“It’s a little too quiet” - US Politics February 2021

I doubt anyone is arguing based on what's the proper amount on checks to be cut.

It's about the political act - saying one thing and doing another, saying one thing and doing nothing, means testing to divide people, all ignoring what was pointed out yesterday - for the people who create fiat money, money isn't real. If you're not a deficit hawk piece of shit, you don't need to jump through hoops to defend Manchin and Sinema trying to earn the love and respect of Washington Post op-ed writers.

you don't need to jump through hoops to defend Manchin and Sinema

"You"? Who? Save it for someone who is jumping through hoops to defend Manchin and Sinema. nobody here fits that description.

My main contribution to the thread is calling most of you stupid, which really just takes me back to 2003

I get sick and tired of posters who never notice the actual positions of the people they are talking to, because it is so much easier to defeat the arguments that they choose to refute, but that no one made, aka strawmanning.

Food banks are strained trying to feed people worried about where they'll get their next meal.

Essential workers continue to risk their own health and their families for us all.

Small business owners from restaurants to barber shops are hurting.

We need $2,000 stimulus checks.

— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) January 13, 2021

stfu milo

Proving only that Kamala Harris agrees with you, me, DJP and everyone else on this thread that I'm aware of.

What kind of absolute blithering idiots would think Democrats were talking about $2000 checks, though?

You cite a Democrat talking about $2000 checks and in the next post say only a blithering idiot would think Democrats are talking about$2000 checks.

They then ran on the idea that the stimulus was going to be $2000. It was not ambiguous and I don't really get why you guys are trying to cast it as if it was unless you're just dumb.

Seriously, everyone trying to dunk using the “you said $2000 but now it’s just $140” just looks like an idiot to me

I bet the % of americans that know the dems promised $2000 (as opposed to another amount) is under 30%.
[...]
I give up. You brain geniuses should go work for Dem political campaigns keeping track of all the brutal self-owns.

devastating!

knowing I’m going to be stuck in the office front of my laptop for 12 hours a day for the next month I surrendered to my worst instincts and got back on Twitter. very dumb.

but I gotta say, it *is* different now that the big dumb diaper baby isn’t smearing his doodoo everywhere

You cite a Democrat talking about $2000 checks and in the next post say only a blithering idiot would think Democrats are talking about$2000 checks.

― Compromise isn't a principle, it's a method (Aimless), Wednesday, February 3, 2021 12:00 AM (nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

omg

anyone arguing they were running on 1.4k rather than 2k looks really dumb

Yes they should do $2,000 checks and they shouldn't change the means test — as an economic, political, and human decency move, they ought to just do it and get money to people. It is also true that doing that may not just be a matter of snapping their fingers though. And if they have to throw some ballast overboard, the means test is the best place to do it.

I mean km upthread is otm and this is really the crux of the whole thing. The Trump admin, bent towards cruelty as it had been, was just unbelievably cruel in not doing ANYTHING for Americans beyond that initial drop in the bucket in early 2020, so when Democrats come sailing in with promises of something that is still wholly insufficient to the needs of those most negatively impacted but which looks just wildly generous in comparison to what had come before, it's really nagl (particularly at the very beginning of dem control of the federal government) to do anything less than what was promised. Because it seems like a bare minimum that isn't being honored and it will leave a lot of people wondering what other promises they can expect to be undersold in the next 2-4 years.

Again and again and again, this is not me saying these things because I am not among those who desperately need cash now. But consider those who do and how their future voting patterns are likely to be influenced by what transpires.

yep. it's like, here, here's $20. for your trouble during the "pandemic", or whatever. or you know what. make it $14. we had to tip the middleman, you see

to get that full $20 would have been better, but also, holy shit wtf is even happening, this whole negotiation is LEAGUES off of where it should be. i understand why it is where it is, not saying i have a better plan or way to convince everyone to stop being so fucking cruel to each other all the time. but fuck man

The *$2000 check promise" self-owns would seem to be pretty easy to brush off if they turned out to be a $600 cash card followed by a $1400 cash card when it comes to what most Americans expect from campaign promises. But, yes there should and probably will be additional stimulus packages beyond tbat.

