Not at all surprising, unfortunately. Occupy was cracked down upon illegally.
Florida's long lines on Election Day 2012 cost Obama 49,000 votes.
Thoughts on Lincoln and emancipation.
Rush Limbaugh reflexively blames liberals for gun violence. Big problem is that liberals are less violent than right-wingers.
NJ Governor Chris Christie speaks common sense. Disapproves of guns in schools for use by teachers against the occasional rogue student mass murderer.
December 21st came & went. Worst apocalypse ever.
Florida Governor Rick Scott clearly has no idea how to answer the question of how we go about preventing another mass murder via guns.
Well, well, well! How surprising [/snark] to find Walmart right in the middle of the gun debate!
Texas Governor Rick Perry recommends anti-abortion law. Leaves critically-important details (How, exactly, should one punish a woman who has had an illegal abortion?) up to the Texas Legislature.
Further thoughts on gun control by another soldier (Neither he nor the previous "thoughts" ever saw serious combat action). Also, do people really react with clear thinking and precision when faced with an unexpected assault with a gun? Truly stupid suggestion for how to handle shooters. Does Newsweek not have editors?!?!
Yeah, we should take this with plenty of salt and skepticism for what it's worth, but the KKK stands against the Westboro Baptist Church! The KKK may simply be pulling a publicity stunt, but that's still pretty bad when they're the "voice of reason!"
Thinking of gun control: Do people really need clips that hold 30 bullets?!?! Can't they get by with six-bullet clips?
The Fiscal Cliff Slope talks continue. No deal is better than a bad deal.
The state of caring for mental health patients in America is not good. A very rude and snarky, but accurate response to anti-gun control people. Hmm, should we have insurance for guns?
TSA engages in seriously overzealous protection of airplane passengers by detaining a wheelchair-bound 12-year old girl who had what were apparently traces of explosive powder on her hands.
Horrific shooting at elementary school (Sandy Hook, CT) occurs. 28 dead, 20 of whom were children. School principal was one of first deaths. Mother (Who was teacher at the school) of the killer had several guns, an AR-15 of hers was used to kill her.
The US is apparently engaged in the war crime and grossly immoral procedure of "double-tapping" drone strikes, i.e., sending another drone to the same target to strike after emergency personnel are on the scene.
Journalists are seriously falling down on the job in reporting the (overly melodramatically named) "Fiscal Cliff" talks by failing to note the human cost of "fixing" the budget. Also, virtually all of the commentators on TV are reporters, with hardly an economist in sight.
Senator Joe Lieberman (I-CT) gives final Senate speech. No one cares, hardly anyone attends.
Wow! Lots and LOTS of insecure males out there who took extravagant offense at a woman daring to criticize video games!
Very cool! The Federal Reserve has now explcitly tied interest rates to lower unemployment!
Republican Congressmen oppose Hurricane Sandy relief moneybecause of "wasteful spending."
An explanation as to how austerity failed Europe.
Press corp's failure of the year was its refusal to recognize that the Republican Party had become an extremist, radical organization that didn't care about what the truth was. Also, how Mitt Romney got mugged by reality.
Woo-hoo! Pvt. Bradley Manning, currently speaking in his courts martial about his unconstitutional pre-trial punishment, wins the Guardian's "Person of the Year 2012" award!
Actor Ed Asner narrates a short film about how America came to the situation it's in. Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh are outraged!!!11! Outraged, I tell you!!!
Fox News commenter Sean Hannity vows to "Fight for the soul of America." Uh, didn't we just have an election over the very issues that Hannity is addressing and uh, didn't the Republican Party lose?
Woo-hoo! Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren gets Banking Committee assignment!
Very sad to see CBS employing Frank Luntz as an analyst to analyze Rep. Paul Ryan without disclosing that Luntz received $20,000 from the Ryan campaign.
Good primer on the so-called "Fiscal Cliff."
Authorities admit, many, many years after it began, that the War on Drugs was a huge waste and complete failure. Also, DARE gives up on its War on Marijuana. They just weren't accomplishing anything.
November
Statement from 300+ economists on how to restore jobs and growth.
Very sad to see how the press keeps ignoring the huge amount of obstructionism involved in the fight over the potential Susan Rice nomination for Secretary of State.
