I'm kind of enjoying Biden's "Listen, Jack" attitude towards people who expect him to have taken no lessons from the Obama years. https://t.co/mAtRIWY8sM
— Mangy Jay (@magi_jay) January 29, 2021
Saying NO to everything — refusing to negotiate, refusing to legislate, refusing to even meet with constituents — doesn’t take a whole lot of energy. Since at least the beginning of the Obama administration, most of the GOP has relied on passive obstruction, rather than active opposition. Their dependable minority of attention-seeking “Wild Guys”, the reliable trickle of grifters and ideologues looking for leverage, has been abetted by the subset of attention-seeking “Pundits” and related media, working together to keep the cable news channels busy 24/7/365.
Donald Trump, of course, was the epitome and probably the natural nadir of that mutual addiction. Joe Biden, as a campaigner and now as the President, heads an administration that’s the very opposite: He’s a happy tinkerer, surrounded by an administration of wonks and bureaucrats who actually enjoy doing the work.
It’s killing those members of the media who preferred MCing the clown parade to actual reporting. And I, for one, am here for it!
Main difference: we are going to do good things. https://t.co/3QFJYpIpn5
— Ronald Klain (@WHCOS) January 29, 2021
what congressional republicans really want, i honestly think, is to remain in the minority, phone it in at work, and use the culture war to fundraise trips to the bahamas or whatever. very few of them have any real interest in governing, and these priorities demonstrate that.
— cobras for alligators scheme machine (@golikehellmachi) January 26, 2021
a thing about congressional republicans is just how utterly lazy nearly all of them are. no town halls, no events they might be criticized at, no real legislative efforts, just fundraisers and schmoozing and golfing. they're the car dealership owner class, through and through.
— cobras for alligators scheme machine (@golikehellmachi) January 26, 2021
This is going to be a rough four years for the cult of the savvy. pic.twitter.com/mLJVAC8c8Q
— Tentin Quarantino (@agraybee) January 30, 2021
Sorry but if reporters are asking the White House about video game stocks in the middle of a pandemic that has killed 400,000 Americans they deserve to get made fun of https://t.co/VFJ32FsX5F
— Zoomcock Archivist ?? (@canderaid) January 29, 2021
well at least our legacy news outlets are doing a bang-up job conveying the threat instead of equivocating between two parties operating on completely different planes of existence https://t.co/JfluMvoEIF
— Peloton InfoSec Analyst (Incident Response) (@CalmSporting) January 30, 2021
The perfect example, at the intersection of ‘political grifter’ and ‘media attention-seeker’:
Jen Psaki saying at press conference yesterday that Biden economic team not addressing Robin Hood issue because his team is working on what really matters to the American people, which is Covid relief bill, makes both her & him seem incredibly out of touch with what’s happening.
— Marianne Williamson (@marwilliamson) January 30, 2021
NotMax
It’s not so-called cancel culture, it’s that the R’s yearn to cancel the culture, to stamp it out from A to Z, en bloc.
NotMax
re: Marianne Williamson, above.
Why hasn’t Biden put everything on hold to perch on the roof and patch a leak during the height of a category 5 hurricane, hm?
//
rikyrah
This Administration should clown the press for asking garbage questions
opiejeanne
@NotMax: She is such a loony.
Baud
Mine is a minority view, but I think the main difference is that Dem normies are in a different place than they were in 2009, which allows leaders to act differently. It’s not “lessons” of Obama as much as the cultural experience since Obama that’s the difference.
Baud
If I didn’t know who Marianne Williamson, I would be 100% confident that that tweet was snark.
Redshift
Somebody is “incredibly out of touch with what’s happening,” and it’s not Biden…
HumboldtBlue
Harry Truman lectured us on unity.
Harry was succinct, direct and full of fuck you.
Starboard Tack
@Redshift:
The Bachelor’s new season is happening, too. No tweets about that, Marianne?
Redshift
As I remarked the other day, part of the reason negotiation and compromise with current Republicans is impossible is that they don’t want anything that government can do, they just want Democrats to not get the things they want (Cleek’s law writ large.) There’s no possibility of horse-trading with nihilists.
rikyrah
?????
