Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Compromise? There is no middle ground between a firefighter and an arsonist.

Democracy cannot function without a free press.

The current Supreme Court is a dangerous, rogue court.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

I might just take the rest of the day off and do even more nothing than usual.

There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you do not.

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

Hey hey, RFK, how many kids did you kill today?

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

Nothing worth doing is easy.

You cannot shame the shameless.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

Republican also-rans: four mules fighting over a turnip.

Republicans firmly believe having an abortion is a very personal, very private decision between a woman and J.D. Vance.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

The arc of the moral universe does not bend itself. it is up to us to bend it.

The Supreme Court cannot be allowed to become the ultimate, unaccountable arbiter of everything.

Come on, man.

If ‘weird’ was the finish line, they ran through the tape and kept running.

Bark louder, little dog.

I swear, each month of 2025 will have its own history degree.

We still have time to mess this up!

You are here: Home / Elections / Election 2020 / Monday Morning Open Thread: Resist — Joyously

Monday Morning Open Thread: Resist — Joyously

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Baby Trump inflatable

From commentor TonyD:

Here is our $99 Baby Trump balloon.

I tend to avoid social media because I dislike taking dips in toxic swamps. But I wanted to do something to speak out about the Poison Cheeto in Chief. So I got permission from my wife and bought myself a Baby Trump inflatable balloon for my birthday.

We mounted it on our our porch roof, which is close to 20 feet from the ground. I was concerned that we might experience broken glass or worse, and my neighbor Alex agreed, offering to set a pool and taking 12 days as to his estimate of Baby Trump’s life span.

Alex is one of the smartest people I know. He is a NYC EMT who was down at Ground Zero for several days from Sept, 12th on. Many laughed at him because he insisted on wearing a high grade mask, but now he’s still here and many of those who made fun if him are not…


Anyway, there is more good news. The town I live in has no shortage of conservatives. One of the 1950’s more famous right wing riots is named after it. But Baby Trump’s bloated presence still persists on our roof. In fact, my wife’s posts of him on Facebook have gotten about 400 “likes” and less than 10 condemnations.

For those who want to make an inflatable statement, I think Baby Trump might be a good idea.

Palate cleanser: Here are a few of the flowers we use to distract people from the peeling paint on our 1903 house

Monday Morning Open Thread: Resist -- Joyously

Monday Morning Open Thread: Resist -- Joyously 1

Monday Morning Open Thread: Resist -- Joyously 2

Monday Morning Open Thread: Resist -- Joyously 3

Reader Interactions

155Comments

  4. 4.

    Baud

    The phone is a nice touch, but the balloon does not appear treasonous enough to capture the true essence of the man.

  5. 5.

    Baud

    Elections Pandemics matter.

    Voters in deep-red Oklahoma this week could order Medicaid expansion for at least 200,000 poor adults, defying state and Trump administration officials fighting to limit the Obamacare program.

     

    If voters approve a ballot measure on Tuesday, Oklahoma would become the first state to broadly expand government-backed health insurance to many of its poorest residents since the beginning of a pandemic that has stripped many people of coverage. At the same time, that could scuttle the Trump administration’s efforts to make Oklahoma a test case for its plan to transform the entitlement program into a block grant

  6. 6.

    OzarkHillbilly

    I was concerned that we might experience broken glass or worse,

    Living out here in the rump Confederacy my truck has been insulting conservative “thought” for almost a decade and I haven’t lost any glass in it yet. My bet is your house should be even safer. Speaking of the truck, it no longer says “Got Vaseline?” It now says:

    *125,000 dead
    13.3 % UE*
    So Much Winning

    Not nearly as hyperbolic as my usual but a part of me wonders if a simple recitation of facts might finally push someone over the edge.

    ** #s updated weekly

  7. 7.

    Kay

    Sahil Kapur
    @sahilkapur
    HHS Secretary Alex Azar tells
    @jaketapper
    the Trump administration does not have the “exact details” of a health care alternative in case they get their way and the Supreme Court wipes out Obamacare

    Republicans have been saying this every election cycle for a decade.

  8. 8.

    Betty Cracker

    Had to follow Badger the dog around the yard this morning to collect one of his turds for analysis (as requested by the vet), so that’s a great start to the week!

  12. 12.

    NotMax

    If hadn’t seen it with my own eyes a few minutes ago I would not have believed it. Rewound to confirm it was not a hallucination.

    Dialogue: Come on, Toots.
    Closed caption: Come on, twat.

  13. 13.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    Here are the exact details.

    1. Destroy everything.
    2. Blame Democrats for not solving the problem by agreeing to all GOP demands.
  15. 15.

    Kay

    The Trump Administration did not even bother to put together a prospective health care plan. They didn’t even do the one page Paul Ryan pretend health care plan. They came to this election completely empty handed. They have nothing to say when they’re asked.

    People talk about the “incompetence” but that’s not really accurate. They’re incompetent only when they do any work at all, which is rare. Most of their work is just missing- they didn’t do it.

  16. 16.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: If Trump doesn’t chicken out of the debates, I hope Biden hammers him to bits on healthcare, which Trump lied about incessantly in 2016, and extends the criticism to the entire garbage party, which has lied about it for a decade now as you pointed out. They really deserve to be pilloried mercilessly for their failure on healthcare, especially now that the pandemic has exposed the giant holes in the system.

  19. 19.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    “I have to tell you, it’s an unbelievably complex subject,” President Donald Trump told a group of governors at the White House yesterday. “Nobody knew that health care could be so complicated.”

  20. 20.

    A Ghost to Most

    I hope nobody sleeps behind that balloon. It presents a tempting target for nutjobs.

  23. 23.

    Jeffro

    @Betty Cracker: It would be great: “Where’s your plan, Donald?  What’s your plan?  What are you replacing Obamacare with?  You don’t even know, do you?”

