How the Biden campaign hopes to make 2024 less about Biden and more about a contrast with Trumphttps://t.co/2xvzFM9o6z
— Island News (@KITV4) January 2, 2024
Tomorrow Wednesday: @VP visits Las Vegas to meet hospitality workers at Culinary Workers Union Local 226 as they celebrate their successful new contracts, which led to historic pay increases and workplace safety improvements. pic.twitter.com/7gvGn387j0
— KAMALA NATION (@KamalaNation) January 3, 2024
Biden campaign amps up focus on reelection with speech on Jan. 6 anniversary, via @mviser https://t.co/YNi14hnM6C
— John Wagner (@WPJohnWagner) January 3, 2024
Make the usual allowances for Matt Viser’s anti-Democrat bias, but: Per the Washington Post, “Biden campaign amps up focus on reelection with speech on Jan. 6 anniversary” [gift link]:
President Biden is scheduled to travel to Valley Forge, Pa., on Saturday to give remarks on the anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection as his campaign attempts — at the start of the election year — to take a more aggressive posture toward Donald Trump and center the election around a fight for democracy.
Biden will speak near a site where a group of militias gathered to form a coalition to fight for democracy — and where George Washington established headquarters during the Revolutionary War — as a way to invoke the core theme of his presidential campaign some 250 years later.
On Monday, Biden is scheduled to visit Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C., where nine people were fatally shot by a white supremacist in 2015.
The two events — as well as a trip to South Carolina by Vice President Harris on Saturday — signal a reinvigorated campaign from the likely Democratic ticket just as Republicans begin their nomination process with the Iowa caucuses on Jan. 15…
“Our message is clear and as simple: We are running a campaign like the fate of our democracy depends on it. Because it does,” Biden campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez told reporters on Tuesday.
Senior aides to Biden’s campaign outlined several new efforts to start the year, including ads that will begin running centered on Biden’s speech on Saturday and an attempt to illustrate in a more stark way the choices voters will face in November.
Biden has in recent weeks started speaking more directly about Trump, but often during fundraisers that are not seen by average voters. His campaign is choosing to escalate that message more directly in a symbolic setting on the anniversary of the insurrection, as a way to draw the contrast…
Biden’s trip to South Carolina also is an effort to address a concern among some Democrats, as support from Black voters drops. It has been a key constituency for the Democratic Party, and for Biden’s 2020 presidential primary campaign.
“Whether it is white supremacists descending on the historic American city of Charlottesville, the assault on our nation’s capital on January 6, or a white supremacist murdering churchgoers at Mother Emanuel nearly nine years ago, America’s worried about the rise in political violence and determined to stand against it,” said deputy campaign manager Quentin Fulks.
Baud
I can’t believe Biden is campaigning in an election year.
montanareddog
From an email just received from Amazon:
The final stage of enshittification begins. Unless there is a further stage, where they move to have as many ads as ad-supported TV.
And they artfully make it sound like a bonus that the current price will not change.
Caveatimperator
Per the first tweet, the Biden campaign needs to do both.
It’s not enough to be the anti-Trump. Biden needs to talk about the good he’s done. And he’s done a lot of good.
Putting too much focus on how he’s the opposite of Trump will not bring out voters who want to vote for something.
Frankensteinbeck
Of course Biden plans to make Trump his focus. Biden is a highly successful president in a calm, technocratic way. Trump is a visceral nightmare that the majority of the country hoped we’d awakened from. He’s repulsive and evil and threatening. No positive message will come anywhere close to being as effective as “We have to stop this monster.” Trump will do the hard selling and Biden just has to make clear he’s the alternative.
EDIT – @Caveatimperator:
It worked last time, and Trump has only gotten more repulsive. Biden won’t ignore selling his own accomplishments, of course. We’re just talking about a major focus.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
Go Joe!
Best president of my life.
Side note: One Paxlovid side-effect is a metallic taste in one’s mouth. Sometimes those stated side effects actually happen, it a weird sensation that’s for sure.
BlueGuitarist
Thanks AL!
excellent to link Jan 6, Charleston, and Charlottesville.
Valley Forge provides a good contrast with trump having launched his campaign in Waco.
Nevada will be close in electoral college, US Senate, and 3 US house contests, and some state legislative races, culinary workers union will be very important in getting out the vote.
Good morning everyone. Let’s get fired up and ready to go
lowtechcyclist
@Frankensteinbeck:
This. As Rachel Bitecofer has been pointing out roughly forever, negative partisanship is the strongest force in politics.
The GQP runs on nothing but that, and their voters never notice that they accomplish essentially nothing.
OzarkHillbilly
US pastor accused of trying to put wife’s co-worker’s head in deep fryer
He was just trying to elevate a wayward soul thru a baptism of fire. And just in case you were wondering:
I looked up the Elevated Life International Ministries:
Uh huh.
.
Suzanne
@montanareddog:
It feels like a lot of things are lower quality than they used to be.
I think this is honestly part of the reason people seem to have bad vibes about the economy. It’s not really a measurable thing, but it does often feel like one gets less for one’s dollar than in the past.
Suzanne
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
Everyone I’ve met who’s taken Paxlovid has said the metal taste is there. One of my cousins has acid reflux, and she said the Paxlovid triggered it so severely that her doctor told her to stop taking it.
Geminid
President Biden’s campaign has fairly young management. Campaign Manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez is 43 years old, and Deputy Campaign Manager Quentin Fulks is 34.
Julie Chavez Rodriguez says that when she was growing up her family didn’t have Sunday picnics, they had Sunday pickets. Her grandfather was United Farm Workers founder Cesar Chavez.
Nukular Biskits
Good mornin’, y’all!
Woke up late this morning. Raining outside so had no interest in getting up.
