Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

A consequence of cucumbers

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

Happy indictment week to all who celebrate!

Let’s finish the job.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

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

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

“That’s what the insurrection act is for!”

You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.

Not all heroes wear capes.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

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

Bark louder, little dog.

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

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

Fani Willis claps back at Trump chihuahua, Jim Jordan.

You are here: Home / Politics / Biden Administration in Action / Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Biden Boom

Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Biden Boom

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206Comments

  2. 2.

    Kay

    Don’t know why this isn’t a bigger story, particularly because it has set off a “hiring frenzy” :

    A surge in manufacturing construction across the country is grabbing the attention of economists and workers on the ground as legislative efforts to reinvigorate the U.S. industrial base are bearing fruit.
    Experts say these changes have been long-awaited, and they represent a watershed moment for U.S. heavy industry and a shift toward more environmentally friendly methods of production amid an ongoing climate emergency.
    “We waited for so long to have these kinds of initiatives,” Miki Banu, a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Michigan, told The Hill. “This is probably the first time in my life when I’ve seen so many resources become available, which are able to let us put our ideas into practice.”
    Annual spending on manufacturing construction held somewhat steady during the 2010s, generally keeping within the range of $50 billion to $80 billion, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. Levels were lower and the range of spending tighter in the decade before.
    But following the passage of three large-scale economic packages loaded with tax incentives and direct funding for industrial projects and operations, investment in manufacturing construction shot up to $189 billion in April on a seasonally adjusted basis, more than doubling pre-pandemic levels.

  3. 3.

    Rusty

    We were watching the Whitehouse Juneteenth celebration last night with Biden and Harris.  Our oldest works for a dance group that performed for the president and VP, she was super excited to get to go to the White House along with the dancers.  The best part was listening to Joe and Kamala unabashedly talking about racism and the continuing need to fight for voting and other civil rights.  We are on the right side of history, we are on the side of the good.  It was beautiful (as were the performances).

  4. 4.

    Baud

    NYT: Despite White House claims, Job growth numbers under Biden historically mediocre when divided by his age.

  5. 5.

    JPL

    @Kay: GA has really benefited for incentivizing the electric car industry.    Kemp has decided that he is now against further incentives for electric.   What?    He must be getting ready to run for office.

  6. 6.

    Ken

    @Baud: Yeah, but I’ll bet Biden didn’t skim any off the top for himself, showing once again that he knows nothing about running a business.

  9. 9.

    Kay

    Record small business growth.

    Thats another success story, especially because doom mongers (primarily on the Right) told us small businesses were never coming back post-pandemic.
    Dr Fauci killed all the small businesses, except smal business formation has trended up Biden’s entire term.
    I’m telling you the media coverage of the economy is “but her emails” bad. It’s no longer reality based. 100% narrative.

  11. 11.

    Kay

    @JPL:

    It’s everywhere. New Mexico can’t find workers. There are giant hiring billboards all over Michigan- I have never seen anything like it.

  12. 12.

    eclare

    @JPL:

    Same with Youngkin in VA who turned down a battery plant.  Now with Kemp, who I thought at least was a bidness man, and Meatball running off Disney…it’s weird.  Do they want to run on “We turned down jobs!”

    I guess it’s “cultural issues” 24/7.

  13. 13.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Rusty:

    How exciting for your daughter! She’ll remember that the rest of her life.

    Oh, and happy Flag Day, everyone 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

  14. 14.

    Kay

    @Lapassionara:

    I don’t know why the GOP base aren’t making any money but it isn’t because of the economy. The sad sacks on the Right need to get off their ass and take advantage of this- it won’t last forever, especially if people idiotically elect more Republicans.

  15. 15.

    OzarkHillbilly

    White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre violated the Hatch Act by referring to “mega Maga Republicans” before last year’s midterm elections, an official watchdog said.

    Ohh! The fainting couch… WHERE IS IT??? My pearls! Where are my pearls? I must find my pearls!!!

    The Hatch Act was often in the news during the administration of Donald Trump.

    It was? Say it ain’t so!

    In November 2021, a year after Trump left power, the OSC said at least 13 Trump officials intentionally violated the act, not least in connection with a 2020 Republican convention held on White House grounds. Officials named included Mike Pompeo, the secretary of state; Mark Meadows, Trump’s chief of staff; Kellyanne Conway, a senior White House counselor; Jared Kushner, a senior adviser to Trump, his father-in-law; Kayleigh McEnany, the press secretary; and Stephen Miller, a senior speechwriter and adviser.

    The OSC report said: “The cumulative effect of these repeated and public violations was to undermine public confidence in the nonpartisan operation of government.”

    The Trump White House ignored Hatch Act violations. In June 2019, for example, an OSC recommendation that Conway be fired over repeated Hatch Act violations did not lead to further action.
    ………………………………….
    Regarding that OSC report, the Washington Post noted the existence of “a two-tiered system of consequences” the OSC having “fined and in some cases fired hundreds of career employees for violations during the four years when Trump was in office”.

    I never would have guessed!

    In the case of Jean-Pierre, the OSC said the press secretary violated the Hatch Act at a briefing on 2 November 2022, in referring to “mega Maga Republican officials who don’t believe in the rule of law” and in references to Republican candidates for office.

    A conservative watchdog group complained.

    As well they should have!

    The OSC did not recommend disciplinary action against Jean-Pierre.

    See? Democrats get away with everything !

  18. 18.

    Scout211

    The Biden administration scored a $66 million profit in its first oil trade after releasing millions of barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) in 2022 at peak prices, and then restocking when oil dipped

    This is really interesting (and awesome!) because last week I read one of those fact-check articles refuting Trump’s many lies.   Link

    So Trump brags about something he really didn’t do and Biden, well, is actually doing the things.  😊

    WashingtonCNN — 
    Former President Donald Trump, now a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, claimed in a television interview on Thursday that he not only purchased 75 million barrels of oil for the national Strategic Petroleum Reserve but did so for a remarkably low price.

    “We had so much oil we didn’t know what to do with it. We bought a lot of it for very little for the strategic national reserves,” Trump said at a Fox event in Iowa. Moments later, after criticizing President Joe Biden for selling a large quantity of oil from the reserve, Trump boasted once more about his own supposed discount purchase: “Think of it: 75 million barrels, and I bought it for peanuts, and Congress – I had to fight Congress, and the pricing was so crazy and so good.”

    Facts First: Trump’s supposed purchase of 75 million barrels of oil never happened.

    Trump did propose to buy 77 million barrels for the reserve in 2020 as oil prices cratered because of the Covid-19 pandemic. But the Democratic-controlled Congress rejected the $3 billion in funding that would have paid for the purchase, describing it as a subsidy to big oil companies.

  19. 19.

    Baud

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I know officials sometimes slip up, but that seems like an odd Hatch Act rule, unless she said it on the context of an election.

    ETA: Never mind. I read it more closely.

