Looks like I picked the right weekend to unplug from the news! Instead, I made lots of cookies with my family. Here are some of the spritz cookies we produced toward the end of the evening, when quality standards had obviously slipped:
Check out the rare trilobite cookie in the center, which only occurs when the cookie gun misfires or gunner error results in a double tap. The only gun I own is a cookie gun, but obviously I should take it to the range more often.
Let me tell you, there’s nothing more satisfying than pumping buttery cookie slugs onto a baking sheet. It really gives you a chance to work through your hostilities, you know?
Of the weekend’s political developments, I’ll say only this: I’m glad Jen Psaki read Paw Paw Blacklung for fucking filth in front of God and everyone.
I’m not sure how effective an “elect more Democrats to offset the tiny percentage who truly suck” pitch would be, but I plan to test market it on my budding revolutionaries.
Open thread!
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone ???
Baud
If people don’t think progressive Democrats should lose their seats because of Manchin, they should also not hold Manchin against any other Democrat.
If they’re being rational…
rikyrah
THEE Sam from Delacroix, LA (@Kennymack1971) tweeted at 10:57 AM on Sun, Dec 19, 2021:
The tea is that Republicans decided that once a black man was put in charge of the government they’d break the whole thing completely. And that’s exactly what they’ve done.
And we’ve been paying the price for that ever since.
(https://twitter.com/Kennymack1971/status/1472611956230168581?t=Ak2C_CyVPGqKvOAE7hngGg&s=03)
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
Quinerly
@rikyrah:
And good morning to you and everyone!
rikyrah
Veronica McDonald? (@Purify_toast17) tweeted at 7:01 AM on Mon, Dec 20, 2021:
And that’s the bottom line with the “cancel student loan” people, they feel they are better than blue collar/service workers and shouldn’t be in the same financial boat as them…that’s why they went to college in the first place:
(https://twitter.com/Purify_toast17/status/1472915040739246089?t=eBKA9srSrp-8WOymQbsY7w&s=03)
Baud
@Quinerly:
Good morning.
Quinerly
@rikyrah: I truly believe this. Have been saying this for years. My 93 yo mother was very political. Adored Obama. We had this very discussion on my last visit to NC in 9/2015 (the rise of Trump) before she died in 10/2015. I hate to say this… When l think about her death, the first thing l think about is that thankfully she didn’t live to see Trump elected. She was predicting it summer of 2015, though.
Quinerly
@Baud: good morning to you!
My St. Louis home is in chaos with a very confused JoJo las Orejas. Packing, packing, packing!
Spanky
I see what you did there.
Baud
@Quinerly:
It’s not just Obama though. He was the main trigger, but they have been seeing evidence of rapid social change all around them. And of course there is a media environment that is more than happy to amp up their innate fear of progress.
Quinerly
@Spanky: ♥️
Lyrebird
@Baud: I was thinking about the same idea Betty C was advocating. I wish I could set up a tip jar so that every time a press outlet, even DKos, puts up a picture with the senator from WV as the center of attention, we put in money for Beasley, Warnock, Demings, Cortez Masto, etc.
Betty Cracker
Josh Marshall on the weekend’s developments [paywalled, I assume]:
What he said.
Jerry
I made Chef John’s pepper nut cookies this weekend and they were friggin’ delicious. Watch his video to learn how to make the cookies yourself. Food Wishes is one of my favorite Youtube channels.
O. Felix Culpa
@Betty Cracker:
I like that. Today I’m going to get more petition signatures to put good candidates on the ballot. And make springerle.
Quinerly
I hate this man.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/joe-manchin-build-back-better-child-tax-credit-drugs_n_61bf8f6be4b061afe394006d
SiubhanDuinne
@rikyrah:
What does that mean, “the tea”?
JMG
Manchin’s colleagues, not to mention Biden, have been very upfront for Washington in making it clear he broke his word to them. That’s the cardinal sin in the very clubby Senate. You can weasel around all you want and hem and haw and spin out negotiations with vague and contradictory statements, that’s kosher. But say you’ll do X and then do Y and you’ve made enemies. He’s gonna be a lonely guy in DC for a few years. Switching parties won’t help either. Nobody trusts a turncoat, and voters hate them.
narya
I baked cookies to ship off to mom & dad (and my friend’s mom as well). I’ll keep a handful, but mostly not. I made THREE iterations of the FYNYT recipe, and am not completely happy with any of them. One was actually an adaptation of that plus walnut/russian nut balls for downstairs neighbor, and it was also not what I wanted. I’m going to reclaim the fail-coookies from her, though, and use it as a cheesecake crust (for her). I’m supposedly off today, but need to do a handful of things, including schlep to the post office. Glad to see that the final episode of “The Good Place” won a Hugo! I am seriously contemplating purchasing a BluRay so I can get the discs of the show (the full thing, with extras, doesn’t appear to be available on regular DVD). Yes, I know that’s a bit ridiculous, but that show resonates with me in multiple ways.
