Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

The Giant Orange Man Baby is having a bad day.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

When tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty. ~Thomas Jefferson

Also, are you sure you want people to rate your comments?

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

The only way through is to slog through the muck one step at at time.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

We still have time to mess this up!

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

Second rate reporter says what?

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

White supremacy is terrorism.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

I’m more christian than these people and i’m an atheist.

Petty moves from a petty man.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

“A king is only a king if we bow down.” – Rev. William Barber

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

Michigan is a great lesson for Dems everywhere: when you have power…use it!

You are here: Home / Politics / Trump Indictments / I Understand It’s a Lovely Day in the Bronx Today

I Understand It’s a Lovely Day in the Bronx Today

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Well, if you’re not Donald Trump, that is.

.

.

Speaking of Jack Smith, if someone asked me which one I would rather meet with, I’m not sure what my answer would be. Meet? Definitely the real Jack Smith. But I’m sure I wold be tongue-tied. To meet and hang out with? Fake Jack Smith, no question.

Raise your hand if you are starting to get the feeling that some of Trump’s supporters are no longer as enamored of him as they used to be.

Totally open thread.

Reader Interactions

183Comments

  3. 3.

    JaySinWA

    I’d hate to be wasting the real Jack Smith’s time.

    Probably true of the Fake Jack Smith as well

    ETA I would hate to speculate on the decline of Real Trump Rally fans lest I OD on Hopium.

  4. 4.

    Almost Retired

    I’ve been watching interviews with some of the Black and Latino Trump supporters from last night’s rally.  They are every bit as mean and ignorant as their white counterparts.  Trump brings awful people of all races together.

  5. 5.

    Annie

    And the New York Post’s headline said thousands attended this rally.  The NY Post is one of Rupert Murdoch’s fishwraps, so I guess they had to treat it like a success.

  7. 7.

    different-church-lady

    I had the misfortune of being in the employment company of a few knuckleheads from Orlando a couple of weeks ago. One of them just would not stop his MAGA babbling to the other while I just stayed away from both of them as much as possible.

    One of the many releases from Mr. MAGA’s discharge pipe was, “Trump got a hundred thousand (at a rally) in New Jersey!” Which, I’m almost certain is a statement utterly detached from reality, but I’m too worn out to do any factuality work.

    Did I mention I hate everything?

  8. 8.

    JoyceH

    Meeting the real Jack Smith would just be frustrating. You’d want him to let his hair down and have a cozy gossipy natter, but of course he would be far too careful and professional and adult for any such thing. Maybe in a couple decades he’ll write a memoir.

  9. 9.

    WaterGirl

    Oops, double-posted tweet 2 instead of adding tweet 3.  Fixed now.

    Also, the video is only 37 seconds long, but the rep for the Bronx was really good.  Totally worth the 37 seconds!

  13. 13.

    lollipopguild

    But…….but….but….Donald Trump was sent to  us by God Himself to be our Emperor/King!

  16. 16.

    Another Scott

    @different-church-lady: Did you see the follow-up on that “100k” number?

    Lisa Fagan, the Wildwood press spokesperson AP originally cited as the source for the original crowd estimate was quoted as saying the eye-popping estimate was “based off her own observations on the scene Saturday, having seen ‘dozens’ of other events in the same space.”

    Five days later, when asked to explain the wide variance between the AP reporting and the NJ.com video that reveals a crowd in the few thousands, Fagan provided a statement from Mayor Troiano at odds with what the wire service initially attributed to Fagan.

    “As a tourist town, we speak in tourism numbers,” Troiano wrote. “When we see that volume of people attending a beach event, we know that 80,000+ people are in our town. We see a quarter of a million visitors every weekend in the summer on our 1.89-mile boardwalk, not to mention our five-mile island, so we know what that volume looks like. They were watching and listening from the beach and boardwalk, in bars and restaurants, at hotels and second homes. People even lined up along the streets parade-style. We defer to the Trump Campaign for the exact count on the beach.”

    It’s the same as TIFG claiming he had the biggest inaugural in history (by claiming everyone who might have seen some of it on TV or online were also there). It’s what they do.

    Grr…,
    Scott.

  18. 18.

    AliceBlue

    @different-church-lady: If he’s talking about the rally in Wildwood  NJ I assume he’s seen the photo of a beach with hundreds of thousands of people.  Trouble is, the photo is of a Rod Stewart concert in Rio de Janeiro from 30 years ago.

  19. 19.

    DFH

    My hope is that the orange stain continues his ramble fests, exposing his freak to  more people who don’t pay attention to this stuff.  Keep rambling.

    And Dems should continue to try to make him mad.  Tease that bully then kick him when he reacts.

  20. 20.

    Prometheus Shrugged

    At least half that tiny crowd in the Bronx was probably supplied by RedFinch….

  21. 21.

    Old School

    Jill and I join the Uvalde community in honoring the lives of those who were tragically stolen from us in a mass shooting at Robb Elementary School 2 years ago today.As we mark this solemn day, may we pray for those we lost, their loved ones, and all those who were wounded. pic.twitter.com/wQYbkvybjE— President Biden (@POTUS) May 24, 2024

  22. 22.

    Ohio Mom

    Just eyeballing, I am going to guess that crowd could squish into one subway train (10 cars long) with space left over. New Yorkers can wedge themselves pretty tightly during rush hour.

    If I’m off, it’s not by very much. Maybe be a handful left on the platform to wait until the next train.

    At any rate, think about how many trains are running during rush hour, that lots of people aren’t taking the subway during rush hour, and that crowd looks more and more pathetic. Or, as an alternative, Google tells me there are over 1.4 million people living in the Bronx.

  23. 23.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    I’ve heard stories that Trump’s entire staff mostly kisses his ass all the time and this weird crowd size claims fit that. They tell the press “OMG, biggest thing ‘ever!” the press is to lazy to fact check it, it’s get published and then some staffer shows Trump, Trump is happy. I wouldn’t surprised at all to read that Trump is utterly convinced he is going to win both New York and California.

