Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

If you are still in the gop, you are either an extremist yourself, or in bed with those who are.

We know you aren’t a Democrat but since you seem confused let me help you.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

We’re watching the self-immolation of the leading world power on a level unprecedented in human history.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

Speaker Mike Johnson is a vile traitor to the House and the Constitution.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

We need to vote them all out and restore sane Democratic government.

Polls are now a reliable indicator of what corporate Republicans want us to think.

People are complicated. Love is not.

Jack Smith: “Why did you start campaigning in the middle of my investigation?!”

Lick the third rail, it tastes like chocolate!

Shut up, hissy kitty!

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

Weird. Rome has an American Pope and America has a Russian President.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

Since we are repeating ourselves, let me just say fuck that.

My right to basic bodily autonomy is not on the table. that’s the new deal.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

Bad people in a position to do bad things will do bad things because they are bad people. End of story.

You are here: Home / Elections / Election 2016 / Thursday Morning Open Thread: Objectively Pro-HRClinton

Thursday Morning Open Thread: Objectively Pro-HRClinton

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This ad came out before last night’s Matt Lauer Trump-orgy. I assume it’s in heavy media rotation in the states where it will do the most good, but hey — those of you on Facebook / Twitter / SnapPeriwhatever, remember: Sharing Is Caring!

Speaking of the #CICForumDebacle...

Priebus is (deservedly) taking a lot of social-media stick for this, but so far my personal favorite:

Apart from endless relitigation, what’s on the agenda for the day?

Reader Interactions

90Comments

  2. 2.

    Eric S.

    Top of the morning to everyone.

    I got a bit of fantastic news yesterday. My doc had been worried about my slightly elevated PSA levels and ordered a biopsy. Results negative! There are no signs of cancer. I cried tears of joy last night. And when I was no longer in danger of watering down or salting it, I finished the last 2 fingers of small batch Four Roses I had in the house.

  7. 7.

    shomi

    Buh…but I read in the comments on Ball Juice that Clinton is not doing a good enough job pointing out this stuff.

    Clearly random internet people know how to run a presidential campaign better than Clinton and her advisors.

  8. 8.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    Here in NoVA the temperature is supposed to reach 96F or higher, with a heat index of 103F. It should be a “wonderful” day. :-( Otherwise, just another day for me at the salt mine trying to get caught up on things…

    Is it a good thing that the MSM is getting pushback on their obvious double-standard when it comes to covering Trump and Clinton? Probably, but it’s also a sad state of affairs when such things happen in the first place. Will it last? Dunno, but I wouldn’t hold my breath. E.g. When will Chris Christie and his henchmen face justice?

    It’s good to see that Tim Duy’s latest piece is getting visibility:

    The Fed seems to place almost zero weight on the probability that the natural rate of unemployment is significantly below their estimates. In their view, only bad things happen when the unemployment rate drifts much below 5%.

    Bottom Line: The Fed thinks the costs of undershooting their estimate of the natural rate of unemployment outweigh the benefits. I am skeptical they are doing the calculus right on this one. I would be more convinced they had it right if I sensed that placed greater weight on the possibility that they are too pessimistic about the natural rate. I would be more convinced if they were already at their inflation target. And I would be more convinced if their analysis of why tightening cycles end in recessions was a bit more introspective. Was it destiny or repeated policy error? But none of these things seem to be true.

    All we ever hear about in the popular economic reporting is how horrible it is that interest rates are so low, how unemployment below 5% is an obvious imminent disaster, and how the inflation monster is going to kill us in our beds if we don’t raise rates now-now-now. I’m glad that Janet has (mostly) been able to resist that pressure and continue to talk about the mandate to maximize employment, and how unemployment below 5% is actually a good thing (and maybe we don’t know how low it can go and what NAIRU actually is now). But she shouldn’t be the (nearly) only person at the Fed who is fighting that battle.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  9. 9.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @shomi: Obviously you are the most intelligent, clear sighted individual commenting here. Thank you, thank you, thank you a thousand times for the gifts of these little pearls of wisdom you drop here for us lesser people.

  12. 12.

    JGabriel

    Warning – Jessica Jones Spoiler

    Reince Priebus:

    HillaryClinton was angry + defensive the entire time – no smile and uncomfortable…

    Hillary Clinton to Reince Preibus: Smile.

    ——

    (Re-post, accidentally posted to previous thread.)

  15. 15.

    Betty Cracker

    Every woman who has ever been ordered by some random male stranger to SMILE — as if her face were public property — heard Rinses Repeatus loud and clear. What a gigantic douchebag. He and Trump deserve each other.

