Two days after an election in which the Republican Party attacked the Democrats for inflation, today’s consumer price index data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that inflation is slowing more quickly than expected. It rose just 0.4% in October, making the rate over the past twelve months also come in lower than expected at 7.7%.
Listening to President Biden during his press conference today; I felt reassured in his confidence and his relaxed voice. I could hear the factual-ness of the work he and the Dems have done to make life better for all of us, lowering drug costs esp for insulin, working with our NATO allies. Not pretense, nor pomp or boasting. Just factual information. I feel like I haven’t heard that kind of level headed talk in a long time. And there was also something in his voice that was calmer. Calmness backed up by the success of his administrations hard work, and also the fact evidenced by the Dems election victories, that so many Americans recognize it.
Thank you, Heather/Dr. Richardson, for all the work you continue to do. Your letters have kept me sane (and have kept so many of us going). Happy Veterans Day!
The big surprise for me this election was how red Miami-Dade and the whole of Florida has become. However, saying De Santis is the rising star of the Republican Party is quite premature. I doubt that De Santis will do well outside of Florida and on the national stage. I'm also waiting a few days to see if the Republicans who are calling DT the Biggest Loser will actually say out loud that DT has to go for the Republican Party to survive and for the small cracks in the GOP becoming a rip cord tearing the GOP in two. I think I will find it rather amusing to watch since it will only strengthen the pro-democracy determination and direction of our country. We, the People, all of us this time!
Republicans never let facts get in the way of a belief. They're a faith-based party, faith in whatever bullshit their fearless leader tells them the truth is.
And the unhinged march along. Interesting that fascism as a “choice” is now on the table. I didn’t think the Ghastly Oligarchs Party would be quite so overt but dang they must be desperate.
Wait! Let’s not relax yet. There’s a close race for the Senate. We can all help get out Democratic votes in the Georgia run-off between Raphael Warnock and his extreme and disreputable MAGA opponent, Herschel Walker. Vote Forward has started a letter writing campaign targeting over 130,000 infrequent Democratic voters in Georgia. Their program has been shown to increase turnout by about 2 - 4%. My wife and I contributed $100 more to the Warnock campaign and have already prepared 60 Vote Forward letters. Here’s their site:
Republicans have sold their toxic stew to many MAGA true believers. We need to continue organizing to save democracy.
Please do what you can to help Senator Warnock keep his seat. The Senate race is still neck and neck. (I’m a volunteer letter writer and am not otherwise connected to the Vote Forward organization.)
I have to say how genuinely touched I was with the President Biden's words about the younger generations today, just as I was with everyone who responded to my comment about my perspective on this several days ago.
Seeing all those articles about how the youth were missing in action right up til Election Day made me want to rip my beard hairs out individually. (Apparently anyone under 30 is a green wee sapling unblemished with the ways of the world, instead of taxpayers, breadwinners, and braintrust.) Of COURSE we were showing up. Of COURSE it was going to be day of, or right before. Have ANY of you spoken with ANYONE young or young-ish in the last half-decade, at least? We spend our days drowning in papers and screens. Why fill out and *mail* something (a foreign concept, practically), when you could get out for once and make an experience out of it. We are all about the experience. I'll bring my earbuds with me and daydream to some chill tunes, or better yet chat someone up. Doing something early is what your parents TELL you you should do. No thanks.
I hope I'm not perceived as being bitter or having some equally dismissive attitude towards the olds. It really will take all of us together to right this ship, and I don't care if you're 11 or 111. But it has become so clear to me that there is a true gap in understanding between the younger population of citizens and everyone else. I don't mean to indicate it involves any ill will or lack of attempt to understand. Not at all! But the internet and age of technology overload has changed everything related to communication and perception of one's place in a global community for those raised in it from childhood, so starkly so that the only thing that can compare is perhaps literacy pre- and post-printing press (or telephone).
We have our share of lazy non-participants, sure. Every generation does. But we have an absolute surfeit of Olivia Juliannas and Jack Petroczs and Maxwell Frosts and That Kid That Won the School Board in Boise. And their peers are aware of them and like them and wish to emulate them and speak out too. CARING IS COOL NOW. And not caring is not. There is no admiration for slackers in a world on fire. Heck, my brother (22) only follows politics right before voting, but we had a full conversation about he and his friends' opinions on the shifts in CA housing policy toward local zoning and insisting on duplexes, because - I quote - "God forbid we can afford something instead of you having a lawn to guzzle more water... the NIMBYs are so over!" (He supported AG Rob Bonta for this reason chiefly, as did I.)
