;)
October 22, 2022
Afternoon Update:
Christina Cassidy & Ali Swenson of the AP: "Republican activists who believe the 2020 election was stolen from ... Donald Trump have crafted a plan that, in their telling, will thwart cheating in this year's midterm elections. The strategy: Vote in person on Election Day or -- for voters who receive a mailed ballot -- hold onto it and hand it in at a polling place or election office on Nov. 8. The plan is based on unfounded conspiracy theories that fraudsters will manipulate voting systems to rig results for Democrats once they have seen how many Republican votes have been returned early. There has been no evidence of any such widespread fraud. If enough voters are dissuaded from casting ballots early, it could lead to long lines on Election Day and would push back processing of those late-arriving mailed ballots." MB: With any luck, these goofballs will forget about voting altogether.
Arizona. Sasha Hupka of the Arizona Republic: "Days after Maricopa County officials warned people to stop taking photos of voters and election staffers at ballot drop boxes, the Arizona Secretary of State's Office continues to refer complaints to the Department of Justice. Two new complaints filed this week with the office allege that small groups of people are filming voters and capturing photographs of their license plates as they drop off their early ballots.... 'They're harassing people,' [Maricopa Board of Supervisors chair Bill Gates] said. 'They're not helping further the interests of democracy.'"
Virginia. Everything Is Going Very Smoothly Laura Vozzella of the Washington Post: "State elections officials directed more than 30,000 Northern Virginia voters to the wrong polling place in mailers sent ahead of the Nov. 8 midterm elections, an error they acknowledged Friday and blamed on the private printing company that produced the notices. Those mistakes follow even more error-riddled effort in Southwest Virginia, where an additional 30,000 voters were affected. Some notices in that part of the state were sent to physical addresses instead of P.O. boxes, then re-sent to the boxes but with the wrong information, the Bluefield Daily Telegraph reported this week. And earlier this month, the department disclosed that an unspecified technical glitch had left about 107,000 voter applications in limbo for months." See also RockyGirl's comment in today's thread.... Democrats seized on the string of errors to question the competence of the Elections Department under Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R), a former private equity chief who won the office last year on promises to bring 'election integrity' and his executive skills to state government[.]"
Pennsylvania Senate. ~~~
~~~~~~~~~~
President Biden speaks about this past fiscal year's historical deficit reduction -- the largest-ever decline in the federal deficit. ~~~
If you're worried about the economy, you need to know this Republican leadership in Congress has made it clear they will crash the economy next year by threatening the full faith and credit of the United States. For the first time in our history, putting the United States in default unless we yield to their demand to cut Social Security, Medicare.... I will not yield. I will not cut Social Security. I will not cut Medicare, no matter how hard they work. -- President Biden, Friday ~~~
~~~ Eugene Scott & John Wagner of the Washington Post: "President Biden warned Friday that if Republicans seize the congressional majority in next month's midterm elections, they will 'crash the economy' by holding up the debt limit to extract spending cuts while targeting the two main entitlement programs: Medicare and Social Security. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who could become speaker if the GOP wins the House, suggested this week that his party would be willing to use an increase in the debt limit as leverage to force policy changes. McCarthy did not rule out including Medicare and Social Security in the calculation as Republicans look to reduce government spending. Those comments -- along with McCarthy signaling that House Republicans would be resistant to more aid for Ukraine -- gave Biden new issues to cite in making the case that voters should back Democrats in the midterms...." ~~~
~~~ Jeff Cox of CNBC: "The U.S. budget deficit was sliced in half for fiscal 2022, the biggest drop in history following two years of huge Covid-related spending. Though still large in historical terms, the budget shortfall declined to $1.375 trillion, compared to the 2021 deficit of $2.776 trillion."
Mary Papenfuss of the Huffington Post: "President Joe Biden took off the gloves Friday in a speech pummeling Republican lawmakers who backed massive federal subsidies for business owners, including themselves, during COVID-19 but are now complaining about his student debt forgiveness program. 'I don't want to hear it from MAGA Republicans who had hundreds of thousands of dollars of debts, even millions of dollars, in pandemic relief loans forgiven, who are now attacking me for helping working-class and middle-class Americans,' he railed. Georgia GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and her husband 'got over $180,000 in business loans forgiven,' Biden noted. He also bashed Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) amid loud boos from the audience. Cruz had criticized the student debt program for helping people he dismissed as 'slackers.'"
