We're going from 2nd Great Recession to 2nd Great Depression

Trump says he is removing Fed Governor Lisa Cook www.cnbc.com/2025/08/25/t...

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— Raymond Norman (@raymondnorman.bsky.social) August 25, 2025 at 8:18 PM

Fuck Donald Trump

Peace,

emaycee

 

Too many voters learn nothing from history

 Fuck Donald Trump

Peace,

emaycee

A very ugly reckoning is on its way

Republicans really couldn’t pick ANY other option. They chose to stand behind the lifelong conman and insurrectionist. Now, our country is at the mercy of a vengeful wannabe dictator, greedy billionaires, religious extremists, and an army of morally bankrupt, power-hungry lunatics. Unbelievable

— America 4 All — A4A (@america-4-all.bsky.social) December 11, 2024 at 2:08 AM

Fuck Donald Trump

Peace,

emaycee

 

Coming Soon: Great Recession, Part 2

study: "mass deportation would reduce the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) by 4.2 to 6.8 percent." The Great Recession was 4.3%. www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/mas...

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— Brooke Jarvis (@brookejarvis.bsky.social) December 8, 2024 at 10:34 PM

Fuck Donald Trump

Peace,

emaycee

 

The last three GOP Presidents have wrecked the economy and Democrats fixed it

Clinton got a weak economy from Bush & built a surplus

Obama got a recession from W & built the longest job creation stretch in history

Biden got a reckless budget from Trump & cut the deficit $1.4T in 2022

35 years proof that GOP destroys the economy & Dems build the economy

— Qasim Rashid, Esq. (@QasimRashid) May 22, 2023

Republicans = Nazis

Peace,

emaycee

 

Nothing from nothing leaves nothing

 

Republicans = Nazis

Peace,

emaycee

Who's your (economic) Daddy? Democratic Presidents, that's who

If Republicans were "good on the economy," the last 3 Democratic Presidents that followed one wouldn't have had to:

🔹Drag us out of recession — Clinton
🔹Enact emergency Recovery aid — Obama
🔹Rescue our economy from freefall — Biden

End this myth once and for all. Pass it on!

— Nancy Pelosi (@TeamPelosi) April 23, 2022

Republican = Traitor

Peace,

emaycee

 

President Obama had the same problem

Republicans: “Why is it taking Joe Biden so long to clean up our president’s mess?”

— Middle Age Riot (@middleageriot) December 28, 2021

Republican = Racist

Peace,

emaycee

 

Works for me

So long, farewell, auf wiedersehn, adieu...

 Donald Trump this week:  "Any effort to dictate national Mail-in voting will be a disaster for our Country and for conservatism.  There will never be a Republican elected to high office again."

As if this would be bad, considering a) Reagan's disastrous economic policies which led ultimately to the greatest income inequality in the history of this country and doubled the poverty rate, b) George W. Bush led us into two disastrous wars and brought us the worst economic disaster since the Great Depression, and c) Trump himself oversaw 600,000 American deaths because of his incompetence during the coronavirus which also led to the second massive economic crisis perpetrated by a republican President in twelve years.

As far as I'm concerned, if mail-in voting will guarantee no more republicans in high office, we should hand deliver ballots to every American door and come back later to each one of them and collect those ballots so we never have another republican in office ever.

We'd all be much better off for it.

Taxing the Wealthy Is Good Politics for the Democratic Party

Peace,

emaycee

Nobama

What do we got that you ain't got?  Courage!

It would be hard to understate how massively disappointing (but not surprising) that former President Obama sat in a room full of rich liberals and warned the Democratic Party about embracing Democrats who lurch too far to the left because it would be too upsetting to our rich liberal friends and the snowflakes who occupy the center.

This, of course, from the man whose complete and utter lack of political courage cost us first, the Supreme Court, and second, the Presidency to the most vile man to ever hold the office.  Not to mention, whose complete and utter lack of political courage brought us a recovery from the Great Recession that did not trickle down to America's poor and middle class and merely increased the chasm that is income inequality.  The same man whose complete and utter lack of political courage let all the scumbags whose colossal failure and outright corruption caused our economy to collapse walk away scot-free.

