Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Mediocre white men think RFK Jr’s pathetic midlife crisis is inspirational. The bar is set so low for them, it’s subterranean.

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

President Musk and Trump are both poorly raised, coddled 8 year old boys.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

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

Well, whatever it is, it’s better than being a Republican.

This chaos was totally avoidable.

Balloon Juice, where there is always someone who will say you’re doing it wrong.

Oh FFS you might as well trust a 6-year-old with a flamethrower.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

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

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.

I desperately hope that, yet again, i am wrong.

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

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Another Big Joe Biden Deal: Postal Reform (LIVE) at 4:15 pm

Reader Interactions

79Comments

  1. 1.

    Fair Economist

    The Biden administration, along with Congressional Democrats, has had a *lot* of home runs. This was yet another one of them.

  3. 3.

    SiubhanDuinne

    As POTUS #44 Barack Obama told NBC’s Peter Alexander yesterday, “We have a lot of good stories to tell. We should tell them.” Paraphrasing, but that was the gist.

    Postal reform is but one of those stories.

  4. 4.

    trollhattan

    Considering how many decades Republicans have been gutting USPS this was long, long overdue and again, Biden surprises with his ability to get the unlikely, done.

  7. 7.

    germy

    Here’s how the WaPo describes it:

    Biden is expected to sign the Postal Service Reform Act, a cornerstone of Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s controversial 10-year restructuring plan

    (bold mine)

  10. 10.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @germy:

    DeJoy apparently, from what I’ve read, endorsed the Postal Service Reform Act and wanted it passed into law. Of course, I’m sure he’d like some good press to make himself look good, so who knows if he really did.

    I’d like to know why Biden’s Postal Board nominees have evidently backed DeJoy. He was supposed to be removed

  14. 14.

    Spanky

    @germy: I have long wondered about the supposedly professional lawmen protecting Trump. And iirc, he hand-picked them.

  16. 16.

    Martin

    Shoigu visited China and N Korea looking for missiles. China said no. NK said yes.

    Not a good sign for the long term prospects of the Russian military. China continues to offer moral support and nothing more.

  17. 17.

    germy

    Homeless man saved 4 girls in that horrible shooting in Sacramento. He huddled them in the doorway where he slept blocking them with his body, so they would not be shot. The family is trying to find him so they can give him a helping hand up and off the street. His name is Tim.

    — Native4life (@Native4life3) April 6, 2022

    They found him.

  22. 22.

    Geminid

    @Gravenstone: One of the six Knesset members from Bennett’s party is defecting and leaving the broader coalition. The Times of Israel reports that Netanyahu has offered her a position in a new government and 10th spot on the Likud list in the next election.

    This seems likely to bring down the 8-party government that Foreign Minister Yair Lapid cobbled together last June. It’s not clear that Netanyahu will be able to form a new govenment. The 60 MKs in opposition include 7 MK’s from the Arab Joint List and they wouldn’t give Netanyahu the time of day. He has to peel away 8 coaltion members from Bennett and Lapid.

    The Knesset is on a month’s recess, so we probably won’t know how this ends for awhile.  The likely outcome is another election, which would be the fifth in four years

  24. 24.

    trollhattan

    @germy:

    Oh shit.

    I ride downtown where death by light rail is easy, and not uncommon (not knowing what kind of train was involved in this instance).

  25. 25.

    germy

    @trollhattan:

    It happened in Montclair, NJ.  I haven’t been there in about twenty years.  I assume rail has been updated and expanded.

    I guess we’ll know more details soon.

    When I first heard the news I just assumed it was a careless driver hitting him, because that’s more common.

    A release from NJ Transit on Tuesday reported that a train on the Montclair Boonton Line struck and killed an adult male on a bicycle Monday evening “prior to” the Watchung Avenue station between its 8:59 departure from Hoboken and its scheduled arrival in Hackettstown at 11:07 p.m. 

  27. 27.

    trollhattan

    @germy: “Some call me ‘Tim.'”

    One of the victims was a homeless woman who typically slept on 10th. There were at least five shooters and all appear to be gang members, so now we have that to contend with (early reports had it as a spree shooting, not a shootout). One of the dudes in custody is named Smiley, who has one fewer thing to smile about.

