Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

Tick tock motherfuckers!

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

I wonder if trump will be tried as an adult.

How can republicans represent us when they don’t trust women?

Spilling the end game before they can coat it in frankl luntz-approved dogwhistles.

Prediction: the GOP will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

In short, I come down firmly on all sides of the issue.

The GOP couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a fist full of 50s.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Let there be snark.

You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Easy Targets Open Thread: BoBo Brooks Is Back on His… Thought Leadership

Easy Targets Open Thread: BoBo Brooks Is Back on His… Thought Leadership

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Professional ethics are for the little people, eh, Mr. Brooks?…

Reader Interactions

159Comments

  1. 1.

    debbie

    One would have to be pretty stupid not to tell your employer about an outside job. Where I work, it would result in instant dismissal for violating the Code of Conduct.

  9. 9.

    Nicole

    Ugh.  David Brooks was one of those columnists that, about 5-10 years ago, friends on FB (natch) LOVED to link to, with, “I’m not a conservative but this is really smart-” and it was never smart and (to borrow from John Rogers) I always felt like Kevin McCarthy in Invasion of the Body Snatchers, screaming “CAN’T YOU SEE IT?”

  10. 10.

    Jeffro

    Unfortunately Brooks is far too well aligned with the NYTs long-time subtly pro-GQP ethos, so I have no doubt that he and they will just shrug it off.

    it’s funny, I haven’t actually read any of his columns in a few months.  Too predictable, and there is enough to be outraged about as it is.

  11. 11.

    dmsilev

    @debbie: Yeah, no kidding. I have to, every year, fill out a long form informing my employer of anything that could even potentially be a conflict of interest. And it’s the sort of thing that they have very little sense of humor about.

  12. 12.

    Brachiator

    @Jeffro:

    it’s funny, I haven’t actually read any of his columns in a few months. Too predictable, and there is enough to be outraged about as it is.

    Never really found him to be worth worrying about one way or another. He’s just an empty buffet station.

  13. 13.

    Roger Moore

    @debbie: ​
     

    One would have to be pretty stupid not to tell your employer about an outside job.

    I think a lot of newspaper columnists are expected to do other opinonating on the side. So, for example, Brooks has a column at NYT, but he also appears on NPR and PBS and writes books. I don’t know if he has to get permission to do all those things or if he’s just allowed to hustle as much as he wants as long as he turns his columns in on time. It’s also likely that a big name like Brooks gets more leeway than a rookie would.

  15. 15.

    Baud

    I guess I should disclose to you all that I’m on the payroll of Piggly Wiggly. I would like to assure you all that this relationship played no influence of my criticism of Kroger’s.

    Also, too, the NYT is garbage.

  16. 16.

    debbie

    @dmsilev:

    We have yearly training on this. They present all kinds of scenarios and then ask if you think it would be permitted. The quickest way to get through the hourlong training (my record is 12 minutes) is to click “No, it would not be permitted” every single time.

  18. 18.

    Kropacetic

    @Nicole: David Brooks was one of those columnists that, about 5-10 years ago, friends on FB (natch) LOVED to link to, with, “I’m not a conservative but this is really smart-” and it was never smart

    The only reason I found Brooks somewhat more tolerable than other NYT conservatives was that he often spoke of building and maintaining communities. That’s at least a reasonable value I can latch onto.

    Then again, see above re: preaching social cohesion while taking pay from FB. Bonus points: AndyG’s article that seems to prize the pursuit of money above all else.

  20. 20.

    Nutmeg again

    Adultery and cheating on your wife of xx decades is expensive. Trying to front with a baby-wife downgrade, in a new religion no less, is expensive. Buying that big fancy house for parties (uh-oh) is expensive. Wow this complete personal makeover and what? personality breakdown, was expensive. Lying about his side hustle is just par for the course with this spineless gasbag.

  21. 21.

    NotMax

    @Nicole

    Brooks has somehow carved out a career consisting of rewriting the same 3 or 4 columns over and over and over again.

  22. 22.

    Timurid

    Jesus Christ. People were speculating about Sinema’s mental health earlier, but Manchin is having a full on psychotic break this evening.

