Even if our party’s filibuster-philes hog-tie the Biden-Harris admin’s legislative agenda and sacrifice it on the altar of senatorial comity while Mitch McConnell cackles with glee and red state governors plot the Trump Restoration, there are still cool things the executive branch can do:
Statement by President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. on the National Security Study Memorandum on the Fight Against Corruption
JUNE 03, 2021STATEMENTS AND RELEASES
Strengthening the resilience of rights-respecting democracies is one of the defining challenges of our era. Corruption eats away at the foundations of democratic societies. It makes government less effective, wastes public resources, and exacerbates inequalities in access to services, making it harder for families to provide for their loved ones. Corruption attacks the foundations of democratic institutions, drives and intensifies extremism, and makes it easier for authoritarian regimes to corrode democratic governance.
Corruption is a risk to our national security, and we must recognize it as such.
The sleazy Trump gang was an object lesson in how corruption undermines democracies. To me, the most astounding revelations about Paul Manafort were not the crimes themselves but that he so openly peddled influence and trafficked in bribes for decades. And he’s just one dude.
Public corruption in particular and white collar crime in general do “eat away at the foundations in democratic societies” in all the ways outlined in the memo. They also generate cynicism and apathy, which make it easier for homegrown authoritarians at every level to slither into positions of power. It really is a national security issue, and kudos to the president and his team for recognizing it as such.
Speaking of our filibuster-philes, Michelle Goldberg of The New York Times gives voice to how many of us are feeling these days:
Democrats hope that Manchin, who has said Democrats should have faith that there are “10 good people” in the Republican caucus, will lessen his opposition to filibuster reform when Senate Republicans repeatedly prove him wrong. It’s harder to know what Sinema actually believes and thus what could sway her; she seems above all dedicated to a view of herself as a quirky maverick, and delights in trolling the Democrats who elected her. In April, after infuriating progressives by voting against including a federal minimum wage increase in the coronavirus relief package, she posted an Instagram photo of herself wearing a ring spelling out a dismissive obscene phrase that begins with “F” and ends with “off.”
This gap between the scale of the catastrophe bearing down on us and the blithe refusal of Manchin and Sinema to help is enough to leave one frozen with despair. Democrats have no discernible leverage over Manchin and little over Sinema, though they ought to consider primarying her. (Unlike Manchin, she’s not the only Democrat who could win a Senate seat in her state.) Those who want our democracy to endure have no choice but to keep asking, imploring and cajoling these two lawmakers to value it above the false idol of bipartisanship, but so far there’s little sign they will.
So we’re stuck. The overarching story of American politics right now is that Republicans are laying the groundwork to accomplish legally what they failed to do by force on Jan. 6. Sinema could help fortify our country against a tide of Trumpist authoritarianism that could soon wash away everything that makes it worthwhile. Instead she’s showing us her ring.
“Frozen with despair” is an excellent way to describe it. One Michelle Goldberg is worth metric fuck-tons of Douthats, Stevenses and Brookses, plus a Jupiter-sized conglomerate of Bruenigs.
Maybe Republican overreach will save us. They can’t control or stymie the federal government right now without colluding with delusional Democratic senators, but red state governors and statehouses are busily making citizens’ lives worse every day by converting daft conspiracy theories about voter fraud, critical race theory, shootin’ arns, blastocyst sentience, minimum wage-scorning layabouts, trans youth plots to dominate women’s sports, Antifa super-soldiers, etc., into real laws.
It’s pure performance art, and most of these measures DeSantis, Abbott, etc., preen about on Fox News aren’t popular with the citizens of their states, let alone the country. Maybe the states, meth labs of democracy, will heighten the contradictions at last? Hahaha, probably not!
I get tired of waiting for unaffiliated and/or apathetic Americans to rise up and say enough is goddamn fucking enough, but here we are. At least there’s corruption to squash, and if Team Biden puts teeth into those efforts, it will leave bite-marks on Republican asses nationwide.
Open thread!
Ivan X
Betty, I like that even as you report the bad news, you don’t go down the woe-is-us rabbit hole.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Baud
I was going to post the anti-corruption piece! Glad you saw that.
Elizabelle
WRT Sinema: not to always leave it to other people, especially women of color, to save us, but I would suspect the Native American vote is a factor in Democratic wins in Arizona. Come on, Four Directions. They could fundraise here again on an outreach to Sinema initiative.
I think Manchin and Sinema’s Democratic colleagues are having some serious heart to hearts with both of them. We are doomed without ensuring voting rights.
And shame on John “Roger B. Taney” Roberts and his undermining of voting rights and enshrining (for now) Citizens United. His legacy is a foul one. Perhaps he might want to sanitize it, a bit, with some more public-spirited decisions going forth. I know he is all about corporate power, but even he has to be gagging at how far the Republicans are taking all this. The fig leaf. Is no more. For years now.
Baud
OT. A few folks here might enjoy this LGM post on GG and his prior enablers.
Emerald
I trust Biden to be savvy and clever enough to manipulate things as he wants them to be. However, I’m now not so worried about Manchin (actually I’ve never really been worried about Manchin because this is his pattern before he votes blue—although actual West Virginians might be able to tell me differently). I’m worried about Sinema. She seems to be doing this not on any principle, but, as said, just to be mavericky. Her little dance when she gave thumbs down (hmmmm, who else did a thumbs down?) on the minimum wage really shows she’s not all there.
Manchin is never the deciding vote against Democrats. But with Sinema being mavericky, he doesn’t have to be.
Bribe, ’em, Biden. Bribe ’em.
Just Chuck
They could boot Sinema off committees, or more likely just not name her to any next year. They have plenty of leverage.
Baud
@Just Chuck: Cool. Then she can start voting against all of Biden’s judicial and administrative nominees.
germy
billcinsd
Do the Dems still have their nobody can work with primary challengers and remain in good standing with the party thing? That could get in the way with Sinema
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Yeah, I’m thinking carrots might work better with her.
hueyplong
@Dorothy A. Winsor: That (2 years) is effectively a lifetime ban.
And it’s some kind of pleasurable to take that position.
germy
The Dangerman
Frozen with despair? Let it go, let it go…
?BillinGlendaleCA
Sinema seems to think she’s the new John McCain… Listen Senator, you weren’t a POW(even though McCain didn’t like to talk about that).
Gin & Tonic
@Baud: The anti-corruption statement is getting good play in Ukraine.
Ruckus
@Just Chuck:
That won’t change that she still has one vote at the end of the day.
