Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Don’t expect peaches from an apple tree.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

In my day, never was longer.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Republicans don’t trust women.

If you are still in the GOP, you are an extremist.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

We’ll be taking my thoughts and prayers to the ballot box.

Bark louder, little dog.

Ah, the different things are different argument.

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

White supremacy is terrorism.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Thursday Morning Open Thread: President Joe Biden, Media Star

Thursday Morning Open Thread: President Joe Biden, Media Star

by | 222 Comments

This post is in: , ,

Thank you, Zhena Goglia:


Thank you, Mary G:

Last note from the Guardian liveblog:

… The president pitched reforms that have bipartisan support – among voters, if not lawmakers

Biden proposed major reforms to gun control and policing, and made a major pitch to protect voting rights. Republican lawmakers have fought the administration and their Democratic colleagues on all three issues. But polls indicate that though the country remains deeply divided on many issues, there’s actually broad, bipartisan support among voters for the president’s proposals.

About two-thirds of Americans support tougher gun laws, a USA TODAY/Ipsos Poll found after the mass shootings in Atlanta and Boulder this year. “The country supports reform, and the Congress should act,” Biden said.

A March Morning Consult poll found that about 7 out of 10 voters, including majorities of Republicans, support the House’s sweeping elections reform measure. And while Republicans have big reservations about the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, the reform bill introduced by Democrats in Congress, polls indicate they largely support many of its provisions.

Republicans, who have routinely denigrated and voted against Biden’s proposals, including his widely popular coronavirus relief plan and proposed infrastructure plan, have found themselves in an odd position of having to convince voters that they don’t actually want what they want.

On social media, the Fox target audience are very angry at Chris Wallace…

Yep.

Just in case anyone cares…

Reader Interactions

222Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    This is by far the best economic proposal by a president in my lifetime. Not even close. So much beyond Obama, never mind Clinton or Cater.

    That’s kind of what progress looks like. We could have more of it if we stop cutting it off at the knees.

  4. 4.

    John S.

    @Baud: It’s amazing anything is getting done at all right now.

    Scott’s response was predictably ridiculous, full of lies, grievances and an upside down version of reality. The GQP is 100% in thrall to TFG and there is no going back.

    Bowman’s response was predictably unnecessary.

  7. 7.

    debbie

    Four little words has changed everything: “Trickle down doesn’t work.”

    Scott’s response was just appalling.

  8. 8.

    David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch

    That photo of Kamala is evocative of Norman Rockwell’s “The Problem We All Live With” (photo)

  10. 10.

    Baud

    Everyone is rightly praising Biden for speaking about trickle down economics.  But as Jim, Foolish Literalist pointed out last night, Obama did as well.  People are just more attentive now.

  11. 11.

    David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch

    “Sleepy Ted” and “Ted Snooze” were trending on Twitter, last night.

    HA!

  16. 16.

    debbie

    @Baud:

    I remember. I was there. But I don’t think previous practitioners were as blatantly determined to starve the middle and lower classes.

  19. 19.

    Baud

    Congressional Democrats are planning to pursue a massive expansion of Medicare as part of President Biden’s new $1.8 trillion economic relief package, defying the White House after it opted against including a major health overhaul as part of its plan.

     

    The early pledges from some party lawmakers, led by prominent members of its liberal wing, threaten to create even more political tension around a package that is already facing no shortage of it. The expansion push comes even as Biden on Wednesday stressed in his first address to Congress that he is still committed to making health care more affordable.

     

    White House proposes $1.8 trillion package that would dramatically expand education, safety net programs

     

    Democrats specifically aim to lower the eligibility age for Medicare to either 55 or 60, expand the range of health services the entitlement covers and grant the government new powers to negotiate prescription drug prices. Party lawmakers say their approach could offer new, improved or cheaper coverage to millions of older Americans nationwide.

  20. 20.

    oldster

    I’ve noticed that this site is functioning a lot like a twitter aggregation site recently, and I like it.
    I don’t have or want a twitter account, so this is a service.
    I wish they loaded faster, tho.

  23. 23.

    David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch

    President Biden such a decent, experienced, and serious man. Surrounded by extremely competent and honest Cabinet. He has a grand and coherent vision that he will be hard pressed to deliver. Needs to keep his eye on win for 2022 and 2024 elections. Barry R McCaffrey (@mccaffreyr3) April 29, 2021

    general salute

    No one will have to endure inane punditry that Biden has finally “grown into the presidency.” He is comfortable in his new job — and determined to do big things. https://t.co/HV8fjKeFSw— Jennifer 'pro-voting' Rubin (@JRubinBlogger) April 29, 2021

    I, for one, welcome our new friends.

  25. 25.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    Meanwhile, Glenn Greenwald is incensed, INCENSED, I tell you, about Biden’s statement about the danger the 1/6 insurrection posed to the structural basis of our shared representative democracy.

    As if the sitting president sending a white supremacist mob to attack a co-equal branch of government after he convincingly lost an election (and was desperate to hang on to power) posed an existential threat to freedom on a level commensurate with the perfidy of Bush having a system in place where Glibertarian dudebro brony porn habits would be reachable via a judicially approved search warrant.

  27. 27.

    Jeffro

    I had a little fun last night trolling the RWNJs in my life, with comments along the lines of Heath Mayo’s tweet. “Remember? Remember all the Fox folks and GQP officials who tried to get you to believe Uncle Joe couldn’t string two sentences together?” Wink wink nudge nudge.

    None of them, of course, could respond with a “yeah…good point…I’ll have to watch that in the future”.
    Nope. Couldn’t possibly LEARN from this experience (or the ‘Biden meat ban’, or the ‘Kamala’s book for every immigrant kid’ or or or). Only thing worse than suckers are willing suckers.

  30. 30.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    By the way, my repetition of his name is like the old “Bloody Mary” tween party trick. I figure I invoke it enough, he’ll start sock-puppeting in like he does at LGM.

  31. 31.

    prostratedragon

    @The Thin Black Duke:
    Camera caught Manchin nodding in his amen corner when President spoke of kevlar-wearing deer and their non-existence. So maybe he’s onboard at least with that, without friction.

  32. 32.

    Kay

    The American Families Plan would provide universal preschool to all 3- and 4-year-olds, as well as two years of free community college. Both programs would be available regardless of income.