  23. 23.

    steppy

    Isn’t this what “blogger ethics panel” was defined for? Isn’t that how old I am?

  25. 25.

    Darkrose

    @Roger Moore: I’ve noticed that WaPo columnists (the ones that I read, at least), disclose their outside affiliations. Jennifer Rubin always mentions that she’s an MSNBC contributor. I think it’s also company policy to note that they’re owned by Bezos when they’re writing about Amazon.

  27. 27.

    Freemark

    @Baud: ​
     He’s been trying to make the Democrats look like idiots. Keeps demanding aid reduction, gets it, then demands some more. Doing his best to turn a victory and needed aid to a loss and less aid. Considering his state really wants it with more aid he appears to be mentally deficient.

  29. 29.

    Timurid

    @Baud:  Sinema, earlier today. Manchin is apparently threatening to withhold his vote for the stimulus unless the Democrats agree to at least one and possibly multiple amendments proposed by GOP senators. They involve reducing the unemployment benefits and the tax exemptions for those benefits included in the bill.

  31. 31.

    Cacti

    @Baud: Not sure about Manchin.  Sinema is taking some deserved heat for not just voting against the minimum wage increase, but giving a theatrical thumbs down when doing so.

  32. 32.

    CaseyL

    I read Bobos in Paradise when it came out, and thought it was a hoot.  On the basis of that, I was inclined to give Brooks-the-columnist a read, but whatever points he’d earned from amusing me with the book soon died under the onslaught of his smug ignorance.

    And then I saw him on a few talk shows, back when I watched TV news, and he sounded to me like a child molester.  That almost-monotonal, mild, soporific voice gave me a horrid case of the creeps.  Haven’t watched him, read him, or had any positive feelings for him since.

    (And I had no idea Bobos in Paradise was mostly, if not all, made up. Figures.)

  33. 33.

    Bill Arnold

    @Timurid:

    Manchin is apparently threatening to withhold his vote for the stimulus unless the Democrats agree to at least one and possibly multiple amendments proposed by GOP senators.

    Does he (seriously) expect to gain 1 or more Republican Senator votes?

  34. 34.

    Baud

    @Cacti:

    Just saw the video.  Looks like she’s trying to mimic McCain and the ACA vote, although the context is the opposite.

  36. 36.

    tokyokie

    Several years ago, while I was still working as a newspaper copy editor, I wrote a piece for an obscure website about a couple of Seijun Suzuki films making their debuts on home video. It was for a different medium, headquartered two time zones away, and it covered a couple of films about which the newspaper would have no interest because Suzuki films are far outside the cultural mainstream, even in Japan. And I worked for free to help out a friend.

    A few days after the piece showed up online, the newsroom staff received a memo restating the need to obtain prior approval for all work done for publications other than the newspaper and that ALL other media outlets should be considered competitors.

    Different rules for different fools, I guess.

  37. 37.

    Cacti

    @Baud: McCain’s vote was to spite Trump, but had the side effect of actually helping people.

    Not sure what Sinema thinks she’s accomplishing here.

  38. 38.

    patrick II

    Brooks just didn’t want to sound too boastful about his Aspen Institute project, after all, he taught a class named “Humility” at Yale a few years back, featuring the analysis of a few deeply insightful David Brooks columns.

  41. 41.

    patrick II

    John Cole has, in the past, been respectful of Manchin’s need to vote against some Democratic bills because Democrat from WV, but voting D when the vote was important or needed. I wonder what he is thinking now?

  42. 42.

    Baud

    @Timurid:

    unless the Democrats agree to at least one and possibly multiple amendments proposed by GOP senators.

    I don’t understand this.  Do amendments require 60 votes? Machin can otherwise pass any GOP amendment by voting with them on it.

  44. 44.

    Old School

    Per Atrios:

    As I saw someone joke, Brooks does have to put his wife through college…

  45. 45.

    Mary G

    Wasn’t it here where someone would write long outraged condemnations of David Brooks’ columns? Tom maybe?

  46. 46.

    Subsole

    @Cacti: Is it possible she’s just weird?

