Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Prediction: the GOP will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

“I never thought they’d lock HIM up,” sobbed a distraught member of the Lock Her Up Party.

No one could have predicted…

The revolution will be supervised.

Today’s GOP: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

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

Republicans do not pay their debts.

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

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

It’s the corruption, stupid.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

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

If you are still in the GOP, you are an extremist.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

Their freedom requires your slavery.

You are here: Home / Jan 6: Insurrection / Tuesday Evening Open Thread: President Joe, Showing ‘Em How It’s Done

Tuesday Evening Open Thread: President Joe, Showing ‘Em How It’s Done

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Unpaywalled link from the Washington Post — “Biden plans to defend health-care spending while ridiculing possible GOP cuts”:

… Biden is traveling to Virginia Beach on Tuesday afternoon as part of a new line of attack that puts the White House and congressional Republicans on a collision course over possible budget cuts. Some top Republicans have threatened to vote against raising the debt ceiling — which would cause the federal government to default on its loans within a few months — unless Biden agrees to significant cuts in federal spending.

“He’ll discuss how MAGA Republicans in Congress are threatening default and an economic catastrophe unless they can force through a deeply unpopular agenda,” Kate Berner, principal deputy director of communications at the White House, said on a call with reporters on Monday.

Biden’s attempt to focus on health-care coverage is the next front in an ongoing debate he has been having with Republicans — one that broke into the open most publicly during his State of the Union address, when he was heckled by some Republicans as he disparaged their proposals that could risk cuts to Social Security and Medicare.

Republicans have largely backed away from any discussion of cuts to Social Security and Medicare. Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), who previously wanted Congress to vote every five years on all government programs, recently amended his plan to make exceptions for Medicare and Social Security.

But Republicans are still committed to balancing the budget, which could require cuts in large government programs. With Republicans largely refraining from offering details on where those cuts would come from, Biden is attempting to focus on an area of spending that is large — but one that, because of its popularity, might become politically problematic for Republicans to cut.

“Congressional Republicans have committed themselves to very deep cuts to programs that tens of millions of Americans count on,” said Aviva Aron-Dine, deputy director of the National Economic Council. “The president believes that they owe the American people transparency about what that will mean. If they won’t provide it, he will.”…

Biden’s own budget proposal will be released on March 9, where administration officials say he will outline plans to build on the Affordable Care Act and bolster Medicaid.

Meanwhile, MTG has troubles of her own:

They f*cked around, and now they fear they just might be found out…

MTG, and her fellows in the Tantrum Caucus, were perfectly happy to give Tucker Carlson / Rupert Murdoch / Murdoch’s foreign ‘chums’ access to the raw footage, secure in the hope that Carlson’s busy interns would edit down a counter-narrative to the Jan.6 Committee that would make the Repubs look like heroes. But she’s not ready to have all that lovely video shared with ‘outsiders’, because she’s figured out (or had it explained to her) that — even though *she* would never do anything treasonous, at least on camera, at least on purpose — she can’t be sure that all her comrades were equally forethoughtful. In a similar situation, would you want to bet your career that some Colorado gunbunny-wannabe didn’t wax enthusiastic about how easy it would be to access secured spaces, or that a Florida developer’s nepo-baby hadn’t ‘joked’ about tearing out the panic button in Nancy Pelosi’s office?

Reader Interactions

51Comments

  2. 2.

    Dangerman

    Any reason to think Student Loan partial forgiveness isn’t dead? I know the breaks went to Folks that almost surely aren’t part of the 1% so it must be unconstitutional.

    ETA: #2. I’d like to thank the jackalariat…

  4. 4.

    pat

    And this guy is too old to be president for another term??  Give me a break.

     

    First?  Hope not.  I just came from the lurking thread.

  7. 7.

    cmoren

    Marjorie Taylor Greene told me she’s spoken with McCarthy, and the Speaker’s office is coordinating a process for how to release the Capitol footage from Jan. 6 more widely, beyond Fox News

    What about on the same terms as the footage was given to Tuckie-Wookie?  After all, surely McCarthy made sure any security-compromising footage was filtered out *before* handing over the footage, right?  Or at least he extracted a pinky-swear from Tucker to pre-screen the footage and abstain from disclosing any potentially security-compromising footage, right, Marge?  And if Tucker was trusted to do so, the other networks will be just as scrupulous if we trust them to do the same, right Marge?

