Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

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

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

The words do not have to be perfect.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

He really is that stupid.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

People are complicated. Love is not.

Conservatism: there are some people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

“Squeaker” McCarthy

Not all heroes wear capes.

You are here: Home / Politics / Biden Administration in Action / Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Hard-Earned Victory Lap!

Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Hard-Earned Victory Lap!

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Not just President Joe, either…

Readership capture:


Fuck the fucking NYTimes:

The president returned briefly from vacation to sign a bill that passed the House and Senate on party lines after more than a year of fraught negotiations…

For months, it appeared Mr. Biden might not have any such bill to sign. Despite winning bipartisan victories on funding for infrastructure — including roads, bridges, water systems and high-speed internet — and an industrial policy bill meant to counter China, the president had been unable to bring his party together on a final bill to carry as much as possible of the rest of his economic agenda using only Democratic votes.

But a last-hour compromise struck between Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, a Democrat and the majority leader, and a holdout centrist Democrat, Senator Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, paved the way for the agreement to go forward. Mr. Manchin, Mr. Schumer and other lawmakers joined Mr. Biden at the signing on Tuesday…

Cope & seeth, Villagers…

Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Hard-Earned Victory Lap!

Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Hard-Earned Victory Lap! 1

Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Hard-Earned Victory Lap! 2

Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Hard-Earned Victory Lap! 3

Reader Interactions

94Comments

  3. 3.

    Baud

    The NYT is garbage but I’m not sure why that excerpt is offensive, except to make the whole thing seem lucky rather than the product of hard work and perseverance.

  4. 4.

    bbleh

    “… every single Republican in the Congress sided with the special interests in this vote … every single one voted against tackling the climate crisis.”

    Nah.  Every single Republican voted “AAAAARRRGGHHHHH #@$%&@$! fkDemocrats&Biden&Pelosi&AOC&Hillary fkfkfkfk SCREEEEAAAAMMM!” and then stomped away.

    They are the Asshole Toddler party.  They act like assholes and toddlers, and their asshole toddler followers respond positively.  No need for deeper analysis.

    (And yeah FTFNYT.  More than one article positively dripped with “[sniff] well I suppose that’s something but really not very good and there are still problems …”)

  6. 6.

    germy shoemangler

    I thought I’d read somewhere about improvements Biden is making to the Post Office but I can’t find a story anywhere.

  9. 9.

    Patricia Kayden

    I’m loving how Brandon is going!! Let’s go Brandon!!

    President Biden is a leader unlike the Clown who preceded him. I am still hoping that he can persuade Manchin to pass the police reform and voter protection bills passed by the House.

  12. 12.

    mrmoshpotato

    @germy shoemangler: Well, when your predecessor commits multiple felonies and is a traitorous asshole…

    But the FTFNYT forgot that.  I guess the hamsters in their heads got tired.

  13. 13.

    MagdaInBlack

    Ya know, I don’t read the NYT, other than what folks post here, and I don’t feel at all less informed because of it.

  14. 14.

    germy shoemangler

    @germy shoemangler:

     

     
    I found this thread:

    Louis DeJoy has effectively been neutered as postmaster.

    Thanks to Biden's picks to USPS, his key allies are off the board, replaced with labor leaders and other qualified experts, and USPS is already starting to rescind some of his policies like his gas-guzzling truck order.

    — Matthew Chapman (@fawfulfan) August 11, 2022

  16. 16.

    Betty Cracker

    The Sarlin tweet featured above, “Biden better enjoy” blah blah blah, was retweeted and answered by AP politics reporter Nick Riccardi, who said, “Didn;t [sic] you hear election is over and Ds won, there were a couple of senate polls showing that”.

    Our democracy is teetering on the abyss. The press plays a critical role in determining whether it stands or falls, and these juvenile Beltway wankers keep showing us again and again that they are just NOT up to the fucking job.

    I don’t want hagiographic coverage of Biden or any other POTUS from the press. The parties have PR and marketing teams, and partisan fandom communities can create social media affinity groups to share that sort of content.

    But for democracy’s survival, it is absolutely essential for the press to provide fact-based coverage of how people’s lives are affected when politicians exercise power. We’re getting childish twaddle instead. It’s a massive problem.

  17. 17.