RevRick
As a resident of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania I fully expect to be bombarded with campaign ads. In addition to the Presidential campaign, Sen. Casey is up for reelection and my Rep. Susan Wild represents one of the swingiest of swing districts. Mrs. RevRick and I will vote by mail as soon as we get the ballots and will promptly turn off the TV and recycle the flyers.
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone 😊😊😊
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
Omnes Omnibus
@Geminid: Gerontocracy!!!!
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@OzarkHillbilly:
I will admit that there have been a few times in my life, actually many times since moving back to Denver, where I’ve wanted to stick somebody’s head into a deep fryer.
More notable individuals I’d consider doing that to when The Revolution comes is Yglesias and Larry Fucking Summers.
gene108
Saw this article on Wonkette this morning. One of the most underreported stories of modern politics is the threats of violence, ie terrorism, Trump supporters use to intimidate people that don’t fall in line.
vox.com/23899688/2024-election-republican-primary-death-threats-trump
bbleh
… less about Biden and more about a contrast with Trump …
Exactly this. An election is not a referendum; it’s a choice between two alternatives. Far better to make the contrast apparent than to focus exclusively on one or the other. Doing this will allow them both to tout Biden’s accomplishments and competence and to point out how much of a barking loon Trump (along with his deranged cult) is.
And then as the one aide quoted notes, it’s just a matter of timing. “Fortune strums a mournful tune / for those whose campaigns peak too soon.” Can’t splash the lurid colors on Trump too soon or people will get used to it (with the desperate assistance of the MSM, of course).
Gets more game-theoretic when you consider the Trump people will be doing the same. They’ll wait a while before they fire up the impeachment of Mayorkas and start screeching about caravans of welfare-gobbling drug-dealing disease-carrying brown people invading our country. Be interesting to see what the Biden people have in mind to counter that…
narya
@Suzanne: They ARE lower-quality. The shareholders and C-suite folks want their money, damnit, and workers have pushed back and unionized, so the quarter-pennies and half-pennies come out of other types of “cost-saving” (and profit-increasing) measures. I’m SO fortunate to be able to get the vast majority of my food from local and/or small providers; I’d rather that money go to those producers than to a CEO’s pocket.
OzarkHillbilly
Probably old news here, but just in case anyone was confused and thought women were actually people with inviolable rights:
I’m a little surprised Paxton isn’t crowing his victory from the rooftop.
lowtechcyclist
@rikyrah:
And a cheery good morning to you!
Nukular Biskits
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
An odd segue but your experience reminded me of something I had happen a number of years back.
My doctor had ordered an intravenous pyelogram (IVP) to get a look at my kidneys. In a nutshell, they inject a contrast material into your bloodstream that the kidneys filter out, making it very easy to get visual details on the kidneys.
Anyway, just prior to injecting the material, the technicians told me that I’d probably experience a strange metallic taste. Within just a minute or so, I exclaimed, “Hey! That tastes just like raw butterbeans!”. The technicians started laughing, told me they’d never had anyone ever tell them that before.
You’d have to have grown up a country bumpkin like me, raising peas, beans, etc, and have eaten raw produce to understand that one. 😂
NotMax
Might be worth a look-see for any jonesing for something innocuous to pass the time.
Qualified entertainment diversion in that have seen much less engaging medical dramas. Canadian series Remedy, available on Prime via Freevee.
narya
@rikyrah: Good morning to you! I’m always glad to see you here, even when I don’t respond to your greetings directly. :-)
frosty
@Geminid: This is good news! We’ve got a campaign manager with a family history of being fired up!
lowtechcyclist
@bbleh:
Starting off the day with a Bored of the Rings quote – now that’s the quality stuff I love!
Suzanne
@narya:
Agreed.
I know I sound like Old Man Yelling at Clouds, Walking Uphill Both Ways here. But there’s some interesting data on how quality has eroded.
For example, flying coast to coast takes something like 15-20% longer now than it did in 1980 (flying slower to save jet fuel). And the space between the seats has gotten smaller even as Americans have gotten a lot bigger. Things like appliances have gotten much cheaper but they break faster and repairing them costs a lot. Etc etc etc.
RevRick
@Suzanne: I would dispute the assertion that things today are of lower quality. That’s certainly not true for motor vehicles and for consumer electronics. I couldn’t walk around with my bank in my pocket thirty years ago.
Now, I’m not saying that some things have declined in quality. That’s true for lumber, for example. But in many cases the apparent decline in quality is due to an increase in complexity. Computer chips and sensors are in stuff that we could scarcely imagine when we were younger, and when they fail, we’re stuck with expensive replacement or repairs.
Back in the 60s I recall helping my grandparents relight their gas stove with a long wooden matchstick on more than one occasion. And grousing about the phone company was a national pastime.
Dorothy A. Winsor
The more people see of Trump, the less they like him. He’s been restricting his public appearances. He won’t be able to do that this year.
JWR
NPR covered this on today’s Morning Edition in a story headlined Biden campaign running ‘like the fate of our democracy depends on it’
A snippet:
Good stuff!
frosty
@RevRick: I drove up to your district to knock doors for Sudan Wild, Fetterman, and Shapiro since electing a Democrat is hopeless where I live.
This fall I’m going to be closer to home trying to torpedo Scott Perry. Sorry to abandon Susan!
zhena gogolia
The death of Tom Wilkinson has led me to check out Michael Clayton. It’s really good!
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@lowtechcyclist:
“This Ring and no other was made by the Elves, who’d pawn their own mother to have it themselves”
I still have my very worn paperback copy from back in the day.
