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Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!

An almost top 10,000 blog!

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

Consistently wrong since 2002

You passed on an opportunity to be offended? What are you even doing here?

There are some who say that there are too many strawmen arguments on this blog.

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

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

At some point, the ability to learn is a factor of character, not IQ.

With all due respect and assumptions of good faith, please fuck off into the sun.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

They want us to be overwhelmed and exhausted. Focus. Resist. Oppose.

If a good thing happens for a bad reason, it’s still a good thing.

We will not go quietly into the night; we will not vanish without a fight.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

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

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

You are either for trump or for democracy. Pick one.

Innocent people do not delay justice.

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

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

This chaos was totally avoidable.

You are here: Home / Politics / Biden Administration in Action / Friday Morning Open Thread: Earning Their Weekend

Friday Morning Open Thread: Earning Their Weekend

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On the flip side, some people don’t deserve a nice weekend…

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93Comments

  2. 2.

    OzarkHillbilly

    On the flip side, some people don’t deserve a nice weekend…

    You are not one of those people, Anne. You do the good work.

    eta: Oh yeah, Blech.

  4. 4.

    NotMax

    Slightly reticent about asking because of rhymes-with-lowbid, so consider this a tentative feeler as to whether or not folks may be interested in a B-J meet-up.

    Planning to travel to NYC area August 24th through September 8th. Most popular days in the past have been on weekends, so that would mean a choice of

    Friday, August 26
    Saturday, August 27
    Sunday, August 28
    Friday, September 2
    Saturday, September 3
    Sunday, September 4
    Monday, September 5 (Labor Day)
    .
    Preference as to a date? Also too, afternoon or evening?

    In all likelihood will be repeating this comment periodically in random threads over the next several days.

  6. 6.

    jonas

    I hope Dems and allied PACs have a strategy to really hype the Medicare rx cap heading into the midterms. It’s a BFD and for a demographic group that also tends to vote in fairly high numbers. Make it clear that *none* of this would have happened in GQP-controlled Congress.

  10. 10.

    Kay

    Bloomberg has some substantive coverage of womens health care. Hard to find:

    The effects of this erosion of women’s health care are difficult to quantify. There’s no national survey of postpartum complications—hospitals don’t track them, and neither do insurance companies. “It’s hard to know what women are going through after childbirth, because no one collects data,” says Julia Interrante, a maternal health researcher also at the University of Minnesota, which has one of the best-regarded maternal health research programs in the US. The only real number to go on is one ominous figure: how many women die.
    For every 100,000 women who give birth in Germany, fewer than 4 die. In Canada, the figure is 8; in the UK, a bit fewer than 9. In the US, the number is 24. In 2020, 861 women died because of pregnancy or childbirth. That may not sound like a lot, but according to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, for every death, an estimated 70 other women barely survive. This means that in 2020, an additional 60,270 women in the US suffered life-threatening medical complications, many of which could’ve been prevented if they’d had better access to care. Ranked against other countries by the World Bank, the quality of maternal health care in America is no better than in Latvia, Moldova, and Oman.

    Texas. They don’t fund prenatal or maternity or post natal care for women, but they are sending tens of millions of dollars in public money to religious/GOP groups to open lavish fake clinics where women have to accept religious/political indoctrination in order to “earn” a package of diapers.

  12. 12.

    NorthLeft

    WTF Jake Tapper?  Bipartisan accomplishments for Congress?

    Is he being purposely obtuse?

    These pundits just can’t give the Dems any credit, or conversely, criticize the Rethugs. Truth be damned.

  14. 14.

    eclare

    @jonas:   Yep.  I worked on my mom for years, telling her as someone on Medicare, Democrats were her friends.  She finally agreed and started voting accordingly around 2004.

  15. 15.

    Immanentize

    @NotMax: I would be! My classes start on Aug. 29, so best weekend is the one before labor day weekend. But that one might work too.

  17. 17.

    Sure Lurkalot

    @jonas: Tie the Medicare drug cap to the GOP plans to make SS and Medicare spending discretionary (a la Rick Scott, Ron Johnson) and maybe a few of that subset will get off the koolaid and realize how nice it is to eat and have healthcare.

  18. 18.

    kindness

    Sinema says she’ll support the reconciliation bill.

    I wonder what she got from Schumer?

  22. 22.

    Geminid

    @Curtis: The Senate will take up the Inflation Reduction Act tomorrow, and that will start a long process: 20 hours of debate and hours of voting on amendments. The final vote might not be until Tuesday, maybe Wednesday. I’ll have my fingers crossed until then.

    Then the bill will go to the House. Speaker Pelosi says she has the votes to pass it, and I think she does.

