NEW: Biden has nearly erased Trump’s early polling advantage, amid signs that the Democratic base has begun to coalesce despite lingering concerns on economy and age.
Trump: 46% (-2)
Biden: 45% (+2)My write up of the latest NYT/Siena poll—> https://t.co/E2ycphhgPr
— Shane Goldmacher (@ShaneGoldmacher) April 13, 2024
New rules for Pregnant Workers Fairness Act includes divisive accommodations for abortion https://t.co/kiSeMSpewg
— The Associated Press (@AP) April 15, 2024
Workers are entitled to time off and other job accommodations for abortions — along with pregnancy-related medical conditions like miscarriage, stillbirth and lactation — under the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, according to finalized federal regulations published Monday.
The regulations provide guidance for employers and workers on how to implement the law, which passed with robust bipartisan Congressional support in December 2022 but sparked controversy last year when the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission included abortions in its draft rules. The language means that workers can ask for time off to obtain an abortion and recover from the procedure.
The EEOC says its decision to keep the abortion provisions in its final rules, despite criticism from some conservatives, is consistent with its own longstanding interpretation of Title VII, as well as court rulings. The federal agency added that the new law does not obligate employers or employer-sponsored health plans to cover abortion-related costs, and that the type of accommodation that most likely will be sought under the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act regarding an abortion is time off to attend a medical appointment or for recovery, which does not have to be paid.
The act requires most employers with 15 or more employees to provide “reasonable accommodations” for a worker’s known limitations related to pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions — including fertility and infertility treatments in some cases — unless the accommodation will cause the employer an undue hardship. The EEOC’s regulations will go into effect on June 18.
Labor advocates hailed the new law as especially important for women of color who are most likely to work in low-wage, physically demanding jobs but are often denied accommodations for everything from time off for medical appointments to the ability to sit or stand on the job. Major business groups also supported the law, citing the need for clarity about the accommodations that employers are required to give pregnant workers…
I can remember — because it was just changing, and not easily, when I entered the workforce in the 1970s — when it was standard business procedure to fire any woman who became pregnant, on the grounds they were ‘too much trouble’ or ‘made other employees / customers / uncomfortable’, and besides they were only going to leave and not come back once they gave birth. That didn’t change because bosses suddenly became enlightened; it required a lot of women (and their legislators, many of them women) to fight for every scrap of dignity.
Biden campaign co chair Gov. @gretchenwhitmer:
Our choice could not be more stark. Joe Biden is standing between a national abortion ban and expanding access to care for women & Trump appointed the justices who overturned Roe. Let's be very clear: Donald Trump did this pic.twitter.com/ZGMf4an35t
— Julia Hamelburg (@juliahamelburg) April 14, 2024
Saving everyone a click.
Abortion is on the ballot in every state, because Donald Trump and his Project 2025 allies want to ban abortion in every state. https://t.co/XS4tqWxvm6
— James Singer (@Jemsinger) April 15, 2024
It's going to take a comprehensive approach to reduce gun violence in our communities, but the Biden-Harris Administration has taken a significant step forward to making sure we keep guns out of the hands of people who shouldn't have them. pic.twitter.com/EKajJJPlgV
— Austin Davis (@AustinDavisPA) April 14, 2024
Incredible Biden strategy to win back 18-29 year old votershttps://t.co/sojcYKvhqk
— Nick Field (@nick_field90) April 15, 2024
I guarantee you, if Ronald Reagan were overseeing this recovery & these real wage/income gains, you would not be getting article after article claiming that the good economy is a problem for him & Republicans are out of touch bc the data don't capture real folks' lived experience
— Mark Copelovitch (@mcopelov) April 14, 2024
Baud
Dems having “lingering concerns” about the economy make me ashamed to be one. Leave the gaslighting to independens and Republicans. But I’ll take their votes.
Betty
The school district where I worked in the early 70s still fired pregnant employees. “You shouldn’t expose children to a pregnant woman.” What? No younger siblings? This was essentially a farming community, no less.
catclub
I think Biden should start Saying: “When Reagan said it was morning in America, unemployment rates, inflation rates and Interest rates were higher than they are now, and growth was slower than now.”
Betty
@Baud: When they say the economy, they mean inflation. Why can’t they just say that?
