Nancy

40 thoughts on “Nancy”

1. 

   2007

   Pelosi is surrounded by her grandchildren as she is sworn in as the first woman Speaker of the House on the opening day of the 110th Congress.

2. 

   from the Mercury News

3. we go from the “how to be a Leader” file to the “how NOT to be a Leader” file

   Twitter ‘closes offices’ after Elon Musk’s loyalty oath sparks wave of resignations | Twitter | The Guardian

   The crisis at Twitter reached new heights on Friday as hundreds of employees were reported to have rejected Elon Musk’s ultimatum to keep working for the business, threatening its ability to keep operating.
   As the company temporarily closed its offices to staff,  users began saying their goodbyes and linking to accounts on other platforms.
   #RIPTwitter, #TwitterDown, Mastodon and Myspace were all trending on the platform after the deadline passed on Musk’s ultimatum for the remaining workforce to sign up for “long hours at high intensity”, or leave. It has been estimated that hundreds of the remaining staff opted to go.
   The departures include many engineers responsible for fixing bugs and preventing service outages, raising questions about the stability of the platform amid the loss of employees and prompting hurried debates among managers over who should be asked to return, current and former employees said.
   In an early sign that the number of those declining to sign was greater than anticipated, Musk eased off a return-to-office mandate he had issued a week ago, telling employees on Thursday they would be allowed to work remotely if their managers asserted they were making “an excellent contribution”.
   Twitter later announced via email that it would close “our office buildings” and disable employee badge access until Monday, the New York Times reported.
   [continues]

4. The Washington Post

   A Republican political strategist was convicted of illegally helping a Russian businessman contribute to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in 2016.
   Jesse Benton, 44, was pardoned by Trump in 2020 for a different campaign finance crime, months before he was indicted again on six counts related to facilitating an illegal foreign campaign donation. He was found guilty Thursday on all six counts.
   Elections “reflect the values and the priorities and the beliefs of American citizens,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Michelle Parikh said in her closing argument this week. “Jesse Benton by his actions did damage to those principles.”
   [continues]

5. ‘He Used Us’ | HuffPost Latest News

   Key evangelical figures who previously supported Donald Trump are backing off now that he’s announced his third bid for the presidency.
   “Donald Trump can’t save America,” Mike Evans told the Washington Post. “He can’t even save himself.”
   Evans was part of a group of evangelicals who met with Trump at the White House, and at one point gave him an award.
   Now, he says he’s done with Trump.
   “He used us to win the White House. We had to close our mouths and eyes when he said things that horrified us,” he told the newspaper. “I cannot do that anymore.”
   […]
   Still another evangelical figure who previously endorsed Trump was even more blunt, with Washington Times columnist Everett Piper writing that Trump cost the GOP big in the midterms and could hurt them even more in two years.
   “The take-home of this past week is simple: Donald Trump has to go,” he wrote. “If he‘s our nominee in 2024, we will get destroyed.”

6. None of the right wing twitter imitators could rise above “joke” level competing with twitter so what’s the answer?  Disable twitter. 
   “My dear Watson–when you have eliminated all which is impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”
   –Sherlock

7. Mastodon accounts:
   @georgetakei@universeodon.com
    

8. Two solids there, BB

9. Eugene Robinson on Nancy. 

   House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has never really been the “San Francisco limousine liberal” of her critics’ imagination. Nancy D’Alesandro is still the daughter of a ward-heeling, old-school Baltimore mayor who taught her to practice politics by counting votes and twisting arms. Along with thick skin and a wicked sense of humor, these skills helped make Pelosi by far the most consequential speaker of our time.

   Her decision to step aside, at 82, gives the Democratic Party the opportunity to let a new generation of leadership emerge. Some would say it’s past time. But it is hard to imagine anyone but Pelosi having kept House Democrats so united over the past two tumultuous decades — or, more recently, leading them to such a surprisingly good showing in the midterm elections. And whatever a rising generation of Democrats makes of Pelosi’s positions, her successors would be wise to emulate her way of doing business.
   ***

   Her legislative triumphs, spanning four presidencies, are monumental. They begin with the Affordable Care Act, President Barack Obama’s most important achievement. Pelosi had to bring along a caucus that wanted more comprehensive legislation that would cover all uninsured Americans rather than just many of them. She persuaded House Democrats to accept the best possible bill that the Senate would also pass, rather than demand ideal legislation that had no chance of becoming law.

