Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

This country desperately needs a functioning fourth estate.

Dear elected officials: Trump is temporary, dishonor is forever.

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

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

Giving up is unforgivable.

All hail the time of the bunny!

“The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.”

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

People really shouldn’t expect the government to help after they watched the GOP drown it in a bathtub.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. keep building.

It’s pointless to bring up problems that can only be solved with a time machine.

There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

Jesus watching the most hateful people claiming to be his followers

Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!

DeSantis transforming Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

In after Baud. Damn.

President Musk and Trump are both poorly raised, coddled 8 year old boys.

America is going up in flames. The NYTimes fawns over MAGA celebrities. No longer a real newspaper.

You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / Friday Morning Open Thread: ‘The United States Is Back’

Friday Morning Open Thread: ‘The United States Is Back’

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Important mechanics:

… In a sense, Biden’s policies appropriate both progressive and conservative populist instincts. The higher taxes on the rich and corporations — which would also reduce the privileging of investment income and rein in high-end tax avoidance, including by multinational companies — would discourage socially destructive elite conduct and make the tax code distributionally more progressive.

So would the low-end tax credits. Yet these wouldn’t just fulfill a long-held progressive priority; they would also steal away ideological turf that conservative populists have of late been trying to make their own.

Obviously these Biden plans are in proposal form, and it’s anybody’s guess how much will pass. But you’d think conservative populists who like to proclaim the GOP is becoming the real working-class party might look at these developments with a touch of alarm.

Reader Interactions

165Comments

  1. 1.

    debbie

    As endearing as I found Dr. Jill’s lighthearted admonishment to Joe to pay attention, she’s just given the RWNJ universe another weapon.

  3. 3.

    Richard Guhl

    Bursting the GOP’S claim to be the party of the white working class would be a great thing. Even peeling off a few percent of those voters would put the GOP in deep trouble electorally.

  4. 4.

    Spanky

    Perhaps Dems could steal a page from the great narcissist, and gish gallop ’em with “gaffes”. Time to move the Gaffe Window back to someplace reasonable.

  5. 5.

    John S.

    It may feel like America is back for the rest of the world, but it feels like it’s slipping further away here at home.

    The continued downward spiral of the GQP into revanchist white supremacy, blithely breaking norms and changing the rules to suit their tastes with no consequences, is setting the stage for something very ugly.

    Speaking as a South Floridian, it feels like we’re in the eye of a storm. Hurricane TFG has passed over, and all is calm, but the other side of the storm is yet to come and is far more destructive.

  7. 7.

    Spanky

    @WereBear:

    Yeah, and there’s a bunch of stuff in a storage unit across town.

    Anybody else having formatting issues in the comment block? Mine seems to size itself randomly. Using Android atm.

    On edit there are no issues.

  8. 8.

    WereBear

    Share our joy! Yesterday we got our new kitty, Blue!

    Grown up name is Morgen Le Fae. Which is fun to say, but not when it’s cuddling time. So she’s also Baby Blue, which is impossible to say without a smile in our voice.

    Petfinder photo is about four weeks.

    The man gets his kitten hug is her age yesterday, three months.

    Mr WayofCats wanted a little panther girl. He lost his heart cat last year and the kitten fever was getting pretty high this summer. He asked me to pick one which would be close to him.

    He reports she is every bit the super-snuggler the foster mother said she was.

  11. 11.

    Cervantes

    “But you’d think conservative populists who like to proclaim the GOP is becoming the real working-class party might look at these developments with a touch of alarm.” No, they won’t, because conservative populism has nothing to do with the actual impact of public policy on the economic well-being of people. It has to do entirely with racial and cultural resentments of white, mostly middle class people. They do not even perceive any connection between economic policy and their own lives, except that they are convinced the government take their money and gives it to undeserving others.

  12. 12.

    WereBear

    OMG ya’ll, she’s a Devastator. Mr WayofCats is being ordered around again, and he’s very happy about it. Charming him right into well-trained obedience.

  20. 20.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Michael Harriot@michaelharriot
    This is damn near impossible. It’s like asking: “Can you briefly explain how the universe works?”
    However, there are some things people should know.

    A thread.

    Quote Tweet
    jerry holdbrook
    @lypz79

    Can you break CRT down in a thread pls?

    Long, but well worth the trouble.

  25. 25.

    rikyrah

     
    Tyler Perry Says Madea’s Coming Back Because ‘We Need to Laugh’
     https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/tyler-perry-says-madeas-coming-230000835.html

  26. 26.

    WereBear

    I got a midnight report after the anesthesia wore off. She went straight from the vets to Petsmart adoption center.

    We’re trying to keep her on the floor, and she already learned we want her to climb the steps that lead to the foot of the bed. You know how you pick them up and the vet says “Try to keep them quiet” and we’re all Yeah, right.

  27. 27.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    Meanwhile, Pulitzer Prize winning anti surveillance activist Glenn Greenwald is silent on the data surveillance on the families of Trump’s congressional political opponents (which included minors). Also, he thinks NATO should disband, that Europeans are weenies, that it was OK to gas out the Lafayette Park protestors and doesn’t seem to be real impressed with the writers engaged in the Wintour home picketing.

