Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

Let me file that under fuck it.

There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.

President Musk and Trump are both poorly raised, coddled 8 year old boys.

Those who are easily outraged are easily manipulated.

The Giant Orange Man Baby is having a bad day.

Oh FFS you might as well trust a 6-year-old with a flamethrower.

People identifying as christian while ignoring christ and his teachings is a strange thing indeed.

Never give a known liar the benefit of the doubt.

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

Jesus watching the most hateful people claiming to be his followers

There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you do not.

I’m more christian than these people and i’m an atheist.

We can’t confuse what’s necessary to win elections with the policies that we want to implement when we do.

“The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.”

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

So many bastards, so little time.

Let there be snark.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls 2 years from now.

Rupert, come get your orange boy, you petrified old dinosaur turd.

The only way through is to slog through the muck one step at at time.

You are here: Home / Politics / Biden Administration in Action / Saturday Morning Open Thread: All We Can Do Is All We Can Do

Saturday Morning Open Thread: All We Can Do Is All We Can Do

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Certain GOP stalwarts chose to be publicly offended by this — spending the taxpayers’ dollars on frippery like education! — so the WH social media team responded in kind:

And the GOP-pwned media decided it wasn’t fair that Democrats got to fight back…

… Except that would violate a deeply held Republican tenet: What’s mine is mine, and what’s yours is mine, if you can’t stop me from prying it away!

Reader Interactions

111Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    We wouldn’t want a major political party to ruin policy to troll. That would be unprecedented.

  8. 8.

    Nukular Biskits

    Somber today here:  Significant other and her daughter is taking the daughter’s 9-year old Shih Tzu to the vet to cross the Rainbow Bridge.

    We had tried to find someone who could do the service here in-home,  but it appears MS is behind the rest of the world in that area as well.

  13. 13.

    MattF

    Voted (by mail) for Alsobrooks in the MD Senate D primary. I think she has a better chance of beating Hogan in November— Trone is OK, but just another white guy. Also, needless to say, voted for Jamie Raskin.

  18. 18.

    bbleh

    Now look, y’all are being seriously unfair to Republicans.  The point here is that these are nice White people who had their loans forgiven, and that is right and proper, while the socialist fascist Democrats are trying to forgive loans for Other people, including a bunch of lazy kids who just don’t know what it means to work hard, dammit!

  19. 19.

    Kay

    “You sacrifice and you’ve saved for a decade or more to make your student loan payments, and you originally borrowed $12,000 or less, you’re going to see relief,” Cardona told reporters. “An overwhelming number of those who qualify for SAVE were eligible for Pell grants and come from low- and middle-income communities.”

    Good.
    Half of student loan borrowers borrowed 20,000 or less. If you just clear out those people it’s huge progress.

  20. 20.

    Sid

    Aside from being Tim Carney’s brother*, who is John Carney and why is he important enough for Charles Pierce to respond to?

    *who is Tim Carney?

  21. 21.

    TBone

    Holy shit.  Not sure if this as funny as it seems.  I guffawed at first.

    https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/apr/13/trump-china-stormy-daniels-rant-randall-stephenson-book

    Donald Trump has made antipathy to China a cornerstone of his campaign to return to the White House next year, but according to a new book, he allowed another obsession, over women and sex, to derail a White House meeting with a senior US tech executive meant to address Chinese threats to US telecoms networks.

  24. 24.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Nukular Biskits: Blech to everything. eta: also my sympathies to your SOs daughter, it’s always hard.

    Also I want to report the sighting of 2 pay phones in a govt facility* this past wkend. Just shocked I was, I had thought they were extinct. The poor creatures were looking very forlorn. Listless, unwanted, underfed, abandoned. I felt really sorry for them. Wanted to give them a hug but they were bolted to the wall so all I could do was pet them. Thought about giving them treats but I didn’t have enough quarters for the both of them. All in all, just very sad.

    *a Misery rest area just this side of Springfield

  26. 26.

    Nukular Biskits

    @TBone:

    I’ve always considered all my pets as being no less worthy of love and compassion than my own flesh and blood.

    Chanel was the youngest daughter’s but she (Chanel) was living with us after the daughter had a baby.  It worked out as Chanel gave my sig other’s mother company.

  29. 29.

    Cheryl from Maryland

    @MattF: Hey, I’m also in Raskin’s District.  I voted for Alsobrooks in the primary as well.  She can win the General if  Baltimore City, Montgomery County, and PG County come out strong.

  30. 30.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Baud: She would never accept the charges, coming from me. Besides, she was out in the parking lot. And armed. She has 2 of them, Throws a really mean left hook.

  31. 31.

