Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., Open Threads, President Biden, Proud to Be A Democrat
House impeachment managers walk to deliver the article of impeachment against former President Donald Trump to the Senate on Capitol Hill. pic.twitter.com/86SyNCQqba
— Erin Schaff (@erinschaff) January 26, 2021
63%
We have a mandate. https://t.co/hhl5FTINCk
— Trinity Voted for Biden/Harris (@TrinityMustache) January 26, 2021
Biden says this is a "beginning" of a negotiation process, and "no one wants to give up on their position until there's no other alternative." He suggests a timeline of a "couple weeks."
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) January 25, 2021
Democrats may try to pass Biden's COVID bill with majority vote: Schumer https://t.co/g04kg6MrrI pic.twitter.com/nYU7Q7dPJK
— Reuters (@Reuters) January 26, 2021
No sooner has the portion of Rachel Maddow's interview with Senator Majority Leader Chuck Schumer aired than Mitch McConnell has put out a statement that he is folding, ending the stand-off. pic.twitter.com/9qR1jpKXkf
— Maddow Blog (@MaddowBlog) January 26, 2021
McConnell folded.
There was no new information. There have been a number of Senators who have said they would not vote to end the filibuster, much earlier than today. That’s just a fig leaf for McConnell folding.
Schumer held his ground. Good start.
— Claire McCaskill (@clairecmc) January 26, 2021
Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Moving ForwardPost + Comments (166)
This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., Grifters Gonna Grift, Gun nuts, Open Threads
The @NRA's claimed financial status has finally met its moral status: bankrupt.
While we review its bankruptcy filing, we will not allow the @NRA to use this or any other tactic to evade accountability and my office’s oversight.
— NY AG James (@NewYorkStateAG) January 15, 2021
Per the AP:
The National Rifle Association announced Friday it has filed for bankruptcy protection and will seek to incorporate the nation’s most politically influential gun-rights group in Texas instead of New York.
The announcement made on the NRA’s website comes months after New York’s attorney general sued the organization over claims that top executives illegally diverted tens of millions of dollars for lavish personal trips, no-show contracts for associates and other questionable expenditures.
The coronavirus pandemic has also upended the NRA, which last year laid off dozens of employees, canceled its national convention and scuttled fundraising. The NRA’s bankruptcy filing listed between $100 million and $500 million in assets and between $100 million and $500 million in liabilities. Still, the NRA claimed in announcing the move that the organization was “in its strongest financial condition in years.”
The NRA filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in federal court in Dallas and said it planned to incorporate in Texas, where records show it formed a limited liability corporation, Sea Girt LLC, in November 2020. Sea Girt LLC made a separate bankruptcy filing Friday, listing fewer than $100,000 in liabilities.
“The move will enable long-term, sustainable growth and ensure the NRA’s continued success as the nation’s leading advocate for constitutional freedom – free from the toxic political environment of New York,” the NRA said in a statement…
MAH FREEDUMBS!!1!! He’s not even bothering to pretend it’s about gunsports any more…
Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott quickly welcomed the news, tweeting: “Welcome to Texas — a state that safeguards the 2nd Amendment.” The NRA said it has more than 400,000 members in Texas and plans to hold its annual convention in Houston later this year.
I believe most of the day-to-day corporate leadership still works out of the DC suburbs (spiritual home of all lobbyist organizations), so it’s mostly kabuki at this point anyways. Due sympathy to all decent Texans, still.
Speaking of weasel words, here’s a masterpiece of the genre:
The National Rifle Association has filed Chapter 11 proceedings and plans to relocate to Texas. The letter, from NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre, says the organization is “as financially strong as we have been in years.” https://t.co/wb0FXdefcR
— 23ABC News (@23ABCNews) January 15, 2021
We’ve been crippling the organization with our relentless greed for years, and hope to continue for years yet to come!