Another Scott
@SiubhanDuinne:
UrbanDictionary.com – Tea
HTH!
Cheers,
Scott.
Matt McIrvin
All I can say is, I’m seeing people trying it on Twitter and getting ferociously dogpiled by people talking about “the definition of insanity”. I don’t know how it maps to reality, but the social-media left is tired of voting for Democrats and not getting anything for it, so they won’t.
narya
@SiubhanDuinne: It means, roughly, “the gossip.” To “spill the tea” is to provide ALLLLL the details.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
They were tired of it years ago.
Kay
It’s a proven failure in midterms. We have to come up with something else. I think it’s the all-purpose nature of it- people hear it as an excuse because it’s offered for everything. I don’t think it’s defensible in terms of accountability either. Voters as individuals have very little power- they’re only powerful in the aggregate. That’s not true of senators of Presidents. The general rule is you’re responsible in proportion to how much power you have. That’s fair and it’s one of the ways we keep The Powerful in check- we say “with this upside comes this downside”. To shift it all to voters just doesn’t feel right.
SiubhanDuinne
@narya:
Ah, thanks. I know the “spill the tea” expression, but had never come across “the tea” used this way.
Betty Cracker
@Quinerly: He’s a horrible, corrupt, self-important prick. I realize it’s unlikely another Democrat could get elected in WV, and Manchin has been useful for voting for judges in this term and on some clutch votes in the past. But if he’s not already a net-negative for the Democrats now, he’s rapidly approaching that status. He actively harms the party’s brand.
SiubhanDuinne
@Another Scott:
Thank you. I almost always go to Urban Dictionary before I ask about an unfamiliar term. For some reason I failed to do that this morning.
Geminid
@Betty Cracker: Nice cookies!
Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy yesterday:
I ran across this in @Grace Segars’ Twitter feed. Ms. Segars is a Capitol Hill correspondent for the New Republic. I don’t read her longer work, but her twitter reporting seems like an efficient news resource.
Gin & Tonic
I am in awe of this blog’s power and reach. Last week I bitched about Biden’s inability to accelerate an immigration situation I am particularly concerned with, and now comes an email from the consulate with an interview scheduled for mid-January. This truly is the last step – we are both shocked and delighted. Thanks, Uncle Joe (you think he reads this blog?)
Spanky
Hey hey now! I’m perfectly capable of doing both!
Baud
@Gin & Tonic:
?
You’re welcome.
MattF
It’s plain that Psaki’s statement comes straight from Biden. And I’m sure Manchin knows that. You want to know what Biden sounds like when he’s angry, you know now. An ugly situation, but, perhaps not entirely without hope.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
It’s within Biden’s powers to send every Mine Safety Administration inspector he can lay his hands on to WV to comb through every working coal mine and write up every single infraction they find and levy the maximum fine for each. He could also have EPA inspectors do the same at coal fired power plants in WV if he so chose. Basically he could make things pretty miserable for Joe Manchin’s cronies and I’m pretty sure they could figure out why it was happening.
Quinerly
@Betty Cracker: couldn’t agree more.
I have been one of the quiet ones about him. Waiting to see what he would ultimately do and not speculate. After yesterday, I truly believe he is trying to harm the party and destroy Biden.
But why? I don’t think he’s running again in 2024. What’s this all about? The way he did this… Plus not taking the WH’s call yesterday.
O. Felix Culpa
@Gin & Tonic: Congratulations! That is excellent news.
zhena gogolia
@Gin & Tonic: YAY of course he does, right after he turns off the record player.
O. Felix Culpa
@zhena gogolia: LOL. ISWYDT.
ETA: I hope your arm is mending well.
WaterGirl
.
Another Scott
@Betty Cracker: It’s just math. Every real distribution has a tail. We need every vote because the GQP is insane, and we’ve gotten every vote a huge percentage of the time.
Sometimes we don’t. If it weren’t Manchin, it would be Sinema. If it weren’t Sinema, it would be Tester or someone else.
