Ghost of LL

It's literally the top story on the Washington Post website. It's the top story on the Drudge Report. It's on Fox News. It's completely everywhere. I actually kind of like that.

And we'll have plenty of time to shoot them all in the fucking face after the Tuesday after the first Monday in November. But for right now, confronting this bullshit plays right into Abbott's hands.

No. Today, the entire narrative is Romney and McConnell making clear to god and everyone that the Republicans are spiking a deal on border security so that Trump can run on the issue. They're making clear that the Republican cries of "border crisis" is cynical bullshit. And to the extent there is a "border crisis," the blame lies with the GQP. Why would we do anything to get in the way of that?

I hate McConnell. He has destroyed the Senate as an effective deliberative body. He is a hypocrite of unbelievable proportions. He has undermined America's political culture and the ability of Congress to act as an effective branch of government. And he's done so all in furtherance of a white-christian-nationalist vision for America that is noxious to anyone with any moral code developed after the seventeenth century. But Mitch McConnell knows what he's doing. Romney's shouting it from the rooftops that "Trump is preventing a deal on the border." But what McConnell is doing is infinitely more clever. And more cynical. He's saying, "we all need to get in line and support Trump, and that prevents us from doing anything on the border because Trump wants to campaign on that." He's saying the same thing as Romney. But he's doing so from the purported position of supporting Trump. And in so doing, he gives it greater weight, credibility, and creditability. It's fucking cynical as hell. But in this instance, it works to the benefit of issue positions I favor. So I'll support it.

No. Stop. Greg Abbott is doing this for a reason. And at the extreme risk (perhaps near-certainty) of stating the obvious, that reason has nothing to do with the border. Greg Abbott presides over a Texas Republican Party that is in the midst of a civil war. His attorney general is a criminal who is leading a campaign to primary most of the Republicans in the House who voted to impeach him (which is the majority of them). Meanwhile, he can't get his legislative priorities passed despite calling four special sessions because--and this is important--nobody in the Legislature gives a shit what Greg Abbott thinks is a priority. And all the while, the realization sinks in that governor is the highest office he'll ever attain. But until he leaves, nobody else can move up the ladder. So to distract from all of that--and that is a lot--he needs an outside boogeyman. And nothing fits the bill better than the feds. Look--I'm as anti-treason as anybody. I think you know that I think treason and insurrection should be met with lead and nooses. I think there should've been a whole lot more Ashley Babbitts three years ago. But let's be smart about this. Abbott is doing this to distract from his own failings, the turmoil in the Texas Republican Party, and the fact that the Republican nominee is an increasingly senile felon, insurrectionist, and rapist. Don't let him do it. Certainly don't let him do it over a stupid park in Eagle Pass. The economy is going great. And the perception of the economy is coming around to the realization that it is going great. The challenger is weak. The fundamentals all favor Biden's reelection. Let's not do anything to upset that.

I don't discount anything. I said he could've done more. He could've. Maybe it would've been ineffective. Even if effective, it wouldn't have been sufficient. But he could've done more. Which is why McConnell blew the whistle on it. The Turtle knows what he's doing. By saying, "the Ukraine/Border bill is dead because we need to support Trump," he's laying the failure of the border bill at Trump's feet. And that's going to do a lot to ensure that a Ukraine/Border bill actually gets advanced.

Counterpoint: having a referendum on the ballot enables suburban white women to vote for Trump, thinking that they've safeguarded abortion rights through their referendum vote. Yes and no. I think he could've done more with his executive power. Open VA hospitals and military medical facilities to civilian reproductive care. Sic CMS on any pharmacy not filling abortifacient prescriptions (I'm looking at you, Walgreens).

McConnell does care about Ukraine. And he does care about the United States.* And that's why he's running to everyone from The Washington Post to Punchbowl News saying that the Border/Ukraine deal is dead because he doesn't want to hurt Trump. And that message is now gaining traction out in the world. So it perversely puts pressure on the Republicans to pass this legislation because it threatens to lay the failure on immigration on their doorstep. McConnell has just taking a lot of the steam out of Trump's attacks on immigration. And the purpose of that is to get money for Ukraine. So yeah--I'm oddly more confident of Ukraine funding today than I was 48 hours ago. * Please do not mistake this as an apologia for Mitch McConnell. His vision of the United States is a white-christian nationalist vision. It's absolutely repellant. But worse--to attain that vision, he has undermined the United States Senate as an institution and damaged American political culture, perhaps irretrievably. Mitch McConnell will go down in history as not only one of the worst politicians in American history, but as someone who imperiled the Republic for his own political benefit.

And coming in the right place. Just a huge widespread rain across the highland lakes watershed.

