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

I live in the district she is moving to, she won't get through the primary. Far too many other Republicans have been waiting for that seat. And, other than being heavily Republican, it's about as different from her district as there is in Colorado.

Internal polling had to be awful for her to make this move. She had been relatively quiet since the theater incident and from I had read she's spent a lot of time and effort in her district trying to repair her image.

She's assured a House seat if she wins the primary, but this is going to be a tough primary for her.

The 5th Circuit agreed with Texas that hospitals can't be forced to perform lifesaving abortions.

dola

GOPers in the House are now saying they won't negotiate on immigration because they don't want to help Biden.

So obvious this is where this was heading.

I'm wondering if they flat out told her they wouldn't support her in that district. Almost losing a fairly safe R seat (and likely losing it if she ran again) had to force the party to step in.

Yes, some GOP outliers are saying that. But majority are saying House GOP passed the "Secure the Border Act" in May 2023 and that should be used vs (their view) half-baked Senate version.

So yeah, it is obvious that both sides are playing politics and not wanting to push for a comprehensive immigration bill. Let's have one and not try to "slip" one in to another important, non-related bill or slip it in a couple months before elections.

To be clear. I'm also personally okay with using the Senate compromise version. From what I've read so far, the Dems are willing to compromise some and that's better than the total frak up we currently have at the southern borders. Anything is better than the current status quo brought on by Joe's policies and inactions.

The issue isn't the Senate, it's the house. The democrats could give 99% of what the republicans want, but the house won't vote on it because it's working with the democrats. There are just enough crazies who think their only job is to get 100% of everything they want.

This is where the GOP has been for twenty years. There's a majority that could vote on an immigration bill, but the GOP will block it from reaching a vote. A lot of this should have been solved with the McCain bill during the GWB presidency.

That wouldn't sate them. They'd vote against it even if they got 100% if they had to work with Democrats to get it.

The plan is to burn it down, punish the other side, and take what they want... not work with the other side to get itml.

We'll agree to disagree.

If the Dems were willing to give 99% of what the House GOP wanted back in May 2023 with "Secure the Border Act", we would not be where we are today. The Senate Dems didn't even consider taking it up.

And what happened with Joe's immigration bill in 2021 and 2022 when the Dems owned the Presidency and Congress?

A Harris poll has 2/3 of GOPers saying Trump is a man of faith while only 1/3 say the same for Mitt Romney.

Fucking cult.

“We never had mass shootings like this with republicans in office!”

biden giving a strong speech on who trump really is today on the eve of Jan 6. and then we have Trump put out a video-God made Trump;


https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/s...09644200583366

NRA'S President Wayne Lapierre resigns on the eve of his fraud trial in NY on Monday

Immigration will never get passed because, deep down, no one actually wants to change the system. It's a great tool to rile up racial resentment with the Republican base. And Democrats don't really have a position at all on it. But illegal immigrants are so valuable to big business and big agriculture, that they'll never allow politicians to actually act on it.

Florida passed a strict immigration law last year but is not even enforcing it. For all the tough talk, it's a tourist state with lots of immigrant workers and those businesses are funding campaigns.

This seems bad.

Biden, top White House officials were not informed for days about Austin's hospitalization - POLITICO

Yeah. Unless there’s something I’m missing, people should be fired over this

Yeah, if Austin was incapacitated, it falls on whoever is next in line to notify. If Austin wasn't and hid the information, he needs to be removed immediately.

It is really a weird situation. He wasn't going to lose his job for being in the hospital. Why not let the White House know? There is something more to this story than meets the eye.

I agree. Jan 1 to Jan 4 seems weird, something is missing from the story.

I can see him going in for what he consider a minor, no big deal, thing but then possibly there were bigger complications which extended his stay.

Hospitalized on New Years Day, Jan 1 so understandable that maybe it wasn't communicated on Jan 1 or even Jan 2. But certainly, by Jan 3.

TBH I'm actually surprised that President and Defense Secretary aren't talking every day or every other day, even on holidays. Lots of crap happening in Ukraine, Israel and Red Sea.

Bobo had the police called on her after she punched her ex-husband in the face after getting into an argument at a restaurant last night.

The odds of her going to jail before she dies are clearly going up.

Nice, ahead of schedule. Now the fun begins with the unruly kids.

Looks like the deal is essentially the same deal McCarthy negotiated. So why did they vote him out again?

On one hand domestic violence is bad. On the other, punching pedophiles is good.

