(Jeff Danziger’s website)
__
Sometimes I’m just glad to be reminded that not everybody’s a sociopathic arsehole. The always excellent Mr. Pierce, of Esquire, has really been on fire this week:
…It’s becoming quite clear that, by adopting a more populist theme since the president’s speech in Kansas last December, the president’s campaign has managed to shift the economic discussion in the country away from Wall Street and in the general direction of Zuccotti Park. (Shame those folks didn’t have a “coherent agenda” with which to move the dialogue.) That has resulted in a decidedly upward trend in the president’s polling numbers on economic issues, particularly those involving the continued economic survival of the middle class. He’s even leading Romney on “handling taxes,” an issue on which the president may be in the process of changing the argument from “lazy poor people are stealing your money” to “greedy rich people are stealing the country.”…
__
When the zombie-eyed granny-starver meeps about the Buffett Rule as “pixie dust” — and this from a man who has based his “budget” on mathematics apparently designed by the Keebler elves — he is placing himself and his party in the path of what may be a powerful movement in the opposite direction. Ever since Wall Street trashed the world economy and stole what was left, the inchoate public rage always has had as its source a vaguely defined conviction that somebody, somewhere has cheated the rest of us out of our country. The political fight has been over who to blame for it. First, the Tea Party decided to blame Government, with a strong and familiar old counter-melody about lazy poor people. That’s a spent force right now. The zombie-eyed granny-starver is yammering so desperately about “class warfare.” The people who’ve paid for his political career are afraid that they just might lose one.
__
So, go ahead, Willard. Pick him. Let him go out, day after day, and sell his bulked-up version of all the policies that threw the country into a ditch in the first place. Make him the economic face of your ticket. Let the country look into his zombie eyes and see all the grannies starving therein.
Apart from fighting the good fight, what’s on the agenda for the evening?
phil
Tweety’s on the set talking about the epic 2016 match-up between Hillary and Santorum. Speculate? It would be irresponsible not to..
Geoduck
Man, is 2016 gonna be a free-for-all, on both sides. (Assuming Obama wins now, which I think is likely..)
BigSouthern
On a personal note, preparing to whiff the FE exam this Saturday.
David Koch
Ryan voted for the bank bailout
I’m Shocked! I’m Shocked!
Gasp! How could he vote for such deficit spending.
Shocking.
Mino
I saw Obama’s speech–very populist. I hope he reaches a point where he asks for a mandate, a Dem House and Senate, to get this country moving again. Four more years of gridlock and bad bargains is gonna kill us.
BDeevDad
2016 Democratic Ticket: Cory Booker and Elizabeth Warren, don’t care which is on top.
the Conster (f/k/a Cat Lady)
The spotlight is going to get very very bright on Bishop Willard of the Magic Underwear. Is his name even Willard? Or is it Mitt? You can’t ask him because he can’t be trusted to even TELL YOU HIS NAME!
ETA: If elected, he will also be the first Mexican-American president. Put that in your pipe and smoke it, wingnuts.
Amir Khalid
@phil:
I don’t see this happening at all. Hillary keeps saying she’s out of public life once Obama can appoint a new Secretary of State. Santorum has proven he can’t win the Republican Presidential nomination because there aren’t enough creepy wowsers like him in the party.
Maybe Chris Matthews and his fellow pundits are setting up a Fantasy 2016 Presidential Campaign, because that’s the only possible venue for this matchup.
Mustang Bobby
I am having dinner with a friend who was my department chair (English) at a private school in Evansville, Indiana, in 1979. It was my first teaching job, and I was all of 27. He and his wife were good friends, mentors, ports in the storm, and I haven’t seen him in person since 1983 when he stopped by my house in Boulder for an afternoon. I look forward to catching up.
Raven
Here’s how we are feeling in Athens, Ga.
Raven
@Mustang Bobby: You are in Miami, right?
Raven
@Amir Khalid: Plus she’s older than me!
Mino
@Raven: Ha!
RedKitten
The crazies are getting crazier. One of my FB friends is a right-winger and was formerly quite moderate and sane, but she’s lately been drinking the Kool-Aid, and it’s sad to see.
