Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

Baby steps, because the Republican Party is full of angry babies.

Cole is on a roll !

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Never forget that he train is barreling down on Trump, even as he dances on the tracks.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

“Why isn’t this Snickers bar only a nickel?”

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

Republicans can’t even be trusted with their own money.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

When you’re in more danger from the IDF than from Russian shelling, that’s really bad.

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

How any woman could possibly vote for this smug smarmy piece of misogynistic crap is beyond understanding.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

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

People are weird.

White supremacy is terrorism.

Michigan is a great lesson for Dems everywhere: when you have power…use it!

We are aware of all internet traditions.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Friday Morning Open Thread: President Biden, Making Us Proud to Be Democrats

Friday Morning Open Thread: President Biden, Making Us Proud to Be Democrats

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(Even in ways one would least expect.)

He picked a great VP, too:

Reader Interactions

226Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    We don’t seem to post about it much here, but Biden’s EPA seems to be doing some great things.

  2. 2.

    John S.

    Never mind Biden making us proud to be Democrats — he is making us proud to be Americans again after 4 long years of endless embarrassment.

  4. 4.

    NotMax

    T minus 7 for the My Pillow Case.

    //

    (That it’s Friday the thirteenth is the fondant on the cake.)

  6. 6.

    MJS

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: None that are intelligible, and he has since backed off that specific date, now claiming it will be “August or “September”. He also recently said that instead of Trump being reinstated, the Supreme Court will require a “do over” of the election.

  9. 9.

    Geminid

    Have your hardhats ready. Pittsburgh area Congressman Conor Lamb will announce for the Pennsylvania U.S. Senate seat today, and the brickbats will be flying.

    Other candidates include Montgomery County Commission Chair Val Arkoosh, Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman, and State Senator Malcolm Kenyatta.

  13. 13.

    Chief Oshkosh

    Yep, Uncle Joe is knocking it out of the park. Minor nit: Telsa was not invited to the electric car shindig. Any ideas why the US company that essentially created the market and continues to lead was snubbed? I mean, I know Musk can be annoying, but is he worse than whoever heads up GM or Ford?

  15. 15.

    Geminid

    @Baud: Well, there will be four good candidates, so that’s good. Kenyatta and Lamb are both in their 30’s, which is kind of interesting. I don’t think the primary will be too destructive, at least not in Pennsylvania.

  16. 16.

    NotMax

    @Dorothy A. Winsor

    My English to Raving Lunatic phrasebook is woefully out of date.

    Switching gears to something completely different –

    Now there’s a potently evocative phrase one doesn’t come across every day (emphasis added).

    …On the box they’ve pictured … I think it’s jam. It looks a lot like blood — this child holding up a blood-filled banana — which is just one of the reasons why this is such a traumatizing instrument.

    :)

  19. 19.

    raven

    At noon we go to meet a dog we are going to foster. She was badly abused but has had medical treatment an is ready for an intermediary before she is placed with someone with several dogs.

  20. 20.

    Nicole

    That moment with the VP- awwwww.  That’s the stuff that really moves me and makes me hopeful- the awareness of the comfort and needs of others, in the small moments, carries over to policy making.

    And I laughed at Biden’s recounting of the Secret Service reaction to the Corvette promise.

  21. 21.

    MJS

    1. @Geminid: The problem is that Lamb is the perfect candidate for the seat he currently holds, and we probably lose it without him there.
  23. 23.

    Betty

    Since you mentioned VP Harris, something I have wanted to share. I made a fairly innocuous comment on Twitter defending the VP and received a load of hostile comments. It looks like there is already an effort to discredit her as they did Hillary. Comments looked like Bernie Bro stuff- she’s a cop, she mishandled the immigration job etc. Something to be aware of.

  25. 25.

    raven

    @Nicole: They named her Artemis

    Artemis, in Greek religion, the goddess of wild animals, the hunt, and vegetation and of chastity and childbirth; she was identified by the Romans with Diana. Artemis was the daughter of Zeus and Leto and the twin sister of Apollo. Among the rural populace, Artemis was the favourite goddess.

  27. 27.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @Baud: Well, if we’re going to go with personalities of the CEOs (actually, I’m not sure Musk still heads up Tesla), I doubt they’d have had the “summit” at all.

    I’m not a Tesla fanboy (heck, I drive a 20 yr old vehicle and hope to get at least another 10 out of it), but there is no denying that they created and continue to lead the industry. Their charging network alone should’ve garnered them an invitation

    ETA: Next time, they ought to run the invitation list by me. Harumph!

  29. 29.

    Quinerly

    Good morning!
    Another break through Delta infection in my circle. Good friend and his girlfriend were in CO. Both vaccinated. She toured the crowded Manutou Cliff Dwellings. No masks, lots of children everywhere. She contracted Delta. He came down with it a week later. Said started like seasonal allergies, sinus problems. Then fatigue, cough. I had planned to do Manitou 9/8 on my trip. Scratch that off my list.

  31. 31.

    Suzanne

    @Geminid: 

    Have your hardhats ready. Pittsburgh area Congressman Conor Lamb will announce for the Pennsylvania U.S. Senate seat today, and the brickbats will be flying.

    Dood is from bougie-ass Mt. Lebanon. He might have seen steel once. Maybe wore a hard hat at a costume party in college.

  34. 34.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @Betty: I’m worried about the hostility to Harris. If she’s our next presidential candidate, I think we’ll be fighting an uphill battle. I like her, but as you say, it’s something to be aware of.

  36. 36.

    oldgold

    The American sage, Ron White, got it right.

    “The Daily Beast reports: “Vaccine skeptics and anti-maskers are instead sucking down horse paste — the latest snake-oil “miracle cure.” Enthusiasts have taken to raiding rural tractor supply stores in search of ivermectin horse paste (packed with ‘apple flavor!’). This has resulted in an increase in calls to poison Control centers.“

    You cannot fix it!

  38. 38.

