Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

Everyone is in a bubble, but some bubbles model reality far better than others!

I really should read my own blog.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

This country desperately needs a functioning Fourth Estate.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

At some point, the ability to learn is a factor of character, not IQ.

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

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

People are complicated. Love is not.

You cannot shame the shameless.

We’re not going back!

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

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

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

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Excellent Links / Wednesday Evening Open Thread: Sinema-tically Terrible Reviews

Wednesday Evening Open Thread: Sinema-tically Terrible Reviews

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Even the professional ‘bold contrarians’ (like Politico‘s Burgess Everett) are having a hard time scrounging up an argument in favor of soon-to-be-ex Senator Kyrsten Sinema. The Haterz, however, are having a field day — and I am here for it!

Actual Arizona voter:


You can always count on Dave Roth and Albert Burneko, at Defector, for pithy takes on pissy divas:

Point: Kyrsten Sinema Was The Perfect Senator For A Moment Without A Purpose, By David Roth
The political obituaries for Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, many of which give the impression of having been prewritten in the way that newspapers do for public figures whose last and signal contribution to their legacy will be dying at some point TBD, tend to mention what she was and did before she came to the United States Senate five years ago. These are interesting things, especially by Senate standards—Sinema was a social worker and an anti-war activist, a failed progressive candidate for local offices and then a successful and progressively less principled one for national ones. All of those are more interesting than the years of undistinguished and lavishly well-compensated corporate board service that await Sinema, who is 47, over the rest of her life. None of them really seem meaningful at all in light of what she became, which is something like the living emblem of America’s luridly uninhabitable upper house. Hit a cheeky curtsey while casting a thumbs-down no-vote on a bill raising the national minimum wage to $15, and whatever or whoever you were before having done so will naturally matter less. Or, anyway, all the various possibilities latent in that biography seem less significant than what you have become instead…

She was not an avatar for her state’s voters, with whom she made a habit of avoiding any kind of contact from the moment she entered the Senate; she was also not, in the way that senators tend to age and blanch into something indistinct and vaguely the color of money, just dressing for the job she had. Sinema was representing herself and herself only; she raised money and still has it, $10.6 million in campaign funds that she now won’t spend, but her compromises, which came in time to become the whole of her politics, left her with nothing much to sell. The stilted meta-governance that became her hallmark guaranteed that the references through which she communicated weren’t really attached to anything. Her thumbs-down against the $15 minimum wage echoed the one cast by Arizona Sen. John McCain, but was in point of fact just an echo. He cast his against a Republican vote to end the Affordable Care Act, and that heresy became a part of his legacy; she cast hers against that minimum-wage increase, and it wasn’t really a heresy at all, just someone ostentatiously performing the blank sadism of centrist politics. It was just her doing what she did, in short, which was keep things from happening in a visually busy way. Sinema governed, in that moment and in general, like a layoff email with an incongruous and jarring number of Zany Face Emojis in it…

Counterpoint: Kyrsten Sinema Is A Vicious Day-Glo Demon And The World Is Demonstrably Worse Because She Was Born, By Albert Burneko
… This society’s total prostration could hardly find a better—which is to say worse—avatar than Kyrsten Sinema, the mandate that nothing may ever be allowed to disrupt its consumption (or even to facilitate the hope that it could be slowed) congealed into a sneering blonde Karen theatrically performing her own imaginary cuteness while she kills even mild and popular compromise initiatives toward a better future. It’s rare for a single person to hold that kind of power, and unspeakably awful and sad that it fell into the hands of an absolute F-minus of a human being.

In any case, if holding her spiteful, obstructive, nihilistic line turns out not to have benefited any electoral ambitions—there’s no real broad base for a program best described as “the most hateful possible centrism,” to the surprise of no one else—it’s also not clear that Sinema ever authentically had any, at least as such things might be said to exist separate from her own quest to get ahead. Which fits, since she also lacks any authentic political beliefs, convictions, or sympathy to or solidarity with humanity, at least as such things might be said to exist separate from her own quest to get ahead. Her constituents as electoral politics defined them hated her guts; on the other hand she all but explicitly did not consider them her real constituents. Her real constituency (assuming Literally Dracula doesn’t count here) is the class of rich freaks for whose benefit she will now even more openly serve. Few could promise to protect them with as little shame, or as much sheer sadistic glee. I wish her all the very worst, forever and ever.

Jon Chait, normally the most ‘reasonable’ of professional centrists, at NYMag — “Good Riddance, Kyrsten Sinema, Plutocratic Shill”:

Senator Kyrsten Sinema announced her retirement with a self-serving message about how she is too good for this fallen world — too committed to bipartisanship and progress when people just want anger and division.

