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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Wednesday Morning Open Thread: President Joe, Vintage Connoisseur

Wednesday Morning Open Thread: President Joe, Vintage Connoisseur

by Anne Laurie|  March 1, 20239:47 am| 167 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, President Biden, Proud to Be A Democrat

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President Biden calls out Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) for yelling “Liar!” during the State of the Union and then proceeds to ?? himself. pic.twitter.com/8MlMC4WIA0

— The Recount (@therecount) February 28, 2023


Reposting this clip, because last night’s post got pushed down so quickly. I remember the ‘bless oneself to ward off the devil’s work‘ as a standard of Irish-American sarcasm, and I’m happy to see President Joe revive it for a new generation!

Man knows how to work a crowd:

President Joe Biden is here now!

He commends nurses for working tirelessly everyday. He thanks Mayor Bobby Dyer and all local mayors in the area.

“It’s great to be back in Virginia Beach.”@WAVY_News pic.twitter.com/brzpnZSKed

— Kiahnna Patterson (@KPattersonWAVY) February 28, 2023

Thank you to @POTUS for visiting Virginia Beach today! Pres. Biden reaffirmed his commitment to strengthening Medicare & Social Security and lowering prescription drug prices. High costs are causing nearly 1 in 4 Virginians to either go off or ration their prescribed medicines. pic.twitter.com/Btd44j6sbi

— Aaron Rouse (@AaronRouseVaBch) February 28, 2023

A strong speech today from POTUS in Virginia Beach that the media is barely covering.

Yet if Joe Biden had simply stumbled over a word or called someone by the wrong name it would have been front page news. https://t.co/rUPkZf24Op

— Janice Hough (@leftcoastbabe) February 28, 2023

Wouldn’t it be awesome if @POTUS would be giving his healthcare/ACA speech in Miami Dade, rather than Virginia Beach?! We have the highest enrollees than anywhere else in the country & FL Dems need this.

— Janelle Perez (@janellesofia) February 28, 2023

Not if Our Failed Media Villagers have anything to say about it:

The the last 30+ years of politics has basically vindicated national Democrats and nobody has the courage to just say it. And if you can't give Dems credit without 10 minutes of throat clearing and posturing about "actually I'm more left than anything" you're part of the problem

— The okayest poster there is (@ok_post_guy) February 28, 2023

"The boy who cried wolf had irrefutable evidence of several, repeated incidents with the wolf including where the alpha wolf broke into his house and had recorded audio tapes of what he was doing and why"

NYT: "damn kid won't shut up about these wolves, who kind of slap"

— The okayest poster there is (@ok_post_guy) February 28, 2023

Damon Linker in the NYThttps://t.co/hLyHVkUTlF

— The okayest poster there is (@ok_post_guy) February 28, 2023

The libs keep saying the Republicans are bad, but the only evidence they have is Nixon, and Reagan, and Bush, and Bush, and Trump. Seems like they should be less hysterical.

— 2020 Biden White House Staff Member (@NewsWords5) February 28, 2023

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    167Comments

    1. 1.

      Jeffro

      March 1, 2023 at 9:50 am

      First!

      (I think)

      Reply
    2. 2.

      Baud

      March 1, 2023 at 9:51 am

      Did Damon get a second op-ed, or is that the DeSantis one from before?

      If it’s the same, I missed the “cry wolf” part, so I’m glad you’re calling it out

      ETA: In fairness, there’s a lot of competition for the role of being the liberal that conservatives  (and the NYT, by extension) love, and Damon seems to be a real contender.

      Reply
    3. 3.

      Ken

      March 1, 2023 at 9:54 am

      the only evidence they have is Nixon, and Reagan, and Bush, and Bush, and Trump

      I’ll just assume the list is limited to presidents, for obvious reasons (and if they’re not obvious, see last night’s CPAC thread).

      Reply
    4. 4.

      RedDirtGirl

      March 1, 2023 at 9:55 am

      Are the Merrick Garland hearings going to be televised? And if so, will there be a thread?

      Reply
    5. 5.

      Jeffro

      March 1, 2023 at 9:56 am

      Those two tweets (ok post guy + newswords5) 110%, forever.

      Team Lib = Team We Warned You = Team We Told You So since 1968.

      Reply
    6. 6.

      Frankensteinbeck

      March 1, 2023 at 9:56 am

      I expect Biden’s popularity to skyrocket in 2024 as with the election going the media feels compelled to actually put his speeches on screen and the electorate goes “FUN UNCLE JOE IS BACK!”

      Reply
    7. 7.

      Baud

      March 1, 2023 at 9:56 am

      @Ken:

      You notice that all the examples of Dem hysteria are Republicans who lost.  Makes it easy to create an alternative history where those Republicans wouldn’t have been awful.

      Reply
    8. 8.

      OzarkHillbilly

      March 1, 2023 at 9:58 am

      Blech.

      Reply
    9. 9.

      Jeffro

      March 1, 2023 at 9:59 am

      Btw, MTG and Boebert and Gaetz made simply ASTOUNDING asses out of themselves yesterday, live on camera.

      If our snooze media ever gets bored with creating various “here’s how Biden can ditch Harris” scenarios and concern-troll bullshit from Linker, they’re always welcome to highlight how incredibly dumb these three GQP clowns are.  D-U-M dumb.

      Reply
    10. 10.

      schrodingers_cat

      March 1, 2023 at 9:59 am

      @Baud: He is a religious conservative and used to be a philosophy professor at Brigham Young University.  So a RWNJ with pretty words and academic training to dress up abominable opinions in intellectual jargon

      He is a never Trumper not a liberal.

      Reply
    11. 11.

      Baud

      March 1, 2023 at 10:01 am

      @schrodingers_cat: Thanks.  I might have gotten him confused with whoever it was that wrote that op-ed about how “my fellow libs” are overreacting to DeSantis.

      Reply
    12. 12.

      rikyrah

      March 1, 2023 at 10:02 am

      Good Morning Everyone 😊😊😊

      Reply
    13. 13.

      Baud

      March 1, 2023 at 10:02 am

      @rikyrah: Good morning.

      Reply
    14. 14.

      catclub

      March 1, 2023 at 10:03 am

      but the only evidence they have is Nixon, and Reagan, and Bush, and Bush, and Trump.

       

      Also Dick Cheney. Also the Texas GOP, also the Florida GOP, also the Mississippi GOP, etc etc

       

      I have serious doubts that there were any hysterical warnings from Democrats about Romney.

      Reply
    15. 15.

      OzarkHillbilly

      March 1, 2023 at 10:03 am

      @Jeffro: What did they do?

      Reply
    16. 16.

      Jim, Foolish Literalist

      March 1, 2023 at 10:03 am

      A little background on our “fellow liberal” Damon Linker, courtesy of DougJ on twitter. He’s a former editor of First Things, left the GOP over Iraq. He rather preciously describes himself as a “liberal, properly understood”, i.e. in the European sense, more akin to a center rightist in the US. And based on the podcast I heard him on a couple of weeks ago, a smug and condescending douchebag. He describes himself as a good friend (and I’ll add ideological ally) of Andrew Sullivan

      Reply
    17. 17.

      Baud

      March 1, 2023 at 10:05 am

      @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Ah, so it is the same guy.

      He rather preciously describes himself as a “liberal, properly understood”, i.e. in the European sense

      That’s like using metric but pretending you’re using Imperial. Very misleading.

      Reply
    18. 18.

