;)
Sunday
Mar142021
Ides of March 2021
Late Morning/Afternoon Update:
Laura Barron-Lopez & Ben White of Politico: "President Joe Biden is appointing Gene Sperling to a role overseeing the implementation of the administration's coronavirus relief plan, a White House official confirmed on Monday. The announcement could come as early as Monday, sources familiar with the plans told Politico.... Sperling, who served on the economic teams in both the Obama and Clinton administrations, was under consideration to serve as Biden's director of the Office of Management and Budget after the president's first pick, Neera Tanden, failed to secure enough support in the Senate. Instead of that post, he is being tapped for a position within the White House where he will be tasked with overseeing the enactment of the recently-signed $1.9 trillion Covid-relief bill."
Spencer Hsu & Peter Hermann of the Washington Post: "Federal authorities have arrested and charged two men with assaulting U.S. Capitol Police officer Brian D. Sicknick with bear spray during the Jan. 6 Capitol riot but have not determined whether the exposure caused his death. Julian Elie Khater, 32, of Pennsylvania and George Pierre Tanios, 39 of Morgantown, W.Va., were arrested Sunday and are expected to appear in federal court Monday.... Khater and Tanios are charged with nine counts, including assaulting Sicknick, a U.S. Capitol Police officer identified as C. Edwards and a D.C. police officer identified as B. Chapman with a deadly weapon. They are also charged with civil disorder and obstruction of a congressional proceeding. The charges are punishable by up to 20 years in prison. Prosecutors filed charges after tipsters contacted the FBI allegedly identifying Khater and Tanios from wanted images released by the bureau from surveillance video and officer-worn body camera footage, the complaint said. It said the men grew up together in New Jersey...."
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Monday are here. The Washington Post's live updates for Monday are here.
Minnesota. Holly Bailey of the Washington Post:"The attorney for Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer charged in George Floyd's death, asked the judge overseeing the case to delay the trial and reconsider a change-of-venue motion, saying he was 'gravely concerned the $27 million civil settlement announced last week between the city of Minneapolis and the Floyd family has tainted the jury pool. Eric Nelson, Chauvin’s defense attorney, questioned the 'suspicious timing' of the settlement and argued it was 'highly prejudicial' against his client. He called on Hennepin County District Court Judge Peter A. Cahill to 'at least' call back the jurors already seated in the case to question them to see if they had read the news of the settlement and if they could continue to be impartial in the case. Eight jurors have been seated."
Nicole Winfield of the AP: "The Vatican decreed Monday that the Catholic Church won't bless same-sex unions since God 'cannot bless sin.' The Vatican's orthodoxy office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, issued a formal response Monday to a question about whether Catholic clergy have the authority to bless gay unions. The answer, contained in a two-page explanation published in seven languages and approved by Pope Francis, was 'negative.' The note distinguished between the church's welcoming and blessing of gay people, which it upheld, but not their unions. It argued that such unions are not part of God's plan and that any such sacramental recognition could be confused with marriage."
~~~~~~~~~~
Darlene Superville of the AP: "President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and their spouses are opening an ambitious, cross-country tour this week to highlight the benefits of his $1.9 trillion plan to defeat the coronavirus and boost the economy."
