Jon Chait at New York Mag entertains five theories on why AZ Senator Kyrsten Sinema is that way. This one is correct:
The other four theories could be true to varying degrees too, but the above hypothesis is a serviceable Rosetta Stone for deciphering this supremely irritating phenomenon.
Open thread.
Baud
Funny. But Glenn hangs out with racists like Tucker Carlson. As irritating as Sinema is, I’m not willing to slap the GG label on her.
Chetan Murthy
I’m incredibly incensed by both Cinema and Mansion. They’re going to doom our democracy and laugh while they’re doing it. The cretins. But still, sure sure Cinema is …. drawing all the attention. But Mansion, he’s just as execrable, and he’s just voting his godforsaken wallet. Monstrosities.
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone ???
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
Betty Cracker
I’m going to try to score some stone crab claws this morning — season just opened!
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
Anyone see the great Eddie Murphy film “The Distinguished Gentlemen”
Murphy decides he will spent day and night raking in cash from DC lobbyist. That’s all Sinema does. There are endless photos of her “meeting” with lobbyists.
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
@Chetan Murthy: he currently spells his last name Man-chin
Chetan Murthy
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch: Yep. And I’m mis-spelling it as a slur. The bastard is indecent.
mrmoshpotato
@Betty Cracker: Mmmmm. I keep forgetting to check Aldi for crab dip.
John S.
@Chetan Murthy:
Cinema and Mansion are perfect. Really epitomizes what they are all about.
Baud
It’s a houseboat.
JPL
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch: IMO she also craves attention, and has discovered a way to be noticed.
hueyplong
To call the preening Cinema a traitor and a cat’s paw for vested interests is fair play, but a direct comparison to G Greenwald should be held in reserve for use as the last epithet spat out as she leaves the tumbril to mount the guillotine.
J.
@Baud: More like a showboat.
Chris T.
@Baud: It’s a housemansion? A mansionboat? Edit: no, J has it right, a showboat!
Mai Naem mobile
I’ve been wrong about Sinema from the beginning(I thought she was doing some smart WJC style triangulation) so what my theory here is all wild speculation on my part. I remember Sinema being really po’d about Rand Paul walking around instead of quarantining when he was waiting for his COVID test results. I am guessing Jan 6th freaked her out some more. She grew up poor(was homeless at times) and wants a piece of the good life. She doesn’t want to wait till she’s 70 to do that. With her looks and her ‘quirkiness’ she can get a well paying teevee gig along with a lucrative PR(read lobbying) gig. Either that or she’s got TFG level narcissism and has no clue how unpopular she’s becoming in her own state. I do think its unfair to compare her to GG.
Baud
@Mai Naem mobile:
I don’t know much about lobbying, but most ex pols that become lobbyists don’t trash their reputation with their colleagues, I think.
Chetan Murthy
@Mai Naem mobile: Given I’m in CA, Cinemansion are the ones what brung us to the dance. Don’t get any choices, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it. Your analysis could well be right, and it’s a mere matter of “I’m gonna do what’s right for me.” If so, then, well, it’s another demonstration of the power of the Prisoner’s Dilemma: her best option in a single-shot game is to “defect”, and that’s what she’s doing.
Ah, well.
ant
she has antisocial personality disorder.
people like her can not grok collective action problem solving. so they end up shoveling sand into the gears of civilization.
being an elected representative is very much an inappropriate position for these types.
most wind up in sales, or prison inmate.
she is very annoying.
Betty
@Baud: It’s a yacht. I was informed when pointing this out that he only paid $220,000 for it. What the gentleman failed to explain was the deep discount of approximately $500,000, courtesy of a West Virginia bank. It is insured for the full amount of its value.
Betty Cracker
I don’t know how lobbying shops work — if it were up to me, they’d be abolished as a criminal bribery scheme, and I don’t understand why that’s not a universal view. That said, doesn’t a lawmaker who goes into the legal bribery business trade on positive relationships developed during their political career? I get that the bags of money are the primary asset, but aren’t relationships part of it? If so, I see a potential flaw in that career plan…
ETA: What Baud said at #17!
different-church-lady
One problem with his theory: Greenwald’s one and only cred as “left-wing” is that he once wrote something critical of W and a bunch of very stupid netroots decided he was their new conversion darling.
In the end Greenwald is neither left nor right wing: he’s an egomaniac troll, and he’s figured he gets more pleasure from trolling the left than the right. He should never have been treated as anything bigger than a troll, but now that he has been, he has become a very dangerous troll.
Starfish
Hello, Assistant House Sergeant at Arms.
germy
Betty
@ant: She is worse than annoying. She is causing real damage, no matter the diagnosis. She simply doesn’t respond to normal incentives, not for politicians or people in general. Inscrutable.
lowtechcyclist
You guys have Sinema all wrong! She’s an honest politician!
You know – once she’s bought, she stays bought.
different-church-lady
@J.: No more callers, the thread has been won.
206inKY
100% wrong. Greenwald is a traitor who would never even come close to identifying as a Democrat.
