‘It's big, yes. It's bold, yes. And we can get it done,’ said President Biden, unveiling a massive $2 trillion infrastructure plan aimed at everything from spending on roads and bridges to broadband and elderly care https://t.co/uyPaRxnYi0 pic.twitter.com/863xhP5Q48
— Reuters (@Reuters) April 1, 2021
President Biden has unveiled his ambitious plan to rebuild America's infrastructure. Some key details:
• Price tag: $2.3 trillion
• Time span: Spending would roll out over eight years
• How it's paid for: Largely, by sharply higher corporate taxeshttps://t.co/sBcoSO2JW0— The Associated Press (@AP) March 31, 2021
Biden plan now out. Some promises:
— EV stations nationwide
— Replace every lead pipe
— Universal clean drinking water
— 2M homes retrofitted or built
— Universal affordable high speed broadband by 2030
— Fix 20K miles of roads/bridgesPRO Act includedhttps://t.co/AVJn8gJzdp
— Jeff Stein (@JStein_WaPo) March 31, 2021
Biden “infrastructure” bill bans Right to Work laws nationwide.
27 states have Right to Work.— John Kartch (@johnkartch) March 31, 2021
Here’s a look at how the spending breaks down:https://t.co/F1CdDBHoSP
— The New York Times (@nytimes) March 31, 2021
Factbox: Key elements of Biden's corporate tax-hike plan https://t.co/aysgx3ynUg pic.twitter.com/9krJuQW1RM
— Reuters (@Reuters) April 1, 2021
it strikes me, a big dummy, that the white house is doing a great job constructing its big plans to have wide appeal to *voters* rather than *politicians*. it seems like a clever strategy to let the weight of the electorate push congress into doing stuff the white house wants
— Gerry Doyle (@mgerrydoyle) April 1, 2021
this has the ancillary benefit of zapping arguments like "well, I don't want to reform the filibuster" because voters most definitely don't care about that, but they will 100 percent call your office angrily asking why you're keeping roads from being built in their town
— Gerry Doyle (@mgerrydoyle) April 1, 2021
Baud
Did Biden promise all those things, or just propose them? No guarantee Congress will enact every bit of it.
raven
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone ???
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
debbie
@Baud:
Imagine the earmarks it will take to get these proposals through.
Cermet
@debbie: Can only hope earmarks are used again; anything that gets everyone on board and voting for a bill is useful.
OzarkHillbilly
Unlike all the repliers I saw, I say, “Good”.
NotMax
@raven
IIRC Hice was a wanna-be Limbaugh, rather known for being of little brain, elected in a district where they would vote for anyone or anything so long as there is an R appended to his/her name on the ballot.
WereBear
@Cermet:
This mess about earmarks reminds me that Newton Leroy Gingrich ramped up the lunacy when he was Speaker, from 1995 to 1999.
That was a different country, really. Biden’s approval rating shows that. We’ve been through an awful lot, and it was mostly awful.
satby
@rikyrah: Good morning ?
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
And we say welcome to the 146th season of Major League Baseball
Play Ball! ? ⚾
Baud
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch: ?
Baud
First Cabinet meeting today.
NotMax
And so a new month creeps timorously on stage. In the mood for some wake-up boogie woogie?
MagdaInBlack
@OzarkHillbilly: I say “Good” too.
Cervantes
Not just the New Deal, the Big Fucking Deal.
Baud
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
Biden posted a photo of his cabinet – whiter than I thought (photo)
Baud
MJS
AP’s tweet starts out well, by recognizing that our infrastructure needs to be “rebuilt”. Of course, that couldn’t last, because they then claim it will be paid for by “sharply higher” corporate taxes. No, corporate taxes will be increased under the proposal, but won’t even return to where they were under GWB and Obama. If that increase is “sharply higher”, how should Trump’s tax cut be described? “Marianas Trench lower”?
satby
@NotMax: Our local April Fool’s joke: we woke up to snow.
NotMax
@Cervantes
What’s all this about a Nude Deal?
Will no one think of the children?
Oh.
Never mind.
/Emily Litella
debbie
@Baud:
The most depressing part of this fiasco is learning credit default swaps are still a thing.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@satby: It’s really cold here today too, but at least I haven’t seen snow.
JMG
No snow here in Boston, just a cold rain that’s supposed to end this morning. I’ve lived here for over 45 years, and there have been more than a few Opening Day snowouts. But I don’t envy the 4000+ fans they’re letting into Fenway this afternoon. At least their masks will provide a measure of warmth for their faces.
debbie
@JMG:
I remember freezing at a Yankees-Orioles opening day at some point in the 1980s.
