Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

As long as McCarthy is Speaker, the House will never be in order.

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

Bad news for Ron DeSantis is great news for America.

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

Joe Lieberman disappointingly reemerged to remind us that he’s still alive.

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

Stop using mental illness to avoid talking about armed white supremacy.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

He imagines himself as The Big Bad, Who Is Universally Feared… instead of The Big Jagoff, Who Is Universally Mocked.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

Thanks for reminding me that Van Jones needs to be slapped.

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

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

No Justins, No Peace

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

Ah, the different things are different argument.

Ron DeSantis, the grand wizard, oops, governor of FL

Everyone is in a bubble, but some bubbles model reality far better than others!

Hot air and ill-informed banter

You are here: Home / Economics / Saturday Morning Open Thread: “It’s the Economy, Stupid”

Saturday Morning Open Thread: “It’s the Economy, Stupid”

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Two very separate economies, now:

… The emergence of atypical fortunes underscores just how much money the uber-rich accumulated in 2019.

And the richer they were at the start of the year, the richer they got. The world’s 500 wealthiest people tracked by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index added $1.2 trillion, boosting their collective net worth 25% to $5.9 trillion…

Such gains are sure to add fuel to the already heated debate about widening wealth and income inequality. In the U.S., the richest 0.1% control a bigger share of the pie than at any time since 1929, prompting some politicians to call for a radical restructuring of the economy…

Through it all, their bank balances remained robust, as a record bull market got a December kick with an easing of trade tensions between the U.S. and China, a resolution to Britain’s political stalemate and a blowout U.S. jobs report.


Coda:

Reader Interactions

143Comments

  1. 1.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    The corporate media and gop propaganda organs spent 8 years screaming Obama and Big Gubmint didn’t deserve any credit for the economy.  Now they’re shocked that voters have decoupled economics from government.

     

    Hoooooooooooocooooonode

  4. 4.

    John Revolta

     

    We are sick and tired of being promised this and that.                                                                                             We work all day, we sweat and slave to keep the wealthy fat.
    They fill our heads with promises and bamboozle us with facts,
    Then they put on false sincerity and they laugh behind our backs.

    Money and Corruption are ruining the land!
    Crooked politicians betray the working man
    Pocketing the profits and treating us like sheep,
    We’re tired of hearing promises we know they’ll never keep!

    -Kinks

  6. 6.

    Betty Cracker

    Trump’s idiot daughter (the one who compelled minimum wage workers on her family’s gated estate to patronize her lemonade stand when she was a child) has been all over Twitter with economic stats. It’s especially galling  to hear that vapid dilettante crowing about low wage worker raises because the gains are mostly the result of groups like Fight for $15 organizing for state and local minimum wage increases. So, Republican greed-heads are taking credit for progress they fought tooth and nail. Again.

  7. 7.

    Betty Cracker

    Have we talked about Joe Biden’s pledge not to comply if subpoenaed in Trump’s Senate impeachment trial? From the Des Moines Register:

    Former Vice President Joe Biden confirmed Friday he would not comply with a subpoena to testify in a Senate trial of President Donald Trump…

    Leaders in the House and Republican leaders in the GOP-controlled U.S. Senate are trying to come to terms for an impeachment trial. Biden said in early December he wouldn’t comply with a subpoena by the Senate, and confirmed that statement Friday in an interview with the Des Moines Register’s editorial board. He has not been subpoenaed, but Trump’s allies have floated the idea.

    Testifying before the Senate on the matter would take attention away from Trump and the allegations against him, Biden said. Not even “that thug” Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal attorney and former New York City mayor, has accused Biden of doing anything but his job, the former vice president said. Biden also said any attempt to subpoena him would be on “specious” grounds, and he predicted it wouldn’t come to that.

    Biden said even if he volunteered to testify in an attempt to clear the air, it would create a media narrative that would let Trump off the hook.

    “What are you going to cover?” Biden said to Register Executive Editor Carol Hunter in response to a question. “You guys are going to cover for three weeks anything that I said. And (Trump’s) going to get away. You guys buy into it all the time. Not a joke … Think what it’s about. It’s all about what he does all the time, his entire career. Take the focus off. This guy violated the Constitution. He said it in the driveway of the White House. He acknowledged he asked for help.”

    The House Benghazi hearings were a fucking joke, but Hillary Clinton showed up and testified under oath for 11 hours.

  10. 10.

    Steeplejack

    This seems newsworthy:

    Trump has now tweeted out the alleged identity of the whistleblower who anonymously accused him of abusing his office in a complaint that has since been broadly corroborated. Federal law protects the whistleblower from retaliation and POTUS just outed him. Disturbing stuff.

    — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 28, 2019

  11. 11.

    Betty Cracker

    @Baud: If Biden flatly refuses to comply with a congressional subpoena, it kinda gives cover to the Trump admin’s outrageous flouting of oversight. People aren’t going to compare the finer points of the law. They’ll just conclude that “both sides” are unwilling to appear under oath.