    This is already true in a lot of places and it’s genuinely, broadly popular. In Ohio the universal free college part, College Credit Plus, was put in by a Republican so no Republicans noticed it’s free college :)

  35. 35.

    Baud

    At 100 Days, Biden Is Transforming What It Means to Be a Democrat

    NYT > Top Stories / by Lisa Lerer and Annie Karni / 1h

     

    A lifelong centrist, President Biden has moved leftward with his party, and early in his tenure is driving the biggest expansion of American government in decades.

    “Transforming” should be “Reflecting.”

  38. 38.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    I actually thought about that with the “jobs” part of the plan. The supply side. I feel like we are at full employment here. Menards, a giant hardware store chain, is now up to $20.05 an hour for warehouse workers.

  40. 40.

    Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman)

    I was flipping channels and briefly watched a bit of Fox & Friends.

    They were discussing the NY COVID Nursing Home scandal, and the person the anchor interviewed was Janice Dean.

    Apparently being Fox News’s senior meteorologist qualifies you for national TV political commentary as well as forecasting the weather.

    I guess I’ll ask local meteorologist Ron Rhodes for his opinion on the last Evansville City Council meeting.

  43. 43.

    Suzanne

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:

    Meanwhile, Glenn Greenwald is incensed, INCENSED, I tell you, about Biden’s statement about the danger the 1/6 insurrection posed to the structural basis of our shared representative democracy. 

    When will he just go the hell away? He’s already slid 100% into clown.

  44. 44.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    It’s fun to watch it “trickle down”. You cannot buy a lower end used car here. They go in 20 minutes. They’re all upgrading from “jalopy” (as Joe Biden calls them) to “my car mostly runs” and they’re doing it in cash without predatory financing terms.

  48. 48.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Baud:

    I’m thinking it would be fun to crowdfund a bounty for anyone who hacks the contents of Glenn Greenwald’s cellphone texts, Twitter DMs and email accounts.  You know, information wants to be free, and if the invaders aren’t state actors, that’s OK in his world.

  49. 49.

    David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch

    The Bible tells us, “peace will reign in the kingdom and the lion will lie down with the lamb”

    Barbara Lee with General Milley and Lloyd Austin (photo)

  50. 50.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Kay: Now if Menards would only treat their employees like human beings. (which from what I hear of the Menards distribution center in town here, is the real reason they are always hiring)

  52. 52.

    Humanities Prof

    @Kay: Their motivations in creating College Credit Plus weren’t nearly that benign, IMHO.  It also had a lot to do with crippling the state’s higher education system.

    Maybe that’s too cynical, though given the behavior of our state government, I wouldn’t bet a lot of money on that.  I have no problem with efforts to reduce the cost of a college education–I’m very much in favor of that.  But the way CCP does that creates a lot of funding problems for four-year higher ed institutions, because it’s created a very large, and mostly unfunded mandate.

    If you want to be charitable about CCP, it was a program created by people who had good intentions, but didn’t think through the implications of what they were doing.  Opening up college classes to some high schoolers would be fine, but the gateways for CCP are way too low.  There’s a reason children learn to walk before they run, and there’s a reason most kids should finish high school before they start taking college classes.

    If you want to be less charitable, CCP encourages students to take classes at community colleges, or through their high schools, which deprives four-year institutions of students and cuts into their revenue.  This has occurred in a climate where the state government has already been, shall we say, less than generous with higher ed funding.   Even when CCP students take classes through four-year institutions, they receive a steeply-discounted tuition rate.   It’s going to have some pretty substantial consequences for Ohio colleges and universities (they’ve already started).  Whether or not that’s viewed as a feature or a bug, I can’t say with certainty.

  54. 54.

    Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman)

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Now if Menards would only treat their employees like human beings. (which from what I hear of the Menards distribution center in town here, is the real reason they are always hiring)

    The local TJ Maxx distribution center has constantly been hiring since they opened in 1986.

    I started at $5.50/hr in 1996 and was making $13.20/hr with benefits when I left in 2014.

    Some of my jobs there sucked and some were OK, but out of the 40 people I hired in with, I was the only one still there when I quit.

  55. 55.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    I only managed to tune in about 9:45 but I feel like everything people are talking about happened in that last half hour. So I’m not sure what I missed.

    Feels good to be American this morning, doesn’t it?

  58. 58.

    Kay

     

    @Humanities Prof:

    Thanks. That makes sense, that it would cut into university budgets. For our kids it would be “community college budgets” because that’s where 99% of them get the credit classes.

    It is nice for “advanced” kids in rural areas. My oldest child was a very good student and he blew thru all the advanced high school courses early. We had to ask for him to be able to attend and then we paid for his community college classes when he was in high school, which we can afford and I didn’t mind, but this gives lower income good students advanced classes they wouldn’t get otherwise.

    His first job out of college wasn’t based on the college degree- it was based on a computer systems cert he got in high school, at a community college.

  59. 59.

    gvg

    @Raven: A factor in jobs for college students is how well they schedule. College students need employers that don’t frequently “forget” which hours they are unavailable (in class). They mostly need a pretty regular schedule the whole semester. Some managers are a LOT better at it than others, and students wise up and leave jobs that screw them like that. In a college town, some employers get it and some don’t.

  60. 60.

    Kay

    @raven:

    I got an unsolicited offer to buy my house by a young couple I did not know, at a funeral last weekend.

    It took me a minute to figure out what they were asking. It’s just unheard of here- we don’t have real estate booms.

  61. 61.

    CliosFanBoy

    @raven: almost the same here with my 2017 NIRO>  Lots of offers to buy it back.  I do want to trade up to a slightly larger KIA hybrid.  Maybe in the fall.  (I’ll give the 2017 to a cousin who could use it)

  63. 63.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @OzarkHillbilly: You kidding? I’d LOVE a shitty $2000 truck. Wife is putting her foot down right now, but that is going to be a thing for me this year.

  66. 66.

    randy khan

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: 

    By the way, my repetition of his name is like the old “Bloody Mary” tween party trick. I figure I invoke it enough, he’ll start sock-puppeting in like he does at LGM.

    Now that would be funny. I don’t think he would know how to handle BJ jackals. (Not that he fares particularly well on LGM.)

  69. 69.

    germy

    What was Boebert up to last night?

    Was her space blanket a statement against Biden’s border policy?

    And did she steal it from a child?

