At Rosh Hashanah reception at the Vice President’s residence, VP Harris quotes the Talmud (Pirkei Avot), “It not your duty to finish the work, but neither are you at liberty to neglect it.” pic.twitter.com/irNXcBjiHA
— Jacob N. Kornbluh (@jacobkornbluh) September 13, 2023
Honored to be at the home of @VP for a Rosh Hashanah celebration. My grandparents were chased from Russia. Today I celebrated the coming New Year at the VP’s home, where a mezuzah adorns the entrance. pic.twitter.com/QlHT7DPeDD
— Rep. Steve Israel (@RepSteveIsrael) September 12, 2023
======
For @MSNBC: No Joe Biden is not dropping out of the 2024 race; he’s not booting VP Harris from the ticket … and he’s still the Democrats best hope to win in 2024 https://t.co/qTlTM2QSFs
— Michael A. Cohen (NOT TRUMP’S FORMER FIXER) (@speechboy71) September 14, 2023
… [N]o candidate and no president is perfect. That’s why, seemingly every time an incumbent runs for re-election, there are pundits who suggest the president should drop out or dump his vice president. But that never happens because, generally speaking, it’s a terrible idea and, warts and all, an incumbent president is the party’s best option for victory. A president refusing to seek a second term or dumping a vice president would be momentous political events that would reverberate across the political landscape in ways that are impossible to predict. Those advocating for such moves are simply failing to consider the consequences of a political “cure” for an ailing president. It has the potential to be far worse than the disease.
Still, I have no doubt that pundits will keep writing pieces floating the idea, and some Democrats will pine for a savior to ride up on a white horse and save the party. But make no mistake: Democrats came to this dance with Joe Biden — and that’s who they are leaving with.
(I am gonna be so fekkin’ happy when BlueSky gets an embed function!…)
Baud
I stopped reading after “work.”
Baud
I didn’t realize that was BlueSky.
Frankensteinbeck
Heh. Wait another five months until normies begin to pay attention to the candidates rather than headlines they vaguely remember. You dumbasses don’t realize normies look at Biden and see their Fun Uncle.
Dorothy A. Winsor
I have two invitations to Blue Sky if anyone wants one. Email me at dawinsor (at) dawinsor (dot) com.
Maxim
Accomplishing all the stuff that Biden has is objectively cool. Besides which, he likes sports cars and ice cream and loves his family like a fucking normal person. It’s amazing how out of touch most of the DC media are.
Baud
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
I like how BlueSky is turning everyone into dealers.
prostratedragon
@Baud: Thereby illustrating the second part😁
Meanwhile, looks like someone has hoist themselves again:
Baud
YOU WILL VOTE FOR JOE BIDEN AND YOU WILL LIKE IT!!!
lowtechcyclist
“He’ll never be loved or appreciated” – FALSE!!!!
Maybe not everyone will love or appreciate him – of course not! There were many who went to their graves hating FDR. But Joe Biden has been the best goddamned President of my lifetime. Is that appreciative enough?
Frankensteinbeck
Thank you. AL, for going to the extra effort of imaging Bluesky posts.
Jeffro
this right here.
Also, wait ’til the Biden/Harris campaign starts showcases some of trumpov’s insane rant-videos he’s been posting to his supporters for the past year.
Anne Laurie
Figured I’d better let people know.
I *think* they’ve opened registration to all comers, if anyone’s interested. (Most of the people I read for fun, as opposed to vacuuming up Blog Content, have shifted to BS, and I’m trying to train myself to use the various ‘like’ and ‘repost’ buttons… )
Baud
@lowtechcyclist:
I’m not interested in loving any politicians, even the excellent ones, but I know when someone is good at their job.
Ten Bears
Looking forward to reading accounts of Hunter’s acquittal by a jury of his peers …
Baud
@Ten Bears:
I believe the Supreme Court is about to strike down that gun law anyway, so the whole thing will be moot.
Jeffro
Btw, from Jamelle Bouie today (gift link), a good reminder that “the Constitution” and “democracy” are not the same thing.
As in, when Mitt Romney tries to say that much of the GOP doesn’t believe in the Constitution. Nope – it’s democracy they don’t believe in.
kalakal
Hey, he rocks Aviators!
Baud
Also too LBJ’s problem wasn’t that he was old and uncool. It was something else. Raven can provide more details.
Geminid
Kraven McCarthy and his discreditable crew are inviting Joe Biden to make them a punching bag next year. Harry Truman ran against the Republican “Do-Nothing Congress” in 1948, and Joe Biden can in 2024.
satby
@Baud: BueSky is getting a bit better every day as a shitter replacement. Still needs a few more newsmakers to move over, and when it’s no longer invite only I hope a lot of the international use picks up.
Baud
@satby:
Hope so. Looks like Threads has said it doesn’t want to compete with Twitter. I guess they want to keep it social. So BlueSky may be our only hope.
OzarkHillbilly
I am tempted to ask, what exactly is cool these days. But the reality is that at my age, I don’t care.
Princess
Yeah, Biden has been the best president of my lifetime and I appreciate the hell out of him.
That’s why they want him to step down btw. Not because he’s incompetent but because he’s TOO competent.
But I don’t love him. I love my family and friends. I think loving politicians is unhealthy. That’s what MAGA does. If I ever stormed the Capitol it would be because I loved me and us and democracy, not because I loved him.
Baud
@Princess:
That sucks. I was kind of hoping you would storm the Capitol for me. I’ll cross you off the list.
RevRick
One of the drags on Biden’s popularity is the belief that the economy sucks. Partly, that’s because the default notion of the general public is that Republicans are good for the economy, which is based on the false logic that since Chamber of Commerce types and billionaires are overwhelmingly Republican, they must be good at running the government. But there’s also a real disconnect right now between how people think the economy is doing and their own personal financial situation. They rate the economy as bad, while they acknowledge their own situation as good or excellent.
Perhaps the message ought to be the economy is doing as well as you are.
HinTN
@lowtechcyclist: 100% agree. Johnson’s social policy and legislation was terrific but his inability to say no to the war hawks was an unmitigated disaster. Uncle Joe watched it all and he’s nobody’s fool. We are so damn lucky to have him in that office
ETA: @Baud Always gets there first.
schrodingers_cat
The biggest reason our American Godi Media doesn’t like Biden is because he chose a black woman who is also a daughter of immigrants as his running mate
Plus they belong to the demographic that votes for Rs overwhelmingly.
(edited)
Baud
@schrodingers_cat:
Harris isn’t an immigrant. She’s the daughter of an immigrant.
Roger Moore
@Baud:
This. I don’t want to love politicians; that’s the route to the cult-like behavior we see on the Republican side. For example, I never liked the “sign the first lady’s birthday card” kind of thing I kept getting from the Obamas. I don’t want to feel like the president’s friend. I want to feel like a coworker who appreciates having somebody competent working with me.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: Thanks, My morning caffeine has not yet kicked in.
Baud
@Roger Moore:
Well, I would wish a coworker happy birthday, but yes to all that.
It’s also why we don’t care if a jury convicts Hunter Biden, assuming the evidence of his crime is real.
Matt McIrvin
@RevRick: I’ve said it before, but I will never forget what happened with perceptions of “the economy” when Trump got in. There was almost no change in the value or trend of any economic indicator–the recovery that had been going on for years just continued. But Republicans had insisted under Obama that the numbers were fake, and when Trump became President, they simply started believing in those same numbers. The result was that they insisted Trump had fixed the economy.
(One actual change was that the stock market had had a bit of a flat period around 2016, and there was a short-term rally when Trump was elected–I suspect just because stock traders like Republicans and are happy when they are elected. Since “the economy” for many of the class of people who write media articles means the stock market, that may have driven some of these perceptions.)
Tony Jay
It’s entirely Baud’s fault that I’m feeling faux-musical again, and since I’m a bit bored, this is one for Betty and all the people who knew Ron Desantis before he was small.
Music and Lyrics by Fountains of Shame, apologies by Me.
Casey’s Ron ain’t got it goin’ on
Casey’s Ron ain’t got it goin’ on
Casey’s Ron ain’t got it goin’ on
Casey’s Ron ain’t got it goin’ on
Casey, can we come over and talk about your fool?
