Friday Night

Keep talking

Afternoon

On your own!

Lunch Thread

Very busy afternoon! Very annoying life stuff!

What's It All About Then

Regularly there are pleas to the FREE SPEECH DEFENDERS who have built up an audience claiming to be oh so concerned about this precious principle, particularly in places where LIBERALS are supposedly SILENCING PEOPLE and CANCELING THEM, to pay a bit of attention the various things that are going on in all levels of our education system.

And, well, I know mostly these are jabs aiming to show that these people have always been full of shit, but sometimes the people saying them seem to be least slightly genuine, so let me explain.

The FREE SPEECH crowd was only and always about preserving safe spaces for elite racists to do racism and get paid for it.

But What Are "WE" Supposed To DOOOOOOOOO

A problem with top Dems being generally hostile to outside activism of most kinds is that it leaves the people who care without much to do. No one in power wants to admit "making life uncomfortable (within reasonable legal and polite limits) for elected Reps" has any impact on them, but of course it does.

That leaves writing checks, voting, and at election time volunteering with limited resources as millions go into the pockets of campaign consultants/ad companies.

Friday Morning

Week's almost over.

Thursday Night

Rock on.

But What Can Biden DOOOOOO

One thing he can do, as President of the United States, is get a few interested parties in the room and politely inform them that, as President, he does have the power to implement much of the Full Gay Communism agenda without Congress, so perhaps they'd prefer just passing his little bill instead.

Slightly more seriously, if Congress won't do the stuff he requires from them, there's still plenty he can reasonably and legitimately do without them. Maybe they'd make a deal about that.

Happy Hour Thread

Get happy.

STRIKE

No deep thoughts on the John Deere strike, but I do like reports of having their white collar salary workers try to do the real work.

"To my knowledge, most of us will be allocated to the Milan Parts center. Deere's spent an enormous amount of time, money, & effort trying to get us all trained, but not many of us are really ready for this. We'll be working 12 hour shifts, 6 days/week, with day & night shifts."

— Jonah Furman (@JonahFurman) October 14, 2021

Doubt He'll Show

But we'll see!

Former President Donald Trump must sit for a videotaped deposition next week as part of a lawsuit involving his anti-immigrant rhetoric, a judge in the Bronx ordered.

MOVING FORWARD

As long as they keep moving.

BREAKING: Chairman @BennieGThompson announces the Select Committee will move forward with proceedings to refer Mr. Bannon for criminal contempt. Read the full statement: https://t.co/NzwmvR09pa

— January 6th Committee (@January6thCmte) October 14, 2021

Lunch Thread

 It's that time!

Sure, Nick

Leaving side my opinions of his work at the New York Times, "haven't had a real job in a couple of decades" is probably not the best qualification for governor. More than that, this kind of "I'm a smart guy with common sense who knows how to get things done make me governor" view is corrosive.

Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Nicholas Kristof is ditching The New York Times after 37 years ahead of an expected run for Oregon governor.

He's had as much of a real job as I have, except with more paid assistants. I shouldn't be governor either. Maybe the guy who sits in the corner of the meetings, mostly quietly but occasionally expressing my displeasure. Senior adviser. That kind of thing.

Wokery

Summers is who "we've" always said he is and shame on all the people who buttressed his reputation year after year.

Former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers castigated monetary policy makers in the U.S. and elsewhere for paying too much attention to social issues and not enough to the biggest risk to inflation since the 1970s.

...

Fed policy makers last year adopted a more inclusive approach toward their goal of achieving maximum employment, going well beyond the headline unemployment rate. They have pledged to keep their benchmark interest rate near zero even as inflation surges, committing to ensure greater progress in the job market.

The specific issue is that in their target for "full employment" or whatever we're calling it this year, the Fed long separated out black unemployment from white unemployment, targeting a higher level of unemployment for black workers which supposedly reflected "full unemployment" and if you're not a racist monster you can see the problem with that.

White people might be able to get a raise occasionally, but not black people.

Thursday Is New Jobless Day

293K new lucky duckies. Right direction!

Thursday Morning

For all the Thursday fans, this day's for you.

Wednesday Night

Rock on.

Happy Hour Thread

To happiness!

Under Penalty

They had better be planning to do it for real.

Afternoon Thread

Busy with some stuff.

WHY WON'T THE REPUBLICANS DO THE RIGHT THING

I see a lot of complaining that no Republicans voted to increase the debt ceiling... and... really, who cares? The dick move was filibustering it, although that too only happens because they are permitted to.

McConnell's horrible, but "The Democrats are in charge so they are responsible" is actually correct!