Late Night

Was busy but apparently Rudy called the code red YOU'RE GODDAMN RIGHT HE DID?

Rich People Are Dumb (Or Lying As They Talk Their Book)

LOL.

Ellison, who sits on the board of Tesla (TSLA), and considers Elon Musk a close friend, also asserted that Tesla could roll out a ride-sharing service with autonomously driven cars at prices two-thirds below what Uber charges, while also ensuring people get to their destinations safely.

Robotaxis are coming any day now. Six months, a year, tops, depending on regulatory approval.

Mueller is Coming

Along with Q.

Good Thing It's Friday

Is a thing I thought, before thinking another thing, which was that the first thing was wrong.
Here's one for your MIND.

Information Flow

When I am in charge of that for the next Democratic president, I will ban all David Brooks columns from the Oval Office.

15 Years Of First Draft

Go give Athenae all your money.

Well At Least There Is The Power Of The Purse

Haha, no.

Pelosi has been firm in telling her caucus that Democrats needed to back a “clean” funding measure, and so far, many progressives and Latino Democrats have agreed to hold their fire for later this fall, unwilling to block the bill and take blame for a shutdown.

And then in November after the election [voice in earpiece: there is no election] I mean, um, in November things will be different because, um?

I got nothin'.

Stop Bothering

If Democrats can't even manage to game out what to do when they, say, subpoena someone and they don't respond appropriately, just stop bothering at all. Are we gonna hold the guy in contempt or not? Pretty simple, really. Have a plan. And if you aren't going to hold them in contempt, every time you don't you signal that people can show up in a mankini and sing the greatest hits of Snow instead of testifying and lol nothing matters.

I guess the only plan is they reduce the witness to a blubbering pile of goo like in some ridiculous courtroom drama... I CONFESS I CONFESS!!! I HELPED TRUMP DO ALL THE CRIMES!!!

Which won't happen, and even if it does the NYT headline will be:

Confession of Trump's Crimes Creates A Dilemma For Democrats

Which would be ridiculous, but I have to admit, not actually wrong.

Morning Thread

Pelosi's Going To Be So Mad

One more thing she's going to have to work to ignore.

The whistleblower complaint that has triggered a tense showdown between the U.S. intelligence community and Congress involves President Trump’s communications with a foreign leader, according to two former U.S. officials familiar with the matter.

Trump’s interaction with the foreign leader included a “promise” that was regarded as so troubling that it prompted an official in the U.S. intelligence community to file a formal whistleblower complaint with the inspector general for the intelligence community, said the officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

When Winter Comes The Gorillas Simply Freeze To Death

What could go wrong.

Leach says scientists are worried that the invaders could alter the ecology of forests, killing off some species. "We're also starting to see early indications of displacement of other insects, and, as a result, displacement of birds as well," she says.

What could stop them? Leach mentions a idea that seems a little crazy at first. Maybe, if the problem came from China, the solution could, too.

You see, in China, the lanternfly has natural enemies that hold it in check. They are tiny wasps, so small you barely see them.

Scientists from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, working with colleagues from China, have brought two of these wasps to the U.S. under tight security. The wasps are under quarantine in a couple of USDA labs.

Happy Hour Thread

enjoy

America's Worst Pundits

Jon Chait

Communicate True Things Clearly To Readers/Viewers

Really is something that should have priority over the weird conventions of Bothsides and faux-objectivity.

But I've said this, like most things, a million times since I have been blogging and here we still are.

Afternoon Thread

enjoy

What's It All About Then

I don't imagine a golden age of conservatism - either here or in the UK - but the degree to which the current leaders are completely incurious and incompetent is staggering. They were evil before, but now evil and lazy and dumb.

Boris Johnson expressed surprise to his advisers during lunch with Jean-Claude Juncker as he was informed about the scale of checks still needed on the island of Ireland under his alternative plan for the Irish border, according to EU sources.

The two-hour lunch in Luxembourg was said by both sides to have been “positive” but EU officials conceded the advantage for them had been in being able to spell out the problems directly to the prime minister. “It seems to have helped the penny drop,” said one diplomatic source.

During talks with Juncker and the EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, the prime minister was shown in detail how allowing Northern Ireland to stick to common EU rules on food and livestock, known as sanitary and phytosanitary measures (SPS), would still fail to avoid checks on the vast majority of goods that cross the Irish border.

Gotta Eat, Drink, and Breathe

I'm always a bit puzzled that rich people don't care much about the food supply (or air or water). I don't care how much you only eat at the fanciest restaurants or get your ribs from artisanal pork resorts, unless you put yourself in a bubble, money doesn't really let you escape contamination. Sure rich people tend not to live next to superfund sites, but they do eat, drink, and breathe.

There are two big changes at the heart of the new regulations.

One is the increasing delegation of inspection responsibilities to local plant employees, who are not obligated to have undergone any particular training in food safety or regulatory compliance.

The other is an increase in “line speeds.” Faster line speeds mean that more pigs can be killed each minute, which increases capacity for the slaughterhouses but also makes some inspection tasks much harder to carry out. In September, the Trump administration approved faster line speeds for poultry. The administration is also looking into reforming the regulations for beef.

Our Failed Media Experiment

Corey Lewandowski:

BARRY BERKE: Did you hear that sir? That was you saying, on MSNBC, you don't ever remember the president ever asking you to get involved with Jeff Sessions or the Department of Justice in any way, shape, or form. That wasn't true, was it sir?

COREY LEWANDOWSKI: I heard that.

BERKE: And that was not true, was it?

LEWANDOWSKI: I have no obligation to be honest with the media 'cause they're just as dishonest as anybody else.

CNN:

COMING UP: Former Trump campaign manager @CLewandowski_ LIVE on @CNN's @NewDay at 8amET on yesterday's contentious hearing and impeachment.

— Javi Morgado (@javimorgado) September 18, 2019

Pariahs

I chuckled when people kept saying the post-Trump life of Trumpkins would be difficult due to all the shunning.

The Atlantic Festival will open next Tuesday with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi in conversation with The Atlantic’s editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg, kicking off three full days of events from September 24-26, 2019, at the Harman Center for the Arts and venues across Washington, D.C.’s Penn Quarter neighborhood. Also just announced: Kirstjen Nielsen, former Secretary of Homeland Security; and Disney CEO Bob Iger in conversation with Laurene Powell Jobs, founder and president of Emerson Collective, which is the majority owner of The Atlantic.

Tuesday Evening

Tomorrow is...

A Tribute To Cokie Roberts

A great piece at NPR.

Political journalist George Will, who worked with Roberts on ABC's This Week, said Roberts was not just born to the political class but was a natural inhabitant.

"She liked people on both sides of the aisle and had friends on both sides of the aisle," Will told NPR. "If you don't like the game of politics, I don't see how you write about it well," he said. "She liked the game of politics and she understood that it was a game."

...

Will said that although Washington is a "town of short leases," with people constantly coming and going, Roberts represented the permanent Washington, a kind of figure who was constant through decades of political change: "The Washington not often denounced by people who denounce Washington because they don't know it exists," Will said. "Cokie represented the durable, ongoing Washington that is a custodian of the manners of the city and the sociability of the city that makes it really function."

All Options Are Off The Table

Aside from not actually doing anything to confront the grifter corruption in the White House (or anything else), the leadership keeps loudly announcing that they aren't going to do anything.

What could go wrong?