Good! Obama Administration opens up "Fiscal cliff" (More like a curb) negotiations with a bang instead of starting with their bottom line.
Hostess Foods goes into bankruptcy, executives want to give bonuses to 19 executive! Uh, no, those executives should "take a haircut," a reduction in pay, NOT an increase!
Remember Mitt Romney's "47%" speech to supporters? Well, it'snow been determined that he won 47% of the popular vote!
Walmart downplays Black Friday strikes across the country, but small as they were, they were historic!
Shades of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire! Fire in Bangladesh clothing factory kills 100+ workers. And yes, Walmart had clothes being made there.
Excellent news! Supporters of ALEC did very poorly during election.
"Unskewed Polls" that completely misread the polls before Election Day has a theory that PA and OH and FL were all stolen by in-person voter fraud! In reality, such fraud is about as common as being struck by lightning or winning the lottery.
Interesting, thoughtful piece by a right-winger on why the Republican Party is doing so poorly.
Senator John McCain (R-AZ) skips two-hour briefing on Benghazi in order to complain about not knowing everything about Benghazi. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says no to a Benghazi inestigation.
CIA Director David Petraeus resigns due to an affair. Background on the multiple conflicts of interests that plagued the people around him. "But the warning signs about Petraeus’ core dishonesty have been around for years."
Complete, absolute, cluster**** on the other side! Mitt Romney's crew had absolutely zero clue as to how to organize an operation to track voters and to get them to vote on election day. More on that.
Should the left make a deal on the "Fiscal Cliff"? Hell no!!!!
Very interesting piece! After the first debate, Obama was criticized by the left, who made no excuses for him. After second and third debates, Romney was not criticized by the right, which covered up his poor performance and made excuses for him. Who was better served by the two respective strategies?
President Obama wins second term! Progressive favorite
Elizabeth Warren wins! Election results. 20 Biggest Sore Losers. Very interesting! Jenifer Rubin admits she knew all along the other candidate was a dog. Mitt Romney cancels everybody's campaign credit cards before campaign workers even get home, meaning everyone has to pay for their own rides home.
Hurricane Sandy hits the New York-New Jersey coastline with devastating results. Fortunately, Occupy picks up the slack and helps out! New Jersey Occupy Sandy (Facebook link) opens up.
Very thoughtful essay showing that no, Mitt Romney really truly doesn't believe that FEMA performs a valuable, worthwhile function for American citizens. Essay on just how the two political parties feel about FEMA. Storm damage in NorthEast Long Island.
Jonah Goldberg assesses the likelihood of Obama Administration malfeasance in the Benghazi tragedy where four American citizens died. He makes a very unconvincing case as yes, the CIA may be lying, but they said very straightforwardly that they were not given any orders to stand down or otherwise not assist the Benghazi personnel.
Wow! Fox News employee flatly disagrees with Bill O'Reilly that Obama and Colin Powell are demonstrating black solidarity.
October
Yeah, Ann Romney has a definite "Marie Antoinette problem," as she reveals that she's really not very well-informed .
With an absolutely horrendous storm bearing down upon the East Coast (Facebook site), of course Paul Ryan wants to cut the budget for the weather-forecasting service that limits the loss of life caused by having too little information. Oh, and our wearher satellites are overaged and there are no replacements immediatelt available.
Yee-hah! Walmart workers are on the road to a union!
You gotta know that the "issue" of Benghazi and the four Americans killed there has passed its expiration date when Fox News person Geraldo Rivera, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and a Fox News military analyst all agree that the issue is dead and that people need to stop trying to make a scandal out of it. Update: Fox News' Shepard Smith refuses to second-guess military on same attack.
Sorry, but I have a really hard time feeling any sympathy for someone who gets "stung" by a James O'Keefe sting operation. O'Keefe has been around for too long, doing stuf that usually raises hackles and suspicions, for good reason. Update: Father apologizes for son being stupid and falling for the sting.
Hmm, so let me get this straight, "all options are on the table" for dealing with Iran over nukes, but the Obama Administration has been inconsistent towards Iran and should take a consistent, steady approach?!?!? Dude, make up your mind! And yes, the Romney campaign's constant flip-flops are a character issue.
Sorry, but drawing an equivalence between concerns over voting integrity and birtherism (the belief that Obama was born in Kenya) is completely insane!