As an explanation for why Sinema is giving up politics, this is obviously a total crock. Americans do appreciate bipartisan compromise. Sinema is not the only member of Congress who has been involved in legislation with both parties. But she is the only Democrat who incinerated her political career because the causes she chose to fight for are substantively awful and deeply unpopular…

There is plenty of room in the Democratic Party for a bipartisan dealmaker, and Sinema’s sob story should not deter anybody from pursuing that profile. There’s no room for a transparent shill for the self-serving rich.

The most generous interpretation of Sinema’s career arc is that she came to deeply and earnestly subscribe to the worldview of the wealthy people who surrounded her, to the point where she was willing to incinerate a promising political career to defend their interests. A less generous interpretation is that she was played for a sucker. In either case, the cause of bipartisanship will be no worse, and the Senate will be better off, without her.

Receipts have been kept…

McKay Coppins, Mormon, has a gift for drawing out the worst in terrible people. This was not quite a year ago:

Kyrsten Sinema knows what everybody says about her. She pretends not to read the press coverage—“I don’t really care”—but she knows. She knows what her colleagues call her behind her back (“egomaniac,” “traitor”). She knows how many articles The New York Times has published about her wardrobe (five). She feels misunderstood, and she would like to explain herself…

Sinema tells me that there are several popular narratives about her in the media, all of them “inaccurate.” One is that she’s “mysterious,” “mercurial,” “an enigma”—that she makes her decisions on unknowable whims. She regards this portrayal as “fairly absurd”: “I think I’m a highly predictable person.”

“Then,” she goes on, “there’s the She’s just doing what’s best for her and not for her state or for her country” narrative. “And I think that’s a strange narrative, particularly when you contrast it with”—here she pauses, and then smirks—“ya know, the facts.”

You can see, in moments like these, why she bothers people. She speaks in a matter-of-fact staccato, her tone set frequently to smug. She says things like “I am a long-term thinker in a short-term town” and “I prefer to be successful.” The overall effect, if you’re not charmed by it (and a lot of her Republican colleagues are), is condescension bordering on arrogance. Sinema, who graduated from high school at 16 and college at 18, carries herself like she is unquestionably the smartest person in the room…

… Sinema insists that people overstate how much she’s changed. Leaving the Democratic Party was, in her telling, a kind of homecoming. “I’m not a joiner,” she says. “It’s not my thing.” She points out that she wasn’t a Democrat when she started in politics. I point out that at the time she was aligned with the Green Party. She demurs.

“I never think about where [my position] is on the political spectrum, because I don’t care,” she tells me. “People will say, ‘Oh, we don’t know what her position is.’ Well, I may not have one yet. And I know that’s weird in this town, but I actually want to do all of the research, get as much knowledge as possible, spend all of the time doing the work, before I make a decision.”

I ask her if there’s any ideological through line at all that explains the various votes she’s taken in the Senate. She thinks about it before answering, “No.”…

For possibly the first and only time, I am in full agreement with Senator Sanders…

Reader Interactions

100Comments

  1. 1.

    Kent

    Oh for Fuck’s sake.

    Sinema wasn’t driven out of anywhere.

    She QUIT the Democratic Party.  And so by her own choice was not on the Democratic Party Primary Ballot.  Nor was she on the Republican Party Primary Ballot.  Both of which were the only ballots in question on Tuesday.

    She pulled a Sara Palin and decided to walk away.

    Shrug.

  2. 2.

    FelonyGovt

    Driven out??? She abandoned her party (after frequently voting against its highest priorities in favor of big Pharma, hedge fund managers and the like).

  3. 3.

    dr. bloor

    If “the blank sadism of centrist politics” isn’t a revolving tag, it certainly should be.

  5. 5.

    Jackie

    I was going to post this on the previous thread, but since this post is about AZ and senators…

    Kari Lake is in big trouble. Her motions to dismiss
    @stephen_richer
    ‘s defamation case were denied by the trial court, the appellate court and the AZ Supreme Court. Now she faces discovery which includes testifying under oath herself plus depositions of her team and others. She will be forced to turn over her emails, texts and documents about her strategy, speeches, plans, etc, which may include indications she knew what she said about Richer were lies. She will be forced to turn over audio recordings, which we now know she keeps, of conversations with others about her conspiracy theory lies. Richer’s legal team is huge & the same attorneys who secured a $148 mil verdict against Rudy Giuliani. They are good lawyers and know what they are doing. Statements made by Kari are provably false, and frankly obviously false, and she kept making them even after courts told her it was lies. Kari Lake is in big trouble. Kari Lake’s specious speech may soon make Stephen Richer richer-er https://azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/ej-montini/2024/03/06/kari-lake-defamation-trial-make-stephen-richer/72861898007/… via
    @azcentral

    Will Kari, in true MAGA tradition, start screaming ELECTION INTERFERENCE!!!