(About your fool)
He keeps doing things that pollsters say just aren’t cool
(Just aren’t cool)
Like when he went away on his campaign trip
(Campaign trip)
He told reporters that he wanted a dictatorship
(Dictatorship)
We know, he’s not the rising star that he used to be
It’s all blown up now
Lady, can’t you see?
Casey’s Ron ain’t got it goin’ on
He’s what no one wants
So we’re saying, so long
Casey, can’t you see?
He’s just not Presidenty
We know that Trump is wrong but
He’ll get more votes than Casey’s Ron
Casey’s Ron ain’t got it goin’ on
Casey’s Ron ain’t got it goin’ on
Casey, do you remember the hurricane and Fort Myers was gone?
(Fort Myers was gone)
Your Ron came out with those white boots on
(White boots on)
We knew it was a bad look from the way they jeered
(The way they jeered)
And the way the voters said
“You’re like a short fat Cher”
(Short fat Cher)
And I know that this has been your long-term fantasy
But he needs to drop out now
Your Ron ain’t got a prayer you see
Casey’s Ron ain’t got it goin’ on
He’s what no one wants
So we’re saying, so long
Casey, can’t you see?
He’s just not Presidenty
We know that Trump is wrong but
He’ll get more votes than Casey’s Ron
Casey’s Ron ain’t got it goin’ on (ain’t got it going on)
He’s what no one wants
So we’re saying, so long (this is so long)
Casey, can’t you see?
He’s just not Presidenty
We know that Trump is wrong but
He’ll win more votes than Casey’s Ron, oh, oh
(No one’s in love with)
Casey’s Ron, oh, oh
(Wait a minute)
Casey, can’t you see?
He’s just not Presidenty
We know that Trump is wrong but
He’ll lose by less than Casey’s Ron
mrmoshpotato
Another election cycle to avoid watching the news.
catclub
Yes!
mrmoshpotato
@Baud:
Well, ummmmm, YES and YES! Stop threatening me to do what I already had planned!
SiubhanDuinne
לְשָׁנָה טוֹבָה
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: Dawgdamned liberals are always such a disappointment.
catclub
@HinTN:
There was a chapter in an LBJ biography on ‘The Compassion of LBJ” and there wasn’t any that was not politically motivated. But his legislation and accomplishments are what matter.
mrmoshpotato
@satby:
Gonna take me some time to start saying “I need to use the BlueSky!”
different-church-lady
Reagan was a one-termer until the second election got into swing. But try to tell the kids that and will they believe you?
different-church-lady
@Maxim: Are we sure normal people love their families?
Hoppie
We all can be very grateful that Franklin Roosevelt dumped Henry Wallace, however.
Betty Cracker
@Tony Jay: LMAO!
different-church-lady
@Baud:
Well, yeah. What’s your point?
Trivia Man
Without judging the appropriateness of it, I point out that the last time an eligible president declined to run… it was LBJ and we wound up with Nixon.
LBJ transformed race relations in America but also escalated and lied about our involvement in Vietnam. Could he have won? Maybe. Would a contested primary with him bring a better result? Sounds like an alternate history book waiting to be written by someone.
different-church-lady
@Hoppie: Didn’t Wallace dump FDR so he could run against him?
Soprano2
@Baud: That will be hilarious to see as conservatives try to figure out how to react to it.
eclare
@Tony Jay:
Excellent!
RevRick
@SiubhanDuinne: Look at you, going all Hebrew on us.
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone 😊😊😊
Soprano2
@RevRick: I think it’s simpler than that – people can remember what prices were before Covid, because prices went up so fast. They’re comparing prices now to what they were in 2020.
RevRick
@Matt McIrvin: Yes, there’s definitely a partisan, tribal view of the economy going on, and especially with Republicans. Magical thinking, actually. So, yes, their opinions are maddening.
Betty Cracker
My little town has a lot of big lakes and is very Trumpy, and in the runup to the 2020 election, there were several Trump boat parades. One member of our local liberal support group, also known as the county’s Democratic Executive Committee, suggested that we have a Biden boat parade. No fucking way, we said — we’re voters, not cult members!
But we were open to covert operations to sabotage the Trump fleet; voters can also be underwater demolition specialists. That motion was tabled.
Soprano2
@schrodingers_cat: I don’t know, the fact that he’s boringly competent and his White House doesn’t leak is probably equally to blame for why they treat him the way they do. They miss the Orange Error and his volatile, leaky White House. It made their job super easy.
OzarkHillbilly
Yesterday was Ig Nobel day.
Among the winners were,
and
Many more at the link.
Lapassionara
@Jeffro: Plus, the Republicans use their power to hurt the marginalized. Here in Misery, parents of transgender children are forbidden from getting their child any medical treatment. Not to mention their approach to reproductive health. Or their efforts to limit the reach of Medicaid. Just pure meanness.
Hoppie
@different-church-lady: Wikipedia says “the Convention”, concerned about Roosevelt’s frail health, did it. My opinion is that it was another “go ahead now and make me do it” situation.
The exception tests the rule…
Soprano2
@mrmoshpotato: OMG, I saw a story on Yahoo yesterday where Joe Scarborough claimed that every Democrat who came on his show said something to him like “I don’t know why Joe Biden is running, he’s so old it’s a big problem.” I don’t for a second believe that this is true.
RevRick
@Soprano2: Certainly, the burst of inflation hurt. But polls are showing a huge disconnect between how people feel about their own circumstances and what they think is happening in the larger economy. Just as they believe that President Biden is conducting a war on oil drilling when we’re actually posting record high levels.
Matt McIrvin
@Baud: As long as people vote for Joe Biden they’re free not to like it.
That’s where I am. I’m seeing a lot of “yes, yes, I know he sucks and Democrats suck and are just the lesser evil but we still have to do this” in my online left political circles. And maybe that’s what they need to say to turn their friends out.
Geminid
@different-church-lady: I need to study up Wallace’s 1948 campaign. I just know that it made Truman’s voctory that much more extraordinary. With renegade Democrats Wallace and Thirmond challenging left and right, Truman rallied the remnants of FDR’s coalition for one more victory.
That was 5 straight Presidential elections won by a Democrat. Now there is what I consider a Biden coalition that Obama first put together. I think that is also capable of winning 5 straight elections, counting from 2020.
different-church-lady
@different-church-lady: OK, so it was more like FDR allowed the party to dump Wallace for Truman. Then FDR kept him as sec of commerce, and he ran third party against Truman in 48.
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
RevRick
@Hoppie: Not to mention his dumping John Nance Garner in 1940.
prostratedragon
@Betty Cracker: Aw, shucks!
RevRick
@rikyrah: Guten Morgen!
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
Agrees. The tabulators don’t care about your feelings.
different-church-lady
@Soprano2: Screw that, I’m still comparing prices to 1986.
Baud
@Soprano2:
Let’s stop making excuses for people.
Kay
The UAW is the most Right-leaning union where I live (most Right relative to the Steelworkers, United Food and Commercial Workers, Teamsters and skilled trades – IBEW, Plumbers and Pipefitters, etc) but not in Toledo (Lucas County) where they’re actually quite important to Democrats.
prostratedragon
@OzarkHillbilly: Sounds like a banner year.🥴
lowtechcyclist
@Baud:
I think I’ve quoted before from The Begatting of a President, that mock-Biblical political recounting of the 1960s, but another time doesn’t hurt. In it (“LBJenesis”), LBJ creates the Great Society in six days and throws a barbecue on the seventh day. And then:
“Still LBJ rested not from his labors but said, ‘Shucks, let there be an eighth day.’ And on the eighth day, he escalated.”
Tony Jay
@Betty Cracker:
@eclare:
In this ephemeral World it’s important to let the people we really care about know how much they repulse us while we can.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@OzarkHillbilly:
Holy shit. Wait…
Just Some Fuckhead
Go ahead and file your fucking motion, Anne Laurie!
schrodingers_cat
@Soprano2: That’s a factor too. But the MSM finds problems with every Democrat. If there isn’t a problem they will invent one.