    Like, I get nerves are raw, but it just seemed an eccentricity.

    Manchin, on the other hand, I am starting to suspect is an actual goddamned Republican mole.

  49. 49.

    Mary G

    Wasn’t it here where someone would write long outraged condemnations of David Brooks’ columns? Tom maybe?

    The LOOK AT ME, I’M A CONTRARIAN senator from WV has graciously folded after agreeing with some GOP amendments:

    NEWS: Dem aide says a deal has been reached w/ Sen. Manchin-$300 weekly benefit through Sept. 6-First $10,200 of UI benefits non-taxable, applies only to household with incomes under $150,000— Phil Mattingly (@Phil_Mattingly) March 6, 2021

    The change here from this morning’s compromise effort is duration of the benefit (was through Sept, now ends Sept. 6) And eligibility for non-taxable UI benefits (now applies only to households with incomes under $150,000)— Phil Mattingly (@Phil_Mattingly) March 6, 2021

  50. 50.

    Roger Moore

    @debbie:

    My gut feeling is that management either knew or didn’t want to know; this isn’t something he was carefully hiding from them. Management is just fine with columnists like Brooks doing things at the Aspen Ideas Festival or whatever.  Maybe they will have problems with him taking money from companies and organizations he gives favorable treatment in his columns, but I doubt it.  FTFNYT management wouldn’t know ethics if it hit them in the face.

  51. 51.

    Baud

    @Mary G:

    I don’t know what Manchin gets out of nickel and diming this bill, but it doesn’t sound like an awful change.  Just annoying.

  52. 52.

    Mary G

    @Roger Moore: Totebaggers love him, so he probably screams about how he’s going to complain on PBS, and all his fans will cancel their FTFNYT subscriptions.

  54. 54.

    Freemark

    @Baud: ​
     That is completely right. If any Democrat sides with the Republicans their amendment gets added. But then it becomes more difficult to get passed in the House immediately. There would have to be another negotiation and go through this process again.

  56. 56.

    dmsilev

    Here’s what the Post has:

    The agreement would extend the existing $300 weekly unemployment benefit through Sept. 6, as well as provide tax relief on benefits for households making under $150,000.

    “The President has made it clear we will have enough vaccines for every American by the end of May and I am confident the economic recovery will follow. We have reached a compromise that enables the economy to rebound quickly while also protecting those receiving unemployment benefits from being hit with unexpected tax bill next year,” Manchin said in a statement. “Those making less than $150,000 and receiving unemployment will be eligible for a $10,200 tax break. Unemployment benefits will be extended through the end of August.”

  58. 58.

    Ken

    @debbie: Frist and second!

    If we’re going to misspell the one, we should misspell the two too.  I suggest “seconal”.

  64. 64.

    waratah

    @Mary G: I could not find out what happened when the voting stopped. I checked here and nothing. I told myself I bet that someone forgot to wash Manchins feet. Sure enough.

  65. 65.

    Ruckus

    @Brachiator:

    He would be an empty buffet station if he wasn’t published in the FTFNYT. And of course it isn’t his being there that makes it anything, he’s a worse than useless hack, no doubt about that, but a recognized, worse than useless hack.

  66. 66.

    BC in Illinois

    The United States Senate:

    • The World’s Greatest Deliberative Body
    • A Not-Insignificant Deliberative Body
    • One of the World’s Deliberative Bodies
    • An Occasionally Deliberative Body
    • A Body (of sorts)
  68. 68.

    Ruckus

    @Roger Moore:

    FTFNYT management wouldn’t know ethics if it hit them in the face.

    Even repeatedly. Which it should be doing. Not that it would help.

  70. 70.

    Amir Khalid

    @Roger Moore:
    I don’t believe The NYT can or should hide from Brooks openly promoting his Aspen Institute side gig, which pays him a salary, in his column. Aside from being a sacking offence at most employers, such a blatant conflict of interest affects The NYT’s credibility.​

  72. 72.

    cope

    @Mary G: Charles Pierce used to skewer Brooks with regular columns. Brooks was almost always accompanied in these pieces by his loyal Irish setter Moral Hazard.