Kay
Family leave has been really good for men too. My son in law took 3 months paid leave for each of their two children and just loved it. My son got 6 months paid leave in Denmark. That should be the goal in the US – each parent takes six, giving the child a full year.
No Right wingers support this, btw. All the state level family leave policies come from liberals. Righnt wingers LOVE babies and mommies but they love tax cuts and high CEO pay more.
OzarkHillbilly
Also: Homicides in major US cities falling at ‘one of fastest rates ever’ – report
Nearly all crime, including violent and property offenses, was down ‘a considerable amount’ in 2023 compared with 2022
I don’t know how the Biden campaign recovers from this latest development.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay: Right wingers LOVE babies and mommies right up to the point where it affects their quarterly profits.
Kay
There isn’t that much difference between the prior NYTimes poll and the current NYTimes poll – they’re both within the MOE – but the difference is media went insane promoting the poll w/Biden behind so that will impact public opinion. Better polls are better for Biden. It’ll shut the Trump supporting political media up and make it harder for them to continue to put their thumb on the scale for The Most Profitable For Media President Ever– Donald Trump (may he reign forever).
In 2012 the Obama campaign put a lot of weight on being slightly ahead of Romney consistently, so I still revert to that.
p.a.
Cart/horse/megaphone.
the economy/wages/inflation/employment are historically strong. (in footnote, para 37)
BUT THERE ARE REAL CONCERNS AMONG PEOPLE WHO WOULDN’T ACKNOWLEDGE DEMOCRATS’ SUCCESS EVEN IF THEY WERE THE PRIME BENEFICIARIES. ALSO TOO, ONLY THEY MATTER. Para 1
Kay
@OzarkHillbilly:
My husband was good, I have to say, especially with our youngest – he took every Friday off when youngest was little, which youngest still remembers, but he is self employed. My son in law is GREAT with their little girls. It’s so nice to see. I think the three months alone with them, caring for them, makes a huge difference. My daughter also nurses, so he has to feed pumped milk with a bottle when she’s working and babies always prefer nursing. He has to overcome that deficit :)
Everyone should support family leave because while not everyone has a child, everyone was a child.
Baud
You’re welcome, coal miners (warning:NYT)
ArchTeryx
@Baud: The economy wouldn’t exactly be great under a fascist regime, either. I wish more of the “FrEe PaLeStInE!!111!!” anti-Biden Democratic youth would get that.
Baud
@p.a.:
White America panics whenever it appears people might be persuaded by Dem accomplishments. IMHO, that’s our biggest risk this November.
Ksmiami
@Kay: he does need to start the heavy advertising on how much better things are. And real costs are coming down at the grocery store. – even Roosevelt smartly advertised all of the Works Progress projects to keep it front of mind
RevRick
@Betty: Journalists, like the general public, are ignorant when it comes to economics. And like the general public, they buy into a lot of false assumptions, the greatest of which is that Republicans are good for the economy. Going back to Hoover, the data screams otherwise, that Democratic administrations far outperform GOP ones, but the general public thinks that the opposite is the case.
While it’s impossible to know why this is the case, I suspect that it’s due to the notion that running a government and how that affects the national economy is just like running a business, and since most successful businesses, both large and small, are run by Republicans, it stands to reason that Republicans must be better at it. That basic assumption coupled with the general amnesia which forgets a lot of what actually happened leads to giving Republicans a general advantage on the question of “handling the economy.”
Melancholy Jaques
@Kay:
LOL. No it won’t
I do wonder if the positive numbers on “the economy” persist, will they eventually penetrate and change people’s feelings about the “the economy?”
What Copelovitch says is true about the media. Last week they all reported that inflation continues to rage. 3.5% is raging.
zhena gogolia
Husband brought in the NYT this morning. He said, “I almost didn’t want to bring it in.” “IN VOTERS’ MINDS, TRUMP YEARS NOW LOOK ROSIER.” The economy was so much better, you know.
zhena gogolia
@Kay: See my #17.
ArchTeryx
@Baud: And way too many goddamn white people would be happy living under a fascist regime if it meant they could stick it to Those People. Even if the Gestapo eventually came for them, at least they’d get their spite on first.
p.a.
Never occurred to me that one way tRump could avoid consequences is because a jury can’t be empaneled due to most people knowing he is a human piece of shit and some people willing to believe his shit in a cup is yummy yummy chocolate ice cream.
