Morning Joe put together a montage of Trump saying he wants to "terminate" Obamacare — something he now claims he doesn't want to do pic.twitter.com/r1kxOkT5Pn
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 12, 2024
BREAKING: The Biden campaign put together this montage of every time Donald Trump threatened to cut Social Security and Medicare. Retweet to make sure every American sees this.pic.twitter.com/NDgevQ9Pd6
— Biden’s Wins (@BidensWins) March 11, 2024
. @Senlaphonza talked to me about being the only Black woman in the Senate. She expects more Black women to run for offices. "We have to be seen and we have to be at the table…Get used to it,'' she told @USATODAY. https://t.co/DAfd1ekSEV , @TheBlackCaucus, @usatodayDC
— Deborah Berry (@dberrygannett) April 12, 2024
Biden is canceling $7.4 billion in student debt for 277,000 borrowers. Here's who is eligible. https://t.co/I8fITmYlRr
— CBS News (@CBSNews) April 12, 2024
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:
This you? https://t.co/Eunev6EXID pic.twitter.com/o0ncoOnBxT
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) April 11, 2024
And the GOP-pwned media decided it wasn’t fair that Democrats got to fight back…
This is correct and it is seriously dangerous. It will make all future attempts to stave off economic disaster much more difficult.
And it is being done for stupid, partisan reasons. Completely unnecessary and not even well thought out. They're ruining policy to troll. https://t.co/ptBPcLyuzh
— John Carney (read Tim’s book: Family Unfriendly) (@carney) April 12, 2024
Translation from the original weaselspeak:
"I got mine, Jack." https://t.co/SUxpDu4x3p— Charles P. Pierce (@CharlesPPierce) April 12, 2024
These aren’t folks who just GOT PPP loans, though – they’re folks who had their PPP loans *forgiven*. Which is what the White House is trying to do with student loans. So supporting all forms of loan *forgiveness* does seem like a logically consistent position.
— Rich Johnston (@rjohnston4) April 12, 2024
Maybe they could just repay the fucking loans? https://t.co/TwklWCXdII
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) April 12, 2024
… 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!
Baud
We wouldn’t want a major political party to ruin policy to troll. That would be unprecedented.
Nukular Biskits
Good mornin’, y’all.
TBone
@Baud: grab ’em by the HOOHA made me laugh so hard yesterday
Baud
@Nukular Biskits:
Good morning.
NotMax
Weekend watch.
The curious case of Mrs. Orcutt’s driveway.
Nukular Biskits
@Baud:
I was sitting here waiting this morning for the new thread to open up so I could be first.
Damn you, Baud. 😂
OzarkHillbilly
@Nukular Biskits: Blech.
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.
Nukular Biskits
@OzarkHillbilly:
“Blech” to the good morning or “Blech” to Baud?
Or both?
TBone
@Nukular Biskits: strength and love from my heart to you all
Nukular Biskits
@NotMax:
That is awesome. How did you come across this bit of Americana?
Baud
@Nukular Biskits:
I’m sorry.
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.
Nukular Biskits
@TBone: Thank you.
We tried the sub-cutaneous water for a week (she had renal failure), but it was clear by Thursday quality of life was going downhill.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
@Nukular Biskits: I always assumed that “blech” was catholic (with a small “c”, as opposed to the church).
Nukular Biskits
@Baud:
For the daughter’s dog?
For being first?
Or both?
TBone
@Nukular Biskits: it’s so hard but know that it’s a gift of love, deep and true
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!
Kay
Good.
Half of student loan borrowers borrowed 20,000 or less. If you just clear out those people it’s huge progress.
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?
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
Nukular Biskits
@Bruce K in ATH-GR:
Yeah, but in OzarkHillbilly was using it at the beginning of an implied sentence, thus he was properly capitalizing it. I would expect nothing less from him.
Harrison Wesley
@Nukular Biskits: Sorry to hear. I held my 11-year partner in my arms while the vet sent her away. It was the only good last thing I could do for her. Still feels lousy after all this time.
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
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
You should have called your wife collect.
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.
TBone
@Harrison Wesley: try and turn that lousy feeling into pride that you were strong enough to do it. It takes superhero strength to do the right thing sometimes.
Nukular Biskits
@Baud:
LOL! DAMN YOU, BAUD!
I snorted coffee out my nose at that!
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.
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.
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
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.
lowtechcyclist
@OzarkHillbilly:
No wonder Superman is never around anymore – no phone booths to change in! ;-)
Nukular Biskits
@OzarkHillbilly:
Sounds like true love!
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.
NotMax
@Nukular Biskits
Would you believe insomnia fueled web surfing?
:).
