Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Rupert, come get your orange boy, you petrified old dinosaur turd.

This blog will pay for itself.

There are a lot more evil idiots than evil geniuses.

The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.

Innocent people do not delay justice.

When tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty. ~Thomas Jefferson

Tick tock motherfuckers!

He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!

An almost top 10,000 blog!

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

They punch you in the face and then start crying because their fist hurts.

In after Baud. Damn.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

“I was told there would be no fact checking.”

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

Beware of advice from anyone for whom Democrats are “they” and not “we.”

Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!

Roe is not about choice. It is about freedom.

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

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

Republicans: The threats are dire, but my tickets are non-refundable!

You are here: Home / Elections / Biden For President / Thursday Morning Open Thread: One Day At A Time

Thursday Morning Open Thread: One Day At A Time

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The smarter rats are scrambling for the ropelines…

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213Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    Being a white dude has its advantages.

    Thankfully, Biden is one of the best of that cohort.

  5. 5.

    OzarkHillbilly

    From this ProPublica article:

    But to date, Abbott has resisted a return to the lockdown, other than an order last week closing bars and further limiting the capacity at restaurants. This week, after the top elected leader in Dallas County asked for the authority to issue a new stay-at-home order locally, Abbott dismissed the idea, saying the official was asking to “force poverty” on people.

    “Closing down Texas again will always be the last option,” the governor said last week, emphasizing his commitment to protecting the state’s economy.

    Proof again that you can’t fix stupid.

  6. 6.

    JoyceH

    “Biden pulls together hundreds of lawyers as a bulwark against election trickery”

    Hundreds? Get thousands.

  8. 8.

    JMG

    It’s better to be ahead than to be behind, isn’t it? But it shouldn’t inspire anything except a desire to run up the score to the largest possible extent.

  10. 10.

    zhena gogolia

    @Baud:

    Good morning. I’m not usually here for the good mornings, but we have a doctor’s appointment. I get to sit in the car in the parking lot for 90 minutes in 77 degrees. Better than the 90 it will be later

    ETA: Husband’s orthopedic injury, not life-threatening but seriously ruining the summer along with the pandemic.

  12. 12.

    WereBear

    Just read an AP story on the Villages, the huge retirement community in Florida. A resident explains, “Go to the post office. If people wear masks and distance, they are Democrats. If not, Republicans.”

    Thanks to Trump, COVID-19 is like a comic book bio-weapon. Which targets stupidity.

  14. 14.

    debbie

    @WereBear:

    That’s pretty much true everywhere.

    My town has mandated masks in all stores, businesses, etc. starting tomorrow. I can’t wait until people from other suburbs show up to make their little videos of their freedums.

  16. 16.

    JoyceH

    @Baud: I’m not being hyperbolic. I recall an article about the run-up to an earlier election, one of Obama’s, I think, and the campaign was expecting a lot of election chicanery, particularly poll watchers challenging voters’ registration, and they said they had thousands of lawyers lined up. I think it was six thousand or something in that neighborhood. If Biden’s legal crew is in the hundreds, that’s not enough.

  19. 19.

    Punchy

    @WereBear: Unless those same idiots refuse to wear seatbelts in cars, they’re just hypocrites and d-bags.  I suspect there”ll be a rash of estate sales in the Villages in about 3 months.

  21. 21.

    Baud

    @JoyceH:

    FTA

    Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden said on Wednesday that his party has assembled a group of 600 lawyers and thousands of other people to prepare for possible “chicanery” ahead of November’s election.

     

    “We put together 600 lawyers and a group of people throughout the country who are going into every single state to try to figure out whether chicanery is likely to take place,” Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, said on a video conference with donors to his campaign.

     

    “We have over 10,000 people signed up to volunteer. We’re in the process of getting into the states in question to train them to be in a polling place,” he said, in a time when the coronavirus pandemic requires extra precautions.

     

     

  23. 23.

