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You are here: Home / Politics / Biden Administration in Action / TGIFriday Morning Open Thread: Dems Work for America, Repubs for… Foreign Oligarchs

TGIFriday Morning Open Thread: Dems Work for America, Repubs for… Foreign Oligarchs

by Anne Laurie|  March 1, 20248:28 am| 87 Comments

This post is in: Biden Administration in Action, C.R.E.A.M., Foreign Affairs, Proud to Be A Democrat, Republican Venality

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BREAKING: Congress approves short-term extension to avoid shutdown, buy more time for final spending agreement https://t.co/CWm31Rs2Lt

— The Associated Press (@AP) March 1, 2024

A modicum of good news, per the Associated Press:

Congress passed another short-term spending measure Thursday that would keep one set of federal agencies operating through March 8 and another set through March 22, avoiding a shutdown for parts of the federal government that would otherwise kick in Saturday. The bill now goes to President Joe Biden to be signed into law.

The short-term extension is the fourth in recent months, and many lawmakers expect it to be the last for the current fiscal year. House Speaker Mike Johnson said negotiators had completed six of the annual spending bills that fund federal agencies and had “almost final agreement on the others.”

The House acted first Thursday. The vote to approve the extension was 320-99. It easily cleared the two-thirds majority needed for passage. Democrats overwhelmingly voted to avert a partial shutdown. But the vote was much more divided with Republicans, 113 in support and 97 against.

The Senate then took up the bill and approved it during an evening vote of 77-13.

“When we pass this bill, we will have, thank God, avoided a shutdown with all its harmful effects on the American people,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said moments before the vote.

Biden called Thursday night’s vote “good news for the American people” but added, “I want to be clear: this is a short-term fix — not a long-term solution.”

Next week, the House and Senate are expected to take up a package of six spending bills and get them to the president before March 8. Then, lawmakers would work to fund the rest of the government by the new March 22 deadline…

Today, I am proud to announce that President Biden and I are lowering the cost of child care for more than 100,000 working families who receive federal child care assistance.

This is another step towards ensuring that every family can access affordable, high-quality child care. pic.twitter.com/53NZmbRjuG

— Vice President Kamala Harris (@VP) February 29, 2024

Trump talked a lot about bring manufacturing back to America.

But under Biden, manufacturing investment has grown faster than any time in recent history. And it's not even close.

During Trump's presidency, manufacturing spending grew by 5%. Under Biden it has grown by 279%. pic.twitter.com/qHSKmZcLCp

— Michael Thomas (@curious_founder) February 29, 2024

The Biden administration on Thursday proposed new rules aimed at improving the flying experience for disabled passengers after years of complaints, including that wheelchairs are routinely broken on flights. https://t.co/xFwhNBJhlN

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) February 29, 2024

During President Biden’s first year in office, our Administration protected more lands and waters than any President since John F. Kennedy. We’re committed to conserving America’s incredible biodiversity for generations to come. https://t.co/7c31Nr2lz4

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) February 19, 2024

Q: Do you think it’s responsible for Joe Biden to be at the top of the ticket?

Gov @gavinnewsom: Responsible? I revere his record. What he's done in three years is a masterclass. Close to 15 million jobs is eight times more than the last three Republican presidents combined pic.twitter.com/HGpU2Ks2Pz

— Biden-Harris HQ (@BidenHQ) February 25, 2024

Elsewhere…
TGIFriday Morning Open Thread 7

(Mike Luckovich via GoComics.com)

Presidential immunity will be decided after Thomas, Alito, & the Putin Troika know who the president t will be in January.

— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) February 28, 2024

Expand
The
Fucking
Supreme
Court

— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) February 28, 2024

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Previous Post: « Open Thread: Hunter Biden Is, After All, A Biden
Next Post: Friday Morning Open Thread Open Thread 40»

Reader Interactions

87Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    March 1, 2024 at 8:30 am

    Newsom is a master of the talking point.

  2. 2.

    Shalimar

    March 1, 2024 at 8:32 am

    When people in this red MAGA hellhole ask how I can be a Democrat, like it is a disease or something, I always reply, “Democrats are motivated by helping others; Republicans are motivated by hurting others.  I don’t want to hurt anyone.”

