I dislike the expression “a hit dog will holler” because no one should hit dogs. But boy howdy, the decibel levels at the Fox News kennel and similar outlets have been earsplitting ever since Biden and Harris observed the January 6 anniversary last week. That’s because they called Trump supporters’ violent coup attempt at the Capitol what it was: an attempt to overturn an election.
The plaintive pooches on the right are hollering because the top leaders of the federal government countered the Republican Party’s (partially successful) spin operation, which seeks to portray the coup attempt as less serious than that time a deranged person torched a Christmas tree:
Fox News railing on Kamala Harris for referencing Pearl Harbor in her 1/6 speech vs. Fox News referencing Pearl Harbor when their Christmas tree got torched pic.twitter.com/lylrHGN1wa
— The Recount (@therecount) January 10, 2022
The Miami Herald’s Leonard Pitts summed up what Biden’s speech meant to me:
Cathartic. That’s what it was.
Page through the whole dictionary looking for a better word to describe President Biden’s speech on the first anniversary of the violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, and you will not find one. The address, delivered from Statuary Hall, which was so memorably besieged one year ago, was an act of catharsis — a purging of emotional toxins built up from too much time hearing too many lies too brazenly told by those who seek to deny or minimize what happened…
It’s not that Biden said anything we had not heard before. But we’ve heard it from pundits. The relief felt on Thursday lay in the fact that the president was the one saying it, that he brought to bear the authority and prestige of his office to speak the truth bluntly and without equivocation.
There’s reason to believe Biden and Harris will be just as blunt when they go to Atlanta tomorrow to build support for voting rights legislation, which AL alluded to in the morning thread. An excerpt from the NYT article she linked, with the White House framing bolded:
WASHINGTON — President Biden will deliver a speech in Atlanta next week that will focus on the urgency of passing voting rights legislation and will condemn a swath of state-level efforts to limit access to the ballot box as an attack on fundamental constitutional rights, the White House announced on Wednesday.
Mr. Biden’s speech, scheduled for Tuesday, comes as his party’s push for legislation has faltered. His remarks will focus on the urgency of passing federal legislation to shield against “corrupt attempts to strip law-abiding citizens of their fundamental freedoms and allow partisan state officials to undermine vote counting processes,” the White House said in a statement. He will be joined by Vice President Kamala Harris, who has led the administration’s efforts on voting rights and will also give remarks.
The article says McConnell threatened to go “scorched earth” if Democrats pass voting rights legislation, but how would that be different from how they’ve operated since at least 2009? The party has abandoned democracy in favor of minority rule, and voter suppression and election subversion are linchpins of that strategy since they’ve got nothing to offer except plutocracy and culture war argle-bargle.
Republicans understand that lying about the nature of the attempted coup is imperative too, because if more Americans know their democracy is under an ongoing attack organized by the deposed president’s henchmen, maybe they’ll rise up to oppose autocracy while they still can. That explains why Tucker Carlson curb-stomped Ted Cruz for accurately describing the 1/6/21 assault as a “violent terrorist attack.” It also explains why Cruz piddled on his own belly and licked Carlson’s boots during the stomping.
Republicans recognize that this fight is existential, and while their rejection of democracy should be highlighted at every single turn, the only thing that matters from a practical standpoint is getting filibuster-phile Dems on board. That might be impossible given the narcissistic personality disordered individuals involved. But Biden and Harris are showing us they’re serious about trying to save democracy. That’s not nothing. That’s everything.
Open thread.
Sickle cell, CRISPR, cures and policy
Brantl
I have been extremely impressed by how fluent Joe is in the rhetorical art of kick-ass, and very pleasantly surprised.
SiubhanDuinne
@Brantl:
Nice!
Old School
McConnell is probably appealing to Manchin’s dream of bipartisanship.
Kent
@Brantl: Yes, me too. He has a very good way of going straight to the heart of a matter without causing fainting spells by the usual suspects and “gatekeepers” in the media.
Joe Falco
@Brantl:
If we and the rest of the country are so fortunate to add more Senate seats to the D column this year, I hope Biden practices his art on Manchin and completely kick him to the curb.
Old School
Off topic: Here is audio of the Beatles performing for record company executives in 1963. (From Me To You & Please Please Me)
Via MarkRJones1970
Betty Cracker
@Old School: I hope Manchin doesn’t fall for the Electoral Count Act reform proposal McConnell is floating to short-circuit any attempt at seriously addressing the voter suppression and election subversion problem.
Roger Moore
@Joe Falco:
I don’t think the solution is to rhetorically kick Manchin in the ass but to end the filibuster so he’s less relevant. Right now he has outsized power because he can crash legislation by withholding his vote. If he loses that position so there are a few senators who might constitute the 50th vote, he’ll have to negotiate in good faith or risk being left out completely. That’s the best revenge.
West of the Rockies
I will be surprised if some shit-kicking good ol’ boy doesn’t primary Cruz. How can that doughy lick-spittle continue to get support from Texans after the way he’s soiled himself and got his head stuck in the slats of his own crib?
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
I don’t know. It would save time and money if a majority of electoral votes were automatically awarded to the GOP candidate.
West of the Rockies
BTW and way OT, but here’s an idea for a new sport: martial gymnastics! I can hear the announcer… “And now the dismount, a double-double and right into a pile driver!”
germy
Geminid
@West of the Rockies: Republican Congressman Dan Crenshaw acts like he’s ready to move up. I expect he’ll run for Cruz’s Senate seat in 2024. Cruz might save face by running for President, on the principle “your shit doesn’t stink out of town.”
Brachiator
I loved Biden’s speech. It squarely fixed the blame on Trump. It was a sitting president rightly condemning the actions of a former president. This was no punching down, but rather rhetorically mano a mano, between two persons of similar political stature. Biden’s speech also, to my mind, laid out why Trump should no longer be eligible for public office. His attempt to subvert the Constitution clearly demonstrates his disdain for the rule of law and for democracy.
Trump’s most ardent supporters don’t care. They want their man no matter what.
The Republicans don’t care about the threat to democracy. They believe that the country will be just fine as long as they are in charge. They see that Trump is irrational, maybe even dangerous. They see that Trump is even willing to let Americans die, in his handling of the pandemic. This is an acceptable level of loss to the GOP.
Tucker Carlson and other Fox News lackeys are selling the idea that one of the ways that America will become great again is by ensuring the political dominance of the right white people. A variation of this, the promise to stop immigration of the bad sort of people, helped secure the passage of BREXIT by a slim majority in the UK.
The GOP will happily accept autocracy via Trump or DeSantis, if it means that the Republicans can become the only legitimate political party in the US. And disenfranchising millions of Americans would be a bonus.
mrmoshpotato
This is fucking absurd. How the hell these people can look at themselves in the mirror I’ll never know.
Ruckus
@Betty Cracker:
Does doing this support or hurt Manchin’s bottom line?
Do we have to teach him how it can help him and do we think that has any chance of making a difference to him?
IOW he is in this where he is, for himself, and no one else – of lessor means. (As I imagine you know oh so well..) The people that support money over humanity do not give a rat’s ass about anything but getting richer and about making sure that their fellow richie richers (The superior class of humans – doncha ya know!) get wealthier. I believe his democrat credentials are a strictly personal position enhancer for him, his class is not political, it’s monetary.
Yarrow
@West of the Rockies: He’s not up for reelection until 2024.
Phaedrus
Nah. If Dems really believed any of their rhetoric (“knife to the neck of democracy”, “Pearl Harbor”), then we’d be looking at a list of accomplishments to stop it. Any new States (DC, Puerto Rico, Guam)? Supreme Court any bigger? For gawds sake, we still have a filibuster in the Senate! Look at how people actually react to a life/death knife, or what the US did when Pearl Harbor happened – and then look at what Dems have done last year.
No, Dems will read their strongly worded letters, assemble their committee to review 1/6 ineffectually (as they did with Bush torture), debate halfway efforts on voting rights, and then act surprised and hurt when Republicans kick their ass in the mid terms.
Geminid
@mrmoshpotato: Maybe they don’t appear in a mirror.
germy
The dersh didn’t offer money, so… no deal.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Brachiator:
Not that you’re saying otherwise, but I don’t think the millions of Americans who they will be disenfranchising, including the “wrong” white people will go along quietly. I think the GOP will be in for quite a shock
Baud
@Phaedrus:
I agree. It’s like how the far left says they opposed fascism but votes for Jill Stein. It’s all for show.
