She’s not wrong. Biden connected Gen Z to the Dem Party. I expect millennials to follow suit w/bigger margins for Dems in ’24 as the economic data will be very good. https://t.co/qYxV2sroab
— Blank Slate (@blankslate2017) November 16, 2022
In ’20, @JoeBiden was second guessed by many (me included). He wasn’t exciting. Too old school. Talked about healing. Talked about a clear agenda when the other side had little to offer but hate & good TV ratings. And he won decisively despite the skepticism of the “smart money.”
— David Rothkopf (@djrothkopf) November 13, 2022
Full credit, as due!
For two years, he was derided for reaching out to the other side, for his compromises with the left or with the centrists in his own party, for not be exciting enough. He ignored the Beltway buzz. He did the dullest thing imaginable: he governed.
The American Rescue Plan lifted millions out of poverty and helped stimulate a job boom that now has produced 10 million jobs, a record, more than the last three GOP administrations added up. Record number of quality judges were appointed. Executive orders undid Trump’s damage.
He made the bold decision to end America’s longest war. He passed the largest piece of infrastructure legislation in half a century. He helped tame a pandemic. Critics, even within his own party said, “Don’t do too much, don’t spend too much, the bond markets won’t like it.”
But the jobs kept being created. When Putin challenged the decency and the West in Ukraine, Biden led and has been central to NATO and global support for Kyiv that has produced extraordinary results and made all safer. It was all part of restoring American standing worldwide.
He and a disciplined Democratic Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act that also was the biggest piece of environmental legislation in US history. He took steps to reduce healthcare costs for Americans even when zero Republicans supported it.
In fact, with few exceptions, the Democrats passed a rich agenda, that also included the important Chips and Science Act that will help the country compete and create more and better jobs in the future, in the face of constant GOP obstruction.
Still, the savants and pundits said, the Democrats would be crushed in the 2022 elections. The GOP had momentum. Inflation would do Dems in–even though it was a global phenomenon and the GOP was closely linked to its causes from Putin to corporate profiteering.
There would be a Red Wave. Biden was too busy focusing on democracy and protecting the fundamental rights of women and voters when, the GOP talking heads and the bogus polls said what was front and center was inflation and only that and the Dems were doomed.
But Biden stayed laser focused. He said his first act in the new Congress would be to guarantee a woman’s reproductive freedom. He made moving, heartfelt speeches about why it is essential to reject the lies, the election deniers, the coup plotters.
The result was the best result for a new president in a midterm election in sixty years, maybe longer. The Democrats held the Senate. It is still unclear how many seats they will lose in the House. But it won’t be what was predicted…
And Biden’s first comments after the election were about the work to come, the governing ahead. Joe’s too old. Joe’s too boring. Joe’s too quick to compromise. Joe’s too stubborn. Joe’s out of touch. Joe’s…just off to the best start of any POTUS in more than half a century.
Left in his wake, defeated by his experience and his wisdom and his determination and his truly exceptional world class team, are the media favorites, the highly rated pundits, the best-selling columnists, the know-it-alls, the fancy insiders.
I could write the same thing about @SpeakerPelosi or @SenSchumer, co-authors of this remarkable record. You could say it about so many members of the united, mobilized Democratic team that this time around weathered the GOP efforts at suppression, ignored their lies & showed up.
You could sat it about the Gen Z voters and the women and people of color who saw the threat and made the effort to fight for democracy. You could say it about all of you who have participated in the wholesale rejection of the greatest threat to our system we’ve seen since WWII.
Common sense is not exciting. But what we just saw was a victory for common sense. Decency doesn’t drive clicks. But what you just saw was a victory for decency. Governing is tedious, incremental, arcane. But what you have seen for two years are the benefits of governing.
The conventional wisdom has been wrong about @POTUS @VP @SpeakerPelosi @SenSchumer @WHCOS, the president’s cabinet, @TheDemocrats and their team from day one. Maybe we will learn. Probably we won’t. But we can be grateful that they will ignore all that.
We can be grateful that at a perilous moment in US history, they will focus on the work that needs to be done, on the threats we face at home and abroad, and on what matters. And if the past is any indication, they will continue to succeed…against the odds, on behalf of us all.
Ivan X
I still think that deep deep down, no one, left, right or center, really hates Joe at a personal level, and that is his superpower.
Elizabelle
Thank you for this post.
SpaceUnit
The MSM are gonna double and triple down on their negative Biden narratives and bullshit approval ratings for the next two years. It’s all they’ve got to tilt the field in favor of their precious GOP daddies. The bothside boogie just isn’t getting traction in the age of MAGA.
Baud
HumboldtBlue
Twitter is not gonna make it to the end of the year.
@Baud:
That’s good news. And not one mention of Hunter’s laptop.
Almost Retired
Biden is too old! We need fresh blood like Bernie or Trump!
Great post – this cheered me up. Even my Bernie-curious (if not quite Bernie Bro) sons have come around.
Also Karen Bass is our new mayor which makes me very happy.
hells littlest angel
Seconded.
satby
Under the previous regime, Betsy DeVos refused to process Buyer Defense to repayment applications for students defrauded by for-profit schools, including the Corinthian system that basically was shut down by the Dept. of Ed. The Biden admin just settled the court case that started under tfg yesterday, and TODAY my kid got the email saying his application was approved and he no longer has to pay the rest of the loan. They just needed the court to approve to pull the trigger on all those pending applications. Another Biden win.
@Elizabelle: honestly, though I’m a rescuer with ownership (at some point) of over 100 dogs over the last 35 years, I get really tired really fast on pet advice threads. So much bad advice 😮
dr. bloor
I was all-in for Warren at the time and Joe was about seventh on my list of primary candidates, but I remember thinking at the time that his combination of institutional knowledge and ability to take (or more often, evade) a punch wouldn’t be the worst set of superpowers to have in office to clean up Trump’s mess.
