I say we primary Obama with Dougj, for a run as our first spoof president. Probly need to drop the “big baby” handle though, for something like the Carteresque “I will never lie to you, Dougj”
So eventually the prez will get to address congress and urge them to do something about jobs and they won’t do it and so the speech will actually be a campaign speech which is okay but what about the folks without income?
LOL, lambert is even out for some PUMA recruiting?. This is shaping up to be one hell of a blogging day.
10.
PurpleGirl
@Linda Featheringill: They, whoever they are, are hoping that we’ll die. Some of us may be able get to food stamps, almost none of us can get cash assistance (the current version of welfare for childless adults who aren’t disabled), some us may get Medicaid. These all depend on what state you are in and if you own a house/co-op/condo and what assets you have left. (If you are not independently wealthy, you need to hope relatives can carry you.)
11.
Zifnab
You know what would really help our employment numbers? Firing more public employees!
Look at the Employment Participation Rate. Just look at it!
I’m stocking up on pitchforks and torches. But who will have enough money to buy them?
13.
schlemizel - was Alwhite
TAX CUTZZZZ!! DEREGULATION!!!!!11
It the only thing that can work! how else can you explain the total lack of economic growth during the ’90’s – with its higher tax rates & more regulation – compared to the limitless economic boom of the low tax/low regulated ’00’s?
Nothing else makes sense!
14.
JGabriel
DougJ:
Time for more austerity and deregulation.
But austerity and deregulation haven’t even been tried yet! We just suffered a 20 gazillagalooglian dollars in stimulus but tax rates on job-creator’s profits are still an insufferable 15%! And, at 35%, their commie-level income taxes are a job-killing more than twice that!
Spare the rod and spoil the unemployed! Morale will never improve if we don’t make the middle-class suffer more!
.
15.
Mark S.
I still have faith in our job creators. We must do anything to appease them. We should probably eliminate the capital gains tax, just to be on the safe side.
So eventually the prez will get to address congress and urge them to do something about jobs …
I’m sure the House GOP and the media will treat the President’s job proposals with the same respect they treated his request for a joint session to propose them.
.
17.
lacp
Here’s another take on these numbers, guaranteed to brighten your Labor Day weekend.
just in time for labor day. even government statistics have their own sense of irony.
19.
Dennis SGMM
I’ll probably receive a shitload of heat for this. It’s all just pixels anyway so here goes. The average voter may be thinking that “We tried the black guy and things didn’t get better. Maybe it’s time to try the loony.”
Obama took office burdened with racist antipathy, a shit economy, and just being a Democrat. For what ever reason you care to ascribe his years in office have failed to reverse the economic decline.
Contrary to Stuck’s vigorous and repetitive assertions, I do not hate Obama and I never, ever, wanted him to fail. When we elected Obama I felt that his background, his scholarship and yes, his color gave him the potential to be a great president. He isn’t. The reasons for that seem to be in the eye of the beholder. So be it. I will work my ass off on behalf of his re-election but I have this creepy Reagan/Carter feeling about ’12.
Leave it to an Obama fan to snark on evidence that people kill themselves when they can’t find work. Well done.
That plays in this environment because so many of us know what it is like to lose a job, fail to get another one, and then consider suicide. You might be surprised to find out just how many of us have experienced that.
Gallows humor, yes. Really funny, no. But what are we going to do about it?
didn’t he snark on it first anyway? leave it to a deranged moron to accuse someone else of doing something he clearly did first.
25.
schlemizel - was Alwhite
@Dennis SGMM:
No Dennis, for some people any indication at all the Obama has not been the bestest President possible is treated the same as calling him racist names and saying he is a total failure who must be primaried to some people here.
I made the mistake once of expressing disappointment with something he did and was told in 8-10 followups that I hate Obama, I am a firebagger and I want republicans to win in 12. Since then I just avoid the whole thing – they win.
His whole piece was snark, and the usual for the snake pit blog he has, that operates under the sole purpose of bashing Obama, that began well before he was elected.
So today, he decides to show up, and link to a post he wrote, that among other things, slyly accuses Obama of blame for the suicides of financially stressed people. Lambert gives not one shit about those people who lost hope — if you read, or have read his blog, it singular purpose has been to undermine Obama since the primaries.
