Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I’m more christian than these people and i’m an atheist.

One lie, alone, tears the fabric of reality.

Fight for a just cause, love your fellow man, live a good life.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

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

the 10% who apparently lack object permanence

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

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

“I was told there would be no fact checking.”

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

Just because you believe it, that does not make it true.

Come on, man.

Nothing says ‘pro-life’ like letting children go hungry.

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

Washington Post Catch and Kill, not noticeably better than the Enquirer’s.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

America is going up in flames. The NYTimes fawns over MAGA celebrities. No longer a real newspaper.

This country desperately needs a functioning fourth estate.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

The “burn-it-down” people are good with that until they become part of the kindling.

You are here: Home / Politics / Biden Administration in Action / Thursday Morning Open Thread: Celebrate Progress, When We Can

Thursday Morning Open Thread: Celebrate Progress, When We Can

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… The dropping of that mandate is a huge victory for the USPS and a huge defeat for privatizers like the inexcusable Louis DeJoy. In 2006, something called The Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act forced upon the USPS a burden that applied to only the post office and no other government (or private, for that matter) entity. The law made the USPS create a $72 billion fund to cover its retirees health-care costs out 75 years. This guaranteed a paper fiscal “crisis” that was used to justify cuts in service and personnel layoffs. If you wanted to privatize mail delivery in this country, the mandate was an open runway to it.

Of course, in the last administration, DeJoy did everything he could to wreck both the USPS and its reputation, with the added bonus of screwing with the presidential election, which depended on mail-in ballots, something that the last president* and his party continue to demonize. In fact, in December, the USPS settled a lawsuit brought by the NAACP over what that organization saw as discreet ratfcking with mail delivery…

But even the hardest of Republican hardheads have constituents in rural districts who depend on the USPS to run their small businesses, or to get their medicines, or just to make sure Meemaw gets the card on her birthday. Hence, the whole bipartisanship thing, about which senators will crow for a couple of days before they start arm-wrestling again.

======

… Vladyslav Rashkovan, Ukraine’s alternate executive director at the fund, gave an emotional and deeply personal speech at the board meeting about the devastation caused by the war and its impact on its people, a source familiar with the meeting said.

His remarks were met with spontaneous applause, a rare event at such meetings. In its statement on the new funding, the board also expressed its “strong support for the Ukrainian people.”…

The disbursement under the IMF’s Rapid Financing Instrument (RFI), equivalent to 50% of Ukraine’s quota in the IMF, will help fund urgent spending needs in the short term, while helping to catalyze financing from other partners, the IMF said.

The RFI provides rapid funding to IMF member countries without the need for a full-fledged program. Members can tap the RFI repeatedly within any three-year period if the balance of payments need is caused by an exogenous shock, according to the IMF website.

It comes on top of $700 million disbursed to Ukraine by the IMF in December, and $2.7 billion in IMF Special Drawing Rights, or emergency reserves, that Ukraine received as part of an IMF allocation in August…


Speaking of funding…

Reader Interactions

276Comments

  2. 2.

    NotMax

    Honest, officer, I have no idea how they got there.

    A man who tried to slither past U.S. border agents in California had 52 lizards and snakes hidden in his clothing, authorities said Tuesday.
    [snip]
    Agents found 52 live reptiles tied up in small bags “which were concealed in the man’s jacket, pants pockets, and groin area,” the statement said. Source

    “I’m heavily invested in bitgroin.”

  4. 4.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    “The Russian disinformation campaign about the targeting of civilians, which I do not support, should be given as much, if not more,  visibility and weight as that given to Western neoliberal audio and visual coverage of war damage and statements of those affected by it.”

    -by Glenn Greenwald, probably

  5. 5.

    Ken

    “we did not make progress” in reaching a cease-fire, says Ukraine’s foreign minister

    Tricky to do when dealing with a party that thinks “humanitarian corridor” is the same as “target”.

  6. 6.

    Soprano2

    Selfish comment – maybe now I can start getting my mail earlier than 7:30 p.m. on some days. I feel so badly for that postal carrier….

    My feeling about the first Trump impeachment is that most people didn’t really understand what it was about in the first place, and have forgotten it ever happened.

  8. 8.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @NotMax:

    “It’s just my kink. I wasn’t smuggling anything. You don’t go nuts when you find vibes in people’s carryons, right? Same thing….”

  9. 9.

    Scout211

    I sure hope that this improves the postal service efficiency. Just in the last two months my mail-order prescription medicine was “missent” to South Carolina on the way from Arizona to California, a package to my daughter was “missent” to Texas on the way from California to Washington state and the most tragic was the order of 15 baby chicks from Iowa to California was stalled in St. Paul and arrived 3 days too late. They all died. :(

  12. 12.

    Kay

    This concerns me a little:

    As part of the plan, USPS adopted new delivery standards in October that slow some first-class mail deliveries, a move that allowed it to shift significant deliveries from air to surface transportation, cutting costs.

    The postal service doesn’t have large trucks for surface transportation- in contrast to say, UPS. UPS controls their whole operation, with their own people.
    Instead the postal service contracts that out and it’s the weakest link in the chain because they hire the cheapest, lowest bidder. If the mail hangs up, that’s why- it’s those contractors. The absolute worst result would be if quality continues to decline.

  13. 13.

    Geminid

    Antalya, the Turkish city where Foreign Ministers Kuleba and Lavrov met, is on the rugged southern Turkish coast. That was pirate country back in the first century BCE. Now Antalya is a vacation destination.

    It sounds like Turkish diplomats participated in the talks as facilitators. It will be some time before Russia and Ukraine agree to a ceasefire. They may never, but if they do Antalya would be as good a place as any to reach an agreement.

  14. 14.

    Nancy

    @Scout211: the clear intent of L DeJoy and privatizes.

    Sad, infuriating about your chicks. Very disturbing about mail order meds.

    I hope all improves.

  15. 15.

    sdhays

    @Kay: Sounds like an awesome opportunity to shovel taxpayer money and fees into companies like the one Louis DeJoy owns.

    What could possibly go wrong?

  16. 16.

    Gin & Tonic

    Got an e-mail overnight from a friend from Donetsk. He had gone to Kyiv for treatment of a heart condition – the clinic was in Irpin. He was due to go back home on Feb 24. Things changed. He managed to get out of Irpin as the Russians were shelling the evacuation corridor (I think everyone has seen the pictures of the bombed-out bridge.) Buses on the other side were full, so he ended up walking to Kyiv (which is a couple of hours.) Found shelter with a Territorial Defense squad, stayed for a few days, but he still has some underlying health conditions, so he made his way to Lviv, in the west, where he is now helping with services for refugees/”internally displaced persons.” Harrowing to read; I can’t imagine what it was like to live through.

  17. 17.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Geminid: At a news conference after the talks, Lavrov was apparently asked what other countries Russia plans to invade, and he said none, that it didn’t even invade Ukraine.

    Absolute peak Russia. Asked whether it was planning to attack other countries, Lavrov said: "We are not planning to attack other countries. We didn't attack Ukraine in the first place". Russia's other neighbours should probably start worrying pic.twitter.com/QrzvcQXM6H— Tadeusz Giczan ?? (@TadeuszGiczan) March 10, 2022

  18. 18.

    artem1s

    I seem to recall The Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act was also meant to break the largest union in the US. The first step in the privatization grift is always disenfranchise the workers, bankrupt the company and screw the workers again by stealing their pension. Raiding that 75B pension fund was always the end game.

  20. 20.

    Kay

    @sdhays:

    Well, to be clear, they’ve always contracted it out so the main system wouldn’t be DeJoy’s fault. I just don’t think they should lower standards. There’s a kind of workplace culture in the postal service that prioritizes first class mail and that’s a good thing. You really don’t want to start telling employees it can be 4 or 5 or 6 days. The USPS is usually between 5th and 7th in the world for quality of postal service delivery- it’s an unfair competition because the US is MUCH larger than the countries that come in the top five, we’re the best huge country :)

    But you don’t want to fall out of top ten, I would think. Just don’t lower standards! Almost always a mistake.

  21. 21.

    Geminid

    @Gin & Tonic: I was interested to see that Lavrov met Kuleba under Turkish auspices even though Turkey has resupplied Ukraine with it’s deadly TB-2 drones. I think if the Russians were more confident they would spurn Turkey’s assistance.

  22. 22.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    For the lulz, Vova is making economic proclamations intent on transforming Mother Russia into a glibertarian paradise. Income tax suspension on IT companies, suspension of lots of regulations, suspension of audits, a five year VAT moratorium in the tourism sector. Wants to spur “investment”.

    Kitai is gonna own the whole fucking thing since the ruble is a fire starter and the West is out.

  23. 23.

    p.a.

    CNET:

    “The bill also allows the Postal Service to offload some duties — like issuing passports and hunting and fishing licenses — to local, state and tribal governments.

    Perhaps most essentially, the legislation would wipe clean $57 billion of the agency’s debt and save it another $50 billion over the next decade.

    Amazon, Hallmark, Publishers Clearing House and many other corporations have supported the legislation, as have unions like the National Association of Letter Carriers and the American Postal Workers Union…

    Shifting postal workers’ retirement health benefits to Medicare could save the USPS about $5.6 billion through 2031, according to the Congressional Budget Office. But it would add $5.5 billion in Medicare costs, and probably more down the line, NPR reported…

    In addition, House Democrats pushed for provisions protecting mail-in voting in the bill, mandating electric mail trucks and restrictions on political donations by the postmaster general and the Postal Service’s board of governors.

    Those provisions were peeled away during negotiations”

     

    I also read that USPS will no longer issue money orders, a big $$$ maker for it, but can’t find confirmation that that survived negotiations.  Looks like no Postal Bank for ‘Murcans.  And you know the added cost to Medicare will become another talking point to kill it.

    But over all, a net +.  The pre-funding was a big negative f’ing deal.

  24. 24.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Gin & Tonic:

    Lavrov better love vacationing on Crimean beaches, because he’ll never be able to go to any other as long as he lives.

  27. 27.

    Kay

    @p.a.:

    I’m glad about the postal banking. I thought it was a terrible idea. It’s difficult enough to be a good public delivery company in this huge and complex country. Don’t make them do banking. They won’t do it well. There’s no connection at all between the core business of the postal service and banking, other than money orders and as every poor person knows there are cheaper and more convenient money orders than USPS money orders.

  28. 28.

    Jeffro

    Wordle in 3 and Worldle in 2 today – back on track after a ROUGH, rough day yesterday!  ;)

    More seriously: this piece by Milbank is a good one to pass along/post/retweet/whatever.  The level of two-faced, hypocritical, cynical GQP behavior continues unabated regardless of facts or ongoing national crisis

    For days, Republicans called for a ban on imports of Russian oil, a move that, while the right thing to do to counter Putin’s attack against Ukraine, would cause already high gas prices to rise even further. Biden did as Republicans wanted — and they responded by blaming his energy policies for spiking gas prices.