   She got the House to pass the $787 billion 2008 stimulus bill; the Dodd-Frank legislation reforming Wall Street in the wake of the financial crisis; the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act attacking pay discrimination against women; and the repeal of the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that discriminated against LGBTQ service members.

   ***

   Pelosi’s toughness was leavened with a delightful and bipartisan sense of humor. She recounted sharing whispered asides with Bush that cracked them both up during boring White House meetings that dragged on and on.

   In her speech Thursday announcing her retirement from leadership, she paraphrased the familiar passage from Ecclesiastes: “For everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven.” We’ve heard that line before from prominent figures leaving the stage, but it touched me coming from Pelosi because of her deep and abiding Roman Catholic faith.
    
   When she said she prayed for the presidents she supported and those she opposed, including Trump, she was serious. Nancy Pelosi is a believer. And her belief has made ours a more perfect union.

   While I differ with her on the faith thing, it works for her. Regardless, her shadow is long and her legacy is undeniable. It will be a long time before we see another speaker who can fill her pumps.

10. I think twitter is going to beat Leon Mush.

11. back in april this was predicted or at least hoped for:

    communications prof. kara alaimo Opinion: Who will be the first to abandon Elon Musk’s Twitter? | CNN

    If Musk follows through on what he’s proposed, the sale may be the death knell for the social media platform. But, in the best-case scenario, it could also motivate the creation of other social networks that are safer, healthier places for us all.
    […]
    One positive outcome that we can hope to come out of Musk’s ownership is that it may catalyze the creation of more civic-minded social networks. As internet activist Eli Pariser tweeted on Tuesday, “Just saying… we don’t *have* to make our communications infrastructure a plaything for fickle, feckless billionaires. We could build public-service social platforms Elon could never buy. And I think we will.”
    I have my fingers crossed that Pariser – or someone else with a vision of how to manage a social network more responsibly than Musk – will follow through.
    If Musk does what he’s promised, I suspect he will destroy the platform. But here’s hoping that having him at the helm will motivate the creation of new social networks that actually serve the public interest. If that happens, the outcome will be devastating for Musk, but a win for us users over the long run.

    my humble hunch is that elon purposely set out to destroy twitter simply out of pique and vengeance or just because he can. altho he now probably regrets the rashness and is even more incensed at finding himself in thise situation.

12. https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/17/media/twitter-exodus-reliable-sources/index.html

    “Inside the company’s Slack, a mass resignation effectively occurred after Musk’s 5pm deadline for employees to arrive at a decision passed. Hundreds of staffers appear to have called it quits, accepting Musk’s offer to exit in exchange for three months of severance.”

    “Employees flooded the “#social-watercooler” channel with the salute emoji, indicating that they had chosen not to sign Musk’s pledge.”

    “I don’t want to stick around to build a product that’s being poisoned from the inside and out,” one said, adding later that he felt good about making a decision “in line with what I stand for.”

    Asked about the situation, the former executive said, “Elon is finding out that he can’t bully top senior talent. They have lots of options and won’t put up with his antics.”

    It looks like the dead bird on the table next week will be Twitter.  Ha!  

    ps – Techies have more guts dealing with a bully than do Republican politicians.

13. It looks as if Boebert is going to a mandatory recount.  Fingers crossed.

     

14. in the meantime, there’s a lot of work to do.  good luck, nancy & chuck, with the cat herds.

    What to expect in the “lame duck” Congress (brookings.edu)

