Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. keep building.

If you voted for Trump, you don’t get to speak about ethics, morals, or rule of law.

The Giant Orange Man Baby is having a bad day.

Giving up is unforgivable.

Republicans cannot even be trusted with their own money.

Celebrate the fucking wins.

Since we are repeating ourselves, let me just say fuck that.

Baby steps, because the Republican Party is full of angry babies.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

This really is a full service blog.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

Republicans: The threats are dire, but my tickets are non-refundable!

“Facilitate” is an active verb, not a weasel word.

White supremacy is terrorism.

Republicans do not trust women.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

American history and black history cannot be separated.

I might just take the rest of the day off and do even more nothing than usual.

Not rolling over. fuck you, make me.

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

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / TGIFriday Morning Open Thread: Busy, Busy, Busy

TGIFriday Morning Open Thread: Busy, Busy, Busy

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Walker Bragman, who spent the pandemic sheltered at his parents’ guest house in the Hamptons: But what has Biden done for meeee?

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269Comments

  2. 2.

    gene108

    I got laid off in 2021.

    ARP saved me a bunch of money on healthcare costs from insurance to meds.

    The extra UI money and tax exemption on UI income was also very helpful.

    I’m not sure the people with political influence, like the media or whoever Walker is, appreciate that you too may fall on hard times.

  3. 3.

    Dangerman

    Had my latest sleep study last night and technician and I talked Covid and vaccines; on the latter, I’ve done two J&J’s, one Pfizer, and one bivalent shortly after the Pfizer, but it’s been a few months since the last one. What’s latest recommendation on shot frequency?

    ETA: Oops. Wrong place. Blame the no sleep study.

  4. 4.

    Baud

    1. FDR nostalgia is as bad as GOP nostalgia for the 1950s.
    2. Dems won big in 1932 and 1936 because white voters were not preoccupied with race like they are today.
    3. Dems won in 1932 because the GOP was in charge for three years of the Great Depression.  Neither the timing or the length of Bush’s Great Recession or of Trump’s Covid recession worked out to our advantage in that way.
  6. 6.

    gene108

    @Baud:

    Dems won big in 1932 and 1936 because white voters were not preoccupied with race like they are today.

    White voters were more preoccupied with race, but since white men ran everything there was no need to get upset about the status quo changing under their feet.

    Edit: White Protestant men. A large number of Catholics in charge would’ve caused a backlash.

  8. 8.

    eclare

    @Dangerman:   I got my bivalent in September, and I wonder the same thing, but I haven’t seen any guidance on it.  I just always mask in public.

  9. 9.

    WereBear

    We saw a lot of cracks in the system, close up. Most of us are still dealing with them, one way or another.

     

    Maybe even corporate media. But I dream…

  10. 10.

    narya

    @Dangerman: I’ve seen some stuff that suggests waiting about six months for a booster of any kind–but your vaccine admin is significantly different from the series that were studied in what I saw. (They mostly looked at folks with the two-shot Pfizer or Moderna series, then boosters after that sequence.) That said, if I were you, I’d go for another booster at 5-6 months from the last one

    ETA: I got my bivalent booster in September, I think, and I’ll probably look to get another one in March, unless I see clearer guidance.

  12. 12.

    Anne Laurie

    @Dangerman: What’s latest recommendation on shot frequency?

    Reuters article in my Tuesday roundup, IIRC, said that people over 60 and the immunocompromised should plan on shots every six months, even though the CDC is going to a once-annual recommendation.

    Couple people in the comments said they’d gone to get boosters six months after their last booster, and not been queried or turned away at the pharmacy.

  13. 13.

    Dangerman

    @eclare: I definitely mask when asked or high risk (i.e., hospitals, of which I’m far too familiar) but I read someplace that masking has some negative effects on … something. Maybe herd immunity and flu. So, most times, no mask.

  14. 14.

    NotMax

    Short-term TCM alerts. All times Eastern.

    1) Saturday, 2:30 p.m. – Larceny, Inc. Edward G. Robinson takes a ripsnorting turn s a more mellow gangster planning a caper. Also with Brroderick Crawford as a dimbulb big galoot.

    2) Monday, 10:30 p.m. – Z. Top drawer intense Greek political assassination drama.

  15. 15.

    dmsilev

    @Dangerman: So far as I know, it’s “get one bivalent booster” with no guidance yet on further shots. There’s been talk about recommending annual update shots, just like for the flu, but it’s not policy yet.

  16. 16.

    eclare

    @narya:   But will drugstores give you a shot if it’s not official FDA  guidance?  I signed up for my first booster ASAP and then had to convince the Walgreen’s pharmacist that as someone over fifty, I was eligible.

    I guess I could go to CVS and pretend I’d never gotten my latest shot…

  17. 17.

    Betty Cracker

    I see that Bragman still hasn’t choked on the bags of dehydrated and flash-fried Cajun-spiced dicks I sent to his Hamptons bunker. Pity.

  18. 18.

    Soprano2

    Since it’s an open thread, I’m going to share that two more people got fired at my city job yesterday, and two more got disciplinary letters. Evidently they’re dead serious about cleaning out people who they think are problematic. It’s pretty shocking, one of these people had been here over 20 years. Never tell me you can’t get fired from a government job.

  19. 19.

    narya

    @eclare: Huh; interesting. I’ll give it a try and see what happens–but maybe we’ll also get some guidance by then. Or, as you said, go someplace else

    ETA: I also mask religiously when I’m indoors–stores, etc.–though I actually ventured out for a meal on Tuesday. And especially on public transportation, though I am in a distinct minority. I’ve seen upticks recently, especially in stores and especially by employees.

  20. 20.

    Dangerman

    @Betty Cracker: Curiously, I was also thinking of sending him bags, but of the flaming dogshit variety.

    Ok, caffeine post sleep test (so I could drive home) wearing off. Damn.

  21. 21.

    Betty Cracker

    Netflix now has “The Good Place” series, which I highly recommend. I saw and was intrigued by the first few episodes when I had a network streaming service that abruptly canceled me, to which I responded, no fuck YOU, Peacock, I cancel YOU! Anyhoo, I was so glad to see the show turn up on Netflix so I could resume viewing. The descriptions of clam chowder (which I actually love) alone make it worth watching: “a savory latte with dead animals floating in it” and “ocean milk with dead animal croutons.” LOL!

  22. 22.

    narya

    @Soprano2: I would love to buy you multiple beverages of your choice and hear ALLLLL the tea, even though I know none of the people involved. Also, I am SO glad to hear this; amazing.

  23. 23.

    MisterDancer

    @gene108: White voters were more preoccupied with race, but since white men ran everything there was no need to get upset about the status quo changing under their feet.

    Holy Fuck, This!

    Baud, I love ya but that was a brutally reductivist way of defining the 1930s around race’s impact on politics. Esp. given the deep divide between the Dixiecrats and a not-insignificant part of the rest of the Democratic Party makeup, of the time.

    White Jim Crow voters were obsessed with race. Racial animosity literally fueled the Democratic Solid South rejecting the Lincoln-aligned GOP. By and large, without that constant drumbeat to hate on my Grandparents, there’s no glue for that region in terms of that political alliance.

    And without that alliance, the GOP wouldn’t have, I think, been as tempted to pull in White Supremacists as they were.

    Just because they didn’t talk every second about race, doesn’t mean damn near every race wasn’t driven by it, and not just on a minor level.

  25. 25.

    narya

    @Betty Cracker: There is a podcast hosted by Marc Evan Jackson (“I play Shaun”) that is SPECTACULAR. Tons of behind-the-scenes stuff, interviews with people like the costume designers, etc. I recommend it very highly–and at one run-through (I actually bought the DVDs, which I never do) I would listen after or before that specific episode to find the easter eggs, etc.

  26. 26.

    Glidwrith

    I have to head to work and don’t have time for more than a drive-by, but a terrifying thought for the lawyers and Sister Golden Bear:

    The phrase ‘gender-affirming care’ that is rife throughout the genocidal trans legislation – has anyone considered that phrase could easily be expanded to the gynecological care of women or did I just have blinders on?

  28. 28.

    MisterDancer

    @Betty Cracker: THE GOOD PLACE is in my Top 10 for the last decade.

    I will say I strongly recommend to avoid reading about it online, due to some narrative work that makes the rotting corpse of O. Henry jealous. :)

    I also will recommend the official podcast, which is frankly one of the best of them I’ve heard.

  29. 29.

    Baud

    @MisterDancer:

    Baud, I love ya but that was a brutally reductivist way of defining the 1930s around race’s impact on politics.

    Not really.  I wasn’t writing a treatise on race relations in 1930’s America, or its intersection with politics. I was referring to the willingness of white voters to vote for Democrats and support activist governmental policies because Dems at the time didn’t have civil rights as one of the major planks.

    preoccupied
    adjective
    engrossed in thought; distracted.

     

    Because white America controlled both parties at the time, white voters weren’t “distracted” by racial concerns from giving Dems big wins in the wake of the Great Depression. That is something we are unlikely to see today or in the near future, no matter how bad screw up the economy.

  33. 33.

