Full video at the bottom of this post:
In celebration of music’s power to connect us, enjoy this special Boston Pops’ performance, with #JohnWilliams himself, of “Summon the Heroes”, dedicated to all of the front-line workers: https://t.co/xc65Bf64vP
Keep the music playing and give now: https://t.co/2UXyXpLUjA pic.twitter.com/zZCEQIQ1BD
— Boston Pops (@TheBostonPops) May 5, 2020
If The Notorious RBG can deal, you can deal:
Ruth Bader Ginsburg has an infection from a gallstone and expects to be hospitalized for a day or two, the Supreme Court says. The 87-year-old justice still plans to take part in the court’s arguments, which are being held by phone during the pandemic. https://t.co/HDfJZruZ0X
— The Associated Press (@AP) May 6, 2020
RBG is still taking part in tomorrow’s oral arguments, despite hospitalization. Meanwhile, many of us probably won’t get out of our pajamas tomorrow. This lady has grit.
— City of Chicago (@chicago) May 6, 2020
Happier news, for those of you who haven’t celebrated it already:
The commencement speaker for the high school class of 2020? Barack Obama will headline a prime-time #GraduateTogether TV tribute.https://t.co/UP2scxJgX1
— AP Entertainment (@APEntertainment) May 5, 2020
Former President Barack Obama will deliver a televised prime-time commencement address for the high school Class of 2020 during an hour-long event that will also feature LeBron James, Malala Yousafzai and Ben Platt, among others.
ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC will simultaneously air the special [Saturday] May 16 at 8 p.m. EDT along with more than 20 other broadcast and digital streaming partners, according to the announcement Tuesday from organizers.
Several high school students from Chicago public schools and the Obama Youth Jobs Corps will join, as will the Jonas Brothers, Yara Shahidi, Bad Bunny, Lena Waithe, Pharrell Williams, Megan Rapinoe and H.E.R…
“This high school graduation season will be anything but ordinary — but that’s all the more reason why the Class of 2020 deserves extraordinary advice, heartfelt encouragement, and hard-won wisdom about facing new challenges in an uncertain world,” Russlynn Ali, CEO and co-founder of XQ Institute, said in a statement…
OzarkHillbilly
A legally sanctioned lynching. Jim Crow is alive and well.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone ???
RoonieRoo
There is no possible way the orange fart is not going to schedule something to compete with Obama. I look forward to the meltdown.
rikyrah
@OzarkHillbilly:
They HUNTED HIM DOWN AND MURDERED HIM??
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
So we’ve gone from “stand your ground” to “the most dangerous game.”
OzarkHillbilly
@rikyrah: Yep, and according to the Brunswick prosecutor, it’s perfectly legal. Something tells me that’s only true for white people.
Mary G
@OzarkHillbilly: WTF is wrong with these goobers? And I’m talking about the prosecutor.
My housemates went to Florida last year and drove through Georgia. They loved it and hope to move there, because it’s so green and they’d be able to afford a house. I worry.
WereBear
Fucking Georgia. I am sick at the way the Confederacy refuses to die.
If we focus on that, I think a lot of good can happen.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
No, I’m sure Georgia would be cool if a bunch of armed black men were driving around in pickup trucks capturing or killing white people they decided on their own committed criminal acts.
You’re being quite unjust, sir.
OzarkHillbilly
Unjust is my default setting.
ETA: Was thinking the other day about the Michigan statehouse protests and more particularly the photos of it. Remembered the photos from the BLM protests 2 in particular: The young black man silhouetted against tear gas with his hands up as cops in full battle gear come charging at him.
The other is the Lady in Green from Baton Rouge. Courage and cowardice.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@OzarkHillbilly:
Gawd, now we’re going to have to have another blogger ethics panel. //
OzarkHillbilly
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I am perfect for it. Having absolutely no ethics, I am uniquely qualified to fairly judge all ethics on their merits alone, without favor or prejudice.
Betty Cracker
Does anyone doubt for a second if Arbery had managed to wrest a gun away from one of the McMichaels and shot and killed them, Arbery would be in jail awaiting trial right now? I don’t, and Arbery would have been 100% justified in shooting them after the armed thugs violently confronted him while he was jogging in his own damn neighborhood.
debbie
Nice to know it’s an infection, not cancer. Thanks, Media.
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
Just appalling. And it was the non-law enforcement jackass son who pulled the trigger! ??
debbie
@Betty Cracker:
I didn’t realize he was jogging in his own neighborhood! I’m thinking the prosecutors should also be indicted for their “reluctance.”
raven
@debbie: It’s a tiny “neighborhood” and it doesn’t seem like people wouldn’t know each other there.
debbie
@raven:
I’d bet it was the ex-cop and son who were the interlopers. Also, watching the video shows he was jogging, not “hauling ass.” Every single box under “Crime” has been ticked; I don’t understand the prosecutors’ lack of action of any kind.
ThresherK
An All in the Family scene, where Mike Stivic and Lionel Jefferson prepare to go jogging at the Bunkers’ house, and Lionel says “A black guy jogging alone, in this neighborhood…” (studio audience understands sounds) comes to mind.
Christ, that was almost fifty years ago. I’d hoped we’d all learned something better by now, just a little bit.
zhena gogolia
Sorry I missed your Biden thread overnight.
Betty Cracker
@debbie: Right? My heart skipped a beat when I saw the “RBG hospitalized” headline. We’ve just GOT to get rid of Trump so RBG (and Justice Breyer) can retire in peace.
Baud
Immanentize
@debbie:
Yes you do.
raven
@debbie: Nope, I looked it up and they live there too.
Baud
@raven:
So does Georgia law really allow people to chase down suspected criminals like the reporting suggests?
debbie
@raven:
Wow.
Immanentize
@Baud: reading that story, it sounds like the video might have been taken by someone following the killers for the specific reason of capturing their “take down.” Or maybe they just were following the killers down a narrow street in a small town where Arbery just happened to be jogging. With the dash cam always on, because, reasons?
Matt McIrvin
I just saw Megan McArdle tweeting about how small business owners who want to “open up” are misrepresenting the wishes of their employees who would really rather stay home and not die. Is something happening to her?
(and one of her followers blamed this on “overly generous unemployment benefits” coddling the lazy bums)
raven
@Baud: Well I assume if the DA or whoever cited the statute it must be.
Immanentize
@Baud: There was a case in San Antonio kinda like this one –. There had been some car keying and other mischief in a part of town. A police officer and his done got up on the roof of their house with their guns and saw some kids approach their car parked on the street. When one or more of the. Kids started hitting it, they opened up and killed one kid. They were ultimately not indicted but there were two differences —
Actual police officer
Victims were in the middle of a criminal act.
Sab
It has always been iffy for young black men to jog/run on public streets. That’s why in my little city they all go to the big metropark jogging path to run. Nowhere else is safe. Everyone else can jog in their own neighborhood, but not black men
ETA: That’s not just Georgia. It’ the whole country.
