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You are here: Home / Election Year / Biden For President / Monday Morning Open Thread: Step Forward

Monday Morning Open Thread: Step Forward

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127Comments

  1. 1.

    NotMax

    Hurricane season begins. Sneaks up on you so fast I once again spaced out buying a card.

  4. 4.

    rikyrah

    I was supposed to go back to the office today, but, you know…riots😒😒😒

  6. 6.

    OzarkHillbilly

    I wanted to put this up in the Spring in Flyover Country thread, but was afraid it might get political and some things should just be enjoyed: 9 Rules for the Black Birdwatcher Funny, in a very sad way:

    1. Be prepared to be confused with the other black birder.
    2. Carry your binoculars — and three forms of identification — at all times.
    3. Don’t bird in a hoodie. Ever.
    4. Nocturnal birding is a no-no.
    5. Black birds — any black birds — are your birds.
    6. The official word for an African American in cryptic clothing — camo or otherwise — is incognegro.
    7. Want to see the jaws of blue-blooded birders drop faster than a northern gannet into a shoal of shad?
    8. Use what’s left of your black-president momentum on the largely liberal birder crowd to step to the front of the spotting-scope line to view that wayward smew that wandered into U.S. waters from Eurasia.
    9. You’re an endangered species — extinction looms.

    And now we can add #10: Don’t go birding without your cell phone.

  12. 12.

    Baud

    I can imagine no other president in my lifetime failing to address the nation in a prime time speech during a crisis such as this. On the other hand, I cannot imagine another president whose words would be less welcome by so many of his fellow citizens.
    — Dan Rather (@DanRather) June 1, 2020

  16. 16.

    Mustang Bobby

    Good morning, Friends.  Going in to the office today to file the May expenditure report for a grant and then come home and get back to work writing… wait for it… something other than a play.

    For my fellow bird-watchers, I saw a snowy egret on the canal bank of my back yard this weekend.

  17. 17.

    JPL

    The ad does point out that we are going to chose America or trump during the next election.   Out country can’t survive another few months, never mind four more years of the idiot in chief.

  18. 18.

    WereBear

    This particular ad from the Lincoln Project is the first time I’ve been impressed that they really are leaving the Party of Racism.

    I’m still not thrilled that all these who were fine with everything until Trump want to join the Democrats now? Lead a reconstituted Republican party who will backslid as quick as you can say crazy-billionaire-money? What?

  19. 19.

    Baud

    This was October. (Warning: white house link)

    My administration has also curtailed the harmful and intrusive use of federal consent decrees, which wrongly give meddlesome officials in Washington, D.C., immense authority to tie down local police departments and make it very difficult to do their work.  No longer will federal bureaucrats micromanage your local police.  And we will work with, upon request, local police to help them, not to hinder them.  And we’re waiting for a call from Chicago, because there’s no place that we would rather help than Chicago.

    ….

    To help keep you safe, I have made 600 million dollars’ worth of surplus military equipment available to local law enforcement.  If you remember, the previous administration didn’t want to do that.  Nobody knew why.  Sitting in warehouses, getting older and dustier.  And I — probably, we pay a lot of rent to a lot of landlords all over the country.  So someday, I said, you’ll explain.  Actually, I do know why: Because they didn’t want to make you look so tough.  They didn’t want to make you look like you’re a threat.  I said, “That’s okay.  We want to protect our police.”  And we made it available, and we provided nearly $29 million to train more than 80,000 police officers.  (Applause.)

  21. 21.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    I find myself no longer giving a fuck about human space flight. I’m seeing it as an expensive waste of time.

  22. 22.

    Kay

    @Baud:

     I have made 600 million dollars’ worth of surplus military equipment available to local law enforcement.

    Seems like someone might want to look into why we have 600 million dollars in “surplus” military equipment sitting in warehouses.

  24. 24.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Kay: The Republicans are all about waste in govt. I’m sure they’ll get right on this as soon as somebody tells them of it.

  26. 26.

    Krope, the Formerly Dope

    @OzarkHillbilly: The Republicans are all about waste in govt.

    To be more specific they promote it via policy so they may yell about it during campaigns.

  27. 27.

    Kay

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:

    I don’t care about it either. I put it in the “sports” category- wildly popular things I don’t care about.

    I once met a woman from the “space coast” in Florida in an ice cream shop in Michigan who told me Obama had destroyed her whole family because he defunded manned space flight. It was one of the few Obama criticisms where I had no response at all. I was thinking “did he? Oh well. I don’t care”

  28. 28.

