280K new jobbity jobs, and enough people added to the workforce to actually push the unemployment rate up a tick to 5.5%. Hourly wages up too, as well as upward revisions to that crap ass March number.
Solidly beefy, like a good bowl of chili.
Open thread.
Germy Shoemangler
Onion headline:
Nation’s Dogs Vow To Keep Their Shit Together During 4th Of July Fireworks
Cermet
Good news for Dem’s and especially Hillary
Germy Shoemangler
Nichelle Nichols, 82, suffered a mild stroke last night. From her Facebook page:
Baud
Stupid job-killing Obamacare.
Betty Cracker
@Germy Shoemangler: Hahaha! My dogs need to make that vow!
Zandar
63 straight months of positive job creation numbers but that’s probably the markets anticipating a new Republican president
ploeg
@Zandar: All those Obamacare repeal votes are beginning to pay off!
Chris
Since it’s an open thread, technology related question from a near-illiterate person:
My phone’s been doing this thing more and more frequently where it takes to misspelling words that I try to type into the Balloon Juice comments section. Basically, suppose I start to write the word “spelling.” When I’m about halfway through, the phone will suggest the word “spelling,” and I’ll just click on it rather than writing all of it out. But after I click, the word appears with a duplicate first letter (“sspelling.”) Also, if I hit the space bar after a word (whether I’ve actually typed it out myself or clicked on a word the phone suggested), it’ll often delete the last letter and add a period (“spelling” becomes “spellin.”)
Anyone know what that’s about? My instinct would be that it’s the phone, but it only ever seems to happen when commenting on Balloon Juice, so I thought I’d see if it’s ever happened to anyone else.
WereBear
Gee, why isn’t that a headline everywhere? Why do the haters not want to celebrate America?
Germy Shoemangler
@WereBear: Yes! I noticed Zandar’s link was to UK Business Insider. Meanwhile, Amurican media is too busy pretending Bobby J and R Perry have serious ideas to share to talk about job growth.
lamh36
Apparently the victims dies if AIDS sone time ago and Haaretz was actually at the viewing. the person Hastert was paying off is apparently someone else.
Wow. Wonder what it was that they had on ole dude. you don’t just give money to blackmailer unless they have something concrete, right?
Gimlet
McConnell announces an end to confirming any new Circuit Court Judges.
Can Democrats not just shut down Senate business to put an end to this?
JPL
@Germy Shoemangler: Business Insider highlights wage growth.
Just Some Fuckhead
@WereBear: Because the labor participation rate is still anemic. At the same labor rate participation as 2008, unemployment would be 10%.
Jado
With the hourly rates going up, this is probably the first really good news (i.e., not “we stopped actively going down the drain and have held steady”) since the economy imploded. In freakin 2008.
You know, errors committed by the FDR administrations were kind of understandable – they were flying by the seats of their pants, and trying many things for the first time to combat a serious depression. The fact that we were unwilling to follow the CLEAR stepping stones shown by the results of the New Deals and Fair Deals on the Great Depression is an indicator of our hubris and arrogance – we are unwilling to learn from success, because we know better.
I would be REALLY embarrassed to be American if Europe hadn’t adopted the Austerity programs that EVERYONE knew wouldn’t work. At least we didn’t try that.
WaterGirl
My mom had a phrase she liked to use: A prophet without honor in his own country.
Punchy
@Gimlet: Linky?
Gimlet
@Punchy:
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Thursday that he doesn’t expect to confirm any of Obama’s circuit court nominees for the remainder of his time in office, a blow to White House efforts to fill empty federal court seats despite working with a Republican-controlled Senate.
In an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, McConnell was asked about judicial confirmations.
“So far, the only judges we’ve confirmed have been federal district judges that have been signed off on by Republican senators,” McConnell said. Asked if he expects that to be the case through 2016, McConnell said, “I think that’s highly likely, yeah.”
More than one source but up at HP.
MazeDancer
@lamh36:
Whoa. That is some article. So, the former Speaker of the US House of Representatives appears to be, basically, a Jerry Sandusky kind of pedophile.
