Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Speaker Mike Johnson is a vile traitor to the House and the Constitution.

Not all heroes wear capes.

Republicans cannot even be trusted with their own money.

They are not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

A tremendous foreign policy asset… to all of our adversaries.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

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

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

“Facilitate” is an active verb, not a weasel word.

75% of people clapping liked the show!

… gradually, and then suddenly.

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

He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!

The lights are all blinking red.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

“Loving your country does not mean lying about its history.”

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

Quote tweet friends, screenshot enemies.

If you don’t believe freedom is for everybody, then the thing you love isn’t freedom, it is privilege.

We will not go back.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Monday Evening Open Thread: Keep Smiling — It Confuses Them

Monday Evening Open Thread: Keep Smiling — It Confuses Them

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… Which *never* happened during TFG’s administration. The ‘smiling’ part, at least.

Appropriate framing, IMO:

Reader Interactions

79Comments

  1. 1.

    David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch

    With public defenders as judges, Biden quietly makes history on the courts

    Overall, Biden is outpacing every other president since Richard Nixon in confirming circuit court judges, who have the last word in most federal cases.

    ***Overall, Gelpi is Biden’s eighth new judge with experience as a public defender. That is as many as presidents Donald Trump, Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton landed in their first years combined, said Chris Kang, the chief counsel of Demand Justice.

    “It really is amazing how far Biden has shifted the paradigm,” Kang said. “This is going to be an important part of his legacy.” (link)​

     Biden once worked as a public defender.​

  2. 2.

    Cermet

    And if a deal is finally reached and passed the headline will read that dems failed in their efforts to achieve a major infrastructure deal … bah, bah, bah. Even if “just” 1.5 trillion with the 1 trillion already that 2.5 trillion infrastructure deal is soooo unimportant. That, you will see, will be the major media take over and over; how the dems failed on their original 3.5 trillion dollar bill.

  3. 3.

    laura

    More hot fresh garbage from the high school girl’s bathroom that has I F Stone, Ben Franklin and Tom Paine rolling in their respective graves.
    In addition to burning the patriarchy down to the fucking ground, I’d also like to see the concentration of news media broken into a million little pieces and the growth of a million local newspapers, but mostly burning the patriarchy to the fucking ground.

  5. 5.

    Mike E

    Visually obscured videos of Fcuk Biden flags and sparsely attended “rallies” tell me how far reporters have to dig to keep up their bothsides charade.

  6. 6.

    burnspbesq

    Mother Jones is speculating that Sinema may be on board with Wyden’s unrealized-appreciation tax as an alternative to raising corporate rates.

    That’s probably going to suck, for many of the same reasons that Warren’s wealth tax proposal sucks, but the thinking apparently is that when the targeted population realizes how much it sucks they will beg for corporate rate increases instead.

    Whatever works, I suppose.

  9. 9.

    Baud

    I’m interested in probing CNN’s bullshit but I don’t want to give them clicks for bullshit.

  11. 11.

    sab

    @laura: When I was in high school these girls didn’t get much shrift–maybe in Hollywood because it is weird there and their people were weirdos who came from elsewhere. I didn’t hang with the  cheerleaders but they wete uniformly very nice girls who happened to be pretty and athletic.

    The jocks not so much. We had two guys who went NFL pro and they were mean and huge and nasty and scary and if they die of cerebral medical issues I won’t bat an eye.

  12. 12.

    SpaceUnit

    I wouldn’t be surprised if Biden padded that original $3.5 trillion figure, knowing that Showboat Joe Manchin was going to climb onto the stage and do his usual obstruction act.

    This ain’t Biden’s first poker game.

  16. 16.

    WaterGirl

    @sab: You had a stray 4 in front of your nym, and a stray 4 as the second character in your email address.

    WordPress will remember that, so you will want to correct that and post another comment so it can remember you correctly.

  27. 27.

    JPL

    @Omnes Omnibus: Cold and dark I can believe, but basements don’t have a lot of hallways.   It’s just open space with support poles.  Anyway I’m not going.

    but not all basements  just sayin

  32. 32.

    sdhays

    It’s breathtaking how “time away from the White House” is equated with TFG’s “golfing on his own crappy golf courses, doing shit all for the country”.