      Jackie

      March 1, 2023 at 10:06 am

      Another win for Biden!
      “Eli Lilly will cap the out-of-pocket cost of its insulin at $35 a month, the drugmaker said Wednesday. The move, experts say, could prompt other insulin makers in the U.S. to follow suit.
      The change, which Eli Lilly said takes effect immediately, puts the drugmaker in line with a provision in the Inflation Reduction Act, which last month imposed a $35 monthly cap on the out-of-pocket cost of insulin for seniors enrolled in Medicare.”
      https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/eli-lilly-caps-cost-insulin-35-month-rcna72713

      Reply
    19. 19.

      Baud

      March 1, 2023 at 10:08 am

      @Jackie: Wow.

      Reply
    20. 20.

      Omnes Omnibus

      March 1, 2023 at 10:09 am

      @Baud: ​
        Linker is from the Mark Lilla* school of Dems are too into identity politics and if only they would do (x)** they would get the white working class back.

      *Lilla was actually his mentor at NYU.
      **(x) to be defined as desired for the particular conversation.

      Reply
    21. 21.

      Jim, Foolish Literalist

      March 1, 2023 at 10:10 am

      @catclub:

      I have serious doubts that there were any hysterical warnings from Democrats about Romney.

      there was the usual “most important elections of our lifetime” rhetoric in 2012. Was that hysterical? The danger of Romney was that he would have been like the worst aspects of Poppy Bush, an insincere MOTU who would have pandered to the far right to shore up his own political chances. He would have played the Severe Conservative. He wanted to double Gitmo because it sounded tuff. Leonard Leo would have had the same influence wrt to judges as he did with trump. Gutting the New Deal was probably the only thing Our Willard sincerely believed in. We’ve seen since 2016 that he doesn’t have the stuff to stand up to trump or trumpism. Didn’t he give a mealy-mouthed, “I’ll support the Republican nominee” reply a couple of weeks ago, by implication including the guy he voted twice to remove from office, and thus legally bar from future election?

      Reply
    22. 22.

      glory b

      March 1, 2023 at 10:10 am

      Biden has done this retail politics thing for a long time. He’s visited lots of places before becoming VP, and a whole lot after. He takes lots of pictures, nowadays, lots of selfies.

      I think almost every local Dem politician here in the Pittsburgh area has a picture with him. And they aren’t afraid to use them in ads. It’s a win/win for them.

      Fetterman ran away from him at first, claiming he couldn’t meet with him when he came for his infrastructure tour (saying he had business in Harrisburg). As it turns out, that was the famous day that one of Pittsburgh’s bridges collapsed, just hours before Biden was to make his speech.

      Fetterman was at home, not in Harrisburg, and (maybe reluctantly) appeared at the collapse site.

      Fast forward to the last days of the general, Fetterman enthusiastically campaigned with Biden and Harris. Biden seems to have that effect on people, he will wear you down into liking him.

      Reply
    23. 23.

      mrmoshpotato

      March 1, 2023 at 10:12 am

      @Jeffro: I so wish this book actually existed.

      Reply
    24. 24.

      The Moar You Know

      March 1, 2023 at 10:13 am

      I have serious doubts that there were any hysterical warnings from Democrats about Romney.

      @catclub: There were, but frankly I’m one of those who didn’t feel it was unjustified.  Romney wanted to get the crazies out of the spotlight and present a leadership of quiet confidence while selling off all our national assets to hedge funds, and the populace into serfdom.

      Romney is a very dangerous man and the only saving grace he’s got is that he doesn’t want to look bad.

      Reply
    25. 25.

      Jeffro

      March 1, 2023 at 10:13 am

      OMG the Times is at it again today: My Liberal Campus Is Pushing Freethinkers To the Right.

      (no link necessary – we all could write this one in our sleep)

      Pitchbot, better make a second pot of coffee today, you’re gonna need it.

      Reply
    26. 26.

      David 🌈☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

      March 1, 2023 at 10:14 am

      MSNBC played an excerpt of John Roberts saying “controversial” issues like student debt relief should be left to congressional action, not presidential action.

      Yet when Congress did act and overwhelmingly passed the Voting Rights Act and campaign finance reform Roberts had no problem overturning them.

      Heads they win, tails we lose.

      Reply
    27. 27.

      Marmot

      March 1, 2023 at 10:14 am

      Hmph.

      Liberals have a long history of hyping fears of Republican presidential candidates, from Lyndon Johnson’s “daisy” ad (about Barry Goldwater and a potential threat of nuclear war) to sometimes hysterical warnings about various dire threats posed by John McCain in 2008 and Mitt Romney in 2012.

      We heard similarly terrible things about Donald Trump in 2016 — but this time they were true. As with the story of the boy who cried wolf, a real wolf had finally arrived.

      …

      Damon Linker, a former columnist at The Week, writes the newsletter “Eyes on the Right” and is a senior fellow in the Open Society Project at the Niskanen Center.

      Self-description on his substack:

      Eyes on the Right is a subscription newsletter devoted to thinking deeply about the most significant political development of our time: The rise (or resurrection) of the antiliberal right in the United States and around the world. I come to this issue from a unique background. After growing up a moderate liberal, I studied in graduate school with students of conservative political philosopher Leo Strauss and spent several years on the intellectual right early in the aughts, contributing to a range of center-right publications and editing First Things magazine. I also converted to Roman Catholicism in this period from the secular Judaism in which I was raised.

      Haha:

      I always read Damon Linker.
      —David Brooks

      Reply
    28. 28.

      Omnes Omnibus

      March 1, 2023 at 10:14 am

      @glory b: Biden seems to have that effect on people, he will wear you down into liking him.

      So true.  Look at the consensus of opinion here today as opposed to the three years ago.

      Reply
    29. 29.

      schrodingers_cat

      March 1, 2023 at 10:14 am

      People who want us to ditch Biden and give up on the benefits of incumbency and his institutional knowledge are not our friends.

      Reply
    30. 30.

      Omnes Omnibus

      March 1, 2023 at 10:15 am

      @schrodingers_cat: ​
        This is true.

      Reply
    31. 31.

      Baud

      March 1, 2023 at 10:16 am

      @David 🌈☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch:

      MSNBC played an excerpt of John Roberts saying “controversial” issues like student debt relief should be left to congressional action, not presidential action

       
      Like Muslim bans, right?

      Reply
    32. 32.

      Sure Lurkalot

      March 1, 2023 at 10:16 am

      Joe, would you please look into getting rid of fucking Christopher Wray? There has to be a vetting and start at the top.

      https://wapo.st/3y2oy1H

      Reply
    33. 33.

      cain

      March 1, 2023 at 10:17 am

      @glory b: That timing – talking about infrastructure and having a bridge collapse just hours before – it’s like the universe decided to help underscore his talk.

      Reply
    34. 34.

      schrodingers_cat

      March 1, 2023 at 10:17 am

      @glory b: I was not Fetterman’s biggest fan during the primaries but he has acquitted himself quite well. He has shown the ability to change according to the circumstances.

      Reply
    35. 35.

      delphinium

      March 1, 2023 at 10:18 am

      @Jeffro: Yeah, these hearings aren’t going to be the big boost the GOP think they are. I am optimistic that these will backfire and regular people will tire of their flagrant stupidity and willful ignorance.

      Reply
    36. 36.

      delphinium

      March 1, 2023 at 10:19 am

      @Jackie: That is so awesome!

      Reply
    37. 37.

      Frankensteinbeck

      March 1, 2023 at 10:21 am

      @The Moar You Know:

      Romney is a very dangerous man and the only saving grace he’s got is that he doesn’t want to look bad.