Of course we were showing up. To save ourselves. To save America from itself. And because the President actually made an effort. He heard what was important to us - climate, gun control, debt relief - and tried and succeeded to make progress. We're progressive but pragmatic. We see that. We appreciate that. We offer support in return.
Of course we showed up. And we will in even greater numbers next time.
So now he needs to codify Roe ... among other campaign promises, federal marijuana comes to mind. I’m ready to breathe easier for a bit. I want to see any of the lawsuits pending against TFG bear fruit ie jail time. We need some serious perking up.
Two days after the election and the glow of avoiding a "red wave" is wearing off. I realize that historically the party in the White House loses seats in Congress and, given Biden's poor ratings, the losses could have been much worse. Having said that, notwithstanding all of the Republican extremism and not offering any solutions or rational policy agenda, the fact that they picked up any seats at all is deeply depressing. The election may tell Republicans that they no longer need to bow to Trump, but they still intend to pursue the same policies and even some of the same tactics. It looks like we will have a Republican House that will do nothing but hold investigations on Hunter Biden and God knows what else; they will prevent Biden and Democrats from enacting any meaningful legislation to run on in 2024. And instead of Trump running in 2024, it will be DeSantis - whose tone may be slightly better than Trump, but his policies are indistinguishable. So, yes, I'm glad the predicted red wave did not happen. But what did happen is hardly heartening.
"Biden told the attendees [of the DNC event] that Democrats 'beat the odds' in the midterms 'for one reason—this is not hyperbole—because of you…. I really mean it…. You believed in the system. You believed in the institutions. You fought like hell for it.'"
It was not the DNC, wholly owned subsidiary of corporate America, who fought like hell. It was people like us, who phone-banked our way through the year and gave our retirement nest-eggs to Justice Democrats and the Movement Voters Project and John Fetterman and wrote postcards and letters to GOTV till our hands cramped too badly to hold a glass of water, and canvassed and leafleted and dared to work at the polls, and watch them, despite the thugs with guns who watched us watch democracy take place. And it was the young people, to whom Biden broke his promises to clear their education debt and stop drilling in the oceans and the reservations and recreate free college--like they have in Tunisia, and once had in California. The DNC spent millions supporting people like Henry Cuellar, the abortion opponent who fought the right to unionize and worked with his fellow Blue Dogs to derail Build Back Better, or in 2020 Joe Manchin, who wants to see the beautiful green earth turn to a lump of sizzling coal in our children's lifetimes so he can buy another yacht. The DNC didn't go without sleep this year to save democracy. We did. And Biden has yet to thank us.
Thank Gaia it went as well as it did. I’m still gobsmacked that So many Republicans were elected. I mean, really, all they want to do is steal, cheat, hate on women, immigrants, POC, wreck the planet, let the infrastructure collapse and rot and amaze non-Americans with their incompetence, disrespect and lack of dignity.
We’re not forgetting Senator Rick Scott (R-FL) are we? Remember his 11-point plan to ‘Rescue America?’ How is this ambitious Florida senator doing since the midterm election results have been coming in?
‘In February, Scott unveiled a proposal to curb excessive government spending should Republicans take back the majority in Congress after the midterm elections. His 11-point plan called for sunsetting all federal legislation after five years.'
‘Scott’s blueprint also called for “Congress to issue a report every year telling the public what they plan to do when Social Security and Medicare go bankrupt.”
'At a rally in Syracuse, N.Y., last week, President Biden said Republicans were demanding cuts to the programs.'
“They’re so determined to cut Social Security and Medicare, they’re willing to take down the economy over it,” Biden said. “There is nothing, nothing that will create more chaos or do more damage to the American economy than that happening, if it were to happen.”
'House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) distanced himself from any plans to cut back the social programs.'
'Scott told CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union” (this past Sunday before the midterm elections) that he is “going to fight like hell” to preserve the social programs.'