    I’d watch that on a loop for an entire weekend and it’d be the best thing I’d watched in years.

  25. 25.

    Betty Cracker

    @rikyrah: He’s fine! The vet just wants to make sure a recent treatment was effective. Poor Badger was confused by my behavior though. “You’re following me around, and now you’re picking up my TURD in a baggie?” LOL! I should have recorded the look I got. :)

  26. 26.

    prostratedragon

    @Betty Cracker:  Just the dialog I’d imagined for him. Then he shrugs and says, “What am I saying, you’re the one with the can opener.”

  28. 28.

    Geminid

    @Kay: Some people talk up ending the filibuster, and the position has merit. But from 2017 to 2019 the Senate’s 60 vote cloture rule prevented some awful legislation. John McCain’s thumbs down on ending debate on repeal of the ACA saved a lot of lives.

  29. 29.

    prostratedragon

    I … had not known this:

    Ivanka Trump has said that her dream man was Christian Bale’s portrayal of Patrick Bateman in Mary Harron’s American Psycho.

    Many here might have, since the article’s been out a while. Still …

    [My loop is “Charley’s Prelude,” but to each his own.]

  30. 30.

    danielx

    @Jeffro:

    The last thing in the world Trump wants is to have to discuss policy issues during a debate, considering where his policies – I’m being generous – have landed us. Although I would enjoy hearing Biden say “Donald, sit your fat ass down” when he starts striding around, which is what Hillary should have done.

  32. 32.

    Baud

    @Geminid:

    John McCain’s thumbs down on ending debate on repeal of the ACA saved a lot of lives.

    That wasn’t a filibuster.  That was a simple majority vote. Otherwise, correct.

  33. 33.

    satby

    There isn’t an alternative health care plan because they never intended to offer one. Not incompetence, malice.

  34. 34.

    Jeffro

    This is encouraging: Dems now slightly more likely that Reps to vote based on SCOTUS, federal judges

    Fer real?  Fer real!

    “…much of the modern Democratic electorate plainly grasp[s] the significance of the courts. A Suffolk University/USA Today poll in April found that Democrats were slightly more likely than Republicans to call the Supreme Court one of the most important issues affecting their vote.

    Progress (and it’s about time, Dems! ?

    It’s not just the nominations to SCOTUS and the federal courts, though. We need to double the size of the federal judiciary (due to their caseload, but also to dilute the effects of all the far-right ideologues that trumpov and McConnell have rammed through), add a couple SCOTUS seats (one for Merrick Garland, and one to account for Kavanaugh), hold hearings on all 9 trumpov nominees who were rated ‘unqualified’ by the ABA but confirmed by the Senate GOP anyway, and look at ways to change SCOTUS justices’ lifetime appointments.

  35. 35.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Things have been interesting up in STL. The DEM mayor appears to have lost perspective. Than again, maybe she never had any?

    “Rachel has a question, Mayor, about your meeting today with some demonstrators outside City Hall,” Long says. “She wants to know: How was that meeting, and what did you talk about?”

    “Well thank you for that, Rachel,” Krewson responds. “So there was a demonstration here, in front — sort of on Tucker and Market here — and the demonstrators wanted to meet with me. So I went outside City Hall, in the circle on the Tucker side of City Hall. The conversation wasn’t really a two-way conversation, I’ll be honest with you, because there was a very loud, um, very loud response from the demonstrators. And so they gave me some papers about how they thought, uh — in fact I’ll go pick it up off my desk, hang on.”

    At this point, Krewson walks across her office, retrieves a stack of papers from her desk, and then returns to the camera.

    “So they presented some papers to me about how they wanted the budget to be spent,” Krewson says while putting on reading glasses. “Here’s one that wants $50 million to go to Cure Violence, $75 million to go to affordable housing, $60 million to go to Health and Human Services and have zero go to the police. So that’s [REDACTED] who lives on [REDACTED] wants no police — no money going to police.”

    From this point in the video, Krewson continues to read the demands of demonstrators — most of them seeking to defund the police and shift that money into social services — as well as several of their full names and which streets they live on.

    RFT counted at least ten instances wherein Krewson read aloud an activist’s full name and the name of the street on which they reside. At one point in time she lists a person’s full name and full street address, remarking, “He lives around the corner from me.”

    That not being enough, she doubled down, because it’s all about her, doncha know?

    The backlash has been fast and furious, spreading rapidly across social media. There were soon people standing outside Krewson’s home in the Central West End. She came out to speak with them, but in an awkward (and filmed) conversation she declined multiple requests to apologize.

    “I don’t really think it was a mistake, but it was not intended to be hurtful to anyone,” she told the group.

    Krewson pointed out that the letters are public record, but people at the house argued that broadcasting the names and addresses of people critical of police, she put those people at risk of being targeted at their homes.

    “Just kind of like how you guys are here,” Krewson responded.

    At least until somebody on her staff pointed out what a complete asshat she is being, and now, she is ever so very very sorry:

    After not apologizing during the in-person conversation, the mayor apparently had a change of heart later in the night. She issued the following statement to the Riverfront Times at 9:17 p.m.:

    In an effort to be transparent and accessible to the public during the Covid-19 pandemic, for more than three months now I have been doing tri-weekly community updates on Facebook. Tonight, I would like to apologize for identifying individuals who presented letters to me at City Hall as I was answering a routine question during one of my updates earlier today. While this is public information, I did not intend to cause distress or harm to anyone. The post has been removed.

    And then this happened:

    As hundreds of protesters marched toward Mayor Lyda Krewson’s house this evening they were met by a surprising sight — a gun-swinging couple on the lawn of their Central West End mansion.

    The couple, personal injury attorneys Mark and Patricia McCloskey, shouted at marchers who seemed to be just passing through the gated community.

    A video recorded by freelance photographer Theo Welling for the Riverfront Times shows Mark, dressed in a pastel pink polo shirt and khakis, brandishing a rifle with an extended clip while Patricia, wearing black-and-white-striped top with capri pants, casually holds a small handgun.