    It’s not only that the charge is bogus — the current price of gas has virtually nothing to do with Biden’s energy policies — but that the Republican officials leveling it are sowing division at home and giving a rhetorical boost to the enemy at a perilous moment when national unity and sacrifice will be needed to prevail against Russia.

    It goes on to note that gas prices bottomed out in April 2020 during trumpov’s epic pandemic mismanagement, that Keystone XL has nothing to do with current prices, that the oil companies have been engaging in record stock buybacks, and so on.
    You know, things the country would already know if we had our own Fox News, or barring that, a snooze media that did its job once in a while.

  31. 31.

    Jeffro

    @Kay: plus there are so many banking apps from the fintechs now, the idea of hoping that folks will somehow magically decide to start using the Post Office as a physical banking entity seems kind of quaint.

  32. 32.

    Geminid

    @Anyway: As a young man, Julius Caesar spent a few weeks at one of those coastal resorts. After he was ransomed, Caesar sailed back on a Roman warship and turned the tables on his kidnappers. He had them crucified.

  33. 33.

    lowtechcyclist

    @schrodingers_cat: Y’know, if I’d heard this from anyone else, I’d be inclined to take it at face value.  But because it comes from you, with your implacable hatred of ‘the Squad’, my first instinct is that there’s something you’re not telling us about why they voted against this.

    I’ll wait to find out what the real story is.  But you’ve got way less credibility with me than Reps. Omar and Bush do.

  34. 34.

    sdhays

    @Kay: I’m just noting that this sounds like another way to privatize the postal service since “bankrupt it and remove it as competition” has failed.

    A profit must be made, no matter the cost!

  38. 38.

    Betty Cracker

    @lowtechcyclist: I read something about it this morning, and Rep. Omar said she’s against banning Russian oil/gas/coal because it’ll hurt the people of Russia and Europe without having much impact on Putin personally. She says she supports other sanctions. I think it was the wrong way to vote, but I don’t think it’s because Omar supports Putin. She’s just wrong, IMO. As for Bush, I didn’t see anything on her rationale.

  39. 39.

    Betty

    @p.a.: That proposed amendment to eliminate money orders was from Republican Toomey and failed. He is 100% a Wall Street boy. Headed back there in a few months.

  40. 40.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Betty Cracker: At a time such as this, the fact that those two Dems joined the likes of MTG and Cawthorn and other RW rabble shows them up as pointless grandstanders.

    Edited.

  41. 41.

    Kay

    @Jeffro:

    Right. IMO it’s a weird misunderstanding of how poor people navigate. Cell phones. For everything. Just the hours of the post office alone are not at all aligned with their lives. It’s like this 1970’s version of poor people.

    I just think we tend to pile everything on our few remaining public entities and that will end with them not fulfilling their core purpose well. We’ve done that to public schools to a certain extent and it’s just not fair to them. They’re schools. They can’t replace an entire frayed safety net. They won’t do any of it well.

  44. 44.

    Kay

    @Jeffro:

    OTOH banks haven’t exactly helped their own case. Stealing from their customers is bad. Probably should have not done that. Some kind of market failure going on there.

  45. 45.

    Dee Lurker

    I am not around in the evenings to jump into the fray of Silverman’s threads, so I am dropping .02 here:

    I think it is a terrible idea to push for a no-fly zone or any escalation. The rationale behind this is simple: credibility. Unfortunately, gadflies like Greenwald (of whom I am convinced is a Russian intelligence asset) make a point: the United States has a credibility problem. Our actions in Iraq, specifically, harmed both our reputation and damaged global military escalation of force dynamics. We deliberately lied our way into an unprovoked invasion based on falsified intelligence. We used depleted uranium and white phosphorous extensively throughout the region. I saw first-hand how the US military ravaged civilian populations with airstrikes and artillery. Large-scale atrocities and war crimes were committed. Full stop. I operated in a region of Iraq around Haditha and oversaw the financing and building of 9 destroyed schools and 3 destroyed hospitals… each and every one forbidden such destruction by the Geneva Convention.

    Russia is pushing into that credibility through his brazen and desperate military tactics. This isn’t a madman… this is a calculated use of force that holds up a mirror to our own actions. If Russia or China had attempted to set up a no-fly zone over any portion of Iraq to aid resistance, the escalation would have led to MAD. Instead, they funneled weapons and aid through Iran which turned into a long resource-draining insurgency.

    This is the calculus we are stuck with. We have to engage in what actions we can in order to bolster our credibility as a rational international actor. The United States lacks the moral authority to engage this invasion more directly. This will mean containing the locus of conflict to Ukraine and engaging in proxy warfare… while simultaneously engaging in better psyops to maintain morale and boost credibility.

  49. 49.

    Steeplejack

    My recent USPS experience:

    Short version: Last Friday I mailed a check to my RWNJ brother in Las Vegas (oddball family business) from my local post office in Falls Church, VA. He reported that he received it Tuesday—four days. So far so good.

    Long version: My local post office is a small one in a strip next to a big supermarket. Sometime in recent history—but before COVID—it went to a schedule where it’s closed from 2:00-3:00 p.m. on weekdays for (I guess) a lunch break. I got there about 3:15 on Friday and found that the office was dark and the doors locked. (The doors also give access to an outer lobby that contains, or used to contain, post office boxes.)

    I hadn’t mailed anything in literally years, so I needed stamps. I ended up going to the nearby supermarket and buying a book of 20 Forever stamps. I stuck one on the check envelope and put it in the mailbox in front of the post office. The office was still locked and dark at about 3:30. Somebody had left a couple of priority mail envelopes propped against the door, as if assuming the staff would come back.

    I got on the Google today to see if that post office had further restricted its hours, but I couldn’t find anything. I did find a phone number, which I called. After the automated “do this, do that” messages I waited for a full three minutes while the phone rang for the “next available operator.” No answer, and I couldn’t tell if the call was actually going to the local post office (although it was a local phone number).

    Conclusion: No big point, just anecdotal evidence, but it seems significant that an “essential” government service would be sloppy on the hours. Next time I go to that shopping center I’ll check it out again.

  51. 51.

    Betty Cracker

    @O. Felix Culpa: That’s certainly one way to look at it, but I can think of circumstances where Dems took unpopular votes, joining with Republican shitbags who voted the same way for very different reasons. The vote against authorizing the Iraq War comes to mind.

    As I said, I think Omar voted the wrong way on this issue. I’m not her biggest fan in general. But she’s no MTG, Boebert, Gosar, etc. She’s wrong but not evil, IMO.

  53. 53.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Betty Cracker:

     But she’s no MTG, Boebert, Gosar, etc. She’s wrong but not evil, IMO.

    Honestly, I think that’s a distinction without a difference in this specific situation. I understand the strategy of allowing a few dissenting votes when you know you have an overwhelming majority. But when two and only two Dems align themselves with RW rabble against Russian sanctions in the midst of civilian slaughter, something smells putrid.

  54. 54.

    Edmund Dantes

    @p.a.: taking away money orders is a big deal. I hope the move to take away the postal service existing money order business got taken out of the bill.

  55. 55.

    Kay

    @Steeplejack:

    They could have closed for the afternoon period so the (one) clerk can deliver express mail. Express operates differently then the other services- it comes when it comes (carriers are already out) so the employee has to do “last mile” delivery to the final destination and if it’s a small office it’s often just one clerk in the afternoon because nothing else is going on in the afternoon. The mail’s already out with the carriers.

    But there’s no reason I can think of for the weird 3:30 closing.

  56. 56.

    germy

    “They just can’t help themselves,” Manchin quipped when asked by reporters after Biden’s State of the Union speech whether he was surprised by the president’s effort to try to use the moment to try to revive his stalled climate and social spending plan.

    “I don’t know where that came from,” he joked.

    “Nothing’s changed,” he said.

    “There might be parts they want to talk about. I don’t know. That was a little bit far,” he added, referring to the list of expensive Build Back Better items that Biden tried to put back on the table Thursday evening.

    Manchin also sounded skeptical about Biden’s claim that his Build Back Better plan will fight inflation by lowering costs.

    “I’ve never found out that you can lower costs by spending more,” he said.

    That answer prompted Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), who was walking alongside Manchin across the Capitol Rotunda and sat with Manchin during the address, to exclaim, “You can’t say it better than that.”

    But Omar is so horrible…

  57. 57.

    Betty Cracker

    @Dee Lurker: The Iraq War was shameful, but there are plenty of reasons to oppose escalation (as the Biden admin is currently defining it) aside from a lack of moral standing and U.S. credibility. For me, one of the most convincing arguments against it is that it would help Putin recover from his terrible blunder.

  58. 58.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @germy: Both sides! A lovely bit of whataboutism.

    Who says we can’t despise Manchin and the faux-progressives at the same time? Both serve to undermine true Democratic progress.

  59. 59.

    Geminid

    @schrodingers_cat: When this vote came up last night a Minneapolis jackal spoke of a primary challenge to Omar, announced yesterday by public safety advocate and former City Councilor Don Samuels. Samuels said that while he and Omar shared many policy positions he believed he would bring a more pragmatic and collaborative approach to the job. Some people go to Congress “to make points,” Samuels said, but he wanted to go to Congress “to make a difference.”

    The 70 year-old Samuels came to Minnesota from Jamaica as a young man, to study art. Observers note that Omar won her last primary by 20 points, so Samuels will face an uphill battle for the nomination. Multiple challengers might benefit Omar. The primary will be in August.

  61. 61.

    germy

    @Jeffro:  plus there are so many banking apps from the fintechs now

    “For that matter, why do we need public libraries?  Anyone who wants a book can simply order it from Amazon.”

  62. 62.

    Baud

    @Betty Cracker: I’m not that interested in Omar, but I don’t see a way to effective way stand up to Putin without hurting the Russian people unless we escalate militarily in Ukraine.

     

    @germy: Since every other Democrat is better than Manchin, does that mean no one can criticize any other Democrat?

  63. 63.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    To me what’s bad about it is all the other representatives are aware of these problems with sanctions. They know the sanctions will harm ordinary Russians who are not Putin. It bugs me that she’s implying “I alone see the moral problem with this”. It’s not fair to her colleagues.

    She’s just not making a decision – there are tradeoffs and everyone is aware of them. She doesn’t have to make a decision because the rest of them did.

    I don’t want to hurt ordinary Russians either. Does she have a better idea how to attempt to stop their leader?

  67. 67.

    Geminid

    @germy: Manchin and Sinema will be a pain in the ass until at least January 2023. I can’t wait that long to criticize members of the Squad!

