This is one the most Biden clips I have ever seen pic.twitter.com/LCEma2Xkw5
— Acyn (@Acyn) May 27, 2021
President Biden made an optimistic case for pumping trillions of dollars into the economy while imploring Republicans to drop their opposition to raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans https://t.co/yEJwKsXUpn
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) May 28, 2021
… Bringing his economic arguments on the road, to a longtime swing state that he lost by eight points in 2020, Biden pointed four months into his presidency to a range of metrics to make the case that “the Biden economic plan is working.” He also urged Congress to make “generational investments” in education, research and infrastructure.
“Covid cases are down. Covid deaths are down. Unemployment filings are down. Hunger is down,” the president said. “Vaccinations are up. Jobs are up. Growth is up. People getting health coverage is up. Small business confidence is up. Put it simply, America is coming back.”…
“We’re in a race to see who wins the 21st century,” Biden said. “We must be number one in the world to lead the world in the 21st century. It’s a simple proposition, and the starting gun has already gone off.”
He compared the current moment to the country’s expansion of the electrical grid in the 1930s and the construction of the interstate highway system in the 1950s.
“They set the economy up to grow more quickly and share prosperity more broadly for decades to come,” he said. “Those electrical poles and wires still help our rural communities 80 years after they were built — and it’s time now to rebuild them.”
“The pandemic exposed just how badly we need to invest in the foundation of this country and the working people in this country,” he added…
Biden delivered the speech at Cuyahoga Community College, the same location where he was slated to hold a campaign rally more than a year ago. That rally was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic, and Biden cast his visit on Thursday as another indication that the country was bouncing back.
“There would be no rally that night. Life in America had changed, and a long, dark year was about to descend upon all of us,” he said. “Fourteen months later, we finally made it to campus. After a year of darkness, we’re now emerging in the light.”
President Biden pulled out a list of Republicans who he says are ‘bragging’ about the American Rescue Plan to their constituents but had refused to vote for it pic.twitter.com/MJG24TXtBq
— Reuters (@Reuters) May 28, 2021
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone ???
rikyrah
Up this morning, ordering my groceries and other stuff to be delivered because, even though I am fully vaccinated, I am not going out in these COVID streets if I don’t have to. Going to enjoy my weekend in the peace of my own home.
You can’t trust the lying unvaccinated ??
Stay safe out there.
Protect yourself.
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
Mike E
Good morning…
This is a shrewd tactic by the president. He’s the best image for all these plans and initiatives, and the GOP look like POS attacking him. Keep at it!
Kay
It is just humming here. It would be so great to see longer term investments in a growing economy rather than only investing after a catastrophe or financial crash, as a “rescue”. We wouldn’t need so many “rescue” packages if we invested longer term when it’s moving up instead of only when it’s moving down. Pushing people out on a ledge every ten years and then rescuing them is just insane. They barely recover before the next catastrophe. Don’t push them out on a ledge in the first place.
rikyrah
46 bringing out the literal receipt on those Republicans is the kind of petty that warms the heart.?
MagdaInBlack
@rikyrah: I am settling in for a long weekend of hermit life too ?
rikyrah
But any rate, thanks for the ice cream ???
Oh that 46
Matt McIrvin
He better make sure that ice cream’s not too fancy a brand!
OzarkHillbilly
Parody is dead: Gun Church That Worships With AR-15s Bought a 40-Acre Compound in Texas for Its ‘Patriots’
MomSense
@rikyrah:
INORITE! With that wicked smile of his and font so big all the still photos got the entire list of names.
Champion!
John S.
Jon Tester says it best:
While Lisa Murkowski states the obvious:
OzarkHillbilly
Your welcome.
MomSense
@rikyrah:
I hear you. We are going upta camp this weekend. This place is literally in the middle of nowhere. We have to drive on a bunch of roads that only have fire codes for names to get to my friend’s cabin on a lake.
OzarkHillbilly
Whitmire: Huntsville PD keeps a murderer on the payroll
It’s like killing for Jesus.
Just for the record, 2 former US attorneys disagree.
I couldn’t make this shit up.