  33. 33.

    burnspbesq

    I love The Economist about 95 percent of the time, but then they do shit like coming to the defense of Dave Chappelle.

    ”Gender realism?” Get that shit out of here.

  36. 36.

    Leto

    @debbie: @Omnes Omnibus: Here’s some numbers for all us to work off together. Because we all like facts/figures:

    How Trump compares with other recent presidents in appointing federal judges

    Donald Trump leaves the White House having appointed more than 200 judges to the federal bench, including nearly as many powerful federal appeals court judges in four years as Barack Obama appointed in eight.

    Trump, the nation’s 45th president, worked closely with Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and other Senate Republicans to reshape the federal judiciary – particularly the appeals courts – for decades to come. Federal judges have lifetime tenure and typically remain on the bench long after the presidents who nominated them have left office.

    As his administration comes to an end, here’s a look at how Trump compares with his recent predecessors in the overall number and demographic characteristics of the judges he appointed. All findings are based on a Pew Research Center analysis of data from the Federal Judicial Center, the research and education arm of the federal judiciary.

    1. Trump stands out for the large number of federal appeals court judges he appointed in only four years. Not surprisingly, the overall number of judges appointed by Trump in his single term (226) is well below the totals of recent two-term presidents, including Obama (320), George W. Bush (322) and Bill Clinton (367). But when it comes to the nation’s 13 federal appeals courts – which have the final word on most legal appeals around the country – Trump’s influence is clear. (Bold is mine)
      Trump appointed 54 federal appellate judges in four years, one short of the 55 Obama appointed in twice as much time. In the process, Trump “flipped” the balance of several appeals courts from a majority of Democratic appointees to a majority of Republican appointees.
    2. More than a quarter of currently active federal judges are now Trump appointees. As of Jan. 13, there were 816 active judges serving acrossthe three main tiers of the federal court system: the Supreme Court, 13 regional appeals courts and 91 district courts governed by Article III of the U.S. Constitution. Trump appointed 28% of those judges. That includes three of the nine sitting Supreme Court justices, 30% of the nation’s active appeals court judges and 27% of active district court judges. (The number of active federal judges changes regularly because of retirements, resignations, new appointments and other reasons.)
      Obama appointed the largest share of currently active federal judges at 38%, while George W. Bush named 20% of the total. Clinton appointed 11% and George H.W. Bush and Reagan each appointed 2%. One active federal judge,Carmen Consuelo Cerezo of the District of Puerto Rico, was appointed by Carter.

    Lot of other information at the link, as well as graphs and stuff. It’s def important that Biden has appointed 8 people. But Trumpov/Turtle packed so much destruction in 4 years that Biden pretty much needs to have at least 4-5 confirmed nominations, per month, to potentially equal out the damage. And there’s less appointments for Biden to fill than Trumpov had. Anyways, here you go

    Edit: and just for comparison’s sake, list of federal judges appointed by Biden. Yes he’s only been in office for 9 months. Proceed.

  37. 37.

    burnspbesq

    Governor Slaughterhouse signed off on the Legislature’s racial gerrymander.

    Time for DOJ to step up to the plate.

  47. 47.

    David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch

    @Omnes Omnibus:

     

    Jake La Motta : I heard things Joey. I heard things.

    Joey LaMotta : What things you heard?

    Jake La Motta : I heard some things.

  49. 49.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @burnspbesq:

    ”Gender realism?” Get that shit out of here.

    That’s a funny way of saying “transphobia”, The Economist.

    I’ve seen plenty of other shit takes from them recently

  52. 52.

    WaterGirl

    My kitties are swearing up and down that I did not feed them dinner.  But I KNOW I did.  They are gaslighting me.

    The dogs are like, sure, why not, I’ll go along with this.  But they aren’t serous about it.

  53. 53.

    David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch

    @Chetan Murthy: ​

    a combined 8 new judges at the circuit and district level have been public defenders. 11 new judges approved at the circuit level in 9 months is the fastest pace in 52 years.

  55. 55.

