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Their freedom requires your slavery.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

After roe, women are no longer free.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

Happy indictment week to all who celebrate!

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

Today’s GOP: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

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

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

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I really should read my own blog.

Take your GOP plan out of the witness protection program.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

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

“I never thought they’d lock HIM up,” sobbed a distraught member of the Lock Her Up Party.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Jen Psaki Is Very Good At Her Job

Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Jen Psaki Is Very Good At Her Job

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Our Failed Media Village Idiots, on the other hand… are persistent:

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174Comments

  1. 1.

    debbie

    Doocey whines about not getting to ask questions and then wastes his opportunity and instead lobs a softball that even a child could whack out of the park?

    I want a t-shirt with “Let me refute that” on it.

  4. 4.

    Low Key Swagger

    Morning, all.  Coffee with Morning Joe is part of my routine.  Yes, he’s awful to listen to, but generally the guests are good and I like some of the recurring talking heads.  But I’m pretty irritated that this morning (like yesterday) he keeps prattling on about the decision to move the MLB All Star game.  He has twice failed to point out the most dangerous part of the bill, which of course gives the State legislature the ability to remove election officials at will.  Do I have that wrong?

  8. 8.

    HalfAssedHomesteader

    As I said earlier, I hope there will be money for retooling journalism in the infrastructure package.

  9. 9.

    Baud

    Biden wants to cement a governing majority. His Build Back Better bill is his plan to do it.

     

    It “really could be definitional for our party for the next 50 years.”

  13. 13.

    prostratedragon

    May we now experience the up side of interesting times.

    Checking one birthday today and stumbled on this:

    Born on April 7: Ravi Shankar, Mongo Santamaria, Babatunde Olatunji, James Garner, Ian Richardson, Jerry Brown, Freddie Hubbard, Francis Ford Coppola, Janis Ian, Jackie Chan, Tony Dorsett, Russell Crowe, Thurl Bailey, Jennifer Lynch, Tiki Barber (and I assume Ronde), and

    Billie Holiday, “Getting Some Fun Out of Life”

  15. 15.

    The Oracle of Solace

    I could improvise better questions than they’re asking Psaki. When the White House Press Corpse sends its reporters, they’re not sending their best. They’re sending people that have lots of problems. They’re bringing dumb questions. They’re lazy. And some, I assume, are good people.

  17. 17.

    John S.

    @Baud: And the Republicans know it. Hence all the gnashing of teeth and rending of garments along with the push to restrict voting, gerrymander the shit out of everything and turn the US into a white, cisgender, heterosexual male dominated Christian theocracy called Gilead.

  18. 18.

    Immanentize

    Re: FDR’s plan to stop extremism in the country (both right and left authoritarianism) he once said,

    “If I fail, I will not be the nation’s worst President, I will be it’s last.”

    Maybe after Trump, Biden feels similarly?

  20. 20.

    Kay

    @Low Key Swagger:

    This is one area, though, where media get a “much improved”. The coverage is so much better than it was even 10 years ago. Ten years ago they REGULARLY would confuse “registered” with “voted”, so there would be a story a month on how dead people “voted” because they were looking at voter lists and deceased people hadn’t come off the list yet.

    They blindly promoted the “voter impersonation fraud” bullshit from the Right although it is ludicrous on its face and makes no sense even if you wanted to cheat because a voter “impersonating” another voter is not a +1, it’s a =

    This theory relies on the idea that a person who did not bother to register as themselves would instead appear at a polling station as someone else, to commit a felony.

  21. 21.

    SFAW

    @Baud:

    And Rethug leges all over the country are saying “Damn, now we gotta find even more ways to suppress.”

  22. 22.

    Baud

    Justice Breyer says expanding the Supreme Court could erode trust
    …

    Breyer, in addition, noted liberal victories in the court.

    “It did uphold the constitutionality of Obamacare, the health care program favored by liberals. It did re-affirm precedents that favored a woman’s right to an abortion. It did find unlawful certain immigration, census, and other orders, rules, or regulations, favored by a conservative president,” he said, according to the prepared remarks.

    Two things. Liberals don’t trust the court, so we have to at least keep talking about enlarging the court to keep them honest.

    Second, the bolded part seems to confirm that the Court isn’t going to give the conservatives a victory in their latest Obamacare challenge. That was expected after the oral argument, but this is more confirmation.

