US Politics, April 2024: "Are You Better Off Today Than You Were <Checks Notes> Four Years Ago?"

good morning!

Where’s the presidential debate schedule?

Boom: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/04/05/business/jobs-report-march-economy

yeah but the vibes are off

Unemployment vibe rate up 4.5%

i got hired for a part time job, which makes teaching three classes and working 25 hours a week at the gym front desk. “the economy is great” my ass— if i have to work as much as i am to reach a modest standard of living, then the economy is shit. period.

like, i know my experience isn’t universal, obviously, but truly find it bizarre that a bunch of people with pretty decent jobs on a message board would essentially mock those who don’t feel like they’re doing that well, despite the figures from economists. it might not be meant that way but that is the way it appears!

Table, I apologize, I wasn't thinking of people in your situation. I think it's obscene you literally need five part-time jobs just to keep your head above water. I know I'm lucky in the job situation (it's certainly not due to my tact or charm).

I've learned that the general state of the economy has little to do with my personal situation. I was at my lowest during the "boom years" on the late 90s, and I basically doubled my income in the middle of the economic collapse of 2009. Of course I don't deny that that was generally a bad time for a lot of other people.

The biggest income jump of my life coincided with the Trump years.

Most of my friends seem to be doing OK in their various fields, but I know at least a couple of them (especially in media and marketing/advertising) have been wrestling with some serious worries that their ride could end with no warning. Kind of like when the Coyote launches himself off a cliff at high speed but doesn't actually fall until he looks down.

My media friends, yeah, are the most unstable.

I think academia and particularly teaching are undervalued but I don't see that as a function of the current economy as much as I see it as a decay and reconfiguration of the social structures of our society.

I was in college 20 years ago and back then, the main trend was the hiring of adjunct professors and instructors who had no real path to a permanent job position or a decent salary. Partly due to the devaluation of education, more so the burgeoning number of students and emphasis on postsecondary education as a path to a majority of jobs in the labor market. Teaching should be a valued position with a livable wage.

There is lots of shifting sands out there. In the past week I've had conversations with two different physicians bemoaning the state of their profession in the corporate era. They feel undervalued and under-appreciated, just cogs in a machine that more or less looks at them interchangeably, as a set quantity that can be replaced with little to no though, there just to say yes or no to things. Woah is me, right? They are of course doing fine financially, but they work really hard, and if the standard-bearer of education and success is feeling the squeeze and stress in the fight against burnout, it does not bode well.

Which is wild, because (at least when I was coming up), education and healthcare had a patina of reliability and sustainment. Like, get into those careers and you’ll be OK.

well, the more people who go into attractive professions, the greater the leverage of the employers becomes

after 30 years as a translator Maria has to make ends meet working in a cruddy used record store in Western Mass. the robots took all her work. thanks, obama!

xxpost Exactly. As I understand it, part of the shift hinges on a bigger focus on nurses, PAs, etc. (who in turn have themselves seen, yes, higher wages and more or less 100% employment, but with more than their own share of burnout).

but seriously she was just getting jobs proofreading machine translations for no money and for a highly-skilled human that was too depressing for words. i kinda wonder about all those medical documents getting translated by AI now. maria will tell you. they make tons of mistakes.

Did I or someone post the news piece about doctors using AI to dumb down medical results and instructions, to match the average level of reading comprehension in this country?

☹️

Biden’s been great for govt employees. Two of the biggest standard of living increases since the 80’s

xps - Corporation-controlled medicine is a great example of how information aggregation is devaluing individual training and experience. My primary care physician is required to work from a what amounts to an imposed script designed to deliver statistically-approved 'care'. According to this script my therapeutic needs are adequately defined by a few neat categories that correspond to the categories that were defined within published studies. Whatever the peer-reviewed study discovered within those confines, it must be applied to my case or else the doctor becomes a renegade who exposes the corporation to the dreaded risk of malpractice litigation.

The only avenue open to her for using her years of specialized training consists of deciding which script best fits the symptoms I'm "presenting" during my exam. Because I'm pretty healthy, my major symptoms are that I'm a white male, 69 years old, and whatever my BMI and BP happens to be on the day of my annual exam (hint: my BMI & BP are fine). But the script spits out its recommendations anyway, which she duly recites to me.