  73. 73.

    Mary G

    I might be going to Disneyland in the fall or summer:

    California stadiums, ballparks and theme parks set to reopen at reduced capacity on April 1

    Attendance will be split into tiers based on the county’s rate of COVID-19 spread. For outdoor sports and live performances, the most restricted venues will be limited to 100 local fans and the least restricted allowing 67% of capacity. For amusement parks, capacity will be capped at 35% and attendance will be limited to in-state visitors.

    Not that I love Disneyland for itself, but my grandmother loved the Tiki Room and my mom and I would sit on a bench and people watch while Grandma sat through five or six showings in a row of singing bird puppets. It will feel like normal life is resuming plus not too crowded.

  75. 75.

    waratah

    @Baud: They are supposed to be having a lot of amendments to the bill now with the Republicans trying to get some awful things passed and I think Manchin  signaled he was going to vote for a Republican one on unemployment benefits.

  77. 77.

    Baud

    @waratah:

    Sounds like they worked it out.

    Guests on Chris Hayes saying the same thing we are.  Manchin is playing small ball for the drama.

  79. 79.

    NeenerNeener

    @Mary G: I know Driftglass has devoted entire blog posts to taking down Brooks at his site, but I don’t remember anyone here doing it.

  82. 82.

    Suzanne

    @Mary G: I adore the Tiki Room, and the last time I went to Disneyland, it was closed for renovation. I will have to make a trip back.

  85. 85.

    Yutsano

    85 comments in and no one is thinking he’s also hiding this income from the IRS as well?

  87. 87.

    Jeffro

    @Brachiator: I never worry about his extremely predictable ideas…I worry about his ‘appeal’, similar to what Nicole noted in #9

    Come on NYT, are there no interesting 30-somethings out there who could use a little extra dough?

  88. 88.

    Amir Khalid

    @Roger Moore:
    There is only so much that can be said about Brooks’ combo platter of ignorance, smugness, hypocrisy, muddled thinking, and sloppy writing. And once you’ve said all of it, you start repeating yourself.

  89. 89.

    Jeffro

    @Freemark: trying for Blue Dog of the Century or something?  Jesus.

    This bill is popular as all hell.  God forbid our blessed D Senators would have to stand up for something needed, but not entirely popular.

  91. 91.

    Jeffro

    @BC in Illinois:

    • a worthless, unnecessary, disgusting, occasionally painful and (democracy)-life-threatening organ

    Like an appendix, only less even less useful.

  92. 92.

    Morzer

    The NYT can waste millions on empty suits like Brooks – but they can’t make me read that drivel.

  93. 93.

    Jeffro

    @zhena gogolia: yes…I think I stopped even clicking on his stuff (much less getting wound up, parsing his nonsense, etc) back around September.

    Oh wait that was a half year ago.  Several months  ;)

  95. 95.

    Ken

    @Jeffro: The appendix may serve a minor function, as a kind of “refuge” for good gut bacteria during infections with bad bacteria. After everything, ah, passes the good bacteria re-colonize your colon.  Turning this into an analogy for the Senate is left as an exercise for the reader.

  96. 96.

    TriassicSands

    @A Ghost to Most:

    I think the political reporting at the Post is better than that at the Times (retire Dean Baquet!), but the Post has several regular opinion columnists that are worse — much worse — than anyone on the Times opinion pages. Times “conservative” columnists seem to lean toward the pretentious and annoying (Brooks, Douthat, and Stephens.), while the Post’s are just flat out right-wing assholes. (Right-wing “nutjobs” seems wholly inadequate for Hewitt, Thiessen, and Olsen.)

    One major reason why I maintain a subscription to the Times is for all the things that are not political reporting. In that regard, the Times outshines the Post.

    For what it’s worth, I think that on the opinion pages, Krugman is as good or better than anyone writing for the Post.

  97. 97.