TS (the original)
I am so pleased the Biden administration sends out information without depending on twitter, face book and the like. I feel so like my life is back to normal.
Redshift
@Starboard Tack: I have to say, though, it is completely unsurprising that Williamson thinks an issue must be important if it’s all over the news for a day and people on Twitter are taking about it.
I am much happier to be governed by people with more than two working brain cells.
Redshift
@rikyrah: CNN is reporting they quit because he wants them to argue that the election was fraudulent and stolen, and won’t hear any other defense ideas.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Redshift:
Another key issue: they haven’t been paid anything.
Probably realized they were never going to be.
MisterForkbeard
@Redshift: Because arguing that the election was “stolen” and therefore his incitement is correct is a bold strategy. Let’s see how it plays out for them.
patrick II
And to let the Supreme Court do the hard work of legislation for them.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: I think it’s not just the normie Democrats, the President and the folk around him seem to understand that if they don’t get a lot done quickly, there’ll be a repeat of the 2010 shellacking.
Joey Maloney
@Redshift: Great, now we’re going to have to sit through Trump representing himself in the Senate. I thought we were done with his particular anus-mouth batshittery.
OTOH I’d be pretty awesome if the Dems kept him on the stand for 11 hours straight.
Anne Laurie
I, for one, agree with you!
(With the addendum that Biden, as an older White man, can say & do things that a Black man like President Obama… could not.)
patrick II
@Anne Laurie:
Although Obama has been saying a lot more lately. I for one like the post-president Obama.
Amir Khalid
@Redshift:
Mind you, the legal team’s idea — arguing that trying an ex-President is unconstitutional — isn’t all that great. The Senate has already decided otherwise by majority vote.
The impeachment trial is not really about whether Trump is guilty. It’s already known that he is. His incitements were livestreamed on YouTube; and video of the ensuing carnage, gleefully shot by the insurrectionists themselves, has been shown on social media and TV. It’s going to come down to whether Senate Republicans care to have their fingerprints on the sanction they know damn well he deserves — a ban on holding federal office.
For what it’s worth, I think Trump must face criminal prosecution for the incitement, no matter the outcome of the impeachment trial.
lgerard
@rikyrah:
Orly Taitz, tanned, rested and ready for her closeup.
Amir Khalid
@lgerard:
How about Vinny Gambini?
Amir Khalid
Get this, guys: the BBC reports that Britain, having voluntarily left the EU and its free-trade agreement, has applied to join one in the Asia-Pacific region. Britain is geographically nowhere near the Asia-Pacific region.
BBC link: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-55871373
Arclite
Jesus, someone get Biden an N95 mask already.
opiejeanne
@rikyrah: I guess Trump could use a Public Defender. //
lgerard
Jared went to law school and he works cheap
NotMax
@rikyrah
You get what you don’t pay for.
//
Arclite
Awful tweet by Marianne Williamson, but the rest of her Twitter feed is on point.
NotMax
@Amir Khalid
But that’s where the tea is, don’tcha know, mate?
//
Viva BrisVegas
When I was last in Malaysia, whiskey was not exactly priced to encourage consumption. I don’t see why they think removing tariffs is on the cards.
The UK Tories are desperate for a deal, any deal, with anybody. However, there are limits, they’ve promised no chlorinated chicken. So I fully expect the next deal will be with the US for as much chlorinated chicken as they can spare, in exchange for the Crown jewels.
The CPTPP was designed to be an anti-China trade bloc. Ask Australia how well that has worked out.
topclimber
@Anne Laurie: You and the Venerable Baud have that right. And you have to wonder why Joe ran on the record of the Obama-Biden years if they were such a bust.
OzarkHillbilly
So now Wall Street has problems? Now??? Where the fuck you been Marianne?
MagdaInBlack
@OzarkHillbilly: Listening to the music of the spheres, no doubt. She’s an odd duck.
Up since 2 nosing around the intertubes and watching it snow. We got a wee bit, here in Chicagoland.
OzarkHillbilly
@MagdaInBlack: I made it till 3 this time. Supposedly, after the rains washed away all our snow yesterday, we’re getting a dusting today.
