Sunday, February 28, 2021

Sunday Night

Rock on.

Sunday Happy Hour

Crack fix for DC journalists today.

Blue Rudy

A very annoying part of The Discourse in 2020 was when people were swooning for Andrew Cuomo, simply because he got on teevee and appeared to be (*appeared to be*) vaguely competent at handling this crisis by doing interviews with his brother.

Libs, that's how we got Rudy.

Great Moments In Cold War History

Vote By Mail

I don't think it should be ended, but it was very popular with Republicans before the peculiar circumstances of the 2020 election, and the subsequent need to latch onto any "fraud" lie, and I think it's fairly clear that ending it would not actually favor Republicans.

The Governor of New York Is Totally Not A Sex Pest So Stop Saying That

Lol

Blue Trump

Time to go.
ALBANY, N.Y. — A second former aide to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo is accusing him of sexual harassment, saying that he asked her questions about her sex life, whether she was monogamous in her relationships and if she had ever had sex with older men.

The aide, Charlotte Bennett, who was an executive assistant and health policy adviser in the Cuomo administration until she left in November, told The New York Times that the governor had harassed her late last spring, during the height of the state’s fight against the coronavirus.

Sunday Morning

Let us pray.

Saturday, February 27, 2021

Saturday Night

Rock on.

Saturday Evening

It's alright.

It Is Quite Likely That Some Of Our Faves Will Be Inconvenienced

I'm pretty sure MBS has learned his lesson.

Put On The Ring, Joe

This is correct.
It has been argued that even if Joe Biden were to adopt the alternative position that the Democratic Party should be able to pass a policy agenda—and even if he argued the same to voters—he might nevertheless fail in getting Manchin and Sinema to agree with him. This is correct. It is, though, incumbent upon Biden to try to persuade members of Congress. This opinion has evidently been the subject of some controversy on social media in recent days. “The Green Lantern Theory of domestic politics—if Dems just had the will they could make it happen—is such incredible nonsense,” the author James Surowiecki tweeted on Tuesday. “What ‘pressure’ can Biden apply from the bully pulpit to change Joe Manchin’s mind?”

A good question! And the answer may well be “none.” But the primary advocate of the Green Lantern theory of domestic politics over the past two years has been Joe Biden. The central policy argument of his campaign, repeated throughout the primaries and general election, was that he, alone among all other Democratic contenders, would be able to win Republican support for his agenda on the basis of his character and his skill at leveraging personal relationships built over nearly half a century in Washington. By implication, conservative members of his own party weren’t to be worried about. But by now, just over a month into his term, it should be clear even to those who bought into this extraordinary lie that conservative Democrats are the ones running the show.

America's Worst Member of Congess

About 5 in the running today, but let's go with Madison Cawthorn.

A Lot Of Guns In This Country

I'm not entirely sure how the insurrectionists showed up without firearms. Or perhaps it's more that I can see how that happened, but it could have easily gone the other way, as with many things on that day.

Don't Be Stupid, Be A Smarty

Seems bad. Hopefully he gets booked on Meet the Press to discuss his interesting views!

Morning Thread

It's the weekend!

Friday, February 26, 2021

Friday Night

Rock on.

Friday Evening

Owning the libs by killing 500,000 Americans and counting.

The Important NORMS

Your Moment Of Zen

Ah, well, nevertheless.

Poor Mitt

Just kidding. He's an asshole and always was, despite the attempts to portray him as something he never was. I'm sure at the very least he imagined he'd be treated like a distinguished elder statesmen, but instead all the kids are just pantsing him constantly. No respect.

The Case For Super Reparations

This will make all the usual suspects really mad for reasons they will have a hard time explaining.
Ta-Nehisi Coates will write a new Superman film for DC Films and Warner Bros. The project is in very early development, but the new film is being produced by J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot. Hannah Minghella will also produce.

Lunch Thread

Mmm...lunch...

Caucus Discipline

The truth is somewhere in the middle, but after decades of a certain kind of pundit lionizing (rightly or wrongly) LBJ with tales of how he pistol whipped members of Congress, kidnapped their families, and pissed on their children in order to gently compel their votes, "oh well, nothing Chuck can do, silly lefty" is fairly funny.

The Rules

In any elaborate rules-based system, people pick and choose the ones they focus on, and exploit them to achieve their goals.

The rule isn't "this random guy gets to boss the majority around," so people shouldn't pretend it is.

Savvy

Normal brain: something that polls very favorably everywhere, wins overwhelmingly on ballot measures in red states. Republicans would be crazy to vote against it!

DC brain: wow, swing district democrats are so fucked if they vote for this, the GOP is loving this.

There is a way to potentially resolve this, but it's something that DC reporters never explain. Voters love minimum wage hikes, but people in swing districts worry about voting for things that piss off organized money and the local media influencers. Vote for the minimum wage, and they'll come after you on other issues.

Morning Thread

In retrospect, the founders' biggest mistake was enshrining the role of Senate parliamentarian in the constitution.

Thursday, February 25, 2021

Thursday Night

Rock on.

Thursday Evening

Thursday evening again!

Eyes Emoji

The Great Thickening

Middle age, and its associated pleasures, comes for us all.

There Is Time To Kill Today

I don't mean this as a criticism, just a general observation about the machinery of the US government. It is, usually, slow! But not always, it seems. Sometimes things happen fast if enough people think it is important. There's enough sand in the gears already due to the constitution and THE NORMS, and onto that we've added the cable news bullshit of the day cycle. That's usually not important. Try to ignore that.

I'm sure Barack Obama woke up in the middle of the night a few times in 2016 and thought, "oh, wow, running out of time here, what'd I miss...."

You move into the White House and suddenly it's a couple of years later.

Thought I'd something more to say.

Afternoon Thread

Haven't slept well the last couple of days. Might be a nap day.

Only One Spin Around The Racetrack

I know I keep returning to this, and that there are no answers that will satisfy me, but I gaze at the surprisingly large group of very rich and very not young people who seem to have little to gain from, for example, appearing on Fox News day after day, and just can't comprehend that this is what they do with their ever shortening time on this blue dot.

Just give me lots of money and I'll promise to shut the fuck up and go away!

Popcorn Emoji

Vance has to get in line behind Mueller and Fitzgerald.

