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Technically true, but collectively nonsense

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You are here: Home / Past Elections / 2020 Elections / Biden For President / Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Joe Biden – Build Back BETTER

Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Joe Biden – Build Back BETTER

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Joe Biden cares about your kids, and their grandparents. And going after real-estate developers to fund more social support for the vulnerable — that’s making it personal. This proposal is getting a lot of good reviews from econ nerds on social media; even the usual free-market proponents don’t love these particular tax loopholes…

Joe Biden on Tuesday unveiled a $775 billion plan to bolster child care and care for the elderly that would be financed by taxes on real-estate investors with incomes of more than $400,000 as well as increased tax compliance by high-income earners.

The Biden campaign did not fully explain how the plan for a “caring economy” would be financed, but officials highlighted some tax breaks they would seek to eliminate to raise revenue.

In particular, a senior campaign official said a Biden administration would take aim at so-called like-kind exchanges, which allow investors to defer paying taxes on the sale of real estate if the capital gains are reinvested in another property. The official also said they would prevent investors from using real-estate losses to lower their income tax bills…

The proposal is the third plank of the Democratic nominee’s economic plan. It calls for universal preschool for three- and four-year-olds. It also eliminates the waiting list for home and community services under Medicaid, offers low-income and middle-class families a tax credit of as much as $8,000 to help pay for child care and increases pay for caregivers and early childhood educators.

Senior campaign officials said Biden’s plan is informed by his experience as a single father after his first wife died in a car accident. If elected, Biden would immediately provide states and cities with fiscal relief to keep workers employed and crucial public services running, including direct care and child care services.

The plan would add 3 million jobs in the care and education sectors, including 150,000 community health workers in underserved communities. It also emphasizes investments in building child care facilities. But the plan also calls for substantial resources in an innovation fund to help expand home- and community-based alternatives to institutional care…

Furthermore…

Reader Interactions

216Comments

  1. 1.

    Mary G

    Uncle Joe is stepping up magnificently. Remember when he said the Senate Republicans would have an epiphany and start compromising again? That plan is dead as a doornail.

  6. 6.

    ThresherK

    Biden is hitting the perfect spot here.

    I am also fascinated (but not surprised) that this GOP-enhanced national disaster is what it takes for the press to not attack a Dem for stating the bald truth whereas in the same manner any ordinary R will  shovels out bullshit and have it be relayed as “one opinion, and that’s what makes a horserace”.

  7. 7.

    trnc

    Joe Biden on Tuesday unveiled a $775 billion plan to bolster child care and care for the elderly that would be financed by taxes on real-estate investors with incomes of more than $400,000 as well as increased tax compliance by high-income earners.

    AKA, one presidential salary unit. Although DT will probably whine that he donates his salary to charity, as if anyone would still believe him.

  8. 8.

    oatler.

    Even Chuck Todd’s brow is furrowed with concern. But then it’s off to book Hugh Hewitt for the Sunday show.

  11. 11.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @oatler.:

    It would be nice if Todd, Tapper and others would book people negatively affected by GOP policymaker/executive choices to interact with those policymakers. Fewer Hewitts and other pundits, left and right. People and policymakers – with insulation removed.

  12. 12.

    Baud

    Biden slams Trump: “He’s quit on this country.”

    If only that were a literal statement.

  14. 14.

    Baud

    The United States of America: a country barely alive

    Gentlemen we can rebuild it.

    We have the capacity.

    We have the capability to make the world’s first post-fascist nation.

    The USA will be that nation.

    Better than it was before

    Better, Stronger, Faster

  20. 20.

    Mousebumples

    @JPL: We have to take the Senate.

    I’m encouraged by the House passing a ton of bills (that Mitch ignores). If we take the senate and the presidency, pass them all again in the first 100 days and remake so much of our country. Lots of these ideas already have legislation drafted. Time to make it into law!

  21. 21.

    mrmoshpotato

    Republicans have frittered away the claim to be the party of national security

    No one told Jen about September 11th?

  22. 22.

    SFAW

    @Patricia Kayden:

    Sean Hannity asks who will be blamed when the stormtroopers hypothetically shoot a bunch of protesters. Tom Cotton says the protesters will be to blame under this hypothetical

    “She MADE me hit her, because she wouldn’t shut up.” That chicken-neck fascist, racist motherfucker should re-up and go fight Boko Haram, if he’s so keen on killing people.

  24. 24.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @mrmoshpotato:

    Baby steps. She’s come into the light  in a big way, give her some room to choose the path….

  25. 25.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Baud:

    We have the capability to make the world’s first post-fascist nation. 

    1940’s on line 1…

  26. 26.

    SFAW

    @mrmoshpotato:

    No one told Jen about September 11th?

    That was Bill Clinton’s fault, as has been proved time and again. He made Bush ignore Clarke’s memo/PDB.

  27. 27.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @mrmoshpotato:

    I’m thinking more along the lines of “skull”.

    Besides, it isn’t as if the chinless wonder’s useless crotch has ever satisfied anyone, sooooo…….

  30. 30.

    mrmoshpotato

    @SFAW: Totally!  Bill made Georgy boy ignore something that didn’t exist until (checks notes) August 2001!

  32. 32.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    Here’s a fun idea for Tapper/Todd/Stephanopoulis/Blitzer/King – book Tom Cotton and Chad Wolf to talk to Captain Portland.

  34. 34.

    CarolDuhart2

    The Six Trillion Dollar Nation…we can build it bigger, stronger, faster, better.

  35. 35.

    SFAW

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:

    Baby steps. She’s come into the light  in a big way, give her some room to choose the path….

    I understand, and I’m glad she’s going after the Murderer-in-Chief and his enablers, but I think she’d still be all-in for Mittens, were he to run again. If she punted on him, then maybe I’ll believe she’s come to the light. Until that time, she’s just Rick Wilson, but without having been as much of a Rethug enabler.

  36. 36.

    Amir Khalid

    @Baud:

    Trump has certainly been derelict in his presidential duty since after election day. He had a habit of blowing off his transition briefings. I remember both Biden and Obama publicly pleaded with him to take the transition process seriously, to no avail.

  37. 37.

    Chief Oshkosh

    Anyone else seeing the MSM trying to rehab Trump? He’s serious now! He’s pivoted! He’s finally being presidential!

    Hope Joe brings back the Fairness Doctrine. It’s not a panacea, but you’ve to use every arrow in the quiver when you’re fighting the beast.

  38. 38.

    CarolDuhart2

    @SFAW:  She probably knows/realizes that Mittens isn’t going to run again, and if he did wouldn’t get very far in a post-Trump world. Just because Trump is gone doesn’t mean that the Trump supporters are going.  And a Senator who votes to impeach his President is never going to get a break from primary voters.  And Mittens has run and lost both in 2008 when he didn’t even get to the nomination, and in 2012.  I doubt that he’s eager to run against a Trump acolyte and then lose to Biden or Biden’s vp.

  39. 39.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @SFAW:

     

    but I think she’d still be all-in for Mittens, were he to run again. If she punted on him, then maybe I’ll believe she’s come to the light.

    How do her winds blow these days with regards to Bibi? I agree with your Mittens take, but Bibi is the real measure here when it comes to Jen-ghazi.

  40. 40.

    SFAW

    @mrmoshpotato:

    Totally!  Bill made Georgy boy ignore something that didn’t exist until (checks notes) August 2001!

    As you should know: Any bad things that happen during the first four years of a Rethug admin are the fault of the previous Dem admin, but good things after the first month are solely credited to the Rethugs.