  3. 3.

    rikyrah

    March 1, 2024 at 8:32 am

    Good Morning Everyone 😊😊😊

  4. 4.

    narya

    March 1, 2024 at 8:32 am

    Thanks for these great posts to start the day/thread! The manufacturing investments are amazing and impressive–hell, all of it is! I welcome this burst of enthusiasm and good news first thing in the morning.

  5. 5.

    rikyrah

    March 1, 2024 at 8:33 am

    @Shalimar:

    👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾

  6. 6.

    p.a.

    March 1, 2024 at 8:34 am

    Among all the good stuff we can do when we control the gvt, puhleeze let’s do something to end  this fucking debt-limit tapdance farce.

  7. 7.

    OzarkHillbilly

    March 1, 2024 at 8:35 am

    @Baud: Definitely gifted.

  8. 8.

    Baud

    March 1, 2024 at 8:39 am

    @p.a.:

    If we can get rid of the filibuster, we can fix a lot of things.

  9. 9.

    OzarkHillbilly

    March 1, 2024 at 8:42 am

    Last week, McCormick and her husband Randy joined a group of property owners and farmers in Colorado in filing a lawsuit against a Denver-based oil company, HRM Resources, for its contributions to this issue.

    The plaintiffs, who are represented by environmental legal non-profit ClientEarth and law firms Richards Carrington and Borison Firm, say that oil companies including Chevron transferred hundreds of nearly depleted wells to HRM, which then conspired to avoid millions of dollars in clean-up obligations.

    The lawsuit alleges that HRM Resources then committed fraud by transferring nearly 200 wells to Painted Pegasus Petroleum, a Texas-based shell company designed for bankruptcy. When it transferred those assets, the plaintiffs allege, HRM knew Painted Pegasus would soon go bankrupt, offloading well decommissioning costs on to private landowners or the state.

    “Painted Pegasus was a mere dumping ground,” the lawsuit says.

    HRM Resources did not respond to email or phone requests for comment.

    As a result of the company’s behavior, the plaintiffs say they have been left with unproductive infrastructure on their properties that pollutes the air and leaches contaminants into the soil. Researchers have found that unplugged, unproductive wells can leak toxic chemicals, some of which are carcinogenic.

    Another problem: when an operator enters bankruptcy, the responsibility for cleaning up the wells falls to the state and taxpayers are forced to foot the bill. One 2021 analysis found that that the median cost of plugging and reclaiming a single well – or returning the land to how it looked and was used – is $76,000. According to federal data, the cost of cleaning up all abandoned wells in the US could cost up to $19bn.

    The plaintiffs are calling on the court to establish their right to collect clean-up costs from the company they allege fraudulently sold the wells.

    “If this case is successful, it could be a huge step in ensuring that the costs of cleaning up these wells are paid by the oil and gas companies who profited from them while empowering local communities against the polluters that have run roughshod over their land and health,” said Camille Sippel, an attorney at ClientEarth.

    Fingers crossed.

  10. 10.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    March 1, 2024 at 8:44 am

    As far as expanding the courts, in order to avoid accusations that it’s a purely ideological endeavor, what if we just assumed the federal circuit courts into the Supreme Court?

    Making the positions less rarified, more than anything else, I think will help.

  11. 11.

    rikyrah

    March 1, 2024 at 8:45 am

    @narya:

    Love these threads too

  12. 12.

    John S.

    March 1, 2024 at 8:46 am

    @Baud:

    We’re also going to have to figure out what to do about the Seditious Six to make sure that once things start to get fixed, they don’t find a way to break them again.

  13. 13.

    Suzanne

    March 1, 2024 at 8:48 am

    Newsom is good at the rhetorical trick of negative-into-positive. (Secretary Pete is also good at this.) It  makes for really effective communication.

  14. 14.

    NotMax

    March 1, 2024 at 8:49 am

    Media note.

    Woo-hoo! Have been tempted for a while by Topic but didn’t want to add on yet another subscription streaming service. Come April 1st it will be merged with MHz Choice, at (for now) no increase in the present cost of MHz.

    The combined product will become the exclusive U.S. streaming home of hit German series “Babylon Berlin” starting in April. As of Feb. 29, the series is no longer available in the country on Netflix, which previously held the U.S. streaming rights.

