WASHINGTON – Lawmakers have spent months battling over aid to Ukraine and solutions for the crisis at America’s southern border. But some of the Senate’s more conservative Republicans are increasingly wary of a bipartisan plan to address both issues, creating additional challenges for negotiations that are already a political minefield.
Several Senate Republicans argued during a press conference on Capitol Hill Wednesday that the package, which seeks to tie together border programs and aid to Ukraine, would not actually increase the president’s ability to slow migration to the U.S.
“This supplemental bill is a kamikaze plane in a box canyon with no exit headed for a trainwreck,” quipped Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas.
“From what I’m hearing, this could cause as many problems as it solves,” said Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah.
The deal – which has not yet been finalized – would reportedly make it harder for migrants to claim asylum, make it easier for U.S. officials to deport migrants who have remained in the country illegally, expand detention capacity and add Border Patrol staff.
It would also bar additional migrants from entering the country if the system becomes overwhelmed, which Republican lawmakers said would mean a cap of 5,000 migrants per day.
Lee, Cruz and Sens. Rick Scott, R-Fla., Roger Marshall, R-Kan., Mike Braun, R-Ind., Ron Johnson, R-Wis., and Eric Schmitt, R-Mo. raised concerns that such a threshold could effectively set migration at that level, which they deem too high. The conservative leaders on Wednesday also said the package stands no chance of passing in the House, where some members on both the right and left have raised concerns with the proposal.
“I think this is dead on arrival in the House,” Scott said. “We should not be voting for anything as Republicans in the Senate if the Republicans in the House don’t support it.”
It’s not clear if the Senate-negotiated deal would fail in the lower chamber. But the odds aren’t great: House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has expressed doubt about a compromise that doesn’t resemble the hardline border bill House Republicans passed last year. The speaker has argued all aspects of their bill – referred to as H.R. 2 – must be passed together in a comprehensive package to address the southern border.
The criticism from conservative senators came ahead of a private Wednesday afternoon meeting that stretched on for roughly an hour and a half. During the gathering, the full group of GOP senators aired their concerns or made their case for Ukraine funding and tying it to the border and immigration debate.
Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio told reporters after the lengthy meeting that most minds weren’t changed. The discussion was instead for senators to express their positions surrounding American support for the war in Ukraine, including an “exit strategy” and the “depletion of reserves.”
The debate between senators that erupted on Capitol Hill in recent weeks isn’t purely about policy. Election year politics have also influenced conversations, as some Republicans raise concerns that the border package would give President Joe Biden a victory on a hot-button campaign issue.
Former President Donald Trump has also started putting pressure on congressional Republicans to reject the deal. Some senators have grown concerned Trump’s musings could endanger what are incredibly delicate negotiations.
“If someone is running for president and is trying to actively undermine governance, that’s bad,” Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., told USA TODAY. “Is it really better to have 10,000 people crossing a day illegally or 5,000? Clearly it’s 5,000. So somebody who is trying to defeat legislation, all in the name of running for office? That is irresponsible.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., acknowledged the new political challenges of linking Ukraine aid to border policy in the closed-door meeting Wednesday, according to reporting by Punchbowl. “We don’t want to do anything to undermine” Trump, McConnell reportedly said. “We’re in a quandry.”
[continues]
The former president lashed out at Nikki Haley for acting like she won the New Hampshire primary, a new report alleges rampant abuse of prescription drugs by staffers in the Trump White House, and Alaska Airlines is finding an alarming number of loose bolts on its planes.
one GOPer tongue which is not just forked, it’s in a tight twisted braid.
According to the new book, “Find me the Votes” by journalists Michael Isikoff and Daniel Klaidman, Sen. Lindsey Graham “turned on a dime” and “threw Trump under the bus” during his grand jury testimony in Fulton County, Georgia. Isikoff will join “All In” on Tuesday, Jan. 30 to discuss.
The South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham “threw Donald Trump under the bus” in testimony to a grand jury investigating election subversion in Georgia, a new book reportedly says, revealing that the former president would have believed “martians came and stole the election” he lost to Joe Biden in 2020.