I have no idea how or if it’s possible to change that mind, it’s sure worth a try, but I wouldn’t count on it, because this makes her far more important that she has any right to be. She gets attention far beyond reason, she has the position of spoiler, and she seems to like that position. She seems more contrarian than anything else, it’s like she enjoys the limelight so much that she’s willing to fuck the entire village, just for the attention.
piratedan
@billcinsd: while here in AZ we have to re-elect Kelly first. Then there can be a pivot to KS if she has decided to adhere to her current course.
I suspect either Congressman Gallego or Stanton would take a run at her in 2024.
While the bench isn’t extraordinarily deep here in AZ, there are some folks on it and what the state GOP is doing with the Fauxdit isn’t exactly a case of them being viewed as Liberators, if you take my meaning (i.e. they are pissing off Independents significantly)
germy
“Every accusation a confession”
Omnes Omnibus
@Just Chuck: Why does everyone go for the stick? Are there no carrots available?
Betty Cracker
@Baud: Did you see this?
Anotherlurker
I emailed the DNC and told them that I am a small donor and inspite of living on a fixed income I gladly contributed to their funds to be distributed among candidates. They were informed that I even gave to individual candidates, Manchin and Simena among them.
I stated that I felt betrayed by Simena and that I saw her style of political performance art insulting and worrying and that I will no longer contribute to general Democratic election funds. I will give to individual candidates.
As a small donor, I’m sure they don’t give a shit about me. However, if thousands of donors like me tell them that we will direct our $$ elsewhere, maybe they will begin to pay attention. Maybe, just maybe they will add to the pressure on the Senator to reassess her ridiculous, anti-democratic posturing.
On a personal note, her “look at me! look at meeeeee!!!!!!” schtick turns my stomach.
kindness
For myself I gave money to both Manchin & Sinema’s elections. I won’t make that mistake again.
Gin & Tonic
@Betty Cracker: Fuck Taibbi.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Omnes Omnibus: Yup.
piratedan
@Omnes Omnibus: sure, I think we’d use a carrot but she’s not actually committed to what she wants in return, thus far I’ve not seen her state that its up for negotiation, a simple “no” is all that is offered in return.
Ruckus
@germy:
In the article you linked, at the end is this juicy part.
It is extremely unlikely that I would ever, in any time zone, place, or reason agree with the House’s official idiot, but in this case I find that he’s right, it was and is a crime to support SFB.
Omnes Omnibus
@kindness: Are they better than their potential replacement? Manchin would not be replaced by another Dem. He is automatically better than a GOPer. Sinema? Maybe another Dem could win. OTOH she is still miles ahead of the best Republican.
Betty Cracker
@Gin & Tonic: Taibbi’s heel turn is more of a pity because, unlike Greenwald, he actually did have some talent as a writer and muckraker. IMO. And by hysterically joining the counter-Resistance, he missed some of the biggest white collar crime stories in American history. That used to be his bread and butter back in the day…
germy
Roger Stone wants to debate Steve Bannon… .
He says Bannon betrayed Trump by cooperating with the Mueller investigation.
I’m rooting for broken bones.
kindness
@Omnes Omnibus: I don’t believe that is the case in AZ. I expect her to be primaried and lose. That probably will be the case in WV but I’ll be damned if I’m going to give my money to someone who is actively hurting me and knows MoscowMitch is the only person he’s helping.
germy
Let them fight.
Kay
@germy:
I think it’s a good sign. The small donor money grift must not be coming in at the rates these people have come to expect if they’re starting fake fights to get clicks.
It has a nice scent of desperation about it- “look at how outrageous we are! Hit the donate button!”
Steve in the ATL
@Betty Cracker: doesn’t Taibbi have Russia problems? Maybe that caused his change.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Good piece.
germy
@Ruckus:
Gohmert has a way with words.
Hunter Gathers
@Betty Cracker: I always thought Taibbi was a low-rent HST.
Don’t get me wrong, comparing Palin at the 2008 RNC to ‘Gidget addressing the Riechstag’ is an all-time burn, but like a lot of big wig lefties of that time, his brain was broken by Obama’s refusal to govern like John Shaft.
Baud
@Betty Cracker: I’m not giving Taibbi clicks. What does he say?
Ken
@Betty Cracker: @Baud: From the quoted bits (I’m also not clicking through), it sounds like another thing the far left and the entire right have in common is a total lack of agency. Their every action is controlled by the mainstream Democrats, and they are but helpless pawns who cannot be blamed for what they do.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
Greenwald goes on Fox and says we have to crack down on Antifa because they’re violent. I laughed out loud. Oh, how the brave battlers of the police state have fallen.
They’re all cranky middle aged men at this point.
I do feel vindicated though. I always knew he was a fraud. His work is dishonest. It’s cleverly dishonest, I’ll give him that but he intends to deceive.
Jeffro
@Betty Cracker: I knew it was all our fault!
Dang, I hate it when my #Resistance snobbery backfires on me like that…
taumaturgo
Is The National Security Study Memorandum on the Fight Against Corruption to be applied domestically? My impression is that this is a program that fosters opposition to duly elected governments that we don’t like, mainly in Latin America.
Brachiator
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
This makes me smile.
Kay
@Baud:
It’s just him and Glenn and the rugged lunch bucket crowd they imagine watches Fox. They’re on a search for truth.
Betty Cracker
@Baud: This cartoon explains it more eloquently than I can.
germy
@Kay:
Jeffro
Btw, a great note here about how to respond to GQP lies about Democrats’ supposed embrace of “defunding the police” as we get closer to 2022 and 2024:
Awkward headline alert:
An ugly new GOP attack line is prompting a useful rethink among Democrats
(Translation: meet their lies head on, call them out, AND don’t be afraid to show strong support for peaceful racial justice movements)
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
Joan Walsh though -“I did not see this coming”
Really? Has she had her head up her ass since 2009?
Steve in the ATL
@Kay:
Not that there’s anything wrong with that….
Ruckus
@Omnes Omnibus:
What does she want for carrots?
She seems to have no real position, no real ideas, no real desires, other to be a pain in the ass to an entire nation. And she’s in the perfect position to be that pain. And she seems to revel in that.
NotMax
SSDD.
//
Kay
@germy:
It’s hard, right? You’re a “bold outsider” – your whole persona and identity- but you’re getting up in years and you’ve written and peddled the same fucking anti-government screed 20,000 times and then this upstart group arrive, people barely out of high school, and start demanding “rights” and things and all of a sudden you have much more in common with the retirees who watch Fox.
It ends with a whimper and Tucker Carlson, who is also not as young as he used to be.
Spanky
@Betty Cracker: Um, isn’t this classic abuser talk?
Ruckus
@germy:
I notice that you didn’t say he has a good way with words….
I think they fall out of his mouth with no effort nor control, he’s not in control of the speech center of his brain, which seems to be located in his ass.