Probably the only rational political thought I’ve had in three decades.
Baud
@satby:
Congrats!
New Deal democrat
“ in ’24 as the economic data will be very good”
Seriously??? You expect me to take the word of a political pundit for what the economy will be like 24 months from now, and who will benefit?
Here is a clue: Even economists are notoriously wrong about what the economy will be like 12 months later. I can tell you this: with the Fed raising rates at the most drastic pace since Volcker in 1981, the odds are very good that the US goes into recession in the next 3-10 months. About 90% of the classic precursors of recessions are already in place.
You know who else had a recession in the 3rd year of his term? George HW Bush. And even though the economy was recovering at a good clip in 1992, what happened to him? And remember the new GOP House majority will be doing everything possible to impose austerity to make sure that the economy does not recover in 2024.
I’m not trying to be a DOOOMer here; but somebody needs to take off the rose colored glasses. If we’re lucky Biden will jawbone the Fed into lowering rates next year, and a big decline in interest rates will help a takeoff like 1983 for Reagan. Crossing fingers.
Elizabelle
Missed most of the threads today.
Did you guys notice that Michael Gerson died? Minister and former speechwriter for George W Bush; WaPost columnist. He repudiated [Trump] Republicans in one of his last columns. Long battle with cancer. He was 58.
satby
@Baud: him and 199,000 of his buddies:
Scout211
I just took a look at the Colorado SOS election results for today.
Good News!
Boebert 163, 733 50.08%
Frisch 163,182 49.92%
551 votes difference
satby
@Elizabelle: can you link to that column?
Sister Golden Bear
@HumboldtBlue: Hundreds of Twitter employees so far have opted to take the 3-month severance package rather than go “hardcore.” Story I saw was referring to the deadline on the East Coast so the numbers are only gonna increase. Apparently they held (unsuccessful) session with employees deemed critical to try to convince to stay.
Baud
@Scout211:
Are they still counting?
HumboldtBlue
@Sister Golden Bear:
Who woulda thunk?
SpaceUnit
@Sister Golden Bear:
If the company I worked for was swirling the drain and my employer was demanding 80 hour work weeks, I’d grab that 3 month severance package and run like hell.
There’s plenty of jobs out there. I’m starting to think Musk isn’t actually a genius.
Sister Golden Bear
@HumboldtBlue:
Musk: “All employees must now work in office.”
Also Musk: *closes all offices*
Also Musk: *mass fires employees “for cause” because they’re not working at the now-closed offices, leaving Musk as Twitter’s sole remaining employee
M31
twitter.com/kyliebytes/status/1593391167718113280
“What I’m hearing from Twitter employees; It looks like roughly 75% of the remaining 3,700ish Twitter employees have not opted to stay after the “hardcore” email.”
yikes! Will not make it to Thanksgiving at this rate.
M31
lettuce-with-googly-eyes cam watch
Scout211
@Baud: I don’t know if they are still counting. I just know they expected all the overseas ballots to be counted (they had to be in by yesterday) and today was the earliest that they said they would post more votes. The results are still unofficial and a recount is expected.
Maybe TaMara will post more information.
HumboldtBlue
@Elizabelle:
No, damn, 58, and fuck cancer.
geg6
@New Deal democrat:
You are being a doomer though. Gas prices are down. There are reports that the Fed is probably not going to raise rates any higher. The job market is still amazing. I have a lot of skepticism about economists, but the ones I do have some respect for are not saying what you are. I’ll wait and see but I’m not going all doom and gloom yet.
dmsilev
@HumboldtBlue: I read elsewhere that apparently ~80% of the remaining employees read Musk’s “Agree to work 80 hours a week indefinitely, or resignation accepted” message and said “Door B, please”. So, Twitter is down to an estimated 10% of the manpower it had three weeks ago, and Musk is barricading himself in the CEO’s office as if he wants to reprise the ending to Scarface or something.
dmsilev
@M31: The World Cup starts this weekend. I’m sure the lean, mean, HARDCORE Twitter will cope with the load Just Fine.
geg6
@M31:
Lettuce will win again.
M31
so, Elmo, just how did Twitter implode?
“Gradually, then suddenly”
HumboldtBlue
@Sister Golden Bear:
Lol, that was the theme of the comments.
@dmsilev: Is Musk winning yet?
dmsilev
Twitter’s Musk says most-valuable employees can stay remote as many quit
Edit: Perhaps in an excess of irony, “It will continue to coast until it runs into something, and then it will stop.” also describes Tesla’s Full Self Driving’s performance.
ColoradoGuy
There must be a LOT of coke in front of Elmo right now.
(Another movie: 90% of the crew of the Titanic silently rowing away in the darkness while the passengers party away on the upper decks.)
geg6
@dmsilev:
I know there bad things about the loss of Twitter. But this shit makes me laugh like a loon. Any time an MOU like Musk, who the press and the bros worship, shows his ass in spectacular fashion, I can’t help but laugh my ass off.
M31
remember when Yahoo buying Tumblr for $1 billion and then selling it later to WordPress for 3 million was the biggest tech blunder ever?
Sister Golden Bear
@HumboldtBlue: Best part is they had to attend a conference call right before the deadline, and once it was 5 pm people started hanging up on Musk while he was still speaking.
M31
@Sister Golden Bear: omg that is gold, it’s up there with those big advertisers getting on the phone and canceling ad buys during Elmo’s first big meeting with them before the sale was finalized
Baud
Maybe Musk installed Tesla’s autopilot software into Twitter.
Kofuu
I’m reading Tip O’Neill’s Man of the House, and he contrasts Kennedy and LBJ in a way that might be comparable with Obama and Biden. Kennedy had all the glamour and pizzazz. Johnson knew how to get things done, and he did.