West of the Rockies
@Geminid:
Any chance Troy Aikman is a sane Republican (a cryptozoological creature these days) and might take out Cruz?
The Moar You Know
ooooh, what’s he gonna do, not confirm another Supreme Court justice? Sorry, Mitch, you already went there. We expect everything from you save decency.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Phaedrus:
Assumes facts not in evidence since the midterms are almost a year away and you can’t predict the future. Also, did you forget about Manchinema?
Kristine
@mrmoshpotato:
Inability to reflect on several levels.
JanieM
@germy: Can we add JD Vance to the list?
ETA: hell, the list is long. I have friends from YLS who were classmates of Alito.
japa21
@Baud: Beautifully done.
germy
sab
@Brantl: “A noun and a verb and 9/11.” He has always been good at this. The MSM pretended otherwise and rarely played his soundbites. The quoted one was in a presidential primary debate so they kind of had to acknowledge it.
jonas
@Roger Moore: If they end the filibuster, they’ll still need Manchin, unfortunately. The filibuster requires 60 votes to end debate and vote on a bill. You still need that 50 +1 (VP Harris) to pass anything in the current Senate (i.e with all Republicans stonewalling to the max)
Geminid
@West of the Rockies: I don’t know much about Troy Aikman, but I think he would have to toe the radical line if he wanted the Republican nomination. The crazies seem to have a lock on that state party. If Crenshaw runs, his opponents will be calling him a “RINO.”
germy
Anyone here remember Andrew Yang?
He’s like a bombing stand up comedian who throws out more and more outrageous bits to win the audience back.
Ruckus
@mrmoshpotato:
That’s because their world is made up of fun house mirrors. Mirrors that show them to be the bestest humans of all time, the humans that understand money, in ways that regular, normal humans do not.
Money is their god.
Money is always good, as long as they have more of it. Money is good because it helps them get more of it. And more of it is the goal, at all times, in every and any way. Legally if possible, which is why they like politicians with the same outlook.
Normal humans see money as a way to purchase healthcare, food, shelter. A common currency to make trade and living easier. They earn that money, in many ways, shapes and levels of effort. They enjoy the living that brings them. They even like money.
They don’t worship money over everything else in the world.
They don’t think they are better because they have more than others. They don’t worry about not having more than others, only about having enough for them.
Money is an object, like a car, or a cart at the supermarket, not a deity. More is nice, far more is not a necessity for existence.
neldob
@germy: Horrilarious.
Ruckus
@germy:
It seems to not be working….
Roger Moore
@germy:
My impression is that at least for undergraduate studies the Ivies have long had a dual track system, with one track for people who earn their way there academically and a second track for people who get in because of who they know and are related to. I assume the second track includes a large number of right wing legacy students like Kavanaugh, and it probably attracts aggrieved right wingers from the first track. The dual track structure means you need to mentally downgrade the degree of anyone from those schools unless you can be confident they’re from the first track. Even some of the graduate programs, like their law schools, have been corrupted.
ThresherK
I also am against mistreating animals. However, was the schism between pundits’ approval and actual people approval for Bill Clinton ever any greater than when he was Hunted?
Clinton said “They came after me, and I beat them like a yard dog”, which was 200% true. Fascinating how that facet of great Democratic politicking and GOP screwing up seems to have disappeared into the ether.
Mike in NC
The white supremacists at FOX News (thanks, Roger Ailes and Rupert Murdoch) will never get over their failure to install a Republican-Russian stooge as our dictator for life. But they’re grooming several would-be replacements.
JMG
IMO, and hope I’m wrong is that there is no chance of Manchin and/or Sinema voting to get rid of the filibuster on any issue, nor of Manchin agreeing to any Build Back Better compromise. With the filibuster, he is the most powerful person in Congress. Without it, just another Senator. All pols like power (otherwise why do it?) but some crave attention even more and he’s clearly in that camp.
Ruckus
@Geminid:
I always thought it did!
It was just that some create a lot more of it and so it often comes out the wrong end.
Roger Moore
@jonas:
The post I was replying to specifically hypothesized Democratic pickups in the 2022 election. If we have more than 50 potential votes in the Senate and we can end the filibuster, the last few senators will have to compete to be the 50th vote. They can still probably hold out for goodies, but their ability to hold out for whatever they feel like will be sharply limited.
Geminid
@germy: I think Yang is playing horseshoes, hoping to win some of that billionaire conservative money.
Almost Retired
@Joe Falco: I don’t know exactly what “kick to the curb” would mean with respect to Manchin in a more solidly-Democratic Senate, but I want to see him have to grovel for attention to stay relevant after 2022. I want to see him have roughly the same status as Ivanka Trump at the G20 Summit. “Can’t make it to dinner on your boat, Joe. I have to wash my hair, but thanks for the invite.”
James E Powell
@Brachiator:
I also loved Biden’s speech. But it showed the limitations of presidential speeches. I’d like to see it cut into 30 second spots and spread through social media. If I had the skills, If I were on social media, I’d do it myself.
Gin & Tonic
@West of the Rockies: You’ve basically invented capoeira.
Kay
Republicans have their own problems. If they win the midterms their base will absolutely expect them to remove Biden and install Trump. This will be the “overturn Obamacare” promise times 1 million.
And you would too! If you were one of the millions and millions of Trumpists who have been told over and over that Trump actually won, well, why WOULDN’T Republicans act to rectify this outrage?
The inability to accept the loss hasn’t gone away. It’s worse than it was a year ago. There’s not actually any way to accept a loss without first admitting it happened.
Geminid
@Kay: I’ll be interested to see if “Trump for Speaker” becomes a litmus test in Republican Congressional primaries. I think some challengers to incumbents will try to make it one.
James E Powell
@Baud:
I think what he’s saying is nothing ever grows in this rotting old hole and everything is stunted and lost. And nothing really rocks, and nothing really rolls, and nothing’s every worth the cost.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Kay:
I sure wouldn’t want to be the GOP when they have to tell their voters why they can’t remove Biden because they don’t have 67 votes in the Senate
Kay
Evacuated the school for a bomb threat. Just a normal country with a really excellent quality of life for its citizens. Random terrorist/mass slaughter threats are just “Tuesday”.
Taken4Granite
@Roger Moore: The Ivies are indeed notorious for having legacy admissions, which amount to affirmative action for well-connected mostly white people. It’s also possible for very rich parents who aren’t alumni to buy a slot for their kid, but that typically involves seven-figure donations.
It’s also well-known in academic circles that the quality of undergraduate education at Harvard in particular (and probably the other Ivies as well) is not significantly better than what you can get at Flagship State University. The one thing Harvard can give you that Flagship State can’t is membership in the Harvard Alumni Association, which grants significant advantages in being hired at firms where the decision makers are also members of the Harvard Alumni Association.
Baud
@germy:
Oh jeez. He’s becoming more for a Trumpster every day.
Kay
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
President Trump won and Biden is the illegimate, unlawful President. OMG!
I wonder why Matt Gaetz or Ted Cruz won’t do anything about that. They’re going to wonder too. The 50 million or so GOP voters they duped, lied to and collected hundreds of millions of dollars from.
MoCaAce
Hit dog is gonna howl.
Submissive dog is gonna piddle.
James E Powell
@germy:
And that’s a five year old joke that wasn’t funny the first time.
Brachiator
@James E Powell:
Social media can also support longer, more thoughtful pieces.
But I suppose there might be folks who will cut the piece into smaller “Trump is a loser” bites.
Alison Rose
This is Harris’ Katrina.
Yarrow
@germy: @Baud:
Who funds Yang? Do we know? It’ll tell us who’s pulling his marionette strings. Clear goal is to break off Yang Gang voters and make Dems lose.
Cacti
One of the many things the film “Don’t Look Up” hit dead on is when DiCaprio and Lawrence’s characters were immediately taken less seriously by DC because they were from Michigan State and not the Ivy League.
Baud
@Yarrow:
I don’t know, but I remember that Yang’s first stop after “leaving” the Democratic Party was Tucker Carlson.
Kay
And just to show how ridiculous our political media is, the Republican Party is currently running on “Donald Trump won and you should elect us to rectify that injustice” but the political media narrative is “Biden overpromised”.
