• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

  • About Us
  • Lexicon
  • Contact Us
  • Our Store
  • ↑
  • ↓
  • ←
  • →

Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

This fight is for everything.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

You cannot shame the shameless.

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

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

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

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

We still have time to mess this up!

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

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

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

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

I was promised a recession.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

Hot air and ill-informed banter

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

Mobile Menu

  • Winnable House Races
  • Donate with Venmo, Zelle & PayPal
  • Site Feedback
  • War in Ukraine
  • Submit Photos to On the Road
  • Politics
  • On The Road
  • Open Threads
  • Topics
  • Balloon Juice 2023 Pet Calendar (coming soon)
  • COVID-19 Coronavirus
  • Authors
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Lexicon
  • Our Store
  • Politics
  • Open Threads
  • War in Ukraine
  • Garden Chats
  • On The Road
  • 2021-22 Fundraising!
You are here: Home / Open Threads / Open Thread: Thoughts to Ponder

Open Thread: Thoughts to Ponder

by Anne Laurie|  October 28, 202110:25 am| 93 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat

FacebookTweetEmail

I’m angry the Build Back Better Act is getting pared back.

But, in the alternative universe where a Republican holds Manchin’s seat, we’re in week 3 of a government shutdown and Ted Cruz vows to filibuster the bill reopening the government until Biden agrees to slash Medicaid.

— Ian Millhiser (@imillhiser) October 27, 2021

Alternative Universe McConnell just offered to confirm Biden’s first judge, but only if Biden agrees to nominate three Federalist Society lawyers to federal appeals courts. One of those lawyers wrote a law review article called “The Homosexual Plague.”

— Ian Millhiser (@imillhiser) October 27, 2021

======

The other problem is with the American voters, who generally want leftie policies but keep voting for right-wing politicians.
The reason being, of course, is that leftie politicians tend to be women, minorities and educated types.
The three kinds of people Americans hate the most

— Slava Malamud (@SlavaMalamud) October 27, 2021

======

Mike & I are both old enough to remember the last time the GOP was supposedly gonna rule for a generation.

it was 2005. pic.twitter.com/yNodixX1HV

— Lawyering for Bigfoot ? ?? ?? (@noboa) October 28, 2021

and then a black dude with a funny name got elected President, followed by a failed game show host. none of which ANYONE could’ve predicted between 2003-05.

— Lawyering for Bigfoot ? ?? ?? (@noboa) October 28, 2021

like, if you’d told any reasonably savvy political observer that an obscure Illinois state senator would be president inside of a decade, they’d have thought you were bonkers.

so maybe let’s slow the roll with how shit’s gonna go.

— Lawyering for Bigfoot ? ?? ?? (@noboa) October 28, 2021

yeah I think I’ve lived through 3 or 4 proclamations of permanent political death in my lifetime, it tends to not last as long as scribblers think; however, the resurrections are often paid for in blood and that’s the part I truly regret

— Jason Linkins (@dceiver) October 28, 2021

======

every fortysomething i know understands that “normie” is a very relative thing and that younger people will think about issues and express themselves in ways that are different than fortysomethings would. https://t.co/7x8TPe1xkV

— ? ? GHOSTLIKEHELLMACHINE ? ?‍⬛ (@golikehellmachi) October 26, 2021

if the normie libs in their 40s from oklahoma that i know can learn to use inclusive language and work hard to understand and make space for people whose lives are different than their own, then journalists and commenters from new york and DC can work harder at it.

— ? ? GHOSTLIKEHELLMACHINE ? ?‍⬛ (@golikehellmachi) October 26, 2021

also, there aren’t really “moderate republicans” at this point. both lisa murkowski and mitt romney voted against raising the debt ceiling in the last 30 days.

— ? ? GHOSTLIKEHELLMACHINE ? ?‍⬛ (@golikehellmachi) October 26, 2021

honestly, the fact that the democratic party hasn’t become equally extremist and hostile in response is something worth thinking about on it’s own, but that’s not really something any journalists seem to think very much about.

— ? ? GHOSTLIKEHELLMACHINE ? ?‍⬛ (@golikehellmachi) October 26, 2021

FacebookTweetEmail
Previous Post: « Thursday Morning Open Thread: Step by Step
Next Post: What If We Put Our Money Where Our Mouth Is? »

Reader Interactions

93Comments

  1. 1.

    A Good Woman

    October 28, 2021 at 10:33 am

    I want to believe we can get through this and have a better country in the end, but the skepticism is strong.

  2. 2.

    frosty

    October 28, 2021 at 10:35 am

    All of those are right on the money. “Obscure Illinois state senator” especially. Thanks AL!!

  3. 3.

    Baud

    October 28, 2021 at 10:38 am

    I have long been averse to political predictions.

  4. 4.

    Jeffro

    October 28, 2021 at 10:42 am

    That last tweet is the real story of the past 10/20/40 years: can ya believe how crazy the Republican Party has become?  (as illustrated by the 3rd-last tweet re: Murkowski and Romney)

    And it’s all by choice, too.  They’ll fight to the death about anything and everything…even something as (formerly) mundane as raising the debt ceiling…because they have nothing to offer 99% of Americans.

