Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

You cannot love your country only when you win.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

The willow is too close to the house.

The real work of an opposition party is to hold the people in power accountable.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Every one of the “Roberts Six” lied to get on the court.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

I’m starting to think Jesus may have made a mistake saving people with no questions asked.

Hell hath no fury like a farmer bankrupted.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

Bark louder, little dog.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

I swear, each month of 2025 will have its own history degree.

T R E 4 5 O N

“Until such time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on.”

Decision time: keep arguing about the last election, or try to win the next one?

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

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

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

If you are still in the gop, you are either an extremist yourself, or in bed with those who are.

One way or another, he’s a liar.

Disagreements are healthy; personal attacks are not.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

You are here: Home / Politics / Biden Administration in Action / Wednesday Morning Open Thread: President Biden Is Serious; His GOP Antagonists Are Not

Wednesday Morning Open Thread: President Biden Is Serious; His GOP Antagonists Are Not

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Per the Associated Press:

… The Associated Press declared “None of these candidates” the winner at 12:01 a.m. based on initial vote results that showed it with a significant lead over Haley in seven counties across the state, including in the two most populous counties. At the time the race was called, “None of these candidates” led with about 60% of the vote. Haley trailed with 33%.

Former President Donald Trump did not appear on the ballot. Gov. Joe Lombardo, Nevada’s Republican chief executive, endorsed Trump and publicly indicated his intent to cast his ballot for “None of these candidates.” A significant number of Trump supporters appear to have followed the governor’s lead. Initial returns showed “None of these candidates” leading in seven counties that Trump carried in his 2016 Nevada caucus win.

Besides Haley, the seven-person GOP primary field included former candidates Mike Pence and Tim Scott, who both dropped out of the race after the primary ballot had been locked in, as well as four relatively unknown hopefuls.

The victory for “None of these candidates” has no official impact on the race for the GOP presidential nomination, since the primary was non-binding and had no delegates at stake. The Nevada Republican Party opted to hold a presidential caucus Thursday to award delegates and has essentially disavowed the primary.

Republican voters who cast ballots in Tuesday’s primary are also allowed to participate in Thursday’s binding caucuses, but the state party has barred candidates who appeared on the primary ballot from also competing in the caucuses, forcing candidates to choose one event over the other. Haley chose to compete in the primary, while Trump opted to compete in the caucuses, where he faces only one candidate and is expected to win most or all of the delegates up for grabs…

 

Despite the source, this is worth reading — “The president is, once more, keeping a relatively low profile as major events pop up around him”:

Over the past week, Joe Biden conducted a retaliatory strike against Iranian militants, stomped his way to a victory in the South Carolina Democratic primary, and saw a massive beat of expectations on a monthly jobs report.

It was a consequential several days, made all the more striking by the fact that Biden wasn’t physically around for much of it.

The president has kept a distance from the action, not addressing the nation on the strikes, not staying in South Carolina for his win and declining to participate in the semi-traditional Super Bowl interview this coming Sunday…

… Biden officials have dismissed any second-guessing about their communications strategy, arguing they’re focused on efforts that most efficiently reach voters — even if it doesn’t fit the mold of past presidential campaigns. Biden spent much of the last week on the road campaigning in key states, including Michigan and Nevada. Aides note he’s spent more outside Washington over the last year than each of the two prior presidents.

“President Biden is crisscrossing the country at a rate that often exceeds his predecessors’ travel schedules, talking to the American people about their lives and the issues that matter most to them,” deputy press secretary Andrew Bates said, calling the approach an “aggressive, modern, all-of-the-above communities and digital strategy.”

Biden made several appearances in South Carolina in the lead-up to its primary Saturday, including delivering remarks two weeks ago at a historic Black church. Rather than plan a campaign swing for the weekend, Biden’s aides lined up a series of radio interviews on stations with large Black audiences in the state ahead of the vote.

When Biden won the primary, after having pushed to make South Carolina the first state on the calendar, he wasn’t there to celebrate. Instead, he called his ally, Rep. James Clyburn, who put him on speakerphone for the victory party attendees to hear.

As for the Super Bowl interview, officials and allies said the opportunity simply doesn’t carry the same cachet it once did. Viewers don’t want politicians interrupting their game day, aides argued, and what was once a light-hearted opportunity to humanize the president is now indistinguishable from most other network sitdowns. CBS had offered a 15-minute interview, with plans to air three to four minutes of their choosing during the Super Bowl coverage, an official said…

Catherine Rampell, at the Washington Post — “The GOP dog caught the car. Again.” [gift link]

Welp, the dog caught the car again. After months — decades? — of running on tightening the border, House Republicans are suddenly paralyzed when offered the chance to do so…

There are different ways to interpret why this much-awaited, much-desired legislation ended up, in Johnson’s words, “DEAD on arrival in the House.” Perhaps his conference wants to maintain “border chaos” as a live issue through the 2024 election. Trump, the party’s likely presidential nominee, has said as much, since he hopes to continue running on the idea that he alone can fix it…

Unlike the Obamacare repeal debacle, the passage of the Senate border bill would not be so terrible. I maintain serious concerns about its Title 42-like powers, as well as some other provisions relating to asylum. But much of the bill would make useful changes that should, theoretically, receive robust bipartisan support.

For example, it would invest much-needed resources in the border. It would give our Afghan allies — people who’ve already been vetted and are here in the United States but stuck in legal limbo — a pathway to permanent legal status. And for the first time, it would mandate that vulnerable, unaccompanied children seeking asylum receive legal counsel.

The White House and the bill’s Senate negotiators are now trying to defend it against myriad falsehoods about open borders and the like. But the burden of proving — or disproving — the merits of this hard-fought deal should be on the speaker: What, exactly, is Johnson’s objection to doing so many things his party ran for office to do?

Reader Interactions

246Comments

  3. 3.

    Baud

    Since the media helped the GOP gaslight people about the economy, I suspect Republicans think they’ll help gaslight people about the border bill.

  5. 5.

    Dangerman

    What, exactly, is Johnson’s objection to doing so many things his party ran for office to do?

    Ooh-ooh-ooooh, Mr. Kotter!

  6. 6.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    Viewers don’t want politicians interrupting their game day, aides argued,

    Very astute aides. Like Baud, I never liked them regardless of Prezdent.

  9. 9.

    Suzanne

    What, exactly, is Johnson’s objection to doing so many things his party ran for office to do?

    They didn’t run for office to do anything other than make noise and get rich.

  10. 10.

    Kay

    “The dog caught the car” makes sense for abortion, where they really did ban it and then the public punished them for it, but the immigration piece of the bill is just a GOP priority that Republicans didn’t vote for – that’s more like “they won’t take yes for an answer”.

  14. 14.

    Betty Cracker

    I don’t think losing to None of These Candidates is all that embarrassing, really. Most people would lose to None! Think about it: None has never said anything embarrassing. None has never made a mistake or taken an unpopular position that a voter could hold against a candidate.

  15. 15.

    Ken

    CBS had offered a 15-minute interview, with plans to air three to four minutes of their choosing during the Super Bowl coverage

    If I were a front-pager I could insert the Admiral Ackbar “It’s a trap!” meme, but will have to settle for linking.

  17. 17.

    PaulWartenberg

    We have to recognize that the “None of the Candidates” voters were actually voting for trump because his name was not on that ballot and that was the option the MAGA base went for.

    If trump HAD been on the ballot and “None” had won, THEN we’d have something to talk about.

    But look also at the overall poor turnout, similar to the low turnouts for Iowa and New Hampshire. It’s been a dark open secret about our primaries for a long time: the terrible turnout, barely 24 percent of registered party voters ever show up for these things. If you counted the no-shows as a collective vote of No Confidence by the majority of the party bases (both Dem and GOP) nobody would be winning anything. We have to address the lack of voter interest across the board for our major parties.

  18. 18.

    Scout211

    This made me laugh.  From The Hill yesterday.

    Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) unveiled a resolution Tuesday that declares former President Trump “did not engage in insurrection or rebellion against the United States.”

    The resolution — which spans one page and has more than 60 GOP co-sponsors — comes as groups across the country try to disqualify Trump from appearing on their 2024 presidential election ballots on claims that he engaged in an insurrection during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

    . . .
    We are here today to authoritatively express that President Trump did not commit an insurrection, and we believe Congress has a unique role in making that declaration,” Gaetz said. “It’s not the job of the states and especially not the job of some bureaucrats in Colorado to make this assessment and interfere with the right of voters to cast their vote for the candidate of their choice.”

     

    Well, okay then.  Since Representatives Gaetz and Stefanik and 60 Republicans have authoritatively expressed that the former president did not engage in an insurrection, the Supreme Court can just wipe that case off the schedule.

    🙄

    Bold added.

  19. 19.

    Jeffro

    @Betty Cracker:I don’t think losing to None of These Candidates is all that embarrassing, really. Most people would lose to None! Think about it: None has never said anything embarrassing. None has never made a mistake or taken an unpopular position that a voter could hold against a candidate.