So he shows up today, on the heels of a bad jobs report, for the attempted smear job, of, “they are all in it together” with the blame for these deaths. Pretty low stuff.
And then has the arrogance to equate mocking him, with mocking suicide victims of the bad economy
27.
WyldPirate
Leave it to General Stuck-with-his-head-his-head-his-rectum to find any reason to deflect any criticism of the most bestest President evah.
When he gets tired of slinging bullshit excuses, he breaks out his inexhausrable supply of racist cards.
The ostracizing will continue until our numbers begin to grow.
32.
schlemizel - was Alwhite
@Dennis SGMM:
There are an awful lot of things I love about our little backyard fence group of chatters but the obot v. firebagger poo flinging when people are not 100% in agreement has really gotten tedious.
I have decided I will no longer comment when I find our President doing something I like or when he does something I am unhappy with. Its just not worth it. For some there is no gray “you are either with us or against us”. I have been involved in organized politics for 50 years and never seen this kind of discord between people who have the same goals.
Just for the record, let me quote from what General Stuck labels “PUMA recruiting”:
Each rise of 100 foreclosures was also associated with 12% more visits related to anxiety in the same age category. And the same rise in foreclosures was associated with 39% more visits for suicide attempts among the same group, though this still represents a small number of patients, the researchers say.
As for what to do, I think the first thing to do is recognize the reality of the DISemployment figures and their human cost. The second thing to do is agitate for the right policy. I’d note that FDR created 15 million jobs with the WPA, the CCC, and other Depression Era programs. The WPA was created by executive order, so if Obama wanted to, he could do that tomorrow. Really, patent reform (an early trial balloon on the jobs speech) wouldn’t cut it, by those standards.
I have been involved in organized politics for 50 years and never seen this kind of discord between people who have the same goals.
I’ve only been involved in Democratic GOTV efforts since ’68. That doesn’t make me a better Democrat or a wiser Democrat, it does add up to a lot of experience talking with actual voters whose reactions range from “Hell yes!” to “Get off my porch you goddamned commie!” I live in the former CA26 (David Dreier’s district until’12, God willing) so I get plenty of the latter. My criticism of Obama and my skepticism about his chances for re-election are informed by those experiences. That seems to drive some members of the crowd here to distraction.
I have been “waiting to hear” on a couple of opportunities but its been weeks… the summer is slipping away and no job. I am almost beyond frank depression and moving into a new phase. I don’t allow myself to think about it directly, just keep applying and looking. Hate talking about it with friends. Terrible nightmare. Am thinking of taking the nursing refresher course…
Only because what you say gives us nothing to work for that we can control and the alternatives. What are the alternatives, Dennis?
That you can seemingly “celebrate” your point of view and get upset when what you say is received with great trepidation, is just an amazing thing. You can’t seemingly connect the dots that maybe we don’t receive such “news” with the same sense of happiness you do because we are looking at the alternatives that you seem to ignore.
What is your plan? Let the Repubs get elected? That will make us better off?
You are like the oncologist who tells his patient everyday, “you know, that cancer of yours is spreading and I can’t do a thing about it and all the treatments we have seem to be failing. Why are you so upset? Its the truth!”
Well, one easy and obvious thing to do would be to write a letter to the editor that points out that FDR created 15 million jobs (link above) and that FDR created the WPA by executive order. So, in the letter, ask Obama to do what FDR did.
A second easy and obvious thing to do is go to your local Democratic Party meeting and ask for the same thing. You could also ask a Democratic Party activist, or call your elected representative.
* * *
#33 You’re aware of the difference between irony and snark? I mention the actuarial soundness of Social Security as a Swiftian “modest proposal” to help out Obama’s Joint Select Committee in their important work. That’s a little different from “lambert is even out for some PUMA recruiting,” wouldn’t you agree?
40.
Elie
Lamb@ #39
Great idea!
Thanks for actually making a comment that actually has something affirmative to DO.
You’re aware of the difference between irony and snark?
Who, me? Oh, no, no, no, non. I’m a naive little lamb with no experience in such complicated distinctions.