The solution is to elect more Democrats so that the tails have less impact.
Remember that we’ve made amazing progress this year.
Hang in there.
Cheers,
Scott.
Another Scott
@Gin & Tonic: ?
Cheers,
Scott.
O. Felix Culpa
@Spanky:
As is the marvelous Jen Psaki, as she did in her statement yesterday.
narya
Ignore Manchin. Work to elect good people in all the places, but they need to be people who are good for, and can get elected in, THOSE places. No one in a state outside WV is going to vote or not because of Manchin. And I agree with Murphy–just pick up and do the next right thing. I agree that JM has made enemies in the Senate by reneging on his word (and made himself less relevant, really), but there is still work to do. Let’s do it.
Spanky
@Spanky: And frankly, Manchin’s turnaround from a firm deal with Biden to no deal at all can be perfectly understood if we assume Manchin is owned by someone who yanked his leash. Watching the reaction to asking “who owns Manchin?” in print might be as instructive as it would be entertaining.
Too bad there’s not a journalist alive who would even dream of ruffling feathers that way, let alone an editor who would let such rudeness into their precious publication.
NotMax
Xmas movies, state by state.
;)
WaterGirl
@O. Felix Culpa: Yes she is, and yes she did.
SiubhanDuinne
@Betty Cracker:
Betty, are you aware that your governor is demanding campaign contributions of $100,000 from every member of the UF Board of Trustees? If they don’t pay up, he’ll yank their appointments.
How is this not flat-out straight-up extortion?
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2021/12/17/desantis-demands-trustees-give-100k-campaign-fried-says
Betty Cracker
@Kay: I don’t disagree, but I’m not sure what else there is to say.
WaterGirl
Betty, I want to hear more about the Drunken Aunties cookie night!
MattF
@Another Scott: I think it’s true that for large groups, there will always be a small group on the margin. However, we’re in a place where personalities matter, and Manchin did a very dirty deed. I mean, did he have to announce his betrayal of Biden on Fox?
Geminid
@Matt McIrvin: A lot of those twitter lefties did not vote for Cliton or Biden in the first place. They tell Democrats to “earn our votes,” but they always find reasons not to vote Democratic. These soreheads have some influence over potential Democratic voters, but they themselves are irrelevant except as chaos agents.
Dorothy A. Winsor
A friend spent all day Saturday with her granddaughter, who’s a student at Evanston High School. Two students brought guns to school on Thursday. The granddaughter spent three hours huddled in a corner on lockdown while police searched the building. No one was shot, but the kid is still traumatized. She talked nonstop, including asking her grandmother how she handled events like this when she was in HS. That one was, of course, impossible to answer since things like that didn’t happen to the grandmother.
The kid is now a junior and has spend only a few month in FTF HS. She asked if her grandmother had dates in HS and how that happened. The school closed until January because it was in the middle of a covid spike anyway. For this kid and her age-mates, it’s trauma on trauma
SiubhanDuinne
@MattF:
According to something I read this morning (can’t remember which of a possible half-dozen sources, sorry), Biden personally signed off on Jen’s statement.
We were never surprised by reports that TFG was ranting and losing his temper, because that was what he always did. But when someone like Joe Biden reaches the end of his fuse, one pays attention!
cope
We have one of those cookie guns but have never been able to master it during these past 17 months of enforced baking. Maybe we’re not getting the dough consistency right. One of our few failures since we dove into the baking pool.
Betty Cracker
@SiubhanDuinne: The media reaction here has been, “Where’s Fried’s proof?” She says it was a private conversation. I believe her, and I don’t think for a minute it’s just the UF board. DeSantis is Putin-like in that he seems fanatical about making sure people owe their power and position to him.
This quote from the article you linked points to a large problem:
It’s so wrong that this is routine. If any government official at any level appoints a donor or crony to a powerful position, they should have to publicly explain why that person is uniquely qualified for the job, IMO.
O. Felix Culpa
@Dorothy A. Winsor: That’s awful. I’m so sad for this generation of kids. I never liked dystopian novels and movies, and now our poor kids have to live through them IRL. I worked in a school for a time, and the shooter drills were terrifying, even with advance notice as an (adult) staff member. We are traumatizing–and killing–our children on the altar of Moloch, aka the Almighty 2A.
sixthdoctor
@SiubhanDuinne: And of course, Joe Biden “losing his temper” is 100x more reasoned and intelligent than the Orange Shithead’s Adderall-fueled blathering on his best day.
