The President participates in a bilateral meeting with H.E. Olaf Scholz, Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany. Gee, I wonder if they will mention Ukraine? Seriously, though, I wonder how many of the press conference questions will be inane.
I love how Jen Psaki has repeatedly called out the Press Corpse questioners for using Russian talking points. Speaking of Jen Psaki, you may want to watch or listen to today’s press conference while you wait for Joe Biden.
Something to think about as we wait for the press conference to start:
YEAR ONE WHAT BIDEN HAS DONE MEGA THREAD
•1.9T American Rescue Plan
•$1400 stimulus checks for adults, children, and adult dependents
•1 year child tax credit expansion – $3600 0-5, $3000 6-17, removed income reqs and made fully refundable
•One year EITC expansion1/
— What Biden Has Done (@What46HasDone) January 20, 2022
I think I will add one of these to every post for awhile – until I make my way through the whole set. There are 31 of them! Twitter peeps can share if you are so inclined.
WaterGirl
I can’t recall who sent me the link to Brian Tyler Cohen twitter thread about Biden, so if it was you, please chime in so I can credit you.
SpaceUnit
Has anyone ever heard Jan Psaki articulate her long-term career objectives? Do they include holding elected office?
I ask because I think she has potential for Democratic stardom. Presidential material. Call me crazy but I just do. She handles herself at a podium better than just about anyone I’ve ever seen.
trollhattan
Shooting a block away and half the cops in town are in the nearby intersection. One ambulance just left, siren on. Yay, guns.
Brachiator
Also, expansion of child and dependent care credit, and made refundable
Covid related credit for self employed people
Early distribution relief for some Covid related pension distributions.
As I have noted before, early tax filers are often seeing significantly increased refunds. This may be the case for many low and moderate income families. It may have a significant impact on the economy.
The Biden administration can take credit for this, and needs to fight for maintaining these credits. Screw Senator Manchin.
different-church-lady
@SpaceUnit:
To crush her inquisitors, to see them driven before her, and to hear the lamentations of their bosses.
Baud
Some good news. A government that listens to criticism.
SpaceUnit
@different-church-lady:
In that case, I’m all in. Psaki 2024!
Sorry Baud.
Baud
@SpaceUnit:
But I have cookies.
Fair Economist
Yeah, that “What Biden has done” thread was incredible. So convenient for shooting down nonsense too.
Cameron
@Baud: Why was this ever considered?
WaterGirl
@Baud: Wow, glad I missed that in real time because the idea of that would have been distressing.
WTF were they thinking?
Brachiator
@Baud:
Psaki will crush your cookies!
Geminid
@Brachiator: And $60 billion in the infrastructure bill for improvements and expansions to AMTRAK. The head of AMTRAK said that was more than the cumulative investments in the passenger rail system since it’s inception, and would be “transformational.” This will help expand a service map that has been static while the nation added over 100 million residents.
trollhattan
@Geminid:
Only commies ride passenger trains, so no bipartisan support there.
Baud
@WaterGirl: They were thinking of security instead of privacy. That private company was already providing ID services for other federal agencies and states as well. IRS wanted to offer secure access to taxpayer data, so they hired that company to provide the same type of ID service. They failed to think through how public reaction would be different, especially in the way the IRS implemented the roll-out.
SpaceUnit
Cookies are nice, but when Jan Psaki fillets Peter Doocy from gills to tail in the press room and he doesn’t even realize it I get those little red hearts swirling around my head . . . just like in the cartoons.
I luvs her.
Layer8Problem
@Brachiator:
With sarcasm!
Steeplejack (phone)
@Brachiator:
? Rotating tag line!
Almost Retired
@Baud: I’m cool with the co-Regency of Baud & Jen – the William and Mary of the 21st Century.
different-church-lady
@SpaceUnit: It’s like that joke that ends with the bear saying, “You’re not really here for the hunting, are you?”
WaterGirl
Biden speaking now!
catclub
@Cameron:
because they had already been using the system to verify ID’s for many state unemployment insurance programs.
The revolt against it suddenly sounds like what happens when you expand a program to drug test black unemployed people to everybody.
Or a government shutdown that includes air traffic controllers.
WaterGirl
I like the signer today!