The Worst People

The NORMS that matter involve maintaining the basic minimum of public decency. The importance of people getting along is usually overstated, as it doesn't really matter if TipnRonnie have drinks at the end of the day, but there is some low bar that needs to be reached.

Thursday is New Jobless Day

730K new lucky duckies.

Morning Thread

US covid cases were falling fast and then...flat and nudging up slightly again. Shoot that vaccine into everybody!!!

Wednesday, February 24, 2021

Wednesday Night

Rock on.

Lock Him Up

We can enjoy the show for a bit.
New York (CNN)The Manhattan district attorney's office has subpoenaed financial records related to Steve Bannon's crowd-funding border-wall effort, signaling that its criminal investigation into former President Donald Trump's chief strategist is advancing, according to people familiar with the matter.

Prosecutors sent the subpoenas after Trump pardoned Bannon in late January for federal conspiracy crimes tied to the southern border-wall project, making Bannon among the Trump world figures -- including the former president -- subjects of criminal investigations by Manhattan district attorney Cyrus Vance.

Woke Fed Chair

Trump's one good legacy (so far, so good at least).

No Coup You Coup Who Coup

Conservative approach to this is similar to their approach to things like racism. Which is something like, "it isn't real, except if it is it's good."

America's Worst Ron Johnson

Senator Ron Johnson from Wisconsin.

Grand Old Police Blotter

Murder is basically legal with a car, except possibly if you're drunk, but usually even then.
Days after South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg fatally struck a man while driving in September, detectives told the Republican official they had found a pair of broken reading glasses inside his Ford Taurus. They belonged to the man he killed.

That was a problem, detectives said, because Ravnsborg, 44, said he didn’t know he had hit a man until the following day, when he returned to the scene and found the body of Joseph Boever, 55, in a ditch.

“They’re Joe’s glasses, so that means his face came through your windshield,” one of the detectives said in an interview released by the South Dakota Department of Public Safety on Tuesday.

Lunch Thread

Get your lunch on.

Regeneration

I've said this before about kids, but it's true of a lot of the population. Four years of Trump being cast as the lead in the teevee show The American President has surely warped a lot of expectations of what the character of The President is supposed to be like, not to mention his large group of wacky sidekicks.

You see it with journalists, some of whom are old enough to remember a time before and some who really got on the White House ride for the first time with Trump. They haven't yet adjusted, and they're professionals. Tons of people probably didn't even pay much attention to politics before Trump, and then did, so the basic format of the 21st century presidency, followed by Bush and Obama and presumably broadly imitated by Biden, will be new.

Owning It

Leaving aside the merits of Obamacare, it was the case that many Democrats were scared that if they voted for it they would lose their seats, and many did lose their seats, although that vote might not have been the cause.

Again, I don't want to debate the merits of Obamacare, but if you're passing something based on the idea that it is broadly "good," something's going wrong - substance, messaging, timing - if you're nonetheless scared it will be very unpopular.

Nobody Who Went To Penn Could Be bad

Do we think Don Jr. rats out his pop, or stays silent in a desperate attempt for approval from the guy who won't even remember the name of his son, Donald.
For months, some of Donald Trump’s top advisers have assured him that he has virtually nothing to fear from the Manhattan district attorney’s tax investigation, which they view as merely “fishing” for information. But investigators with the D.A.'s office have been expanding their criminal probe into Trump’s business empire, asking questions and grilling witnesses—as recently as in the past few days—not only about Trump but particularly about his eldest son, Don Jr., and Allen Weisselberg, one of the former president’s most trusted officers, The Daily Beast has learned.
Not optimistic about any of this, but I guess we can enjoy the show while it lasts.

More Thread

I'm sorry, I'm doing my best to make this blog more bipartisan.

Tuesday, February 23, 2021

Tuesday Night

Rock on.

America's Worst Clarence Thomas

Clarence Thomas.

Happy Hour Thread

Get happy.

The Thin Blue Line

Pretty fucking thin.
TA retired NYPD officer who had been assigned for a time to work perimeter security at City Hall and at Gracie Mansion, the mayor's official residence, has been accused of using a pipe to attack a U.S. Capitol officer during the Jan. 6 siege, law enforcement officials with knowledge of the case told News 4 Tuesday.

Thomas Webster surrendered to the FBI's Hudson Valley office Monday to face charges in the ongoing investigation. A day later in White Plains federal court, prosecutors said the former U.S. Marine attacked a Capitol police officer with an aluminum pole while holding a Marine Corps flag. Webster then allegedly ripped off a mask and caused the officer to choke, proseuctors said.

The alleged "eye gouger."

Who Cares If It Gets Zero Republican Votes

I mean, who cares if Mitt Romney or 10 House Republicans or whatever vote for the Covid aid bill or anything else? Why does this matter to anyone? Let the opposition party oppose and take the consequences for the position and stop dreaming of A Good Republican to make something Bipartisan.

Much of the time our dumb system does require people of both parties not behaving like complete assholes, because different parties control different bits of our government.

When one party has the trifecta, that's an opportunity! Let the Dems ram stuff through, let Republicans say it's bad, and then they can argue about it for election 2022.

Hot as Hell

I think we're going on about a dozen years of imagining that Republicans were in the grip of some sort of "fever" that will "break" and then TipnRonnie can have drinks together again.

I am just a dumb guy with a very fine blog, but I suspect this is not true.

More than that, I don't think this often expressed idea actually helps things much. It's condescending as hell. "You guys are fucking nuts but you'll come around soon!"

Not that I mind being condescending. It just isn't a way to win people over, and it comes from the people who imagine that somehow the nutters can be won over.

The Rhythm of the Blog

Boring meta, but I try to keep the posting rhythm a certain way, though that has to match somewhat with the news cycle and also I occasionally have life outside the blog. The last guy was a chaos agent, with weird shit flying at us from all directions at random hours, though at least there was always something to blog about, even if it was usually incredibly stupid!

I seem to remember back in the dark ages we'd have more posts and discussions about stupid shit. You know, not just "is American civilization about to fall" but "hey, is this teevee show good?" Maybe we can get back to that a bit. Or maybe just keep twirling twirling twirling towards freedom!

Anything is possible. It is a blog.

Poster Solidarity

We are all Neera Tanden.