Elizabelle
Lidl (grocery store) still requires masks. I love shopping there. I still prefer masks in indoors areas. Sue me. For me, it’s actually to give cover to those who might want to wear masks — or should, because no vaccination, but are intimidated. Also, you could not pay me to live in a red county.
@rikyrah: Hugs, and happy holiday weekend. Enjoy the break. We are expecting a rainy weekend in central VA, although it’s beautiful (and morning cool) right now.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
I went to my first live music show in a year and a half, Ley Line last night at the Larimer Lounge here in Denver. Intimate venue, not packed, perfect evening.
So glad that live music is beginning again.
Brachiator
I love this move. It helps the average person understand who really has their back.
Also, when critics ask Biden why he isn’t being bipartisan, he can reply “Republicans like my plans so much, they keep trying to take credit for it. Seems only fair that they should vote for it, too. That’s bipartisanship.”
Betty Cracker
OzarkHillbilly
What part of $30+ a pound doesn’t scream “ripoff”?
NotMax
@OzarkHillbilly
Cab Calloway, San Diego Infirmary.
;)
mali muso
I have been comfortable enough being unmasked around my close friends and colleagues whom I know to be vaccinated. But I’m still masking up for any trips into the grocery store, etc. I have a 4 year old and she’s not eligible for a vaccine yet, so I don’t want to let my guard down. As luck would have it, I’m just getting over the first head cold I’ve had in over a year. Pretty sure that the rest of the easily communicable diseases are going to make a roaring comeback as more naked faces become available hosts.
Revrick
Biden’s sunny optimism about enacting his American Jobs Plan and his American Family Plan leads me to believe that he knows, when push comes to shove, Manchin and Sinema will provide the votes to pass them through Reconciliation.
We seem to think that they are the ones who need to be persuaded that this is the way to go, but that overlooks the power of the institutionalist press. Politico is still whining about how much Biden has failed to be bipartisan, as if that is the highest good in itself. And Politico shapes the discourse of the Sunday morning shows, which shape the discourse of the Washington Post and New York Times, which shape the discourse of the national TV news broadcasts.
This discourse hobbles Biden and the Democrats, so all these outreach efforts to the GOP are aimed at shining a bright light on its utter intransigence. They have to show they tried, they really tried, and now they’re forced to go on alone, without GOP support.
Morzer
I am loving this article by Rebecca Solnit:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/may/28/centrism-insidious-bias-unjust-status-quo
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Elizabelle: Jewel-Osco (my grocery store) still requires masks too. Discovered yesterday that the library doesn’t though. Staff has to wear them but there’s a sign saying if you’re vaccinated, you can ditch them.
debbie
@rikyrah:
I think Joe’s next offer should be the dollar amount the GOP offered financed solely by tax increases on businesses and the wealthy. Just to see their reaction.
rikyrah
@OzarkHillbilly:
We have seen this movie before.
It doesn’t end well ????
SiubhanDuinne
@rikyrah:
This needs to be a rotating tag and a bumper sticker.
And “The Lying Unvaccinated” might just be the greatest band name in history.
Revrick
@OzarkHillbilly: I have a friend on Facebook who lives across the road from them and has seen them parade in with their AR-15s and their crowns made of bullets. She gives them a wide berth.
narya
Out here in eastern PA, I was walking into a Target and saw a masked woman w/ a masked young girl walking toward the door. Woman turns to girl and says, while walking in, “Take off your mask; we’re vaccinated.” The girl was maybe 8, at the most, so NOT vaccinated. The stupid, it burns.
I’ve been w/ family, and everyone is vaccinated. Trips to the store are masked, fully, but they’re rare. Wegman’s = mostly masked, Target = about 50/50. I’m doing it mostly because mom has an organ transplant, so her immunity may not be much, but also, to protect employees.
OzarkHillbilly
As well she should, hopefully she wears a mask and full face shield too. I’ve read that the crazy is infectious.
Cameron
@Betty Cracker: That’s a pretty grim way to go into Friday.
different-church-lady
@Kay:
GOP SENATOR: “I’ll say it’s insane! Why aren’t we just pushing them off the ledge once and for all?”