  24. 24.

    debbie

    Huh. The stimulus payment showed up in my account this morning. I never got the second payment and assumed I no longer qualified. If I knew what the damn rules were, I’d know whether it was an error or not.

  26. 26.

    mrmoshpotato

    @SFAW:

    You and I apparently have different understandings of the word “adorable.” 

    Yours is wrong.

  27. 27.

    Geminid

    @Low Key Swagger: The usurpation of local election boards really is the most dangerous part of the new Georgia laws. Georgia Democrats can overcome other parts with hard work, but their votes could still be thrown out by GOP hacks. And as D.J. McGuire pointed out in a Bearing Drift article, local electoral boards could be supplanted months before an election, giving unaccountable Republican operatives power to shape the process.

  28. 28.

    p.a.

    Psaki and Buttigieg get it: the reich-wing shit-talking points are telegraphed by their lock-step one-or-two note media and their fellow-travellers in the ‘MSM’; prepping for it requires just scanning their daily output of lies.  They have no interest/ability in policy, so there’s no concern about granular, in-depth ‘gotcha’ questions.  It’s a scandal that some progressives get sandbagged by these people by allowing their framing to stand.

  31. 31.

    rikyrah

    The Press Secretary has patience.. I will give her that. I would not have been able to do the job with those clowns ?

  32. 32.

    SFAW

    @Kay:

    I’m thinking a variant of that impersonation theory is that Joe Blow votes as himself in Precinct X, then as “Ed Schmoe” in Precinct Y. Of course, it only works if the real Ed Schmoe doesn’t vote, but I can see someone checking the obits to carry that out.

    I figure that nefarious plot — if it even occurs — accounts for a whopping 0.001 percent of the vote, which would have been enough to push That Fucking Guy into landslide territory,

    Oh, wait, he WAS in landslide territory already. By around seven million votes.

  34. 34.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Baud: Hey Steve.  Send my best worst to Injustice Neil Gorsuch, blackout drunk college rapist Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Cult Member Barrett.

  35. 35.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    I’m for set terms for federal judges.  25 and done. They need to be reminded the seats don’t belong to them personally.  Do a random reshuffle every year of one or two or 10 and it’ll even out.

  38. 38.

    Snarki, child of Loki

    @mrmoshpotato:

    You and I apparently have different understandings of the word “adorable.”

    So, a person suited for sticking their head through a doorway, and slamming the door on their neck?  ADORABLE!

  39. 39.

    SFAW

    @Kay:

    I’m for set terms of 10 years of RWMF judges. I say we do a test run, see if the country improves; if it does, extend it.

  43. 43.

    Mary G

    Politico seems to be getting worse and worse. The other day they said that Andrew Yang was the leading Asian-American pol in America. As if.

  44. 44.

    SFAW

    @mrmoshpotato:

    You have the right to be wrong.

    Fortunately, I don’t generally avail myself of that right. Including today. With you.

    Now get offa my lawn.

  49. 49.

    Immanentize

    @Kay: Even the solution of creating a supreme court senior status at 70, which would not need any constitutional amendment, would help change the Court.  But something, please, something!

  50. 50.

    Kay

    @SFAW:

     (b). Each bankruptcy judge shall be appointed for a term of fourteen years, subject to the provisions of subsection (e). However, upon the expiration of the term, a bankruptcy judge may, with the approval of the judicial council of the circuit, continue to perform the duties of the office until the earlier of the date which is 180 days after the expiration of the term or the date of the appointment of a successor.

    Works fine. My state court has an age limit and that works fine too, but set terms are more random as to age so more fair.

  52. 52.

    Kay

    @Immanentize:

    Agreed.  There’s a “personal ownership” of the seat idea that has taken hold and I think it’s bad. Put some numbers in there, get some distance.

  53. 53.

    Immanentize

    @Kay: Yes, it would work fine at 25 years.  But bankruptcy judges (and magistrates) are not article III judges.  The Supreme Court has to be an article three court.

  58. 58.

    Immanentize

    @Kay: It really is funny how putting numbers on things changes behavior.  When I was in the Provost’s office we created a phased retirement benefits that you can only take if you start it by age 70.  Before then, no retirement plan at all.  Some guys hung on after 70 (which is their right), but now the overall culture of the school is that you leave around 70.  Big cultural difference in only 6 years.