  24. 24.

    Steve Gravelle

    “(S)ome of Trump’s supporters are no longer as enamored of him as they used to be..” seems to jibe with my observations lately. The guy on the next block hasn’t flown his Trump flag since last summer, and the few flags/signs I’ve seen on regular drives around the region (eastern Ia/western Wisc) aren’t there anymore, for what it’s worth (probably not much).

  25. 25.

    cmorenc

    Alito question about the J6 plot: I have seen references to how the leading GOP house members and Senators were planning, had Nancy Pelosi not called the house back in session quicker than they had expected she would be able to, to invoke some sort of legal procedure with Alito positioned to make some sort of helpful ruling that would freeze the situation for several days without the electoral college vote having yet taken place.  What exactly was this tactic, and what is the evidence that Alito was actually knowingly in on it (ok, just because he’s Sam Alito, but I mean evidence beyond just that).

  27. 27.

    different-church-lady

    @AliceBlue: Right, that probably explains it.

    Blessedly existing in the northeast, I don’t have the “pleasure” of interacting with MAGA very often, so even though I was aware of such creatures, experiencing one in the flesh was disheartening to say the least.

    Most of the morning I was just thinking, “This country is just fucked beyond return.” But then later two other Floridians were defending immigrant labor, and it was like, “This is like a swing-state come to life before my eyes.”

  29. 29.

    WaterGirl

    @Old School: I hope that not single one of the police who were there that day is still gainfully employed as a police officer.

    One exception, for the police officer whose wife was a teacher, I believe, who was in the classrooms, and they forcibly held him back when he waned to go in and do something.

    The details are a bit fuzzy for me on that, but it was something very close to that.  I assume his wife died, but I don’t know that I ever saw any reporting that tied it all together.

  30. 30.

    hueyplong

    If we’re trying to induce a fatal apoplexy (as is appropriate if self-preservation is, like, a goal or something), we should consider a compilation of shots of Trump slicing golf balls off the fairway and missing putts, with a voice-over saying “Trump claims he won this tournament.”  “Here he is, accepting the award from his own club,” spoken over the shot of him inching down that ramp at West Point.  Wouldn’t matter if no two shots were from the same round of golf.  Let him spend time denying it, if he hasn’t already keeled over in anger.

    He’d look weak saying “but I really AM a good golfer,” sort of like MTG saying that her body isn’t a bad build or Fredo Corleone saying “I’m smart, not dumb, not like they say. I’m smart, and I want respect.” Or was that Trump Jr? I can’t keep those two straight.

  31. 31.

    different-church-lady

    @hueyplong: It’s like if Trump were a character on The Office he’d be too much of a caricature for it to work.

  32. 32.

    rikyrah

    Jon Cooper (@joncoopertweets) posted at 8:00 AM on Fri, May 24, 2024:
    This shows why Trump’s campaign didn’t release any aerial shots of his South Bronx rally. MAGA claims 25,000 people showed up, but this photo — taken while Trump spoke on stage — shows a crowd ONE-TENTH that size.

    The media laps up all his lies — please share to call out the BS! https://t.co/DSRyyuuAEM
    (https://x.com/joncoopertweets/status/1793990578453320054?t=pR8qA_kl38lOfcTqB00pog&s=03)

  34. 34.

    trollhattan

    Operation Graduate Runner Girl launches today, peaking with her walking tomorrow, then descending to moving her out of the apartment (three years of accumulation, pray for us). Then she flies to the other coast for grad school and such. Oy vey.

    A surprisingly chilly 66 degrees and wind predicted for the outdoor ceremony. Better than 90, so there’s that.

  35. 35.

    TBone

    @different-church-lady: come sit by me today.  Even went out and about on the back mountain roads in the countryside on this gorgeous day but…

    Mood persists.

    Prescription: weed, more chocolate, and something naked.  Naked karaoke!  That oughta bring me around…

  38. 38.

    TBone

    @Attempted Chemistry:

    I think I got this at BJ here recently:

    Xit of the Day

    “Trumpism is maybe better understood as a pride movement for bad people than as a political movement.

    Imagine you’re a piece of shit, living with resentment for everyone treating you as such. Then one of you emerges, rises to take the White House. Would you care about policy? Hypocrisy?”

  39. 39.

    Bugboy

    IMHO, the tide began to turn when Dump was endorsed by none other than that mobster.  Same as it ever was, the “jump the shark” moment had to happen,,,again,,,and again,,,and again,,, (lil’ Battlestar Galactica humor for ya’ll) as he keeps on flailing like a squirrel half run over in the middle of the road.

  40. 40.

    Ohio Mom

    @different-church-lady: Yeah, there are a lot of car drivers in NYC, but I’d bet just about everyone at that rally has ridden the subway. It’s a pretty universal experience for everyday New Yorkers.

    But that’s not my point. My point is, that’s a small crowd for a place that’s as populous as NYC.

  41. 41.

    smith

    @cmorenc: That came from a recent interview with Sydney “Kraken” Powell, who said that the plan was to delay certification of the vote for a day or so, then have Alito step in, and say that since Congress couldn’t certify, the determination had to go to the states. There’s no proof that Alito was on board with this from the beginning, but I bet he’d have gotten on board if he’d had the chance.

  42. 42.

    Nukular Biskits

    Hey, y’all!

    Since a totally open thread, thought I’d share this that happened to show up in my Twitter feed.  Seems a constituent (?) of Rep. Tony Gonzales (Republican) took great offense to Gonzales’ latest utterance of “Thoughts & Prayers”™ on the observance of the second anniversary of the horrific violence in Uvalde:

    Keep us out of your fucking mouth. You despicable cowardice piece of shit! You didn’t lose shit. You don’t stand with us.