If they insist on $2,000 now and there aren't the votes for it, at least then they can blame the Republicans for not approving more.

what voting block is left that would switch their allegiance from GOP --> Democrat if they see an attack ad blaming republicans for getting $1400 rather than $2000, two years prior? let alone 4 years prior?

people have amnesia. they won't remember this. some will, but not enough to change anything. government shutdowns, unbridled corruption, muslim bans, dumbass walls, hundreds of thousands of people dead who could have been saved...2% decline in the polls. it just doesn't. fucking. matter. anymore. to try to persuade these diiiiiiiiipshits in the "middle" to do something good. just propose the thing that is needed and pass it over they whiny moans of all those who demand that the bill just suck a little bit more ass, just a liiiiiittle bit more, for the old times, as a nostalgic act, please, just a littttttle bit more

I heard an interview with Berne Sanders on a podcast from a couple of nights ago where he stressed that they were working on an emergency bill first but it needed to be followed by other cheques which they would be working on as soon as this was dealt with. So the idea is already under discussion.
I can't remember exactly what the podcast was cos it was playing on my phone. Could be Pod Save America, Daily Beans or All In With Chris Hayes or possibly something else . It was part of a longer interview.

i gotta check that out

No idea why anyone would expect more stimulus aimed at people. The Democrats aren’t even unanimous about this one!

Remember the dumb person ranting in her kitchen about Boebert having a GED? Get used to it.

https://www.politico.com/amp/news/2021/02/02/qanon-gop-465157

The biggest deleterious effect of the $1400 vs $2000 squabbling is that they *could* be emphasising the emergency nature of the two trilli bill that's still *next* up, and promise that the $2k/monthly Sanders/Markey/Kamala bill from last May will be a priority immediately afterward

notable:

Now, as Trump wages war with the more established elements of his own party and against Fox News itself, Fox is seeking to navigate its future without the ear of a sitting president or even his angry voice from exile.

And it is doing so — notably with a blitz of programming changes — amid something of an identity crisis, as a network that has long prided itself on being the king of cable TV has slipped from the top.

On Tuesday, Fox announced that it finished its 19th consecutive year as the No. 1 cable news network. But in January, Fox reported monthly ratings that fell behind both of its main cable news competitors, CNN and MSNBC, for the first time in 20 years. Even Fox’s prime-time opinion juggernaut of Hannity, Ingraham and Tucker Carlson had a smaller combined audience than their CNN competitors did last month.

and losing to cnn and msnbc is significant, because holy shit they both suck

anyone arguing they were running on 2k + 600 rather than 2k looks really dumb

the 600 is irrelevant in that argument but also we should stop talking about it at all itt imo

"If you send Jon and the Reverend to Washington, those $2,000 checks will go out the door, restoring hope and decency and honor for so many people who are struggling right now," Biden said, making his closing argument for the Democrats at a campaign event in Atlanta on Monday.

yes, stopping talking about it would also include not continuing to talk about it

it doesn't matter how many times multiple "$2000 checks immediately" quotes, or advertising images of checks with $2000 on them, are posted, the discourse is not affected.

http://www.mnftiu.cc/blog/images/gywo.wallet.gif

My Pillow Guy got the entire company account suspended by trying to post through it, through it

Right just looked up what the show the Bernie Sanders interview was on, it was teh All In With Chris hayes from Monday.
I get the shows as audio podcasts the next day. Could remember where i was when I was listening to it but not which one of several shows it was.
THink this is the video of it though
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsaPPtQvw-g

I think it's there where Sanders says about how he and presumably others haven't been able to take over their new roles yet but there should be a ruling tomorrow whic is now yesterday. So he would no longer be the incoming budget chairman but the current one. Haven't heard that confirmed yet, hope t wasn't further delayed but that's what Graham was up to wasn't it?

