REGR: Series.str.encode("base64")
- [ ] closes #32048
- [ ] tests added / passed
- [ ] passes `black pandas`
- [ ] passes `git diff upstream/master -u -- "*.py" | flake8 --diff`
- [ ] whatsnew entry

> not sure if u saw @TomAugspurger comments
> 
> you can’t encode bytes only decode them

see https://github.com/pandas-dev/pandas/issues/32048#issuecomment-587613824 > > not sure if u saw @TomAugspurger comments
> > you can’t encode bytes only decode them
> 
> see [#32048 (comment)](https://github.com/pandas-dev/pandas/issues/32048#issuecomment-587613824)

maybe i don’t understand you comment
you can’t encode this in the standard library
why should we allow it we don't use the standard library. we use codecs so maybe we need a deprecation warning. > we don't use the standard library. we use codecs so maybe we need a deprecation warning.

no the point is we shouldn’t do this at all

if you have bytes you can’t encode 
i am not sure why that would be an option that is exposed IIUC it's a regression. and if we don't want to allow it we should have a deprecation cycle. @jreback is it worth fixing up the tests and adding a special case for `base64` encoding or is this a non-starter. this was done on purpose. i see no reason to change anything