  6. 6.

    UncleEbeneezer

    She also refused to reform the filibuster to pass the Equality Act, which is pretty disappointing for someone who got a lot of attention as the first openly-Bisexual Senator.

  7. 7.

    sab

    Last month Elyria cops sent a full big (forty members) swat team to arrest an alleged (teen) drug dealer.  He hadn’t lived there in months. So they cuffed an innocent mom and smokebombed her (innocent) health compromised  (on a ventilator) toddler’s house. And that was all normal in Ohio. Normal everywhere in America.

    Outrage lasted about twelve hours. Then done and gone.

  10. 10.

    Chris

    You can see, in moments like these, why she bothers people. She speaks in a matter-of-fact staccato, her tone set frequently to smug. She says things like “I am a long-term thinker in a short-term town” and “I prefer to be successful.” The overall effect, if you’re not charmed by it (and a lot of her Republican colleagues are), is condescension bordering on arrogance. Sinema, who graduated from high school at 16 and college at 18, carries herself like she is unquestionably the smartest person in the room…

    Sinema is the kind of politician who gives me such a powerful reaction of hearing-nails-being-raked-across-a-blackboard that it makes me worry about how much of the revulsion could be latent sexism.  Sarah Palin had that effect on me too.  “Men being enraged when condescended to by women” is, after all, a whole trope, and being aware of that doesn’t make you immune to it.

    But my God, it’s really hard to care considering the person involved.

  11. 11.

    Arclite

    “Neiman Marxist” OMFG, that’s good. Even better given her radical beginnings that morphed into a selfish centrist.

  12. 12.

    dr. bloor

    @sab: I confess I might have guessed Lorain first in a blind “name that town” contest, but that’s the quintessential Elyria cop story.

  14. 14.

    Edmund dantes

    Will not miss her at all. Wonder how long it takes her to realize her “rich” friends have all lost her number once she is out of power.

  15. 15.

    dr. bloor

    @Edmund dantes: Yeah, those corporate board gigs were always contingent on having friends in DC who were even vaguely interested in what she had to say.  No one’s gonna be taking her calls.

  17. 17.

    FelonyGovt

    Sinema governed, in that moment and in general, like a layoff email with an incongruous and jarring number of Zany Face Emojis in it…

    LOL 😀😀😀

  18. 18.

    SpaceUnit

    I’m not sure what Sinema would bring to a corporate boardroom, university, or lobbyist firm.

    At this point she really doesn’t have any influence to sell.

     

    ETA:  Or what dr.bloor said.

  19. 19.

    Jackie

    @Chris: Sinema and Palin cause the same effect on me, so it can’t be sexism. They have a certain screechiness in their voices. So does TIFG.

  20. 20.

    sab

    @sab: Because Akron was a horrendously awful player this last time. Slaughtered a sweet popular well-known kid. Everyone knew him. Everyone liked him. When the cops announced they thought he was a threat the whole town was like : ” Seriously? ”

    Jaylind Walker was the kid. Also, if his girlfriend had just worn a seat belt on the interstate she would have survived and his heart wouldn’t have been broken and we would not be here.

    But we still would because another kid would be out driving very sad. Life is full of pain. We don’t need government augmentation.

  21. 21.

    evodevo

    ” she raised money and still has it, $10.6 million in campaign funds that she now won’t spend ”  Yeah..question: what happens to money raised like that?  What CAN a politico do with such dough if you don’t run again (and I assume she would be likely unwilling to help out other Dem candidates now running LOL) ?

  22. 22.

    Chris

    @Arclite:

    “Neiman Marxist” OMFG, that’s good. Even better given her radical beginnings that morphed into a selfish centrist.

    Watching politics for long enough has made me realize that a certain breed of “leftist” and a certain breed of “centrist” have a hell of a lot in common.  They’re both pathologically obsessed with virtue-signaling their special snowflake independence from the party, they both abominate “identity politics” as a “distraction” from “the real issues,” and they’re both Republican-curious to the point of being practically Republican themselves.  Their white whale is the idea that there’s some critical mass of Republican voters that’s just waiting for the right kind of messiah to activate them and bring them across the aisle.  They’re utterly incapable of acknowledging the danger that is the modern-day GOP, because if they did, that would mean their entire worldview is bullshit.