I think it is as simple as #3. Chait has no real counterargument for this. She wants to be an independent and a maverick. Some things are imitating McCain, like the thumbs down, but she also clearly admires LM and SC who helped topple the “skinny repeal” as well and received vitriol from the right. She does not cozy up to the press like McCain or GG, and I’m not aware of any pandering on Fox or other right-wing propaganda outlets. Instead she does things like a winemaking internship that’s anathema to the modern GOP. She mostly votes the party line but appears wedded to the filibuster, which is not surprising for an independent sensitive to stock portfolios who wants veto power even if Democrats reach, say, 52 seats. But this applied to dozens of Democrats in years past.
What’s galling to many people about Sinema is her actual stubborn independence, which we don’t mind in Manchin since he’s an old dude from WV who doesn’t wear bright colors and “fuck you” rings.
germy
zhena gogolia
Ah, just what I want to discuss on a nice Saturday morning, Manchin and Sinema.
Betty
@germy: What comes to mind is “Get back Jojo. Get back to where you once belonged.”
lowtechcyclist
The integral of 1/cabin, d(cabin).
[Silly math joke. Carry on.]
206inKY
I’d add that she also seems like kind of a moron when it comes to practical politics, like anyone in their 40s who has voted Green Party at any point in their adult lives. Sprinkle that onto explanation #3 and voila, we have Senator Sinema.
Chetan Murthy
@lowtechcyclist: log(cabin)
Baud
@germy:
Did Biden call it the heart of his agenda, or is that the NYT spin?
germy
debbie
She’s a narcissist, and not a very good one.
debbie
@JPL:
The best thing I read yesterday was a tweet about her 28% approval rating.
Kropacetic
@Baud: Basically one provision, albeit a major one. Wonder what climate provisions remain.
debbie
@Mai Naem mobile:
The worthy heir to Megan McCain? //
lowtechcyclist
@Chetan Murthy:
+ C
[say it out loud]
Ksmiami
Not to say I told y’all that these two corrupt assholes would hurt us yet here we are.
Baud
@Kropacetic:
Good things will be cut from the final bill, but a lot of good things will remain. The challenge will be to overcome the feeding frenzy that the media will engage in to paint the bill as a failure.
Chetan Murthy
@lowtechcyclist: oh ….. ha. very droll.
OzarkHillbilly
@Betty: For a second there I thought you were telling Quinnerly she needed to cut her trip short and I was wondering what happened.
Ksmiami
@Baud: spoiler: there won’t be a bill. Watch Sinema thumbs down it at the last minute to be dramatic…
Baud
@Ksmiami:
Ok. Then we don’t have to worry about how to spin it.
Tony Gerace
@Chetan Murthy: Mansion is an old-school right-wing Democrat, a type that’s existed since the early nineteenth century. Cinema is a newer type of phenomenon — a showboat fueled by social media. Both are horrible.
Winston
Wasn’t the opt out clause the key to getting ACA passed? Why not include it in BBB? Then let the voters decide in their states.
different-church-lady
@Chetan Murthy: I was wrong: the thread has now been won multiple times…
Starfish
@zhena gogolia: Hey, I introduced the shady assistant house sergeant at arms into the thread. I can’t tell if that makes me a QAnon conspiracy theorist now though. Please send help.
OzarkHillbilly
@germy: I’ve only run into that problem at one location, but I know it’s coming. I just look at it as their way of telling me they don’t want my business without saying they don’t want my business.
SiubhanDuinne
@Baud:
She’s publicly bad-mouthed people in the Democratic leadership, so I fixed that.
lowtechcyclist
@germy:
I’d think this would be an ideal use of the Federal government’s eminent domain powers. Just buy up every last coal company (including Enersystems, even if they’re not a coal company per se), guarantee every worker’s pensions and add another 20% to them, and shut those fuckers down.
Betty Cracker
@zhena gogolia: Luckily for you, it’s both an OPEN thread and a discussion that is entirely voluntary for participants!
JPL
@debbie: The attention doesn’t have to be positive.
matt the somewhat reasonable
I think of her as the Kyrie Irving of Senators. Just way out there in the weeds of her own contrarianism and some kind of preposterously deluded self-image.
danielx
Chait did put some thought into that piece, but it would have been simpler to use Occam’s razor and conclude that Sinema is just an asshole.
SiubhanDuinne
@Chetan Murthy:
Worthy of NotMax, if NotMax did math.
ETA: #notmath
Chetan Murthy
@206inKY: I could *almost* forgive them both for lining their pockets at the expense of their constituents, *except* that they’re also against a new VRA. That’s what torpedoes any possibility of redemption: they’re ready to destroy our Republic, for their fucking bank balances. It’s what makes Mansion *less* than an old-school Democrat, and Cinema *less* than just a gadfly.
They need to at least get that damn Voting Rights Act thru, and with enough time so that the necessary litigation will get thru the courts before the 2022 election.
Again, I wouldn’t be happy if that’s all they did. But at least, they’d have done their absolute bare minimum.