JPL
Although the dragged their feet the GBI is looking into the case. I still don’t have faith that justice will be done. When I first moved to GA in the eighties, a neighbor and I went to a house showing in a new development in Hall county. I got lost and had to run into a gas station to get directions. I locked the car door and told her not to open the doors for anyone. Hall is and was filled with your hood members.
raven
@Immanentize: Wait, I thought this was about GEORGIA???
Mary G
@Matt McIrvin: Her dad has it, I think. Pretty stressful situation.
OzarkHillbilly
FTFY.
eta had to add the nonviolent
Betty Cracker
@Immanentize: That’s outrageous too. Vandalism is terrible but doesn’t warrant the death penalty.
raven
@JPL:
“In Hall County, the virus has disproportionately affected Latinos, who account for about half the positive cases but less than one-third of the population. Couch said the hospital system’s analysis shows that economic status also affects whether individuals contract the virus. However, he said there is no evidence that an unusual number of cases are tied to the area’s poultry processing plants, where a significant part of the workforce is Latino.
But Maria Palacios, an activist for Latino workers in Gainesville, said conditions in poultry plants and their employees’ economic status can contribute to the virus’ spread.
“You have people working in large open production spaces where people are literally standing elbow to elbow in the same spot all day,” Palacios said. But “people are willing to go in sick to work because their financial obligations are overwhelming.”
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
Can you imagine if people could lawfully shoot business people who are suspected of white collar crimes?
Sab
@Matt McIrvin: McMegan finally figured out that when your elderly relative gets it and survives then you might have to take care of them in your own house when they leave the hospital and are stil to sick to be on their own at home.
BobS
@Betty Cracker: Ginsburg had a chance to “retire in peace” (at 77 years old) after 17 years on the court in 2010.
NotMax
FYI (and your kids might well appreciate it too).
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: Oh my GAWD!!! Human sacrifice, cats and dogs living together, mass hysteria!
JPL
@raven: Just because they work in the poultry plants doesn’t mean they contacted it there. yeah right.
Baud
@BobS:
Let’s stop with that discussion. It’s worthless.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
RULE OF LAW!!!
Immanentize
@raven: I know. How foolish of me. I’ll stay on the State-specific hate topic next time. :-). It used to drive my wife nuts when people in Massachusetts started in about “People in Texas” as if it is not as vast and diverse as the country itself. Yes, she would say, “we all ride horses to work and carried rifles where ever we went.”
zhena gogolia
I bring the newspaper in a day later, so I just noticed who wrote yesterday’s NYT front-page piece snarking about Biden and his haplessness:
Glenn Thrush.
raven
@Immanentize: I suppose it’s a normal reaction.
BobS
@Baud: It’s why we have to sweat it out every time she sneezes.
danielx
@Baud:
Martin Shkreli, step right up…a little to the right…
Baud
I don’t care. It’s useless. Let’s focus on getting Biden elected. We can’t control anything else.
Immanentize
@Betty Cracker: It was a crazy case. In Texas, it seems, you can use deadly force to prevent the “malicious destruction of property.”. So says the penal code. But these Yahoo’s were “laying in wait” as we say.
My two other favorite Texas laws were — You can arm yourself to peacefully end a dispute (imagine arguing in a bar — wait a minute I’ll be tight back — go get your gun from your truck and return to seek a peaceable result.) Also, if you have the right to shoot, you also have the right to pursue the target and continue to shoot until the matter is resolved. I know those were fashioned in the wild times in the State, but still!
Nicole
@Baud: I find it veeerrrrry interesting how it’s the woman Justice who has been attacked by folk on the Left for years for not going home to bake bread. I don’t remember people coming after any of the male Justices for not stepping down.
Immanentize
@Nicole: I agree we should not get into this, but I think Justice Stevens proves your point. Meanwhile. I give that irracible jackass, Byron White (appointed by Kennedy) credit for hanging on until Clinton became President even though it was clear he wanted to retire for years. (White used to cheat at basketball with the clerks)
Chyron HR
@Nicole:
Yeah, why didn’t Democrats call on Thomas and Roberts to step down so Obama could appoint their successors? It’s a real fuckin’ mystery.
BobS
@Baud: Thanks for the advice, but I can walk and chew gum.
BobS
@Chyron HR: Because Thomas and Roberts were Republican appointees who weren’t particularly sympathetic to a Democratic agenda? Are you really that unaware?
BobS
@Nicole: Right. It’s not because she was 77 years old in 2010 with a history of colon cancer and pancreatic cancer. It’s because she’s a woman.
Uninvited Guest
@BobS: Dude, sarcasm.
Baud
@zhena gogolia: Next up: an op/ed by special contributor Matt Lauer.
Betty Cracker
@Baud: Thank you. I came thisclose to adding a preemptive FUCK YOU in my comment for the RBG bashers who always come out of the woodwork when her name is mentioned but thought maybe they’d STFU out of decency. [sigh] That’s always a losing bet.
Nicole
@BobS: Yeah, actually, it is.
She’s older than Scalia lived to be by what, six years now? Leave her alone; she’ll retire when she’s ready. Women get to enjoy their jobs, too. Even post-cancer.
SFAW
@Baud:
I agree. He should pivot back to his “Michelle Obama is supremely qualified to be Biden’s VP choice.” [That was he, wasn’t it? Or am I getting my trolls/numbnutses mixed up?]
Nicole
@Chyron HR: Please point me to all the concern pieces about Justice Breyer being remiss in not retiring.
zhena gogolia
@BobS:
I’m with you. I know it’s an unpopular position, but there you have it.
MagdaInBlack
@SFAW:
You are correct.
zhena gogolia
@Baud: With a podcast by Charlie Rose.
SFAW
@Betty Cracker:
Not sure I like this new kinder, gentler Betty Cracker. I hope it’s just because you’re under the weather.
Baud
This is why we can’t have nice things.
BobS
@Uninvited Guest: Sorry. I should have recognized it.
SFAW
@Nicole:
Or Rehnquist.
rp
The end.
OzarkHillbilly
@zhena gogolia: It is a tiresome discussion, especially here. Hashed, rehashed and rehashed again ad nauseum in which nothing is ever settled and only embitters people for no good reason.
I don’t give a rat’s ass how anyone feels about it one side or the the other. The only reason to bring it up at this point is to stir up shit.
NotMax
@Baud
Zero surprise that ad revenue is down.
Movie theaters – closed
Live theaters – closed
Department stores – closed
Boutiques – closed
.
Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
Nicole
All right- here’s a Twitter pic thread on Birds That Look Like They Are Twice Divorced.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: That’s because a lot of people like me took them up on their $4/month subscription for one year deal but never turned off their adblockers because, fuck ’em.
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
@raven: conditions in meat processing plants have been bad for a long time. COVID-19 just made it worse. “Together, poultry slaughtering and processing companies reported more severe injuries to the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) than many industries that are popularly recognized as hazardous, such as sawmills, industrial building construction, and oil and gas well drilling. These OSHA data show that a worker in the meat and poultry industry lost a body part or was sent to the hospital for in-patient treatment about every other day between 2015 and 2018.”