“After fighting a four-month legal battle all the way to the US supreme court to block his grand jury subpoena – and losing … Graham turned on a dime ‘and threw Trump under the bus’,” Michael Isikoff and Daniel Klaidman write in Find Me the Votes: A Hard-Charging Georgia Prosecutor, a Rogue President, and the Plot to Steal an American Election, Politico reported.
“According to secret grand jury testimony in Fulton county confirmed by the authors, Graham testified that if you told Trump ‘that martians came and stole the election, he’d probably believe you’. He also suggested to the grand jurors that Trump cheated at golf.”
The book, which cites “a source familiar with [Graham’s] testimony”, will be published next week.
Isikoff and Klaidman also reportedly describe a “strange encounter” between Graham and Fani Willis, the Fulton county district attorney who has pursued the election subversion case, producing 13 criminal charges against Trump and charging a host of his allies.
Willis reportedly decided against charging Graham over his involvement in Trump’s attempt to overturn Biden’s win in the state.
“After Graham was finished testifying,” Isikoff and Klaidman write, “he bumped into Fani Willis in a hallway and thanked her for the opportunity to tell his story.
“‘That was so cathartic,’ he told Willis. ‘I feel so much better.’ Then, to the astonishment of one source who witnessed the scene, South Carolina’s senior senator hugged the Fulton county DA who was aggressively pursuing Trump.
“Willis’s reaction: ‘She was like, “Whatever, dude,”’ according to one witness of the strange encounter.”
Trump threatens to blacklist anyone who donates to Haley
“Anybody that makes a “Contribution” to Birdbrain, from this moment forth, will be permanently barred from the MAGA camp. We don’t want them, and will not accept them, because we Put America First, and ALWAYS WILL!” Jan 24, 2024, 8:49 PM
BiD, IMHO the OKC Tower stands about as much chance of being built as proposed as it would stand against that F5 you mentioned.
Joe needs to get on the tube in a prime time address to the nation and demand that Congress pass and forward to him for signature the Border/Ukraine & Israel funding bill and call the Repugs out for calling for it on the one hand and delaying it so that it won’t hurt Fatass’ election chances on the other.
WAPO: US economy grew at a surprisingly strong 3.3% pace last quarter, pointing to continued resilience
WASHINGTON — The nation’s economy grew at an unexpectedly brisk 3.3% annual pace from October through December as Americans showed a continued willingness to spend freely despite high interest rates and price levels that have frustrated many households.
Thursday’s report from the Commerce Department said the gross domestic product — the economy’s total output of goods and services — decelerated from its sizzling 4.9% growth rate the previous quarter. But the latest figures still reflected the surprising durability of the world’s largest economy, marking the sixth straight quarter in which GDP has grown at an annual pace of 2% or more.
Consumers, who account for about 70% of the total economy, drove the fourth-quarter growth. Their spending expanded at a 2.8% annual rate, for items ranging from clothing, furniture, recreational vehicles and other goods to services like hotels and restaurant meals.
The GDP report also showed that despite the robust pace of growth in the October-December quarter, inflationary measures continued to ease. Consumer prices rose at a 1.7% annual rate, down from 2.6% in the third quarter. And excluding volatile food and energy prices, so-called core inflation came in at a 2% annual rate.
[continues]
Attribution: Economic Disaster by Pat Byrnes, PoliticalCartoons.com
Orange Adolf is the one directing Republicans in Congress to stall in the Birder/Ukraine bill. MAGAts need immigrants to come across the southern border, so they can blame Biden. MAGAt Mike is taking direction from tRUMPsky.
“I do not think we should do a Border Deal, at all, unless we get EVERYTHING needed to shut down the INVASION of Millions & Millions of people, many from parts unknown, into our once great, but soon to be great again, Country!” he wrote last week on the social media platform Truth Social.
“Also, I have no doubt that our wonderful Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson will only make a deal that is PERFECT ON THE BORDER.”