Kay
@OzarkHillbilly:
It operates to limit the travel of pregnant women- they can’t safely travel to or thru the states that won’t allow emergency medical treatment to pregnant women. Not all travel is strictly “voluntary”, either. What if a pregnant woman’s job requires she travel to or thru Texas or Louisiana or any of the other states that won’t treat pregnant women with standard of care interventions? There has to be at least this rock bottom level of federal protection – life of the mother- or we are essentially limiting the freedom of all women, not just the women in these states.
pluky
@Nukular Biskits: Hopefully you didn’t eat to many raw. They contain a fairly nasty toxin:
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phytohaemagglutinin
@Nukular Biskits:
Soprano2
@montanareddog: That’s because it’s what makes a profit. Everyone thinks they can have streaming of unlimited shows for $5.00/month while sharing their account with five other people and somehow that model will last forever. The streaming platforms were cheap in the beginning to pull people in, but they were never going to stay that way, because in the end these companies have to make money. It’s good that people are making more money, but in the end it also means prices will go up. I’m paying my employees a lot more now than I was in 2020, so my prices cannot stay at 2020 levels or I’ll go out of business.
Kay
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Agree. I’m always pleased when he shoots his mouth off and they all rush to cover it. He’s a mean-spirited, wholly negative nasty person and people forget that unless they hear from him a lot.
Soprano2
@OzarkHillbilly: Boy, every Democrat needs to campaign on this – “Republicans don’t want to allow ER doctors to save the life of a pregnant woman”. I guarantee that’s not a popular position.
Suzanne
@RevRick: As always, it’s complicated. I’d agree that cars are much better. Consumer electronics I see as much more of a mixed bag due to planned obsolescence. Phones are obviously more advanced. Clothes are much worse (there was an interesting piece recently called “Your Sweaters are Garbage” because it’s much more difficult and expensive to find clothing made of natural fibers and there are a lot of recycled plastics in clothes now). Furniture is mostly crap.
lowtechcyclist
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
You ain’t the only one!
“He would have finished Goddam off then and there, but pity stayed his hand. It’s a pity I’ve run out of bullets, he thought, as he went back up the tunnel, pursued by Goddam’s cries of rage.”
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@RevRick:
It’s an interesting conundrum, to see if there’s data to back up a multitude of anecdotal observations.
When we bought the Dauphine back in Misery, it came with a Frigidaire fridge (the badge said “Product of the American Motors Corporation”). It was built in 1974 and when we finally got rid of it around 2012 in favor of something that wasn’t an energy hog, it was still running.
Same for a ginourmous GE window AC unit in the local former Methodist Church (a wonderful Gothic, country church built in 1915). It was built in the mid-50s and finally crapped out in the late Aughts (it did finally die).
But yeah, cars? The 70-80s, especially with American automakers, were nothing but PieceOfShitMobiles. Now? One of the best cars I’ve ever owned is my 2023 Chevy Bolt EV.
I also hear you on lumber. We’ve worked on old house restoration/preservation since 1994 and marvel at old wood, always trying to score a supply of it for reuse.
Kay
@OzarkHillbilly:
I was amused to see the Right working to make this federal law dead letter, because this emergency room law is what George W Bush used to justify denying children Medicaid. He said they didn’t need it because emergency rooms had to treat them. He was such a coddled rich kid he didn’t know they charge people for that and garnish their wages when they can’t collect. He thought it was free. Lol.
Kristine
@montanareddog:
That is so depressing. I’d regret dropping cable except that was even worse. Talk about “57 channels and nothing on” and cutting into programs every five minutes for a loop of 90-second ads for pharma and step-in bathtubs.
I admit I am a Prime member, but boy, I’m reconsidering. Their streaming app has the worst layout and search function and the junk to good ratio of their offerings is heavily weighted towards the former. Kinda like their store.
Nukular Biskits
@pluky:
Interesting!
No, I never ate more than a few, usually either when picking or shelling.
Manyakitty
@montanareddog: yep. My response was to cancel my 9.95/month Amazon music subscription. I don’t listen that much, anyway, and it enrages me to give them more money on top of the annual fee, which I expect will also increase just in time for my renewal.
Soprano2
Also, to add to my tale of woes from last night, we found out our favorite Chinese place closed for good on December 25th. I figured it was inevitable from what I saw of his business lately – they depended a lot on Asian students from the local universities, and there are a lot fewer of them these days. They had a pretty extensive “traditional” menu that hubby ordered from a few times (not me, I’m the Americanized Chinese food all the way. Give me Springfield cashew chicken!). Plus they’d had some other problems. I’m hoping he opens up in another location eventually, because he told us he was going to try to do that.
Kay
@Kristine:
I stopped using Amazon when I ordered expensive perfume (which I spurge on so buy carefully) and it was clearly a knock off- a fake. They refunded but I don’t need that kind of uncertainty in my life. I hate shopping. I sure as shit don’t want it more complicated than it already is. Now I just buy perfume from department store sites and it’s always real.
Soprano2
@Kay: Ugh third party sellers, you do have to be careful when you buy from them. I bought some Clementine California when I found out it was discontinued. It was good, the box was right and it was wrapped in cellophane, but I know knock-offs are a problem on those sites.
Soprano2
@Suzanne: My mother had a Stickley oak TV stand that I had them sell in the estate sale because I didn’t want to mess with trying to sell it. We already have one, which is why she bought it – she liked ours a lot. I wish I knew how much they got for it, because someone got a real bargain. Those are hand made when you order them, and they cost over $2,000. Someone probably got a real bargain on a fantastic piece of furniture.
Never buy a microfiber covered couch. Ask me how I know this.
Central Planning
@Suzanne: The problem is that people tend not to notice they have more dollars.
frosty
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: When we bought our house 21 years ago there was a 20,000BTU, 220V window unit in the dining room. That’s enough cooling to do the whole house! Even though we can’t get the air up to the second floor, it does the whole first floor.
Yes, that’s present tense. It’s still going strong – I have no idea how old it is. It will stay there until I get a split-system heat pump, if I ever do.