    Co-created, written and directed by Tom Twyker, Achim von Borries and Hendrik Handloegten, “Babylon Berlin” is based on the novels by Volker Kutscher and distributed by Beta Film. The fourth season of the drama, which has not been available for streaming in North America before, will land on the new service June 25. Source

  15. 15.

    topclimber

    March 1, 2024 at 8:50 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: Is this the same Chevron of the so-named Deference that the Supremes may gut so that government rule making is banned?

  16. 16.

    sdhays

    March 1, 2024 at 8:52 am

    Republicans work for oligarchs, foreign AND domestic. They fundamentally believe in a white, patriarchal, feudal hierarchy that transcends international borders.

    They’re the real “globalists”. (Haha).

  17. 17.

    Jeffro

    March 1, 2024 at 8:52 am

    Expand the House.

    Expand the Court.

    hell, Expand America (the number of states)

    When we win in November, my message to Biden/Harris and their majorities in both houses of Congress?  GO. FOR. BROKE.

  18. 18.

    rikyrah

    March 1, 2024 at 8:54 am

    @The Kropenhagen Interpretation:

    I would welcome more circuits first. Circuits full of Biden appointed judges than expanding the SC

  19. 19.

    Baud

    March 1, 2024 at 8:54 am

    @topclimber:

    Yes.

  20. 20.

    RevRick

    March 1, 2024 at 8:54 am

    @narya: I would say they’re nothing short of stupendous. They clearly reflect not only the Chips and Infrastructure Acts, but also the stimulative effects of the American Recovery Act, since such investments are, by very nature, forward-looking and anticipatory.

  21. 21.

    Anyway

    March 1, 2024 at 8:55 am

    @p.a.:

    let’s do something to end  this fucking debt-limit tapdance farce.

    This is not the debt limit. It’s the annual budget that has to be done EVERY year – RThugs somehow can’t manage it.

  22. 22.

    JWR

    March 1, 2024 at 8:55 am

    Kristen f***ing Welker! She may as well have some Repub strategist whispering questions into her ear. “Governor Newsom, do you think it’s okay to let grandpa drive the car?”

    Dear Kristen, your “concern” is noted.

  23. 23.

    Jeffro

    March 1, 2024 at 8:55 am

    @Shalimar:I always reply, “Democrats are motivated by helping others; Republicans are motivated by hurting others.  I don’t want to hurt anyone.”

    That’s a good response!

    For folks who are old enough, you can always ask if they remember Mr. Rogers…and then note that today’s GOP is the anti-Fred.

    “Look for the hurters…they’re the ones wearing red caps…”

  24. 24.

    Chris

    March 1, 2024 at 8:55 am

    Dems Work for America, Repubs for… Foreign Oligarchs

    They need to remake The Naked Gun.  Well, really, they just need to remake the opening scene, with the Multi National Council Of Doom presiding over a plan to attack America.  Modern version can have Putin, Bibi, MBS, Assad, and Kim Jong Eun.  (Not Xi Jinping, because if he were included, the movie would lose The China Market).

  25. 25.

    OzarkHillbilly

    March 1, 2024 at 8:58 am

    @Jeffro: hell, Expand America (the number of states)

    A bit of a hurdle in the constitution:

    New states may be admitted by the Congress into this union; but no new states shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any other state; nor any state be formed by the junction of two or more states, or parts of states, without the consent of the legislatures of the states concerned as well as of the Congress.

    (Art IV sec 3)

  26. 26.

    RevRick

    March 1, 2024 at 9:00 am

    @Baud: That if is doing a lot of work. Angus King and Tim Kaine are the two most obvious reasons why it’s an uphill climb. It might be easier to get them to agree to a one-off exception which admits two new states: DC and Puerto Rico-Virgin Islands, and smooshes the Pacific territories into Hawaii.

  27. 27.

    NotMax

    March 1, 2024 at 9:02 am

    @Jeffro

    Never forget.

    The hosts of “Fox & Friends” described children’s TV host Fred Rogers as an “evil, evil man.” Source

  28. 28.

