It’s not like the guy has n’t done anything
Virus numbers ARE coming down
There are groceries on the shelf’s
Billions will be spent on infrastructure project’s
And he’s Russian itching for his attention
I know the signed up for the job
But
He can’t do everything
It doesn’t work that way……
New Open Thread is HERE
SORRY about the delay
Good Morning
Meanwhile out in the dank electoral badlands of Aryanzona……..”Since the 2022 Arizona legislative session began, Republican lawmakers have introduced a slew of restrictive voting bills.”
“House Bill 2596 would eliminate early voting, no-excuse mail-in voting (which the state has had since 1991) and emergency voting centers.”
“H.B. 2596 would also ban the use of electronic voting machines and require all ballots to be counted by hand.”
“The bill adds a new section to Arizona’s elections code that gives the partisan state Legislature the ultimate authority to “accept or reject the election results” and allow any elector to request a new election be held.”
“One bill would prohibit drop boxes and another would prohibit voting centers, locations in a given jurisdiction where voters can cast a ballot regardless of their residential address. Even though Arizona does not have same-day registration, a third bill would proactively forbid the practice and make violations by state agencies or administrators a felony.” ……. https://www.democracydocket…
Much of the criticism of Biden is because of the continuing pandemic and the inflation that is a direct result of it.
He did himself no favors, however, with the “go big” proposals when it was obvious that Manchin was opposed and the votes weren’t going to be there.I think Biden, a well known negotiator ,felt that somehow he could bring Manchin along.In normal times he might have.These are not normal times.Then, of course, Sinemas obstinacy was totally unexpected and added to his woes.
As to the pandemic,Biden hasn’t “mishandled” it.Its just that much still remains unknown about this virus .Two different variants have appeared since he became President,Delta and Omicron.They would have appeared regardless of who was President.However, as is well known, when things are going badly,the President gets the blame.Thus,it is with Biden.
Can he recover?Sure.Will he?Unknown.
Biden himself said he understood he was a transitional President.I have previously stated that I thought the chances of him running again are remote.I see no reason to change that opinion.
Been here before, a Democrat tries to fix the problems left behind by a Republican and all he gets is grief and hand wringing from Democrats and scorn and a refusal to help from Republicans.
Joe is a big boy and knows what he got into. He could use a little less ageism from his friends however.
Compare the reaction from Democrats when this virus kicked off with Trump in office to what Republicans are not doing now along with two asshole Democrats and tell me who’ll you vote for when Herr Trump runs again.
As far as those proposals being too big? They needed to be bigger to correct the Republican damage of four years.
Signs point to inflation falling, the economy is expanding at a record rate, unemployment has fallen dramatically, wages are up dramatically along with government revenue. Even these doom and gloom polls tell us that people feel that they are doing well personally it’s just the country that isn’t? Really?
Here in California we finished last year with a record surplus for the ninth year in a row. Guess who’s been in charge all that time? You want your economy to grow? Elect a Democrat.
Biden, like Obama, took a Republican disaster and turned it around with the full opposition of Mitch “blacks aren’t Americans” McConnell. Biden is right, they have no agenda except to get power back.
But after telling the truth what do we hear, Biden needs to be non-partisan. Really? To paraphrase Truman, “Biden told the truth and the Republicans think it’s hell.”
Some strange conversation here this week from the gang of six. People felt the need to discuss their sexual dysfunction. Someone named Meatloaf committed Republican suicide and we were told to feel guilty, and people still deny that there is a massive effort to suppress the vote before the midterms.
And, of course, the usual virus denier was in full swing. Get ready, there’s another variant coming from the UK. If only Republicans would get vaccinated.
Sorry Keith must’ve been a new url
Biden did show a misreading of Manchin and Sinmea……
He got Dragged in a fight he should not have had
Did he or did the House and Senate Leadership.
Manchin agreed to a top line and then reneged, how is that Joe Biden’s fault?
I think it’s reasonable to compare the current state of our politics and economy to that of post-World War II.
Back then consumers were hit with supply shortages and rising prices as the country began to transition from a wartime to a peacetime economy. Now we are shifting from a pandemic environment, experiencing similar disruptions in supplies and prices.
Voters in many states remained disenfranchised due to the burden imposed by the poll tax, a fee whose existence had been upheld by the Supreme Court. Now we have different efforts by Republicans to restrict voters.
Many objective observers viewed President Truman as a transitional figure, incapable of rallying the disparate elements of his party and certain to lose to whomever the Republicans nominated to run against him in 1948. As we see here, some people are already writing off Joe Biden’s chances in 2024.
