This week @EWarren is on the cover of @TIME. Here's the first look pic.twitter.com/iTFSL6xpyT
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) May 9, 2019
Since you guys are only hanging around here until the next Site Revamp post shows up, I’m gonna indulge myself…
CNN reporter, eavesdropping on the Dulles shuttle bus:
Ok this Gate 35X bus ride has legit turned into a mini town hall. Man wants to know why she’s going to Kermit, W Va. She says she has a new opioids bill out, and wants to hold big pharma execs liable pic.twitter.com/FwOXRsfDeV
— MJ Lee (@mj_lee) May 9, 2019
Today, Rep. Cummings & I—along with 80+ cosponsors—are rolling out the CARE Act, a comprehensive plan to end the opioid crisis by providing states & communities $100 billion over the next 10 years to ensure every single person gets the treatment they need. https://t.co/aNQkKWqKFf
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) May 8, 2019
This is stunning. @ewarren leads off her talk on the opioid crisis here in Kermit, WV asking who knows someone who’s “been caught in the grips of addiction.” Dozens instantly raise their hands. pic.twitter.com/4y4ENA36vY
— Ali Vitali (@alivitali) May 10, 2019
New: Elizabeth Warren is also calling for the Sackler name to be removed from any & all Harvard buildings & museums, a Warren aide tells CNN. Warren, an ex-Harvard law professor, released an opioid epidemic plan this morning and excoriated the Sackler family (of Purdue Pharma).
— MJ Lee (@mj_lee) May 8, 2019
Warren in OH, as she did in WV, asks the audience if they know anyone who’s struggled or died from addiction: pic.twitter.com/hrkuVLZAam
— Greg Krieg (@GregJKrieg) May 10, 2019
Vanity Fair, “Elizabeth Warren Continues to Clobber Her Opponents in the War for Big Ticket, Eat-the-Rich Policies”:
… Her proposals have been notable not just for their degree of detail—her plan to erase student-loan debt included a personalized online calculator—but also for their boldness. She’s staked out clear positions on an array of issues, including some that are controversial even within her own party. For instance, while Nancy Pelosi and other top Democrats have shied away from impeachment talk, Warren has called for the president to be held accountable for the misdeeds outlined in Robert Mueller’s report. “This is not about politics,” she said on the Senate floor Tuesday, after calling for Trump’s impeachment on Twitter. “This is about the Constitution.”…
Warren’s unambiguous positions haven’t helped her much in the polls so far, and may not track with establishment Democrats’ desires to play it safe against Trump by tacking to the center. But her relatively low polling could change once she has the chance to lay out her plans on the debate stage, particularly if her colleagues’ allergy to specifics come to seem like a crutch. There’s also an argument to be made that the candidate with the best shot at beating Trump isn’t the one who seems most “electable”, but the one who runs on a bold, unapologetic platform—and can back it up. Perhaps the best way to beat a president who draws out his policies with a damn crayon is to put forth someone with clear ideas. Of course, she’s not totally alone: Kamala Harris has a plan to increase teachers’ pay; Julian Castro released a sweeping immigration proposal; and Beto O’Rourke has his $5 trillion plan to combat climate change. But Warren is unquestionably leading the pack. You may not like her ideas, but at least you know what they are.
— Connor Jenkins (@oopsaboutit) May 9, 2019
OzarkHillbilly
I said these exact words to my relatively* conservative neighbor.
*relative to me
Mary G
She’s still growing on me. I’ve typed that so much AutoCorrect filled it in for me.
Ruckus
I like her ideas.
I like Harris better and can’t really explain why. And it’s not by much at that. I’d be very happy with either one.
Or both of them. Not sure that would work out for them, but one never knows.
OzarkHillbilly
“We have incurred significant losses since inception, including in the United States and other major markets. We expect our operating expenses to increase significantly in the foreseeable future, and we may not achieve profitability.” -Uber
And yet people gave them money anyway. Why does this remind me of 2006 when banks were throwing money at people who didn’t have jobs?
Elizabelle
I like that Elizabeth Warren is setting out a great Democratic platform. We are served well by Warren calling for impeachment and Nancy Pelosi urging more investigation. Both roads lead in the same direction.
Not linking, but WaPo headlines tell me the dreadful Kathleen Parker is opining that America will have a woman president, just not in 2020. Screw Parker. Let’s make it happen. Harris-Warren, up against the knuckle draggers and autocrats.
Did not click on Parker. Isn’t she the loon who stood up for Kavanaugh cuz people like him just. don’t. do. that.
Elizabelle
Ps. I realize an elected woman president would take office in 2021. Unless it’s President Pelosi. Can’t say more because didn’t read her clickbait column.
Ruckus
@OzarkHillbilly:
Because it really isn’t any different?
People with too much money don’t always make good decisions, especially if it isn’t actually their money. Also if they usually don’t have ideas how to make things/make things work or they see bright shinny new objects….. Also they have a Charlie Brown sense of life, sooner or later she will not pull the football away and we’ll make lots of money.
Ruckus
@Elizabelle:
It isn’t about reality, it’s about getting paid to say anything. Especially anything that doesn’t piss off the owners of the media outfit they work for.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
Union voters and Dodger fans sure love Uncle Joe
(photo #1)
(photo #2)
(photo #3)
NotMax
Happy birthday to – well, modesty forbids.
(toots tiny, yet tasteful, horn)
something fabulous
@NotMax: Mine was yesterday! (Well, Thursday, now that I look at the clock.) happy modest birthday, fellow Taurean!
Arclite
She’d make a great Prez. Has a great brain for policy. I’d absolutely vote for her, even if my current pref is Harris.
EDIT: Did not expect so many Harris-Warren people in the thread. Thought it was just me!
satby
@NotMax: Happy Birthday ???!
Hope you have something fun planned.
Mine is a week from now. Taureans rule ?
satby
@something fabulous: and a belated Happy Birthday to you too!??
OzarkHillbilly
@Ruckus: There’s a sucker born every minute. It cracks me up that these are the “smart” people, just as in ’04-’06 it was the “smart” bankers. I didn’t link to the article above but it goes on about how the share price lost 7% on it’s opening day. Like somehow or other popping $41.57/share as opposed to $45 for a business that has no idea of how it will ever turn a profit was the “wisdom of the market” working.
NotMax
Long distance rail: If at first you don’t succeed,
try, tryevolve again.@something fabulous
Thanks. And a belated happy to you!
(Don’t happen to have a sibling named absolutely by any chance? ;) )
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: @Ruckus: it all comes down to greed. The early investors jump in so that the buzz pumps the stock, then they dump it at a profit quickly before it starts to go down, leaving the rubes holding the bag.
OzarkHillbilly
@NotMax: “Happy” birthday? Blech.
@something fabulous: You too: Blech.
NotMax
@satby
And that’s no bull!
OzarkHillbilly
@satby:
I had forgotten this part:
“A Can’t Miss deal in Brand Loyalty ™ !!!” Who else has been riding the Brand Loyalty ™ gravy train for decades now, selling everything from books to steaks to vodka?
Ruckus
@satby:
Exactly, but I don’t think it’s greed so much as this is actually how big investors work. They think they are beating the house odds. A few of them actually are.
@OzarkHillbilly:
They are educated. They usually aren’t smart, just not as risk adverse as maybe you and I are. They usually seem to have money, from a trust fund, inheritance, or a far more than reasonable family starter pack that has dollar signs all over it. Like DT, with the million dad gave him. All that money, all these years and he’s managed to turn that into fairy dust.
satby
@satby: and checking the price it looks like the MOUs got snagged by their own game this time, because it never even ticked above opening once. Which sort of sparks joy, because I used to have to support some of them when I worked in IT….
At Deutsche Bank.
Ruckus
@OzarkHillbilly:
You left out three words. That’s shitty books, shitty stakes and shitty vodka. OK the same word 3 times.
Ruckus
Ladies and gentleman, I’m going to attempt to get some sleep. Ta ta.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
Uber’s collapse won’t bring down the economy.
