Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls 2 years from now.

It’s pointless to bring up problems that can only be solved with a time machine.

They want us to be overwhelmed and exhausted. Focus. Resist. Oppose.

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

Democracy cannot function without a free press.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

America is going up in flames. The NYTimes fawns over MAGA celebrities. No longer a real newspaper.

Their shamelessness is their super power.

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

President Musk and Trump are both poorly raised, coddled 8 year old boys.

Trump’s cabinet: like a magic 8 ball that only gives wrong answers.

Prediction: the gop will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

It is not hopeless, and we are not helpless.

the 10% who apparently lack object permanence

Accountability, motherfuckers.

If you still can’t see these things even now, maybe politics isn’t your forte and you should stop writing about it.

The arc of the moral universe does not bend itself. it is up to us to bend it.

If rights aren’t universal, they are privilege, not rights.

Bark louder, little dog.

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

You are here: Home / Balloon Juice / Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Supermoon

Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Supermoon

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(No wonder everybody’s been so flaky for the last few days!)




Why it matters:

… Since the role of the ATF director became a position requiring Senate confirmation in 2006, only one person – Democratic President Barack Obama’s nominee B. Todd Jones – has ever won confirmation.

The rest of that time, it has been led by a string of acting directors, hobbling its ability to propose and adopt tougher gun regulations.

Democratic senators and anti-gun violence group Brady praised the confirmation.

“While certainly not a panacea to the gun violence epidemic plaguing our nation, having Mr. Dettelbach at the helm of the ATF will ensure the feds have all hands on deck in the fight to stop gun trafficking, prevent illegal possession of firearms, and make sure our kids can’t get their hands on dangerous weapons,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement…

Biden commended the Senate for confirming Dettelbach, saying in a statement that the new ATF director would play a key role in implementing a recently passed bipartisan gun safety bill…

Reader Interactions

302Comments

  3. 3.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Supermoon…. Ummm no. It’s just full moon which if you hadn’t been told you probably never would have noticed it’s slightly larger appearance.

  4. 4.

    Steeplejack

    My job as Dr. Pepper’s social media manager is great, it’s nothing but tweets and posts and laughs and a little marketing, there’s never any trouble, I’m just going to take a biiiig sip and then open Twitter to see what is

    — ImpressionableChildHat (@Popehat) July 12, 2022

  7. 7.

    Starfish

    @Steeplejack: Like I mentioned in an earlier thread, Monday was a great day for the Dr. Pepper social media manager to go on vacation.

    Can you guys write some tweets for me about how everyone deserves a Dr Pepper? I’m taking a break bc I deserve a Dr Pepper. Thx Peppers ❤️
    — Dr Pepper (@drpepper) July 11, 2022

  9. 9.

    narya

    Good morning everyone! I’ve been thinking about the two jamokes who testified yesterday, and others who’ve done Bad Things and come to truly regret their actions (not just regret getting caught). What’s their path? (I feel the same about folks who’ve been incarcerated.) If we don’t provide paths for people to truly make amends and make changes in their lives, they are, I don’t know, lost. What’s the restorative justice in this situation?

  12. 12.

    O. Felix Culpa

    I don’t think the media was outright lying about this, it was just an ongoing negotiation they portrayed as a done deal. This has happened many times before.

    Huh. Wonder why it keeps on happening.

    our own people fall for it

    Evergreen observation (zg?) from yesterday. A recent meeting I had with stalwart Dems was consumed by Biden’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad judicial appointment. What a betrayal!

    And so it goes….

  14. 14.

    OzarkHillbilly

    As drought shrivels Lake Powell, millions face power crisis

    Lake Powell’s considerable power-generating abilities are already on the decline.

    When the lake is full, its dam can produce 1,320 megawatts, or 5bn kilowatt-hours of power annually – about the same amount as a large fossil fuel plant. But with water levels now 100 feet below the lowest elevation marker, hydropower production has dropped to 800 megawatts.

    The alarming drop has forced authorities into extraordinary action. On 14 June, the Bureau of Reclamation announced that to protect critical reservoir levels in 2023, between 2 and 4m acre-feet of water must be conserved, setting a 60-day timeline for state and tribal leaders to agree a plan. Water use estimates released in June show the upper basin states collectively used 3.5m acre-feet of Colorado River water last year, while the lower basin states used around 10m acre-feet.

    “The system is at a tipping point,” Commissioner Camille Touton told the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. “Unprecedented is now the reality and the normal in which Reclamation must manage our systems.”

    According to Jack Schmidt, the Janet Quinney Lawson Chair of Colorado River Studies at Utah State University, that would be the largest cut in water use in the 100-year history of the Colorado River Compact, an agreement made in 1922 that divided the river’s water between the upper basin states (Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming), the lower basin states (Arizona, California and Nevada), 30 tribal nations and Mexico.

    “It’s huge,” says Schmidt, who believes the cutbacks could represent up to a third of water use in the entire basin. “We have to reduce consumption right now,” says Schmidt. “That’s the only big solution that is available.”

    I can’t wait for the lawsuits.

    ETA

    Such a calamity might not be far off. The Bureau of Reclamation, the US federal agency which manages the Colorado River’s infrastructure, forecasts that even with significant proposed cuts to water allowances there is a 23% chance power production could halt at Glen Canyon Dam in 2024 due to low water levels and that it is within the realm of possibility that it will happen as soon as July 2023.

  15. 15.

    Ken

    @OzarkHillbilly: As XKCD reminds us.  I wonder how many people will go look at the moon right after sunset, and think “ooo supermoon” when it’s just the usual horizon illusion that makes it look so big.

  17. 17.

    Anne Laurie

    @OzarkHillbilly: It’s just full moon which if you hadn’t been told you probably never would have noticed it’s slightly larger appearance.

    Counter-argument:  Any full moon brings out the ‘loonies’ in us all.  I never believed this until I started doing weekly AKC obedience classes with my first dog.   When the class fell within a day or so of a full moon, normally well-mannered dogs got goofy — and the not-so-well-mannered, sometimes completely nutzo!

  19. 19.

    Immanentize

    @O. Felix Culpa: You have it backwards:

    The negotiation was leaked as a done deal,
    which means it was in reality a secret back door done deal, and
    The only reason it didn’t happen yesterday was because of the efforts of the highly moral lefties who forced POTUS to not do the deal that never existed!
    But he is still planning to do the deal.

  21. 21.

    narya

    @Baud: For anyone w a criminal record, that can be problematic, but yes. Maybe volunteer somewhere, too.

    @Raven: Oh, right. But still.

    I’m not suggesting instant forgiveness or something; definitely need to put the work in, and lots of it. I guess I’m also thinking about the prisoners in CA who learn to fight fires and do it well, and then cannot get jobs as firefighters when they get out because of their criminal records.

    I’m being vague; sorry to start off the morning thread with these ramblings!

  23. 23.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Immanentize:

    Of course. Silly me.

    I saw a tweet earlier saying something to the effect of “brb, I’m getting wheels to put on the goalposts.” Fits your sadly not-so-fictional rationale perfectly. :)

  24. 24.

    germy shoemangler

    “Just think – tonight, tonight when the moon is sneaking around the clouds I’ll be sneaking around you. I’ll meet you tonight under the moon. Oh, I can see it now – you and the moon. Wear a neck-tie so I’ll know you.”

    (Groucho Marx to Margaret Dumont)

  27. 27.

    eclare

    @Anne Laurie:   My ex who was a paramedic said the same about full moons.  He hated when his shift lined up with a full moon.  One person’s story, but still…

  33. 33.

