I recently praised CNN’s analysis of the QPAC Heaven’s Gate event in Orlando because the analyst (Stephen Collinson) minced no words about those lunatics and the ongoing danger they pose. But here’s Jake Tapper reverting to form, no doubt smiling the smug, self-satisfied smile that can only be smiled when “both sides” are calling him a hack in their unique patois (i.e., death threats vs. c’mon, man):
.@Kevinliptakcnn notes that an analysis of the past 100 years shows President Biden’s 15 most recent predecessors all held a formal solo press conference within 33 days of taking office. Biden has not and it’s day 42.
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) March 3, 2021
Sweet weeping Jeebus, that’s almost a “your elderly dog is unpresidential!” level of dumb right there. There’s a pandemic! There’s an economic crisis! There wasn’t a normal transition because The Former Guy lied about the election, sparking a violent insurrection! If Tapper and Liptak research 1861 and find that Abraham Lincoln held a “formal solo press conference within 33 days,” that would be a mostly irrelevant but mildly interesting tidbit. Otherwise, shaddup.
In other reverting to form news, I’m just gonna observe (for myself and anyone else who needs to hear it) that our (Democrats’) congressional representatives are jockeying for their priorities in the COVID relief bill right now, which is totally normal! In fact, that’s their job. So maybe let’s not freak out about it just yet? That’s my plan, anyway — y’all do you.
Open thread.
japa21
Unless I am mistaken, Biden has addressed the press several times and answered questions. But I guess because it wasn’t formal solo press conference, it doesn’t count.
Old School
He should yell answers in front of a helicopter. That’s extremely presidential.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
remember the great, rolling “Biden called a lid before lunch!” controversy of last fall, when the American people rose up and said, “what the fuck are you talking about?”
I think Biden should troll them all by having Nicolle Wallace to the Rose Garden on the next sunny day, for an hour or so. I imagine that would be just enough time to finish her “Do you consider your election and repudiation of the racist incompetent death-dealing corrupt seditionist monster to be the greatest moment of American history, or the most important moment of American history?” wind up.
Freemark
Yes, this Republican pushed for murdering people and overthrowing a fairly elected government, but a Democrat had a tweet with a mean tone to it. These are, of course, equal.
SoupCatcher
I feel like there has to be an appropriate German word that covers Jake Tapper, roughly translated as “someone whose junk is in need of kicking.”
Cervantes
Collinson is reliably good, actually. That wasn’t a one-off for him.
jonas
And Jen Psaki doesn’t even regularly call members of the press low-life scumballs who deserve to rot alone in a dark dank cell somewhere in hell and then stomp out of the room in a huff when they ask her about Biden’s schedule later in the day. What’s up with that?
TaMara (HFG)
Fuck both these assholes.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@japa21:
That’s exactly what some idiots in the replies to Tapper’s tweet are insisting. “A solo presidential press conference is a different beast.. You can’t compare them. Biden needs to provide transparency!”
Betty Cracker
@Cervantes: Agreed. What do you want to bet his salary is 1/10th of Cillizza’s and 1/1000th of Tapper’s?
Old School
The database they are using to research the past 100 years lists Herbert Hoover’s first news conference as March 5, 1929.
So their stat doesn’t even seem to be accurate unless a news conference and press conference are different things.
Soprano2
This is the same exact shit they did to Hillary. Remember? Who cares whether he’s had a solo press conference yet or not? Good God these people are dumb. I guess they can’t stand the pressure of not having any legitimate reason to criticize the Biden administration for days at a time, so they have to make up crap like this.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@TaMara (HFG):
You beat me to it. I was going to link that smarmy tweet by Tapper. What a POS
All of this comes from people who love the sound of their own voices and are contrarian to the core. Trying to manufacture a scandal. And when a bunch of people go “And?” that’s instantly proof of how partisan we all are and how right they were all along. It’s maddening!
What fucking difference does it make whether the president himself does a solo formal press conference or has his press sec do it?! And why does it have to happen at a certain time just because certain past president’s did it?!
Soprano2
I just suggested to him that perhaps Biden should shout at reporters in front of a helicopter, would that make him happy? What idiocy.
The Thin Black Duke
Jake Tapper is an asshole. The rest is commentary.
Eolirin
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): They really haven’t seemed to get that the reason why Trump was able to push the fake news line as effectively as he did was because they’ve pissed away their credibility with both sides of the political divide with shit like this, not just the heavily propagandized and radicalized right.
This isn’t just dangerous for them, it’s dangerous for the whole country. I wish they’d wake up, but that would require taking responsibility for fucking up epically and that’s just not going to happen.
jonas
@SoupCatcher: Well, as we know a Backpfeifegesicht is a face that needs a good punching (see Cruz, Ted). The groin area is die Leiste or Leisteregion, but Backpfeife or Pfeife really refers to more of a head slap or punch. So saying Tapper has a good Fußstossleiste — kickable groin — might be in order?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Old School: March 5th was Hoover’s first full day as President.
Old School
@Old School:
Oh, I see. Inauguration Day didn’t move to January 20th until 1937. Thus the number of days qualification rather than date.
James E Powell
@Old School:
Inauguration was on March 4th back then. It was changed to January in 1933
ETA – I’m always a step or two behind BillinGlendaleCA
kindness
Reading that Twitter thread is so annoying. It reinforces my belief that Twitter is a wasteland filled with people who have nothing better to do than act superior to each other. That is why I don’t Tweet.
Major Major Major Major
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): One thing Trump got right, for the wrong reasons, is that our political media is garbage. But they react so differently when it’s a Democrat being slightly icy. It took Trump siccing mobs on them to get them to holler by the end of his presidency.
terraformer
Argh. My Kingdom for media who report objective fact, who do not feel the need to create false equivalencies, and who feel their purpose is to inform – including calling a lie a LIE, not a falsehood, or a misconception, or some other desired synonym.
Major Major Major Major
@kindness: Yours is a popular opinion but I think Twitter is great! It’s what you make it, like any other website. If I only followed super annoying Lifestyle Influencers(tm) on Instagram I’d think it was garbage, but I don’t, so I don’t.
Sincerely, annoying tech blogger
Old School
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
I haven’t paid that much attention to the Trump is actually going to start his second term this week nonsense, but I’m assuming the old inauguration day date is what plays into that.
Leto
@japa21: Biden had someone else standing near him, so obviously a total lack of transparency and shows how much he hates the press. Also shows something something something which means… something. I think you all know what I’m saying here (conspiratorial wink).