  70. 70.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Yeah, I’m kidding. I’m still on the first engine and tranny. I’m not advertising to sell it and have no idea what I could get for it, certainly not much. The last 5 years have not been kind to it, what with being run off the road twice, damaging bumpers and quarter panels in both instances, and the rust really is out of control.

  72. 72.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Baud:

    I can’t look at articles with the pictures of those guys without thinking “wow, how supreme these fine specimens of white Christian conservative chivalry and honor are. You can see it in their noble, empathetic visages.”

  73. 73.

    Soprano2

    @Kay:  Missouri has something like that too, it’s called the A+ Scholarship program, and it’s free community college for qualified students. Like you said, since Republicans did it they don’t notice that it’s free college. Did you know that Oklahoma, of all places, has free preschool for 3 & 4-year-olds? I was surprised to hear about that. Sometimes you find good programs in the strangest places, like Texas taking the lead in criminal justice reform because putting people in prison is just so darn expensive!

  76. 76.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @randy khan:

    I’m counting down the moments until Miranda ditches his sour ass – I can feel it coming, like a heavy thunderstorm. That’ll be a tantrum for the ages.

  77. 77.

    Humanities Prof

    @Kay: I could be wrong about this, but I don’t think community colleges get tagged nearly as hard as four-year institutions by CCP.  CCP students get discounted tuition, but community colleges cost less per credit hour already, and the discounted rate is closer to their baseline rate than it would be to the rate at a four-year school.  Also, CCP will boost the numbers in terms of enrolled students, so if they don’t mind increased class sizes, community colleges could, to a degree, make it up on volume (adding more students to a class doesn’t usually make the class more expensive to teach, unless it’s a class that’s got, say, a lab component, and those kinds of classes will have a cap due to available facilities).

    My other issue is that there were already avenues for high school students (like your oldest) to take college classes, though they were more limited pre-CCP.  In the early 2000s, I spent a few years working as an adjunct professor at a community college in Michigan, and I got my current position at a four-year school in Ohio in early 2012.

    In both of those positions, I always had a few high school students in my classes.  And they were great!  Because the ones who were getting in were the advanced students.  They could blow through my classes, no problem–they were often the very best students in those classes.

    But one of the consequences of CCP is that it’s really cut down the threshold requirements for high schoolers to take college classes.  A consequence of that, in turn, is that my colleagues and I are now seeing far more high school students in our classes.  And a lot of them have no business being there yet, because they’re not ready.

  78. 78.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: I feel like we are at full employment here.

    Man, here too. Our city’s unemployment rate is 3.9% – in college I was taught that’s full employment. Everyone is trying to hire people right now, and it’s hard. I think the almost complete halt of immigration the past 4 years is showing up now big time.

  79. 79.

    SFAW

    @Baud:

    I don’t know what you’re on about. It’s a well-known fact that both parties are the same, and there’s no difference between Bush and Gore Biden and TFG. In fact, Biden is worse, because the gold-shitting unicorn I remember him promising has not yet arrived.

  80. 80.

    hueyplong

    G Greenwald would disappear from this site the moment everyone started treating him as a snide Russian troll.

    Which is what he is.

  82. 82.

    Cameron

    I only watched the President’s speech, figuring that everything coming after it would be bullshit.  Sounds like I didn’t miss much.

  85. 85.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Suzanne: I will be mordantly amused the day the answer to the question Where’s Greenwald’oh?​ is Lying in a Rio dumpster with his blood pooling on its rusty bottom.

  86. 86.

    SFAW

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Sniff… nobody wants my beat up rustbucket ’05 Dodge pickemup.

    Oh, come on. Somebody in Misery must need a large-sized raised-bed garden. Throw a few loads of soil in the bed, and I bet it’ll sell ASAP.

    Then you can get a real pickup.*

    * I know next-to-nothing about pickups, so I don’t know how good a Dodge is, as compared to an F-150 or a Tundra or a Silverado or even an Oldsmobile pickup

  94. 94.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @SFAW:

    I need two things soon – about 20 yards of clean fill, and enough topsoil for a 5X5 raised bed that we’re putting in an unused 10X10 dog pen.

    Stuck with that because of the current proliferation of about 20 deer that love roaming our yard and eating everything in sight.

  96. 96.

    germy

    Question: is the American Jobs Plan a “liberal wish list” if two-thirds of voters support the plan?

    Asking for a friend. That friend is Tim Scott.

    — Jaime Harrison, DNC Chair (@harrisonjaime) April 29, 2021

  98. 98.

    Baud

    @SFAW: His defeat [Bork] saved abortion rights for three decades.  That may be coming to an end in the next couple of years, but it’s not nothing

    ETA:  I was able to fix this comment, but I can’t delete the next one.  Harrumph.

  99. 99.

    SFAW

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:

    Sounds like Ozark could get you halfway to the 5×5. And — although I’m not advocating this* — having a pickup-based raised bed would allow you to chase some of the deer away.

    * Being serious. My daughter recently saw a deer get hit by a fast moving car. She freaked, called me up shrieking, and I had to talk her down. So, not the kind of thing I want to happen.

  100. 100.

    SFAW

    @Baud:

    His defeat saved abortion rights for three decades.  That may be coming to an end in the next couple of years, but it’s not nothing.

    Garland’s defeat? I’m not following.

  102. 102.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Kay: I laughed like a loon when Preznit Uncle Joe said “jalopy” ‘cuz it made me thing of Dad. In his mid-20s during the 30s he loved to mess around with “jalopies” – his term for an auto that was a leetle too well-worn for polite society. He’d get hold of ’em for a song, fix ’em up & tool around.

    Many years after the fact, he recalled driving to pick up my future mom on their first date[1] in a wreck with cardboard[2] laid down in front of the front seats so passengers’ feet wouldn’t crash through the rusted-out floor to the road below. Now that is a near-textbook definition of “jalopy”!

    [1] To a semipro baseball game. When he told her he couldn’t sit with her she got all huffy – til he explained that he was the shortstop & leadoff hitter for one of the teams.

    [2] Cardboard in the 1930s was as a rule much more substantial than today, & was probably stronger than the original flooring – at least til it got wet.

  104. 104.