    The protesters were walking to Krewson’s house for a demonstration, part of the backlash the mayor is facing for broadcasting on Facebook Live the names and addresses of advocates for defunding the police department.

    Multiple people marching tonight filmed the scene in front of the McCloskeys, and various angles show the couple sweeping their weapons in the direction of protesters who were standing on the sidewalk or walking past.

    Interesting times.

  36. 36.

    germy

    Upstate New York.  The “deep south of the northern part of a blue state”

    TROY – A Troy church is facing backlash after giving away an AR-15 at Sunday’s service.

    Protesters were outside the Grace Baptist Church on 4th Avenue.

    This is the second time the church has given away a gun. The last time was in 2014.

    Pastor John Koletas says they do this to honor hunters and gun owners who have, “been so viciously attacked by anti-Christian socialist policies.”

    Critics say firearms play no role in religion.

    There’s another giveaway Monday night.

  37. 37.

    Baud

    @satby:

    Perhaps the only good thing Alan Grayson actually did was describe the GOP healthcare plan way back in the day.

    On September 29, 2009, in a late-night speech on the House floor, Grayson presented his impression of the Republicans’ health care plan, illustrated by signs. He said the Republicans’ plan was “don’t get sick”, and “if you do get sick, die quickly.”[74] After demands from Republicans that he apologize, he defended his comment and in a House floor speech stated, “I apologize to the dead and their families that we haven’t voted sooner to end this holocaust in America.”

  38. 38.

    debbie

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    My windshield was smashed because of a bumper sticker supporting a teachers’ strike. This was in New Hampshire in 1974 or 1975, pretty much a forerunner for today.

    I love the Baby Trump! All kinds of yard signs are popping up around here. Other than BLM-related, COVID-19 related, and anti-school budget cuts-related, there are signs like “Fuck Trump,” “Byedon,” and “Anybody but Trump.” Most notable is the fact that even though there are many small children around, not one helicoptering parent has objected.

  39. 39.

    Baud

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    At least we got a meme out of it.

    “Meet the McCloskeys” sounds like the name of an ABC sit com, not a description of white privilege in 2020 America.

  40. 40.

    debbie

    @Kay:

    I think what it means is that Trump is confident he can fix the election. Why bother with the pretense of plans and papers?

  46. 46.

    satby

    Good essay here:

    Trump is a mirror, a warning, and ultimately a catalyst for change. Reflected in Trump is all that is wrong with the United States: the injustice of our broken social contract, the crassness of our politics, and the cruelty of our economy. Trump is also the shock that a mature democracy needs for action. To use a timely metaphor, Trump and his supporters are a virus, and they have activated our democratic antibodies. What we are seeing in the streets is the body fighting the infection.

  49. 49.

    Baud

    @satby:

    Now, I am thankful that we elected Trump. Because Donald Trump is exactly what America needed

    I can’t get behind this. Smacks of the Saradon theory of politics.  It’s fine to point out and take advantage of the opportunity we have, but to be “thankful” for Trump is a bridge too far for me.

  50. 50.

    germy

    The protesters marching through St. Louis on Sunday evening were armed only with posters and chants, all meant to put pressure on Mayor Lyda Krewson to redirect city funds away from law enforcement.

    “Resign Lyda, take the cops with you,” they shouted on the way to the mayor’s house in the Central West End, banging on drums and carrying signs that said, “Respect us.” The first-term Democrat had publicly released the names and addresses of some fellow activists, and now they wanted to bring their demonstration to her door.

    But as the peaceful crowd of about 500 walked along a private, gated street, a white couple who emerged from a marble mansion had something else in mind.

    Around 6 p.m. Sunday, a barefoot man in a pink collared shirt walked out from the five-story house, carrying a semiautomatic rifle as he appeared to threaten the group. A few feet away, a woman pointed a pistol at the crowd, her finger directly on the trigger.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/06/29/st-louis-protest-gun-mayor/

  51. 51.

    Geminid

    @Baud: thanks for the correction. My point did not speak to the filibuster, then.

    I checked out the vote. The other two Republican Senators who voted against repeal were  Murkowski (AL) and Collins (ME).

  52. 52.

    debbie

    @satby:

    Everything wrong with America is manifested in Trump.

    It’s manifested in each of his many, many followers, too. Trump may be a mirror, but that mirror also reflects the many people standing behind him. None of them will be going silently into the night without a real fight.

    “We’re gonna need a bigger sump pump.”

    (I still say it started with Reagan, not Newt.)

  53. 53.

    Spanky

    @WereBear: The disturbing thing is that she found a close match in Jared, our Shadow President.

    (Though Miller may want that title for himself.)

  56. 56.

    Ohio Mom

    Kay,

    If you are still here, I see that the American Academy of Pediatrics has issued a statement saying that schools must re-open this fall for children’s sake, and outlining how to make that as safe as possible. Validating everything you have been saying. Not that you need validation but I thought you’d enjoy this.

  62. 62.

    satby

    @Baud: well, I was more struck by the “who” wrote it, a description of a reliable Republican voter in the armed forces. And considering the path this country has been on, we were going to land here anyway, because stupid and malice in about half our citizens have been weaponized for decades against our democracy. The author is clear that Trump is the outcome of decades of Republican acts of sabotage, and that’s what I thought was important.

    Just watching people still battling over simple face masks in the shadow of 125,000 dead with absolutely bullshit excuses promoted and dispersed by right wing media confirms that this country is seriously broken. I hate that people are so complacent that it took multiple catastrophes to wake them up. But it did.

  63. 63.

    Sab

    What is the point of a gated community that doesn’t lock its gates? (Not saying that I approve of gated communities, but if you have a gate you ought to use it.)

