here, and as of September 23, 2024, it's working.

OR you can always just block, copy and paste to your comment the URL (Web address) of the page you want to link.

Note for Readers. It is not possible for commenters to "throw" their highlighted links to another window. But you can do that yourself. Right-click on the link and a drop-down box will give you choices as to where you want to open the link: in a new tab, new window or new private window.

Thank you to everyone who has been contributing links to articles & other content in the Comments section of each day's "Conversation." If you're missing the comments, you're missing some vital links.

New York Times: In a collection of memorabilia filed at New York City's Morgan Library, curator Robinson McClellan discovered the manuscript of a previously unknown waltz by Frédéric Chopin. Jeffrey Kallberg, a Chopin scholar at the University of Pennsylvania as well as other experts authenticated the manuscript. Includes video of Lang Lang performing the short waltz. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The Times article goes into some of Chopin's life in Paris at the time he wrote the waltz, but it doesn't mention that he helped make ends meet by giving piano lessons. I know this because my great grandmother was one of his students. If her musical talent were anything like mine, those particular lessons would have been painful hours for Chopin.

New York Times: “Improbably, [the political/celebrity magazine] George[, originally a project by John F. Kennedy, Jr.] is back, with the same logo and the same catchy slogan: 'Not just politics as usual.' This time, though, a QAnon conspiracy theorist and passionate Trump fan is its editor in chief.... It is a reanimation story bizarre enough for a zombie movie, made possible by the fact that the original George trademark lapsed, only to be secured by a little-known conservative lawyer named Thomas D. Foster.”

Washington Post: “Comedy news outlet the Onion — reinvigorated by new ownership over this year — is bringing back its once-popular video parodies of cable news. But this time, there’s someone with real news anchor experience in the chair. When the first episodes appear online Monday, former WAMU and MSNBC host Joshua Johnson will be the face of the resurrected 'Onion News Network.' Playing an ONN anchor character named Dwight Richmond, Johnson says he’s bringing a real anchor’s sense of clarity — and self-importance — to the job. 'If ONN is anything, it’s a news organization that is so unaware of its own ridiculousness that it has the confidence of a serial killer,' says Johnson, 44.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I'll be darned if I can figured out how to watch ONN. If anybody knows, do tell. Thanks.

Washington Post: “First came the surprising discovery that Earth’s atmosphere is leaking. But for roughly 60 years, the reason remained a mystery. Since the late 1960s, satellites over the poles detected an extremely fast flow of particles escaping into space — at speeds of 20 kilometers per second. Scientists suspected that gravity and the magnetic field alone could not fully explain the stream. There had to be another source creating this leaky faucet. It turns out the mysterious force is a previously undiscovered global electric field, a recent study found. The field is only about the strength of a watch battery — but it’s enough to thrust lighter ions from our atmosphere into space. It’s also generated unlike other electric fields on Earth. This newly discovered aspect of our planet provides clues about the evolution of our atmosphere, perhaps explaining why Earth is habitable. The electric field is 'an agent of chaos,' said Glyn Collinson, a NASA rocket scientist and lead author of the study. 'It undoes gravity.... Without it, Earth would be very different.'”

The New York Times lists Emmy winners. The AP has an overview story here.

New York Times: “Hvaldimir, a beluga whale who had captured the public’s imagination since 2019 after he was spotted wearing a harness seemingly designed for a camera, was found dead on Saturday in Norway, according to a nonprofit that worked to protect the whale.... [Hvaldimir] was wearing a harness that identified it as “equipment” from St. Petersburg. There also appeared to be a camera mount. Some wondered if the whale was on a Russian reconnaissance mission. Russia has never claimed ownership of the whale. If Hvaldimir was a spy, he was an exceptionally friendly one. The whale showed signs of domestication, and was comfortable around people. He remained in busier waters than are typical for belugas....” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Oh, Lord, do not let Bobby Kennedy, Jr., near that carcass. ~~~

     ~~~ AP Update: “There’s no evidence that a well-known beluga whale that lived off Norway’s coast and whose harness ignited speculation it was a Russian spy was shot to death last month as claimed by animal rights groups, Norwegian police said Monday.... Police said that the Norwegian Veterinary Institute conducted a preliminary autopsy on the animal, which was become known as 'Hvaldimir,' combining the Norwegian word for whale — hval — and the first name of Russian President Vladimir Putin. 'There are no findings from the autopsy that indicate that Hvaldimir has been shot,' police said in a statement.”