    “None” is kind of the dream candidate, good point!

    Also, None has probably never engaged in insurrection or collaborated with a hostile foreign power, so there’s that.

  21. 21.

    gvg

    @Kay: Oh I think it might be significant if any of the republicans have a brain.  They might be thinking of the results of Dobbs, and wondering if actually passing what they said they wanted was such a good idea. Suppose there were bad results instead of the anticipated results. Such as more crops rotting in the field. Rich people getting mad at them. Donations drying up. A lethargic base of voters and Democrats fired up? The Russians finally losing in Ukraine?

  22. 22.

    Baud

    @PaulWartenberg:

    The vast majority of people are told it’s bad to be partisan and that both parties suck equally and that everything is rigged if their candidate loses. Do you have a solution to that?

  23. 23.

    Princess

    The way the GOP is attacking and compromising democratic decision making in their own party tells us what they’ll do in the whole country if they get the chance.

  25. 25.

    Ken

    Now I’m wondering — since Nevada has a law saying “primaries only”, does that mean the state won’t be paying for the extra caucus election that Trump demanded? Would it have to come out of the Nevada GOP’s funds, making less available for the general election?

    If so, whichever Democratic mole whispered “they should caucus” into Trump’s ear deserves a bonus. Plus hazard pay for getting that close to his hair, of course.

  27. 27.

    SFAW

    @Baud: ​
     

    Do you have a solution to that?

    Deport all the Rethugs to Hungary, Somalia, Russia, or similar? Probably not what you were asking, but I think it’s still a good idea

  28. 28.

    Jeffro

    One of the late-night threads had a tweet linking to a story about how tens of thousands of guns have been stolen from cars in TN over the past decade, ever since the TN legislature removed penalties on the guns’ owners for leaving them unsecured:

    Nearly 30,000 firearms have been stolen from motor vehicles in Tennessee in the decade since Republican lawmakers voted to allow gun owners to keep their weapons in their cars and trucks without any penalty for those who leave them unsecured, a NewsChannel 5 analysis has discovered.

    In 2022 alone, the most recent year for which statewide numbers are available, data from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation shows that more than 5,000 guns were stolen from motor vehicles, in many cases putting them into the hands of dangerous individuals who are not legally entitled to possess firearms and are likely to commit other crimes.

    (good job, Republicans!  way to take a bad situation and make it worse, like always)

    ANYway, the thread in question had a pic of one of those dumb “molon llabe” (‘come and take them’) stickers on a car, which raises the question: does “molon llabe” stand for

    a) moron label

    b) moron labia, or

    c) “My junk is way, way undersized”?

    ETA: I have actually had discussions with my young adult kids about avoiding people, in person or on the roads, who display this sticker or the ” III ” for the three percenters, “1776”, etc.  Sad, but necessary.

  30. 30.

    Bupalos

    @rikyrah: 1. I’m pretty uncomfortable with cheering on the Trumpist ascendancy in the opposing party.

    2. I’m really uncomfortable with passing along the racialized dogwhistle name-calling and name-truthing that Trumpists trade on.

  31. 31.

    Betty Cracker

    I drink at least two cups of coffee daily with a generous amount of half and half. If i run out of half and half, i use milk. If there’s no milk, i use canned milk. Well, today, I’m out of all those things, so I’m drinking black coffee. It sucks! 😂

  32. 32.

    TBone

    @Scout211: this may explain why.

    democracydocket.com/analysis/how-should-scotus-apply-section-3-of-the-14th-amendment-amicus-briefs-i…

    “…179 congressional Republicans — over two-thirds of GOP members in both the House and Senate — argued that the Colorado Supreme Court intruded upon Congress’ authority to enforce Section 3. They assert that before anyone can enforce the provision, Congress must pass implementing legislation — or legislation that lays out the details for how the law will be enforced. Republicans in Congress claim that they have access to the best resources…”

  33. 33.

    Kay

    @gvg:

    Right. But I think we agree that “might” is not “the dog caught the car”. The only actual blowback they got is the head of the border guards union bitched because they aren’t getting massive additional funding to add to the already obscenely bloated budget of Homeland Security.

    I wanted it to pass because I would like some US aid to go to Gaza, which is a humanitarian crisis on a huge scale, soon to be a famine. That’s an emergency.

  35. 35.

    SFAW

    @Betty Cracker:

    I have found that a adding a little whiskey can partially make up for the dairy product being absent.

    Or maybe it’s just that by the second cup, you won’t care.

  36. 36.

    Dangerman

    @p.a.: It’s not a political party.

    After 2024, they will have some serious soul searching to do (for those that have a soul; it might be a short list).

    The FO of FAFO should be boffo (buffo for Brett).

  37. 37.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Don’t shoot for it: shrinking moon sees hours-long quakes and landslides

    As the core of the Earth’s only natural satellite cools, the moon is shrinking, causing it to shrivel. That creates ripples tens of meters high, called thrust faults, across the moon’s surface. In turn, those thrust faults can be the site of hours-long moonquakes and landslides, which could imperil people and robots as humans continue to explore the moon.

    “Our modeling suggests that shallow moonquakes capable of producing strong ground shaking in the south polar region are possible from slip events on existing faults or the formation of new thrust faults,” said Tom Watters of the Smithsonian Institution, lead author of new research published in the Planetary Science Journal.

    In particular, researchers focused on the lunar south pole, a region seen as strategically important because scientists believe there may be permanently shadowed regions with deposits of water ice. The lunar south pole has already been identified as the focus of Nasa’s Artemis III crewed moon mission scheduled for September ​​2026.
    …………………..
    Watters later told CNN he does not want to “alarm anyone” or “discourage exploration”, but to warn future explorers. He said: “The moon is not this benign place where nothing is happening.”

  40. 40.

    SFAW

    @Dangerman: ​

    They’ll probably do the same amount of “soul searching” as they did when Reince Priebus suggested they do that, lo these many years ago. [The amount of “soul searching” they did was approximately equal to the number of Super Bowl appearances by the NY Jets in the last 50 years.]

  41. 41.

    Mousebumples

    @Betty Cracker: I drink at least two cups of coffee daily with a generous amount of half and half. If i run out of half and half, i use milk. If there’s no milk, i use canned milk. Well, today, I’m out of all those things, so I’m drinking black coffee. It sucks! 😂

    I drink my coffee black. In part because I wanted to cut some of the “extra” calories from adding milk and sugar.

    My sister suggested reframing coffee drinking, which worked for me. It’s not a Yummy Drink; its a Caffeine Delivery Device. 😅 Some coffee beans are undrinkable, for me, but I’m usually good with black coffee now. (and took me a week or two to adjust mentally)

    Not that you or anyone needs to do the same, but in case that mindset helps you get caffinated this morning…

  43. 43.

    Mousebumples

    @SFAW: I have found that a adding a little whiskey can partially make up for the dairy product being absent.

    Or maybe it’s just that by the second cup, you won’t care.

    I prefer Baileys (or store brand equivalent), but another good idea!

  45. 45.

    Baud

    @Dangerman:

    @SFAW:

    I think, with Trump, they found their souls.

    Until they feel like they’re not competitive nationally, they won’t change. If people have any ideas how to accomplish that, now would be a good time to share.

  47. 47.

    SFAW

    @Mousebumples: ​
     

    It’s not a Yummy Drink; its a Caffeine Delivery Device.

    Whenever Mrs. SFAW gives me a hard time about not appreciating the wonderful flavour of the tripl-French-roaste-with-an-excellent-bouquet-and-hints-of-strychnine, I use a very similar response.

  48. 48.

    TS

    @Betty Cracker:

    Well, today, I’m out of all those things, so I’m drinking black coffee.

    My folks never drank coffee when I was growing up, so I first started drinking it when I went to college. Most of us were living on very limited scholarship funds & we couldn’t afford to buy milk, so I learned to drink black coffee – has turned into a great choice over the years, love the taste of the coffee & no bother if we run out of milk.

  49. 49.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Betty Cracker: A true tragedy of Shakespearean proportions, Betty! Tots and pears!

    Along those lines, when Covid lockdown hit, I was kind of looking forward to it. Loaded the coffee grinder with espresso beans, anticipating that first cup of coffee enjoying being a hermit with my wife.

    And nothing happened. Grinder broke that day and never recovered.

  51. 51.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Baud: Krugmen was talking about it, it’s not so much that the MSM has an agenda, it’s what ever the topic is, the editors demand controversy.  The economic news all positive, well Twitter Poster MegaChad291 doesn’t agree and he is a retired plumber!

    I’ve seen this same shit from the MSM on things like housing, archeology and history.

  53. 53.

    Betty Cracker

    @JPL: My mom used to tell a story about setting her (heavily sugared and creamed) coffee down and turning her back just one minute, and it was gone! I was a toddler at the time, and she only figured out I was the culprit when she caught me climbing the curtains. So sugary, creamed coffee is my Platonic ideal. Gave up sugar to be virtuous years ago, but dammit, I want my dairy!

  54. 54.

