Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

I desperately hope that, yet again, i am wrong.

American history and black history cannot be separated.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

Someone should tell Republicans that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent, or possibly the first.

Baby steps, because the Republican Party is full of angry babies.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

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

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

I like political parties that aren’t owned by foreign adversaries.

Every decision we make has lots of baggage with it, known or unknown.

Let me file that under fuck it.

Balloon Juice, where there is always someone who will say you’re doing it wrong.

We can’t confuse what’s necessary to win elections with the policies that we want to implement when we do.

You are here: Home / Politics / If You Need a Good Laugh (Bipartisan Edition)

If You Need a Good Laugh (Bipartisan Edition)

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This cracks me up:

The survival of the Senate’s effective supermajority rule to pass bills could hinge on a working group of 20 senators that includes the most moderate members in both parties.

If the group can cut deals and deliver victories, it could become the model for lawmaking under President Joe Biden. If it fails, the Democratic-led Congress will face pressure to pursue partisan avenues to enact its ambitious agenda, including the simple-majority budget process and nixing the filibuster.

The group, evenly divided between the two parties, is off to a rough start. It was sidelined for the $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief package. It is ill-defined and lacks a clear focus or method. It has yet to show signs of success in the new presidency.

Its ability to prove that the Senate can function under the 60-vote requirement carries high stakes for the future of the chamber — and for politics and policymaking over the next four years.

So the filibuster is dead. These assholes in the Republican party will not vote for ANYTHING proposed by a Democrat. There will be NO major piece of legislation that passes the House and Senate with more than 60 votes. Period. The end.

Speaking of major legislation:

Sen. Joe Manchin said Wednesday that he favors a large infrastructure package that would be paid for in part by raising tax revenues — a point of contention between the two parties.

“I’m sure of one thing: It’s going to be enormous,” the West Virginia Democrat, who is seen as a swing vote in a chamber divided 50-50, told reporters at the Capitol.

While he didn’t predict a price tag, Manchin said Congress should do “everything we possibly can” to pay for it. He said there should be “tax adjustments” to former President Donald Trump’s 2017 tax law to boost revenues, including by raising the corporate rate from the current 21 percent to at least 25 percent.

The tax benefits in the Republican law were “weighted in one direction to the upper end,” Manchin said. He also suggested an “infrastructure bank” paid for with revenues, potentially a value-added tax, that would be used for “rebuilding America.”

“I’m not afraid to look at other things,” he said.

You could probably spend ten trillion on roads, bridges, water and sewage, rail, the power grid, and still need another ten trillion to make up for the lack of money we have invested in these things while living in the reign of terror imposed by tax cut jeebus since the 80’s.

Reader Interactions

114Comments

  2. 2.

    Dan B

    “Tax cut Jeebus”.  The cartoon draws itself.  Mary and friends at the cross as Jesus shouts, “All for tax cuts.  Not another dime for Caesar!”  (Or something like that…

  3. 3.

    dmsilev

    Mitch McConnell upped his rhetoric on the filibuster, promising ‘nuclear winter’ in the Senate if it’s gone. As this rate, he will be ‘unleashing Godzilla’s atomic breath’ by next week and by mid April will just be playing the last few minutes of Dr. Strangelove on a continuous loop at his press briefings.

  7. 7.

    Spanky

    If Manchin keeps this up, Sinema is going to get envious of all the reportage

     

     

    ETA: I.e., stand by for monkey wrenching the works by the Arizona “moderate”.

  9. 9.

    Major Major Major Major

    I’ve read that Manchin is thinking of pushing a VAT, so, get ready to love VATs.

    We aren’t going to get too far with ambitious infrastructure projects if we can’t get our costs under control, though. High speed rail costs €15m per km in Spain (~$28m/mi). In California it’s twice that, and that’s before we get into the state’s complete failure at land acquisition. I don’t know what it looks like for other forms of infrastructure, but if it’s anything like our ridiculous train and tunnel costs… Parisian subways cost 1/5 as much as New York subways! Wtf

  10. 10.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Baud:

    That’s very good news. Has Sinema said anything about nixing the filibuster for a voting rights bill? She’s in a precarious position herself representing Arizona, with it’s GOP control of the lege and the governorship passing and signing voter suppression bills into law

  11. 11.

    HalfAssedHomesteader

    Oh! I know: What if we have the senators sit in an alternating Democrat/Republican order? Bet that hasn’t been tried.  Surely that will revive the Spirit of Bipartisanship!

  12. 12.

    Jeffro

    @Old School: I was going to say…could someone please explain to me what a ‘group of the most moderate 20 Senators in both parties looks like’?