  68. 68.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    interesting piece from the NYT, endorsed by Michael McFaul, who knows things, about how Putin’s inner circle has shrunk

    Mr. Kovalchuk has a doctorate in physics and was once employed by an institute headed by the Nobel laureate Zhores Alferov. But he isn’t just a man of science. He is also an ideologue, subscribing to a worldview that combines Orthodox Christian mysticism, anti-American conspiracy theories and hedonism. This appears to be Mr. Putin’s worldview, too. Since the summer of 2020, Mr. Putin and Mr. Kovalchuk have been almost inseparable, and the two of them have been making plans together to restore Russia’s greatness.

  69. 69.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Dee Lurker:

    “Unfortunately, gadflies like Greenwald (of whom I am convinced is a Russian intelligence asset) make a point”

    Delete your account. LOL

  70. 70.

    Betty Cracker

    @Baud: & @Kay: I agree. Someone on Twitter used chemo as an analogy — chemo sucks for the person receiving it, but it can help get rid of a worse problem.

  72. 72.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Kay:

    To me what’s bad about it is all the other representatives are aware of these problems with sanctions. They know the sanctions will harm ordinary Russians who are not Putin. It bugs me that she’s implying “I alone see the moral problem with this”. It’s not fair to her colleagues.

    She’s just not making a decision – there are tradeoffs and everyone is aware of them. She doesn’t have to make a decision because the rest of them did.

    I don’t want to hurt ordinary Russians either. Does she have a better idea how to attempt to stop their leader?

    QFT. Except that she did make a decision, which was to vote no.

    And the answer to your last question is also no. While Omar is not high on my list of concerns, her position is morally and intellectually dishonest and not aligned with the rest of the Progressive Caucus. I have much higher regard for Pramila Jayapal, who is not a fool.

  75. 75.

    topclimber

    Apparently this thread is in danger of being hijacked by those who are compelled to bash the squad and Bernie. Are we up to 100 iterations of this yet in the past year or two alone?

    In other words: BOOORRRINGGG!

  76. 76.

    Geminid

    @Baud: It will be an up hill  battle, as observers note. Evidently Samuels is a well known figure in Minneapolis politics, though. One of the commenters last night was represented by Samuels when he was on the Minneapolis City Council, and was quite enthusiastic about his Congressional candidacy. Samuels may have a chance if there are not too many challengers splitting the anti-Omar vote.

  77. 77.

    Ken

    @germy: I see a lot of ads for convenient apps that let you start spending your paycheck a couple of days before you get it. I haven’t looked into any of them, but I’m having a psychic flash — the phrase “interest rate” is somewhere in the service agreement, very near a two-digit number (and the first digit isn’t a 1).

  80. 80.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Baud: Are you sure? Bad as they are they didn’t help install the Orange President in 2016. The Vt Senator on the other hand relentlessly kept attacking the Democratic nominee long after he had ceased being a viable candidate for the nomination.

  81. 81.

    O. Felix Culpa

    Fuckerberg’s demon spawn remains true to form:

    Pro-Russia rebels are still using Facebook to recruit fighters, spread propaganda (WaPo)

  83. 83.

    Kay

    @Ken:

    There are real banking apps and lots and lots of lower income people use them. They use Ally and Chime. They get a debit card and it’s “fee free” – their pay is deposited electronically. I assume they’re collecting and selling their customers information to make money- they’re not getting it from people who keep a balance of 27 dollars- but they work really well. The postal service is just not going to be able to compete with that. They would contract it out, so you’d end up with a contractor who isn’t very good at it.

  84. 84.

    germy

    @schrodingers_cat:

    They’re making sure Biden can’t keep most of the promises he made in his campaign, so that’s something. You really got to hand it to pragmatic and collaborative centrist Democrats.

  87. 87.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    So Putin’s dad was NKVD and Putin was KGB, so that means some serious Communist indoctrination of the Stalinist variety. Putin likely just assume NATO / US are unconsciously sabotaging New Russia in much the same way Kulaks were sabotaging the Soviet Union by being more successful farmers (and the proof that the Kulaks were doing it was how the Great Famine started when the NKVD arrested them all)

    So it’s basically paranoid conspiracy theorists along with a serious black and white, good verses evil world view (were somehow, the US is the banner bearer of Atheism…)

    So the very fact that the US and Nato are openly talking about how to be sneaky those Migs is probably putting Putin into panic mode because, my god, if that’s what they admit to, what kind of truly awful things are the US and NATO doing Putin doesn’t know about?  So maybe why the new talks in Turkey.

    Or maybe Putin is more like Trump than we realized and McDonalds shutting down in Russia is more than Putin can bare.  Doesn’t Mark 8 say something like “What does it profit a man to gain  the whole world and not be able to have a Quarter Pounder with Cheese for dinner?”

  88. 88.

    Dee Lurker

    @Gin & Tonic:

    My principles? My principles would dictate we do whatever is necessary to stop the death of innocents. Unfortunately, part of that principle involves the potential for MAD… which is several factors more innocent death. And I am saying that we are not diplomatically in the position to dictate terms. Europe has to lead on this. It breaks my heart. Believe me. I have had to deal directly with families and communities torn apart by military violence.

    However, this hawkish push to escalate is not going to lead to peace and rainbows. And all the moral indignation in the world cannot bend reality to reflect the peace you and I desire in our hearts. Please refrain from lobbing such nasty rhetoric my way.

  89. 89.

    Baud

    @schrodingers_cat: No one has asked for my forgiveness.  But the effects of Manchin and Sinema’s obstruction have not played out yet, so it’s difficult to do a thoughtful comparison of “worseness” at this point (at least to the extent we’re considering downstream effects).

  90. 90.

    Baud

    @Geminid:

    I know it’s a heavy lift, but are you writing off the mid-terms.  If not, why is 2025 the firs relevant date rather than 2023?

    ETA:  Or are you just saying 2025 is the earliest they’ll be gone from the Senate?

  91. 91.

    schrodingers_cat

    @germy: I don’t care for either of them. I don’t think you can do better than Manchin in WV though.

    Democratic senators from red or purple states are  going to be to the right of many in the BJ commentariat. If you want to enact an FDR or LBJ like agenda you need Democratic majorities of that size.

    I know that math is hard but counting to 100 shouldn’t be that difficult. Our majority such as it is, is razor thin. (48+2 independents)+1

  93. 93.

    Mallard Filmore

    @germy: 

    “I’ve never found out that you can lower costs by spending more,” he said.

    But you CAN raise tax revenue by lowering taxes, right? Especially lowering taxes on the rich.

  96. 96.

    Dee Lurker

    @Betty Cracker: Sure, if we escalated it would turn into a west v. east propaganda win for Putin. However, it is important to note as a matter of truth, that our invasion of Iraq eroded both our standing and military doctrine. Is it any surprise that Putin uses rhetoric like “de-nazification” when we used “de-baathification”? Is it any wonder that Russian and Chinese propaganda is identifying western WMD in Ukraine as justification for its continued operations?

  97. 97.

    Baud

    @Geminid: Thanks. If we can actually get a couple of Senate seats, I hope and expect and hope that S&M will be less visible in the latter half of Biden’s first term.

  100. 100.

    Kay

    Interesting that the actual evidence that conservatives launching culture wars in public schools is a winner politically is REALLY thin:

    In Bedford, teacher Andrea Campbell unseated a conservative school board member, as town officials recorded a 36 percent increase in turnout.
    In Exeter, five left-leaning candidates held off challenges from opponents on the right, many by slim margins.
    And in Londonderry, voters opted against a warrant article that would have stripped away the authority of school officials to impose future mask mandates and made the wearing of masks optional for children and families.
    New Hampshire’s 2022 school board elections were supposed to be proving grounds for conservative frustrations around school policies, from spending to COVID-19-related restrictions to teachings about racial justice and diversity.
    Instead, Tuesday’s local elections appeared to deliver broad victories for progressive public school advocates, who argued against what they characterized as threats to traditional public schools from the right. In total, 29 candidates designated by progressive organizers as “pro-public education” won Tuesday night, many in traditionally conservative towns like Brookline and Londonderry.

    Democrats don’t have to be afraid of this. People don’t hate public schools. Every ten years conservatives say “now people REALLY hate public schools!” and then it turns out they don’t. Just randomly guessing but is it possible conservatives live in a kind of “hate public schools bubble” that is not representative of the actual country?
    I know that’s unimagineable and only liberal elites are out of touch- never conservative elites.

  101. 101.

    Baud

    @Mallard Filmore:

    Although Kay is right that Machin is now protecting the Bush tax cuts, I believe he did vote against those tax cuts, and I’m not sure he’s advocated tax cuts as a means to raise revenue.

  102. 102.

    Baud

    @Kay: The mainstream and social media obsession with the power of the GOP is what drives the fear, I believe, rather than facts on the ground.

  103. 103.

    Omnes Omnibus

    Just to chine in the incessant Squad stuff, I’ll just say call me when their symbolic votes tank a major Democratic priority.

  104. 104.

    Steeplejack

    @Kay:

    They could have closed for the afternoon period so the (one) clerk can deliver express mail.

    That might make sense. Back when I used to go there occasionally it seemed like they always had one or two people working the counter and someone possibly puttering around in the back office. Maybe they’ve reduced the staff.

    You used to be able to get into the outer lobby 24/7 to access the P.O. boxes and a stamp machine (which has removed several years ago), but in my Google research I saw a Yelp review complaining that the whole “suite” is locked outside of regular business hours now. Next time I check I want to see if they even still have the P.O. boxes. The restricted hours would really suck if you depended on having a box.

  105. 105.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Dee Lurker: “Nasty rhetoric”? I just want to know what’s an acceptable number of dead before “never again” becomes more than an empty slogan. 10,000? 100,000? 1,000,000?

  107. 107.

    topclimber

    @Geminid: If you and Cole were willing, I would love to see a front page post from you about why you think this. It is clear that you are knowledgeable about electoral conditions in many states.

    It is also clear we need to talk about winning 2022  more and relitigating 2016 less.

  108. 108.

    Geminid

    @Baud: After he voted against the 2017 tax cuts, Manchin said that the corporate tax rate was his sticking point. He was ok with dropping it to 27%, but 21% went too far. At least, that’s what he said.

  109. 109.

    Baud

    @Geminid: IIRC, Sinema was more of a pain when it came to tax increases in the BBB.  In any event, Manchin might think lower taxes are good policy, but has he adopted the Laffer curve theory that tax cuts increase revenue?

  110. 110.

    Kay

    @Steeplejack:

    I worked in this kind of circuit of small rural offices – which I liked, the moving around- and in very small places they don’t have “city delivery” so they have to give each resident a (free) post office box, which meant we had to be open because it’s part of the guarantee of universal delivery. I don’t know the rules when a PO Box is fee for service.

  111. 111.

    bjacques

    @Dee Lurker: ​
      Okay, I’ll address your point honestly.