Apparently now that Mr. Obama is getting ready to make his fortune from his New York Times bestseller memoirs and his "motivational" speeches to Corporate America, the rest of us plebes should defer to his wisdom and suck up to the rich folks.

Fuck that--I'm tired of Democratic leadership who are more than content to let the rich get richer--just not as rich!--and the poor get poorer--just not as poor!--as they do when republicans are in control.  And I can goddamned guarantee you that any Democrat who wins the nomination had better be one whole hell of a lot better than not just being Donald Trump...if he or she wants anything more than just my vote.

I've spent far too much time supporting milquetoast Democrats who are too happy to tell me what we can't do--if I'm going to use what precious time I have left on this planet supporting them they fuckina-A better be working toward what we need to do to make life better for the ninety percent of us who didn't win a ticket for the gravy train.

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee

Before the deluge

Days of future past--the Trump economy

A couple of years before the Great Recession, I began seeing pieces--and not Chicken Little, The Sky Is Falling pieces, but thoughtful pieces generally from economists--that our economy was not as strong as it appeared and that an ugly crash was coming.

And we all know how that turned out.

Sadly I am seeing those same kinds of pieces again, showing that many of the same actions which caused the last downturn are being repeated, or speculating on how bad Trump's trade wars are going to hurt the economy.  Even worse, while George W. Bush was a moron, at least he had the good sense to surround himself with people (though free enterprise/capitalism mongers to a fault) who had some semblance of knowledge concerning our economy.  Not so Donald Trump, a moron who has surrounded himself with other morons (mostly from his own family) who will do little more than stand on the toilet seat and watch the American economy swirl down the drain, while the rest of us suffer the ravages of yet another economic collapse caused by republicans.

Please know that I am not hoping for an economic downturn to thwart Trump--I've seen firsthand how much recessions can hurt a family's finances.  But we need to prepare for it, and react to it in such a way that, like Herbert Hoover before him, we make sure that republican incompetence on the economy sticks to Trump and their party like stink to shit.

And twenty years without a republican President sounds mighty fine to me.

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee

She'll get right on that

Watevs, Andrea!

In light of Michelle Wolf's tour de force at this year's White House Correspondents Dinner, NBC journalistic has been Andrea Mitchell called for Wolf to apologize to lying sack of shit Sarah Huckabee Sanders, among others, for her comedy routine.

I agree--I think Wolf should apologize...right after Mitchell, NBC's Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent since 1994, apologizes to all of America for having her head so far up her ass that she completely missed the fact that the Bush Administration was lying through its teeth when it justified the need to go to war with Iraq in 2003 by falsely claiming not only that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, but also that it had ties to Al-Qaeda.

Or better yet, if Mitchell's husband, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, would also apologize, this time to America's poor and middle class, for his horrendous stewardship of our economy, which directly led to the Great Recession, and for the economic hardships it caused and from which many Americans will never recover.

Wolf told a few jokes that had some all too painful truths to them.  Mitchell and her husband's obliviousness had horrific real world consequences.

Frankly, the sense of entitlement that Mitchell, and people like her in the Beltway, have is beyond mind boggling.  Frankly, she can take her phony outrage and place it right beside the head that she still has so firmly situated up her ass.

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee

Not as Stormy as you'd think

The sky is falling...

There's been a lot of angst this week in Democratic circles because Donald Trump's approval ratings have climbed to a robust (sarcasm alert!) 42% this week despite the rather unflattering 60 Minutes interview with Trump's alleged (sarcasm alert II!) mistress, porn star Stormy Daniels.

Democrats would do well to remember that Bill Clinton's approval ratings took very minor hits in the aftermath of his affair with Monica Lewinsky.  While I wouldn't want to conflate the two--Clinton's indiscretion didn't involve personal threats, possible campaign finance illegalities, or the religious right's repugnant picking and choosing of who gets their forgiveness--Americans as a whole tend to see such situations, regardless of the open book nature of a President's time in office, as a private family matter.  Yes, I know Trump is a shit heel, but even shit heel's have wives who are being publicly embarrassed and young son's who have to go to school five days a week knowing their classmates have heard that Daddy got spanked on the ass with a magazine by a porn star.  For the most part we Americans are an empathetic lot, and I'd be willing to bet that some of the improvement in Trump's approval ratings can be attributed to such.

