Well shit, copies of Mein Kampf for all and our homeless problem is solved!!

I promise you are not prepared for Tucker's latest montage pic.twitter.com/8tdvYTW2cn

— nikki mccann ramírez (@NikkiMcR) April 16, 2022

Some inspirational Easter message from our current and former president:


No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen on Twitter: "Easter messages from the former vs current President.… "

Atocep,


Speaking as a gay man, I've never seen something so gay as that Tucker Promo

Tucker:Hey guys, I was watching a music video. Let’s use this as inspiration
Interns: which video?
Tucker:
https://youtu.be/UxV7GTbqC10

wow how did i miss that Steve?

So seriously, what’s up with that guy having the bright light shining on his Johnson?

I don't know just glad it wasn't Tucker doing the modeling for that

It's apparently a quack treatment to increase sperm counts.

538 has Biden's current approval at 41.8%. All time low was 40.4% so this seems to be a floor (so far).

Haven't heard much from Biden. Ukraine is going relatively well compared to domestic stuff but agree with article below that he needs to start refocusing on domestic stuff. Maybe boast on the infrastructure bill & Mayor Pete (anything going on there?), or come up with a plan on how to lessen impact of inflation. Be good if he was seen to be more coordinated with the Fed than (seemingly right now) just letting the Fed handle it.

I'm sure there are plans, it just doesn't seem they are very well publicized or coordinated right now.

Biden’s been consumed by Ukraine. His team wants to bring the focus back home. - POLITICO

Not Biden, but not sure really where to put this. But Sinclair must be scared of Wes Moore's potential, because man are they going all out with the 5-minute hit pieces on him in his run for MD governor.

Sounds like Biden's approval tanking is mostly with young voters, a contingent that was vital to him winning. He backed out of most promises with them so I can see why they stopped caring. Will be interesting to see if he can win without them in the next election.

Hint: he can't

SI

I am completely convinced they don't want to win. Sure some politicians do, but I think the party likes being in the minority. They can complain a lot, raise money, and have zero responsibility. And staffers can grab high-paying private sector jobs (like all the Obama alums who not shill for Amazon or whatever).

Last week Abbott handed them the biggest gift they could ask for and they just ignored it. They don't want to win.

They lack the will because they think that every step is a losing step, that they aren't willing to even consider trying. Like the fear that potentially trying trump just leads to him winning or setting the precedent that it's ok to just go after any political enemies simply because. The point being that if they don't and they lose it's all going to happen anyway. We're totally, and unequivocally fucked.

It's always in the back of my mind. Like I'm not certain it's true, but I can't help but wonder. There's an individual excuse why this or that won't get done, but when all of them happen, at some point, you start thinking Casino: "Listen, if you didn't know you were being scammed you're too fuckin' dumb to keep this job, if you did know, you were in on it." And that whole theory about how the rich who really finance our election and choose most of our politicians back the GOP in the primary who are most favorable to them and Dems who can win but are weak.

The only reason why they can get votes is because the alternative is far worse. Like I feel like anyone voting Dem is like "here's 10% of the table scraps you voted for" while the GOP delivers like 50% or more. So voting GOP, you definitely get "better value" and feel like you're on a "winning" side. Of course the winning side means you have to be ok with white nationalism, institutionalized racism and sexism, warhawking, gutting of the federal government, replacing it with socializing the losses and privatizing the gains, and a whole host of other garbage. But, hey, your "sports team" won. So you have that going for you.

SI

They can trot out the Manchin/Sinema excuse and get away with some stuff. But there are things they can do that require zero political capital.

For instance, the Texas Governor has been holding up trucks coming in from Mexico. It's blatantly illegal and unconstitutional. Written plain as day in the constitution. You have analysts saying it has cost billions in our GDP.

Now if you're a Democrat that wants to win, this would be all I talked about. I'd have Biden speaking about it, all the surrogates going on news shows with the same message. The Texas Governor is purposely halting commerce in this country to sabotage the economy. Heck, blame rising prices on it. It's a simple message that everyone can understand.

But no. They'll sit back and play defense on inflation, culture wars, or whatever the GOP wants to be in the news.

Some other issues. Start with Russia. Polls show the OVERWHELMING majority of people hate Russia and what they are doing in Ukraine. May be a good time to remind the public which party withheld aid from the country in an extortion attempt.

Heck, tie it into the election stuff. Democracy is still technically pretty popular in the country. You have a lot of people in one party who refused to certify the election. People who actively participated in a coup attempt. I would never shut up about that. But hey, I'm sure posting a picture of John Lewis once a year on your Twitter account will do the same thing.