Friday Evening Open Thread: The NRA Tries A Strategic RetreatPost + Comments (72)
This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., Excellent Links, Trump Crime Cartel, Lock Him Up...Lock Them All Up
“People used to fear Trump’s wrath,” a former friend of Ivanka’s said. “Now they fear his affiliation.” https://t.co/qknf6igfb0
— Liam Stack (@liamstack) January 8, 2021
Of course, chances are that the younger Trump/Kushners will be miraculously rehabilitated no later than the 2020 midterms, but it’s nice to know they’re currently suffering the worst such can suffer…
… Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner, have spent the past five years performing a mincing dance around reality, spinning their own parallel universe instead. When it suited them, they were the loudest, most trusted voices in President Trump’s ear, with outsize presences and responsibilities. When it was less advantageous, they shrunk out of sight. As for their influence, well, there was only so much they could do, they’d say. Dad would ultimately be dad…
There aren’t many friends left, but as of this week, there were plenty of people who would either tolerate Javanka or at least bite their tongues: people who had known them for years, people who’d hold their noses to do business with them, people who didn’t much care for their administration but certainly didn’t mind the lower tax rates, the deregulation, the proximity to power. As such, they kept their disdain quiet, at least beyond their immediate social circles.
That changed on Wednesday…
Other longtime friends told me on Thursday that many people who hadn’t wanted to get political were looking to get their feet wet. “It feels like everyone on the Upper East Side is texting me today. Suddenly they all want to join the Resistance,” the former friend said.
It’s unlikely that Sommer and Kloss and the uptown Resistance have suddenly grown consciences in the last day. Rather, Wednesday’s depravity and the couple’s role in it officially made them radioactive. For the last four years, it was easier to say nothing. Last week I could have written a story about Kushner’s role in the Middle East peace process and Ivanka’s positioning for a political future in Florida. But by Wednesday evening, that had all changed. Having any association with them suddenly became the more difficult option. “People used to fear Trump’s wrath,” another former friend of Ivanka’s told me. “Now they fear his affiliation. The stink of his family is nearly impossible to get off. How do you associate yourself with the worst, most toxic people in U.S. history?”…
His daughter and son-in-law lost their power along with him. It didn’t help that they looked craven while everything burned, people around them noted. Ivanka had seemingly been trying to launch her political career, campaigning in Georgia and posting old photos of herself handing out vegetables in Florida, they said. “The finance world knew Jared was in the Middle East when all of this was happening, too, so their self-serving was laid bare,” one person told me. “The narrative going around is that Jared & co. plan to buy up all the distressed assets created by the pandemic he created, like a fucking oligarch.”
Optically, it didn’t help that someone caught a moving truck outside their Kalorama home in Washington on Thursday morning. A man lugging boxes from the garage loaded them into an orange truck with “College Hunks Hauling Junk” printed across the side. A spokesman could not be reached for comment.
Someone just sent me this photo of moving trucks at Jared and Ivanka's house. pic.twitter.com/fll6OiiBHX
— Hunter Walker (@hunterw) January 7, 2021
From commentor Mary G, early this morning:
Ivanka’s on Parler shilling for contributions to Trump Media and bragging they’ve already sold $100,000 coffee mugs. How the mighty have fallen. At the beginning of Twitler’s term she was pushing a $10,000 bracelet from her jewelry line, now it’s something that costs $1.59 to make that they get $15 at most for.
Elsewhere, Melania mourns that now she will never be known as ‘the GOP Jackie Kennedy’…
"Her disinterest in addressing the country was indicative of being 'checked out,' said another White House source, who added, 'she just isn't in a place mentally or emotionally anymore where she wants to get involved.'
Except with the furniture." https://t.co/IbmC6vl6L7— Kate Bennett (@KateBennett_DC) January 8, 2021
(She was actually supervising a photo shoot for a projected coffee-table book on her White House renovations when the Trump Insurrection took place.)
This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat
THE U.S. JUST BANNED ANONYMOUS SHELL COMPANIES https://t.co/mYakQOu3N7
— Casey Michel 🇰🇿 (@cjcmichel) January 1, 2021
… which was one part of the NDAA. The GOP now considers its lame duck a dead duck. Per the Washington Post:
… The 81-13 vote in the Senate came just days after the House also voted in overwhelming numbers to back the legislation, despite Trump’s repeated protests. It takes two-thirds of each chamber to override a presidential veto.
