Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

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

We are aware of all internet traditions.

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

White supremacy is terrorism.

Chutkan laughs. Lauro sits back down.

Ah, the different things are different argument.

Come on, man.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

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

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

“And when the Committee says to “report your income,” that could mean anything!

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

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

In my day, never was longer.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

The words do not have to be perfect.

Trump’s legal defense is going to be a dumpster fire inside a clown car on a derailing train.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

You cannot shame the shameless.

No one could have predicted…

You are here: Home / Politics / Biden Administration in Action / Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Incremental Progress

Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Incremental Progress

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Apparently the DooceBag brought along a backup for his latest press-stunting… but it didn’t help (him)…

Reader Interactions

185Comments

  2. 2.

    A Ghost to Most

    The situation will not improve as long as America continues the overproduction of christian supremacists in their madrassas.

  5. 5.

    dr. bloor

    At some point, you have to start thinking Psaki is slipping Doocy a few bucks under the table every week to keep making her look good.

  6. 6.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    The Psaki Game: Whenever she answers a question like those, add “you stoopid fuck” at the end.

    Because you know that’s what she’s thinking.

  8. 8.

    SFAW

    I don’t recall who that second asshole is — I’ve seen him ask questions in the past, but can’t recall his name — but if he’s not an ONAN or Newsmax stringer, he should be.

    Hoped-for Psaki response: “Well, Shitbag, we’re more than happy to give The Former Guy all the credit he deserves — which is a lot — for the 400,000 (or more) excess deaths his dithering, denial, and outright obstruction caused. Next!”

  9. 9.

    leeleeFL

    @Ian R:  We, and the Biden Administration, are really going to miss Jen Psaki.  She is really good at calling out the BS from Douchy and Co.

  10. 10.

    MomSense

    @Baud: 
    The decision about whether or not to report on polling is whether or not it tracks with their narrative.
    Competent leadership is ignored by the media while they focus on what they perceive as weakness even if it’s a BS issue or the weakness is based on lack of context and understanding of the issue. The reality they create is skewed. It’s similar to the way they can give credibility to a fringe idea (climate denial for instance) by providing equal coverage to the fringe when it is considered the opposing view.

  11. 11.

    debbie

    @SFAW:

    The only credit Trump deserves is not being able to sidetrack the Biden administration from its mission to get vaccines into people.

  12. 12.

    Baud

    @MomSense:

    Right.  Watch whenever there’s some hiccup or imperfection (border! Inflation! Crime!) and the media are practically salivating at the opening it provides to the GOP.

  13. 13.

    SFAW

    @debbie:

    Not even that. I don’t give credit to a terrorist who was unable to blow something up, even though he tried.

  15. 15.

    Nora

    I take such pleasure in watching her respond to these stupid questions.  She’s never rude, she never says aloud what you know she’s thinking about the stupidity of the questions, she never lets them get away with assumptions not supported by evidence, and she always sticks to her message.  She is a terrific press secretary in all regards.

  22. 22.

    lee

    Since this is an open thread:

    So I’ve got a weird ‘zebra’ medical issue . Last Friday morning I started getting pain and swelling around my right salivary gland. Got an appointment at my PCP for right after lunch and all indications that it was a salivary stone (not that common but not unusual). Scheduled a CT scan for Monday morning (tried Friday afternoon but couldn’t get in).

    Got the CT scan and no stones!

    Apparently the salivary gland ruptured (which is really unusual without something else going on).  This actually makes sense as according to ‘the interweb’ salivary stones are not very painful and Sunday I was in immense pain.

    Now I’m on stronger pain meds, a dose pack of steroids and massive antibiotics. I should get in to see the specialist later this week and hopefully surgery shortly thereafter.

  23. 23.

    lee

    @rikyrah: Same exact thing happened in Gulf War 1 with the Anthrax vaccine. Some officers and enlisted refused to take it and were discharged.

  24. 24.

    RSA

    That second guy… I wish Psaki had rephrased his question in her answer: “You think people will say, ‘President Biden is giving Trump more credit for the vaccine—I should get a jab!’? If that’s true, America is in worse trouble than we’ve all thought.”

  25. 25.

    patrick Il

    @rikyrah: ​
     
    RWNJ would naturally sort themselves out of the military. Good for the long run but I might worry about short term troop deficits.

  27. 27.

    Jeffery

    It’s such a pleasure to watch Jen Psaki answer ridiculous questions with such adroitness.

  28. 28.

    Baud

    @rikyrah: 

    One of the fallacies of our political discourse is that because liberals try to accommodate people, we have an obligation to accommodate everyone. We have the same right as any other governing coalition to set out a principled rule and to enforce it.

  32. 32.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    I just can’t anymore….

    Glenn Greenwald: Liberal media ‘angry’ people want to listen to right-wing outlets & why the establishment leftist press is ignoring the authoritarianism of the #Democrats.

  33. 33.

    WaterGirl

    @rikyrah: I think that ship has sailed.  They opened up a Portillo’s here maybe 3 years ago and their italian beef is neither good, nor consistent, from day to day.

  37. 37.

    MJS

    @patrick Il: Short term troop deficits won’t happen. People, including those in the military, just like to complain. Very few are going to take a discharge for failure to follow orders.

  39. 39.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @dr. bloor: But consider, after every one of these engagements the wackaloons are guffawing about how Doocey is running circles around her. Oh well, maybe if they keep with the anti-vaxxing, the stupidity will slowly go away.

  40. 40.

