Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
This post is in: Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat, Vice-President Harris
the conservative remake of carmen sandiego is weird https://t.co/Ay0XqxPkYL
— woke capital investment advisor machine (@golikehellmachi) April 12, 2021
YOU LOVE TO SEE IT!
The vice president — and her hobby — have inspired a crocheted mural, a crocheted doll, and a burgundy hand-dyed yarn. https://t.co/7xh6evFoqH
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) April 13, 2021
Tuesday Evening Open Thread: Madame Vice President, Confusing the HaterzPost + Comments (87)
This post is in: Open Threads, President Biden, Proud to Be A Democrat, Republican Venality, Our Failed Media Experiment
Psaki response on Cornyn: I can confirm that the President of the United States does not spend his time tweeting conspiracy theories. He spends his time working on behalf of the American people. pic.twitter.com/Xim4IrwB6i
— Acyn (@Acyn) April 12, 2021
In his defense, people are pointing out that Sen. Cornyn is known for being quite stupid…
We’ve gone from “I didn’t see the president’s unhinged tweets” to “it is suspicious that the president isn’t doing unhinged tweets.” pic.twitter.com/1r2xP7WpVW
— Matthew Gertz (@MattGertz) April 12, 2021
People are dunking on this @JohnCornyn tweet and while yes it’s typical bad-faith bullshit, it’s *word for word* copy-pasted from a Politico story trying to make Biden look bad for having a press “strategy” that reporters don’t like because he’s not Trump https://t.co/j6ZNCUxwUq pic.twitter.com/DMqrBGpOnj
— Matt Negrin, HOST OF HARDBALL AT 7PM ON MSNBC (@MattNegrin) April 12, 2021
I generally enjoy Nuzzi’s work as a journamalistic assassin, but I also appreciate her frustration with the Biden White House…
you’re a staffer, go do menial shit. you’re in hhs, go do health things. hey you, over there in energy, go do energy stuff. trying to run a country here not a social club.
— Peloton InfoSec Analyst (Incident Response) (@CalmSporting) April 12, 2021
One big takeaway from the Biden presidency so far is that the argument that "people with lots of government experience know how to get things done" turned out to be… 100000% correct
— Charlotte Alter (@CharlotteAlter) April 12, 2021
***********
Also scheduled today:
Biden to pay respects to US Capitol police officer killed in car ramming attack. https://t.co/kCa6PTtc2U
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) April 9, 2021
Capitol rotunda all set up for William Evans, the Capitol Police officer killed in an attack earlier this month, to lie in honor tomorrow: pic.twitter.com/WsEbub6VrY
— Andrew Solender (@AndrewSolender) April 12, 2021
NEW: Fallen US Capitol Police officer William Evans will lie in honor in US Capitol Rotunda on Tuesday April 13. With a Congressional tribute ceremony at 11am pic.twitter.com/oJfjlDc7cf
— Scott MacFarlane (@MacFarlaneNews) April 6, 2021
Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Once Again — SRSLY?!?Post + Comments (140)
This post is in: Excellent Links, Proud to Be A Democrat, Readership Capture
5 years ago this week, I walked my family into the Oval Office. I watched my immigrant mom speechless as she shook hands with Pres Obama while he held my 6 m/o baby boy. Three generations of my family in the Oval with the President. I kept thinking “This is America”(THREAD) pic.twitter.com/Vge7pS2Qpo
— Andy Kim (@AndyKimNJ) April 10, 2021
Andy Kim is a good man, and a bit of a poet…
That was the last time I was in the White House. The first time I entered that sacred building was when my mother took me as a boy. She taught me two things: 1) This house belongs to the people and 2) this building (and our democracy) is bigger than any of us. 2/14 pic.twitter.com/arQicrW9HB
— Andy Kim (@AndyKimNJ) April 10, 2021
That sense of participation stuck with me years later when I started work at the White House. The first time I ever stepped foot in OvalOffice I was so nervous, but I remembered I was invited. I had something to contribute. As an American, this building belongs to all of us. 4/14 pic.twitter.com/U0mtdgRTza
— Andy Kim (@AndyKimNJ) April 10, 2021
I carried forward that sense of awe and respect, even through small gestures. I kept a pair of pristine black shoes under my desk that I would only wear when called into Oval Office. I wanted to treat that room differently. The White House demands and deserves our respect. 6/14