New York Times: Botswana's “President Mokgweetsi Masisi grinned as he lifted the diamond, a 2,492-carat stone that is the biggest diamond unearthed in more than a century and the second-largest ever found, according to the Vancouver-based mining operator Lucara, which owns the mine where it was found. This exceptional discovery could bring back the luster of the natural diamond mining industry, mining companies and experts say. The diamond was discovered in the same relatively small mine in northeastern Botswana that has produced several of the largest such stones in living memory. Such gemstones typically surface as a result of volcanic activity.... The diamond will likely sell in the range of tens of millions of dollars....”

Click on photo to enlarge.

~~~ Guardian: "On a distant reef 16,000km from Paris, surfer Gabriel Medina has given Olympic viewers one of the most memorable images of the Games yet, with an airborne celebration so well poised it looked too good to be true. The Brazilian took off a thundering wave at Teahupo’o in Tahiti on Monday, emerging from a barrelling section before soaring into the air and appearing to settle on a Pacific cloud, pointing to the sky with biblical serenity, his movements mirrored precisely by his surfboard. The shot was taken by Agence France-Presse photographer Jérôme Brouillet, who said “the conditions were perfect, the waves were taller than we expected”. He took the photo while aboard a boat nearby, capturing the surreal image with such accuracy that at first some suspected Photoshop or AI." 

 

Contact Marie

Email Marie at constantweader@gmail.com

Thursday
Jul312014

The Commentariat -- August 1, 2014

Internal links, defunct video & graphic removed.

Josh Gerstein of Politico: "President Barack Obama blasted congressional Republicans Friday for failing to craft a workable response to the border crisis before leaving Washington for their summer recess, setting the stage for executive actions to address the surge in child migrants from central America. 'House Republicans as we speak are trying to pass the most extreme and unworkable version of a bill that they already know is going nowhere, that can't pass the Senate,' Obama said in a hastily-announced afternoon appearance in the White House press briefing room. 'They're not even trying to to solve the problem,' the president complained. 'This is a message bill ... just so they can check a box before leaving town tomorrow'":

... This Is Getting Hilarious. Mike Lillis, et al., of the Hill: "House GOP leaders are expected to bring a new border package to the floor on Friday that even some of the staunchest opponents of immigration reform said they would support." CW: Do they know the Congress is bicameral? ...

... Ramsey Cox of the Hill: "Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said even if House Republicans get the votes necessary to pass its emergency border spending bill, there isn't enough support in the Senate for the 'wrong-headed' measure." ...

... Jake Sherman, et al., of Politico: "After a day of embarrassing failures, House Republican leadership inched toward bringing a new border security bill to the floor Friday."

David Rogers of Politico: "Immigrant rights attorneys on the West Coast are seeking a preliminary injunction to block the Justice Department from expediting the deportation of children fleeing Central America without first ensuring they have legal counsel. Filed late Thursday night in federal court in Seattle, the papers build on a suit initiated July 9 arguing that the children can't get a fair hearing unless given legal representation."

Steve Kenny of the New York Times: "Representative Eric Cantor, the Virginia Republican whose last day as House majority leader was Thursday, said on Friday that he would resign his seat effective Aug. 18 in hopes that his successor will be able to participate in the lame-duck session after the November elections. Mr. Cantor, 51, made the announcement in an op-ed article published on The Richmond Times-Dispatch website.... Mr. Cantor, who has served in Congress for 14 years, said that he would ask Virginia's Democratic governor, Terry McAuliffe, to call a special election for his seat on Nov. 4 -- the same day as the general election -- a move that would allow the winner to take Mr. Cantor's seat immediately rather than wait for the next Congress to be seated in January. He would also enjoy the perks of Mr. Cantor's seniority.... There was no indication whether [McAuliffe] would honor the request for a special election." ...

