You know who shouldn’t be writing books? Journalist with proximity to the President. Bob Woodward sat on key information for months that the last president was willing to kill us to boost his election chances. https://t.co/NetTyNB4BT
— Jen Psaki Fan Account (@ArrogantNBlack) February 7, 2021
I heartily endorse this message, at least for Bob Woodward. Political memoirs have a history going back as far as written language, and 95% of the contemporary pearl-clutching over their impropriety seems to come from individuals who wish anybody might be interested in their memoirs, assuming they could ever get down to the hard work of writing them…
the trump campaign could never quite figure out how to weaponize hunter biden because the current president was like "my son has fucked up but he's a good kid and i love him" and it was a complete anathema to everything they understand.
it was great. https://t.co/1TYSOEMXTT
— Peloton InfoSec Analyst (Incident Response) (@CalmSporting) February 7, 2021
I’ll worry about this when joe puts him in charge of middle east peace and pandemic planning https://t.co/Tj13k4MWpi
— kilgore trout, back in some form (@KT_So_It_Goes) February 7, 2021
This is a laughably incoherent and unworkable standard. Countless books every year are published based on contingent fame, who gives a shit pic.twitter.com/HYBDwVjbxK
— Scott Lemieux (@LemieuxLGM) February 7, 2021
This explains a lot. Walter Shaub's Hunter Biden bashing is just Shaub having sour grapes pouts and ironically enough showing why the Biden Administration was wise not to hire a Twitter celebrity. https://t.co/JxSGGK3PRm
— Phoenix Woman ?? (@PhoenixWomanMN) February 7, 2021
Baud
People shouldn’t have made Hunter Biden a public figure by using him to hurt his dad.
jackmac
I recently found Don Junior’s book in a Dollar Store sales rack. (Just one step away from fireplace kindling).
GregMulka
@Baud:
But that’s contrary to the GQP policy of maximum pain for thee.
Mary G
It took me quite a while to respond to Judd Legum, who should be better than this, and to get it all into 280 characters, I had to use the bullshit emoji, which I hate. These guys are flailing around for something to write about, and grasping at straws to prove they aren’t preferring one side to the other, and it pisses me off.
Republicans put Hunter Biden in play, and he’s entitled to publish a book about anything he wants.
Baud
President Biden should have said he barely knows Hunter Biden. It worked for Trump.
Jay
Meanwhile, back at the Ranch.
Suzanne
@Mary G:
Seriously. No one gave a crap about him until the GOP made him famous.
Although the fact that he is publishing it at the same house that kicked Josh Hawley’s stupid book to the curb is really funny and I’m going to enjoy it.
Baud
The book is about addiction, as far as I can tell. It might actually help some people.
Starfish
Hopefully, Hunter Biden explains why he flew to the east coast to give one or three or fifty laptops repaired. ?
Jay
Elizabelle
No Superb Owl thread? For Raven?
CBSSports.com has it streaming for free. Very generous of them
ETA: I am agnostic on this.
Starfish
They have been throwing ethics rocks at the families of both the President and the VP. After it didn’t catch on after they accused Harris’s niece of flying in a private jet with a large donor to the inauguration, they went after Hunter for renting a house, Hunter for writing a book, and Joe for flying to Delaware on Air Force One. So many straws to grasp at as we approach the impeachment that will not at all be treated seriously even though the President, the wife of a Supreme Court Justice, and others tried to organize having the Congress murdered.
Jay
@Suzanne:
back in the day, Hunter/Burisma was a “big deal” amongst some. The “optics” were bad, not the actual substance.
it looked like Burisma was trying to buy influence and support, and Hunter wasn’t the only one “hired”.
Jay
@Elizabelle:
No Puppy Bowl thread for the rest of us?
West of the Rockies
Totally random gripe: I hate Tony Romo’s voice. Clear your throat!
Baud
@Starfish:
Someone said that’s unethical?
Starfish
@Baud: Weren’t Republicans who have not taken the pandemic seriously in the least saying he was not following CDC guidelines on travel? It may have not been a direct ethics accusation, but it was trying to call him out on pandemic hypocrisy when these assholes have gotten 400,000+ people killed.
Jay
Jay
@Starfish:
yurp, Clowns to the right of me,…..
and it’s fucking Delaware, where he has a home
citizen dave
Tony Romo is a very average analyst IMHO, but somehow was seen as “hot” by CBS/others, gave CBS a figure of $17 million per year to sign a new contract, and they matched it. I really don’t understand the thinking that anyone cares who the analyst is.
burnspbesq
Shaub knows better. Fuck him.