— Andy Kim (@AndyKimNJ) April 10, 2021
In this era of growing authoritarianism around the globe it’s more important than ever that we protect and reinforce the institutions of our democracy. After insurrection, we know we are not immune to this threat and Georgia voter suppression law shows attacks continue. 9/14 pic.twitter.com/UKwcTShD43
— Andy Kim (@AndyKimNJ) April 10, 2021
When I first walked into the Oval, it felt so familiar from all the movies and photos I’ve seen. I felt like I knew every inch of the room. But being there in person, I noticed one thing I never knew existed – a large seal of Presidency carved in the ceiling above. 11/14 pic.twitter.com/SbwSYC5vWb
— Andy Kim (@AndyKimNJ) April 10, 2021
PROTECT THE PLURALITY: If authoritarianism is inversion of E Pluribus Unum, an attack on plurality and power of Citizen, then we must focus on strengthening civic life. Protect right to vote, demand transparency, fight corruption, counter disinformation, ensure diversity. 13/14
— Andy Kim (@AndyKimNJ) April 10, 2021
I can’t wait to step foot in the White House again and hopefully walk into the Oval Office to greet the President. When I do, I hope to tell President Biden, or any President for that matter, to look up. E Pluribus Unum. This is America. END pic.twitter.com/sALV5D3Mnn
— Andy Kim (@AndyKimNJ) April 10, 2021
Respite Open Thread: ‘Protect the Plurality’Post + Comments (140)
This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., Open Threads, President Biden, Proud to Be A Democrat
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said that the American Jobs Plan will transform the country’s roads, bridges, rails and airports and undo decades of underinvestment that had pushed U.S. infrastructure to 13th place in the world pic.twitter.com/Wzk2W8ScfA
— Reuters (@Reuters) April 10, 2021
GIVE THE PEOPLE WHAT THEY WANT:
President Biden is releasing a $1.5 trillion wish list for the federal budget. He's asking for an 8.4% increase in discretionary spending with substantial gains for education, health care, housing and environmental protection. https://t.co/v4IRONwfPP
— AP Politics (@AP_Politics) April 9, 2021
The Biden budget:
–A $1.5T plan w/massive investments in ed, health, housing, marking a 16% increase in non-defense spending in 2022: https://t.co/htl8IV0EgW
–Our graphics team digs into the numbers: https://t.co/QAsZ6c4nJZ
–How it reverses Trump: https://t.co/kXQSr7TDK1
— Tony Romm (@TonyRomm) April 9, 2021
In his weekly meeting with economic advisers, @POTUS says he’s already working with both parties on his budget priorities and infrastructure plan. “We’re going to see if we can get some bipartisan support across the board here,” he said. He’s spoken to some GOP members, he said. pic.twitter.com/KWgeoeD2e6
— Jenny Leonard (@jendeben) April 9, 2021
Fed Chair Jay Powell said today that his commute home takes him past a “substantial tent city” of homeless Americans
“We just need to keep reminding ourselves that even though some parts of the economy are just doing great, there’s a very large group of people who are not"
— Saleha Mohsin (@SalehaMohsin) April 8, 2021
Gallup survey showing what voter registration data started showing in January: fewer people are self-identifying as Republicans since the insurrection https://t.co/BYdHnwQB05 pic.twitter.com/u3EmkfBGAh
— Michael McDonald (@ElectProject) April 8, 2021
New Gallup data shows a widening of longstanding pattern: more Americans identify with the Democrats than the Republicans. https://t.co/3TNlxavkXO
— Philip Bump (@pbump) April 7, 2021
Saturday Morning Open Thread: Well, Yeah…Post + Comments (233)
This post is in: Open Threads, President Biden, Proud to Be A Democrat, Show Us on the Doll Where the Invisible Hand Touched You
“Obama’s constant frustration was that politicians didn’t understand economics. Biden’s constant frustration is that economists don’t understand politics.” https://t.co/kjd9g12ZBo
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) April 8, 2021
President Obama was one of a kind. His challenges were different from those of any president before him, as were his responses. President Biden is best in class, for his particular political class. And maybe that’s what we need most, right at this particular moment!