    Low Key Swagger

    For you people who know your trucks….I’m in a bit of a quandary.  Not a bad position to be in, but still something I need to address.  I have two pickups.  One is a fairly low mileage 2000 chevy 4×4 that I need around the farm.  It has a smaller V-8 which makes it less than ideal for road trips, it really struggles to keep up with 90mph traffic, which is the speed you must maintain or be run over.  I also have a 1996 3/4 ton chevy, 2 wheel drive, but it has a 350, real honest to dog sheet metal and is ideal for towing.  But I’m not comfortable taking it on long trips due to it’s age.  I’m tired of maintaining and insuring two trucks, but it seems nearly impossible to replace them with a single truck without coming out of pocket way more than I’d like.  I’m not comfortable in small cars and I need something to drive to see the kids.  Like I said, first world problem, but it’s a head scratcher for sure.

  105. 105.

    germy

    It is striking just how tedious & unoriginal the rhetoric was in Biden’s speech. Also, no outreach, no bipartisanship, no surprises, no warmth — a lifeless and dry address.

    — Stephen Miller (@StephenM) April 29, 2021

    The reviews are in – there was nothing in the speech for a white nationalist to feel good about. https://t.co/1EdhYxv9W5

    — Malaclypse (@Mal_A_Clypse) April 29, 2021

  107. 107.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @SFAW: I don’t know how good a Dodge is, as compared to an F-150 or a Tundra or a Silverado or even an Oldsmobile pickup

    One of these is not like the others.

    As far as brand goes, I know a lot of folks who wouldn’t buy anything BUT a Chevy, or Dodge, or Ford, etc etc ad nauseum. I have no brand loyalty. I’ve had Fords, Chevys, Dodges, even a Datsun (yes, I really am that old) and they were all good trucks, each in their own way.

  109. 109.

    Baud

    @SFAW: I think MJ mentioned Bork this morning, so I had him on the brain.  I clearly haven’t had enough coffee this morning.

  111. 111.

    Ken

    @germy: Jaime Harrison: two-thirds of voters support the plan?

    Well, you have to remember the US is a center-left nation…

  112. 112.

    Soprano2

    It’s so stunning to read just about any conservative comment thread on FB about the Biden administration and realize that they are convinced that Biden has dementia, and Obama/Pelosi/Harris/Soros is actually running everything! There is no speech that will persuade them otherwise – most of them think last night’s speech was as terrible as we thought TFG’s were. Lots of us thought TFG’s staff was actually running most things, but that was because it seemed like he never did anything except tweet and play golf.

  113. 113.

    satby

    @Soprano2: Here too! And I have been trying to reach out to less served communities (black churches and Hispanic advocacy groups) to let them know we have part time jobs available. So far not much interest, but I suspect it’s also because part time is all I’m recruiting for right now.

    This is a college town, and I do have two on staff right now. It is important to work around their schedules, when you do accommodate that way they stick with you for most of their college years.

  116. 116.

    SFAW

    @Baud:

    I clearly haven’t had enough coffee this morning.

    Can I send you some through the internet? I mean, it’s a series of tubes, right? So it should be able to handle fluids (although I expect you might need to reheat it).

    As for watching MJ: not sure why you feel the need to put yourself through that, but mine not to reason why.

  120. 120.

    SFAW

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    As far as I know. When the SFAW-ette first called, I thought she was the one who hit the deer; fortunately, she wasn’t. It sounded pretty bad — not a glancing blow, but a full-on impact, at least as far as the destruction to the deer indicated.

  121. 121.

    Soprano2

    @satby: Oh yeah, the best job I had in college was working in the cafeteria. I only had to work one weekend a month, and I could work during the day because they worked around my schedule. Every other job I had was unwilling to do that, so I had to work every weekend. It sucked, but the unemployment rate for college kids when I was in college was about 20%, so I was glad to have a job at all. I keep telling our manager that perhaps she should take a chance on a younger, relatively unexperienced person and train them. It couldn’t be worse than hiring an experienced person who after 5 weeks walks out in the middle of her Saturday night shift for reasons I think we still don’t know!

  122. 122.

    OzarkHillbilly

    A buddy of mine had to very careful in rain storms. If he hit a puddle too fast he got soaked by the water coming up from below. I once had a Ford Bronco that if I locked myself out of it, I could reach up from below, grab the door handle inside, and open it.

    @Uncle Cosmo: he recalled driving to pick up my future mom on their first date[1] in a wreck with cardboard[2] laid down in front of the front seats so passengers’ feet wouldn’t crash through the rusted-out floor to the road below.

  123. 123.

    There go two miscreants

    @Kay: ​“jalopy” (as Joe Biden calls them)

    “Jalopy” is a great word, and I hate to see it falling into disuse. (Happy to see people getting reliable transportation however!)

  125. 125.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Humanities Prof: ​Opening up college classes to some high schoolers would be fine, but the gateways for CCP are way too low.

    Nearly 40 years ago I was a graduate assistant in the computing center at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC). When we got our budget at the beginning of the academic year, Bernie (the boss) said, Spend half now and hold onto the rest to spend at midyear when we’ll see what we need.

    That year UMBC allowed anyone with a HS degree to enroll, and the student body swelled up like a main-sequence star entering red-giant stage.** Unfortunately waaaaay too many of the entering students weren’t ready for college, & a whole shitload dropped out at midyear. The administration, having set the budget on the basis of enrollment, freaked out & froze all expenditures – and we had to make do with what we’d bought at the beginning of the year.

    Next year when the budgets came out, Bernie said, Make the best guess you can of what we’ll need for the year and buy it. Spend every frickin’ penny of it, now. Yesterday if possible.

    ** Analogy specifically catering to astronomy-nerd Jackals. “The rest of you can look it up when you get home” (Tom Lehrer).

  126. 126.

    Soprano2

    @Baud: They’re really, really angry about Biden’s comment about the 1/6 insurrection. Like really, really, really incensed. They want everyone to forget about it, and Biden won’t let them.

  128. 128.

    Morzer

    The Trumpers seem to be moving from “Biden is senile” to “Biden is boring” and will no doubt arrive at “Biden should be banned by law from playing 11-dimensional chess” within a week or two.

  129. 129.

    Ken

    @germy: It also sounds like Stephen Miller never listened to his boss TFG; at least insofar as “tedious”, what with the repeated airing of grievances.

    I may cut some slack for “originality”, in that TFG often came up with phrases that surely had never before been spoken by any speaker of English, native or otherwise.