    Similarly, any good things that happen during the first four years of a Dem admin are due to the previous Rethug admin, and any bad things that happen from Election Day forward are the fault of the (incoming or “seated”) Dem admin. It’s just science!

  41. 41.

    trnc

    @Kay: That’s mealy mouthed. DHS reputation has been pretty much crap from the day it was created. They really need to be more concerned about its role in the current abuse of power, and they need to come right out and say it.

  42. 42.

    SFAW

    @CarolDuhart2: @Chief Oshkosh:

    Understood. I chose Mittens, because she was all-in for him in 2012, and he’s been the only Senator with anything approaching a semblance of patriotism since the Traitor-in-Chief was “inaugurated.” Whether Mitt has a future is (for the purposes of argument) immaterial; he was more of a placeholder for the mythical “moderate Republican,” should one ever make it out of the position of dog catcher in Moderatesville, USA. [NB: I’m assuming that even a so-called “moderate” Rethug would still be tribal in most/all ways of any significance.]

    As far as Bibi: I don’t know. I don’t read her often enough to recall any of her recent columns relative to him or Israel.

  43. 43.

    Baud

    With all these converted Republicans, the proof will be whether they can play a supportive–not leadership–role during the Biden years.

  47. 47.

    Betty Cracker

    Biden is still arguing that he can work with Republicans, but it’s a more nuanced argument now. An excerpt from a Vox interview earlier this week:

    “I’ll say something outrageous,” he continued. “I think I have a pretty good record of pulling together Democrats and Republicans.” He went on to say many Senate Republicans will feel “a bit liberated” by Trump’s defeat and may be ready to work with Democrats on issues like infrastructure and racial inequality…

    Tucked into this argument is Biden’s view of the Republican Party: He sees it not as a monolith but as a coalition. Some members of that coalition love Trump and will grieve his defeat. They’re not going to work with Biden, and he doesn’t expect to work with them. But some Senate Republicans dislike Trump, regret what their party has become, and are looking for redemption. What they need is a Democrat they can work with — a Democrat who doesn’t antagonize their voters and won’t rub their noses in their loss. What they need, Biden thinks, is Biden.

    As much as I want to “rub their noses in their loss” (every goddamned one of them, until no flesh nor cartilage nor bone remains, metaphorically speaking!), this approach is probably the smart play given the state of the race and the electoral map. IMO, the chief advantage of a Biden candidacy is that it offers the possibility of not just a narrow win but a sound thrashing.

    The idea of congressional comity is anathema to rabid partisans like yours truly but appealing to swing voters. If Biden can thread the needle by emphasizing issues where there really is cross-party consensus among voters (e.g., that the rich should pay a fair share of taxes and more people should have access to affordable care), maybe he can not just win but also kick Trump’s ass. I’m willing to hear a little bipartisan bleating without complaint in service of that noble objective.

  50. 50.

    Jeffro

    @Baud: This is true.  He’s basically running on her platform, policies, and plans.  Which is great, of course.

  56. 56.

    Jeffro

    Good read in That Paper today: The Whole of Liberal Democracy is in Grave Danger at This Moment

    Tell us something we didn’t know, Thomas Edsall!

    “…In other words, there is one more item to add to the constantly growing list of factors driving polarization in America: Those on the left and right appear to use substantially different cognitive processes to interpret events in the world around them, large and small…

    …non-authoritarian conservatives*, opposed to change, dedicated to upholding laws, and to the defense of legitimate political and social institutions that underpin societal stability and security” are a crucial pillar of democratic governance.  In the real world, she continued, “it is the authoritarians who are the revolutionaries.”

    *ie, Never Trumpers

    Those are just two quick snippets.  The rest is fascinating and will be taken by trumpistas as a slam on their intelligence, critical thinking skills, and worthiness as citizens, which is as it should be.  ;)

  57. 57.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Betty Cracker:

    As much as I want to “rub their noses in their loss” (every goddamned one of them, until no flesh nor cartilage nor bone remains, metaphorically speaking!)…

    I dunno – I’m OK with doing it literally, something which will happen with some frequency at any rehabilitation camp I’m running….

  59. 59.

    rikyrah

    @Baud:

    Did you see the segment on Maddow about GOP Governors trying to block those who want to put in place orders for masks and shelter in place on ??

    That muthaphucka ? in Texas denied the request for a field hospital in Hidalgo County.

  60. 60.

    trnc

    @Betty Cracker: I’m willing to hear a little bipartisan bleating without complaint in service of that noble objective.

    I disagree. It’s relatively easy for republicans to croak out bipartisan bullshit when they’re the out party, especially if we take the senate. True bipartisanship starts today, ie, make the break with DT now. I would prefer for Biden to say he’d be more willing to work with republicans who choose country over party TODAY and every day up until the election. That doesn’t mean campaign for Biden. It means throwing away their double standard bullshit and publicly rebuking DT for anything they would be rebuking a democratic president for.

  61. 61.

    zhena gogolia

    Thank you, Anne Laurie. I know you were a passionate fan of E. Warren, but you have been a sterling proponent of Biden in these posts. I am sending links to my friends who think Biden just sits in his basement. You are a shining example of what all of us need to be doing. Eyes on the prize. (from a K. Harris fan)

  62. 62.

    SFAW

    @Jeffro:

    He’s basically running on her platform, policies, and plans.  Which is great, of course.

    “But HER platform isn’t Bernie’s platform, because she has girl cooties, so it can’t be any good! Plus she’s ripping off all of Bernie’s ideas!” etc etc

    I still wish she were the nominee, but I’ll be happy if her plans/policies get implemented, no matter who gets it done.

  65. 65.

    Baud

    @zhena gogolia:

     I am sending links to my friends who think Biden just sits in his basement

    At times I hate these people more than I hate Republicans who spread these lies.  With Republicans, I appreciate that the lies help them gain political power.  What does it get non-Republicans? A false sense of superiority? I don’t get it.

  66. 66.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    The old people sleuths identified the person with COVID in my building. It’s a woman who lives alone and is pretty active. She attended a book club meeting on Friday and now everyone in that club is quarantined. It wasn’t either of my book clubs but one of them met that same day in the same room a couple of hours later.

    I’m never taking my mask off again.

  67. 67.

    SFAW

    @trnc:

    I agree with you philosophically, but if I were a Rethug, I’d still stick with the Traitor-in-Chief — at least in public. My reasoning (yeah, I know, Rethugs don’t “reason,” at least not in the normal sense) would be: despite what the polls say, there’s still a reasonable chance that voter suppression and Russian/Chinese interference will overcome that. If there’s a greater-than-zero possibility that the Traitor gets “re-elected,” then hanging my ass out prematurely is not a smart move.

  69. 69.

    Baud

    Biden campaign goes on offensive against Sen. Ron Johnson’s Burisma probe

     

    Joe Biden’s presidential campaign on Tuesday launched a highly personal broadside at Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, for pushing forward a committee inquiry into the presumptive Democratic nominee’s past dealings with Ukraine while he was vice president.

     

    Among other things, the Biden campaign is accusing Johnson of being opaque about whether he is, in effect, “party to a foreign influence operation against the United States” by receiving materials from pro-Russian foreigners as part of the committee’s probe.

  71. 71.

    Kay

    @Jeffro:

    Anecdotally, talking to people in this 65-70% Trump county, Biden is going to get some GOP votes. I don’t know if it’s enough to matter but Rasmussen had another Ohio poll yesterday where Trump and Biden are essentially tied.