‘Data for Progress, a left-leaning organization, released a poll in August that found 65 percent of likely American voters were “very concerned” about the government reducing Social Security benefits.’
‘THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION RECENTLY INCREASED SOCIAL SECURITY PAYCHECKS by 8.7 percent to adjust for inflation and BOOST the PAY of about 70 million Americans starting next year.'
‘National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) Chairman Rick Scott (Fla.) in a race to serve as Senate majority leader.’
‘Scott stoked speculation about his leadership ambitions on Sunday, when he refused to rule out challenging McConnell, who says he has the votes to win.’
‘He would have been virtually certain to lose. But Scott’s challenge was not so much aimed at unseating the longtime Senate Republican leader as it was channeling the anger of grassroots conservatives, and the former president, who were peeved at McConnell’s criticism of the “candidate quality” of this year’s roster of Senate GOP candidates.’
‘The idea was that those supposed mediocrities would romp to victory, credit Scott for his steadfast support and shame McConnell for his lack of faith — while also starting to loosen the 80-year-old’s grip on his leadership post. But only one of those candidates — Ohio’s J.D. Vance — won his race outright. Arizona’s Blake Masters appears likely to lose, Georgia’s Herschel Walker is in a runoff, and Pennsylvania’s Mehmet Oz and New Hampshire’s Donald Bolduc were defeated.’
Looks like senator Rick Scotts star and fallen a bit, don’t you think?
If I have to hear about Ron DeSantis running for president for the next two years, I don't think I can stomach it. It's like another incarnation of the orange head. All this attention to him and not nearly the attention to Gretchen Whitmer who had such a major victory in her state, but hey, she's "just" a woman.
Spot-on Professor. On Gen Z voters & the 18 to 29 year olds, please note the illuminating hard data published by the 'CIRCLE' folks at Tufts. Many thanks to FERN McBride who linked to the CIRCLE report in yesterday 's LFAA. As I posted yesterday, Gen Z are all genders, have color, smarts, are mobile, tech savy & colorful. Good job all.
Listening to President Biden during his press conference today; I felt reassured in his confidence and his relaxed voice. I could hear the factual-ness of the work he and the Dems have done to make life better for all of us, lowering drug costs esp for insulin, working with our NATO allies. Not pretense, nor pomp or boasting. Just factual information. I feel like I haven’t heard that kind of level headed talk in a long time. And there was also something in his voice that was calmer. Calmness backed up by the success of his administrations hard work, and also the fact evidenced by the Dems election victories, that so many Americans recognize it.
Thank you, Heather/Dr. Richardson, for all the work you continue to do. Your letters have kept me sane (and have kept so many of us going). Happy Veterans Day!
The big surprise for me this election was how red Miami-Dade and the whole of Florida has become. However, saying De Santis is the rising star of the Republican Party is quite premature. I doubt that De Santis will do well outside of Florida and on the national stage. I'm also waiting a few days to see if the Republicans who are calling DT the Biggest Loser will actually say out loud that DT has to go for the Republican Party to survive and for the small cracks in the GOP becoming a rip cord tearing the GOP in two. I think I will find it rather amusing to watch since it will only strengthen the pro-democracy determination and direction of our country. We, the People, all of us this time!
Republicans never let facts get in the way of a belief. They're a faith-based party, faith in whatever bullshit their fearless leader tells them the truth is.
And the unhinged march along. Interesting that fascism as a “choice” is now on the table. I didn’t think the Ghastly Oligarchs Party would be quite so overt but dang they must be desperate.
Wait! Let’s not relax yet. There’s a close race for the Senate. We can all help get out Democratic votes in the Georgia run-off between Raphael Warnock and his extreme and disreputable MAGA opponent, Herschel Walker. Vote Forward has started a letter writing campaign targeting over 130,000 infrequent Democratic voters in Georgia. Their program has been shown to increase turnout by about 2 - 4%. My wife and I contributed $100 more to the Warnock campaign and have already prepared 60 Vote Forward letters. Here’s their site:
https://votefwd.org/
Republicans have sold their toxic stew to many MAGA true believers. We need to continue organizing to save democracy.