Kay
@Revrick:
I’m willing to accept numerical limits- if he doesn’t have the D votes he can’t pass anything- but I hope the Biden Administration is not so politically marinated in any “discourse” that they actually believe the vast, vast majority of people pay any attention at all to whether Joe Biden persuaded any Republicans to vote for infrastructure. They aren’t paying attention to that, they don’t care now and they won’t care 6 months from now.
It isn’t that the “900 billion” offer from Republicans is too low. It’s that it’s a bad faith offer. They have no intention of dong it and even if they did they’re refusing to pay for it with a tax increase, so they’ll cut lower and middle class subsidies or add regressive taxes that hit those people harder. 900 billion is a lot of money. You could work with people who made that offer. But you can’t work with these people because the offer is bullshit. The offer isn’t “900 billion”. It’s zero.
bjacques
@Betty Cracker: aww, beat me to it! I first read that in a Stephen King story.
That Dallas gun cult was foretold by some friends of mine (also in Dallas) who did a student film in 1985 called Armageddon Fabulosa, featuring the Reverend Ulysses X Buxton and set in fictional town of Ovum, Texas. It ends violently but with an upbeat hymn.
Elizabelle
@OzarkHillbilly: The Gun Davidians. Spare us!
Betty
@Morzer: Just an excellent explanation of our dilemma.
Elizabelle
@Kay: Thank you, Kay.
More people need to keep hammering on “bad faith.” I think a lot of people understand “bad faith” and not paying one’s workers, and the like.
Stop pretending it’s an actual negotiation. It is Bad Faith Theatre.
prostratedragon
@OzarkHillbilly: Got inspired yesterday to see where in the world Thornton, TX is. I guess it’s relevant somehow that the place is 40 miles from Waco, however Thornton itself (Limestone County) is part of no metropolitan area. Or micropolitan area. The town proper sits on a square mile of land. Its Census population has slowly but steadily declined from its 1940 heyday of 749 to 526 last count. In other words, a sitting duck. not unlike Newfoundland, PA.
different-church-lady
@rikyrah:
Yeah, well fuck them. I’m going back to living my life. They can experience the thrill of the oxygen mask all they want.
natem
Biden is, as the kids say, based. Very based.
Chris Johnson
@different-church-lady: Go watch Innuendo Studios’ video ‘Always a Bigger Fish’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agzNANfNlTs
It’s supposed to be a joke but it’s important to understand that a bunch of these people do literally believe that there are just better people and worse people, and the worse people have to fail. Think of it like social darwinism as a religion? They are earnestly opposed to evening the score because to them, propping up a loser does NOT make that loser a winner: maybe it’ll make the loser even worse ‘cos then they have to try even less hard. There are conservatives who really do think you have to cull all the failures, like plucking weeds so your garden grows better, and they would indeed want people driven to failure and death because to them those people are inferior and SHOULD die.
Kay
@Elizabelle:
Democrats would take a lower number, Biden (obviously) started really high and if they had serious people on the other side they could talk about a number, but they don’t. Republicans know infrastructure is popular so they have decided to pretend they’re negotiating.
If Republicans were actually interested in investing in infrastructure they would have passed 900 billion under Trump, who RAN on infrastructure and accomplished nothing on it. Instead they set up a slush fund for agriculture subsidies and put up some shoddy wall panels on the border.
They would have gotten Democratic votes. Democrats want infrastructure. Republicans want “discourse”.
satby
Most of the people continuing to mask up around here (stores by and large still require them) are probably vaccinated, but don’t want to be mistaken for Republicans. A couple of my customers actually joked about that.
Finally getting some good soaking rain here since last night. Halleluja!
debbie
@rikyrah:
I’m getting out early tomorrow to run errands, but otherwise staying in too. Too many jackasses in this city to do otherwise.
yellowdog
@OzarkHillbilly: with a congregation in the mere hundreds, how can they afford/qualify for a mortgage for this? Who is backing them?
prostratedragon
@bjacques: Maybe they could revive that and pitch it to Netflix or Prime.