    RSA

    Fact: when President Trump took office in January 2017, there were 241 Republicans in the House. Since then, 115 (48%) have either retired, resigned, been defeated or are retiring in 2020.

    For reference, this 48% figure exceeds is almost identical to the attrition rate of Democrats at this point in Obama’s first term – 112/256 (44%) – and note that 2012 being a redistricting year contributed to plenty of Dem retirements/losses possible unquantified reasons.

    Jeez, if there’s a story, tell it. Don’t try to invent it.

  24. 24.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Heh.

    “Will Decotelli put on his curriculum that he was education minister?” Matheus Leone, a political scientist, questioned in a tweet.

    Don’t let this guy check the air in your tires as he tends to over inflate everything: Brazil’s new education minister resigns amid scrutiny over qualifications

    Brazil’s latest pick for education minister has been forced to resign after just five days following reports that he repeatedly lied about his qualifications, the most recent in a series of embarrassing blows for the far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro.

    Carlos Decotelli, an economist and former navy man, stepped down yesterday after Brazil’s Getúlio Vargas Foundation business school publicly refuted his claims he had worked there as a teacher.

    It proved to be the final straw for Bolsonaro, after the same school had accused Decotelli of plagiarism on his master’s dissertation, and an Argentinian and a German university disproved that he had completed a PhD and a postdoctorate.

    In an interview with CNN Brasil, Decotelli attributed his resignation to “fake facts” divulged by the school.

    Decotelli’s appointment had apparently pleased Bolsonaro’s military allies. But the UOL news site reported that he even exaggerated about the length and prestige of his naval career. His resignation was widely ridiculed on social media.

    Right wingers sure seem to be suffering a plague of fake facts these days.

  25. 25.

    Kay

    The incident involved a white police officer with the Stryker Police Department, Keith Hough — who has since resigned — drawing his gun on a black truck driver, Kenya Sayles, during a traffic stop.
    The incident occurred on Saturday, June 20, around 2:33 p.m., when Sayles failed to come to a complete stop at a stop sign, according to Stryker Police Chief Steve Schlosser.
    Video taken by Sayles during the incident and posted online shows him reaching his arms out of the window of the cab of the tractor trailer as Hough has his weapon drawn and pointed at Sayles, ordering him to exit the vehicle.
    “Put your gun away, officer, I’m not armed,” Sayles can be heard telling the officer. “I’ve got five kids, I’m not dying today … Put your gun away, I’m not armed.”
    This exchange happened a few times before Hough holstered his weapon. They had a seemingly amicable discussion afterward, with Sayles even telling him to “do your job” as he pats him down.
    “How do I know you’re not going to kill me?” Hough asks on the video, later telling a visibly shaking Sayles: “I’m not going to harm you, man.”
    Schlosser, in an interview with The Bryan Times, said Sayles admitted to rolling through the stop sign and didn’t see Hough trying to pull him over for about half a mile due to the 53-foot trailer behind him, and sound from his radio.
    “It wasn’t until he saw oncoming traffic starting to pull over, then the red flags go up,” he said. “Then he looked into the side-view mirror and saw Keith, officer Hough … was behind him trying to initiate the traffic stop. He immediately pulled over.
    While Schlosser said this incident wasn’t racial motivated, he said there are problems that need to be worked out nationally.
    “We won’t deny that there are issues, there are absolute issues with police officers using unjust use of force, there is no doubt in my mind,” he said, later adding: “Kenya Sayles went through that very issue. That was what was going through his mind at the initial onset of this stop.
    “It was a feeling he needed to talk this officer down,” Schlosser said. “He was able to look into Officer Hough’s eyes and he said he could see the change, once Officer Hough realized he needed to put his gun away and that Kenya wasn’t a threat.
    “He had his letter of resignation ready to go, Saturday was going to be his last shift with us,” Schlosser said. “He came to the determination that even though his heart was in it, his mind was not … It wasn’t a training issue. It certainly wasn’t a racial issue. This is a mental wellness issue.”
    Schlosser elaborated: “(Hough) admitted he was manipulated by the mainstream news, the constant barrage of villainizing police by the mainstream media,” Schlosser said. “The villainization of police through Facebook, YouTube got to him, has been getting to him, over the course of the last six to eight months.”