Seriously, I agree with some of your arguments (seconding Elie), but the crack at #20 — and this defense — is silly and dumb.
This entire site operates at a high level of irony. Attacking someone for utilizing the same technique you’ve just used yourself, then defending it with a spurious distinction — FYI, snark is just a subset of irony — is kind of douchey.
.
43.
lacp
While the President might be able to create a WPA by executive order, he sure as shit can’t fund it by executive order. Unless he’s got something up his sleeve to get Congress to come around (good luck with that), this looks like a non-starter.
The plan should be to praise him when he does right & demand better of him when he does not. Its the sort of thing that would have prevented the worst of the Bush disasters. Instead the party lined up blindly behind every half-assed thing he did & drove us all over a cliff. I expect better out of Democrats.
BHO was fond of saying how he wanted us to push him, to make him do things. You don’t hear him say that any more. Instead we are “fucking retards” and other assorted hippie trash. He was not my first choice but I busted my ass for him, my personal time knocking on doors, making phone calls, hundreds of hours & as much money as a guy with two kids in college and only one income could do. I will do some of it again because he is better than any of the orange haired beauties in the Republican clown car. It would be nice to think he would at least have the decency not to tolerate people calling us retards etc while he kisses ass all over the Republican caucus to no good end.
And it is not just him, far and away too many of the Congressional Dems are wholly owned subsidiaries of moneyed interests. That does not excuse BHO behavior nor does his excuse theirs. We are not going to get the change we need as long as we meekly accept this from the Dems.
45.
Corner Stone
I find it pretty humorous that a link to an article regarding studies done on stress, outcomes, etc is immediately denigrated in an irrelevant toss-off remark and then the rest of the thread is about the definition of snark. Rather than the serious actual studies done and linked to.
46.
AlphaLiberal
Take heart. The US has reduced it’s budget deficit marginally this year.
Did I miss where he called you, or lefties hippie trash? Or is that your characterization?
If he did not say that, and that is your characterization of what someone else said or whatever, it seems as though you have appointed made up shit he said so that you can then justify your anger and contempt for him… why else would you do that?
Tell me your goal again? Oh, you don’t want us to march in lockstep behind Obama cause that is what allowed W to drive the country into a ditch so if you can then fracture Obama’s support, we won’t end up in a ditch, though I would say its likely that we could end up with another Republican President.
Hey. Please stay home. Don’t want you bruising those little knuckles of yours banging on any doors or placing any sweat on your brow for this clearly inferior President who you have to teach a lesson.
Hey, you have plenty of negative energy to help buoy your spirits around here these days. You haz happy I am sure! Obama’s days are numbered!
Hooray!
49.
PurpleGirl
@Elie: I hope something comes through for you. How long have you been nursing? Do you have a specialty? I have a friend who is an RN and he regularly takes refresher courses.
I was out for a few hours meeting two clients. (A long-time typing client has become active again. Not a lot of work but it’s something for me to do, and since she wants to publish her books as ebooks, I’m learning new skills.)
I left active nursing a while ago and though I respect the profession and always will, it has not been my first line occupation recently (health data and informatics)
@JGabriel: You know what I think is douchey? Making the thread about lambert, and not the millions of DISemployed — and the resulting suicides (for which I supply three separate links).
Of course, I do understand the need for the misdirection, since Obama can’t run on his record, but the tactic is… douchey.
Hey, Obama fans! Why doesn’t Obama go big, and create a second WPA by executive order, just like FDR?
Not only would help with aggregate demand, it might save some lives (see multiple links on health effects of DISemployment above).
55.
lacp
@lambert strether: Already answered this at #43. And, BTW, I’m not an Obama fan – I don’t think he’s going to propose much of anything that will actually create jobs. It would be delightful to be wrong – that’s why I’m going to watch his speech (first one of his that I’ll have seen). Hope springs eternal, and all that shit.
56.
Marginalized for stating documented facts
And the obots continue to parrot their mindless “As soon as the economy picks up…” mantra.
EARTH TO OBOTS. COME IN, OBOTS!
What evidence is there that the U.S. economy will ever pick up?
