I have been on phone calls all morning but was able to listen to John Kerry and Gina McCarthy and I was completely impressed. I remain hopeful. Here’s that video:
And Biden is speaking, and I’m late, but you can rewind.
Open thread
by TaMara| 117 Comments
This post is in: Climate Change Solutions, Open Threads, Politics
I have been on phone calls all morning but was able to listen to John Kerry and Gina McCarthy and I was completely impressed. I remain hopeful. Here’s that video:
And Biden is speaking, and I’m late, but you can rewind.
Open thread
Comments are closed.
thylacine
Biden’s not wasting any time. He swore in a large group of EPA political appointees (who don’t need Senate confirmation) on January 20:
https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-welcomes-members-biden-harris-leadership-team
He added some more today:
https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-welcomes-additional-members-biden-harris-leadership-team
Very good picks.
Lyrebird
Can’t follow the second link, only the first one.
Good news either way!
Ohio Mom
Every time I see something like this, I am newly proud to have always been a Democrat.
Citizen Alan
I am waiting with baited breath for Green Party nitwits to start telling me what’s totally wrong with every one of those appointees.
TaMara (HFG)
@Lyrebird: Not sure I understand – you can’t see the youtube videos?
SoupCatcher
@TaMara (HFG): thylacine’s second link is missing the letter “m” at the end.
Here’s a working link
eta. re: Lyrebird’s comment
2eta. Yay, Biden’s team!
TaMara (HFG)
@SoupCatcher: Thanks, I fixed it.
germy
Florida Man
germy
thylacine
@TaMara (HFG): Thanks!!
?BillinGlendaleCA
@germy: If i was taking the oath of office, I’d swear in on a cheesecake, as long as I could eat it afterwards, of course I’d share, I’m not a monster.
zhena gogolia
So happy about all the great people in Biden’s administration! I don’t even remember feeling like this with Obama. He had quite a number of Arne and Rahm type people. Not getting that vibe this time.
zhena gogolia
Thank you, TaMara, I’m so glad when there is a positive thread about Biden and his team. So sick of talking about evil Repugs.
trollhattan
@germy:
This new group of Republican women congresscritters needs a nickname analog to The Squad. I suggest The Chain Gang.
?BillinGlendaleCA
Joe got the “Tiny Desk” out, he doesn’t look as odd using it as his predecessor.
Matt McIrvin
@zhena gogolia: The center has moved. Even with George W. Bush’s reputation tanked, Obama in 2009 was operating in a world whose political mainstream was still strikingly conservative on things like economics and education. Biden comes from an earlier political generation than Obama–one that was still reacting to Reaganism–but he knows which way the wind blows.
Brachiator
@zhena gogolia:
Obama appointed Gina McCarthy to head the EPA in 2013.
Biden is returning to quite a few Obama people.
jonas
Brachiator
@germy:
What in the Hell is wrong with these people?
Roger Moore
@Matt McIrvin:
I think it’s less about the center moving and more about the Democrats finally getting the message that there’s no point in making real concessions to try to get Republican cooperation. One of the things Obama was constantly accused of was pre-conceding or negotiating with himself, where he would preemptively concede on points because he thought it would bring the Republicans to the bargaining table.
That includes personnel matters. I think Obama was trying to prove what a reasonable guy he was by appointing centrists to a bunch of positions, even ones where he may have personally preferred someone more liberal. It never worked, and Biden has apparently learned the lesson not to try. He may be willing to negotiate if the Republicans want to, but he won’t give up on important points just to try to get them to negotiate.
Lyrebird
@SoupCatcher:
@TaMara (HFG):
Thanks very much for catching and fixing!
and absolutely yes, Yay, Biden’s team! Filled with competence, relevant experience, and more than one point of view!
germy
@Brachiator:
The other video is her following and harassing David Hogg.
Roger Moore
@jonas:
This is all missing the point. Marjorie Taylor Greene was trolling, not trying to make a serious point. She started her career as an internet troll, and now she’s a Congressional troll. As always, the rule of thumb is Do Not Feed The Troll. She wants publicity, and the best thing to do is to deny it. Don’t try to engage with the substance of her actions because there is none. At the very most, you should point and laugh.
germy
@jonas:
Hoodie
@Brachiator: They’re mentally ill people who should be kept from sharp objects and under therapy? Seriously, this MAGA/Q stuff is an internet-fueled version of the biting nun phenomenon.
germy
@Roger Moore:
She looks like a younger Sidney Powell to me. Is that a type?