May all Hastert’s victims receive the help they need.
guachi
Job number is really good. April’s terrible number broke a string of a 13 or so months of 200k+ job growth. And Democrats should be all over the news crowing about the 63 months of consecutive job growth. It’s a record. Although I think it’s partially because counting is better and there are fewer drastic swings. Doesn’t matter. Let the Republicans explain why good news isn’t good news.
FWIW, this good number now puts Obama’s second term job growth (barely) above Reagan’s second term job growth. April’s number was enough to put Obama below Reagan. Democrats should be screaming “BETTER JOB GROWTH THAN REAGAN!!!!!!)
raven
@MazeDancer: Yea but they don’t have Penn State to sue.
raven
@guachi: Scream to who? None of them fuckers care.
rk
ABC news knew about the allegations against Dennis Hastert in 2006, but could not confirm it. What does it take for a major news organization to send some reporters down to investigate? Is it that impossible to find out the truth? Or is the sole function of ABC to protect republican politicians?
Benw
@Zandar: it’s thanks to our brave R congress, valiantly fighting against all of Obama’s job-killing, socialist policies!
SuzieC
What are all the new jobs? My millenial age son can’t find a job.
JPL
@Gimlet: What a patriot.
@lamh36: Hastert goes to court on Tuesday. It wouldn’t surprise me if he accepted a plea deal, in order to avoid a trial.
Roger Moore
@Gimlet:
Country first!
Patricia Kayden
280,000 jobs. Yoohoo!!!
Go on, President Obama (with your fine self).
Pretty good for a Kenyan Communist, I must say.
Gimlet
@Patricia Kayden: I was starting to worry about that long wait in line at my local fast food spot.
Patricia Kayden
@Gimlet: Wish Dems had the spine to do what you’re suggesting but I doubt it.
DougJ
The markets are responding to new signs of Hillary’s political weakness.
Betty Cracker
@SuzieC: My 16-year-old can’t either. I’ve blamed it on her multicolored mohawk, but the fact is that while the economy is improving, it still kinda sucks.
Elizabelle
@Germy Shoemangler: Love the Onion piece. Thank you. Sent it to some friends with dogs in thundershirts.
PsiFighter37
@Gimlet: This is what we get for a) Democrats running away from Obama last year, and b) our voters not turning out.
The Senate’s job is to advise and consent. McConnell, for all of his supposed ‘respect’ for the Senate as an institution, is an evil bag of shit. I hope we can put him back in the minority next year.
Gimlet
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/september-11-attacks/11653706/US-report-claiming-Saudi-Arabia-financed-911-attack-redacted-by-Bush.html
The Obama administration is facing renewed pressure to release a top secret report that allegedly shows that Saudi Arabia directly helped to finance the September 11 attacks.
The blacked-out pages, which have taken on an almost mythical quality for 9/11 conspiracy theorists, were classified on the orders of George W. Bush
Fifteen of the 19 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia, but previous investigations always failed to find a formal link between the country and the terrorist attack, which killed 2,996 people.
In a plea to a New York court released last February, Moussaoui, the so-called “twentieth hijacker”, said that senior members of the Saudi royal family were major al-Qaeda donors and were intimately involved with Osama bin Laden’s terror network in the 1990s.
He named Prince Turki al-Faisal, then the Saudi intelligence chief; Prince Bandar Bin Sultan, the longtime Saudi ambassador to the United States and Prince al-Waleed bin Talal, a prominent billionaire investor.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Betty Cracker: Layla takes that vow, though some accuse her of cheating with acepromazine.
Chris
@Gimlet:
Ohhhhh, my.
Talking about the Saudi connection is something that’s been assiduously avoided by our VSPs. I’ve long figured that Saudi and American elites simply have a see-no-evil policy WRT each other’s crimes. I’d be interested to see them actually put on the spot.
Patrick
@Gimlet:
Not sure how this is a blow. I’m sure just about everybody on the planet expected this. This is why the Dems got rid of the filibuster for judicial nominees before the last election so they could confirm as many as possible before the GOP took over.
I just hope and expect that the Dems will use the very same tactic the next time there is a Republican President.