Workers rights under threat
“Like many other hazardous and exhausting low-wage industries in the United States, this work depends on the labor of America’s most marginalized communities. Most workers in the industry are people of color, many are women, and nearly one-third are immigrants.”
BobS
@Nicole: Breyer was 71 in 2010 without (as far as we know) any significant medical issues (like, for instance, two separate bouts of cancer).
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
Prospectively, there needs to be either some term limit or maximum age for judges anyway. Call it 70 – there’s a societal interest in having policy set by those who will have the most stake in it.
That whole thing about the “wisdom of elders” is crap. In many ways, the ADEA has metastasized into something awful, where younger professionals and managers are locked out of attaining necessary skill sets and advancement (exacerbates income inequality) because their elders cling to senior positions like ticks on plump dogs.
germy
https://variety.com/2020/tv/news/nbc-news-misconduct-megyn-kelly-1234597897/
OzarkHillbilly
@Nicole: Polish Chickens. Nuff said.
SFAW
The whole RBG discussion seems (to me, at least) to be a variant of Murc’s Law. “Why didn’t Obama ask RBG to retire, so that he could get a liberal/centrist replacement while he had the chance?” As if Traitor Turtle would allow that to happen, since the filibuster was still extant, and Harry Reid gave no indication he’d kill it, in 2010, for SCOTUS nominees. But, yes, let’s blame RBG, Obama, and the Demon-crats in general — “he/she/they sold us OUT! He/she/they didn’t even TRY!”
It ain’t the fucking West Wing, where Obama/Bartlet can nominate William Fichtner and Glenn Close, and have the Happy Gumdrop Fairy-Tale Land senators just go along with it in the spirit of comity and collegiality.
Nicole
@rp:
(I think she’s a perfectly fine Justice, FWIW, and I think she should retire when she feels like it. Technically, the justices are not supposed to be partisan, so it’s entirely possible she’s not considering retirement for the good of the Party because she doesn’t feel Justices owe that kind of loyalty to the Party. Yes, I know the GOP don’t play by those rules, but when do they play by any rules?)
Nicole
@OzarkHillbilly: One of those is on the thread! I think it’s captioned as “Not technically divorced but 2nd husband disappeared under mysterious circumstances.”
I love chickens. There’s a garden shop (or, there was; who knows if it will ever be back) right underneath the Metro North railroad tracks over Park Avenue at 116th St here in NYC and they kept chickens in a coop. We would always stop to watch them when we passed by. When there was that terrible tragedy of the building exploding there a few years back, the garden store had to put out a release letting people know that the chickens were okay.
kindness
I’m pushing energy to RBG.
So we’ve all been held in place for a while. When stores open up again there are a couple things I’d like to buy. No I don’t have a huge list but some stuff I just prefer to buy not on line. One of those things is I have a poster I want to frame. I prefer to pay a local store for the foamcore, uv glass & the frame. I’ll probably get some extra glass as I’m switching out old frames with plain glass to the uv stuff little by little.
What is it you plan on buying when stores open again?
Betty Cracker
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: I’m no workforce statistician, but I suspect employment discrimination against older folks in the name of keeping benefit costs down to create “shareholder value” is a bigger problem. That said, if someone wants to change the retirement age to 50, I’m all for it.
SFAW
@kindness:
Well, not sure where I could get them, but I would like to buy one or more clues, and send them to various commenters here.
BobS
@OzarkHillbilly: First-off, dumbfuck, I didn’t bring up Ginsburg- I replied to another comment. Secondly, because you are apparently a dumbfuck, you seem to have missed that she’s in the news today because of a (surprise!) health related issue that’s placed her in a Washington D.C. hospital (that, like most metropolitan hospitals, is probably a COVID19 petri dish) where her age and now 4 separate episodes of cancer (including lung cancer that was treated with a lobectomy) makes her particularly vulnerable.
Personally, I’m getting fucking tired of having to worry as much about Ginsburg’s health and mortality as I do friends and family members, and it could have been avoided if she would have retired at 77 (well after most people do) when she’d already had two cancer scares.
Republicans play the long game, Democrats not-so-much.
Sab
I hope Obama gives an awesome speech. My granddaughter got to have a live graduation a couple of years ago, but the speeches were meh.
prostratedragon
Trivia note: Saw an excerpt from some disaster movie last night, might have been The Great Los Angeles Earthquake or something, and there was the obligatory supermarket riot, with frantic people grabbing bottled water and canned food.
The toilet paper was nearly untouched.
rp
@SFAW: I don’t follow. Obama did get two Justices on the court around that time: Kagan and Sotomayor. If Ginsburg had retired in 2010 I don’t see any reason he couldn’t have replaced her.
SFAW
@Betty Cracker:
Well, then — Jared can use you.
Age discrimination has been a fact since at least the early 1980s. I expect it’s only going to get worse over the next few years/decades.
Sab
@kindness: I agree with you about wanting a local framer. But I better get cracking on finishing the project I will want framed.
OzarkHillbilly
@SFAW: I’m open for business.
rikyrah
@zhena gogolia:
It was a good thread
SFAW
@rp:
I have a tough time believing Traitor Turtle would have gone along with a third Justice in a relatively short time period.
zhena gogolia
@OzarkHillbilly:
The discussion has been reopened because she’s in the hospital again.
OzarkHillbilly
@BobS: You get this clue for free: STFU and stop pissing all over people. Nobody gives a rat’s ass about your angst and worries. You are a petty little pissant who is pretty impressed with himself for absolutely no reason other than the fact that if you weren’t, who would be?
Fuck off.
zhena gogolia
@rikyrah:
I’ll go back and read it when my LAST DAY OF ZOOM CLASSES is over.
Amir Khalid
@BobS:
You’re starting to remind me of an amaranthine former commenter.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Betty Cracker:
in larger entities, sure. What I notice is the smaller shops, government agency units and non-profits, with something like 40-60 people. Boomers who got senior status when they were 30 or 40 clinging to managerial positions into their late 60s and early 70s, while 45-50 year olds watch their careers and hopes languish in posts which should be occupied by 30-35 year olds.
It’s a legit problem, and I’ve had to learn to strike “you’ve been underearning for years” from my consulting vocabulary.
OzarkHillbilly
@zhena gogolia: I have said all I have to say on this subject. I will now leave it to the 3 year olds throwing shit around the playpen.
MagdaInBlack
Why cant i see the pie filter?
Im just not going to play “what if”
This is where we are, this is what we have.
The end.
(Maybe a cheese danish filter? For morning coffee)
SFAW
@BobS:
I can see why you went after Ozark, because in the comment (to which you replied) he called you out by name, called you a fucking moron, and questioned your grip on reality. So it was only fair that you start off by calling him “dumbfuck.”
At least, that’s how I read this comment of his (i.e., the one to which you replied):
Sab
@Betty Cracker: I had a desk job. My bosses hired women because we are cheaper and we often get health insurance through our working spouses. They are discovering that although men in my field like to work until they drop, often well into their eighties, the women retire as soon as they can collect Social Security because they are still married and are tired of having two jobs (wife and the other job.)