      From the nation’s standpoint, his saving grace is that when you get a good look at him he’s totally unlikable to anyone who isn’t a privilege-overdosed rich asshole.  Admittedly that includes most of the national press, but I remember vividly how no amount of fluffing could save Romney from his own unlikability.  Even his base, desperate to pull the black president down, was going “Ugh, this guy?  I don’t know…”

      Reply
    38. 38.

      Baud

      March 1, 2023 at 10:22 am

      MSNBC played an excerpt of John Roberts saying “controversial” issues like student debt relief should be left to congressional action, not presidential action

      This should put the nail in the coffin about whether the courts would uphold the platinum coin.

      Reply
    39. 39.

      Suzanne

      March 1, 2023 at 10:23 am

      @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

      He rather preciously describes himself as a “liberal, properly understood”, i.e. in the European sense, more akin to a center rightist in the US. 

      So this is a pretty common framing on the right. It’s part of the whole “WE’RE FREE SPEECH ABSOLUTISTS!” bullshit while they’re trying to ban drag and take books out of public libraries. It’s an attempt at Overton window-shifting.

      Reply
    40. 40.

      Jim, Foolish Literalist

      March 1, 2023 at 10:23 am

      @Jeffro: They’re publishing undergraduate essays now.

      By Adam S. Hoffman

      Mr. Hoffman is a senior at Princeton.

      In the not-so-distant past, the Typical College Republican idolized Ronald Reagan, fretted about the national debt and read Edmund Burke. Political sophistication, to that person, implied belief in the status quo.
      Speaking of Sullivan, getting a strong whiff of “I found solace reading Oakeshott in the Widener Library”

      Reply
    41. 41.

      Jeffro

      March 1, 2023 at 10:24 am

      @OzarkHillbilly: I’m kinda hoping some front-pager will post the clips!  But…

      • Gaetz was spouting off Chinese propaganda as gospel in a hearing, and got called out on it to his face
      • Boebert was on some stupid rant about the government requiring labels on food, and thought that was ‘disinformation’, as a Brazillian cow “processed” here in America could be labeled US grade-A.  Or something.  It was so dumb she just kind of trailed off.
      • MTG was on multiple rants, both in hearings and on Fox News.  I believe she actually said that RWNJs like herself deserved their own ‘safe space’ from us libs and she REALLY REALLY wants that national divorce thingy.

      Just a clown parade from start to finish!

      Reply
    42. 42.

      Baud

      March 1, 2023 at 10:25 am

      @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

      Betty Cracker needs to submit an op-ed.

      Reply
    43. 43.

      Marmot

      March 1, 2023 at 10:25 am

      There’s a name for this logical fallacy, but I can’t remember it.

      Liberals have a long history of hyping fears of Republican presidential candidates, from Lyndon Johnson’s “daisy” ad (about Barry Goldwater and a potential threat of nuclear war) to sometimes hysterical warnings about various dire threats posed by John McCain in 2008 and Mitt Romney in 2012.

      We heard similarly terrible things about Donald Trump in 2016 — but this time they were true. As with the story of the boy who cried wolf, a real wolf had finally arrived.

      Kicker is that this dude Linker warns against the fallacy of construction on our side — using an isolated case to describe a whole group. Yeah, like the leader of the Republican Party didn’t try to overturn the US government, while it’s freakin’ crickets from the rest or actual cheers.

      Reply
    44. 44.

      Jeffro

      March 1, 2023 at 10:26 am

      @mrmoshpotato: you and me both

      I’ll settle for a prominent Dem publishing, “When’s the last time we were wrong?  NEVER” in time for the 2024 election.

      *sadly, not quite true: I genuinely thought that Mueller was going to drop the hammer on traitor trump.  But other than that?

      Reply
    45. 45.

      Frankensteinbeck

      March 1, 2023 at 10:27 am

      @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

      a “liberal, properly understood”, i.e. in the European sense, more akin to a center rightist in the US.

      But I have been told repeatedly that Democrats are center-right by European standards.

      @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

      Political sophistication, to that person, implied belief in the status quo.

      Because the status quo gave them what they wanted:  White people on top.

      Reply
    46. 46.

      Jay

      March 1, 2023 at 10:29 am

      interesting tidbit about DeathSantis in Harpers,

      https://harpers.org/archive/2023/03/ron-desantis-force-feedings-guantanamo-bay-laughing/

      Reply
    47. 47.

      Jeffro

      March 1, 2023 at 10:29 am

      @Baud: If a Dem Congress had proposed it, Roberts would be saying it should be left up to the Executive Branch (provided, of course, that a Republican was president)

      The key question is, are GOP goalposts electric powered, or do they run on diesel?  Nuclear powered?  They sure do run all day and night…

      Reply
    48. 48.

      Subsole

      March 1, 2023 at 10:30 am

       

       

      @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

      Ah. An ally of Sully.

      “No no, you silly liberal. You see, my bigotry is sophisticated. It has calipers. And an accent.”

      Reply
    49. 49.

      Marmot

      March 1, 2023 at 10:32 am

      @Marmot: There’s a name for this logical fallacy, but I can’t remember it.

      OMG, I think it’s the No True Scotsman fallacy in conservative camo.

      Reply
    50. 50.

      Jeffro

      March 1, 2023 at 10:32 am

      @Jim, Foolish Literalist: that’s…that’s just sad.

       

      @Baud: seconded!

      Reply
    51. 51.

      Jim, Foolish Literalist

      March 1, 2023 at 10:33 am

      @Frankensteinbeck:

      Because the status quo gave them what they wanted:  White people on top.

      I’m guessing young Mr Hoffman has a well-worn copy of whichever book it was in which old man Buckley declared that a conservative is someone who will stand athwart the civil rights movement and cry halt!

      I think that’s the quote.

      Reply
    52. 52.

      Searcher

      March 1, 2023 at 10:34 am

      Isn’t the problem that in 2016, it wasn’t a boy that cried wolf, it was a girl, and fuck listening to a girl, what does she know about wolves anyway, it’s probably just a big squirrel?

      Reply
    53. 53.

      Subsole

      March 1, 2023 at 10:34 am

       

       

      @Marmot:

      Jesus. It’s all just a work-program for the same fucking frat.

      Reply
    54. 54.

      Baud

      March 1, 2023 at 10:37 am

      @Marmot:

      There’s a name for this logical fallacy, but I can’t remember it.

      The fallacy of being fallacious.

      Reply
    55. 55.

      Jim, Foolish Literalist

      March 1, 2023 at 10:38 am

      OT: Looks like Lil Marco told Lil Boots where he can buy some booster boots.

      Reply
    56. 56.

      Barbara

      March 1, 2023 at 10:38 am

      @schrodingers_cat: That pretty much sums up my view entirely.  The disadvantages of being old are pretty obvious.  The advantages of being old such that you actually KNOW what to do based on EXPERIENCE and therefore need much less time, energy or advice to work out the right thing to do are frequently underrated by people who are still young enough not to understand that.  It’s clearly a trade off, not everyone ages well.  But still — the relentless push for new in the political spectrum increasingly looks like a curse to me.

      Reply
    57. 57.

      OzarkHillbilly

      March 1, 2023 at 10:38 am

      @Jeffro: Thanx for the breakdown, shorter version: The usual clown show.

      Reply
    58. 58.

      Subsole

      March 1, 2023 at 10:39 am

       

       

      @Suzanne: Also how the word Liberal has become an epithet on segments of the Left. Very popular rhetorical trick with some of the Podcast Proletariat.

