Jennifer Rubin sums it up perfectly.
none of their “plans@ would address inflation; they would make it worse by increasing the national debt, further tightening the job market and acting as a fiscal stimulus in an already overheated economy. https://t.co/3DhzGMxlae
— Jennifer "Pro-privacy" Rubin (@JRubinBlogger) October 27, 2022
Republicans have shown who they are. Voters should believe them. (gift article)
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has shown yet again that Republicans are no longer bothering to disguise their extremism and contempt for voters’ intelligence.
Jennifer Rubin’s Major Points:
- Republicans want politicians to control women’s pregnancies.
- Republicans won’t hesitate to back former president Donald Trump.
- Republicans will instigate a constitutional crisis if they do not win in 2024.
- Republicans no longer pretend to support economic populism.
- Republicans have no plan to fight inflation.
- Republicans revel in cruelty.
Here it is again as an image, in case anyone wants to share on social media.
And here’s the raw gift article that you can share far and wide, if you choose: https://wapo.st/3syqZXl
Republicans have shown who they are. What would your top 6 or 7 points be, if you had a national platform?
Open thread.
RaflW
I sure hope Jen Rubin reflects the journey at least a few percent of conservative women have gone through in the past decade, and especially the past few years since J6. She seems to have cut through the fog of bullshit and fear-button GOP messaging to see how screwed up the priorities of the MAGA horde is
I’d also add to Jen’s list that Republicans are promising an Impeachmentathon if they take the House. They can’t convict, but it’ll make even the most basic operations of the Exec Branch more difficult.
They’ll also try to block aid to Ukraine so that Putin has a better chance of at least a stalemate in that immoral war.
Albatrossity
Immigration Reform
Campaign Finance Reform
Codify Roe
Voting Rights Reform
Princess
I would aim right at Gen X: You’ve paid into Social Security for 30 years and now the GOP wants to take it away right as you get close to collecting the money you’re owed. Hit those little Alex Keatons right between the eyes.
@RaflW: The difference between Rubin and most conservative women is that she’s Jewish. There’s a reason she, Kristol, Frum, and even Goldberg in his cowardly way have turned from Trumpism and its because they’ve seen this movie before.
schrodingers_cat
Unless you are white Christian and male, the Republican party doesn’t think of you as a full adult or a person deserving of fundamental rights.
WaterGirl
@RaflW: Yeah, I think I would trade the Trump line out for Ukraine.
Still, hers is a pretty good list.
NorthLeft
Unfortunately, the MSM continues to fret and highlight the “catastrophic” impact of high inflation, while ignoring the positives of full employment, sustained economic growth, and rising corporate/business profits.
The business community will never publicly admit that they are making more money now than they did under TFG, and that the economic fundamentals are quite good. They want the Republicans back in because they know they will get their taxes cut and assistance in destroying unions, safety and environmental laws, etc.
Cameron
…and there will not only be impeachments, there will be hearings. Carl Sagan numbers of hearings. Gym Jordan, Balloon-Head Gaetz, Lauren Boe-boe-boebert, Jewish Space Laser Lady, all of them, in all their magnificence.
RaflW
@NorthLeft: And yet they all – while shoveling cash at GOP pols – ignore that Republicans will do a shutdown and probably jump off the fiscal cliff, without caring what that does to the still-growing-for-now economy. [forehead slap dot gif]
And if they think they can call up these MAGA choads in office after January and say “Hey, we gave you mad cash, don’t do that!” does anyone think they’ll be listened to? Hahah.
Suzanne
Republicans want to take all your resources and turn you into a serf.
Republicans want to keep you stupid.
Republicans want to keep women out of public life.
Republicans want to destroy your planet.
Republicans want to turn the country into gated communities for rich white men.
VOR
@Cameron: From the Wikipedia article on the 2012 Benghazi attack:
That’s the future if Republicans take control of Congress – endless investigations based on conspiracy theories.
eversor
Republicans are the Christian party. Until we tackle Christianity fighting the Republicans is pointless.
Suzanne
Republicans want opportunity for lazy, stupid white dudes and service for the rest of us.
JanieM
Republicans prefer mass slaughter, often of children, to any kind of curbs at all on the private ownership and public display of weapons of war.
Republicans don’t want most of us to vote.
Omnes Omnibus
So let’s not let them win.
Sure Lurkalot
@NorthLeft:
Per FTFNYT: Shell “reported adjusted earnings for the third quarter of $9.45 billion, its second-highest profit on record and more than double the $4.1 billion it made in the same period a year earlier.”
Per CNN: Shell will buy back $4 billion worth of shares and increase its dividend by 15% after posting another gigantic quarterly profit thanks to strong oil and gas prices.
Other MJS
Republicans want irrevocable power.
Sure Lurkalot
@Suzanne: Hey, you’re quite good at this (if you ever decide to change up your life).
sab
@RaflW: Where was she the rest of her life when this was unfolding. It certainly wasn’t a secret.
Eyeroller
@NorthLeft: Funny how every election year, the MSM spends October talking about what Republicans want to talk about, in the frame Republicans want. Funny.
lowtechcyclist
The Republican Party:Is working to destroy democracy by making sure only their supporters’ votes count.
Has taken away a woman’s right to her bodily autonomy in much of the country, and they’ll make it nationwide if given the chance.
Wants to cut Social Security.
Wants to cut Medicare.
Says they will force the U.S. to default on its debt if they are prevented from cutting Social Security and Medicare, which would cause a global economic crisis that would plunge us into recession.
Wants to end any further aid to Ukraine as it defends itself against fascist Russia.
Allies itself with third-world authoritarian strongmen around the world: Putin, Orban, Bolsonaro, MBS.Is opposed to any attempt to address global warming.
Looks like I left out guns. What JanieM said.
cmorenc
People are feeling scared and insecure, even many folks who in more normal times / by objective standards would be economically prosperous and secure – because their 401k retirement portfolios are getting battered, and inflation is eroding their sense of prosperity, and the whole world seems a scary mess on many fronts. My wife and I are a good example – realistically, we have enough retirement savings that we’re going to survive very comfortably ok even in a substantial economic downturn, but we’ve had to put on hold our more ambitious dreams that seemed easily in reach a couple of years ago, and we are watching our spending much more closely week-to week. (We’re still resolutely voting D, so no worries our brains have been corrupted by GOP spin zombies). Nevertheless, these sorts of conditions are fertile for exploitation by demagogues seeking to gain control of social institutions and government for their own ends.
sab
I hate to tell Jen Rubin that this is who they always were. Frum being Canadian has an excuse for not knowing. She has none.
RaflW
@Suzanne: Women can be in public life. But, like Thatcher, they have to be actively anti-feminist. Or in the 21st century, they have to performatively prance around with huge semi-automatic weapons, and be proud of their rolling coal dualie pickup trucks.
In other words, they have to act like the men they’re married to.
Mike in NC
Republicans would happily let Putin expand his fascist empire to the English Channel.
Kropacetic
Why stop there?
RaflW
@Omnes Omnibus: +1
Kay
Miami Herald doing a bang-up job taking apart Marco Rubio’s fanciful tale about how his “canvasser” was “attacked for being a Republican”. Pack of lies, obviously.
BTW, this is what a Miami Herald reporter earns:
Reporter
6 Salaries submitted $61,843
Imagine if we took these huge pundit/commentary/celebrity author salaries in media and hired more 60k a year reporters? Add more value? You bet it would.