They would love the Democrats more if they went back to being the secessionist party of unrepentant white racists.
Matt McIrvin
@RevRick: As I mentioned in an aside, a lot of this is purely about STONKS. The economy may be generally healthy, but if the stock market numbers aren’t going up, the political media will keep posting negative stories and “the economy” will suck according to many people, especially if their economic prior attitudes are right-of-center, or the kind of “government leave me alone, market forces are best” vulgar libertarianism I see among a lot of tech guys. The average person may be fine but a person with a lot of money in the stock market isn’t getting rich.
And stocks are kind of mixed and have been through the Biden years. Tech stocks had a COVID-era rally and then a bust when the crypto bubble popped and then another rally which might be finished now. The big boys, more muted behavior. It hasn’t been just “number goes up” and the number went up more under Trump.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
Am I the only one totally confused by the picture of the smart phone apparently dunked in a glass of tea?
lowtechcyclist
@Geminid:
Fixed. Would be an improvement if they just did nothing.
Baud
@schrodingers_cat:
Agreed.
@Bruce K in ATH-GR:
I didn’t want to ask.
Lyrebird
@Baud:
Almighty willing,
I WILL VOTE FOR JOE BIDEN AND I WILL LOVE IT!!!
:-)
Hoppie
@RevRick: Ah, yes, FDR was worried about his left flank in 1940. But Garner (who famously said being VP was “not worth a bucket of warm spit(sic)”) wanted out.
Geminid
@Hoppie: “The Convention,” meaning the state and city party bosses. They had a lot of clout back then.
Not long after the Convention, Truman met Roosevelt for an outdoor luncheon on the White House grounds. Truman was shocked by Roosevelt’s physical condition.
BlueGuitarist
@Tony Jay:
hahahaha! Excellent
Gin & Tonic
A few months back my grand-daughter, now in third grade, wrote a letter to President Biden expressing concern for the environment (and also signed her little brother’s name to it.) Yesterday she/they got a letter back from Joe, saying, among other things “Vice President Harris and I are so proud of you for taking a stand to help protect the planet.” She is on cloud nine today.
So, yeah, I know how this stuff works, but it’s still impressive to see it in action.
OzarkHillbilly
This is fun:
Lyrebird
@Bruce K in ATH-GR: It’s honey. Apples, honey, Jewish tradition.
Google “shana tova shakira” for a fun music video that shows how it’s supposed to be done. Might be the link Anne Laurie has… gotta run…
Kay
@Bruce K in ATH-GR:
Honey. Dip the apple in the honey.
Baud
@Gin & Tonic:
👍
Matt McIrvin
(Note also, everyone in my generation has most of their retirement savings in the stock market, so that’s what they’re thinking about when they want the number to go up. It’s the Ownership Society! The whole point of that was to get average Joes literally invested and therefore emotionally invested in the plight of the capitalist.)
OverTwistWillie
@lowtechcyclist:
That war ground on for another seven years.
LBJ was drummed out of office for breaking faith with American apartheid.
Another Scott
These summer silly-season hypotheticals sound like a bunch of high school stoners talking about which superhero can defeat the which other one, to me…
Meanwhile, … Phys.org:
Who knows. But caveat emptor.
Early voting starts in Virginia on September 22. 7 days!!
Forward!!
Cheers,
Scott.
Maxim
@different-church-lady: Well, it’s rumored they do. I’ve heard talk to that effect.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
Good morning from Dublin, where we’re doing our best to pay not too much attention to politics back home for another week.
I was only 10 when LBJ announced he wasn’t running. I wasn’t yet really politically conscious but I do remember how shocking that was nevertheless.
Baud
@OverTwistWillie:
If he had lost in the general election, that would be fair. But he gave up during the primary. That wasn’t because of his civil rights record.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: I haven’t read anything about the strike yet — just heard a brief clip on NPR. But it’ll be interesting to see how that “strategic ‘new approach’” flies in the real world.
The Pale Scot
I need to tap the Hive Mind. Does anyone have a recommendation for a home security system? My BiL did last year and my sister wants some piece of mind.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
If old people have their money in volatile stocks, they’re doing it wrong.
Anyway, we always say that the stock market isn’t the real economy. I hope our voters prove that next year.
Matt McIrvin
@Another Scott: I voted on Tuesday!
(My Massachusetts town currently has a nonpartisan jungle-primary system for local elections, and our longtime mayor, an old-time moderate Democrat who has been battling a lot of town agencies over his preference for fiscal austerity, is retiring, so we had a primary to narrow down the field to two candidates. I voted for the city councilwoman who has gotten all the big Democratic endorsements, and who led by a huge margin–it’s interesting; her pitch is entirely about competence and qualifications, with almost nothing in the way of grand vision statements. I wonder if that’s a deliberate calculation that that’s what the people want right now.)
OverTwistWillie
@Baud:
Are you claiming he was going to be re-elected?
Okay boomer……
Patricia Kayden
@Baud: 😂 😂 Meet me in a dark alley. I got some Bluesky!!
kalakal
Here’s the winners of the Greenwich Observatory Astronomy Photographer of the Year. They’re amazing
BBC News – Astronomy Photographer of the Year: Huge plasma arc wins
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-66807814
Baud
@OverTwistWillie:
I have no idea if he would have beaten Nixon. Nixon barely won in 68.
OzarkHillbilly
@Bruce K in ATH-GR: Pretty sure it’s supposed to be honey. That’s why Anne put a Dip your apple in the honey… link.
eta and of course I am slow. sorry for the repeat.
Anyway
@schrodingers_cat:
It’s all (mostly) about taxes and asset inflation under Rs.
The Pale Scot
Sleigh Bells – Infinity Guitars
Patricia Kayden
@Princess: Thankfully, President Biden would never ask his supporters to storm anything for him. All we have to do is vote.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
The workers hate the tiered wages and I agree with them – that sucks. It’s lower wages and benefits for newer employees – lower than the older employees started at. At both John Deere and Kaiser the union prevailed- they ended tiered wage systems so maybe UAW looked at that and thought it was ripe to try.
Labor organizers say tiered wages are intended to harm unions, because they reduce union buy-in and solidarity among younger workers. Pits old against young.
Matt McIrvin
@Baud: It’s easy to say that, but since most of them have inadequate savings to begin with, betting on the market equivalent of scratch tickets is the way they can dream of a big score.
Another Scott
I was reminded recently that Joe’s first wife was Neilia Hunter. His 2nd son’s full name is Robert Hunter Biden. Every time Hunter’s name is in the news, and Joe sees it, it reminds him of his dear first wife and their tragic life together.
The idea that Joe is going to throw Hunter under the bus, or that his tribulations are somehow going to damage Joe politically with normal voters, is so deranged as to be laughable.
Something, something, please don’t throw me in that briar patch!!
Cheers,
Scott.
kalakal
That “Biden’s not cool” line makes me laugh. When I think of the long line of GOP presidents who just radiated cool… *
*Or in TIFGs case exuded
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
Sure. It was the same with crypto. In any event, we can’t compete with Republicans on the asset inflation front, any more than we can compete with them on the low wage slave labor front. We just have to outvote them.
satby
@Baud: never mind
lowtechcyclist
@Matt McIrvin:
OK, but the S&P is up 17.2% since Biden’s inauguration, which works out to 5.4% per year. Not gangbusters, but certainly respectable.
If they’re upset that their stocks aren’t gaining 10% or more, year in and year out, then fuck’em. That’s just not a realistic expectation.
Baud
@lowtechcyclist:
It’s just like 1929, man.
Another Scott
@lowtechcyclist: +1
“Everyone loved XYZ when I was young…” is always false, Lots of people hated Walter Cronkite. Lots of people hated Thomas Jefferson, Abe Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Jack Kennedy, etc,…
The idea that way back when, we were all unified and loved the same things and all the rest is propaganda. We’ve always had differences of opinion, often very strongly held!
The excluded middle is real.
We need a big enough majority, not everyone. We’ll never get everyone. Pundits who refuse to recognize shades of grey are lazy and annoying.