    Sinema transitioning seamlessly from too-left-for-the-Democrats to too-right-for-the-Democrats is probably the ur-example of how much those two phenomena go together.

  23. 23.

    SpaceUnit

    Sinema’s best option is to wrangle a position in the trump campaign and hope he appoints her head of NASA if he gets reelected.

  24. 24.

    Barbara

    That video of her voting against raising the minimum wage is so revolting.  Like she was a mean girl dissing a friend, and then bouncing up the stairs feeling much better because she managed to really hurt someone.  She’s even dressed like she is still in high school.

  25. 25.

    Tony Jay

    “The blank sadism of centrist politics” could easily be the focus-grouped title of newnewlabour’s Election Manifesto, and that Burneko paragraph comes an atom’s width from describing what the next five years of newnewlabour rule in the UK is going to be all about.

    And the kicker? We’re about to be ruled by a toxic melange of British Sinemas, Manchins and Liebermans, advised by a cadre of British Penns and Summers’ and funded by an exclusive club of British Kochs and Crows, and that’s still going to be an improvement* on the outgoing lot.

    I don’t want to sack the scriptwriters, I just wish they were less influenced by Scandi-gloom dramas.

    *Not much of one, but that was the whole point of Operation ‘Stop Labour’ in 2016/19. Keep the status quo unchallenged, just splash a new coat of paint over the mould. 

  26. 26.

    Betty Cracker

    She’s a thoroughly horrible and corrupt person, and I ardently hope she’s overestimating her post-Senate career prospects. But unfortunately, our shitty system is built to reward amoral toads like Sinema, so she’ll probably be fine.

    Still, I hope it was a shock to her when she first realized she had zero chance at reelection because her constituents hate her guts. The bitter tone of the farewell suggests that’s the case on some level. Good!

    @Tony Jay: Ugh, how terrible. My sympathies!

  27. 27.

    piratedan

    @Timill: AZ AG Mayes has been treading carefully waiting for depositions and evidence to become clearer.  She had her own lawsuits and recounts to deal with (she won by less than 350 votes IIRC), so she’s been careful to troll those waters quietly.  After what has been uncovered in Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin, she has firmer footing to proceed.

    It’s even trickier considering that some of the people on the false electors list are the former GOP State party chair and two sitting GOP State Senators.

  28. 28.

    piratedan

    @SpaceUnit: she’s a “status” appointment.  Just because she will be out of Government, knowing what positions within the government to approach still has value.

  29. 29.

    Geminid

    Sinema’s problem is that she didn’t change. She ran in 2018 as a Centrist, Blue Dog Democrat and became the first Democrat Arizona sent to the Senate since Dennis DeConcini won in 1988. Sinema seemed well suited to a red state.

    Two years later though, Mark Kelly and Joe Biden won in Arizona as normal Democrats and showed that Arizona was becoming a purple state. But Sinema was stubborn. She could have supported Biden down the line without any big adjustment in her political stance; her former Blue Dog colleagues in the House did.

    She’s not much of a loss, though. Sinema reminds me of Jim Webb, the conservative Virginia Democrat who knocked George Allen out in 2006. Webb’s most important contribution was helping elect Harry Reid as Majority Leader; Sinema’s was helping elect Chuck Schumer Leader in January, 2021.

    Webb retired after one term and Tim Kaine replaced him. Now Sinema will retire, with Ruben Gallego her likely replacement. I think a lot of Gallego like I think a lot of Kaine. They’re smart, hardworking Democrats who help their states move from purple to blue.

  30. 30.

    Jackie

    Heads up; Rachel Maddow and Alex Wagner will join Chris Hayes on his show – 8 pm ET – for a Biden vs Trump 2024 special.

  32. 32.

    Tony Jay

    @Betty Cracker:

    Oh, we’ll be fine. The Rage virus is due to be accidentally released from its Cambridge lab pretty soon and after that it’s all communal carnage and glimpses of Cillian Murphy’s naked arse.

    So… better.

  34. 34.

    Geminid

    @SpaceUnit: People here may despise Kyrsten Sinema, but the office of Senator carries a lot of prestige in the wider world. I never saw a former Senator who wanted to make good money fail to make it. She will have plenty of attractive options.