Lock'em Up

A bit more consequential than bribing your failchildren into elite schools.
A California program intended to improve COVID-19 vaccine availability to people in hard-hit communities of color is being misused by outsiders who are grabbing appointments reserved for residents of underserved Black and Latino areas.

The program to address inequities in vaccine distribution relies on special access codes that enable people to make appointments on the My Turn vaccine scheduling website. The codes are provided to community organizations to distribute to people in largely Black and Latino communities.

Morning Thread

The last guy released a statement yesterday and not *every* journalist banged their fist down on the retweet button as fast as they could, so that's progress.

Monday, February 22, 2021

Monday Night

Rock on.

Monday Evening

Never stop tweeting.

CANCEL CULTURE

Whoopsy-doodle

[10 minutes later]

Afternoon Thread

Who is this week's designated Reasonable Republican?

America's Worst Andrew Cuomo

Andrew Cuomo.

"Targeting"

However you want to design the set of people who are "deserving" of whatever help is being offered, any eligibility rules and system for implementing them will end up excluding a lot of people who are actually in that set. Especially given our 50 separate state bureaucracies and the fact that even the IRS doesn't have recent income data for most people.

Performing For The Boss

I'm not watching but I gather certain senators are just serving up a word salad of Trump-era buzzwords at the Garland hearing, presumably designed to appeal to their real boss and for clips on their favorite television networks.

No normal people know what "the Durham investigation" is.

Shitposter Solidarity

Don't Think Donnie Two Scoops Can Wriggle Out Of This One

Old Economy Joe

I went to a "crappy state school" (where one could get a perfectly good education, as is the case at all these places) in Pennsyltucky. I graduated into the end of a recession. "Marrying your college sweetheart" was a pretty normal thing people did back then, though that changed pretty quickly not long after I graduated (median age of first marriage really start climbing in the early 90s).

I went to grad school, but most of my peers didn't. I don't have full knowledge of the lives of everybody I went to school with (no facebook then!), but a pretty standard path was "graduate, flail a bit before getting a shitty first job, get a somewhat better second job, get married and buy a house by 23-24." Also, tuition, room, and board came in just under 5 grand my first year. We'd gone beyond "pay for it with a summer job" by then, but not by all that much.

Morning

As a skilled narcissist, Trump managed to center the entire Bad Takes industry around himself. Now we get bad takes about an even greater variety of subjects!

Sunday, February 21, 2021

Happy Hour Thread

Tomorrow is...

Facebook Is Bad

Quit if you can.

Please Stop

Yang'll cut the police budget, but then buy $5 billion worth of magic beans. I'm kidding he won't cut the police budget.

Sunday Afternoon

What are Republicans pretending to be mad about today?

Cuck

Donald Trump would never let the libs boss him around like this.

Pundit Challenge

Have I been affected by the thing I am handing down opinions about on stone tablets? Should I consider how I might react differently if I had or instead should I find all the wisdom of the universe inside my own belly button?

Morning Thread

Video went AWOL. You all had to supply your own soundtrack to rock on with.

Saturday, February 20, 2021

Saturday Night

Rock on.

Saturday Happy Hour

Weekends are weird when there isn't really anything to do.

America's Worst Project

The Lincoln Project.

Afternoon Thread

Enjoy.

Squirrel

It's very difficult to get any idea into legislation and into something that might pass and into something that might be signed. If there's anything half way decent that has some chance of being of moderate help to anyone slightly less poor than Larry Summers, people like Larry Summers (not just picking on him!) come along and try to derail it.

Don't do that thing which might actually pass, do this other thing that won't possibly pass and I wouldn't support anyway!

They used to be able to do this simply by saying, "whoa, if you're going to spend that much money, you'd better spend it wisely!" But now that "lol shutup about the deficit" is something even mainstream reporters do, they have to come up with something else. They're running with "your idea helps rich people, Akshually!" or "This plan will OVERHEAT the economy!" *

Larry Summers, really upset at the possibility of helping rich people! This is very convincing to goldfish.

It should be an obvious strategy, but people who have a long history of not operating in good faith always manage to maintain their position in good standing, somehow. Total mystery. Larry's friends need to come for him, but they don't, so here we are.

*The "overheat the economy" thing is at least a more honest description of the potential, if not actual, problem of spending a bunch of money, instead of the vague moralizing and "tighten our belts" and "passing the debt to your grandchildren" or even "raise your taxes@!@!!" stuff they used to be able to get away with.

Meritocracy

Forget the specifics of whatever her "politics" is, consider that Weiss had prestige jobs at the WSJ and the NYT despite being the stupidest person alive.

Morning Thread

I suppose it's dumb, but my baseline anxiety level really has decreased.

Friday, February 19, 2021

Friday Night

Rock on.

Conspiracy

Happy Hour Thread

Weekends are slightly more peaceful these days.

Go Go Go

I'll resist the temptation to imagine I can micromanage the legislative process from this very fine and very well-read blog, but I don't have to consult the actuarial tables to know that there's a nontrivial chance of a Dem senator, from a state with a Republican governor, not waking up one morning soon.

Bill Hemmer, CNN 1995-2005

I like to remind people who aren't cursed with these memories that so many of your "favorite" Fox figures had long careers on the Communist News Network before finding true happiness there.

Very Fine People On Both Sides

In 100 years or so when the high school history curriculum gets up to 2020, it will likely involve a very balanced approach, with very well-meaning political leaders on Both Sides and some understandably angry if slightly misguided patriots attempting to assassinate some of them.   

Florida Man

Basically they can't trust DeSantis to not just give the vaccine to "rich and connected Republicans" so they're going to bribe him with even more doses.

When Politics Is Over

This was a joke, and I don't really see a lot of this sentiment now, but there was quite a bit of it back when Obummer won in 2008. A bit of it was directed at BLOGGERS specifically, as if left wing political blogging was something that served a purpose/had an audience during the Bush administration, but there was a common more general "ok, Bush is gone, time to go to brunch and stop worrying about this stuff" sentiment.

In any case, it doesn't end! We have not achieved a perfect framework that only requires occasional mild technocratic tweaks, and the big questions are unlikely to be settled! New politicians will try to obtain power, and won't always defer to the octogenerian Elders who have decided to rule forever. Politics goes on.

When Rush Was Good

Early Limbaugh was much more obviously racist and sexist because you could do that in those days and because Media Matters wasn't writing up transcripts of everything he said. There was no early principled Rush, unless "fuck you I got mine and I do racisms" are principles. Which, I guess for conservatives, they are.