      Though I am sure that is entirely coincidental.

      Reply
    59. 59.

      Barbara

      March 1, 2023 at 10:42 am

      @Marmot: I do think that people who try to extrapolate from historical events are often misguided, because most events are either one-offs or the result of large trends that rise and fall or taper off and cannot be assumed to repeat themselves in future generations.

      What shocks me the most, I guess, is that someone like Linker can advise people not to extrapolate from Trump to DeSantis without looking at what DeSantis is actually doing in the here and now that is in its own right anti-democratic, authoritarian, and deeply destructive and grotesquely unfair and just, you know, anti-libertarian to every kind of minority interest.

      In summary: We don’t need to hate Trump to hate DeSantis, thank you very much.

      Reply
    60. 60.

      schrodingers_cat

      March 1, 2023 at 10:44 am

      @Barbara: Some of the same people wanting Biden to step down because of his age are fans of an even older person. So we can conclude that they are full of BS.

      Reply
    61. 61.

      trnc

      March 1, 2023 at 10:45 am

      My biggest problem with the Ingoglia bill is that it’s just so fucking lazy.

      Ingoglia said Democrats should be called upon to face their past.

      “Some people want to have ‘uncomfortable conversations’ about certain subjects,” he said. “Let’s have those conversations.”

      Yeah, democrats have never had a convo about the old dem party except every day when idiots make bad faith associations. What does Ingoglia have to say about the modern republican party springing up from the southern dems who switched parties? Nothing, because no one ever asks about that.

      Reply
    62. 62.

      lowtechcyclist

      March 1, 2023 at 10:48 am

      @Jeffro:

      Btw, MTG and Boebert and Gaetz made simply ASTOUNDING asses out of themselves yesterday

      A day ending in ‘y’ then.

      live on camera.

      OK, that helps.

      Reply
    63. 63.

      oatler

      March 1, 2023 at 10:48 am

      There’s St. Thomas Sowell, who conservatives will rave is the greatest economist in history who happens to be black.

      Reply
    64. 64.

      Baud

      March 1, 2023 at 10:48 am

      @trnc: To paraphrase Adlai Stevenson, we’ll face our past if the GOP will face its present.

      Reply
    65. 65.

      Frankensteinbeck

      March 1, 2023 at 10:52 am

      @Searcher:

      Isn’t the problem that in 2016, it wasn’t a boy that cried wolf, it was a girl, and fuck listening to a girl, what does she know about wolves anyway, it’s probably just a big squirrel?

      You have a point.

      Reply
    66. 66.

      Marmot

      March 1, 2023 at 10:54 am

      @Barbara: Agree.

      Looking at this mofo Linker, I think he’s dodging shame about ever being a Republican.

      Kind of “Don’t say they’re fascist! They used to be very different — there was no indication they’d get so crazy.” But yeah, CPAC.

      (They’re fairly described as a fascist party now, but does it make good politics for mass consumption? No, it does not.)

      Reply
    67. 67.

      jonas

      March 1, 2023 at 10:58 am

      @catclub:I have serious doubts that there were any hysterical warnings from Democrats about Romney.

      That he was a typical country-club Republican plutocrat who would run the country solely to serve the interests of people like him and didn’t give a shit about anyone who doesn’t own a home in the Hamptons, yes. But that’s not hysteria. That’s just telling the truth about Republicans.

      Reply
    68. 68.

      WereBear

      March 1, 2023 at 10:59 am

      I love what Harry S. Truman said:

      I tell the truth, and they think it’s hell.

      Reply
    69. 69.

      Kay

      March 1, 2023 at 11:00 am

      @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

      He rather preciously describes himself as a “liberal, properly understood”, i.e. in the European sense, more akin to a center rightist in the US.

      What all the critics have in common is they’re insufferable. Take themselves so, so seriously.

      “I’m a classical liberal. Now let me pen another boring treatise on wokeness”

      Reply
    70. 70.

      schrodingers_cat

      March 1, 2023 at 11:01 am

      Is Linker, British? Damon is not that common a first name in the US.

      Reply
    71. 71.

      OzarkHillbilly

      March 1, 2023 at 11:03 am

      Ron Filipkowski 🇺🇦
      @RonFilipkowski

      Walker’s campaign paid $595,600 to a company called ‘Jetts’ to supposedly charter private planes. However, Fox has learned that ‘Jetts’ is a defunct car wash that was owned by a Walker donor.

      Say it ain’t so!

      Reply
    72. 72.

      delphinium

      March 1, 2023 at 11:04 am

      @David 🌈☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch: It’s like we need a Cleek’s Law for this Supreme Court with the caveat that former rulings/justifications from this same court may not be applied to any new cases, updated per session.

      Reply
    73. 73.

      Geminid

      March 1, 2023 at 11:04 am

      I saw that Aaron Rouse, Virginia’s newest State Senator, tweeted out a picture of himself and Presdent Biden taken at the Virginia Beach event (@AaronRouseVaBch).

      Rouse is a big guy. At 6’4″, he was tall for an NFL safety.

      Reply
    74. 74.

      Baud

      March 1, 2023 at 11:05 am

      @delphinium: I believe that’s known as the Bush v. Gore Law.

      Reply
    75. 75.

      Kay

      March 1, 2023 at 11:05 am

      @OzarkHillbilly:

      It is always, always campaign finance that gets them.

      On this day in 1931, Al Capone was found guilty of tax evasion. The gangster who had reportedly boasted, “They can’t collect legal taxes from illegal money” was sentenced to 11 years in prison for failing to file tax returns.

      Reply
    76. 76.

      trnc

      March 1, 2023 at 11:06 am

      @Baud: I like it!

      Although it may be more accurate to say “Democrats have acknowledged their past. When will republicans acknowledge their present?”

      Reply
    77. 77.

      lowtechcyclist

      March 1, 2023 at 11:09 am

      @Baud:

      This should put the nail in the coffin about whether the courts would uphold the platinum coin.

      Do it anyway.  Taking it through the courts uses up some months, and if the Bogus Scotus kills it, then we’re no worse off than we were beforehand.

      Then you try the next thing, whether it’s the 14th amendment thing or something else. I think Krugman said there were four or five things like this, including platinum and the 14th, that could be tried.

      Delay the whole mess into 2024, an election year.  (If you haven’t noticed, at least in this century so far, the Rethugs haven’t threatened either a shutdown or a debt limit crisis in an election year.  There’s a reason for that.)

      Once it’s 2024, a lot more Rethugs in less-than-100%-sure seats are going to be getting a lot more weak in the knees about their support for destroying the economy to own the libs, and the debt limit will be raised without any significant concessions on the Dems’ part.

      Reply
    78. 78.

      Geminid

      March 1, 2023 at 11:14 am

      @lowtechcyclist: I think it’s better to fight the debt ceiling fight now, and resolve it by July 1.

      Reply
    79. 79.

      lowtechcyclist

      March 1, 2023 at 11:15 am

      @Jay:

      interesting tidbit about DeathSantis in Harpers,

      https://harpers.org/archive/2023/03/ron-desantis-force-feedings-guantanamo-bay-laughing/

      Holy shit – he’s way worse than I already thought he was, which is quite an achievement given how bad I already thought he was.

      Reply
    80. 80.

      OzarkHillbilly

      March 1, 2023 at 11:16 am

      @Geminid: It’s not something that can be put off. Running out of money means it all stops.

