Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The Supreme Court cannot be allowed to become the ultimate, unaccountable arbiter of everything.

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

You are either for trump or for democracy. Pick one.

People are weird.

Hey hey, RFK, how many kids did you kill today?

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

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

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

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.

The rest of the comments were smacking Boebert like she was a piñata.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

with the Kraken taking a plea, the Cheese stands alone.

An unpunished coup is a training exercise.

White supremacy is terrorism.

If a good thing happens for a bad reason, it’s still a good thing.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

Alternative history is always a weak argument. Always.

American History and Black History can not be separated.

Quote tweet friends, screenshot enemies.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

I did not have this on my fuck 2024 bingo card.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Saturday Morning Open Thread: Busy, Busy, Busy

Saturday Morning Open Thread: Busy, Busy, Busy

by | 156 Comments

This post is in: , ,

If we can make it through, we’re almost at the days-getting-longer tipping point…


 

We stopped extreme MAGA Republicans from shutting down the government and crashing the economy.
The American people have won this round.
Far right billionaires have lost.
The struggle continues in the new year.

[image or embed]

— Hakeem Jeffries (@hakeem-jeffries.bsky.social) December 20, 2024 at 7:30 PM

BREAKING: President Biden has just signed a "work-from-home deal" for over 42,000 federal workers, which would prevent Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy from ordering them back to the office full-time
Thoughts?

[image or embed]

— KamallaDreams (@kamalladreams.bsky.social) December 16, 2024 at 10:25 PM



I endorse the following message:

i sort of think people are underestimating how difficult it was going to be to get the government back on the tracks if they missed the deadline tonight

— GOLIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachine.com) December 20, 2024 at 6:32 PM

not an endorsement of the bill, but i suspect the likelihood that senators would just throw up their hands and go home for the holidays was pretty high if they missed the deadline

— GOLIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachine.com) December 20, 2024 at 6:32 PM

even if that would hurt republicans, it would also hurt a hell of a lot of federal employees and contractors right before christmas presents and bills all started to bite

— GOLIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachine.com) December 20, 2024 at 6:34 PM

Yeah, government shutdowns are always bad, and ones this far away from elections aren’t even politically advantageous. Plenty of time for rake-stepping own-goals for the Republicans over the next 24 months to life.

— Daniel Roberts (@drobertsimg.bsky.social) December 20, 2024 at 6:35 PM

I like the fighting spirit and I want more of it, and I want the rest of us to stop responding to them fighting R's by telling them they're cowards who never even try. I feel like we should positively reward the fighting spirit and not pretend it doesn't exist!
(Not directed at you, here)

— xanadian (@xanadian.bsky.social) December 21, 2024 at 1:34 AM


 
Proud to be a Democrat…


… and not a human speed bump.

The calculation that McConnell made was that the odds of Trump returning to power were sufficiently low that it wasn't worth risking Senate Republicans' hold on Trump diehards' loyalty. The living embodiment of this image:

[image or embed]

— River_Tam (@rivertam.bsky.social) December 13, 2024 at 8:18 PM


And I want my favorite potato chips to have negative calories, which is also not gonna happen. Thank Murphy the Trickster God, you can’t breed a Pelosi-quality leader from a pool of grifters, cultists, and narcissists.

Reader Interactions

156Comments

  2. 2.

    Nukular Biskits

    Good mornin’, y’all!

    Hope y’all are doing well this morning.

    Long week here at the House of Biskits. It took all year for this weekend to get here.

    ETA:  Well, crap. I missed the Solstice.  But at least the days will be getting longer now … wait …NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  5. 5.

    Nukular Biskits

    With reference to that second GOLIKEHELLMACHINE Bluesky post (sorry, I refuse to call it a “skeet”, even if it means more typing), that’s the problem with a lot of these last-minute Hail Mary legislative actions in BOTH the US Senate and House.

    Lawmakers (and I’m referencing mostly the GOP’s nihilist caucus) won’t suffer from their inaction, inability to compromise and/or outright obstructionism.  So, yes, it’s quite probable they would just up and go home, celebrate the Holidays with family and well-connected friends (who, coincidentally, won’t be suffering either), all while avoiding any interaction with constituents or a press trying to get them on the record.

    I’m of the belief that whatever consequences their actions/inactions put upon the American people should be 10-fold for lawmakers.  That might light a fire under their asses.

  6. 6.

    MazeDancer

    Happy Solstice to All!

    May the return of the Light illumine your reaping the rewards of the season of most inner growth.

    Cosy fires, warm drinks, and good books to all in this hemisphere.

    Fun in the Sun to those who are not.

  7. 7.

    Jeffg166

    HAPPY SOLSTICE EVERYONE!

    Spring is 90 days away. If you think that is a long time you aren’t as old as I am.

  8. 8.

    Professor Bigfoot

    Happy Solstice Day to all you lunatic Jackals; may the longer days bring us all the strength and the courage it’s gonna take to make it through the next 4 years.

  9. 9.

    Suzanne

    Rand Paul can get fucked. Seriously.

    I hope all those (white) working-class heroes who voted for that asshole are watching.

    Oh, I’m sorry, I’m sure I just assaulted their dignity by snarking as an educated coastal elitist or something.

    (In all seriousness, the Joan Williams book White Working Class is worth a read, even if I wanted to throw it against a wall at times.)

  10. 10.