Baud
@NotMax:
Ooh, special cake day!
satby
As exciting as almost all our real Democratic candidates are, I do find myself leaning a touch more to a technocratic candidate vs. the rest, just because it’s really going to take some strong policy chops to correct course for our country. I think almost all of them being something positive to the table (leaving out the usual cranks and dullards), but I hope that whoever is the eventual primary winner adopts a lot of Warren’s proposals even if it’s not her.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
That’s great, but that doesn’t tell you how they expect Uber to achieve profitability. I suppose it’s possible all of their losses are from growing, and once they plateau, they’ll be profitable. But I doubt it. They’ll either need a new revenue stream or will have to raise prices and hope their business doesn’t collapse.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: No, but they are indicative of the stupidity infecting “investors” today, most of which are institutional.
Baud
@Psych1:
While I don’t usually engage with trolls, your comment gives me the opportunity to remind lurkers that our feelings towards Bernie are based on his low character, not the policies he’s advocating for.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
I don’t know. I think Amazon lost money for many years before they started taking it in. I just can’t figure out how Uber plans to replicate that model.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: Also from the article:
and in reply to your comment @ 32, as I said earlier, they don’t even have a plan for how to do it.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
So, I think that’s actually pretty standard for fairly new companies that have never made a profit. Prospectus are supposed to spell out all significant risks for investors.
Too lazy too look it up, but Apple probably has a warning that its profits may not continue.
snoey
@Baud: Uber makes money hand over fist if/when they get self-driving cabs and don’t have to pay drivers. They’re betting they can burn through enough of other people’s money and hang on till that happens.
Mary
Gate 35X is at DCA, not Dulles. I normally wouldn’t be pedantic about a fact that is not relevant to the main point of the story, but hatred of Gate 35X is part of the cultural identity of DC and it’s immediate surrounds. It’s one of the few things that people from every end of the cultural spectrum can agree on.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: Uber started operations in March 2009, not exactly a new company by my reckoning and certainly long enough to come up with a plan.
As far as Apple is concerned, I would have dumped that turkey of a stock before they fired Jobs. Maybe I just worked too hard for my money to give it away to people who seem as adept at losing it as they do at collecting it
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly: Amazon wasn’t really turning a profit as late as 2017, but they were growing. It’s only in the last couple of years that they have become profitable.
https://www.vox.com/2017/5/15/15610786/amazon-jeff-bezos-public-company-profit-revenue-explained-five-charts
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-amazon-com-results/amazon-posts-largest-profit-in-its-history-on-sales-tax-boost-idUSKBN1FL6H0
I have no clue whether Uber can follow the same path. My guess is that many companies want to, few actually do.
jr
@OzarkHillbilly: more reminiscent of 2000
OzarkHillbilly
@jr: In 2000 I was too busy trying to hold the world together to pay much attention to the economy.
OzarkHillbilly
@jr: Although now that I think about it, I do remember coming home to my suicidal day trading roommate eating pancakes for the 5th or 6th day in a row after losing everything but the house, going to the freezer and getting a chunk of meat out and dropping it on the table next to him, saying something like, “Fer crying out loud, man does not live by pancakes and water alone. If it’s in the freezer you are welcome to eat it even if you didn’t pay for it.”
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone ???
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
rikyrah
@NotMax:
Happy Birthday ???????
something fabulous
@satby: @NotMax: [& Ozark– dunno what is up with the reply widget these days!– hope this “took”!] Thanks much to past & future Taureaux & Blech! Nice to be up this early/late for once to take part.
zhena gogolia
Gate 35X is Dante’s Inferno.
zhena gogolia
Gate 35X is Dante’s Inferno.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@NotMax: Happy birthday!
zhena gogolia
@Elizabelle:
Since the thumbnail picture with that piece was of Nikki Haley, I didn’t click either.
Gate 35X is Dante’s Inferno.
zhena gogolia
I guess Gate 35X is Dante’s Inferno!
zhena gogolia
@Arclite:
I’m Harris, but not Warren, although broken glass, etc. I can’t articulate why, so I’ll probably be slammed. I don’t feel she can beat Trump.
Raven
I’m getting a huge attack ad on safari
OzarkHillbilly
@zhena gogolia: It’s always groundhog day at Gate 35X.
Chris Johnson
Guy Kawasaki (early Mac evangelist, venture capital guy) has a saying: for any business proposition, run it by a woman.
Women want to know what the thing does. Men can be won over by vowing you want to kill something, but women won’t settle for that.
This is EXACTLY the mechanism seen in the Uber thing (and Amazon, before it). It’s a legitimate business strategy at these levels but not legitimate behavior: ought to be illegal on the grounds of polluting the world with shit in myriad ways, or possibly some form of bullying/assault on society.
If Uber can make the case of ‘we are never going to make money, but we are going to KILL everybody else who would dare to compete with us’ then Wall Street goes ‘ooh’ and throws money. Has been doing so, will continue to do so for longer than you can remain solvent betting against them. Look at Amazon. I’m given to understand Lyft’s IPO hasn’t gone that well. That means that Uber can continue to not make any money because it’s still very possible that they will kill everybody else and ‘win’, and if that seems plausible, they can get investment money.
It’s not at all about whether they can get money sooner or later, it’s about ‘bro’ behavior as a company/entity, and people who have a bunch of money but aren’t legally allowed to murder other people for fun will throw LOTS of money at a company which looks like it murders other companies for fun.
Except, not women, according to Guy Kawasaki. This is a ‘bro’ thing, primitive, atavistic.
(WAY past time we had women Presidents, Senators, Representatives etc etc. More please, we don’t have nearly enough. All-women government. This man would sign off on that)
Amir Khalid
@OzarkHillbilly:
I am surprised that people still think Uber is all that. Uber sold up to Grabcar and left town early last year, all over South-east Asia. They just weren’t as popular with either drivers or the public.
Spanky
I know Billin isn’t around this AM, but if I’m not here when he comes in maybe somebody could point him at the Great Milky Way Picture Controversy.
Ohio Mom
Who picked that picture of Warren? It’s very unflattering — the messy hair, taut neck muscles, pale face, and far away, slightly worried look in her eyes remind me of Dorothea Lange photos of 1930s Okie moms.
She does not look confident and at ease with herself, she is not engaging the veiwer/voter. Why does Mayor Pete get glamour shots and Warren gets this? (Spoiler: sexism).
Full disclosure: I alternate between Warren and Harris daily. The last poll I saw (I know, early) showed them neck and neck, behind the guys. I remain convinced that the two of them are splitting the attention and committment of the smartest voting block. (ETA: see Ruckus’s comment at 3 for an example of this).
Okay, now that I got all that out, I’ll read the thread.
Amir Khalid
@NotMax:
Salam harijadi dari sahabatmu di Malaysia.
Amir Khalid
@Ohio Mom:
A photo editor, no doubt under the direction of TIME’s vaguely right-leaning editorial leadership.
different-church-lady
@Chris Johnson:
Read my mind. They act like they don’t care about anything but destoying other things to satisfy their egos.
Percysowner
@Elizabelle: I subscribe to WaPo and Parker is one of their columnists that I refuse to read. Mark Thiessen is another. I keep hoping someone on one of the sites I follow will make the big sacrifice and tell me what they say with their horrible headlines, but for the most part everyone seems to feel the way I do, they aren’t worth the click.
SFAW
@NotMax:
Happy birthday, youngster.
Let’s hope The Traitor-in-Chief gives you the bestest birthday present ever! [I’m talking about him confessing to everything on Primetime TV, and saying all his idiot children were in on it, and Dense as well, and Traitor Turtle, too. And resigning. I’m also hoping you get a unicorn — which is probably more likely than the other stuff.]
SFAW
@zhena gogolia:
[Checks calendar, sees it’s not February 2nd, is confused.]
ETA: Sees Ozark beat him to the punch
Percysowner
I missed Elizabeth Warren here in Columbus yesterday. I’ve been battling what I thought was a cold, and finally went to the doctor where I was told I have bronchitis. I really hope she comes this way at least once more. I mean I hope she does it more than once because that could mean she was on the ticket. But I really hope to see her in person.