      Reply
    81. 81.

      delphinium

      March 1, 2023 at 11:16 am

      @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Ronny Dee has got to get close to 6 foot tall somehow if he want to be president! Platform boots may well be in his future.

      Reply
    82. 82.

      OzarkHillbilly

      March 1, 2023 at 11:16 am

      Skyleigh Heinen
      @Sky_Lee_1

      – @RepSwalwell
      SLAMS @mattgaetz
      for bringing “somebody that he met at a gun club” to the first House Judiciary Committee hearing to lead the Pledge of Allegiance.

      Gaetz’s honored guest was charged with killing a family member in April 2019.

      Reply
    83. 83.

      Baud

      March 1, 2023 at 11:17 am

      @trnc: I’m worried about creating a schism with all the James Buchanan and Andrew Johnson supporters in the party.

      Reply
    84. 84.

      cain

      March 1, 2023 at 11:17 am

      @OzarkHillbilly: GOP politicans are apparently better than banks – they give back so much more when you invest money in them.

      Reply
    85. 85.

      catclub

      March 1, 2023 at 11:20 am

      @OzarkHillbilly: Sounds like money laundering.

       

      I’ll see myself out.

      Reply
    86. 86.

      trnc

      March 1, 2023 at 11:20 am

      @Geminid: I think it’s better to fight the debt ceiling fight now, and resolve it by July 1.

      What did you have in mind? Don’t you consider LTC’s suggestion part of the fight? If the house repubs won’t vote for it, what is the executive branch able to do that won’t wind up in court?

      Reply
    87. 87.

      lowtechcyclist

      March 1, 2023 at 11:21 am

      @Geminid:

      I think it’s better to fight the debt ceiling fight now, and resolve it by July 1.

      If it can be resolved successfully by then, great.  But I don’t get what the issue is.

      July 1 is already a postponement by several months of the moment we have to default (originally back in January, IIRC), using accounting gimmicks and stuff.  There’s nothing magical about July 1.  Might as well continue to postpone it by other tricks, whether it’s the platinum coin, selling bonds with no maturity date, or whatever.

      Not sure what the basis is for saying the tricks we’re already using are A-OK, but the tricks we haven’t used yet are tricks and are therefore not OK

      ETA: The Rethugs want to have this battle in an odd-numbered year, relying on the short memories of the electorate to have it disappear from their minds and the media well before fall 2024.  Why fight this battle on their chosen ground?

      Reply
    88. 88.

      trnc

      March 1, 2023 at 11:22 am

      @Baud: I must admit I had not considered that.

      Reply
    89. 89.

      Frankensteinbeck

      March 1, 2023 at 11:24 am

      @lowtechcyclist: ​

      he’s way worse than I already thought he was

      I thought DeSantis was this cruel. He’s putting too much effort into finding new and uglier ways to be a mean fuck than if he didn’t enjoy it. It’s useful to have confirmation.

      Reply
    90. 90.

      Jim, Foolish Literalist

      March 1, 2023 at 11:26 am

      @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Young Master Hoffman

      Nate @nateffo
      There’s no mention in the @nytopinion bio of the author that the author was involved with Campus Reform, a conservative group operated by the Leadership Institute, whose mission is to ‘increase the number and effectiveness of conservative activists’

      So I’m guessing we’re a few hours away from a Fox segment about this naive undergraduate being viciously attacked by people making fun of him on twitter after his stab at political celebrity
      The Leadership Institute is run by Morton Blackwell, which name rings a vague bell but I’m not sure why.

      Reply
    91. 91.

      Ken

      March 1, 2023 at 11:30 am

      @OzarkHillbilly: I’m not surprised the car wash is defunct, with prices like that.

      I am surprised that it wasn’t a Trump business; I would have expected Trump to make kickbacks the price for his endorsement.

      Reply
    92. 92.

      lowtechcyclist

      March 1, 2023 at 11:33 am

      @schrodingers_cat:

      Some of the same people wanting Biden to step down because of his age are fans of an even older person. So we can conclude that they are full of BS.

      Sure, but the pundits pushing this BS are mostly the usual center-right suspects at the FTFNYT, WaPo, etc.  They’re the ones who are keeping this nonsense in the public eye, and they’re not BernieBros.

      Reply
    93. 93.

      OzarkHillbilly

      March 1, 2023 at 11:34 am

      @cain:
      @catclub:

      Sounds criminal to me, but I doubt Walker was even aware of what his campaign treasurer was doing.

      Reply
    94. 94.

      lowtechcyclist

      March 1, 2023 at 11:35 am

      @WereBear:

      I love what Harry S. Truman said:

      One thing (of many!) that I like about Biden is that he’s following that same script – telling the public the truth about those mofos.

      Reply
    95. 95.

      Ken

      March 1, 2023 at 11:36 am

      @lowtechcyclist: Might as well continue to postpone it by other tricks, whether it’s the platinum coin, selling bonds with no maturity date, or whatever.

      “The janitor was sweeping up and found $1.8 trillion in pennies behind the couch,” maybe.

      Or dress it up a bit: “We want to thank all of those who demanded we audit the Fed. The audit found an entire vault that had been forgotten, just full to the brim with currency. It seems one of the previous Fed chairs liked to swim around in it…”

      Reply
    96. 96.

      trnc

      March 1, 2023 at 11:36 am

      @OzarkHillbilly: “We’re here to get shit done.”

      Man, I love this guy.

      Reply
    97. 97.

      OzarkHillbilly

      March 1, 2023 at 11:37 am

      @trnc: He’s a keeper, as are so many others.

      Reply
    98. 98.

      lowtechcyclist

      March 1, 2023 at 11:38 am

      @OzarkHillbilly:

       It’s not something that can be put off. Running out of money means it all stops.

      It’s already been put off from January.

      Reply
    99. 99.

      jonas

      March 1, 2023 at 11:38 am

      @OzarkHillbilly:Walker’s campaign paid $595,600 to a company called ‘Jetts’ to supposedly charter private planes. However, Fox has learned that ‘Jetts’ is a defunct car wash that was owned by a Walker donor.

      Am I misremembering, or didn’t that ProPublic/TPM article that dropped yesterday on that miserable “healthcare sharing network” scam mention that the family that runs that grift also runs the jet charter company that DeSantis used to fly those asylum seekers up to Martha’s vineyard or something?

      Reply
    100. 100.

      Paul in KY

      March 1, 2023 at 11:43 am

      @Baud: The Colmes Chair, I think it is referred to.

      Reply
    101. 101.

      Bill Arnold

      March 1, 2023 at 11:45 am

      @Jay:
      Wow. Thanks for the link. Yes, Ron DeSantis is evil.
      Here’s an excerpt (and full link for reference):
      See No Evil (Harpers, 2023/03)

      From a November discussion on the Eyes Left podcast, between Mike Prysner, an Iraq War veteran, and Mansoor Adayfi, a former detainee at Guantánamo Bay.

      prysner: So Ron DeSantis was actually supervising torture, beatings? He was supervising these force-feedings?
      adayfi: I’m telling Americans: this guy is a torturer. He is a criminal. He was laughing. And he was there to ensure we were treated humanely.
      prysner: He was laughing?
      adayfi: Yes, they were looking at us, laughing because we were shitting ourselves. I was screaming and yelling. When your stomach is full of Ensure you can’t breathe. And you are throwing up at the same time. I was screaming. I looked at him and he was actually smiling. Like someone who was enjoying it.

      Reply
    102. 102.

      trnc

      March 1, 2023 at 11:47 am

      @Bill Arnold: I assume that if any video footage is found, it will become a campaign ad.

