Our hybrid Toyota Camry gives good gas mileage. One thing I hadn't anticipated is that the tires wear out a little sooner than on its conventional predecessors; the mechanic said that isn't our imagination. I suppose than when it changes back and forth between gasoline and electric power, the wheels have a momentary change in rotation speed.
Weird! I never had that tire issue with my Honda Civic Hybrid.
Speaking of tires…my secret Christmas gift to Wil is a set of snow tires fir his new truck! They are in such short supply that they’re out of stock at two distributors and the third has only 50 left in stock. Got really nice tires, too. Whoo hoo! Now we just need the truck. LOL. But the shop will hold them until it arrives. Yay!!
Gee. And in other news, I just realized that the lead photo is lights on a snowy tree--I wasn't quite sure what it was, but thought it looked rather like a nebula.
I think we need to change the terminology. To conserve is to to save for consumption later. People who do not want to be public servants are autocrats. That authoritarians are false claimants to authority si difficult to explain.
Therefore, since the world has still Much good, but much less good than ill, And while the sun and moon endure Luck’s a chance, but trouble’s sure, I’d face it as a wise man would, And train for ill and not for good. ’Tis true, the stuff I bring for sale Is not so brisk a brew as ale: Out of a stem that scored the hand I wrung it in a weary land. But take it: if the smack is sour, The better for the embittered hour; It should do good to heart and head When your soul is in my soul’s stead; And I will friend you, if I may.
Guardian livestream (now closed) on Johns’s Partygate woes. [Click] One excerpt that caught my attention: But while those unforced errors point to the old adage that Johnson is his own worst enemy, what’s different now is that his own backbenchers and Labour and the Lib Dems are rapidly becoming more credible enemies too.
Some MPs gleefully point out that having spent years making life difficult for David Cameron and Theresa May, Johnson is the one on the receiving end of a mutinous mood among backbenchers.
“As you sow, so shall you reap,” one former minister put it to me this week. The hunter is now the quarry and he’s finding it is nowhere near as much fun.
Here’s hoping this proves an augury for The Great Orange One.
Any hope that Democrats might pass President Biden’s Build Back Better agenda this year ended this week after talks between Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and President Biden went “poorly.”
While there’s general agreement on the size of the bill — approximately $1.75 trillion — there’s still almost no agreement on its structure.
In order to fit as many priorities into the legislation as possible, the House version set the funding of many of these programs to expire after just a year or two. Manchin sees all of this short-term temporary spending as a budget gimmick meant to hide the bill’s true long-term cost — and he’s not wrong.
Instead, Manchin wants each program in the bill to be funded for a full 10 years. That would mean fewer priorities, but they would be permanent.
Said Manchin to CNN: “If you’re gonna do something, let’s do it, let’s commit to it.”
As Jordan Weissmann writes, Biden and Democrats should listen to Manchin:
It’s not just that Manchin seems unlikely to back down from his position; he’s also largely right on the political and policy merits. The current version of Build Back Better is a hodgepodge of temporary spending that could very well disappear in a few years when Republicans inevitably regain power in Washington; prioritizing fewer items but making them permanent is a much more reasonable way to go about reforming the safety net for the long term.
Reducing the scope of the package will also allow Democrats to better describe it to voters ahead of next year’s midterm elections. Right now, it’s mostly referred to as a “social spending bill” and few voters have any idea what that means. Picking a couple of popular social programs and funding them will make the bill far more powerful as a political tool.
There’s another practical point made by Punchbowl News:
The longer they wait, the harder it will be for Senate Democrats to act on BBB. The history of the Obamacare debate in 2009 and 2010 proves this, and a number of Senate Democrats are veterans of that era. They remember how bad things got in the first quarter of 2010 as the Obamacare debate dragged on and on, and how that helped fuel the huge GOP victories in those midterm elections.
Democrats are within reach of passing another $1.75 domestic policy bill on top of $1.2 trillion in infrastructure spending and a $1.9 trillion relief package. That would be an enormous accomplishment and might rank Biden as one of the great presidents of the last century.
But Democrats will not do it without Manchin, so its time to give him what he wants. Otherwise, as he made clear this week, they’ll almost certainly get nothing.
Republicans are toast. Now it is going to be everyone for himself. Truth is that 22,000 voter did not vote for any presidential candidate in Georgia and they were probably not Democrats. In addition, 63,000 voted for the female Libertarian candidate. Thus, the voters are in bad odor. If the pundits and pollsters and press cannot determine their behavior, then the game has changed.
How a strange bird from Mexico became a Christmas staple [Click] [Two quibbles: “conga eel” for conger eel (could be computerized spell check that slipped through) and a misunderstanding of what a trencher is.] I hadn't realized that the boars' heads were pickled, nor had I heard of the carol to accompany its serving.