Stacy Cowley & Alan Rappeportof the New York Times: "A federal appeals court on Friday temporarily halted President Biden's student debt relief plan, preventing the government from moving forward with the debt cancellation it had said could start as early as next week. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit granted a stay in response to an appeal filed by six Republican-led states after a district court judge dismissed their case on Thursday for lack of standing. The action puts any debt cancellation on hold until the court can rule on the states' request for an injunction preventing the government from discharging debts. The court set a Monday deadline for the government to submit its response to the states' filing, and a Tuesday deadline for the states to respond." An ABC News report is here.
A Dark Day in Trumpersville
** Luke Broadwater & Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack issued a subpoena on Friday to Donald J. Trump.... The subpoena was the most aggressive step taken so far by what was already one of the most consequential congressional investigations in decades. Coming as the Justice Department conducts a separate criminal inquiry into efforts to overturn the 2020 election and weeks before the midterm elections, the subpoena threatened to thrust Mr. Trump and the Jan. 6 committee into a protracted legal battle that could ultimately be decided by the Supreme Court.... After interviewing more than 1,000 witnesses and obtaining millions of pages of documents, the Jan. 6 committee has presented a sweeping summation of its case placing Mr. Trump at the center of a calculated, multipart effort to overturn the vote that began even before Election Day.... The subpoena to Mr. Trump requires him to turn over documents by Nov. 4 and to appear for a deposition on or about Nov. 14. It says the interview could last several days.... Legal experts doubted that any lawyer representing the former president would allow him to testify." The AP report is here. ~~~
~~~ ** Marie: The ten-page subpoena, linked above, is a committee document. It's a doozy, and well-worth your reading.
** Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "Some of the classified documents recovered by the FBI from Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago home and private club included highly sensitive intelligence regarding Iran and China, according to people familiar with the matter.... At least one of the documents seized by the FBI describes Iran's missile program, according to these people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe an ongoing investigation. Other documents described highly sensitive intelligence work aimed at China, they said. Unauthorized disclosures of specific information in the documents would pose multiple risks, experts say. People aiding U.S. intelligence efforts could be endangered, and collection methods could be compromised. In addition, other countries or U.S. adversaries could retaliate against the United States for actions it has taken in secret." ~~~
~~~ Marie: As Barrett reminds us, these super-sensitive documents are among those Trump said he could have declassified "even by thinking about it." It's too bad the Dubya/Darth team is not still in office, because Trump is the type of tool whom that bunch would have tossed in a black hole & waterboarded till he choked up what he knew. In the meantime -- and I'm serious here -- I think the FBI & DOJ have badly mishandled this matter; the minute they discovered what Trump had stolen, they should have locked down every single property owned by the Trumps, every safe deposit box, every storage facility, every other possible hideyhole where that Great Amerian Spy might have secreted his booty; then the feds should have thrown Trump in solitary confinement in a federal pen without the ability to speak to anyone except his own lawyers -- any only if those lawyers had top security clearance. ~~~
~~~ An NBC News report is here.
Ha Ha. Michael Cohen, appearing on MSNBC, called that Florida club "Mar-a-Lardo." I guess he's been reading Reality Chex.
Jonathan Swan & Zachary Basu of Axios: "A senior White House lawyer [Eric Herschmann] expressed concerns to President Trump's advisers and attorneys about the president signing a sworn court statement verifying inaccurate evidence of voter fraud, according to emails from December 2020 obtained by Axios.... The emails shed new light on a federal judge's explosive finding Wednesday that Trump knew specific instances of voter fraud in Georgia had been debunked, but continued to tout them both in public and under oath.... Herschmann told ... outside lawyers he would not allow the president to sign a verification without sound documentation attached, and challenged the accuracy of the state-level lawsuit that had been filed in Georgia, the three sources said.... Together, the emails obtained by Axios and those reviewed by Judge [David] Carter show that at least two of Trump's attorneys -- Herschmann and [John] Eastman -- explicitly raised concerns about having the president sign a sworn statement making specific claims about voter fraud that were inaccurate."