    Baud

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

    My memory is far from perfect, but the media doesn’t seem to talk about economic controversy when a Republican is president, unless it’s unavoidable like with the Bush economic collapse.

    ETA: and I’m not saying the media should have ignored inflation and such. But they beat that horse dead, dead, dead.

  55. 55.

    SFAW

    @Baud:

    Until they feel like they’re not competitive nationally, they won’t change.

    They’ve known they’re no longer competitive nationally for awhile, which has resulted in the myriad “we can’t let THOSE people vote” laws in various Red and Red-controlled states.

  56. 56.

    Scout211

    @Scout211:

    The “authoritatively expressed” resolution of Trump’s innocence was not amusing for Michael Fanone.

    Fanone, who was violently assaulted by the former president’s supporters during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack, called for Gaetz and every supporter of the resolution to be held accountable for their lies and efforts to undermine democracy.

    This resolution is a slap in the face to those of us who almost lost everything defending the Capitol on January 6th, including protecting some of the very Members of Congress who are now attempting to rewrite history to exonerate former President Trump,” Fanone said in a statement via Courage for America, a group opposing House GOP extremism.

    “But no piece of paper signed by a group of spineless extremists will ever change the facts about that dark day: the insurrection was violent, it was deadly and it will happen again if we do not expunge the MAGA ideology that stoked the flames of insurrection in the first place.”

    I’m not laughing anymore.  The man has a good point.

  57. 57.

    Baud

    @SFAW:

    How are they not competitive nationally? They’ve performed below expectations since 2016, but they haven’t been uncompetitive, and they won the House.

    Gerrymandering and voter suppression help that, but the fact is they remain competitive and so don’t have an incentive to change.

  58. 58.

    Suzanne

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: A few years ago for my birthday, Mr. Suzanne got me a DeLonghi coffee maker that had both a pot for regular drip coffee and an espresso maker. When we had that crazy guy on drugs break into our house, the power cord was damaged (dude managed to knock over the stand it was on). It finally gave up a few months later, so I ordered a new (drip) coffee maker. SuzMom got me a little espresso machine for my birthday last month. JUST IN TIME! Mr. Suzanne had to deep-clean the coffee maker and so I got to have espresso in the morning! WOOOHOOOOO!

  60. 60.

    Tony G

    @Baud: I concluded way back in 2017 that everything that I find repulsive about Trump — his stupidity, his arrogance, his dishonesty, his mean spiritedness — are exactly what about 40% of the electorate love about Trump.  He is exactly what they want, and when he finally kicks the bucket (or goes to prison) they’ll find somebody younger who has the same attributes.

  63. 63.

    Baud

    @Gvg:

    Yeah, I thought about that. Simply can’t remember how the media covered it.  Too long ago.

    ETA: Republicans like to say Bush lost because he cut a deal with Dems on taxes, andd Perot.

  64. 64.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: I think Democrats should campaign hard on it – “We worked with Republicans to come up with a compromise bill. It had things in it we aren’t thrilled about, but it also had measures we wanted. That’s how legislating is supposed to work. After we did all that, Republicans decided they wouldn’t take “yes” for an answer because Donald Trump told them to say “no”.” Then say something about how it’s all the fault of Donald Trump, if not for him there would have been reforms and more money to help out with the border. (Whether we like it or not, right now a lot of people are anxious about the border, so we have to address it in some way.) I think the only answer Republicans have to that is “Well, the bill wasn’t perfect, and TFG said he wants to run on fixing the border, so we couldn’t very well fix it could we?”

  66. 66.

    Dangerman

    @Baud: Until they feel like they’re not competitive nationally, they won’t change.

    I still think there are some serious PTB that want Trump launched into the sun. Or just geosynch, sun would be expensive, and we don’t want his orbit decaying and he spoils the environment on reentry.

    Anyway, those PTB can’t exactly do the Et Tu Brutus on the Brute …

    … but having the USSC disqualify Trump nationally would do the trick.

    The wipeout would be spectacular. Not enough popcorn domestically, we’d have to have emergency shipments from overseas.

  67. 67.

    Baud

    Also, too, I don’t recall much media reporting about the controversy over the deficit when a Republican is president. That goes back to Reagan.

  69. 69.

    SFAW

    @Baud:

    Gerrymandering and vote(r) suppression do a little more than “help that.” If my memory is correct (and not it’s current Swiss cheese), the gerrymandering in WI and NY alone make the difference re: House majority.

    The Senate is competitive because land (without people) in fact DOES vote, at least as far as ~300K people in Wyoming having the same Senatorial representation as ~20M people in California (for example).

    And the Rethug presidential candidate has lost the popular vote in (I think) seven of the last eight elections, and I question whether Ken Blackwell’s fuckery in Cleveland (2004) actually kept it from being eight-for-eight.

    But, as I said, were they truly competitive, they wouldn’t need to suppress votes and gerrymander in extremis.

  70. 70.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Suzanne: The Day The Grinder Died (hey, that would make a great song!) I went to the internet to learn if it is possible to grind beans by hand. I think I ended up with a technique using the flat of a knife, which worked well enough to get me through that morning. “This sucks”, I said to myself.

    After that I ordered a hand grinder, telling myself that would be not too hard, and there was no danger of another breakdown. It was a pain. “This sucks” I said to myself. That system lasted maybe a week.

    So finally I ordered a new electric grinder and it’s still working.

    As for fancy-schmancy espresso brewers, this is my machine of choice. Fill up, stick on stove, boil. I don’t need steamed milk. Easy peasy, and it never breaks down.

    Well, unless someone leaves the kitchen and it boils dry.

  74. 74.

    SFAW

    @Baud: ​
     

    andd Perot.

    They can bring up Perot all they want, but contemporaneous polling — back when polls were reasonably accurate — showed Perot took as many votes from Clinton as from GHWB.

  75. 75.

    Baud

    @SFAW:

    We’re talking about  incentives that would force Republicans to change.

    Saying that they’re only competitive because they cheat is fundamentally different than saying they’re not competitive with respect to that point. Republicans don’t care that they cheat, so continued cheating doesn’t provide them with an incentive to change.

  76. 76.

    Bupalos

    If we take the house, lose the senate, and reelect Biden (which I’d say is the single most likely scenario by a hair) does this Israel-Ukraine-Border deal get done?

  78. 78.

    Soprano2

    @Mousebumples: I drink mine black, too. When I started drinking it I decided I should learn to drink it black so I wouldn’t have to have anything to put in it.  I like stuff in it, I just don’t need it.

  82. 82.

    Kay

    @Soprano2:

    Oh, I’m sure they will and all Democrats are probably aware that 4 years of media and Republicans fear mongering on immigrant hordes have changed public opinion- immigrants have taken a hit. They’re not fashionable this season.

    It’s just that years of canvassing have taught me that voters aren’t plugged in enough to get these double back flip reverse arguments. If they’re even dimly aware that some kind of immigration discussion happened I’d be surprised. They want someone to do something about “the border”. That’s the level of thought they’ve given it.

    Republicans trying to kill Obamacare worked for Democrats because it’s easy – We’re for Obamacare, they’re against, and they tried to take it away.

    It’s better than Democrats not passing a pro immigration bill but that’s about all it’s better than.

  84. 84.

    Soprano2

    @Baud: Oh yeah, NPR had a story about how bad inflation was almost every day in 2022. It was a constant drumbeat from them.

  85. 85.

    rusty

    @Betty Cracker: Only 2 cups a day?  I need that much to just be able to shave and not butcher myself with the razor. I think of coffee as my favorite food group.   At home I always add milk (or whatever “milk” my various family members are currently obsessing over), but at work I finally gave up and just drink black.  Coworkers consistently took the last of the milk, if they didn’t it would go bad since I only use a splash at a time.  I’m to a point where drinking black at home seems weird, and adding creamer at work seems weird.  Humans will adjust to just about anything.

  86. 86.

    SFAW

    @Baud:

    The cheating (on this scale) was pretty much a direct response to them being uncompetitive. They had a choice back in ’08 or ’12 (or whenever Priebus was RNC head and talked about it), and after making some noises about soul-searching etc., they said “screw it” and went whole-hog on voter suppression and similar tactics.

  88. 88.

    zhena gogolia

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: Let me share my perhaps obvious insight from this morning.

    Why does the NYT always spin Trump news positively and Biden news negatively? I thought because their bosses want their tax cuts, so they want Trump to win. I still think this is true, but there is another factor: they think Trump IS GOING TO win, and they know he’s going to be a vindictive dictator, so they want to make sure they don’t piss him off, so that they can be among the favored ones when he takes power. They have no fear that Biden would take revenge on them, so even if there’s a chance Biden can prevail, they risk nothing by shitting on him.

  89. 89.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: Then make it simple – “We did a deal to fix the problem at the border, but Republicans rejected it”. They need to figure out a way to tell voters they tried to do something about a problem voters think is important but Republicans blocked it. They have to say it over and over again. “Give us more Democrats and it’ll be easier to fix the problem”.

  90. 90.

