Wednesday, March 31, 2021

Wednesday Night

Rock on.

Still The Representatives Of Real America

Republicans are still the only people who matter. Just ask Chuck Todd.

Pizzagaetz

Lots of adenochrome harvesting.
The federal investigation into Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz is focused on allegations that the junior congressman had a sexual relationship with at least one minor, and is scrutinizing the Republican's conduct not only in Florida but in other states too, three sources familiar with the investigation tell ABC News.
Writers just huffing glue and blurting out whatever bullshit they can think of.
Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Florida Republican known for his fierce allegiance to former president Donald Trump, had been under Justice Department investigation for months for a possible sex crime when two men approached his father with a proposal, people familiar with the matter said.

The men had learned of the investigation, they wrote to Don Gaetz, and wanted to offer an opportunity to help his son, the people said. He could give a huge sum of money to fund their effort to locate Robert A. Levinson — the longest held American hostage in Iran whose family has said they were told he is dead. If the operation was a success, he would win favor with the U.S. government and help alleviate Matt Gaetz’s legal woes.

Happy Hour Thread

Smoke where it's legal.

Weed Post

The state dominos falling so quickly on weed legalization (welcome, New York) wasn't in my prediction list, though I was raised at the height of the IF YOU LOOK AT THE MARY JOOWAANA YOU WILL DIE era of the 80s.

10 Steps To The Right, 2 To The Left

A reason to "go big" on everything is that on most issues, policy has been moving to the right for 40 years and these moves have been balanced at best by occasional small shifts to the left.

Think we've got a long way to go before anyone not raised in the Ayn Rand breeding vats should think we've gone TOOOO FAR back to the left, but don't worry, even if we do, most of the pressure (media, $) is the other way and we'll get blown back soon enough.

Lunch Thread

Taco truck time.

Deadbeat

They'll never get a cent out of him but, but go go go anyway.
Two Capitol police officers who battled the mob of pro-Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 are now suing the former president for the physical and emotional injuries they say they suffered in the attacks.

In a federal suit filed Tuesday in D.C., officers James Blassingame and Sidney Hemby allege that for months, Trump rallied the insurrectionists with baseless election fraud claims that eventually culminated in the breach of the Capitol that left five dead, including a Capitol police officer. More than one hundred police officers were injured, according to the police union, and two officers who had been on duty at the Capitol that day later died by suicide.

Rest In Hell, G.

Liddy was a bad man. A criminal and a thug. Not just a "he didn't share my politics" or "got caught up in some bad shit." He was an unrepentant murderous scumbag. If you're surprised (most of you, dear readers, probably are not, but the kids today are) that the assorted criminals from the last guy's administration are welcomed with open arms into polite society, just look at G.

Not so different than that hilarious scamp, Roger Stone.

Or Henry Kissinger.

Pizzagaetz

I'll leave the more concrete speculation to others, but just how many criminal sex investigations are swirling around this guy? Okay maybe I won't leave it to others. He flew a minor(s) across state lines from a state where she was not legally able to consent to a state where she was. Still a federal crime!

Morning Thread

For your consideration.

Tuesday, March 30, 2021

Tuesday Night

Rock on.

Grand Old Police Blotter

Well well.
Representative Matt Gaetz, Republican of Florida and a close ally of former President Donald J. Trump, is being investigated by the Justice Department over whether he had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old and paid for her to travel with him, according to three people briefed on the matter.

Investigators are examining whether Mr. Gaetz violated federal sex trafficking laws, the people said. A variety of federal statutes make it illegal to induce someone under 18 to travel over state lines to engage in sex in exchange for money or something of value. The Justice Department regularly prosecutes such cases, and offenders often receive severe sentences.

Tuesday Happy Hour

Can't believe all these places just had to hold it together for another 3 weeks and... didn't.

New Tricks

Don't know the names but the countours are good
President Biden plans to announce his first slate of judicial nominees on Tuesday, elevating U.S. District Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the influential appeals court in Washington to succeed Merrick Garland as part of the largest and earliest batch of court picks by a new administration in decades.

...

The nominees come from diverse personal and professional backgrounds, including former public defenders, former prosecutors, sitting judges and attorneys at large law firms, according to a list provided by the White House.

Younger with more diverse professional backgrounds. Keep it up!

Afternoon Thread

Enjoy

Audition

Why be a troll for a measly $174K when you can apply your skills much more lucratively? Congress used to be a stepping stone to the unsavory world of lobbying and corporate boards. Now it's an audition for highly paid troll jobs.
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) has privately told confidants he's seriously considering not seeking re-election and possibly leaving Congress early for a job at Newsmax, three sources with direct knowledge of the talks tell Axios.
Why wait?

Vaccine Passports

I don't have many strong opinions about what "proof of being vaccinated" should be required for (calling it a passport is dumb), but I do think "we're" still getting prematurely mad at people who won't get vaccinated when it isn't yet the case that everyone who wants to be can be. The relatively narrow window between now and then makes interim measures more trouble/controversial than they are worth. And once we get to that point, how necessary is it, really?

THE ROBOTS ARE COMING

A few years ago "everyone" was talking about how robots were going to put everyone out of work. AI was almost here, and then human labor for most jobs that weren't MY job (people writing this stuff didn't think they would be replaced) would be unnecessary.

I think the belief that Skynet was about to be activated arose from having faith in the imminent arrival of functional autononmous cars, which we can blame on lies from Musk and Waymo (Waymo stopped lying at some point, but they did for awhile).

As is usually the case with technological developments that are "almost" here, this was used to hijack useful conversations about actual current problems.

Automation has long been with us and has long been displacing jobs, so this conversation was about a singularity type event, after which AI would be here and would do EVERYTHING (except hot takes).

These look neato, but like self-driving cars are probably just... neato. The issue is not whether robots can lift boxes. Of course they can! The issue is whether they can handle complex environments, not just pulling uniform boxes off an assembly line or similar, something they've managed for decades.

Tuesday Morning

The time to listen to people saying, "don't remove lockdown restrictions yet," is always 3 weeks ago.

Also, it's the damn schools. Sending a bunch of 13 year olds home with covid cooties while telling everyone there's nothing to worry about...

Monday, March 29, 2021

Monday Night

Rock on.

Monday Evening

Enjoy.

VMT Tax No

Got hives when he floated this.

Little Tiny Houses For You And Me

Been rather confused by the "tiny house" movement as trailer parks are right there, but much maligned and facing closure in many places.

There isn't one quick trick to getting people to support/municipalities to allow dense low cost housing. "Tiny houses" look cute in isolation, but tiny houses for 10,000 people in a small area won't look any cuter than trailer parks.

Never Trumped

Nobody could have predicted that David Frum was a big dumb racist, unless you'd been vaguely aware of his career or read a review of his book or...

Afternoon Thread

It's afternoon in America (some of it, anyway).

Keep Opening The Restaurants

As I said before, we had places opening up the restaurants (and similar) at the same case level they decided to close them in the first place.

Sounds Bad

I would guess the value is "lots of criming and other confessions" more than "intelligence value" as traditionally understood.
(Reuters) - Hackers suspected of working for Russia got access to an email account belonging to the former head of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which is responsible for cybersecurity, in the SolarWinds hack, the Associated Press reported here on Monday. The AP report said the intelligence value of the hacking of Chad Wolf, the former acting secretary of the DHS, and of email accounts belonging to officials in the department’s cybersecurity staff, was not publicly known.

