McCarthy Gives Away Everything. Will It Net Him The Speakership?:
During late-hour negotiations Wednesday, Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) made fresh concessions to a group of 20 lawmakers in hopes of ending their blockade of his speakership ahead of votes Thursday, according to four people familiar with the talks who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations.
The Post’s Marianna Sotomayor, Paul Kane and Jacqueline Alemany report that in a stunning reversal, McCarthy offered to lower from five to one the threshold of members required to sponsor a resolution to force a vote to oust the speaker — a change the California Republican had previously said he would not accept.
McCarthy also expressed a willingness to tap more members of the conservative Freedom Caucus to the House Rules Committee, which debates legislation before it’s moved to the floor.
And he relented on allowing floor votes to institute term limits on members and to enact specific border policy legislation.
It remained unclear early Thursday whether the concessions could move the holdouts. But some moderates have grown irate at the moves.
Of course, they’re ‘moderates’, so they’ll likely swallow hard, vote for McCarthy, and hail it as compromise. Or, the whole thing could blow up. Bringing my popcorn, my blanket, and my alcohol (you must watch this) to view the proceedings. If, that is, there are any proceedings today.
“Build That Damn Bridge”. Build it they will. Thanks to the infrastructure bill almost universally reviled by congressional Rethuglicans:
COVINGTON, Kentucky (AP) — President Joe Biden visited a dilapidated bridge connecting Ohio and Kentucky to talk up the virtues of bipartisanship with Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell on Wednesday while at the same time blasting House Republicans for an “embarrassing” scene of disarray that has kept the chamber from organizing itself.
The Democratic president’s trip to the Brent Spence Bridge, which is getting a federal facelift, came as Washington is gripped by the GOP’s inability to unify behind a candidate for House speaker. Biden, as he left the White House, said the chaos was “not a good look” for the country. The election of a speaker is required before House members can be sworn in for the new congressional session.
The NFL Is Violence Writ Large:
Hamlin’s accident was grievous and rare. Still, it was a reminder of the punishing ecosystem of football, one that’s unlike any other sport. Violence is such a central organizing factor that except under the most ghastly circumstances, it goes mostly unnoticed. In football, players are helped off the field with damaged knees, bruised skulls and injured shoulders with some regularity. But if they can manage a thumbs up or a wave to the fans, everything is deemed fine. The game will pause for a commercial break and then resume, as if nothing has happened. As if it’s not a big deal that a human being had to be carried away on a stretcher in the middle of a sporting event. As if every football game doesn’t tempt fate in a way that basketball or soccer or hockey doesn’t.
Football isn’t so much wrapped in poetry as it is patriotism, not the small town county fair version, but big city capitalism. Football benefits from the lucrative economics of machismo. It markets and sells live action, super hero violence. Fans of professional football like to call players warriors and gladiators and equate that with bravery and toughness while forgetting that warriors all too often are gravely wounded and gladiators often fought to the death.
Another Hinky Development Project, This One In New Castle Area. Live in a flood plain? Why, that’s your personal choice, according to the developer’s lawyer:
A scenic Delaware River view could also mean increased flood risks.
The developers said they used DNREC’s sea level rise projections to simulate whether the Flats at Riveredge would be safe from 50 and 100-year “worst-case scenarios” that could impact the country’s lowest-lying state. In both projections, the development was not impacted by sea level rise. (What did you expect the developers’ findings to say?)
However, Phillip Cane with the Delaware Emergency Management Agency (DEMA) said a majority of the property falls within a hazardous flood area.
“DEMA does not encourage any development in areas within or directly adjacent to 100-year flood plains since water knows no bounds or flood lines,” Cane wrote in a letter from state agencies about the project.
Developers are confident residents will still be interested in the development, despite historical problems in the region.
“It’s a personal choice where you want to live,” Tucker said. “Folks can make a choice whether they want to live next to the refinery, the way we see it. But don’t let perfect kill the good.”
Hey, we’re already gonna have the Underwater City At Ft. DuPont. What’s one more, more or less?
What do you want to talk about?