    JanieM

    @BC in Illinois: From a column by George Will (of all people, but I’m sure I saw it only because someone here linked to it):

    In life’s unforgiving arithmetic, we are the sum of our choices. Congressional Republicans have made theirs for more than 1,200 days. We cannot know all the measures necessary to restore the nation’s domestic health and international standing, but we know the first step: Senate Republicans must be routed, as condign punishment for their Vichyite collaboration, leaving the Republican remnant to wonder: Was it sensible to sacrifice dignity, such as it ever was, and to shed principles, if convictions so easily jettisoned could be dignified as principles, for . . . what? Praying people should pray, and all others should hope: May I never crave anything as much as these people crave membership in the world’s most risible deliberative body.

    (My bold.) That last sentence, starting with “Praying,” is one of my all-time favorite op-ed sentences.

  98. 98.

    PsiFighter37

    Both Brooks and Maureen Dowd are long past their sell-by date. Honestly, even Bret Stephens has his head up his ass far less than Brooksie does.

    As for Maureen Dowd, they should can her. Gail Collins is about as much of the ‘witty liberalism’ I can take from the NYT editorial pages, and even then, she is far more thoughtful than Dowd.

  99. 99.

    Gvg

    I think the NYT probability approves of him appearing on PBS and other shows as it raises his profile and probably gets some people to read them because they liked him on TV.

    Abbot this latest gig,…it occurs to me to wonder if management and ownership are also not disclosing conflict of interests. They always seem to be acting against the interests of much of their readership. Oh, well, I guess we will see what comes next.

  100. 100.

    Pete Downunder

    With regard to The Land of the Mouse, amazingly some people over the age of 10 enjoy it. I had a secretary years ago, a sensible woman of some years and probably the best secretary I have ever had, who just loved Disneyland and would go every chance she could. I just loathed every time I was conned into going as an adult and my view is that it is so bad you could use it to interrogate prisoners of war except that it would be banned by the Geneva Convention. If he won’t talk run him through It’s a Small World a few more times. They always crack after that.

  101. 101.

    PsiFighter37

    @Gvg: The NYT editorial board is mostly* filled with people who are looking after their own self-interest and long ago stopped caring about what the little people thought. How else do you explain endorsing 2 Democrats in the 2020 primary…and then making a fucking documentary out of it to boot?

    *Asterisk here because I went to school with a current EB member, and she was / is stellar.

  102. 102.

    Sure Lurkalot

    Charlie Pierce had some epic posts about Bobo before he seemed to yield the floor to Driftglass. Another: http://yastreblyansky.blogspot.com/ is worth perusal from time to time.

  103. 103.

    TriassicSands

    @PsiFighter37:

    It always amazes me to recall that Dowd won a Pulitzer in 1999 (Distinguished Commentary) and was a finalist (National Reporting  in 1992). I haven’t read (suffered through) a Dowd column in ages, but I found links to the columns for which she won her Pulitzer and I may try reading them to see if she was ever any good. Then again, do I really want to…

  104. 104.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @PsiFighter37: I was hoping Pierce would bestir himself to take Dowd down a few pegs after she declared herself the Watcher on the Wall last week (yeah, I know I’m mixing pop-culture sources, I’ve never actually seen the Cruise Nicholson movie, Cruise grates on me), but apparently he’d rather watch Marquette U basketball. She’s such a spectral media presence in spite of her prime real estate that once the Peter Bakers had retweeted her, everybody went back to ignoring her

  105. 105.

    catclub

    @Baud: ​
     I guess I should disclose to you all that I’m on the payroll of Piggly Wiggly.

    The absolute best Piggly Wiggly related story I know is this:
    A Jitney Jingle was the tune the jitney bus/tolley played. New grocery store puts out ad flyers with Jitney Jungle, oops!,
    and that is their name today.

  106. 106.

    Lyrebird

    @debbie: ​
     

    Memories!!! In my old job I was grateful we had those trainings set up where you could skip the video so long as you clicked the right answers, now it’s timed and even logs you out if you have a different browser window in the foreground, ugh. Same darn videos every year, too, so now I play them on mute and do laundry.

    Bobo Brooks, though,
    I don’t know how to get my older relatives to stop finding him so persuasive. UGH.

  107. 107.