    It’s like several of you have said: what’s their plan for anything?  What’s their plan for mitigating (or heaven forbid, reversing) climate change?  Shouldn’t there be a ‘conservative’ solution for that, other than putting their fingers in their ears and burning even more fossil fuels?  There used to be a conservative plan for climate change – it was called a carbon tax.  Why’d they run away from that?

    What’s the GQP plan for immigration reform?  Just “seal the borders”???  How do their corporate donors feel about that?  What do you say, farmers?  Small business owners, ‘zat good with you?

    They have No. Plans. Whatsoever.  Maybe that can be the story now.

  5. 5.

    New Deal democrat

    October 28, 2021 at 10:42 am

    Alternate universe Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell handed Biden a list of GOPers that would be acceptable to him to appoint to cabinet positions. Ten months later, half of Biden’s cabinet is still empty.

    Democrats simply have to get a couple more Senate seats in 2022, to make Manchin and Sinema irrelevant. Then they can do BBB v.2.0.

    And I do not buy the conventional wisdom that Dems will lose Congress next year. Sometime between now and the next 4th of July, abortion rights are going to be outlawed by the Supreme Court, unleashing a level of fury and backlash that hasn’t been seen in decades in the US. People react *much* more strongly when something they already have is taken away, than if something they don’t have now isn’t given to them.

  6. 6.

    OzarkHillbilly

    October 28, 2021 at 10:43 am

    honestly, the fact that the democratic party hasn’t become equally extremist and hostile in response is something worth thinking about on it’s own, but that’s not really something any journalists seem to think very much about.

    Liar. Not being in favor of cops shooting whoever they feel like with no questions asked is about as radical as it gets.

  7. 7.

    burnspbesq

    October 28, 2021 at 10:44 am

    Nobody knows anything, and those who think they know the most actually know the least.

  8. 8.

    Baud

    October 28, 2021 at 10:45 am

    Every twentysomething I know is either super-woke, a woke-skeptical socialist, or a moderate Republican

    That’s why you stick with people your  own age on online dating sites.

  9. 9.

    Barbara

    October 28, 2021 at 10:47 am

    Matt should at least have the integrity to preface “Every twenty something I know,” with “having grown up in NYC the child of wealthy and successful writers (natch: two generations of wealthy and successful writers!) and gone to exclusive private schools my whole life, and then graduated into being a writer for major publications who screen for people like me . . .” Which is to say — a rather limited pool of people.

    Maybe because even from an early age I understood I was the outlier child of outlier parents, I am always amazed that someone like Matt Yglesias thinks that his personal experience can be generalized at all, to anyone, much less his entire generation.

    Maybe it’s the Harvard effect. My co-clerk was a Harvard law graduate who informed me in 1988 that South African divestiture would be a major presidential issue. And when I gently deflected that having lived in North Carolina for the last four years I had difficulty seeing it — she responded — “that’s your problem. I have lived in Cambridge Massachusetts for the last 8 years and I am sure I am right.” Yeah, no. Not that didn’t agree with her on nearly ever political and social issue substantively, but she was blinkered.

  10. 10.

    schrodingers_cat

    October 28, 2021 at 10:48 am

    @Baud: Same here.

    I have also seen zero evidence for Americans wanting left wing policies. That’s not how they vote, that’s the only poll that matters.

    For most white people (or those considered the default  in a particular polity. In India for example these would be upper caste people)

    Preserving their privilege >> Economic benefit

    Economics is important but it is not the biggest driver of how people vote.

  11. 11.

    Woodrow/asim

    October 28, 2021 at 10:49 am

    honestly, the fact that the democratic party hasn’t become equally extremist and hostile in response is something worth thinking about on it’s own

    Well, for starters, that’s clearly what countless people who claim a Progressive, or related, mantle say they want. How many commentors here get angry at “Democrats,” playing into the “they’re spinless!” media (and GOP-driven) mode of thought?

    I get the need to vent, yet sometimes I feel it’s all that happens, is waves of anger that re-enforce a view that all is hopeless, and we lost. And that way, does lie madness.

  12. 12.

    Baud

    October 28, 2021 at 10:53 am

    It seems our theme for the midterms will be “We’re just getting started.”  We’ll see if that’ll be enough.

  13. 13.

    Baud

    October 28, 2021 at 10:54 am

    @schrodingers_cat:

    Preserving their privilege >> Economic benefit

     

    It’s hard to think of a counterexample. Maybe the 1964 election.

  14. 14.

    schrodingers_cat

    October 28, 2021 at 10:55 am

    @Woodrow/asim: Is it a coincidence that many of the people you describe are very privileged (mostly white but not all).

  15. 15.

    Leto

    October 28, 2021 at 10:55 am

    Mike & I are both old enough to remember the last time the GOP was supposedly gonna rule for a generation.

    it was 2005.

