“I can hear those champagne bottle corks popping in Moscow — like it’s Christmas every fucking day": US Politics, February 2024

That was something else. YIKES.

Florida looks nothing like America and has nothing to offer America, as a state, except vacations, understaffed nursing homes, and a model of what not to be. We are full of people who have already lived their lives and don’t care about yours.

At least here in Oakland, if feels like restaurants are shuttering left and right

this is largely because people are not going out to eat at the levels they used to, for a whole variety of reasons, but there is no doubt that fear of getting your car windows smashed is part of it. the other part is that eating out has gotten really expensive for a whole variety of reasons, and people's pay hasn't necessarily risen along with the costs. We have a cafe in Berkeley that closed recently (though it's reopening on weekends only) and while I miss it, eating breakfast there for three topped $120 most of the time. The owner blames 'gentrification' but I'm like... gentrifiers are the only people who can afford to eat at your place!

That’s a huge breakfast bill for three

My wife and I don't go out to eat because she's immunocompromised, but we get takeout from local restaurants — there's an OK pizza place, several Mexican places, a couple of good burger/diner spots, and a cool Asian fusion food truck — several times a week and it usually runs us $35-50 for two people. That's not terrible from our perspective, but for the people I hear having nervous conversations in the grocery store it may be a little high.

But on the other hand, the bars and the liquor store and the small casinos around here all seem to be doing fine, as do the various dispensaries. So people find the money for what they're willing to spend money on, in other words.

people find the money for what they're willing to spend money on, in other words

Whatever ameliorates the constant pain of living life like this, in other words.

The increased cost of fast food has created a flipped situation too, I can either get a shitty Wendy's combo for $12 or a bowl at the Korean fast casual place with pork belly, rice, edamame, vegetables and glass noodles for a dollar less.

Whatever ameliorates the constant pain of living life like this, in other words.

― badpee pooper (Eric H.),

But otherwise you're doing fine.

I noticed Miami-Dade and Broward weren't mentioned in that Florida article. What I read scans with what I see when I vacation in Southwest Florida or in the rare moments I drive north, but down here? Many young South American children and tech bros.

re: the border bill, the GOP Senate voted for the status quo

I don't really care that much

There was a Bon Appetit article the other day about how people are still spending $ on their favorite restaurants where they know what they're getting but less willing to risk trying new spots. Which makes it hard for the new places to stay afloat.

Less willing bc of higher prices, tbc

People like to say that small businesses are "job creators," (including and especially restaurants).

But lots of restaurants fail, usually quite quickly. So small businesses (including and especially restaurants) are also job destroyers.

For the most part, restaurant jobs suck.

otm

For the most part, restaurant jobs suck.

fixed.

That's why they call it work

As my grandfather used to say, of course work sucks — that's why they have to pay you to do it.

nah, I've worked a number of different jobs and restaurants were definitely the worst. factories are a very close second.

restaurants are cool jobs from 16-22, pretty sure I'd tear everything in my shoulder trying to carry one of those oblong trays filled with seafood platters now

they're cool for meeting other 16-22 year olds who need to let off steam

And/or have a side hustle selling weed and shrooms.

those plus the money was pretty good for being that age, walking out with $200-300 in cash on a Saturday night beat the hell out of Barnes & Noble or any other job that seemed available at the time

BIDEN tonight at a fundraiser in NYC: “I’m a practicing Catholic. I don’t want abortion on demand but I thought Roe v Wade was right.”

— AlexGangitano (@AlexGangitano) February 7, 2024

shut up gramps

huh i ain't catholic, maybe that'll work to the +, but uh, you don't need to go there.

I want it on demand, not least because after decades and decades of it being made more and more difficult to get even when it was federally protected, at the very least we should spend the rest of our lives apologizing to women and at most should actually give them access to abortion with as little effort as possible because it's there fucking bodies.

so yes, Hunt3r otm

"on demand" is so weird, like, that's the whole idea! On demand = "when you need it." When else are people supposed to have abortions if not on demand?

lol exactly

"no, we need to make it difficult because hey this might be a Van Gogh growing inside"

If men could get pregnant, abortions would be available at CVS.

there'd be pills in Frosted Flakes

fwiw, i think it's more enlightening to cite what Biden has done as president around this issue than quoting his choice of rhetoric when fund-raising.

how about "but i understand why it IS just and right."

see, i wasn't quoting aimless, i was ~suggesting~, tho maybe poorly.

huh?

That article about the demographic politics of Florida is extraordinary

Also h/t for the phrase "forced birth" when talking about anti-choice legislation - gets the point across much better

good morning!

I got busy yesterday and couldn't respond to people who responded to my q, but thank you

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/02/08/taylor-swift-conspiracies-lyrics-satire/

“Say you’ll remember ME” (“Wildest Dreams”): REMEMBER THE MAINE! Swift remembers the USS Maine, whose destruction precipitated the Spanish-American War. What will it precipitate next?

“Wrapped all of my past mistakes in barbed wire” (“invisible string”): This refers to the secret facility where Taylor Swift’s enemies are kept.

And yet Lefsetz roams free

“Sometimes I feel like everybody is a sexy baby, and I’m the monster on the hill” (“Anti-Hero”): Who is the monster on the Hill? Congress, of course. But, then, who is the sexy baby? Simple: George Santos.

"I met Bobby on the boardwalk summer of '45
Picked me up late one night out the window
We were seventeen and crazy running wild, wild"

This is about RFK Jr. and Trump (45) visiting Epstein island

Also the modulation in the last chorus of "Love Story" was developed in a lab at Quantico to prompt a potent cocktail of dopamine and oxytocin in 97 percent of test subjects, bonding them to Swift and rendering them obedient to her suggestions.

wrt to the recovering economy and its (non) appearance in how people report sentiment, is one factor the fact that economic growth under Biden has disproportionately occurred in red states?

C'mon, man. No amount of prosperity, safety, freedom, or privilege will budge those voters. It's just tribes and grievance all the way down.

If only we could send a reporter to a diner. Surely that would provide us with some insights into how the Real Americans think.

Please save us, T. Swizzle, you're our only hope.

I have placed the plans of the Death Star in your Tesla. Many Bothans died to bring us this information.

Why can't they put one lonely reporter in the diner who will report what the common man says now and then.

C'mon, man. No amount of prosperity, safety, freedom, or privilege will budge those voters. It's just tribes and grievance all the way down.

That explains the red state voters who have had a faster recovering economy but are never going to credit a Democratic president. But what I was really referring to was more the fact that recovery in blue states has been less pronounced, so voters that might be more inclined to report more positive sentiment have less to feel good about than those in states where the recovery has been concentrated

even if the u.s. economy was the strongest ever in history people post-pandemic, post-trump, and post-climate change - on the left and right - will say that things aren't going well. its an existential thing. which is definitely gonna skew your polls. folks got the jitters out there. millenarianism. whatever you want to call it. mckibbenism.