Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

It’s pointless to bring up problems that can only be solved with a time machine.

DeSantis transforming Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

“woke” is the new caravan.

Stop using mental illness to avoid talking about armed white supremacy.

Let the trolls come, and then ignore them. that’s the worst thing you can do to a troll.

Fear and negativity are contagious, but so is courage!

Since we are repeating ourselves, let me just say fuck that.

The revolution will be supervised.

You would normally have to try pretty hard to self-incriminate this badly.

Live so that if you miss a day of work people aren’t hoping you’re dead.

It is possible to do the right thing without the promise of a cookie.

Republican also-rans: four mules fighting over a turnip.

The desire to stay informed is directly at odds with the need to not be constantly enraged.

You cannot shame the shameless.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

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

This country desperately needs a functioning fourth estate.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

Republicans: The threats are dire, but my tickets are non-refundable!

When I was faster i was always behind.

Hell hath no fury like a farmer bankrupted.

There are some who say that there are too many strawmen arguments on this blog.

You are here: Home / Elections / Election 2020 / Monday Morning Open Thread: The GOP Death Cult Is Full of Economic Terrorists

Monday Morning Open Thread: The GOP Death Cult Is Full of Economic Terrorists

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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Sunday assailed Republican “disarray” over a new pandemic relief package as the White House suggested a narrower effort might be necessary, at least for now.

The California Democrat panned the Trump administration’s desire to trim an expiring temporary federal unemployment benefit from $600 weekly to about 70% of pre-pandemic wages. “The reason we had $600 was its simplicity,” she said from the Capitol.

The administration’s chief negotiators — White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin — spent a few hours at the Capitol later Sunday to put what Meadows described as “final touches” on a $1 trillion relief bill Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is expected to bring forward Monday afternoon…

Separately, White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said a federal eviction moratorium on millions of rental units, due to expire at the end of the month, will be extended. “We will lengthen it,” he said, without specifying for how long.

Republicans have argued that federal jobless benefits should be trimmed because the combination of state and federal unemployment assistance left many people better off financially than they were before the pandemic and therefore disinclined to return to their jobs.

Many Democrats contend that a lot of people don’t feel safe going back to work when the coronavirus is surging again around the country…

Pelosi criticized the hold-up on the GOP side. House Democrats passed a $3 trillion relief package a couple of months ago, with the aim of jump-starting negotiations. Republicans abruptly halted rollout of their bill last week amid differences between senators and the White House.

“They’re in disarray and that delay is causing suffering for America’s families,” Pelosi said…


Reader Interactions

181Comments

  1. 1.

    PsiFighter37

    The GOP is full of idiots. Who do they think is going to get blamed if the economy craters further, ahead of an election? It’s like they decided, “Hey, we passed TARP in 2008 and got pasted – so let’s try something more offensive, which is doing nothing, and see the results.”

    Fuck ‘em.

  2. 2.

    Baud

    The California Democrat panned the Trump administration’s desire to trim an expiring temporary federal unemployment benefit from $600 weekly to about 70% of pre-pandemic wages.

    Coupled with a commensurate reduction in pre-pandemic expenses, I assume.

  4. 4.

    WereBear

    @PsiFighter37:  Who do they think is going to get blamed if the economy craters further, ahead of an election?

     
    They don’t care about blame. They are Death Spiraling.

    If they stay in the cult, they will destroy the whole world rather than admit they were wrong.

    Jonestown wasn’t a mass suicide. It was a core of Jones loyalists who held everyone else at gunpoint and made them drink.

    It was a mass murder.

  6. 6.

    mrmoshpotato

    Steve Mnuchin, you bitchwaffle, we’ll pay for the tar and feathers out of pocket just so you don’t whine when we drag your ass out of the treasury by your hair.

  9. 9.

    Baud

    The NYT is officially a trolling operation.

     

    The Real Reason Biden Is Winning? He’s a Man

    NYT > Top Stories / by Peter Beinart / 40min

    It’s a lot easier to run a cautious, inoffensive campaign when you’re not up against a culture of misogyny.

  10. 10.

    Baud

    The unity was nice while it lasted.

    Bernie backers plot convention rebellion over ‘Medicare for All’

    At least 360 Democratic delegates, most Sanders supporters, have signed a pledge to oppose the Democratic platform unless it endorses single-payer

     

    The Republicans of the Lincoln Project are now officially more antifa than the American left.

    ETA: In fairness, there’s ass covering unlike what you saw in 2016.

    Despite their frustration with Biden, progressive leaders behind the pledge all said they are voting for Biden and working to elect him. RootsAction.org, for instance, noted that it is planning to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on an effort to persuade swing-state progressives who are on the fence to get behind Biden.