    Here, we’ll play Politico Pinocchio: this is mostly true. From 1995 to 2021, Republicans have controlled the US House of Reps for 20 years, Dems for 8. For the Senate, Republicans 16 years v Dems 12. What has helped Republicans is that their long stretches have occurred during Republican presidents, whereas for Dems we’ve only had slivers of the trifecta.

  16. 16.

    Baud

    October 28, 2021 at 10:55 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Commie.

  17. 17.

    nevsky42

    October 28, 2021 at 10:56 am

    I just cast my vote for the VA ticket at our county office; since we live in a bluish county (60-40 Biden in 2020) and there was a good churn coming in and out, I left feeling cautiously optimistic about McAuliffe’s chances.

  18. 18.

    schrodingers_cat

    October 28, 2021 at 10:56 am

    @Baud: That was before the passage of Civil Rights Bills. So their privilege was intact then.

    We could have Sweden like policies if we had Sweden like demographics.

  19. 19.

    Almost Retired

    October 28, 2021 at 10:57 am

    @Baud:  Yeah, but I think it’s being heard as “maybe we’ll get there eventually….”

  20. 20.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    October 28, 2021 at 10:58 am

    About the mention of Obama’s career arc: We’re listening to the audio version of A Promised Land, and it’s really quite startling to review how fast that arc was. He climbs each tier of government and then each time feels frustrated at how he isn’t in a position to make meaningful changes, and then he runs for the next office.

    As Michelle gets more and more pissed off.

    I haven’t listened for a few weeks. Need to go back and hear more of that book. Listening to either of the Obamas’ voices (I’ve got the audiobook of Michelle’s memoir as well) is remarkably calming when politics starts to make me anxious.

  21. 21.

    Baud

    October 28, 2021 at 10:59 am

    @Almost Retired:

    And that would be true if people stopped giving up after one election cycle.

    Waiting for the revolution is like waiting for the second coming of Jesus.  A waste of time.

  22. 22.

    Nicole

    October 28, 2021 at 10:59 am

    The normie lib is a dying breed.

    No, Pooky, what being a “normie lib” is has changed to include people who aren’t white men, also.  These whippersnappers in their 20s aren’t “super woke”; they just understand that sharing the playground means sharing with everyone.  For real sharing, not just talking about it while hogging the top spot on the jungle gym for yourself.

    (Yglesias really grates on me)

  23. 23.

    oldster

    October 28, 2021 at 11:03 am

    @Barbara:

    What you are saying is exactly the joke that Yglesias is making.

    He is writing a parody of what a blinkered progressive activist would say, i.e. someone who foolishly infers the composition of the electorate from their own narrow social circle.

    In other words, he is making the Pauline Kael joke about not knowing anyone who voted for Nixon.

    How do I know that Yglesias is ridiculing this kind of myopia, rather than exemplifying it?

    Because he spends a lot of time reminding his readers that most Democrats are not 20-somethings,  not woke, not college-educated, and not online. The median Dem voter is a non-college educated 50 year old who is generally supportive of the rights of women and minorities, but suspicious of the latest left-wing pieties.

    He is constantly hammering on how the progressive left screws up by trying to appeal to other wokists, instead of selling Democratic plans to Democratic voters, i.e. ordinary working class people of all races.

    Yglesias really does know this stuff. His only mistake here is writing humor so dead-pan that only people who read him often will get the joke.

  24. 24.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    October 28, 2021 at 11:06 am

    We just cast our absentee ballots for the off-year election in PA. That ballot gives me some reason to be hopeful about 2022. At the local level, it was just overwhelmingly dominated by Democrats, many of them running unopposed. For instance, the four open seats on the county council only had Democratic candidates. Until a few years ago, the county council was 100% Republican and had been that way for over a century.

    Our local borough government also featured an unopposed Democratic mayoral candidate and council candidates. It didn’t have quite as dominant a Republican history as the county council, but Democrats were a small minority here till perhaps the last decade.

    Our US Senators are Bob Casey (D) and The Execrable Pat Toomey, and Toomey has said he’s retiring from his seat in 2022. That is absolutely a gettable seat.

  25. 25.

    Baud

    October 28, 2021 at 11:07 am

    @oldster: 

    Twitter comes from the Latin term twittum, which means “out of context.”

  26. 26.

    Omnes Omnibus

    October 28, 2021 at 11:08 am

    @Baud:  I think that is a great theme.* It comes with an implied expectation of the victory, and there are swing voters who like to pick the winning side (morons, I know, but I’ll take their votes). It also tells people who didn’t get what they wanted out the bills that they haven’t been forgotten. And, just for giggles, it should piss off the Hawleys and Cottons of this world.

    *This may be proof of horribleness of the theme, but fuck it.

  27. 27.

    Sure Lurkalot

    October 28, 2021 at 11:09 am

    Here’s a good thread about what happens when women do their jobs too well and related horrors.

    https://twitter.com/ashtonpittman/status/1453585590348402692

  28. 28.

