Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

I was promised a recession.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

Everybody saw this coming.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

We’ll be taking my thoughts and prayers to the ballot box.

Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

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

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

We still have time to mess this up!

I didn’t have alien invasion on my 2023 BINGO card.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the GOP

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

“woke” is the new caravan.

Not all heroes wear capes.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

Republicans want to make it harder to vote and easier for them to cheat.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Monday Evening Open Thread: Readership Capture

Monday Evening Open Thread: Readership Capture

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If you prefer ‘rantspirational’, Chris ‘Mad Bitcher’ Cillizza is your guy:

Reader Interactions

97Comments

  1. 1.

    SiubhanDuinne

    We’ve got quite the to-do list before us:

    Voting rights.
    Affordable childcare.
    Expanded health care.
    Aggressive climate action.
    An extended Child Tax Credit.
    And more.

    I don’t know when the fuck he’s going to find time to hang out with us and talk about his book.

    :-)

  2. 2.

    MisterForkbeard

    The last one is nuts. Trump was famous for giving lots of insane and useless press conferences. Why would Biden want to emulate any of that?

  3. 3.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    Several years back, Charlie Pierce said this:

    When the Smithsonian opens its American Museum of Feckless Journalism, the Cillizza exhibit is going to be right there in the lobby, across from the statues of Maureen Dowd and David Brooks.”

    I swear he’s giving Mrs Greenspan and most of NPR’s political team (and a host of others to numerous to name) a run for their money in terms of the highest tumbrel number.

  6. 6.

    Urza

    Biden should most definitely tell the nuts NOT to drink bleach, Ivermectin, viagra, strychnine, polonium, arsenic and cyanide to cure and prevent disease, and definitely not all at once in massive doses.

  7. 7.

    Poe Larity

    (CNN)As Los Angeles students and staff prepare to return to school Tuesday, about 62,000 have tested positive for Covid-19, school district data show

  8. 8.

    Lapassionara

    How did Chris Cilizza get to be someone people even care to listen to? Seriously? He has no deep intelligence, no impressive vocabulary, no obvious learning that qualifies him as a pontificator. Help me out here . . .

  9. 9.

    Ken

    The first month of Trump’s press conferences were him repeating his inaugural audience was larger than any in history, until the media gave up. Or gave in, one of those.

  12. 12.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Soonergrunt:

    it’s not that Biden wants to repeat being insane and useless, but rather that Cillizza is insane and useless. 

    Couldn’t have put that better.

  13. 13.

    Starboard Tack

    @Lapassionara: Reminds me of something somebody said way back, that voting for Papa Bush was like rooting for an incessant whine to win a noise contest. That’s what Cilizza sounds like.

  18. 18.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Quinerly: Wow.  And even the Russkies are pushing that the Capitol security guard (secret service?) was black who shot that terrorist trying to climb through that broken window.

  19. 19.

    dmsilev

    Cillizza and his ilk have a vastly overinflated view of their own importance, and one of the ways that manifests is in thinking that asking Tough Questions at a Presidential press conference counts as real journalism. It doesn’t, any more than quoting anonymous sources looking to plant a story counts as investigative reporting.

  23. 23.

    scav

    They drink their own urine and return to their own vomit. “Do you see a man who is wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.”

  26. 26.

    brendancalling

    I have long considered it an injustice that Chris Cillizza has a job. He’s an utter piece of shit, a man with lower morals than sewage, the very definition of “unserious” and “feckless.”

    If I had my way, he’d be packed into a rocket and launched into the sun. The worst part is the unctuous skid mark managed to reproduce, which is a tragedy.

  27. 27.

    Mike in NC

    Let’s pretend that the nation is poorer for not having been blessed with a Donald Trump Farewell Address. Of course he never planned on leaving in the first place.

  29. 29.

    BC in Illinois

    People type LOL, and very often I doubt whether they actually laughed out loud.

    This made both me and Mrs BC laugh out loud.

    One out of three

    Trump supporters

    are just as stupid

    as the other two.

  31. 31.

    mrmoshpotato

    @brendancalling:

    I have long considered it an injustice that Chris Cillizza has a job. He’s an utter piece of shit, a man with lower morals than sewage, the very definition of “unserious” and “feckless.” 

    If I had my way, he’d be packed into a rocket and launched into the sun. The worst part is the unctuous skid mark managed to reproduce, which is a tragedy.

    Sun has a capital “S”!  Has no one learned anything from my desire for numerous piles of trash to throw themselves into the Sun? :)

  38. 38.

    hueyplong

    Why on earth would we want them to stop drinking their own urine?

    And the best part is that the easiest way to get them to pissguzzle is to tell them not to do it, with a dollop of condescending and elitist inferences that they’d be stupid to do it.