She genuinely thinks that either immediately before or immediately after the election, Obama is going to institute martial law, so that he can retain power forever, “and all our freedom will be taken away, he already has taken away the chance to buy ammo for guns hmm I wonder why so when he takes over and no one has ammo we cant fight back for our freedom. It could be possible that we will not have the internet or the chance to speek our freedom becuase we all will be locked in our homes and only get so much food and utilites to live. Im sure your all shaking your head and saying it wont happen but how would you know that. Obama wants power and we hill have it soon when he pulls the Martial Law act he signed last month. You probably think Im nuts and it wont happen which I hope it doesnt but hey you need to be prepared for the worse. And you all make think Im crazy and that is okay but I have a bad feeling that our freedom is pretty much gone or will be gone in the next few months and it sure will suck when we are so use to do what we what but will need permission to wipe our own asses.”
What the fuck is in the water in the U.S. lately, that people are going so completely batshit?
Violet
I’m going to boot camp to thrash my fat self into some kind of shape. It’s incredibly hard work but fun.
AA+ Bonds
Here’s a coherent agenda: rise up and take what you need
AA+ Bonds
@RedKitten:
The capitalist’s boot heel is already on your throat, what would be different
AA+ Bonds
Countdown to Zimmerman/Martin riots begins now
EconWatcher
I’m going to the gym, and I’m going to plan classic Van Halen loud and proud on my ipod while there, to spite those who disssed the band on an earlier thread.
Mino
Sherrod Brown–Elizabeth Warren in any order would be my sparkle ponys.
Brown is liberal as all get out and yet the Village doesn’t think he’s wacky. Plus he’s really smart in several areas of policy.
Warren is smart in an area that will be semi-critical for several years to come.
AA+ Bonds
@Mino:
It’s sad that they would still fuck us over on Israel
Mino
@RedKitten: She must be having a flashback to Bush’s threat of martial law if his Big Bailout wasn’t passed. That really happened.
lamh35
Evening guys!
Got a phone interview for that job home in NOLA tomorrow good vibes my way please.
The big stickler for me will be the pay. If it’s not brought up, is there a good and respectable way to bring it up and to make sure they understand that pay scale is kinda a deal breaker. Also, if things work out good with pay and such, the next question is what time frame should I give them if they offer me a position.
I have to give 2 weeks notice for my current job, and I have to give 30 day notice for my apartment. I kind want to have a least 1 months worth of income which for me would be a nice sum to go home to NOLA with, I make pretty decent money per month from my FT job alone (My profession pays well regardless of what state, it’s why I always recommend becoming a MT to people who are science majors who can’t or don’t make it into med school) and extra money from my PRN job, so one months pay would actually be pretty good, especially if I cancel extra services.
Anyway, I don’t wanna count my chicks before they’ve hatched (I was way too disappointed by not being dong well enough to be eligible for the CDC job I applied) but I like to game out scenarios when it comes to job or spending decisions.
Anyway, I always tend to forget to ask important questions that don’t pertain to the science portion of any job, so what other basic questions would ya’ll have aside from “how much will it pay”.
PeakVT
@phil: Fuck each and every journalist who talks about 2016 before late 2015.
the Conster (f/k/a Cat Lady)
@RedKitten:
Did you ask her about what martial law he signed last month? I keep pushing to make them show their work, then they call me a name and then everyone knows they lost the argument.
EconWatcher
@lamh35:
I would not raise compensation issues in a phone screen interview, unless they bring it up. Sell yourself. Once you’ve done that, then they can start selling you on the job, and that’s when you start talking comp.
FlipYrWhig
@the Conster (f/k/a Cat Lady): With a huge number of people, there’s really no substitute for a good ol’ fashioned “what the fuck are you talking about?”
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@lamh35: Normally pay is not something you bring up at these kinds of interviews. If they ask you, you should say something like “It’s really better that we discuss that after we both decide that we are a good fit for each other.” The flip side to them lowballing you is that by giving a number, you could be lowballing them: They might pay you more than you are expecting.
Generally a lot of employers I have worked for expect two weeks, probably no more than four, but I don’t do health care. You will generally discuss this when you discuss salary, but it’s ok to respond to this question from them.
Write down your questions. It’s OK to have a piece of paper with your own questions.
Steve
@RedKitten: I’m going to play the “both sides do it” card, because I remember any number of Daily Kos commentors who insisted that Bush would not step down voluntarily and that he had some secret plan to cancel the elections or whatever. The irony, of course, is that Bush actually couldn’t wait to get out of town.
phil
@PeakVT: Well yes, fuck Tweety by default, because its Tweety for chrissake. But I like thinking about the next 4 years because I believe they’re going to be good ones, if you dig progress, that is. I really like the fact that nobody is bringing up a Hoyer or a Bayh candidacy (Americans Elect? pffft) I think we’re going to get our shot at some lasting progressive policies in 2017, not 2013.