Cheers,
Scott.
lowtechcyclist
@OverTwistWillie:
Ah, so that explains Gene McCarthy’s nearly beating LBJ in New Hampshire!
eclare
@Soprano2:
Huh. Yesterday on Morning Joe there was about a ten minute segment on how yeah, Joe is old, but so what? What, he’s too old to steal nuclear secrets?
And an extensive rundown of his foreign policy achievements. I don’t remember Morning Joe saying that, plus like you I don’t believe it even if he did.
lowtechcyclist
@Kay: From your quote box:
Do they expect people to know what Stellantis is? I had to go look it up the first time (yesterday) that I read a reference to it. (Dutch firm, bought up Chrysler.)
Kay
@lowtechcyclist:
They’re spending a ton so maybe they could plow more back into the stock market?
As long as they keep spending like they are I (continue to) question how bad they think the economy is. That tracks with what they tell pollsters too, which is not that the economy is bad for them but for other people. That sounds like media narrative to me. They’re trying to square what’s in front of their own eyes with what they’re being told so it must be other people who are doing poorly, because someone is – they’re told that every day. People are not entirely rational actors, which liberals, with all their novel reading and art, used to understand. They’re swayed by narratives – stories.
HinTN
@OzarkHillbilly:
Now we’re all going to be required to sit on a Xerox machine… 🙄
eclare
@Bruce K in ATH-GR:
I think it has something to do with dipping an apple in honey, which I think is a Jewish tradition. Confused me too.
OzarkHillbilly
@kalakal: Thanx for the link, I’m really not qualified to judge the pics they gave awards to but I gotta say I love the name “The Running Chicken Nebula.” That’s a prize winner all by itself.
The Pale Scot
@Betty Cracker:
Back in the day my commie/anarchist friends in the Lower East Side plotted to disrupt the Desert Storm victory parade. They somehow got a box of caltrops to disable vehicles. I didn’t hear anything on the news, so I guess they got stopped.
Baud
@Kay: Liberals can’t say the economy is good as long as it’s bad for someone out there. Advantage: GOP.
Kay
@lowtechcyclist:
Right. Auto industry reporting is weirdly insular. We used to subscribe to the (paper) WSJ and I loved their insanely siloed auto industry reporting but you had to read it for a while to crack the code :)
eclare
@Gin & Tonic:
Awwww….
Matt McIrvin
@Another Scott: My favorite one like that: that everyone was united and inspired by the Apollo Moon landing program. No, they weren’t! It was massively controversial! Listen to Gil Scott-Heron’s “Whitey’s On The Moon” and get back to me.
The Pale Scot
Uh.. no thanks
OzarkHillbilly
@HinTN: I wonder what the system would make of my hemorrhoids.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly: Do we know that no two are alike, like with fingerprints and snowflakes? Has there been research on the subject?
kalakal
The Grauniad has a fairly decent take on the MSM this morning. The comments have brought out the usual purity ponies but they’re getting significantly more pushback than usual
MSM must change
Another Scott
@RevRick: Yup.
“The schools are terrible!” / “My kid’s school is great!” Etc.
It’s the usual contradiction that people hold in their head about lots of things.
If the GQP had the White House now, the press would be running stories about how the election is always about the economy and the stock market, therefore Red Wave II is going to reduce the Democrats to numbers less than the Greens.
It’s all propaganda on the right.
Biden has lots and lots of advantages. We need to build on them to increase our numbers everywhere.
Forward!!
Cheers,
Scott.
schrodingers_cat
@Anyway: We are talking about the mainstream media here. They love themselves some flame throwing lefties like BS and his acolytes in the Congress. They are fine with them because they mainly center white grievance, albeit from the left.
What the media really hates about Ds is that it is a coalition of those they deem less than
women, minorities, immigrants, LGBTQ etc.
The macroeconomic indicators do better when Ds are in charge. Its not just economics.
Patricia Kayden
@The Pale Scot: I’m with Vivint. Very affordable and two cameras for the house.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: Hmmmm… maybe you should do a study on it. You’d probably win an Ig Nobel too!
eclare
@Kay:
The average Swiftie spent $1300 to go to a concert. I am sure Beyonce’s numbers are similar. But yeah, the economy sucks.
Kay
@Baud:
They’re clownish with it now, IMO. They can’t point to ANY eviction as a systemic problem. There are never going to be zero evictions.
I think it’s dumb politically too. They have so disheartened their young supporters with this ridiculous “doom and gloom 24/7 approach” that their young supporters are dropping out politically. Good job! Bernie Sanders collected all that money from 19 year olds and then his moronic former campaign staff told those same young people nothing matters and no one should try.
They’ve always sucked at organizing. Organizing requires a certain lack of ego – you’re part of a team. Everyne isn’t a super special star full of contrarian opinion. The IDEA is to go along just one of many. Thats what they can’t do it.
Biden has been BEST for the lowest tier of workers which a serious Left would recognize and celebrate. Instead we have the Twitter clown Left.
Patricia Kayden
@Soprano2: Joe Scarborough is Republican. Let’s not forget that. Take everything he says with a huge grain of salt.
kalakal
One thing that gives me hope is that the GQP cannot quit doubling down on policies and actions that repel normies. When you lose an abortion referendum in Kansas and you’re response is ‘Moar!’ you’re brain dead.
They’ve learnt nothing and forgotten everything
Gin & Tonic
@lowtechcyclist:
I am occasionally amused by The Economist’s style guide, which always identifies a firm the first time it’s mentioned in a story, like “Morgan Stanley, a bank, issued its earnings statement…” You know, I think readers of The Economist have heard of Morgan Stanley before.
Baud
@Kay: I’m with you. My hope is that there are still enough not-disillusioned young people out there. Because GOP Boomers will be out in force next year.
UncleEbeneezer
Thing is Biden IS COOL! He’s witty, funny, smart, exercises and proudly stands with Black People, Women, LGBTQ People etc. He’s probably more in-touch with current culture than most old, white politicians. Maybe not as much as Kamala, but still, can probably name more pop artists than most politicians. And he’s INFINITELY cooler than Trump will ever be (and Bernie too, for that matter). Who is the supposed “cool” alternative we are all supposed to be excited about? Honestly. Politicians typically aren’t anything near cool, but I can’t think of any that are cooler than Biden in any meaningful way. Obama was the coolest, but he’s a rare phenomenon and being cool didn’t keep people from endlessly complaining about him anyways.
The Pale Scot
@lowtechcyclist:
sitting on the beach earning 20 percent
Scout211
Disney is in talks to sell ABC to Nexstar. It’s “freaking out” all the ABC news staff. This would be not good news.
—
ETA: Media mogul Byron Allen offers $10 billion to acquire ABC from Disney
Kay
@eclare:
And small business starts! And housing starts! And manufactured housing! And Ford F 150s! And on and on. I went all over Michigan all summer. Every RV park I saw was full – when the economy is bad for hourly workers they don’t take vacations at state parks.
prostratedragon
@OverTwistWillie: Always thought that was how/why he got [us] so messed up in that war, trying to salvage his white man credential. Tragic.
Nelle
@Soprano2: Is he trying to “both sides” what Romney reported about Republicans saying about Trump behind closed doors?
lowtechcyclist
@Kay: Yabbut I was responding to Matt’s comment about the people who get their perceptions of the economy from how the stock market is doing, because they’ve got real money in stocks. (So do I, but I long ago realized that while the stock market will reflect the economy over the long run, they can diverge considerably in the short term.)
And while the gains since Biden became President haven’t been exciting, they’ve been decent. So I don’t see what their problem is, unless they expect astronomical gains every freakin’ year.
satby
@Patricia Kayden: Sometimes his guests do a great job though, like this very popular (with us) lady here.
Tony Jay
@Kay:
Narratives are fantastic tools for filtering raw reality, our Media betters are in love with them.
Frex – Whenever a conservative speaks, what they say has to be filtered through the narrative of them all being salt-of-the-earth, plain-spoken representatives of the common man who just love their country so gosh-darned much that they may not always make sense, and it’s important that journalists tidy it up for them to avoid looking like snobs.