    Nukular Biskits

    One more thing, while I finish my coffee and contemplate braving the the Arctic temps outside here on the MS Gulf Coast (currently 34 degrees … LOL):

    With reference to the legislation passed in the Senate (but this applies to the House as well), it would be nice if each of our senators/representatives would list their votes and, more importantly, WHY, on their official congressional web pages.

    The problem with any piece of legislation is that there are a multitude of votes taken, both for process and substantive (dealing with the actual meat of the legislation).  So it’s really hard to know how their thinking on something like the idiot Rand Paul’s amendment.

    And, yeah, I know you can get the yea/nay votes from congress.gov, but you really have to plow through tons of actions to compile a list for both your rep and both your senators.

  13. 13.

    frosty

    I clicked on a couple of other Axios headlines after reading the article AL posted. This bit, from Nov 22, was priceless considering yesterday’s shitshow inside a dumpster fire (emphasis mine):

    Some Republicans argued Trump will be a focal point around which GOP lawmakers can rally in a way they couldn’t over the last two years.

    “If Trump’s going to sign [a bill], you immediately have a momentum that wasn’t there before,” said one senior House Republican.

    Said a third House Republican: “I think you’re looking at a very prepared, very focused, very mission-driven Trump second term … I think it’s going to be much cleaner, much more orderly.”

  14. 14.

    lowtechcyclist

    BREAKING: President Biden has just signed a “work-from-home deal” for over 42,000 federal workers

    For just 42,000 of them?  There are millions of them!

    Before I saw the ‘42,000’ part, I was thinking, “in your face, Gina Raimondo!” but no such luck.

    I wonder which 42,000 Federal workers got singled out.

  17. 17.

    lowtechcyclist

    @MazeDancer:

    Happy Solstice to All!

    In honor of the occasion, it just started snowing here in northern Calvert County.  It’s not going to last, of course, but for the moment, it looks quite pretty.

  18. 18.

    frosty

    @Nukular Biskits: Nope, note the Onion. Axios, from right after the election when the Republicans got the Presidency and Congress and were confident they could steamroll anything they wanted right over the Dems. LOLOLOL, it’s not working out that way, is it?

    OT: We’re only 5 degrees colder than the Mississippi Gulf Coast here on the Mason-Dixon Line????

    (Although I bet your low tomorrow won’t be 8 degrees). ETA It will be warmer now! 9 degrees.

  20. 20.

    Nukular Biskits

    @Another Scott:

    @Nukular Biskits: There are lots of groups that keep track of things like that.  It’s a starting point.

    Oh,  I know. Which is both good and bad.  Good in that someone is doing the heavy lifting to sift through all those votes and at least summarize the actions.  Bad in that those efforts are quite often singularly focused on specific issues or causes.

    Not advocating throwing out the baby with the bathwater but, as a constituent, it’s often really frustrating to figure out what a lawmaker’s actual position is (particularly when they don’t directly address it in a public statement) on a piece of legislation.  I can navigate http://congress.gov, for example, but it’s like diving down a rabbit hole.

    And, I suspect, for many lawmakers, that’s a feature, not a bug.

  21. 21.

    Nukular Biskits

    @frosty:

    OT: We’re only 5 degrees colder than the Mississippi Gulf Coast here on the Mason-Dixon Line????

    (Although I bet your low tomorrow won’t be 8 degrees).

    You can keep that!

    I originally misread the forecast for last night and, after climbing in bed, saw the temps were supposed to be near freezing.  I had to climb out of bed, get dressed, bring plants into the respective corners on both the front and back porches, and find my halogen lights in hopes of keeping the air around them just above freezing.

    My tomatoes and peppers, however, … well, I’ll see here in a little while.

  23. 23.

    Nukular Biskits

    @stinger:

    Good question. I just hope the community settles on something ’cause I hate typing “Bluesky post”.

    But I’ll be damned if I call it a “skeet” or the action of posting them “skeeting”.

  24. 24.

    stinger

    Not-yet-president Trump killed an immigration bill that both sides had agreed on. Never-can-be-president Musk killed this last bipartisan agreement. Getting to a point where a bill is ready to be voted on and likely to pass takes a LOT of work — committee meetings, informal meetings, staff work, more committee meetings, etc. I’d think at some point the Republicans who’ve been involved with all this and have worked at actually legislating would get sick of interference in the legislative process — by people who don’t currently hold office, no less — and would start to ignore them. I guess we’ll see.

  26. 26.

    cmorenc

    @Nukular Biskits:

    The problem with any piece of legislation is that there are a multitude of votes taken, both for process and substantive (dealing with the actual meat of the legislation).  So it’s really hard to know how their thinking on something like the idiot Rand Paul’s amendment.

    …Which is exactly why come election season, it’s so easy to create technically true but factually pants-on-fire-lying ads claiming that Senator X voted against farmers, moms, apple pie and the American way, based on a “no” vote to table a resolution on sending the bill to committe X under a suspension of the rules on amendments to farm bills.

  29. 29.

    Suzanne

    FYI, wherever your sympathies regarding the UnitedHealthcare CEO shooting lie….. the Luigi meme content is hilarious.

    FWIW, I too would like to have a society in which provision of our healthcare was not predicated on profit, as well as one in which people weren’t shot in the street. But broken societies produce broken outcomes. Garbage in, garbage out.

  30. 30.

    Nukular Biskits

    weather.com says the outside temp has reached 38 degrees. <sigh> I guess I’ll bundle up and go grab the Saturday morning cafe mochas.

    Y’all be sweet ’til I get back.