  11. 11.

    Brachiator

    I’m not trying to pretend to be some sort of legislative mastermind but we don’t have to negotiate with people who are going to vote against the bill no matter what.

    It drives me nuts that the media and much of the public accepts as normal that the White House and the GOP crafts this emergency legislation and then drops it on the laps of the Democrats. Bipartisanship is doing what the GOP wants.

    This is especially crazy when getting the best ideas together is essential for dealing with this emergency, and even GOP leaders acknowledge that Democratic Party approval will be necessary to get any bill passed.

  12. 12.

    TS (the original)

    @Baud:

    When people eventually wake up and stop giving trump an advantage on “managing the economy” then the GOP will be history. This perpetuating myth is all about helping business over people.

    In every other way, Biden & the democrats are winning that survey.

  13. 13.

    Baud

    @TS (the original):

    I look forward to reminding Republicans that their trillion dollar tax cut for the wealthy didn’t get a single Democratic vote. Do you know how hard that is?

  18. 18.

    Chyron HR

    @Baud:

    I can’t believe Bernie “I demand to stay on the ballot because we’re going to turn this thing around once David Sirota says Biden raped him” Sanders didn’t mean it when he conceded.

  19. 19.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Baud: Poor marks, eh?  How’re these marks administered – cannon to his Soviet shitpile mobster conman orange face?

  21. 21.

    Baud

    @Chyron HR:

    I can’t remember the last time a platform actually meant anything in the real world. But it’s a bad look when everyone else is focusing on unity.

    I’m kind of glad the convention will be virtual.

  23. 23.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Baud: I honestly can’t bring myself to care about a faction voting against a party platform.

    I’m trying to remember an election where the party platform was an issue, unless it included something stupid that the other party made an issue out of.

    As long as they’ll vote for Biden, that’s the important thing.  And hell, if this year hasn’t demonstrated that single-payer health care at least needs to be a goal of the Dems, and really the only debate should be about how to minimize the (all too nontrivial, alas) difficulties of getting from here to there, I don’t know what it takes.

  24. 24.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Baud:

    At least 360 Democratic delegates, most Sanders supporters, have signed a pledge to oppose the Democratic platform unless it endorses single-payer 

    No one tell them Biden will likely have more than 750 delegates beyond what he needs for the nomination.

    Also, no one tell these babies that we’re firing them into the Sun.

    “That’s right kids.  Disney World moved to Cape Canaveral.”

  26. 26.

    Baud

    @lowtechcyclist:

    By itself, it won’t mean much. But you can’t say this is ok unless you agree that everyone else who cares about a particular issue also has the same entitlement.  The problem with unity is that it has to be universal.

  31. 31.

    stinger

    I’m so old I can remember when the Democrats had to propose a bill costing $900 billion because $1 trillion sounded too big. “When you’re GOP, they let you do it.”

  32. 32.

    Amir Khalid

    @mrmoshpotato:

    That’s a bit unfair. Bernie hasn’t acted out since he decided to endorse Biden. It’s just that these diehard Wilmeristas are now more Wilmerist than Wilmer himself.

  33. 33.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @mrmoshpotato:

    What’s wrong with “beaten to death with a baseball bat in front of Louise Linton as every single asset either of them has is seized”?

    Wonder which part would bother her more?

  34. 34.

    Matt

    How do you negotiate with someone who will happily convince their own supporters to drink bleach and starve?

    A good start is to not pre-concede half of what you actually want in the name of “bipartisanship”, but I’ve pretty much given up on most of the Dems in Congress ever doing that.

  37. 37.

    zhena gogolia

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:

    I think I know the answer to that question.

  38. 38.

    SFAW

    @Baud: 

    I will not support the Democratic platform if it doesn’t include Tar and Feather 4 All Republican Officeholders

    I think you left out a key qualifier. Because, frankly, I’m not sure I’d want to avail myself of T&F4A. [T&A4A, on the other hand …]

  40. 40.

    marklar

    @Baud: 

    Two thoughts.

    1- The article mentions “After moderates accused him of failing to do everything he could to persuade his supporters to back Clinton in 2016 — a charge he vehemently denied — the Vermont senator has taken multiple steps to bring the Democratic Party together this cycle.” The first step Bernie should have taken was to become a Democrat if he wanted to be the Democratic nominee.

    2- This will work out well for the Democrats in the general. It changes the narrative of Biden being manipulated by the ‘extreme left’ in the party. In fact, don’t be surprised if Don Jr later starts referring to this as a false flag operation.