Nobody knows what Dems stand for. Sometimes, Not Trump, is enough, but it won't be this Fall.

On the Russia topic, one of the PA Senator candidates is running ads saying, Russia invaded Crimea and Ukraine under Democrats and not under Trump and when America is strong. Simple message when you are trying to win.

Well yeah, because they were counting on Trump to win and withdraw from NATO, so there is that.

Guess the Dems could come back with China created a virus to destroy America under Trump, not Democrats for their mid term message.

Does the GOP House leader still think Trump is on Russia's payroll?

Nah, it’s always “rural high speed internet” here

Good heavyweight fight. Unsure who will ultimately come out ahead but think DeSantis is ahead in the 4th round.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/21/polit...tus/index.html

Not really. This is mostly an empty gesture legislation. The way the original tax status bill was written, it would take the legislature vote AND the agreement of the land-owners (basically a board of Disney employees) to agree to overturn it. There are going to be a million ways that Disney can challenge this in court, but that original agreement gives this zero chance of actually taking affect.

Performative legislation that fires up the base and does nothing? No way!

Though, he hasn't really learned from the master unless there's some grift in there for him where he personally profits from it.

SI

So on Twitter, where I spend altogether too much time, I keep hearing people are furious over “empty shelves” because as I understand it that’s the President’s job. Are any of you seeing actual empty shelves? Maybe I’m just missing out because I’m a coastal elite or something.

I mean, I’ve had some delivery delays for certain things, but these images of soviet eta bread lines don’t connect at all to what I’ve experienced.

A few times, something I wanted wasn't at a store. So I either waited a week or drove to the other store five minutes away and it was there.

So it has not been quite the 100% of products available at all places at all times like it was pre-pandemic.

But it has been, like, 99% like it was.

Definitely seen some things out of stock for our grocery orders sometimes it was breakfast bars, sometimes spaghetti sauce or orange juice. Usually back in stock in a week or 2.

I've mostly been doing curbside and, sure, there are still the couple of things each week out of maybe 40. But I just chalked that up to how it's always been - like there's always been stuff that's not on the shelf - this isn't a pandemic thing, this goes back before that. It's just that if brand X isn't in stock, I could just buy brand Y on the shelf right next to it. You can't do that on the app because you don't have real control over the substitutions.

I went in last week for a few things and it didn't look much different than pre-pandemic, honestly. It was a little messier, perhaps because there aren't as many people working and doing facing. Perhaps because we're just being more slothenly as a society. But it didn't look markedly different to me.

Then again, I'm a bit more flexible on my grocery shopping that most. Maybe this is a bit more a deal if you MUST HAVE brand X and brand Y simply won't do. Or maybe it's something that's more common in smaller towns?

I swear, more and more, this feels more and more like forced scarcity from suppliers. Why should I produce 10M widgets and make $1 each when I can make 3M widgets and make $3 for a lot lower cost? Yes, there are a few supply chain things getting in the way (microchips, etc). But like microchips aren't the reason why, say, toilet paper is in short supply.

SI

This is a deal because "A Democrat is President, so I will scream on Facebook about bread lines b/c 1 of the 7 brands of shaving cream here isn't on the shelf right now."

I think it is a good bit of "we can cut costs by producing less and raise profits by charging more" and somebody else gets the blame (ie Democrats for some reason).

Not sure if this is the right place, but I thought this was an interesting law

Tennessee passes bill requiring drunk drivers to pay child support if they kill parent

McCarthy

Lying

Doesn't matter

It does matter. Just not in the way it should.

The fact that he actually opposes Dear Leader but nonetheless bends the knee to him is a positive for MAGA.

Obedience is key. He has shown that.

dola:

NEWS: Trump & McCarthy spoke last night after audio proved the GOP leader was going to tell the former pres. to resign days following Jan. 6. Trump was reportedly not upset and reveled over his continued grip over the GOP, two sources tell me & @JaxAlemany https://t.co/7ZJhjNWTuS

— Marianna Sotomayor (@MariannaReports) April 22, 2022

Getting someone to agree with you b/c they agree with you is boring.

Getting someone to agree with you b/c they are afraid of you is where it's at.

I understand the idea behind it but

A) We have issues ensuring that divorced parents pay their child support on time if at all. How will enforcement of this be any better and

B) if the goal includes "maintaining the child’s standard of living", how would that apply to a situation where someone making minimum wage kills someone making millions like a star athlete?

Definitely some holes on shelves and continuing to see certain items barely if ever in stock (zero sugar pop and Gatorade are still mostly absent or "you had to be there when they put a small bit of stock on the shelves to get them" levels of available) but 95% of what we need, we can get.