  35. 35.

    piratedan

    @SpaceUnit: I certainly hope that she’ll do less damage there.  Obviously not a fan of her as a Senator, but she was better than Martha McSally (which was a bar buried in the ground), she did approve judges and supported a large part of the Democratic agenda, as long as rich people were not impinged.  Not exactly a legacy, more like a slime trail of lowest common denominator.

  36. 36.

    Tony Jay

    @West of the Rockies:

    You’ll notice she never clarifies what she single-handedly saved the Senate from.

    She knows, and her Big Bank Buddies know, but she’s not inclined to explain it when that would induce bad vibes in advance of her autobiography ‘This Woman’s Work – How I Saved Democracy And Looked Hot In Primary Colors’

  37. 37.

    hrprogressive

    Fuck Kyrsten Sinema. That’s it, that’s the entire tweet.

    I think I’m gonna need to find some spare cash for Gallego because he seems like a straight upgrade, period.

  38. 38.

    ColoradoGuy

    She was Moscow Mitch’s vision of the ideal Democrat … ineffective, showboating, obstructive, with the gravitas of a small town high school Mean Girl.

  41. 41.

    Another Scott

    @Geminid: Webb pushed to get a New GI Bill through congress.

    First term senators usually don’t get much done. Webb has an important accomplishment to be proud of.

    Sinema? Not so much, IMO.

    Grr…,
    Scott.

  42. 42.

    moonbat

    @Chris: Speaking as an over-educated woman who is not stingy with her opinions, I deeply appreciate your caution, but in this case I think it is misplaced. Sinema is a corrupt asshole. Plain and simple.

  43. 43.

    Suzanne

    I am hopeful that Gallego will win, but I am by no means certain.

    Whatever. I am just thrilled — thrilled — to see the back of that piece of shit.

  45. 45.

    Fake Irishman

    @Another Scott:

    Webb also poured a lot of work into prison reform, a thankless and critical issue.

    (and he quietly voted for all the major Dem legislation without showboating, from the stimulus to the ACA to Dodd-Frank to repealing don’t ask don’t tell Etc etc)

  47. 47.

    AlaskaReader

    @Tony Jay:   Dead Horse

    So, then, what becomes of the inhabitants

    Of this once-unstoppable isle

    When all of its exports are no longer in style?

    Are you seriously still tryna kid meThat our culture will be just fine

    When all that’s left is nobheads morris dancingTo sham 69?

  48. 48.

    matt

    Driven out of the party by its voters, for backstabbing them. So mean. I still believe someone, probably connected to Mitch, coughed up a 7 figure amount and put it into an offshore account to get her to do all that shit.

  50. 50.

    Rusty

    What became apparent over time is how she was such an empty vessel, dressed in clothes that demanded attention.  She had no core beliefs, anything that looked like principles she eventually abandoned.   Being so shallow made it easy to sell herself to the wealthy.  A vacuous, self centered person.  It would be deeply sad if she hadn’t hurt people along the way.

  51. 51.

    Mike in NC

     an absolute F-minus of a human being

    Quite the accomplishment for somebody not named Trump.

  54. 54.

    Dan B

    @sab: Toddler lived so all good, right?

    So glad I left but Seattle Police aren’t much better.  The Police Guild is horrible.

  55. 55.

    Brachiator

    I’m glad that Sinema is gone. She didn’t really seem to stand for much. Not much more to say about her.

  57. 57.

    Trivia Man

    I notice she alerted turtle she was about to do SOMETHING WILD! AND UNEXPECTED!

    and he shrugs and returns to his prior, more interesting, conversation

  58. 58.

    Kay

    Tax cuts for the wealthy have long drawn support from conservative lawmakers and economists who argue that such measures will “trickle down” and eventually boost jobs and incomes for everyone else. But a new study from the London School of Economics says 50 years of such tax cuts have only helped one group — the rich.

  60. 60.

    Captain C

    @Kay:

    London School of Economics

    “A bunch of woke, socialist eggheads whose most prominent graduate was a decadent, overaged rock star.” — Some Republican tomorrow, probably

  62. 62.

    Geminid

    @Another Scott: Well, Jim Webb certainly earned his pay with the GI Bill expansion.

    Sinema’s biggest legislative accomplishment probably was helping get the Infrastructure bill through, but she and Portman were just rwo of many Senators who were in on the negotiation. Still, that was important legislation even though it was underrated and even disparaged when it passed.

    More recently, Sinema participated in the border compromise negotiated by Senators Lankford and Murphy, and may have hoped success would bolster an Independent campaign for Senator. Republicans blew the compromise up though and left Sinema high and dry.