A friend and former coworker, now in Montana, fully vaxed and boosted (a month ago) seems to have had a breakthrough Covid infection. Mild cold symptoms followed by loss of sense of taste. Has been staying home, will try too get a test this weekend. Last significant presence with unmasked people was about two weeks ago, in a county with very low vaccination rates.
“The record establishes that COVID-19 has continued to spread, mutate, kill, and block the safe return of American workers to their jobs. To protect workers, OSHA can and must be able to respond to dangers as they evolve,” according to the opinion written by Judge Jane B. Stranch, who was joined by Judge Julia Smith Gibbons.
Kamala Harris, in interview, says administration did not anticipate Omicron variant [Click] “We didn’t see Delta coming. I think most scientists did not — upon whose advice and direction we have relied — didn’t see Delta coming,” she said. “We didn’t see Omicron coming. And that’s the nature of what this, this awful virus has been, which as it turns out, has mutations and variants.” This simply beggars belief; it was widely discussed in the popular press, for Heaven’s sake.
❤️ Wil's hybrid Maverick red pickup truck is now officially "In Production"!! Whoooo hooooo!!!
ReplyDeleteOur hybrid Toyota Camry gives good gas mileage. One thing I hadn't anticipated is that the tires wear out a little sooner than on its conventional predecessors; the mechanic said that isn't our imagination. I suppose than when it changes back and forth between gasoline and electric power, the wheels have a momentary change in rotation speed.
DeleteWeird! I never had that tire issue with my Honda Civic Hybrid.
DeleteSpeaking of tires…my secret Christmas gift to Wil is a set of snow tires fir his new truck! They are in such short supply that they’re out of stock at two distributors and the third has only 50 left in stock. Got really nice tires, too. Whoo hoo! Now we just need the truck. LOL. But the shop will hold them until it arrives. Yay!!
RNC Paying [some of] Trump’s Personal Legal Bills [Click]
ReplyDeleteSeattle Councilmember Defeats Recall [Click]
ReplyDeleteFDA Lifts Key Restriction on Abortion Pill [Click]
ReplyDeleteArmy and Navy Will Dismiss Unvaccinated [Click]
ReplyDeleteWhy Spending $2 Trillion On Child Care, Health Care And Fighting Climate Change Won’t Make Inflation Any Worse [Click]
ReplyDeleteIn Great Britain, the Liberals have gained a seat that has been Conservative for 200 years!
ReplyDeletehttps://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.france24.com/en/europe/20211217-uk-conservatives-suffer-crushing-by-election-defeat-in-latest-blow-to-johnson
Gee. And in other news, I just realized that the lead photo is lights on a snowy tree--I wasn't quite sure what it was, but thought it looked rather like a nebula.
DeleteI think we need to change the terminology. To conserve is to to save for consumption later. People who do not want to be public servants are autocrats. That authoritarians are false claimants to authority si difficult to explain.
DeleteTherefore, since the world has still
DeleteMuch good, but much less good than ill,
And while the sun and moon endure
Luck’s a chance, but trouble’s sure,
I’d face it as a wise man would,
And train for ill and not for good.
’Tis true, the stuff I bring for sale
Is not so brisk a brew as ale:
Out of a stem that scored the hand
I wrung it in a weary land.
But take it: if the smack is sour,
The better for the embittered hour;
It should do good to heart and head
When your soul is in my soul’s stead;
And I will friend you, if I may.
From A Shropshire Lad, by A.E. Housman
DeleteGuardian livestream (now closed) on Johns’s Partygate woes. [Click] One excerpt that caught my attention:
But while those unforced errors point to the old adage that Johnson is his own worst enemy, what’s different now is that his own backbenchers and Labour and the Lib Dems are rapidly becoming more credible enemies too.
Some MPs gleefully point out that having spent years making life difficult for David Cameron and Theresa May, Johnson is the one on the receiving end of a mutinous mood among backbenchers.
“As you sow, so shall you reap,” one former minister put it to me this week. The hunter is now the quarry and he’s finding it is nowhere near as much fun.
Here’s hoping this proves an augury for The Great Orange One.
From a column, and it does sound reasonable:
ReplyDeleteAny hope that Democrats might pass President Biden’s Build Back Better agenda this year ended this week after talks between Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and President Biden went “poorly.”
While there’s general agreement on the size of the bill — approximately $1.75 trillion — there’s still almost no agreement on its structure.
In order to fit as many priorities into the legislation as possible, the House version set the funding of many of these programs to expire after just a year or two. Manchin sees all of this short-term temporary spending as a budget gimmick meant to hide the bill’s true long-term cost — and he’s not wrong.
Instead, Manchin wants each program in the bill to be funded for a full 10 years. That would mean fewer priorities, but they would be permanent.
Said Manchin to CNN: “If you’re gonna do something, let’s do it, let’s commit to it.”