    Baud

    @SFAW:

    I’m not sure why this is such a difficult point. When I say uncompetitive, I’m talking about how Republicans view their chances of winning, no matter how fair or unfair the rules are.

    If they successfully limit the franchise to white people, their chance of winning goes up. It doesn’t to them that it’s wrong.

  91. 91.

    SFAW

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Ari Berman did some great work on the various suppression-related laws and tactics used in WI during the 2016 election. I think it may have been the first time I saw his name. What he wrote about was distressing, to say the least.

  92. 92.

    RevRick

    @Soprano2: Exactly! The GOP needs to keep its voter base afraid and angry so that “Mr. I alone can fix it” can save them from the monsters of their fears, which are rooted in bigotry.
    The car their dog has caught is labeled TRUMP and they can’t let go.

  94. 94.

    JMG

    The party of white supremacy in the US will always be competitive nationally and dominant in many places. So the GOP isn’t going away and certainly won’t change.

  97. 97.

    SFAW

    @Baud:

    I guess it appears to be a “difficult point” because I’m using a different definition of “competitive.” To me, “competitive” means the contest is being “fought” on a level playing field (so to speak). It’s not The structural advantage(s) the Rethugs have put in place are due to them being uncompetitive on a level playing field.

    They’re only “competitive” if you only allow certain groups of white people to vote.

  98. 98.

    Baud

    @SFAW:

    That’s fine in the abstract, but when talking about incentives to change, you have to see things the way the Republicans do. They’re the ones who have to take action to change.

  101. 101.

    SFAW

    @zhena gogolia: ​
     
    My (valueless) opinion is that it started when “Pinch” Sulzberger took over as publisher in 1992. For some unknown (to me, at least) reason, he hated the Clintons (and perhaps Dems in general, but his Clinton hatred was obvious). Apparently his son, Pinche — the current publisher — shares the same hatred.

  103. 103.

    Chris

    @zhena gogolia:

    I think this is true, but just true as a general principle and not specific to this year or these candidates.  No matter what the election is and no matter who the chances currently favor, they’re afraid of Republican backlash more than Democratic backlash, so they worry more about offending the former than the latter.

    Look at Bill Maher for the non-“serious” version of this.  He’s never been canceled for hurting left-wingers’ fee-fees.  He’s been canceled for hurting right-wingers’ fee-fees.  So he’s more careful in terms of offending the right-wingers, but has no concerns vomiting endless bullshit about wokeness and whatnot.

    Note that in both cases, I don’t think this is really the most important explanation – they’re largely just following their inclinations.  But it never hurts to have a reminder to them that stretching out and experimenting in certain directions is not in their best interests, and that if they need new material, they’d better find it elsewhere.

  104. 104.

    wjca

    @Baud: Until they feel like they’re not competitive nationally, they won’t change.

    Anyone arguing that being uncompetitive would result in change needs to explain the lack of (positive) change in the California GOP.  Otherwise the assertion is unpersuasive.

  105. 105.

    SFAW

    @Baud: ​

    As I said earlier: they realized they were uncompetitive 10 or so years ago. Priebus was more-or-less explicit about the soul-searching part, and indicated they maybe should change their platform. The Partei, after about three months of paying lip service to the idea of changing, decided that the way to remain “competitive” was to un-level the playing field. They may have cheated beforehand, but this became a concerted effort, and is pretty much the only reason they’re still “competitive” (for various definitions of “competitive.”)
    Here’s one article from 2013, describing the long-gone effort to “soul search.”

  106. 106.

    Baud

    @wjca:

    California isn’t the nation. The California GOP is happy to cling to the national GOP, rather than try to be competitive in California. If the national GOP is not competitive, they have nowhere to go.

    Admittedly, it is an alternative for the GOP to go away like the Whigs, but their voters will be going somewhere, and a lot of their voters are fascist.

  107. 107.

    Baud

    @SFAW:

    I’ve explained my point the best that I can.  I don’t disagree with anything you said, but I think we’re talking past each other.

  108. 108.

    Kay

    @Soprano2:

    These are always the shittiest fights – where we’re trying to limit damage on an issue the GOP is stronger on.

    I read that the race for Santos’ seat may turn on “the border” and crime so maybe national Dems are spooked by that. I personally think NY races are less and less indicative of the rest of the country so we shouldn’t set a course based on them, but who knows.

  109. 109.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: I’m more optimistic about it. Even Fox News was slamming Republicans for not taking yes for an answer last night. The crappy MSM outlets mostly seem to be pointing out the hypocrisy and disarray within the GOP rather than making it a both-sides issue.

    IMO, lengthy backstories that are reinforced in the current narrative are prerequisites that allow political controversies to get legs in the media and penetrate the normie fog.

    That condition is present here because Republicans have flooded the zone with hysterical anti-immigrant fearmongering for years. They’ve also demonstrated comically slavish devotion to Trump and general ineptitude in the House, which also plays into the narrative.

    Well see, but I think it has potential.

  110. 110.

    Salty Sam .

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:   After that I ordered a hand grinder, telling myself that would be not too hard, and there was no danger of another breakdown. It was a pain. “This sucks” I said to myself.

    When we lived aboard our boat, using an electric grinder was possible when we were plugged into shore power.  When we were “out there” voyaging, I had a hand grinder.  It sucked.
    So, with a little cobbling, I replaced the hand crank with a metal extension that fit my cordless drill- Voila!, a battery powered coffee grinder.

    It worked like a charm, even if it was awkward and goofy looking in use.  Salty Spouse never would use it…

  112. 112.

    SFAW

    @Baud:
    As I said, what appears to be your definition of “competitive” appears to use a non-standard frame of reference for the term.

    ETA: And, not that it matters, but: they will keep amping up the suppression, and tamping down the “changing their ways,” until they can no longer win more than a pittance of elections. Do I think they’ll ever get there? NFW. But they won’t suddenly be uncompetitive then, they’ll just have reached the limits of their suppression (etc.) tactics.​

  113. 113.

    wjca

    @SFAW: The Senate is competitive because land (without people) in fact DOES vote, at least as far as ~300K people in Wyoming having the same Senatorial representation as ~20M people in California (for example).

    As an example, it would be far more persuasive to compare Wyoming to, for example, Texas.  Just to make clear that the problem isn’t entirely a red/blue issue.

  114. 114.

    Soprano2

    @zhena gogolia: They’re afraid they’ll lose access to TFG. Remember how much their reporters talked to him when he was president? If they’re too critical they’re afraid he’ll cut off all that access. I think they’re in denial about TFG’s true intentions if he gets a second term; they think it’ll be like the first one.

  115. 115.

    Chris

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

    @Baud: Krugmen was talking about it, it’s not so much that the MSM has an agenda, it’s what ever the topic is, the editors demand controversy.  The economic news all positive, well Twitter Poster MegaChad291 doesn’t agree and he is a retired plumber!

    That’s not really true though, is it?  The “controversy” is only required when there’s good news for Democrats.  When the economy was good in 2019, you didn’t see them endlessly scouring the country for that one guy who’d just been fired or the handicapped red stater who still couldn’t get health insurance just so they could Teach The Controversy.  When everyone was behind the war on terror in 2002, you didn’t see them going on safaris for angry parents who’d just lost a kid in Afghanistan or aging Boomer ex-draftees who weren’t joining in on the war fever because they’d seen it all before.  Certainly you didn’t see anything like that in 1991 when everyone still thought Victorious War President George Bush was invincible and the only question was which Democrat he’d beat like a drum when collecting his Four More Years.

    Somehow, it’s only when the facts would seem to vindicate Democrats that the media suddenly develops this irresistible itch to manufacture news in the opposite direction – oh, just to show both sides, of course!

  116. 116.

    Chris

    @Baud:

    Should’ve read on.  Yeah, this.

    ETA: and I’m not saying the media should have ignored inflation and such. But they beat that horse dead, dead, dead.

    They certainly shouldn’t have.  But part of covering the economy is that you cover everything that’s happening.  If you can’t stop talking about gas prices when they’re going up but give it no coverage at all when they settle back down, if you can’t stop talking about inflation when it’s going up but give it no coverage when it goes back down, you’re not covering the economy, you’re just cherry-picking whatever facts support the conclusion you’d already come to anyway.

  119. 119.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Mousebumples:

    I prefer Baileys (or store brand equivalent)

    I agree, Baileys or equivalent is an excellent coffee additive!

    (If adding it to coffee is one’s main use for it, any taste difference between Bailey’s and other brands vanishes, but the price difference is nontrivial. :-)

  120. 120.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    I saw you’re more optimistic- I like the  “won’t do any work” better than “hypocrisy” because I don’t think voters care at all about hypocrisy.

    if they did there would be no conservatives.
    I think “hypocrisy!” Is something obsessives care about. This is more “bad vibes” – just about the border instead of the economy. They’re vaguely uncomfortable with “the border”

  121. 121.