  41. 41.

    lowtechcyclist

    @TS (the original):

    When people eventually wake up and stop giving trump an advantage on “managing the economy” then the GOP will be history. This perpetuating myth is all about helping business over people.

    I really think this is one of the many areas where Dems do a lousy job of self-promotion.  The Dems have done a much better job of managing the economy than the GOP for three or four decades now, but hardly anyone knows it.

    They’ve even done a much better job with respect to defense, foreign policy, and national security from the Clinton years on, starting with the Agreed Framework which kept NK nuke-free for a decade, which the GOP did its best to undermine and then abandoned entirely under Bush. And of course both Bush and Trump have been natsec/fp disasters.

    But if the Dems toot their horn more than trivially about this, I sure have missed it.  They’re great at policy, but suck at politics, while the GOP is the exact opposite, which is why they’re still in contention despite having presided over a disaster that would have been unthinkable six months ago.

  42. 42.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Baud: That’s how it’s always worked, hasn’t it?  Hasn’t this sort of thing happened innumerable times before?  And if so, why should the bar be higher now>

  43. 43.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @p.a.:

    And organic! So long as the feathers are loose and collected from the ground, can they count as vegan?

  45. 45.

    Ken

    Here’s a thought – insane, stupid, unproductive, and deadly, but no worse than the Republican plan.

    Back when the first relief bill was passed, the understanding was that this would allow the states to lock down for a couple months and get the virus under control. Now, some states did that, and some did not.  As a result the virus is not under control and another national lockdown is needed.

    So, only give additional benefits to the states that locked down in the first round. After all, they spent their money as intended, and now need more to fund the second lockdown. The other states get nothing, except perhaps a scolding because they gave free money to people without requiring anything in exchange (the socialists).

  46. 46.

    The Thin Black Duke

    @lowtechcyclist: I don’t have to read the news to know that the economy is bad and is going to get worse. And I think most people are painfully aware of it now. That’s why the GOP is losing their shit because their bullshit ain’t working no more and they don’t know what else to do.

  47. 47.

    Ken

    @Baud: Bernie backers plot convention rebellion

    “I’m sorry, we seem to be having some technical difficulties with zoom, we’ll try to get those delegates reconnected as soon as possible…”

  50. 50.

    MomSense

    @mrmoshpotato:

    I looked into guillotine construction and I can’t afford the power tools, so I think boiling oil or tar and feathers is the way to go.

  51. 51.

    rikyrah

    Then they need to come out and say it, so that the DNC can cut the ads on these muthaphuckas ??

    Lindsey Graham on Sunday Morning Futures: “Half the Republicans are going to vote no to any phase four package. That’s just a fact.”— Erica Werner (@ericawerner) July 26, 2020

  55. 55.

    Baud

    @rikyrah:

    I would like to see people spreading the message that Republicans have to wreck the country to increase the problems that the Biden administration will have to deal with, to benefit the GOP in 2022.

  56. 56.

    Ken

    @Baud: I’d like to see people getting that message to Trump, and explaining slowly to him that this is because Congressional Republicans think he’s a loser.

  57. 57.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @lowtechcyclist: My son’s FIL worked in the steel mills around Gary. He once told us that as a young guy, he wasn’t interested in either political party, but he started to notice that he did better under Ds. He’s been a D voter ever since.

  58. 58.

    Baud

    @rikyrah:

    Half the Republicans are going to vote no to any phase four package. That’s just a fact.

    Can’t we just cancel them?  I thought we could do that.

  59. 59.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Baud:

    The Real Reason Biden Is Winning? He’s a Man

    NYT > Top Stories / by Peter Beinart / 40min

    It’s a lot easier to run a cautious, inoffensive campaign when you’re not up against a culture of misogyny.

    Irony just curled up, put its thumb in its mouth, let out a sad little whimper, and died.

  60. 60.

    Kay

    The problem at DHS is much bigger than Trump:

    Benjamin Wittes
    @benjaminwittes
    ·Jul 26
    Internal memo from head of DHS I&A formally changing the blame for Portland violence from “Violent Opportunists” (VO) to Antifa.
    Glossary:
    FIR=field intelligence report
    OSIR=open source intelligence report

    This is garbage work. There is not a shred of evidence that protesters in Portland are planning a “mass casualty” event. They’ve now picked up, detained and searched hundreds of them- they have found NOTHING that would support this. I haven’t seen that they;ve found a single weapon of any kind, let alone anything that would produce a “mass casualty event”. DHS seems to exist solely to produce garbage “intelligence” that justifies their lavish funding. It could be de-politicized, I suppose, going forward, but that still leaves the problem of really poor quality work.
    If they can and did invent “intelligence” for this, how can one trust the “intelligence”? Any of it? I don’t know that anything they produce is reliable or real.