  32. 32.

    debbie

    @rikyrah:

    Oh, I do too. I especially loved her telling everyone they could sit down. But this morning, listening to a report about the compromise infrastructure bill,  it seemed like this is nothing more than a delaying tactic on the GQP’s part and it will turn out no differently than ACA. We have to get past this and move on to other stuff ASAP!

  38. 38.

    WereBear

    Thank you all! It’s a cheering up thing.

    I must say, Pandemic Kitten Choosing is a whole new ball of wax.

    Though I like it. Online, see the pic, email the shelter, who emails the foster mother (so important in rescuing ferals) and we have reserved and paid while we wait for them to reach 3-4 months.

    This is from a serious operation which has created a way of shrinking the colonies around here. It means spaying and neutering is getting overpopulation better and better under control. That used to be, and often still is, small scale with a few volunteers.

    By meeting her at Petsmart, her shelter gets money. Petsmart gets traffic and sales. And cats do need STUFF.

    We met her for the first time yesterday!

  40. 40.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Gin & Tonic:

    I mean, to be fair, the man IS funding a whole lot of ruble denominated “anonymous” Substack subscriptions to make up for – and exceed – Glenn’s lost Intercept income.

    You write what the guy with the checkbook pays you to write.

  41. 41.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    So I’m looking at the report that two Royal Caribbean passengers tested positive for COVID. But also a headline says all passengers and crew are vaccinated. Do I understand correctly that the cruise line couldn’t require proof of vaccination because DeSantis is a moron? Rather they had to take people’s word for it. But they appear to be testing as they go. That all seems destined to drive business away

    ETA: I just found this on an NBC news site: All guests were required to show a negative Covid-19 test and proof of vaccination 72 hours before its departure on Saturday, the company said.

    I don’t get it

  42. 42.

    Van Buren

    If anyone has a hot tip on how to actually adopt a puppy, I’m all ears.  Every small dog-other than Chihuahuas – gets snagged immediately.

  45. 45.

    Auntie Anne

    @WereBear: I am so glad you posted her here!  I saw some info you posted on FB and wanted more details.  She’s adorable, and while she doesn’t know it yet, she’s hit the jackpot in terms of Forever Homes.

  47. 47.

    Elizabelle

    @Van Buren:   If I may ask, in which state/region do you live?

    I volunteer with rescue dog transport, and maybe you could contact one of the shelters we work with.

    Hosted two darling mostly Catahoula Leopard puppies last weekend.  11 pounds, and going to get much bigger. They traveled north already adopted.

  48. 48.

    Soprano2

    @debbie: But this morning, listening to a report about the compromise infrastructure bill,  it seemed like this is nothing more than a delaying tactic on the GQP’s part and it will turn out no differently than ACA. We have to get past this and move on to other stuff ASAP!

    I agree. They’re saying it’s $1.2 trillion “framework” with over $500 billion of “new spending without tax increases”. Besides the fact that this seems unlikely (it’s probably already-allocated money robbed from other bills), and they only have 5 Republicans onboard which means it’s a nonstarter unless the Republicans can bring five more votes (and then what happens in the House?), I think this habit of buying into GQP thinking that we can do new things without increasing taxes is a bad idea. I’m in the camp that thinks this is all to convince the Democrats who desperately want to put the “bipartisan” stamp on this bill that it’s just not possible to do it with Republicans. If they could get Republican votes for a reconciliation bill, fine, but I bet they can’t.

  49. 49.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:

    I think I still want to claim DeSantis is a moron, but point taken

    I just looked up the percentage of fully vaccinated people who still had covid in the US and the numbers I got were 5800 out of 75million, or about .00008%. IOW, I’m wondering if the claims that everyone was vaccinated are untrue, like maybe someone faked their proof

  50. 50.

    Soprano2

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Could it be that it’s people who aren’t “fully vaccinated”, so they had Covid? Plus, it could have developed between the time they tested and the time they left. Or, it could be people who are lying and presented false documentation. What I read said they were asymptomatic, so I suppose it could be fully vacced people who got Covid.

  51. 51.

    Elizabelle

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:  It is still possible for a vaccinated person to catch COVID.  You will recall the vaccines’ purpose was to reduce incidence of the most virulent forms of the disease, and they are not 100% effective in preventing any occurrence of it.

    With the large numbers of people on a cruise, who by the end have visited several ports, not surprised a few contacted the disease, again.

  54. 54.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    Speaking of DeSantis (and Trump, and Scott Morrison and Viktor Orban, and Bibi Netanyahu) , what is it about certain moderates and businesses that incline them to fold like cheap chairs under the heavy woman at the church potluck every single time some right wing populist utters a stupid pronouncement to satisfy his idiot base, ofttimes in ways which are contradictory to the last pandering? Even when there is much to be gained by resistance?

    Case in point – the prior refusal of DeSantis to let COVID boats into ports.

  55. 55.

    Kay

    @rikyrah:

     Senate Finance Chair Ron Wyden

    Cutting out climate change is a deal breaker for him. He’s always interesting. He’s a really aggressive negotiator. He uses every bit of the power and leverage he has.