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Eolirin:
I don’t get it either. I’ve often wondered how a confrontation with the producers of these news shows would go down, to get them to try to justify the assholes they book on their shows and stories they decide to cover. I suspect it would go something like Tapper’s tweet
Brachiator
@SoupCatcher:
Schlappenshittenneeden.
Baud
This seems frivolous because it is. But it’s also the powers that be signaling that Democrats should always be wary about coloring outside of the linea even a little bit, because the powers are waiting to pounce.
Benw
The only US president that’s ever had a formal Solo was Jimmy Carter when Star Wars was in theaters and Luke and Han got their medals.
Suck on that, Tapper
jonas
@Old School: Absolutely. It’s also very presidential when shouting in front of the helicopter to tell the press corps that “[insert name of whomever is being asked about — a governor, a celebrity, a foreign leader] has been ‘very nasty’ to me, so we’ll have to see [whether I will ever talk to them again].”
Major Major Major Major
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Nobody actually watches these shows which makes it extra maddening.
kindness
@Major Major Major Major: It really depends on what you think is important about a tweet. Is it the individual statement someone makes or the follow up discussions about the validity of the statement? I find there are so many fools posting their follow up that any discussion of the statement gets lost as it devolves into pissing contests.
MisterForkbeard
@Eolirin: This, 100%
The media is vulnerable because no one trusts them to be neutral arbiters. And no one trusts them because their standards are so incredibly different per party. Even Republicans think this, though they get the direction wrong.
But ultimately? They’re just petty and that costs them respect. Whining about this (or about Hillary not doing a press conference even though she’d taken lots of unscripted questions) spends respect and capital they should be using for actual important fights.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Major Major Major Major:
Absolutely. Then it doesn’t help when the alt-left types jump on dumb shit like this. You can see them in the replies: “Stop trying to protect Biden”
And then of course I got to see the same warmed over, insidious crap with commenters speculating that the reason Biden hasn’t done a solo, formal press conference yet is because he’s not “mentally or physically capable of doing it”.
“Biden has dementia!” IOW
Jim, Foolish Literalist
FTR I think Tapper is far from the worst– even excluding Fox (Chuck Todd is the worst), and I think Presidents and politicians should be accessible to the press. But 1) their obsession with tone and process– like Geoff Bennet’s silly question the other day about “Do you care more about Neera Tanden than the minimum wage?” or whatever it was– I imagine just encourages politicians not to bother with them (and then they all circled the wagons around Bennet because Jen Psaki told him his question was silly) and 2) jumping up and down about “42 days” when Biden just pretty much cut the national vaccination wait in half also make them look petty and self-regarding.
And just who the fuck is Yashar Ali, anyway? He’s the elephant guy, right? He should stick to elephants.
WaterGirl
@Baud: Biden will do a solo press conference only after his america rescue plan has passed in both chambers and has been signed into law.
They are idiots if they do not know this. Listen to a Jen Psaki press conference and her response to “when is Biden going to push x agenda item that he says he cares about…” and her reply is always that his focus is on the America Rescue Plan, and he will consider that other thing once that is in place.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Old School: Yup, the Former Guy starts his second term tomorrow, or March 20th, or…
wenchacha
Haven’t read other comments, so pardon if I repeat what others have already said.
Reporters like Tapper gave former guy a free pass for 3.8 years, at least. Because of that, they simply must burn Joe’s feet from day one.
Baud
@WaterGirl:
Biden is good about dealing with the noise. He’ll do whatever he wants to do when he wants to do it.
Soprano2
This is yet another confirmation to me that the press desperately needs a 12-step program to break their addiction to the chaos swirling around the Former Guy. They cannot STAND that the Biden administration is just quietly, competently doing the job, so they have to put out crap like this to try to stir up shit.
Brachiator
@Old School:
Yeah. And for reasons, March 20 is also a magical date for these dopes. What is sad and weird is how elaborate and detailed these nutball conspiracies have become. These people are deeply in need of mental evaluation.
I suppose that instead of simply saying that they disagree with Biden’s policies, these fruit loops need to construct an alternate reality in which the Orange Beast is their once and future president.
I wonder how many are true believers?
Subsole
@TaMara (HFG):
Correct me if I’m wrong, but is Yashar even a reporter?
I thought he was a twotter reblog thinkfluencer on the Resiatance/centrist segment of the spectrum.
The fuck is he carrying Tapper’s valise for???
stinger
Seems to me that 1865 would be an even more comparable year. Still irrelevant. It would only be fair for “the press” to present an incoming president with a list of demands and expectations so she knows what is required. Because I’ve searched Article II and “shall from time to time hold a formal solo press conference” isn’t in it, much less “within 33 days or the average is for her predecessors of the past 100 years, whichever is less”.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I’m not sure about that, he’s commented on this here blog.
Gravenstone
@Old School: Not unless they can get Sam Donaldson to shout the questions to him first.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
Just saw this lovely headline from the dead tree edition of the FTFNYT:
Justices Likely To Uphold Arizona Voting Limits
Fuck these people. If they’re willing to uphold Arizona’s power grab, they’ll strike down HR1 as unconstitutional, assuming the filibuster is dismantled
MisterForkbeard
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Have you seen our commenters? Never cite “they showed up at Balloon Juice” as evidence of quality :)
Baud
If he doesn’t hold a formal solo press conference, how can the media ask him about the colors of AF1?
JMG
There are some cable news reporters who’re good diggers and can come up with interesting and relevant stories on their own, but the vast majority, like Tapper (who might be a good reporter, who knows?) are by the very nature of their jobs utterly dependent on face to face access for stories. The purpose of the press conference is to get video of network talking heads looking like they’re tough on the powerful. It has become a sham.
Baud
@MisterForkbeard:
Or good hygiene.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@MisterForkbeard: Yes, I’ve seen some of them with my own eyes. I was doing much the opposite, in a snarky sort of way.
catclub
@Old School:
also kerning, and fringe on the flags. I am not a crank.
opiejeanne
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I sure missed that, Jake Tapper gracing us with his wisdom.
Just One More Canuck
@SoupCatcher: According to google translate, “A dick in need of kicking” translates as “Ein Schwanz, der getreten werden muss”.
Help us Amir Khalid – you’re our only hope
schrodingers_cat
So Socialist Jesus tanked the nomination of a historic candidate to the cabinet because she was a vocal supporter of that woman who beat him in the primaries in 2016. And you guys wonder why I don’t worship at the altar of that xenophobic misogynist bigot.
Ramalama
I came here just to +1 shaddup.