    Pick any 10 Democrats, I don’t care about that part.  Show me 10 ‘moderate’ GQP Senators.  Hell they only got 7 for trumpov’s second impeachment for insurrection against the United States and they got 0 for the American Rescue Plan.

    I doubt we could get 10 of them to sign on to repel Martian death squad invaders, if the invaders so much as hinted at being ‘pro-life’/anti-mask/anti-vax/pro-robber baron capitalist/take your pick.

    And the media would be like, “Biden fails to secure bipartisan support for saving Earth, we all die by alien death ray, alas”

  15. 15.

    Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly, Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.)

    All they need to do is make filibusterers stand up and talk. That’s all. Ideally, we’d just junk the thing altogether, but that isn’t happening any time soon. Short of that, getting the bastards up on their feet for hours or days at a time will put a little bit of a sting in using the damned thing.

    If people really do want the blessings of holy bipartisanship, this is how to get it.  Once Republicans wake up to the fact that Democrats can pass shit without them with a majority–and it never fails to astound me that the idea that a majority of senators should be able to pass bills they like is some kind of world shaking, radical commie-pinko shit–they’ll start to try to get in on the action.  If it’s going to pass whether you vote for it or not, you might as well try to work with the other side to make it a little more palatable.

  22. 22.

    jl

    A congressperson from where I grew up was in a BS bipartisan working group. Not sure if it is the same as this one, or a predecessor, I think an attempt to impress his swing district. But I guess he realized it was just too stupid and bailed for some ‘pro growth’ Dem group (but actually I think it is mostly a hideout for moderate liberals from swing districts).

    Edit: New Democrat Coalition

  25. 25.

    James E Powell

    @Jeffro:

    Pick any 10 Democrats, I don’t care about that part.  Show me 10 ‘moderate’ GQP Senators.

    Have them show all of the moderate gQp senators. It won’t take more than a second. And half of them will be denying it by 11PM.

  28. 28.

    zhena gogolia

    @sab:

    All I was doing was trying to evoke the last few minutes of Dr. Strangelove. But you’re right, it’s “Wahoo”

  30. 30.

    sab

    OT my husband got his hair cut by an actual professional today, and the back of his head is amazingly gorgeous. His barber was polite, but he and I know the difference.

  31. 31.

    Miss Bianca

    @dmsilev:

    Mitch McConnell upped his rhetoric on the filibuster, promising ‘nuclear winter’ in the Senate if it’s gone. As this rate, he will be ‘unleashing Godzilla’s atomic breath’ by next week and by mid April will just be playing the last few minutes of Dr. Strangelove on a continuous loop at his press briefings.

    I’m sorry, I just had to see that again. LOL!

  32. 32.

    Fair Economist

    The problem with infrastructure is that a lot of it, probably most of it, will go to roads and highways, and they are not generally good investments. The costs to maintain and replace, and to provide services over expanded areas, exceed the direct infrastructure benefits, usually by a lot. Strong Towns has a lot of analyses about how typical American towns and cities are being dragged down financially by the costs of road sprawl. Here’s an analysis for Lafayette LA.

  33. 33.

    Brachiator

    @Baud:

    I would watch Godzilla & Kong vs. Turtle.

    I would love to see Gamera, the giant flying turtle daikaiju, with McConnell’s face.

  35. 35.

    Spanky

    @Jeffro:

    Pick any 10 Democrats, I don’t care about that part.  Show me 10 ‘moderate’ GQP Senators.  Hell they only got 7 for trumpov’s second impeachment for insurrection against the United States and they got 0 for the American Rescue Plan.

    I care about the 10 Democrats, because then I’ll know which on our side are real suckers. Or morons.

  37. 37.

    Steeplejack

    @Major Major Major Major:

    I’m no expert, but I have read that U.S. infrastructure technology—planning, budgeting, actual construction—has ossified a great deal and lags the rest of the world, especially those pesky Chicoms.

  42. 42.

    Villago Delenda Est

    “Tax cut Jeebus”

    Yup, the stupid has been with us for forty fucking years.  Ever since “Voodoo Economics” became the centerpiece of GQp economic strategery, we’ve been fucked.

    And screw VATs.  All we need are Eisenhower era marginal tax rates.   Bleed the parasites of the top 1%.

  43. 43.

    Mike in NC

    If anybody is watching the National Geographic Channel mini-series “Genius: Aretha” starring singer/actress Cynthia Erivo, she’s also great in a little movie called “Bad Times at the El Royale” with Jon Hamm and Jeff Bridges. A heist film set at a motel on the Nevada/California border at Lake Tahoe.