    Betty Cracker

    Regarding the proposed (but thankfully not realized) nomination of shady anti-choice Judge Chad Meredith, the media didn’t mislead the public. Gov. Beshear, Democrat of KY, released emails from the White House, the first dated 6/23 (the day before Roe fell) notifying the governor that Meredith was “to be nominated tomorrow,” along with a follow-up six days later indicating that the earlier notice was “pre-decisional.” The latter looks an awful lot like ass-covering after the shit hit the fan. 

    We don’t know the terms of the alleged “deal” and perhaps never will now that Meredith’s awful record has been in the spotlight. In some scenarios, prior to the SCOTUS overturning Roe, it might have been defensible to give a lifetime appointment to an anti-choice judge in exchange for a bloc of other judges. For temporary political appointments, it seems less defensible.

    My theory is Beshear or someone in his office leaked this info to stop the Meredith nomination, and it worked. But pinning this on the media is a cop-out, IMO. The media does lots of shit that’s worth calling out. This isn’t one of those things.

  35. 35.

    rikyrah

    The  MSM hasn’t earned the benefit of the doubt. They got played, which is why folks are like, ‘ they weren’t actually lying.’.

    No, they were phucking DUPES, cause they wanted to be.

  36. 36.

    Immanentize

    @Ken:

    No room for poets, huh?

    But look at the webbscope pics!

    Now tell us that they are not actual pictures, but rather just approximations and imaginative renditions of images colorized from infrared….

    And no you can’t come to any of my parties. Which by the way will be under a full diamond moon on a beach by the sea. And I will be dancing with one hand waiving free.

  40. 40.

    Ken

    @OzarkHillbilly: Which Colorado River state was it that came up with the brilliant plan of building a giant pipeline to pump Mississippi River water into the Colorado?

    (Someone will now answer “All of them, Katie”, but I’m remembering that one of them actually allocated money to study the idea.)

  41. 41.

    Baud

    @Betty Cracker:

    I don’t understand the timeline.  When did the story break? If the follow up letter happened on 6/29, was that before or after the story broke? I thought the story broke after, but time is an elastic concept for me these days.

  44. 44.

    Geminid

    @eclare: I forget when or where, but I remember a woman magistrate remarking to a reporter that she saw more domestic violence cases on nights around a full moon.

  47. 47.

    Anne Laurie

    @OzarkHillbilly: Speaking only for myself, I’ve never noticed any difference.

    Well (tongue firmly in cheek) considering some of the stories you’ve shared with us…​

  48. 48.

    Baud

    @Baud:

    Doing my own research (it’s all the fad these days), the earliest story I found was from June 30.  Maybe it broke a few days sooner.

  49. 49.

    Betty Cracker

    @Baud: According to the Reuters article linked in my comment, the “pre-decisional” email was sent “hours before” the Courier-Journal first broke the story.

  51. 51.

    satby

    @Baud: very true. And the “get a job part” is harder for the little fish than the sharks in the tank, who will end up, as John Bolton did yesterday, bullshitting their way through media appearances.

  52. 52.

    Starfish

    @germy shoemangler: It was eleven-dimensional chess. Biden did not like his own deal with McConnell, so he leaked the selection to some lefties, so they could go “Argle Bargle” and kill the whole thing.

  53. 53.

    Baud

    @Betty Cracker:

    Thanks!

    Obviously, Biden didn’t nominate the judge “tomorrow,” as the original email said. Maybe because Dobbs came down that day.  We’ll probably never know the details, but all’s well that ends well.

  55. 55.

    NotMax

    Mumble mumble, moneyvchangers, something something.

    “When Satoshi Nakamoto created Bitcoin, I think that he was divinely inspired,[…] that a benevolent God of some sort either sent him or sent him the idea.” Source

    head/desk head/desk head/desk

  57. 57.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @germy shoemangler: Something I read in a Groucho biography: Margaret Dumont was part of the Marx Brothers stage act in vaudeville, and they were all kind of assholes to her (i.e. pranks) off-stage. She got fed up enough one time that she packed her bags and left, and they all had to go to the train station in the middle of the night and plead with her to come back.

  59. 59.

    Starfish

    @Baud: Andy Bashear turned over the White House emails to the press because people were being skeptical. The first email was dated 6/23 and a follow-up was dated 6/29.

    Courier Journal said they broke the story on 6/29.

    People were disparaging this newspaper because it is based in a red state.

  60. 60.

    Betty Cracker

    @Baud: Agreed! I think it’s worth pointing out that this wasn’t a media created nothing-burger. One thing I know I have a tendency to do that I’m trying to stop doing because it’s unfair: lumping all the media together into one unthinking blob. 95% of the Beltway media people deserve that, but our disappearing local dailies still do the heroic work of democracy.

  61. 61.

    rikyrah

    GET THEE VACCINATED OR GET THEE A TOE TAG. (@JamesMWilliam18) tweeted at 2:31 AM on Wed, Jul 13, 2022:
    FIN/My President and Vice President have appointed and confirmed thee most Black, AAPI, Indigenous and Latino judges IN HISTORY.

    FOR LIFE. This is what VOTING does for you.

    Do not let your inability to do everything keep you from doing something. #VoteBlueOrWeAreScrewed https://t.co/5XOe62KGcv
    (https://twitter.com/JamesMWilliam18/status/1547121534216585219?t=rLXLpI3ENZkgbs3S_B5aDw&s=03)

  63. 63.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @O. Felix Culpa:

    A recent meeting I had with stalwart Dems was consumed by Biden’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad judicial appointment. What a betrayal!

    Did they have any opinions on Biden’s other 80-something (I believe) district court nominations which include (again, IIRC) a record number of Black women?

  64. 64.

    Baud

    @Starfish:

    I have zero problem with being skeptical of media reporting.  They haven’t earned our trust. And recall that, at the time, there was no public information about the existence of any judicial vacancy, which lent support to the skepticism.

    We have a few more facts now, so our views should be updated accordingly.  The main thing we don’t know, and may never know, is the exact terms of the supposed “deal” that was struck.

  66. 66.

    TS

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Profumo did have inherited wealth. Not everyone is so lucky in their birth to be supported for life by their parents. It  would probably work for many who are currently in congress, but not for anyone.

  67. 67.

    Baud

    @O. Felix Culpa:

    A recent meeting I had with stalwart Dems was consumed by Biden’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad judicial appointment.

    I’m curious about the racial makeup of the Dems you deal with.  Care to share?

  68. 68.

    Starfish

    @Baud: That led to skepticism, but within days a judge went on senior status, and it was expected that she would fully retire if they replaced her with another conservative.

    Everything in the initial report came to be supported by more and more evidence as the story evolved.

  71. 71.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Baud:

    100% melanin-challenged.

    ETA: These were (are) solid activist Democrats, who do real work towards getting Dems elected. Which is why the effect of media-driven stories such as this one (perhaps true?) and “Biden is too ooold” can be problematic. They sap morale and motivation among those most likely to work for Dems, not to mention regular voters.

  72. 72.

    Baud

    @Starfish: Right, that’s what I said.  We have more confirmed facts now.

    Didn’t the original reporting say it was a deal for a slate of judges, and then later reporting say it was for only US attorneys in KY?  That’s a major fact that hasn’t been locked down one way or the other (to the extent this story remains interesting to people).

  74. 74.

    germy shoemangler

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:

    Yes, they were pretty shitty to her.  Touring was stressful enough but they made her endure endless “pranks” like stealing her clothes, etc.

    After her death, Groucho perpetuated the falsehood that she was a clueless person with no sense of humor.  He’d tell interviewers that Dumont didn’t understand the jokes and was exactly like the characters she portrayed.

    In reality she was a woman with a fine sense of humor, who knew exactly how to play it “straight” so a co-starring comedian could shine.

    She spoke about it whenever anyone cared to ask. She said it was important to support the comedian without upstaging him or directing attention away from his character.

    And yet Groucho made her sound like an amateur with no craft or understanding who wandered onstage one day.

