Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

You cannot love your country only when you win.

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

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

If you voted for Trump, you don’t get to speak about ethics, morals, or rule of law.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

The arc of the moral universe does not bend itself. it is up to us to bend it.

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

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

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

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

A norm that restrains only one side really is not a norm – it is a trap.

She burned that motherfucker down, and I am so here for it. Thank you, Caroline Kennedy.

Fundamental belief of white supremacy: white people are presumed innocent, minorities are presumed guilty.

Relentless negativity is not a sign that you are more realistic.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. keep building.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

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

The real work of an opposition party is to oppose.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Friday Morning Open Thread: Happy Anniversary, President Biden

Friday Morning Open Thread: Happy Anniversary, President Biden

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He’s earned it — we all have.

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89Comments

  4. 4.

    Spanky

    @OzarkHillbilly: That’s some crazy-ass driving down there in even the best weather. This DC-area driver would be staying the hell home instead of getting on icy roads with those idiots.

  5. 5.

    germy

    Andrea Mitchell is mad at Joe Biden because Mitch Mcconnell won't do any work. She is not, however, mad at Mitch Mcconnell for not doing any work. I think it might be time to retire.

    — Florida Chris (@chrislongview) January 20, 2022

  11. 11.

    germy

    @rikyrah:

    More truth from Florida Chris

    It is not Joe Biden and Kamala Harris's fault that republicans will not work with them. It is the republicans' fault.

    Thank you for taking time to understand basic human relationships.

    — Florida Chris (@chrislongview) January 20, 2022

  12. 12.

    Quinerly

    DeSantis now saying vaccines affect fertility. WAPO. Behind paywall.

    (does anyone feel like me? I am sick of the words “vaccine” and “vaccinated.” Hearing, reading, typing it. I guess this will be our lives from here on out.)

  13. 13.

    germy

    ha do you think fact Biden was Obama’s VP and watched press write Obama off as failure after one yr is one reason Biden says he doesn’t care abt polling right now?

    — Eric Boehlert (@EricBoehlert) January 20, 2022

    it’s driving the press nuts, btw

    — Eric Boehlert (@EricBoehlert) January 20, 2022

  19. 19.

    lowtechcyclist

    Remember, sharing is caring!

    There are too many people in my neck of the woods sharing a certain coronavirus

    ETA: Which reminds me, Wednesday night I was in a high school classroom-sized room with about 30 adults, most of whom weren’t masked.  We bought a couple of home test kits before Omicron.  About how long should I wait before testing myself for Covid, assuming I remain asymptomatic?

  21. 21.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    I asked Wharton students what they thought the average American worker makes per year and 25% of them thought it was over six figures. One of them thought it was $800k. Really not sure what to make of this (The real number is $45k)— Nina Strohminger (@NinaStrohminger) January 20, 2022

  22. 22.

    Steeplejack

    @Baud:

    It’s a chilly 17° here in NoVA this morning, going up only to 29° later. Brr! But dry and (weakly) sunny.

  24. 24.

    germy

    Pool report: leaving the auditorium, a reporter shouted the following question at the president: “Why are you waiting on Putin to make the first move, sir?”

    The president’s response was captured by audio engineers and went as follows: “What a stupid question.” via @alexnazaryan

    — Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) January 20, 2022

  28. 28.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    Nina Strohminger
    @NinaStrohminger
    ·
    Jan 20
    A lot of people want to conclude that this says something special about Wharton students— I’m not sure it does. People are notoriously bad at making this kind of estimate, thinking the gap between rich and poor is smaller than it is.

    It does indeed say something about Wharton students. It says that a significant number of them are divorced from reality.

  29. 29.

    WereBear

    @germy: Shills who make up stuff other shills repeat to the gullible repeat it.

    All the way down.

    And do any of them believe it? How many anti-vaxxers made a proper stance on Facebook and snuck into another town for their shots? Not fast enough, I know.

    But when reality shows up with an ICU pass, they will, in the fine Baptist tradition of my childhood, only go fishing with non-Baptists.

