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If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

Militantly superior in their own minds…

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A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

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Shelter in place is one thing. Shelter in pants is quite another.

… makes me wish i had hoarded more linguine

There will be lawyers.

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John Cole

You are here: Home / Archives for John Cole

John Cole started Balloon Juice early in 2002. Those who have followed along know that this has been quite the journey.

I Think That Biden Team Might Know What They Are Doing

by John Cole|  February 1, 20215:04 pm| 60 Comments

This post is in: Politics

There are two easy ways to fail as a Democratic politician. The first is to listen to the bobbleheads in the media, and the second is to listen to the online left on twitter and elsewhere. The Biden campaign famously ignored both of them, including yours truly, who consistently lobbied for him to not run. So when you see the Politico writing that Biden and Harris fucked up by having Harris speak to West Virginians, or you see the dumbest man in American politics call it a mistake, ignore it.

There is a reason VP Harris spoke directly to West Virginians, as I noted the other day, and here you have the fruits of that labor:

“Well, first and foremost, I wish we’d all come together,” Justice responded. “But, on the flip side of that, we’ve got a lot of people in West Virginia that are still struggling with paying their power bill because they got laid off because this pandemic just swept their job away from them.”

Justice continued: “What we need to do is we need to understand that trying to be, per se, fiscally responsible at this point in time, with what we’ve got going on in this country, if we actually throw away some money right now, so what?”

The governor added that “we have really got to move and get people taken care of and get people back on balance. I want to work with the Biden administration, just like I worked with the Trump administration, and I want us to move forward.

That was Republican governor Jim Justice, when asked by the state’s biggest political radio guy, Hoppy Kerchival, whether or not the COVID stimulus needs to be bipartisan. The only people who give a fuck about Joe Manchin and whether or not this was a mistake by the Biden team are Joe Manchin and the beltway morons. Governor Justice and the people don’t give a fuck about process or procedure or whose feelings were hurt, they want results. They don’t give a shit about bipartisanship or Rand Paul’s feels about the budget, they want to feed the kids and keep the power on and make sure grams doesn’t die from the ‘rona.

And for those of you who are unaware how much of a big deal this is, Jim Justice was a Republicans who switched to Democrat and was Manchin’s hand picked successor to run, blunting a challenge from the left with Democrats Booth Goodwin and Jeff Kessler, eventually defeating Republican Bill Cole (no relation) in the general election. So this is Manchin’s boy ignoring him.

And you know what? Pelosi and Schumer just did this:

As President Joe Biden attempts to pass his $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief proposal with Republican support, Senate Democrats are working to move ahead without the GOP using an obscure, but powerful, procedural tool known as reconciliation.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Monday that they have filed a joint budget resolution — the first step to potentially enacting a budget reconciliation bill.

“It makes no sense to pinch pennies when so many Americans are suffering,” Schumer said in floor remarks Monday. “The risk of doing too little is far greater than the risk of doing too much.”

Pelosi and Schumer would not do this if they did not have the votes, so what you can bank on right now is that Manchin is one of those 51 votes in the Senate. So no, Biden and Harris didn’t fuck up by going directly to the people of WV and Arizona. They got Manchin and Sinema in line.

I Think That Biden Team Might Know What They Are DoingPost + Comments (60)

Open Thread

by John Cole|  January 31, 202110:59 pm| 84 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads

I bought two cannoli yesterday, and basically I used them as a test of willpower all day long. I managed to wait until about ten minutes ago, and I think waiting made them taste better

That’s it. That is literally all I’ve got.

Open ThreadPost + Comments (84)

This Fucking Guy- Joe Manchin Edition

by John Cole|  January 30, 20218:01 pm| 228 Comments

This post is in: Politics

Oh, you sweet, innocent child:

After airing Thursday evening, WSAZ’s exclusive interview with Vice President Kamala Harris drew national attention.

Friday morning, the White House answered questions about the vice president’s appearance on two stations — one in Arizona, the other on WSAZ.

The interview even took U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., by surprise. Friday morning, Manchin visited one of West Virginia’s COVID-19 vaccination clinics. His visit comes just one day after the vice president spoke with WSAZ’s Amanda Barren about the proposed “American Rescue Plan” (ARP).

“I saw [the interview], I couldn’t believe it. No one called me [about it],” Manchin said. “We’re going to try to find a bipartisan pathway forward, but we need to work together. That’s not a way of working together.”

During a press briefing at the White House, Press Secretary Jen Psaki answered questions around a number of topics, including the vice president’s appearance on two local television stations Thursday.