Ksmiami
@ArchTeryx: exactly. That they will let us slide into fascism over the Middle East is sad and pathetic
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
Haha. Have to counteract a slightly better poll somehow.
Glidwrith
@OzarkHillbilly: Right wingers LOVE babies and mommies as long as they are paler than a brown paper bag and can be used as domestic servants.
TBone
I hope Fani Willis is enjoying the fact of this criminal trial as much as I am. It helps lay the foundation for his ongoing pattern of criminality.
lowtechcyclist
Fixed that for him. You need a sample size of roughly 10,000 for a 1% polling difference to be statistically significant – that is, to reflect an actual difference with any certainty.
I get that media types aren’t going to be statistics junkies, but they can at least realize that differences within the MOE are just as likely to be chance differences in the polling sample as to reflect any real difference in the population. That’s the only thing they really need to know before they comment on a poll. Why is that so hard?
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay: Both of my sons play a large part in the raising of their daughters. Not sure how much I had to do with it, but I am proud of them for it.
@Baud: Pretty sure my COPD is in part* due to all the concrete and gypsum dust I inhaled over the years, not to mention the other kinds of dust I was subjected to.
*I know I am mostly to blame, having smoked for 36 years. Speaking of which, next year is the last year I will get a yearly lung cat scan because it will be 15 years since my last cigarette and after that the cost/benefit ratio declines significantly. Yeah me, I guess.
Cacti
@Kay: I recall what you said a couple of weeks ago about Biden’s handling of Israel is like watching him commit a slow political suicide.
His approval with U30 voters is now down to 40% after approving the latest round of bombs and fighter jets to Israel.
It’s agonizing to watch his tone-deafness on this issue.
TBone
The tankies are positively certain that Ukraine will be “forgotten” because reasons (“just like Afghanistan” is a direct quote from today). They are so smug and SO clueless. I replied “Hahahahaha no! Fuck you.” but alas moderation prevents my reply from appearing in print.
Almost Retired
@Kay: Yup. When my first son was born in 1992, I worked at the LA office of a progressive Bay Area law firm. The hippies offered 12 weeks paid parental leave. I stayed home with the baby, while my wife – who worked for the “pro-family” Archdiocese of Los Angeles – was expected back at work if she wanted to be paid.
cain
@Baud: why the fuck do we still have people doing this instead of robots. I bet we won’t need human miners in the future.
Hey I bet there is a shared space between anti maskers and coal miners !
cain
@OzarkHillbilly: congrats for 15 years clean !
Fake Irishman
@Kay:
Amen Kay! I’m a federal employee and got 12 weeks leave for kid 2 after we got parental leave as a benefit following budget negotiations in 2020 (Pelosi got paternal leave for federal employees Trump got Space Force; good trade Nancy). It was great to get that time with my daughter, and especially helpful because the post pandemic child care crunch in 2022 led to waiting lines for a spot.
I was able to cobble together 3 weeks of leave for kid 1 in the before times; the time was amazing, but it would have been practically helpful and emotionally fulfilling to have more time with my baby.
lowtechcyclist
@RevRick:
I’m gonna blame the media. I’m 70 years old, and this is about as good an economy as I can recall, especially for people in the lower half of the income distribution. And we’ve seen over the past three years how the media make it sound like the economy really sucks. And we’ve also seen in the past how the media makes the economy look great under Republicans if they’ve got any hook to hang it on.
Drives me nuts, because from Reagan until now, Democrats have been consistently better for the economy. The difference would be even more pronounced if we weren’t always cleaning up after the damned elephants – if Democrats ever won the Presidency three terms in a row, the media would be talking about everything but the economy, or just writing stories (like they did towards the end of Clinton’s second term) about how the economy was practically running itself, so it wouldn’t matter who was President next.
TBone
Did somebody say “TOOLS”
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/04/16/supreme-court-obstruction-jan-6-00152406
🍆
cain
Since we are talking about women’s health. My wife was relating a story about after she gave birth to two children she didn’t want to have periods anymore because it was painful and there was a lot of bleeding. But also she had to take a year off to recover after each child and that was in her 20s. In her late 30s and 40s a pregnancy would kill her.
She scheduled an operation to laser her uterus. After the operation the doctor told her they didn’t do anything during the procedure so essentially opened her up poked around and closed her up.