OzarkHillbilly
@Ohio Mom: I like that picture. To me she looks intelligent, confident, earnest, and focused, like she not only has a clue but has a plan. shrug
JMG
So Uber loses money, and the bigger it grows, the more money it loses. It can eventually profit by either the invention of practical driverless cars or by becoming a monopoly which will either be blown up by antitrust or subject to profit-limiting regulations by cities and states (already happening here in Boston). Yep, sounds like a great place to park your retirement savings. The whole point of IPOs is to have a price spike at the start by generating a “don’t miss this” panic among the herd of investors.. When that doesn’t happen, the new public company has a real problem.
SFAW
@Amir Khalid:
What is that, French? Eye-talian? Tagalog? Ig-pay atin-lay?
[I expect it’s Malay, but not being a speaker thereof …]
Elizabelle
@zhena gogolia: Nikki Haley! Zut alors.
The Kool-Aid goes deep with Miss Parker.
Mary G
@NotMax: Happy Birthday!
Kristine
@Elizabelle:
Not only that, but she pretty much believes it will be 1) a Republican and 2) Nikki Haley. Which, damn, no, please, argh.
Elizabelle
@NotMax: It’s your day, Birthday Kahuna. Have a happy one. ?
Kay
@JMG:
And SUCH low costs, because the drivers pick up the upfront investment and the continuing expenses on the equipment. Imagine how profitable UPS would be if the drivers had to first buy and then maintain their own trucks, and that cost was subtracted from their wages. I don’t understand why they’re not making money if they take between 21% and 45% of the fare. I’d like to see that compared to a driver or delivery service with actual employees where the company provides the equipment.
tobie
I know I’m a minority on this blog but I’m not taken with Warren’s policies or her populism. In the areas where I do know something, like education and agriculture, her policies strike me as bold but sloppy. I gather there are some serious problems with her maternal mortality proposal, too. But I also don’t like that she always has to name check an enemy. Maybe Warren will change tack. I hope so. It’s early days and much can happen till the first primaries and caucuses. Whatever happens…we’ve got to defeat the Republicans who are destroying the country. The big picture is clear.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kristine: It was long accepted wisdom that the first black president not only would be, but I suspect had to be a Republican, because the all important older WWC would never accept a black DEM in the WH. I see the same logic being applied here.
Ohio Mom
@OzarkHillbilly: But you are not most people.
Remember the old joke: “Sir, you have the vote of every thinking American!” “I’ll need more than that if I am going to win!”
zhena gogolia
@Ohio Mom:
Well, if it were a glamour shot people might complain about that too. “Why is she being presented like a fashion model?”
I don’t think it’s that bad. It looks like her and she looks serious. Eisenhower wasn’t exactly Tab Hunter.
Baud
@tobie:
I don’t agree with all of her policies, but I doubt I’ll completely agree with any candidate’s policies.
OzarkHillbilly
@Ohio Mom: And neither are you. My point was only that different people will have different reactions. Again…. shrug
satby
@Ohio Mom: I saw it as a dynamic woman caught mid-speech by the camera. She looks alive and authentic in that shot (to me, obv. YMMV).
zhena gogolia
That video where she asks people to raise their hands just made me cry.
She’d probably get the same result in my little town.
rikyrah
@something fabulous:
Happy Birthday ?????
rikyrah
@Percysowner:
You take care and get better ???
Another Scott
@OzarkHillbilly: Amazon didn’t make significant profits for ages (and might not still – I haven’t checked). But they at least have a business plan and an obvious path to making money in a variety of businesses (web services, distribution, retail).
Uber’s business model seems to be – “We’re going to skirt the laws on public transport and burn investors’ money and [ missing step 2 ] and then have a monopoly and profits will roll in!!11 Especially once we no longer have any employees/independent-contractors!!11” Their business model seems to depend on municipalities continuing to ignore Uber’s bad behavior and them successfully fighting all regulation (e.g. number of active drivers in a city, effective minimum wage, employee vs contractor rules, rules about accommodating people in any neighborhood) until the end of time. It seems to me to be a very, very bad bet.
But all that’s necessary for the unscrupulous to make money is to be the next-to-last fool in line. So far, there appear to be enough people out there to give them money…
My $0.02.
Cheers,
Scott.
(“Who has still never used Uber nor Lyft.”)
Kay
They left a card with a pre-printed anti-abortion slogan on her desk judging her for the rape. These religious crusaders will be monitoring every woman in the country, swooping in for “reeducation” in religious dogma if there’s ANY stepping out of line. She voted for the 6 week ban, but she wasn’t speaking about rape properly – the rapist is apparently called “the parent” in their speech code- so they sent someone in to shame her and shut her up.
These new pregnancy laws are very intrusive. They really reach every woman in the country. I hope American women are prepared to be monitored by these religious tribunals in every aspect of their personal and professional lives.
OzarkHillbilly
I am very very very happy to report that the most corrupt Democrat in America is going to prison. Dawg, do I despise that mf’er, maybe even more than trump.
The interesting thing is the Feds opened their investigation into him on March 8, got a warrant for his phone on March 19, a grand jury issued a subpoena to STL County for all pertinent records on March 20, unsealed his indictment on April 29, and he pleaded guilty on May 4th.
Funny how fast the Feds can move when they are investigating a DEM.
tobie
@Baud: My problem isn’t that I agree with some of her proposals but not with others. It’s that so many of them seem poorly conceived. They generate splashy headlines but don’t withstand scrutiny. I once had a boss who had a plan for everything and wanted to overhaul the entire enterprise. After three miserable years, the employees revolted. It was a horrible experience.
Kay
@Ohio Mom:
I see what you’re saying but I think the picture very much fits in with her whole campaign, which is proudly “serious” and earnest and substantive. She’s embraced that. It’s interesting. She’s taken the criticism that she’s “serious” and decided that’s true, but positive. I think it’s smart. They have to be what they are.
Warren is my candidate and I joked on here that her emails are very “on brand”- blunt, transparent, very “good government”. This is a theme. I think the campaign is cohesive and consistent.
OzarkHillbilly
@Another Scott:
$11 Billion in 2018. Not only did they not pay any taxes, they got money from the Feds, something to the tune of $220 Million. IIRC they had a profit of $7 Billion in 2017.
The difference between Amazon and Uber is Amazon had a plan to become profitable, Uber apparently does not.
ETA, and yes you are right about not being the last in line, I was only commenting about the # of smart people willing to take their place there.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
Witch Hunt!
@tobie:
Fair enough. Frankly, I find her enthusiasm more compelling than the details, which would have to go through Congress anyway.
Unlike others here, I don’t see this presidential election as primarily about domestic policy.
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
I like it too. She was in Ohio yesterday, and there was a clip of her rally on the news. She was announced and she bounded out like an energetic young woman. I don’t know how they keep up this kind of energy for so long.
Another Scott
@Spanky: A photographer used Photoshop (less than perfectly) to make beautiful images, and they don’t match the story. I’m shocked!!11
Cheers,
Scott.
debbie
@tobie:
So then it’s better to wing it like Trump? Give her a break already. She has broad strokes; her advisors will help refine her policies. But please, a wet blanket isn’t needed now. And are you this critical of all 20+ candidates?
Baud
@debbie: Right. Reading this thread tired me out.
gene108
@Baud:
Amazon didn’t turn a profit, until the early 2000’s. They were losing money for years, even after they went public. Investors decided year-over-year revenue growth would eventually lead to profitability and the initial losses were costs required to sustain continued revenue growth. They were investing in expanding from being an on-line bookseller to selling everything under the sun.
I don’t know, how on the ball Uber’s leadership is or if they are going to come up with expanding their revenue stream beyond ride sharing, but initial losses in a business isn’t inherently a sign of bad management or foolish investors, with money to burn.