Spanky
@NotMax:
Don’t worry, Mattie Gaetz is on the case.
NotMax
Repeating for the morning throng.
SFAW
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Let us know AFTER you raise your window blinds.
OzarkHillbilly
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch:
I see you know the last 2 words of the national anthem.
gene108
@debbie:
There’s nothing inherently wrong with CDS’s. They are, for the most part, just insurance against buying corporate debt from another Enron.
The financial sector just decided it was not just an insurance policy, but a financial instrument in its own right that can be traded, so you can have more CDS’s outstanding than the value of corporate bonds issued.
Baud
@NotMax:
What if the primary purpose for the purchase was sexy time but they were put to dual use?
satby
@Dorothy A. Winsor: 27° here right now, high going to 36°, tonight’s low down to 20°, so a harder freeze than last night. Hope my early daffodil buds survive. At least the later season ones haven’t budded out yet, so I could still get some flowers. I wait all year for them ?
NotMax
@OzarkHillbilly
Undoubtedly someone, somewhere has recipes incorporating both peanuts and Cracker Jacks.
I, for one, am NOT about to seek them out.
:)
SFAW
Apropos of nothing in particular: Mrs. SFAW has received a couple of e-mails regarding her application for PPP funds. Which would be great, if she had applied for them. She’s thinking ID theft, i.e., someone applying under her name (or her SSN). The e-mail calls her “John Wilson” at some point, so that seems weird (as in: why would mail be addressed to her correct e-mail address, but using a different name?) She sent an e-mail response (yesterday) saying “Not me,” but received another e-mail today, from the same company, and giving no indication they read her reply.
I guess I’ll call the SBA today, try to find out what’s going on. [Will also call “blueacorn,” the company which is “helping” her with her PPP “application.”]
NotMax
@Baud
For some taxpayers that might qualify as a home office expense.
;)
SFAW
@NotMax:
I thought Cracker Jacks already had peanuts? Of course, I haven’t had them in something like 50 years — approximately the Jack Gilford era — so the “recipe” may have changed.
Baud
@NotMax:
You, sir, should have been a tax lawyer.
SFAW
@Baud:
You have two? Damn, bro.
Or is that not what you meant?
NotMax
@SFAW
“You gotta try my Brussels Sprouts Surprise.”
debbie
@gene108:
And sadly, 14 years later, they are still being misused.
SFAW
@NotMax:
Or if I’m in luck, it’s broiled hockey puck?
gene108
@debbie:
I know.
Stupid greed ruins a decent idea.
NotMax
@SFAW
Ah, so you’ve sampled the meatloaf at Ptomaine Tony’s?
Cameron
@SFAW: That’s almost certainly some type of fraud. I get that kind of stuff all the time and I NEVER answer it. Mos def you should call SBA.
debbie
Has anybody had any dealings with Grange Mutual Insurance? I’m trying to decide if I should move my auto and renters’ insurance to them.
OzarkHillbilly
@SFAW: It might be a fishing scam.
Immanentize
@OzarkHillbilly:
in that case, talk to raven
SFAW
@Cameron: @OzarkHillbilly:
I agree that it’s possibly some scam, but also still treating it as though ID theft is a possibility. I admonished Mrs. SFAW not to click on any links, and I pulled up the SBA IG contact number an hour ago.
SFAW
@Immanentize:
Glad you said it.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: TMI
OzarkHillbilly
@SFAW: Good moves all. I once had a very befuddling experience with ID theft that I never did get the straight of.
NotMax
Double heh. No intention of watching it but the eyes honed in on one phrase in the description of something which has shown up under Amazon originals on Prime.
“Ten stop stars of German comedy”
Immanentize
@SFAW: The Mass. Government had received federal funds for worker’s compensation add ons. I received a couple notices that I would be receiving my first checks soon. Luckily, the MA Dept. of Labor was already on it and had set up a reporting link on the website that went to the State AG. Always rember your State AG is very interested in such fraud cases (or should be!)
burnspbesq
@MJS:
If you’re the WSJ editorial page, the reduction in the top corporate rate from 35 percent to 21 percent was “necessary to restore American competitiveness.”
If you’re a tax policy geek, you say the entire 2017 Act was a dog’s breakfast of giveaways to interest groups with effective lobbyists. I say this as someone who spent the last two years of my legal career trying to help clients make sense of it.
SFAW
@NotMax:
“Homed in on.” Jeez, I thought I learned you better.
Baud
@schrodingers_cat:
Too Much Intercourse?