  65. 65.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Jason Rogers@Rogers4Texas
    My brother asked someone who wasn’t wearing a mask to maintain 6 ft. behind him in a checkout line.

    The guy reached out and grabbed my brother’s mask, so my brother knocked him out.

    If you live in Oak Cliff and see a guy who resembles me, maintain 6 ft.
    Face with tears of joy

  66. 66.

    Baud

    @satby: Gotcha.  I didn’t notice the author. I just got hung up on the framing.  I understand the temptation to rationalize that everything that happened was for the best, especially since we can’t change the past, but it’s still is a dangerous way to think IMHO.  But I guess coming for a reliable Republican, it’s not as bad a sentiment.

  67. 67.

    satby

    @rikyrah: But we don’t have Hillary, and no one is more bitter than me about it.

    @debbie: I think it started when Goldwater lost, and the right wing started setting up their alternative think tanks and education systems, and hit the mainstream with Reagan and Fox noise.

  69. 69.

    SFAW

    @debbie:

    (I still say it started with Reagan, not Newt.)

    Sometimes I think Reagan, sometimes I think Tricky Dick (with the “Southern Strategy” genesis), but I think Newtie weaponized things more than the other two. His GOPAC manifesto went far beyond Reagan vis-a-vis demonizing the Dems. [Nixon did a fair amount of that, but his disgrace probably put a damper on things.]

    It’s a debate that would be interesting to have … once the Rethuglican Partei is so far out of power that you’d need Mt. Palomar to see it/them. But until that happens, I’m more than happy to treat each-and-every-one of them as traitors trying to destroy America.

    ETA: satby’s point about Goldwater is also excellent, of course

  70. 70.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @satby: Trump made Americans worse. He encouraged them to let their freak flags fly. The freak is there in many of us, but we battle it down. He told us we didn’t have to.

    And I’m saying “us” because I am a worse person because of Trump.

  72. 72.

    satby

    @Baud: I suspect there’s a bit of lemons – lemonade in that outlook, not the Sarandon view that we “deserve” to have catastrophes to wake us up to the glory of whateverthefuck Bernie was peddling.

    We’re here. A huge portion (thankfully shrinking, but still large) of our fellow citizens lost the democracy and “common good” plot decades ago. Just as historians analyzed how Germany became Nazi, the analysis has begun on our failures. It’s a good thing when they don’t lay it all on Trump as if he was an aberration and the Republicans and country were otherwise floating along normally.

  73. 73.

    Geminid

    @Jeffro:  There was a good article in Blue Virginia a couple days ago about Cameron Webb’s prospects in the Va. 5th congressional district. It was written by Charlottesville city council member Lloyd Snook.

  74. 74.

    SFAW

    @Baud:

    People also forget that the response to GWB was a Democrat Party “wave” which lasted 100 years  a generation  a decade  four years, followed by more Rethug insanity.

    Fuck Ralph Nader.

    [NB: “Fuck Ralph Nader” because he had the gall to say, after GWB was anointed by Fat-Now-Dead Nino and Sandra Fucking O’Connor, that there would be a generation of liberalism (or similar) because Bush would make things so bad. Well, you were half right, you fucking moron.]

  75. 75.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @satby: After decades of the GOP spreading manure, trump’s candidacy found fertile ground in which to grow.

  78. 78.

    SFAW

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    After decades of the GOP spreading manure, trump’s candidacy found fertile ground in which to grow.

    I don’t know if you follow/read driftglass/Mr_Electrico, but he hates Rick Wilson (of Lincoln Project fame/infamy) with a passion, because Wilson spent many years helping that happen. Can’t say I disagree with him.

  80. 80.

    Jerzy Russian

    @Betty Cracker:   No lie:  there is an ad right below your comment about dog poop removal.

    Hmm, on a related note the ad blocker is not working at the moment.

  81. 81.

    rikyrah

    ????

    So @VanJones68 has been holding secret meetings with Donald Trump and the White House, then going on CNN pretending like he's not knowing what they're doing. CNN must fire Van Jones.— Candy kane Who hate Donald Trump (@CandyKa31956601) June 29, 2020

  83. 83.

    rikyrah

    ???

    I hope everyone realizes that Matt Taibbi's present as a 50-year-old conservative pundit is the future of many of your favorite 30-something leftist pundits now.— Tentin Quarantino (@agraybee) June 29, 2020

  87. 87.

    satby

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: There isn’t a silver lining, not at all the point of the piece I linked to. It’s about coming to a reckoning.

    Edit: since you and I are both on FB, I really thought the Tallon piece I shared this morning was better in many ways, but it’s only available there. I found this through Tallon.

  88. 88.

    SFAW

    @satby:

    I dated it from 2006, because that year saw significant Dem gains in Congress. But either way, it was yet-another re-affirmation that “nach Hitler, uns” is a “plan” of, by, and for morons.

  90. 90.

    Kay

    @Ohio Mom:

    Thanks. I think there hasn’t been enough attention to the harm caused to children because of the stay at homes. I supported the stay at homes. But the effects on EVERY population need to be looked at. For children, the harm may exceed the risk.

    They have good information on the daycares that remained open to serve the children of essential workers. The risk to children is low.

    The online learning they’re doing is a disaster. Most of them already knew it would be a disaster because the online charter schools they have experimented with for 20 years are a disaster. Children need other people. It isn’t a luxury or an option.

    We have put more energy into opening bars than we have into opening schools. This needs attention.

  91. 91.

    Taken4Granite

    @Kay: I have been calling this administration anti-competent. An incompetent administration would occasionally, by pure chance, do the right thing. When these people do anything, it is always the wrong thing, which is the exact opposite of competence.

  92. 92.

    Sab

    @Ohio Mom: Thanks for this. My step-daughter is trying to home-school her 6 year old autistic daughter to keep her safe. Kid’s only contact with the outside world is weekly occupational and speech therapy sessions, and waving at us next door over the backyard fence. This worries me a lot.