  61. 61.

    Baud

    @SiubhanDuinne: I can’t help but wonder if the purpose of that piece is to make Hillary’s women supporters resentful of Biden.  They have every right to be resentful, of course, but I don’t think they’ll direct it at Biden.

    ETA:  FWIW, I don’t agree that being a white man is why Biden is winning current polling, but I agree that it’s why he’s winning by so much.

  63. 63.

    Kay

    Next time I see a DHS “operation” I’ll know that they invent threats. No idea how anyone is supposed to tell which ones they invent to justify their existence and OBSCENE funding levels and which ones are real and justified. Completely arbitrary. Could be real, could be fake.

  65. 65.

    Kay

    @rikyrah:

    There’s been congressional grumbling about them since 2012, not because they’re Right wing political actors with massive police power (although they are) but because they’re ineffective and incompetent.

    Just bust it up. It was Joe Leiberman’s idea, so is obviously terrible.

  66. 66.

    Spanky

    @p.a.:

    @Baud:

    I will not support the Democratic platform if it doesn’t include Tar and Feather 4 All.

    Locally sourced!

    Keep pluckin’ that chicken.

  67. 67.

    jonas

    @Baud:  it is planning to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on an effort to persuade swing-state progressives who are on the fence to get behind Biden.

    I hope by “persuade” they mean “give a good slap upside the head” because who the fuck is “on the fence” in this election?

  70. 70.

    Matt McIrvin

    @PsiFighter37:

    Who do they think is going to get blamed if the economy craters further, ahead of an election?

    To be fair, the Democrats always get blamed for everything eventually, without regard for the limits of space and time. At this point they may be writing 2020 off as a loss and preparing to come roaring back in the neo-Tea-Party backlash of 2022.

  76. 76.

    germy

    Trump’s Campaign announces its all-star line-up of speakers for new scaled down Republican Convention. Ted Nugent, Scott Baio, Antonio Sabato Jr, and Diamond and Silk will all appear virtually in Zoom boxes before Trump’s acceptance speech. You can already feel the electricity. pic.twitter.com/AYDMSpRngi— Mike Sington (@MikeSington) July 26, 2020

    Thrilling.

  79. 79.

    germy

    Hence the brief, fleeting “shift in tone”

    “In the past couple of weeks, senior advisers began presenting Trump with maps and data showing spikes in coronavirus cases among ‘our people’ in Republican states, a senior administration official said.” t.co/B4yuYH0Im9

    — Joshua Holland ? (@JoshuaHol) July 27, 2020

  83. 83.

    Baud

    @germy: Not too different from 2016.

    Our 2016 convention was sooo good.  Makes me angry again thinking about how it all ended.

  84. 84.

    Amir Khalid

    @Baud:

    Biden is leading Trump not because he’s a man, but because every day Trump says/does something to remind the world that he is unfit to be President. Hillary lost the electoral college vote to Trump not because she is a woman; but because, unlike every presidential candidate before her, she had been the target of a decades-long campaign to poison people’s minds aginst her. Beinart is one of those intellects who think they can out-argue the simple truth.

  88. 88.

    Betty Cracker

    @Amir Khalid: But why was Hillary Clinton the target of a decades-long campaign to poison people’s minds against her? Because she is a woman who had the temerity to seek power. Beinart is right, IMO.

  91. 91.

    SFAW

    @germy:

    The campaign tried to get Grady Sutton and Margaret Dumont, but they were unavailable. I hear they’re in negotiations with Kip Winger, however.

  92. 92.

    TS (the original)

    @NotMax:

    Night of a Thousand Has-beens.

    Night of a dozen never-weres. Not even a self-respecting has been wants to be there.

  93. 93.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @NotMax:

    Night of a Thousand HasNever-were-beens.

    Fixt

    ETA: And TS (the original) squeaks in ahead of me at #92. Great minds, etc.

  94. 94.

    opiejeanne

    @Kay: My middle child’s fiancee told us that every phone call he makes for his company, he has to answer a set of 3 or 4 questions about whether Seattle is a war zone or not.

    That was on Friday. It wasn’t a war zone yet, but it is now.

  95. 95.

    SFAW

    @jonas:

    who the fuck is “on the fence” in this election?

    “Swing-state progressives,” apparently. The same people who, in 2016, said “Yes, Trump is a liar, a con man, a racist, a misogynist, a sexual predator, and has bankrupted every business he’s ever touched — but that Hillary, well, I JUST DON’T KNOW.”

  97. 97.