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Sunday are here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Elizabeth Dwoskin of the Washington Post: "Facebook is conducting a vast behind-the-scenes study of doubts expressed by U.S. users about vaccines, a major project that attempts to probe and teach software to identify the medical attitudes of millions of Americans, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post. The research is a large-scale attempt to understand the spread of ideas that contribute to vaccine hesitancy.... Some of the early findings are notable: Just 10 out of the 638 population segments contained 50 percent of all vaccine hesitancy content on the platform. And in the population segment with the most vaccine hesitancy, just 111 users contributed half of all vaccine hesitant content.... The research effort also discovered early evidence of significant overlap between communities that are skeptical of vaccines and those affiliated with QAnon.... Facebook has also banned a wide range of baseless or misleading claims about vaccines and covid...." ~~~
~~~ Who Needs a Vaccine When Kris Kobach Has a Magic Ozone Cure? Jeremy Fassler & Nia Yancopoulos of the Kansas Reflector: "In early October, Kris Kobach, Kansas' former Secretary of State, and Daniel Drake, a Wichita-based venture capitalist-turned-CEO, made a sales pitch to Kansas legislators. The duo wheeled in ... a shiny metal box Drake called a 'revolutionary' device that would 'kill COVID' and bring 'several hundred jobs back to Wichita.'... Drake explained that his company, MoJack Distributors, had developed a line called 'Scent Crusher' that uses aerosolized ozone, a tri-oxygen molecule, to sanitize hunting and sports products, 'only to realize that [the product also kills] COVID.' He told lawmakers the sample product next to him was part of a new line called 'Sarus Systems.'... There is no evidence Sarus Systems has made material steps toward rehoming hundreds of jobs to Kansas, and shipping records show products are currently being manufactured in China. There is also scant evidence their machines, or ozone in general, can safely eliminate SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. And while the pair have hyped the products' popularity, claiming a three-month backlog and international interest, we were unable to verify any purchases -- from the state of Kansas or otherwise." ~~~
~~~ Allan Smith & Alex Seitz-Wald of NBC News on "How Biden, Republicans and public health leaders are trying to persuade GOP skeptics to get their Covid vaccinations." Marie: Unfortunately, there's not much there there. "The [Biden] administration is having ongoing conversations with conservative, evangelical and rural leaders. And, in addition to running ads on conservative media, National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins appeared on the Christian Broadcasting Network and The 700 Club, and White House Covid-19 adviser Andy Slavitt appeared on conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt's show.... Veteran GOP pollster Frank Luntz ... is working with the de Beaumont Foundation to study and create pro-vaccine messaging aimed at conservatives[.]" Here's an example of what Republicans are doing to "help": "'Sen. [Ted] Cruz has received both doses of the Covid-19 vaccine and encourages people to do the same,' his spokesperson, Jessica Skaggs, said. 'If anyone has concerns, the senator recommends people consult their doctor.'" IOW, Ted offers a caveat to accommodate skeptics. ~~~
~~~ Marie: I do think if I were Joe Biden, I would call the heads of right-wing media into the Oval Office & nicely explain, with a little help from Walensky & Fauci maybe, to get with the program. If the CEOs don't want to edit their on-air oafs, then they should run network-produced PSAs promoting the vaccines, every time the on-air oafs deliver their disinformation. I think there's a solitary clip out there in which former President* FUBAR says, "Get your vaccination." The clip should feature prominently in the promos.
~~~ Nicole Lewis of the Marshall Project & Michael Sisak of the AP: "As states have begun COVID-19 inoculations at prisons across the country, corrections employees are refusing vaccines at alarming rates.... Infection rates in prisons are more than three times as high as in the general public. Prison staff helped accelerate outbreaks by refusing to wear masks, downplaying people's symptoms, and haphazardly enforcing social distancing and hygiene protocols in confined, poorly ventilated spaces ripe for viral spread.... Some correctional officers are refusing the vaccine because they fear both short- and long-term side effects of the immunizations. Others have embraced conspiracy theories about the vaccine. Distrust of the prison administration and its handling of the virus has also discouraged officers from being immunized. In some instances, correctional officers said they would rather be fired than be vaccinated.... [Also,] health care workers, caretakers in nursing homes and police officers -- who have witnessed the worst effects of the pandemic -- have declined to be vaccinated at unexpectedly high rates." ~~~
~~~ Marie: The short-term solution seems obvious: a shot in the arm or a pink slip. Of course these nitwits are in the general population, too, so that's not a long-term solution. But there doesn't seem to be an education program that will help them as long as they're getting their "education" from right-wing media outlets, as the reporters note, they're beyond hope.