    Another Scott

    March 1, 2024 at 9:03 am

    @p.a.: @Baud:

    We don’t even need to end (or create yet more carve-outs for) the filibuster.  We just have to bring back the Gephardt Rule or a similar self-executing rule – automatically increment the debt limit when new appropriations bills are passed (as we’ve done many, many times when Democrats have the majority).

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  29. 29.

    Matt McIrvin

    March 1, 2024 at 9:04 am

    @Jeffro: Over the years, there were actually sporadic episodes of conservatives going after Mr. Rogers. It never worked out well for them.

    I recall one where the guy complained that he dished out love for his viewers that they didn’t have to earn. Where’s the work ethic? (Consider the lilies of the field…)

    Of course, if he’d actually watched the show he’d have noticed that every time Mr. Rogers had some guest on who had accomplished something impressive or had an interesting skill, he’d ask them about all the years of hard work that went into it. It just wasn’t what you needed to be liked by him.

  30. 30.

    Trivia Man

    March 1, 2024 at 9:04 am

    I know it isnt considered good etiquette to get personal with judges, but i dare those lawyers to point blank ask Clarence – How can you be fair when your wife is involved  in this plot with the defendant? Ask it in open court.

  31. 31.

    Chris

    March 1, 2024 at 9:07 am

    @sdhays:

    Republicans work for oligarchs, foreign AND domestic. They fundamentally believe in a white, patriarchal, feudal hierarchy that transcends international borders.

    They’re the real “globalists”. (Haha).

    The depiction of the Balkan mafias in McMafia has always stuck with me.  During the 1990s wars, Serbian, Croatian, and Bosnian gangsters and oligarchs were attached at the hip with each other, at the same time that they were each attached at the hip with the genociders running their respective countries.  It’s a vision of the kind of future the people who rule Russia and are trying to rule America want: a world balkanized into a couple hundred mini-states at each other’s throats, with a transnational elite class of politically connected oligarchs that don’t really belong to any country but have a place to crash in all of them.

  32. 32.

    narya

    March 1, 2024 at 9:07 am

    @RevRick: I’m gonna be near your neck of the woods again next week (Dad’s rate of decline appears to be increasing)–what’s happening in your environs? I don’t trust the local papers, and my brother is . . . not paying attention. Which means I’d love to be able to point to specific things if the subject comes up.

  33. 33.

    NotMax

    March 1, 2024 at 9:07 am

    @RevRick

    And folks who think Puerto Rico will ‘naturally” or automatically become a D enclave are ignorant of the territory’s politics and indigenous party structure.

  34. 34.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    March 1, 2024 at 9:08 am

    @rikyrah: Well, we would have to replace all those circuit judges anyway and since we’re already expanding courts, why not do both?

  35. 35.

    bbleh

    March 1, 2024 at 9:08 am

    Yes it’s good they avoided a shutdown — by passing a fourth? fifth? CR to kick the can a little further down the road — but it’s starting to sound like the parents of a tantrum-throwing toddler who has them wrapped around his finger.  “Oh, he actually ATE almost HALF his dinner! What a GOOD boy you are! Yes yes, here’s some ice cream! What, you want a different flavor? No, don’t throw it … oh nuts.  Well, here let me clean this up.  Now, what flavor do you want?”

  36. 36.

    Danielx

    March 1, 2024 at 9:08 am

    @narya:

    It is a refreshing change.

  37. 37.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    March 1, 2024 at 9:09 am

    @NotMax: How they vote notwithstanding, is statehood the right thing to do?

  38. 38.

    Uncle Cosmo

    March 1, 2024 at 9:10 am

    @Shalimar: ​Democrats are motivated by helping others; Republicans are motivated by hurting others. I don’t want to hurt anyone.

    My perspective as well. The great problem with great wealth is that so often it motivates its holders to immiserate those without it – even if that wasn’t the original intention as it was accumulated. You have lots of loot? Figure out (and implement) ways to enjoy it that don’t depend on exerting power over the less fortunate.

    Great fortunes afford their holders the capacity to do great good as well as great harm. In the pretty-good-of-all-possible-worlds we would structure society to encourage those who hold or attain it to become benefactors (rather than malefactors) of great wealth. Reanimating the estate tax would be a promising way to start.

  39. 39.

    satby

    March 1, 2024 at 9:10 am

    @narya: indeed! Almost feels like it’s my birthday (it’s not) with a run of meaty, interesting posts to read over my morning coffee.