Soprano2
This, all of it. Things are humming here too, which is why more than half the businesses in our city are trying to hire people all at the same time!! This is what’s so good about the long-term investment in infrastructure – it’s a long-term plan, not a short-term patch. It’s hard to do long-term planning if all you’re doing is jerking from one crisis to the next crisis.
Soprano2
Storycor ran this story this morning, about a soldier who returned from Iraq and eventually died by suicide. https://www.npr.org/2021/05/28/1000504512/encore-this-memorial-day-remembering-the-overlooked-heroes All the warmongers should have to listen to stories like this mother’s, over and over again. :-(
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@different-church-lady:
Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. It will not stay confined to those who are stupid and the immunocompromised will be affected
OzarkHillbilly
@yellowdog: I suspect the son came into a rather handsome inheritance from his father.
Kay
@Soprano2:
So true and much more true of middle and lower income. Conservatives say they want stable families and small businesses that persist over decades and orderly communities but you can’t have those when people are crashing, panicked from one crisis to the next. Invest when we’re flush and the next crisis we’ll have a higher floor and they won’t need to plug so many holes.
Conversations/explanations with low income people are like “and then this happened which led to this which led to this” where the precipitating event is like “my car battery died”. You could just weep at the waste.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Beautiful cello music for a cloudy morning
debbie
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Thanks!
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Kay:
No lies told.
Yeah, funny how that works, huh? Conservatives lie like they breathe and it pisses me off how so many people can look past that because of culture war BS
bjacques
@prostratedragon: haha! If only. It’s pretty scabrous though.
Betty Cracker
My husband and I are on staycation this week, and I’ve put off all the drudgery, like reorganizing the pantry and canning tomatoes. A week of glorious indolence is coming to a close!
Has anyone seen Nomadland? I woke up at 4 AM and couldn’t go back to sleep, so I watched it. Wow. It’s amazing that a film that’s so spare manages to be so affecting. The explanation: Frances McDormand.
Eunicecycle
@OzarkHillbilly: My mother was always complaining about people who didn’t speak English. She didn’t accost them, but would say it loudly. One day I finally said, “Your oldest granddaughter and her family live in Germany and they don’t speak German yet. How would you like it if someone said nasty things about them?” That finally shut her up, around me anyway!
Ken
Relevant because it tells us that reporters are lazy? Or at least hear “Texas, gun, cult” and think “distance to Waco needs to be reported”.
Soprano2
I wish the press would detail what the “unspent” Covid funds they want to repurpose are slated to be spent on. I suspect it’s things like money for schools and unemployment benefits. I actually heard a story on “All Things Considered” yesterday where the reporter was badgering Labor Secretary Walsh about why they shouldn’t just put the unemployment money those Republican state governors don’t want into the infrastructure bill. If I’d been him, my reply would have been something like “if we reach the end of the Covid emergency and still have unspent funds like that, then we would consider repurposing them. Right now we’re still in that emergency, so transferring any of that money would be irresponsible. Much of it is already budgeted to be spent in the next two years”.
Their offer isn’t exactly “zero”, it’s $257 billion paid for with electric car user fees and the gas tax, which of course they would then relentlessly pound on Democrats for as raising taxes on the average voter. Here’s what the CNN article I found says:
So, an offer with poison pills in it. It’s a non-starter. I think they’re trying to get something that Manchin and Sinema can tout to their voters as “bipartisan”, so that then they would cooperate on passing the rest through reconciliation.
DB11
@Morzer: Great article, packed with insights and uncomfortable truths.
Thanks for the link.
germy
News from upstate NY:
NY School Recalls Yearbooks After Student Puts Hitler’s ‘Mein Kampf’ as Favorite Book
How many times have I heard this:
“Once all the old boomers die out, we’ll usher in a new era of universal love and tolerance”
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Betty Cracker: I have a crammed file drawer that needs cleaning out and plenty of time so I should clean it out. But I don’t feel like it
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
I liked the Nomad’s leader, too. I expected to dislike him because it could be scammy or cultish but instead he was just all love and kindness and how to manage your poop bucket.
stacib
“Pushing people out on a ledge every ten years and then rescuing them is just insane. They barely recover before the next catastrophe. Don’t push them out on a ledge in the first place.”
