On Sinema at the Sinema: October 2021 US Politics thread

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