    In fact you stand against us. Anybody that knows us knows the families hate “Uvalde Strong”
    Uvalde isn’t strong, it’s weak like you. And the only people that say that are fake as hell.

    You stand with the guns. You stand with the punk ass cops who waited 77 minutes.

    Fuck you. And everyone like you that think my sons life is not worth more than your fucking guns!

    And that goes to @GregAbbott_TX , the DA, and everyone else of your ilk. Shut the fuck up and take this down.

    https://x.com/BCross052422/status/1794050096528544122

  44. 44.

    Steeplejack

    @rikyrah:

    One note: MAGAts are saying that photo is misleading because the timestamp in the bottom right corner is 11:09—supposedly hours before Trump spoke at 6:30 p.m. But the timestamp is from ABC7’s newscast at 11:09 that night.

  45. 45.

    smith

    This also is not getting much play in the corporate media:

    Ron Filipkowski @RonFilipkowski Trump proudly shared the stage and accepted the endorsement tonight of two rappers indicted along with 30 other gang members in a 140 count criminal indictment that includes murder and at least a dozen shooting.

  49. 49.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @smith:

    And we have this week’s winner of the Claude Rains Memorial Gambling Awareness Award with the coveted 4-Claude rating!

    Funny how corporate stenographers like Maga Habs never pass along these items.

  50. 50.

    Nukular Biskits

    @Baud:

    My two sons are grown (full disclosure:  We pulled them out of public school and home schooled when they were in the 3rd & 1st grades, respectively … long story for another time).

    Both of my significant others daughters are grown as well.

    But … I have 2 grandbabies in elementary so this is something I think about a lot, given the MS state gov’t is ran by gun-humping ammosexuals.

  51. 51.

    CliosFanBoy

    @Almost Retired:

      a multi-racial coalition of assholes. Unity! Bringing together all the people whose families wish they would just shut up at Thanksgiving dinner!

  52. 52.

    West of the Rockies

    NPR’s last news break was horse shit.  It featured a bit about the Trump rally with an adoring snippet from a retired cop worshipping the fool. That was followed by another but about Trump and RFK (a generic “here’s what they’re doing this holiday weekend) with no counter balance.   This was followed immediately by something about the stock market closing down this week because of fears about inflation.

    So in review, Trump, hooray!  Trump and RFK – cool beans!  The economy:  Oh no!

  53. 53.

    Baud

    @CliosFanBoy: This is what political realignment looks like.

    I for one welcome the GOP becoming more racially diverse. I hope more white voters will start voting blue as well.

  54. 54.

    smith

    @Baud: If I were a POC living in the Bronx, I think I’d be deeply offended by this. It seems to me that the underlying message is that he thinks he can win them over by allying himself with gangsters, because that’s what appeals to Those People.

  56. 56.

    cain

    @different-church-lady:

    Obama’s biggest rally was 80k. So likely not true.

    Obama had the largest crowds that I seen. I’m sure Trump was very jealous at the time. He probably ran for president just watching that.

  57. 57.

    Ishiyama

    I missed the earlier thread about Dwyane Wade. He gets my Hero Parent Award.

  58. 58.

    Baud

    @smith: As a liberal with many years under my belt, I’ve come to learn that people are not deeply offended by things they should deeply offend them.

  64. 64.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @West of the Rockies:

    NPR’s last news break was horse shit.  It featured a bit about the Trump rally with an adoring snippet from a retired cop worshipping the fool. That was followed by another but about Trump and RFK (a generic “here’s what they’re doing this holiday weekend) with no counter balance.   This was followed immediately by something about the stock market closing down this week because of fears about inflation.

    So in review, Trump, hooray!  Trump and RFK – cool beans!  The economy:  Oh no!

    Another day ending in “y” and another day of NPR’s news coverage again showing why people like me stopped giving them money 20+ years ago and stopped listening going on at least a dozen years now.

    Totebagger Radio will never change.

    To paraphrase a quote, “Fuck NPR.”

  68. 68.

    ...now I try to be amused

    @Annie:

    And the New York Post’s headline said thousands attended this rally.  The NY Post is one of Rupert Murdoch’s fishwraps, so I guess they had to treat it like a success.

    Every once in a while a Murdoch organ surprises me with an item critical of Trump. Perhaps Murdoch is a lagging indicator of right-wing opinion?

  69. 69.

    WaterGirl

    @smith:

    If am not a POC, and I am not living in the Bronx, and I’m deeply offended by this.

    It’s like back in 2007 when was in all the way, working to get Obama the Democratic nomination, and my conservative sister said she heard that the black people were going to rise up and be very unhappy if the delegates were going to give the nomination to Hillary even though Obama had earned more delegates.

    I told her that it wasn’t only going to be black people who would be upset about that, and this white girl was surely gonna rise up if the delegates did that.

  74. 74.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Almost Retired:

    I’ve been watching interviews with some of the Black and Latino Trump supporters from last night’s rally. They are every bit as mean and ignorant as their white counterparts. Trump brings awful people of all races together. 

    I believe it.

  75. 75.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Annie:

    The NY Post is one of Rupert Murdoch’s fishwraps 

    I wouldn’t want fish that was wrapped in that shit. :)

    I would gladly use it as litterbox area liner or firestarter.

  81. 81.

    Martin

    @different-church-lady:

    Fascism attempts to organize the newly proletarianized masses without affecting the property structure which the masses strive to eliminate. Fascism sees its salvation in giving these masses not their right, but instead a chance to express themselves

  82. 82.

    Kay

    One audience member accused Meijer of taking a bribe in exchange for his impeachment vote.
    Another challenged him to name five “political prisoners from Jan. 6” who were “sitting in prison and falsely accused.” I watched Meijer struggle to complete a sentence before being cut off.
    A third person pointed a finger at him as he questioned whether Meijer was actually in the Capitol complex on Jan. 6, 2021, as he’d claimed.
    “I have a photo I took in the House,” Meijer said, trying to defend himself without sounding defensive. Mostly, he listened wide-eyed, sipping coffee from a Styrofoam cup

    lol.
    Meijer, remember, is part of a wealthy Michigan Dutch family. He’s kind of buttoned up and…not crazy. He’s horrified.