Tip was one of the first in Congress to oppose the war in Vietnam, and reading his book I realize how much that point of view was absorbed by Democrats who came into Congress in the 1970s. I think it does a lot to explain why Biden got the U.S. out of Afghanistan.
dmsilev
@HumboldtBlue: At this point, I’m on Team Lettuce.
Scout211
@Baud: @Scout211:
CNN still list 99% of the votes in so they apparently they are still counting.
There will be an automatic recount if the difference is .05% or less.
Warblewarble
Musk or lettuce. Twitter employees fired for cos.
Baud
@Scout211:
🤞
Frankensteinbeck
@geg6:
And if Twitter completely dies and Musk’s fortune is devastated, the bros will be saying it was deliberate and a sign of how smart Musk is. They are as bizarre as the conservatives who think Portland burned down.
CaseyL
Well now…
Elon Musk has lied for 27 years about his credentials.
TL;DR: Musk has none of the advanced tech/science/physics degrees he says he does.
New Deal democrat
@geg6: Bookmark this comment and revisit in 6 months.
Scout211
More good news from CO-03.
Even as there will likely be a recount, Frisch has already filed to run again in 2024.
Anastasio Beaverhausen
I admire Biden for being likable, professional, competent, and as a result, successful. But might he take a note from Nancy Pelosi and decide, for the good of the party, to make a graceful transition to the next generation of leaders? Without naming names I can think of half a dozen sitting politicians with the same qualities, but 20-30 years younger. Just throwing it out there. And THANK YOU to the 12 Republicans who voted to codify marriage equality!! Joni Ernst?! Some of them have a heart after all, or more likely, a show tune singing relative who is just so darn nice and lovable…..
Sister Golden Bear
@HumboldtBlue: Yes. Partly someone else’s comment, partly mine.
The best part is the now ex-employee still have access — probably because so many of the IT people quit that there’s not enough people to turn off access.
Speculations are that the only employees staying — for now — are the roughly 1,000 poor souls with H1-B visas. Two weeks ago there were 7,500 full-time employees, as well another 5,000 contract employees (were also laid off). So <10% of the workforce still left, and that’s going to continue to drop as the H1-B visa employee find other jobs.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Wow. I would not have bet on that. Not even a little bit.
UncleEbeneezer
For those interested in a deep dive into what DOJ charges against Trump could/may look like, JustSecurity put out a detailed, hypothetical prosecution memo (100+ pages). Written by former Federal Prosecutors.
For those who just wanna chime in with “Pfft…I’ll believe it when I see it” for the umpteenth time, maybe just sit this one out for once :)
Spanky
@New Deal democrat: Don’t worry, we’ve archived it on twitter.
Scout211
@Anastasio Beaverhausen: The final vote has not happened yet. That was the vote to move the bill forward. I don’t think Schumer has scheduled it yet. However, it will likely pass. And maybe those same Republicans will vote for the bill, but it will pass with 51 votes. We’ll see if they vote on the actual bill.
ColoradoGuy
Be pretty funny if one of the H1-B’s banned Elmo for life before turning off the lights and departing for greener pastures.
dmsilev
@CaseyL: I liked the “Stanford admitted me to their PhD program, but was totally OK with me not finishing my BA first” part.
Does Not Work That Way. You’re admitted to a program like that contingent on receiving your BA/BSc/whatever first. If you blow off the last few required undergrad courses or whatever and don’t graduate, well that’s a problem. Schools will usually let you defer admission for a year, but showing up and pinky-swearing that you’ll finish the prerequisites that you need is not going to cut it anywhere.
schrodingers_cat
@Anastasio Beaverhausen: Why shouldn’t Joe Biden run again? He has been masterful with razor thin majorities. I don’t think anyone else could have done what managed to do in the last two years.
He should run and he has my vote.
M31
there is a twitter lettuce cam, run by an amusing person named “foone” who mostly tries to get really old computers working again
lettuce.wtf/
HumboldtBlue
@Sister Golden Bear:
You can’t schaden a freude any more than that.
Geminid
@Scout211: I saw a tweet from Frisch saying the vote tally will be completed by tomorrow. I expect there’ll be a recount, though.
I hope it doesn’t take as long as the recount in of the New York 22nd CD in 2020. That one went into February of 2021. I followed the recount in upstate New York media, and it was fascinating, in a long, drawn out way.
That judge was so meticlous! It’s like he shook down every elections official and clerk in the district. Claudia Tenney ended up winning by only 200 some votes, but Anthoney Brindisi did not file an appeal. The judge just too damn good. They’ll probably write text books on how he handled the case.
Anastasio Beaverhausen
@schrodingers_cat: As a physician I worry that he will suffer a significant and sudden neurological event. And I worry his Vice President wouldn’t necessarily be the best pick for the job.
dr. bloor
@Anastasio Beaverhausen: I can think of a dozen young(er) D’s out there who would be somewhere between competent and magnificent in the WH. None of them have Biden’s chances of winning in ’24.
davecb
Mr Biden is basically a nice person.
He reminds me of Ontario Premier Bill Davis, who famously said “bland works”. Mr Davis got four terms as premier, in open elections with no term limits.
Go thou, Joe, and do likewise.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
Hear, hear!
Also, giving up the benefits of incumbency and having a contested primary? Why commit political malpractice?
Scout211
@Geminid: Apparently even tonight they are still counting. I just checked and he now is 543 behind.
dr. bloor
@Anastasio Beaverhausen:
As a neuropsychologist, your comment implies that you already think cognitive decline is in play. Tell us why, define “best pick,” and tell us your criteria as well as preferences for VP.
raven
@Kofuu: Fuck Johnson
Aussie Sheila
@Anastasio Beaverhausen: Biden has been the best US President of my lifetime. Politically savvy, managerially competent.
I know he is old, but it would be madness to set off a primary at the end of his first term. When you’re on a good thing, stick to it. Whatever happens after that is down to either him or chance, but not a deliberate act of political self harm.