It would also do us well to realize that, considering the relatively decent shape of the economy, Trump's approvals should probably easily be 10-15 points higher.  I've seen some teeth gnashing this week because Trump is only four points behind President Obama's worst number of 46%--without the context of Obama's coming in the midst of a 10% unemployment rate and a stock market that had sunk to under 10,000.  Heaven forbid the economy should collapse, but if it were to, it's hard to see Trumps approvals getting out of the thirties.

So take a chill pill--Americans still think Trump regally sucks and we still have every reason to be cautiously optimistic heading into this November.

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee

The revolution will not go better with Kochs

Call out the instigators...

Three notes on why economic inequality in America is going to end ugly:

• Republicans have introduced over 50 bills in this Congress (a record) to limit ordinary Americans ability to sue corporations.
• Republicans have done everything they possibly can to weaken the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau--which Democrats created to protect, again, ordinary Americans from the greed and incompetence of both Wall Street and Big Banks which crushed our economy and lead to the Great Recession in 2008.
• Over 80% of the benefits in the republican tax cut passed this year go to the wealthiest 1% of Americans.

You cannot take away a people's right to redress, their right to be protected from the sickening excesses of Corporate America, and give even more money to the filthy rich without the anger of the masses eventually becoming overwhelming.

And when republicans want to know who to blame, they can look in the fucking mirror.

Fuck Donald Trump,

emaycee

Please proceed

Apparently, one of Donald Trump's "strategies" for his Presidential campaign is to attack Bill Clinton for his past sexual indiscretions.  While I'm not going to defend Clinton's behavior, I do find this tack a bit bizarre as Trump himself does have quite the checkered past when it comes to sexual peccadilloes.

In the end, though, what this really is is red meat to fire up the republican base which still hates the Clintons with a passion.  And it's easy to see why:  the Clintons, with their eight years of peace and prosperity for all of us, proved that frankly Democrats are much better at running America than republicans.

And after Bush the Lesser got us into two disastrous wars and ushered in the Great Recession, Barack Obama once again showed how adept we are at running a nation.

So as far as I'm concerned, Trump can bring up Bill Clinton all he wants--seems to me the American people are wising up as to which party truly has their best interests at heart.

Peace,
emaycee

This is why the economy collapsed

A recent poll showed that 87% of banking executives think the collapse of the economy in 2008 was the fault of the poorest 50% of Americans--who combined hold 1% of America's assets.  The sheer idiocy of their belief is beyond comprehension for mere mortals.

Much as we all found out in the aftermath of the Great Recession. a combination of ignorance and arrogance is lethal for the economic interests of ordinary Americans.

And it's yet another reason that one of the first priorities of either Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders needs to be the break up of the Big Banks.

Peace,
emaycee

Month end bummer #1

This one hits a little close to home...

...as it seems we have a class of nomadic old folks, travelling from place to place, in vans and small campers, still looking for work well into what should be their retirement years.  Some of the work is seasonal in nature, some of it just requires warm bodies willing to do bullshit work (e.g., cleaning campsite toilets).

It's not a retirement that too many of us conjure, but given the lack of pension plans anymore, the paucity of 401ks, an economy that still hasn't entirely recovered, and the lack of affordable housing for those hard hit by the Great Recession it's not surprising. And likely to become more prevalent. It'll be like the Okies of the 21st century, only with nothing but old folks.

Needless to say, haven't told the Beautiful Girl about this one--don't want her imagining our twilight years full of Ben-Gay, Advil, heating pads, and living in a van down by the river.

Peace,
emaycee

Living in America

It's a common theme among republicans, from the rank and file right on up to its leadership, that if you're poor it's because you're careless with your money.

No, it isn't.  As Barbara Ehrenreich has so famously stated, it's because you don't have enough money.