    It looks to me like Biden is well aware of the beam in America’s eye, so you may have noticed that he, Blinken, and Austin only set policies and announce them after being sure the rest of NATO / EU / etc. are in agreement with them.

    It also looks like he’s not going to let the US’s evil past paralyze it from trying to do good. Having lied Iraq into ruins won’t and shouldn’t be a reason to stop Putin doing the same and worse in Ukraine.

    it’s been explained elsewhere why NATO will not try to enforce a no-fly zone over Ukraine, for very different reasons than yours.

    Anyway, you’re practically Gen. Curtis LeMay compared to a friend of mine on Facebook who thinks Ukraine must surrender immediately to survive this war and save millions of lives is to surrender. Well, he’s a friend and otherwise sensible, so I make allowances and simply explain to him, in simple sentences, why that’s a non-starter.

  112. 112.

    Geminid

    @topclimber: That’s nice of you to say, but I lack the technical skills to do a front page post, not to mention the work ethic.

    But I’ll keep on yakking away!

  113. 113.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Geminid: I don’t trust Manchin as far as I could throw him. I think he’s intellectually shallow and easily manipulated by the likes of Collins (said to be his closest friend in the Senate) and Romney (his SOTU pal, IIRC) just for starters, but I believe Sinema is the one who has said she won’t support any tax increases

  114. 114.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Omnes Omnibus: I don’t typically engage in whatever is meant by “incessant squad stuff” (which sounds more than a little dismissive). However, “symbolic” votes have meaning (otherwise why engage in them?) and in this instance, those votes undermined the unanimity of both the Progressive Caucus and the Democratic Party,  while offering no good alternatives. So calling out the only two Dems who voted with the worst of the Rs is appropriate, IMO.

    ETA: I agree that their votes had no impact on this particular outcome, however those votes show us who they are, and hopefully will inform voters in their respective districts to elect better representatives.

  115. 115.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    The school thing was funny though because it was so mainstream and it was NEVER backed up by polling. Polling on public schools is really consistent. It barely changed at all. Which to me shows how  resilient they are as a public entity, because obviously covid was a fucking catastrophe for them.

  116. 116.

    Dee Lurker

    @Gin & Tonic:  Oh for crying out loud, this is why I lurk.

    Yesterday, Greenwald tweeted:

    “Whatever else is true, we should know what these so-called “biological research facilities” in Ukraine are. Claims that they are benign and common are negated by Nuland’s grave concerns about the “materials from falling into the hands of Russian forces.””

    Do you not see past the nose of your moral outrage? Diplomacy is going to be the endgame. As far as acceptable casualties and “never again” rhetoric tell that to the victims of US aggression in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan.

    Not one innocent death is acceptable to me, ever. I take medication, in part, for the nightmares I have about the family I witnessed murdered by a missile strike based on false intelligence. However, I am not so ridiculous and internet-righteous as to project my moral framework on a reality that does not adhere to my ideals.

    Let me put this simply: the US is diplomatically eroded to the point that we are not in the position to prevent Ukrainian atrocities because our intervention would justify the end of all life as we know it. That is a truth and a moral calculus that you refuse to take with your hawkish armchair Patton bullshit.

    Back to lurking. Fuck this.

  117. 117.

    Geminid

    @topclimber: I’ll say this about the hard feelings left from 2016: I had my own problems with Senator Sanders and his role in that November’s dismal outcome. But I am a white, native-born cishet male, and I just do not feel these things with the intensity that others who were more gravely threatened feel them.

  118. 118.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    It is also clear we need to talk about winning 2022  more and relitigating 2016 less.

    Those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it. We forgot 2000 and we got 2016.

  120. 120.

    Steeplejack

    @Kay:

    I remember you have experience with tiny, “counter in the general store” post offices. Mine is not that small. It’s 22044, Seven Corners. The Google says that ZIP Code has a population of about 14,000. I don’t know how that compares in the grand scheme of things.

    Sorry to take anyone who’s still reading down the rabbit hole. I hadn’t had any recent experience (other than receiving my sparse mail at home) and thought it was mildly interesting.

  123. 123.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Geminid:

    But I am a white, native-born cishet male, and I just do not feel these things with the intensity that others who were more gravely threatened feel them.

    Thank you for saying this. Those of us who are not in that white, native-born cishet male category were then and remain now in the crosshairs of the fascists. Strong feelings about those who contributed to HRC’s loss are not inappropriate. People reacted badly to Cassandra’s warnings too, and we know how that turned out.

  124. 124.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @topclimber: I will not quibble about the word unanimity. I’ll settle for  questioning their intelligence and morality in opposing this bill.

  125. 125.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @O. Felix Culpa: I don’t disagree that those votes were wrongheaded.  I also fundamentally disagree with the DSA idea of getting out of NATO.  I am strongly internationalist and I also thing that, despite our fuck ups, the US must be involved in international leadership.  Sometime, because we are the 800 lb gorilla. we are the only country who can.  We just need to not fuck it up so much.  Not giving power to idiots (the GOP, isolationist leftists, Manchinema) would be a good place to start.

  127. 127.

    Betty Cracker

    @Dee Lurker: I agree the ruinous and pointless war in Iraq eroded U.S. standing, as it should have. But I don’t think the loss of moral authority is the best argument against escalation. The fact is, the U.S. has the military power to defeat Russia, whereas Europe alone does not.

    Also, to add to the point bjacques made at #111, Biden appears to have learned from past mistakes, and the admin is rallying NATO to deal with a threat on its doorstep rather than dragging other leaders into a faraway quagmire.

    This is a minor point, and maybe someone more knowledgeable about the regional history will correct me, but I suspect Russia’s use of “de-Nazification” precedes the U.S. use of “de-Baathification” by several decades. And if anything, the U.S. snipe-hunt for WMDs should undermine the use of that excuse for war rather than recommend it.

    But yeah, I agree, U.S. foreign policy is haunted by its missteps. How can it not be? I’m just glad the people in charge seem capable of abstract thought and learning.

  128. 128.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Dee Lurker:

     That is a truth

    No, it isn’t. That is your interpretation of conditions which are fluid. A month ago, cutting Russia off from SWIFT was termed “an act of war.” Russia was cut off from SWIFT. Did Putin push the big button? You seem to believe that *any* US action will provoke him. So are you assured that US inaction will lead him to refrain? Why? If Russia launches chemical or biological weapons – which they are clearly preparing the information space to do – will the US’s hands be tied by atrocities it committed in Iraq, or will it be able to do something then?

    My people are dying. I want that to stop.

  129. 129.

    montanareddog

    @germy:

     

    Manchin also sounded skeptical about Biden’s claim that his Build Back Better plan will fight inflation by lowering costs.

    “I’ve never found out that you can lower costs by spending more,” he said.

    That answer prompted Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), who was walking alongside Manchin across the Capitol Rotunda and sat with Manchin during the address, to exclaim, “You can’t say it better than that.”

    Yes, you can cut costs by spending more – it is called capital investment. But I get why Romney, who made his money as an asset stripper, and Manchin, who made his money as a middle-man, would not understand that.

  130. 130.

    Sure Lurkalot

    @Ken: I supported the idea of PO banking. Banks, payday “lenders”, even credit unions, make scads of money from those whose smaller balances can least afford the fees, reordering of transactions and other chicanery. To Kay’s objections (do what you know), I envisioned a separate but under the auspices agency to run the service and the ubiquity of post offices would get the service to lots of locations.

  131. 131.

    topclimber

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: First there is the assumption that Bernie and his ilk kept Hillary from winning.

    Second, those who insist on nursing grievances that prevent a maximum Democratic turnout in 2022 are doomed to be dumb.

  132. 132.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Dee Lurker: It might help you to be aware that G&T is a Ukrainian-American with many ties to Ukraine.  He isn’t playing “armchair Patton.”  Just a cautionary word.

  135. 135.

    Brachiator

    @O. Felix Culpa:

    While Omar is not high on my list of concerns, her position is morally and intellectually dishonest and not aligned with the rest of the Progressive Caucus

    He position is pretty consistent with liberal and progressive values. Haven’t other political leaders noted that the Russian people are not our enemies?

    Many sanctions are targeted at oligarchs, and not the Russian people generally.

  136. 136.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Besides the damage they’ve already done, the politics of Bernie and “the Squad” and… other charismatic but ineffectual politicians who inspire passionate followers here and elsewhere, encourage the kind of Green Lanternist One Weird Trick politics that historically have the effect of poisoning wells of small but electorally significant groups up voters by convincing them that their allies are actually their enemies. “Al Gore is a fraud!” “Obama didn’t even try!” “Hillary Clinton is worse than trump!” “Why doesn’t Biden just…!” “After four years of Bush trump, The People will see and rise up….!” “The DNC!”

  138. 138.

    Steeplejack

    @montanareddog:

    Yes, you actually save money by buying an expensive [thing] that lasts a long time vs. buying cheap versions that constantly break or wear out and have to be replaced.

  139. 139.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @topclimber: “Mea culpa on unanimity?”  LOL. ICWYDT.

    I wouldn’t go so far as mea culpa. I acknowledge that their votes made no difference to the outcome and unanimity is not a hard and fast goal in most circumstances. As I said in an earlier comment, strategic votes against a measure that has the numbers to pass have their place. Explain the strategic value of these particular “no” votes for this specific measure? As Kay asked, what was the better alternative they offered?

  140. 140.

    Geminid

    @topclimber: That election was so close that any number of factors could be said to have made the difference. The way Sanders and his followers conducted themselves can fairly be included as one of them.

  141. 141.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Brachiator:

    He position is pretty consistent with liberal and progressive values.

    Nope. Not with respect to this vote, it isn’t. Are you suggesting that the rest of the Progressive Caucus members (the majority!) and the Dems who voted for the measure don’t care about the impact on the Russian people, and she and Cori Bush–along with the RW rabble who voted against it–are the only ones who do?

  143. 143.

    geg6

    @Jeffro:

    You know, things the country would already know if we had our own Fox News, or barring that, a snooze media that did its job once in a while.

    And once again, I have to say that my local CBS station is doing the real work.  Watching again this morning, they had another segment about the gas prices here in PA, which went up about thirty cents overnight.  They noted GQPers trying to blame Biden but noted, as they did yesterday, that Biden’s policies have nothing to do with this and it’s all about the asshole in Russia being a warmongering dickhead.  They also noted that PA has the highest gas taxes in the nation and that maybe the GOP legislature might want to do something about that since our gas taxes are supposed to pay for infrastructure (the bridges in Pittsburgh and its environs beg to differ) and we have a ton of $$ sitting around from COVID funding that hasn’t been spent on anything at all and more infrastructure funding coming from the infrastructure bill.  Our gas tax is 40 cents per gallon.

