I am lukewarm on Biden, but I have to say this: he was really smart in his choice of press secretary. Jen Psaki is a star.
You would think a journalist would know better than to claim “a lot of Americans are saying” — especially when it turns out she has her notes in front of her that translates “a lot of Americans” into one stupid, dishonest, inept and particular American.
Trump says a lot of Americans say which means he says what he says since he’s the self-appointed proxy for what he thinks Americans ought to be saying because he says so. So in effect he’s a lot of Americans in one awesome body like you’ve never seen before and not at all a jumped up, grubby little solipsist, which absolutely no one has ever said.
Nice of the reporter to ask the question in a way that amplifies a Trumpist talking point. Good Job!
Jen Psaki is a graduate of William & Mary where my wife teaches. I asked her if Psaki had ever been in any of her classes, but she didn’t recall her. There’ve been many famous alumni from W&M — Thomas Jefferson, Jon Stewart, Glenn Close, James Comey (arghh), Patton Oswalt just to name a few. It’s a damn, fine school. The truth is I always feel a touch intellectually insecure when I deal with the students. They are so incredibly smart and driven.
We need more Jens and fewer Karens (from the previous article).
That reporter is not just dishonest, but actively evil. An ethical, functioning news organization would demote or terminate someone like that.
Meh. It’s easy to smack down the “a lot of Americans” right-wing rhetorical gambit. Psaki is just a very competent version of basically any other press secretary we’ve had. Sure puts her head and shoulders above the clowns we had the past 4 years, but her response to the question she got about why the White House wouldn’t do anything to convince the Senate to ignore the recommendation of the parliamentarian on raising the minimum wage (something that most Americans want) but was bending over backwards to get enough Senate support to appoint Neera Tanden (who is someone that most Americans across the spectrum don’t want anywhere near any lever of any power) is far more demonstrative of who Psaki is and what her job is.
Just because we’ve got better than the literal Nazi administration that we’ve had for the past four years doesn’t mean we have anything good right now. We still need to be fighting to hold these peoples’ feet to the fires. Otherwise we’re just going to end up back with the Nazi administration again – whether that means Trump is at the helm, or Dan Crenshaw, or Boebert, or Greene.
Also, she did a great job defending the bombing in Syria. Professional, courteous, urbane, really everything that you could hope for … except for the bombing stuff of course. That’s how you do it.
If CBS had any standards, they would fire that disingenuous twit and let her look for work at NewsMaxx or OANN.
“his choice of press secretary”
Yeah, that will decrease social-economic equality and is a huge step to reforming a political system that is designed to serve the needs of the happy few.
That or PZ is happy with a dead sparrow.
mnb0 @8: You realize that at this point you’re just comic relief, right?
It would have been even funnier if she broke into a “sir story”.
“People come up to me all the time and they say “Sir, why don’t you heed the advice of the worst president ever?””
There’s something comical about mnb0? I must have missed it.
My Logical Fallacy Song has a verse just for this:
A lot of people tell me, that’s how I know it’s true
Lots of folks agree with me and disagree with you
Are these people typical? How am I to know?
I know it must be true ’cause all these people told me so!
Trump said it. “A lot of Americans” accept Trump’s claims uncritically. Therefore “a lot of Americans” believe it to be true. And probably “say” it to each other.
Maybe that is the reporter’s reasoning, though the rebuttal still applies.
A lot of Americans say a lot of stuff. Should we be questioning Psaki on Sasquatch sightings?
I for one would love to hear what Jen Psaki has to say about Sasquatch sightings ;)
PaulBC @11: I guess farce is in the eye of the beholder.
@15 Indeed. “Relief” isn’t the word I’d use either.
If Trump says it then its fair to say a lot of Americans say it but I think its good to call out that it started with Trump.
She has done a great job smacking down legit questions about the administrations actions so I dont really think she deserves much credit beyond her role as a propagandist.
A class act. Both in absolute terms and in comparison to the lying 6 (?) clowns who preceded her.
kome@5 Eh, it’s kind of a big deal to me that we don’t have literal Nazis in charge anymore. Yes, I should set my sights higher, but I’m going to ride “Woohoo! They’re not literal Nazis.” for little while. It’s been what, a month and a half so far?
None of this should be take as an admonition to others. Go ahead and critique the administration all you want. Am I supposed to be surprised that President Joe Biden’s foreign policy looks exactly like the one when he was Vice President?
It’s only fair to give Biden another month and a half, so he can invent time travel and un-bomb Syria.
Also, it used to be that we were attempting diplomacy with Iran. Back when he was VP, if I’m not mistaken.
CR@20 I think you saw my context. It’s a month and a half for me to be relieved not to wake up every day to President Trump and a GOP senate. Nothing that I said was intended as “Give Biden a chance and he’ll change.” In fact, he’s probably front-loading his agenda with progressive policy and will revert to type. I still like this way better than what we had.
CR@21 It’s not easy just to go back to a deal that your side broke. A brief scan of the news suggests Biden was at least trying. I don’t know the current status. It’s understandable if Iran holds nations to agreements and not individual leaders.