  83. 83.

    strange visitor (from another planet)

    @cain: no. 2016 wasn’t the snooze criminal’s first attempt at the presidency. he ran on the reform party ticket in 2000. he withdrew, blaming his cowardice on the presence of pat buchanan  and david duke in the organization, which he alleged, “sullied” the party.

    FFS.

    funny shit. remembering things sucks.

  84. 84.

    WaterGirl

    @Kay: That article doesn’t show the year, but I went to the ProPublica front page and searched for it.  Published just 2 days ago.  thanks

  85. 85.

    Nukular Biskits

    Apropos of my earlier post about the Uvalde constituent’s absolute b-slap of Rep. Gonzales and an unrelated news item about LA legislature classifying “abortion drugs” as “dangerous”:

    This morning while cutting the grass and chillin’* to the sounds of a Liquid D&B mix, the thought popped into my mind that the folks pushing for any and all kinds of abortion restrictions because it will “save lives” are generally the same folks who absolutely oppose any gun control legislation what would demonstrably save lives.

    * Chillin’ as much as one can when the heat index is around 96 degrees F.

  87. 87.

    Geminid

    @Nukular Biskits: Rep. Tony Gonzalez has a primary runoff this Tuesday. He’s up against “YouTube Influencer” Brandon Herrera, who’s been endorsed by Matt Gaetz and Freedom Caucus Chairman Bob Good.

  88. 88.

    The Thin Black Duke

    @WaterGirl: The GOP has always been addicted to bigotry. However, Trumpism provided them with shit that was 100% pure. Uncut. They’re used to saying the “quiet parts” dialed up to ’11’ now, and the GOP won’t stop until they OD.

    Or until America does.

  91. 91.

    strange visitor (from another planet)

    @WaterGirl:  it’s not mass hysteria. there’s nothing hysterical about it. they live in an epistemological bubble. the plot was outlined about fifty years ago (thanks again, lewis powell), and our oligarchs have been full-speed ahead on the plan ever since.

    though the conditioning began earlier with talk radio, the mindless MAGA crowd has been trained to be fascists for about 28 years since the dawn of faux news through open indoctrination by a deluge of right wing media all basically saying that no matter what the right does, no matter how many crimes republicans commit, it’s OK bc democrats are baby-killing, blood-drinking, (((globalist))) monsters (or the puppets OF the baby-killing, blood-drinking, (((globalist))) monsters, which would be us red-sea pedestrians) – freeing them from ever having to compromise or even humanize the opposition, which would be the democratic party or anyone who doesn’t look or act just like they do.

    and they’re masters at twisting the paradigm at their whim, within moments. all brazen lying all the time, but with a purpose. amidst all the hullabaloo about the “assassination attempt” and the crowd size and the gangsters-by-proxy,

    ….notice no one is talking about the new tranche of top-secret documents found in pervert hoover’s bedroom (quite a bit) after the fbi raid, making dingus con’s obstruction of justice as irrefutable and clear as the sun in a cloudless sky.

  92. 92.

    Harrison Wesley

    Squeezing into the open-thread opening, I’d like to toss out an endorsement for community supported agriculture.  I used to belong to a CSA in Philly, and just joined one down here.  Got my first pickup yesterday, and it was great.  Nice variety, all locally grown organic, and very reasonable price (I’ll get 2 pickups a month for $50, although I’m tempted to become a swinish vegetarian and go to 4 pickups for $100).  I sat down when I got home and ate the 3 bananas enclosed – and I don’t like bananas.

    Anyway, enough CSA pimping.  If you’re interested in CSA, farmers markets, and other local foodie stuff, you can find a lot of things in your area at localharvest.org.  And if you know local farmers who would like to expand their outreach, let them know about that website.

    And now back to politics, which only relates to agriculture in that it’s a rich source of fertilizer.

  97. 97.

    trollhattan

    @smith: Do have any idea how hard it is to recruit hot female nurses in lieu of a few mags and vids? Raises IVF costs significantly.

  99. 99.

    Baud

    @eclare: lol don’t change on my account. I just always forget you do it that way and it takes me a minute to process the absence of a quote.

  101. 101.

    Brachiator

    @West of the Rockies:

    @comrade scotts agenda of rage:

    This was followed immediately by something about the stock market closing down this week because of fears about inflation.

    The most recent Yahoo Finance summary of the day is a mixture of great news, with cautions.

    US stocks jolted higher Friday as Wall Street looked to bounce back from the Dow’s biggest wipeout in over a year.

    The S&P 500 (^GSPC) rose 0.7%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) gained roughly 1%. The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) put on around 0.2%, or just under 100 points.

    I know that some jackals don’t get it, but inflation fears is not something just made up by NPR.

    Highlighting the macroeconomic front Friday is a revised look at the University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index for May. An earlier reading showed the index plunged this month, as inflation and interest rate concerns bit into Americans’ views of the economy.

    The Consumer Sentiment Survey is watched by the Federal Reserve Banks, and may inform Treasury decisions on interest rates. Note that this is not the same as actual measures of inflation, but it is also not a dig at Democrats. 

    The NPR headline news may have garbled all this, but the more business focused shows like Marketplace are much better and more nuanced.

  102. 102.

    karen marie

    @comrade scotts agenda of rage: I watched a bit of something posted to youtube yesterday by MSNBC – commentary about Trump – and was shocked to see Katie Tur sitting right there, being asked her opinion.  Of course, Andrea Mitchell didn’t mention that Tur made herself a conduit for Trump’s disinformation before inviting Tur’s comment.

