Beware the Ides of March -- U.S. Politics March 2021

https://www.thisfuckeduphomerdoesnotexist.com/p/p/677b1fdf🕸

_And he said the government’s discovery of Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” and “The Turner Diaries” at Hale-Cusanelli’s home “does not mention that there were hundreds of other books in Mr. Hale-Cusanelli’s collection.”_


I didn't know there were so many racist Seuss books.

In which Frank Luntz convenes another focus group with GOP voters, this time about gettin' jabbed.

Many other proposed or actual messengers fell flat: The group panned a public service announcement released last week, for instance, featuring former presidents Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter. One attendee called the ad “propaganda,” and another said the former presidents were “bad actors.”

“It actually kind of annoys me,” said a voter named Debbie from Georgia.

The group also condemned Anthony S. Fauci — the government infectious-disease specialist relentlessly attacked by Trump and conservative media for the past year — as a “liar,” “flip-flopper” and “opportunistic.”

Fauci, whom multiple participants also blamed for Trump’s missteps on the virus, told “Fox News Sunday” that Trump should make his own public service announcement. But the focus group of Trump voters didn’t warm to that idea, with attendees universally saying that their spouse or doctor would be more influential on their decision than hearing from the former president.

Luntz, who told The Washington Post last week that he didn’t “need a focus group to tell me that nothing would have a greater impact than a Donald Trump PSA,” said he was surprised that Trump’s participation was rejected by people he characterized as die-hard supporters. “Those people are beginning to move on,” he theorized. A Fox News pro-vaccine PSA also drew shrugs from the group.

One Republican politician did make a persuasive pitch: former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, who relayed his own story of contracting the coronavirus while advising Trump in the White House — and developing a case so serious that it landed him in the intensive care unit for a week. Christie also revealed that two of his family members died of the virus, focusing on the “randomness” of how the coronavirus could seriously affect even healthy people, including Trump’s 30-something adviser, Hope Hicks.

“We really shouldn’t be all marching in lockstep like lemmings to go and do what the government tells us to do,” said the former two-term governor, positioning himself as a political outsider. “They’ve screwed up too many times for us to do that. But I really do believe the facts that I’ve learned, and the experiences I’ve had, should make at least everybody … think hard” about getting a vaccination.

goddamn if them foregoing vaccination wouldn’t just make it harder on poor people with less access to healthcare I would be cheering these clowns and their death drive.

but no, they’ll all live comfortably into old age, owning the libs while they suck up resources and all the air in the room

Good morning!

Was it noted here or elsewhere that the percentage of GOP currently vaccinated is more or less in line with the percentage of total vaccinations? Which is to say, somewhere around 20-25%. All these paranoid Republicans, let's see how many of them actually get the jab when they finally get a shot.

Maybe, but I bet those Republicans tend to be in and around cities. The more rural counties around where I live have tons of vaccine leftover because there's so little demand, so lots of teachers and others from here are making drives of 30-90 minutes to get stuck in podunk places.

I'd heard the same thing, but it seems pretty anecdotal. I've also heard of people in the distant burbs traveling closer to the city for shots, so who knows. I'm not sure there is any place particularly rich in unclaimed vaccines.

it's perfectly reasonable to think that 25% of Republicans are just as motivated to get the vaccine as anyone else. As the overall vaccination rate rises, perhaps that enthusiasm will dwindle.

I've been wondering how many of the elderly fascists at The Villages in Florida got the jab, seems like that might be a telling stat about their dedication to the 'COVID is no biggie' bit.

DeSantis has made sure his rich elderly donors get jabbed.

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/03/15/ben-cardin-infrastructure-package-reconciliation-476017

Sen. Ben Cardin, a senior Democrat on the committee responsible for crafting a surface transportation bill, in a "hot mic" moment told Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg Monday that Democrats will likely have to use budget reconciliation for their infrastructure plans, citing expected resistance from Republicans.

good

OTOH, that doesn't paint him as someone who expects talking filibuster reform or total abolition

There's no reason for any of us to expect talking filibuster reform or total abolition unless that possibility rises to the level of the hottest topic in DC, with all signs pointing to it happening.