    Soprano2

    Our yellow kitten is now asking my husband to pet him! Last night he followed my husband and walked in front of him like he wanted hubby to stop and pet him. We should be able to get him to the vet next week, thank goodness. We’ve made a lot of progress since June, when he was running away from us. I guess regular feeding and talking to them nicely gets them to trust you.

    No more news on my mother; I’m going to call this morning to see if the speech therapist came to evaluate her yesterday afternoon after I left, because whether or not she can swallow is going to determine a lot of things. The nurse was supposed to call me last night, but never did so I think perhaps they didn’t do the test. I’m really hoping she can swallow, because that makes things a lot easier, but I’m afraid she won’t be able to. She can write to communicate, though, and her mind seems to be intact, so that’s good. I talked to the nurse stroke specialist yesterday. She made me feel better, or at least better-informed. I think the next step is going to be working with them to get the letters from her doctors I need to have power of attorney, because it’s obvious to me that she won’t be able to manage her own affairs, at least for awhile (and maybe never again, I have no idea at this point). Everything is very much day-to-day at this point.

  41. 41.

    Soprano2

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:  I’m worried about the hostility to Harris.

    I am too, but I think it was inevitable. One of my co-workers is absolutely convinced that “they” made sure Harris was the VP because “they” are going to have Biden declared incompetent and replace him in the presidency with Harris because that’s what “they” always really wanted, but “they” knew she couldn’t actually get elected. (And no, she cannot tell me who “they” are except “the people who are really in power”.) She thinks Harris is “insane”. Of course, she also thinks Trump did a good job, so there’s that.  Harris is a black woman, full stop, so of course a lot of them are afraid of her.

  43. 43.

    Soprano2

    @Nicole: You’re welcome. At this point I’m in kind of a holding pattern, waiting for evaluations that will direct what can happen next. I’m trying to be hopeful, but it was a major stroke and she’s 87, although she is a relatively healthy 87-year-old – or was until this week. I refuse to spend hours and hours at the hospital waiting on the off chance someone might come by to tell me something, because right now she’s mostly sleeping anyway (side effect of having a stroke, evidently). I love my mother, but my life cannot just stop.  They really should figure out a better way to communicate with family members than expecting someone to be there all the time – I’m her only living child, and she had no brothers or sisters, so I’m it. I’m taking it day-by-day for now. If she has to go to a long-term care facility (probable), I’m hoping I can get her in one that’s close to our pub, highly recommended, and where one of her best friends lives now.

  45. 45.

    oldgold

    Way to go Joe!

    (CNN Business)The US economy added 943,000 jobs in July and the unemployment rate fell to 5.4%, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday.

    It was the biggest job gain since August last year, when more than 1 million positions were added back, and more than the 870,000 economists had expected.

  46. 46.

    MJS

    @raven: Correct. And as I understand it, they are worn in dangerous locations and conditions, regardless of where the Marine may be from.

  48. 48.

    Fair Economist

    @Soprano2: Glad your mother is still mentally there and that is a good sign towards the extent of eventual recovery. You’re handling it as well as is possible, I think.

  49. 49.

    debbie

    @NotMax:

    I was just curious what you thought about it. I had never heard of it, but a FB group about old movies posted a still photo, and I was intrigued to see how EGR handled his role as kindly Norwegian farmer. You’re right about O’Brien, though; I found her performance diabetes-inducing, more fitting for Song of Bernadette. I was surprised at how heavy-handed her syrupy sweetness was allowed by the director.

  51. 51.

    zhena gogolia

    @debbie:

    That Time article is remarkable — it’s watching a person’s consciousness grow in real time. It’s not easy on our side either, but it doesn’t feel “both sidesy” to me. It feels like the truth.

  53. 53.

    zhena gogolia

    @Betty:

    That effort has been going on for a very long time, starting even from before her presidential candidacy.

  56. 56.

    Mary G

    @Betty: @Dorothy A. Winsor: The usual suspects are running the same full court demonization of our MVP as they did on HRC, but 1,000 times harder. The Republicans and/or the Russians are stirring up the Bernie crowd after Nina Turner’s loss, claiming that it is the KHive that’s causing everything wrong in the world today. FTFNYT’s misogynist political bros have been glad to magnify it. Stuff like this ought to help, I hope.

  61. 61.

    MontyTheClipArtMongoose

    @MJS: why not just a 6-3 vote in favor of trump returning to the white house.

    would be an even more dominating victory (67% to 33%) than bush-43’s 55-44 triumph over algore

  62. 62.

    MontyTheClipArtMongoose

    @Chief Oshkosh: because elon musk is a proto-q loon — remember his pizzagate-like accusations against the rescue divers in thailand? — who chills on the joe rogan pod

  65. 65.

    Nicole

    @Soprano2: It sounds like you’re handling it as well as anyone possibly could.  It’s never easy, but you’re right; aging is a part of the great cycle of life we all are a small part of, and life must continue on for everyone else.  Eighty-seven years of good health is an astounding gift, both for her and for you.  I hope, if long-term is the best option, that she can end up in the spot with her friend,  too.  My grandfather spent his last years in a nursing home in his hometown and being with so many of his friends from childhood made those last years much better.  He even got a girlfriend after my grandmother died. :)

  71. 71.

    Immanentize

    I am sorry Lamb will run for PA Senate. His real claim to fame is, “I was a jar head, fighter, military dood.” I know that is big in the Democratic Party now, but it isn’t everything. He is in just his third year in the house.

    I was enjoying the Fetterman/Kenyatta race. Both were being super positive and it was a classic Pittsburg vs Philly fight. Sheetz v. Wawa Territorial battle.

  72. 72.

    Geminid

    @Suzanne: I was thinking more of the brickbats that will be flying on Twitter. And maybe here. Lamb can hardly claim a working class background. I’ve read that his grandfather was a Democratic party power back in the day. Lamb himself went to Penn, then law school, and then he became a Marine Corps lawyer.