    We need new writers.

  28. 28.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Martin:

    I’m going to assume NK can’t meet Russia’s needs. It’s interesting (and good news!) that China is refusing to provide Russia military aid like that

  29. 29.

    Elizabelle

    @germy:   Such a sad, sad story.  We need more Eric Boehlerts.  Tragic to lose such a good guy, so young.

  31. 31.

    Martin

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Well, this might be a case of China giving missiles to NK to give to Russia. But that’s risky – the US has a good chance of detecting it. But assuming that doesn’t happen, then yeah, Russia’s job is to export that stuff to everyone else, not import it. Imagine the US going to Australia because we ran out of missiles.

  32. 32.

    Yutsano

    The Democratic party has a record to run on. They actually have gotten some decent legislation done even with Sinemanchin being a thing. Not all of the promises have been fulfilled but it ain’t over just yet.

    What accomplishments do Republicans have? Voter suppression, gerrymandering,* and CRT panic. Other than an unpopular tax giveaway in the previous administration, I can’t think of one major legislative accomplishment Republicans have.

  34. 34.

    Gin & Tonic

    Sitting here killing time in ATL, observing people walking by. The only unmasked assholes I’ve seen have all been crackers.

  35. 35.

    Baud

    @Yutsano:

    We were only a couple of Senate votes short on a lot of good things. I hope voters will continue down the path instead of reverting to the old cycle of disfunction.

  37. 37.

    Sure Lurkalot

    Peter Thiel and Rebecca Mercer join their prodigious bank accounts to undermine democracy.

    We really need to tax these cheats to smithereens. Supposedly the IRS got the Mercers’ hedge fund to pay almost 7 billion in BACK taxes via a recent settlement; they had been outstanding for years. Thiel sheltered something like $5 billion in a Roth IRA, apparently a favorite vehicle of many. Or use your stock holdings as collateral for a line of credit to fund your lifestyle…bingo, zero income tax owed!

    No one needs or deserves tens of billions of dollars . If these people weren’t  sociopathic in the quest of it, the acquisition and hoarding of it typically makes them so.

  38. 38.

    Mart

    Biden needed to get the Post Office some money to replace the $2M a pop urban sorting machines. Dejoy hoped by destroying would disrupt Dem mail in voting during a pandemic.

  41. 41.

    Spanky

    @Sure Lurkalot: The ability to acquire multiple billions of dollars requires sociopathic traits. The “treatment” that should be required of them should include the relieving them of most of it.

  46. 46.

    Cameron

    @debbie: A Russian cunning plan – they’ll let the Ukrainian military capture all this stuff, in the hopes that they’ll try to use it.

  52. 52.

    sab

    @Dan B: Wabbit in Scots doesn’t mean “rabbit” mispronounced. It means a whole other word, “tired, exhausted, rundown.” Variations on the same

    ETA None of you meant that, but there the word is.

  53. 53.

    NotMax

    @sab

    Brings up the question if one is subject to incarceration now for saying “Gaelic” (or, cosmos forfend, speaking it) in Florida.

    //

  54. 54.

    JWR

    O/T:

    F*cking T***p judge strikes again. (ETA. Politico link.)

    Following a two-day bench trial in U.S. District Court in Washington, New Mexico engineer Matthew Martin was acquitted Wednesday on four misdemeanor charges by U.S. District Court Judge Trevor McFadden. Martin claimed that he thought the police had allowed him into an entrance near the Capitol Rotunda on Jan. 6, 2021.

    McFadden said that, based on video of the scene, that assertion was at least “plausible” and that prosecutors failed to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt.

    “People were streaming by and the officers made no attempt to stop the people,” said the judge, an appointee of President Donald Trump.

    Note to insurrectionists, hope like hell your case is heard by this judge.

  55. 55.

    Anyway

    @Yutsano:

    Apples and oranges. Rs don’t care about legislative accomplishments. They have the supreme court and super-majority in a number of state leges. Tax cuts and deregulation for their crony buds–that’s it.