Patricia Kayden
@Gimlet: And Saudi Arabia has also been accused of funding ISIS. But oil.
Cckids
@Betty Cracker: When my Pom went mostly deaf, I realized there were upsides to it. No more terror at fireworks, rarely at thunder & he can’t hear the upstairs neighbors to bark at them.
Win.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Chris: @Patricia Kayden: Whenever I hear that AQ or Dash is supported by “wealthy gulf state businessmen” or “members of the X royal family”, but not the governments of those states, I wonder if there is much difference, especially in the case of the Saudis.
Patrick
I remember in the beginning of Obama’ term when the stock market kept going down and CNBC blasted Obama for it as if it was his fault. Well, now that the opposite is occurring you sure as hell are not hearing any credit of the economy’s turnaround going to Obama from CNBC. Just crickets. It’s infuriating. Their bias couldn’t be more striking. How Rich Santelli still holds a job boggles the mind considering how wrong he has been.
Gimlet
@Patricia Kayden: If it was known by the Saudi higher ups, why would they allow it?
Amir Khalid
There’s been an earthquake today near Mount Kinabalu, Malaysia’s highest mountain. No deaths or serious injuries reported, fortunately, but dozens of people stranded up the mountain (a popular hiking destination) overnight because of damaged paths.
guachi
I’ll revise my remarks I made earlier. It wasn’t the April numbers that were bad, it was March’s. The initial revision greatly reduced the number but it looks like the second revision increased the job count by 34k to 119k. Changes it from the weakest number since June 2012 to weakest number since December 2013.
The overall numbers are quite good.
catclub
@rk:
asked and answered, as the lawyers say.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Flashback, from one of the most respected minds in the Village-Wall St Borg, courtesy of Brian Beutler
Germy Shoemangler
@Betty Cracker:
A tale of my two children, born 1989 and 1992. Oldest child got a job with a media company owned by one of America’s wealthiest families. He does production work. He can barely afford his rent, and there are no benefits. They keep his hours short enough not to qualify for full time. He never knows what his hours are going to be. Some weeks he works 35 hours. Other weeks he works 30 hours.
I remember back in the ’60s when I was a kid watching Johnny Carson. Johnny would joke about the production crew and their union. He mocked them changing lightbulbs, etc. But they were unionized and well-paid. My oldest son does video editing, web maintenance and a ton of production work. If this were 45 years ago, he’d be making enough to buy a house.
My youngest child was working for a company that’s posting record profits. He took the job while going to college. They increased his hours until finally his boss was demanding he work SIXTY HOURS A WEEK. When my youngest said he couldn’t put in all that overtime, his boss would fly into a rage.
Finally, my youngest gave his notice. His boss flew into another rage and told him to leave immediately.
He is now working for a smaller company for minimum wage, 30 hours a week, and finishing college.
I have no idea what the future holds for either of them. They are educated, eager to join the economy. If one of the Klowns wins 2016….
rikyrah
The obvious water is wet answer is: BECAUSE A BLACK MAN IS IN THE WHITE HOUSE!
Why Do So Many Obvious Losers Think They Can Be President?
—By Kevin Drum
| Wed Jun. 3, 2015 12:39 PM EDT
http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2015/06/what-do-so-many-obvious-losers-think-they-can-be-president
Germy Shoemangler
@rikyrah: Yes, that’s pretty much it.
They don’t see anything other than his skin color. I’ve heard him called “the first affirmative action president” with “no real experience; just a community organizer” as if he’s the biggest dolt in the world. And they believe that bullshit.
And so we get GOP klowns jumping into the race thinking “if someone like him can make it, I sure as hell can!”
Chris
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I think in some ways, the Saudi government’s relationship with jihadis parallels the U.S. government’s relationship with the militia movement. Clearly it’s something that the government should be at least a little worried about, since they’re terrorists who hate it and have stated that they want to destroy it (which doesn’t necessarily mean they can actually do it, granted). But paradoxically the government is so riddled with people who basically agree with the terrorists that there are limits to what can be done. IIRC the Clinton administration had some trouble passing antiterrorist legislation in the nineties because a lot of people in Congress were angry that it might be used to target good God-fearing Americans with guns. Treating the militia movement like jihadis, or even like inner city gangs, was never in the cards and still isn’t to this day, as we saw with the kid-gloves treatment that rancher and his groupies got last year. I think the same kind of thing’s at play in Saudi Arabia, to some extent.