By the same token, the greedy, nasty, untrustworthy Manchin is STILL a better vote than ANY Republican, which tells you the depths of that party’s politicians.
Betty Cracker
@cope: Here’s the recipe I use:
Link to original on allrecipes.com. I don’t bother to sift and it turns out fine — I just stir the dry ingredients with a fork.
Matt McIrvin
@Another Scott:
And the structural barriers to that keep getting higher and higher and higher, even when we have a popular majority. It’s: “okay, you managed to win with one hand tied behind your back, now let’s do both, and blindfolded.” We have judges literally saying that restrictions on the right to vote are political questions that need to be addressed at the ballot box. At what point are we forced to abandon an electoralist strategy in favor of a revolutionary one?
Betty Cracker
@WaterGirl: It wasn’t that interesting! There was a mix-up when the teens who were in charge of cutting out the sugar cookies said there was a skull cookie cutter, which I took to mean just a skull, not a skull-and-crossbones (which is actually what it was — we’ve accumulated a lot of weird cookie cutters over the years). I asked them to bake a couple of those so I could decorate them Day of the Dead style. It doesn’t work as well when it’s a skull and crossbones, but I did the best I could with it.
Geminid
@Betty Cracker: Good for Nikki Fried. Republicans are never required to prove their lies, why should she have to prove the truth? Journalists can be journalists, and compare state appointments with political donations, then let readers draw their own conclusions.
Florida Democrats face an uphill battle in the Governor race, and they’ll need a fighter. Fried seems unafraid to punch DeSantis, and to punch around the belt when neccesary..
NotMax
Oh, before I forget (again), both seasons of Home for Christmas on Netflix are a pleasant watch.
Categories, in the order of Netflix’ description, which they use for the series: Raunchy, Quirky, Irreverent, Heartfelt, Emotional, Feel-Good, Romantic.
;)
WaterGirl
@Betty Cracker: When I think Drunken Aunties I think lots of laughter, lots of fun, telling of stories. No?
Spanky
A Joe Manchin bonus: He killed the stock market.
(Correlation is not causation, but I’m not above piling on.)
O. Felix Culpa
@Spanky: US projected GDP was revised downward after his statement yesterday, so there is causation and correlation.
L85NJGT
The future is unwritten.
Geminid
@Spanky: My understanding is that stock futures did drop after Manchin’s Fox appearance yesterday, so in this case there is good reason to posit causation.
Betty Cracker
@WaterGirl: There’s often laughing and stories, but it’s kind of grueling! Every year we try to figure out how to make it less of a slog, but we haven’t come up with a solution.
Spanky
Five hundred points so far, but it’s early in the day.
Ken T.
@Betty Cracker:
Agreed: he is horrible. And here is what did it for me a number of years back: his grifter daughter sold out kids to make a fortune off of epipens. Ugh. The apple and the tree you know.
Betty Cracker
@Geminid: It’s an interesting experiment, but I thought it was a bad sign that she was questioned immediately and DeSantis given the benefit of the doubt. He lies all the time about a lot of stuff — all Republicans do, as we all know. But when he lies about Dems, they’re required to refute it. It sucks, but here we are.
L85NJGT
@SiubhanDuinne:
IIRC Blagojevich was selling board seats for various State U’s before he moved on to a US Senate seat and the Federal pokey.
WaterGirl
@Betty Cracker: I suppose enslaving the younger generation to do the work, with you drinking adult beverages and providing the fun is out of the question?
cope
@Betty Cracker: Thanks, we’ll give it a shot. Maybe that dough would also work for Linzer cookies which we also failed at.
Baud
@Spanky:
Maybe Manchin did what he did so his friends can engage in short selling.
If so, maybe he’ll change his mind in a couple of days.
?
Spanky
@Betty Cracker:
Moar alcohol!
Steeplejack
@Jerry:
Chef John is great. I’ve never had a misfire with his recipes.
VeniceRiley
@Betty Cracker: Paw Paw put coal in all our stockings. We’ll be very fortunate if we avoid extinction.
Cameron
@Betty Cracker: I agree that it’s wrong, but it’s been around since forever and pervades all levels of government. You don’t think the US Ambassador to East Aardvark was hatched from an egg, do you?
Chief Oshkosh
@MattF: Wow, the revelations about why Manchin did what he did are amazing (according to HuffPo, anyway). Basically, he thinks all of his constituents are meth-heads who will just blow their sweet gubmint checks on more drugs, and therefore no BBB for anyone. Fucker.