  26. 26.

    Jeffro

    @WereBear: Absolutely pathetic.

    America needs a reminder that with the right approach, commitment, and leadership, we could flatten this thing down to a very manageable caseload in two months.  We’d be back to normal by Labor Day.

    Let us know what you think about that, America: you travel lovers, you K-12 school parents, you house-bound seniors, you small business owners, you renters and landlords.  No rush.

  27. 27.

    Betty Cracker

    The Post published an op-ed by Grand Moff Brad Parscale today. He’s crowing about the “enthusiasm gap” and promising to activate the Trump campaign Death Star soon to inform Americans that Biden supported the crime bill, NAFTA, the Iraq War, blah blah blah. As if Americans are waiting for the Trump campaign to define Biden. Parscale needs to focus on hoovering up that sweet RNC cash. Soon he’ll be unemployed and, one hopes, unemployable.

  28. 28.

    Baud

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I’m cautiously optimistic that we’ll be able to defeat the latest worldwide experiment with fascism without a world war. #FamousLastWords

  29. 29.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @satby: They are stupid if they think the economy can survive an unchecked plague. Or as @debbie: said,

    Someone needs to ask him how dead people spend their money.

    I think they are just trying to keep the grift alive long enough to get thru this election, which is a fool’s bet considering the Covid numbers now coming out of the South.

  30. 30.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    I’m more worried about Barr trumping up a political prosecution than I am Team Trump’s political prowess. Barr has shown us who and what he is. This is a real risk.

  31. 31.

    Baud

    @Betty Cracker:

    activate the Trump campaign Death Star soon to inform Americans that Biden supported the crime bill, NAFTA, the Iraq War, blah blah blah.

    Jokes on him. Those voters are already unenthusiastic about Biden.

  35. 35.

    Jeffro

    @Betty Cracker: I saw that last night, and was like, “Yes!  Everyone’s just been waiting for your take on things, Brad Parscale!  This will SURELY turn the campaign around!!” ? ?

    Ah well.  Guy’s got to make a living somehow, I guess.

    Speaking of WaPo op-Eds I see Karen Tumulty is very hot to find out Joe Biden’s stance on flag-burning.  Yes, really.  I know this is just preaching to the BJ choir but whew are we going to have to work hard these next four months/years/lifetimes to straighten out our national snooze media and the punditariat. ?

  36. 36.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: Wait, what? Office Hough pulled his gun on an unarmed man during a traffic stop because of the alleged “villainization” of police by the media and Facebook? It sounds like Chief Schlosser was almost getting it before that last paragraph, but that’s just nonsensical…or else I’ve misunderstood what he was saying.

  37. 37.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Kay: Our police are broken and have been for decades. Blaming this on “the villainization of police” is just more it’s not our fault horseshit

  38. 38.

    Emma from FL

    @OzarkHillbilly: Not stupid. Evil.

    It’s odd. I’ve always thought “Evil” in the traditional sense was something invented by humans to explain away the instinctual terror of encountering someone so morally alien.  But these last few years have forced me to revise my opinion.

    There is true, objective evil in the world. And these people are it.

  39. 39.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: I don’t doubt it, but I wonder who will be the lucky recipient of the bogus prosecution. Will they try to gin up something on Biden himself or target the son or grifty brothers?

  40. 40.

    SFAW

    @Kay:

    Schlosser elaborated: “(Hough) admitted he was manipulated by the mainstream news, the constant barrage of villainizing police by the mainstream media,” Schlosser said. “The villainization of police through Facebook, YouTube got to him, has been getting to him, over the course of the last six to eight months.”