    Betty Cracker

    @Baud: Good God. I saw a clip on Twitter with a montage of all the times Trump encouraged cops to mistreat citizens — turns out he did that a lot! There was one clip that was especially appalling in light of recent events. It was from a hate rally where Trump mocked someone saying “I can’t breathe.” Apart from it being said from the podium at a hate rally, I don’t know that the context was. At first I assumed he was mocking a protester being ejected from the rally because even Trump wouldn’t publicly mock Eric Garner’s last words, would he? But then I realized, maybe he would…

  30. 30.

    Krope, the Formerly Dope

    @Kay: I once met a woman from the “space coast” in Florida in an ice cream shop in Michigan who told me Obama had destroyed her whole family because he defunded manned space flight.

    In favor of investments in technology, which will help more of us on the ground.  Also, too, when we’re ready, we can do manned flights better.

  31. 31.

    Baud

    @Betty Cracker:

    I recall he’s encouraged police brutality before but this

    Apart from it being said from the podium at a hate rally, I don’t know that the context was.

    I’m also wary of context free things on Twitter that play to my sensibilities. I’m not interested in being misled like Fox News viewers.

  32. 32.

    OzarkHillbilly

    NYT, Charles M. Blow:

    Despair has an incredible power to initiate destruction. It is exceedingly dangerous to assume that oppression and pain can be inflicted without consequence, to believe that the victim will silently absorb the injury and the wound will fade.

    No, the injuries compound, particularly when there is no effort to alter the system doing the wounding, no avenue by which the aggrieved can seek justice.

    This all breeds despair, simmering below the surface, a building up in need of release, to be let out, to lash out, to explode.

    As protests and rioting have swept across the country in the wake of the killing of George Floyd by the police in Minneapolis, it’s evident that America has failed to learn that lesson yet again.

    The protests are not necessarily about Floyd’s killing in particular, but about the savagery and carnage that his death represents: The nearly unchecked ability of the state to act with impunity in the oppression of black bodies and the taking of black life.

    It is an anger over feeling powerless, stalked and hunted, degraded and dehumanized. It is an anger that the scenes keep repeating themselves until one feels exhausted and wrung out. It is an anger over feeling that people in power on every level — individual officers as well as local, state and federal government — are utterly unresponsive to people’s calls for fundamental change and equal justice under the law and equal treatment by it.

    When people feel helpless, like there is nothing left to lose, like their lives already hang in the balance, a wild, swirling, undirected rage is a logical result.
    ……………………………….
    If America wants peace it must be responsive in peacetime. You can’t demonize an athlete who peacefully takes a knee to protest against police brutality, labeling him a “son of a bitch,” as President Trump did, and then pine for peaceful protests now.

    It seems that no form of protest has been effective in this fight for justice. It seems that what the public and the power structure want is a continuation of the status quo. They want stillness and passivity. They want obedience. They want your suffering to be silent, your trauma to be tranquil.

    That won’t happen.

    The whole is well worth reading.

  33. 33.

    Jeffro

    @rikyrah: I know, right?

    One of my FB contacts (old high school acquaintance) was posting this morning, saying Biden needed to ‘step it up’ and show some leadership.  Everyone promptly piled on with the Wilmington protest appearance, the daily messages to the nation, and oh yeah the fact that he isn’t the President, yet.

    Other helpful commenters noted that in the “need to step it up category” would be the entirety of the Senate GOP, asking them wha they think of the Ill Douche hiding and tweeting in the WH basement, and whether or not they regret their vote to acquit earlier this year.  The national snooze media could help with this, of course.

  34. 34.

    SFAW

    @WereBear:

    This particular ad from the Lincoln Project is the first time I’ve been impressed that they really are leaving the Party of Racism.

    I understand your point, but it’s not clear that they would do the same thing were a different, but slightly less vile, Republican in the Oval Office. Were there a modern-day Greg Stillson there (yes, I know that’s my second “Stillson” ref in 12 hours), I bet they’d be all-in.

  35. 35.

    Baud

    @Jeffro: I’m happy to hear about the push back.  We need to change the culture that condones bullshit attacks against Democrats.

  36. 36.

    SFAW

    @Jeffro:

    One of my FB contacts (old high school acquaintance) was posting this morning, saying Biden needed to ‘step it up’ and show some leadership.

    One of my non-FB contacts — specifically, Mrs. SFAW — said something similar. The SFAW-ette and I tried to disabuse her of that belief. Among the things we discussed were that the Murderer-in-Chief gets a lot of free TV time, whereas Biden does not; we also talked about media bias. My wife’s pretty liberal, but she doesn’t follow political “inside baseball” as much as my daughter and I do. I do not know whether my wife is typical of the electorate.