RevRick
@frosty: She’s survived two tough races. I throw money at her.
Suzanne
@Soprano2: Textiles in general are crappy quality, both for clothes and for soft goods like upholstery fabric, drapes, etc.. A good chunk of the American furniture industry essentially gave up the ghost, and now probably 90% of the furniture sold in the U.S. is assemble-it-yourself flat-pack stuff. I am a midcentury fan, so I am always on the lookout for vintage loveliness!
narya
@RevRick: @Suzanne: You’re both right–it does matter what type of consumer good you are discussing. I renovated the kitchen in 2020, and both the refrigerator (LG) and microwave (KitchenAid) are 3.5-year-old pieces of crap. W/r/t the fridge, I did not get all of the add-ons (ice maker, water dispenser, electronic panels, etc.)–the pieces that have failed are the gasket (!!) and the magnet that turns off the light in the fridge. For the microwave, it’s designed to go over a stove, but it really hates being over a stove. I’m also thinking about the basically throw-away clothes that populate stores. But yes, some other things are built quite well, and you can get non-throw-away clothes if you’re willing and able to spend the money for them.
Baud
I miss lead in gasoline.
And DDT.
Soprano2
Yet another tragedy caused by the easy availability of firearms.
narya
@Baud: Okay, FINE; other things are better, too. Not EVERYTHING is crap. But there’s still a lot of crap.
Baud
@narya:
Nominated!
Suzanne
@Central Planning:
Agreed. But I contend that it is reasonable to expect that you advance over the course of your life, right? That you build? That’s the American dream for a lot of people. If you’re making more dollars but your costs go up about the same amount (or quality of stuff declines), you’re not advancing. If you get a good performance review at work and a raise, and that gets mostly eaten up by your rent going up, that feels bad. Even though you’re economically stable, it’s dispiriting.
OzarkHillbilly
I remember the days when turning 100,000 on the odometer was a big deal. I just turned 250,000 on my ’05 Dodge p/u and I see no reason why I won’t make it to 300,000.
Mai Naem mobile
@Soprano2: microfiber is garbage and it seems like all textiles except for towels are made of microfiber.
Kristine
@Kay: I’ve switched in some cases to ordering items directly from the manufacturer. Their prices are usually equivalent to Amazon’s plus they offer points systems and other bonuses that make being a direct customer worthwhile.
And as you noted, I’m confident the product I receive is the real thing.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay: When my son got run over on the Pontchartrain bridge, the first thing the hospital did (after stabilizing him of course) was get him signed up for medicaid.
Nukular Biskits
@narya:
A large part of the problem with modern appliances is their complexity and reliance on electronic components.
Take, for example, a run-of-the-mill electric clothes dryer. Used to be the only major parts were the timer (mechnical), drum, belt, motor/blower and heating elements. Simple to repair, easy to find parts for (well, it used to be).
Now, the old-style mechanical timer has been replaced by an array of electronics with as much, if not more, computing power than what was had on the Apollo missions. I’m sure there’s a law for this, but the more parts you have in a system, the more likely it is for something to break. Couple that with a lack of serious power conditioning (unless you had whole-house power conditioning installed).
Having your TV die due to bad power is an annoyance. Having a major appliance die, such as a fridge, due to bad power is far more expensive and impactful.
RevRick
@Suzanne: Furniture is mostly crap, because the youngs nowadays prefer IKEA easy assembly, easy to discard and replace. As for planned obsolescence, well, that was a scheme hatched by light bulb manufacturers in the 1920s!
Soprano2
@Suzanne: My grandma told me she thought one reason people’s clothes wore out so fast was that they washed them to death. I have jeans and sweaters and shirts that I’ve had for over 10 years that are still in good shape, and I think it’s partly because I’m judicious about how I wash them. (I got out a fine wool sweater this year and found it had moth holes in it, even though I know I washed it before I put it away. I’m going to try to fix the holes and see what I think about how it looks. I was so upset about it.) But yeah, in general with clothes and shoes you get what you pay for. There’s a reason that camisole at WalMart costs $2, and you’ll get $2 worth of wear out of it.
Suzanne
@narya: I have bought multiple electronics items over the past few years in which the plastic parts (like battery compartment doors) have broken, and then I have tried to replace the plastic part…. only to find out that replacing the plastic part costs as much as an entirely new version of the product.
I am having a dishwasher repair person come out on Friday to fix a product we bought under two years ago.
Nukular Biskits
@OzarkHillbilly:
Not trying to be a smart-ass here, but which one? I-10?
Soprano2
@Mai Naem mobile: I have to cover my couch with blankets and couch covers because our dogs lay on them and chew their paws, and if I let them do that on the uncovered couch it would have huge wet stains on the cushions. We bought it from Famous Barr, too, it wasn’t cheap.
OzarkHillbilly
Carhart!
bbleh
@Baud: also having the flu, now THAT was some kinda fun. And flat tires.
Seems to me what we’re seeing here is nothing more than the usual retail practice of slowly reducing volume while maintaining price and then ultimately offering NEW VALUE-SIZED product at the same volume as originally but at a substantially higher price than before (that’s still a bit lower per-unit-volume than the now-shrunken product). A pound of whatever becomes 14 oz., then 12, then 10, then 8 along with a NEW FULL POUND SIZE! at a bit less than twice the price.