    Almost Retired

    October 28, 2021 at 11:12 am

    @Baud:   I guess my preferred message to swing voters and discouraged Democrats would be something to the effect of:

    “what the fuck is wrong with you, you ungrateful half-witted morons!  We’re trying to bring you healthcare, child and elder care, paid parental leave, a cleaner climate, and we’re getting someone else to pay for it.  How fucking stupid and racist can you possibly be?!?”

    But I can see how some voters might find that off-putting, so I’ll stick with lawyering.

  29. 29.

    Leto

    October 28, 2021 at 11:13 am

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: next door in Berks, we have a mixed slate. 2 Dems running unopposed for county spots, 3 Repubs doing the same. A good number of just blank positions with no candidate running for it (for example Tax Collector, and Auditor). We just moved to this county from MontCo last month.

  30. 30.

    Baud

    October 28, 2021 at 11:14 am

    @Almost Retired:

    Good choice. Lawyers aren’t the least bit off-putting.

  31. 31.

    Barbara

    October 28, 2021 at 11:14 am

    @oldster: ​ Thanks for the correction. I never know whether to love Matt or to hate him. I think he is sincere but still, blinkered often enough that I genuinely don’t know what to make of content like this. But I accept that he is making a joke here.

  32. 32.

    James E Powell

    October 28, 2021 at 11:15 am

    @A Good Woman: 

    I don’t understand why the fact that the only alternative to what we have now is total obstruction of everything. I don’t understand why the experience of the Obama administration hasn’t sunk into the political brain of every living Democrat.

    Murc’s Law – that only Democrats have agency – is bitter humor, but let’s not forget that Democrats do have agency. We have an election coming up in about a year and we can win that election. Republicans have vulnerable seats and we can take all of them. There are congressional districts that can be regained.

    I am not an optimistic person, but I know that elections can be won with work, hard & focused work.

  33. 33.

    oldster

    October 28, 2021 at 11:16 am

    @Baud:

    Agreed. There are many reasons why Twitter is a read-only medium for me, and that’s a big one.

    It may not have been designed as a machine for creating disagreement via context-stripping, but it certainly functions as a machine for creating disagreement via context-stripping.

  34. 34.

    oldster

    October 28, 2021 at 11:18 am

    @Barbara:

    Happy to help. And I agree that he can be an annoying twerp. Hell, he should know better than to write this sort of deadpan stuff that facilitates confusion — this is not the first time it has backfired on him.

  35. 35.

    Kay

    October 28, 2021 at 11:20 am

    Kasie Hunt
    @kasie
    46m
    If paid leave is left out of this bill, I’m going to spend the midterms covering how suburban women who turned on the GOP over Trump are responding to Democratic governing in DC — especially after the pandemic

    Predicting not only what women will do a year out but also how she plans to cover the midterms.
    If it isn’t happening Kasie plans to do her best to make it happen. I mean, come on. Make SOME attempt to cover the news rather than manufacture a narrative. Couldn’t she wait until someone, somewhere said this to her?
    Now in order for this not to be true her prediction has to be wrong. Fat fucking chance that’s happening.

  36. 36.

    Woodrow/asim

    October 28, 2021 at 11:20 am

    @schrodingers_cat: Is it a coincidence that many of the people you describe are very privileged (mostly white but not all).

    It is interesting to see how people, who haven’t had generations of family and friends being mistreated, react when the leopard comes to eat their faces.

    It’s depressing when their reactions are not to align with and learn from those who have experience fighting these forces, but to opine on how to “fight back” without any knowledge, save their own myopic vision.

    And it’s horrific when people who come from a historical lack of privilege, but have gained some small amount, waste it on chasing after those who’ll cut their throats the moment they are no longer useful.

  37. 37.

    Nicole

    October 28, 2021 at 11:22 am

    @oldster: I also appreciate the clarification, although the end result is that I continue to not think much of Y’s skills as a satirist.

  38. 38.

    Mike in NC

    October 28, 2021 at 11:22 am

    In the mid 90s I worked on K Street and there was an awful lot of talk about a “Permanent Republican Majority” in DC. Big names included Newt Gingrich, Tom DeLay, and Phil Gramm. Today they’d all qualify as RINOs. (Well, maybe not Newtie.)

  39. 39.

    James E Powell

    October 28, 2021 at 11:24 am

    @Leto:

    What has helped Republicans is that their long stretches have occurred during Republican presidents, whereas for Dems we’ve only had slivers of the trifecta.

    What has also helped Republicans is the emergence, then the domination, of FOX – along with the CNN & the NYT becoming essentially Republican-lite propagandists.

    What has also helped Republicans is that they unified voters who are ignorant hateful bigots with the policies of the worst of America’s rich people. They have been almost 100% unified on every issue since Specter quit the party.

    In contrast, we Democrats are still a diverse and disparate group of often competing interests that remain committed to the notion that it is possible to govern the United States.

     

  40. 40.