Omnes Omnibus
@Ruckus: I don’t know what she wants. I don’t know if she does either. I was just commenting on a tendency I see to try to punish what we don’t like rather than rewarding what we do like. It’s like no one has pets.
ETA: If she wants hookers and blow, I say go for it. If she wants an Air Base named after her puppy, name away.
Suzanne
Sinema wins because she appeals to a lot of Mormon women and Republican women. She used to be much leftier and she didn’t win elections then. She became her shitty current self and started winning like gangbusters.
She’s been primaried in almost every election she’s ever ran, by much better, left-er candidates…. and she beats them every time.
I wish that the national press could consider the possibility that Sinema and Manchin are deeply known by their electorates, and they win because they are popular, not in spite of themselves.
Is Sinema the only Democrat who can win statewide in AZ? Probably not…. but there is not a long list. Mark Kelly and Janet Napolitano, Katie Hobbs…. and that is about it, if you are counting statewide Dem winners of the last two decades.
Spanky
@Brachiator:
Not me. They let him back on just in time for the 2024 primaries while giving themselves some cover. “Look at us! We’re keeping him off two whole years!” Do they think no one will notice that he’ll come roaring back just as the campaigns get rolling?
germy
@Spanky:
they’ve promised he’ll be restricted in what he tries to get away with.
We’ll see!
Alison Rose
Hello people with more tech savvy than me, a question: I may be buying (well…….Mom will be buying for me) a new MacBook, and I’m leaning toward the cheaper one because I don’t want her to spend an extra $250 if it’s not necessary. But I don’t really know the significance of these numbers:
$999 version: Apple M1 chip with 8‑core CPU, 7‑core GPU, and 16‑core Neural Engine
$1249 version: Apple M1 chip with 8‑core CPU, 8‑core GPU, and 16‑core Neural Engine
Like…..is there a massive difference between a 7-core or 8-core GPU? I’m not going to be doing any gaming or video editing or anything like that. The only other difference is the pricier one 512GB SSD storage, vs 256 in the cheaper one, but I highly doubt I’d need 512.
Oh and don’t tell me to get a PC, been there done that for many years, they suck, I love my Mac, thank you drive thru.
Urban Suburbanite
@Steve in the ATL:
If I remember it correctly, Taibbi was one of those young douchebro journalists with The Exile, and those guys were predatory scumbags. I have a suspicion Taibbi barely dodged a sexual assault or rape charge.
Kay
@Jeffro:
Biden really did handle that well. Honestly just the coolness under pressure is impressive.
Spanky
@Spanky: I’ll be happy to be proven wrong when he keels over off his gold plated toilet, Elvis-style, while trying to squeeze out a half-processed Big Mac with extra cheese. But that’s not something we can Depend on.
satby
@Spanky: He could easily be dead or blatantly completely non compos mentis by then (yeah, we consider him that now, but we need a majority).
Kay
I am open to an infrastructure deal with…really anyone who brings money, but the rumor is it’s a cut from stimulus, so a net loss, so “no”.
Only more money. Less money we don’t want.
Starfish
Republican governors are not just spreading conspiracy theories. They are also taking away unemployment benefits. What are the eviction laws? Are the landlords who have tenants who owe them months of rent going to be happier with empty houses or with tenants who are trying to catch up but are not catching up all the way?
Spanky
@Starfish: The pain is the point.
germy
@Alison Rose:
Since you’re not gaming or editing video, you might as well get the less expensive version. You can’t go wrong with that option, it’s still an excellent computer.
germy
@Kay:
We’ve been living under Reaganism’s shadow for forty years. I’d like to see a substantial wealth tax.
Mike in NC
@Dorothy A. Winsor: The Fat Orange Clown is effectively crippled without the sewers of social media to swim in. Ban him from all platforms permanently. Our rotten media were the ones who turned a two-bit mobster into a would-be unelected celebrity dictator.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Spanky:
@germy:
Exactly! Why not until 2025? Why not just permanently ban him like they would anyone else?
What gets me is all this special treatment he’s getting. Why should he be allowed back on the platform when some Joe Schmoe who did the exact same crap or less would be shitcanned for life? I wouldn’t get some special appeals panel. Moderation, as I understand it, is mostly automated on most major social media platforms.
I know why they’re doing this, but it’s still bullshit. Has anybody else gotten a special appeals panel for bans, etc on FB before Trump? I doubt it
Doc Sardonic
@Kay: Our 2 modern day wannabe Diogenes. On their great search for truth with both lanterns and heads up their asses, not seeing or knowing when ‘cross the path truth passes.
Starfish
@billcinsd: I really hate that nonsense. It keeps useless people in power for far too long.
James E Powell
@Omnes Omnibus:
In this case, I don’t see either one.
Alison Rose
@germy: That’s what I figured. Other than those two numbers, it seems they’re basically the same…
Baud
@Kay: I’m not saying we don’t have assholes on our side, but that paragraph is as make-believe as anything his Trump-supporting comrades in arms has ever come up with.
@Betty Cracker: I am honored to be their excuse for doing what they wanted to do anyway.
Brachiator
@Spanky:
Facebook has suspended Trump for two years, until at least January 2023 This makes me smile.
They may not let him back in after 2023 and in the meantime he becomes more and more irrelevant.
Small victories can count just as much as big ones.
Baud
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Who have they permanently banned?
RaflW
I have a creeping sense that McConnell is sending Gríma Wormtongue envoys to whisper in Kyrsten’s ear “Caucus with us as an ‘independent’, claim the Dems hate you, call for a re-vote for majority leader. You’d get a plum committee chair.”
She seems to be a person without a central philosophy. I read a longish piece about her early politics and her gradual move from well left prog to moderate to whateverthefrunk she is now. Way too maleable for my tastes (yes, people should not be rigid. We should all strive to absorb new information and revise our thinking. She seems like a weather vane, adopting the mantles of whatever group she wants most to be ‘in’ with.)
Betty Cracker
Aaaand Governor DeSantis just vetoed funding for long-term, reversible contraceptives for low-income women in Florida because the Catholic Conference said it has an “abortifacient effect.” I suppose the statehouse will take up the Florida “fetal heartbeat” bill next.
Baud
@Kay:
That’s what the Republicans wanted, I thought, but Biden has said no. I suppose there’s all that UI money that red states are turning down.
Baud
@Betty Cracker: I’m surprised that passed the legislature in the first place.
Mary G
The guy can politic. I also like that Biden uses “The Biden-Harris Administration” in a lot of their announcement tweets. The last thing I’m happy about today is their push to get other countries to agree to a 15% minimum corporate tax so all the off-shoring gets less lucrative. Not that I think anybody will agree, but it’s a new idea for solving a big problem.
evodevo
Yeah…I’m old enough to remember when Tom Delay got prosecuted and convicted for money laundering and conspiracy, and HAD TO RESIGN from Congress…ah, those were the days….