    Suzanne

    Can I just note how much I adore and desperately miss BHO?

    This is, indeed, a BFD!

    Can we have some new Obama/Biden memes? They can be Biden/Obama memes now!

  18. 18.

    ChicagoPat

    Obama tweeting “This is a BFD” and Biden responding “Thanks Obama” may be the funniest thing I’ve ever seen on Twitter.

  20. 20.

    Danielx

    It’s root canal day! I have taken my little blue pill (no, not THAT kind) and wii be off to dreamland in an hour.

  28. 28.

    p.a.

    Beside the wave of ‘policy*’ whackjobs winning Rethug primaries being a help for Dems in the midterms, the whackjobs seem much less likely to maintain the infamous Fox/Rethug soundbite uniformity.  The party insiders are trash too, but they do have the discipline to stick to whatever the day’s Fox meme is.  The newcomers are just loons who seem to puke out whatever ‘thought’ passes through their lizard brains in real time.  This loss of consistency should help Dems too.

    *policy being whatever interpretation they make of tRumps emissions as they are emitted.

  29. 29.

    Betty Cracker

    @Baud: If it was just dumb tweets, I wouldn’t give a damn, but it leaks into the “hard news” coverage. Hell, this garbage is what passes for hard news coverage on the politics desk these days.

    It’s a shame Pierre Omidyar tried to “fix” journalism by lighting a billion dollars on fire instead of using his influence as a mogul for something useful. Like maybe convincing media outlets to rotate reporters who cover foreign capitals through the Beltway beat every couple of years.

  30. 30.

    Ken

    @p.a.: policy being whatever interpretation they make of tRumps emissions as they are emitted.

    Sort of like the Delphic Oracle, if you replace the rotting corpse of the Python with Trump, and Ancient Greek hexameters with incoherent repetitive babble.

  33. 33.

    Brachiator

    Biden: “Let’s be clear: In this historic moment, Democrats sided with the American people, and every single Republican in the Congress sided with the special interests in this vote …

    I loved this statement. It cut through all the calls for bipartisanship that the media and the GOP loves to peddle.

  34. 34.

    Another Scott

    @Baud: “The baseball that Biden hit over the fence emptied the bases for now, but the ball is falling to earth and the next batter faces the prospect of not doing as well…”

    It’s just stupid false bothsiderism.  But it’s what they do.

    Take the win, celebrate it, and build on it.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  35. 35.

    oldgold

    Besides the usual excuse that justice grinds slowly, but grinds exceedingly fine hokum, does anyone have any information as to why Matt Gaetz has not been indicted, other than he is a prominent Republican?

  37. 37.

    Soprano2

    @germy shoemangler: Yet another example of the press acting as if they have no agency in the matter, and are compelled to cover TFG obsessively just because. We all know they do it because it gets them eyes and clicks.

  38. 38.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    @oldgold: If i had to guess, its because he married the minor he trafficked, so now she can’t be compelled to testify against him.

  41. 41.

    Immanentize

    I generally cringe (at least) at cultural appropriation. But making “Let’s go, Brandon!” A Democratic fight cheer is the type of taking and trolling I am here for!

  44. 44.

    David 🌈☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    “The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist the media is liberal”

  45. 45.

    Baud

    @Betty Cracker:

    I remain somewhat amazed that, aside from some talking heads on MSNBC, there’s no media outlet that caters to mainstream liberal Democrats. There’s dozens of us, I’m sure.

  49. 49.

    Ken

    @Baud: Definite “Assumes facts not in evidence” territory. Or I guess on the internet that’s “[citation needed]“.

  50. 50.

    Amir Khalid

    That Twitter exchange is perfect. And Obama and Biden are the only two people who could have had it.

  51. 51.

    Geminid

    @oldgold: Prosecutors appear to have been lining up more witnesses to corroborate Gaetz “wingman” Joel Greenberg’s testimony against Gaetz. The Justice Department has a policy against indicting a politician in the middle of a campaign, so we’ll see what prosecutors come up with but only after the midterms.

    Many people have been certain that Gaetz is guilty of teen sex trafficking since last year when Greenberg’s attorneys let reporters know Greenberg was telling prosecutors about this. Greenberg himself was a one man crime wave, though, and a jury would not convict Gaetz on his testimony alone. So prosecutors had to find more witnesses and they may have done it. Meanwhile Greenberg is incarcerated in the Orange County, Florida jail awaiting sentencing on six felony charges.