    TBone

    @Nukular Biskits: love is love as they say.  They give it to us unconditionally which is proof of miracles in my book.  They always just know, somehow, who needs them.  I’m sorry it’s that time.  I’ve had to say goodbye too many times that way, when it feels so unfair…but it is the love we can give back

  32. 32.

    Nukular Biskits

    @Harrison Wesley:

    Over the course of my nearly 60 decades on this rock, I’ve had countless (well, ok, they could be counted but I just don’t remember how many) pets:  cats, dogs, birds, chickens, horses, cows (yes, cows:  Had one named “Boogaloo”. Don’t ask me why.) and pigs.

    Most I have only fuzzy recollections of but there are a few who really stand out and, even today,  I miss them greatly.

  35. 35.

    frosty

    @Nukular Biskits: When it was clear our last German Shepherd was ready to go we took her to the vet. They let our whole family be there with her in the back. It was a kindness.

  41. 41.

    Nukular Biskits

    @frosty:

    Stating the obvious here (obviously), but the loss is never easy, even under the best (?) of circumstances.

    I wasn’t very close to Chanel, not like the daughter or grandmother, but I still feel I have somehow let her down, even though this is what’s best.

    Irrational, I know.

  44. 44.

    TBone

    The permanent strand of Xmas lights taped to the roof gable (so we don’t have to climb up there in the December freeze every year) blew off in today’s blustery 50mph gusts.  They had a few burned out bulbs so were gonna be replaced this year anyway.  So I’m taking that as a win, less for us to do in December.  They’re the tiny white lights on dark green wire, practically invisible on our dark trim until lit at night. If we don’t decorate, the Rumpy neighbors come over and offer to do it for us 🙄

  47. 47.

    citizen dave

    @NotMax: Cool story.  I wanted to thank you again for the NYC tips the other day.  I think the only one we got to was St Luke’s secret garden in the west village.  It was a most welcome resting spot, though, as we’d already walked from World Trade to there.  After that we did Little Island and the High Line before getting a boat back to New Jersey around sunset.

    I didn’t take all that many photos, but have some.  Maybe I’ll make an On The Road.  Lots of flowers were out Tuesday and Wednesday, and my wife and I walked 10+ miles around the city each day.  My feet are still hurting

    Oh now I remember I think you had Strand book store on the list as well.  We stopped in there, but my wife knows better–I could spend hours in there, but pledged not to.  We only looked around half of the first floor where the touristy things are.  I said I could see I will have to make a special trip to NYC just to do the Strand.

  48. 48.

    TBone

    @NotMax: We actually still have those concerts in a pavilion in a community park in a nearby town!  It’s like traveling back in time.

    ❤️

  50. 50.

    Ken

    @Sid: Aside from being Tim Carney’s brother*, who is John Carney

    From his whining, I’ll guess: Someone who had a hundred thousand dollars or so in PPP loans forgiven.

  52. 52.

    Layer8Problem

    @Nukular Biskits:  Rabbit holes, eh? Smart phones right next to the bed with Wikipedia available were always a bad idea. Wake up in the middle of the night, dive straight into “Bavarian Illuminati”, drag yourself out one and a half hours later having traveled through at least fifteen associated links to “1967 Boston Red Sox season”, and try, just try, to get back to sleep.

  62. 62.

    Nukular Biskits

    @Layer8Problem:

    That’s never been a problem (so far) for me, even though I keep my phone on the nightstand, using it as an alarm clock.

    I’ve never really taken to phones for rabbit-hole-traversing … I’m too wedded to my laptop.

  63. 63.

    WaterGirl

    PSA:  Just a reminder about the Einstein zoom this Wednesday at 8 pm Eastern.  Send me an email to RSVP and get the zoom link.

  64. 64.

    Nukular Biskits

    @zhena gogolia:

    I had never thought about in-home being a thing until my significant other said they had it in the Tampa area.

    Maybe I’m anthropomorphizing here, but I’d tend to think our fur-babies would be more comfortable at home than in the vet’s office.

    But you’re right:  What really matters is having loved ones there when you leave.

  65. 65.

    Kay

    The NYTimes is deliberately downplaying their own poll because it’s better for Biden than the last one – the one all of media shouted from the rooftops in unison. Big, fat finger on the scale supporting Their Guy, Donald Trump.

    Just a fucking embarrassing industry. At this point it’s just shameful work and people should tell their children to stay away from it. They could do something honorable like work at a casino or a sports betting site.

    The thing about the poll that is bad for Trump is he’s stuck at the same number he had in 2020 while Biden is going up. Biden has room to grow and the last 5 points are the only number that matter.

  66. 66.

    Layer8Problem

    @Nukular Biskits:  God I wish I could use my laptop.  I type too fast to put up easily with just thumbs and I like the extra screen real estate.  However if I tried to do it in the bedroom at that hour my partner would wrench it out of my hands and beat me senseless with it.