WTF, Joe, I think you’re confusing your voters with your buddies in the coal industry. And it is so fucking ironic that you think your constituents are strung-out, given how your fucking shitheel of daughter makes her blood money.
But hey, I guess we did get 40 judges through the process so far. Possibly the only reason Manchin and the shitheel are allowed to walk the earth at this point.
Betty Cracker
@WaterGirl: We have pushed a lot of the work down to the younger participants, but they have their own cookie agenda, so the work expands rather than contracting. The sensible thing to do would be for everyone to do their own cookies ahead of time and meet up for a party/exchange.
SiubhanDuinne
@L85NJGT:
I didn’t remember that earlier but, but it surprises me not at all.
Woodrow/asim
The barriers to voting in a democracy that actually represents everyone? Have always been high.
To expand on what Josh Marshall said, we’re no longer pretending. We’re not in the mid-20th Century, allowing outright racist legislators to rip out of laws anything positive of for Blacks, Asians, Women, and so many others….when they weren’t just trying to impose even more horrors upon them.
We’re not in the late 1800s, hand-wringing over Southern terrorist violence and a Pacific Northwest overrun with White Supremacist to the point where even the “good people” gave up and handed vast portions of America over to one-party Authoritarian rule…
…and then decided to ignore it, to jointly decide not to talk about it.
The reason they are raising the barriers NOW? Is that the jig is up. Not just demographically, but — as we saw with the CRT pseudo-backlash — they are staring down losing the propaganda barriers that have kept generations, especially since the 1970s, enthralled and believing White Supremacist bullshit.
Going back to one-party rule, to ruling on a diet of fear? That’s all they have left in their hands, y’all. They’s losing Lost Caus-ism, losing the fears of gender and race and sex and ableism and all the rest that allowed them to be empowered to Stop The Other, no matter the cost to freedom — and to call that, freedom.
It is scary, I know. Yet the Conservative Movement wants us scared of them. They want us cowing in fear as they play Manchin like a fuckin’ puppet, as they manipulate state legislators to let COVID run rampant and kill to extend fear-mongering, to block access to the voting booth to re-implement one-party — White Party — rule.
They have spent literally billions of dollars to promote these fears, to mask that history, and install loud puppets who reinforce to media every day these things, and to ensure the GOP vote the way they want, and then stop as much progress as possible.
They want us demoralized and disheartened. Let’s not align ourselves to what these literal terrorist activities want — you can be clear-eyed about the challenges, while also knowing that this, too, shall pass.
It’s just that the more of us who get out and push against all this, the faster it’ll pass, and the faster we can tear down those barriers and build something closer to a real Democracy For All.
This is no time for infighting and second-guessing. This is a time to regroup and make new plans to attack the real enemy…
….and they ain’t posting at Balloon Juice, I’m pretty sure. :)
WaterGirl
@Betty Cracker:
I laughed. When you get right down to it, I see that even the Drunken Aunties holiday baking is like every project everywhere, ever. I should probably just go back to bed and hope to have forgotten that thought when I wake up again.
Matt McIrvin
Meanwhile, I STILL see people insisting that if Democrats just abandoned “liberalism” in favor of Bernie-style social democracy it would win over the working-class whites (this time, by analogy with Chile). Got to be a pony in there somewhere.
zhena gogolia
@SiubhanDuinne: Like my husband.
Steeplejack
@Gin & Tonic:
Congratulations on that! I know it has been a burr under your saddle for quite a while.
Old School
Mmmm… spritz cookies. I love those.
FYI – the secret ingredient to add to spritz cookies is almond extract. That takes the cookies to another level.
cope
@Betty Cracker: At least have everyone bring prepared dough/frosting/sprinkles and such, then just bake, decorate and share.
H.E.Wolf
When something goes awry in the long, unglamorous work of effecting political change, some folks immediately start talking about violent revolution. :)
What a revolutionary change it would be, if in those circumstances the conversation immediately turned to taking non-violent actions that would assist the most vulnerable.
[taps sign: Four Directions donation thermometer is in the sidebar]
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
Did the winner in Chile do well with working class whites?
mali muso
@Woodrow/asim: Standing ovation. This is so well said. Thank you.
Steeplejack
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
This story is sad in so many ways.
Baud
@Woodrow/asim:
I question this advice.
UncleEbeneezer
@Baud: A Black man in the Oval Office, followed by the prospect of a Woman, was simply too much for (white) America to tolerate.
