Afternoon Open Thread
Hey, peeps. I am filling in for a couple days, which will mostly just serve for our move over to afternoon since both of us may or may not have intermittent access throughout morning/afternoon internet depending on how the adulting stuff goes today and tomorrow.
Y’all do your thing with the open thread and keep us rolling with all the good, the bad, and the ugly we miss until Beth gets posted. ✌
Today's Morning News:
A Beautiful thing: Introducing the gentleman from Mississippi, welcome Senator Scott Colom!
With an added shoutout to Marc Elias for all the work he does.
It has been an honor to be part of the legal team that helped secure this historic victory. I could not be prouder of the work Elias Law Group does every day to help Democrats like Scott Colom win elections, citizens vote and progressives make change.
— Marc E. Elias (@marceelias) November 12, 2026
NEW from Marc: The RNC sued to keep late-arriving Mississippi mail ballots from being counted. Marc Elias spent two years defending them, all the way to the Supreme Court. Today, those ballots helped Scott Colom win a U.S. Senate seat in Mississippi. Read Marc’s analysis, free this week during the paywall drop: https://t.co/9bdwbphr5J
— Democracy Docket (@DemocracyDocket) November 12, 2026
Martin Luther King, August 28, 1963, in front of Lincoln Memorial at March on Washington: "I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice." https://t.co/zF9SHtQRpo
— Michael Beschloss (@BeschlossDC) November 9, 2026
The baboon's ass toddler was up early this morning flinging his shit at the walls and screaming at the bananas in his delusions.
Just remember, every time the baboon baby is ranting at his bananas Miller and his Harp are right there with him having to smell and change his shitty diapers and wipe his baboon's ass. They are living their fevered dreams and life they so deserve.
Trump has been rage-posting manic nonsense since 5:50 AM. https://t.co/M2NhyayStL
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) November 12, 2026
Trump is losing his shit: "I have asked Vice President Vance to focus his complete and total attention on the Massive Corruption and Crime taking place in Democrat run Cities and States throughout the U.S. The Blue States, such as Minnesota, California, Illinois, and many more, are all poorly run, corrupt disasters. Billions of Dollars is being stolen each and every month. Our Budget could be quickly BALANCED with the correction of this large scale criminal activity. CORRUPTION is in the Democrat Leadership’s blood! We don’t need a deal with Iran. Those days have long since passed. We’ve got their money, Hundreds of Billions of Dollars, and we’ve got their Strait! Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DJT"
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) November 12, 2026
Cry harder, toddler.
Bu-Bye, Jensen Huang.
Just in: Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang has resigned after two extramarital affairs, including one with a suspected Chinese spy and another with an employee https://t.co/DOyH85KoFP
— Olivia Beavers (@Olivia_Beavers) November 12, 2026
Nvidia co-founder and Chief Executive Jensen Huang has officially resigned from his position following revelations of two extramarital affairs, including one with Alice Huang—an executive at Singapore-based customer Megaspeed who is suspected by U.S. intelligence of being a Chinese intelligence asset—and another with Kimberly Powell, a senior executive running Nvidia's healthcare business. ~WSJ
Yesterday's In case you missed it News:
File this one under: "Today effing of all days!"
@ltgrusselhonore https://t.co/MYOUy9YlQ2
— michael jones (@michaeljon54991) November 12, 2026
As it is pointed out for other things, the optics, ffs. Seriously. Why House Republicans would do this on any day is insane, but to chose Veteran Day's to say to veterans, GFY, and oh, yeah, thank you for your service but we are not going to fulfil all our obligations because we got billionaire donors dicks to suck and so much more to rob for our own personal gain we will just play rob Peter to pay Paul here, so, good day to you.
I mean, really, that is your message? What in the gods name is wrong with these people? Which is just rhetorical. We know, we lived with the assholes for too long. And, really, I don't care that is their message, they have the right to be greedy, selfish assholes all day long.
Just like the rest of us have the right to say: FAFO, assholes.