  8. 8.

    different-church-lady

    Watching Biden in that clip gives me the sense he knows something about how the ’24 election is going to go that nobody else has caught onto yet.

  9. 9.

    Betty Cracker

    Headline at CNN: “26 million student loan forgiveness applications could be declined by the Supreme Court”

    That would suck, obviously, but I’m guessing it would have electoral consequences. 

  10. 10.

    RaflW

    WaPo: “But Republicans are still committed to balancing the budget, which could require cuts in large government programs.”

    OBJECTION, your honor. Assuming facts utterly not in evidence.

    The article is otherwise alright. But this particular bullshit from the Beltway has got to stop. Republicans are not, nor have they ever been, committed to a balanced budget. In fact they made up a new front in the war on credulity back in Dubya Bush’s day when they claimed that Clinton’s successful surplus budget would (somehow, some day) be ‘bad for the economy’ thus flimsily justifying – with press collusion – a trillion in tax cuts for the rich.

    So, really. WaPo and everyone else. No, the Republicans are NOT still committed to balancing the budget. They never have been.

  11. 11.

    different-church-lady

    @Betty Cracker: That headline is written like a receipt.

    (Additional): just like with the earlier stimulus bills, everyone talks about this as though this court cause would be the end of the effort. Nothing prevents Biden from trying to accomplish the same thing through different means.

  12. 12.

    trnc

    when he was heckled by some Republicans as he disparaged their proposals that could risk cuts to Social Security and Medicare

    Proposals that could risk cuts? The proposals that explicitly call for cuts? “Gosh, was that risky? How could I know what would happen?”

    JFC

  13. 13.

    RaflW

    @cmoren: What are the chances that there’s other very enjoyable footage similar to Josh Hawley running away at full tilt?

    (TBF, it’s reasonable to run away from an enraged, deadly mob. It’s less reasonable to be the fist-pumping jerk-knob in the afternoon, and a running widdle baby a few hours later.)

  14. 14.

    Sister Golden Bear

    In today’s ethnic LGB-and-especially-T ethnic cleansing genocide:

    • Daily Wire host Michael Knowles — who yesterday said “You have to ban transgenderism entirely” — says that “there can’t be a genocide” of trans people because “It’s not a legitimate category of being… They’re laboring under a delusion. And so we need to correct that delusion.” Imagine substituting “Jews” in either statement….
    • Oklahoma’s House passes a bill 80-10 that bans trans-related care for minors, effectively bans care for adults (any facility that gets public funds will have to ban trans care), bans all insurance coverage for all ages, and goes into effect immediately. It now goes to the OK Senate.
    • Georgia will hold hearings on Wednesday for a “don’t say gay” bill — one of many that criminalizes educators and puts a massive gag order on LGBTQ+ identity and discussion in schools.
    • Malala Yousafza, shotin the head by the Taliban at 15 for demanding girls’ right to education, it being attacked by TERFs for backing a film that tells the story of a trans woman in a conservative Muslim country.
    • Arkansas Senate Judiciary Committee just voted “do pass” on a bill that would make it a crime for a trans person to enter a bathroom if there is a minor inside. It amends the criminal code on “sexual indecency with a child.”
    • Libs of TikTok creator Chaya Raichik, who helped set off the moral panic that has led to countless LGBTQ people being falsely accused of “grooming” kids, is publishing a book for children. It’s our our “Der Giftpilz” moment with Raichik here. Der Giftpilz was a 1938 anti-Semitic book by Julius Streicher for children on how to recognize Jews, because they sexually prey on children.
    • Good piece by the AP about how trans people face ‘horrifying’ rhetoric at statehouses. The rhetoric and invasive questions of anti-trans lawmakers is designed to humiliate. It’s meant to discourage trans people and our families from speaking up for our own rights.
    • In the UK a Tory councillor TERF gets lots of press for lying that a trans woman in bathroom said she’d wipe her hands on her penis. Trans woman who was almost certainty the one targeted pushes back and says the bathroom was out of towels, so she said she’d wipe her hands on her jeans (in response to the TERF saying they’d need to shake hands). Meanwhile said TERF likes liked a tweet threatening violent assault on the trans woman.
    • Meanwhile another TERF brags on Twitter that she’s armed with pepper spray and plans to use it on anyone who doesn’t fit her standards of womanhood. I’ll note that a number women, especially butch lesbians, have been confronted, and even attacked, by other women for supposedly being in the “wrong” bath. This sort of thing is going to get someone killed eventually.
  15. 15.