As Jordan Weissmann writes, Biden and Democrats should listen to Manchin:
It’s not just that Manchin seems unlikely to back down from his position; he’s also largely right on the political and policy merits. The current version of Build Back Better is a hodgepodge of temporary spending that could very well disappear in a few years when Republicans inevitably regain power in Washington; prioritizing fewer items but making them permanent is a much more reasonable way to go about reforming the safety net for the long term.
Reducing the scope of the package will also allow Democrats to better describe it to voters ahead of next year’s midterm elections. Right now, it’s mostly referred to as a “social spending bill” and few voters have any idea what that means. Picking a couple of popular social programs and funding them will make the bill far more powerful as a political tool.
There’s another practical point made by Punchbowl News:
The longer they wait, the harder it will be for Senate Democrats to act on BBB. The history of the Obamacare debate in 2009 and 2010 proves this, and a number of Senate Democrats are veterans of that era. They remember how bad things got in the first quarter of 2010 as the Obamacare debate dragged on and on, and how that helped fuel the huge GOP victories in those midterm elections.
Democrats are within reach of passing another $1.75 domestic policy bill on top of $1.2 trillion in infrastructure spending and a $1.9 trillion relief package. That would be an enormous accomplishment and might rank Biden as one of the great presidents of the last century.
But Democrats will not do it without Manchin, so its time to give him what he wants. Otherwise, as he made clear this week, they’ll almost certainly get nothing.
Herschel Walker’s campaign falsely claimed he graduated from college [Click]
ReplyDeleteThe claim has been made repeatedly, and until now he has never corrected it.
DeleteWaPo (not behind paywall): Mitch McConnell is suddenly legitimizing the Jan. 6 committee. But why? [Click] My guess is that he can read the handwriting on the wall.
ReplyDeleteRepublicans are toast. Now it is going to be everyone for himself. Truth is that 22,000 voter did not vote for any presidential candidate in Georgia and they were probably not Democrats. In addition, 63,000 voted for the female Libertarian candidate. Thus, the voters are in bad odor. If the pundits and pollsters and press cannot determine their behavior, then the game has changed.
DeleteHow a strange bird from Mexico became a Christmas staple [Click] [Two quibbles: “conga eel” for conger eel (could be computerized spell check that slipped through) and a misunderstanding of what a trencher is.] I hadn't realized that the boars' heads were pickled, nor had I heard of the carol to accompany its serving.
ReplyDeleteThe eerie hum of the Golden Gate Bridge, which has elicited comparisons to “chanting monks” and a “wheezing kazoo”, may soon be muffled. [Click]
ReplyDeleteHere is a recording [Click] I was hoping it might be “Ohmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. . .” but “wheezing megakazoo” seems more accurate. A darn shame.
Could Deion Sanders tip college football’s power balance toward Black schools? [Click] This is one of those rare sports stories that attracts my attention.
ReplyDeleteAnti-5G necklaces found to be radioactive [Click] In case you wondered if unbright people walk among us. . .
ReplyDeleteThis is pretty disheartening: 20 senators are already not present for a long day of voting before the holidays. [Click] But look at their party affiliations—overwhelming majority are Republicans. I expect that Senator Schumer is counting votes very carefully.
ReplyDeleteA friend and former coworker, now in Montana, fully vaxed and boosted (a month ago) seems to have had a breakthrough Covid infection. Mild cold symptoms followed by loss of sense of taste. Has been staying home, will try too get a test this weekend. Last significant presence with unmasked people was about two weeks ago, in a county with very low vaccination rates.
ReplyDelete...will try to. . . but you knew that.
DeleteJudge Reinstates Biden’s Vaccine Mandate for [large] Business [Click]
ReplyDelete“The record establishes that COVID-19 has continued to spread, mutate, kill, and block the safe return of American workers to their jobs. To protect workers, OSHA can and must be able to respond to dangers as they evolve,” according to the opinion written by Judge Jane B. Stranch, who was joined by Judge Julia Smith Gibbons.
DeleteCrews dismantling Lee pedestal believed to have found 1887 time capsule [Click]
ReplyDeleteThe Trump administration engaged in “deliberate efforts” to undermine the U.S. response to the coronavirus pandemic for political purposes, a congressional report released Friday concludes. [Click]
ReplyDeleteKamala Harris, in interview, says administration did not anticipate Omicron variant [Click] “We didn’t see Delta coming. I think most scientists did not — upon whose advice and direction we have relied — didn’t see Delta coming,” she said. “We didn’t see Omicron coming. And that’s the nature of what this, this awful virus has been, which as it turns out, has mutations and variants.” This simply beggars belief; it was widely discussed in the popular press, for Heaven’s sake.
ReplyDeleteMarina Hyde: No party could be worth the hangover Boris Johnson is now suffering [Click] An excellent piece of writing. IMO
ReplyDeletePerseverance rover makes 'completely unexpected' volcanic discovery on Mars [Click]
ReplyDelete'Significant amounts of water' found in Valles Marineris [Click]