Geminid
@Albatrossity: Immigration reform is on my list too!
Also, universal Pre-K, and free community college and/or two years of technical training: investment in our human capital.
Alison Rose
@eversor: 100% correct, there are zero Christians in the Democratic Party, very good, very smart.
JFC will you please shut the hell up about this. Go make your own blog where you can screech about religion to your heart’s delight.
RaflW
@Sure Lurkalot: It sure seems like – though I know crude prices are a global market – that wholesale and retail gas prices in this country have probably been kept artificially high this fall to both reap windfall profits and help take the shine off Biden.
Looking at the crack spread (processing margin) for Jet A, it’s been at the widest in 5+ years, just since about March of this year. Refiners used ‘inflation’ to gouge customers (including fellow big biz buddies at the airlines, who have imposed some very stiff price collusion power to offset fuel costs and stay happy).
We’ll see if prices and margins drop after this 6 months of punishing consumers to attempt to exact a political result.
Baud
@cmorenc:
If I looked it up correctly, the S&P 500 today is almost the same as it was when Biden took office. Nothing to crow about, but it’s not like it was during the beginning of the Great Recession. Voters will be nervous about whatever they choose to, but this is the type of short term market fluctuation people who invest in equities should be prepared for.
Kay
@Baud:
Short term tracking is crazy making and to be avoided. People would be happier if they stopped doing it.
Paul in KY
@eversor: You can only make inroads by showing how opposed their values are to ‘real Christianity’.
Talk up Jesus sayings alot. They hate Jesus, cause he’s a lovey-dovey hippy. Make them disavow Christ’s teachings.
This can be done by non-Christians too. You don’t have to be a Christian to point out their BS. They’re the ones braying about it.
Baud
@Kay:
I agree. Although based on my news feed, anyone who follows the media will be made nervous.
ETA: Short term asset appreciation is the crack of capitalism.
RaflW
@sab: I’m not going for the purity of past actions these days. Anyone switching to vote D this cycle gets at least a courteous thank you from me. Praise, no. But if we’re building a bigger team, we’ll do better with some graciousness.
artem1s
pass John Lewis Voting Rights Act
forget codifying Roe – it was always damaged and subject to state and SCOTUS interference. Time to pass the ERA Amendment and use it’s passage to strike down Citizen’s United too. Deal with all gender discrimination in one fell swoop. Rename or reframe it with language clarifying that constitutional rights are applied to individuals. Rights are not to be extended to corporations that supersede the rights of individuals. Let TFG’s SCOTUS try to strike down a constitutional amendment see how fast the voters demand expansion and reworking the structure of the Supreme Court.
Reform campaign finance laws to include reporting on donations to PACs, 527s, thinktanks, corporations, etc. with special attention given to legal action regarding taking money from foreign entities. Transparency should be the rule of law. Stop the perpetual “running/not running for office” grift machines. Fines should levied against the professional fundraisers too, not just the campaigns.
FCC reform – subject cable TV to same campaign laws as major networks. Apply equal time rules and low cost ad buys. If cable can have 500 shopping channels they should be required to squeeze in couple of public service channels too that provide an opportunity for campaigns to talks about their policies at length. Strict rules about disinformation bullshit will be enforced. You can talk about your campaign all you want – no attack ads allowed.
Reform IRS charitable giving laws – all non-profits (including churches) should use the same tax reports. All expenses related to lobbying must be reported or the NP’s will be subject to severe excise taxes and/or loss of IRS non-profit status.
dww44
@Omnes Omnibus:
While I wholeheartedly agree, Democrats really are being hit from all sides on the media memes. I know this may subject me to a bit of ridicule, but the AOL news feed has gone all in against Democrats.
Don’t know who they get their news feeds from, but I’ve observed that since 2004 when the polls were good for Kerry they were leaning towards Bush. They are truly kind of right wing and always have been.
brendancalling
I sounds like Rubin read the WaPo’s editorial about how the mean Democrats are saying mean things about the saintly GOP, and her head fucking exploded. I mean I can almost see the steam coming out of her ears.
Raoul Paste
@JanieM: I would make sure that the entire public knew that the Uvalde parents were asked for samples of their own DNA because the slaughtered children could not be identified.
And I please tell me I’m mistaken about this, but I had heard that Texas was going to ask all parents to supply DNA samples in case their children have to be identified. Rather than ban one type of mass murder weapon, they will prepare for children to be turned into hamburger. It can’t be true
NaijaGal
@schrodingers_cat: Too true. Let’s hope that enough voters value a true multi-racial democracy in which women have equal rights over a fascist country that privileges a powerful few.
Kay
@Baud:
My middle son drives me fucking crazy with it- he keeps moving his money in response to every bullshit “vibe” or nonsense that he reads or becomes aware of– I don’t want to know anymore. It’s dumb – it’s not investing- it’s gambling. Woo woo.
WaterGirl
@Alison Rose: The more we engage, the more the thread gets derailed.
*not directed at you specifically
James E Powell
@Cameron:
Which is why the political media want Republicans in power. “Fuck democracy, we need content.”
Jackie
If we’re going to be honest, the GQP plan to GUT Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security benefits.
Baud
@Kay:
I fear people with worthless NFTs to unload are trending GOP.
Wapiti
@eversor:
eversor appears to be an anti-Christian bigot or troll. His views, oft-repeated here, might as well be intended to make Balloon Juice look bad. He doesn’t speak for me or the Democrats I know, nor the Christian Democrats I know of.
James E Powell
@eversor:
Your band needs to learn a new song.
Eunicecycle
@Alison Rose: thank you.
James E Powell
@Eyeroller:
FTFY
Alison Rose
@WaterGirl: I know. I just find this person’s crap offensive. And I’m not even a Christian.
I don’t see what value they bring and think they ought to be shown the door, considering at times they have come close to advocating for eradication of a large number of human beings. But it is not my blog.
Ruckus
@NorthLeft:
Every word of this.
Kay
@Baud:
Guffaw. He’s going to be bad with money in the same way my father is bad with money. It’s tragic.
Ruckus
@Suzanne:
Also. This.
West of the Rockies
@Cameron:
Can we call Lauren Boebert Dummy Boo-Boo?
Brachiator
@NorthLeft:
I honestly do not understand why some Balloon Juice jackals keep pushing this argument. People do not care about macro economics if their personal economic lives are uncertain. Are they supposed to ignore the high prices and higher living costs starting them in the face?
Thanks in part to the Pandemic we have “full employment” but still huge sectors of the economy that have not recovered and employers still unable to fill job openings.
And some of the “full employment” is achieved by cutting back employee hours. Meanwhile a significant amount of the rising corporate profits you note are built on higher prices and stagnant wages.
And again I point out that while MSM headlines and uninformed pundits may fret about the worst aspects of the economy, basic business and economic reporting has been uniformly good.
Unfortunately, a lot of people want an instant inflation cure, just as they wanted an instant return to normal in response to the pandemic.
Xavier
@Princess: they’d probably grandfather in some age, but the idea is cut others/divide and conquer and sooner rather than later the whole system is undermined.
Xavier
@Brachiator: …while ignoring the tragedy of unemployment..
zhena gogolia
@Brachiator: My problem is not that they’re worried about inflation, but THAT THEY THINK REPUBLICANS WILL DO ONE GODDAMNED THING ABOUT IT.