I admit I was wrong about him during 2019/20 and that long political experience and skills are useful….in politics. Who knew? 😅
schrodingers_cat
OT: I have discovered a new genre on YouTube. Indian classical dance videos. I trained in Bharatnatyam for years, so it is still pretty close to my heart.
I love this tandava (Shiva’s cosmic dance of death and renewal) I found it early this week. Great choreography and brilliantly danced.
ETA: I now want to get a black and gold sari. It is fierce.
zhena gogolia
@Anastasio Beaverhausen: your concern is noted. And your second sentence tells me I can safely ignore you.
geg6
@Formerly disgruntled in Oregon:
Exactly.
schrodingers_cat
@zhena gogolia: And this supposed physician doesn’t think Kamala Harris is a good pick for VP and won’t be a good President.
Miss Bianca
@Sister Golden Bear: oh, that is jam. pure jam.
sab
@Anastasio Beaverhausen: I think she is. We just haven’t noticed yet. She hasn’t embarrassed once yet in DC or our out in the much wider world ( Europe, India, all of Southeast Asia.). Mostly she has been excellent but ignored. I can live with that
CarolPW
@Anastasio Beaverhausen: Best pick in terms of electability or in terms of competence?
Dorothy A. Winsor
@schrodingers_cat: You sound like you’re having such a good time!
Baud
@sab:
Yeah, I’d imagine if she were messing up left and right it would be news 24/7.
Baud
What’s wrong with millennials?
gwangung
@sab: Also spent the last month of election season working college campuses and rousting out the young vote.
Wonder if that was useful.
Miss Bianca
@Anastasio Beaverhausen: tell you what…how about we let Joe retire *after* his second term? How about we let him decide when his political career is over? Because I personally have come to the conclusion that his instincts about his political career are way better than my instincts about his political career
ETA: And oh, great, you’ve managed to throw shade on Madam Vice President. Nice going. Not. Tell me, are you more of a racist, more of a sexist, or just a creamy and delicious blend of both? Not to mention ageist, what a trifecta!
Alison Rose
@HumboldtBlue: Her follow-up:
Like…my bro, YOU are the one sabotaging the company! Rather intentionally it seems!
God, what a fucking moron.
Alison Rose
@Anastasio Beaverhausen: After everything he’s done already, you wanna kick him to the curb in favor of a younger person who very well might lose? Look, I’m not thrilled about his age either, but he’s earned a second term, IMHFO.
Also, “as a physician” you should realize that literally anyone can suffer any kind of sudden medical event, right? Being younger than Joe Biden is not some kind of magical elixir that protects a person from illness or injury.
trollhattan
This. Also this and this.
When I am confronted with “Thank god, finally, a businessman in the White House” types, which is more frequent than one would think I respond “That’s like searching for a surgeon until you finally locate an accordion player. Who do you want replacing three heart valves?”
One in five does more than blink. Governing is hard (didn’t GWB say just that?) it’s arcane and it requires education and knowledge and experience. And patience, lots and lots of patience. Biden has those skills and qualities.
Scout211
The DOJ and the Department of Education just announced a
“Fairer and More Accessible Bankruptcy Discharge Process for Student Loan Borrowers”
gene108
@Ivan X:
100% agree.
People maybe unhappy about things, but no one really hates him like they hated President Clinton and President Obama.
Also, he’s been through a lot of ups and downs. He can connect with people who are struggling in a way others can’t.
Bill Arnold
@CaseyL:
Here’s a non-twitter archive of that thread:
archive.ph/gzGpF
ronno2018
Super nice post! I cannot say I feel recovered from the four years of the former president, but holy heck I am pretty amazed! Hopefully we can hold the crazies back for decades to come.
Anastasio Beaverhausen
This is why I rarely post here. In the space of thirty minutes I have been labeled a “supposed physician”, a racist, a sexist, and an ageist. Political discourse I can manage. But ad hominem attacks have always been off limits for me. Apparently not for others. I refuse to take the bait. And for the record Miss Bianca, I have a mixed race daughter.
H.E.Wolf
Almost no one will romaine.
Ken
@Alison Rose: i can only guess that person, and maybe Musk, thinks sabotage involves hitting a server rack with a fire axe. If the engineers can do their jobs remotely, they can sabotage as well.
M31
@H.E.Wolf: the Titanic/Iceberg jokes write themselves
HumboldtBlue
@Alison Rose:
Indeed he is
Emma from Miami
@schrodingers_cat: that is absolutely fascinating.
zhena gogolia
@gene108: Uh, have you seen the “Let’s Go Brandon” (and worse) signs littering the landscape?
Amir Khalid
@Bill Arnold:
I know Elon’s a US citizen now. But could he be stripped of his citizenship and deported if he included in his citizenship application the lies about his academic record?
Geminid
@Formerly disgruntled in Oregon: One view of the question, from a political scientist and campaign professional:
gwangung
@Anastasio Beaverhausen:
This does not inoculate you from being racist or from having racist ideas.
The basic thrust of the argument here is that you presented poorly thought out ideas and got the proper response.
Are you going to be an adult and work on your ideas or defend them properly? Or will you slink away when your “brilliant ideas” are not met with hosannahs like an Elon Musk?
Uncle Cosmo
@Scout211: The reported tally shows a difference of 0.26%. Are we sure the automatic recount threshold is 0.05%? That would be a difference of less than 100 votes, which sounds awfully small.
H.E.Wolf
@dr. bloor:
Our New Blog Friend is a familiar type. Presumably the current VP is too Black and too female to meet with his approval.
How interesting (as in: *yawn*) that he popped up to share his negative opinion of POTUS and VPOTUS, in a post the topic of which is the effing badass job the current President is doing.
Delk
@schrodingers_cat: thanks! That was impressive.