    Another Scott

    @Betty Cracker: Some Chicago law professor made the point on an NPR show this afternoon that this is yet another example of the SCOTUS is setting themselves up as an unelected super-body to second-guess everything the federal government does.  Some crank in North Dakota doesn’t like federal transit subsidies?  I’M GONNA SUE!  SCOTUS HERE WE COME.  Etc., etc.

    Back in the Before Times, suits like that would not even be heard because of lack of standing.  (Who’s being injured by limited federal student loan forgiveness under a broadly written federal law that gives the Secretary of Education broad discretion in an emergency?  Nobody.)  Now, the SCOTUS doesn’t like much of anything except turning the USA into a theocracy, so sure, they’ll take the case!

    Fight for 15!!

    Grr…,
    Scott.

  16. 16.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    I’ve been telling the story about our son’s firing by Henry Johnson, Brookings Oregon Fred Meyer store manager, now it’s time for some of Henry’s greatest hits!

    This is a good one…

    Henry sends out an email telling the department managers to remind their employees to park in the designated employee parking area as too many are parking in the customer areas close to the store. The Apparel manager calls an employee huddle and delivers Henry’s message to them. One Apparel employee asks where the employee parking areas are as they have never seen a map. The Apparel manager doesn’t drive to work (I’m her Tuber driver!) so she doesn’t know either. She sends an email to Henry requesting a parking map to show her employees. Henry messages her back that he’ll check his email messages as he says that he has a copy of one there and will send it to her.

    A while later the Apparel manager gets an email from Henry with two maps attached to it. Map #1 and #2 along with a message asking her which map she prefers (she liked #2). The store has been there for 29 years and it seems that there has never been a map for parking, ever. I’ll leave out the rest of the hijinks as Henry had to cajole his other managers to even respond to him with a choice but map #2 was the one agreed on.

    My wife just laughed her ass off about the whole thing…lol!

  17. 17.

    Burnspbesq

    @Dangerman:

    Any reason to think Student Loan partial forgiveness isn’t dead?

    I haven’t listened to the oral argument yet, but some folks whose judgment I trust are saying the states might lose on standing (which is clearly the right answer).

  18. 18.

    CarolPW

    @Sister Golden Bear: I am cis female, 5′ 9″, wear men’s size 9 1/2 shoes, have equivalently large hands, and have had two mastectomies. I cannot imagine going into a women’s bathroom again. Fuck these people.

  20. 20.

    trnc

    @Betty Cracker:

    Headline at CNN: “26 million student loan forgiveness applications could be declined by the Supreme Court”

    That would suck, obviously, but I’m guessing it would have electoral consequences.

    Yes, but how many loud and proud green lanternists scream “He didn’t do anything for us” and what their impact will be remains to be seen. Hopefully, not much.

  21. 21.

    Elizabelle

    I love how Biden makes the sign of the cross as if exorcising the mention of MTGreene.

    Funny and memorable clip, throughout.  Biden is good at this.

  22. 22.

    Matt McIrvin

    “We don’t want Russia or China or any of these other countries being able to study all the entries and exits of our capital. That’s foolish”

    I guess that information is only available to QAnon Shaman.

  23. 23.

    Another Scott

    Speaking of 2024… ICYMI, Wonkette:

    The Federal Election Commission ruled last year that members of Congress can hire bodyguards with campaign funds. That was a reasonable response to an alarming increase in threats against lawmakers, their families, and staff. House members will also receive up to $10,000 to upgrade security in their homes.

    This grim new reality isn’t a total bummer. It does offer some potential grifting opportunities. This brings us to our favorite plucky independent, Krysten Sinema from the Sinema Party. The Daily Beast reports that the senator from Arizona spends more of her considerable campaign funds on personal security than any other Congress member — an estimated $560,000 since late 2021. Sure, an armed man showed up outside Rep. Pramila Jayapal’s Seattle house shouting racist obscenities. However, Sinema was almost forced to interact with her own constituents, who weren’t even carrying oversized novelty checks. The horror!

