Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

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

Human rights are not a matter of opinion!

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

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

No Kings: Americans standing in the way of bad history saying “Oh, Fuck No!”

He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!

Not loving this new fraud based economy.

A norm that restrains only one side really is not a norm – it is a trap.

Do we throw up our hands or do we roll up our sleeves? (hint, door #2)

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

The National Guard is not Batman.

Reality always gets a vote in the end.

She burned that motherfucker down, and I am so here for it. Thank you, Caroline Kennedy.

“Just close your eyes and kiss the girl and go where the tilt-a-whirl takes you.” ~OzarkHillbilly

The real work of an opposition party is to oppose.

Find someone who loves you the way trump and maga love traitors.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires.

To the privileged, equality seems like oppression.

These are not very smart people, and things got out of hand.

“In this country American means white. everybody else has to hyphenate.”

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

So fucking stupid, and still doing a tremendous amount of damage.

You are here: Home / Politics / Biden Administration in Action / Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Moving Along

Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Moving Along

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  1. 1.

    Baud

    Kate Sullivan

    @KateSullivanDC

    CNN’s @clarissaward in Kabul: “I’m sitting here for 12 hours in the airport, 8 hours on the airfield and I haven’t seen a single US plane take off. How on Earth are you going to evacuate 50,000 people in the next two weeks? It just, it can’t happen.”

    When I think of logistics, I think of CNN news correspondents.

  5. 5.

    rikyrah

    It seems obvious now, but the military commandeering commercial airplanes at hubs so that our military airplanes don’t have to travel that far and go back to get more people is brilliant.

  7. 7.

    Baud

    Looks like outlets are frantically drawing down a strategy no longer producing its desired outcome, rather than trying to keep pushing it indefinitely. admitting that the Biden administration is doing a good job.

  10. 10.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Baud: I’m imagining Wolf Blitzer intoning “and now our Chief logistics correspondent.” At the end, of course, he will thank her “very, very much.” Never one to just say “thank you” and move along.

  11. 11.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    From the morning plague thread:

    USA Today/Ipsos: 72-28% Americans call mask mandates “a matter of health and safety”, not an infringement on personal liberty.

    There’s that number again.

    Talking with a friend who is a teacher in Estes Park, the high school b-ball coach, massive anti-vaxxer, anti-mask asshole died of covid last week.  Nobody’s actually saying that, instead they’re saying he died of “pneumonia”.  Nobody believes it.

    My friend, like me, has no fucks left to give for dumb asses like that.  He left behind a wife and two boys who attend the same high school.  I sure as hell hope they learned something from their dipshit of a dad.

  13. 13.

    debbie

    I could practically die laughing imagining Trump welcome the Seattle Storm to the White House. So many black women and none of them named Diamond or Silk! //

  17. 17.

    debbie

    @Baud:

    rather than trying to keep pushing it indefinitely. admitting that the Biden administration is doing a good job

    Trump would be blocking the exit ramp demanding “You have to be nice to me” before letting each person through.

  24. 24.

    Splitting Image

    Looks like outlets are frantically drawing down a strategy no longer producing its desired outcome, rather than trying to keep pushing it indefinitely. Interesting.

    I was going to make some snark, then I decided that this is fine on its own.

  27. 27.

    Immanentize

    I think that this media feeding frenzy has seen more push back, more quickly, by more people with serious credentials in both media and the national security world than I recall happening before. Green shoots!

  28. 28.

    germy

    New: Cyber Ninjas refused to produce the documents requested by a congressional committee, including any communications the firm had with Trump and his allies.

    Rep. Maloney and Rep. Raskin are threatening legal action.t.co/iX3pp1fdCN pic.twitter.com/tBwBOLmNdj

    — Jan Wolfe (@JanNWolfe) August 23, 2021

    From what I understand, the Cyber Ninja CEO and some of his people are being treated for covid right now. Maybe they could give testimony from their hospital beds.

  29. 29.

    Ascap_scab

    That poll was for “Afghan Translators”. Just wait for the poll that asks about “Muslim Translators and their pregnant wives and anchor babies with Covid”.