  73. 73.

    MontyTheClipArtMongoose

    @Geminid: the jacobin — the liberal case for a hawley-gabbard unity government

    project buchanan — josh hawley & tulsi gabbard will smear the queers

    the intercept — tulsi gabbbard’s on the ground experience of america’s forever war will make her think twice of perpetuating a surveillance state, unlike ex-prosecutor harris

    the federalist – once more, a brave frontiersman in washington defends our capital from a canadian assault: how josh hawley’s american schoolboy youth will parry montreal bred kamala harris

  75. 75.

    lowtechcyclist

    @NotMax:

    The Great Prophet Zarquon don’t get no respect.

    ;)

    I was re-reading that part of Restaurant at the End of the Universe just last night!

    “…and the Universe will explode later for your pleasure.”

  77. 77.

    SFAW

    @oldgold:

    “Will Biden Give Trump Any Credit for the Hiring Boom?”

    – NY Times Pitchbot

    [OK, so DougJ didn’t really write it. So sue me.]

  78. 78.

    Fake Irishman

    @MJS:

    this is a good point. However, due to population shifts and PA losing a seat, that district might be getting functionally eliminated.

  81. 81.

    Suzanne

    @Immanentize: I haven’t been in PA that long, but I definitely know about Wawa vs. Sheetz. I don’t really have a strong opinion between the two of them, because the most excellent QT kicks both of their asses.

    I miss QT.

  82. 82.

    Geminid

    @Immanentize: Val Arkoosh has not gotten much attention so far. But Emily’s List noticed Arkoosh and gave her their endorsement. Like Malcolm Kenyatta, she is from the eastern end of the state. Lamb and Fetterman are westerners.

  83. 83.

    Suzanne

    HOWEVER. I will note that Sheetz only has locations where they can have a large gas station, so they are kind of out on the city periphery. Wawa will do more urban locations and those without gas. Since we are in the city proper, I would really like to have a good convenience store within walking distance, without gas is OK. So I guess that’s a point for Wawa.

  84. 84.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Baud: Unit it comes out that Baud was actually born Macau and secretly trained in North Korea to disrupt the US government threw massive kegger parties. Until then, our support of Baud will be absolute.

  86. 86.

    Betty Cracker

    @Immanentize: I was also hoping Lamb wouldn’t jump in because that’ll be a tough House seat to hold without him. I’ve been rooting for Fetterman from the cheap seats because 1) I like him and his wife, and 2) I think he has the best chance of flipping that seat. Oh well. We’ll see.

  87. 87.

    Immanentize

    @Suzanne: Sheetz, because it did grow up more rural, always was a place one had to drive to. I kinda fell in love with Sheetz when my friend was working for Alcoa in Pitt.

    But my favorite such place now is Buckees in Texas.

  89. 89.

    Geminid

    @rikyrah: I think Lamb made his announcement at the International Brotherhood of Electical Workers’ Pittsburg headquarters.

  90. 90.

    Immanentize

    @Betty Cracker: I really like Fetterman’s wife, too. She is a progressive doer. I love her free store cargo container idea. She has quite a few of them up now across PA.

  91. 91.

    SFAW

    @Baud:

    I don’t understand wrestling enough to know what happened, but yay!

    The American won.

    Glad to be of assistance

  92. 92.

    Spanky

    ATTENTION EVERYONE:

    The name of the city in Western Pennsylvania is Pittsburgh.

    Pittsburg is in Kansas.

    Thank you for your attention to this matter. It’s a sore spot for Pittsburghers.

  93. 93.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @MJS: Thing I’ve been noticing is some kind of convoluted scheme were both Biden and Harris get impeached for something and then Trump becomes president.

  94. 94.

    Kay

    @SFAW:

    “Will Biden Give Trump Any Credit for the Hiring Boom?”

    Democrats and liberals won’t give Biden any credit for the hiring boom. I saw this with Obama too. I get it- there’s income inequality and wages are a huge issue for Democrats so they tend to talk down the economy even when it’s their economy but it’s probably a mistake. They can talk it up a little without abandoning poor people or ignoring stuctural inequalities. Cordoning off poor people as a group is dumb, politically. Poor people do best when there’s a bigger political constituency of less poor people in front of them taking the heat. Bigger. Don’t means test your political message. That’s failed for 30 years. It helps no one, although I think it’s well intended.

  95. 95.

    Soprano2

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:  Thing I’ve been noticing is some kind of convoluted scheme were both Biden and Harris get impeached for something and then Trump becomes president.

    They really are insane at this point. If this did happen (it won’t), either Pelosi or Schumer becomes president. Trump isn’t even in the succession!! They need a basic course in government, how does it work.

  96. 96.

    Citizen Alan

    @Soprano2:

    Of course, she also thinks Trump did a good job, so there’s that.

    You should have led with that.  If she’s a cult member, then of course she’s gonna believe all kinds of bullshit about all democrats. I refuse to tolerate trump supporters in my life.

  97. 97.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: They should talk up how the booming job market is helping to raise wages for everyone, which has the benefit of being the truth!

  98. 98.

    Suzanne

    @Immanentize: One big cultural change I always notice is that Arizonans/desert dwellers understand the importance of hydration and are pretty much always drinking something, including bringing drinks everywhere. Restaurants there will provide to-go drinks of whatever you ordered, water bottle fillers are everywhere, many places give out water bottles instead of having drinking fountains, and a lot of the chains offer larger size drinks there than they do in other places in the country. One habit I have had to change during the pandemic was going to the convenience store multiple times a day to get drinks. I would like Sheetz to get with it and open near me so I can resume. QT has excellent quality iced teas that I miss very much.

  102. 102.

    Soprano2

    @Citizen Alan:  I refuse to tolerate trump supporters in my life.

    I could not work at any workplace in the area where I live without working with some Trump supporters. My mother supports Trump, although I think that has now become a non-issue due to her stroke. My co-worker is an otherwise good person. Some of us don’t have a choice about tolerating Trump supporters in our lives.