  93. 93.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    I’m supposed to be on Scalzi today and I don’t see the post. Did he change his mind? I don’t know.

    Did I sell any books since the new one came out? I don’t know.

    I’ve been having dizzy spells and my blood pressure is up. Am I about to have another heart attack? I don’t know.

    Why am I so crabby? I don’t…wait, I do know the answer to that.

    I’m going out for a walk before it gets too hot.

  94. 94.

    SFAW

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    I’ve been having dizzy spells and my blood pressure is up. Am I about to have another heart attack? I don’t know.

    Boy, I sure hope not! Trying to send de-stressing thoughts your way, although I probably ain’t the best person for that.

  96. 96.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @danielx:

    Although I would enjoy hearing Biden say “Donald, sit your fat ass down” when he starts striding around, which is what Hillary should have done.

    Biden would have the privilege of getting away with that as a white man. A woman? Not so much.

  97. 97.

    artem1s

    I’ve been hearing a new ‘talking point’ from my GOPer curious, glibertarian colleague. In the middle of her weak sauce ‘is this the best we can do (Joe and Dump)’ both sider argument, she pivoted to a new ‘take’ on the WH campaign I hadn’t heard before. I slammed her on the merits of equating a well qualified, experienced decent individual with that dumpster fire and she suddenly had this smug comment about the President not mattering. She challenged me to tell her one thing that was different from the past 10 years that was related to who was elected President. The comment did what it was supposed to do – be so non sequitur and alarming that she believes her own point because I didn’t have a ready made argument for her.
    I have no expectations that anyone could answer the question and satisfy the deplorable’s expectations. But I’ve been trying to keep an ear out for this stuff. I’m trying to gauge what the right wing machine is getting out there to keep their base engaged and influence those who don’t like to ID with R but are looking for an excuse to vote for Trump again.
    Have any of you other Jackals run into this particular talking point yet? did you get the sense they were merely trying to excuse their past actions? or find an excuse to A) not vote or B) vote third party (again) or C) vote for Dolt46?

  98. 98.

    Ohio Mom

    Sab,

    When my kid was young, I used to say that if I had to pick only one intervention among private speech, OT, ABA, public school and whatever else we were doing back then, school would win hands down. There is really no substitute for being among typically-developing peers.

    When Ohio Son was transitioning between preschool and elementary, his Special Ed teacher arranged a tour for us the week before school started. The idea was to familiarize him with the building and meet a few key teachers before the rush of the first day.

    At the end of the tour, he sat down on the floor and started sobbing. Asked what the matter was, he summoned all his language skills and asked, “Where are the children?” What a strange school this was he was about to be sent to, where he was to be the only student.

    Take heart that your granddaughter is still getting speech and OT. Also remember that it’s not true that there is only a small window developmentally to make a difference. Our kids keep developing and learning, just like everyone else.

  99. 99.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: The mister and I were talking about this yesterday after reading some statistics on K-12 online learning during the lockdown that are extremely alarming. (Can’t remember which publication, but IIRC, it was controlled for access to broadband/devices, etc.).

    It sucks, but it’s sure looks like there’s going to be a significant and lasting deficit for kids who are being educated at this time, and you’re right, no one in charge at the fed level gives a shit and too few state leaders seem to grasp the implications either.

  101. 101.

    Ohio Mom

    Artem 1s,

    I’d prepare a stock answer for occasions like this one, something along the lines of, “That’s an interesting/huge question. I’d like to give you an answer that it deserves. Let me have some time to formulate a worthy response and I’ll get back to you.”

    Then, do your research and come back with both barrels blazing.

    And if they don’t respond well, put on your best parental “I’m more disappointed than angry” face and say, “I am taking you seriously, I thought you were worthy of that, why aren’t you interested in taking me seriously?”

    We aren’t just arguing facts, we are waging psychological warfare against these stunted human beings.

  102. 102.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Ohio Mom: That’s a great answer. Truth is, the other person is probably just sea lioning, but you have a good answer for that too. :)

  103. 103.

    Alison Rose

    Someone please upload that balloon as Trump’s official pic on his Wikipedia page. And then screenshot it for posterity before it gets taken down.

    Also too, what are the flowers in the third pic, the white and pink ones?

  105. 105.

    Marcopolo

    Good morning folks. I ordered my ByeDon yard sign last week and expect it to arrive any day now. I’ll be putting it up in the front yard. Guess we will see what happens.

    In response to Ozark Hillbilly above @35, I live in StL County & I have no idea what the hell StL Mayor Krewson was thinking when she did her BLM Defund the Police doxxing a few days ago. I’m sure this is a stressful time for all electeds and maybe she just lost it but I think this will make it extremely hard for her to win re-election next year. There are a lot of serious issues that need to be addressed in the city & I think her best course going forward would be to announce she is not running again, then use her freedom from electoral concerns to fix the StL Police Dept.–which probably would require shifting funding from “hardcore” “military policing” to more community based “civil policing”, to put a final kibosh on privatizing the StL airport (voters don’t want it but the political power brokers in the city will profit from it), and a couple other things.

  106. 106.

    Citizen Alan

    @rikyrah:  Van Jones has joined the Clarence Thomas society, I think.   He has become a self loathing black man who thinks he can earn a place for himself among the elite by working tirelessly for white supremacy.

  107. 107.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    There has been WAY more coverage of the reopening professional sports than reopening schools. It’s not just schools either – it’s daycares.

    Democrats have a huge opening here. All they have to do is raise this an issue and the CLAMOR from parents will amaze them. It is ALL I hear about. They’re frantic. They don’t know what is going to happen or what they are going to do. You cannot tell working parents they’re supposed to homeschool, and that’s what “online learning” is to kids who are younger than high school age. It isn’t going to work. They aren’t going to be there. I love the blissful ignorance of actual peoples lives, I must say. Let’s just completely ignore the fact that these people all work and pretend they’re all sitting there monitoring daily assignments.