Baud
@schrodingers_cat:
Do you have a link? I really haven’t heard anything about his involvement in the Tanden appointment m
opiejeanne
@Brachiator: There were comments explaining the March 20th date, extracted from Parler and posted on twitter, but I couldn’t follow the “Q math/logic hidden message” to get to 3/20.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: He was the chair of the committee. He focused the hearings on her “mean” (honest) tweets. And refused to say that he would vote for her. He behaved like a Republican committee chair would have.
He wasn’t a helpless bystander but a key player.
Brachiator
I don’t think I have paid serious attention to a formal presidential press conference in years. It’s mainly Beltway preening, reporters trying to prove to their editors that there is an actual reason to be in DC.
I just don’t care about “average days before a press conference” until the majority of reporters decide to try to inform the public instead of the current empty barking.
They should permanently end the White House Correspondents Dinner. If there is a charity involved, come up with another way of helping it.
ETA. Where is Maggie Haberman these days? Putting the final touches to her unnecessary book about the Orange Beast?
opiejeanne
@schrodingers_cat: And the reason Manchin wouldn’t support her is that she criticized his daughter for raising the price of Epi-Pens 600%.
Omnes Omnibus
This isn’t exactly Bernie-land.
schrodingers_cat
@opiejeanne: One has to white and male to have the privilege of speaking one’s mind.
Old School
Cameron
I don’t give a rat’s ass about Biden’s press conferences. What I want to know – what America wants to know – is what Joe Biden’s position is on gender assignment of plastic potatoes.
schrodingers_cat
@Omnes Omnibus: Bernie-adjacent land. Where Warren who said that DNC rigged primaries for HRC is worshipped.
Brachiator
@opiejeanne:
It’s like the end-of-the-world doomsayers.
I wonder what new nonsense these dopes will come up with when the key dates pass without incident?
Omnes Omnibus
@schrodingers_cat: Okay, do continue your brave campaign against Sanders in this oh-so-hostile territory.
Dorothy A. Winsor
This is a made up story. Find me someone who cares the form in which Biden told us about vaccine distribution yesterda.
Baud
Omnes Omnibus
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Ummm…. Jake Tapper?
Baud
schrodingers_cat
@Omnes Omnibus: I don’t remember asking for your permission. But thanks anyway.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@opiejeanne: It was a brief comment.
Brachiator
@Old School:
Goddam this is stupid!
I suppose there will be news “analysis” about this. But here is something that tax professionals are seeing in 2020.
The threshold for stimulus payments is based on AGI, adjusted gross income. But in a significant number of 2020 returns, AGI is maintained or increased by unemployment compensation or by early distributions from pensions, including pensions of people laid off because of Covid.
So, the overall economic security of a many high income earners could be in steep decline.
I will give bonus points to any news story that points this out.
Covid economic relief should be broad based. Targeting to the supposed most needy is asinine economic policy.
JPL
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Those were the good old days, when trump was nothing but a carnival barker on tv
OT btw Jake felt that we were mean to him. sad
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Omnes Omnibus: I’m not sure even he does!
Doc Sardonic
Time to play hardball with the moderate D Senators on the targeting of relief by taking a page out of the Republican playbook, threaten their club membership. Get a list of names out and call and let them know that if you are going to be represented by a Republican lite, you will vote in the next election for a real honest to Jesus Republican. Primary threats don’t seem to work on our side.
MisterForkbeard
@Old School: Ugh. This is so DUMB.
You don’t know how much people are earning this year! No one knows this, and since it’s supposed to help people who are having trouble now, it’s a dumb fucking idea. Counterproductive both in messaging and real effects.
Steve in the ATL
@?BillinGlendaleCA: IIRC, he got banned for typing “First!” on every thread
James E Powell
@Old School:
I just don’t get why any elected Democrats would want “they gave us less than Trump would have” to be a part of their next campaign.
Major Major Major Major
@kindness:
If there’s one thing I’ve learned during my time on the Internet, it’s that the followup discussion is almost never worth reading. There _can be_ good discussions in threads, but there’s no need to dig in if you don’t want to. It’s what you make of it!
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@MisterForkbeard:
@Brachiator:
@James E Powell:
Well, if it’s so dumb than we need to call up Democratic senators and tell them so. Would this have any effect? I’d like to know who these “moderate Democratic Senators” are
WaterGirl
@Steve in the ATL: I loved Baud’s idea of making the first comment display as #4. :-)
Major Major Major Major
@Old School: This is so insane, politically speaking. I get that the senate is where good things go to die but voters are just going to see that the new president is being less generous than the old president.
Major Major Major Major
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Which puts him in such esteemed company as Glenn Greenwald so yeah. The worst.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Major Major Major Major:
Then why did Biden agree to it? I thought he was supposed to be smarter than this
piratedan
all I can say to this is Thank You, Jake Tapper! for informing us that it’s been 42 days since Biden has taken office and has yet to subject himself to your hard hitting insightful questions about changing the decor of AF1 and his opinion about why he thinks he’s having issues getting his cabinet seated. It’s only thru nature’s providence that your ego has emerged unscathed thru the 45 Administration to keep a laser-like focus on the fact that the proprieties must now be observed in strict adherence to what was formerly the precedence that you guys elicited so much corrective umbridge about during the last four years. Frankly, we were adrift without them.
I understand that lowering yourself to taking in a daily press briefing about what is going on every damn day would be a bridge too far to cross, so perhaps you can crowdfund a pontoon to bridge this gap of niceties….
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Steve in the ATL: Especially since he wasn’t the first commenter.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
I killed our cable TV last week in part so that I will never be obligated to watch an American 24/7 cable news network ever again (that, and while I enjoy FX, Dr Pimplepopper, Top Chef, Chopped, Bar Rescue and all the Below Deck iterations, they’re not worth the investment when I consider how much streaming I actually do enjoy).
I seem to have decided correctly.
Betty Cracker
I like Tanden, and it sucks that she was held to a double standard. But damn, what a bonanza her nomination withdrawal gave to everyone who has an ax to grind.
I mean, rarely does one cabinet nomination outcome offer such a cornucopia of niche hot takes.
MJS
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): To get the bill passed? From what I read (income limits of $80,000 for single filers, $120,000 for heads of household, and $160,000 for joint filers) still seems pretty generous.
opiejeanne
@Brachiator: I’m pretty good at math, and they showed their work (sort of) but the answer they all got did not relate in any way to March 20.