Soprano2
@OzarkHillbilly: Did you see that a rep from my neck of the woods is trying yet again to get Right-to-Work in Missouri? They’re determined little shits; in spite of the voters saying “no” twice, they know what’s best for us. *rolleyes
SFAW
@burnspbesq:
Does this mean you’ve retired? Or changed careers? Or just referring to the 2019-2021 period?
Immanentize
@SFAW: Very sharp comment, SFAW.
SFAW
@Baud:
“Too Much”? That phrase does not compute.
ETA: Even if you DO have two.
OzarkHillbilly
@Soprano2: They’ll never give up this side of death.
Soprano2
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch: I am so excited!! Our AA affiliate of the Cardinals is having a season this year, starting in May. We have quarter season tickets, so we’ll definitely be at game. I’m so glad they decided to figure out how to do this.
Soprano2
@OzarkHillbilly: Nope. I also think the Medicaid expansion is going to end up in court, because they’re going to refuse to fund it. They don’t want the working poor to have healthcare, full stop. It’s disgusting.
SFAW
@Immanentize:
Sometimes I just cut to the chase, as it were. Slice through the BS, so to
sporkspeak.burnspbesq
@gene108:
And as long as the counterparty is solvent, they work.
State insurance regulators had one fucking job …
mrmoshpotato
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch: DAY! BASEBALL!
Geminid
Checking out this infrastructure package is like unloading a big Christmas stocking. Five hundred thousand EV charging stations! Convert 20% of the nation’s school bus fleet to electric power!
I suspect that the goal of 20% for electric scool buses will be exceeded. Electric school buses cost more up front, but their lifetime costs are less than those of diesel buses. And when people see the improvement in the air school kids breath in transit, every school district will want them. More rural districts may need hybrids for longer trips, just like UPS plans to use hybrids for longer routes as a supplement to their future EV fleet
OzarkHillbilly
@Soprano2: There’s a reason I despise them.
burnspbesq
@SFAW:
Retired at the end of 2019.
mrmoshpotato
@satby: 25 degrees outside. April 1, Chicago, WTF? Wunderground, stop foolin’.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: Naughty Baud is naughty
Dorothy A. Winsor
Hm. Maybe I need this. Reedsy claims it will automatically generate a “compelling” 90K word novel in a matter of minutes
Frank Wilhoit
The difficulty with Gerry Doyle’s argument is that members of Congress — more so Republicans, but all — are disconnected from public opinion. They respond only to the party propaganda machines and large-donor networks. That bubble cannot be pierced. Propaganda cannot be fought with anything other than overwhelming counterpropaganda. The Republican Party has been demonizing and dehumanizing the Democratic Party and its constituents for over forty years with no retaliation whatsoever. We should have retaliated instantly, in kind and a thousandfold, and without pause.
Ken
But isn’t that what the financial sector does with everything? The derivatives markets are often larger than the underlying asset market. And they can be chained; I’m surprised there’s not a futures market for options on credit default swaps.
(I will now be told that there is in fact a futures market for options on credit default swaps.)
SiubhanDuinne
@raven:
Ugh.
Ken
A suburb of that (in)famous town in Pennsylvania.
jonas
That’s a good observation. This stuff does poll well. Lots of stuff does. We still don’t get any of it because that’s not what motivates politicians, however. The question is, how willing is a voter to go out and vote *against* someone who opposes this bill? Until reps and senators sense that the thing is so damn popular that their opposition will motivate negative voting, their best bet is to keep their heads down and do what the corporate lobbyists want. They know which side their bread is buttered on.
germy
Governor of South Dakota complains the infrastructure plan doesn’t fix infrastructure. Just other stuff.
Biden’s obviously pulling a scam here with this fake infrastructure stuff.
mrmoshpotato
Text from a friend
“Also bumbershoot is another word for umbrella”
OzarkHillbilly
@germy: With that level of stupid at the top, I’m surprised that SD has any infrastructure to improve.
Soprano2
@OzarkHillbilly: I had someone steal those checks credit card companies used to send you out of my mailbox. They tried to pay off a guy they stole stuff from with them, and the woman tried to buy clothes out of a catalog. They weren’t very bright criminals, since on their face the checks said “Not good for less than $1,000” and they wrote checks for $800, $800, and $850. I knew about the payoff because the bank called me because the victim contacted them; it was so much fun to go through all that. I knew about the clothes because that crazy bitch used my address for delivery; the company returned the check along with the pages torn out of a catalog with stuff circled and told her that sadly they couldn’t fill the order because the check was invalid. That explained the book order I never received; she probably stole them because she thought they were her package! I don’t know if credit card companies even send those checks anymore, but they were a bad idea to begin with.