  44. 44.

    Alison Rose

    Dang it, I’d posted a couple good links on AL’s post but I guess she took the post down? I had a long work day and I’m lazy and y’all are making me retype these things, how dare.

    VP Harris calls NASA astronauts Shannon Walker and Kate Rubins aboard the International Space Station

    Virginia governor signs bill abolishing the death penalty

    I don’t love his reasoning because I think the DP is barbaric and repugnant no matter what, but this is still good news. First Southern state to do so. I don’t imagine there will be a mad rush of others following, but one can hope. About half the country still has it :(

  51. 51.

    Brachiator

    @Major Major Major Major:

    I’ve read that Manchin is thinking of pushing a VAT, so, get ready to love VATs.

    Don’t VAT’s push more of the tax burden onto lower and middle class citizens?

    We aren’t going to get too far with ambitious infrastructure projects if we can’t get our costs under control, though. High speed rail costs €15m per km in Spain (~$28m/mi). In California it’s twice that, and that’s before we get into the state’s complete failure at land acquisition.

    California needs affordable housing far more than it needs high speed rail.

  52. 52.

    Ruckus

    How many have gotten their $1400? The $600? I’ve gotten neither. I did do my taxes and claimed the $600 there, but who knows how long that will take to show up. I’m not holding my breath.

  53. 53.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): See the original The Manchurian Candidate.  The remake isn’t bad, but while Meryl Streep is good, she’s not nearly as villainous as Angela Lansbury was.  A performance for the ages.

  55. 55.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    Pro tip: If you can, watch Manchurian Candidate, Seven Days in May, and Fail Safe before you watch Dr. Strangelove. Strangelove is a brilliant spoof on that entire genre of Cold War political/nuclear doomsday films, and I think you may find it more meaningful (not to mention funnier) if you’ve seen some of the others first. Not crucial, of course.

  56. 56.

    dmsilev

    @Brachiator: High speed rail would have been fine except for the ridiculous route they chose for it (because of the need to garner political support across a wide swath of the state). Yes, the implementation has not been managed well at all, but the original sin was to require the inland route.

  60. 60.

    Brachiator

    @aliasofwestgate:

    Wasn’t Gamera friendly though? Something Mcconell is very much not.

    Gamera started out destructive in the first film, and later became a protector of humankind. Yeah, totally unlike the McConnell beast.

  61. 61.

    dmsilev

    @SiubhanDuinne: I saw Dr. Strangelove before ever seeing Fail Safe. Absolutely ruined the latter film for me, since I was completely unable to take it seriously.

  64. 64.

    JWR

    O/T, but just now on Background Briefing: the questiom of whether or not Michael Sherwin’s “unauthorized” appearance on 60 Minutes was done to gum up the works:

    Did the Former U.S. Attorney For D.C. Make it More Difficult to Prosecute the Insurrectionists?

    “Then finally we speak with Elie Honig, a former Assistant United States Attorney with the Southern District of New York about the referral today of Michael Sherwin to the DOJ’s Office of Professional Responsibility following the former D.C. U.S. Attorney’s unauthorized appearance on 60 Minutes.”

    Edited to make sense. :)

  65. 65.

    sab

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Such a youngster. You do need to watch, but I love that you are out there in the world not having watched.

    How is your nursing career going? My old nursiing family members  have now retired. Our stellar nurse is now teaching. Covid changed the world for everyone.

  66. 66.

    Ruckus

    @Brachiator:

    Given our geography CA is likely to never have HS rail as the cost of building would be quite high and then the cost of land acquisition will be just a touch on the expensive side. Right now if you want to take a slow train you have to get to Bakersfield first. You can purchase a ticket from Union Station to say Santa Rosa but it’s bus from Union Station to Bakersfield and then bus from Martinez to Santa Rosa. A high speed train would likely carry a lot of people, the current slow train does. If you built something along the 101 corridor that would likely cost even more than the Grapevine or even farther east. But no matter where, you have a lot of cities/people at either end and a lot of terrain that’s expensive to deal with.

  68. 68.

    Major Major Major Major

    @Steeplejack: Alon Levy is great to read for this stuff. Here’s a piece about why our light rail costs are so ridiculous.

    @Brachiator: I suppose that might be relevant if we were debating how to best spend trillions in housing funds.

    California could have lots more housing without costing taxpayers a penny, if they wanted to, also too, but they don’t.