ETA: And the story about Mansion was always that sure, he’d defect when it didn’t matter, but when it really, really did matter for his caucus, he’d be there. Voting Rights is that kind of vote. The fucker isn’t there for us (yet). Nor is Cinema.
zhena gogolia
@Betty Cracker: You’re right. Guess I’ll stay away from here.
Baud
@Chetan Murthy:
I believe they are both sponsors of the For the People Act, which will get a cloture vote next week. That said, they haven’t given any indication yet that they will overturn the filibuster to get it passed.
Ramalama
@206inKY: GG for a short time teamed up with Digby to do fundraising for better Democrats. It was a long time ago. It was a legit fundraiser.
And then … well, Dave Neiwart has a very long but good read about Greenwald’s voyage.
Chetan Murthy
@Baud:
I’m with Atrios on this: if it doesn’t pass b/c of cloture, then they didn’t want it to pass. You don’t get a pass b/c you have some super-special weirdo rules and shit. You have the majority, you make the rules, you’re *responsible*.
Cluttered Mind
Perhaps some anger could be reserved for Cal Cunningham? If he hadn’t pulled a Carlos Danger, we’d only have to deal with Manchin OR Sinema, not both of them.
O. Felix Culpa
Via Cheryl Rofer: New Mexico judge denies lab workers’ claim in vaccine fight (WaPo)
I happen to know the judge who ruled in this case. He’s a good guy.
Betty
@206inKY: Believe me, we mind Manchin every bit as much. Two different types but both sabotaging the President ‘s agenda.
Betty
@germy: Everything is moving in that direction. I hate it.
Ramalama
@Chetan Murthy: It kind of makes me wish that some bigwig with deep pockets bribe them both (you know with sweeteners to them and their kin, the legal way) to vote for the 2 big Dem bills. You know, the way that would help their own constituents (majority), and then also fund or help drum up support for opponents next cycle.
But then be careful for what I’m wishing because of course my less than ideal plan opens another bad door.
Ugh.
Betty
@OzarkHillbilly: Never! Good Jojo gets all the love.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@O. Felix Culpa: I’d be hostile to unvaccinated co-workers, so their environment probably isn’t all that friendly right now.
We were supposed to have dinner with a neighbor yesterday, but he called around 4:30 to say he’d been notified that someone who’d been in his apartment had tested positive for COVID, so the fully-vaccinated neighbor is quarantined for 10 days. The building’s wellness center (ie the nurse’s office) called him. They didn’t identify who the sick person was.
MomSense
@Baud:
????
Kalakal
@germy: I hate that idea
narya
@Baud: That’s actually the thing that I’ve been wondering. I know nothing about how lobbying works on the ground, but it’s clear that she, in particular, is not doing herself any favors with anyone. Who will line her pockets once she no longer has a seat in Congress? And I know that everyone responds to trauma differently–but I’m thinking of the Congressperson who spent the night on the steps to support people experiencing homelessness, because she, too, had had that experience. Cinema could learn something there. But won’t.
206inKY
@Chetan Murthy: I agree, mostly. The For the People Act is the single most important piece of legislation this term, and I support the House version. But it is filled with other stuff like campaign finance reform that’s not at a crisis-level. I’d be fine with universal voter ID laws in exchange for guarantees on early voting, absentee ballot access, equitable poll locations, absentee ballots, protection for registration drives across county lines, etc. We don’t need to overturn Citizen’s United, we need to stop fascism, and Manchin was open about this.
Dorothy A. Winsor
A lot of workers seem to have vanished from the labor force. Do we know how many of them retired? A big chunk of the Baby Boom is 62 and older now. I wonder how many 62 years olds just decided that was enough of that.
Suzanne
The fifth theory is also correct: she’s drawn to flattery and repelled by criticism.
Look, she’s a calculating social climber. She’s been successful so far. I think she’s probably miscalculated at this point and won’t win he next primary. But none of this is surprising to anyone who has watched her career for the last fifteen years or so.
debbie
@narya:
A lobbyist has to be able to convince the people they’re trying to influence. I haven’t heard every word she’s spoken, but is she even a persuasive speaker of anything?
Geminid
@Cluttered Mind: There is still plenty of anger to direct at Cunningham, Maine ticket splitters, etc. It is, after all, a renewable resource.
Chetan Murthy
@206inKY:
Has he shown any evidence that he’s ready to blow up the filibuster to get it? b/c otherwise, no, he’s not open about it.
Suzanne
@Mai Naem mobile:
100%.
Also, Sinema is young and is using this on the path to celebrity. The Boomers didn’t do that so y’all don’t think of that, but I really do believe that’s what she wants. A better comparison than Greenwald would be Sarah Palin.
206inKY
@Cluttered Mind: AMEN x 100000
germy
narya
@debbie: Exactly. And this stupid dance she’s doing, this performative BS, also damages her credibility. Who’s going to believe that she’d keep her word about anything?
When push comes to shove, both of them need to recognize that it’s their President’s agenda they’re trying to destroy, in order to line their own pockets. I don’t care what their reasons are at this point.