Really depends on how good the leadership of the company is.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay:
That phrase confused me but I came to the conclusion that they were referring to the victim, blaming her for the rape.
tobie
@Baud: I agree. That’s why I wanted Chris Murphy to run. Here he is yesterday at a national security forum. He’s one of the few Democratic senators who regularly speaks to foreign policy.
The videos of Warren in WV and OH are powerful stuff. I like her much more when she talks about whom she’s fighting for than whom she’s fighting against.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: I would have gladly tied him to the stake he was about to burned at.
Baud
@tobie:
I didn’t mean domestic vs. foreign policy, per se. I meant fixing our government and country vs. enacting liberal policies. I’m weighing the former more heavily than the latter, although both are important.
gene108
@NotMax:
Happy Birthday!
I have a cousin, who turned fifty this week. His kids are also born in May. It’s just one big party in that house this month.
Kay
@tobie:
I think withholding funding as punishment is a bad idea too. It doesn’t work with schools so it probably won’t work in health care either. What works to reduce racial bias in schools are objective standards- a process. AA kids are punished much more harshly in schools than white kids for the same infractions. The way to lessen that seems to be to have a consistent process that everyone has to follow for every kid, because leaving it to the subjective decisions of a teacher or principal introduces bias. There’s a push/pull though, because people resent having their subjective decision making questioning- they don’t admit they are biased- so there has to room for exceptions, where they retain some agency. It’s just really difficult. “Process” has downsides – it’s too rigid, not case by case, people feel constrained by it, but on the other hand when they make subjective decisions they show racial bias so that has to be corrected somehow. I’m confident AA women ARE getting worse medical care, even in well-resourced hospitals, as compared to white women. The question becomes how do you fix it.
Nicole
@Ohio Mom: It’s actually a pretty good picture; she looks very focused and very determined. She’s in her 60’s and it appears she hasn’t had any work done; she’s not going to look like Mayor Pete in a photo. In 30 years, Mayor Pete isn’t going to look like Mayor Pete in a photo, either.
Age. It’s a high price to pay for wisdom.
Quinerly
@Nicole: I love this comment!
Kay
@OzarkHillbilly:
Well, that’s absolutely how she took it. But- as we know there won’t be any apology or even any questioning of their position or tactics. He has announced he did nothing wrong, because of course he didn’t. That wasn’t even a possibility. He is morally superior in every way. I am bad at religion and even I managed to pick up there’s a “humility” tenet in there somewhere that these people seem to have completely missed.
OzarkHillbilly
via LG&M: The Geography of Food Stamps
An interesting, if not at all surprising map. Here in Washington Co we have 26% participation in SNAP. We’ve got a long ways to go before we catch up with those Bootheel losers in Pemiscot Co who come in at 34%.
MomSense
Happy birthday to Notmax and Something Fabulous!
From what I understand it’s the Uber app that makes the company valuable. Apparently their tech is really really good and probably has other applications. I’m opposed to Uber Lyft and all the VRBOBRBBNBAIR whatevers. No fucking way I would want to tell a random stranger where I am and where I live and then get in their car. Yes, cab drivers are strangers but presumably the cab company is liable, licensed and has done a background check. The rental property gig business is undercutting union hotel workers and contributing to housing crises everywhere including rural Maine. The worst part about these gig companies is they coopt people who need jobs into taking subpar jobs that hurt themselves and other workers.
I’m another Harris Warren person. I do have a concern that the Warren smears are so easy and so mean and so inconsequential that the media wont be able to resist repeating them. They will Hillary Warren. It got to Warren enough that she fell for Trump’s dare and did the really stupid DNA thing. He never even paid up.
I said here the other day that I think Trump is afraid of Harris and can’t figure out how to belittle her after his weak attempts at nasty didn’t work. Nicole Wallace apparently said the same thing yesterday. She thinks he is most afraid of Harris. I think he won’t be able to rattle her and in fact she will make him look weak and foolish. Already her messaging is the most in contrast to his worst flaws. She is framing hersel and this contest as speaking truth, truth being the foundation of relationship and democracy, and being fearless. There’s power in that.
This doesn’t mean a thing but I’ve noticed in my reactions to Harris and Warren that Harris makes me feel hopeful and Warren makes me cry. I’m still really upset with Warren’s stance on TPP and the way she fundraised off of it and I don’t like her on trade at all. I think trump’s policies have proved her really wrong on trade.
I’d still love to vote for her but not because I think her policies are that great. Both she and Harris are articulating the problems and how they fit in the bigger picture better than everyone else and they aren’t dog whistling in the process.
This is the first I’ve been able to post. There is an aggressive attack ad that redirects me – using Safari.
debbie
@Kay:
I’m disappointed that in all the state legislatures where this crap is happening, not one conservative female legislator (that I’ve heard about) has pushed back against this awful stupidity.
Kay
@OzarkHillbilly:
I don’t know her, so maybe this is patronizing, but I want her to stop being vulnerable to their judging. I know they do it and how they do it, from personal experience, but I want to tell her she can refuse it outright. It only “works” if you accept them as your moral betters. They slink away and find someone more vulnerable to shame if you just refuse to accept the premise. They look for vulnerability, and she gave them one. She can still do that- speak- expose herself to their judgment- but the response should be you go to him and say “don’t put religious tracts on my desk again”. He’ll find another victim.
debbie
@MomSense:
If Kamala hasn’t been rattled by a defense attorney, then Trump has zero chance! It would be fun to watch him fail at that, over and over.
tobie
@Baud: Good point.
@Baud: @debbie: @Kay: You’re all correct that details will be hammered out over time, should we have the good fortune to elect a Democratic President and to retake the Senate and to maintain the hold on the House.
MomSense
@tobie:
Murphy doesn’t have to run to be Veep for Harris! ?
I love him, too.
Immanentize
@NotMax: @satby: @something fabulous:
And all other Bull Riders.
Happy Birthday(s). The Immp is an Aries/Taurus cusper. But as a friend pointed out, his delivery doctor exerted more gravitational pull on him that the whole of the combined celestial bodies.
Another Scott
I’ve given (once each) to three candidates – Warren, Harris, and Castro. I’m not still not all-in on any particular one of them (or anyone else) – it’s still very early.
I like Warren’s frankness, her intelligence, her feistiness, her persistence. I like that she has “big” ideas, but I don’t think she’s a “my way or the highway” person (like Wilmer). She knows how to get new ideas implemented (CFPB). But I haven’t seen (but haven’t checked) how she would get others in the Senate (and Congress generally) to implement her big ideas. Is she too far in front?
I like Harris because she’s smart and knows how to win in a huge, diverse state. She has a good personal story (for the most part). She seems to have a huge advantage the way the primary calendar is this cycle, but she also faces some risks – if she doesn’t do very well early, she may not have the staying power for a long slog to the convention.
I like Castro because i think that it’s important to have opposition to Donnie’s racist policies continue to be a focus of the campaign.
I also like many aspects of Booker’s (mostly excellent record in Newark generally decent in the Senate) and Gillibrand (a bulldog going after sexual assault in the DoD, being able to win in a state that has a big rural/NYC divide) stories.
I’m going to be looking for evidence that the candidates know how government works, how to compromise to get decent (albeit not perfect) legislation passed, when to take 1/4 a loaf rather than going hungry, etc. How, and how quickly, they regroup in the face of defeats and opposition. I’m not expecting perfect proposals, nor necessarily the ability to spin everything to their advantage. I recognize that most of the country isn’t as liberal as I am and that I won’t get everything I want. Steady, incremental progress is great as far as I’m concerned, even though things would obviously be better if everyone agreed with me and did what I want. ;-)
But I haven’t studied the candidates enough to pick one yet. And, honestly, the Virginia state races this fall a much more immediately important to this NoVA voter.
I hope several presidential candidates that end up not doing well early on in the primaries change their minds and decide to run for Senate instead. Abrams, also too. There’s still plenty of time, and taking the Senate is vital as well.
We’ve got a great slate of candidates running. The GOP should be worried (and from their actions, they are).