Kay
@OzarkHillbilly:
Good for them. They need to get paid. I see unpaid ambulance bills a lot. When my youngest fell off his bike and broke his arm and people came out of a house to help him and told him they were calling an ambulance he told them to just call me. I need one of those pop on blue lights you see in movies for my economy ambulance :)
Kay
@OzarkHillbilly:
Good for them. They need to get paid. I see unpaid ambulance bills a lot. When my youngest fell off his bike and broke his arm and people came out of a house to help him and told him they were calling an ambulance he told them to just call me. I need one of those pop on blue lights you see in movies for my economy ambulance :)
Miss Bianca
@gene108: And, right on schedule, after the Colorado Supreme Court rules Trump ineligible to be on the ballot, comes a gunman breaking into the Supreme Court Building. His wife claims he’s having “mental health issues”, apparently. Oh, really?//
Nukular Biskits
@Suzanne:
I can’t tell you how many dishwashers I’ve either replaced or repaired over the years.
One of the primary failures is the control board which, depending on make/model, is almost always at the top of the door. The problem with this is that the area where the control board resides isn’t completely isolated from the hot, moist air that gets vented out the top of the dishwasher door. Hot, moist air and non-MIL-STD electronics are not a good mix.
Matt McIrvin
@RevRick:
Then the next question is whether that complexity is really doing something for us, or is just a shiny object to make the product seem more up-to-date and high-tech. Do I need an Internet-connected controller with a screen on my refrigerator? I don’t think I do. And that’s more stuff to break.
The move to solid-state electronic controllers that happened in many consumer products in the 1970s and 1980s tended to make them much more reliable, because solid-state stuff is actually more robust and less fiddly than whatever came before. But there hasn’t really been another comparable leap since then, so the tendency is to complicate things.
New tech tends to give us capabilities we didn’t have before, but there’s also a countervailing tendency to optimize everything to maximize profit margin at the expense of quality, if it’s not something that is obvious when you first buy the product.
Suzanne
@RevRick:
It’s not all due to revealed preference. Just like lumber is lower quality, furniture-grade wood is also more expensive now relative to what it used to cost. And transportation costs for flat-pack furniture are much less than for finished furniture because it takes up a lot less space. There used to be a large American furniture industry in North Carolina and it is much smaller now than it was.
bbleh
@Nukular Biskits: boy howdy! surge protectors on everything now! we see “fail-overs” much more often now, thanks to the Reagan-era-deregulation-fueled switch from regulated power generation to for-profit, and the consequent erosion of reliability. They only last a second, but a series of them can fry a power supply, and then your whole appliance is toast.
bbleh
@Miss Bianca: does MAGA qualify as a “mental health issue”? As a taxpayer, I would be happy for some of my Medicare/Medicaid dollars to be used to treat it.
Another Scott
WaPo Tweet – “attempts”
I’ve become very sensitive to seeing words like “tries”, “attempts”, “wants to” and the like when applied to Democratic political reporting. The unstated but often implied following words are “but fails”, “but fails”, “but fails”.
Why not just tell us what they’re actually doing, and leave the armchair mind melding and bad Carnack the Magnificent impersonations out of it??!
Grr…,
Scott.
Betty
@Nukular Biskits: That is my gripe. Between the failing computer chips and the plastic, we have had to have our washing machine repaired numerous times. I think of the one my Mom used with no problems for 20 years- lots of metal and mechanical operation. I miss those appliances.
Soprano2
@Nukular Biskits: I have one of those new low water washers. I’m convinced it doesn’t clean as well as my old washer, I don’t care what anyone says. Plus, in order to soak anything in it I have to run the tub as full as it will get and then add about three extra buckets of water and then pull the button out, which means the light flashes for 8 or 10 hours while stuff soaks. Those machines need a “soak” setting. I’ve already had to have it worked on once because the control panel threw craps. I agree, the more computerized appliances get the more likely they are to break down quickly. We have a basic fridge with no ice maker or water/ice dispenser. I’ve had it worked on once since 2006.
Nukular Biskits
@bbleh:
To adapt something I saw legendary racer Smokey Yunick once tell someone else in Hot Rod magazine many years about when asked about the “safest RPM” for a given engine, the safest AC power for any appliance is none.
Suzanne
@Soprano2:
A lot of it is that, as people have gotten larger, people are buying more clothes with stretch in them. Much of this is because as a cohort of people is bigger, there is more variation in their measurements. Like, if you took ten women who are a size 2, they would have almost exactly the same measurements. If you took ten women who are a size 14, there’s probably significant variation in their measurements…. some have bigger hips, some in the waist, etc. So clothing manufacturers make one pattern for that size but use stretchy fabric to accommodate the range of bodies. But stretchy fabric is synthetic and falls apart much faster in the wash.
Take a look at cheap fleece hoodies or sweaters….. 50% or more will be polyester. Then they pill up and wear out. Cotton would last much longer.
Baud
@Another Scott:
Good call.
JML
@Nukular Biskits: It’s funny you mention dryers; the one that came with my house is an old gas-powered one and when I was having the home inspection done and the guy was walking me through everything he told me “you need to get the dryer replaced” in a monotone while shaking his head “no” the whole time he was talking. He eventually explained that he was required to tell me to replace the dryer because of its age, but that models like mine were tanks that can go forever and that replacing it was likely to cause me more headaches than save them.
I’m in year 6 on the house and the only problem with the ancient dryer is I broke one of the plastic bits on the lint trap, so I need to be careful pulling it out to clean. The dryer itself just keeps churning along.
(I’ve been fortunate on not needing to replace major appliances…yet. *knocks on wood* I suspect the fact that I don’t have kids has helped in that area)
RevRick
@Baud: And I miss lead pipes and paint, and knob and tube electrical wiring!
Almost Retired
OT. Well nuts. After avoiding it for almost four years, I done got me the COVID virus. Fortunately, I’m fully vaxxed – I’m the opposite of an anti-vaxxer (“but, Doc, what if I’m bitten by a plague rat….isn’t there a vaccine”).
This is very bad news for my wife, who is less the “soup and sympathy sort” and more of a “step over the dead body and move on with her life” type of gal. She also finds me a big dramatic. Possibly because I name my illnesses like hurricanes. Last year “Super Bad Head Cold Zelda” blew ashore in February.