Baud
@Suzanne:
Do you think progressives made mistake early on not sucking up to her ego rather than being vocally suspicious of her?
germy
Kay
The shame of it is there really are good jobs in green energy. Manchin could have gone in a different direction and had this incredible legacy in West Virginia where he transformed the state and lifted up a whole new group of workers and instead he’s contributing to keeping the state on the lowest tier. It wouldn’t even have taken vision – other people took all the risk- all he had to do was follow what’s growing and walk away from what’s dying and he can’t even do that. He’s not good for working people in that state. He’s helping to keep them poor.
O. Felix Culpa
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Yeah, the hostility towards the unvaccinated is (rightfully) ratcheting up. Some college friends and I had a zoom meetup last week, and I was horrified to learn that one of them was trending anti-vaxxer/anti-mandate. She mentioned listening to some Republican doctor on 538 about how mandates would create a backlash. {WTF is up with Nate Silver these days?] She also doesn’t get the flu shot because she “doesn’t know what’s in it.” At least she did get her COVID vaccinations. I believe they’re mandated for her workplace.
germy
We’re undoing this, but it will take time:
Amir Khalid
@Betty Cracker:
You might find this Adam Ragusea video of interest.
Chief Oshkosh
@Baud: And a floor cleaner.
Chetan Murthy
@O. Felix Culpa: after >550 days of isolation (600 days with 45-day gap in there Jun/Jul 2021) I am *done* with antivaxx rhetoric of any sort.
You’re antivaxx? Here’s a hot car muffler for you to suck on. 100% dealbreaker. Ditto antimask. Ditto climate change denial. All of this is a Venn diagram with Fascism, and I’m so, so done with it.
Geminid
@Suzanne: However Sinema plays it, she will land on her feet after her career as Senator. That is a prestige job. I have never seen an ex-Senator fail to make a very good income if they wanted to. Sinema could rake in a lot of money just with her own line of workout apparel.
Chris T.
@Betty:
“My name is
Elmer FuddJoe Manchin, I own a mansion and a yacht…”Kalakal
With Cinema ( love that by the way ) I think one problem is she’s not actually that bright and that, combined with her narcissicism, leads her dangerous behaviour. At the moment, thanks to balance of power in the senate she’s having attention and money showered on her and she’s idiot enough to think it’s because of her ‘brilliant and incisive yet charmingly mavericky personality’ ( serious snark here ) rather than because the senate is 50:50.
If she does actually drag it all down she’ll rapidly discover that her her nominal party despises her and everybody else considers her an ex useful idiot.
sab
@Ramalama: Now that I thibk about it, Dave Niewart’s blog was where I first heard of G Greenwald.
Suzanne
@Baud:
Well, within AZ, she used to be progressive, and she gets primary opponents who are more progressive, and I donate to and volunteer for those primary opponents, and then Sinema wins every time. So the state progressives are already on her bad side.
Do I think the nationally prominent progressives made a mistake? No. If anything, I think the mistake was believing that she would fall in line.
Look, she is an attention monster. It can be seen even in the “class photos. In the one from her first term in Congress, she wore some flashy frilly skirt so she would be in the front row, in the middle. I don’t care about the winemaking trips or the Ironman or whatever, she isn’t lazy. She wants attention. She’s getting it.
Kalakal
@Kay: This. Really good point
OzarkHillbilly
@narya: Pretty sure they are aware of what they are doing, we just don’t quite know why.
O. Felix Culpa
@Kay:
Perhaps that’s his goal, or at least he doesn’t care if that’s a consequence of his actions. Manchin doesn’t seem to have suffered blowback from the salt of the earth in WV due to his policy choices.
Citizen Alan
I stand by the theory I came up with weeks ago. At heart, she still a Green. And the number one goal of the Green Party is to destroy the Democratic Party because they think we stand in the way of the glorious revolution. Kyrsten Sinema is acting EXACTLY the way I would expect Jill Stein to act if she were a senator.
Matt
My take: she’s an awful person who enjoys kissing ass and punching down. The money is just an excuse.
I assume she’ll switch parties to the GOP at the time that maximizes the damage done.
The DNC will respond to this by insisting that we need to elect more Sinemas and punch hippies harder.
OzarkHillbilly
Fulfilling his donors desires.
germy
@Kay:
I don’t think he gives a damn about working people in his state. He cares about his donors and his money, and his daughter’s money.
Same with Sinema. I don’t see any big mystery. She was “financially embarrassed” when she was young. She vowed to never be poor again. She’s doing what her corporate donors are telling her to do. When she finishes her term she’ll move on to her next enthusiasm, whether it’s running a winery or creating designer clothes or doing podcasts.
Mike E
@Cluttered Mind: Then we’d be stuck with a Mansinemacal chimera with pretty much the same behavior we’re witnessing now imo…Cal has some of the same judgement that derailed John Edwards, and it’s difficult to see any bright side there even when considering the parliamentary math.
Chetan Murthy
@Matt: Then I guess it’s a good thing I never donate to the DNC, DCCC, DSCC, but only directly to campaigns (and more and more in future, to GOTV orgs). And, of course, to Cinema’s Dem primary opponent in 2024.