Al Rennick
@Aussie Sheila:
Your statement is nonsensical and ridiculous. There’s no reason to write the word but after asserting “I know he is old”.
Biden is 80 years old, so he’s obviously too old for consideration for re-nomination in 2024. Just look and listen to him. He’s a frail, decrepit individual clearly lacking the vigor and energy to serve four more years in office.
Fortunately, the Democratic party has an incredibly deep bench from which to choose, so there’s no need to cling to Biden for dear life.
Here are just a few viable alternatives to Biden: Kamala Harris, Gretchen Whitmer, Kirsten Gillibrand, Gina Raimondo, Amy Klobuchar, Cory Booker, Chris Murphy, Jared Polis, and Michael Bennet.
gwangung
@H.E.Wolf: He pulled the “my best friend” argument, which is a marker of poor, unexamined thought processes.
I wonder if they’ll rise to the occasion or sulk?
gwangung
I admire the leg muscles in that conceptual leap.
Elizabelle
@H.E.Wolf:
People:
“Our New Blog Friend” is the brother of a beloved commenter (trust me) and a normie. Please pull in the fangs and claws.
I find it amusing the “he should retire” comment was made in a thread entitled “Underestimated President Joe.”
Yep. Because. Anyone (younger!) can do the job.
ETA: Oh gawd. And here lands Al Rennick. What, did someone send out a bat signal?
Frankensteinbeck
@Al Rennick:
Please tell me this is snark?
Alison Rose
@Anastasio Beaverhausen: Pointing out the flaws and problematic aspects of your statements is not “ad hominem”. This community is not known for undue cancellation attacks, so if numerous people are seeing negatives in what you wrote, you might want to step back and think about that rather than having a tantrum over it.
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
@M31: We call that cascade failure…
raven
@Elizabelle: It’s important whose brother he is?
Alison Rose
@Al Rennick: The sun is just over yonder, so you may feel free to fuck off directly into it.
Turgidson
@geg6:
also helpful is that Biden already got a shit ton of spending passed and the infrastructure and climate bills will make their presence known over the coming years. The Obama era stimulus was much smaller and ran out too soon. We shouldn’t have that problem this time. Even if the Fed engineers a recession, I suspect Biden’s first two years worth of achievements will put a floor under it so it’s mild and short.
scav
@raven: Well, yes! That someone is an aunt/uncle of a mixed race niece and thus an absolute authority to be held in necessary immediate esteem.
Scout211
@Uncle Cosmo: Oh shoot! Thank you for the correction.
It’s .5%!
ballotpedia.org
Geminid
The assertion that Ms. Harris might not be “the best” candidate seems pointless. For one thing, how could one ever know for certain who is the best choice? And for another, my standard is, is Ms. Harris good enough?
I think she is, and I’m not gonna get strung out over the possibility there might be some other person out there who might be better suited for the job. Joe Biden made his decision, and he’s not dropping her. If she ends up President before 2028, then Democratic primary voters will get to decide if there really is somebody better out there.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
Good lord. Biden has the right to run for reelection if he wants to. Period. He would have my vote. He has been excellent. Other Dems have the right to run in the primary if they want to. They will not have my vote, but others are certainly welcome to vote any way they want to.
MisterForkbeard
@Alison Rose: I have friends who used to work at Twitter last week. Some of them STILL have access because it was such a cluster fuck that access wasn’t revoked properly for some employees.
These same friends tell me there’s less than 10 people at Twitter who work on site reliability (keeping the site and service up). For a system this size, that’d probably less than 5% what’s needed. Even a skeleton crew would have 5x that many.
zhena gogolia
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony: This is the new “Hillary’s e-mails.” It gets repeated by all the parrots.
Tokyokie
@CaseyL:
That’s a big deal because fraud in documentation supporting a visa can be a justification for invalidating whatever residency/citizenship status resulted from the fraudulent behavior. That’s how John Demjanjuk, a Nazi death camp guard who came to the with fake identity documents and became an autoworker in Ohio, was stripped of his U.S. citizenship and deported to Germany. Musk would now be able to claim permanent residence status because of the investments he’s made in the U.S., but that doesn’t change his initial fraudulent status.
MisterForkbeard
@Tokyokie: Yes, but elon is rich, white, and republican so he’s pretty safe. Remember how Melania obviously lied on her “genius visa”? Yeah.
El Muneco
@Anastasio Beaverhausen: Technically, they’re not ad hominem attacks – ad hominem discredits the argument, not the arguer:
“Your argument is invalid because you’re a racist” is an ad hominem.
“Your argument is invalid _and_ you’re a racist” is just an insult.
Cameron
@Al Rennick: What a great idea! Then Our Liberal Media can spend the next two years talking about nothing except which one of those capable up-and-comers will get the nomination. Economy? Who cares? Foreign policy? Yawn! Voting rights? Bawwwring! Now let’s get back to The 24/7/365 Horse Race! Our Pulitzer-winning reporter Lance Squinkelbunk is reporting this afternoon from Moe’s Buttwipe Beef ‘n Beer, where the weekly burger lunch meeting of Second Amendment Stasi Seniors discusses the upcoming (only 18 more months!) election…..
schrodingers_cat
@Emma from Miami: Delk: I am glad you liked it.
Ruckus
@SpaceUnit:
“I’m starting to think Musk isn’t actually a genius.”
I’m going to take this as sarcastic humor.
He proved that when he bid $44billion for twitter in the first place. All he’s done since is add to the proof of his “genius.“
Captain C
@dmsilev:
Probably with a bucket of dab and a bong instead of (or who knows, in addition to) the piles of blow. Instead of a shootout, he will be enticed out with a pizza, a plate of cookies, and a big bag of chips. And maybe a Mars bar.