Both women look like someone a hundred years ago who would have falsely accused a Black man of a crime and then watched the lynching.
WaterGirl
@TaMara (HFG): The top video, about halfway through, gets you Biden starting to talk and signing the executive orders.
The second video shows nothing. I wasn’t able to see John Kerry or Gina McCarthy, although it was obvious that they were both offscreen from Biden.
germy
WaterGirl
@germy: What a disgusting creature.
Brachiator
@Roger Moore:
USA Today story from December about all the Obama people Biden is bringing back.
It would be interesting to see if the non Obama era appointees are more liberal. Very interesting.
WaterGirl
@germy: Speaking of knowing which way the wind is blowing, it appears that the NFL knows that, also.
Brachiator
@germy:
Hope she takes a knee.
More seriously, I hope that she inspires more people to read poetry. And to buy her books.
HumboldtBlue
@germy:
I just watched a clip of that fucknut hassling Parkland school shooting victim David Hogg. We can’t expel that nasty bitch fast enough.
Another Scott
@Matt McIrvin: Someone a few months back made the point that Biden has always – always – been at the center of the Democratic consensus. As that has moved left, he has done likewise. True? Maybe. It does seem like he has kept his eye focused on what Democrats want, and what voters who support Democrats want and need. He’s not afraid of screaming by the RWNJs, and that’s a very, very good thing.
He also takes his family story (his father changing jobs, etc.; his family tragedies) very personally and channels that into a drive to make things better for everyone who has been in similar situations (as just about everyone has). That’s another very, very good thing.
Cheers,
Scott.
Betty Cracker
@Roger Moore: I think that’s true, but in our Troll Nation culture, MTG will never lack for attention.
raven
@germy: Our city council person did it on the Autobiography of Malcolm X!
laura
@trollhattan: The Skank Squad
And how/why is that vile person on the Education and Labor Committee? I do not expect her to actually do the work and I’m afeared for her policy positions on public funds for for profit and unaccountable “schools” and right to work for nothing and increasingly unsafe workplaces – especially with a Supreme Court majority making haste to return to Lochner.
laura
Or Title IX
piratedan
@laura: I fully expect that Nonna Pelosi gave the committee chair a heads up that this was coming. Who knows, if the coincidental evidence is true from Jan 5th and 6th, she may not be representing terribly long.
Hoodie
@Roger Moore: I’m not sure that’s quite the right lesson to take away from this. When Obama was president, the GOP was just slipping into nihilism. The problem then was more lockstep unity in the GOP caucus (Hastert Rule, etc.), not full on crazy. It’s way beyond that now, but the irony is that it may be more important now to try to reach across the aisle to a few GOPers, especially given tighter House margins and the 50/50 Senate. It may be a longshot, but there actually may be a chance to move some of them because the crazy has gotten so bad you have things like Liz Cheney breaking with the House GOP caucus on impeachment and the Chamber of Commerce backing Biden’s rescue plan. You may be able to move people who are somewhat immune from party discipline, such as Murkowski, Collins (I know) and Romney, and people who are leaving, like Toomey and Portman. It’s not a lot of votes, but maybe enough to swing some issues. Even a coward like Flake ended up supporting Biden, and I suspect it’s at least in part because he doesn’t have a home with the crazies. That may be why Manchin would not be interested in becoming a Republican.
scav
@trollhattan: Team Mean? Meanie-Boppers?
mrmoshpotato
@?BillinGlendaleCA: To defend and uphold the Cheesecake of the United States…
Immanentize
We have a real SoS. Blinken sworn in.
Pompeo sworn at.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@mrmoshpotato: I’m good with that, now I want some cheesecake.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Roger Moore: I think it’s a little more than that. I think after four years of chaos and ruin from Republicans, no one fucking cares – or should care – what they think.
Immanentize
@Hoodie: The tight house margins talking point is sponsored by the Republicans. In the House, a one vote majority rules. There is no filibuster and no procedures to gum up the works for more than a little while. The majority sets the agenda, including investigation agendas. With a President Biden and AG Garland, subpoenas will be enforced.
The only sad thing about not having a larger House majority is that we must work overtime to protect and increase it in 2022.