Starfish
@Suzanne:
Her dresses are an assault against my eyeballs, and I am growing to hate them so much.
206inKY
@O. Felix Culpa: Nate Silver has become an idiotic diva. I think he still feels insecure about his lack of any meaningful graduate training despite his persona of expertise.
Cluttered Mind
@Mike E: I don’t disagree in the slightest about Cunningham’s judgment, but at least with Manchin we know what he wants and know that if if we hold our noses and make sure he’s appeased in the right way he’ll vote the way we need him to in the end. Sinema is the real problem here because she can’t be negotiated with. Everything that’s been said about Manchin on this thread is absolute truth, but even with that it would be infinitely better for the country right now if he were the only one gumming up the works. We could get something passed with Manchin as the holdout we needed to persuade. It wouldn’t be the legislation we wanted but it would definitely include some big wins. I’m not actually sure we can do anything about Sinema though, and that’s what scares me here. If we end up with nothing passed, I’m not sure how we get congress back after what will happen in 2022.
Starfish
@206inKY: Maybe he should shut up and go to graduate school.
Someone the other day wrote that some men have started conflating contrarianism with intelligence, and it is true.
O. Felix Culpa
@Matt: Oh, you mean the DNC that’s featuring renowned hippie-punchers like Senator Elizabeth Warren, Senator Tammy Duckworth, and Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms in its podcasts?
O. Felix Culpa
@Starfish:
Started? :)
@206inKY:
I haven’t read him in ages, but I do recall comments on this-here site about his anti-mask stance. I fear you are right.
Ksmiami
@narya: I hate them both so fucking much. The irony is the economy will get better and there’s a big chance Biden just rolls into a second term. These two twerps … not so much and DC is a small town. Sinema will find lots of cold shoulders
JPL
Publix heiress helped fund the overturn of the election. Although I knew the family was conservative, funding the riots is different.
O. Felix Culpa
@JPL: Here’s a link to JPL’s comment if you want to know more (WaPo). Tax the rich.
debbie
@Kay:
Too many years since school, but isn’t remaining with the known and comfortable part of behavior—both of humans and animals?
206inKY
@Kay: I think you’re exactly right. It’s also key that this is early in his term. He could have sought the kind of transformation you describe and stuck around long enough for it to bear fruit by 2026.
different-church-lady
@germy: Every time I think I’m turning into crank, it turns out I’m not alone.
WaterGirl
@Baud: It’s like when you lose an earring – it always feels like you’ve lost your favorite. If you lost 10 earrings in a month, each time it would feel like you lost your favorite.
Chetan Murthy
@206inKY: he’s been a senator since 2010, per wikipedia.
Baud
@Starfish:
That’s been going on for a long time.
JPL
@O. Felix Culpa: I’d rather support Bezo’s and shop entirely at Whole Food.
sad and disgusted
Cermet
As an open thread, and having a few minutes as I heat replacement water – a mini-major aquarium (fresh) water disaster. My 120 gal show tank spilt a seam. Luckily, enough water (still leaking) is still in the tank keeping the fish barely alive on their sides. Also, this is a ground floor den with a concrete floor so the 100+ gallons of water isn’t anywhere as bad as it sounds.
I just set up a 70 gal tank and trying to heat its water up enough to x-fer all the fish and essential plants. Not fun going but I think I can save them all; have a few large discus but so far, holding up.
A fun Saturday to wake up too but so glad the water damage isn’t serious at all so not complaining – really. Not even all that upset because where I was going to place the tank … well, so glad it isn’t there – lol
Well, back to the mini-disaster.
Baud
@WaterGirl:
Preach, sister.
germy
germy
@different-church-lady:
I got a new phone last week. First thing I did was disable and uninstall a bunch of apps like Facebook, barstool sports, etc. that I have no use for.
The only reason I got a new phone is because sprint merged with tMobile, and they warned I wouldn’t get service after Jan 1 if I didn’t upgrade.
Sprint/tMobile made the experience so horrible (as I knew they would) that we ended up walking out and choosing a different carrier (who also sucks, but in different ways)
Geminid
@O. Felix Culpa: Are you seeing any wind farms popping up in your part of New Mexico? I’m wondering if the clean power plan your legislature passed in 2019 is bearing visible fruit.
206inKY
@Citizen Alan: Exactly like Jill Stein, minus the Russia Today appearances, 3rd party fuckery, borderline treason, and active collusion with Trump. You also need to add in a willingness to identify as Democratic, support for Schumer on all routine matters, and vote in favor of the first multi-trillion dollar reconciliation package. And then there’s the matter of winning an actual election in a state that has been deeply Republican until a small percentage of white suburbanites with stock portfolios started getting uneasy with our nation’s slide into fascism.
Make those changes, and the parallel totally makes sense.
OzarkHillbilly
@Cermet: Ouch.
Starfish
@Baud: Even when my patience and generosity has run out, I am still patient and generous? ?