    Look at the other countries with Covid. School was FIRST. They handled that first. We’re not even grappling with it at all.

  108. 108.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @Bruce K:

    You’re right. It was on a timer and it’s up there now. Bjers probably have heard me ramble about it enough but it is there.

    I called my cardiologist a couple of weeks ago and he upped my losartan dosage, sent me for a cholesterol test, and made an appointment for Aug. 3. If I continue to feel dizzy, I’ll call him again.

  109. 109.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    We lost 20% of our public school kids from the start of homeschooling to the end of school. They just dropped off the face of the earth. Okay, you can go chase them, and the school did, but this is fucking ridiculous. It’s pretend. It’s a rolling disaster and no one wants to admit it. These kids were tenuously attached to “education” as it was. They were barely showing up. Now they’re just screwed.

    We’re talking about 10 million children, nationally. Lost.

  110. 110.

    Jeffro

    @Geminid: 

    Interesting! I love reading these kinds of informed, granular-level analyses of districts and states. Probably missed my calling ;)

    Thanks for the tip though, and GO WEBB!

  112. 112.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    I would put a massive effort behind it if I were running the Democratic Party. Call it “school rescue”. Hold a giant online town meeting with parents and teachers. Advertise the hell out of it. Put together a plan pretending Biden is in office. Hell, they need one anyway if he’s elected. By then kids will lost an entire year.

    It’s almost criminal neglect. The Trump Administration has done nothing.

  113. 113.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    I can’t imagine what these “reopen” business people are thinking. Do they have actual employees? Where are their kids supposed to go while they’re working? No one thought of that?

  114. 114.

    Jeffro

    @Kay:We have put more energy into opening bars than we have into opening schools. This needs attention.

    Yes.  And the safety concerns of teachers and school staff are being brushed off/blown by…and that’s going to result in some serious issues beginning in August.  (Fairfax County, VA is already hearing from its teachers’ associations and it’s not pretty)

    I expect that between 10-20% of teachers nationwide are going to refuse to come in/only be able to work remotely/will flat-out resign almost no matter what school divisions do.  They (the teachers) have health issues just like the rest of the population…or their spouses do…or an elderly parent who’s living with them does.

  115. 115.

    Marcopolo

    @artem1s:  Without Obama there would be no ACA and therefore no pre-existing conditions coverage, no coverage of kid to the age of 26, no medicaid expansions in 36 states, etc… The fact that the Trump administration has made it one of their primary goals to roll back every good thing Obama did would also be a case in point.  For example, our air, water, and lands are more polluted now than they have been in the last several decades.  That was before the Trump administration used the pretext of the pandemic to stop any enforcement of environmental regulations.

    If you subscribe to the idea that folks who don’t have a seat at the table are generally on the menu which I do, I would point out the kind of folks that make up the Trump administration: overwhelmingly white & overwhelmingly male.  Compare that to the Obama administration and point out how the current administration (beyond making vague mouth sounds) does nothing to address the issues of our communities of color.

    I won’t mention the Supreme Court (or the lower levels for that matter) since your friend might not have a problem with the way it is drastically tilted now but that is also the result of who is elected Prez.  Anyway, I could go on but saying it doesn’t matter who is elected president is one of the most ridiculous arguments (whether being made by Susan Sarandon or Cornel West or your colleague) I’ve ever heard but god damn is it pernicious.  And it really is solely put out there to depress the vote.

  116. 116.

    Jeffro

    @artem1s:Have any of you other Jackals run into this particular talking point yet? did you get the sense they were merely trying to excuse their past actions? or find an excuse to A) not vote or B) vote third party (again) or C) vote for Dolt46?

    I haven’t heard that “the presidency doesn’t matter” but wow is that lame and stupid.

    I have heard “two equally bad choices” and “Biden’s just the lesser of two evils” BS…it’s really the only way to try and drag Biden down anywhere close to trumpov’s level.

    All of the above is just an excuse to not think, obvs.

  117. 117.

    The Moar You Know

    Thanks. I think there hasn’t been enough attention to the harm caused to children because of the stay at homes. I supported the stay at homes. But the effects on EVERY population need to be looked at. For children, the harm may exceed the risk.

    They have good information on the daycares that remained open to serve the children of essential workers. The risk to children is low.

    The online learning they’re doing is a disaster. Most of them already knew it would be a disaster because the online charter schools they have experimented with for 20 years are a disaster. Children need other people. It isn’t a luxury or an option.

    We have put more energy into opening bars than we have into opening schools. This needs attention.

     

    @Kay:  Saw this last semester.  The elementary school kids can’t handle it.  The junior high schoolers largely can.

    Not my point.  Glad the children are safe.  The teachers aren’t.  And there’s no, I mean zero, fucks to give around here if all the teachers die just so that mom and dad won’t have to deal with them for a few hours a day.

    As the spouse of a teacher, I’m horrified.  I’m frantically trying to find PPE for my wife as the schools have zero plans to give them anything effective and the plan, at the moment, is for the kids to not have any at all.  No gloves, no distancing, 40 to a class just like previous years.  Not even masks.

    Good luck reopening schools when the teachers don’t show up.

  119. 119.

    Sab

    @Ohio Mom: My step-daughter had a housemate for about a year with a four year old daughter. The effect on our grand-daughter was amazing. She learned to share. She finally had a peer to play with. She matured so much. Then friend and her mom moved on to their own house.

  120. 120.

    Geminid

    Bearing Drift is published by a group of trump-despising self described conservatives. They devote a lot of space to the ongoing struggle in the local and state Republican party between what could be described as the traditional and the radical factions. But Bearing Drift had a good piece by M.D. Russ a couple days ago about the decay in national party principles starting with Gingrich’s Contract for America of 1992. Russ’s premise and conclusion: “Donald Trump did not hijack the Republican Party….He just answered the casting call.”