    WereBear

    While I’m happy about the way Joe Biden’s administration plows through idiocy with his own form of teflon, but wonder about the source.

    1. Is Old White Guy really this much of a superpower?
    2. Is there Idiocy Fatigue after so many months of COVID emergency?
    3. Has the GQP devolved to the point where they got nothing but murdering their own followers?
    4. All of the Above?
  41. 41.

    Baud

    @WereBear:

    I would go with # 4.  I also think there is idiocy fatigue after 4 years of TFG.  One of the silver linings of the antivax nonsense is that it keeps the idiocy from fading into the memory hole (which is something that hurt Obama).

  42. 42.

    Gin & Tonic

    My son reminded me that today is five years since investigative journalist Pavel Sheremet was assassinated by a car bomb in broad daylight in the center of Kyiv.

    There are no leads and no active investigation.

  45. 45.

    leeleeFL

    @Baud: I agree.  Authoritarianism in the service of truth is no vice; in the service of lies, it’s very bad!  As we have seen, sadly, it can be fatal.

  47. 47.

    Baud

     

    @leeleeFL:

    Authoritarianism in the service of truth is no vice

     
    So, it can be. Even if it’s for a good purpose, it can be taken too far. But slippery slopes abound everywhere. We should be cognizant of the concerns, but it shouldn’t make us passive and listless in dealing with real problems.

  50. 50.

    Tim C.

    @Baud: Word.   Of all the things that have changed since 2009, it’s the fact that after Bush II left office an utter failure, the rank and file Republicans pretended he never existed!   Like to the point that they were asking where was Obama on September 11th!   They are really clinging to Trump, which is why we are calling them a cult now.

  52. 52.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Chief Oshkosh:

    after every one of these engagements the wackaloons are guffawing about how Doocey is running circles around her.

    Sure.  ‘Playground bully’ is huge in conservative thinking.  A playground bully and everyone who supports them isn’t listening to your response and assumes they win because “HA HA YOU SUCK.”  That’s how it plays out in any school.  A really, really good zinger or threat of violence might work, but those are rarely options.  The zinger is quickly flushed down the memory hole and the latter produces whining rather than submission in any case.

  57. 57.

    leeleeFL

    @Tim C.:  Don’t use that BS analogy.  That’s the line the “Thought Leaders” used to get the rubes in line, no one but the most gullible believed it.

  58. 58.

    artem1s

    @Gin & Tonic:

    “Embroidered invitation” was funny. Probably not intentionally.

    maybe not but she’s usually pretty good at getting in a quip without it sounding too much like down punching.  She probably slipped and meant engraved. But I like embroidered.  It implies TFG is some old matron waiting like Miss Havershom for her old flame to show up and love her again without calling him and his fluffers whinging old biddies directly.

    I mean, they are just screaming to be given an excuse to ask him for an interview and write yet another Cletus safari article, aren’t they? They are perfect examples of battered spouse syndrome. :P

  59. 59.

    Another Scott

    Team D and Biden-Harris are doing well.

    In other news, Bezos is taking off around 8AM CT (unless they moved it).

    Billionaire Bezos to make debut space launch
    https://p.dw.com/p/3wiZO

    I didn’t realize that there were no flight controls inside. Interesting.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  60. 60.

    leeleeFL

    Bezos could be feeding, clothing and housing droves of people with the cost of this joy ride.  To prove what exactly?  We know it can be done,   BTDT!  Do something to improve the world, and stop waving your ” —k” around.

  63. 63.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Tim C.:

    Of all the things that have changed since 2009, it’s the fact that after Bush II left office an utter failure, the rank and file Republicans pretended he never existed!

    That was before a black man was elected president.  Now it is total war.  Democrats must never be granted an inch, ever.  It hit in 2009 when some of the biggest names in the Republican Party, like McConnell and Rove, were forced to publicly apologize for saying some of the most batshit conspiracy theories were wrong.  They were buried in screaming rants and threats from Republican voters.

  64. 64.

    The Thin Black Duke

    @leeleeFL: Bottom line, the 1% could have paid everybody to stay home in 2020, and could have given every small business in America the money they needed to stay afloat in 2020. But they didn’t because the 1% are greedy sociopathic bastards. Fuck Bezos and the billion-dollar rocket he’s taking his joy ride in.

  65. 65.

    narya

    @WereBear: All of the above. He’s competent, he’s experienced, and he has surrounded himself with smart, competent people, and they are all moving forward in an organized and competent fashion. I’m sure there have been and will be missteps, and not every single thing will work out perfectly, but the team is also experienced enough to know that THAT’s true, too.

  66. 66.

    Baud

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    My vague recollection of history is that, while the US government never treated Indian tribes well or even fairly, the government faced a lot pressure from western settlers to be more horrible to the tribes than officials actually wanted to be.  This kind of reminds me of that.

  68. 68.

    Elizabelle

    Bezos launch about 4 minutes away.  CNN covering; here’s a free online link. https://livenewschat.eu/breaking-news/

    Bezos meh.  But I am rooting for Wally Funk, the woman who never was allowed into the 1960s astronauts program.  Men only.  She’s 82 now.

    WaPost:

    Joining the Amazon founder onboard are his brother, Mark Bezos; aviation trailblazer Wally Funk, who will be the oldest person ever to fly in space at 82 years old; and Oliver Daemen, 18, a Dutch student who will be the youngest person ever to launch.