  76. 76.

    rikyrah

    say it from the rooftops!

     

    Robert Garcia (@RobertGarcia) tweeted at 4:43 PM on Tue, Jul 12, 2022:
    Let’s be crystal clear: @POTUS has been incredibly effective. He saved lives due to his pandemic leadership, brought back the economy by passing the American Rescue Plan, record job growth, an infrastructure bill, historic judicial appointments & gun safety legislation. Onward.
    (https://twitter.com/RobertGarcia/status/1546973660061126656?t=f8tg05_R9EXVrYPC0Ry78g&s=03)

  77. 77.

    Starfish

    No one watched the video of the law professor dunking on Hawley that I posted in the second link from comment 5. Should I blame AOC or Biden supporters for this?

  79. 79.

    Evap

    @Steeplejack:  Dr Pepper was my favorite drink as a kid.  When I was really young it was only available in the south and it was a big deal to get one when we visited my grandparents in Alabama

  80. 80.

    Geminid

    ‘@O. Felix Culpa: Hmm…100% melanin-challenged. Was there much evidence of X Chromosome Deficiency Disorder?

  81. 81.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @TS: I am not saying that people need to devote their lives to volunteer work.  I am saying that stepping away from public life after you’ve been, at the very least, an utter embarrassment is probably one of the things that should be part of rebuilding a reputation.  Good works are probably a good idea too.

  82. 82.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    I saw a sample of Dumb ass Donny’s latest Truthers;

    * It has to be Hutchinson he tried to call because he keeps on ranting about her.

    * How the hell the MAGA hats think Trump is always calm and cool is beyond me, those tweets read like a child throwing a tantrum.

    * Musk and Trump is bromance is over, and that drama has started lol

  83. 83.

    Immanentize

    @Starfish: What are you talking about? Many of us saw that yesterday and commented about it in prior threads.

    Do you want a cookie?

  85. 85.

    Ohio Mom

    @narya: Having once known a couple of very involved AlAnon members, and as a result, heard more than I might have liked about the 12 Steps, I have very mixed feelings about the program.

    But they do have a well worn pathway for making amends.

    Now as with everything else AA-related, there’s no research or data on effectiveness. It could be a model for a starting point though.

  89. 89.

    Starfish

    @Immanentize: I was working and missed a lot of what went on yesterday and was poking around for everyone’s summary of the January 6 hearing.

  90. 90.

    zhena gogolia

    @O. Felix Culpa: How much time and energy was spent on this here blog, including front-page posts, on this “story”?

    It’s okay, though, Biden is still old.

  91. 91.

    Steeplejack

    @Evap:

    I was wondering if there would be a big shift to Mr. Pibb, but today I learned that Mr. Pibb died in 2001. But the dream lives on with Pibb Xtra.

    By coincidence I had some sort of Pibb beverage last week with my Popeyes chicken sandwich. I was getting my occasional homeopathic dose of fast food to keep my digestive system strong and resistant.

    . . . Whoa, flashback. Was it only a few years ago that Popeyes (no apostrophe, similar to no period in Dr Pepper) introduced their chicken sandwich and there was tumult in the land because they were in such short supply? Long lines and unrest in the streets. Why, yes, the Google tells me it was 2019. Another weird artifact from the Trump years.

    ETA: I’m so old that I remember the times before the Coke hegemony and we used to drink RC Cola when we visited the grandparents’ farm in Tennessee.

  92. 92.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Immanentize: The way I see it, all photos are fake, in the sense that they’re reconstructions attempting to evoke or illustrate something about the light in the original scene. Some are designed to mimic as closely as possible what you would see with your eyes if you were there; some are not. But the ones made by (legit) scientists are true, too, in that they’re telling us something real about the subject, something that might otherwise be invisible.

    The Webb telescope ones are an interesting case in that they’re all taken with infrared light, but in some photos of distant galaxies, that light has been redshifted by the expansion of the universe such that it was originally visible light, so it’s possible to reconstruct what would have been visible-light colors if you’d been closer to the subject.

    Not that it would have been easy to see them. Astronomical photos of pretty nebulae and galaxies are generally bringing out details you couldn’t see easily even if you were there, since they do much more than magnify–they’re using big apertures (that’s the whole point of the telescope), long exposures and sometimes special filters. But these techniques are generally showing us something true about the subject that we couldn’t see with a more human-like view.

  94. 94.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Starfish:

    No one watched the video of the law professor dunking on Hawley that I posted in the second link from comment 5. Should I blame AOC or Biden supporters for this?

    I saw it last night. Did I miss the post where Cole made a rule that we all have to comment on your comments?

  99. 99.

    Another Scott

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    NASA – Beware the micromoon.

    A more accurate and scientific term is “perigee syzygy” (pear-ih-jee sih-zih-jee). Syzygy is the alignment of three celestial bodies, in this case the Sun, Moon and Earth. But that doesn’t quite roll off the tongue as easily as supermoon.

    “Tonight’s Durian Perigee Syzygy is brought to you by Carl’s Jr, Brawndo, and Starlink”

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  105. 105.

    germy shoemangler

    @zhena gogolia: It’s okay, though, Biden is still old.

    They search day and night for a scandal and the best they can come up with is that Biden isn’t getting any younger.

    He’s still sharper than TFG and many in the beltway press

  110. 110.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Steeplejack: It always bothered me that the Bs in the Mr. PiBB logo looked kind of like German eszetts, which make an S sound, so if you pronounced it that way…

  111. 111.

    satby

    @Starfish: And yet, at the end nothing happened. But here we all are still discussing it as if it had and deep-mining the story for the faint whiff of a betrayal that never occurred, details of which were never fully disclosed. While the coup plotters continue to succeed in trying game future elections; but that’s old news.

    Sorry, not personally directed at you, just frustrated at the continued focus on all the chaff thrown into the air.

  113. 113.

    WaterGirl

    @Raven: I don’t think narya was saying they were arrested.  I think she was saying that she has a similar concern about people who have been incarcerated.

  114. 114.

    Scout211

    @narya: The bill was passed to fix that.

    California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday signed a bill allowing inmate firefighters to have their records expunged, clearing the path for them to be eligible for firefighting jobs upon release.

    The bill, sponsored by Democratic Assemblywoman Eloise Reyes, lets prisoners who received “valuable training and [placed] themselves in danger assisting firefighters to defend the life and property of Californians” to petition the courts to dismiss their convictions after completing their sentences.

    That will make them eligible to receive EMT certification, a hiring requirement of municipal firefighting departments. However, one that former inmates are prohibited by state law to pursue.

  115. 115.

    Baud

    @satby: Generally agree, although today’s discussion was triggered by the Reuters tweet discussing Biden’s 5 new judicial nominees.

  117. 117.

    Geminid

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: I read in a Raleigh News and Observer story that trump has cancelled a rally in North Carolina scheduled this Friday. They referenced an Axios report that he and his children will testify Friday under oath, in a civil proceeding concerning Trump Organization finances brought by New York AG Leticia James.

    Organizers of tbe North Carolina rally are not offering ticket refunds but rather tickets to future rallies. The next one will be in Wisconsin August 20.

  118. 118.

    Starfish

    @Baud: Her area of New York was represented by a lot of older Greek people. She disliked that all her representation was a lot of older Greek people, but she did like her Greek person who retired because his wife either got ill or died. She felt like her area is definitely super lefty.

    She said that Jerry Nadler and Carolyn Maloney are now in the same district, and there is potential that this will be ugly because they have both been around a long time.

  119. 119.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Funny how stuff like this keeps happening

    Will Sommer @willsommer

    This anti-Trump arson and graffiti attack became a big cause celebre on the right in 2020 as proof of liberal violence. Now the feds say it was staged by the pro-Trump property owner as part of an insurance fraud scheme.

