This cat is all of us, trying to get to the end of fucking January.
— Paul Bronks (@slendersherbet.bsky.social) January 25, 2025 at 12:41 PM
(At least SlenderSherbet is on BlueSky!… )
Looked at the comments of a local news station’s post about egg prices and everyone was roasting Trump, including blaming deportations. A good reminder that people being ambient mad about everything really does cut both ways.
— Cooper Lund (@cooperlund.online) January 23, 2025 at 11:50 PM
— GOLIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachine.com) January 25, 2025 at 7:11 PM
The price of a dozen eggs is out of control. What’s being done to bring down costs for hardworking American families?
— Tony Moonbeam II (@moonbeamii.bsky.social) January 26, 2025 at 3:19 PM
tariffs on colombian coffee, egg supply dwindling, orange farmers walking off the job…
Donald Trump is waging a War on Breakfast pic.twitter.com/3ll8rHgHNR
— Cameron (@CameronCorduroy) January 26, 2025
Does anyone know where I can find some $3 – $4 Harris eggs? pic.twitter.com/gwt2vbupoL
— scha·den·freu·de (@BlisterPearl) January 26, 2025
The Year of the Snake starts on Wednesday, which means the celebrations & banquets start tomorrow night. Snakes have a better reputation in Asia than over here, I’m told, but it has been a while since the Oval Office Occupant recited his rally favorite “You Knew What I Was When You Took Me In”, for some reason…
TBone
I gotta take the wins where I can find ’em today. Meet Eloise Brown!
https://www.becauseofthemwecan.com/blogs/the-feels/meet-102-year-old-eloise-brown-the-philadelphia-eagles-biggest-and-longtime-fan
P.S. I am a wood Snake in Chinese zodiac so this is my year. Hahaha I crack myself up.
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone 😊 😊 😊
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
Baud
Market is going to take a bath today too.
Barbara
Some snakes eat the vermin that feast on grain and rice.
I’m sure their main reaction to rising egg prices is annoyance at not driving the narrative in their preferred direction.
Regarding proposed tax legislation maybe one response is: I think Elon Musk can still afford eggs.
Baud
Trumpsters and the media (but I repeat myself) are celebrating this as a win for Trump, but I think the fact that Colombia believed that could overtly fight Trump in the first place indicates that the world sees him as weak.
Also too, lots of Americans learning today how to spell Colombia when referring to the country.
Spanky
@Baud: Well geez, the market seemed so eager to get trump in:
Baud
@Spanky:
The “market” wanted tax cuts for rich people and labor shut down. A large portion of labor (you know who) were on board with that plan. It’ll probably be Trump’s only achievements.
satby
I made flan early last week and Elizabelle said I was just showing off because I had eggs (yes, she was joking). Still do, got 2 dozen for 99¢ each on FlashFood. But don’t f*ck with my coffee!
Rose Judson
@Baud: Mmmmhmmmmm. Nvidia, the AI hyperscaler’s chipmaker of choice, is down 13%+ so far. This isn’t great for me – it likely means the dollar (the currency I earn in) will drop against the pound (the currency I pay bills in), but the sooner the AI hype train runs out of rail, the better.
As to snakes, I’ll not hear a word said against them. The Child’s corn snake is a beloved member of the family, even if he’s lazier than the cat.
TBone
Making fear-based decisions never ends well for me, so I refuse to do it. My crystal ball is made of intuition and dreams and is therefore as useless as everyone else’s. Go long is my motto.
Jeffg166
@TBone:
I told someone yesterday I would know if the Eagles won if I heard car horns tooting. I heard car horns tooting.
Baud
Via blue sky
The headline doesn’t do it justice.
satby
@Baud: Well, we wanted them to get what they voted for good and hard. Way past time for them to learn “elections have consequences” cuts both ways.
TBone
@Jeffg166: the entire City turned out into the streets last night from the pics I saw. Gonna be a lot of absentee time off taken today! Poles were climbed!
Baud
@satby:
I’m there. But I fear a lot of our fellow libs are losing their nerve.
Baud
@Rose Judson:
The higher Trump deficits should help increase demand for the dollar via a vis the pound.
Jeffg166
@satby:
I grew up drinking milky hot tea at breakfast and dinner. I bought a box of 100 Red Rose teabags a month ago and have started to drink more tea again. When the coffee supply I have on hand runs out I may make tea my morning beverage again.
TBone
@Jeffg166: I started morning tea drinking today and am surprised that I don’t miss my coffee on Day 1. Hubby, however, will die clutching a cup of java.
Jeffg166
@TBone:
A lot of those people are suburbanites who flood the city when a team here wins. I wish they would stay in their own neighborhoods.
Get off my lawn!
TBone
@Jeffg166: lol snort!
Jeffg166
@TBone:
Tea has enough caffeine in it to do the job.
satby
@Jeffg166: I switch to tea in the afternoon, and since I’ve been helping at my friend’s British Treat House booth I’ve become a devoted Yorkshire and Yorkshire Gold tea drinker. I laid in supplies before Christmas that should last me till May 😉
TBone
@Jeffg166: just freakin’ barely! I’m going back to bed soon, after staying up past midnight for tube feeding – tea allows me to wiggle my toes under the soft bedding and drift back to la la land. With coffee, I can’t fall back asleep until mid-afternoon. Praise Jeebus I am so gratefully retired!
Chief Oshkosh
@Baud: I think a jackal explained yesterday that Colombia accepts these flights all the time, like over 100 (per year?), but never on military planes and never when they aren’t prearranged.
So, basically, Trump fucked up because he’s a clown. We blew several egg-equivalents on flying a handful of immigrants down to Colombia and back on what amounts to the most expensive airliners ever all because, to repeat myself, Trump is a clown.
TBone
Another PA win! Per the Inky:
different-church-lady
@Spanky: “Oh he’s just talking like he wants total chaos and instability…”
different-church-lady
@TBone: Theres’s another term for “a gesture that looks like a Nazi salute.” It’s “a Nazi salute.”
J.
I’ve found it interesting that Trader Joe’s eggs, which are “pasture raised” and “organic,” are less expensive than regular eggs at Publix, when Publix has eggs, and much less expensive than Whole Foods’ “pasture raised” and “organic” eggs — though still not cheap. (I’m using quotes because I have found the definitions for both vary depending on where you live. I am currently in Florida but will be moving back to my old Blue state soon.) Also glad we stocked up on Trader Joe’s coffee on Saturday, though I no longer drink the stuff, and that our daughter works at an organic farm (in a Blue state, staffed mainly by disaffected white Gen Xers, millennials, and Gen Zers).
TBone
@different-church-lady: yeah, I immediately noticed that too. The Inky is not perfect, but it is still great.
different-church-lady
Guaran-fuckin-tee you coffee prices will be going up due to tariffs that didn’t even actually take effect.
TBone
@different-church-lady: the gouging continues apace under cover of manufactured chaos. Shock Doctrine. (The good Naomi).
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shock_Doctrine
satby
@Baud: I think people are still disoriented and (in many cases throwing blame around) and aren’t sure what path to take. Especially for the pasty folk, feeling like they might be at risk from their government is an unexpected, scary feeling in spite of EVERY minority group in the country trying to convince them everyone would be at risk. But I also think that that the buyers remorse is already setting in. We’ll see if any lessons get learned. The Dems just need to stand pat.
satby
@different-church-lady: Of course. Laws against price gouging were proposed in the last Congress and blocked by the Republicans, so businesses can gouge at will.
Ramalama
@satby: wait what is that?
different-church-lady
Oh, and that cheaper mortgage Trump was going to give you?