  38. 38.

    debbie

    @Baud:

    Oh, no context needed. I definitely remember this behavior from him back in the 1980s and 1990s in NYC. He just didn’t have the platform he does now

    Where he said it is irrelevant.

  39. 39.

    Bruuuuce

    @SFAW:

    I understand your point, but it’s not clear that they would do the same thing were a different, but slightly less vile, Republican in the Oval Office.

    The enemy of my enemy is my uncomfortable ally. For now, they’re doing work that it would cost time, money, and credibility for the Dems to have to do on top of everything else going on.

  41. 41.

    Baud

    @debbie:

    I don’t need more moreTmore context to understand  Trump’s general character. I need context to evaluate specific allegations against Trump.

  42. 42.

    WereBear

    @SFAW: I understand your point, but it’s not clear that they would do the same thing were a different, but slightly less vile, Republican in the Oval Office.

     
    I agree, and maybe I wasn’t clear. Always before, it’s come across as regret about Trump: not anything else.

    As happy Republicans until 2016, I think they have a lot to answer for. To my knowledge, only one, the author of It Was All a Lie: How the Republican Party Became Donald Trump, by Stuart Stevens, has sounded a real note of some regret.

  43. 43.

    Betty Cracker

    @Baud: Yeah, I didn’t retweet it or otherwise share it for that reason. I have no interest in spreading propaganda either. I’d like to find that clip in context though. Speaking of which, here’s some more context about the Minneapolis PD:

    Lt Bob Kroll, head of the Minneapolis police union, slammed former President Barack Obama’s “handcuffing and oppression of police” while praising Donald Trump at a re-election rally the president held in the city last year.

    Donning a red “Cops for Trump” shirt as he took the stage, the lieutenant attacked the Obama administration over its alleged “despicable” treatment of police, adding: “The first thing President Trump did when he took office was turn that around … he decided to start to let cops do their job, put the handcuffs on the criminals instead of us.”

    According to MoJo, Kroll advocated “warrior style” police training. After the mayor banned it last year, Kroll said the ban was illegal and he would continue to offer the training, though he may have been talking out of his ass.

    If we retake the DOJ, all of this shit needs to be investigated.

  44. 44.

    SFAW

    @Baud:

    We need to change the culture that condones bullshit attacks against Democrats.

    The Rethugs “worked the refs” (i.e., media) for 20 or 30 years, giving us the current media environment. It would be nice if the Dems started doing the same thing; maybe it would take less time to get back on an even keel. [And by “even keel,” I don’t mean the “both sides” bullshit, of course. I’m talking about the MSM doing more than just being stenographers, and actually calling bullshit on all the Rethug bullshit when it occurs, not so-far-after-the-fact that it doesn’t matter.]

  46. 46.

    SFAW

    @Bruuuuce:

    The enemy of my enemy is my uncomfortable ally. For now, they’re doing work that it would cost time, money, and credibility for the Dems to have to do on top of everything else going on.

    Agreed. But as driftglass (I think) often points out: Rick Wilson was one of a select few who helped significantly enable the current Republican, and that the Rethugs have not suddenly become Trump-like. He’s just saying the quiet parts aloud. Were Wilson (and his cohorts) to have a “Col. Nicholson moment” (as I like to call it), and become the latest John Cole, I might revise my stance on Wilson as a person.

    I mean, I’m still happy that he’s working hard to get rid of Trump, but I don’t trust him as far as I can throw the Murderer-in-Chief.

  47. 47.

    Betty Cracker

    @satby: That’s the one, thank you! The “I can’t breathe” thing is so damning. But even with the shit-blizzard of horror that is the Trump presidency, wouldn’t we have heard about it if he publicly mocked Garner’s death? I don’t ever give that mofo the benefit of the doubt and rarely question the incompetence of the MSM, but I do wonder about the context of that clip.

  48. 48.

    debbie

    @Betty Cracker:

    Context? Probably right before he waddled over to hump the flag, and just after he imitated those two FBI agents having sex. Again. //

    Actually, I do remember every one of those clips. Look at who’s standing behind him if you need context.

  49. 49.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @SFAW: I do not know whether my wife is typical of the electorate.

    I suspect my wife is very representative. She outsources all the informed reading (the uninformed too) to me. Come election day she knows enough to never vote (R) but when it comes to ballot issues, constitutional amendments, etc, she asks me what they are about.

  50. 50.

    Bruuuuce

    Lt Bob Kroll, head of the Minneapolis police union, slammed former President Barack Obama’s “handcuffing and oppression of police” while praising Donald Trump at a re-election rally the president held in the city last year.