  31. 31.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    In the gym yesterday morning, I overheard two of my well-off, white, R, old people neighbors talking about Biden. They agreed he was mentally “past it” but that removing him would leave Harris and she was just bad. There’s a lot to be annoyed about there but I decided to be ticked off that the old, white guy was just suffering from something that could happen to anyone but the POC woman was just bad.

    Btw, both these people were vaccinated and masked, so they’re not the total crazies. Still I’ll bet they voted for Trump on the grounds that HRC would be worse.

  35. 35.

    Immanentize

    @germy: The Arizona Supreme Court also ordered the State Senate to hand over all Cyber Ninja communications. State Senate said they were in the control of CN, AZ Supremes said, so what? Get ’em and hand them over. House of cards meets light breeze.

  36. 36.

    rikyrah

    Yess ??????

    John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) tweeted at 5:25 AM on Tue, Aug 24, 2021:
    Biden national security officials last week set goal of evacuating 5K-9K per day from Afghanistan

    this morning, WH says 21,600 were flown out of Kabul in last 24 hours – 12,700 on US military flights, 8,900 on allied coalition flights

    total evacuees in last 10 days: 58,700
    (twitter.com/JohnJHarwood/status/1430114109555683333?s=03)

  37. 37.

    Kay

    The coverage reminded me most of the BP oil spill coverage, which was also really bad and involved days of media personalities screaming for Obama to magically fix something with no measure of what “better” or “competent” would look like (because that’s a comparison) and anecdotal, excessively narrow reporting that was misleading.

    Remember James Carville and Anderson Cooper? They went insane.

  39. 39.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Immanentize: likely from inside the media too. lots of reporters who weren’t among the Chosen Elect who were doing stories about what a joke the Afghanistan government was for the last ten years.

  40. 40.

    Amir Khalid

    @Gin & Tonic:

    At the end, of course, he will thank her “very, very much.” Never one to just say “thank you” and move along.

    I imagine broadcast-media folk are trained to avoid dead air at all events, even when they don’t have anything left to say.

  41. 41.

    indycat32

    If you missed my update on my attempt to trap the tortie yesterday, and if you’re interested, it went much easier than I expected. she walked right into the trap to get the food, and is now at the clinic. I’ll pick her up this afternoon. Now to work on two adult males, one male 16 week old kitten, and the three 7-week old kittens.

  43. 43.

    Immanentize

    @Kay: Yesterday evening, I had to turn off listening to the News Hour because a reporter, who sounded like she was less than thirty, said that the evacuation from Kabul was worse than Dunkirk. I actually got upset by that one. Did not see it coming. And there was a hit movie just a couple of years ago!

    Add ignorance of history and lack of proportionality to their sins.

  44. 44.

    Kay

    @Immanentize:

    I agree. I think it felt unfair, like a rush of people more than eager to blame Joe Biden for this entire war and so, so many of them were self-interested. It was bad enough to get attention.

  46. 46.

    germy

    @Immanentize:

    Yes, I saw that.  Did you catch the part where the moderator wondered if this would be the thing to “take down Biden’s presidency” ?

  48. 48.

    Ken

    @Immanentize: The Arizona senate expects the AZ courts — or anyone — to believe that the Senate doesn’t keep copies of the correspondence they send and receive?

  49. 49.

    Immanentize

    @germy: What is with these idiots? They want to “both sides” impeachment? Prepare us for the possible craziness of a 2023 Republican House? What?

  50. 50.

    scribbler

    @indycat32:  So happy the initial trapping went well, and good luck with the remaining kitties.  You are good people!

    I hope Satby is having similar luck.

  52. 52.

    germy

    sometimes i'm truly stunned by what i read in NYT.

    today's example: front-page piece abt how in 2001 the Taliban were willing to surrender to the US, but the US refused.

    the amazing part? George Bush's name is never mentioned once (!!) in the story; t.co/uBVIzYL5NP

    — Eric Boehlert (@EricBoehlert) August 23, 2021

  55. 55.