Baud
@Brachiator:
It’s like the NYT’s EMAILS defense. They said the story was newsworthy. But no one argued that it wasn’t newsworthy. People argued that the NYT was way over the top in its reporting of it. I think you see the same thing with negative economic news. At least that’s what I see.
Suzanne
@RaflW: Maybe they’ll allow a few tokens, but they don’t really want women in prominence in public life. They want us barefoot and pregnant. They’ll let us out to go shopping and to go to the gym.
Ruckus
@Omnes Omnibus:
I like the positive and correct answer.
We have a slew of, at the very least, good candidates around the country. Some of them I’d bet would surprise even their best supporters as to how good they really are and I’d bet there are very, very few who might be a waste of protoplasm.
Our defense against the far worse than useless rethuglican candidates running, comprising something like at least 98-99% of their candidates is to vote. We can win this, we can see this through, we can defeat them.
CliosFanBoy
@WaterGirl: That’s why we have the pie filter. One note trolls get pied. :)
Scout211
To counter the many polls that discount abortion as an issue driving turnout, here is a good article to read. The 19th
Too many lazy reporters assume voters will only turn out for their top issues so they don’t dig deeper in their reporting. And pollsters often don’t ask anything other than voters’ top priorities.
Suzanne
@Sure Lurkalot: Ironically, I used to work in advertising/marketing.
It makes you good at cutting to the chase.
It also makes you keenly aware of the intent behind every image and word and that can be a stressful way to see things.
Cameron
@West of the Rockies: Hey, it’s an open field.
Jinchi
@schrodingers_cat: … and rich. Even the average white guy only gets to be an economy class citizen, able to move around freely, just don’t ever get sick.
You’ve got to be well up in the top 1% before the Republicans start worrying about your problems.
Cameron
@Suzanne: In fairness, they want gated communities for everybody else, too. It’s just that everybody else won’t be able to leave their gated communities.
Ksmiami
@RaflW: Rude Pundit in his latest blog screed calls the promise of a House GOP a circus of masturbatory clowns
Brachiator
@Kay:
Newspapers ain’t hiring. And salaries are low because they have been slashed over the years as newspapers fight a losing struggle to survive. The Herald, owned by McClatchy, is fighting hard, and its unions are trying to save jobs and benefits. But it is tough. From a Columbia School of Journalism report:
Ksmiami
@Suzanne: I think you meant enslavement for the rest of us. The GOP vision for America is a dark, hopeless and feudal society which is why we need to destroy them in November and beyond.
HumboldtBlue
In the past 12 hours, I’ve seen a lot of tweets from folks looking to join a new social media site called Tribel with the impending takeover of Twitter by Musk.
I’d be very wary of Tribel if I were you.
oatler
Katie Hobbs’s HQ was burglarized. Got a footnote in ABC’s newscrawl which focussed on how Biden will cope with a growing economy and is it too late?
Ksmiami
@Baud: I think you just hit the nail on the head- most ppl are not equipped to withstand market gyrations and should invest in long term index funds and bond funds. 401ks have been mostly a disaster for Americans except for Wall Street and it would have been better if pensions were still a retirement source for most ppl.
EarthWindFire
Republicans have no plan to fight for anything but a Handmaid’s Tale world. If you think you’ll be on top in that world, you’re wrong.
Baud
@Ksmiami:
401k is simply a tax vehicle. Your 401k should be able to invest in index funds or bond funds, although it’s possible a particular 401k provider doesn’t offer those.
Lacuna Synecdoche
via Watergirl @ Top:
I’d add a seventh:
• Republicans will throw the world economic system into complete disarray, destroy the full faith and credit of the United States, and obliterate the dollar’s standing as the global reserve currency, by refusing to raise the debt ceiling and defaulting on the US’s debts.
Oh, almost forgot, there’s an eighth as well:
• Republicans will do everything in their power to damage, destroy, and repeal Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act.
Matt McIrvin
@RaflW: I’m not as worried about impeachment as I am by what they could do with the equivalent of Putin’s nuclear bluffing on a debt default.
(The most theatrical version: appoint Donald Trump Speaker of the House, then threaten a debt default, collapsing the global economy, unless Biden and Harris simultaneously resign to restore him to the White House. They probably know that bluff would get called, so it’s a question of how much they think they can get away with.)
Eyeroller
@dww44: It would also be nice if there weren’t so many anonymous Democratic operatives and consultants and whatever who were so eager to run to the press with their “concerns.” I won’t say it doesn’t happen to Republicans as well, it does, but it seems less widespread. All Democrats should be singing the same song: “He’s recuperating from a stroke and he did very well for someone with a temporary disability.”
Suzanne
@Cameron: I suppose debtors’ prisons are a form of gated community.
J/K! They don’t want us ALL in prison, then we couldn’t clean their houses or mow their lawns or wait their tables!
Cameron
I don’t read newspapers or watch TV anymore, but subscribe to a lot of e-newsletters (of varying quality and differing political views). Dean Baker doesn’t seem to have gotten the message that The Economy Is Doomed And The Democrats Fucked It All Up:
https://www.cepr.net/gdp-2022-10/
brantl
Republicans want to turn the country into gated communities for moderately wealthy to rich white men. FTFY.
NorthLeft
@Brachiator: Wages are not stagnant. I believe that the disposable income of working class and middle class people has actually been rising the last eighteen months or so. More and faster than in the last ten years or so.
I also believe the US poverty rate is down. I know that it is down in Canada as well, primarily due to the temporary pandemic supports and other targeted family allowance payment increases.
Yes, I read a lot about your country and your politics.
Ruckus
@dww44:
I still do not understand that people can not see who owns the news companies.
These are people who make their living, and it’s a good living, writing “news” that tells the story they want you to hear. There is no this has to be the truth amendment to the constitution, we have freedumb of the press in this country, they can write whatever suits them. The truth is what they publish or shout on TV. Our constitution gives them the right to sprout whatever bullshit they want. And they do and they make money at it. A lot of money at it.
Someone (or lots of someones) once stated that money is the root of all evil. I’m not sure that is actually true, there is a lot of evil that doesn’t make money. But look at any political evil and at the very base of that is money. Getting more of it, keeping more of it, hoarding more of it. Thing is of course is that we need money, especially in a modern society, it wouldn’t operate without money, a thing that exists with no other purpose than exchanging wealth, a way to reward work. But if one has money one can make money from having it, no other purpose other than having money. That’s not production, that’s not selling something someone else needs, that’s making wealth out of wealth.
NorthLeft
@Eyeroller: I think you are making an assumption that those reports are from bona fide Democrats. I suspect that a lot of them are dedicated “centrists” who are more horrified by progressive initiatives than by any shit that the RWNJs pull.
SFAW
@Alison Rose:
Seconded, thirded, etc.
Ksmiami
@Baud: eh most ppl aren’t equipped to invest in a way that actually helps them
Matt McIrvin
You know what would help with a tight labor market, and probably inflation? Immigration reform! Under pre-Trump circumstances, Republicans would probably even be all over this. I don’t know if Democrats can make hay over it, though, because Americans are honestly evil fuckers about immigration these days and probably think inflation is immigrants’ fault somehow.
gvg
@cmorenc: They should ask themselves WHY they feel insecure. I would answer, republicans and fox. More guns=more violence and threats. Lower taxes= worse roads and schools and weaker military. Overturning Roe and treating women like shit=lots of reasons for women to feel bad but also angry. Constant propaganda about how bad everything is=depression even though factually and statistically things aren’t really that bad other than climate. If they blow up the US financial system though through default, boy howdy then the whole world will have reason to feel the pain. they have no idea how bad that would be.