Immanentize
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I want to make a cheesecake. I make a great cheesecake! But they are just too much food for me and the Immp alone.
TaMara (HFG)
@WaterGirl: The second video doesn’t start until Biden is speaking, they didn’t show Kerry, et al. That’s why I posted the WaPo video first – it’s the only one showing that presser.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Like Trump, Mummy and Daddy didn’t pay enough attention.
mrmoshpotato
@Immanentize: Make a small cheesecake. Or individual-sized cheesecakes. You can always freeze some for later.
Moral of the story is – make a cheesecake.
p.a.
Open thread so can somebody explain the Market re: GameStop, AMC, etc and is it a coordinated attack on hedgefunds?
TaMara (HFG)
This should be repeated by every Dem.
West of the Rockies
@scav:
Meanie-boppers is truly funny, but these aren’t teens: these are grown-ass, vile adult women.
TaMara (HFG)
@p.a.: See previous post, it’s all about it.
mrmoshpotato
@Immanentize:
Hahaha, well done.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Immanentize: I’ve made cheesecake before, it’s a bit of work, I’d rather just get one at Costco.
J R in WV
I hear some Republicans intend to attempt to filibuster the DHS appointment, because he is an immigrant, doesn’t hate immigration, etc.
Great, guys, show us your hateful face, this time~!!~
WaterGirl
@Immanentize: get yourself some little cheesecake thingies, where the bottom drops out and the sides clip. Then you can make a cheesecake recipe and freeze the little cheesecakes and eat them when you are in the mood
edit: I have the little cheesecake thingies, but i lost my good cheesecake recipe. :-(
Ken
Open thread, I came across this definition and citation from “Slang and Its Analogues, Past and Present” – a seven-volume dictionary of slang from 1910, being prepared for Project Gutenberg.
There’s been some linguistic drift over the past four centuries, which is probably the only reason Shakespeare is taught in high schools – no one realizes what’s being said…
Immanentize
@J R in WV: But he is Cuban! Jewish, no less (in Miami referred to as “Jewbans.”). That will not play well in Florida.
Ken
@p.a.: See the next thread down, “GME YOLO”. One of the comments had the chilling summary: “Doing for financial markets what Facebook and Twitter did for politics.”
Omnes Omnibus
@Matt McIrvin: Biden has always been a standard Democrat. His positions generally match those of the middle of the Party. He has moved left with it.
Immanentize
@WaterGirl: Spring pans. I got ’em. But I have no room in the freezer…. Neighbors like my cheesecake!
Immanentize
Ha!
mrmoshpotato
@WaterGirl:
Make the bad cheesecake recipe.
WaterGirl
@Immanentize: Then make some cheesecake, dammit! :-)
And send me your recipe?
WaterGirl
@mrmoshpotato: It was my only cheesecake recipe. Someone at work made it and I LOVED it, so I never had to look for another one.
edit: Otherwise, I like the way you think!
Immanentize
@WaterGirl: I’ll dig it out! Water-bath type though — fussy — but absolutely New York style.
Omnes Omnibus
@Another Scott: Oddly enough given the comment I just posted, that person was me.
Ken
@WaterGirl: I once managed to recover a favorite cookie recipe by remembering the last time I made it. “Two sticks of butter, then creamed it, and added… half, no, 3/4 cup each of brown and white sugar…” Try it with your cheesecake, it might work.
Brachiator
@Ken:
Ran across an article recently that suggested that students still love Shakespeare and find him accessible.
I wonder how long it will take for the language to seem as archaic as, say, Chaucer.
ETA: As a kid, I was prepped for Shakespeare by a lot of the faux Shakespeare dialog spoken by Marvel Comics heroes and villains.
Also, Shakespeare would have loved a good cheesecake.
HumboldtBlue
“The Dig” a Netflix movie about the discovery of the Sutton Hoo helmet and associated belongings of a buried East Anglian king premieres on Friday.
Nora Lenderbee
@germy: I thought this was a joke about Dump. Nope–it’s for real.
Does this mean they can go after all the people who spread lies about the election on TwitFace?
Martin
@germy: Obligatory.
zhena gogolia
I’m soaking in it.
gwangung
@Ken:
That’s the premise of the Play On! series from the Oregon Shakespeare Festival; the drift in slang and grammar has rendered a lot of the language incomprehensible to modern languages. So they hired a bunch of modern playwrights to translate the grammar and slang, but keep the poetry of the language…and MAN…some of the pieces are DIRTY…..