Another factor for the Saudis: jihadi or other extremist Sunni theocrats have always been an arm of Saudi policy. They’re the surrogates that the Saudis count on to go crazy and kill as many of their enemies as possible, whether it be Nasserists in the sixties, Soviets in Afghanistan in the eighties, or Shi’a today. The general thinking is that as long as you can keep them pointed outwards at your enemies, you’ve got the best of both worlds; as long as they’re shooting at your enemies, they’re not shooting at you, and hey, you want your enemies to get shot! Jihadis just aren’t their priority in the enemies department and never have been.
Also, if terrorists you’re associated with have been going after your most important ally… what’s your priority gonna be? Bringing them to justice with all the publicity that implies, or sweeping it all under the carpet as quickly and quietly as you can to avoid outcry? I’d bet there’s some of that at work too.
Germy Shoemangler
Four former CVS security employees in NYC have sued the company for making them enforce a “shopping while black” policy that had them tailing black and Latino customers around the store, watching them for theft.
CVS denies the claim and says it is “shocked.”
On Wednesday, four former security personnel at CVS Pharmacy stores in New York filed a federal lawsuit in Manhattan, alleging that their loss-prevention supervisors regularly instructed them to tail black and Latino shoppers in particular. The supervisors, the suit claims, told them that “black people always are the ones that are the thieves,” and that “lots of Hispanic people steal.”
gene108
@Just Some Fuckhead:
How much is due to Baby Boomers retiring?
How much is due to the fact that there are fewer new entrants into the labor market, compared to the 1970’s and 1980’s, when women started entering the labor market in larger numbers?
The labor participation rate we currently have may well become the new normal.
Chart from BLS on labor participation rates going back to 1948. The peak of people in the work force was from 1997-2003 at around 67%.
In 2008 it was approximately 66%.
The current labor participation rate is 62.9%, which is higher than the 1940’s, 1950’s, 1960’s and comparable to most of the 1970’s.
In short, a 3% increase in the labor participation rate – if it is possible – to get us back to 2008 levels, will not get us to 10% unemployment.
Also, too the post-WW2 boom decades of the 1950’s and 1960’s had lower labor participation rates than today, so labor participation probably is not the be-all and end-all of everything.
Tone in DC
Record profits at many corporations over the last several years. From unconfirmed rumors I’m hearing, wages are stagnant in many parts of the country, and in a few locales they’re actually falling (in certain sectors).
And these idiots on the Hill, Versailles on the Potomac, refuse to raise the minimum wage.
rikyrah
Unions Subdued, Scott Walker Turns to Tenure at Wisconsin Colleges
JUNE 4, 2015
CHICAGO — Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, who began building a national profile four years ago by sharply cutting collective bargaining rights for most government workers, has turned his sights to a different element of the public sector: state universities.
As Mr. Walker takes steps toward announcing his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination, he and leaders in Wisconsin’s Republican-held Legislature have called for changes that would give a board largely picked by the governor far more control over tenure and curriculum in the University of Wisconsin System.
Critics said the proposal, which is championed by Republicans in the Legislature, would burnish Mr. Walker’s conservative credentials as he is scrutinized by likely primary voters.
As a new and unknown governor in 2011, Mr. Walker quickly drew national attention by announcing legislation to limit collective bargaining rights for most public-sector unions and require workers to pay more for their health care and pensions.
He followed that battle — which included surviving a recall effort — by signing other measures that attracted notice from conservatives nationally: new limits on early voting, the expansion of school vouchers and, this year, legislation barring unions from requiring employees in private workplaces to pay the equivalent of union dues.
Republicans say the new proposal will give university leaders more autonomy and encourage savings and efficiency at a moment when the state is aiming to cut spending to balance its budget. But the plan has caused professors to express alarm.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/05/us/politics/unions-subdued-scott-walker-turns-to-tenure-at-wisconsin-colleges.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=second-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news
Valdivia
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Thanks for that blast from the no-so-distant past. I needed the laugh.