... The Richmond Times-Dispatch story, by Markus Schmidt, is here. ...

... Boo-Fucking-Hoo. Paul Kane & Sebastian Payne of the Washington Post: "As Cantor said farewell [in a speech to the House] Thursday, the always emotional Boehner dabbed his eyes with a handkerchief." ...

... In today's Comments, Akhilleus likens Boehner to Al Capone, as depicted in this scene from Brian De Palma's "The Untouchables." Read the whole comment. CW: Seems just right to me:

Josh Hicks & Ashley Halsey of the Washington Post: "In a sprint to the finish line before a five-week break, the Senate on Thursday night approved bills to aid the troubled Department of Veterans Affairs and to extend federal highway funding through May. On veterans affairs, senators voted 91 to 3 to approve legislation injecting more than $16 billion into VA to help deal with extensive treatment delays and a recent record-keeping scandal.... On transportation, the Senate voted 81 to 13 in favor of an $11 billion stopgap highway measure after weeks of squabbling with the House over the scope of the legislation. The bill, which replenishes the Highway Trust Fund, will keep about 6,000 state highway and transit projects rolling through next spring. Both measures now go to President Obama for his signature."

Ashley Parker of the New York Times: "Facing a rebellion among their most conservative ranks, House Republicans were forced on Thursday to withdraw an emergency spending measure to address the surge of young Central American migrants at the southern border, in a major embarrassment to the new leadership team. House Republican leaders are expected to hold another meeting with their members on Friday morning to decide how to move forward, though many lawmakers said they would stay in Washington as long as necessary to put the bill on the floor. Some lawmakers had already departed on Thursday for the five-week summer break, and were summoned back to the Capitol." ...

... Jake Sherman & Seung Min Kim of Politico: "The turmoil is stunning considering how far to the right the GOP leadership pulled this bill. Boehner, [new Majority Leader Kevin] McCarthy and [Steve] Scalise, the new GOP whip, crafted a process that would have given the House a vote on legislation to stop the Obama administration from expanding its deferred deportation program. But even that wasn't enough. The episode is most embarrassing for Scalise, whose allies crowed this week about running a more effective whip organization than McCarthy, the longtime Republican vote counter who will now be th majority leader." ...

It was Senator Cruz calling the shots, and that's why people around here are calling him 'Speaker Cruz' today. It means when Speaker Boehner says he's going to get something done from now on, he'd better be checking with Senator Cruz to see if he's gonna get the votes because clearly the new leadership team isn't up to the task. -- Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), on MSNBC Thursday ...

... The Party of Cruz. Paul Waldman: "Among the people Boehner can thank for this debacle is Sen. Ted Cruz, who encouraged House Republicans not to go along with Boehner's bill unless it blocked expansion of the Obama administration's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy giving the DREAMers deportation relief.... When Obama takes some kind of executive action to address the broader immigration problem, Republican complaints that he's being tyrannical will be undermined by the GOP's abysmal failure to offer an alternative.... All they've got to show for the end of the session is a lawsuit -- one that will probably offer their own right wing nothing but frustration and disappointment, and will validate everything Obama is saying abou them." ...

One of the unfortunate things in Washington is how little communication there is between members of House and Senate. For many months, I've been periodically hosting gatherings with House members to discuss issues and challenges of the day and our gathering last night was scheduled several weeks ago. -- Ted Cruz, to Robert Costa, Thursday

Sittin' at my desk, watchin' the news, rest of the day is up to Ted Cruz. -- Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), via Twitter, Thursday

... Robert Costa of the Washington Post: "Cruz's tight embrace of House conservatives also has given him a powerful network inside and outside of Congress, even as he has been marginalized by Democrats and many of his fellow Republicans in the Senate. Ignoring them, Cruz has turned friendly news media outlets, conservative advocacy groups and House backbenchers into his base." ...

... Jonathan Chait: "In Boehner's House, failure is always an option." ...