I wish I could like this a million times.
Ken
“If the Republicans wanted to have input on how these funds were spent, they should have participated when the bill was being negotiated, or at least voted for it.”
Followed by a casual mention (holding up list of names) that many of the Republicans are claiming credit for the relief programs even though they voted against them. I think everyone in the administration should carry such a list at all times, or at least when they’re going to deal with the press.
hueyplong
@germy: How many times have I heard this: “Once all the old boomers die out, we’ll usher in a new era of universal love and tolerance”
—
It will be a start
And I’m not sure it’s wise to recall those yearbooks. Having the evidence will come in handy when that punk ends up hosting an 8:00 pm show on FoxNews.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: Yes! I was worried about him at first too. I read somewhere that some of the folks in the movie were real nomads playing themselves. I wonder if the leader was. I liked how he pointed out that if you had bad knees, you’d want a taller bucket. Practical advice!
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Soprano2:
Funny how gas taxes are the one tax the GOP are okay raising
Soprano2
That’s my attitude as well. I figure if they want to infect and kill each other, be my guest – I and my loved ones are protected from them. I already protected others by getting vaccinated!!
With the caveat that I fully understand why some people might want to continue to wear face masks due to having family members who cannot yet be vaccinated, or vulnerable family members who are not fully protected by the vaccine, or just because they’re more comfortable still doing it, I finally figured out why the idea I’ve seen expressed so much online that fully vaccinated people should all still continue to wear face masks bothers me so much. It’s because it gives fuel to the dishonest talking point on the right that what liberals really want is to control them by forcing them to wear face masks forever. The logic of “I’m fully vaccinated so why do I still need to wear a face mask? Am I going to have to wear it forever, since Covid isn’t going away?”, is not that wrong. Of course, that’s not why people want to still wear face masks, but that’s what they say, and it plays into their grievances.
Today is the first day of not having to wear masks at work. It’s kind of weird, actually. Someone wrote on the white board yesterday “No masks tomorrow”. Underneath I wrote “If you’re vaccinated”, although that’s not actually the rule. LOL
OzarkHillbilly
@Eunicecycle: A guy I used to work with had an issue with it. Then I reminded him of the 1st amendment.
germy
@hueyplong:
How old is Marjorie taylor Greene? Boebert? Josh Hawley? Kyle Rittenhouse? Those are the famous ones, but there’s lots more in the shadows.
Soprano2
Unfortunately you are right about that. However, I have protected the immunocompromised by getting vaccinated! If someone like that wanted me to wear a face mask to be around them, I would do it without hesitation. If I had a family member like that, I would continue to wear a face mask in certain situations.
OzarkHillbilly
Milky Way photographer of the year 2021 – in pictures
I looked, none of Bill’s were in it. I can only surmise he didn’t submit any.
Soprano2
I heard a story about a woman who became homeless because she double parked her car for a few minutes, and it got towed away. She couldn’t get her car back because the tow yard charged $300/day to store her car, so then she lost her job and then her apartment. It’s highway robbery, and what good was done here?
germy
@hueyplong:
I was thinking the same thing. If the little shit decides to run for office in ten or twenty years, we can make it awkward for him.
Betty Cracker
@Soprano2: That’s my attitude as well. I’m not posing a danger to anyone. I’m sorry that oppositional defiant disordered assholes are making it difficult for people to know who’s going maskless because they’re vaccinated vs because they’re in a cult, but here we are.
Soprano2
The long-term planning thing is true of cities and counties and states, too. For decades we’ve had a small sales tax here that pays for infrastructure improvements, and it’s wildly popular because they say ahead of time what they’re going to do with the money when it’s voted on, and then they put up signs saying “Here’s a project we did with that money”. They finally got the people to vote them a 20-year tax, so they could do bigger projects. They put out “here’s what we’d do if you vote for this”, and because they have a long track record of doing what they said they were going to do with the smaller amount it passed overwhelmingly.