Geminid
@trollhattan: Nineteen Republican Senators and thirteen Republican Representatives voted for the Infrastructure bill, but they might have cared about the other parts. Many more Representatives would have voted for it had House Republican leadership had not whipped so hard against the bill. Now Trump is targeting the thirteen who did. A typically petty and stupid behavior.
Kelly
My Windows 10 face recognition has about a 5% failure rate. When that occurs I use the PIN. Facial recognition is convenient when it works but if it fails thru to the PIN it doesn’t add security.
A universally accepted federal ID system would take care of this and the voter ID bullshit. Of course, the voter ID bullshitters don’t want a system they can’t game.
SpaceUnit
@different-church-lady:
No, I really do believe that her brand of moxie could win at the ballot box.
mrmoshpotato
@different-church-lady:
Works for me!
different-church-lady
@SpaceUnit: Just to be clear, Doocy is the hunter and Psaki is the bear.
trollhattan
@different-church-lady: If Doocy’s a hunter he’s armed with a strawberry.
mrmoshpotato
@trollhattan:
Fuck ’em! Slap my eyeballs with the California Zephyr going through Glenwood Canyon any day!
SpaceUnit
@different-church-lady:
I know. Yeah, it’s tempting to believe he enjoys the abuse on some prurient level, but honestly I think he’s just a stupid son-of-a-bitch.
different-church-lady
@trollhattan: You gotta know the joke to understand what I’m getting at.
Brachiator
@Baud:
I had to use ID.ME for some California related program. I wonder if the same current ID info would be used for the fed.
We will see what they come up with next.
mrmoshpotato
@different-church-lady:
This guy is definitely not.
Gin & Tonic
mrmoshpotato
@trollhattan: Really? I always thought Douchecanoe The Lesser was always armed with trying to suck his own cock in the press room.
mrmoshpotato
@different-church-lady: Haha. Never knew that joke before.
Roger Moore
@trollhattan:
Fortunately, Psaki has trained in self defense against fresh fruit.
CarolPW
@trollhattan:
Are you in Sacramento or am I misremembering?
CarolPW
@mrmoshpotato: Strongly agree, that is a spectacular ride. Was even better before the late ’60s when the Zephyr also ran through the Feather River Canyon out of Sacramento – not as dramatic but extraordinarily beautiful.
geg6
@Brachiator:
ID,Me is used for the VA system. No facial recognition, thankfully.
mrmoshpotato
@CarolPW: I went from Emeryville back to Chicago between Christmas and New Year’s one year.
Frozen waterfalls. Awesome.
trollhattan
@CarolPW:
You’re right, we’re in Sacramento. Neighbors busy digging for info, seems it may have involved someone’s “not-right” kid and a shootout between two parties that spilled from the house onto the street.
But in the spirit of “never trust early reports” will wait and see how this plays out.
ETA folks are understandably jittery still from the ghoulish murder in the neighborhood last summer.
trollhattan
@Roger Moore:
You, sir, are aware of internet traditions.
CarolPW
@trollhattan: I asked because I had just called my sister in Sacramento about a shooting here (Richland WA) at my local Fred Meyer. Fuck guns.
Roger Moore
@SpaceUnit:
The thing to understand about Doocey’s questions is that Fox isn’t interested in the answers. They’re right wing talking points dressed up as questions, and Fox is always going to present them in a way that makes them appear to stump the libs, regardless of how well Psaki answers them.
Ben Cisco, MSCIS Padawan
@Roger Moore: That’s gotta involve a metric shit-ton of lipstick…
SpaceUnit
@Roger Moore:
She rarely seems stumped when dealing with Doocy.
However she often seems to be explaining things to a stump.
Betty
@WaterGirl: There have been quite a few cases of people claiming other people’s refunds so they were trying to make the system more secure.
I see Baud already explained.
Ben Cisco, MSCIS Padawan
@SpaceUnit: More like a log.
Gin & Tonic
Somebody in the morning thread inquired, after I’d stepped out, about my comment that Ukrainians don’t trust Macron. Here’s one reason why:
SpaceUnit
@Ben Cisco, MSCIS Padawan:
You want to hear something weird? I just ordered an actual log / stump from Wayfair this last weekend, and I’m waiting to get notification that it shipped. It’s for sitting on in my entryway while putting on or taking off one’s shoes.