The last two recessions have witnessed jobless recoveries. That means that ever since 2000, every time you get an economic downturn, there’s a net job loss. The economy adds no new jobs during the “recovery.” Corporate profits recover, but no new jobs get added.
Why?
Economist Tim Duy explained it last year:
US firms have no intention of adding net new capacity, planning instead to source any excess demand from overseas. This implies that the manufacturing recovery will not be a net positive to US growth. It also implies that the trade deficit will widen further and that the challenge of global imbalances will remain unresolved. (..)
[I]ncreasing reliance on external production to satisfy US demand has contributed significantly to the jobless recoveries we have seen this decade. Something is very different this decade. I think it is a mistake to write off this decade’s shift in manufacturing as simply a repeat of the agricultural experience. At least agricultural output continued to rise as its relative employment importance fell. The capacity numbers are telling us the same cannot be said of manufacturing any longer. And in the past, the relative decline in manufacturing jobs was matched by a more than corresponding increase in service sector jobs. No longer the case; job growth is flat for a decade. If we intend to ignore this issue, the supposed reality of tradable services had better get a lot more traction very quickly. Otherwise, we are further solidifying a permanent underclass of citizens who require the constant support of fiscal authorities.
Source: “Anomalous capacity reduction,” Economist’s View, Tim Duy, 23 July 2010.
What trend is going to magically create net new American jobs, obots?
Will offshoring stop?
Will all computers on earth suddenly disappear in a puff of smoke?
Will the internet shut down tomorrow?
Will hard drives suddenly become smaller and slower? Will databases suddenly get slower and less comprehensive? Will people stop using algorithms on large amounts of data to replace human jobs?
Will all robots on earth melt down tomorrow into pools of green goo, like the Wicked Witch of the West?
Will MIT-educated PhDs in India and China suddenly refuse to work for 1/10 the wages of American PhDs?
What exactly is this magical mystery trend that’s going to wave a fairy wand and sprinkle us all with sparkly magical My Little Pony dust and create all these new American jobs?
Tell us, obots. Explain to us how the middle class will stop eroding in America. Show us the powerful trends that are going to end offshoring and outsourcing and replacing humans with robots + databases + algorithms + computers + the internet.
Oh, and incidentally…you know that “permanent underclass of citizens who require the constant support of fiscal authorities” that Tim Duy is talking about?
It’s not brown people, folks. It’s the middle class of America. It’s you. It’s me.
57.
Marginalized for stating documented facts
Lambert strether remarked:
Well, one easy and obvious thing to do would be to write a letter to the editor that points out that FDR created 15 million jobs (link above) and that FDR created the WPA by executive order. So, in the letter, ask Obama to do what FDR did.
In the 1930s, America had vast unused resources of oil, iron ore, coal, bauxite, copper ore, magnanese, and so on. As a result, between 1933 and 1937 the U.S. economy was able to grow at double-digit rates.
But in 2011, the growth of the American economy is now oil-constrained. Obama can’t create 15 million new jobs as FDR did because even God couldn’t create 15 million new jobs today — the U.S. economy’s growth rate is tightly restricted by the world’s ongoing permanent oil shortage, otherwise known as Peak Oil.
arguingwithsignposts
Has Cole placed a one-tag limit on posts now? Also, who will play derp’s role now that he’s banned?
The Republic of Stupidity
Let’s skip all the hand wringing and endless socialist whining and get onto the IMPORTANT news…
Were corporate profits up?
And how big will Wall Street bonuses be this Christmas?
General Stuck
The Obama sux zombie trolls will be roaming in force today.
RossInDetroit
@arguingwithsignposts:
Whoever gets the short straw Derps as long as they can stand it, then we rotate.
General Stuck
I say we primary Obama with Dougj, for a run as our first spoof president. Probly need to drop the “big baby” handle though, for something like the Carteresque “I will never lie to you, Dougj”
Big Baby DougJ
@General Stuck:
Big Baby lacks gravitas, I agree.
Linda Featheringill
Sorry to see that jobs report. Damn.