    NotMax

    Dimly recall folks hereabouts having good things to say about the BBC;’s Maigret Noticed both seasons are now on Kanopy. Sampling the first episode as we speak.

  35. 35.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Betty Cracker: have you seen the Albert Brooks movie Defending Your Life? there are what I think are a few nods to it in The Good Place, but the only one I can remember right now is the fro-yo shops in heaven.

    Also, the bit about the Bad Place Song deserves a special Emmy all on its own. I should rewatch the whole thing, since as I just reminded myself on my credit card bill that I’m paying for bloody Hulu. Disney plus is part of Hulu for at least a while, isn’t it

    ETA: Netflix, Hulu… Jesus, I don’t even know what I’m paying for anymore

  37. 37.

    Matt McIrvin

    @narya: I believe that the FDA and CDC haven’t yet made any recommendations for a second shot of the bivalent booster–and they seem to be mulling over just recommending an annual shot: just get it with your flu shot in the fall from now on.

    For most of us here, that’d be less frequent shots than they’ve gotten up to now–but for most of the normies out there, it’d be much MORE frequent. So it makes some sense from a public-messaging perspective but I’m not sure it’s optimal biologically.

    Informally, it seems to me like a lot of people have decided to just get the bivalent again after five or six months, and they don’t seem to be having a lot of trouble getting it done. I don’t see how it could hurt and it’s possible that if I’d gotten a second bivalent in January I might not have gotten sick (or had an even milder ride), who knows. As it is, since I have a recent COVID infection I guess I should wait a while before getting another shot.

  40. 40.

    Hildebrand

    @Betty Cracker: Peacock has just rolled a terrific new series – Poker Face.  Natasha Lyonne plays a character who can tell when someone lies – and she travels around the country solving murders.  It’s an homage to Columbo (even down to the title font) and the Rockford Files.  Rian Johnson and Lyonne are the executive producers.  It’s a lot of fun – each episode is a self contained story, the dialogue is great, Lyonne is a delight, and there is a decent amount of Johnson’s incisive social commentary. 

  41. 41.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Baud: I was referring to the willingness of white voters to vote for Democrats and support activist governmental policies because Dems at the time didn’t have civil rights as one of the major planks.

    In the 1930s, the Democrats were the racist party. That’s why the South was so solidly DEM. When Johnson pushed thru the civil rights laws he knew it was going to fuck them in the south, and the GOP jumped on the opportunity with the southern strategy.

  43. 43.

    narya

    @MisterDancer: There are episodes that can still make me weep, despite multiple viewings. The thing that’s so amazing about it is that it is quite deep and quite funny. (As an Old Person, I was also glad to see that the interracial aspect of the main characters’ relationship was NEVER mentioned; when I was a kid, it wouldn’t have been shown, much less taken for granted.)

  44. 44.

    opiejeanne

    @NotMax: My sister’s ex was paid to sit in a booth and eat pie in “Pushing Daisies”.  We watched that show and enjoyed it. I don’ t remember if we ever spotted Tony.

  45. 45.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Dangerman: I have not seen any story about negative effects of masking that wasn’t at least highly suspect. I know that there were claims of people having some sort of “immunity debt” from not breathing in enough disease germs, but I don’t think there’s any universe where exposing yourself to more flu viruses is better for you on balance. I think a lot of that was driven by people casting about for some way that Trump’s opposition to masking could make logical sense.

  46. 46.

    Baud

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I think by the 30s, the parties were about equally racist, although the Dems still had control over Southern racism, which was the big one at the time. IIRC, there was a Klan resurgence in the 20s that occurred in a lot of the more Republican states. That effectively killed off the Party of Lincoln.

  47. 47.

    Kay

    You could really get people quite a bit of help combining state and federal UI programs, and that was in addition to PPP, Small Business Administration programs and the Restaurant Revitalization Fund. Our office immediately started helping people navigate those and it was like nothing I have ever seen before- there was real help available, and FAST, unlike with the 2009 financial crash where it was almost cruel – it was like “help”, yeah sure, apply, but it’s not real. The “mortgage help” post-financial crash made we want to strangle someone. It was like they went out of their way to make sure no one received a DIME they weren’t entitled to, even if it meant denying millions who were eligible. Just gross, stingy thinking.

    In some states, including Ohio, one could retain employees with reduced hours while the employee received (reduced) UI payments AND the federal bump. That was huge because the employers who put some thought into it kept their employees so were ready to ramp right back up even when no one could find employees. Taking care of them was the smart move. Everybody won.

    Anyway- good job! I thought it was great.

  48. 48.

    Hildebrand

    @eclare: We watched the first three episodes last night – it’s really good.  It’s well done, the cast does a great job, and Natasha Lyonne is just amazing.  We loved her in Russian Doll, and she is even better here

    You have to get back in the groove of 70s detective ‘case of the week’ shows – but it’s a delight.

  49. 49.

    Matt McIrvin

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    In the 1930s, the Democrats were the racist party. That’s why the South was so solidly DEM.

    It was a little more complicated than that–they were the (more) racist party in the South, but they were also the pro-immigrant party in the Northeast. And Eleanor Roosevelt was unabashedly pro-civil-rights, and trying to influence Franklin. At some point during the FDR years, African-Americans especially in the North started switching over to vote D, which strikes me as wildly forward-thinking behavior. It was a weird, unstable coalition.

  50. 50.

    Baud

    @schrodingers_cat: I’m all for learning from history, but nostalgia sucks.  You can’t pluck something out of its historical context and just expect to apply it to modern situations.

  51. 51.

    NotMax

    @opiejeanne

    Fun job!

    Little touches abound. The zipper on the front of Kristin Chenoweth’s waitress blouse was opened lower by a tooth or two episode by episode as the show progressed. Had it not fallen into the cancelled too soon category, only she and the producers know how far things would have gone.
    ;)

  52. 52.

    Geminid

    There is a little bit of impending drama in the House over the seating of Representative Ihlan Omar on tbe Foregn Relations Committee. While Squeaker McCarthy has the power to block Reps Swallwell and Schiff from the Select Committee on Intelligence, he needs a majority vote to deny Omar her committee spot, and he may not have the votes. So far Representatives Spartz (IN) and Mace (SC) have said they would vote to seat Ms. Omar (although Mace sounded a little less definite). Several other Republicans are said to be on the fence.

    This question cannot be put a vote until the Democrats’ leaders submit their list of committees assignments. They haven’t yet, perhaps because they are not sure of how a couple of their own Reps will vote.

    According to a WaPo story from yesterday, Ranking Foreign Relations Committee Member Greg Meeks was “coy” on whether all Democrats would vote for Omar, but insisted that she would be seated with a bipartisan majority.

    When asked if he had the votes to keep Rep. Omar off, the Squeaker said to reporters, “Just watch.”

  53. 53.

    MisterDancer

    @Baud: I was referring to the willingness of white voters to vote for Democrats and support activist governmental policies because Dems at the time didn’t have civil rights as one of the major planks.

    I get it now (even if I have…concerns). I submit that, even when I was trying to give you the benefit of the doubt, I did NOT get this meaning from your original lines.

    Thank you for clarifying!

  54. 54.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Geminid:

    Republicans are the party of “chaos and catastrophe.”

    Even better branding because it’s true.

    I hope Dem leaders say this often enough, especially at the places and times when it counts (like the Sunday morning shows), to make it sink in.

    Repetition is important.  Dems need to make this the frame that voters who aren’t already firmly in one camp or the other put Republican words and actions in and find that they fit.

  55. 55.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Baud: Next thing you’ll be telling me that LBJ didn’t pass the Civil Rights Act and the Great Society programs by being taller than Abe Fortas and peeing with the bathroom door open

  57. 57.

    Steeplejack

    Here’s a nice palate-cleanser for the end of the week: an article from the Post (gift link) about the Whitney Museum’s Edward Hopper exhibition. Includes pictures of some of his paintings that I had never seen. I especially like Approaching a City.

    Now I’m thinking about taking a trip to New York to see the show, which runs through March 5.

  58. 58.

    schrodingers_cat

    @OzarkHillbilly: Both@Matt McIrvin,@Baud: make good points.  The Republican party of the era between the two World Wars was wingnutty when it came to both trade and immigration. They passed immigration restriction acts that would make Steven Miller jealous.

    And I don’t have to tell you about their disastrous economic policies. So Republicans of that era were in many ways worse than the Ds.

    Current Rs have retained the worst of those Republican tendencies and added worse of the Dixiecrat tendencies to the mix.

  59. 59.

    lowtechcyclist

    @schrodingers_cat:

     IIRC Walker is a trust fund baby

    This is the first I’ve heard of this guy, but given that he’s got a last name as his first name, I can’t say I’m surprised.

  60. 60.

    MisterDancer

    @Matt McIrvin: It was a weird, unstable coalition.

    I think this drives at the center of my…unease around how we’re talking about this.