George McGovern dies.
Whoa! Serious question as to the integrity of our voting system. Romney's son has financial stake in voting machine company in crucial swing state of Ohio!!!!
Just for the sake of argument, let's accept that abortion was illegal except for rape, incest or when the life of the mother was at stake. How exactly would having a rape exception work? The answer's more complicated than one would think.
Obama does much better in second debate with Romney! Did Romney request resumes of women candidates for appointment to State offices when he first became Massachusetts Governor? No, he was handed a binder full of resumes when he won the election. Tucker Carlson was so angry after Romney's poor performance that he compared the debate moderator, Candy Crowley, to John Wilkes Booth (Abraham Lincoln's assassin). Wow! Romney comes across here as seriously dickish!
Woo-hoo! VP Joe Biden mops the floor with wannabe VP Paul Ryan. Did he treat Ryan with disrespect? Yes. Do Ryan's ideas deserve disrespect? YES!
Oh, and Ryan majorly lied about his position on abortion.
Comedy Central's Jon Stewart expressed displeasure with the Obama campaign's focus on Romney's opposition to Big Bird, but there's actually a very good reason for that.
The CNN correspondent Soledad O'Brien is seriously distinguishing herself as a reporter who asks good, hard questions. Republican campaign officials are baffled as to how to deal with her. Brava Ms. O'Brien!!!
Wow! Mitt Romney never
heard of family
meals where everybody gets served, they all sit
down and all begin eating together? Nah, for him, it's just "put on the
feedbag" time!
And the rich get richer.
The top 1% ($100,000 per year and above) got
93% of all income gains while the bottom 80% lost a bit of
ground.
Wow! One in seven Ohio conservatives believe that Mitt Romney was someohow, in some way, connected to the death of Osama bin Laden!
September
Rep. Michele Bachmann is getting harder and harder to mock or parody. She now believe falafel is a "jihadi food."
Two good pieces on why progressives
should ignore the earnest and sincere lefties who
advocate not voting. The right-wing magazine National Review
admits that the G.W. Bush years were
a horrible, horrible, filthy stain upon the Republican
"brand." It's a real problem for Republicans that the upcoming election
is
a referendum on Bush and on Bush's policies as Romney's
policies simply aren't that distinct from Bush's.
CBS News appears to have trouble deciding whether frank Luntz is a former Republican consultant or a current one. There's no mystery to the question whatsoever. Luntz has received money from Republican groups in this election cycle.
Romney later said he was making a joke, but wow! He suggested that airplains flying at 575 mph at 30,000 feet up should have windows that open!
Egypt is very concerned about the Palestinians of Gaza, but is also wary about annoying Israel.
Bill O'Reilly comments from inside the closed, hermetically sealed world of Fox News, complaining that liberals are close-minded.
Republican Representative
who's been in the House since 1970 changes
position on Afghanistan War.
Good heavens! The Romney
campaign gave
bonuses to their people?!?!?! Why?
Heh! Sorry James O'Keefe,
but the taping of Romney in
no way vindicates your own secret tapings.
Attorney General Eric
Holder cleared
of having any knowledge of "Fast and Furious" before it was revealed to
the public.
Secretly taped Romey speech
to contributors causes severe
political damage to Romney campaign. Examination of Romney's
speech compared to Obama's sort-of
similar speech found wanting. Turns out Romney's just a sneering
plutocrat after all.
David Leonhardt examines
Republican tax cuts orthodoxy and finds
it severely wanting. Major problem with Rep. Paul Ryan's
justification as to why the Bush tax cuts didn't produce any results -
"The economy in the Bush years, by contrast, had to cope with the
popping of the technology bubble, 9/11, a couple of wars and the
financial meltdown." Okay, the popping of the tech bubble, sure, I'll
go with that, but 9/11 had a very
limited, local effect and wars have a stimulative
effect (counterpoint)
and obviously, the financial meltdown started in late 2007 and the Bush
recovery of 2001 to 2007 was the
weakest since they began keeping records in the late 1940s .
Bwah-hah-hah!!!! Rick Santorum claims that Republicans will "never have the elite, smart people on our side." Yup!
Yeah, Ann Romney has a
serious "Marie
Antoinette" problem. Mitt has absolutely
no business running for president to begin with. Another
major problem of Romney's is that he doesn't have a realistic,
mathematically credible way to go about fixing the deficit.