  103. 103.

    Baud

    @Brachiator:

    but inflation fears is not something just made up by NPR.

    The Consumer Sentiment Survey is watched by the Federal Reserve Banks…Note that this is not the same as actual measures of inflation,

    So…some of us are worried that the media coverage affecting, and not just reflecting, consumer sentiment.

    That’s not the same as saying inflation doesn’t exist.

  105. 105.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Nukular Biskits:

    This morning while cutting the grass and chillin’* to the sounds of a Liquid D&B mix, the thought popped into my mind that the folks pushing for any and all kinds of abortion restrictions because it will “save lives” are generally the same folks who absolutely oppose any gun control legislation what would demonstrably save lives.

    The way I’ve come to think of it is:

    There are eight billion people in the world. When “pro-lifers” are as pro-life as the average agnostic liberal with respect to the lives of those eight billion people, only then would there be a chance that I might take seriously their devotion to the lives of embryos and fetuses.

    I don’t expect to have to take them seriously during the rest of my lifetime.

  108. 108.

    John Revolta

    @Brachiator: Current inflation rates are about 3.4 percent, which is a tad below average for the last 60 years. Consumers are anxious about inflation from two or three years ago, which we’re not going to go back and undo, because it don’t work like that. Meanwhile the stock market is at record highs, and this week’s downturn most likely represents profit taking.

    NPR and other media outlets could be explaining this to people, but don’t hold your breath.

  110. 110.

    smith

    Senators Durbin and Whitehouse have sent a letter to Chief Justice Roberts demanding that Alito recuse himself from any cases releated to J6:

    we urge you to immediately take appropriate steps to ensure that Justice Alito will recuse himself in any cases related to the 2020 presidential election and January 6th attack on the Capitol, including the question of former President Trump’s immunity from prosecution for his role in the events of January 6th in Trump v. United States. We also renew our call for the Supreme Court to adopt an enforceable code of conduct for justices. And we request a meeting with you as soon as possible, in your capacity as Chief Justice and as presiding officer of the Judicial Conference of the United States, to discuss additional steps to address the Supreme Court’s ethics crisis.

    Roberts is known to care very much about the legacy of his court. It’s increasingly obvious that that legacy will include the word “corrupt” in every mention of it. Let’s see if he’s willing to do anything about it.

  111. 111.

    Juju

    I really don’t think people should be as concerned with the crowd size as much as they should be with what Trump said. I listened to a bit of the speech Trump gave and so much of it was dementia related babble. I know what that sounds like, my mother has advanced dementia. Sometimes when she talks it sounds almost like it’s connected and makes sense, but it’s not really related to a normal thought process. When you add Trump’s behavior during his trial, the way his minions kept him distracted by giving him nonsense about himself to read so he wouldn’t misbehave during the trial, which is similar to the way his family kept Fred Trump distracted from interfering with the family business as he was sinking into dementia. In addition to those things is the fact that Trump was cold when he was in the courtroom while it was actually comfortable according to other people who were also in the courtroom. People with mid to advanced dementia often feel cold due to dementia related damage to their hypothalamus.  He doesn’t have advanced dementia like my mother does, but it seems he is heading in that direction.

  112. 112.

    Brachiator

    @Baud:

    So…some of us are worried that the media coverage affecting, and not just reflecting, consumer sentiment.

    Some worries are overblown. Sometimes people don’t pay attention to what is actually being covered.

    And I don’t know. Some people may be affected by deliberately misleading economic news coverage on Fox News and other right wing outlets, but I don’t know how you can easily remedy this.

  113. 113.

    Juju

    @smith: Well I am shocked to hear about the pornography part. I thought that men were supposed to think of baseball.

  114. 114.

    lowtechcyclist

    @smith: ​

    Let’s see if he’s willing to do anything about it.

    Roberts knows there’s no way he can put a sheen of respectability on his five more extreme colleagues, so I expect he’s just said the hell with it and not giving a damn anymore.

    Not that his goals diverge that much from theirs, but he wanted it to have a more respectable look to it, y’know, and that’s what he’s given up on.

  115. 115.

    scav

    @smith: At this point, Robert’s legacy is essentially sunk, cast in bronze, engraved in marble, already typeset in his obituary and then sunk again for safekeeping.  He might just decide to let his inner freak flag fly and enjoy the log ride down.

  116. 116.

    Brachiator

    @smith:

    Did you know that IVF is pornographic? The self-appointed stewards of the nation’s morality are shocked to learn that, not only do prospective fathers have to practice self-abuse to produce one of the necessary ingredients, they often use pornography as a stimulant!

    A local talk radio host who is also an attorney ran an IVF operation, and used to joke about this all the time.

  117. 117.

    Princess

    So, my sister has actually met the real Jack Smith in a professional context. She says he’s scary smart and you wouldn’t want to be on his bad side.

  118. 118.

    gvg

    @Baud: It has been so long since we had serious inflation that people don’t remember how it works. they also never really understood it. I think it’s been a generation since we had much. What they don’t understand is mostly that it’s because we have had a weak economy for quite awhile now and that there is no economic state where there isn’t a downside too. None, never etc.

    We always have to balance things.

  119. 119.

    Baud

    @Brachiator:

    Not just misleading but truthful information repeatedly incessantly or presented hysterically.

    No real fix. The media can do what it wants. All we can do is call it out.

  120. 120.

    Baud

    @gvg:

    I agree. We could have avoided a lot of inflation by sinking into a deep recession with high unemployment.  Obviously, the complaints would have been different in that situation.

  122. 122.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Nicolle Wallace is taking a long holiday weekend off, I guess, and Katy Tur is subbing for her. Tur just interviewed Hakeem Jeffries (who gets better and better, BTW) and kept referring to him as the “Democrat leader” or “Democrat House leader,” and I just wanted to plunge my arm through the TV monitor and slap the everloving blue-eyed shit out of her.