    There’s a LOT that happened in this era. Certainly I hesitate to say that the Democratic Party was of One Mind around the question of Race, and specifically Blackness, in America. As much as it was impossible to run as a GOPer — much less against Segregation — in the Solid South, it also was possible to do exactly that in the North. Even as, to be clear, issues like Redlining were set up at this time, on the Federal level by the FDR Administration, that also drove White Supremacy and would contribute to White Flight.

    How much of that was just a racist asshole in change of the project versus Dixiecrat pressure (that we know was applied to other aspects of the New Deal) versus FDR Admin edict, is something I’d need to dive into serious research to answer to my comfort level.

    I get what people are trying to say now. It…just isn’t a situation that I think works well when it’s devolved into high-level Party processes, not at this point in history.

  61. 61.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Kay:

    Sometimes I think one of the few reasons it was good as it was was because GOP and Dem interests happened to align; Dems wanted to help people and Republicans wanted to help re-elect Trump

  63. 63.

    Betty Cracker

    Regarding “The Good Place,” I recommended it to my sister earlier this week, and she sent a text yesterday with a joke that indicates she’s already several episodes in, which is highly unusual. My sister doesn’t watch a ton of TV and is altogether a better person and less lazy than I am (early season 1 Eleanor vs. Tahani), so I was amazed! It’s an indication of the show’s quality, IMO. ;-)

  64. 64.

    Layer8Problem

    @Betty Cracker:  I’m just gonna say:  the laugh from Ted Danson’s Michael when Eleanor has her epiphany at the end of the first season.   It’s on YouToob for sure.

  65. 65.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Geminid:

    What exactly does McCarthy think he is accomplishing with this BS? Can we please solve real problems instead of seeking petty revenge for Representative Jewish Space Lasers

  66. 66.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @NotMax: Is that the one with Rowan Atkinson in the title role?

    Our library has a series of “Mystery Mondays” which consist of our English librarian introducing us to the ridiculous number of British TV detectives. We’ve stayed with one of those (Jonathan Creek) and discovered another on our own (Sister Boniface).

    Last one was the pilot for Maigret, with Mr. Bean playing the world-weary inspector. I’m familiar with the character, I’ve read him in both English and French. Mr. Bean seemed a strange choice. But it worked OK, I was able to ignore that it was Mister-Freaking-Bean long enough to enjoy the episode.

    I’m going to chime in with the recommendations for The Good Place. We thoroughly enjoyed Season 1, didn’t like the direction the story line went at the start of Season 2 and skipped ahead a little. We’ve left it there in Season 2 but I do want to get back to it some time.

  70. 70.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): One of the best practical arguments Republicans have for electing them is one they can’t say out loud: “vote for us because if we don’t control the executive, we’ll use what power we do have to sabotage the country and hurt you.” The argument of a mugger.

  71. 71.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    I was pondering the Obamas this morning. Mainly because I’m finally getting around to finishing Michelle Obama’s Becoming. I don’t commute anymore, but it occurred to me a couple of weeks ago that I waste a lot of time on dog walks and could use that to clear up my backlog of audio books.

    It’s at the point in her story where she and Barack are a couple separately beginning to make their mark (he is the first black president of the Harvard Law Review) and so I’m thinking about both of them and just how accomplished and.. decent they were. And that took my mind to Joe Biden, who is also a genuinely good person, and I’m proud that he and Jill are occupying the White House. But it feels like it took Obama bringing him into the VP slot to really make us aware of him and of them. I don’t think Biden would be the President he is without that stint working for Obama.

    Also am I the only one whose mood lifts and heartbeat calms down just hearing the voice or seeing the face of either Obama? I have 13 hours left on this audiobook and I’m going to revel in every minute, and A Promised Land is in the backlog queue.

  72. 72.

    Geminid

    @lowtechcyclist: President Biden met Tuesday with Democratic Congressional leaders- 3 from the Senator, 3 from the House. They discussed  strategy and tactics for the debt ceiling fight, as well as implementation of major legislation passed in the last Congress including the Infrastructure bill.

    I think they also discussed the elements of a common messaging strategy. When Majority Leader Schumer met with reporters afterwards, he tried one out:

        “Democrats are unified. Republicans are in chaos.

    Democrats are saying we can come together in  a moderate way. [Republicans] are extremists.

    That’s the contrast. Unity versus chaos.

  73. 73.

    Kay

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    It aligned really nicely with how I think, so an experiment. What happens if you actually help people in a crisis rather than push them off a cliff? Good things happen for the whole economy. It was like we broke the magic spell of Right wing economics that has dominated the US my entire adult life. We didn’t base it on “moral hazard” or any of the other theoretical Right wing constructs– we based it on “this body shop will go under unless we get them 72,000 dollars, quick”.

    There was no moral analysis. It was “keep the doors open until they can get back to work”. It worked too. It’s why the Right is freaking out and insisting everyone is lazy and featherbedding and the billionaires are whining about work ethic. Because rescuing them worked. The US economy did WELL unlike under “austerity”.

  74. 74.

    Layer8Problem

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist, @mrmoshpotato:
    As god is my witness I heard that damned song two days ago on the radio in a pizzeria while I was happily eating a slice. If I was an open carry gun nut I probably would have dispatched the radio with extreme prejudice and claimed I felt threatened. Then again open carry gun nuts probably like that song. Using it in The Good Place was a stroke of genius.

  75. 75.

    Ejoiner

    @Hildebrand: Caught Poker Face last night and loved it! Damn, Adrian Brody can act the hell out of any line. Great set up for what looks like a great series :)

  78. 78.

    Matt McIrvin

    @MisterDancer: And there are people who imagine that Democrats can just get a coalition of that size back if we do some magical thing to neutralize culture-war issues. But it’s not the same electorate (thank God).

  81. 81.

    Steeplejack

    @NotMax:

    If you’re talking about the Rowan Atkinson version, I liked it pretty well. I’m also a fan of the Bruno Crémer version that you have available on MHz. Slow-moving and dense, but in a good way.

  82. 82.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:

    But it feels like it took Obama bringing him into the VP slot to really make us aware of him and of them. I don’t think Biden would be the President he is without that stint working for Obama.

    So old I remember when Biden was, to the pre-twitter on-line left known as the Blogosphere, or Blogistan (like, ironically), the much-loathed “Senator From MBNA” and the author of the nefarious 2005 bankruptcy bill. In early ’08, he was still bragging about how he, hisgoodfriend John McCain and Chuck Hagel had written a much narrower AUMF than Bush wanted. I myself, who eventually came around to Obama (yes, this Obot’s Obot was slow to get on the train) because of Iraq, raised an eyebrow when Obama picked him as a running mate.

    In 2019, my joke was that every Biden stump speech contained the phrase, “As I used to say to Barack…. excuse me, as I used to say to President Obama….”, while the rest of the first tier Dems were trying to out-Bernie Bernie and taking, at best, a “bless his heart, he tried (sort of)” attitude toward Obama.

    We saw how that turned out.

  83. 83.

    Geminid

     

     

    @Matt McIrvin: Harry Truman’s reelection in 1948 was an interesting political science project regarding the Democratic coalition. Truman had desegregated the combat arms of the military, and I think that was a big reason Strom Thurmond ran on the third-party, Dixiecrat ticket.

    This subtracted a portion of the Roosevelt coalition, but the rest held together and Truman won. The votes of Black people might have made the difference in the North.

  84. 84.

    UncleEbeneezer

    I’ll never understand the near-universal praise for The Good Place.  We gave it 15-20 minutes, both looked at each other and noticed that neither one of us had even come close to laughing yet, and decided to bail.  Found the over-the-top, earnest/wholesome thing to be way too much for our taste.  I hear it goes to some very interesting places and works some cool meta tv tricks but we just couldn’t get past the saccharine-sweet vibe.  Had the same problem with Schitt’s Creek and Ted Lasso too (though we stick with TL for the dark/dramatic turns, which are great).  That said, no shade to people who love it.  Glad you do.  I love plenty of stuff I’m sure you don’t.  No accounting for taste, etc.

  85. 85.

    Ken

    @Geminid: When asked if he had the votes to keep Rep. Omar off, the Squeaker said to reporters, “Just watch.”

    Please tell me this is a one-and-done vote, and they won’t be holding 15 votes at 2 AM in hopes of getting a different result.

  86. 86.

    WaterGirl

    @Geminid: I don’t care for the unity vs. chaos message.

    The single word UNITY just begs the question… unity, yes, but if they don’t like what dems are about, unity is scary.

    CHAOS, yes, I am all for that.

  88. 88.

    Betty Cracker

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Netflix, Hulu… Jesus, I don’t even know what I’m paying for anymore…

    I feel so seen!

    I remember “Defending Your Life” — a friend and I saw it when it came out ages ago. He and I have been friends since childhood, and when we talk about all the dumb things we did as teenagers, young adults, etc., we sometimes joke about how those incidents will show up in our “life review.”

  89. 89.

    UncleEbeneezer

    We just finished the true crime drama Murders at White House Farm on HBO and it was excellent, if you are into that sort of genre.  Each episode is a cliff-hanger, only 45 minutes and the story unfolds slowly but well.  For GoT fans, it also features the actors who played Theon AND Yara Greyjoy (though they aren’t siblings in this one).  The whole thing was very well done and you never see much of the gore of the killings.  Anyways, we flew through it very quickly.  It was very binge-able.