    I appreciate that Biden is in a tough spot here, but maybe the better path would be to say his lawyers will examine any subpoenas issued plus consider the configuration of the trial (like Pelosi has said) and that he’ll follow his attorneys’ advice. Challenging a subpoena in court would almost certainly achieve the same result as dismissing the whole thing out of hand.

  12. 12.

    Steeplejack

    See also:

    The President of the United States has, today alone, retweeted 2 QAnon fan accounts, a Pizzagate account, an account that compared his following to a cult, and an account that described Obama as “Satan’s Muslim Scum.” And this insanity isn’t even a blip on the news radar.

    — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 28, 2019

  13. 13.

    Steeplejack

    @Betty Cracker:

    There are some interesting posts on Twitter, but I just now kicked the housecat off the notebook keyboard and am still getting up to speed. Sipping coffee and just had what can only be described as an artisanal Pop-Tart, brought home from trendy restaurant Thursday night. Very good. But I digress.

    Here are a couple of starting points that I found:

    Here’s how trials work: Only relevant witness testimony is admissible. Biden has no relevant testimony to offer on Trump’s attempted bribery of Ukraines’s President & Trump’s obstruction of Congress by refusing to comply with subpoenas for testimony & documents. https://t.co/Wf275gkldN

    — Joyce Alene (@JoyceWhiteVance) December 28, 2019

    Thank you @JoyceWhiteVance for explaining how trials work. One side doesn’t get to call enemies just for kicks. Only witnesses with relevant evidence testify. https://t.co/hw3x0pll9e

    — Ronald Klain (@RonaldKlain) December 28, 2019

    These two tweets seem to indicate a one-sided response, but their respective threads get into all the aspects.

  14. 14.

    dnfree

    I’m not on Twitter, so posts like this, including the comments, are invaluable to me in separating wheat from chaff and knowing more of what’s going on. Thank you, Anne Laurie and others!

  15. 15.

    Steeplejack

    Is the site still screwed up? There’s a suspiciously low number of comments, with big gaps between groups.

  16. 16.

    Steeplejack

    @dnfree:

    You can read Twitter stuff without being “on” Twitter. Just navigate to the page with your browser; that’s what I do. You can’t leave comments, though.

  17. 17.

    Citizen_X

    Yeah, that last tweet: never forget that Steyer is a billionaire thief, who robbed a black woman who was busting her ass.

  19. 19.

    Baud

    @Betty Cracker:

    It’s pretty obvious Trump doesn’t need cover. Anyway, nothing prevents Joe from changing his mind if McConnell makes Mulvaney and the rest testify.

    On a more meta level, it’s become a little difficult to follow when we should fight fire with fire and when we should set an example. The “right” approach seems to change with each situation.

  20. 20.

    Betty Cracker

    @Steeplejack: Klain is a Biden adviser, IIRC. If they’re going with a refusal to comply based on the application of trial rules, it would be a good idea for Klain to drill the succinct points Vance made into the candidate’s head so he doesn’t wander off on how the media would cover it, etc. He’s not wrong about the prospect of shitty media coverage, but it sounds weak.

    Since I’m working shopping Biden’s talking points, I’d also suggest he stop saying no one is accusing him of wrongdoing and instead channel the persona he conjured when that farmer confronted him at a town hall and call Trump, Giuliani, et al, “damned liars.” They are liars and crackpots, and they’re accusing Biden of their own crimes on a daily fucking basis.

  21. 21.

    NotMax

    @Steeplejack

    The fly in the ointment being that a Senate impeachment trial is outside the judicial system and not bound by or to courtroom rules and procedures of evidence unless the Senate votes to be so. The Supreme Court has previously ruled that the methods and conduct abided by during an impeachment trial are entirely the responsibility and purview of the Senate to decide and implement, and I certainly do not see this court accepting any challenge to that.

  22. 22.

    dnfree

    There was just a big ad at the top of Balloon-Juice targeting Representative Underwood and saying she voted for legislation that would cost 43,000 jobs. I had to click through to see what it was, and here’s the website. It had to do with HR 3, the pharmaceutical bill. I didn’t care when conservatives were wasting their money on ads here, but I don’t like seeing that misleading charge at the top of the page.   She is from Illinois but not my district so it was a good guess.  I’m pasting the whole link in case that’s useful.

    https://www.uschamber.com/stop-hr3?utm_source=Google&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=hr3&utm_term=cpm&utm_content=other&campaign=8693861461&content=407857715905&keyword=&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIhPSl_6TY5gIVQt_ACh1bkAD1EAEYASAAEgKajPD_BwE

  23. 23.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Baud: @Betty Cracker:  “I will answer any subpoena in the same way as Donald trump. If he agrees to appear and submit himself to questions without any preconditions on the matters before the Senate, I will do the same.”

  24. 24.