We will look back on this moment in Washington as The Week That Irony Died. -- Gail Collins, yesterday

There are numerous steps the president can and should be taking right now, without the need for congressional action, to secure our borders and ensure these children are returned swiftly and safely to their countries. -- John Boehner, after pulling the House's limited border-funding bill

... Russell Berman of the Atlantic: "On Wednesday, House Republicans sued President Obama for acting on his own without approval from Congress. On Thursday, House Republicans told President Obama he should act on his own to fix the border crisis. The messaging whiplash resulted from Speaker John Boehner's failure -- so far -- to pass a Republican spending bill that would provide $659 million to help stem the child migrant crisis on the U.S.-Mexico border. In a statement following the decision to abruptly scrap a vote on the measure, Boehner and his fellow GOP leaders tried to put the onus back on Obama, saying the president had the power to act unilaterally, 'without the need for congressional action,' to respond to the crisis." ...

     ... Flashback to Earlier That Same Day: Mark Felsenthall of Reuters: "House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner said on Thursday that any unilateral steps by President Barack Obama on immigration would make matters worse and add to a 'legacy of lawlessness. No more unilateral action by the president," Boehner said at a news conference. 'If the president takes these actions, he'll be sealing the deal on his legacy of lawlessness,' he said. 'He'll be violating the solemn oath he made to the American people on the day of his inauguration.'" ...

     ... CW: Got that? Early Thursday morning Boehner said it was illegal/unconstitutional for the President to act unilaterally ("lawless") on the border situation, & a few hours later he said it was legal/within his constitutional powers for the President to act unilaterally on the border situation ("without the need for congressional action"). ...

... Charles Pierce: "Holy mother of god, what a eunuch." ...

... Of course, as Steve M. points out in posts here and here, the House debacle won't make a whit of difference to the electorate. As far as most voters know, there's a border crisis of some kind & Obama hasn't fixed it. ...

... Just as a reminder that not all the Democrats on the Hill are bright lights, either -- Chris Moody of Yahoo! News: "During a floor speech on Wednesday night, Texas Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee voiced her opposition to the House Republican lawsuit against President Barack Obama.... 'We did not seek an impeachment of President Bush, because as an executive, he had his authority. President Obama has the authority.' It's an odd thing for Jackson Lee to say, because it was just six years ago that she helped lead a movement to impeach Bush by co-sponsoring a bill accusing him of high crimes and misdemeanors."

Charlies Pierce on Tyranny: "Jefferson was willing to break with a king he called a tyrant even if it meant facing down the British army. John Boehner is not willing to risk impeaching a president his House called a tyrant if it means a four-point drop in a CNN poll."

NEW. CW: Read the Headline & Lede. Burgess Everett of Politico: "Senate Blocks Aid to Israel. In the end, the Senate couldn't even agree to deliver emergency aid to one of the United States' closest allies. A last-ditch effort to deliver aid to Israel during its war with Hamas died on the Senate floor, as Republicans blocked the proposal over concerns that it would increase the debt. After Senate Republicans blocked Democrats' $2.7 billion border aid package, which also included $225 million for Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system and $615 million to fight Western wildfires, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid tried to split off the Israel and wildfire money as a standalone bill, hoping to put aside the dispute over border funding and appeal to Republicans' deep ties to Israel.... It didn't work.... First Senate Minority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) objected to Reid's request for a straight emergency cash infusion for firefighting and Israel. Then Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) offered an alternative that would deliver money to Israel and the West and offer commensurate spending cuts to international organizations like the United Nations; Reid blocked that. 'Our number one ally -- at least in my mind -- is under attack. If this isn't an emergency I don't know anything that is,' Reid said." ...

     ... CW: The story is accompanied by a huge photo of Harry Reid. Anybody who reads only the headline & lede graf wlll assume Reid is at fault. It isn't that the Senate couldn't agree; Republicans couldn't agree; at best, they might have agreed to blackmail Reid with U.N. funding cuts. Because freeeedom.

Keith Laing of the Hill: "The House on Thursday shot down legislation from the Senate that would have extended federal transportation funding until December. The 272-150 vote puts pressure on Senate Democrats to accept the House-passed transportation bill, which would provide funding until next spring and avert a late summer shutdown of construction projects. Republicans said their $10.9 billion measure is now the only viable path for lawmakers to prevent a bankruptcy in infrastructure spending that has been predicted to occur in August." ...