RaflW
@Betty Cracker: We are in a protracted, tooth-and-nail fight with the American Talibangelicals.
That they have taken a thrice-married, sex-worker-hiring, teen-leering quasi-billionare as their leader makes them a little less ideological on some fronts, but also shows the merciless situational ethics they’ll embrace to meet their key goals: white supremacy and hetero-patriarchy.
Democratic leaders seem to keep hoping that ‘competent governing’ will counteract this. I remain deeply skeptical – and deeply worried.
Kay
@Baud:
Wherever it is we already got that so we can’t revisit. Biden should say “what money?” and then look around. They insist he’s an addled moron anyway. Play dumb!
catclub
I was thinking they could add a permanent ban on politicians who incite sedition. But maybe they don’t want to lose Mo Brooks as well.
Jackie
@Spanky: At that time, FB will evaluate if Trump is still inciting violence and/or purposefully feeding lies.
They aren’t saying he’ll be reinstated in 2023.
James E Powell
We need to get off of Manchin & Sinema because it’s making the narrative “Biden fails to get Manchin & Sinema to support his agenda” rather than “Republicans oppose everything because they want the recovery to fail & people to suffer so that they can use that misery for their 2022 campaigns.” Or, the short & blunt “Republicans want Americans to suffer!”
germy
@RaflW:
Tea Party activists became British monarchists as soon as Meghan Markle appeared.
Old School
@Omnes Omnibus:
I guess I see letting the Democrats govern, passing an infrastructure/jobs bill, guaranteeing voting rights, etc. to be the carrot.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
Cue the (approximately) 10,000 better-off women who have scolded me for years that no one would ban contraception. Dopes.
trollhattan
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Does Hanoi now have an actual Hilton? Perhaps she’d like a nice senatorial junket to Southeast Asia.
Baud
@James E Powell:
Yeah, I’m seeing a lot of “progressives are freaking out” headlines on my feed these days.
NotMax
@Alison Rose
While you could always upgrade the SSD later on should you find the 256 machine struggling with your future needs, a point to keep in mind before you buy is that the plausible implicit lifespan of the 512 SSD will greatly exceed that of a 256. Of course, how often you use the machine and what you use it for will have their own impacts which could diminish or extend efficiency or viability.
Too early for sufficient real world data but places which have done preliminary simulated usage over time trials of the SSDs in the M1 generally rate the 256 at anywhere from 4 to 8 years, the 512 at nearly double that.
Kay
@Baud:
The only thing I’m surprised about is the bed-wetting over “crime”. I would think they would be too cool for that. I didn’t know Greenwald was joining in until I read that article. Wow.
Geminid
@Suzanne: A poll of Arizona registered voters was published by Phoenix-based OHPredictive about 3 weeks ago. It showed Mark Kelly +60% among Democrats in favorability, Sinema +28%. So Arizonona Democrats are somewhat disillusioned with Sinema. That probably will increase a lot if she actually blocks either of the voting rights or infrastructure bills, which she has not yet done.
Sinema’s vote on the $15 minimum wage outraged many, but she was one of seven or eight Senate Democrats who voted no, but not as flamboyantly.
Sinema is a lightening rod among commenters here. Many believe that she is blocking needed legislation she has yet to block. A little of the animus may be due to her exotic persona. But if I had given money to her Senate campaign, I would not regret it. Sinema came through on the three important Senate votes this Congress: conviction of trump for the insurrection, Biden’s Covid relief package, and most important, the vote to make Schumer Majority Leader. I’d much rather have the problem of Sinema, than the problem of Martha McSally being the 51st vote to make Mitch McConnell Majority leader. It will be up to Arizona Democrats to give her the thumbs down in the 2022 primary. She will have stronger competition than in 2018.
trollhattan
@Betty Cracker:
Doesn’t he just sound presidential? What a bastard.
Kent
She seems to me to be an old fashioned social climber. And seems to think that going all “mavericky” like McCain is the ticket to social status in Arizona (and Washington). In that it will open doors for her on both the right and left, but especially within the old money society, such as it is in AZ. I think the calculation is that getting roasted on twitter doesn’t matter much if it gets you entry into elite AZ (and Washington) society.
I’m not sure she is right about that. Sometimes standing in the middle of the road just gets you run over.
I don’t think McConnell really wants her in his caucus. That could cause more problems that it would solve. She would just cause him grief by crossing back across the aisle. What they probably want is to bounce her out and replace her with a loyal MAGA type.
catclub
I would say about 12% difference between 7 and 8 cores. And that is if you have GPU aware apps.
as to 512 versus 256 SSD, SSD is a super fast hard disk, but that is not a huge amount of storage for people who do multi-media editing. Having a fast primary disk for mm editing is probably desireable.
Otherwise plenty for people who edit documents.
Steeplejack
@Betty Cracker:
Perfect! Matt Taibbi explaining Glenn Greenwald to me is just what I needed today.
germy
Baud
@Kay:
One cannot participate in right-wing culture without becoming consumed by it.
OR Soder
I worry that one or both of the Senators will defect ala Shelby-AL. They do help us in that we can control the agenda, confirm judges, etc. with them as part of our number. Neither of them seem particularly committed to the Democratic Party. If one or both of them defect to the GOP we lose that advantage.
Please convince me I’m wrong. Please.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
So much for the clerics won’t be making medical decisions! Glad we’re turning over medical review to the Catholic Conference.
In every aspect of your personal business. Snooping around. These people won’t be happy until they’re monitoring our every move. It enrages me.
Steeplejack
@Betty Cracker:
This is true.
Another Scott
Scrolling through Sinema’s Twitter thing it looks like she only mentions politics – at all – if it is something somehow “bipartisan”. She seems to be effectively wedded to the “I’m not a Democrat, I’m Bipartisan” wagon, and she shows no signs of getting off.
Performance bipartisanship worked for St. John McCain, for a while. But eventually old-man-yelling-at-clouds loses its charm. I see no signs that it’s going to work better for her than it did for Mark Warner (who always wanted to be part of every Gang of N until he barely won re-election against a RWNJ in 2014).
It seems a very strange position to be in, to me. Maybe she knows what she’s doing. But…
Yup.
(via nycsouthpaw)
Cheers,
Scott.
Geminid
@RaflW: One shrewd commenter who lived in Arizona and observed Sinema’s career had several observations about her. One was that she was a social climber.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@trollhattan: She’s in luck, they have two Hiltons in Hanoi.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@NotMax: The only upgrade to storage would be an external HD, the M1 macs are designed to not be upgraded in any way.