  58. 58.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @Soprano2: @Elizabelle: @Spanky: All possible. I’m guessing of course, but it seems to me that it’s way more likely people lied, given that the percent of vaccinated people who caught covid is .00008

    ETA: I’m paying attention to this because Mr DAW wants to go on a Viking river tour in Europe next spring and I’m hesitating.

  59. 59.

    Elizabelle

    From WaPost article: A fully vaccinated cruise set sail in the Caribbean. Two passengers just tested positive for covid.

    According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, breakthrough cases are expected in a small percentage of people who are fully vaccinated. As of April 30, the agency said, 10,262 breakthrough cases were reported at a time when about 101 million people in the United States had been fully vaccinated.

    Not surprising this would happen, and these asymptomatic passengers were exposed to a testing regimen. Most vaccinated people would have no idea they subsequently were positive for COVID.

  61. 61.

    Elizabelle

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:   Yeah, that too.

    I wonder if the cruise lines access the CDC website for proof of passenger vaccination, or go with little white cards, which are easily available and forged.

    All vaccinations are supposed to be logged into the state site, which I believe is tied to the CDC’s database.  Although, not all sites communicate well with each other, at least as of a few weeks ago.

  62. 62.

    Kay

    @Soprano2:

    They’re saying it’s $1.2 trillion “framework” with over $500 billion of “new spending without tax increases”.

    The 500 billion is new spending but the 1.2 trillion is bullshit- they only got there by including regular appropriations. So the improvement from the last offer is about 300 billion and they won’t steal from the stimulus and pretend it’s new spending, instead they’ll just do some fake accounting.

  63. 63.

    debbie

    @Baud:

    I can’t imagine the business community would either. Probably not TFG supporters either. They’re already full of anger about the current increases.

  64. 64.

    Betty Cracker

    @John S.: I know exactly what you mean, John. Those of us unfortunate enough to live in states with Trump-imitator governors are seeing life on the ground change around us despite the restoration of sanity at the federal level. It sucks. Here’s hoping other people notice how shitty it is and rebel at the ballot box.

  65. 65.

    Kay

    @rikyrah:

    I don’t know why everyone is saying “next Presidential election”. If the midterms determine control of either the House or the Senate they’ll steal it then. It’ll be easier, even.

  68. 68.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Elizabelle: I think yours is the right answer. “Breakthrough” infections are likely far more common than a list of cases would indicate, because most of them are extremely mild or asymptomatic and would only be detected if you’re forcing a large group of vaccinated people to get tested. Also, most of them probably don’t have a great ability to spread illness.

    These tests are probably PCR tests, which can detect an extremely low viral load.

  69. 69.

    Ramalama

    @Richard Guhl: Have you read this piece in Salon? Apologies if people in other threads already mentioned it.

    We need to discuss shame. This is a group that is ashamed of itself. This is partly the fault of American Individualism. If you’re doing well, you take credit for it. If you’re failing, that’s your fault and you feel ashamed. That is connected to being part of the economy and community that is vulnerable to offshoring, which is part of a more general story of the American Rust Belt.

    These people are not doing as well as their fathers, which is the classic male comparison to make in terms of the American Dream. They are supposed to be doing better than their parents did, but they are not.

  70. 70.

    Betty Cracker

    Holy shit, y’all! Not TFG’s statement — that argle-bargle is expected. I mean that Fiona Hill considered faking a medical emergency to disrupt TFG’s servile performance in Helsinki. Mind-boggling if true, and it sure sounds plausible. Hill is a patriot, and her country was being shamed on the world stage.

  71. 71.

    sdhays

    @Cervantes: Thank you for this. I read the excerpt and couldn’t guess what the writer could possibly think was a “conservative populist instinct” in Biden’s policies. As I suspected, they’re filling in gaps in the “conservative populist” belief system that conservative populists don’t consider relevant.

    You don’t need to worry about economics when white supremacist grievance does all your work for you.

  72. 72.

    sanjeevs

    Prosecutors also redoubled efforts to find out who had leaked material related to Michael T. Flynn, Mr. Trump’s first national security adviser. Details about conversations he had in late 2016 with the Russian ambassador at the time, Sergey I. Kislyak, appeared in news reports in early 2017 and eventually helped prompt both his ouster and federal charges against him. The discussions had also been considered highly classified because the F.B.I. had used a court-authorized secret wiretap of Mr. Kislyak to monitor them.

    But John Ratcliffe, the director of national intelligence and close ally of Mr. Trump’s, seemed to damage the leak inquiry in May 2020, when he declassified transcripts of the calls. The authorized disclosure would have made it more difficult for prosecutors to argue that the news stories had hurt national security.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/10/us/politics/justice-department-leaks-trump-administration.html

     

    Looks like TFG ordered the DoJ to go after Schiff. Then he ordered Ratcliffe to release redacted Flynn-Kislyak transcripts and fucked up his own scheme.

    Everyone at the DoJ was fine to go along with it  though.

  73. 73.

    Ramalama

    @Betty Cracker: I watched Fiona Hill’s testimony during the Impeachment trial 2x. She was stunning.

    All the stories are coming out. Hopefully something “someone” in authoritah can use to get the fucking cheeto squealer to feel some pain.