They rammed it through with a voice vote so the cowards didn't have to put their vote on record. But we know who they all are.
Opposition from Senate Democrats and Veterans Groups: The Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) and Disabled American Veterans (DAV) condemned the bill, arguing that Congress should not fund new benefits for one group of veterans by cutting earned disability compensation for future service members. Nearly 50 Senate Democrats and independents have previously opposed the rating changes, meaning the bill faces significant hurdles in the Senate.
House Democrats did manage to come together separately and advanced a standalone version of the Major Richard Star Act, H.R. 2102, via discharge petition with 218 signatures, setting up a scheduled floor vote for today, November 12, 2026. They will advance together to the senate and we will see where they stand some time today.
However, both face hurdles of passing before the end of this congressional session:
1. Hurdles for the Republican-Backed Bill (H.R. 9237) The Take Care of America's Veterans Act faces a steep uphill climb because it requires 60 votes to overcome a Senate filibuster, and Senate Democrats broadly oppose the legislation: [1]
- Opposition to Disability Cuts. Nearly 50 Senate Democrats and independents have opposed Section 108, which writes cuts to future VA disability ratings for sleep apnea and tinnitus into law to generate budget savings. [1]
- Major Veterans Group Pushback. Influential organizations such as the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) and Disabled American Veterans (DAV) have strongly condemned H.R. 9237, with the VFW calling for the bill to be "dead on arrival in the Senate". [1]
- Labor Union Opposition. The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) and 22 other labor unions actively oppose the package over provisions they argue accelerate VA health care privatization and strip workplace rights from VA psychologists. [1]
2. Hurdles for the stand alone Major Richard Star Act (H.R. 2102): While H.R. 2102 (sponsored by Rep. Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla., and championed on the floor via a discharge petition led by House Democrats) has broad bipartisan co-sponsorship in both chambers, fiscal conservatives in the Senate have repeatedly blocked it
- Unpaid Budget Cost. According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), H.R. 2102 increases direct federal spending by $12.75 billion over 10 years (and increases spending subject to appropriation by $7.45 billion) without any offsetting spending cuts or revenue. [1]
- History of Senate Blocks. As reported by The Hill, Republican senators blocked unanimous consent attempts to pass the Senate companion bill (S. 1032) multiple times in 2025 and 2026 specifically over these cost and deficit concerns. [1, 2]
Why Both Are Stalled: Because Senate rules generally require 60 votes to advance legislation:
- H.R. 9237 lacks the Democratic votes needed to pass because of its benefit cuts.
- H.R. 2102 faces blocks from Senate Republicans who refuse to pass an unpaid $13 billion spending increase. [1, 2]
Unless Senate leaders negotiate a middle ground—such as pairing the Major Richard Star Act with different budget offsets that do not cut veterans' disability ratings—both bills risk stalling in the Senate before the end of the 119th Congress.
If they both fail in the senate before the end of session, incoming House should have this, then it is advanced to the senate. But, they will still need 60 in the senate to overcome the filibuster barring any rule changes, such as suspending the filibuster rule. There may be a shot at getting it without doing that. They will have 55/56- 53/54 Ds and 2 Indies until Alaska is decided so, either 4 or 5 Rs will be needed. So, maybe.
Speaking of Insanity:
Stop wasting time with these charades and focus on the only thing that will end the war: kicking Russia out of Ukraine.
— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) November 11, 2026
Once again proving that yet another round of fake negotiations was only meant to serve as theatrical background for the Trump family to remove Russia sanctions while blaming Ukraine, Putin's chief negotiator Medinsky in Abu Dhabi confirms that Putin still intends on occupying Ukraine.
"We will return every inch of OUR land".
Tick tock:
The ten largest American companies now account for more than 37% of the entire stock market. We haven't seen concentration like this since 1932. That's an extraordinary amount of wealth that moves from just a single affair. https://t.co/uT5CMvd6TX
— Justin Wolfers (@JustinWolfers) November 12, 2026
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This Is An Open Thread