    SFAW

    @Baud:

    As Trump rails against ‘far-left’ fascism, new database shows leftwing attacks have left far fewer people dead than violence by rightwing extremists

    Well, maybe, but the rightwing extremists weren’t to blame for that one car torched in Seattle a few years ago, so both sides.

  98. 98.

    Betty Cracker

    @Baud: I don’t claim to be typical of women who supported Hillary Clinton, but I resent any attempts to gloss over the role sexism played in 2016 and 2020, not honest examinations of it. (Don’t mean to imply folks in this discussion are glossing it over; just stating a general peeve.)

  99. 99.

    Amir Khalid

    @Betty Cracker:

    That campaign, as I recall, wasn’t directed at her because she was a woman, but because she was Hillary. It began when Bill was still the only politician in the family, and it was directed at her as his wife. It did pick up after she started running for office in her own right, because she became an even more conspicuous target. But has any other Democratic politician faced years of concentrated lies and calumny just for being a woman?

  100. 100.

    JPL

    @Betty Cracker:  They will attack Joe’s VP nominee because she’s a woman, but I don’t think it works this time.  Suburban housewives are tired of trump’s bullshit.

  101. 101.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    If the damn useless GOPers had their act together on contact tracing and PPE usage we wouldn’t be in this situation and only have much cheeper local outbreaks to deal with, not whole regions of the country. They grave stone of the GOP should be “never could think past their nose”.

  102. 102.

    SFAW

    @Amir Khalid:

    I don’t think you can separate the “because she was Bill Clinton’s wife” from “she should just shut up and bake cookies (or whatever) like a good little FLOTUS,” which is a standard misogynistic response.

    She also understood that responding appropriately to the Murderer-in-Chief’s attacks during the campaign would have turned the misogyny up to 11, instead of the 8 during most of the campaign. [“Appropriately” means, in this case, responding the way a “red-blooded American male” could/would respond to a dickhead like Trump. Maybe not a scorched-earth response, but an FOAD response of some sort.]

  103. 103.

    germy

    If the Right played ball by the same rules as the Left, the pandemic would already have been used as leverage to privatize education and break the Democrat teachers unions. There would be pro-school-choice marches and petitions everywhere. Legislation would be on the table.— John Hayward (@Doc_0) July 27, 2020

    “If the Right played ball by the same rules as the Left, the pandemic” might be over, like in New Zealand, or close to it like in other countries that are not led by death cults. t.co/34PiB1vJYJ— Roy Edroso (@edroso) July 27, 2020

  104. 104.

    Ken

    @germy: coronavirus cases among ‘our people’

    TRUMP. “What do you mean, our people?”

    AIDE. “Like Herman Cain, who probably got the virus at your Tulsa rally and has been hospitalized since.”

    TRUMP. “But he’s black.”

  105. 105.

    Betty Cracker

    @Amir Khalid: It was sexism from the start, IMO, because Hillary wouldn’t knuckle under to traditional gender roles as Bill’s wife before she was a politician in her own right. She kept her original name at first, until pressured to take his lest she destroy his career (think about how stupid and offensive that is).

    She insisted on having her own career as a high-powered attorney (and earned the lion’s share of the money for the family). Way before he was president, Hillary was conspicuous as a part of Bill’s political team — not just a political wife who gazed adoringly from the sidelines but someone who developed policy.

    Then she played a real policy role as first lady and began seeking power in her own right. That’s why they had to destroy her. And as Beinart’s piece points out, it’s not just Hillary.

  106. 106.

    SFAW

    @JPL:

    Suburban housewives are tired of trump’s bullshit.

    Well, that might have been true a month ago, but now that the Liar-in-Chief has warned them that Biden will let scary black people roam the suburbs, a-whompin’ and a-whumpin’ every livin’ thing that moves within an inch of its life, and raping the wimmins — well, their votes will probably go to the Big Strong Man that can protect them.

  107. 107.

    Chris Johnson

    @rikyrah: Well, he wouldn’t be a very good traitor if he only hurt Democrats, now would he? He’s got to damage ALL Americans, including the ones we don’t like.

    Please proceed (at least with that part), Trumpenor.

  108. 108.

    rp

    @SFAW: Yes…the attacks on her began in 1992 largely because she was an accomplished lawyer in her own right who didn’t accept the traditional “spouse of the candidate” role. And then it ratcheted up a thousand fold when she took the lead on health care reform (“how dare the first lady take on a policy role!!!). IOW, she was an uppity woman who didn’t know her place

    edit: Dammit, Betty.

  109. 109.