    Kay

    @Immanentize:

    I knew he would be held responsible in a way that was not directly proportional to his role in the entire war – that’s the role of the President- but I didn’t anticipate a giant RUSH of people so eager to cover their own ass and furiously and self righteously blame him. That’s what got me. The moral certitude combined with the complete lack of taking responsibility.

  57. 57.

    Immanentize

    @Ken: It seems that way — and that was the basis of the AZ opinion. When you do business with the government, that part of the government is strictly responsible for record keeping or, if necessary, record retrieval. Nice win.

  58. 58.

    JML

    @Immanentize: They’ve been showing Dunkirk on HBO lately. I’m sure that’s why it was used as an example, not because said talking bobblehead actually knew enough about either the current evac in Afghanistan or the historical one in Dunkirk to make an informed comp.

    “I saw on the tvs! Me bold and smrt by calling it Dunkirk! Plz to put me on prime times?”

  60. 60.

    germy

    I like Lisa DesJardins’ cat better than I like Lisa Desjardins.

    He used to upstage her when she did her reporting at home via zoom.

  61. 61.

    Subsole

    @Kay: Reminded me of that time way back in the Before Times when the ‘Bola was gonna kill us all.

    Same breathless monomania. Same “this is a crisis for the Dems, here’s 20 Repubs to give us their opinion” energy. Same complete abandonment of all interest once sufficient damage had been done and America’s Whiteful Owners  Sensible Leaders were back in charge.

  62. 62.

    debbie

    @germy:

    Jen should be begin her next press conference by holding up a small trashcan and letting reporters know she’ll be collecting their apologies as they file out of the room.

  66. 66.

    Kay

    @germy:

    He’s a bad imitation of Donald Trump. Completely inauthentic.

    They can’t just be imitators of Donald Trump- kissing his ass is sufficient when they’re already in power but they need more when they’re trying to win the first election. They have to be good at adopting his persona. Vance is not very good at it.

  67. 67.

    Subsole

    @rikyrah:

    Seriously.

    Just in my generation, we watched them do it to Mr. Clinton, then Gore, then they TRIED it on Obama, then they did it to Mrs. Clinton. And now they’re trying it on Biden. And you can see them already teeing up on Harris.

    We also saw how they treated Bush, and Trump. And the difference in how they treat Pelosi vs Gingrich, Boehner, and Ryan.

    I don’t know if enough people are fed up with this bullshit quadruple standard, but the folks who are fed up are FED. UP.

  69. 69.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Gin & Tonic:

    Today marks 30 years of Ukraine’s independence. Слава Україні!

    Today marks 1,611 years since the Sack of Rome. Moritūrī tē salūtant!

  72. 72.

    Subsole

    @Kay:

    In fairness, if they start taking responsibility NOW, they basically end up owning the fact that they had a massive hand in turning the 21C into a much darker, harder, uglier, blood-soaked place than it needed to be.

    I mean, try to imagine a world where the mecia didn’t decide that Al Gore was stupid. And like, lame-o. And, just, like, totes a nerd. Not like that dreamy frat boy from Texas.

    (Who, it turns out, was completely unable to pour piss out of a boot without getting at least half of it in his mouth. But hey. Looked good in a flight-suit, I guess.)

  73. 73.

    Betty Cracker

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Exactly. It’s one of the most egregious personal branding screw-ups I’ve ever witnessed in politics because it was so calculated. Vance wasn’t a moralizing hypocrite who got caught in a bathroom stall wide stance — he deliberately relaunched himself as an ersatz Trump. What a maroon!

  76. 76.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @debbie: not that I am aware of. And who would prosecute him since the government he embezzled from is gone?

  77. 77.

    Kay

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    I was reading the Facebook page of the county Republican Party in his home county (he visited) and it was amusing. Vicious comments from the Trump base. They think he’s a phony. Because he is.

    Trump is a mean-spirited, ignorant asshole but that’s authentically what he is. Vance is nothing- he’s whatever he needs to be this cycle.