    Kropacetic

    October 28, 2021 at 11:25 am

    @Woodrow/asim: Well, for starters, that’s clearly what countless people who claim a Progressive, or related, mantle say they want.

    There needs to be some clarification on what is viewed as extremist. “Has ambitious goals” and “willing to go to extreme measures to reach those goals” tend to get conflated under the term extremist.

    There’s nothing with the former and the latter is definitely a problem across people with all different types of political goals.

    This is why Dems are judged by the standard of their weirdest activist and Repubs get judged by their highest supposed ideals, no katter their actions. We’re “radical” and they’re “conservative,” even though the opposite is more like the truth.

  41. 41.

    geg6

    October 28, 2021 at 11:25 am

    @Barbara: ​
     

    Maybe because even from an early age I understood I was the outlier child of outlier parents, I am always amazed that someone like Matt Yglesias thinks that his personal experience can be generalized at all, to anyone, much less his entire generation.

    OMG, yes this. The cluelessness of so many of these “pundits” never fails to astonish me.

  42. 42.

    oldster

    October 28, 2021 at 11:25 am

    @Nicole:

    Yup. I can’t pretend he isn’t irritating, I can only suggest why you should find him irritating for *these* reasons, not irritating for *those* reasons.

  43. 43.

    Kay

    October 28, 2021 at 11:27 am

    David Weigel
    @daveweigel
    ·1h
    Watching a Colorado school board meeting for background on a story and… hey, look who showed up in the Zoom

    The My Pillow Guy. Just another group of concerned parents from the district – oh, and the My Pillow guy.
    This is NOT AT ALL a coordinated GOP political campaign. Nope.

  44. 44.

    Baud

    October 28, 2021 at 11:27 am

    @Kay:

    She was probably going to do that anyway.

  45. 45.

    geg6

    October 28, 2021 at 11:30 am

    @oldster: ​
     
    To be fair, I quit reading Yglesias after one of his many rants about not licensing barbers, nail techs and hair dressers because, really, what harm can they actually cause?

    He’s an idiot and I don’t regret giving up on him completely.

  46. 46.

    Kay

    October 28, 2021 at 11:31 am

    If you’re a journalist and you publicly commit to a set of specific political results from this bill, is it fair to question your objectivity in covering the bill and covering the effect of the bill?

    Of course it is. They’re telling us how they plan to cover it- personally and publicly committing to what will happen. If that then doesn’t happen they were wrong and it will involve an admission of error. They’re going to bend over backward to avoid that.

    I don’t know what that is but it isn’t reporting. It can’t be. None of it has happened yet.

  47. 47.

    geg6

    October 28, 2021 at 11:35 am

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: ​
     
    Same here in overwhelmingly Trump-centric Beaver County. Our municipal slate was nothing but Dems. Voted for the Dems running for Supreme Court and Commonwealth Court. And “No” on retention of all the judges because they are slimy Republicans.

  48. 48.

    Kay

    October 28, 2021 at 11:35 am

    @Baud:

    She knew this would happen. And, it did! Another correct call!

    I don’t know- maybe resist publicly announcing your intentions regarding the bill that hasn’t passed and what the “women” (all of them) will say or do?  Retain some shred of credibility?

  49. 49.

    Baud

    October 28, 2021 at 11:35 am

    @Kay:

    I don’t understand why suburban women don’t care about pre-K and the child tax credit and child care benefits.

  50. 50.

    Peale

    October 28, 2021 at 11:36 am

    @Kay: Anti-mask campaign or ban black teachers campaign. Or both?

  51. 51.

    Kropacetic

    October 28, 2021 at 11:38 am

    @Baud:  Maybe they already got theirs, so fuck everyone else?
    Just a hunch.

  52. 52.

    Kay

    October 28, 2021 at 11:39 am

    @Peale:

    They just want the my pillow guy to have “input” into that Colorado public school. As is his RIGHT.
    As a parent, or…national paid Right wing activist. Whichever.

  53. 53.

    Kay

    October 28, 2021 at 11:41 am

    Andy Duehren
    @aduehren
    · 20m
    Sinema: “After months of productive, good-faith negotiations with President Biden and the White House, we have made significant progress on the proposed budget reconciliation package.”

    She has to say “good faith” because it wasn’t. With a Democrat negotiating with fellow Democrats good faith would be assumed. She no longer gets that assumption. Rightly- it’s bullshit.

  54. 54.

    slybrarian

    October 28, 2021 at 11:43 am

    I’ve been impressed at Jayapal’s response so far, very even-keeled and supportive of the president while still not committing to anything. It looks like she was right to be a bit skeptical given that Manchin and Sinema keeps making vague noises instead of saying “yes we are good to go”.

  55. 55.

    Peale

    October 28, 2021 at 11:44 am

    @Kay: I would equally like you to have input into the Colorado school district, as I think you are thoughtful, prepared and care about education. Unfortunately, BJ even on its best days doesn’t have the funds to pay you to be our go to national local school board meeting attendee. So it’ll have to be gratis on your part.

  56. 56.