MagdaInBlack
@Chief Oshkosh: Yup. If your are Colombia and you see U.S military planes entering your air-space un-announced, what reaction would you have.
different-church-lady
@satby: “We have to raise the price of coffee because of the tariffs.”
“The tariffs didn’t take effect.”
“YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND HOW BUSINESS WORKS!”
different-church-lady
@MagdaInBlack:
“Oh it’s Trump sending us freedom!”
TBone
Dang I had prepaid tix for the premier of DelCo the Movie which I had to forego. Maybe a stop in at this place in the Spring will buck me up.
Heh: Gritty’s Chaos Factory!
different-church-lady
@TBone: Gritty selling out… all my heroes are dead.
VeniceRiley
@Rose Judson: I’m probably going to take a pain bath as well. But, yes, the end of the AI hype train is welcome. The open source DeepSeek and the Europeans released of Proxy are so much better and cheaper and cheaper to run, from what I’ve read and the benchmarks I’ve seen.
Baud
Lost in the Colombia news is the fact that Mexico denied military planes entry and Trump didn’t do anything about it (to my knowledge).
Also, Brazil is pushing back too on deportee treatment.
TBone
@different-church-lady: oh noes, he’s all about promotion! This will be a big draw for the Antifa crowd unless I miss my guess.
I wonder if Grittney will also make her appearance for promo purposes. I hope so!
different-church-lady
@VeniceRiley: Oh great, so they’ll destroy objective reality more affordably.
TS
@Jeffg166:
I was also brought up on tea – didn’t drink coffee till I went to college. I still start each day with (as described to me in the USA) – hot tea & cream – tea with milk in my world. (My initial order of tea in the US was met with iced tea – something I had never before heard of anyone drinking.)
But after 10am, coffee all day & it has increased in price by up to 50% over the past 12 months.
New Deal democrat
Here’s an even better “Trump ruined your breakfast!” poster:
https://golikehellmachine.com/thermostatic-warfare/trump-ruined-your-breakfast/
And despite the WH statement, unsurprisingly the actual story is that T—-p backed down:
“Colombian news reporting that the agreement is for “dignified treatment of deportees as citizens with rights” and that the Colombian FM will travel to Washington this week for further talks.”
https://bsky.app/profile/drod425.bsky.social/post/3lgoznpyr5s2x
I think there’s a bigger story here:
1. T—-p couldn’t even make it through one week without causing a foreign policy blowup.
More importantly,
2. unlike his first term, when countries tried to coddle and accommodate T—-p, foreign leaders are rapidly learning to stiff-arm him. I can only imagine what this will look like when a majority of countries do this.
TBone
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2025/01/26/dr_phil_is_embedded_with_tom_homan_for_ice_operation_in_chicago_pretty_high_risk_mission.html
Thanks again, Oprah.
TS
@TBone:
Australia’s national day on Sunday – and we had this
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says “there is no place for this hateful ideology here in Australia” following the arrest of 16 National Socialist Network members in Adelaide on Australia Day.
SA Police arrested 16 people, including a 16-year-old boy from Victoria, and charged them with various offences including failing to cease loitering and assaulting police.
A 25-year-old man from Western Australia was charged with using a Nazi symbol and possessing an article of disguise.
“They were horrific scenes yesterday, to have people openly identifying as neo-Nazis and fascists, white supremacists marching through the street,” Mr Albanese said.
The Prime Minister said ASIO director-general Mike Burgess had been warning of the rise of far-right groups in Australia.
“It’s a phenomenon, unfortunately, we have seen in other parts of the industrialised world as well,” he said.
“There is no place for this hateful ideology here in Australia or, indeed, anywhere else.”
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-27/pm-speaks-out-against-neo-nazis/104863266
Hope we keep those thoughts down under.
TBone
@TS: you mean, youse guys can actually arrest people for being Nazis? What a concept!
(major snark, sorry)
eclare
@Jeffg166:
My caffeine delivery method of choice is Chai with half and half. I occasionally get a cup of coffee if I’m out and it’s convenient, but I don’t have coffee at home.
Baud
@different-church-lady:
And still not as well as LSD.
p.a.
Whoo boy it’ll be a free-for-all as businesses grab a little extra on the margin since no branch of gvt gives a shit right now. As I add on every facebook post about this admin (to my 12-ish followers🙄) “How did YOU vote?”
Reminds me of the joke about the extra expense of repairs on AWD vehicles: “Why are the wipers so expensive?”
“Well it’s an all-wheel-drive vehicle.”
“???!”
TBone
Back on topic
Jim Dave Vance Is Mad That Yambo’s Not Getting Credit For EOs
VeniceRiley
@different-church-lady: LoL!
But here is an instructive thread on it on xitter: https://x.com/morganb/status/1883686164336709661?t=YZI6s5rCDjCMMH0V5Fud5g&s=19
Baud
@TBone:
As always, if prices actually start coming down, ie deflation, we’re in a world of hurt.
TS
@TBone: Snark away, keeps one sane in these mad times – It’s probably more related to how they act rather than their political bent – they just love to act like rw thugs, but there could well be laws about nazi actions – I have to admit I haven’t kept up with same – it is such a new phenomena cf the past years since the end of WWII
TBone
@Baud: as always!
TBone
@TS: yeah, I noticed that several broken laws were mentioned (assault, loitering) but not anything specific about Nat Soc.
lowtechcyclist
@Jeffg166:
I didn’t know urbanites had lawns! You call that little patch of grass in front of your townhouse a ‘lawn’? ;-)
comrade scotts agenda of rage
I’m sure that residents of Greenland and Canada are glad Hair Furor has declared War on Breakfast as opposed to some expansionary war on them.
What’s next? Oranges? Bacon? If he does the latter, we might finally make inroads into the white male dumbass population next time at the ballot box.
//
TS
@TBone:
From your link
Claiming Biden’s work on job creation as their own – of course they do.
Baud
@TS:
At least someone is taking credit for it, since we refused to.
satby
@Ramalama: Ok, bit of a story: When I still owned a booth at the local farmers market, a man rented the small booth next to me to sell “British treats” like millionaire shortbread, ginger biscuits (Yanks call them cookies), and sticky toffee pudding. After several hours, he hadn’t sold anything, but it looked yummy so I bought some (I used to do that often for new vendors). It was AMAZEBALLS! He had a following from an outdoor market that eventually found him too, and grew from an 8 foot space to what is now about 36 linear feet of space in the market. He asked me years ago to make British themed soap for his booth, and he’s the one who bought my booth eventually. So now I make soap for him and help him on busy days. He cooks all the stuff himself with a bit if help from his wife. He’s a retired engineer from Durham who came to the US years ago to run several plants and stayed.
TBone
@lowtechcyclist: it’s actually a lawn chair used to reserve the parking space out front.
Doug R
Here in Canuckistan at the local Costco, eggs are over $20. But that’s Canadian dollars and the price for 5 dozen. So less than half the price of those Lucerne/Safeway eggs.
TBone
@satby: omg millionaire shortbread drool
Also too I used get chocolate dipped toffee every Christmas but here in central PA they don’t have luxuries like toffee on offer GAH.
Can’t find it anywhere and refuse to purchase Heath Bars.
Chief Oshkosh
@MagdaInBlack:
My reaction? I’d clear them for the active. After landing, I’d have ground control direct them to where I’ve assembled some troops and tanks around the corner, help the US service people get the immigrants off and safely away on waiting buses, bring out the troops and tanks, close the airport for further business for a while, and then send a cable to Washington, thanking them for the shiny new C-17 Globemaster.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@satby: We will see, but keep in mind we are talking about some incredibly dumb people.
TBone
@Chief Oshkosh: I like yer style.