~~~ Fauci Urges Trump to Push Vaccination. Amy Wang of the Washington Post: "Anthony S. Fauci ... said in interviews Sunday that ... Donald Trump should be enlisted to encourage his supporters to get a coronavirus vaccine, after recent polling showed Republican men and Trump supporters have the highest rates of vaccine hesitancy. An NPR-PBS NewsHour-Marist poll released last week showed that nearly half of Republican men and 47 percent of those who supported Trump in the 2020 election said they would not choose to be vaccinated, even if the coronavirus vaccines were made available to them. By contrast, only 10 percent of supporters of President Biden said they would not choose to be vaccinated if offered one, the poll found.... Earlier this month, Trump's office revealed that the former president had received a vaccine in January before leaving the White House but did not publicize it.... Trump did not participate in a recent public service announcement by the Ad Council that featured all of the other living former presidents encouraging Americans to get vaccinated, an omission Fauci said was 'puzzling.'" The AP's story is here. ~~~
~~~ Marie: Trying to get Trump to do the right thing is probably a fool's errand. Let's see what happens. But history, and the following Politico report, do not offer encouraging signs. ~~~
~~~ Nowhere Man. Gabby Orr & Meredith McGraw of Politico: "... Donald Trump finds himself adrift while in political exile. And Republicans, and even some allies, say he is disorganized, torn between playing the role of antagonist and party leader.... He backed away from creating a third party and has soured on the costly prospect of launching his own TV empire or social media startup. His vow to target disloyal Republicans with personally-recruited primary challengers has taken a backseat to conventional endorsements of senators who refused to indulge his quest to overturn the 2020 election. And though he was supposed to build a massive political apparatus to keep his MAGA movement afloat, it's unclear to Republicans what his PAC is actually doing, beyond entangling itself in disputes with Republican icons and the party's fundraising arms." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: I'm sure we're not surprised. The only things Donald Trump has ever done in the last 40 years is collect money from suckers and tell lies about himself & people he doesn't like. He's just keeping up the tradition. ~~~
~~~ Trump Is Not the Only Scammer Trading on His Name. Theodoric Meyer of Politico: &"Over the past few weeks, Politico has received a number of robocalls from generically named political groups asking for cash in order to help in very Trump-specific missions. A donation of $100, for example, would help return Trump to Twitter. Or, for a similar amount, a potential donor can 'stop Kamala Harris and socialism,' the calls claim. Other calls ask for money to ensure that congressional Democrats don't dismantle the wall Trump started building along the U.S.-Mexico border. One of the telemarketers behind the calls, who spoke to a Politico reporter on Wednesday, promised that '100 percent of the contributions go directly to President Trump.' But the calls aren't being made by Trump's Save America political action committee. In fact, it's not entirely clear who's behind them." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Looks like "socialism" is a right-wing code word for "people of color."
Republican MOC Claims Credit for Covid Relief Plan She Voted Against. Ed Scarce of Crooks & Liars: "Rep. Maria Salazar (R-Florida) tweeted 'So proud to announce that the Biden Administration has just implemented my bipartisan COVID relief bill as part of @SBAgov policy!' She voted against it anyway. They really are shameless, aren't they? Salazar is not the only example of this either. Several other Republicans have tried the same trick, because apparently people are stupid and they think they can get away with it. And because Salazar represents a swing district (FL-27), that's actually nominally Democratic, she uses the words 'bipartisan support' a lot in her tweets...." Thanks to Akhilleus for the link.
