Goodbye movie theaters, already damaged by COVID.

Meanwhile, Hunter Biden has agreed to testify before Congress in an open committee hearing and the Republicans refuse to allow it. They want a private hearing so they can control the narrative of what gets out. Ridiculous.

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Santos expelled.

I wouldn't be surprised to see him show up for work on Monday as if nothing happened.

And Clay Higgins defense of him was that the ethics committee report came down too hard on one of their own so it had to be politically motivated.

Bi-partisanship is alive!

Buh bye

Now do Bob Menendez.

Quid pro quo, Dr. Lecter.

Easy read on where we are on Ukraine-Israel-Border bill.

Bottom-line. The GOP wants Parole & Asylum to be more stringent as the price for the Ukraine/Israel aid. May be more give on Israel but definitely on Ukraine. But not a sure thing it'll get done in Dec.

House deal to secure aid for Israel and Ukraine could hinge on border funding | PBS NewsHour


Whatever is agreed on in Dec/Jan, I sure hope they also have an understanding that real discussions on Immigration Reform starts in 2024 and really worked on after elections.

Speaking of Menendez, story gets weirder.

Bob Menendez case: Gold bars found in Clifton home of Menendez – NBC New York

I thought my ethically-challenged colleague @BobMenendezNJ could use some encouragement given his substantial legal problems.

So, I approached a seasoned expert on the matter to give ‘Bobby from Jersey’ some advice. pic.twitter.com/y8iX55EyNi

— John Fetterman (@JohnFetterman) December 4, 2023

Tuberville is dropping his hold on military promotions. It's impossible to even estimate the damage this caused because this dumbass doesn't understand the military and thinks there are "too many "officers" and that it works like football where the next man up just fills in.

How much damage to the military has this actually caused? I can't imagine it's really all that much.

Officers have a hard date to get promoted to the next rank or retire. It's not uncommon for an officer to get nominated for promotion on their last attempt before forced retirement. These holds very likely resulted in officers that were waiting to be promoted to instead be forced to retire because their promotion was held up. There is no waiver process for this there are no exceptions because a senator is being a double.

The next man up argument also fails because there are only so many slots for each rank at an instalation. So if someone has left a position and another person gets promoted and is expected to fill that role there is no next man up. You're doing 2 jobs until you are promoted and able to fill your expected role and they can then PCS someone in to fill your current job. That creates massive chain reaction down the line holding up PCSs and stalling careers. Less officers doing more work would also have significant impacts on readiness as there are only so many hours to go around.

We also had at least one officer suffer a heart attack due to the stress of working 2 jobs because his promotion was on hold.

Also, while it's nice to avoid shutdowns operating under a continuing resolution for a significant amount of time has impacts as well. We've been locked into the same budget rather than being able to match inflation and growth in Healthcare needs/costs.

There really isn't much of a solution when it comes ro providing Healthcare to active duty, depedents, and retirees other than stare at a massive deficit and hope an actual budget is approved before the end of the fiscal year.

Just wanted to give an example of the unintended and overlooked consequences of the CR that isn't mentioned.

It doesn't sounds like he's going to fully drop his objections. Said he'd still do it for "woke" promotions which probably just means women and minorities.

Yeah WTF is a woke promotion?

I thought this was pretty funny

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/con...deo-rcna128014

It was funnier 21 hours ago when Atocep posted it :D

Yup, I agree Joe.

Forget the naysayers, you are the best chance of beating Trump again ...

... unless you totally flub the debates. For that matter, do you even need to have a debate with him?

Biden: ‘If Trump wasn’t running, I’m not sure I’d be running’ - MarketWatch

Buh bye McCarthy.

Wish we could say we hardly knew you.

I'm not at all convinced Biden is the best chance of beating Trump. I also think that's a very bad reason for him to run again.

Honestly I worry about this too. Right now one of the top 2 talking points against Biden is the cognitive narrative. A strong, younger candidate would take that away.

But then they would add whatever baggage that they carry, or whatever the Republicans can make people believe about them. Who is the better candidate? We could name a few in theory, but what would they be by the time they really hit the campaign floor and all the warts come out? How will they react to the spot-light? How good a campaigner are they actually? Did they have a bad or shady business dealing that will come out? Did their wives? Did their kids?
I do wish there was a stronger, younger candidate running. I wish Biden had chosen not to run. But I can't say with any certainty whoever won a Democratic primary would actually be a stronger candidate than Biden versus Trump.