      By the DeSantis campaign.

      Reply
    103. 103.

      WV Blondie

      March 1, 2023 at 11:48 am

      Re Gaetz’s public idiocy: I worked on Capitol Hill many, many moons ago, and my opinion is that staffers are almost always smarter than the elected officials they work for. And I really doubt that Gaetz found that article on his own.

      So I’m left wondering if he’s the exception to prove the rule – i.e., his staffers are even dumber than he is – or if whoever brought the article to his attention had their own motives …

      Reply
    104. 104.

      Paul in KY

      March 1, 2023 at 11:51 am

      @mrmoshpotato: I would buy that! Just showed my 97 year old mother (who likes Hillary & voted for her) and she hooted with laughter.

      Reply
    105. 105.

      Gin & Tonic

      March 1, 2023 at 11:52 am

      Haven’t had time to read much ( including this thread) but I see that Isaac Chotiner has a piece up about Jeffrey Sachs. Wasn’t it BCrack who said if Chotiner calls, throw your phone in the swamp, change your name and leave the country? I bet Sachs wasn’t wise enough to do that.

      Reply
    106. 106.

      Paul in KY

      March 1, 2023 at 11:53 am

      @Marmot: What a tool. Barry wanted to use nukes. Saying that is ‘hysterical’.  Jeezus.

      Reply
    107. 107.

      Paul in KY

      March 1, 2023 at 11:54 am

      @schrodingers_cat: No shit.

      Reply
    108. 108.

      Paul in KY

      March 1, 2023 at 11:57 am

      @Frankensteinbeck: He might then be Center Center Right or Center Right Right. Not sure. Maybe Tony Jay can enlighten us.

      Reply
    109. 109.

      Paul in KY

      March 1, 2023 at 12:01 pm

      @Jay: Sure sounds like him. One of his college baseball teammates said he was the most cruel person he ever met. Loved to humiliate people.

      Reply
    110. 110.

      Paul in KY

      March 1, 2023 at 12:05 pm

      @trnc: Pretty sure we had a convo back in 64 when Pres. Johnson hammered through the great civil rights legislation.

      Reply
    111. 111.

      glory b

      March 1, 2023 at 12:06 pm

      @Jay: You know this wll just make him more popular with his base, right? He’s hurting the people they want to get hurt.

      As per the title of Adam Serwer’s book, “The Cruelty is the Point.”

      Reply
    112. 112.

      The Moar You Know

      March 1, 2023 at 12:09 pm

      He rather preciously describes himself as a “liberal, properly understood”, i.e. in the European sense, more akin to a center rightist in the US. 

      @Jim, Foolish Literalist: what an utter crock of shit.  An American “center-rightist” in Europe would be considered a straight-up fascist extremist and properly so.

      Reply
    113. 113.

      glory b

      March 1, 2023 at 12:09 pm

      @jonas: And has invested in buying a marijuana farm.

      Reply
    114. 114.

      Bill Arnold

      March 1, 2023 at 12:09 pm

      @Gin & Tonic:
      Piece on it at LGM. Sachs comes across as condescending, unwilling to provide evidence/sources, and the “do you know how important I am” sort of arrogant. And a full-throttle tankie. I’m only a little sad he wasn’t pressed on his COVID-contrarianism. (That’s a reliable marker of mind-damage.)

      Reply
    115. 115.

      Paul in KY

      March 1, 2023 at 12:11 pm

      @Ken: I think vis a vis TFG, you will have to buy a whole bunch of Trump Steaks, at his suggested retail price. There’s other junk to buy, if you don’t want the unrefrigerated ‘steaks’.

      Reply
    116. 116.

      Redshift

      March 1, 2023 at 12:12 pm

      @catclub:

      I have serious doubts that there were any hysterical warnings from Democrats about Romney.

      Oh, it’s an absolute article of faith among Republicans that Democrats were completely out of line with how mean they were to Romney, and none of that stuff is true. That probably qualifies as “hysterical warnings” to Linker.

      Never mind that, even if it were the case that the attacks on Romney were completely untrue, Republicans do that to every Democratic candidate, so the complaint is really just that we’re not playing the game the way Democrats are supposed to. (It also gives away that they actually know Shrub, etc. are bastards, because Romney is the only one where they argue he’s so nice he didn’t deserve that.)

      Reply
    117. 117.

      different-church-lady

      March 1, 2023 at 12:12 pm

      @glory b: Biden is so good at it even Bernie couldn’t hate him.

      Reply
    118. 118.

      Baud

      March 1, 2023 at 12:14 pm

      @different-church-lady:

      Biden is so good at it even Bernie couldn’t hate him publicly.

      Fixed.

      Reply
    119. 119.

      Barbara

      March 1, 2023 at 12:19 pm

      @Gin & Tonic: Basically, whenever Chotiner asks Sachs to justify allegations he makes about US policy and actions (e.g., US was decisive in jinxing supposed Syrian ceasefire), Sachs says, “I am an important person with access to high level sources who knows more than you do.”  When Chotiner really gets Sachs on the ropes he starts whining about  how he only agreed to talk about some topics and not others.

      My understanding is that Sachs was front and center in recommending “shock therapy” as the Soviet Empire dissolved.  Is that wrong?  Because it seems like that policy was more than a little responsible for the ultimate downward spiral of Russia into its current authoritarian state.  It really burns me that people like Sachs are never held accountable for being wrong. It’s usually, “Oh, well they didn’t really listen to me, if they had, things would have turned out fine.”

      Reply
    120. 120.

      Redshift

      March 1, 2023 at 12:23 pm

      @schrodingers_cat:

      He is a never Trumper not a liberal.

      Ah, that makes his argument much more understandable. If your only breaking point with the GOP was Trump, then criticism of the terrible people you supported before that must be hysterical, because otherwise you’d have to consider that you might have been wrong.

      Reply
    121. 121.

      Jim, Foolish Literalist

      March 1, 2023 at 12:26 pm

      speaking of Bernie…

      FactsLivesMatter  @Facts0601 23h
      So Nevada Democratic Party Chair Judith Whitmer is a convicted felon. She was charged with organized fraud and grand theft for cashing fraudulent checks. The corruption of the Bernie Socialist-led Democrats in Nevada runs deep.

      Nina Turner and David Sirota are signal-boosting all the RW propaganda about Buttigieg and East Palestine. Tulsi Gabbard, until very recently a Sanders Institute Fellow, and grifting clown Tara Reade are promoting Russian propaganda on the Hannity program. He sure does like to surround himself with the stupid, the grifters and the frauds.

      Reply
    122. 122.

      PJ

      March 1, 2023 at 12:29 pm

      @Barbara: Sachs was certainly the most prominent academic advocating for shock treatment for the Soviet Union, which predictably facilitated the wholesale transfer of formerly public assets to nomenklatura and criminals, resulting in the impoverishment of much of the population.  This was a country where almost everyone had no memory of a market economy, there were no securities laws or regulations (because there had been no securities), there was no financial law enforcement, and self-dealing and conflict of interest by public officials was rampant.

      Reply
    123. 123.

      Geminid

      March 1, 2023 at 12:29 pm

      @trnc: What do I have in mind regarding the debt ceiling fight? What Joe Biden, Janet Yellen and Democratic Congressional leaders are doing and will be doing.

      Reply
    124. 124.

      Bill Arnold

      March 1, 2023 at 12:30 pm

      @glory b:

      You know this will just make him more popular with his base, right?

      Serious question; how well does torture poll in the USA? For example, threats of/lack of concern about thermonuclear war were popular with Goldwater’s base, but they were used against him politically.