Glenn Thrush & Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "A federal judge on Friday sentenced Stephen K. Bannon, a longtime adviser to ... Donald J. Trump who aided in the effort to overturn the 2020 election, to four months in prison for disobeying a subpoena from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. Mr. Bannon, 68, was found guilty of two counts of contempt of Congress this summer after Judge Carl J. Nichols rejected an array of arguments offered by Mr. Bannon's defense team, including that he was protected from being compelled to testify by executive privilege. In a contentious exchange with the defense team before announcing a sentence, he said Mr. Bannon had shown 'no remorse for his actions' and had yet to 'demonstrate he has any intention of complying with the subpoena.... Others must be deterred from committing similar crimes,' said Judge Nichols, a Trump appointee, who also imposed a fine of $6,500 on Mr. Bannon.... Mr. Bannon will remain free pending his appeal." ~~~
~~~ Marie: That last bit gives me a sad. I am anxious to see that disgusting SOB modeling the orange jumpsuit fit for Trump, albeit Bannon probably will sport layers of shirts beneath the orange coverall. ~~~
~~~ The AP's report is here.
Save Me, Clarence! Richard Fausset of the New York Times: "Senator Lindsey Graham asked the Supreme Court on Friday to stay a lower court's order that would force him to testify before a special grand jury investigating efforts to overturn ... Donald J. Trump's election loss in Georgia.... On Thursday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta rejected the argument that the Speech and Debate Clause fully shielded Mr. Graham from having to testify. Mr. Graham responded with an emergency application on Friday, asking the Supreme Court for a stay while he appeals the ruling, and, if necessary, a ruling enjoining the special grand jury from questioning him until the appeal is resolved. The filing notes that Mr. Graham was issued a fresh subpoena on Friday compelling him to testify on Nov. 17." CNN's report is here. MB: In fairness to Lindsey, I can see where it's so wrong to try to force a GOP senator to tell the truth.
Ryan Reilly of NBC News: "A Donald Trump supporter who brought two guns to the Capitol on Jan. 6, and dropped one of them on Capitol grounds, was sentenced to five years in federal prison on Friday. Mark Mazza was sentenced to 60 months behind bars by Judge James E. Boasberg.... Federal prosecutors said that Mazza, 'while armed with [a] .40 caliber loaded firearm, engaged in multiple efforts to break through the police line: he repeatedly pushed against officers using the combined physical exertion of the mob; he armed himself with a stolen police baton and assaulted officers with the baton; he yelled at officers telling them to get out the mob's way and to "Get out of our house!"; he held open the door to the tunnel entrance against the resistance of officers, and after being rebuffed, he gathered additional rioters into the tunnel area to continue "heave-ho" pushes against officers in the doorway.'"
November Elections
Nevada. Dana Milbank of the Washington Post: "If the midterm elections degenerate into chaos in a couple of weeks -- a very real possibility -- then Nevada is poised to lead the way. Indeed, the chaos here has already begun. The election supervisors in 10 of the state's 17 counties have already quit, been forced out or announced their departures. Lower-level election workers have quit in the face of consistent abuse. The state's elections staff has lost eight of its 12 employees. The (Republican) secretary of state, who vigorously defends the integrity of the 2020 election, is term-limited, and the GOP nominee to replace her, Jim Marchant, leads a national group of election deniers running for office. Marchant is on record saying that if he and his fellow candidates are elected, 'we're going to fix the whole country, and President Trump is going to be president again.'" Read on. It gets worse.
Pennsylvania Governor. Katie Glueck of the New York Times: "'Josh Shapiro is at best a secular Jew in the same way Joe Biden is a secular Catholic,' Jenna Ellis, a former lawyer for the Trump campaign who worked to overturn the 2020 election, wrote on Twitter, commenting on a headline that noted Mr. Shapiro's faith.... Mr. Shapiro, 49, the state's attorney general, is an observant Jew whose faith is a central part of his public identity. He keeps kosher, prioritizes Sabbath dinner with his family and is a Jewish day school alum.... Mr. Biden often referenced his religion on the campaign trail, and he is a regular churchgoer who once memorably defended the Democratic Party as one of faith.... Mr. Mastriano, a far-right Republican who promotes Christian power and disdains the separation of church and state, has alarmed a broad swath of Pennsylvania's Jewish community with his rhetoric and his associations." Ellis is a senior advisor to Doug Mastriano's campaign.
Beyond the Beltway
Florida Man. Miles Cohen of ABC News: "A Florida man had his election fraud charges dismissed on Friday, making him the first of 20 people who Gov. Ron DeSantis announced had been charged with voter fraud in August, to beat his case. The ruling by a Miami judge may now pave the way for similar motions and rulings in the other 19 election fraud cases, which garnered national attention and controversy when they were announced on Aug. 18. DeSantis said at the time that they were the 'opening salvo' by Florida's newly funded Office of Election Crimes and Security to crack down on voter fraud.... The judge agreed with the defense's argument, that the alleged violations, applying to vote and voting while ineligible, only occurred in Miami-Dade County. Thus, the statewide prosecutor [who brought the charges], was found to not have jurisdiction. In order for the attorney general's office to have jurisdiction, the crimes that they allege must have occurred in at least two judicial circuits. All 20 cases are being prosecuted by the statewide prosecutor."