    Are all heads of local police unions scumbags? We in New York have one of the very worst examples of the breed, Pat Lynch. I have never seen a better example of “none so blind as they who will not see” when it comes to police misconduct of even the slightest degree. There really are no words for how horrid he is, and it’s a good bet that it was pressure from him that contributed, at least in part, to the current problems in NY. In 2019 the Police Commissioner left, and rather than appoint the First Assistant Commissioner, who was black, Mayor Di Blasio (may he have perpetual crotch rot as a result) went out of his way to appoint the Chief of Detectives, a white Irish man to the post.

    It’s going to be harder to clean up police departments than it would be to pull up and root out a field full of milkweed, mint, and kudzu guarded by giant hogweed,barehanded and without tools.

  51. 51.

    Bruuuuce

    @SFAW:

    I’m still happy that he’s working hard to get rid of Trump, but I don’t trust him as far as I can throw the Murderer-in-Chief.

    This, exactly.

  52. 52.

    YY_Sima Qian

    I was very gratified and moved to see police chiefs and officers at Camden, NJ and Flint, MI (and a few other places) diffusing any violent impulses of protestors by putting away their anti-riot gear and marching with the protestors for justice. It almost makes me optimistic. Then I remember these are small jurisdictions, and contrast with the turmoil in nearby major cities.

    Even if there is a course correction in November with Biden’s election, I have to wonder about whether it will actually shift the long term trajectory of the US, having seen GWB follow Clinton and Trump follow Obama. I am always moved when Obama quotes Dr. King: “the arc of history is long, but bends toward justice.” Then I remember that, in the long run, we are all dead…

  54. 54.

    Baud

    @Bruuuuce:

    Mayor Di Blasio

    We dodged a bullet not nominating him for president.

    And by bullet, I mean lumbering sloth, since I think he polled worse than Marianne Williamson.

  55. 55.

    Baud

    @YY_Sima Qian:

    , I have to wonder about whether it will actually shift the long term trajectory of the US, having seen GWB follow Clinton and Trump follow Obama.

    Predictions are hard, especially about the future.

  57. 57.

    trnc

    Police militarization effectively nullifies Posse Comitatus. It doesn’t explicitly put the feds in charge of local law matters, but a police department with military equipment and a motive to perform actions desired by the feds who supply them with the equipment blurs or removes the line separating them. This is completely different from local law enforcement getting federal dollars to perform standard law enforcement actions based on demonstrated need.

  59. 59.

    Bruuuuce

    @Baud: It would have been an all-time embarrassment for him to receive on the rough order of four votes (and possibly fewer, if any of his family chose a real candidate) from all of New York City had he run in the primary. Next time around, I hope we get a much better Democrat who can take him down.

  60. 60.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @SFAW: 

    Driftglass calls that Republican Detachment Disorder.

    Like ‘I never had anything whatsoever to do with this madness during my career as a Republican Party functionary and water carrier, and I’ve never heard of this Limbaugh guy either!’. Like the Trump Phenomenon just suddenly appeared one day, much like a mushroom cloud over the offices of the RNC.

    Thus, I’m like a lot of you, still very suspicious of this group. Ask em who they’ve voting for down ballot, that will speak volumes.
    That being said, they must have hired some of Bloomberg’s ad people because they are very similar and really good.

  62. 62.

    Krope, the Formerly Dope

    @Baud: And by bullet, I mean lumbering sloth, since I think he polled worse than Marianne Williamson.

    Too fucking right he did.  At least Williamson occasionally had something interesting to say and didn’t feel the need to shout over other people to say it

    ETA: I mean if it came down to it, I’d rather have DeBlasio than Williamson as President. But I’ll consider it one small mercy from this primary season that neither of them were anywhere close to getting nominated.

  63. 63.

    Betty Cracker

    @satby: That’s obvious from the clip, but my question is, who was he mocking? Trump is a horrible enough person to mock a man who was murdered by the police, but is that what he was doing in the clip? It’s implied. I just want to know if it’s true before sharing it.

  64. 64.

    satby

    I wouldn’t want anyone to underestimate how much the violence and looting are freaking out the white flight contingent. My FB yesterday was full of pants pissing about the threat of looters driving to places like fucking Marengo, IL. As if anyone would want to drive to Marengo for any reason. Most of them are anti-trump, but they’re normally Republicans who are just embarrassed by the clown. Their place in the “intends to vote Biden” column isn’t super solid. That’s the couple percent we were hoping to flip and most of them have, but fear could flip them back. So far their horror of the murder of Floyd is still outweighing the devotion to their malls…

  66. 66.