Fuck Trevor Bauer, too.
CliosFanBoy
@Jay: Or the Dr. Pimple Popper’s “Popper Bowl” EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW
burnspbesq
Have we heard from Amir? Or Tony Jay?
smith
Those weird apologies Ginni Thomas was handing out after the event suggests to me that she might have some serious legal exposure from her role in the insurrection, more than just from renting some buses. Do I dare dream of a Supreme Court resignation? Or would a Repub justice not feel enough shame to do that if his wife were indicted for sedition?
Jay
CliosFanBoy
@burnspbesq: I hate to be unkind but as a Reds fan I hope Trevor Bauer’s arm blows before the All Star Break.
Jay
@smith:
the answer to your question is no.
shame is not a ReThug emotion.
Mike in NC
Republicans I know were absolutely convinced “Hunter Biden’s laptop” was going to be a huge scandal that would tank Joe’s election chances much worse than Hillary’s emails. I don’t know what planet they inhabit.
Jay
@burnspbesq:
both Amir and Tony Jay were here in the early morning.
they are probably both watching real football, and too engaged to post.
Starfish
@smith: Men are rarely held accountable for the misbehavior of their women even though women are often held accountable for their men. ?
gene108
@citizen dave:
Analysts matter. They can make the viewing experience enjoyable or annoying.
Edit: Romo’s usually good. He explains what’s happening, without getting into too many cliches. He’s not doing this in this game.
Edit 2: TB’s defense is so damn good, even though Brady’s going to get all the credit.
Edit 3: Never seen a punter screw up like KC’s, which could cost them the game.
burnspbesq
@CliosFanBoy:
come sit six feet away from me. I have a spare mask if you need one.
Jay
Jay
Doc Sardonic
@burnspbesq: Amir is probably mourning the demise of Liverpool’s title defense. Manchester City crushed the Liverpudlians today and have probably locked up the Premier League title
Cacti
Now Janet Yellen is yapping about limiting stimulus checks to people making $60,000.
What is it about some Democrats who feel it necessary to be as Republican as possible the moment they’re in power?
Amir Khalid
@Starfish:
As I understand, the Air Force One that flew Biden to Delaware wasn’t the 747, but a much smaller plane.
Amir Khalid
@burnspbesq:
Tony and I both commented in the culture thread downstairs.
Alison Rose
@West of the Rockies: I literally said SOMEONE GIVE THAT MAN A FUCKING RICOLA about 90 seconds in.
Doc Sardonic
Air Force 1 is the designation of the plane that the President is being flown in be it 747 or two seater Cessna.
Baud
Crazies crash through the crazification factor.
Starfish
@Amir Khalid: That’s an interesting piece of information that I did not know.
I feel like the right wing discussion on left wing COVID response has been to yell “hypocrisy” at anyone who sets policy.
I mean, some of it sucks like the people going out to eat the day before they decide to shut restaurants again and the one traveling to see his family for the holidays after he has been telling everyone not to travel all week.
I will take that over the “wearing masks is for wimps” nonsense.
Gretchen
@Baud: “why was he travelling? The CDC said not to travel!” Reporter at press conference.
MisterForkbeard
@Mike in NC: I know several for whom the complete lack of impact of the ‘laptop’ on the race was evidence of perfidy by the media.
Not, you know, being skeptical of the laptop’s provenance and also that nothing on it reflected poorly on Joe Biden.
Jay
@Cacti:
the ugly reality is that 90% of Politicians in the West, well meaning or not, have no idea of what it means to work in the “New Economy”.
They are out of touch, overcompenstated and live off privilege.
they think a laid off Walmart worker or Amazon Worker just goes on to a Board Position at a Hedge Fund.
Baud
@Gretchen:
I remember the dumbassery. I just didn’t classify it as an “ethics” violation.
Baud
Was that a foul? I didn’t think the KC guy touched him.
WaterGirl
@Gretchen: Jen Psaki was totally prepared for that stupid question. Her first response was that we shouldn’t be traveling when it puts others at risk, but as you know the President has received both vaccinations and travels by private plane as all presidents do, and he will be spending the weekend with his wife.
Benw
@Baud: looks like he got him on the foot. Ball could have been ruled uncatchable, I think
Cacti
@Baud: Yeah. That was a trip that he was trying to make not look like one.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@gene108:
Have you watched Brockmire on HULU?