Poe Larity
Honestly, where can you go where only 2 of 50 are sociopaths?
germy
206inKY
@Chetan Murthy: I just meant he’s not up for election again soon, so there wouldn’t be immediate electoral fallout.
Starfish
@Poe Larity: We need to have a talk about your friends and why you should befriend people who are not CEOs.
matt
O. Felix Culpa
@Geminid: Not in my immediate area, but I haven’t taken many road trips lately. There’s definitely an uptick in solar installations around public buildings though, especially as shade structures in parking lots. I love the double- function.
different-church-lady
@Betty:
Only. 220k is an “only” in their world.
germy
Mystery solved! No need to psychoanalyze her…
different-church-lady
@germy: That’s exactly what I would expect a puffer fish’s skeleton to look like.
OzarkHillbilly
@germy: So now we know what her selling price is.
Suzanne
@matt: Sinema being a bad Mormon explains a lot of her acting out and attention-seeking. I have explained this before.
However, it’s also a reason that she gets elected. The district she comes from, CD-9, is heavily LDS.
germy
@different-church-lady:
I’m surprised the fish was puffed in death. You’d think they’d deflate.
Noskilz
I get the sense she’s just a self-absorbed sell-out, it simply gets much more conspicuous when your party is actually in a position to do things when you can’t slow-walk things for your patrons with GOP cover.
The “I’d love to do something but can’t” sort of falls apart, and it’s been a long time since I’ve seen someone sucking up to corporate donors as openly and blatantly as Sinema. She clearly must think their money alone can get her re-elected, because campaign money isn’t her money unless she also wants to risk getting caught violating campaign finance laws.
sdhays
@different-church-lady: He’s definitely an egomaniacal troll, but he seems pretty right-wing to me (although I really don’t know what he’s up to unless Le Compte dumps an update on us). Like you said, being critical of W that one time doesn’t make one non-right-wing.
Geminid
@O. Felix Culpa: They should put some windmills up near Santa Rosa State Park. That’s the windiest place I ever camped. The wind there made the wind on the North Carolina Outer Banks seem like a gentle zephyr.
Mike in NC
Maybe she is just a celebrity asshole in a country with a media that worships celebrity assholes. Think of a stupid, corrupt reality TV show host or a boor who sells lumpy pillows on TV.
Barbara
@206inKY: Well before the pandemic I had already concluded that Nate Silver really was just . . . a numbers guy. Whenever he “stretched” to cover anything substantive, his views were underwhelming at best. Bland. Boring. Trite. Jejune. Pick your word. Anyway, not worth the time it took to read and certainly no more insightful than I might have been, and way, way below the level of someone like Digby or Hilzoy, people whose views are truly worth perusing.
Re: Sinema. I am signing out of any discussion of either Manchin or Sinema. If they are going to play ball they will, and if they won’t, yep, it’s going to be ugly. However, I think the level of attention being directed at her is counterproductive.
I will say, however, that Manchin typifies the problems of people trying to optimize the benefits of a natural resources economy. It takes incredible strength of purpose and foresight to plan for the time when the resource is exhausted, rather than to simply spend it now. Both Kentucky and West Virginia are in this boat. The money has been spent. There is nothing left to transition to something else. And yet, the politicians are still pretending the future can be just like the past through sheer bloody mindedness. Nope.
different-church-lady
@germy: In the same boat with Sprint: my iPhone 5c (!) is gonna be too old to get on the network anymore. Only reason I’m still with Sprint is because I’m on a friends-n-family type plan, which makes having the damn thing affordable. But dayum, if it doesn’t feel like their coverage is about 30% of the country. Myself, I’m actually sometimes relieved when I’m in a coverage hole, because I have an excuse to ignore the stupid thing, but I get TONS of push back about it from colleagues who think they deserve top priority on my attention at all moments, even when they’re not actively paying me for it.
Additionally, there was some kind of major security certificate expiration at the end of September that has made half the internet unavailable to my phone. So, as resistant as I am, it will be a relief to be capable of doing this kind of stuff again, whether I want to or not.
Two additional thoughts while I’m prattling, but I’ll save the details for later comments:
* I’ve seen some recent evidence out there of pushback against the “all-tech no-human-interaction” trend.
* Some of it is business owners being “seduced” into over-tech by consultants and industry news and the people who are going to make money off it. We shouldn’t assume they’re happy warriors, they might be just as frustrated about being “forced” to do it as we are.
different-church-lady
@Mike in NC:
Magic 8-Ball says “It is decidedly so.”
O. Felix Culpa
@Geminid: Hah! That’s my backyard in the spring. The easterly winds are fierce and seemingly never-ending.
germy
@different-church-lady:
I hope it’s a trend that passes.
Last week I showed up at my local pharmacy for a flu shot.
Every year I show up, no appt. necessary, wait my turn and it’s done.
This year they said I need an appointment because of increased demand.
Fair enough.
But then she pointed to a sign on her window with a code. “You can scan this with your phone,” she told me.
Nope.
So I had to go home and make an appointment online.