  59. 59.

    rikyrah

    @The Oracle of Solace:

    They want to be stenographers, and pretend that it’s journalism. If Press Secretary hasn’t answered the question to their pleasure, she refers them to other Departments. They HATE THAT. Talking to other Departments means that you would actually have to research about the subject. And, they don’t want to work like that.

  62. 62.

    p.a.

    Someone on the left has tried to push the meme the SCOTUS numbers should mirror the number of appellate courts (13) and use the case backlog as a driver for this change.  It has the benefit of sounding apolitical?.  And it’s a good policy.

  63. 63.

    mrmoshpotato

    @rikyrah:

    Talking to other Departments means that you would actually have to research about the subject. And, they don’t want to work like that. 

    Poor White House Press Corpse. ☹️

  64. 64.

    Immanentize

    @p.a.: If they could expand, 13 would be a good number given the circuits.  Then again 15 would also work and not be a superstitious count as the ninth circuit is going to have to split at some point and 14 plus a chief seems fine.

  65. 65.

    rikyrah

    New: The Biden administration quietly revoked Medicaid work requirement in two more states today — Michigan and Wisconsin.Both have Democratic governors who inherited the mandate from their Republican predecessors.— Rachel Roubein (@rachel_roubein) April 6, 2021

  67. 67.

    rikyrah

    @tishaura is the new mayor of St. Louis, making her the first Black woman to hold the office. She won with 51% of the vote in the city’s first non-partisan election. Story to come.— STL Public Radio (@stlpublicradio) April 7, 2021

  70. 70.

    marklar

    @Immanentize: Interesting.  There have been some studies showing that when you tell people that they “must” do something, you can trigger resistance. Conversely, simply switching the word to “can”, and you tend to get compliance.  It sounds like your institution stumbled upon that nugget of wisdom!

  71. 71.

    p.a.

    @Immanentize: Fed Judicial site says number was set at 9 by Judicial act of 1869, previous count varied: 5 to 10.  When I have time I might look up the 10 and see how many 5-5 votes there were.  I assume the appellate ruling would stand in that case.  Same could occur in odd-count courts in the case of recusals.

  72. 72.

    Ken

    Interesting nugget. The US economy has added more jobs in Biden’s young presidency than during the presidencies of the last 3 Republican presidents combined.

    That’s not really fair. The Republicans keep inheriting robust economies near full employment, making it difficult to add jobs. They don’t have the natural advantage of Democrats, whose predecessors were Republicans.

  73. 73.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Immanentize: ​Yeppers…except I kindasorta think he would’ve left the apostrophe out of “it’s” – since in the context it’s :^p grammatically incorrect…

  75. 75.

    Lapassionara

    @Geminid: The law also permits unlimited challenges to voters’ eligibility (if I read it correctly). Bad faith challenges are one way Republicans help disrupt voting on Election Day. An operative shows up at a majority African-American precinct and challenges every voter. Proving eligibility takes time, and using this process ensures that already long lines are longer.

  77. 77.

    Ken

    @Uncle Cosmo: Thats true, in those day’s the rule’s for apostrophe’s were different. But when quoting, should we use the old system, or modernize it? For Example, we don’t alway’s Quote the founding Father’s using the Style of Capitalization that wa’s Common in they’re Day’s.

  79. 79.

    Geminid

    @Lapassionara: Republicans certainly would do this, too. While Republican voters may be declining in number, there seems to be a growing pool of unscrupulous “activists” willing to monkeywrench voting. And plenty of dark money to pay them.

  80. 80.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @rikyrah:

    Jones now joins Green and Board of Alderman President Lewis Reed on the city’s powerful Board of Estimate and Apportionment. For the first time, the three-seat board will be comprised entirely of Black elected leaders.

    Long overdue.

  81. 81.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @rikyrah: Jones now joins Green and Board of Alderman President Lewis Reed on the city’s powerful Board of Estimate and Apportionment. For the first time, the three-seat board will be comprised entirely of Black elected leaders.

    Who knew it would take so long to remove the Evangelical cooties?

  83. 83.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Ken: Awwwwww, pobrecitos, being unable to ride the coattails of competent people with good economic policies and inevitably fucking everything up with trickle down piss.

  84. 84.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @OzarkHillbilly: Copy paste fail and after edit window closed. Reply to @rikyrah:

    After months spent living in temporary quarters at Blair House, Vice President Kamala Harris will move into her 33-room official residence this evening following the completion of renovations.
    April 6, 2021

    Who knew it would take so long to remove the Evangelical cooties?