JCT
I am going to take a deep breath (and a nice shot of Balvenie Caribbean Cask — not that much is left given all of the upheaval in the past month), but my feet up on my desk and enjoy the fact that as of yesterday afternoon my eldest has a govt job offer and my younger one (my incorrigible son) made his final college decision — ending up at his “no way am I getting in there” choice.
I’m almost at a loss over what to do with myself now that I don’t have these worries hanging over my head.
But I’ll find something.
Hah, RedKitten — these nut jobs with their “obama’s going to take my ammo” nonsense deserve the fact that the ammo companies are going to steal them blind (like they did in 2008) with these fake rumors. Pathetic sheep.
And I’m not going to worry about 2016 for goodness’ sake. Get a life, Tweety.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@RedKitten: Yes, but Obama might also give us ponies. Has she thought of that?
Rhoda
@lamh35: If they don’t bring it up, when they ask if you gave any questions you can talk pay. Or, just ask if they look like they’ll end the conversation w/o asking.
Congratulations! I’ll be sending good thoughts your way.
Phylllis
Headed out to a meeting, then going to watch the Braves. Because I’m apparently the original sucker for punishment. Fredi better get the boys charged up, or he won’t make it to the All-Star break.
Mustang Bobby
@Raven: Yes, I am.
RedKitten
@the Conster (f/k/a Cat Lady): I didn’t even bother.
The Other Chuck
“Zombie-eyed granny starver”, “goggle-eyed homonculus”, yadda yadda … Much as I love me some Charlie Pierce, his incessant reuse of the same nicknames and buzzwords in every single column has gotten really quite tiresome. Like Garrison “powdermilk biscuits” Keillor tiresome. It’s an online column, Charlie, you’re not really required to fill up column inches describing Moral Hazard every time you want to talk about David Brooks.
David Koch
@PeakVT:
Hell, I’m already look towards 2024 and Stephen Colbert’s candidacy.
the Conster (f/k/a Cat Lady)
@FlipYrWhig:
Yup. Also, “did you object when Bush did it, and Cheney said they don’t matter” for the OMG teh deficit is going to kill us all! crowd, and “Reagan raised taxes 11 times.” I never hear back from them, strangely.
Loneoak
This is going to be awesome. Gawker has a longtime Faux News employee as a mole, and his first tidbit is preinterview banter between Mittens and Hannity about his wife’s dressage horses.
SiubhanDuinne
@Raven:
LOL.
I’m going to be in Athens this Sunday, having brunch with some professors emeriti whom I haven’t seen for years.
Kathleen
Appropo of nothing that’s been commented upon in this thread, why in Jobs’ name is the anniversary of the Titanic being celebrated?
SiubhanDuinne
@Phylllis:
Well, Chipper is back as of tonight.
Sly
@RedKitten:
Lincoln will make slaves of every white man!
SiubhanDuinne
@Kathleen:
A Facebook friend (librarian by profession) posted a survey from somewhere that indicated that some astonishing number of people are unaware that the Titanic disaster was real, not just a movie.
I imagine they’re among the people celebrating.
MikeJ
@SiubhanDuinne: Kos linked to a buncha tweets:http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m26l5gFOuF1qgig4oo1_500.png
Calouste
@RedKitten:
That sounds like a severe case of Palinitis.
Roger Moore
@RedKitten:
Fluoride! They’re trying to sap and impurify our precious bodily fluids!
Jay in Oregon
@Loneoak:
The sad thing is, that’s probably the most human and interesting I’ve seen Mitt Romney be.
AA+ Bonds
Every society is in a constant moment of crisis, there is nothing new under the sun, the great lie in 1984 was not that we have always been at war but that we have ever been at peace
AA+ Bonds
@Jay in Oregon:
B/c if there’s one thing they have to prevent him doing on the trail it’s talking about his interests and the people he knows and what he does every day and so on
The only reason that Bloomberg gets away with the shit he does is the proportional size of Wall Street and its bedrooms to his jurisdiction
Martin
That’s awesome.
Geoduck
@The Other Chuck:
Yeah. Ditto that. One good thing about Santorum dropping out is that maybe one of them will now fall by the wayside.
SiubhanDuinne
@lamh35: You have lots of good vibes from me! Hope it all goes well and that it is a good fit.
@MikeJ: Amazing.
Mike in NC
“Justified” season finale tonight
Steve in DC
The crazies are not getting crazier. We went through all this runs on ammo, take away your guns, death camps, American highway, UN in the streets under Clinton as well. Some people just forgot about it because of Bush.
