Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

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

Americans barely caring about Afghanistan is so last month.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

This really is a full service blog.

“More of this”, i said to the dog.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

No one could have predicted…

It’s the corruption, stupid.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

I did not have telepathic declassification on my 2022 bingo card.

We still have time to mess this up!

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

Their freedom requires your slavery.

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Wednesday Morning Open Thread

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The Washington Post, company paper in a town where the monopoly industry is politics, certainly thinks so:

Republicans have grown increasingly worried about losing control of the Senate, as President Trump’s approval rating tumbles and Democrats gain steam in key battleground races.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Tuesday sounded some of the most doubtful notes of Trump’s presidency that Republicans will keep the upper chamber of Congress, telling reporters, “I hope when the smoke clears, we’ll still have a majority.”

His comments came as Republican strategists and officials fretted over a fresh round of private polling on the Senate races, while public polls registered further erosion in Americans’ approval of Trump. “Shipwreck” was how one leading strategist described the situation, adding an expletive to underscore the severity of the party’s problems…

At the start of Trump’s tenure, some Republicans envisioned enough wins to secure a filibuster-proof majority of 60 seats, confident they could oust many of the 10 Democrats running in states Trump won in 2016. Even a few weeks ago, Republicans were talking more assuredly about flipping seats.

But less than two months till the Nov. 6 election, Republicans barely mention Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania — states Trump won — as opportunities to knock out a Democrat, while McConnell reiterated that nine seats, plus Texas, were at stake.

“Arizona, Nevada, Tennessee, Montana, North Dakota, Missouri, Indiana, West Virginia and Florida. All of them too close to call, and every one of them like a knife fight in an alley; I mean, just a brawl in every one of those places,” McConnell told reporters in Louisville…

The dire warnings also could serve as a wake-up call to GOP donors for the final eight weeks of the campaign….

Sure, some of McConnell’s bluster is an old-school threat to those donors: Nice grift ya got goin’ here. Shame if some goo-goo Dems were to get voted in and take it away from ya. But more and more, it’s looking like a last desperate smash&grab, as the Repub looters stuff their pockets before the authorities show up.

It won’t be easy, rebuilding our institutions after the GOP arsonists are turfed out. But the ‘easy’ options — giving in to despair, or haring after third-party grifters — would only make things worse.

Reader Interactions

203Comments

  10. 10.

    Raven

    And I’m in the middle of a negotiation for roofs for both of our houses. Shingle prices should plummet!

  15. 15.

    Raven

    @OzarkHillbilly: It’s a pretty safe assumption that building material prices will jump, no? Our contractor feels that they have shorted us on the roof estimate by about $1k and that is with a $2k deductible.

  17. 17.

    Raven

    Chris Murphy

    I mean this seriously, not as a political dig.

    If you’re in Florence’s path and considering riding it out, your President just said that a hurricane response where 3,000 die is his measure of success.

    Get out of there.

  18. 18.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Raven: I suspect plywood has already jumped 50% in your neighborhood and might even become a little scarcer in mine as our present stocks dwindle and just manufactured gets diverted. Shingle prices will go through the roof (pun intended).

    Hat tip: Boycott Tamko roofing products for their legal shenanigans of putting in the fine print on every bundle language that says all warranty claim disputes MUST be settled in arbitration.

  19. 19.

    Shalimar

    McConnell seems like the last person in the world who would know anything about knife-fighting in an alley. He might want to avoid that simile.

  20. 20.

    NotMax

    Olivia has slowed down somewhat. Center now ~100 miles away, still homing in on Maui.

    Rain, rain, rain. With a side of rain.

  21. 21.

    Raven

    @OzarkHillbilly: Cool, I think my guy uses Certianteed. There is nothing on either claim about plywood, our main house. has a roof that is only three years old should be good I hope. We do have an unused chimney on the rental I’l like to see removed and there is no ridge or soffit vents on that one so we’ll see.

  22. 22.

    tybee

    The 12Z Tuesday run of the European model introduced a new and very distressing possibility: Florence stalling just offshore of North Carolina near Wilmington for roughly a day, then moving southwestward along and just off the South Carolina coast on Saturday, and finally making landfall close to Savannah, Georgia, on Sunday—all while still a hurricane. This outlandish-seeming prospect gained support from the 18Z run of the GFS model. It painted a very similar picture, with a landfall a bit farther north, near Charleston, on Sunday. The 18Z track from the experimental GFS FV3 model is very similar to the GFS track

  25. 25.

    Chyron HR

    “The Democrat party’s blue wave is deeply disrespectful to the heroes who lost their homes and lives in Hurricane Florence. Out of respect we call on them to halt their campaigns until November 7.”

  27. 27.

    Phylllis

    So we are back in school today as the Governor lifted his mandatory order in our county, and hoo boy the comments on our Facebook page. Safe bet we will be back out tomorrow & Friday. And maybe Monday if Florence drops to the SW as they are saying now. I’ve already resigned myself to the fact that I will get nothing done except ‘storm stuff’ at work today.

  30. 30.

    bemused

    I wish I dared hope we could take the Senate. I’m not even allowing myself to be confident about the House.

    The WH taking $10 M from Fema recovery money to fund ICE and more private immigrant detention centers just makes me want to vomit. There is not one decent human action that they don’t want to destroy.

    I keep thinking about Kavanaugh going on and on about being a good dad and coaching not one but two girl’s basketball teams but he turned away from Guttenberg who lost his daughter to gun violence.

  31. 31.

    Immanentize

    This seeming trend of hurricanes to just sit just off the coast for a while picking up water on one side and dumping it on the land on the other has really changed the damage these things do. It feels like the have conductors who slow the train as they enter the station….

    My in-laws in Texas were so lucky to be just outside the horrible Harvey area in Houston (SW of the Brazos river). Even there, the rain was relentless. I hope Florence kicks into gear and starts moving quickly. Alas.

  33. 33.

    Bruce K

    @Duane: Well, the thing about knife fights in alley ways is that they’re dirty and they have no rules. McConnell’s the sort, I suspect, who’d complain that you were fighting dirty, and then pull a gun as soon as it looked like he wasn’t going to win easily, and then call three friends also with guns, and then berate you for using a knife with a slightly-too-long blade as you bleed out from eleven gunshot wounds.