    NotMax

    @Ken

    “Call up that Birx broad and tell her to cross ‘inject pizza’ off the list I sent over.”

    //

  112. 112.

    japa21

    @Kay: You are missing the point. Now when there is a “mass casualty event” they can say we knew about it and warned about it.  The fact that they also created the event will be lost.

    This administration would quite easily sacrifice several thousand lives, including some of the uniformed people they sent to Portland, if it helped win the election.

  115. 115.

    evodevo

    @Amir Khalid: Yes…Nancy Smash.  Because she is powerful and effective in her job.  Oh, and my retired military BIL hates her personally, because…?  Just sayin’.  On the other hand the hatred toward her has not been so long standing as that towards Hillary.  THAT began when she refused to hide her light under a bushel back when First Lady in the 90’s.  Wingers HATE HATE HATE a powerful professional woman. And the %^&# MSM didn’t help, with all the badgering her over what her favorite cookie recipe was lolol – I remember that from 30 years ago.

  116. 116.

    Chyron HR

    @WaterGirl:

    “I don’t want to be associated with this narrative.” – Bernie’s one and only statement regarding his delegates’ behavior at the 2016 DNC

  121. 121.

    WaterGirl

    @Amir Khalid: I don’t know that I have ever said this before, but I think you are wrong on that, Amir.

    It may have started because she had the temerity to be involved in  policy-related issues (hint: because as the wife (female!) she was not supposed to do that, but I will never believe that the Rs didn’t see early on that Hillary could be a force of nature and then make damn sure to kneecap her all along the way.

    Or, what Betty Cracker said at #105.

  122. 122.

    Ascap_scab

    Melania Trump to announce Rose Garden renovation

    Trump intends to restore the space to more resemble the original design and formation of the Rose Garden, established by President John F. Kennedy, and implemented in 1962 by horticulturist and philanthropist Rachel “Bunny” Mellon. The renovation, which will include excavation, could take several weeks, according to the source familiar with the timeline, and the Rose Garden will, during that time, be out of commission for use.

    She’s not renovating six months before leaving, she’s stealing the roses to send to Mar a Lago and leaving a large “under construction” tent in its place.

  124. 124.

    WaterGirl

    @Chyron HR: Wow, knock yourself out there, Bernie.

    That’s not what real leadership looks like.

    That’s the equivalent of me in 8th grade, supposed to make a phone call I didn’t want to make.  I dialed, let it ring once, and hung up.

    “Yes, I tried to call but he didn’t answer.”

  125. 125.

    Michael Cain

    @MomSense:

    I looked into guillotine construction and I can’t afford the power tools…

    You got something against lovingly hand-crafted guillotines?

  127. 127.

    Captain C

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Perfect Fantasy Progressive Candidate, who always looks suspiciously like the person imagining said candidate.  Sometimes projected onto a real candidate, who will either inevitably disappoint, or who will conveniently get so few votes that they’ll never be in an actual position of responsibility.

  128. 128.

    Salty Sam

    @Amir Khalid: It began when Bill was still the only politician in the family, and it was directed at her as his wife.

    As I recall, it began in earnest when Bill put her in charge of developing a sensible health care system.

    ETA- pretty much what Ms. Cracker says at #105

  131. 131.

    Redshift

    @Baud: For my congressional district Dem convention, the Bernie delegates organized an effort to reject the entire resolutions package because it only included a universal health care compromise resolution instead of their M4A resolution, because it was “important for the future of the progressive movement.” At the state level, there was a single-payer resolution (I would have rather had a general universal HC one.) I read the resolution text they were outraged wasn’t included; it called for the party to support “Bernie Sanders’ Medicare for All bill” by name. Apparently single-payer wasn’t enough for “the future of the progressive movement.” ?

  133. 133.

    Betty Cracker

    It’s totally rational to be gun shy about Sanders delegates engaging in a “convention rebellion” as Politico characterizes it. The childish and destructive way they showed their asses in 2016 is burned indelibly in my memory too. But let’s not forget the media role in stirring up “disarray” narratives.

    With that in mind, I’m trying to figure out if there’s any “there” there. In the article, the M4A delegates are all quoted as saying they’re 100% committed to voting for Biden and spending money to convince other Bernie peeps to vote for Biden, so there’s that. Grain assault and all, but it doesn’t have the extortionist tone of 2016.

    It sounds like they’re threatening to vote as a bloc against the party platform if it doesn’t include M4A in a bid to influence the language of the platform. Is voting against the party platform a big deal, i.e., is it usually unanimous or something? I don’t know, but I’d be surprised if it were. There is always genuine disagreement in the party on issues.

  134. 134.