Hank Azaria plays a gone to seed baseball announcer with a raging addiction problem and no filter. So good!
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Baud:
I’ve never seen a team commit so many cheap shit, sneaky, deliberate penalties as this KC team. It is embarrassing.
Geminid
@Mike in NC: Two weeks before Election Day, the trump campaign wasted valuable messaging bandwidth on a scandal that flopped. I remember Ted Cruz saying at the time that he thought this was a mistake. He didn’t seem too upset, though.
Starfish
@Jay: They don’t understand that the numbers they are talking about are entry-level salaries in many fields.
citizen dave
I’m hearing the local guy who runs a children’s hospital got named to the NFL hall of fame.
I know I’m old but I think “The Weeknd” is one of the stupider names going for any artist. Back in the 90s one of the big accounting firms thought about changing its name to “Monday”
Jay
@Starfish:
yeah, $60k get’s you an apartment in YVR, and $300 left over for food for the month.
80% of us are trying to survive on $36k or less.
Ken
Insurrections have consequences.
West of the Rockies
@Alison Rose:
And now Boomer with his scratchy voice. Ugh.
Simms and Esiason, overrated bookends.
Martin
@Doc Sardonic: True, but the 747s (there are 2 – we have a fucking hot spare for the president to fly in) have a lot of defensive measures.
Is there even an airport in DE that can handle a 747?
Brachiator
@Gretchen:
These dopes insist on being stupid. Also, did they ask why Trump ignored CDC guidelines? Did they ask why he let Americans die?
West of the Rockies
Tampa Bay gets home field advantage and KC gets over-penalized. Totally fair.
dmsilev
@Martin: Dover AFB probably could handle a 747.
Edit: on a brief Google, yeah easily. Main runway is 13,000 feet, which is more than plenty. Built for C-5s and similar.
Butter Emails
@West of the Rockies:
raven
@Elizabelle: I think Cole made it pretty clear what the stance of BJ is on football. I don’t diddle around here on games I care about anyway so is it’s all good.
thanks
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
Word on the street is Hunter Biden was seen wearing a tan suit
burnspbesq
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
You must not watch much Premier League football. The Chiefs are just emulating Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Starfish
@Jay: The places where you could live comfortably off of $60k do not have jobs where you can make $60k.
The places where $60k is entry level salary, you cannot live on $60k.
citizen dave
@West of the Rockies: Yup, it’s like two of the same guy. I don’t watch much NFL and even less of the studio shows but they are generally insufferable. I’ve never heard one Weeknd song before. What even is pop music in the 21st century?
raven
@Alison Rose: You are watching the Super Bowl??? Damn.
raven
Who is this dude?
Benw
SB halftime shows are drifting ever closer to just having a marching band
Starboard Tack
@West of the Rockies:
Could be worse. Put together they’re not as worthless as Dick Vitale.
frosty
Who is Walter Shaub? I missed something in all my 2020 obsessive news reading? Yay!!!
Martin
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: They’re self-destructing. Brady has that effect on teams, though usually not until the 4th quarter.
Oh well, you invite a goat to the superbowl, shit happens.
Ruckus
@Mike in NC:
I don’t either but as they keep sticking their heads up their asses it may just be that they are just trying to clear their throats and the only sound they can manage is the sound of bullshit.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@citizen dave:
You’re honestly missing out. His hit from last year, Blinding Lights, is great. Then again, I like these 80s-esque, synthy songs
Bill Arnold
@Geminid:
The right-wing (dis)information system was(is) so tightly sealed that those theories fermented without any significant pushback from reality; there was truthful pushback, but it was ignored as lies. (And some enemies of Rs/Trump were cultivating/curating the insanity, fairly sure.)
Helped that Rudy Giuliani was making so many high profile mistakes that the press was wired/predisposed to mock him.
citizen dave
@dmsilev: For sure. There was a post here with Biden talking about the irony of how they use Dover as practice for AF1 planes (yes realize when they are actually called that) and now he’s the President etc.
Alison Rose
@raven: Eh, not really, just have it on in the background. Mostly it’s been muted while I’m reading.
Baud
@raven:
Don’t know the group, but their songs are all over the radio.
raven
I want left shark!
Benw
@raven: the Weeknd. He’s a pop and R&B artist. Not my jam, but good at what he does
Alison Rose
I was Today years old when I learned The Weeknd sampled Siouxsie and the Banshees in one of his songs.
different-church-lady
Well, it’s finally happened: this is the first Super Bowl halftime show where I recognize NONE of the songs.
raven
@Alison Rose: What’s next, Katrina and the Waves?
citizen dave
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I’m sure it’s fine, but it sounds like AI generated music to me.