Plus C'est La Même Chose

I've been thinking about how much status quo bias is built into our system, constitutionally, institutionally, and in The Discourse. Merely nudging up or down the top marginal tax rate seems like such a TREMENDOUS DEAL, as does basically anything that does more than slightly change spending in existing programs.

We don't have a parliamentary system, which gums things up already, and then we pile all this other bullshit onto it, including deciding that all legislation must be approved by a Council of David Brookses or some shit.

There's no need for EVERYTHING to be such a big deal. Win elections, change things, lose elections, things get changed again. That's more how it should be. Sure some persistence of policy is good thing, but our system is soooo biased in that direction already.

The fear of getting rid of the filibuster is there because the filibuster is there. It's so hard to change things, that people fear the ability to change anything, because then it's impossible to change it back. We're scared of any laws being passed because it's so hard to undo them.

Morning Thread

It is morning in America.

Sunday, March 28, 2021

Sunday Night

Rock on.

Sunday Evening

Tomorrow is...

The Stuck Ship

Mostly above my pay grade, but I will just say those things are way bigger (size, weight, conceptual quantity of goods carried) than people imagine, and shipping non-perishable things by sea is shockingly cheap (assuming they don't get stuck).

Objectitudinal Journalism

We always return to "only white dudes who went to good schools can be truly objective."
More than a year after the incident, the wounds are still fresh. On Friday night, Sonmez publicly criticized her boss, national editor STEVEN GINSBERG, after he was quoted in a Vanity Fair piece about the need to support female journalists when they’re subjected to harassment online. “Wish the same Post editor who is quoted in this piece supported me when I was doxxed and had to leave my home,” she wrote on Twitter, adding Ginsberg’s handle. (The decision to suspend her was made by Baron.)

She didn’t stop there. Sonmez also publicized that she is barred from writing about anything related to sexual misconduct or #MeToo. According to several people familiar with the decision, the prohibition began around the time that sexual misconduct allegations surfaced against Supreme Court Justice BRETT KAVANAUGH, and continued recently with news about Rep. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-N.Y.) acknowledging she is a survivor of assault as well as the harassment allegations against New York Gov. ANDREW CUOMO.

Just gibberish from Saint Marty (from an earlier piece).
Baron further illustrated that point in an interview with Kojo Nnamdi of Washington’s NPR member-station WAMU. Baron acknowledged the importance of having diverse life experiences represented in the newsroom, which he said “opens our eyes and our ears to what we might not otherwise see.”

But moments before, Baron had stressed his commitment to a concept of objectivity that he defined precisely as rejecting the value of life experiences in the reporting process. People “may come into a story influenced by their own life experiences, their own preconceptions,” he said. “It’s really important that we try, as hard as possible, to set those aside.”

Objectivity is how the SALT deduction was the most pressing policy issue for a couple of years.

Blue Trump

As with the actual Trump, almost everyone around the guy is a toxic shithead, so they should suffer, too.
Dozens of officials in Gov. Andrew Cuomo's administration, including his top aide Melissa DeRosa, have been reportedly subpoenaed by the New York State attorney general's office as part of his sexual misconduct probe.

That's CRAAAZY

A new thing I do, perhaps to help prevent me from getting old(er) person brain, is to imagine trying to explain something "normal" to the alien ambassador. Many of the things we are conditioned to accept as immutable and good are neither.
The White House is weighing whether to suspend intellectual property protections for Covid-19 vaccines and treatments, in response to pressure from developing nations and subsequent support from progressive lawmakers, according to three sources familiar with the matter.
We have a global pandemic with a quickly mutating virus and this is even a question! An unanswered one!

Lower Stakes Stuff

Still important! There are actually a lot of very important issues that have been pushed to the background because of a few pressing issues. You know, "are we all going to die from the plague?" "Will the plague plunge the country into a an unprecedented recession?" "Will the nuclear power we call home be run by a mentally unstable rage addicted dictator for life who is someone Silvio Berlusconi would find classless and ridiculous?"

But the country had a few problems that weren't being solved before all that, also, too, so we can argue about them now again.

Morning Thread

At least people are arguing about relatively lower stakes stuff these days!!!

Saturday, March 27, 2021

Saturday Night

Rock on.

Saturday Evening

Open the bars and gyms while blaming teachers' unions for not using magic to create safe schools was a plan.

Anyone Remember Movies?

Haven't seen to many recently (none at the theater). I thought Minari and Nomadland were both good, but not quite great for similar reasons. But I am a bad critic!

Afternoon Thread

The Politics Show is boring on the weekends these days.

It's All Around Us

Not trying to be vague in the post below, I'm just responding to numerous things. Trying to to push Biden into participating Trump/Biden WWE match, and then when he didn't bite, pretending he did anyway. Pretending to believe the bullshit Republicans pretend to be concerned about, despite knowing they didn't care about those things a month ago. The treatment of any policy dispute as mere partisan bickering, rather than something with severe consequences. Tiptoeing, at best, around the contempt for democracy Republicans are displaying in statehouses all around the country, even after there was organized massive attempt to assassinate the (former) Vice President and numerous members of Congress just 2.5 months ago in order to end the democratic experiment in this country.

The light goes on for about 24 hours, then they are back on their bullshit.  

We'll Pull Laughter From The Skies

A major problem is that most of the people in elite perches in The Discourse are barely affected by policy, and in fact consider their lack of personal stake in the outcome to be a point in their favor, as lack of a personal stake in the outcome gives them the purity of intellect that only such detachment can provide. Objective observers from the mountaintop. Critics reviewing the show.

I shouldn't be surprised anymore, but even after All This...

Morning Thread

Mueller is coming.

Friday, March 26, 2021

Friday Night

Rock on.

Guaranteed To Blow Your Mind

Just some Friday fun.
Several knowledgeable sources told me that, in the past two months, the tone and the pace of Vance’s grand-jury probe have picked up dramatically. A person who has been extensively involved in the investigation said, “It’s night and day.” Another source, who complained that things had seemed to stall while Vance waited for Trump to leave the White House, and then waited for his tax records, said, of the D.A.’s office, “They mean business now.” Earlier, this source had felt that Vance’s team seemed slow to talk to some prospective witnesses. But recently, the person said, prosecutors’ questions have become “very pointed—they’re sharpshooting now, laser-beaming.” The source added, “It hit me—they’re closer.”

Happy Hour

Week over! Raise a glass to a less busy week (for me) next week!

America's Worst Republicans

Missouri Republicans.

Afternoon Thread

Real life nuisances every day this week. Perhaps this very fine blog seems equally fine even when I am busy with other things, but it doesn't to me so I get annoyed. Also busy. Talk amongst yourselves.

Lunch Thread

Mr. Biden, sir, if you were a tree what kind of tree would you be? And, as a follow up, could your tree beat up Donald Trump's tree? Answer in the form of a question please.

So Predictable

Reporters spent a month complaining about Biden not having a press conference. It's reasonable that Biden has them sometimes, but they aren't really important, largely because the press corps behaved as every critic expected they would.
Afterward, the weirdness was acknowledged. MSNBC’s Chris Hayes called it “nuts” that the press didn’t ask about COVID; April Ryan, theGrio’s White House correspondent, who was at the presser but not called on, noted on Twitter that there “are still major challenges with bridging the race gap with vaccinations and the impact of this pandemic on communities of color.” As a whole, media watchers gave the press conference overwhelmingly negative reviews. “Questions should be designed to elicit from the president responses that permit the public to inform itself,” NYU’s Jay Rosen argued, “but many of those who rise at these events ask questions designed so that the president’s responses will make news.” Dan Froomkin, the journalism critic, said that the presser created the impression that as “Biden is trying to solve problems, the press corps is trying to create them,” and observed that, in the case of the border, Biden now “has to fact-check the media,” after four years of the opposite. Kendra Pierre-Louis, a journalist who covers the climate crisis (which also failed to come up in any detail), had perhaps the most succinct take: “It was a shit press conference and the reporters are why.”