Morning Thread

I thought politics would all just stop after Trump was gone!!!

Thursday, February 18, 2021

Thursday Night

Rock on.

Your Moment Of Zen

Lock Him Up

I'm not opimistic about any of this stuff, but you never know!
As the Manhattan district attorney’s office steps up the criminal investigation of Donald J. Trump, it has reached outside its ranks to enlist a prominent former federal prosecutor to help scrutinize financial dealings at the former president’s company, according to several people with knowledge of the matter.

The former prosecutor, Mark F. Pomerantz, has deep experience investigating and defending white-collar and organized crime cases, bolstering the team under District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. that is examining Mr. Trump and his family business, the Trump Organization.

Happy Hour Thread

Get happy.

Sounds Bad

That's some real Mad Max shit.
Texas’ power grid was “seconds and minutes” away from a catastrophic failure that could have left Texans in the dark for months, officials with the entity that operates the grid said Thursday.

Using The Daughters As Human Shields

How dare you criticize my daughters and, uh, The Troops!

Afternoon Thread

Best Not Miss, Bill

Ted Cruz In Cancun

The man bravely fled his state.

Senators are powerful and have influence. Presumably the Senate is not going vote on emergency legislation to aid Texas, and it wouldn't help in the next few days if they did, but there's potentially more to the job than "shitposting," "pretending you are being useful on Teevee, "encouraging a violent mob to murder your colleagues," and "voting for stuff."

You can get on the phone and scream at FEMA, "WHERE THE FUCK ARE THE GENERATORS YOU PROMISED???" For example. Stuff like that. Maybe no direct powers, but when the senator or a member of his staff is on the phone, you pick it up and take the call.

I bet even Joe the Biden would take a call from the Zodiac Killer and say, "hey, man, tell us what you need, we'll do what we can." Not because Biden is awesome or all powerful, but because that's part of his job even if after 4 years of Trump nobody remembers that.

But aside from being lazy and indifferent, Ted Cruz has no idea. He woudn't know what to ask for. No clue about what his state needs, what the Feds could provide, or even businesses if he called them up and asked nicely. Get the local generator distributor hooked up with the local trucking company. Whatever, I don't know either, I'm not a US senator.

There are consequences of electing people who don't just have bad ideology and bad policies, but who have no clue and do not give a shit at all.

Thursday Is New Jobless Day

861K new lucky duckies. Not so good.

Owning The Libs By Putting Blue Trump In Jail

Oh no, please don't.

Morning Thread

One can be open to all possible reasons and solutions, but a power system that's failing as extravagantly as it is in Texas is something that requires some modifications.

And I'm not "picking on" Texas. It isn't the only place (California, for example) that has had related problems. We're at the "inability to even admit anything's wrong" stage of everything falling apart. Governance by shitposting is inadequate.

Wednesday, February 17, 2021

Wednesday Night

Rock on.

Evening Thread

Everybody sing!

Happy Hour Thread

Wasn't the most important thing, but Limbaugh helped to inspire a generation of young guys to aspire to look like they're 55 and out of shape at 36, live on a luxury suburban golf course, and be rich enough to have a "hot wife" and then another and another.

Cigars. It was a whole aesthetic. A life of being horrible.

America's Worst Governors Named Greg Abbott

Greg Abbott.

Resign, Blue Trump

Just an incompetent narcissistic sociopathic asshole.
"Gov. Cuomo called me directly on Thursday to threaten my career if I did not cover up for Melissa [DeRosa] and what she said. He tried to pressure me to issue a statement, and it was a very traumatizing experience," Kim said. Cuomo proceeded to tell the assemblyman that "we're in this business together and we don't cross certain lines and he said I hadn't seen his wrath and that he can destroy me," according to Kim. Cuomo's adviser denied that the governor threatened to destroy Kim.

Redundancy

Olds and those of you who still have landlines and a basic phone know that by some miraculous force (the tiny current that runs through phone line connections), when the power goes out, your phone still works.

Sure your cell holds a battery charge, but the towers go out.

"Just Another Dead Doper"

Rest in hell, Rush Limbaugh.

Old Economy Joe

It doesn't matter how many times you tell people of a certain generation that tuition is insane, they still believe you can attend State with a bit of gumption and a part time job serving soda pop at the five and dime.

I don't have to look it up to know that the University of Delaware was basically free when Joe when there. In-state resident Tuition and fees are now close to $15,000, and that is very much on the cheaper end.

It's complicated, but a lot of the "most elite" schools actually are pretty generous with their financial aid, so it isn't even those students who are the most in debt (also rich kids don't have debt because their parents paid the tab).

25+ years of telling students to take out all the debt they could get, because the better jobs would cover it, and then that didn't happen.

This Is All Ted Cruz's Fault

You don't have to approach this cynically, you can embrace the idea that policy has consequences, that people who supported and made those policies are responsible for them, and that when something goes wrong there is quite often someone (or some political party, or some ideology) that is legitimately to blame.

Republicans do this constantly - often not legitimately as they are stupid and lie about everything - and Democrats *never* do it. Republicans have controlled Texas forever, national policy doesn't impact their energy system in any significant way, and, hell, Donald Trump was president for 4 years, and they immediately started doing this anyway.

Most Democrats, anyway.

Shame on the reporters who eat whatever treats they are given, but you go to politics with the shitty journalists you have...

Your Moment Of Zen

The Job Of The Opposition Is To Oppose

We don't have a parliamentary system, which complicates things, but when one party has the trifecta, it's a lot more useful and healthy to see it that way.

When there is split control of Congress, there are ridiculous things, such as using the debt ceiling as a hostage, which don't fit the model of standard opposition. Taking the country hostage and threatening to shoot it is reasonably thought to be beyond the pale, though if you negotiate in good faith with those who try it... shruggy.

But right now Mitch McConnell can't do anything the Democrats don't let him do, allowing for the fact that in any reasonable political system, the minority has *some* ability to gum things up a bit. This doesn't make Mitch good - Mitch is very bad - but really every time I see someone complaining about Mitch stopping the Senate from doing things, I want to scream.