    My advice for getting into a knife fight in an alley with the likes of Mitch McConnell: if possible, don’t. If it’s unavoidable:

    1) Back to the wall.
    2) Hand on your wallet.
    3) Snipers loyal only to you covering the alley and all exits.

    Hell, right now, I’d call McConnell the most dangerous man in Washington, because he’s unprincipled, he’s smart, and from the sounds of it, he’s desperate.

  37. 37.

    Marmot

    It won’t be easy, rebuilding our institutions after the GOP arsonists are turfed out. But the ‘easy’ options — giving in to despair, or haring after third-party grifters — would only make things worse.

    I know y’all are a bit … maudlin here, but we’ve got them on the run! Why would either of these (or bemused’s refusal to hope, comment 30) seem appealing in the slightest?

    I have a great idea! Let’s fight those fuckers like crazy instead!

  39. 39.

    debbie

    A friend living in Florence intends to ride it out with her family (no little kids). I don’t even know how to react to a decision like this.

  40. 40.

    Zinsky

    I plan to work like Hell from now through Election Day, to send the GOP vermin currently in Congress and set about the work of impeaching and imprisoning Mike Pence and Donald Trump!

  44. 44.

    Lapassionara

    @tybee: Ruh roh! Sounds a lot like the spot Hugo landed in 1989.

    BTW, this is the first time I was able to get onto BJ in more than a day. I have been missing the daily “blech’s.”

  47. 47.

    Zinsky

    @Raven: I read that too, Raven. Unbelievable! These people are so bound up in their FauxNews ideology, they won’t even consider that the laws of physics are NOT on their side. Heat = Energy. You put more heat into the troposphere and you have more energetic storms. It’s that freaking simple. Not another Republican should be elected to Congress without first acknowledging and proving they understand basic laws of physics.

  51. 51.

    bemused

    @Marmot:

    Nah, of course I hope. I just don’t want to be confident either house is in the bag this Nov, take anything for granted anymore. I never imagined trump would be in the WH but he is. We’ll get there sooner or later. Majority of us won’t let this travesty stand.

  57. 57.

    JPL

    @tybee: My son called earlier, and told be about the unexpected turn. Stay safe! The Atlanta area doesn’t need more rain, but by the time it comes inland, it should just be rain. At least I hope!

  59. 59.

    danielx

    I’m starting to think that while the topography is boring – no beaches, no mountains – living in the Midwest may not be such a bad thing. Aside from tornadoes and all too many Trump fans, that is.

  60. 60.

    Kay

    Democrat Gretchen Whitmer holds a comfortable lead over Republican Bill Schuette in the Michigan governor’s race and is doing a better job attracting critical independent voters, according to a new statewide poll conducted last week.
    The survey of 600 likely Michigan voters conducted for The Detroit News and WDIV-TV shows support for Whitmer was especially strong among female, college-educated, Metro Detroit and senior voters. Roughly nine weeks out from the Nov. 6 election, more respondents said they had heard of Schuette than Whitmer, but fewer said they liked the two-term attorney general.

    They know him well enough. They just don’t like him.

    When name recognition is not a good thing :)

  63. 63.

    Kay

    I posted this last night but we had what is for us a shockingly big turnout for a town hall meeting for Galbraith (US House, challenging Latta). Latta keeps his head down and doesn’t say anything embarrassing and it is a safe seat for R’s so the D won’t win- but- a lot of people came out. This county would not be a place Galbraith would rely on to win- there are more liberal areas in the district- so I was surprised he came out here at all but maybe they know more than I do, judging by the turn out.

  66. 66.

    danielx

    @Raven:

    Conservative state Rep. Pat McElraft, whose top campaign contributors were the North Carolina Association of Realtors and the North Carolina Home Builders’ Association, drafted a bill in response that rejected the panel’s predictions.

    Well, there you go. Think of all the bucks to be made from rebuilding and selling McMansions on the beach, with federally subsidized flood insurance! Which program, incidentally, is under serious stress. Congress, naturally, failed to produce any meaningful reforms this year.

  67. 67.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Heh: The day Donald Trump’s narcissism killed the USFL

    A few quotes:

    Beginning with the trial’s opening day, Rothman asked himself a single question: Who is my bad guy? He sought someone the jury would find difficult to believe and even harder to like. He sought someone with false bravado, with arrogance, with indifference. He didn’t want the jury to think about a sad little league going up against a powerful machine. No, he wanted the jury to see that the USFL, sympathy be damned, was its own Frankenstein. “The more I developed the strategy,” he said, “the more I wanted Donald Trump as my fall guy. I would call it Donald versus Goliath. I would make their scheme Donald’s plan, which it was. I would show that Donald Trump is not a little lightweight; he is one of the richest men in America . . . He was such a lousy witness for them, and a great one for us.”
    ………………………………….
    He did not do the USFL well,” recalled Patricia Sibilia, a juror. “Donald Trump and I actually got into a staring match. I would watch the people on the stand, trying to read them. So he and I started looking at each other, and he tried to stare me down. It was an obvious try at intimidation. And what’s funny, in hindsight, is that this so-called business genius ruined it for them. He was not believable in anything he said. He came off as arrogant and unlikeable.”
    …………………………………..
    Trump insisted he and Rozelle were friends. Rozelle insisted he and Trump were certainly not friends. Trump insisted Rozelle wanted him in the NFL. Rozelle insisted he would rather have maggot-infected fungus overtaking his cranial lobe. “Rozelle told me I should be in the NFL, not the USFL,” Trump said. “At some point, he said, I would be in the NFL. Then he would reiterate that the USFL was not going to make it.”
    ………………………………..
    Rothman’s cross-examination was a breathtaking ode to knowing your subject, and taking him apart, piece by piece. Wrote Richard Hoffer of the Los Angeles Times: “Rothman characterized Trump as the worst kind of snake who was selling his colleagues down the river so he could effect a merger of a few rich teams.” It wasn’t Trump’s words, so much as his swagger and irritability. The USFL was the little league trying to be big, but Trump didn’t seem little. Or sympathetic. Or, for that matter, believable.