Cheers,
Scott.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay:
A humble wo/man never proselytizes. The wo/man at the dais has all the answers even if they don’t know what the question is. They all are speaking for God as tho they know the infinite God in his/her entirety. I have seen the same certitude in some atheists. I have no patience for either.
I am an atheist but I find religious people who approach their faith with humility far more enjoyable.
O. Felix Culpa
Happy birthday, past, present, and future to our B-J Tauri!!!
I’m reading SPW’s book, This Fight is Our Fight: The Battle to Save America’s Middle Class, right now. It’s good and frankly, a little terrifying in its description of the hollowing out of our middle class and the usurpation of government by the robber barons. The style is folksy, funny, and deadly earnest. I like her more and more. I tried reading Kamala Harris’s autobiography, but couldn’t get very far into it. I couldn’t detect much of a real person in that book, alas.
That said, I’d be delighted with either Harris or Warren, but the former because of her positive energy, incisive analysis and – yes – policies, and the latter because of her screen persona – and her proposal to raise teachers’ salaries. YMMV
lahke
@Kay: I like it too. They have pictured her as a crusading Gary Cooper type– it’s very dynamic.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay: My sister Peggy (rip) would have ripped his head off and shit down the hole.
MomSense
@debbie:
How many women watching the first debate will let out a cheer the first time she turns to him and gives him “that look”? She gets to the racist, white pols like no one else. It’s like the very act of a black Woman asking tough questions rattles them so hard they turn into mumbling fools.
Dorothy A. Winsor
I see Rudy has called off his trip to Ukraine. What an imbecile the man is. He keeps going on TV and saying the quiet part out loud.
StringOnAStick
@OzarkHillbilly: Hey, I knew a suicidal day trader too! He called me to ask me to get enough drugs from my doctor to do it, which is a desperate cry for help, not a real “I’m going to kill myself and you can’t stop me”. I happened to be going to my doctor that day and told him about it, and he explained why they never prescribe enough for that to happen. It really pissed me off that he asked me to do that, and I told him so. What he really wanted was to not have to get a regular job again after paying for all those get rich quick trading classes.
rikyrah
@Kay:
Just enraging???
Kay
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
It’s hard to rank the Trumpsters on “ruined their own reputation” but to my mind he’s Number One. Just stop. Find a real job. Take up a hobby. Spend your ill-gotten gains. Go lobby some corrupt pols to buy your shitty, over-priced “security” expertise. Crawl back under the rock.
Another Scott
@MomSense: Great points.
The party is still a bit schizophrenic on big trade deals. I think Obama was right on TPP, and I think that we’ll eventually join it, but he and the party had a really tough time fighting the mis/disinformation about it, and in addressing some seemingly sensible criticisms.
But a big problem with these trade agreements is that while the countries (and companies) end up getting richer, there are very many losers in the industries that are undercut by lower foreign wages. (Similarly, there are real costs to foreign countries when they import grain or IT/financial services/pharmaceuticals from the US.) I don’t know the solution (whether it’s directed tariffs, or some sort of tax on newer industries, or just higher taxes on the wealthy to fund longer unemployment benefits or a baseline income, or earlier and easier retirement, or what) but it’s something that needs to be addressed. Someone who spends 20-30 years working in one particular kind of job isn’t suddenly going to go back to school to be a home health aid or app developer.
There are real costs to an economy when it’s cheaper to make something halfway around the world and import it rather than making it here. Those costs cannot be ignored for long.
We need to find a way to talk about real problems and real solutions without having our emotions dominate the discussion.
Cheers,
Scott.
germy
Here is Elizabeth Warren in ’04:
debbie
@Another Scott:
Seconded on every word!
germy
Kathleen
@NotMax: Happy Birthday Mr. NotMax!
germy
Kathleen
@something fabulous: Happy Belated Birthday, Fabulous!
debbie
@MomSense:
Also that scrunching-up of her mouth as she waits for her turn to speak. You just know something intelligent and biting is just aching to be let out!
debbie
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Am I beginning to catch a whiff of the team’s desperation?
zhena gogolia
@MomSense:
I agree.
debbie
Happy birthday to satby, NotMax, and something fabulous!
jeffreyw
Choices! Left, right, or middle?
(Picnicking Birds)
zhena gogolia
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Ochen’ khorosho.
zzyzx
Warren just feels like a smarter Wilmer to me in that she’s running on ideas that everyone knows have literally 0 chance of ever becoming law. When they don’t happen, people will just get cynical again. It’s why I think she’s useful in the debates and in Congress to push the ideas further left, but would make a mediocre president. Although with McConnell in charge of the Senate, I don’t know who can be a good president anymore.
J R in WV
@Baud:
And I see that the troll you responded to is already deleted by one of our blog masters. Nevertheless, your comment applies to Bernie and all the Bernie bro russo-trolls there ever were.
The last thing the USA needs now is a second Russian pawn like Trump, no matter if he calls himself a democratic socialist or a blue angel. And that’s what Senator Sanders is, a Russian pawn.
Glidwrith
@OzarkHillbilly: Click through to the article, the bastards really are referring to the rapist as ‘a parent that made a mistake’.
I need to go take my blood pressure meds now.
Kathleen
@Ohio Mom: I like both Harris and Warren. I think they’re both extremely intelligent, accomplished, experienced and bring unique gifts/perspectives to the table.
I’m voting for Harris in the primary because I believe she is the one candidate who really comprehends the existential threat posed by Trump and the Republican party.The Democratic president has got to really get that so that he/she can employ strategies to deal with Rethuglicans as the goons, thugs, Nazis and nihilists they are. That’s one of the reasons I thought Hillary was the perfect candidate. She really got that also. She lived with that for decades and was roundly mocked when she called out “the great right wing conspiracy” but she kept calling them out.
Someone on Twitter made the point that he believes Kamala’s mentor Willie Brown helped her hone skills as a street fighter. To me she’s the perfect balance of street fighter and brilliant, polished, disciplined AG/Senator who knows how to make things happen. That’s why I’m supporting her over Warren in the primary, though I could enthusiastically support Warren in the general at this point.
MomSense
@Another Scott:
Labor and environmental regulations are the crux of the problem. Steel and other manufacturing plants were closing long before NAFTA because of OSHA, the EPA, the clean water and air acts, and changes to the tax codes that not only didn’t punish companies for moving their manufacturing operations out of the country but they incentivized those moves. From
What I understand, TPP improved the labor and environmental standards for the treaty signatories which include all of the NAFTA countries – so it improved NAFTA.
I’m convinced that Democrats have been promoting the falsehoods about trade killing manufacturing because the alternative is to have to grapple with the fact that some of our values are in conflict. We demand good wages, safe working conditions, preventing pollution, trying to limit global poverty, and making things in the US. Most of the those things make us less competitive than other countries which undermines making things in the US. I also think we don’t want to talk about the conflict between some of the highest paying jobs being in defense manufacturing and our aversion to funding the military industrial complex. Then there’s the sexism in focusing on the stereotypical male manufacturing jobs to the detriment of all those service and helping jobs. I can’t figure out how to put all of this on a bumper sticker or into a slogan so we end up with NAFTA or TPP is bad.
StringOnAStick
@Chris Johnson: Dead on accurate, Chris. I traded full time from 1996-2004, which was the very start of the technology changes that both allowed that, allowed me to communicate with some hedge fund and bond guys (the bond guy who was so kind to me died on 9-11, Cantor Fitzgerald). That brief window of relatively level playing field closed quickly and the easy money was gone by 2002; I was glad to stop trading and get a real job because the stress was killing me, the rise of autonomous trading meant I was easy pickings, and that whole bro culture, “we kill what we eat” BS was too obvious and offensive to ignore anymore. I think the email argument I had with a junior trader about no one deserving retirement, Social security or Medicare was a real eye opener that they see us proles as little more than sheep to be fleeced while we have money, and useless eaters when we don’t.
I made a ton of money and we’ll retire early because of it, but I guess I’ve gone so “class consciousness” that I’m almost embarrassed that I ever found that work exciting . Funny that my recent BS supporting friends gave me a ton of shit about it back then, while still investing in the markets via their retirement accounts. Cog dis, eh?