  20. 20.

    OzarkHillbilly

    A crowd of 30 killer whales met for a party in California’s Monterey Bay on Sunday.

    They did belly flops into the water, slapped the waves with their flukes and spewed water from their blowholes, surprising marine biologists who had never seen the animals engage in such playful behavior for so long.

    Nancy Black, who has been studying killer whales for more than 30 years, said Sunday’s show was the best orca sighting she’d ever seen. Black, a marine biologist with Monterey Bay Whale Watch and the director of the California Killer Whale Project, said the gathering was unique because the animals played in the bay for more than eight hours. Eleven family groups came together, or about 30 whales. Sometimes three or four whales would breach the water at once. Others slapped their tails against the water’s surface, wrestled with one another and swam in loops.

    “Just like kids that are in a park, they get excited and play with the other kids and may be more active,” Black said. “The little ones were wrestling and rolling like a bunch of puppies.”

  21. 21.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: Our state legislature authorized funding to make I-70 a six-lane highway between St. Louis and KC. That’ll employ many, many people, and was made possible by the Inflation Reduction Act. Of course, all those Republicans won’t promote that , but it’s the truth. I think it’s driving the pundits crazy that after a once-in-100-years pandemic the economy isn’t acting in the same way it normally does, so their predictions aren’t that great. They desperately want a recession to happen, because in normal times that’s what would follow the Fed raising interest rates, but it’s not happening and it’s driving them crazy!

  22. 22.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    Are they not making money or are they lying about not making money?

    They lie about their tax burden all the time.

  23. 23.

    Kay

    One of the biggest upside surprises of the pandemic years was an explosion in the number of new businesses being created by Americans. That “startup surge,” as the Economic Innovation Group (EIG) labels it, has persisted past the formal end of the pandemic. As shown in the chart above—from the Census Bureau’s Business Formation Statistics (BFS)—the initial spikes upward and downward in the second half of 2020 have since moderated. Yet business creation in the aggregate remains well above pre-Covid levels, a “new, significantly higher baseline,” according to EIG.

    Yet, Republicans and media tell us “nobody wants to work” – just this bizarre, negative disinformation campaign on the economy and workers.

  25. 25.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: That really makes you wonder about all the young white men who can’t seem to find jobs, doesn’t it? Unemployment here is still at historic lows, too. The hiring problem has eased somewhat, but I still see “we’re hiring” signs everywhere.

  27. 27.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: Yet, Republicans and media tell us “nobody wants to work” – just this bizarre, negative disinformation campaign on the economy and workers.

    I think they keep saying this because of laziness. It’s what they think always happens, and if they know one young person who’s living with their parents and not working for some reason, they point to that and say “see, young people don’t want to work anymore”. Last week’s “On the Media” did a segment with political scientist Paul Fairie about this tendency we have to repeat these old canards over and over again. He did research where he looked at old newspaper articles and found that the “no one wants to work anymore” trope goes back more than a century, and probably a lot further than that. It’s the same as the “today’s young people are different” crap. Whenever someone repeats that stuff about “today’s young people” to me, I tell them “People who were your age when you were 20 were saying the exact same thing about you as you’re saying about young people now!”

  28. 28.

    Jeffro

    @Baud: “Democrats have become skilled at free-market economics.  Here’s why that’s bad news for Joe Biden”

  31. 31.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Kay: I forget where but I read about that the other day. Very good news, if you aren’t Republican.

    @Baud: It’s such a minor one off transgression by a press secretary who is obviously going to mention the opposing party from time to time. Name me an elected GOP pol who would object to being described as “mega MAGA”.

    shrug

  33. 33.

    Amir Khalid

    Aoife is currently resting after defeating the drawstring on my sweatpants in combat.

    I think that at some point during the trial, Trump’s lawyers will file a motion demanding that the judge make Jack Smith quit staring at their client.

  36. 36.

    Jeffro

    @eclare:

    it’s weird.  Do they want to run on “We turned down jobs!”

    I guess it’s “cultural issues” 24/7.

    Their fossil fuel overlords big donors have said, “enough is enough”, and the cultural issues are of course used to mask that.

  37. 37.

    UncleEbeneezer

    A few lawyers have been saying all along that the DOJ is building a meticulous case in the J6 investigation. We said it in 2021 and early 2022 when many others were saying the opposite. Not naming names, but many of us are women. There. I got that off my chest.

    And no the “meticulous investigation” did not start in mid-2022. On January 15, 2022: we learned from a defense lawyer representing insurrectionists (Rob Jenkins) that the DOJ had been “pretty aggressive” in “seeking out information that points to others’ involvement and culpability” in planning the events of January 6, including Rudy Giuliani and Roger Stone.

  41. 41.

    Ken

    @Kay: Yet, Republicans and media tell us “nobody wants to work”

    I think there’s an understood “for the $7.35 an hour I’m offering”.

  42. 42.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Jeffro: ​ With them it is always “preserve the existing power structure, fight everything that threatens it.” Just the other day I read where the Texas state lege wants to put a stop to the wind power boom in that state.

  43. 43.

    Geminid

    The Congressional Baseball Game is tonight. If there is a comeback player award, it will go to Rep. Greg Steube (FL). Four months after breaking multiple bones in a ladder accident, Steube will pitch for the Republicans.

    On the Democratic side, two promising rookies- Wiley Nickel (NC) and Gabe Vasquez (NM) will make their debut.

  44. 44.

    Jeffro

    This is encouraging: Dems meet with anti-trumpov conservatives to kneecap “No Labels”

    Things are looking good for ’24 but it’s best to have a plan B, C, etc.

    Top Democratic strategists, including current advisers to President Biden and former U.S. senators, met last week with former Republicans who oppose Donald Trump at the offices of a downtown D.C. think tank.

    Their mission: to figure out how to best subvert a potential third-party presidential bid by the group No Labels, an effort they all agreed risked undermining Biden’s reelection campaign and reelecting former president Donald Trump to the White House.

    Attendees included former White House chief of staff Ron Klain, Democratic National Committee senior adviser Cedric L. Richmond and Stephanie Cutter, a former campaign adviser to Barack Obama who has worked with the Biden team. They were joined by former senators Doug Jones (D-Ala.), Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) and Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), along with representatives of the anti-Trump Lincoln Project, former Weekly Standard publisher Bill Kristol and Lucy Caldwell, a former Republican consultant who now advises the independent Forward Party, according to people present at the event, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the event was private.

     

    I was all smiles reading that list of attendees, until I saw McCaskill and Kristol, then, well…I stopped smiling.  But at least Klain and Cutter are ON. IT.

  46. 46.

    Kay

    @Soprano2:

    He did research where he looked at old newspaper articles and found that the “no one wants to work anymore” trope goes back more than a century,

    Ha! So true. I do a little of it myself- “othering” young people. I now have two Zoomers in our office and I treat them like they’re aliens from a different world.