  68. 68.

    Kay

    every one of them like a knife fight in an alley; I mean, just a brawl in every one of those places,”

    I’ve come to hate this language. It’s just such bullshit. It reminds me of the Trumpian tough guys- Miller and Kushner and Bannon, and how they act like they are in an actual physical fight when really they’re these coddled, pampered blowhards.

    Bannon with his “revolution”, pretending he;s shooting out a window from a hideout with mattresses on the floor when actually he’s sitting for his 500th interview with the NYTimes. Miller’s such a tough guy he launched a war against 5 year old refugees. Victory! He captured the enemy!

    If McConnell loses this “knife fight” he doesn’t bleed to death in an alley- he retires and starts collecting wingnut welfare.

  70. 70.

    Baud

    @Kay: Agreed. It’s all the worse because McConnell’s “strategy” is simply to count on the fact that Dem voters are easily discouraged.

  71. 71.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Raven: I got a free roof a couple of years ago from hail damage. Seemed like a scam but it worked!

    Steve in the 407 who is still giddy about Florida losing at home to Kentucky, no offense Betty Cracker et al

  73. 73.

    MomSense

    I’m really worried for everyone in the path of Florence. It is a frightening thing to realize that in a natural disaster your president does not have your back. I cannot believe he bragged about the response to Puerto Rico. And now we find out Nazi Nielsen was diverting FEMA funds to pay for her immigration disaster.
    This administration is worse than inept. They are corrupt and malicious.

  76. 76.

    MomSense

    Ken Fucking Starr is on a media tour to sell his shit book. Could just one of our courageous journalists ask that asshole why he covered for sexual abuse at Baylor? After his moralizing about a consensual affair when he clutched his pearls presenting his soft porn report to Congress, he turned a blind eye to sexual assault at Baylor.

  77. 77.

    Leto

    This was reported out last night so I’m not sure if it was covered under a late night topic, or maybe the hurricane thread below, so apologies if double posting:

    Trump administration diverted nearly $10 million from FEMA to ICE detention program, according to DHS document

    The Trump administration appears to have diverted nearly $10 million in funding for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency at the forefront of the president’s zero-tolerance immigration policy that led to the separation of hundreds of children, some as young as 18 months, from their parents.

    The reallocation of public money is documented in a “Transfer and Reprogramming” notification prepared this fiscal year by the Department of Homeland Security, the parent department of ICE, as the agency is known. It was made public by Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon in an appearance Tuesday on “The Rachel Maddow Show,” as Hurricane Florence barreled toward the Carolinas.

    Merkley’s office provided the 39-page budget document independently to The Washington Post. It shows that DHS requested that about $9.8 million going toward FEMA efforts such as “Preparedness and Protection” and “Response and Recovery” be funneled instead into ICE coffers, specifically underwriting “Detention Beds” and the agency’s “Transportation and Removal Program.” The U.S. Secret Service was also a beneficiary of the reallocation.

  81. 81.

    VOR

    Local congressman Jason Lewis (R) used to be a right-wing radio talk show host who billed himself as “Mr. Right”. He managed to get a narrow victory (47%) in 2016 in a race where a 3rd party candidate got nearly 8% of the vote. He was succeeding 7 term Republican John Kline in a largely suburban/exurban district. I saw a TV ad of last night where Lewis said he had “taken on the Republicans” and promised to be an “independent voice”. Man, his polls must suck.

  84. 84.

    Zinsky

    @bemused: @danielx:

    Yes, Minnesota is very blue (and hopefully, more blue after November) and has extremely beautiful vistas! Stillwater, Marine-on-Croix, Duluth harbor, Giants Ridge to name a few. No real mountains, but areas around Duluth and SE Minnesota have significant hills and climbing opportunities, if you are into that. Still no legal (although very decriminalized) cannabis here, but we are working on it. ?

    Winters are brutal but summers are heavenly. I wouldn’t live anywhere else in the world than Minneapolis in the summer time.

  86. 86.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Lapassionara: I should mention my granddaughters other grandparents live in that neighborhood. I was able to ascertain that it wasn’t their house even if at the time they weren’t releasing the names of the victims.

  87. 87.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Zinsky: You forgot the Boundary Waters.

    I wouldn’t live anywhere else in the world than Minneapolis in the summer time.

    You and my sister.

  88. 88.

    Leto

    Massive, MASSIVE, success:

    Photos reportedly show massive stockpile of bottled water left on a runway for more than a year in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria

    A photographer working for a Puerto Rican police agency reportedly caught a glimpse of a stockpile of bottled water on a runaway in the city of Ceiba. The water was believed to be part of relief efforts after Hurricane Maria wrought devastation on the US territory in September 2017.

    A year later, the photographer, Abdiel Santana, said the stockpile of what could be millions of water bottles were still standing on the tarmac.

    …..

    Nearly 3,000 people are believed to have died in the aftermath of Maria, making it the second-deadliest storm in the US. Many of the deaths were attributed to power outages and a lack of access to health care and clean water, according to a study from the George Washington University.

  89. 89.

    JPL

    @Raven: The latest map that I saw shows a Tropical Depression near Athens, so your wife will get her wish. We’ve been getting pop-up showers including one over night.

  91. 91.

    cliosfanboy

    Mcturtle thinks VIRGINIA! Is too close to call? Damn, that’s delusional. Kaine may wish by 20points.

  93. 93.

    JPL

    @Leto: That was at the time Jose Andres was purchasing water to distribute. They could have let him have some, but no they’d rather let it sit.

  94. 94.

    NotMax

    @Leto

    It’s a worthwhile story to report but I don’t understand why it’s being treated as some kind of new revelation.

    Know I for one posted a link here to the same info several months ago.

  95. 95.

    Kay

    @MomSense:

    Ken Fucking Starr is on a media tour to sell his shit book.

    He almost has to. Now that people see what a professional investigator/prosecutor looks like, he suffers in the comparison.

    Hack. He and the esteemed and most honorable judge Kavanaugh, pursuing far Right conspiracy theories and chasing publicity. GOP operatives.