PJ
@Alison Rose: New MacBook pros will be out later this year with the next iteration of the Apple M chip, so you should wait a bit if you can. It is rumored that they will announce at least one new MacBook at the WWDC conference next week: https://www.macrumors.com/2021/06/04/new-apple-silicon-macbook-wwdc-morgan-stanley/
These new laptops will have many more ports on them than current models, adding back USB-A, SD card, and HDMI ports, as well as a mag safe charger port. Not having to use dongles will save a lot of hassle and extra money.
Also, unless you plan on getting a new laptop every few years, it definitely pays to get a computer with a larger hard drive, because as you accumulate documents and files (photos, videos, music) it will fill up pretty quickly, and it sucks to have to buy a new machine just because your HD is filled.
James E Powell
@Geminid:
I doubt that her personality has anything to do with why she attracts negative attention, though the little flourish on the minimum wage vote might be an issue.
The problem as I see it is that, like a lot of elected officials, she is behaving as if the senate seat & vote belong to her and she is entitled to do with them whatever she wants. Her big & important ideas about democratic government overrule any consideration of the wishes or welfare of the people who elected her.
NotMax
@NotMax
Will add that with Prime Days coming up the June 21/22 in all likelihood there will be some $$ savings. Brick and mortar sellers matching those prices is not at all unknown.
zhena gogolia
@Baud:
Good piece.
Geminid
@OR Soder: Joe Manchin would have switched parties already if he was going to. Instead he voted to convict trump twice. Sinema is so enigmatic she can’t be relibly predicted to do anything. But if she wants to be reelected, she have to hang with the Democrats and fight it out in a primary. Arizona Republicans have moved too far to the right to ever nominate her.
mrmoshpotato
@germy: Two years. It could happen! The Soviet shitpile could turn over a new leaf!
Dump’s only been a traitorous, loud-mouthed, mobster conman for at least 34 years!
Suzanne
@Geminid: Sinema fucking SUCKS and every Dem in AZ knows it. But she has shown enough ability to grab votes from the GOP candidates that it makes it very hard for Dems not to vote for her. What are we gonna do, vote for the GOP?! No thanks. I voted for her because she puts Mitch McConnell in the minority. That is ALL she is good for.
Again, I will note that she gets primaried every cycle, and wins, every cycle.
Gin & Tonic
@Urban Suburbanite: You do remember it correctly. Taibbi and Ames lived large and louche in Moscow in the 90’s. Their supporters will now claim that what they (esp. Taibbi) wrote about underage girls was fiction.
Shalimar
@Spanky: He’s neutered through the whole 2022 election cycle. When January 2023 comes, if he is held to the same standards as now, Trump’s ban will continue. He isn’t changing.
Benno
@Alison Rose: seconding germy, you really won’t notice a difference. I downgraded myself last year when my usage changed and haven’t been bothered at all. Another point about the SSD, though. Depending on what you do, you might find 256 disappearing really quickly if you aren’t comfortable using cloud-based memory solutions. It is easy enough to upgrade memory externally if you have lots of sound or video files, for example, but I find the mac’s new single thunderbolt connector to be a real pain sometimes.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@PJ: I doubt they’ll add back in the SD-Card, they hate Subaru Diane. But I agree that a bigger hard disk and more ports are worth waiting on.
Steeplejack
Betty Cracker
@James E Powell: I disagree, and I applaud Goldberg for using her megaphone to express disgust and create pressure on hold-out Dems. It’s useless to appeal to Repubs, and blaming them when you can’t get all of your own crew on board might be entertaining, but it won’t change a damned thing. Manchin and Sinema might not crack under pressure, but they’re far more likely to than any Republican.
Geminid
@Another Scott: If Mark Warner and the Gang of Eight had been able to push through comprehensive immigration reform during Obama’s first term, it would have helped a lot of people. Are you saying he shouldn’t have tried? Or that it almost cost him his reelection in 2014? I don’t know any Democrats who held his efforts on immigration reform against him.
Kent
This. She would get absolutely CRUSHED in a GOP primary in Arizona. Even Jeff Flake wanted no part of that and he was 10x more conservative than Sinema. His only real sin was failure to kiss Trump’s ass. His actual voting record was pretty conservative.
The only chance that Sinema has to stay in power and get reelected is to stick with the Democrats
Manchin has probably made the same calculation. It is doubtful he could make it through a GOP primary in WV if he switched parties. Way too much baggage. He is good right where he is at.
Alison Rose
@NotMax: Well, I use it every day, all day basically, as I work from home. But that’s something to think about. I just hate asking Mom to fork out that much damn money…
Another Scott
@Alison Rose: (Probably been said already…)
There has been a lot of criticism of the M1 machines with only 8 GB of RAM. Be very careful about something like that. (To be clear, you can find lots of people saying “8GB is fine unless you’re doing video editing or running XCode”. But experience tells us that if you plan on holding on to a machine for more than a year or two, more RAM helps a great deal in extending the useful life. The M1 machines do not have upgradeable RAM.)
The new M1x or M2 or whatever they’re calling them are due out in 20 days. You might want to wait, or check out the rumors sites about what’s expected for the new machines.
HTH a little. Good luck!
Cheers,
Scott.
Chief Oshkosh
So when we investigate Manchin’s daughter, would that be the FBI or would that be the FEC, or are there other alphabet entities that also have purview on her possibly illegal activities? And while being investigated, should her assets and the assets of her associates be frozen?
This would have nothing to do with her father, natch.
Alison Rose
@PJ: Eh, I could wait, but the issues this one is having are making it a major pain in the ass to use right now.
Emma from Miami
@germy: I’m rooting for old-fashioned funerals.
Jeffro
@Alison Rose:
@PJ:
I’m glad this discussion came up (thanks Alison!) as I have been thinking about replacing my aging Mac.
It looks like the comparison here would be
I think I’m going with the cheaper version since I don’t do any gaming or video editing on my computer either.
Looks like my soon-to-be-outgoing Mac is worth $210 on trade in, too, how ’bout them apples? (pun not originally intended but still…)
Alison Rose
@Benno: I really don’t store that much stuff. Right now it appears I’m using half of my available storage on this one. I don’t make videos or anything, and mostly use Spotify for music.
Baud
Sinema isn’t up until 2024. AZ is not going to vote her out because the Dems passed legislation in September rather than June. Now, if nothing ever gets passed because of her, it’s perhaps a different story. But blogs and social media always react to the long and ugly legislative process in a way that normies don’t.
zhena gogolia
@James E Powell:
Right. I am really sick of talking about Manchin and Sinema!
NotMax
@Billin GlendaleCA
My bad. I spaced out that it’s the M1.