  56. 56.

    sab

    @NotMax: In Florida, when in doubt, speak Spanish badly.  Pisses off everyone. I had Spanish since second grade. But my  Midwestern mother had a speech impediment where she couldn’t pronounce any kind of “r”.  All came out “w”. She couldn’ t even pronounce her own married name. We kids laughed, because kids are mean. But it still meant I pronounced  “r” badly if at all.

  59. 59.

    Cacti

    Covid numbers going down, job numbers up, unemployment down, Afghanistan war over.

    Biden and the Dems have kept lots of promises.  Congressional Dems just need to get over their tendency to apologize for existing any time a Republican raises their voice.

    Hell, Biden has kept so many promises, the corporate media had to move the goalposts to “what about gas prices”.

  61. 61.

    Wapiti

    @debbie: I expect the NK engineers and weapons boffins see Putin’s war as an opportunity for weapon testing in a place it doesn’t matter (to them).

  63. 63.

    Chris T.

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    DeJoy apparently, from what I’ve read, endorsed the Postal Service Reform Act and wanted it passed into law. Of course, I’m sure he’d like some good press to make himself look good, so who knows if he really did.

    I’d like to know why Biden’s Postal Board nominees have evidently backed DeJoy. He was supposed to be removed

    DeJoy is bad.  But he’s not all bad.  Not 100%.  Maybe 80, 90%? ? In any case he does know to avoid losing gobs of money in some business, and the postal reform helps out with that.

    I suspect the biggest thing DeJoy doesn’t quite “get” is that government services are not about making money.  We-the-people are not shareholders demanding a profit, we’re citizens demanding a service.

  65. 65.

    Roger Moore

    @Fair Economist:

    The Biden administration, along with Congressional Democrats, has had a *lot* of home runs. This was yet another one of them.

    I don’t know that postal reform classifies as a home run, but it’s at least a solid base hit.  If we’re going to follow the metaphor, you can score a lot of runs without a home run if you keep chipping away with less dramatic hits.  I feel like it’s the constant demand we swing for the fences and ignore the solid but less spectacular stuff that’s part of the reason our voters are disappointed all the time.

  68. 68.

    Ohio Mom

    Just saw this elsewhere in blogtopia (actually, Twitter):

    “Pres. Biden’s nominees to the USPS Board of Governors (yes – the body with the sole power to fire DeJoy), have FINALLY been sent to the full Senate. The Senate must confirm them; then the board must fire DeJoy. Restore public trust in the postal service!
    DeJoy deserves deJail.”

  72. 72.

    Origuy

    @sab: In Britain, the preferred pronunciation is GAL-lick, which is the way it’s pronounced in the Scottish Gaelic language. In Ireland, and for some reason Nova Scotia, it’s pronounced GAY-lick, the Irish pronunciation, I think. When I was in Cape Breton, the Gaelic area of Nova Scotia, it was explained to me that they were using the English pronunciation when they were speaking in English. You will hear GAY-lick in England; not so much in Scotland.

  75. 75.

    Villago Delenda Est

    This is good, but what would be better is that vile double-dealer DeJoy and his cronies all fired.

  77. 77.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Roger Moore:

    feel like it’s the constant demand we swing for the fences and ignore the solid but less spectacular stuff that’s part of the reason our voters are disappointed all the time.

    Well said. It’s one of the reasons I oppose maximalist sloganeering. It promotes the idea among its intended audience– especially the young, those who think like the young, and those who convince themselves that talking like the young will make them less old–  that anything less than everything is nothing. Worse than nothing: It’s a betrayal!

  78. 78.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: “Maximalist sloganeering” is one of the problems MLB has, with more lively balls and more home runs.  Sure, it’s “exciting” for those who are not hard-core baseball fans, but it detracts and diminishes the strategy of the game.  Same problem with the DH, even though I’m a monstrous fan of Edgar Martinez.

  79. 79.

    wombat probability cloud

    Ailing pet here, so very late to the site. What’s painful to me about the current trajectory of this is the pathetic proportion of the new postal vehicles designated as fully electric. Here’s a low-hanging-fruit opportunity to push the US infrastructure into high gear in response to climate change and we–WTF–opt for 10%-20% non-electric up front? My senator (not RJ) oddly is not pushing hard on this, despite that it looks like many of the vehicles won’t be built in Wisconsin. Any insight on this from other BJ’ers?

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