On Sinema at the Sinema: October 2021 US Politics thread

Today's Popcorn Classic: The Nut Job (1h 25m, 5 bags)

I was <this> close to starting the last two threads w/that title.

truly, this is her moment

See any movie at Harkins Theatres for just $5 this weekend Friday, September 1 through Monday, September 4! 🍿🎥 https://t.co/DNbYTd2Lea

— Kyrsten Sinema (@kyrstensinema) August 31, 2017

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqxD-CPyA_Q

yelling down from my yacht why including means testing for social welfare programs is a hard line for me https://t.co/N4ZIZz4alq

— Andrew Lawrence (@ndrew_lawrence) October 1, 2021

"I'm a medical doctor...I own a Manchin and a yacht"

excellent title
in the way that decker predicted trump, this thread title reflects the absolute absurd reality of the moment

When you got politics like Ted Cruz in the them, you can't lose

Evan, i'm sorry, but you must undergo TYPO HELL

Absolute love for this thread title!

yeah best title in a while

6 bags of popcorn,

5 bags

Head scratcher as to who LaRue would be in all of this

and I'm gonna throw in a little pair of glasses, much like the ones she famously wears

I mean clearly we know who Decker is

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hi2yvpdtz1M

I can imagine Sinema as a really good villain in the Bond franchise. the Bond heads out there will know what I mean

with Crenshaw in congress the GOP has

~eyes in they sky~

~eyes in they sky~

nice typo, should be "eye"

looooool

the eye in the sky, dan crenshaw

the eye in the sky, the don of the law dan crewshaw, ha-HA!

Hey, my eye is (points) up there.

and i don't need to see anymore to know that

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema left DC earlier today, two sources tell NBC News.

— Jonathan Allen (@jonallendc) October 1, 2021

everybody's working for the weekend

And Sinema is no longer physically in Washington, heading to Phoenix for a medical appointment, according to her office.

Sporting a cute YSL knapsack, not doubt

It's Wine-O-Clock Somewhere...

if she gets retired from senate she and some wacky pals are going to do a reality tv show wine crawl thru Napa

They should just load her up on pinot grigio, she'll come around

Leave Joe alone!!!!

People need to stop calling this a "yacht." It's a houseboat. It is worth $220,000, which is pretty much exactly the median home price in the United States and *considerably* less than what most senators spend on their second D.C. residence. My house costs more than this one! https://t.co/QlMM1kZGjr

— Matthew Chapman (@fawfulfan) October 1, 2021

lol imagine wasting your energy caping for this dude as if his "houseboat" was somehow a frugal purchase.

i could maybe, MAYBE, buy that argument if it was also his sole abode but c'mon.

biden should threaten to confiscate his house boat with eminent domain

i think i can hear lindsey graham and senator coons whooping and hollering in the background. ted cruz is making everyone chug beers again

"listen - i have to gut this climate change funding so that all of your children's futures will be worse! because that's what west virginians want! listen - it's not about the deficit, we all know that. no one cares about that! and if i actually cared about that, i'd increase spending right now on climate change mitigation so that it wouldn't cost exponentially more to humanity in the future! but let's face it, no matter what happens i can just ride around in my boat with my boys so i don't really care! this boat!"

(muffled cheering in the background, "chug! chug! chug!")

Maybe next month’s thread can be titled “the houseboat blues” or “the houseboat boogaloo”

because, well, of course

JUST IN: Kyrsten Sinema has left DC amid negotiations. Her spokesman says it's for a doctor's appointment "for a foot injury." But a hotel just confirmed she will be at her PAC’s retreat with donors for cocktails and dinner at a high-end resort and spa in Phoenix. (@nytimes)

— No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen (@NoLieWithBTC) October 1, 2021

your house should generally cost more than somebody's boat imo

strong disagree

RT our graphic w/Elizabeth Holmes, founder & CEO of @Theranos, which employs 500 in #AZ09! #WomensHistoryMonth pic.twitter.com/COyqoYZnKC

— Kyrsten Sinema (@kyrstensinema) March 4, 2015

that is a rich text

my boat should cost more than my house? please explain how.

Oooh somebody’s mad about political stunts.

.@SenatorSinema unloads after the House delays a vote on her infrastructure bill:

“inexcusable, and deeply disappointing for communities across our country.”

“ineffective stunt to gain leverage over a separate proposal”

“betrays the trust the American people have placed” pic.twitter.com/Vu4jNy8qy4

— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) October 2, 2021

We should poll what exciting new high-paying opportunities we think she'll take on when her half-assed flirtation with politics has inevitably run its course.