    Molla submitted insurance claims totaling more than $300,000, receiving only $61,000 in the process. He then accused his insurance company of “defrauding him.” Court documents show he also yielded more than $17,000 from two GoFundMe accounts.

    I wonder if he majored in insurance maximization strategies at trump university that afternoon in the Minnetonka room at the St Paul Ramada (West)

  121. 121.

    Starfish

    @satby: Can we stop with the pretending that everything is cool until awful things happen?

    How many people shouting about women’s rights being under attack were told that they were being overly sensitive and that Roe would never be overturned, and yet…?

  125. 125.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Baud: The important part is that the usual suspects got a week or two of bashing Biden on something that never ended up happening.  Most of whom will never admit “you know, we don’t really know the details of the deal so let’s move on” and but will continue to bring it up when they want to bash Biden/Dems with “remember that time Biden tried to…”

  126. 126.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @schrodingers_cat:

    In this instance, the folks I was with are not part of that group. They’re faithful Democrats heavily involved in grassroots organizing. While the stories that get floated regarding Biden might be thin to entirely specious, they have a real effect on real people who do the work. Which is why “our side” needs to get savvier at sniffing out bullshit, as well as be prepared to challenge the rare bad decisions that Biden’s administration can make without giving up on our team altogether.

  127. 127.

    Baud

    @Starfish:

    How many people shouting about women’s rights being under attack were told that they were being overly sensitive and that Roe would never be overturned, and yet…?

    Told by whom?  We lost a Senate seat in Colorado for six years because Udall was viewed a cheesy in his raising the alarm about abortion rights.  Up till now, most of the dismissiveness on abortion I have seen has come from the left because it took the focus off of economic issues.  I’m going to pull a Psaki and ask who specifically told you that abortion rights were safe.

  129. 129.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Starfish: ​
      Ah, but here either there was no deal or the deal was scuttled. Either way, no bad thing happened. I am not sure how much we need to continue beating this horse.

  130. 130.

    germy shoemangler

    @satby:

    It’s one of those clips where every side has their own interpretation.  The trolls see it as Hawley winning the debate and making her look foolish.  Our side sees it as a brave woman speaking truth to a sleazeball.

    Our interpretation is correct, in my opinion.

  131. 131.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Starfish: It was the Vt senator who called Planned Parenthood establishment. It was the so called progressives who jeered when HRC when she said that Trump could appoint up to 4 Supreme Court justices.

    Now the same people have the gall to turn around and attack Biden. We were alive in 2015-2016. Your historical revisionism won’t fly here

    Here is Kamala Harris arguing for pre-clearance for abortion rights in 20 fucking 19. This is the same woman who many progressives are leaping over by calling for contested primaries and calling  her stupid and other memes by selectively playing edited clips of her speeches

    Link to WP where BS called Planned Parenthood part of the establishment

  132. 132.

    Ken

    @trollhattan: I heard it as “When an eel bites your heel And make-a you squeal, That’s a moray.”

    Also “He’s a comic, a ham, His name’s Amsterdam, That’s a Morey.”

  133. 133.

    cain

    @O. Felix Culpa:

    I remember reading that and thinking “what the fuck is Biden thinking” it seemed really weird that he would do that. Lo and behold, they arent going with that pick.

    Fucking media..

  134. 134.

    brendancalling

    @OzarkHillbilly: Sigh.

    I’ve probably remarked about this overall topic  few times here at Balloon Juice, but in my 20s I was a doorknocker for Greenpeace. My topic was almost always water resources and the impact of what we used to call the greenhouse effect on weather patterns. A big part of my spiel, before asking for a donation, was how scientists were saying we have 10-20 years to figure that out. This was in 1991, which was 31 years ago.

    Color me not-at-all-surprised about Lake Powell, Lake Mead, or any of our other shrinking reservoirs. This was predictable and predicted. We’re in for a really rough ride soon, and it looks like that’s coming even sooner for Colorado.

  137. 137.

    WaterGirl

    @sab: I had the same conversation in class with my criminology professor in grad school.  Half of the crimes committed by women are either during their period or in the days just before or just after.

  138. 138.

    wenchacha

    @Ohio Mom: I just watched Michael Pollan’s ” How To Change Your Mind” on Netflix. He researches and samples various psychedelics that may be useful in treating mental illness.

    He traces the recent history of various chemicals, and reveals that Bill W., founder of AA, was a participant in LSD research being done, back before it was illegal. He had a profound spiritual awakening, and was able to quit alcohol and develop his method.

    Interesting to me that what was his hallucination became “Christianized,” which is exactly what turns off many people to the AA model. Not to mention, it was the chemical reboot of Bill W’s brain that helped him, and could be helpful for so many others who struggle with addiction.

  139. 139.

    satby

    @Starfish: Listen, no one is pretending everything’s cool, and as a person who was already an adult when Roe was decided (and BTW: an adult before I could open a checking account in my own name, not get fired for being pregnant in a job even if I was married, and subjected to unending amounts of male attention now considered harassment or even assault) the last thing I will tolerate from a younger person is an accusation that we were unaware of the danger. I’ve screamed the impending danger  since the 90s to my younger friends and co-workers and got treated like a crank for my trouble. Sit the fuck down before you dare lecture people who actually spent their youth fighting for rights subsequent generations so took for granted.

  140. 140.

    zhena gogolia

    @Starfish: How about those people who shouted that when it was time to vote for Hillary Clinton? How were they treated? “Don’t blackmail me . . .”

  141. 141.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    The only reason to bring it up is to look at how it demoralizes faithful Democratic workers IRL. And consider why such stories are floated and how we can help our folks can get just a titch savvier about them.

  142. 142.

    Ken

    @Geminid: Organizers of the North Carolina rally are not offering ticket refunds but rather tickets to future rallies.

    Somewhere, someone is having a lightbulb moment, and realizing that profits will increase if they never bother renting the venue, or doing anything else to organize the rally.

  143. 143.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Baud:

    Told by whom?

    Yeah, I keep seeing this. Who was saying this? I don’t remember ever seeing it here. DNC Ogre-Puppets HRC and Biden regularly said Roe was on the ballot. They were accused by right, center and no small amount of the left for fear-mongering

    We lost a Senate seat in Colorado for six years because Udall was viewed a cheesy in his raising the alarm about abortion rights.

    After Darrell Issa’s hearing on birth control where (IIRC) all the witnesses were male clergy, mostly white, people raised hell. Remember Sandra Fluke? That was in the winter of 2012.

  146. 146.

    Immanentize

    @Omnes Omnibus: The beating of horses, alive or dead, must continue until Biden agrees, on primetime TV, that he is a neoshitlib and immediately announces he will not run for a second term, nor will any woman or person of color run in 2024.

    Ask DougJ if you don’t believe me!

  147. 147.

    SFAW

    @TS: ​
     

    All of them – I lost a few minutes of sanity listening to Hawley.

    Seeing a headline re: That Seditious Fucking Asshole’s “transphobic” questioning/statements, it struck me that we need something to replace “-phobic” when the behavior shows not fear, but hatred. [No, I’m not interested in the “but their hatred is driven by fear, so …” semantic/bullshit argument.] Same thing for “homophobic.” But I’m not enough of a Greek (or Latin) scholar to come up with something appropriate. But the sooner someone comes up with something to replace that sugar-coating bullshit, the better. Call them out on it, every time.

  148. 148.

    Betty Cracker

    @germy shoemangler: One of the Media Matters people did a tweet series yesterday showing how that phenomenon works. He used a clip of a recent appearance by Pete Buttigieg on Fox News. Buttigieg was asked about protesters outside of a restaurant where Kavanaugh was dining.