I quit in March when they refused to get serious about social distancing. They just called wanting me back to do work from home projects. Apparently everyone is now working mostly from home, even the receptionist. They finally noticed that this pandemic thing is as srious as I said it was in February.
SFAW
@OzarkHillbilly:
Too long for a rotating tag or a bumper sticker, but otherwise good.
SFAW
@OzarkHillbilly:
Three-year-olds who seem bigly into “I know you are, but what am I?”
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
ANd in other news(pardon of this has already been mentioned) the New York Dem Presidential primary is back on, Yang and Sanders won their challenge apparently: “But the judge ruled the Democratic presidential primary is required for a variety of reasons, including delegates selected by the primary “to compete for the chance to become Convention delegates.” ”
NY Dem Pres Primary reinstated
Sab
@SFAW: #105 v #107. Which side are you on?
BobS
@SFAW: You seem to enjoy playing the role of a yapping little chihuahua.
Steeplejack
@raven:
Comment to you from last night.
Kathleen
@Matt McIrvin: Relax. It will pass. Found out on Twitter that Tucker Carlson defended Biden. I had a similar dog’s marrying cats reaction until another tweeter pointed out Carlson was setting the stage for the next accusation against Trump so Dems could be whatabouted. I breathed a sigh of relief.⊂
Betty Cracker
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Yeah, I’ve seen that kind of scenario play out too. The age discrimination and clinging to the top spots problems will probably both get worse as jobs become more scarce.
@Sab: Glad they finally got a clue. Will you take the at-home work?
SFAW
@BobS:
Not as much as you enjoy the role of Dunning-Kruger apotheosis. But thanks for your thoughtful-as-ever comment; it’s what we’ve come to expect.
Immanentize
@Betty Cracker: I think full Social Security and Medicare at 60 would do the trick. Not everyone would do it, but it is young enough to still pursue another passion.
I might…. But then again, tenure, which is itself winning the lottery. Still. Once the Immp is out of college, I’m good to go.
Kathleen
@zhena gogolia: Interesting name for someone accused of harassment if you catch my drift.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@BobS:
Really?
Nicole
Well knock me over with a (chicken) feather- I googled the Urban Garden Center and according to their website, they’re still open. I guess because they’re technically outdoors so it’s not as risky? I’ll have to take a (masked) stroll and see how the chickens are doing.
SFAW
@Sab:
Given my other comments in this thread, which do you think? I eschew the “/s” tag, if that helps (which it may not). [If it helps any: a certain commenter’s “Michelle Obama is ‘supremely qualified’ to be Biden’s running mate, and is the only choice that will guarantee a Biden victory” is something which I have — to put it delicately — taken issue with. And it ain’t Ozark who writes that moronitude.]
Gin & Tonic
Dumb question. I’m old enough to remember FTD (stood for Florists’ Tele-Delivery or something) where you could place an order for flowers to be delivered to somebody far away, and the order was fulfilled by a local (to the recipient) florist. Because I don’t pay much attention, I assumed 1-800-Flowers took over that niche. The other day I placed an order for flowers to my daughter. Late in the day we hadn’t heard anything, so I checked order status and tracking, and it turned out the delivery was on a FedEx truck, coming from somewhere on Long Island. Daughter lives in Maryland. According to the tracking, the order was on the truck from 7:23 am to 6:45 pm, which doesn’t seem ideal for flowers, and doesn’t seem supportive of local small business. Have I missed the boat here, or has the industry moved on while I wasn’t paying attention? Is there still a way to do what I thought, which is to place an on-line order with some shop near the recipient without searching myself?
Gin & Tonic
@BobS: Lots of morning regulars have their own niche.
Amir Khalid
Deleted.
rikyrah
SFAW
@Gin & Tonic:
What have I ever done to you? I expect that shit from certain morons, not from you.
Immanentize
here are some other things we can ponder while we are locked down.
What if Sirhan Sirhan had missed?
What if John Hinkley Jr. hadn’t?
What if Teddy Kennedy had resigned in time to have a special election in Mass. stopping Scott Brown from messing up Obama’s Senate math?
What if Napoleon had a B-52 Stratofortress at Waterloo?
rikyrah
@Betty Cracker:
Social Security and Medicare age going down to 57 would be a game changer
Immanentize
@SFAW: I think the proper question is, “What have you ever done for me.” :-)
Cameron
@Betty Cracker: I know an open thread has no topic, but I feel off-topic anyway asking you this. I’m a relatively new Floridian (late 2016) and for whatever reason – perhaps Poynter Institute vibes – took out a subscription to TBT a while back. Was very disappointed; frankly, it appeared more like one of those give-away weeklies rather than a serious paper. Have been much more impressed with the Bradenton Herald and am thinking of subscribing. What am I missing, Ms. Cracker? Thanks in advance for your response!
rikyrah
germy
@rikyrah: I agree.
And Biden’s plan is to lower Medicare to age 60.
HRC’s plan was age 50 for Medicare.
WereBear
Industry has moved on. 800-FLOWERS is a rip-off company as online reviews heartily attest. Just search engine florists in the town, and they often have online ordering, or a phone number.
It’s like an artifact of pre-cell-phones now.
SFAW
@Immanentize:
I call bullshit. He would have had MiGs and Tu-16s, which he would have appropriated/commandeered/whatever after taking Moscow.
prostratedragon
@Gin & Tonic: Looks like FTD is still around, and still dispatches orders local to the delivery if I’m reading that right. I guess since they deliver a nonvirtualizable product they can hang on better than, say, Western Union.
Baud
@EmbraceYourInnerCrone:
It would be awesome of Bernie wins fewer delegates than Biden was going to spot him after the primary was cancelled.
SFAW
@Immanentize:
Not my “style,” for lack of a better term.
Immanentize
@rikyrah: I agree — but I worry that any benefit with any number except a “6” at the beginning will be just too easy to dismiss out of hand. People should be allowed to retire with a benefit when they are 60 (at least). Sure, people in cushy office jobs like I have can be fit and alert until well past 70. But people who labor in the physical sense often have broken bodies (and spirits) by the end of their 50s. A
Also, it would be a nice way to honor those who did so much for us all, while making more room for young folks to advance.
zhena gogolia
@prostratedragon:
Yes, I could have sworn my husband had flowers delivered to me on my birthday last year via FTD, and it was a local florist. It was so sweet
ETA: He was out of town on a trip I was supposed to be with him for.
rikyrah
SFAW
@Immanentize:
Blog commenter is a job now?
Immanentize
@Gin & Tonic: My recommendation for the future of flower sending is call Winston flowers. They make the most interesting arrangements AND they do work with local florists when it is outside their area.
Maybe there are fewer florists open these days of shut down?
Immanentize
@SFAW: The pay is amazing! Because, you know, I am an influencer.
Jeffro
I see that Ohio’s governor has announced there will be north of $700M in cuts to Medicaid, K-12 education, and higher education in order to make up for expected budget shortfalls.