  128. 128.

    Ken

    @smith: They should use electric prods applied to the prostate, as when bull semen is harvested for IVF. I’m sure the FRC would be OK with that — they’d probably queue up to donate.

  130. 130.

    Brachiator

    @John Revolta:

    Current inflation rates are about 3.4 percent, which is a tad below average for the last 60 years. Consumers are anxious about inflation from two or three years ago, which we’re not going to go back and undo, because it don’t work like that.

    The New York Fed does one of the consumer sentiment surveys and tries to consider short term, mid term and long term expectations about the economy.

    The SCE is a nationally representative, Internet-based survey of a rotating panel of approximately 1,300 household heads. Respondents participate in the panel for up to twelve months, with a roughly equal number rotating in and out of the panel each month. Unlike comparable surveys based on repeated cross-sections with a different set of respondents in each wave, our panel enables us to observe the changes in expectations and behavior of the same individuals over time.

    Also, the economy is what happens to people locally, not just the stock market or GDP. Here in California, people feel hammered by high food, rent and gas prices. Now, this is not mainly the fault of the president, nor is he magically able to fix the problem. But most people are ignorant about the economy, and some will blame him anyway.

    NPR and other media outlets could be explaining this to people, but don’t hold your breath.

    Again, NPR business programs like Marketplace, The Indicator and Make Me Smart typically get the story right.

    One thing that does piss me off is how some online news sources do little more than publish a poorly edited press release of an official government report and claim that their reporter wrote the story, but then deliberately fail to provide a link to the federal or state office that issued the complete report. 

  132. 132.

    Geminid

    @Baud: No. I just ran into this meme last year, on the “Daily Roman Updates” Twitter site. They’ve got T-shirts about it.

  133. 133.

    smith

    @Brachiator: But most people are ignorant about the economy, and some will blame him anyway.

    It’s not just ignorance of the economy, it’s also ignorance about the presidency. A lot of people seem to have a childlke belief that a president can make almost anything happen that he wants to. So if housing prices are high, it’s because he doesn’t want to give them any relief, or, in a recent shocking example, some people blame Biden for the demise of Roe v Wade, apparently because he was president when it was struck down. If he wanted to, he could have fixed it!

    This may also be the reason a lot of people seem unconcerned about the Defendant’s once and future power grabs. They already believe that a president has king-like powers, so what the GQP is planning seems more to them like business as usual.

  134. 134.

    Citizen Alan

    @lowtechcyclist: No one on the Right is pro life. Not even in regard to fetuses, or else they’d do something about the abysmal miscarriage and infant mortality rates in red states.

    All the “pro life” freaks really care about is this: Eve ate the apple. And then, God got pissed off and invented pregnancy specifically as a way to torture women. I fully expect the Talibangelicals to start pushing  seriously for a ban on epidurals because the Bible says women shall bring forth children in pain.

  135. 135.

    Another Scott

    I heard a bit of an NPR news report this afternoon. I don’t remember the details, but what struck me is that some sentiment survey said that people were concerned about the “cost of living”. And that’s probably a better term for what’s driving concern about the economy rather than “inflation”. Yeah, if one were sleeping for 5 years and woke up and went to the MegaLo Mart and saw the prices, one would be shocked by many of the differences. Step changes in prices are jarring, even if they haven’t actually changed all that much above historic norms in the last year or so. Some of that jarring would be compensated by larger paychecks, of course. ;-)

    So, it might be better to think that reporters are using the wrong terms, and looking at the wrong numbers, when talking about how people view the economy.

    Things are resetting. Even housing is starting to get closer to normal (months of supply, price changes, etc.), but we’re not there yet.

    tl;dr – Don’t argue about the inflation numbers, argue that there was a huge disruption caused by the pandemic and wages are up and employment is up, spending on vacations and travel is up, etc., etc., and it will take time to adjust to the new normal. Don’t let the monsters control the narrative.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  136. 136.

    Citizen Alan

    @smith: The winning side writes the history books. I’m sure the ruling junta will remember Roberts very fondly  if he presides over the total destruction of American democracy.

  137. 137.

    Sure Lurkalot

    @Baud:

    Nothing says liberal cable news channel than having Andrea Mitchell and Katie Tur punditing together in the same segment.

    Just warming us up for Michael Steele and Charlie Sykes.

  138. 138.

    WaterGirl

    @strange visitor (from another planet):

    ….notice no one is talking about the new tranche of top-secret documents found in pervert hoover’s bedroom (quite a bit) after the fbi raid, making dingus con’s obstruction of justice as irrefutable and clear as the sun in a cloudless sky.

    I have been super busy lately, did I miss something?

  139. 139.

    WaterGirl

    @eclare: @Baud:  But that is a good idea!  Saves people from either chasing the comment back up thread or just shrugging and deciding it’s not worth the trouble. :-)

    That said, don’t do it just on my account, either.

  140. 140.

    WaterGirl

    @Baud:

    That’s not the same as saying inflation doesn’t exist.

    I love how (especially) the attorneys stand their ground when they think they’re right and defend a statement that has been challenged.  I need to get better at that, and you are all my role models.

  142. 142.

    Old School

    @WaterGirl:

    I have been super busy lately, did I miss something?

    Seems likely.

    Months before Donald Trump was indicted for mishandling classified documents, a federal judge said that investigators had “strong evidence” that the former president “intended” to hide classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort, according to newly released court documents.

    Judge Beryl Howell cited, among other things, the discovery of additional classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago months after the FBI’s search of the property in the summer of 2022. The records included a “mostly empty” folder marked as “Classified Evening Summary” that was found in the former president’s bedroom, as well as four other documents with classification markings found in his post-presidential office at the resort.

    “Notably, no excuse is provided as to how the former president could miss the classified-marked documents found in his own bedroom at Mar-a-Lago,” Howell wrote in March 2023.

