President Biden makes an announcement delivering on his MADE IN AMERICA commitments.
Live at 12:15 Eastern time.
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Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
We can show the world that autocracy can be defeated.
Roe is not about choice. It is about freedom.
If you voted for Trump, you don’t get to speak about ethics, morals, or rule of law.
Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.
I really should read my own blog.
Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.
Fear or fury? The choice is ours.
We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.
These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.
It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.
Not rolling over. fuck you, make me.
Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.
My right to basic bodily autonomy is not on the table. that’s the new deal.
You cannot love your country only when you win.
Hey hey, RFK, how many kids did you kill today?
Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.
We will not go quietly into the night; we will not vanish without a fight.
Michigan is a great lesson for Dems everywhere: when you have power…use it!
fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)
Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.
Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?
How stupid are these people?
When we show up, we win.
Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.
You are here: Home / Politics / Biden Administration in Action / President Biden: Made In America (LIVE at 12:15 Eastern)
Spanky
I can’t wait to see how the Republicans frame “Made in America” as un-American.
Well no, I can wait.
WaterGirl
@Spanky: Though it’s obviously not a sincere wish for anything you want to see happen, I am confident that we will soon get to see exactly that.
cmorenc
@Spanky:
They will claim “made in America” will make products burdensomely expensive for American consumers, costing jobs and driving inflation. Also because doing so interferes with free markets, which always produce better outcomes for Americans than forcing Americans to buy American-made goods. Etc. Etc, yadda yadda.
UncleEbeneezer
@Spanky: Why can’t it be “Made In WHITE America?”– GOP
jonas
@cmorenc: No, the new, populist Trumpy Republican party doesn’t really run with that line anymore. It will be that no “made in America” commitment can really work without another round of tax cuts and deregulation.
oatler
@cmorenc:
You may have noticed the ads for household gadgets that boast “Assembled in the USA!!”
Brachiator
@cmorenc:
Of course, Republicans dropped any pretense of a belief in free markets during the mis-rule of Trump, which was all about tariffs, special breaks for specific industries, and “America First!” instead of non-interference.
It will be interesting to see conservatives fake a comeback to their forgotten “core values.”
Kay
different-church-lady
Wait, we still have an economy in this country outside of real estate?
Served
@Kay: Feels like the consensus on Ukraine and how it is being handled is helping cast a better light on other factors that have been dragging him down.
The economy isn’t any better or worse than the last poll, but suddenly the “vibes” are different. How does anyone govern a country this fickle and unserious?
different-church-lady
@Spanky:
Just pivot to “Trans children are coming for your guns.” Easy. Media will eat it right up.
Ken
@oatler: “Assembled” sometimes means attaching the “Assembled in America” sticker.
Ken
I’m sure Baud has plans for that, which will be revealed after the election. Much like this year’s Republican un-platform.
Geminid
@Kay: Infrasructure Decade!
different-church-lady
@Ken:
“We’re shitty to people!” Fits on a bumper sticker.
catclub
@different-church-lady:
Not only that, the economy is doing really well right now, huge jobs growth, huge output growth, big jumps in travel and leisure. And yet, large numbers of people are convinced we are in a recession or a depression. huh, wonder what types think that.
Ken
@different-church-lady: Shhh! The platform only works if you don’t say it out loud. That’s why the party got mad at DeSantis.
Steeplejack
@different-church-lady:
“Trans children are coming for your guns.” In a caravan!
Kay
@Served:
I don’t know. I know gas prices are up but the economy is absolutely booming where I live. I have personally never seen it this good. It’s not just me, either- every restaurant is full, every weekend, and people are getting so much overtime they’re threatening to quit. And the buying! They’re willing to wait 6 months for a 70,000 truck. I went to an estate auction Tuesday morning- 11 acres fronting on a (lesser used) state route with nothing on it but a pitted parking lot that would have to be replaced. The reserve price was 40% higher than it sold for in 2014. Sold.
Geminid
@Served: An 8% swing is just 4% of people changing tbeir minds. Approval will still wobble, but hopefully the trend will be positive.
catclub
@Steeplejack:
from mexico
Kay
@Served:
I’m glad he got a bump. I don’t think his approval rating accurately reflects the job he has been doing. I wouldn’t expect 60 but I would expect 50.
Matt McIrvin
@Kay: So, Biden got a crisis bounce out of Ukraine. I was wondering if a Democrat could get such a thing any more.
Kay
@Matt McIrvin:
I don’t know what it’s for. None of it makes sense to me anymore.