What you must keep in mind at all times is that a good portion of this country does not consider liberals to be legitimate leaders, and never will. The Republican party lost two wars for the soul of this party. The first was the labor movement and the New Deal, the second was the culture wars of the sixties (which is about way more than race). The first war is the critical one, the Democrats were able to use the victory to build a majority and rule the country for a long time. The right wing has only just started clawing back due to liberal overreach in the culture wars and it’s abandonment of economic issues for social ones.
There is nothing more terrifying to the industrialists than the Democratic party passing another New Deal and controlling power for an entire generation. Of course, these fears are largely unfounded as the Democratic party is in bed with Wall Street and the tech industrialists (completely different group that the Republicans backers)and neither of those want economic reform and would prefer far lower wages, but the potential is there.
But make no mistake, the Republican party is one more New Deal away from being rendered impotent for another forty years. Maybe longer, if the Democrats play their cards right.
And that scares the fuck out of them.
Paula
re “Occupy”:
Getting POTUS to co-opt your talking points =/ moving forward.
Pols frequently switch up the populism during election year.
Raven
Petrino out at Arkansas.
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
@RedKitten: That’s No FB post, that’s the wrong end of an intake interview.
Mark S.
Michael Gerson asks how Romney can woo women voters. The answer: with “sound conservative and free-market reforms.”
Oh, and women don’t give a shit about contraception, trans-vaginal ultrasounds, or Planned Parenthood, according to Gerson, so no need to change anything there.
Bruce S
The notion of Romney tying himself to a douchebag who has been explicit that he got into politics because he was inspired by Jesus-hater Ayn Rand is…uh…Delicious!
Bruce S
“Tweety’s on the set talking about the epic 2016 match-up between Hillary and Santorum.”
That would be awesome. I hope Santorum lives to see it. Implicit in this is that the GOP just gets cwazier and cwazier. Which is a bet I would take.
Steve in DC
@Mark
Gerson is quasi correct. If work conditions improve to the point where people can afford their own contraception and medical testing and do not rely on insurance plans that cover or Planned Parenthood then those issues are rather moot. And for a lot of people that can’t find a job, can’t put food on their table, and are in a world of shit those issues rank higher than haggling over birth control pills.
Remember, it’s the economy stupid
We wouldn’t even be talking about PP or contraception if people were able to afford that stuff on their own, or if there was UHC.
Mnemosyne
@RedKitten:
Will it make you feel better or worse if I tell you that the exact same rumors were going around near the ends of the terms of Clinton and Bush II?
handy
@Bruce S:
This has been the thing that has confused me to no end with the Johnny Galt-Come Lately Teabaggers: it’s like they never ever read the damned book!
Loneoak
@handy:
Or they have no reading comprehension. Or the cheeto dust obscured that part of the 87 page speech one of the characters makes.
gogol's wife
@Steve:
I’ve been feeling sheepish while reading this thread, because I actually lost a bet to that effect (that Bush and Cheney wouldn’t give up power). So I have no room to throw stones.
Steve in DC
@handy
It’s an alliance of opportunity. Pot smoking, pro gay, atheist, libertarians that just want the government out of their lives. Socially liberal educated elites that just want it out of business so they can’t make money. And socially conservative bible thumpers that just want it gone so they can get their bigot on and teach the bible in school.
gogol's wife
@The Other Chuck:
Yes, another of the many things I feel guilty about is that I don’t find Charles Pierce all that interesting or funny most of the time. John Cole is much better, as is TBogg.
Mark S.
@Steve in DC:
Well, yeah, a lot of our problems would be solved if we didn’t have the stupidest health care system in the world.
But this is a lot deeper than just the economy. A lot of women are justifiably pissed at the GOP’s shenanigans the past couple of months. Nobody likes their health being used as a political football, and they resent people like Rick Santorum making decisions about their sex lives.
rikyrah
@lamh35:
GOOD LUCK, LAMH!!
hope you get the job and the pay.
Mike G
@RedKitten:
Save this and throw it back at her next year.
People need to be shamed and made to feel as stupid as they are when they repeat such bullshit. If they are held accountable and ridiculed a few times for spouting garbage they’ll start to think more carefully about what they say — and consequently what they believe. Painful, but tough love.
These people need to be taken out of their Fox News mental swamp where you can spew bullshit one day and the complete opposite the next and no-one ever calls anyone on it — statements as emotional expressions of feeling fear and hate at that moment with no factual basis.