Baud
@Chief Oshkosh:
Remember when China did something similar to W, and the media celebrated the fact that W got the troops home like it was some big foreign policy coup.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Baud: Over at KOS someone was pointing out the President of Columbia is a Trump type idiot complete with rule by midnight tweet, and his mistake was not getting the rest of Latin America on board for the flight ban.
lowtechcyclist
@New Deal democrat:
Pretty much the exact opposite of U.S. media.
Baud
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Ah, thanks. That makes sense. We’ll see a lot of mutually beneficial dick swinging over the next four years.
Kay
@New Deal democrat:
The WSJ had Trump says Colombia backs down.. while the NYTimes had Colombia backs down
I knew he was lying, but interesting which outlets still promote his lies as facts
Harrison Wesley
@TS: Failure to cease loitering? Possession of an article of disguise? WTF?
satby
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Some ARE dumb, more are lazy, incurious, self-absorbed, propagandized and uninformed by our garbage media. They own all that, sure; but they didn’t get there alone. Also not giving the true believers a pass on their racism and misogyny; but the true cult believers aren’t the majority. All the “shock and awe” is meant to make us think they are.
Kay
Trumpists here are quick to tell you about bird flu when you (well, me, constantly) say groceries are going up. “It’s BIRD FLU!”
excuses, excuses.
Rachel Bakes
@TBone: Jewish friend in Montgomery county was furious, and then relieved when she resigned.
BritinChicago
@Rose Judson: I don’t think you need worry. The pound has dropped against the dollar (and other currencies) since BREXIT, but it’s hard for me to believe that it dropped as much as that catastrophe justifies. I think there’s a lot more to come.
schrodingers_cat
@satby:Out of the easily available teas in grocery stores, Tetley’s British blend is quite good.
lowtechcyclist
@TBone:
What’s your beef with Heath bars? They’re pretty good!
Jeffro
getting into it with foreign countries seems to be about the only way we teach geography in this country
(not that any of us remember where these places are two weeks later)
zhena gogolia
@satby: I agree.
lowtechcyclist
@Kay:
Not the first time lately that the WSJ has been less slanted than the FTFNYT. We’re really through the looking glass here.
zhena gogolia
@Kay: But recovery from the Covid depression had nothing to do with inflation.
Soprano2
@Chief Oshkosh: It was a power play by FFOTUS, he wanted to show that he could force countries to accept whatever he wanted to do. I’m glad Colombia stood up to him. I hope they got the conditions they wanted from the administration. What they wanted was reasonable, any normal government would agree to it.
Spanky
@Harrison Wesley: Groucho glasses are illegal?
Baud
Fewer people want swasticars.
Kay
@lowtechcyclist:
The NYTimes has a long article about how Congressional Republicans don’t agree with all Trump’s policies – just the popular ones.
Reads like it was handed to them by a GOP operative to preemptively distance themselves from lunatic MAGA fuckups.
That paper is irredeemable.
Nukular Biskits
@New Deal democrat:
This is how you deal with bullies; i.e., pushback. Force, regardless of type, is the only thing bullies “respect”.
Shalimar
@Baud: “I don’t know why they would use Hitler,” said member. There is only one possible explanation. The person who wrote the copy wanted to show that they think Hitler is a positive role model.
Soprano2
@different-church-lady: Haven’t you heard, he’s going to order the Fed to cut interest rates because he’s all-powerful. s/s/s/s/s/s/s/s
TS
@Baud: According to the media – it just happened, no-one was responsible, cause Biden couldn’t get anything done
Soprano2
@Baud: It’s almost as if other countries have agency and their own governments that can set conditions. LOL FFOTUS has the billionaire’s disease where they think other countries and their laws don’t matter.
satby
@schrodingers_cat: That used to be one I bought regularly too. And my “treat myself” tea is Darjeeling. Or Yellow Dragon from China.
jonas
@different-church-lady: Wholesale coffee prices are a bit off their highs from the end of last year, but it’s really all about the drought in Brazil. A drought, naturally, intensified by climate change. Between bird flu and extreme weather events around the world, people have to understand we won’t have lower, or at least stable, food prices until we get a handle on climate change.
The prices for Peet’s or Starbucks charred mud at our local supermarket are still eyewatering. My favorite go-to brand has become San Francisco Bay. 2 lb bag is about $18 and it’s damn good coffee IMHO.
lowtechcyclist
That cat on the escalator? He’s trying to go down the up escalator. Trying to get back to the place he was before, just like we wish we could do.
TS
@Harrison Wesley: One way to remove would be nazi idits
Nukular Biskits
@TS: @Baud:
This, right here, encapsulates one of the problems with Democrat policies; specifically the reluctance of elected Democrats to repeatedly and publicly advertise the “wins” on behalf of the people.
catclub
@Baud: umm, doesn’t a deficit mean Treasury is selling more dollars so the dollar goes down?
Quinerly
@TBone:
Highly recommend the strong Irish tea from Trader Joe’s. That all I drink at home for at least the last 10 years.
lowtechcyclist
@Kay:
Tru dat, but out-conservatisming the WSJ? Seriously??
jonas
@Kay: Ah, the ol’ heads Republicans win, tails, Dems lose gambit. Egg prices were Biden’s fault until Jan 21, when they suddenly became the fault of bird flu.
Funny how that works!
Kay
@Nukular Biskits:
Also, it’s an easy political boost for them to tell the bullying, swaggering US to get lost. Defending the homeland from meddling autocrats making demands is a slam dunk for any politician.
Amusing that no one in the Trump Administration or media considered that, that these are real places with their own domestic political goals and nationalism works both ways.
Soprano2
@Kay: I heard something like “Trump says Colombia backed down” on “Morning Edition” too before I went downstairs. The story mostly gave credence to it instead of looking at what actually happened. There is no actual reporting anymore, just parroting of what someone says.
jonas
@catclub: Foreign investors have to change their currencies into dollars to buy US treasuries, however. Hence greater demand for dollars.
Kay
@jonas:
Eggs are in basically all processed, boxed foods. Its all going up.
Nukular Biskits
@Kay:
True. Telling Trump to fuck off is probably good for domestic politics in just about every other country in the world.
Soprano2
This quote from Vance:
is stupid. This is not how the market works. Wages are going to go up and prices are going to go down? When in the history of the world has this happened? It’s what people want to happen, but it never does. He’s saying I’m going to pay more for workers, and then lower my menu prices. Does anyone think that makes any sense at all?
catclub
@Baud: The rest of the auto industry has taken a long time to ramp up electric cars production. On average they know better how to make cars than tesla, so they should pass Tesla.
Jeffro
@Kay:
(paraphrased from somewhere else re: trumpov and Covid-19):
Every president faces a crisis or crises not of his own making. That’s not the issue. It’s always (or should be) a) does the president have a plan for dealing with the crisis, b) is the plan being competently executed, and c) did the president bring us together in a time or crisis, or inflame & divide us?
lowtechcyclist
@Kay:
As long as they’re not your own.
Shalimar
@Baud: Tesla sales weren’t just increasing in previous years. 30% increase was a bad year. And I think 2024 was when they started slashing prices too (it has been a long time ago, might have been in 2023). Considering how many of their former customers Musk has alienated in California and Europe, it doesn’t seem like 2025 will be good either.
Harrison Wesley
@TS: I just found those to be a tad overbroad.
Kay
@Soprano2:
His press secretary lies. Just like the last one. They just blindly accepted the ridiculous ” we got everything we demanded” lie?