We saw “give ’em hell Joe” the other day, and, of course, right on cue the Republicans clutched their pearls that he was no long non-partisan. Today’s NYTime notwithstanding, the economy is not only in great shape, but inflation is beginning to ease (along with the pandemic).
Today a bunch of anti-vaccine Republicans came to DC to complain about all things science and Democrat. I wonder when Republicans will learn how to be Americans?
I first thought, when Keith brought up the example of recovery after World War II, about the disastrous mid-term elections of 1946, which flipped both Houses to create the “Do-Nothing Eightieth Congress”. When Truman won his first and only presidential election (Dewey defeats…), Congress flipped back to roughly where it was in 1944-45.
However, after Bill Clinton lost control of Congress in his first mid-term (1994) and after Barack Obama lost control of Congress in his own (2010), control didn’t flip back (as in 1946) to the Democrats when they were re-elected.
For the same point in reverse, Eisenhower carried Congress for the GOP in 1952 (another crisis year during the stalemated Korean war) only to lose it in 1954 without winning it back with his own landslide in 1956 (let alone the Democratic banner year of 1958).
So, if the Republicans win congressional control during Biden’s first mid-term this year, there’s no guarantee from historical patterns that the Democrats will regain Congress in 2024 when and if Biden is re-elected
I agree with Jack pretty much here. People understand that Biden was dealt a shitty hand, but he’s made some unforced errors that have cost him. Namely wasting time with the larger BBB when Manchin and Sinema weren’t going to agree to all of it. The infrastructure bill was to quote Biden himself on ACA-a big fucking deal (GOP Rep Abby Hinson of Iowa voted against it but is now taking credit for the upgrades in Mississppi River lock and dam improvements that will benefit her district-Typival Republican!)
But the glow of infrastructure been temporarily tarnished by Democratic infighting over BBB. Is it all Biden’s fault? No. But he should have recognized the pitfalls of it more than he did.
I’m accused of being “tribal” on here. But did CG ever offer criticism of GW Bush other than something like “he cares too much” or something like that?
Overall I give Biden a solid B in his 1st year. An A- on Pandemic response (only dinged on testing). A C+ on dealing with Congress. B+ on foreign Affairs (we are FINALLY our of Afghanistan–another big fucking deal no other President in 20 years could accomplish). An A- on the economy. Sure inflation sucks but how’s that 401k? Funny how Republicans never mention that now.
There are signs that the pandemic’s end is in sight in the next couple of months. If that is the case fairly or unfairly Biden will get the credit for a rosier public mood that is sure to accompany it to some regard.
The President IS gonna HAVE TO to get out more of his early accomplishments
Americans also saved two trillion dollars last year. That never gets mentioned.
CG has argued that limiting voting to one location in Georgia is not a problem because Georgia allows vote by mail. But what he conveniently didn’t say is that in Georgia Voters have to apply the postage. requiring postage is a form of poll tax. It is well documented that poll taxes discourage some people from voting and we (especially the white supremists) know who those people are more likely to be. And it is no coincidence that this county is almost 30% black. Voter suppression is very real and there are some people who want to pretend that they are ethical, yet they say voting suppression is all just a big lie.
Right Zreebs. He also claims “nothing to see here” because the county votes 70% Republican, but the goal is to suppress enough of the 30% Democrat (which is pretty much all African-American as is almost all of the rural D vote in the south) to flip the state back to red.
Also western states like Oregon have a history of voting by mail. They have been doing it for 20-30 years. Yes some who would now have to travel 30 miles to vote in person will vote by mail, but for many others it’s a new concept–and one that most Republicans nationwide buy into the lie that it is rife with fraud.
It’s clear to anyone that the GA Republicans are doing what they can to keep just enough African-American Democrats from voting,
When I was a young Republican I remember talking up Jack Kemp at local GOP meetings and said the state party should adopt his strategy of trying to attract minority voters–which in Missouri are almost all in the cities of STL and KC (unlike GA, AL, MS we have no African-American majority rural counties that vote Democratic). I was dismissed by old bigots who said the only strategy should be keeping those folks from voting
Well we know who the party is listening to now–and it sure as hell ain’t the Kemp named Jack!
Jack Kemp once said that he had showered with more black people than the average Republican had ever met.
?
In re: “ ? ”
Before his political career, Jack Kemp was a professional U.S. football player, most notably with the Buffalo Bills (and Buffalo elected him to Congress). It’s been a long time since the NFL or NCAA football were lily-white.
There were blacks playing in the NFL in the 40s. Although it seems like there are more now than ever before. There was a time when I remembered white running backs (or at least fullbacks) like John Riggins and Larry Csonka and Rob Carpenter.I can’t think of any currently in the NFL off the top of my head.