  121. 121.

    Miss Bianca

    @satby: @Baud: Good op-ed, and I agree with most of it – in that I also have come to the conclusion that basically we as a country *needed* something this extreme to wake us up, unfortunately – but thanking Donald Trump for his service was a bit much for me. I don’t *thank* people for kicking me in the teeth, even if in the end it turns out to have been a salutory thing.

  122. 122.

    Jeffro

    @Kay:

     

    @Betty Cracker:

    For a lot of kids in a lot of states, the ‘deficit’ – the one caused by Covid, anyway – is not huge right now.  Not every state locked down early in March; many states were spending weeks in the spring just reviewing for their state tests (ie, not ‘real’ learning anyway).

    Plus, while it’s not data, I have heard plenty of anecdotes from the ed community that lead me to believe that well-off kids weren’t exactly pounding the academics these past few months.  Kids are kids and parents have been doing the best they can, but I think a LOT of kids were getting by on social media and video games.  Certainly not just kids in poor households.

    The real deficits in education that exist are the same ones that were already there.  I hope our leaders resist the temptation to try and lay it all off on Covid-closures.

  123. 123.

    satby

    @Jeffro: @The Moar You Know: the risk to children may be relatively low (it’s not nil), but to care giving grandparents, or single wage earning parents, as well as the teachers, the children become a risk, and impact to a child when they lose a parent or grandparent is lifelong.

    They’ll end up closing schools down again, because underfunded schools won’t be able to follow the guidelines to reopen safely.

  124. 124.

    Marcopolo

    @The Moar You Know:   I saw some polling of educators a few months ago that indicated up to 20% would either retire/early retire or just leave the profession when schools started back up in the Fall.  This is an under discussed aspect of the pandemic.  Anecdata, but I know 2 folks (one a hair stylist; the other a waitress) who just up & retired when our state reopened.  They were blessed to have a financial situation that allowed them to do that but Covid-19 has (and is) causing an awful lot of people to rethink what they are doing in life and weigh their decisions on a different scale than before.

  125. 125.

    The Moar You Know

    I expect that between 10-20% of teachers nationwide are going to refuse to come in/only be able to work remotely/will flat-out resign almost no matter what school divisions do.  They (the teachers) have health issues just like the rest of the population…or their spouses do…or an elderly parent who’s living with them does.

    @Jeffro: we’re not resigning, there is a pension at stake here.  One which my wife has put in 29 years already for.

    But she’s got asthma and is on a chemo regimen for melanoma.  Putting her into a COVID classroom will be a literal death sentence.  I’m already interviewing attorneys.  They can’t make teachers the cannon fodder for parental convenience.  And it sure looks like our local school board, teacher’s union and parents are totally willing to do exactly that.  Not with my wife, fuckers.

  126. 126.

    gvg

    @Kay: Many kids are watched after school by elder grandparents until parents get home. Grandparents can’t do this if kids are exposed to Covid. Frankly I think it’s unrealistic to expect Fall to happen except virtually. And Biden can’t fix it till maybe mid next spring. That’s the way it is. We’ll have to plan a recovery, this full year is lost. There aren’t that many paid childcare resources to replace relatives even if various parents made enough money. And kids live with other people, even high school kids. Send them to school, but then they can’t come home? Don’t think I agree with you Kay. Consider the effect on kids if family members die? What if the figure out it was their “fault”?
    We have to figure out how to do the mostly online better, plus other stratagies. Some kids would need to come in for special tutoring in person on a case by case basis.

    My local schools have looked at CDC recommendations and decided it’s too expensive so they are doing nothing but the normal. They are being unrealistic in one way. Cases are increasing and I doubt Fall will happen but the other side of it is they don’t have the money-it’s just not there.
    They did invent an internet solution sort of. Buses go park in library parking lots with open wifi and students can hang around in the parking lot and do homework…
    Sure more should be done, but we have to face nothing will be till inaugeration and even then it will take time.

  128. 128.

    Marcopolo

    @Jeffro:   I only have direct knowledge of one school-aged kid (he’ll be a HS Junior this Fall) and when his school closed the physical buildings & moved on line they told all the students that their current grades were baked in for the rest of the year.  As his current grades were all A or A-s he hasn’t really been school-involved since March.  Can you blame him.  If I were a 16 year old and given that option I’d ghost the rest of the school year too.

  129. 129.

    Sab

    @The Moar You Know: I’d like your wife’s opinion: Is there any possibility of putting the little guys in facemasks with their name on it? Just as an intro to the concept.  Then they get used to the concept and normalize it and take it home to their families. And objecting parents can keep their little virus vectors at home

    ETA: sort of like nametags on their faces

  130. 130.

    The Moar You Know

    Anecdata, but I know 2 folks (one a hair stylist; the other a waitress) who just up & retired when our state reopened.

    @Marcopolo: My count:  three doctors.  One I have been expecting.  One who I kinda need his service but not urgently (podiatrist). My main internal medicine doc who was in her late 30s and owes student loans?  That was a shocker, and she is done.  Gave one week notice, left the practice and is living with her parents in LA now.

    Make that four; there’s a letter from my wife’s eye doctor on the table.  He’s cashing in his chips too.

    Can’t blame ’em but we need these folks.

  132. 132.

    The Moar You Know

    I’d like your wife’s opinion: Is there any possibility of putting the little guys in facemasks with their name on it? Just as an intro to the concept.  Then they get used to the concept and normalize it and take it home to their families. And objecting parents can keep their little virus vectors at home.

    @Sab: Thee are junior high kids, they’re fine with masks, they have to wear them if they go anywhere outside anyway.

    The parents do not want them.  This is going to get ugly, but at least I know where my bright lines are; I will happily bankrupt us to keep my wife out of the classroom.

  134. 134.