    Jeffro

    October 28, 2021 at 11:45 am

    Looks like trumpov won’t be coming to VA to campaign for/with Glenn Youngkin after all…Eric Swalwell is having a field day with it. =)

  57. 57.

    oldster

    October 28, 2021 at 11:46 am

    @geg6:

    That *is* fair. He isn’t joking or being ironic about opposing the licensing of cosmetologists and the like, so those are good reasons to hate him and not read him. Or hate-read him, if you lean that way, but generally life is too short.

    (I myself don’t know how I feel about that particular issue, though I am tempted to link to Fleabag’s “Hair. Is. Everything.” rant.)

  58. 58.

    frosty

    October 28, 2021 at 11:46 am

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: ​
     At the local level, it was just overwhelmingly dominated by Democrats, many of them running unopposed.

    We live in different parts of Pennsylvania!

  59. 59.

    Peale

    October 28, 2021 at 11:47 am

    I think what pisses me off about having to get rid of p-K support from the bill is that its been part of the platform since, IDK, my entire political life. Seriously, if you don’t support pre-K rolled out nationally, you probably would be better served not running.  I bet we could find some statement from Manchin or an add from his run for governor where he promised it.

  60. 60.

    Baud

    October 28, 2021 at 11:49 am

    @Peale:

    I thought pre-k was in.

  61. 61.

    Kay

    October 28, 2021 at 11:50 am

    Just one year ago, fourth grade teacher Rickie Farah was honored as a teacher of the year in Southlake, an affluent community outside of Dallas, Tex. Now, she was on the cusp of being singled out for punishment by the school board. Her crime: A student in her class had taken home a copy of teacher Tiffany Jewell’s best-selling book, This Book Is Anti-Racist: 20 Lessons on How to Wake Up, Take Action, and Do the Work, from Farah’s classroom library. When the child’s parents filed a complaint with the school district, alleging that the book was inappropriate, administrators declined to punish Farah. Then Southlake’s new conservative majority school board intervened. By a vote of three to two, members agreed to direct school administrators to place a letter of reprimand in Farah’s personnel file, permanently blemishing the record of one of the district’s star teachers.
    “It’s really chilling,” says Jennifer Hough, a parent and member of the Southlake chapter of Dignity for All Texas Students. “The message that’s being sent to the teachers in this school district is that nobody’s safe.”

    Not a required reading or text- student took it out of the classroom library.

    They’re banning books.

    And I never want to hear another word about “cancel culture” – the anti- cancel culture warriors threw these teachers to the lions. They’re all frauds. If you’re pulling down a million a year on your substack moaning about how Harvard cancels conservative voices but not mentioning this book banning crusade you are a fraud.
    An excellent public school teacher is worth 1000 NYTimes editorialists whining about cancel culture. They’re driving her out of the classroom. She won’t stay, and she shouldn’t.

  62. 62.

    Peale

    October 28, 2021 at 11:51 am

    @Kay: Yeah. Good. She’s floated up what kinds of public people she’s looking to interview. I’m sure her stories now will be full of “concerned moms who voted for Biden who just happen to be vice chairman of their county GOP party and have done nothing but post up anti-vaxx memes for the past 2 years.” Like always happens. I’m sure the Koch network now is sifting through its roladex to find examples for her.

  63. 63.

    Kay

    October 28, 2021 at 11:57 am

    @Peale:

    They did the same thing with Afghanistan. They could not wait until Americans hated it. They announced Americans hated it and worked as hard as they could to prove themselves right.

    They are out in front. They’re not supposed to be there. Whatever else is wrong with their coverage won’t be fixed until they recognize that. They’re in the wrong place.

  64. 64.

    Kay

    October 28, 2021 at 11:59 am

    @Peale:

    Maybe Americans would have hated leaving Afghanistan, maybe they would have hated it as much as media hated it, but we’ll never know because media were out in front. It’s a kind of corruption. Taints the result.

  65. 65.

    Woodrow/asim

    October 28, 2021 at 12:00 pm

    @Baud: Yeah, pre-K is literally the 1st item listed in the next post, here!

    Universal Preschool for all 3- and 4-year Olds: Expand access to free high-quality preschool for more than 6 million children. This is a long-term program, with funding for six years.

  66. 66.

    geg6

    October 28, 2021 at 12:02 pm

    @Kay: ​
     
    If you haven’t been to this site, you’re missing it. Their “Let Me Rewrite That For You” stuff is gold:

    https://presswatchers.org/2021/10/failing-to-call-out-critical-race-theory-as-racist-dog-whistle-let-me-rewrite-that-for-you/

  67. 67.

    Kay

    October 28, 2021 at 12:03 pm

    @Peale:

    I’m always impressed when a judge reads the pleadings, goes thru all the pretrials, and it looks like it’s going one way and then there’s testimony or evidence at hearing and they fifind it persuasive and they go the other way. It really does add to credibility because it means this isn’t all a dog and pony show. What happens matters. That’s how people and institutions retain credibility. It’s an ACT, not a statement.