So I have questions:
Come on, Ohio!
Come on, national Dems. If Ohio’s governor won’t make the case to the feds, why don’t you all? Easy pickup in November if you do.
SFAW
@Immanentize:
You live near Bahston, shouldn’t that be “influenzah,” maybe?
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@BobS:
Bold talk; Ozark is a sensible, polite poster. He doesn’t deserve a shrieking pissblizzard of performative stupidity from the likes of you.
Gin & Tonic
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Why just judges? Why should we have 86-year-old Dianne Feinstein working on legislation? Why should the top 3 Democrats in the House be 80? Why should our leading Presidential candidate be 77?
Immanentize
@SFAW: I’m stealing that one
Immanentize
Baud
Ginsburg sounds normal in today’s argument.
SFAW
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
THAT should be a rotating tag.
Amir Khalid
@Gin & Tonic:
Isn’t it on the Democratic party to cultivate younger politicians in their thirties and forties? And doesn’t it already do this to some extent?
SFAW
@Immanentize:
Caveat something-tor
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Gin & Tonic:
This.
Also, this is why I’m not onboard the VP Liz train when there are some fine alternate younger choices in Harris and Klobuchar.
raven
@Steeplejack: Thanks, that is helpful. We have a long relationship with our vet starting before Raven got cancer. We adopted Lil Bit when she got dumped on their front porch and he once said “you got more than you bargained for with her”! We were talking last night that it has been two years since her life saving “tie back” surgery and we thought she was a goner then. My bigger worry is Bodhi and that is juts because he hates the vets office and I don’t want to take him there unless I have no choice. thx
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
[email protected] Khalid:
Not at the national level. Too many egos at play.
Gin & Tonic
@SFAW: It wasn’t directed at you. Maybe it was too oblique.
rikyrah
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@SFAW:
I wish I could claim it as my own, but I have to admit I stole and paraphrased it from an Australian author and journalist who despises knuckledraggers in his government.
Betty Cracker
@Cameron: Can’t remember exactly when the Tampa Tribune got bought out by the St. Pete Times, which then restyled itself as the Tampa Bay Times, but it was a net loss for journalism in the region for sure. The industry is collapsing nationwide, as I’m sure you’ve noticed, and that’s the local effect.
I still find my digital TBT subscription worthwhile. They’ve done an okay job of covering the local C-19 impact, IMO. I see occasional Bradenton Herald articles, but I’m not as familiar with that paper, especially since we moved away from the South Shore a couple of years back. My impression of it is it’s a scrappy little operation with very socially connected bosses, but I don’t know how helpful that is! :)
IIRC, you’re down toward Manatee or Sarasota County, so a Herald subscription might be just the thing. I’m living 100+ miles north of that area now, so I subscribe to the local rag up here to keep up with the copious small town malfeasance AND the TBT and Miami Herald for statewide stuff. Plus WaPo for national — all digital. I’m a news junkie, though, and should probably cut back.
There go two miscreants
@Gin & Tonic: …place an on-line order with some shop near the recipient …
That’s what I have done to send flowers to my DIL in NC (I live in MD). Also sent flowers that way to a friend who works in Doha, Qatar!
Gin & Tonic
@Amir Khalid: It “cultivates” them far too slowly. A “rising star” in the Democratic leadership group is my next-door Rep, David Cicilline (famously described as the half-Jewish, openly gay, Spanish-speaking son of a Mob lawyer.) Well-spoken, good on TV, solid liberal. Rising star. He’s fucking 58 years old. A decade older than Ted Cruz. Almost old enough to be Tom Cotton’s father.
So yes, it’s on Democrats.
Omnes Omnibus
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: @Gin & Tonic: While I don’t disagree with your general points, I do have two observations. First, when you talk about Pelosi and RBG, you aren’t talking about ordinary people, ordinary jobs, or ordinary circumstances. As they say, hard cases make bad law. Second, even with age discrimination laws in place, have you seen how fun it is for people in their 50s to get a new job in a good economy? Can you imagine how great it would be now?
Betty Cracker
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Saw some polling the other day that suggested Warren is the most popular choice among surveyed Democrats. Valid concerns about age aside, I’d be thrilled with that pick, but at this point, I just want whichever VP selection gives us the best chance to win. Even the woo lady!
Sab
@Betty Cracker: Probably. I didn’t exactly leave gracefully and I feel bad about that. They had been very good to me for many years, but being Republicans they just weren’t getting the pandemic news.
I have Chinese inlaws with medical connections so we were getting the news. We have been in a panic since January.
My office was wanting to hold the monthly birthday party in March. When deWine ordered the full lockdown the office scheduled an inperson meeting of everyone in the conference room. We can all barely squeeze into it. Also to, snowbird clients coming back from F
So I just said nope, I’m out of here.
SFAW
@Gin & Tonic:
Got it. Sorry for the faulty interpretation/assumption.
Cameron
@Betty Cracker: Thanks. I have a friend back in Philly who wrote for the Bulletin and currently writes for Philadelphia Business Journal who was very high on St. Pete Times, I guess because of the original nonprofit status. Not sure what I expected, but didn’t find it. Yes, I’m south Manatee County, about 4 miles north of SRQ. I think the Herald has good local and state coverage which – seeing that I’m old, broke, and anti-social – is about all I need. May continue my subscription to The Week just to keep track of what’s going on elsewhere and so that I don’t seem like a moron to GF.
SFAW
@Omnes Omnibus:
The “conventional wisdom” for us non-lawyers (in my case, engineer) was that age discrimination lawsuits were/are notoriously difficult to win. I have no idea if that’s true, but seems like it would be. I don’t recall if that’s one of the areas you deal with, but do you have any thoughts on that?
As far as the job market for us old farts: before COVID-19, when the engineering-related hiring was strong, there was a small likelihood that I’d get an interview, never mind an offer. Now, with (I assume) a ton of younger engineers flooding the market …
Citizen Alan
@rp: Blaming RGB for not retiring in 2010 requires granting her a remarkable amount of prescience about what would happen to the US Senate over the last 10 years.
Elizabelle
@Citizen Alan: She was not going to get younger over the ten years. Bad decision.
Gin & Tonic
@Omnes Omnibus:
OK. Now do Steny Hoyer. Or Dianne Feinstein.
Elizabelle
@Betty Cracker: Sorry. I was reading the thread from the bottom up. And not a basher, but not a believer in magical thinking either.
MomSense
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
The cycle will continue because Xers will have to work forever because we have had so many recessions and because we have had supervisors/bosses/managers working into their 70s that we haven’t been able to advance to those managerial positions.
Omnes Omnibus
@Gin & Tonic: You read my full comment.
Citizen Alan
@Immanentize:
I assume no change on this one. Even with a special election, I assume Martha Coakley would have won the Dem primary and then blown it in the general just as in our history. She was, IMO, a uniquely bad candidate.