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Kathleen: I’m also impressed by Harris and Warren, but an additional reason I currently prefer Harris is that she’s younger. Warren will be 70 in June. She’s not stuck in the past the way Biden is, but physically, anything can happen once you get to that age. I speak from experience here.
Ohio Mom
I’m back from breakfast and after reading all that was said while I was gone, I want to emphasize I am almost always happy to be wrong — I was born an Eyore.
I do hope that photo of Warren wows everyone in the supermarket line as they scan the magazine covers. I just remain skeptical. Time will tell.
I suspect the emphasis on domestic economic policies is what the candidates have determined is what is going to sell them to the public. But I think the biggest job awaiting the next president is foreign relations. It’s hard to judge right now which Democrat is best equipped for that.
CliosFanBoy
@Elizabelle: I’d prefer Warren/Harris but either way let’s get it done!!
CliosFanBoy
You can’t spell Ohio without Eyore!
Well, OK, you can. But as a fellow native Ohioian I agree with you…
zhena gogolia
@Ohio Mom:
I’d feel really great about a Harris-Murphy ticket on that score.
Kathleen
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Yes! I forgot to mention her youth. I also liked what MomSense said about Trump being afraid of her. Very good point.
And yes, I’m becoming quite familiar with the perils of (for me) late 60’s early 70’s. Fortunately I didn’t have real medical emergency but I sure felt like I was losing it this past week. For me it’s not just the physical but some of the emotional fears around growing older that have cropped up. I’m glad to see that you appear to be recovering quite well from your heart attack.
MomSense
@Kathleen:
She’s also the candidate who has run the largest organization. The CA AG’s office is second only to the US Justice Dept. That office is in the fifth largest economy and deals with all manner of complicated issues – foreign and domestic.
Kay
@germy:
It’s so true in my working and middle class practice. I don’t know how they are going to go without a paycheck. It ripples, too, because key to staying in the middle class from generation to generation is a “stake” from the generation prior. It doesn’t have to be a lot. It can be 5000 or 10000. The generation after them won’t get that. 10000 dollars at the right time can make a huge difference if you make 40k a year and are 25. The generational aspects – wealth transfer- of staying in the middle class are under-rated. I think people believe it has to be huge- wealthy parents- but it doesn’t. It’s the TIMING of the assistance, not the amount. I feel like Warren has thought more deeply about this than the other candidates. She has a long view. In my practice I think there is a kind of “bank” of secure retirees and we will see a real sharp drop when they are gone and replaced with the people with little or no equity or savings. I can almost see it happening in real time. They’re less and less secure as the older ones move thru and are replaced with the next set. I get a little panicky on their behalf. I don’t know how they will live. The truth is they will live on Social Security, which for many of them will be a substantial drop in their lifestyle. That ripples too, because retirees are a huge market. All those really nice (and expensive) retirement villages and such are going to be begging for residents. They should probably build more low income. They’re going to need housing.
Kathleen
@MomSense: That’s right. I heard her make that point during Maddow’s interview with her.
The more I watch and listen to her the more impressed I am.
MomSense
@Kathleen:
I’m having impoverished retirement fears. I don’t want to work until I drop but I’m pretty sure I’ll need to.
tobie
@MomSense: This is a great summary of the inconsistency of many of our stated goals and how that affects trade policy. You can’t sell ‘made in America’ widgets for $11 when you can get them from Viet Nam for 11 cents. I think this is what makes Yang’s idea of a universal basic income attractive. Certain jobs and trades have been disappearing since the 1970s and in lieu of playing ostrich we should address that directly and create a cushion for those most affected. Germany has managed to remain a manufacturing powerhouse by focusing on precision instruments and high end goods. It’s possible for the developed world to maintain high wages, workplace protections, and environmental regulations but you need sound industrial policy for that and an educated workforce. It’s one thing I like about Harris: she’s talking about K-12 education where immediate improvements are needed.
MomSense
@Kay:
Our whole fucking economy in coastal Maine is lowpaying service jobs for retirees and tourists. Add unaffordable housing and a shortage at that, high cost of transportation, health, utilities and it adds up to The Beans of Egypt, Maine.
J R in WV
@Spanky:
WOW! THanks for that link. As a photographer, that’s fascinating and I’m sure Billin will also be interested in it. Wow! How many oops can you blend into one photograph?
Immanentize
@tobie:
I totally admit that I do not understand the implications of such a plan — but isn’t a guaranteed basic income just a wildly inflationary policy where prices will increase to swallow that income?
How about a basic food or housing allotment for all people instead? Not tied to poverty? And isn’t that really what the standard tax deduction plus earned income credits are supposed to accomplish?
J R in WV
@JMG:
I have taken cabs all over LA and NYC and Washington DC… I have never felt endangered by my driver, even when my driver spoke little English.
The day I get into a “cab” driven by a computer is the day you know the world has already ended. Never gonna happen~!!!~ Maybe I’m different, but if I represent even a tiny bit of the Uber market, self-driving cars will not ever make them break even or turn a profit.
Kay
@germy:
I went “birding” with my husband Thursday. The Toledo area has a nationally known “flyway” so they all come to this one park for a week and look for birds. I don’t know jack about birds but it was a nice walk in the woods and the birders were great- couldn’t wait to teach me. They’re mostly retirees. It’s a economic boost to the area- hotels and campgrounds and restaurants. They’re secure retirees. They can afford to follow these birds, which is great, I’m all for that and it was this nice cross section of people, teachers and postal workers and factory people and higher income, too.
But I think about it, because judging by my practice there will be fewer of them. I just don’t see how they manage this carefree lifestyle on Social Security and I wonder about this whole market we have created that depends on secure retirees. It will ripple. They’re good for working people.
tobie
@Immanentize: I don’t think it’s different to call the subsidy a ‘basic universal income’ or a ‘basic food and housing allotment.’ The amount proposed does not cover more than mere subsistence, which is why I suspect that even those who receive it would still want to supplement their income by working as a cashier, a burger flipper at MacDonalds, a greeter at Wallmart, or whatever other jobs you can think of that, at the moment, get people kicked from welfare rolls but don’t provide for them. I see the idea of the subsidy as a way of accounting for the problem that we have so many ‘working poor,’ who need to take on two or three jobs to make ends meet. Imagine if some of these people had the luxury of working only one job and could take a community college course on the side to improve their skills.
Regarding inflation: I’m not an economist (IANAE), so I won’t dare guess whether a UBI is inflationary.
MomSense
@Kay:
Not only does this marketnwe’ve creared depend on secure retirees, it depends on making and consuming more and more and more. We literally need four or five more planets to have enough resources to sustain the growth required to stave off recession and depression long term. No one is talking about what comes after a consumer economy.
JPL
Although I’m late to the game, I want to add my birthday wishes to Notmax and Something Fabulous!
Kathleen
@MomSense: That’s part of my anxiety as well. I also must work, which I really don’t mind doing as long as I like the job and the people I work with, as I do now. I made some choices through the years that put me in this position, but I refuse to judge myself. Still, I think that “economic anxiety” works on me all the time consciously and subconsciously, which has led to some severe panic attacks and trips to ER. I intend to make some new choices that serve me better. Fortunately I have PCP (I’m on Medicare) who believes in natural supplements as alternatives (he said he got them from a psychiatrist years ago) so I’m taking them now. I attribute much of this to suppressed fears of failing health, dying alone, what have I done with my life, and the classic Irish Catholic tramping on the moors while wringing hands and murmuring, “Woe is me” proclivities.
StringOnAStick
@Kay: I’ve been discussing the whole “the late Boomers and younger won’t have the money that prior Boomers had in retirement” with my husband a lot lately. He writes software for a company that does escorted tours (“old people in Europe, etc, on buses”). He says they are having their biggest booking year yet, but we both agree that the higher ups don’t see this huge change coming. I already see it, he doesn’t look that far ahead yet but I’m the long term view person in our relationship.