  74. 74.

    sdhays

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: You neglected to mention that he also has pronounced Donnie John Dump as the “most progressive President” in his lifetime.

    “When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.”

    “The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.”

    “The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master—that’s all.”

  76. 76.

    Gin & Tonic

    @sanjeevs: 

    because the F.B.I. had used a court-authorized secret wiretap of Mr. Kislyak to monitor them.

    The tapping of the Russian Ambassador’s phone is a “secret” to approximately zero people, especially the Russian Ambassador.

  77. 77.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: Biden/Schumer don’t have 50 Democratic votes for the infrastructure bill. That’s what it means.

    At least not yet. I’m still hopeful that after all this performative bipartisan bullshit there will be 50 votes for a decent infrastructure bill with some tax changes to provide revenue. Watching this process is nerve-wracking.

  78. 78.

    Soprano2

    @debbie:I believe it all depends on increasing the gas tax.

    Well, that’s a non-starter. Republicans want that so they can beat Biden over the head about breaking his promise not to tax people with incomes under $400,000, and so they can blame Biden when gas prices go up. It won’t matter that Republicans vote for the bill – this is why they are so insistent on a gas tax for funding.

  79. 79.

    germy

    This is what Trump was tweeting about the same month that Trump’s DOJ subpoenaed Apple for metadata to spy on Rep. Schiff & other House Intel Democrats who Trump accused of “leaking”. It seems clear that Trump was directly involved in the DOJ’s targeting of Schiff, which is huge. pic.twitter.com/mdEH6ame5p

    — Caroline Orr Bueno, Ph.D (@RVAwonk) June 11, 2021

    Here’s Trump in Nov. 2018, threatening to also investigate Senate Democrats for leaking intel. Trump also repeatedly accused Sen. Mark Warner of being a leaker, so it wouldn’t be surprising if Warner was targeted along with Schiff and Swalwell. pic.twitter.com/lD3mFBwGn7

    — Caroline Orr Bueno, Ph.D (@RVAwonk) June 11, 2021

  80. 80.

    Betty Cracker

    @Ramalama: Fiona Hill really was amazing during that testimony! Made me feel better about the US, that we have/had public servants of that quality.

    I don’t have any hope that Rancid Cheeto will be held accountable in a legal sense for his many crimes and colossal blunders, but the fact that he felt obligated to defend his shameful performance in Helsinki and give Putin another hand-job tells me he’s feeling some heat, if only of the psychological kind.

  82. 82.

    sdhays

    @Gin & Tonic: A National Security Advisor to a President of the United States apparently didn’t know, so it’s clearly a secret to more than zero people.

  83. 83.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Betty Cracker: he’s dumb and vain enough to think other foreign leaders really liked him when they pretended to, so I’m sure BoJo calling Biden a “breath of fresh air” was a kick in balls for him.

    somebody on MSNBC played a montage of The Idiot fawning all over Putin and KJU, and it was head-spinning all over again to think of all the R Senators who bloviated about Obama’s ‘feckless foreign policy’ and the need for “strong” leaderly leadership all those years

  84. 84.

    Kay

    @Soprano2:

    Right. But the negotiations/compromises are not exclusively or even primarily to attract Mitt Romney. They’re to get to 50 Democrats.

    It’s just the reality of our senators. Many of them are not (actually) liberals. Getting to Romney territory doesn’t mean you get Romney. It means you get the 5 or 6 Democrats. The Democratic Party won’t admit this for some reason (to protect the senators) but I think that’s a mistake politically. If they would explain this to the D base there would be a lot less frustration. Just tell them there’s a portion of the D’s in Congress who are on the Right and that’s what this dog and pony show is really about. That Democrats would prefer to appear weak and incompetent to the base instead of simply telling the truth about this dynamic baffles me and is idiotic, IMO.

  86. 86.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Kay:

    The Democratic Party won’t admit this for some reason (to protect the senators) but I think that’s a mistake politically. If they would explain this to the D base there would be a lot less frustration. Just tell them there’s a portion of the D’s in Congress who are on the Right and that’s what this dog and pony show is really about. That Democrats would prefer to appear weak and incompetent to the base instead of simply telling the truth about this dynamic baffles me and is idiotic, IMO.

    How are you defining “the D base” here? who is engaged enough in politics to consider themselves and be considered “the base” who doesn’t know this?

  87. 87.

    germy

    Before the sound era, cameras were free to move around. This clip reminds me of what movie steadicams do nowadays:

    The Woman One Longs For (1929) offers some good examples of the unchained camera technique developed in Germany during the silent era pic.twitter.com/hdszOfYN7g
    — Silent Movie GIFs (@silentmoviegifs) June 11, 2021

  90. 90.

    Kay

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Well, most people insist this is somehow a completely incompetent and doomed to failed effort to get a “bipartisan bill”. That’s the whole Lucy and the Football bullshit. It’s not. It’s ideological. The sphere that includes Romney and Collins also includes some Democrats, on the Left edge. It’s not “partisan”. It’s ideological. It isn’t that they won’t pull the trigger with the 50 votes they have. They don’t have 50 votes.

    I think it will swing back Left here shortly though because they’ll now lop off liberal Senators- defectors on the Left flank. I’m glad. If Manchin can play hardball Wyden can too.