  31. 31.

    cmorenc

    @stinger:

     I’d think at some point the Republicans who’ve been involved with all this and have worked at actually legislating would get sick of interference in the legislative process — by people who don’t currently hold office, no less — and would start to ignore them. I guess we’ll see.

    Elon Musk doesn’t exactly speak softly, but he carries an enormous money-stick.  That’s why they listen to him, with the example of Sen Casey D-Pa’s hide nailed to the wall with his money back in November (among others), and maybe even the boost that narrowly tipped the Presidential election.  R Senators and Congresscritters realize from those examples that Musk’s enormous monetary leverage can be exerted against them, too and not just against Ds.

  33. 33.

    Another Scott

    @lowtechcyclist: It’s impossible to tell from the tweet-thing, but I suspect it’s related to this (from December 6):

    The Social Security Administration and its largest union last week finalized a deal to instill the agency’s current telework policy in the parties union contract until at least 2029, roiling Republicans intent on ending the practice.

    SSA and the American Federation of Government Employees first reached the deal after Election Day, and agency head review was complete as of last week. Under the agreement, which was first reported by Bloomberg News, most agency employees will continue to allowed to telework between two and five days per week, depending on their occupation.

    Field office workers are allowed two days of telework per week, while most Office of Hearings Operations employees work between three and four days per week from home. Remote workers make up 1.3% of the agency’s workforce.

    In an internal message to members last week that was ultimately shared on social media, AFGE SSA General Committee Spokesman Rich Couture thanked former Commissioner Martin O’Malley, who resigned last week in order to run for chairman of the Democratic National Committee, and stressed that the current telework policy is a key tool in the agency’s fight against attrition amid declining budgets and a 50-year staffing low.

    […]

    Corrections welcome.

    Best wishes,
    Scott.

  34. 34.

    lollipopguild

    It’s tough to be a “Nancy Pelosi” type leader when your followers are a herd of cats who are always fighting with each other.

  35. 35.

    RevRick

    GOP: We want a strong leader like Nancy Pelosi!
    Also GOP: We want that leader to follow whatever passing whim enters the mind of Elon, the Magnificent, or his lapdog, DJT.

    ETA: what lollipopguild said

  38. 38.

    Suzanne

    @lollipopguild: That’s what made Nancy Pelosi so good at her job for so many years: she successfully herded the cats. That’s the special sauce of what made her good.

    There was plenty of snark earlier in the year minimizing her accomplishments, blaming her for loss of the House majority, etc. That’s not, IMO, the correct lens through which to judge her career.

    I still think she should retire now, but I will always have deep admiration for being probably the best-ever Speaker.

  40. 40.

    Another Scott

    Reuters is reporting the toll is now 5 dead and more than 200 injured in Magdeburg.  :-(

    Terrible.

    Monsters who encourage such othering and violent behavior are a danger to us all.

    Peace and comfort to the innocents.

    Best wishes,
    Scott.

  42. 42.

    Starfish (she/her)

    @Nukular Biskits: You can follow your legislators and their votes on govtrack.us. It doesn’t explain the WHY, but you do get to see how they voted. If you get stuck on that website and can’t quite figure it out, get Watergirl to give you my email, and I will work through it with you. And then remind me to go read the email address where all the spam lives.

  44. 44.

    RaflW

    Good morning.

    We’re already at the sunsets getting later point, and that’s all that matters to me. I’m sure morning people won’t find that a happy statement, but it’s really the “zomg, it’s 4:30pm and I want to go to bed again” thing that is crushing. Minneapolis has already added 3 mins to sunset, and tomorrow, 4 whole minutes! Whee.

    Orbital/axial whatever mechanics are interesting. Kawai (where we just were for some light therapy … and beach therapy, of course) has their sunsets-getting-later point on Dec 6. MN’s isn’t till Dec 14.

    Several years ago I did lots of reading about the equation of time and the analemma.

  46. 46.

    Omnes Omnibus

    I have come to the conclusion that a lot of people are using Balloon Juice to work out their psychological and emotional issues over the election.  This isn’t wrong by any means and my conclusion isn’t groundbreaking in any way, but it has made me realize why a lot of the political conversations here have been going the way they have.  I am not sure many of us are actually ready to have discussions about what we need to do next and how to effectively oppose the GOP.  I frequently have heard it said that people shouldn’t make significant life decisions in the immediate aftermath of the death of a loved one, etc.  Maybe a lot of Jackals are in a similar place.

  47. 47.

    Another Scott

    Meanwhile, in South Korea, Yonhap – Merry Christmas soon to be ex-Mr. President:

    SEOUL, Dec. 20 (Yonhap) — A joint law enforcement team investigating the martial law case said Friday it has requested impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol appear for questioning next week over his involvement in the botched martial law imposition.

    The team sent the summons to Yoon to appear for questioning at the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) building in Gwacheon, just south of Seoul, at 10 a.m. next Wednesday, its official said.

    It was the second summons request the investigation team has delivered to Yoon after he refused to cooperate with the first summons earlier this week.

    [ image ]

    The CIO appears to have taken into account security issues for choosing the public holiday to question Yoon.

    The CIO said it sent the summons via express mail and electronically to Yoon’s residence and the presidential office in Yongsan.

    It chose not to deliver them in person this time after Yoon’s office refused to receive them during the first summons request.

    The probe team plans to question Yoon over his role regarding the imposition of the martial law order on Dec. 3, which he rescinded following a National Assembly vote to overturn the order.