    David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch

    @WaterGirl: ​
      my metabolism changes in late fall. as the temperature goes down my appetite goes up (and vice versa). They’re probably the same.

  61. 61.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    if you’ve been following today twitter discussion of the new Greg Youngkin ad in which a woman (known as Library Karen) remembers the time her child’s reading assignment was so graphic and upsetting to the tyke (who turned out to be a high school senior) that she went to her state legislators in an effort to the get the book banned (the book was Toni Morrison’s Beloved and the class was AP English)…. you’ll all be happy to now young Blake recovered from having read a book and is now….

    Kevin M. Kruse @KevinMKruse
    A lot of people are embarrassed for her son, but (unless I’m mistaken) he seems to be a 27-year-old Republican Party lawyer so he’s probably fine with all this?

    because of course he is

  62. 62.

    Fair Economist

    @Cermet:

    And if a deal is finally reached and passed the headline will read that dems failed in their efforts to achieve a major infrastructure deal … bah, bah, bah. Even if “just” 1.5 trillion with the 1 trillion already that 2.5 trillion infrastructure deal is soooo unimportant. That, you will see, will be the major media take over and over; how the dems failed on their original 3.5 trillion dollar bill.

    Right. A 2.5 trillion total infrastructure deal would be larger that Trump’s tax cut in raw dollars, plus it would actually be doing stuff *and* would have a major compensation for Trump’s tax cuts (basically clawing it back from the ultra-wealthy, which isn’t that bad). So the most significant reform since – I dunno, Reagan tax cuts? The most significant reform for the better since Johnson.

    And yes, the media will try to trash-talk it anyway.

  63. 63.

    burnspbesq

    @Another Scott:

    The short version (trust me, you don’t want the long version) is that pretty much any ad valorem tax—anything where the taxable amount is based on the value of a thing—carries huge administrative difficulty and expense, encourages those subject to the tax to do weird, uneconomic things to try to avoid it, and spawns a huge amount of litigation.

    The root of the problem is that except for publicly-traded securities, very few assets have a readily ascertainable value. If you bought it in an unrelated-party transaction a week before the valuation date, that price is pretty good evidence of value (which is why sales and use taxes and VATs generally work pretty well). But what if that Renoir has been in the family for generations? And what if Grandpa spread the stock of the family business around before he died, so neither you nor any of your cousins have more than about 12 percent. Can you all claim a minority-interest discount? And if you say 20 percent is an appropriate discount and cousin Shmendrake claims a 35 percent discount, who is the IRS supposed to believe?

    And what happens to basis under an unrealized-appreciation or wealth tax? It can’t be the case that you pay tax on the same appreciation twice, can it? But if you’re fighting with the IRS about 2022, and you sell the asset in 2025, how do you know how much gain to report?

    I could keep going, but I think I’ve made my point. It’s telling that most OECD member states that had wealth taxes once upon a time have gotten rid of them.

  66. 66.

    Geminid

    @WaterGirl: I can’t stand those clever mind games. When that puzzlemaster guy comes on NPR I hit the change button on my radio. Hard.

    Gimme a Monopoly game, any day.

  67. 67.

    Ohio Mom

    @burnspbesq: I just want us to reverse the trend of cutting the wealthy’s taxes.

    I understood everything you said, I can see how this idea doesn’t work very well, but as a baby step toward making taxing the wealthy seem normal and desireable, I’ll take it.

  69. 69.

    jonas

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: ​
      Lemme get this straight. Her son started wetting the bed after reading Beloved? As a high school senior?

    JFC these people. What’s next, protesting the Diary of Anne Frank? Wait. Don’t answer that.

  70. 70.

    Another Scott

    @burnspbesq: Thanks.  We’ll have to see the language, but I think the people proposing these changes recognize those issues.

    Barrons:

    Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday. Sen. Ron Wyden (D., Ore.), the head of the Senate Finance Committee, is working on the plan, which would put a tax on the unrealized capital gains on liquid assets held by “extremely wealthy individuals, billionaires,” Yellen said. She said it’s not a wealth tax, but would help target “an extraordinarily large part of the incomes of the wealthiest individuals” that isn’t taxed until those assets are sold. Wealth in the form of unrealized investment gains often is also passed along to heirs tax-free, a loophole some lawmakers are also examining. The Washington Post reported the billionaire tax proposal would affect the fortunes of America’s roughly 700 billionaires. Democrats are seeking alternate funding for Biden’s bill after Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D., Ariz.) said she opposed raising taxes on the largest corporations and wealthy Americans.