“The border is an issue that fires up the Republican base, and passing a bill that Democrats can claim as a win could hurt Republican messaging in an election year, said Norman Ornstein, senior fellow emeritus at the American Enterprise Institute.”
“They don’t want to do anything that might benefit Joe Biden and take this issue of the border off the table for the 2024 campaign,” he told VOA.
“By tying immigration to Biden’s top foreign policy agenda, Republicans are also aiming to undercut Biden’s message that he is the president who will restore U.S. leadership on the world stage. Trump’s four years in office was marked by an “America First” isolationist doctrine that brought turbulence in Washington’s relationship with its allies and partners.”
I would argue that as MAGAts in Congress, by taking direction from the head if the J6 insurrection, a monster who is campaigning to regain power, they are all violating their oath of office.
Mitt Romney:
“I think the border is a very important issue for Donald Trump. And the fact that he would communicate to Republican senators and congresspeople that he doesn’t want us to solve the border problem because he wants to blame Biden for it is is really appalling.”
Appalling. Boy, a word like that could stop the magats dead in their tracks. Kind of close to deplorable, another strong word.
https://www.texastribune.org/2024/01/25/texas-spacex-park-land-swap/
“Texas could swap land in Boca Chica State Park with SpaceX”
“The Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission is scheduled to vote in March on a deal that environmental advocates, the Esto’k Gna Tribal Nation of Texas and local officials oppose.”
“…a land swap with SpaceX that would give Elon Musk’s space exploration company about 43 acres from Boca Chica State Park.”
“…SpaceX would transfer 477 acres nearby that could be used for hiking, camping and birding.”
“…environmental groups and community members urged caution. The Cameron County Judge opposed the swap. The Tribal Chair of the Esto’k Gna Tribal Nation of Texas said such a trade would compound a history of his community being erased or ignored.”
“It doesn’t make any sense at all for them to do what they’re doing in transferring that land,” said Juan Mancias, the tribal chair. “None at all.”
“Emma Guevara, who grew up in Brownsville and is now a field organizer for the Sierra Club, said SpaceX changed the community. A company people hoped would bring good jobs instead brought contract and custodial work for them and higher-paying work for outsiders who moved in, she said. The company closes the road to the beach. A launch last year sent dust falling from the sky.”
~Yeah, it was just “dust.”~
“It’s a little sneaky, because it seems good because it’s so much more land being traded,” Guevara said. “But the land that’s being traded is incredibly important to the community … so there’s a lot of community opposition to this. There’s a lot of community opposition to SpaceX in general.”
“It’s a race to the bottom,” said Peter Galvin, co-founder of the Center for Biological Diversity, a plaintiff in the lawsuit. “First, you know, they put this thing smack dab in the middle of a state park and national wildlife refuge. And now they want to take a chunk … out of the state park. I mean, what’s next?”
“Consumers are doing their part and spending just enough to support broader economic growth.”
“Fed Governor Christopher Waller, an influential official at the central bank, said in a speech earlier this month that if “economic activity that seems to have moderated in the fourth quarter of 2023 does not play out” then that could delay rate cuts. Market expectations of that first rate cut coming in March have been crumbling in recent weeks.”
Peter Navarro, a White House aide to then-President Donald Trump who claimed credit for devising a plan to overturn the 2020 election, was sentenced to four months behind bars Thursday morning for ignoring a subpoena from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack.
“Let’s make clear Dr. Navarro, you are not a victim. You are not the object of a political prosecution….These are circumstances of your own making,” U.S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta said. “You have received every process your are due… as any American is entitled to…the same respect that I hope I have shown you… when you were called up to go to testify, you didn’t show a co-equal branch of Congress the same degree of respect, and it’s regrettable.”
Federal prosecutors had asked a judge to impose on Navarro the same “severe” penalty of six months incarceration that they requested for Stephen K. Bannon, a former Trump political adviser, with whom Navarro said he worked on a plan to delay and ultimately change the outcome of Congress’s formal count of the 2020 presidential election results.