  78. 78.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @Kay:  There have been some stories from former military members about what a shit job the military per se did wrt strategy for 19 years. Really makes me wonder what we’re spending all the money on. OTOH, some of what I’ve read also has me wondering why we give so much strategy planning authority to the military. The idea of fitting 19 one-year wars on its face it an idiotic strategy.

  80. 80.

    BC in Illinois

    In an example of people NOT moving on from the coverage of the “Biden failure”:

    Rep. Ann Wagner (R – MO2) sent out her “Letter From Ann” this morning. Here’s a sample:

    I went on One America News to talk more about how Joe Biden has failed Americans and our partners in Afghanistan with his botched evacuation.  He must be held accountable, and we must help those in danger due to the Taliban takeover.

     

    1) This is a congresswoman who strives for invisibility (in order to be as effective a safe GOP vote as possible). She is in a district where she has been winning only with 51% of the vote, and where Trump barely edged out Biden 49.2-49.2%.   What is she doing on OAN?

    2) She does nothing that will rock the boat. If she is going full steam ahead with attacks on “President Biden’s failed leadership,” then she sees this as necessary for her continued service to her corporate sponsors.

    3) MO Congressional District One – [St Louis and the parts of north St Louis County that have more Black voters  (Cori Bush, D)] – went for Biden by 80-18%. I expect that the goal of the GOP will be to gerrymander more of us CD2 Democrats into CD1, in order to give Wagner a safer seat.

  81. 81.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @Subsole:

    I don’t know if enough people are fed up with this bullshit quadruple standard, but the folks who are fed up are FED. UP.

    Yeah, but what’re we gonna do about it? Also, the number of us truly fed up enough to do even simple things (like not subscribing to flavor-of-the-day wankerpaper or wankerTV), is tiny. Even among liberal friends and acquaintances, The Moustache is still revered and NPR is ‘the liberal balance to Fox.” It’s a comfort thing, which of course leads to loss of critical thinking.

  82. 82.

    Betty Cracker

    Bird rom-com with a sad ending:


    How could she fail to be impressed, he wonders?

  83. 83.

    Immanentize

    @Kay: I was wondering whether the types of pressures we put on kids to get into ivy league schools is having the effect of producing men and women like Cruz, Stefanik, Vance, etc. The schools require so much from kids to get in, that most are doing stuff as teens that they have no interest in, just to chase the Harvard dream. Then, after having done all these things they hated, they abandon them for more prestige/power. Again and again. They are all phonies.

    I miss Holden Caulfield

  90. 90.

    Soprano2

    @Subsole:I mean, try to imagine a world where the media didn’t decide that Al Gore was stupid. And like, lame-o. And, just, like, totes a nerd. Not like that dreamy frat boy from Texas.

    To the press Al Gore was a boring guy who expected them to talk about facts, and they hated him for it! They prefer the flashy, more charismatic politicians every time.

  91. 91.

    Other MJS

    @Amir Khalid: ​

    I imagine broadcast-media folk are trained to avoid dead air at all events, even when they don’t have anything left to say.

    You made me stop and think how jarring dead air is when it happens. That single taboo is probably more toxic than many folks realize.​

  95. 95.

    narya

    @Other MJS:  A few years ago, while visiting parents, mom was in the hospital. Dad & I stumbled on a TV broadcast of an old baseball game (Koufax pitching, IIRC), and there was a ton of dead air. It was refreshing! I realize that there’s something else going on on-screen, but still; the yammering watching sporting events drives me insane.

  96. 96.

    sixthdoctor

    I guess since the evacuation is going well, CNN’s current headline is how Republicans cheerfully killing themselves and keeping COVID going is bad news for Biden and Democrats.

    Once case rates go down, I look forward to hearing how Nancy Pelosi’s ice cream freezer destroyed the permafrost.

  100. 100.

    Kay

    @Immanentize:

    I have a very specific sort of “modified free range” child raising approach that doesn’t include pressure to gain admittance to specific colleges, so I won’t take responsibility for it but I do think you’re right, in general. I give them a lot of leash. It’s strict in its own way. I had what my kids called “the 4th grade rule”. I won’t supervise their homework after 4th grade. I did my homework. They have to do theirs.