    The CIO plans to consider filing for a court warrant to detain the president for up to 48 hours should he continue to ignore the summons without valid grounds.

    The probe team is looking at charges of insurrection and abuse of power against Yoon.

    Yoon was impeached by the parliament Saturday and has been suspended from duties pending a Constitutional Court decision on whether to unseat him from office or reinstate him.

    [email protected]
    (END)

    Something something grind exceedingly fine.

    Best wishes,
    Scott.

  48. 48.

    zhena gogolia

    @Omnes Omnibus: I actually felt a tiny bit like looking at the front page of my paper this morning. I didn’t go there, but I felt that was a sign of healing.

    Of course, he hasn’t even taken office yet.

  49. 49.

    Jeffro

    of COURSE the Republicans wish they had a House leader anywhere near as competent as Nancy Smash

    and

    of COURSE they’re never going to have one

  50. 50.

    Jeffro

    @frosty:Said a third House Republican: “I think you’re looking at a very prepared, very focused, very mission-driven Trump second term … I think it’s going to be much cleaner, much more orderly.”

    um WHUT

    assumes facts that are not only NOT in evidence, they’re not even on this planet

    I know Americans’ memories are short, and perhaps House GOP members’ memories even more so…but after death and taxes, the only other sure thing in this life is that #ETTD

  52. 52.

    Sure Lurkalot

    @stinger:

    I’d think at some point the Republicans who’ve been involved with all this and have worked at actually legislating would get sick of interference in the legislative process — by people who don’t currently hold office, no less — and would start to ignore them. I guess we’ll see.

    Coequal branch of government? Surely you jest!

    A Republican congressman (h/t Aaron Rupar): Rep. Dan Meuser says “Republicans need to get onboard with President Trump” and adds that “our role is really to be more of a supportive board of directors.”

    Much easier to be an ass kissing toady, especially when you’re being extorted by Musk’s promise that he’ll fund an opponent to take away your job. Probably would ass kiss Trump anyway, though.

  57. 57.

    Jeffro

    @Sure Lurkalot: Republican congressman Rep. Dan Meuser says “Republicans need to get onboard with President Trump” and adds that “our role is really to be more of a supportive board of directors.”

    really?

    I wonder what Rep. Meuser’s constituents will think when it comes time to “get onboard” with the very many things trump wants to do that’ll hit them right in the pocketbook?

  58. 58.

    narya

    I was hoping that Jeffries would come through (in exactly the way that he did). Meanwhile, I’m at mom’s place, where she’s just glad to have company. I think today’s baking will be limited to a cake, because Friend (who drove me out here) has a birthday today. We were going to make a blueberry pie, because he loves blueberry pie, but mom doesn’t have any blueberries and it would be madness to go to the grocery store; chocolate cake it is!

  59. 59.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Starfish (she/her):  I don’t think so.  I remember being accused of being a CIA plant along with MomSense back in the DRONEZZZ Wars of the early Obama years.  Everyone wasn’t on Twitter then.

  60. 60.

    rikyrah

     

    Watched The 6888 movie from Tyler Perry on Netflix last night with Peanut. We both enjoyed it.

     

    Today’s double feature is:

    The Bishop’s Wife

    The Preacher’s Wife

  62. 62.

    Nukular Biskits

    @Starfish (she/her):

    That’s another website I’ve used. Couldn’t remember the name.

    Agreed, but I still think that it’s incumbent (or should be) on lawmakers to provide that information directly to their constituents and then some rationale (even if it’s BS).

  63. 63.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @rikyrah: ​
      I haven’t had a chance to see 6888 yet, but some people I know have and they said that some of the scenes were heartbreaking. They recommended it highly.

  66. 66.

    Miss Bianca

    @Omnes Omnibus: I think you’re right. Re-hashing and gnashing of teeth is an impulse that I have indulged here, and I am trying to quit it.

    Fortunately, as far as other social media goes, my FB feed has decided that what I really need for Christmas isn’t political content but endless posts of puppy videos and tidbits about famous horses. It’s soul-soothing. I’ll take it.

  67. 67.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Nukular Biskits: Watching people get wrapped around the axle about the term skeet is one of the funniest things about new people joining BlueSky.  Just call it a post if you want.  No one actually cares.

  70. 70.

    Nukular Biskits

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    “Skeet” just sounds … stupid. and too derivative Maybe it’s just me.

    But, who knows? It may catch on and that’ll be the correct term in another few weeks/months.

    I wouldn’t call myself as being wrapped around the axle but you’d have to admit “tweet” is probably universally understood (at least in the social media universe) as being a post on the Twitter platform whereas “skeet” probably isn’t (at least for now).

    And, yeah, you could say “post on Bluesky” or “Bluesky post” which is accurate but a bit clumsy.

    And, if you’ll pardon me, I’ll go yell at the passing clouds in the sky.

  71. 71.

    Eunicecycle

    @Sure Lurkalot: But a lot of what Trump and Musk want to do is deeply unpopular. I would think the campaign against a rep that lead with “Rep. X voted to raise the retirement age for Social Security!” might be effective.

  72. 72.

    RaflW

    @Shalimar: Republican MOCs have no reverence for, nor interest in the Constitution. They also have no interest in doing any work, they just want the title, prestige (?) and most of all, the access to cable news hits that come with it.

    In any other line of work, lusting for a job and then absolutely sucking ass at it would lead to a firing. But not in gerrymandered districts.

  76. 76.