So eventually the prez will get to address congress and urge them to do something about jobs and they won’t do it and so the speech will actually be a campaign speech which is okay but what about the folks without income?
lambert strether
Linda: The DISemployed actually do have jobs. Their job is go increase the actuarial soundness of Social Security by decreasing life expectancy. Everyone must do their part!
General Stuck
@lambert strether:
LOL, lambert is even out for some PUMA recruiting?. This is shaping up to be one hell of a blogging day.
PurpleGirl
@Linda Featheringill: They, whoever they are, are hoping that we’ll die. Some of us may be able get to food stamps, almost none of us can get cash assistance (the current version of welfare for childless adults who aren’t disabled), some us may get Medicaid. These all depend on what state you are in and if you own a house/co-op/condo and what assets you have left. (If you are not independently wealthy, you need to hope relatives can carry you.)
Zifnab
You know what would really help our employment numbers? Firing more public employees!
Sam Houston
Briefer, but what I consider better analysis:
Calculated Risk: August Employment Report: 0 Jobs (unchanged), 9.1% Unemployment Rate
Look at the Employment Participation Rate. Just look at it!
I’m stocking up on pitchforks and torches. But who will have enough money to buy them?
schlemizel - was Alwhite
TAX CUTZZZZ!! DEREGULATION!!!!!11
It the only thing that can work! how else can you explain the total lack of economic growth during the ’90’s – with its higher tax rates & more regulation – compared to the limitless economic boom of the low tax/low regulated ’00’s?
Nothing else makes sense!
JGabriel
DougJ:
But austerity and deregulation haven’t even been tried yet! We just suffered a 20 gazillagalooglian dollars in stimulus but tax rates on job-creator’s profits are still an insufferable 15%! And, at 35%, their commie-level income taxes are a job-killing more than twice that!
Spare the rod and spoil the unemployed! Morale will never improve if we don’t make the middle-class suffer more!
.
Mark S.
I still have faith in our job creators. We must do anything to appease them. We should probably eliminate the capital gains tax, just to be on the safe side.
JGabriel
@Linda Featheringill:
I’m sure the House GOP and the media will treat the President’s job proposals with the same respect they treated his request for a joint session to propose them.
.
lacp
Here’s another take on these numbers, guaranteed to brighten your Labor Day weekend.
http://www.greencrestcapital.com/blog/zero-progress-august-jobs/
chopper
just in time for labor day. even government statistics have their own sense of irony.
Dennis SGMM
I’ll probably receive a shitload of heat for this. It’s all just pixels anyway so here goes. The average voter may be thinking that “We tried the black guy and things didn’t get better. Maybe it’s time to try the loony.”
Obama took office burdened with racist antipathy, a shit economy, and just being a Democrat. For what ever reason you care to ascribe his years in office have failed to reverse the economic decline.
Contrary to Stuck’s vigorous and repetitive assertions, I do not hate Obama and I never, ever, wanted him to fail. When we elected Obama I felt that his background, his scholarship and yes, his color gave him the potential to be a great president. He isn’t. The reasons for that seem to be in the eye of the beholder. So be it. I will work my ass off on behalf of his re-election but I have this creepy Reagan/Carter feeling about ’12.
lambert strether
#9 Leave it to an Obama fan to snark on evidence that people kill themselves when they can’t find work. Well done.
Linda Featheringill
@lambert strether: #20.
That plays in this environment because so many of us know what it is like to lose a job, fail to get another one, and then consider suicide. You might be surprised to find out just how many of us have experienced that.
Gallows humor, yes. Really funny, no. But what are we going to do about it?
General Stuck
@lambert strether:
Why lambert, I wasn’t snarking on what you wrote and linked to. I was snarking on YOU. Note the difference.
chopper
@lambert strether:
hey, why is this kettle so black?
chopper
@General Stuck:
didn’t he snark on it first anyway? leave it to a deranged moron to accuse someone else of doing something he clearly did first.
schlemizel - was Alwhite
@Dennis SGMM:
No Dennis, for some people any indication at all the Obama has not been the bestest President possible is treated the same as calling him racist names and saying he is a total failure who must be primaried to some people here.
I made the mistake once of expressing disappointment with something he did and was told in 8-10 followups that I hate Obama, I am a firebagger and I want republicans to win in 12. Since then I just avoid the whole thing – they win.