  91. 91.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Kay:

    Well, most people insist this is somehow a completely incompetent and doomed to failed effort to get a “bipartisan bill”. That’s the whole Lucy and the Football bullshit.

    one of my hobbyhorses is that you can’t talk about “the base” in the Democratic Party. There are too many parts of the coalition.  I know the “Lucy and the Football” types are noisy, like the people who say “We need to primary Manchin!” or “Biden needs to just tell him….”, but I don’t think they’re even close to a majority of the party.

  92. 92.

    Gin & Tonic

    I wrote the other day about Russia’s objections to the Ukrainian team uniform for the Euro-2020 soccer tournament and UEFA’s decision to require a change (I’m sure that’s completely independent of the fact that Gazprom is a title sponsor.) This Tweet includes a photo of the British Embassy Kyiv staff today, all wearing the uniform shirt in question:

    Співробітники посольства Британії сфотографувалися у формі збірної України, яка не подобається росіянамhttps://t.co/CW6dKWYo51 pic.twitter.com/PegGfApd7T
    — European Pravda (@EuropeanPravda) June 11, 2021

    A similar photo of the Canadian Embassy staff is making the rounds as well.

    The team says they will be playing in their previously-approved uniform.

  95. 95.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    NPR news round-up just described trump’s DoJ investigating MoCs as “unusual”

    thirty seconds of both-sidesing

    amazing

    and not

  97. 97.

    Soprano2

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:NPR news round-up just described trump’s DoJ investigating MoCs as “unusual”

    They just can’t bring themselves to talk about how scandalous this really is. It’s probably some of the same people who obsessed about the “scandal” of Hillary’s e-mails. It shows you how much the goalposts moved due to TFG’s presidency.

  100. 100.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Baud: something like: Democrats say the subpoena was inappropriate

    that’s not a quote, but it’s not far off

  101. 101.

    SFAW

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    all the R Senators who bloviated about Obama’s ‘feckless foreign policy’ and the need for “strong” leaderly leadership all those years

    Don’t forget Obama’s bowing to MBS or someone similar.

  102. 102.

    MontyTheClipArtMongoose

    @Betty Cracker: that statement from el tipo anterior is definitely restoring honor & dignitude to the postpresidency.

    sleazebags! in a presidential statement!

  103. 103.

    Ken

    @Baud: Don’t forget that the DoJ is probably investigating Matt Gaetz. True, that’s allegedly for sex trafficking minors, but is that really all that different from Schiff’s offense of (consults notes) criticizing the President? And I’m sure Schiff’s children did something equally heinous

    (Come to think, in the usual “every accusation is a confession”, the fact that TFG had the DoJ go after the communications of Schiff’s relatives is suggestive.)

  104. 104.

    Betty Cracker

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I think you’re right that we’re too big a tent to narrowly define a base, but I agree with Kay that this dog and pony show is frustrating as hell to many Democratic voters. Here’s a story that’s up on CNN right now about a volunteer who worked her ass off to get Sinema elected:

    “What has happened is a complete slap in the face to our members, to the work they have done and to the change that they are trying to make in our communities,” [Alejandra] Gomez said. “If she is not part of the solution, she is part of the problem. And what we are seeing is that she is touting herself as a bipartisan leader, but we have yet to see where the bipartisanship stands. She has done nothing.”

    This is an engaged door-knocking volunteer. There are tons of people who vote for Democrats who pay a lot less attention than that woman does, and they are disillusioned about the lack of progress. As you know, this is something that has plagued us for years. I don’t know if people who feel that way are the majority of our voters, but I do know I got my ear chewed off by plenty of folks who are frustrated when I did phone canvassing, and I know we hold and lose power by such narrow margins that it matters.

    Maybe Kay is right and straight-forwardly acknowledging that we have elected officials in the Democratic Party who are ideologically opposed to many of the things Biden ran on would be both more honest and more politically advantageous than this endless pursuit of the bipartisanship fairy. 

  106. 106.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @SFAW:

    Don’t forget Obama’s bowing to MBS or someone similar.

    I think that was King Abdullah, MBS’s uncle?

  107. 107.

    Edmund Dantes

    @Ramalama: Adam Schiff doesn’t seem to want to use his subpoena power now that we have a Dem DOJ that should be willing to turn over documents or is he afraid they might fight him so he’s not going to use that power?

    https://twitter.com/brianbeutler/status/1403159271068553218?s=21

    why aren’t Dem House chairs using their subpoena power now that we have a new executive? Congress should be adversarial to the Executive. Fight for your rights.

  109. 109.

    bbleh

    @Kay: @Jim, Foolish Literalist: @Kay: @Soprano2: @Kay: @Soprano2: @debbie:

    This looks like a right disaster to me.  Several Democrats have now signed on to a BIPARTISAN compromise that evidently is DESIGNED to be unacceptable to Biden.  (A gas tax?  Which is paid by working families? While corporations and billionaires pay nothing? And that’s without whatever shady accounting is going on regarding what’s new and what’s old stuff in new wrappings.)

    Manchin, Sinema, et al, have been rolled — deliberately or out of sheer incompetence.  They’ve put Biden in the position of being the one to say ‘no’ to something he’s asked for.  They’ve accepted Mitch’s “red line” but crossed their own president’s “red line.”