Gaetz doesn’t have anything to “show the country” when “we’re in charge”. He’s lying to them. Which will be fine unless they win.
Brachiator
@Roger Moore:
This applies to almost any school with a reputation for being desirable, as we have seen with the parents trying to buy their worthless kids into USC and UCLA.
Betty Cracker
@germy: Democrats rejected Yang twice at the polls. He’s bitter.
@JMG: I’m not optimistic either, but I think it’s really important to try.
Kent
@germy: A whole shitload of right wing goobers went to Ivy League schools. Which, of course, should make everyone question the value of such educations.
Kay
@Cacti:
I watched with my youngest and we enjoyed it. The best part of the movie as far as I’m concerned is when the graduate student/scientist who is not polling well on cable because she’s too strident and unlikeable (female) so is banished goes to her parents home and they meet her that the door to tell her “no politics- we support the jobs created by the asteroid”. Just perfect.
Mike R
@mrmoshpotato: The size of the check from Rupert does much to soothe a guilty conscience. Also being a scum sucking pig (no offense meant to actual pigs) helps.
geg6
@Phaedrus:
Ummm, you are aware of how our government works, right? Please explain how you expect them to do these things with only 48 senators (not including Manchin and Sinema, who don’t want to do any of those things). And show your work.
Kent
Of course it isn’t. 90% of any undergraduate education is what YOU put into it. Only about 10% has to do with things like facilities, labs, and libraries. When you get into advanced graduate research topics then the quality of labs and facilities starts to matter more. But not so much at the undergrad level.
What makes Ivy League schools seem better is not that they are better at teaching. But that they start with a higher percentage of highly motivated and compliant students who have already learned how to get straight As and top standardized test scores.
Cacti
@Kay: So much of that film is just too real.
The media really disliked it for its thoroughly accurate portrayal of them.
Nelle
@Taken4Granite: I had a long ago friend who won a MacArthur genius grant. His undergrad was from a public university, his grad schools were Columbia and Harvard. He said that the education at the public university was every bit as good as that of the Ivies. What the Ivies gave him were the connections to be noticed.
gene108
@JMG:
Without the filibuster, Manchin’s the 50th vote needed to pass anything, which gives him outsized power. See BBB legislation that circumvented the filibuster via reconciliation.
With the filibuster, Manchin doesn’t have to take any votes on legislation that might hurt his re-election chances. Republicans will block bills for him.
catclub
@Alison Rose: Kamala’s Katrina scans better.
Kent
I don’t think they actually want a single GOP dictator for life. Because that would mean they would lose their control over such a creature. I think what they want is a system that produces Republicans for life, but that still has elections that force them to rely on the right wing media for their success.
The plan was to re-elect Trump and then to immediately pivot to grooming his replacement and line up their replacements.
catclub
@Kent:
And goobers like ted Cruz can still get away with railing against ‘the elitists’ , Since nobody then asks if Princeton and Yale are elitist schools.
Kay
@Cacti:
I expected to hate it because I thought they would take the obvious jokes- make the President a female Trump character, make the cable anchors comically evil instead of silly and vapid, but they didn’t. The cable anchors were just one tick off real morning cable anchors.
The whole thing with the female scientist was fucking great. She’s been rejected by the fancy idiots so she ends up with skaters- to whom she is a niche hero– and even the skater wasn’t a caricature. He keeps trying to talk about his feelings.
lollipopguild
The Holy Trinity for many right wingers is: Money, Power and the ability to control all those “people’ they do not like.
lowtechcyclist
@Phaedrus: Some pie headed your way shortly.
Soprano2
@Kay: I’m sure that right-wing “do something ” Twitter is at least as bad as the left-wing version, and possibly even worse. How long will it be until they’re screaming “betrayal” because House R’s don’t immediately remove Biden and replace him with Trump if they do take over the House in 2022? That’s what they’ve been told will happen if they vote for R’s.
Mike in NC
@germy: Jared Kushner “graduated” from Harvard with a JD and MBA even though he had really mediocre high school grades. The fact that his father donated $2.5 million to Harvard was just a coincidence.
germy
@Mike in NC:
“the meritocracy!”
zhena gogolia
@germy: Is that like “The aristocrats!”?
germy
@zhena gogolia:
Yes, but funnier.
lowtechcyclist
Like you, Betty, I haven’t a clue of what Mitch could threaten that he isn’t already doing, in spades, doubled and redoubled.
Thanks for quoting Leonard Pitts. My wife and I used to read him in the Tampa Trib when we were down that way, when there was a Tampa Trib, and we’ve always appreciated what he had to say. This excerpt got me to take the time during lunch to listen to Biden’s 1/6 speech at last, and it was every bit as powerful as advertised.
gene108
@Nelle:
The connections are what make Ivies so special, and coveted for people to get into.
It’s not only the alumni network that’s helpful, but the professors there are all considered to be the best of the best of the best in their respective fields, and an introduction or recommendation from one of them carriers a lot of professional weight, even if you aren’t going into academia. Professors to do consulting on the side for private firms. They have contacts all over the place.
Cacti
@Kay: It’s the tiny details where it really shines. The old, bigot, white guy is excused as being “from another era”. The eccentric grifting billionaire is treated like his every utterance is genius because money. Girl scientist “needs media training” because she doesn’t treat the end of the world like a big joke, and gets disregarded because she “has a mullet”. The “serious” media both sides the issue because there’s only a 99.72% chance the comet will hit the earth.
It was great.
JWR
I hope and pray that Manchin is just playing to the pundits and will come around to do the right thing in the end, but I dunno. The way I see Manchin is that he’s just not a very bright boy, (as McConnell whispers sweet nothings about bipartisanship in his ear.) I mean, good lord, do we hold on to what’s left of our Democracy, or do we further its slide into anocracy? It’s not that hard, Joe! But yeah, it’s a really “heavy lift” my a$$!
germy
@Cacti:
And a satisfying after-credits scene.
patroclus
@germy:LOL. I remember 2016 and the race between Bernie and Hillary was fair and square. I remember Bernie’s specific complaints. Super-delegates? She won the nomination by more than their total number. Switching a vote or two in the Nevada state caucus from the precinct results? Really??!! Caucuses are less representative than primaries? Maybe so, but not by enough to make a difference. Yang’s an idiot.
And Bernie would have beaten Trump?! Get real. Like Corbyn, he would have been swamped huge. Here in Illinois, Bernie might have won, but it would have been real close. Hillary and Biden won big. Translate that to the rest of the country and it’s at least a 10% Trump win.
David Fud
About piddling puppies, I am just going to leave this here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mH4yj6YwA2g
Alison Rose
@catclub: I know, I almost wrote that, but I don’t like when women politicians are referred to by first name while men almost always with last names…
Steeplejack
@Old School:
Cool! Thanks for the link.
SpaceUnit
There’s a good article in The Rolling Stone right now about Joe Manchin and the many, many ways he’s screwing over his constituents to line his own pockets. Sorry, I don’t know how to post a link.
It’s a long read and I only got about halfway through before I had to take a break. My mind can only process so much corruption at a time.
dopey-o
IIRC, in the last months of 2021, I saw an analysis reporting that 43% of Harvard admissions were legacy / athletics. I clearly recall the percentage, because my nephew went from an excellent Jesuit high school to a full academic scholarship at Harvard. No way his parents could have bought his seat.
His pals went to Wall Street. He teaches at our public high school. Showing the value of a (true) Catholic education.
Paging Alito / Roberts / Thomas / Barrett / Kavanaugh / Gorsuch….
artem1s
@Cacti:
I also loved Don’t Look Up. It had a lot of the same themes as Kubrick’s How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, AKA Dr. Strangelove. In SL the disregard shown to those who aren’t considered insiders was the military rather than media. But the effects were the same – E.L.E. I kept thinking thru the whole film how much Kubrick would have been tickled at this very obvious homage to SL. I especially loved Ron Pearlman’s portrayal as a mash up of George C Scott’s Buck Turgidson and Slim Pickens’ Major Kong.
C Stars
Apologies, but since this is an open thread, I have to ask: why are people on twitter talking about republicans drinking their own pee? Is this a thing that is happening? Has this question already been answered?