The doctor is Catholic so apparently her pro life stance got in the way and she gave some bullshit excuse. Apparently can’t take into account that a pregnancy would kill my wife and leave her kids without a mother. She immediately switched doctors but still didn’t manage to get rid of her period and instead got her tubes tied.
It is heartbreaking to see women betray other women like that knowing full well what the consequences are. It’s why my wife has a lot of issues in this country because it’s always repeating.
Melancholy Jaques
@lowtechcyclist:
We had two really good chances and in both cases, the political media worked very hard to prevent it.
Kay
@Almost Retired:
ooof. It’s such a simple, obvious thing to support new parents. You just think about all the blah, blah about declining birth rates – hundreds of thousands of words – and there’s this great thing just sitting there that they’re all pretending not to see.
Betty Cracker
Love Whitmer’s clip in the OP — she’s on message (Donald Trump did this), and she emphasized that the three Trump-appointed justices LIED to get on the court. That should be said more often. They lied to our faces. We knew they were lying, but the fact that they lied should be pointed out at every opportunity.
TBone
@cain: I had an ablation because Lyme invaded my uterus. They burned it real good, rendering me barren. I couldn’t take off enough time from work for a hysterectomy so we went with ablation. The relief was immediate and immensely preferable to what I’d been enduring each month.
I’m sorry your wife was not given relief and fucking angry they teased her like that. I’d be doing fisticuffs if a doctor ever said/did that to me.
Jeffro
per that Nick Field tweet about DOJ preparing to sue Live Nation and 18-29 year-olds…I’d absolutely fall over dead if someone from our snooze media could be bothered to find and interview a single “Gen Zer” who knew about and appreciated even one of the following:
I mean, the press always seems to be able to find the most reactionary, idiotic pro-trumpov voters and/or folks who work hard against their own self interest, you’d think they could scrape up a stray, well-informed left-leaning college kid once in a while?
(maybe we should rent out an Ohio diner and fill it with a couple dozen of these well-informed young’uns? put a sign outside: “NYT plz stop here and survey ‘real Americans’ !”)
Kay
@Fake Irishman:
Oh, I’m glad Pelosi did that. Of all the things that Democrats don’t get credit for the “pro family” stuff is the most infuriating because it’s the opposite of what people are told about Democrats.
It is a big lie that Republicans are pro family. They choose tax cuts and CEO bonuses over families every single year.
lowtechcyclist
@Melancholy Jaques:
No argument in either case. They did their level best to sabotage Gore in 2000 as well as Hillary in 2016. They gave Shrub a free ride in 2000, and with Trump, they’d report on the latest scandal for a day, then move on, while they’d hammer for weeks on Hillary’s emails, or the Clinton Foundation, or whatever.
Betty Cracker
@cain: That’s outrageous! That doctor put your wife at significant risk just by performing a major surgery — for nothing. She should have lost her damn license!
TBone
@Betty Cracker: apparently they put her to sleep and just did not do anything surgical. Oopsie, changed my mind but here’s our invoice for surgeon and anesthesiologist! A classic bait and switch.
OzarkHillbilly
@cain: Thanx, but it’s still 14. Next year it will be 15 and I get my last yearly catscan. Quitting was almost the hardest thing I’ve ever done. My last year+ I was smoking only 4 cigs a day, and I just.couldn’t.give.them.up. Chantrix made the difference. The dreams were bonus.
TBone
Pundit says Dotard is in for “hours of boredom punctuated by moments of terror.” “Just sit there and look not guilty.” 😆
Mike in NC
Turned on the TV only to hear that Fat Bastard’s “Truth Social” (who picks these stupid names?) stock has lost $3 billion in value. It’s almost as if everything that loser touches dies.
Kay
The county Democrats are supporting organizers of a Pride Parade in my 75% Trump town. They;ve done a nice job so far – got their own permits, invited merchants. Our Dem group will set up a table, I’ll be working it. I think it might be really fun and I admire the bravery of them organizing this in this environment but I hope the Trumperinos don’t… kill me!
I’m working with Ed on this, who is gay and in our Dem group and was a Marine. In the Marine band but they’re still probably bad ass, right? I’m bringing only my rhetorical skills as a weapon! I’m doomed :)
Baud
Via reddit, to no one’s surprise
TBone
@Mike in NC: I’m not even toweling off after jumping into Lake Schadenfreude every day.