  96. 96.

    NotMax

    @Zinsky

    I wouldn’t live anywhere else in the world than Minneapolis in the summer time.

    First time attended the State Fair in St. Paul the temps were over 100. And that was over forty years ago.

  98. 98.

    Kay

    A person close to Kavanaugh, who reviewed the documents, believes they reflect that Kavanaugh was taking notes on the direction of someone else, likely Starr, and that Kavanaugh had plans to speak to Starr’s deputy, Hickman Ewing, about a response to Ruff.
    The source said the notes may not have reflected Kavanaugh’s personal position on Clinton’s conduct. “It would be a stretch,” the source said, “to try to attempt to divine Brett Kavanaugh’s views on today’s issues from notes that may not reflect his views on a case decades ago.”

    Must not rely on anything Kavanaugh wrote or said or says- instead we should rely on the anecdotes of his friends and the people who benefit financially from being in his good graces when they appear in front of him.

    Did you know he coaches kids? Also- carpool. It’s really the most insidery elitist thing possible- we’re supposed to rely not on what we see and hear but instead on the opinions of 150 people who “know” him. They’re asking you to ignore the evidence in front of you and instead base your whole judgment on character witnesses. That’s a ridiculous request. Refuse.

  101. 101.

    PenAndKey

    @Baud:

    Seriously? And people have the gall to accuse me of biggot when I tell them I refuse to ever even entertain the notion of moving or working south of the Mason Dixon line.

  103. 103.

    Kay

    How do I know Kavanaugh’s defenders are good judges of character, anyway? There’s no evidence for that at all.

    They admire many bad people. They’re wrong about people all the fucking time. Maybe he’s another one they’re wrong about. Maybe they admire sleazy, dishonest operatives, how do I know? I don’t know any of these people.

  104. 104.

    bemused

    @Baud:

    The people who came up with this paddling idea and the parents who consented to it are the ones who need behavior correction the most.

  105. 105.

    Jeffro

    @cliosfanboy:

    Mcturtle thinks VIRGINIA! Is too close to call? Damn, that’s delusional. Kaine may wish by 20points.

    Ol’ Mitch would like for us to pour extra resources into Virginia, but nope. Not. Gonna. Fall for it. You’re right, Kaine likely will win by 20 points – he’s already spending much of his time trying to help out various Dem candidates for the House (or conversely, he’s spending much of his time trying to rid our fine commonwealth of the likes of Dave Brat and Barbara Comstock.)

    If he/the voters/the Dem candidates manage to knock off both Comstock AND Brat, I will most definitely be calling in sick with a bad case of the Irish flu on Wednesday morning.

  106. 106.

    Elizabelle

    @Kay:

    If McConnell loses this “knife fight” he doesn’t bleed to death in an alley- he retires and starts collecting wingnut welfare.

    spends his waking hours with his lawyers, fighting off RICO charges from NRA and other campaign finance violations that will put him in federal prison for YEARS. His attempt at funding his legal fees by publishing an autobiography fails miserably, when even wingnut groups will not order it in mass before returning it to the publisher.

    Marvel Comics develops a new villain, McConnell Bilbo, a self-dealing turtle that steals other characters blind.

  109. 109.

    Elizabelle

    @Jeffro: You and the kids got any interest in attending the SPX comics and graphic novels convention in North Bethesda (aka Rockville) this weekend?

    Matt F hopes to be there, and I certainly will. Best $20 for a weekend pass you can ever spend. (Even though the lineup is not as sparkling as other years. It’s the attendees that are fun to watch, just on their own.)

    They’re “premiering” the movie from derf’s graphic novel about Jeffrey Dahmer this weekend. That is lighter fare than wondering what the living are doing to horrify us.

    Balloon Juice semi-meetup, near the White Flint Metro area.

  110. 110.

    Leto

    @NotMax: Honestly I don’t remember this story, but at the same time you’d think that maybe after the first round of publicity they might act, if for no other reason than to appear to do something. Can’t even do that. Just evil.

  111. 111.

    bemused

    @Zinsky:

    We used to joke that our brutal winters keep out the riff raff but that doesn’t really work anymore as our trumpists have decided only they are welcome to live here.

  112. 112.

    Jeffro

    Btw great article with an iffy title: The Recovery Threw The Middle-Class Ream Under a Benz

    A decade later, things are eerily calm. The economy, by nearly any official measure, is robust. Wall Street is flirting with new highs. And the housing market, the epicenter of the crash, has recovered in many places. But like the diary stored in Ms. Swonk’s basement, the scars of the financial crisis and the ensuing Great Recession are still with us, just below the surface.

    The most profound of these is that the uneven nature of the recovery compounded a long-term imbalance in the accumulation of wealth. As a consequence, what it means to be secure has changed. Wealth, real wealth, now comes from investment portfolios, not salaries. Fortunes are made through an initial public offering, a grant of stock options, a buyout or another form of what high-net-worth individuals call a liquidity event.

    “America Needs a Raise!”…not a bad tagline for 2020…

    When the bubble burst, the bedrock investment for many families was wiped out by a combination of falling home values and too much debt. A decade after this debacle, the typical middle-class family’s net worth is still more than $40,000 below where it was in 2007, according to the Federal Reserve. The damage done to the middle-class psyche is impossible to price, of course, but no one doubts that it was vast.

    Banks were hurt, too, but aside from the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the pain proved transitory. Bankers themselves were never punished for their sins. In one form or another — the Troubled Asset Relief Program, quantitative easing, the Fed’s discount window — the financial sector was supported in spectacular fashion.

    Like the bankers, shareholders and investors were also bailed out. By cutting interest rates to near zero and pumping trillions — yes, you read that right — into the economy, the Federal Reserve essentially put a trampoline under the stock market. The subsequent bounce produced a windfall, but only for a limited group of beneficiaries. Only about half of American households have any exposure to the stock market, including 401(k)’s and retirement plans, and ownership of the shares of individual companies is clustered among upper-income families.