  90. 90.

    Geminid

    @Ken: I think this will be one vote and done, and it should happen soon after Democrats submit their list of committee assignments. Besides giving them time to “whip” their own potential defectors, Democrats gain from a few days delay because Representative Omar is making her case for remaining on the committee, and she is doing a good job of it.

  92. 92.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Betty Cracker: It’s my favorite Brooks movie, which I think makes me a heretic within a very specific sect (canon law dictates that Lost In America is the best Brooks). I also love Mother, in no small part because I think, somehow, Debbie Reynolds based her performance on my mom– “I’m not falling for that!” (that, if you haven’t seen it, is paying extra for that fancy Baskin Robbins ice cream. Total scam.)

    @Matt McIrvin:

    There was a lot of “Obama sucked actually” sentiment among the social-media left during the Trump years.

    Still is, not always from the usual suspects (another favorite movie!)

  94. 94.

    SFAW

    @Betty Cracker: ​
     

    I see that Bragman still hasn’t choked on the bags of dehydrated and flash-fried Cajun-spiced dicks I sent to his Hamptons bunker. Pity.

    Unfortunately, this is too long for a rotating tag.

  95. 95.

    Dangerman

    @Matt McIrvin: Doesn’t mean a lot given anyone can have Trumpie leanings, but the technician at the sleep clinic also mentioned the negative effects of masks. I just can’t recall the details on where I read it or, for that matter, exactly what the technician said last night. It’s gonna be a lonnnnnng day.

  96. 96.

    SFAW

    @Ken: ​
     

    Please tell me this is a one-and-done vote, and they won’t be holding 15 votes at 2 AM in hopes of getting a different result.

    Good luck with that hope.
    Just remember, you can’t spell “Obamacare” without “Omar.”

  97. 97.

    geg6

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    I can’t think of a bad Brooks film.  I also prefer Defending to Lost, but both are masterpieces, IMHO.  He’s also brilliant in Broadcast News.  One of my all-time favorites, Mr. Brooks.

  98. 98.

    Jeffro

    @Kay: There was no moral analysis. It was “keep the doors open until they can get back to work”. It worked too. It’s why the Right is freaking out

    110% this

    They’re also frantically trying to rewrite the history of the pandemic; specifically, trumpov & Kushner’s malicious (non)response and lies.  That’s why they keep it up with this crazy a$$ “Prosecute Fauci” crap and why they have a “Subcommittee on the Origins of the Pandemic” or whatever.

    After all, it’s not like their orange god-king could have been WRONG or STUPID or MALICIOUS or anything.  Nope…it’s “Democrats locked you in your houses for two years“.

    (And it’ll be truth on the right from here forward, too.)

    Anyway, they’re in a panic and it shows.  Government can indeed come to the rescue in a recession or other crisis.  Who would have thought?

  99. 99.

    Geminid

    @WaterGirl: Nothing to dislike about what Democrats are unified over, it seems to me. And I think tbe word by itself has positive connotations.

    Schumer could have explained exactly what Democrats are unified over, but he was keeping the message simple:

      That’s the contrast. Unity versus chaos.

  100. 100.

    Princess

    @Ken: When asked if he had the votes to keep Rep. Omar off, the Squeaker said to reporters, “Just watch.”

    Because we already know McCarthy can’t count so he has to wait for the vote to know how much he’s going to lose by.

  102. 102.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @UncleEbeneezer: I like all three shows, but I can see where you’re coming from. TGP could get a tad bit precious, and am I the only one who thought Ted Lasso fell off a bit in the second season? Or was it that the novelty had worn off?

  103. 103.

    Brachiator

    @Geminid:

    Harry Truman’s reelection in 1948 was an interesting political science project regarding the Democratic coalition. Truman had desegregated the combat arms of the military, and I think that was a big reason Strom Thurmond ran on the third-party, Dixiecrat ticket.

    It’s ancient history, but Truman endorsed a civil rights plank as part of the 1948 Democratic Party platform that a core of Southern Democrats detested. Strom Thurmond led a walkout of 36 Southern delegates.  The Southern delegates who remained nominated Georgia’s Richard Russell Jr as an act of defiance.

  106. 106.

    Kay

    @Jeffro:

    It’s bad faith all the way down. An example- the lab leak theory. Biden orders inquiry, results of inquiry released, Right wingers continue to screech that “no one is allowed to question” – just not people anyone can work with. If I hear one more time “no one is allowed to question” from people with HUGE platforms who are wholy bad faith actors and question everything I will scream. Question away, asshole. No one cares.

    Over and over, too, same dynamic. Obama’s birth certificate. “White vans” full of undocumented who are voting. It doesn’t matter if anyone investigates, listens to their concerns, puts safeguards in place. They just careen on anyway, screaming.

  108. 108.

    Kay

    @mrmoshpotato:

    Conservatives have passed TENS of ballot security laws in more than half the states. Yet. Still. Their base is MORE convinced there is voter fraud, not less. We know this is a fake problem because no solution fixes it. The “secure election” is always just over the horizon. One more ID law, disenfranchise 20k more people, spend millons of dollars on grift and rip off contractors. Result? Now HALF the GOP base believe election are invalid instead of 1/3. It’s worse.

  111. 111.

    Brachiator

    @Kay:

    Their base is MORE convinced there is voter fraud, not less. We know this is a fake problem because no solution fixes it. The “secure election” is always just over the horizon. One more ID law, disenfranchise 20k more people, spend millons of dollars on grift and rip off contractors.

    The basic problem is that Republicans believe that the “wrong people” are voting.  They need the gerrymander and voter suppression to ensure that the get the result they want.

  112. 112.

    rikyrah

    @Glidwrith:

    The phrase ‘gender-affirming care’ that is rife throughout the genocidal trans legislation – has anyone considered that phrase could easily be expanded to the gynecological care of women or did I just have blinders on?

     

    You have nailed it.

  113. 113.

    rikyrah

    @Matt McIrvin:

     

    I believe that the FDA and CDC haven’t yet made any recommendations for a second shot of the bivalent booster–and they seem to be mulling over just recommending an annual shot: just get it with your flu shot in the fall from now on.

     

    If they don’t do it soon, Imma just gonna slide up at my local pharmacy and get another one.

  114. 114.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: Even the non-Trumpy wingnuts practically wept with relief when inflation spiked. Finally — something they could shriek about and an argument for the austerity approach.

  116. 116.

    WaterGirl

    @Geminid: And I don’t like it.  Or have to like it. :-)  The messaging shouldn’t be for you or for me, it should be for people who aren’t as tuned in.  And those people don’t necessarily approve of Dems all the time.

    It should be Republicans in DISARRAY!

  118. 118.

    Brachiator

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    Sometimes I think one of the few reasons it was good as it was was because GOP and Dem interests happened to align; Dems wanted to help people and Republicans wanted to help re-elect Trump.

    Excellent point.

  119. 119.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    I know I was a little irrational about inflation but the truth is I don’t trust them. I think they’re ideologically motivated and won’t admit it. They were mad that unemployment was super low and working people had some leverage and they’re ideological, so their base belief is that unless working people are terrified they won’t go to work because the lower classes are lazy and of poor character.

    I just can’t go along with it anymore.

  120. 120.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    So old I remember when Biden was, to the pre-twitter on-line left known as the Blogosphere, or Blogistan (like, ironically), the much-loathed “Senator From MBNA” and the author of the nefarious 2005 bankruptcy bill.

    But was any of that not true?  I’m glad that Biden seems to have changed his tune since then, but the 2005 bankruptcy bill is specifically why I was holding out for someone other than Biden as the Dem nominee.  No Dem should have supported that bill.

    I’m very thankful that he’s President now, but I’d love to ask him someday why he got behind it then, and how he got from there to here.  Hopefully a biographer will ask those questions for me at some point.

  121. 121.

    eclare

    @Betty Cracker:   The UK is finding out what a decade of austerity and Brexit can do, good and hard.  Either later this year or next, I can’t remember, the average citizen will be worse off than the average Slovenian.  The drop in living standards coupled with the strikes is scary.

  122. 122.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    People who GLEEFULLY promoted austerity when millions of people were unemployed in 2010 all of a sudden became super concerned about the price of a gallon of 2% milk?  My. Ass.

    They should just admit a lot of this “economic analysis” is ideological. I admit mine is- I have an agenda. They should admit too. Then we can have real debates instead of fake debates.

  123. 123.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    their base belief is that unless working people are terrified they won’t go to work because the lower classes are lazy and of poor character.

     
    I think it’s more that they know terror helps them get away with paying lower wages.

  124. 124.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: That’s it!  “Precious” is the word for what I was going for.  It’s the same way I feel when I watch For All Creatures Great & Small, which my wife adores but I can only roll my eyes through, most of the time.  Anyways, to each their own and sometimes (like with The Bear and even The Wire) I can be initially turned off by a show then try again and they end up being one of my all-time faves.  A lot of it depends on my headspace going in.

  125. 125.