    Steeplejack

    @Citizen_X:

    The Steyer ad I’m seeing a lot here in NoVA is him railing about how we need term limits. It’s on brand in a bad way: “Let’s get rid of all these pesky barriers to me getting what I want fixing everything!”

  25. 25.

    gene108

    Went skiing for the first time in my life yesterday.

    45 is the wrong age to start.

    With the help of a couple of instructors, who were around, I made it down the bunny slope, and only fell twice.

  27. 27.

    Betty Cracker

    @Baud: Trump’s entire political career is based on creating the perception that his adversaries are as slimy as himself, so yeah, he needs cover.

  28. 28.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    @Betty Cracker: if Hillary was asked to testify at Dump’s impeachment wouldn’t she be wise to decline and deny them their sad, pathetic attempt at distraction.

  33. 33.

    Butter Emails

    @Steeplejack:

    Lawyers are so cute. They’re even slower on the uptake than “journalists”. They still think that things like the laws and and an honest reading of those laws actually matter.

  35. 35.

    Baud

    @Betty Cracker:

    So if Trump says he wants Hillary and Obama to testify, they should say it’s ok so as to not give Trump cover?

    Biden could have phrased it like OH did, but I don’t mind his response. It’s not very different in my mind from Pelosi not sending over the impeachment to the Senate right away.

  36. 36.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Baud: Take note:

    If he agrees to appear and submit himself to questions without any preconditions on the matters before the Senate, I will do the same.”

    Any dealings the Bidens have had in Ukraine will not be among the matters before the Senate.

  41. 41.

    Betty Cracker

    @Baud: For me, it doesn’t inspire confidence that Biden is up to the enormous challenge before him if he’s the nominee. It’s not fair that Biden has to go up against a shameless liar who routinely projects his own crimes onto others and has weaponized the presidency and media to slime his opponents, but here we are.

  42. 42.

    Steeplejack

    Brighton vs. Bournemouth: battle of the titans. Not. But still better than Watford vs. Aston Villa later.

    Newcastle vs. Everton might be the match of the day.

  43. 43.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    So yesterday at this time I was out the door to head to the Observatory to get  pics of the sunrise.  Since I’m poor, I parked at the free lot by the Greek and walked up the hill.  I got some great pics, my legs are still sore.  I’d do it again this morning, but my legs are still sore and I don’t want to venture out in near freezing temps.

  44. 44.

    Jager

    In my shitty home town of 40,000, there are 4 guys who are now worth close to a billion dollars, 3 of the 4 inherited successful businesses and expanded them. Only one of the 4 got rich using bootstraps, his old man sold second-hand furniture for a living and he grew up in a boarding house.

  45. 45.

    OzarkHillbilly

    From Parkland to Las Vegas, and Columbine to Sandy Hook, Greg Zanis’ work has been a comfort to those suffering in the aftermath of whichever mass shooting was the latest to lead the news cycle. Zanis spent years creating almost 27,000 handcrafted memorials for every mass shooting victim, and traveled hundreds of thousands of miles at his own expense to lovingly place each one. But now the carpenter has announced his retirement – emotionally exhausted by the heartbreak of his work amid the ongoing epidemic of mass shootings in America.
    …………………………………….
    But it was a workplace shooting and the deaths of five people in his hometown of Aurora in February that forced Zanis to reflect and come to a decision to hand over his Crosses for Losses operation to Lutheran Church Charities (LCC).

    “I can’t tell you how devastated I was, my own town,” Zanis told NBC Chicago. “I felt like I was carrying the weight of the country on my shoulders. I love what I’m doing but I’m getting called every day to go to 10 shootings. I just feel that 27,000 crosses later, it’s more demanding today than it was last year, and it was more demanding last year than the year before.

    “These are people, not numbers. It’s not gay people in Orlando, it’s not Sikhs in Milwaukee, it’s not Jewish people in Pennsylvania, it’s not black people in Chicago. This is our country. We’re a family. We’re American first,” he said.

    Zanis said it was this month’s shooting at a naval air station in Pensacola, Florida, in which three were killed, that finally made up his mind. “I got as far as Indianapolis and turned back,” he told the Chicago Tribune. “I decided I wasn’t going to do this any more.”

    Zanis said he plans to visit to 135 Lutheran churches around the country to help teach volunteers how to construct the memorials, then spend time at home working on his 1927 Cadillac. He says he has amassed debt of $14,000 through constructing the crosses, each of which he says takes an hour to make, and has traveled an estimated 850,000 miles since 1996 to deliver them.

    Zanis spoke to the Guardian in July 2012, after a mass shooting at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, claimed 12 lives, most in their teens or 20s. “A cross is a prayer,” he said. “I think it’s so important. Nobody wants their child to be forgotten.”

    In a statement, LCC said it was honored to continue his work. “We have accepted to further all the fine work that Greg has done,” the church said. “We have worked side by side with Greg at many of the shootings, from Sandy Hook to today.”

  47. 47.