  68. 68.

    Betty

    October 28, 2021 at 12:05 pm

    @Sure Lurkalot: We know this, but when we see it laid out !ime that, it is stunning.

  69. 69.

    Betty

    October 28, 2021 at 12:08 pm

    @Kay: Kasie has proven multiple times what her bias is. Rob Portman is a totally reasonable guy despite blocking the very kinds of things she is putting on Democrats for not getting done.

  70. 70.

    Betty

    October 28, 2021 at 12:12 pm

    @frosty: I believe you are home to Scott Perry, so yeah.

  71. 71.

    Kropacetic

    October 28, 2021 at 12:12 pm

    @Kay: Maybe Americans would have hated leaving Afghanistan, maybe they would have hated it as much as media hated it

    The media hated it. They’re Americans. Passes the narrow plausibility threshold for media BS.

  72. 72.

    schrodingers_cat

    October 28, 2021 at 12:13 pm

    @Kay: More white women voted for the Orange Buffoon after 4 years of his reign of error. IDK if the story is different for college educated women.

    White women as a demographic vote Republican, that is hardly news, is it?

  73. 73.

    Betty

    October 28, 2021 at 12:15 pm

    @Betty: Sorry I missed my typo while reading other comments. “laid out like that”.

  74. 74.

    The Moar You Know

    October 28, 2021 at 12:15 pm

    We could have Sweden like policies if we had Sweden like demographics.

    @schrodingers_cat: that is so true.  None of it would even be up for discussion.

  75. 75.

    catclub

    October 28, 2021 at 12:17 pm

    @Baud: Waiting for the revolution is like waiting for the second coming of Jesus.

     

    I would say that ‘The kingdom of God is at hand’ is not a prediction but marching orders.

  76. 76.

    catclub

    October 28, 2021 at 12:19 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: White women as a demographic vote Republican, that is hardly news, is it?

     

    White people on average vote republican. White men overwhelmingly vote republican. White women somewhat less so.

  77. 77.

    schrodingers_cat

    October 28, 2021 at 12:20 pm

    @The Moar You Know: “Progressives” of the BS variety get apoplectic if you point that out.

  78. 78.

    topclimber

    October 28, 2021 at 12:23 pm

    @Baud: ​
     

    If POC are okay with it, go with “Keep the Faith.”

  79. 79.

    PJ

    October 28, 2021 at 12:24 pm

    @frosty: Nope.  That’s one thing that guy got completely wrong.  After Obama’s speech at the convention in 2004, a lot of people, myself included (and even including Neil Young!), were looking at him as a candidate for 2008.

  80. 80.

    schrodingers_cat

    October 28, 2021 at 12:27 pm

    @catclub: I know that. However T lost ground with white men in 2020 and gained ground with white women compared to 2016.

    Karen is not just a trope, it seems.

  81. 81.

    Kay

    October 28, 2021 at 12:29 pm

    @schrodingers_cat:

    I don’t know what this is supposed to mean. Because some white women voted for Donald Trump no white woman can ask for anything in legislation? It’s constantly used here as a kind of response – I’m not in charge of white women. I was speaking for myself.

  82. 82.

    PJ

    October 28, 2021 at 12:31 pm

    @geg6: At heart, Yglesias is a libertarian who knows that he is smarter than everyone else.  He doesn’t actually believe in “no government” (he supports vax mandates, etc.), but he seems to favor complete deregulation of most businesses, especially real estate/construction, and is in favor of rich people doing whatever the hell they please, no matter how it affects others.

  83. 83.

    schrodingers_cat

    October 28, 2021 at 12:32 pm

    @Kay: Nope it doesn’t mean that.  It means that there is slightly more than a 50% chance that a  random white woman is not a reliable ally.

    It’s constantly used here as a kind of response – I’m not in charge of white women. I was speaking for myself.

    If this doesn’t apply to you, move on.

  84. 84.

    Kay

    October 28, 2021 at 12:32 pm

    @schrodingers_cat:

    If I was the only white woman who thought there should be paid leave I would still have this opinion and I would still ask for paid leave. It isn’t dependent on the support of “my group”.

  85. 85.

    schrodingers_cat

    October 28, 2021 at 12:35 pm

    @Kay: I never said that it was. I take you at your word.  You do not belong to that 53%

  86. 86.

    A Good Woman

    October 28, 2021 at 12:36 pm

    @James E Powell:

    I have been sparring with people on Twitter who have gone “all or nothing”.  They appear uninterested in the facts on the ground, especially regarding the Senate.  Biden is being compared to McConnell, and seen as weak.  It’s Biden’s fault the package was scaled down so severely and that Manchinema was not brought to heel, so why vote for Democrats again?  This kind of thinking is not going to help win the mid-terms.

    Yes, we have a lot of work to do, but all that new voting legislation in the statehouses will have an impact, and we best be prepared to counter it.  Starting with support for Marc Elias and his efforts.

     

     

    @James E Powell:

  87. 87.