Navarro was the second Trump aide sentenced for stonewalling Congress’s Jan. 6 investigation, after Bannon received four months behind bars, a punishment that has been put on hold pending appeal. Navarro is also expected to appeal his conviction. Either Bannon or Navarro could become the first person incarcerated for defying a congressional subpoena in more than half a century under a statute that is rarely prosecuted and that is punishable by up to a year behind bars.
“I was torn…. Nobody in my position should be put in conflict between the legislative branch and the executive branch,” Navarro told the court in a brief statement after his lawyers initially said he would not speak on advice of counsel. “I did not know what to do” when subpoenaed by Congress, Navarro insisted. “Is that the entire lesson from this process? … Get a lawyer? I think in a way it is.”
Navarro, 74, was found guilty in September of two counts of criminal contempt of Congress for refusing to produce documents or testify after receiving a House subpoena in February 2022. Lawmakers had asked Navarro, a former trade and pandemic adviser who served throughout Trump’s term in office, about his claim of working with Bannon on an operation called “The Green Bay Sweep.” The plan aimed to get Trump loyalists in Congress to contest ballots from six swing states that Biden won and throw the election to the House, though claims of voter fraud were repudiated by state officials and the courts.
…
Pity, ain’t it? And as to being “torn”, I call UTTER BULLSHIT. If my memory serves me correctly, he was snotty and dismissive of the subpoena and tried to claim he was protected by executive privilege although Dumbass had not asserted it. Fuck him – enjoy the soup.
So wait, according to Mitch, the border issue about which maga peeps are perpetually hysterical could be fixed sooner rather than later, but it won’t be because plumpty wants to keep them hysterical?
While McConnell noted that the party used to be united in finding a solution, he argued that the politics “have changed” since Trump is basically the GOP presidential nominee — and the former president wants the issue for his 2024 campaign more than an actual solution.
NEW YORK — Donald Trump was called to the stand Thursday in Manhattan to testify in his defamation damages trial involving writer E.
Jean Carroll,two days after winning New Hampshire’s Republican primary election.
Trump had said he would testify even though the issue of whether he defamed Carroll with disparaging comments he made while president in 2019 has already been decided in her favor.
Restricted from disputing that he had sexually abused and defamed Carroll, Trump was only on the stand Thursday for three minutes. Under direct examination from his lawyer, Trump was asked if he had ever instructed anyone to hurt Carroll in his statements about her.
“No, I just wanted to defend myself, my family and, frankly, the presidency,” Trump said.
Trump was ordered at a separate trial last year to pay $5 million to Carroll, an advice columnist and author, for sexually abusing her in the mid-1990s and for damaging her reputation through denials and insults in 2022. In this trial, the jury will decide whether Trump should pay Carroll additional damages.
The judge had already warned Trump that he could be ejected from the courtroom for misbehaving. At one point Thursday, Trump spoke out of turn from his seat at the defense table, denying he ever met Carroll. As he left the courtroom, he could be heard muttering, “This is not America. Not America.”
Something I have been seeing on various YouTube and other social media channels is how clean America is. They talk about the lack of garbage on the roads. No stuff tossed at stop signs and cross roads. Just how people use trash cans, for the most part.
I cannot help but think back to Lady Bird Johnson and her first lady project of cleaning up America’s roads and highways by limiting billboards, litter and junkyards. I remember the derision and laughs. Billboards are limited, but showing up again. Streets, roads and highways are almost always clean.
The result of the Beautification of America Act had the side effect of making something nice, clean thoroughfares, internationally noticed.
“From the Texas House to former President Donald Trump, Republicans across the country are rallying behind Gov. Greg Abbott’s legal standoff with the federal government at the southern border, intensifying concerns about a constitutional crisis amid an ongoing dispute with the Biden administration.”
“Abbott’s statement was quickly condemned by some legal scholars, who said it was blatantly unconstitutional and amounted to a usurpring of the federal government.”