Take All Their Money

Take it out of Tucker's salary.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Dominion Voting Systems on Friday filed a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News, arguing the cable news giant falsely claimed in an effort to boost faltering ratings that the voting company had rigged the 2020 election.

Vaccine Hesitancy

I've been annoyed that this has been a prominent topic in The Discourse, despite the fact that in most places simply getting vaccinated requires, at a minimum, a greater degree of diligence and online savvy than it should. From the beginning, there was a completely manufactured concern about hesitancy among African-Americans, specifically, when the problem still is the relative lack of availability in those communities, as resources get allocated, in various ways, to where affluent white people are.

An issue eventually, and perhaps a concern for certain professions, but still pretty far down the list.

Morning Thread

MR. PRESIDENT DO YOU EXPECT TO WIN THE 2024 ELECTION AND AGAINST WHO I AM A SERIOUS JOURNALIST.

Thursday, March 25, 2021

Thursday Night

Rock on.

Kweschins

About as expected.
After four years of the media desperately needing to reality-check the president (and often failing), now the president was the one talking about things that mattered and marveling at not one but two reporters asking about the 2024 election. “Look, I don’t know where you guys come from,” he told CNN’s Kaitlin Collins.

Happy Hour Thread

Mr. President, can you use bipartisanship to make the vaccine machine go faster?

e

Over a year later, "we" should have learned that once the curves start going up... UP UP UP THEY GO.
New infections continue to trend upward in a majority of states despite an escalating vaccination campaign. Cases rose by 4 percent nationwide over the past week with states such as Michigan, Colorado and Connecticut all reporting spikes of more than 30 percent, according to data compiled by The Washington Post.

Afternoon Thread

Bit of an unexpected interruption to today's great work on this very fine blog. All fine, but this week has just been like that.

PRESS CONFERENCE

You have my permission to tell every journalist who wastes the nation's time, and that of their colleagues, that they're a shithead.

That includes White House pet questions.

Lunch Thread

Enjoy

America's Most Corrupt Governors

Andrew Cuomo.

Maybe They'll Get It Right This Time

Of course people have fallen and will continue to fall through the cracks, but it's at least possible that this time, at least in the aggregate, the policy response to widespread unemployment will be pretty good! We'll see.

Obama's policy response (blame who you want, THE POLICY RESPONSE THAT HAPPENED WHILE OBAMA WAS PRESIDENT) was bad, and then the Fed made it worse by taking away the booze too early. In 2015.

Maddening years.

Thursday Is New Jobless Day

684,000 new lucky duckies. Great recession peak was... 665K! Still above it.

Morning Thread

Pretty sure not enough people get cancelled.

Wednesday, March 24, 2021

Wednesday Night

Rock on.

Wednesday Evening

The last guy farts and REPORTERS ARE ON IT!!!

They Evolve Quickly

2+ weeks ago.
Manchin said he'll block Biden's next big package — $2 trillion to $4 trillion for climate and infrastructure — if Republicans aren't included.

...

Manchin said the infrastructure bill can be big — as much as $4 trillion — as long as it's paid for with tax increases. He said he'll start his bargaining by requiring the package be 100% paid for.

Now:
WASHINGTON — Sen. Joe Manchin said Wednesday that he favors a large infrastructure package that would be paid for in part by raising tax revenues — a point of contention between the two parties.

"I'm sure of one thing: It’s going to be enormous," the West Virginia Democrat, who is seen as a swing vote in a chamber divided 50-50, told reporters at the Capitol.

...

Notably, Manchin said the Republican resistance to higher taxes was not a "reasonable" position if they want the package to be paid for.

Afternoon Thread

Strange week for some reason.

Gonna Name Several Post Offices

Senate is just like a group of big dorks who have an exclusive treehouse club that no one else actually wants to be a member of.
WASHINGTON — The survival of the Senate's effective supermajority rule to pass bills could hinge on a working group of 20 senators that includes the most moderate members in both parties. If they can cut deals and deliver victories, it could become the model for lawmaking under President Joe Biden. If they fail, the Democratic-led Congress will face pressure to pursue partisan avenues to enact their ambitious agenda, including the simple-majority budget process and nixing the filibuster.
"Most moderate."

Qualifications

Legacy admit complaining about nonexistent affirmative action.

Running Out Of Fucks

I try not to get too angry on this very fine blog, and I should be used to some of the bullshit after all these years, but handing the mic over to Stephen Miller...

Politico Is A White Nationalist Publication

It's actually true, but now they've made it acceptable to say it.

As We Go Sliding

Reporters mostly aren't as dumb as they pretend to be (some columnists are). When they pivot to "border crisis" they know precisely what they are doing, they know precisely why they shouldn't be doing it, and when they refuse to acknowledge criticisms it's because they have contempt for the people who pay for their product (either through subscriptions or having their eyeballs sold to advertisers).

Morning Thread

Bloggers just want to be liked, too.

Tuesday, March 23, 2021

Tuesday Night

Rock on.

Politicians. We Just Want To Be Liked.

A (now former) senator said that to me once.
In the meeting, Manchin seemed steadfast about his support for an increase to $11 an hour, according to one attendee. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) suggested that if the wage was raised to $11 now and more aggressively indexed to inflation, it wouldn't be far off from Sanders's goal of $15 an hour by 2024.

Happy Hour Thread

CRISIS IN SOUTH PHILADELPHIA!!!

Just trying to improve my ratings.

ONE YEAR LATER

Unlike many, I can't really stomach the thought of going back and seeing what was on this very fine blog a yearish ago. The past year was fine for me, personally, as these things go. Not complaining in that way. But it was also weirdly traumatic. The last guy was an abuser, and he had has moment to shine.

Foxy

America's Worst Mainstream Journalism

Mainstream journalism.

Full Employment

We had decades of Fed policy which was basically "make sure that nobody ever gets a raise."
In 2015, when Janet Yellen was chair, the central bank raised interest rates — a move justified at the time by the prevailing belief that at 5 percent unemployment we were close to full employment and that inflation would arrive soon after if rates stayed low. Mr. Powell and all of the other members of the Fed’s committee at the time, agreed. In retrospect, it was too soon. American families — who could have greatly benefited from a tighter labor market that produced higher wages and more opportunities — suffered. It wasn’t intentional, but that’s cold comfort to families who missed out on a full recovery.
Trump did one thing right, perhaps ending 35 years of the Fed policy of making sure that nobody ever gets a raise again.
Politicians promise their policies will creeeaaatte jayuuuuuuubs. Journalists judge policies by imagined (usually based on supply side fairy reasoning) jayyyuub creation of those policies. The Fed raises rates as soon as too many jayuuubbs are created, ensuring that not enough jayyyuuubs are created to ever give anybody a raise.

Nobody ever seems to recognize the contradiction here.

Ammosexuality

It is the guns, of course, as it's hard to do the job without readily available tools, but much more than I would've said 20 years ago, it's also the culture.