    The parallels between Sinema and Webb are their transitional roles in states moving from red to purple. At the time, Virginia Democrats were very happy to have Webb beat Allen just like Arizona Dems were glad to see Sinema beat McSally.

    These were both very narrow victories where a more liberal candidate might have fallen short. But their states were changing politically and Sinema did not change with her state.

    Webb, I think, just was not cut out to be a politician and likely would not have run for office had it not been for Bush’s Iraq fiasco. I thought that war accelerated Virginia’s political shift. Donald Trump may have accelerated Arizona’s.

  63. 63.

    Jackie

    Heh, Mike Johnson is going to (try to) babysit his caucus:

    “House Republican leadership is trying to tamp down on a potential repeat of the chronic heckling that engulfed last year’s State of the Union,” Axios reports.

    “The effort by Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) to rein in his members underlines how much politics have changed since 2009, when the House passed a resolution of disapproval against Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) for disrupting then-President Obama’s speech.”

    I’m very sure President Biden will be very prepared for the unruly toddlers tomorrow night. Johnson hasn’t a chance of keeping control of anything! Remember failed former speaker attempting to 🤫 his caucus last year? 🫢

  66. 66.

    Nukular Biskits

    Here’s what Sinema once said about post-Senate life, per @mckaycoppins book: “I don’t care. I can go on any board I want to. I can be a college president. I can do anything.” “I saved the Senate by myself. That’s good enough for me.”

    OMFG.

    That’s narcissism bordering on Trumpian levels there.

  67. 67.

    Jackie

    @Baud: I wonder what her protest wardrobe will be this year. Last year was the white furry hooded coat to represent the Chinese spy balloon – but nobody “got it” until she explained it 😂

  68. 68.

    Brachiator

    At the AZ capitol she was known as the Neiman Marxist because she made noise about being radical, but really seemed to be in it for her own benefit.

    Neiman Marxist. Love it.

  71. 71.

    Frankensteinbeck

    When Sinema turned Independent, the statement she released blamed the Democrats for getting too extreme with their woke agenda.  DeSantis could have written it.

  72. 72.

    Another Scott

    @Captain C: Her federal pension is under FERS, like other federal employees hired after 1984.

    Wikipedia:

    The accrual rate for congressional service between 1984 and December 31, 2012, is covered by a FERS “special” computation that is similar to that for Federal employees such as First Responders, FBI Special Agents, and Air Traffic Control Officers. The accrual rate is 1.7% for the first 20 years and 1.0% for each year beyond the 20th. The basic retirement annuity under FERS is equal to the (Average High-3 Salary x .017 x Years of Service through 20 years)+(High-3 Salary x .01 x Years of Service over 20)= Annual Pension Members who began congressional service before 1984 and who elected to join FERS will receive credit under FERS from January 1, 1984, forward.

    (6 years Senate + 6 years House) x 175,000 x 0.017 = $35,700 per year. Gross.

    HTH!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  73. 73.

    Tony G

    I predict that Sinema will have a show on Fox News soon.  If not, then maybe jello wrestling.

  74. 74.

    Miss Bianca

    For my part, the only thought I have to spare for her besides “Buh-bye, bitch”, is…

    …will all her newly-acquired nouveau-richie-rich acquaintance drop her like a hot potato once she’s no longer in a position to be useful to them?

    I fervently hope so.

    @Edmund dantes: Ah ha, I see you got there first.

  78. 78.

    Brachiator

    @Tony Jay:

    And the kicker? We’re about to be ruled by a toxic melange of British Sinemas, Manchins and Liebermans, advised by a cadre of British Penns and Summers’ and funded by an exclusive club of British Kochs and Crows, and that’s still going to be an improvement* on the outgoing lot.

    You’re right. It will be an improvement.

    Sunak should call for a May general election and put the Tories out of their misery. Instead, he is dragging things out while he desperately clings to power.

    Meanwhile, the Tories continue to sabotage the economy and lay booby traps that would prevent the best Labour government imaginable from governing effectively.

    The Spring Budget throws a few tax cuts at people, but does nothing to pay doctors and nurses and railroad workers more, does not improve social services, and continues to strangle the NHS into oblivion. All attempts to help areas of the UK that are not London and the southeast have been abandoned.

    Tory incompetence at administering BREXIT will continue to see rises in food prices and intermittent shortages.

    Many ordinary people continue to believe the lie that immigration is a problem, that immigrants steal jobs and depress wages. Meanwhile, Tories welcome rich immigrants with open arms, and guarantee that they will be able to look down on lesser people.