    Jeffro

    Some much-needed piling on by the NYT (yes really)

     

    Forceful Opinion Repudiates Claim That Trump Can’t Be Charged in Election Case

    The unanimous ruling, by a panel of appeals court judges appointed by presidents of both parties, systematically took apart the immunity claim.

    Former President Donald J. Trump’s claim that he was immune from being prosecuted for any crimes he committed while trying to stay in office after losing the 2020 election was always a long shot. But in an opinion on Tuesday eviscerating his assertion, three federal appeals court judges portrayed his position as not only wrong on the law but also repellent.

    “We cannot accept former President Trump’s claim that a president has unbounded authority to commit crimes that would neutralize the most fundamental check on executive power — the recognition and implementation of election results,” they wrote, adding with an emphatic echo: “We cannot accept that the office of the presidency places its former occupants above the law for all time thereafter.”

    The 57-page opinion was issued on behalf of all three members of a panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. They included two Democratic appointees and, significantly, Judge Karen L. Henderson, a Republican appointee who had sided with Mr. Trump in several earlier legal disputes.

    The ruling systematically weighed and forcefully rejected each of Mr. Trump’s arguments for why the case against him should be dismissed on immunity grounds. The resounding skepticism raised the question of whether the Supreme Court — to which Mr. Trump is widely expected to appeal — will decide there is any need for it to take up the case.

  122. 122.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Betty Cracker: Coffee with sweetened/condensed milk is a treasure we discovered in Vietnam.  It’s hard for me to go back to creamer of any sort now.  That said, yeah, had to fast for bloodwork the other day and was only allowed black coffee in the morning.  It’s not terrible but it’s so much less enjoyable than with some sort of cream and sugar.

  123. 123.

    Soprano2

    @Chris: Speaking of Maher, I listened to the show where he had Andrew Sullivan on. He also had on Ari Melber. They were talking about diversity in hiring, and Melber kept laying out the facts about who is in charge of companies and why. Sullivan got almost hysterical about how “it should all be based on merit, we need to do away with all DEI hiring because it’s tainted”. Melber kept laying out the facts and asking if Sullivan thought it was that way because white men are a lot more qualified than anyone else, or was it possible that discrimination was the cause? Sullivan never really answered the question. What I wish Melber would have asked him is “Do you honestly believe all of those white men got their positions purely on merit and for no other reason?” Because it’s hardly ever framed in that way; in these discussions most of the participants assume that the white men have good credentials and experience and earned their positions, when often nothing could be further from the truth! Someone needs to turn it around on them and point out to the “it should only be merit” idiots that oftentimes the white man is less qualified than the woman/minority/gay person who was also considered for the job, and got it because the interviewer was “more comfortable” with him or “he fits in better with our vision”. I was happy to hear such good, calm pushback on the idiotic notion that merit explains everything.

  126. 126.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: I think you can’t underestimate how scared white people are of immigrants from other countries coming here in large numbers. We see it over and over again in our history, large numbers of immigrants who aren’t considered to be “white” and then a national backlash to that. Democrats ignore that issue now at their peril, because whether we like it or not right now voters are thinking about it, and it’s not just white people who are upset. What’s absolutely true is that we need real reform, because our immigration system doesn’t serve us anymore. It doesn’t easily allow in the people we want and need to come here. It can’t handle the amount of asylum claims we have in a timely manner; when it takes ten years to get one of those claims resolved, you know that system is broken. I saw you said “do-nothing Congress” would be a good way to talk about it, and I agree, because that’s what it’s become. They can’t even say yes to things they said they wanted!

  127. 127.

    Yarrow

    @Kay:  Seems like Dems have a few options for messaging on it.

    They can talk about “Trump owned Republicans” who are too scared of him to make their own decisions. Variations: “Trump owns Republicans.” “Republicans take their marching orders from Trump.” Etc. Make it clear they aren’t independent and will just do what he says.

    Also, remember how the Republicans hammered John Kerry for the “I voted for it before I voted against it” comment on Iraq funding? A version of that could be used here. “Republicans were all for the border bill until Trump told them they were against it.” Wave around some flip flops as props.

    Paint all elected Republicans as chickenshit flip-floppers, beholden to and afraid of Trump. Normies don’t seem to like Trump. Dems need to lean into that. Paint Republicans as Trump toadies. They’re all the same thing. A vote for a Republican is a vote for Trump.

  128. 128.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Suzanne:

    When we had that crazy guy on drugs break into our house, the power cord was damaged (dude managed to knock over the stand it was on). It finally gave up a few months later, so I ordered a new (drip) coffee maker.

    Power cords are easy to fix or replace, and much cheaper than new appliances. Just sayin’.

  129. 129.

    smith

    @Soprano2: Didn’t Andrew Sullivan buy into the racist “Bell Curve” nonsense? He didn’t answer the question because, yes, he does believe that white men are inherently superior to everyone else.

  130. 130.

    Betty Cracker

    @UncleEbeneezer: I had that at a Vietnamese restaurant years ago, and you’re right — it is heavenly! I’d kill for a can of sweetened condensed milk right about now. Unfortunately used up my stock recently for pies. 😞

    ETA: I was so desperate this morning I briefly considered cracking into a can of coconut milk, but that would be a gross, oily mess. I took Mouse’s advice instead and choked down the sludge for the caffeine! 😂

  132. 132.

    Yarrow

    @Kay:  Part of why people are for some reason upset about the border is the news keeps saying “Crisis at the Border!” There are even doom-ish graphics with scary sounding music. If you hear “Crisis at the Border!” often enough you’ll think there’s a crisis. What, exactly is the crisis? Who knows?! But there must be one. The flashy graphics and music tell us there is.

  133. 133.

    Soprano2

    @Yarrow:  Paint all elected Republicans as chickenshit flip-floppers, beholden to and afraid of Trump. Normies don’t seem to like Trump. Dems need to lean into that. Paint Republicans as Trump toadies. They’re all the same thing. A vote for a Republican is a vote for Trump.

    I think this is really, really good. Voters don’t like this kind of stuff. You can’t get MAGAs with it, but you can get “normies”. They need a counter to “the bill allows 5,000 illegals a day” crap, because that’s how R’s are justifying being against it. I’m seeing that all over.

  134. 134.

    Soprano2

    @smith: Yes, I wish Melber had brought that up because of course Maher won’t. I think the majority of white men think they are better at and most qualified for most jobs.

  135. 135.

    Yarrow

    @Kay:  It’s effective with “Independents” (whatever they are) too. It also works to tie all Republicans to Trump. A vote for any Republican is a vote for Trump. People like to think they’re independent-minded. Make it clear that R reps are not. All Rs are Trump. They only do his bidding. They can’t think for themselves.

  136. 136.

    Jeffro

    As y’all might suspect, the Post’s hack extraordinaire Marc Thiessen has weighed in and finds the border/Ukraine/Israel deal lacking, for among other things, the ignoblest of reasons – it actually provides funding to take care of desperate human beings, instead of letting them continue to be used as a cudgel by a cruel and despicable governor:

    The bill would also provide $1.4 billion to nongovernmental organizations and municipalities struggling to handle the influx of migrants to pay “sheltering and related activities.” This would lift the pressure Republican governors such as Texas’s Greg Abbott have put on Democratic leaders of self-proclaimed “sanctuary cities” such as New York and Chicago. And it would provide federal funding to pay for housing, food and other support for migrants who entered this country illegally. Why would Republicans agree to that, when they believe these migrants should be deported? Let sanctuary cities bear the burden of providing sanctuary.

    I’m sure he considers himself to be a really good person.

  137. 137.

    Jeffro

    @Betty Cracker:I took Mouse’s advice instead and choked down the sludge for the caffeine!

    On the few occasions when I haven’t had milk available for my coffee, I’ve just watered it down a bit.  Cools it and lightens it, and as you say, it’s just for the caffeine anyway.  =)

  138. 138.

    Jeffro

    Btw Chip Roy was on C-Span, cutting an ad for Democrats at all levels:

     

    Roy: I saw Trump make that allegation on one of his social media posts. All a president has to do is declare the border is closed, and it’s closed. Well, with all due respect, that didn’t happen in 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020. There were millions that came in during those years

  140. 140.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Soprano2:

     I think Democrats should campaign hard on it – “We worked with Republicans to come up with a compromise bill. It had things in it we aren’t thrilled about, but it also had measures we wanted. That’s how legislating is supposed to work. After we did all that, Republicans decided they wouldn’t take “yes” for an answer because Donald Trump told them to say “no”.” Then say something about how it’s all the fault of Donald Trump

    Too complicated. Pull the Dems and compromise out, present it as the GOP’s bill, let them explain because explaining is losing.

    “Congressional Republicans wrote a bill to deal with the border problems, but they didn’t pass it because they and Trump would both rather have the border as a campaign issue than fix it.”

  142. 142.

    Barbara

    @Soprano2: You must have more confidence in the stability of your blood pressure than I have in mine.  I would find it stressful to watch Andrew Sullivan opine on anything related to race.