Not video games or violence on teevee, or whatever, but the reinforcement in certain cultural circles, including at least subtly by our mainstream media, of lone white gunmen as, if not quite heroes, anti-heroes at least.

Both their imagined grievances and chosen solution receive way more sympathetic coverage than they should.

Back To Normal

Probably would've preferred delaying human hunting season for another year due to Covid, but this is America and we love our freedum.

Morning Thread

The vaccine machine isn't going fast enough.

Monday, March 22, 2021

Monday Night

Monday Evening

Fortunately, tomorrow is Tuesday! Nothing bad ever happens on Tuesdays.

Happy Hour Thread

Maybe that orange cat had a point about Mondays.

Maskholes

Sometime last summer, during a low case period of covid, I was out walking on a fairly wide path. A couple were coming they other way. My age or so. As I tend to do I stepped off the edge of the path to give them wide berth to get by me without getting any of my covid cooties.

This made the guy a bit annoyed, "we're outside! breeze is blowing! we don't have to do that!" He wasn't a real jerk, but you could tell he probably could be a real jerk about the issue. On that side of the ridiculous "covid safety" culture war.

I'm not personally extreme about being "covid safe." I largely make the effort to be polite to others. I'm not going to get mad if someone invades my space a bit. But that it is polite to do so will annoy the types of people who get annoyed by such things.

After All This, if there is an after, especially if it's a mostly after, people are going to readjust their views of personal space. Wearing masks will remain normal for some, regularly or at least when sick. And some people, like my friend above, will get annoyed and belligerent about it all.

Go Go Go

Eschaton World Industries needs a new subway stop!
WASHINGTON — President Biden’s economic advisers are preparing to recommend spending as much as $3 trillion on a sweeping set of efforts aimed at boosting the economy, reducing carbon emissions and narrowing economic inequality, beginning with a giant infrastructure plan that may be financed in part through tax increases on corporations and the rich.

America's Worst Cable News Network

CNN

We Keep Making The Same Mistakes Over And Over Again

It's bad enough that many places are relaxing restrictions at about the same case level that led them to implement them in the first place, but at least if there was a downward trend it would be slightly more defensible. It's happening in places where cases are rising.

Lunch Thread

Taco truck time.

The Future of Music

Long piece from Dayen.

Individual actions aren't a cure for systemic problems, but you can at least buy instead of stream and buy directly from the bands when possible.

And when All This is over, buy some concert tickets.

"You Haven't Learned Anything"

It was a regular comment about the news media made during the era of the last guy, as if the election in 2016 caused any soul searching (it didn't), as if everything that happened in the last four years caused any soul searching (it didn't). The conceit of elite political journalism isn't simply that they can do no wrong - though they can't - it's that nothing they do matters at all, that they aren't major political actors with every coverage choice they make.

I'm not saying they really believe this, necessarily, but they take no responsibility for the consequences of what they do. They can cover the BORDER INVASION one month solid before the 2018 election, drop it the day after the election, and pick it up the next time Republicans decide it's politically useful (correctly or not).

If you look at the UK tabloids, almost every day they run cover stories with headlines of the format, "OUTRAGE OVER [something you never heard of]." No one is outraged before the story has been run, because no one is aware of it, but you've already been informed that everyone is outraged and you should be too.

The objectitudinal serious journalists of our great respected publications aren't quite so crass, but they basically do the same thing. And what are we outraged about today, Chuck? Whatever the people on Chuck's group text tell him we're outraged about. And those people are mostly Republicans or the most ridiculously gross, rich, and stupid people on Earth.

Monday Morning

One more big Covid wave is inevitable, some places at least.

Sunday, March 21, 2021

Sunday Night

Rock on.

Your Moment of Zen

Happy Hour Thread

Tomorrow is...Monday again.

Afternoon Thread

Reporters aren't as dumb as they pretend to be, which is worse, AKSHUALLY.

Well Actual Asian-Americans Would be BIASED

What Are We Going To Talk About Today, George?

The same thing we talk about every day, Chuck. Whatever Republicans want us to talk about.

Blue Trump

Reporters involved with this should be shunned.
An intermediary who says that he was not on the calls, Rich Bamberger, a former communications director for Cuomo who now works for the public-relations firm Kivvit, called several reporters and advised them to contact the Governor’s office. According to the person with knowledge of the conversations, Azzopardi then sent Boylan’s personnel files to reporters. By day’s end, several of the complaints about Boylan had appeared in stories, by the Associated Press, the New York Post, and the Albany-based Times Union.
It's clear where the abuse of power is, here, and reporters aided it.

Morning Thread

Spring has Sprung.

Saturday, March 20, 2021

Saturday Night

Rock on.

Saturday Evening

Tomorrow is Sunday.

Afternoon Thread

If I pivot to talking about how I've been CANCELLED will you give me 7 figures?

Make The Vaccine Machine Go Faster

(source)

What Happened To Larry

The key to understanding many things is that often people aren't trying to do the job that you think they are, or that they claim to be doing. That Larry has been on a 40 year mission to extract wealth from most of the population and funnel it upwards is a much more coherent explanation of his career than anything else.

Saturday, Saturday

Probably a lazy blogging day here at Eschaton World Industries. Sent the interns home.

Morning Thread

Imagine how much better the world would be if I were in charge of everything.

Friday, March 19, 2021

Friday Night

Rock on.

Friday Evening

Another week down.

jabjabjab

Blue Trump Troubles

Just resign.
A federal investigation into Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s handling of nursing homes during the pandemic has focused in recent weeks on whether the governor and his senior aides provided false data on resident deaths to the Justice Department, according to four people with knowledge of the investigation.

Afternoon Thread

Is "Joe Biden" actually CGI Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton with a Joe Biden skin, or Donald Trump with a Joe Biden skin?

I Was Proved Fucking Right

Peak "driverless car discourse" was a few years ago. Some subjects don't just bring out disagreement, civil or otherwise, but extreme condescension.

Not complaining, I just found it funny.

But a bit like "Iraq war is a bad idea, yo," "driverless cars aren't going to work" brought out the kind of "you just don't know how the world works, silly child" haughty responses. And then once everyone (not everyone, but more people) realized Elon's cars were never going to work as promised, and even Waymo, which is doing it more sensibly, stopped promising the future was already here, people just stopped talking about it.

(Waymo's cars do seem to "work" in a way that Musk's don't, but at some point they dialed back their promises.)

As I long said, the issue of "safety" was somewhat of a distraction. Sure they need to be safe, but if they work they'll be safe enough, almost tautologically.

The fatal flaw in the concept is even if they work surprisngly well - and even watching scary videos of them not working, they still do work surprisingly well - they absolutely require the thing that they are supposed to free us from. They require 100% driver attention for the moments when they fail, perhaps even moreso than normal driving, which after awhile does become somewhat instinctive.

It's like being a driving instructor and you have a second set of controls that you have to use every time the 15-year-old driving the car does something absolutely absurd. That requires more attention, not less, than the "half tuning out listening to the radio" that regular drivers manage much of the time.

Neato, but not *useful*.

Lunch Thread

Go to your corner taco truck.

But What If Democrats Do Too Much Of The Really Popular Things

You can draw various conclusions (some scary!) from this, but I don't think it's very debatable that had the last guy ever actually done INFRASTRUCTURE WEEK and had Mitch shoved some Orange Man Bucks out the door in October, that we'd be enjoying the great and glorious second term of that orange man.