  144. 144.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @zhena gogolia: I did not say that.  I was letting Dee Lurker know why G&T might be a little agitated?  I don’t agree with everything that G&T is calling for, but I can understand where he is coming from.

  145. 145.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Brian Schatz @brianschatz
    I’m still not convinced people remember that the first impeachment was about Trump withholding javelins and other weapons from President Zelensky unless he did a phony investigation into President Biden’s son, and that every Republican except for Mitt voted to exonerate Trump .

    My instinct is that for lots of regular people it was just a faraway place and a bunch of unfamiliar names and crime seemed like some sort of technicality. Turns out it was about the free world.

  147. 147.

    Kay

    @Sure Lurkalot:

    It’s just that banking has no intersect with what the PO does now, other than their brick and mortar locations, and brick and mortar locations are less and less important to banking.

    Buy one of the online banks and make it a non profit, or actually public, I don’t care. They don’t care about the brick and mortar location. They just want to move money like everyone else.

  148. 148.

    O. Felix Culpa

    I am not a military strategist and, thankfully (for all involved), don’t even play one on tv. That said, yesterday’s bombing of the children’s and maternity hospital just broke me. I hope that the EU, NATO, Biden, etc. have something effective in the works to stop this slaughter.

  150. 150.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Kay: I don’t see why they can’t do both. E-banking and the brick and mortar like most banks do. USPS could upgrade their website and will have nationwide brick and mortar locations. Why does it have to be one or another.

    I might be tempted to open an account at the post office.

  151. 151.

    James E Powell

    @O. Felix Culpa:

    Who says we can’t despise Manchin and the faux-progressives at the same time? Both serve to undermine true Democratic progress.

    I agree that we can despise, disparage, or dump on Manchin & faux-progressives not only at the same time, but in the same sentence; they both give me agita!

    The difference is that faux-progressives don’t have any impact on what happens in the congress; Manchin does.

    I just wish we could turn our efforts more to pushing our positives. This is an election year. The press/media are not going to help.

  152. 152.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @geg6:

    Carping on their votes when it has no effect on policy is the stupidest shit ever.

    With respect, haven’t we agreed in other discussions that optics matter? What are the optics of these two putative Dems voting with the worst–and that’s saying a lot–of the Rs? I agree that the measure passed without them, so no direct harm done, but their votes communicate something about the political acumen, intelligence, and moral clarity (or lack thereof) of those two individuals. Thankfully, it’s not the end of the world–yet. :)

  153. 153.

    geg6

    @Betty Cracker: ​
     
    You are absolutely correct about how Russia/USSR has used the “de-nazification” slur for decades, long before our massive fuck up in Iraq. Way long before.

  156. 156.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @James E Powell:

    I just wish we could turn our efforts more to pushing our positives.

    What fun is it being a Democrat if we can’t engage in a little friendly fire now and then? //

    I get a lot of messaging from the WH (not because I’m special, but I somehow got on their email distribution list). They are pushing the positive fast and furious. I hope that their messages get past the graveyard of my inbox.

  158. 158.

    Steeplejack

    @O. Felix Culpa:

    Don’t worry—we have plenty of military strategists on hand!

    Bittersweet announcement but after an amazing 2 years as an infectious disease expert I am moving on. I am now an expert in no-fly zones and Eastern European affairs. Excited to make the most of this new opportunity.

    — Robby Slowik (@RobbySlowik) March 8, 2022

  159. 159.

    Brachiator

    @Kay:

    I’m glad about the postal banking. I thought it was a terrible idea. It’s difficult enough to be a good public delivery company in this huge and complex country. Don’t make them do banking. They won’t do it well. There’s no connection at all between the core business of the postal service and banking, other than money orders and as every poor person knows there are cheaper and more convenient money orders than USPS money orders.

    Other countries have successfully done postal banking, and the post office branch system would let people have convenient access to banking services. In the past, the postal service was prevented from attempting to add any new services.

    It may be too late for the postal service to get into banking, but the need is still there. Lower income people are under-served and banks are even starting to cut back branches and services offered to middle income people.

    The “find a bank” option at the official FDIC site is pathetic. And although banking apps might be an alternative, there is no reliable guide as to which might be the best, most reliable, cheapest. There are, of course, tons of crypto currency services luring in suckers, uh, I mean investors.

    This is tax season. And I still see millions of unbanked people paying excessive fees for third party bank products, getting refunds via debit cards, or getting checks that they will have to take to high fee  check cashing services.

    Banks not only hate lower income people, they perversely fight to prevent traditional banking alternatives from being developed.

    Postal banking could have been a reasonable and viable alternative.

    But as I noted, wait for the howls when more middle income people lose face to face banking services.

  161. 161.

    Immanentize

    On a completely unrelated topic, except perhaps under the topic, “Pain In the Ass,”

    I had a pre-op meeting with my Colonoscopist yesterday. Does anyone else think it’s just wrong and nearly blasphamy to call the prep “Golytely?” Or is Tiffanys no longer a thing??

  162. 162.

    Kay

    @schrodingers_cat:

    Well, because they’re a delivery company. It’s a huge and completely different undertaking for them.

    To me it’s like saying “the library should start a low cost health clinic. All those locations!”

    There are exactly enough postal service workers to process and deliver mail. There are no spares hanging around to do the banking.

  164. 164.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @schrodingers_cat: I hear you. I have had to work with faux-progressives of their ilk on the local political scene, and we do not want their numbers to grow. They are profoundly destructive to the liberal cause.

    ETA: One way in which the local *lefties* caused harm was to constantly attack Democrats. (By which I mean lie about and smear, not put forward reasonable policy differences.) Which meant limited energy and resources had to be expended in dealing with their attacks. Curiously, I cannot recall a single case in which they attacked Republicans. Always and only Dems. Strange, that.

  165. 165.

    Jeffro

    @Kay: OTOH banks haven’t exactly helped their own case. Stealing from their customers is bad. Probably should have not done that. Some kind of market failure going on there.

    Market…failure?  Unpossible!  The market cannot fail, it can only be f…blah blah blah.

  167. 167.

    Immanentize

    @Brachiator: one summer I rented an apartment in Innsbruck, Austria (I was teaching at the Uni.) One day at lunchtime, the bell range and it was a messenger from the Austrian post office with an envelope with lots of cash for the guy who owned the apartment. I was gobsmacked. And no, I did not take a schilling.

  168. 168.

    Jeffro

    @germy: is that really an apples-to-apples comparison?  Was the Post Office going to offer free banking services of all kinds?

    C’mon now

  170. 170.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Kay: They have both economies of scale and scope. They can hire more people and increase hours. It can be done if there is  political will.

    India had a highly successful nationwide postal banking system when I was growing up. It had a reach that no bank had.

    It can be done.

  171. 171.

    Villago Delenda Est

    DeJoy needs to be fired, next.  Then other bad things need to happen to this self-dealing parasite filth.

  172. 172.

    Jeffro

    @Baud:  If we can actually get a couple of Senate seats, I hope and expect and hope that S&M will be less visible in the latter half of Biden’s first term.

    Pessimistically, I think that if the Dems win a couple of Senate seats, Sinema and Manchin will at a minimum start caucusing with the Rs and quite possibly change parties.

  173. 173.

    Baud

    @Jeffro:

    Doesn’t really matter.  My hypo wasn’t counting on their votes anyway.  The only question is whether the 50 we have left are willing to break the filibuster.

  174. 174.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Jeffro: I’m of the opinion that if Manchin were gonna flip, he would have done so.

    Sinema? who the fuck knows?

  177. 177.

    Baud

    @Immanentize:

    Everything is a big maybe.  I’ll be thrilled if we hold onto both Houses.  That alone would be huge given the conventional wisdom that the president’s party loses seats, and the history of GOP blowout midterm wins with our last two Dem presidents.

  178. 178.

    Jeffro

    @schrodingers_cat: I don’t see why they can’t do both. E-banking and the brick and mortar like most banks do. USPS could upgrade their website and will have nationwide brick and mortar locations. Why does it have to be one or another.

    Sure it could be both…but most banks and credit unions are closing branches, not opening them.  The younger generation has almost no concept of needing to walk into a physical bank, or even to use an ATM.  Even this old dinosaur (me!) deposits checks with his phone and uses PayPal now.

  179. 179.

    geg6

    @O. Felix Culpa: ​ Depends on the targets of the optics. If it’s their own constituents and/or the DSA or whatever progressive who are the targets, it does show that the progressive caucus is not a monolith. If it’s targeted toward the American people as a whole, I truly doubt that you could get even 10% of the population that isn’t already far left or far right who could even tell you who voted for what and how many Dems or GQPers votes which way.​ In other words, these votes are inconsequential in pretty much every way and we should all pay no attention to it.

  180. 180.

    Brachiator

    @Steeplejack:

    Bittersweet announcement but after an amazing 2 years as an infectious disease expert I am moving on. I am now an expert in no-fly zones and Eastern European affairs. Excited to make the most of this new opportunity.

    — Robby Slowik (@RobbySlowik)

    Oh I absolutely love this!

  184. 184.

    sdhays

    @Jeffro: Flipping to be in the minority is just stupid. If Manchin was going to do that, he would have already done it and gotten some benefit from still being in the majority. I think he’ll just be happy to be free to not be critical to anything anymore. Fewer people complaining about him and free to do whatever he needs to to win reelection (assuming that’s what he wants).

    As for Sinema, it’s hard to imagine her doing that if Kelly wins reelection, but I’ve concluded that she’s actually very, very stupid, so who knows what she might decide is a good idea. She doesn’t have a coherent plan for reelection in 2024, so for all we know, she’ll try to run on the Green Party ticket.

  185. 185.

    Baud

    @Jeffro:

    I didn’t say it wouldn’t matter.  As it stands, Manchin and Sinema are still better than any Republican, but they probably wouldn’t be if they caucused with the GOP.  But that wouldnt stop us, just like we wouldn’t have been stopped last year if those two had been team players.

  187. 187.

    Betty Cracker

    @O. Felix Culpa: IIRC, you’ve got lots of experience as a local party leader, so I’ll ask: is dumping on people like AOC and Sanders helpful to the overall cause of growing the party?

    I don’t think it matters on this blog — we’re mostly committed Democrats, and most of us are opinionated and not that easily offended. I don’t think what we say here affects the fortunes of the Democratic Party.

    I’m mainly curious about how it plays out in meat space. I’ve been involved in local party politics too. I’ve seen conflicts between party factions, and I’ve seen people overcome them. That takes tolerance on the part of all factions, IMO. It’s much less of an echo chamber than this blog is, and I am glad that’s the case. Otherwise, it’s not much of a coalition.

  188. 188.

    Jeffro

    @schrodingers_cat: thanks!