I’m on Plaxovid. I noticed the meals I am preparing are completely flavorless. And then I remembered that I’m a very bad cook.
Pretty sure I got this at my Mom’s 90th birthday party on Friday – which was something of a rager as nonagenarian birthdays go.
Better January 2024 than January 2020.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@OzarkHillbilly:
’99 Toyota Celica hit 275K before I got rid of it. Still ran fine, just was really worn down by that point.
OzarkHillbilly
@Nukular Biskits: The Causeway Bridge.
eta: a semi jack knifed during an ice storm, My son got out to make sure everybody was OK. Big mistake.
narya
@Nukular Biskits: This is exactly right–that was in part why I got the fridge I got–it didn’t have all of the fancy stuff. And the part that failed was a damn gasket (I’ve ignored it, as I am not about to spend a zillion dollars replacing it). But my brother, who is an auto mechanic, sees the same thing as you and others are noting: it’s no longer necessarily a mechanical issue. He is valuable to his company because he can fix both mechanical issues and the electronic stuff on today’s vehicles; he says that he sees the Kids These Days in the bays next to him looking up how to make a mechanical repair on Youtube. My mother had a raft of issues with her dryer, again, because of the computer stuff. I’d love to see an appliance company take a step back and ask which parts of their appliances really need to be computerized.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: I miss the gigantic TVs with vaccuum tubes that weighed a ton and computers with no hard drives.
marklar
@RevRick: Re: Susan Wild
We’ll have to keep working hard to keep her in. She’s been lucky in terms of her opponent in the last two cycles. Scheller (I know her quite well, our daughters have been lifelong friends) had a compelling story regarding her overcoming substance use disorder, and her support for employing people working through such challenges, but chose to go full MAGA in her campaign to clear the primary, and then couldn’t switch back towards the center. If the Republicans ever nominate a Charlie Dent type again (not likely given the current make-up of the party), Wild would have a much tougher time.
RevRick
@Nukular Biskits: Mrs. RevRick’s dishwasher is still going strong at 13.8 billion years… or almost 75, depending on how you’re counting.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Almost Retired:
See above comments, same here in terms of the Plague.
I also read this morning that based on wastewater analysis, we’re now at the second highest surge level since The Plague Times started and one way to read the data is that by this time next week, 1/3 of ‘Murkins will have it.
Regardless, it’s not surprising. Nonetheless, I’m still kicking myself I didn’t mask last week at an event (where hitherto, I’d normally have masked).
TBone
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: I had that metallic taste as a symptom (kept taste and smell ability but would smell weird smells like car exhaust and taste copper pennies allatime).
Nukular Biskits
@RevRick:
Is that dog years? 🤣
JMG
Yesterday I put away for another year the Lionel O-gauge trains I have had since I was little. I don’t do much more than set up a circuit around the Christmas tree, and I had to replace the transformer, but by gum the trains still run. They are a marvel of the simple, heavy technology of the 1950s. On the other hand, none of the railroads the trains and cars are replicas of have existed for decades.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay: Yeah, it being NOLA I rather suspect they are used to that situation.
Same here on the ambulance. I’ve had a number of instances where I drove myself to the hospital when I probably shouldn’t have. The one ambulance ride I did get was when they transferred me from our local hospital up to the big city because they didn’t think they could deal with my blood clots out here.
RevRick
@Matt McIrvin: And yet… the cost of consumer electronics and appliances have declined across the board in real dollars, as have clothes, food, and furniture.
What has gotten more expensive are three things:
Housing
Health Care
Higher Education
RevRick
@Nukular Biskits: No, it’s my stellar personality!
Kristine
@Nukular Biskits:
When the tech install my induction range—Frigidaire Gallery—he advised sticking with the steam clean function and avoiding the higher-temp self-cleaning cycle because the venting is located in the backsplash next to the control panel and in the latter case things get way too hot.
And a tech is coming today to check the year-old fridge—also Gallery—because it has twice reset itself to Sabbath Mode and the temp edges into the danger zone. I poked around online and saw it happens occasionally. May need a new control board.
Suzanne
@RevRick: OTOH, much of the modern American home is finished with “wood products” like MDF or “luxury vinyl tile”. Don’t get me started on porcelain tile quality having slid into the gutter.
3Sice
A 21″ console TV was selling for an inflation adjusted $3000 – $3500 in the mid seventies.
That sucks. Eating durable goods cost like that burned up much of the glory days middle class incomes.
Joey Maloney
@zhena gogolia: How did you like Tilda Swinton as the Big Bad?
3Sice
A 21″ console TV was selling for an inflation adjusted $3000 – $3500 in the mid seventies.
That sucks. Eating durable goods cost like that burned up much of the glory days middle class incomes.
OzarkHillbilly
Well then, you should move to South STL.
narya
@Suzanne: When I did the kitchen, I found a place in Pittsburgh that has a license to make tiles with Fiesta colors. :-) Any ideas why tile quality sucks so much?
OzarkHillbilly
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: I am hoping to hang on to this truck as long as possible. Last year I drove it a total of 5600 miles over 10 months. If I can keep that up, I just might make it to the end of my driving days.
suzanne
@narya: Tile manufacturers are making tiles thinner and with cheaper clays. So they crack more.
Bupalos
@Frankensteinbeck: it has to be a balance. I just hope the message is distilled a litle better on the threat Trump represents. Talking about “democracy” lands in our sweet spot here, but not that many voters really have a visceral image of what democracy means. It’s like the DFW quote about fish and water, people don’t feel democracy and don’t really recognize that it’s there, so it doesn’t connect to talk about it’s absense. It has to be connected to it’s outcomes: you won’t be able to change your leaders if they only respect the outcome when they win. The clips I want to see over and over are not so much people ripping up the capitol. I want to see Trump saying he’ll respect the results of the election only if he wins. With a backdrop of 1/6, along with the chaos and violence of other political crises, Brazil, the Maidan, etc.