Political scientists have been annoying people for years by telling them "eh, campaigns don't matter, if the economy is doing well then then the incumbents get re-elected." Probably that's overstated and requires some more nuanced measures of "the economy" than people usually focus on, but the truth is that before covid, the economy was really good by the way we measure such things. A lot of problems with life in the US, but they didn't start with the last guy.

I'd prefer people care about "money in my pocket" more than "tan suit scandals," even if there are some other legitimate concerns as well.

The Covid Cycle

The timeline has varied across countries and states, but the basic pattern in the US and Yurp has been to end a "lockdown" (whatever measures that involves) early and begin a new one too late.

You don't have to be an advanced math genius to be able to squint at the graphs and see that once that curve turns upwards for about 10 days you're already too late, and when you let it go for another 2 weeks, you're fucked.

Not much comfort that it isn't just the US, that after initial successes last summer, other countries completely screwed up.

And each time it gets harder, as people get somewhat fed up. Most rules aren't enforced or enforceable, really. It all relies on people making a point of doing the right thing, not just for themselves but the greater good. Goodwill fades.

Hopefully the final stretch with the vaccine arrival, but many countries fucked it again (UK finally did the right thing, France and Italy and Spain and others are screwed again).

The vaccine machine might still win in the US! Jabjabjab.

Morning Thread

Virus is edging out the vaccine machine at the moment. Jab jab jab!

Thursday, March 18, 2021

Thursday Night

Rock on.

America's Worst "Beta" Technology

Musk's cars.

Happy Hour Thread

You get a vaccine jab! And you get a vaccine jab!

Your Moment of Zen

(yes fox news dot com)

Uncharacteristically Optimistic

One big impediment to people in DC learning from the mistakes of the past is that 20 years later the same damn people are there and it's their mistakes!

A reasonable prediction when Covid hit was that the US was totally fucked, and not just because Trump was president and because Mitch ran the Senate (though largely those reasons). The combination of unwillingness of the government to fire the money cannon at people and the difficulty of doing so, given various broken bits of our bureaucracy, did not provide many reasons for optimism!

CARES was much better than one would have expected, especially the expanded UI, and ARP is *a lot* better than one would expect.

Enought to prevent the Fury Road era of America for a time, at least.

Cancel Culture, Cancelled

For all the talk about cancel culture, I'm pretty sure that in the aughts people were more likely to get in trouble for basic bigot eruptions. Certain types, at least.

George Allen's "macaca" was a scandal. Hard to see it being one now.

ONE WEEK UNTIL PRESS CONFERENCE DAY!!!!

Finally Joe Biden is going to do the most important work of the president, providing prime time on camera opportunities for America's Most Annoying Journalists.

Maybe that's too harsh, but the obsession with these events by the people who imagine themselves to be the star of them is a bit too silly.

The formal press conference is fine, it's reasonable a president does them every now and then, but the issue is whether the public is being informed, not whether a particular show format is on teevee.

When some journalists inevitably ask questions which are a kind of anti-journalism, designed not to inform but to misinform by creating a misleading moment, they're going to get mad mad mad at their critics.

WE DID IT!!!!!

770k new lucky duckies today.

That makes 52 consecutive weeks of claims above the one week peak of The Great Recession.

Long Covid

Hopefully more than anecdote/wishful thinking.
Ms. Dodd, who continues to feel good, is among a number of people who are reporting that the post-Covid symptoms they’ve experienced for months have begun improving, sometimes significantly, after they got the vaccine. It’s a phenomenon that doctors and scientists are watching closely, but as with much about the yearlong coronavirus pandemic, there are many uncertainties.

Morning Thread

The year is 2021 and highly paid Advanced Politics Knowers are out there explaining how the Democrats can get 10 Republican votes in the Senate for things.

Wednesday, March 17, 2021

Wednesday Night

Rock on.

Everybody Loves Joe

We'll see how long it lasts, but continuing to defy my "no Dem can be much above 50% for very long ever" belief.
A little less than two months into his nascent presidency, Biden remains popular, notching a 62 percent approval rating in the new poll. Only about a third of voters, 34 percent, disapprove of the job Biden is doing as president.

Happy Hour Thread

Get happy.

I Have A Controversial Opinion

Mitch McConnell is bad.

Shocked you!!!

More seriously, "we" know his game plan, which is to obstruct absolutely anything, and anytime he pretends otherwise it's just a delaying tactic.

We also know he only has as much power as the majority gives him.

He's the one who should be begging for things, not the other way around.

Trump's Best Pick

Finally a Fed Chair that thinks the 2% inflation target is a target, and not an upper limit that necessitates hitting the eject button if we get anywhere near it. There are limits to what the Fed can (or at least is willing to) do to help, but deviating from the standard practice of promising to take the booze away before the party gets started is good!  

Afternoon Thread

I know I might feel differently if I make it to 85, but I do not know why "nice ambassadorship to nice country" is preferable to "using my significant pile of dragon treasure to take an extended holiday with hired staff."

America's Worst Former Obama Employees

Tim Geithner.

Strategery

Send the right people overseas.
WASHINGTON — Richard Blum, a wealthy investor and the husband of Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, has indicated to President Biden’s advisers that he’s interested in being appointed to an ambassadorship, a move that would renew questions about Ms. Feinstein’s political future.

Remove The Crushing Burden Of Existence

There isn't actually one quick trick to that, either, but perhaps providing a nice enough place where people can afford to live and go to the doctor and send their kids to schools and maybe university and...

I doubt it's a big secret why people are moving away from West Virginia. I also doubt the governor has bothered to ask any of them. He's probably asked the local mining CEOs, who barely live there if at all, and the car dealership owners. I suspect "I had to move away because we didn't have a Dollywood" isn't the number one answer.

Blue Trump

Christ, what an asshole.
Days after Lindsey Boylan became the first woman to accuse Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of sexual harassment in a series of Twitter posts in December, people tied to the governor started circulating an open letter that they hoped former staff members would sign.

The letter was a full-on attack on Ms. Boylan’s credibility, suggesting that her accusation was premeditated and politically motivated. It disclosed personnel complaints filed against her and attempted to link her to supporters of former President Donald J. Trump.

Tax Cuts Are The Cause Of, And Solution To, All Of Our Problems

Also amusement parks are a unique amenity, found nowhere else, like casinos.
Under Justice's plan, all tax filers would see a 60% tax cut on wages and salaries, as well as on Social Security, unemployment and retirement benefits.

But the plan would cost the state more than a billion dollars — or nearly a quarter — of its general revenue budget. To account for that revenue loss, Justice has proposed massive hikes on tobacco, alcohol and soda taxes.

... "I really, really believe that there is a real chance of landing real entertainment — landing, you know, the next Disney, the next Dollywood, whatever," he said at a recent event touting the plan.

I don't pretend to be an advanced West Virginia Knower, but I don't think this is going to do it, big guy.

There's no one quick trick, but I suspect it's more "focus on making it a nice place for residents and make infrastructure investments that help businesses generally," and not "a drive in drive out tourist attraction."

Again, not an advanced West Virginia Knower, but I suspect "lack of good commercial air service" is a bigger impediment to high paying jerbs than a small state income tax. I also suspect it's a good time to talk to your senator, who can get anything he wants right now.

Morning Thread

Another beautiful morning in America.

Tuesday, March 16, 2021

Tuesday Night

Rock on.

Retire, Breyer

Soon!

America's Worst Humans

Steven Crowder.

No Gamma Ray Overdose For You, Turtle Man

Thought of the post below as Mitch is pulling his, "End the filibuster? That would make us angry. You wouldn't like us when we're angry" act.