Matt McIrvin
@Eyeroller: Hell, they’re not even anonymous sometimes. It’s often Ed Rendell, right? Or James Carville.
Brachiator
@Baud:
Recently the news were full of stories about the 8.7 percent increase in Social Security payments, the highest increase in 40 years, but still not high enough to offset living costs for the average senior. There was a 12.5 percent increase in SNAP EBT benefits in October to help deal with inflation. Is this negative economic news or just news?
Meanwhile the IRS announced significantly higher inflation related adjustments to the Standard Deduction and tax rates for 2023, along with increases in the amounts that people can set aside for retirement. These adjustments would not happen if inflation was just an unimportant over-hyped news story.
People don’t need the NY Times to see what is happening around them. They go to stores and see higher prices. They go out to eat less, and see fewer more empty tables and fewer wait staff.
I stopped at a McDonald’s the other day to get a quick burger and a coffee. One of the staff had to inform me that indoor sit down service ended at 8 pm instead of 10 pm to control costs and because they had fewer staff to work the counters. And this is a big fast food chain which you would think had fully recovered from the pandemic.
Again, concern about inflation is not a function of reading the NY Times.
Lacuna Synecdoche
@sab:
Rubin’s current Democratic outlook might be a actually be a return to her former views. Apparently, Rubin was viewed by her colleagues as a bog-standard Democratic Hollywood lawyer before she became a columnist in 2005.
From Wikipedia:
Ruckus
@Lacuna Synecdoche:
Your last paragraph lists 4 things that do nothing for moderately wealthy to rich people, absolutely nothing. Those are programs that help us, the working class, the people that run the place that grow the food, police the place, fight the fires, build the tools that hold the liquids we all buy to drink, or the wrappers/containers for our food stuff, or the cars we buy to go to work and make a lot of the money they hoard, or the houses we live in, and on and on. And being the selfish people they are they want to get rid of all of them so they have more control over all the money.
Baud
@Brachiator:
I believe the way the media chooses to report stories has an impact on public perception.
Ruckus
@Lacuna Synecdoche:
A lot of people really, really went to the dark side after 9/11. A lot of this country did not think we could be/would be attacked. 9/11 did a lot of damage to this country that will effect us for a very long time and most of it was not physical. Now not all of those going to the dark side went the next day. And I’m not claiming this was her issue, but this country changed in a lot of ways and some took time and some were not out in the open and therefore not as noticeable. But I suspect that 9/11 had a lot to do with a lot of people going bug shit insane politically, blaming things that had nothing to do with that day, looking for reasons/answers. And if they couldn’t find them, they often made up reasons/answers.
Matt McIrvin
@Baud: Index funds still lose money in a bear market.
Ruckus
@Baud:
Isn’t that the entire purpose of faux news? Have a major impact upon public perception? Bend it in a way that benefits the owner and his ilk?
Brachiator
@NorthLeft:
Nope. Not quite. Disposable income is not the same thing as wages. And in the UK and US, lower income workers are doing much worse than upper income workers. This disparity was heightened during the pandemic, where you had a class of workers who could switch to remote work and still retain their jobs and benefits, while other workers had to deal with business shutdowns and lost hours.
Yep. But these temporary payments were not wages. Here in the US, the Biden administration was able to pass legislation expanding the child tax credit and other family and individual credits. This remarkable legislation, along with other relief benefits, was a huge assist to low income families, and resulted in a significant reduction in poverty.
Unfortunately, every Republican and Democrat Joe Manchin voted against extending these credits.
And here, I will admit that the media gave a lot of attention to idiotic opinion from the GOP and conservative economists that this was “too much federal spending.”
Suzanne
@Brachiator: I think you hit on something really important, tho, in this thread and others. Lots of people feel really poor and strapped. I know we keep saying that unemployment is low — which it is — but that doesn’t help if you work and work and work and still can’t afford stuff. Rent is really high and homeownership is probably permanently out of reach for many. Education and childcare are ludicrously expensive. To say nothing of healthcare costs. If you are working and working and still can’t afford to live, that is terrible.
Not that the GOP has any plan to fix this, mind you.
gvg
@Brachiator: I don’t expect fast food to actually recover. I think part of the employee shortage is actually demographics and would have happened with or without covid no matter who had been elected. Unless we had had immigration reform about 20 years ago when Bush tried and got shot down. We don’t have an excess of young people who can afford to be under employed in some of these badly treated high turnover jobs. they can do a bit better so they are and now the long time we had too many people who needed any job that badly is past. A lot of businesses haven’t caught on yet and think things will soon go back. A lot of customers have also not caught on and some of them are a part of the reason those jobs aren’t being filled. Businesses need to raise the pay, give benefits, give stable hours and shifts and the customers need to learn to be polite again. But I still think the hours will be cut back. Fewer all night or really late night stores because who wants to work those shifts?
The demographers have been saying this day was coming for decades, but they saw it and predicted it too far in advance and people stopped expecting it like they were crying wolf instead of pointing at years ahead.
schrodingers_cat
@Jinchi: True but at least the Rs are not actively trying to murder you or cause you harm.
zhena gogolia
What difference does it make if people feel anxious about the economy? Why would they vote for the party that will only make things worse?
Do they really not remember 2008, or let’s say 2020?
Ruckus
@Raoul Paste:
It can’t be true
Why not? Just because it is about as asinine as it gets? Choice A gets result D so let’s skip right to the worst answer to the worst question?
The people making these asinine choices use asinine reasoning to get the wrong and asinine answer. That’s their logic – be the most asinine possible. The most asinine and illogical possible. You should be able to get to my last line in this story on your own.
Matt McIrvin
OT: God, y’all think I’m a hopeless pessimist, but Erik Loomis’s dooming on the pointlessness of all climate activism has crossed the line to being actively harmful. Don’t feel like picking a fight with him but it makes me want to vent. If I strolled in there I’d actually be playing the “dumb Pollyanna” role.
RaflW
@gvg: I went to a McDonalds on a recent rural drive in Sweden (yeah, I tried a local cafe first and watched a kid (customer) cough onto all the lovely, uncovered pastries on the counter, and left and went to McDs).
Only option was to order from a kiosk (which I see in the US but it’s so far optional here). Pandemonium behind the counter and loooong waits for food. The ‘fast’ food model from the past is unsustainable, in lots of ways.
H-Bob
@Kay: The NYT and WP “journalists” probably are ridiculing the Miami Herald reporter for not saving it for his/her book!
Matt McIrvin
@zhena gogolia: There’s a remarkably persistent belief that Republicans are “better for the economy” in some vague sense. And the current situation just confirms that since it’s really the first time since the 1970s that the economy did actually get worse under a Democratic President. We had to run out of luck sometime.
Kathleen
@JanieM: They don’t want most of us to live either.
Brachiator
@Ruckus:
No one ever said this.
Yeah. Money is necessary for civilization. I see some socialist theorists arguing for an ideal society where the need for money disappears, but meanwhile some dopes are still trying to make virtual currency work. Good luck.
Are you arguing against investing and lending?