Martin
@frosty: Walt Schaub headed the Obama ethics office. Trump booted him early on and he was an early critic of Trumps ethical shortcomings and what government would normally do to protect against them. That was particularly true with how various security clearances were granted.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@raven:
The Weeknd.
raven
@different-church-lady: We were at a Georgia Tech-Virginia Test game and Big Boi was the halftime show and we were the only people there who had no idea what the fuck was going on!
Martin
@raven: The Weeknd. He’s good. The audio was terrible though.
gene108
@Cacti:
There’s a bunch of older Democrats are traumatized by the 1980’s. Bush, Sr. made the word “liberal” toxic for any politician to embrace, when he ran for President.
Liberal is slowly starting to make a comeback 30+ years later.
H.E.Wolf
@Cacti: A little less recourse to derogatory, contemptuous language when discussing the first female US Secretary of the Treasury would be welcome.
Particularly when one recalls who had the job immediately before she did. Now *there* is someone who deserves our contempt.
https://i2.cdn.turner.com/money/dam/assets/171115144720-louise-linton-steven-mnuchin-currency-780×439.jpg
Alison Rose
@raven: Hey now, don’t put those two in the same group. Siouxsie is our Goth-punk Goddess.
Brachiator
RE the halftime show, if someone asked, “How was your Weekend?” I would have to say “Kinda underwhelming.”
The audio didn’t help.
raven
@Alison Rose: Opps, sorry. Clueless as usual!
The Thin Black Duke
Damned thing is, I live in Massachusetts. If Tampa Bay wins, they’ll never shut up about Tom Brady here.
Martin
@citizen dave: Oh, right, Dover. Yeah, I’ll say they can land 747s in Delaware…
Amir Khalid
@Ken:
Or, as Chuck Schumer might put it, …
raven
Back to the tilt boys and girls.
Alison Rose
@Brachiator: Part of the problem is this weird “mash-up of 45 second snippets of 12 of your songs” thing they often do. For people who like the particular performer, it’s annoying to only get bits of the songs you like. And for people who don’t like them or aren’t familiar with them, it’s not going to do much to change those facts.
Starboard Tack
@The Thin Black Duke:
They hate him. They love him. They hate him. They love him.
frosty
@burnspbesq: Or the Baltimore Ravens. Sigh.
Martin
@The Thin Black Duke: Gotta give Tom credit here. It looked like a colossally stupid decision to go to TB. I sure thought so. If he wins this game, everyone really needs to STFU on whether it was Belichick or Brady.
The Thin Black Duke
@Starboard Tack: They love to hate him. They hate to love him.
Baud
KC needs better cleats.
SFBayAreaGal
@The Thin Black Duke: Too funny
Starboard Tack
@frosty:
They were better in Cleveland.
Starboard Tack
@The Thin Black Duke:
Ayah.
zhena gogolia
@H.E.Wolf:
Thank you.
The Thin Black Duke
@Martin: If Brady wins tonight, Bill won’t have to imagine what hell will be like.
zhena gogolia
@Brachiator:
Now explain Billie Eilish to me. I do not get it.
West of the Rockies
@Alison Rose:
The Super Bowl for us has basically been an excuse for a charcuterie board. First game I’ve watched in two years.
Soprano2
The first thing I thought when I saw what Shaub was saying is that it’s a First Amendment issue. You can’t keep everyone in the president’s family from writing a book! That’s nuts, and I think you’d have trouble enforcing it. I didn’t know he wanted a job in the administration, explains a lot.
Suzanne
@West of the Rockies: We’re doing a charcuterie board for Valentine’s Day. I wish we’d done one today, too. I like it more than chicken wings.
frosty
@Starboard Tack: And the Colts were better in Baltimore.
Suzanne
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I was listening to New Order this morning, and then when he did Blinding Lights, it dawned on me how New Order-influenced that song is.
I thought it was an okay halftime show. Glad he didn’t really have all that plastic surgery.
Omnes Omnibus
@zhena gogolia: You aren’t meant to get her. And, fwiw, you are echoing older people from other eras.
different-church-lady
@Martin:
Anyone who hasn’t already shut up about that is a moron.
Baud
@Omnes Omnibus:
I get her. But I’m a bad guy.