  30. 30.

    germy

    NEW: Elon Musk’s brain implant company Neuralink is now hiring a clinical trial director, an indication that the company’s longstanding goal of implanting chips in human brains is coming closer https://t.co/4eH4RpTl2y

    — Bloomberg (@business) January 20, 2022

    Literally just watched a video of someone who had to blow dry their Tesla door handle so it would open in cold weather, so no thanks. https://t.co/DSqhwh02Iv

    — Alexander Chee (@alexanderchee) January 21, 2022

  33. 33.

    germy

    @WereBear:

    It reminds me of Candace Owens showing up (and taking selfies) at public events that require proof of full vaccination for entry.

  34. 34.

    Betty Cracker

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Me too! I’m also sick of the crackpot surgeon general he imported from UCLA to lie about the danger and scold people who are trying to avoid the virus. Some video platforms make me watch an ad featuring that daft shithead before the content plays, which means they’re spending my tax dollars to publicize the hot garbage. It’s beyond infuriating.

    ETA: The theme of the ad campaign is “LIVE,” with the insulting implication that if you’re taking steps to avoid infection, you’re a fearful little mouse who needs to sack up and come out of your house and LIVE. Fuck everyone involved.

  36. 36.

    Quinerly

    Anybody else following the clusterfuck of messaging re NPR, Roberts, Gorsuch, Sotomayor, and Nina Totenberg?

  37. 37.

    narya

    @lowtechcyclist: Three days, I’d say, and if you are not seeing anyone else for 10+ days and don’t get symptoms, then you could even avoid testing completely if you need to ration the tests. If you are seeing folks, then test as late as possible before you see them. And wear an N95 even if no symptoms; that’ll protect anyone if you’re infected and asymptomatic. The CDC does have some guidance around this, I think, and I can try to dig it up if you want. The basic advice I’m getting is that if you’re not testing positive but you know you’ve had it, then you’re very unlikely to infect anyone, especially if you wear an N95.

  39. 39.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Rep. Madison Cawthorn decided that a hearing on burn pits was a good time to clean his firearm

    “Here we are taking time out of our day, including the representatives, to talk about a very important issue — a life or death issue for many veterans — and it’s like, I’m sorry am I boring you? You’re not paying attention,” Jen Burch, an Air Force veteran who currently works with the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) and who spoke during Wednesday’s hearing, told Task & Purpose.

    When asked by The Daily Beast if Cawthorn thought it was appropriate to use that time to clean his gun, his communications director Luke Ball told the outlet: “What could possibly be more patriotic than guns and veterans?” Ball has not responded to a request for comment from Task & Purpose.

    A screenshot of the moment was shared to Twitter on Wednesday evening by Lindsay Church, the executive director and co-founder of Minority Veterans of America, who was participating in the hearing.

    “Imagine you showed up for a Zoom meeting and a colleague decided that was when he needed to clean his gun. Because that’s what happened today in a Congressional roundtable on toxic exposure. We’re better than this.”

    Words fail.

  40. 40.

    germy

    No matter how high the stakes or how naked the bad-faith partisanship, always remember: the Supreme Court Justices are all best friends and they share the same hobbies and like the same movies and sleep in one big bed

    — Mollie W. O'Reilly (@MollieOReilly) January 19, 2022

  44. 44.

    Kay

    @germy:

    Tesla recruited higher-skilled (but still hourly) employees from areas with lots of manufacturing and they offered bonuses so some people here took them up on it. Most returned, because Tesla overpromised on wages and bonuses and it’s poorly managed. They say Tesla has serious quality problems and the company isn’t concerned about it and won’t spend what it would take to fix it. They all say it, and have been for years. My son says it and he doesn’t even work for a car company- he does the electrical in (parts) production plants, but he sees all the car company production plants, so can compare.

    Eventually people will figure it out. It’s inevitable.

  48. 48.

    germy

    there’s a very high correlation between people self-reporting severe vaccine side effects and retweeting right-wing politicians for five+ years. scientists are stumped

    — your friend (@debdrens) January 20, 2022

  51. 51.

    lowtechcyclist

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    People are notoriously bad at making this kind of estimate, thinking the gap between rich and poor is smaller than it is.