    JPL

    Sorry if this has been mentioned but fourteen Miami Marlins have tested positive for COVID.   They just finished a road trip with Philly.        hmmm

    I just saw this

    The Miami Marlins’ home opener Monday night against Baltimore has been postponed as the Marlins deal with a coronavirus outbreak that stranded them in Philadelphia.

    twitter.com/kylegriffin1

  135. 135.

    Chief Oshkosh

    Open thread?

    It’s been 30 days since the Russian bounty story broke. Has Trump done ANYTHING about it? Has anyone from the press even ASKED him about it in the last 21 days?

  137. 137.

    JPL

    @Chief Oshkosh: Jake Tapper is upset that Chris Wallace didn’t.   I guess Wallace was whining about Biden not coming on his show, and Tapper pointed out that he had the president on, and didn’t even ask him about this.

  138. 138.

    Spanky

    @SFAW:  The French certainly made theirs by hand. Unfortunately, since steel production here in the US of A has tanked, we’ll be using cheap Chinese steel for the blade. Seems appropriate.

  139. 139.

    Spanky

    @JPL: STRANDED IN PHILADELPHIA! THEY’RE DOOOOOOOMED!

     

    ETA: Is there anyone who did NOT see this coming?

    Editing the ETA: “This” being the viral transmission, not being stranded in Philly. Although I’m undecided as to which is worse.

  142. 142.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Chief Oshkosh: No and no, but my state’s junior Senator is still on it.

    In the past 31 days, Donald Trump has called #BlackLivesMatter a symbol of hate.He's sent unidentified federal agents to police Portland streets against peaceful protesters.But he has NOT publicly called out Putin for reportedly offering bounties for American troops abroad.— Tammy Duckworth (@SenDuckworth) July 27, 2020

  143. 143.

    Ken

    @mrmoshpotato: I hadn’t thought of that.  Plus two more advantages:

    1. You can sell the rope to collectors afterward, as many executioners did in the 18th and 19th centuries. They even cut it into short pieces to meet demand.
    2. Many Christian right-wingers think the Antichrist will use guillotines (Fred Clark has the story), so it’s best to avoid them.
  144. 144.

    JPL

    @Spanky: Now this

    Tonight’s Yankees-Phillies game is cancelled, source tells The Athletic.

     

    This is good news for Boston btw.

  147. 147.

    mrmoshpotato

    @JPL:

    This is good news for Boston btw. 

    And John McCain?

    Saddens me that the Philly Phanatic will have no one to harass this season.

  148. 148.

    Baud

    @Betty Cracker:

    As I noted above, this stunt by itself is just a fart in the whirlwind. But it’s in the news today, and I think the only two principled reactions one can have are (1) I support everyone’s right to do the same thing for whatever issue they like or (2) none of us should be doing this in 2020.

    As a practical matter, I don’t think any other group of people is interested in following these delegates’ lead.  But the least we can do is state clearly that we don’t approve of this showy lack of unity at a time like this. (Especially because the platform as a whole is sure to be the most progressive in a generation, at least).

    YMMV.

  149. 149.

    Ken

    @JPL: This is good news for Boston btw.

    Why? Did they win their first three games, so when everything gets cancelled later this week they’ll finish the season at the top of the standings?

    (EDIT: Checked the standings and every NL and AL team is 2-1 or 1-2. If they cancel it will be a weird one for the record books.)

  153. 153.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @JPL:

    Process related question: for the average Masshole, how does one prioritize team hatred? Is there a “standing in the league on X date requirement”, or is it purely locational? And how can one group of people hate so many teams at once?

    Also, am I correct in assuming that the one thing that unifies left and right in Boston is fan hatred of other teams? That some guy coming into Fenway in Yankees gear will be gleefully pounded into chopped steak by a unified group of fans, some wearing Biden buttons and others wearing Trump buttons, Dropkick Murphys blaring in the background?

  157. 157.

    Betty Cracker

    @Baud: Just wondering how much of a kabuki the platform adoption thing is. If it’s always a show of unity for the cameras (as the nomination is), I agree with your point about the undesirability of flies in the ointment. But if platform adoption functions as a way to apply pressure for changes and/or register levels of support for adopted planks and differences of opinion within the party, it’s less clear to me that these people are assholes for not sitting down and shutting up. The existence of the unity committees make me think it probably IS a big show, but I honestly don’t know how it works at the national level.

  158. 158.

    Baud

    @Betty Cracker: It’s hard to know right now how much of a spectacle these delegates plan to make about their dissent from the platform.  In most years, debates about the platform are boring inside baseball events.  But if the media is looking for something to make the Dem convention “interesting,” and these delegates are willing to play along, who knows?  We just have to be mentally prepared for whatever happens.