    Buttigieg’s answer was great; he absolutely pantsed the Fox guy in the eyes of anyone left of center, so the clip went viral. But the Media Matters guy showed how edited versions were recycled to gin up rage on Hannity’s show, Laura Ingraham’s, etc., in a deceptive way. My takeaway: don’t go on Fox News!

  149. 149.

    Baud

    @O. Felix Culpa:

    Yeah I think we just need to flood the zone with positive stories of what we’re doing, have done, and are fighting to do.  No point engaging with negative people.

  150. 150.

    eclare

    @brendancalling:   I moved to Memphis in 2004 mainly because my aging parents were here, but I also took into account water supply.  For all of its faults, Memphis has great water from an aquifer.

  151. 151.

    Old Dan and Little Ann

    Well after 2 1/2 days of barely moving, the hound seems on the mend.  Phew.  Regarding the moon, I’ve always thought that since the moon and the tides are linked and we are mostly water, it makes sense people go wonky during full moons.  That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.  My mom was a nurse for 30+ years I’ve been teaching for 20+.  We both agree the moon messes with people.

  152. 152.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @WaterGirl: I read her comment more as pointing out the fact that we can’t really be for Restorative Justice and also be like “f*** this person forever” when shitty people try to be better.  It’s a big problem with the prospect of any real restorative justice/Abolish Prison becoming a reality in this country.  People just aren’t that forgiving, in general, even on our side.  The amount of time people are spending reminding us how awful Cheney/Pence are (as if that’s some sort of brilliant insight) speaks volumes about how we treat shitty people when they try to do something good.  We like to sort things into black/white, good/bad.  We all do it.  The same applies for wanting a sane GOP.  Folding our arms and scolding people like Cheney really does nothing to help incentivize more Republicans to try to follow Cheney’s lead.

  153. 153.

    Geminid

    @Starfish: Maybe I’m wrong, but I seem to remember talking with you about the “degrowth” strategy for combating climate change. I could not give much of a summary of the degrowth position, but I have since found more in an interview of economist Robert Pollin by C. J. Polychonou, published in Truthout July 3, 2021.

    Pollin is not neccesarily a fan of this strategy: “I would say [I have] large areas of agreement along with significant differences.” But he does give a fuller explaination of the degrowth position, in its proponents’ own words.

  155. 155.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Betty Cracker: Jill Biden got selectively edited by the Post so that it looked like she was equating Latinos with breakfast tacos.  It’s not just Fox.

  159. 159.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @SFAW: First Google response-

    Homophobia: dislike of or prejudice against gay people.

    Everybody knows damn well that “phobia” in this context doesn’t refer only to fear.  Nobody is confused by this.  Anyone pretending to be is just pulling the oldest bad faith, bullshit move in the book.

  161. 161.

    Immanentize

    @wenchacha: uhhhh,

    Alcoholics Anonymous was officially founded in 1935, although that redemption model for treatment had been kicking around since the 19th century.

    LSD was first created in 1938 at the very earliest?

    Maybe peyote? Psilocybin?

  163. 163.

    Another Scott

    @Matt McIrvin: +1

    It’s always a wakeup call for me to remember how little of the electromagnetic spectrum our eyes can sense.

    NRCAN.gc.ca has a good discussion. Yet it doesn’t mention “cosmic rays” – with energies above 10^20 eV…

    Our eyes aren’t cameras, our ears aren’t microphones, our memories aren’t non-volatile, etc., etc. Our brains make a model of reality, but that model does not capture the richness of actual reality.

    Thanks.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  164. 164.

    Barbara

    @Starfish: If you are speaking of your own friend group, okay, you know them I don’t, but people in my friend group have been worried about protecting abortion rights since at least 1980 when Ronald Reagan was first elected.  Yes, actively worried, and being told as often as not that we were too strident, one issue voters.  But yeah, over time, we kept saying the same thing until people tuned it out, until, what do you know, one day it actually turned out to be true.

    Many people, probably disproportionately women, have cared passionately about protecting abortion rights for a long time. Just one example:  When the governor of Virginia tried to pass one of those hateful mandatory pre-abortion ultrasound laws women in the state raised a hue and cry loud enough to get him to back down.

    So please do not insult people by suggesting that they are guilty of taking rights for granted when they clearly did not, even if many others were way too complacent about maintaining the security of rights that others fought long and hard for.

  165. 165.

    germy shoemangler

    @Another Scott:

    My cat perceives more reality than I do.

    Smell, sound, sight…  she’s more aware than I am.

     

    Our brains make a model of reality, but that model does not capture the richness of actual reality.

    This may explain why people become republicans.

  167. 167.

    SFAW

    @UncleEbeneezer: ​
     
    I know how it’s used, thanks so much for educating me.

    I also know that people use “bemused” when they mean “amused.” “Everybody” knows that the two words can be used interchangeably, except not really.

    I don’t want some ambiguous bullshit to give them cover. Call it what it is: hatred.

  168. 168.

    Geminid

    @OzarkHillbilly: Someone remarked that if guns needed refrigeration, Republicans would have made the Texas grid much more reliable than it is.

    I’m hoping that Beto O’Rourke and Texas Democrats can make their state’s lousy electrical grid a winning issue. Freezing and baking in one’s own home is a “kitchen tabe issue” if there ever was one. Texas has been run by Republicans for two decades now, and “Throw the Rascals Out!” can be a potent campaign theme.

  171. 171.

    O. Felix Culpa

    Shifting gears, I just watched Liz Cheney’s opening remarks from yesterday’s hearings. (I missed the first 15 minutes.) She is excellent at reading Trump for filth, and I’m here for it.

  172. 172.

    Immanentize

    @WaterGirl: I remember back in the early ’80s when some radical Dems were slapping “violence against women” stickers on books at bookstores which were about  PMS (written by men).

  173. 173.

    schrodingers_cat

    @O. Felix Culpa: I am seeing outright lies, half truths and ageist attacks on Biden-Harris from many blue check leftie media types.

    Along with rags like NYT and Politico.  Vichy Times and Politiho is what I like to call them

    Ds are doing better in the generic ballot for the midterms so B team for Republicans is working hard to change it. Afterall the 4th house is not going to build itself.

  174. 174.

    Betty Cracker

    @Omnes Omnibus: Fox News is a dedicated propaganda arm of the Republican Party, and as such, it can always be counted on to twist any Democrat’s words for maximum bad faith. The Washington Post, for all its failings, is not.

  175. 175.

    SFAW

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    But he will still have to pay highly inflated prices for electricity whether he gets it or not.

    He’ll just have the prices raised on Teslas to cover the increase.

  177. 177.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Another Scott: Those cosmic rays aren’t part of the electromagnetic spectrum at all–they are charged particles of matter. So the means of detecting them are different.

    And now we also have ways to observe neutrinos and gravitational waves, notoriously difficult things to detect.

  179. 179.

    Another Scott

    @Omnes Omnibus: There’s a third possibility – the deal has been put off for some future time.

    Who knows.

    My bottom line – Biden is not stupid.  Biden has been doing politics a very, very long time.  He knows how the Senate works better than anyone.  He knows how judicial appointments work better than anyone.  If he’s trying to do a deal, it’s because he thinks it’s a good idea.  But he also knows that politics is the art of the possible, and what’s possible depends on the time-frame and current events.  He’s not going to burn his presidency down on something that will have toxic politics even if he thinks that ultimately it’s a good idea.

    (biden-i-got-this.gif)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  183. 183.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @AliceBlue:

    A video clip from yesterday’s Jan. 6 hearings, where Sidney Powell took a product placement-like swig of Diet Dr Pepper.

    ETA: zg types faster. :)

  185. 185.

    germy shoemangler

    @O. Felix Culpa:

    Powell was funny when she described Trump’s lawyer breaking a land speed record.

    She’s a lunatic with a sense of humor apparently.