Baud
@Kay:
I hope Tom Cotton doesn’t show up.
OzarkHillbilly
@Jeffro: Left-leaning college kids aren’t “real” Americans.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
Except the ones that blame Biden for Dobbs.
Manyakitty
@TBone: did Uncle Clarence manage to show up for work today?
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: And then only if they’re in a diner.
M31
@OzarkHillbilly:
congrats on quitting — no surprise that it’s the hardest thing
I have several friends who over the years overcame a heroin addiction — each of them said the only thing harder was quitting cigarettes
cain
@TBone: I’m sorry I that the choice of children or not was taken away from you.
Thank you .. wife has a lot of stories about how medical system has messed with her. Her uterus has been the enemy since she was 9.
OzarkHillbilly
@M31: As a friend once said, “I have a very intimate relationship with cigarettes.”
Manyakitty
@TBone: sounds a lot like fraud, maybe medical malpractice.
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone 😊 😊 😊
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
cain
@Betty Cracker: they did indeed. It’s why she is bitter because she is going through peri-menupause and she has had a 7 day period starting from the eclipse. Prior to that a 7 month long PMS. This operation could have saved all that.
Manyakitty
@rikyrah: hello 🤗
Cheryl from Maryland
In the early 1980s as a married graduate school student, I was required to get separate insurance coverage from my university for pregnancy and “other things.” I still had to go to Planned Parenthood to be able to afford an annual exam and birth control, which is why I am eternally grateful to them.
cain
@TBone: oh but they did! They opened her up and did nothing ! The doctor should have revealed her background. No longer will trust catholic doctors when it comes to any ones reproductive system.
OzarkHillbilly
Bad news for Biden: US review finds August 2021 suicide bombing at Kabul airport was unpreventable
twbrandt
@Jeffro: the media has no problem digging up a left-leaning college student who is stridently anti-Israel and then claiming all college campuses are anti-semitic. But finding a college student like you suggest is evidently beyond them, in spite of those students being in great abundance.
TBone
@Manyakitty: not sure yet, have been doing a little Spring cleaning in between checking for other detritus.
Manyakitty
@TBone: lol detritus is a great word for him.
smith
Heh, heh — newest report on my latest hobby: Stock price of DJT has fallen almost 7% in a half hour after start of trading.
TBone
@cain: I was fertile for many years before that, during which my parents actively and loudly discouraged procreation (they were both looking ahead, and also had concrete plans to get my brother to Canada in case of war draft). I had no idea that laser surgery as you mentioned for your wife was done by incision, since my experience involved anaesthesia and stirrups in an outpatient setting. I’m seriously incensed for her. Goddamnit.
ETA our entire health care apparatus here is named Evangelical. 🤮
catclub
@smith: 1. The whole thing should be worth about zero, so if Trumps stake falls from about $5B to $0.5B he is still $0.5B ahead – which is a lot of money.
2. My understanding is that his investment in the thing is zero. It is all about vacuuming up money from the rubes.
Miss Bianca
@cain:
That sounds like grounds for a malpractice suit to me.
Kay
@Baud:
I’m dying to see which merchants show up. They did this successfully in a slightly less Trumpy town east of here last year – had a fairly good turnout – so we’ll see. I met Ed when I hired him for private music lessons for my oldest on baritones (all the tuba-like instruments) 20 years ago. Ed arrived and immediately complimented me on my yard sign so I knew we would get along just fine.
Baud
@smith:
The stock is going to test Zeno’s Paradox.
Baud
@Kay:
I wish you success.
TBone
@Manyakitty: 👍😆
Melancholy Jaques
@OzarkHillbilly:
And here we had been led to believe that Biden was personally responsible for it.
catclub
@smith: From CNN: “Trump says $175 million bond is financially secure “
So it must not be.
TBone
@catclub: 😆😆😆😆😆
Did the statement come with a fine print disclaimer? Like the ones on TV commercials rolling by so fast?
eclare
@cain:
When my mom was pregnant with me in 1968, she had a rule that under no circumstance was she to be taken to a Catholic hospital. So I was born at Memphis Baptist.
rikyrah
@Kay:
truth.
simple, unadulterated TRUTH
TBone
@eclare: I was lucky to born at Brooklyn Jewish Hospital. Mom wasn’t messing around.