Cameron
@Betty Cracker: The Great Vortex of Suck
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Biden’s smart enough to know you can’t push a chain.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: Here is an article that sums up BS influence on tanking Tanden.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I like the idea of an hour with Sean Hannity, with Biden snarling “fuck you, you pathetic pinhead” for every question.
That feels cathartic to me.
Major Major Major Major
@Betty Cracker: Simplest explanation seems to be that Klain wanted her and pushed hard for her and was incorrect to do so.
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Well, Biden is not a legislator any more so he has limited say in the matter. He could try to bully pulpit it but for all I know that might make things worse. Is this suicide? Probably not. But it’s short-sighted.
Steve in the ATL
@opiejeanne: it’s because 4/20 was already taken
Subsole
They gave Republican abuse four years of grace and excuses and forgiveness and forelock-tugging, cringing servility.
They didn’t even make it 30 days without laughing out loud that they helped tank a qualified liberal nominee.
I think the big name mediots are mostly are functionally conservatives. Like, old-school dogwhistle-bigot country club repubs. They probably believe what conservatives have been steeped in since the 60s: that we liberals are fundamentally unserious: emotional, effete, illogical, soft, feminine – and therefore, in American cultural terms, either to be controlled/dismissed, or destroyed.
They live in a country club bigot atmosphere, getting fed juicy gossip by country club bigot operatives and staffers who trade them access and invites. They report to country club bigots. It’s their whole corporate culture at this point.
They’ve been practically raised to think that tormenting “thuh libs” is a painless, fun activity with absolutely no risk.
And when it turns out they’re wrong, when people snap back at them…well…it hurts their pride.
And they do what cons always do. They don’t take it out on the people who fed them those BS stereotypes. They take it out on the people who refuse to be defined by those stereotypes.
schrodingers_cat
@Betty Cracker: Everything else remaining constant Tanden would have sailed through if she was a Neil Tanton.
Baud
@schrodingers_cat:
Thanks. This was the only portion I saw that dealt with Sandersv current actions (as opposed to his Twitter underlings)
I agree that Sanders was inappropriate here.
germy
Speaking of reverting to form:
NotMax
@Brachiator
320 is someone whom I shall not name’s weight, therefore a holy number.
//
Subsole
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Just curious, but what is the ratio of support to dragging? Just ballpark, what feel did you get from the thread?
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@MJS:
People were freaking out like it was the end of the world over it. I assumed it was a massive own goal
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Yeah, I guess. I liked subsole’s suggestion below about taking the COVID relief bill out of reconciliation and telling Manchin and Sinema that if they like bipartisanship so much and keeping the filibuster than they can reach across the aisle to their Republican buddies and get 10 votes to pass the relief bill. And when it fails make them responsible for explaining why it failed.
Of course, that would hurt a lot of people and it probably wouldn’t work that way, as subsole pointed out. Perhaps with something else less critical, I don’t know. I do know that passing voting protections is vital and the filibuster will have to go. Manchin has indicated he has a red line if Republicans just obstruct on everything. Sinema doesn’t seem to
Baud
I’ll say something unpopular: No one (except perhaps Rose Twitter) will care about the stimulus cut off in 2022, much less in 2024.
Not saying I agree with the decision, but I don’t think it’ll matter politically.
Trollhattan
Pfizer jab #2, waiting my 30.
Some kind of finish line decloaks on the distant horizon. Hoping everybody gets to feel this sensation soon.
Baud
@Trollhattan:
?
Kathleen
@Brachiator: Retweeting Maureen Dowd’s whine that liberals don’t understand how real journalism works.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: I saw reporting yesterday that the WH finally pulled her nomination because BS was noncommittal about how he would vote for her.
Thanks. You are one of the reasons why I still comment here.
Brachiator
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Couldn’t hurt.
They seem to be in a rush to get things done before the end of March.
RinaX
@MJS: The last round capped income at around $87,500 for singles and double that for couples to receive any payment. I’m glad they’re not trying to change the minimum of $75,000 and $150,000 for getting the full check.
germy
Isaac is mocking beltway journalists who want to blow this story up as a major “defeat” for Biden:
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Baud: I tend to agree. The most important factor in 2022 will be the economy, and there’s a lot in here that will make the economy stronger. It’s one of the few things Dems can do to bolster their chances.
Cacti
While it’s true that Trump sent a violent mob to try and overthrow the 2020 election…
Neera Tanden once called Republicans crazy.
Can’t you see that both sides are the same? Or something.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Subsole:
To me? It seemed like the vast majority of replies were anti-Tapper
NotMax
@Brachiator
It Takes a Pillage.
//
Brachiator
@Baud:
It may not matter politically. But it is economically foolish. Bad economic decisions accumulate. Yellen and the Fed argued for a broad stimulus. Old Democratic policy loves to target shit.
It’s stupid. It is not paying attention to what is needed now or what might be most effective.
Jesse
@Old School: inaugurations used to be March 4, not January 20.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Holding up the COVID relief package would be politically dumb, for any reason.
Subsole
@Major Major Major Major: The history accounts have some fascinating stuff in among the dross. The trick is sifting them.
It kind of reminds me of steam, back when they did community game development. There were some real gems that got flooded straight out of the market by a wave of putridity because libertarianism is a deeply, deeply unserious economic system, and an even worse social structure. And a lot of the internet works on libertarian ideals.
Like, a lot of the problems I have with social media would evaporate if they just enforced their actual community standards accross the entire community.
But they don’t. So fuck them.
Baud
@schrodingers_cat: I did not hear of that report. I assumed it was Lisa M.
germy
Democrats in the Congressional Black Caucus as well as Senate Appropriations Committee ranking member Richard Shelby, a Republican, are advocating for Young to assume the top position.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@schrodingers_cat: I was sad that her nomination got pulled, she is a fellow Bruin. I don’t think Biden had much choice Manchin made it impossible and it looks like BS piled on.
Baud
@Brachiator:
I thought she was talking about the size rather than the allocation. As far as I know, the size of the bill hasn’t changed.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Oh I agree absolutely. I pointed that out in the comment
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Baud:
Hopefully, and I think I agree now that I think better of it
Geminid
@Doc Sardonic: Kyrsten Sinema knows she will face a primary challenge in 2024. And she knows that if she wins, disappointed Democrats will not vote for the kind of candidate the Arizona Republicans put up.
Bunter
@opiejeanne: I’m thinking we read the same Twitter thread, it was something along the lines of on March 20 18xx the U.S became a corporation (?!) and so on March 20 2021, the former guy would be inaugurated as the president of the REAL US. There was more about the hows and why but that’s all I remember which is more than I’d like but for some reason some of it stuck in my brain.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Brachiator: I was told by commenters on this very blog that they didn’t need the money. They were, of course, welcome to help one of their blog local photographers who does.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Geminid:
Fair, but what if they just don’t vote at all or not for her?