2024 Michigan GE:

Trump 50% (+10)
Biden 40%
.
Trump 39% (+8)
Biden 31%
Kennedy 20%
West 6%

.@CNN, 1,197 RV, 11/29-12/6https://t.co/TAuwuCQhSM

— Political Polls (@Politics_Polls) December 11, 2023

From some other polls and this one it seems Kennedy helps Biden more than Trump.

Yup, gut check time Joe. You're going to need to compromise if you want Ukraine-Israel-Taiwan funding.

But you're going to lose some votes. Proverbial rock and a hard place. I think compromise now and then campaign on holistic immigration reform in 2025.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/immigra...n-deportation/

The GOP won't agree to anything. There's a report that Schumer offered a vote on a GOP written bill and they refused to provide anything.

My mom is a Trumper who wants to switch to independent to vote for him. I don't argue with her.

That's Biden's problem.

The GOP does not want to fix immigration.

They want to blame Biden for broken immigration.

There's no deal to be had because a bi-partisan deal makes Biden look good.

Schumer needs to make such an offer public.

I don't check Twitter much these days but if I did, I'd bet the NYTimesPitchbot account posted something along the lines of, "Dow Jones Hits Its All-Time High. See How That Could Spell Trouble for Biden."

The GOP wants the Dems to write a bill that pisses off as many Dems as possible and then, at the last minute, claim they were betrayed and refuse to vote for it.

We've seen this before.

Yep

Immigration is a losing issue for Dems with Rs and the GOP wants to keep it that way. As long as their voters feel it's broken and the GOP can blame dems there's not reason to fix it because it's probably the top issue that drives their voters to the polls.

Even with the GOP holding the presidency and both chambers of congress they've had no interest in implementing any of their "fixes".

I think the GOP will take the deal. It's pretty draconian and what they've wanted for a long time. They don't really have to give up anything in return. I mean funneling some money to defense contractors for weapons in Ukraine and Israel is a win for them too. And it hurts Biden.

They should take the deal and the victory lap.

BREAKING: Bloomberg poll shows Trump now leading Biden across all seven key swing states with eleven months left to the election

— The Spectator Index (@spectatorindex) December 14, 2023

A bipartisan bill passed that prevents the President from pulling out of NATO without congressional authorization.

It's amazing even the GOP has to put guardrails up so that their leading candidate for president can't fuck things up.

A lot of Dems have wanted a deal on immigration and border patrol for a long, long time. Before trump co-opted the border as a 'right' issue, it was a 'left' issue.

I mean it's the complete opposite of what Biden campaigned on so I don't think it's a positive for Democrats. He's not giving these concessions because he thinks it'll help him.

Let's hope it gets through the Senate ...

Sinema ‘can see the deal’ on Ukraine-border as Schumer cuts recess - POLITICO

Somewhat optimistic about Senate but then there's always the House ...

Do not look for the gay porn that was filmed by Senate staffers in the Judicial committee hearing room. You have been warned.

I feel like they knew what they were doing by not releasing that story until Friday night. Not sure what happens now, but I remember our IT folks used to be pissed back in the late 90's when we would tell newcomers to go to whitehouse.com to initiate them to the military. Don't worry it is okay to go there now, it is a betting site.

Someone say gay porn?

All the gays on my Twitter timeline are having a blast.

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Hugely surprised that Lindsey Graham wasn't involved.

Must say the Which Desecration is Worse? with Jan 6 vs a naked guy in the Senate chamber by a republican congressman was not unexpected.

Frontline just did a show about this story. YouTube link below if interested.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkgkBEuEHwU&t=34s

The Air Force also released an executive summary of their report. Apologies to anyone who is/was in the Air National Guard, but it was the epitome of the worst stereotypes of the Guard.

This guy should get the death penalty.

Baaed on the lines out today Christmas shopping, the economy is booming.

Just my very fallible opinion: Joe is very flawed, especially too old, but should stay in the race because he is the best chance to beat Trump. If Joe drops out, who would be the nominee who can beat Trump? Kamala - no way. Newsome - hard to say: too Cali? Warren - no chance. Whitmer - doesn't want it enough?



Joe is teflon to the Trump-MAGA-Fox attacks. Everyone knows exactly who Joe is, for good and bad.


Joe has been a lifelong supporter of Israel, Now, he shows not only that he still is, but also proves that he's still Joe and not beholden to the left. Might that cost him a lot of youth and other lefty votes, and the election? Maybe. But I think that it secures a lot of Indy and Trump-hating-GOP support.


But there are no certain answers.

Smart move on her part. Hopefully, the voters will see through her mess.

Boebert switches congressional districts, avoiding a Democratic opponent who has far outraised her | AP News