      Reply
    125. 125.

      Baud

      March 1, 2023 at 12:32 pm

      @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

      I wonder why the information about Whitmer didn’t come out sooner.

      Reply
    126. 126.

      Jeffro

      March 1, 2023 at 12:33 pm

      Whoa.  The Virginia Supt of Public Ed just resigned, effective (almost) immediately.

      I wonder if she wasn’t on board with whatever ol’ Smiling Glenn Youngkin has cooking up for 2024?

      (or more likely, she got tired of being hated by basically everyone at all levels of Virginia education)

      Reply
    127. 127.

      zhena gogolia

      March 1, 2023 at 12:34 pm

      @Jeffro: PRINCETON? ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME? PRINCETON IS LIBERAL???

      (haven’t read it yet, but for fuck’s sake)

      Reply
    128. 128.

      zhena gogolia

      March 1, 2023 at 12:39 pm

      @zhena gogolia: Just read it, it’s the abuser’s litany, “you made me do it.” “Preferred pronouns forced me to vote for Trump”

      Reply
    129. 129.

      mrmoshpotato

      March 1, 2023 at 12:40 pm

      @The Moar You Know:

      Romney is a very dangerous man and the only saving grace he’s got is that he doesn’t want to look bad. 

      I’d rather he just flat out punch us all in the face.  Fuck ’em both, but I respect outright assholes more than two-faced, sly motherfuckers who would fuck you over “for your own good” like Mittens.

      Reply
    130. 130.

      Baud

      March 1, 2023 at 12:41 pm

      @zhena gogolia:

      There’s very little that’s original.

      Reply
    131. 131.

      prostratedragon

      March 1, 2023 at 12:43 pm

      @catclub:  And let’s not forget a personal fave, Bruce the Vandal Rauner, who among other achievements singlehandedly downgraded Illinois debt credit rating a couple of steps in less than one term.

      Reply
    132. 132.

      different-church-lady

      March 1, 2023 at 12:43 pm

      @trnc: “Slavery was bad. It’s over. Systemic racism is also bad. It’s not over. We want to do something about that and you don’t. Your turn to talk.”

      Reply
    133. 133.

      Geminid

      March 1, 2023 at 12:43 pm

      @Jim, Foolish Literalist: The Nevada DemocraticParty showdown comes this Saturday when the party’s Central Committee meets. There may be a credentials fight; Whitmer’s party secretary threw around 40% of the Comnittee members off for alleged non-attendance.

      It sounds like Whitmer’s bad check case stayed unnoticed because it was in Florida and she was using the name “Judith Sprayberry.”

      Reply
    134. 134.

      Jeffro

      March 1, 2023 at 12:50 pm

      @Geminid: that is not a real pseudonym, get outta here!

      “Sprayberry”?

      Reply
    135. 135.

      PBK

      March 1, 2023 at 12:51 pm

      @Gin & Tonic: I believe it was Immanentize.

      Reply
    136. 136.

      Mike in NC

      March 1, 2023 at 12:51 pm

      I have no doubt that the Republican party will try to puke up in 2024 a Trump/Greene fascist ticket just to prove they’re not quite done wrecking this country. The GQP House seems to relish the prospect, plus they’re actively pushing for some sort of trade war — or maybe even a shooting war — with China because they’ve wanted that for years.

      Reply
    137. 137.

      JWR

      March 1, 2023 at 12:55 pm

      I just took a quick tour of Acyn’s and Aaron Rupar’s Twitter pages, and good Lord! That hearing, or whatever it was, is holy smokin’ kkk-krazy! It’s incredible how little actual research the Rs bother doing, as demonstrated by Gaetz getting pwned for quoting from a Chinese rag.

      Reply
    138. 138.

      Matt McIrvin

      March 1, 2023 at 12:56 pm

      @Bill Arnold: 9/11 led to a rise in overt enthusiasm for torture. I mean, people outright saying torturing terrorists was good and we should do it as much as possible.

      Things might have changed since then though.

      Reply
    139. 139.

      Matt McIrvin

      March 1, 2023 at 12:58 pm

      @Baud: My impression is that Bernie and Biden sincerely like each other, though, regardless of what their fans might think. Different situation than with Hillary Clinton.

      Reply
    140. 140.

      Matt McIrvin

      March 1, 2023 at 1:00 pm

      @Bill Arnold: 2017 Pew poll of whether people are for using torture on suspected terrorists has it as about a 50-50 thing, with the kinds of demographic splits you’d expect. The partisan divide is a stronger predictor than anything else–Black people and people with advanced degrees are really not so fond of torture, though:

      https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/01/26/americans-divided-in-views-of-use-of-torture-in-u-s-anti-terror-efforts/

      Reply
    141. 141.

      patrick II

      March 1, 2023 at 1:01 pm

      Accusing Goldwater of considering the use of nuclear weapons was not hype, Goldwater had already said the use of nuclear weapons “may become necessary”.  After Johnson’s daisy ad, Goldwater modified his stance.

      And it wasn’t just Goldwater, Nixon was at least as dangerous:

      Nixon to Kissinger: “I’d rather use the nuclear bomb … Does that bother you? I just want you to think big.”

      About casualties, Nixon said: “I don’t care”…”I don’t give a damn”.

      Kissinger talked him out of it.

      George Bush senior was the exception and the first republican president in a while who didn’t threaten to use Nukes.

      His son’s administration was different in that Cheney was considering using nuclear bunker busters to get at Iranian nuclear facilities deep underground.

      And then, of course, there was Trump who, in the context of warning Russia about our powerful nuclear forces, would send some jets over but with Chinese flags painted on them so the Russians would believe the Chinese did it.  They would never figure it out.

      What a fucking genius.

      Anyhow, keep electing Republicans and sooner or later one of them will actually follow through.

      Reply
    142. 142.

      Jackie

      March 1, 2023 at 1:03 pm

      @Mike in NC: Even TFG’s not stupid enough to choose crazy MTG for his running mate. The non-MAGAs will revolt and either not vote or hold their noses and vote for Biden.

      Reply
    143. 143.

      Matt McIrvin

      March 1, 2023 at 1:04 pm

      @Mike in NC: Trump couldn’t stand the attention that Marjorie Taylor Greene would take away from him. He needs a boring yes-man running mate like Pence, though, at this point, obviously not Pence.

      Reply
    144. 144.

      mrmoshpotato

      March 1, 2023 at 1:05 pm

      @JWR: Wow.  Congrats to the people who voted for that idiotic alleged sex trafficker.

      Reply
    145. 145.

      trnc

      March 1, 2023 at 1:12 pm

      @Paul in KY: ​
       

      Pretty sure we had a convo back in 64 when Pres. Johnson hammered through the great civil rights legislation.

      Yes, of course we did. That’s my point. Repubs continue to skip the part where the modern dem party repudiates the southern dems, which leads to them becoming republicans, and we keep having to hear this BS decades later. It’s just so stupid, but of course it appears to have some traction with their fans.

      Reply
    146. 146.

      Betty

      March 1, 2023 at 1:12 pm

      @RedDirtGirl: From what I have seen on Twitter, it should be. Senate Republicans disgracing themselves in new levels of ignorance and rudeness. Trying to show how very manly they are. Just mean bullies.

      Reply
    147. 147.

      Steve in the ATL

      March 1, 2023 at 1:14 pm

      @Geminid:
      @Jeffro:

      she was using the name “Judith Sprayberry.”

