(Permanent Musical Accompaniment To The Last Post Of The Week From The Blog's Favourite Living Canadian)

MIAMI, Fla.—While the Democratic Party's presidential candidates were teeing it up here, the Democratic Party in Congress was falling apart. This has caused, in no particular order, splits between the Senate Democrats and the House Democrats, between progressive Democrats and Blue Dog Democrats, between Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the progressive members of her caucus, and between Pelosi and members of her own leadership team. The immediate casus belli was a bill designed to deal with the humanitarian crisis at the southern border and its victims, some of whom are very young. The House passed a bill. The Senate passed its own bill. The differences in the bills respective priorities can be fairly summed up by the phrase, "Goddamn Mitch McConnell." From Reuters:

Trump, the Republican-controlled Senate and moderate Democrats insisted on finishing the emergency aid bill as soon as possible, without further haggling over demands for greater migrant safeguards and reduced immigration enforcement spending. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the top Democrat in Congress, said shortly before the vote that her colleagues were giving up their fight for now over changes to the measure, which had already passed the Senate. “At the end of the day, we have to make sure that the resources needed to protect the children are available,” she said in a statement. “In order to get resources to the children fastest, we will reluctantly pass the Senate bill.” The House vote was 305 to 102, with 71 out of 235 House Democrats voting against the Senate bill. The measure was then sent to Republican Trump for signing into law.

Pelosi speaks at her weekly presser. Getty Images

The uproar was loud and immediate. A lot of the animosity probably was anger at McConnell's apparent willingness to use sick and hungry children sleeping in their own filth as political hostages in service of the president* whose policies created this situation in the first place. In point of fact, the Senate Democrats under Minority Leader Chuck Schumer cut the legs out from under their House colleagues and thereby made McConnell's revolting threat a reality for people voting in the lower House. And while it's true that the Blue Dogs, as well as the remarkably constituent-free members of the Problem Solvers caucus, threatened to tank the bill if it included the proposed cuts to ICE that were in the original House bill, the progressive rage at Pelosi is more properly aimed at Schumer, whose failure as a Senate Minority Leader is now complete. It's time for him to go.

Who knows? Maybe some day, when one of the young Blue Dogs runs for president, another candidate will hammer them for this ugly compromise the way Joe Biden is (rightly) getting slammed for the deals he cut because he thought they were good politics at the time. I can see that point. More to the point, I can feel it in my guy. When I went to Homestead on Wednesday morning, it was both disgusting and infuriating. Everybody responsible for the current system should be haled before the International Criminal Court for crimes against these children. The only thing worse than voting for the bill that was passed, the one that may or may not lessen their suffering, would have been to do nothing and dare McConnell to do his worst to the children he and his president* are holding hostage. Dare them to do their worst? They're already doing it.

Good on Jimmy Carter for Going There. From CNN:

"There's no doubt that the Russians did interfere in the election. And I think the interference, although not yet quantified, if fully investigated would show that Trump didn't actually win the election in 2016. He lost the election and he was put into office because the Russians interfered on his behalf," Carter said at the Carter Center's retreat in Leesburg, Virginia. Asked if he believes Trump is an illegitimate president, Carter paused for a moment. "Based on what I just said, which I can't retract," Carter said to audience laughter.

Considering that El Caudillo del Mar-a-Lago is over in Japan, glibly joking about meddling in elections with Vladimir Putin. He's also kidding with his good pal about doing something about fake news on the one-year anniversary of the Capital Gazette newsroom murders. He's an illegitimate president* in too many ways to count. The whole Russian thing that Carter's talking about is only one of them.

Getty Images

Weekly WWOZ Pick To Click: "Get Out Of Here" (Kid Ory): Yeah, I still really love New Orleans.

Weekly Visit To The Pathe Archives: It's the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty Of Versailles. Here are some men in top hats and frock coats arriving to negotiate the eventual beginning of World War II. History is so cool.

Is it a good day for dinosaur news, Nature.com? It's always a good day for dinosaur news!

Noasaurinae represents an enigmatic group of small-bodied predatory theropod dinosaurs best known from the iconic Masiakasaurus knopfleri, from the latest Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) of Madagascar. Yet, the clade also minimally includes two other Late Cretaceous taxa from Argentina, the name-bearing Noasaurus leali, as well as Velocisaurus unicus. In the most recent phylogenetic revision of the group, Noasaurinae was found as sister to the Middle-Late Jurassic Elaphrosaurinae, together forming Noasauridae among the abelisauroid theropods.

Yeah, well, anyway, it was a three-foot predator that lived in the ancient deserts. And its footprints had baffled paleontologists for years. It also represents an entirely new field for exploration, this one in southern Brazil. So everybody's happy because dinosaurs lived then to make us happy now.

The Committee loved the story about the whip-wielding government bureaucrat because The Committee knew that this week's Top Commenter would easily be found in the reactions to that story among the shebeen regulars. Their faith was rewarded by Top Commenter Steve Steinberg.

Maybe he was carrying it around ironically. Anyway, he's just keeping those foggy bottoms in line.

OK, The Committee decided not to think about this image too long and, instead, shuffled the 90.11 Beckhams to him with all good wishes.

I'll be back on Monday to stroll through all the fallout which, we all hope, will remain metaphorical. Be well and play nice, ya bastids. Stay above the snake-line and whip it...whip it good.

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Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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