Omnes Omnibus
@Soprano2: This. I am still wearing a mask when it is recommended or where local rules require it. I have no problem with that. I wear it at work whenever I am not in my own office by myself. I also always have one with me and will put it on if the situation warrants. I am not going to criticize those who continue to wear masks more frequently: I presume they have their reasons.
WaterGirl
“Some people have no shame.” – Joe Biden
That should be what we run on in 2022 and 2024. :-)
WaterGirl
@rikyrah: You say “petty”, I say “genius”!
debbie
@Soprano2:
One of my brothers teetered on that edge when the bank refused to offer him a repayment plan on his mortgage. He only had four payments left on the loan
He was lucky because another brother was able to bail him out and pay off the loan, but jeez, it takes so little to wind up with nothing.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Soprano2:
Oh of course! I was more referring to those who refuse to be vaccinated and then lie about it so they don’t have to wear masks
WaterGirl
@Soprano2: Unspent COVID funds.
As if the pandemic is already over. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
Jeffro
I had the same reaction! “He’s got a LIST – OMG!”
I bet conservative media is falling all over themselves trying to make an issue of it, and I’m not going to waste a second going to look/verify that, either. F’em
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
I didn’t look it up because I was so pleased he wasn’t some horrible scammer with a social media/youtube empire. I wanted to like him :)
I personally could not do it. I’d rather live in a shack than in a van. A garden shed with an extension cord would be better. It’s my idea of hell. I get though that they’re following the work.
Another Scott
@germy: Paradise started in 1946+18=1964. It’s just Science.
:-\
Cheers,
Scott.
Jeffro
We’re closing in on two full generations who have marinated in Reaganomics, Gingrich, Fox News, and Limbaugh (although not anymore on that last one, ha!) That info bubble has been getting more closed off and toxic for 40 years. They’re basically North Koreans.
neldob
@Betty Cracker: bless your merry heart.
RaflW
I’d feel bad for the ice cream vendors, but if that first clip gets Republicans to start hating on ice cream … well … more for us lie-bruhls! Win.
rikyrah
@Kay:of course, it’s a bad faith offer. They know that it is
rikyrah
@Kay:
You are absolutely on point. They do not want actual infrastructure.?
rikyrah
@Soprano2:
They are lying, whining muthaphuckas.
They have no legitimate grievances??
Amir Khalid
@hueyplong:
I, on the other hand, prefer to say:
Die jenige, die erwarten dass Bigotterie mit den alten Bigotten aussterben wird, vergessen dass junge Bigotten jeden Tag mündig werden.
Soprano2
I don’t think their grievances are legitimate; I just think it plays into their stupid talking points. “See – they want me to wear a mask forever! They don’t really think that vaccine is effective because they still want to wear masks all the time! They want to muzzle meeeeeeeee!!!” That kind of crap. I don’t want to give it any fuel.
Another Scott
@Soprano2: Understood. But I really wonder how much of an issue it is. We hear about it in the media, sure, but “squeaky wheel” and all that.
I still wear a mask everywhere. I may have gotten some funny looks occasionally, maybe, but nobody has ever said anything. (Here in NoVA about 30% (made up number #NotIntendedToBeAFactualStatement) of the license plates seem to be the stupid No Step on Snek vanity plate.)
I’m reminded of the huge teabagger rallies that the press was all breathless about, and maybe 5 people showed up.
Yes, they’re out there. And yes, some of them are very noisy. But I think their numbers are very small and most people have enough issues in their lives without giving any mental space to them. The noisy ones will never be satisfied, so…
My $0.02.
Cheers,
Scott.
Elizabelle
@Another Scott:
While their drivers are being paid — often very well — by the federal government. There is no teabagger like a teabagger gorging at the trough, with guaranteed pay, healthcare and pension.
I no like that kind of snek.
Soprano2
@Another Scott: What I can tell you is that in conservative areas like the one I live in, it’s an issue that they’ll bring up. “You just want to control us” is a huge fear they have, and insisting on masks even when you’re fully vaccinated plays into it.