@NotMax
Early discount prices today, FYI, are already a modest amount below what was quoted above. Expect the 256 version might bottom out at around $899 in the near future.
Geminid
@Suzanne: Well, I credit you with much better knowledge of Arizona politics and Sinema than I. But my understanding is that she did not face a strong candidate in 2018. It looks like that will change in 2024. And the +28% approval rating the OHPredictive poll showed last month may be 0 by then.
Amir Khalid
@Mary G:/
Biden was VP in a successful administration where Obama valued his input and treated him like a partner. I think that in Kamala Harris, Biden has chosen a VP with whom he can have the same kind of working relationship.
Quiltingfool
@Hunter Gathers: Pardon my stupidity, not sure what HST means re Taibbi; my first thought (as a quilter) was that you were calling him a “half-square triangle!” Lol.
matt
If Sinema and Manchin decide fucking over US democracy is going to stay their top priority we can still stay busy with gun purchases, low intensity warfare training, etc.
SiubhanDuinne
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
I welcome their hatred.
germy
@Quiltingfool:
Hunter S. Thompson
germy
@zhena gogolia:
I’m currently reading the novel The Idiot and I’m enjoying it. The dialogue, especially. I have trouble keeping some of the characters straight, though.
Baud
@germy:
I prefer half square triangle. It’s my new go-to insult.
Fair Economist
@Alison Rose:
You will need 512. Everything computer-related is becoming very piggish with memory, especially video and apps.
SiubhanDuinne
@Quiltingfool:
HST always throws me, because I’m old enough to think Harry S Truman whenever I see it. But I’m pretty sure the reference here is to Hunter S. Thompson.
piratedan
@Geminid: imho, the two to watch are Congressman Gallego and Stanton. Both are solid Dems, Stanton and Gallego both are a LOT less mushy in regards to policy than Sinema is and feel no need for attention. If either runs, I fully expect claims of misogyny to be tossed about and for Sinema to attempt to wrap herself up in the legacy of John McCain which won’t exactly do her any favors with Dems (because we knew full well who he was). The biggest challenge is raising a war chest to go after her because incumbency is indeed a thing as well as certain groups may see a benefit keeping the seat in her hands.
As others have said, lets see how she votes but that involves risk itself, if Shumer brings items up for a vote and doesn’t have them, he’ll kickstart a Dems in disarray meme that will circle the planet in no time. We’re also burning daylight in regards to who is alive right now, who kicks off unexpectedly in the middle of the night suddenly opening a seat? The longer we wait, the more time the media has to plant seeds of doubt and revisionism regarding what got done and who gets credit.
Suzanne
Well, you’re right, she didn’t face a strong candidate. She faced Deedra Abboud, who is a pretty-darn-left-wing candidate (Muslim attorney who grew up in Arkansas). Abboud campaigned her ass off, went to every LD meeting, traveled all over the state, and…. NOTHING.
There are not a lot of strong candidates there. I can name a lot more losers than winners. I like Gallego (Ruben, not Kate) and Stanton…. but I don’t see either of them being competitive against her statewide. They’re good in their districts.
Another Scott
@Geminid: Counterfactuals are fun. :-)
I like today’s Mark Warner much better than the pre-2014 one. I think the reason why he did better in 2020 was that he was a much stronger Democrat and spend much less time trying to be at the center of “bipartisan” gangs that haven’t accomplished much of anything in a very long time.
The immigration reform bill passed the Senate 68:32 so it didn’t really need a Gang of 8 for it to happen, IMHO. (Warner was in the Gang of Six trying to address the horrible deficits that were going to kill us all in our beds. The Gang of Eight working on immigration didn’t include him.) As we recall, Bob Goodlatte from VA was chair of the House committee and sat on the Senate bill, killing it.
YMMV.
Cheers,
Scott.
Suzanne
@piratedan: I don’t know if the rest of the country understands what we lost when Gabby was shot. I have no doubt she would have gone on to greater things in AZ and beyond. She was — and is — tremendous.
Fair Economist
@James E Powell:
That depends on the goal. If the goal is to get good policies passed, the route is to shame the holdout Dems. If the goal is to get electoral benefits from good policies getting blocked, the route is to blame the Republicans.
I’m not yet willing to give up on getting anything good through, so I’m still on board with shaming holdouts. I do understand that has to be done with an eye towards pivoting in 2022 if the holdouts hold out.
Omnes Omnibus
@matt: Great, another Internet warrior.
germy
zhena gogolia
@germy: It’s great. It’s the one I know the least well, but it’s great.
It gets pretty confusing around the middle. The first and last parts are the best.
jackmac
@Alison Rose:
Longtime Mac user here — both desktop and laptop. I bought the $999 MacBook Air about a year ago and have used it for writing, editing, photo work, graphic design and web stuff. It performs like a champ.
zhena gogolia
@Suzanne:
Such a tragedy.
piratedan
@Suzanne: very much agreed, I think Kelly becoming a Senator is a direct extension of her legacy. I believe Mark is a good guy, unsure about how good a politician he’ll be. Giffords wasn’t afraid of tough choices and managed to be polite AND effective. It has effectively traumatized Southern AZ politics for a decade and we’ve finally purged ourselves of Martha McSally.
To this day, I still have doubts if there wasn’t something more sinister afoot other than the usual lone wolf crazy guy who JUST happens to be fixated on a fulcrum of state politics but I’ve not seen any evidence to support it other than the old saw of “who benefits?”.
Suzanne
@piratedan:
I have had the same thought.
Many times.
Alison Rose
@jackmac: Ok so now I’m confused because others are insisting I should get the 512…………….
Omnes Omnibus
I do wonder how many of the people commenting here were interested in the details of the legislative process back in the ‘90s and before. Or, indeed, ever. I don’t intend to insult people with the question. I just get the impression that people don’t always realize that the sausage making metaphor did not come out of nowhere. And we’ve always thought we were in some kind of existential crisis. Sometimes we were right.
Kay
I’m such a dope because I saw Betty’s headline and immediately thought “they got infrastructure!”
“Oh. Corruption” :)
Mary G
@piratedan: When Gabby Giffords was shot, I was really angry because she was a great person I had never heard anything about.
NotMax
@Alison Rose
Can’t speak for others but I wasn’t insisting.
Put it this way: it’s better to have available capacity and not need it than to need it and not have it.
(For the record, 512 SSD and a 2TB hard drive on my Windows rig.)
jackmac
@Alison Rose: I bought a year ago and can’t really compare what Apple is currently offering. But there can’t be THAT much difference in a year and that even the lowest priced laptop (the $999 MacBook Air) has plenty of power and flexibility and that — in my experience — it performs very well.
