Karine Jean-Pierre becomes first Black woman in 30 years to host a White House press briefing pic.twitter.com/AN1Olbyn9K
— Reuters (@Reuters) May 27, 2021
Thursday Morning Open Thread: Making Amends, However GraduallyPost + Comments (198)
This post is in: Biden Administration in Action, Black Lives Matter, Civil Rights, Open Threads
Karine Jean-Pierre becomes first Black woman in 30 years to host a White House press briefing pic.twitter.com/AN1Olbyn9K
— Reuters (@Reuters) May 27, 2021
President Biden will visit Tulsa next week to commemorate 100 years since a white mob flattened the section of the city known as Black Wall Street and killed at least dozens, possibly hundreds.
More on the Tulsa race massacre: https://t.co/fan6TBOKoQhttps://t.co/BIT1jKnIJK
— The Associated Press (@AP) May 25, 2021
This week, ahead of planned commemorations, journalists across the @AP will explore how the Tulsa Race Massacre’s economic, political and cultural impacts have echoed across generations. Read the stories here: https://t.co/P2nQ4C1ApU
— The Associated Press (@AP) May 25, 2021
Meet the new Asst Attorney for Civil Rights, ?@KristenClarkeJD? – an amazing, courageous civil rights lawyer. She is the first woman – the first Black woman – to be confirmed to this position. Kristen is the 5th former ?@NAACP_LDF? atty to lead the Civ Rts Division. pic.twitter.com/LYf3rulCjt
— Sherrilyn Ifill (@Sifill_LDF) May 25, 2021
Pressure builds on UNC board to grant tenure to journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones https://t.co/8BofgAfBbT
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) May 27, 2021
Thursday Morning Open Thread: Making Amends, However GraduallyPost + Comments (198)
This post is in: Biden Administration in Action, Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat
58% of voters support passing Biden's $4 trillion infrastructure plan without any Republican votes, poll finds https://t.co/swHxjw9qSm via @businessinsider
— Zac Petkanas (@Zac_Petkanas) May 25, 2021
lol biden's ingenious plan https://t.co/UaqDpy3Bv7
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) May 25, 2021
I heard he wants to make it so the sun rises in the east and sets in the west too!
— Capulet Poehner (@CapuletPoehner) May 25, 2021
Politicians don't actually want things to fail. Getting things done requires huge sacrifices, and you don't recoup those sacrifices if you fail. I feel like pundits with legacy media sinecures don't understand how ambitious and driven people tick. https://t.co/T2u00JOAhp
— Reinstated Doorknob Licker (@agraybee) May 25, 2021
After all…
I'm glad we're all having fun, it's what I specifically voted for! pic.twitter.com/yp91ZNxe8B
— Reinstated Doorknob Licker (@agraybee) May 25, 2021
Wednesday Morning Open Thread: President Biden Knows How Many Beans Make FivePost + Comments (200)
This post is in: Foreign Affairs, GOP Death Cult, Open Threads, Violent Insurrection at the Capitol
This silver coin commemorating an anticipated (but never realized) Bay of Pigs victory features an outline of Cuba with a rebel invader advancing past a fallen member of Castro's military in the foreground.#HISTINT #Museum
— CIA (@CIA) May 25, 2021
A heavily astroturfed insurrection attempt by reactionaries. Who failed spectacularly in no small part because promised/inferred military aid never materialized. Now rapidly becoming martyrs whose only crime in the eyes of John Birch-types was not having brought enough guns.
— Zd (@Zeddary) May 25, 2021
There’s always high-ranking military planners who design flattering uniforms and strike off medals for themselves before thinking about how the troops will be moved and supplied. Such men are more dangerous than the enemy — especially when they’re canonized in the memories of their survivors’ descendants…
Late Night Open Thread: Medals for Losing the *Right* FightsPost + Comments (23)
by Adam L Silverman| 106 Comments
This post is in: America, Crazification Factor, Domestic Politics, domestic terrorists, Open Threads, Politics, Silverman on Security
Earlier today Congressman Kevin McCarthy finally got around to sort of, almost, if you squint just right calling out Marjorie Taylor Greene for her quintupling down on her anti-Semitic comments equating taking public health measures, such as masking in public spaces, getting vaccinated, and being able to provide verification of vaccination, with the treatment of Jews by the NAZIs during the Holocaust. Leaving aside for a moment that these things are not equatable, McCarthy issued a mealy mouthed statement referring to Greene solely by her first name, so it is possible he’s referring to some other Marjorie, and then taking bothsiderism to a new level by blaming all of this on Speaker Pelosi. I’m sure McCarthy decided his work on this issue was done. Message delivered. Time to move on.