    “Salaries before dividends!” – 2020

    “…[Thomas Piketty’s] best seller, “Capital in the Twenty-First Century,” published in 2013, was 816 data-laden pages that laid out a grim diagnosis. Mr. Piketty argued that the decades after World War II, when the divisions between the classes narrowed and opportunities to move up the economic ladder expanded — that is, when the middle class as we knew it was formed — may actually have been an aberration. Society, Mr. Piketty wrote, risks a return to the historical norm of a yawning gap between rich and poor.

    “But that doesn’t have to happen. That is a choice. American workers, what do you choose?” – 2020

    Whether or not [Piketty] is right, the concentration of wealth that is a legacy of the financial crisis will make itself felt far into the future. Younger Americans, in particular, will be marked by the experience of 2008 much as the Crash of 1929 and the Great Depression haunted the generations who lived through it in the last century. Not only were they unable to accumulate assets in the lean years of the early recovery, but they also missed out on the recent stock market rally that benefited their older and richer peers.

    A recent study by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis found that while all birth cohorts lost wealth during the Great Recession, Americans born in the 1980s were at the “greatest risk for becoming a lost generation for wealth accumulation.”

    For those fortunate enough to still possess wealth after the crisis, the future looks very different. With the security provided by assets, rather than just income, they and especially their children are on a glide path for a gilded financial future.

    “Opportunity for all, not just the lucky few!” – 2020

    “Over and over, you see that family wealth is an important determinant of opportunity for the next generation, over and above income,” said Fabian T. Pfeffer, a sociologist at the University of Michigan. “Wealth serves as a private safety net that allows you to behave differently and plan differently.”

    A wealthy person who loses a job can afford to be more choosy and wait for an opportunity suited to his or her skills and experience. The risk of going to an expensive college and taking on debt is lower when there is parental wealth to fall back on.

    Timothy Smeeding, who teaches public affairs and economics at the University of Wisconsin, put it more bluntly. “You can see dynasties starting to form,” he said.

  116. 116.

    rikyrah

    New Quinnipiac poll:

    Dems have opened a 14-point lead in the battle for the House, 52-38

    Among independents, it’s 50-35 (!)

    Among women, it’s 55-35 (!!) pic.twitter.com/jiIZtAIS0G

    — Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) September 12, 2018

  118. 118.

    Jeffro

    @Elizabelle: Thanks for the info! I wish I could join in, but I’ll be tied up all weekend and especially on Saturday: kids’ sportsball games, Scouts popcorn sales, dinner and a show – my dad and stepmom are coming into town and we’re taking them to see…Smokey Robinson(!) I don’t know what to expect w/ that…

    But next DMV meet-up, I’m there!

  123. 123.

    different-church-lady

    Will cost Democratic senators key campaign days

    Won’t it also cost Republican senators key campaign days?

  128. 128.

    bemused

    @Zinsky:

    I think so too but not as confident about my district (8th) in the northeast. The pro-sulfide mine supporters, anti-union, haters of all things “liberal” here are stubborn and belligerent as hell.

  132. 132.

    NotMax

    @different-church-lady

    Having attended a summer camp where paddling was practiced – with a canoe paddle – can attest from the experience of being on the receiving end that it accomplishes nothing of any utility.

  134. 134.

    Elizabelle

    @bemused: I hope that you find out they are just noisier than their numbers. In districts that lean GOP, you might not realize there are Dems in there too, quietly biding their time.

    @different-church-lady: Wouldn’t it be brilliant if it turns out after that GOP Senators needed the campaigning days more than Dems? Because the enthusiasm is on the Dems’ side this election, and excellent surrogates are out there to take up the cause for Senators remaining in DC.

    A girl can hope. Remember: Democrats have been overperforming, and pollsters’ models are not picking up those who are actually going to turn out to vote.

  135. 135.

    different-church-lady

    @Raven: I’m seeing a photo on HuffPo with all these houses built on a barrier island, and I’m like, “What the hell are people thinking when they do that?”

  136. 136.

    Mai Naem mobile

    In my real day-to-day life I will find somebody being annoying or rude or inconsiderate and tell myself that must be a Trumpov voter. Does anybody else do the same thing?

  137. 137.

    bemused

    @Kay:

    Who and what they support is evidence for me. If they show me they admire bullies and dictators, it’s all I need to know about them, bullies themselves and wannabe dictators.

  138. 138.

    Mai Naem mobile

    @Elizabelle: I wonder if the Dems take over the Senate will the losing Republican Senators be willing to show up to vote for Stuff in the vember and December or will they tell McConnell to f*** off.

  139. 139.

    Redshift

    @rikyrah:

    Despite this, Donald Trump boasted about his administration’s response as an “unsung success.”

    The full quote is even worse. He excused their failure to restore power by repeating the bizarre lie that the power grid was already out before the storm.

  143. 143.

    bemused

    @Elizabelle:

    I’ve lived here all my life and know how many liberals there are here plus conservatives who are not on board with trump or rabid GOPers. They just don’t make all the noise the deplorables do. Quiet dissenters. It is amusing to read local wingnut commenters who truly seem to believe or pretend they believe that most Iron Rangers are like them, that they are multiplying like flies.

  145. 145.

    Redshift

    @rikyrah: Funniest thing I read yesterday was was an article about Don Jr. declaring he wasn’t worried about going to jail over Russian collision because he knows what he did, and quoting his dad about it not being illegal.

  146. 146.

    Elizabelle

    @Mai Naem mobile: My guess is they will vote, but I would love to have Kavanaugh’s nomination scuttled in the meantime.

    Contact Murkowski and Collins and any supposedly wavering Democratic Senators. Maybe some skittish GOP too. I think GOP power is overstated; they’re suspended over a precipice, actually.

  148. 148.

    NotMax

    @bemused

    local wingnut commenters who truly seem to believe or pretend they believe that most Iron Rangers are like them, that they are multiplying like flies

    Excess ingestion of taconite tailings?

  149. 149.

    Kay

    @bemused:

    And just sort of bad people. Yesterday they were saying the Trump Administration would have gone better with Christie.

    What is their admiration of Christie based on? He wasn’t even a very good governor.

