Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

It’s time for the GOP to dust off that post-2012 autopsy, completely ignore it, and light the party on fire again.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

You cannot shame the shameless.

I didn’t have alien invasion on my 2023 BINGO card.

I was promised a recession.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

I wonder if trump will be tried as an adult.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

Infrastructure week. at last.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

The GOP couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a fist full of 50s.

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

After roe, women are no longer free.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

You are here: Home / Politics / Biden Administration in Action / Tuesday Evening Open Thread: While We’re Waiting

Tuesday Evening Open Thread: While We’re Waiting

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The AP’s story, with complete list & details, here.

While, across the aisle:


(The RNC’s ‘food’ comes from grifting, guess you can’t blame them for trying… )

Reader Interactions

78Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    Ugh. Bono.  I don’t often have occasion to criticize Biden, but that seems like a waste of a seat.

  7. 7.

    Cmorenc

    I plan to read about the SOTU speech later and not watch it live. Nothing against Biden – just feel more urge to work on other nonpoliticsl projects tonight.

  8. 8.

    MomSense

    Just had a haircut and I finally love my hair stylist.  She did the hair and makeup for my kid’s wedding and I adore her.  She moved back to Maine when the pandemic hit, leaving her life in NYC as a hair and makeup artist for movies and tv.  She still does some when her schedule allows.  I really miss being with creatives.

  12. 12.

    MomSense

    Holy hell – TFG just fired shots across DeSantis’ bow.  Photos allegedly showing him drinking with his attractive female students when he was a high school teacher.
    Rooting for injuries.

  14. 14.

    MomSense

    @Shalimar:

    Those first albums were awesome.  I have to tell my kids that they had a new sound when Boy first dropped.  My kids don’t have that perspective because the U2 sound was well established and frequently copied (hello Coldplay) by the time my kids were listeners.

  15. 15.

    trnc

    @MomSense: Holy hell – TFG just fired shots across DeSantis’ bow. Photos allegedly showing him drinking with his attractive female students when he was a high school teacher.

    So DT is mocking him for not sexually assaulting them? I hate to say it, but the Desantis ad team is going to have a pretty easy time of it against DT.

  20. 20.

    laura

    @Baud: my WAG is that Bono is the signifier for the Good Friday Accords which are impacted by the Brexit fuckery. I’m braced for criticism or more likely little to no response.

    Regarding the SOTU and the accomplishments of the Biden Harris administration- the Inflation Reduction Act has guaranteed over $25,000 per year in monthly health care premiums for three more plan years, so the money I earned and set aside specifically for premiums can stay in savings. I am forever grateful.

  23. 23.

    Redshift

    I may have finally figured out the conservative “you depend on us for food” taunt, which they’ve been pulling out every so often for years. My gut reaction is “uhh, do you think farming is some kind of protection racket?” On the obvious level, it’s trolling, trying to get us to fight back. (It doesn’t really matter if the replies are true.)

    But I think it’s really meant to feed their base the “those people look down on you!” grievance. Because the reality is we’d barely think about them at all if they stopped talking about how much they despise us, and voting for people who want to take away our rights and tell us how to live our lives. Grievance isn’t going to sustain itself without an enemy to blame, so they have to keep pumping up the storyline that they’re just reacting to us, rather than ginning up hate all on their own.

  24. 24.

    hells littlest angel

    @Baud: It will be an opportunity for a heartwarming reunion with George Santos. He and Bono haven’t seen each other since they worked together on the Spiderman musical.

  25. 25.

    Redshift

    @laura:

    my WAG is that Bono is the signifier for the Good Friday Accords which are impacted by the Brexit fuckery. I’m braced for criticism or more likely little to no response.

    That seems quite plausible to me.

  26. 26.

    dmsilev

    I’m trying to understand what point that GOP Tweet is trying to make. “Liberal coastal elites don’t understand that food comes from farms”?

    I mean, the real point is “liberal coastal elites BAD”, but ignoring the subtext what is the text supposed to be?

  27. 27.

    trnc

    @MomSense: I’m not saying he’s not a creepy asshole. My point is that the people who voted for self identified sexual assault king will not bat an eye while voting for the pedo, as long as he owns the libs.

  29. 29.

    laura

    @Redshift: Welp- I was wrong. Bono’s presence relates to the work done on AIDs. But I’m still over the moon about the massive benefit of extended special subsidies for premiums!

  30. 30.

    Brachiator

    @dmsilev:

    I’m trying to understand what point that GOP Tweet is trying to make. “Liberal coastal elites don’t understand that food comes from farms”?

    Well, there’s this…

    California’s agriculture industry has the highest output of any U.S. state, with its Central Valley being one of the most productive agricultural regions on Earth, growing over half the country’s fruits, vegetables, and nuts.