  23. 23.

    ...now I try to be amused

    @jonas:

    I hope Dems and allied PACs have a strategy to really hype the Medicare rx cap heading into the midterms. It’s a BFD and for a demographic group that also tends to vote in fairly high numbers. Make it clear that *none* of this would have happened in GQP-controlled Congress.

    A conservative friend of mine had to restructure his entire life financially to pay for the hideously expensive drug he needs to live. I hope the new law helps him. I intend to ask him if it has after it takes effect. If it has helped him then I will break my rule never to mention politics to him and say what you said above.

  25. 25.

    Anyway

    OT — Did y’all know that a bagel cost $2.20?!!! That is for ONE bagel! When did that happen?

    PS At least 3-4 years since my last bagel purchase. I’m something of a bagel snob and rarely buy them outside the hallowed confines of NYC. This was for someone with more lax standards …

    $2.20 — is this the inflation everyone’s complaining about?

  27. 27.

    Geminid

    There is a long profile of Senator Raphael Warnock in Politico Magazine this morning. It looks pretty good

    The title is, “There has never been anybody like this in the U.S. Senate,” the words of Senator Cory Booker.

  32. 32.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Sure Lurkalot: Hey now, I just read a headline somewhere where Johnson said he would never do such a thing. You don’t actually think a sitting Republican US Senator would lie to his voters, do you?

  41. 41.

    Ken

    @NorthLeft: WTF Jake Tapper?  Bipartisan accomplishments for Congress?

    Plus he’s completely ignoring the major legislative accomplishments of the Republican congress just four years ago. Well, accomplishment.  No wait, accomplishments, we’ll count each of the different tax cuts as an accomplishment.

  43. 43.

    Ken

    @Anyway: $2.20 — is this the inflation everyone’s complaining about?

    Yup. I suggest you budget accordingly — since you’re buying one bagel every three years, try to set aside 1.4 cents a week. Maybe 1.5, to allow for three years of inflation before your next purchase.

  44. 44.

    Immanentize

    @Anyway: Bagelsaurus in Cambridge: 2.50.

    But I think that includes the insurance for when you cut your hand slicing it in half.

  47. 47.

    Geminid

     

    @OzarkHillbilly: Yeah, that’s what I meant. With the recent death of Representative Warloski Democrats have a 5 vote margin in the House. There doesn’t seem to be any opposition in the Democratic Caucus to the bill, just misgivings about what is not in it. Plus many members will not be happy about the potential expansion of fossil fuel extraction from public lands, but I don’t think that will sink the bill.

  50. 50.

    NotMax

    @Anyway

    As I make my own bread, lug a 25 lb sack of bread flour home from Costco about thrice yearly. For years and years price held steady at $6.99. Then late in ’21 it became $7.99. Last month, $12.99. Same brand each time, so cannot point a finger at a difference there being part of the change.

  53. 53.

    Ken

    @Baud: Sir, I thought we’d discussed this. No endorsements until the check clears. The Baud™ branding is your most important asset.

  54. 54.

    NotMax

    @Immanentize

    Perhaps some of your students might find this guy’s readily digestible videos of some utility as a springboard for discussion or contemplation. If nothing else his manner and presentation is engaging.

  55. 55.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Geminid: Well, I’m not happy about “the potential expansion of fossil fuel extraction from public lands” either but most DEMs understand that if a bill is 90% good, that’s better than the 0% good we’d get if nothing got passed. I have faith.

    If I’m wrong, it won’t be the first time, or the last.

    @Gin & Tonic: Nyah nah na nyah nah.

  58. 58.

    Baud

    @Geminid:

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I don’t like it either.  But:

    1. “OMG Gas Prices!” has proven that we can’t be successful long term if gas prices are high because people will turn  to the right rather than the left in response.
    2. Recent events have shown that we do need to rely less on Russia and the Middle East for oil and gas.
    3. As you noted, all the other good stuff in the bill.
  62. 62.

    Geminid

    @Baud: One item I don’t like will ease permitting of the “Mountain Valley” pipeline. It would be a 42″ diameter pipeline that to carry natural gas from West Virginia to close to the North Carolina seacoast. I always figured the owners have exporting gas in mind. But the pipeline still might not get built anyway.

  65. 65.

    Baud

    @Geminid:

    I don’t know how that staisfies the Byrd rule, but whatever.  I think there are some good things that also were iffy on the Byrd rule that may have also passed muster.

  67. 67.

    Ksmiami

    @Kay: I read that harrowing article yesterday. Thank you for linking and the one thing that helps is Michael Bloomberg is a pretty tireless supporter of Planned Parenthood and women’s rights in general. But yes, outside of cities, TX is a total cluster&?!