Earnest Ezra would like you to believe (that he believes) Biden has changed — changed utterly! Biden, IMO, remains the very good politician he’s always been, but our *circumstances* have changed. Despite his performative naivete, it’s still an interesting read, especially in the NYTimes. “Four Ways of Looking at the Radicalism of Joe Biden”:
… Over the past few months, I’ve been talking to White House staff members, to congressional Democrats, to policy experts and to the Biden administration’s critics to better understand why President Biden is making such a sharp break with Joe Biden. Here are a few of them, though this is by no means a complete list.
The collapse of the Republican Party as a negotiating partner. Most discussions of the renewed ambitions of the Democratic Party focus on ideological trends on the left. The real starting point, however, is the institutional collapse of the right…
A new generation of crises created a new generation of staffers. I’ve been struck by the generational divide within the Democratic Party. Washington is run by 20- and 30-somethings who run the numbers, draft the bills, brief the principals. And there is a marked difference between the staffers and even the politicians whose formative years were defined by stagflation, the rise of Reaganism and the relief of the Clinton boom, and those who came of age during financial crises, skyrocketing personal debt, racial reckonings and the climate emergency. There are exceptions to every rule, of course — see Sanders, Bernie — but in general, the younger generation has sharply different views on the role of government, the worth of markets and the risks worth taking seriously…
Biden has less trust in economists, and so does everyone else. Obama’s constant frustration was that politicians didn’t understand economics. Biden’s constant frustration is that economists don’t understand politics…
The backdrop for this administration is the failures of the past generation of economic advice. Fifteen years of financial crises, yawning inequality and repeated debt panics that never showed up in interest rates have taken the shine off economic expertise. But the core of this story is climate. “Many mainstream economists, even in the 1980s, recognized that the market wouldn’t cover everyone’s needs so you’d need some modest amount of public support to correct for that moderate market failure,” Felicia Wong, the president of the Roosevelt Institute, said. “But they never envisioned the climate crisis. This is not a failure of the market at the margins. This is the market incentivizing destruction.”…
Biden is a politician, in the truest sense of the word. Biden sees his role, in part, as sensing what the country wants, intuiting what people will and won’t accept, and then working within those boundaries. In America, that’s often treated as a dirty business. We like the aesthetics of conviction, we believe leaders should follow their own counsel, we use “politician” as an epithet.
But Biden’s more traditional understanding of the politician’s job has given him the flexibility to change alongside the country. When the mood was more conservative, when the idea of big government frightened people and the virtues of private enterprise gleamed, Biden reflected those politics, calling for balanced budget amendments and warning of “welfare mothers driving luxury cars.” Then the country changed, and so did he…
Even when Biden was running as the moderate in the Democratic primary, his agenda had moved well to the left of anything he’d supported before. But then he did something unusual: Rather than swinging to the center in the general election, he went further left. And the same happened after winning the election. He’s moved away from work requirements and complex targeting in policy design. He’s emphasizing the irresponsibility of allowing social and economic problems to fester, as opposed to the irresponsibility of spending money on social and economic problems. His administration is defined by the fear that the government isn’t doing enough, not that it’s doing too much. As the pseudonymous commentator James Medlock wrote on Twitter, “The era of ‘the era of big government is over’ is over.’”