Stacib
@Anastasio Beaverhausen: John Fetterman is a lot younger, and yet he experienced a significant, neurological event. Should the PA voters have elected Oz? I agree wholeheartedly about VP Harris. As confident as I was about nominating / electing Biden, I’m equally convinced the Democrats lose with her as the nominee.
SpaceUnit
@Ruckus:
Yeah. If I were a SpaceX astronaut I’d be inquiring about that 3 month severance package.
Al Rennick
@Cameron:
@Alison Rose:
@gwangung:
You’ve all lost your goddamn minds. Any Republican nominee, other than Trump, would wipe the floor with Biden on a debate stage and you all know it.
The groupthink mentality on Balloon Juice that it’s either Biden or bust in 2024 is a recipe for disaster, but you folks are just too fucking dumb to realize it.
Ask Jackie Walorski’s family if Biden still has the mental acuity to run in 2024.
tobie
@Cameron: this is exactly why I can’t waste any bandwidth on the question of whether Biden will run in 2024. Either he’ll run or he won’t run. Either way I’ll support the Democratic nominee. I would rather it not be a populist–too much potential nativism there for me and appeals to the wisdom of the common man, which I don’t trust. But whoever the nominee is, she’ll have my support. It’s about the only certain thing I can predict.
Ruckus
@Baud:
Maybe Self Driving is Elon’s code name.
Self Driving crashes seemingly just a tad too often and now Elon has shown that he actually crashes worse than Self Driving now that he’s in charge of twitter’s $44billion broken cable elevator ride.
Yeah, I’m calling it, Self Driving is Elon’s code name.
Elizabelle
@Al Rennick: Welcome to my pie filter.
Screw you and the Jackie Walorski you rode in on.
SpaceUnit
@Al Rennick:
Dude, put down the meth pipe and step away from the computer.
BellyCat
@New Deal democrat: Truth. I largely ignore the bleating news on an economic downturn, but a friend of mine with a large commercial window business told me today that for the past 1.5 years, they have had about 20 bids per day due. The last few weeks it’s been more like 3 bids due. Anecdata is the most sobering data.
danielx
@Ruckus:
Kind of reminds me of Enron, when (IIRC) one of their senior executives responded to a question during an earnings report conference call that stock analysts and accountants “just didn’t get it”.
Not too long afterwards the company went down in flames, with its most senior executives going to jail.
Ken
@M31: I just checked a couple of twitter accounts that I sometimes read, and there’s a definite Titanic vibe tonight. Also the top trending hashtags are “RIPTwitter”, “GoodByeTwitter”, and “TwitterHQ”.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
I’ve been at Balloon Juice a long time. You always have these swarms of people who show up repeating the latest destructive and divisive thing of the moment. Sometimes its straight from GOP talking points. Sometimes it is from the other end of the horseshoe. Always you see a whole bunch of new nyms repeating these talking points, and echoing each other. Always super negative. Does this crap actually work on other social media?
schrodingers_cat
Racists, ageists and ableists are out in full force. Looks like the 2024 campaign season has begun. Its going to be a long 2 years.
Cameron
@Al Rennick: It’s not about his running or not running – it’s about him announcing right this minute that he’s not running. Do you really think anything at all that his administration did would make the national news for the next two years over the Democratic race? I don’t care if he runs or not, but it would be political malpractice for him to say right now that he wasn’t, no matter what his true intentions are.
schrodingers_cat
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony: Yep BJP IT cell will swarm your mentions say your tweet against BJP gets traction. They repeat the same talking points over and over again. I sometimes will just mute the mentions till the swarms passes by.
Sometimes a bigger account will sic their followers onto to you if you criticize them.
Kay
@Al Rennick:
Biden did fine in a debate with all the other Democrats, running in the primary. I watched, I think, all of those debates and I was impressed by how Biden didn’t have to work very hard- he knows a lot- he has an enormous amount of background knowlege he can just pull up without much effort. He made it look easy.
I don’t think his vulnerability is actual cognitive decline. It’s that he looks old. He’s tall and thin and elderly so sometimes he even looks frail. That to me isn’t enough to urge replacing him.
danielx
@Al Rennick:
You ever considered a Dale Carnegie course?
Eolirin
@Stacib: Except the dig isn’t at her electability, it’s at her potential competency at being President. Which is fucking bullshit.
Stacib
@Miss Bianca: What did she say that was either racist or misogynistic? As I agree with her on the VP’s chances for winning EVER, maybe my 63-year old, black woman self should maybe check myself because we disagree about Harris’ chances??? GTFOH
SpaceUnit
Wisdom and experience count for an awful lot in my political calculus. I’m not looking for a celebrity or an entertainer or a fucking game show host, and a person’s ability to compete in the Olympic decathlon is irrelevant when it comes to appointing a chief executive. Uncle Joe has been great and I want him to run again.
TFG is basically the same age and in terrible shape and somehow no one in the press ever says a peep about it. I guess they see boasts and insults as a sign of vigor.
Eric S.
@gene108: No one hates Biden is a super power but as you hint I don’t think that’s the base super power. Biden power is he empathizes with everyone. He understands individual human suffering and failures. People KNOW he understands them. Therefore they don’t hate him. Hence his super power.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@schrodingers_cat: Not huge on Twitter, and I’m glad I don’t have to deal with that crap.
Bill Arnold
@Al Rennick:
Your words, from August 3, 2022:
Admit that you were wrong about that, including the insults, and we can consider having a conversation about Biden. (Who should be as anyone his age should be, constantly self-assessing.)
satby
@Al Rennick: wtf does Jackie Warlorski, who was my former crappy rep until she and two campaign staffers were killed in a car wreck, have to do with Biden’s cognitive abilities? I mean, she’s probably displaying the same cognitive abilities now as she had when she was alive.
Eolirin
@Stacib: Again, not an electability dig. It was an if Biden gets incapacitated Harris isn’t up to being President dig. It’s bullshit.