Chuck Schumer runs the Senate. The rules are what they are because a portion of Democrats want the rules to be that way. That isn't necessarily Chuck's fault or Biden's fault, but it isn't Mitch's fault. When Mitch didn't like what Demcorats in the minority were doing, he changed the rules.

Morning Thread

What would be enough? Okay let's do less than that.

Tuesday, February 16, 2021

Tuesday Night

Rock on.

Monday Evening

Get your evening on.

They Can't Quit Him

The last guy released a statement and it was like Christmas for journalists.

Chip Off

lol.
Leo Brent Bozell IV, the son of conservative activist L. Brent Bozell III, was captured on video inside the Senate chamber during the attack on the U.S. Capitol and has been charged with three federal offenses, according to a federal criminal complaint unsealed on Tuesday.
....the best family:

BUT THIS IS NEWS

People in journalism would react with mock disbelief if you suggested they didn't have to run every single thing live. It's news!!! It's the White House!!! We have to cover it!!!

Remember How "We" Spent Years Painting Iraqi Schools

That was hilarious, of course, but "we" sure as hell weren't painting them at home.

Blue Ribbon

Obscure the damning stuff, make sure no one important is to blame. You can't handle the truth!

The Schools Discourse

Every week or so we get a study or an epidemiologist saying something like, "Schools can open safely if they use masks properly, have social distancing, and proper ventilation." A bunch of elite journalists who are sick and tired of their kids being at home hit the retweet button as hard and fast as they can, often along with the suggestion that this is all about helping poor kids, and by poor they mean "minority," a population they're always very very concerned with.

I don't actually have opinions about how to deal with the school situation, I just know that the discussion, repeated weekly for almost a year now, is always incredibly dishonest. You can't expect little kids to use masks properly. Schools are not designed for social distancing (they are overcrowded). They don't have windows that open. The SCIENCE about kids/teens being or not being carriers/vulnerable isn't straightforward. Even if you can have acceptable class sizes, you can't maintain those if teachers get sick.

I get it. It's hard having your kids at home.

Rising Stars

I've set a google news alert for 'Republican "rising star"' and will report back the results after a year! How many do you think will be labeled that?

Big Tent

I'm not one to pat Republicans on the head for doing the absolute bare minimum required by decency, even if most of their colleagues can't even trip over that bar, but Burr was a bit of a surprise.
Washington (CNN)The North Carolina Republican Party central committee voted Monday to censure Sen. Richard Burr for his vote to convict former President Donald Trump during his second impeachment trial -- a move that made him the latest GOP senator to be reprimanded by his state party for siding with Democrats in the trial.

That's Just How Things Work, Son

Years ago a semi-prominent pundit said something like, "It's completely understandable that Joe Lieberman is becoming more conservative and using his powers to thwart anything liberals like because liberals are mean to him."

And, well, as a banal observation about human nature, sure, but it was also meant as a criticism of the tactics of the people who were mean to a sitting senator, who had a long history of doing things to inspire that meanness, rather than as a horrible indictment of the absolute pettiness of one of the 200 or so most powerful people in the country (at the time).

Not "Joe Lieberman, Christ what an asshole," but "liberal activists are sure dumb lol."

Morning Thread

The New York Times and Disney continue to cancel me.

Monday, February 15, 2021

Monday Night

Rock on.

Cold

Always a problem when places (Texas at the moment in particular) get weather they aren't "used to." Probably can chalk up some power problems to some misguided de-/mis-regulation (above my pay grade, just guessing), but generally if your city doesn't normally get anywhere near 20 degrees, and suddenly it is, there are going to be problems.

Much of the US is truly and deeply blessed by very hot (summer) and very cold (winter) weather! But the places that aren't...

Happy Hour Thread

They got Trump on eleventy million lies, and to avoid accusations of BIAS, they'll "find" eleventy million "lies" from Biden's administration, too.

Fact Chuck

Except for Daniel Dale, the worst people in "journalism" get this odd beat.

PCU

Workplaces, including news outlets, have community issues to deal with that go beyond simplistic invocations of FREEDUM OF SPEECH. I think we understand that it's probably not OK if an employee comes in and screams racial epithets at their coworkers every day. Maybe it isn't ok for them to do it in print, either.

Afternoon Thread

Happy President's day to the best president the country has ever had.... William Henry Harrison!

Happy Decimal Day!

50 years ago, the UK switched to a decimal monetary system.

Before that, 12 pence to the shilling, 5 shillings to a crown, 4 shillings crowns to the pound, (advanced math) 240 pence in a pound.

Backwards and ridiculous! The NYSE switched from 1/16 to decimal in... 2001!

Every Day A New Normal

Back in the summer, during the second Covid spike, 1000 deaths per day was almost an unfathomable tragedy, and it's been at 3000+ for over a month now...

No point other than the obvious. There is a moment when something seems like an emergency, and then that feeling fades.

True about the economy, also, especially as long as everything is good with the stocks.

I HAVE DEMONSTRATED YOUR BIG HYPOCRISY SIRRAH

Movement conservatives don't care if you prove they are liars and hypocrites, they just laugh at you for wasting the time to do so and move on to the next one.

There's some value in yelling at media figures to stop taking their horseshit seriously, and reporting things like "Donald Trump is a law and order president" as straight news without any context. But the bigger problem is the media figures mostly aren't that stupid and they know they're passing on horseshit and THEY DON'T CARE EITHER.

Morning Thread

I hope all the senators enjoyed their Valentine's Day celebrations.

Sunday, February 14, 2021

Late Night

Rock on.

Sunday Evening

Should I bet my fortune on a MEME STOCK or on CRYPTOCURRENCY?

Sunday Afternoon

TipnRonnie

A minor point at the moment, but for a culture that festishizes the concept (if not reality) of COMPETITION, "we" have a weird desire to remove it from politics. The parties should be checks on each other and they shouldn't, for the most part, be good buddies. That doesn't mean people should be complete assholes to the other team, but maybe there shouldn't be anybody on it whose trip to jail, if warranted, would make you feel all that sad.

Lunch Thread

Lazy Sunday.

Asymmetry

I'll leave it as an exercise for you, dear readers, to decide what this means, but you never hear the reverse from Republicans. Paul Ryan (now a "Reasonable Republican") never went out and said, "We need to have a strong Democratic party for the good of the nation."

Morning Thread

"I hope the security forces don't do a coup" is the thing we have to worry about now.