    Coastal elites feed the country and the world.

  31. 31.

    Alison Rose

    @dmsilev: Just that: Coastal elites look down on REAL MURRICA and they’re too dumb and snobby to realize their food comes from us!!!!!!!!!!!

    Even though it doesn’t. California produces 1/3 to 1/2 of the nation’s fruits, vegetables, nuts, and other crops. It’s basically the “unfaithful partner accuses their partner of cheating” idea, because they’re doing exactly what they’re accusing us of doing.

  33. 33.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @trnc: I’ve given up trying to figure out what those people will do, but I will say that with trump, at least, they had fun. I can’t see DeSantis putting on those traveling carinval-of-hate rallies that were the circus and a night with the Redneck comedians (what did they call themselves? Foxworthy et al?) all rolled into one.

  34. 34.

    MomSense

    @trnc:

    I think TFG probably has more where that photo came from and, even though I loathe him, he is very good at eliminating other GOP darlings (Jeb!  Micro Rubio) so I hope this gets ugly.

  37. 37.

    trnc

    @gene108: I would’ve been stunned if all I knew was that he taught HS, but seeing him creep on the fems adds some much needed context that shifts the world back into alignment.

  43. 43.

    VOR

    @Alison Rose: Yep. It’s “we are the Real America and those Coastal Elites wouldn’t survive without our hard work”. Except Red states are dependent on federal revenue flows from Blue state taxpayers, including farm subsidies. In my state, the Republicans have little foothold in the larger cities so they cultivate a real rural vs. urban conflict. In their world, the rural areas are the ones subsidizing the cities. Not remotely true, but it does foster the sense of grievance they are aiming for.

  45. 45.

    artem1s

    the best part of this is not only is DeSantis going to have some explaining to do, sooner or later, someone is going to start asking questions about where TFG got the photos.

  46. 46.

    Gvg

    Uh, and those farmers would be out of business and lose their farms if the cities didn’t have the population to support that much demand for the farm products. Every industry needs its consumers and their money and vice versa. The US used to have less population and more farms, but the farms produced less per acre and per farm worker with older methods. My uncle the farmer spent his whole life learning and keeping up with all the new knowledge of how to produce more efficiently and cheaper and what was the best price point between how much expensive equipment to use and pay for versus what gain will it get you in produce and what it costs to produce. My grandfather did not and was much less successful as a farmer.

    Anyway what I heard was a lot of ignorance about the next steps in the retail chain. The farmers thought all the canning factories and grocery chains were ripping them off and knew their own production costs but totally ignored that all the other steps , transport cleaning canning, freezing, packaging, shipping, selling involved expenses too plus all those workers needed to get paid. Grocery stores have terrible problems with theft and spoilage. It’s not new, records show it’s always been like that. And the theft isn’t just customers, it’s employees and hijacking shipments and burglaries. It’s crime business not just petty theft. You see on the other side of the family I had a grocery store manager. He was very good at spotting thieves both employees and customers.

    Anyway the rural opinion that the cities are ripping them off is recorded going back to at least the middle ages and seems to be a human trait but it’s wrong. They can’t exist without each other and the farms prosperity is tied to the cities.

  47. 47.

    Martin

    @Brachiator: California really does make it hard for the GOP sometimes. Largest ag state by a factor of two while only being 13th on government farm subsidies. Largest manufacturing state. Pulling off both of those while also having among the highest minimum wages. Immigrants keep refusing to take our jobs despite the state having millions of them. Green energy is supposed to be unreliable and too expensive for business.

    California is indistinguishable from magic, it would seem.

  50. 50.

    Jeffro

    @hells littlest angel:

    It will be an opportunity for a heartwarming reunion with George Santos. He and Bono haven’t seen each other since they worked together on the Spiderman musical.

    LOLOLLLLL

    If Biden even vaguely alludes to that tonight…which would be some serious inside baseball, I mean, SERIOUS…I would pack my bag tomorrow morning for the Biden 2024 campaign HQ and never look back.

    Oh what the hell, I’ll just do it anyway.  =)

  53. 53.

    Martin

    @dmsilev: I think they’re trying to say that cities need to cater to rural because we’d all starve without them. Meanwhile, California.

    Not to give the GOP credit, because they don’t deserve any and this wasn’t remotely the point they were trying to make, but we should be mindful that the current economic cycle we have, even though on the surface things like work from home and whatnot should favor rural areas, it should still result in cities stripping wealth from rural areas. Yeah, the GOP could *easily* get in front of this problem and advocate for policies that are, well, the opposite of what they are advocating for.