Spanky
@germy:
She’s smoking it? That would explain a lot.
mrmoshpotato
@germy: How much moola is allocated for clue-by-fours? Or is she thinking of different pipes (and bongs)?
Ken
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Fifty billion bestsellers, huh. Say a hundred new bestsellers every week…. Well, there’s the bestseller lists full for the next geological epoch.
I’m also reminded of a joke calculation I saw once, based on the observation that no one ever throws away National Geographics, and finding when the volume and weight of the magazines would exceed, oh, that of the Earth.
Kay
@Soprano2:
The dirty little secret of Medicaid is people love Medicaid, especially lower wage people who had crap private insurance. It’s 80 dollars a month for people who are over 150% of poverty in Ohio. It’s a flat out good deal.
We will have a huge portion of the population, tens of millions of people, who have single payer government provided health insurance and have had it their whole lives. It’s good! Unsurprisingly, they like it! :)
I love so much that there is this quiet single payer revolution occurring and it doesn’t apply to college-educated/higher income so it goes completely unnoticed. They spent WAY more time on the health insurance exchanges and subsidies than they did the giant fucking elephant in the room, which was Medicaid expansion.
Soprano2
@germy: God Dollar Store Sarah Palin is so fucking stupid. Pipes aren’t infrastructure? What kind of idiocy is that? What does she think water, wastewater, and natural gas travel through – thin air? *rolleyes
Ken
@Ken: Can someone explain why when I visit https://www.nytimes.com/books/best-sellers/ the page is dated “April 11, 2021”? April Fools joke? Or did the Time slip up and accidentally reveal that the best-seller market is entirely rigged and they know the numbers weeks in advance?
SFAW
@burnspbesq:
Completely missed that.
Soprano2
@Kay: The voters in MO voted for the Medicaid expansion, but the Republicans in the state legislature are so far refusing to fund it. They say MO can’t afford it, and their rural voters didn’t vote for it (that’s probably true, although it would help rural MO a lot), so they aren’t obligated to fund it. It’s insane, I hear arguments like “people who don’t work shouldn’t get free health care” and I say “Don’t you realize that if people aren’t working they’re probably already on Medicaid! It’s the working poor who really benefit from the Medicaid expansion”. It’s also people like our cook who fell down and twisted his knee; he was reluctant to get care, but finally did, and ended up with a $600 knee brace. If he’d been eligible for Medicaid he probably would have gotten care a lot sooner. It’s crazy, don’t they realize getting health care for the working poor actually helps businesses?!!! I think all they and their voters see is that it benefits “those people” too much, so they’re against it.
Betty Cracker
@germy: Steve M pointed out on Twitter that this is the focus-grouped GOP talking point, not just Noem’s particular idiocy. He’s right — they’re all saying that.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Soprano2: Noem apparently thinks she has a chance to be president. I find that level of delusion to be startling.
OzarkHillbilly
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I’m not so sure she’s wrong to think that. I mean, trump.
WereBear
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I laughed and laughed. Though Mr WereBear and I would find it plausible that this is what Hollywood is already doing…
Geminid
@Kay: Since Virginia enacted Medicaid expansion in 2018, over 400,000 Virginians have been added added to the Medicaid rolls. This may have taken the help of ten Republican Delegates and three Senators, but Medicaid expansion was a vote winning platform for Democrats in 2017, and the smarter Republicans saw this.
WereBear
@Frank Wilhoit: While true, that’s an ideal world scenario. How could that be predicted?
That half the nation would be so gullible and non-discerning and hateful they would believe any lie, the more outrageous the better?
jonas
@Frank Wilhoit: That’s pretty much my take as well. Politicians (generally) don’t give a shit what voters think; they care what their big dollar donors think.
The one thing Biden has done this time that is interesting is that he’s trumpeting loudly that this isn’t just more deficit spending like the Covid relief bills. This is paid for — by taxing the rich. People like the idea that it’s not going to add more to the deficit, it’s going to create a lot of jobs, and that the fat cats will have to pay their share for a change. Hedge fund managers whining on Fox Business that this will force them to move to the Cayman Islands or something doesn’t go over even with Republican voters as well as it used to.
Kay
@Soprano2:
I think insurance companies didn’t fight it because they get a cut of it- there’s often a private layer they inserted in there but to the recipient it’s just single payer, government provided or subsidized health insurance. I find the panic on the Right amusing because I imagine some lower level person at Koch “holy SHIT- this is single payer government health insurance!”