    And sure, that’s true at all income levels.  But I bet the Wharton students’ estimate of average income is much higher than that of people whose income is roughly average.

    Where average-income folks would tend to be off is guessing the income of the top 1% or 0.1% or 0.01%.  Most of them have no idea how stratospheric the income and wealth of the very rich tends to be in this country.  It’s high enough that it seriously distorts both our economy and our politics.

  53. 53.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @lowtechcyclist: Most of them have no idea how stratospheric the income and wealth of the very rich tends to be in this country

    And it goes higher and higher every day.

  54. 54.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Betty Cracker:

    ETA: The theme of the ad campaign is “LIVE,” with the insulting implication that if you’re taking steps to avoid infection, you’re a fearful little mouse who needs to sack up and come out of your house and LIVE. Fuck everyone involved.

    “Live and Let Die” would describe the situation more accurately.

  55. 55.

    OzarkHillbilly

    As the tide rose, it began to look perilous for Millie the jack russell-whippet cross, who had defied the efforts of police, firefighters and coastguards to pluck her from treacherous mudflats.

    So the rescuers had to think imaginatively, and came up with the idea of attaching a sausage to a drone and hoping the scent of the treat would tempt Millie to safety. It worked gloriously and Millie has been reunited with her grateful owner after following the dangling sausage to higher, safer ground.

    Millie disappeared after slipping her lead in Havant, Hampshire, and after frantic public appeals was spotted on the mudflats, in danger of being engulfed by the tide. She resisted efforts to encourage her to a safer spot until a drone pilot suggested attaching food to one of the unmanned aerial vehicles that had been used to track the dog.

    “It was a crazy idea,” said Chris Taylor, the chair of the Denmead Drone Search and Rescue team. But they pressed ahead and after checking Civil Aviation Authority regulations, and the MTOW [maximum takeoff weight] of their machines, the rescuers calculated they could attach a single sausage to a drone.

    Taylor said: “One of the local residents on the beach where we were flying from supplied us with the sausages – I think they were from Aldi. The woman cooked them up for us and we attached them with string.”

    To the joy of the rescuers, Millie took the bait.

  56. 56.

    lollipopguild

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I had a brother-in-law who was making $100,000 a year in the early 1980’s, he leased construction equipment to mines and construction companies. He actualy thought that “everybody” made as much as he did. I made $15,000 and my wife made $9000 at the time. Even after this was explained to him he still did not believe us.

  58. 58.

    Betty Cracker

    @lowtechcyclist: You’re right. If I were rich and talented at video editing (sadly, I’m neither), I might put together an alternate ad with the old Bond film theme song and a montage of DeSantis, Ladapo and the covidiots.

  60. 60.

    Steeplejack

    @lowtechcyclist:

    Most of them have no idea how stratospheric the income and wealth of the very rich tends to be in this country.

    True. I read through that Nina Strohminger thread earlier and saw this eye-popping snippet (links to a Time article):

    Also, per RAND research, from the mid-’70s through 2018, the top 1% has redistributed $50 TRILLION in wealth from the bottom 90% of Americans as the American oligarchy has completely captured Congress and literally written their own preferred tax policy.
    https://t.co/UY9cdIjjVr

    — Blake Brown (@Upgradez) January 20, 2022

  62. 62.

    Tazj

    @Quinerly: All I know is Nina isn’t backing down and the story seems believable to me.I don’t know who said what to who but look at what happened, Gorsuch won’t wear a mask and Sotomayor is at home.

  63. 63.

    Kay

    @p.a.:

    I don’t know- maybe it’s me- but he just screams “scammy” to me. He would have to convince me the cars were safe, not the other way around. I would start with “ummmm- probably not safe”. I’m constantly amazed at the people who are presented to me as presumptively credible :)

    What about him would ever make anyone think he’s a real stickler for safety, reliability and long term value?

  64. 64.