I don't think Montana is a tossup. Tester is very popular there, and the power of incumbency is very strong in small states. It's not like here, where people have heard of Ted Cruz. In Montana, most people have probably met John Tester. He's probably provided some constituent service for a significant percentage of the voters. So in a small state like that, there's got to be a good reason to toss out an incumbent. And barring an absolute red wave that I don't see forming with Trump at the top of the ballot, it's unlikely to happen. I put that as a "Lean D." Ohio's a different matter.

I agree with all of this. As I've said before, Nevada is like Democratic Florida. The Republicans always think they're going to win there; they never do. It's not to say that the Dems don't need to work for it. It is to say that given a decent Democratic incumbent--and Jacky Rosen is an above-decent incumbent--the Democrats shouldn't have much trouble holding this seat. On Texas, I just don't have a feel for it yet. Cruz is wildly unpopular. But it's going to take an exceptional Democratic candidate to beat him. And even then, the presidential race is really going to dictate the outcome. If Trump is down big in the polling and Republicans are demoralized--something akin to 1996--I could see an upset. But otherwise, . . . no. In Florida, you're right about Rick Scott. But Florida has become a lot more Republican over the past six years. The Dems are probably going to have Debbie Mucarsel-Powell as their nominee and . . . yeah--I just don't know how strong a strong a candidate she is. I don't think she really lights me up.

Much like Jules Winnfield, BA is in what you might call a "transition period." It was the very first to introduce lie-flat seats in its Business cabin, but those seats are now way out of date. They're now replacing those seats with the new Collins Aerospace Super Diamond reverse herringbone seats in a 1-2-1 configuration. That seat is pretty common across a lot of airlines. BA's innovation is that they have a door on those seats to create a private pod, which is very nice. Currently, those seats are on all of BA's A350-1000s, which is the equipment BA flies to AUS. So for those of us in the Austin market, the BA product is really very nice. Now, I will say that for those of us in AUS, the BA club situation at Bergstrom sucks because they use the AAdmirals Club, which is small, dark, and shitty. But that's not BA's fault; it's AA's. At LHR, I think the Galleries Lounges are above-average business class lounges. They're busy, yes. But they're also big enough to meet the demand. And they have a great view of the runway at LHR. So that's nice. That doesn't make any sense to me. I never really had that happen at DFW outside of weather, and I've flown through DFW a lot. Weird luck, I guess.

Rain in all the right places to help the lakes this morning.

Why the fuck does aggy have a San Antonio branch?

That none of these cops killed themselves really speaks to their lack of honor or decency.

That's right. The UP Express goes straight from the airport to Union Station in downtown. Trains depart every 15 minutes, and the ride takes 25 minutes. From Union Station, it's a block to the Hockey Hall of Fame. I mean, if you like hockey at all, it's worth a trip. The Stanley Cup is on display, and you can walk up to it, hug it, caress it, and take a selfie with it. A block in the other direction is the CN Tower. And that's fun if you want to walk over the glass floor. If you have a fear of heights, it's somewhat less entertaining. Across from CN Tower, at the old rail turntable, is the Railway Museum. And if you like trains, it's a pretty cool museum. There's also a brewery and a decent sports bar in there.

Really good dinner at Atera. Maybe my best dining experience ever. its only 14 seats, and you sit around a counter like you’re in someone’s kitchen. There was, of course, a wine pairing. But the much more interesting was the non-alcoholic pairing. Here’s the aesleskiver (or whatever) it was kind of like a cheese puff with truffle. The hamachi was amazing. I mean, it’s A5: Is squab my favorite? No. Was it still great? Yeah. The pistachio was nice and light, while the milk on the right was hit with liquid nitrogen.

Good time last night at the concert.

With as many people carrying as I assume there are, and as aggressive as the homeless are downtown, I'm really amazed that we don't have more dead homeless people than we do.

I'm not even arguing with him. I'm just expressing my exasperation by his inability to stop sucking his own dick in public.

Oh, my everloving fucking god, will you please stop trying to make some innane political point with every fucking post on every fucking topic? It's exhausting. It's exhausting to an absolute mortifying degree. I'm not even trying to be the "take it to CR" police, though the "take it to CR" police never seem to cite you for even your blatant violations, but Jesus tapdancing Christ--you really do have nothing to contribute other than some drive-by political sniping, do you?

Did the head to Argentina? Or was it Paraguay?

All this game proves to me is that Florida State is the best team in the country and should be your true champion.

I don't see how that'd be possible, just looking at that building. Anybody in the bottom two or three floors has got to be in pretty bad shape. And anybody on the street outside almost certainly suffered life-threatening injuries.

I really don't want to hear it when Boeing gets all the largesse that it does from the DOD. It's all dressed up as a procurement, but let's be real clear--the United States Government makes sure nothing too bad happens to Boeing. It's the only explanation I can come up with, but it's an absolutely shocking conclusion to reach. Boeing has a real corporate-culture problem right now that needs to be addressed ASAP.