    Ben Cisco

    Looks to me like the Dems are going to hold the line – and Jeffries will lead. I expected this.

    Wonder if the electorate will catch up?

    We’ll see.

  77. 77.

    Starfish (she/her)

    @Miss Bianca: There is a lot of viral AI content on Facebook now. It is separating you from your people. By injecting viral AI content in everyone’s feed, folks will scroll longer, and Facebook can serve more ads. I am seeing nonsensical AI content on YouTube as well. My son pointed out that Grant Hill did not have six fingers on one hand like he had in the YouTube that I was watching.

  79. 79.

    Eunicecycle

    @Eolirin: in the Senate. Republican Senators seem to have a LITTLE (holding my thumb and index finger very close together) more backbone, due to their universal arrogance. It would also fail in the House but might be closer.

  80. 80.

    Soprano2

    Have good thoughts for me, I have to brave Wally World this morning for the weekly shopping trip.

    The Spyres Family concert was great! It was the whole family for real, including mom and dad and the kids. Michael Spyres sang “O Holy Night” just wow! They’re all talented out the wazoo, but it’s obvious he’s a cut above the rest. They’re from Mansfield, MO – he said people in Europe always ask him about “Little House on the Prairie” because the Laura Ingalls Wilder House is in Mansfield. Evidently that show is popular in Europe. Who knew? The end was a singalong. I definitely got my $40 worth! In any big city you’d pay $100 or more for the cheap seats for a show like that. There can be benefits to living in a place like this.

  87. 87.

    Miss Bianca

    @Starfish (she/her): well, the puppy videos are all coming from.friends and associates who have current litters. The horse stuff is being pushed, for sure. Ads just get zapped till they give up for a while.

  91. 91.

    Soprano2

    @Omnes Omnibus: I think that’s right. I also think we have the added complication that there are two sides – the one that wanted Biden to stay in, and one that wanted him to drop out, and each side wants the other to admit they were wrong and are responsible for Harris’ loss. Then there’s me – seeing what happened, I think Biden’s loss would have been worse even though i was initially against him dropping out. We were pushing a boulder uphill and almost made it over the peak. People will be arguing about why we didn’t make it for a long time.

  93. 93.

    Melancholy Jaques

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I have come to the conclusion that a lot of people are using Balloon Juice to work out their psychological and emotional issues over the election.

    Can you think of a better place to do it? I don’t hang out in corner bars anymore.

  96. 96.

    Melancholy Jaques

    Very happy to see that change to social security & public pensions since I will be collecting both when I retire next year (aiming for March). I did not see this coming.

  97. 97.

    Josie

    @Kim Walker: ​
     Yes! I had to laugh when I was informed I could not receive my late husband’s social security due to the fact that my teacher’s pension made me too rich. Thanks Ronald Reagan.
    I’m not sure how this will affect me, but I am hopeful.

  99. 99.

    Starfish (she/her)

    @Soprano2:

    I agree with you.

    I think that the tendency to blame the other side gives people a sense of control, and there were a lot of things that were beyond what we could control going on.

    Some places were having the election deniers run the elections. That kind of thing is demoralizing, and folks are not going to show up and vote in places where they believe the system is extremely corrupt and broken.

    Some of the vote by mail stuff that was rolled out during the pandemic was curbed in this past election. Also, Republicans were not telling their voters that mail in ballots were a Democratic plot so their voters may have taken advantage of it too.

    Did more young folks show up to vote in 2020? Did “I was stuck at home with my parents and had nothing better to do” influence any of that?

    I mean, “Oh no, it is not the pandemic, and the kids are out drinking with their friends and not voting as they have always done.”

    I just can’t feel a sense of rage towards that.

    A 3% decline in turnout is just not that big. And it could have happened due to reasons that are boring and ordinary.

  102. 102.

    Geminid

    @Geminid:

     

    @Jeffro: What I meant to say to you and the others talking up Nancy Pelosi’s leadership skills is that Democratic House members showed a lot of discipline and responsibility as well.

    I credit the accomplisments of Biden’s first two years to Pelosi and the rest of her leadership team including John Clyburn and Hakeem Jeffries, but I also credit the successes to the individual Democratic Representatives. That was a very disparate group but they all still pulled in the same direction and I respect them for that.

  103. 103.

    Miss Bianca

    On the “pets” side of the “pets and politics” equation, I finally managed to get my calendar ordered! Took three tries on multiple browsers, but we got there in the end. Where Cafe Press was shitting the bed appeared to be with the PayPal connection. Once I finally wised up and clicked “pay with card”, I was able to git er done.

  104. 104.

    Steve LaBonne

    @Starfish (she/her): I firmly believe that this was a very ordinary election in every way if you ignore the Nazification of the Republican Party. And sadly the idiot voters who decide elections weren’t paying any attention to that so functionally it didn’t matter.

  108. 108.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    I assume the Biden signing of the work-from-home deal is the one negotiated with whichever of the two Fed unions that nominally represent the SSA.

    My DOT mode was bleeding edge work-from-home prior to the Plague Times. And even when we shifted into full-time work-from-home beginning in March 2020, it took a full 6 months to get everything ramped up to where day-to-day activities bore any semblance to the pre-Plague Times.

    And in 2023 when we rejigged into a hybrid scheme of people coming back in, it took 6 months to get that fully functional.  Also too, work-from-home allows us Feds to be fairly competitive in hiring and with functionally full employment, that’s a requirement.