    Banks and credit unions are really, really concerned about payment apps and things like Chime, Apple Pay, Venmo, online mortgage companies, etc.  They have very little overhead (branches, staff, ATMs).

    The world is going to just get weirder and weirder to GenX like myself and older.  But it’s fun telling the kids how we used to have to fill out paper deposit slips, how novel it was to go through the drive-up teller window for the first time, rolling coins in paper sleeves, how ATM machines used to eat your debit card, etc etc.  =)

  191. 191.

    Baud

    @Jeffro:

    Ok, you did.  But then I don’t understand the rest of your comment.   I assume if we had Postal Banking, there would be online featurea with the convenience of a physical location in those rare instances they were needed.

  193. 193.

    dr. luba

    @geg6: To Russia, all it takes to be considered a “Nazi” is to oppose Russia.  In their story of WWII and Nazis, the Jews are not generally mentioned

    Thus Ukrainian Jews fighting Russia are Nazis…..

  194. 194.

    JML

    Re: Ilhan Omar: Narcissist gonna narcissist.  Don Samuels still has a lot of credibility in the black community in Mpls and he’s certainly got allies in other parts of the district, but he’s also got a fairly big chunk of baggage with him too. he’s a credible opponent to her, but in a lot of ways…I wish he wasn’t. Because I think he’ll lose, and in losing cement her further in place in that district and she just kinda sucks and does very little in helping solve the problem of the 5th District. She’s a clueless bomb-thrower, a selfish egotist, and while Samuels is 100% right when he says she’s in Congress for herself and not the District, I don’t think that wins that primary. Samuels represents a lot of old school politics of Mpls and voters have been running those electeds out of office for a while now.

  197. 197.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Betty Cracker: Good question. As a party leader, I studiously avoided publicly dumping on either wing of my party–either the right or the left. I was keenly aware of needing to keep as many as possible working together to the greater goals of winning elections and passing good legislation. Both wings made life difficult at times and I had to have many behind-the-scenes discussions.

    That said, the *lefties* were orders of magnitude worse in their nasty attacks and creating unwarranted and unproductive time-sucks. I’m not talking about people who support progressive policies that improve the lives of regular folk. I’m one of them! Based on my local experience, I believe that some of these hardcore *lefties* are not our friends and do not actually give a rat’s ass about doing something positive for the downtrodden.

    ETA: So, yes, we need broad-based coalitions and, in my limited experience, those coalitions are possible and effective. We need discernment to distinguish between varying political views within our coalition and those who just seek to undermine and destroy.

  199. 199.

    Immanentize

    @Baud: Did you see the analysis that gerrymandering ends up a “lean” wash Dems vs Reps? First time in dozens of years — since Tom Delay, Republicans were leading that battle. So, some hope.

  200. 200.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Why! I just got an email from Top Online Bank offering to help my maximize my savings!

    I believe I’ll open it and click on the links to further investigate this offer. Or maybe download some stuff to read later.

    @schrodingers_cat: me too, and I have a couple of bills from small local contractors that aren’t set up for on-line payment and it drives me crazy

  202. 202.

    jnfr

    My first full-time job was at the Post Office, a summer post while I was in high school. It was right after the big strike in 1970, and the union was very strong. There were still huge piles of not-yet-delivered mail in the corners, and the employment application still had an anti-Communist loyalty oath on it, but it was marked out and we weren’t required to sign it.

    I could easily have ended up at the P.O. forever if things had gone differently. It was a considered a really good job where I grew up. Instead I went on to my first, spectacularly unsuccessful attempt at college. Funny to think about paths not taken.

    https://aflcio.org/about/history/labor-history-events/great-postal-strike

  203. 203.

    J R in WV

    @schrodingers_cat:

    …they were among the 17 who voted against the ban….

    This vote is inexcusable.

    No vote that make no difference in the outcome is “inexcusable” — and these votes didn’t change the outcome of the bill at all. It was strictly a performance… who cares? Not I.

  205. 205.

    Brachiator

    @Jeffro:

    but most banks and credit unions are closing branches, not opening them. The younger generation has almost no concept of needing to walk into a physical bank, or even to use an ATM. Even this old dinosaur (me!) deposits checks with his phone and uses PayPal now.

    During the pandemic Bank of America “temporarily” closed some branches in my area in Southern California, and reduced hours at others.

    I needed to do some face to face transactions and located some branches with window service with my bank app.

    But what I found was a bank kiosk with an inside ATM and a couple of rooms with closable doors where you were expected to talk to a bank rep somewhere via a video screen.

    In the near future, only high income people will be able to get personal banking services.

  206. 206.

    Jeffro

    @Baud: fair enough…let me clarify a bit.

    I said

    Sure it could be both…but most banks and credit unions are closing branches, not opening them.  The younger generation has almost no concept of needing to walk into a physical bank, or even to use an ATM.  Even this old dinosaur (me!) deposits checks with his phone and uses PayPal now.

    If only I had italicized could .  Meaning, in an environment where banks and credit unions are closing more branches than they’re opening, a physical bank matters less and less to most folks (especially the younger they are).  That was – at least as far as I recall – the original rationale for postal banking: they’re physically everywhere, and if we could just tack on some additional services people need, why, we could offer a lot of low-cost banking services to the ‘unbanked’.

    Nowadays, branches are closing, people are using less and less cash, payment apps are everywhere – there’s less need for physical banking outlets.  And as Kay has noted, 1) poorer folks tend to do everything on their phones, and 2) the Post Office doesn’t have additional staff standing around, nor is banking in their main line of work.  (Yes, they could hire additional staff, I know, but my post office can’t even staff themselves up to their former level from just 2 years ago to deliver the mail).

    So…we could do postal banking, and it could be both physical and virtual.  But there’s almost no need for it to be physical anymore, and there are plenty of other companies already doing virtual banking and payment apps well (some, even at low cost to consumers).

  210. 210.

    Geminid

    @JML: It will be an interesting race, and it will be nationalized, at least so far as donations go. The Justice Democrats outfit that helped put Omar in  Congress in 2018 had the initiative in the 2020 primaries, but now “Squad” members like Ohmar, Bowman and Bush will have to work hard to keep their seats.

    But again, these incumbents may be helped by having multiple challengers, at least in districts where there is not a runoff or ranked choice voting.

  211. 211.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Betty Cracker:

    is dumping on people like AOC and Sanders helpful to the overall cause of growing the party?

    Was Bernie (and his cultists) dumping on Hillary Clinton and Debbie Wasserman Schultz (normies say “Who?” Berners shriek “Lady Voldemort!”), or for that matter Elizabeth Warren (remember the snakes?) helpful to the overall cause of growing the party? Is AOC(!) dumping on Conor Lamb and Joe Biden helpful to the overall cause of growing the party? Is Rashida Tlaib giving a rebuttal to the SOTU of a Democratic president in the name of a different (if barely existent) party helpful to growing the party? Is promoting the career of a shape-shifting, back-stabbing weasel like Nina Turner (“Hello Mercury Public Affairs Group!”) against actual Democrat Shontel Brown growing the party? Is pushing John “One Weird Trick In Work Boots and Work-Out Shorts” Fetterman growing the party?

    (am I being Spiderman again? that reference was a little too on-line for this old fart)

  212. 212.

    Baud

    @Jeffro: I agree that whoever wants to push postal banking should be ready to put forward data on who it will benefit and how it will benefit them, and the case needs to be made with something more substantial than general platitudes. I’m just not convinced that “young people use apps” by itself is a sufficient rejoinder to foreclose the concept altogether.

  213. 213.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Geminid:

    but now “Squad” members like Ohmar, Bowman and Bush will have to work hard to keep their seats.

    and I’ll bet they all accept the help of the evil DCCC and Nancy Pelosi’s PAC

  214. 214.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Jeffro:

    Meaning, in an environment where banks and credit unions are closing more branches than they’re opening

    That’s not the case in my very poor state, which has a large cash economy and many people who are unbanked. The local credit unions are building new branches like mad.

    I worked in microfinance, helping to extend financial services to people in developing nations. Telephone financial services like M-Pesa were advances, but you still need physical places for people (especially the very poor and many older people) to access and deposit cash. Neither Kenya nor the US are cash-free paradises like Scandinavia yet.

  215. 215.

    Scout211

    A “fine” example of a Republican politician’s “sincerely” held beliefs about the Russia-Ukraine war and how those strongly held beliefs are abandoned as soon as the local news station broadcasts them publicly.    Source.

    RALEIGH, N.C. — U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina told supporters he thought Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was a “thug”—a comment that runs counter to the overwhelming share of Republicans with a favorable view of the leader fending off a military invasion from Russia.

    “Remember that Zelenskyy is a thug,” Cawthorn said in a video obtained by WRAL. “Remember that the Ukrainian government is incredibly corrupt and is incredibly evil and has been pushing woke ideologies.”

    It was unclear where the video was taken. Cawthorn had a number of events in the state over the weekend.

    On Thursday afternoon, one hour after WRAL reported the comments, Cawthorn appeared to walk back his comments, saying on Twitter that Russian President Vladimir’s actions are “disgusting.

    “I am praying for Ukraine and the Ukrainian people,” he added.

  216. 216.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Scout211: and the very thirsty “Oh please Mr Trump! See me! Pick Me!” Nikki Haley

    Tim Miller @Timodc 2h

    Haley:
    1/26: “I don’t think Russia wants to go to war”
    1/31: “Biden should care about our own border as much as Ukraine”
    2/8: “What Russia’s really trying to do is get us to not allow Ukraine into NATO”
    Now: Biden didn’t take Putin seriously enough

  217. 217.

    Steeplejack

    @Jeffro:

    The world is going to just get weirder and weirder to GenX like myself and older.

    Inorite. I got a new debit card from my bank recently (the old one expired), and it felt flimsy and fake. I realized it was partly because it wasn’t embossed, like the old one. It’s thinner, looks and feels more like a hotel key card. Then I found myself trying to remember the last time I had a credit or debit card run through one of those imprinters (had to Google the right term!) that used the embossing to print the paper receipt(s). Been at least 10 years.

  218. 218.

    Kelly

    Wells Fargo closed it’s nearby branch a couple years ago. My 85 year old mother has had an account with them all my life. I think it was 1st National Bank of Oregon way back then. Many mergers ago. Fortunately I’m nearby and can help her use online banking. Otherwise she would struggle.

  219. 219.

    JML

    @Geminid: I’m also not sure that Don Samuels will have the energy and drive to do the organizing needed to pull out a primary challenge. Money just doesn’t do it for a race like this.

  220. 220.

    Brachiator

    @O. Felix Culpa:

     

    RE: Her position is pretty consistent with liberal and progressive values.

    Nope. Not with respect to this vote, it isn’t. Are you suggesting that the rest of the Progressive Caucus members (the majority!) and the Dems who voted for the measure don’t care about the impact on the Russian people, and she and Cori Bush–along with the RW rabble who voted against it–are the only ones who do?