They don’t add any value. If I want that, I’d just read Trump press releases.
satby
@Nukular Biskits: But the Democrats did, repeatedly. The news media didn’t cover it, even to the point of allowing Republicans who voted against some things like infrastructure bills turn around and take credit locally for bringing the projects to their districts. Biden did, Harris did, Buttigieg did, all the Democratic governors did. That people keep saying they didn’t is false and gives yet another pass to the “both sides / feckless impotent Democrats” story that undercuts us in elections.
catclub
@lowtechcyclist:
I agree.
Soprano2
@Shalimar: That jumped out at me too, why would anyone with a brain cite Hitler as a good leader and role model unless they were a Nazi?
Glory b
@Nukular Biskits: Thats because every time they try to, the “progressives” flood the airwaves to trash it, it wasn’t all that great, we could have done better but they are chickens**t, what about ALL THESE OTHER PROBLEMS, hmm?
It reminds me of the “Fight for 15!” Biden essentially GOT $15 per hour (less than 1% of workers earn minimum wage) without a fight and they remain salty about it.
eclare
@Baud:
Elon done FAFO…
Nukular Biskits
@Jeffro:
May I steal that?
Kay
@Jeffro:
They can forget “bring us together”. I’m not a doormat. There’s never reciprocity. I’m opposed. To all of it.
Soprano2
@Kay: Prices at our local favorite breakfast place have gone up too. I’m sure they have no choice with the price of eggs going up and almost every breakfast offering eggs.
TBone
@Rachel Bakes: I’m so glad for her, thank you. Every little win counts!
Betty Cracker
@Barbara:
Brilliant!
satby
@Glory b: And that too, of course.
Soprano2
@Kay: I’m sure that’s a job requirement for his press secretary. I heard that the one from his previous administration who never held any press conferences said later that the reason was she didn’t want to have to lie to the press every day. I guess she didn’t read the job requirements very well.
TBone
@lowtechcyclist: I was spoiled by better quality toffee and better quality chocolate so Heath doesn’t do it for me, especially at Christmas!
Nukular Biskits
@satby:
I don’t disagree at all with most of what you’ve said here. And, yes, the feckless national media largely ignored or downplayed Democrat policy successes and/or credited Republicans for their (Democrats’) hard work.
But, even Biden admitted that he should have been more aggressive in promoting Democratic policy wins.
Now, it’s our job to point out every single time a Trumplican takes credit for those Democrat policies they’re lying.
@Glory b:
Agreed. Part of the problem too were the “purity ponies” on our side:
Baud
@catclub:
I think foreigners need to buy dollars to buy our debt which causes the demand for dollars to increase. It’s not like the government accepts crypto….yet.
I could be wrong.
Kay
@Soprano2:
Eggs are in most packaged foods. It’s all going up.
But the “breakfast” theme is kind of catchy, so fine by me :)
Thor Heyerdahl
Canada already had the Pig War once versus the US and lost. We don’t want that again.
TBone
@Baud: my first time
seeingsmelling that new cars word! Points!Soprano2
@satby: When the press did cover the infrastructure stuff Biden did, they often paired it with something like “But people sure aren’t feeling like things are good” or “people would rather they get inflation under control”.
AM in NC
The FOXbots are NOT happy with today’s comments by me wondering why Trump LIED when he promised us food prices would start coming down on DAY ONE.
And they REALLY don’t like it when you respond to their “but it’s only the first few days, give it time” with
“So it was Trump who PROMISED lower prices starting DAY ONE. Now you’re changing the standard HE HIMSELF set because he failed to meet it? Weak.
Trump either lied to us before the election to get us to vote for him, or he failed at doing what he said he would do. Which is it?
Plus Republicans KEEP BLOCKING Democrats from passing anti-price-gouging-measures to stop BIG CORPS from preying on us.
If we don’t want higher grocery prices, maybe we need to vote differently next time.”
Nope, the FOXbots do not like reality intruding into their safe space.
Either way, if you don’t want to
TBone
@Nukular Biskits: yes indeed, ya gotta make ’em spit their Chiclets, it is The Way.
Jeffro
@Kay: oh…they want all of the credit for backing trumpov’s ‘good stuff’ while avoiding all of the blame for his ‘bad stuff’?
He’s a package deal, MAGAts. You don’t get to ignore the bad stuff. (Well…with the help of a compliant press, actually you do…never mind)
Soprano2
@Kay: FFOTUS doesn’t want to bring us together, he wants to dominate everyone and make them bend to his will. I wish the press could realize that, because it’s not hard to figure out.
Kay
@AM in NC:
Trump’s no tax on OT isn’t in the GOP tax bill so far. Bring that up. You’ll be shocked at how many people believed they were actually getting rid of payroll taxes.
Jeffro
@Nukular Biskits: absolutely! (I did. =)
Chief Oshkosh
@Baud: Yes, media rot goes back a long way.
Upon reflection, if I was king of Colombia, in addition to the cable thanking Trump for our new C-17, I’d send a second cable telling him what the terms of surrender are and that the sooner he accepted them, the sooner he’d get his flyboys back.
lowtechcyclist
@Soprano2:
Not in a closed economy, but in a global economy, it can and frequently does. Prices may not go down, but when it’s the entire world that’s setting the price of something, there’s a limit to the extent to which local conditions can make them go up. If wages go up at the widget plant, the widget manufacturer can’t raise their price above the world price, so the difference comes out of dividends and executive salaries.
For instance, when wages here increased in the late 1990s and the late 2010s, inflation remained low, and while IANA economist, ISTM that the extent to which our economy had been globalized by the 1990s had a lot to do with that.
TBone
@Quinerly: I wish I could get it, but we don’t have TJs here in the hinterlands. My choices for purchasing anything are very limited and I detest online shopping. However, next Christmas I will prolly do some online self care treats purchases. Right now, the only things that matter are my cats, my hubby, and surviving; we’re down to the basics at Casa TBone. But I’m making a big pot of chili today to celebrate Eagles and so I won’t have to cook tomorrow. The rest goes into the freezer for Feb. & March snow days.
Kay
@AM in NC:
Tax credit for caregivers has also disappeared and so has the promise to deduct auto loan interest.
All a pack of lies.
RevRick
@Jeffg166: Fishtown is not the suburbs.
RevRick
@Soprano2: It’s gonna be hell at Denny’s.
jonas
@Kay: Yup. And the real fun — seeing the impact on supply chains of deporting, or driving further underground, the undocumented population en masse — hasn’t even started yet.
Baud
@Nukular Biskits:
jonas
@RevRick: It already *is* hell at Denny’s. But point taken.
Reminds me of this Onion classic from back in the day.
Jeffg166
@RevRick:
I am talking about the people who come to Center City to riot. They don’t live here.
I am in Manayunk and there were horns beeping for a while.
TBone
@RevRick: HA!!!
Baud
Trust nothing online.
TBone
@Jeffg166: oh I miss Manayunk restaurants so much!
sixthdoctor
@Soprano2: At the BJ zoom this Saturday the speaker did say that he found more success when he made people feel like their lives were improving or that we were responding and in that sense he wasn’t positive about Biden. He was more disappointed about the failure of Build Back Better than he was willing to tout the successes of the Inflation Reduction Act; he seemed to feel the IRA’s benefits didn’t break through to people.
Because our side actually wants to do things and they take time to sink in, like the ACA or IRA, how can we hit undecideds with the same dopamine shot that Repubs and the media do regularly?
(WaterGirl and others on the zoom, if I didn’t paraphrase correctly I apologize but this was my take.)
TBone
@Baud: Orwell called it.
Harrison Wesley
@RevRick: No, it sure isn’t.
LAC
@Glory b: Yep – the same airwaves who will put together endless media mouth breather panels trashing it as well and then doing deep dives into Trump’s word farts to take up the rest of the time. My cable news fast has been worth it.