    Bruuuuce

    @Baud: But he never made it to our ballot, which, for him, would have been the only meaningful one. Saved from embarrassment by incompetence.

    Wait. I’ve heard that somewhere before…

  69. 69.

    Brachiator

    @Kay:

    I once met a woman from the “space coast” in Florida in an ice cream shop in Michigan who told me Obama had destroyed her whole family because he defunded manned space flight. It was one of the few Obama criticisms where I had no response at all. I was thinking “did he? Oh well. I don’t care”

    This is also an oversimplification and a lie that Trump and his people use to cultivate the false impression that Obama did nothing for “good white people” while Trump is doing everything for them, more than anyone before, ever.
    The shuttle program was naturally winding down, and no one could make a serious case for more moon landings. But this new capsule is another matter altogether. Unfortunately, Trump’s NASA administrator happily lies for his boss. From a recent Forbes article.

    Later, Bridenstine gave an interview where the questions were focused on Trump. Bridenstine offered, “We now have an administration that is fully supportive of our spaceflight initiatives…but also from a Space Force perspective.” Keep in mind, again, that the crew development program was started during the George W. Bush administration, and expanded during the Obama administration.

  70. 70.

    PST

    @rikyrah:

    I was supposed to go back to the office today, but, you know…riots

    Yeah, my wife and I are trying to figure out where we can get to and how today. I already had to violate the curfew early to walk the dog.

  71. 71.

    Kay

    There’s a lot of dissatisfaction with the Trump Administration work (or lack of work) on the PPP loans/grants. People don’t know the rules for forgiveness of the loans and lenders are saying they don’t get any guidance either. This is people who want to comply with the regs – want to do it right. Some are regretting they took the assistance- they’re afraid it will become a nightmare. The interest rate is really low so even without forgiveness it’s arguably a good deal but it stops being a good deal if they have to spend days or weeks or months trying to navigate it.

    There isn’t enough attention given to just how poorly the Trump Administration operates. It’s as chaotic and dumb and ineffective as Donald Trump.

  72. 72.

    SFAW

    @Bruuuuce:

    We in New York have one of the very worst examples of the breed, Pat Lynch.

    You’re not the first person I’ve heard say that. And probably not the last.

  74. 74.

    NotMax

    @satby

    I realize he no longer is in office but has Buttigieg made any public statements? About either Covid measures or about Mr. Floyd?

  75. 75.

    WereBear

    @satby: I wouldn’t want anyone to underestimate how much the violence and looting are freaking out the white flight contingent.

    I thought of that, too. But the police targeting journalists makes them just as scary for observers if they are thinking instead of reacting.

    I think those are the people we have a chance with, anyway. The suburbanites who vote for a guy with assault weapons in his ads are lost to us in any case.

  76. 76.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @YY_Sima Qian:

    Well, I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn’t matter with me now, because I’ve been to the mountaintop. And I don’t mind. Like anybody, I would like to live – a long life; longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land. So I’m happy, tonight. I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.

  80. 80.

    SFAW

    @Kay:

    It’s as chaotic and dumb and ineffective as Donald Trump.

    How can you say that? Before getting elected — by the biggest margin EVAH! — he was the most successfullest businessman EVAH! Were it not for all the businesses he started, and the hundreds of millions of (non-illegal!) persons his businesses employed, the US economy would have been in the toilet for years.

    And you know what? I bet there are some people out there who believe that.

  81. 81.

    Kay

    @Brachiator:

    Oh, I’m sure it was wholly or partly a lie. She seemed wingnutty.

    I don’t have the attachment to it that some others seem to have- it wasn’t a hugely inspiring part of my childhood. I get it, sort of, it’s the science race, etc. but given my druthers I’d probably spend the money elsewhere. I want the United States to be competent to handle a pandemic. Build a dam. Put air conditioning and speedy internet in public schools. Take care of their people. I’ll be interested in space when we restore basic infrastructure. This country is falling apart and not just socially. We’ve been living off of public assets built in the 1950s and 1960s a long time. The savings account is depleted.

    I just thought it was funny because it was “space” as “the industry my whole family works in” rather than “one small step…” . Much less romantic :)

  83. 83.

    gene108

    @SFAW:

    The Rethugs “worked the refs” (i.e., media) for 20 or 30 years, giving us the current media environment.

    If that’s all they did, things wouldn’t be so bad. Republicans backers built their own sports league, and hired their own refs, who never blow the whistle on Republican infractions, while penalizing Democrats for daring to step on the field and compete.

  84. 84.