    Thanks Anne Laurie!

  40. 40.

    NotMax

    March 1, 2024 at 9:14 am

    @The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    That is for them to decide, in a neutral referendum. There are pluses and minuses on each column of the ledger.

  41. 41.

    JWR

    March 1, 2024 at 9:14 am

    Via NBC’s live coverage (Pooty poot’s not gonna like this.):

    Thousands of mourners greeted Navalny’s coffin with applause and chants amid heavy security at the church and cemetery where he was buried. Allies of the Putin critic have accused the Kremlin of trying to derail the event, saying they struggled to secure a venue and find a hearse willing to carry his body.

  42. 42.

    Another Scott

    March 1, 2024 at 9:17 am

    @bbleh: There’s an actual hard deadline this time.  If a FY24 budget isn’t enacted soon, then big cuts will result (especially on the domestic side).  There’s a strong incentive to get a budget enacted (rather than just CR for the rest of the year).

    GovExec.com:

    A failure to pass full-year appropriations that would require another stopgap bill in March would be accompanied by major risks. Under a provision of the 2023 debt ceiling law, a CR that goes into May would force devastating, across-the-board cuts that would likely require employee furloughs and significant disruptions to agency operations.

    Even if Congress can pass appropriations bills by the March deadlines, the fiscal year will be nearly halfway over and agencies will be under pressure to get the money out the door in an expedited timeline. The problem is one with which agencies have familiarity, however, and that they last confronted in fiscal 2022 when Congress also approved appropriations in mid-March.

    I note that every time Johnson and his minons have said “No more CRs!!” they end up having to face reality and have yet another CR because they can’t do their job without Democrats’ votes.

    (The fact that the budget agreement had the hard deadline meant that everything was going to drag out until that hard deadline could no longer be ignored – it was predictable.)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  43. 43.

    TBone

    March 1, 2024 at 9:17 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: fingers crossed for this and that Gorsuch doesn’t get his oily fingers around it and kill the Chevron deference.

    https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/chevron_deference

  44. 44.

    NotMax

    March 1, 2024 at 9:20 am

    Question for front pagers.

    Used to be a link to Amazon in the sidebar which could bring in a trickle of scratch for the site when used to purchase goods there. It disappeared some time back (after the Big Meltdown?). Any particular reason why?

  45. 45.

    TBone

    March 1, 2024 at 9:23 am

    @JWR: public pressure did its thing!  Good news.

  46. 46.

    David Chop

    March 1, 2024 at 9:23 am

    I don’t want to come across as a Newsome booster because really I’m pretty neutral on him, but that quote is a masterclass on how to be a team player. Well done Gavin.

  47. 47.

    Splitting Image

    March 1, 2024 at 9:24 am

    @Chris:

    The depiction of the Balkan mafias in McMafia has always stuck with me.  During the 1990s wars, Serbian, Croatian, and Bosnian gangsters and oligarchs were attached at the hip with each other, at the same time that they were each attached at the hip with the genociders running their respective countries.  It’s a vision of the kind of future the people who rule Russia and are trying to rule America want: a world balkanized into a couple hundred mini-states at each other’s throats, with a transnational elite class of politically connected oligarchs that don’t really belong to any country but have a place to crash in all of them.

    This is actually true of most of the history of Europe. All of the royal houses were related to each other and spent a thousand years jockeying for power with their close relatives and waging war against more distant relatives. The plebians in every country were simply expected to keep quiet and put up with this.

  48. 48.

    TBone

    March 1, 2024 at 9:26 am

    @Chris: I recently read something that echoes your comment, these oiligarch warlords don’t give a flying fuck about nations or borders, etc. I wish I could remember who wrote it, but still fuzzy today.

  49. 49.

    TBone

    March 1, 2024 at 9:30 am

    @Splitting Image: makes me feel like a serf.

  50. 50.

    NotMax

    March 1, 2024 at 9:37 am

    @TBone

    Sometimes you feel like a nyet, sometimes you don’t.
    :)

  51. 51.

    TBone

    March 1, 2024 at 9:39 am

    @NotMax: ❤️😆 waking up is hard to do 🎶

  52. 52.