NotMax
@RevRick
I am the eggman
They are the eggmen
I am the walrus
Goo goo g’joob
Soprano2
@Kay: I heard from a guy here that now there will be no tax on overtime! It’s as if they think he has a magic wand and can just do whatever he wants.
Kay
@Glory b:
Fight for 15 was a labor initiative and really successful. Almost no one makes minimum wage because organized labor funded state ballot initiatives and raised the wage in red states years before Biden took office.
Biden’s economy was cooking and great for working people but making the federal minimum wage irrelevant was all labor. They did that.
Nukular Biskits
@Baud:
The Mississippi free press does a great job
Soprano2
@lowtechcyclist: It’s true that some businesses can absorb the extra cost for awhile, but eventually they run out of the ability to do that. If you’re a small local business, you either pass the cost on or go out of business.
Jeffro
@AM in NC: “where are the tax cuts for working people? what happened to ‘no tax on tips’?”
(or throw him a real ringer: “why don’t you reinstate the child tax credit that Biden took away?” ;)
Jeffro
@RevRick: it’ll be funny (in a bad way) when Denny’s is crazy expensive and the local vegetarian place is bargain-basement cheap.
the whole country will go into shock
Betty Cracker
@Baud: Well, one of their signs had the word “socialist” on it, so any attempts to extract ourselves from billionaire control or seek environmental justice will be labeled “communist,” and it will sandbag elected or campaigning Democrats even if the sign-carrier is not a Democrat. (I don’t make the rules.)
NotMax
@RevRick
Best Denny’s riff ever.
Kay
https://www.nelp.org/insights-research/fight-for-15-four-years-62-billion/
Labor launched fight for 15 in NYC in 2012. People laughed at them. Impossible! Then they made the federal minimum wage irrelevant.
jonas
@satby: I agree — they *tried*. But as we learned, going on traditional media outlets and touting your accomplishments just isn’t effective against the firehose of bullshit coming back out of the right-wing outlets, radio, and social media. Dem pols have to find a different set of strategies to get voters to notice their accomplishments and understand where to place the blame when things get fucked up.
Nukular Biskits
My apologies in advance Crappy formatting poor punctuation and otherwise Style of this post … I’m on the treadmill Trying to keep from getting too fat.
Did anyone else Try to reach out Republican representatives or senators and have their calls go straight to voicemail last week?
schrodingers_cat
@Glory b: They drag us down. They are not happy no matter what is done for them. Nothing is good enough. And they are as allergic to truth as your average MAGA.
AM in NC
@Jeffro: This is the point I keep making to Thom Tillis’s staffers when I call. Whatever “Awesomesauce” things you thought you were getting from your Trump/MAGA supplication, you are ALSO responsible for:
NIH shuttering – not like medical research is important in North Carolina; Hegseth and the attendant NatSec Threat he represents; RFK Anti-Vaxx madness; Colombia bullshit; inability to negotiate drug costs with BIG PhRMA again; Crypto-grifting and just directly selling access tot he POTUS.
Tillis owns ALL of this, and so do his staffers working for him. Don’t know what you THOUGHT you were voting for, but THIS is what you wrought. And I won’t let you forget it.
The staffers sound really defeated. They know Trump is a dangerous fool and their boss is too much of a coward to stand up to him.
Baud
zhena gogolia
@sixthdoctor: Glad I skipped it.
glory b
@LAC: Mine too.
RevRick
@Soprano2: Capital investments do make things cheaper relative to income. Look at TVs. But there are two huge flaws in this argument.
1). Capital investments can only minimally affect the service sector, which needs a human facing component. And it is the service businesses of health and education are two of the three segments that have shot up the most relative to income. The other is housing, which is affected by location.
2). Says Law, which asserts that supply creates its own demand, was massively disproven by the Great Depression. Businesses don’t increase demands by increasing supply. Rather, they respond to increased demand by increasing supply. The whole concept behind the Inflation Reduction Act’s green energy initiatives is to use the government’s buying power to create the demand that will drive down prices which then flips the advantage away from fossil fuels to green energy sources.
MazeDancer
Apparently, you can freeze raw eggs. They last a year. Especially useful for baking. Maybe everyone knew this. I did not.
One search of “freezing eggs” gets about 12 million responses. But basically the process is crack as many eggs as you want into a howl, whisk lightly, then pour into an ice cube tray or some kind of individual portions.
Thaw in fridge. Use at will.
jonas
@NotMax: There was also the Patton Oswalt bit in one of his recent stand-up shows: “No one ever *goes* to Denny’s. You *end up* at Denny’s.”
Epic.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
Yes, we just follow the rules.
However…the attempt to redefine and sell “socialism” as a good thing is a messaging failure on par with New Coke. Historically accurate “socialism” is not what 99% of people want and it is not what Western Europe has now.
IMHO.
AM in NC
@Nukular Biskits: Thom Tillis’s DC mailbox was full by the weekend. we’ll see if they cleared it out today.
Geminid
@sixthdoctor: I wonder if the speaker who was disappointed in the faulure to pass the BBuild Back Better bill was complaining about the Infrastructure bill, and not the IRA.
The November, 2022 decision to “decouple” BBB from Infrastructure and pass Infastructure as a stand alone bill was controversial at the time, and some Democrats expressed their hard feelings by trashing Infrastructure. It sounds like this guy still is.
The IRA was passed in August of the following year and was much less controversial among Democrats. Unlike Infrastructure which six Democrats voted against, every House Democrat voted for the IRA.
Ed. But maybe he was just usung the IRA as a point of comparison.ike the CHIPS bill took a while to implement and was passed almost a year after the BBB failed in the Senate, after all but one House Democrat voted for it.
Betty Cracker
@Nukular Biskits: Yes. I left a voicemail for Rick Scott and sent an email too for good measure. Contact info for Ashley Moody (Lil’ Marco’s replacement) is now available, so her office also gets to hear my complaints this week. So far, I’ve focused on the “pause” at NIH and NCI, but this week I’ll also complain about the high price of eggs, etc.
jonas
@lowtechcyclist: In the 90s and 2000s prices of consumer products did decline as manufacturing for that stuff all moved to Asia. A lot of people were put out of work, of course, but those who still had jobs saw their purchasing power for things like TVs, furniture, and clothes increase considerably. Plus real wages were rising. They felt more prosperous.
satby
@Jeffro: Veggies are picked by the people ICE is trying to sweep up right now; or they’re imported mostly from Central and South America. They’re not going to stay cheap, even here in the blood red fields of Indiana, migrant workers pick the fruit and vegetables.
RevRick
@NotMax: You scream? Hahahaha
glory b
@Betty Cracker: That’s why I don’t see the same future for AOC that so many others do. Besides supporting primary challengers against fellow members of the House (NOT the way to win friends and influence people), there’s video of her saying she’s REALLY a socialist, but the only path to elected office was to be a Democrat.
I can’t see how she gets around it.
Belafon
@Glory b: Too often people, especially on our side, think that if Democrats accomplished it then it was easy and they should have done more. See the ACA for another example.
sixthdoctor
@Geminid: Thanks for the clarification; any error in description was more likely mine rather than his.
@zhena gogolia: I didn’t agree with his characterization of the Biden admin either (and WaterGirl did push back), but he did have good points to make about messaging.
satby
@Betty Cracker: The suspended funding at NIH and NCI will do devastating damage long term to everyone in this country.
schrodingers_cat
@satby: NCI is a part of NIH. I in NIH is for Institutes, in plural.
schrodingers_cat
@glory b: Neither do I. But then I am not a middle white man.
zhena gogolia
@sixthdoctor: Not spending any of my precious time right now with people who are blaming Biden for ANYTHING.