    Its going to narrow though, towards Trump. I wish “the trend is your friend” would hold with Trump and he’d keep declining but in my experience Republicans always come home to the GOP candidate in the end.

  72. 72.

    Betty Cracker

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Damn, that’s way too close. My MIL reported a similar sleuthing activity in her 55+ community over the weekend. A neighbor had the virus, but now she’s fully recovered. Everyone thought she and her husband had gone back up north (they’re all snowbirds), but now they know why the couple hadn’t been around. The husband took care of the wife but did not get the virus himself. Stay safe!

  73. 73.

    Another Scott

    Gaetz “concedes that he improperly sent $28,000 in taxpayer funds to a LLC connected to the speech-writing consultant, Darren Beattie, a former WH aide who was ousted after appearing at a convention known as a forum for racist and white supremacist views.” https://t.co/eut0LS0cOi

    — southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) July 22, 2020

    Republicans are corrupt racists? Unpossible.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  74. 74.

    Jeffro

    @SFAW: I’ll be happy if her plans/policies get implemented, no matter who gets it done.

    Yup!  Two scoops of Warren with Biden/_____ sprinkles on top is just fine with me.  =)

  75. 75.

    Betty Cracker

    @trnc: I would also find that more satisfying, but my guess is Team Biden figures that would just get Republican voters’ backs up, and they’re probably right about that. Negative partisanship works both ways.

  76. 76.

    Baud

    @Another Scott:

    Gaetz “concedes that he improperly got caught sending sent $28,000 in taxpayer funds to a LLC connected to the speech-writing consultant, Darren Beattie, a former WH aide who was ousted after appearing at a convention known as a forum for racist and white supremacist views.”

  77. 77.

    SFAW

    @Kay:

    NPR played their Ohio Cletus safari yesterday. Heard one woman, listened to her extol the Murderer-in-Chief’s great business skills, and so forth. All the usual lies and misinformation that go along with being a tribal Rethug. Drove me crazy. Then listened to some “former GOP operative” who was “considering” Biden, but needed to see more, because … something.

    I know that not everyone in Ohio is fucked in the head, because you, Ohio Mom, and various other jackals live there. And I realize NPR was doing the Cletus-thing, so we’re only going to hear about Rethug voters, but still … the level of stupidity, intellectual dishonesty, and willful ignorance/blindness there is distressing.

  78. 78.

    SFAW

    @Another Scott:

    Next time, please provide a trigger warning. The shock of finding out a Republican is racist, or supports racists, caused my heart to fibrillate. Or something.

  81. 81.

    SFAW

    @Baud:

    as sexual as I interpreted it.

    Therapy might help with that.

    Well, unless you want to keep interpreting things that way, I guess.

  82. 82.

    narya

    @Amir Khalid: @rikyrah: @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    Oh, yes, I will be so very happy to have a kitchen again. The tile & screen door will take another month (to get and then install), so I will save the “after” pics for then. And it turns out that I cannot fit a garbage disposal under the new sink (I think I mentioned that yesterday). Cold stuff is in the new fridge; today they tidy up, get rid of old appliances, get the stove working, etc. I think there’s a plumbing thing that remains, too. I’m trying to plan the reassembly, but I can’t focus on anything these days. I think I’ll start with some cleaning this weekend, and unclog the bathroom sink (which has not drained for the past week).

  83. 83.

    trnc

    @SFAW: Yes, that’s the play republicans are making. Fuck them. Their cowardice enables DT’s fascism. Republicans who choose country over their own power should get a seat at the table in the Biden administration (should it come to pass). Republicans who continue to enable DT’s abuse of power should be wholly ignored, and I would prefer that Biden make that clear rather than giving republicans an easy way out of this situation, which they thoroughly own.

    Make them choose now while it’s difficult for them, not when it’s easy to try to whitewash their reputations.

  85. 85.

    Aleta

    The roofers just showed up, 7 months after they said they would come.   Heard them up on the roof,  no advance call.

  88. 88.

    SFAW

    @trnc:

    Yeah, I agree. I’m just hoping there are still some Repub voters who are not insane or traitorous, but I’m not expecting much.

  90. 90.

    trnc

    @SFAW: Me, too, but this is the difference between leadership and blind lust for power. Any republican who stays quiet now is missing a chance to lead by explaining to his or her voters what the problems are with DT’s actions. It might get them kicked out of office, but it might not. Either way, actually educating voters instead of supplying them with pitchforks for imagined transgressions is the right thing to do because those voters will come around eventually if led properly.

  91. 91.

    Kay

    Betsy Woodruff Swan
    @woodruffbets
    ·13h
    One federal prosecutor on Trump’s well-wishes to Ghislaine Maxwell:
    “in the aftermath of the Stone pardon, it reeks of the president indicating to her that he might reward her if she’ll stay silent about whatever she knows about him.”

    What kills me about it is how sleazy he sounded. The elaborately feigned casualness. All that was missing was a wink wink Oily. Yuck.

  93. 93.

    germy

    I almost feel sorry for trump’s handlers:

    President Trump acknowledged Tuesday that he knew Ghislaine Maxwell, a longtime associate of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, and said he wished her well.

    Maxwell was arrested in early July on charges that she aided Epstein in his years-long sexual exploitation and abuse of underage girls. Last week, a federal judge denied her bail.

    Trump and first lady Melania Trump are pictured with one or both of them on multiple occasions.

    The president was asked about Maxwell during a news briefing on the coronavirus and what he thought about the possibility that she could work with authorities to turn over names of powerful men who also sexually abused underage girls.“

    I wish her well, frankly. I’ve met her numerous times over the years, especially since I lived in Palm Beach, and I guess they lived in Palm Beach,” Trump said. “But I wish her well, whatever it is.”

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-says-of-jeffrey-epsteins-partner-ghislaine-maxwell-i-wish-her-well/2020/07/21/dbc8df84-cba3-11ea-91f1-28aca4d833a0_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-more-top-stories_trumpmaxwell-745pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory-ans

  94. 94.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @trnc: Republicans who choose country over their own power should get a seat at the table in the Biden administration (should it come to pass).

    Nope.  They can have a laurel and hearty handshake.   The GOP has been wrong about basically everything for years: why would we let them help make policy?  I am happy to have their votes, but I am not interested in their policy ideas.  As far as a reward goes, doing the right thing for once should be reward enough.

  95. 95.

    Kay

    Ivanka Trump Doesn’t Know How Work Works
    Ivanka Trump’s jobs plan is not only stupid and wrong, it’s lazy.

    Someone other than me looked at Ivanaka’s jobs website, I see :)
    Just to mention, we talk a lot about “Cletus’s” here – Trump’s rank and file supporters- but a lot of very prestigious entities have kowtowed to the Trump family and lent them legitimacy. Apple and IBM put their brands behind this stupid fucking low quality jobs website.
    If they’re wondering why no one listens to experts, experts share some of the blame. STOP going along with bullshit and lies. That might help.
    It’s not a jobs program. It’s a crappy, low quality website with a collection of links to government agencies. They’re not even remotely USEFUL links. If you’re looking for a community college you don’t start at the national organization of community colleges. I mean, Jesus Christ. Anyone should be embarrassed to have their name on it, let alone such prestige US brands.
    Poor quality. That’s all they needed to know NOT to back it.

  97. 97.

    germy

    I think trump’s “I wish her well” remark on Maxwell shows he’s frightened of what she might say.  He’s trying to indicate to her “I’m on your side; you won’t say anything about me, right?”

  100. 100.