  130. 130.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Low Key Swagger: One is a fairly low mileage 2000 chevy 4×4 that I need around the farm.

    Me? I’d keep one or the other for just around the farm (no license no insurance), sell the other, and buy something that is good for road trips.

  131. 131.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @germy: Did not hear about this. Y’know, they really are a bunch of fucking clowns and goddamned embarrassments.

  132. 132.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @raven:As it happens I might be in the market for a “low-mileage 2018 Niro” (presuming you haven’t wrapped it around a Nawth Geawgea tree…) Should I axe one of the FPers to pass along my e-mail to see if we can eliminate the middleman? ;^D ​

  135. 135.

    hueyplong

    @Ken: I’m trying to figure out how Stephen Miller could type either “bipartisan” or “warmth” without melting as if he were in a late scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark.

  136. 136.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Soprano2: that was because it seemed like he never did anything except tweet and play golf.

    Credit where credit is due: He watched a lot of FOX news too!

  137. 137.

    Jeffro

    @germy: a N.Y. court just dismissed his appeal as moot since he’s no longer a sitting president.

    I’m looking forward to the flood that will follow when this particular dam breaks.  It’ll be an every-other-day thing for months…

  138. 138.

    Ken

    @germy: a N.Y. court just dismissed his appeal as moot since he’s no longer a sitting president.

    Anyone want to lay odds on whether TFG appeals on the grounds that he is still president?

    (Hoping it will get all the way to the Supreme Court, and then — Victory! Vindication! Vengeance!)

  139. 139.

    Immanentize

    @OzarkHillbilly: I snuck a bearded Spock version of you into my Con Law exam — a State of Misery Senator named Tom “Preach” Ozark.  My students already think I’m off my nut.

    They are right to think so.  ?

  140. 140.

    germy

    She thinks she’s funny.

    I’ve got to give credit where credit is due.

    Staying up for two whole hours after Jeopardy & Wheel of Fortune got off the air must NOT have been easy for Joe.

    — Lauren Boebert (@laurenboebert) April 29, 2021

  141. 141.

    Jeffro

    @Morzer: The Trumpers seem to be moving from “Biden is senile” to “Biden is boring” and will no doubt arrive at “Biden should be banned by law from playing 11-dimensional chess” within a week or two

    that was trumpov’s old ‘tell’ – how you knew that something had really hit the mark – he would call it ‘boring’.

    Like when the NYT published that lengthy article on his family’s multigenerational tax fraud schemes.  That was ‘boring’, according to former guy.

  143. 143.

    Low Key Swagger

    @OzarkHillbilly: Leaning that way, because I need 4×4 here.  I still need to haul material and what not into town so license and insurance are necessary.  I guess I’m shocked by what used trucks go for, especially when the 3/4 ton supposedly won’t bring that much.  Selling it for 5k is out of the question.  You might find this amusing…I saw a very straight 1980’s model GMC Sierra Classic, (TMU)  Asking price?  29k.  I kid you not.

  145. 145.

    Ksmiami

    @Baud: we will disband the fucking court over that. It’s already a joke but Mark my words, if the 6 enrobed twats try to superimpose Opus Dei on the rest of us, they will be burnt to the ground

  146. 146.

    Jeffro

    @Soprano2: They’re really, really angry about Biden’s comment about the 1/6 insurrection. Like really, really, really incensed. They want everyone to forget about it, and Biden won’t let them.

    Oh no doubt.

    They know all of that stuff is still hanging out there.  500+ people charged already.  Likely ‘inside job’ work from some of their own members.

    Worse yet, most GQPers continued with the ‘contest the election’ crap later that very night.  And even the ones who condemned former guy fell right back in line, Kinzinger and Cheney excepted.

    former guy’s gone and they know they’re STILL going to have to pay the price.  Too bad, so sad.

  147. 147.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Kay: ​I got an unsolicited offer to buy my house by a young couple I did not know, at a funeral last weekend.

    It took me a minute to figure out what they were asking. It’s just unheard of here- we don’t have real estate booms.

    Shee-yit, hon, I get a dozen or more offers to buy either my home or my rental property (both row houses in blue-collar enclaves of the Greater Bawlmer metro area, not zackly a roaring market) every month. Letters, postcards, voice mail on home or cell phone. All from vulture capitalists looking for somewhat dilapidated properties, hoping for a financially-strapped owner who’ll sell for maybe half what they’re worth. Fix up, flip, profit. Fuck ’em.

  150. 150.

    Baud

    @Ksmiami:

    I doubt it.  Abortion rights can be fixed through legislation.  If we disband the court, it’ll probably be over because of a horrible ruling on race or religion that elections can’t fix.

  151. 151.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Immanentize:I snuck a bearded Spock version of you

    I’m afraid to ask.

    a State of Misery Senator named Tom “Preach” Ozark.

    Oh gawd…

    My students already think I’m off my nut.

    I’ll bet it didn’t take them long to reach that conclusion.

  154. 154.

    Soprano2

    @Uncle Cosmo: All from vulture capitalists looking for somewhat dilapidated properties, hoping for a financially-strapped owner who’ll sell for maybe half what they’re worth. Fix up, flip, profit. Fuck ’em.

    We get that stuff too because we live on the poor side of town. I’ve been seeing those “we buy ugly houses” billboards for a couple of years now. Last time I saw those was during the Great Recession.

  156. 156.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: As if the sitting president sending a white supremacist mob to attack a co-equal branch of government after he convincingly lost an election (and was desperate to hang on to power) posed an existential threat to freedom on a level commensurate with the perfidy of Bush having a system in place where Glibertarian dudebro brony porn habits would be reachable via a judicially approved search warrant.

    Hold on, are you saying Greenwald is a furry, he’s terrified his kink is going to get out and that’s the bug up his south end?  I mean that would make way to much sense and far to typical in this day and age.

  157. 157.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @germy:

    “…lifeless and dry…” describes Mrs. Miller every time he comes into the bedroom with that special glare in his eye.

  158. 158.

    artem1s

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:

    I’m thinking it would be fun to crowdfund a bounty for anyone who hacks the contents of Glenn Greenwald’s cellphone texts, Twitter DMs and email accounts.  You know, information wants to be free, and if the invaders aren’t state actors, that’s OK in his world.

    great idea!