Please do what you can to help Senator Warnock keep his seat. The Senate race is still neck and neck. (I’m a volunteer letter writer and am not otherwise connected to the Vote Forward organization.)
I have to say how genuinely touched I was with the President Biden's words about the younger generations today, just as I was with everyone who responded to my comment about my perspective on this several days ago.
Seeing all those articles about how the youth were missing in action right up til Election Day made me want to rip my beard hairs out individually. (Apparently anyone under 30 is a green wee sapling unblemished with the ways of the world, instead of taxpayers, breadwinners, and braintrust.) Of COURSE we were showing up. Of COURSE it was going to be day of, or right before. Have ANY of you spoken with ANYONE young or young-ish in the last half-decade, at least? We spend our days drowning in papers and screens. Why fill out and *mail* something (a foreign concept, practically), when you could get out for once and make an experience out of it. We are all about the experience. I'll bring my earbuds with me and daydream to some chill tunes, or better yet chat someone up. Doing something early is what your parents TELL you you should do. No thanks.
I hope I'm not perceived as being bitter or having some equally dismissive attitude towards the olds. It really will take all of us together to right this ship, and I don't care if you're 11 or 111. But it has become so clear to me that there is a true gap in understanding between the younger population of citizens and everyone else. I don't mean to indicate it involves any ill will or lack of attempt to understand. Not at all! But the internet and age of technology overload has changed everything related to communication and perception of one's place in a global community for those raised in it from childhood, so starkly so that the only thing that can compare is perhaps literacy pre- and post-printing press (or telephone).
We have our share of lazy non-participants, sure. Every generation does. But we have an absolute surfeit of Olivia Juliannas and Jack Petroczs and Maxwell Frosts and That Kid That Won the School Board in Boise. And their peers are aware of them and like them and wish to emulate them and speak out too. CARING IS COOL NOW. And not caring is not. There is no admiration for slackers in a world on fire. Heck, my brother (22) only follows politics right before voting, but we had a full conversation about he and his friends' opinions on the shifts in CA housing policy toward local zoning and insisting on duplexes, because - I quote - "God forbid we can afford something instead of you having a lawn to guzzle more water... the NIMBYs are so over!" (He supported AG Rob Bonta for this reason chiefly, as did I.)
Of course we were showing up. To save ourselves. To save America from itself. And because the President actually made an effort. He heard what was important to us - climate, gun control, debt relief - and tried and succeeded to make progress. We're progressive but pragmatic. We see that. We appreciate that. We offer support in return.
Of course we showed up. And we will in even greater numbers next time.
A Churchillian moment for Adam Schiff.
So now he needs to codify Roe ... among other campaign promises, federal marijuana comes to mind. I’m ready to breathe easier for a bit. I want to see any of the lawsuits pending against TFG bear fruit ie jail time. We need some serious perking up.
Two days after the election and the glow of avoiding a "red wave" is wearing off. I realize that historically the party in the White House loses seats in Congress and, given Biden's poor ratings, the losses could have been much worse. Having said that, notwithstanding all of the Republican extremism and not offering any solutions or rational policy agenda, the fact that they picked up any seats at all is deeply depressing. The election may tell Republicans that they no longer need to bow to Trump, but they still intend to pursue the same policies and even some of the same tactics. It looks like we will have a Republican House that will do nothing but hold investigations on Hunter Biden and God knows what else; they will prevent Biden and Democrats from enacting any meaningful legislation to run on in 2024. And instead of Trump running in 2024, it will be DeSantis - whose tone may be slightly better than Trump, but his policies are indistinguishable. So, yes, I'm glad the predicted red wave did not happen. But what did happen is hardly heartening.
"Biden told the attendees [of the DNC event] that Democrats 'beat the odds' in the midterms 'for one reason—this is not hyperbole—because of you…. I really mean it…. You believed in the system. You believed in the institutions. You fought like hell for it.'"