  53. 53.

    NeenerNeener

    I wonder if this is why that heinous bitch Claudia Tenney changed her television ads from the one demanding that Biden be impeached to one where she freaks out about the Mexican invasion on our southern border. Unfortunately she’s a lock for the R nom in her district, and probably a lock in the General, too. I don’t live in her district but her ads pop up several times an hour if I happen to be watching sit com reruns on the local Fox channel.

  54. 54.

    Betsy

    @Soprano2: I replied to your questions about finding an attorney in Hawaii – in that thread which had about 200+ comments a day or so ago.  My reply was way down near the end of the comments — just wanted to be sure you saw it.

  55. 55.

    Nicole

    @oldgold: Oh, me too, but I’m not a prosecutor.  And, for all we know, Gaetz, unlike Trump, will actually pay his lawyers so he’ll probably get good ones.

    I was irritated reading that DOJ traditionally doesn’t like to go after someone while they are running a campaign, because Comey demonstrated the FBI has no such compunction.  Maybe it’s different when the person is a Democrat with lady parts.

  56. 56.

    catclub

    @Baud: ​
     

    I do think it’s useful to note who gets upset when Dems are happy.

    And why isn;t the report today: “Dow down since Liz Cheney lost her primary?”

  57. 57.

    SFAW

    @Baud: ​
     
    For me, the conspicuous non-mention of the total opposition by the Partei of Traitors kinda makes me question their objectivity.
    [Disclaimer: I did not read the entire article (because FTFTFNYT), so they may have pointed out the anti-American behavior(s) of the GQP.]

  58. 58.

    Immanentize

    @NeenerNeener: Her district has changed quite significantly. Is she still going to run in the 22nd? I am thinking about getting a house in Oneida county.

  59. 59.

    catclub

    @Baud: ​
      yes, even the highly liberal MSNBC (yeah, right) has fucking Joe Scar – who shamelessly promoted Trump for a LONG time in 2016 by granting huge access.

  60. 60.

    NeenerNeener

    @Immanentize: I think she’s running for the 24th now, but I could be wrong. I just know that Binghamton is no longer part of whatever she’s running for, and I resent having to see her ads up here in Almost Canada when we’re nowhere near that district.

  61. 61.

    Geminid

    @Nicole: Gaetz’s father is quite wealthy and can hire top notch defense attorneys to keep his son out of prison. If you read all the potential charges against Greenberg besides the six he’s plead guilty to, it’s clear a good defense attorney would make mincemeat of his testimony. So prosecutors have had to find more witneses.

    There are signs they have. Two of the signs: Gaetz’s former girlfriend was spotted entering the district’s grand jury room this spring, and a man whose dj nickname is “Big Mike” pled guilty to two crimes including felony distribution of Adderal (maximum sentence: 20 years). Big Mike’s sentencing is in the hands of the Greenberg judge, and his attorneys have let reporters know that he too can implicate Gaetz in unspecified crimes.

  62. 62.

    Nicole

    @Geminid: Insert Grumpy Cat here, with GOOD.

    Yeah, I fully admit to being impatient, but I absolutely get why it takes so freaking long.  When the potential defendant has the resources to mount a defense, the case needs to be airtight.

    Which really, says something terrible about our justice system for defendants who don’t have resources.

  63. 63.

    Soprano2

    @Betsy: Thanks, I bookmarked that link. I hope we can do most of it remotely. It might cost us as much to resolve things as whatever we recover, but my husband doesn’t want to leave anything hanging out there.

  64. 64.

    JPL

    In defense of the NYT their book reviews are often very good.   The analysis of Jared’s new book is spot on.   link
    Jared Kushner’s ‘Breaking History’ Is a Soulless and Very Selective Memoir

  65. 65.

    Soprano2

    @Nicole: Comey broke their rule when he did what he did. Like Kay said, he should have just followed the rules and not made an exception, but I think he was so offended by “that woman” that he felt he didn’t have a choice, plus you know it would have leaked anyway.

  66. 66.