Mai Naem mobile
I wish there was an app or something to block TFG’s voice on all media. I would be willing to pay for it. I can’t stand his whiny wah wah ugly fugly loser voice.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: I’m usually polite in person, but the other day, our next-door cultist followed Bill into our yard to look at the tomatoes or something and made the mistake of greeting me while wearing a MAGA hat. I am 100% out of fucks to give these days, so I replied, “I hate that fucking hat.” He just laughed though. ;-)
opiejeanne
@Manyakitty: I just saw that Thomas is back today.
Rats.
TBone
@Mai Naem mobile: I just hear imaginary accordion music to go with the tiny hand gestures. 🎶 The Pennsylvania Polka!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=p3Qnlu9Nfj8
TBone
Favorite meme today:
Stormy says “Dotard likes to be spanked!”
Joe Biden in the next frame, laughing: “I know! I spanked him once and he just won’t shut up about it!”
😎
Brachiator
@Baud:
The economy is not working well for a lot of people. It’s not just a matter of bad news reporting.
But yeah, if they are going to vote for Democrats, then that should be the focus.
Also, this may also mean that the Democrats should note that Republicans are not good for the economy.
ETA. And it is sad that the MAGA cult believe that the Orange Beast can work magic on the economy. Too bad he can’t work magic on the collapsing Truth Social stock price.
OzarkHillbilly
@Melancholy Jaques: Well, everybody knows trump never would have let it happen.
smith
@catclub: His “bond” company filed the additional required paperwork last night, and you will surprised, I’m sure, to learn that Hanky’s bond business is hinky as hell. Also see here.
Chris T.
@lowtechcyclist:
I’m not sure whether “the media” should get 70, 80, or even 90% of the blame here (nor whether “fixing the blame” is the right approach in the first place, why not fix the problem instead…). It is however interesting to note who’s currently getting shafted in relative terms, and that this includes a lot of previously-super-well-off white-collar types who were employed in computer/IT fields (I was among these myself, but I think I was more clear-eyed than most, and certainly a lot more cautious).
While “AI” is enjoying a new hype cycle—see NVDA stock prices for instance—the post-pandemic knock-on effects have undermined the Foundation Of Sand that was propping up the tech industry. Interest rates are no longer basically zero, so there’s a lot less “free money” going into pointless startups. It’s a whole lot like the dot-com busts in 2000 and 2008.
What we’re building now is a lot more solid, so the eventual recovery in these fields will be more solid and useful. Of course the big hyped up part will collapse, as it always does; boom-and-bust cycles are what they are.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: They can’t buy a house in the neighborhood they want so Joe Biden and the Democrats are to blame. I read in the comments on this very blog plus a tirade about how baby boomers had it made.
OzarkHillbilly
@opiejeanne: Oh well… Once again my hopes have been dashed.
Kayla Rudbek
@Kay: whenever someone asks “why don’t they…” the answer is always money — Robert Heinlein
Geminid
The Blue Virginia site reported Q1 campaign financial data in various Virginia races. In the 7th CD, Alexander Vindman led in contributions and finished tve quarter with over $1.8 million in the bank. That’s 10 times more than his nearest competitor. I’ll still be voting for Delegate Brianna Sewell in the June 18 primary, but I suspect it will be Vindman in November. Rep. Spanberger won the 7th by a little over 4% in 2022, so Vindman should be able to win the district in a Presidential year.
Baud
@schrodingers_cat:
There’s some nasty generational propaganda all over Reddit. I think a lot of it is deliberate propaganda to discourage youth turnout.
rikyrah
@Baud:
absolutely no surprise to anyone really paying attention.
Baud
@Brachiator:
That’s true of every economy the US has ever had.
rikyrah
@catclub:
The rubes be rubing.
catclub
But the economy is also working better, for MORE people, than it _ever_ has before.
When there is 3% unemployment there are still ‘millions out of work’. Its a big fucking country.
TBone
@Betty Cracker: brava!
rikyrah
@smith:
You will never convince me that they weren’t trying to pull a fast one on AG James.
They are so used to being flim flam con men that they don’t expect someone to with the actual authority to put the hammer down on them to actually do the investigation into the propers of their finances.