That’s right, I ordered a stump. Do not ask what I paid.
trollhattan
@CarolPW:
Ugh, sorry to hear!
It seems one negative from all the covid stay-at-home has been a big uptick in gun violence. What’s that about absence making the heart grow fonder? Seems apt.
Two hours later we’re still festooned with cop cars and crime scene tape. I’m going for a bike ride. In the other direction.
trollhattan
@SpaceUnit:
The price? I’m stumped. :)
germy
Check and mate, Libs.
zhena gogolia
@mrmoshpotato: They tell it in The Crown but I’ve already forgotten it. I can never remember jokes.
SpaceUnit
@trollhattan:
Only chumps pay for stumps.
But I’ll take my lumps.
mrmoshpotato
@SpaceUnit:
More than you would’ve paid for a bench made from the same tree?
mrmoshpotato
@germy: Paging Steve Hofstetter. Paging Steve Hofstetter.
dm
@SpaceUnit: Hopefully, a lifetime of seminars training Democratic politicians and their staff how to answer Republican-framed questions in a way that replaces the framing with reality.
SpaceUnit
@mrmoshpotato:
I ain’t saying.
All I’ll say is that my decorating motif is very woodsy and that the stump is a great fit aesthetically.
sab
@germy: Jeez. He is really really that uninformed?
danielx
All of them, Katie…
germy
@mrmoshpotato:
germy
@sab:
Yes.
Suzanne
@germy: He’s so close, he can almost taste it!
In all seriousness, Steve Hofstetter’s repeated trolling of Kevin Sorbo is one of the best things on the internet.
mrmoshpotato
Every other state needs to airdrop history books in Oklahoma – now!
ETA – well, not Texas, or Florida.
danielx
@germy:
Excellent question, Kevin, why aren’t they?
SpaceUnit
@dm:
Agreed. And I think Ms. Psaki could teach those seminars. She’s great at deconstructing all those bullshit frames.
sab
@germy: He will remain that uninformed because he has it set up so you cannot reply with more than a couple of letters of the alphabet. Basically limited to yes or no.
Ben Cisco, MSCIS Padawan
@SpaceUnit: That’s hilarious!
sab
OT : Our test kits finally came! I think I guessed right. First day when weather was pretty much sure to be well above freezing all day.
Ben Cisco, MSCIS Padawan
@SpaceUnit: I watched that video above – I’d be driven to drink like a fish if I had to do that every day. The repetition, giving the same answer 17 different ways. The Press Corpse are figuratively stumps!
MomSense
@SpaceUnit:
I live so close to Wayfair. A big housing development just went in on the same road as their call center/ warehouse. They probably grabbed some stumps from the development. I took one myself so I can grow mushrooms.
sab
@mrmoshpotato: I think the whole CRT controversy is because Texas is broke and not buying a huge batch of new books every year, so they no longer have buying power control over the content of all US textbooks. So right wing has to control elsewhere and otherwise. That could get dicey. In my part of the world actual parents do follow school board meetings year round, not just in election years. And they are interested in education issues, not just political red meat.
NE Ohio in a medium sized city with a majority minority student body. As a white parent and grandparent I was glad to see the white flight flee. Let them phuck up the suburban schools for a while.
Kathleen
@sab: OT This just in!!! Ohio Supreme Court sent maps back to legislature AGAIN!!!!
https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/politics/elections/2022/02/07/ohio-supreme-court-rejects-statehouse-map-redistricting-commission-primary/9253196002/?csp=chromepush
Roger Moore
@Ben Cisco, MSCIS Padawan:
It’s all about showing the question without bothering to show the answer. That’s the point. Just asking the question is enough when you get to control how much of the answer the audience gets to hear.
trollhattan
@Kathleen:
Did they try and sneak in the Kentucky map again?
Ben Cisco, MSCIS Padawan
@Kathleen: Woot!
SpaceUnit
@Ben Cisco, MSCIS Padawan:
Yeah, it would definitely try my patience. I’d like to see Jen carry a nerf rifle to those press events and shoot the reporters in the face with a ball every time they asked a question she just answered.
debbie
@Kathleen:
First I’ve heard. Good!
Assholes. Got caught again, didja?
Roger Moore
@mrmoshpotato:
Copies of The Grapes of Wrath– ideally in movie form- would also work.