Omnes Omnibus
@Baud: Duh.
different-church-lady
ESPN headline, February 2051: Tom Brady on the cusp of being the first quarterback to win a Super Bowl with every team in the league.
Starboard Tack
@frosty:
True that. Two bad decisions. Modell screwed Cleveland because of the stadium. Who did Balmer
ETA: Blew the nym.
Omnes Omnibus
@Suzanne: I would say Depeche Mode rather than New Order. Lacks the clinical precision of New Order.
Bill Arnold
@H.E.Wolf:
Yellen focuses on $60,000 threshold for stimulus checks (John Bowden – 02/07/21)
If this characterization (bold by Jake Tapper) is correct, then Yellin is being a political idiot vocalizing this. Means testing, especially with very flawed tests such as pre-pandemic 2019 income, will do damage to the Democrats, and only the Republicans will gain poltiically. (Probably not even Manchin.)
She should be more focused on instabilities in the markets/economy. Things are pretty rickety right now and a collapse is a significant possibility. A weaker-than-needed stimulus could easily be a contributing trigger.
Soprano2
OMG, someone did a commercial that was a takeoff on “Four Seasons Landscaping and Press Venue” and I laughed the whole way through.
Starboard Tack
@frosty:
True that.
Delk
@Omnes Omnibus: kinda Human League/Heaven 17
Omnes Omnibus
@Delk: I can see that as well. Eighties synth-pop, but not New Order per se.
Suzanne
@Omnes Omnibus: Good point. I’m probably drawing the New Order conclusion because I was listening this morning. Depeche Mode feels a little more gothy than Blinding Lights, tho.
Brachiator
@Bill Arnold:
All the stimulus payments have been means tested. There is a stupid consensus growing to make the payments targeted to lower income groups. Pundits and some economists are pushing for a $40,000 or $50,000 threshold. The Treasury Secretary is fighting for a higher threshold.
Jay
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Bill Arnold: so she’s negotiating with Joe Manchin on TV? maybe that’s advisable, maybe it isn’t. But something tells me if Yellen had told Jake Tapper that anything less than a $75K threshold was a non-starter, Joe Manchin would not have have looked up from his flapjacks and said, “Oh well, I tried”.
Bill Arnold
@Brachiator:
She is suggesting that a lower threshold than the one used for the first two stimulus packages is politically acceptable. (And unless something changed, based on pre-pandemic 2019 tax returns, which are very flawed indicators of means. Fix that, first.)
Butter Emails
This type of thing just drives me nuts. When it comes to giving out a flat benefit to everyone, who gives a crap if it also goes out to the top 1%? We’re literally spending a ton of energy and making things that much more complicated, risking that those who need it won’t get the support to make sure a couple of % of the money doesn’t end up where it’s not needed.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Butter Emails:
Joe Manchin. And probably three or four other Senators who are letting Manchin take the heat.
geg6
@citizen dave:
I’m an old and I really like The Weeknd. Especially “Blinding Light.” Gets turned up high on the car radio every time it comes on. It’s in my phone playlist, too. He’s really good, IMHO.
Jay
@Brachiator:
the whole means testing is BS based on 2019 Tax Forms. A shitload of people who were surviving in 2019, were SOL in 2020.
Bill Arnold
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Yeah, my main complaint is with Manchin, If the money saved is being put elsewhere in the stimulus, I’ll find it intellectually acceptable. (Not personally, though, since I will be screwed out of this stimulus if he does this, with a well-less-than $60K 2020 income.) If it’s just making the stimulus package smaller, nope.
Brachiator
@Bill Arnold:
What I am seeing on tax and accounting sites is that some key Democrats are already seriously considering a lower threshold. Hellen is trying to argue the value of a higher threshold.
Also, a lot of Democrats like to focus on the idea of targeting benefits to “those who most need it.” They are weak on the big picture of stimulating or maintaining the economy.
The idea that the payments might help prep future expansion goes over their heads.
Brachiator
@Jay:
This is not as big a deal as people want to make it. The 2020 tax rules already adjust for this for most taxpayers. What is truly wrong headed is the idea of sending taxable payments to everyone. This flat out reduces the amount of money you actually get into people’s hands.
Bill Arnold
@Brachiator:
Yes. Drives me up a wall. The Republicans sell their giveways to the wealthy with lies like they are growing the economy by giving money to the job creators and (Republican) deficit spending pays for itself.
Democrats get lost in the weeds of targeting, and end up doing stuff that is easy to malign. (Porkulous, they called the inadequate-by-a-factor-of-2 2009 package, IIRC.)