    Jager

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    Yesterday morning I took my coffee out on the patio dresse3d in my normal SoCal winter clothes, jeans sweatshirt, and flip flops. I went back in, put on socks and a down jacket. It was 39 degrees.

  49. 49.

    Barbara

    @gene108: I learned at age 37 but it was years before I felt happy skiing. My spouse is an avid skier and so are my kids.  Ergo, I persisted.

  52. 52.

    rikyrah

    B C.,

    Biden should agree to testify…

    AFTER

    Bolton
    Rudy
    Mulvaney
    Pompeo
    Whoever the GOP flunky in the WH that replaced the professional OMB person that told them withholding the funds was wrong.

    And, after the Dems get the REAL transcript from the secret server. And all the paperwork that has been subpoenaed.

    Then, and only then, should Biden ‘testify’.

  56. 56.

    gene108

    Omaid Sharifi is a pioneer Afghan activist and one of the co-founders of ArtLords, an artist association which has been attracting widespread international attention in recent years.

    How did you start your career as a painter and artist?

    I am not an artist. I call myself an “artivist.” We combine art with activism. What we do is not really art or activism only: it is a mix of both. We are using art for a purpose. We are using art as a tool for social change, for critical thinking, and as a tool to change attitudes and behaviors. We are using art to fight corruption, and to counter violent extremism. All of that is sort of a new medium for artists and activists in Afghanistan, especially using street art, like theater, murals, graffiti, music. Five years ago I started this “artivist” movement with a couple of friends. some of them have left the country, but some of them are still here.

    https://www.juancole.com/2019/12/artivist-sharifi-afghanistan.html

  58. 58.

    debbie

    From up top:

    I feel like at some point we should have a conversation about how Tom Steyer stole Kamala Harris’s donor info and he is still in the race and she had to drop out from lack of money.

    Steyer is just another version of Trump. We’d be just as screwed if he were president as we are with Trump.

  60. 60.

    Fair Economist

    Back before global warming really kicked in, it froze every other year or so in Socal and so temps in the high 30’s weren’t that remarkable. Not anymore.

  61. 61.

    Steeplejack

    @debbie:

    I think that, technically, he (or his account) retweeted a tweet that outed the whistleblower. He’s not immune, but I don’t know what his exposure is. More to the point, has Trump been called on any of his illegal/​uneethical shit?! Rhetorical question.

  62. 62.

    MomSense

    I slipped and didn’t fall on the ice yesterday morning and I think it would have been better to have just let myself fall down.  It’s feels like my body did a neo stunt except I’m definitely not the one.

    Today is going to be a very quiet one for me.  I’m thinking movies, knitting, and cocoa.

    NotMax – East Side Sushi is free on Roku and Vudu but seems to no longer be available as a prime offering except to rent.  If you have roku or vudu- watch it!! It’s so good.

  63. 63.

    Gin & Tonic

    @gene108: My theory is that skiing is only fun if you’re good at it (I am.) But getting to be good at it unfortunately takes some time. Luckily I began at a very young age.

  64. 64.

    Steeplejack

    I think that, technically, he (or his account) retweeted a tweet that outed the whistleblower. He’s not immune, but I don’t know what his exposure is. More to the point, has Trump been called on any of his illegal/​uneethical shit?! Rhetorical question.

    ETA: Error 524 on previous attempt of this.

  65. 65.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    Getting repeated 524 errors on Win10 and Firefox. Will this go through? (Android and Samsung browser.)

  66. 66.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    Getting repeated 524 errors on Win10 and Firefox. Will this go through? (Android and Samsung browser.)

  67. 67.

    CaseyL

    @mrmoshpotato:  That is *perfect*!  It describes a set that includes all Trumpettes, from blood kin to supporters and hangers-on.  Please allow me to steal use it.

  68. 68.

    Yarrow

    @Betty Cracker: Well, I was glad to see him point out how the press chooses to look at Trump’s “Squirrel!” instead of keeping focus on the actual subject.

    “What are you going to cover?” Biden said to Register Executive Editor Carol Hunter in response to a question. “You guys are going to cover for three weeks anything that I said. And (Trump’s) going to get away. You guys buy into it all the time. Not a joke … Think what it’s about. It’s all about what he does all the time, his entire career. Take the focus off.

  71. 71.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @dnfree:

    I’ve gotten that ad for my rep, Sean Casten, too. I assumed it was lying without looking.

    OT: As I was getting dressed to go out for bagels this morning, Mr DAW came into the bedroom with his coat already on. I suggested it would be most helpful if he would go sit in the car and honk the horn.

  76. 76.

    dnfree

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: we just moved in August to an “active senior” place and Casten is our new representative too!  He came and held a town hall here that was very well attended. I was impressed.

  78. 78.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Submarine to explore why Antarctic glacier is melting so quickly

    An international team of scientists has reached the Thwaites glacier in Antarctica and is preparing to drill through more than half a kilometre of ice into the dark waters beneath.