... Keith Laing: "Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Thursday that the House's plan to strip changes from a Senate bill to extend federal transportation funding and send it back to the upper chamber 'dishonors the rules of the House.' ... Pelosi said Thursday that GOP leaders were blocking Democrats in the lower chamber from bringing up the Senate's version of the highway bill.... 'You may recall that the rules of the House say that if ... the House and the Senate are in true disagreement on legislation, then any member of the House can call for the Senate bill to be brought up on the floor,' she said during a news conference. 'The rule that coming to the floor dishonors the rules of the House that gives that privilege to any member and says only the Majority Leader will have the right to bring it up, which means of course that it will not be brought up, Pelosi continued."

James Downie of the Washington Post: President Obama should fire CIA Director John Brennan for his serial lapses. ...

... New York Times Editors: "One of those heads [that should roll] may need to be Mr. Brennan's. If he knew about the break-in, then he blatantly lied. If he did not, then apparently he was unaware of the lawless culture that has festered within the C.I.A. since the moment it was encouraged by George W. Bush and Dick Cheney to torture suspects and then lie about it. That recklessness extended to the point where agency officials thought nothing of burglarizing their own overseer. Senator Mark Udall of Colorado [D] said the action was illegal and required the resignation of Mr. Brennan." ...

... digby: "And it really is very bad that the CIA hacked into the Senate computers, thus violating the separation of powers. Very bad. But it's not as bad as torturing people and getting away with it!! Jesus H. Christ, Brennan was right in the middle of that whole thing and has been complicit in the cover-up. But the straw that broke the camel's back was leaking and hacking the Senate investigation? ... Whatever. Just as long as they don't do something personally to Dianne Feinstein. That's a bridge too far." ...

... Here's the underlying New York Times story, by Mark Mazzetti & Carl Hulse: "An internal investigation by the Central Intelligence Agency has found that its officers improperly penetrated a computer network used by the Senate Intelligence Committee to prepare its damning report on the C.I.A.'s detention and interrogation program.... When the C.I.A.'s monitoring of the committee became public in March, Mr. Brennan said, 'When the facts come out on this, I think a lot of people who are claiming that there has been this tremendous sort of spying and monitoring and hacking will be proved wrong.' Days earlier, he said that lawmakers were making spurious allegations about C.I.A. actions that are wholly unsupported by the facts.'"

Paul Krugman: Even when experts are generally in agreement, "politicians pick and choose which experts -- or, in many cases, 'experts' -- to believe, [and] the odds are that they will choose badly."

Gene Robinson: "The real objection of those who ridicule [Secretary of State John Kerry's] efforts [in the Israel-Gaza conflict] seems to be that he came up with a plan that Hamas and its key remaining allies -- the Islamist governments of Qatar and Turkey -- could actually accept.

Fareed Zakaria on "the rise of Putinism." Exhibit No. 1: Hungary, where "Prime Minister Viktor Orban explained that his country is determined to build a new political model -- illiberal democracy." So much for the end of history.

Joseph Marks of Politico: "U.S. allies Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, along with Syria, are using malicious email and Facebook messages to track and entrap journalists, dissidents and campaigners, who face jail and torture if identified and arrested, according to a new study. The cyberattacks are often very simple -- just a plausible email, Twitter or Facebook message with a malicious link. Clicking that link reveals the IP address of the user, linking a particular computer or home network to targeted email or other account, according to the study from The Citizen Lab, run by the Munk School of Global Affairs in Toronto."

New York Times Editors: "McDonald's said it would contest the [NLRB] ruling [that determined that McDonald's is jointly responsible for treatment of workers at its franchises], a process that could end up in the Supreme Court. That would delay any final accord between executives and workers, but it will not change the basic facts. Fast-food companies like McDonald's and Yum Brands, which owns KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, are profitable and lavishly reward their executives -- which means there is money available to raise wages. But those raises have not been forthcoming, forcing taxpayers to pick up the tab for food stamps, Medicaid and other public assistance that many McDonald's workers use to get by." ...

... CW: Yeah, and I can't imagine that the Supremes would rule in favor of the McDonald's corporation person & against the workers' right to unionize. (See Harris v. Quinn.)