Martin
@Roger Moore: Obama had to President as a black man. Biden gets to President as a white man. Biden has a lot more room to operate.
frosty
@Ken: I had a Shakespeare prof who delighted in pointing all of those out to us!
Martin
@Nora Lenderbee: I would be content if they went after all elected officials that deliberately spread the lie the election was stolen, along with those high profile media figures they coordinated with. Leave all of the non-elected folks alone.
Roger Moore
@Hoodie:
My gut feeling is that Manchin is personally pretty liberal but takes a lot of more conservative positions to stay closer to his constituents. He actually does a very good job of arguing for Democratic positions based on a liberal ideology, but only when he thinks that ideology will sell. For example, he’s been a strong and unapologetic defender of Obamacare because he knows how to sell it based on all the ways it helps people back in West Virginia.
rikyrah
@Brachiator:
Her books shot to #1 and #2 on the Amazon list, post Inauguration.
Amir Khalid
@Brachiator:
When they teach Shakespeare in school, do they tell the kids where the smutty jokes are? His plays are full pf them. (he asked innocently.)
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Immanentize: That area looks completely unchanged from when it was the Old Post Office Pavilion. Fills me with nostalgia.
Can we just throw all that crap in the dumpster and restore the Pavilion?
frosty
@Amir Khalid: In college, yes. In high school, no.
HumboldtBlue
@Roger Moore:
My sister has lived in West Virginia since 1984 and that’s her explanation of Manchin as well. He’s very good at what he does for his constituents and has a helluva balancing act to master.
Amir Khalid
@gwangung:
There’s a thing you’ve probably heard of, Shakespeare in original pronunciation.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@p.a.: Heard a piece on the Philadelphia NPR station today that was talking about it. This is the show’s podcast page but today’s show isn’t posted yet.
Brief summary: GameStop was going out of business. Bunch of big investors invested heavily in shorting the stock (betting on it going down). Bunch of small investors coordinating on Reddit drove the stock price up so they made money on the rise and the big guys lost their shirts.
Kind of like the end of Trading Places, but no Al Franken or gorillas.
And now I guess the same thing is happening with AMC.
Roger Moore
@Brachiator:
A very, very long time. The invention of the printing press and increased literacy did a huge amount to freeze language in place. That’s why there was more change in the language in the ~200 years between Chaucer and Shakespeare than in the ~400 years between Shakespeare and today. As long as we keep teaching high school students Shakespeare and our churches keep using the KJV, we won’t let the language change enough that Shakespeare’s English is as incomprehensible as Chaucer’s English is.
HumboldtBlue
@Roger Moore:
That’s why we read this blog. Explanations like that.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Amir Khalid: I recently discovered this guy, who has discussed not only what Shakespeare sounded like, but Latin, Etruscan, Aztec and many other ancient languages.
moonbat
@Martin: Thank you for pointing that out. I was getting kinda tired of all the unfavorable comparisons as though Obama was completely free to appoint from the leftest wing of the party. He had constraints Biden doesn’t even have to think about. He was making every effort to live up to his “no red states and no blue states” speech.
In hindsight, of course, we NOW know that McConnell had his entire caucus swear not to cooperate with anything Obama proposed. But then there was some hope that the Rs wouldn’t be completely bad faith operators. Now we know they are a party without honor, morals or a governing philosophy.
Roger Moore
@HumboldtBlue:
Yes. Manchin knows that liberal solutions will help West Virginia but that a lot of West Virginians don’t want to hear about it. So he’ll keep trying to sell them on parts of liberal ideology that he thinks they’ll accept and not talk about the parts they won’t. He still votes with the Democrats when his vote will really matter, and as long as that keeps getting him elected we should be happy to have him.
Amir Khalid
@Roger Moore:
Sometimes I wonder how today’s prevalence of recorded speech has affected the rate of evolution of modern languages.
Uncle Cosmo
HAMLET: Lady, shall I lie in your lap?
OPHELIA: No, my lord.
HAMLET: I mean, my head upon your lap?
OPHELIA: Ay, my lord.
HAMLET: Do you think I meant country matters?
OPHELIA: I think nothing, my lord.
HAMLET: That’s a fair thought to lie between maids’ legs.