    The 600-metre deep borehole will allow researchers to lower down a torpedo-shaped robotic submarine that will explore the underside of the ice shelf to better understand why it is melting so fast.

    Thwaites glacier, which is part of the west Antarctic ice sheet, has lost an estimated 540bn tonnes of ice since the 1980s. But recent measurements show that the melting of the glacier is speeding up, sending even more ice into the Amundsen Sea.
    ………………………………………..
    In brutal conditions, where the temperature can fall below -20C, the researchers will have only a few days to drill through the ice shelf, deploy the “icefin” submarine and retrieve it, and set a suite of monitoring instruments into the ice before the hole freezes over. “The aim is to do it as rapidly as possible. All of this will happen in three to four days. They really can’t afford to muck about,” said Vaughan.

    The expedition to the Florida-sized glacier became more pressing this year when Nasa scientists used ground-penetrating radar to reveal a massive cavity in its base. The cavern, two-thirds the size of Manhattan and 300 metres tall, was formed as 13bn tonnes of ice melted away over the past three years. The enormous cavity allows water to get under the glacier and melt it from beneath.

    Clever, them Chinese.

  79. 79.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Shades of the OHB household. I really think that when I die I should get stoppage time like they do in soccer for all the time I have spent waiting on other people.

  82. 82.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Betty Cracker: that made me cringe, but maybe Joe has White Guy Teflon. My instincts are so out of whack with the lumpenmittel that decides elections I don’t know what to think anymore

    Think I’m just gonna send Lauren Underwood $25 to spite the algorithm that put that ad mentioned above and go fold laundry and throw away last Sunday’s unread paper.

  83. 83.

    planetjanet

    That chart at the Economic Policy Institute is damning.  The disconnect between productivity and wages is profound.  But what ticked off the tread in the late 1970s?  Easy to blame Reagan, but the break was earlier.

  84. 84.

    Another Scott

    ‘morning.

    Looking at the Bloomberg list, and filtering it by country, I was surprised to see how many Russians and Chinese and Hong Kongers (why are they listed separately??) were there.  Yes, there are a lot of US billionaires.  And the continued shoveling of the US economy’s output to the top 0.01% is a lingering (and dangerous) problem.  But it’s not just a US problem.

    Also, it’s not surprising to me that the overall GDP numbers aren’t translating into credit to Donnie and the GOP.  People aren’t stupid when it comes to their personal economic well-being.  Too many people are simply running in place – even with the recent improvements, and have been for 20 years or more.  Corporate profits being shoveled into stock-buybacks rather than increasing wages doesn’t help normal people.  It would be nice if more economics reporters would get out of their bubbles.

    All of that said, I don’t think we’re in a bubble.  I was recently in central Mississippi and North Carolina.  The NC stores were packed, traffic was horrible, and there was lots of construction going on.  In MS, there was a lot of construction as well.

    The economy is behind where it would be if the Great Recession hadn’t happened (last I looked).  And that doesn’t include the huge gap between GDP Trend and actual GDP that formed at that time. While it’s normal for the economy and stock market to bounce back quickly after a recession, it didn’t happen that quickly under Obama. But even given that, Donnie’s S&P500 performance is worse than Obama’s. I don’t see a bubble, yet.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  85. 85.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I usually carry a book with me every where I go for that exact reason. Last week with the snow and ice I was taking my wife to and from work for a few days and one day realized I was running 45 mins ahead of schedule with no book or mag. Bought Stephen King’s “Finders Keepers”. It’s good of course, tho I don’t think his typical brand of supernatural horror. If it goes like I expect it will be more like the day to day horror that too many people are subjected to.

  86. 86.

    Another Scott

    @Betty Cracker: Benghazi happened on Hillary’s watch when she was SoS.

    Biden wasn’t in office when Donnie called and asked for a favor and withheld duly-appropriated funds until he got the personal political quid-pro-quo that he wanted from Zelenskyy.

    That’s a big difference.  Whether it outweighs the importance of complying with lawful subpoenas, well, …

    Cheers,

    Scott.

  88. 88.

    Ohio Mom

    I got one of those Host Server Big Red X error messages about half an hour ago. A big red X over a box labeled “host server” speaks directly to my level of technical expertise. Obviously it’s working now.

    Its not cold enough here for ice (yet, the winter is young), but every time I’ve done those back and neck wrenching almost-falls I’m left with amazement that my very unathletic body knows automatically exactly what to do.

    A sore neck or back is better than a broken bone, and Mother Nature is taking care of me.

  89. 89.

    J R in WV

    @Steeplejack:

    Trump has now tweeted out the alleged identity of the whistleblower who anonymously accused him of abusing his office in a complaint that has since been broadly corroborated. Federal law protects the whistleblower from retaliation and POTUS just outed him. Disturbing stuff.

    — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 28, 2019

    Past and beyond “Disturbing stuff.”

