Is It Cheaper To Book Your Airfares And Hotels Directly Or Not? Tabs, Wed., Feb. 14, 2024
I already spent all our vacation money for the next three years. Morning news roundup!
One (ONE) YAY story today! (The rest of tabs today a bunch of DOOZIES.) Wisconsin unfucks its maps. One Michigan Style Miracle, coming up! (AP)
LOL (?) they impeached Mayorkas. Here’s a Hayes Brown from a week ago, when they were clownfucking themselves trying. — MSNBC
I really like this paragraph from Trump’s lawyers’ filing on, and this is an actual direct quote, not the funny kind that your Wonkette likes to make up, “the president’s alleged duty to comply with each and every federal criminal law”:
“American history abounds with examples of Presidents who were accused by political opponents of committing crimes through their official acts.” C.A. App.Br. 17. “These include, among many others, John Quincy Adams’ alleged ‘corrupt bargain’ in appointing Henry Clay as Secretary of State; President George W. Bush’s allegedly false claim to Congress that Saddam Hussein possessed stockpiles of ‘weapons of mass destruction,’ which led to war in which thousands were killed; and President Obama’s alleged authorization of a drone strike that targeted and killed a U.S. citizen abroad (and his teenage son, also a U.S. citizen).” Id. They also include, among many other examples, President Reagan’s alleged involvement in the Iran-Contra scandal, President Clinton’s last-minute pardon of fugitive financier Marc Rich, President Clinton’s repeated use of airstrikes in the Middle East in August and November 1998 in an alleged attempt to distract attention from the Monica Lewinsky scandal, President Biden’s egregious mismanagement of the United States’ border security, and President Biden’s alleged “material support for terrorism” through the funding of the UNRWA despite its documented history of direct support for terrorism.
Emphasis added!
Jon Stewart’s back, and guess who’s both-sidesing. Anybody want to hear a tight 15 on “But seriously, Joe Biden is old.” I think I’ll skip this episode. (Robyn on the other hand thinks it’s good, that people will listen better if we yell at Joe Biden for being old before really going off on Trump for being old and a Nazi. She didn’t say it like that though. She does not yell at old people for being old, probably, I think.) (The Hollywood Reporter)
Old Joe Biden, who is old, thinks Trump is “un-American” just because Trump wants to hand Europe to Putin. (AP) Meanwhile, Putin put a fatwa on Estonia’s (female? how’s that legal?!) prime minister, I’m sure it will all be fine. (AP again)
“Meanwhile, attacks on Biden’s son Hunter have fallen flat, because he’s not in government, has no apparent influence, and the accusations against him basically amount to Imagine Hunter did what Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump actually did.” Why Republicans and the press won’t shut up about Joe Biden, who in fact is old: They’ve got nothing else on him, and at least this one’s an actual fact. (The Bulwark)
“But Joe Biden’s emails” is giving Snipy, or I guess her real name, Lisa Needham, flashbacks. They’re not good flashbacks! — Public Notice
Thirty years of special prosecutor bullshits from “Whitewater” on. Jeff Tiedrich is displeased.
We should be yelling at the New York Times more. No, more than that! (Jamison Foser) Because if we yell at them enough, also, sometimes they will call racism racist. I sure do wish I knew what they were declining to tell me here though: “After Ms. Greene mocked Mr. McGovern’s bathroom habits, he responded, ‘Aren’t you late for a klan meeting?’” (Gift link New York Times)
Safe to say Amanda Marcotte does not care for the far-Right “Christians” behind the Jesus Super Bowl ads, the ones I thought were going to be for “crisis pregnancy centers” but were just for “Jesus.” (Salon)
Why and how they’re coming for … prenatal testing.
Remember, it wasn’t so long ago that nearly 100 Republican lawmakers sent a letter to the FDA asking about the labeling requirements and regulatory measures around the tests. Sen. Steve Daines said, “It is unacceptable that the FDA is not conducting proper oversight on these inconsistent prenatal tests that often pressure women into making a life-ending decision for their baby.”
The megachurch shooter woman’s ex-mother-in-law says it is some bullshit that Texas doesn’t have any red flag laws to speak of that would have kept her asshole ex-daughter-in-law from buying an AR-15 before taking her seven-year-old son with her to shoot up a church. That ex-mother-in-law is correct! — Click 2 Houston
Part two of Radley Balko’s exploration of the crazy lies Bari Weiss’s Crazy Lie Factory is pumping out about the murder by cop of George Floyd.
Megan Savage’s “Tell A Pitiful Story” is a pitiful story. Saddest (and only) fiction I read today. — Tahoma Literary Review
A life damn well lived: Bob of Bob’s Red Mill has died at 94 after bringing back “grains” for a country that was living on Wonder Bread, and giving his company to its workers. (Eater)
Is it really cheaper to book direct? HELL NAW! Hotels and airlines are like “you will save money if you book directly with us” and they are LIARS! They’re giving their shit out to Priceline and Booking.com like candy! — Matador Network
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Wonkette loves you and wants you to be happy.
A Valentine for you 😘
https://open.substack.com/pub/martiniambassador/p/a-valentine-to-wonkette-and-the-vile?
So in last night's thread someone was asking about forcing a vote on the Ukraine/Israel funding and knowing a bit about parliamentary procedures in general, but not those of the House in particular, I made an educated guess that it takes 218 votes (a majority of House seats, not of members present in a quorum on a given day). There are many reasons to think that would be true, but I didn't double check b/c I didn't feel like doing the research. It was helpful but not necessary to the point at hand.
Kavefish looked up the procedures and forcing a vote does indeed require 218 votes, not just a majority of members present, just as I had guessed.
There's a lot to making a good guess, but I just wanted to say that one of them is this: when someone fact checks you, you have to listen well, **especially** if you're wrong. Every bit of data helps validate or correct the thought processes you use to make your guesses, if you let them. Every fact check is a favour, even if the facts make your guess and your process look pretty bad in hindsight.
It's just an internet. You can have conversations and you don't always have to be right. But you have to listen when you're wrong, and you have to generously thank the people who invest the time that you weren't willing to invest in order to double check your work and then provide you with that helpful feedback.
So thanks, Kavefish. You made me a little better today, and hopefully through your example we can all get a bit better each day or at least each year.
Have I mentioned that I love this fucking place?