Subsole
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
You remember all those professional round tables they did reviewing their coverage after Trump won?
That’s how you know those hoes knew they fucked up.
If they were serious about fixing their product, they would have got customer feedback. Town halls. Viewer panels. Ask left AND right what they expected and got and didn’t get from their coverage. I didn’t see a ton of those.
I did see a bunch of media professionals sitting around having an on-camera cracker-barrel struggle-session about how sorry they were for not foregrounding dentists and dealership owners in all their coverage.
If they were serious about serving the customer, they would have talked to the customer. A lot of them seemed to spend a LOT of effort keeping the majority of their customers as far away from a complaints dept as they could.
James E Powell
@Baud:
He was, just as Manchin was later. I know that I’m too stupid to be a senator or even a low-level staff member, but I am smart enough to know that the most important thing any Democrat in congress can do in the early days of a Democratic president’s administration is to give your president 100% support for anything he or she wants. If you got objections, collect an IOU behind closed doors then go tell the public that you support your team.
The worst Democrat is a “but some” Democrat.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@?BillinGlendaleCA: hard to say that if Bernie had been less of a dick, Manchin would’ve been less of a dick, but it’s possible. The idea of a Democratic Senator opening a hearing by saying, “Let me just quote Donald trump’s caddy, Lindsey Graham, and the House GOP that tried to overturn an election…” makes me want to kick the old asshole right in the nuts. Again. As several people argue on twitter, the whole thing almost makes sense if you take into account that for the horseshoe of the F0x-right and the Bernie-left, Tanden was a surrogate punching bag for Hillary Clinton.
and the likes of John “Foghorn T Cornpone” Kennedy had a field day pretending to give a fuck about the time Neera was mean to David Sirota.
Ruckus
@SoupCatcher:
I believe that won’t actually accomplish jack. He gets paid to have eyeballs on him. Nothing more. He’s not paid to be on one side or the other, he’s paid to draw eyeballs from the entire population. If he gets too far out over his skis, one direction or the other, he’s not making the right amount of money for his paymasters. It’s as simple as that. He’s an income producer, nothing more.
Subsole
@Brachiator: If this was the 90s, most of these people would have ended up in a compound with a large stockpile of automatic weapons, child brides, and a foaming at the eyes streetpreacher that looks like Kurt Cobain meets youth pastor.
Major Major Major Major
@Baud: the size of the bill cannot change since it’s based on the budget resolution.
Geminid
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): They might. But Arizona Democrats might not be so picky. In Sinema’s first term, she drove some liberals crazy, and the state party apparatus frequently threatened to censure her. Her approval rating among Democrats remained high, though.
And if in 2022 Democrats get the job done in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin, North Carolina and Florida, Sinema will no longer be a big story. But Democrats need to get the job done in Georga and Arizona, too, because Warnock and Kelly face elections for full terms in 2022.
Major Major Major Major
@Subsole:
Reserving maximum discretion is actually the smart move for content moderators since all explicit policies are gamed by bad actors. That said they could definitely do a better job. In my experience it’s not at all hard to not see nazi stuff though. I do see bad behavior from the left a fair bit. Guillotines and whatnot. Or like, let’s stop giving vaccines to Texans. We used to have a commenter here whose entire MO was saying we should destroy all members of the media. Nasty stuff!
Subsole
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
And then we pack the court.
Or America as we know it becomes something much, much worse.
That’s why I have been tearing my hair out these last couple days. We may actually have to destroy the norms in order to save them, and I really think the only people who xan do it – on every level, are gonna balk and leave us in the lutch.
I really, really do not want to close the book on this country because of Manchin and Sinema. I really don’t.
Brachiator
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
I have reviewed a lot of tax returns and talked to maybe 100 or more preparers around the country. I am not getting the impression that mid to upper income people (say 50k to 200k) are all rolling in the green.
I am surprised at the number of returns I’ve seen with early distributions from pensions. Many of these people appear to be in their mid 50s, so they are still some years away from Social Security and full retirement.
I expect that ultimately there will be some good analyses from the Federal Reserve and other groups on the potential impact of this.
It grates that some in Congress, which has access to smart analysis, is instead are falling back on economic conventional wisdom.
Subsole
@catclub: I know about Admiralty Law, but kerning? Wut dat?
Ruckus
@Major Major Major Major:
I agree about Twitter. If you think stats are more important than anything else, I doubt that your experience will be good. The value is in the communication, not the fame.
Major Major Major Major
@Subsole: kerning is the spacing between letters on a document. It can be used to detect forgeries. Famously W’s air national guard docs that turned out to be forgeries were detected because they used the default MS Word formatting.
Geminid
@Subsole: Synema won election in 2018 by less than a percentage point, and Manchin won by around 3% that year. We almost did not have this problem.
Subsole
@Baud: No link, but the rosemagas are swarming out on social media, flooding the zone with bullshit about neera outing sexual assault survivors, punching people, advocating we steal Livya’s oil.
This is on top of their NORMAL patter. “why do you hate poor people and want to drink their blood by refusing m4a? Also Israel delenda est. I am not a crank.”
Edit : Libya’s oil. I have no idea who or where Livya is.
Brachiator
@Baud:
Yellen and the Fed argued for a broad stimulus.
Yellen had argued fairly passionately about maintaining the income thresholds.
I note that people like Krugman, who argued for a large stimulus, are right in terms of macroeconomics.
But it is just stupid to say a big stimulus is great no matter where and how you spend the money.
Subsole
@schrodingers_cat: Are we sure that isn’t just Bernie being the impotent, finger-wagging fuckup he normally is? Dude talks his ass into a minefield, then throws anyone nearby on the sword (I know it’s a mixed metaphor – work with me). We sure the Old Man of the Green Mountain didn’t tank her because he realized his mouth had outrun his hands on the $15?
I mean, guy fucked up Neera, fucked up the min wage, his caucus is sliming the vp and pumping out steaight-up big lie horseshit about the parliamentarian…SO much squid ink. Is it personal, or is it panic?
NotMax
@Subsole
West of Nambia, south of Normay.
:)
Subsole
@Brachiator: Also tweeting about how all those mean folx who dogpiled Seung Min just don’t understand the nuance and sacrifice inherent to bold, adversarial, punk-rock journalusm.