Unfortunately, Kevin McCarthy didn’t bother to check with Marjorie Taylor Greene. As Andrew Solender reported by tweet, Greene praised while quote tweeting some chucklehead who decided to call out McCarthy for going after her.
Let’s leave aside the usual and inaccurate support for Israel equals can’t be anti-Semitic, what we have here is that McCarthy now has to live with the monster he helped partially create. At any time beginning when she started campaigning, McCarthy and the rest of the GOP leadership could have stopped Greene. They could have endorsed and campaigned for her primary opponent. A very solidly conservative physician who is actually from the district, not a carpet bagger like Greene is. They could have also cut a deal with Pelosi involving removing Green from committees, specifically that McCarthy and Scalise wouldn’t whip votes against it, thereby freeing up more members of the Republican House caucus to vote to remove Greene from her committee assignments. There are also a number of behind the scenes things that an effective caucus/party leader in Congress could do to rein her in. McCarthy, however, has done none of these things and, as a result, he is now being chased across an ice floe by a monster partially of his own making.
Greene also got into a battle of wits over her blithely, proudly ignorant anti-Semitism with Ben Shapiro. Which is kind of amazing given that both approached the fight unarmed!
I’m rooting for injuries all the way around.
Open thread!
This post is in: Biden Administration in Action, Black Lives Matter, Open Threads, President Biden, Media Mudlarks
The American Rescue Plan is helping get us out of this crisis and back on track—but we can’t stop now.
We must pass the American Jobs Plan to deliver millions of good-paying jobs.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) May 24, 2021
WaPo WH bureau chief @AshleyRParker writes: "Depending on the viewpoint, Biden has restored routine and order to the White House—or removed the freewheeling passion."
God help us all.https://t.co/xfwP14rkab
— Dan Froomkin/PressWatchers.org (@froomkin) May 24, 2021
And the Media Mudlarks are starving, proles!
… More than most public figures, Biden has sought to keep one foot in the normal world as he has ascended the rungs of power, from commuting home to Delaware on Amtrak to phoning ordinary Americans to attending Mass. But the presidency is testing that impulse in an entirely new way.
Current and former advisers say Biden’s typical day reveals a creature of habit with well-worn routines and favorite treats, from orange Gatorade to chocolate chip cookies; a tactile politician eager to escape the Washington bubble who meets privately with people who write him letters; and the patriarch of a sprawling Irish-Catholic clan who abruptly interrupts high-level meetings to take calls from family members.
It marks a sharp contrast with former president Donald Trump, whose days often ran both early and late with tweets that were frequently angry or inflammatory, and whose time was often consumed by rambling rallies, spontaneous calls to TV hosts and random, unscripted activities. Depending on the viewpoint, Biden has restored routine and order to the White House — or removed the freewheeling passion…
We have to talk about issues, now! Sharing gossip and mean tweets was so much more fun!
Senior Admin official tells @NBCNews: President Biden will host members of the Floyd family at the White House next Tuesday to mark the first anniversary of his death.
— Kristen Welker (@kwelkernbc) May 21, 2021
.@PressSec says Pres Biden's meeting with George Floyd's family will be private to have a "real conversation." She says a number of family members will attend including Floyd's daughter, Gianna, her mother, Roxie Washington, as well as Floyd's sister, three brothers & a nephew.
— Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) May 24, 2021
Extremely important at a time when life has gotten even more intolerable for millions in Haiti under the Moïse regime https://t.co/gkepyud4H8
— Jonathan Myerson Katz (@KatzOnEarth) May 22, 2021
Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Living His Best LifePost + Comments (170)
This post is in: Cruz-ifiction, Military, Open Threads, Republican Stupidity
Jason Bourne…suffers from anxiety and PTSD. He is also fictional. https://t.co/3ukcDrRjKd
— ThadStephensSuperFan (@humanoidsareus) May 22, 2021
Honestly, it’s liking watching someone talk about his kink at an after-work cocktail party. Whatever turns you on, dude — but this is *not* the venue. Cruz is reaching Dinesh D’Souza levels of middle-school masochism, where he cartwheels into an unrelated playground conversation and says Watch me eat a bug!… because even negative attention is better than no attention at all.
As the manliest soldier completed his 400th push-up, a woman presses a button, launching a hellfire missile from the Reaper high above.