Mai Naem mobile
@Geminid: I really like Chris Murphy and would love to see a POTUS run from him at some point but he also thought he could get gun legislation passed after Sandy Hook so he does tend to be a tad optimistic. Manchin is just trying to run out the clock so that Biden gets less Democratic priorities taken care of during his presidency. I am not even talking about super progressive stuff. Manchin really is just a DINO and about the only person I’ve ever used that term for is Lieberman.
lowtechcyclist
@rikyrah:
What can I say? I’m a white guy, and I see the world with white blinders on. I should have understood this years ago.
You know how the normal rhythm around an election used to be that partisan emotions would heat up as the election approaches, but then once it’s over and you can’t do anything about it, people on the losing end may still be pissed, but on the whole they cool down a good bit.
That didn’t happen after the 2008 election. So many of us expected that we were having peak wingnut right before the election, and couldn’t understand why it kept on going right on up – like the rotating tag says, “peak wingnut is a lie.”
White blinders. The reality that a black man was President was more inflammatory to a certain segment of the white population than his candidacy had been. Y’all could probably see that right away, but here I am, thirteen years later, saying “Oh fuck, it’s obvious now that I see it.” And kicking myself for what I couldn’t see all that time.
Baud
@UncleEbeneezer:
A woman made it clear to them that we were serious.
jackmac
@L85NJGT: I never heard of Blago selling seats on state university boards before. A quick search finds no reporting on this, only his attempts to sell the Obama U.S. Senate seat. But this level of his corruption would not surprise me.
Feathers
Betty –
Deb from Smitten Kitchen says to let sugar cookies brown at the edges because it increases the flavor! I’m loving the idea of these unfussy sugar cookies. Cold butter, mixed in food processor, chilled in freezer for 10 min, cut into squares, frosted white on white. Solo baking Christmas cookies is a drag.
Recipe: Unfussy sugar cookies
Mai Naem mobile
@UncleEbeneezer: i worked with a black woman around the time Obama was running and after he won. She was apolitical/socially conservative. She was married to a white guy who had a hard time hanging onto a job and that was her prism. She didn’t really believe in discrimination/affirmative action because she thought all poor people were screwed not just folks of color. Anyhow, into Obama’s first term she mentioned how Obama winning had really brought out the racists. She herself had faced little incidents of racism. It was quite revelatory to her.
JMG
Boston Mayor Wu announced city will require proof of vaccination for entry to restaurants, bars, theaters, fitness centers and sports events.
WaterGirl
@mali muso: Totally agree, and I should have said so!
I thought it was so good that I emailed it to Cole earlier this morning, but it didn’t occur to me to say something in the comments. I must not be firing on all cylinders this morning.
Omnes Omnibus
@H.E.Wolf: FWIW, I put in another $25 yesterday after Adam’s charming first post yesterday.
Kristine
A Huffpost report via The Hill. Wondering if leakage of private conversations is another step in the ‘letting Manchin know his colleagues are pissed’ process. Not sure if it will help, and some of his constituents would likely agree with his assessment. But, leakage of private conversations seems like a purpose pitch to me.
Matt McIrvin
@JMG: This is good–won’t stop Omicron but it will slow it down a little. Concert venues in Boston were already doing “proof of vax or recent negative test”, but the latter is getting increasingly meaningless. And I think most public-facing businesses will absolutely not put restrictions in place without a governmental mandate to back them up.
zhena gogolia
I’m trying to grade papers by dictating e-mails to myself. Here’s my test e-mail:
It’s going to be a long day.
Edmund Dantes
oh look Manchin says he was never negotiating in good faith.
He intentionally tanked Biden’s political capital.
Maybe some of the commenters here need to recognize the progressives had him pegged better than they did
GJGE
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Good news:
Bad news:
Conclusion: It’s better to get vaxxed (3x) rather than count on some expensive Big Pharma treatment
Nelle
@Woodrow/asim: Thank you for this.
Steeplejack
I had my post-op (13 days) phone call with the urologist this morning. Informative, no surprises. One large hydrocele was removed. Doc said the swelling could take another four to six weeks to go down; it’s mostly blood that will be reabsorbed. Huh. In-person appointment scheduled for January 20. I am pretty much out of the sore zone and into the tender zone, although I am still moving carefully. Just let nature take its course.
zhena gogolia
@Edmund Dantes: Fuck the progressives.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kristine: Makes me wonder what drugs he wastes his money on.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Edmund Dantes:
You have my…. warmest congratulations
Still can’t get to fifty without him.