Major Major Major Major
@Subsole:
I didn’t realize Sanders was the parliamentarian.
Subsole
@Cameron: I may have been hallucinating, but I’m pretty sure I saw Hannity sobbing into a breast-pump and screaming “America must defend Mister Potatohead’s cock! At all costs!” yesterday…
leeleeFL
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I would take the day off of work to sit and watch this! She has earned some sort of exclusive and that proposed query would be so delicious I wouldn’t need a meal after, maybe a cigarette. And yes, I DID quit smoking 8 years ago. Priorities, people!
Chyron HR
@kindness:
Well, it’s nice that you found a way to act superior anyway.
cain
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Just make everything Manchin and Sinema campaigned on. Sinema has a bunch of stuff she campaigned on.. just watch it fail in the senate should be fun. She can run home empty handed. But at least she can say she was bi-partisan!
leeleeFL
@SoupCatcher: If you find one, make a sticker or something, so I can learn it!
I want to stop waiting for dropping shoes, but I guess that’s too much to ask, hmmm?
Subsole
@schrodingers_cat: I dunno ’bout worshipped. I think a lot of people here like her. But there’s a diff between support and worship. You want worship? Go look at the 2017 chapo chuds and Bernie. That’s worship. I think the most I see here for anyone is snarling acceptancce, a la “well, they ain’t tooo bad…”
I say this as someone who has lately come to regret voting for her in the primaries.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Speaking of people Bernie has worked with, Him personally, I missed a memo when Our Revolution got to decide who got vaccinated
I wish somebody would prick this prick with a pin so he could splutter away into nothingness like an old balloon.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: Garbage Times report of BS grilling of Tanden over tweets.
Another NYT story, BS refuses to disclose how he would vote on Tanden’s nomination
Doc Sardonic
@Geminid: Then AZ Dems need to do everything possible to make sure they pick a damn good primary candidate and take her out. It is long past time we open season on moron dems and Republican lites. Myself, we have a bad Republican infestation to work on in FL, starting with getting rid of a lot of our state Dem party leadership.
schrodingers_cat
@Subsole: Okay I agree, worship was hyperbole on my part.
leeleeFL
@Brachiator: I want it I to be this! Pwetty pwease?
Subsole
@Brachiator: Yep.
I am seriously at the point where we just need to start throwing every bill these senators care about up for a standalone vote. Every issue. Anything that could benefit their state. Have someone besides them propose it, bring it up for a floor vite. Let the kumbaya kaukus go hustle for GOP support. Let them see everything they care about bleed out on the senate floor through filibuster and obstruction. Fuck this nonsense. Give people their damn money. Who cares if they get a little extra? What, they aren’t gonna spend it? Jesus.
They have staked our national survival on the idea that comity with people who whipped up lynch mobs to overthrow our elections is both possible and worth sacrificing peoples’ lives and livelihoods. I think the onus is now on them to prove that bold vision.
schrodingers_cat
Does anyone even know the name of the Orange Clown’s OMB director or even Obama’s for that matter without first using Google. Neera Tanden was made an example of by the Spite Bros of the Senate (Graham, Manchin and BS) hey women of immigrant origin don’t fucking get too uppity because one of your own has become the VP.
Doc Sardonic
@Doc Sardonic: Edit window ran out on my comment @162. Don’t mean for that to sound harsh, but today is not a good one and I am a bit on the prod.
James E Powell
@Subsole:
The filibuster means that the bill will never come up for a vote.
Kathleen
@Subsole: It’s sabotage.
Subsole
@MJS: But is that what people hear? Sad fact and wellspring of much of our angst, I think, is that Denzel was right. It ain’t what you know. It’s what you can prove.
I mean, shit everyone knows the media is liberal because Limbaugh ( who is still, gloriously, dead) spent 30 years telling them that.
It may well be generous. Who’s telling folks that? Anyone? Because I see rosemagas saying otherwise, and the smarm-canoe mediots just waiting to pounce on that framing once the bill rolls out.
NotMax
@schrodingers_cat
At one point it was the multi-tentacled Mulvaney, IIRC.
Subsole
@Baud: Wow
He riffed off Graham? The same Lindsey his supports almost incinerated whatsername for hugging during the second impeachment???
What. A. Shithead.
Subsole
@Trollhattan: Congrats!
RaflW
It is hardly surprising that Tapper followed up on that tweet with a threaded one (in response to some other blue check mark) “Never read the comments.”
Because of course he’s an arrogant prick, and has contempt for his viewers and their legit critique.
Fuck him. Fuck this whole snapback to how the press treated Obama and Clinton and how they helped usher in Trump. Damn.
Subsole
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Thanks. Twitter isn’t real, but the press sure seems to think it is. Always curious what sort of inputs they are getting.
Betty Cracker
@Doc Sardonic: FL Dems had a chance to clean house after 2020. I’m not as familiar with S FL operatives as I am with those further up the peninsula, but it sure looks like the new boss is the same as the old boss, so I don’t expect the results to change.
Geminid
@Doc Sardonic: Arizona liberals wanted Rep. Ruben Gallegos to challenge Sinema in 2018, and Mark Kelly last year. He declined both times. Maybe he will take his shot in 2024. The problem with challenging incumbents is that they are tough to beat in a three or four person race, and these days everybody seems to run for office. Ranked choice voting gets around this, as do primary runoffs. But I don’t think Arizona has either.
In 2017, a senior Northern Virginia State Senator was accused of sponsoring another candidate to siphon votes from his female challenger. The Senator barely squeaked by. The third candidate pulled in high single digits, and people remarked that she did hardly any campaigning. Just showed up on the ballot.
Subsole
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I can see it would be dumb for this. I was speaking out of mildly unhinged frustration at the time.
But once this is put to bed? Everything that could possibly be good for these legislators needs to die gasping for water in the GOPi desert.
If the Trumpers were smart, they could use it as a wedge to split the caucus. Give the mods what they want, freeze out the bluer states. It would have to be structured to benefit blue states, with an extra special cherry on top for the comity crew’s states.
The trumpers could still split us, but if it benefits blue states AND purple states?? I’m really not sure the GOP could resist their ingerent nature long enough to be strategic.
And if the modsquad can still blibber and churble about getting along after their dreams get clubbed to death on the senate floor by Marco Rubio crying “I. Declare.
BANKRUPTCYFILIBUSTER.”Well at that point a significant chunk of the caucus is no longer operating in mechanical objective reality, and we have a PROBLEM.
James E Powell
@Geminid:
I do not know anything or even have enough evidence to form the basis of reasonable speculation, but I did see that some people cited ranked choice voting as a major factor in the return of Susan Collins to the senate.