To the barricades!
Slid that right past ’em –
Rural hospitals will lobby for it in Missouri. They want to get paid. Sherrod Brown told us rural hospitals in Right wing areas were screeching (publicly) about “Obamacare” while furiously lobbying him for Medicaid expansion, privately. I agree with them. They need to get paid. They can stop being collection agencies and start being hospitals again.
stinger
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I finished The Trickster yesterday — you don’t need an AI to write great books! My review on Amazon is being reviewed, but should be up soon.
SFAW
@Frank Wilhoit:
That’s a pretty cynical take. I suppose you’ll next try to tell us that the Senate Minority Leader did NOT have the best interests of the country at heart during his time as Majority Leader.
More seriously: I can still hear GHWB saying “L-l-l-l-liberal” as if he were talking about a pedophile or mass murderer. [Of course, that was back when the Rethugs didn’t embrace/support pedophiles with an “R” after their name(s).] Every so often, I re-read Steve Gilliard’s “I’m a fighting liberal” essay, to help counteract the BS from the RWMFs.
Kay
@Geminid:
I try to do my part. The plans are partly privatized so they have names that are not “Medicaid”. People tell me “I’m on the Buckeye” and I repeat back “Medicaid”. It’s true. They need to know what’s going on.
George W Bush saw the threat. He vetoed Pelosi’s children’s Medicaid expansion twice. He knew where this was going. Like, ripped health care out of the hands of 3 year olds. He was willing to take that hit for Team Right Wing to stem the tide. Rolled right over him anyway.
JMG
Virus post. For some reason last fall I got a subscription to the Chicago Tribune and have been too lazy to cancel it. This morning their news alert email showed the following three stories in this order in the headline. 1. Fans Return for Opening Day. 2. Why Covid Numbers Are Rising. 3. Wrigleyville Bar Guide.
SFAW
@Ken:
Sounds like a job for Randall Munroe!
Betty Cracker
Did anyone see the coverage of the scathing GAO report on Ivanka’s international “women’s empowerment” micro-funding program? Turns out there was shoddy or zero accounting of where all those millions of dollars went, no criteria for distributing the money to make sure it went to target populations, etc. If I wasn’t convinced that Ivanka has the best interests of women at heart, I’d suspect she ran the whole thing as a giant scam to line her own pockets. [eyeroll emoji]
Ohio Mom
KAY:
If you are still here, can you explain the excitement about Amy Acton for Senate? I like her plenty — as a health professional — but as far as I know, she has no experience as an elected official. Isn’t the Senate a big jump?
mrmoshpotato
@JMG:
sdhays
@Kay: Roberts did his best to gut it.
Jeffro
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch: I can’t believe I fell for that.
Happy April Fool’s Day, everyone!
mrmoshpotato
@Betty Cracker:
Unpossible! This is a good, upstanding Soviet shitpile mobster crime family we’re talking about here!
SFAW
@Betty Cracker:
Well, she DOES come from a long line of self
-servingless philanthropists, and is the offspring of perhaps the World’s Greatestest Biznissman EVAH!!!!SFAW
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch:
For some reason, the first thing that came to mind was the match-cut from Putney Swope.
Jeffro
@germy: I was just sharing this little tidbit with my office buddies…she’s really quite the intellectual, that Noem.
This reflexive “I want the opposite of whatever the damn libs propose!” thing that the GQP has distilled down to its purest essence over the past four decades, it’s really quite amazing.
Uncle Joe can, should, and probably will have a field day with it at his next presser.
...now I try to be amused
@Jeffro:
President Obama should have come out in favor of breathing. It would have saved us a lot of trouble.
Jeffro
A little OT but just FYI: over on Fox News dot com, there’s a) absolutely no mention of Matt Gaetz and his um issues but b) there IS an article about how VP Harris has yet to have a news conference in the 8 days since being tapped to deal with the border ‘crisis’.
Also, Larry Kudlow: “Biden infrastructure/tax plan is ‘war’ against ‘middle-income’ earners”. Oh, okay.
Complete. fucking. alternate. universe.
Jeffro
The temptation must have been nearly overwhelming. Here’s hoping President Biden shows no such restraint, and soon.
“Let’s fix the nation’s aging roads and bridges!” – Pres. Biden
“HELL NO I’LL WALK ON CRUMBLING CONCRETE UNTIL MY FEET BLEED YOU DAMN SOSHULISTS!!!” – everyone right of Joe Manchin, apparently.