  103. 103.

    Soprano2

    @Spanky: Oh, you’re right, I forgot that they’re going to a) retake the House, b) make Trump Speaker, and c) magically get 67 senators to vote to convict both Biden and Harris of some made-up crime so Trump can become president again! Easy peasy for sure. *rolleyes

  104. 104.

    Geminid

    @Betty Cracker: Fetterman certainly has a national following, and Pennsylvanians have gotten to know him as Lieutenant Governor. Lamb might possibly be the stronger candidate in the general election. Of the four primary candidates, Lamb most closely resembles Senator Bob Casey Jr., who won his third term in 2018 by 650,000 votes.

  105. 105.

    Kay

    @Soprano2:

    And is completely fucking fascinating. Who knew it would go this great? Someone here said the unemployment money bump was a kind of collective bargaining mechanism and that’s true.

    This changes everything :)

    They know it too. Douchebag Manchin said yesterday he’s worried about inflation. He’s worried about inflation all right. His donors are pissed they had to bump up wages to compete.

  106. 106.

    SFAW

    @Kay:

    I think — well, hope, I guess — that you’re wrong re: whether Dems/libs give him credit. I think most of us gave Obama credit for the recovery. My only quarrel (at the time) was that I thought he should have pushed a large(r) recovery package before Obamacare. [My “reasoning” was that if the recovery package was a hit, he could have gotten Obamacare  — and a bunch of other things — through more easily. Naturally, no way of knowing whether my “reasoning” was correct, but at least we had Obamacare.]

    Part of the reason I wrote that “headline” was because the Party of Traitors refused to give Obama any credit for the boom for which TFG claimed credit; I expect they’re also saying the Biden Boom is all TFG’s doing.

  107. 107.

    Immanentize

    @Spanky: Sorry. I won’t make that error again. Although spellcheck might. You can now go sit with Gin&Tonic in the Ukraine, OK?

    PS, I feel you. My home town is Binghamton, NY; named after one revolutionary war guy named Bingham. And which everyone always wants to make into one of the Hamptons.

  108. 108.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    Poor Obama. He’d go out to talk about jobs numbers rising and because he’s a Democrat he had to preface it with “I know people are hurting…”

    Forget it. Ruined!

  110. 110.

    Spanky

    @Geminid: I’m a Fetterman fanboi myself, but I worry that he’s too commie-pinko for a lot of PA. Lamb may just appeal more to Pennsylvanians, but I see him as too milquetoast to do what needs done in the Senate.

    Also, while Fetterman made his bones in Braddock, he grew up in Reading and played football and graduated from Albright (also in Reading). So I’m hoping some of those Eastern PA voters have some affinity with that.

  111. 111.

    Kay

    @SFAW:

    Obama had the near-impossible political message job of “it would have been worse” which is just a bad hand. No way to play that.

  113. 113.

    SFAW

    @Soprano2:

    either Pelosi or Schumer becomes president

    Wouldn’t it be Leahy? [I think the President pro tem of the Senate is next in line?]

    NB: Just checked: Leahy, followed by Blinken

  115. 115.

    JR

    @rikyrah: Merits mentioning that Lamb’s district has since been redistricted (in the Democrats’ favor).

    No guarantee that we lose that seat. Quite possible that we retain it.

  116. 116.

    geg6

    @Geminid: ​
     
    I believe Fetterman will wipe the floor with all of them. But that may just be my favoritism distorting my usual objectivity. I’m actually pissed at Lamb for running. Not sure another Dem can win my district and I swear I’ll go insane if/when some MAGAt wins it.

  118. 118.

    Geminid

    @Suzanne: I have a good homemade hydration mix: cool water, lemon or lime juice, and sea salt. I just prepped half a gallon for work. If I ever go to work.

  120. 120.

    SFAW

    @Kay:

    I understand. On the other hand, a massive infusion of cash, resulting in lots of jobs, is something the “regular” populace (meaning those who don’t follow politics the way the average Juicer does) understands a lot better — and is tougher to snipe at — than the semi-intangible, in-the-future benefits that Obamacare would provide.

    A possible side benefit would have been the 2010 midterms would have been easier for the Dems to defend. But that’s neither here nor there, and certainly not a slam-dunk.

  121. 121.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

    Thing I’ve been noticing is some kind of convoluted scheme were both Biden and Harris get impeached for something and then Trump becomes president.

    I saw a professionally made “trump 2022” sign along an exurban road the other day. I haven’t heard it mentioned in a while, but the plan was to get trump elected Speaker in the next Congress, then [something] then impeachment of Biden and Harris, and finally have him retake the White House after they’re both removed

    ETA:

    I’m actually pissed at Lamb for running. Not sure another Dem can win my district and I swear I’ll go insane if/when some MAGAt wins it.

    I like Lamb, but… yeah, this. The House margin is too close, and he’s a very (politically speaking) young man. Patience, grasshopper.

  123. 123.

    Betty Cracker

    @Soprano2: Yep. I’m in a similar predicament; the only reason I don’t have to deal with Trump supporters on the job is because I’m self-employed and work alone.

    My husband is one of two Dems in an operation that employs about a dozen people. The other Dem at his workplace is a black lady, and the Trumpy coworkers expect that and don’t hassle her. They’re mystified by my white male husband’s apostasy though, so he gets a lot of shit about it — mostly good-natured, fortunately.

  125. 125.

    SFAW

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Not that I think TFG will ever see the inside of a jail cell, but the Presidential Succession Act should be amended to prevent convicted criminals from being eligible for the role. [Yeah, I realize the PSA is probably not the governing law for that.]

  126. 126.

    geg6

    @Chief Oshkosh: ​
     
    Or perhaps inviting an out and proud anti-union CEO to an event with union members in attendance might be a bit of a stupid thing for a vehemently pro-union Democratic president to do.

  127. 127.