A couple of recent studies confirm this.  While republicans often claim that the poor spend their money foolishly, a Bureau of Labor Statistics report shows that the poor (the lower 20% income wise, making $22,000 a year or less) actually spend more of their income (60%) on necessities--home, food, heating--than do the wealthy (45%).  The wealthy also spend more, as a percentage of income, on eating out, liquor, and entertainment.

It's also often noted in republican circles that those who carry credit card debt are living beyond their means. A report from think tank Demos shows this isn't the case either--all too often it's brought on by unemployment, healthcare costs, and underemployment.  And a lot of the debt is from just trying to purchase necessities for families.

What these two reports show is that it's more about bad luck than bad people.  There's something inherently wrong when people do what they're supposed to, work hard their whole lives, and end up fianancially ruined through no fault of their own--like the very real people depicted here.  We don't need lies about a people's character--what we need are leaders committed to the 99% and not the 1%.

Peace,
emaycee

Red, red wrath

John Steinbeck's  novel, The Grapes of Wrath,, turned 75 last month.  Arguably the greatest political novel in American history, the book chronicles the Joad family as they are driven out of their Oklahoma home by banks and bad weather in the Dust Bowl during the Great Depression, make their way to California, and suffer much like the poor do in today's America--police brutality, many fighting for a few low-paying jobs, hunger, homelessness, and helplessness in the face of the unchecked power of big business and the wealthy.

The novel also accentuates one of the key differences between The Great Depression and The Great Recession:  Americans' reactions.  Today we have what could be characterized as melancholy resignation; then they had what could be called...fucking anger.  And that wrath led to much good change--unions got stronger which eventually led to better pay and benefits and a robust middle class, Social Security, the Safety Net, and a host of other governmental programs called the New Deal which gave working class America a chance against the behemoths of industry and wealth.

Steinbeck noted when he wrote the novel that "I want to put a tag of shame on the greedy bastards who are responsible for this [The Great Depression]."   One would be hard pressed to find anyone outside of Liberal bloggers trying to do the same for the Great Recession.

One of the key successes of the Tea Party Movement was the way they stoked the rage of the republican base and got them to the polls in their landslide election victories of 2010 (which, unfortunately, has inflicted massive damage on the rest of the country).

It seems to me that the Democratic Party would do well to stoke a little anger right here, right now for the 2014 midterm elections.  Today, countless fast food workers around the globe are striking for $15 an hour ($31,600 a year, full-time, for our math challenged conservative foes) and the right to unionize. There are numerous Americans who are just as angry as these workers, and we need to tap into that and send republicans and their obstructionism and callous disregard for the poor and working class in America on their way out the doors of Congress.  Democrats need to get back to their roots, and fight for the poor and working class like FDR did.

Carpe fucking diem!

Peace,
emaycee

Going local

Bad news:  In a move that surprised absolutely no one in the entire United States of America, republicans in the Senate blocked a vote on increasing the minimum wage to the mind-blowing sum of $10.10 an hour ($21,000 a year for a full-time job).

Good news:  The state of Hawaii this week joined Connecticut and Maryland in raising its minimum wage to $10.10 an hour, including both tipped and non-tipped workers.

Bad news:  44% of the jobs created over the past 49 consecutive months of job growth have been in low-wage industries (26% in mid-wage industries and 30% in high-wage).  There are 1.85 million more jobs in low-wage industries since the start of the Great Recession, and 1.9 million less jobs in mid-wage and high-wage industries.

Good news:  The city of Seattle this week announced a proposal to raise the minimum wage for its citizens to  $15 an hour.  Crikey--there'd be no low-wage industries in a major U.S. city.  Folks there could actually have a decent standard of living.

Former Speaker of the House and Liberal champion Tip O'Neill was fond of saying that "all politics is local" and if the above good news/bad news tidbits show anything it's that if we want to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 the best way to do it (short of 60 Democratic U.S. Senators and a Democratic House majority) is state by state, and city by city.  Likewise for a living wage.

At least in many states and cities the general idea of a government of the people, by the people, and for the people stands a chance.

Peace,
emaycee