    Sally

    I think Biden is playing smart politics saying he will work with reasonable Rs. Dems are always expected to “work across the aisles”, though Rs never are. IMHO, he can pretend to be bipartisan as much as he likes before the election, just as long as he goes for their jugulars afterwards. A few R voters might feel safe voting for kind, reasonable Uncle Joe, Indies and even some Dems want to hear this (nonsense). So go for it Joe! Just don’t do it.

  102. 102.

    Darkrose

    @SFAW: She’s much less of a fan. I’ve read her being critical of him, and of Kushner as well, for coming up with a “peace plan” that ignored the Palestinians. That’s pretty close to a 180 from her.

  103. 103.

    Ken

     Johnson of being opaque about whether he is, in effect, “party to a foreign influence operation against the United States” by receiving materials from pro-Russian foreigners

    Or, you know, spending the Fourth of July in Moscow and never explaining just why that trip was necessary, or what he did while there.

  105. 105.

    Another Scott

    @SFAW: I heard that too.  It was infuriating that Mary Louise Kelly gave her a forum.  We hear that crap from the president* far too often – we don’t need to hear it again for “balance” or something.

    It was lazy reporting.  “Oooh!  I’m here at a cafe and get to hear two opposing viewpoints without having to do any work!!  Let’s listen!!!1”

    Grrr…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  106. 106.

    SFAW

    @Ken:

    Or, you know, spending the Fourth of July in Moscow and never explaining just why that trip was necessary, or what he did while there.

    “I was there for the traditional May Day Fourth of July borscht blast cookout. Why are you asking, tovarishch  comrade citizen?”

  107. 107.

    germy

    Still searching for the elusive reasonable republican.

    Now that everyone is talking about Mackowiak, here’s him admitting that he and other Republicans knew the birther conspiracy was false and racist but they liked it anyway pic.twitter.com/1JWL20wTRt
    — Conor Beck (@cb0321) July 21, 2020

  108. 108.

    SFAW

    @Another Scott:

    I was hoping that Kelly would have asked “On what do you base your ‘thought’ that Trump is a good businessman or negotiator? Because he’s bankrupted almost every company/country he’s run.”

    Foolish hope, of course.

  109. 109.

    Kay

    @Aleta:

    I knew it would be bad but even I was surprised at how little effort went into it:

    There are links to one of those handouts high school guidance counselors give you, asking if you want to work outdoors or in an office, or if you like ideas or working under pressure. There’s a link to the entire Occupational Outlook Handbook of the Department of Labor that lists every job title in the country and tells you if it’s growing or shrinking. (Animal trainer, I was surprised to learn, is growing faster than average!) There are links to community colleges, and links to a few big corporations that say they want to help people find work. There are a lot of links, but none to any actual jobs that are open.

    Lefties call this “hollowed out”. It means “the appearance of assistance without any actual assistance”

    It’s a trick. A deception. My favorite part is where they advise on what to do to feed yourself or your kids while you’re training. They send you to a national anti-hunger organization. Did they SET OUT to waste peoples’ time?

  110. 110.

    Kay

    @germy:

    Someone said on Twitter that conservatives are treating Q exactly like they treated Birthers. Pretending it’s fringe. It’s true.

    After the Birther President, they’ll be nominating the Q presidential candidate. Guaranteed. The operating principle of Q is they do extra-judicial executions of people they don’t like. That’s it. That’s the religion.

  111. 111.

    Another Scott

    @SFAW: Yeah, that was a big, floating, beach-ball sized pitch.  And she just let it go by.

    “We are in the midst of the worst recession since the Great Depression.  Brought on by the president’s* inaction on COVID-19.  Why exactly do you think that the president* is good at managing the economy?”

    Grr…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  112. 112.

    NotMax

    Out of the loop on pop culture so have never heard of the band, but good on them.

    The band Linkin Park announced over the weekend that it has sent a cease-and-desist notice to President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign for the unauthorized use of its 2002 hit “In The End.”

    In a statement posted on Twitter, the band said it “did not and does not endorse Trump, nor authorize his organization to use any of our music.” Source

  113. 113.

    Kay

    The Democratic ladies in the next county over did a Covid food drive for people who are out of work. Big success. They had one of their local candidates out there accepting jars of peanut butter from the donors. Drive up and masked!

    I think I’m going to have us try that, in this county.

  114. 114.

    Ken

    @Kay: Did they SET OUT to waste peoples’ time?

    I’m sure an audit – which we certainly wouldn’t see before next year – would show they set out to convert a large pile of taxpayer money into several smaller piles safely stashed in their bank accounts.

    Probably the only thing they think went wrong was that some small fraction of the large pile had to go to whatever high-school student they hired to put the web site together.

  115. 115.

    Kay

    @Ken:

    It’s unfair to the high school guidance counselor community to compare this to that. Many high school guidance counselors are quite hard working and well-informed.

  116. 116.

    Kay

    Speaking of high school, our (very young) high school marching band director just came in to pick up a check and she unloaded.

    Her job is impossible. Not “hard”. Impossible. She’s soldiering on though. They’ll be marching around somewhere, making some kind of noise.

  117. 117.

    Kay

    The American public should not be confused about the difference between uniformed military personnel and police officers.
    That’s the belief of Defense Secretary Mark Esper, who is concerned about personnel from across the country wearing camouflage uniforms, Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman told reporters Tuesday. He made the comments after federal agents in Portland, Oregon, were photographed rounding up protesters and escorting them to unmarked vehicles — all while in uniforms similar to those worn by U.S. troops.

    Wise PR move. Don’t want one mistaken for the other. Is there some reason they can’t just wear uniform slacks and a shirt? They’re ridiculous. As in, subject to ridicule.

  118. 118.

    Ken

    @Kay: The high school near me (Chicago suburb) has set up a canopy and risers in the parking lot. I think they’re going to have band rehearsals outside. That’s assuming they can open on schedule, and stay open more than three weeks.

  119. 119.

    Kay

    We should get rid of Homeland Security because they’re an armed police force of the GOP and Donald Trump, but also because they’re a huge, wasteful ineffective mess.

    Part of their JOB is election interference by foreign actors. You know when they notified states that their systems had been infiltrated? A year after it happened.

    Billions and billions and billions of dollars that could go to something else. Chop it up. Dissolve it. It sucks apart from the stormtrooper antics.

  120. 120.

    Kay

    @Ken:

    We do summer “band camp” to prepare for football season which ordinarily begins right when they get back. She’s trying to follow the OH Dept of Health Covid regulations but, you know, band is so spitty.

    That was my word. She looked horrified :)

  121. 121.

    Sally

    @Kay: These “agents”, aka goon squads, make me sick. They are armed cowards. The only people they are prepared to go up against are unarmed civilians. If they want to cosplay as tough guy soldiers, stick them in a transport plane and drop them in Afghanistan.

  122. 122.

    Another Scott

    BREAKING: Fairfax County Public Schools Superintendent has just called for the Northern Virginia district of 189,000 to start the fall all-virtual. This is a MAJOR reversal from one of the largest school systems in the nation, twice targeted by Betsy DeVos for failing to reopen.

    — Hannah Natanson (@hannah_natanson) July 21, 2020

    It’s unfortunate, but necessary. And I’m sure many, many districts will reach the same conclusion.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  123. 123.

    Bruuuuce

    @Kay:  The question is, what, if anything, Esper can and will do about it, or whether his “concern” is of the same order as Susan Collins’

  124. 124.

    different-church-lady

    @Kay:

    Its going to narrow though, towards Trump. I wish “the trend is your friend” would hold

    If the trend continues to involve tens of thousands of caskets, then the typical narrowing might not happen this time.