    Amir Khalid

    Is the complete run of The X-Files available on Blu-ray/DVD in the US? Because I’d love to get my hands on all 11 seasons and both movies.

  126. 126.

    Baud

    @eclare:

    Either later this year or next, I can’t remember, the average citizen will be worse off than the average Slovenian.

     

    Only until Slexit. Slovexit? Sloveniexit?

  127. 127.

    Geminid

    @Brachiator: I appreciate the new information. I did not know the rest of the background, but I was pretty sure that the integration of Black men into combat arms was especially alarming to the segregationists. Up until then they had for the most part been restricted to the Quartermaster and Engineering Corps.

    And I’ve read and heard anecdotal evidence that as veterans of Korean War combat, many of these men had an impact on the civil rights struggle in the South.

  128. 128.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @rikyrah: I mean, my understanding is that things like HRT are used to help Cisgender kids with acne issues, and nobody has ever objected to that.  It’s the End (a person wanting to live, feel, look like a gender they weren’t assigned at birth) that scares and pisses off conservatives, not the Means themselves.  See also: breast implants/reduction which nobody objects to when it is Cisgender women (once they are 18).  Or if a 15 year old Cisgender girl wants breast reduction, it’s fine so long as parents/doctors are consulted.  But if a Transgender girl wants implants or a Transgender boy wants reductions to make their bodies match their Gender Identity, all of a sudden it’s “we have to ban this until 26, or even forever.”  The arguments against Gender-Affirming Care are Bad Faith, all the way down.

  131. 131.

    Old School

    @Amir Khalid:

    Is the complete run of The X-Files available on Blu-ray/DVD in the US? Because I’d love to get my hands on all 11 seasons and both movies.

    The only listings on Amazon (US) are for imports of the European versions (Region 2 or PAL).

  133. 133.

    Kay

    @UncleEbeneezer:

    I think THAT would be a really interesting discussion- all of the medical interventions for young people that are completely “uncontroversial” (deemed to be so) and never discussed by the same people who are hugely concerned with gender affirming care. What does it mean when you tell boys being short is unacceptable? What about weight loss regimes? With all the eating disorders? No one is “concerned” about that?

    But we don’t get that – real thought. Instead we get examples plucked out of any context or comparison.

  134. 134.

    MomSense

    @Baud:

    @gene108:

    It’s also important to note that Social Security excluded agriculture and domestic workers, which was about 50% of workers at the time.  It was also the case that those excluded workers were mostly black people. Explains why there wasn’t a backlash from white voters in 1936.

  136. 136.

    kalakal

    @Baud:

    I think it’s more that they know terror helps them get away with paying lower wages.

    Exactly, as far as they’re concerned employer – labour relations are covered by “You should be grateful you have a job”. It’s all they’ve ever known, they love ‘market forces’ & ‘competition’ except when they actually encounter them.

    The same reason they fear & loathe universal healthcare, take away the link between employment and healthcare and you take away their power over the great unwashed

  137. 137.

    Kelly

    We finished the two seasons of “Slow Horses” on Apple TV. Gary Oldman is the wiley, disheveled boss of a bunch of MI5 screwups. Kristin Scott Thomas is his bureaucratic nemesis in charge of the regular MI5. Just great.

  141. 141.

    stinger

    @Kay:

    We know this is a fake problem because no solution fixes it. The “secure election” is always just over the horizon.

    Reminds me of the “missing link” argument over evolution (it’s just a theory!). Scientists would find an intermediate form, and evolution deniers would insist that it proved nothing, because “Where’s the link between THAT and the other form, huh? Huh?” You could advance by half the distance, then half again, and half again, and never arrive.

    Because they didn’t want to arrive. Just as election deniers don’t want to be proved wrong.

  142. 142.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Kay: Yup.  I think this is a better framing for our responses rather than the framings that the other side tries to bait us into.  Ask them to explain why only some kids/adults get to control their own bodies but others don’t.  Much like using vasectomies to compare with abortion to make a similar point.  Of course it won’t get the die-hard Transphobes to change their views but it presents a much better framing for reasonable people who don’t know much about Gender/Trans issues to understand and see the issue through a lens of bodily autonomy.  IE- probably won’t work on your MAGA co-workers but would be helpful with your Normie/Apolitical friends and even slightly-conservative Dem ones.

  143. 143.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Kay:

    People who GLEEFULLY promoted austerity when millions of people were unemployed in 2010 all of a sudden became super concerned about the price of a gallon of 2% milk?  My. Ass.

    They should just admit a lot of this “economic analysis” is ideological. I admit mine is- I have an agenda. They should admit too. Then we can have real debates instead of fake debates.

    If it was even ideological, we could have real debates. But their positions are whatever positions will best stick it to all the people they hate, which means their positions, changing frequently for convenience’ sake, have no ideological foundation or consistency.

    Needless to say, they don’t want real debates, they just want to score on a succession of cheap shots.

    @UncleEbeneezer:

    The arguments against Gender-Affirming Care are Bad Faith, all the way down.

    As are their arguments about practically everything else under the sun.

  147. 147.

    trollhattan

    @Betty Cracker: ​Learned last week that occupying the Peacock universe between Peacock (free) and Peacock+ (subscription) is Peacock Premium, by which one can find something listed on free Peacock and yet must pay for the privilege of watching. How? Push some buttons to eventually get your CC# to somebody. Don’t forget to cancel the next day, or you will get charged monthly. On top of what you’re already being charged, monthly.

    Hate it all.

  148. 148.

    Steeplejack

    I know there are some here who can relate to this!

    Every morning I wake up and worry “what if Democrats don’t email me literally 500 times today?”

    — A.R. Moxon (@JuliusGoat) January 27, 2023

  149. 149.

    Matt McIrvin

    @lowtechcyclist: Biden’s policy positions themselves changed. The way I’ve heard it put is that Biden has always been right in the center of the Democratic Party, wherever that happens to be, and the party has moved to the left since 2004 or so.

  150. 150.

    Ken

    @Kay: There was a “South Park” with that theme, with doctors being unwilling to give teen girls breast reduction surgery, but seeing no problems with breast enhancement.

    (Now I stand revealed as someone who used to watch South Park.)

  151. 151.

    Kay

    @UncleEbeneezer:

    When is it appropriate to treat short children with growth hormone? The answer is not always clear-cut, as many parents and physicians have discovered over the past three decades. Social, medical and ethical concerns complicate the issue. Short stature itself is not a disease, although it may result from underlying disease. But diagnosis can be challenging and treatment decisions may be controversial. Some short but healthy children receive expensive nightly injections of recombinant growth hormone. As with any medicine, there may be side effects — and possibly unknown long-term risks.

     

    Over the last three decades. And nary a word from all these people who insist on making medical decisions for other peoples children. I insist they weigh in on ALL the medical decisions. They want to be (fake) parents? Well, you can’t just pick and choose.

  153. 153.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Kay: I also think our gotcha question should be: do you believe the government should be allowed to force people to accept irreversible changes to their bodies, against their will?  Because that’s exactly what these GA-Care bans are intended to do by forcing Trans people to go through puberty.

  156. 156.

    Geminid

    @WaterGirl: It’s the unaffiliated, it seems to me, that are most attracted to a party that is in harmony, and repelled by one that is in chaos and wants to bring that chaos into their lives.

    Democrats intend to sell their policies by demonstrating them. That is why the party leaders are concentrating on implementation of the last Congress’s legislation.

    House Democrats could tell people about their future agenda. It’s basically what they could not get in the BBB bill: free community college, caregiver support, etc. But they cannot get these measures onto the House floor anyway.

    Their immediate policy program is basically defensive: averting a default, avoiding Social Security cuts, blocking attacks on women’s and trans people’s rights, and more. I think we’ll hear more about positive policy initiatives next year, closer to the election that can make them possible.

    Schumer was talking politics and not policy. He was on the attack, branding Republicans as “extremists,” a party of chaos. This is a message best kept simple, and Schumer is good at that, I think.

  157. 157.

    Steeplejack

    @Amir Khalid:

    That’s a fraught subject. I don’t know what region Malaysian players are coded for. And there are ways to make some players region-free. I would consult the Google for your specific model of DVD player.

    I went through this years ago when I was trying to get some Montalbano DVDs that were available only in Europe.

  158. 158.

    Anyway

    @Betty Cracker:

    Biden has also been much better on foreign policy than I dared hope. Some people are really late bloomers! ;-)

    Totally. I was not a fan of Biden as presidential candidate all those times he ran. Lackluster and uninspiring and didn’t care for the MBNA/Anita Hill/ Crime Bill record.

    As presidential candidate in 2019-20 thing that struck me was how much Biden had grown/changed/evolved for an “old man”. Srsly, people get stuck in their views but Biden has moved so much on his positions and you can see it in his appointments, governing priorities etc etc. His stint as Obama’s VP seems to have had such a wonderful effect – way more than all those years in the Senate.

  160. 160.

    eclare

    @Anyway:   Agree, and I think that “evolving” to be better is a good thing, especially in an older person where views are usually more set.