    Steeplejack

    @Kay:

    Stephanie Ruhle, of all people, was blatting about inflation on Morning Joe today. She was doing a look-in from her upcoming show, and it seemed slightly weird and context-free. Something about “jobs are coming back but inflation.” Whut?

    In a different segment, Joe Scarborough characterized himself as a “mainstream evangelical.” I did not see that coming.

  129. 129.

    Ken

    @oldgold: and more than the 870,000 economists had expected.

    Maybe it’s just me, but economists seem to be wrong a lot.

    For that matter, corporate earnings reports are also often accompanied by “missing/exceeding analysts’ expectations”. So there’s an entire paid profession that tries to guess corporate earnings in advance, and when they’re wrong the corporation is blamed.

  130. 130.

    sab

    @Spanky: Yes. It’s from the Scottish word ( like Edinburgh) not the German word ( like Augsburg). Of course it would help if you guys didn’t pronounce it like the German word.

    ETA: burgh is a chartered town. Burg is a walled city.

  132. 132.

    geg6

    @zhena gogolia: ​
     
    Meh. I’ve always steered clear of the filthy little creatures. Unless they are yours, you are always best to steer clear of those little walking Petri dishes.

  135. 135.

    Kay

    @SFAW:

    I think to a certain extent Biden was freed by Trump’s embrace of covid stimulus.

    I think the biggest mistake Obama made was not providing relief to people losing their homes. That’s a profound loss and it has a huge ripple effect. I get that it’s difficult politically and he had a healthy dose of “moral hazard!” people around him but people saw that as brutally unfair, that banks and other lenders could essentially borrow an unlimited amount to carry them over the crisis and they couldn’t cram down or extend the terms of their mortgage.

    I think banks didn’t want to revalue the homes and assist homeowners because if they had they would have had to admit that their balance sheets were fiction, that they had way more exposure than they wanted to admit. If the 130 mortgage is backing a home that is now valued at 90 they’re way underwater. There’s no asset backing the loan. It’s unsecured.

  137. 137.

    SFAW

    @Ken:

    What I always enjoy is “Wall Street” punishing a company’s stock when the company’s earnings exceeded expectations, “but not by as much as Wall Street thought they (i.e., the company) would.”

  138. 138.

    guachi

    @Geminid: Lamb seems like the kind of guy who would totally think the filibuster is awesome. Fetterman doesn’t. So I’m hoping not-Lamb wins.

  139. 139.

    Spanky

    @sab: Of course it would help if you guys didn’t pronounce it like the German word.

    Maybe it’s not helpful at this point to mention that Ohio has a town named Edinboro.

  140. 140.

    Ken

    @Soprano2:They really are insane at this point.

    Pity involuntary commitment has become so difficult.  I’d wager some of the judges hearing the GQP’s lawsuits would like to send the lawyers and clients upstate for a few months of observation.

    By the way, anyone know if those giant butterfly nets were a real thing, or just used in comedies?

  142. 142.

    Geminid

    @Mary G: KHive is now a big nemesis for lefties. It’s an interesting phenomenon: although the KHive has white members as well as Black, lefties call just about any Black Democrat who pushes back on them “KHive.” Some of the Black Democrats notice, and ask if they all look alike to the lefties.

  143. 143.

    geg6

    @Soprano2:

     

    It’s your life, but no one is more surrounded by Trumpers than I am (although, thankfully, no one in my immediate family is that unhuman and stupid). I still won’t have anything to do with any of them. Your choice, though.

  144. 144.

    Baud

    @SFAW:

    I don’t know.  The company also enjoyed the period when the stock was inflated because of the wrong expectation.

  145. 145.

    SFAW

    @Kay:

    I think the biggest mistake Obama made was not providing relief to people losing their homes.

    An underreported issue.

    I’m glad the eviction moratorium has lasted as long as it has. Whether due to eviction or foreclosure, losing a home is a terrible thing. I consider myself exceedingly fortunate that I have never had to worry about that; I can only imagine the trauma others are facing.

  146. 146.

    Spanky

    @guachi: Lamb seems like the kind of guy who would totally think the filibuster is awesome.

    Probably Exhibit A of the “what needs to be done” from Comment #110.

  148. 148.

    sab

    @Kay: Wow. That is a really concise description of what happened. I’ve been ranting for years about it, but my rants tend to ramble on. Well done!

  151. 151.

    geg6

    @Spanky: ​
     
    I am not aware of that town. But PA has a town and a state university by that name that is very close to Ohio.

  152. 152.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @guachi:

    Lamb seems like the kind of guy who would totally think the filibuster is awesome. Fetterman doesn’t.

    “seems like”… this is what I was talking about: affect.

    Conor Lamb @ConorLambPA May 29
    Yesterday made things really clear. I believe the filibuster has to go. Short thread explaining why:

  153. 153.

    Geminid

    @guachi: The filibuster will almost certainly come up in the primary, and I think Lamb will have to take a stand on it.

    I’m guessing that if Lamb ends up as the next Pennsylvania Senator, he will vote like Casey, somewhere in between Virginia Senators Kaine and Warner. Kaine is a moderate liberal, and Warner is a liberal moderate, so that’s not a very wide range.

  156. 156.

    Ohio Mom

    Soprano2:

    I may have told this old joke before: There are two places you need a friend on the outside, the joint (jail) and the hospital. Neither institution makes it easy for the friend. You are in a tough spot.

    Have you consulted with an elder care attorney? I would. Your mom’s stage of life contains many financial and legal land mines. One question is whether to go with a POA or go straight to guardianship. The attorney may have some advice about dealing with long term care too.

    Keep us posted, we are pulling for you and your mom.

  158. 158.

    Kay

    @SFAW:

    That was profound for me and pushed me further Left. Up to that point I had assumed finance people knew what they were doing but I will never forget the foreclosures. Page after page after page in the legal notice section of the paper.