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/03/15/yevgeny-vindman-promotion-post-trump-476038

Hell yeah

well the Ides passed and the world hasn't quite collapsed.

Did some interesting garage stuff before they became horn rock ides of March innit

OTOH, that doesn't paint him as someone who expects talking filibuster reform or total abolition

― Joe Bombin (milo z), Monday, March 15, 2021 5:00 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

seems like it would be irresponsible not to have a plan to try to pass it without reform

remember that little last minute addition to the $1.9T stimulus bill, which was to add a provision to prevent (GOP) states from using the $350M to finance local tax cuts? welp, turns out 21 republican states think their freedom to abuse the use of federal stimulus money for total bullshit has been limited

Twenty-one Republican state attorneys general on Tuesday threatened to take action against the Biden administration over its new $1.9 trillion coronavirus stimulus law, decrying it for imposing “unprecedented and unconstitutional” limits on their states’ ability to lower taxes.

The letter marks one of the first major political and legal salvos against the relief package since President Biden signed it last week — evincing the sustained Republican opposition that the White House faces as it implements the signature element of the president’s economic policy agenda.

The attorneys general take issue with a $350 billion pot of money set aside under the stimulus, known as the American Rescue Plan, to help cash-strapped cities, counties and states pay for the costs of the pandemic. Congressional lawmakers opted to restrict states from tapping these federal dollars to finance local tax cuts.

Lawmakers included the provision to ensure Washington isn’t footing the bill on behalf of states that later take deliberate steps to reduce their revenue. But the guardrails frustrated many GOP leaders, who said in a letter to the Treasury Department that the law’s vague wording threatens to interfere with states in good financial standing that sought to provide “such tax relief with or without the prospect of COVID-19 relief funds.”

The attorneys general from Arizona, Georgia, West Virginia and 18 other states called on the Biden administration to make it clear that they can proceed with some of their plans to cut taxes, including those that predate the stimulus, in a seven-page missive to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen sent Tuesday. Otherwise, they said, the relief law “would represent the greatest invasion of state sovereignty by Congress in the history of our Republic” — and they threatened to take “appropriate additional action” in response.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2021/03/16/republicans-threat-stimulus/

Aw

blah blah state sovereignty blah blah shut up

well I'll be dipped https://t.co/4G3IyBXgZB

— ryan cooper (@ryanlcooper) March 17, 2021

DON: well, yeah

greatest invasion of state sovereignty by Congress in the history of our Republic

I bet they've already shopped around among the federal judges to see which circuit's court of appeals would endorse this crock of shit.

"You credit Trump for the effort he put in. And then move on,”

Trump takes credit for the half million dead, he can have plenty of credit for the vaccine.

F'n ghouls....

wondering how well that decades-long assault on the courts is going to pay off for GOP run-states intent on kneecapping Biden/ Fed-led recovery in the minds of the Faithful. my guess: Very.

tax cuts for rich local boss chuds in those states sweeten the pot, too.

I'm surprised red states have taxes left to cut. Mine has been reduced to rolling back tiny fees of various kinds because they've scrapped everything but sales taxes. (And they've rolled back some of those, too.)

Can always give tax breaks to the local corporations

GOP re COVID bill: We blew it.

None of the attack lines seemed to resonate with voters, who began receiving stimulus checks as early as last weekend and appear overwhelmingly supportive of the law. A CBS-YouGov survey released on Sunday showed 71 percent of adults believe the American Rescue Plan will benefit the middle class more than wealthy Americans. The bill’s passage coincides with an uptick in vaccinations and recognition from Democrats and allied teachers unions that schools need to reopen soon — which together have the potential for improving the electoral landscape for Democrats as they try to keep both chambers of the Congress.

That’s left the GOP with little left to do but bank on the possibility that voters will, over time, simply forget the ways in which the law impacted them.

“I think once the sugar high of the stimulus checks wears off — as much as they are needed and are important — the bill is going to sink itself over time, if it’s remembered at all,” said another Senate GOP aide. “It’s at the peak of its popularity right now and the more it becomes unpopular we’ll pound against them,” added another.