    It should be a separate Article of Impeachment, actually. I think it deserves that, as Trump breaks the law once more out in the open. He needs to learn the hard way that that shit won’t work for him any more, ever…

  91. 91.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: If I hadn’t already been at walmart I would have made a stop just for that. I was really looking for a mag to read but outside of guns guns, glamour glamour, and celebrities doing stupid stuff… Well, I’m just glad I wasn’t stuck with a Patterson novel.

  94. 94.

    Ohio Mom

    Scott @84: there’s lots of construction going on here in southwest Ohio, has been for a number of years now.

    For one example, my suburban neighborhood has been seeing a flurry of 1960’s houses torn down and replaced by McMansions. The back street I take to the dry cleaner’s is now majority tear downs.

    It doesn’t seem like good economic sense to me, I don’t see what real, lasting value is being created. But interest rates are still on the low side, and people must see a big house as a good investment.

    Meanwhile, the infrastructure is rotting away — we won’t fund that, it’s another example that the economy is skewered and broken.

  95. 95.

    Yarrow

    Saw a clip of Sen. Blumenthal saying at 5-10 Republican Senators have expressed deep misgivings about how McConnell is talking about the Senate trial. Finding it interesting that this sort of thing is being said and wonder what internal polling is showing for Senate Republicans.

  96. 96.

    MomSense

    @Immanentize:

    Ah the salchow – it’s the most difficult but it’s really good for your technical score.  Santa brought me some cbd ointment and I’ll try anything at this point even if it may be a bit woo woo.

  98. 98.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I think I have read 2by “him”, both in exactly the same circumstances I found myself in above. The first was so bad I swore never again. The 2nd was when I asked myself “Isn’t he the guy who is so bad you wouldn’t leave it in an outhouse?” I couldn’t remember and seeing as there were no apparently better options….

    I almost burned my eyeballs out to remove the stench of such dreadful drivel.

  99. 99.

    J R in WV

    I now have a Samsung tablet, years old now, which can download a book in 30 seconds. IF I have network access, like a cell connection, or plain old WiFi at home. Or I can just surf the webs. I take it everywhere.

    I hate being stuck waiting without something to read… even back in the USN I kept a paperback in a hop pocket, now the hi-tech version is my tablet.

  100. 100.

    Betty Cracker

    @Another Scott: I get that, but you’re either representing the rule of law party or you aren’t. IMO, a better answer would have been of course I’ll comply with a lawfully issued subpoena approved by GOP-appointed Chief Justice Roberts, but this is about articles of impeachment on Trump’s extortion and obstruction, and I have nothing to add to the massive evidence of his guilt that is already in the public record, much of it thanks to his big fat mouth. And oh, by the way, why doesn’t Trump allow the clearly relevant parties in his own admin testify?

    Hoarse Whisperer on Twitter is saying Biden’s answer was either accidentally or on-purpose genius because it will goad Trump into allowing witnesses to draw a contrast with Biden. He says it’s a mistake to allow a narcissist to set the terms of a showdown and best to refuse to play their game. I hope he’s right, but this isn’t just about Biden and Trump. It’s about the media, public perception, etc.

  104. 104.

    debbie

    @MomSense:

    Nothing like your muscles and tendons trying to save you, is there? I’ve taken a number of almost-tumbles over the years, but have never been able to overcome that clinch reflex.

  105. 105.

    Another Scott

    @Betty Cracker: +1

    With any luck, it – calling Biden – will be moot because Senators will not go along with turning the trial into a circus.

    We’ll see.

    Cheers,

    Scott.

  106. 106.

    Immanentize

    @MomSense: The Immp is taking CBD oil now.  It is helping his hunger and upset, but he is no more limber.  But, then again, he is not rubbing it on anything.

    Good luck!

  107. 107.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @debbie: And almost getting you killed in the process. I remember knocking a glass off a bathroom sink and my body instinctively trying to catch it, while my brain is screaming, “NONONONONONONONONONONONO….” right up until I impaled my hand on the broken shards tumbling to the floor.

  108. 108.

    debbie

    @Ohio Mom:

    Same here. Even worse is when they tear down large, old houses for large, new houses. I apologize to Suzanne in advance, but proportions, busy-ness, etc. of modern design sucks when compared to late 19th–early 20th century design. More is not always bettr.

  110. 110.

    Immanentize

    In other dead people news, I just read that Sue Lyon, who played Lolita in the film version, died.  That one I will mourn.

    I wonder if such a film — or even Taxi Driver — could be made today.

  112. 112.

    Yarrow

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:  When Susan Collins herself expresses concern I ignore it. She’s an attention-seeker and rarely steps out of line with her actual votes. Murkowski is different and it was interesting to see her go first with her misgivings.

    For two weeks we’ve had no hint of Republican Senators doing anything but staying in line. First Murkowski, then Blumenthal saying he’s talked to 5-10 R Senators who have misgivings. Polling has been moving in the direction of removal and away from support for Trump. My sense from all of that is that Republican internal polling for Senate seats up in 2020 is going in the wrong direction for Republicans and the right direction for Democrats.