    I read a Twitter thread that was newspaper clippings going back a hundred years proclaiming that (white) men were “in crisis!”- “manhood ITSELF is at risk!” then, as now, it was the fault of women.

  49. 49.

    Jeffro

    @OzarkHillbilly:the Texas state lege wants to put a stop to the wind power boom in that state.

    Man I hope these Republicans never try to lecture anyone about the blessed “free market” ever, ever again.

    Invisible hand?  More like the very obvious thumb (on the scale)

  51. 51.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Kay: then, as now, it was the fault of women.

    Well, of course. Doesn’t everyone blame their mother?

  52. 52.

    Betty Cracker

    @eclare: When Obamacare passed, I was thinking Repub vows to turn down the associated Medicaid money were idle threats because how fucking stupid would it be to let your own citizens die for lack of healthcare and see rural hospitals close due to lack of funding, etc., to own the libs? But it turns out they were serious.

  53. 53.

    Soprano2

    Have you all seen this yet? Talk about ripping off the mask, no news organization would say that Biden is a dictator, but Fox News went there.

  54. 54.

    Roger Moore

    @Kay:

    I don’t know why the GOP base aren’t making any money but it isn’t because of the economy.

    Who says they aren’t making money?  Their problem isn’t that they aren’t doing well, it’s that Those People are doing well, too.  They’d rather do badly if it meant the people they hate are doing worse.

  55. 55.

    Jeffro

    More good news: public school parents are pushing back on the screeching minority trying to degrade kids’ educations across the country

    We can probably do better than calling our group, “Stop Moms For Liberty”, but it’s a start!

    in the raging culture wars, conservative parents jumped out first with a robust agenda built around the defense of “parents’ rights.”

    Now, seeking to apply some countervailing pressure, groups are coalescing on the left to resist conservative efforts to remove books from schools, end student LGBTQ clubs and restrict classroom discussions of race and gender. Experts and advocates say the progressives — some forming groups nationally and others in states and local communities — increasingly are in a strong position to push back.

    Liberal groups with names such as “Stop Moms for Liberty”are campaigning for like-minded school board candidates, lobbying legislators and training parents to show up at school board meetings. They host Zooms and Facebook pages where parents can commiserate and strategize.

    “Most of us are kind of just going about our daily lives, showing up for teacher appreciation day and volunteering for the PTA. Our public schools are a fact — we love them, we care about them,” she said. There have always been parents involved, she said, but “it was not ‘til these attacks that the majority of everyday parents were like, ‘We really need to jump in and take this to the next level.’”

     

    I love how these are called “liberal” groups…the ‘both sides’ media strikes again!  How about “pro-community groups” or “anti-book-banning groups”?  Grrr…

  57. 57.

    Baud

    @Betty Cracker:

    Agreed.  Same with the sequester. People thought it would force the Republicans to deal, but they successfully hurt their base while consolidating them by blaming the black guy. Direct line from Mitch McConnell to Trumpism.

  58. 58.

    Jeffro

    @Soprano2: I saw it last night.  Pathetic.

    In an ideal world, Karine Jean-Pierre has a poster-sized screenshot of that chyron on an easel at the next WH press conference, notes that it’s unacceptable, and asks the Fox “News” correspondent in the briefing room to leave.

    For real.

  60. 60.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: That Twitter thread was probably the same guy, he talked about his fascination with old newspaper stuff going back to when he was young. The interview is about several of these tropes that are repeated over and over again. I try hard to resist that – some of the best people I’ve worked with at my job were between 20 and 30! Some of the worst were near retirement.

  61. 61.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    The Zoomer who works up front reads novels on her breaks – paper books. I picked up her book (Dave Eggers) and asked her about it- I have no idea why I am behaving like this, touching her stuff, bothering her. I’m like “hmmm- this is what the aliens read- interesting and maybe suspicious?”

    Probably woke.

  62. 62.

    Tony Jay

    I think I have the answer.

    “Obviously these figures are terrible for wannabe dictator Uncle Joe Brandon because they prove that he’s been bribed by Woke Corporations like Disney to reparationize your hard earned tax money from Red State Economic Engines to Blue State Sanctuary Cities! That’s all these figures show! Criminal Corporate looting and Biden Bribery on a HUGE scale!. And as to why businesses can’t hire enough people, it’s obvious. White American Citizens are being diversified out of the workforce and Great Replacemented by shiftless moocher hordes bussed in from Mexico and other shithole countries. It just looks like there’s a huge employment boom because Uncle Joe and Kamala the Culturally-Diversified Cop have emptied out the country to make room for their Plantation People! It’s not 2 late, people! A 2A solution is a Final Solution!” #doublebarrel45#WakeUp Don’tBeWoke#moskvasinglesclub

  63. 63.

    Soprano2

    @Jeffro: I agree, I wish that would happen. No one should treat them like a normal news channel anymore – they’re a propaganda outfit, period.

  65. 65.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Soprano2: The things that strike me are that (1) labor force participation is rapidly rising, after a one-time dip at the COVID pandemic, which implies not only that people want to work but that all the “Great Resignation is here to stay” stories are also bogus, and (2) unemployment for Black people in particular is at its lowest level ever. EVER.

    From about the early 2000s to around 2015, labor force participation was falling and I recall a lot of handwringing and headscratching over that. I think it was mostly a byproduct of demographic changes. But it actually started rising in the late-Obama/Trump years, COVID knocked it down and now it’s rising faster than before.

  66. 66.

    gene108

    People want to have things to complain about. I’ve read or listened to reports about how humans are wired to have a negativity bias. We’re wired to give excessive attention to things that might harm us.

    Negativity bias refers to our proclivity to “attend to, learn from, and use negative information far more than positive information” (Vaish, Grossmann, & Woodward, 2008, p. 383). We can think of it as an asymmetry in how we process negative and positive occurrences to understand our world, one in which “negative events elicit more rapid and more prominent responses than non-negative events” (Carretié, Mercado, Tapia, & Hinojosa., 2001, p. 75).

    Probably a reason for the negative portrayal of the economy. Obsessive focus on one bad issue, inflation, versus all the good news like low unemployment, small business startups, etc. The U.S. has had historically low inflation rates for most of this century. Actually having any kind of inflation that causes interest rate hikes is a shock to what’s become the norm.

    Even when we experience numerous good events in one day, negativity bias can cause us to focus on the sole bad thing that occurred. It can lead us to ruminate on small things, worry over having made a bad impression, and linger on negative comments (Lupfer, Weeks, & Dupuis, 2000; Chen & Lurie, 2013; Wisco, Gilbert, & Marroquín, 2014).

    https://positivepsychology.com/3-steps-negativity-bias/#:~:text=References-,What%20Is%20Negativity%20Bias%3F,383).

  68. 68.

    eclare

    @Betty Cracker:

    Good point.  And I should have known, I live in one of those states stupid enough to turn down free money.