  17. 17.

    satby

    @OzarkHillbilly: hope you saw the doctor.
    And on wages, funny fact: my pay working for the eye doctor’s office will start at about $1.00 more than it was when I last worked that job 21 years ago. In 21 years, wages have been virtually stagnate in retail (it’s a Lenscrafters).

  18. 18.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @debbie: Saw him yesterday. Got the MRI yesterday afternoon, he’ll get the results today. Most likely a torn rotator cuff, or a torn biceps tendon. (or both? that’s what happened to my wife). I’ll find out for certain today or tomorrow.

  20. 20.

    p.a.

    @satby: +$1 over 21 years is not stagnant. It’s regressive. Believe in general, historically, US COL doubles approx every 20 yrs. (pulling numbers out of rectum there. definitely an IIRC stat)

  22. 22.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    @OzarkHillbilly: Indeed.

    But the Fed can’t let that happen because never in the history of the Universe has a central bank raising interest rates caused unemployment to stop falling or prevent an economy from overheating. Therefore, if unemployment gets too low, the economy will spontaneously combust.

    TL;DR: All of the problems with the US economy happen when poor people have too much , er, something approaching enough any money. They must prevent that from happening.

    :-/

    Krugman, Baker, and others have pointed out that there’s no sign (almost anywere) in the US that unemployment is too low. The Fed should not even be thinking about raising interest rates in the next few meetings.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  24. 24.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    @OzarkHillbilly: Aargh. Strikeout fail. Trying again.

    Indeed.

    But the Fed can’t let that happen because never in the history of the Universe has a central bank raising interest rates caused unemployment to stop falling or prevent an economy from overheating. Therefore, if unemployment gets too low, the economy will spontaneously combust.

    TL;DR: All of the problems with the US economy happen when poor people have too much , er, something approaching enough any money. They must prevent that from happening.

    :-/

    Krugman, Baker, and others have pointed out that there’s no sign (almost anywhere) in the US that unemployment is too low. The Fed should not even be thinking about raising interest rates in the next few meetings.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  25. 25.

    debbie

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    My nephew suffered 3 different shoulder injuries during his high school football career, each requiring surgery and rehab, and he’s practically bionic now. (And out of football, yea!) It’s amazing what can be done to repair those injuries.

    Good luck!

  29. 29.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    @OzarkHillbilly: I can’t find it at the moment, but there was a story a year or so ago (in BusinessInsider, I think) that talked about how in some midwest city (Kansas City?) wages didn’t start going up until the regional unemployment rate was around 2.3%. That’s an actual, real-life, contemporary data point, but the Inflationistas who only remember the late 1970s ignore it.

    Unemployment was very low at the end of the tech bubble in 2000 without inflation as well.

    All of the evidence points to the NAIRU being much lower than 5% now. But it doesn’t fit with the banksters’ desire to have much higher interest rates (though how they can’t make more than enough money with 25+% on credit cards, 300+% on payday and title loans, etc., is a mystery), so the Fed has had an itchy finger for years…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  30. 30.

    Pogonip

    @Betty Cracker: I have already received the same e-mail twice–that she couldn’t smile because she has Parkinson’s and forgot her medicine last night. Coming soon to a corporate news outlet near you.

    Smile!

    P.S. I don’t know whether or not she has Parkinson’s, the e-mail says Dr. So-and-so diagnosed her.

  32. 32.

    Matt McIrvin

    @debbie:

    Like a smile will save the world from ISIS?

    It could take a nothing day and suddenly make it all seem worthwhile.

  33. 33.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    @p.a.: In 1995 an average new car cost $15,500; in 2015 it was around $33,500 (according to a quick Google search). Wages being flat over such a long period of time is good evidence that the economy has been broken for too many people for far too long.

    Good luck satby!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  36. 36.

    hovercraft

    What is Aleppo? Asks Gary Johnson when asked what his plans are to deal with it. Morning Joke are treating this as the biggest thing of the day, perhaps to distract from the fact that Matt Lauer and the forum shit the bed.

  37. 37.

    TheMightyTrowel

    Hello all! Just back from an 8 day conference in kyoto. Now exhausted from catching up with email and admin. In highly complimentary news, today my head of dept told me that he’s petitioned the promotions panel (I’m applying for promotion this year) not just to promote me but to jump me a notch higher (so I’m applying for senior lecturer but he’s asked them to promote me to reader). It won’t happen but it’s a really nice vote of confidence!