Christian McCaffrey of the Carolina Panthers is one of the top running backs in the NFL.
He was hurt most of this past year.
The Panthers are horrible but he’s a genuine star.
Forgot about him.
Yea..,,,,
Buffalo Bills QB
Yep Kemp shone a light on the GOP’s failure to appeal to African Americans in the decades following the Civil Rights Act
They didn’t care to be called out like that. That’s why he failed to win any primaries when he ran for President in 1988.
When he was picked as Dole’s running mate in 1996 I don’t recall much party opposition to him. But the election was already a done deal by then.
So in the 25 years since Scott what has happened to the Republican Party. Two days ago Mitch McConnell implied that black voters weren’t even Americans, and then got defensive and made it worse when he tried to “clarify” his comments.
Does anyone here not believe in their heart of hearts that the GOP isn’t totally dedicated to suppressing the votes of black and brown voters? I know one will try to deny it, but the evidence is mounting almost by the hour that the only way the GOP thinks they will ever get the White House back is to keep people from voting. How many Republicans voted for the latest voting right bill before Congress? Any guesses?
Don’t forget, Mitch also said “when everyone votes we lose.” Need anymore proof?
One thing I never get an answer to…
Election officials ,almost uniformly, have stated that the 2020 election was one of the smoothest they had ever seen with few problems.
So why have the Republicans been seeking all these legislative “reforms?”
Where’s the problem?
Too many people voted Jack and they lost.
It’s embarrassing for Corey to continue with this fiction that none of the legislation being put forward by Republican State Legislatures to suppress voter turnout are actually voter suppression laws designed to help them win the next election.
The poll police DeSantis wants in Florida is a prime example.
On another front. The Republican Central Committee of Wyoming held a straw poll and Liz Cheney only got six votes out a possible 74 Committee Members. Her Trump endorsed opponent got ten times that many. Poor Liz.
Latest collection of Biden polls have him steadily on in the middle 40% approval……
People need disregard the 35% outliers
School Boards can’t be a safe place these days. Dealing with parents who want to ban books about minorities and now they have to deal with anti-maskers and gun nuts…
https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/21/us/virginia-school-board-threat-gun-loaded/index.html
I don’t think I ever told you that I once applied and interviewed to be on a school board. I didn’t get the job, but frankly I wasn’t the best candidate.
I must thank CG for his most recent contribution to my existence. Now, I’m in an Ebay bidding war with someone over one of those Rock Afire Explosion 45s he linked to in a discussion on Chuck E. Cheese and Showbiz Pizza.
One small bit of encouraging news finally coming out of Israel…
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.pbs.org/newshour/amp/world/former-israeli-general-turned-lawmaker-speaks-out-on-settler-violence-against-palestinians
Don Wilson, Ventures co-founder of “Walk, Don’t Run” fame and surf rock pioneer, dies at 88.
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/don-wilson-the-ventures-rhythm-guitarist-dead-obit-1289277/
I well remember The Ventures,arguably the greatest guitar instrumental group of all time.
Still have all their albums from the early to mid sixties that I bought for the “astronomical “ price of $2.49 each back in the day .
RIP
I just found out that an acquaintance I know is going to lose his foot due to gangrene. This guy has a graduate degree from Northern Illinois University, so one would have thought he should have known he needed to go to the hospital immediately.
cg’s alma mater – NIU
Morning
Rough time for top shelf MFL QB’s
Breaking
Biden is looking to ship out American’s from the Ukraine
Afghan visions?
Biden I’d likely to be pushed into sending troops into the Ukraine region to bolster things with NATO and some want deal the Afghan evacuation’s
Good Morning
If you are NFL Football Fan you had enentertaining ALL the way till the last seconds
Translation from Auto-fill into English:
“Biden I’d likely to be pushed into sending troops…” =
“Biden is likely to be pushed into sending troops…”
Thanks DSD….
No Roger or Brady in Super Bowl
Unvaccinated GOP Rep. Thomas Massie–whose Christmas card was his whole family holding guns asking Santa for ammo–got COVID instead.
Fr
Lots of talk here about “ bipartisanship “ recently but you can’t top these signatories who sent a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Minority leader Kevin McCarthy urging that legislation banning members of Congress from owning ot trading stocks.Among the 27 who signed ?
Rep. Rashd Tlaib (D MI) and Rep. Matt Gaetz (R- Fla.)
As Politico commented,”You simply don’t see that sort of consensus very often these days.”
From Political Wire
For the people complaining that Biden isn’t bipartisan enough I think today was a banner day for the Aunt Pittypat brigade.