Nukular Biskits
@TBone:
Whiskers the Polydactyl Supreme Ruler of the United Federation of Universes approves of your message, I’m certain.
Nukular Biskits
@NotMax:
Shorter: Went down a rabbit hole.
lowtechcyclist
@Nukular Biskits:
Tell me, what were the 1400s really like? ;-)
TBone
@Nukular Biskits: ❤️
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.
Nukular Biskits
@lowtechcyclist:
LOL! I started typing one thing, and changed course without correcting the original.
Kristine
@Nukular Biskits: That was my Saturday morning last October. It’s rough. I am so very sorry.
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 🙄
Nukular Biskits
@Kristine:
It’s all part of life.
Doesn’t make the impact easier, but now that I’m nearly 600 years old (reference to my “60 decades on this rock” LOL), it is easier to accept.
NotMax
@Nukular Biskits
Speaking of Americana….
;)
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.
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.
❤️
Nukular Biskits
@NotMax:
What a find!
Ken
From his whining, I’ll guess: Someone who had a hundred thousand dollars or so in PPP loans forgiven.
SiubhanDuinne
@Nukular Biskits:
Wow! Balloon Juice is even more geriatric than I thought!
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.
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone 😊 😊 😊
NotMax
@citizen dave
Awesome sauce. Sounds like it was a fun trip.
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
CliosFanBoy
@Nukular Biskits:
Oh Lord, I am so sorry.
Layer8Problem
@citizen dave: “I could see I will have to make a special trip to NYC just to do the Strand.”
Or you could just buy the single.
TBone
A small dose of good news
https://www.mediamatters.org/angelo-carusone/media-matters-statement-winning-injunction-against-texas-ag-ken-paxton-federal
🎶
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WonOudGMSdc
Nukular Biskits
@SiubhanDuinne:
The crowd does tend to run older here …
Nukular Biskits
@rikyrah:
Mornin!
zhena gogolia
@Nukular Biskits: As long as you’re with her, it’s okay. We have always had to say goodbye to our cats at the vet’s.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Baud
@Kay:
“We report on the stakes, not the odds.” #tempNYT
ETA: I can’t believe they didn’t have a “Biden Surging” headline.
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.
Baud
@Marcopolo:
Thank you. Easy bad faith write off.
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.
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!
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.
Baud
@Kay:
Those people were poor on the inside, Kay.
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.
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 :)
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!
Baud
@Kay:
Better than “Trump continues to lead Biden” I guess.
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.
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.
Baud
@Layer8Problem:
Yes, every president running for reelection hates a growing economy.
@Kay: But no taco trucks.
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.
schrodingers_cat
An Indian American proPalestine supporter finds out that her inane blatherings that included death threats won’t go unpunished.
So cringe. And now bhakts are gloating at her predicament
They want to bring back the days after 9/11 when someone who remotely looked middleeastern or Muslim was looked at with suspicsion. As my Twitter mutual put it, it hurts even more when I see an Indian-American pull these stunts.
different-church-lady
@Layer8Problem: Apparently “the economy” has been reduced to a synonym for “inflation” in their minds.
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.
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.
Baud
@Layer8Problem:
Rich people and corporations deserve a massive tax cut for their sacrifice.
OzarkHillbilly
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.
zhena gogolia
@Kay: The restaurants in my (not particularly prosperous town) have lines out the door on the weekends.
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.
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?
kalakal
@Baud:
They should use a goat like in the good old days
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.
Baud
@sdhays:
Agreed.
Eunicecycle
@sdhays: so they don’t have to be hypocrites! Support student loan forgiveness! It’s a choice!
OzarkHillbilly
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.
TBone
This is a really great Freudian slip 😆
https://twitter.com/American_Bridge/status/1778909711695311275
Complete with slo mo instant replay. Worth my click to see it.
JPL
@Baud: It’s not easy being rich, having to spend each.
Another Scott
Meanwhile, …
[ chef’s kiss ]
Cheers,
Scott.
lowtechcyclist
@Nukular Biskits:
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.
lowtechcyclist
@TBone:
Awesome! One thing I can agree with Mike “Moses” Johnson on, Dump IS a “hardened criminal.”
Jeffro
(deleted)
TBone
@lowtechcyclist: it’s perfect 😂
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.
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.
Baud
@Soprano2:
You should consider voting for this guy
:-)
opiejeanne
@NotMax: They weren’t Federal surveyors, they were state surveyors because the Feds don’t build freeways.
opiejeanne
@opiejeanne: The states build the interstates, which is why the pavement looks different when you cross certain state lines.
Soprano2
@OzarkHillbilly: Good to know if I ever need one. It might be the law that they have to be there.
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.
karen marie
@TBone: That is hilarious! I hope that makes it into a TV ad.
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.