    The only good thing is that more people seem to see through Tory lies and false promises. This is why Sunak and company are trying so hard to wreck things before they are thrown out. They are deeply afraid that a new government might make life better and permanently kick the Conservatives into the gutter.

    Labour, New Labour, whatever you want to call it, may be more of the same. But they are being given a rare opportunity to do better.

  79. 79.

    RevRick

    I think Dana Houle might be on to something when he speculated that Sinema might have a diagnosable personality disorder. To start out as an antiwar social worker, run as a Green Party candidate, migrate to the Democrats, and then end up in bed with hedge fund managers is, to say the least, a head-spinning journey. Her earliest career suggested she cared deeply about the underdog, but her aloofness towards others, her smug tone, and her “look at me” attire says to me there’s a brokenness to her.
    Does Chuck Schumer regret recruiting her for her Senate run in 2018? Probably not, because he probably figured she was the best shot in Arizona back then. Does he regret it now? Probably not, because Chuck strikes me as a bottom line kind of guy, who takes his wins when he can and lives to fight another day. And I guess I’m with Chuck in this respect.
    Let’s face it. All politicians in high office are narcissistic extroverts. To think others will line up to vote for you requires an inflated ego and having to schmooze with all sorts of needy, whiny people with bad breath requires pretending you have no ego.
    As Dick Cheney once said, “You fight with the army you have.” It’s inevitable that our army will include its own set of dysfunctional weirdos.

  80. 80.

    Jackie

    We all knew this, but it’s now being publicly revealed TIFG is cash-broke.

    Donald Trump’s recent court filings give away the ball game when it comes to the ex-president’s finances, or lack there of, according to a former federal prosecutor Wednesday.

    “Donald Trump is embarrassing himself,” said Glenn Kirschner on his “Justice Matters” show. “He’s sending his sad little lawyers from one New York courtroom to another to beg judge after judge not to make him put up the full money judgment amounts he owes to appeal the cases he lost.”

    In the most recent development, Trump attorney Alina Habba asked Judge Lewis Kaplan for an extension of the stay on enforcement, “for what I believe is the third time now,” Kirschner emphasized.

    In other words, Kirschner said, Trump is arguing, “please don’t make me do what any other person, any other litigant, who lost a case, would have to do. And this is not going to work as the judges and plaintiffs rapidly run out of patience.”

    “I think very soon, Donald Trump will begin having his property, his assets, seized to satisfy these money judgments,” said Kirschner.

    https://www.rawstory.com/trump-embarrasses-himself-kirschner/

    Assets and property seized… music to our ears 👍🏻

  82. 82.

    Yutsano

    @Captain C: ​

    whose most prominent graduate was a decadent, overaged rock star

    They can get the name of Dr. Brian May out of their damn fool mouths!

  84. 84.

    Another Scott

    Meanwhile, more about the machinations to move the DC Wizards and Capitals to a new arena in NoVA at the VirginiaMercury.com:

    The proposal, announced by Gov. Glenn Youngkin this December, envisions a sports arena, practice facility for the Wizards, and a performing arts venue, paired with new retail, residential, restaurants, hotels and conference facilities near Amazon HQ2 and the Virginia Tech Innovation Campus along the Potomac River in Alexandria.

    Two documents have been key for supporters in projecting positive aspects of the project, namely generating a fiscal impact of $12 billion and creating roughly 30,000 jobs.

    Those documents appear to show that the potential benefits are contingent on the facility hosting hundreds of events annually, and that the success of the 9 million square foot entertainment district hinges on costs and interest rates remaining stable, though the plan includes some protections against creeping costs.

    While the arena project is a priority for Youngkin and Ted Leonsis, CEO of Monumental Sports and Entertainment, which owns the Wizards and Capitals franchises, it has garnered strong opposition from at least one high-profile Senate Democrat, Finance and Appropriations Committee Chair Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, as well as Alexandria resident groups, labor unions and others who depict its projections as overly optimistic. Those groups have pointed out that if arena revenues don’t live up to estimates, Virginia taxpayers could be on the hook for as much as $1.35 billion, according to one calculation reported by The Washington Post.

    […]

    The HR&A analysis assumes 221 events will be held at the arena and 115 events would be held at associated performing arts venues. The J.P. Morgan brief also cites the 221 annual event figure, projecting events at other facilities could drive that number much higher.

    J.P. Morgan notes revenues could suffer if the arena doesn’t host at least that many events. The bank also indicated there could be cost overruns, interest rate changes and unforeseen challenges.