Denali
I am going to the local art store to buy a Chinese scroll for my squid ink painting. This is not a joke.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Citizen Alan:
Thank you. Democrats were “supposed” to lose the Senate in 2010 and 2012 and 2014–when they finally did; I don’t remember people clamoring for RBG to get while the getting was good in the run up to any of those cycles. A lot of internet political geniuses now like to pretend they foresaw McConnell’s blockade.
Also: Show me who predicted Comey
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@MomSense:
“I’m indispensible and this place would fall apart without me; I’m not ready to leave yet.”
Citizen Alan
@Baud: I’m sure in that case the crass fucker would demand the delegates Biden was going to spot him anyway.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Immanentize:
How was he going to call in the place for the strike?
prostratedragon
From ProPublica:
Zesty!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Early days yet, but I’ll be curious to see if this RBG scare gets the broad left– from Mark Kelly and Cal Cunningham (do they want the voters they’ll need thinking about judges?) to the various twitter hordes–talking about the Supreme Court
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@BobS: Put up or shut up.
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
@Baud: Yup that’s what I am hoping for at this point. I don’t live in NY state but my daughter and her boyfriend do. I do not understand the “But we deserve the delegates at the convention!!” crap at this point but that is on me. Seems like vanity at this point.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
“Don’t you dare try to guilt me about the Supreme Court! My vote is MINE, and I won’t be guilt-tripped into giving it to someone who hasn’t earned it….”
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
@WereBear: true, I usually just pull up the address of where ever I want to send flowers in Google maps and search Nearby to find local florists. Then call or go on their own website and order the flowers/plant/whatever I need delivered. Calling sometimes works better if you want something unique as many are happy to help you out if you are nice and explain what you need.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@BobS: Show me where you made this argument before 2015, Bob
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
@Nicole: Many garden and home repair stores seem to be open in the Tri-state area though some are doing order online and curb-side delivery only. Chicken pictures please!
Omnes Omnibus
@EmbraceYourInnerCrone: Until a few years ago, there was a florist in my hometown who had gone to school with my mom and whose shop had done all the floral stuff for my family for years (weddings, funerals, Mother’s Day, etc.). I just called them and gave them a dollar amount; they then sent an arrangement that my mother would love.
Gin & Tonic
Thanks to all who chimed in with floral-delivery advice.
chopper
@BobS:
yeah, it’s stupid when you say it.
Miss Bianca
@BobS: Personally, I’m getting fucking tired of *you*.
glory b
@Immanentize:
@Nicole: But not true. Douglas and Marshall come to mind immediately. In fact, there were some in the legal profession who asked Ginsburg to look at the result from Marshall staying on when he was old and sick. Carter could have replaced him with a liberal, instead we got Clarence Thomas. They asked for her to retire when Obama had enough Senate votes to replace her with a young liberal. She’s been self centered.
But look forward, not back, right? SMH
L85NJGT
@Baud:
His vote & delegate hauls have fallen to a 1:3 split, and are likely to get worse going forward…. blame Covid-19, declare victory, and go home.
Betty Cracker
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: My DSA pups seem responsive to the SCOTUS argument. Or maybe they’re just trying to shut me up…
glory b
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
@Omnes Omnibus: Cool! I’m finding that some of the things I am ordering (example sympathy food basket for coworker who lost their Mom in law to COVID) calling the place sometimes works better, sometimes the people are just happy to talk to an actual person for a few minutes. I know how they feel.
BobS
@Miss Bianca: Then exercise a little self-discipline and don’t read the comment.
Betty Cracker
If I could design a topic-specific pie filter just for this thread, it would look like this:
Ohio Mom
Small local florists have a lot of competition from grocery stores — I don’t know if it is still true, don’t see why it wouldn’t be — a few years ago Kroger’s (supermarket chain) was the country’s biggest “florist.”
Put that in quotes because I am not convinced that what they do qualifies. A bunch of flowers in a cellophane cone is not an arrangement.
MagdaInBlack
@Betty Cracker:
I second that.
Elizabelle
@Betty Cracker: Love it!
Gin & Tonic
For those who think “diplomatic cables” are boring, there’s this outstanding counterexample. Worth five minutes of your time.
L85NJGT
@Ohio Mom:
It’s a global supply chain, and arrangements are done at the point of origin. Reduced labor costs, added transport flexibility, yada, yada..
Gvg
@Nicole: which male justices are protectors of liberal values? I’m pissed at Ginsberg too, which doesn’t mean it doesn’t scare me when she has a health scare. She could have retired when Obama was appointing replacements. I thought she should have as soon as he was sworn in. Sure, she can make her own decisions, but the balance of the court has real and deadly impact on all the rest of us, so we get to criticize and worry.
Elizabelle
FYI: mistermix has put up a fresh blogpost, on COVID on the Indian reservations. Title: Voter Suppression and Life Suppression Go Hand in Hand.
H.E.Wolf
You’re correct: this is the one (though not the only one) who likes to dictate terms of service to women.
It’s the third decade of the 21st century. Women don’t take dictation like they used to. :-)
Elizabelle
@Nicole: It’s not that she is a woman. It’s that she has had some serious health issues, even while she goes IronWoman at the gym and has indomitable spirit. I suspect the aged male justices are not getting the same concern because we don’t know as much about them.
Do you enjoy being terrified at the prospect of her being replaced by Trump? I sure don’t.
And good call on Thurgood Marshall not being replaced by Jimmy Carter. Although: I think Daddy Bush going with Clarence Thomas lost him a lot of respect, and no doubt votes, among his more progressive Republican women voters. I knew a lot of them. They were horrified. Might have helped Clinton in 1992.
Elizabelle
It’s Cuomo O’Clock. C-Span link.
He’s discussing reopening, and how it’s going to be data-driven and not emotion-driven.
Brachiator
Coming late to the thread. I don’t see the point about debating whether RBG should have retired in 2010.
BTW, which vote, opinion, or dissent that she wrote after 2010 would you want to see tossed in the trash? Show your work.
But this is where we are now. It is not just about the Supreme Court, it is about the entire court system.
Walker, at age 37, is one of the youngest court nominees in decades.
catclub
can I complain that EVEN IF China covered up cv19’s severity, the extremely competent US intelligence agencies should have learned of, and dealt with, that problem.
Suppose China commits some act of war. The Quality of the US response to that is dependent on the US federal government, not whether China was particularly malicious in its act.
Gin & Tonic
@Brachiator: 37, huh? Wasn’t some dipshit upthread posting about the Democratic gerontocracy? I’m sure President Biden will be nominating all sorts of 30-ish judges just as soon as the Trump-McConnell slate retires in, oh, 2050. Oh, wait.
BobS
@Brachiator: It was debated in 2009-2010, when Obama & Reid were in positions of influence. Those of us he thought her decision to remain was unwise then can second-guess her decision now that we have Trump & McConnell able to select and approve her replacement (particularly given her essentially chronic illness and infirmity).
I have no complaints with her votes, opinions, or dissents since then, but Sotomayor and Kagan offer some clue as to who Obama may have appointed. It’s disingenuous to pretend otherwise.
taumaturgo
Looking at the bigger picture as long as prosecutors and in most cases, police officers enjoy absolute immunity they will continue to break the law and their own code of conduct to the detriment of the working-class and people of color.