Whenever a liberal speaks, OTOH, what they say has to be filtered through the narrative of them all being head-in-the-clouds, dogma-spouting idealists from an ivory-tower minority who love their assumed superiority so much that they talk past lesser peoples concerns, and it’s important that journalists ask them the questions the common man wants answered to avoid looking like snobs.
They’re only trying to be fair to both sides, y’see?
satby
@Baud: how quickly we forget yesterday
eclare
@satby:
Nancy Pelosi was also on that episode.
zhena gogolia
@Gin & Tonic: That’s lovely.
satby
OT, but this is horrible:
Flooding death toll soars to 11,300 in Libya’s coastal city of Derna
A further 10,100 people are reported missing in Libya’s Mediterranean city after a storm caused devastating flooding.
The Pale Scot
Scottish Terrier running an obstacle course. They ain’t no Jack Russell,
satby
@eclare: nice! I didn’t watch it, just catch the clips. I watch no network TV at all.
Kay
@Tony Jay:
It’s just always been the Right that have insisted that people respond entirely rationally to economic factors – that you plug in X and get Y. Liberals knew human beings were more complicated than that, that they’re drawn to stories. The story was the economy sucked.
I personally think they told that story because they oppose the return to a bottom-up economy and didn’t like that the lazy workers in their featherbeds got a raise. They were mad that covid didn’t pitch us into a decade long recession due to robust government intervention because they like when working people get PUNISHED. We had an ENTIRE MONTHS LONG CYCLE of media yammering that “no one wants to work” where they just made shit up. It wasn’t subtle. They’re deeply, deeply uncomfortable with change of any kind and moving away from Reaganism is a big change. They’re restisting it. Like they do. They have to be dragged kicking and screaming to any kind of progress. Rigidly conventional and brittle people.
Baud
@satby: I haven’t forgotten. But I don’t know how the numbers will add up next year. Some young people will have succumbed to disillusionment politics, and I don’t know how many.
Matt McIrvin
@Kay:
But there’s a hugely visible homelessness problem on the West Coast, and this at least sounds related.
eclare
@satby:
I followed 2rawtooreal. His latest is another powerhouse. Thanks for the tip!
Geminid
I see that money from the American Recovery Act is still being spent, 31 months after its passage. This morning the Harrisonburg, Virginia radio station reported on a ground breaking ceremony for the city’s new homeless shelter. It was funded by $5 million from the ARA, the reporter noted.
Layer8Problem
@The Pale Scot: ” 🎶 Mister, we could use a man like Alan Rickman again. 🎶 “
Matt McIrvin
@Kay: Some tech-industry guys seem really viscerally upset about student loan forgiveness. It strikes them as this really basic moral injustice that the government could just make someone’s debt go away.
Betty Cracker
@satby: How terrible. Every new report is more devastating than the last. :(
Fake Irishman
@Kay:
There’s also this question of what parts of the electric car industry will fall under the master agreement. Loomis has been writing a lot about this over at LGM; he’s a cranky jerk sometimes, but labor is one area where he is genuinely knowledgeable about underlying issues.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin: Every good thing we do will make someone upset.
eclare
@satby:
Hard to fathom. And now due to the geography aid groups have a hard time getting in.
Matt McIrvin
@Fake Irishman: Loomis’s conviction that any existing effort at climate mitigation short of the elimination of capitalism is worthless and a scam happens to serve him well here, because he’s not going to be inclined to give the electric car industry a pass for greenwashing reasons.
Jeffro
@OzarkHillbilly:
see, now that’s cool… =)
The Pale Scot
@Patricia Kayden:
Thnx
satby
@Betty Cracker: And my go-to international charity, Médecins Sans Frontières, pulled out of their Libya presence just last month, so Red Cross/Red Crescent are the main rescue group working there. Donate to the International Red Cross, not the US based one if you choose to. The US one is… mismanaged.
NotMax
@Layer8Problem
Howdy. Wanted to thank you for showing up in NYC. Enjoyed chatting with you.
UncleEbeneezer
@Matt McIrvin: Capitalism will be destroyed the same day that Police are Abolished. Which is to say, never. I’ll never understand people who seem to sincerely believe that either is possible.
Matt McIrvin
@Baud: There’s faith that if the government just gets out of everything the resulting crisis and misery will make the invisible hand of the market fix everything. It’s the libertarian version of the left-radical “heighten the contradictions”.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Matt McIrvin:
Many people over the last 30-40 years have done very well via Boglehead-style investing (disciplined, consistent saving via broad-based stock and bond indexes in tax-advantaged retirement accounts according to their own risk tolerances, using the 4% rule in retirement). I disagree with the notion that retirement investing via the stock market is the same as buying lottery tickets. The average worker can have $1 million+ in retirement savings by age 65
Baud
@Matt McIrvin: I’m familiar with the theory. Lots of people have theories that I disagree with. That’s what politics and elections are for.
eclare
@Matt McIrvin:
There was a town in New England, I think NH, that tried this no government utopia. The town was taken over by bears.
Jeffro
@Scout211: the Byron Allen???!?
holy cow
I remember him from his ‘Real People’ days!
Had no idea he was a gazillionaire.
UncleEbeneezer
@Kay: See also: Hollywood executives complaining about the writers strike while pretending like their companies and personal bank accounts, haven’t seen record profits in recent years due to the explosive growth of streaming services. It’s the same denial of reality to fit their preferred, anti-labor beliefs that they, the fancy CEO’s are all irreplaceable and hard-working, while the actual creatives who share barely eek out a living are just lazy and entitled for wanting their fair share.
Layer8Problem
@NotMax: Heigh-ho back to you sir! The pleasure was mine. 🙂 👍
Fully recovered from the jet lag I hope?
satby
Some good news from Democracy Docket too.
NotMax
@eclare
Bound to happen when you place a picnic basket factory smack in the middle of town.
//
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I trust the old British tabloids even less than I trust Fox, but I’m chuckling anyway
Ken
Maybe they’re distinguishing the bank from other parts of Morgan Stanley? There might be other earnings statements from “Morgan Stanley, a trading firm” and “Morgan Stanley, a hedge fund” and “Morgan Stanley, a vampire squid”.
Tony Jay
@Kay:
They’re all engaged in a huge spelling bee where the judges aren’t so much interested in how you spell the word as long as you use it correctly in a sentence.
“The history of America is littered with egregious injustices” sees you leave the competition, while “Teh rich menz ar purty an smell gud… praise eegreejus.” gets you promoted to the next stage.
NotMax
@Layer8Problem
About 90%. Still run low on steam at odd hours and fall into extended nappage.
Kay
@UncleEbeneezer:
I think the UAW have two good stories to tell- 1. that auto industry wages are only 5% of the cost of a vehicle and 2. that executive pay has gone up and up. It really is a good question to ask why the CEO can make 29 million yet they can’t afford a bump for workers. 29 million!
The tiered wages thing, while important to their workers, is too insidery for people to care about.
They also point out that many non union cars are priced comparably to union made cars – it’s just that the hourly workers in non union plants get a smaller share of the retail price.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@satby:
That is good news, especially taken with the Alabama majority black district case. Maybe I’ve asked this question before, but was there ever any truth to whole “New South” thing post-CRM? It was definitely a thing on TV shows/movies from the 80s and 90s I’ve noticed
Kay
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
She really is the perfect VP for Trump. Although he’s a sexist, so he probably objects to women having affairs.
Gin & Tonic
@eclare: Grafton, NH. Somebody even wrote a book about it.
eclare
@UncleEbeneezer:
Yep. I worked in the corporate world for thirty years, do not get me started on entitled CEO’s. Yes, sports stars like LeBron also make tons, but there are very few LeBrons in this world.
Plus as anyone who has studied corporate governance will tell you, if you don’t have policies and procedures in place so that the company would still run if the CEO dropped dead, the CEO did not do their job.
sab
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: That boy gets around.