    Betty Cracker

    @Geminid: It’s true that Greenberg is a problematic witness, but from what I’ve read, Gaetz and Greenberg (both dumbass scions of wealthy parents) were really stupid about documenting their crimes on social media. It’s not like prosecutors have to rely solely on Greenberg’s word.

  69. 69.

    Elizabelle

    WRT Liz Cheney:  she is so read into January 6th and its run-up.  Wonder if she could be appointed to a special prosecution team at DOJ once her Congressional term is up?

    She is a unique asset in that respect.

  70. 70.

    Geminid

    @Nicole: Prosecutors apparently could not get cooperation from the then 17 year old in question. But they told Greenberg’s sentencing judge last October that Greenberg’s testimony led them to areas that “frankly, we did not anticipate” so it’s possible that if Gaetz is indicted it will be for more than sex trafficking alone.

  71. 71.

    Betty Cracker

    In extremely local political news, our town has been redistricted, which has caused a lot of confusion. Statehouse Republicans created a map that increased the Republican lock via gerrymandering, but DeSantis decided their map left black voters with too much power, so he tore it up and created his own map featuring even more extreme gerrymandering.

    The statehouse Republicans could have voted it down, but their position vis-à-vis DeSantis mirrors the supine posture of Congressional Republicans who cower before Trump, so they meekly accepted it. For my town, this means we exchange one conventional Trump/DeSantis bootlicker for another.

    But our former district, Florida 11th, may now be more likely to actually overthrow their conventional Trump/DeSantis bootlicker for the psychotic MAGA performance artist Laura Loomer in the August 23rd primary. Whoever wins that primary will win the general, and she’s ahead on fundraising and won The Villages Trump-hump club’s straw poll by a mile.

  73. 73.

    Sure Lurkalot

    To read the NYT without a sub, you can turn off JavaScript on your browser. Additionally, if you access your library digitally, many provide access to the major newspapers through a database such as ProQuest. My library provides access to the Chicago Tribune, NYT, LA Times, WSJ and WAPO.

    These solutions are good for access to the decent journalism these venues purportedly produce from time to time as well as the occasional rage read.

  74. 74.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Soprano2:

    I think he was so offended by “that woman” that he felt he didn’t have a choice

    His absolutely disgusting press conference earlier that year, where he announced the server being a nothingburger as if Hillary was criminally guilty but was escaping on a technicality, made it clear to me he hated Hillary and was trying to take her down.

  75. 75.

    Kropacetic

    @Lacuna Synecdoche: How Biden’s Successes Are Helping Trump

    I’m not certain, but I think I saw that headline two days ago.  NYT.  Something in there about energizing his supporters.  Couldn’t get far, I won’t pay to read that rag

    @Betty Cracker: Didn;t [sic] you hear election is over and Ds won, there were a couple of senate polls showing that

    I can’t stand how media figures invent these attitudes and ascribe them to Democrats.  These media figures are almost the only people fixated on horse race bullshit.  Report on the damn bill.

  76. 76.

    Torrey

    I’m delighted to see Democrats seizing upon the term “special interests” in connection with the goals of Republican policies. Framing matters, and for years, Republicans have used that term to imply that anyone other than Republican The late Bob Dole was an expert at this–he’d work it into any response he could. Special interests for Dole meant Black people, women, workers, etc. Glad to see the term being used for something a lot closer to its real meaning. And I wonder if Biden’s use of the term harks back to when he was a senator and had to listen to the Republicans using it. Being old enough to remember some of the tools that the opposition used effectively can be a useful thing.

  79. 79.

    Baud

    Dark Brandon strikes again.

    Biden administration cancels $3.9 billion in student debt for 208,000 borrowers defrauded by ITT Tech

  80. 80.

    Betty Cracker

    @Geminid: Not tweets but screenshots of Snapchat conversations, money flying around on Venmo connected to shady activities with Greenberg, etc. Reporters have covered it.

  81. 81.

    Soprano2

    Thanks to everyone who answered my question on the thread yesterday about finding an out-of-state attorney. Lots of good suggestions, that’s one reason I love this place!

  82. 82.

    NeenerNeener

    @Immanentize: I checked; she’s running for the 24th district now, and I think Oneida is still in the 22nd. That doesn’t mean the 22nd won’t get an equally loathsome Republican as Congressional  Rep, though. Most of Upstate NY is blood red except for Rochester, Buffalo and Albany.