  68. 68.

    H.E.Wolf

    @Alison Rose 💙🌻💛: Really lovely video about the plans to honor President Obama’s mother at the Obama Presidential Center. There will be an art installation and water garden designed by Maya Lin.

    @eclare: @Alison Rose 💙🌻💛:   I saw that yesterday, her Vietnam memorial is one of the most powerful things that I have ever seen.  Knee-shaking powerful.  I trust that this will be beautiful.

    Yes to your comments. Ms Lin’s Civil Rights Memorial is also a powerful and moving work. Linked video: 1st half is an interview, 2nd half is the memorial in use (like the Vietnam Memorial, it’s meant to be touched) : https://vimeo.com/124643902

  69. 69.

    Chris Johnson

    My understanding with Cipollone (largely from Beau of the Fifth Column) is that he wants to be subpoenaed because he’s sick of Trump and didn’t like what Trump did, but he’s protecting executive privilege as part of his office. So he’s been invoking privilege not because he’s any sort of Trump fan, but because he has to be asked the right way to produce the right legal precedent, at which point he is all in and will cooperate completely.

    I could be wrong, we’ll see. It’s a process thing, not him being a Trump troll. It seems like he was not a Trump troll, but got steamrolled and surrounded by clowns, bozos and Giuliani. This would mean that when he flips and is satisfied with the ‘I want to do it, now make me do it’ factor, he’ll be setting down good precedent for handling this sort of thing.

  72. 72.

    Anonymous At Work

    NOT ONLY will prosecutors be able to challenge “executive privilege” claims, the claims will be referred to the current Chief Executive (Biden), AND there won’t be a Liz Cheney or Adam Kinzinger in the room whose ego that prosecutors have to continually stroke.  So the questions will be direct and there won’t be protection behind “I’d rather not”.

  80. 80.

    Chris T.

    @Immanentize:

    But I think that includes the insurance for when you cut your hand slicing it in half.

    Why would you cut your slicing hand, and how do you cut it in half?

    (/s? “Left, right, and gripping hand”?)

  81. 81.

    TallTom

    @NotMax: ​
      With the Russian invasion of Ukraine ( a huge supplier of wheat to the world market ) , the global price of wheat increased by about 40%

  82. 82.

    lowtechcyclist

    @OzarkHillbilly: ​
     

    If Pelosi says she has the votes, she has the votes.

    This. Has she EVER not had enough votes when she said she had them? I’m not as into the adulation of Nancy Smash as some people here are, but this is one part of her job where she is flawless.

  84. 84.

    Captain C

    @NotMax:

    Friday, August 26
    Saturday, August 27
    Sunday, August 28

    I might try to make it if it’s one of these dates, as I’m having oral surgery on the 29th (joy).

  87. 87.

    Ohio Mom

    @zhena gogolia: Bagels have also grown in size. They are at least twice as large as they were in my youth.

    Which is amusing since most of the things you remember from your childhood, you remember as larger: the snow was deeper,  the hills higher, the seasons longer…

  89. 89.

    Soprano2

    @eclare: Nothing has ever affected me quite like seeing the actual Vietnam memorial did. Just thinking about it  makes me want to cry; it’s probably the most emotionally powerful thing I’ve ever experienced, except perhaps a few of the musical works I’ve performed in. My husband did a rubbing of a name from it, someone he knew who was killed. All he would say to me about it was that the man shouldn’t have died. It’s ironic how beloved it is now considering how much controversy there was when it was first constructed.

  90. 90.

    Dopey-o

    @Soprano2: Nothing has ever affected me quite like seeing the actual Vietnam memorial did.

    I saw the Memorial and was immediately taken back to the Illiad, all those warriors trapped in the underworld, forgotten in eternal darkness. Same as it ever was.

    All those young lives wasted in a pointless unwinnable war. Same as it ever was.

    Maya Lin is not flashy, but goddam, she is one our best architects. Suzanne may have more to say on this.

  91. 91.

    J R in WV

    @Soprano2: ​
     

    I agree. A friend/co-worker and I were in DC, well VA actually, for an Oracle DBA class, and he dragged me downtown to see the Wall after class one day. I cried quite a bit, which was why I didn’t want to go, I knew I would.

    Amazing, December in DC, cold, snow whipping around, dusk, there were still a couple other folks there. Was really moving. I found someone with my unusual last name, actually. Perhaps a distant cousin.

    Designer Maya Lin is a genius!!

  93. 93.

    Tom Q

    @NotMax: As one who already had COVID (mild case, thanks to double-vax/booster), and caught it from an indoor dining experience, i ‘d suggest finding an outdoor/street venue this time.

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