    What I said about Omar does not suggest anything about other Democrats who voted.

    I am not in any way suggesting that Omar and Bush voted the way they did for the same reason.

    Has anyone interviewed Omar about her vote?

    I know that there are people who are always eager to jump to conclusions about her motivations. The reasons for her vote might not be acceptable, but people should at least be sure that they know what those reasons were.

    I have seen some hard core lefties insist that the West should avoid any action that might hurt the Russian people.

    Also I will note that some of these people fall off into a strange world in which they are unwilling to blame Putin for anything, but that is another issue altogether.

  221. 221.

    Jeffro

    @O. Felix Culpa: yes…credit unions, overall, are closing branches at a slower rate than banks.  Some will be adding branches but the overall net, nationally, is that they’re closing branches.

  222. 222.

    Jeffro

    @Steeplejack: LOL

    I used my card to ‘tap’ for a payment (as opposed to inserting the card or sliding it down the side of the reader) for the first time two weeks ago.

    Next up: embedding the chip in our fingertips, so we can just snap our fingers to pay for things.

    What’s that quote about ‘sufficiently advanced technology resembling magic’ again?  =)

  223. 223.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Brachiator:

    Has anyone interviewed Omar about her vote?

    I really need to get off my computer and get some actual work done. :)

    Elsewhere folks have cited Omar’s own words, stating (I paraphrase) that she voted against the measure because of its impact on regular Russian people. But, as Kay pointed out somewhere above, there are at least two problems: first, all the Dems knew this is an unfortunate consequence, but the stakes for Ukraine outweighed that concern; and second, she offered no alternative. So it was an empty moral gesture that wasn’t really all that moral.

    See @Kay at #63 for a succinct critique.

  224. 224.

    lowtechcyclist

    @schrodingers_cat: There have been dozens of times I’ve seen where Congresspersons on both extremes have voted against the same bill, even though the vast middle supported it.  Until recently, the reasons of each extreme for voting against would invariably be diametrically opposed.  That can still happen!\

    It is your insinuation that that’s not the case here (that’s what the ‘horseshoe’ stuff means, that the two extremes have come around to similar points of view) that’s dishonest in the absence of supporting evidence.

    So kindly make like a Russian warship.

  225. 225.

    Freemark

    @Geminid: The evidence for that is weak. The evidence that Sanders’ supporters actually increased votes for Hillary is actually stronger. But evidence for either positions is still weak. According to the WP between 6-12% of Sanders primary voters, not necessarily supporters of Sanders, voted for Trump. 24% of Hillary primary voters in 2008 voted for McCain. That indicates Sanders was much better than Hillary in getting their personal supporters to vote for the eventual nominee.

    Anecdotally, in Lancaster County, PA I was personally saw Sanders energize college students who never intended to vote to get involved. They ended up voting for Hillary where most likely they never would have voted at all if not for Sanders.

    Hillary’s own personal mistakes were much more important in the loss. Her campaign in PA for example was terrible. She completely relied on Trump to looking so bad that people would just vote for her. The on the ground organization was much worse than Obama’s and her advertising scheme was the worst I’ve seen from a Democrat in a Presidential race.

    The race was close enough you can blame anything your confirmation bias tells you to blame it on. You can even blame it on Obama considering approximately 8.5 MILLION 2012 Obama voters switched to Trump in 2016.

    People here, but certainly not most Democrats, like to blame Sanders because that is what they want to believe. Not because there is any real evidence for it.

    Personally I blame Comey and misogyny. But you all do you all because I know you will.

  226. 226.

    Brachiator

    @Kelly:

    Wells Fargo closed it’s nearby branch a couple years ago. My 85 year old mother has had an account with them all my life. I think it was 1st National Bank of Oregon way back then. Many mergers ago.

    I was at a local Bank of America branch when an older woman (rightfully) complained that the closing of a branch that she could easily walk to was a big inconvenience. She seemed to have a substantial savings account, but still the bank had closed the other branch and transferred her account. It was not worth it to them to keep the other branch open.

    Fortunately I’m nearby and can help her use online banking. Otherwise she would struggle.

    This is creating a new problem. Developers write apps for people with young eyes and nimble fingers. They do not always consider accessibility issues, which is really a shame and only adds to aggravation.

    ETA: The pandemic also saw a decrease in the use of cash.

    A nice little article with a useful chart can be found here.

    During the peak of the pandemic, I wrote a few checks, but did not use cash anywhere.

  227. 227.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Jeffro: Next up: embedding the chip in our fingertips, so we can just snap our fingers to pay for things.

    The Sharks and the Jets are in for a world of financial pain.

  228. 228.

    Geminid

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I don’t think Speaker Pelosi’s PAC will send much money to help the various Squad members. The DCCC might, but only if the members made the standard voluntary contribution to the DCCC from their campaign funds. The Squad members might not have.

    The six Squad members will not lack for money though. There is a formidable fundraising base on the left, and they take in a lot of “small dollar” donations. Some people, like FEC records researcher @LizBurgh, question this. They say that since candidate donations under $200 are not reported in detail, you really don’t know if a given $2700 is from 100 people scraping $27 out of their budget, or a trustfunder or mid-six figure income techie sending $27 a hundred times. Burgh calls this a kind of “dark money.”

    These skeptics note that Justice Democrats founder Saikat Charkabarti spent several years working for Stripe, an internet credit card transaction company which happened to be owned by the notorious Mr. Thiel. In the course of her sleuthing Ms. Burgh ran across a series of small dollar donations made by Chakrabarti and an associate in 2015 that she thinks was a dry run to see how the Federal Election Commission would count them. This was done the year before  Chakrabarti joined the Sanders campaign.

    This a very long story. Those interested can check out the fascinating Twitter accounts of @LizBurgh, @Justice Dem Watch, and @LeftSplintered. They put up some interested stuff, some well researched and some speculative.

  229. 229.

    Steeplejack

    @Jeffro:

    Oh, jeez, this new card is my first “tapping” one, and I’m still getting the hang of it. I look like the typical clueless old geezer as I bang it against the unit at the register trying to find the sweet spot.

  230. 230.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    You can even blame it on Obama considering approximately 8.5 MILLION 2012 Obama voters switched to Trump in 2016.

    Good lord

  232. 232.

    J R in WV

    @Betty Cracker: ​
     

    most of us [on Balloon Juice] are opinionated and not that easily offended.

    Say WHAT??? Not easily offended???

    What have you been smoking, we want some over here!!

    . . . . ;~)

  234. 234.

    Brachiator

    @O. Felix Culpa:

    But, as Kay pointed out somewhere above, there are at least two problems: first, all the Dems knew this is an unfortunate consequence, but the stakes for Ukraine outweighed that concern; and second, she offered no alternative. So it was an empty moral gesture that wasn’t really all that moral.

    It may have been an empty gesture, but I disagree that it was not moral.

  235. 235.

    JMS

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: you had me until Fetterman. I like him well enough and I’m a non radical Pennsylvania voter. This whole attempt to turn him into some kind of radical progressive misreads the situation. But maybe I just dislike Lamb. Strikes me as Manchin lite. Someone we have to put up with in that district but hope we could do better statewide.

  236. 236.

    Brachiator

    @Steeplejack:

    Oh, jeez, this new card is my first “tapping” one, and I’m still getting the hang of it.

    Card?

    Most places I tap my smart phone.

  238. 238.

    J R in WV

    @schrodingers_cat: ​
     

    I detest performance art as politics. YMMV.

    I’m not exactly fond of it myself. Inexcusable is a little past where I am tho.

    OT: The news that Russia regards anyone opposed to Russia as Nazis makes some sense, if they kept the actual Nazi holocaust on the down low after the war.

    Not that I’m willing to go along with that distorted and false view of WW II, nor with calling a nation with an elected Jew as president out as a Nazi regime — how wrong can you get??? In my book and in most cases, Russia needs De-Nazification far more than most other nations, starting at the VV top level.

  239. 239.

    Freemark

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    To make it clear I’m not blaming Obama. Just pointing out with a close race you can blame whatever your personal confirmation biases want you to blame. Even though I have no idea how you can vote for Obama and 4 years later vote for Trump. It causes mini-strokes in my brain when I try to understand it.

  240. 240.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @JMS: you’re on the ground, so I’ll defer to you as to his current politics, but I know he was a Sanders guy in 2016, and while I’ve been intrigued about his candidacy as a test of my own theory about (many) people voting for affect more than policy, something about him suggests to me he puts a lot of effort into just being himself. And the shotgun incident, both in itself and the way he’s handled it, makes me dubious about him, and his political chops

  242. 242.

    The Moar You Know

    People here, but certainly not most Democrats, like to blame Sanders because that is what they want to believe. Not because there is any real evidence for it.

    Personally I blame Comey and misogyny. But you all do you all because I know you will.

    @Freemark: I actually largely agree with you.  Sanders did not help AT ALL, but as far as being a cause of her defeat, I’d rate him and the DSA somewhere around #10 or so.  #1 by a HUGE margin is American misogyny.  The reason Juicers don’t bitch about that so much is simple:  there’s not fuck-all we can do about it.

    And we forget Comey.  That fucker didn’t put his thumb on the scales, he drove a car onto them.  Not fuck-all we can do about that, either.

  243. 243.

    schrodingers_cat

    @lowtechcyclist: So kindly make like a Russian warship.

    You have no arguments to make so you resort to name calling.

    I judge people by their actions not their words. In the case of yesterday’s vote Omar and Bush voted with the fringiest of the fringe right Republicans.

    For all their lofty rhetoric their actions help Republicans and in this case they voted in Putin’s favor. Those are the facts calling me names does not change them.

  244. 244.

    Geminid

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Fetterman may have backed Sanders in the 2016 primary but he campaigned for Hilary Clinton loyally in the general election. So I’ll give him that much.

    Probably not much more; he’s not my guy in that race. I’ll trust Pennsylvania’s Democrats to work it out, though, hopefully without too much hard feelings left after the May primary.

  245. 245.

    Soprano2

    @schrodingers_cat: I can’t get over Bernie’s people actively booing Hillary at the 2016 Democratic Convention, and his big name people out there trashing her. There was a lot of coverage of that, and honestly it didn’t seem like he did that much to put a lid on it – he didn’t encourage support of her nearly like he did of Biden in 2020. I think it galled him to no end that he lost to “that woman”, and he never got over it.