    And to your overall point, I believe that somewhere in the briefs submitted in the lower court phases, Harvard stated that the group likely to be most adversely affected by the kind of relief sought by the plaintiffs were white males. Because they are the most likely to receive a “leg up” in admissions.

    Characterizing everyone else in the world as “special interests” makes the interests of white men the default benchmark and people just assume that they are the standard bearers and “deserve” to be wherever it is they are.

  146. 146.

    Geminid

    I was looking for New York political news on Tom Watson’s twitter account (@tomwatson)* and he reposted this from former Rep. Mondaire Jones:

       Congressman Mike Lawler has made it clear that he’s not serious about finding a bipartisan solution to our migrant crisis. He doesn’t want to secure our borders and fix our broken immigration system, because then what would he complain about on TV and social media?

    Jones is the Democratic frontrunner to face Lawler in the suburban district Lawler flipped in 2022.

    *This would be Tom Watson the professor and Westchester County resident, not Tom Watson the golfer.

    Watson also reposted a zinger from George Takei, mocking Marjorie Greene’s complaint about the sneaky Democrats wheeling in Rep. Al Green for the Mayorkis vote;

       Ah yes. The ancient “Crouching Tiger, hidden Democrat move.

  147. 147.

    wjca

    @Yarrow: “Republicans were all for the border bill until Trump told them they were against it.”

    Definitely a good point to hammer (along with Dobbs, of course).  Every time the Republicans, or Trump, try to raise immigration, illegal immigrants, or the border, hammer them with it.  Over and over, until it filters thru to the low information voters.

  148. 148.

    Mousebumples

    @SFAW: haha, you’re welcome! 

    @Omnes Omnibus: we’ll see, I guess. I’m wondering if the actual political instincts of Wisconsin GOP (as a whole) have atrophied. Pleasantly surprised to see Gallagher (my Rep) on the list of Nos for Mayorkas impeachment yesterday. He seems to be among the most politically astute of Wisconsin GOP electeds.

    @lowtechcyclist: probably depends on the alternative, lol. Ryan’s is decent, as is the Kirkland one from Costco. I just can’t handle ones that are gritty.

    @Betty Cracker: I took Mouse’s advice instead and choked down the sludge for the caffeine! 😂

    Glad to hear you made it through. 😅 Now you’re caffinated enough to drive for provisions…

  150. 150.

    Betty Cracker

    @Yarrow: Excellent idea. I don’t think I’ve actually consumed powdered milk since summer camp, but I’d kill for a couple of teaspoons of it now! ;-)

  151. 151.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Baud:

    If enough places do it and make Republicans uncompetitive, then they’ll have an incentive to change.

    The problem is, they’ll have other incentives not to. Even (maybe especially) if they’re down to 40% of the electorate voting GOP, the MAGAts will still largely control who gets nominated.

    It’ll take awhile longer than that before the ‘they’ who are willing to respond to the incentives to change constitute a majority of the GOP.  It’s hard for me to see how it happens in the next ~15 years, other than by most of the MAGAts just giving up on voting, and drifting away from politics altogether.  And what are the odds on that happening sooner?

  152. 152.

    Soprano2

    @Jeffro: So why didn’t they stop when TFG was president, if all he has to do is wave his magic wand and make it so? These people are certifiable.

  153. 153.

    Geminid

    @Jeffro: I’m beginning to think the Chip Roy may be a Deep State mole, a sleeper agent planted by Democrats. After all, Roy was born in Bethesda, Maryland, and went to high school in Loudon County. That’s not far from the CIA headquarters in Langley!

  154. 154.

    Jeffro

    Btw I’m not sure how to link to tweets or threads, but there’s a good one up this morning covering many of the topics we’ve talked about here on BJ.

    It’s by The Editorial Board @johnastoehr , from yesterday.

  155. 155.

    Soprano2

    @lowtechcyclist: I think you have to say the bill was bipartisan, because normies love that shit. You can’t make it sound like Democrats aren’t trying to solve the problem. I think what I said can be boiled down for talking points, but in speeches I think they should elaborate more.

  156. 156.

    ...now I try to be amused

    @Yarrow:

    A vote for any Republican is a vote for Trump.

    Before Trump came along I wished Dems would say, “If you vote for even the best Republican, you vote for the worst.” But this is better.

    A Twitter poster put it well: “The GOP has exactly one constituent.”

  157. 157.

    Soprano2

    @Barbara: I enjoyed listening to Melber calmly push back on both of them with facts about who is in charge at corporations. It ain’t women or non-white men.

  158. 158.

    Mike in NC

    I noted a day or two ago that there was a recent ugly cross burning incident in the town of Conway, South Carolina. Well, one of Fat Bastard’s henchmen must have been alerted to that fact, because the Orange Asshole himself is going there on Saturday to hold a hate rally!

  159. 159.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Soprano2: “Did djt Jr. get his job because he was the most qualified for it or because he was the bosses son?”

    Make them admit bias.

  160. 160.

    Chris T.

    Trump, the party’s likely presidential nominee, has said as much, since he hopes to continue running on the idea that he alone can fix it …

    … because any time someone else starts to fix it, he shoots them on Fifth Avenue.

  163. 163.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Chris:

    They certainly shouldn’t have.  But part of covering the economy is that you cover everything that’s happening.  If you can’t stop talking about gas prices when they’re going up but give it no coverage at all when they settle back down, if you can’t stop talking about inflation when it’s going up but give it no coverage when it goes back down, you’re not covering the economy, you’re just cherry-picking whatever facts support the conclusion you’d already come to anyway.

    The other thing is the quantity of coverage.  As Soprano2 said upthread, during 2022, NPR was doing stories about inflation nearly every day.  Well, inflation isn’t news every day.  Pounding that drum that frequently wasn’t covering the news, it was another way of taking sides.

  165. 165.

    Chris

    @…now I try to be amused:

    Before Trump came along I wished Dems would say, “If you vote for even the best Republican, you vote for the worst.”

    2008 (my first American election) was a clarifying moment for me.  At the time, I was still young and naive enough to believe all the Aaron Sorkin crap about good moderate Republicans existing and all the mainstream media’s crap about how John McCain was that Good Moderate Republican.  What McCain’s entire campaign made clear, the selection of Sarah Palin being the crowning achievement, was that not only was this not true but that it wouldn’t matter even if it was true; any “moderate” Republican, in order to win the nomination and keep his party’s support through the election and presidency, would have to make so many compromises with the absolute lunatics that have a lock on the party, that it’s no different than if he was just an absolute lunatic himself.

    Just fucking vote Democrat.  They already invented a version of the Republican Party that’s moderate and sensible and reality-based enough to vote for.  It’s called the Democratic Party.

  167. 167.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @Soprano2: ​
     

    I think you can’t underestimate how scared white people are of immigrants from other countries coming here in large numbers.

    Exactly. One of the localyokel news stations just ran a piece figuring out the actual sources of a anti-immigrant rally/meeting in one of our lily-white burbs (Lakewood).
    Lo and behold, the people running it (and desperately trying to hide that fact) are all GOP candidates (or former candidates) for office.
    The twitter commentary of the reporter doing the work is what you’d expect in terms of constant RWNJ’s letting their freak flag fly.

  168. 168.

    Chris

    @lowtechcyclist:

    Yeah.  The amount of coverage they gave it is appropriate for a situation like, I don’t know, the oil shocks of the 1970s or the postwar bumps of the 1940s.  Inflation in the last few years wasn’t anywhere close to that.

  169. 169.

    Yarrow

    @Betty Cracker: It used to be easy to find but so few people use it these days it’s not as common. It’ll be there on the shelf at most supermarkets, though. Just not prominently displayed. People don’t think about it much since milk, and so many variations on it, are widely available. It’s good to have, for emergencies though. Also, since you live in hurricane country, good to have in case you lose power for awhile.

  170. 170.

    Jeffro

    @Soprano2:So why didn’t they stop when TFG was president, if all he has to do is wave his magic wand and make it so?

    You said it yourself.  This…

    These people are certifiable.

    …is why.  =)

  171. 171.

    Chris T.

    @SFAW:

    I’m down (do people even use that term any more?) with Bailey’s or equivalent

    If down is out, what’s up with that?

  172. 172.

    ...now I try to be amused

    @Chris:

    They already invented a version of the Republican Party that’s moderate and sensible and reality-based enough to vote for.  It’s called the Democratic Party.

    Yep. The Democratic Party is the real conservative party in the US. They defend the New Deal, civil rights, Medicare, and the ACA.

  173. 173.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Yarrow:

    What, exactly is the crisis?

    Exactly. Someone please explain to me what horrid consequences America is experiencing on account of [whatever they say is happening at the border].

  175. 175.

    Yarrow

    @…now I try to be amused: The immigration bill fail has given Dems a golden opportunity to hammer home that a vote for any Republican is a vote for Trump. Rs were for the bill until he told them to be against it. It’s not even a stretch to say it. Trump owns all Republicans. They do his bidding. Dems should be hammering this home every chance they get. He owns them. Make them own him too.

  176. 176.