Chief Oshkosh
@Kay:
Cable anchors?? I thought that the movie was very specifically spoofing ABC’s GMA, with their “we try to keep it light and fun here on the show” blather, even when talking about the extinction of the species.
patroclus
@lowtechcyclist: Virtually everything in the Senate is done through unanimous consent agreements – Mitch could refuse to ever agree to them and bring the Senate to a halt. He could refuse to waive the rule that Committees can’t meet while the Senate is in Session. He could delay and potentially stop every single conceivable Biden appointment; not just the ones they want to embarrass.
(Of course, if he does all that, they could change the rules with 50+1 and probably would do so to the extent Manchin would go along).
Brachiator
@dopey-o:
From a story on the legacy admissions study:
I went to an Ivy and I found it interesting that the worst legacy and “money” students actually believed that they had superior breeding and so really belonged. But this was not the majority. Most knew that they were lucky to be so privileged and didn’t make a big deal about it.
ETA: I got in on a scholarship. A different kind of privilege, I suppose.
germy
@C Stars:
It’s being touted as the latest covid cure.
Roger Moore
@Taken4Granite:
Yeah, the Ivy model is deeply flawed. It seems to me that the whole thing is set up to serve two main constituencies: the ultra-rich and the Ivy League administrators. Ultra-rich people get fancy degrees without having to go to the trouble of earning them, and they also get access to the smart alumni who actually earned their degrees. The administrators get to cultivate ultra-rich people, so they can give themselves big bonuses for growing the endowment.
The model claims that it’s also helpful to the rest of the alumni, who get access to a well funded institution and can also pitch their great ideas to rich alumni who can fund them. This sounds good, but if we didn’t have that kind of incestuous system things would work out for the smart students anyway. If the ideas are really that great, they’ll get pitched to rich backers without needing alumni connections. And experience says the truly successful alumni will donate to their alma mater without needing to feel like they’re giving their children a leg up. At the very least, my alma mater manages to mint its fair share of billionaire alumni and reap their big donations without needing legacy admissions.
Kay
@Brachiator:
One of the multi-millionaire Theranos investors thought Elizabeth Holmes was genetically “medical” or something because her grandfather founded a hospital in Cincinnati. It’s how Donald Trump thinks.
She has doctor blood. No doctor training or experience, but the correct bloodline. They’re morons. They do bad thinking :)
Brachiator
@C Stars:
In taste tests, more Republicans preferred it to liberal pee?
I have no idea. Another insane Covid “therapy?”
Uncle Cosmo
Anti-redneck bias!
Manchin is angling for a nice hunk of sweet sweet wingnut welfare, &/or hoping to keep the Thugs from having him prosecuted on (possibly trumped-up) charges that might put him in jail for a long time. Yertle is unimportant – figure out what the bazillionaires want.
Chief Oshkosh
With a title of “Torched,” I was expecting that this would be a thread about how bad and unethical and criminal and just a crying’ shame it was that some WV miners drove up to DC and torched Joe Manchin’s yacht/houseboat, leaving a nice note behind on the dock to the effect of “Now that you can’t take little party trips out into the bay to entertain your donors, you’ve got PLENTY of time to make that heavy lift, asshole.”
C Stars
@Brachiator: Yes, I mean, after I posted the question I realized that drinking other peoples’ pee would be just as startling. It’s probably a Covid thing. I know I should just google it but my kids can see all my google searches and I just don’t want to go there.
danielx
Precisely.
If Mitch McConnell has ever hesitated to do anything because of what Dems might do in return, I cannot imagine what that might be.
Joe Falco
@Almost Retired:
My post is meant to be more cathartic than whether I think, after we have secured a more solidly Democratic-ran Senate, the Democratic leadership should strip Manchin of all his committee positions and dare him to declare himself as another obstructionist Republican (at least, publicly). I mean, I absolutely think they should and make it clear the Party will have no more to do with politicians whose votes run so counter to the popular will of their constituents and the rest of the country, especially in times of crisis, and allow them to occupy important positions within Congress. But I understand that may not be the most politically wise maneuver, and it may be better to let him twist in the wind as just another Democrat in the Senate. I’m sure there would still be plenty of TV shows on Sundays to invite him on to puff up his ego no matter what happens.
This is me venting. Not suggesting that this is what Democrats should do (but maybe, I do).
trollhattan
@West of the Rockies:
Has his Texas support waned since Trump gelded him, called his wife ugly and his daddy the JFK assassin in the 2016 primaries?
I do not understand the appeal, not even a little bit, but given the Texas-size appetite for electing morons and sociopaths to statewide office, it seems like bidnez as usual.
trollhattan
And in dog news, this seems utterly impossible and yet…
Unless “pit bull terrier mix” includes a helping of goose or sheep or something, I do not comprehend how a shorthaired dog survives being lost in the high mountains for months. Amazing.
CaseyL
The office where I work is going back to semi-lockdown (only one person in the office at a time, WFH the rest of the time). I am doing the prep work for another all-day Zoom meeting of interviews later this month, assuring folks that I will be in the office that day.
Meanwhile, I’m hearing about Covidiots who now advocate drinking their own (presumably their own) urine rather than get vaccinated.
Hearing Manchin has again killed BBB, and is unlikely to support bending the filibuster enough to pass voting rights bills.
Noting that the GOP response to commemorating the Jan 6 insurrection was to: not show up, deny it happened, but was justified if it did happen.
The dissonance between navigating the quotidian (interviews!), the epidemic (WFH! Zoom Meetings!,) and observing the ongoing destruction of our democracy is… well, I’d say “surreal,” but after the last couple of years, the surreal **is** quotidian, isn’t it?
JFC.
Roger Moore
@Brachiator:
Yes and no. You’re right that any top school will have parents trying to get their kids in by hook or by crook. The thing that distinguishes the Ivies (and other schools that follow their model) is that they A) have a formal process for making this happen for legacy and ultra-rich students and B) will bend over backward to make sure those students get their degrees once they’re admitted. If you cheat to get your kid into UCLA, that kid still needs to be able to hack the coursework (or be good at cheating on it) or they’ll fail out. UCLA doesn’t care. Lots of kids fail out, and it’s the ex-students’ job to pick up the pieces for themselves if they do.
Kent
@danielx: Manchin is very very smart when it comes to the rules of the Senate. He knows EXACTLY where every single veto point is and how to obstruct without seeming to. The notion that he would go off half-cocked and bring everything to a halt is nonsensical because he doesn’t need to.
Right now the veto points are Manchin and Sinema and McConnnell doesn’t have to do anything at all except sit around in his office and pass around the popcorn and watch Manchin and Sinema obstruct for him. If the Dems ever managed to get them on board, he would just move on to the next veto point, not go all crazy and burn the place down. He is Machiavellian, not a Nihilist.
trollhattan
@germy: Beginning to think Yang is jealous of the attention JD Vance is receiving and has stolen his playbook. Forward, to irrelevancey!
trollhattan
@CaseyL:
We had a 45-minute Teams call Friday that basically consisted of “yeah, you still need to follow the rules” rather than ratcheting up covid protocols in light of the county’s [checks notes] hundredfold case rate increase (an increase almost identical whether one is vaccinated or not).
Very helpful, guys (and all the speakers were guys).
cain
@Kay:
It just blows my mind that the screenplay was co-written by David Sirota. I can’t stand that guy.
Kent
@germy: Right. Bernie never had more than about 30% of Democrats behind him in both 2016 and 2020.
Yang and his ilk point to the fact that Bernie beat Hillary in conservative white states like West Virginia which actually doesn’t say anything about his ability to beat Trump in West Virginia but everything about the misogyny of rural white folks. In other words, where Bernie actually won the vote was as much anti-Hillary as pro-Bernie and the results don’t translate into Bernie vs any random Republican much less Trump.
Roger Moore
@Kent:
Very much this. The very top schools have better outcomes because they have better inputs. There are some real advantages to this- a school with nothing but the smartest students doesn’t have to slow down their classes so ordinary students can keep up with the material- but the biggest thing is that the students are better to start with. The same thing bedevils any naive attempt to measure school quality; it’s very easy to be tricked into thinking the school is doing something better when it’s really the quality of the students.
topclimber
@Phaedrus:
Pretty big Phail and phlail here.