She doesn’t have to run, and we can still have a primary, if something happens to Biden and she serves out the rest of his second term.
Eolirin
@satby: He called out looking for her after she died at some event.
schrodingers_cat
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony: I am not huge either. But couple of times I was replying or quote tweeting a relatively large account.
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
@Ken: Apparently there are not enough worker bees left who know how to disable people logins AND peoples VPN and remote access there are also supposed some people who got laid off in the first round of firings last week who can still log in. Locking the physical doors is not going to stop them. Also most badge systems are controlledby,wait for it. Servers. Anybody at Twitter left who knows how the badge system works?
Alison Rose
@Al Rennick: LOL at you thinking Marco Rubio would wipe the floor with Biden.
BTW can I have your address? I’d like to mail you your formal invitation to go fuck yourself.
satby
@Eolirin: well, she was a do nothing rep in a shitty red state, and probably not top of mind for POTUS. I lived in her district for 6 years and never saw her. She was a ghost. Before she died.
Kay
@Al Rennick:
Biden doesn’t have to do the shotgun, know-it-all debate delivery of a less experienced person. He’s at ease up there because he knows there is not a single question anyone will ask that he hasn’t encountered before – not just answering a question- encountered the actual issue in government.
Eolirin
@satby: Yeah, I don’t think it’s an actual sign of cognitive decline, but it was spun that way by number of media outlets.
It’s hard for normal people to understand how much information someone in his position needs to keep on top of or how easy it is to find mistakes that seem really weird with people who have to talk a *lot* under heavy schedules and are having every word scrutinized.
Alison Rose
@satby: I’m sure he’s referring to the time when Biden called out for her in a room, apparently forgetting for a moment that she’d died. Which, sure, was embarrassing, but IMO not a sign that the man’s brain is Swiss cheese or something. I mean, Obama had his “57 states” moment. We all have brain farts occasionally.
Jeffro
Biden is going to run in 2024 at least partially on “look at what and who I bring with me”.
It’s a bit of an odd argument in recent American politics, which have always been more about The One Guy, but he has a good case to make about the results of putting Dems in charge (as well as plenty of examples of our Democratic deep bench).
His administration is delivering, and many of the legislative victories that were won in the past two years start paying dividends in the next two years. His administration is easily the most diverse ever. State races are being won (heck, they’re being paid. attention. to) and the opposition is in absolute disarray.
I have no problem with Joe running again and serving as a figurehead for a (broad-based) coalition of (progressive, pro-American, anti-fascist) interests.
Captain C
@Alison Rose: It turns out it’s not that hard to manipulate Elon Musk into doing stupid things, whether by accident or on purpose. I’m sure the Tesla shareholders are feeling quite secure right now about their investments after watching his performance this year.
Jeffro
@Al Rennick: ask yourself if anyone still gives a shit about debates in 2022 or 2024 or going forward
Jeffro
Awesome!
So you’ll sign my petition (or whatever it takes) to get a constitutional amendment to raise the standards for running for president? Please?? ;)
Gwangung
@Al Rennick: Dude, you’re almost there. Maybe a half unit more. Snicker.
Reboot
@schrodingers_cat: Thank you for posting. Loved it.
Gwangung
@Jeffro: Yeah, it’s ALWAYS a team effort. All this focus on the Great Man At the Top misses the point.
SpaceUnit
@Jeffro:
Gladly. My guess is that most Republican politicians couldn’t even pass a 5th grade quiz on American history or the constitution.
Or on anything else for that matter.
Ruckus
@CaseyL:
That’s OK everyone on twitter is leaving, some seem to be wondering what it’s like to set $44Billion on fire with absolutely no upside to it, other than watching it burn.
I was going to leave a couple of days ago but decided to stay and see what does $44billion looks like on fire. I was thinking it would be fun to watch but really it’s like watching ignorance bloom. Must be nice to be so wealthy that it’s just pocket change, except that about 1/3 of the money he set on fire belonged to others. Oh well it’s just pocket change…..
James E Powell
@Scout211:
Are they still curing ballots or is it recount time?
Warren Senders
Biden did pretty damned well when he debated Paul Ryan in the ’12 election. There are still memes floating around from his exquisite dissection of Republican economics that night. The fact that people underestimate him is another superpower.
HumboldtBlue
The folks over at Twitter don’t seem to hold Elmo in very high esteem.
Killed me
columbusqueen
@Stacib: Every one here who’s negative about Biden & claims he’s at risk for health problems forgets he survived 2 brain aneurysms in 1988. It means that not only did he kick God in the balls when God smote him, but that Biden has been getting constant checkups on his brain since then. Seems to me that improves the odds of something happening considerably.
BellyCat
@Elizabelle: Seriously. And folks wonder why lurkers don’t post. Xenophobia knows no limits it seems.
James E Powell
@Anastasio Beaverhausen:
I think you should name the names.
Gwangung
@BellyCat: if you’re gonna buck the tide, you have to have the ammunition to do it.
That’s a pragmatic consideration.
CaseyL
@Ruckus: Oh, there are a ton of Twitter topics on Twitter Explore. It’s gorgeous in a way, with Titanic memes and the Space Karen* and so many people saying goodbye and giving out their contact information, like the last day of a cruise vacation.
*”Space Karen” is one of the epithets that someone is projecting, in a bright white text crawl, across Twitter HQ building exterior. Twitter took that and ran with it, letting a hundred memes of Musk-with-a-Karen-hairdo bloom.
JWR
@HumboldtBlue:
Oh man! Reading that as it passed by was the ultimate chef’s kiss. ;)
Another Scott
@Ruckus:
Looks like I was off by a week or so…
Cheers,
Scott.