@rikyrah:
This is what I have been thinking all these months. Since Obama is president in their minds anyone can be president and it must be easy to run if he could win. They really do not get that it’s the exact opposite, just how extraordinary he is to have been able to win. Extreme discipline and smarts.
I loathe these idiots.
Patrick
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
That was unbelievable. Without an ounce of evidence, the former CEO of one of our biggest companies accused the President of the US of fraud.
Betty Cracker
@Germy Shoemangler: Scary. I hope it works out for them. We need a new labor movement in this country, and their generation would be the one to lead it.
WereBear
@Amir Khalid: That’s roughing it. Most day hikers don’t pack enough for extended trips. Glad to hear no one was hurt, though. An advantage of NOT being in civilization at the time.
rikyrah
one of the many problems with Rand Paul, is that, for all his talk about FREEDOM…he wants all up in the uterus. And, folks don’t think women know that?\
……………
Why Are Libertarians Mostly Dudes?
Rand Paul is polling terribly among women. His political philosophy might be to blame.
By Jeet Heer @heerjeet
Since 1980, the Republican Party has been bedeviled by a persistent gender gap in presidential elections, as GOP nominees have struggled with female voters. But Rand Paul is facing an intensification of this phenomenon: He can’t even win over Republican women. A new CNN poll shows that the Kentucky senator is highly competitive among male primary voters, his 13 percent support putting him neck-and-neck with top candidates like Scott Walker (13 percent), Marco Rubio (12 percent) and Jeb Bush (11 percent). Yet among Republican women, Paul’s share of the likely vote collapses to 2 percent. The small sample size of the poll might have exaggerated the margin of error, but the size of the gender gap Paul faces is far larger than that of any other politician in the poll.
Why is Paul so unpopular among women? Setting aside what women think about Paul’s personal qualities, which would require pure speculation, consider what sets him apart from all the other candidates vying for the GOP nomination: his highly distinct political philosophy. While not a doctrinaire libertarian, Paul is by far the most libertarian-leaning candidate in the race. And there’s plenty of evidence that the libertarian worldview leaves most women cold, despite the fact that female intellectuals—Ayn Rand, most famously—have been pivotal in creating libertarianism.
The demographic profile of libertarians is sharply defined. According to 2013 Pew survey, 7 percent of Americans identify as libertarian. Of those, two-thirds are men (68 percent) and nearly all are non-Hispanic whites (94 percent). That is, the typical libertarian is a white man. These firm demographic contours cry out for an explanation since, at first glance, there doesn’t seem much intrinsically white or male about libertarianism. Proclaiming itself a philosophy of individualism, with no overt celebrations of either patriarchy or racism, libertarianism still ends up being monochromatic and male.
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/121974/cnn-poll-rand-paul-not-popular-republican-women
Hillary Rettig
Thought some people here might be interested: John Scalzi let me interview him re time management, career strategies, social media, Gamergate, etc. He gave generous and really useful answers:
http://www.hillaryrettig.com/2015/06/01/exclusive-john-scalzis-time-management-and-career-tips/
Betty Cracker
@gene108:
Unfortunately, our return to 70s-era labor participation levels hasn’t been accompanied by pre-70s-era wage growth, pensions and corporate taxation levels.
Iowa Old Lady
@rikyrah: His lack of respect for women shows in every interaction he has with a woman. He’s a “pat them on the head and tell them what to do” kind of guy, and most women can see that even through their TV screens.
gene108
@PsiFighter37:
Democrats have not had a national political figure they could use to rally voters in a long time, in the South.
Bill Clinton became toxic, in the 1990’s.
Obama’s toxic now.
The right-wing’s relentless attacks on Democratic Presidents keeps the negatives front and center in the minds of a lot of voters.
The state wide politicians have to make distinctions between themselves and the sitting President, if they want to get elected.
Until we can counter-balance right-wing misinformation, I do not see a way around this issue.
rikyrah
@Chris:
I’ll say this without hesitation.
It is the protection of complexion.