The Moar You Know
@germy: it turns out that signs of the end of a civilization are pretty obvious!
cain
@Kent:
That’s not going to work out the way they think. If anything the American voting public are capricious at best. Yeah, I suppose you can really get all nationalism – but we still don’t like being told what to do as a national character and right wingers like doing that.
Roger Moore
@catclub:
It should be obvious that “elitist” is a euphemism for liberals, not anything having to so with actual educational attainment. You can go to all those fancy schools without being an elitist if you adopt the right political positions.
germy
@cain:
Well, he made the corrupt president a blonde woman, so he gives himself away.
Geminid
@trollhattan: Yang could do some damage as an independent Presidential candidate in 2024. He could even get the Libertarian Party nomination. That process seems pretty open. In 2020 Jo Jorgenson, a long time party member who had the VP spot on their ticket once, got the Presidential spot. But an internet comedian received the VP nomination. I bet Peter Thiel could figure out how to buy Yang the Libertarian nomination.
People tend to blame Jill Stein and the Green Party for Clinton’s loss in 2016. Gary Johnson pulled in more votes than Stein, though, and many more than Libertarian candidates before or since. Johnson attracted all kinds of voters, many of them casting “protest” votes.
Brachiator
@Roger Moore:
But once you factor in legacy admits and other issues, you still find that there is some diversity in the student population. At a freshman dinner, the dean noted “You were probably valedictorian and editor of the school newspaper. So was the person sitting next to you. So now what do you have to offer?”
Even among so-called top students, some are ordinary, some struggle or find that their talents are not well-suited to what they intended to major in.
One thing though. My college bent over backwards to make sure that a student did not fail and have to drop out. So, levels of counseling and support that might not have been available at other colleges.
It’s also quality of resources and professors. Hell, even some of my graduate teaching assistants went on to become premier scholars in their fields.
But this level of excellence is also available at many state and private colleges.
Brachiator
@Geminid:
Independent and third party voting declined in 2020. People knew what was at stake. The 2024 election may also offer clear and stark choices.
geg6
@C Stars:
Yes, this is apparently a thing.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/1/10/2073806/-Anti-vaxxer-who-once-sold-deer-antler-spray-as-fix-for-injuries-now-says-drinking-urine-cures-COVID
West of the Rockies
@trollhattan:
But he also fled to Mexico during last winter’s big freeze. I wouldn’t think that would sit well.
Gravenstone
@Kay: First one of those I remember, I was in Kindergarten – in 1968. At least that joker was inclusive enough to call in the same threat to the Catholic school across town. Idiots fucking with public spaces has unfortunately been with us for a very long time. Main change now is it’s likely to become more “public” due to social media.
sdhays
@Geminid: I hope it’s a big thing and gets covered extensively during the primaries so it can be an issue the midterms. Put Dump himself back on that ballot and let’s see how well the GQP does.
Gravenstone
Why you gotta do Ted Cruz like that?
artem1s
@Brachiator:
Yang is trolling for dollars that otherwise would have gone to Bernie, Stein or Rand Paul. He doesn’t want to actually hold office, that would be too much work. Until he proves otherwise, he’s a endless campaign-for-high-office grifter. He will always fade away once the hard part of campaigning starts. He may be trolling for the Libertarian nomination – they love this sort of do-nothing and let the states work it out candidate.
artem1s
@Geminid:
That would be the best – make McCarthy take the oath too.
Brachiator
@artem1s:
Early on, I thought that Yang had a few provocative ideas. He also seems to be too sane to be a libertarian. Otherwise, I don’t see him as much of a threat, or of much significance.
JMG
@Betty Cracker: Oh, I totally agree. Make the weasels take a position with an actual vote, something both Manchin and Sinema have carefully avoided so far.
Eunicecycle
@geg6: I was thinking there was a comedian (or maybe a random internet comedian) who said someone should promote drinking your own urine to cure Covid to see if the RWNJ would do it. I guess the answer is Yes!
bemused senior
@cain: l was waiting for someone to notice that! I can’t stand Sirota and I couldn’t stand that movie.
C Stars
@geg6: Sigh. Thanks.
C Stars
@Eunicecycle: They’re like performance artists at this point.
Starboard Tack
@C Stars: But not as smart, funny or interesting.
Sure Lurkalot
Had to turn off Katy Tur who posited that Joe and Kamala’s speeches tomorrow about voting rights in Atlanta will be seen as lip service and will backfire on Democrats.
At this point, maybe Joe should take up golf. Maybe that won’t backfire on him.
Starboard Tack
@JMG: Wash Post has an opinion piece about WV coal miner’s support for BBB and mine owner’s opposition.
MagdaInBlack
@geg6: Seems like I read about this “cure” some time last year. Why am I not surprised they’re still at it.
Reboot
@West of the Rockies: Just read on JoeMyGod that Aiken calls himself ‘a loud and proud Democrat.’
Jeffro
@Kay:
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
won’t they have to promise at least three Biden impeachments, since trumpov was impeached twice?
JustRuss
Just went from “I should probably watch this” to top of my list.
Cacti
@artem1s: That’s what I thought of it too. A Dr. Strangelove for the 21st century.
Jeffro
It’s a plot to see just how stupid and gross the anti-vaxxers really are.
Next up: eating fried worms!
Geminid
@Brachiator: Yang might be too sane to be a libertarian, but he might be ambitious enough to be a Libertarian. Especially if the money is there to have a well-funded campaign.
trollhattan
@geg6:
As though Bear Grylls were head of the CDC.
Roger Moore
@geg6:
In related news, Bear Grylls is trending on Twitter. Not a joke.
Baud
Eat shit and
diecure yourself of Covid!Geminid
@cain: David Sirota hooked up with a co-writer who could bring in a bunch of stars for a Netflix movie, so now Sirota thinks he hung the moon.
That’s emboldened him. Not long after the movie debuted, Sirota tweeted, “Shitlibs will not save us from fascism or climate change. Pass it on.”
Brachiator
@Geminid:
I see your point. I still don’t think Yang matters.
Betty
@Sure Lurkalot: These people are maddening. What makes Katy Tur any kind of expert?
Baud
@Geminid: I don’t have Netflix so I haven’t watched the movie. Was there a group of people led by a David Sirota character that saved the planet?
zhena gogolia
@Geminid: Ugh. I wouldn’t watch it if you tied me down.
CaseyL
I have no problem encouraging GOPers to drink their own urine. Maybe add a cup of bleach, just to cover all their bases.
Can we get “Pee + Bleach = Covid Cure!” trending?
Geminid
@Brachiator: Yang doesn’t much matter now. Conservatives will try to peel votes off of the Democrats any way they can in 2024, though. Yang could be useful to them then.
Brachiator
@Betty:
When you are a pundit, you don’t actually have to be an expert in anything.
Starboard Tack
@Brachiator:
I spell it pudnit.
Gravenstone
@CaseyL: I keep telling folks that I can get them industrial bleach (15 wt%) for their “cures”. Won’t fix what ails ya, but your insides will already be clean as a whistle when they have to embalm you.
Chief Oshkosh
@Jeffro:
Hey, don’t knock it until you’ve tried it…
James E Powell
@Brachiator:
Since the 90s, “the news” is whatever Republicans say it is. And this extends to projections, terms used to describe things, which economic stats go out front, etc.
Tur & her colleagues have been following that rule for years.
raven
GO DAWGS!!!!
Chief Oshkosh
@Baud:
Nope. And I’m trying to recall if Sirota-like creatures were lampooned. Everybody else was.
Geminid
@zhena gogolia: Sirota has gotten very huffy about movie reviews that are less than enthusiastic. He would like people to think that if you don’t like the movie you must not care about climate change. Sirota was always a nasty person, but this movie has really brought out his narcissism.
lowtechcyclist
Agreed. Bernie would have had the fewest EVs of any Dem Presidential candidate since Dukakis.
Geminid
@raven: EBB, TIDE!
Brachiator
@Geminid:
You are right. It could be an issue. My gut says it won’t be. We will see what happens.
Bill Arnold
@CaseyL:
CBA to investigate the origins of the US RW urine COVID-19 treatment (working ATM), but might be related to this:
The use of cow dung and urine to cure COVID-19 in India: A public health concern (Sohel Daria, Md. Rabiul Islam, 26 May 2021)
Cacti
@Baud: No. Nobody saves the day.