    The ruling was among hundreds of pages of previously sealed filings that were publicly docketed Tuesday in the criminal classified documents case against Trump. Included as well were new images of Walt Nauta, Trump’s personal aide, moving boxes around Mar-a-Lago room before the a Trump attorney was to review the boxes for classified materials sought by a subpoena.

  143. 143.

    Juju

    @Baud:

    Nothing says liberal cable news channel than having Andrea Mitchell and Katie Tur punditing together in the same segment.

     

    Those two women together must be a  gray matter black hole.

  144. 144.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Citizen Alan: ​

    No one on the Right is pro life.

    Hence the scare quotes, i.e. “pro-life” as distinct from pro-life.​

    ETA: And like I said, I don’t take seriously their concern for the lives of embryos and fetuses.

  146. 146.

    zhena gogolia

    I feel as if I’m going to have to be put into a medically induced coma until well after the election. Between the media headlines and everything else, I just can’t take it.

  147. 147.

    Brachiator

    @Another Scott:

    Yeah, if one were sleeping for 5 years and woke up and went to the MegaLo Mart and saw the prices, one would be shocked by many of the differences. Step changes in prices are jarring, even if they haven’t actually changed all that much above historic norms in the last year or so.

    Prices have risen significantly for many people. Robert Reich documents this very well on Twitter and YouTube and a few other places. Of course he puts his own spin on it, but he gets the facts right.

    Walmart hiked prices on its “Great Value” food brands.

    The company net income has spiked by 93% to $10.5+ billion in 9 months.

    Walmart rewarded shareholders with $5.9 billion in buybacks and dividends. Corporations are still using inflation as cover to price gouge you.

    Another example…

    The price of Tyson chicken went up 20% in 2021, which helped the company double its profits.

    But over the past three years, Tyson has had to pay ~$220 million over price-fixing allegations.

    When I say price gouging is driving inflation, this is what I mean.

    And one more…

    The price of Huggies diapers went up 6% between April- June.

    Inflation, right?

    Wrong.

    Kimberly-Clark, the maker of Huggies, reported that the cost to make its products *fell” by $75 million.

    They took the money and ran, banking $168 million in operating profits in Q3 2023.

    These are not price rises compared to 5 years ago.

    Again, with some prices, I know mainly about California. Rents have increased. And some people whose incomes still have not recovered from the pandemic are facing eviction.

    Wages are higher, but not enough to offset rising prices.

    On a national level and in many states and cities, things are doing well.

    By any reasonable measure, the economy is solid. But there are also significant areas where recovery is weak.

    I think that the Democrats can do better than the Republicans in addressing these problems and I look forward to seeing the Biden Harris Team put forward their proposals in this area.

  148. 148.

    zhena gogolia

    Above all, like sc, I’m just so BORED BY TRUMP. Why doesn’t he go away? Why isn’t there an act of God that will save us?

    ETA: Of course, I know many perfectly nice people who’ve been saying the same about Putin for the last 20 years at least.

  150. 150.

    Another Scott

    @eclare:

    MuellerSheWrote says that it’s not really news:

    Mueller, She Wrote
    @MuellerSheWrote
    May 21

    Guys. There are no new documents found at Mar a Lago that we didn’t already know about before today’s unsealed filing. Cannon has delayed this case for so long, folks just forgot we learned about it over a year ago.

    theguardian.com/us-news/2023…

    Trump was issued subpoena for folder marked ‘Classified Evening Briefing’ discovered at Mar-a-Lago

    Exclusive: Subpoena was issued last month after the folder was observed in Trump’s private quarters at the property

    theguardian.com
    May 21, 2024 · 10:22 PM UTC

    This stuff has dragged out so long that it’s hard to keep up (and too much of the press has the memory of a fruit fly).

    But it was good seeing Judge Howell not pull his punches.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  152. 152.

    smith

    @Baud: Me, too — bored to tears.

    This is a good opportunity to say something I’ve been thinking about recently: I really appreciate that the front pagers here rarely post pictures of that ugly orange mug. Other blogs and news sources I frequent push it in their readers’ faces incessantly. It’s an ongoing stressor, one that often seems inescapable if you want to find out what’s going on in the world. It’s such a relief to come here and not be confronted with that recurring nightmare.

  153. 153.

    Baud

    @Brachiator:

    People should use whatever persuasion techniques they think will work. All I can say is that I don’t respect anyone who uses Biden’s economic performance as an excuse to hand the country over to Trump.

    If we were in a Second Great Recession, or if inflation were in double digits, maybe. But not this economy.

  154. 154.

    JPL

    @zhena gogolia: Since my state is purple/red, I’m just so happy to see him running ads that portray the real trump.   I didn’t say negative intentionally, because they aren’t   IMO

  158. 158.

    Geminid

    @zhena gogolia: That could be a determinative question this November. Trump has been a constant presence here the last 3 1/2 years, but not so for most Americans. They are now being re-introduced to the Orange Churl and he’s honking in their faces again. Will they want four more years of his strife and chaos? I think most won’t.

  160. 160.

    zhena gogolia

    @Geminid: I hope you’re right. I’ve often mentioned here that one of my normie friends, who is highly intelligent if not highly educated, has a couple of times said, “I just hope Trump won’t run this time.”

  161. 161.

    zhena gogolia

    @Baud: I never see it. My TV watching is limited to Hacks and Miss Marple. And anything starring Colin Firth.

  164. 164.

    zhena gogolia

    OMG, episode 8 of season 3 of Hacks is so funny. (It seems to think that universities award honorary doctorates separately from the commencement ceremony, though.) Jean Smart’s way with a line is so brilliant. Unfortunately when I try to repeat them, they don’t seem as funny — it’s all in her delivery. “I can’t be woke — I’m exhausted!”

  165. 165.

    BretH

    What I’m interested in knowing is how much of inflation in the last year is due simply to companies raising prices just because they could make more profit.