Suzanne
@twbrandt:
Not to mention, they seldom seem to enlighten their readers that the government of Israel ≠ all Jewish people. SHOCKER: you can think Bibi Netanyahu is a monster, that the West Bank settlements are illegal, that the war on Gaza is ethnic cleansing….. and still want Jewish people to live wherever they want, and live and thrive in freedom and prosperity.
TBone
h/t Susie Madrak “Magic 8 Ball Says Odds Are High”
https://newrepublic.com/article/180630/russia-corruption-network-europe-buying-politicians-america
Chris T.
@cain:
Well, the uterus and placenta are, after all, the Organs of Battle, where the clash between parasitical fetus and the host take place. Sort of. 😀
Men mostly have no idea…
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
I can usually adopt my “I don’t like you but I’m in control of myself” attitude of obtuse, impersonal cheerfulness, but as you say it’s gotten more difficult.
We have a local paper. I just use it for legal notices – I subscribe thru the law oiffice but I haven’t read it in 20 years. My husband reads it though and he told me they stopped printing letters to the editor. He thinks they did this because the letters from liberals were coherent and the letters from conservatives were like “THE TRANS argle bargle GOD(!?) AMERICA”. He seriously believes this. I think it’s hilarious.
smith
@rikyrah: I was just thinking that the shoddiness of everything they’ve done about the bond suggests that they are used to dealing with people who are either stupid or naive. I think they will find that James and Engoron are neither.
Soprano2
@zhena gogolia: People remember that everything was cheaper then. They don’t remember that the job market was worse and their wages were lower. Every time my husband would say something like “I remember when a new pair of jeans cost $10” I’d say back “Do you remember how much you were making per hour then? Because I guarantee it was a lot less than now, and at that time you thought the $10 was too expensive.” Most people think this way.
TBone
The Dali mustache is a nice touch
https://twitter.com/Talyn777/status/1779980914182783329
😆 Like passing out at a frat party
“STORMY WAS HERE” 🤣
Tenar Arha
@TBone: XD
now I’m going to have Groundhog Day on my mind all day today
Chris T.
@Soprano2:
Exactly.
I remember paperbacks with cover prices of $.35 or $.75. But back then you were doing good to earn $2.50/hr (double the minimum wage in 1965; these were used paperbacks I was buying in the 1970s, where the used bookstore was charging maybe $1.75 for them).
Costs and incomes generally rise apace during inflation. The real key difference between then and now is thus not the absolute numbers, but the fact that we’ve gone from “cheaper necessities and expensive luxuries” to “expensive necessities” (food and housing) vs luxury items (fancier electronics for instance).
Transportation costs outstripping inflation is bad too: a more-mobile workforce (that can get around and/or move to where the work is) is economically healthier than the less-mobile one we have today.
TBone
@Tenar Arha: the next 6 weeks for Dotard. Except Wednesdays. 😆
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=r3BWaRkJ58M
Brachiator
@cain:
Very sorry to hear about all the problems your wife had to deal with.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: I live in a similarly red community and read our crappy local newspaper, and I think your husband is onto something! Shortly after we moved here in 2018, our paper discontinued allowing comments on letters to the editor. Bill and I concluded they did it because my mostly grammatically correct and fact-based rejoinders made the pro-Trump screeds look even dumber, lol!
TBone
Here’s one for Maggie Habs
🎶
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oC7ZgXmrs6Q
Brachiator
@Baud:
Then, instead of understanding how people might feel, why would you feel ashamed?
Manyakitty
@opiejeanne: booo.
Manyakitty
@Geminid: Eugene Vindman?
Geminid
@Manyakitty: Yes, I meant Eugene Vindman, Alexander’s brother. Thank you for the correction.
Jeffro
yup
they’re also good at finding the one or two who “felt ostracized” for their beliefs and had no choice but to form a chapter of ‘Campus
IncelsWingnuts For Free MarketNeoNaziSolutions’(membership: 2)
such snowflakes!
Anyway…go find ’em, media types! There are plenty of smart college kids who are up on the issues and understand the very real differences between Biden & trumpov (and are choosing Biden).
Brachiator
@catclub:
And this is why Team Biden is smart to say that they have done well with the economy, and will continue to help things better for people.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
Everyone deals differently. His approach is amusing to me because it’s so…flat. Just the facts. In 2020 when the feeling of a physical threat was really intense here (he had been confronted by a complete stranger Trumper at the hardware store) he said to me “what if they come here?” – meaning our house. Sincere question, like I was going to say “we grab the muskets, of course!” I guffawed. It;s just the sort of gallows humor I like.