    […]

    A supplemental one-page document to HR&A’s report provided to the Mercury said the entertainment district could create 29,555 permanent jobs with an average wage of $75,000, and 17,645 construction jobs. A separate document produced by MonumentalALX, which is responsible for promotion of the project, indicated the project would generate 29,925 permanent jobs.

    Monumental Sports would have an estimated 658 full-time office staff, and the arena would employ 242 people at an average salary of nearly $26,000 each, according to the two documents. O’Grady said that is “not a livable wage for anyone in Northern Virginia or in the D.C. area.”

    […]

    A later study, commissioned by the Youngkin administration, Alexandria and Monumental and produced by engineering firm Kimley-Horn, found $135 to $215 million in transportation investments would be needed. That would be in addition to an extra $2.5 to $7.5 million annually for operational improvements such as increased Metro service.

    […]

    They’re pie-in-the-sky numbers, and too much of the risk is on Virginia and Alexandria. Traffic is already bad in that stretch of US-1. The proposed Metro numbers are especially insane as Metro presently has a projected $750M deficit for FY25.

    As Dan Davies says, “Good ideas don’t need to have lies told about them…”

    Much more at the link.

    Grr…,
    Scott.

  85. 85.

    Ohio Mom

    @Jackie: As I read in a comment elsewhere, as the official Republican candidate, Trump will be given classified briefings; he is sure to sell it for scratch.

    Gulp.

  87. 87.

    Jackie

    @Ohio Mom: I read on this here blog, classified briefing are courtesy of the current administration and not mandatory. After Biden was inaugurated, he declined to share classified briefings with TIFG. I assume/hope that is continued!🤞🏻

  88. 88.

    Anoniminous

    @Ohio Mom: ​
     
    Not a law but a courtesy to brief the opposing presidential candidate. Unless the Biden administration has totally lost their minds that courtesy will not be extended.

  89. 89.

    Gvg

    @Anoniminous: I think that may be wrong. The courtesy briefings are for former Presidents. The law may require it for actual candidates. I think that kind of law came out of the atomic war threat and possibly had to do with Roosevelt dying in office and concerns about succession. I think in Roosevelt time, the vice President was mostly surperfolus, and not prepared.

  92. 92.

    JWR

    @West of the Rockies:
    She “single-handedly saved the Senate…”

    @Tony Jay:
    You’ll notice she never clarifies what she single-handedly saved the Senate from.

    Pretty sure she said something about “saving preserving the institution” when she took her legislative axe to any and all Filibuster reform. She wouldn’t even let a carve out for voting rights go through.

  93. 93.

    Jackie

    @Gvg: I seem to remember TIFG’s administration blocking Biden’s attempts to get the “expected cooperation” for transitioning into office – which included classified briefings?

  94. 94.

    Steeplejack

    @RevRick:

    Does Chuck Schumer regret recruiting her [. . .] now? Probably not, because Chuck strikes me as a bottom line kind of guy, who takes his wins when he can and lives to fight another day.

    And at this point Schumer is on track to end up with a better Democratic senator after the November election.

  95. 95.

    Melancholy Jaques

    @Captain C:

    Mick Jagger studied there, but did not graduate. He found something better to do.

    George Soros, however, got a bachelors and a masters there.

  96. 96.

    Anoniminous

    @Gvg:

    According to Newsweek:

    David Priess, who served in the CIA during the Bill Clinton and George W. Bush administrations as an intelligence officer …. continued by stating a years-long tradition that major-party presidential candidates have been offered intel briefings during their respective campaigns since 1952. However, it is not a law as it is considered just a courtesy for presidential candidates.

  98. 98.

    pluky

    @Yutsano: Close, Sir Dr. May got his degree from Imperial College. The LSE reference here is to Sir Mick Jagger. The (possibly apocryphal) quote explaining why is “no one is going to know more about my money than me.”

  99. 99.

    lowtechcyclist

    At the end of The Philadelphia Story, as Cary Grant’s and Katherine Hepburn’s characters are rather unexpectedly getting remarried, we’re privy to the thoughts of several of the other characters. There’s a manipulative little girl whose thought balloon is “I made this happen.” (Not even close.)

    Sinema’s “I saved the Senate by myself” reminds me of that little girl.

  100. 100.

    Eyeroller

    @Betty: ​Very dead thread so probably nobody will see this, but the Webb telescope is not named for former Senator Webb. It is named for the second administrator of NASA. The astronomy community was not pleased about this since the feeling is that such a telescope should be named for an astronomer. The confusion over who it is named for doesn’t help.

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