OPHELIA: What is, my lord?
HAMLET: Nothing.
Amir Khalid
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
You should also check out this guy, if you haven’t already.
cain
@germy:
Where were the Democratic party and their oppo research? Was not any of this shown to the public? How come this stuff is only coming out now?
Roger Moore
@Amir Khalid:
Recorded speech can have contradictory effects. On the one hand, people may try to conform to what they hear in the media. On the other hand, they can deliberate exaggerate distinctive aspects of their accent and dialect as a way of expressing their local and regional identity.
ETA: You might find this video by a dialect coach that discusses regional American accents and dialects interesting, since he discusses some of the ways those speechways have changed.
WaterGirl
@Immanentize: Fluffy cheesecake… shudder.
That sounds great. Hopefully my little springform pans are leakproof.
WaterGirl
@Omnes Omnibus: No one ever said you weren’t consistent! :-)
WaterGirl
@Martin:
I wish that whole thing would fit as a rotating tag, and as a bumper sticker. Alas, it does not.
Ken
@Roger Moore: Recordings also give more opportunities for people to conform to subculture speech patterns. IIRC the spread of “creaking” (especially among young women) has been
blamed ontraced to the internet.Brachiator
@Amir Khalid:
When I have taught Shakespeare, and Chaucer, I am all up into the puns and smutty jokes.
It would be a disservice to do otherwise.
But I also recall that one of the many dull reasons that Julius Caesar was taught to school kids, one of the reasons was because it was relatively sober and smut-less.
One of the other reasons was a holdover from the days when Latin was taught, with a side trip to stuff about Caesar’s Gaul campaigns.
Ken
@WaterGirl: “OHTPAABM. BGTPAAWM. BHALMRTO.” should fit as a tag. As a bumper sticker, it might even work as three rows of eight characters.
Er, I forget – which side of the acronym debate are you on?
WaterGirl
@HumboldtBlue: Hell, yes. Let’s just see what Martin said one more time.
WaterGirl
@Ken: Seriously? The one thing I get cranky about on Balloon Juice is the use of acronyms that most people don’t know. But I’ll bet you knew that. :-)
I suppose: “Let’s not dis Obama in order to praise Biden” doesn’t nearly convey the whole sentiment.
HumboldtBlue
@Roger Moore:
This is a fascinating watch.
London accent from the 145h century to the 21st.
@Amir Khalid:
I just realized I didn’t click your link and I linked to his London accent video.
Roger Moore
@HumboldtBlue:
I should say that a great example of this trend is Icelandic. Their key literature are the sagas about the country’s founding and early history, and they’ve deliberately frozen the language in a form that ensures everyone can still understand them. I guess they got started trying to keep their language static early. It’s too late for English to keep Beowulf comprehensible, but I think we’ll hold the line with Shakespeare.
zhena gogolia
RIP, Cloris Leachman.
Brachiator
@Roger Moore:
The somewhat deliberate Mid-Atlantic dialect heard in movies of the 1930s and 1940s is perceived to be distinctly odd and affected and has been long rejected by people. I know people who claim to be irritated by this kind of “patter” in old movies.
It never caught on as a dialect to be emulated by real people.
The Internets is creating an interesting disjunction between written and spoken language. Not sure where it is headed.
Brachiator
@zhena gogolia:
Very sad. A very talented lady. I remember her dramatic role in “The Last Picture Show” and was not prepared for how funny she could be.
The Internets are barely catching up to her passing. Wikipedia still refers to her in the present tense, as of a few moments ago.
HumboldtBlue
I do wish Senator Feinstein would retire.
Elsewhere and related to the language discussion, here’s a fun video on North American accents.
Amir Khalid
@Brachiator:
I know of Leachman’s dramatic work, but I remember her mostly as Phyllis Lindstrom, in the sitcoms The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Phyllis.
HumboldtBlue
@Amir Khalid:
Here’s a great clip of her dramatic acting.
zhena gogolia
@HumboldtBlue:
Oh, I guessed it.
But of course she had to be a good dramatic actress to be able to do that.
zhena gogolia
@zhena gogolia:
She’s great in High Anxiety as well.
sab
@Amir Khalid: I just listened. Now I just realized that Dorothy Dunnett took a joke from Shakespeare and gave it Lymond to say a generation earlier. Hmm.
zhena gogolia
@Amir Khalid:
Cool!