Nah we shouldn't waste any more time thinking about her

i honestly think she should do ultimate triathlon challenges for charity or something. just go run, bike, and swim, raise some money, and that's it

i'm assuming she's already independently wealthy because how did she become a senator otherwise?

maureen dowd reads this thread

My god pic.twitter.com/emtDxrJn6A

— Andrew Perez (@andrewperezdc) October 2, 2021

my boat should cost more than my house? please explain how.

boats are a luxury

Once a senator is elected and seated, I understand perfectly that the options are limited if they obstinately refuse to cooperate in any way. But presumably they came to the senate because they were willing to bend their entire life to their effort to get there. There is no person on earth whose every utterance is reported more breathlessly than a US president. Trump used this hammer multiple times a day and was never afraid to confront any member of congress over the slightest hint of opposition and they feared his tweets to the point of cowardice, because Trump could fuck up their chance of re-election.

― more difficult than I look (Aimless), Thursday, October 28, 2021 5:45 PM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Genuine question: would it work within the Democratic party? The nature of the coalition makes me think perhaps it couldn't. The Dems seems more like a different bunch of groups that need each other rather than a top down hierarchical structure. To me at least, power seems to be wielded differently within both parties.

Gosh

https://apple.news/ApvPHWpM_RpapVi3AVVh-eA

Nooooooooooo pic.twitter.com/VY4dtolqZY

— David Dayen (@ddayen) October 29, 2021

More like hyperpoop

It is shocking how much the Democratic Party hates their voters. I’ve spent my adult life convinced that this level of cynicism was mostly the province of the GOP, but the Dems really have managed to pull ahead. At least the GOP their voters the circuses.

gives their voters

update on student debt relief:

https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/what-biden-cant-do-on-student-debt-and-what-he-wont-do

they've had the legal/regulation thinking on it ready to go since early April. he's just sitting on it.

After reviewing Gokey’s documents, I asked both the White House and the Department of Education whether the department’s internal legal review was complete, but I didn’t get a specific answer. Nor is it clear whether, if Biden’s lawyers do conclude that he has the authority to cancel a large (or unlimited) amount of student debt, he is willing to use that authority. “The Department of Education is continuing to work in partnership with colleagues at the Department of Justice and the White House to review options with respect to debt cancellation,” a spokesperson from the Department of Education told me. A White House official told me that the President “continues to look into what debt-relief actions can be taken administratively” but that “these steps take time.” The Debt Collective is not mollified. “We’re a signature away from wiping out everyone’s federal student loans, and Biden apparently just doesn’t want to,” Gokey said. “We’ve given him a magic wand, a way to help millions of people and get them excited to come out to vote for him. Who wouldn’t want to do that?” The President’s party almost always loses seats during a midterm election—which would mean, in this case, that the Democrats would lose control of one or both houses of Congress next year. A way to prevent that, Astra Taylor said, “would be to materially improve people’s lives in ways that are intelligible to them. And, believe me, if you cancel forty-five million people’s debt, they will notice.” On Friday, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wrote on Instagram that it was time to “bring the heat on Biden to cancel student loans. He doesn’t need Manchin’s permission for that.”

As of now, the two bills that comprise most of Biden’s agenda are still stalled in Congress. They might soon pass, in some form, but they are likely to be Biden’s last major legislative accomplishment before the midterms, if not the last one of his Presidency. After that, if Biden wants to get big things done, he will have to do most of them via executive order. But if the protracted and bitter struggle over debt cancellation is any indication, Biden’s base may want to temper its expectations. In early 2020, Taylor, who is also a filmmaker, made a short documentary called “You Are Not a Loan.” “We filmed it in February, when the Bernie dream was still alive,” she said. What happened over the next year and a half—Biden campaigning on a promise of broad-based debt cancellation but, as President, hesitating to deliver—struck her as disappointing but not shocking. “The only thing that does continue to surprise me,” she said, “is the Democratic Party seems so unwilling, or unable, to act in its own self-interest.”

you know, if i were sitting on it, i think i would wait until about a week after the BIF (BIF! GREAT FUCKING NAME DEMOCRATS!) passes and everyone's very disappointed on both the left and right, and then forgive some student loans, get some pats on the back and move on

but instead we'll have to wait until a republican president passes student loan relief sometime in the 2030s

It seems like such a no-brainer to reduce or get rid of student debt, if they deem it legally feasible. Because what Republican is going to run on bringing back student debt?

no one. if they do, they'll just convert it to "wasteful government spending" and add that to the pile. it does nothing

you know, if i were sitting on it, i think i would wait until about a week after the BIF (BIF! GREAT FUCKING NAME DEMOCRATS!) passes and everyone's very disappointed on both the left and right, and then forgive some student loans, get some pats on the back and move on

― Karl Malone,

I had the same thought reading the piece.

meanwhile, millions of americans would be like "oh wait...i don't have to pay $650 a month for that shitty useless degree i got back in the bush administration? holy shit!"