Miss Bianca
@Betty Cracker: BWAH HA HA, perfect!
MisterForkbeard
@Brachiator: It’s amazing how being a loyal toady gets you: a job you’re unqualified for, followed by a huge lifetime promotion after a mere five months on the job.
Miss Bianca
@BobS: How about you exercise some self-discipline and fuck off somewhere else? You know, where your hot takes on RBG and Michelle Obama might be considered the DEEP THOUGHTS you obviously consider them to be. Oh, wait…
Omnes Omnibus
@Gin & Tonic: I doubt that there are very many lawyers in their 30s who are qualified to be judges in our system.
BobS
@Miss Bianca: Trump and his Twitter impulsivity look like models of self-control compared to you.
Gin & Tonic
@Omnes Omnibus: Average age of Federal circuit court judges appointed by Trump is 10 years younger than those appointed by Obama.
You have to play the long game.
Omnes Omnibus
@Gin & Tonic: And I am saying that the Trump appointees are likely not ready for the job (if, given who they are, they ever will be).
WaterGirl
@Baud: Thanks for that. I wanted to write “Shut up Bob” which is out of character for me, but then I’ve been feeling cranky for going on 6 days now.
WaterGirl
@Nicole: I think the Thin Black Duke might have something to say that is relevant to this very conversation:
WaterGirl
@MagdaInBlack: The pie filter is the little red cherry pie
BobS
@WaterGirl: That would have been polite compared to several of the slightly hysterical borderline personalities that comment.
Sab
@SFAW: Very late back to thread, but I forgot the // tag.
MagdaInBlack
@WaterGirl:
It was not showing (for me) then. Now it is ?
opiejeanne
@SFAW: Workplace age discrimination was a reality in the 60s when my mom interviewed for a job and was told to her face that she was too old, at 46.
Brachiator
@BobS:
Again, this is a waste of time, and focuses narrowly on a single point, rather than the larger issue of getting more liberal federal judges into the courts.
And what “those of us thought” about RBG is a bunch of BS. When you get to be president, you can tell your court appointees whatever you wish about their tenure.
Still waiting for a breakdown of RBG decisions and votes that can be tossed on the dustbin of history.
Steeplejack
I’m late to the thread—which seems to be still going strong anyway—so I will throw in my 2¢.
I think a big reason why many “old” people are hanging onto their jobs like grim death and not retiring is because they are ill prepared for retirement and it will be a big diminishment of their lifestyle. Pensions have mostly vanished or been watered down over the last couple of decades, and a lot of people have seen their retirement accounts take big hits as well. That steady paycheck is a huge thing to give up. It’s not that they love their jobs and/or think that they’re indispensable.
ETA: Talking about regular people, not judges and legislators. And they’re not doing it just to spite those pesky kids!
J R in WV
@debbie:
In the deep South, all those LEO and prosecutor types in GA, AL, MS who are white, all those guys are as racist as fuck, and think shooting black folks is a good thing as it keep them in their place, under the heel of the white folks.That they can’t always get away with it in the days of video cameras everywhere infuriates them.
opiejeanne
What a joy the pie filter is! So far I’ve seen the cherry tart, a slice of cake with a berry on top, the duck wearing the red scarf, the mixed berries tart, a proper two-crust pie, a pair of what look like custard tarts with strawberries on top, the cupcake with the cherry on top, the sea lion cupcake, and the sea lion chow.
WaterGirl
@opiejeanne: Very happy to see this note from you!
J R in WV
@BobS:
No, you can’t, as you demonstrate almost daily right here in front of the world (at least the B-J segment of it!).
opiejeanne
@WaterGirl: I also appreciate the toggle, so that I can read some responses from people I respect.
BobS
@J R in WV: I can appreciate how doing the two things simultaneously might look challenging from “WV” (do they teach you to lead with your chin there?).
Practice- you might surprise yourself (and me even more).
opiejeanne
@WaterGirl: Oh! and now the guy beating the dead horse!
WaterGirl
@opiejeanne: If only it could still be animated, which was the best part! But still fun.
As I told Betty Cracker, I feel relatively certain that the guy beating the dead horse has eaten a number of pastries in his lifetime, so we were able to issue a special dispensation from the Pie Filter Pope for inclusion in the pie filter.
Elizabelle
@WaterGirl: Thank you. I got drawn into the RBG kerfuffle which was launched by someone who was already pied. But saw the responses (reading from bottom of thread — which can bite one).
I can think of three more issues that are dead horse graphic ready, but not about to divulge any of them.
Do love the sea lion chow and sea lion cupcake. See those a lot, and they are infinitely preferable … (although second liking the ability to toggle, in the event something is worth following) …
Another Scott
@OzarkHillbilly: The advertising model seems to be broken these days. How do they figure out what ads to show someone? By getting information from Google or Amazon on what people searched for before, or what they purchased before.
“OH was looking for what’s new in tractors a few weeks ago, let’s show him ads for a tractor!!” – not knowing that you either bought a tractor or decided not to get one now.
When was the last time that someone had their ad blocker turned off, saw an ad for something that they might actually be sort-of interested in, and clicked on the ad? Why not go there directly via a search and cut out the middle-man (and reduce the chance of begin shuttled-off who knows where by the ad)?
I don’t recall ever clicking on an ad – certainly not within the last 10 years or so.
Sensibly priced subscriptions and things like scroll.com seem to me to be the only way forward. Ad brokers and distribution networks take too big a cut, don’t care about the readers, have incentives to dump as many ads on readers as possible, etc., etc. It’s a broken business model for web sites that actually want to be useful to readers.
/soapbox.
Cheers,
Scott.
Betty Cracker
@Another Scott: You’re not getting pop-ups and such, right? I don’t use an ad blocker on this site, and while I do see ads (mostly for clothes and cookware — well targeted in my case!), they’re not intrusive, at least on the desktop version.
I do heartily despise the ad window that blocks the navigation arrows on the mobile version. It goes away if you click the ex, but it takes its time in a really obnoxious way, and it pops right back up if you refresh or comment. Other than that, I find the ads super ignorable…
Brachiator
@BobS:
You keep beating the shit out of a dead horse. Did Obama ask her to resign? You got some proof that she was asked and refused? If not, quit trying to put the onus on her for not complying with your fantasies.
You can opine all you want. And I can declare your opinion to be full of shit. That’s kinda how it’s supposed to work.
Horse crap. And again, which decisions, opinions and dissents? Surely you must have some idea, or do you just reduce it to a liberal vote, with no other idea about how the court has an impact on law?
No.
Why don’t you blame Obama for not appointing young justices? Silly of him to look for excellence.
Another Scott
@Gin & Tonic: Meh. I’m uncomfortable with hard-and-fast age-based term limits. And don’t like the argument that somehow those over 70 don’t have a stake in society. That argument can be extended to saying that all judges should be elected and recent history indicates that is often a disaster for sensible rulings. Should only people with kids in school have a say about the school board and property taxes? Should only people in the military have a say on defense and foreign policy? Nope.