Matt McIrvin
@Ruckus: After 9/11 I spent about a year and a half giving undeserved credit to neocon ideas on war. I’ve kind of been doing penance for it ever since, and part of that was spending maybe a decade after that giving undeserved credit to some radical-left and Greenwaldian types who then turned out to be shockingly dumb when Trump came along. It’s hard not to just overreact to your last mistake.
J R in WV
@Raoul Paste:
I’m sorry Raoul, it is true!
different-church-lady
Unfortunately voters have also shown who they are.
Eyeroller
@Brachiator: I would posit that love of power, with or without love of money (though power usually brings money) is another root of evil, so I’d argue with Paul there.
JWR
@Scout211:
Yep, I think this might be the most underreported story of this cycle. Tamara Keith mentioned it the other night, almost in passing. She said something like, “I’ve had a lot of voters tell me that yes, I’m concerned about inflation, but I’m voting on abortion.”
But that was it. No follow up.
BTW, anybody looking for doom and gloom should check out Politico these days. Wow!
Eunicecycle
@Lacuna Synecdoche: I think that not enough people understand what would happen if the dollar is no longer the reserve currency. We get sort of a discount now since our currency doesn’t have to be converted to dollars.
different-church-lady
@Brachiator:
Money is a storage device for labor: I do something for you, you don’t have the things I need, so you give me money and I can then transfer that “stored labor” to another person who does have what I need. In that sense it’s a very very helpful tool.
The problem comes when certain people decide the stored labor is worth hoarding.
Geminid
I just ran into a positive news story about Democrats! I had to rub my eyes, but a New Republic story by Grace Segers really was headlined:
Ms. Segers interviewed Caroline Rodriguez-Greer, state director of Mi Familia Vota Arizona. Her outfit alone has knocked on 200,000 doors since summer.
Rising star Representative Ruben Gallego emphasized to Segers the importance of work between election years:
Rep. Gallego is head of BOLDPAC, the finance arm of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.
Segers also talked to nurse practitioner Eva Burch, who’s running for state Senator in the competitive west Mesa 9th District. Her opponent is a trump-endorsed ex-cop who knocked out a more moderate incumbent in the Republican primary. Ms. Burch talked about her many bilingual staff and volunteers. She brings along a translator when she campaigns door to door.
Grace Segers is a Capitol Hill correspondent for the New Republic, but now she’s out covering campaigns. Last night she live-tweeted the Alaska Representative debate between Mary Peltola, Sarah Palin, and Nick Begich, on @GraceSegers.
Ohio Mom
Re: understaffed restaurants. This is my crackpot theory — I have absolutely no data to back this up — the restaurant sector, like retail, is over built.
Kropacetic
I appreciate this. That still doesn’t justify the MSM covering this story every day while providing zero context.
Why does inflation happen? Are we the only ones affected? How does this relate to the fact that the dollar has risen in value against other currencies.
Inquiring minds need to know.
different-church-lady
@Ohio Mom: I think it was about 10 years ago some radio show (was it Marketplace?) did a segment about why there were so many restaurants, and the reason given was that when dot-com went dot-bust, the venture capitalists went looking for the next thing, and decided it was restaurants. So for a while there if you wanted to open a place there was plenty people willing to give you the squeeze. I think that lends some support to your gut level feeling.
(P.S. — also they’re running headlong into the problem that the restaurant industry is the only one where the employers expect someone else to pay their employees.)
different-church-lady
@Kropacetic:
And that’s why the press isn’t interested.
rikyrah
i am the walrus (@cgags) tweeted at 8:11 AM on Wed, Oct 26, 2022:
Florida takes $51,000,000,000 more dollars from the federal government than it produces in taxes. That’s called a welfare state.
New York gives $22 billion more than it receives back. That’s called solvency.
Republican economic policy is flawed
(https://twitter.com/cgags/status/1585257852629053440?t=0HFW-2-9WdGomRqaWglGww&s=03)
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
I don’t think that’s true. All recent Dem president inherited a bad economy and it took more than two years to dig out of it. Even Reagan had that problem.
rikyrah
running scared
Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) tweeted at 6:00 AM on Thu, Oct 27, 2022:
Fox offered to host a U.S. Senate debate in Utah. Evan McMullin said yes. Mike Lee said no.
(https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1585587111662608390?t=fhZoJhGgg6L8SZyJOf1hWA&s=03)
Kropacetic
@different-church-lady: Sick burn.
ian
@Matt McIrvin:
Call him an Aesthetic Stalinist and move on with your day. It is the only proper response to Gloomis these days.
Brachiator
@gvg:
It’s not just fast food places, but restaurants and the hospitality industry. But I think you are right. The pandemic accelerated longstanding problems.
In one public radio story, a restaurant owner noted that a good number of his employees were actors and students, who often needed flexible shifts. But when the pandemic hit, these people sought out full time jobs outside the restaurant industry. When the pandemic faded, these people did not come back, and more potential employees want regular hours and better benefits.
Also, restaurants have had to raise prices not just to adjust for increased wages, but more because of higher lease and supply costs. Unfortunately, some customers are unable or unwilling to pay higher prices.
A side note. Movie theaters are taking a beating. Two movie houses near me closed down during the pandemic, and more people are happy to use streaming services. Employment has not really recovered for this segment.
Eunicecycle
@Ohio Mom: I think the same thing! I live in a town of 30,000 and we have 3 McDonalds. I know McDonald’s is smart and strategic about opening new locations but really?? And I can’t even count how many Subways. That’s just fast food.
TheTruffle
@RaflW: I’ve warmed to Jennifer Rubin. I do give her the side eye about her positions. But I think she is genuine in her opposition to the GQP.
Matt McIrvin
@Ohio Mom: I think so too. Some of the restaurants that failed over the course of the pandemic are ones where it was hard to see what was keeping them afloat beforehand.
rikyrah
Random House Group (@randomhouse) tweeted at 5:17 AM on Thu, Oct 27, 2022:
We are excited to announce the remarkably personal and emotionally powerful story of Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex.
SPARE, the highly anticipated #PrinceHarryMemoir, will be published on January 10, 2023. Learn more at https://t.co/L0I4CT4flH https://t.co/iqdBjBwkWE
(https://twitter.com/randomhouse/status/1585576424706129931?t=ClmsCzC20RH7XcwBRKoXXg&s=03)
Geminid
@Matt McIrvin: I think you mispelled Eric Gloomis’s name.
More seriously, the October, 201i UN IPCC report called for a carbon neutral global economy by 2050, in order to limit warming to 1.5° Celsius. This is a marathon, not a sprint, and if Loomis wants to throw in the towel after the first few miles he’s just a defeatist.
rikyrah
Everything Georgia (@GAFollowers) tweeted at 3:41 PM on Mon, Oct 24, 2022:![]()
![]()
![]()
https://t.co/Os0WCRQbW2
Angelina Jolie was OUTSIDE with her daughter Zahara at Spelhouse Homecoming this past weekend.