“I bet he could’ve beat you up in the Octagon,” her colleague says.
“Probably,” she shrugs, lining up her next target. “Now we’ll never know.”— Nicholas Grossman (@NGrossman81) May 23, 2021
U.S. Army leaders rallied around a soldier featured in a recruitment video clip that Sen. Ted Cruz mocked as representative of an “emasculated military.” https://t.co/Gm5asadXj1
— Stars and Stripes (@starsandstripes) May 22, 2021
Actual Russian immigrants, on Cruz:
Vladimir Putin is a communist the way Ted Cruz is a conservative. Now they're both just opportunists. https://t.co/TqmiXoj7C6
— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) May 23, 2021
A woman deciding to protect the freedoms and the life this country has given her is "a pansy" in Macho Ted's book.
A bunch of overmuscled Russians glowering menacingly for the sake of looking scary makes him hard.
This is what GOP is today. https://t.co/oXntFclXOA— Slava Malamud (@SlavaMalamud) May 21, 2021
I honestly can't believe you were ever a debate champion at Harvard. They must've been in a rebuilding year or something.
1) "Russian communists" are an impotent opposition to Putin's right-wing regime.
2) Russian soldiers are malnourished conscripts who build colonels' dachas. https://t.co/xp9sq9BG7F— Slava Malamud (@SlavaMalamud) May 22, 2021
5) I'll bet cash money, @tedcruz, that your expertise about fighting or toughness could comfortably fit in a cat's asshole.
You have never fought anyone in your life, you are an embarrassment to all American men, and I'll take any of our country's fighting women over you any time— Slava Malamud (@SlavaMalamud) May 22, 2021
GOP Weakness Open Thread: Ted Cruz *Enjoys* Being PwnedPost + Comments (32)
This post is in: GOP Death Cult, Investigations Into Violent Extremist Attacks, Open Threads, Republican Venality, Violent Insurrection at the Capitol
As a showdown vote nears, Senate Republicans are misrepresenting the timeline of a proposed independent commission to investigate the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riots, an #APFactCheck finds. https://t.co/lBIBMWQlm2
— The Associated Press (@AP) May 23, 2021
Because lying is not only their go-to tactic, it’s all they’ve got left…
… On Sunday, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, suggested that a roadblock to gaining GOP support is the commission’s timing, echoing concerns from Republican leaders last week that the panel’s final report could extend into the 2022 midterm election year.
That’s not the case.
COLLINS, citing issues that could lead her to oppose the panel: “I see no reason why the report cannot be completed by the end of this year. The commissioners have to be appointed within 10 days. There’s plenty of time to complete the work. And I’m optimistic that we can get past these issues based on recent conversations I’ve had with” Democrats. — interview Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.”
SEN. JOHN CORNYN, R-Texas, suggesting that Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will drag the commission’s work well into the middle of 2022: “Well, part of the concern is that’s the plan. That’s Pelosi’s plan … That would be the Democrats’ dream.” — interview with CNN on May 19.
THE FACTS: Those claims of a delayed report are untrue. The bill calls for the report to be complete by the end of this year.
Republicans in the U.S. Congress clashed over the need for an independent commission to investigate the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, with one lawmaker warning that failure to create the panel could plague the party's election prospects in 2022 and beyond https://t.co/lEE8zqc4FU pic.twitter.com/psfiWLzykz
— Reuters (@Reuters) May 24, 2021
I applaud Rep. Kinzinger’s principles, while noting that he’s 43, not 68. He’s still got a career to salvage, unlike Susan Collins, who’s apparently decided to retire-in-office-place, with the generous assistance of Maine voters.
… Representative Adam Kinzinger warned that failure to establish a commission could lead to worse consequences for Republicans.
“What’s going to happen if this thing fails is that (House Speaker) Nancy Pelosi will run a select committee and this could go all the way to 2024,” Kinzinger, a Republican who backed the commission and voted to impeach Trump, told “Fox News Sunday.”
“This is going to the 2022 midterms anyway, particularly if us as Republicans don’t take ownership for what happened,” Kinzinger said.
A note to the general Repub caucus:
At least a dozen people charged in the Jan. 6 riot Capitol have cited crowd psychology to explain their behavior during the insurrection. Legal experts say judges typically don’t let defendants use a blame-the-crowd defense. https://t.co/Od851huJVB
— The Associated Press (@AP) May 23, 2021
(Matt Davies via Gocomics.com)
GQP Death Cult Open Thread: Herd BehaviorPost + Comments (125)