    Our pols should have Sen. Davis’ attitude from The Wire:  I’ll take any motherfucker’s money if they givin’ it away!

  73. 73.

    lowtechcyclist

    @eclare:

    Same with Youngkin in VA who turned down a battery plant.

    He did?  Can’t see that working out well for him* this fall. There just aren’t enough RWNJs in Virginia who think it’s a good idea to turn down jobs from ‘woke’ employers to win elections that way.

    * He’s not officially on the ballot, but the state legislature is.  And you can bet that what he does will have an effect on GOP prospects there.

  74. 74.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Soprano2:

    Saw that last night. Twelve hours later, I remain gobsmacked. IANAL, but this seems a clear case of defamation, and I hope the WH or the DNC or somebody sues the everloving shit out of FOX for this.

  76. 76.

    catclub

    Biden Boom.

    You know how the stock reporters say ( covering completely random market fluctuations) why the markets moved? I did not see too many reports of “markets reach new high in bull market on Trumps arraignment. restoration of rule of law.” FOX missed that too.

  77. 77.

    catclub

    @Soprano2: ​
    I was surprised to see this as one FOX headline at that website:

    Right-wing media are bending over backward to defend Trump from espionage charges

    ETA: Oh, never mind. that was Rightwing watch, not FOX. It looked more like FOX

  82. 82.

    sdhays

    @OzarkHillbilly: Trump literally had explicit campaign events in the White House in 2020. After that, I don’t want to hear about the Hatch Act ever again – it doesn’t exist, like the Emoluments Clause or the first half of the second amendment.

  85. 85.

    ...now I try to be amused

    @Jeffro:

    We can probably do better than calling our group, “Stop Moms For Liberty”, but it’s a start!

    How ’bout “Moms Against Astroturf Assholes”?

  89. 89.

    jonas

    @JPL: I forget if it was discussed here or elsewhere the other day, but one major GOP-supporting group really pushing back on incentives for EVs is the car dealers association. “But wait,” you say, “why wouldn’t they want to sell more electric vehicles? They’re the ones making money from it?” They’re scared to death that as the Big Three (or Big Two, now, really) try to catch up with Tesla in electric car sales, they’ll also try to cut costs by imitating Tesla’s dealer-less system. Also, auto dealers make a ton of money servicing cars and gas engines need lots of maintenance and repairs. Electric vehicles? They need software patches/upgrades and you don’t need a dealer for that.

    So expect to see a lot of Republican states and governors try to put the kaibosh on promoting a transition to ev’s. It’s the car dealer lobby.

  90. 90.

    gene108

    @Baud:

    That doesn’t explain differences in perception and media coverage between D and R administrations.

    The difference in coverage, I think, really comes down to the demographics of Democratic versus Republican voters. Democrats have a majority of women and minority voters in the U.S., and thus Democrats support the interests of these groups.

    The overwhelming majority of white men vote Republican.

    There’s historically been a default assumption that white men were meant to run things in this country, and therefore the issues concerning white men are the serious issues of the day.

    Concerns of non-white men have typically been ignored or not taken as seriously.

    Therefore, since Republicans represent the concerns of most white men, they get some benefit of the doubt about whether or not they’re doing very important things while running government.

    Edit: I think why negative framing resonates with people for generally positive events does come down to our innate negativity bias. We are primed to see the bad and respond to negative partisanship.

  91. 91.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @eclare:

    I guess it’s “cultural issues” 24/7.

    When Republicans have to choose between bigotry and plutocracy, they almost always choose bigotry.  It’s been like that at least since Obama.  There has rarely been a conflict between the two, but lately the base has been upset that businesses dare sell to The Other.

    @Jeffro:

    Fossil fuels rule Texas.  This is Georgia and Virginia.  Battery and EV companies are just as good money, donor wise.  This is sticking it to the libs.

  93. 93.

    jonas

    @OzarkHillbilly: Yeah, that was pretty laughable, especially after Trump and his aides (Kelly-Anne Conway was particularly egregious) spent four years pissing all over the Hatch Act practically every single day.

  97. 97.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @sdhays:

    it doesn’t exist, like the Emoluments Clause

    That was a perfect example of how weird law is.  He was clearly violating the constitution… but there is no punishment laid out for violating the Emoluments Clause, so there’s nothing that could be done about it.  Except impeachment of course, and… well, Republicans.

  98. 98.

    smith

    @jonas: Doesn’t CA now have a rule requiring all new cars to be zero-emission by 2035? It’s something we’ve seen before regarding rules about auto emissions — the power of the CA market usually overtakes the rest of the country, sooner or later. Add to that the fact that buying a car over the internet is easier than ever, I think those car dealers and their GQP enablers are fighting a losing battle.

  99. 99.

    Geminid

    @Frankensteinbeck: Youngkin said he objected to the battery plant in Southside Virginia because of Chinese involvement, not because it supported the EV supply chain. It was a bogus issue, but the guy has been running for President ever since he took office.

  101. 101.

    Jeffro

    @…now I try to be amused: That’s ok, but I was thinking something more proactive/less reactionary?

    Betsy DeVos’ new school privatization 501c group is called “American Federation for Children” (talk about lipstick on a pig!)

    How about we muddy the waters a bit and go with…hmm… “Federation for American Children”?  We might even pick up some accidentally-donated rich MAGAts’ $$$ that way.  =)

    Ok, ok…seriously…it needs to be something with

    • America
    • Kids/Children
    • and either ‘national’ ‘foundation’ ‘future’ or ‘forward’

    in it.

  102. 102.

    lowtechcyclist

    @eclare:

    https://wapo.st/43TfNow

    Supposedly a gift link.

    The gift link worked, thanks, and the stupid, it burns!

    The battery plant involved “national security risk-type technology and he stopped that,” Richard Cullen, Youngkin’s chief legal counsel, said in an interview. “They were looking for land and incentives to build something and I think that was the nucleus” of the evolving concern about farmland, he said.

    Yeah, automobile batteries are national security risk technology. Suuuure.  And of course, the dread farmland shortage, that we’ve never heard about before, even as suburbs have long since sprawled into exurbs.

    Just the latest GOP attempt to create a bogeyman (China, this time) for their base to hyperventilate over.

    So stupid. Even if the battery tech in this Ford plant that isn’t gonna happen now is all China’s, you still develop a workforce that knows all the ins and outs of manufacturing car batteries.  That sounds to me like a really good thing.  But that would get in the way of their push to turn China into a bogeyman.

    Certainly there are reasons for the U.S. to be wary of China these days.  But this isn’t about that.  This is just ‘China – oogabooga!‘  Guess they’ve got to have this warmed up for when ‘woke’ and trans fears don’t work anymore.

  103. 103.

    Kay

    I’ve decided the Trump felonies discussion in media is too dumb for me to listen to, so I’m not.

    I wish I had done this for the Affordable Care Act – I should have just read it myself and left it at that. The “debate” made me less well informed.