    NotMax

    @satby

    As if anyone would want to drive to Marengo for any reason.</blockquote.

    Bypass the Riviera of the Kishwaukee River? Heaven forfend.

    :)

  88. 88.

    WereBear

    There’s no point in wishing for an orderly march to sense. Or it would have happened already. Why do the assholes cling to their assholery and refuse to give it up? In any context?

    Because that is all they have.

    Racism and sexism is the way a travesty of a human being like Donald Trump climbs to the top of a pyramid of fellow travelers. Unearned privilege is what is at stake, and it is a cult in its own right, whatever political or religious trappings it tried to cover itself with.

    Because without unearned privilege, they would have no status at all. Might as well ask why the Southern poor white put up with their terrible circumstances.

    Yet, they voted for it, because it came with a built-in compensator, which was knowing that African-Americans had it worse. They are determined to create as many automatic underclasses as possible, so they have someone to easily look down upon.

    They will suffer and die to keep that. I don’t understand it, but that’s what we are fighting.

  89. 89.

    zhena gogolia

    I thought this was a joke last night, but I see this morning when I pick up my paper that the NYT has Tara Reade on the front page again.

  91. 91.

    Delk

    @NotMax: I have a friend that’s a mailman in Marengo which pretty much means that whenever we drive past Marengo I get to say, “I have a friend that’s a mailman in Marengo”. Otherwise, I really don’t have much other opportunities.

  92. 92.

    Kay

    @Brachiator:

    I think about this a lot, living off of “accrued assets” as far as having a middle class. I see it in my practice. The people who had comfortable middle class lives can (and do) pass some of that to their grown children. But those people are disappearing. I don’t think the generation after them will have anything to pass. You don’t really need a TON to get started, but if you don’t have it it becomes hugely important.

    I think the best and most interesting part of Ta-Nehisi Coates work is when he writes about how denial of economic opportunity ripples for black people- how the generation prior can’t give the next a stake to get started. He spoke about it in the context of Chicago real estate (and all the benefits that come along with that) but it applies much more broadly. No one really does anything by themselves. In my practice I see this kind of chain of benefits that pays dividends for decades.

  93. 93.

    satby

    @Baud: Well, the rage from our side would hopefully balance it out anyway. But every crack in the Republican monopoly on suburban elections is good.

  94. 94.

    WereBear

    @WereBear:

    To add to the theme I developed at that comment, I realized the real reason people were storming state capitals for their “right” to get their haircut and free tea refills.

    It’s because these are the people who love abusing the help.

    They go to lunch after church to order around the server and then stiff them on the tip. They love harassing retail workers for imagined infractions. They bask in the attention of their hairstylist and will make all kinds of demands so they are catered to.

    THAT is what they miss. Affordable servants they can abuse and bully.

    And they are willing to risk their life to get it back.

  95. 95.

    Baud

    @zhena gogolia:

    I saw on my feed last night that they were going to do a story. I didn’t realize it would be on the front page!

    People mocked me when I called them garbage.

  96. 96.

    Baud

    @satby:

    I suppose it’s going to be especially positive for us this year that the face of the party will be an old white guy.*  One less thing for the fence sitters to stress over.

    * For the record, I think Biden has been doing an excellent job under difficult circumstances.

  97. 97.

    WereBear

    @Kay: The people who had comfortable middle class lives can (and do) pass some of that to their grown children. But those people are disappearing. I don’t think the generation after them will have anything to pass.

     
    I was part of that wave of divorces from no-fault. And nothing blows up financial family stability like that kind of tragedy. Nobody wins.

    The fallout undermines in every way. There’s no stability or help: not mental from the disruption and screaming and hate, and not physical from the fights about not enough assets for everyone, moving to new places, juggling visitation and friends.

    It’s just not stable. Don’t get me wrong: that was a good thing. But the next wave was the Reagan Revolution, and I had a front row seat, as a struggling middle class parent, where every year it seemed another benefit or tax break or just support got chipped away.

    By the time W came along he was ushering in what became the Great Recession, and so many who had anything then lost it.

    It might not be a lot of individual wealth they stole, but they are making it up with volume.

  98. 98.

    Kay

    @zhena gogolia:

    Yeah, it’s weird. I read it and there’s nothing new in there, other than an oddly irrelevant and deep dive into her family of origin. The refs got effectively worked again.
    I knew Trump would be a disaster but what I did not anticipate or price in was how weak so many of our other institutions are- both public and private. So many people were and are utterly beaten by him. They just didn’t hold up. Were not up to the challenge. You can really count on both hands the people and institutions who maintained integrity. There are so few of them it shocks me. Luckily for us Biden seems to be one of them. Trump hasn’t changed him one bit.