  85. 85.

    Soprano2

    Our local election turned out decently; looks like turnout was about 10-12%. All of the anti-mask candidates lost badly, as I thought they would. The school board candidate who would have been a real troublemaker also lost. Furthermore, the guy who the real estate industry was pushing hard to get rid of one city council member who asks questions about development also lost, and the incumbent won. We now have more women and people of color on both the school board and City Council than we did before, so that’s progress. I was disappointed that one really impressive school board candidate, a black man who works for our local community college, didn’t get onto the school board. I hope he runs again. I think our school board suffers from not enough diverse representation.

  86. 86.

    germy

    After Democrats took back the House in 2018 and began cranking up pressure on the Trump administration, Mr. Gaetz emerged as a standout in what he called the “warrior class” of lawmakers who made it their mission to protect the president.

    “The president has called me when I was in my car, asleep in the middle of the night on my Longworth Office cot, on the throne, on airplanes, in nightclubs, and even in the throes of passion (yes, I answered),” Mr. Gaetz boasted in his book.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/06/us/politics/matt-gaetz-trump-pardon.html?smid=tw-share

     

    For some reason, the former guy isn’t returning his calls anymore.

  87. 87.

    Soprano2

    @OzarkHillbilly: What are the odds now that the state legislature tries to take over the whole government of St. Louis? They already tried to shiv the prosecutor; I was surprised that effort failed.

  88. 88.

    The Thin Black Duke

    Good morning, all. Here’s my latest essay. It’s a rant about how temporary the good things Joe is doing are if voters ignore the past history of Republican administrations.

  91. 91.

    jonas

    @OzarkHillbilly: ​
      being unable to ride the coattails of competent people with good economic policies and inevitably fucking everything up with trickle down piss.

    …and *still* walk away from the wreckage with the reputation as the party that’s “good for the economy.”

  94. 94.

    Kay

    @Immanentize:

    It’s fun to play with. The campaigns would of course calculate it and use it in elections but they do that now anyway. You could clear out the whole Trump class of judges in the mid-2020’s :)
    I’m not making it retroactive! I’m not a monster. It should just be more orderly and less personal. “Personal” and “judges” is a bad mix.

  96. 96.

    jonas

    @germy: ​
      “The president has called me when I was in my car, asleep in the middle of the night on my Longworth Office cot, on the throne, on airplanes, in nightclubs, and even in the throes of passion (yes, I answered),” Mr. Gaetz boasted in his book.

    What kind of needy/messed up person calls some Congressman like this? It’s like stalking. Somehow I don’t think Biden is spending his evenings phoning up Dem congresspeople to chew their ears about some stupid bullshit at 2am. And if he did, I seriously doubt the person would “boast” about it later.

  97. 97.

    Kay

    @Immanentize:

    Right, that’s why your idea of “senior status” is probably better than mine, although I love the clean certainty of my drop dead date :)

    Do something. This system sucks.

  98. 98.

    jonas

    Speaking of The Masters, has it ever been played anywhere other than Augusta National? Isn’t the tournament and the golf club sort of one and the same? Also, most pro golfers appear to be big Trump supporters, so they’re probably perfectly happy to stay and play in GA.

  99. 99.

    Baud

    @Immanentize:

    Senior status is voluntary, though.  You already see court of appeals judges delaying senior status for a change in administrations.

  100. 100.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Soprano2: I was surprised that effort failed.

    TBH, I wasn’t. A lot of local govts operate as the personal fiefdoms of just a few people. I’m pretty sure they objected rather strenuously to their state reps and senators. The last thing they want is somebody taking a close look at the shit they get up to and thinking, “Hey we did it to STL, why not Bunker?”

  103. 103.

    germy

    @jonas:

    And he wasn’t calling to push legislation.  Instead, he said he was looking for warriors.  To overthrow the election.

  105. 105.

    frosty

    @SFAW:  So did I. I think it was “rebuilt “ that threw me off. I never thought that could be done with a hawk.

  106. 106.

    Cameron

    @rikyrah: Cool!  I worked on the campaign for approval voting in St. Louis.  Didn’t know there had already been an election using it.

  108. 108.

    SFAW

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Apropos of nothing in particular: NPR had a news item the other day, talking about how Missourians approved (53/47) MO constitutional Amendment 2 (covering Medicaid expansion), but now the lege is saying “good luck with getting us to fund it.”