  42. 42.

    James E Powell

    @Poe Larity:

    As Los Angeles students and staff prepare to return to school Tuesday, about 62,000 have tested positive for Covid-19, school district data show

    Today we had the big faculty zoom to discuss all this. We still do not know how many students will show up tomorrow, but we expect our numbers to be down about 20%. This is for both students who have tested positive and students who have not yet tested.

    Faculty is another matter. They did not share numbers, but warned that we would be short of people. We have no building & grounds staff.

    Could be an interesting opening week.

  44. 44.

    James E Powell

    @Lapassionara:

    How did Chris Cilizza get to be someone people even care to listen to?

    If memory serves, he made hating Hillary his brand. Naturally the entire press/media world adored that.

    He’s like a lot of our current press/media people & I don’t mean just the ones I despise. He adds nothing to the discourse. He provides nothing of value, but for some reason gets a job.

  45. 45.

    NotMax

    Needed to run several inconsequential errands in town along with the monthly grocery run today. While toodling about passed several gas stations in different parts of the burg.

    Can’t recall ever seeing such a wide spread on pricing. Usually stations will very by a penny or two. Today the lowest price I happened upon for regular was $4.42, the highest $5.02.

    Strange too the pet food aisles at Target, which I briefly glanced at while checking for oncoming carts exiting them. I’m going to attribute it to very recent disruptions in incoming inter-island freight brought by boat. Dog food aisle chockablock with product. Cat food aisle? Shelves on both sides barer than Mother Hubbard’s cupboard, save for one lone bag of Meow Mix on an uppermost perch. No cans, no pouches, no nuthin’ all the way down to the end of the aisle.

  46. 46.

    Another Scott

    Phys.org – Badger, badger, badger…:

    A treasure trove of some 200 Roman-era coins was discovered in northwestern Spain thanks to the apparent efforts of a hungry badger hunting for food, archaeologists have said.

    Described as “an exceptional find”, the coins were discovered in April 2021 in La Cuesta cave in Bercio in the Asturias region, with details outlined in the Journal of Prehistory and Archaeology published last month by Madrid’s Autonomous University.

    The coins were likely dug up by a badger searching for food during the vast snowstorm which paralysed Spain in January 2021.

    […]

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  47. 47.

    Kayla Rudbek

    @NotMax: I have been seeing various pictures on NextDoor of bare shelves at the local grocery stores here in Northern Virginia, thanks to the weather. Mr. Rudbek wound up getting three bottles of vegan egg substitute instead of the usual one because we had a tough time getting our hands on it for a while.

    (part of me wants to try eating regular eggs again, part of me is not so sure about trying to test whether they will make me sick)

    And my mother-in-law has been very happy with the new blanket I made her. Maybe in a few months, when my hands and arms recover, I can try that yarn again for myself or my parents…

  50. 50.

    Matt McIrvin

    @James E Powell: My kid’s school is going remote again after tomorrow just because such a huge fraction of the students *and* staff are out, they simply can’t keep it up. Tomorrow they’re in-person mostly to give the kids a chance to retrieve books and things.

    The level of terror isn’t there because, you know, we’re vaccinated, kid just got boosted. But everything’s breaking down anyway.

  51. 51.

    Felanius Kootea

    Interesting data from Singapore on vaccine effectiveness (Bloomberg link):

    Singapore saw the fewest deaths among those administered with a Moderna Inc. shot and the most among those who received Sinovac Biotech Ltd.’s vaccine, as the city-state’s highly inoculated population provides a glimpse into how different immunizations are holding up in the real world.

    Of the 802 people who died from Covid-19 last year in the city-state, 555 or about 70% weren’t fully vaccinated, health minister Ong Ye Kung told the parliament Monday, showing the life-saving impact of inoculation.

    Singapore found 11 deaths per 100,000 among people who received Sinovac shots and 7.8 deaths among those with Sinopharm. This number fell to 6.2 deaths for those with mRNA shots from Pfizer Inc.-BioNTech SE and 1 fatality in those who were administered the vaccines from Moderna.

  52. 52.

    NotMax

    @Mike in NC

    If there’s one anywhere conveniently nearby, check at the dollar store (no such places here). Might be off brands, but any port in a storm and all that.

  53. 53.

    Kay

    @James E Powell:

    January 7, 2022 — Hello Columbus City Schools Families, Teachers, and Staff,Due to an increased number of transportation absences, all classes will be canceled today, Friday, January 7. There will be no remote learning or in-person classes at any CCS schools today. All athletic and extracurricular activities are also canceled.

    Bus drivers.

    They got all but 3 open today. I can’t imagine where they’re finding replacement bus drivers. They need a physical, CDL, a state and federal background check, drug testing, and 15 hours of additional training.