Because without and beyond a doubt…
if the majority of the militia movement in this country were NON-WHITE..
they would have been ELIMINATED long ago.
period.
rikyrah
@Valdivia:
He is a BLACK MAN
who was ELECTED
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
That he’s smarter than 99.5% of the people in any room he walks into is a given.
For me, it goes without saying.
rikyrah
@gene108:
I will repeat.
Barack Obama showed the way that you don’t need one phucking Southern State to win the Presidency.
It’s nice that he won the ones that he did, but even if he hadn’t, he’d still be President.
So, I don’t give two shyts about rallying voters in the South.
catclub
@rikyrah:
As long as you don’t treat Florida as a southern state. ;)
Omnes Omnibus
@rikyrah: Do you want Dems to have control of Congress?
gene108
@Betty Cracker:
Yeah…plus a lot less job security…
On the flip side, we’re a lot more inclusive…even when I was 16, 25 years ago, a multi-colored mohawk was a pretty brazen act of rebellion against authority…but I just get the feeling no one really cares, if that’s the look you want to sport, as much as they did in the past…
…though a retailer may still have reservations about hiring you…
…though it seems nose rings and multiple earrings (whether boy or girl) is not a dis-qualifier anymore, where I live, to work retail, flip burgers, etc. …
Chris
@rikyrah:
Yep. And the Saudi version of “white” is “Sunni.”
gene108
@rikyrah:
I want Democratic control of Congress, as well as the White House and state governments.
Kentucky is 88.5% white. You can’t win there without the white vote.
Same goes for states like Colorado, which is 88% white.
Winning the Presidency is not enough to move the country forward and stop the bleeding Republicans are causing in Congress and at the state level.
catclub
@Chris:
Slightly relevant: Lots of bikers in Waco are still in jail. And they are white! and they had nothing to do with criminal biker gangs, except being bikers. And they are upset! I wish that the article would compare their experience with the treatment people of color get with respect to law enforcement.
Sloegin
Meh. Something above 300k jobs would be a good number, and most all of the 280k jobs are service industry.
Still better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.
Betty Cracker
@Omnes Omnibus: I’m sure Rikyrah does, because she’s plugged into politics enough to know how essential that is to getting anything done. But I do worry that too many Democrats don’t get that, which is why so many of us participate in the grand reality show spectacle of presidential elections and then fail to show up for midterm elections, let alone local and state contests. I blame “American Idol.” Or maybe “Survivor.”
mai naem mobile
I think the.Klown Kar is so packed.because the plutocrats have to pay for all the GOP entourage. Think of it as a GOP make work program which also helps stop GOP/Koch welfare recipients from going off the reservation. And it’s worth it for the Kochs/Adelsons/Paulsons/Waltons because they stand to net benefit in the billions if the GOP controls everything.
catclub
@gene108:
Of course, Vermont is more like 95% white. Something else is going on there.
Amir Khalid
If this politics thing doesn’t work out for Marco Rubio, I reckon he would not want to try being a limo driver. And come to that, neither would his wife.
catclub
@Amir Khalid: But most of those new jobs are probably drivers for Uber.
Valdivia
@rikyrah: that is what is so so depressing. It goes without saying for me, but to these clowns, it has translated into anyone can do it. So we get the clown car parade. And the media has abetted this, by the way they have treated him with utter disrespect.
Amanda in the South Bay
Mencius Moldberg got disinvited to a tech conference.
Valdivia
Since there is a new thread on jobs I am going to drop this here. According to the WSJ de Blasio in nyc is facing a revolt of white voters. From the lead of the piece:
It being the WSJ maybe take it with a grain of salt.
gene108
@catclub:
You are not going to win statewide elections in Vermont, without appealing to the concerns of white voters in that state.
There are plenty of states, where you cannot skate by and elections with getting 95% of the African American vote, 75% of the Hispanic vote, etc. the way Obama won in 2008 and 2012.
Patricia Kayden
@Hillary Rettig: Love the fact that Scalzi just got a $3 million plus multi-book contract for his sci-fi lit. His Rightwing enemies must be freaking out since he’s very vocal about supporting the dreaded SJWs.