  125. 125.

    Another Scott

    In other news, https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/07/after-40-years-researchers-finally-see-earths-climate-destiny-more-clearly

    After 40 years, researchers finally see Earth’s climate destiny more clearly
    By Paul VoosenJul. 22, 2020 , 10:00 AM

    It seems like such a simple question: How hot is Earth going to get? Yet for 40 years, climate scientists have repeated the same unsatisfying answer: If humans double atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) from preindustrial levels, the planet will eventually warm between 1.5°C and 4.5°C—a temperature range that encompasses everything from a merely troubling rise to a catastrophic one.

    Now, in a landmark effort, a team of 25 scientists has significantly narrowed the bounds on this critical factor, known as climate sensitivity. The assessment, conducted under the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) and publishing this week in Reviews of Geophysics, relies on three strands of evidence: trends indicated by contemporary warming, the latest understanding of the feedback effects that can slow or accelerate climate change, and lessons from ancient climates. They support a likely warming range of between 2.6°C and 3.9°C, says Steven Sherwood, one of the study’s lead authors and a climate scientist at the University of New South Wales. “This is the number that really controls how bad global warming is going to be.”

    […]

    We need to get moving on this problem in a serious way…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  126. 126.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: I wish there were an effective way to push back on giant brands that lend an imprimatur of respectability to Ivanka’s shitty website. They’re sucking up to Trump for favorable treatment. There’s no way they’d allow another business to slap their names on such a low quality effort; they have rigorous standards for that sort of thing.

    I get their motivation, but wouldn’t it be refreshing if some big company the Trumps tried to recruit into their fraudulent bullshit called them out the way the podcast guy did? I’d be loyal to that brand forever!

  127. 127.

    Kay

    @Sally:

    I object to the blatant lying. They ARE patrolling the streets. They continue to deny they are but they are, under any definition of “streets”.

    Their leader is a lobbyist. He has absolutely no understanding of probable cause or even the most elementary ideas behind our justice scheme. He isn’t permitted to identify a whole group of people as criminals by association. That’s not how it works. Their explanation for taking that protester into custody is they were looking for another person and they decided one was as good as another? That’s a basic misunderstanding of the US system.

  128. 128.

    different-church-lady

    @Kay:

    who is concerned about personnel from across the country wearing camouflage uniforms

    Wearing camouflage uniforms in an urban setting is illogical in the first place. It’s going to make you stand out, not blend in.

    Of course, one might think that for fascists the standing out part is the very point.

  129. 129.

    Chris Johnson

    @SFAW: That was Russians turning the Left against Warren. Which tells me a lot.
    They went after her early and HARDCORE. No explanation, no justification, and full-on: as bad as their attacks on Clinton, but it was only in radical progressive circles. That alone killed a bunch of those places for me: it got super obvious in a way I couldn’t ignore.
    If Russia was that desperate to make Warren not be in charge, it’s because they saw her as a serious threat to their plans, which are to kill us in various ways. I agree with them: she is a threat to that plan, because her own plans are likely to help us, also in various ways.
    Very pleased to see that Biden’s listening, but not surprised: he’s going to be the nominee because he was able to listen to other smart, capable people (and they don’t have to be white males, either)
    That should be a baseline going forward. It will never be a good strategy to limit your allies to only white dudes, ever again.

  132. 132.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    They’re counting on no one actually going to the website. This the SECOND shitty fake Ivanka jobs program. She put up another website last year. It’s supposedly “apprenticeships”. They scraped low wage jobs off of a jobs website and they announced those are now “apprenticeships”

    A fucking truck driver school is not an apprenticeship and either is a listing for a home health aide. Once again conservatives are taking a word that has a meaning and turning it into nonsense.

  135. 135.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:

     

    Any word on the $60 million dollar man?

    No way he took all that money for himself. He spread it around. Are others getting nervous in Ohio?

  136. 136.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Kay:

    Correct me if I’m wrong, but if band kids don’t go to band camp, how will the hopeless nerdy kids learn that all-important adolescent skill of how to do the sexytime?

  137. 137.

    Chris Johnson

    @germy:“But I wish her well, whatever it is.”

    Threat.

    I really think that one’s an open threat. ‘We will kill you like we killed Epstein’ kind of threat. which of course is itself arrogant and deluded of Trump: who is this ‘we’, kemosabe? He would have been more accurate to say THEY wish her well, as a threat. He don’t enter into it. He has a big old target painted on him and he is trying to save his own ass, as always, and pretending to be more powerful than he is, as always.

    THEY ‘wish her well’. It’s a threat.

  138. 138.

    WereBear

    @Jeffro: He’s [Biden] basically running on her [Warren] platform, policies, and plans.

     
    Proof, if more is needed, that being an old white man is still a power move in our country.

  139. 139.

    Ken

    @rikyrah: Both campaigns think that they would be helped if the other candidate got more media time. Only one campaign has evidence on their side.

  140. 140.

    Chris Johnson

    @Kay: QAnon is a state actor working through stochastic methods. There is nothing organic or grassroots about it. No points for guessing which state runs it, either. It could hardly be more obvious.

  143. 143.

    Yutsano

    @Kay: If it helps, the vast majority of the spit is going into the horns. I’m not sure how she is going to handle yell out drills. It’s not the same if there’s no resounding emphasis in feedback from your students. But I have faith she’ll find a way.

  144. 144.

    Chris Johnson

    @Gin & Tonic: You’re wrong. There’s no hierarchy or organization to it, it’s random propaganda drops and a continuous flow of screwy information. The information isn’t stochastic but the effect absolutely is. It’s literally ‘stochastic terrorism’, something we’re quite familiar with, in its purest forms. I’m currently losing friends because they stepped too close to it and got sucked in by other mutual friends who were in a lot deeper, and I’m damn sure those mutuals are not taking specific orders from Putin or even intermediate agents. I bet Adam Silverman would confirm my take on this, if he felt like doing so. This is not some elaborate conspiracy of spies communicating with each other in a hierarchy, that can be broken up that way.

     

    QAnon isn’t organic. It’s a state actor working through stochastic methods.

  145. 145.

    Kay

    @Chris Johnson:

    Interesting. I read their Twitter for a while but I think I was making it too complicated. The thing is centered around executing political enemies. I know it will end badly like I know my own name. They’re going to get people killed. There have already been so many Trump-inspired violent incidents. Someone is probably looking into it but the guy who executed that judge’s family has Q written all over it.

  146. 146.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Jeffro: He’s basically running on her platform, policies, and plans.

    with a couple of notable exceptions, i.e. Biden hasn’t gone all in on BernieCare, and while I never bought into the idea that there’s a (barely) buried hostility between Warren and Obama (hell, he practically endorsed as I heard it), Biden tied himself to Obama early and tight, Warren barely mentioned him.

    (caveat, that statement about women making better leaders than men was in Dec of ’19, so maybe a bit early to be seen as specifically about Warren, but that’s how I heard it in real time)

  147. 147.

    Sally

    Agreed. They are a clueless, untrained, cowardly goon squad. Wolf is an ignorant, untrained desk warrior. Random acts of violence on the streets of US cities, specifically to intimidate the populace. And rev up the base.

  148. 148.

    Kay

    @Yutsano:

    She’s really good. I helped with the selection committee and she was my pick. She came prepared with video of her work! I was impressed.

    She took over for an adored band director who did it 30 years and that’s a nightmare. People really get attached to them.