  104. 104.

    Torrey

    @Jeffro: ​
      It would indeed be nice to have one of these groups name themselves something like “[X] County Normies” or “Real Parents of Real Kids.” On the other hand, while I’m tired of the media’s assumption that there are always exactly two sides to everything and there’s no middle ground, I also like seeing people with what turn out to be normal, sane values and behaviors identified almost by default as “liberal.”

  107. 107.

    Kay

    @lowtechcyclist:

    It’s interesting because the big manufacturing push in the Biden Administration does have a foreign policy aspect, specifically China. It’s meant to strengthen the US v China. So this is another real policy difference between the parties- conservatives want to hide from China and liberals are ready to try to best them. I’d bet on our side. You can’t run and hide.

  109. 109.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    @eclare: Do they want to run on “We turned down jobs!”

    Economic success threatens Republicans when a Democrat is President.

  110. 110.

    Roger Moore

    @Matt McIrvin: ​

    (1) labor force participation is rapidly rising, after a one-time dip at the COVID pandemic, which implies not only that people want to work but that all the “Great Resignation is here to stay” stories are also bogus

    Yes and no. If you look at the details, there’s a definite age difference. The overall labor participation rate dropped drastically when the pandemic hit, and it still hasn’t recovered to where it was in February 2020. If you split it by 25-54 and 55+, though, there’s a stark difference. For 25-54, there was a huge drop in March-April of 2020, followed by a gradual recovery to the point it’s now higher than it was in February 2020 (83.4 now vs 83.0 then).

    For older people, though, the participation rate has been pretty much flat since the pandemic. It was at 40.3 in February 2020, fell to 38.5 in May of 2020 and is at 38.4 today. That’s really strange, because it had been stable at about 40% between 2010 and 2020; it was never above 40.7 or below 39.5. It looks like a whole bunch of people decided to retire with the shutdown and haven’t been lured back into the workforce.​

  116. 116.

    Scout211

    @smith:

    Link

    California, the country’s most populous state and the center of U.S. car culture, is banning the sale of new gasoline-powered vehicles starting in 2035, marking a historic step in the state’s battle against climate change.

    The rule, issued by the California Air Resources Board on Thursday, will force automakers to speed up production of cleaner vehicles beginning in 2026 until sales of only zero-emission cars, pickup trucks and SUVs are allowed in the state.

    And diesel trucks, too.  But there is now push-back against the EPA for approval. Link

    Iowa is leading 19 states in a lawsuit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for backing California’s future ban on heavy diesel vehicles in a purported attempt to regulate traditional trucking “out of existence through mandating net-zero emissions standards.”
     
    The 51-page legal action against the EPA and its administrator, Michael Regan (in his official role), was filed June 5 in the U.S. Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia by Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird and her peers from Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Ohio, South Carolina, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming.
     
    “Iowa isn’t going to take a back seat as the EPA and California try to regulate truckers out of business. We’re pushing back,” Bird announced. “The EPA and California have no right or legal justification to force truckers to follow their radical climate agenda.”

  117. 117.

    Soprano2

    @jonas: Oh yeah, care dealerships are TERRIFIED of electric cars. Their dirty little secret is that they mostly make money off sales bonuses and car repairs. “This American Life” did an episode about a car dealership that was trying to sell enough cars to make a quota so they could get a huge bonus from the manufacturer of the cars they sold. The manager said it actually made sense to sell cars at a loss if it meant they got the bonus. So that thing about the end of the month being the best time to get a deal is true, or it used to be true.

  118. 118.

    smith

    @Scout211: I can’t say I know anything about environmental law, but does EPA have to approve CA’s rule before it goes into effect?

  119. 119.

    Geminid

    @lowtechcyclist: Much of Youngkin’s January State of the Commonwealth address to the General Assembly was about China. One reason for this was a to build his reputation in the national party, where anti-Chinese sentiments are on the rise.

    The issue also served as a shiny object to divert people’s attention from his unpopular stances on issues Virginians really care about, like abortion rights, gun safety, and education.

  120. 120.

    snoey

    @smith: Auto dealers are protected by an assortment of state laws (among the many that Tesla tries to sidestep). The big auto makers want to sell all cars direct – EVs are the wedge.

  121. 121.

    Old School

    @jonas:

    Also, auto dealers make a ton of money servicing cars and gas engines need lots of maintenance and repairs. Electric vehicles? They need software patches/upgrades and you don’t need a dealer for that.

    I mean, sure, gas cars need oil changes, but my last couple of major repairs were brakes and struts.  I would imagine electric vehicles need those repairs too.

  122. 122.

    Jeffro

    @Frankensteinbeck: fossil fuel companies and oil billionaires – whether they’re in Texas or not – want to nip EVs (and their related factories, etc) in the bud in every state.  Or at least every state where they have a fully-owned GOP governor.  It’s a huge return on their “investment”.

    (and ‘sticking it to the libs’ goes without saying)

  124. 124.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @eclare: Nice!  Enjoy.  It’s a great book.

    I like the idea of incorporating something like “Free History” or “History Unbound” emphasizing the fact that history that the other side is trying to white-wash, restrict and censor our history, which is the exact opposite of Freedom.

  125. 125.

    Roger Moore

    @Torrey:

    Real Parents of Real Kids

    I like it.  One of the best criticisms of pro-censorship groups like Moms For Liberty is that many of the members don’t even have kids in the schools they’re trying to censor.  I like the idea of putting that at the forefront.

  126. 126.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Soprano2: ​
    The constituency of the modern Republican Party is That One Crazy Person Who Use To Write Incoherent Letters To The Editor and Scream Weird Stuff at School Board Meetings.

    You probably have just one or two of those in your community. But the GOP has enabled all of them and given them the power in order to get their vote.

  127. 127.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @eclare: I have two books on order that I should be getting this week, that look great.

    When the Reckoning Comes by Latanya McQueen:

    More than a decade ago, Mira fled her small, segregated hometown in the south to forget. With every mile she traveled, she distanced herself from her past: from her best friend Celine, mocked by their town as the only white girl with black friends; from her old neighborhood; from the eerie Woodsman plantation rumored to be haunted by the spirits of slaves; from the terrifying memory of a ghost she saw that terrible day when a dare-gone-wrong almost got Jesse–the boy she secretly loved–arrested for murder.

    But now Mira is back in Kipsen to attend Celine’s wedding at the plantation, which has been transformed into a lush vacation resort. Mira hopes to reconnect with her friends, and especially, Jesse, to finally tell him the truth about her feelings and the events of that devastating long-ago day.

    …

    As the weekend unfolds, Mira, Jesse, and Celine are forced to acknowledge their history together, and to save themselves from what is to come.

     

    & Tell Me I’m Worthless by Alison Rumfitt:

    Alison Rumfitt’s Tell Me I’m Worthless is a dark, unflinching haunted house story that confronts both supernatural and real-world horrors through the lens of the modern-day trans experience.