  69. 69.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    OK, I know I’m supposed to be sneering at rich assholes sending themselves to space. But I think that the rich asshole phase is an important and exciting first step to privatizing and opening up space, and bringing us closer to the vision of space from when I was a kid. So I choose to be excited by it.

    Also I have very little patience for the line “that money could be better spent curing cancer” because I got tired of hearing that in the 1960s during the NASA moon program. So by now it’s really tiresome.

    I admit that Colbert agreeing to host and fawn on Branson’s space hop was a little weird and distasteful.​

    Edit: Also, Branson’s technological approach, seems to be a dead end as far as actually reaching space. It’s cool to get to “space” without the big launch engines, but he’s never going to get to orbital velocity that way. Not even close.

    Bezos is doing an actual launch.

  70. 70.

    Elizabelle

    Launch went well.

    LOL.  That is the most phallic flight apparatus ever.  Briefly reminded me of a classroom science film.  Not about space.

  73. 73.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Elizabelle:

    Launch went well.

    LOL.  That is the most phallic flight apparatus ever.

    I take it that the bald cock launched his rocket cock into outer cock.

    P.S. Penis! (We can say that now.)

    ETA – blue rocket cock

  76. 76.

    Peale

    They really do believe that no Democratic Party president would ever have thought to fast track a vaccine during a major pandemic because we’re all weak and wanted to hide in our basements and never come out so we can do our fascism more easily. Fuckem. I think we should review the fast track process to see how often Trump administration officials reallocated funds to line their own pockets or made decisions that they went and did some insider trading on illegally.

  80. 80.

    Elizabelle

    Booster landed flawlessly.  On the pad.  THAT is damn impressive.  Third time.

    Parachutes already deploying on capsule.

  81. 81.

    mrmoshpotato

    @WaterGirl:

    their italian beef is neither good, nor consistent, from day to day. 

    Inconsistent beef?!  How’s that even possible?

  83. 83.

    artem1s

    The problem with Bezos is the tech he’s using is a dead end.  He could put his money into more advanced tech that has the possibility of being cost effective one day in the not too distant future.  But boys will be boys and want to take a fast ride on a big penis, even if it gets him and us absolutely no where.

    Space Elevator economics

  84. 84.

    Elizabelle

    @mrmoshpotato:   Yup.  This video was meme-worthy.  You will have to check it out.

    Miles O’Brian says the capsule, rocket and technology are scaleable. That’s good.

  85. 85.

    mrmoshpotato

    @WereBear:

    I’d nominate a used diaper. 

    Extra stinky, and catapult it at the Soviet shitpile’s fat, orange, fascist face.

  87. 87.

    matt

    It’s pretty funny these people think that giving Trump credit for stopping Covid will cause him to stop being a dick and suggesting to his people they shouldn’t get vaccinated.

    That’s not how incentives work at all. it’s just incredibly stupid.

  88. 88.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @Elizabelle: And they’re back down. The participants look like a bunch of extras for a Hallmark movie. Hooray for Wally, but…

    Oops, gotta run – I think Amazon just dropped off my most recent toy…  ;)

  89. 89.

    mrmoshpotato

    @leeleeFL:

    Bezos could be feeding, clothing and housing droves of people with the cost of this joy ride. 

    Damn fucking right!

    Someone tweeted the other day that Richard Branson could’ve paid for mental health services for the survivors of the Pulse nightclub shooting, but nope – Pride pin to the edge of the atmosphere. ?

  90. 90.

    Elizabelle

    @Chief Oshkosh:   Yeah.  The multiple champagne bottles made it rich guy tech again.

    But:  impressive.  Good for Blue Origin.

    All this rhetoric about preserving mankind by sending us to space.

    But we can’t do enough to save our own gorgeous blue planet.  Come on.

    Earth is not an extraction economy. Or is it??

  91. 91.

    Eunicecycle

    @matt: It’s also not how Republicans work. Because it’s always about owning the libs and not being “sheeple” and all the other nonsense they spout.

  92. 92.

    Elizabelle

    WaPost:
    In 1961, she lost her chance to go to space. Now, at 82, she finally gets her shot.

    Floating in the isolation tank, Wally Funk felt weightless.

    She couldn’t see or hear. There was nothing to taste or smell. When she patted the eight feet of water surrounding her, she didn’t feel it.

    By the time Funk endured those circumstances for 10 hours and 35 minutes in 1961, she had already taken at least 87 other exams ranging from swallowing three feet of rubber hose to guzzling a pint of radioactive water. It was all in service of becoming one of the first female astronauts at a time when American women still needed their husbands’ permission to sign a mortgage and get a credit card.

    Within months, Funk’s dream was squelched. NASA had no program for female astronauts, she learned in a perfunctory telegram. Without that federal support, her privately funded testing program would end.

    Funk, 82, is now poised to finally see her aspiration come to life.

  94. 94.

    JPL

    I’m listening to CNN and I missed the part where they said the foundation for space travel was laid in the sixties.   Our tax dollars did that.

  96. 96.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Peale:

    I think we should review the fast track process to see how often Trump administration officials reallocated funds to line their own pockets or made decisions that they went and did some insider trading on illegally. 

    Hell.  There was a plan for the postal service to send 5 masks to every household in the US, and one of the Kremlin’s bitches shot that down.

  100. 100.

    Elizabelle

    @Another Scott:   Thank you.  Will watch this.  Enjoyed hearing the folks’ comments aboard the capsule; will be fun to see this without CNN blathering in the background.

  101. 101.