    We got combative in this office. It felt like someone was attacking our people. What we discovered was the lenders were a mess too – we told people to stay in homes until they were removed and they got months and months because lenders had gone on this insane spree and they couldn’t catch up and enforce anything. At one point the local municipal judge stopped allowing banks to file without a personal appearance. He said “if they’re going to foreclose they’re going to pay a lawyer to drive 400 miles and hold a hearing”. It felt like a war. Like we were putting up defenses against an invading force. It was personal.

  160. 160.

    Ken

    @Geminid: Kaine is a moderate liberal, and Warner is a liberal moderate, so that’s not a very wide range.

    You remind me of the 64-pack of crayons, with “yellow-green” and “green-yellow”, suspiciously similar to one another and to “chartreuse” and “apple green”.

  161. 161.

    Suzanne

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I haven’t been too impressed with some of Fetterman’s statements about environmental issues here. He was pretty pissed here a few months ago when a steel plant modernization didn’t go through. Apparently there had been a lot of tension with the county health department. Fetterman was very angry about it, came out with his line about “the union way of life is sacred”, and blew off a lot of the health concerns about air pollution. He said something like, “the air here will never be Rocky Mountain fresh”, and pointed fingers at the health department for basically being weenies for being concerned about it.

    That isn’t necessarily a dealbreaker for me, but come on, clean air in the face of climate change has got to be a priority!

  164. 164.

    frosty

    @Geminid: Based on the first-time voters I saw while watching the polls, I thought Fetterman would have had a better chance in 2016 against Toomey than Katie McGinty. That year was a populist election and he had the street credibility to beat someone who got rich from his hedge fund. I don’t know if ’22 will have the same vibe.

  165. 165.

    sab

    @Betty Cracker: None. Aren’t Augsburg and Nuremberg both in Bavaria, and both with castles? I thought bergs were mountains, but that doesn’t seem to be important for Nuremberg’s name.

  166. 166.

    Ken

    @Kay: I remember someone on BJ – possibly you? – commenting that the judges were not at all happy with the financiers during the 2007 mortgage crisis. Turns out when you bundle ten thousand mortgages together and sell slices of that to five hundred different investors, you can’t really answer when asked “who holds the title to this property”, and that’s a really important question.

  168. 168.

    Geminid

    @SFAW: I was hurt by the 2008 recession, and I have never really made up the lost ground. But I did not have a mortgage or a family to support, and I know there were people hurt far worse. If I were one of them, I would not have had economic anxiety. I would have had economic rage.

  169. 169.

    frosty

    @Spanky: ​
      Nope. Fetterman (and Wolfe for that matter) grew up in Springettsbury Township in York County, not Reading.

  170. 170.

    frosty

    @geg6: ​
      I swear I’ll go insane if/when some MAGAt wins it.

    Welcome to my world! I’ve worked three elections to unseat Scott Perry (spit!) and it hasn’t happened yet. I’ll try again with Gene DePasquale (if he wins the primary).

  171. 171.

    Immanentize

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Interesting. Sasha is great! She was pulling for Kenyatta just last week. But she hated Nina Turner with the fire of a thousand ?. And she does not like the performative leftiness of the Squad. She is very like Ragnarok Lobster. But why Lamb over Fetterman?

  172. 172.

    frosty

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: ​
      I went to a meet and greet a few weeks ago. It was my first, so I asked about what to wear and they said business casual.

    Fetterman, of course, wore his Carhartt shirt and jeans.

  174. 174.

    Immanentize

    @Kay: Similar in Boston. After months of auto filings which ended in default judgments, the probate courts (which here are the land courts too) started making plaintiffs prove ownership. Which they couldn’t because of how messed up the titles were in credit default swap cases.

    PS atrios was always on this beat.

  176. 176.

    zhena gogolia

    @Quinerly: 
    Interesting the reactions from you and geg. I don’t have any, but I love children. My only problem these days is they’re not taught to respond to adults when they speak to them, even if their parents clearly know the adult. I don’t know if it’s excessive fear of abduction or what.

  179. 179.

    Immanentize

    @Suzanne: I agree that was foolish, but I thought he was generally good on enviro? Of course, workers are voters and choosing jobs over the environment has been a successful (if stupid) political path for ever.

  180. 180.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @zhena gogolia: a couple years ago I was skiing alone and a ski instructor asked me to ride up a lift with one of her charges, I’d say a five year old. (I hate that by the way, the fidgety little tykes make me very nervous in that situation). What I thought was friendly grown-up small talk was clearly breaking the stranger-danger rules. “I’m Jim, what’s your name? Where are you from?” no response, which I chalked up to shyness. Then he said with a bit of emotion “I’m not supposed to tell you!”

  183. 183.

    Quiltingfool

    @Soprano2: If you live in SW Missouri, and you’re a Democrat, you know you are outnumbered.  If you want to avoid Republicans around here, better live in a cave.  I don’t want to do that.  I don’t talk politics with anybody around here because I would be wasting my breath.
    I do (in my head, of course) marvel at how all these Republicans bitch and whine about things that the Republican Party support.  They get upset about expensive healthcare but don’t seem to realize who is responsible.  And that isn’t the only thing.  However, they stick with Republicans because of guns, God and, of course, the babies.  Oh, let’s not forget that fun trope, “Politicians on both sides are crooked.”
    I get so tired.

  186. 186.

    Immanentize

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: That explains it! (Thanks)

    But I gotta say, that feels entirely like a gun problem, not a race problem?

    Fekkin guns.

    My neighborhood’s now sold liquor store, which was about 100 yards from my house, was being robbed and my back yard neighbor went over with a shot gun and sorted things out without any violence. Lucky. Interestingly, the store is gone because the owner sold his liquor license to the new Wegmans who needed licenses and wanted to close competition. Can’t walk for wine anymore.

  187. 187.

    Geminid

    @Immanentize: @Sasha Beauloux said she would take a break, and lay off of Fetterman until after Labor Day. If you check out her twitter account then, you will learn plenty about her objections.