    They may be useful for keeping the Majority Leader position in Schumer’s hands, but beyond that, they might as well be Republicans.

  110. 110.

    germy

    Today, Attorney General Merrick Garland will give a policy address on voting rights and the concrete steps the Justice Department is taking to secure the right to vote for all Americans.

    — Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) June 11, 2021

  113. 113.

    Baud

    @Betty Cracker:

    Well Sinema is unique in that she really put herself out there to be hated.

    ETA: and, seriously, the GOP voters waited 50 years to get Roe overturned. Maybe one reason for the lack of progress is that our voters have no constitution for the long fight.

  114. 114.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Betty Cracker: right, but that woman knows who and what Sinema is. I’m frustrated, and I said all through the fall of ’20 that Biden would be exactly as progressive as the D Senate caucus– which I thought would be larger– would let him be.

    It’s one of the reasons I get so frustrated when people say “Democrats”, or “Biden”, when they mean Manchin (and all the people he’s providing cover to). Like this guy (Obama’s WH ethics lawyer), who should know better:

    Walter Shaub @waltshaub 1h
    Lost of folks in the White House & Congress think it’s enough to behave better than Tump. They’ve moved on from worrying about democracy and are spending all their political capital on fixing the roads and pipes. So what can you do? Lose the hero worship and start pounding them.

    “Lots of folks” is about six, max, and lumping the White House in is just malpractice. And how do we “pound” Manchin? It’s one thing to hear this from some twitter rando, but this is will, self-indulgent and counter-productive ignorance from somebody who had a front row seat for “Why can’t President Obama have a drink with Mitch McConnell?”

  115. 115.

    bbleh

    @Baud: WaPo says indexing it to inflation is part of the deal, and it’s the only affirmative point about financing.

  116. 116.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @bbleh:

    They may be useful for keeping the Majority Leader position in Schumer’s hands, but beyond that, they might as well be Republicans.

    they also voted for the rescue package that a couple of months ago had people talking about Biden as the new FDR (and prompted a lot of “Bless his heart” dismissiveness of Obama and the ARRA). And they’re starting to vote for the judges much of the self-described progressive activists couldn’t bring themselves to be concerned about in 2016 and 2020

  120. 120.

    Betty Cracker

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    It’s one of the reasons I get so frustrated when people say “Democrats”, or “Biden”, when they mean Manchin (and all the people he’s providing cover to).

    Maybe I’m wrong, but that’s exactly what I thought Kay was addressing in her comment: make the point that there are elected Democrats who are ideologically opposed to a lot of what Biden ran on (making corps pay their fair share, stopping state-level Repubs from suppressing the vote, etc.) so they won’t be lumped in with “Democrats” writ large. The problem ain’t “Democrats,” it’s Manchin, Sinema, and whoever is hiding behind their skirts.

  121. 121.

    bbleh

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Fair point about votes for judges, although not imo about activists caring about judges; that alarm has been ringing for years.

    But it doesn’t change my mind about this debacle, or generally about them being routinely rolled, willingly or blindly

    And it particularly p!sses me off about Manchin because of what he could have done for WV if he were less stupid and/or vain.

  122. 122.

    Kay

    @germy:

    Garland worries me. I’m sure he’s a smart man and a decent man but IMO we need a risk taker – a “creative”- and I just don’t get that from him.

    He has drawn the line around not being “political” too broadly. I’m afraid it now includes enforcement of federal law on voting rights as “political”.  An ineffective and timid DOJ is not the “cure” for a politicized DOJ. Just do the work and let others worry about whether it looks “political”. The work is the thing, not the “perception” of the institution. If it’s good solid work “the institution” will take care of itself.

  123. 123.

    Betty Cracker

    @Baud: I’m as frustrated with our voters’ lack of long-term commitment as anyone else, but that’s like being angry at a bad officiating in a game: understandable but kind of pointless. Repubs figured out a way to get their dolts to turn up. We have to do the same.

  124. 124.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Betty Cracker: hell, Biden called them out last week. I think you have to work at it— or be, as I meant to say, self-indulgently and willfully ignorant like Schaub in that tweet– to not know who and what Sinema, Manchin are.

    And Feinstein

    Andrew Solender @AndrewSolender19h
    Feinstein, asked about some Dems saying they’d choose democracy over the filibuster: “If democracy were in jeopardy, I would want to protect it. But I don’t see it being in jeopardy right now.”

  125. 125.

    Baud

    @Betty Cracker:

    Sure, we have a job to do.  But there’s only so far we can get ahead of our voters.  The fire has to come from the bottom up.  You can’t organize what’s not there.

  126. 126.

    Mike in NC

    We all remember the Fat Orange Clown’s first trip abroad to Saudi Arabia, where he touched a glowing orb and was given robes, swords, gold medals and other ridiculous shit that only a sleazy mobster from Queens would find impressive.

  127. 127.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    Exactly. They’d rather damage the “brand” than bring out the Righties and make them own it.

    I don’t even have a particular objection to having Right-leaning D Senators. I accept that it’s a big tent. But don’t drag the whole brand down to protect them. They’re on their own.