  161. 161.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Low Key Swagger: I saw a very straight 1980’s model GMC Sierra Classic, (TMU) Asking price? 29k. I kid you not.

    It has gotten stupidly insane. Don’t even talk about new trucks. My one regret about my current truck is it’s a half ton. 3/4 ton would do me a whole lot of good for hauling my overloaded trailer, especially when it comes to skid loaders and trac-hoes.

  162. 162.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @germy: She thinks she’s funny.

    She is, but looks aren’t everything. Not even in the “isn’t-it-sad-when-cousins-marry” sense.

  163. 163.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Soprano2: How could I forget that?!!

    Easy, you want to forget everything about him, just blot out those 4 years as tho it were all just a bad dream.

  164. 164.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    this is interesting

    Kyle Griffin @kylegriffin1 2h
    Big-name Republicans are skipping a matchup against Sen. Raphael Warnock in 2022. “The fact that there’s not a household name announced yet in the Republican race is nothing short of astounding.”

    There are basically two primaries: One in Georgia and one in Mar-a-Lago,” Watson said of Trump’s Florida estate. “And until the primary in Mar-a-Lago settles itself, you won’t see the field in Georgia settled either.”

    trump, with his keen understanding of “someone I saw on TV who likes me” and “he’s a Black guy, too”, wants Herschel Walker to move from Texas to Georgia to run against the Pastor of Ebeneezer Baptist Church

  165. 165.

    Soprano2

    @OzarkHillbilly: Easy, you want to forget everything about him, just blot out those 4 years as tho it were all just a bad dream.

    No lie told here. It’s like Covid – I think in a couple of years we’ll look back on the Covid years like a bad dream, and wonder “Did that really happen?”. Unfortunately, the answer to that question will be “yes”. It makes me so happy that TFG has almost completely disappeared from the news. He put out a statement about the Oscars a couple of days ago, and hardly anyone even noticed it. It took too long, but kicking TFG off Twitter is the best decision they ever made. It made him almost invisible.

  168. 168.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Soprano2: the fact that he got all worked up about the Oscars, including something about “the Oscars, as they are now known [ed: since I think some time in the 1930s] instead of the much classier Academy Awards, classy like gilt mirrors mounted on marble!” says so much about the man who occupied the Oval Office for four years

    He was also bragging about how much Kim Jong Un liked him again.

  170. 170.

    Ken

    @WaterGirl: And I added [Bork] to the original comment.

    May I say that editing other people’s comments is JUST ABOUT THE NICEST SERVICE ON THIS WONDERFUL BLOG.  I have serious concerns that OTHER BLOGS ARE COMPLETELY SPOILED FOR ME.  For example does Cole KNOW WHAT A GOOD PERSON YOU ARE?

  173. 173.

    ...now I try to be amused

    @raven:

    The local KIA dealer has been trying to buy back our low-mileage 2018 Niro every week!

    The Toyota dealer emailed me wanting to buy my 1999 Camry. They’re six years too late.

  174. 174.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Ken: Nope, an American. These symptoms are shared by both Republicans and Americans but a diagnosis will show sharp differences in other symptoms as the underlying infections are entirely different, even tho the source is the same. One attacks the human body as a virus (like covid) and can be contracted just thru proximity with a host organism. The other is a prion disease (think Mad Cow) and can only be contracted thru consumption of the diseased organism.

  175. 175.

    a thousand flouncing lurkers was fidelio

    @John S.: Bowman was speaking to his broader constituency, just as Scott was. In both cases, the message was “We’re sticking with you, and will continue to push for what you want,” although Bowman at least had actual progress to point to.

    Politicians don’t necessarily speak to all of us; both Bowman and Scott are dealing with fractious, easily agitated political factions who require a lot of tending, lest they chase after the next shiny thing or lose interest altogether.

  177. 177.

    Geminid

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I was a little surprised when former Congressman Doug Collins (Idiot-Habersham) said he would not run for Warnock’s Senate seat. Collins certainly wanted to be a Senator last year, when he challenged Loeffler in the jungle primary. Makes me wonder if there is a story there.

  178. 178.

    artem1s

    @Humanities Prof:

    I could be wrong about this, but I don’t think community colleges get tagged nearly as hard as four-year institutions by CCP.

    I think you could be right about that.  The past few GOP governors and GOP dominated boards of regents have been pressuring state universities to shut down programming that they want to fund only at OSU (go Gym Jordan!).  Couple of years back they tried to pressure Cleveland State University to shut down the Marshall College of Law and Akron U to shut down their med and nursing schools – because why wouldn’t a kid prefer to go downstate and mingle with drunken frat boys celebrating the awesomeness of shower peepers and junk gropers.  Budget cuts must be made, dontchaknow (gotta make sure we have $,$$$,$$$ to pay ex-coaches who had to retire in disgrace a living wage! *cough*Tressel*cough*).  The rural branch campuses for the four year U’s have especially been hit hard with budget cuts.  A lot of these programs are holding on only because donor intent for endowed programs makes it hard to close them completely on the main campuses.  The community colleges are a big help to the rural poor and middle class for the jobs training, tech and adult education programs, but not so good for professional level classes kids need to transfer to a 4 year professional program.

  179. 179.

    Kay

    @Uncle Cosmo:

    My daughter and her husband can’t find a house to buy in NY. I asked them to stop telling me about it because they’re making offers over asking and that upsets me too much :)

    Making offers over asking and not getting. Nightmare. I don’t want the details.

  181. 181.

    Steeplejack

    C’mon, man! “U.S. Catholic bishops may press Biden to stop taking Communion”:

    When U.S. Catholic bishops hold their next national meeting in June, they’ll be deciding whether to send a tougher-than-ever message to President Joe Biden and other Catholic politicians: Don’t receive Communion if you persist in public advocacy of abortion rights.

    At issue is a document that will be prepared for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops by its Committee on Doctrine, with the aim of clarifying the church’s stance on an issue that has repeatedly vexed the bishops in recent decades. It’s taken on new urgency now, in the eyes of many bishops, because Biden, only the second Catholic president, is the first to hold that office while espousing clear-cut support for abortion rights.

    “Because President Biden is Catholic, it presents a unique problem for us,” said Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City, Kansas, who chairs the USCCB’s Committee on Pro-Life Activities. “It can create confusion. . . . How can he say he’s a devout Catholic and he’s doing these things that are contrary to the church’s teaching?”