  188. 188.

    Geminid

    @Geminid: I was interested to learn that Sasha Beauloux is a fellow Virginian. She tweeted some about June’s Democratic primary and talked about voting in it. I think Ms. Beauloux lives somwhere in NoVa.

  189. 189.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Geminid: this young white woman trying to defend Fetterman seems like she was created between Sasha Beauloux and The Lobster if they wanted to make a self-parody Bernie-Sis. The shift in her language from the first tweet to the third is…. remarkable.

    Katie Loucks @CatherineLouck3
    Yeah this old ass story isn’t gonna break my support for him….have you ever went to Braddock? The fact he still insist on living there though he doesn’t need to says a lot more about him than this story ever will.

  190. 190.

    Immanentize

    @Geminid: Thanks. Will do. But were those objections when she was all in for Kenyatta? See the problem?

    I really don’t want to get upset about that primary. I think I’ll stay out of it in my head if it’s going to turn to shit from proxy actors.

  191. 191.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Immanentize:

    But were those objections when she was all in for Kenyatta? See the problem?

    Frankly: No. She’s never liked Fetterman, and she bailed on Kenyatta when he signaled he’s going to align himself with “The Squad”

  192. 192.

    mrmoshpotato

    @NotMax: HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

    In my day, bananas were filled with banana – and without any human intervention.

    Did banana peels start holding empty voids within the past week?

  193. 193.

    Kay

    @Ken:

    Probate courts here do deeds and titles and they were bewildered by how sloppy and poor quality all of it was- it’s a nitpicky court, and they take the integrity of the public record seriously. Details matter. Who owns the property is a fundamental question- it’s the basis of the whole thing. You can’t be winging that to churn out your bonus and then flee the scene. It was like an “emporer has no clothes” moment for me because what I realized is I had taken a lot of things on faith and wholly relied on a  perhaps unearned reputation that lenders knew what they were doing. They can’t be the experts on risk and value and get it so spectaculalry and catastrophically wrong and retain their reputation as experts. That’s not supposed to be how “merit” works. I don’t think they took a big enough hit. That’s what “moral hazard” is- they have to suffer.

  194. 194.

    Kay

    The White House
    @WhiteHouse
    Just in: In July, the economy added 943,000 jobs. President Biden’s economy is booming with:
    – Over 4M new jobs since taking office
    – Fastest monthly job growth in almost a year.

    Hah! Speak of the devil. They’re gonna take a victory lap. Good.

  195. 195.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Kay: people have said, and I think there’s a certain truth in it, that Biden is President cause he never cared about twitter. But Ron Klain and others are very much aware of and I think use it well

    ETA: Klain has been scolded by the green-room types of all varieties for tweeting too much.

  197. 197.

    J R in WV

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

    Thing I’ve been noticing is some kind of convoluted scheme were both Biden and Harris get impeached for something and then Trump becomes president.

    That’s so convoluted it omits the fact that if both Pres and VP are impeached before the VP is replaced after the Pres is impeached, Madam Speaker Pelosi becomes President.

    Same if AF 1 goes down with both Joe and Kamala on board, Madam Speaker is sworn in. Duh!

  198. 198.

    Suzanne

    @Immanentize: Other than that, I had thought he was good on climate change issues, too. But, of course, you only find out when potential issues come into conflict.

    I mean, I am all for union jobs, but you know what else is sacred? Breathing.

  199. 199.

    Ksmiami

    @geg6: he’s an overpaid libertarian dick. Plus Tesla is too pricey to ever have the platform reach of GM and Ford

  200. 200.

    sab

    @Kay: The lenders are banks, and their people are sales people, rewarded for sales.

    My brother, a RWNJ but also a solid finance guy high up in a mutual fund, was having none of those credit swap things (“derivatives”) back long before 2008. He said ” they cannot or will not tell us what’s in those traunches. We are not buying anything out of a black box. We don’t know what is in there.”

    But he also thinks Fauci was in cahoots with the Chinese. So you cannot trust the judgment of experts outside of their area of expertise.

  201. 201.

    schrodingers_cat

    @sab: It was clear during the W administration that the housing market was overinflated. We need to regulate capital markets better

    The crash in 2008 was a liquidity crash so banks had to be made whole. TARP and other funds given to the banks were loans and they were repaid. What Bush II and Obama did was necessary otherwise the fallout would have been much worse. It can be argued that they could have done more on the consumer side of the equation. But this is all a hindsight of 20/20.

  202. 202.

    sab

    Response to Chris Florida in the actual front page post: Kamala Harris is 5’2″ and mostly doesn’t wear heels. She knows what it is like to be short, and she is empathic. She was only second on my list in the primaries (and Biden wasn’t on my list at all, although I voted for him in the primary when all my candidates bailed in his favor) but I sure do love her now.

  203. 203.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Ken: Maybe it’s just me, but economists seem to be wrong a lot.”

    Taint just you – I worked for a multinational bunch of ’em for roughly five years and frankly if they said X I’d invest in not-X and laugh all the way to the bank. And always keep in mind that

    an economist is someone who likes to work with numbers but isn’t personable enough to be an accountant.

    (With a few notable exceptions, one being my friend and colleague Manos who came over from Crete at age 30 and got himself a CPA (and an American wife) to go with his PhD. He regularly endured abuse from “customer-disservice” reps on the phone owing to his thick accent – even though he’d forgotten more English grammar than those nitwits had ever learned. Grrrr…..)

  204. 204.

    sab

    @schrodingers_cat: I agree with you, but I am still enraged. I saw so much pain in my neighborhood for people who didn’t deserve it. We had little kids scrounging around trying to invent odd jobs to save the family home and keep the family dog from the pound. It was heart-breaking.

  206. 206.

    schrodingers_cat

    @sab: I know. The Ds learned their lesson I think while putting together a rescue package for COVID-19 fallout

    Besides moral hazard  there were inflation worries, that was conventional economic wisdom of the day.