Well she was ok with that and said the girls asked to see it so it was ok.

We don't have a dedicated healthcare thread so figured this was as good as any.

I was impressed today. I changed from Anthem to Kaiser Silver HMO and found a new PCP (old one didn't take Kaiser). I met him in person today, get some vaccinations, blood work & prescriptions, nothing big.

I was expecting a private practice Dr. who took Kaiser insurance but instead he was located inside a Kaiser building.

It was pretty squared away. Checked-in at a kiosk, better experience than any others in the past. There was an attendant that helped people check-in and answered any questions in the lobby area. There was the Dr. area, a Lab area, a Pharmacy and couple other areas. Kaiser also has other buildings that dealt with specialties and emergency stuff (e.g. no more of the private emergency clinics).

After seeing the Dr., I went to the pharmacy and then for a blood test. Results available tomorrow online.

Bottom-line. It was an "industrialized" process (efficient, repeatable). I never felt that I was just a number. It was convenient and relatively quick. Online app is solid except for one annoying refresh.

So, if you guys are on Kaiser HMO, suggest you give the "Kaiser practice" a shot vs private practices that takes Kaiser insurance.

My friend is on Kaiser and likes it. His only problem is there isn't an office local to him and he has to drive an hour away for all his appointments.

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Hunter Biden showed up at Congress to watch them discuss the subpoena on him, then he got up and left when MTG began to talk while the press followed him out.

Is so appropriate that most parties dream of public hearings to show the world the scum bag they’re going after

Until now of course cuz Q & T


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Hopefully it's the one I work on!

Now word is that Rep. Johnson is going to back out of the funding deal he negotiated.

It's the one where there is a Check-in and Walk-in.

Check-in was what I initially did, entered in my info and then had my photo taken. After seeing the Dr. I had to do the walk-in for my lab blood test appt which they did 20 min later.


BTW if you work on below, the refreshing of screens is way, way too slow.

https://healthy.kaiserpermanente.org/georgia/front-door

Picking a random backbencher with no leadership experience as Speaker was always going to end up with stuff like this.

The only surprise there is that it has taken this long.

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I mean we've been bombing them or having proxies bomb them for 15 years. Still feels like something that should require Congressional approval, but Biden and following the laws in this conflict don't go together.

Why? We have long-standing orders that the President is allowed to act on terrorist activities, and this definitely qualifies.

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Happening, no details on how extensive yet

We shouldn't be fighting battles for others.


Also, Biden has been outspoken in the past about this exact thing being illegal. Guess it's different now that he's in charge.

They attack US Naval ships, not to mention numerous civilian ships. The War Powers Act allows action as long as he notifies Congress within 72 hours, which they already had.

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I know what it says. I'm saying Biden has for decades opposed what he is doing. He has said it is illegal and unconstitutional. He wrote a famous law review article on the topic decades ago.

Regardless of that, providing military aid and weapons to Israel remains illegal by U.S. law. I know that every President breaks this law, but it is still illegal and he should be called out for it just like Trump, Reagan, and others.

As a part of that law review he stated the president should be allowed to use force " to protect, through defensive measures and with maximum emphasis on multilateral action, internationally recognized rights of innocent and free passage in the air and on the seas;"
Literally what is happening here. Further: "The authors noted that the Korean intervention (at least the initial stages), the Cuban missile crisis blockade, the Iranian hostage rescue attempt, the Dominican and Grenada invasions, Reagan’s bombing of Libya, and the Persian Gulf escort operations in 1987 would have been permitted under the proposed framework. In other words, the language put forward would have authorized virtually every controversial use of force undertaken by presidents between World War II and the time of writing."
I think you pretty heavily misrepresenting Biden previous statements.

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Innocent passage. They are trying to block weapons that are being used in a genocide. The UN has a fairly detailed definition of innocent passage which this does not fit.

Piracy is bad but weapons that are being sold or given illegally for a genocide seems worse. I know US Presidents violate this law all the time, but providing any weapons to Israel is still illegal under our laws.

If you want to bring up the UN, it has called for the Houthis to stop attacking shipping.

reuters.com

U.S. law forbids the sale of weapons and providing military aid to Israel.

Which US law is that?

Foreign Assistance Act

Reminder that Israel went into international waters in 2010 and murdered 9 people on humanitarian ships, including an American citizen. Biden publicly supported those actions at the time.

Food for thought if you really think this is about "shipping freedom".

https://abcnews.go.com/WN/Media/amer...ry?id=10814848