    That’s one of the longer ways of saying “driving while black” that I’ve seen. I guess he had to get just the right amount of snowflakeness in.

  42. 42.

    zhena gogolia

    @debbie:

    He’d have to wait 10 minutes on a walker in a medical facility. I’d rather be there to get him right away. He’d do it for me!

    It’s not so bad with all the windows open. I bring crossword puzzles and they engross me. I can’t do any work.

  43. 43.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    I was thinking the play would be not to go after Biden directly but to launch investigations into Democratic electeds in several states. It occurred to me when I saw that the Trump DOJ were pursuing ridiculously overblown charges on protestors in order to gin up federal jurisdiction. That’s happening all over.

  44. 44.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Emma from FL:There is true, objective evil in the world. And these people are it.

    Yes, some of them truly are evil. They also happen to be complete idiots.

  45. 45.

    Baud

    @Jeffro:

    Karen Tumulty is very hot to find out Joe Biden’s stance on flag-burning

    Didn’t Biden vote to give the Panama Canal back to Panama? That’s sure to be a wedge issue in 2020.

  46. 46.

    Betty Cracker

    @OzarkHillbilly: Fixing the thoroughly broken policing system in this country will be the work of generations, but if we could do just one thing right now, perhaps drastically reducing police-citizen encounters across the board would be the most effective measure. No more stops for minor issues like failure to signal, broken tail lights or not coming to a complete stop at a sign before proceeding. Instead, the cop forwards a photo of the license plate and indicates the infraction time/date, etc., for an automated ticket issuance, which the citizen could contest. How many of these nothingburgers escalate every day? It’s not worth it.

  47. 47.

    schrodingers_cat

    @JoyceH: There is thread below discussing armed insurrection and violence so you comment is not hyperbolic at all, just cautious.

  48. 48.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    I wouldn’t put anything past him.  Hillary still walks free so maybe they’ll try that.  Whatever they do, I think people will see through it.

  51. 51.

    SFAW

    @Baud:

    But Barr has lost so much credibility that I think it’ll backfire in a big way.

    And I think I’ll wake up tomorrow with a BMI of 26.

    His credibility (or lack thereof) is pretty much immaterial. He’s not going to get impeached, and the MSM will still cover his made-up “Democrat scandals” as if they were legitimate. The entire point would be to drive up Biden’s negatives, a tactic which turned one of the most-admired women in America into Evul Hitlary (in the eyes of too many people).

    His expected shenanigans may not get the result he hopes for, but I don’t think it/they would backfire. Of course, I would be ecstatic to be proved worng.

  52. 52.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    No, you understood it. The police officer’s mental illness was triggered by the “manipulation of the mainstream media”. Also- not racism but “unjust use of force”. That’s a new term to me. Good that they’ve come up with a special term to avoid reaching the racism issue.

    “I’ve got five kids, I’m not dying today”. Breaks my heart.

    I think these stories are important because they’re persuasive. Everyone understands getting pulled over on a traffic stop. I think Senator Scott has done a good job explaining the DAILY, routine harassment – WHY they “can’t breathe”. It’s every fucking day.

  53. 53.

    Baud

    @SFAW:

    The way we didn’t stand up for Hillary enough is a travesty, but Biden isn’t Hillary, and everything suggests our culture is in a different place today than it was four years ago.  We can’t control what Barr will do, but we can influence how we react to it.

  56. 56.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Baud: Thank You. Our enemies are powerful but there is no need to assume that they are 10 feet tall and always brilliant.

  57. 57.

    Baud

    Trump ad against Biden during the Today show this morning.  Burn that money, Donald.

  58. 58.

    SFAW

    @Baud:

    You’re more optimistic than I am re: “our culture.” As I said: Barr may not get the results he wants, but “backfire incredibly” is still not where this country/MSM is. And Barr’s ability to fuck with the “rule of law” (used here as a placeholder for “not doing political fuckery under the guise of ‘legitimate’ DOJ work/efforts”) is somewhat unconstrained.