    Cheryl from Maryland

    @rikyrah: Disgusting and condescending.   Not to mention the idea that running as a Democrat, getting people to vote for you on that premise, and then switching to another party is, in my opinion, fraudulent.

  102. 102.

    Brachiator

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:

    I am miffed that Bezos’ space jaunt is partly financed by years of paying zero taxes, but otherwise am not excessively outraged. I would do a space flight in a heartbeat if it were more widely available. I look forward to seeing footage from a lunar base hotel in the near future.

  103. 103.

    Tazj

    @matt: I’ve read this more and more on conservative and sometimes main stream social media in the last few weeks as COVID cases have continued to rise, and I know everyone else has seen it too. If only liberals weren’t such jerks more conservatives would get vaccinated.

    They think that the Biden administration has been too condescending towards conservatives and too dismissive of Trump. All Biden has to do is hold a joint press conference with Trump and give him credit,  but Biden won’t take this simple step.  And then they try to tie Trump’s ban from Twitter and Facebook to the poor vaccination rates in some states.
    Of course, we know the administration has always stated that people should remain patient with those who remain unvaccinated as putting people down just makes people more defensive. Do they remember the town halls the administration has held to encourage vaccinations?

    Conservatives act like Trump is in jail or in a cave somewhere just because he’s banned from some social media. He’s on FOX news whenever he wants and the other networks whenever he has a rally. What’s kept him from speaking up for vaccinations?
    So happy to see Psaki strike back against that nonsense.

  107. 107.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @mrmoshpotato:

    I actually admire Branson, though – he’s what I’d like to be if I had his resources, a billionaire adventurer playboy. He’s not using his clout to distort the world, impose a vision on us or make people miserable. He’s doing exciting things he thinks are fun and living his resources.

    You can buy pallets and pallets of sleeping bags and soup kitchen meals, and the street shitters will still be street shitters.

    I also don’t get the Bezos hate. All the dude did was basically digitize the Sears catalog with faster shipping and service. Rather than whimpering about what he could do for the homeless, I’d rather see people encourage him to fund voting access, M4A lobbying, union organizing efforts and strike funds. That would do a shitload more for people than burning money making the street shitters more comfortable for a couple of days.

  108. 108.

    matt

    @Tazj: They’re telling us we need to jump through a bunch of hoops to get them to do the right thing. They admit they know what the right thing is when they make this argument. That’s the tell. Doing what they say is never the way to deal with impudent people like this.

  109. 109.

    Tim C.

    @leeleeFL: Sorry, trying to do better, I just mean that yes, the rubes still preferred bush of course, but the rubes didn’t keep flags at what not.  They focused all their energy on hating Obama for BS reasons and not saying how great bush was or McCain would have been.

  110. 110.

    Eunicecycle

    @matt: They are also notorious goal movers, and “give an inch and they take a mile” types. They are just trying to blame Biden and the libs for their completely nonsensical positions. Like any abuser says, “you made me do it.”

  111. 111.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @rikyrah:

    @danielmarans 1h
    New: ⁦@WorkingFamilies⁩ launches $150k+ independent expenditure in support of Nina Turner. It’s the second pro-Turner super PAC and the money will go to paid door knocking abd phone banking:

    so… an out-of-district SuperPAC is hiring astroturf pseudo-support? Turner supporters have been big on accusing Shontel Brown of relying on PAC money and outside fund-raising….

  112. 112.

    The Thin Black Duke

    Because these rich assholes won’t pay their taxes, everybody else has to pick up the slack. Never mind taking taking nine cookies out of ten, these sociopaths want the whole damned box of cookies. Amazon workers pee in bottles while Bezos shoots a huge, billion dollar middle finger into space. Hate Bezos? Damned right I do.

  113. 113.

    germy

    @The Thin Black Duke:

    He was smart bringing up with him two people we’d care about.

    If it had been just Bezos and his pornface brother, more people would have been rooting for failure.

    He’s got a smart public relations staff.  That’s why we see so many “AmaZoN iS a gReAt pLaCe to wOrK” TV ads, along with the “aMaZon is gReaT for black-owned bUsinesses!” commercials.

  115. 115.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Brachiator:

    I look forward to seeing footage from a lunar base hotel in the near future. 

    Airplane cabin pressure (at least) ON THE BUTT MOON!

  116. 116.

    NotMax

    Down but not out. Not by a long shot.

    For a week now, state Rep. Garnet Coleman has been hiding out in Texas, wondering if police are going to track him down.

    While dozens of other Texas House Democrats fled to Washington, D.C., to block a Republican voting bill, the longtime Houston legislator stayed behind, unable to travel while recovering from severe illness that led to the amputation of his lower right leg in May. His continued presence in the state makes him more vulnerable to arrest, as Republicans have voted to force back to the Texas Capitol any absent House Democrat within state police jurisdiction.

    That prospect doesn’t trouble the 59-year-old lawmaker, who questions both the constitutionality and optics of such a move.

    “Let them come,” Coleman said in an interview Friday in an airy, art-filled house. “They’re going to have to carry me in this wheelchair, and they’re going to have to carry me into the chamber and lock me in there.”

    What does weigh on him is having no choice but to watch the historic moment from the sidelines. The last time House Democrats skipped town in 2003, to delay political map drawing, Coleman led the way. Source

  117. 117.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Not sure how you got street shitters from providing mental health services to mass shooting survivors.

    Also, you know companies like Amazon hate unions, right?

    ETA – Bezos didn’t just digitize the Sears catalog.  I don’t remember Sears streaming video service or cloud computing warehouses. :)

  119. 119.