In that clip Bernie calls it $1400 on top of $600 - is he a revisionist centrist now or are people losing their shit itt because they took "$2000 checks" at literal face value from campaigning politicians? Wait, my check came in the form of 2 cards? those sneaky Dems have no shame!

i love hate that thing we do where we worry 'what voters will think' like we're the cognoscenti deliberating over our chessboard

what do WE think about the checks? personally i think it's a non-issue. it's step 1. and even that is way more that what republicans would have done. so we're going to have republicans hollering in primaries that democrats aren't spending enough money?? oh no don't throw me in the briar patch!

Yes, I've said multiple times over itt that it's also a non-issue for me personally. If it winds up being a non-issue across the board, I will mea my culpa all the live long day.

I really don't care, do you?

gosh remember when taht was teh first lady's message of support for a disaster zone she was visiting. That and stilettoes .
Still don't get what the story on taht coat was was it deliberately picked at any point.
& at that point weren't people still thinking she needed to be rescued from the husband she's accidentally married.

Which is a long diversion to saying wow just seen that Jill Biden's is central to the effort to reunite the kids being held at the border with their parents which si going to be a mammoth task considering what the official records concerned appear to consist of.

Joe Biden says he wants to work with Republicans, but he hasn't appointed a single oil executive to lead the EPA.

— Ian Millhiser (@imillhiser) February 3, 2021

people have amnesia. they won't remember this.

The point is that Democrats politically should hammer these things constantly for the next 2 years, don't let people forget them. Almost every bill, the message should either be, "We did this thing for you even though the Republicans tried to stop it" or "We tried to do this thing but the Republicans stopped it." Because just about everything the Democrats want to do is popular, and "obstructionist special interest Republicans" (or some such phrase) should always be the villains, win or lose.

I don’t think I followed Obama on social media when he was president, or maybe did and just didn’t pay attention. But! At this point I follow Biden and Harris on FB and Insta and let me just say unequivocally that their messaging game is on point in a way that suggests that there’s a strong communications team in place that is gonna make damned sure that people know what the Democrats are about and what they’re doing for you. It’s more than they have to do in my view. They’ve learned more than a few lessons from the Obama years.

(I don’t really watch TV so not sure if there’s any equivalent effort on that front, or on radio.)

I should add: Biden/Harris accounts were on this path prior to this year

"we are going to be working through some things" sez Steve Scalise. Specifically, they are working through how to strip Liz Cheney of her power for voting to impeach while keeping Marjorie in power for her standing in the Trump cult.

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/02/02/house-gop-marjorie-taylor-greene-465307

can we go back in time and not treat him for his gunshot wounds

I think the Dems learned that running on the ACA was a good, effective strategy, so I can only hope they have also realized that running on other things they've done or tried to do for people (and the GOP has pushed against or tried to take away) might work as well.

I realize there's a lot of serious issues to discuss itt but

An anagram for Marjorie Taylor Greene is Majorly Orange Retiree.

— Parlertakes🇺🇸 (@parlertakes) February 3, 2021

very good disguise or is it?

Heh, just read that Politico story and saw the Space Force story and there are so many unintentionally hilarious quotes:

“It’s concerning to see the Biden administration’s press secretary blatantly diminish an entire branch of our military as the punchline of a joke, which I’m sure China would find funny,” said Rep. Mike Rogers.

"This is just another example of the Biden administration not taking China seriously while demeaning the incredible work of Space Force personnel," said Michael Waltz (R-Fla.), who is a founding member of the House Space Force Caucus.

From: Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.):

"I hope my fellow Democrats will not be too discouraged by the taint that former President Trump put on the Space Force when he tried to hijack it for his own political purposes

Space Force. Trump taint. House Space Force Caucus. I'm absolutely sure China does find it all funny.

Like, who works for Space Force? Does it have employees, someone in charge? Do they carry laser guns? Because they should.

Who is going to fight space if not Space Force, I ask you