Ben Cisco, MSCIS Padawan
@SpaceUnit: I’d prefer she carry a trout.
SpaceUnit
@MomSense:
Are they good corporate neighbors?
I try not order much from sites like Amazon because of wages, treatment of their workers, etc., but I’ve bought a number of items from Wayfair.
Baud
@Kathleen:
Good. The U.S. Supreme Court is going full speed ahead on Jim Crow 2.0. They just allowed Alabama to move forward with racist maps for the 2022 election.
State courts will be where it’s at for the foreseeable future.
SpaceUnit
@Ben Cisco, MSCIS Padawan:
Classic!
Maybe she could modify the nerf rifle to shoot a mackerel.
sab
@SpaceUnit: Hmm. Trying to visualize that.
JPL
@Baud: North Carolina is next. fk em
Baud
@JPL:
I thought NC was a state court decision.
BruceFromOhio
Republican Supreme Court shows the way to Republicans fucking everything up today, tomorrow, and forever, Gaia save us all.
I see @Baud got it too.
mrmoshpotato
@Roger Moore: True.
Ben Cisco, MSCIS Padawan
@Baud: Here’s the story:
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/supreme-court-allows-alabama-voting-maps-advocates-say-disenfranchise-rcna15162
And everybody beat me to it!
mrmoshpotato
@SpaceUnit: “Holy mackerel, you’re an idiot!”
BruceFromOhio
Meanwhile, Nosferatu dumping his millions into trying to foist his fascist pinata on the Buckeye doesn’t seem to be faring well. Step it up, Ryan!
Yutsano
@CarolPW:
She’s not alone. That’s less than a mile from my work!
SpaceUnit
@mrmoshpotato:
I see her waving the fish-gun from the podium and screaming, “Who wants some?” at the reporters.
cain
@trollhattan: and the bear is a grizzly.
sab
@BruceFromOhio: Peter Thiel the failed Nosferatu and JD Vance the failed Appalachian investment banker politician.
Ohio is a glorious state sometimes. Not always, but we don’t always phuck up.
sab
@sab: My cats would bang on anyone with a mackeral, but their paws are too small and their arms are too weak.
dexwood
@SpaceUnit: Nah, she wouldn’t scream. Steely eyes. soft voice, you want some fish, punk?
JPL
@Baud: Does it matter? The rights of states only matter if they serve a purpose. Remember Bush v Gore
Baud
@JPL:
We’ll see.
Jimmm
Um… you know that they *literally* grow on trees, right?
JPL
@Baud: Hope you’re right, because after seeing the latest ruling, I’ve lost all hope.
japa21
OT, and somebody may have already brought this up in the past couple days. If so I apologize. But I found this article interesting. It is about a white, conservative female graduate law student at University of Mississippi who is taking that school’s class on CRT. Her reaction shows there are still some reasonable Republicans out there.
SpaceUnit
@dexwood:
You’re probably right. She’d be nice about it.
dexwood
@SpaceUnit: Nice, but accurate.
SpaceUnit
@Jimmm:
And in fact there are trees in my neighborhood.
Just thought that maybe cutting up someone’s tree with a chainsaw might get awkward.
Kathleen
@Baud: Yup. It will be interesting to see what they come up with now. From what I understand the biggest point of contention was Hamilton County (where I live) which is very blue. We (I) lost state reps/Senator because of gerrymandering a few years ago. If it weren’t for gerrymandering we’d probably have Democrat representing OH#1 because she won Hamilton County but lost the red execrable exurbs in Warren County.
MomSense
@SpaceUnit:
They seem to be. They offer a decent starting wage $17-$18/hour, health, dental and PTO.
Kathleen
@trollhattan: The Republicans on the committees have been so arrogant and contemptuous throughout the entire process. They think they can get away with anything. The governor’s son is on the Ohio Supreme Court and he refused to recuse himself on these decisions.
bemused senior
@trollhattan: which LAPD division do you live in?
Roger Moore
@japa21:
I think the key is that young people are easier to convince and less set in their ways. If you present them with an alternative worldview in a way they have to pay attention to it, they will listen and maybe even learn. Older people may pretend to listen, but they’re a lot less likely to learn anything. If you can change the minds of young people, you can get lifelong voters.
opiejeanne
@bemused senior: He’s in the Sacramento area.