  39. 39.

    hovercraft

    @Betty Cracker:
    Shsh. Don’t tell them, let them keep saying that Hillary doesn’t ‘look’ presidential and that she doesn’t smile enough, this is a great strategy to win women ;-)

  40. 40.

    HRA

    I worked for UI, TRA, CETA and WIN. I interviewed claimants for those programs and for TRA training at the schools supporting the program.. I took my turn in having them sign for their weekly UI and TRA payments.

    In the same building another office had the responsibility to compute the percentage of unemployment for our area. The comparison to what I saw in my own work and what they sent out as the percentage was greatly lacking. I even went up there to ask them about it. They were not able to answer my questions. “That’s the way we are told to do it.”

  41. 41.

    Nina

    Hillary stood up and walked around during the forum. Donald Trump sat down for the entire time.

    Is something wrong with The Donald’s health? Is he not able to stand for prolonged periods of time? Is he low energy? Sad!

  43. 43.

    Schlemazel

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    Well that sucks. We are lucky to live in a time of great medical advances though so they should be able to patch you up ok.

    I am currently waiting in an office for a urodynamic test. It is the start of a series that I assume ends with my 1 gallon bladder being resected to a more normal size. Hoping it also can end the resistant infection I have had for over a year

  46. 46.

    Kay

    It would be great if Donald Trump would elaborate on his assertion that the people who briefed him disagree with Obama.

    All of these serious people who are so troubled by the national security implications of Clinton’s server management should follow up.

    Any other candidate, ever, would get reamed on that. Are they afraid of him? If they are maybe they should sit this one out and let someone else take a crack at it. They won’t get a do-over.

  47. 47.

    Matt McIrvin

    @I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: I was playing around with an inflation calculator a while back for an odd reason: I was thinking about the pricing of pinball machines. If you’re lucky enough to find a place where you can play pinball these days, the machines often cost 75 cents or a dollar a play; very rarely, $1.25. That seems like a lot, but it’s not. When I was a kid in the late 1970s, a quarter was the going rate, and a quarter in 1977 had the buying power of a dollar today. In the early Eighties, a few relatively fancy machines started to charge 50 cents; that’s $1.25 or $1.50 in today’s money.

    Unfortunately, in an environment where you can get a popular mobile game on your phone for a couple of bucks (or for free) and play it as many times as you want, the willingness to pay a buck to play a game of real pinball is a niche thing.

  48. 48.

    JMG

    That was the scariest part of the whole show. Trump is beyond lying, he’s delusional. He believes the military and intelligence community hates Obama, so he projected that belief on two innocent career officers who probably went home and drank heavily.

  49. 49.

    Kay

    It’s really in the public interest to immediately determine if what Trump said is true- that national security people indicated they’re not aligned with the elected, sitting President. Secretly. To Donald Trump. Who then blurted it out for political gain.

  50. 50.

    Eric S.

    @Kathleen: I need to start running again. A severe quad pull has sidelined me for a while. I’m healed. Now I need to reestablish the habit.

  52. 52.

    Schlemazel

    @Kay:
    It would have been fun if doorMatt had asked him how a President Trump would respond to a report that senior intel people were disrespecting him.

  53. 53.

    MomSense

    @satby:

    We have to push this issue. America deserves a raise! If you work for a living you should be able to live off your earnings. People don’t want handouts, they want to get paid for the services they provide. It’s an outrage that people are paid so poorly.

  54. 54.

    Kay

    @Schlemazel:

    He made it up.

    I’d also like to know what Trump did in Mexico and why that guy he’s allied with had to resign. Did Trump’s campaign communicate with him directly? Did they go around elected leadership in Mexico? No follow up at all on the completely bizarre events in Mexico?

  55. 55.

    MomSense

    @Kay:

    It’s more likely that their body language was really saying “please Agent Orange, don’t go blabbing this to your best bud Putin”.

  57. 57.

    Kay

    @MomSense:

    It isn’t even partisan. Compare/contrast with the coverage of Mitt Romney’s trip to England in 2012:

    If only Mitt Romney could turn the Olympic torch on the newspaper headlines in London.
    He’s the “Party Pooper” in the Daily Mail, “Nowhere Man” in the Times of London and “Mitt the Twit” in The Sun.
    This was not the storyline Romney and his team wanted when they journeyed overseas for a trip designed to burnish the GOP contender’s foreign policy credentials.
    Romney has yet to publicly acknowledge the outrage he set off in London when he appeared to question the city’s “disconcerting” problems in gearing up for the Olympic Games.

    Mexico. Trump.

    There’s a special, low standard for Donald Trump that has never been extended to any candidate in my lifetime. They can’t deny this anymore. They need to regroup and figure out how this happened and how they can correct course. Quickly. They won’t get a second chance.