Omnes Omnibus
@Bill Arnold: I remember from an Anthro class that the Nuer tribe from east Africa washed their hands in cattle urine and being told that it was sterile tans this safer than most water in the region.
NotMax
@CaseyL
“Strange. It smells a bit like asparagus.”
“It’s my special recipe. I call it peech pie. Care for another slice?”
//
Baud
@Cacti:
Well, that’s not good. Even Trump knew enough to lie to people by telling them “Only I can fix it.”
Brachiator
@James E Powell:
This is not entirely true. People read or pay attention to junk news instead of, for example, reading reliable economic reporting. They just want the junk to magically disappear instead of ignoring it.
And the Democrats have to keep bringing accurate information. They have to be their own best advocates.
Geminid
@lowtechcyclist: Sanders would have cost us the House and Senate also. His nomination would have been catastrophic.
But I don’t think some of these people saying Sanders would have won actually believe it. They have a credulous audience that might, though, and they will do anything they can to undermine faith in Democratic leadership. They want Biden to fail. Part of the rationale is that this will hasten the Revolution. But a lot is just bitterness.
Jinchi
I really wish the Biden administration would quit pretending that Fox is a news organization, particularly now that they’ve given Jesse Watters a prime-time slot.
Banning an organization that rewards a man who called for people to “ambush” Dr. Fauci and “go for the kill shot” is perfectly good grounds for ending all contact. Fox knows that comments like those comments turn into very real death threats.
Ben Cisco
@Jeffro: Fresh gagh or GTFO.
Bill Arnold
@Bill Arnold:
There are also some far northerly (Siberian) shamanic traditions where the shaman eats the Amanita muscaria (Fly Agaric) mushrooms, takes the worst of the (nasty) side effects, collects their urine, optionally freeze-concentrates it like applejack (hard cider, frozen, ice removed), and then gives it to others to drink. (Detailed, curiously, in a short story/chapter in the novel American Gods (Neil Gaiman).)
NotMax
@Bill Arnold
There was a thriving trade in the Roman Empire in transporting urine. Merchants became wealthy by doing so. IIRC the most prized came all the way from what is now Portugal.
Starboard Tack
@NotMax: Used for tanning leather and dying, if I remember right.
trollhattan
@Bill Arnold:
Back in the day I read (and clipped for posterity) an article about the then Indian president who drank a cup of his urine every morning. Filed it under my large list of “things to not do.”
NotMax
@Cacti
“Mighty Mouse on line 1. He’s quite insistent.”
;)
NotMax
@Starboard Tack
Also (again IIRC) an ingredient in ladies’ cosmetics.
trollhattan
@Starboard Tack:
Wasn’t it also once collected as a source of urea for making explosives? (Not by the Romans, but anyway.) Until they figured out how to synthesize nitrogen.
mrmoshpotato
George Will thinks being in danger of losing our democracy is “wildly overheated.” WGN radio in Chicago is interviewing him right now.
Starboard Tack
@NotMax: Romans probably smelled pretty ripe, with their diet and all.
trollhattan
Oh Lord, please deliver us from the inevitable Garrison cartoon lauding the urine covid cure! We’ve been good this year. Thank you and can I get an “amen”?
Cacti
@mrmoshpotato: George Will is Exhibit A that if you wear a bow tie and glasses, people will assume you’re smart.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@mrmoshpotato:
What is it with people using “overheated” to mean “overblown”? I remember Twitter centrists/journalists saying the same shit about concerns re: voter suppression being “overheated” some months ag
Also, George Will, you hack, you have no credibility. Wasn’t he one of the ones trying to say Trump would grow into the role?
Starboard Tack
@trollhattan: Saltpeter. At one time found crystalized under dung piles, IIRC.
Mary G
I’ve been coughing up a storm and my doctor is convinced I have Covid, so now I have to go see a PA and have a test at some pop-up place that doesn’t take appointments. I haven’t left the freaking house since Dec. 17. My vitals were fine, I had leftover inhalers to use, and if I was going to die, I would have rather done it at home.
I am so glad to be able to report that I seem to have been protected by my three full Moderna (GoTeamDolly) shots and my vicious B cells, which were still warring with the Retuxin IVs I had in Nov./Dec.
Or else I don’t have anything more than chronic bronchitis and will catch Covid and die because I ventured out at the peak of Omicron and was breathed on by former antivaxxers demanding to be served NAOW. Who knows?
I learned not to cough loud enough a passing doctor can hear it while requesting a refill of thyroid pills from the RX clerk.
Jinchi
Nope. The real surprise is that Trump was too stupid to get into Yale or Harvard, despite having the backing of a wealthy family.
zhena gogolia
@Mary G: Glad it was negative!
Roger Moore
@Brachiator:
There’s a lot of truth to this, but I think it extends more broadly. The core part of being a reporter is that they don’t know as much as the experts in the field they’re reporting, but they’re supposed to be able to sort out the truth by listening to the competing stories. It’s obviously a huge challenge, but a good reporter will learn enough about their field to judge the credibility of their sources and will usually be able to sort it out. The thing that has destroyed our political media, including punditry, is that it turns out it’s much easier to just report what the experts say and leave it to the reader to figure out. It’s much less useful, but they don’t really care about that.
Starboard Tack
@Jinchi: Stupid and lazy.
NotMax
@Starboard Tack
A
taco truckpublic bathhouse on every corner.:)
cain
@Bill Arnold: Cowdung has been used for centuries as fuel, and an anti-bacterial concoction to clean walls, floors etc. It’s a village thing.
Cow urine was also used to heal canker sores. My mother told me that one and I was a bit loss of words.
Hoodie
@Roger Moore: Yes, reporters tend to confuse having an opinion with having expertise. Opinions are easier to generate and easier for the audience to swallow than expertise, which is why so much “news” is now just punditry.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Mary G:
Sorry you’re feeling crummy. Hope you feel better soon and nothing serious comes of this
Jinchi
Really stupid and lazy.
George W. Bush (born the same year as Trump) managed to get into both Yale and Harvard.
A Ghost to Most
@raven: Good luck. Go HeAthens.
Roger Moore
@Geminid:
Yep. I think there are two main categories of left wing revolutionaries. There are the lazy fuckers who want stuff that’s basically achievable but who aren’t willing to put forth the effort to achieve it and dream a revolution will do it for them. Then there are the evil bastards who know the stuff they want is so unpopular they’ll never get it democratically and want a revolution because it’s the only way they can hope to impose their will. Neither one is on our side.
Starboard Tack
@NotMax: The bath water wasn’t changed very often. Likely it got pretty fetid.
Brachiator
@mrmoshpotato:
I am mildly interested in this interview and might check it out.
Instead of an interviewer letting Will pontificate on a long view of history, I would like for someone to ask him directly about GOP voter suppression legislation and other efforts.
Starboard Tack
@Brachiator:
Starting with Nixon, ignoring the efforts to sabotage FDR.
Frank Wilhoit
@Kay: by comparison with the people you’re talking about, goldfish have a continuous verbal tradition going back millennia.
Roger Moore
@Hoodie:
I think a lot of the takeover of punditry is that it’s way easier to bloviate than it is to investigate. Real reporting takes effort and expertise, while punditry just requires an opinion and an ability to explain it glibly. The result is that the “News” media doesn’t want to fill their schedule with reporting, because that would be too expensive. Instead they have a bare minimum of reporting and a ton of punditry.
Baud
@Roger Moore:
Also, too, the grifters who take advantage of those two categories.
Baud
@Frank Wilhoit:
And they can drive cars now!
Kelly
@C Stars: Hmmm, prominent Oregon Republican Art Robinson proudly proclaims he has the world’s largest urine collection stored in freezers at his southwestern Oregon compound. He believes his collection has immense scientific value. Actual researchers are not impressed.
Starboard Tack
@Roger Moore: Les Moonves, CBS’s CEO, on Trump in 2016.
He later claimed it was a joke.
Starboard Tack
@Kelly: He’s taking the piss.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
Here’s the next terrifying hurdle for the stock market
What do you guys think of this news and these quoted experts’ takes?
NotMax
@Starboard Tack
All those aqueducts weren’t just for show to impress the rustics.
;)
Frank Wilhoit
@CaseyL: at least the chloramines would let us know they were coming, well in advance.
John Revolta
@Jinchi: Well, W was a (double!) legacy at Yale
ETA: Or whatever they call a third-generation guy.