SFAW
@Jeffro:
Noem was confused; she thought “infrastructure” is “structure created by Infra-Man “
Ken
@germy: @Jeffro: I guess government funding for pipelines only counts as infrastructure improvements when they’re oil pipelines being built on behalf of Canadian companies.
Betty Cracker
@Jeffro: It really is an alternate universe. My hopes that Gaetz will go down extra hard got a boost yesterday when the feds dropped a superseding indictment on Joel Greenberg, the astoundingly corrupt former Seminole County tax collector whose crimes apparently kicked off the investigation that ensnared Gaetz. Man, that dude is in a heap of trouble! If he ever wants to exit the Graybar Hotel, he better flip on Gaetz and hopefully many other corrupt Florida Republicans.
SFAW
@Betty Cracker:
I only glanced at the headlines, but apparently Gaetz is now talking about a bribe which “never happened” or some such (and which no one mentioned until he brought it up, I think?)
OzarkHillbilly
2 words: Elizabeth Warren.
Frank Wilhoit
@WereBear: Why, I will tell you exactly how it could be predicted — and doubtless was. Tear down your educational system and this is what happens.
WaterGirl
@Betty Cracker: I must be slow this morning. I had to read this 3 times to understand it. I kept reading “dropped” as something like dismissed, only to finally realize that “dropped” here meant exactly the opposite
For a minute, I was really upset, thinking that they were dropping the case against the sleezeball.
Frank Wilhoit
@SFAW: Bush I is often remembered, and possibly praised, as a “moderate”, which is…neither true nor false; it is beside the point. The point is that his patent insincerity marked an inflection point on the journey (which isn’t over yet, nohow) toward politics-as-theater. If that is not overcome, good outcomes are excluded. Now if you still want to call me a cynic, tell
meus how it can be overcome.Ken
@SFAW: Gaetz was trying to spin it as “prosecutorial misconduct by corrupt DOJ officials”. But as more comes out, it’s looking like “longtime scammers recognizing Gaetz is an easy mark”.
I’m disappointed because I was hoping for “Trump DOJ selling pardons”.
Punchy
@Jeffro: Or just announce that any state governor that doesnt want the money wont get it. Im sure those fine folks in SD will enjoy paying for bridges with bake sales and new roads paid for by higher taxes.
Ken
@WaterGirl: The one that often confuses me is “tabled”, as in “tabled the proposal”. It means completely different things in the US and UK.
And don’t get me started on “inflammable”.
Immanentize
@Jeffro: housing and pipes means cities. Subsidized housing for the poor! Pipes for places like Flint for, well, you know who.
Country mouse and city mouse.
Kay
@Ohio Mom:
I can’t. I say it too, but it’s unpopular. There’s unfortunately a subset of Ohio liberals who instantly accuse me of not liking women when I don’t support their candidate(s).
I’m confident that I like women so I don’t care that much, but it’s annoying.
It’s ok. I’m pro-primary. It’ll sort itself out. If she wins I’ll back her but I don’t think she’s the best choice. Just on basic sales grounds are people going to flock to the face of the pandemic in this state? She did a great job! But she was the health director in the pandemic. It wasn’t a happy time.
SFAW
@Ken:
I still don’t quite understand how he thought that “I’m being blackmailed for something I didn’t do” was a smart play. [Yes, I realize “smart” and “Gaetz” are like matter and anti-matter.]
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Betty Cracker
@SFAW: Gaetz must be an absolute nightmare for his attorneys (assuming he’s lawyered up) because he keeps bringing up accusations that no one has made yet! The bribe thing, like you said, and he also denied appearing in a photo with child prostitutes. My God, man, just STFU — that’s what the attorneys must be thinking. Me, I hope he keeps running his big fat yap.
OzarkHillbilly
@Immanentize: Rapid City. Sioux City. Pierre. She’s just not smart.
Jeffro
@SFAW:
@Ken:
@Immanentize: they’re running out of ways to code-word their racism and it’s making them look like the corrupt morons that they are.
“We want infrastructure, not pipes and housing! Yes, I know pipes are technically ‘infrastructure’ but is it…um…productive infrastructure, for, you know, ‘job creators’? And we should pay for it by cutting ‘waste, fraud, and abuse’ in…um…areas…areas that have a lot of that stuff, not the heartland. And um… where’s Hunter, by the way?”
Kay
@Ohio Mom:
IMO, they see it as vindication and I just think you’re off track when you’re seeking that. Just back the best one and vindication(!) will take care of itself.
We were all definitely right about the pandemic. Really bad. We don’t have to send Fauci to the senate to prove it. He has a job.
Jeffro
@Punchy: 110% this.