It was not the DNC, wholly owned subsidiary of corporate America, who fought like hell. It was people like us, who phone-banked our way through the year and gave our retirement nest-eggs to Justice Democrats and the Movement Voters Project and John Fetterman and wrote postcards and letters to GOTV till our hands cramped too badly to hold a glass of water, and canvassed and leafleted and dared to work at the polls, and watch them, despite the thugs with guns who watched us watch democracy take place. And it was the young people, to whom Biden broke his promises to clear their education debt and stop drilling in the oceans and the reservations and recreate free college--like they have in Tunisia, and once had in California. The DNC spent millions supporting people like Henry Cuellar, the abortion opponent who fought the right to unionize and worked with his fellow Blue Dogs to derail Build Back Better, or in 2020 Joe Manchin, who wants to see the beautiful green earth turn to a lump of sizzling coal in our children's lifetimes so he can buy another yacht. The DNC didn't go without sleep this year to save democracy. We did. And Biden has yet to thank us.
Thank Gaia it went as well as it did. I’m still gobsmacked that So many Republicans were elected. I mean, really, all they want to do is steal, cheat, hate on women, immigrants, POC, wreck the planet, let the infrastructure collapse and rot and amaze non-Americans with their incompetence, disrespect and lack of dignity.
Sounds to me like trump has mow admitted to “fixing” an election for Ron Desanctimonious!
We’re not forgetting Senator Rick Scott (R-FL) are we? Remember his 11-point plan to ‘Rescue America?’ How is this ambitious Florida senator doing since the midterm election results have been coming in?
‘In February, Scott unveiled a proposal to curb excessive government spending should Republicans take back the majority in Congress after the midterm elections. His 11-point plan called for sunsetting all federal legislation after five years.'
‘Scott’s blueprint also called for “Congress to issue a report every year telling the public what they plan to do when Social Security and Medicare go bankrupt.”
'At a rally in Syracuse, N.Y., last week, President Biden said Republicans were demanding cuts to the programs.'
“They’re so determined to cut Social Security and Medicare, they’re willing to take down the economy over it,” Biden said. “There is nothing, nothing that will create more chaos or do more damage to the American economy than that happening, if it were to happen.”
'House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) distanced himself from any plans to cut back the social programs.'
'Scott told CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union” (this past Sunday before the midterm elections) that he is “going to fight like hell” to preserve the social programs.'
‘Data for Progress, a left-leaning organization, released a poll in August that found 65 percent of likely American voters were “very concerned” about the government reducing Social Security benefits.’
‘THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION RECENTLY INCREASED SOCIAL SECURITY PAYCHECKS by 8.7 percent to adjust for inflation and BOOST the PAY of about 70 million Americans starting next year.'
(TheHill) See link below.
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/3712240-rick-scott-i-dont-know-one-republican-in-favor-of-slashing-retirees-benefits/
‘National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) Chairman Rick Scott (Fla.) in a race to serve as Senate majority leader.’
‘Scott stoked speculation about his leadership ambitions on Sunday, when he refused to rule out challenging McConnell, who says he has the votes to win.’
‘He would have been virtually certain to lose. But Scott’s challenge was not so much aimed at unseating the longtime Senate Republican leader as it was channeling the anger of grassroots conservatives, and the former president, who were peeved at McConnell’s criticism of the “candidate quality” of this year’s roster of Senate GOP candidates.’
‘The idea was that those supposed mediocrities would romp to victory, credit Scott for his steadfast support and shame McConnell for his lack of faith — while also starting to loosen the 80-year-old’s grip on his leadership post. But only one of those candidates — Ohio’s J.D. Vance — won his race outright. Arizona’s Blake Masters appears likely to lose, Georgia’s Herschel Walker is in a runoff, and Pennsylvania’s Mehmet Oz and New Hampshire’s Donald Bolduc were defeated.’
Looks like senator Rick Scotts star and fallen a bit, don’t you think?
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/11/10/rick-scott-mcconnell-midterm-elections-martin-00066400
If I have to hear about Ron DeSantis running for president for the next two years, I don't think I can stomach it. It's like another incarnation of the orange head. All this attention to him and not nearly the attention to Gretchen Whitmer who had such a major victory in her state, but hey, she's "just" a woman.
Spot-on Professor. On Gen Z voters & the 18 to 29 year olds, please note the illuminating hard data published by the 'CIRCLE' folks at Tufts. Many thanks to FERN McBride who linked to the CIRCLE report in yesterday 's LFAA. As I posted yesterday, Gen Z are all genders, have color, smarts, are mobile, tech savy & colorful. Good job all.