  59. 59.

    JPL

    I just finished reading the story about the platoon under sociopath Clint Lorance that the asshole pardoned.   The obvious victims are the dead Afghans that were murdered, but members of the platoon are victims also.  link

  60. 60.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Betty Cracker: Agreed. At the very least that would reduce the “suicide by cop” toll.

    Yesterday I read A SWAT Team Blew Up This Family’s House While Chasing a Shoplifter. The Supreme Court Won’t Hear the Case.

    Five years ago, police officers in Greenwood Village, Colorado, destroyed a private residence while pursuing a suspected shoplifter who had broken in and barricaded himself inside. Last year a federal court denied the homeowners any compensation for those damages, even though they had no connection to the theft and did not willingly allow the fugitive into their house. This morning the Supreme Court announced that it will not hear the case.

    Over the course of June 3 and 4, 2015, a SWAT team deployed a series of flash bang grenades, tear gas, 40 mm rounds, two Bearcat armored vehicles, and breaching rams against the home of Leo, Alfonsina, and John Lech. The Lechs had to demolish the house, which was worth $580,000. The city gave them $5,000.

    For a shoplifter.

  61. 61.

    JPL

    @Baud: I’m still getting the Biden ad about the crime bill, and it’s amazing to me that they are running it non-stop.    Where the heck is Bloomberg..

  62. 62.

    SFAW

    @schrodingers_cat:

    They don’t need to be “brilliant.” They just need to drive up Biden’s negatives.

    But I guess you’re right, there’s no way the FTFTFNYT would fall for that.

  63. 63.

    Emma from FL

    @OzarkHillbilly: Maybe that’s the “Other Side” giving us an edge?

    Yeah, ok, a little facetious there. But I think, in a way, we’ve been lucky to have seen it working without a veil of rationality.

  64. 64.

    Baud

    @JPL:

    They’re obviously out of ideas and throwing everything that’s worked for them in the past against the wall in the hopes that something will stick.

  65. 65.

    schrodingers_cat

    @SFAW: Vichy Times will run with it and MSM will amplify it and so will the Rose Twitter. They have tried it twice before Ukraine and Tara Reade and it didn’t work.

  67. 67.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    I just want us to be able to hold up when the shit starts to land, because they will try it. They almost succeeded with Hunter Biden. The NYTimes already had a reporter promoting it. The day the plan unraveled the reporter was still defending the allegations and plugging them as legitimate, on television.

    They aren’t going to give up. People who hatched an elaborate months-long scheme involving tens people to get another country to “announce an investigation” into Joe Biden are not giving up power easily. They have ALREADY done this. They were impeached for it. We don’t have to ask “will the Trump Administration invent allegations and use the mechanism of government to promote a political prosecution?”  They have ALREADY done that. That’s why they were impeached.

  68. 68.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Betty Cracker:

    Parscale needs to focus on hoovering up that sweet RNC cash. Soon he’ll be unemployed strapped to a rocket and, one hopes, unemployable. launched into the Sun.

    Fixed.

  69. 69.

    Sab

    @Kay: My step-sons are white and one of them was insanely wild in his twenties. Thee cops used to call his dad to come retrieve him when he was in fights. He was violent and foul-mothed, but we never felt he was at risk from the cops.

    My son-in-law is black and has had police pull guns on him at least five times that I know of, several times in front of his children. He wasn’t doing anything, just out in the world running errands.

    Two different police departments, but only 35 miles apart on the same state.

    I always knew there was a problem, but until son-in-law came into the family I had no idea how extreme the difference in treatment is.

  70. 70.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Kay: They will try and we should be ready but there is no need to assume that they will be successful.

  71. 71.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    I just want us to be able to hold up when the shit starts to land, because they will try it.

    Agree.  Constant vigilance is required.  Just keep reminding yourself that the Global War on Hillary would have failed but for Comey’s last minute assist.  Nothing is certain, but we are in about as good a position right now as we could have hoped for.