  152. 152.

    Aleta

    @Kay:  Iv and J  define “work” as  overseeing phone calls to some Names. Sometimes a photo op of a conference room.   Place news item about a meeting or just Name of The lnitiative.  Mention it on two gov’t twitter accounts   (+  Ivanka’s if it’s one of her signature fragrances issues)  at least 2 x , spaced a year or more apart.

    Spend god-knows-what on the website design and on no-one-knows-what-else.  Ivanka takes a trip.   Display her approximation of symbolic costume to entire world.  (If Jared,  place news item that he just departed for another country or just returned and that meetings were on the schedule.)

    Roll out event or website .  Quote someone who interacted, preferably with permission.

    If Jared, wait two years then place  “interview” at  “independent news site.”  He sliced through the red tape, the paralysis of old ways, a logjam that was holding up exchange of money.  He doesn’t talk about what he does because he’s the quiet thinking type who’s busy solving intractable problems.  If they didn’t get solved it’s only because they were intractable.

  153. 153.

    Chris Johnson

    @Kay: It’s literally the same as 4chan /pol/. In fact that’s where Q turned up, only to go to 8chan and, iirc, 8kun?

    Yeah, the whole intention is to cultivate radicals on American soil who are eager to go out and literally murder their enemies (as outlined by Q).

    A major, major side project is to make people psychotically defensive of ‘free speech’, but the free speech ALWAYS has to be Nazis and ‘helicopter rides’ and the end result ALWAYS has to be completely inuring people to constant ‘joking’ about murdering leftists, blacks, what have you. The argument is painted as about free speech, but somehow it’s always about ‘you have to be seeing Nazis and murder all the time and not even blink or complain’.

    So yeah that’s the payload.

    This has been blowing up in some social circles I’m in, lately. From what I can tell, the Q/pol/nazis/russians are somewhat losing, and man has it gotten intense.

    For what it’s worth, the normal people who’ve got sucked into that orbit but aren’t super deep into it, are REALLY REALLY unhappy. Like ‘half an hour of hysterical weeping every day and thinking the world is ending’ unhappy.

    I’d like to see a little respite from all this, for people like that. Like, a President Biden, and then maybe we just survive for a while and let ’em come to their senses. It takes a lot of active QAnon to keep people that crazy, and it harms the people it’s being passed through. They’re being injured through stress and mental illness.

    This does not create a healthy army of fascists. They’re hysterical, suicidal, desperate. We can do better than that because we do not require our troops to be insane and hysterical: on the contrary, we can take care of our people if we choose.

  154. 154.

    trnc

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    The entire point is to give them an incentive to do the right thing now. We already know they won’t do it on their own. I have no problem listening to anyone serious enough to publicly break with DT. That doesn’t mean we have to implement tired and disproven republican orthodoxy.

  155. 155.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Kay:

    Is there some reason they can’t just wear uniform slacks and a shirt?

    Yes.  The existence of the goon squad is to make Trump feel tough.  That’s it.  Trump whines that the military won’t shoot protestors for him and he doesn’t have a real SS to disappear his enemies like his hero Hitler, so Chad (or whatever his name is) put some border patrol guys in military uniforms and sent them to a city where he was pretty sure the cops would look the other way, with orders to harass civilians.  They have no practical purpose.  They exist to stroke Trump’s ego so he’ll stop screaming at his assistants.

  158. 158.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Seung Min Kim @seungminkim
    Inbox: “Trump Campaign Launches Goya TV and Radio Ads Holding Biden and Democrats Accountable”

    He’s running a Spanish language ad about the retail product of a donor. I don’t speak Spanish and I’m not particularly moved by scary pictures of AOC and rhetoric about (I think?) things that happened in Cuba more than fifty years ago, but this strikes me as even dumber than it is corrupt.

  160. 160.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @trnc: In my view, their incentive is that that get to remain members of polite society.  They get to go to public events without having rotting vegetables thrown at them.  They can safely eat in restaurants.  It should be enough.

    @SiubhanDuinne: Again, it completely passes me by.  I just am not a fan of musical theater and thus, apparently, not a fan of parodies based on musical theater.  I am glad it works for others though.

  161. 161.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Cole is using twitter to cry for help

    John Cole @Johngcole
    how long has it been since you tried to watch Happy Days

    it’s sooooo bad

  164. 164.

    Chris Johnson

    @Gin & Tonic: I’m with Adam. There are functional reasons why this matters.

     

    Here’s one: since it is one-way, stochastic direction of the ‘troops’, there’s a specific thing they can’t do. A individual QAnon follower can’t pass information up the chain to target someone who’s being a problem. Even mid-level wouldn’t have good ways of passing information up the chain, because it’s not a chain: it’s stochastic, intentionally random.

     

    As far as cut-outs and the ability to insulate higher ups from the compromise of the troops, it’s exceptionally successful. You can’t get at whoever’s running QAnon.

     

    As far as taking specific action regarding conditions on the ground, it sucks: they can’t get information back up the chain at all, and in fact all the QAnon followers are disposable and being damaged by their use as unorthodox soldiers. Suicide missions is literally all they can hope for, and nobody will help them even if they’re doing AWESOME work on behalf of QAnon’s real purposes. There is no reward. It’s a killing process, cancerous.

  167. 167.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Chris Johnson: Fuck me. I give up. You apparently have no concept of either mathematics or information theory, and I have no interest in attempting to educate you.

  169. 169.

    Fair Economist

    @Chris Johnson: Russia is currently very dependent on money laundering and Warren was uniquely qualified to eviscerate that. Not surprised they worked so hard to stop her.

  170. 170.

    JPL

    OT   I think the Ghislaine Maxwell question was a set up so trump could send her a message.   For a NYPost reporter to phrase a question implicating Clinton and Prince Andrew the way he did during a briefing about Covid seemed odd to me.

    Trump used the same paper to put Melania’s nude pics out.    Why not use that paper to send out a message.

  171. 171.

    Chris Johnson

    This is also why Epstein, why Ghislaine Maxwell, why Trump, are such big deals: they’re a WHOLE other kettle of fish from QAnon. QAnon are ‘new school’ stochastic warfare, a conspiracy of cannon fodder all of which are disposable and meant to be destroyed.

    Epstein, Maxwell, Trump, represent more of an old school approach, where they worked to compromise people through Epstein’s corruption, producing kompromat and direct control of key people. Those ones DID have to communicate back to whoever was running them, as they were actively serving as an arm of the state’s intelligence apparatus (this is stuff I’m inferring from what we’ve observed). So, if Epstein worked for Russia to produce kompromat (at which he was VERY good) and then it seemed like he might be compromised, he was a dead man (and in fact he is). And if Maxwell is compromised (probably tougher than Epstein, though) and they can’t trust her, she’s a dead woman.

    And so Trump threatens her, with ‘we wish you well’, something Maxwell would absolutely understand as a threat. She would also understand that Trump is full of shit including himself in that ‘we’: he’s just as much on the spot as she is.

    They are NOT operating under QAnon rules of engagement, where there is no actual coordination between levels. They conspired with Russia the old fashioned way, so they are a point of weakness in a way QAnon isn’t. And they’ve been way more effective for that reason, but there’s a price, and I hope Russia pays that price bigtime.

  172. 172.

    Chris Johnson

    @Gin & Tonic: I’m with Adam (and, I’m a computer programmer for a living: shameful, I know, but it does require a certain rigor or things just don’t work)

    Who the heck are YOU, that you get to obfuscate what stochastic terrorism is? I may be just random Joe, but Adam is privy to a pile of insider information that I can only guess at, and if he’s talking about stochastic terrorism, what I see exactly lines up with that concept. I think you’re the one who is blowing smoke.

