38 thoughts on “Sunday Serendipity”

  1. ARE YOU READY FOR FOOTBALL! and the unending campaign commercials?  joe kicks it off with

    ABCnews:

    […]
    The 30-second ad, titled “Get Ahead,” is part of the campaign’s big ticket $25 million investment, which includes the largest and earliest re-election ad-buy any campaign has placed in Hispanic and African American media outlets. A source familiar with planning tells ABC News the Biden campaign intends to pepper those advertisements throughout news, entertainment and sports adjacent programming, including the NFL, NBA and NCAA programming in select markets.
    The campaign targeting high-viewership sporting events was first put into practice during the NFL season opener earlier this month. These various ad placements are part of their broader plan to aggressively invest in battleground states like Arizona, Nevada, Michigan, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Georgia.
    The ad will air in the Atlanta market, one of the largest African American media markets in the country, in efforts to reach Black fans who are tuning into Colorado games at high margins. That spiked viewership comes thanks, in part, to the popularity of University of Colorado’s newest football coach Deion Sanders.
    […]
    Only 14 black coaches currently head NCAA Division I football teams.
    Black voters were critical in Biden’s victory over former President Donald Trump in 2020, supporting him in overwhelming margins, 87%-12% per ABC News exit polls. Maintaining that coalition will be critical to his re-election efforts, too. A New York Times/Siena Poll conducted in July, still shows that 60% of Black Americans currently approve of Biden’s job performance.

  2. speaking of uncle joe,

    ‘This is good news’: Biden signs stopgap funding bill to avert US shutdown | US Congress | The Guardian

    Joe Biden signed a bill on Saturday to extend government funding for 45 days, averting a federal shutdown with just an hour to spare.
    Biden praised Congress for approving the bill with bipartisan support in both chambers, even as he criticised House Republicans for refusing to collaborate with Democrats until the last possible minute.
    “Tonight, bipartisan majorities in the House and Senate voted to keep the government open, preventing an unnecessary crisis that would have inflicted needless pain on millions of hardworking Americans,” Biden said in a statement.
    “This is good news for the American people. But I want to be clear: we should never have been in this position in the first place.”
    The bill-signing came hours after the Senate approved the proposal in a bipartisan vote of 88 to nine, easily surpassing the 60-vote threshold needed for passage. Nine senators, all Republicans, opposed it.

    [continues]

  3. jack, thanks for the lively wake-up.  enjoyed the usually not heard from percussion section and wondered if they were playing musical coconuts or woodblocks among other instruments rarely performed on center stage.

  8. Jimma Cotta…..my first vote.  

    As Lee-nard and I, on a quest for more beer, turned the corner in front of Anna Belle’s store there was a big bus kind of thing like a Bookmobile parked there with a banner reading REGISTER HERE TO VOTE.
    So we did.

  9. My birthday message for the mosaic:

    “As a college kid with the American University Washington Semester program I got the chance to intern in your White House Press Office. You shaped my political values then, and I’ve kept them to this very day. Thank you!”

  10. Looks like Bowman has a good case on why he pushed the button, not pulled a handle, that caused a fire alarm to go off.  I don’t have the pic (this pic is my NAFO fella) of the confusing signage, but it was two signs which when read fast indicate that he has an excuse. The frwnj chatter has died down once the picture of the signs started circulating.

  11. Norm Ornstein
    The Bowman story is a good cautionary tale not to jump to conclusions. The first wave of stories, amplified on Twitter, said that he pulled a fire alarm in the Capitol to delay the vote. It is now clear it was in the Cannon Bldg. That would’ve had no impact on the vote. And the pictures now make it clear that it was an accident caused by a door that is normally open but is closed on the weekends. With a set of confusing signs about what to do to get the door open. Tempest in a teapot.
     

    Also, Ornstein is guest on Al Franken’s podcast this week.

  12. Bowman pulled the fire alarm to delay the vote, of course he did. Who possible could see that lever , all red and clearly labelled, for a damn door lock/handle?  I like the stunt, not the cover-up lie, especially for a guy on our side. Leave that bullshit to MTG and Boebert.  And stick a sock in Matt Gaetz’s pie hole. What a revolting jerk.
    So did KMc fall on his sword or was it a plastic dummy-knife?  Is he a one-day hero or a charlatan?  Will Gaetz get his way…and possily the gavel?  Stay tuned to this same Bat-Channel…I guess…?
    And why is NFL football on the damn Disney Channel in an hour or so? I have expensive Spectrum cable and more streaming pay-for channels than I need, but not the Disney Channel, as I am 74 and have had enough of Mickey Mouse and Goofy and all the lame-ass stuff on Disney.

  14. Image

    pic posted on a bresreport X tweet of area in bowman brouhaha. note on right the red sign on door that mentions something about “door… unlock… 30 sec..”

    it’s conceivable that in his less than two years as newbie congresscritter he might never had been faced with a locked door in cannon bldg.  and was confused in his panic.  however, panic and confusion don’t make for a good image.

     

  16. Dex has some points but I just can’t see a newbie making such a bold move on his own.   I vote for confusion.  

  19. Happy Birthday Mr. President.
     
    As a newlywed living near Orlando at the time, Jimmy was my second presidential vote.
     
    My first vote will remain discreetly unmentioned for today but it has required atonement ever since. 