Gin & Tonic
@NotMax: Did I miss photos from the big event?
eclare
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Whoa!
eclare
@Gin & Tonic:
Thanks! I read a long form article about it.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Kay:
I saw you mention you had a local UFCW in your area. What’s your impression of them? I know every local can be different, but mine is pretty terrible in terms of what they get in contracts. Other people complain about them on their subreddit as well. I think they’re ok with large turnover among part-time workers because they get large initation fees. There’s no set procedure for who can be upgraded to full time
lowtechcyclist
@eclare:
And those who stuck around to bear witness to it said the place had become unbearable. But that’s just the cross they’ll have to bear.
Jeffro
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: someone check in on Hope Hicks, make sure she’s ok. ;)
OzarkHillbilly
I’m pretty sure he is very much in favor of women having affairs, as long as they are with him.
twbrandt
@Betty Cracker: UAW membership dumped the old guard leadership in the last election and replaced them with some younger firebrands. Looking in from way outside, the new leadership seems really sharp, and I think these tactics have a good chance to succeed.
Geminid
@satby: London-based Middle East Eye has a good report on the terrible flooding in Libya, titled “Missed warnings and bad calls: how Libya’s Derna was left to drown.”
They have other articles on relief efforts in Libya. These are complicated somewhat by the civil war between the UN-recognized government based in Tripoli in the west and a rival government in Benghazi in the east. The conflict has been frozen since a burst of active fighting in 2020.
Mike in NC
Before Meatball Ron finishes turning Florida into his own personal vision of North Korea, I highly recommend anybody visiting Key West to check out the Truman Little White House, which was restored to look like it did in 1949. It has a nice gift shop which the National Park Service made sure has no mention at all of Fat Bastard.
NotMax
@Gin & Tonic
As it was only two of us, not much to see. Can zap a photo to WaterGirl if there’s interest.
And to any folks who, via WG, asked to be contacted after I’d left Maui on 8/22, apologies. Had no access to my e-mail while away (plumb forgot to write down and bring along the account password) so didn’t see her messages until returned home.
Geminid
@OzarkHillbilly: Former Republican, current fierce party critic Ron Filipkowski says that New York Rep. Elise Stefanik will be Trump’s running mate. “Book it!” he said of this prediction.
cain
@Ten Bears: who will all be dragged by subpoena by the House to be vilified.
cain
@satby: The government of Switzerland is now on Mastodon!
I get so many reactions to all my cute cat photos :D Follow #catortions on mastodon :D
Geminid
@Mike in NC: Fort Pickens, across the bay from Pensacola, is also worth a visit. It’s part of the Gulf Islands National Seashore ans is a great place to visit, even better to camp.
kalakal
@lowtechcyclist: But at least they have the bear necessities
artem1s
@lowtechcyclist:
“He’ll never be loved or appreciated”
Biden campaigned from his basement in 2020. There were no pictures of him being glorified by a bunch of deplorable wackos. The MSM still thinks rally attendance is the best way to gauge whether a candidate is popular. They are so f*cking lazy.
Jeffro
Btw Uncle Joe has another campaign ad up selling “Dark Brandon” mugs that change from aviator shades to ‘DB’ laser eyes…MUST. HAVE.
rikyrah
@Princess:
They reset his competency and the competency of his Administration. Been saying this for awhile now.
They like being stenographers. They like not having to know about actual policy and the weeds of competency in which the Biden Administration resides.
Their lives are about the lazy azz BOTH SIDES.
NotMax
@kalakal
Ursine o’ the times.
:)
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Geminid:
I’ve always thought it would be one of those in the primary. They’re all pretty much running for his VP, anyway, aside from a few. I think it might be Vivek
Matt McIrvin
@UncleEbeneezer: Loomis doesn’t believe capitalism can or will be destroyed, he simply believes we’re inevitably doomed because it will destroy us and because of that most climate advocacy is pointless. I don’t know why he thinks labor advocacy isn’t pointless.
Steeplejack
@Betty Cracker:
Classic Trump boat parade.
Gin & Tonic
I’m not sure what the plural noun is for a group of Nazis – conclave, coven, dunno
eclare
@NotMax:
Hahaha…
cain
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Ick ick ick – the party of family values strikes again. :D
In any case, what adults do is their business.
OzarkHillbilly
@Geminid: So… She’s a goer?
cain
@Jeffro:
I had coffee in one of those mugs !
Chris
@Kay:
I’ve had a private theory for a long time that the one percent regard the New Deal as the most gigantic mugging in human history, and the middle-class society we’ve had ever since (yes, to some extent still today) as the greatest crime that was never punished. FDR and his union thugs stole all the money that the creators of America worked very very hard to build, at gunpoint with the threat of revolution, and for the next eighty years the thieves have lived off of their ill-gotten gains, wasting it all on hookers and blow (well, houses and cars and college educations and visits to the doctor, which is the same thing) while their victims struggled so hard to get by that they had to sell half their mansions and for a while it was really hard to afford servants. In this narrative, movement conservatism is basically Thorin’s company from The Hobbit, the band of heroes on a quest to finally reclaim what’s theirs for them and their people, and expel the dragon that’s been sleeping on their achievements for so long (that’d be us).
Exactly how deeply held this belief is among the very richest probably varies. People like the Kochs, whose fortunes and dynasty predate the New Deal and were always fascist psychos even then, I’m sure believe every word – they all grew up being taught this story around the dinner table. One imagines that other people, especially those with newer fortunes, probably aren’t as ideological about it or at least not as into the history of it all. But with greater or lesser degrees of explicitness that’s the worldview that all the rich bathe in every day: we did all the work and made all the money, and other people have been reaping the benefits without doing anything to earn it, and it’s just not fair. And someone needs to teach them a lesson.
Omnes Omnibus
@Geminid:
Benghazi?! Hillary did it!
RaflW
@Anne Laurie: Not open yet (or closed back down to waitlist). Anyone have any experience with the waitlist? Has that worked for folx?
Steeplejack
@Soprano2:
I watched/listened to Morning Joe yesterday, and there was nothing like that! Scarborough and Willie Geist were torching the Biden-is-old-sters.
And I don’t think there has been anything like that on other days either.
rikyrah
@Tony Jay:
CLAP CLAP CLAP
Scout211
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I clicked over to read that
gossiparticle because I remembered that same rumor from a few years ago. The article noted that it first emerged in 2021 and she denied it, of course.So jackals, any guess who is leaking this “exclusive” in order to tarnish her front-runner status in Trump’s veepstakes?
brantl
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I would try it.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
He gets paid to advocate for labor.
Seriously, though, people who think things are pointless should talk about sports or arts or something else.
eclare
@Scout211:
The thing I noticed was that one of the women Corey harassed is named Trashelle. Who the hell names a baby daughter Trashelle?
Baud
@cain:
Why were you in a mug?
UncleEbeneezer
@eclare: And NBA owners make WAY MORE than LeBron, even though HE is the reason people decide to tune in, in the first place. The skill set required to be a sports team owner starts with being rich. Everything after that is business/management skills that countless people have. I guarantee you could replace even the Jerry Busses and Rooney Families of the world (extremely successful sports owners) with an average person on the street, far more easily than the players. But I admit I think our society buys into the myth of the Business Owner/Executive being the paramount of human excellence to an absolutely disgusting degree. When people brag about how they ran a successful business as if that makes them some sort of hero, I just roll my eyes.
RaflW
@Matt McIrvin: I think one of the main challenges of economic perceptions right now is shelf prices. Yeah, eggs are not at their peak, and a few other items have deflated (gas being one of them, though we’re not going back to dollar gas like that lockdown blip!).
Real wages are up, but for most people there’s a digital transfer a couple times a month into an account. They don’t really see/feel the raise soon after it hits. But they see food prices especially and think “this sucks.” I even fall into that at times.
I needed turkey burgers for a party recently, looked at the freezer door at the store and my brain said “When the hell did these become $10.99?! Turkey burgers should be cheaper than beef!” (2# box) Grand scheme of things, those burgs don’t really matter to my bank balance at the end of the month. But I feel ripped off. Somehow that has to be Joe Biden’s fault (I guess, per political perceptions).
laura
@The Pale Scot: yesterday you commented from a really bad space. I hope that today is brighter and that you feel better and continue in the coming days. If you’re struggling, please know that there’s help at hand should you find yourself in need.