Geminid
@MagdaInBlack: A couple inches of snow have fallen here. The Shenandoah Valley is supposed to get 8-12″. On the east side of the Blue Ridge we’re supposed to get 6-10. But it sounds like a lot more in the Northeast.
matt the somewhat reasonable
Williamson is more interested in her portfolio than dead people is what I get from that one.
Dog Mom
So what happens if Trump’s response is to stay down at Mar-a-lago, surround the place with supporters and spout his ‘defense’ to whatever media that will post his noise?
Spanky
One wonders if Marianne put all her money in a hedge fund that’s now getting squeezed.
Sad to think that “the most snow in two years” is 3″, but here we are. Only a dusting so far in Southern MD.
Sloane Ranger
@Viva BrisVegas: According to the BBC, the short term benefits are minimal at best, but President Biden has made noises that the US is interested in joining (It was originally an Obama admin idea).
The British government is betting that the US do join, giving the UK tariff free access to the US.
Geminid
@Dog Mom: trump could present no defense whatsover and still not be convicted. The required 17 Republican votes to convict are not there. The House prosecutors will lay out a good case, as they should, but Republican Senators will be listening with one ear while reviewing their five minute acquittal speeches.
prostratedragon
@Amir Khalid: Maybe it’s too soon to tell, but this thing I saw the other day might apply here.
prostratedragon
@Sloane Ranger: That’s the only rationale that might have something to say for it, but even with tariff-free prices would we really take that much more than we do already? And with either that or import substitution there would be transport costs to figure in, unless they’re counting mostly on intangibles. (NB: We already get lotta tv over here and far as I know there are no content restrictions to be set aside.)
Dog Mom
@Geminid: As much as I expect this, it still makes my head hurt.
JoyceH
@Arclite:
Was thinking something similar myself. His masks are too loose! (“Geez, there’s no pleasing you people, first you wanted a president who wore a mask, and now you’re complaining about the masks the president is wearing!”) Since I doubt he has a WH medical team that mainly gushes about how strong and fit and manly the president is, I wish the WH doc would give him a little guidance on mask wear.
Of course, it’s not just Biden – all over the news I see people with masks that are WAY too loose, big old air gap at the top and always sliding down. Come on, people, we’re supposed to be upping our masking game – the variants are coming!
prostratedragon
January 31 birthday:
Franz Schubert, 1797, Erlkönig, Marian Anderson, contralto
JoyceH
@Geminid:
Yeah, but we need to get those votes on the record so we can use it against them later.
Sloane Ranger
@prostratedragon:
I don’t know how US consumers will react, but it’s an article of faith in some areas of business and government here in the UK that navigating US customs is time consuming and costly and tariffs increase prices leading to reduced demand.
Van Buren
@matt the somewhat reasonable:
What I get is that if Biden spent time and energy on GameStop, she would be criticizing him for not focusing on COVID. And everything else he is doing.
Geminid
@JoyceH: Yes, this trial is neccessary.The Democrats will present a powerful case, and Republican Senators will have to go on record as ignoring it.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
I watched the presser (Jen is must see tee vee), she never said that. She repeatedly referred to the SEC statement which signaled it’s going to investigate Robinhood.
Moreover, normies don’t follow short selling or even hold significant stocks. 84% of the market is owned by the top 10%.
topclimber
@Sloane Ranger: Is the Obama idea you refer to the Trans Pacific Partnership? With the arctic melting, Britain might actually have a shorter sea route to Asia now, so welcome aboard Boris!
Sloane Ranger
@Dog Mom:
1.Republican Senators call for a further delay to the trial to allow Trump time to find replacement lawyers.
2. Republican Senators go on talk shows, raise objections during the trial and vote to acquit on the basis that the trial was a sham because the accused was denied an opportunity to defend themselves.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
The problem is there was only 56 Dems at the time (Franken was tied up in recounts, Kennedy and Byrd were sick, Arlen Spector hadn’t switched) The 56 included a bunch who were to the right of Manchin (Bayh, Landrieu, Lieberman, Baucus, Lincoln, Pryor, Ben Nelson, Conrad) to the point that there wasn’t 50 votes for a multi trillion dollar stimulus. Plus, because of “resentment” of Obama’s melanin and meteoric rise he wasn’t given the slack that Uncle Joe enjoys. I mean I saw Bernie on CNN on Thursday and he bent over backwards in praise of Joe, which he never did for Obama.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
They’re more interested in petty gossip then actual issues.
