Wednesday, March 31, 2021
Still The Representatives Of Real America
Democrats in Congress:
— Political Polls (@Politics_Polls) March 31, 2021
Favorable 50% (+7)
Unfavorable 43%
.
Republicans in Congress:
Favorable 36% (-19)
Unfavorable 55%@MorningConsult/@politico, RV, 3/26-29https://t.co/Wb3YE8wwBv
Pizzagaetz
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.
Weed Post
10 Steps To The Right, 2 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.
Deadbeat
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.
Not so different than that hilarious scamp, Roger Stone.
Or Henry Kissinger.
Pizzagaetz
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!Gaetz again bizarrely implicates Tucker Carlson in his own personal peccadillo, then says, "providing for flights and hotel rooms for people that you're dating who are of legal age is not a crime" pic.twitter.com/wD0hUmwGGN
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 31, 2021
Morning Thread
...and my father has even been wearing a wire at the FBI’s direction to catch these criminals. The planted leak to the FBI tonight was intended to thwart that investigation.
— Matt Gaetz (@mattgaetz) March 30, 2021
No part of the allegations against me are true, and the people pushing these lies are targets...
Tuesday, March 30, 2021
Grand Old Police Blotter
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
New Tricks
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.Younger with more diverse professional backgrounds. Keep it up!...
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.
Audition
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
THE ROBOTS ARE COMING
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
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
VMT Tax No
RTRS: U.S. TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY BUTTIGIEG SAYS A TAX ON MILES DRIVEN IS NOT UNDER CONSIDERATION AS A SOURCE OF FUNDING FOR BIDEN ADMINISTRATION INFRASTRUCTURE PLAN -CNN INTERVIEW
— davidshepardson (@davidshepardson) March 29, 2021
Little Tiny Houses For You And Me
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
This isn’t even a dogwhistle it’s explicit white nationalism. This is a VDare comment! pic.twitter.com/Cw4KQDRujs
— Adam H. Johnson (@adamjohnsonNYC) March 29, 2021
Keep Opening The Restaurants
BREAKING: CDC Director Rochelle Walensky warns that she feels “impending doom” with the Covid case trajectory. “Right now I’m scared.” pic.twitter.com/MSJDQWRifA
— CNBC Now (@CNBCnow) March 29, 2021
Sounds Bad
(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
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.
Sunday, March 28, 2021
The Stuck Ship
Objectitudinal Journalism
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.)Just gibberish from Saint Marty (from an earlier piece).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.
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.”Objectivity is how the SALT deduction was the most pressing policy issue for a couple of years.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.”
Blue Trump
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
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
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.
Saturday, March 27, 2021
Saturday Evening
Anyone Remember Movies?
It's All Around Us
The light goes on for about 24 hours, then they are back on their bullshit.
We'll Pull Laughter From The Skies
I shouldn't be surprised anymore, but even after All This...
Friday, March 26, 2021
Guaranteed To Blow Your Mind
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.”
Afternoon Thread
Lunch Thread
So Predictable
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
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
An issue eventually, and perhaps a concern for certain professions, but still pretty far down the list.
Morning Thread
Thursday, March 25, 2021
Kweschins
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.
e
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
PRESS CONFERENCE
That includes White House pet questions.
Maybe They'll Get It Right This Time
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
Wednesday, March 24, 2021
They Evolve Quickly
Manchin said he'll block Biden's next big package — $2 trillion to $4 trillion for climate and infrastructure — if Republicans aren't included.Now:...
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.
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.
Gonna Name Several Post Offices
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
Meghan McCain: "We’ve only had one Asian American host co-host host this show. Does that mean one of us should be leaving because there’s not enough representation? We're talking about -- is identity politics more important than the qualifications for the job?" pic.twitter.com/0nN1ilB9Nn
— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) March 24, 2021
Running Out Of Fucks
Politico Is A White Nationalist Publication
When the architect of a policy to separate children from their mothers at the border — and whose leaked emails promoted white nationalist ideologies of white genocide, immigrants as criminals and eugenics — is your source... pic.twitter.com/UGiHt75HcZ
— Jazmine Ulloa (@jazmineulloa) March 24, 2021
As We Go Sliding
Tuesday, March 23, 2021
Politicians. We Just Want To Be Liked.
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.
ONE YEAR LATER
Foxy
Just straight up lying now that the Green New Deal is currently law pic.twitter.com/C4bQwy9jnx
— Ted MacDonald (@theodorejay) March 23, 2021
Full Employment
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
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
Monday, March 22, 2021
Maskholes
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
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.
We Keep Making The Same Mistakes Over And Over Again
The Future of Music
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"
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.
Washington Post leads today's political coverage with news that "White House faces criticism..." -- that criticism starting with a poorly reported and over-caffeinated article in the Washington Post. This is how the sausage gets made, people pic.twitter.com/TVnWGDa5Hs
— Will Bunch Sign Up For My Newsletter (@Will_Bunch) March 22, 2021
Agenda-setting: All three broadcast morning shows referring to the situation at the border as a "crisis." pic.twitter.com/KLr0gEHGKC
— Matthew Gertz (@MattGertz) March 22, 2021
Sunday, March 21, 2021
Your Moment of Zen
This is a real TV show. Actually made by human people. On Planet Earth. In 2021. Behold: pic.twitter.com/hm9jDRq95O
— Saeed Taji Farouky (@saeedtaji) March 19, 2021
Well Actual Asian-Americans Would be BIASED
Behold. Meet The Press panel to discuss anti-Asian violence. pic.twitter.com/9aMGemgk5F
— Angelo Carusone (@GoAngelo) March 21, 2021
What Are We Going To Talk About Today, George?
ABC flew its entire roundtable to the US-Mexico border pic.twitter.com/GdLd2RU7qx
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 21, 2021
Blue Trump
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.