    Sab

    @The Moar You Know: I retired from public accounting when my office was unwillimg to protect us from our oblivious Republican clients, who flew back from travel trips or Florida or international vacations and immediately trotted into our office, coughing, with their tax documents demanding on site conferences.

    ETA : Most of the staff, almost all over 50 yo still don’t wear masks around the office. They think this thing has crested in Ohio.

  137. 137.

    bluefoot

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    Not to mention all the people who have lost jobs, families detained and separated at the border, visa holders who now can’t come work/study/etc, all the people who have lost government protections against discrimination, people who couldn’t be with their loved ones as they died from COVID-19, etc etc.

  138. 138.

    Sab

    @The Moar You Know:One of my stepsons works in shipping logistics. They got free manly facemasks from day one. Also tiny bottles of hand sanitizers every day. So much care for these big tough guys.

    Then the folks in education are seemingly oblivious to the risks to these little people and their vulnerable families.

    You have inspired me. Time to be a gadfly nagging my local school board members. They all have e-mail.

  139. 139.

    satby

    @Jeffro: The real deficits in education that exist are the same ones that were already there.  I hope our leaders resist the temptation to try and lay it all off on Covid-closures.

    Can’t be emphasized enough.

  140. 140.

    Ruckus

    @debbie: 
    It’s not a pretense of plans and papers because shitforbrains is totally incapable of plans and pretense. That would require thought about someone else that wasn’t hate and racism.
    The total thought about healthcare from republicans is two fold.
    1. Will minorities benefit? If that answer is yes then the answer is No Fucking Way.
    2. Will it control how much profit can be squeezed out of every cough, sneeze, sniffle, broken bone, cancer, etc, etc. If that answer is yes then the answer is No Fucking Way.
    1. Those are their only two concerns. Racism upheld and increased if possible. Profits first and increased if possible.
    2. There is no concern or need for – public good, reasonable health of the nation, reduction of pharmaceutical addiction, betterment of the country, equal pay, reasonable pay, education, equal representation, etc, etc, etc……
    The republican party in a nutshell – They don’t give a damn, they don’t want a better country, a smarter country, a less racist country, an equal country, a working government, the restriction of harming/killing lessor beings than themselves, a good public education system, a governing system based upon rights over profit. Anything that achieves any of that they are against.

  141. 141.

    Jeffro

    @The Moar You Know: I hear you and I’m with you.

    I think most divisions are going to try their best to move their ‘health-issue’ teachers into remote-only spots, based on whatever that demand is.

    Honestly, I wish the whole education community would ramp up on efforts for a) federal $$$/relief and b) a nationwide plan to really lock down hard, test/trace/isolate.  The K-12 schools and higher ed are going to ridiculous lengths to try and get this done, when the real answer is 6-8 weeks of well-planned, well-supported lockdowns and moving to test/trace/isolate.  We won’t be able to limp along like this for a full school year or more.

  143. 143.

    satby

    @Ohio Mom: Also remember that it’s not true that there is only a small window developmentally to make a difference. Our kids keep developing and learning, just like everyone else.

    Also can’t be emphasized enough. Kids have to catch up all the time. This is a once-in-a-millenium pandemic, but it’s not going to last forever. A concentrated recovery effort will ameliorate most of the academic losses.

  146. 146.

    The Moar You Know

    Besides the ones who resign, we’ve lost to Covid-19 deaths more than 600 health care professionals (as of early June). Years of training not easily replaced.

    @satby: Not ever replaceable to their families.

    No blame here from me for the ones who are getting out.  I would have already.  No question.  I’m not a hero.  That most have stayed in spite of the PPE shortages they’ve been dealing with, well, that’s fucking heroic.  And I am profoundly grateful for them.  But I’ll never think badly of anyone who decided that price was too high and didn’t want to stay in the game.

  147. 147.

    WereBear

    @satby: Oh, to be a scorpion in the corner* of the Fox News War Room with this latest news of the Trump Administration’s callous disregard for American lives.

     

    *I don’t want to be a fly on the wall. I don’t want to be noticed and I want to go down with some pain inflicted if it comes to that :)

  148. 148.

    dnfree

    @Sab: I live in a “gated” senior community, but it’s not fenced all around, and there are unstaffed entrances where you can walk in. It’s only gated against entry by cars on roads.

  150. 150.

    dnfree

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: your article on Scalzi’s blog is very well done. Congratulations!  I hope you will feel better. Most likely the weather doesn’t help. This kind of heat is hard on me, anyway.

    Did you say there was an article in the Daily Herald?  I couldn’t find it—could you share a link?

  151. 151.

    Ruckus

    @SFAW:

    It started well before RR. Look at the history of conservative politicians. All of it. What has happened in the lifetime of those still breathing is that they have become even more convinced that the republican party (conservatives) means limited rights, limited laws, limited government, limited power for anyone but the anointed – themselves. They have not, for easily over 200 years, wanted anything that liberals think is good and decent and even minimal governance. Their total concept is that the money, the white, the men, must be in control and have the only voice. DT is their god because he is the ultimate conservative.

  152. 152.

    WereBear

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Make sure our doctor is on the lookout for statin side effects. There’s all kinds of things that might appear, and do so in a lot of people. They can do things about them like switching dosages and brands for a better fit

    That said, my own doctor’s office is reporting high rates of “unusual stress reactions” and I got one, too.

  154. 154.

    WaterGirl

    @Betty Cracker: Why don’t we just call it a “gap year” and adjust the curriculum when we get back?

    All kids would be in the same boat, so it shouldn’t disadvantage anyone long term.

    Feel free to tell me why this is a terrible idea.  Personally, having given this at least 15 minutes thought, it seems smarter than sending kids back to school while COVID is still totally out of control.

  155. 155.

    Jinchi

    @artem1s: She challenged me to tell her one thing that was different from the past 10 years that was related to who was elected President.

    125,000 people are dead, for starters.

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