General Stuck
@chopper:
His whole piece was snark, and the usual for the snake pit blog he has, that operates under the sole purpose of bashing Obama, that began well before he was elected.
So today, he decides to show up, and link to a post he wrote, that among other things, slyly accuses Obama of blame for the suicides of financially stressed people. Lambert gives not one shit about those people who lost hope — if you read, or have read his blog, it singular purpose has been to undermine Obama since the primaries.
So he shows up today, on the heels of a bad jobs report, for the attempted smear job, of, “they are all in it together” with the blame for these deaths. Pretty low stuff.
And then has the arrogance to equate mocking him, with mocking suicide victims of the bad economy
WyldPirate
Leave it to General Stuck-with-his-head-his-head-his-rectum to find any reason to deflect any criticism of the most bestest President evah.
When he gets tired of slinging bullshit excuses, he breaks out his inexhausrable supply of racist cards.
Davis X. Machina
@Linda Featheringill: But what are we going to do about it?
Massive posturing. And the striking of attitudes.
Ma nishtana.
General Stuck
@WyldPirate:
The blogging day hasn’t begun here in hot air land, till wildy shows up with a rectum related quip.
lacp
This is Dean Baker’s take:
http://www.cepr.net/index.php/data-bytes/jobs-bytes/zero-job-growth-in-august-as-unemployment-rate-remains-stable
Dennis SGMM
@schlemizel – was Alwhite:
The ostracizing will continue until our numbers begin to grow.
schlemizel - was Alwhite
@Dennis SGMM:
There are an awful lot of things I love about our little backyard fence group of chatters but the obot v. firebagger poo flinging when people are not 100% in agreement has really gotten tedious.
I have decided I will no longer comment when I find our President doing something I like or when he does something I am unhappy with. Its just not worth it. For some there is no gray “you are either with us or against us”. I have been involved in organized politics for 50 years and never seen this kind of discord between people who have the same goals.
JGabriel
lambert strether @ 20:
lambert strether @ 8:
Pot, meet Mirror.
.
lambert strether
Just for the record, let me quote from what General Stuck labels “PUMA recruiting”:
“The whole piece was snark”? Malarkey!
Now, if General Stuck really wants to direct attention away from the human costs of unemployment, then I would suggest he discuss it, instead of making by this point arcane references to events of three years ago. San Francisco is spending $45 million dollars for nets under the Golden Gate bridge because people without jobs are jumping off it. That’s a PUMA thing? Get over it.
* * *
As for what to do, I think the first thing to do is recognize the reality of the DISemployment figures and their human cost. The second thing to do is agitate for the right policy. I’d note that FDR created 15 million jobs with the WPA, the CCC, and other Depression Era programs. The WPA was created by executive order, so if Obama wanted to, he could do that tomorrow. Really, patent reform (an early trial balloon on the jobs speech) wouldn’t cut it, by those standards.
lambert strether
Typo: direct attention away -> direct attention to
Sorry!
Dennis SGMM
@schlemizel – was Alwhite:
I’ve only been involved in Democratic GOTV efforts since ’68. That doesn’t make me a better Democrat or a wiser Democrat, it does add up to a lot of experience talking with actual voters whose reactions range from “Hell yes!” to “Get off my porch you goddamned commie!” I live in the former CA26 (David Dreier’s district until’12, God willing) so I get plenty of the latter. My criticism of Obama and my skepticism about his chances for re-election are informed by those experiences. That seems to drive some members of the crowd here to distraction.
Elie
@PurpleGirl:
I have been “waiting to hear” on a couple of opportunities but its been weeks… the summer is slipping away and no job. I am almost beyond frank depression and moving into a new phase. I don’t allow myself to think about it directly, just keep applying and looking. Hate talking about it with friends. Terrible nightmare. Am thinking of taking the nursing refresher course…
Elie
@Dennis SGMM:
Only because what you say gives us nothing to work for that we can control and the alternatives. What are the alternatives, Dennis?