    RevRick

    March 1, 2024 at 9:42 am

    @narya: Sorry to hear about your dad.
    Politically, being in the swingiest district in one of the swingiest states, means our Democratic Representative, Susan Wild, will again be in a dogfight.
    Economically, the Lehigh Valley is booming. We have become one of the largest warehouse regions in the East, and with NY/NJ transplants moving in seeking cheaper housing, new residential housing can’t go up fast enough. Of course, there’s a lot of squawking about gentrification.
    As is true of PA, public education struggles with gross inequity.

  53. 53.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    March 1, 2024 at 9:42 am

    @NotMax: They’ve had several. I’ve heard of some going one way some going another depending on the year. Sometimes the referendum is a little more complicated than a simple yes or no. Referanda aren’t the o ly requirement, though, we need Congressional buy-in.  Those are the folk I’m worried about whether it’s right to extend the offer (Yes, that’s a yes).

  54. 54.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    March 1, 2024 at 9:44 am

    If you ever had any doubt about the scum bags Amazon be vis a vis workers, there’s a new doc out which followed the union organizing efforts (the film makers were basically ’embedded’) of the Staten Island complex. Just saw a screening of it here at the film festival.

    https://variety.com/2024/film/reviews/union-review-1235888521/

    The stat that really stands out is that Amazon grosses between $600-700 million dollars a *day*.

    Of course Amazon’s simply a symptom of the Second Gilded Age in which we live.

  55. 55.

    sab

    March 1, 2024 at 9:44 am

    @TBone: Chrystia Freeland wrote a whole book on it: Plutocrats

  56. 56.

    RevRick

    March 1, 2024 at 9:46 am

    @NotMax: True, but in that GOP rhetoric will help drive loyalty to the Democrats.

  57. 57.

    narya

    March 1, 2024 at 9:47 am

    @RevRick: Yeah . . . I grew up across the river, before 78 went through to NYC and when Ingersoll Rand was still a thing (instead of a massive brownfield). Once 78 was completed, farmland got gobbled up, and the gobbling continues. I’d like to see something in addition to the warehouses, though, for the long-term prospects of the area.

  58. 58.

    JAFD

    March 1, 2024 at 9:47 am

    @Splitting Image: It may be noted that there’s a Habsburg fan convention in Plano, Tx. next month – see

    https://bsky.app/profile/kilgoretrout.bsky.social/post/3kmjbkjsgmp2k

    (interesting comment thread thereto)

    or blessedkarl.org

    (Meself, have the Polish viewpoint, ‘they’re expensive, glitzzy, but much preferable to the Hohenzollerns’)

  59. 59.

    NotMax

    March 1, 2024 at 9:50 am

    @The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    Which is why I said a neutral referendum. Previous ones were burdened by infighting, agitprop and other baggage, including a boycott.

  60. 60.

    Miss Bianca

    March 1, 2024 at 9:53 am

    @Shalimar:

    When people in this red MAGA hellhole ask how I can be a Democrat, like it is a disease or something, I always reply, “Democrats are motivated by helping others; Republicans are motivated by hurting others.  I don’t want to hurt anyone.”

    I like that formulation! Neat, sweet, and complete. Borrowing for my own purposes!

  61. 61.

    NotMax

    March 1, 2024 at 9:54 am

    @JAFD

    The Spanish Habsburgs had enough good sense to snuff out the line by attrition.
    ;)

  62. 62.

    Miss Bianca

    March 1, 2024 at 9:59 am

    @NotMax: Well, Amazon stopped the Amazon Smiles program last year or thereabouts, which was the program that allowed you to contribute a mite or two of your purchases towards your nonprofit of choice. That might be the reason why.

  63. 63.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    March 1, 2024 at 10:03 am

    @NotMax: Fair ‘nuf

  64. 64.

    TBone

    March 1, 2024 at 10:03 am

    @sab: thank you!

  65. 65.

    Bruce K in ATH-GR

    March 1, 2024 at 10:06 am

    @Chris:

    They need to remake The Naked Gun.

    Good news: Liam Neeson is already on the job.

  66. 66.

    NotMax

    March 1, 2024 at 10:06 am

    @Miss Bianca

    Different program, AFAIK. Even today I see sites which say something along the lines of “If you click through from here we receive a small cut.”