Two days later I’m sitting there, waiting my turn. An elderly woman shows up. “Sorry, you need an appointment. You can scan this with your phone.” The woman mumbled something and walked away.
Kay
@debbie:
This is “known” though. Alternate energy is a rising tide. They got their market endorsement. I’m not asking these people to lead. I’m just asking them to follow. Hell, Manchin could make the new market as corrupt and captured as the old one in West Virginia. He can create it.
Not even the “donor” excuse for this behavior holds up, because small donors in the Democratic Party are a real force. Manchin doesn’t need coal companies and Sinema doesn’t need pharma. Warnock raises a shit load of money just from the D base. They no longer need to be beholden to anyone, other than the D base small donor group. AOC says this and she’s right. They can raise a million small donor dollars in a week and they never have to leave their house.
different-church-lady
@germy:
Right, so now we know who bought her: everybody.
O. Felix Culpa
@different-church-lady: And so far, their investment seems to be paying off.
Starfish
@germy: Not Everything Needs to Be a QR Code 2024 for President. Sorry, Baud, I am supporting a different candidate in the next election.
different-church-lady
@germy: I do find QR codes helpful for certain things. But nobody should need one to order an espresso when just saying “I’d like an espresso” is a time-tested and utterly adequate way of going about things.
matt
@Suzanne: Might it also explain her inability to align with a group for any length of time? If you grow up feeling like an outsider . . .
Just Chuck
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch: Now I’m giggling imagining him saying “It’s pronounced MAHN–cheen“
MomSense
@Betty Cracker:
Yum! I got some bluefin tuna – fresh off the boat. We are going to make poke bowls today.
Kay
The trajectory centrists are following is this- they will continue to be reliant on donations from business interests and lobbying groups while progressives raise their money from small donors. Small donors can already match or exceed the donation (totals) from large entities and lobbying groups so pols like Manchin and Sinema become more and more reliant on big donors while progressives head off in the opposite direction chasing small dollars. The gulf will continue to widen because it’s either/or and will become increasingly so. One approach is going to win this thing and my money is on small donors. I think they become the new model.
Sinema isn’t a maverick. She’s the old model. And, again, she didn’t even have to create the alternative small donor funding model-progressives did it for her. All she has to do was tap into it.
eclare
@matt the somewhat reasonable: The Kyrie Irving of senators…perfect!
Steeplejack (phone)
@206inKY:
Who are LM and SC?
germy
https://reductress.com/post/i-lived-it-i-got-dumped-via-qr-code/
I LIVED IT: I Got Dumped Via QR Code
zhena gogolia
@Steeplejack (phone): Murkowski and Collins.
sdhays
@O. Felix Culpa: I expect that for such specialized work, finding another job in the field after being fired for refusing to vaccinate in a pandemic would be…difficult.
I hope they like working at the local anti-vax diner. I hear they can’t hire anybody to work for the usual minimum wage and tips.
dnfree
@lowtechcyclist: you gave me a flashback to my calculus teacher in college, who was an excitable Italian and an outstanding calculus teacher. I can still hear him shouting “I don’t care if you’re taking the derivative of a cow with respect to a cow! The procedure is…”
Thanks for bringing back a precious memory. Unfortunately, that was about 55 years ago and I no longer remember how to do it.
Research shows that whether a student actually learns calculus is heavily dependent on the ability of the teacher. Dr. Christiano was a champ.
Steeplejack (phone)
@zhena gogolia:
Thank you.
Kay
This could even be presented the other way – Manchin and Sinema and many of the rest of the “centrists” are dependent on big donors because they are unable to create or maintain a small donor base, due to the unpopularity of their positions.
We only look at the Manchin and Sinema model as the norm because it always was. If the small donor base model laps the old model (and I think it will) Manchin and Sinema become more and more dependent on large donors and more and more tied to the demands and wishes of big donors- outside the norm. Their model is really brittle. The small donor model is much more fluid.
WaterGirl
@Suzanne: Is being a bad Mormon better than not ever having been Mormon at all?
I would have guessed that being a lapsed Mormon would be worse.
Ksmiami
@Barbara: the funny thing is the Chinese are no longer going to underwrite coal and the major oil and gas companies are transitioning to ESG energy options. Literally coal will die within the next decade; there’s no future in it.
WhatsMyNym
@Betty:
He bought it in 2014. It’s now a 20 year old yacht with all the problems. He’d be lucky to get 700k for it.
I hate to be paying his dock fees.
lowtechcyclist
@Ramalama:
Thanks for the link. That was worthwhile reading, and IMHO it doesn’t leave any room for any remotely benign view of GG. What a horrible person.
WhatsMyNym
@Betty:
He bought it in 2014. It’s now a 20 year old yacht with all the problems. He’d be lucky to get 700k for it.
I’d hate to be paying his dock fees.
Kay
While Sinema was chasing a million dollars from big donors and only got it in return for blocking Biden’s entire agenda, other people were raising more without it:
You can’t even justify this stupidity with a need to be beholden to pharma and financial industry interests . She’s choosing corruption when there’s a perfectly viable funding source outside it.