EarthWindFire
@Kay: One would think that a president who wanted to cut prices raised due to a disease wouldn’t, say, put a hold on disease research. There I go again, assuming Dear Leader followers think.
Quiltingfool
@Kay: I’m not sure I understand the “no tax on overtime.” So, it means that no taxes will be taken out of overtime wages, right? So, on the W-2 statement they will have to separate overtime wages from regular wages? Hmm.
I think this is a bait and switch. You won’t have as much withholding each paycheck, BUT your W-2 will show your total income, with no separation. You will be taxed on everything.
When I contributed to my teacher’s pension (14%!) that amount was not taxed AT THE TIME. Now that I collect my pension, it is taxed.
I think the rubes got played.
RevRick
@Geminid: I am of the opinion that this decision was legislatively brilliant and that the six Democrats who voted against the Infrastructure Act actually made it possible for the Inflation Reduction Act. It was clear that Manchin and Sinema, and possibly more, were going to balk at the pricetag for the complete Build Back Better plan, and McConnell was threatening to withhold GOP votes to overcome the filibuster for the Infrastructure and Chips and Science Acts. So, Manchin loudly proclaimed his opposition, and House Progressives felt they were getting screwed, so they voted no on the Infrastructure Bill. McConnell provided the GOP votes and then Biden and Manchin unveiled BBB, part 2. And McConnell howled in protest, because the deal was BBB was dead.
glory b
@Kay: The state by state effort paid off, but it was Biden’s economy that brought it down to the point where less than 1% are paid the minimum.
suzanne
@sixthdoctor:
This is a challenge I deal with in my job. Often, design and construction projects are interminably long, and there’s long stretches where it looks like nothing is happening. And then, when stuff happens, it is disruptive and annoying, and people complain because they don’t know how long they’re going to be dealing with it, and there might be a fence that keeps they from seeing any progress, and they often don’t know what it’s going to be like when it’s done.
This is where visual communications comes in: big signs with simple timelines! Those little thermometer graphics! Pretty renders of what it will look like when it’s done! Video animations and time-lapse footage! It sounds moronic, but that stuff goes a long way to getting people on board.
This is an area we can improve in. Never waste a good crisis, yanno?
Geminid
@sixthdoctor: Well, “IRA” sounds a lot different than “Infrastructure” so it could very well have been his mistake and not yours. I wouldn’t be surprised; a lot of the people arguing broader issues of party governance are not very detail oriented.
That said, I thought the value of the Infrastructure bill was very much underated at the time, and a lot of that had to do with resentment over decoupling it from the BBB bill. Some Democrats seemed invested in persuading others that passing Infrastructure was somehow a loss and not a win.
Belafon
@Kay: The minimum wage here in Texas is still $7.25. My son makes $10.25 at Little Caesars because the economy is doing well enough that they can’t find consistent employees. Watch Trump tank the economy and see what happens to wages.
schrodingers_cat
@zhena gogolia: Bingo. They are dead to me.
Jackie
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
CA migrant workers are already abandoning citrus groves during the height of picking season because “you know why…”
Expect grocery prices in all aspects of CA produced agriculture to skyrocket.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Shalimar:
I posted a link yesterday to an interesting piece from mid-2023:
https://fortune.com/2023/06/06/elon-paradox-sells-tesla-expect-him-to-drive-a-ram-what-your-car-says-about-your-politics/
So while some might speculate about some loyal, librul buyer base not buying a swastikar, it really has more to do with other car makers coming out with competitive products whereas the Tesla product line, despite one refresh, is moribund, the Wankpanzer notwithstanding.
Then there’s China. The Chinese EV manufacturer, BYD, has made serious inroads within China and the EU. The latter region left the door open for the price-dumping of EVs there from China and that’s impacted not just Tesla but EU automakers looking to compete in the market. The EU is now taking a Biden-esque, tariff approach to that but given the travails of other EU automakers, it might not help the domestic industry catch up.
Reuters has a really good analysis of Tesla’s worldwide 1.1% drop in EV sales:
https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/teslas-china-sales-rise-record-high-83000-december-2025-01-03/
NotMax
@comrade scotts agenda of rage
Protesters projected “HEIL” in front of the “TESLA” on the side of the Berlin factory.
Betty Cracker
@satby: Yep. Just made that point in an email to my new MAGA-asshole senator. She is a fellow UF alum, so I also included the stat about how much UF gets in NIH funding, and I asked her to oppose RFK Jr. because he’s an unqualified kook who is in no way equipped to handle a public health emergency and will do lasting damage if confirmed. It’s mostly howling into the void, I know, but I do think there’s a chance RFK Jr. can be derailed.
Melancholy Jaques
@Quiltingfool:
They are, after all, rubes. I wonder how much the no taxes on overtime, no taxes on tips, and other such things had impact on voters. More specifically, “I will make it so you have a little more money” seemed to get a lot of votes for Bush Jr in 2000. Democrats have made similar promises, but they never seem to take hold.
Belafon
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: I’ve been of the opinion that our car makers should be given a short amount of time to try to come up with their own alternative, but those tariffs are contingent on active progress being made. If we’re not seeing significant progress, it’s time to end them.
Kay
@Belafon:
Labor launched Fight for Fifteen in 2012 on the heels of the Occupy Movement, deliberately.
There are policy levers outside the Democratic Party.
NotMax
@comrade scotts agenda of rage
BYD?
“This isn’t a logo, this is a complete sentence.”
;)
Soprano2
@RevRick: Sure, but the capital investments weren’t in the U.S., but in moving production to other countries where costs were cheaper. That’s a big reason those products are cheaper. They’d probably be a little cheaper if they were still made in the U.S., but we wouldn’t have 55″ TV’s that cost under $200 if they were all made in the U.S. Vance is saying both they’re going to raise wages for Americans and they’re going to lower prices for Americans by bringing production of goods back to America. That’s probably not going to work that way.
p.a
Also too, it the source is not reportable income, that negatively affects your Social Security payout later on. Of course, if SS is a target as well…
Kay
@Belafon:
It’s just a credit where credit is due issue for me. These movements are often derided for not accomplishing anything by centrists and the Right side of the Democratic Party. It’s a very narrow view. The minimum wage ballot initiatives benefitted Democrats by bringing out our voters. Democrats were free riders on labor in that scenario.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@NotMax:
Heh heh, very nice.
Make no mistake, the EV world (since I purchased a 2023 Bolt, I’m immersed in Bolt world but also the larger aspects of EV sales, etc) discusses Musk’s impact on Tesla constantly. Undoubtedly, there are people who’s final decision, when looking at EVs, is swayed by a lot of contributing factors, one of which might be their views on him. But, their ability to “buy their conscious” is helped by the fact other car makers have compelling products.
I’ve been unable to find any market survey data saying just how much Musk’s profile has hurt actual sales.
Another report of random acts of vandalism, this time against a Wankpanzer:
https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/peninsula/tesla-cybertruck-vandalized-redwood-city/3770484/
Soprano2
@satby: I read about one Alzheimer’s researcher whose grant was frozen. He had to lay off all his staff because of it, and of course the research hasn’t started. I take that personally!
Belafon
@Kay: I don’t disagree, and they were definitely effective in states that were receptive to their call. I’m just not in one of those states. In fact, I’m in one of those states – a group generally called southern states – that took the fight for 15 as a challenge to impose more restrictions on workers’ rights.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Belafon:
Not surprisingly, I disagree. Plus, Ford and especially GM, have made great progress in the last year on EV development and rollout. When GM re-rolls out the nextGen Bolt at the end of this year, probably at a target price of $30k, watch out.