Patricia Kayden
@Gimlet: Don’t know. Can only guess that the Saudi higher ups are religious zealots and thus support other religious zealots but I really don’t know. Would love for our government to stop protecting Saudi rulers and allow some transparency on any connections between the Saudi ruling class and terrorists.
Chris
@rikyrah:
Is the moral “don’t rally voters in the South,” or “don’t obsess on white illiberal voters in the South?” (Or elsewhere for that matter).
It’s been pointed out here a bunch of times that if Latinos in Texas voted in higher rates, the state would be in play. I sure wouldn’t mind seeing that. I just feel like people talking politics tend to assume that “win back the South” means “win back the demographics that we lost over civil rights,” as opposed to “get out the vote among those demographics that aren’t riddled with Republican friendly sentiment.” That won’t be enough in every state, but it’ll be enough in some and might make others competitive.
catclub
@gene108:
In Mississippi, Obama got only 11% of the white vote and lost. But if he had gotten about 16% of the white vote ( fewer than 1 in 7) he would have won. Mississippi. So I think it is quite possible.
Hillary Rettig
@Patricia Kayden: yup! very satisfying to see good people prosper. (same situation when Intel announced millions to boost women in tech, and Anita Sarkeesian was featured prominently in the announcement.)
MomSense
@Gimlet:
It’s a long standing pattern of funding extremist groups to keep them from acting out or organizing in Saudi Arabia.
Betty Cracker
@catclub: Wow. I didn’t realize that.
MomSense
@gene108:
I think the issue is really more that if a candidate would have to dog whistle to try and secure the racist, white, vote–it is not worth it. It is a concern because of some of the things HRC and her campaign said in 2007-08.
Cacti
The sister of one of Hastert’s alleged victims has come forward. Says her brother was the equipment manager of the wrestling team, and was repeatedly abused by DH. He only told her about it several years after the fact, and said that he didn’t tell anyone at the time because he was certain no one would believe him.
He was also a closeted gay high school student in the 1970s, who was mortified of being outed.
This victim died of AIDS in 1995, and Hastert actually had the nerve to attend his visitation.
What an absolute swine of a man.
boatboy_srq
@Betty Cracker: 1) people forget that the punk style (spiked neon hair, piercings everywhere, tats everywhere, slashed wardrobe) began as a conscious effort to be deemed unemployable (and thus maintained on DHSS or other UI); 2) punk is three decades old and the novelty should have worn off by now; 3) FL still lags national jobs numbers/salaries/benefits; 4) even as “employment” is ramping up, places like Disney are offshoring their skilled positions so net effect is skewed regardless.
@rikyrah @Germy Shoemangler: TABMITWH. Otherwise known as ODS. Ayuh.
Betty Cracker
@boatboy_srq: I’m sure mohawks elicit yawns in more civilized regions, but they are still a novelty in my town, particularly on a girl. I’ve long suspected the spawn secretly doesn’t want a job. I wouldn’t if I were her.
catclub
@rikyrah: Link to Hillary’s speech on voting. I am surprised you did not get there first.
http://andrewtobias.com/column/
rikyrah
@Valdivia:
1. DeBlasio was put into office because of his policing policies – the NON-WHITES put him office over it.
2. It is the WSJ.
Kropadope
@catclub:
1/7 = 14.3%
16% is more than one in seven
rikyrah
@MomSense:
We have a winner.
I am one who is thru with the coddling done towards the White working class that sees to want to CLING TO WHITENESS
rather than vote in their own economic best interest.
The Black working class gets it.
The Latino working class gets it.
The Asian working class gets it.
The Native American working class gets it.
But, we’re supposed to continue to coddle the White working class, tiptoeing around them.
Phuck that.
Brachiator
@Gimlet:
This is one of the reasons I hate Republicans.
The GOP keeps insisting by these practices that they see themselves as the only legitimate party of government. They keep insisting that they have the right to shut the government down or to nullify the president’s decisions, if they don’t like him.
And note how the Democrats usually go along with the wishes of a Republican president (or are more easily cajoled and bullied).