    […]
    Two fiscal issues are likely to be a major focus of the last weeks of the 117th Congress: getting an omnibus spending bill done and deciding whether or not to deal with the debt limit.
    The current measure funding discretionary federal programs expires on December 16, so avoiding a partial government shutdown requires action before that deadline. Prior to the passage of the current stopgap measure in September, factions of House and Senate Republicans had lobbied to run a temporary spending bill into January 2023 in possible anticipation of a new majority with different spending priorities.
    With Republicans likely to take control of the House—albeit narrowly—Democrats will be especially eager to complete work on a full omnibus package for the balance of the fiscal year. Doing so will require both parties actually completing negotiations on a package and ensuring it has the support of at least 10 Republicans in the Senate necessary to end a filibuster. The expected difficulty of managing the House under a narrow Republican majority in January may factor into some members’ calculations; a high-stakes showdown over keeping the government open just weeks into a new Congress may be an unattractive enough proposition for some GOP legislators that they will be willing to leave it to the lame duck session.
    […]
    While fiscal issues will be front and center, several other legislative items also remain ripe for further action. Reports indicate that one such measure, to codify the federal recognition of same-sex marriages, is likely to be voted on as soon as this week in the Senate; the House had passed a similar bill prior to the elections. Other priorities include reforms to the Electoral Count Act, additional aid to Ukraine, funding for fighting the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and extending expiring tax provisions. One item that is especially likely to move—and, perhaps, carry along with it some other provisions—is the National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA. The annual defense policy bill is seen as a must pass measure, but as a result, it can end up bearing political conflicts that slow down its progress.
    [continues]

15. Oh yeah…  SFB used evangelicals…. what a joke!
     
    As if any of them would have voted for a Democrat for the presidency…
    hey you morons… go fuck yourselves!

16. Jamie,  it would be almost (perhaps absolutely) unprecedented for a recount to reverse a 500+ vote margin – unless all the votes were hand counted initially, then the error rate might be more than her margin.  Ballotpedia found 3 out of 16 consequential recounts (margin of .15 or less) that were reversals, the largest being a 440 vote swing. But hope springs eternal…

17. Renee, LOL.  What do you REALLY think?

18. stephen on nancy’s emeritus role as a mentor to the younglings: “she’s obi-wan-pelosi”

    Rep. Kevin McCarthy is presumed to be the next Speaker of the House, where he may face frequent headaches from the likes of Marjorie Taylor Greene. McCarthy will take over from Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who today confirmed she will not seek reelection to party leadership.

19. From NYT – I love this
     

    Nancy Pelosi, Badass

    Nov. 17, 2022

     

20. jamie & pogo, same here with the fingers crossed.

    a glimmer of hope that curing and the recount goes against her

    Republican Boebert’s lead over Frisch in Colorado narrows to within recount zone (msn.com)

    Local and national political operatives had been out knocking on doors and calling thousands of people in the district whose ballots needed to be cured.

    Pueblo Clerk Bo Ortiz said that some voters complained to election staff about how they were getting rude calls from people around the country.

    In Colorado’s election system, where all voters are sent a ballot a few weeks before Election Day, signature verification is a key step to verify voters’ identities.

21. He still has to pay the 40 billion even if he kills it right?
     
    Nancy P she had to leave some time.  When the Dem convention was in SF in ’84 she was the convention chair and half of SF worked with her.  She was great  She met practically  volunteer .  I was on a committee to have a welcome party for the Ohio delegtion (every state had a party)  She is a very nice person not to mention smart and comes from a very strong and tough political family her own not the Pelosis

22. KGC – sfb lite used other people’s money not his own.  From long ago, well over fifty years ago I learned that the secret to success was to use OPM and not have to pay them back.  From the guess work it is the Saudi’s money, and perhaps some from puttie (remember sfb lite visited puttie recently), that was the majority paid to twit shareholders.  So those interested in the demise of twit paid the most.

23. Thanks BB   too bad  I would like to see him busted

24. The twitter thing reminds me of one winter when my outdoor contract work went on hold and I got a job inside, with heat, working at a warehouse. It was the nineties boom years. Like twitter the Corporation was taken over by hostile takeover. The new team was remaking the company right down to us lowly order pullers. I was temp with no ambition for full time employment. So I had a lot of freedom and of course was bored. The consultant they sent to our world thought it was still the eighties where they could bully folks and they would take it. They did the old “our way or the highway” I laughed, and pointed out that this crew could walk out the door and get a better job, almost anywhere.
    That is what twitter is finding out, There has been so much disorder that everybody has their resume polished and their contact list ready. The good ones don’t answer the phone because they are getting too many calls from head hunters. Soon all twitter will have left is those screwups who can’t go out and find a better job.
    Jack

25. Elon used a lot of his own money and i assure you there is no grand plan to lose it all along with that of his co-investors