If my latest read on this is accurate, we (the US) aren’t asking China to do anything different if they want to sell cars here w/o some tariff applied to them, that we haven’t forced other automakers to do over the decades: build them (or assemble them or however it works out in the details) in our trade zone, ie, Mexico, US, Canada. If they don’t want to do that, too bad.
It’s no different than how the Chinese have treated Western companies, etc., during their 40-year rise to economic prominence. Turnaround is fair play so to speak.
Librettist
@Kay:
There go the $6 value meals….
Melancholy Jaques
@Belafon:
“Let’s raise other people’s wages” is just not the popular issue that some people think it is. Another example of good policy not being a winner.
Betty Cracker
@glory b: That clip would definitely hamstring AOC if she tries to get elected governor of Florida, but she seems to be doing okay for herself in Congress so far. We’ll see.
Belafon
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: I don’t necessarily think we’re disagreeing, but $30K is way different than $12K, and I doubt the “made in the US” markup is going to drive the price up that much.
I don’t know all the details of car making, but I don’t think we required that of Kia, Honda, or a bunch of other car makers when they started selling here. They have plants here because they reached a sales point where building a plant here was cost effective.
Belafon
@Melancholy Jaques: Especially when “those people” might get ideas of thinking they’re equal.
Geminid
@RevRick: Those six House Democrats were not part of some tricky legislative Aikido move. Their votes did not contribute to the passage of the IRA bill and they never claimed that, either after the IRA bill passed or in their primaries the following year. Two of them lost amidst heavy criticism over their Infrastructure votes.
The tricky Aikido move was Manchin’s and Schumer’s. Manchin told reporters in June of 2023 that the package of clean energy measures he’d been working on was dead and not to be revived. This basically was the “clean energy transition” portion of BBB.
The next month, right after McConnell and many of his Republican Senate colleagues helped pass the CHIPS Act, Schumer and Manchin sprung their surprise: Manchin’s IRA bill was in fact alive and kicking, and they would move for its passage under the Reconciliation rule. McConnell cried foul and McCarthy tried to kill the CHIPS bill, but ~20 House Republicans broke ranks and helped put it through.
A few weeks later the House passed the IRA with the votes of a united Democratic caucus and another set of Republican defectors. Then the Senate passed it by a 50-50 vote with Vice President Harris breaking the tie.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Belafon:
That got me thinking about what are the lowest-cost, new cars out for 2025:
https://www.motortrend.com/features/cheapest-new-cars/
Vast majority of those 25 are in the $22-25K range but a couple come in around $18K although good luck finding a dealer in any given area that carries something that cheap.
Assuming the $7.5k Fed tax credit doesn’t go away this year (it most likely will), that means a theoretical $30K Chevy Bolt purchased in CO would after state and federal tax credits, cost $17.5k. If that holds, every new Bolt offered for sale in a state like CO will sell immediately.
Of course the entire tax credit approach to things is something we’ve briefly discussed recently and how that’s an issue itself but another piece of 80s-era economic bullshit that’s baked into things. Heh heh, separate discussion.
schrodingers_cat
@Betty Cracker: It will hamstring her if she runs for statewide office.
Redshift
@Belafon:
Someone on social media who I only see because a friend forwards them took the Trump executive orders as proof that for the things they wanted “we’re sure Democrats could do it if they wanted so the only reason they don’t must be because they don’t want to.”
Sigh.
the pollyanna from hell
@Nukular Biskits:
MTG office called me back later on friday, but I missed it.
The Thin Black Duke
@Redshift: Sometimes people are stupid on purpose because it makes them feel better about the decisions they make.
moonbat
@satby: Thank you! I was just about to righteous rant about this. They DID take credit for jobs growth ALL THE TIME, but the media never covered it as a positive.
Booger
@jonas: It’s the Abilene of restaurants.
Belafon
@Redshift: Destroy democracy for wiping out college debt won’t generally work out the way they want.
Belafon
@Booger: Being originally from Abilene, I love that paradox.
Geminid
@Betty Cracker: I don’t think Representative Ocasio-Cortez saying she is a “Socialist” hurt her in the New York 14th CD elections she won. It’s her membership in New York City’s chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America that could hurt her if she ran for statewide office.
Ocasio-Cortez may decide to quietly part ways with the DSA, but if she just wants to keep representing NY14 she won’t have to.
Booger
@Belafon: Yay! My reference was understood!
Betty Cracker
@Geminid: I don’t know NY politics well enough to offer an opinion on that. I do know the “s” word is a huge liability in Florida though! I hear speculation that AOC might run for a senate seat someday, but who knows?
ETA: I think the hysteria around the s-word is stupid. No one is talking about remaking the U.S. into something like the former Castro regime in Cuba…except perhaps Donald Trump; the authoritarian aspects appeal to him.
Glory b
@Betty Cracker: Stupid doesn’t mean ineffective.
See, Florida.
Glory b
@schrodingers_cat: As I’ve said, the Republican ads against her would write themselves.
TBone
@TBone: guess who went back to bed for 3 minutes before another poop emergency arose involving the need for bubble baths for all concerned, as well as more laundry? THANK YOU SAB for recommending puppy pee pads which we now have 2 boxes of, extra large, as throw mats on everything I don’t want to wash again today. I’m too old for this new mother routine with midnight feedings and poop all over the place! No sleep till Brooklyn!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9b9-S5EB0mw
Princess
@Kay: So, what’s Trump doing about bird flu?
Betty Cracker
@Glory b: I see it all around me, thanks. Every goddamn day. The question is, what do we do about it? Because AOC isn’t the problem. I saw a clip of Florida Republican Rick Scott at a wonderfully diverse rally literally screaming “socialista” in a bad Spanish accent to describe Joe Biden in 2020. Republicans lie. Maybe pushing back on their lies would be more effective than hammering AOC.
Princess
@AM in NC: This is why calling your reps and senators, even if they’re red, is so important.
Geminid
@Betty Cracker: Rep. Ocasio-Cortez may get a good chance to run for the Senate in 2028 if Chuck Schumer retires. He’ll be 78, and several Senate Democrats retired around that age last year; Stabenow at 73, Carper at 78 and Cardin at 80. On the other hand, Schumer might follow Warren’s and Sander’s examples and run again at an advanced age. He’s still in good physical condition.
Rep. Ocasio-Cortez is young and has plenty of time to move up if she wants to. Schumer could decide to run again and then retire in 2034 at age 84. I think Rep. Ocasio-Cortez will be 45 years old then.
We have a lot of talented Democrats in their 30s and forties. Only a few will get to move up to Governor and Senator (much less President) no matter how qualified they might be. So speaking generally, I want to value them for the jobs they do currently and not as “prospects” for higher office. Obviously, I still that consider that aspect but I try to keep it to the side because it can distract from a Democrat’s current value.
Betty Cracker
@Geminid: Good point about valuing pols in their present roles. I enjoy speculating about future prospects in politics like I do about players in minor league baseball. But ultimately, winning is about the teams currently on the field.
Miss Bianca
@New Deal democrat: Yeah, but the headlines on the ABC News article are not “Trump Fucks Around with tough tariff talk, Finds Out in record time” but “After Trump’s Tariff Threats, Colombia Agrees to Accept Repatriates from the US”. (No, I ain’t linking to it, cuz fuck you, ABC.)
The gaslighting will continue until morale improves.
Ruckus
@Chief Oshkosh:
He’s not a clown.
Clowns are supposed to be funny, and he isn’t in any way, shape or form – in any way funny.
He’s a moron. Or at least a senior who has outlasted his welcome within humanity. Of course some will like him till his last day, because they aren’t any better at human than he is.
Miss Bianca
@Baud: Kind of wish all these activists *now* marching and protesting had done so before Trump got elected, but oh, well…it is Mississippi, after all.