  72. 72.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Baud:

    The way we didn’t stand up for Hillary enough is a travesty, but Biden isn’t Hillary 

    Ummmm…..really?

    Also, remember Biden is a bepenised candidate.

  73. 73.

    gene108

    @Betty Cracker:

    There’s a Trump campaign ad* in the Philly area about Joe voting for MFN status for China in 2000, a drop in manufacturing jobs by 2007, and more lost jobs in 2010.

    Has pictures of derelict buildings, empty factories, etc.

    I look at the dates and I wonder, if people are going to now blame Biden for Bush, Jr’s failure on the economy.

    I just cannot picture that happening.

    * When I first saw it, I thought it was from a PAC, because of how negative it was and how loose it was with facts, but it ended with Trump’s voice saying he approved this message.

  75. 75.

    Brachiator

    @Jeffro:

    Speaking of WaPo op-Eds I see Karen Tumulty is very hot to find out Joe Biden’s stance on flag-burning.  Yes, really.  I know this is just preaching to the BJ choir but whew are we going to have to work hard these next four months/years/lifetimes to straighten out our national snooze media and the punditariat

    The op-ed piece is supremely stupid, but apart from a sternly worded letter to the editor, there’s not much you can do about it.

  77. 77.

    SFAW

    @schrodingers_cat:

    There’s a difference between some randos genning up a bullshit story (Reade) and Barr launching myriad bogus investigations. [Ukraine I class differently, because the Traitor-in-Chief got impeached over it, so it was a much heavier lift to make it about Biden.]

    Look, I want to believe that the electorate has wised up about the ratfucking. But given that the Murderer-in-Chief’s approval is still above 27 percent. after all that he’s done ….

  78. 78.

    Amir Khalid

    @Jeffro:

    What will Tumulty say if Biden just cites the Supreme Court ruling that flag-burning is Constitutionally protected free speech?

  79. 79.

    cmorenc

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Yes, some of them truly are evil. They also happen to be complete idiots.

    Often true, but as a general principle the above statement can be refuted by a single word: Putin.  Or at a more ordinary level, Ted Bundy.

  80. 80.

    Jinchi

    @RSA: this 48% figure exceeds is almost identical to the attrition rate of Democrats at this point in Obama’s first term

    That was my reaction, too. 48% seems like a huge turnover rate and the way the story is written subtley implies these were Democratic pickups. I’m pretty sure most of the turnover was to crazier Republicans.

  81. 81.

    Baud

    @SFAW:

    It’s only the swing voters and the purity voters that we need to wise up.  The Trump base is unreachable, regardless of Barr’s shenanigans.

  82. 82.

    SFAW

    @Kay:

    They have ALREADY done that. That’s why they were impeached.

    But, fortunately, the Traitor-in-Chief has “learned his lesson.” Or so I’ve been told.

  83. 83.

    Jeffro

    @Baud:

     

    @gene108:

    Didn’t Biden fail to heed the warnings just before Pearl Harbor?

    Wasn’t it Uncle Joe who handed out all that free reefer to the kids back in the sixties?

    Isn’t it true that Joe Biden was Bill Clinton’s hit man for over a decade?

    Who knows what the blessed “Death Star” will come up with, but two things are certain:

    1. The media will run with trumpov & Co’s BS all day long if we let them.
    2. The essential truth is, in a re-election campaign/referendum on the incumbent, one with a record of 110% failure and who refuses to change in any way (other than to double and triple down on his racism)…this is all they got.
  84. 84.

    narya

    Kitchen update! I not only have walls, now the drywall has been taped and the holes for conduit have been patched. The carpenter returns today, and Floor Guy is apparently coming on Monday. Dining room has boxes and boxes of cabinets, and I think the sink and faucet and disposal are in the pile as well. That means I need to reschedule appliance delivery, but that’s no big deal. I think I’ll have them replace the screen door as well; they somehow knocked the current one cattywampus, such that it doesn’t close, but it’s an old POS that I was contemplating replacing anyway. VERY glad I had the window done two years ago.