    Sometimes even the best and brightest just fuck up badly

26. Musk might be bright but he is not the best
    Nice to see he is in trouble at Tesla too
    It’s good to remember that one of his children disowned him
    of course his reaction was to just have another one

    He also thought it was ok to call an employee a “nigger” at work fortunately the courts did not agree

27. Twitter did take on a lot of debt to finance the deal, I think there are several banks regretting it. How much of his own cash is at risk I don’t know. 
    But one thing is obvious, musk has benefited from having partners who could manage a large corp. Not an easy skill as Musk is learning.
    Jack

28. Mama always told him not to look into the eyes of the sun.
     
    ”…but, Mama,” said he, “that’s where the fun is”.

29. Hey, if you can judge someone by the enemies they’ve made, then Nancy Pelosi is a living saint
     
    Thanks for your service, Madame Speaker 🫡🇺🇸

30. mr Smith goes to Washington — again

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/attorney-general-names-special-counsel-in-trump-mar-a-lago-and-jan-6-probes

    Attorney General names special counsel in Trump Mar-a-Lago and Jan. 6 probes (msn.com)
    Attorney General Merrick Garland has appointed John L. “Jack” Smith as special counsel to oversee the entirety of the Justice Department’s criminal investigation into the alleged unlawful retention of national defense information at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, as well as key aspects of its probe into the events of Jan 6.

    In his appointment order, Garland says Smith “is authorized to conduct the ongoing investigation into whether any person or entity violated the law in connection with efforts to interfere with the lawful transfer of power following the 2020 presidential election or the certification of the Electoral College vote held on January 6, 2021.”

    Smith is further instructed to conduct the investigation into national defense information found at Trump’s Mar a Lago estate, according to the order, “as well as any matters that arose or may arise directly” from that investigation.

31. Who is Jack Smith, the special counsel named in the Trump investigations – CNNPolitics

    https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2022/11/18/politics/jack-smith-special-counsel/index.html

32. Mastodon:
    @PeteStrzok@mastodon.social
    https://mstdn.social/@AdamParkhomenko
    @rbreich@masto.ai
    @timkmak@journa.host
     
     

33. NPR: “Smith has most recently served as the chief prosecutor for the special court in The Hague charged with investigating and adjudicating war crimes in Kosovo.

    He joined the Justice Department in 1999 as an assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York. He moved to the International Criminal Court in 2008, supervising all war crimes investigations conducted by the Office of the Prosecutor, before taking on the public integrity office of the Justice department in 2010.

34. more on mr smith from business insider

    […]
    Smith’s prosecutorial career began nearly three decades ago when he started as an assistant district attorney with the New York County District Attorney’s Office in 1994. 
    Five years later, Smith became an assistant US attorney for the Eastern District of New York, which oversees cases in Long Island and Staten Island, where he prosecuted crimes like the gang murders of police officers and civil rights violations for nine years. 
    Smith served with the International Criminal Court from 2008 to 2010 and it was there where he supervised all war crimes investigations conducted by the Office of the Prosecutor. 
    Smith returned to the Justice Department in 2010 to serve as the chief of the Public Integrity Section. There he led a team of more than 30 prosecutors who handled public corruption and election crimes cases across the United States. In 2015, Smith served as the first assistant US attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee and later became the acting US attorney. 
    Smith served as the vice president of litigation for the Hospital Corporation of America — the nation’s biggest non-governmental healthcare provider — from 2017 to 2018. 
    He’s registered to vote as an independent.

    

     

35. Confused about where Garland is going with this. Can’t tell whether this a punt or a drop kick?

36. Mastodon:
    Phillip Bump, WashPo analysis guru.  Does a lot on charts, graphs and explaining stuff, not just politics
    @pbump@journa.host

    Stephen Fry – Funny smart man
    @stephenfry@mastodonapp.uk

37. Was Elon’s money real or crypto? 

38. He and his investor group had to pay real American dollars for all outstanding shares of Twitter, if that’s what you’re asking.
     
    Crypto only exists on crypto exchanges (for the most part) and one would have to trade their crypto holdings for “real” money to realize the gain. 

39. Shit. Boebo’s back. 

40. NEW THREAD

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