    Kay

    @p.a.:

    And the anti-regulatory ideology! “Do NOT test or in any way regulate my products or I will scream like a giant baby”. That’s confidence inspiring.

  65. 65.

    Soprano2

    It was 4 degrees when I got up at 5:30 this morning, but it’s supposed to be in the 50’s by Monday. I swear, this whiplash is worse than it just being cold.

    Hubby was feeling poorly this morning, mostly because of his winter cough and not sleeping much last night. He didn’t have a fever, though. I’m not sure it would even be worth it for him to go get tested, because it would mean having to get out in the cold air that just makes his cough worse, plus there probably aren’t any testing slots for the next 4 or 5 days anyway. Sure wish we had home tests! Makes me wish I had bought a couple when they were still available around here. He’s boosted, so I’m not that worried. I may go home at lunch to see how he is.

  66. 66.

    Baud

    Y’all don’t make at least $800K/year???

    I didn’t realize I was slumming it by hanging out here.

  67. 67.

    Kay

    CORONAVIRUS UPDATE: Virginia AG Jason Miyares files motion to dismiss parents’ lawsuit against Gov. Youngkin’s executive order ending mask mandates.

    “Parent power!” Oh, wait, not THOSE parents.
    This was absolutely foreseeable and inevitable and every public school official and school board member knew it. The problem with screaming “parent power!” and “parents should run public schools!” is ALL the parents need a say. Youngkin is now the principal of every public school in the state. Every parent should take their complaints directly to him.

  69. 69.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: My father the school superintendent who spent most of his career in schools would be horrified at what’s happening right now. Never mind the 7 years of schooling he took to be qualified to run a smaller school (he got his specialist degree but never went for the PhD), now any Billy Jim Bob without a high school diploma thinks they know better how to run a school than the professionals, and many politicians agree with them! It’s horrifying.

  70. 70.

    Kay

    I was on a school council for a time under the theory that they needed more community input. So they wanted to try this approach where they would put students who needed more help distributed across classrooms, but that worries one set of parents with more “advanced” kids (ya know, allegedly) because they believe students who need more help take time away from their kids. So the solution was to put an additional aide in the rooms that had more kids who needed more help. But it was REALLY HARD to broker and both sets of parents were sort of miffed at the end. I’m amused that Mr. Finance Businessman told literally everyone “they” would be running “public schools” and didn’t anticipate any problems with that.

  72. 72.

    Kay

    @Soprano2:

    I think people don’t know how hard it is, but there’s real arrogance in not knowing that, so they should reflect on that. Seriously. Stop assuming you can do everyone elses job better than they can. Just stop. It’s horrible.

  73. 73.

    Kay

    @Soprano2:

    That doesn’t mean they can’t complain or speak or advocate. But there has to be a base level recognition that it’s a diverse group of people and best case is a compromise. It’s not “easy” or “obvious”- if it was it would have been “solved” long ago. They should also probably listen to people who have been navigating it for 20 years. They know some stuff. Or, we just relearn everything again every decade.

  74. 74.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: The MSM narrative about the post-Trump GOP posits Youngkin and DeSantis as two different governing models Republicans can choose between. It’s a false choice. Functionally, they’re the same. One may come across as more house-trained than the other in his public persona, but you get the same horrible policies and the same screeching loonies meddling with education, healthcare, etc. A guest analyst at CNN did a piece on that recently, and she’s absolutely correct.

  76. 76.

    schrodingers_cat

    I have a theory on why the most privileged demographic in this country is overly represented among the doomers who love to reiterate how the American democracy is done for and there is nothing we can do that will change the trajectory that we are on.

    Its because they don’t have much experience in how to survive under adversity.

  78. 78.

    Geminid

    @Betty Cracker: Youngkin is going to look different because Democrats still control the Virginia State Senate. He won’t have to sign cruel abortion bills or crazy gun rights laws. So Youngkin can fight his soft culture war and hope that we are in fact on the back side of the pandemic. The plan is to run a prosperous state for four years and come out a success who still appears to be all things to all people.

    Youngkin reminds me of a chameleon. I wouldn’t be surprised if his fleece vest shifted color as a he went from one topic to another in a speech.