    Scout211

    @Jeffro: Mrs. Fro reminded me that we have a small box of those Coffeemate creamer pods in the pantry, so that works as an emergency back-up as well!

    Since we live rural and our power goes out far too often, we keep a box of those Folger’s coffee bags (like tea bags, but coffee) and a container of dry creamer in the coffee cabinet.  We can heat water since we have a gas stove top, but facing the day without coffee?  Unpossible!

  177. 177.

    Miss Bianca

    @Betty Cracker: I’m with you, BC – I only drink black coffee when we’ve either a) run out of half and half or b) when I have to go in for a fasting blood test.

    We ran out of half and half yesterday  BUT we had other dairy options available so I am now enjoying my morning caffeine with whipping cream. :)

  178. 178.

    Juju

    @Betty Cracker: get a box of shelf stable milk or half and half to keep for such emergencies. Shelf stable dairy products last a long time in the pantry. I have two boxes in my pantry.  I also have some frozen milk.  Ick to the canned milk. I’ve become dairy and toilet paper obsessed since the pandemic, if you can’t tell.

  179. 179.

    wjca

    @Yarrow: A vote for any Republican is a vote for Trump.

    Usually.  But not always.

    For example, I have a Democratic state legislator who has displayed a devotion to truth rivaling Trump.  Seriously, that bad.  The California legislature being how it is, voting against her, even if it’s for a RWNJ, is reasonable.  It gets rid of a serious liar, without giving TIFG anything significant.  Maybe in 2 years the Democrats will come up with a decent candidate.

  180. 180.

    rikyrah

    @Baud:

    Saying that they’re only competitive because they cheat is fundamentally different than saying they’re not competitive with respect to that point.

    There are places in this country that are Red States.

    There are places that appear to be Red, but, are actually voter suppressed.

  182. 182.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @BSMiasma: ​The fuck you will. Like most cosplay Stalinists, you talk an awful tough game, but if&when the serious ordnance starts to fly you’ll be curled up in a ball on the basement floor pissing your pants in terror.

    (FTR you posted something a few threads below that was reasonable and thoughtful. Shocked me speechless for a significant interval. Stopped clock twice a day, I guess…)

  184. 184.

    Chris

    @…now I try to be amused:

    The Democratic Party is the real conservative party in the US.

    I actually think that’s too uncharitable to the Democrats – they’re a lot more than a conservative party.  But, yeah.  The point is that if you’re the kind of “moderate” who wishes you had Angela Merkel or Emmanuel Macron type center-right technocrats in the United States, the equivalents are all Democrats.  Doesn’t do any good to pine over the days when Republicans had them too: those days aren’t coming back.

  185. 185.

    rikyrah

    Watching the discussion in this thread about coffee makes me sad.

    When I turned 40, my body decided that it no longer wanted coffee in it.

    Didn’t ask me.

    I was a 5 day a week drinker..and then one day..actually, it was a couple of months of me getting sick, and the doctor asked me if I drank coffee. Told me to stop for a week.

     

    It was coffee.

    I was so sad.  I still am. I love the smell of good coffee. I can still imagine the taste.

  186. 186.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Soprano2:

    I think you have to say the bill was bipartisan, because normies love that shit.

    I think that’s OK in a speech or some other forum where there’s plenty of time. But if you’ve got a 15 second ad, the Rethugs turning around and killing their own bill because Trump and because they didn’t want to fix it anyway is really all you need.

    Anyone can understand that, and it does the main thing that needs to be done politically re the border: it makes it impossible for the GOP to effectively use it as an issue.

  190. 190.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Jeffro:

    Mrs. Fro reminded me that we have a small box of those Coffeemate creamer pods in the pantry, so that works as an emergency back-up as well!

    Gah. I put half-and-half in my coffee every day, but I’d rather endure drinking it black than have to use artificial creamer.

  191. 191.

    Chris

    @wjca:

    That still falls under “a vote for any Republican is a vote for Trump.”  You just happen to live in a state that’s so blue that a vote for Trump is acceptable in this case, because it gets rid of a very real problem in a context where the Trumpists are so far behind that one more legislator for them still isn’t really helpful.

    But however little good it may do him, you’re still very much voting to give that seat to Trump.

  192. 192.

    SFAW

    @wjca:

    Not sure it’s more persuasive to use Texas as an example. I was using the two ends of the population spectrum for the example, but frankly, the low population/density situation seems to have far more red states than blue.

  193. 193.

    Chris

    @rikyrah:

    I developed IBS about nine years ago.  The two things that reliably trigger it and that I haven’t had since are alcohol and coffee.

    I don’t miss the alcohol, but man, I miss the coffee.

  194. 194.

    ...now I try to be amused

    @wjca:

    For example, I have a Democratic state legislator who has displayed a devotion to truth rivaling Trump.  Seriously, that bad.  The California legislature being how it is, voting against her, even if it’s for a RWNJ, is reasonable.  It gets rid of a serious liar, without giving TIFG anything significant.  Maybe in 2 years the Democrats will come up with a decent candidate.

    Reminds me of when I was Michigan State circa 1980. Mark Grebner published a voter guide which recommended the Democrat in every race but one. Grebner endorsed the Republican incumbent for county treasurer because he knew the Dem challenger “had trouble distinguishing between public and personal funds.”

  195. 195.

    Juju

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: A dark roast has less caffeine than a lighter roast. The darker the roast the less caffeine there is in the coffee. A French roast is a fairly dark roast, which is semi burnt tire. Italian is one of the darkest, which is burnt tire. The flavor of a dark roast is strong, which gives the impression of a lot of caffeine. I prefer a city roast, which is a lighter roast and one can distinguish what flavors there are in the beans, plus more caffeine. Teas are the same. A green tea has more caffeine than a black tea.

  196. 196.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Juju:

    get a box of shelf stable milk or half and half

    Where do you get it? I’ve only seen shelf-stable flavored milk for kids (chocolate milk, strawberry milk, etc.), but never shelf-stable whole or skim milk or half-and-half.

  198. 198.

    Soprano2

    @Yarrow: I used to have a recipe to make a hot chocolate mix. It took a box of powdered milk, a tin of Nestle Quick or equivalent, and some amount of dry coffee creamer. That made the best hot chocolate I’ve ever had! I wish I could remember how much coffee creamer it took, I think that’s what made it so good.

  199. 199.

    wjca

    @SFAW: the low population/density situation seems to have far more red states than blue.

    Understood.  I’m not arguing who is hurt more.  Just suggesting how to make a case that has a better (albeit still low) chance of persuading enough states to get an amendment passed.

    Granted, they’d have to be exceptionally stupid to be persuaded.  But then, we’ve seen that they are.

  200. 200.

    Chris T.

    @lowtechcyclist:

    Where do you get [shelf-stable milk]?

    Hard to find in the US, easy to find in Europe, because it’s made by treating the milk with a shot of radiation (e.g., from a cobalt-60 source), which scares USAliens. It does need to be refrigerated once opened, though.

  201. 201.

    Jeffro

    @lowtechcyclist:Gah. I put half-and-half in my coffee every day, but I’d rather endure drinking it black than have to use artificial creamer.

    I agree, but we’re talking about emergencies here.  =)

    I think I bought it for overnight camping trips?  But it doubles as an emergency creamer for coffee too

    ETA: all of this prompted me to go check on those things just now, and what do you know, the expiration date is oh about TWO YEARS AGO.  So much for that!

  202. 202.

    geg6

    @Ken: ​
     
    From what I read about this, you are correct. NV will not be paying the bills for the GOP caucus and the party has to pony up. LOL!

  203. 203.

    Soprano2

    @smith: I think the mayors of the cities where these people are showing up would have something to say about this. It’s straining their budgets something terrible. One thing this bill would fix is getting work permits to asylum seekers a lot sooner. It seems to me the biggest reason they’re straining the system is that they can’t legally work for a long time. Democrats cannot deny that the influx of people is causing problems in some places, because it is. It’s not the problems Republicans are worried about, but they’re problems nonetheless.

  204. 204.

    Yarrow

    @lowtechcyclist:  Horizon organic has shelf stable whole milk in larger containers or the single serving size.  Those come in maybe 6 or 8 packs. My local supermarkets carry it. I’ve bought larger packs of them at Costco. I’ve seen them pretty much everywhere.

  205. 205.

    Chris

    @…now I try to be amused:

    As late as 1980, you could still find Republicans who were better than Democrats.  They were a minority, and they never made it to the presidential level, but they were there.  (No idea how Michigan politics specifically looked at that point).

    I think the nineties is when this ended completely, with the one-two punch of Gingrich’s Congress and its new rules plus the creation of Fox News finished the process of creating a nationwide political machine whose purpose was to ensure the complete homogeneity of the Republican Party in the cause of always going further right.  Today it doesn’t matter where you are or how moderate your voters are, if you’re not a Redcap, they will find you and they will primary you and the will replace you with someone who is.  It’s actually cost them a couple of times – they almost certainly would have won both houses of Congress in 2010 if not for a few candidates like Mrs. “I Am Not A Witch” in Pennsylvania who were loyal far-rightists but were completely off the map for the electorates they were running in.  But they prefer a party that’s 100% in lockstep even if it means they sometimes pass up an advantage.