    Of course, I fully expect the incoming (mal)administration to basically ignore this agreement and force the union to take them to court.  And while that happens, they try to get a judge who will allow them to abrogate the agreement in terms of making people come back in.

    I know, civil service protections and all of that.  Yes, they’re there but nothing is more crushing to morale than forcing offices to fall back on them.

  110. 110.

    Starfish (she/her)

    @Steve LaBonne: Some people couldn’t pay attention because they have no access to local news.

    Our reporter that was keeping our local fishwrap afloat said that he is leaving his job. Fortunately for us, we have several online-only attempts to replace it, but it was so sad to watch local news get gutted over the past several years.

  111. 111.

    Ruckus

    @Suzanne:

    Rand Paul can get fucked. Seriously.

    Hopefully by a semi truck……

    You might notice that this old man is just a tad not giving a damn about some people that think their entire concept of life is to screw over anyone and everyone they don’t like.

  113. 113.

    Spanky

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I have come to the conclusion that a lot of people are using Balloon Juice to work out their psychological and emotional issues over the election.  This isn’t wrong by any means and my conclusion isn’t groundbreaking in any way, but it has made me realize why a lot of the political conversations here have been going the way they have.  I am not sure many of us are actually ready to have discussions about what we need to do next and how to effectively oppose the GOP.  I frequently have heard it said that people shouldn’t make significant life decisions in the immediate aftermath of the death of a loved one, etc.  Maybe a lot of Jackals are in a similar place.

    Quoted in full for emphasis. I haven’t said a whole lot since the election because at some level I sensed this, but didn’t or couldn’t articulate it.

    We’re all going through our own mourning, and this turned out to be the place that mourning banged into others’, and not usually in a good way. It looks like things are starting to lighten up (solstice joke!)

  115. 115.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @stinger:

    I’d think at some point the Republicans who’ve been involved with all this and have worked at actually legislating would get sick of interference in the legislative process — by people who don’t currently hold office, no less — and would start to ignore them.

    Sure, if their goal is to get things done for their constituents/voters. That is not their goal. Their goal is to enjoy all that comes with a nice, secure job with great benefits, get “tenure,” and then do less and less without actually getting kicked out. Their districts are super-gerrymandered, so they never have to worry about running against true opposition. All they have to do is whatever the current recognized leader tells them to do. True, for a moment it was iffy as to who is really running the joint, but they’ve comfortably settled on The Richest Man in the World as being The Leader, it’s back to being easy-peasy!

  118. 118.

    Another Scott

    Meanwhile, … FrontOfficeSports.com:

    A bill that would clear the way for the Washington Commanders to return to D.C. passed a unanimous Senate vote after 1 a.m. EST Saturday and will now head to President Biden’s desk.

    It was a hard-fought victory for the legislation’s proponents who had to counter tweets from Elon Musk Thursday night, including one with 20 million views that declared the stadium “should not be funded by your tax dollars!”

    The bill has never had any federal funding since it was first introduced in July 2023, and explicitly states D.C. “may not use federal funds for stadium purposes on the campus, including training facilities, offices, and other structures necessary to support a stadium.”

    “Elon got the details of the legislation completely wrong, but the good bill still came out on top,” a Congressional source told Front Office Sports after the bill passed.

    Earlier this week, it looked like the bill would breeze through as part of the continuing resolution (CR) to fund the government through March. But then Musk spread misinformation about the funding of the stadium, and President-elect Donald Trump pressured House Speaker Mike Johnson to trim the bill.

    The slimmer CR was overwhelmingly voted down Thursday before a final CR passed with Democratic support Friday.

    The RFK Stadium bill wasn’t in either CR, including the one the Senate passed around 12:30 a.m. ET Saturday. But behind the scenes, the Commanders and other proponents of the bill made a major Senate push starting Thursday that quietly led Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to introduce the bill by unanimous consent around 1:15 a.m. ET.

    It wasn’t certain until minutes prior that all 100 senators would agree, including the two from Maryland who had backed off their opposition only earlier this week.

    “We have always supported the District’s effort to control its own land,” Sens. Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen said in a joint statement. “Our concerns with this proposal have been addressed.”

    No Senators spoke up in opposition.

    […]

    Good, good.

    Those old Democrats know how to get stuff done. Imagine that.

    ;-)

    Hang in there, everyone. We can still make some good things happen if we stick together.

    “Diversity is our strength. Unity is our power.” – N. Pelosi.

    Best wishes,
    Scott.

  119. 119.

    Kay

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Or maybe this view is incredibly patronizing and actually the people you’re calling “emotional” just disagree with you on actual policy issues. Or that.

  121. 121.

    kindness

    Cold for you all, eh?  Out here in the California heartland we’ve had a few solid frosts but no freezes yet.  In the old days there would be a couple weeks in December that would get in the 20’s at night.  No more.  Too bad too.  Our fruit trees need a freeze for their sap to fully run right and to kill off the insect population a bit.  I’m still getting hit in the face as I ride through swarms of insects when I’m running my pup.  That plus I want it to snow in the mountains so I can go skiing.  I did ski Tahoe early in December, but I’d like to do my smaller local hills which aren’t open yet because no snow.

  122. 122.

    Kay

    No one thought Republicans in the House would just roll over Democrats. Everyone can count, and thus everyone knew Republicans would have to work with Democrats in the House to pass anything. None of this was a stunning victory or a defeat for either side. Acknowledging that reality is  not dooming. It’s an accurate account of what was expected and what happened.

  123. 123.