Texas. David Goodman of the New York Times: "On Friday, the [Texas Department of Public Safety] issued termination papers to one of the officers [involved in the response to the Uvalde school massacre], Sgt. Juan Maldonado, according to two people briefed on the decision. Sergeant Maldonado was one of the first officers to arrive at the school, but could be seen on body camera video staying in a doorway to the school instead of heading toward the gunfire inside.... Captain [Joel] Betancourt's actions are now [also] the subject of an internal [departmental] investigation." Several times, Betancourt appears to have ordered officers to stand back.
Way Beyond
Italy. Chico Harlan & Stefano Pitrelli of the Washington Post: "Giorgia Meloni completed her groundbreaking rise in Italian politics Saturday, when she was sworn in as the country's first female prime minister, giving her once-fringe party a level of power that has been out of reach for other far-right forces in Western Europe.... When the far-right coalition swept to victory last month, it made Meloni's ascent to prime minister nearly inevitable. Her party won 26 percent of the overall vote, more than any other party. But her grip on power is nonetheless fragile. Italian voters are renowned for throwing their support behind leaders and then swiftly ditching them. The last several Italian governments have been brought down by infighting. And this time, the sparring started even before the government was sworn in." MB: Still, she'll probably remain head-of-state longer than the life of a head of lettuce.
Ukraine, et al.
The Washington Post's live briefings of developments Saturday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "Ukraine said it defended itself against more Russian rocket attacks on cities such as Kyiv and Odessa on Saturday, shooting down at least 18 cruise missiles, its Air Force said. Odessa regional governor Maksym Marchenko said two rockets hit energy infrastructure, wiping out power in some areas, while Ukraine's electricity company Ukrenergo said repair crews were working to restore power to networks in the west of the country. In Kyiv, air raid sirens sounded in the capital.... Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Moscow of seeking to blow up a major hydroelectric dam in Nova Kakhovka near the Russian-occupied city of Kherson, potentially flooding southern areas.... [U.S.] Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin held a rare call with his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu on Friday for the first time since May." ~~~
~~~ The Guardian's live updates for Saturday are here. The Guardian's summary report is here.
Emma Bubola of the New York Times: "Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine began in February, Russian authorities have announced with patriotic fanfare the transfer of thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia to be adopted and become citizens. On state-run television, officials offer teddy bears to new arrivals, who are portrayed as abandoned children being rescued from war. In fact, this mass transfer of children is a potential war crime, regardless of whether they were orphans. And while many of the children did come from orphanages and group homes, the authorities also took children whose relatives or guardians want them back.... As Russian troops pushed into Ukraine, children ... who were fleeing newly occupied territories were swept up.... This systematic resettlement is part of a broader strategy by ... Vladimir V. Putin, to treat Ukraine as a part of Russia and cast his illegal invasion as a noble cause. His government has used children -- including the sick, poor and orphaned -- as part of a propaganda campaign presenting Russia as a charitable savior." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Astounding cruelty. And the fact that Putin is touting the program as a "noble" venture is all the evidence you need of what a depraved, unhinged person he is.
U.K. Mark Landler of the New York Times: "No sooner had Prime Minister Liz Truss of Britain announced her sudden resignation on Thursday afternoon than a familiar name surfaced as a candidate to succeed her: Boris Johnson, the prime minister she replaced a mere 45 days ago. Mr. Johnson, who is vacationing in the Caribbean, has said nothing publicly about a bid for his old job. But the prospect of Boris redux has riveted Conservative Party lawmakers and cabinet ministers -- delighting some, repelling others, and dominating the conversation in a way that Mr. Johnson has for his entire political career." MB: Or, as one British reporter said this morning, the possible reinstallment of Boris as PM would be "like a dog returning to its own vomit." ~~~
~~~ The Guardian is live-updating developments in the prime minister sweepstakes.
News Ledes
New York Times: "Lucy Simon, who with her sister Carly began performing and recording as the Simon Sisters during the folk revival of the 1960s, and who then almost three decades later became a Tony Award-nominated composer for the long-running musical 'The Secret Garden,' died on Thursday at her home in Piermont, N.Y., in Rockland County. She was 82." ~~~
~~~ New York Times: "Joanna Simon, a smoky-voiced mezzo-soprano who grew up in a family loaded with musical talent, including her younger sisters Carly and Lucy, before forging an acclaimed career as an opera and concert singer, died on Wednesday in Manhattan. She was 85....Ms. Simon died in a hospital a day before Lucy Simon's death at 82...."