Geminid
@Another Scott: I see the same Mark Warner today as I saw in 2014. That was a very good year for Republicans nationally, and more than one good Democratic Senator was knocked off. In Virginia, Ed Gillespie was a Chamber of Commerce-type Republican swho managed to get the tea party types behind him. In 2017, Gillespie traded in the three piece suit and put on a tricorn hat to run for Governor. Ralph Northam, who is similar to Warner in politics, beat Gillespie easily. I think the difference between the 2014 and 2020 results was not that Warner modified his political stance, but that trump and the radicals have ruined the Republican party brand in Virginia.
RaflW
@germy: Yeah, it’s just so difficult to figure out! What could it be?
RaflW
@Kent: Yeah, I would agree that her ‘maverick’ schtick wouldn’t appeal at all to McConnell.
As to her possible thoughts on positioning, there’s this pithy aphorism:
There’s nothing in the middle of the road but yellow stripes and dead armadillos. –Jim Hightower
Chief Oshkosh
@Omnes Omnibus: Not that you asked, but I started following the legislative process locally in 1987 and nationally in 1992.
Steeplejack
Relevant to this discussion.
This is a disingenuous take from Reich, who is usually pretty savvy. Dem “control” of the Senate is a 50-50 split with two loose cannons (Manchin and Sinema) rolling around the deck. So, right, it should be a “simple thing” to protect voting rights. ?
Geminid
@RaflW: The Hightower quote is a good one. He doesn’t want centrist candidates, so he asserts that they can’t win. But there are exceptions. The late Senator John Warner occupied a very center position, and he was the most popular Virginia politician in my lifetime.
trollhattan
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Hah! Would I ever have loved being at the table when Hilton Corp was discussing “should we?”
gene108
I try to be optimistic. I agree with Manchin, in principle, that both sides agreeing to a cloture vote, and letting bills get voted on is ideal.
But that’s not where we are at.
I have slim hopes Manchin will come around after McConnell pantsed him on the 1/6/21 commission, but there’s still a little teeny tiny bit of hope in me he’ll see reason.
I have no hope Sinema will ever change her mind. She’s just in it for attention, and whatever grift she can land in 2025.
If nothing else gets passed before the August recess, I think we’re looking at a repeat of 2010. It’ll take a year for an infrastructure bill to significantly impact hiring, and the economy, i.e. normies would notice.
If HR1/SB1 get passed tomorrow, it’ll take months for the DoJ and FEC to promulgate rules in time be effective for 2022.
Oh well, the $1400 check was fun while it lasted.
piratedan
@Mary G: she embodied the ideals of the state (or at least the tourist department propaganda). Local “girl”, middle class family, enjoyed hunting, riding and was thoughtful. Had a sense of economics and politics. Her political approach wasn’t ideologically driven, but people driven… she didn’t classify as a liberal until it came for what was best for her constituents. She struggled with the ACA, was open about it and publicly came down on the side of it being a benefit to those who needed it by publishing her thoughts via an ad buy (not an Op-Ed as I recall) to list out her reasons why.
Doing that put her on the map because of the manner of her doing so, on her own dime (so to speak) made her humanize the question as something outside just numbers on a ledger. That made it personal, as a result, she earned a whole lotta cred on the liberal side of the ledger and drew the everlasting enmity from the right in such a fashion that she warranted surveyor’s symbols/targets on national fundraising campaigns against her.
Then to have that imagery come to life had it’s own repercussions (and we’re still seeing ripples today it seems).
For Dems in Arizona she’s certainly a symbolic person, her perseverance in trying to recover, her votes, the political fallout from her near death and how lines of demarcation were drawn in the state since that time. I will reiterate that Ms. Giffords was a member of the Blue Dog caucus, she was not (and to my knowledge is still not) a “wild-eyed liberal”, but she had a way of being reasonable to a LOT of people because she took the time to make things personal.
The loss of her voice in our political scene made the ideas of negotiation and reconciliation that much more difficult and in that respect very much missed.
Omnes Omnibus
@gene108: This is you being optimistic?
Chief Oshkosh
@Steeplejack: Did anyone really bust their asses to get Sinema and Manchin elected in 2020? It’s a trick question, Robbie…
Gin & Tonic
@germy: In Russian?
Baud
@Steeplejack:
Reich doesn’t care about kids in cages or people dying from the pandemic. Good to know.
Ruckus
@Omnes Omnibus:
I agree that one has to start there, on the positive side.
She doesn’t look like she’s amenable to the correct side however so I can see why people want to shitcan her straight away.
Suzanne
@piratedan:
Yes to everything you said. And she was popular enough that she could have won statewide. She had the right mix of party loyalty without seeming like a rubber stamp, and that is very potent in AZ.
Chris Johnson
@Alison Rose: Both of them are going to be awesome at video editing and fantastic for pretty much everything else. I have the pricier version but could have done the Air and done just as well, really.
The M1 in mine does most things absurdly good. I use a desktop, mostly (got the M1 to support it with my own software releases). Example: I used to get maybe 70 fps in Minecraft on one of the Retina intel iMacs. I upgraded to a very expensive iMac Pro to do livestreaming better, and that one will do 240 fps.
The M1 laptop running an M1-native build of the same Minecraft will do 270 fps, at one fifth the price.
Either choice will be fine. You lucked out, waiting until these were available. I made a very expensive blunder in choosing the 18-core Xeon iMac Pro as the one to throw a bunch of money at… it’s still just barely more powerful but only on things that legitimately use lots and lots and lots of cores, which aren’t that common. On normal stuff and interactivity, the M1 creams it.
Geminid
@piratedan: Giffords also signed on to an amicus brief siding with the plaintiff in the Heller case. That cut no ice with the NRA, though, and they gave her an F rating for the 2010 election. But I think her position on Heller was correct, and that Scalia’s opinion in that case was actually supportive of gun safety legislation.
Betty Cracker
@Steeplejack: It is disingenuous, but I suspect more people see it in those terms than not. Oliver Willis said something kind of similar the other day about how Dems treated the GA special election as a life-or-death issue and got people to turn out, donate, etc., but now the goalposts have been moved — we need control of the senate plus TWO MORE VOTES.
If you pay attention to what’s going on, you know that’s bullshit, just like if you were paying attention in 2009, you knew it was bullshit to say it was the Democratic Party’s and/or PBO’s fault we didn’t get a public option instead of laying the blame on Republicans + Joe Lieberman & Co. But most people don’t pay attention.
piratedan
@Geminid: she had a studied approach to border safety as well… she understood that the trafficking of people was wrong, but she also understood that people weren’t the only items being trafficked. She signed on for additional border security but wanted checkpoints for leaving the US as well, to interdict weapons and cash that were being returned to the cartels. I could see the sense in that, in understanding that it wasn’t just a people problem or a drug problem and that depriving the cartels of cash and weapons was just as much a positive good as it would be to interdict undocumented labor to be exploited.