Saturday, March 20, 2021
What Happened To Larry
Larry Summers https://t.co/AwfrnQ14ic pic.twitter.com/ClyzHdIUF5
— Joe Weisenthal (@TheStalwart) March 20, 2021
Saturday, Saturday
Friday, March 19, 2021
Blue Trump Troubles
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
I Was Proved Fucking Right
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*.
But What If Democrats Do Too Much Of The Really Popular Things
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
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.
Thursday, March 18, 2021
Your Moment of Zen
(yes fox news dot com)good lord pic.twitter.com/I20ZlRicWg
— John Whitehouse (@existentialfish) March 18, 2021
Uncharacteristically Optimistic
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
George Allen's "macaca" was a scandal. Hard to see it being one now.
ONE WEEK UNTIL PRESS CONFERENCE DAY!!!!
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!!!!!
That makes 52 consecutive weeks of claims above the one week peak of The Great Recession.
Long Covid
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
Wednesday, March 17, 2021
Everybody Loves Joe
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.
I Have A Controversial Opinion
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
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!We expect to maintain rates until we reach “maximum employment and inflation... is on track to moderately exceed 2% for some time,” Fed Chair Powell says. “A transitory rise in inflation above 2%, as seems likely to occur this year, would not meet this standard.“ pic.twitter.com/0hfrYBWMpf
— Yahoo Finance (@YahooFinance) March 17, 2021
Afternoon Thread
Strategery
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
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
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
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.I don't pretend to be an advanced West Virginia Knower, but I don't think this is going to do it, big guy.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.
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.
Tuesday, March 16, 2021
No Gamma Ray Overdose For You, Turtle Man
Just remember that the sign says "Majority Leader" in front of your door, Chuck.
The Hounds Are Locked Up In Back
Basically, don't make us call you terrorist lovers (which you know we can do because you are, haha).
Capitol Police Protocols
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
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
Monday, March 15, 2021
Monday Evening
51-40, Senate votes to confirm Deb Haaland as U.S. Interior secretary, making her the first Native American to hold the position.
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) March 15, 2021
The Truth Is Out There
In a few years it will be just another crazy conspiracy theory that happens to be true, like so many.
The Anglosphere And Yurp
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
Doing
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
(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.
Sunday, March 14, 2021
Oh No The Bozell Family Name Has Been Besmirched
BREAKING: A federal grand jury indicted Brent Bozell IV (aka #HersheyChristianAcademy, aka Zeeker Bozell) on seven counts on Friday.
— Ryan J. Reilly (@ryanjreilly) March 14, 2021
The indictment was juuuust posted moments ago.
Indictment includes allegation he damaged property (the window). https://t.co/SiFt65BVW5
I'm Gonna Tell You How It's Gonna Be
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.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.“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.
Resign, Blue Trump
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
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.What has become absolutely clear is that the plethora of self-driving corner cases can only be solved with real-world optical intelligence. This is how humans designed the road system to work.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 14, 2021
Once you have that in silicon form, everything else is just icing on the cake.
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
Saturday, March 13, 2021
Don't Think Donnie Two Scoops Is Going To Wriggle Out Of This One
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
Complaining About Biden's Tyrannical Lockdown At The Olive Garden
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!"
If every willing person in America is vaccinated for #COVID19 by May, as POTUS has said, why put our lives on hold till July the 4th?
— Senator John Cornyn (@JohnCornyn) March 12, 2021
Saturday, Saturday
Dude's a genius.For sure wise for elderly or immunocompromised to take the vaccine. Some debate about the second jab though. Quite a few negative reactions to that.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 12, 2021
The coronavirus panic is dumb
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 6, 2020
Based on current trends, probably close to zero new cases in US too by end of April
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 19, 2020
Friday, March 12, 2021
Foxy
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.
Bad Politicians Should Go
Remember That Great Thing Cuomo Did
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.
Resign, Blue Trump
Read my statement calling for the resignation of Governor Andrew Cuomo. pic.twitter.com/JyZntu9HJS
— Rep. Nadler (@RepJerryNadler) March 12, 2021
...up to 8 House Dems... ...11BREAKING: @aoc/@JamaalBowmanNY issue joint statement calling on @NYGovCuomo
— Jesse McKinley (@jessemckinley) March 12, 2021
to resign.
“We believe these women, we believe the reporting, we believe the Attorney General, and we believe the fifty-five members of the New York State legislature."
The Malls Are Flat
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.
Please Express Admiration For Our Dick
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.Our less benevolent policy is what happens when the expressed admiration is not sufficient.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.
Thursday, March 11, 2021
Blue Trump's Gotta Go
NEW from @CarlHeastie : “After meeting with the Assembly Majority Conference today, I am authorizing the Assembly Judiciary Committee to begin an impeachment investigation, led by Chair Charles D. Lavine, to examine allegations of misconduct against Governor Cuomo.”
— Katie Glueck (@katieglueck) March 11, 2021
Being Pleasantly Surprised Is Rare!
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.
Newsom Recall
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
Who cares what David Brooks thinks?
Disrespecting The Troops
But What Of The Men In Smart Suits From The Right Schools
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
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.”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....
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.
Also, too, unless Collins can deliver 9 other votes her only possible contribution is "making things worse."
BIAS
Wednesday, March 10, 2021
RIP Leah A
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.
Somebody Reads This Blog
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
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.
The End Of Covid
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
All fun and games until I can't pay my mortgage in my NoVa gated community.
Child Benefit
This is not the America I know and love!!!
Morning Thread
Tuesday, March 09, 2021
Resign, Blue Trump
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
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
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
Never feed the trolls, or a Mogwai after midnight.
Subsidy Cliff
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
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
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.