    The problem with the Trump Administration is Donald Trump. He’s bad so he hires bad people. The idea that their favorite fake tough guy pol, Christie, could have fixed that is ludicrous. They show poor judgment. Over and over.

    1st mistake- admiring Chris Christie 2nd mistake- believing Christie would have made the Trump Administration competent and normal. They’re wrong all the time. That’s what “poor judgment” is.

    Paul Ryan. Why, exactly, did they think he was so great and have they changed that opinion?

  151. 151.

    Jeffro

    I like seeing this kind of insight! George W Bush raising money to cover-up Trumpov’s many Crimes

    George W. Bush, who declined to endorse Donald Trump (or anybody) in 2016, and made muttered elliptical criticisms of the 45th president, has thrown himself into the task of covering up Trump’s many crimes. Bush, reports Politico, is raising money for candidates who are committed to maintaining the cover-ups.

    To be sure, Bush doesn’t put it that way, and almost certainly doesn’t think of it that way. But it is syllogistically true. The Republican majorities in both chambers of Congress have followed a course of non-oversight, blocking disclosure of Trump’s tax returns, allowing him to to be paid by figures at home and abroad known only to him, and preventing investigations of multiple cases of misconduct. Working to maintain Republican control of Congress is ipso facto working to maintain the cover-ups.

    SO TRUE! Let’s hear it, reporters!! The choice this November is a) reining in Trumpov & Co’s utter, and utterly sickening, corruption with oversight and consequences, or b) not. ASK ALL CANDIDATES WHICH SIDE THEY’RE ON!!!

  152. 152.

    Kay

    @Mai Naem mobile:

    I do this thing where I think all character flaws are exaggerated now, by Donald Trump.

    So there were always bad people but now those people are empowered and therefore worse than they were.

    I believe this. I’m like “oh, there’s that behavior that people used to disapprove of, now being paraded around and bragged about”. It’s like some moral hazard switch was turned off. Whatever societal check there was on their behavior is gone with Dear Leader modeling all their bad behavior. They know they won’t get dinged for it.

  153. 153.

    jonas

    @Raven: Did it occur to them that nature does not care whether or not they believe in climate science? Also, how do homes in these areas even get insurance?

  154. 154.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    This is un-fucking-believable

    @ Taniel
    ! Politico reports that Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar (the co-chair of the Blue Dog Coalition) is raising money for a vulnerable GOP incumbent, Rep. John Carter (who’s running against MJ Hegar in #TX31)
    CUELLAR’S RESPONSE: “Although I was not a host of the event, I was honored to attend as I typically do for colleagues who visit my district. Judge Carter is a dear friend and trusted colleague with whom I work on Appropriations. He is knowledgeable and supportive of issues important to South Texas. In today’s climate, more than ever, friendship is more powerful than partisanship.”

    Wasn’t Cuellar a target of the left blogosphere back in the day? Kos drummed up a huge movement for Ciro Rodriguez, which I got caught up in, and CR lost, later won in a redrawn district and turned out to be quite the Blue Dog himself?

  155. 155.

    germy

    @bemused: Over the years I’ve noticed co-workers’ behavior usually reflected their political beliefs.

    I worked with a guy, a middle manager who confided in me (I was also a manager at the time) that his favorite part of the job was bullying people who couldn’t fight back. One day he showed up with a Rush Limbaugh book (Limbaugh was just gaining national attention) and tried to interest everyone in it. He was also known for making racist comments in the office.

    Years later I worked with a woman who was famous in the workplace for shirking. She would take two hour cigarette breaks. Her co-workers picked up the slack. If a supervisor handed her some work, she’d wait for the supervisor to leave, and then pass the work on to a newer co-worker. Then she’d leave for another cigarette break. When she discussed politics, it was obvious she and her husband were Fox News devotees. One day, we were talking about a TV documentary about some old actor or another and she wanted to see it. I told her it was on PBS, and she had no idea how to find PBS on her TV.

    I worked with an older woman, close to retirement, who was polite to everyone and went out of her way to make things easy for her co-workers. Always willing to help new hires, etc. She didn’t discuss politics much, but when she did, she expressed support for liberal candidates.

    I know this is over generalizing, but it’s been my experience in the workplace that the bigger the conservative, the lazier and more unreliable they are, despite all the conservative talking points about “Black people need a work ethic” etc.

    Neighbors: I lived in many different places, and I had three neighbors in three different places who were as right wing, libertarian as they could be. They all had city jobs, with city pensions and a union.

  156. 156.

    Kay

    @bemused:

    People show poor judgment. I myself supported an Ohio judge, Oneill, who turned out to be a horrible sexist lunatic.

    I freely admit this. It’s fine. I got him wrong. Why won’t they ever admit it? Paul Ryan is a fucking joke. We know that now. They admired a clown who is really kind of a moron. It happens.

  157. 157.

    Redshift

    @NotMax: The eternal wingnut schtick, fed to them for decades by Rush and Fox, is that they know conservatives are a majority, so the only way Democrats every win is by cheating.

  158. 158.

    bemused

    @Kay:

    It’s a mystery to me. Plenty of them know folks like you mentioned are lousy representatives but supporters ignore that to get what they want. Others who will never, ever be rewarded for sticking with the trump and the GOP are inexplicable to me, showing poor judgment over and over. It makes me wonder, aside from politics, how often they get duped in their daily lives, ponzi schemes and so on.

  159. 159.

    germy

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    In today’s climate, more than ever, friendship is more powerful than partisanship.”

    Ah yes, comity!

    I don’t have much patience for the bernie bros, steiniacs, etc., but stuff like this makes me understand why they’re pissed off.

  160. 160.

    Zinsky

    @bemused: I’m in Erik Paulsen’s district (3rd) and I am actually going to phone bank from 3:00-5:00 for Dean Phillips his opponent. I think we have about a 53% chance of flipping it to Democratic. It will all come down to turnout.m Bummer about your district. I also am pulling hard for Angie Craig to send that asshole Jason Lewis into early retirement, like me in southern Minnesota and fringe Twin Cities areas.