Ruckus
@Anastasio Beaverhausen:
I’m not that much younger than Joe Biden, and in the 2 yrs between Oct 2015 and Oct 2017, 14 people I know died. Only one of them was older than me and that by one year. 5 yrs later and I walk 2 miles a day and all my numbers are excellent. Doesn’t mean I’ll make another 24 hrs but the chances are pretty good. Joe Biden stays pretty fit. Sure he could fail tomorrow, he could also be like Jimmy Carter and live past 98 or be like the woman at my complex who is 96. Or he could be one of the 782 American supercentenarians still living. Now 782 is not all that big a number but living past 110 is quite possible. Hell the oldest living is on her way to 116 and the oldest recorded made 119. Joe has 30 yrs to hit that number
I’m not saying that we can or should only have old farts running the government, but many people in politics are crap at it at a much younger age. And we have someone backing him up who could take over and do a great job who is much younger at 58.
BellyCat
@Gwangung: Agreed, but benefit of the doubt and a request for clarification is merited in such cases. That is frequently the case for regulars and disturbingly rare for the less familiar.
Ken
@Another Scott: I saw a message from the Twitter engineer who used to run the badging system, saying he’d gotten a call from Musk asking him to come back because they’d deleted all the badge records and locked themselves out.
This is one of the rare cases where I don’t care if it’s true or not.
Ruckus
@gwangung:
And actually he’s only 79.
Yes, yes his B day is Sunday but still, today he’s only 79
BellyCat
@Ken: Chef’s kiss…
livewyre
@BellyCat: Speaking as someone with a bad habit of delurking for hot takes, I think it’s only fair to ask someone who comes out swinging to be prepared for some back-and-forth on the merits. Otherwise it’s not so clear whether the new arrival is really aiming to examine an issue in thoughtful company.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Ken: people on twitter seem to think twitter is about to go away…
Ruckus
@Stacib:
Just to add. I think Kamala Harris would make a good/great president. She’s organized, she sees both/all sides of things, she understands how government works. I voted for her in the primary and am good that Joe Biden won that and selected her as the VP candidate. They make a great pair to run the place and are doing a great job.
HumboldtBlue
Bill Arnold
@CaseyL:
knowyourmeme.com/memes/space-karen
Jackie
@James E Powell: I think tomorrow ends the curing. Then it’s recount time. The AP has stated they won’t call a winner until after the recount.
HumboldtBlue
My sister and her husband are attending the final Elton John concert in the United States. It will be streamed Sunday on Disney plus.
Frankensteinbeck
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Elon has fired enough people that the next time it crashes, there’s probably no one who can reactivate it. And when you’ve fired that many people, you’ve fired the people who were stopping it from crashing in the first place. Will it make it through the night? Will it manage a whole month? No clue, but he’s doing well on my prediction that he would physically destroy the website by mismanagement before he had the chance to bankrupt it by mismanagement.
CaseyL
@HumboldtBlue:
Your sister and BIL are very lucky. A friend of mine went to his concert in Tacoma, said it was incredible.
@Bill Arnold:
The meme’s been around a while, then. I’ve probably seen it before, too. But it’s so appropriate right now!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I will/would miss some of my imaginary twitter friends
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Ruckus
@Frankensteinbeck:
I just checked twitter, it seems like the HR is down to about 35/minute, the blood loss is extreme, the doors are locked, the power bill is past due and the rats are leaving as fast as they can find a life jacket.
Gwangung
@BellyCat: Fair enough. But they should be prepared to defend themselves vigorously and not rely on half baked rhetoric and hoary defenses that really don’t hold up in the wider world.
Eolirin
@Ken: Oh my God
ETA: That is absolutely not true, but it’s hilarious.
Cameron
Hmm. That’s kind of a bite in the ass. Not sure what to make of it.
apnews.com/article/biden-business-lawsuits-journalists-jamal-khashoggi-49f3e4ce88aa21bf2ba603dcbb322…
C Stars
Yeah, Biden’s been surprisingly good. Just an eyes on the prize kind of dude, and as a bonus he’s demonstrated for us all that a person can be an incredibly effective thinker and leader while ignoring all the social media sycos. A lesson that might benefit us all now that Twitter is doing the inevitable.
HumboldtBlue
@Cameron:
What would we think if Afghanis or Iraqis (or a hundred other nations) had the chance to sue any number of our presidents and other officials?
The outcome here certainly sucks, but I’m not sure there is anything terribly surprising in the administration’s position.
PJ
@Anastasio Beaverhausen: Go fuck yourself
PJ
@Anastasio Beaverhausen: Go fuck yourself again
Cameron
@HumboldtBlue: I’m just not sure why the administration felt compelled to say anything. It’s going in front of a judge anyway, so what is gained by saying something that the article itself says is non-binding? Perhaps it’s just that it sort of came out of the blue. As for the desire not to have American officials sued by foreign nationals, I thought that was one of the reasons we refused to be a party to the International Criminal Court (I’m no expert, and could well be mistaken).
PJ
@Al Rennick: It’s like there’s a line of people like you longing to fuck themselves.
phdesmond
@Anastasio Beaverhausen:
let me be the first to call you “snide.”
HumboldtBlue
@Cameron:
My ignorance is far deeper than yours, I am just of a mind that this is a matter of state and the admin was pressed to provide a statement and reaction. Again, I’m clueless, and the same goes for the international angle.
2liberal
does that apply to candidates who own an emerald mine or two?
BenCisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️
@Anastasio Beaverhausen:
So you’re one of THOSE.
Time for pastry.
Alison Rose
@PJ: LOL
mrmoshpotato
Good news, via bluegal
Twitter link
An actual Patriot, not MAGA
@Matt4democracy
Just found out my wife’s sex offender father, was involved at Jan 6. We turned him in last night
9:21 AM · Nov 17, 2022
·Twitter for iPhone
mrmoshpotato
@Scout211:
Good to hear! And hopefully he wins the possible recount!
Kathleen
@hells littlest angel: Thirded.