Fair Economist
I saw a report that of 100 million vaccinated people, there have been 100 COVID related deaths so far. It wasn’t clear if there were partially vaccinated people or long COVID deaths in those numbers. But even if there weren’t, those numbers are comparable to those of the common cold, which *does* cause some deaths every year, mostly in the very elderly or immunocompomised. So it’s fair that if you aren’t protecting somebody unvaxxed in your household, you can pretty much go back to normal – although this past great flu season gives reason to change “normal” to being a little more cautious.
Kay
Guffaw. The Princes of Capitalism don’t much like this part.
I’d just like to remind everyone that the last time there was high unemployment -where people couldn’t find jobs- they all ALSO settled on “lazy, stupid workers” as the reason and threatened to replace them all with robots. Lazy stupid workers as the problem works for all economic scenarios, in good times and bad, always and everywhere.
Kay
The headline from Rob Portman’s office in my local newspaper yesterday was “it’s time to get back to work”
Does anyone remember a single thing Portman accomplished in his time in office other than lowering his own taxes? Oh, and he issues these press releases scolding the serfs. That’s 5 or 10 minutes of work, at least.
Geminid
@Elizabelle: I see maybe 5% of Charlottesville area vehicles with those Orange tea party tags. I have the impression they are declining in numbers. I guess the DMV would know. The tea party people seem to be rebranding themselves as “Constitutional Conservatives.” That’s what my loathsome VA 5th District Congressman calls himself. Those tricorn hats looked kind of goofy anyway, and they don’t go well with polo shirts and khakis.
Congressman Good won by only 5 points last year, and Democrats will work hard to make him a one-termer. The new redistricting commission may help out some. The 5th District’s western border runs along the Blue Ridge from Fauquier to the North Carolina border, except where it loops around Lynchburg, putting a lot of Democratic votes in the 6th. Just straightening out that kink will help the Democratic candidate.
I am hoping Cameron Webb gives that seat another try. He still works at the U.Va. medical center, but he also has an advisory role with the White House Covid task force. I think Webb has a lot of potential.
sab
@Kay: He helped Oleg Deripaska get out from under sanctions and get permission to own an aluminum plant in Kentucky. I like Portman better when he isn’t working.
sab
@Soprano2: Where can I get a mask that says “Allergies” or “Pollen Blocker”? I am game for wearing something like that, but I refuse to be bullied about what I wear on my face for my own good.
Also too, those folks are in their own little media bubble so nothimg I actually do or say imfluences what they think. If we all stop wearing masks, someome will still show them a photo of someome somewhere with a mask and then say it’s mandated eveywhere. Facts to them don’t matter.
prostratedragon
@bjacques: (Whoops, slipped away for a while there.) Well that may be, but recall: only a few months ago the nation as a whole was only days short of the mass flinging of streams of obscenities on the evening network news. I think by the time the hypothetical scabrous show was ready, the good people of Thornton and Newfoundland might be ready to lead the way.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@OzarkHillbilly: I was not informed of this.
ETA: It seems odd to have a 2021 MW pic of the year now, since MW core season is only about 2 months old here in the northern hemisphere, I guess that’s why most of the shots are from down under.
Matt McIrvin
@Soprano2:
Because they want to control YOU–they can’t imagine a world in which it isn’t one or the other, just the question of who is master.
Matt McIrvin
@Soprano2: Given the numbers I’ve seen–I think that if I were in my twenties or thirties (and had no young children to take care of), I would take COVID vaccination as a license to live as if the pandemic were over. Pile into crowded bars that might be full of Trump-loving plague rats, whatever. By getting vaccinated, I’ve done my bit to stop the spread, and the risk to me at that point is negligible.
At 53, I think there’s still some justification to being careful. Now that the worst of pollen season (for me–whatever species it is that bother me) has subsided, I’m not going to wear a mask outdoors most of the time unless I’m required to. Indoors, like at the supermarket, there are some situations where I’m going to wear it until the case rates get lower. And I might mask up again at cold/flu time.
OzarkHillbilly
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Well, you need to get some of your Joshua Tree pics in post haste. At least one of them is a sure winner.