  58. 58.

    JMG

    @Kay: They’re not about to do it. Assigning Lauer as the questioner/moderator last night proves that. NBC wasn’t about to assign Maddow, but they have plenty of experienced foreign news people who were available (Richard Engel, Andrea Mitchell, etc.) Our democracy is just another way for our media to make money. They have no sense of professional or civic responsibility, only a tribal loyalty to themselves (among the journalists) and their profit margins (at the top).

  59. 59.

    Kay

    @MomSense:

    Did you know John Kerry’s wife runs a huge charitable foundation? Has anyone in media ever asked if that influences him as Sec of State?

    Come on. They have a problem! They need to fix it.

  60. 60.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Mexican heritage textbook for Texas schools full of ‘offensive stereotypes’

    I am shocked, shocked I tell you!

    According to the book, Chicano activists “adopted a revolutionary narrative that opposed western civilization and wanted to destroy this society”. The report’s authors also take exception to a passage that states: “Illegal immigration has … caused a number of economic and security problems in the United States over which people are divided on how to solve. Poverty, non-assimilation, drugs, crime and exploitation are among some of these problems”.

    Non-assimilation?????? The horror!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  62. 62.

    cmorenc

    CNN for awhile this morning, in one of the most colossally un-self aware bits of self-parody, ran a marquis story titled: “The Issue-Free Election” (campaign has so far been personal insults). Covering issues kinda gets in the way of the much easier horse-race narrative, donchaknow? And it’s so much harder than covering the election like the political version of People Magazine.

  63. 63.

    Kay

    @JMG:

    Richard Engel would be good. People think a good line of questions is about verbal acrobatics and the questioning process, “open ended”, “tough questions”, all that, but it’s not. It’s about knowing facts and preparing, because that’s where the confidence comes from. The talking takes care of itself.

  64. 64.

    Thunderbird

    Am I the only one that remembers the thread where #7’s author threatened to chug bleach or some such shit?

  65. 65.

    MomSense

    @Kay:

    They should try to correct course immediately but they won’t. I swear they think they are immune to the consequences of a Trump presidency and so they are continuing with their decades long witch hunt.

  66. 66.

    satby

    @OzarkHillbilly: I had those (both, different arms). Got frozen shoulder both times, but back to full ROM on one after 18 months and almost full ROM in the other after 12 (that one’s still healing). Didn’t have surgery. So I relate, and good luck with whichever path to healing you take.

  69. 69.

    amk

    @Kay: And forget all the millions they earn? not.gonna.happen.

    As the kenyan said, intense GOTV as if your life depended on it is the only positive solution for this claptrap.

  71. 71.

    SFAW

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Most likely a torn rotator cuff, or a torn biceps tendon. (or both? that’s what happened to my wife).

    If you get the rotator cuff fixed (if that’s what it actually is), the Mets might need an extra arm. They’re doing OK, but some of their usual starting rotation is having issues.

    Not Barty Colon, however! Hooray for “old” guys! The guy is fucking amazing.

  72. 72.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @satby: A laborer I worked with for 6 years tore his shoulder up setting sign posts on the job. They (workman’s comp) made him wait 6 months before they allowed him an MRI. He’d torn both the RC and the biceps tendon. Got the surgery, had them fixed. Went for PT, in the first session, the therapist retore the tendon. took another month (?) to figure that out, had the surgery again. And to this day he can not lift his arm above his shoulder.

    My wife and I have plenty of experience with this surgeon and a lot of confidence in him (he is not ‘cut happy’, more often than not recommending against surgery)(like w/ my ankle). It’s what follows that worries me. I have been thru more than a little PT over the years and have had very little success with it.

  73. 73.

    satby

    @I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: Thanks Scott
    @Schlemazel: I should be. But then I was just able to buy a (super cheap) house for cash with an inheritance so I won’t have rent or a mortgage. Other people need all adult family members pooling wages like that to afford a place to live.

    @MomSense: indeed. Though you would be told that these are entry level jobs that shouldn’t be what a person expects to buy a house or raise a family on. Optician is a skill, you have to get certified. The average wage is $14.69/ hour, including management.

  74. 74.

    SFAW

    @Thunderbird:

    Am I the only one that remembers the thread where #7’s author threatened to chug bleach or some such shit?

    Whether he chugs bleach or shit, I’m sure we’ll all mourn profusely.

    [Where “profusely” = “for three femtoseconds.” (Of course, the more charitable here will mourn for three nanoseconds.)]

  75. 75.