  131. 131.

    Jeffro

    File under: ya gotta be kidding me, right?  This counts as “news”?

    GOP worried that trump’s legal woes will boomerang on them

    Uh, yeah…could be a possibility!

    Senate Republicans are worried former President Trump’s legal troubles will create a major headwind for GOP candidates in 2024.

    They say the battle between the Justice Department and Trump, who pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges that he violated the Espionage Act and obstructed justice with his handling of classified documents, will become a primary litmus test — just as his unsubstantiated claims that the 2020 election was stolen became a prominent point of debate in last year’s GOP primaries.

    They also worry Trump’s dominance of the media spotlight will turn off swing voters — especially suburban women — and hurt their chances of taking back the Senate or protecting their small House majority.

    “Voters are going to make that determination, but most certainly for a lot of us as you look at that, it’s not going to help,” he said. “This is not good for our party, clearly not good for our party.”

    Senate Republican Whip John Thune (S.D.) also warned Republicans will pay the price if Trump and his various legal battles dominate the political debate next year.

    “I think if you look at the record, in ’18, ’20, and ’22, when he’s the issue, we lose,” Thune said, referring to Republicans’ loss of the House in the 2018 midterm election, their loss of the White House and Senate in the 2020 election and Senate Republicans’ failure to take back the upper chamber in 2022.

    Now, what would actually be “news”, snooze media, is if any of these GOP clowns decided to call on trump to quit the race (or jump off a cliff) for the good of the party.

    That, and trump’s response, of course.  =)

  132. 132.

    jonas

    @Kay: I’m telling you the media coverage of the economy is “but her emails” bad. It’s no longer reality based. 100% narrative.

    Listening to a working-class white guy in an Ohio diner *complain* about the economy is a lot more interesting than listening to him tell you how great it is. *Especially* when a Democrat is in the WH. Where’s the story there?

  134. 134.

    Roger Moore

    @Old School:

    I mean, sure, gas cars need oil changes, but my last couple of major repairs were brakes and struts. I would imagine electric vehicles need those repairs too.

    Electric cars do still need mechanical repairs, but their drive trains are much lower maintenance.  Electric motors are basically maintenance-free, and a lot of EVs don’t have conventional transmissions, either.  IIRC, the reduced engine and drive train maintenance costs on an EV are enough to more than make up for the cost of replacing the battery pack if/when that needs replacing.

  135. 135.

    Kay

    @Soprano2:

    When I started saying that the anti cancel culture free speech warriors of the Atlantic and the NYT and Substack never object to actual state sanctioned oppression of speech I didn’t know if they would actually ever do that- they might have at some point – but I said it anyway because they’re insufferable assholes and I guessed they never would.

    As it turns out they never did speak out against DeSantis and the rest,  so my worst accusation against them was true after all- they do not care, at all, about speech or “debate”. It was all just bullshit to shut down new and younger voices and ideas and protect their own status and careers.

  136. 136.

    cain

    @Soprano2: They media has become lazy everything is about following the same patterns. It’s kind of like lumberjacks expecting to keep doing lumbering and then getting pissy when conditions are changing and they can’t do it.

  137. 137.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Geminid:

    The issue also served as a shiny object to divert people’s attention from his unpopular stances on issues Virginians really care about, like abortion rights, gun safety, and education.

    Somehow I can’t see that shiny object being much of a help for Virginia Republicans this fall.

  138. 138.

    catclub

    @snoey: ​
     

    The big auto makers want to sell all cars direct – EVs are the wedge.

    I do not expect the big Auto Makers to have the political clout of the dealer networks – or the will to fight them. In the case of nationalized healthcare, the big Auto makers had billions of legacy costs for healthcare that would have been helped by nationalizing healthcare. They did not make a peep for that. Class trumps economics.

  142. 142.

    Kay

    @jonas:

    You could include inflation! Have a real discussion with them. Ask them “which would be better- higher unemployment or inflation?”

    I think higher unemployment is much, much worse for most people and communities. I base that on 2010 to 2014. I’m interested in that comparison. African American employment is at historic highs too, in terms of the gap between black and white. That might be new to talk about instead of another droning, pouty story about a downturn in tech hiring.

  143. 143.

    jonas

    @Jeffro:Senate Republicans are worried former President Trump’s legal troubles will create a major headwind for GOP candidates in 2024.

    Yeah, when your leading candidate going on trial for espionage and obstruction of justice, that might be a wee fly in the ointment.

    The reality is that Trump’s base will never, ever abandon him and will not vote for another Republican if they think they can piss everyone off by voting for Trump. They’re fucking toddlers with oppositional defiance disorder. But a majority of Americans are not going to vote for a convicted (or about-to-be-convicted) felon for president. Just as we saw in 2020 and again last year, Trump’s base is as committed as it is crazy, but it’s not enough to win elections and most people hate them.

  144. 144.

    catclub

    @jonas: ​
     

    Listening to a working-class white guy in an Ohio diner *complain* about the economy is a lot more interesting than listening to him tell you how great it is.

    _Old_ _retired_ working class (ha!) guy. the working age guy has all the work he can get right now and can’t waste time gabbing in the diner.

  146. 146.

    cain

    @Jeffro: my wife writes curriculum for the beaverton school district – she had to deal with her entire curriculum being exposed to right wing activist groups as they shat all over her work.

    She’s moved to another job, but otherwise she would be the lone, person of color writing this stuff and then having to deal with these activists on a constant basis. No job is worth that.

  147. 147.

    Brachiator

    @Scout211:

    California, the country’s most populous state and the center of U.S. car culture, is banning the sale of new gasoline-powered vehicles starting in 2035, marking a historic step in the state’s battle against climate change.

    This is problematic. EVs are not all that great and California doesn’t have the infrastructure to support the move to more charging for these vehicles. This will also increase the cost of living in California, which is already pushing people out of the state and increasing homelessness.

  148. 148.

    catclub

    @jonas: ​
      My line would be: “Trump is who Republicans are now. People who don’t think the clear law should apply to them.”

  149. 149.

    cain

    @Jeffro: I just wish they would de-certify them and prevent them from showing up.

    Give the middle finger to the other news organizations who if I remember last time erupted in defense of their Fox News colleagues.

    Deranged chryons aside, there should be a law that makes it clear what is infotainment and what is news. Those who do news should be allowed into the press room – otherwise, fuck off.

  150. 150.

    catclub

    @Brachiator: ​
     

    This is problematic. EVs are not all that great and California doesn’t have the infrastructure

    Doesn’t have it NOW, but this is twelve years and three development cycles later. The future is coming. prepare for it.

  151. 151.

    snoey

    @catclub: They’ll probably split the difference and lose the small guys and work with mega-chains. This also works for repair and bodywork. The big change is that high-tech cars have all the sensors that need to be maintained and aligned. No such thing as a fender bender.