  187. 187.

    Matt McIrvin

    @germy shoemangler: Cat vision is interestingly different from human vision. In some ways it’s worse than ours. It is not very acute–they’re not getting a very high-resolution image; it’s fuzzy by our standards–and their color vision is reduced, a bit like a human with red-green color blindness.

    But they are exquisitely able to detect the faintest flicker of motion, and they can see far better than we can in very low light.

  188. 188.

    Ken

    @Matt McIrvin: I’ve heard that cosmic rays can be seen by humans, if they hit the retina. Or maybe it was if they hit your head and the secondary radiation hits your retina?

  190. 190.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    Inflation surges 9.1% in June, most since November 1981

    U.S. consumer prices in June accelerated at the fastest annual pace since November 1981.

    The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index (CPI) reflected a year-over-year increase of 9.1% last month, up from the prior 40-year high of 8.6% in May. Economists were expecting June’s reading to show an 8.8% increase, according to estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

    […]

    “Overall, this report confirms that the Fed will need to hike by 75bp again at the end-July meeting,” Capital Economics Senior U.S. Economist Michael Pearce said.

    […]

    In Washington, the White House on Tuesday warned in a call with reporters that June’s inflation numbers were likely to be “highly elevated” but downplayed the weight of last month’s figure, pointing to gas prices that have since retreated from their highs.

    Brian Deese, director of the National Economic Council, echoed that defense of June’s CPI reading in an interview with Yahoo Finance Live on Wednesday. Deese underscored the downward trend in gasoline prices, but did not offer specific details when asked how volatility in energy markets may show up in future readings if prices swing back up.

    “The Administration tried to get out in front of the bad economic news, and tell us the inflation report was going to be ugly this month, but it was even worse than markets imagined in their wildest dreams,” FWDBONDS Chief Economist Christopher Rupkey said in emailed commentary

    What I’m wondering is why the Fed’s rate hikes haven’t seemed to show any effects yet?

  194. 194.

    Steeplejack

    @rikyrah:

    Republicans are currently going on Fox to try to intimidate Merrick Garland, threatening to investigate and impeach him if they take power.

    They’re doing that instead of this:

    Another damning, highly incriminating day for Donald Trump before the January 6 Committee and the silence from Republican congressional leaders is deafening, including from @RepStefanik @EliseStefanik, who was supposed to lead an aggressive rapid response effort.

    — Ted Boutrous (@BoutrousTed) July 13, 2022

  195. 195.

    Immanentize

    @snoey: That I believe! Have you ever read Storming Heaven? It is a fabulous book about the arc of hallucinogenic research/experimentation/adoption (up to the 90s).

  198. 198.

    zhena gogolia

    @germy shoemangler: I loved that. The almost split-screen effect of her looniness with her Dr Pepper and his dapper, lawyerly disdain was very funny (if it weren’t so tragic).

    I didn’t realize yesterday that “Overstock guy” was the one who was involved with Maria Butina.

  199. 199.

    Baud

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    What I’m wondering is why the Fed’s rate hikes haven’t seemed to show any effects yet?

    The Fed hiked rates in mid-June and this report covers June.  Rate hikes can’t have instantaneous effect.

  200. 200.

    Nelle

    @zhena gogolia: I was told “Don’t try to manipulate me” by a Bernie supporter when I brought up the Supreme Court.  She was so utterly dismissive that it took my breath away.  And condescending too.  Last time I ever talked to her, though I have to stifle the impulse to walk up to her door and say, “And how do you like them apples now?”

  201. 201.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @O. Felix Culpa:

    9.1% is a pretty big deal, I would think. High inflation is already hampering the economy globally and a lot of people are being hurt. This is absolutely going to affect the midterms unless the situation improves soon. I had hoped that things would have been cooling off by now. Hopefully oil prices will continue to drift downward further, as fuel costs are huge part of the increase

  202. 202.

    WaterGirl

    @Old Dan and Little Ann: If your pup has arthritis issues, adequan can work wonders.  Back when Bailey took it, there was a series of 2 shots a week for 4 weeks.  Right about shot #5 we could see a big difference and by shot #8 the difference was remarkable.

    After some period of time – maybe several months or a year, I can’t remember – he needed a couple of booster shots and then was good again.

    Maybe something to ask you vet about?

  209. 209.

    TS

    @Starfish:

    I watched it and posted I want those minutes of my life back.

    Thus said, 98% of my comments never get a response – it doesn’t mean that someone hasn’t read them or checked a link.

  211. 211.

    Matt McIrvin

    @UncleEbeneezer:

    Everybody knows damn well that “phobia” in this context doesn’t refer only to fear.  Nobody is confused by this.  Anyone pretending to be is just pulling the oldest bad faith, bullshit move in the book.

    I think, though, that part of the reason they harp on that is that they really are afraid and they’re upset at the implication that this is so (because a manly man is not afraid of anything, etc.)

  212. 212.

    narya

    @UncleEbeneezer: Yes, thank you, that is where I was going. I saw this when I worked at the substance abuse treatment agency, too, many years ago: lots of ex-cons there. There has to be a path. Not everyone will take it, and it will not be an easy one. I even think that there should be a path–in prison–for folks whose past behavior doesn’t warrant them ever getting out. Everyone should have the opportunity to do good, even when they have done very bad things. The good doesn’t “erase” the bad, but expecting/allowing only bad things means that’s all you’ll ever get.

  213. 213.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    Here’s an comment by YY_Sima Qian from a few days ago that went under the radar that I think is very important to keep in mind going forward:

    I think both the GDP growth & the wage growth numbers are nominal figures. Accounting for inflation, US GDP growth was negative in Q1 & is estimated to be < 2% for Q2, & just over 2% for the year. Furthermore, there are more economic uncertainties going forward, as global inflationary pressure does not appear to be transitory (something both the Fed & the Biden Administration have realized a couple of months ago), & economies of both developing & developed countries are already in rough shape (which is negatively affecting the US, & will continue to). There may or may not be a recession at the end of this year or early next, but real GDP growth looks to be anemic.

    I am all for touting the D’s accomplishment, & there are plenty to tout (unfortunately Sinemanchin really capped them), but we also need to live in reality. No happy talk about nominal GDP or wage growth (especially the former) will convince people whose spending power are being eaten away by inflation (despite the nominal wage growth). Should the US & world economies encounter further difficulties in Q3/Q4, premature celebration now will leave eggs on faces, & give the Rs an easy line of attack.

    Now, the unemployment rate, that should be touted. (Yes, administration policies rarely have short term impact on macroeconomics, & labor participation rate is still below per-pandemic levels, but taking credit for macro growth is a time honored political tradition & fair game for electioneering.)

  215. 215.

    germy shoemangler

    Trump is an excitable boy.

    Why was it necessary to have people to calm the president? Tell me again how women are too emotional to be president.

    — Rachel Vindman (@natsechobbyist) July 12, 2022

  219. 219.

    TS

    @Ken:

    Somewhere, someone is having a lightbulb moment, and realizing that profits will increase if they never bother renting the venue, or doing anything else to organize the rally.

    Well, they never used to pay for the venue – but maybe some places are now getting smarter and want the money up front, so cancelling the event is the better option.

  222. 222.

    Scout211

    @Scout211: @narya:

    Text added to include the fact that the bill was signed in September of 2020. So it’s in effect now.

    narya, I’m glad I brightened you day. ☀️

  226. 226.

    satby

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): both. No one is playing the distraction game today.

    And for 50% of the electorate, why do you think spending essentially 9% more on some things would be more important than bodily autonomy?  Never mind, don’t answer.

  227. 227.

    frosty

    @Another Scott: Our brains make a model of reality, but that model does not capture the richness of actual reality.

    This is something I remember from Aldous Huxley’s book The Doors of Perception.