  162. 162.

    bemused

    @germy:

    I’ve noticed that too in my jobs. My husband comes home with stories like that. The company owner (right wing) will hire dept managers that rarely last, often because the new hire is lazy, thinks he/she knows everything, disrupts the other departments with foolish, more expensive, unworkable ideas and creates more work for everyone. Over time you find out his rightwing beliefs. They are just the opposite of team players, only concerned with themselves.

  163. 163.

    bemused

    @bemused:

    The owner is a bully and asshole too. Jumps on good employees for mistakes he’s made. If an employee has finally had enough and says he/she is leaving, the owner tries to sweet talk and up wages to keep employee. Rarely works though.

  164. 164.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Kay: I went to a seminar given by a Google rep recently about Google analytics and web design etc and there were two obnoxious older women who were trying to bully the young man. Its as if assholes have been empowered to revel in their assholishness.

  165. 165.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Kay: Paul Krugman has a tweet thread about GOP bad faith nd the media gullibility that enables it, with a link to this from 2012

    Why I Love Paul Ryan
    He’s what a Republican should be: an honest, open-minded, solution-oriented fiscal conservative.
    By William Saletan

    Saletan and Weisberg have always been prime Villagers, tote-baggers who want their taxes cut, their private schools subsidized and don’t want to talk about any of that strange religious stuff those odd and embarrassing little people are always on about, but if you were still buying into Ryan’s “green-eye-shade’ act in 2012….

  167. 167.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Paul Krugman @ paulkrugman
    I sometimes see journalists saying that their big error was failing to understand white working-class grievance. But if you ask me, their biggest sin has been failure to understand the GOP’s complete bad faith and cynicism 5/

  168. 168.

    bemused

    @Kay:

    I’ve always loved the backwards baseball cap photo shoot Ryan did. Makes me fall over laughing every I see those pics. Talk about bad judgment. It didn’t even occur to Ryan he was going to be ridiculed for that photo shoot. Obviously, he thought they were fantastic photos. He probably has them on his mantlepiece.

  169. 169.

    FlipYrWhig

    @bemused: It’s also darkly amusing when the same people who suck at their jobs and make working life an endless aggravation then say that the government should be run “like a business.”

  170. 170.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: They are not gullible, they repeat R talking points because they are Rs themselves or they are R enablers for career reasons. If BJ jackals who don’t cover politics for a living can figure out that Paul Ryan is full of shit, it is not that hard for someone who is paid for their political coverage/opinions to figure that out. It is their fucking job.

  171. 171.

    tokyokie

    In my real day-to-day life I will find somebody being annoying or rude or inconsiderate and tell myself that must be a Trumpov voter. Does anybody else do the same thing?

    @Mai Naem mobile: When I’m cut off in traffic by someone driving a pickup, “stupid fucking Trump supporter” is among the stream of imprecations I yell.

  172. 172.

    The Moar You Know

    In my real day-to-day life I will find somebody being annoying or rude or inconsiderate and tell myself that must be a Trumpov voter. Does anybody else do the same thing?

    @Mai Naem mobile: Nope. Sadly, the zip code where I live, the person being the asshole is reasonably likely to be a habitual Dem voter. They’re the ones with money around here. The Trump voters tend overwhelmingly to be contractors and aside from a few bumper stickers, they keep their dumb mouths shut. They know not to piss off their clients.

    The local Dems are usually proudly anti-vax, proudly anti-public schools, quietly anti-labor and VERY quietly racist against Hispanics. We don’t have any black people living here (that should tell you something right there) or they’d probably get the treatment too.

    But hey, we went almost 70% for Hillary.

  173. 173.

    bemused

    @FlipYrWhig:

    It’s even more amusing when a small rightwing business owner has run his/her business down due to no talent or knowledge of how to run a business and then blames others when it fails completely. I know a couple of those guys and yes, they do still say government should be run like a business. They have absolutely no self-awareness at all. SMH

  174. 174.

    germy

    @bemused:

    Over time you find out his rightwing beliefs. They are just the opposite of team players, only concerned with themselves.

    That’s it exactly. And they seemed to view liberal co-workers who tried to be helpful as suckers.

    As far as neighbors, I’ve seen the expression “Every accusation a confession” applied to the PEETUS and his fans. I noticed this in one neighbor I had. He was a racist as could be. Just didn’t like minorities. But his own behavior seemed to embody every negative stereotype that white people in the exurbs fear about having a minority neighbor: He had a large dog he didn’t bother to train, so it would jump anyone who happened to be on the sidewalk on the rare occasions he bothered to walk it. Usually he let it roam to shit everywhere. He had loud parties in his backyard, blasting music (C&W, but loud at night, usually into 1:00am), his front yard looked like a junkyard. When he’d walk to the store, he’d walk right down the middle of the street, rather than the sidewalk. Most people were relieved when he and his wife and dogs finally moved away.

  175. 175.

    Haroldo

    @Shalimar: I guess it depends on how you define knife fighting in an alley. I view McConnell as a nasty-ass motherfucker who would shiv a person without hesitation if the numbers (a/k/a the donor class in particular) were with him. This might not be classic knife fighting, but it could get you dead just the same.

    When history is written (and if it is written by clear-eyed folks), McConnell will go down as pure, unmitigated evil.

  176. 176.

    bemused

    @Kay:

    Most sensible people acknowledge their mistakes and learn from them. Not in the Republican bible: never, ever admit any mistake that you can’t blame on someone else.

  177. 177.

    Jay C

    @Mai Naem mobile:

    @Elizabelle: I wonder if the Dems take over the Senate will the losing Republican Senators be willing to show up to vote for Stuff in the vember and December or will they tell McConnell to f*** off.

    If they want to keep their places in the Wingnut Welfare queue they will: probably more so. I read (with a chill) that criminal GOP Rep Darrell Issa is spearheading a judiciary “reorganization” effort in Congress- basically a RW court-packing scheme – to expand judgeships (in the name of “efficiency”, of course) on Federal District Courts. And one can be sure the Repubs have a list of nominees for those new seats already lined up. And needless to add, probably the sort of jurists who’d make Brett Kavanaugh look like a raving leftist.