Saturday, February 13, 2021

Saturday Night

Rock on.

Talking Points

A "great" thing about Twitter is you can see 300 elite dem-associated figures come up with roughly the same idea at the same time. It's especially "great" when it isn't even true.

Nap Time

Can't deprive a bunch of octogenarians of their recess.

Technocracy

The problem with the branding of "technocratic liberalism" is it just assumes a level of incompetence that isn't there. Who can object to science-led competently administered best practices! Or whatever the latest buzzwords are. But even well-intended complexity and "cleverness" often has huge costs, and very bright people with Ivy League degrees and a subscription to Wonk Quarterly, people who have no experience actually running things, are often unaware of these costs. Bad management combined with complexity is the route to disaster. 


Ah, Well

Nevertheless.

WHATEVER YOU DO DON'T CALL WITNESSES

Good the Dems started this, if only (but not only) because it would have been embarassing for them to fall for the hilarious threats from Lindsey and the gang. LOL

The Aughts Were Nuts

I think even those of us who were aware of how nuts they were internalized the normality of it all, like victims. It was quite common for very respectable commentators to assert that The Left was in cahoots with radical Islamic terrorists to overthrow the West. If pressed, the would say that they don't mean Dick Durbin precisely, but everyone who votes for Dick Durbin.... That kind of thing.

Was just reminded of this as I was searching for something else, which was the regular "more in sorrow than anger" expressions of regret that conservatives will one day have to Kill All The Libs because the Libs will give them no choice. Very sad.

Go Go Go

Seems Bad

Blue Trump needs to go.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's top aide told Democratic lawmakers that the administration took months to release data revealing how many people living at nursing homes died of COVID-19 because officials “froze” over worries the information was “going to be used against us."

Republicans who term the comment admission of a “cover-up” are now calling for investigations into and the resignations of both Cuomo and the aide, secretary to the governor Melissa DeRosa. And a growing number of Democrats are joining calls to rescind Cuomo's emergency executive powers, blasting the administration's defense of its secrecy.

Morning Thread

I honestly don't know how "SHOULD THEY CALL WITNESSES" became some sort of dramatic line, or controversial decision.

Friday, February 12, 2021

Friday Night

Rock on.

Friday Evening

If you criticize Trump it means you want to put all 960 million of his voters in camps!

Happy Hour Thread

Get happy.

Infinite Redemptions

Haley can do this every other day and the very savvy members of our elite press will write and re-rewrite her redemption arc. And when she is being bad they just reassure us that she's just being smart.

Invitation Only

Well that's a novel distinction only one of America's Most Celebrated Harvard Lawyers could come up with.

Lunch Thread

Genuinely busy with life stuff today. Annoying!

The Project Of Lincoln

It was an obvious grift, run by some of the worst people in Republican politics (ok, pre-Trump, but still BAD PEOPLE), with this "scandal", and now this one: I mean, Steve Schmidt seems like the nicest one and before this he was trying to get the Starbucks guy on the ballot, with obvious consequences, so...

Oh but Atrios I love their ads!

Grrrr...

Call Some Witnesses Then

That the insurrectionists and coup plotters want this to be over suggests the Democrats...should not?

The American Experiment

Most Republicans are perfectly fine with what happened. Lindsey Graham got a bit nervous when they almost killed him, but he's cool with it now. And that's pretty much the Republican party.

Morning Thread

I bet Lindsey Graham will do the right thing today!

Thursday, February 11, 2021

Thursday Night

Rock on.

The Good News

Happy Hour Thread

I yield the floor.

The School Opening "Debate"

"By large margins, they think schools can be open, in person with masks and distancing and ventilation. "

As long as things that aren't happening, likely won't happen, and in many places can't happen, schools should open. Therefore schools should open. QED. Here's the Philly school ventilation solution.

The Story So Far

One can question just what exactly a bunch of top people - Trump's people, senators, House members, various other affiliated figures - expected to happen on the 6th, but there is no doubt that a lot of them were on board with faciliating a mob attacking the Capitol to "Stop the Steal."

Five Men To Overthrow

Lock'em up.
(CNN)The Justice Department unsealed conspiracy charges against five people associated with the Proud Boys on Thursday in the latest and largest move against the far-right group's coordinated role in the insurrection last month. The five are charged with conspiracy and some are accused of leading crowds as they pushed through multiple police lines to make their way into the Capitol building on January 6. They were arrested early Thursday.

Nobody Who Went To Yale Could Be Bad

I know I keep coming back to this (repeating myself), but the elite pedigrees of, well, our elites, prevent the people who cover them, also elites, from seeing that they are capable of very bad things indeed, and are quite possibly one butterfly wing flap away from becoming serial killers.

Lunch Thread

Busy morning for me. Eat some lunch.

Thursday Is New Jobless Day

793K new lucky duckies. Gonna go a full year beating the Great Recession!

Cops

Bruce has fuck you money and can take care of himself, but getting charged like this with a blood alcohol level of .02 - one drink, legally and culturally acceptable whether or not it should be - is about a cop looking for fame (as are the initial news leaks which excluded this part).
Springsteen’s blood-alcohol content was 0.02 — just a quarter of New Jersey’s legal limit — when he was arrested and charged with driving while intoxicated, a source familiar with the case told the Asbury Park Press. The legal threshold indicating intoxication for driving purposes in New Jersey is .08, which calls into question why Springsteen was even charged with driving while intoxicated, the source added.

Morning Thread

How abour a bipartisan congression ice show. For unity.

Wednesday, February 10, 2021

Wednesday Night

Rock on.

Wednesday Evening

What strange people.

Almost Didn't Have Mittens To Kick Around Anymore

That many Republicans have not taken any of this seriously - and I don't even mean being unwilling to hold Trump accountable, I mean just not *take any of it seriously in any way* - almost surprises me. Almost.

Proud Boys

I guess we kept Gitmo open for a reason.

Afternoon Thread

Just a little light treason.

But What Does Any Of This Have To Do With Burma

Honestly what I thought as I reached the end of the tweet.

Earth-151

I won't be so crass as to name names, but there are definitely politicians who, if they'd led slightly different lives, would have a small stack of corpses buried near the shed.

Come To An Agreement And Put It All Behind Us

This has a been a pernicous idea in politics my whole life. It comes up in a lot of contexts, especially various imagined Grand Bargains. There is for some reason a desire to come to a final agreement and take the politics out of politics forever. Why can't both sides just agree to a compromise?