  230. 230.

    Geminid

    @TS: When I post a comment and no one responds, I just tell myself that my comment was so good there was nothing more to say!

  232. 232.

    narya

    @Scout211: Yeah, I started off with another bullshit-bingo work meeting, and it’s my birthday (it’s thread-end, so i feel safe noting that :-)), so I did, in fact, need a little brightener.

  233. 233.

    Another Scott

    @Matt McIrvin: But, but, e = mc^2 so it’s all the same!

    ;-)

    Touche’

    One of my work-study projects in college was using a photomultiplier tube to characterize some new Japanese scintillator glass that was considered for use at Fermilab for some experiment on CP symmetry violation.  We used some radioactive button source to generate particles which generated photons in the glass and measured the response as a function of distance from the PMT.

    “You’ve got to subtract the pedestal!!”

    (Turns out there was a lot of striation in the glass, so it probably wasn’t usable, but I never heard the final outcome.)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  234. 234.

    TS

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    What I’m wondering is why the Fed’s rate hikes haven’t seemed to show any effects yet?

    If it’s like my part of the world – every business I buy anything from raised it prices by 5-40% when the base rate increased by 0.5%

    If anyone is going to suffer from inflation – it won’t be the businesses selling the food that I buy or the services that I use.

  237. 237.

    Jinchi

    @Betty Cracker: ​
     My theory is Beshear or someone in his office leaked this info to stop the Meredith nomination, and it worked.

    Agreed. Biden pretty clearly had a deal with McConnell on this. It hasn’t gone through because people found out and there was blowback. This isn’t a hit job by the media or the “online left”. The people objecting are elected Democratic politicians, including the Governor of Kentucky, along with Federal Representatives and Senators.

  238. 238.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @satby: a recurring theme of old-fart, pragmatic, long-view twitter (one of whom I would be if I had an account) used to be “people who think politics began in 2008/2016…”

    I’m not one to stir up shit so I won’t add in “when the little birdie landed on Bernie’s podium”

  240. 240.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @satby:

    I never said I thought it was more important. Where did I ever say that?! And I’m not playing some “distraction game” either. We can all chew bubble gum and walk at the same time, can’t we? Inflation is important because of the economic implications and unfortunately a lot of people we need to vote for us to win the states and districts we need to control Congress (independents) are more receptive to the economy. I don’t like this reality, but it is what it is.

  242. 242.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Matt McIrvin: Oh absolutely.  My point is that if we change our language to find better words these people will keep pulling the same bullshit.

  244. 244.

    satby

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    I’ll let John handle this one:

    John Pavlovitz @johnpavlovitz  1h

    The thing that really bothers me about the 9.1 % rise in inflation—is that a former president and his entire party plotted to overturn an election, overthrow our government, and install a vile, traitorous ignoramus.

    EDIT: Finis

  246. 246.

    Barbara

    @Starfish: She is, and good for her, but I do think we face what I call the “long tail” problem on issues like this.  Hawley tries to box the professor in on who can get pregnant and kind of sneers that it’s only a women’s rights issue (or something like that), which she deflects — after all, I am a woman, and I can’t get pregnant, at least not any longer — so Hawley is inaccurate even as to women, whereas he is denying the reality that people who self-identify as other than women might also be affected by laws affecting reproduction, including but not limited to pregnancy.  The gay couple who can no longer use fertility services to start a family, for instance, or even pursue adoption.

    Does it matter that we frame it this way or that?  I don’t know, but I do know that going straight to the issue of transgendered people in discussions like this as Hawley does is a way to bog down the discussion and deflect from the cataclysmic impact on  people who are inevitably affected by Dobbs — which is pre-menopausal people with active biologically female reproductive capacity, and the vast majority of these are biological women who are engaged in sexual relationships with men.  In my view, Hawley successfully got his smoke screen even though the professor stood her ground.  I am not minimizing the importance of anyone else’s rights, but this is such a clear strategy it is stupid for us not to have a way of not getting caught up in it all the time in any discussion involving abortion and reproductive rights.

  247. 247.

    SFAW

    @Nelle: ​
     
    I agree. I was just hoping there would be some suffix (so to speak) which could be attached as necessary. Sorta like how “-gate” became ubiquitous after 1972. [Although not always applied appropriately, I guess.]

  251. 251.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Geminid:

    I hear and see plenty from Ryan. Not so much from Whaley. Ryan talks about the importance of tackling high inflation, getting jobs back from China, etc. He’s trying to position himself as a maverick

  253. 253.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): The rate hikes are not large (yet), and also they’re not really being exposed to consumers in the form of ways they can hedge against inflation by saving money rather than by spending it. That was one of the problems back in the 70s. But all that takes more time than maybe we have.

    One of the purposes of the rate hikes is to cool down the economy, and that might have the effect of fighting inflation by causing a recession–out of the frying pan into the fire.

  254. 254.

    Soprano2

    @schrodingers_cat: Many more moderate Dems, especially men, kept saying we shouldn’t talk about abortion and “women’s issues” because people (white men) didn’t care about them, but instead cared about “economic issues”. They could never admit that “women’s issues” and “economic issues” were the same thing!

  259. 259.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Barbara: The reasonable way to respond to that is to get mad–“oh, blow it out your ass, you know you’re trying to change the subject and get your bigoted friends riled up.” But I don’t suppose it’s always the politically savvy way. Men have way more latitude to get mad and yell.

  261. 261.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Matt McIrvin:

    and also they’re not really being exposed to consumers in the form of ways they can hedge against inflation by saving money rather than by spending it.

    Could you explain this?

  263. 263.

    Jinchi

    @Barbara: ​  In my view, Hawley successfully got his smoke screen even though the professor stood her ground.

    Hawley got his smokescreen because, as the Senator asking the questions, he controls what gets asked and can cut off any answers that he doesn’t like. This isn’t a balanced interaction. I’m sure the smokescreen will look brilliant to fans of Fox news.
    But Bridges did an excellent job making her points, despite being in a disadvantaged position, and that’s the message that got reported outside of the rightwing media universe.​

  270. 270.

    misterpuff

    @O. Felix Culpa: I know that the point of this and other posts is to lament uninformed pushback by professional Dems (and those that cosplay them on Twitter) but early on (40 years ago) I came to realize that politicians often raise a trial balloon to see the response (and the sharp ones do it to elicit the opposite response).

    Our role as The Base is to respond heartily to oppose these “ideas”. If we do, and the politician changes course all is well. If we do, and they continue on that path, well, they have revealed themselves.

    I know its cynical but that is how the game is played. We are the wind that causes the tack.

  271. 271.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): So usually we think of higher prices as discouraging spending. People can’t afford things if they’re too expensive, so they stop buying things and that is the limit on prices just spiraling upward forever under increased demand and increased costs of production.

    But suppose inflation gets really bad and people start expecting high inflation. Then they have a motivation to buy things they can’t afford because they’ll become even more unaffordable later. Their money is going to become worthless if they don’t spend it now! Saving it won’t do any good because any interest they earn just gets effectively eaten up by inflation.

    That means people keep spending themselves into the ground and prices keep going up and up under hot consumer demand. And they demand wage increases because the cost of living went up, which makes things still more expensive to produce. That’s an inflationary spiral.

    If interest rates go up, it makes it harder to get and service business loans. That tends to cool down the economy, at a cost in pain. But if people still have no good way to save money, it won’t reduce consumer demand as much as you’d expect.

    One problem in the 70s was that interest rates got jacked up really high but bank interest on consumer savings accounts wasn’t high, so people had no good way to save. At first, there were actually laws forbidding this! Eventually as a result of regulatory changes, things like money-market accounts that paid good interest appeared. You could get savings and CD interest rates that were incredibly high in the early 80s. And that helped cool down inflation, because it became less ruinous to save money instead of spending it.