Inside the White House, the absence of a sustained GOP pushback to the bill did not come as a particular shock.

Aides had long felt that Biden had the upper hand and that Trump had tied his own party in political knots. The former president had pushed for Congress to pass $2,000 direct checks in December and blasted Republican leaders, like then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, when they declined to include them in a relief package. He had also added trillions of dollars to the deficit through a mix of tax breaks to the wealthy and Covid-related legislation with little pushback from his party. What credible argument could Republicans attempt to put forward that would resonate with Americans and enough Democrats to block the package, Biden aides wondered.

Me stimmy

Same!

i totally do not underestimate republicans' ability, together with their mass indoctrination arms, to rewrite the history of this bill as democrats' attempts to undermine democracy and funnel money to special interest groups. they'll run on 'NEVER AGAIN'

today is my birthday, and I got the greatest gift of all: that sweet stimmy check. Gonna spend it all on green beer. Thanks based Biden!

I'm enjoying watching Wells Fargo get roasted on Twitter for letting their online and phone-based banking services fail this morning.

Truly don't understand how any of the news articles about this are being understood as anything but propaganda.

Biden stimulus showers money on Americans, sharply cutting poverty in defining move of presidency https://t.co/MrzjVkZBEd

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) March 6, 2021

Where is the lie?

That piece (which was published before the thing passed) is particularly incoherent. "It's big! Too big, really! Also, it's very short-term; it won't last! Both these things are bad, for...reasons!"

damn, march 6, like a transmission from another world

Weren't we here in 2009 while we watched the Obama administration do shit about defending its signature programs?

stimulus came through here too

y'all really don't take the idea of manufactured consent seriously.

the bill is pathetic, this country is pathetic and utterly morally and spiritually bankrupt.

i'm removing bookmark so as to not fudge up your happy time further.

if that's what you need to fuel your sanctimony, sure

the larger system can be utterly broken and horrible and murderous and life inside of it can be varying degrees of moral and just is how i break it down to an extent. we just came through the most explicitly corrupt, anti-intellectual and amoral administration in a century on the back of a pandemic that shut down both coasts and most of the country for a year. Biden is making some characteristic missteps within the utterly broken and horrible and murderous system but he is also distributing lots of lifelines and overseeing covid work that should and could have been executed months earlier but the trump didn't wanna. i don't have to want to get a beer with the guy to be somewhat grateful. we may all be going straight to hell but at least there's plans for a trip to dave and busters first.

Any time anyone expresses doubt from the left, they're shouted down and attacked.

Any time anyone says, hey maybe this is statist propaganda, this kind of sucks? they're shouted down and attacked.

If anyone expressing hard left opinions is constantly shouted down and attacked, then who is acting morally superior?

For the record, I don't think I'm morally superior to any of you. It's just that that particular WaPo article is a prime example of manufactured consent. That's all.

the headline and tweet could be construed as propaganda i guess

the bill is pathetic, this country is pathetic and utterly morally and spiritually bankrupt.

while this may be correct, and perhaps a goal of dismantling or destroying the US and replacing it with something else may be worthy albeit unlikely, for me this all stands outside the topic of US Politics. A constant frustration with this thread is that we default to arguing about things that are far removed from the actual functioning of government here.

New -- Manchin rejects calls for lowering 60-vote threshold. Also rejects calls for requiring 41 sens to sustain filibuster. Also rejects calls for specific carveouts on legislation, like on voting

I asked him if he's drawing a line at 60

"I'm still at 60 .. I haven't changed."

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) March 17, 2021

Any time anyone expresses doubt from the left, they're shouted down and attacked.

Any time anyone says, hey maybe this is statist propaganda, this kind of sucks? they're shouted down and attacked.

Is anyone denying that essentially all US news organizations are biased?

Like, that should be a baseline assumption and not a "wake up, sheeple" moment

Haven’t seen a lot of shouting down here tbh. If anything, it seems like it’s coming from the other direction, but maybe that’s just me misreading tones. “How dare you see this as anything but utter shit” seems to be a running theme.