Matt McIrvin
@Gin & Tonic: a facemelt of Nazis
Alison Rose
L’Shanah tovah to all my Heebs among the jackals. Let’s hope for a year of happiness, health, and TIFG getting convicted at least once.
Layer8Problem
@Scout211:
” . . . any guess who is leaking this “exclusive” in order to tarnish her front-runner status in Trump’s veepstakes?”
Elise Stefanik, duh! Who is obviously vice-presidential timber, just ask her, and who would never never ever have an affair herself, absolutely not, nosiree, take that to the bank.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
This might be a silly question, but have I said anything wrong at all recently? I don’t always stick around for threads after I’ve commented on them
Matt McIrvin
@RaflW: This worries me because if only widespread deflation will kill the perception of inflation, that means people would only be satisfied by another disaster wrecking the economy. They’re confusing a function with its derivative.
Omnes Omnibus
@Alison Rose: Hey, I was waiting until the sun went down to wish you all a happy new year.
Hoppie
@eclare: Ed Norton?
zhena gogolia
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): That is the funniest comment I’ve seen today.
Omnes Omnibus
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Are you counting this comment?
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@zhena gogolia:
Why is it funny?
Citizen Alan
@Trivia Man: I have always been of the belief that LBJcould have won re election against nixon had nixon not sabotaged the Paris peace negotiations.
zhena gogolia
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): It’s as if you’re disappointed that nobody has taken exception with any of your comments lately.
ETA: Don’t go looking for trouble! 😃
zhena gogolia
@Citizen Alan: I’m not so sure. The lefties of the day (I include my own dumb callow self) were being extremely hard on him.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@zhena gogolia:
….I don’t want people to take exception. It’s probably just me. I haven’t been commenting as much as I used to, so that skews my perceptions more than likely
Matt McIrvin
…Oh yeah, and the other thing about the city primary election was that the second- and third-place candidates for mayor were only separated by 10 votes, so there is going to be recount drama over who gets to be the second candidate on the general-election ballot.
Turnout was not great–the winner got 3,877 votes in a city of 67,000. If you actually turn out to vote in this kind of election you have vastly outsize power.
RaflW
@The Pale Scot: I use PerMar Security, which serves about 17 states in the Midwest down to TX and east a bit. They’re pretty responsive, and at least with an older system (came with the townhouse we bought) it’s like $35/mo (no cameras – we’re considering adding those so we’ll see what that costs!)
SFAW
@OverTwistWillie:
Well, aren’t you special?
LBJ punted because of Vietnam (and what it was doing to his support). He may have “lost the South” because of his civil rights record, but that wasn’t the primary reason why he decided against running.
Matt McIrvin
@Citizen Alan: LBJ withdrew from the primary campaign in March after getting whipped in New Hampshire, when he announced the impending peace talks. Nixon’s sabotage of the peace talks was in the fall. So it would have been him vs. Humphrey.
Sure Lurkalot
@Matt McIrvin: Retirees should be moving some of their stock holdings to fixed income instruments while the yields are decent. Stock market crashes are much more beyond the hoi polloi’s control.
RaflW
@Matt McIrvin: I don’t think (for most people) they need widespread deflation. What I think could help would be a) more news coverage of wage & household income gains, b) some political messaging reflecting those positive headlines (would tie in nicely with some of Biden’s labor bargaining power gains, IMO) and c) getting the g.d. child tax credit bump that expired at the end of ’22 reinstated.
The doubling of childhood poverty in the US this year, to a level actually higher than before Covid!, is no doubt pushing some folks to feel desperate about the economy. Many of these folks are working, but at the bottom tiers of wages. Life does suck for them. A few (enough?) Republicans seemed to be initially shocked by the news this week that maybe some restoration is possible. But we probably have a f**ing shutdown gallimaufry to stagger through first.
Alison Rose
@Omnes Omnibus: I figured I’d get a jump on it. Like how stores probably already have Halloween stuff out.
cain
@Baud: no no, I have a dark brandon 2024 mug!
Alison Rose
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Why are you worried you said something wrong?
RaflW
@Alison Rose: I was horrified to see Xmas trees, all lit up and blinking, in Costco last week.
Tooooo.
Soon.
Omnes Omnibus
@Alison Rose: Well, then. L’Shana tovah to you and the rest of your co-religionists here.
Jackie
@mrmoshpotato: I take it you meant FROM MSNBC in your block quote.
Geminid
@SFAW: My theoriy is that one reason- not neccesarily the reason- Johnson did not run in 1968 was that he believed the stress of the job would kill him.
SFAW
@Citizen Alan:
It’s certainly possible LBJ could have won (without Nixon’s fuckery), but probably not likely. [My opinion is that, had Bobby Kennedy not been assassinated, he probably would have gotten the nom, and probably would have beaten Nixon. But that’s neither here nor there.] And Hubert Humphrey came close to winning — at least as far as the popular vote — even though he was associated with LBJ.
A lot of damage to this country has been caused by Rethuglican fuckery. It’s too bad Fox exists to create/reinforce the cult.
frosty
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): You just did LOL! But seriously, no, I haven’t noticed anything and haven’t seen any comments about it either.
SFAW
@Geminid:
I guess that’s a possibility. But his small margin of victory in the NH primary was likely the proximate catalyst.
zhena gogolia
@Alison Rose: I think maybe pale scot has influenced him.
Matt McIrvin
@Geminid: Johnson did start the year running but withdrew after the NH primary, in which he won a narrow plurality of the popular vote but lost most of the delegates to Eugene McCarthy (that was possible in the party system of the time).
Yarrow
@Alison Rose: Stores have had Halloween stuff out since August. PEOPLE are putting Halloween stuff out already. Orange lights, skeletons on the porch, that kind of thing. These same people will have Christmas trees up in their house before Halloween. Outside lights will be installed but not turned on until November 1st. I wish I was joking. I am not. It’s very wrong.
Steeplejack
@Patricia Kayden:
Joe Scarborough is very vocally a former Republican. He’s nobody’s idea of a flaming leftie, but I can’t think of a single thing on which he agrees with the GQP.
trollhattan
@SFAW:
I too thought Kennedy had enough momentum to have won and haven’t considered Johnson, but he might have as well.
1. The sitting president.
2. Effective campaigner.
3. As a fellow southerner, could have kept Wallace either out of the race (heh) or blocked him from his haul of five states, except Alabama. Fucking Alabama. Kept other southern states out of Nixon’s hands.
It’s not as though some cohort of Humphrey voters would have fled to Nixon due to hating Johnson, they weren’t voting for Humphrey either
In closing, fuck Sirhan.
lowtechcyclist
@RaflW:
Yeah, way too early for them to move their Halloween merch out of the way!
Matt McIrvin
@Chris: Remember Rick Santelli’s rant on CNBC that gets credited with starting the Tea Party? It was all about how the irresponsibility of the little people in 2008 had ruined everything for the investor class. They were horrified at the idea that someone who had taken out a bad home loan might get a bailout from their tax money. That was the basis of their homegrown grassroots movement.
SiubhanDuinne
WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK!? Just heard that the three dudes on trial for plotting to kidnap MI Gov Gretchen Whitmer were all ACQUITTED ON ALL COUNTS.
WTF
trollhattan
@Yarrow: A portion here hire decoration companies for both Halloween and Christmas. The houses look like tiny strip malls/car dealerships.
lowtechcyclist
@Yarrow:
I know! Like you say, the Halloween stuff has been in the stores since roughly the beginning of August. And our next-door neighbor put up Halloween decorations about a week ago.
CaseyL
@Yarrow:
That’s funny. Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas all at once? Those porches are gonna get pretty crowded – no room for anyone to actually, you know, reach the front door.
Another Scott
@SiubhanDuinne: I haven’t kept up with the trials. MLive.com:
The details may matter a lot – the juries see a lot more than we do in the news reports..
Cheers,
Scott.
Geminid
@RaflW: Some guy on the Harrisonburg radio station was piching trail cameras, said they were good for home security because they can connect to someone’s phone.