  273. 273.

    livewyre

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): If distraction isn’t your goal, which I could buy, then what’s your actual motivation for changing the topic? Speaking as someone who has trouble with it, be careful of savvy-chasing and cornering a topic for momentary gratification. The world is bigger than that.

  275. 275.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    interesting speculation from a playwright who knows as much about politics as anyone here

    Richard M. Nixon @dick_nixon 24m

    I have long thought Eastman and Giuliani are in legal trouble but I increasingly think Meadows is too. Trump’s people think so.
    As for who the big witness is next week, I think Patrick Byrne makes the most sense. There’s an outside chance at Pence, but I’d be surprised.

    I’ll bet all my quatloos it’s not Pence. I think even if Mother has smacked any delusions about a political future out of his head, and I don’t think either one is that bright, he knows any future he has with wingnut welfare is tied to trump, and I don’t think Pence is a rich man. And if he did testify, he’d insist on some ceremony, I suspect. But Byrne might be in some legal jeopardy, and I gather he left Overstock under an ethical/legal cloud (right? Thought I heard that on MSNBC yesterday) and I can well imagine he doesn’t want anymore scrutiny or legal bills than he already has.

  277. 277.

    SFAW

    @UncleEbeneezer: ​
     

    My point is that if we change our language to find better words these people will keep pulling the same bullshit.

    They’ll pull the same bullshit no matter what. But if we persistently call it out for what it is, with concomitant phrasing (other than the ambiguous “-phobia”), it will eventually have the desired effect.
    The forced-birthers latched onto the “pro life” bullshit, and successfully obscured their anti-independent-women agenda. But that didn’t happen overnight. For the most part, the “forced-birthers” phrasing has not reached the same level of recognition, but it can. Same thing with an unambiguous “trans hatred” phrase

  278. 278.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @livewyre:

    I suppose, I feel like it’s often ignored here. And it frustrates me that I’m often dismissed, at least it feels like it to me, when I bring up my concerns about it. I ended up being right to worry about it and the political implications of high inflation

    And I wasn’t trying to change the topic. It was an open thread and I thought it was fine to bring up other things

  280. 280.

    Barbara

    @Matt McIrvin: “Senator Hawley, ‘pregnant people’ include any people with some or all of their female reproductive capability intact, most of whom identify as women but some of whom do not.  They are all grievously affected by Dobbs.  And, by the way, it is my practice to refer to all people as people in all cases in order to underscore that women are people whether they are pregnant or not, as much as men, which you among others seem to forget when it comes to legislating their lives.”

  281. 281.

    livewyre

    @misterpuff: A distinction occurs to me – the one I’m usually on about, in fact. We can be that wind as long as the pushback is centered on actions rather than essence. The latter is what the smears might take advantage of.

    I think we sap momentum (whether for pushing back or other needed actions) if we start to focus on the moral essence of the doer – is he about to betray us? Was he always? Is this the turn? Then we’re stuck waiting for Godot’s other shoe to drop. Instead, I think we can keep the pressure up as long as we understand that mistakes can be made and actions taken that sometimes don’t work (trial-ballooned or not), and push back on those rather than losing trust and tuning out.

  283. 283.

    livewyre

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): There’s a give and take to topic-changing, even in open threads. Demanding gravity and attention is different from inviting others along.

    We have to trust that others will give our words their chance in turn if we want to be taken seriously. That’s where I think the objections and seeming dismissal come from.

  284. 284.

    SFAW

    @WaterGirl: ​
     

    What makes you think the goal there is to be productive?

    Well, for one, we see the tremendous amount of work YOU do, in order to keep this place going for Whats-his-name. So we draw that conclusion.

  286. 286.

    Geminid

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: It’s true that Pence is not a wealthy man. He must rely on the wider conservative world for income, institutions like the Heritage Foundation which I believe employs him now.

    I don’t think Pence has any particular material reason not to tear Trump down. But Pence has Presidential ambitions that would incentivise him against being very forthcoming to the Commitee. I don’t think he’d lie, just give guarded answers and equivocal conclusions.

    I don’t think Pence has a chance to win the Republican nomination in 2024, but he does. As Abraham Lincoln commented, once the worm of Presidential ambition starts to gnaw, it gnaws deep.

  287. 287.

    Steeplejack

    @Baud:

    And inflation and gas prices don’t appear to be the whole story. Ford’s gas-guzzling pickup trucks are on long back-order. Some of that is reportedly due to chip shortages, but people are still lining up to buy them. And apparently have the “spending power” to do so.

  288. 288.

    WaterGirl

    @Ghost of Joe Liebling’s Dog: Did you use Steeplejack’s trick for the (looks like) apostrophe?

    Are you sure you want it deleted?  Because if it’s your first comment with that nym and you like that nym… but I delete it, then you will have to have another first comment approved.

  292. 292.

    Cmorenc

    @Evap:

    Dr Pepper was my favorite as a kid, too!  As to the contemporary 2022 version of Dr Pepper vs the 1960 version, I suspect at some point the “peppery” spicy taste got dumbed down to a milder formulation, probably to do with MBA /marketing types deciding to go with a lower common denominator in conjunction with growing it into a national and international rather than regional market. Perhaps my taste buds have been dulled over the intervening 60 years, but I recall it having a distinctly much tangier taste when i was 10 years old vs now.

    Another southern regional soft drink, Cheerwine, has a tangy taste much closer to the original Dr Pepper flavor, except that CW also has a cherry flavoring ingredient.

  295. 295.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @WaterGirl:

    I understand and I don’t expect a response but I do feel I need to say this now that I’ve had some time to think. I think Baud and you are right that what I’m doing isn’t productive at all; I am fretting over things I can’t control and I’m sure it’s getting very annoying for everyone

  297. 297.

    Soprano2

    @schrodingers_cat: I’m talking about people like James Carville. The people who thought there was some kind of “deal” to be made with anti-abortion people that would get them to quit trying to overturn Roe. The ones who thought talking about abortion was “icky” and would turn off independents. The ones who thought all Dems should talk about was the economy.

  298. 298.

    StringOnAStick

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): It seems to me that what makes this inflationary period a bit unique is that it is due to the world economy stalling out in the early days of Covid, which created pent-up demand at all levels of the economy (world, national,. local).  Now all the normal growth and demand that would have occurred when the national/world economy was essentially shut down has snapped back and it being felt in a compressed time frame; hence: inflation.  Probably the closest analogy is the post WWII era, which also saw significant inflation in the US.  Close, but not perfect.

    Americans suffer from an insular world view, and aren’t being told by their media that inflation is an issue throughout the world.  Hopefully the declines in oil prices (go look at a current oil futures graph, you’ll feel better) will continue to be seen in oil prices as well since that has been a big inflation driver.  As for the older members of BJ not being quite so hair on fire about this, we lived through stagflation and huge interest rates in the 1970′-80’s.  This is all brand new to you, but we’ve seen it before and people still lived their lives.  We can worry about the impact of inflation on the midterms, but worrying doesn’t impact those results, taking action does.  You’d feel better if you were taking action in some manner I suspect.  Nothing is quite as scary as being frozen into inaction.

  299. 299.

    Matt McIrvin

    @StringOnAStick:

    This is all brand new to you, but we’ve seen it before and people still lived their lives

    …and voted a bunch of fanatical movement conservatives into office, with huge walloping landslide margins, and they fucked everything up to the present day.

  300. 300.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Steeplejack: While I recognize the hit that high gas prices make to vulnerable people who can’t avoid paying them to do their jobs and live their lives, I have zero sympathy for anyone who drops a huge amount of money on a brand-new gas-guzzling behemoth of a vehicle and then complains about how Biden jacked up gasoline prices.

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