We’re 60 and of the people we know who are our age, they either have paid off their houses and lived within their means, or they are in debt to past their eyeballs (having a failed child who either returned or dumped the kid they can’t handle because of addiction are some of the causes). The people 10-20 years younger than us bought such high priced real estate (and what isn’t in Denver?) that they can’t save much and are already planning on working until they drop since defined benefit pensions are long, long gone. None of them have parents who had good enough jobs to leave them anything in the way of inheritance or a paid off home since they had no pension or the pension fund was bankrupted in the M&A frenzies of the last few decades. There’s the real loss of inter-generational wealth: no home to inherit or sell, or all the parental assets have been or will be spent down to pay the nursing home/hospice bills; I expect this to get much worse since people live much longer now and at such high medical expense in many cases.
It seems like Warren is the only one even bringing this up, and people perhaps aren’t wanting to listen because it is all so damned bleak. It’s not inspiring, it’s nightmare inducing.
MomSense
@Kathleen:
I have four bedrooms. Assuming I hold onto my house and my kids don’t move back in, I’ve got two bedrooms down and two up – I’m thinking Golden Girls with more curse words.
Kay
@MomSense:
I like to do “glass half full” so my thought is we’ll fill the fancy retirement villages with younger immigrants! :)
I’m completely open to change, I just want it not to be a rip off. The people around here kill me, I swear. This place has had the same population for a hundred years, but they’re aging. There’s this whole “woe is me, young people won’t STAY”. It just makes sense to attract immigrants. I don’t care, at all, if I’m a minority. I feel like they’re impractical, these Trump people. Like they’re just screaming about shit that doesn’t matter. They can’t have their imaginary world back. It was imaginary.
StringOnAStick
For today’s serving of anecdata, I talked to my 70 yo friend (retired special ed teacher, now a successful real estate agent) who was all in for BS previously and bought into the whole “BS wuz robbed” meme even after it was pointed out that a lot of that was Russian bot induced. Now she’s all in for Inslee because “if we don’t deal with AGW, no other policies will matter”. She’s now babysitting the only grandchild she’ll ever have so AGW sits heavy on her heart.
I would have thought she’d be for Warren because of the actual progressive policies, but she and her husband find her “too school marm, too much lecturing”. Of course they get their news from MSNBC, which is part of the TV industrial news complex that is pushing this framing for Warren. People who watch TV news sure seem to parrot these frames, because that is what they are being fed. If your only time seeing Warren is when she was trying to explain on TDS years ago about what happened in 2008 or any other real, unspun zone, then you see the real her, not the current Villager Consensus. That troubles the hell out of me. I’m contributing monthly to two campaigns now, Warren and Harris. Warren to push her agenda for as long as she can, and Harris because I’ve thought from the beginning that she has WINNER written all over her, and she’ll take Donnie Dollhands apart in the debates. I hadn’t thought about how her AG experience in the 5th largest economy in the world is excellent administrative training for being POTUS but that makes me feel even more that she’s a winner. Most of my money is going to making sure the odious Cory Gardner (R, Wingnuttia) is defeated and Colorado gets a second D senator (and Sen. Bennet needs to shut up, sit down, and be a Senator, stop with this vanity campaign).
MomSense
@Kay:
So right, Kay. In our state, the oldest and sparsely populated, we should be sending buses to the border to bring immigrants here. We do not have enough people to support the infrastructure needed for such a geographically large state.
Can I also say how fucking stupid the GOP is not to want the immigrants coming through our southern border? They are Catholic, socially conservative, family oriented, and hard working.
dww44
@Percysowner: While I don’t subscribe to the WP, my local paper features both Parker (more frequently, because ya know, she’s a woman, but a conservative one, so that works) and Thiessen. So both their recent columns are in daily, but I flipped the page anyways. Might go back and take a look if my BP can take the anger reading them always induces.
Chris Johnson
@MomSense:
That’s a good point, that hadn’t occurred to me. Continuing to warm to Harris, though I am for Warren first. Nice to be spoiled for good choices :)
A recent Grubstakers podcast featured an ex-FCC chairman who’s written a book on missed opportunities in the Obama adminstration. One such missed opportunity is that many advisors were balking and contradicting Obama in his desire to take more direct action in the foreclosure crisis. They were religious about allowing the market to play itself out w.r.t. housing disaster, and he didn’t have to be so passive. If Harris has run such a big administration she is more likely to assume leadership and not need to defer to possibly bad advice. Obama was trapped by his desire to believe the Republicans could be negotiated with and that his advisers were wise. Now we know the Republicans are deep into some sort of desperation/treason and those advisers were full of crap. It’s long past time for things to start getting better.
Chris Johnson
@Immanentize:
It is if you assume that everything in life must function under a totally unregulated and rules-free market.
Then, self-interest just like Ayn Rand explained it, will produce exactly the result you describe.
We don’t have to live in Galt’s Gulch. Rand was a nutbag and a deeply diseased, truly bad person who doesn’t deserve to dictate how society goes. And we don’t have to assume that human habitation will forever be blind adherence to market forces, much like we don’t have to assume that health care or food must be blind adherence to market forces.
Sometimes we make different, other rules. It’s that simple.
Chief Oshkosh
@zzyzx: A smarter Wilmer? Because she has actual plans that include how to pay for them? And she has a history of executing on plans (e.g., CFPB)?
Yeah, I can see where someone might confuse the two.
/s
CatFacts
@MomSense: This, about the immigration. At least in my own family, it’s one of the things that’s kept my Never-Trump Republican dad firmly on the Never-Trump side. (Well, that and he had Trump pegged as a fascist from very early on.) His take, “Of course I want immigration! It helps pay my Social Security and Medicare!”
I also wish more people would make the middle-class transfer of wealth argument that Kay and others are making here to support Medicaid. That’s what pays for long-term care in this country right now, and if it goes away, that will be a huge threat to the middle class.. Any family who has a loved one with dementia, etc. will get their ability to transfer wealth to the next generation (and use it themselves) absolutely obliterated. But so far, the Right has successfully managed to convince many middle-class people that Medicaid only covers THOSE PEOPLE, without a lot of sustained pushback from Dems about how it handles long-term care. As the population ages, that needs to change.
Doug R
@OzarkHillbilly:
How are insiders supposed to make money if their pump and dump scheme loses money the first day?
Mike in DC
@zzyzx: Here’s the problem I have with this perspective. If you take this attitude, then you also are forced to acknowledge that even more watered down, “centrist” proposals are extremely difficult to pass in the current political process/climate, and even if they are passed, the other side will spend up to a whole generation trying to get rid of whatever innovation or reform actually got implemented just because “fuck you, that’s why”. I honestly would go all in for a candidate who explicitly promises to abolish the filibuster when the Dems next win the Senate. Because that would change the game, you get rid of the 60 vote requirement and suddenly all these pie in the sky proposals are actually quite possible.
Doug R
@SFAW: Well, salam generally means something like “hello” and Malaysia is a country so “Hello from Malaysia”? Let’s see what google says.
Doug R
@Kay:
I spent 22 years at Purolator which had “owner operators” and hourly employees working side by side. In fact in the mid 1990s they had a strike on the west coast which ended up with most owner operators being “fired” and then “rehired” as employees. Drivers in the outlying municipalities were still “owner operators” with minimums and when busy would cast off stops for employees.
The short of it was the owner operators made good money back in the day-I could tell by the types of vehicles they owned but after the switch they were still making decent money on paper, but expenses were eating into their earnings-not nearly as many new/high end vehicles.
That’s the thing about ANY transport industry, your expenses are always sky high, it’s almost always better to drive a company vehicle.
The only time I was making money as a “contractor” was when I was a bicycle courier and even then I basically had to buy a new bike every 3 years. And courier companies took 40-50% BUT they had phone answers, dispatchers, billing departments and radio infrastructure. What’s Uber got besides an app and some servers?
Another Scott
@Immanentize:
IANAE, either, but I assume it depends on the circumstances.
One of the things that made the Great Recession so bad was that there was too much money out there chasing too few “safe” investments. That’s why people were “happy” to get 0.25% interest on bonds. There were even times in Europe where interest rates were negative (not real rates, but nominal rates).