    This is probably exactly the sort of thing Mitch McConnell would use the “lame-duck” session to push through by hook or crook (probably more “crook”) if faced with the loss of his Majority in January. And use any means possible to ensure 50 or 51 GOPers on hand to accomplish it.

  178. 178.

    Kay

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    and don’t want to talk about any of that strange religious stuff those odd and embarrassing little people are always on about,

    Exactly. It’s why they’re all so cranky about Kavanaugh and abortion. First- women’s health care issues are…icky but also because they don’t really want to go down the fundie road where Kavanaugh thinks contraception is abortion. Which he seems to.

  180. 180.

    Haroldo

    @Bruce K: Said it better than I did.

    I should learn to

    A) Read all of the damn blog before commenting;
    B) Nestle all pertinent quotes into one posting.

  181. 181.

    Procopius

    @Bruce K: Looks like there’s no chance of removing McConnell, and chance of taking the Senate seems very, very small, but whatever happens we should strive to get Schumer out of there. He openly admits his first loyalty is to Wall Street. I know a lot of people want Pelosi gone, but, frankly, I think she’s done as well as anyone now in the house could have done and I don’t know of anybody who could do better if they took her place.

  182. 182.

    Kay

    My youngest is trying on political positions- he was leaning Right for a while but now he’s swung the other way and he’s a real Lefty, although I don’t think he fully understands all the historical context of that.

    So this is a really conservative area and he goes to a public high school and he’s expressing those opinions there. What’s interesting is my oldest son was a mainstream Democrat- he loved Al Gore at that age. He took more shit for that than the youngest gets for Marx. I wonder if it’s that they’re primed to hate “Democrats” but they haven’t had much exposure to real Lefties, or as “real” a Lefty as my son is, with his sort of hazy ideology that he just adopted 2 months ago. The youngest is easy going. He likes to get along with people. He likes to “fit in” which is fine with me- most people like to fit in and this works for him! He’s pretty happy.
    I wonder if he adopted the more radical position as a way to be “on the Left” without taking shit for being a Democrat. Real Lefty is… interesting, where Democrat is boring and leaves one open to the same old stale slogans from Righties.

  183. 183.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Kay: Real Lefty is… interesting, where Democrat is boring and leaves one open to the same old stale slogans from Righties.

    I think the desire to find politics, and themselves, more interesting does real damage to Democrats and progressive causes > > voting (‘working within the system’) is for sell-outs and maximalist slogans become litmus tests, and the lack of maximalist purity becomes and excuse to sit on their hands. And I’m thinking of people a lot older than your kids.

  185. 185.

    The Moar You Know

    As far as neighbors, I’ve seen the expression “Every accusation a confession” applied to the PEETUS and his fans.

    @germy: It applies to everyone.

  186. 186.

    Brachiator

    he Senate is in play. We can stop Trump judges if Dems take the Senate. Get involved in a Senate race. We. Can. Do. This.

    This is the bottom line.

  188. 188.

    different-church-lady

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    I sometimes see journalists saying that their big error was failing to understand white working-class grievance. But if you ask me, their biggest sin has been failure to understand the GOP’s complete bad faith and cynicismY they’re being played by the racists in the white working-class. 5/

  193. 193.

    catclub

    @different-church-lady:

    Won’t it also cost Republican senators key campaign days?

    It will not cost the challengers – who are NOT senators – any days, and there are fewer GOP senators running for reelection.

    Also, some GOP senators (Ted Cruz for instance) might do better the less they campaign.

  194. 194.

    different-church-lady

    Looks like St. Jimmy will soon be thrown under the true progressive bus:

    Former President Jimmy Carter sees little hope for the U.S. to change its human rights and environmental policies as long as Donald Trump is in the White House, but he has a warning for his fellow Democrats looking to oust the current administration: Don’t go too far to the left.

    “Independents need to know they can invest their vote in the Democratic Party,” Carter said Tuesday during his annual report at his post-presidential center and library in Atlanta, where he offered caution about the political consequences should Democrats “move to a very liberal program, like universal health care.”

  195. 195.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @different-church-lady:

    they’re being played by the racists in the white working-class.

    They ARE racists, but the kind who revere deniability both to themselves and others. They cannot accept the racist underpinnings of their own beliefs, and with the Republican Party being primarily a white supremacist organization, that twists mainstream news commentary into a pretzel.

  197. 197.

    Formerly disgruntled in Oregon

    @different-church-lady: I respect Jimmy Carter immensely as a person, and his post-Presidency “career” has been wildly successful. But I would be cautious about taking political advice from Carter, whose poor political skills significantly hindered his actual Presidency. Had he worked cooperatively with Dems in Congress on domestic policy, Reagan might have been stopped, and the past four decades of American politics might have been radically different. Plus, the gentleman has not run for office in nearly 40 years, so his instincts are likely a little dated.

  198. 198.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Elizabelle: Yinz can keep your superheroes stupidzeroes tragicomix. I am mildly interested (weather permitting) in the meetup. Do try to pick a venue that isn’t louder than a boiler factory. (The only meetup I’ve attended, walking distance from Union Station, I could hear nothing said farther than 18″ from me.)

  200. 200.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Kay: “The admiration of Krisp Krispie” is based on his low threshold for exploding into rage & his demonstrated willingness to go the extra mile lane in order to fuck over his enemies. Once again, SATSQ.

  201. 201.

    Matt

    LOL remember when Schumer agreed to fast-track a bunch of judges so that members in red states could get more campaign time? Sure worked out great, didn’t it?

  203. 203.

    PenAndKey

    @different-church-lady: LIke #197 I have immense respect for President Carter’s post-office legacy and humanitarian efforts, but given that he hasn’t been in office 36 years I’m not going to put much stock in his warnings. He may have a point for a small subset of “independents” (self-denying and/or closeted conservatives, imho), but for the vast majority of us born after he left office? We’re sick and fucking tired of seeing our brothers and sisters thrown into pointless meat grinder wars, our futures stolen by our elders, and the public safety net our grandparents and great grandparents fought and bled for looted one program at a time.

    We’re starting to have children of our own, and if he thinks we’re not willing to fight for our future and their future he, quite frankly, is in for a shock.

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