    Kay

    October 28, 2021 at 12:37 pm

    @schrodingers_cat:

    Well, then say that. “White women aren’t reliable allies”. You could say it in response to my post, to me personally. I still don’t know what to do with it in the context of my opinion that paid leave should be passed, but I’ll keep it in mind.

    Nancy Pelosi is a white woman. Can I ask her to pass paid leave, or no?

  88. 88.

    marklar

    October 28, 2021 at 12:45 pm

    @frosty: Ah, your part of PA must be overrun by a lot of nittany lions.  What you need is to import some new black panthers!

  89. 89.

    Kay

    October 28, 2021 at 12:46 pm

    @schrodingers_cat:

    I don’t think white women consider themselves a coherent or predictable political group. That’s partly because they’ve always been the majority, so they consider themselves the “norm” by which other groups are measured, but that’s also true of white men. OTOH I think Democrats err on the wrong side of making assumptions about what constitutes a “political group” frequently, hence their completely misreading the Latino electorate.

    I don’t think Democrats make too few assumptions- I think they make too many. There is no real white female vote or “issue”, but we insist on saying there is. I’ve never believed there was. I’ve never seen it swing an election.

  90. 90.

    The Moar You Know

    October 28, 2021 at 12:46 pm

    They’re driving her out of the classroom. 

    @Kay: that’s their intent.  Purge the public schools of good teachers.  Then privatize them.

  91. 91.

    Soprano2

    October 28, 2021 at 2:03 pm

    My biggest gripe is with the people who think that if they don’t get everything they want in the BBB bill there is no reason to vote for Democrats, and no other reason to have a Democratic president. I heard it on the “On Point” program this morning about the VA governor’s race (it mostly seemed to be an ad for how smart and moderate-seeming Youngkin is, and how McAuliffe is in so much trouble), where they talked about how so many black voters are discouraged because they voted for Democrats in 2020 and feel like they haven’t gotten anything back for that. I want to yell at them “Are you kidding me? We got the 3rd Covid relief bill, which we never would have gotten with Republicans. We’re getting good judges on the federal bench, which wouldn’t have happened if TFG had won, and which is actually important to everyone. Federal agencies are working better and actually doing what they’re supposed to be doing. The whole world isn’t laughing at our president anymore. Biden is systematically rolling back a lot of Trump policies – sorry that he couldn’t do all of it on the first day. What did you think was going to happen – did you think you’d get everything you want immediately?” I swear, it’s so frustrating to hear stuff like “why vote for Democrats, see what a mess this bill is?”. It’s to have better governance, you morons!!! Aaarrrgghhhh……

  92. 92.

    rikyrah

    October 28, 2021 at 3:42 pm

    good tweets

  93. 93.

    JML

    October 28, 2021 at 4:59 pm

    I would refuse to follow an order like that from a school board, were I an administrator. School boards should never be getting into the weeds like that. the superintendent you tell them to jump off a cliff, order they’ll never be able to run their district again. The principal should stand up for their teachers and refuse any order for the letter too.

    Do the right thing.

Comments are closed.

Primary Sidebar

Fundraising 2023-24

Wis*Dems Supreme Court + SD-8

Recent Comments

  • satby on Saturday Night Maxwell Update (Mar 26, 2023 @ 5:32am)
  • Odie Hugh Manatee on Saturday Night Maxwell Update (Mar 26, 2023 @ 4:15am)
  • Rose Weiss on Saturday Night Maxwell Update (Mar 26, 2023 @ 4:02am)
  • Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg on Saturday Night Maxwell Update (Mar 26, 2023 @ 3:59am)
  • yellowdog on Pudd’n Boots (Open Thread) (Mar 26, 2023 @ 3:58am)

🎈Keep Balloon Juice Ad Free

Become a Balloon Juice Patreon
Donate with Venmo, Zelle or PayPal

Balloon Juice Posts

View by Topic
View by Author
View by Month & Year
View by Past Author

Featuring

Medium Cool
Artists in Our Midst
Authors in Our Midst
We All Need A Little Kindness
Classified Documents: A Primer
State & Local Elections Discussion

Calling All Jackals

Site Feedback
Nominate a Rotating Tag
Submit Photos to On the Road
Balloon Juice Mailing List Signup
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Links)
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Posts)

Twitter / Spoutible

Balloon Juice (Spoutible)
WaterGirl (Spoutible)
TaMara (Spoutible)
John Cole
DougJ (aka NYT Pitchbot)
Betty Cracker
Tom Levenson
TaMara
David Anderson
Major Major Major Major
ActualCitizensUnited

Join the Fight!

Join the Fight Signup Form
All Join the Fight Posts

Balloon Juice Events

5/14  The Apocalypse
5/20  Home Away from Home
5/29  We’re Back, Baby
7/21  Merging!

Balloon Juice for Ukraine

Donate

Site Footer

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Comment Policy
  • Our Authors
  • Blogroll
  • Our Artists
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2023 Dev Balloon Juice · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc

Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!