Camila Montoya-Gomez of CBS News: "As of Sunday morning, U.S. Border Patrol was holding more than 4,200 unaccompanied migrant children in short-term holding facilities, including jail-like stations unfit to house minors, according to government records reviewed by CBS News. Nearly 3,000 of the unaccompanied children in Customs and Border Protection (CBP) custody had been held longer than 72 hours. CBP is legally obligated to transfer most unaccompanied minors to the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), the agency which oversees shelters licensed to house children, within three days of taking them into custody. The number of unaccompanied children in CBP custody on Sunday represents a 31% increase from early last week.... [Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro] Mayorkas ... Saturday ... announc[ed] the deployment of Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) officials to help process migrant minors.... Mayorkas said Saturday in a statement announcing the deployment of Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) officials to help process migrant minors.... [Health & Human Service] has also placed staff at Border Patrol facilities to expedite the process of releasing minors and rescinded a Trump-era agreement with DHS that allowed some information on sponsors of children to be sent to immigration authorities -- a move designed to encourage undocumented families to sponsor children." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Worth noting: this ballooning problem is the result of four years of the Trump administration's cruel & unusual policies. ~~~
~~~ Update. Zolan Kanno-Youngs of the New York Times: "Previous administrations have also dispatched FEMA to help process migrants during surges in border crossings. However, the Biden administration cannot use disaster aid funding to support the processing of migrants in Texas after they cross the border without the consent of Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican. States must request the funding from the federal government. Renae Eze, a spokeswoman for Mr. Abbott, said the Biden administration proposal to leverage disaster aid for Texas ... 'forces Texas to use our resources for what is the federal government's job, border security.... The federal government alone has the responsibility to test, screen and quarantine illegal immigrants crossing our border who may have Covid.'... Mr. Abbott and other Republicans have... Mr. Biden's critics have moved quickly in recent days to blame him for the increase of arrivals...."
~~~ Marie: IOW, it sure sounds like Gov. Greg is going to make it as difficult as possible for the federal government to treat children humanely. Republicans are endowed with a stunning viciousness. I don't know if Abbott behaves as he does because he is a racist or because he's simply cruel by nature. Whatever, the effect is the same. ** See also Patrick's comment below.
Nancy Pelosi, Cocaine Dealer. Justin Baragona of the Daily Beast: "Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott suggested on Sunday that H.R. 1, the sweeping election-reform bill recently passed by the House of Representatives, could eventually result in Democrats 'using cocaine to buy votes.'... [Abbott told Maria Bartiromo of Fox 'News' that then-President Obama] 'sent his U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas as well as the FBI to south Texas to arrest and to prosecute people who were involved in ballot harvesting that were using cocaine to buy votes through the ballot harvesting process....'" MB: I'm pretty sure that by "South Texas," Abbott means "Hispanic people." Anyhow, it's pretty upsetting to find out that the effect of federal voting rights legislation would be to turn Americans into cocaine-addicted Democrats.
A Texas Man. Kyle Cheney of Politico: "A Texas man who joined a mob at the Capitol on Jan. 6 told two rioters he had set up a security company as a front to access law enforcement-grade weaponry that could be used to 'take back our country,' according to private, encrypted messages revealed Saturday by prosecutors. Guy Reffitt, who drove from Texas to Washington, D.C., also said in recorded conversations that he and others were carrying firearms during the siege of the Capitol. He also encouraged his two associates to join the 'Texas Three Percenters' militia, according to the messages posted to Telegram.... Prosecutors described the arrangement in an effort to persuade a judge that Reffitt is too dangerous to be released before his trial on charges related to the Capitol assault. Reffitt is a self-described Three Percenter, which prosecutors describe as an ideology rooted in the notion that the current government is the equivalent of British oppressors and can be overthrown by armed militias. They noted that Reffitt misled the FBI about his company -- TTP Security, LLC -- telling them it had no connection to the Texas Three Percenters. Rather, he said, it stood for 'Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Trump-Loving Nazi Terrorist.Your Typical Trump-Hitler Fan. Marshall Cohen of CNN: "An Army reservist charged with storming the US Capitol was a well-known White supremacist and Nazi sympathizer at the Navy base where he worked as a contractor, and was even rebuked for sporting a distinctive 'Hitler mustache,' prosecutors said in new court filings. Federal prosecutors revealed Friday that the Navy conducted its own internal investigation into Timothy Hale-Cusanelli that uncovered numerous incidents where he promoted racist and sexist views. The Naval Criminal Investigation Service interviewed 44 of his colleagues and 34 of them said he held 'extremist or radical views pertaining to the Jewish people, minorities and women.' Hale-Cusanelli, 30, was charged with seven criminal counts, including obstructing congressional proceedings, civil disorder and disorderly conduct in the Capitol.." ~~~
~~~ Marie: I linked a Politico story about this Hitler wannabe yesterday, but I didn't have this swell photo then. Trump has teased a run for president* in 2024 & has hinted mike pence wont' be his running mate. He should pick der Führer instead. And definitely go with that pic. This needs a little work, but it's a good start for "Trump/Hale-Hitler in 2024!" campaign lit. ~~~
At the Ghost Hotel. David Smith of the Guardian: "Clobbered first by the coronavirus pandemic, then by its owner's election defeat, the Trump International Hotel in Washington is reeling from a huge loss of income and prestige.... One recent afternoon it seemed more reminiscent of the haunted hotel in Stanley Kubrick's film The Shining.... A week [after President Biden's inauguration], the New York Times reported that the lobby was largely vacant and the waiters and staff members outnumbered the customers." See also Akhilleus' comment below on Trump's business acumen. MB: I'm thinking that a rude, nasty oaf is not well-suited to the hospitality business.