    PaulWartenberg2016

    Last night’s performance by both NBC – by sending out Lauer to give Trump every opportunity to lie at will, and by hammering Hillary on emails that have already been covered by credible investigations – and by the New York Times where they literally cleaned an early report to make the updated coverage more Trump-friendly… that’s all proof that the media elites are in the f-cking tank for Trump (or the RNC) in some form or another.

    And we’re screwed, because our national audience relies on being properly informed by those major media outlets. If people don’t watch but get their news later, they’ll never know that Trump LIED HIS ASS OFF ABOUT IRAQ AND LIBYA and that Trump made insulting “blame-the-victim” remarks about women in the military getting raped. Christ help us here. There were at least five things Trump did last night that would drive any other candidate into resigning in shame this morning… but because Trump is without shame and because the goddamn media LETS HIM OFF THE HOOK that will never happen.

    And the RNC can’t stop him, they’ve proven that for an entire year.

    And the polls are starting to tick upward for Trump, reinforcing the WRONG idea that “Trump could win” OH GOD HELP US.

  76. 76.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @SFAW: If you added up the ages of their starters, you’d probably still be shy of my age. Then again, I’m a Cards fan. Me pitching for the Mets could be just what the Cards need (and they need all the help they can get this year).

  77. 77.

    amk

    Keith Boykin @keithboykin

    Politifact on CNN: 71% of Donald Trump’s statements were false while 72% of Hillary Clinton’s statements were true.
    5:30 PM – 8 Sep 2016

  78. 78.

    MomSense

    @satby:

    I’ve heard this argument about unskilled workers. One woman complained to me that it wouldn’t be fair for an unskilled worker to earn $15 an hour because she went to college and only earns $18 an hour. It took me 5 minutes to walk her through the concept that low wages for unskilled workers keeps all wages lower and that she would earn $25 or $30 if minimum wage were $15. It was at that point that the lightbulb went off and she converted to pro-increasing the minimum wage.

  81. 81.

    satby

    @OzarkHillbilly: I had PT on the first shoulder, and it honestly didn’t help much. I did my own stretching exercises after warming the shoulder with a heating pad for a year and slowly got ROM back in that arm. Now following the same course on the other shoulder, I didn’t even bother with the doctor this time because I knew what it was. After about 8 months, I have 80% ROM on that side. Heat and Aleve are my crutches ?

  82. 82.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @satby: I have arthritis and recurring bursitis in both shoulders. 100% is so far back in the rearview mirror I’m not sure I recognize it if I saw it there.

  84. 84.

    rikyrah

    @Betty Cracker:

    Every woman who has ever been ordered by some random male stranger to SMILE — as if her face were public property — heard Rinses Repeatus loud and clear. What a gigantic douchebag. He and Trump deserve each other.

    THIS…

    coming from an Angry Black Woman whenever she fails to show teeth…

    THIS…

  85. 85.

    catclub

    @I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet:

    That’s an actual, real-life, contemporary data point, but the Inflationistas who only remember the late 1970s ignore it.

    The wrong lesson learned: In 1923 Germany had hyperinflation and people who had paper assets were wiped out. But Germany recovered pretty
    well from that. In 1933 Germany had 47% unemployment and they elected Hitler – the results over time were not good.
    Nonetheless, nowadays, the Germans who are setting policy are mostly worried about inflation getting too high in the Eurozone due to ‘too loose’ economic policies.
    They are are not as worried about 25% umemployment in Greece.

  87. 87.

    Enhanced Voting Techinques

    I think the worst part is it was clear the Press had their post mortem already written at lest a day before the forum – that low expiations article from CNN gave that away. Reporting implies reacting to events, not planning them out in advance. These guys frustrated collaborative fiction writers or something? Maybe their true calling is GMs for LARPS are something.

  88. 88.

    ruckus

    @Eric S.:
    Well the biopsy is a lot of fun by itself. But not having to go through the treatment is even better. Congrats on a decent outcome.

  89. 89.

    ruckus

    @satby:
    I’m getting paid $1/hr more than my foreman did 30 yrs ago. Now if I was 10-20 yrs younger and working full time I would be making about $15/hr more. So not all wages have stagnated, but the vast majority have.

  90. 90.

    Barry

    @Eric S.: “I got a bit of fantastic news yesterday. My doc had been worried about my slightly elevated PSA levels and ordered a biopsy. Results negative! There are no signs of cancer. I cried tears of joy last night. And when I was no longer in danger of watering down or salting it, I finished the last 2 fingers of small batch Four Roses I had in the house.”

    Congratulations!

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