Marmot
@Woodrow/asim: This. This is what’s conspicuously missing from every doompost and -comment.
OzarkHillbilly
@zhena gogolia: No thanx. I’ve got a headache.
Kristine
@Woodrow/asim: Thank you for this.
Jay
@Steeplejack:
yea!
Steeplejack
@Jay:
Thanks. The main thing was that I had no idea what to expect re post-op swelling, so I was glad to get that sorted out.
Kristine
@OzarkHillbilly: And does he take them on his hunting trips?
Because remarks like that say a hell of a lot more about him than the people he claims to be concerned about.
Geminid
@Mai Naem mobile: A lot of people are concerned about whether their own and other people’s Opti/Pessimeters are properly calibrated. I just try to keep an open mind, on this and other subjects, and I’m not going to worry about something so intangible as disappointment.
I do know that yesterday Energy Secretary Granholm said pretty much what Senator Murphy said, that this isn’t over. Jennifer Granholm is a smart, pragmatic politician who was an effective Governor. I’ll see what she, Murphy and the rest of the Democrats can come up with. It may prove impossible to pick the Manchin lock, but as long as they’re not giving up I’m not either.
The Thin Black Duke
@Kristine: Manchin is a monstrous human being. And his loyal voters keep him in office because they hate black people more than they hate their poverty.
WaterGirl
@Kristine: Wow. Manchin does not have a very high opinion of the people he represents.
Kristine
So The Guardian tracked down the author of that marvelous obituary:
WaterGirl
@Steeplejack: That’s great news, Steep.
Mike in NC
Looks like the Donnie Trump – Bill O’Reilly tour ended after just four “rallies”. Nobody cares about hearing from a couple of senile sexual predators.
TheronWare
Those cookies look really scrumptious!
WaterGirl
@OzarkHillbilly: I had that same thought, right after I posted that he doesn’t seem to have a very high view of his constituents.
People usually accuse people of doing what they would do.
If Manchin is smart, he will roll over, show his tummy and sign on to a bill right after the holidays. Otherwise, this is not going to go away.
WaterGirl
@Steeplejack: They should have given you a pretty good idea of what to expect. Told to you and written out on paper that you could take with you when you left after the surgery.
Even my vet’s office does that!
zhena gogolia
@WaterGirl: Oh don’t get me started on post-op instructions. Let’s just say, many’s the slip twixt the cup and the lip.
Edmund Dantes
@WaterGirl:
New kids getting shots thread?
West of the Rockies
They’ll have to pry my cookie gun from my warm, buttery hands…
Sure Lurkalot
@Chief Oshkosh: I got news for Manchin. Some of my very well paid workmates spent their not so hard earned and undertaxed dollars hoovering cocaine up their noses fairly regularly.
The idea that tax credits/cuts create moral hazard only for the poor and not the wealthy is tiring and ludicrous . Manchin need only look in the mirror and his soulless spawn.
Chief Oshkosh
@WaterGirl: I doubt that he really cares about being a Senator too much longer. He’s just doing what it takes to make the most money after he leaves the Senate.
hueyplong
@Mike in NC: “Looks like the Donnie Trump – Bill O’Reilly tour ended after just four ‘rallies’. Nobody cares about hearing from a couple of senile sexual predators.”
Mostly true. Plenty of GOPer fans would have been interested if Trump were still president. But now that both ambulatory excrement piles carry the Loser Stench as well as their original ones, nobody cares anymore
[An even better reason for the cancelation would be if Trump were entering a new stage of dementia. Call me an optimist on this day otherwise occupied by the rending of garments over Manchin.]
West of the Rockies
@zhena gogolia:
By the time I left academia, I LOATHED grading papers.
Betty Cracker
@Mike in NC: It only drew about 5K people in Orlando, which is a short drive from The Villages. According to the Orlando Sentinel, they dropped prices like mad to try to sell out but ended up closing the top decks and moving the people in the cheap seats to the floor so it wouldn’t be so embarrassing.
Seems like a lot of Trumpers around here have transferred their allegiance to DeSantis. I hope that sociopath doesn’t manage to pull that off nationwide.
West of the Rockies
@lowtechcyclist:
Keep in mind, by 2008, rightwing rage radio (Rush and too many equally shitty imitators) had been stirring the pot of resentment for almost 25 years. Throw in the lasting impact of Gingrich’s “scorched earth” policy of running Congress, and voila, it all came to a spicy, racist boil.