    I guess then they’ll go after all those Catholics who are using birth control?

    Some Catholic academics are uneasy about the document.

    “Are you really going to deny Communion for the president of the United States? . . . I don’t see anything constructive coming out of it,” said Margaret McGuinness, a religion professor at La Salle University.

    She noted that a majority of U.S. Catholics, according to polls, say abortion should be legal in at least some cases.

    Steven Millies, a professor of public theology at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, said the Catholic church received significant financial support in recent years from conservative philanthropists who are skeptical of Francis and favored Donald Trump over Biden in the 2020 election.

    “What we’re seeing now is an effort to please donors who want a church which will wage a culture war,” Millies said.

  182. 182.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: Making offers over asking and not getting. Nightmare. I don’t want the details.

    Then don’t read the article I read about houses around Lake of the Ozarks. It’s insane right now in some places. Even here, houses don’t stay on the market more than a couple of weeks. It’s because new construction has lagged demand, and investors bought up a huge amount of single family houses after the Great Recession and turned them into rentals.

  183. 183.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Kay: a friend in Chicago told me mid-size suburban houses (I know that covers a lot ground) are going for 15-30K over asking, and I read somewhere that Chicago is fairly calm compared to the west coast (from LA up to Seattle) and…. Idaho. Idaho is apparently a hot market. Houses in Seattle are getting bids over-ask with no contingencies, no inspection, per NPR last week and IIRC.

  188. 188.

    Ruckus

    @debbie:

    They weren’t as blatantly obvious about it.

    shitforbrains biggest thing was saying all of it out loud. He exposed everyone, listening, paying attention or not to what the conservative line has always been, and been about, money and stealing all of it and racism/misogyny.

  189. 189.

    Geminid

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: The Great Recession hit many folks hard, buta lot ofpeople have done really well the last ten years, have portable wealth, and are young enough to move to a new area. There are also a lot of portable jobs now, making relocation easier. Exurban areas, and nice towns and small cities in Virginia are seeing property values increase rapidly, with no end in sight.

    This is rough on some groups. The black people in Charlottesville are getting priced out of the neighborhoods their families lived in for decades; even if they achieve a middle class income, they still have to compete for housing with folks coming to town with big-city incomes and intergenerational wealth.

  191. 191.

    Soprano2

    @Steeplejack: It’s funny how the American Catholic Bishops don’t seem to care about any other Catholic politician who goes against Catholic teachings in any other area. Are you Catholic but for the death penalty? Hey, that’s OK! Are you Catholic, but think the way the Trump administration treated immigrants and the poor is wonderful? Hey, no problem with that. For some reason it’s only the issue concerning lady parts and what ladies do with them that has their panties all in a twist.

  192. 192.

    Citizen Alan

    @Steeplejack:  If the bishops choose to do this, I hope every single  Episcopalian church in Washington DC immediately sends Biden an invitation to their next service.

  194. 194.

    Jeffro

    @Geminid: Charlottesville/Albemarle Co real estate was kinda nuts to begin with…the past couple of years have seen an additional bump on top of that.

  195. 195.

    cain

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    He should just do it. That will blow shit up for them. He can accuse them of trying to play politics and breaking the separation of Church and State. If they want to do that then they need to pay taxes like a real business and also get lobbying privs.

    Also I don’t think Biden is goign to give two shits what these people say. For some reason I don’t think the sky god is going to give two shits about communion either. It’s just symbolic. He can have a wafer with cream filling instead.

  197. 197.

    Geminid

    @Jeffro: Twenty years ago, there were hardly any residential buildings in Charlottesville more than two stories tall. Now, four story condo buildings are popping up like mushrooms, and a house with a yard is a very hot commodity. It’s good you and yours got in when you did. As you know, Charlottesville is a very good base for hiking and kayaking.

  201. 201.

    WaterGirl

    @Baud: That is a conundrum!

    Of course I’ll be your second, how could I refuse?

    And of course that means the duel will have scheduling problems, because there will never be a time when I would be available for both sides.  Alas, the duel may never happen.

  203. 203.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    every once in a while Charlie Pierce– a believer with a deep knowledge of the history and culture of the Church– will get into the politics of the Church, the factions and the different power centers. EJ Dionne, too. As a very lapsed Catholic, I find it fascinating.

    My parents were raised hard-core, pre-Vatican II. My Mom’s Mass attendance waxed and waned, my Dad was an agnostic with a regular Sunday morning tee-time, and they were both afraid of their Irish-born, Rosary-saying mothers well into middle-age, so we all had to be confirmed. We went to catechism classes, but only went to Mass on Christmas, Easter and when one of my grandmothers stayed over. To this day, when I talk to my cousins whose parents stuck with it– believers and skeptics–, it can be like a foreign language.

  204. 204.

    artem1s

    @SFAW:

     not a glancing blow, but a full-on impact, at least as far as the destruction to the deer indicated.

    I had a student once who had to miss several classes because she was injured during a deer vs. vehicle incident.  A semi going in the  opposite direction hit a deer and the carcass was catapulted across the divided highway and through her windshield.  She driving and covered with the remains of the deer bomb.

    Just listening to her describing it made me sick.  She told me it took days to get the stink off her body.  No hope of getting it out of the upholstery.  Her car was totaled of course.

  205. 205.

    Miss Bianca

    @Geminid: 

    I know – we’ve been looking at rural VA for a (potential) relocate from rural CO, and it’s *unreal* to me how much prices have increased in the past year or two!

  206. 206.

    artem1s

    @Ken:

    Anyone want to lay odds on whether TFG appeals on the grounds that he is still president?

    I think we all know that’s a suckers bet.  Whether his lawyers will let him depends on, I guess, what happens to Rudy over the next few weeks.

  207. 207.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Steeplejack: ​Or from this “recovering Catholic.” Beyond Pope Frankie (the one glimmer of humanity there since John XXIII) that bunch of narrow-minded, inhumane, arrogant bastards have been all about temporal power ever since Constantine (allegedly) signed the Roman Empire over to them. Long past time for them to support the polities they so consistently work to undermine.

  208. 208.

    Geminid

    @Miss Bianca: Floyd County, southwest of Roanoke, might not be too expensive yet. You’d probably like it there. It’s on kind of a plateau on the west side of the Blue Ridge, with nice people. Not too hot, not too cold.