  161. 161.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Matt McIrvin:

     Biden’s policy positions themselves changed. The way I’ve heard it put is that Biden has always been right in the center of the Democratic Party, wherever that happens to be, and the party has moved to the left since 2004 or so.

    Clinton had vetoed a similar bill in 2000.  Even during the Bush years, the 2005 Bankruptcy Act was well to the right of the Dem center.  They had been keeping bankruptcy deform legislation (which the R’s wanted) bottled up throughout Bush’s first term with the threat of filibuster.  Even in 2005, more Dems in both houses of Congress voted against this bill than for it, even with Biden pushing it.

  162. 162.

    Geminid

    @WaterGirl: I know that “disarray” has a special resonance for people who follow blogs like this one, but I still think “chaos” is a better word for this purpose.

    “Disarray” sounds somewhat troubling, like a house with a mess that is in serious need of tidying up.

    “Chaos” sounds scary, like a house under assault by poltegeists while a tornado is bearing down on it.

    That’s how Chuck Schumer wants people to think about Republicans. And it’s actually not that big an exaggeration.

  163. 163.

    Fake Irishman

    @Geminid:

    Truman desegregating the armed forces rankled Thurman, but the thing that caused the South to bolt was Hubert Humphrey having the audacity to pick a floor fight — then committing the unpardonable sin of winning it — in an attempt to put a strong civil rights plank in the Democratic platform.

    (I’m working my way through Caro’s Master of the Senate, I can safely finish the book now without having to think of Mitch McConnell as majority leader and wanting to punch something)

  164. 164.

    Kristine

    @eclare: Here’s one recent link.

    I had a bivalent booster back in September. I may have gotten re-boosted a little early, but oh well.

    The FDA authorized bivalent formulations of the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines for use as a single booster dose.

    The Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine, Bivalent is authorized for use as single booster dose in children 6 months through 5 years of age at least two months after completion of a primary series with the monovalent Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine. It is also authorized for use as a single booster dose in individuals 6 years of age and older at least two months after completion of either primary vaccination with any authorized or approved COVID-19 vaccine, or receipt of the most recent booster dose with any authorized or approved monovalent COVID-19 vaccine.

    The Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine, Bivalent is authorized for use as a single booster dose in individuals 5 years of age and older at least two months after completion of either primary vaccination with any authorized or approved COVID-19 vaccine or receipt of the most recent booster dose with any authorized or approved monovalent COVID-19 vaccine.

  165. 165.

    marklar

    @Glidwrith: “The phrase ‘gender-affirming care’ that is rife throughout the genocidal trans legislation – has anyone considered that phrase could easily be expanded to the gynecological care of women or did I just have blinders on?”

    The counterargument you’ll get is that the latter is not “gender-affirming care”, but “sex-based care”. The folks passing these laws reject the entire notion of gender– a social construction– believing instead that one’s identity is set at conception based one one’s God-chosen chromosomes (i.e., sex).

    Of course, this overlooks all the possible biological pathways to being transgendered, gender-fluid, androgen insensitivity syndrome, etc., but frankly, those shouldn’t even be relevant to the conversation. Choice is choice, regardless of whether there is a biological substrate influencing it.

  166. 166.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Anyway:

    Srsly, people get stuck in their views but Biden has moved so much on his positions and you can see it in his appointments, governing priorities etc etc. His stint as Obama’s VP seems to have had such a wonderful effect – way more than all those years in the Senate.

    I have no theory of what changed him, but I’m glad he changed.  In the words of Dylan, “he not busy being born is busy dying.”  Biden is still busy being born.

  168. 168.

    Miss Bianca

    @NotMax: My library is offering Kanopy now, and I am seriously tempted to sign up. Those of you who are routinely streaming, are you doing it via your Smart TV (which we don’t have up here at the Mountain Hacienda), or via your computers?

  169. 169.

    Fake Irishman

    @Anyway:

    One thing we do need to say about Biden’s Senate career: if we mention Anita Hill (and we should), we also need to mention how his chairmanship of Judiciary helped keep Robert Bork off the Supreme Court. Things are terrible now, but they would have gone sideways a lot quicker with him on the court instead of Kennedy (Gay Rights and the Environment come to mind, not to mention Roe being overturned in 1989)

  172. 172.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: I tell people you can either go fast or be careful. In 2009 they were careful, in 2020 they went fast because they had to. Now they’re investigating PPP loans that were taken out fraudulently, and clawing some of that money back. Locally there’s a guy who used over a dozen fraudulent companies to apply for PPP loans; he got almost $500,000 for companies that didn’t even have any employees! He bought cars, houses and yachts with the money. The IRS is in the process of seizing all of that stuff from him. It was an inevitable result of going fast.

  173. 173.

    Brachiator

    @Geminid:

    I appreciate the new information. I did not know the rest of the background, but I was pretty sure that the integration of Black men into combat arms was especially alarming to the segregationists. Up until then they had for the most part been restricted to the Quartermaster and Engineering Corps.

    The desegregation of the armed forces was the warning shot, but the civil rights plank was a huge deal, and continued to be an important issue, ultimately leading to the modern transformation of the Democratic Party and the realignment of many white Southerners with the GOP.

    And I’ve read and heard anecdotal evidence that as veterans of Korean War combat, many of these men had an impact on the civil rights struggle in the South.

    Black veterans have been at the vanguard of the modern civil rights movement since WW1. Returning veterans and movement of black people to the North had to deal with the backlash of the race rights of 1919 and the early 20s.

    Black WW2 veterans helped lead the push for civil rights in the 1940s.

    Also, black people who knew how to use weapons always frightened white racists, who presume that the Second Amendment only applies to white people with guns.

    Black people have served in the American military in combat roles since the Revolutionary era. Some white people always forget this, for some strange reason.

    Also, black veterans who found that they were treated better overseas rejected the expectation that they should defer to Jim Crow when they came back home.

  175. 175.

    Betty Cracker

    @Miss Bianca: We stream via our smart TV, which is several years old and not at all fancy. Theoretically, it’s cheaper than cable, but with all the subscriptions we’ve got floating around, it damn near amounts to a cable bill. Smart or not, if your TV has an HDMI input, you can stream.

  176. 176.

    Jeffro

    @lowtechcyclist: three things changed him greatly:

    1. Seeing Obama try to work with Republicans and get nowhere, for years.
    2. Beau dying.
    3. trumpov wrecking the country for four years.
  177. 177.

    Miss Bianca

    @Layer8Problem: @Betty Cracker: Oh, man – *loved* The Good Place, and that moment was definitely a highlight. Also, Eleanor’s laugh at the end of…was it Season 3? That echoes it – so inspired.

    Hmmm…that one may actually be worth a DVD buy.

  181. 181.

    Betty Cracker

    @Soprano2: Easy government cash also had the side benefit of enticing some greedy elected Republicans to commit fraud. The asshole FL statehouse rep who sponsored the Don’t Say Gay law recently got popped for stealing $150K and had to resign. Maybe he’ll use an entrapment defense. “Your honor, I’m a Republican! Of course I could not resist an opportunity to grab tax dollars when they paraded past me in that short skirt!”

  183. 183.

    Brachiator

    @Miss Bianca:

    Those of you who are routinely streaming, are you doing it via your Smart TV (which we don’t have up here at the Mountain Hacienda), or via your computers?

    Don’t have a Smart TV and actually tend to watch a lot of streaming content on my computer or tablet. Sometimes even on my smartphone.

    One crazy thing. I would love to be able to just pay a fee to see a movie, rather than sign up for every streaming service. I don’t have Netflix, and want to see the new mystery move, Glass Onion. But I don’t want to subscribe to Netflix.

  184. 184.

    Geminid

    @Fake Irishman: This is all interesting and important but I think my central point about the Democratic coalition applies no matter what was the cause of Thurmond’s 3rd party run.

  185. 185.

    brantl

    @Brachiator:  I just saw it, it shares nothing with the previous, excellent movie, Knives Out, other than Daniel Craig, as the same person. Not great.

  187. 187.

    MisterDancer

    @Matt McIrvin: The way I’ve heard it put is that Biden has always been right in the center of the Democratic Party, wherever that happens to be, and the party has moved to the left since 2004 or so.

    That…doesn’t cover how intense the change in Biden has been, I feel. There’s still tons of space to the “right” that he just isn’t even rhetorically inhabiting at this time.

    I think people really underplay how two situations impacted Biden:

    1. Watching up-close how the GOP obstructed Obama, and esp. changed the tenor of the Senate, and
    2. The events of Charlottesville, that Biden has explicitly said was a key catalyst for his run against Trump (align with Beau’s exhortation).

    I think Biden fundamentally sees America in a very different way than he did 15 years ago. [ETA: I’ll add the situation with Beau; the Biden of 15 years ago, I don’t see him pulling from Afghanistan.]

  188. 188.

    Baud

    @Miss Bianca:

    hose of you who are routinely streaming, are you doing it via your Smart TV (which we don’t have up here at the Mountain Hacienda), or via your computers?

    Chromecast and smartphone.

  189. 189.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Miss Bianca:

    Those of you who are routinely streaming, are you doing it via your Smart TV (which we don’t have up here at the Mountain Hacienda), or via your computers?