Should progressive voters
vote for Democrats or
are there better alternatives?
Unfortunately, Solyndra,
the clean-energy company that went bankrupt a year ago, appears
to be the public face of clean energy. This has very little
to do with the facts of the case and has much more to do with public
relations and Fox News and how the traditional media has treated the
subject.
Paul Ryan comes up with cute, after-the-fact justifications for lying at convention.
Republican ad allegedly
demonstrates deep, widespread disillusionment with Obama. Slight
problem, they had to use a highly-placed Republican campaign
official to illustrate their point. One of the real "tells" is that
she's allegedly deeply
concerned about overspending. How
many real progressives are concerned about that and how many
oppose Obama for entirely different reasons?
Dick Morris goes completely off the deep end with wild, hysterical claims.
Sandra Fluke (No longer a
law student, she's now an attorney) makes
excellent points at Democratic convention. Jon Stewart
observes that Democratic Convention is
significantly different from Republican Convention in that
their "Big Dog," Bill Clinton, uses actual math in his
speech as opposed to fuzzy generalities. And as Jared
Bernstein points out "Ryan’s reputation for true wonkishness
seems to be vastly overstated" and in fact, he has a lot more in common
with Sarah Palin than with any true wonk.
Paul Ryan claimed to have run marathons (plural) in under three hours. Oops! He only ran one and it was a bit over four hours! Now, just plain finishing a marathon is pretty darned impressive all by itself and four hours is a decent time, but this shows that Ryan has a very serious problem with telling people the truth.
My review of the Reublican Convention.
August
Ooh! Ow! Clint
Eastwood at Republican Convention! Very painful to watch.
Governor Nikki Haley (R-SC), representing women to the Romney campaign, has no clue about how any of them feel about birth control.
Wow! This is the sort of
business experience Romney looks for?!?!?! He
actually approves of experience like this?!?!?!
Good plan for reviving the economy
Roman Cathoic Bishops need to support “Nuns on the Bus,” not Paul Ryan.
Very sad, amateurish puff
piece in Parade Magazine. The Romneys are asked about their reaction to
political criticism without
any specifics as to what the criticism is or how justified
the particular critcism may be.
Newsweek publishes a cover story that's highly critical of President Obama. Factcheck? Why would we factcheck? Aren't we simply supposed to trust our source to be accurate? The author of the piece complains that people are not discussing the central point of his piece. Okay, but if his piece fails a basic factcheck, why would anyone then get to his central thesis? And so "Village" media slips another notch in credibility.
There's actually a very good reason that the Family Research Council is designated a hate group by the SPLC. The WaPo is wrong to simply dismiss the criticism they've received for backing the FRC.
So just how would Rep. Ryan run the country if he were in charge? A look at his district and at his apparen satisfaction with the situation there indicates that his district would be a template.
Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO), a hardcore anti-abortionist, presents a rather, uh, interesting theory that posits that women don't really get pregnant when they're raped (Something about "secretions"). Actually, the number of pregnancies begun by rape yearly is in the tens of thousands. CNN's Dana Loesch defends Akins.
Update: Did Akins take back his remark? No, he expressed sympathy with rape victimes, but didn't take back his "secretions" theory.
A second CNN contributor, Erik Erikson, defends Akins' remark. Oh, okay. Now, Akins agees that rape can result in prenancy. The "secretions" theory is very popular among the anti-abortion crowd.
Very serious problems with reporter Jake Tapper and economic issues.
Interesting and not-at-all surprising look at the failed attempt to rebuild Iraq. As I concluded in Decembr 2002, the US had no real interest in rebuilding Afghanistan and so was highly unlikely to succeed in rebuilding anywhere else. And yes, I was completely unimpressed with the tales of the rebuilding of Japan and Germany as those were simply a matter of reconstructing societies that were already industrialized.
Ann "Lady Antoinette" Romney insists that we regular people are just going to have to be satisfied with the tax returns that Mitt has released. It's annoying to hear that "We've fulfilled legal requirements" because releasing tax returns is not a legal requirement to begin with, it's a sign of good faith and a demonstration that one has nothing to hide.