  67. 67.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    “We report on the stakes, not the odds.” #tempNYT

    ETA: I can’t believe they didn’t have a “Biden Surging” headline.

  68. 68.

    Marcopolo

    @Sid: a brief google says he writes for the Washington examiner (what a surprise) and is a fellow at the American enterprise institute (seeing a pattern here). He’s also written some books about how the libs have ruined ‘Merka. Pretty sure the main reason he’s commenting is that comparing the two types of loan forgiveness is actually a very effective argument for the Dems.

  70. 70.

    Kay

    I went out last night in town. 75% Trump, industrial (manufacturing) and ag economy. There are two new restaurants and the town square was full of people. The NYTimes keeps telling me no one can buy a gallon of milk and actual people keep contradicting that.

    The economy is very good in the rust belt. It’s better than the 1990s. The best I have ever seen. Media have done an absolute number on people with the reporting on the economy. It’s brainwashing. Every single real indicator contradicts their narrative.

    If working and middle class people in the Great Lakes states don’t vote for Joe Biden they aren’t voting for the financial health of their families – it’s really that simple.

  71. 71.

    bbleh

    @Kay: as has widely been observed, TIFG has both a hard floor and a hard ceiling: there are people who would vote for him if he murdered and ate children in front of them (he’s forgiven, you see), and there are (many more) people who would rather eat ground glass than vote for him.  Biden, meanwhile, suffers from the usual problem of presidents — everybody blames them for everything bad and for not making things perfect — but those attitudes are more malleable.  It’s therefore to be expected, as TIFG gets weirder and weirder, and the Jerry Springer Sex Money Infidelity President Trial episode gets started and so on, that Biden will slowly improve relatively speaking, at least unless there’s some real crisis like the economy tanking.  It also follows that, apart from maybe making a few Republicans so disgusted with TIFG that they just can’t vote for him and leave the line blank, the best bang for the buck is to get our own voters motivated and out.  Soldier on!

  72. 72.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    “Biden shrinks Trumps edge”

    It’s the Donald Trump newspaper. Donald Trump made it possible for a lotta people at the NYTimes to buy vacation homes and they will be rewarding him for that. It’s a mutually beneficial relationship- the only losers in this deal are their readers.

  74. 74.

    Marcopolo

    @OzarkHillbilly: hey, if you are still around the pro-choice amendment folks are still looking for about 3000 signatures in the 3rd CD.  Assume you & your wife are on board already but if you know any folks out your way who you’d think would be sympathetic I’m pretty sure we could get someone to do a drive by signing.  If so Watergirl can put you in touch w/ me.

  75. 75.

    Kay

    @bbleh:

    I don’t have much faith in the trials but I’ve had a crisis of confidence in the legal system that has changed my views forever, so I’m an outlier.

    It’s fine. I’m a fairly shallow person so amid this crisis of confidence I’m also mostly happy :)

  76. 76.

    RevRick

    What exactly is the GOP economic policy?
    Well, since they’re all in favor of tax cuts to choke off government spending (with the added bonus of benefiting the wealthy), they’ll shovel a ton of money into the laps of those who already have a ton of money.

    Since, they favor deregulation of business, they want to gut the financial regulations established through Dodd-Frank.

    Since, they oppose downward redistribution of wealth, they want to privatize Social Security, Medicare and gut Medicaid and the ACA.

    Therefore they are the real party of the working class!

  78. 78.

    Layer8Problem

    @Kay:  The economy’s good and the Washington Post is there to let us know what to think about that:

    “[Headline] The economy is revving up at a terrible time for Biden”.

    Inflation, you know, because it’s too late to tout that inevitable recession they’ve been waiting for expectantly for so long.

  79. 79.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    A new Puerto Rican restaurant, no less. They were lining up. I don’t know- they look pretty prosperous to me and these are not fancy people – these are hourly wage people. My clients.

  81. 81.

    Kay

    @Layer8Problem:

    I think it goes back to Biden’s liberal approach to wages and workers. They want low and middle income people punished and Biden refused to punish them. It’s the Larry Summers school of economics- you have to knock half the country on their ass economically every five years just to show them who’s boss.

    The “no one wants to work” nonsense. We’re at full employment you fucking morons – they’re ALL working. That’s what 3% unemployment means – they’re all working.

  84. 84.

    gene108

    PPP (awesome business saving policy!) was structured to have loans forgiven, if a business complied with certain rules.

    The Biden administration is forgiving student loans that should’ve been forgiven under existing laws, but weren’t.

    This is what PPP and Biden’s student loan forgiveness have in common.

    Biden’s following existing laws, which I wish would get reported.

  85. 85.