    Miss Bianca

    @Kay: Wow, that sounds like a pretty emotional reaction there to *me*, Kay. Muppet News Flash: I think all these things can be true – that there can genuine disagreement on policies AND that there are psychological and emotional issues and triggers that go along with that. The way you talk about Biden’s foreign policy failures with regard to Gaza, for example, sounds pretty emotional to me.

    I happen to think that’s normal with issues that we care about deeply.

  124. 124.

    cain

    @Suzanne:

    They have watched continuously has he has been doing this and it’s fine for them.

    It’s interesting how many federal workers continue to vote for Republicans despite these debt ceiling fights and the many times they have been furloughed during the holidays. It’s inexplicable. It’s like they know we would protect them. Such faith in the democratic party!

  126. 126.

    Ruckus

    @stinger:

    Somewhere/somehow there is likely money involved, and possibly a not insignificant amount. There may be other non existing enforcements of the desires of those that can afford to buy the government that they want. Or maybe not.

    I just think it is naive to imagine in any way that there are not, at least in some congress people’s case, people that demand and get the vote they want. Mostly to protect their bank accounts/income stream. Or their hate. Or both.

  127. 127.

    Kay

    I posted this last night. It’s the Amazon Strike Fund. They are going to need legal funds because they are being arrested and detained for protected speech.

    It’s really something to see the diversity in this workforce – all of the locals are on TikTok. They range from a 100% white male workforce in rural Minnesota to NYC’s and Atlanta’s very brown and very female workers.

    The Teamsters had to show them the documentary “Harlan County USA” because American workers have become so unaccustomed to worker actions no one knows what a strike is like anymore. It’s like a muscle that has atrophied.

  129. 129.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @Starfish (she/her): im noticing this ai stuff on Facebook as well. Enhanced nature spot photos that go beyond believable, and sponsored and suggested for you, and groups im not already a member of. Perhaps 20% is actually people I know, and groups I follow. So, I’m scrolling less. I hop on, notice friends and events, the saga of a friend battling cancer and teetering on the edge of hospice, catch everyone’s solstice blessings, and then I hop off. It’s just not as fun.

  130. 130.

    Kay

    @Miss Bianca:

    The implication is “other people” are working thru emotional issues in the election, while the rah rah team are hard nosed realists looking at facts.
    I could analyze the rah rah team too to, if I wanted to – how they’re denying the gravity of the situation to make themselves feel better.
    Telling me this was a huge win for Dems in Congress doesn’t make it true. It’s lowering standards.
    Dems performed competently on a field that is actually not that lopsided for them because the GOP has 30 or so hard Right obstructionists and Republicans have a tiny majority in the House. Everyone knew Democrats would carry the funding. It’s exactly what happened last time.

  132. 132.

    dww44

    @Starfish (she/her): I will confess that this first out of the gate “we will work with the GOP” post election day proclamation was really off putting to me.  Not just him but other Dems from both chambers.  Do Republicans ever actually say that when they lose a chamber or two?  I’ve no recollection of any kumbaya emanating from their mouths since 2008 when the election of a Black man made them lose their sanity altogether.

    I used to believe in the sort of collaborative governing that was once  the norm.  Not now though.  Cause they’re gonna malign and smear us from the get-go. The electorate has not demonstrated any appreciation for sane normal Democrats, so we must fight to win back power on our terms.  Not theirs or anyone else’s.

    Anecdotally, this a.m. Marin O’Malley  was on MSNBC campaigning for DNC chair.  Using, among others,  the argument that he would have us focus on kitchen table issues.  I’m sorry, but in my world, that doesn’t win elections anymore. We deliver on kitchen table issues all the time and Harris and Walz both campaigned on that.  Our megaphone is way too weak.  The message has to be different and better.

    P.S. has anyone read/seen the NYT current pushing how,post election, the Democratic party is engaging in “wish casting” and not dealing with the real fundamental issues of why we lost?  Jeremy Peters, reporter, spouting off on MSNBC yesterday or the day before and David Leonhardt in his newsletter.  It’s evident that the TImes knives are still all out for Democrats.

  134. 134.

    zhena gogolia

    @dww44:

    We deliver on kitchen table issues all the time and Harris and Walz both campaigned on that.

    Absolutely true. And one of them was a Black woman. They didn’t vote on kitchen-table issues. If they had, they wouldn’t have elected Elon Musk.

  136. 136.

    Miss Bianca

    @Kay: Who on BJ has been “rah rah” about the budget bill passing and saying it’s such a great Democratic win? I’m honestly baffled, I haven’t noticed it. They did the bare fucking minimum they could have done, imo.

    But maybe there needs to be a “rah rah” element out there trumpeting the “Democrats save the day, AGAIN!” message for the cheap seats. Maybe that message needs to be amplified to the breaking point because a lot of people have just been conditioned not to notice or care that that’s always the case.

    Maybe not here, I dunno, but I just can’t get worked up about it anymore. Caring about what the Democrats are doing these days seems to be bad for my mental health.

  138. 138.

    citizen dave

    I think if the Washington Football Club moves to D.C., they should change their name to the “Continuing Resolutions”

  140. 140.

    Starfish (she/her)

    @dww44: “We will work with the party in power” can very much mean “We will clown these mofos if they think that they are getting anything passed with their two vote majority.” I mean, it is just the polite way of saying it. Now, a lot of Republicans have no polite and haven’t had any since the tea party nonsense, but I prefer to look at what they are doing and not what they are saying. I have strong faith that Jeffries is going to clown some mofos.