There’s a real danger to over-relying on 1/6 as if that day itself is what we’re trying to avoid, because in the end that made a ripple in very few lives. It was experienced by most voters as a kind of ugly surprise but ultimately one that didn’t really matter.
Soprano2
@Another Scott: I’m glad someone else has noticed this, I was going to point it out. NPR uses “try” “tried” and “tries” a lot when talking about Democrats and things they are doing. The use of these words implies failure, just like “attempt” does. They rarely use these type of words when talking about Republicans.
Ksmiami
@Kay: the fifth circuit needs to be moved the fifth circle of hell.
Omnes Omnibus
@narya:
Sturgeon’s Law. 90% of everything is crap.
The reason we think a lot of older things are better is survivor bias. The good stuff survived, and the crap mostly did not.
Soprano2
@Suzanne: Well, I love having a little bit of stretch in my jeans, but I only wash them about every 10 or 15 wearings unless I stain them. I have a pair of Chico’s jeans I’m wearing today that are over 10 years old and are still pretty dark blue. Good jeans!
Mr. Bemused Senior
@Omnes Omnibus: yeah, I survived riding in cars without seat belts and bicycling without a helmet. People today, sheesh!
suzanne
@Omnes Omnibus:
Not entirely true. There’s data when you look.
What is probably true is that some things are better, some things are worse, and they probably roughly even out. But again, the ongoing discussion has been about vibes, and why there is a mismatch between economic measures and voters’ self-reporting. And I contend that things like “enshittification”…. paying the same amount but now having to put up with ads is a good example — is probably part of that vibes mismatch. Even though it’s reasonable and logical to pay a fair amount for stuff…. it feels bad to have a lower-quality product than before.
Bupalos
@Miss Bianca: there’s a really good article up today from timothy snyder on the “pitchfork ruling” mentality we’re falling into.
I’ll admit I’m one that kind of wishes the issue had not been raised, because of how unlikely it seems to help us politically. Interesting to reorient a bit with a public intellectual that always manages to zoom out to a fuller scope of political history.
Kristine
@OzarkHillbilly: Hoping for the same for my ’02 Forester. 182K, give or take. I’ve reached the stage where I usually have a wear ‘n’ tear repair every year—I’ll need to get the timing belt replaced this summer in preparation for a fall road trip—but I love that car. Kuro-Shinju, First of His Name.
frosty
@OzarkHillbilly:
I bought my Mazda 3 with 18K on it. Figured if I can make it 20 years and a little over 200K miles it will be my last car. That’s about the point the kids will take my keys away.
Bupalos
@JML: If and when HEERA rebates get here in late ’24 a heat pump dryer is half price if you’re kinda regular income, and free if you’re kinda lower income.
It will probably not be as reliable as burning up tons of natural gas has been, but will be easier on your clothes and has the advantage of not speeding doomsday for the sake of convenience.
Bupalos
@frosty: Name checks out. But get the split system, at least when the HEERA rebates get here. Much more efficient, much quieter, heats too, and either you’re rich or it is half-off or free. And that old unit is very recyclable.
JAFD
@Suzanne: Meself, have to pick up some fruniture in near future. Another ‘Billy’ bookcase or equivalent (probably Ikea, is 10-minute drive away), an office chair on castors and with old-fashion screw-height-adjustment (the hydralic lifts have left me feelin’ down too often)
Would really like to find a dining table with a 54″ x 42″ top, 34″ above floor (or 50″ x 40″ or something about that – will be against wall and under ‘pass-thru’ most of time.). If you know of anyone who sells something similar, please pass word to me.
Hope every Jackal and lurker has a healthy*, happy, peacfil and prosperous 2024 !
*And get better soon if you’re feelin poorly !
frosty
@Bupalos: Thanks, I’ll keep an eye out for HEERA. We’ve spent beaucoup bucks on the house this year: landscaping, roof, and siding. The neighbors are going to central air and that might be a requirement for a quick sale before too long.
I’m trying to get it ready to sell sometime in the next ten years. I think the curb appeal is taken care of. Next is the interior, and I can’t repaint it until I throw out a third of our stuff to get some room to move!
opiejeanne
@Kristine: We put in an electric wall oven in 2013 when we remodeled the kitchen. It was great for those 10 years, except when it was less than a year old and the motherboard failed and took months to get replaced. When I ran the clean function this past fall it fried the electronics panel, and the repair people repeatedly could not fix it.After a month of that nonsense we got a new one that was NOT KitchenAid, that wants me to connect it to the internet. It has a steam clean option that I will be utilizing.
In 2020 we replaced the Samsung washer we bought in 2010, after it failed mechanically, but the dryer seems fine. It was tough finding ANY washer then and we ended up with a Whirlpool that does the job but my husband hates it because it sits too low compared to the old washer and the dryer. The 10 year old refrigerator was just falling apart aside from the ice-maker that kept failing. We’ve replaced every failed appliance with ones made in the US, and right now GE is getting all of my praise for Things That Just Work.
The one appliance that has never given us any trouble is the 2010 Bosch dishwasher, but I probably just jinxed it by praising it.
TBone
@OzarkHillbilly: women should stage an all-out strike, nationwide, and put these motherfuckers in their place once and for all.
Nukular Biskits
With respect to the discussion about “the good ol’ days” and how stuff was better, as others have noted, it’s a mixed bag.
The introduction of electronics to appliances like washers, dryers, fridges, etc, has made them more efficient and expanded the options available (I can remember when you had only 3 options on the washer, for example). As I noted above, however, the increased complexity increases the likelihood of failure of something, particularly given the susceptibility to power issues as I noted above.