Joe Biden, responding to a ridiculous comment from Steve Douchie from Fox News was heard calling him “a stupid son-of-a-bitch” and of course Steve is not only a son-of-a-bitch, but stupid to boot.
Let the pearl clutching begin. Give ’em hell Joe.
Joe is 100% correct-stupid son of a bitch!
I expect FOX News will run nonstop with this new “scandal” in their Primetime hour. Or they will once Tucker Carlson is done whining that he can’t jerk off to the green M&M any more.
Of course Biden is right about Fox/Doocy, but who cares outside of the bubble? Not many in the grand scheme of things.
As the electorate trends younger and highly educated, the party has a prime opportunity to market its successes(Afghanistan, Infrastructure, etc) and vision to a new generation of voters. Will they capitalize on this gift opportunity? Time will tell.
Infrastructure and ARPA were a success;
voting rights, police reform and BBB are not — in fact there’s been a retrenchment that affects millions when the Child Tax Credit was allowed to die.
And Afghanistan can hardly be called a success.
Nor can inflation.
I’m not trying to write a GOP campaign ad, but it will be a while before Biden and the Democratic Congress will be able to sell much.
Biden got us out of the big foreign entanglements, the stuff in Ukraine notwithstanding. That is a big deal. The situation was always going to spiral, but we frankly should have left after OBL was taken down. Big failure on Obama’s part.
He’s GOTTA SELL the good stuff!
Good Early morning
I’m happy with Afghanistan. No more military personnel abroad defending a corrupt and inept government that its own people weren’t willing to defend.
just as getting out of Vietnam was a good thing – even though some people died getting to the planes that were airlifting people out of Saigon.
It needed to happen
Not so sloppy
I is cost Biden power points already
Actually there was no organized evacuation of Vietnam. Certainly not of the civilian population. And, the media ignored the debacle except for that one picture of people fighting to get onto the last helicopter.
Ford was never treated like Biden has been.
Not so with Afghanistan.
Andrea Mitchell still bangs on about it.
Joe did the right thing.
Two trillion dollars, twenty years of a Bush war that made Cheney richer, a corrupt country where its so-called President ran away with our money and their troops threw down their weapons, and Joe Biden did it wrong?!
Why Trump had already let the terrorists out of jail, the same people who are now running the country.
But Joe didn’t do it right.
In the end
The stories cooperation between taliban and us army and marine ‘at wall’ will be lost except for some ones bock
Please proofread your auto-fill before posting here, James.
You wanted to write Taliban but it came out “talisman”.
But it’s not always clear what you were originally trying to say.
Thanks DSD
IPHONE 12 pro
And the software for typing is actually
WORST
I’m also happy the 20 year war in Afghanistan is over.
In the end this will be a good thing for Biden because no one except a small number of Republicans who are wistful for the GW Bush years wanted it to continue. Trump would have exited Afghanistan in an almost certainly worse way. But he would have ended our involvement there too.
Joe Biden IS a ‘Nice Guy’…..
Biden Called Fox News Reporter After Hot Mic Comment
President Biden phoned Peter Doocy of Fox News after being caught on a hot mic calling him “a stupid son of a bitch” and said, “It’s nothing personal, pal,” the Daily Beast reports.
When asked by Sean Hannity if Biden apologized, Doocy remained diplomatic and said the president “cleared the air.”
He added: “And I appreciate it. We had a nice call.”
Time to end the sanctions and let the people eat again. All the good leaving the country did will be undone with a disaster like this.
https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/afghanistan-has-become-the-worlds-largest-humanitarian-crisis/amp
In addition to several other places mentioned, this also is on my Charleston itinerary:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bct8stbZafI&t=13s
Waffle House is one of my favorite places to eat breakfast!
I’m definitely giving serious looks to your local tourism suggestions. The suggested restaurants, on the other hand, are so beyond my price range as to be appalling. My idea of the great culinary experience usually involves places like Denny’s, IHOP, Long John Silvers, Mrs. Winners, and Wendy’s. There is a higher dollar place called Husk that I’m looking into, though.
Big Poppy elected to the Hall
And both Bonds and Clemens, notoriously ensnared in steroid scandals, were eliminated in their last year of eligibility.
Peter Robbins, the original voice of the iconic Charlie Brown, dies at 65 in apparent suicide following years of mental health struggles.
https://fox5sandiego.com/entertainment/charlie-brown-voice-actor-dies-at-65/
Eric Clapton melting down like a nuclear
reactor over vaccines.
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/eric-clapton-covid-19-vaccine-mass-formation-hypnosis-1289808/amp/
True story: I was a fan of that YouTube channel before Covid. Guy used to turn me on to music I hadn’t considered before. And then he railed against masks and claimed “the government doesn’t want you to be immune from this virus.” I shut him off right then.