  100. 100.

    Amir Khalid

    @Bruuuuce:

    I first heard of Lynch twenty years ago, when he was hurling insults at Bruce Springsteen for defaming New York cops by writing and performing American Skin (41 Shots).

  101. 101.

    Sab

    @Kay: I spent my childhood near the Space Coast. It has always been boom and bust.

    When I was in elementary school GE moved thousands of rocket scientists and their families into our town north of Cape Canaveral (1960- 1962)). Great people but they overwhelmed the schools.  Our classrooms were temporary pods on cimderblocks on the playground. Five years later they were all gone and the town collapsed economically.

    This was pattern has been repeated over and over ever simce.

  102. 102.

    gene108

    @Bruuuuce: 

    I do not understand how police unions obtained so much political power that they can dictate terms to the city government.

    This happens in many cities across the country.

    Yet, teachers unions don’t have that power, sanitation workers don’t have that power, etc.

  103. 103.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: We decided not to get one of those PPP loans for this exact reason – the rules around the program were murky and kept changing. Now you can use FICA as part of wages you get credit for, now you can’t.  We decided we were able to pay the bills that had to be paid without their money, and our employees were on unemployment so they were taken care of. Now we’re really really glad we didn’t do one of those loans.

  104. 104.

    waratah

    @NotMax: Beto O’Rourke has. He is also putting the same energy he had in the Senate race to elect Democrats to state and federal elections, calling out state judges. He is working tirelessly to elect Joe Biden , registering people to vote. The Republicans do not like this fo some reason they thought they would be through with him when he had to drop his run for President.

  105. 105.

    Kay

    @zhena gogolia:

    One of my sisters is a prickly person- I adore her although she can be rude- and she said once “whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” is not true. She says there’s all these hugely damaged people walking around who were not “made stronger” but instead were harmed and diminished and are suffering.

    I think that’s true and it’s how I think about the proclamations about the country, how we are “better” than this. Are we? Where’s the evidence for that? Maybe we were challenged and mostly we don’t meet the challenge. Failure is definitely an option.

  106. 106.

    Matt McIrvin

    I’m a space fan going way back to when I was a kid. But the space-fan subculture has weird obsessions and blind spots, and I’ve become somewhat dissatisfied with… the narrative, shall we say. They still talk about the romance of spaceflight in Manifest Destiny-like terms that aren’t really self-justifying unless you’ve already bought into them.

    To me it’s always been about science and exploration–expanding human knowledge (which I suppose is my own “Manifest Destiny”–I freely admit this is a value judgment others may not share). And the thing about human spaceflight is that, apart from the Apollo moon landings, the scientific payoff from it has not been great, compared to uncrewed robotic exploration. The Apollo flights genuinely expanded human knowledge of the Moon a lot, but they were so costly that even there, you could definitely make the case that the payoff would have been better from doing something else.

    I came of age during the Shuttle era, and the NASA line during development of the Shuttle was that we were going to do it right this time; human spaceflight wouldn’t be a boondoggle, it would be a sustainable program that would actually pay for itself! It was an attractive message for the 70s/80s. Unfortunately it was all built on lies; the Shuttle was a boondoggle and a deathtrap besides. So that was disillusioning. The current approach is definitely better if you must do it, but it doesn’t have the same degree of theater.

    Because we all know that this isn’t the reason governments actually pay for this stuff; it’s national prestige/psychological warfare operations. Everyone wants to be The Greatest or part of the big boys’ club. It’s why people get obsessed about ridiculous things like whether the Neil Armstrong biopic showed the US flag being planted.

    So while it’s cool and I’ll watch, I’ve become a bit jaded about astronauts going into space. I’m not jaded about things like New Horizons encountering Pluto. There’s a difference there.

  107. 107.

    Bruuuuce

    @gene108: I suspect it has to do with their ability to strike (legally or otherwise) and the implicit (or otherwise) threat that should they somehow not get what they want, those mean streets are gonna get rough, Mister Mayor, and you’ll take all the blame from the lawyers and bankers and captains of industry who won’t finance your next campaign

    The teachers union is fairly powerful in New York, and the sanitation union is, as it is so many places, well-connected with extralegal authorities.

  108. 108.

    NotMax

    Have had 49th Parallel running on Prime all through the time also enjoying this thread.

    1941 wartime adventure/propaganda film. Long time since last saw it and had forgotten how much story it packs into two hours while managing to keep the tension taut throughout. Still packs a punch. And a helluva cast. Although Olivier’s French-Canadian accent veers a bit over the top.