Just remember that the sign says "Majority Leader" in front of your door, Chuck.

The Hounds Are Locked Up In Back

It's always this way, a bit, but especially during the Great and Glorious post-9/11/Iraq war era, there was always this implicit threat, made by Republicans and amplified by the press, that they were actually being nice, but if Democrats did anything to upset them, they'd unleash the beasts.

Basically, don't make us call you terrorist lovers (which you know we can do because you are, haha).

America's Most Corrupt Supreme Court Justice

Justice Bart.

Lunch Thread

Busy with some things today.

Capitol Police Protocols

We'll just never know what happened on 1/6.
U.S. Capitol Police suspended an officer Monday after a copy of an infamous anti-Semitic tract was found near a Capitol Hill security post Sunday, alarming a congressional aide who viewed the document in plain sight at the checkpoint.

Photographs provided to The Washington Post show a printed copy of the Protocols of the Meetings of the Learned Elders of Zion sitting on a table inside an entrance of the Longworth House Office Building.

Hoocoodanode

Just stop.
Valerie Jarrett, Mr. Obama’s former senior adviser, said the administration was acting on the evidence and the political possibilities of the time.

“This was the worst economic recession since the Great Depression,” she said. “And therefore, there wasn’t a body of evidence about the size of the package and the impact it would have.” She also mentioned a political incentive: “It was important to show the country early in President Obama’s time in office, he was willing to work with Republicans.”

Race

Can the vaccine machine beat the irresponsible relaxation of covid measures? Seems to be about a tie at the moment.

Morning Thread

The names of the days of the week are, like, made up, man.

Monday, March 15, 2021

Monday Night

Rock on.

Monday Evening

Happy Hour Thread

Get happy.

The Truth Is Out There

We all sorta know the truth of what happened on 1/6, or close enough, if not all the precise details and who exactly said what to who when.

In a few years it will be just another crazy conspiracy theory that happens to be true, like so many.

Afternoon Thread

Get your afternoon on.

The Anglosphere And Yurp

Every country managed to fuck things up in its own way, to some extent. In very broad terms, while not with exactly the same timing, most of Europe including the UK managed to squash covid for the Summer into the Fall and then...

Now the UK is doing "fine" (with respect to new daily cases), the US trend is still in the right direction, and both are way ahead of everyone else with the vaccinations. Elsewhere, the rollout is bad, and politicians in continental Europe are acting as if the median voter is a vax denier. No deep thoughts.

Related

"Here's what we accomplished" is much better than "here are many explanations for why we couldn't accomplish stuff, so our accomplishments are good, if you think about it, actually."

Doing

Too many people who follow politics closely, including the people who cover it, place way too much emphasis on The President Show rather than the actual presidenting. Aso, too many people who work in politics.

Marketing is a part of politics, of course, but perhaps "I have 4 (or maybe 2, given Congress) years to get shit done, so let's go go go" is a better approach than glancing at the audience response constantly, especially when the audience response is filtered through the absurdity of cable news.

And so far...that seems to be the plan!

Not All Wannabe Mass Murderers Sport Hitler 'Staches

I don't claim to understand the genocidal impulse. Some sort of instinct wiring in our brain goes a little off, maybe. Post-9/11/Iraq taught me that it was pretty damn common, and people like this only stand out all that much (but not even enough!) if they start cosplaying.
(CNN)An Army reservist charged with storming the US Capitol was a well-known White supremacist and Nazi sympathizer at the Navy base where he worked as a contractor, and was even rebuked for sporting a distinctive "Hitler mustache," prosecutors said in new court  filings.
The wisest man in America sports a different 'stache, and he wanted to kill tens of thousands of people, minimum, for the purpose of communicating "suck on this" to a different ethnic population.

Morning Thread

Monday again.

Sunday, March 14, 2021

Sunday Night

Rock on.

Sunday Evening

Get your evening on.

Oh No The Bozell Family Name Has Been Besmirched

I'm Gonna Tell You How It's Gonna Be

Yes he'll fade away.
Ex-president Donald Trump finds himself adrift while in political exile. And Republicans, and even some allies, say he is disorganized, torn between playing the role of antagonist and party leader.

“There is no apparatus, no structure and part of that is due to a lack of political understanding on Trump’s behalf,” said a person close to the former president, noting that Trump has struggled to learn the ropes of post-presidential politicking.

He's lazy, stupid, and a micromanager, and at least somewhat radioactive at the moment. Also it isn't a secret that he stiffs everybody. Not a magnet for the best people.

Resign, Blue Trump

As I said.
New York’s “vaccine czar” — a longtime adviser to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo — phoned county officials in the past two weeks in attempts to gauge their loyalty to the embattled governor amid an ongoing sexual harassment investigation, according to multiple officials.

One Democratic county executive was so unsettled by the outreach from Larry Schwartz, head of the state’s vaccine rollout, that the executive on Friday filed notice of an impending ethics complaint with the public integrity unit of the state attorney general’s office, the official told The Washington Post. The executive feared the county’s vaccine supply could suffer if Schwartz was not pleased with the executive’s response to his questions about support of the governor.

Blue Trump

As I have been saying.
Behind the scenes, Mr. Cuomo was often obsessed with another set of numbers: his ratings. He would sometimes quiz aides as soon as he ended a broadcast about which networks carried him live and exactly when they cut away — data they were expected to have at their fingertips.

For an image-obsessed politician who has long devoured almost everything written about him, it was an intoxicating amount of attention as Mr. Cuomo transformed almost overnight into a national leader of the Democratic Party and a foil for President Donald J. Trump. “To the 59 million viewers who shared in these daily briefings,” Mr. Cuomo said on his 111th and final daily update, “thank you.”

Real Genius

One you have solved the problem, you have solved it.

I don't need to remind you that Elon start selling "full self driving" in 2016.

No matter where you go, there you are.

Christ, What An Asshole

It's almost always a mistake to look at a politician and think, "well he's an asshole, but he's OUR asshole," as assholes are usually no one's but their own. It's extra maddening that Cuomo had that kind of appreciation from many, because his entire career was being THEIR asshole. I don't mean he wasn't liberal enough for my tastes, I mean he literally worked to make sure Republicans had control of the New York State Senate!   

Sunday Morning

You get Biden bucks! And you get Biden bucks!

Saturday, March 13, 2021

Saturday Night

Rock on.

Saturday Happy Hour

Get happy

Don't Think Donnie Two Scoops Is Going To Wriggle Out Of This One

Skeptical, but we can have some fun at least.
Senior officials in the Manhattan district attorney’s office this week asked ex-President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen to return for what would be his eighth interview with the office, which is conducting a wide-ranging criminal probe related to the Trump Organization.

Lunch Thread

Think Biden needs to give the last guy more credit for not starting a nuclear war that wiped out 98% of human existence.

Complaining About Biden's Tyrannical Lockdown At The Olive Garden

Sure there have been and continue to be business restrictions and closures, but in general there hasn't been much enforcement, or fear of enforcement, of rules or recommendations regarding personal associations. No one's really worried that the cops would shut down their, for example, small backyard family gathering.

Yes there are 50 states and almost infinite municipalities, but most of the country has barely been under "lockdown" in any meaningful sense, even if plenty of people (correctly!) behaved as if it was.

But members of the Greatest Deliberative Body are out there pretending Biden is telling people that they can't leave their homes until July 4, instead of saying, basically, "folks, think things should be great by the 4th!"