      Yeah, I would have gone with the classic “Ron Mexico”

      Reply
    148. 148.

      prostratedragon

      March 1, 2023 at 1:19 pm

      @Barbara:

      My understanding is that Sachs was front and center in recommending “shock therapy” as the Soviet Empire dissolved.

      You remember correctly. I haven’t noticed him in years, but would guess that plays a role in what’s wrong with him now.

      Reply
    149. 149.

      prostratedragon

      March 1, 2023 at 1:22 pm

      @Baud:  Or DeSantis.

      Reply
    150. 150.

      Matt McIrvin

      March 1, 2023 at 1:34 pm

      @trnc: It’s just trolling; the bad faith in accusing modern Democrats of being the real slavers/segregationists is completely transparent, and in fact I think they like it that way, because they’re getting away with a rhetorical Weird Trick. Checkmate libs.

      I’ve had people pull the “I bet you didn’t know the old Southern segregationists were Democrats!” on me more than once. I guess it shuts up people who are really uninformed, I don’t know.

      Reply
    151. 151.

      Barbara

      March 1, 2023 at 1:40 pm

      @Jeffro: She’s leaving effective March 9.  Something must be up.  I think she wanted to use the position as a platform for vouchers or charter schools but that obviously hasn’t happened.  Still, it seems really sudden.

      Reply
    152. 152.

      Skepticat

      March 1, 2023 at 1:41 pm

      @Jim, Foolish Literalist: The danger of Romney was that he would have been like the worst aspects of Poppy Bush, an insincere MOTU who would have pandered to the far right to shore up his own political chances.

      When he was governor of Massachusetts, I served on Romney’s Council of Economic Advisers. He earned the nickname Mitt the Twit, and I’m not certain he’s capable of being truly dangerous except by accident, though I agree with your assessment. That said, I’d have taken him rather than Chump in any event.

      Reply
    153. 153.

      JWR

      March 1, 2023 at 1:41 pm

      Florida Man: State Senate edition. (From NBC)

      A Republican in Florida’s state Legislature has filed a bill that, if enacted, would eliminate the Florida Democratic Party.

      “The Ultimate Cancel Act,” filed on Tuesday by state Sen. Blaise Ingoglia, would require the state’s Division of Elections to “immediately cancel” the filings of any political party whose platform had “previously advocated for, or been in support of, slavery or involuntary servitude.

      Never mind “previously advocated for”, how about “currently advocates for”?

      Reply
    154. 154.

      Barbara

      March 1, 2023 at 1:42 pm

      @Matt McIrvin: Yes, and there’s a reason they all became Republicans between 1964 and 1981.

      Reply
    155. 155.

      Jim, Foolish Literalist

      March 1, 2023 at 1:42 pm

      @Skepticat:

      I served on Romney’s Council of Economic Advisers. He earned the nickname Mitt the Twit, and I’m not certain he’s capable of being truly dangerous except by accident, t

      No shit? this actually surprises me. I always figured Our Willard as smart but limited, a financial hedgehog, because he was bred to believe in the White Horse and capitalism.

      Reply
    156. 156.

      lowtechcyclist

      March 1, 2023 at 1:51 pm

      @PJ:

      Sachs was certainly the most prominent academic advocating for shock treatment for the Soviet Union, which predictably facilitated the wholesale transfer of formerly public assets to nomenklatura and criminals, resulting in the impoverishment of much of the population.

      I remember being appalled at the way ‘shock treatment’ was being pushed at the time.  And of course because Bush the Elder was President, there wasn’t much pushback from the Administration.  If any.

      Communism in the USSR was a terrible system, but it did take care of its people after a fashion: they had food, clothing, and shelter, at any rate, and it might all be crappy, but it was there for them.  Sachs and all those other assholes wanted to just sweep that away rather than figure out how to gradually supplement and later supplant it with the rudiments of a free market.

      And as you mentioned, one of the biggest effects was that state assets were grabbed up by whoever was best positioned to do so.  And so Russia is now the world’s biggest kleptocracy.

      Reply
    157. 157.

      lowtechcyclist

      March 1, 2023 at 1:56 pm

      @different-church-lady:

      “Slavery was bad. It’s over. Systemic racism is also bad. It’s not over. We want to do something about that and you don’t. Your turn to talk.”

      Perfect.

      Reply
    158. 158.

      catclub

      March 1, 2023 at 2:01 pm

      @Matt McIrvin: Pew poll of whether people are for using torture on suspected terrorists

       

      Distinction between right-wing christian terrorists  versus muslim terrorists? White militia terrorists?

      Reply
    159. 159.

      catclub

      March 1, 2023 at 2:03 pm

      @Matt McIrvin: ​
       

      “I bet you didn’t know the old Southern segregationists were Democrats!”

      response: and they all became republicans after 1964.

      Reply
    160. 160.

      RSA

      March 1, 2023 at 2:08 pm

      @Marmot:

      Liberals have a long history of hyping fears of Republican presidential candidates, from Lyndon Johnson’s “daisy” ad (about Barry Goldwater and a potential threat of nuclear war) to sometimes hysterical warnings about various dire threats posed by John McCain in 2008 and Mitt Romney in 2012.

      We heard similarly terrible things about Donald Trump in 2016 — but this time they were true. As with the story of the boy who cried wolf, a real wolf had finally arrived.

      This. Makes. No. Sense.

      Here are some things that might have happened if we had taken option A.  So instead we took option B.

      What kind of impaired reasoning lets someone conclude that we were wrong about what would have happened because we didn’t let it happen?

      Reply
    161. 161.

      cain

      March 1, 2023 at 2:17 pm

      @JWR: I’m kind of wondering if this is gonna be one of those “please proceed, wingnut” episodes. Law of unintended consequences.

      Reply
    162. 162.

      Barbara

      March 1, 2023 at 2:20 pm

      @RSA: It’s like he forgot that the choice is binary, and that for all intents and purposes the choice between A and B is often profound, never mind if B isn’t the worst of the worst.  President Gore would not have invaded Iraq and would have made a lot more progress on climate change.  Hell, he might have even avoided the 9/11 catastrophe.  President Hillary Clinton would not have nominated Amy Coathanger or Brett the Demon Drunk for the Supreme Court, again, with profound consequences for many of us, if not Damon Linker personally.

      Which is to say, the whole column is a misdirect because the only choice that matters is not the kind of abstract analysis he sets up as a strawman.

      Reply
    163. 163.

      Skepticat

      March 1, 2023 at 2:26 pm

      @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Let’s just say that Mitt is extremely easily bored. I also think the novelty of being governor wore off quickly when he realized there was actual work rather than posturing to be done. You’re spot on with “limited.”

      Reply
    164. 164.

      Ladyraxterinok

      March 1, 2023 at 3:28 pm

      @Baud:

      You are so right!!!!!

      Reply
    165. 165.

      artem1s

      March 1, 2023 at 3:54 pm

      @catclub: ​
       

      I have serious doubts that there were any hysterical warnings from Democrats about Romney.

      We did point and laugh at him a lot so there’s that. Obama even asked him to “Please proceed, Governor!”.

      Reply
    166. 166.

      Ohio Mom

      March 1, 2023 at 3:54 pm

      @Subsole: I think “liberal” has always been a put down in certain lefty circles. Remember the Phil Ochs song, “Love me, I’m a liberal”?

      Reply
    167. 167.

      Ruckus

      March 1, 2023 at 7:25 pm

      @lowtechcyclist:

      There is always more under the hood.

      And in his case the hood is likely white with a point.

      Reply

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