  209. 209.

    J R in WV

    @OzarkHillbilly: ​
     

    I had two trucks in our beginning out here on the “farm” — forested hillsides. First was a C10 Chevy ‘Custom Delux” which meant it had an am radio. Started my college career with that old green monster, sold it for $100 when the frame failed.

    Then I bought an F-250 Ford with a straight six engine, and when the truck bed failed I put an oak flat bed on back to haul hay. When the frame in it failed, sold it to the same guy for $100. He used those 6-cyl engines in other trucks that were more sturdy but had failed engines.

    Then I bought a really old GMC 2 ton truck with a big metal flatbed, also to haul hay. Got rid of that truck when we no longer had hay-eating critters on the farm. I would jump the battery on that truck and pour gas into the carb when the first cutting of hay was being bailed, it would start up every time. Then the next year, after it sat for 9 months in the field by the barn, do it again, to haul hay 2 or 3 times.

    Sold that truck for what I paid for it year before.

  210. 210.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

    @Miss Bianca: I think the pandemic is a factor there. There’s a lot of wealth in DC and VA is nearby, scenic, and if you want a “next pandemic rural getaway” that you can use at least semi-regularly as a weekend getaway vacation home, VA, in the vicinity of the blue ridge, is an attractive option.

  211. 211.

    J R in WV

    @SFAW: ​
     

    My daughter recently saw a deer get hit by a fast moving car. She freaked, called me up shrieking, and I had to talk her down. So, not the kind of thing I want to happen.

    I was running fast in a VW Rabbit back in the early ’80s on my way to college classes on the interstate, when I ran over a deer that had just been killed by the semi in front of me. Car leaped into the air, gore spattered, I got it over onto the shoulder and coasted to a stop.

    Was blood and gore all over the bottom and passenger side. I slowly pulled up to the nearby exit and stopped at a gas station, where they let me use a hose to take off the wet parts. Was a monsterous mess. Were pieces caught in the suspension, exhaust, everywhere underneath.

    The Worst!!! Lucky I didn’t lose control at 75 or 80 mph… was another semi right behind me…

  212. 212.

    artem1s

    @Citizen Alan:

    If the bishops choose to do this, I hope every single  Episcopalian church in Washington DC immediately sends Biden an invitation to their next service.

    I hope the 21st century equivalent of Martin Luther hangs another 95 Theses outlining the abuses of the Catholic Church on the door of The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.  If she/they happen to inhabit a body not acceptable to the fascist boys club in Rome that would be even better IMO.  High time we had another Reformation of christendom and a realignment of power that matches the body parts of the actual human beings on this planet.  Also, there are plenty of nuns who think that Rome is full of shit who would be more than glad to administer mass to Joe and Jill.  Let Rome try to stop them.

  213. 213.

    Another Scott

    I can hear dick_nixon cackling with glee all the way over here…

    The point is not only they all hate Rubio enough to embarass him in public like this, it’s that we get to see the full effect of his law degree. https://t.co/LswawYO5jQ

    — Richard M. Nixon (@dick_nixon) April 29, 2021

    Good for Carper.

    Hey, Marco – Your behavior has consequences.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  214. 214.

    Bluegirlfromwyo

    @Miss Bianca: My parents are moving from WY to Amherst County, VA, and there are still some good deals there, especially if you’re willing to build.

  215. 215.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Baud: Ugh, our awful media. Biden is not a “lifelong centrist”. He’s been in the center of the Democratic Party, not our whole political spectrum.

    Hell, when he was announced as Obama’s running mate, he was considered to be the more liberal of the two people on the ticket.

  216. 216.

    StringOnAStick

    Having to bid over asking is pretty much the name of the game here in the non-redneck parts of OR.  If we hadn’t overbid last fall, we wouldn’t be able to afford a house here now.  A roofing contractor told me that some builders are waiting to break ground now because they can’t get workers but mostly because the incredible increase in the cost of all kinds of lumber has made building new a risky proposition given how far and how fast prices rose.  Of course he quoted the wingnut talking point that all the free gubmint money has made people refuse to go back to work, but I’m thinking it’s a chronic lack of people to take those jobs (Covid plus the lack of immigration over the last 4 years).

  217. 217.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Kay: This is pretty common out on the west coast. We made an offer about $25k over asking for our current house because we really wanted it and because there was a small amount of competition for it.

    I have a friend in San Francisco who just bid ~$200k over asking price for a really cool old house that needs a lot of work, because the bids were way over asking. “Asking” is just to get people in the door.

  218. 218.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Another Scott: Yeah. I would agree with Rubio if he hadn’t literally supported insurrection a few months ago, and if he hadn’t gleefully been attacking Democrats as unethical moral monsters for the last decade.

    You mistreat people and act in bad faith and then expect them to cut you a break. Fuck off, Marco.

  219. 219.

    Geminid

    @Miss Bianca: If I were looking for land in rural Virginia, I’d be sure to have a copy of the DeLorme Virginia Atlas and Gazetteer. It shows every little creek and hamlet, roads and towns, forests, orchards etc., with good topo lines showing elevation. You may already have the one for Colorado.

  220. 220.

    Ken

    @MisterForkbeard: Also, there are a lot of things that one would think could move forward in the Senate without unanimous consent, many of them much more important than fixing a typo…

  221. 221.

    john fremont

    @Soprano2: The US bishops sidestepped  the Iraq War  saying the application of  just war doctrine is a “prudential”  matter even though both Popes stated the Iraq War does not meet the requirements of that teaching.  Michael Novak tried to convince the Holy See that the then new security policy of “preventive war” to combat terrorism was supported by just war doctrine and the Holy See said back no it isn’t.

  222. 222.

    Jay

    @Low Key Swagger:

    add a snorkle, ( cold air intake), a K&N air filter, headers, and oversized exhaust. Can improve engine performance 20% plus, to the 4×4, see if it makes highway practical,

    You can also change the ring gears to a higher ratio, most 4×4’s are geared low for offroad torque, it will slow accelleration but when you do get up to speed, it will require less rpm to maintain that speed.

    Have a lifted, intercooled, turbo diesel Toyota 4×4 p/u, top speed is 90kmh, up hill, down hill, flat, mud, dragging or not dragging a barn behind it. Steel bumpers with all the toys, right at eye height for most cars. They get the message and go around.

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