    My flat screen is a stupid TV.  I stream using my Amazon FireTV stick and phone. (Stick connects via HDMI)

  191. 191.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @brantl: the Glass Onion/Knives Out/Daniel Craig discourse is widely varied. Strong opinions on many, not just both, sides. I find it interesting.

    along those lines, I caught an ad for The Banshees of Inisherin that makes it look like a goofy comedy. It has those moments, but…. it has other aspects. The ad made it look like a warm, Waking Ned Devine style look at lovable folk in the Irish countryside.

  192. 192.

    Geminid

    @Brachiator: I knew all that when I made my comment, and was just keeping it short and to the point

    And I had in mind a particular anecdote given by James Farmer in a talk.

  195. 195.

    MisterDancer

    @Miss Bianca: Those of you who are routinely streaming, are you doing it via your Smart TV (which we don’t have up here at the Mountain Hacienda), or via your computers?

    Since the vast majority of TVs made today are “smart,” I think most people just use the built-in capabilities, or get a standalone “stick” (is that what you mean by “computer”? sorry for the pedantic answer!).

    I use both, as I have an ancient plasma TV  with a external streaming device, and a slightly newer smart one where I use the built-in capability.

    I don’t know anyone who uses a full-blown desktop/laptop, although I know how to build one and have done it in past.

  196. 196.

    trollhattan

    @Miss Bianca: Roku box. Cheap, and it works.

    Will be getting a smart teevee at some point, then I can see if the box can be avoided entirely, for now it works fine.

  197. 197.

    rikyrah

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:

     

    But it feels like it took Obama bringing him into the VP slot to really make us aware of him and of them. I don’t think Biden would be the President he is without that stint working for Obama.

     

    For so many reasons, this is true.

    When Clyburn endorsed Biden, and said..

     

    ” WE KNOW JOE”

    A lot of that subtext, at least, as a Black person, is that we saw, for 8 years, this older White man, be Vice -President to the first Black President. And, he did it with enthusiasm, and more importantly, he did it without trying to undermine Barack Obama.

    I cannot stress to those who aren’t Black what THAT said to the Black community about Uncle Joe and his character.

  200. 200.

    MisterDancer

    @WaterGirl: The name of the podcast?

    Apologies — I thought I saw someone just below had added a comment w/link to it when I posted, so I didn’t think it necessary to edit and add. It appears I saw wrong, though. :(

  206. 206.

    Miss Bianca

    @WaterGirl:

    It should be Republicans in DISARRAY!

    I prefer “Republicans in Rout”. Catchier that way, I think. Strangely, tho, no one seems to be consulting me about messaging! :)

  208. 208.

    Brachiator

     

    @brantl:

    I like the character that Daniel Craig created and wanted to see more of him.

    I understand that Netflix and Rian Johnson signed a deal to do at least one more Knives Out movie.  I would like to see them without having to join Netflix.

    The sad thing is that even though Glass Onion also played briefly in theaters, the two movie theaters I regularly went to shut down.

  209. 209.

    Betty Cracker

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: We loved Knives Out and found Onion okay — entertaining, but not anything special despite the stellar cast. Banshees, hoo boy! I didn’t have any expectations going in, but I imagine it would have been quite a shock if I was expecting Ned Devine. (Motorcycle scene in Ned Devine cracks me up when I think of it. Loved that movie!)

  210. 210.

    kalakal

    @Miss Bianca: We use Dumb TV, Roku Box, works fine. From conversations I’d say our library patrons split about 2/3 to 1/3 Tv to tablet/laptop, very rare that anyone has any trouble with it

  211. 211.

    kalakal

    @mrmoshpotato: My parents let me watch hours of tv showing roadrunners running faster than coyotes. They let me see these lies for years and did nothing! Nothing, I tell you!

  212. 212.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Betty Cracker: between Christopher Plummer, Jamie Lee Curtis and Toni Collette, Knives Out had me when I hit play. I was kind of skeptical about Glass Onion because none of the cast caught my eye like that, but my sister (and personal movie critic) recommended it strongly. Maybe my lower expectations made me like it more. I don’t remember liking Craig in KO as much as I did in GO, and Janelle Monae was fantastic. I bought in on pretty much everything. My only real complaint is it needed more Jackie Hoffman

    ETA: and yeah, Banshees, Hoo boy indeed. I think I need to watch it again, but I would have to wait a while.

  213. 213.

    WhatsMyNym

    @Amir Khalid:   Amazon freevee is also showing X-files for free, but has ads.  You might have to use a VPN to pretend you are in the USA if it’s not available to your area.

  214. 214.

    Brachiator

    @mrmoshpotato:

    Does Netflix not do trial periods anymore?

    I am hopelessly stubborn. I just want to buy a movie ticket now and then. I know that everything is moving to streaming, but I just like to find a movie I want to see and then pay to see it.

    Some services are thinking about charging $35 for a premiere “ticket,” with the idea that multiple people in a household might be watching. But that is too much for me as a single viewer.

  215. 215.

    Miss Bianca

    @kalakal: Mm, Roku Box sounds like it might be the way to go.

    Also, o/t, looks like I will be directing a Christie play in the fall – And Then There Were None, right in time for Halloween. I would still love to get you and Subaru Diane to do a dramaturgical commentary for my cast when I do cast it!

  216. 216.

    Kay

    @Soprano2:

    I only saw one suspicious transaction- a DJ, so one person, self employed. That was legit- obviously anything connected to weddings was shut down but I thought his claims were hinky – inflated- so sent him away and I know he got what he asked for.from some bullshit Utah popup lender His mother was also like that – just a LEETLE scammy. Like my paternal grandmother. Even as a child I was like “um, is that ILLEGAL what youre doing?” Mostly was.

  220. 220.

    Ken

    @Miss Bianca: I will be directing a Christie play in the fall – And Then There Were None

    I suppose the contract forbids you to change the ending to match the book. I would love to see that version produced. Sadly, Kenneth Branagh returns my letters unopened.

  221. 221.

    WhatsMyNym

    @Miss Bianca:   I really prefer Roku.  Better support for the software. The stand alone boxes are probably a better choice over the sticks, more room for memory (buffering the video) and other electronics. Better support for the software than smart TVs.

  222. 222.

    Princess

    @MisterDancer: I agree. I’d also add:

    3. The death of Beau. I think Biden thought Beau was going to be president some day. I don’t know what his politics were but as someone younger, he may well have been more progressive. I think Biden may spend some part of the time asking “what would Beau do?” I have also wondered how much Harris may be driving policy behind the scenes. Weren’t Harris and Beau friends?

    Anyway this is all wild speculation… But I have said here before that Beau’s death turned Biden from Biden the Grey to Biden the White.

  223. 223.

    cain

    busy busy busy – congrats to princess for 222 – matches the busy busy busy!

    Now I am 223! Welcome to this completely content free message! Hoorayyy!

  225. 225.

    Miss Bianca

    @Ken: I am actually planning to do *both* endings and alternate them. Haven’t decided yet whether to set a schedule for them or let the audiences vote which one they want to see. >:>

    Probably set a schedule, so people who want to see the “happy” ending can see that one and people who want to see the grimdark ending can see that one. Also, of course, telling people that “if you want to see the OTHER ending, you have to come back. And no fair spoiling it, either!”

  229. 229.

    Geminid

    @Brachiator: I heard this back in the 90s. James Farmer was a visiting lecturerer at Washington and Lee University, and a local public radio station broadcast a talk he give.

    Farmer described an evening spent at a funeral home in a small Mississippi town, in 1963. He had been organising in the area for SNCC, word had spread around the white community, and now an armed mob had gathered outside demanding that Farmer be handed over. The mob, which included state and local police, intended to murder him.

    The situation were getting very tense when Farmer was told to get in a coffin and the lid put on. He was then driven past the mob in a hearse.

    When they got to a safe town and parked, Farmer climbed out of the coffin and saw five armed men standing around the hearse. A sixth, the driver told him, we know you’re Non-Violent, but we had to get you out of there. These men fought in Korea, and those white folk wanted no part of them.”

  230. 230.

    prostratedragon

    @MisterDancer:
    “I don’t know anyone who uses a full-blown desktop/laptop, ”
    [Raises hand] I do a lot of streaming on my desktop, which also has dvd players, a 32 inch screen, and is visible from a comfortable spot. The available linux codecs seem to cover all regions, though once I was able to convert a standalone player by finding the right jumper.

  231. 231.

    Baud

    More on the ISIS raid.

    The officials said no civilians were wounded or killed in the operation, but they did not identify any of the 10 others killed beyond characterizing them as ISIS operatives. The only injury the officials reported was a U.S. service member who was bitten by one of the American military service dogs.

    Private Major Biden, reporting for duty!

  232. 232.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Princess:

    3. The death of Beau. I think Biden thought Beau was going to be president some day.

    I’ve always thought Biden’s decision was in part due to a desire to fulfill what he thought was Beau’s destiny

    But I have said here before that Beau’s death turned Biden from Biden the Grey to Biden the White.