    Brachiator

    @The Thin Black Duke:

    Because these rich assholes won’t pay their taxes, everybody else has to pick up the slack.

    Democrats need to do some serious tax reform. As far as I can tell, Bezos has not evaded taxes, but has used the laws to his advantage, which he is entitled to do.

    Also, even under the present system, the rich pay more than other groups. It is that they could pay more and we could still have a strong economy.

  120. 120.

    Spanky

    @The Thin Black Duke: He does pay his taxes. All that is legally owed.

    I don’t like it either, but don’t expect a guy with the mindset that made him a multibillionaire to give the govt a shit ton of his money out of the goodness of his heart. Change the tax code so he has no choice.

  121. 121.

    germy

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:  Rather than whimpering about what he could do for the homeless, I’d rather see people encourage him to fund voting access, M4A lobbying, union organizing efforts and strike funds.

    I don’t get all the Trump hate.  Rather than whimpering about what he could have done as president, I would have rather seen him encouraged to reverse his tax cuts for the rich, expand voting rights, and reunite children on the border with their parents.

  122. 122.

    Another Scott

    @Spanky: Yup.  The rules and the laws need to change.

    I noticed an Amazon email recently that their terms of service had changed.  The headline was that previously disputes would go to arbitration; now they can go to the courts.  I didn’t read the details, but found it surprising (and wonder if they were forced to do so by new laws or something).

    The tax system is a human construct.  We can change it.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  123. 123.

    germy

    @Spanky:

    Conservative position on infrastructure funding has hardened

    1. No reversing the Trump tax cuts
    2. No tax hikes of any kind
    3. No extra IRS money for tougher enforcement of existing tax laws

    — Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) July 19, 2021

    so basically, it has to be paid for but they won’t accept any method of paying for it?

    — Doc Sportello (@TheDocSportello) July 19, 2021

  124. 124.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Trump’s Business Hauled In $2.4 Billion During Four Years He Served As President

    $943M from the clubs and golf courses where he sold access and let it be known he was keeping track of who spent money, even relatively small amounts, at his properties

    ETA: for clarity: that’s gross revenues to his various businesses and properties, not cash in his pocket. AFAIK, Doral is still a money-loser, and the Irish and Scottish golf courses were money-losers pre-pandemic, IIRC

    ETA, A: interestingly, the urban office buildings that are his three largest individual assets, which I thought would have tanked over the last year, did not…

    Fortunately for Trump, he also had high-margin commercial real estate holdings to bolster his bottom line. That proved especially critical in 2020, as commercial tenants—many locked into long-term leases—continued to pay rent. At 555 California Street, a San Francisco office building in which Trump holds a 30% stake, his rent actually inched up last year, from $42 million to $43 million, according to an analysis of filings. The same thing happened at New York City’s 1290 Avenue of the Americas, where Trump’s haul increased from roughly $55 million to $58 million.

  125. 125.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Another Scott: The tax system is a human construct. We can change it.

    BWAHAHAHAHAHAH AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHA… gasp…. wheeze…

    Hell’s bells, we can’t even fully fund the IRS to make sure they pay what little taxes they owe now!

  128. 128.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Not a lawyer, but this seems significant. Seems like about 30% of MSNBC’s coverage last-night was world-weary here-we-go-again “Democrats are so disappointing” commentary on this story.

    ClearingTheFog @clearing_fog
    This story was wrong. AP reported that Biden’s DOJ declined to prosecute Wilbur Ross, when it actually happened in January, 2020, under Barr. They have issued a correction at the bottom of the article.

    I am still open to arguments that Garland can and should be more creative and aggressive, but several people, not just the usual drive-by troll (“david”, for those keeping track), suggested that the non-prosecution of Ross was a both a substantive betrayal and a political blunder

  133. 133.

    The Thin Black Duke

    @germy: The GOP want the Democrats to raise taxes on gas so they can hammer them with it during the midterms.

  137. 137.

    Soprano2

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:I am still open to arguments that Garland can and should be more creative and aggressive, but several people, not just the usual drive-by troll (“david”, for those keeping track), suggested that the non-prosecution of Ross was a both a substantive betrayal and a political blunder

    Like I said yesterday, I’m already worn out with the “Garland is corrupt he sold us out” takes on Twitter that I see from all the usual suspects. It’s inexcusable that most all of the press reported this story wrong; why can’t they take two minutes to check their facts before pushing “publish”? People don’t like the fact that these things take time; they want Garland to round up all of Trump’s administration and throw them in jail today, because it would make them feel good.

    I’ll have to look today to see if any of those people have taken it back or apologized; I bet they haven’t. They live to shit on Democratic administrations so they look “balanced” and “bipartisan”.

  138. 138.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Soprano2: I’m a fan of Chris Hayes and a big fan of Rachel Maddow, but they were both in that faux-naive mode of “Why don’t Democrats fight?” that drives me crazy. It encourages the “not a dime’s worth of difference” mentality that is far more dangerous to our political goals than anything Merrick Garland has done or will do.

  140. 140.

    sherparick

    Your rarely see such a wonderful example of “Murc’s Law” from a RWNJ like Thiessen since it is usually guys like Brooks and Douthat who are constantly saying that Conservative & White American misbehavior is the the fault of liberals who either did or did not do or say something that would have magically caused our RWNJ neighbors to behave correctly rather than being utter asses (my apologies to donkeys for the comparison since I actually find them cute and intelligent creatures as opposed to RWNJs).

  141. 141.