The strong bipartisan majorities supporting the defense bill in both chambers represent a significant rebuke of the president, as it contains several repudiations of his policies as commander in chief.
The bill contains new restrictions on how much of the military’s construction budget the president may move by emergency order — a direct response to Trump’s efforts to divert billions of the Pentagon’s dollars toward the border wall. It also limits the president’s ability to draw down troop levels in Germany, South Korea and Afghanistan — a move Trump had planned over the objections of members of his own party…
The president didn’t immediately comment on Friday’s override of his veto, tweeting instead to remind his supporters about an upcoming rally in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, to coincide with Congress’ planned certification of the 2020 electoral college results. Supporters of the president in the House and Senate have pledged to object to the results, ensuring a drawn-out process that will ultimately have no effect on the outcome…
The Senate votes 81-13 to override President Trump's veto of a major defense policy bill. It is the first veto override of his term.
The President could have quietly signed this bipartisan bill 3 weeks ago. Instead, his veto earned him a clear Congressional rebuke. pic.twitter.com/AKJokC0JO0
— Jamie Dupree (@jamiedupree) January 1, 2021
That 30 hours turned into 30 seconds, the veto override vote is happening NOW. https://t.co/XtfRr8S3GB
— Senate Press Gallery (@SenatePress) January 1, 2021
cotton votes to defund the military https://t.co/V8Qh7xZA21
— Laura Rozen (@lrozen) January 1, 2021
As did Tom Cotton, of course. https://t.co/8vr9hALyHO
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) January 1, 2021
No:
Booker (D-NJ)
Braun (R-IN)
Cotton (R-AR)
Cruz (R-TX)
Hawley (R-MO)
Kennedy (R-LA)
Lee (R-UT)
Markey (D-MA)
Merkley (D-OR)
Paul (R)
Sanders (I)
Warren (D-MA)
Wyden (D-OR)NV:
Cotton (R)
Cruz (R)
Gardner (R-CO)
Graham (R-SC)
Jones (D-AL)
Loeffler (R)
Perdue (R-GA)
Sasse (R-NE)— Samesam (@AkaSamEsam) January 1, 2021
Friday Vote Dump Open Thread: Legislative ProgressPost + Comments (75)
This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., NANCY SMASH!, Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat
Got to appreciate the powerful troll energy of that opening line https://t.co/Bm28CLXUMN
— The Mall Krampus (@cakotz) December 29, 2020
While #MoscowMitch continues his career as a sabateur — more on that later — I’m grateful, again, that we have Speaker Pelosi as an example of how legislating can be done…
McConnell’s 1 insight was he could kill just about everything through process, press wouldn’t explain, & voters wouldn’t punish incumbents for what they don’t vote on. But this is an extraordinary situation & the R’s may take blame for the process, & it validates Biden’s argument
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) December 29, 2020
Some days, the choices are truly as simple and as telling as they seem.
The choice today is to help workers and families across America who are struggling to survive this pandemic or to be in the way of that help getting to the people. https://t.co/V3O9DVcofI
— Nancy Pelosi (@TeamPelosi) December 28, 2020
Full video of @SpeakerPelosi saying on the record that college dependents and those with disabilities will be covered. All adults over the age of 16 will be covered by the houses bill.
This now goes to the Senate: call your senators and force them to pass this bill pic.twitter.com/9nXNYQ7TBs
— Adam Christensen (@AC4Congress2020) December 29, 2020
And that is her job. People may say, "Well, she shouldn't be front and center," and now that a Democrat is going to be president, she won't be. As a Speaker, she is simply outstanding. https://t.co/vmbpXtuAHA
— Jeff Fecke (@jkfecke) December 29, 2020
I learned how good Pelosi was at her job by listening to the fear and awe in Republicans’ voices whenever they wretched about her.
It wasn’t the spite or contempt or plain hate they have for Sec. Clinton or any number of women, but a lament that they had no equal on their side.