    […]

    Worth a click.

    I hope Rep. Ruben Gallego’s team is paying attention and mines it thoroughly.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  26. 26.

    Old School

    I would assume the Capitol security footage would be visual only.  I wouldn’t expect it to have any audio.

  27. 27.

    Jeffro

    What did they think, that some portion of the J6 video, even 10 seconds’ worth, was going to show well-dressed American citizens politely knocking on the doors of their Rep or Senator, asking for them to “oh please won’t you take a look at (___some insane bit of election denialism___)” and then getting bull-rushed by a bunch of rabid machete-wielding Capitol Police?

    MAGAts calmly presenting a petition at the Speaker’s door, or something?

    Of course not.  This was every unhinged loon that Roger Stone could get to the Capitol, every nut that trumpov could wave through the “mags”, every last scrap of dog crap on America’s tennis shoes.  Raging away violently in the service of their orange god-king and his lies.

    Honestly folks?  This shit has gone on about two years two long.  A sensible democracy would have settled accounts the morning of January 7th, 2021 right there on the Capitol steps.

  28. 28.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @MomSense: It is indeed. A good number of trans people are talking to each other about how to flee their states for safer ones, and even in CA, I and other folks are looking into potential plans to leave the country if needed (e.g. if the Republicans win a trifecta in 2024).

    There’s so many anti-trans bills, I’ve lost track of which one it is, but it would ban insurers from doing business in their state if the insurer covers trans-health in any other state. In essence trying force insurers to drop coverage in other states, similar how Texas tries get school textbook companies to adhere to their biased view of history.

    Much like abortion, “letting the states decide” was mere cover lying towards putting in place a nationwide ban.

  30. 30.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @RaflW:

    Republicans are not, nor have they ever been, committed to a balanced budget.

    Republicans are committed to balancing the budget by ending all spending on anything that doesn’t hurt people.  Increased deficits by lowering taxes on the rich are consistent with this policy, as they make deeper cuts necessary.

  31. 31.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    I’ve long he thought he had a future beyond NYC, I didn’t realize he thought that future was somewhere in the Deep South

    New York Daily News @NYDailyNews
     Mayor Adams dismisses the separation of church and state, declares himself “a servant of God”
    “State is the body, church is the heart. You take the heart out of the body, the body dies,” he said during an interfaith breakfast event.

    also, why is breakfast the official meal of god-bothering?

  32. 32.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @Sister Golden Bear: And this just in….

    Mississippi became the seventh state to ban gender-affirming healthcare for minors. After he signed the bill, the governor invited Matt Walsh, a commentator for the right-wing news outlet Daily Wire and self-described “theocratic fascist.”, to speak. Walsh has essentially called for trans genocide a number of times.

  33. 33.

    RaflW

    @Frankensteinbeck: Of course. It’s just gross journalistic malpractice for WaPo et al so blithely parrot the total lie that Republicans care one iota about deficits or debt.

    We cannot really fix this country if the top US news sources offer partisan pablum as if it is fact.

  35. 35.

    Ohio Mom

    @Sister Golden Bear: Reading your list, I took a moment away from being horrified to be mystified: “…a bill that would make it a crime for a trans person to enter a bathroom if there is a minor inside…”

    How are you supposed to know who is inside a public bathroom before you enter it?

    As if we needed more proof that these haters can’t think straight.

  36. 36.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    @Ohio Mom:

    Time for bathroom monitors! This shit is just insane and the Republicans are just hateful bastards.

    The Republican party is an organized hate group and should be recognized as such.

  37. 37.

    rikyrah

    @RaflW:

    WaPo: “But Republicans are still committed to balancing the budget, which could require cuts in large government programs.”

     

    One out of every 4 dollars in the deficit is because of the GOP TAX CUT SCAM.

     

    So, spare me about them actually caring about a balanced budget.

  38. 38.

    Geminid

    The Kempsville Recreation Center where President Biden spoke is in the heart of the Virginia 2nd Congressional District formerly held by Democrat Elaine Luria. The new Congresswoman, Jen Kiggans will be one of the more vulnerable Republican Reps going into the 2024 election.