  207. 207.

    Bruce K in ATH-GR

    @lowtechcyclist:

    To steal from Pratchett, the GOP is run along ‘one man, one vote’ lines. Trump’s the man, and he gets the vote.

    On the one hand, you are extremely not wrong when it comes to how the GOP works.

    On the other hand, it physically hurts to see Trump compared to Lord Vetinari.

  208. 208.

    ...now I try to be amused

    @Chris: After 12 years of Reagan and G.H.W. Bush there was talk of a permanent GOP majority, like they’d won the Cold War with the Democrats as well as the Soviets. I think they went insane after Clinton got elected in 1992.

  210. 210.

    Chris

    @…now I try to be amused:

    Yeah, I think that was the original Great Freakout that prefigured the Obama and Biden ones.  On some level, Republicans really do believe that Reagan re-consecrated the White House grounds for their party and theirs alone, and that any Democrat who makes it there afterwards is a cuckoo egg in their nice clean nest.

  212. 212.

    NotMax

    @Betty Cracker

    Keep a few boxes of shelf stable milk stashed in the back of the pantry for just such emergencies. On the other hand, there’s always tea.

    Drink coffee black (no sugar) myself. I don’t keep traditional fresh milk in the house as a rule (for one thing it frees up space in the small fridge); have found the shelf stable milk a boon for when a recipe calls for milk.

  213. 213.

    NotMax

    @lowtechcyclist

    Can usually be found in the supermarket in 3- or 6-packs on the same shelves as juice boxes, although alternatively sometimes on the baking goods aisle.

  216. 216.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Chris T.: Hard to find [shelf-stable milk] in the US, easy to find in Europe, because it’s made by treating the milk with a shot of radiation (e.g., from a cobalt-60 source), which scares USAliens. It does need to be refrigerated once opened, though. ​

    The “scare” over irradiation probably dates from the strontium-90 scare in the 1950s. External treatment with 60Co kills off bad buggies in the milk by means of gamma rays that do not produce other radioactive species. Whereas radioactive 90Sr, produced in atmospheric nuclear explosions and scattered across the world, would once ingested lodge in bones (chemically similar to calcium) and irradiate the surrounding tissue and can cause cancer. But count on USAns to confuse the two…

    I’ve fairly regularly seen quart (or liter) boxes of shelf-stable milk treated with ultra-high-temperature (UHT) pasteurization in Dollar-&-A-Quarter-Tree stores. No nasty alpha, beta, gamma or Tampa Rays involved. Refrigerate after opening of course.​

  219. 219.

    Paul in KY

    @SFAW: This goes all the way back to Rove and his ilk (at least). They decided they could never compete with Democratic Party on actual ‘governing’ stuff. So they felt they had to change/make priorities for the voter where they had more favourable terrain. Hence all this social shit & getting old people mad & afraid, etc. etc.

  220. 220.

    Paul in KY

    @Yarrow: I really like this comment: ‘Also, remember how the Republicans hammered John Kerry for the “I voted for it before I voted against it” comment on Iraq funding? A version of that could be used here. “Republicans were all for the border bill until Trump told them they were against it.” Wave around some flip flops as props.’

    Should hang it around their necks every freaking day!

  221. 221.

    CaseyL

    @lowtechcyclist: Many many years ago, I worked at a small office that had a small coffee station in its printer room.  The coffee machine had a rack of “creamers,” that is, the non-dairy ones.

    One day, waiting for the coffee to brew, I read the list of ingredients on the non-dairy creamer.

    “Edible oil product.”

    Excuse me? “Edible oil product”?

    I have used fake creamer since then – rarely, and only as a last resort – and each time I do, I hear the phrase edible oil product echo in my head.

  222. 222.

    Citizen Alan

    @Yarrow:

     “Republicans take their marching orders from Trump.”

    That gives them too much agency. You nailed it later when you said they were all chicken-shit cowards.

  223. 223.

    Paul in KY

    @lowtechcyclist: ‘Republicans wouldn’t pass their own bill to fix border problems once Trump said no, so he could use this crisis in his campaigning!’

    How about that?

  224. 224.

    Paul in KY

    @OzarkHillbilly: I think in many ‘family owned business’ situations, voters assume the kid will get a good job, even though they are unqualified shits and give a pass on that. That’s because most voters seem to think that’s what they’d do in that situation (although these voters think their snookums is not as much of a POS as Don Jr).

  225. 225.

    Citizen Alan

    @lowtechcyclist:

    Even (maybe especially) if they’re down to 40% of the electorate voting GOP, the MAGAts will still largely control who gets nominated.

    And this is the most insidious aspect of gerrymandering: it ensures that in every “safe” district, the only ones who bother to vote in the primaries are the most radical elements of the dominating party. Rucho v Common Cause could have fixed that if it had gone the other way but, you know, emails and shit.

  226. 226.

    Citizen Alan

    @lowtechcyclist:  I hold out hope that Shitgibbon loses decisively in November and then 10 or so million of the MAGAts just go ahead and kill themselves or at least stroke out.

  228. 228.

    Citizen Alan

    @Chris: Just McCain was the last “moderate Republican.” And by “moderate Republican,” I mean one with sufficient courage to tell a conservative voter to her face that Obama was not a Muslim terrorist but a decent man. That was the extent  of his “moderation,” and no Republican since has come close to matching him.

  229. 229.

    Geminid

    @Citizen Alan: That probably won’t happen. But there may be 5 million Republican voters who years from now will be telling people, “The last time I voted was 2024. We could have made America great again, but the RINOs stabbed Trump in the back just like they did in 2020. I won’t get fooled again.”

  230. 230.

    Citizen Alan

    @Paul in KY:  I wouldn’t dignify with the GOP framing word “crisis,” but otherwise, right on. Call it “immigration issues” or something.

  233. 233.

    wjca

    @Citizen Alan: I hold out hope that Shitgibbon loses decisively in November and then 10 or so million of the MAGAts just go ahead and kill themselves or at least stroke out.

    Nice as that would be, I incline to the more realistic hope that his cultists just sit home and sulk forever after.

    In short, what @Geminid said.

    P.S. Does anyone have a handle on just what part of the total GOP voting base is people who didn’t routinely vote pre-Trump?  Because those seem the most likely to walk away once their god-king is gone.  (And good riddance.)

  237. 237.

    Burrowing Owl

    @Manyakitty: I like to make a simple syrup, heating equal amounts water and sugar with half a vanilla bean and a handful of crushed cardamom seeds, strain and keep in a glass bottle in the fridge. I add a bit of that with the milk. But maple syrup’s good too.

  239. 239.

    Geminid

    @wjca: I have not seen numbers on this question. You can derive a small amount of data from the Georgia Senate runoffs. Republicans historically did well in that state’s runoffs because their vote typically drops off less. This time Jon Ossoff’s vote dropped ~80,000 from November to January 5, while David Perdue’s dropped almost 250,000( as I recall).*

    Georgia Democrats did a good job getting out the vote, but Trump effectively suppressed the Republican vote when he campaigned for Perdue and Loeffler by complaining about how he was robbed. It looks like a lot of Republican voters decided to punish the RINOs by staying home in January.

    If I was a Karl Rove type, I’d worry about the formerly regular Republican voters that Trump has “captured.” A lot of Trump’s rhetoric tends to loosen his followers’ allegiance to the Republican Party, and this alienation could persist even after he’s off the scene.

    * Raphael Warnock advanced to his runoff against Senator Loeffler from a jungle primary so it’s harder to compare his vote totals. He ran about 20,000 votes ahead of Ossoff in the runoff.

  240. 240.

    Geminid

    @Paul in KY: Arizona Democrat Ruben Gallego has no problem with calling this a “crisis.” If someone told him he was buying into Republican framing, Gallego might reply that they were overthinking this, that there are problems that need to be addressed no matter how they are characterized..

  243. 243.

    Geminid

    @Paul in KY: “Crisis” is certainly a more loaded word than “problem.” Gallego is taking the bull by the horns, so to speak. Gallego has spent a lot of time talking to Arizonans at the border, he knows that Arizonans want the problems there dealt with, and he says this border bill is needed. Other Democrats can worry about the various effects of messaging if they want to, but Gallego has an election to win.

  244. 244.

    sab

    @Uncle Cosmo: Milk or cream in the fridge keeps almost forever until you open it, because it’s pasteurized so there is no bacteria to spoil it.

    We opened a two year old whipping cream that had the texture of warm butter, but it was perfectly safe.

  245. 245.

    Ironcity

    @Soprano2: Well said and I believe correct.  But it won’t fit on a bumper sticker.  MAybe somethin g like “It’s s the legislating, stupid” ?

  246. 246.

    SWMBO

    @Betty Cracker: ​
     

    Totally dead thread but here goes.
    Use butter. I know you have that and I’ve been told by my coffee drinking friends and relatives that it works.

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