This

It seems to be easing up but it felt like it came in different waves. One week it might be difficult to find one thing you were looking for and the next it might be something else.

The specific cat food my spoiled-ass cats like has been hard to find at the store next to us but PETCO, Amazon, ect have it in stock.

Overall I'd say it's been an incredibly minor inconvenience although my wife is more than tired of hearing me say "bare shelf Biden".

This was published 2 hours ago on Fox News' website.

Day-old news masquerading as current news focused on denying the reporting when we all have heard the tapes that make this story moot.

McCarthy rebuts reporting on leaked recordings recommending Trump resign as Cheney, Scalise deny involvementhttps://t.co/O4yGJgrNpj

— Fox News (@FoxNews) April 22, 2022

Yes, some dog food and dog treats have been tough to find at times, as well.

I genuinely don't understand how the government gets blamed for any shortages. Even during the pandemic, it was the short-sighted decisions of companies that led to shortages.

You want a free market where businesses only care about their bottom line? You got it.

I've noticed that our regional chain has less variety and lower stock than our national chain. The creamer we like cut down on the flavors available and PopTarts only have a few flavors on the shelf when there used to be more. I guessed it was more related to buying power to obtain varieties or companies cutting back because they can than supply chain issues.

Overall, there hasn't been a big shortage on items since the first few months of the lockdown. If something isn't at the store this week, it's usually there the next time we go. Things are more or less back to the way they were.

Most supply chain shortage stories end up being a company making a conscious decision. Businesses that staff at the absolute bare bones so they can squeeze every shred of profit out of it that get burnt when something goes wrong.

For instance, Kelloggs gets mentioned a lot. This is a company that is coming off one of its most profitable years. They have bought back billions in shares the past decade. They've also been constantly laying off workers and had a factory shutdown over a labor dispute.

Now it's their business and their choice. Obviously, those decisions are working out well for them. But when some flavors of Pop-Tarts are out of stock, it's on them.

The only "shortage" I've seen is less than fully stocked Progresso/Chunky soup. Nothing else that I typically buy including fruits, vegetables, tp/paper towels, eggs, beef/chicken/salmon etc. So all good here in northern Atlanta suburbia.

Maybe its the grocery store. I shop at Kroger, Publix, Walmart, Target. I can believe the smaller chains or corner mom-and-pop stores may have less inventory.

They should be complaining about higher prices vs empty shelves.

In the event "they" gave a fuck about reality, sure. That's not the game we're playing, though.

It's an interesting angle and I guess it's sticky... prices go up and down, the stock market goes up and down, those things are somewhat difficult to pin to "because someone did a good/bad job."

But empty shelves just feels like a failure, and I can see why it's effective political imagery to imply that this failure is because he failed. it just rolls off the tongue differently than, say, the times "they" claimed that another Dow Jones record was because the President at that time did something or another.

Less than there were before, but there are shortages around here at big chains like Walmart and Meijer. I probably notice it more as a professional shopper, but beef and chicken are less available than pre-pandemic, some other staples. Not always out, but pretty regularly.

I think part of it relates to what RainMaker said. I think some businesses have just discovered that customers won't make them pay a price for shortages that is high enough for them to make corrections. I don't think we ever go back to 'the way it was' in this among so many other aspects. Customer anger rarely goes to the supplier, even when it's their fault (and that's not always the case). People aren't sophisiticated enough in general to pin the blame where it properly goes or to even care to do so, which sort of feeds into QuickSand's point. It feels like a failure even when the people 'held responsible' have no reasonable control over it.

Such is the nature of modern free societies.


Not entirely. It's a lot more complicated than that. There were literally businesses who were closed by government order. I think a lot of that was wise decision-making, but that's certainly not the businesses' fault, and it's inevitable that reorganization and chaos in the labor market would happen to a degree afterwards even if all businesses made good choices (which many didn't of course). Things like aluminum shortages because the normal cycle of the economy was disrupted were just things that happen in a major disruption. It's not government's fault, and it's not the fault of businesses. It's just what happens - the only thing to really blame is the virus itself, but of course that's not a divisive enough target to satisfy most people.

The wet cat food I usually get is the only real shortage I've noticed, it's on shelves maybe half the time.

For all the complaining about gas prices, is there any reason at all for companies to lower them? Even if oil gets cheaper, there is plenty of demand to just keep prices hovering around the 4 dollar mark.

Our gas prices have already dropped .15 to .20 cents.

Yeah cat food has been the only consistent shortage area for me. Other shortages come and go.