That’s the kind of politician we lost… She wasn’t perfect and I didn’t agree with her position on each and every item, but I felt like she actually took the time to look at each issue seriously to go beyond just the common-place media sound byte.
Chris Johnson
@RaflW: Sinema could be a mole. It’s not just for Jill Stein anymore! From what I’m hearing about doing happy dance when casting a Dem-hurting vote, it sounds like she is potentially a Trumpian terrorist hiding in plain sight. Easier to go from a far-left position to that, than for a Joe Manchin to turn out all terrorist. I’m deeply suspicious of about half the far left, having BEEN one and having started to spot a lot of suspicious crap going on.
My read on that stuff is sort of like:
AOC, Ilhan Omar: not really secretly terrorist
Bernie: figured out he was being used as a catspaw and backed the hell off, also genuinely likes Biden
Kyrsten Sinema: ??
Tulsi Gabbard: gotta be really aligned with the Trump side
Greenwald: even more so
Tim Pool: might as well be wearing a brown shirt
…and so on. Being a leftist, even a super-extreme leftist, does not make you a right-wing terrorist. But there’s a real track record of fake lefties blending right in, and they are always pushing hard for whatever Russia will find most convenient. Right now, that’s disintegration, helplessness, and domestic terrorism. They don’t have to be subtle about it at all: by now there are few pretenses.
I think the real Dems pretty much know what’s happening there. What to do about it is more complicated and we don’t see all the inner workings.
Omnes Omnibus
@Chris Johnson: OMG!
Ruckus
@Alison Rose:
I have a buddy who has been a Mac addict for a long time, me only 9 years. I had windwers crap because my job software required it. Anyway.
My buddy had an older Mac Book Pro and it ran it’s course and he bought a last generation Mac Book Air. He’s less than excited about it but some of that might be him rather than the computer. The new M1 chip machines should be more similar than they have been in the past and the Pro has some features that the Air does not. But a side by side comparison shows to me that they are now more alike than different and that extra features/screen size is likely the determining factor. I’d say it’s like an iPhone. They all work well, it’s the screen size and the bragging rights that really differentiate them. It really depends on what you use it for. If an iPhone is adequate for all your computer needs except screen size, the air will work fine.
Steeplejack
@Betty Cracker:
Reich surprised me, because usually I see the “Democrats control everything and they’re doing nothing!” criticism from rose Twitter, nouveau-anarchists and Bernier-than-Bernie Sandernistas.
Then I remind myself that Twitter is only about 10% of the population and all the normies just think, “Gridlock in Congress! Both sides!” And somehow blame only the Democrats for not overcoming that. GQP intransigence is just an immutable law of nature.
Kathleen
@Steve in the ATL: Are you referring to his “satirical book” about his treatment of women/young women when he was in Russia?
Betty Cracker
@Chris Johnson: I’m not saying there are no moles, but I think it’s vanishingly rare. Cranks and/or reflexive contrarians — now that’s a much larger category! And I think some lefty cranks naturally evolve into right-wing cranks, and vice-versa.
Steeplejack
@Omnes Omnibus:
Inorite? Skip the newsletter and sign me up for the three-week immersion seminar!
cope
@Alison Rose: Buy the most expensive one you/your mom can afford.
I was given that advice about health insurance once and have found it to be a sound way to go with other things as well. Also too, I am a Mac person since Macs came to be if that is worth anything.
Kathleen
@Urban Suburbanite: Thank you for that elegant response. You have a very classy way of describing MT’s exploits. I totally skirted around the truth in my reply to ATL Steve!
Omnes Omnibus
@Steeplejack: Applejinx gotta applejink.
Kathleen
@Gin & Tonic: “Satire’ even.
Chris Johnson
@Betty Cracker: Yeah, on reflection I have no idea, in particular just because Sinema seems lefty IN ARIZONA doesn’t mean a hell of a lot.
Years of Trump and Russian-directed Republicans have turned my brain to goddamn mush :P
One thing that does jump out, though: social climber? From Trump to Rudy Giuliani, it seems like there are a LOT of dirtbags who have a desperate need to be social climbers and who’ve fallen to Putin’s people. I get that Sinema is not really the leftiest snowflake in Arizona. But I still think Russia really shotguns it: they even had people in the Bernie campaign, I think, it’s just that it wasn’t wholly made up of Russian spies as some thought. There is nothing more valuable to Putin than loose control of an unexpected troublemaker, and there is nothing that will get you in trouble with foreign control than the classic signs of being vulnerable to blackmail such as needing lots of money or social capital. The hungrier you are the more likely you are to fall for some kind of entrapment.
gene108
@Omnes Omnibus:
This me being pessimistic. I try to be optimistic, but have failed.
Alison Rose
@NotMax: This is true.
@jackmac: This is true, too!
Betty
@Betty Cracker: Conundrum. They don’t want them to have more babies or get abortions, but they also won’t give them effective birth control.
James E Powell
@Betty Cracker:
Our whole crew except for two are on board and for our team, that’s got to be a record.
I have given up hope for those and would prefer to start putting all the pressure on Republican senators running for re-election in 2022. We need ads running against their governors for voter suppression and for terminating the free money. We need ads running against every Republican senator for trying to kill the recovery. Be blunt – Donald Trump and the Republicans put this country in a ditch. Joe Biden & the Democrats are trying to pull us all out, but [your senator] is standing in the way. I’d like to see people at home talking about it type TV ads. Hit all the demographics. Have a couple police officers talking about the refusal to investigate Jan 6th. Get aggressive with the attacks
Boozman, Grassley, Johnson, Paul, and Rubio. And run the ads against Republicans in the states where the R is retiring like NC, OH, and PA.
Geminid
@gene108: I may be wrong, but I think some parts of the proposed voting rights act would go into effect immediately, and could be enforced by a lawsuit in federal courts. The Justice Department would not need a rule making process, and private individuals and entities would have standing to challenge Republican measures that violate this legislation.
Baud
Relevant (NYT link)
cain
@Kent:
The GOP wants everyone in lock-step – they will never trust her as she did not come up through the ranks.
brantl
I want these assholes to bleed out, each and every last one of them.
Ivan X
@Alison Rose: $999 MacBook is a great machine and she will not feel the difference.
TheTruffle
@Baud: This could be interesting news. I wonder how much of this is akin to the posturing regarding the ACA?
I was one a few people who wasn’t that bummed about the commission vote last week. Nancy could take over.
Days like this I really don’t believe we will have a USA in a decade. I could see this nation going the way of Yugoslavia, but hopefully more amicably.