Ted Comes to Tucker's Rescue. Under Biden, the military is launching political attacks to intimidate Tucker Carlson & other civilians who criticize their policy decisions. Officials in uniform are being used for the campaign. I've demanded a meeting with the Commandant of the USMC to put a stop to it. -- Sen. Ted Cruz, in a tweet
The tweet reproduces a copy of Ted's letter to Secretary of defense Lloyd Austin. It irks me that our tax dollars are being wasted on this farce. -- Marie
Annals of Journalism, Ctd. Marina Piofsky of the Hill: "MSNBC host Rachel Maddow won a Grammy Award on Sunday for the audiobook recording of her most recent book. The book, titled 'Blowout: Corrupted Democracy, Rogue State Russia, and the Richest, Most Destructive Industry on Earth,' was published in 2019. Maddow won the award in the Best Spoken Word Album category."
Beyond the Beltway
New York. Jesse McKinley & David Goodman of the New York Times: "At the height of the pandemic, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo called upon some of his most trusted emissaries to return to the fold to help coordinate the state's coronavirus response, including Larry Schwartz, his former top aide who is now leading New York's vaccination efforts. But with Mr. Cuomo facing concurrent scandals and calls for his resignation, Mr. Schwartz has also assumed a more familiar role: as a political operative, asking state Democratic leaders to support the governor, a third-term Democrat, while continuing to discuss the urgent business of immunization. According to two Democratic county executives, Mr. Schwartz placed calls to them in recent weeks, inquiring about their loyalty to the governor.... [One county] executive's legal counsel filed a preliminary complaint on Friday with the state attorney general office's public integrity bureau, about a possible ethics violation by the governor's office, according to an official with direct knowledge of the complaint. Mr. Schwartz insisted in a statement on Sunday that he had never mixed Covid-response policy with political considerations...." ~~~
~~~ The Washington Post's story is here. An AP story, based on the NYT & WashPo reports, is here.
Way Beyond
** #MeToo Plus. Amanda Taub of the New York Times: "... the response [to the murder of Sarah Everard] from British women to reports that the police were going door to door telling women in the South London neighborhood where she disappeared to stay inside for their own safety became an outpouring of rage and frustration. It has set off a social movement that feels, somehow, different from those that have come before: women from all walks of life demanding safety from male violence -- and demanding that the police, the government and men collectively be the ones to bear the burden of ensuring it.... In the days after Ms. Everard's disappearance, a group calling itself Reclaim These Streets announced that a vigil would be held on Saturday night in a South London park. The event would be partly to mourn and partly to protest the police instructions to women to stay home for their own security and to demand safer streets instead.... Whatever the Met's internal reasoning, the message it sent to women across the country was that the police were doubling down on restricting women's freedom instead of men's violence." ~~~
~~~ Marie: This is important. British women are demanding not just that men be prosecuted after the fact for sexual misconduct & violence but that society must prevent the misconduct & violence before it happens.
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Reader Comments (10)
Poor little donnie, all adrift. No Twitter, no trappings of royalty anymore, no screaming mobs setting fire to the Capitol to gain his favor...
As Marie points out, Fatty isn’t likely to do much of anything except more of the same (con job, lie, gull the rubes, pick their pockets, and wait for “donations” from that dog doohickey).