    Kiggans knows this, and she tried to eat her cake and have it too in a video statement released before Biden’s visit:

        “It’s an honor to host him here, but I really wish the purpose of his visit was less partisan.”

     

    From WTKR News3.

  39. 39.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    @Geminid:

    A Republican wishing something was less partisan? Is she trying out for a comedy gig in case she loses in the next election?

    Because that was a really bad joke.

  41. 41.

    gene108

    @different-church-lady:

    Watching Biden in that clip gives me the sense he knows something about how the ’24 election is going to go that nobody else has caught onto yet.

    Republican presidential candidates are all resentful, angry, and scared.

    They’re so angry about Southern border security, and also scared about anyone seeking asylum, and resentful towards large numbers of Americans for existing.

    Outside of 2016, which had a lot of factors working against Secretary Clinton, bitter angry candidates don’t usually win presidential elections.

  42. 42.

    Geminid

    @Odie Hugh Manatee: Purple district Republicans like Kiggans have to be creative with their messaging. The 2nd CD is a full of active and retired military personnel as well as civilian DOD workers, so Kiggans’ message for 2024 will be something like, “We may have tried and failed to cut a lot of vital domestic programs, but at least we didn’t try and fail to cut the Navy budget!”

  43. 43.

    Anne Laurie

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: why is breakfast the official meal of god-bothering?

    IIRC, the original  idea was that reporters & other low-lifes would be too hung over and/or lazy to get up that early.

    Not sure if it was the Women’s Temperance League or the First Gilded Age Goo-Goos who were supposed to have come up with it, and can’t be arsed to dig further.

  45. 45.

    Turgidson

    @Burnspbesq:

    Sounds from what I’ve read that only Barrett seemed skeptical of the standing issue.  The rest of the theocrat-in-robe hacks seemed more concerned that a rich dude somewhere might be upset that they didn’t get the loan forgiveness too.

    Those fuckers are gonna make “privileged white snowflake asshole whose fee fees got hurt” a new Protected Class before they’re done.

  46. 46.

    Gvg

    @Ohio Mom: oh no they intend to trap people. That bill is in bad faith and it’s is going to get people who have no idea someone could think they are other than mainstream normal, have never heard of the law in question and didn’t know they needed to pay attention to what the blowhards in politics were blathering about all the time. Of course it will also get some actual trans people too, but it’s so badly written I think it may get more normies than minorities. The busybodies are not actually that good at reading people.

  47. 47.

    rikyrah

    @Burnspbesq:

     

    I haven’t listened to the oral argument yet, but some folks whose judgment I trust are saying the states might lose on standing (which is clearly the right answer).

     

    NOBODY who brought a suit should have standing. NONE of them.

  48. 48.

    rikyrah

    @Sister Golden Bear:

    There’s so many anti-trans bills, I’ve lost track of which one it is, but it would ban insurers from doing business in their state if the insurer covers trans-health in any other state. In essence trying force insurers to drop coverage in other states, similar how Texas tries get school textbook companies to adhere to their biased view of history.

     

    Absolutely ridiculous. They are never about state’s rights, because if you aren’t a state that does what they want, they want to force you to bend to their way of life.

  51. 51.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @Ohio Mom:

    As if we needed more proof that these haters can’t think straight.

    Actually it’s deliberate. The point is to scare trans people into not even attempt to use public restrooms for fear of being convicted of being a sex offender. Which needless to say makes it hard to be out in public. There’s one study that found 8% of trans people have UTIs as a result of avoiding restrooms. Certainly in my early years going out in public as a women (years before I transitioned) I only used public restrooms when my bladder reached the point where the only alternative was peeing on myself before I could make but home.

    Part and parcel with the deliberately vague definitions of “drag” — which can and will be used to persecute trans people. I believe it’s TN’s proposed anti-drag law which would make me subject to arrest for merely being in public and telling a joke or singing a song because the mere act of being in drag or being trans is inherently sexually obscene.

    It’s basically the same uncertainty and fear tactic they’ve used in their anti-abortion laws to cause doctors to not perform abortions for fear of being prosecuted because the laws are vague.

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