  246. 246.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: We’re having school board elections in April. We have two “anti-mask” “I believe in (certain) parent’s rights” candidates – one in particular uses the word “pragmatic” a lot, which to me is code for “we really need to cut all this unnecessary stuff like arts education to raise test scores 1%”. There are three candidates who I think would be OK – one of them is an incumbent. I hope and pray that the two “antis” don’t get elected, because that would mean the next school year will be full of that dumb CRT “culture war” crap if they join the two who got elected last year. They’re trying to be below the radar on it, but I can kind of read the code. One of them is on the warpath to make all the kids ditch the Chromebooks and go back to printed textbooks – evidently this is one of the right wing butt-hurt talking points.

  247. 247.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Soprano2: He is a ranty misogynist who hates immigrants and love guns. But he is the Progressive Jesus according to his cult.

    They channeled his disdain for HRC hence we saw little or no pushback from him.

  248. 248.

    Citizen Alan

    @schrodingers_cat:

    I genuinely don’t think we’ll ever recover from it.. Because SCOTUS is about to destroy the regulatory state which means not only will we not do anything to fix the environment, we’ll start doing things to make it even worse. We’ll have flaming rivers again in 10 years.

  249. 249.

    Kay

    There are pilots:

    USPS launched the pilot program on Sept. 13, which allows customers to cash payroll and business checks in the form of gift cards.
    For a flat fee of $5.95, customers can purchase a single-use gift card of up to $500, using business or payroll checks as payment. USPS won’t accept checks larger than $500, and won’t disburse cash for any checks.

    Oh, please, it’s horrible. It’s also somewhat disengeniuous for the proponents to say it’s about the “unbanked” when they see it as a revenue generator for the postal service.

    I get it- they value the postal service and they think if they expand services it will be less vulnerable to privatization. If you value it let it remain a delivery system. It’s not going to be a good bank and all this will do it take them away from a focus on their core purpose.

    Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.) joined Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) and Bill Pascrell (D-N.J) in April to introduce the latest postal reform banking effort.
    The coalition urged their colleagues to include a postal banking provision in the fiscal 2022 spending bill. The lawmakers said banking services would help the Postal Service generate $9 billion a year in revenue.
    Lawmakers have introduced many bills in recent years to expand postal banking, but USPS leadership hasn’t embraced these proposals as a viable way to address its long-term financial problems.

  250. 250.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Kay: I agree that the pilot is terrible. I agree with postal banking in theory and obviously it has to be a viable alternative to a real bank otherwise I don’t think its a good idea. The devil is in the details, as it always is.

  251. 251.

    Audrey

    @JMS: Given that Lamb has already voted for BBB, and supports eliminating the filibuster for voting rights etc. he’s already better than Manchin.  He seems more like Kirstin Gillibrand (in the being able to vote more progressively once they’re not representing smaller conservative house districts kind of way)   You like who you like, but at least let it be for real reasons. My opinion is it would be nice not to ask black voters especially to have to support the armed vigilante and who has no regrets about the event and could easily have wound up like the McMichaels and friend.  The fact that few of (maybe even none of ) his colleagues have endorsed Fetterman’s run also gives me pause…

  252. 252.

    Kay

    The proposals don’t even make sense. “Payday lending” is always used as a justification, so that means we’re not just talking about savings accounts, we’re talking about loans.

    You really want the postal service holding a bunch of high risk, uncollectable debt? Why would you do that to them? It’s not secured with anything. How are they supposed to collect it? Garnish wages?

  253. 253.

    NotMax

    @Brachiator

    While cannot speak to what’s going on with the mainland, can say with no chance of contradiction that I have accounts at two of the three different banks which have branch offices relatively nearby and when I go to one or the other (couple of times a month) there is never, but never, not a line of people inside waiting to transact business with a real live teller.

  254. 254.

    Eolirin

    @Kay: I think if you’re going to make this work, we’d need to create a federally run banking alternative and then just happen to co-locate access inside of post offices.

    You can shift revenues around however you want if you have enough votes. No reason why you wouldn’t be able to combine what are effectively two separate entities into the same revenue stream on paper, while limiting liabilities so they show up somewhere else. If it makes sense to have a federally run alternative to pay day lenders that’s something to try to figure out how to do.

  255. 255.

    Lyrebird

    @Kay: The proposals don’t even make sense. “Payday lending” is always used as a justification, so that means we’re not just talking about savings accounts, we’re talking about loans.

    My limited understanding is that postal banking would let people cash their paychecks without a big fee rather than having payday lenders being the only option they can reach, but I don’t know.

  256. 256.

    JaySinWa

    @Steeplejack: i was beating my credit card against the display at a gas station before seeing the taped on instructions pointing to the sensor below. I hadn’t filled up in a long while, I used to know this stuff.

  258. 258.

    Brachiator

    @NotMax:

    and when I go to one or the other (couple of times a month) there is never, but never, not a line of people inside waiting to transact business with a real live teller.

    You be lucky fella, I guess.

    Have the banks been open throughout the pandemic?

  259. 259.

    Ruckus

    @Scout211:

    My meds travel about 45 miles from the VA pharmacy to me. Takes about 4-8 days from shipping.

    My gas and electric bills travel about 8 miles from me to both companies. It takes about 6-9 days.

    Before SFB’s designated fuck up took over none of this took more than 3 days. I’m wondering how long it will take to fix his bullshit? And how much it will cost us. Fucker should be stuffed in a mail bag and left to rot in some very hot, very dry rattlesnake spa.

  260. 260.

    Kay

    @Eolirin:

    I’m fine with that. I worked for the postal service. I think they’re great. They won’t be great at banking.

    Just do no fee savings accounts with a debit card and an upper limit so the facility won’t have to keep a lot of cash on hand. Keep it simple.

  261. 261.

    Ruckus

    @topclimber:

    ridiculous is no where near the correct word(s) here.

    Not within the width and breadth of Webster’s largest dictionary are their enough words with definitions not allowed to be said on TV are there strong enough words to describe this.

  262. 262.

    JaySinWa

    @Freemark:I have no idea how you can vote for Obama and 4 years later vote for Trump. It causes mini-strokes in my brain when I try to understand it.

    I think there was a “change your luck, babe” vibe going on for both of them. Brought out the gamblers.

  263. 263.

    Brachiator

    @Kay:

    The proposals don’t even make sense. “Payday lending” is always used as a justification, so that means we’re not just talking about savings accounts, we’re talking about loans.

    Banks don’t even put branches in low income areas. This is similar to supermarkets and pharmacies not servicing low income areas.

    Checking account and other fees imposed on low balance accounts eat people alive.

    Low income people filing tax returns who do not have banking accounts have their refunds eaten up with bank product fees if they get checks or debit cards for their refunds.

    If they opt to have a check sent directly by the federal or state government, they still have to pay extra fees if they use a check cashing store.

    None of this has anything to do with payday loans.

    I noted earlier that the official FDIC site is unhelpful in helping people find a neighborhood bank, and less helpful in finding banks with low fees.

    As far as I can tell, the FDIC site is useless for finding online banking information.

    By sad contrast, I can open a Robinhood account and start trading in crypto currency in a heartbeat.

  264. 264.

    NotMax

    Brachiator

    Have the banks been open throughout the pandemic?

    Yes, although hours of operation were truncated for a while and a limit placed on the number of customers allowed inside at any time, which is also no longer in place. Plus a kupuna (senior citizen) hour was instituted early in the day; that hour has since reverted to its former status.

  265. 265.

    geg6

    @schrodingers_cat: ​
     
    Honestly, do you live in either of their districts? Are you intimately familiar with their districts? Perhaps they are doing exactly as their constituents want. I have no idea, myself. But I don’t really give a damn about their posturing since it has absolutely no effect on anything. Not even “optics.” No one cares but them, you and perhaps their constituents.

  266. 266.

    geg6

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: ​
     

    Is pushing John “One Weird Trick In Work Boots and Work-Out Shorts” Fetterman growing the party?

    Guess you think Tom Wolf is some sort of kook who is in no way helpful to the party since he pushed the man you call a one trick pony into office. Fuck off with this shit. Fetterman is currently the front runner for the Dem nomination and has been an excellent Lt. Governor. Don’t put him in the same box as performance artists. He has actually done a lot of work for people here and when you say shit like this, it just proves you know nothing about him or Pennsylvania. At all.

  267. 267.

    Ruckus

    @germy:

    Difficult to say she is, but.

    She seems to be a willow, willing to sway with whatever breeze blows her whatever way on any given day.

    He’s a rethuglican in disguise. Runs as a democrat, sits with the democrats, yet seems to have absolutely no interest in actually being a democrat. He’s more like a profiter. Which ever side wants to give him the most is the way he goes. Doesn’t have to be money, just the most of whatever at the time. Could be power, could be blowjobs, could be money, could be selling more of that wonder drug, coal.

  268. 268.

    geg6

    @Geminid: ​
     
    Having worked hard to get both candidates elected, I can say with some confidence that there will not be too many hard feelings. Neither candidate would be down with that, for sure.

  269. 269.

    Brachiator

    @NotMax:

    Yes, although hours of operation were truncated for a while and a limit placed on the number of customers allowed inside at any time, which is also no longer in place. Plus a kupuna (senior citizen) hour was instituted early in the day; that hour has since reverted to its former status.

    OK. We had a lot of this in Southern California, including senior hours.

    Also, as I noted, some branches “temporarily” closed, and some have not come back.

  270. 270.

    geg6

    @Audrey: ​
     
    The “vigilante” won multiple elections as mayor of a borough with almost 67% Black voters. Long after the gun incident. Just saying.

  271. 271.

    NotMax

    @Brachiator

    Thinking back on very early into the pandemic, when masks were hard to come by.

    Went to a bank branch with a limit of three allowed inside at any one time. Outside, spaced six feet apart, was a string of people with bandanas over their lower faces. Looked like a waiting line to sign up for Bank Robbery 101.

    :)

  272. 272.

    Geminid

    @geg6: That’s good to hear. I’m sure there will be disappointment among some Pennsylvanians. It’s the people outside the state who will get the most bent out of shape.

  273. 273.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @geg6: huh. Seems to me a better counterargument would be to name some of things Fetterman has done as an “excellent lieutenant governor” and describe some of that work. But, “politics is the art of anger, subtraction and FUCK OFF!” is a school of thought, too

  274. 274.

    Ruckus

    @Brachiator:

    I haven’t been to my bank in over 4 yrs. I can deposit a check online, my SS is direct deposit, I use a well known pay app everywhere that accepts it, which is most stores, I haven’t spent cash other than the laundry at my apt and that just went to a rechargeable card instead of quarters. The reality is that other than needing some level of credit to have the money to spend with a phone app – which is my only credit card. I use a bank as a holding center for my money. One can shop pretty much anyplace without cash or a physical card. Even when I had my bike shop 10 yrs ago 98% of people paid with credit card and 2% cash – no checks accepted.

  275. 275.

    schrodingers_cat

    @geg6: By that token why comment about any other Congressperson or their votes even if I am not in their district. I am sure even Cawthorn and Boebert are completely in line with what their districts want.

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