  174. 174.

    JPL

    @Chris Johnson: Unless this guy lived under a rock, he knew that trump associated with her..   NY Post has always been trump’s go to paper for help.

    The reporter, Steven Nelson of The New York Post, asked the president: “Ghislaine Maxwell is in prison, so a lot of people want to know if she is going to turn in powerful people. I know you’ve talked in the past about Prince Andrew, you criticized Bill Clinton’s behavior – I’m wondering, do you feel that she’s going to turn in powerful men? How do you see that working out?”

  175. 175.

    debbie

    @rikyrah:

    It was reported this morning that he used a half-million toward a home in Florida. I think he was “generous” (so to speak) in funding campaigns for those who agreed to support his efforts to be named Speaker of the House.

  177. 177.

    Citizen Alan

    @Kay:

    As I mentioned a few weeks back, I was a band director before law school and still have lots f band director friends. And I genuinely think this will be the end of their profession. I see no plausible way to have a beginner band program that involves 50-100 6th graders sitting in one room and blowing as hard as they can through instruments. And I don’t see how any band program can survive losing 2-3 beginner classes in a row. Most band directors get significant stipends due to the ft that they work during the summers, and once it sinks in that band is wildly impractical during a pandemic, the schools are just going to stop renewing contracts.

  178. 178.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @JPL:

       For a NYPost reporter to phrase a question implicating Clinton and Prince Andrew the way he did during a briefing about Covid seemed odd to me.

    I missed the Clinton reference, I thought throwing in Andrew was weird, also the source.
    Geraldo also decided to add some fuel to the conspiracy fires. This looks like laying the ground for… something with FoxNation

    Geraldo Rivera @GeraldoRivera · 3h
    When asked @realDonaldTrump said he wished #GhislaineMaxwellArrested well. With media mob eager to see her lynched it was brave to weigh in. Fact: cases vs her are for crimes allegedly committed more than 25 years ago. She deserved bail & got solitary confinement: woke politics.

    I don’t tweet, but I find the use of that hashtag odd, too

  179. 179.

    Geminid

    @Another Scott: I was over in Harrisonburg  this morning, listening to the local station (WSVA-550AM). Their top local news story was that the Harrisonburg school board announced a plan similar to Fairfax County. The board member interviewed pointed out that they are much better prepared for remote learning than they had been in the spring. He also noted that some students were particularly at risk for falling behind, and said that they would get enhanced attention.

  181. 181.

    Aleta

    I could easily be wrong:  I get the feeling one of the intentional semi-covert sidelines of the campaign is going to be (again) the production of headlines featuring misogyny.

    The irrational  confrontation of AOC yesterday, by a congressmen she’d never even spoken to, put his insults into circulation immediately.  T’s names for women, and every confrontation with MK or threat to HRC, were repeated over and over from 2015 to the end.  I guess they counted on the fact that rather than injure his chances, as we assumed, it would fire up the mistreated misogynists  and take away some of its power to hurt him.  “Biden says his VP will be a woman of color.”  Roll the cannons forward.

    Not saying they will win with this.  I’m saying I dread the effects on us of more of this type  of brutality.  The killer at the judge’s home was rabidly pro-Trump and at some point a donor, who years ago got mainstream exposure on Fox etc. and was known for attacking women writers on the internet.   I have to wonder what is being stirred up on the internet this year by operatives for T.

  182. 182.

    jonas

    @JPL:  Every single Republican in the House and Senate, and the entire party, save maybe for Mitch Romney, is permanently compromised and must be utterly defeated and their fields sown with salt.

  183. 183.

    Emma from FL

    You know what scares me? I’m listening to Joe Scarborough kicking the press good and hard for giving the president the benefit of the doubt, and I’m cheering. Joe. Freaking. Scarborough. If you see four funny looking guys riding skeletal horses galloping down a mountain in the Middle East somewhere, don’t be surprised.

  186. 186.

    Citizen Alan

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I only recently learned that I should despise Garry Marshall for getting Thundarr the Barbarian cancelled so that it could be replaced by that absolutely shitty Fonzie and the Gang cartoon just to earn himself some more merchandising bucks.

  188. 188.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Chief Oshkosh: Specifically saying he pivoted on COVID-19, which already happened once several months ago!

    I think the rule should be that all claims of a Trump pivot get an automatic 48-hour hold. Usually the eruption when he can’t hold it in any more happens within that time frame.

  189. 189.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Emma from FL: Apparently Mika Brezinski was complaining the other day that Dems, especially That Hillary, didn’t warn us about trump. I don’t remember what turned them, but they were still one of his favorite call-ins after the election. IIRC he offered to marry them at the White House at some point in the transition. Eric Boehlert had the receipts on all their trump-boosting clownery.

    @Citizen Alan: Oh my god, the cartoons based on sitcoms… I’ll see your Fonzie and the Gang and raise you one Gilligan’s Planet.

  190. 190.

    Kay

    Complaint in the huge corruption scandal in Ohio is out.

    It probably benefits Democrats politically, if it matters at all, because they’re all Republicans.

    Democrats were able to paint Republicans as corrupt very effectively the last time there was a big scandal with the GOP, in 2005/6. I think it was the single biggest factor in the 2006 D “wave” in Ohio. I don’t know if it will matter this time.

  191. 191.

    SFAW

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Jerry Fucking Rivers*, still trying to capture some of his pre-Al Capone-vault glory. And f(l)ailing.

    * there was a rumor a long time ago, I think in NYC, that Geraldo’s real/birth name is Jerry Rivers, but he changed it to “Geraldo Rivera” because he thought it would give him more street cred. [He was the equivalent of an “on the street” reporter for WABC TV news.] Frankly, I think the rumor was/is bullshit, but given how much of a douchebag he’s turned out to be, I’m OK with resurrecting it.

  192. 192.

    Chris Johnson

    @Emma from FL: Same with people cheering Liz Cheney for standing up to the Freedom Caucus. To me what that says is, rather than winning, the invading/regime-changing forces are fighting a desperate and losing battle just to HOLD things in the state they are. Good. I’ve had a feeling for some time that the badness of all this is deeply artificial.

     

    It also occurred to me, I was wrong about one thing regarding stochastic terrorism, /pol/, QAnon etc. I said they cannot communicate upwards in the chain, and technically that’s true. But why are they being more effective now than they’ve historically been?

    Because you CAN still get information out of them, collectively. Google. Facebook. You can buy all the demographic and trend information you want to better direct your firehose of propaganda. You can see exactly what’s clicking with your troops, they just cannot communicate directly to you, only through trends on Google and Facebook and whatever private information you can purchase.

    And so, that’s why Facebook is guilty as sin: they directly sold Russia everything they needed to weaponize QAnon and similar tactics against America.

    And that’s a further reason Elizabeth Warren HAD to be stopped: Warren directly targeted Facebook among other tech giants. To break up or regulate Facebook would directly threaten Facebook’s ability to give Russia the only information it can use to direct its QAnon troops, so it goes beyond Warren being able to make plans to better support Americans: she was going after a fundamental mechanism Russia was and is using to guide its warfare.

    No wonder they went so spectacularly hard against her. I was really surprised at the time but I hadn’t considered the implications of what she was suggesting. I think we will see Russia-controlled people going all out to protect Google and Facebook just as they are. Russia NEEDS Facebook to continue.