  207. 207.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Ksmiami: I’ll give you credit for consistency: You are consistently a hatemongering Stalinist imbecile. Your best shot at making the world a better place is fucking off and dying in a fire that doesn’t injure any more worthwhile person, c’est-à-dire, any other living being.

  208. 208.

    sab

    @schrodingers_cat: We need to regulate better, because sales people look out for themselves, not the long term interests of the institution they work for. I am not faulting them. Nobody is looking out for them. It is just stupid that we assume these institutions have an actual brain, when they are just composits of the people who work for them, who all of course have their own interests.

  209. 209.

    Kay

    @Ksmiami:

    Union aside, he’s a bad employer. They have a horrible reputation as an employer here and I can’t help but think that will affect quality, especially in such a tight labor market. He’s getting the bottom of the barrel.

    Everyone thinks they can get something for nothing and there’s always some celebrity CEO pushing that fantasy.

  210. 210.

    sab

    @schrodingers_cat: Inflation worries are back in style. Even Goku at Balloon Juice after Dark had to be talked down from that ledge. 2% mortgage rates are not the same as the 16% mortgage rate I was happy to get when I bought my first house.

  211. 211.

    schrodingers_cat

    @sab: Banking needs to be more regulated and become boring again. Bring back the New Deal regulation which has been steadily dismantled since Reagan onwards

    I was talking about inflation worries among mainstream macroeconomists at Universities and financial institutions and the government (Fed, Treasury etc.)

  212. 212.

    Kay

    @schrodingers_cat:

    It can be argued that they could have done more on the consumer side of the equation. But this is all a hindsight of 20/20.

    It really isn’t. The mortgage relief parts of the plan were widely considered a disaster at the time. It was the worst kind of plan- it purported to work but people couldn’t actually use it. They felt tricked. They would jump thru months of hoops by the lender and it was all a fucking game to the lenders, they were dancing around trying to avoid getting left holding the bag of the massive toxic debt pile they created. It was enraging since the same people they were screwing – the public- were backstopping their banks with low and no interest loans from the federal government.

  213. 213.

    Miss Bianca

    @oldgold: And the infuriating thing about the whole ivermectin “cure” – apart from the idiocy of “you don’t trust the ‘vaccine science’ because it’s ‘experimental’ but you’ll happily experiment on yourself by dosing yourself with HORSE DEWORMER?!” BS – is that some of us actually need ivermectin for its intended use: ie, deworming our horses. And these idiots are creating a run on it.

  214. 214.

    whomever

    @Betty: Yeah, that stuff has been big back as far as her being announced as VP candidate.  I’ve been lucky to meet only one QAnon person in the flesh (and, hoo boy, if you think they sounds nuts online, they are MULTIPLE orders of magnitude worse in person) who explained to me that not only was she a cop but as California AG she made the age of consent 12.  (I’m not even sure what one says to that), and “she’s a cop” has been something repeated online a lot.  I’m not so sure they are the bernie bro crowd, it feels more like the usual trolls.

  216. 216.

    dnfree

    @Soprano2: have they explained the swallowing test to you?  If it’s like what my father had, they test four different consistencies to see which one or ones are not aspirated. If there is one the patient can swallow, all food and drink will be puréed or thickened to that consistency. There is even thickened water!  If no consistency works, you’ll be faced with the decision on a feeding tube, or comfort care.  There are throat exercises the patient can do to try to regain swallowing ability, and electric stimulation if the patient can’t do exercises.
    We’ve been through this with my husband’s mother after a stroke, but she had dementia and a living will that said no artificial means should be used to keep her alive. It still wasn’t easy. My father didn’t have a stroke, but he had dementia and aspirated food to cause pneumonia. The first time he could eat one thickened consistency. The second time, he couldn’t eat any of them.

    This is a really difficult time for you, especially to be facing it alone.  My thoughts are with you.

  217. 217.

    Ruckus

    @Chief Oshkosh: 
    Tesla already seems to be rather successful so I’m not sure that there is any need to prop them up. But the rest of the US market sure seems to need something to push them down the road a bit faster. Many parts of Europe have a deadline for no more new internal combustion engine vehicles to be sold, the US doesn’t even seem to be working that hard on the premise or the products, although the F150 Lightning seems nice, in a $50-60K out the door way. And China and South Korea are going gangbusters, if the US manufactures don’t do something, they will have figuratively shot themselves in various body parts.

  218. 218.

    Ruckus

    @Betty:

    There was quite a bit of that here in CA when she was running. I think there might just be a pretty big issue with racism/feminism in this country.

  219. 219.

    Ruckus

    @Soprano2:

    Good luck, hope your mom gets better.

    I had to be my dad’s decision maker/power of attorney for almost 15 yrs, with his Alzheimers and moms for 2-3. It’s a load, my advice is do the best you can and accept that you can’t control everything.

  220. 220.

    sab

    @schrodingers_cat: Paul Krugman can’t get grad students because he is so often right but tells them what they don’t want to hear. Banks and investment firms want to hire economists who will tell them what they want to hear. Study under Krugman and you will be a good but unemployed economist.

  221. 221.

    sab

    @Ruckus: My dad is almost 97 with dememtia. His dad was mentally sharp but paralyzed by a stroke for 10 years. You can only do so much, every little bit of that helps them. Just watch your limits. They need you healthy. It is so hard. We all know that. Please vent here.

  222. 222.

    sab

    Addressed my comment to Ruckus not Soprano2. This will be hard. Please vent here, since you probably won’t have time or energy for support groups. Jackals trend older, so many of us have been through this and are going through this yet again.

  226. 226.

    sab

    @schrodingers_cat: I think I understand (finally) some of your issues with Elizabeth Warren. My background, like hers, came through consumer bankruptcies in the Volker recession. Neither of us are economists, although both of us do read and know some economics. Macro is a thing, but we aren’t close-in watching it work (or not.) We just have seen the damage on the ground.

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