    TriassicSands

    @PsiFighter37:

    It always amazes me to recall that Dowd won a Pulitzer in 1999 (Distinguished Commentary) and was a finalist (National Reporting  in 1992). I haven’t read (suffered through) a Dowd column in ages, but I found links to the columns for which she won her Pulitzer and I may try reading them to see if she was ever any good. Then again, do I really want to…

  108. 108.

    catclub

    @Jeffro: ​
     

    I never worry about his extremely predictable ideas…I worry about his ‘appeal’, similar to what Nicole noted in #9

    Obama invited Brooks to opine at him. Makes me respect Obama much less.

  112. 112.

    Roger Moore

    @Amir Khalid: ​
     
    Tom Levenson was good about dissecting his articles to show how his rhetoric worked and where he was sneaking in hidden assumptions he could then use to draw his desired conclusions. He’s actually pretty good at slipping things by an unwary reader, and having someone show exactly how he was pulling it off was very useful.

  113. 113.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Tentin Quarantino @agraybee 5h
    I wonder what the stimulus bill tweeted to make Manchin go against it like this.

  114. 114.

    Amir Khalid

    @Lyrebird:
    Brooks is often thought of as an Old himself, but he looks older than he is. He is in fact a week younger than Barack Obama — date of birth 11th August 1961. ​The last time I mentioned this, the jackaltariat were astounded.

  115. 115.

    Jay

    Sen. Sinema’s spokesperson said it’s sexist to comment on a female politician’s “body language” or “physical demeanor” when HuffPost inquired about her thumbs down vote on min. wage. Okay. https://t.co/HT4ENmE6fP by @sara_bee— Amanda Terkel (@aterkel) March 6, 2021

    Hi, friendly neighbourhood feminist scholar here: This is an embarrassing, bullshit deflection on the part of Sen. Sinema's office and she needs to take responsibility for her vote. It's not unreasonable for people to be saying she looked positively gleeful as she voted. https://t.co/GBr3wGm9vp— Katherine Cross (@Quinnae_Moon) March 6, 2021

  116. 116.

    JWR

    Wow. Just now on PBS Snooze Hour, David Brooks gets a question from Judy Woodruf, of all people, about Weave. His voice was shaking. I couldn’t tell if he was pissed about being asked about it, or if he was just being incredibly defensive. And even after Woodruf consoled him by telling him that his was such a wonderful voice to have on, he could barely get out a “thank you” for all the shaking going on. Very weird.

  117. 117.

    David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch

    @TriassicSands: ​
    it would be a waste of time. she got her pulitzer for raggin on Clinton’s penis.
    it’s mind numbing how obsessed they were with Clinton’s sex life.​
     

    Lying about a war that killed 600,000 civilians, that’s okay.
    Torture, that’s okay
    putting children in cages, that’s okay.
    consensual sex by a democrat outside of marriage, DEFCON 1

  121. 121.

    Brachiator

    @Jay:

    Sen. Sinema’s spokesperson said it’s sexist to comment on a female politician’s “body language” or “physical demeanor” when HuffPost inquired about her thumbs down vote on min. wage.

    There is a video or Gif of her giving her thumbs down. She does a little dip at the knees as she does the thumbs down with a flourish.

    I recall when McCain did his gesture to save Obamacare, no one thought his moves were gendered.  And people seem to be upset at Sinema’s vote, nothing more.

  122. 122.

    AnotherBruce

    @Mary G:  Looks good to me. Instead of $1400. It’s a steady spigot of money, instead of a one off. The first part of the deal is tax exempted.

  124. 124.

    Yutsano

    @AnotherBruce: It’s not going to last very long. Remember: this benefit is on top of what the unemployed would normally get in the state. So if we’re talking Alabama’s max benefit of $285, that’s now $585 a week. The non-taxable benefit would deplete pretty fast.

  125. 125.

    James E Powell

    @Baud:

    I don’t know what Manchin gets out of nickel and diming this bill, but it doesn’t sound like an awful change.

    It just might be that he is an asshole.