If you think about it, pretty much everything he’s done on his own has been a disaster. His dad handed him the real estate empire he’s used to keep himself afloat and to provide collateral for all his bad loans. The projects and scams he’s finagled himself have all gone belly up. Here’s what a loser he is. Casinos are effectively places to print free money. But Trump fucked up not one, but three casinos, not to mention screwing the pooch on his Plaza hotel “deal” and various other resorts.
Even Mafia dese and dose guys made money on casinos.
He became president thanks to a self-righteous narcissist at the FBI, Russian interference, and a toxic mix of media misogyny and an unfortunate level of chutzpah on the part of his opponent. Once in the White House he oversaw the most inept, fucked up fire drill, scam-a-palooza, crooks-R-us administration in US history.
So basically, everything he’s tried to do by himself (2020 election?) has been FUBAR. Like you read about. He’s a loser.
He’s not going to start a media empire. That’s the bunk. He’s too lazy, and pretty soon he’ll be busted flatter than a single cell amoeba and trying to waddle away from all the impending legal and financial entanglements (speaking of cells...).
He might still be a king maker for the traitors, but that’s the old story about the one eyed man in the kingdom of the blind.
That doesn’t mean everything is jake; he’s still dangerous. He has power as long as the droolers think he does and as long as long as the weasels fear him, and the Republican Party, as we’ve all clearly seen, is miscible with treason, so there’s that.
But he’s not going to run again. Losing a second time would be more than he could stand. But then again, it’s what he does best.
Losing, that is.
Confederates are really having a thing with this credit business. Trump should get credit for doing nothing about a situation he made worse by several orders of magnitude, and now R’s who voted against Biden’s Trump virus relief bill are taking credit for it. Yeah. For the whole thing.
Here’s Rep. Maria Salazar (R-natch) of Florida:
“So proud to announce that the Biden Administration has just implemented MY bipartisan COVID relief bill as part of @SBAgov policy!”
(Emphasis mine).
But seriously! She voted against it! All of a sudden though, it’s “my bill”.
When I commented that these traitor schmoes who voted against helping their constituents would have no problem taking the money, I didn’t realize that some of them (she’s not the only one running this scam, apparently) would take full credit for it as well.
They really have mainlined the Trump Con Job Kool Aid.
https://crooksandliars.com/2021/03/florida-republican-tries-claim-credit
"Hale-Hitler". Has a certain ring to it, maybe I've heard something like it before?
OK, but I was going to write about Tejas, and this quote from above :
"... spokeswoman for Mr. Abbott, said the Biden administration proposal to leverage disaster aid for Texas ... “forces Texas to use our resources for what is the federal government’s job, border security.. ..."
This is, of course, bulldung. Ms. Whatsername is referring to the Stafford Act, by which the feds fund disaster relief. To make fed relief (mostly, money) available, the governor has to request it and the President (note -- no longer the Prezdet*) has to approve it. So, it is not "state resources" that the President is using without the governor's approval. Whatever resources FEMA is using are not Stafford Act money, and until some enterprising reporter or fed spox tells us what funds ARE being used, we don't know. But the Tejano guv's assertions are totally equivocado.
The fed cannot hijack states' emergency response capabilities outside the Stafford Act process. And whatever costs are incurred by the state to execute fed programs are reimbursed or paid directly by the feds.
I am really getting tired of liars running governments.
A Whole Bunch of Hymies
We are so close to working our way out of the hole Fatty put us in with the Trump virus. So close. Virologists are talking about light at the end of the tunnel. All we have to do is hang in there for a while longer. But, ohhhh...that's an inch too far for confederate pols who will no longer do what is suggested to save their lives and those of their constituents, dammit. Their Freeeeedoms are being stolen!
Do you guys remember Hymie?
Here he is.