    I like that image. Gandalf was always the most interesting part of Tolkien for me

     

    (And I can’t resist: “You understand that I’m not really a wizard!“)

  233. 233.

    prostratedragon

    @rikyrah: “and more importantly, he did it without trying to undermine Barack Obama.”
    I have no idea what his clues were, but my late father thought in 2008 that Biden was an excellent pick by Obama for precisely that reason. He said Biden would be too “honorable,” his exact word, to undermine Obama.

  235. 235.

    gvg

    @Jeffro: I would add that I bet Bush and torture being authorized impacted him also. And the nutty republican libertarian stunts with the debt ceiling ought to have upset anyone who actually understood the world of finance. Biden used to be considered an ally of big banks and credit card companies because of where he is from. The fact that many rich people kept giving to the GOP after those stunts should have shook him up. But the Bush years were also revealing.

  236. 236.

    Brachiator

    @Geminid:

    When they got to a safe town and parked, Farmer climbed out of the coffin and saw five armed men standing around the hearse. A sixth, the driver told him, we know you’re Non-Violent, but we had to get you out of there. These men fought in Korea, and those white folk wanted no part of them.”

    Great punch line.

  237. 237.

    lowtechcyclist

    @rikyrah:

    And, he did it with enthusiasm, and more importantly, he did it without trying to undermine Barack Obama.

    I cannot stress to those who aren’t Black what THAT said to the Black community about Uncle Joe and his character.

    Hadn’t thought about that*, but not that you mention it, I can see what a BFD that must’ve been.

    *Falls right into the typical white male blind spot about stuff that doesn’t affect him directly. Thanks for opening my eyes just a wee bit.

  238. 238.

    dnfree

    @Kelly: Just shows how different tastes can be.  The acting in “Slow Horses” was great, but the plot was unrelievedly bleak in both seasons, and over the top particularly in the second season.  So we’re done with it.

  239. 239.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I thought Knives Out was the better of the two, but they were both tremendously entertaining and well worth watching. Because of the very different setting and characters (aside from Craig), the movies have a very different feel to them, yet they do seem to establish a structure for what “a Benoit Blanc mystery” is going to be like. You always spend the second act realizing the whole story is not what you thought it was, then the resolution switches it up on you again.

  240. 240.

    MomSense

     

    @Princess: A lot of the policies the Biden Harris administration have been working on were things Harris ran on during the primaries.  One example is the advance child tax credit that cut childhood poverty by 40% while it was in effect. She also kept inserting abortion rights, access, and infant and maternal mortality rates into the debates.  Even though the Bernistas smeared her and labeled her a “centrist” she was the person pushing for practical economic policies and for women’s health as a fundamental (including) economic right.

  241. 241.

    zhena gogolia

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I’m having whiplash with the 1984 miniseries The Jewel in the Crown. The first episode was a tender romance. Episode 2 plunges right into a horror movie. I didn’t sleep last night after watching too much of it.

    I thought Glass Onion was far inferior to Knives Out.

  242. 242.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Baud:

    Private Major Biden, reporting for duty!

    Wait ’til he gets a few promotions, then he could be Major Major Biden, reporting for duty!

    But not Major Major Major Major.  That’s already taken.

  245. 245.

    Miss Bianca

    @Brachiator:

    @Geminid: I seem to remember reading that anecdote – or one very similar – in a book called This Non-Violent Stuff’ll Get You Killed, which was about the – shall we say – “Not Non-Violent” wing of the Civil Rights Movement.

  248. 248.

    CaseyL

    Ronna just won re-election as the RNC chair, and it wasn’t even close.  Pillow Guy got 4 votes.

  250. 250.

    Kay

    Of course the only people who will be left alive are far Right Trump folllowers and anti-vaxxers. This is the conspiracy theory they invented- everyone dies except them :)

  252. 252.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Kelly: I’ve become addicted to the Slow Horses audiobooks, and Oldman and Scott Thomas are great fits for the characters in my head.

  253. 253.

    Glidwrith

    @marklar: I feel you have touched on what I am trying to get at: these people don’t distinguish between the two words (sex and gender). I think one of their next moves is to outlaw all forms of contraception using these laws as the vehicle.

  254. 254.

    Glidwrith

    @Kay: With the supreme irony that long Covid probably will kill a huge chunk of the right-wingers off. We’re still at 9% higher excess deaths compared to pre-Covid, and we are still two years out from generating a five year survival curve.

  255. 255.

    A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)

    @UncleEbeneezer: I love the new version of All Creatures Great and Small, but I only lasted 2 episodes of The Good Place, even with Ted Danson, who I like a lot.  Taste, as they say, varies :-)

  256. 256.

    Ruckus

    @Baud:

    The advent of better, or better yet, better and more available communications should have made a joke of a lot of political bullshit because it contained more information. But it’s greatest drawback is that it made a lot more mis-information widely available as well and gave more people the ability to spread it. Take what we are doing right now. We’ve never met, likely never will and yet we can discuss any and every thing. The last century, and yes this one as well, gave us much technology that made life both better and opened the possibility of worse as well. Some people only know how to make things worse. I suppose it’s their gift.

  257. 257.

    Geminid

    @Miss Bianca: I think that SNCC was non violent at that time. It may have changed somewhat later in the decade. The men who helped Farmer escape were not bound by that principle, though.

    I have just general knowledge of those times, but the story that Farmer told was quite gripping just hearing it over the radio, and it stuck with me.

  258. 258.

    A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)

    @Anyway: I agree 100%!  It took me a long time to get over how Anita Hill was treated by Biden, but I love him now.

  260. 260.

    Mike in NC

    Read that the RNC will continue to fail under the dismal leadership of Ronna Romney McDaniel. Admittedly, she couldn’t land a job flipping burgers at a greasy spoon.

  261. 261.

    Nelle

    Has anyone seen Women Talking?  Nominated for best picture, stellar cast, based on a great book written be a distant relative of mine.  Finally, just arrived in Des Moines.  I’ll see it after next snowstorm finishes.

  262. 262.

    Layer8Problem

    @zhena gogolia:  In re: The Jewel in the Crown, keep on with it.  It covers a lot of ground with British India/The Raj and the people in it, and it’s not all horror.  But Merrick’s a bastard.

    And I agree that Knives Out was the better film, although I was tickled with Craig in the bathtub at the beginning wearing a fez.  I just thought the bunch-of-friends-falling-out setup to be too weakly set up, and I’m sorry, renting out the Mona Lisa?  Not happening, can’t suspend disbelief.  Although after the fact I developed a theory that the French said “[The Musk character]’s dumb; give him one of our ultra-good decoy copies and tell him it’s the original and he’ll believe it because we’re insisting he pay for much insurance.”

  263. 263.

    CaseyL

    @Layer8Problem:

    That was my read on the matter as well – that the Louvre gave him a copy and laughed about dumb rich Americans.

    And that was even before someone pointed out that the Mona Lisa is painted on wood, not canvas.  So, either the movie got it wrong too, or it was a very subtle and sly indicator that They Know That We Know That He Don’t Know.

    So, funny either way!

  264. 264.

    zhena gogolia

    @Layer8Problem: I’ll probably persist with The Jewel in the Crown because of Malik and Dance, but my husband has bowed out after Merrick’s interrogation scene.

    The climactic scene with the Mona Lisa was already done (with Gainsborough’s Blue Boy) in the Naked Gun (1988), which I just happened to watch right after seeing Glass Onion. Leslie Nielsen did it better. The mystery aspect was ridiculously uninteresting and obvious.

    ETA: And boy, did they waste Leslie Odom, Jr.

  265. 265.

    zhena gogolia

    NYT tells me there’s another terrible Jennifer Lopez romcom available on Prime now, which is catnip for me. I love JLo no matter what.

  266. 266.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Layer8Problem: another great cameo appearance by the Mona Lisa: The Freshman, with Brando and Matthew Broderick

    also, the movie Mona Lisa, I think the first time I saw Bob Hoskins

    and now I have a pleasant ear worm of Nat King Cole singing about a cold and lonely

    lovely

    work of art

  268. 268.

    J R in WV

    @Geminid:

    Truman had desegregated the combat arms of the military, and I think that was a big reason Strom Thurmond ran on the third-party, Dixiecrat ticket.

    When I was in the USN from 1970-73, there were plenty of black sailors, who were being treated like black people in the Deep Jim Crow South, because all (most) of the Petty Officers were southerners.

    And when my ship was sent to Pascagoula, Mississippi for a major overhaul, it was like time travel, from 1972 to 1922, as far as race relations ere concerned. An elderly co-worker/neighbor from our home town went to Moss Point MS (the black community adjacent to Pascagoula) to visit his mother,  and stopped by the Library where Wife worked.

    Wife was very homesick, and knew Herb all her life, and worked with him for months at one point prior to our marriage. Her father’s age. She was almost fired for “an Improper show of affection to a black man,” because she hugged this guy, her father’s age, who lived near her grandmother. White haired elderly gentleman wearing a suit!!

    Mississippi is off limits to us, we got the hell out of there ASAP when I was discharged. Despicable people in a horrible geographic location.

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