Paul Waldman notes that the kindlier, gentler Paul Ryan 2.0 has disavowed Paul Ryan 1.0's "hammock" analogy: "Paul Ryan used to say we didn't want the safety net to become a 'hammock,' where lucky poor people lounge around drinking margaritas, living the high life on their $133 a month in food stamps." But kindly Paul Ryan 2.0 is not "worried government benefits are a hammock, it's just that he worries that they're a kind of netting thing strung loosely between two trees that you nap in."

** Rebecca Traister of the New Republic on reproductive justice: "... the strategy of erasing the female reproductive system from a larger definition of women's health is part of a long tradition in conservative politics and policy-making. It's been in place certainly since 1976, when the Hyde Amendment blocked Medicaid funds from being spent on abortion procedures.... These days, conservatives are busy applying the Hyde Amendment's logic, that reproductive healthcare is different from human health, to ever-broadening areas of reproductive health. The Supreme Court's Hobby Lobby decision extended it to birth control." ...

... Justice Ginsburg on her retirement:

CW: This post by elections expert Rick Hasan on the Wisconsin supreme court's upholding the state's voter ID law is interesting for two reasons: (1) the Wisconsin supremes cited as the only evidence of voter fraud -- & thus the "proof" of the need for voter IDs -- one guy who was (a) a Scott Walker supporter, & (b) was charged with 13 counts of voter fraud (absent the voter ID law, BTW). (2) In a update, Hasan notes that the fraud committed by the Walker supporter occurred after the case-in-chief, & therefore "was not in evidence before the lower court. I believe it has become increasingly common for appellate courts to cite matters not in the record which the judges or their clerks find from a little googling." A few days ago I noted that Jonathan Gruber's remarks about state exchanges, recorded in 2012, but not in evidence in the Halbig case, would not be part of the record when & if the case goes to the Supremes. But I also said the conservative Supremes would certainly know about Gruber's comments fron reading the Right Wing News & well might raise them during oral arguments. In light of Hasan's observation, I'd say Gruber will get his day in court. Unfortunately.

Alex Seitz-Wald of msnbc: "Ten hours before the first plane hit the World Trade Center in New York City on September 11, 2001, Bill Clinton allegedly told a group of businessmen in Australia that he had a chance to kill Osama bin Laden, but passed because it would have meant killing hundreds of innocent civilians. That's according to never-before-released audio of remarks made public by Australian media on Wednesday." The tape is here. The audio clip is at about 5:30 min. in.

Josh Feldman of Mediaite: A Ku Klux Klan wizard has a plan to stop children from crossing into the U.S. via the U.S.-Mexican border: "shoot to kill.... If we can't turn 'em back, I think if we pop a couple of 'em off and leave the corpses laying on the border, maybe they'll see that we're serious about stopping immigration." CW: That should be "lying on the border, not "laying."

Beyond the Beltway

Matt Zapotosky, et al., of the Washington Post: "The prosecution's star witness at the corruption trial of former Virginia governor Robert F. McDonnell (R) and his wife told jurors Thursday he had a simple reason for lavishing gifts on the first family: 'Because they're helping me.' Jonnie R. Williams Sr. testified in his second day on the stand that he gave the McDonnells vacations, pricey clothes and more in the hopes his relationship with the couple would help him promote a supplement created by his company..." ...

     ... Update. Rosalind Helderman, et al., of the Washington Post: "Prosecutors on Thursday unveiled what could be a critical new piece of evidence in their case against former Virginia governor Robert F. McDonnell and his wife, Maureen: a photograph of the governor, grinning and holding up his wrist to display a watch. Testifying during the McDonnells' federal corruption trial, businessman Jonnie R. Williams Sr. said he received the photo by text message in December 2012 in response to one he sent the governor. The watch on McDonnell's wrist appeared to be the Rolex that Williams had purchased for the governor at the first lady's request a year earlier. The picture could shatter any assertion that the governor was unaware that Williams ... had provided the expensive timepiece. McDonnell (R) has previously said the watch was a Christmas gift from his wife." ...

... The Post is liveblogging the trial.