Matt McIrvin
@Served:
To be fair this is more of a return to a historical norm. The weird thing about the US during the Obama and Trump years was that Presidential approval numbers were rock-stable most of the time. You knew whether you were for or against the President depending on who you were and most of the time, that didn’t change.
cmorenc
@Kay:
A key corollary question to Biden’s substantial uptick in ratings is the extent to which it is accompanied by a substantial uptick in democratic congressional and senate prospects eg generic congressional ballot.
Spanky
BTW, the video started about 30 minutes ago. I just started it, running at playback speed of 1.75, which is juuuuust intelligible.
Canned applause? Please!
sdhays
@Spanky: This reminds me of when Donald Tramp went on David Letterman and was bitching about nothing being made in the US anymore (or something like that – I don’t hate myself enough to go searching for a clip of Tramp), and Dave then asks where Tramp’s branded line of neckties were made (China).
Spanky
@Spanky:
And the ASL interpreter is cookin’.
Gin & Tonic
Speaking of “made in America,” while you see stories of Apple, Microsoft, Spotify, industrial companies like GM and Boeing, oil giants like Shell and BP all terminating their Russian operations, Coca-Cola is not among them. Happy to sell colored sugar water to a country bent on genocide.
Some may wish to adjust their spending plans accordingly.
topclimber
@Geminid: That would be true of net approval vs. disapproval but are there undecideds in the mix. (NPR helpfully does not show actual disapproval. I will just go with my hunch that there are some people who can never commit one way or the other).
In any case, take the win.
Kay
It’s all like this. A deliberate negative narrative. Never in your life have you seen incredible jobs numbers depicted as negative before, and you may never again.
They can deny it as hard and long as they denied the “but her emails” bullshit but no one has to believe them. We can read.
different-church-lady
@catclub: I would guess it’s 90% because of the asymmetry of the media war, and the other 10% is that the economy is just as bifurcated as ever, if not more so.
I mean, fuck everything, 2021 was the best income year I’ve had in a decade, but every single corporation that’s part of my life is trying to squeeze me for everything they can, so yeah, I’m still going to be working until my body can’t handle it anymore and then die huddled under an empty can of Sterno next to a dumpster. So I feel great about the velocity of money, don’t I?
Brachiator
@catclub:
The economy is doing well. The rising cost of living is a worrisome problem.
different-church-lady
@Ken:
DeSantis: “What? Nobody else around here has been quiet for the past five years!”
Geminid
@topclimber: And there are a lot of people who are very cynical about politicians as a class. I doubt if any prominent Republican would have a higher approval rating than Biden in that poll. McConnell would be around 30% approval. McCarthy is such an empty suit that the “don’t knows” would probably be the highest number.
Ruckus
@Kay:
It’s actually good that it doesn’t make sense because the framing by the majority of the press and the right side of the aisle is that anything dems do is negative. It is of course bullshit, as the numbers show but the majority of reporting slews hard to starboard to buck up their absolute shit show of political idiocy. Because to the PTB on the right it is 1000% about money. At least that’s the cover story. They don’t make anything more valuable, exactly the opposite, they fuck up everything, OK with the exception of their bank balances. They are not in this for the politics, the people, or the health of the country. Only for the bloated spreadsheets of their upper echelon and their racism.
But you know that.
And no it doesn’t make sense but if they actually had something to sell beyond hate they would be wealthy anyway.
Problem is, they don’t. Never have, never will.
germy
Jager
@oatler:
Walmart store brand washers and dryers “assembled in America” consists of slipping a card of electronic controls into the machine.
different-church-lady
@Brachiator: I’ve made this point in the past: our economy is designed to move as much money upward as it can, as fast as it can. So flooding our economy with more money just moves more money upward.
If we don’t do significant things to break that dynamic, then it’s not going to matter how great the economy is doing, because it’s just going to make Digital Pitbulls and pot-smoking private spaceship building modern day Edisons richer than ever while the rest of us run in place.
Peale
@Kay: Where I live, the cat food is back on the shelves. If there is a supply chain issue that’s effecting businesses and consumers, people aren’t hiring like there is one.
different-church-lady
@Kay:
Well, that makes about three dozen of us.
different-church-lady
OT:
Tired: loud, boorish cell phone conversations in cafés
Wired: loud, boorish Zoom meetings in cafés.
Mallard Filmore
@Gin & Tonic: I switched over to Pepsi with real sugar about 3 years ago.
Brachiator
@different-church-lady:
A provocative idea, but I don’t understand what this means to or for the average consumer.
What significant things would break the dynamic?