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Reader Comments (14)
Aunt Pittypat must really feel himself in serious jeopardy about this Georgia subpoena if he’s now crying to the supremes to save his servile ass. Face it, he’s been a vapid, obsequious, go-along to get-along coward his entire career. The thought of either having to take the fifth 3,000 times and look like a traitor versus telling the truth and proving it has him shitting Trump shaped bricks.
Like oh so many who have chosen to get sucked into the orbit of the Fat Fascist, he’s learning that very few get to maintain that orbit for long. Eventually they come crashing down to earth in a fiery descent like busted ass satellites whose power and influence have been sucked dry by the giant ball of shit around which they spin, like douchebag dervishes.
No one gets out alive. Fatty is the fucking Deathstar of American politics. Smelling salts won’t save you now, Pittypat. “Oooohhhh…Yankees in Georgia! How did they ever get in?”
Little children are not the only ones rounded up and sent to Russia; large numbers of Ukrainian males have also been rounded up and are now in Russian forced labor camps.
The story above (in Nevada) –––"Jim Marchant, leads a national group of election deniers running for office. Marchant is on record saying that if he and his fellow candidates are elected, 'we’re going to fix the whole country, and President Trump is going to be president again." The word "fix" means by any means necessary which means corruption on a high scale and as a citizen of this country I ask: are the laws of this country so flimsy that ole Jim's chant goes by the wayside?
And given that poll workers are leaving in droves because of serious harassment couldn't poll places be protected by the FBI or other officials ? With all the sophisticated spy=ware couldn't they go after the culprits who are responsible for these harassments? The law lately confuses me no end––-it's as though its complications have tied itself in knots . The old chestnut–-"The Law is an Ass" seems appropriate.
That's a mighty short bench the British Conservatives have if Johnson is getting another look after the many scandals he oversaw in such a short time himself.
RAS,
Another parallel with our own Tory Party that can't stand the likes of Pence and wants to bring back the Pretender.
Odd doings over at the Times.
Picked on Douthat (it's been a while) thusly:
"Gee. Ross doesn't like Liberalism. What news!
Could it be that behind all his airy arguments are just a couple of simple thoughts (or, more likely, urges)?
One: He's a Catholic who has trouble accepting the notion that women have been aborting babies for various reasons and in various cultural/social circumstances since Eve left Eden, and that in this real world Papal pronouncements are largely irrelevant.
Two: He fears that without Daddy telling hims what to do, he'd possess no moral center.
Three: He thinks that because he feels these things, everyone should.
That's what makes him a conservative: The fear in his heart that he can quell only by controlling others. Fear and control are the essence of conservatism."
Sent it hours ago. The Times has apparently shunned it.
But sent a one-liner in reply to another commenter, who I thought wrote something he couldn't possibly have meant.
That one appeared almost immediately.
As regular RC’rs might recall, I have been an election officer in my local Virginia precinct for nigh onto 20 years, and have been the chief officer for the last 12. However in Virginia, the chief officer must be the same party as the governor, so with last year’s regime change, I am relegated to being a mere assistant chief. Luckily my chief and I have served really well together for at least 10 years and will essentially just be swapping chairs. We have a great, well-established team of officers and will be fine.
But then I watched a video where many of the newly installed chiefs spoke, and some of them were truly frightening. We have a lot of retired military guys who will bring that attitude plus their MAGA sensibilities to their job. Yay. And then there was one new chief who clearly has fully bought into the “voters cheat” myth; her fear of and hostility to her voters was palpable.
I will continue to serve because I believe in elections. But if I ever get assigned one of these MAGA nut jobs as my chief I may have to rethink things. It will be bad enough just to have any of them on our team.
It will be most interesting if Kevin McCarthy gets his chance to work
on Social Security and Medicare, etc.
How in the world will all those old conservatives who rely on those
two benefits figure out a way to blame Democrats for screwing around
with their only income?
And tonight I play my Carly Simon music as I cook dinner and drink
some vino. She's still one of my faves. And how sad to lose two
sisters just days apart.