Because what Republican is going to run on bringing back student debt?

They wouldn't. But they would run on stoking up resentment that those latte-sipping, croissant-munching, college-degree-having elites got student debt relief and you're still buried under thousands in credit card debt. Because why not?

i would love for republicans to run on a platform focused on how everyone has credit card debt

but i take aimless' point that, no matter what, they will spin it into something else and run on it, and i'll add that the vast majority of their supporters / media ecosystem would probably eat it up as well. so, fuck em

republicans don't need to run on a pro-student debt message. they run on a personal responsibility and "your tax dollars are paying to forgive someone else's loans" message, which rests on misrepresentations about how federal loans work and obscures the economic benefits of cancellation, and which democrats do a horrible job arguing against because many of them are also against forgiving student loans. nancy pelosi used literally those same right-wing talking points to answer a question about it a few months ago.

honestly one of the biggest scam artists in politics

https://truthout.org/articles/pelosi-opposed-student-loan-cancellation-after-billionaire-allys-memo/

it's amazing how bad most politicians are. you'd think that national politicians would be skilled at this shit.

then again, last night i watched the chicago city council debate a motion to rescind the mask mandate for city workers, and 8 of the 10 or so alderman who spoke were just incredibly bad. on both the pro and anti-mask side, they were all terrible at making points, just completely unpersuasive and many times absurd with their reasoning and what they chose to talk about or highlight. it was a real "democracy is dead" kind of moment/reminder, knowing that these are the elected alderman of a great american city, and they're all fucking morons

Most national politicians are only slightly above that level, to be frank

Joe Manchin wanted to have work requirements for people to have paid leave from work. I am losing my mindhttps://t.co/sUgI7KkmvW pic.twitter.com/qNi7JVeGWx

— Steve Morris (@stevemorris__) October 30, 2021

Genuinely intelligent people generally do not have the fanatical self-confidence it apparently takes to enter politics, at least at a state and Federal level.

Joe Manchin wanted to have requirements keep them poor and stupid.

Manchin added "We have a good history here of keeping them poor and stupid, we don't want no policies accidentally raising the quality of life. If we did that, they might start hoping for a bit more out of life and start askin' really hard questions."

So what're we titling the November thread?

There's a Joe Manchin on the hill, psychedelic music fills air

Biden vs. Manchin: the Joedown

The Joewakening

how low can you joe

Joe Money, Joe Problems

All Nut November

Joevember

november spawned a manchin

The Youngkin and the Restless

Wake me up when November ends

I’m really feeling “Joe Money, Joe Problems”

You're welcome to it.

I considered and rejected stuff like Portugal the Manchin, the Descent of Manchin, Arms and the Manchin, etc. It's a target-rich punvironment if that's where you want to take it. Personally I haven't enjoyed looking at Sinema's name over and over again but that's just me. The double Joes seems like a palatable direction.

Joe Money, Joe's A Problem

“Joementum: The Reckoning”

West Virginia & Its 49 Hostages

Almost Kvetchin'

Joementum? More like Mo' Jenkum

Jo (Build Back) Betta Blues

hahaha

Joe Mama

Closing out her namesake monthly thread with a bang, Sinema really delivers.

Aides say Sinema didn't interact with guests at wedding who wore "disrespectful and racist costumes" https://t.co/BsoBTbKtRc pic.twitter.com/8X7MVlA4Sh

— The Hill (@thehill) October 29, 2021

Nice that The Hill chose to show her wearing a copy of Aaron Neville's denim vest.

Wow Sinema not interacting with people

It's not a bug it's a feature!

gonna miss this thread title

Haha, radical centrists were trying to make Sinema protesters who showed up that wedding bad guys yesterday.

Feel if we polled this years US politics thread titles this one would run away with it.

She goes away tomorrow too, right?

begone, kyrsten!

Joe Money, Joe Problems: the November 2021 U.S. Politics Thread