(https://twitter.com/GAFollowers/status/1584646351651975170?t=SBJ_U5_qcvgKjMJTJrnwEg&s=03)
WaterGirl
If have a message for eversor, so when you see him in a thread, let me know? thanks
rikyrah
Lunatic
No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen (@NoLieWithBTC) tweeted at 4:45 PM on Wed, Oct 26, 2022:
Kari Lake is now running a commercial featuring a pastor who calls gay people “child molesters,” says women must “submit” to their husbands, and said Islam is “Satanic.” (by @DavidCornDC) https://t.co/UlsO7tjW6t
(https://twitter.com/NoLieWithBTC/status/1585387232311246848?t=9TQxIuW3ooLkvGW6VS3HIw&s=03)
rikyrah
uh huh
uh huh
Brian J. Karem (@BrianKarem) tweeted at 3:30 PM on Wed, Oct 26, 2022:
NOW: An Anti-Abortion Republican candidate for Ohio local office has deleted his Twitter and blamed hackers after his Twitter account liked dozens of porn tweets over the span of several weeks.
(https://twitter.com/BrianKarem/status/1585368408698523648?t=jeLu7lx2c-V1gsVNsEVGLQ&s=03)
different-church-lady
@Matt McIrvin:
That man is an ass.
rikyrah
The irony of being literally one generation away from parents born in the late ’10s & early ’20s in the last century, and then going on to become their elderly adult child who is voting for the same types of fascists that their parents militarily vanquished in Europe.
(https://twitter.com/Needle_of_Arya/status/1585559357000859648?t=JsvRWR8d2RKWmM-_hX0jgQ&s=03)
Matt McIrvin
@Geminid: I personally think there is zero chance of us keeping it to 1.5 C. I also think there’s a huge difference between that and “the planet will be uninhabitable by 2100”.
Miss Bianca
@Kay: As a local newsie who earns…hmm…approximately $200 per week on a good week, I would support this idea with great enthusiasm.
rikyrah
No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen (@NoLieWithBTC) tweeted at 7:12 PM on Wed, Oct 26, 2022:
South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster (R) just said he supports a statewide constitutional ban on gay marriage and said “a marriage ought to be between a man and woman.” In case you were wondering where the Republican Party is in 2022.
(https://twitter.com/NoLieWithBTC/status/1585424095398985728?t=jXgOStRSog5hfxWRD8gVYg&s=03)
rikyrah
NotTheRealTraceyDelaney (@TraceyDelaney) tweeted at 6:17 PM on Wed, Oct 26, 2022:
“No one can force me to quarantine, get a vaccine, wear a mask or register my gun but you need to consult your political leaders before having a baby” is peak Republican.
(https://twitter.com/TraceyDelaney/status/1585410289314529281?t=XY3pNPELwAMtHzsAAuJK6Q&s=03)
J R in WV
@JWR:
I believe Politico is now totally owned and operated by a German fascist zillionaire !
Geminid
@TheTruffle: I find it’s ex-Republicans like Jennifer Rubin and Ron Filipkowsi who give the most incisive critiques of their former party.
And I don’t really care what they did or said 10 or even 5 years ago.
Tony Jay
@eversor:
When the Pope comes off his meds he really goes to a dark place, that right Frankie?
Kropacetic
@rikyrah: So a GOP moderate, then?
This will be the first time I agree with Lake that we should allow purchase of rocket launchers that I’m not simultaneously driving my car.
Baud
@Geminid:
I believe Loomis threw in the towel before he put on his running shoes.
Omnes Omnibus
@Geminid: We are all hanging out at a blog hosted by a guy who was a GOP warblogger dipshit 20 years ago. Just saying.
Kropacetic
@Tony Jay: That flaming bigot of Republican proportions made one comment in the beginning of the thread and kept us talking about it for three hours.
One could get paid to troll a lot of blogs on that rate of return
Matt McIrvin
@Princess: GenX spent their formative years being told that Social Security and probably Medicare would be gone by the time they retired, so a lot of them probably priced that expectation in. But if they managed to hang on this long and see them not go away… maybe that changes attitudes.
Ksmiami
@Matt McIrvin: but their low cost structure help mitigate losses
Geminid
@Matt McIrvin: I think the IPCC was picking a salient date and an aspirational goal. But I think it is a practical goal, at least according to British climate scientist Myles Allen.
Allen was a contributor to th33d IPCC report, and his February, 2019 article in The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists titled, “The Green New Deal: a View from Across the Atlantic” provides an excellent overview of tbe challenges in meeting tbe IPCC target. A very good 10 minute read.
rikyrah
@schrodingers_cat:
Add heterosexual, and you’ve nailed it all.
rikyrah
@NorthLeft:
This is the bottom line.
Kropacetic
@rikyrah: Cue the blue state Republicans, “I think all these people should have their rights but it should be decided by the state and we’re safe here…”
Matt McIrvin
@Geminid: It’s also completely fucking false that we are “doing nothing”, as Loomis insists. Not meeting the goals is different from that. The projections for what we’re on a track for went way down from what they were a decade ago–what they used to call the “business as usual” projections are actually not business as usual from where we are now.
rikyrah
@Kay:
They have done an excellent job in ripping apart this lie.
Geminid
@Kropacetic: The guy put out some thoughtful comments on other topics over the last few days. But he has an obsession that he keeps returning to.
Kropacetic
@Matt McIrvin: What’s a little hyperbole between
friendsa relatively well read opinion writer and the rest of the internet?@Geminid: Of course, if (s)he exclusively posted bigoted screeds, someone might reach for the banhammer.
I often don’t read the poster’s name before the comment. When I go back and see that nym, I’m never surprised.
And even when a normal post is made, a screed is in the offing.
Brachiator
@Kropacetic:
RE: I honestly do not understand why some Balloon Juice jackals keep pushing this argument. People do not care about macro economics if their personal economic lives are uncertain.
Again, Balloon Juice jackals like to point to the usual suspects. NYT and WaPo, pundits and general news reporting about business.
The business sections of CNN, BBC CNBC and other sites and newspapers provide a great deal of nuance. The same is true of more specialized sites like the Business Insider. Then there are public radio programs like The Indicator, Marketplace and Make Me Smart. You can even get good information from the White House web site. And often, online newspapers will provide links to the periodic federal reserve reports on the economy.
Most people just want a shallow explanation of economic news. Unfortunately, this doesn’t work. But yeah, if you settle for shallow, you may come away with expectations of bias satisfied.
Are you kidding me? It does not take much digging to see that inflation is a world wide problem, and anger over the cost of living has toppled governments.
Here in the US, there was an automatic inflation adjustment for Social Security. There was a big increase in SNAP payments for lower income families. In the UK, people are waiting to see if some pensions and universal payments that the government oversees will get increases in line with inflation. If not, they may have to roll out another prime minister.
International economic news is not hidden away, nor is it hard to find essential background information.
Ksmiami
@Ohio Mom: low immigration numbers is a death knell for hospitality related industries. Plus a lot of former restaurant employees retrained into other trades because killing your self during the pandemic for poor wages and no life wasn’t worth it.
geg6
@eversor:
Dude, no one despises religion (of all kinds!) than I do. I really truly think religions are a complete negative for society. But no one gives a shit what you or I think and it certainly isn’t a positive for gaining allies to be screeching about it all the time. Give it up and just settle for feeling superior to all the believers in the privacy of your own home.
Baud
@Ksmiami:
No one really wants low immigration. The right wants immigrant workers that are unable to exercise rights.
WV Blondie
Michael Moore – yes, that Michael Moore, the flaming lib who correctly predicted that TFG would win in 2016 – actually believes ALL the conventional wisdom is wrong and that there will be a blue tsunami this year.