“We want to make the case to the American people across the country (…) This is a way to do just that,” Psaki said.

I know I have spent a lot of time defending Joe, but part of that defense has always been he’s not perfect. And while he’s smart enough to figure out how to stay alive politically in West Virginia, he’s not always the sharpest tack.

To be clear, Joe, this was not an accident or oversight. This is a professional comms team and professional legislative staff and Joe Biden was doing this shit while you were THINKING about running for the House of Delegates in WV. What they did here was politely put you on notice.

Yes, you have spent two weeks hearing about how you are now the most powerful man in Washington, and you may very well have come to believe your own bullshit, but here’s the drill. Yes, you’re on the bus for this road trip, but Joe is driving and Kamala is shotgun, the hotels and route have been picked and booked, and you’re not the one setting the itinerary. Sure, Joe and Kamala will listen to your opinion on which fast food joint y’all stop at for lunch, but you’re not the head dick in charge.

That’s what happened last night, Sen. Manchin. On top of that, the WH gets good press for reaching out to often ignored areas, all while applying a gentle nudge to you.

That’s how this game is played, and at the age of 73, you should have figured that out by now.

This Fucking Guy- Joe Manchin EditionPost + Comments (228)

They’re Criming Right Out in the Open

by John Cole|  January 28, 20216:38 pm| 160 Comments

This post is in: Free Markets Solve Everything

To add to Mistermix, it was not hard to predict what would happen with this. There are rules for you and me, and there are rules for everyone else:

They're Criming Right Out in the Open

And that’s precisely what they did. When Robinhood and others froze trades on Gamestop, what they did was lock EVERYONE who had purchased through them into their trade, and not allow them to make any action. So if you are a trader bought at certain price and wanted to sell at a certain price, you’re just fucked. You own that stock and Say you bought at 180, and wanted to sell at 100. Tough shit. You eat the loss as it rides to zero as the big money boys manipulate the price down. ** APPARENTLY THIS IS WRONG AND I AM UNINFORMED BOOB WHO HATES HEDGE FUNDS AND WALL STREET SO MUCH HE IS SOMETIMES HASTY, NEITHER OF WHICH SHOULD SURPRISE LONGTIME READERS.***

It’s class warfare Calvinball, and you know what? They’ll fucking get away with it. Because as George Carlin noted, it’s a big fucking club, and you ain’t in it. Robinhood is legit now stealing from the poor to give to the rich.

They’re Criming Right Out in the OpenPost + Comments (160)

Interesting Profile on Manchin

by John Cole|  January 26, 202110:24 am| 76 Comments

This post is in: Politics

Worth your time.

Again, there are a few things you need to know about Manchin to understand him.

1.) He honestly, truly, 100% believes that the key to anything is negotiation. He came up in the good ole boy/girl system and totally thinks that there is nothing that can not be accomplished after you build the right relationships.

2.) He will always have as his primary focus getting money and jobs to WV.

3.) He knows that WV is a small state and that things like the filibuster give us outsized political power, and he is not going to give it up.

He can be infuriating, but this is who he is. At least he is open about it.

Although I wish they would stop calling us (WV) a coal state. We’re not. Coal accounts for less than 2% of state employment. We’re a tourism state, if anything.

Interesting Profile on ManchinPost + Comments (76)

If You Read Nothing Else

by John Cole|  January 25, 20219:13 pm| 76 Comments

This post is in: Excellent Links

Please check out Seth Rogen’s twitter timeline, which for the last week has been dedicated to pantsing Ted Cruz:

Your lies got people killed. You have blood on your hands. https://t.co/eoy1uUDK73

— Seth Rogen (@Sethrogen) January 24, 2021

It’s been a week of him just shitting all over the zodiac killer and it has been beautimous. Although it has been kind of disgusting that this appears to be the only repercussion for attempting a coup.

If You Read Nothing ElsePost + Comments (76)

Saturday Night Open Thread

by John Cole|  January 23, 202110:54 pm| 107 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads

I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who participated in the looking forward threads, both the people who submitted and those who had fun in the comments. I have my own priorities that I want to discuss, but I have not finished writing them and will post them in a day or so, most likely at a time right before an Anne Laurie autopost and long after you all have lost interest.

I do want to say right now that I have just been more relieved this past week than at any time in the last four years. Just not hearing his fucking name or having to pay attention or waste any bandwidth on the motherfucker is in itself a blessing.

Saturday Night Open ThreadPost + Comments (107)

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