  67. 67.

    Matt McIrvin

    March 1, 2024 at 10:09 am

    @NotMax:

    And folks who think Puerto Rico will ‘naturally” or automatically become a D enclave are ignorant of the territory’s politics and indigenous party structure.

    Also, people who think it’s naturally Republican. Partisan political issues there are simply completely different from the partisan issues on the mainland. Puerto Rico is and would be its own thing.

    (One thing that keeps coming up is that while Puerto Rico gets no federal representation as a state, it also doesn’t pay federal income tax–but for most Puerto Ricans, that’s not necessarily a good thing: they’re below the threshold for paying federal income tax anyway and miss out on the EITC.)

  68. 68.

    TBone

    March 1, 2024 at 10:10 am

    @narya: here in central PA, farmland is being gobbled up by mega churches 🤮 with names like “Harvest” that always brings to mind Children of the Corn for me.  We have several huge new buildings and more on the way, no doubt.

  69. 69.

    bbleh

    March 1, 2024 at 10:15 am

    @Uncle Cosmo: thus the concept of noblesse oblige.  (Not saying I’d prefer a medieval society, but that bit at least had some merit.)

    @Another Scott: yeah and IIRC the part that bites Republicans is that the caps include defense spending, and Republicans loooove to spend money when it comes to the military.

  70. 70.

    Uncle Cosmo

    March 1, 2024 at 10:17 am

    @sdhays: ​Republicans work for oligarchs, foreign AND domestic. They fundamentally believe in a white, patriarchal, feudal hierarchy that transcends international borders.

    Close enough for government work. We’ve been embroiled in World War O-for-Oligarchs for decades now. The “malefactors of great wealth” have been seething since FDR’s first election to claw back all of the wealth and power they had before the Great Depression. What they want, in effect, is extraterritoriality on inhuman growth hormone: The right to go anywhere, do anything and take whatever they want, whenever they want, without suffering any consequences. And whenever necessary, to buy their way out of any legal inconveniences while the rest of humanity staggers beneath them.

    From their POV Putin is just another oligarch whose actions advances the destruction of liberal democracy worldwide. Once I thought they’d eventually come croppers when it became clear that someone who commands death squads and thermonuclear weapons is qualitatively different from them and infinitely more threatening. Then I asked myself how many Krupps and Thyssens and directors of IG Farben and AEG paid for their crimes when the thousand-year Reich collapsed…

    World War O is one We The People desperately need to win; the November election is just, as Churchill once put it, “not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.” Because (again quoting Winnie out of context)

    if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science.

  71. 71.

    Spanky

    March 1, 2024 at 10:18 am

    @NotMax: Yeah, Amazon killed the program. I guess it was eating into their hefty bottom line too much.

  72. 72.

    Geminid

    March 1, 2024 at 10:23 am

    @RevRick: Since Angus King is an Independent, I can see why you would single out him on this matter, but why Tim Kaine? I could name a dozen other Democratic Senators who would be as reluctant to end filibusters across the board as Kaine is.

    These Senators could get behind elective carve-outs, like the ones for Reconciliation bills and judicial nominations, but there is a threshold question there: you have have a majority backing the legislation at issue first.

    An example would be D.C. Statehood. That was passed by the House in both the Congresses before this one. No one ever tried to get filibuster carve-out out for these bills in the Senate though, because there weren’t nearly 50 votes to pass them anyway.

    I don’t think this involved just the half dozen usual “Centrist” suspects. There was no way Mark Kelly, Catherine Cortez-Masto, Maggie Hassan or even Raphael Warnock wanted to vote on D.C. Statehood, and no way Chuck Schumer was going to make them. House leaders understood this, and did not press the matter. It was kept out of sight, out of mind.

  73. 73.

    Soprano2

    March 1, 2024 at 10:33 am

    I think these threads are proof that the White House is putting out good news. The press would rather cover bad news.

  74. 74.

    OzarkHillbilly

    March 1, 2024 at 10:40 am

    @bbleh: Republicans loooove to spend money when it comes to the military.

    You misspelled ‘suckers and losers’ again.