Abortion is a big one. You know, The Left agrees to "commonsense restrictions" and The Right agrees to "stop murdering abortion doctors" and then we can all get back to the cocktail party, having left that unpleasantness behind us.

The importance of specific issues can wax and wane for various reasons, but it's rare that any compromise can just solve the problem forever. Nor should we want that, generally?

Trial Thread

But what about Benghazi?

Lock Him Up

No choice, really.
ATLANTA — Prosecutors in Fulton County have initiated a criminal investigation into former President Donald J. Trump’s attempts to overturn Georgia’s election results, including a phone call he made to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in which Mr. Trump pressured him to “find” enough votes to help him reverse his loss.

On Wednesday, Fani Willis, the recently elected Democratic prosecutor in Fulton County, sent a letter to numerous officials in state government, including Mr. Raffensperger, requesting that they preserve documents related to Mr. Trump’s call, according to a state official with knowledge of the letter. The letter explicitly stated that the request was part of a criminal investigation, said the official, who insisted on anonymity to discuss internal matters.

The Public Gets It Right Sometimes

There are some notable exceptions, but the public is usually more favorably disposed to the Atrios Agenda than you would think if all you did was watch Morning Joseph or listen to Nice Polite Republicans.
A very large and bipartisan majority of Americans would support congressional passage of a new stimulus bill to help those impacted by the pandemic, and many would prefer that it receive bipartisan support in Congress, too. Meanwhile, a majority give President Joe Biden good marks for his handling of the coronavirus outbreak, and for his job as president overall in the opening weeks of his administration.

Anti-Vax

I think the concern about anti-vax senitment has been premature. I mean, let's wait until we have excess suply of vaccines. The big issue with anti-vaxxers generally is adults who won't vaccinate kids, who need to get certain vaccinations while young and are particularly vulnerable to those diseases. Less of an issue with covid for various reasons you're all familiar with.

A bit of inventing people to get mad at, at least at the moment when there are plenty of more pressing concerns. But it *will* become somewhat of an issue...

Morning Thread

You can't appeal to their better natures (scientists have not found this), you can just promise to drag their faces in it for years.

Tuesday, February 09, 2021

Monday Night

Rock on.

Can't Be Bothered

There's no point in arguing with bullshit, because they don't care.

Happy Hour Thread

The constitution is unconstitutional!

More Thread

Lock'em up.

Lots of Disagreement On That Point

Mulligans Now, Mulligans Forever

Senate Trial Thread

 The best coverage is in the comments of this very fine blog!

...Here's the opening video.

Time Rides All Alone

I'm not someone who has a naïve utopian view of other countries in the group we're usually lumped in with (Yurp, Canada, etc...). They all have their problems. But I think it's fair to say one thing we absolutely win at, hands down, is the degree to which people are one calamity away from destitution, or at least from a hole that can never be climbed out of. It isn't the only reason, but our health care system - and the fact that health care providers have license to write down random 7 figure numbers on a bill and shove it into your pocket while you're in a coma - is enough of a reason for this to be true.

Give Us The Good Stuff, Keep The Bad People Out Of Power

Seems like a pretty good plan to me. But I am dumb.

America's Top Poster

Cryptocurrency

Above my pay grade, but I thought they'd fizzle once certain flaws (aside from the obvious ones) became more apparent but lol nothing matters. At least there were some Tulips involved with Tulipmania. Tulips are pretty.

Morning Thread

Get your morning on.

Monday, February 08, 2021

Seems Bad

But what do I know.
ATLANTA — The office of Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, on Monday started an investigation into former President Donald J. Trump’s attempts to overturn the state’s election results, including a phone call he made to Mr. Raffensperger in which Mr. Trump pressured him to “find” enough votes to reverse his loss.

Precarity

All the debates about how generous any government program should be can be understood as a debate about just how much of the labor force should be one paycheck from disaster. Many people think: a lot!

LOL Nothing Matters

If "9/11" happened tomorrow it'd be forgotten by Easter.

That isn't quite true, of course, but mostly because nothing gets the juices flowing like an excuse to bomb some brown foreigners. But if a bunch of MAGA QAnonners flew planes into buildings, it might be.

Final Acts

Wright was part of the sedition caucus.
Rep. Ron Wright, a Texas Republican, died Sunday after receiving a positive test diagnosis for the coronavirus, his campaign announced in a statement on Monday. He is the first sitting member of Congress to die after being diagnosed with the virus. Wright, 67, said last month he began a quarantine on Friday, Jan. 15, after coming into contact with an individual who had the virus a week earlier. He said he tested positive for the illness the following week on Thursday, Jan. 21.

Lunch Thread

enjoy

We Need To Handle Our Financial Situation

The general point is that this is Biden's shot, and the all the voices telling Democrats to do nothing, that in fact what they have done caused all the problems, will get louder and louder. Too many of them can't resist the sage advice of Morning Joseph, the Oracle of Jupiter, and various other people responsible for everything wrong with this country over the past few decades.

That they're wavering on the "give people some fucking money" part...

Spending Was The Problem

It was slightly worse in the UK and Europe than in the US, but the overall message wasn't simply "government spending doesn't work," it was that "too much government spending was actually the cause of the problems." Spending was the disease, austerity was the cure. The message was so powerful that the president at the time said this during his State of the Union address when unemployment was 10%.
But families across the country are tightening their belts and making tough decisions. The federal government should do the same. (Applause.) So tonight, I'm proposing specific steps to pay for the trillion dollars that it took to rescue the economy last year.

Starting in 2011, we are prepared to freeze government spending for three years. (Applause.) Spending related to our national security, Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security will not be affected. But all other discretionary government programs will. Like any cash-strapped family, we will work within a budget to invest in what we need and sacrifice what we don't. And if I have to enforce this discipline by veto, I will. (Applause.)

We will continue to go through the budget, line by line, page by page, to eliminate programs that we can't afford and don't work. We've already identified $20 billion in savings for next year. To help working families, we'll extend our middle-class tax cuts. But at a time of record deficits, we will not continue tax cuts for oil companies, for investment fund managers, and for those making over $250,000 a year. We just can't afford it. (Applause.)