“By this logic, states could use their own determination that an ‘invasion’ exists as a justification for usurping control of whichever federal policies they don’t like,” Stephen Vladeck, a University of Texas at Austin law professor, wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. “Imagine blue states taking this approach: ‘We’re being invaded by drugs.’ ‘We’re being invaded by pollution.’ The right of states to defend themselves does not, and was never meant to, provide a hook for *supplanting* federal authority.”
“But Abbott’s actions rapidly endeared himself to Republicans across the political spectrum, spanning the country, with many echoing the Texas governor’s call to “hold the line” and others going further using rhetoric that suggested that Texas use force to defend itself from an attack.”
Team Biden needs to make a lot of noise about tRUMPsky’s tiny hand in this mess.
Do not let him hide and shirk responsibility.
BB – I think we even got rid of pull-top soda and beer cans because of the anti-littering campaign, which ended every midnight of my childhood with a single tear running down the cheek of a Native American.
Bink, one of George’s best. LP is working up an acoustic While My Guitar Gently Weeps. George wasn’t my favorite Beatle, but WMGGW is in my top 3 Beatles recordings and Something is right up there, too. I’ve come to appreciate George much more as time has gone on.
that is to say his music expressed an aspirational contentment that he struggled to attain resulting in songs that provide a relaxing listening experience
Pity for the poor slobs who’ve never been arrested.
“At one point, candidates were asked to raise their hands if they had ever been arrested. Six of the nine candidates onstage raised their hands, to cheers and applause from the audience.”
Republicans fracture on border, Ukraine deal as Donald Trump looms (usatoday.com)
The former president lashed out at Nikki Haley for acting like she won the New Hampshire primary, a new report alleges rampant abuse of prescription drugs by staffers in the Trump White House, and Alaska Airlines is finding an alarming number of loose bolts on its planes.
one GOPer tongue which is not just forked, it’s in a tight twisted braid.
According to the new book, “Find me the Votes” by journalists Michael Isikoff and Daniel Klaidman, Sen. Lindsey Graham “turned on a dime” and “threw Trump under the bus” during his grand jury testimony in Fulton County, Georgia. Isikoff will join “All In” on Tuesday, Jan. 30 to discuss.
bless his little heart 🙂
from martin pengelly’s book review:
Lindsey Graham ‘threw Trump under the bus’ in Georgia case, book says | Books | The Guardian
Trump threatens to blacklist anyone who donates to Haley
Of course, this is what autocrats and mobsters do. Note, this includes small donors too,
NBC News: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/trump-threatens-blacklist-haley-donors-rcna135586
Posted by Roger Stone at 2:50am, going viral in MAGAT land
BiD, IMHO the OKC Tower stands about as much chance of being built as proposed as it would stand against that F5 you mentioned.
Joe needs to get on the tube in a prime time address to the nation and demand that Congress pass and forward to him for signature the Border/Ukraine & Israel funding bill and call the Repugs out for calling for it on the one hand and delaying it so that it won’t hurt Fatass’ election chances on the other.
I didn’t know MAGA had a camp. Is it for kids or young adults?
Donald Trump would never in his life turn down a chance to steal a nickle.
He’s a cheats-at-gambling man.
Stephen Colbert: “Trump defeated Nikki Haley 54-43. That’s the first time he’s ever been happy to see a woman in her 40s”
Jimmy Kimmel: “He’s also leading Haley in felony charges, 91 to 0”
pogo, they sit around the pants-on-fireside singing “come buy you, my lord, come buy you”
Attribution: Economic Disaster by Pat Byrnes, PoliticalCartoons.com
I grow to appreciate Kimmel the more I see and hear him.
Orange Adolf is the one directing Republicans in Congress to stall in the Birder/Ukraine bill. MAGAts need immigrants to come across the southern border, so they can blame Biden. MAGAt Mike is taking direction from tRUMPsky.
https://www.voanews.com/a/trump-becoming-biggest-obstacle-to-border-deal-to-fund-ukraine-israel/7455908.html
“I do not think we should do a Border Deal, at all, unless we get EVERYTHING needed to shut down the INVASION of Millions & Millions of people, many from parts unknown, into our once great, but soon to be great again, Country!” he wrote last week on the social media platform Truth Social.