    Kay

    I was with extended family over the weekend, was sitting with my youngest (18) and his cousin (19) and the older adults were talking about covid and stimulus and the “CRT” bullshit in schools and the 19 year old said, matter of factly, “no one will care about any of this in a couple of years, all we’ll be talking about is climate change” and my son agreed.

    I’ve heard that before from my son and his friends and it bothered me- so grim and fatalistic – but they really do operate from a different place. I wonder how that will inform their politics going forward.

  142. 142.

    Soprano2

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:  You can buy pallets and pallets of sleeping bags and soup kitchen meals, and the street shitters will still be street shitters.

    This is not how I would put it, but I agree with your overall point; helping the homeless is a lot more complicated than giving them stuff and opening soup kitchens. I saw that California is making a major push to actually get more of these people “homed” in apartment buildings and motels; they’re using COVID money to do it. We have people here who are building tiny houses for disabled homeless people to live in. They also opened a “campground” with bubble campers they can rent for $10 a night that are actually open to anyone. Now, people who live and work around this campground are starting to complain about it, because they say homeless people hang out around there all the time and cause trouble by running their customers off. I’ve had people tell me that if I actually had to live with homeless people hanging around my business all the time I’d be a lot less sympathetic to them, and I can’t say that they’re wrong about that. It’s bad enough dealing with the occasional drunk who won’t leave, I can’t imagine dealing with problematic people hanging around all the time.

    I get tired of all these takes I see on social media – “We have money to give to other countries while some of our veterans are homeless – share if you think all that money should help homeless veterans”, as if we can’t do both. These things are always set up as an either/or situation in order to make people outraged.

  143. 143.

    karen marie

    @artem1s: Give him credit? The fucker still won’t admit he lost. Giving him credit for “developing the vaccine” (not something he in fact did, much like he didn’t win reelection) only encourages the fuckers in their delusional narrative.

  145. 145.

    SeattleDem

    @leeleeFL: He is feeding and clothing tons of advanced technology engineers. The money he spent is not just going poof!, it is going into the high-tech jobs sector. Several of my neighbors are young space junkies who work on the new space race and have friends who are still doing minimum wage jobs staring at enormous school loans. I don’t know if it would better to be feeding the money directly to the grocery stores and land-lords, rather than filtering it through a bunch of make-work technology job.

  146. 146.

    PST

    @Another Scott:

    The tax system is a human construct. We can change it.

    The main reason Bezos, as an individual, pays such low taxes in comparison to his wealth is that we do not tax “unrealized” increases in the value of property. Whatever other tax minimizing tools he uses, they must be trivial in comparison to the fact that the increase in value of shares of Amazon and other companies that he continues to hold is not income for tax purposes. The increased value of his shares becomes income only if he sells them, and if he he gives them away or dies without selling them, the increase never becomes income at all. We can and should find a way to tax these astronomical accumulations of wealth, but something simple like defining unrealized capital gains as income would face ferocious opposition from tens of millions of people extending way down the wealth and income scales, not just the super rich. Imagine the reaction, for example, of people who own vacation homes at paying income tax every year on the estimated increase in their value. And the administrative burden of tracking unrealized gains on anything but marketable securities would be overwhelming. Again, I’m not saying that we shouldn’t look for new taxation to capture some of this, only that the income tax was never meant to apply to unrealized gain, so those with huge wealth derived from owning shares in hyper-successful companies aren’t necessarily cheating or even avoiding very hard just because their taxes are derisory in comparison to their wealth.

  147. 147.

    Ruckus

    @Another Scott:

    I’d bet that amazon paid for the arbitration and now to go to court you have to hire a lawyer, or at least pay something, making the entire system more onerous for people wronged, or even perceived to have been wronged.

    I just have no good feeling that this is not better for Amazon. And Jeff.

  149. 149.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Baud: But there is still a big difference between getting the referral and dealing with it after the fact.

  150. 150.

    karen marie

    A Kurt Vonnegut short story from 1972 seems apropos.

    In 1989, America staged the Big Space Fuck, which was a serious effort to make sure that human life would continue to exist somewhere in the Universe, since it certainly couldn’t continue much longer on Earth. Everything had turned to shit and beer cans and old automobiles and Clorox bottles. An interesting thing happened in the Hawaiian Islands, where they had been throwing trash down extinct volcanoes for years: a couple of the volcanoes all of a sudden spit it all back up. And so on.

  151. 151.

    artem1s

    @karen marie:

    Give him credit?

    How TF am I giving him credit in my remarks about Psaki’s embroidery quip?  did you mean to respond to someone else?

  152. 152.

    germy

    Excerpt from “The Making of a Red”  (1919 short story by Robert Benchley) Full story at the link.

    You couldn’t have asked for anyone more regular than Peters. He was an eminently safe citizen. Although not rich himself, he never chafed under the realization that there were others who possessed great wealth. In fact, the thought gave him rather a comfortable feeling. Furthermore, he was one of charter members of the war. Long before President [Woodrow] Wilson saw the light, Peters was advocating the abolition of German from the public-school curriculum. There was, therefore, absolutely nothing in his record which would in the slightest degree alter the true blue of a patriotic litmus. And he considered himself a liberal when he admitted that there might be something in this man [labor leader Samuel] Gompers, after all. That is how safe he was.