  152. 152.

    Kay

    So I’ll have another grandchild in January. My daughter and her spouse are expecting. They don’t find out boy or girl early because they like a surprise but their three year old wants a brother not sister, and his name should be “Ryan”, she says. I love the specificity of her demand.

  155. 155.

    cain

    @eclare: no, y’all need to screw the brand of Moms for Liberty with something like “Liberty Moms for Freedom” – right wingers always use words like freedom and liberty to do the opposite.

    Just use the same words, and then split the grift and hopefully take right winger money. One way is to compete against their grift and then fill our own coffers and then use that to build organizations and show up to school board meetings just like they do.

  156. 156.

    R-Jud

    @Kay: That’s adorable. My four-year-old niece recently acquired a younger brother and is very frustrated that her parents named him “Nicholas” and not “Mr. Pickle” as per her orders.

  159. 159.

    Jeffro

    @cain: ugh, I’m sorry to hear that!

    school divisions need to figure out how to better protect their people (both at central office and in the schools) from this kind of nonsense.  being proactive about the rights parents already have/always had, as well as the processes that have already been established if parents want to take part, is a huge part of that.

    best wishes to her in the new job!

  161. 161.

    cain

    @Soprano2: They are fucked anyways – the new cars do not have as much mechanical problems than they did back in the 80s. My 2013 Subaru has been running like a tank.

    But yeah, electric cars have even less moving parts. You’d have more problems with the electronics.

    Dealerships are eyesores, they take up valuable real estate in the center of town and run by right wing assholes who take advantage of you. No thanks.

  164. 164.

    cain

    @jonas: Trump’s base is as committed as it is crazy, but it’s not enough to win elections and most people hate them.

    The culture wars is not helping – going after schools is a loser. Even Republicans are annoyed with the antics for Moms for Liberty.

  165. 165.

    Scout211

    @smith: does EPA have to approve CA’s rule before it goes into effect?

    yes. California has asked for a waiver from the EPA.

    EPA

    The Clean Air Act allows California to seek a waiver of the preemption which prohibits states from enacting emission standards for new motor vehicles. EPA must grant a waiver, however, before California’s rules may be enforced. When California files a waiver request, EPA publishes a notice for public hearing and written comment in the Federal Register. The written comment period remains open for a period of time after the public hearing. Once the comment period expires, EPA reviews the comments and the Administrator determines whether the requirements for obtaining a waiver have been met.

  166. 166.

    cain

    @Jeffro: Yeah, she’s going to be an assistant principal for another school system and is thrilled about it. She gets to go into classes again and work with children again. Certainly her mental health is going to be much better going forward.

  168. 168.

    dm

    @Old School:

    I mean, sure, gas cars need oil changes, but my last couple of major repairs were brakes and struts.  I would imagine electric vehicles need those repairs too.

    Struts, maybe, but regenerative braking takes a lot of wear off the brakes.

    Auto unions are (or at least were) chary of EVs, too, because fewer moving parts requires fewer workers to do assembly.

  170. 170.

    James E Powell

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:

    The constituency of the modern Republican Party is That One Crazy Person Who Use To Write Incoherent Letters To The Editor and Scream Weird Stuff at School Board Meetings.

    Our problems are: 1) the political media, led by FTFNYT, who run with “That One Crazy Person may have a point” coverage and 2) normie voters who react to such coverage with “I’m not completely comfortable. Better vote Republican.”

  171. 171.

    catclub

    I think Biden should promise to pardon Trump if Biden is re-elected and trump is convicted.
    It would save money for the prison system.

  172. 172.

    UncleEbeneezer

    Now Nicolle Wallace says that Jack Smith must have started looking into the Eastman emails once a judge called out crime fraud exception during the 1/6 committee case, but MERRICK GARLAND had the Eastman emails well before the 1/6 committee got them. This is getting annoying.

    Some people simply will never admit that their assumptions about Garland/DOJ were wrong.

  173. 173.

    Miss Bianca

    @Tony Jay: I would laugh, but I’m too afraid that this particular rant is being repeated for actual real somewhere down one of the the MAGAt ratholes.

  174. 174.

    Kay

    @eclare:

    Thanks. My sisters (my daughter calls them ‘the witches” but she means that in a nice way) are really thrilled.

  175. 175.

    UncleEbeneezer

    Tick, tock…

    NBC News confirms: The Fulton County Sheriff’s Department sent a team to Miami on Tuesday to observe the city’s security precautions—part of the agency’s preparations for possible charges that may be brought against Donald Trump later this summer in Georgia.

  176. 176.

    Miss Bianca

    @UncleEbeneezer: Ooh, I just ordered that first one from the library. Who cares that I’m currently swamped in theater production and I already have a half-dozen or more other titles awaiting my attention!

  179. 179.

    geg6

    @Kay: ​
     
    They are building a fucking steel mill here in Beaver County. A fucking steel mill!!!! In the place which had a dozen of them in my childhood and where all of of them were gone, literally having been torn down, by the time I graduated college. A fucking steel mill!!!! I’m shocked and amazed.

  180. 180.

    Soprano2

    @Roger Moore: I think the pandemic frontloaded a lot of retirements that would be happening now. It’s the inevitable consequence of the baby boom bulge in the population. It would have happened anyway, just spread out over several more years.

  181. 181.

    Soprano2

    @Jeffro: I have ZERO sympathy for them. They could have headed all of this off with the second impeachment by finding him guilty. That way, he couldn’t be running for president now, and none of this would be “boomeranging” back onto them. Or, alternatively, they could all be saying “Yeah, this classified documents case looks bad, let’s see what happens with the trial” instead of making all kinds of excuses for him!

  182. 182.

    Tony Jay

    @Miss Bianca:

    Oh, some version of it will be. It’s always Crazy o’clock in wingnutopia. A large chunk of the job over there is to give the Based Base counter-intuitive nonsense they can hang their deflated brains on, and boy, are they earning their Soylent Bucks.

  183. 183.

    narya

    Anybody here ever have a kidney stone? We’re supposed to go camping, and my friend might maybe have one.

  184. 184.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: Bill Maher, alleged “free speech warrior”, rarely ever talks about all the book bans, or the banning of drag performances. He once said he doesn’t care that much about school book bans because they don’t affect him!! So yeah, they don’t care at all about the government letting one parent ban books from your kids. They care a lot about what’s happening at some university somewhere, though, or about people pushing back on their lies about transgender people and the treatment of transgender youth.

  186. 186.

    Kay

    @Soprano2:

    Ron DeSantis “I will now use state power to punish this company, specifically, for speech”

    They ignored that and spent two years on the incident where Yale Law students were not deferential enough to a federal judge. Their rules of “free speech” include “no one may question anyone in power”.

  187. 187.