Reader Comments (11)

With just a few posts, Marie has opened up a Pandora's Box of opprobrious actions by House Republicans.

So what else is new? These assholes are scraping the bottom of the historical congressional scumbag barrel.

But I have another example, of the multiple ways in which right-wing idiocy is debasing the country.

First, think about this:

A business in the blood red state of Utah (one of Mittens Romney's many home states), which prides itself on its knowledge of language (the main goal being to instruct ESL students on the vagaries of the English language), has fired an employee for writing a blog post on the concept of homophones.

HOMOphones.

Please, fucking please, tell me that the owner of a company whose business it is to instruct others on elements of English, knows what homophones are.

Well, you're right.

He doesn't have a fucking clue. Or a clew, even.

Homophones represent an attempt by gay-loving, queer, commie loving liberals to insinuate their gay agenda into the brains of freedom loving 'merican wannabes, and as such, anyone even typing the word "homophone", must be fired, if not arrested and tortured by god lovin' heterosexual right-wingers who have there heads in the right place. Or should that be "they're", or maybe "their? Fucking queers!

You might think I'm making this up, but I'm not.

Anyone talkin' 'bout homo-something-phoney stuff must be a fuckin' gay and promotin' queer stuff to 'merican kids, and should be fired. Raht fuckin' now.

And so he was.

By yet another right-wing moron. Can you imagine if the blogger suggested that kids drink homogenized milk????

July 31, 2014 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Maybe Senator Cruz is actually angling to replace Representative Boehner as Speaker. It's OK with the Constitooshun:

http://clerk.house.gov/member_info/memberfaq.aspx

"Article I, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution states, "The House
of Representatives shall chuse their Speaker and other Officers."

Although the Constitution does not require the Speaker to be a
Member of the House, all Speakers have been Members."

PS: "Chuse" is not a homophone, just some of that old-timey fpelling that Madison liked.

August 1, 2014 | Unregistered CommenterPatrick

@Patrick: I realize you're kidding, but the joke is not beyond the realm of possibilities, is it? The problem is, it appears Speaker Cruz would have to relinquish his Senate seat. Article I, Section 6, seems to explicitly prohibit it. In any case, the Senate could expel him (& probably would do so happily) by a 2/3rds vote. So no Senator Speaker Cruz.

Marie

August 1, 2014 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

Okay.

I give.

On your average day, there are plenty of low points in the delusional world of the conservative matrix, conservatives providing such a target rich environment. But today? OM fucking G. A blind man could make the Olympic Skeet Shooting team. Point and fire. In any direction, you're bound to hit something.

But the depths of idiocy on display today in right-wing world surpass anyone's powers of imagination. There's no way anyone could invent the kind of drooling stupidity and stunning ineptness that rules the GOP.

So I give up.

"If you do what we have you asked you to do without our permission, lawsuit." An hour later: "You don't need our permission to do anything. But if you don't act without our permission you're not doing your job."

So what is it? Some weird pathology? Some kind of neurosis? I tried looking it up. Schizophrenia? Possibly. But group schizophrenia? Hmmm....How 'bout Dissociative Fugue? Brief spells of amnesia where the person(s) forget everything they've done just hours before, and think they're someone else. But who? Ted Cruz?

Ahhh......fuggedaboutit. I give up.

Of course it could just be a case of feeble-minded incompetence with a side order of delusions of usefulness.

Is this what you get when your party has, for a generation, decried any act of governance, so that all you end up with is a bunch of unqualified bush-league bunglers whose idea of governing is to do less than nothing, then whine about it and blame someone else?

I say again, I give up.

August 1, 2014 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Patrick,

It feems you've been chusing to read a lot of colonial era broadfides.

August 1, 2014 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Had a thought about the "majority of the majority" Hastert Rule and its relationship to Republican psychology as well as to Gail Collin's remark about the death or irony in D.C.

Irony can be perceived only by a mind capable of or willing to hold two contradictory thoughts side by side and notice they run counter to one another.