  128. 128.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @bbleh:

    although not imo about activists caring about judges; that alarm has been ringing for years.

    “don’t try to blackmail me with the Supreme Court” 2016

    “Biden needs to give me a reason to vote for him” 2020, even after they all joined hand to dance on RBG’s grave

  133. 133.

    Baud

     

    @Kay:

    I think for that to work, we need to shut down the myth that Biden or Schumer could make Manchin do things if they only tried.

  134. 134.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Baud: the last time the broad left, all Democrats, seemed really engaged on the courts was the Thomas nomination through the ’92 election. Bush v Gore, Shelby, Kavanaugh, Coney-Barrett…. nothing seems to light that fire. I don’t get it.

  136. 136.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Kay:

    Exactly. They’d rather damage the “brand” than bring out the Righties and make them own it.

    Who is “they”? the people I see making Manchin and Sinema into the Dem “brand” are twitter critics on the left (more or less, Do Something Twitter)

  137. 137.

    WaterGirl

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:  I don’t see anything that says they don’t get to board a cruise until 14 days after their final shot (for Moderna and Pfizer) and I think the number of days might be longer for the one-shot J&J.

    Also, a test within 3 days of boarding doesn’t keep you from coming into contact with COVID during that 3 days.

    I would definitely not sign up for a cruise for next spring until seeing how things play out his summer and the fall.

  138. 138.

    Betty Cracker

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: If you’re referring to the incident I think you’re referring to, Biden did call them out, obliquely, without mentioning their names. IMO, the only people who got that “call out” were political junkies like us. We’re not the ones who are confused about the Democratic Party’s brand.

    Also, I’m not sure I agree that you have to work hard at not knowing who and what Manchin and Sinema are. You and I are in a bubble that most people are not in, and I think it can be hard for us to see just how disconnected most people are from this stuff.

    I thought Biden’s rebranding of “bipartisan” to mean “supported by most Americans” instead of “supported by 10 Republicans in the Senate” was pretty brilliant. Maybe that’s a lever to use with OUR problem children.

  140. 140.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Betty Cracker:  Would calling them out by name – potentially embarrassing them – cause them to dig in their heels? Right now, it seems to me that that Biden and Schumer still have hopes of landing them. If they do, will the extra time have been worth it? Will it matter that some bill passes in, say, September rather than June?

  142. 142.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @WaterGirl: I understand Mr DAW’s eagerness to get traveling. He’ll be 77 in September and he’s afraid that one of these days, he won’t be able to travel any more. Every year we wait is a year of our young old age gone.

  144. 144.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Haven’t read through the thread, but this is a huge middle finger to that Russian criminal who is strip mining his own country for personal profit.

    Also, too, TFG sent out one of his “from the desk” crayon scribblings that OHJB should fire the Joint Chiefs for assessing that climate change is America’s number one national security concern, which they did to Biden when he was first sworn in as VP.  Because TFG doesn’t understand how the world or wars work, and climate change is setting the stage for military unrest that will rival WWII.

    Biden will of course ignore this because Biden knows how to think things through.  Which is why the military assessment is so spot on.

  145. 145.

    Soprano2

    @Baud:Graham was on the TV saying that Biden was acting weak with Russia. All they have are talking points.

    As opposed to TFG looking like a whipped puppy when he came out of his meeting with Putin (no record keeping allowed!), and then disagreeing with his own intelligence agencies and agreeing with Russia’s. Ok then….

  146. 146.

    Betty Cracker

    @Omnes Omnibus: My assessment of the current situation is significantly less optimistic than yours. If you’re right, patience is warranted. I sure hope you are!

  147. 147.

    bbleh

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: @Baud:  Oh please, a few quotes recycled endlessly from years ago like some Fox News segment. Compare that to, say, calls to expand the Supreme Court, to mailers and opinion pieces by then dozens if not hundreds warning about the judiciary and the Federalist Society agenda, and urging the election of Democrats. Just look at the campaigns and coverage of the Warnock and Ossoff campaigns, for example.

    But whatever. As twice noted, good to have D’s in control in the Senate for that reason. But this present vote is a serious stab in the back imo.

  149. 149.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @bbleh: you may think 2016 is the dark and distant past. I’m still not over the damage the Professional Left did in 2000, so….

    and “calls to expand the Supreme Court” are One Weird Trick wish casting that might well be counter-productive in actual elections. Also sets unrealistic expectations that set up the “Biden didn’t even try…” excuse for people who want to sit on their hands because it makes them feel vanguard-y and virtuous.

  151. 151.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    How are you defining “the D base” here? who is engaged enough in politics to consider themselves and be considered “the base” who doesn’t know this?

    I would define the Democratic base as “people who have 100% likelihood of voting Dem, IF they vote.”

    And I can guarantee you that millions of them don’t know this, and a fair chunk of them won’t show up in 2022 if “the Dems” let them down again.

  152. 152.

    gene108

    @Betty Cracker:

     

    @Kay:

    Maybe Kay is right and straight-forwardly acknowledging that we have elected officials in the Democratic Party who are ideologically opposed to many of the things Biden ran on would be both more honest and more politically advantageous than this endless pursuit of the bipartisanship fairy.