And I’m sure in the Fox News blogosphere, there will be jibber jabber about how the Repubs are preventing Obama from infecting the court with ghey loving librul Mooslem aktivist judges.
Hell, unless the appointee was a total evil fool, I would be upset if the Democrats consistently blocked a Republican president just because they didn’t like him or feared him. I’m still stupidly idealistic to believe that you should let the people elected actual do their jobs, unless and until they do craven, foolish or venomous acts.
Did I mention that I hate the Republicans for this? I want to see them punished and pushed into the dirt.
And this kind of thing makes me even more livid when dopes start singing their “both sides do it” and “barely lesser of two evils” or “no real difference between Republicans and Democrats” BS.
catclub
@Kropadope: got me. 1 in 6.
Valdivia
@rikyrah: yeah one has to read the thing to see just how much they are spinning: one person keeps talking about Al. Sharpton and the woman on the photo has a book of Bill O’Reilly. Complete WSJ propaganda job.
Chris
@rikyrah:
I’m with you.
Brachiator
@gene108:
2012 election results:
Of course, I think that the people of Vermont lived near Massachusetts and had an opportunity to get a good look at Mitt Romney.
Epicurus
@Chris: The new iOS (8) introduced some lovely “helpful” features, like the new improved autocorrect. Please note that when you start typing now, there are suggestions at the top of the panel. Look on the left for “variant” spellings or deliberate misspellings; they will be listed, as is, in quotes. If you touch that option, you can spell any way you want to. If you hit the spacebar, it assumes you want to correct your mistake, whether you do or not. Don’t feel bad, I can’t think of many who are big fans of this change. It is helpful that it guesses as to what you wanted to type, however. HTH.
WaterGirl
@Hillary Rettig: Good interview!
boatboy_srq
@Betty Cracker: She’d be a shoo-in in about half of Ybor. But I don’t think that’s commutable…
Betty Cracker
@rikyrah: I was about to respond, but I think it’s more of a post than a reply. Stay tuned!
rikyrah
@Brachiator:
I feel your hate.
gene108
@Brachiator:
Thread’s dead, but there’s some stuff I want to reply to: All white people are not the same.
What appeals to white people in Vermont may not appeal to white people in West Virginia.
Democrats held statewide offices throughout the South all the way until the 1990’s, when Newt Gingrich managed to turn Congressional House races and other statewide races into some sort of national referendum on a few issues.
@catclub:
Mississippi is 59.8% white, 37.4% black and 2.9% Latino. A lot of the Old South has large populations of African-Americans than many other states, such as Mountain West States, for example.
A Democrat can win in the South, with appealing to African-American and Latino voters, and with only a minority of white voters.
David Koch
worse than bush.
bush’s 3rd term.
also too…droonze
gene108
@MomSense:
Democrats held on in the South for a good 30 years after the 1964 Civil Rights Act passed. The dominoes for the Democrats only really started to fall after the 1994 mid-term election.
Democrats did not stay in power for that long only because they played on racial animosity.
In North Carolina, for example, they built up the university system, starting the 1960’s.
I’ll bet there are other examples of economic development from other states that happened under Democratic administrations.
Tree With Water
Driftglass.com informs me that David Brooks had my number in 2003:
“..In this dream palace, Bush, Cheney, and a junta of corporate oligarchs stole the presidential election, then declared war on Iraq to seize its oil and hand out the spoils to Halliburton and Bechtel. In this dream palace, the warmongering Likudniks in the administration sit around dreaming of conquests in Syria, Iran, and beyond. In this dream palace, the boy genius Karl Rove hatches schemes to use the Confederate flag issue to win more elections, John Ashcroft wages holy war on American liberties, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, and his cabal of neoconservatives long for global empire. In this dream palace, every story of Republican villainy is believed, and all the windows are shuttered with hate..”.
Chris
@Tree With Water:
Yes, Halliburton absolutely didn’t win any no-bid contracts in Iraq. And if they did, it’s not because their former CEO was now Vice-President of the United States. And if it was, it’s not war profiteering.
(Also, the only bad things about capitalism come from crony capitalism when the government gets involved, but this is not an example of this because SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!!)