The Republicans in the House do not see the irony in their own behavior (asking the President to solve the border crisis on his own when they are simultaneously suing him for doing something on his own that they themselves supported: an irony wrapped in an irony) because they either do not allow or are incapable of conscious thought about two ideas at the same time, a pathology I have described as not allowing any parts of one's brain to speak to one another. Every thought and action exists in isolation and therefore never need fear attack from outside the cave into which they have crawled.

The Hastert Rule, which prohibits the minority party in the House from voting on any measure which the majority does not support--which these days ain't much--is a clear legislative analog of the same mental habit: Don't hear, don't see, don't think, don't deal. Just isolate and deny.

No wonder Republicans are angry, their pure motives misunderstood, oh-so-sad victims of the liberal plot to ruin America.

I have long thought that the primary value of a good education is that people who have one have a better chance of getting the joke.

The House Republicans--maybe that's too limiting-- know people are laughing at them but, immune to irony as they are, they just don't understand why.

August 1, 2014 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

Cheeto Man Boehner weeps at the departure of Eric Cantor, another piece of shit lying sociopath, but has no problem booting children who have made harrowing journeys north hoping for safety, back into an abyss of violence and terror, which will surely mean pain and suffering and even death for many of them, and does it with eyes drier than dust.

Reminds me of a scene from Brian De Palma's "Untouchables" in which Al Capone wipes the tears from his eyes while sitting in a box at the opera just as one of his hitmen informs him that a cop making trouble for him has been brutally murdered, which he acknowledges with barely a nod.

What the fuck is wrong with these people?

Even sociopaths have feelings. Sort of...

By the way, the aria that brings Capone/Boehner to tears is from Leoncavallo's "I Pagliacci", sung by a murderous clown.

Too perfect.

August 1, 2014 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Ken,

It's likely that when you are the joke, it's simply too difficult to acknowledge that fact.

No one likes to be laughed at, but it's even worse, as you suggest, when you think you've performed a spectacular acrobatic display but never realize, as everyone else does, that it was just a banana peel.

August 1, 2014 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

"Across research methods, samples and countries, conservatives have been found to be quicker to focus on the negative, to spend longer looking at the negative, and to be more distracted by the negative," says an article written by political scientists John Hibbing and Kevin Smith of University of Nebraska-Lincoln and John Alford of Rice University.

http://tinyurl.com/nq428hq

August 1, 2014 | Unregistered CommenterJames Singer

A story for the haters of immigration reform, and haters of immigrants.

We all came here from someplace else. Even if you came over on the Mayflower, you aren't native to this place. But the law is the law.

Right?

Ray Bradbury weighs in, succinctly and directly, as was his wont.

I See You Never

Pace, Ray. Your humanity is greatly missed.

August 1, 2014 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Oh wait! there's more to add to this mix of bat shittyness that appears to be the theme of the day here. Last night watched another one of our B.S. representatives, one Trent Franks (R Ariz) rail against Obama blaming him for all these immigrants because Obama told all those people in those countries, "come on over," and we'll give you a free ride. "I believe that," Franks said to Leon Rodriguez, director of immigration, to which Leon replied that assertion certainly was false and gave Franks the facts. Well, replied Franks, that's what he BELIEVED, and nothing and no one would change his mind. Send in the clowns––and as the song goes, oh, wait they're here! But there's more~~~~~our number one B.S. lady with the far away eyes is weighing in on this immigration situation. Read below and prepare to wonder at the wonder of it all.

""Now President Obama is trying to bring all of those foreign nationals, those illegal aliens to the country and he has said that he will put them in the foster care system," Bachmann said. "That's more kids that you can see how - we can't imagine doing this, but if you have a hospital and they are going to get millions of dollars in government grants if they can conduct medical research on somebody, and a Ward of the state can't say 'no,' a little kid can't say 'no' if they're a Ward of the state; so here you could have this institution getting millions of dollars from our government to do medical experimentation and a kid can't even say 'no.' It's sick".

You betcha, Bachmann, if anyone knows sick, it's you, baby.

Hand me my fan, darlin, so I can shoo them flies away. Goodness gracious, it's getting mighty hot in here.

August 1, 2014 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe
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