    ETA: As for VATs, they’re interesting, because they’re not exactly sales taxes. But like all consumption-ish taxes they eat up a higher percentage of the discretionary income of the less well-off. More importantly, they raise a shitload of revenue. Plenty of socialist hellholes have them.

  69. 69.

    Ken

    @Baud: Don’t think there’s been a Kong-Gamera film.  Godzilla-Gamera, obviously, and Godzilla-Kong this year.

    @aliasofwestgate: Gamera was friendly for kaiju values of friendly.  That is, first film, destroy Tokyo; third film, battle Godzilla and accidentally destroy Tokyo; fifth film, defend Tokyo from a space monster, while telepathically linked with a cute Japanese child and/or miniature twin aliens (it all becomes a blur).

  72. 72.

    Brachiator

    @Ruckus:

    How many have gotten their $1400? The $600? I’ve gotten neither. I did do my taxes and claimed the $600 there, but who knows how long that will take to show up. I’m not holding my breath.

    Be patient. The IRS is overwhelmed.

    A tax preparation tip. If you received unemployment compensation in 2020, or know people who did, you all might want to hold off on doing your taxes for a week or so.

    The new relief bill ARP, provided for an exclusion of up to $10,200 in unemployment compensation.  The IRS rushed to figure out how to do this, but it has been a mess. They came up with two new revisions to regulations this week, which affect little things like taxable Social Security benefits, IRA deductions and other credits, for people who may be eligible for the new exclusion.

    Some states still have not decided how they will react to the new exclusion.

    And tax software companies have to update their products to deal with all this. It has been a huge mess.

    A frequently missed deduction this year: If you made charitable contributions and do not itemize, you can take up to $300 in cash donations as a deduction on Form 1040, Line 10b.

    If you did not get the first or second stimulus, you can claim it using the Recovery Rebate Worksheet for Form 1040, Line 30.

    Stimulus 3 payments are going out now. You will also receive a notice documenting the payment. Hang on to this. Take a photo. You may need it next year when you file your 2021 tax return.

  75. 75.

    Ken

    @HalfAssedHomesteader: Oh! I know: What if we have the senators sit in an alternating Democrat/Republican order?

    How about chaining them together in pairs?  Worked for Tony Curtis and Sidney Portier.

    Or even better, sew one’s head onto the other’s body. Worked for Ray Milland and Rosie Greer.

  76. 76.

    raven

    Millions of disabled and retired Americans are still waiting for their $1,400 stimulus payments because of a holdup at the Social Security Administration, House Democrats said Wednesday.

    Social Security hasn’t handed over payment information that the Internal Revenue Service needs to send the coronavirus relief checks to nearly 30 million people receiving retirement or disability benefits, Democrats said.

    “We understand that these beneficiaries are waiting because the Social Security Administration has not sent the necessary payment files to the Internal Revenue Service,” House Ways and Means Committee chair Richard Neal (D-Mass.) said in a letter to Social Security Commissioner Andrew Saul.

  77. 77.

    geg6

    Rachel is kicking John Cornyn’s ass and taking names.  Third degree burns, I believe.

  80. 80.

    Xavier

    @sab: I have my first appointment since May with a real barber tomorrow. My SO was cutting my hair previously but freaked out when she took a chunk out, and I had to finish the job myself.

  86. 86.

    Chris T.

    @dmsilev: Mitch McConnell upped his rhetoric on the filibuster, promising ‘nuclear winter’ in the Senate if it’s gone.

    If only our Press Corpse would point a microphone at him after asking him to “tell us more about how you plan to nuke America”…

  90. 90.

    Brachiator

    @raven:

    Millions of disabled and retired Americans are still waiting for their $1,400 stimulus payments because of a holdup at the Social Security Administration, House Democrats said Wednesday.

    Social Security hasn’t handed over payment information that the Internal Revenue Service needs to send the coronavirus relief checks to nearly 30 million people receiving retirement or disability benefits, Democrats said.

    This mainly involves many retired and disabled people who do not have to fie tax returns, but who get their benefit checks via direct deposit.

    And I think that even though this is a problem, it is in the process of being solved. I have heard from retired people who got a stimulus check deposit this morning. The IRS clearly used Social Security records to make these payments.

    And if the IRS could not do direct deposit, these folks would receive a physical check or a debit card via snail mail.

    It’s a mess, but the IRS is still getting payments out faster than they did with the first two stimulus payments.

     

    ETA: Yeah, I can believe that the IRS is also buried under piles of unprocessed tax returns and other mail pieces.

  93. 93.