  193. 193.

    germy

    @SFAW:

    Kurt Vonnegut called him Jerry Rivers, because Jerry had mistreated Kurt’s daughter.

    “If I ever saw him, I’d spit in his eye!” I remember Kurt yelling during an interview.

  195. 195.

    Kay

    @SFAW:

    The “proactive” arrests statements he’s making all over media and on special guest appearances on Fox News are going to come back to bite him, along with his ideas about collective punishment and guilt by association.

    He’s a Trump hire- in other words, a moron who is a bottom of the barrel employee. He’s too stupid to stop talking.

  196. 196.

    Gin & Tonic

    @germy: His father’s surname was Rivera – he was Puerto Rican. His mother, who was Jewish, put “Riviera” on the birth certificate in a clumsy attempt to avoid what we would now call racial profiling.

  198. 198.

    Emma from FL

    @Chris Johnson: I look at politics from the viewpoint of strategy. I think Warren does the same. She will be happy her plans will be implemented, whether she’s the one sitting in the oval office or not.

    And as far as conservatives and their motivations, at this point we need everyone. As Churchill said “If Hitler invaded hell I would make at least a favourable reference to the devil in the House of Commons.” We are fighting for the soul of the country and everyone is welcome. We’ll air out differences later.

  199. 199.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @WereBear: It’s safe, since there aren’t any.

    I know three myself, all former classmates, all good friends. I don’t think any of them voted for Cheeto Benito – he’s so not their style – but I never asked.

    I guess believing “there are no reasonable Republicans” makes it easier to hate them. I don’t think more hatred is going to get us the country we want. Certainly not the one where I hope to quietly live out the rest of my life. But as they say, opinions differ.

  201. 201.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Emma from FL: the day the plans were announced by whatever panels Biden and Sanders put together, Warren went on the Hayes program and he tried to get her to take credit for it and she was having none of it. She kept brining it back to “What Vice President Biden wants to do…” Compare that to AOC, who tweeted out all the victories “we” got out of “them”. That bend-the-knee mentality is exhausting.

  202. 202.

    Chris Johnson

    @Uncle Cosmo: Nope, more hatred absolutely will not help. Here’s the thing: all the stuff I’ve been saying about QAnon?

    They’re on the left too, trying to convince us all the REPUBLICANS are baby-eating monsters without exception.

    And it’s total bullshit. Did you think even for one second that the Russians went to all this trouble with /pol/ and Facebook and every propaganda method known to man, but they ONLY targeted those dumb rightwingers and never did a thing to us at all?

    Facebook lets you compose finely targeted messages to exactly the demographics you need. People are paid good rubles to speak English and pose as Americans saying ‘but… her emails’. On the Internet nobody knows you’re a dog… or a troll. Much like the Epstein/Maxwell vs. QAnon split, it’s a higher-paying gig to be a mole inside some top-10,000 political blog known to have swing-vote readership. Hell, we’ve had ’em.

    To go ‘all republicans are obviously monsters and should be stamped out forever’ is a mirror image of what they’re told about US, and it is playing into Russia’s hands. We’re fed that stuff whenever we don’t generate it ourselves, because it’s so important that this country never find any points of stability to stand on.

    I mean, if you want us to lose and all.

    Come up with principles and stand on those. You can’t count on human beings to be either irrevocably good, or irrevocably evil. We are all too swayable, and swaying the people until they fall over is how this new form of warfare is done. We should know, they built upon what we ourselves did, and we didn’t get it out of nowhere either. It’s human nature.

  203. 203.

    Philbert

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    The day after the Kent State shootings in 1970, a Gallup poll showed that 58 percent of respondents placed blame for the students’ deaths on the protesters, while just 11 percent blamed the National Guardsmen who shot them. @KevinMKruse

  204. 204.

    Omnes Omnibus

    Everyone does realize that the platforms of the Democratic candidates were probably 90% the same, right?  The fights were over differences at the margins and personalities.   Democrats were Democrats, and that’s why, despite having a preference, I would have been okay with any of the real Democrats who were running.

  205. 205.

    debbie

    @Kay:

    It probably benefits Democrats politically, if it matters at all, because they’re all Republicans.

    Good news! Last night, a couple places were reporting that unnamed Dems were involved. Really glad that was all bullshit.

  208. 208.

    James E Powell

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Everyone does realize that the platforms of the Democratic candidates were probably 90% the same, right?

    I believe this has been true for most of my adult life. The pro & anti Iraq invasion being the one really significant exception I can recall.

  210. 210.

    J R in WV

    @Kay:

    I’m going to repeat a comment I wrote on an early morning thread about the cowards in military-style armor abusing people exercising their constitutional First Amendment rights.

     

    • July 22, 2020 at 10:48 am

      I think Chad Wolf needs to be indicted on multiple counts of kidnapping, assault with intent, terrorism statutes, conspiring to commit such attacks, and then immediately taken into custody from his hotel room at 3 am, for a long ride in the back of a dirty wagon. The rest of his gang of criminal cowards should be swept up that same night with overwhelming force by actual trained LEOs, which these wanna be gangsters surely are not.

      Chad is not a lawyer, has not a moment of LEO training, and has no idea whether his orders are legal or not, and does not care. Nor do his small squad of horror-monger gangsters. Watching them approach and then attack a motionless military veteran with more training in his little finger than any of these despicable cowardly criminals have all together was appalling and horrible.

      They deserve no respect whatsoever, and should spend many years in prison for that one attack alone. They all together are  a criminal conspiracy in violation of their oath, the constitution and the laws of any state, and they are all responsible for each and every crime committed by any one of them according to the way conspiracy laws work. Chad has the biggest load of felonies, because he was giving the orders and set up the whole conspiracy.

      July 22, 2020 at 10:59 am

      @Kay:

      Sean Hannity asks who will be blamed when the stormtroopers hypothetically shoot a bunch of protesters. Tom Cotton says the protesters will be to blame under this hypothetical

      Sounds like Cotton wants to join the conspiracy to kill innocent protestors making use of the First Amendment — is he a lawyer? Does he understand how the  conspiracy law works in felony criminal cases?

      Maybe rioters killing innocent people deserve to be shot at, but for graffiti? I think not. No state in this nation has a death penalty on the books for simple property crimes with no injuries to my knowledge.

       

     

    And there is my take on this illegal storm-trooper BS… arrest them now to put the quietus on this despicable behavior

     

  211. 211.

    Another Scott

    @Betty Cracker: +1

    What really matters is being able to pass important legislation and get it enacted sensibly.  If we can do it with a Congress that’s all Lefty McLeftish, then great.  But that will not happen quickly.  And since it won’t, then we’ll take help from other factions.

    And compromise means no poison pills and no negotiating with those who bargain in bad faith.

    But the legislation is the thing – not comity in itself.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  212. 212.

    Another Scott

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Thanks for the news.  One less thing to wonder about now.

    In other news, I finally received my pre-ordered (on April 26) paperback copy of The Wysman!  It looks great.  :-)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  215. 215.

    randy

    @different-church-lady: “Stochastic” is a term of art in mathematics, but it is also an English word I can use as a metaphor, focusing on the old “random just means we don’t know” bromide.

    I like to use the phrase “axiom of choice” in talking about philosophy of language; I suppose all my math friends would hate it, and at least one of them actually does.

  216. 216.

    Boris Rasputin (the evil twin)

    @Baud: The old rule of thumb used by the Coast Guard, elevator companies, etc., was 13 people to the ton. It’s now 10.

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