    Betty, I do not get this as being better. Acknowledge there are a handful of Democrats, who are Republican-lite will better motivate people to vote for Democrats?

    I just wish Congressional Democrats realize that they need to deliver big, because otherwise, even if they can win re-election, Republicans will take over Congress, and they will be totally frozen out of the legislative process.

    It’s a sort of we all hang together, or we are all hanged separately scenarios. Republicans get this.

  153. 153.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @lowtechcyclist:

    I would define the Democratic base as “people who have 100% likelihood of voting Dem, IF they vote.”

    I wouldn’t count unlikely or irregular voters in “the base”. Again, I assume anyone counting as the base is an engaged voter, the kind who explain to the kind of voter you’re describing why they should vote anyway.

  154. 154.

    gene108

    @Baud:

    ETA: and, seriously, the GOP voters waited 50 years to get Roe overturned. Maybe one reason for the lack of progress is that our voters have no constitution for the long fight.

    When billionaires are paying hacks six figure salaries to stay in the fight, it makes it a lot easier to hang in there for 50 years.

  155. 155.

    gvg

    @Spanky: ​
      I have been trying to understand some of the test positive results for vaccinated people and I think people are misunderstanding vaccines. They aren’t a force field that prevents the virus from entering our bodies. On the contrary, it only works after a virus has entered us. Antibodies and other immune defenses work inside of us. So a virus has to enter, and THEN defenses activate and ramp up to smash those viruses. If we are vaccinated, the alert system is on a hair trigger and reacts fast to produce more antibodies fast compared to an unvaccinated body. This means we probably won’t even have symptoms even if we get invaded multiple times.
    The tests are set up to detect a very small amount of virus cells. If it doesn’t tell what the virus load is, it doesn’t tell you enough. We may all have been infected without knowing it if we only got a few virus cells before they died. Before the vaccines, we needed to know we were infected so we could get treatment and isolate to not spread it. Now…we need to know if the load is increasing or decreasing and if our immune system is activating correctly. I don’t think the tests are set up for that now. There almost needs to be different testing for the vaccinated/ non vacc.

  157. 157.

    Betty Cracker

    @gene108: I’m not 100% convinced that’s the way to go either, but it is true that a handful of Democratic Party senators are small “c” conservatives, and they are blocking our bare majority from enacting legislation that people who voted Democrats in expect to pass. I’m not saying those senators are completely useless or every bit as bad as Republicans. They generally vote for the admin’s nominees; they helped ram the relief act through, and that ain’t nothing.

    But the overwhelming majority of elected Democrats, including the POTUS and VPOTUS, want to pass additional legislation that they ran on and that is popular with most Americans and that is essential to preserving democracy, and these conservative Democrats are a roadblock.

    Either people understand that, or they attribute the dithering to the entire party rather than the people who are actually responsible. Maybe that’s a false choice, but I’m not convinced it is.

  158. 158.

    Another Scott

    @John S.: Counterpoint:

    BlueVirginia.US:

    The Democratic primary is officially over, and around 485,000 Virginia Democrats went to the polls to select the party’s statewide slate + nominees for House of Delegates. Despite pundits suggesting Virginia Democrats lacked enthusiasm to vote, Tuesday’s election saw some of the highest turnout in recent history.

    We’re not doomed.

    Hang in there.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  159. 159.

    J R in WV

    @rikyrah:

    Why is Vice President Kamala Harris attracting so much more vicious criticism, and so quickly, compared to past VPs?

    Without reading the linked article, I will take a wild stab at one possible reason: A woman (first evah!) of color (first eveh!) with foreign born parents (first evah in 200 years), all three of which lead many V peculiar people to hate and despise her with no other reasons needed.

    Fuq those white supremacists!

  160. 160.

    JPL

    @J R in WV: Katie Pavlich said that Kamala was chosen due to the color of her skin, and her gender.    Gelrado said something at the time, but it seems to be that Fox could have released a statement.

    Is this why we are an exceptional nation?

  162. 162.

    John S.

    @Gin & Tonic: Clearly you are not a Floridian. Hurricanes are a disaster, but we survive them and rebuild.

    Take your “sky is falling” bullshit somewhere else.

  163. 163.

    J R in WV

    @J R in WV: ​
     

    And now, after reading the Washington Monthly article, I see that I hit all the nails squarely on their heads. How did I ever guess that RWNJs (and left wingers who have rounded the horn into the RWNJ paradise) all hate Harris for those 3 reasons? Experience with white supremacists for many years, lived in Pascagoula Mississippi for a year in 1972-73, etc.

    Pascagoula MS was like going back to 1952 in a time warp. A Horrible pesthole filled with white people full of hate~!!~

  164. 164.

    J R in WV

    @bbleh:

    it particularly p!sses me off about Manchin because of what he could have done for WV if he were less stupid and/or vain.

    Yes, this in particular.

    This state is full of large federal offices and programs that provide hundreds thousands of good-paying union jobs to people working for the federal government, all provided by the late Senator Robert C Byrd. Some are coal related, most are not.

    Senator Byrd learned a lot over his long career, and was by the end of that career a fabulous liberal powerhouse in the senate.

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