    Soprano2

    @narya: Ugh yes, it’s one of the most painful experiences of my life. I feel for your friend. The only thing that seemed to help was rubbing diluted DMSO on my skin on the side where the stone was – it seemed to help it move faster. Otherwise, there isn’t anything you can do but tolerate the pain and wait it out unless you want to spend a lot of money. I think there’s some kind of treatment that’s supposed to break them up – some kind of sonic thing.

  188. 188.

    Scout211

    @narya: My daughter gets them semi-regularly. She has had some mild ones and some excruciatingly painful ones that ended up with her in the ER for hours.  My advice (from my daughter’s experience) is get it diagnosed before the trip.  If it’s a small one, the trip could go on with some discomfort or pain.  If it’s a large one, your friend does not want to be in the middle of nowhere.

    I have had one little tiny one.  It was uncomfortable, but it passed easily.  I could have gone camping. But the large ones that my daughter has had? She can barely stand up with the pain.

  189. 189.

    Kay

    @Soprano2:

    These issues are difficult. You and I have talked about where we thought liberals and Lefties went to far with speech rules. But the ninnes having a fucking nervous breakdown and declaring an existential threat to “liberalism” didn’t help at all. They made it all worse.

  190. 190.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: It’s obvious that they got their panties all in a wad thinking that they will be questioned! It’s so obvious that Maher is now a cranky old man yelling at clouds and highly offended that anyone would be criticizing him! He still thinks of himself as a young, cutting-edge comic who says shocking things, I think that’s why he’s so surprised that college audiences don’t laugh at his jokes anymore. You notice that people like Stephen Colbert never complain about how college students don’t have a sense of humor.

  191. 191.

    narya

    @Soprano2: @Scout211: Thank you both! The pain is in the right place, but it kinda comes and goes (sometimes goes away completely). No fever, no blood. I’m recommending he drink a LOT of water today and move around, and see what happens. There’s an event (indycar race) associated with the trip, so we both want to go, but not if he’s in too much pain or if it’s something else. My sense is that there isn’t much to be done except the water drinking.

  192. 192.

    Kathleen

    @UncleEbeneezer: Why are they fixated on who did what when? Jesus, Mary and Joseph, excuse my French. DOJ/Smith meticulously gathering evidence and building cases. The only persons I trust for my analysis of Garland, Smith and Co are Teri Kanefield for legal perspective and Heather Richardson Cox Richardson for historical context which she so eloquently provided in yesterday’s letter. I loathe 99% of the Beltway Political Propatainment Complex.

  193. 193.

    RevRick

    @gene108: yeah, there’s an element of white supremacy in the assumptions people make. But it’s also a basic category error that many make. When people are asked, “which party is better at running the economy, they answer, ‘the Republicans’, even though objectively the Democrats have done a far better job, hands down, since Hoover. And I think the reason for that is twofold.

    First, people see that Republicans run most businesses. The largest group of earners making over $1.5 million annually are care dealership owners, and they are ubiquitous. The assumption made is that since Republicans are so successful at running businesses, they would, of course, be great at running the government (like a business). But bottom line, profits and losses thinking doesn’t transfer to the operation of the federal government.

    How often do we hear the nonsense that we should run the government’s budget like we do our own household? And the outcry about deficits and the debt?
    The general public has no clue about macroeconomic policies. They have no clue about Keynes simple formula that GDP (the total economy) is the sum of four components: C (consumer spending) + G (government spending) + I (business investment) + X(net exports). And because they don’t understand this, they are easily persuaded that subtraction is addition, that shrinking the government will somehow make the economy bigger. I mean how many know that the X in the equation has been a negative number since 1980, and if anything ought to be alarming, it’s that?
    I am willing to venture that a lot of reporters are clueless about this and make the same mistaken assumptions.

  194. 194.

    Tony Jay

    @Miss Bianca:

    I’d also be quite comfortable betting real life money on some form of those dumb hashtag/memes making an appearance this time around. Especially the ‘doublebarrelled45’ one. It’s such a simple image and one that tickles all of the MAGOP happy places.

      Movie style poster. An impossibly Stern and stylish looking Trump pointing a double-barrelled shotgun at the viewer. One barrel labelled 2016/2020 with a whisp of smoke in the shape of America drifting out of it, the other labelled 2024/2028.

    Above Line

    GIVE THE THUG LEFT BOTH BARRELS

    Bottom Line

    MAKING AMERICA GREAT AGAIN

    VOTE TRUMP/CELLMATE 37427

    The inanity will be greater that we can possibly imagine.

  195. 195.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: Yep, getting all bent out of shape when someone says “pregnant woman” is ridiculous to me. We have to have some grace for people and not be seen as rigid and dogmatic.

  198. 198.

    Ken

    @narya: I had a kidney stone, but had no idea what it was. When I went to the emergency room at 2AM, I’m sure I presented as someone seeking opiates. “I don’t know, it’s just this pain in my side….”

  200. 200.

    narya

    @Ken: yeah, that’s the situation he’s in too–though right this minute he’s pain-free. We’re going to opt for “drink a lot of water and move around” as a strategy for now, and make a call tomorrow. It seems to get worse at night, or if he sits for too long. I mean, it might not even be a kidney stone, but the symptoms fit better than anything else.

  201. 201.

    Heidi Mom

    @geg6: And I remember that some years ago you met a Beaver Countian who said “Trump’s going to bring the steel mills back!”  Well, someone is.

  202. 202.

    Soprano2

    @Ken: That’s how my husband found out he was deathly allergic to iodine. The ER gave him a shot of iodine for a contrast X-ray because they thought he had a kidney stone; a couple of minutes after that, they were giving him a shot of adrenaline right into his heart because he went into anaphylactic shock from the iodine. Not a great way to find out you’re allergic to something.

  203. 203.

    Soprano2

    @BenCisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️: Thanks for that, but I think you’re thinking of my husband. *sigh* Finally got the neuro psych scheduled; he wasn’t happy when he saw the letter about the MRI referenced memory loss. “What memory loss?” he asked me. How do I answer that – he asks if he fed the dogs almost every night. I know for a fact because of the GPS I put in his vehicle that he tried to go have his blood drawn on Monday, but couldn’t remember how to get to the doctor’s office. He just doesn’t believe he has a memory problem that’s different than what you’d have with getting older.

  204. 204.

    steve g

    I think it dismays the Right Wing that Bud Light was never a favorite beer of The Left in the first place. We drink the good stuff! They are boycotting their own favorite beer and the The Left doesn’t care.

  205. 205.

    Ruckus

    @Kay:

    I wonder if it has anything to do with a large segment of our population retiring. I retired in late 2021, at 72 yrs of age. Not 65. I wonder how much of the population boom after WWII has and is doing the same? That changes a lot in a working economy, with new people doing new things in new ways making new products and services. And being led by an 80 yr old man…..

  206. 206.

    Denali5

    @narya:

    I have had one. It is very painful. The pain can come and go. But it got me to the ER and a CAT scan showed it. I would get it checked out.

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