  113. 113.

    WaterGirl

    @Ohio Mom:

    A big red X over a box labeled “host server” speaks directly to my level of technical expertise.

    It’s definitely not funny that the site was down, but that sentence made me laugh.

    Thanks to all who made a note here or who sent me email to let me know the site is down.

  115. 115.

    WaterGirl

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    I refuse to read Patterson on principle. The guy runs a factory and sticks his name on the product.

    Wondering if you are saying that he literally has other people write his books and then puts his own name on it or if you’re just saying he churns out lowish quality stuff now and gets away with it because of his name?

    Or maybe you’re saying something else entirely!

  117. 117.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Yarrow: one of the things the trump era has revealed, IMHO, is that Collins has successfully played the not-very-bright, weak-but-sincere moderate for years, when in fact she is every bit as cynical and partisan as McConnell. I’m not saying she’s a genius, but she knows her image and her voters, cultivates both, and doesn’t strike me as nearly nervous enough about next November. I’ll defer to MomSense and other locals, but if I’m the Maine Dem party, I’m showing Stephen King some internet ads he can fund reminding voters that over twenty years ago, she vowed to serve only two terms, and now she’s running for her fifth. I think it’s the kind of seed that could be planted to undermine her image as a straight-shooter without even getting to trump.

  119. 119.

    Brachiator

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    Oh, man.  There’s really a lot of interesting topics bubbling in this thread!

    Term limits are a really bad idea, they give power to lobbyists since legislators don’t have time to gain any experience.

    And absence of term limits give plenty of time and opportunity for lobbyists and politicians to cultivate lasting relationships.

    I am pretty much against term limits, but I note that California has experimented with term limits and open primaries in attempts to get new blood into politics.

    But what has happened is that the parties in power decide what office a termed out politician will aim for, or select a loyal staffer or ally to run for a vacated seat, or other games to ensure that the status quo is maintained.  You do get some new faces, but not as many as people might have hoped for.

  120. 120.

    dnfree

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: we’re in Elgin, nearly to South Elgin. My husband grew up here, and he frequently marvels, “We used to drag race on Randall Road.”

    We figured our senior community probably has a lot of Trump supporters, so the enthusiasm for Carsten at the town hall was encouraging.

  124. 124.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @WaterGirl:

    Patterson isn’t the only one to do this, but he’s the biggest name. The practice is called “book packaging.” A distressingly high percentage of series and MG/YA books are produced this way.

    ETA: It’s one of the things about publishing I was happier when I didn’t know.

  127. 127.

    Brachiator

    @J R in WV:

    Trump has now tweeted out the alleged identity of the whistleblower who anonymously accused him of abusing his office in a complaint that has since been broadly corroborated. Federal law protects the whistleblower from retaliation and POTUS just outed him. Disturbing stuff.

    This is disgusting and I have read something since that suggested that the whistleblower now needs protection to get to work safely. Nutjobs want to harass him.

    But even though the whistleblower is not legally relevant to evaluating the charges in question, Trump always needs a specific individual that he can attack, especially when he needs to provide distraction and deflection of attention away from his own misdeeds.

  128. 128.

    dnfree

    @Immanentize: I learned the stock market meaning of that in I think 2000. I had a small amount of money from a previous employer, and the guy investing it for me kept wanting to put some in tech stocks. I thought they were overvalued and resisted. Then they started dropping. I think they’d dropped about a third when I thought they’d reached a reasonable value and bought some. Then they kept dropping.

    Now I just have Vanguard funds.

  129. 129.

    Ruckus

    @Jager:

    Yep. Yesterday in socal I walked to work, 39 degrees. Not the regular shorts/tee shirt. I’m beginning to think I’m not that much of a fan of winter

    The mountains did look gorgeous with their snow cover though…..

  130. 130.

    dnfree

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: my husband has been playing tennis with a group, and they carpool. After a couple of months, apparently last week they found out they are all more or less on the same page. So now they can speak freely.

  131. 131.

    Ruckus

    @Baud:

    Few are actual trumps – in that they are extreme narcissistic assholes, but he is trumpian in that he sees things from a rather different perspective than the vast majority of citizens, he sees things from a monied perspective. It may not be his only perspective but it is a position not of the many but of the few. And he doesn’t seem like a person who can make that a non entity in his views

    I’m saying that while he may be better than, say Bloomberg, as far as financial considerations are concerned, can he separate those concerns from his perspective? And I think the answer is no.

  132. 132.

    West of the Rockies

    Who is the vapid wombat shrouded in purple in the first photo?  We talk about the confidence of mediocre white men, but sometimes the sheen of vanity flowing from empty-headed engenues is striking, too.

  133. 133.