Jay
@Brachiator: yurp
zhena gogolia
@Omnes Omnibus:
Wow, what an original observation.
Those older people were right, too. Elvis Presley isn’t as good as Bing Crosby.
Omnes Omnibus
@zhena gogolia: I wasn’t the one being a cliche.
Geminid
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Saturday’s Washington Post had an article about Thursday night’s Senate “vote-a-rama,” during which 45 amendments to the Administration’s 1.9 trillion dollar rescue plan were put to a vote. One was an amendment proposed by Senators Manchin and Collins that “upper income” Americans would not receive stimulus payments. It passed 99-1. And Senator Sanders, Chairman of the Budget Committee that will actually craft the measure, was on CNN recently defending a $75,000 individual income cap for recipients of the full $1400 benefit. It would be phased out as incomes are greater. I’m not following this issue as closely as other people are, but it seems that for better or worse means testing is a given, and has broad support among Senators.
geg6
@zhena gogolia:
Huh. I think she’s terrific.
I must be some kind of anomaly. An old who keeps up with and likes new music. Maybe it’s being around college students all the time.
geg6
@zhena gogolia:
My mom, a huge Bing Crosby fan, hated Elvis (as do I). But she loved the Beatles and Tom Petty.
Ivan X
@Omnes Omnibus @Suzanne: New Order is (well, ok, was) the fucking best. I appreciate your taking them seriously.
SFAW
@burnspbesq:
My daughter, a die-hard Mets fan (like her old man), was pretty upset when it appeared the Mets might buy him. She was quite happy when the Manny Machados a/k/a the Los Angeles Assholes bought him.
And fuck Chase Utley.
Yes, I know Machado is no longer on LA. Fuck them anyway.
SFAW
@frosty:
Until the Jets beat them in SB III, that is.
JML
The anthem was too long and too boring tonight. I clocked it at 2:22, which is absurd. (the average over the last 30 or so Super Bowls has been around 1:55, which is still long)
dnfree
@Benw: I don’t think it’s a real halftime show if there isn’t a marching band. I know this might be a minority view.
SFAW
@zhena gogolia:
From what I recall, probably a better father, though.
SFAW
@dnfree:
Or Prince.
chopper
@SFAW:
i think we need to talk about that opinion *in the library
mvr
@Bill Arnold: From what I can tell Yellen is pushing back against a lower number.
Matt McIrvin
Means-testing benefits is one of those things that every political junkie in left-liberal online forums is passionately against to the point of outrage, and every normal person (even a Democratic-voting normal person) is passionately for to the point of outrage if you propose not having it, and it seems to be some kind of impossible impasse.
It’s kind of like banning convicted felons from voting in prison–it’s bad, there are all kinds of baleful effects it has, but if you propose changing it, it offends the average American’s sense of justice in some way, so it has infinite political inertia.
So for the time being, it’s probably something we have to live with.
SFAW
@chopper:
How so? Or is there some reference (e.g., “in the library”) that I’m not getting?
PenandKey
This is exactly what was in effect for the first two rounds. If that’s all anyone was demanding I don’t think you’d see people getting upset. It’s when you start telling the middle class, “Nope, we’re dropping the threshold to $40-$50k”, thus screwing them out of money they very rightfully feel was already promised to many of them, that they get pissed off. I know I am just at the fact this is a point of conversation being considered. I had a six-month savings buffer wiped out, trashed my credit, and for a while was a check or two away from homelessness when my wife lost her job for just over 6 months at the start of last year. We still brought home more than the proposed threshold, but it’s absolutely not what we’ve built our life or financial obligations around. The idea that $50k/yr for individuals or $100k/yr for couples is wealthy is, quite frankly, insulting.
And to be honest, if the Democratic party ends up passing that sort of stimulus, they’ll earn every bit of electoral thrashing they get in the cities and suburbs come 2022.
Booger
@Jay: Why is this quoting an eight-year old article? That seems weird.
evodevo
@Starfish:
Yep. Here in KY, if you work at Toyota full time, you will make more than 60k, but housing in Georgetown is expensive. If you go up US62 15 miles, you can live in Cynthiana, where housing is cheap, but you better have a security system from hell, because the broke druggy locals will rob you blind…and jobs in Cynthiana will pay you $35k a year if you have two of them….
fancycwabs
I didn’t see anyone jumping up and down in rage when Mike Pence’s rabbit wrote that tell-all.