Read for yourself: Michael Moore | Substack
It’s supposedly subscription, but you can click on a link to sample some of his daily comments about the election
Michael Moore predicting blue ‘tsunami’ in response to Roe ruling | The Hill:
Kropacetic
@Brachiator: Are you kidding me? It does not take much digging to see that inflation is a world wide problem
Those questions were meant as entirely rhetorical. Yes, I knew this and it didn’t require much digging. In fact I’m pretty disengaged with most news, economics, and politics compared to my pre-2016 self.
Yet, if the message got out, I’m not hearing it from a lot of people.
schrodingers_cat
@rikyrah: Correction accepted! And apologies for overlooking the vulnerable LGBTQ folks.
WaterGirl
@rikyrah: They believe they can say anything and still get elected. Let’s prove them wrong.
Matt McIrvin
@Baud: “The right” is not a monolith and I think there really are true believers. The hardcore fascist/ethno-nationalist right really does want to shut down immigration. Then there are people riding on that sentiment who want to be able to continue to exploit workers by keeping them as effective outlaws.
But they have to kind of walk a tightrope. The fascists have to be thrown a bone now and then. The interesting thing that happened under Trump (followed by COVID) was that they actually kind of started putting the no-immigration program into practice, and it contributed to the tight labor market.
JWR
@J R in WV: I know they’ve always been a “Doom & Gloom for Dems!” kinda site, but they’ve recently taken an even deeper anti-Dem dive. (I’m sure Rich Lowery is pleased.) So the having a “German fascist zillionaire” as an owner sounds about right.
Brachiator
@rikyrah:
Shouldn’t Lake drop out of politics and submit to her husband?
And she can take her hateful BS with her.
Lacuna Synecdoche
@lowtechcyclist:
They’ll do it anyway. Republicans just really, really, want to blow up the economy on a Democratic president’s watch. You can tell by the way they salivate and drool every time they verbally fantasize about it.
If they get their cuts to Social Security and so on, then they’ll hold the debt ceiling hostage for something else, like a national abortion ban, then something else, like cutting aid to Ukraine, then something else, and something else, and something …
Until the president says no, and then they blow it all up. The GOP are terrorists and they’re not in it to change policy – they’re in it for the violence, they’re in it to burn it all down, they’re in it to watch the world burn.
And that’s why we have to win.
Matt McIrvin
@WV Blondie: Yeah, and as I said earlier, despite calling 2016 Moore has been chronically wrong about a lot of things. Back in 2000 he was shilling for Nader by arguing that it didn’t matter if Bush got elected over Gore, and one reason was because Republicans would never really allow abortion to be outlawed–it’d kill them at the polls!
WaterGirl
@Tony Jay: He did his not uncommon “hit and run”. He only posted once in this thread, but the replies keep coming.
Ruckus
@Brachiator:
“Unfortunately, a lot of people want an instant inflation cure, just as they wanted an instant return to normal in response to the pandemic.”
Of course people do not want a 100% disruption in their lives. And we haven’t had that in the lives of many alive today, other than the pandemic. The last close to that was 9/11 and that went really, really swell didn’t it? And before that? I’d say WWII. Because while Vietnam was bad it was over almost half a century ago and while many were affected, not everyone was directly affected. The pandemic is a health crisis that effects everyone, if they like it or not, think it’s a problem or not. The last real health issue we had, polio, was when I was a small child and I’m an old fart. In 2020, less than 17% of the US population was over 65. I was in my early 70s in 2020. My point is that most Americans alive have never seen a health crisis like this. It is like new territory for not only much of the US population but for many parts of the world. And because of air travel there is little of the world not affected rapidly.
Kropacetic
@Matt McIrvin: I keep hearing about millions of empty jobs white we have the lowest unemployment rate I personally remember.
Immigration is not only a solution, it’s the only solution I see that doesn’t require a spike in the birth rate and 16 years of rearing millions of children, methodology undetermined.
WaterGirl
eversor, if you’re listening:
Layer8Problem
@WaterGirl:
Hear-f’ing-hear.
Kropacetic
@WaterGirl: Snaps all around.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@gvg: THIS! The company I work for just did a huge stock buyback, workers got a $0.50/hr $2/hr raise. We churn through staff so fast that I have trouble keeping up with the names of fellow employees.
WV Blondie
@Matt McIrvin: That may well be. But I’d still rather read his analysis than what passes for “news” in traditional outlets. I don’t get bleeding ulcers from it.
Matt McIrvin
@Kropacetic: If there’s one place I’d actually criticize Democratic messaging right now, it’s that I haven’t heard anyone in office make this connection. The range of discourse swung hard against immigration because of Trump getting elected and it never really recovered–Biden hasn’t been bullish on immigration, just about nobody has been though they’ll praise existing immigrants. Whether or not it’s true, politicians think that being strongly pro-immigration will kill them. And it’s actually a way to attack at least one aspect of inflation and shortages and tight labor.
It’s an unfamiliar tack for liberals to take because we’re used to worrying about high unemployment in recessions as our biggest economic problem, and it’s tricky to be bullish on immigration under those circumstances. But that’s not now!
WaterGirl
@Layer8Problem: I originally had that as a reply to Tony Jay, but I pulled it out.
So I changed your @WaterGirl to link to the comment’s final location.
Kropacetic
@Matt McIrvin: That’s OK. When I run my race for the Republican nomination for Congress in 2024 as an openly gay socialist, I’ll make that connection.
James E Powell
@Kay:
People who have their investment apps on their phones are just asking for anxiety attacks.
Brachiator
@Kropacetic:
Point noted. I am a tax and accounting guy. I probably read less political news, but need good economics reporting.
A lot of people settle for shallow reporting about the economy. And I do know conservatives who absolutely distrust and ignore the mainstream media and depend solely on the biased pundit shouting they get from Fox News and other bad sources.
And there are people who don’t bother getting any economics news and fallback on the ignorant opinion of their friends and old stuff that they misremember about how the economy works.
And with Twitter, Facebook and other social media, people can just jump in and pull out nuggets that play to their biases, and never bother with accuracy or nuance.
ETA. Except for Krugman, I never read pundits, not even liberal pundits, and stay away from garbage like the News Hour or Sunday news shows. I rarely read the NYT directly, but come across their stories repeated elsewhere.
Layer8Problem
@WaterGirl: Thanks! I saw that, wondered what’s up with FTFWP, and changed it myself. I hope I didn’t screw anything up. A little HTML knowledge is a dangerous thing.
Kay
@rikyrah:
Did Rubio tell the lie to distract from the fact that they had a member of a criminal group on the payroll?
How stupid is Rubio? No one would have paid any attention to some intra-criminal turf battle, especially with crime rates in Florida being what they are.
Kropacetic
Yup. I think somewhere upthread someone noted an AOL story that had an identical headline to a recent FTFNYT story.
WaterGirl
@Layer8Problem: It still works, so it’s all good.
Geminid
@WaterGirl: Like I pointed out earlier, the guy has made some thoughtful comments on other topics over the last few days. But he has an obsession that he keeps returning to.
I tend to be a little sympathetic because I see obsession as a result of depression, and I’ve been there .
James E Powell
@rikyrah:
So, a message for the moderate white Arizona voters?
WaterGirl
@Geminid: If you notice, I made it clear that the 3-day ban starts with the next bigoted religious comment, and I made it clear that he is welcome to continue commenting as long as the religious bigotry stops.
frosty
@WaterGirl: Thanks to both you and Cole!