That you can seemingly “celebrate” your point of view and get upset when what you say is received with great trepidation, is just an amazing thing. You can’t seemingly connect the dots that maybe we don’t receive such “news” with the same sense of happiness you do because we are looking at the alternatives that you seem to ignore.
What is your plan? Let the Repubs get elected? That will make us better off?
You are like the oncologist who tells his patient everyday, “you know, that cancer of yours is spreading and I can’t do a thing about it and all the treatments we have seem to be failing. Why are you so upset? Its the truth!”
Yeah, why should we be upset?
lambert strether
People keep asking “What to do?”
Well, one easy and obvious thing to do would be to write a letter to the editor that points out that FDR created 15 million jobs (link above) and that FDR created the WPA by executive order. So, in the letter, ask Obama to do what FDR did.
A second easy and obvious thing to do is go to your local Democratic Party meeting and ask for the same thing. You could also ask a Democratic Party activist, or call your elected representative.
* * *
#33 You’re aware of the difference between irony and snark? I mention the actuarial soundness of Social Security as a Swiftian “modest proposal” to help out Obama’s Joint Select Committee in their important work. That’s a little different from “lambert is even out for some PUMA recruiting,” wouldn’t you agree?
Elie
Lamb@ #39
Great idea!
Thanks for actually making a comment that actually has something affirmative to DO.
lambert strether
Elie@ #40
You’re welcome. LTEs are great not only because staffers read them, but locals, too!
JGabriel
@lambert strether:
Who, me? Oh, no, no, no, non. I’m a naive little lamb with no experience in such complicated distinctions.
Seriously, I agree with some of your arguments (seconding Elie), but the crack at #20 — and this defense — is silly and dumb.
This entire site operates at a high level of irony. Attacking someone for utilizing the same technique you’ve just used yourself, then defending it with a spurious distinction — FYI, snark is just a subset of irony — is kind of douchey.
.
lacp
While the President might be able to create a WPA by executive order, he sure as shit can’t fund it by executive order. Unless he’s got something up his sleeve to get Congress to come around (good luck with that), this looks like a non-starter.
schlemizel - was Alwhite
@Elie:
The plan should be to praise him when he does right & demand better of him when he does not. Its the sort of thing that would have prevented the worst of the Bush disasters. Instead the party lined up blindly behind every half-assed thing he did & drove us all over a cliff. I expect better out of Democrats.
BHO was fond of saying how he wanted us to push him, to make him do things. You don’t hear him say that any more. Instead we are “fucking retards” and other assorted hippie trash. He was not my first choice but I busted my ass for him, my personal time knocking on doors, making phone calls, hundreds of hours & as much money as a guy with two kids in college and only one income could do. I will do some of it again because he is better than any of the orange haired beauties in the Republican clown car. It would be nice to think he would at least have the decency not to tolerate people calling us retards etc while he kisses ass all over the Republican caucus to no good end.
And it is not just him, far and away too many of the Congressional Dems are wholly owned subsidiaries of moneyed interests. That does not excuse BHO behavior nor does his excuse theirs. We are not going to get the change we need as long as we meekly accept this from the Dems.
Corner Stone
I find it pretty humorous that a link to an article regarding studies done on stress, outcomes, etc is immediately denigrated in an irrelevant toss-off remark and then the rest of the thread is about the definition of snark. Rather than the serious actual studies done and linked to.
AlphaLiberal
Take heart. The US has reduced it’s budget deficit marginally this year.
Yay. Obama must be so proud.
Elie
@schlemizel – was Alwhite:
Did I miss where he called you, or lefties hippie trash? Or is that your characterization?
If he did not say that, and that is your characterization of what someone else said or whatever, it seems as though you have appointed made up shit he said so that you can then justify your anger and contempt for him… why else would you do that?
Tell me your goal again? Oh, you don’t want us to march in lockstep behind Obama cause that is what allowed W to drive the country into a ditch so if you can then fracture Obama’s support, we won’t end up in a ditch, though I would say its likely that we could end up with another Republican President.
Hey. Please stay home. Don’t want you bruising those little knuckles of yours banging on any doors or placing any sweat on your brow for this clearly inferior President who you have to teach a lesson.
Don’t do me any favors.