Encouraging people over, say, 75 to take “senior status” or whatever makes sense. People shouldn’t feel that they have to work forever (for whatever reason). But simply being younger or having more turnover is not an obvious universal good in itself.
Yes, it’s a problem that there’s often very little promotion opportunity in organizations anymore because there isn’t turnover the way there was decades ago. (E.g. hot engineers don’t change jobs every 3 years because new opportunities don’t open up all the time any more.) There are lots of reasons (automation, off-shoring, the need for decent medical insurance, etc.). Moving the oldsters out may might only be a one-time rebalancing (because automation, off-shoring, AI, pressure to reduce the amount of expertise and experience to do various jobs, etc., will only continue). Then what?
Yes, lower the retirement and Medicare ages. Reduce the work-week to ~ 32 hours and decrease the incentives to make everyone “contractors” and “part-time”. Make disability easier to get for those who need it. And even experiment with a UBI. But do all of them, don’t just kick out the oldsters.
TANSTAAFL.
Cheers,
Scott.
Brachiator
@Another Scott:
You are right, there is a timing problem here. Showing me stuff when I’ve already made a purchase is pointless. However, since I purposefully live in a Google universe, I can see when the algorithm will correctly assume that intensity and frequency of search about a product indicates that I may be thinking about a purchase, and serve up reviews and related items.
I will sometimes note an ad for a product, but never click through because I don’t want my reading or listening interrupted. Same behavior as when I am reading a magazine. I might glance at an ad, but I am not going to put the magazine down and go buy something.
Here, the trick of course is to serve up ads of stuff that I might be interested in. The Internets is not very successful. It can sometimes guess right about my demographic profile, but still cannot always match products that I might like.
And I also don’t click on an ad because I never know how scammy the result might be.
However, I may come back to Balloon Juice or another site and deliberately click through to amazon or another site when I am ready to purchase, because I think it might help. If I am wrong, then I am a total maroon.
No, people want free. Free works. Subscriptions add up and ultimately discourage Internet use.
There is a big problem with carnival ads that are noisy, visually obnoxious, or which takeover your screen or otherwise try to collar you, but without ads a lot of the Internet would become a niche for upper income people.
BTW. I’ve heard that radio stations, Internet podcasts and other media have been hit hard as businesses pulled ads because they got no business during the lockdown. Some podcasters who use the Patreon subscription model have also seen patronage dry up.
The pandemic and subsequent suppression of economic activity has all kinds of consequences.
Another Scott
@Betty Cracker: I use an ad blocker everywhere. I send sites I frequent cash money to make up for it. Balloon Juice Intergalactic Industries raids my CC monthly.
Early on, Google had unobtrusive text ads that they would place on pages. Those made sense to me and I would even occasionally read them! The geniuses who decided that full-screen ads that forced most people to click on something to get rid of them, and drove readers away in the process, are an example of the incentives being all out of whack…
Grr…
Cheers,
Scott.
Another Scott
@Betty Cracker: Nice! And I see it is active. It’s a shame that it’s not animated when called up in the small size in the pie filter though! (At least not for me at this moment.)
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
J R in WV
@opiejeanne:
I second this expression of love for the pie filter. I even love the instant toggle on and off option, so I can see what the asses I have relegated to the pie safe are up to.
BobS
@J R in WV: You people are fucking hilarious- there’s constant chortling about blocking, and even more peeking. It’s like living in a neighborhood full of Gladys Kravitz clones.
J R in WV
@BobS:
Not worth it at free… potty-mouth can’t learn to argue without potty-mouth.
Brachiator
@BobS:
No.I will bet money that some of her dissents will become the basis for future Supreme Court rulings.
I suspect that you are ignorant of RBG’s opinions and simply look at the Court as a vote, without thought about anything else.
As for the rest of your petty screed, you are just butthurt that RBG didn’t resign and insist on putting sole responsibility for this error on her.
In the end, it doesn’t matter, no matter how much your froth at the mouth over your unhappiness about it.
J R in WV
@Steeplejack:
That was a kind and well thought out comment. I too had a good experience with our local Vet ER and the end of life with a beloved pupper named Happy Dog. She was listless and turned out to have a bleeding abdominal tumor… this was all before the Trump Plague.
J R in WV
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
From the likes of you!
Well done, right up there with Betty Cracker’s vitriol~!!~
Thanks!
Betty Cracker
@Another Scott: Gotcha — I thought you were seeing big fat ads HERE that you had to click away, which shouldn’t be the case. Right there with you on the obtrusive ad haterade in general. My latest pet peeve is sites that trigger a pop-up when you move your cursor to the top of the page. It’s like an obnoxious salesperson throwing herself in my path when I’m trying to exit a store. Fuck off already! :)
Brachiator
@BobS:
We’ll discuss it after you have read her opinions and dissents. Just the ones after 2010.
It doesn’t matter in the sense that all you can do is whine about it. Which you insist on doing. I will leave you to it.
J R in WV
@BobS:
There you go! Making friends everywhere you go!
You sure don’t have any common sense, nor manners. And this isn’t the first time you’ve attempted to use my state of origin as a slur. I hope you’re proud of displaying mean bigotry in this online community. You will be beloved of so many people after this. Keep up the good work. Oh, wait…
opiejeanne
@J R in WV: I can toggle them off to see what the asses said, but it’s also a reminder not to engage. I think I’ll go see what the rest of the threads are like but then I won’t get to laugh at him calling me Mrs Kravits
Brachiator
@BobS:
In other words, you don’t know shit about RBG, and don’t much care. You are just a moron who counts votes and thinks all that matters with respect to the Court.
Sab
Pie filter. Why do the really obnoxious guys get a whole sea lion chow bag, and our local everyday here every day relentlessly annoying troll gets a tiny cherry tart. It just doesn’t seem fair.
I would troll everyday forever if I knew people would block me with that sea lion ( chow or othetwise.) Sea lions, the big seals with actual outside ears.
Sab
@Betty Cracker: Isn’t one of those guys actually long since dead?
OzarkHillbilly
I’m sorry, absolutely NONE of that is true. I said absolutely ZERO to Bob S in that comment or any other before that. SFAW, you are better than that. Don’t give him cover.
OzarkHillbilly
@BobS: I rest my case.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: She is normal. Especially compared to me.
OzarkHillbilly
@Betty Cracker: And once again, when it comes to to RBG, nothing has been settled, but a whole lot of shit has been stirred up.
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!!
SFAW
@Sab:
Similarly late back to the thread, and: Whoops. My sac/snark detector needs to go in the shop for recalibration.
SFAW
@OzarkHillbilly:
Yes, I know. But our resident Dunning-Kruger avatar was either too stupid to notice, or had decided to respond to a stimulus which didn’t actually exist. Very Trumpian of him, actually.
Probably not, but thanks for saying it.
Wasn’t my intent. Was trying to point out his assholity in an ironic/oblique way.
ETA: I’m sure he’ll be back with another oh-so-witty put-down. Well, half of one, maybe.