  85. 85.

    Baud

    @mrmoshpotato:

    Biden is a bepenised candidate.

    I read that as bipenised and was trying to decide whether having two penises would help or hurt Biden.

  86. 86.

    SFAW

    @Baud:

    It’s only the swing voters and the purity voters that we need to wise up.

    They’re the ones that the “investigations” will be aimed at (vis-a-vis getting their votes, not investigating them, of course). And I don’t think “backfire incredibly” is an operational phrase relative to them, because they’ve shown themselves to be relatively immune to critical thinking.

  89. 89.

    SFAW

    @JPL:

    You know trump would claim he has three, if that were the case.

    Well, he told Towering Bed of Kelp Marco Rubio that he has “no problem” in that department, so three might be lowballing it.

  90. 90.

    Kay

    @SFAW:

    I do think the Trump Administration has harmed their credibility with the daily lying. One of the reasons Biden is up in the polls is he has 20 points on the Trump Administration for “honesty”. Big majorities agree that Trump is a liar when they’re polled on it. Part of the reason they’re having trouble getting anything to stick on Biden is because they are not credible– not as people and not as an administration.

    It isn’t 2016. They have a four year track record for lying. Constantly. All of them.

  91. 91.

    SFAW

    @Jeffro:

    I used to talk about Hillary being involved in Judge Crater’s disappearance, so I fully endorse your speculation. Or something.

  92. 92.

    Jinchi

    @Kay: I’m more worried about Barr trumping up a political prosecution

    That was pretty clearly the plan during the Ukrainian shakedown. Luckily we had a few whistleblowers who shut it down. But I think Barr has lost that opportunity, unless Trump somehow keeps the presidency.

  93. 93.

    Brachiator

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    RE:

    “Closing down Texas again will always be the last option,” the governor said last week, emphasizing his commitment to protecting the state’s economy.

    Proof again that you can’t fix stupid.

    Problem is, you can’t maintain a lockdown indefinitely. States need to come up with a better way of managing re-opening. And of course, we need competent federal support.

    Even, here in California, Governor Newsom’s recent decision to close the beaches and to restrict restaurants to takeout service might be somewhat misguided. Both here and around the world, figuring out the best way to deal with local outbreaks is tricky, even with the best intentions.

  94. 94.

    Amir Khalid

    My YouTube recommendations page recommended a video on John Schneider’s channel, in which he reminisced about the General Lee and then solicited viewer opinions on whether The Dukes of Hazzard reruns should be taken off the air because of that flag.

    Thusly did I answer:

    Some years ago, the car collector who owns the General Lee painted over the Confederate flag with the US national flag. The former is a symbol of something that more and more Americans have come to recognise as toxic — the whitewashing of a rebellion in defence of the enslavement of black people. A rebellion that was indisputably racist. In the present political climate over there, it’s getting harder to overlook that whoever displays that flag today is, at least tacitly, commemorating and supporting racism.

    Was the Dukes of Hazzard a racist show? I don’t know; I don’t recall seeing even one black character in any of the episodes that aired here in Malaysia. (You were there, Mr Schneider, maybe you can set me straight on that.) I do know that on D of H you see A LOT of that Confederate flag, not just on the roof of the General Lee. The sight of it is making more and more people uncomfortable. That’s reason enough for any broadcaster to stop showing reruns. I’m aware that this does affect your income from the residual payments, and you have my sympathies on that point.

    Yes, I comment on YouTube. Sue me.

  98. 98.

    Benw

    I like to take it two days at a time cause then I get through twice as many days in the same amount of time

  101. 101.

    SFAW

    @Kay:

    I really want to believe that the electorate — or at least, the key portion(s) of it that (may) matter in November — have wised up. Any rational person would have, long ago. But the “swing voters” in the key states have too-often shown themselves to be susceptible.

