Friday Night

Rock on.

Happy Hour

Get happy

Speaker Mike

Got the votes after all.

Rudy 9/11

Going back to that well one last time.

Rudy Giuliani faces a contempt hearing in Manhattan federal court Friday for failing to satisfy a judge’s orders to cough up assets to the Georgia mother and daughter he was found liable for defaming.

 

The former New York City mayor turned up for the hearing after his legal team tried to get him out of having to appear in person in an 11th-hour request to the judge Thursday, claiming he couldn’t be there in person due to “medical issues with his left knee and breathing problems due to lung issues discovered last year attributable to being at the World Trade Center site on September 11, 2001.” 

Speakerless

 Mike Johnson does not make it over the line on the first vote.

Lunch

Eat

I Guess They Know Something

There are regular reports of journalists fleeing the Washington Post if they can, which is hilarious because so many journalists (not necessarily the same ones) got Big Mad when people started canceling their subscriptions, arguing that even though Bezos was meddling in the opinion side he of course WOULD NOT meddle in the news side.

My guys he hired one of the worst Brits to run the place.  Why do you think he did that? Why do you love yelling at your customer base, who often know more than you do, so much?

Spreading Nonsense

As I said yesterday, bullshit spreads very fast on social media but often it is primarily sourced to our glorious news outlets.

A Little Problem

Everybody's gotta eat.

South Korean investigators left the official residence of impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol after a near-six-hour standoff during which he defied their attempt to detain him. It’s the latest confrontation in a political crisis that has paralyzed South Korean politics and seen two heads of state impeached in under a month.

The country’s anti-corruption agency said it withdrew its investigators after the presidential security service blocked them from entering Yoon’s residence for hours due to concerns about their safety. The agency expressed “serious regret about the attitude of the suspect, who did not respond to a process by law.”

Morning

Funky Friday.

Happy Hour

 Get happy

Afternoon

I got nothin'. The fun begins again tomorrow.

What I Got Wrong

I stupidly thought Jan. 6 would be the end of Trump's political career, that it would be too much for Republicans who mostly would be glad of an excuse to be rid of him anyway.

I don't think it took too long to realize my error, but...

Lunch

Eat

CHAOS RULES

I am sure they will figure it out, but the rakestepping possibilities are amusing to contemplate.

NO, ORANGE MAN GOOD

I don't think Suozzi and his fellow travelers are (we will see!) representative of general elected Dem thinking about Trump, but in this post-election era in which the centrists are busy blaming The Left (people who mostly do not get NYT - or any - mainstream platform to air their grievances) for their messaging failures, I would like to suggest they come for their guys, or at least consider the damage they might be doing.

The message here is that his fellow Democrats only oppose Trump out of misguided and selfish partisanship, and the sensible thing to do is to work with him on all the good things he can do. This stuff is catnip to mainstream outlets, and do we not think this undermines the general "orange man bad" message, let alone any attempt to curb his excesses? 

Recall the numerous "lefties are blinded by Bush hatred" views from back in the day. 

Which Team Are They On

I have tired of the perpetual game of trying to pin violent acts on "their guys" or "our guys." It was bad enough in the blog years, but social media spreads bullshit insanely quickly (not that it is the source of all bullshit).

Also it is a big country and some things get the headlines and some things don't (sometimes justifiably, often not).  Some horrific violence deserves coverage and some does not.  Some horrific violence isn't even portrayed as such! What and why and when are often the more interesting questons.

Morning

Holidays are over.

Wednesday Night

Rock on.

Happy Hour

Get happy.

Choose Your Fighters

You see a lot about how The Left is to blame for undermining the Democrats, but the guys who hold office and get to write pieces in the New York Times certainly share some blame for the inconsistency of their message.

By Tom Suozzi

Mr. Suozzi, a Democrat, represents New York’s Third Congressional District. He is a former Nassau County executive and mayor of Glen Cove on Long Island.

President-elect Donald Trump and the Republicans have managed to sell themselves as the party of change. It worked: They will soon control the presidency, Congress and, in essence, the Supreme Court. But to change and fix America requires both parties to work together. As a Democratic member of Congress, I know my party will be tempted to hold fast against Mr. Trump at every turn: uniting against his bills, blocking his nominees and grinding the machinery of the House and the Senate to a halt.

That would be a mistake. Only by working together to find compromise on parts of Mr. Trump’s agenda can we make progress for Americans who are clearly demanding change in the economy, immigration, crime and other top issues.

Punditry

Someone brought this one to my attention.  It's UK politics but you do have to marvel at this:

Other PMs who had shaky starts went on to make the cut. So can Starmer. He must make it. But if he has not significantly improved by mid 2025, his own party and the country may conclude that his uncertain start was not an aberration but an indication of chronic unsuitability. Were Britain then to have a seventh prime minister in under 10 years, foreign investors and governments, on whom British prosperity depends, will draw the same conclusion as increasing numbers at home: a new leader is needed.

If the UK replaces its PM, then foreign investors and foreign governments will demand that such instability requires yet another PM.

There is a lot packed into that!!!

Seldon (the author) is one of those guys who imagines he really understands what goes on in the Room Where It Happens, whether or not he does.   Apparently some interesting things happen there!

The Blob

We shouldn't forget that the ex-president of Korea was our man in Seoul. "We" loved him because he was belligerent towards North Korea, conciliatory towards Japan, and anti-China.

That he was an authoritarian right wing nutcase who was cooking his brains on Youtube conspiracy videos somehow escaped the notice of the panopticon.

Perhaps our meddling there is minor,  but it does show clearly how "our" concerns are selfish, narrow, shortsighted, and fundamentally ignorant.  This is true when the bombs are dropping as well.

A career at State is for you if you fundamentally do not believe most other people are people.

Morning

It begins again.