WaterGirl
@Spanky: I got a phone call from a client about 1 minute into the video, and I just got off the phone.
Canned applause? What?
Mike
Dana Milbank’s latest column cites how Republicans would rather attack Joe Biden than criticize Vlad Putin.
germy
“LOL” as the saying goes
Kay
@Ruckus:
I actually think some of the negativity about the economy was driven by a very particular, very conventional view of the economy. We don’t have an economy where lower level workers have leverage and their wages go up, or where the government pumps billions of dollars into the bottom end and there’s a catastrophe without widespread economic suffering. This isn’t how we operate. We push them off a cliff when there’s a catastrophe. We didn’t do that this time. We supported the bottom.
They were uncomfortable with the newness of this and it seemed vaguely “liberal” (suspicious!) so they immediately started looking for why it was negative. I feel like it started with the “lazy moocher” theory for the tight labor market- when they all decided people had received too much unemployment so wouldn’t go back to work. That was debunked but it set the tone for what followed.
WaterGirl
@germy: Let’s put that up on a fucking billboard.
different-church-lady
@Brachiator:
It means the government gives us money to survive while a virus tries to kill us, and in the end Jeff Bezos just winds up with it all anyway.
If I knew the answer to that I wouldn’t need the talcum powder.
WaterGirl
@Mallard Filmore: Pepsi is made with actual sugar now? What, too many people in the US preferred the “mexican” coke that was made with sugar, so they switched it all to sugar?
CaseyL
Totally OT: Someone on Twitter suggested an entire meal of hamentaschen: savory, sweet, some filled with meat.
For those who don’t know: hamentaschen are triangular cookies, sort of like tiny open-topped pie slices filled with fruit, poppy seeds, chocolate, or whatever other flavor you want. They’re a Jewish tradition for Purim (about the only truly joyous holiday on the Hebrew calendar) commemorating the defeat of yet another genocide attempt, this one in ancient Persia. “Hamentaschen” = “Hamen’s ears,” with Hamen being the evil Vizier who is the villain of this holiday.
Hamentaschen are very individual to each baker’s recipe, and I am low-key obsessed with them. That tweet made me go mad with longing, and I wound up ordering three batches of them from a local deli.
Which I will pick up next week.
And probably devour over the course of less than a week…
…which is in turn shortly before my next A1C (blood glucose) test.
I (will) regret nothing!
different-church-lady
@WaterGirl: I think it’s a special Pepsi product. Years ago they called it “Pepsi Throwback” or something. I got all excited about the real sugar part, tried a bottle, and thought, “Oh… right… this is why I never liked Pepsi when I was a kid.”
Brachiator
@Kay:
Public radio shows like MarketWatch and and Make Me Smart are usually pretty good, but stuff like this is bullshit.
I dare someone to explain it in meaningful terms.
But this is not just a media problem. There are economists and government officials who also believe that this makes sense, and in turn, this affects subsequent government policy.
germy
@Brachiator:
Citizens became consumers sometime during the Reagan administration. Maybe earlier.
Kay
@Brachiator:
What don’t they understand about “3.8”? It isn’t that they’re not working. They’re FULLY EMPLOYED.
Full up! No more workers to be had!
Spanky
@WaterGirl:
About the first three applause breaks sounded exactly alike. Late in the video (after my comment) they showed the audience, so maybe not. But the audio made me suspicious.
cckids
I believe that some of it is because the SotU got Biden, in person, in front of a large number of people, even those who didn’t watch it. It gets covered everywhere, and people remembered what they liked about Biden. One of the biggest bumps he got was in reference to “He cares about people like me”. His positives went from something like 19% to almost 60% on that question. Which tells me the relentless spin by all media about him being “captured by the radical left” has been working, dammit.
WaterGirl
@Spanky: Maybe someone was holding up an applaud sign.
Spanky
@WaterGirl:
-Junior Trump
Mallard Filmore
@WaterGirl: Yup. Real sugar. No mention of High Fructose Corn Syrup in the list of ingredients.
It has been available for a long time. The rumor I heard was that it was always sugar in Mexico and Pepsi learned that a lot of that was coming north.
You might have to search for it, as a Google search hit summary has complaints of not finding it. Google also shows Target will deliver if you want.
JMG
Economic news is framed in the news media from the point of view of someone with a six to seven figure income and significant investments in the stock market and a real big mortgage on their home(s). This is because that describes the circumstances of the people who direct news organizations and on TV, of many reporters, too. They honestly don’t think it’s biased because the coverage reflects their personal reality. So people getting jobs isn’t a big deal because they already have real good ones. Inflation on the other hand, threatens their portfolios, hence the price of gas is a national emergency.