Saturday, Saturday

The Covid expert has checked in again. Dude's a genius.

Morning Thread

Going to be darker tomorrow!

Friday, March 12, 2021

Friday Night

Rock on.

Happy Hour Thread

Vaccine machine go jabjabjab!

Foxy

During the Bush administration, especially the first 2/3 or so, people who worked for Fox's sister outlets didn't know how nuts Fox was because Fox wasn't actually so different. They were all nuts at that time. Then during the Obama years they happily embraced it as a sort loyal opposition news channel. Sure they're conservative, but they're holding Obama to account!

It wasn't really until Trump that they stopped defending the nonsense (mostly), though if Fox dials it down just a bit they'll embrace them as the loyal opposition again.

America's Worst Schools

Law schools.

Bad Politicians Should Go

Not everything is about whether appropriate justice is meted out equally to members of Team D and Team R.

Remember That Great Thing Cuomo Did

I won't bore you with all of the bad stuff, but one thing he did was arrange for a bunch of conservative Democrats to caucus with the Republicans to keep the state Senate in Republican hands. That isn't a reason for him to resign, necessarily, but it's a reason Democrats shouldn't be talking about how they're Cuomosexuals!

A lot of reasons he should resign! Here are more!

Four years later, and one year after he began his star turn as “America’s Governor,” steering his state through COVID via daily, reassuringly matter-of-fact press briefings, Andrew Cuomo’s third term as governor of New York is suddenly deeply imperiled. In January, State Attorney General Letitia James released a report showing that his administration had underreported COVID deaths in nursing homes by as much as 50 percent. In February, liberal State Assembly member Ron Kim, who had criticized the governor in the wake of that report, spoke publicly about how Cuomo called him at home and threatened his career. Then the floodgates opened: His adversary Mayor Bill de Blasio called the bullying “classic Andrew Cuomo”; state legislators Alessandra Biaggi and Yuh-Line Niou began openly suggesting that the governor’s hard-knuckled approach to politics is simply abusive. And since last month, when Cuomo’s former aide and candidate for Manhattan borough president, Lindsey Boylan, published an article on Medium accusing him of sexually harassing and kissing her against her will, five more women have come forward with tales of harassment, objectification, and inappropriate touching. As of publication, dozens of Democratic members of the State Assembly and Senate, and 11 Democratic members of Congress, have called for his resignation.

Lunch Thread

Did he resign yet?

Resign, Blue Trump

...up to 8 House Dems... ...11

The Malls Are Flat

Circling back to my obsessions (nature is healing), courtesy of reader am:

A Mall of America official disclosed last week that lenders are likely going to take a 49% equity stake in the Bloomington megamall after the pandemic hampered its operations elsewhere.

...

How it happened: MOA owner Triple Five Group took out a $1.67 billion construction loan to build the American Dream Mall in New Jersey.

  • As collateral, Triple Five put up a stake in MOA and the West Edmonton Mall in Canada.
Covid robbed me of the pure schadenfreude of watching The American Dream (the mall, not all of our dreams) fail 'naturally.'

Please Express Admiration For Our Dick

Really that's what most of our "benevolent" foreign policy, and *definitely* foreign policy related to Iran, is about.
In short, there is every reason on Earth to cut Iran some slack. America broke its promise — as Biden himself wrote, Trump "recklessly tossed away a policy that was working to keep America safe," — and so America should demonstrate some good faith. It's literally the least we could do. And contrary to arguments from bloodthirsty imperialist warmongers, doing so would actually help the U.S. by reducing the likelihood of getting bogged down in another unwinnable war 7,000 miles away.

It's not hard to see why the Biden administration is hesitating here. The reason is the imperialist D.C. Blob that has been hell-bent on war with Iran for years, and the lobbying efforts of Israel and Saudi Arabia. Those forces are very influential in Congress, which is why senators grilled Wendy Sherman, Biden's nominee for deputy secretary for state, about her role as chief negotiator for the nuclear deal during her recent confirmation hearing. Biden himself has long been implicated in this dynamic.

Our less benevolent policy is what happens when the expressed admiration is not sufficient.

Morning Thread

Biden bucks on the way!

Thursday, March 11, 2021

Thursday Night

Rock on.

Blue Trump's Gotta Go

Happy Hour Thread

Get happy.

Being Pleasantly Surprised Is Rare!

Perhaps my baseline level of cynicism/pessimism isn't always warranted, but I'm not exactly used to Democratic presidents appearing to be largely (not entirely) trying to meet their more liberal promises.

I suppose the relative lack of people leaking to the press things like, "oh he's just saying that to shut the libs up, he doesn't mean it," was a good sign.

Now back to yelling at them.

Also, Too, Retire Dianne Feinstein

Before a Republican is in place to appoint your successor.

Newsom Recall

The vote might happen!

Thinking back to the California recall election, which gave us Governor Arnold, the amazing thing is that it all happened in 2003. It was a complete media circus in a way that's a bit hard to describe now. It would certainly be difficult to explain it to The Kids Today.

Nothing unique about that, except that it happened in... 2003. That circus happened during the early days of the Iraq war.

Not that we need a reminder given (waves at the last 4 years), but it is another reminder that absolutely nothing can keep the political press from turning their attention to, and creating, a clown show. Not even The Most Important War To Save Civilization.

Who Are You Speaking To

I typed up a longer post but I ended up making a rather banal point in a long-winded way, so I'll make it shorter:

Who cares what David Brooks thinks?

Disrespecting The Troops

That Tucker can say this without immense blowback from the usual suspects shows that "lady troops are not real troops and thus can be disrespected" is a widely shared opinion.

But What Of The Men In Smart Suits From The Right Schools

Hopefully this is genuine, because I am quite convinced that Elite Law (including but not limited to Big Law) is a malign force in this country everywhere its fingers touch, which is many places. #NotAllEliteLawyers, sure, but most of them are much quicker to jump in with the "Akshually, it's unconstitutional to criticize lawyers" argument than they are to criticize their corrupt pals.
Gone is an emphasis on "Big Law" candidates with a corporate background for district court seats. Instead, Remus pinpointed those who have been "historically underrepresented" such as public defenders, civil rights and legal aid attorneys.  

Extraordinary

People can be motivated to run for office and stay there by various impulses. To be a do gooder is still one, fortunately. I think Jeff Merkley is a do gooder, for example. To obtain a long term well paid career is another (there are more and less corrupt versions of this). And, sadly, extreme narcissism is another.
Collins was not pleased to be singled out in such a manner. In an interview, she called Schumer’s comments an “extraordinary” backhanding of his most natural ally across the aisle. And she said there’s been zero contact with the Democratic leader since the election: “He has not spoken to me, no.”

...

Collins-Schumer rift shocks Senate. They haven’t even talked since the election; she’s talked with Biden four times.

“Why Chuck seems to be going out of his way to alienate the most bipartisan member of the Senate is a mystery to me,” Collins said.

If you had any self-awareness, reading that sentence back to yourself would explain quite clearly why Chuck turns around and runs away anytime he sees you coming in the hallway.

Also, too, unless Collins can deliver 9 other votes her only possible contribution is "making things worse."

BIAS

There's basically only one mainstream reporter for a major publication whose beat is, roughly, "how will policy and other developments impact the economic fortunes of the majority of people in this country" and I don't want to name this person because I fear it could get them in trouble.

Thursday Is New Jobless Day

712K new lucky duckies.

Morning Thread

You really, really don't have to hand it to him.