Now, even after paying for what we spent on my watch, we'll still face the massive deficit we had when I took office. More importantly, the cost of Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security will continue to skyrocket. That's why I've called for a bipartisan fiscal commission, modeled on a proposal by Republican Judd Gregg and Democrat Kent Conrad. (Applause.) This can't be one of those Washington gimmicks that lets us pretend we solved a problem. The commission will have to provide a specific set of solutions by a certain deadline.

If the economy is bad going into the 2022 election season, the message will be "Joe Biden's big government spending destroyed the economy," and all the people who are screaming "THIS WILL OVERSTIMULATE THE ECONOMY" will be screaming a different tune but lol nothing matters.

Morning Thread

The world destroyed by plague as Bill Gates screams, "WE PRESERVED THE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS," is perhaps a fitting ending.

Sunday, February 07, 2021

Sunday Night

Rock on.

Superbowl Thread

Go local sports team!

Street Meat

I ask this because I'm just fascinated by the people - in some cases very rich people - who cling to their TV (or radio) spots for years, past retirement, through an illness. Why does Morning Joseph want to get up at 4AM most days? Doesn't Tucker Swanson Carlson have anything better to do before he becomes a gross old man like Hannity? Why does it seem like, according to reports, all creepy sex pest Matt Lauer can think about is how to get himself back on TV? I certainly get wanting money, and while that's a level of fame I have no interest in, I get that too, but having achieved those things, why do they keep going? What is the point?

Max Headroom

Has anyone who was ever a TV news host type person talked about the thrill of it? Beaming my head into little boxes in all your homes sounds pretty horrible to me (and probably to you), but obviously there are people who can't quit it. And I don't mean being a star generally. Some of these people are "stars" enough that they could coast on it for years without putting in the hours (sometimes horrible time slots like the morning crews).

"Narrow Majority"

Remind me to keep track of when 56%+ is described this way by ABC in other contexts.

Sunday Sunday

Out for a bit. Let me know if Biden does a bad tweet.

Morning Thread

Recession, plague, insurrection, failed coup attempt. It's been exciting!

Saturday, February 06, 2021

Saturday Night

Rock on.

Saturday Happy Hour

Get happy.

Afternoon Thread

Good thing Spring finally starts tomorrow.

Communist News Network

Back when we used to "torture Lou" by skewing his dumb online polls, he was on CNN. He was a big horrible racist with a nightly show in a key slot for years and years and years.

Your liberal media.

Cancel Culture

I'm no Bob Loblaw, but in running a very fine blog for all these years it's been sensible for me to acquaint myself with the contours of defamation/libel law. Don't want to get sued out of existence!

For better or for worse there are various hurdles to making a case in this area, and certainly to making a case that will get you a big payout. Being able to show quantifiable economic damages, not just asserting "someone said a mean untrue thing about me," makes that easier!

Destroying up until that point lucrative voting machine businesses by making their reputations toxic to the governments that hand out those contracts... about as clear and quantifiable as you can get!

Suck it, Loud Obbs.

Everybody's Working For The Weekend

Might take a couple of hours off today! Or not. We'll see!

Shitposting on a very fine blog is not the hardest job in the world, but doing it 7 days a week can be a bit draining!

Morning Thread

The lack of pro-Qanon cable news hosts really shows how liberal bias is still a problem.

Friday, February 05, 2021

Friday Night

Rock on.

Tortured Lou Dobbs

The end.
Fox News has canceled “Lou Dobbs Tonight,” the program hosted by television’s staunchest supporter of Donald Trump and of his assertions of voter fraud in the 2020 election, the Times has learned.

Zing

Poor Larry.
Summers also took jabs from Senate Democrats, even the most moderate of whom have largely backed the size of the White House’s proposal. During a meeting of Senate chiefs of staff on Friday morning, an aide to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) thanked everyone for maintaining the party line, acknowledging that some of their bosses believed the package was either too much or not enough, according to a source familiar with the meeting. “And then there’s Larry Summers,” the aide said, “who can’t decide if we’re doing too much or not enough—but knows that, whatever we’re doing, is wrong.”

Happy Hour Thread

Another week down.

Progress

America's Worst Larry Summers

Larry Summers

He Who Must Not Be Named

There will of course be *genuine* news - impeachment related, especially - but otherwise doing my best to make this fine blog free of Habermanesque Trump clan gossip.

Obama Fucked Up

I guess we can all admit it now.

Hope And Change

One reason I still get very prickly about everything from The Great Recession is that while most of the time all I do is shitpost on this very fine blog, during '09-10 I actually went to DC quite frequently, meeting with members of Congress and their staffs and various groups, trying to formulate inside-outside strategies or anything, literally anything at all, to pressure those who needed to be pressured to do something about the still unfolding disaster. It was no comfort to be proved fucking right, from a political perspective, in November 2010.

I'm not saying I was important or was leading anything, just that I actually put effort in, my own dime and time, for no personal gain, to make something happen, and to run into the same immovable human walls over and over, and to have bullshit printed in the press constantly about what was going on (knowing because occasionally I was a little bit 'in the room') was... frustrating! Welcome to activism, I know.

It was no secret who the villains were, who the immovable human walls were. It was like living through the Iraq war era again, in a way, knowing you actually aren't the crazy person, but everyone with a microphone is talking as if you were. Not me specifically. Again I'm no one. But anybody with my basic, correct, perspective. You know, things like "this is no time to cut spending" and "the Obama administration programs are designed to encourage foreclosures, not stop them," and "actually, they have a slush fund to help people and they didn't even use it."

Anyway, shut the fuck up Larry. By the logic you appy to the unemployed, you should be comfortable enough to never want to work again.

The Coin Has The Power

This is awesome. Mike Lee wants to repeal the statute that allows the Treasury to mint platinum coins. You might remember that back in the dark ages, when the Republicans decided they could use the debt ceiling as yet another way to hold the government hostage, some clever nerds dug out this act and said that as it placed no limits on the coin denomination, the Treasury could just mint a trillion dollar coin (or several!) and deposit it in their account.

All the very serious people at the time got mad at The Crazy Left putting forth this perfectly legal, perfectly sensible idea to combat an even more bonkers idea that was itself arguably a violation of the 14th amendment ("The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, ... shall not be questioned."). So "we" let the Republicans put the gun to the hostage (country) repeatedly.

Lee spells it out. The Treasury can do this!