Elie
@Corner Stone:
Hey, you have plenty of negative energy to help buoy your spirits around here these days. You haz happy I am sure! Obama’s days are numbered!
Hooray!
PurpleGirl
@Elie: I hope something comes through for you. How long have you been nursing? Do you have a specialty? I have a friend who is an RN and he regularly takes refresher courses.
I was out for a few hours meeting two clients. (A long-time typing client has become active again. Not a lot of work but it’s something for me to do, and since she wants to publish her books as ebooks, I’m learning new skills.)
Corner Stone
@Elie: You are an unhinged whackaloon.
Elie
@PurpleGirl:
I left active nursing a while ago and though I respect the profession and always will, it has not been my first line occupation recently (health data and informatics)
Am planning to move out east soon….
Elie
@Corner Stone:
LOL!
Moi?
lambert strether
@JGabriel: You know what I think is douchey? Making the thread about lambert, and not the millions of DISemployed — and the resulting suicides (for which I supply three separate links).
Of course, I do understand the need for the misdirection, since Obama can’t run on his record, but the tactic is… douchey.
lambert strether
Hey, Obama fans! Why doesn’t Obama go big, and create a second WPA by executive order, just like FDR?
Not only would help with aggregate demand, it might save some lives (see multiple links on health effects of DISemployment above).
lacp
@lambert strether: Already answered this at #43. And, BTW, I’m not an Obama fan – I don’t think he’s going to propose much of anything that will actually create jobs. It would be delightful to be wrong – that’s why I’m going to watch his speech (first one of his that I’ll have seen). Hope springs eternal, and all that shit.
Marginalized for stating documented facts
And the obots continue to parrot their mindless “As soon as the economy picks up…” mantra.
EARTH TO OBOTS. COME IN, OBOTS!
What evidence is there that the U.S. economy will ever pick up?
The last two recessions have witnessed jobless recoveries. That means that ever since 2000, every time you get an economic downturn, there’s a net job loss. The economy adds no new jobs during the “recovery.” Corporate profits recover, but no new jobs get added.
Why?
Economist Tim Duy explained it last year:
Source: “Anomalous capacity reduction,” Economist’s View, Tim Duy, 23 July 2010.
Take a look at this graph of job growth in each decade since the 1940s to see the future of the U.S. economy.
What trend is going to magically create net new American jobs, obots?
Will offshoring stop?
Will all computers on earth suddenly disappear in a puff of smoke?
Will the internet shut down tomorrow?
Will hard drives suddenly become smaller and slower? Will databases suddenly get slower and less comprehensive? Will people stop using algorithms on large amounts of data to replace human jobs?
Will all robots on earth melt down tomorrow into pools of green goo, like the Wicked Witch of the West?
Will MIT-educated PhDs in India and China suddenly refuse to work for 1/10 the wages of American PhDs?
What exactly is this magical mystery trend that’s going to wave a fairy wand and sprinkle us all with sparkly magical My Little Pony dust and create all these new American jobs?
Tell us, obots. Explain to us how the middle class will stop eroding in America. Show us the powerful trends that are going to end offshoring and outsourcing and replacing humans with robots + databases + algorithms + computers + the internet.
Oh, and incidentally…you know that “permanent underclass of citizens who require the constant support of fiscal authorities” that Tim Duy is talking about?
It’s not brown people, folks. It’s the middle class of America. It’s you. It’s me.
Marginalized for stating documented facts
Lambert strether remarked:
In the 1930s, America had vast unused resources of oil, iron ore, coal, bauxite, copper ore, magnanese, and so on. As a result, between 1933 and 1937 the U.S. economy was able to grow at double-digit rates.
But in 2011, the growth of the American economy is now oil-constrained. Obama can’t create 15 million new jobs as FDR did because even God couldn’t create 15 million new jobs today — the U.S. economy’s growth rate is tightly restricted by the world’s ongoing permanent oil shortage, otherwise known as Peak Oil.
pluege
more tax cuts for the rich…bitches!
yea, that’s the ticket, yea.
TK421
Keep fighting the good fight, Lambert.
myiq2xu
@Marginalized for stating documented facts:
Actually, there is currently an over-supply of oil.