  110. 110.

    zhena gogolia

    @Baud:

    I couldn’t stand to read it, but it doesn’t seem to have any news value. It’s about her “journey.”

    E. Jean Carroll never made it anywhere near the front page.

  112. 112.

    Baud

    @zhena gogolia: The point is to get “Tara Reade,” “Joe Biden,” and “rape allegation” retweeted by the haters. Create some buzz, and then the media can continue to report on it because “everyone is talking about it.”

  113. 113.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @gene108:I do not understand how police unions obtained so much political power that they can dictate terms to the city government.

    They enforce the status quo.

  114. 114.

    Tony Jay

    My friend just sent me a video of a routine ‘arrested while black’ incident where the two white cops very quickly regret racially profiling the target when they see what he’s got in his wallet.

    Is this something that happened recently? I don’t suppose it matters, really. This type of ‘policing’ is the problem  whenever and wherever it happens.

  115. 115.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Kay:One of my sisters is a prickly person- I adore her although she can be rude- and she said once “whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” is not true.

    My twin by another mother. Every time I hear that I just say “Bullshit.”
    If they start to argue I reply, “Let me go get my baseball bat and see if you still think that’s true.”

  116. 116.

    Kathleen

    @Kay:  WaPo and other news organizations are obtaining docs to get to the bottom of this so it’s on print media’s radar. I subscribe to Cincinnati Business Courier which is one of the publications working on this project.

  117. 117.

    Elizabelle

    @PST:   WRT the Lincoln Project ad re confederates for Trump:  Yeah, I noticed that voice too.  It is perfect for the message.

  119. 119.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @WereBear:

    They go to lunch after church to order around the server and then stiff them on the tip.

    Truth. My elder son worked in Starbucks as one of his four part-time jobs in the wake of W’s recession, and he said the Sunday after-church crowd was the worst. Demanding, abusive, and stingy.

  120. 120.

    Gin & Tonic

    I’m not planning on joining the “I need a haircut” gun-humping crowd any time soon, but, you know, last night I had a dream that birds were nesting in my hair.

  121. 121.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Bruuuuce: Also, that the police themselves are heavily armed and they could in fact kill you if you don’t do what they want.

    The teachers’ union isn’t functionally an armed gang; the police union is.

  123. 123.

    artem1s

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:

    I find myself no longer giving a fuck about human space flight. I’m seeing it as an expensive waste of time.

    I’d be more for it if the media was more focused on the science and scientists who got them up there. Instead we have another generation of glorifying flyboys.  And the ‘entrepreneurs’ who paid for it will keep it going right up until they lose interest or money and have to cut back on their spa days or until they get some bad press.

     

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:

  124. 124.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @gene108:

    I do not understand how police unions obtained so much political power that they can dictate terms to the city government.

    This happens in many cities across the country.

    Yet, teachers unions don’t have that power, sanitation workers don’t have that power, etc.

    In 1974 3 strikes broke out against the City of Baltimore: the police, the sanitation workers, and the teachers.

    • When the cops stop working, within a week everyone’s scared spitless that some thug’s gonna stick a gun in their face or break into their home;
    • When the trashmen aren’t picking up, within a month everyone’s neighborhood stinks to high heaven;
    • When the teachers aren’t teaching … ehh, a few years down the line a bunch of kids mostly from poor families (that couldn’t afford to send them to private schools or move out to the counties with better school systems) don’t get a good enough education to get decent jobs.

    After 5-6 weeks, the trashmen & the cops got everything they asked for. The teachers got screwed. Of course.

    (Disclaimers: (1) I was dating a City English teacher at the time. (2) The City house I live in was sold to me a dozen years later by a couple who bought a very similar place <1/4 mile across the Baltimore County line so their children could attend the far superior schools there.)

  125. 125.

    Betty

    @SFAW: Oh, she is, much to my dismay. People who don’t want to dirty their minds by politics and wonder how we got here. Good people, but they make me crazy.

  126. 126.

    J R in WV

    @NotMax:

    has Buttigieg made any public statements?

    I got an unwelcome email from him the other day. I did not open it to read it, I just deleted it. He has nothing to say that I need to hear!

  127. 127.

    Brachiator

    @Kay:

    I think about this a lot, living off of “accrued assets” as far as having a middle class. I see it in my practice. The people who had comfortable middle class lives can (and do) pass some of that to their grown children. But those people are disappearing. I don’t think the generation after them will have anything to pass.

    A late reply and probably a dead thread. But I wanted to acknowledge your post.

    Very well said. The middle class is being stifled by the plutocrats and have a much tougher time saving and investing.

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