    It’s probably somewhat place-specific. We have about 30% at our public high school who don’t “go to college” at all- they receive additional certs or training but they’re not college bound. I think that tempers some of the college chase nuttiness I read about in other places.

  101. 101.

    prostratedragon

    @narya:  Wow. I guess that’s almost like sax lessons from Adolphe’s daughter or son, or guitar from Les Paul’s. The manner of playing it is quite lovely.

  103. 103.

    Subsole

    @Soprano2:

    Yeah. Fine. But stop running back to us to bail them out after they realize they might have to live in the world they helped create. Y’know?

    I mean, long after my coffin has rotted and my bones are dust and that dust has blown upon the wind and become a new cliff face in Kenya, my spirit will HOWL at how offended Joe and Mika were when the loudmouth bigot they gave a billion in free advertising to turned out to be an asshole. 

  104. 104.

    Immanentize

    @Kay: Ha! Modified free range is exactly how I would describe the Immp’s childhood. But he did fall in with the right crowd (of nerds). His doing, not ours.

  106. 106.

    Ken

    @sixthdoctor: CNN’s current headline is how Republicans cheerfully killing themselves and keeping COVID going is bad news for Biden and Democrats.

    I definitely have mixed emotions here….

    But on the whole, no, I don’t want people to think that dying is a great way to own the libs.

  108. 108.

    NotMax

    @Immanentize

    The theremin achieved a level of acceptance, unlike early dabbling into electronic speech. With the intervention of WW2, one might even say the latter was subject to Voder suppression, not being technology crucial to the war effort

    ;)

    Trivia: Although often (and wrongly) cited as an example of theremin, the soundtrack for Forbidden Planet contains no sounds generated by that instrument.

  111. 111.

    Kay

    @Geminid:

    I mean come on! He went from fancy conservative heart throb to belligerent fake-hick in like a month. He wears t shirts now and (I think) deliberately has some stubble. He’s trying too hard!

    The contempt conservatives have for their voters cannot be overstated.

  113. 113.

    Kay

    @Geminid:

    It really is all projection. All the millions of Right wing editorials scolding liberals for disrespecting the GOP base are a confession. They have FAR more contempt for these people than I do.

  114. 114.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Chief Oshkosh:the news has degenerated into a Reality TV show down to script writers.

    They didn’t like Obama, Hilary and now Biden  because all three are there to govern and that’s BORING.  And while they personally loath Trump they do love the rating he brings them.

  115. 115.

    sixthdoctor

    @Ken: I always wanted Obama to come out forcefully against diving headfirst into running wood chippers, just to see if someone would do it.

  116. 116.

    Benno

    @rikyrah: somebody knowledgeable, what’s the math here? How many flights are required to move this many people from Kabul this fast?

  117. 117.

    Kay

    Ron Filipkowski
    @RonFilipkowski
    15h
    This guy “Dan” refuses to allow his daughter to wear a mask at Ft. Lauderdale High. He showed up today and said policy is “illegal,” called them “Nazis,” and said, “We’re gonna come back tomorrow. It’s gonna escalate, who knows what. You going to have to forcibly remove her.”

    No longer capable of attending public schools. So much “me, me, me” that are incapable of functioning in that kind of community which demands compromise for the good of the whole and adherence to rules.

  118. 118.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Kay: I saw that earlier. It’s actually kind of hard to follow. He’s threatening to violence to get the school to allow his unmasked, and presumably unvaccinated, daughter, to attend classes?

  119. 119.

    Johnnybuck

    They keep underestimating Joe Biden. Joe Biden keeps chugging along quietly. Rinse, lather, repeat>

  120. 120.

    rikyrah

     

     

    Malcolm Nance (@MalcolmNance) tweeted at 10:57 AM on Mon, Aug 23, 2021:
    Hard Truth: Some media are sad at the loss of AFG but also the loss of the #WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot life in Kabul. Villas, bodyguards, armored Land Cruisers, chokidars, cooks & drinking parties w/UN pilots -All Gone. Afghan choose the Taliban. It’s a place many can’t fathom or accept
    (twitter.com/MalcolmNance/status/1429835231817764864?s=03

  122. 122.