How much of a bump did the Ryan vice-presidential nomination provide? Not much, a barely discernable 1%. Also, the undecided, middle-of-the-road, uninformed moderate is now even less important than before.
Woo-hoo! Soledad O'Brien schools former Governor John Sununu, who keeps insisting that Romney has laid out his own budget plan as opposed to just copying Ryans'. Slight problem with that - his "plan" is all dessert and no broccolli.
Ryan is considered a budget hawk. Is he? Ha, ha, ha!!!! Not hardly! Good, lengthy piece on William Saletan and Ryan. The claim made by Saletan is that Ryan has: “He has actually crunched the numbers and laid out long-term budget proposals.”
But as our blogger points out: "Except that he hasn’t. This details-oriented, number-crunching fiscal conservative has neither laid out the details nor crunched the numbers… as Saletan himself admits.".
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) is Romney's choice for Vice President. Interestingly, both right-winges and left-wingers are pleased as both feel this choice will bring ideological substance into the race. Obama is pleased.
Romney's tax plan is completely unworkable. The numbers just don't add up. Also, I took a look at his energy plan. Not sure how it would help the economy as it's just Sarah Palin's "Drill, baby, drill" plan from 2008.
Bwah-hah-hah!!! Republicans are worried that their buddies will fail to behave themselves in Tampa, FL during their convention there. Strippers and hookers are heading to Tampa for a profitable few days.
July
Pennsylvania's voter ID law a clear case of using a cannon in a crowded apartmet building to try and kill a mouse.
Iraqis returning to their country from exile in Syria. Not a happy story at all. And gee, wow! Surprise, surprise! Who ever would have thought such a thing?!?!? Author discusses how "oil was a central part of the strategic thinking behind the [Iraq] war, and consistently shaped the conduct of the occupation."
Not feeling very good about poosiblity of Romney getting into office with his attitude towards Iran. Romney's very likely to start up a war with Iran very quickly.
Obama's taking some grief for his attacks on Mitt Romney's old company, Bain Capital, but there are indications the attacks are working just fine. And yup! It's now confirmed by the Romney campaign's pivot from talking about his business experience to talking about his as governor of Massachusetts, showing us that Bain has now become toxic!
Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-WI) conducting wild, hysterical witch-hunt against aide to Secretary of State Clinton amd fellow Congressperson.
Presidential campaigns blow past $1 billion!!!! they're expected to spend up to $3 billion on campaign. Oh, and a report states that big banks and large financial institutions are together holding $3.3 trillion in cash. Sure would be nice if they could find a way to spend all that.
Horrible! Absolutely horrible! Gunman shoots 71 people in dark theater, kills 12 in Aurora, CO. 1970s rock'n'roller Ted Nugent weighs in with incredibly stupid views. Further thoughts on Nugent.
Yeesh! And Ann Romney wonders why people consider her a modern-day Marie Antoinette? When asked about Mitt's tax returns, she explained that they had “given all you people need to know.”
Quote:
Mitt Romney, criticizing
the HHS birth control requirement, said: “I know we are not all
Catholic in this room, but I feel like we are all Catholic today” in
our effort to preserve religious
liberty.
No, we are not "all Catholics" in any way, shape or form. Many of us do not agree that "religious liberty" includes the right to oppress our
fellow men and women.
No, sorry, but "line-crossing" is NOT always "in the eye of the beholder," the Swift Boat Veterans of 2004 do NOT compare with Obama's rough treatment of Romney today. And please remember "It's not 'swift-boating' if it's TRUE!!!"
Abington Hopistal considered merging with Holy Redeemer, but when it became clear that Abington would therefore stop doing abortions as a result, the public erupted and forced them to call of the merger. Local website.
Excellent piece on Bain Capital and why outsourcing is so difficult for Romney to defend.
Rush Limbaugh is convinced, convinced, I tell you!!, that the newest Batman movie was deliberately written to make Romney look bad. The villain is "Bane," which sounds like
Bain Capital (Bane was introduced in 1993). Limbaugh later walks that back a bit.
Absoluely classic political attack ad!!! Destined to go down as one of the great ones!
WaPo fact-checker needs to be less openly partisan and needs to start checking actual facts.
Update: WaPo fact-checker does good by slamming Romney for incoherent , unproven accusation.