Ohio Mom
@CaseyL: I would describe Purim as something like Madri Gras — both celebrations are loudly wild, rambunctious, exuberant, both come at the same time of year, when we can see the first faint signs of spring.
But I don’t know if it’s fair to say it’s the only truly joyous holiday in the Jewish calendar, there are other celebratory and happy holidays, even if they don’t have the element of intoxicated letting loose Purim does.
P.S. There is a can of poppy seed filling in my pantry waiting to be made into hamantaschen. They are my favorite traditional food.
germy
@JMG:
And often the only labor strikes they report are the ones by major league athletes.
Mallard Filmore
Daily Kos has a posting …
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/3/3/2083576/-Trump-turns-on-Putin-calls-invasion-holocaust
I wonder if Trump turned on Putin because the sanctions means he does not have to pay back Russian loans.
Spanky
@Ohio Mom: Isn’t this maybe the holiday that means “They tried to kill us! Let’s eat!”
CaseyL
@Ohio Mom: Very good points! I hadn’t thought of Purim’s proximity to Spring.
My fave hamentaschen growing up were the cherry ones my Mom made. If the deli had offered cherry I’d’ve gotten a whole lot of them… so thank FSM they did not.
@Spanky: “What makes this holiday different from all other holidays?”
debbie
@Ohio Mom:
I am bereft. The bakery where I buy hamentaschen every years (multiple times) has closed. They’ve promised they’ll reopen somewhere else ASAP, but this Purim will be less than rambunctious in my home.
Geminid
@different-church-lady: After Herbert Hoover’s and the Congress’ measures to combat the Depression failed, Will Rogers had this to say about money:
The internet outlet where I found this gave the Saint Petersburg Times, November 27 1932 as a source.
Gravenstone
@WaterGirl: Pepsi and Mt. Dew both have real sugar options (sadly only available in 12 pk), in addition to the dozens of weird flavor combinations they crank out with the HFCS stuff, plus the sundry sugar free options. I go the the real sugar flavors because I figure if I’m going to do something bad to my body, no point in taking half measures.
NotMax
@CaseyL
Can see it being done with a variety of knishes. Hamentaschen, not so much.
Nora Lenderbee
I read this as “I would describe Putin as something like Mardi Gras ” and was very confused.
Steeplejack
@Geminid:
That quote is fucked up. Water trickles up?!
Here’s the correct version:
Miss Bianca
@Mallard Filmore:
One of the reasons I keep despairing that Trump is going to meet the end he so richly deserves is that at every turn, he steps on his dick, slips into a puddle of shit, and somehow manages to emerge on the other side having splattered everyone around him *but* himself.
NotMax
@Spanky
Obligatory?
:)
Geminid
@CaseyL: And they hanged that evil vizier high as Haman!
Because he was Haman!
Gravenstone
@Miss Bianca: I would like to think any Russian creditors are taking special care to follow Trump’s debts and watching with bated breath as the interest owed climbs, and climbs… Sanctions won’t last forever (assuming somehow cooler heads prevail and Putin is removed).
ArchTeryx
As usual my good news comes when the world is falling apart.
After 30 years of trying I finally got a job that pays a professional wage, mostly thanks to the boom in hiring in New York State after the pandemic hiring freeze. It still took 20+ interviews and 6 months to get to that “yes” but I got to it.
Been a long road between “looks like Trump and the Republicans are going to put me to death by eliminating Medicaid” to “upper middle class income” but somehow I made it. And it’s… helping the state design its Medicaid payment tables.
It nonetheless would be just my luck to show up at my brand new job and the world dies in nuclear fire. Didn’t Alanis Morrissette write a song about that once?
Dorothy A. Winsor
@ArchTeryx: Hey, congrats!
Geminid
@Steeplejack: Gaah! Thank-you for the correction.
It should have read, “He didn’t know that money trickles up.”
Baud
@ArchTeryx:
?
Kay
Here’s a normal person on the economy, so you can compare and contrast with reporters :)
It is good news! You’re allowed to say that.
UncleEbeneezer
“These rural Trump voters – harassing their own neighbors in a small town – are supposedly good people whom we’re supposed to reach out to, and work to understand. I have another hypothesis: Many of them just aren’t good people.”
Indeed! It’s a fact that alot of people, even Dems, just don’t want to say out loud. Conservatism (and Libertarianism too) attracts assholes because it’s essentially the core of what Conservatism is built around. Empathy is bad, being a selfish asshole is good.