    The problem is that there isn’t a lot of productivity gains to be made particularly in midwest ag. One guy driving a tractor over an acre of corn is as cheap as you can do it, provided the guy owns the land and can be pushed to no value of labor (he’ll work for free to keep the farm alive in hopes next year will be better). At what point does some CA or MA startup of lab grown beef drive their efficiency cycle hard enough that they can turn out a steak for less money than the guy in Texas spends on feed?

    California meanwhile is paying $21/hr average for immigrant farmworkers and blowing these guys away on receipts. There’s a single farm in California selling almonds and pistachios with revenues that are half the entire Texas cattle industry. Basically equal to Indianas entire corn industry – which is that state’s biggest ag industry. We kind of miss not just the scale of the imbalance here, but also that there’s basically nothing those other industries can do to improve their lot other than have the government pay them, which is what is happening.

    Well, that’s not true. There isn’t an acre of corn in the united states that wouldn’t earn more money if it was solar panels instead. Like, a LOT more money. Big cash outlay, though.

  54. 54.

    Martin

    @SiubhanDuinne: No, it was Bono.

    Santos was lead singer on the multiplatinum album ‘Achtung Baby’ back in 1991. Did you realize he was only 3 when he recorded that album. The pipes on that kid…

  56. 56.

    cain

    @Jeffro: I was remembering a hillarious essay when it was Obama vs Hillary where it was focused on Hillary and her 3am call  – but where she actually goes on some kind of Russian adventure – it involved a helicopter and sniper fire and a black comedian I cannot remember right now – it was hilarious!

    Truly a balloon-juice epic post.

  57. 57.

    HumboldtBlue

    @trnc:

    I hate to say it, but the Desantis ad team is going to have a pretty easy time of it against DT.

    No way, dirty, underhanded, slimy and vile is all Trump knows, and he’s been doing it for 50 years. DeSantis and his team have no idea what’s coming at them if Trump goes all-in on his fat, squeaky-voiced ass.

  60. 60.

    David 🎈🕵️The Establishment 📸🛩 Koch

    @Baud:  Big mistake digging up Sunny Bono.   Jill should have brought Taylor Swift, instead.  At least she’s lively.

  61. 61.

    WaterGirl

    @zhena gogolia:

    What do you think of Meidas Touch?

    I kind of respected them at first, but lately it mostly feels like a lefty version of Rush Limbaugh, with way more ranting than news.

    Plus I read that they are promoting some pretty questionable products on their show, but I haven’t looked into that so I can’t swear that it’s true.

  66. 66.

    David 🎈🕵️The Establishment 📸🛩 Koch

    @WaterGirl: ​
    Never heard of them, but lemme guess: ranting and raving the Dems aren’t liberal enough and Bernie woulda won

  67. 67.

    Martin

    @WaterGirl: I think Pete has shamed everyone into asking him serious questions by so consistently making them look like idiots when they ask him dumb shit.

    It’s really remarkable how good he is at that.

  68. 68.

    WaterGirl

    @zhena gogolia: I listen to them when I am preparing meals or cleaning the kitchen.

    I may have to find a new alternative.  I have listened to Talking Feds twice.  The host does not have a great speaking voice or a great speaking style, but he has great guests and they have interesting and serious conversations.

  71. 71.

    WaterGirl

    @Martin: Works for me!  Pete really is an excellent communicator.

    They played a clip of Pete asking a question in 2002, when he was still in school.  It was so Pete.  Seriously, if anyone tries to say that what we see is not authentic, they just have have to watch the question he asked when he was a young pup.

  74. 74.

    David 🎈🕵️The Establishment 📸🛩 Koch

    @WaterGirl: ​
     I’ve never heard of them, but when you say lefty version of Limbaugh then that’s the usual routine.

  77. 77.

    Jeffro

    @HumboldtBlue: DeSantis’ only hope (and I’m being serious here) is to a) completely ignore trump and his slime machine and b) tell the MAGA base, “I’m utterly committed to OWNING. THE. LIBS. like trump was…only I’m not a moron and a business failure, so I’ll do it MUCH more effectively”

    for realz

  78. 78.

    Geminid

    @zhena gogolia: I saw one of those DeSantis pictures last year. They ought to get more circulation now that Inspector Trump is on the case.

    The pic I saw seemed bad for DeSantis. He looked like he had a buzz on, but buzzed or not that situation is a firing offense for a teacher. For regular adults it would just be a potential charge of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, I believe.

    It’s fitting these photos are coming back up right when DeSantis is making a big show out of cleaning up Florida’s public schools. Maybe one of these women will decide to tell us more about Governor Chickenhawk.

    But regardless, Trump’s move here bodes well for a nasty and rancorous Republican primary season.

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