    I have remarked in other comments on this subject that these people who object should support Biden and collect an IOU. Tonight, as I drained my second glass of wine, it occurred to me that maybe Biden isn’t giving out IOUs. Maybe he told Manchin and others, look, I need your vote and I’m offering nothing. I mean, it’s possible he’s trying to avoid an open market free for all.

  127. 127.

    stacib

    @Cacti: I didn’t see it myself, but my daughter says she also specifically got McConnell’s attention before she did it.  Needless to say, my kid is livid.  My assumption, she was “pulling a McCain”.

  128. 128.

    Jay

    @James E Powell:

    Biden’s been in the IOU/Earmark business for decades.

    It’s much more likely that Manchin isn’t in the IOU Business anymore after the Former Guys one term.

  129. 129.

    Brachiator

    @Baud: ​
     

    I don’t know what Manchin gets out of nickel and diming this bill, but it doesn’t sound like an awful change. Just annoying.

    There is this paragraph in a CNN story on the Senate debate:

    The dispute was a sign of the centrist Democrat’s power in the 50-50 Senate, where Democrats control the narrowest possible majority, and an example of how a single senator can derail the President’s agenda.

    But you are right. Aside from a power flex and a pointless delay, there is not much here.

    And I don’t know how voters will react to this, or if they will even remember it, but there have been all kinds of related stories about how the bill helps fewer people than earlier relief bills.

    The revisions have been minor. And what is there offers a tremendous amount of help overall. But some in the press are hot to try to make it look as though Biden did not do enough, and the senators who insisted on tinkering with the bill didn’t help things.

  130. 130.

    The Fat White Duchess

    @Amir Khalid:  Anyone who thinks the NYT still has credibility probably takes ho issue with Brooks.

    I’m reading the WaPo these days, but I do wish they would get rid of Thiessen and Hewitt. And I post a complaint in the comments section almost every time I catch a column by either of them. (I think there’s a third member of that club, but I can’t remember who and am too lazy to track down the name.)

  132. 132.

    AnotherBruce

    @Yutsano: It’s 6 months more or less. Maybe 5 months because it is unknown how soon the money will be distributed. It’s more money. $6900. Again Thats an estimate. It runs out in September.

  133. 133.

    Jay

    The fact that this is taking 4+ hours to resolve means that Manchin doesn't even know what he wants. He wants to be catered to and woo'd and he's willing to sink the entire Biden agenda if he doesn't receive a big enough rose from Democrats.— Alex Singer (@AlexCSinger16) March 5, 2021

  134. 134.

    Ivan X

    I just assume Manchin is enjoying being what he imagines to be some kind of kingmaker role. Being pointlessly obstructionist against our side keeps his name in the headlines. I think the same applies to Sinema, though I think she also has some mavericky identity thing going on.

  136. 136.

    Jay

    @AnotherBruce:

    Covid’s not going to be over by September,

    Jobs arn’t going to be back by September.

    There will be a repeat of this shit show starting all over again in May/June.

  137. 137.

    NotMax

    Haven’t seen it mentioned that early voting for the two different special elections to fill House seats from Louisiana begins tomorrow.

    5th district almost certain to stay R, 2nd district to stay D. With so many names on each ballot, probably both will go to runoffs in late April.

    2nd district has 8 Democrats, 4 Republicans, 2 Independents, and one Libertarian running.
    5th district has 9 Republicans, 1 Democrat and 2 Independents running.

  140. 140.

    Subsole

    @Brachiator: Yep.

    That’s the problem. Our bullshit press is working to demoralize our coalition, and these dipshits are feeding them ammo.

  141. 141.

    Amir Khalid

    @The Fat White Duchess:

    Being a one-time journo myself, I tend to grant any media org a presumption of credibility. That said, I do agree that on that score The NYT‘s account is sometimes overdrawn.

  142. 142.

    stacib

    @Yutsano: Will the $10k be applied to 2020 taxes or 2021?  Considering the $600 bump people got for four months last year, most of that benefit will already be used, and folks will still have big tax bills from all of the other UI they collected.

  143. 143.

    NotMax

    @NotMax

    Somehow omitted that the date for both elections is March 20. If no one exceeds 50%, then a runoff for the two top finishers held on April 24.

  145. 145.