Couple all this with what others have called “planned obsolescence” … like many of you, I remain unconvinced that most manufacturers intentionally build things to last. After all, there would be no money in that, would there? I realize that’s probably a conspiracy theory but to manufacture a product that would reliably operation for, say, 30 years would significantly increase the cost to the point most consumers probably wouldn’t buy it.
While this is mostly applicable to major appliances, my recommendation is to purchase something that doesn’t have a lot of bells & whistles, consider getting the power utility to install a power conditioner on the power coming into the house and perform the preventive maintenance as required.
Nukular Biskits
@frosty:
200K is just getting broken in.
My F150 has 340K on it.
TBone
@Suzanne: you’re correct. Distinctly noticeable especially after 2008 when we started saying “crapification of the nation.”
catclub
Danish? teak? yeah.
catclub
We moved in and have a Bosch Dishwasher – probably that vintage.
Very quiet, but I hate the touch panel controls. never know if your finger press worked or not.
JML
@Bupalos: interesting. I’ll have to check it out. have not explored heat-pump dryers (really haven’t explored anything appliance-related since everything works correctly) but I’m intrigued.
dirge
Agreed. I think this is probably a larger effect than it appears, because we experience it as a bait and switch, which we perceive as unfair, which produces a visceral reaction for most people. We might understand intellectually about introductory rates, loss leaders, and so on, but an environment that’s constantly taking stuff away just feels hostile. You’ve got to constantly keep an eye on all your stuff to make sure you’re not missing out or getting ripped off. It’s work. It undermines trust.
Of course it’s not a new tactic, but it seems a lot more pervasive. I think that follows from businesses being built more around investment than revenue, especially in tech. When there’s crazy VC money to burn, it makes sense to run at a loss until you’ve driven your competition out of business, then tighten the screws on customers with nowhere else to turn. Seems like this is pretty much everybody’s strategy now, and why wouldn’t it be? It’s a lot harder to squeeze a trickle of profit from customers by selling a superior product, than it is to get a deluge of investment by selling dreams of monopoly pricing power.
I guess that’s just a variation on “if you’re getting something free, then you are the product being sold,” which is of course going to be a profoundly alienating experience.
Kristine
@opiejeanne: Bosch often gets ranked high on reliability listings.
I admit I didn’t do much research when I bought the fridge and range. I have a Frigidaire dishwasher that’s been working well for 8 years now, so thought I’d stick with them. I bought the black stainless steel models, only to learn later that the black coating was a thin layer applied atop the stainless steel and had a bad rep across all brands for scratching easily. Bosch is afaik the only brand where the color is added to the metal directly. But I would’ve paid more than 2x the price. Still, I may consider it depending on how well the Frigidaire stuff behaves.
Juju
@Soprano2: I am just getting through some of last night’s posts and I saw your rant about the dogs pooping in your house. If you remember, I’m taking care of my mother who has advanced dementia, and I had a similar experience with my dogs and my mother. What I figured out is that I can’t trust my mother to read the dogs’ I need to go out cues, any longer. This was something that showed up rather early in my mother’s dementia. I think your husband may be in a similar place. The fact that the dog did its business right near your husband and he didn’t notice is a sign that he’s not as aware of the dogs’ needs like he used to be. At this point in my mother’s dementia she either lets the dogs out numerous times in a short period of time because she can’t remember if she’s let them out, or she misses all of the I need to go out dances. The way I handle this situation is to make sure I let the dogs out before I am going to be absent for whatever reason. That has helped. My other suggestion is to get a spray bottle of Resolve Urine Destroyer. It works better than anything I’ve used to take care of all bodily fluids, dog or human that may end up on carpet.
I hope your rant helped a bit.
opiejeanne
@catclub: Ours has a digital display, so we can see if our selections worked. It lets you know when it’s finished by beeping in an annoying manner and only shuts up if you open the door a bit, but that’s likely a good thing.
Juju
@catclub: Bosch dishwashers have a red light that shows up on the floor, on the right side as you are facing the dishwasher, when it is running. That’s how you know that you pushed the buttons enough to make them work, and that the machine is running.
wjca
Shirts** I buy today are maybe good for 10 years. Maybe. But I’ve got a shirt from my 1972 Air Force uniform which I’ve been wearing a couple of time a month since. One small frayed spot by one pocket; otherwise looks like the day I bought it.
** Bad news for the ladies. Best I can tell blouses have a fraction of the lifetime of men’s shirts.
Bupalos
I count that as an unqualified increase in quality. And am tempted to link louis ck’s riff on people complaining about flying.
Uncle Cosmo
Because everything obeys Sturgeon’s Law:
The great SF writer Theodore Sturgeon originally promulgated this law with specific reference to science fiction, but it didn’t take long before folks discovered it literally applies to EVERYTHING.
Dmbeaster
How the Biden campaign hopes to make 2024 less about Biden and more about a contrast with Trump
Who knows if this blurb is accurate, but I hope that they focus on both. Brag about accomplishments. Attack Trump and his criminality. They are two parts of the same thing.
He needs to be more aggressive and assertive. That itself dilutes the “too old” crap. Be a scrappy saavy grandpa.
Matt McIrvin
@suzanne: During the various expansion phases of the Internet a lot of VC-funded stuff gets essentially given away or sold at a loss with the understanding that once a customer base is locked in it can be made profitable. At some point the VCs come looking for their money. And that stage is often where the experience degrades. But fate was locked in from the beginning.
The Truffle
@Frankensteinbeck: Why didn’t that tactic work in 2016? Why did it work for 2020? Just curious.
I agree that Biden has real achievements to run on. But why didn’t “Trump evil” work when he first ran
@Dmbeaster: I like the “Uncle Joe” nickname myself.