Ben Cisco
@raven: ROLL TIDE!!!!
Looking for a good game though.
mrmoshpotato
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
No idea.
Agreed.
I don’t know if Will thought the Kremlin’s orange fascist shitstain would grow into a job he never wanted in the first place.
Geminid
@Roger Moore: One reason that people like Sirota and Turner liked Sanders so much was that he was popular in a way that they could never be. He was a Trojan Horse that they thought would get them inside the Democratic Party so they could take it over.
People on the Left still have hopes of transforming the party along their lines. The Democratic Socialists of America have an “inside, outside” strategy whereby they work for select candidates but do not lift a finger to help other Democrats. They have a working alliance with Justice Democrats, and have helped put a half dozen “progressive” Democrats into the House already. The JD’s have a big slate for the upcoming primaries. Their SuperPac took $500,000 from a rich biotech titan who was previously Dana Rohrabacher’s bighest donor, so the Justice Democrats are willing to play horseshoes. @LizBurgh does alot of research on FEC filings, and she and allies like @JusticeDemWatch have come up with some interesting stuff.
SiubhanDuinne
@Starboard Tack:
Human urine is used, or used to be, in setting the dye colours in the manufacture of Harris tweeds. Maybe animal urine too, I’m not sure. There’s a whole body of traditional Hebridean work songs, many of them with rather bawdy lyrics, that the women sang as they worked the raw wool, dyed the fibres, and wove the fabric. A pre-literate way of following instructions.
Starboard Tack
@John Revolta:
Degenerated.
SiubhanDuinne
@NotMax:
“Gee, Your Hair Smells Terrific!”
:-)
Jeffro
@raven:
@Ben Cisco:
whoever’s ahead at halftime, I am declaring them the winner and going to bed early for once. =)
Starboard Tack
Posting question. If I pie someone do they show in the recent comments section?
satby
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): let me tell you a little secret about Wall Street: it’s all bullshit and they’re all basically gamblers. I used to support the Deutsche Bank financial traders at the CBOT and Merc, and was badged as a floor runner, and it’s all educated guessing. The one guy who did the credit default swaps couldn’t even get a second trader for almost a year, because experienced traders couldn’t understand the business.
Also, learn to post links instead of big excerpts.
Alison Rose
@cain: I almost ended working for him once and thanked the lord it didn’t happen.
Starboard Tack
@satby: So no invisible hand, then?
Old School
@Starboard Tack:
Yes. You still see the name, but not the comment.
satby
@Starboard Tack: only giving you the finger*
* and by “you” I mean pretty much everybody
debbie
McConnell’s pimping voting rights as the Left’s Big Lie. Someone better shut that down real quick.
Ruviana
@Jinchi: Trumps go to Penn. It’s part of why TFG spent a couple of years at Fordham–so he could transfer to Penn for his last two years.
Brachiator
@Roger Moore:
Pundits supposedly were more seasoned veteran reporters who had seen and learned enough to put political and economic reporting into context. They also supposedly knew which experts were reliable or insightful.
But too many pundits are just lazy or malicious hacks pushing a particular ideology.
And it may have been William Safire who, years ago when confronted by readers about factual errors in one of his columns, angrily declared that he was a pundit, not a reporter, and he did not have to get the facts right. Presumably we were supposed to be impressed just because he was an elder statesman who had been around and knew who was important.
ETA: If not Safire, I profusely apologize.
Starboard Tack
@Ruviana:
Whereas they should go to penitentiary.
Ken
For it to have any scientific value, it would have to be a random cross-section of a population. The people who responded to his Craigslist ads soliciting urine donations aren’t a proper sample.
Roger Moore
@Baud:
Yes, and the Republican operatives who are trying to discourage anyone from voting for the Democrat.
Ken
Well, if the experienced traders were saying “I don’t get it, this can’t possibly work the way they’re claiming”, they were right.
Starboard Tack
@Roger Moore: And the Russians.
debbie
@geg6:
Oh, FFS. Is that white blazer he’s wearing over his V-neck tee supposed to make him look like a physician? ?
Mike in NC
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): One of the most infamous pieces that George F. Will ever wrote came the day after some hard-liners in Moscow tried to overthrow Gorbachev. The coup failed, but Will only thought it meant we needed to build a lot more nukes. Asshole.
Scout211
@satby:
I actually very much appreciate excerpts posted (in addition to the link) because my internet connection is very slow out here in the wilds. You might be surprised just how many linked sites need more “juice” for them to load than my connection provides. Currently, I can’t get HuffPost to load.
Plus, there are many of us here who don’t join or pay for subscription to many of the sites linked here, so excerpts of articles or stories are always welcome. Well, at least they are by me. :)
Ruviana
@Starboard Tack: Don’t I wish!
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@satby:
I was more wanting to highlight the inflation news and the Fed’s reaction to it. The people quoted seemed pretty concerned that the Fed may be behind the curve.
I’m concerned what this could all mean for the midterm election
Also, I didn’t mean for it to come out so long. I just wanted people to see the quoted sections because I felt they were important
Danielx
@Jeffro:
Georgia and Alabama fans alike are appalled at the weather here, it’s 27 degrees and they think they are freezing.
Roger Moore
@Starboard Tack:
The classic statement that the market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent is a good one. Basically, all the stuff they teach you in Econ 101 is really only true if people have good information. If information is imperfect, the market won’t work right, which gives people lots of incentive to hide information.
Starboard Tack
@Roger Moore: It also depends on people being rational actors in their own best interests. Bwaaaahahahahaha.
Baud
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
I thought we liked tight labor markets because it gives workers more power.
satby
@Ken: as we all saw…
satby
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): they’re not reporting the Fed’s reaction. Read those again; it’s their in-house market prognosticators predicting what they think the Fed will do. Also trying to build buzz to push the Fed into doing it.
Ben Cisco
@Jeffro: BWAHAAHAA!
Brachiator
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
OK. A few comments from someone who tries to pay attention to economics news. But I am not claiming special expertise:
Absolutely nothing about possible causes of inflation. But here is something from a recent episode of the public radio program Marketplace that is interesting. They said that consumers were worried because food costs were rising higher than durable goods. So the groceries they buy every day are more expensive than the new car they were thinking of buying. So, increases in the prices of “animal proteins” is more important than some increases in the transportation markets (whatever that is).
A bunch of jargon. The Phillips curve shows the relationship between inflation and unemployment. In the short-run, inflation and unemployment are inversely related; as one quantity increases, the other decreases. In the long-run, there is no trade-off. In the 1960’s, economists believed that the short-run Phillips curve was stable.
There is a potentially false assumption that the Fed understands the causes of inflation and can apply breaks via interest hikes to control it. Don’t know that anyone has shown this to be true.
This is some supreme horseshit. The economy was shut down because of Covid. There was not a “normal” depression or recession. We have seen not only increases in unemployment, but also disruption of entire industries. We are also seeing that people don’t want to return to old jobs, certainly not for the old wages.
There is not a single labor market or a uniform labor supply to pull from. Also, no one knows for sure whether we have worked out the best mitigations of Covid, or whether some new variant will kick us all in the teeth again.
The Fed’s definition of maximum employment may not have any great meaning, and certainly no one can say that we are getting there.
So economists are trying to guess what the Fed will do and when. But they don’t have any clue as to whether any of it will have an impact on the economy.
Starboard Tack
@satby: Asking information for a friend. If someone has a large amount of uncommited cash, what could be done to offset rising inflation if interest rates also rise?
satby
@Brachiator: Also inflation is measured year to year, and last year was abnormally low because of covid lock downs all over the world. Prices were down because demand was way down. Now that demand is up but supply is still catching up, prices have risen as demand is chasing supply. Measuring higher prices today against the reduced demand pricing of last year is disengenous, they all know the “inflation” they’re braying about today will settle lower as demand and supply stabilize, though with covid raging that could be a while.
satby
@Starboard Tack: I would ask a financial advisor, which I very much am not, sorry. Edit: I was I.T. support.
Ken
@Starboard Tack: If worried about the collapse of civilization, gold. If really worried about the collapse of civilization, potatoes.
trollhattan
@SiubhanDuinne:
Who recalls that was an actual product, heavily advertised?
Also the punchline to a one-liner joke.
Starboard Tack
@satby: Fair enough.