    RaflW

    So the right can get a person fired seemingly at will for shit far less unethical than this. What are we going to do to get BoBo out of his NYT sinecure?

    Oh, and while we’re at it, we should be writing to Nice Polite Republicans to demand a review of all the times Brooks has spoken kindly of Facebook, Zuck, etc in his weekly Friday ‘both sides’ segment on NPR-ATC.

  146. 146.

    James E Powell

    @Jay:

    Biden’s been in the IOU/Earmark business for decades.

    That’s what I was thinking, but maybe what Biden is trying to avoid having half of the D senators lining up with their list of demands for their vote. Kind of like what happened with Obama’s recovery act. Who knows?

    I was watching CNN, but McConnell started talking and I had to switch it off. Every time he mentions bipartisanship, somebody should shout “point of order!” and then say “Amy Coney Barrett” and sit down.

    Don Lemon was eager to call what’s happening with the COVID recovery bill a big loss for Biden, but the experts he keeps asking are telling him that every other bill of this size has had a haircut on its way through the senate. They’re right.

  148. 148.

    Jay

    @AnotherBruce:

    other than a rare few of our ( Western) Politico’s, most are completely disconnected from our Modern World.

    They are slapping bandaids on a supportating  wound while the “patient” is bleeding to death, and high fiving each other over that achievement.

    So this whole shitshow will start over again in 1,2,3,4 months.

  149. 149.

    Jay

    @James E Powell:

    yurp, it will help, it’s better than nothing, but it’s less than before.

    and it’s a short term fix.

    Personally, I think “certain politicians”, really don’t give a rats ass about the public, just their image narratives.

  150. 150.

    Jay

    BREAKING: In a memo, the @USChamber attempts to provide cover to corporations to resume donating to the 147 Republicans who voted to overturn the election"We do not believe it's appropriate to judge members of Congress solely based on their votes on the electoral certification"— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) March 5, 2021

  152. 152.

    Mary G

    @The Fat White Duchess: The Gary Abernathy guy they supposedly found in a diner in the Midwest to explain misunderstood The Last Guy voters to the clueless elites and turned out to be less of a newspaper writer and more of a Republican Party intern of Frank Luntz?

  153. 153.

    Martin

    @Yutsano: WV already pays a max of $424/wk at a base wage of $40K. So if you earned $40K and lost your job 1/1/21, and got a new one the day the benefits expire, you’d probably come out right about expected. You’d get $824/wk for the first 10 weeks of 2021, $724 for the next 16 weeks = $19,824 over 6 months. This looks to me like a way to zero out the need for withholding, so you do actually get to keep all the money, and since it’s non-taxable it’s actually lowering your top marginal rate, though that’d only be 12% for most people. And if you make more than $40K adjusted, you’re handing back at least 22% anyway over $41K. So, anyone who was in the $40K+ AGI range probably breaks even here, and if they were in a state with high state income taxes they probably come out a bit ahead.

    WV is about median in terms of benefits. Florida is the worst $275 for 12 weeks. Washington the best at $760 for 26 weeks – though I expect you need to pull down relatively high income for that. Rhode Island does go to $867 for 26 if you have dependents, which is a nice tier option.

    Still, it’s an odd hill to die on.

  154. 154.

    Jay

    According to a Democratic aide, Portman's amendment extending benefits at $300/week through July 18 is expected to pass – meaning that Manchin will vote for it. But it'll be superseded by Senate Democrats’ new agreement, which Manchin will also support— Grace Segers (@Grace_Segers) March 6, 2021

  155. 155.

    Mike G

    Brooks has written books titled, “The Second Mountain: The Quest for a Moral Life” and “The Road to Character”.

    Being a Republican means zero accountability or rules and no shame about hypocrisy, which makes them a magnet for breezy con artists and mediocrities.

  157. 157.

    David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch

    @Mike G: ​
     

    Kind of like degenerate gambler William Bennett writing a finger wagging book on virtue.

  159. 159.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    Boo-Boo in Paradise was an attempt to argue there is a biological reason American rich are rich. Brooks is a closet racists on top of everything else.

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