    I heard one of the asshole “legislators” using the “we’re a republic not a democracy” bullshit as justification for not following the will of the voters and approving funding. And yet, RWMFs are the first to scream when Dems act in that fashion. Presumably because the Dems are “woke,” and therefore their judgment is bad.

  110. 110.

    JMG

    @jonas: The Masters has never been played anywhere but Augusta National. It was founded by the club, and is not an official part of the PGA Tour at all, just its own separate event. Interestingly enough, I am sure some of the CEOs of the corporations the GOP is mad at now are also club members. For sure the CEO of Coca-Cola has got to be.

  111. 111.

    SFAW

    @JMG:

    I’m thinking of putting a Par 3 or Mini-golf setup in my backyard. Maybe I can pitch them on moving the Masters to lovely Central MA? Drive a wedge between GA racists and America even more. I’d have to iron out a few details with the PGA of course, but that wood not be difficult.

  113. 113.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    And Presidents are pressuring them behind the scenes anyway!

    Given his previous tenure as chief counsel to the Judiciary Committee, Justice Stephen Breyer might have been a more pragmatic target of overtures. Walter Dellinger, a former solicitor general, mentioned to the White House counsel’s office during the Obama administration a plan he conceived to motivate Justice Breyer, a known Francophile, to start a next chapter.

    Codify it, make it clean, fair and transparent. 

  114. 114.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    Trump basically let Kennedy choose his own replacement to convince him to retire. This is gross. It isn’t supposed to be a personal interest that can be transferred.

  115. 115.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @SFAW: Context:

    Medicaid is a federal and state program that assists with medical costs for residents with limited incomes. 53 percent of Missouri voters approved Medicaid expansion in August, although it failed in 105 of the state’s 114 counties. Rural House members from those districts have led the opposition to funding Medicaid expansion.

    Says it all.

  116. 116.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @debbie: Why don’t you go to irs.gov and read the rules?  Then either claim the recovery rebate credit when you file your taxes or, if you have already filed, file an amended return to claim the credit.

  117. 117.

    germy

    This is a long thread, but I thought I’d share. Anyone here have thoughts on her reporting?

    2000: Rs block manual recount after memory card is found to have inexplicably deleted 16k votes from Gore’s total on a Diebold machine in Volusia county; no other races were impacted. Bush declared victorious by 537 votes. History forever altered. 1/

    — Jennifer Cohn ✍? ? (@jennycohn1) April 6, 2021

  122. 122.

    Mike in NC

    Today’s Washington Post reports:

    Corporate America isn’t welcoming former Trump Cabinet officials with open arms, headhunters say

    The toxicity of the former president’s brand is choking off traditional money-making opportunities for members of his inner circle.

    No shit?

  123. 123.

    Kay

    Net support for the American Jobs Plan:
    — Dems: +89
    — Independents: +43
    — Republicans: +19
    Net support for provisions of the plan:
    — Physical infrastructure: +61
    — Care economy: +56
    — US manufacturing: +40
    — Clean energy: +38
    — Housing: +33

    Care economy is +6! Surprisingly popular.
    People probably know they need someone to care for their elderly relatives and their children when they go to work- Fox news personalities have “household staff” for that :)

  127. 127.

    Soprano2

    @OzarkHillbilly: What’s dumbest about this is that the Medicaid expansion would help those rural counties a lot, probably more than the cities, but they’re convinced that “those people” in the cities will get all the benefit.

    It’s so funny, I’ve got a co-worker who keeps complaining that we can’t find people to hire because “no one wants to work because the government keeps giving them money”. I highly doubt most people in MO can live on what they’re getting from the government right now. A one time check of $1,400 doesn’t last long even down here. I think it’s so ironic that people believe that about areas that vote mostly for Republicans. LOL It it true that it’s really hard to find employees right now, for several different reasons. At the pub we’re having the same problem hiring people that every other restaurant is having right now – I think a lot of people left the industry due to the pandemic, and they’re slow to come back. It’s kind of a quandary when unemployment is 6% but hardly anyone applies for jobs.

  128. 128.

    JaneE

    I wonder what would happen if political news media spent their time on the competing policy options or the possible outcomes from them instead of who is being a jerk or feuding with whom.  What if “Mayhew on Insurance” level discussions could happen in the mainstream media, or even cable news regularly on any number of issues the country faces, with facts and logic and just some serious thought devoted to them? Immigration is one topic that cries out for such a discussion.