  55. 55.

    Suzanne

    Trader Joe’s has been out of stuff randomly. Like frozen strawberries have been gone for a few weeks, but there’s plenty of frozen raspberries. Oddly, the one by me has been nearly out of crackers since before Christmas. Like, what?

    So I looked up the criminal history of the dude who broke into my house. One of my neighbors found it. He has a long, intermittent history of all kinds of low-level dumbassery. Drug possession, DUI, trespassing, that kind of thing. Seems like for the last almost 20 years, he’d get into trouble a couple of times in relatively quick succession, then be good for a while, then fall back into the shit. Lots of stints of probation. It never ceases to amaze me how many chances white men get.

  58. 58.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Sancerre66:

    I had a friend who used to sign all his emails to me with “LOL, [his name].” Took me months to realise he wasn’t laughing — he was abbreviating “Lots of love.”

    :-)

  59. 59.

    Mike in NC

    @NotMax: We have lots of Dollar General, Family Dollar, Dollar Tree, and some other dollar chain around here. It’s the South after all.

  62. 62.

    NotMax

    FYI.

    In a medical first, doctors transplanted a pig heart into a patient in a last-ditch effort to save his life and a Maryland hospital said Monday that he’s doing well three days after the highly experimental surgery.

    While it’s too soon to know if the operation really will work, it marks a step in the decades-long quest to one day use animal organs for life-saving transplants. Doctors at the University of Maryland Medical Center say the transplant showed that a heart from a genetically modified animal can function in the human body without immediate rejection. Source

    Amazing as it sounds, it’s still not kosher.

  64. 64.

    Heidi Mom

    @Lapassionara:
    When he did a weekly Q&A column for the Washington Post, he responded to accusations of bias by saying that he didn’t vote, wasn’t a member of a political party, didn’t have a particular “cause,” he just loved the game of politics.  I’ve never understand how that’s possible–absent commitment to a person/party/cause, why would you care?

  65. 65.

    Dan B

    @NotMax: There are cat food shortages in Seattle and have been for weeks.  Annnnd… our cats have decided to become picky eaters.  Sigh.

  66. 66.

    CaseyL

    @Suzanne:  Trader Joe’s is out of stuff??  That’s surprising: I’ve been having good luck with the non-traditional grocery store chains.  So far, Sprouts has had either what I want or a reasonable facsimile thereof.  The one exception was, they were out of shredded cabbage, which seems like an odd thing to be out of.  (I saw a recipe for making “hash browns” with cabbage instead of potatoes, and it looked promising.)

    Reading up on your B&E guy sounds like a dreary experience: why, yes, he is even more fucked up than originally thought.  Great.

    Have you been able to get things cleaned up/repaired?

    @Dan B:

    Annnnd… our cats have decided to become picky eaters.

     

    Because timing is everything. Oy.

  69. 69.

    Kay

    @debbie:

    Did they change it after June of this year?

    Columbus is the state’s largest school district, with nearly 47,000 students. The issue isn’t the supply of buses, officials say — it’s finding enough qualified people to drive them. School bus drivers must hold a commercial driver’s license, pass background checks and complete training, a process that takes up to seven weeks,interim transportation director Rob Weinheimer said.

  70. 70.

    Kay

    @debbie:

    Maybe this?

    Posted January 7, 2022

    In an effort to make it easier to recruit new school bus drivers, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) announced an optional three-month waiver of the “under the hood” component of the CDL skills test. The waiver — for states that adopt it — temporarily eliminates the requirement that those seeking a CDL must be able to identify engine components. This mechanical identification portion of the CDL skills test has been seen by some as unrelated to whether a driver can safely operate a school bus and as needlessly making it more difficult to qualify for a CDL. States are not required to adopt the waiver, but for states who choose to waive the “under the hood” requirement, the hope is that the waiver may help alleviate the shortage of school bus drivers by making it a little easier for new school bus drivers to get their CDLs. The waiver is in effect from January 3 through March 31, 2022. Drivers who receive a CDL under this waiver are only permitted to operate intrastate school buses, and they must still pass all other parts of the CDL written and road tests.

  71. 71.

    Kent

    @SiubhanDuinne:I don’t know when the fuck he’s going to find time to hang out with us and talk about his book.  :-)

    The House is done with all this shit. We are waiting on the Senate.

  72. 72.

    Felanius Kootea

    OT: I can’t get over this story! A former air force pilot cheated death twice in 10 minutes after his small plane’s engine failed shortly after takeoff.  He crash-landed on train tracks in the Los Angeles area to try to avoid hitting people on the ground and rescuers pulled him out just seconds before a train plowed into the wreckage of his plane.  (NYT link – graphic).  He’s recovering in the hospital.  That man has the best luck of anyone I’ve ever heard of. The police officers who rescued him are amazing.