Hymie was a robot on a TV show back in the 60's. Hymie, in addition to being a walking computer, could do things no humans could do. In one episode, the United States was trying to win a track meet against Eastern bloc rivals. It was a big deal, but the US runner got hurt. Rather than let the bad guys win, Hymie jumped into the race at the last minute, running around the track at 60 miles an hour in street shoes, wearing his Botany 500 suit. But....oops! Just a foot from the finish line, his batteries ran out. We lost.
This is R's today. They're trying to lose the race just a foot shy of the finish line.
Oh, the name of that show?
Get Smart. Yeah. No hope, right?
Representative salazar and Senator wicker, who are both claiming credit for relief bill provisions that they voted against, are in fact proving that the bill _was_ bipartisan.
They are highlighting how Democrats are doing their best to govern for the entire nation. Democrats listened to policy ideas from everyone and used the ones they thought would be helpful, no matter the source.
And yet every R voted against the bill. The Joe and Kamala tour should visit every R district, point out all the good the rescue package is doing, and remind everyone that their representative voted against it.
They Got Nothin' Pt. 34
So what's the big beef over in TrumpLand? Complaints about policy? About world hunger? Income inequality? Defense plans? Infrastructure? Education?
Nah.
Ted Cruz is bent out of shape because President Biden is...wait for it...
Boring. Oh, but "boring and radical". Say what? Boring AND radical? Umm....is that possible?
"Honey, the president just announced a raft of radical changes to domestic and foreign policies! It's NUTS!"
"(*yawn*)...Boooooo-ring."
Right up there with ice breakers like "I like peanut butter. Can you ice skate?" "The president is boring. But RADICAL!"
But back to the Tailgunner. Boring, huh? I guess what he means is no attacks on government buildings, no murders by Trump brownshirts, no tweets insulting half a billion people around the world, no attempts to jimmy election results by threatening state officials, no high ranking pals indicted and arrested....
You mean that kind of not-boring, Ted?
Really, they got nothin'. "Biden is boring?" That's it?
Booooorrrring.
"And in the population segment with the most vaccine hesitancy, just 111 users contributed half of all vaccine hesitant content"
Facebook once again shows that they could be fighting disinformation with minimal effort if they actually wanted. Instead they just claim to be conducting a study and let much of their dangerous content run wild. We saw how much good was done when Donnie finally got knocked off Twitter and the election fraud bs fell off a cliff. Instead Facebook will just say they are conducting a continual study of all their user content and keep it up for scientific purposes.
"Marie: I do think if I were Joe Biden, I would call the heads of right-wing media into the Oval Office & nicely explain, with a little help from Walensky & Fauci maybe, to get with the program."
Biden should get all the CEOs of their advertisers in there as they explain how getting vaccinated would help jump start their precious economy. Maybe a carrot and stick approach would be best and let them know that if they don't get on board they will find out just how many regulators and inspectors the federal government has working for it. It would be a shame if they got shut down because their break room wasn't up to code, wouldn't it? The hallways are supposed to be two gurneys wide, right?
RAS,
Biden calling these guys in for a little chat sounds like a perfectly reasonable idea given the stakes. But you know what would happen. The right-wing screamers would all lose their shit and call Biden a tyrant for trying to tell the Emperors of the Universe on Wall Street and the Gods of Faux and the other propaganda outlets "what to do".
They're already screeching about Biden saying that things could be a lot better by the Fourth of July because, as we all know, the Fourth of July™ is owned and operated by the right, as is the 'merican flag and every other bit of patriotic symbolism. Oh, except when they want to overthrow the guv'mint and install a dictator. But everyone knows by now that those nice Proud Boys and the other white supremacist/secessionist/sedition loving asshats and their co-conspirators in Congress had nothing to do with that riot. It was Obama and Antifa and a bunch elite lib'ruls dressed up like winger patriots.
First, vaccinate the whole darn world...and then this:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2021/03/15/yellen-pushes-global-minimum-tax-white-house-eyes-new-spending-plan/
How sane and refreshing to see someone in our federal government actually talking about a global solution to a global problem.
A heartening alternative to hunkering behind walls, pretending the rest of the world doesn't exist and that we don't share the same problems and must therefore find a way to share in finding their solutions.
The alternative?
We just had four years of it.