Doc Sardonic
@Betty Cracker: Yeah here in Central unless something has changed recently we have basically the same bunch, maybe some reshuffling of the deck chairs. I am fighting the urge to get active again because I am older and sicker, and have exponentially less fucks to give on who’s delicate feefees I stomp on because when I do politics I tend to make JR Ewing look like a plaster saint.
Cameron
@Chyron HR: See? Lazy warm-up, then scorch it at 110 mph over the heart of the plate.
ns
All Presidents should give regular press conferences and re-establishing this as a norm is a perfectly reasonable thing for a journalism professional to advocate for.
Expecting Biden to be better than Trump isn’t both-siderism. Question-time style press conferences were a consistent standard that Presidents have grown increasingly resistant to, and that’s a problem. When Biden gives a press conference, and some easy-to-predict bothsiderism question comes up, I hope Biden rejects it whole-heartedly, and consistently calls it out, like Psaki has been. The press should refrain from asking asinine questions, and public officials should refrain from answering them. But the public should be able to hear their leaders respond to spontaneous questions without taking it to a focus group first.
Every time some recognizable MSM says or does anything vaguely critical of Democrats people go into a tizzy. Just because MoDo’s recent column on this subject was poorly reasoned hypocrisy doesn’t mean that the MSM is obligated to become the state media channel for the Biden administration. More press conferences is better than fewer press conferences. If you disagree, you are effectively saying that politics is all messaging and propaganda and manipulating mass opinion, in other words, we can’t have a grassroots democracy because people are too stupid to learn. Think about it.
Doc Sardonic
@Geminid: Then in my mind Rep. Gallegos should be content with his House seat because that’s as far as he would go. If I was an AZ Dem operative I would be releasing word to his people that his opportunity for advancement was gone because fortune does not favor the timid.
leeleeFL
@Doc Sardonic: i am in Central FL,. Can I subscribe to your newsletter?
Subsole
@Major Major Major Major:
Is the issue the automation of moderation, then? Not sure there’s a feasible counter-option…
schrodingers_cat
@James E Powell: First time I heard this. How did ranked choice facilitate the return of Furrowed Brows
Subsole
@Major Major Major Major: Thanks. Do I reaaaally wanna know why the Qballs care…???
Doc Sardonic
@leeleeFL: I have you marked down for copy 1 of Ed1Vol1 if I start one. ; )
James E Powell
@schrodingers_cat:
Like I said, I have no idea. Right after the election, which now seems like a few years ago, I was screaming “What the F is the matter with Maine voters?” and a few responses were that ranked choice voting backfired.
Subsole
@NotMax: lol will update my atlas
Uncle Cosmo
The Global Oligarchy Party shovels its funders tax cuts & guts any regulation that might stand between them & obscene profit. Democrats are always suspected of wanting to tax & regulate the GOs, which cannot be permitted – doesn’t matter how slight the bite, it’s the principle of the thing: The People don’t count for shit unless you’re fleecing them of their ca$h.
I.e., Democrats are the lethal enemies of their owners, Thugs are their wholly-owned subsidiary. SATSQ.
Cameron
Maybe we should re-think how candidates are approved for positions in the Executive Branch. The President picks his own team unless the candidate is under indictment for/convicted of a felony or has been declared non compos mentis. If either of those conditions are in evidence, then the House should vote on the candidate’s eligibility, saying yea or nay by a straight majority vote. Of course, if I knew what I was talking about, I wouldn’t be an old retiree in Nowhereland, FL.
Cameron
@James E Powell: I like approval voting better, although either of the two beats what we have.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Doc Sardonic:
Fortune does favor those who know how to pick their moment, or probably more accurately, those who through a combination of choices and circumstances both predictable and unforeseeable find themselves in the right place at the right time. See Biden and his two weak primary campaigns before he won the last one. See also Dick Nixon.
our resident (former) Phoenician Suzanne was always a Gallego skeptic, but who knows how the AZ electorate has or will change/d in the next couple of years between now and ’24. Gallego’s young, a veteran, and pragmatic, and if Synema prioritizes her (very odd) preoccupation about Senate manners to block advances in health care coverage, or the minimum wage, maybe Gallego will find the right moment for boldness.
Ksmiami
@Subsole: tbh I think our system of government had a good run but is too brittle to address the large scale challenges of today. The Senate needs to be expanded or bulldozed as does the Supreme Court
Subsole
@Major Major Major Major: I would have expected him to make sure he had the parliamentarian, and any wavering senators onside before he promised to get it done.
I may be misreading this, but I got the distinct impression he had done neither.
Then he floated his plan b and it turned out wooops, can’t do that either. No plan c?
He then turned around and said nothing while his scummier surrogates blamed everyone and anyone except the GOP (funny how THOSE guys never get any smoke), and the guy who said “I got this,” before not getting it. That more than anything is my beef with him – the lack of leadership over the worst elements of his bloc. And it is a pattern with him, at this point.
The nicest thing I can say is that the guy did not seem to do his homework on a must-pass bill. That’s a fuckup in my book.
James E Powell
@Cameron:
Well, it’s the senate, not the house, that has the advise & consent authority in the constitution.
I’d like to see a change so that the president’s executive appointments take office a set number of days, like 30, after nomination unless the senate votes them down.
Betty Cracker
@ns: You’d have a great point if Biden and his admin had shown a propensity to shut out the press and dodge questions, weren’t dealing with multiple world-historical problems simultaneously and had been in office more than 42 days. Sadly for your point, this is not the case.
I’m all for lots of admin transparency and critical coverage when it’s warranted. I agree there’s some unwarranted flipping out when the press criticizes Biden. But this “formal solo press conference within 33 days” crap is just MoDo’s bullshit on stilts.
Major Major Major Major
@Subsole: it’s tricky. An overactive AI will flag a lot of satire and sarcasm. One that’s too weak will ignore a lot of Nazis. And there just aren’t enough humans to do it by hand in any reasonable amount of time. Distributed social networks get around this problem by letting anybody moderate as they see fit, but at its core this is a problem without a real solution.
Just One More Canuck
@opiejeanne: maybe they meant 4/20
or what Steve in the ??? already said
Subsole
@James E Powell: That sounds like the modsquad’s problem.
Let ’em go beg the GOP for a break. See how that works. The key is to tie it to blue states as well so they can’t just bribe our purple states. It has to help blue and purple, otherwise the GOP might not obstruct.