Yarrow
@CaseyL: Almost no one decorates for Thanksgiving. Maybe a fall wreath on the door. Halloween stuff goes up in September and comes down the day after Halloween. Christmas stuff goes up INSIDE the house in October but not outside until after Halloween. Maybe the lighting companies put in the lights up in tall houses and in big trees before Halloween but they don’t go on until November 1.
I kind of wonder what Thanksgiving is like when there’s a big Christmas tree already up and decorated. Must be weird.
Geminid
@SFAW: I think Bobby Kennedy had jumped in the race by April,when Johnson announced he would not run.
I remember watching Johnson on TV that day with my family. He made the announcement at the end of a talk about Vietnam. It was a real surprise
CaseyL
@Yarrow:
I used to live in Seattle’s Greenwood neighborhood, took the bus to work, and the route went by a house that always decorated to the nth degree for whatever holiday was coming up.
For Thanksgiving, they went with a harvest theme: lots of corn, scarecrows, pumpkins, turkeys. I mean, the whole front of the house and porch. Very homespun looking, quaint, and pleasant.
I liked seeing the house each holiday season to see what they were up to, decoration wise. Decades later, on the rare occasions I drive by that location, they seem to still be at it. I should make a special trip to check them out.
Miss Bianca
@Kay: Hey, Kay – don’t know if this will reach you in real time, but if it does, can you shoot me any links you have to that research you cited about school test scores going down during COVID regardless of whether schools stayed open or went to online learning? Thank you kindly!
Geminid
@Matt McIrvin: I think Johnson announced he would not run 5 weeks after the New Hampshire primary. He would have beaten McCarthy easily, but Bobby Kennedy might have been a different story.
Jackie
@eclare:
I saw what you saw.
Fake Irishman
@Matt McIrvin:
That’s what put me off about him: the IRA passes, which is a Big Big deal and easily the biggest climate policy that’s ever been passed, and not a peep from him. He only pops up to complain. I tend to take my climate cues from David Roberts, who is clear eyed about how urgent things are, but also recognizes that there a lot of really important policy and economic shifts happening far more rapidly than anyone appreciates either.
Jackie
@Patricia Kayden: WAS Republican. He went from a Never Trumper to Independent and has been voting Democratic since the 2018 election. He didn’t vote for TIFG in ‘16.
Same with the majority of ex-republicans they have on MJ.
Soprano2
@Baud: I’m not making excuses, I’m telling you what I observe in my own life. Prices went up so fast that people can easily remember what things cost just a couple of years ago, and they know it was quite a bit less than what they cost now.
piratedan
@Matt McIrvin: it’s that bugaboo of when Biden raised the min wage for everyone nationally that NO ONE then actually noted that when Biden did that, the housing market went apeshit and at the same time, rents were raised almost unilaterally. Places that were at 800 a month, now were 1050.
Yet, no one seemingly even bothered to perform a before and after and/or ask why suddenly all those costs went up, eating at the new economic gains for those at the bottom.
Baud
@Soprano2:
The excuse is with people who use prices as a reason to be down on Biden even when they’re doing well. I don’t believe half of them would feel the same way if everything were the same except Trump were in charge. Suddenly, that memory would disappear.
YMMV.
Soprano2
@eclare: Here’s a link to the story.
Soprano2
@Kay: Kay isn’t is like how they tell people they like their public schools but other public schools are bad because they heard that on the news?
Geminid
@Geminid: Correction: “F”LBJ announced he would “not seek, or accept” the nomination for President on March 31, 1968. This was 19 days after the New Hampshire primary.
Soprano2
@Patricia Kayden: That’s why I said I don’t believe it.
satby
@cain: yeah, still not going back on there.
Uncle Cosmo
In a word, No. In two words, Hell No. Wallace served out his full term as FDR’s Veep and was then appointed by him as Secretary of Commerce. He served through FDR’s abbreviated fourth term and for 18 months into Truman’s first, til HST canned him. He ran against Truman in 1948 on the Progressive Party ticket; of the 4(!) significant national candidates that year, he was the only one not to win a single electoral vote.
(ETA: I see now that you amended your initial impression at #63 above; good on ya,)
Matt McIrvin
@Fake Irishman: For me it’s really important that, while we’re not on track to hit the extremely ambitious <1.5C goal (which always seemed politically unattainable to me), we’re already way below the “business as usual” graphs from a couple of decades ago, which didn’t incorporate the decarbonization that has already happened. “Business as usual” is a moving metric and the stated goals of existing climate accords were, I think, deliberately pretty far out there.
satby
Jackie
@Soprano2: It seems that those of us who actually watched that episode don’t agree with that reporter’s interpretation.🤷🏼♀️
Matt McIrvin
@piratedan: Well, there’s a cynical take of “prices and rents will inevitably rise to eat up all those gains, so it’s pointless to raise minimum wage in the first place.” Which is taking market forces as inevitable things like laws of nature, or just assuming that any further regulatory attempt to control them will cause a different catastrophe.
Uncle Cosmo
@Baud: IIRC, when LBJ was casting about for a ticketmate for 1964, the two finalists were the two Senators from MN: Hubert Humphrey and (!) Eugene McCarthy.
It’d be a helluva counterfactual if the choice had gone the other way and the famously fiery-liberal Humphrey had been first to take up the antiwar cudgels against the sitting President.
brantl
They don’t believe in either one, as far as what the aspirational parts mean, and outright say.
Miss Bianca
@Jeffro: Oh, really? Now *that* one I may have to lay down some bank for.
allium
@Trivia Man: There’s “Dispatches From The Revolution” by Pat Cadigan.
tl;dr – in this story it’s not RFK’s fault, but ABSOLUTELY IT WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN BETTER.
geg6
@Jeffro:
He’s very quietly done very well for himself. Saw a profile of him on some show (60 Minutes, maybe?) that blew me away because, at the time, I, too, knew none of this and thought of him as a comedian and Real People host. He’s been very busy since.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byron_Allen
lowtechcyclist
@Geminid:
Yeppers. And RFK had declared his candidacy on March 16, four days after McCarthy’s strong showing in NH. And Humphrey waited until April 27th to announce.
1968 Democratic Party presidential primaries – Wikipedia
FWIW, the delegate win by McCarthy in NH meant basically nothing. Hell, the delegate totals from NH and IA now don’t really mean anything because they’re so minuscule compared to the haul of delegates from bigger states coming up. They’re just the first real tests of how much support a candidate can win.
And back then, only a handful of states had primaries anyway; most of the delegates were chosen by party bosses in the various states. (Which is how Humphrey won the 1968 nomination after getting 2% of the primary votes.) The purpose of the primaries in their entirety was to give said bosses a clearer idea of who was the best candidate.
And fuck Sirhan Sirhan.
lowtechcyclist
@Uncle Cosmo:
It’s extremely difficult for a third-party candidate to win any electoral votes at all, unless their appeal is very regional, like Strom Thurmond’s or George Wallace’s. Ross Perot got 19% of the popular vote in 1992 and still got zero EVs.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@Bruce K in ATH-GR: I’m sure this thread is dead now, but notice the phrase “dip the apple in honey”, which I’m guessing is part of a ceremony of Rosh Shoshana. So it’s an Apple smart phone (pun). As always, when you try to explain a joke, it falls apart in your hands. But maybe this helps.
Ruckus
@Baud:
I will and I will.
Ruckus
@RevRick:
I hear in some places gas is less than $4/gal. Here in magic land, SoCal gas is $5. to $5.75/gal and that’s self serve regular, the cheapest.
Ruckus
@Matt McIrvin:
Grand vision statements seem to me to be basically bullshit. There are a few reasons for this.
First money.
Second is the opposition.
Third, the concept of grand vision is very likely going to be highly hated by at least one voter, but also likely by a rather higher number, unless the other side is actually crazy. Politics always is against some group and even if the deserve it people likely feel their group might be next.
Subsole
@Scout211:
Leopards, faces, fuckem. Sideways, dry, and hard.
Subsole
@Gin & Tonic:
Grafton?
Holy shit, that is perfect…
Kayla Rudbek
@The Pale Scot: not ADT, as my parents have had a terrible experience with them