    But one night he made a slip. It was ever tiny a slip, but in comparison with it De Maupassant’s famous piece of string was barren of consequences. Shortly before the United States entered the war, Peters made a speech at a meeting of the Civic League in his home town. His subject was “Interurban Highways: Their Development in the Past and Their Possibilities for the Future.” So far, 100 percent American. But, in the course of his talk, he happened to mention the fact that war, as an institution, has almost always had an injurious effect on public improvements of all kinds. In fact (and note this well—the government’s sleuth in the audience did) he said that, all other things being equal, if he were given his choice of war or peace in the abstract, he would choose peace as a condition under which to live. Then he went on to discuss the comparative values of macadam and wood blocks for paving.

    http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/4982/

  153. 153.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Am I right that Tom Brady never went to the trump White House? Staffers at Mar-A-Loco are gonna be hiding in broom closets for the next couple days

    Sara Cook @saraecook
    At a White House event honoring the Super Bowl champions the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, QB Tom Brady jokes, “About 40% of people still doesn’t think we won.” President Biden says, “I understand that.” Brady also joked he was called “Sleepy Tom” after he lost track of a down in a game

    This paste and link does not imply an endorsement or support of Tom Brady, the Buccaneers, or any opinion whatsoever on The New England Patriots

  154. 154.

    Fair Economist

    @Soprano2: Some homeless people have problems that giving them housing won’t fix but housing first approaches have been shown to fix most of the problems in multiple places, including Utah.

    In terms of poop, people produce a certain amount per day. Provide bathrooms and almost all will end up there. Deny people bathrooms and it will end up lying around in public. The people involved don’t have any choice – physiologically, they cannot keep it.

  156. 156.

    Mike G

    Shorter Doocebag:  “Can we shut up about all the Covid sickness and death and focus on the important issue, ensuring Trump gets lots of undeserved attention and adulation?”

  160. 160.

    Soprano2

    @Fair Economist: In terms of poop, people produce a certain amount per day. Provide bathrooms and almost all will end up there. Deny people bathrooms and it will end up lying around in public. The people involved don’t have any choice – physiologically, they cannot keep it.

    LOL, I work in the sewer department, so I well know about that. The rub, as always, is that someone has to pay for it. Where does the money come from? Plus, you get a lot of resistance from nearby home and business owners, who understand that anywhere you put facilities for the homeless will be a place where the homeless will congregate. They built a new bus transfer station here a couple of years ago, and they put bathrooms in it even though almost everyone involved advised against it. Now, they have continual problems with people vandalizing the bathrooms! I know that the homeless problem is many-faceted, even though I haven’t ever worked with them or had to deal with them in any capacity. It’s like everything else – people want simple answer when there aren’t any, but getting them in an actual home of some kind usually seems to be a good start. When I see posts on FB about the guy begging outside the WalMart that’s hiring, I always want to ask the person who says “Why doesn’t he/she get a job?” something like “Would you hire that person? If he/she is homeless, they don’t have anywhere to take a shower, anywhere to brush their teeth, no mailing address, and probably don’t have any clean clothes. Is that a person you want dealing with your customers day in and day out?”. Actually having a home fixes most of these problems, so that they might actually be able to get that job.

  162. 162.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    The relationship always had an asymmetric quality. Brady repeatedly expressed discomfort at Trump’s public adulation, and has declined to talk about who he voted for. In 2017, he skipped a White House invitation to celebrate a previous Super Bowl win, citing his need to attend to his ailing mother. The snub, according to the Washington Post, sent Trump into a rage:

    Trump grew angry in April 2017 when Tom Brady said he planned to skip the White House visit with the Patriots, huddling angrily with aides and even calling Patriots owner Robert Kraft. One former senior administration official described a chaotic scene unfolding over the heartlands of America, as Trump flew back from an event in Wisconsin. Trump made a number of calls and asked aides to help fix the situation, worried that Brady’s absence would reflect poorly on him

  163. 163.

    germy

    Makes perfect sense that Jeff Bezos, who I sat next to at the Edge dinners hosted by John Brockman and paid for by Jeffrey Epstein & Kremlin money man Yuri Milner, would blast off to space in (looks, zooms in, squints) a giant dick

    — Xeni (@xeni) July 20, 2021

  164. 164.

    germy

    The Bezos boost reached an altitude of approximately 350k feet or 66 miles.

    For comparison, the first manned US space flight by Alan Shepard in 1961—which was also brief and sub-orbital—reached an altitude of roughly 612k feet or 116 miles.

    — southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) July 20, 2021

  165. 165.

    germy

    pro tip: if you can afford to blast yourself into space on your very own stupid dick-shaped rocket, you can afford to give your workers bathroom breaks. so let's fucking go already

    — Jeff Tiedrich (@itsJeffTiedrich) July 20, 2021

  167. 167.

    L85NJGT

    Some rich guy and his model rocketry, and a bright red Bruce Arians at the White House.

    Thank Joe Biden for the return of the slow news day.

  168. 168.

    karen marie

    @artem1s: No, I’m sorry if it felt like an attack. I was not especially coherent. I was just generally riffing on my disgust for all the bullshit about giving the first guy to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power in our country’s history credit for something he didn’t do.

  169. 169.

    Geminid

    @Cheryl from Maryland: Well, Nina Turner isn’t saying this. Yet.

    But when Turner headed “Our Revolution,” the follow on organization to the 2016 Sanders campaign, staff and board members alike expressed concern that she was using the organization as a stepping stone for a Presidential run.

    Democrats in Ohio’s 11th District may want to consider if she is using them as stepping stones. My understanding is that Turner was living in Maryland before the prospect of this Congressional seat opened up. She had a lucrative spot in a shady DC lobbying outfit.