Then again, considering the GOP seems to be busy angle-grinding the last ridge off their brain as we speak, they may just block all of it because they’re too stupid to do anything else…
Doc Sardonic
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Yes, Biden ran 3 times and won on the third time. Don’t believe that is timid, he took the opportunity, ran and lost twice but watched and took the next opportunity and won. Same scenario with Nixon(spit) and that bastard was anything but timid. Not running when you have an opportunity or only running when you are sure you will win is timidity, which can also be termed indecisiveness, the only thing you get from straddling a fence on which way to go is sore balls.
Subsole
@Kathleen: “I….can’t stand it. I know they planned it.”
Geminid
@James E Powell: Maine was an unusual race, with a lot of ticket splitting. Democrat Jared Golden won the ME 2nd even though trump carried the district and it’s electoral vote. The VA 1st congressional district returned a Republican in a district Biden won as well. But generally votes for senators and reps closely tracked the presidential vote last year. Steve Bullock did run 4% ahead of Biden in Montana, but that was not enough.
Doc Sardonic
@ns: I have no problem with Biden not doing press conferences and dealing with the asinine shit that Tapper, Todd et al want to ask. I firmly believe that their should be transparency, but I like that Biden is bypassing the stupidity of our “media” and announcing things directly, ie. the vaccine speech yesterday.
Geminid
@Doc Sardonic: Gallegos said of a potential challenge to the moderate Mark Kelly that he was told he could win, but it would take a lot of attack ads. Knowing that the general election would be close, Gallegos might have been responsible, not timid. And is there really that much difference between the moderate Kelly and the liberal Gallegos?
Subsole
@ns: Jake? You’re back!
////
More seriously, your post touches on part of my problem with the media response to criticism. At no point did anyone say there should be no standard beside mindless regurgitation and state media spin. There are a lot of people questioning why the standard is unevenly applied. Not seems, IS. We don’t mind being held to a standard. We don’t necessarily mind being held to a high standard, within readon. We very much mind being the only people held to any standards at all, ever. That’s not condescension or a desire for easy treatment, that’s just our primate wiring.
I notice very, very few reporters ever address that. They immediately deflect onto “you don’t want any criticism ever at all ohbagawd yer jest like the trumpers”.
But you see what just happened, there?
They change the topic from HOW they apply their standards to some red herring about having ANY standards when nobody actually broached that topic or questioned the need for standards.
Which makes me think they don’t actually HAVE a good response, or even a palatable and honest explanation, for their behavior. Otherwise why in such a hurry to argue over something no one actually argued?
Normally people only do that when they know they’d lose the argument at hand.
James E Powell
@Geminid:
Not enough to risk losing the seat.
Subsole
@Cameron: Please tell me you actually live in a town called Nowhereland.
Subsole
@Ksmiami: We really should increase the size of the house and court.
The house for more just representation, the court because I’m sick of having a breakdown whenever a justice dies.
Major Major Major Major
@Subsole: I wanna say that the parliamentarian won’t weigh in on anything at all until there’s actual legislation to look at, so that would be why nobody asked her first. As for getting wavering senators on board, it’s usually easier to dare them to remove something popular than just not include it, no? Personally I don’t think a $15 minimum wage will play very well with the voters Dems need; we might end up with some $12 compromise bill though. So I can understand his calculation.
His plan B was terrible and there was no plan C because what would it be?
At the end of the day all this fighting over rules and overriding the parliamentarian is a pack of foma: the senate simply does not have 50 votes to pass a $15 minimum wage.
Doc Sardonic
@Geminid: To my eye not really. I have no problem with Mark Kelly at this point in his first term, also I am not referring to Gallegos not running against Kelly, I am referring to his not running originally against Synema for an open Senate seat, no Republican incumbent to beat, just win a primary and run against The Republican primary winner straight up.
James E Powell
@Doc Sardonic:
Do you think Gallegos would have beaten McSally?
Doc Sardonic
@James E Powell: He had as good a shot as Synema as far as I can tell from almost 2000 miles away. Especially since McSally was not the incumbent, she hadn’t been appoint by Ducey to fill McCain’s seat yet.
Doc Sardonic
Have enjoyed the discussion today, but the migraine is winning so I must bow out. Everyone have a good day, stay safe and may fortune favor you.
satby
@ns: ok, thought about it and press conferences are bullshit performance art for the media. Happy?
Gravenstone
Funny, I think that’s the first time I’ve seen Joe Manchin described that way…
Brachiator
@Major Major Major Major:
Probably true. Somebody suggested that some Democrats would be happy with a lower number for now, but one that is higher than what is now the standard.
I would not be thrilled with this, but it might be acceptable for now.
$11, I think.
opiejeanne
@Bunter: There was that, but also some stuff that amounted to numerology, counting the number of letters in a word and multiplying by another number from somewhere else, and the resulting number looked kind of like .3777236. I think it was on Patriot Takes, two different nuts getting the same number.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Here’s Jake Tapper, a man whose salary I would bet is in the 7 figures, if not 8, who claims not to deign to read replies, who has (FWIW) over 3,000,000 followers, dunking on a self-described crazy cat lady with fewer than 300 followers. And this is being retweeted by other twitter big feet.
topclimber
@schrodingers_cat: Who knew Bernie had such clout with Joe Manchin? (Hint: No one).
topclimber
@topclimber: He who waits long enough scores the much-desired 222nd slot!
James E Powell
@Subsole:
I have no idea what this means.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@topclimber: ever notice how many conservatives use Bernie’s self-indulgent, dishonest rhetoric to derail the Democrats’ agenda?
The system is rigged!
The Democratic Pahwty is a fayl-yuh!
You are a big meanie who hurt my friends’ feelings!
Brachiator
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
No. These are parallel rants from a base that feels alienated.
The right wing rant is “drain the swamp!” Right wing fools believe that the Congress is deliberately ignoring their bigoted desires.
The Bernie Bros believe that Congress is standing in the way of ultra-progressive Nirvana.
The GOP wants raw power. The Democrats are in their way.
Bernie Bros want power as well. But the ultra-left always hates the moderate left more than they hate the right wing.
schrodingers_cat
@topclimber: @Gravenstone:
I have answered these questions upthread.
#97, #103, #161
jnfr
@Major Major Major Major:
Twitter is what you make of it, IME. Curate your feed carefully, don’t use Twitter’s algorithms, and block or mute liberally.
evodevo
@Subsole: Uh, I think she was Emperor Augustus’ wife in I, Claudius…oh, wait, wrong thread….
brantl
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: He’s not wrong , though, is he?