  159. 159.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Betty Cracker:  I’m a (first-time) DNC delegate and just got a letter in the mail from some self-identified progressive group about the healthcare plank. They were advocating for M4A or single payer, as I recall. I don’t think there was a “rebel if we don’t get what we want” element, but I’ll go back and check.

  160. 160.

    Baud

    If Democratic moderates decide to rebel to show that they still have influence, I want to be able to condemn them with a straight face.

  161. 161.

    JAFD

    Little known today is that the practice of charitable bake sales began with the early Quakers. The Society of Friends, in the beginning, was a collection of radical rabble-rousers, who, for example, said ‘Thee’ and ‘Thou’ to avoid saying ‘Sir’ and ‘M’lady’. The young William Penn, one of the most prominent, often fell in with the law. But, a couple of his relatives owned the bakery in their English village, and prepared special confections to sell to raise the funds to bail out Billy when he got into trouble.

    Problem was that his zeal was so trouble-making that their fellow villagers complained of how often they charged higher prices for their treats, when all they wanted was something good for dinner.

    So, arrangements were made to send Billy to the New World, to build his dreams there. And things returned to normal in that village, but that brouhaha was not forgotten.

    Indeed, even today, people still talk about

    … the pie rates of Penn’s aunts.

  165. 165.

    yellowdog

    @Amir Khalid: Has he appeared in public in the last few months? Has he issued any statements, personally? He hasn’t voted for a while. Will he come back for the new stimulus? In other words, wtf is Bernie doing? Is he healthy?

  167. 167.

    James E Powell

    @Chief Oshkosh:

    It’s been 30 days since the Russian bounty story broke. Has Trump done ANYTHING about it? Has anyone from the press even ASKED him about it in the last 21 days?

    When that story broke, I think I said it would last 72 hours.  The press/media don’t care how corrupt & depraved Trump is; he’s money to them. Military & veterans will still vote for Republicans. We will still hear over and over that Democrats hate the troops.

  168. 168.

    Fair Economist

    @Matt:

    A good start is to not pre-concede half of what you actually want in the name of “bipartisanship”, but I’ve pretty much given up on most of the Dems in Congress ever doing that.

    Were you not reading the news when the House passed the 3 trillion HEROES act in May? I can kind of excuse the other dozen or so momentous bills the House has passed because the news never wanted to report that.

  169. 169.

    satby

    @Betty Cracker: The right wing had Hillary in their sights long before Bill got elected. She was part of the impeachment inquiry staff when Nixon was impeached in 1974. Her children’s rights policy work and writings in 1978 and 1979 were an outrage to conservatives.

    Source

  170. 170.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @satby: Yes, and that preemptive “smear the scary liberal/progressive woman” campaign is being repeated with AOC and other members of the squad. It worked against Hillary, so why not?

  175. 175.

    Citizen Alan

    @Ken: 

    Many Christian right-wingers think the Antichrist will use guillotines (Fred Clark has the story), so it’s best to avoid them.

    Ah, yes. A Thief In The Night. I made my profession of faith because of that movie. It was at a revival, and on Monday night, all the kids were made to watch it. The next day, I came home from school, saw my dad’s truck was there, but couldn’t find him (he’d left with a friend on an errand). I immediately freaked out because I thought he’d been Raptured and any minute, servants of the Antichrist were coming to chop my head off. I walked the aisle” later that night.

    I was nine, I think. Maybe younger.

  177. 177.

    Citizen Alan

    @Kathleen: That and the fact that every single night of the Convention, as soon as the proceedings were over, the media vermin would find some sweet young Bernie humper (always a young female for some reason) to wistfully talk about how she “still had doubts” about Hillary and might end up voting for Jill Stein. Every. Single. Night.

  178. 178.

    ballerat

    Dude deserves to be in prison

    This, if there were any justice, is where he needs to be. But we have a corrupt DoJ. But as in the age of the French Revolution when there is no justice the people eventually will find a way.

  179. 179.

    ballerat

    @Kay #63

    Who was behind all that color threat level stuff of the Bush administration? It would always get bumped up to Red before an election. Wonder if that was DHS too. I wouldn’t be surprised.

    edit: the @ link thing when responding to a comment by clicking Reply is not appearing like it used to.

    edit edit: Took a minute with google. Yes, that corrupted color-coded terrorist threat system was DHS’s.

    This is my surprised face.

  180. 180.

    J R in WV

    DHS was designed and implemented by Cheney’s minions working “under” G W Bush, so DHS was crooked by design and intent, as well as construction.

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