MisterForkbeard
@germy: Man, it is just WEIRD how all these people damaging democrats with false allegations or trying to split the party just happen to have deep Russian connections. What a strange coincidence.
Brachiator
@CaseyL:
My Middle Eastern religion professor loved to point out that the story of Esther most likely comes from stories about a pagan goddess. And the tokens are representations of her holy genitals.
In other words, the triangular “Hamentaschen”does not equal “Hamen’s ears,” if you know what I mean. The shape is more … crotch like.
This would always scandalize the super religious people in the class.
Kay
@MisterForkbeard:
Such a dumb plot, though. It’s supposed to be something that fits with what people already think about the politician. No one thinks Joe Biden is a sexual predator. They still don’t.
different-church-lady
@ArchTeryx: It’s like ten thousand nuclear warheads when all you need is a knife.
(Congrats!)
Anyway
@CaseyL:
Love apricot hamentaschen. Never had the savory kind.
Tangentially savory rugelach (feta and spinach) are yummy.
different-church-lady
@UncleEbeneezer: ZOT! It finally occurred to me: even if they start out as passably “good” people, by the time Trump is done they’re thoroughly converted into being utterly rotten.
Steeplejack
@ArchTeryx:
Congratulations! ??
NotMax
@different-church-lady
Hey, Zachary T. Paleozogt is one of the good guys!
:)
Lyrebird
@ArchTeryx: Congrats!!!
If it’s Capital area, maybe in the summer we could arrange an outside meet-up. Not sure how far away germy and co live.
ArchTeryx
@Lyrebird: Quite possible, if you’re talking about Albany! (Yes, I live in the Albany area. New job is downtown).
NotMax
@ArchTeryx
Ah, Albany. The famed
DiamondCubic Zirconium of the Hudson.;) //
LadySuzy
@Served: maybe it’s because the media, now focused on Ukraine, has stopped the constant negativity on President Biden.
Gin & Tonic
@ArchTeryx: Congratulations, I know it’s been nerve-wracking for you. I hope you have a few weeks to enjoy it before we all go up in flames.
Gin & Tonic
Update on my earlier – the three biggest supermarket chains in Ukraine have stopped selling Coca-Cola products.
Yeah, I know there are supply-chain issues at the moment, but still.
schrodingers_cat
@ArchTeryx: Congratulations. If you like Middle Eastern food, and haven’t tried them yet you should pay Alibaba in Troy a visit. They make fresh lavash bread, have great yogurt and gyros and other Mediterranean specialties.
KSinMA
@ArchTeryx:
Well, congratulations in the meantime!
debbie
@Brachiator:
Baloney. They’re in the shape of the hat that Hamen wore.
ETA: The only authentic hamentaschen are poppy seed hamentaschen.
Kristine
@ArchTeryx: Heartiest congratulations!
NotMax
@debbie
Yup. Always heard it was the hat, never anything else.
Although hamentaschen literally translates as Hamen’s sacks, but I’m not going to go any further down that avenue.
:)
Brachiator
@debbie:
Such a sweet, innocent belief. But probably more to it than this.
Not baloney and not a hat.
Even one lay person’s pop history notes:
One remnant of the roots of the festival is that Purim is one of the few holidays in which it was acceptable to have lots of fun and get drunk.
debbie
@Brachiator:
This sentence alone confirms the baloney of this theory:
We adopt nothing that is not already ours. Hats, period
ETA: The cookie itself is also highly symbolic; the most common interpretation is that they resemble the three cornered hat worn by Haman. (from a website named The Nosher)
ETA ETA: Wiki points out in its page on the origins of Judaism that the followers of Judaism were not the people described in your link
Lyrebird
@ArchTeryx: Woo hoo!
We currently live less than an hour away.
Brachiator
@debbie:
OK. Scholars debate this point, and there is no evidence for the historical existence of Haman or the other characters. But it is a fun holiday for those who observe it.
dww44
@Kay: What this tells me is that it’s the wishy-washy progressives who cause the ratings to go up and down. It’s not the GOP voters, cause I know that all the ones I know are not gonna give any kudos to a Democratic President under any circumstance. People like my sister who has been so “disappointed” in Biden since Afghanistan debacle are examples of the wishy-washy progressive/liberal voters.
We don’t have nearly the committed at all times Democratic voters and supporters as does the GOP. Also, we don’t have the gobs of dark monies they’ve access to. Those wealthy corporations who don’t like taxes under any circumstances..