    J R in WV

    @Alison Rose: ​
     

    Virginia governor signs bill abolishing the death penalty

    I don’t love his reasoning because I think the DP is barbaric and repugnant no matter what, but this is still good news. First Southern state to do so. I don’t imagine there will be a mad rush of others following, but one can hope. About half the country still has it :(

    West Virginia did away with the death penalty in 1965 !! So… counts in fingers … 55 years ahead of Ol’ Virginny. Right? Or 56? About in there somewhere…

  95. 95.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @NotMax:

    Suddenly is new to me! Not sure how I’ve missed it all these years (Frank Sinatra, Sterling Hayden, and I’m only now hearing about it?), but I’ll remedy that as soon as I can.

  97. 97.

    Geoduck

    @sab: “I’m dippy about him, Bertie. Don’t you just worship the way his hair sort of fluffs up at the back? ”
    “My dear girl, I have better things to do than go about staring at the back of Chuffy’s head.”

  98. 98.

    J R in WV

    @Villago Delenda Est: ​

    Amazing that Angela Lansbury could be that great a villian, isnt’ it? So sweet in so many shows… so evil in that film!!! And Frank Sinatra too… a great movie.

  102. 102.

    Anya

    If Manchin is a moderate what’s even the point of the term? It’s such a useless term. They should say, “conservative democrats and non confederate republicans”.

  103. 103.

    SFAW

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Strangelove is a brilliant spoof on that entire genre of Cold War political/nuclear doomsday films, and I think you may find it more meaningful (not to mention funnier) if you’ve seen some of the others first.

    Plus, it has (arguably) the best last line of any comedy, ever. [“Arguably,” because of Some Like It Hot.]

  104. 104.

    SFAW

    @J R in WV:

    Amazing that Angela Lansbury could be that great a villian, isnt’ it? So sweet in so many shows…

    “Sweet,” eh? Don’t you find it a little odd that Cabot Cove, Maine, had more murders in it than Chicago and NYC combined? Did it ever occur to you that “Jessica Fletcher” — if that really was her name — was able to “solve” so many murders because she was actually the murderer, and she constructed a web of lies to frame some poor, unsuspecting schmoe?

  106. 106.

    Brachiator

    @debbie:

    If you’re still around, does it matter if I never received a 1444 notice?

    Not if you got your stimulus payments without problem.

    It can be helpful if people still need to try to use the Recovery Rebate Worksheet.

    A lot of people got a notice 1444 and immediately threw it away.

  110. 110.

    Another Scott

    Stuff is expensive.  China recently spent $30B on 2 new airports.  There are something like 5080 public airports (not all major ones, but still important to their communities; there are 19,622 total airports here) in the USA.  5080 x $15 = $76,200B = $76.2T.

    And airports are probably barely in the top 10 of pressing needs (e.g. water system, gas and oil pipelines, burying power lines to make them more resilient, cleaning up waterways, fixing or removing thousands of dams, building out clean energy, roads and bridges and tunnels, speeding up and making safer railroads, public transit of all kinds, rolling out modern air traffic control, cheap ubiquitous broadband, revitalized (free) public and national parks, and then maybe airports (coupled with stronger regulation of the airlines – minimum legroom, quality service or penalties, standard approved rates, etc. – hey I can dream, can’t I?)…)

    Whatever Biden proposes and Congress passes will be important and long overdue.  But it’s likely just a small down-payment no matter how big $BIG_NUMBER is.  It’s not the 1960s any more when a Coke was a dime and penny candy was a thing…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  111. 111.

    Another Scott

    @Villago Delenda Est: ¿Por qué no los dos?

    The US economy is roughly $25T.  Let’s assume half that would be subject to a VAT.  Let’s say a 0.5% VAT.

    12.5E12 x 0.005 = $62.5B

    If these numbers are off, you get the idea.  A small, but very broadly based, tax in the US could raise a lot of money and put to good use.

    But it makes sense to go after the MotUs first as they have all of the gains of the last 42 years…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  113. 113.

    Central Planning

    @Xavier: I got my first professional haircut on Sunday. It’s been a year. So much better than doing it myself with clippers.

  114. 114.

    Torrey

    @sab:  Coming in late, but there are recordings of old Confederates giving the rebel yell. It sounds like “wow! wow! wow!” with a bit of the Wilhelm scream mixed in. This is from Smithsonian Magazine . Start at 1.36 so you don’t have to watch a bunch of old guys looking pleased with themselves as they parade around with a flag rather than regretting their misspent youths. There’s also a recording of someone named Thomas Alexander that sounds like nothing so much as an exceedingly displeased dog. So I think the all purpose “yee-HAW!” is available for general use.

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