  129. 129.

    Barbara

    @Baud: ​I don’t remember all the rules, but I thought that senior status was voluntary between ages 65 and 70, and then mandatory thereafter. “Senior status” means almost nothing in terms of workload, unless the judge wants a reduced workload, but is viewed the same as a vacancy that can be filled before someone retires or dies.

  131. 131.

    Baud

    @Soprano2:

    It’s so funny, I’ve got a co-worker who keeps complaining that we can’t find people to hire because “no one wants to work because the government keeps giving we’re not paying them enough money”.

    Fixed.

  133. 133.

    Baud

    @Barbara:

    Beginning at age 65, a judge may retire at his or her current salary or take senior status after performing 15 years of active service as an Article III judge (65+15 = 80). A sliding scale of increasing age and decreasing service results in eligibility for retirement compensation at age 70 with a minimum of 10 years of service (70+10=80). Senior judges, who essentially provide volunteer service to the courts, typically handle about 15 percent of the federal courts’ workload annually.

    The incentives improved, but I don’t think it’s ever mandatory.

  136. 136.

    Barbara

    @Soprano2: I don’t know about Missouri specifically, but the main impact of Medicaid expansion in rural areas is to stem the loss of healthcare personnel, whether through hospital closures or workforce exodus or both.  Among other things, our cold war continuation of the Civil War is preventing any consensus for reimagining the delivery of urgent or emergency care, but especially in rural locations.   I am not actually wishing this on anyone, but eventually, some muckety muck’s kid is going to die en route to an emergency facility because it is so far away.  And there will be hand wringing and anguish and I will no longer care.

  138. 138.

    Ruckus

    @Kay:

    Agreed. This is a country that is supposed to be ruled by the people, specifically because the main one that spawned it (and many of the others involved) were really not.

    You can’t do that if they get replaced too often but also if they become lodged in the seat and claim ownership. It takes citizens to vote for people, and that includes actual participation, and to hold them responsible for actually functioning. Yes the supremes do have to be the at least somewhat the arbiters of the laws but I see that it’s time that they increase in number and have some sort of fixed term, of say 20 or 25 yrs. A government of the people, by the people and for the people only works when the people are actually involved and insuring that it does. Political office has to be more than a sinecure.

  139. 139.

    Kay

    @burnspbesq:

    Rachel Maddow, who I complain about, had an excellent piece on her show about how just about the entire corporate “community” leaned on the GOP to reauthorize the VRA in 2006.

    The big names were all there. Bush wanted it reauthorized but the GOP wingnuts in Congress were bucking him so corporations made it clear they wanted the VRA authorized, led by WAL MART.

    I had forgotten all about it. Not only has this “happened before” it happened in 2006. This is the SECOND time corporate actors have pressured Republicans to protect voting rights.

     

    I was hoping someone would get it to Biden. It’s a good defense.

  142. 142.

    Kay

    @Ruckus:

    I completely agree that they should be insulated from political churn, so I wouldn’t want anything campaign-like, but a set term is just a function of the passage of time so therefore impersonal and “fair”.

    I wouldn’t want a lot of chaos either- 25 years is a good long term. You would think they might see the benefit in ending this absolutely ghoulish tracking of their health, for one thing. My husband frets because Sotomayor is a diabetic and he’s thrilled with her criminal defense issues approach. Too personal! Get out of her bidness.

  143. 143.

    Barbara

    @burnspbesq: What would be amusing if the consequences weren’t so dire is that these politicians seem not to understand that businesses might be making a business decision to support civil rights or expanded voter access.  That as a business matter, they don’t actually benefit from and might even be harmed by what have become extreme efforts to protect rule by white Christian minority.  Who actually goes to baseball games? Who travels? Who uproots themselves to go work for Microsoft’s satellite division in Atlanta — a techie friend of my daughter’s was so spooked by the idea of living in a state that was hostile to gay people that he factored that into which jobs he wanted to pursue.  In their cartoonish view of the world, they don’t know where to insert white people that don’t fit the mold of those they run into in church on Sunday.

  144. 144.

    L85NJGT

    @Barbara:

    The no expansion option is to toss trauma cases onto a chopper, and grandma gets driven 4 hours round trip to see her specialist.

  145. 145.