    Geminid

    @Kay: Josh Mandel and Jane Timkin will run ads showing the anti-trump statements Vance recanted when he started his Senate campaign. They’ll make him eat his words again.

  123. 123.

    Wapiti

    @rikyrah: Just a quibble; the aircraft weren’t commandeered as much as they were activated. Airlines have chosen to commit aircraft to the Civil Reserve Air Fleet, and those aircraft are the ones diverted to the airlift.

    (The airlines that contribute to the reserve air fleet are the ones that get the contracts for normal DoD airlift work).

  124. 124.

    louc

    What really pisses me off about the coverage is hello? Does anyone remember our desertion of the Kurds?! Talk about betrayal and chaos. At least Biden is evacuating Afghans, unlike TFG with the Kurds.

    And then there was the hype about Biden’s drop in the polls. He went from 60+percent to 50+ percent. He who shall not be named rarely hit 50 in his entire 4 years.

  125. 125.

    sdhays

    @louc: The media moved on. Afghanistan is bigger and there were more reporters there, so they’ll hang on a bit longer. But the media will move on from Afghanistan too, and by next year, they will go back to ignoring it. Like they have for the last 20 years.

    It’s all part of why the media is so unpopular. Having the attention span of a gnat makes them bad at their jobs, and people notice. For all of the gnashing of teeth with regard to the supposed loss of “American credibility”, the media are still pretty deluded about their own loss of credibility.

  126. 126.

    Captain C

    @Baud:

    CNN’s @clarissaward in Kabul: “I’m sitting here for 12 hours in the airport, 8 hours on the airfield and I haven’t seen a single US plane take off.

    Clarissa Ward, 12 hours later, “Should I tweet that I was facing away from the runway and the tarmac?  Nah, that would interfere with the totally objective narrative I’m trying to establish.”

  132. 132.

    J R in WV

    @Baud: ​
     

    I’ve cut off almost all cable news recently and Wolf a long long time ago.

    Wolf was an OK war correspondent in the second Iraqi war (IIRC) but is a for shit host of the “Situation Room” major news show.

    And all of the news shows spend way too much time saying thank you, please, thanks for having me, etc, etc, and telling us the names of the news service employees.

    I want to know the names of expert guests in order to know their level of expertise. We have to assume the news service reps the ability of their employees, I don’t care about their names so much. The guests stand of fall on their own.

  136. 136.

    rikyrah

    @louc:

     Does anyone remember our desertion of the Kurds?! Talk about betrayal and chaos. At least Biden is evacuating Afghans, unlike TFG with the Kurds.

     

    and, they didn’t say shyt about what he did with the Kurds. Just like if this were happening with him, they wouldn’t say SHYT about him abandoning the Afghans.

  137. 137.

    PJ

    @Immanentize: ​
      To be fair, a whole lot of French soldiers (30-40 thousand) got left behind at Dunkirk to be captured by the Germans.

    It’s an apples and oranges comparison, but the story about Dunkirk was spun by the British to put the best face on a terrible result.

  138. 138.

    Ken

    @MontyTheClipArtMongoose: died of pneumonia?

    I think this is a version of the “didn’t die of COVID, died with COVID” that was being pushed by the usual suspects early last year. You know, as if it’s perfectly normal for a thirty-five-year-old’s lungs to fill with fluid and kill him, and the virus is an irrelevant detail

    Back then it was mostly so TFG’s supporters could claim the virus wasn’t a problem. In this case it sounds a bit like a twisted sort of virtue signaling — oh, he didn’t die of the virus, that doesn’t happen to good people.

  144. 144.

    Captain C

    @Immanentize:

    a reporter, who sounded like she was less than thirty, said that the evacuation from Kabul was worse than Dunkirk

    I would volunteer her to stand in a field at an airshow and have some Stukas take diving runs at her.  With loud smoke bombs and blank bullets, of course, that should get the point across.

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