The problem is, we already had “Operation Warp Speed,” so now they need to come up with another bullshit name…. I don’t know, maybe “Operation Perpetual Motion”? How would the bootlicking classes feel about that?
But it is easy to bomb Muslims.
@6
war sucks no question going to war and acts of war are a defeat and should be conducted as a funeral.
In the name of peace are we now defending Syria?
most americans don’t know anything much about her or do you have some kind of evidence for that? I don’t remember any great ground swell objection to the nomination maybe you could point me to some demonstrations some where.
uncle frogy
unclefrogy@26 I agree that the objection to Tanden is largely coming from the Very Serious People who think her tweets were too nasty (which has now become a disqualifying factor all of a sudden).
I have no opinion on her based on qualifications or policy outlook. I think I may have heard her name before the confirmation hearing but it was just a name.
CR@25 It has been since I have been paying attention, at that is at least 40 years, probably a few more.
Tanden:
— The US should steal Libya’s oil
— Because people hate our dumb wars, but I love them
— But the deficit, which I also crow about as if it’s a problem
— And if we don’t do that, let’s hold Head Start, WIC and Medicaid hostage
That was very well done – simple, direct and clear. I like her.
consciousness razor@29 Then great. Score one for the good guys, but the reason this works out is that Republicans hate her too, and mostly for a different set of reasons.
There’s overlap to be sure. Her association with Hillary Clinton is something that the left and the right can unite on. This is not the same as “most Americans across the spectrum.” Most Americans know less about her than I do, which is very little. She lost in this case, not by representing bad policy, though she does, but by making enemies of the wrong combination of people in power.
@19
Yes, you made it clear during the election that you only cared enough to fight to get Trump out, but not enough to fight for any policy that the American people wanted. You should realize that makes you part of the problem that gave us Trump in the first place and will likely end up with something Trump-esque again in the future. If only you cared about anything beyond beating the other team you might not feel its appropriate to take a victory lap while the people you voted into office fight against raising the minimum wage and go back on their campaign promises about how much COVID relief we could expect if they won. But, hey, take your victory lap. I bet it tastes so good to once again be able to ignore kids in cages and bombing civilians and corporate enslavement of the American labor pool.
I always find it weird when Asians support right-wing xenophobes. Do they think the wingnuts are going to ignore them?
CR, mnb0 — If y’all think you can do better, you’re welcome to run for office…
Or you can shut the fuck up.
Well at least I know that if ever I come across consciousness razor or mnb0 starving, and all I have to offer them is half a loaf, I shouldn’t bother.
@kome
Just stop. There was no other best choice that ANY chance of winning and you goddamned well know it. So your perfect candidate didn’t get nominated. Boo-fucking hoo. Sit home and pout. Which you probably did. And THAT’s how we got Trump.
kome@5
The minimum wage got a vote. Tanden didn’t. There is no indication that the Dems are not going to try in a different way sometime in this session.
Most Americans do not have an opinion on Tanden. Almost all Americans do not have an opinion on Tanden worth respecting. Like most ideologues you are vastly overestimating how much the average voter knows or cares.
I support the 15 dollar minimum wage and, would directly benefit it. I also favor nuking the filibuster making the budgetary rules moot. However I value getting the 90% or so of the relief package more than any single provision. Given the reality of the caucus under no circumstances would I vote to overrule the parliamentarian at this time. The resulting fight would have been extremely messy. At best I think we could expected the entire bill to die. At worst, Joe Machin rage quits the caucus and Biden’s entire presidency is crippled; there is no AG at the moment and is hampering the accountability for the putsch. I am hard pressed to think if you explain the situation to most people-because to be clear most people asked about this have no clue of the relevant facts-that they would support trying to strongarm Machin. Machin has no electoral pressure to remain a Democrat because being from a 70% Trumpist state he would be welcomed as a fucking hero if he quits the caucus. As such Schumer etc. made the right call.
Sanders already has an idea for budgetary workaround for the minimum wage and only dropped it on this package because of the time crunch. They have another budgetary reconciliation bill this year (and another one next year) that they are working on next and I am sure Sanders is working on the minimum wage as part of it. The Dems can also attach the minimum wage to a must pass bill or as a standalone. I think there might be 10 Republicans for 11 dollars an hour. Regardless Machin is already talking about reforming the filibuster in some way. Chill. By all means complain about the foreign policy. But domestically the Dems are behaving much better than they did in 2009 and I equally see no reason to vote for Machin and to not vote for Ron Johnson’s eventual opponent.
I should be clear I am not using ideologue as an insult. I am ideologue in the sense I mean.
KG: Bombings are analogous to charitable giving? Apparently, you’ve mistaken me for a military contractor.
To consciousness razor
You don’t see me in every thread saying “how dare you praise elected or appointed official X when X has done nothing to promote nuclear power / actively hampered nuclear power, causing climate change to get even worse”. I have the added benefit that my per issue, climate change, is a bigger issue than your pet issue, a few bombing.
If I can avoid being a shitter who derails unrelated threads – you can be too.