Geminid
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: In 2011 Sanders appeared on Thom Hartman’s radio show and called for a primary challenge to Obama. Sanders himself was up for reelection the next year, so he wanted someone else to do the job. Nine years later this statement came flying around like a boomerang in the days before the 2020 South Carolina primary, when it was used to good effect in anti-Sanders radio ads.
Amir Khalid
@Viva BrisVegas:
Poorly chosen random examples. Like you say, Malaysia taxes the hell out of alcoholic beverages. And Britain’s carmaking industry is a shadow of what it was decades ago.
Baud
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
Hahahaha.
SiubhanDuinne
@opiejeanne:
Ha! That was my immediate first thought, complete with snark tags!
SiubhanDuinne
@topclimber:
Very nice.
Amir Khalid
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
How Jen Psaki musters the patience to deal with “professional” journalists asking her these childish questions is beyond me.
geg6
@Sloane Ranger:
They can call for or go on tv and bitch about whatever they want. Dems are in charge and I doubt they give a shit.
satby
@Amir Khalid: She is a far better person than I would be.
Baud
@satby: I would prefer you.
But Jen is good.
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
@Geminid: I am in coastal Connecticut, they keep upping the possible snowfall amounts. The local TV weather just hedged their bets and said between 3 and 12.. in n other words Who Knows??
Van Buren
@SiubhanDuinne: I have a good friend who is a Public Defender. More specifically, he is a Law Guardian, which means he only represents juveniles. I think he may be the most qualified attorney in the nation to represent Trump.
Nicole
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
“Oh, such an important question; it’s the plane of today.”
This is the advantage to having a Gen-Xer in the Press Secretary job. We are the snark generation. Well done, Ms. Psaki, handling some mind-bogglingly stupid questions with the respect they deserve.
satby
@Baud: You might, possibly a fair chunk of America might, but I would alienate quite a few with my incivility while I ripped the deliberately stupid questioners new assholes.
PST
When lawyers resign at the last minute like Trump”s have, my assumption is that the client insists that they take a position that includes false statements of fact or wants to testify falsely. You can lay down the law and tell the client that you won’t be a party to perjury, but that can be tough if the client is delusional and believes the lie or is a sociopath for whom truth has no meaning.
SFAW
@Redshift:
I’d modify that slightly: they just want Democrats to not be able to do things the electorate wants done. [Because voters will eventually — in theory, at least — reward the Dems, and the Partei of Traitors will be swept aside. As I said, “in theory”; Rethug voters/supporters are staggeringly divorced from logic and cause-and-effect.]
Many years ago, a friend and I were watching some commercial, which started out with “The pessimist sees the glass as half-empty, the optimist sees the glass as half-full …” whereupon my friend chimed in “… and the nihilist wants to smash the fucking glass.” Seems spot-on for the Rethugs, and especially the Trumpists.
Geminid
@geg6: Yesterday the Washington Post had a good article on the upcoming Senate trial. The expectation was that this trial would proceed more quickly than last year’s. This time the case against trump is straightforward, and lacks the many moving parts of the Ukraine affair. And the thinking is that neither side is interested in dragging it out this time. I remember that last year, when Democratic efforts to call witnesses fell short, the Republicans hoped to finish with a final vote on a Saturday. Schumer and company used procedural roadblocks to delay the vote until the following Wednesday, the day after trump’s state of the union address. This time the parties may want to score their points and then wrap it up.
karen marie
@rikyrah: Oh, snap! This is entirely predictable. Maybe he can get a public defender assigned?
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: This is extra funny to me because Psaki was on NPR’s “Wait Wait, Don’t Tell Me!” show on Saturday (she was delightful), they asked her to demonstrate handling stupid questions, and the answer was just like that with the “I’ll circle back to you on that”.
But she did say she actually does try to circle back later.