Layer8Problem
@James E Powell: People forget the 2008 “We’re all gonna die!” crowd, selling because cash or gold were our only hope. Didn’t work out that way.
James E Powell
@Geminid:
Agree that it doesn’t matter what ex-GOPs said years ago. They acknowledge the radicalization of the GOP, they are evidence of that the change has been radical.
What is striking to me is how little impact they have had on Republican voters.
Ksmiami
@Baud: Rt but what Maga wants versus the business wing are completely at odds.
Suzanne
@James E Powell:
Remember that they hate liberals/Democrats more than they believe in anything. The cruelty is not just the point, it is the main attraction.
Kropacetic
Well, you have the true believers who binge feed rage all day. They don’t care. Then you have the anti-tax normies who wouldn’t know Jennifer Rubin from a hole in the wall.
Suzanne
@James E Powell:
A message for the white Mormons in Mesa and Gilbert.
Soprano2
@Kay: That’s what makes me nuts when I hear people saying things like “I’ve lost 25% of the value of my 401K”. It’s still probably higher than it was when Joe Biden took office! I heard a passing story last night that the U.S. had record oil EXPORTS last quarter, which means by the rightwinger’s standards WE’RE ENERGY INDEPENDENT AGAIN, but of course you don’t hear them talking about that at all, it’s all still about how stopping the Keystone XL pipeline is why gas is so expensive. *rolleyes
Geminid
@James E Powell: I think their efforts may have influenced some Republican-voting Independents. I’m not sure if we can ever know how many. There may be anecdotal evidence, but exit polling has declined in value since ten or twelve years ago.
Soprano2
I heard part of an interview on NPR today with a home builder who complained that he knows inflation is high but the Fed raising interest rates so much so fast is killing the homebuilding market. He says they should have started raising interest rates sooner. Even if they had, we’d probably still be here! People want inflation to go away and low interest rates to come back, but they can’t have both.
Geminid
@WaterGirl: That is very fair and could help the commenter. It will certainly help many people here.
James E Powell
@Suzanne:
I agree with you, but whenever I say that, people give me a hard time for my lack of understanding & empathy.
People who vote for Trump & Trumpsters are bad people. They are voting for others to suffer. And that’s the part that Jennifer Rubin & the other ex-GOP avoid talking about because the press/media all have to pretend that voters are wise & good & only concerned about a better world for everyone. It’s ridiculous.
The Republicans became more radical, more racist, every cycle because their voters & their donors demanded it. The Kochs, the Mercers, and others have been funding the radicalization for decades. Their voters turned out for Trump in unprecedented numbers because he gave them what they wanted: unapologetic hatred, scorn, & bigotry.
They are bad people. We have to outwork & outnumber them at elections.
Soprano2
@zhena gogolia: I keep hoping that at least one reporter will ask a Republican running for office what they plan to do to fight inflation, and then keep after them to get a concrete answer.
Kropacetic
I’ll put an end to the reckless Demonrat spending spree [citation needed].
Suzanne
@James E Powell: Eh, I think it’s more important to be clear-eyed about the threat we face than to be optimistic.
They hate us, they want to see liberals/Democrats humiliated, and they want this so badly that they’re willing to harm themselves to get it. Sparrows, curtain rods, etc etc etc. They will vote for terrible people, brain damaged, totally hypocritical, racist, crazy, whatever….as long as it owns the libs. There’s no way around this.
Kropacetic
Sure there is. Rally more people than they do, enough to cover the handicap. Every. Single. Time.
Geminid
@Soprano2: I think the homebuilder was right about the Fed. They left rates alone all last year while inflation was building, and then slammed on the brakes with 4-5 increases this year, the last two or three .75% each.
I said as much last week. My knowledge base is no greater than the homebuilder’s, probably less. But a much more knowledgeable commenter stepped in and said that by delaying increases the Fed ran a greater risk of over tightening and bringing on an unnecessary recession.
Omnes Omnibus
@Geminid: Obsession is one thing. Bigotry is another.
Kropacetic
@Omnes Omnibus: It’s rare that I see someone develop a healthy obsession.
Omnes Omnibus
@Kropacetic: Tbogg and Shakira’s ass.
The Moar You Know
@Brachiator: Late to the thread, but Dems really discount this at their peril. The good folks working at the doggie day care center I use all got multiple raises in the last couple of years but it’s not even keeping up. They are getting killed by the price increases in staples and especially gas. Explaining to them why it’s not the admins fault doesn’t help them (they all vote Dem anyway) they need shit to not be as expensive and they need that right now.
Inflation doesn’t bother me; I’m in the top 5% of earners. But it is wrecking their lives. Today.
Kropacetic
@Omnes Omnibus: One instance in a category with a lot of examples constitutes a rarity.
But you’re right, I’ll give that the healthy stamp of approval; pending any adverse responses from Shakira on the matter.
rikyrah
Lindy Li (@lindyli) tweeted at 10:22 PM on Wed, Oct 26, 2022:
Senators Ben Ray Luján & Chris Van Hollen both had strokes this past yr
Chuck Grassley will be 95 YRS OLD by the end of his next term
Nothing Herschel Walker says makes sense
Trump shows unmistakable signs of mental decline
Why is the media exclusively shitting on Fetterman?
(https://twitter.com/lindyli/status/1585472012318871552?t=KQD-2eCtFyE_PMEneMIX4w&s=03)
Suzanne
@Kropacetic: You’re missing my point. I get that we can win by being activated. What there is no honest way to avoid is that, for probably most GOP voters, they care more about winning than anything else, and thus the party defections of the insufficiently Trumpy matter to them not at all.
Every time we’re like, “Hypocrites, last week they said that character mattered/deficits were a big deal /whatever”…..they don’t give a shit. Dana Loesch was straight up about not caring even the tiniest bit about Herschel Walker paying for abortions. They show us who they are all the time.
Tony Jay
@WaterGirl:
It’s afternoon mass at the Vatican and he’s got to get his robes on.
But I get your point. No feedy the needy beasty.
Kropacetic
@Suzanne: I try to avoid spending time answering the concerns of irrational people. I often fail and that’s when the screaming starts.
Soprano2
@The Moar You Know: That’s fine but what can politicians do about it? Very little.
Soprano2
@rikyrah: Except everyone in IA knows that Grassley will resign so the governor can appoint his grandson to the seat. Evidently it’s a open secret.
The Lodger
@brantl: When you hear a Republican talk about opportunity, that’s exactly what they mean. Gated communities for more people.
2GeekRnot2Geek
@dww44: I’m a PA voter. Watched the debate. No one I know is “freaking out” if anything, the general consensus is we felt bad for Fetterman, because the 30 second time limits were too short for someone recovering from a stroke to have time to formulate an answer properly. However, even with the speech problems, everyone knew what he meant when he spoke.
Oz, on the other hand, either wouldn’t answer, or spent a lot of time beating on Fetterman. The already infamous “the decision should be made by women, their doctors and political leaders” was Oz hoping no one would hear the “political leaders” after the first two. And the news articles have it that the republican committee is going to poor another 6 million on the raging dumpster fire that is Oz after the debates. Not what one after a resounding victory.
I am counting on the RAGE of women in this election cycle. Being ignored by all the polls and MSM has only made us angrier. I want to wake up to all the pollsters wondering how they got it so wrong the day after the election.
2GeekRnot2Geek
What I’d like to see in no particular order.