“All your bridges and roads in South Dakota are looking a-ok, is that right Governor Noem? Ooooookay then….”
jeffreyw
@Immanentize:
I got the same sort of thing from the Illinois unemployment office. There was an attempt to file a change of address, and a claim for unemployment money. The address change form had a “did you file this” box to check. I got several follow on letters that told me my claim was dismissed and I wouldn’t get state money but the covid relief money from the Feds was in play. That was the $600/week supplemental, and that they would be sending a debit card. I tried to call their 800 number but they have gone to a “we will call you back” scheme. Two business days later they called me back, I told them it was a fraudulent attempt and they told me to disregard all the letters from them. Yesterday I got another letter explaining that they had determined the claim was a fraud and I would not be getting any money.
WaterGirl
@Ken: I did not realize that tabled had contradictory meanings. Interesting.
...now I try to be amused
@Betty Cracker:
Gaetz dances with who brung him.
Another Scott
DPRK News is surprisingly, er, blunt, this morning.
Some sort of April Fool’s joke, perhaps??
It’s a refreshing reminder to these eyes, even though I get the humor in the usual shtick.
Cheers,
Scott.
Ken
@Jeffro: It’s not like rural areas don’t have infrastructure or need repairs. On a per-capita basis their infrastructure costs are probably much higher than urban areas, just because of distances.
In fact I’m reminded of something I saw on a work trip about ten years ago, to the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota. We were driving somewhere, don’t remember why, and passed a sign for a tiny, tiny town. (Googling) It might have been Hamill, but if not it was someplace nearly identical.
Anyway, the road signage “Hamill – Pop 11” caught my eye. Now look at that place, and think what is being supplied so those eleven people can live there. Probably not pipes, I’m sure they’re all on well and sewer, but they have roads, electrical lines, phone lines, mail service all run out to their tiny incorporation. How big are the hidden subsidies that the state, county, and various companies are providing to these three households?
WereBear
@Frank Wilhoit: That’s true! Especially the parts that help you actually think…
SiubhanDuinne
Watching the Chauvin trial, Day Four. For the first time, I don’t like a prosecution witness. She seems phony and scripted to me, and I’m not inclined to trust her. Perhaps things will change during the course of her testimony, but right now, to me at least, she’s about as reliable as a three-dollar bill.
NotMax
@OzarkHillbilly
Sioux Falls, maybe? Sioux City is in Iowa.
SiubhanDuinne
@SiubhanDuinne:
And it occurs to me that defence counsel may be viewing her the same way, and will decide to cross-examine, and will make mincemeat of her.
ETA: Prosecution evidently feels the same. Nudging her along when she gets just too melodramatic for belief.
Ruckus
@Soprano2:
They see money going out and not arriving in their bank accounts.
That’s the sum total of how much they care.
Immanentize
@SiubhanDuinne:
Kato Kaelin mistake.
rikyrah
@Soprano2:
Yes…THEY VOTED FOR IT, and these muthaphuckas refuse to do the will of the VOTERS.
zhena gogolia
@SiubhanDuinne:
Who is she?
satby
@burnspbesq: Congratulations (again, maybe). I love retirement, hope to get back to it by the end of this year ?
trollhattan
@Jeffro:
Wonder if Kudlow and Donny Jr. are sharing the same coke dealer to get a volume discount? You know, them being bidnezmens and all.
Immanentize
@trollhattan: Don’t you think that each on their own get the volume discount?
Actually I bet Ludlow is off the crack. His heart can’t take that kind of strain.
debbie
@Kay:
If nothing else, Amy Acton had Ohio on the right track re. COVID. I guess competency doesn’t impress anyone anymore; however, that’s a BFD, considering the idiocy of our legislature. We’re headed to be the next FL or SD. And now, they want to end licensing requirements for concealed carry.
debbie
@Kay:
Did you see Peter Navarro yelling yesterday blaming Fauci for everything and deciding to call COVID the Fauci virus?
SiubhanDuinne
@Immanentize:
Yes! This, exactly.
Ken
Who is she now, or who is she once her brand is established by this media opportunity? At least that’s what I’m picking up from what SiubhanDuinne wrote.
There’s something to be said for banning TV cameras in courtrooms. It’s bad enough what happened to the GQP when its media arm took over; imagine what it would be like if the court system were as badly compromised by would-be stars.
SiubhanDuinne
@zhena gogolia:
Courtney Ross. George Floyd’s ex-girlfriend.
NotMax
@Ken
“We’ll be back right after this important word from My Pillow.”