I’m just afraid that people are going to get tased or jailed for protesting what is basically *now* a done deal.
Geminid
@Betty Cracker: Yes, and people can be so D.C.-centric there is a tendency to see federal politics as the only “big” league. But Governor Josh Stein, Attorney Jeff Jackson and the North Carolina Democrats are playing some major league hardball in the Old North State, and that’s a fight worth watching.
Maybe it’s just because I live here, but I think Virginia’s Governor race will be a major league battle. I’m really looking forward to it.
I saw a preview in Politico Playbook of this year’s and next year’s Governor races. They rated many as tossups, including Virginia’s. I don’t think they took into account Abigail Spanberger’s ruthlessness. That’s a quality I’ve come to value in a Democratic politician, and she has it.
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
I wondering what is going to happen to all grocery prices as the ICE raids and fear of ICE raids leads more people to not show up for work in the farms, fields and meat processing industries. Example, Nebraska went overwhelmingly for Trump, meanwhile their port and poultry industries rely heavily on migrant workers and undocumented workers…cuz they won’t complain about poor pay and dangerous working conditions. Now Nebraskans who voted for Trump worry about not having enough workers..
Dangerous working conditions and lack of inspectors endangers works and consumers
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
@Geminid: I am trying to give to the VA governor race and the 2 Florida Congressional special elections. Wondering what is going to happen with Elise Stefanik’s seat (NY-21). It may be a red district but we should fight for it anyway.
Miss Bianca
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: I and a number of other people are not going to qualify for those tax credits, so no nice new EV for me.
Geminid
@EmbraceYourInnerCrone: Virginia’s poultry business is concentrated around Harrosberg and Rockingham County just to my west. I wonder if Governor Youngkin and Representative Ben Cline will be able to protect producers there. I bet they’ll try. If they don’t succeed, turkey will be very expensive this Thansgiving.
A lot migrants work on Christmas tree farms too.
Ruckus
@New Deal democrat:
It will make him look exactly like the looser that he is. How anyone could think this is a human that can be in any way a leader of anything is beyond me. He is very rapidly aging out. Normal humans can take a decade or two to do this, he’s going warp speed at this process. Most people take a somewhat relaxed stroll into aging out, as bits and pieces of life recede into the ether. His process seems to be like diving off the cliff at the Grand Canyon. And “thinking” he’s the normal one.
JoeyJoeJoe
@EmbraceYourInnerCrone: The district (which had a different number in previous decades) did elect a Democrat before Stefanik, and also voted for Obama twice and Clinton twice, and also for Gore and I think Kerry. It’s moved to the right since 2012, but it’s not that heavily Republican . A Democratic win wouldn’t be impossible
jonas
A local MAGA businessman has already thrown his hat in the ring and will probably win handily. Dems are bandying about some names, including Paula Collins, who ran against Stefanik last year (losing 60-40).
Randal Sexton
@Thor Heyerdahl: I have never heard it described that there were winners and losers of the Pig War, it was settled with a compromise via negotiation, resulting in a weird boundary anomaly (Point Roberts ). I live on one of the disputed islands.
lowtechcyclist
@Soprano2:
As plenty of people here have said before, if a business can only be profitable by paying less than a living wage, then they shouldn’t be in business. When small businesses have to pay a good deal more than that to retain workers, let me know.
In the meantime, there are an awful lot of big businesses that are more profitable than ever, and if they have to cut into their profits to pay their workers more, then I’m all for it.
Geminid
@EmbraceYourInnerCrone: All 100 House of Delegate seats are up this year too. I look for Spanberger to help pad our one vote majority there.
That Governor’s race will draw a lot of attention. It’s happening right across the Potomac from D.C. so a lot of national correspondents will drop by. Maybe some journalists from other countries too.
New Jersey’s Govefnor race will also be big, especially the primary. It looks like Spanberger won’t have signifant primary opposition, but New Jersey’s Democratic primary has four or five plausible candidates in the field including blog favorite Josh Gottheimer.
That one will be a literal Dog fight. Gottheimer is in the Blue Dog Caucus and Mikie Sherrill, the other U.S. Representative in the race, used to be.
Sherrill and five other Dems including Spanberger, Ed Case and Lou Correa parted ways with the Blue Dogs at the beginning of the last Congress. With Mary Peltola gone now, I think they’re down to seven members. It’ll likely be six once federal prosecutors get through with Henry Cuellar. An endangered species.
Ruckus
@Baud:
Wonder how this year is going to go for him?
Wonder how many people may want to dump their musky vehicles? And soon.
JaneE
The store I go to has a few dozen organic eggs on the shelf, and no posted prices. Just a sign saying there is a shortage of eggs. I am tempted to drop into the local Denny’s and see if they are holding their prices.
satby
Just a reminder for people who purchase eggs at farmers markets: small family farm flocks are generally not being screened for bird flu.
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
@satby: and it’s being found in backyard flocks all over the country in places the bother to test. Been detected in at least two counties in Connecticut so far in backyard flocks
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
@JoeyJoeJoe: I need to learn more about NY state politics now that I live in CNY/Finger Lakes and my kid lives in Southern Tier.
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
@Geminid: good points, I don’t think many Trump voters have thought about how many people do the vital jobs in the U.S. and are either legal immigrants who are not white and are justifiably afraid of being detained in an ICE sweep, OR are undocumented immigrants who were hired because the employers want to pay less and avoid overtime, safety, health and other regulations. Everyone from warehouse workers, construction, cleaning staff, restaurant staff, farm work, meat processing. How many health care workers, CNAs, doctors and nurses are green card holders or naturalized citizens? Do they realize how many nurses are Filipino, Caribbean, etc. Why would anyone want to stay working here if they’re skills are valued and they are safer in Canada, Mexico or anywhere else?
Ruckus
@lowtechcyclist:
In my first business (that I took over from dad – and owned/ran longer than he did) we paid far more than minimum wage. We had to, the employees had to be/were very highly skilled and the work had a danger level of don’t stick your fingers/hands there, you will get hurt or even lose them and you always wear safety glasses. We made tools that made plastic and metal parts for all types of products. Bottles, toys, household items, medical products.
And we always had apprentices. Because no matter how much or where you went, schooling could not teach the on the job details. It took time and training.
Geminid
@EmbraceYourInnerCrone: New York seems to have a lot of good political political reporting, from NYC outlets and others.
I follow politics there some through Tom Watson. Watson is not a professional journalist now but he used to be a newspaper reporter. Now he’s a committed Democrat and self-described “Liberal” with strong political views, and lives in Westchester County.
Tom Watson posts on BlueSky under guitartomwatson.bsky.social and publishes longer form pieces on Substack under theliberaltomwatson.substack.com.
Geminid
@EmbraceYourInnerCrone: Republican Bob Goodlatte (VA06) was my Congressman for much of the time I lived in the Shenandoah Valley. Then he retired in 2018 and Ben Cline succeeded him.
Goodlatte was an immigration lawyer before entering Congress. He probably represented a plenty of employers back then, and he likely represented them in a different way during his 20+ years in Congress. I think a senior committee member can do some effective lobbying of government agencies if they do it in a careful way.
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
@Geminid: thank you!
Citizen Alan
@Melancholy Jaques: Honestly, I don’t think any economic policies matter to the MAGAts. Or really any policies at all. We are plagued by 70 million vicious feral children who get turned on when they see cruel bullying of others in action. That’s why they vote Trump. Any other theorizing about their motives is just navel-gazing, IMO.
Citizen Alan
@Princess: I imagine his next step will be shutting off all research into a Bird Flu vaccine.
Ruckus
@Chief Oshkosh:
That’s a rather harsh put down of clowns….
He’s more like a deranged sociopath.
Netto