Many of the rock stars and groups from the sixties were anti government and railed against various supposed actions of the FBI and CIA ,rightly as we learned later .
Clapton came up in that era.
From that perspective,his views haven’t changed much.
Neil Young has told Spotify to pull his material if they won’t pull Joe Rogan’s. The
Time for the lawyers?
Spotify has officially pulled Young’s music from their platform.
In fairness, he already has his own streaming platform @ Neil Young Archives, so it makes a serendipitous kind of sense.
COVID deaths continue to increase. 2611 in US reported today
https://www.axios.com/covid-omicron-wave-of-death-0e0e202b-5e45-4b51-a29c-1a28cd56d83c.html
Gun owners should be required to own liability insurance just as car owners to reflect the costs they impose on society.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/26/us/san-jose-gun-law-wednesday/index.html
Thoroughly predictable really.
Many more cases would likely cause more deaths ,just by the increased numbers of infections.Too many people simply seized on the fact that this strain was less virulent ,totally ignoring simple arithmetic.
WashPost over all‘reported’ cases dropped
They use 7 day average
Based somewhat in the CDC and other sources
NYTIMES case numbers reported also dropped….
How meaningful is the number of cases if so many people with Omicron are asymptomatic, such that the number is greatly understated?
Chances of that?
Good Morning everyone
OpenTable restaurant reservations in January 2022 as compared with January 2019:
Miami: +14%
Las Vegas: +1%
Houston: -13%
Denver: -26%
LA: -41%
Boston: -48%
Brooklyn: -55%
DC: -59%
Manhattan: -64%
San Francisco: -66%
Cambridge, MA: -75%
opentable.com/state-of-indus…
Nate Silver
The top two likely take more of a hands off approach to the virus. The others are a good bit more strict.
Early short lists of replacements for Justice Ice Cream.
https://www.newsweek.com/who-are-joe-bidens-options-replace-stephen-breyer-supreme-court-1606065?amp=1
https://abc17news.com/news/2022/01/26/a-shortlist-of-potential-nominees-to-replace-breyer-on-the-supreme-court/
A name I’d like to throw into the ring is Elizabeth Prelogar, who argued in favor of Roe before the Court recently. She’d be a solid candidate.
Should be a smooth confirmation hearing. Hopefully Manchin and Sinema will be on board. That is the only potential wild card, plus the few Republicans who’d cross over for a Biden appointee.
It is ironic that James titles this thread “Give Joe a damn break” when James is probably the biggest critic of Biden on this site – with the probable exception of CG!
Corey can’t help himself Zreebs, he delights in playing what about with all of us.
But I agree about James, and his negative comments are of the “knee jerk old boy network variety”. His ridiculous reaction to the Afghanistan withdrawal is a prime example.
For those who enjoy reading about the sex lives of religious conservatives…
http://www.gq.com/story/jerry-falwell-jr-love-triangle/amp
Sorry for the dated material. There was a similar article dated today in Inside Edition, but I had trouble getting a useful link for it.
3143 Covid-19 deaths today.
They rarely provide Covid numbers anymore on the news. Remember how they used to have a box in the corner telling us the number of deaths that day and the total cumulative number of US deaths?
I guess we don’t need it anymore with James telling us things have peaked.
3,143 dead of Covid-19 would be the same as if, in a single day, you wiped out by 5 1/2 times the 542 members of Congress (100 Sens + 1 VP + 435 Reps + 6 delegates), the 9 U.S., Supreme Court Justices, the President and his 15 department heads (567 individuals).
As of January 2022, 48 members of Congress—six members of the U.S. Senate and 42 members of the U.S. House—have announced they will not seek re-election. Thirty-three members—six senators and 27 representatives—have announced their retirement. Five retiring Senate members are Republicans and one is a Democrat, and of the retiring House members, 21 are Democrats and six are Republicans.
Fifteen U.S. House members are running for other offices. Four Republicans and four Democrats are seeking seats in the U.S. Senate, one Republican and two Democrats are running for governor, one Republican is running for secretary of state, one Democrat is running for mayor, and one Democrat and one Republican are running for attorney general. No U.S. Senate members are running for other offices.
List at Ballotpedia:
https://ballotpedia.org/List_of_U.S._Congress_incumbents_who_are_not_running_for_re-election_in_2022
P.S. to JBF This is the 88th comment in this Open Thread. You might want to think about opening another one.
Gotcha
I wonder yhe average age pf them in the sea of retirement
Early morning greeting’s to those who come to this place…..