//
frosty
@debbie: @debbie:
That was probably the one when it snowed that morning. I was there too. Every opening day from 79 until Camden Yards when I couldn’t walk to the stadium from Charles Village.
SiubhanDuinne
@Ken:
I had the sense that she has watched the witnesses over the last few days, noticed that media analysts and commentators were sympathetic to the genuine emotions and pain displayed, decided “I want some of that! I can do that!”, and turned on the spigots the minute she took the oath. So yeah, what you said.
Soprano2
You should hear their excuses; it’s barely-concealed racism. One rep said “Well, my district didn’t vote for it. Rural people don’t want it”, which probably isn’t even true. Another one actually said it wasn’t a valid vote because it wasn’t more than 50% of all the registered voters in Missouri! I doubt that anyone ever gets that many votes! I wish a reporter would ask him if he thinks his election was valid, because I’m sure he didn’t get more than 50% of the vote of all the voters registered in his district. It all boils down to the fact that they believe too many black and brown people in St. Louis and Kansas City will get help, and they don’t want to pay for that. If they thought most of the money would go to rural Missouri, they’d fund it in a heartbeat. Of course, Republicans in MO also legalized concealed carry after the voters voted that they didn’t want it, and keep trying to make MO a right-to-work state even though voters have turned that down at least twice in my lifetime!
Ken
@Soprano2: You forgot the puppy mills. Or was it dog fights? Or both? Anyway, the voters spoke, and the representatives said “screw that”.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@stinger: Thank you for saying that and for reviewing too. I’m depressed this morning. I think it’s because Trickster is gone now. It’s like sending a kid to college
Gravenstone
@Baud: The resulting dependents are also tax deductible.
zhena gogolia
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
You’ll recover your joy one of these days!
zhena gogolia
I love Joe.
Ken
@Dorothy A. Winsor: But this kid is going to be sending you money. Completely different from college.
Gravenstone
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Recently saw a Youtuber who I follow post about an AI he used just to generate potential random titles for Japanese light novels. Let’s just say that it didn’t go well if the title suggested was more than a couple of sentences long (light novel titles can be laughably verbose). So I suggest suitable skepticism of the “90k word” novel claim. Or rather, skepticism of the resulting product being coherent and readable.
Gravenstone
@germy: Probably of the Scott Walker school where the only thing qualifying as infrastructure is paving existing roads. And then only because he could get kickbacks from the contractors.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@zhena gogolia: I hope so! I usually find writing really satisfying. Not always fun, but satisfying.
@Ken: True, though unless sales pick up, it won’t keep me in the style to which I wish to become accustomed.
Ken
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I’d say add more sex to boost sales, but I had the unfortunate experience of reading Hamilton’s “Anita Blake” series as they changed from fairly interesting detective/action novels to, well, porn.
Oh, and probably inappropriate for your target audience anyway.
Geminid
@debbie: I hope the unlicensed concealed carry law can be stopped. That just encourages vigilantes like Charles Bronson’ character in Death Wish. The organizer of the Charlottesville Unite the Right rally applied for a concealed carry permit last fall. The local Commonwealth’s attorney argued against, and the judge denied it.
My Virginia State Senator, Emmitt Hanger, was challenged by a pistol-packing tea party type in the last Reublican primary. I was interested to see him use her advocacy of unlicensed concealed carry against her in his mailers: “My opponent would allow anybody to carry a concealed weapon, regardless of qualification or training.” He won easily, despite his vote for Medicaid expansion. The tide here has turned towards gun safety, and Hanger’s Shenandoah Valley district is conservative, but not radical.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Ken: You’d be surprised what turns up in YA these days! Sex is usually fade-to-black but it’s there in many YA books.
Amir Khalid
@Gravenstone:
I concur. Most of those AI-generated “novels” are going to be derivative rubbish at best. Or complete nonsense at worst. Imagine if someone did a knock-off Twilight, and then someone did a knock-off 50 Shades of Gray, and someone did a knock-off of the 50 Shades knock-off, and then …
Gravenstone
@JMG: If only causes and effects were somehow connectable…
debbie
@Geminid:
I forgot: They want to end the training requirement too. THESE FUCKING IDIOTS!
Boris Rasputin (the evil twin)
@SFAW: It’s the starting point for the book “Motel of the Mysteries” by David Macualay.
Just One More Canuck
@mrmoshpotato: I thought you were referring to the Underground Wunderbar – that was a great place
Sister Golden Bear
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch: At least he doesn’t have granite countertops.
Ksmiami
@…now I try to be amused: Nah he should have just said don’t eat anthrax- poof, problems solved