  141. 141.

    Ruckus

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    It’s humanity.

    We do not all respond the same to an event. We do not all see the world from the same direction or manner. We are not all as forgiving of errors or missteps that others make. We are not all as likable or even likable at all. Etc. Now we do often fit into much larger groups, like liberal and asshole. (the two current political sides in the US….) And this makes the world work – and not work, and causes wars. Some humans are good – and some are horrible. And on and on. (Not that you don’t know all this, but sometimes we all need a reminder that none of us are the center of the universe – a rather common human misconception)

  144. 144.

    Kay

    @Miss Bianca:

    Democrats could trust their base and actually make the (accurate) and grown up argument that Democrats actually have a ton of leverage in the House because Johnson is weak and he has a tiny majority. One can reasonably argue that Democrats should cooperate with Republicans because they are in a very strong position to gain concessions and advance their agenda (not just react to Republicans). But if Democrats made that argument they would be setting a higher bar, so they prefer not to.

  145. 145.

    Kay

    And Pelosi should step down. She’s actively thwarting younger members from advancing and harming their careers. She should lead on it and if she won’t the Democratic base should.

  147. 147.

    Mr. Bemused Senior

    @Omnes Omnibus:   I frequently have heard it said that people shouldn’t make significant life decisions in the immediate aftermath of the death of a loved one, etc. Maybe a lot of Jackals are in a similar place.

    Someone wrote [paraphrasing] “it’s like the country is in hospice.” Yes.

  149. 149.

    Miss Bianca

    @Kay: I’m down on the Democrats for.my own reasons, but apparently not as down as you seem to be. This  despite the factt that hey – they actually *did* what *you* wanted with regards to the 2024 election. Funny. Funny ha ha or funny peculiar, remains to be seen.

  151. 151.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: I agree with this.  We have a lot of power in the House, just like the past two years. The Senate may be another matter, though.

  152. 152.

    Kay

    The fact is that 90% of the commentors on this site would have loudly and daily opposed Biden’s policy in Gaza IF that policy had not been Bidens but instead George W Bush’s or Trumps. Instead we got crickets.

    Opposing ethnic cleansing and war crimes is not a far Left position. It’s the consensus post WWII international order that “we” – the liberal minority in the United States, are supposed to be protecting.

  153. 153.

    Another Scott

    @Kay: I understand your rage and frustration on this topic.

    But I really wonder what you propose to do with that rage and frustration now.

    Biden will no longer be President in 30 days.  Harris won’t be President then either.

    ForeignPolicy.com (from November 12):

    U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has promised to stop the war in Gaza, ending over a year of fighting that has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, devastated the region, and spread to Lebanon, Yemen, and other countries nearby. Even if Trump is serious about keeping his promise, the chances of ending Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza are low and fighting is likely to continue.

    Israel believes it is riding high, and even if Hamas offered a hostages-for-withdrawal deal—the core of cease-fire proposals in the past year—on favorable terms to Israel, it is unlikely that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would agree. Israel has decimated Hamas’s leadership and disrupted much of its military capacity. Although it has not destroyed Hamas completely, as Netanyahu has vowed, the group is on its heels, and Netanyahu contends that a cease-fire would allow the group to recover. Israel appears to have settled for a grinding conflict in Gaza with the goal of keeping Hamas weak, even if it prevents any larger political deal in the strip that would end the suffering there.

    […]

    U.S. President Joe Biden was not able to negotiate a cease-fire, and he appears far more willing to put pressure on Israel than Trump. The people that Trump has so far indicated he will appoint, such as Sen. Marco Rubio as secretary of state, are strong supporters of hardline Israeli positions. Mike Huckabee, tapped by Trump to serve as the U.S. ambassador to Israel, has opposed any cease-fire with Hamas and supports the Israeli annexation of settlements in the West Bank. Once in government, these officials might preside over a Hamas surrender but are unlikely to make tough demands of the Israeli government.

    Within Israel, Netanyahu’s far-right government has moved even further to the right. Last week, Netanyahu fired Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who favored a cease-fire deal with Hamas. In addition Netanyahu’s apparent belief that easing pressure on Hamas will allow the group to recover, an end to the fighting would also lead to a political day of reckoning for him, with his long-time critics uniting with those who hold him responsible for Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack.

    […]

    It will be interesting to see the coverage, or lack thereof, of Israel’s various wars come January…

    FWIW.

    Best wishes,
    Scott.

  156. 156.

    Gvg

    @Kay: The devil was behind us. Trump and the republicans were all worse and even those of us who thought we would win, didn’t think it was sure or big. We could not attack the democratic leader.

    Also, I bluntly am sure that the majority of this country, even most democrats are not ready to be tough on Israel. They mostly didn’t know enough about Trump and are surprised that he might mean some things he said over and over now he is re-elected. So don’t expect them to know a thing about what has really been happening in Israel and Palestine for the last 30 years. I gather that what I’d happening in Gaza is still big news in your area of the country. It was not that huge here ever and I work on a big University. It’s long dead news and is not influencing anything down south now. Some people know, the same ones who always knew. Most people have other problems. This means that Biden could not really get tough on Israel without losing reelection. It also means no other candidate from either party can either. The public is just not there yet. I don’t know if they can be brought to it, and we have more urgent problems first. We have to fix our own house first.

    i don’t say my area is more like the whole country but Michigan and that upper Midwest does have a more middle eastern and Palestinian population than average.

Comments are closed.