Hey, remember how 24 hours ago RFK's campaign was swearing they didn't mean to defend January 6 rioters? Well, today the candidate announced he'd appoint a special counsel to investigate how their rights may have been violated.

that's literally 'defending' them

He's going to get to the bottom of everything

posted in another thread:

Entirely reasonable description of January 6 as an event in which 'many of the...protesters broke the law in what may have started as a protest but turned into a riot.' Especially so in light of absence of DOJ insurrection charges against anyone involved. https://t.co/FfQfKTjYet

— Byron York (@ByronYork) April 5, 2024

Maybe he *is* a Dem plant, to draw votes from Trump.

RFK is almost Trump-like in that the constant tripping over his own dick doesn't seem to change his numbers. Like you'd think he'd have been done after that "Oh I didn't just hang out with Epstein, but also Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby, OJ Simpson, etc." thing. He just has a new gaffe a few days later and keeps on going.

OK, well "carried no weapons" is a lie, and "had no plans or ability to seize the reins of government" does not mean they lacked the intention to do those things — their lack of plans or ability to carry out any hypothetical plan is more due to their own stupidity and insanity than anything else, and is thus not at all exculpatory. (Plus, we all saw the video of a subset of the rioters moving in a very disciplined and militaristic fashion through the mob. Those motherfuckers had a plan, you can bet on it.

Also, "an individual respected by all sides" doesn't exist.

does not mean they lacked the intention to do those things — their lack of plans or ability to carry out any hypothetical plan is more due to their own stupidity and insanity than anything else, and is thus not at all exculpatory.

otm, colossally fucking up an attempt to kidnap and murder someone doesn't magically absolve one of all crimes.

when a woke person breaks a window at a CVS, they should be shot and hung in a town square.

when a right-wing MAGA dick kills a cop en route to breaking into the Capitol building, he was just exercising his First Amendment rights

Woken window theory?

omg

when a right-wing MAGA dick kills a cop en route to breaking into the Capitol building, he was just exercising his First Amendment rights

I'm sorry, you mean his 2A rights. The First Amendment is so you can hate people with your sincerely held religious beliefs. For killing Deep State thugs, you need your trusty 2A.

no, no, I meant the murder was simply their artistic expression

(All) These Fuckin Guys. Like, wtf at this story ...

Montana GOP Senate candidate says he lied to ranger about gunshot wound in 2015. Tim Sheehy was cited for illegally discharging a weapon in a national park but says he made up the gunshot to cover up a bullet wound he received as a Navy SEAL in Afghanistan that he never reported to superiors

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/04/06/tim-sheehy-montana-senate-gunshot-wound-national-park

That does not make any sense at all

He's lying desperately, in the hope of covering up the real truth: that his gunshot wound was actually received at the hands of former Vice President Cheney.

As noted by someone:

"In case you’re wondering, no, reading the whole thing doesn’t help it make sense.

A genuine decorated veteran fakes being clumsy and irresponsible to cover up being wounded in combat?"

Sheehy seems like a real asshole, above and beyond the baseline level of assholism required to be a Republican Senate candidate.

kennedy: "I have not examined the evidence in detail..."

they had fucking live hearings on television, dipshit. you can read the report online!

i hate these assholes with names that allow them to spew crap that people actually hear and believe. so dangerous. trump is more than enough when it comes to batshit stupid. this guy needs to go far far away. when is cheryl hines gonna divorce this creep?

I’m cool with Kennedy trying to peel away Trump votes.

Kennedy's not consciously trying to peel away Trump votes, or Biden votes, any more than when a dog makes a noise that resembles "I love you" he's actually telling you he loves you. Kennedy is totally insane, and attempting to put anything he says or does into a conventional political framework makes you, the sane person, the sucker at the table. He's going to self-immolate in a completely and permanently humiliating manner, and a year from now people are going to care what he thinks exactly as much as they care what Dennis Kucinich or Vermin Supreme thinks. He's going to be the answer to a particularly uninteresting trivia question.

^ha ha, agree!

I laughed when RFK said we shouldn’t write off somebody just because they say an election was stolen because I believe the 2000 and 2004 elections were stolen.

xxpost I think this “self-immolation” stuff is wishful thinking. People have thought RFK was a crack for a long time. When his support collapses it will just be people running back to Trump.

People have thought RFK was a crack for a long time. When his support collapses it will just be people running back to Trump.

Before he started running for president people would take his phone calls. When this campaign ends, no one of any influence will ever be seen with him in public again, because there will be nothing to gain from it.

Good afternoon!

wow, two whole days!