June
Woo-hoo! The Affordable Care Act survives Supreme Court scrutiny! The basic package is preserved and Chief Justice Roberts was the deciding vote. Roman Catholic bishops are, of course, very sad because that means the ladies will get better health outcomes.
Many Iraq veterans now seeing that war as morally wrong and that realizations leads to a certain type of PTSD.
Update on WaPo's look at Romney, Bain Capital and outsourcing. Kessler objects to Robert Parry's report and Parry shows that his report was correct. Jennifer Rubin reports that Romney's people went to the WaPo office to complain and got shot down and then put out a report that allegedly shows they're right.
Muhamed Morsi, the candidate of the Muslim Brotherhood is now Egypt’s new president with 51.73% of the vote. Will Egypt become the next Iran? Will it be a strongly religious state? Nah, Morsi will have to deal with a pluralist culture.
Sad and disturbing piece on the deterioration of SEPTA. The Republican Governor's anti-spending convictions butts heads with reality of crumbling transportation infrastructure.
WaPo does good by putting out piece on Bain Capital and it's "Heads I win, tails you lose" strategy with acquired companies. "Bain Capital in many ways invented the cottage industry of shipping US jobs overseas." Unfortunately, WaPo also put out fact-checking piece saying Bain didn't do that. Problem is, the factcheckers restricted their view on the problem, and so very badly distorted it. "Kessler relied on his own narrow interpretation of 'corporate raider' and then airily dismissed the findings of an investigative article by veteran journalist Tom Hamburger about Romney's role in job outsourcing..."
"Nuns on the Bus" who were formed to dispute Rep. Paul Ryan's budget-slashing plans, stop by Ryan's office.
Two old, two really, really bad ideas that should have died a long time ago. Missile Defense and NAFTA's interference with national sovereignty. Further details on how the new Trans-Pacific Partnership violates national sovereignty. And yeah, Bowles-Simpson is another terrible idea that should also be dead, but is still up and shambling around.
Home-care workers were considered to be just very part-time teenage babysitters, people who would care fror the kids until mom got home from work. Nowdays, home-care workers do a great deal more and work much longer hours, so President Obama wants to update the law and see to it that home-care workers are paid minimum wage. Senate Republicans are opposed to that.
Interesting pair of articles by David Brooks and Paul Krugman. Brooks talks up the economic problems in Europe and the trials of the welfare state in the US, but suggests that these are just sort of, uh, happening without any obvious agency, as though the welfare state were collapsing on its own. Krugman corrects that notion, showing that if the welfare state is collapsing, that's because Republicans are actively causing that collapse. Krugman also shows that the three states, Spain, Greece and Ireland, that are having the hardest time economically are also the most tightfisted with their social expenditures. Sweden, Germany and Italy spend lots and lots on social welfare and are doing fine.
Mitt Romney makes an absurd charge against Obama:
He says we need more
firemen, more policemen, more teachers. Did he not get the message of
Wisconsin?
Uh, people oppose a vaguely-defined "big government," but no one has ever come out against firemen, policemen and teachers. Romney sorta, kinda walks back his remark, but condemns a plan that most certainly did work the first time. It was supposed to keep hundreds of thousands of people on the job, feeding their families and paying taxes, and accomplished precisely that.
Deeply questionable study makes unsupportable claims. When children have gay or lesbian parents, it's frequently because the parent was married to an opposite-sex person, got divorced and is now with a same-sex partner. Broken homes produce mental problems, so this should have been accounted for, but wasn't.
An alleged liberal makes a seriously unsatifactory proposal for dealing with right-wingers.
%$@&#!!!! Scott Walker crushes progressive opponent 53% to 46%. Republicans outspent Democrats seven to one, for a total of $125 million
Yee-hah!!! Justice Department demands end to Florida vote purge!!!! But as I was discussing this issue a few days ago, it baffled me. How does one conduct an online debate when right-wingers won't credit left-wing sources but the traditional media won't cover the story? Makes for a frustrating Catch-22. And yes, the problem of Republican governors discriminating against minority (Read: "Likely to vote Democratic") voters is a very real and serious one.
Ga-a-ah!!! The guys who were pushing Simpson-Bowles are back even as Paul Krugman shows that "the austerians" are completely and utterly wrong about their theory. Not very helpful is that the econom isn't doing very well right now.