Forrest: I think the GOP hope is to share then shift the blame for damaging SS and Medicare . They hope to use the Debt Ceiling vote to blackmail the D's into reducing SS and Medicare benefits, a/o raising the qualifications to reduce eligible enrollment. They will then say that they are reducing the Debt as part of a "bipartisan" effort led by the GOP. When the economy tanks they will say that it is because of inept WH leadership.
They think voters are stupid enough to buy all this. And why not, they've gotten away with such crap before. Why do pundits often say that voters think R's are "better at managing the economy?" All the objective facts of the past 40 years prove the opposite. Yet your Uncle Phud thinks that "Trump's economic policies were effective." A-effing-mazing!
President Biden and the D talkers are already trying to inoculate against this, stating that there is no way that they will bargain around the Debt Ceiling vote. This time around, if the R's have the House (please God no) the current R suspects seem just stupid enough to play chicken all the way through the crash. You have to realize that THEY DON'T WANT TO GOVERN, and chaos seems to work for them.
I am forced to believe that many of our voters are too stupid to breathe. But I'm sure they think that of me. Democracy!
Democrats have come into power when the economy was struggling over the past couple decades so many voters Feel like Democrats also struggle to make the economy work. While Repubicans in the last thirty years have come into power during booming economies so many voters Feel that they are good with the ecomony. Also Republicans' propaganda machine and the main stream media have fed into the illusion that the GOP is good with money. I mean how can they have so many rich people backing them if they don't know what they are doing. We saw this fantasy vs reality on display this week in Oklahoma. Where the Democratic candidate for govenor correctly pointed out that the crime rate is higher in Oklahoma than either New York or California. It doen't Feel right because the narrative that has been pushed for decades is that Democrats are soft on crime and that blue states and blue cities are violent hell holes. The media and Republicans repeat the narrative so often that most of them believe their own lies. When confronted with the hard facts they just laugh incredulously at the idea of the truth.
As for the GOP "fixing" anything, other than wanting to "fix" elections, I have my doubts. Florida governor DeSantis is going to have a special session to "fix" the property insurance crisis in the state. The crisis is nothing new and yet he spent the entire 2022 session fighting culture wars.
There will be tax relief for the hurricane hit disaster counties, which btw are mostly bright red on the political map. The rest of the state will just have to shuffle along.
RAS,
You have it exactly right. As long as I've been conscious--almost said alive--Republicans have claimed the mantle of "business sense" and its first cousin, fiscal responsibility.
One of the bases for that claim was a reaction to the federal deficit that ballooned as FDR and Truman followed the Keynesian path that moved the country out of the Depression and through WWII.
Of course, at. that time the high taxes on the wealthy and FDR's direct jibes at the monied class didn't make the business class any friendlier. As a group they were alway against Democrats and were not shy about saying so. Nor did they lose that animus, which over time translated into the mantras we still hear today: deficits are somehow "immoral," unions and welfare are bad, and taxes are confiscatory.
And though he didn't exactly say it the way it's quoted, GM's Charlie Wilson confused remark in the 1950's that what's good for GM is good for the country is representative of a deeper confusion that still plagues us. Business interests and the country's interests are often not the same; they are in fact opposed.
But because most livelihoods depend on some form of business, either as owners or workers, the confusion perpetuates itself. It is in our bones.
By the time of Reagan (who also grew the deficit, but who's counting?), all these ideas had achieved the status of Krugman's Zombie.
And I'd suggest as the nation has become more colored, those silly notions have been driver deeper into White consciousness, where they live a very good life, even if they have no application in the economic sphere. They sure do, tho', in the political world.
Vide: Religion.
An observation: Gas prices in Massachusetts are down. I bought gas on Thursday for $3.35/gal. New York State it’s a bit higher. I came to SW Michigan for my college reunion. Gas is over $4.00 a gallon almost everywhere here.
Are the petrol companies charging more in places where they have a better chance of getting Rs into congress? MA and NY are famously high tax states, so I was surprised to see the prices as I drove from Detroit. Wondering if I should be wearing a tinfoil hat.
@NiskyGuy: An intriguing observation, but I'm afraid tinfoil becomes you. Here are the latest GasBuddy prices, by state.
While your observations about the prices in Massachusetts, NY & Michigan are accurate, you can see that the 10 states with the lowest gas prices are controlled by Republicans and the 10 with the highest are a mixed bag: California & Hawaii, Alaska & Idaho.
In Michigan, it looks as if some refinery problems are part of the cause of the high prices.
@Marie: Thank you for doing the research I should have done. My added bling will look festive at our class dinner.