  21. AOC summed it up in re NY colleague’s great sin:

    Ocasio-Cortez defends Jamaal Bowman, rips Santos, GOP | The Hill

    She added that Bowman apologized, said he made a mistake and is actively cooperating with investigators. She drew a distinction with House Republicans’ response to Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) after he was indicted on federal charges, including of lying to House investigators. 
    “The idea that there is somehow any kind of equivalence to someone who is actively trying to clear up a situation that he himself admits he’s embarrassed, he released a statement last night, he apologized, and they are protecting someone who has not only committed wire fraud, not only defrauded veterans, not only lied to congressional investigators, but is openly gloating about it, is absolutely humiliating for the Republican caucus, and I think that they should really check their own values,” she said. 
    “I think if you actually do see some of the photos of the signs, I think there’s something to be said about, the government’s about to shut down. There’s a vote clock that’s going down. The exits that are normally open in that building were suddenly closed,” Ocasio-Cortez said. 
    Ocasio-Cortez stressed that she thought there was no equivalence between the two cases.
    “They are protecting someone who has lied to the American people, lied to the United States House of Representatives, lied to congressional investigators. But they’re filing a motion to expel a member who in a moment of panic was trying to escape a vestibule? Give me a break,” she said.

  22. A random citizen from each district should be picked by lottery to be the House representative, that would be fun

    (if nothing else, more Americans would receive affordable healthcare!)

  24. if so, seems like something mitch came up with and why/what he sent thune to talk to kevin about prior to the planB switch. 

    The Guardian

    McCarthy, Gaetz said, lied about “a secret deal” he claimed was struck with Democrats to later pass money for Ukraine that was left out of the compromise bill, and that he misled Republicans about working with Democrats in the first place to get the shutdown bill through.
    […]
    “The one thing everybody has in common is that nobody trusts Kevin McCarthy,” Gaetz, a member of the rightwing House Freedom Caucus said.
    “He lied to Biden, he lied to House conservatives. He had appropriators marking to a different number altogether….”
    […]
    “I’m done owning Kevin McCarthy. We made a deal in January to allow him to assume the speakership and I’m not owning him anymore because he doesn’t tell the truth. And so if Democrats want to own Kevin McCarthy by bailing him out I can’t stop them. But then he’ll be their speaker, not mine.”

    matt may rue the day he dropped ownership in kevin. always the possibility the replacement speaker ends up “owning” matt.

  27. from the beeb 30 minutes ago

    Biden vows to stand by Ukraine, despite budget fiasco – BBC News

    Hardline Republicans oppose further military aid, with many openly opposing Mr Biden’s approach to the war.
    But on Sunday Mr Biden said Ukraine could “count on” US support.
    “We cannot, under any circumstances, allow US support to Ukraine to be interrupted,” Mr Biden said.
    “I can reassure [Ukraine] we’ll get there, that we’re going to get it done,” he said on restoring funding for the war. “I want to assure our American allies… that you can count on our support, we will not walk away.”
    The US has already supplied some $46bn (£37bn) in military aid to Ukraine since Russian launched its full scale invasion in February 2022.
    President Biden has requested another $24bn (£19bn).
    […]
    Senior Senate leaders from both parties released a joint statement signalling their intention to “ensure the US government continues to provide” support to Ukraine in the coming weeks.
    […]
    Despite the row, officials in Kyiv have sought to frame this new 45-day funding agreement in the US as an “opportunity” for its diplomats to secure longer-term support. It’s more like an unwanted deadline.
    Ukraine’s foreign ministry says the “flow of US aid won’t change” with $3bn of humanitarian and military support set to still arrive, but it concedes “ongoing programmes” might be affected.
    […]
    In an interview with the BBC in Kyiv, the EU’s most senior diplomat, Josep Borrell, said he was “worried” by the latest decision on funding for Ukraine by the US Congress.
    “I don’t know what’s going to happen in the future,” he told the BBC. “One thing is clear: to us Europeans the war of Russia against Ukraine is an existential threat, and we must react accordingly.”
    In his daily address from Kyiv, President Zelensky said no-one should be able to “turn off Ukraine’s resilience”.
    It is clear the country will continue to fight with or without help from the West.

  33. Sturg, me too. Back when the magic number was 21. First and 2nd. (Screw Reagan was my 1980 campaign slogan). 

  36. Graham says Ukraine aid will not be separated from border funding | The Hill

    […]
    Graham said he believes Ukraine aid will not be a “standalone” bill and that the “vast majority” of Senate Republicans would support a combination of border security, Ukraine funding and disaster aid.
    “We got to fix asylum, we need border security agent increases, we need more detention beds,” Graham said. “I think there’s Democratic support for major border security reform, but we have to attach it to Ukraine to those who say we need to fix our border.”
    […]
    In an interview minutes earlier on CBS News, McCarthy said he is committed to helping Ukraine, but that addressing the crisis at the border is a bigger priority. When asked if he would link Ukraine aid to a border bill vote, McCarthy said the American border “matters.”
    “[McCarthy] worked to avoid a shutdown, he will help Ukraine, but he’s telling everybody in the country, including me, ‘You better send something over the border for me to help Ukraine,’ and he’s right to make that demand,” Graham said.
    The South Carolina Republican said the Senate will have a “strong” border security measure while pushing for up to $60 or $70 billion in Ukraine funding for the next year, a far higher payout than the White House’s request of $24 billion.
    Pressed over the large supplemental request, Graham said it’s “because we need it.”
    “We haven’t lost one soldier in the Ukraine war, spent less than 5 percent of our military budget. Fifty percent of the Russian army has been destroyed by the Ukrainians, so they would be at Crimea already if the administration hadn’t been so slow and given weapons,” Graham said.

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