  79. 79.

    Another Scott

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: The story invites lots of speculation because they don’t show the data in a graph.  What do the other 75% think?  It’s clickbait and I didn’t click.

    Cheers,

    Scott.

  80. 80.

    Soprano2

    @schrodingers_cat: I think you have a good point there. I feel that my experiences when I was in college – my mother basically had what they used to call a nervous breakdown as a result of my parent’s divorce (my father cheated on her with his secretary, how’s that for a stereotype?), and then my father died of a massive heart attack when I was 21. I think the reason my mother fell apart was because that was the first really bad thing that had ever happened to her, and she had no way to know how to handle it, or that it would get better. When my sister died, my experience with my dad’s death helped me understand that no matter how bad it felt, it would eventually get better. I’m not saying it’s good to have bad things happen to you when you’re young, but it can give you advantages later in life. My husband says there’s nothing worse than being in a situation where people are shooting at you to try to kill you, and since he experienced that when he was 20 nothing worse has happened to him.

  81. 81.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @Kay: Musk had a couple of good ideas that he pushed relentlessly that have, IMO, moved us forward a lot wrt electric cars and wider energy usage. Unfortunately, he’s had a lot of bad ideas that he pushed and continues to push relentlessly…

    Hopefully he’ll go >splat< before his relentless pursuit of shitty ideas completely tarnishes his genuinely useful successes. At this point, the successes don’t need him and would be better off without him.

  83. 83.

    lowtechcyclist

    @ema:

    @lowtechcyclist:

    Based on evolving evidence, CDC recommends fully vaccinated people get tested 5-7 days after close contact with a person with suspected or confirmed COVID-19.

    Thanks!

    I’m probably unscathed, but it’ll be good to know for sure.  And with nearly two dozen unmasked people in a room here in Trump country, odds are that one or more of them were shedding Covid.

    Fuckers.

  84. 84.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Soprano2: Your mother went through a lot. In her case the breakdown is understandable.

    All the doom-casting I am talking about  is based as of now on speculation. Yes we are as a country going through tough times but times have been tough before. This is not exactly unprecedented.

  85. 85.

    Brachiator

    @Betty Cracker:

    The MSM narrative about the post-Trump GOP posits Youngkin and DeSantis as two different governing models Republicans can choose between. It’s a false choice. Functionally, they’re the same. One may come across as more house-trained than the other in his public persona, but you get the same horrible policies and the same screeching loonies meddling with education, healthcare, etc.

    Youngkin reminds me of Larry Elder and some of the other Republicans who ran against Newsom in the recent recall election. They promised all kinds of mischief with respect to handling the pandemic and other aspects of governance.

    Fortunately, we soundly rejected these fools.

    It is very sad that voters chose Youngkin and DeSantis. And if people see these two as the hope for the future we are all in trouble.

  88. 88.

    Bill Arnold

    @Betty Cracker:

    The theme of the ad campaign is “LIVE,” with the insulting implication that if you’re taking steps to avoid infection, you’re a fearful little mouse who needs to sack up and come out of your house and LIVE. Fuck everyone involved.

    I collect scary papers about COVID-19’s effects on the human body, but usually don’t link them here because they can be depressing. Need to start spamming these assholes on their twitter accounts with Science. Especially when they say “Science says X” when actually “Science says NOT X”.
    That FL Surgeon General is a stochastic mass murderer, and should be encouraged to dive into a wood chipper. Are there any scandals that could be used to neutralize him politically? Is removal of DeSantis in the upcoming election as in-play as it looks (to this NYer)?

  89. 89.

    StringOnAStick

    The school board in the red town north of me voted 3 to 1 to demand that the Governor remove the mask mandate for schools when the current rule expires in early February.  The state health authority has said they plan to extend the mandate, so the wingnuts are going nuts.  And all at a time when the number of active Covid cases in the county are higher than they have ever been and school staffing is a wreck due to illness.  1 in 15 people in the county are an active case of Covid right now, but yeah, get rid of those masks.

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