Ella in New Mexico
@lowtechcyclist: OMG that is such a good idea.
brantl
@O. Felix Culpa: He’s only working to keep himself rich, and his buddies. That’s it.
Ksmiami
@WhatsMyNym: proving he’s dumb and a bad investor…
Geminid
@Ksmiami: Some coal plants are not slated to be taken off-line until 2035. The big Four Corners plant is not scheduled to shut down until 2031 under New Mexico’s clean power plan. The Biden initiatives would accelerate the process.But yes, thermal coal is a dead duck walking.
Texas got a jump on wind energy. I drove I-20 from Atlanta to New Mexico two years ago, and wind farms were all over once I got a little way past Ft. Worth. It was kind of neat seeing them on ridges, overlooking the oil pumps and cattle below. When I hit New Mexico, though, there were hardly any windmills. Hopefully that is changing now.
Betty Cracker
@Cermet: Jeebus, what a nightmare! Hope you are able to save all the fishes.
StringOnAStick
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Yo, over here!
debbie
@StringOnAStick:
Would’ve if I could’ve.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
I agree, mavericky is part of the hard left more liberal than thou shtick. And having talked to Green politicians from Berkley, Sinema most likely thinks she morally in the right for taking bribes from lobbyist because “the whole system is corrupt, needs to be burnt to ground and those squishy moderates like AOC need to be taught a lesson.”
Ksmiami
@Geminid: I’m just saying that Manchins a very bad, short term investor like the guys left holding worthless buggy whip stock. And the big money is trying to game the future so tech, innovative energy, space, fin tech, robotics and biomed are where the game is heading
Geminid
@Ksmiami: What do you think of carbon capture technology for industries like concrete production? Direct air capture for “carbon neutral” oil? Occidental is making big talk about a big carbon capture plant over in the Permian Basin.
Ksmiami
@Geminid: I think any innovative solutions are the new Wild West of energy management. Investors and consumers want sustainable energy even if dinosaurs Like Manchin don’t…
Cmorenc
@Cluttered Mind:
What actually hurt Cunningham’s chances of winning the NC senate seat in 2020 vastly more than his extramarital shenanigans was the Trump campaign’s decision to concentrate his campaign appearances the final 2-3 weeks in NC to appeal to more rural, small-town areas (eg Robeson county) where he was successful in increasing red-leaning turnout by around 100-125 k votes. BOTH Biden and Cunningham lost NC by 77k votes – that 100-125k extra red-leaning turnout is closely reflected in the difference between the %difference between pre-election polling (which had biden/cunningham narrowly winning NC) and actual results, whereby they narrowly lost by a point or two ie 77k votes.
You could argue that Cunningham’s extramarital riffs depressed D turnout, but that doesn’t hold much water – not many Ds stayed home in 2020 because the D senate candidate was flawed, thereby also foregoing the presidential vote. Again, both lost by around 77k votes
Geminid
@Cmorenc: Well, that’s frustrating to read, but encouraging also. I had forgotten that North Carolina was so close. I wonder if North Carolina Republicans can achieve that level of turnout next year without trump heading the ticket. He’s already stuck his stubby fingers into the Senate primary.
206inKY
@Barbara: There’s nothing quite as depressing as seeing all the drivers here in Kentucky who have paid extra on their tabs to get a special black-background “Coal Keeps the Lights On” license plate.
206inKY
@Steeplejack (phone): Murkowski and Collins
dopey-o
Started? I grew up with 2 siblings just like that. Also, racist misogynists.
Another Scott
@lowtechcyclist: [ snort! ]
Cheers,
Scott.
planetjanet
@Amir Khalid:
That is going to give me nightmares.
planetjanet
@germy:
I am in that same boat. I can trade in my phone for a crappier phone for free or pay full freight for the latest version on my phone. Not a happy camper.
wonkie
Borderline personality disorder with narcissism. I posted that on the comment thread of some news site and got over a week’s worth of upset people telling me how wrong I was. I didn’t read most of the comments aimed at me. I assumed they were Trumpers who love her because she’s an useful idiot.
No One You Know
@Chetan Murthy: I’ve shared that opinion for a long time.
Tonight I’m home after a weekend in which my son was taken to ER, twice.
We arrive at ER on our own vehicle. Stop for the COVID temp check and reason for visiting, courtesy of two Army privates. Warned we couldn’t both stay. Allowed to enter.
Since my son’s symptoms were neither heart attack nor stroke, he was given a wheelchair. By this time he is white-faced and clammy.
We find it helpful to commandeer a trashcan in the ER waiting room in case the dry heaves don’t stay that way.
After two hours, someone takes a blood draw. He falls asleep, or passes out.
Shortly after that someone comes to get him. Tests start. He’s sent home with prescriptions but no diagnosis.
He’s back in ER ~30 hours later. I am slow to notice that the people telling me I can’t stay and they are not allowed to tell me anything are afraid to say these words. I am utterly consumed by the fact that because a few people are uneducable, and some fewer prize money above all things, it’s possible to risk your life in hospital before you’re even seen.