Baud
@Starboard Tack:
NFTs, naturally.
Starboard Tack
@Ken: I’ll remember that.
trollhattan
Will this be Mark Kelly’s opponent?
He seems nice.
Baud
@trollhattan:
None of them are nice.
Brachiator
@satby:
Yep, yep, yeppity yep.
Also, businesses are trying to make up for lost revenue from the artificial suppression of demand. Fewer people were going to restaurants, and eateries had to reduce capacity. They are trying to make up for past lost revenue.
NotMax
@trollhattan
Whereas bottled I Can’t Believe It’s Not Urine isn’t.
Yet.
;)
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@satby:
OK, I see what you mean now
@Brachiator:
Thanks for the explanations. I think you might be right that those interest hikes might not be the answer to lower inflation. I think I remember reading somewhere that a lot of this inflation was supply chains still having kinks in them.
I guess I’m worried about public perceptions of inflation, plus interest hikes doing more harm than good to the economy. I hear people complain all the time about their grocery bills and rising gas prices. They might blame Biden and the Democrats for it. Plus, the President’s party usually gets punished in the midterms and Biden’s polling has been pretty bad recently
Add on to the existential threat the Republicans represent and Manchin refusing to budge on the filibuster for voting right
Finally, I was really wanting to start investing in a Roth IRA for retirement in a target date fund this year with my tax return and I really don’t want to just basically flush all my money down the drain with market volatility (yes, I know I have a long time horizon)
satby
So, I thought this was really well done by Clay Aiken.
@Baud: OUR folks are nice!
lowtechcyclist
@trollhattan: Desai‘s your man.
satby
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): invest in whatever your company will match, that’s free money.*
*and this is the extent of my financial advice.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@satby:
I would if I did. I have a defined-benefit pension that my company contributes to that I’m not yet vested in. I suppose I want to hedge my bets in case the pension fund isn’t there in 50 years. Plus, as I understand it, DBs don’t pay out much
Roger Moore
@satby:
Inflation is measured on different time scales. For example, the Fed will often look at inflation quarterly or monthly in the hope they can catch rising inflation before it has the chance to infect the system. The trick is that to do this, they will often convert a raw quarterly or monthly inflation number to an “annualized” number, e.g. they’ll multiply the inflation from the past month by 12 to see how much inflation they’d have if the trend from the past month continued all year.
Naturally, though, doing this can exaggerate monthly fluctuations to make it look like inflation is much more severe than it really is. There are all kinds of factors that can make one month’s worth of inflation look way worse than it otherwise would be, and that’s if you’re looking at the whole economy. If you’re looking at one little sector, the numbers are much more jittery, and annualized numbers are very unreliable. Of course this won’t stop people who want to exaggerate the threat of inflation from using bad numbers to make their case.
gene108
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
The traditional way the Fed made sure inflation was kept in check was to raise interest rates. When the economy slowed down, the Fed lowered interest rates so businesses could borrow at lower costs until things improved.
The last 20 years has had very low interest rates, because of the economic stagnation and near economic collapse in the aughts.
At some point this year interest rates will increase to reduce inflation. The interest cost businesses have as expenses on their income statements will go up, thus making them less profitable and lowering their stock price. This will reduce the overall value of the stock market.
I’ve probably missed a bunch of macroeconomic points on the relationship between monetary and economic policy, but this is my best attempt at a simple explanation.
Geminid
@trollhattan: This cycle is seeing a race to the bottom among Republican primary candidates. That dynamic may come back to bite them in November.
trollhattan
@lowtechcyclist:
Good, uh, digging. So it was a PM and not the president. I wonder what Modi’s “interesting” habits might be. Cancel that.
lowtechcyclist
@Gravenstone:
“It not only washes your mouth out, it cleans out your whole system, right on down the line!”
JAFD
@Starboard Tack:Check out ‘Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities’ (TIPS for short)
By the way, what’s the interest rate on regular 10-year Treasuries this week ?
lowtechcyclist
The Dems didn’t control either house of Congress either before or after the 2016 election. I’m sure the GOP’s margin of control would have been a lot bigger in 2017-18 if Bernie had been the nominee, though. i agree that his nomination would have been disastrous.
And even if by some miracle he had won, I very much doubt he’d have been a good President.
gene108
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
A target date fund will be fine investment for a Roth IRA. It’s never too early to save for retirement.
The market will have ups and downs. There will be anemic stretches, where there’s little growth or even loss in value, like there was from 2001 to 2011 or so.
But the general trend over the last 100 years has been that the stock market goes up in value over the long term.
Geminid
@lowtechcyclist: I was thinking of 2020. I was really sweating it out before the primaries began. I was afraid Sanders would get a plurality of delegates and win the nomination. I was encouraged when he underperformed in Iowa and New Hampshire, and was very relieved when Joe Biden won South Carolina big.
I had researched Sanders’ life up to and including his run as Mayor of Burlington. I could just see Karl Rove and other Republicans licking their ugly chops. They’d have buried Sanders.
topclimber
What does Krugman say? You know, the guy who usually has a different take than the Masters of the Universe and the chorus of conventional wisdom.
He raised the price of his newsletter by 50% recently (/s) which is now 150% of what I can afford, and I never have much success outflanking the FTFT payroll. Consider this an appeal to jackals who have access.
As of Dec. 11th he seemed to believe we are in for a spell that could go on for a year or so, but maybe I got it wrong so read it yourself.
He was also surprised that there was NO surprise vs. estimates in the last quarterly report (both in 6.8 year to year range). If that continues, it suggests there are not inflationary landmines out there that have not yet surfaced.
The Lodger
@germy: Andrew Dice Yang.
Brachiator
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Here in the US, Biden is getting blamed by conservatives for not doing enough about inflation. In the UK, Boris Johnson is getting blamed by liberals for not doing enough about inflation.
That’s how politics works. People want easy solutions, even though this is not a simple problem.
The least expensive (in terms of fees) Index Fund is often recommended. If your company offers this, might be worth looking into. Then sleep tight and don’t worry about short term fluctuations.
randy khan
@germy: It’s worth reading the whole thread. Pretty nice work from my Representative’s staff. (Beyer, who had kind of a reputation as too centrist for his district, has been doing a lot of good stuff.)
randy khan
@Brachiator:
I think the year funds are kind of intriguing because the mix of stocks and bonds in them shifts over time as you get closer to retirement, but it’s also worth noting that they assume you’re retiring at 65, so you may need to pick the “wrong” year if you’re planning to work longer or retire earlier.
Citizen Alan
@The Moar You Know: So we are at the P sniffing stage of the Plague?? Good to know.
Citizen Alan
@Reboot: I knew there was a reason I always loved him.
Brachiator
@randy khan:
I suggested to a nephew in his 20s with a good job that he consider the following “don’t worry about it” mix: 40 percent Total Market Index Fund, 40 percent Aggressive Growth Fund, 20 percent Bond Fund, as a beginning thinking exercise.
I suppose I would take a look at the mix each year, and as you say maybe re-think things as you got closer to retirement age.
But then again, who knows how things may change in the future?
For example, in 2020 a significant number of people retired early because a new rule let people take up to $100,000 in retirement income without penalty if the distribution were Covid related. Nobody could see the pandemic coming or anticipate the potential impact on retirement thinking.
Helen
@cain: My mother grew up on a ranch on the western plains. They used dried cow dung as fuel in their kitchen stove until replaced by propane after WWIi. I really don’t think they were different than their neighbors.
Starfish
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): When you invest for retirement, you are investing for the long haul. No one is going to time that mess perfectly. You just invest a little here and a little there. Some of it will do well in the long run. Some of it won’t do well in the long run. You can’t time the market.
I would like the FAANG companies to be renamed MANGA now, and I would like them to take it in the teeth. Because half their compensation package is stock grants, engineers working for those companies make about twice what everyone else makes. It is so freaking weird. The amounts involved are absurd, and they are stealing my favorite people.
Miss Bianca
@Jeffro: Raw worms. Raw worms have more preventative power.
cain
@Helen: Cowdung is a great thing – It’s used everywhere in India other than the big city.
I bet we could make a business selling cow dung patties as fuel here for camping and what not.
Jager
@Nelle:
The eye surgeon who did my cornea transplant was on the faculty at Harvard Medical School said the same thing.