Lurking Canadian
@handy:
They haven’t read the Bible either, though, so it’s all good.
kay
@Mark S.:
I don’t think Gerson gets it at all. It was never about free birth control pills. That wasn’t the appeal of Obama’s position.
He knows that, Gerson, but then he gets lost, and starts babbling about how Romney has to pick some down trodden subset (it matters not which one) because women like “humanity” in a President.
It’s their intense, insane focus on cordoning off womens’ reproductive issues from WOMEN.
It can’t be done. They can’t keep insisting that women are serate from
kay
@Mark S.:
I can’t type it on a phone, obviously, but I’ll just say IMO, Gerson doesn’t get what happened with Koman, and PP and contraception.
Which is good, because he’s advising Mitt Romney.
Some random “humanity” outreach isn’t going to do it.
kay
@Mark S.:
Gerson had to look at polling before he figured out it wasn’t about free birth control.
That right there encapsulates the GOP “women problem”.
Still, after weeks of study and poring over polls he comes up with “compassionate conservatism” which is the single idea he’s ever had, and the basis of his entire career.
He still doesn’t get it.
Frankensteinbeck
@Paula:
They were Obama’s talking points before they were Occupy’s. OBAMA pressed the ‘the rich aren’t paying their fair share’ line, and it took off.
Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason
@BigSouthern:
__
__
Give it your best shot, then if you whiff take every practice test you can and try it again. I passed it first try at the age of 37. Of course, that was after taking courses in Fluids, Circuits, and Thermo that I’d never had before.
Test advice: do all the ones you know how to do as fast as you can, then go back and do the ones that are close, then go back and fill in the circles for “B” on the rest that you don’t know.
Good luck!
Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason
@the Conster (f/k/a Cat Lady):
__
Gene Wilder’s reply: (From Start the Revolution Without Me)
“My name? You want to know my name? I’ll tell you my name. Do you know why I’m going to tell you my name? BECAUSE YOU ASKED ME MY NAME!!!! THAT’S WHY I’LL TELL YOU MY NAAAMME!!!!
xian
@RedKitten: There were similar fears that bush/Cheney were going to cancel the 2004 elections.
xian
@RedKitten: There were similar fears that bush/Cheney were going to cancel the 2004 elections.
Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason
@AA+ Bonds:
__
__
Or, as the Maryland state song puts it: “The despot’s heel is at thy door.”
The despot in this case being Abraham Lincoln. Some things never change, do they?
burnspbesq
“Always excellent?” Pierce?
Woman, have your read any of the offal he spews out over at Grantland? Mostly unintelligible, and when you can figure out what he’s saying it’s massively stupid?
Pierce is a hack. He may be your hack, but he’s still a hack.
Cacti
@kay:
Their new talking point that “women care about the economy, not birth control” is a bogus distinction.
Unless you belong to Mitt’s country club, family planning and birth control are economic issues.
handy
@burnspbesq:
C’mon Burnsie, he’s a chowd. He can’t help it. Hell, no one who holds allegiance to any of those New England sports teams can.
Kay
@Cacti:
I think it’s political poison to look at something that resonates and contradict it, deny it, and, I have to tell you, GOP men parading around starting every sentence with “women care about…” is a non-starter, for me. I’m not hearing anything past that first command.
What they’re doing is the direct opposite of “it’s the economy, stupid”.
That was about political pros getting it wrong, not voters. Clinton’s campaign team were saying political operatives had it wrong, and voters had it right, that VOTERS were focused on the economy, and that’s why the campaigns weren’t reaching them. Clinton’s campaign people were listening to voters.
This is the flip side of that. This is looking at something that actually resonates with women and saying “no, it doesn’t”.
Gerson wouldn’t do this with any other group of people. If the sainted white working class male group were focusing on one or another issue, Gerson would never say “it’s the economy, stupid”, because he’d be calling THEM stupid. We just saw it with gas prices. People like Gerson decided voters were focusing on gas prices (although they weren’t, apparently) but none of them said “they shouldn’t focus on gas prices, because gas prices aren’t important”.
If someone is telling you something is important, it’s not wise to keep telling them it isn’t.
Kay
@Cacti:
He’s also a hack, because there’s a ten point spread between women and men on health care, caring about health care, broadly. Obama framed the contraception rule as about health care, and women care more about health care as an issue than men do, according to polls, anyway.
Gerson spent weeks poring over polling and missed that? My. Ass. He doesn’t want to bring it up, because it hurts conservatives, and the fact that Obama polls much better than Romney on health care among people who think that’s a priority (women!) contradicts the Official Narrative.