— Peter Wolf (@peterawolf) December 29, 2020
Tuesday Evening Open Thread: Thank the Gods for Nancy SmashPost + Comments (223)
This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., Election 2020, Open Threads, Our Failed Media Experiment
lmao this place is gonna go broke so fast https://t.co/uomV31Yw31
— Zeddy (@Zeddary) December 28, 2020
However, the NYTimes, armored in its impenetrable smugness, continues to insist that only Repubs deserve to hold office:
Did the NYT complain about the experience of Tommy Tuberville? Donald Trump? Madison Cawthorn? https://t.co/tICAIWnmdn
— staying home stan account 🌋🎄 (@Convolutedname) December 28, 2020
I assume you opposed Tommy Tuberville, whose main accomplishment was losing winnable games? https://t.co/Zwz3ahmGGX
— Jeff Fecke (@jkfecke) December 28, 2020
No, see, only Democrats can have a "thin resumes"; Republicans are "political outsiders". It's very different
— yarrriv (@yarrriv) December 28, 2020
Late Night Open Thread: The Truest ConcessionPost + Comments (65)
This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., NANCY SMASH!, Open Threads, Repubs in Disarray!, Trumpery
President Trump has finally signed the coronavirus relief bill — 5 days after calling it a “disgrace” and less than 24 hours after allowing 12 million + Americans to lose unemployment benefits.
— Jeremy Diamond (@JDiamond1) December 28, 2020
Per the Washington Post:
President Trump unexpectedly capitulated Sunday night and signed the stimulus bill into law, releasing $900 billion in emergency relief funds into the economy and averting a Tuesday government shutdown.
White House officials didn’t explain why the president decided to suddenly back down and sign into law a bill he had held up for nearly a week and had referred to as a “disgrace” just days earlier.
Trump signed the bill while vacationing in Florida and on a weekend when he had allowed unemployment benefits for 14 million Americans to expire…
In a statement he issued after signing the law, Trump released a long list of false claims and grievances. He said he would be sending a “redlined” version of the bill back to Congress “insisting that those funds be removed from the bill.”
Trump has less than a month remaining in his presidency, and lawmakers are likely to ignore any such request…
Pelosi: "Now, the Prez must immediately call on Congressional Republicans to end their obstruction & to join him & Democrats in support of our stand-alone legislation to increase direct payment checks to $2,000, which will be brought to the Floor tomorrow" https://t.co/lBX51E8yTx
— David Dayen (@ddayen) December 28, 2020
So the ultimate effect of Trump waffling on the coronavirus and omnibus bill is that Democrats clarified that it was Republicans who blocked $2,000 checks, not Democrats, and millions of people lost unemployment benefits for a week.
Really can't overstate how needless this was.
— Matt Fuller (@MEPFuller) December 28, 2020
People rightly focusing on the just-signed COVID bill's relief it provides so many struggling Americans
But it also has critical money for vaccine distribution and for states to ramp up testing.
Because there's still a pandemic going on
And America is the global hotspot
— Ashish K. Jha, MD, MPH (@ashishkjha) December 28, 2020
Step 1: refuse to engage publicly for months.
Step 2: watch a supermajority pass a bill.
Step 3: forcefully threaten to veto it unless demands met.
Step 4: back down and sign it; look weak.As a bonus, you enrage your party and hang your SecTreas out to dry.
What a world.
— Matt Glassman (@MattGlassman312) December 28, 2020
so this imbecile stormed in and tried to tank a deal, ran around and tripped all over his dick, got no discernible benefit to himself, made everything worse for everyone else, and agreed to the original deal.
one last masterclass by donald trump, complete circus animal
— Normie Transition Team (@CalmSporting) December 28, 2020
The credibility of the office is just going to a farm, upstate https://t.co/Hjgttk4qpr
— Zeddy (@Zeddary) December 28, 2020
#MoscowMitch limps up…
I applaud the emperor's magnificent new clothes! https://t.co/zR58LsQjxI
— Daily Trix (@DailyTrix) December 28, 2020
Monday Morning Open Thread: Good News, If We Can Keep ItPost + Comments (184)