    Layer8Problem

    @Kay:  “If unemployment stays this low any longer we’ll have to offer new employees higher salaries!!!  We can barely maintain our lifestyles on our salaries and bonuses! The living [rich] will envy the dead [rich]!”

    Yeah, not every business owner is rolling in it and some might go out of business, but they’ve got the American Enterprise Institute to remind the small businesses about how capitalism works.

  87. 87.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Marcopolo: hey, if you are still around the pro-choice amendment folks are still looking for about 3000 signatures in the 3rd CD.

    I tried to sign it but they were unwilling to give me the necessary info (where/when) unless I gave up information I don’t give to anybody.

  88. 88.

    zhena gogolia

    @Kay: The restaurants in my (not particularly prosperous town) have lines out the door on the weekends.

  89. 89.

    sdhays

    @Layer8Problem: It’s absolutely surreal how “inflation” is reported in this country, ignoring how shockingly high it is elsewhere. Inflation is much higher in Europe. It’s crazy high in Turkey. I know “we’re” used to other countries not existing, but the inflation worldwide has a common trigger – disruptions due to the global pandemic. And, even when everyone was fainting over inflation here, it was the lowest in most of the world.

    It’s an absolute failure of reporting not to include that context when reporting about “inflation”. It’s a global problem, and the US handled it pretty much the best in the world.

  90. 90.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @Layer8Problem: Management here has trouble getting and keeping cleaners and restaurant servers. When someone mentions increasing wages, they say they pay the same that everyone else does. So, is “everyone else” having trouble getting help? Then how can that wage be an excuse?

  92. 92.

    sdhays

    @gene108: I also think it’s hilarious to suggest that these people would turn down hundreds of thousands – and even millions(!) – of dollars in forgivable loans just because someone might call them out for hypocrisy some time in the future.

    These people are the type of people who will hoover up any penny that’s not glued to the floor.

  95. 95.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: ​When someone mentions increasing wages, they say they pay the same that everyone else does.

    So where’s the incentive to change employers? Haysoos Chrispo, this isn’t rocket science. People don’t like change, especially when it doesn’t come with a benefit.

  98. 98.

    Another Scott

    Meanwhile, …

    Missing The Point
    @[email protected]

    More people are planning to vote for Biden in the general election. Why that’s bad news for Biden.

    [ image – 2024
    Biden Shrinks Trump’s Edge in Latest Times/Siena Poll
    ALT ]

    Apr 13, 2024, 09:05 AM

    [ chef’s kiss ]

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  99. 99.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Nukular Biskits: ​
     

    I had never thought about in-home being a thing until my significant other said they had it in the Tampa area.

    Maybe I’m anthropomorphizing here, but I’d tend to think our fur-babies would be more comfortable at home than in the vet’s office.

    Our local vet here in southern MD used to offer at-home euthanization, so I was able to say goodbye to Fuzzball here at home. But that was nearly a quarter-century ago, and by the time our next generation of cats started reaching the end of their lives about a decade ago, they no longer did that anymore.

    I expect it was simply a matter of resources: the extra time involved for the vet or vet tech to pull together what they need to take with them, and drive to and from your house, is a lot of time away from treating other pets.

    We know when we take in a pet that our lifespans are a lot longer than theirs, but knowing the goodbye is ultimately coming doesn’t make it any easier when the time comes. You all are in my thoughts today.

  103. 103.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: I think they should make the Pell Grant program bigger and more generous. It being scaled back so much is why so many of those people have loans in the first place. Forgiving these loans helps, but it doesn’t fix the problem going forward.

  104. 104.

    Marcopolo

    @OzarkHillbilly: Hi.  Had to go mail my tax returns.  So at this point I think they are going door to door using D leaning voter lists.  I am pretty sure a canvasser will come to your place to get your sig but you’d need to give your address to someone.  The reason they are collecting information up front (name/address) is to avoid folks who want to derail the process.  Anyhow, if you want to email me your info so we can get a canvasser out to you (who knows, might even be me) Watergirl has my contact info.

  105. 105.

    Baud

    @Soprano2:

    You should consider voting for this guy

    President Joe Biden on Monday released his budget request for fiscal year 2025, which would eliminate origination fees on federal student loans and increase the maximum federal Pell Grant award by $750 through the annual appropriations process, in addition to funding other new initiatives at the Department of Education (ED).

     
    :⁠-⁠)

  109. 109.

    karen marie

    @Layer8Problem: “They say” that light at night fucks your brain, making it harder to fall asleep, so I’ve been trying to keep that in mind by putting down my tablet, turning on a recorded book, and making the screen go dark. It works well. If I wake up and can’t go back to sleep, I turn the book on again. It works pretty well.

  111. 111.

    Central Planning

    @Baud: Does that mean congress has to vote for that adjustment every year? That will be another great ad where repubs don’t/won’t vote for that.

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