Seems like Ezra Klein woke up one morning and realized the median Democrat of 2021 is far to the left of the median Democrat of 1995, and that Biden has always been at that median.
— Tentin Quarantino (@agraybee) April 8, 2021
Shocking News Open Thread: President Biden Is A Skillful Politician!Post + Comments (230)
This post is in: Open Threads, President Biden, Proud to Be A Democrat
Deb Haaland, the first Native American interior secretary, is scheduled to meet with tribes and elected officials Thursday at Bears Ears National Monument. https://t.co/9wRcbg2a1O
— The Associated Press (@AP) April 8, 2021
Pax Bidena is upon us! https://t.co/LyEzySPSvN
— AdotSad (@AdotSad) April 7, 2021
“The 9 point Democratic advantage is the largest Gallup has measured since the fourth quarter of 2012. In recent years, Democratic advantages have typically been between four and six percentage points.” https://t.co/c8grBOmR3q
— Josh Kraushaar (@HotlineJosh) April 7, 2021
I welcome our new non-shit-taking Democratic overlords https://t.co/Yk5o5Qs9i1
— James Palmer (@BeijingPalmer) April 7, 2021
Two hundred years ago trains weren’t “traditional” infrastructure either — until America made the choice to lay the tracks.
— President Biden (@POTUS) April 7, 2021
In the Playbook breakdown of Biden's jobs plan, the only thing that ends up being "not even close to infrastructure" is the $400 billion investment in caregiving.
Notably, that is *also* the line item that takes the package's biggest swing at gender and racial equity pic.twitter.com/Yy2BG9kXnq
— Kara Voght (@karavoght) April 7, 2021
The problem is that while Politico Playbook is only read by a small audience, it is widely read by the DC media/politics crowd (the pro version makes $300k a week) and it filters into the general media discourse. You already have other reporters doing snarky tweets.
— staying home stan account (@Convolutedname) April 7, 2021
Can every bluecheck now STFU pic.twitter.com/Jacbfi1lpk
— staying home stan account (@Convolutedname) April 7, 2021
Thursday Morning Open Thread: Moving ForwardPost + Comments (198)
This post is in: Open Threads, President Biden, Proud to Be A Democrat, Our Failed Media Experiment
PETER DOOCY: Is the WH concerned MLB is moving their All Star Game to Colorado, where voting rules are very similar to Georgia?
PSAKI: Let me refute that. CO has same-day registration, universal mail voting… it's important to remember the context. The GA bill is built on a lie pic.twitter.com/TaDLU0mYNP
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 6, 2021
Our Failed Media Village Idiots, on the other hand… are persistent:
The media is so desperate for a scandal, because after four years that’s all they know how to report on, that they keep trying to turn everything into one. It’s honestly pathetic. It’s okay to cover them as competent when they’re competent. https://t.co/xz6XlSacXb
— White Boy Bummer ???????? (@SJGrunewald) April 6, 2021
Asked if @TheMasters should be moved out of Georgia, Biden told us: “I think that's up to the Masters.”
He added that it’s “reassuring” to see businesses “speaking up about how these new Jim Crow laws are just antithetical to who we are.” pic.twitter.com/WDP3miwBdE
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) April 6, 2021
Interesting nugget. The US economy has added more jobs in Biden's young presidency than during the presidencies of the last 3 Republican presidents combined.
— We did it, Joe?? (@snowmanomics) April 6, 2021
Maybe if Republicans want to work with Biden they could work with Biden. https://t.co/1j37MPK6C5
— Jeff Fecke (@jkfecke) April 6, 2021
Another interesting parallel between the New Deal and the present:
"The New Deal was really Roosevelt’s program for defusing extremism" and "fascism," says @rauchway.
Big public investments right now, he adds, can similarly "defuse illiberal tendencies and promote democracy." https://t.co/7caJqVVMX5
— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) April 6, 2021
Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Jen Psaki Is Very Good At Her JobPost + Comments (174)