There’s still too much money stashed away by people who won’t spend it. The US economy is ~ 10 years into a recovery and still shows little signs of reaching its productive capacity. There are still too many people out of productive work (long-term unemployment is still elevated compared to previous expansions). There are still too many people working multiple jobs because they can’t find a decent full-time job that pays enough.
And with all of this, inflation is still subdued. (That reminds me – TheEconomist once published a graph of the price of bread for 400 some-odd years in England. Most of that time, the price was basically constant. Inflation was confined to very, very short periods. Maybe medium-high inflation is something that doesn’t happen in normal economies, maybe inflation isn’t something that we need to worry about anymore.)
People having enough money to pay their bills, go to a movie or have a vacation, or be able to save a little for an upcoming expense or a newer car, doesn’t have to be inflationary. And if it turns out to be so, well, we know that the < 2% consumer inflation that the US has been under for decades is bad (in encourages bubbles in real-estate, stocks, etc., rather than long-term savings). Maybe 3-4% inflation for a while wouldn't be such a bad thing.
tl;dr – inflation happens in an overheated economy. The US economy isn't.
My $0.02.
Cheers,
Scott.
something fabulous
@rikyrah: Thanks so much!
something fabulous
@MomSense: And wow, thank you too!
something fabulous
…and, though it is a dead thread, also to Imm, and Felix, and Kathleen! And Debbie! So glad to have un-lurked in my insomnia! Must try to jump in a bit more, again in active threads. Thanks!
Kathleen
@MomSense: Ha! I have 2 bedroom condo. But I’ve heard of the Golden Girls scenario from more than 1 person lately.
NotMax
Many thanks for all the b’day wishes.
Ruckus
@gene108:
Yes to this.
Any business will have losses at the start. You have no customers. You have no production or services. You have no employees or contractors. Hopefully you have enough money to get those. But even then there are start up issues. Figuring out employee structure. Possibly dealing with a parent company, one that could do whatever it is that wants to be accomplished but doesn’t know how to even find the talent to do that.
I’ve owned 2 business and worked for a start up subsidiary. The first was a going commercial concern when I fully owned it, but I’d been there at the start. The second business was a retail start up and owning and running a commercial business for just under 20 yrs gave me about 30% of the knowledge to make it work, but with the knowing of when and where to ask for the rest. The start up was a sub of a several million dollar company with about 75 employees, none of whom had a clue about a new, different type of company. The biggest thing that worked was the parent CEO knew enough to get out of the way. His successors were the opposite and fucked it up till it died.
The lessons I’ve learned? Timing, timing, timing, location, location, location, customers, customers, customers, enough money or source of to get through the first 5 yrs, 3 will work if everything goes well.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
One thing Warren has for her that Hillary didn’t is Warren isn’t cute so the lizard brains will take Warren more seriously. She’s got that “your’ nerdy aunt you really should listen to” vibe. Now doubtlessly that will offend many people in this Age of the Dumbass, but hey, someone has to have plan.
Ruckus
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Aren’t they all saying the quiet parts out loud now?
Ruckus
@zhena gogolia:
One has to win the election to be president. If your policies don’t win in a pissing contest you won’t win the presidency. Because the next election will be a political pissing contest. Just being a better person with the right ideas isn’t enough. In this atmosphere being the stronger person is what is necessary.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Spanky: Thanks, realism is something I strive for. Where I have done composites I’ve noted that and even then try to make it realistic(light domes and transitions). This is an argument that I had over at my local group’s Facebook page.
Ruckus
@MomSense:
Been trying to formulate this in my head and just not getting it right, or short enough not to have to sell the rights to post it.
But what I see is that the world is moving up on us, which caused business to move overseas rather than expand or mfg here. What we do in the US now is build up the tiny monied class while ignoring the bottom while in the rest of the world, with few exceptions, the bottom has been built up. And a rising tide raises all boats. An expensive hoist only raises those boats whose owners can already pay for it.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Another Scott: Even when you do a composite you should first note that it is a composite and second it needs to be done in a believable fashion. If I use a startracker, I do use a foreground of the scene that is shot the same night at the same location(or I’ll note otherwise) since the tracker compensates for the earth’s movement and foreground doesn’t move. This is a common and acceptable practice. However taking a sky shot from a different location and saying it’s a single shot is a bit of a different story.
Ruckus
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
As we reach 70, some even earlier, many things affect our lives and abilities. A few will continue like they are still 30 for even another decade or even two but most will have issues, some minor, some major. They range from amount of available energy, which Warren seems to have in abundance, to diseases that affect the abilities to deal with day to day stress. I’ve also told of the 8 people I knew personally who were between 65-68 who passed away in the last 2 1/2 yrs and of my own travels with health issues. Thing is, none of that is out of the ordinary. It’s not abnormal.
Another Scott
@?BillinGlendaleCA: That’s good and fine.
And people should give accurate accounts of how images are made if asked about them.
But I don’t think getting outraged over a composite makes much sense. They’re impossible images for human eyes and existing cameras – the amount of impossibility is the difference.
I’m reminded of A4size’s ‘eclipse’. Some websites (looking for clicks) were claiming it was a picture from the space station. It’s clearly impossible if one thinks about it a little. It’s ‘just’ a render. It’s a beautiful render, but there isn’t a camera in existence that could take an actual picture like that – the dynamic range required is astronomical (so to speak). ;-)
Just my $0.02. YMMV! :-)
Cheers,
Scott.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Another Scott: The biggest problem is they weren’t presented as composites, the smaller problem is they were done badly.
I’ve never seen a total solar eclipse*, but from what I’ve read you can visually see the Milky Way during an eclipse. You can increase the dynamic range over and above what a camera can capture by using exposure bracketing. Now is that a “photograph”? You’re taking 3 to 5 photos and extracting the light/dark portions, it’s the basis of HDR photos that you’ll see all the time.
I mentioned the argument that I had over on Facebook…a bunch of us were posting composites(labeled as such), one photo had a city in the foreground but the sky was pitch black above the city.. I noted that he should blend the light from the city into the sky. Another member said that any criticism was out of line that it’s art and that you can do anything you like. This is true to an extent, but first photography is a realistic art to some extent and technique is important. Anyone can slap two photos together, but what will get it noticed is the ability to make it look real and get the viewer to “buy in” to it.
*I should note, that I’ve seen and photographed many lunar eclipses and you see almost as many stars as you would during a new moon.
Another Scott
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Yeah, one can do lots of tricks, and drawing the line as to what’s a “photograph” and what isn’t can be tricky.
I don’t think there’s any (reasonable) way to get the Milky Way and a solar eclipse together, though, in the same image. Here’s a nice 36 hour time lapse. Maybe with some 10-stop ND filter just over the eclipse you could do it, maybe?
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Another Scott: I can do 15 stops with my NX1, so I think it’d be possible*. The only comparison is capturing the Milky Way after sunset and before astronomical twilight(blue hour), it’s possible though the Milky Way looks colorless.
*Blending the exposures together might me, eh, difficult.
sgrAstar
@CliosFanBoy: eeyore.
zzyzx
@Mike in DC: I imagine you won’t see this since I adopted a new cat this afternoon and have been petting him but I don’t disagree per se. My issue with Warren is that she seems to be in a different universe. Imagine all of these amazing things that could be done if we just had a functioning Senate.
It’s great that she has those ideas but I can’t get excited for them.
Bonnie
We all know that Elizabeth Warren is called Pocahantus by trump. So, stealing from Bill Maher he referred to trump by his Indian name, “Brokahantus”. I love it.
Qui-Gon Jinn
She’s a remarkable individual…creative, energetic, empathetic, intelligent and persistent….
I hope – in 2020 or beyond – that this country can learn to accept (and embrace) a person of such character.
Trump backers applaud Warren in the heart of MAGA country
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/05/11/warren-west-virginia-2020-1317611
https://twitter.com/ewarren/status/1126994833258819584/video/1