“Also, I have no doubt that our wonderful Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson will only make a deal that is PERFECT ON THE BORDER.”
“The border is an issue that fires up the Republican base, and passing a bill that Democrats can claim as a win could hurt Republican messaging in an election year, said Norman Ornstein, senior fellow emeritus at the American Enterprise Institute.”
“They don’t want to do anything that might benefit Joe Biden and take this issue of the border off the table for the 2024 campaign,” he told VOA.
“By tying immigration to Biden’s top foreign policy agenda, Republicans are also aiming to undercut Biden’s message that he is the president who will restore U.S. leadership on the world stage. Trump’s four years in office was marked by an “America First” isolationist doctrine that brought turbulence in Washington’s relationship with its allies and partners.”
I would argue that as MAGAts in Congress, by taking direction from the head if the J6 insurrection, a monster who is campaigning to regain power, they are all violating their oath of office.
He holds no office yet he is the Boss of all elected republicans. How Roman.
This aggression will not stand, Man.
Mitt Romney:
“I think the border is a very important issue for Donald Trump. And the fact that he would communicate to Republican senators and congresspeople that he doesn’t want us to solve the border problem because he wants to blame Biden for it is is really appalling.”
Appalling. Boy, a word like that could stop the magats dead in their tracks. Kind of close to deplorable, another strong word.
It’s over when putin says it’s over.
https://www.the-express.com/news/politics/125477/melania-trump-first-lady-donald-trump-ivanka-2024-election
Melania, The feeling is mutual.
Go away and take SFB and all of his spawn and spawn-in-laws with you.
Peter Navarro got 4 months for stonewalling the Jan. 6 committee. More to come? Gym?
https://www.texastribune.org/2024/01/25/texas-spacex-park-land-swap/
“Texas could swap land in Boca Chica State Park with SpaceX”
“The Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission is scheduled to vote in March on a deal that environmental advocates, the Esto’k Gna Tribal Nation of Texas and local officials oppose.”
“…a land swap with SpaceX that would give Elon Musk’s space exploration company about 43 acres from Boca Chica State Park.”
“…SpaceX would transfer 477 acres nearby that could be used for hiking, camping and birding.”
“…environmental groups and community members urged caution. The Cameron County Judge opposed the swap. The Tribal Chair of the Esto’k Gna Tribal Nation of Texas said such a trade would compound a history of his community being erased or ignored.”
“It doesn’t make any sense at all for them to do what they’re doing in transferring that land,” said Juan Mancias, the tribal chair. “None at all.”
“Emma Guevara, who grew up in Brownsville and is now a field organizer for the Sierra Club, said SpaceX changed the community. A company people hoped would bring good jobs instead brought contract and custodial work for them and higher-paying work for outsiders who moved in, she said. The company closes the road to the beach. A launch last year sent dust falling from the sky.”
~Yeah, it was just “dust.”~
“It’s a little sneaky, because it seems good because it’s so much more land being traded,” Guevara said. “But the land that’s being traded is incredibly important to the community … so there’s a lot of community opposition to this. There’s a lot of community opposition to SpaceX in general.”
“It’s a race to the bottom,” said Peter Galvin, co-founder of the Center for Biological Diversity, a plaintiff in the lawsuit. “First, you know, they put this thing smack dab in the middle of a state park and national wildlife refuge. And now they want to take a chunk … out of the state park. I mean, what’s next?”
https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/25/economy/fourth-quarter-gdp/index.html
“Consumers are doing their part and spending just enough to support broader economic growth.”
“Fed Governor Christopher Waller, an influential official at the central bank, said in a speech earlier this month that if “economic activity that seems to have moderated in the fourth quarter of 2023 does not play out” then that could delay rate cuts. Market expectations of that first rate cut coming in March have been crumbling in recent weeks.”