  83. 83.

    Kropacetic

    @SFAW: For me, the conspicuous non-mention of the total opposition by the Partei of Traitors kinda makes me question their objectivity.
    [Disclaimer: I did not read the entire article (because FTFTFNYT), so they may have pointed out the anti-American behavior(s) of the GQP.]

    As they frequently demonstrate, “party-line vote” fits neatly into a headline.  But good news for Dems, so nah.

  86. 86.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kropacetic: Exactly — report on the damn bill!

    I’ve been somewhat skeptical that the widespread use of Twitter among journalists is a particularly pernicious thing, but stuff like that adds weight to the argument. In the context of Twitter, you can see where Riccardi’s comment might be coming from — there are annoying “please clap” zealots who probably deface his timeline all day, every day. The trouble is, he’s conflating them with the entire party. He’s lost the plot.

  87. 87.

    Kropacetic

    @Betty Cracker: Twitter is a fucking blight.

    But again; why are we held to our most annoying activists? What Dem politician with any degree of power has declared the election “won?”

    Shit, my admittedly narrow slice of online lefties haven’t gotten past “maybe we have a chance now!!! Maybe…”

  88. 88.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @JPL:

    What an utterly brilliant review! I enjoyed reading every word of that.

    This paragraph is a wonderful summation of the book:

    This book is like a tour of a once majestic 18th-century wooden house, now burned to its foundations, that focuses solely on, and rejoices in, what’s left amid the ashes: the two singed bathtubs, the gravel driveway and the mailbox. Kushner’s fealty to Trump remains absolute. Reading this book reminded me of watching a cat lick a dog’s eye goo.

    And this is a perfect one-sentence description of its author:

    He’s a pair of dimples without a demographic.

    Spot on.

    The whole review is well worth reading, for the snark and the LULZ.

  89. 89.

    Geminid

    @Betty Cracker: And I think prosecutors have gotten more on Gaetz. I was speaking to the reasons Gaetz wasn’t indicted lasy year or this Spring. Prosecutors might as well go to court with the best case they can bring. I’m not saying it has to be airtight, but if the then-17 year old won’t testify they need more than Greenberg and the material you describe for a conviction. I think they’ll have enough. We’ll find out in three months.

     

    @Geminid:

  90. 90.

    Soprano2

    @Frankensteinbeck: That press conference broke their rules, too. Usually they just announce the end of an investigation and that nothing was done, but he had to lecture her anyway.

  91. 91.

    Soprano2

    @Baud: But he hasn’t forgiven $50,000 for all the people who went to Harvard and Yale, so Twitter will say he still hasn’t done anything about student loan debt.

  92. 92.

    artem1s

    @Frankensteinbeck: ​
     

    His absolutely disgusting press conference earlier that year, where he announced the server being a nothingburger as if Hillary was criminally guilty but was escaping on a technicality, made it clear to me he hated Hillary and was trying to take her down.

    I honestly think it was worse than that. He was sending a ‘your not the boss of me’ message to the person he thought was going to be in the WH. He and the partisan hacks who were fanning the flames of both the email and Benghazi investigations openly admitted they were trying to discredit her and weaken her campaign. I also think they were assuming she would be elected and wanted to weaken her administration from the outset. McConnell was expecting to keep the majority in Congress and was already planning on continuing to obstruct the way they did during the Obama administration. Comey was helping set the stage for four years of endless speculation and Congressional hearings and keeping any of her nominees from being approved.

  93. 93.

    Another Scott

    @artem1s: +1

    “Oh I had to get in front of the rumors to protect the good agents of the FBI,” was always nonsense.  He was playing political hatchet man and almost destroyed the federal government in the process.

    Once Comey refused to let the Bushies run roughshod over the rule of law when his boss was in the hospital.  Doing his job then somehow made him a hero and acceptable to be promoted by Obama.  The supposition that only GQPers can run the DOJ or FBI is shown yet again to be false, and maybe that trope will finally be buried…

    (To be clear, I don’t know if Obama could have gotten anyone better through the confirmation process at the time…)

    I hope that Comey has nightmares the rest of his life, but he’s so self – deluded that I doubt it.

    Grr…,
    Scott.

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