Morning Thread

All aboard the Rush Limbaugh Express!

Wednesday Night

Rock on.

Your Moment of Zen

less than 24 hours apart pic.twitter.com/R4qq54bX94

— Michael (@_FleerUltra) April 7, 2021

Is It Love?

I bet it's love.

Evidence is mounting that a tiny subatomic particle called a muon is disobeying the laws of physics as we thought we knew them, scientists announced on Wednesday.

The best explanation, physicists say, is that the muon is being influenced by forms of matter and energy that are not yet known to science, but which may nevertheless affect the nature and evolution of the universe. The new work, they said, could eventually lead to a breakthrough in our understanding of the universe more dramatic than the heralded discovery in 2012 of the Higgs boson, a particle that imbues other particles with mass.

America's Worst Human

Josh Kraushaar.

Aren't You At Least A Little Embarrassed

There's a piece in the WaPo about how sad it is to be political reporter now because it is hard, instead of fun, unlike with the last guy when (I swear I am not making this up) "Reporters drank lustily from the firehose of leaks that emanated from the White House."

Yes your job was easy and fun when Javanka and Stephen and Kellyanne and Sarah would just text you the latest gossip.

How'd it all work out, guys, while you were busy promoting that shit? Democracy dies in bullshit, as do people.

No Hurry

One reason to GO GO GO with an infrastructure bill, instead of slow walking it to make sure all the senators can pretend to be deeply involved in the project and to randomly trim things for the sake of TEH DEFICIT or whatever, is that there are a few senators who are of advanced age who represent states with Republican governors.

Care To Specify?

Curious which wars were fought over oil. Don't remember being told that at the time.

.@VP Kamala Harris: "For years and generations, wars have been fought over oil. In a short matter of time, they will be fought over water." pic.twitter.com/88pWzvbmeA

— The Hill (@thehill) April 7, 2021

Crime Spree

Our favorite Florida member of Congress tried to get a blanket pardon from Trump.

The entire Trump era was a nonstop crime spree, by Trump, his inner circle, and all the various people in the outer orbit. This isn't a secret, even if two sources close to Jared and Ivanka deny it.

Morning Thread

Pardon me!

Tuesday Night

Rock on.

Tuesday Evening

Every day has an evening. Whoa.

Your Moment of Zen

[McCONNELL:]
“Corporate America, stay out of politi—”

[high-rolling corporate CFO:]
(*slides checkbook back into suit jacket*)

[McCONNELL:]
“… wait—no, not like that.” https://t.co/hqRRX0MCSZ

— Greg Greene (@ggreeneva) April 6, 2021

Afternoon Thread

enjoy

They're Bad People, Brent

Who is the audience for things like, "Gail Collins and Bret Stephens shoot the shit." Not even picking on them, specifically, though Bret is a disgusting clown even by the low standards of the cosnrevative movement, but genuinely confused that in the year of our Gritty, 2021, there's still a market for this genre of things.

Bad people all across the political spectrum, but I think we're long past the era when "we" pretended that well-meaning people on Both Sides want basically the same things, they just disagree about how to get there. It isn't an argument about the glorious impact on the economy of low tax rates, or how Social Security Privatization will be BETTER for your retirement. It's about stealing all the money from poor people and giving it to rich people, or maybe not doing that.

And that's before we get to the explicit bigotry.

Lunch Thread

Get your own lunch.

Thoughts and Prayers

Thought all of our elites would've vaccinated themselves out of harm's way by now.

Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte, who rescinded the state’s mask mandate weeks after taking office, has tested positive for COVID-19. The 59-year-old Republican got the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine last Thursday, but since full immunity doesn’t kick in until after the second dose, he would have still been vulnerable to infection. The Billings Gazette reports that he developed symptoms on Sunday after attending Easter services, tested positive on Monday, and will now quarantine for 10 days. It’s not clear how he contracted the virus or if he has infected others, but six members of the state legislature have also tested positive since January.

Almost!

"Vaccine Passports"

It's a dumb term because there's the actual concept of a "passport," being something you need for international travel, and then a general "proof of vaccine" that could potentially be desirable for other things.

These vaccine passports segregate people and strip them of their freedom to travel internationally. Vaccinations are important, and I encourage everyone to get the Covid vaccine, but how would you feel if international travel also required other vaccinations?

— Dr. Drew (@drdrew) April 5, 2021

Dr. Dumbass doesn't realize that there are already vaccine requirements for visiting many countries (yellow fever in particular). Aside from that, the issue is not whether Dictator Biden requires Americans prove they are vaccinated before they travel internationally, it's that many countries will almost definitely have it as a requirement for incoming travelers. If so - and it likely will be - how can the US provide some official document to allow people to meet that requirement?

As for some sort of "proof of vaccine" for domestic activities, we can debate about when that's appropriate or which entities could legally impose them, but if the number of those activities is more than zero, best to think about how the laminated card is easy to obtain, not hard, and uniform. 

If there is going to be a bureaucracy, make it simple, and once "everyone" can get vaccinated, it won't be a burden.

Make Every Week Infrastructure Week

We get to be an almost democracy a couple of times this year!

The news is a bit of a surprise, and it has major ramifications for what happens to the Biden administration’s legislative agenda: Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s office announced Monday that the Senate Parliamentarian has agreed that the budget reconciliation process can be used again this fiscal year.

...

This also means that Biden and Democrats will have a third or possibly even a fourth bite at the reconciliation apple this calendar year, since once they are done with FY 2021 legislation (available to them because the last Congress did not pass a budget resolution at all), they can pass a FY 2022 budget resolution and presumably authorize first one and then another reconciliation bill then as well.

Might as well find ways to exploit silly rules for good as well as evil.

Morning Thread

If Biden truly represented America he'd do the right thing and get a lot more racist.

Monday Night

Rock on.

That Fucking Newspaper

According to the New York Times, Democrats who think Black people should be able to vote are “focused on social justice” while Republicans who want to stop black people from voting are “populist.”

The New York Times is bad. pic.twitter.com/iBPtvzDEWc

— Jamison Foser (@jamisonfoser) April 5, 2021