  75. 75.

    rikyrah

    March 1, 2024 at 10:57 am

    Despite the corporate overlords deliberately trying to cause a recession in time for the November election, I honestly believe that the Infrastructure bill and the manufacturing are counter-balancing it.

  76. 76.

    Betty

    March 1, 2024 at 11:21 am

    @JWR: She was this bad when she was in the White House press corps. Yuck!

  77. 77.

    Betty

    March 1, 2024 at 11:23 am

    @Chris: I read that they are remaking it. I can’t remember the actor they want for the lead.

  78. 78.

    catclub

    March 1, 2024 at 11:29 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: According to federal data, the cost of cleaning up all abandoned wells in the US could cost up to $19bn.

     

    That seems low. Does it count deepwater ones that are leaking?

  79. 79.

    catclub

    March 1, 2024 at 11:35 am

    @TBone: and I think the Chevron deference ruling was to protect the actions of the Reagan EPA.  Ever  heard of Anne Gorsuch?

  80. 80.

    Juju

    March 1, 2024 at 12:08 pm

    @OzarkHillbilly: The US has 16 territories. Start with Puerto Rico and DC.

  81. 81.

    VFX Lurker

    March 1, 2024 at 12:10 pm

    @rikyrah: Despite the corporate overlords deliberately trying to cause a recession in time for the November election, I honestly believe that the Infrastructure bill and the manufacturing are counter-balancing it.

    The game/VFX industries right now have their own recession, with thousands of workers out of work for months. Some of the reasons:

    • Newcomer Netflix dragging out the writer and actor strikes months after old-timers Disney and Universal wanted to make a deal
    • Venture capital money drying up after funding a three-year boom in streaming services
    • The end of the pandemic-fueled boomlet in gaming
    • Mismanagement: game studios poured big money into AAA game productions without big payoffs.

    I do not doubt corporate overlords elsewhere are deliberately trying to cause a recession and put people out of work. However, the messy entertainment industry harmed its workers with a combination of stupidity, carelessness and indifference.

  82. 82.

    Lapassionara

    March 1, 2024 at 12:31 pm

    @Betty: I heard Liam Nissan (sp?)

  83. 83.

    Lapassionara

    March 1, 2024 at 12:32 pm

    @Bruce K in ATH-GR: I see you got there first, and with the correct spelling.

  84. 84.

    dirge

    March 1, 2024 at 12:36 pm

    @Chris: It’s a vision of the kind of future the people who rule Russia and are trying to rule America want: a world balkanized into a couple hundred mini-states at each other’s throats, with a transnational elite class of politically connected oligarchs that don’t really belong to any country but have a place to crash in all of them.

    It’s a recurring pattern throughout history, so we have a pretty good idea how it turns out.  Replace “politically connected oligarchs” with “aristocrats” and you’ve described Europe in the run up to WWI.

  85. 85.

    dirge

    March 1, 2024 at 12:50 pm

    @Uncle Cosmo: You have lots of loot? Figure out (and implement) ways to enjoy it that don’t depend on exerting power over the less fortunate.

    Exerting power over the less fortunate is both the source of wealth, and its purpose.  Money is a just a tool wielded by power.  It’s never really about the money.

  86. 86.

    Matt McIrvin

    March 1, 2024 at 2:04 pm

    @VFX Lurker: This is affecting basically all of tech industry: VCs are getting wary of spending and interest rates are a little higher than they used to be.

    Add to that the idea that it should be cheaper to replace everything with AI, in some vague sense (whether this is true or not, if VCs think it is true it will lead to mass layoffs).

    I’ve been reading anguished Mastodon posts by low-level tech workers basically insisting the whole strong economy is a lie because things are so bad in their industry right now.

  87. 87.

    lawtalkinguy

    March 1, 2024 at 4:48 pm

    I am proud to say I had a role in one of those items.  The new rule on wheelchairs on airplanes arose out of this incident:

    L.A. activist’s death amplifies calls for change – Los Angeles Times (latimes.com)

    Engracia Figueroa was a disability activist who died as a result of United Airlines destroying her motorized wheelchair.  Because she was forced to use a chair not properly customized to her body, a pressure sore that had previously been healing reopened and became infected, leading to sepsis and death.  She had been a client of mine for 20 years.  She would be so proud that she has caused a change that will benefit other disabled people.

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