    (Emphasis added.)

    I gather Rmoney said everyone was going to buy Renoirs in response. Somehow I don’t think that’s going to happen.

    We’ll see!

    Thanks again.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  71. 71.

    Fair Economist

    @burnspbesq:

    The short version (trust me, you don’t want the long version) is that pretty much any ad valorem tax—anything where the taxable amount is based on the value of a thing—carries huge administrative difficulty and expense, encourages those subject to the tax to do weird, uneconomic things to try to avoid it, and spawns a huge amount of litigation.

    Works reasonably well for property. Stocks and bonds would be even easier.

  73. 73.

    Kay

    Taniel
    @Taniel
    ·1h
    Myrna Pérez, who was working as the director of voting rights at the Brennan Center, was just confirmed by the Senate to the federal bench. A lifetime appointment to the 2nd Circuit.

    Wonderful.

  74. 74.

    Kalakal

    @burnspbesq: Wealth taxes do suck for the reasons you said, they’re an administrative nightmare. VAT can be pretty bad though.

    Years ago I was designing & writing a back office system/POS for chain stores and VAT was… interesting. When VAT was first introduced in the UK it only applied to ‘luxury’ items such as TV sets. It took about 2 weeks before people were selling packets of chips ( no tax) for 200 pounds with a free gift, a colour TV set ( no VAT as it was a gift)  which was cheaper than buying a 200 pound TV + VAT.HMRC came down hard and fast so now effectively the whole package has to assessed so in practice there are zillions of rates of VAT True example : tin of biscuits 1/2 choclate, 1/2 plain  selling for 10 quid. The plain biscuits are VAT free, the choclate biscuits aren’t and someone needs to assess the value of the tin itself because of course people buy nice empty tins to store stuff in. Tha actual rate of VAT paid is the sum of the respective taxable values of all the items combined. Now perform that calculation for every product in the inventory.

    I should point out the UK exempts (or did when I was last there) certain goods from VAT, childrens clothes, shoes, books & magazines, uncooked food except ‘luxuries’ like chocolate.

  76. 76.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Fair Economist: ​
     

    Works reasonably well for property. Stocks and bonds would be even easier.

    This. My attitude is, if it can only capture the unrealized gains in the easy-to-value stuff, that’s a hell of a lot better than nothing.

  77. 77.

    LadySuzy

    @Baud: Drives me nuts that they’re giving the right some talking points. “President Biden out of the White House more than Trump.

    I would bet that President Biden, while at home or at Camp David on week-ends, is doing quite a bit of reading and working.

    And Trump worked very little, even when he was at the White House. “Executive time” they said. Laughable.

    It’s a fact though that President Biden is the first president in quite some time to not stay in the White House most of the week-ends.

    He doesn’t play golf on a regular basis so no golfing at Andrews. He prefers other activities like riding a bicycle, so if he wants to exercise and take some fresh air every week-end, the more simple in terms of security is Welmington or Camp David. I understand that.

    That being said, the fact that he leaves the White House almost every week-end unfortunately sends the message that he doesn’t consider the White House a “home”.

    Sigh. No real solution there. President Biden is not young; exercising, being active, having a healthy routine must be a priority.

  78. 78.

    soapdish

    Clip the chin strap on that helmet, Joe, otherwise it’s effectiveness is like wearing a mask beneath your nose.

    That noggin is kind of important right now.

  79. 79.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @LadySuzy:

    That being said, the fact that he leaves the White House almost every week-end unfortunately sends the message that he doesn’t consider the White House a “home”.

    I have no doubt that if he stayed in the WH every weekend, the GOP and MSM would be framing it as:

    – Why is Biden Hiding in the White House? Is He Afraid to Face the American People?

    – Biden Allows His Expensive Private Home in Delaware to Sit Empty While Millions of Americans Are Homeless

    You know they would.

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