    Barbara

    @L85NJGT: Yes, I am well aware, but if your kid has an asthma attack or allergic reaction, that won’t be much help.  And Grandma won’t actually get to the specialist because she has no transportation most of the time.  Which is actually true, and one reason why even EMTs don’t like serving rural communities — they don’t get paid if they don’t deliver someone to a hospital, and increasingly, people refuse transport to a distant hospital because they have no way back.  Transportation is a HUGE underreported issue on the accessibility to care.

  146. 146.

    Barbara

    @Baud: Maybe they changed the rules or I just don’t remember them correctly.  It has been a long time since I worked for someone who was considering senior status.

  147. 147.

    SFAW

    @NotMax:

    The International Criminal Court is sending its officers to arrest you for Crimes Against Humanity (i.e., for those abominations)

  149. 149.

    J R in WV

    @The Oracle of Solace: ​
     

    I could improvise better questions than they’re asking Psaki. When the White House Press Corpse sends its reporters, they’re not sending their best. They’re sending people that have lots of problems. They’re bringing dumb questions. They’re lazy. And some, I assume, are good people.

    Fixed that for you !

  150. 150.

    Geminid

    @Kay: So support for the American Jobs Act among indepents is +43%. Were I a Republican politican, I would look at that number with some alarm. In more and more states, Republicans have no path to victory without carrying a majority of independent voters.

    But these days, Republican politicians are more apt just to work hard to persuade the minority of Republicans favoring the AJA that they are wrong, and work even harder to reassure their backwards majority that they are right.

  152. 152.

    J R in WV

    @Mary G:

    Politico seems to be getting worse and worse. The other day they said that Andrew Yang was the leading Asian-American pol in America. As if.

    Well, Mary G, he’s the only Asian-American pol that Politico writer could think of at the moment, and they couldn’t be bothered to look up the dozens actually in Congress — or the Vice President, her own self.

    Here are just a few Asian members of congress, also members of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC):

    It took me 2 minutes to google up this list, all of whom are more successful politicians than Mr Yang, who has never won a race. Politico is not actually a journalistic medium at all~!~

  154. 154.

    J R in WV

    @germy:

    2000: Rs block manual recount after memory card is found to have inexplicably deleted 16k votes from Gore’s total on a Diebold machine in Volusia county; no other races were impacted. Bush declared victorious by 537 votes. History forever altered. 1/

    — Jennifer Cohn ✍? ? (@jennycohn1) April 6, 2021

    “inexplicably” Right!

    Diebold, so probably no audit trail, either.

    Their ATMs all have an audit trail for every transaction, but not the voting machines, because that isn’t as important as $5.

    Right? Sure!

  155. 155.

    Kay

    @Geminid:

    I saw a tv ad for the jobs act last night. I don’t know who is paying for it. It was good, “calling all (bricklayers, electricians, carpenters…etc) – ends with Build Back Better. Very pickup-trucky ad.

    Kind of ODDLY targeted to the construction trades but overall a good ad :)

    I’m amused because there’s a theme with the D efforts on “caring”- the people who do that work, home health care, etc. They’re 80% women and majority/minority. So not very pickup trucky at all.

    Obama did a rule change to put them under labor laws that they have been exempted from. There’s a consistent policy push here, sort of hidden in a giant bill.

  157. 157.

    J R in WV

    @Mary G:

    Politico seems to be getting worse and worse. The other day they said that Andrew Yang was the leading Asian-American pol in America. As if.

    Well, first off they left out Vice President Kamala Harris, and then I Googled and found this quick list of Asian caucus members, all of whom have won an election, as Mr. Yang has not.

    Chair: Judy Chu (D) (CA-27)
    First Vice-Chair: Grace Meng (D) (NY-06)
    Second Vice-Chair: Mark Takano (D) (CA-41)
    Whip: Ted Lieu (D) (CA-33)
    Freshman Representative: Kaialiʻi Kahele (D) (HI-02)

    Executive board members:

    Senator Tammy Duckworth (D) (Illinois)
    Representative Ami Bera (D) (CA-07)
    Representative Pramila Jayapal (D) (WA-07)
    Representative Ro Khanna (D) (CA-17)
    Representative Andy Kim (D) (NJ-03)
    Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi (D) (IL-08)
    Representative Barbara Lee (D) (CA-13)
    Representative Doris Matsui (D) (CA-06)

    I posted this once, and every name had two links in Wiki, so I redid it without links by passing the text through a text editor not sensitive to links. Took me a couple of minutes to look up the list, another minute to strip the links. I would think any Asian politician that won an election would be ahead of a pol who has never won an election of any sort.