    Ruckus

    @Another Scott:

    What Biden is saying is that subpoena wouldn’t be lawful exactly because he wasn’t in any office, had any control while HRC was. IOW if his son/possibly himself had any illegal exposure, it would have been as a private citizen, not as a political figure. Is it relevant to the impeachment in any way, other than as a political distraction?

  134. 134.

    Ruckus

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Agreed.

    That is an amazing picture. Encapsulates so much of our modern world in one shot. One person, dressed normally, standing still while being rushed by two full “grown” policemen, out of an overwhelming force behind them, who are dressed like they are in a bizarre future world movie of the police against the tide of overwhelming population and crime.

  136. 136.

    Ruckus

    @Betty Cracker:

    It really is about our country and it’s governmental design as well. That we all have a say, not just the wealthy who think they should and do control things.

    I’m imagining a political situation where we have a rule that no one worth more than say 50 or 100 million can run for president. Even if it’s only a BS claim about their wealth. Hard to be a government of, by and for the people if your overwhelming monetary wealth is the major controlling factor in your thinking, when survival is the major controlling factor of most of the electorate.

  137. 137.

    Brachiator

    @planetjanet:

    That chart at the Economic Policy Institute is damning. The disconnect between productivity and wages is profound. But what ticked off the tread in the late 1970s? Easy to blame Reagan, but the break was earlier.

    Thanks for bringing this chart and the article to my attention. The break happened in 1972/1973.  I also wonder what happened.

  138. 138.

    Another Scott

    @dnfree: I remember toying with the idea of buying AMD a few years ago when it was at $14.  I didn’t, but still kept thinking it was a good buy.

    Then it kept dropping below $10 and even lower.  :-/

    It’s around $45 now.

    The problem with picking individual stocks, playing with commodities, etc., is that you have to get the direction right, but you also have to get the timing right.

    “Dollar cost averaging, baby!”

    Yeah, low cost mutual funds are the way to go.  And starting 30 years ago, also too.  ;-)

    Cheers,

    Scott.

  139. 139.

    Another Scott

    @Ruckus: Yes, of course it would just be a political distraction for the Senate to call either of the Bidens.

    But who decides whether a subpoena is a political distraction or not?  Traditionally, only the leadership of the relevant committee that issues the subpoena.  If we have RWNJs running the committees, then all bets are off.   That’s the obvious problem with people who don’t respect rules and norms having power.

    And the courts would traditionally not want to get involved.  If they were involved now, it would take months and would end up being moot as far as a trial goes.

    I think Moscow Mitch and the rest of them realize that Biden could very well turn any forced appearance at a Senate trial to his advantage (he knows how the place works as well as they do), so they probably aren’t going to risk it.

    But, as always, we’ll have to wait and see what happens.

    Cheers,

    Scott.

  140. 140.

    Brachiator

    @Another Scott:

    I think Moscow Mitch and the rest of them realize that Biden could very well turn any forced appearance at a Senate trial to his advantage (he knows how the place works as well as they do), so they probably aren’t going to risk it.

    It’s odd.  Trump is dishonest and a crook.  But he is adamant about pushing the the idea that Joe Biden is dishonest.  He wants to destroy Biden’s “Good ol’ Joe” image. And so, Trump may overrule Moscow Mitch’s ideas about how this should go.

    Consider: this whole Ukraine nonsense is about the transitive property of a smear.  It goes from Hunter Biden did something illegal to Joe Biden is corrupt.  Even though this is obviously a lie, and Biden was not involved in anything.

    So people can choose whatever aspect of this they want, nepotism, kids of the famous using their parents’ names to their own advantage, conflict of interest, influence peddling.  It is all vague and amorphous, but designed to always lead to the conclusion that “Joe Biden himself is corrupt and did something (we don’t know what) wrong.”

  141. 141.

    Ruckus

    @Another Scott:

    Not saying he wouldn’t have to or just wouldn’t answer a subpoena, Biden is just playing the political game, just like all the RWNJs who are talking about subpoenaing him.

    For there to even be a subpoena there are steps that have to happen first, and as you well know a number of these might not happen at all.

    Is Nancy going to send the impeachment to the senate? Not until a few things are straightened out, possibly not at all.

    Is moscow mitch going to actually do his real job, not the bullshit one he’s got going? I’d say not bloody likely but stranger things have happened in life.

    Will the election make all of this moot? I think that is exactly the way it will work out, but possibly Nancy will send the impeachment to the senate in July or Aug, just in time for the election. numbnuts is going to get a minimum of votes no matter how this works out, unless he is removed from office and at this moment that seem unlikely. Waiting till he’s the only candidate for them is trump is a bold move but politically might make the most sense.

  142. 142.

    Matt

    Another way of looking at it: if each of those 500 people had taken 2.5% of that growth and directed it towards solving world hunger it would be solved. If they were willing to settle for a measly $1.2billion apiece instead of $2.4billion, they could have put nearly the US defense budget to work on projects like decarbonization.

    But they didn’t. Fuck every one of those people.

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