Wednesday, March 10, 2021

Wednesday Night

Rock on.

RIP Leah A

Real oldheads might remember when I was traveling for a bit and leah, lambert, the farmer, and tresy took over (2003). Leah's brother reached out and informed me that she passed away last night.

I think it's been many years since Leah stopped by this very fine blog. People stop by for awhile and move on quite regularly. Was a loved member of the community once upon a time.

Happy Hour Thread

Already!

Somebody Reads This Blog

Back in the day, Obama's people would respond to criticism about the size of the stimulus by arguing that there was a problem finding "shovel ready" infrastructure projects. People like stupid me kept pointing out that this was ridiculous as you could just start replacing the water/sewer systems in most of the country. Keynes's "pay people to dig holes in the ground and then fill them up," but actually useful and needed!

Second, the rescue bill has quietly become an infrastructure bill. It devotes $350 billion to supporting state and local governments. These funds, initially proposed to plug COVID-19-created holes in public budgets, in many cases now exceed those holes. So the Senate has allowed states, cities, and counties to spend that money on improving services such as water, sewage, and broadband. Because many water systems are vulnerable to climate change and must be adapted, this is de facto climate funding. The bill also contains $31 billion for tribal governments and Indigenous communities, including line items for new infrastructure, housing, and language preservation.
Progress.

Seussghazi

They might actually hit on something that sticks eventually, but I do think that these days no one in the conservative movement - and this includes all the young Republican staffers who don't know where to click on the website to read a bill - thinks there's anything more to politics than shitposting about made up bullshit that nobody except them even understands let alone cares about.

Once upon a time they'd at least hunt for the "treadmill shrimp" part of the bill to create a fake controversy about.

I'm really not one to imagine a glorious past, and certainly not a glorious past of conservatism, but it really is the case that, "Jonah Goldberg, one of the conservative movement's smarter intellectuals" is a completely reasonable thing to say.

And it's going to keep getting dumber.

Lunch Thread

 Almost happy hour!

The End Of Covid

The new normal might not be precisely the same as the old one, but I'm optimistic enough at the moment to think it'll be, in time, close enough.
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden will announce plans Wednesday to purchase an additional 100 million doses of the single-dose Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine, giving the U.S. more than enough supply to vaccinate the entire U.S. population.
Good enough until Covid-25 arrives just in time for the inauguration of President Don Jr.

He's In Your Base Stealing Your Bucks

I don't care about the details, but the last guy's attempt to take all the GOP money for himself is pretty hilarious and it's even more hilarious if they don't stop him.

All fun and games until I can't pay my mortgage in my NoVa gated community.

Child Benefit

Some implementation issues, but basically a family of 4 up to a nontrivial income level is going to get $2800 for the parents plus $3000x2 for the kids (a bit more if they are young).

This is not the America I know and love!!!

Morning Thread

Joe Biden's role in Seussghazi leaves Congress no choice but to hold a no confidence vote.

Tuesday, March 09, 2021

Tuesday Night

Rock on.

Tuesday Evening

Get your evening on.

Resign, Blue Trump

Just go.
ALBANY — A sixth woman has come forward and leveled allegations of sexual harassment or inappropriate conduct against Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, and over the weekend a supervisor in the Executive Chamber became aware the woman had alleged that the governor inappropriately touched her late last year during an encounter at the governor's mansion, where she had been summoned to do work.

An official close to the matter on Tuesday confirmed to the Times Union that the new allegation had been made. The governor's office learned of the matter over the weekend.

Proved Fucking Right

Took awhile.
For most of the past four decades, American policy-makers have set the opposite priority. When consumer demand is high and labor markets are tight, it is difficult for employers to replace their existing workers with unemployed ones. For this reason, in a “full employment” economy, workers can generally extract higher wages from their bosses through the implicit or explicit threat of quitting. And when workers win wage increases, employers sometimes respond by raising prices. Following the “stagflation” crisis of the late 1970s, America’s fiscal and monetary authorities decided that preempting price hikes was so much more important than promoting full employment that they had a duty to keep millions of Americans involuntarily unemployed at all times, lest labor secure too much leverage over capital. As recently as 2015, Democratic Fed chair Janet Yellen began raising interest rates to deliberately “cool off” the economy and slow job growth because all serious policy wonks believed that if the unemployment rate fell below 4 percent, runaway inflation would ensue.

For roughly 40 years, progressives have been protesting the macroeconomic orthodoxy that the social and economic benefits of maximizing employment are dwarfed by the harms of a hypothetical spike in inflation as being both morally unacceptable and empirically unfounded. And anyhow, the risk of runaway price increases has been perenially overestimated. Meanwhile, left-wing economists were pleading with Democratic deficit scolds to cease sacrificing GDP growth on the altar of their own fiscal illiteracy.

With the ARP, the Democratic Party has affirmed its advice in word and deed. As the president said in February, tacitly rebuking Summers, “The risk isn’t that we do too much when it comes to a COVID-relief package — it’s that we don’t do enough.”

Bye Piers

Not sure anyone can explain why he keeps getting hired, and my bet is he's already lined himself up a spot at the about to launch right wing channel.
Piers Morgan has left his role at Good Morning Britain.

In a statement, ITV said: "Following discussions with ITV, Piers Morgan has decided now is the time to leave Good Morning Britain.

"ITV has accepted this decision and has nothing further to add."

The announcement comes after broadcasting regulator Ofcom launched an investigation after it received more than 41,000 complaints regarding comment made by the presenter following Harry and Meghan's interview with Oprah Winfrey.

The Only Winning Move Is Not To Play

Too many people try to earnestly engage the latest right wing nonsense (Dr. Seuss, Mr. Potato Head's dick) and when it's this dumb, just point and laugh at them. I don't know or care if any of them are sincere, but it's so so stupid and engaging it at all is just feeding the trolls.

Never feed the trolls, or a Mogwai after midnight.

Subsidy Cliff

There are a lot of things tucked in the bill, some "small" some not so small, and at least temporarily ending one of the more absurd parts of the original ACA is one of them.

Don't think it was anyone's grand design, but having everyone yelling at each other about the individual checks (And Dr. Seuss and Mr. Potato Head's dick) usefully distracted from the other things.

Sweatless Creep

The view from Ireland.
Having a monarchy next door is a little like having a neighbour who’s really into clowns and has daubed their house with clown murals, displays clown dolls in each window and has an insatiable desire to hear about and discuss clown-related news stories. More specifically, for the Irish, it’s like having a neighbour who’s really into clowns and, also, your grandfather was murdered by a clown.

Beyond this, it’s the stuff of children’s stories. Having a queen as head of state is like having a pirate or a mermaid or Ewok as head of state. What’s the logic? Bees have queens, but the queen bee lays all of the eggs in the hive. The queen of the Britons has laid just four British eggs, and one of those is the sweatless creep Prince Andrew, so it’s hardly deserving of applause.

Stop The Euphemisms And Passive Voice

When will journalists learn to report on police violence correctly.
Major, who was adopted by Biden in November 2018 from a Delaware animal shelter, had what one of the people described as a "biting incident" with a member of White House security. The exact condition of the victim is unknown, however, the episode was serious enough that the dogs were subsequently moved to Wilmington, Delaware, where they remain.
Let me re-write that correctly:
Major, who was adopted by Biden in November 2018 from a Delaware animal shelter, was bitten by a member of White House security. The exact condition of the Major is unknown, however, the episode was serious enough that the dogs were subsequently moved to Wilmington, Delaware, where they remain.