  158. 158.

    SFAW

    @WaterGirl:

    Is the MF for motherfucker?

    Of course. I used to write “RWNJs,” but “nutjobs” (or “nut jobs”) did not really capture their vileness sufficiently.

  159. 159.

    Steeplejack

    @germy:

    That is an excellent thread! It aggregates stuff I have read over the years in other places and brings in some stuff I didn’t know. Bookmarked for future reference.

    And, yes, it’s infuriating!

  160. 160.

    SFAW

    @Kay:

    When I first scanned those numbers, I misread the Indies as 43 percent approval, not plus-43, and got nervous.

    Reading comprehension — how do it work?

  162. 162.

    trnc

    @Baud: He basically said, if you ignore the worst parts of the bill, it’s not so bad. Mika’s pushback was nice.

    “I went to my neighbor’s house for a cookout a couple of months ago. Pretty nice spread, and had a keg of my favorite. I know he murdered the guy across the street last week, but if you can get past that …”

  163. 163.

    StringOnAStick

    @Kay: We have a new friend who did a John Cole political conversion; he’s a paving supervisor and hearing about his underlings is depressing. Everything is Biden’s fault no matter what it is. They are currently doing night work on a local highway and he constantly has to tell them to put in a mask when they get in his truck for instructions, telling him “wow, you believe this fake crap?” .

    I’m hoping the union members are smart enough to see the avalanche of jobs that will come from the infrastructure bill; these paving crew members are apparently not that smart or unionised around here.

  165. 165.

    Kay

    @StringOnAStick:

    My middle son is a union electrician and he says the same thing. I represent a lot of people in the carpenter’s union (they talk to each other, so they send co-workers to someone they know) and some of it is just a kind of knee jerk bitching they do. It’s the same with farmers. Things are always terrible, wah, wah. I don’t think they mean it- it’s just the culture of their workplace. You’re street smart if you’re not fooled by these politicians, like that.

  166. 166.

    Miss Bianca

    @germy: Even in the “throes of passion”? Ick.

    “Throes of passion” = “Hey, kid, stop squirming for a minute, I gotta take this call. You want to say “hi” to Donald? I call him ‘Donald’, you have to call him ‘sir’.”

    Yes, I can manage to squick myself out on occasion.

  168. 168.

    Yutsano

    @debbie:

    The only thing I’ve ever found was the page where you could find out the status of the payments. No help there.

    If you way to the bottom of the page, you’ll see the status of the first two payments. It says they’re no longer being issued and takes you to the eligibility for the Recovery Rebate Credit page. There it will tell you to either claim it on line 30 of your 1040 or 1040SR* or if your return has already been filed then claim it on line 6 of a 1040X, Amended Tax Return.

    And that’s from the horse’s mouth, more or less.

  170. 170.

    Geminid

    @StringOnAStick: A lot of the younger and middle-aged white  tradesmen around central Virginia also have a shallow conservative bias, reinforced by their common culture. I say shallow because while they surely gripe a lot, most of them do not vote.

  171. 171.

    Kay

    @Geminid:

    I think there’s validity to the idea that less engaged people trust a party on an or some issues, but not others.  I just think trust is really, really important and undervalued as something that matters.

    So, for example, Democrats have a huge advantage on trust in handling health care and education, but perhaps less of an advantage in things like “infrastructure” or “security”

    It isn’t fair, really, and so that upsets us, but it’s true I think. So if Democrats propose shoring up the “care economy” people are like “oh, that’s their thing, they’re always on that” and they trust us on that stuff so they approve.

  172. 172.

    Mai Naem mobile

    @debbie: Doocy is so bad at his job that he makes Psaki look even better doing her job than the awesome job she’s already doing.  Not even sure how that is possible. I can’t believe Fox doesn’t have somebody better than Doocy.

  173. 173.

    Sebastian

    I am a big fan of incentives and assigning responsibility.

    The long lines and voter purges could be dealt with by passing a law that every eligible voter who wanted to vote (by mail, standing in line, etc) but couldn’t doesn’t have to pay Federal taxes for six years. Instead, the state has to pay the Federal government including a penalty.

    The first payments have to come from taxation and liquidation of up to 90% salaries and assets of, in this order: the governor and vice governor, secretary of state, cabinet, members of the majority in state congress in the year leading up the election.

    Or something similar with real teeth.

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