Brachiator
@hueyplong:
Every now and then you read stories about a person who keeps a loved one in the freezer or the basement after they die because they just can’t bear to be without them. Or they want to keep the Social Security checks coming.
The GOP is holding onto Trump, like a crazed relative with that moldy corpse. They insist that he is essential to their fundraising efforts. They continue to pay attention to which candidates he endorses. They are hot to help him pay his legal bills. They continue to ignore the damage caused by the Jan 6 insurrection. And most of all, they continue to keep his insane voter theft conspiracies going because they believe that it excites the rubes.
Steeplejack (phone)
@WaterGirl:
I gave the doc some feedback on that. Might go into detail later, but I have to go out.
The Thin Black Duke
@WaterGirl: You know what’s interesting? The people who Manchin told this to were people he thought he could trust but they dropped a dime on Manchin anyway. I don’t think Manchin realized how many people he pissed off.
West of the Rockies
@Woodrow/asim:
Bravo!
Philbert
@Steeplejack: I had a hydrocele removal some years ago, emotionally eeeeeek! but not too bad. all OK after a month-odd. After the first few days, the main pain was the stiches when I stood up, gone in 10 days. Best!
Brachiator
@The Thin Black Duke:
I wonder.
Responding to Manchin’s defection on BBB, Bernie Sanders offered to pay for a poll of West Virginia residents on the components of the social infrastructure bill. And I know that a good degree of national polling has been done. I wonder if the West Virginia responses could be pulled out and made an area of focus.
I also wonder whether the Democrats could have done more to highlight positive reaction to the BBB proposals by W VA voters.
In any event, West Virginia is only 4 percent black. If white residents there want to endure suffering in order to make sure that black people outside the state are hurt more, that is some serious hate.
Oddly enough, during the presidential election campaign, a candidate tried to focus attention on the economic problems of West Virginia:
This was John Kennedy in April, 1960. And ironically enough, many federal assistance programs, including food assistance and job help, arose in part as efforts to help people in West Virginia.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Philbert:
Thanks for the feedback.
Geminid
@Brachiator: The Georgia Republican Governor primary will be a good test of Trump’s hold on the party. Brian Kemp would be a success by former Republican standards, but he did not deliver the state to trump after Joe Biden won. Now, with Trump’s endorsement, ex-Senator David Perdue has entered the race and early polls shows that it’s a close one.
The North Carolina Senate race between former Governor Pat McCrory and trump-endorsed Congressman Ted Budd will similarly test trump’s strength. McCrory has a lead there.
BigJimSlade
Keep looking – once you find one trilobite you usually will find others nearby ;-)
Geminid
@Brachiator: John Kennedy won West Virginia in 1960. That was the last election where West Virginia had six Congressmen. Next year it will be down to two.
I like to think that support from the late Sam Huff made a difference for Kennedy when they campaigned together. A star linebacker for the New York Giants, Huff had been an outstanding athlete at West Virginia University. He grew up in a place called Coal Camp Number Six.
Another Scott
@Woodrow/asim: Well said. Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
rikyrah
@Quinerly:
Come sit by me.
rikyrah
@SiubhanDuinne:
‘ The word on the street’
WaterGirl
@Edmund Dantes: Not sure if you are asking for a kids getting shots thread? If so, I am happy to put one up.
topclimber
Well, Joe is right about one thing: his constituents love them some drugs.
I am just shocked that he isn’t fighting on behalf of WV’s meth makers. There has to be a lot of local product available to almost lead the nation in drug deaths. We need the pushers to step up their donations to get JM’s help. White folks need to be number one!
WaterGirl
@The Thin Black Duke:
I very much hope he is about to learn that. In fact, I hope the learning has already begun and that it continues for long enough that he has to walk things back. It’s one thing to play politics but it’s another to shiv your president publicly after lying to him for several months.
I think there’s the potential for this stink to be an issue with Manchin if he doesn’t walk it back.
randy khan
The cream cheese spritz cookies are set for later this week. Citrus glazed cookies will be baked today; I made the sugar cookies and rosemary butter cookies yesterday (plus the dough and glaze for the citrus cookies). Then cheese sticks Thursday or Friday.
Ksmiami
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: go full nuclear on Manchin. Make his life a living hell.
Ksmiami
@Kristine: Cut this motherfucker loose. He’s terrible and hurting his own ppl and party.
StringOnAStick
@Feathers: Thanks for that recipe! I need to make something for an outdoor “meet the new neighbors” event and I want to bring something; good impressions what with being the newbies and all that.