  166. 166.

    Another Scott

    @Brachiator: I don’t think Huggies prices are in the CPI, but I haven’t checked recently. (Google says they aren’t.)

    ;-)

    Yes, the prices of many things are going up faster than inflation.  My, probably poorly expressed point, was that there was a step change in many, many prices from before the pandemic to now.  Even though the CPI and GDP Deflator and all the rest is around 3-4%, that doesn’t help people who want prices to be the way they were before the pandemic.

    Biden’s team is working on it, of course. E.g. JoJoFromJerz and WhiteHouse.gov

    Thanks.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  168. 168.

    Brachiator

    @Baud:

    People should use whatever persuasion techniques they think will work. All I can say is that I don’t respect anyone who uses Biden’s economic performance as an excuse to hand the country over to Trump.

    It’s election season. I think we agree about using whatever works to get the vote out. I’m not concerned with matters of respect.

    If we were in a Second Great Recession, or if inflation were in double digits, maybe. But not this economy.

    People are concerned about high prices. There is no point in confusing this with inflation.

    This is also an issue in the UK, where Prime Minister Sunak has called for a July 4  general election. He is trying to claim credit for a low inflation rate of 2.3 percent. Voters aren’t buying it. The Conservative government fuck-up with BREXIT has led to persistently high prices in key areas.

  169. 169.

    Baud

    @Brachiator:

    My understanding is that UK’s economic problems are not about inflation.

    Whether you call it high prices or inflation, I don’t respect it as a political motivator for voting for Trump when the economy is generally strong.

  170. 170.

    VFX Lurker

    @smith:This is a good opportunity to say something I’ve been thinking about recently: I really appreciate that the front pagers here rarely post pictures of that ugly orange mug. Other blogs and news sources I frequent push it in their readers’ faces incessantly. It’s an ongoing stressor, one that often seems inescapable if you want to find out what’s going on in the world. It’s such a relief to come here and not be confronted with that recurring nightmare.

    Years ago, I installed a browser extension called “Make America Kittens Again.” It replaces all photos of TFG with cute kitten pix. Maybe you can find something similar.

  172. 172.

    emjayay

    @comrade scotts agenda of rage: NPR runs a lot of amazing programs like Reveal (investigative journalism), Fresh Air, On the Media, On Point and New Sounds. Everything is podcast or online although your local station may or may not run a specific show, particularly with small stations that might run a lot of cheaper classical music instead.

    Brian Lehrer does a two hour interview show of particular interest to NYC but it’s online and people from everywhere do listen to it.

    The their hourly news recaps and general news shows like All Things Considered are indeed often bothsiderist or worse.

  173. 173.

    emjayay

    @Brachiator: I’m sure the UK Post Office scandal which went on for years and somehow didn’t get major attention until a book came out and then more importantly four hours worth of docudrama based on it (on PBS here), also leading to more Parliament level investigation which has been all over the news there (and can be found on YT) is not exactly helping the Tories either.

    Other than lacking in sex scandals the Post Office story has just about everything else. Government and corporate tech contractor ruining lives of hardworking small businesspeople (bankruptcies, a couple suicides) in small towns, repeated lying at the top from the woman in charge who is also a Church of England minister, very smart and articulate subpostmaster who spearheaded the organizing of the opposition, etc. And top British actors in the docudrama.

  174. 174.

    emjayay

    @Brachiator: A daily half hour business show sounds boring but Marketplace on NPR isn’t at all. Mostly good stuff and a “Let’s do the numbers” half a minute. But then I remember the old fat guy intoning today’s Dow Jones etc. daily on PBS and wonder what they are thinking over there.

  176. 176.

    Brachiator

    @emjayay:

    I’m sure the UK Post Office scandal which went on for years and somehow didn’t get major attention until a book came out and then more importantly four hours worth of docudrama based on it (on PBS here), also leading to more Parliament level investigation which has been all over the news there (and can be found on YT) is not exactly helping the Tories either.

    This story enrages me. I haven’t seen the documentary and need to read more about it, but I have seen testimony of people admitting that they knew of computer problems, which initially they lied about, which led to prosecutions. But I don’t understand how so many people could have been prosecuted on the basis of such flimsy evidence. I don’t understand how the defense attorneys could have done such shitty jobs in helping their clients.

    Anyway, the bottom line is that I want the Conservative Party government to be obliterated in the general election.

  177. 177.

    Eyeroller

    @Baud: The headlines on my Echo Shows are also all Trump most of the time.  Latest was “thousands line up to see Trump in the Bronx.”

  178. 178.

    moops

    @Kay:

    lol.
    Meijer, remember, is part of a wealthy Michigan Dutch family. He’s kind of buttoned up and…not crazy. He’s horrified.

     

    So Not Crazy that he will vote for Trump, even after voting to impeach him for trying to murder Congress and overturn an election.    Even knowing how awful Trump is…he will fall in line and vote GOP.

  179. 179.

    frosty

    @smith: ​Wonkette is back to using pictures of cats on TFG-related posts. I approve … even though I’m a dog person.​

  180. 180.

    frosty

    @zhena gogolia:In 1973 when Nixon was winning on Watergate, I got my LA Times, read the comics, and tossed the rest of the paper. A year later when the situation reversed I read the whole thing it front to back. Still started with the comics, though LOL.

  181. 181.

    evodevo

    @Citizen Alan: Welp, back in the 1800’s that was the attitude of most of the medical profession for a LONG time – due to that ever popular Xtian myth that Eve was supposed to suffer during labor in return for her “sin” of eating the apple…

    Nowadays anesthesia hesitancy has more to do with medical concerns than religion.

  182. 182.

    evodevo

    @emjayay: ​
      Just finished watching it here on Sundays on KET. I was quite interested, given that I was a postal worker here for 25 years. Good story, and totally believable…

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