  170. 170.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Daniel W. Drezner @dandrezner 43m
    One subtle addendum that @jonathanchait didn’t stress: another thing that Brady and Biden have in common is that they were both viewed as too old to do the job. Brady linking himself to Biden subverts that argument nicely.

    Heather Hurlburt @natsecHeather
    Master class in a particular Irish/Irish-American quality of grudge-holding and revenge-taking.

    I’ve never heard Brady described as what my father would’ve called a professional Mick, but it might explain his willingness to, apparently, signal some affinity for Biden.

  171. 171.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    oh my

    Tom Winter @Tom_Winter 14m

    NEW: Thomas Barrack, former chairman of the Trump Inaugural and Trump confidant, was arrested on federal charges in Los Angeles this morning, multiple law enforcement officials tell @anblanx and @PeteWilliamsNBC

    It’s not clear what he’s been charged with yet…

    I’ve often thought that very few big wheeler-dealer/ real estate developers could withstand close scrutiny of their books and tax records. Why so many of them– from teh Kushner to Barrack to Gordon Sundland and Louis DeJoy– would invite the scrutiny that would come with being prominently associated with trump has always surprised me.

    Federal charges… Is Merrick Garland good again now?

  172. 172.

    The Thin Black Duke

    • @Geminid: If Nina Turner does a presidential run, get ready for the return of the “Kamala is a Cop!” bullshit. Fradulent “progressives” will frame Turner as being a real African-American woman, and not a sellout. Fasten your seat belts, it’s gonna be a bumpy ride.
  173. 173.

    germy

    Trump friend and inauguration chairman Tom Barrack has been arrested on foreign lobbying charges and obstructing justice and making false statements, per DOJ release. He was arrested this morning in LA. Charges in NY. Story to come.

    — Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) July 20, 2021

  174. 174.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @dr. bloor: No under-the-table payments required:

    JEN: Hey Dooce, tell you what, I’ll let you grandstand in every press briefing if you’ll let my diamond-cut fastball knock the brickbat out of your hands every time!

    DOOCE: Deal! … (uhh … since when have they been making bats out of bricks?)

    Echo Zulu Papa Zulu, peeps! :^D

  176. 176.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @The Thin Black Duke:

    Jim Bazán @JamesBazan 4h
    It’s interesting how many people who endorse Nina Turner, from the Plain Dealer to these podbros, do so on the assumption that she is lying.

    The Plain Dealer, if you missed it, praised Turner as a bipartisan problem solver for the way she “stood up to” teachers unions.

  178. 178.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Chris Megerian @ChrisMegerian 
    Thomas Barrack has been charged with acting as an unregistered foreign agent to advance the interests of the United Arab Emirates, the Justice Department just announced. (thread)

    IANAL nor an expert in high/international finance, so I’m gonna guess this reported (I believe?) billionaire needed some help with his liquidity from a sovereign wealth fund? Also, looks like Mike Flynn was in this deal too. I wonder if his pardon applies? or if he’ll just be a material witness for the prosecution?

  180. 180.

    James E Powell

    @The Thin Black Duke:

    Turner hasn’t won the special election yet and though she is apparently getting all the press/media attention, I’m not so sure that the TrueLeft® is a force in OH-11. It’s going to come down to the ground game.

  181. 181.

    Ruckus

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Two possibilities.

    First, they thought he’d pardon them if they got caught or that they wouldn’t get into trouble at all.

    Second, they actually like him and his concepts, idiotic as those concepts are. They likely thought that there was money to be made supporting him.

  182. 182.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Elizabelle: ​That capsule looks fresh. Unscathed.

    FFS, of course it does – its maximum speed on reentry was only about 2200 mph, which the Bell X-2 reached in the mid-1950s and the SR-71 reached routinely ten years later – neither with any heat damage worth mentioning. The real challenge is to get down safely from orbit, dissipating the 17,000 mph velocity in a manner that doesn’t leave the reentry vehicle a charred lump. In that sense, Blew Schlepper is a bazillionaire’s bad joke. I’m far more interested in how many near-orbital launches ending in an unmanned charred lump SpaceX will need to get Starship’s heat-shield working properly and rapidly reusable.

    @artem1s: ​Better not hold your breath on a space elevator – it’s likely to take a couple of decades of cutting-edge materials science research before we have materials that might be strong enough to use in building one. Not to mention the need to bring an asteroid into near-earth orbit to serve as the counterweight…

  183. 183.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @JPL: ​I’m listening to CNN and I missed the part where they said the foundation for space travel was laid in the sixties. Our tax dollars did that.

    In fact “the foundation for space travel” was laid in the forties – by a guy named Wernher von Braun and the boys at Peenemunde. Von Braun’s A-4 rocket (later renamed by the Nazi politicos Vergeltungswaffe-Zwei, “Vengeance Weapon #2” or V-2) went as high as Jeff Bozos flew today, and covered a lot more ground. Everything from then through the Saturn V, though it went a lot higher and farther, was (as one of WvB’s German engineers once remarked to him) der gleiche Gurke – “the same old cucumber.”

  185. 185.

    J R in WV

    @mrmoshpotato:

    ETA – Bezos didn’t just digitize the Sears catalog. I don’t remember Sears streaming video service or cloud computing warehouses. :)

    Sears was going bankrupt from internal libertarian Ayn Rand style competition long before streaming video or cloud computing were mainstream…. Ayn Rand killed Sears by remote control of the MoU who bought out the company.

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