The effing Fed and their effing games.
Navarro. WaPo.
Pity, ain’t it? And as to being “torn”, I call UTTER BULLSHIT. If my memory serves me correctly, he was snotty and dismissive of the subpoena and tried to claim he was protected by executive privilege although Dumbass had not asserted it. Fuck him – enjoy the soup.
So wait, according to Mitch, the border issue about which maga peeps are perpetually hysterical could be fixed sooner rather than later, but it won’t be because plumpty wants to keep them hysterical?
https://www.politico.com/playbook
Navarro: “I did not know what to do.” BS!
Trump to testify momentarily in rape case
Dumbass, unhinged. WaPo
It’s over when putin says it’s over.
In which case he’d no longer be a Useful Idiot. Just a regular old idiot.
Haha…..can you even imagine Joe Biden “mean tweeting” people in the middle of the night?
“My opponent is full of malarkey.”
You know if you look at it The Clump does seem to be out there on the tightrope all by his wee lonesome.
He wields his base like a cudgel—but wouldn’t be caught dead actually associating with them.
Except Putin has a plan in mind for Barron too.
help me cope
Something I have been seeing on various YouTube and other social media channels is how clean America is. They talk about the lack of garbage on the roads. No stuff tossed at stop signs and cross roads. Just how people use trash cans, for the most part.
I cannot help but think back to Lady Bird Johnson and her first lady project of cleaning up America’s roads and highways by limiting billboards, litter and junkyards. I remember the derision and laughs. Billboards are limited, but showing up again. Streets, roads and highways are almost always clean.
The result of the Beautification of America Act had the side effect of making something nice, clean thoroughfares, internationally noticed.
Plug in the Jug
Looking forward to Bluebonnets in Austin!
https://www.austintexas.org/listings/lady-bird-johnson-wildflower-center/1593/
Can’t contemplate the utter depravity my former State has sunk to.
Instead:
https://eji.org/
https://www.texastribune.org/2024/01/25/greg-abbott-border-republicans-joe-biden/
“From the Texas House to former President Donald Trump, Republicans across the country are rallying behind Gov. Greg Abbott’s legal standoff with the federal government at the southern border, intensifying concerns about a constitutional crisis amid an ongoing dispute with the Biden administration.”
“Abbott’s statement was quickly condemned by some legal scholars, who said it was blatantly unconstitutional and amounted to a usurpring of the federal government.”
“By this logic, states could use their own determination that an ‘invasion’ exists as a justification for usurping control of whichever federal policies they don’t like,” Stephen Vladeck, a University of Texas at Austin law professor, wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. “Imagine blue states taking this approach: ‘We’re being invaded by drugs.’ ‘We’re being invaded by pollution.’ The right of states to defend themselves does not, and was never meant to, provide a hook for *supplanting* federal authority.”
“But Abbott’s actions rapidly endeared himself to Republicans across the political spectrum, spanning the country, with many echoing the Texas governor’s call to “hold the line” and others going further using rhetoric that suggested that Texas use force to defend itself from an attack.”
Team Biden needs to make a lot of noise about tRUMPsky’s tiny hand in this mess.
Do not let him hide and shirk responsibility.
BB – I think we even got rid of pull-top soda and beer cans because of the anti-littering campaign, which ended every midnight of my childhood with a single tear running down the cheek of a Native American.
Bink, one of George’s best. LP is working up an acoustic While My Guitar Gently Weeps. George wasn’t my favorite Beatle, but WMGGW is in my top 3 Beatles recordings and Something is right up there, too. I’ve come to appreciate George much more as time has gone on.
dude was chill
that is to say his music expressed an aspirational contentment that he struggled to attain resulting in songs that provide a relaxing listening experience
i.e. dude was chill
Pity for the poor slobs who’ve never been arrested.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/25/us/politics/lauren-boebert-colorado-debate.html
NEW THREAD