SFAW
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
Reminds me a little of the scene where CJ Cregg puts the hammer to some asshole reporter, in front of the reporters at the daily briefing
mrmoshpotato
@Nicole: I applaud Ms. Psaki for not flat out calling the press corpse a bunch of idiots.
Seriously? Asking about the Air Force One color scheme? I mean, really at any time, but now?
mrmoshpotato
@rikyrah: SAD!
Geminid
@EmbraceYourInnerCrone: 4″ of snow now in Amicus Va. The forecast is for snow on and off for two days, then clear, cold and windy on Tuesday. Fortunately my house is warm enough and I don’t need to go anywhere.
Ken
@Geminid: I’m still hoping they call some witnesses. Every one of the Capitol police that was injured, for starters, assuming they’ve been released from the hospital, and perhaps relatives of the murdered officer.
Ken
So they’re hoping that reducing tariffs with a country 4000 miles away will offset the decision to opt-in to them for ones just 25 miles away?
wvng
@Baud: yep. The “lessons from the Obama years” assumes facts not in evidence – that Obama and Biden didn’t fully understand what Republicans were doing back then. Of course they knew. They are very smart people. The political conditions were different then.
Ken
@rikyrah: Is Ken Starr mysteriously unavailable? He had some unique perspectives at the first Trump impeachment.
Ken
Dead thread, but this from Cracked.com seems a good metaphor for the press / WH relationship:
WaterGirl
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Exactly. There is no guarantee that we will have the House and the Senate after Nov 2022. With any luck, and hard work, we will. But he basically has 2 years to things done, and it’s clear that Biden plans to do just that.
WaterGirl
@Baud: I think it’s a mix of both. Biden learned from watching the obstruction to Obama, and so did we. Plus, as an older white male Biden has a lot more options than Obama did. Not to mention that if we let the Rs tie our hands, we lose the next elections and we lose our democracy.
All are motivating, but none more motivating than the last.
Geminid
@Ken: There will be good witnesses. And a top law firm is preparing video of the attack for the prosecution. Congressman Raskin and company will present a powerful case.
Anya
@Baud: Exactly. I just hate this prevalent view that Obama years were wasted and ineffectual. Can we get a reality check on that? It’s okay to learn from past missteps but to paint the whole experience, unjustly, as failed is unfair to Obama and his admin. I feel like we’ve learned the wrong lesson from Trump’s belligerence and crude focus on ‘his supporters’. This is not something we want our side doing and I feel like that’s the stick some measure things now.
Uncle Cosmo
@Van Buren:
Silly me, I allus thot Law Guardian was an airport in NYC…
Anya
@lgerard: That’s a name I haven’t heard in many years. I forgot about that train-wreck. I just googled her and she might be a good lawyer for Trump, although she doesn’t fully agree with him on the stolen election claim but apparently she’s suing to stop the second impeachment. Here’s a headline from News Week: Obama ‘Birther’ Conspiracy Theorist Orly Taitz Sues To Stop Second Impeachment Trial.
Uncle Cosmo
@SFAW: The pessimist sees the glass as half-empty. The optimist sees the glass as half-full. The nihilist wants to smash the glass.
And the engineer sees the glass as twice as big as it needs to be… :^p
different-church-lady
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: “Psaki” is gonna be such a great verb. ?
Sloane Ranger
@Ken:
They’d love to have tariff-free access to the EU but won’t sign up to the rules required to get it because it means, to quote the Brexiteer mantra, “giving up our national sovereignty.”
The US is a large market, you speak English and there are already some UK companies who have outlets there.
Geminid
@Anya: President Obama’s administration did important work combating climate change, from rooftop solar installations on military bases to it’s Clean Power Plan. In his March 2019 interview in the Journal of the Atomic Scientists, U. Mass. economist Robert Pollin described Obama’s efforts as “Green New Deal 1.0.”
OldDave
May the video include clips of Cruz and others egging them on.
Subsole
@satby: If the last 4 years are any indicator, you could probably charge admission.
Yutsano
@different-church-lady:
Gods I hope so. English needs more Greek in it.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Ya Ann, that really sums up the Right these days “look at me! look at me!”