  75. 75.

    debbie

    @Kay:

    I don’t think that’s it, and I can’t find the report I heard last week. However, I just heard a local news report that the Reynoldsburg School District (a local suburb) is saying they’ll get CDLs for prospective drivers who don’t have them. Sounds like zero training’s involved.

  76. 76.

    Leto

    @Felanius Kootea: the police body cam, standing bystander, and passing driver footage are all crazy. It looked like he was pretty banged up, hopefully he didn’t sustain any more injuries when he was pulled out.

  78. 78.

    NotMax

    Fascinating long read.

    The Washington Post has compiled the first database of slaveholding members of Congress by examining thousands of pages of census records and historical documents Source

  82. 82.

    Suzanne

    @CaseyL: We have been cleaning up the inside of the house and we are almost done with that. The bigger issue is the front porch. That is where the police cuffed and held him and he was out there for about 20 minutes until the ambulance arrived. He managed to get his blood all over the damn place. I am going to have to throw all of the furniture out, and the outdoor rug, and the baby stroller. There’s too much to just put out for the trash pickup, so I think I have to call a junk removal service or something. I have reached out to two companies to get me new doors.

  83. 83.

    Suzanne

    @CaseyL: Yeah, both TJs and Whole Foods have had some supply problems, but I thought it was more weather-related than pandemic-related. Maybe I’m wrong.

    Nothing makes me feel like more of a white bougie douchebag than talking about grocery shopping. It always makes me acutely aware that I am a coastal liberal elitist or something.

  84. 84.

    NotMax

    Shove over, H.G. Wells, there’s a new time machine in town.

    Owners of older Honda and Acura models started up their cars on New Year’s Day, only to find that their vehicles turned into time machines, according to a report from Jalopnik. Instead of seamlessly transitioning to the year 2022, cars’ clocks jumped 20 years back in time, and Honda says a fix could be months away.
    [snip]
    …judging by user reports, it looks like the issue is prevalent in models released from 2006 to 2014 in the US, Canada, and the UK. Source

  85. 85.

    Soprano2

    @debbie: Oh no, there definitely is training. We train all the new field hires so they can get theirs – it’s a requirement that they get it within 6 months of being hired.

  86. 86.

    brendancalling

    @mrmoshpotato: I will do better next time.

    I am still incredibly angry about the hatchet job Cillizza tried to pull on Biden over the Tara Reade story. It was some of the most dishonest, manipulative, shallow, feckless garbage I have ever seen. For real, I sometimes fantasize about bumping into him on a long distance flight or other inescable venue and just letting him have it. He’s simply odious.

  89. 89.

    mrmoshpotato

    @brendancalling:

    I am still incredibly angry about the hatchet job Cillizza tried to pull on Biden over the Tara Reade story. It was some of the most dishonest, manipulative, shallow, feckless garbage I have ever seen. 

    Agreed.

  91. 91.

    James E Powell

    @Kay:

    That’s similar to the problems our district – Los Angeles – has; there’s a shortage of every type of person and most especially the out of classroom staff. I don’t see many of our students arriving by bus. Most walk or get dropped by parents.

    It’s going to be an interesting situation for the next few weeks.

  92. 92.

    CaseyL

    @Suzanne: I get that.  I live in very much a coastal elite city, with a dozen or more different grocery chains, many of whom deliver. Plus about a dozen farmer’s markets over the spring and summer.

    But I can go less than ten miles south and find food deserts – in, of course, the poorer neighborhoods.

  93. 93.

    Thor Heyerdahl

    Cillizza – the DC media bullshit dung beetle

    (No offense meant to dung beetles – which serve a useful purpose).

  95. 95.

    Gvg

    i am having cat food issues too especially for my old lady cat with a delicate tummy. Multiple chains are out of the type she likes best. I also feed her baby food ham and that is hard to find too. My sisters dog has to eat allergy food and it isn’t always findable so he has had to eat regular with itchy consequences including skin infections. Even PetSmart and chewy don’t have a lot of things. Right after Christmas I ventured into PetSmart in person and the cat food aisles were stunningly empty. I have read pet food companies are having multiple issues including supplies and manufacturing not just shipping.

  96. 96.

    evodevo

    @NotMax: Yep…the Dollar Stores around here often have a bigger selection of certain items than the local WalMart, at comparable prices.  I’m a Dollar General fan…

  97. 97.

    debbie

    @Soprano2:

    I wasn’t able to locate the specific report, but I ended up looking at job listings. Here’s one where they ask for “A valid driver’s license and driving record that will meet company driving standards.” Granted there’s training, which I assume includes getting a CDL, but they need drivers now, not in six months.

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