You laugh to keep from crying.
gvg
@Melancholy Jaques: Babies. O remember when inflation was higher for YEARS. I remember mortgage rates being MUCH higher than we have seen in decades. I remember waiting in gas lines.
Ruckus
@Kay:
Everyone should support family leave because while not everyone has a child, everyone was a child.
I wonder how many of us do not hold all the memories of being a child as being all that great? How many of us remember all the childhood illnesses that we all caught because medicine when I was born in the first half of the last century did not have many actual answers. Or the one’s that the unfortunate got? I’ve known 4 people with polio. Two of them are the my age, one currently lives in the same apt complex as I do. Two of them were school mates mothers and they had iron lungs in their front rooms.
a thousand flouncing lurkers (was fidelio)
@ArchTeryx: That’s so much of it. As LBJ (sorry, Raven—fuck LBJ) told Bill Moyers:
So much of this is more about social status than it is about money, although since here in the US status almost always involves money as well. Look at how many of those involved on the ground on 1/6/23 were middle class white people with a lot of status anxiety.
When we say a lot of our fellow citizens would benefit from some serious therapy, this is one of the issues they desperately need to address: anxieties about status. Man > woman, White > people of color, “Christian” (quotes because it includes self-identified as well as those actively participating in religious activities and organizations) > not-Christian—and so on.
These are old, established patterns here in the US and a lot of people take them for granted as establishing who and what they are in the world. Examining those habits of thought can be difficult, especially if you don’t grasp why it matters to understand it—or if it might lead you to doubt yourself, or feel that others don’t acknowledge your status adequately.
Soprano2
@Jeffro: It’s funny how they are easily able to find students who think Biden’s a) too old, b) didn’t do anything about student loan debt, and 3) promotes genocide in Gaza. Those young ones, they can find easily.
Soprano2
@Baud: Oh yeah I forgot, I read in one article about a college aged women who’s not voting for Biden because he didn’t do enough to protect abortion rights!
Manyakitty
@Geminid: I only noticed because I make the same mistake. 🙂
Soprano2
From what I’ve read they seem to believe that the minute he takes office gas prices will drop to $1.50/gal and all other prices will drop to what they were in 2018, while wages will stay the same. I do think they truly believe this, that if only TFG were president everything would be cheaper and there wouldn’t have been any inflation.
Brachiator
@Soprano2:
You can only do so much with even the best messaging. These are people who are determined to be stupid.
These are the people who probably cannot be reached. Unfortunate.
The MAGA cult are a special kind of crazy, not stupid. Trump is their shaman. He can perform miracles.
Baud
@Brachiator: The problem isn’t that they exist, it’s that they media highlights them.
Soprano2
@schrodingers_cat: And yet, my grandparent’s generation lived through the depression and still managed to prosper OK later. I lived through the ’70’s and ’80’s as a teen and young adult, and in some ways that made what we have now seem not so bad. My first car purchase was a 1-year-old car bought from a regular dealer (not one of those buy here/pay here places) where I had a co-signer on the loan, and my interest rate was 16.25%! I think people got spoiled with almost zero interest rates and very low inflation for a long time, so they started to believe that it normal and the way things always are.
Mr. Bemused Senior
Expect the worst and you’ll never be disappointed.
Citizen Alan
@Kay:
This is why I despise them for claiming to be pro-life. There are literally no policies supported by the GOP that will aid pregnant women, fetuses, newborns, parents of newborns, children at any age from birth to adulthood, or indeed any living person. None. Outside the abortion context, every GOP policy is pro-death. But where abortion is concerned. Eve ate the apple, so all sluts must be punished. That’s all they care about.
dirge
There is. It’s just old, slow, buggy, and excessively reliant on manual processes. Service finally deployed on Monday, and is booting up now.
You did. Coincidentally, also on Monday.
Fake Irishman
@Cheryl from Maryland:
The ACA made that insurance discrimination all illegal. About 30 years too late for you alas, glad planned parenthood was available.
Martin
Suing Apple while Live Nation was just sitting there was a pretty serious self-own. Glad they figured that one out. Now do RealPage.
Gloria DryGarden
@cain: they charged her for getting opened up to do nothing? Medical malpractice?
Horrid!