    I don’t think the Traitor will win. but Barr (or whoever) driving up Biden’s negatives via ratfuckery is a legitimate concern. [If the House were in Rethug hands, it would have started in earnest a year ago.]

    I’ll keep donating where I can (e.g., VoteRiders), and I’m certainly not in the WASF category (re: the election), but I worry about the low-info voters being swayed by Barr et al.

  104. 104.

    Brachiator

    From the Guardian

    US employers took back another 4.8 million workers last month as the coronavirus pandemic’s economic impact appeared to wane, marking the second consecutive month of jobs growth. But the latest figures are from before new surges in infections that threaten the fragile recovery.

    A bit more detail.

    The US Department of Labor announced on Thursday that the unemployment rate dropped to 11.1% in June from an initial estimate of 13.3% in May. The figure is still more than three times higher than the 3.5% unemployment rate in February before the US outbreak.

    This is actually good news. We cannot simply use the pre-pandemic economy as the point of comparison. Recovery is slow, but real. And there are still huge segments of the economy that are shut down.

    BTW, these numbers will still drive Trump crazy, but that’s a good thing.

  105. 105.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Brachiator:Problem is, you can’t maintain a lockdown indefinitely.

    Who said that was his only option? There are many middling steps he could have taken, such as allowing Houston to mandate masks, but Noooooooooo… FREEDUMB!!! And now that shit is totally out of control in Houston, he seems to think allowing them to manage the situation as they see fit is the same as a dictatorship. So the bars will remain open.

  106. 106.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: I’ve got to believe the existing record has grievously wounded the Trump campaign too. They’ve squandered credibility by lying constantly as you noted, so it will be hard to make bogus (or even true) claims stick. Also, the country is in the shitter under Trump’s watch. Because people are stupid, Trump still polls higher than Biden on the economy (the only thing he polls higher than Biden on), but let’s see where we are after four more months of pandemic mismanagement and high unemployment.

  107. 107.

    Kay

    @Jinchi:

    “Luckily” is right. We shouldn’t count on anyone around the President acting in a way that might go against their self interest, financial interests or career interests. One of the things Trump has shown us is that whistleblowers are RARE. “Ethical” is the exception and not the rule.

    None of these people did anything:

    so often outplayed in his conversations with powerful leaders like Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Erdogan, and so abusive to leaders of America’s principal allies, that the calls helped convince some senior US officials — including his former secretaries of state and defense, two national security advisers and his longest-serving chief of staff — that the President himself posed a danger to the national security of the United States, according to White House and intelligence officials intimately familiar with the contents of the conversations.

  108. 108.

    Amir Khalid

    @rikyrah:

    I propose a new expression: to butter someone’s emails: meaning to conjure a scandal from some trivial matter with the intention of discrediting a politician.

  109. 109.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @WereBear: The over-55 community I live in still mandates masks, even though Illinois has moved to stage 4. But people see what they want to see. I had my hair cut a couple of weeks ago. (One customer at a time; masks and a plastic shield on the stylist) The stylist told me that people show up without masks claiming they’re optional. The salon gives them one and puts it on their bill.

    They tell us each week if there’s any COVID on campus. On May 1, an 80-something woman from the memory unit was hospitalized with it and later died. Since then, no resident has had it. But 11 staff members have. There was a new case just last week. Half of them were asymptomatic. None of them was hospitalized. What that tells me is that it’s still easy to get if you just go out in the world and live a normal life.

  110. 110.

    Gin & Tonic

    On this day in 1963, the Milwaukee Braves played the San Francisco Giants, Warren Spahn (then aged 42) pitching for the Braves, Juan Marichal pitching for the Giants. Game went to 16 innings. Spahn faced 56 batters over 15 1/3 and threw 201 pitches. Marichal pitched the whole game. 227 pitches.

    They were made of sterner stuff.

  112. 112.

    The Thin Black Duke

    @SFAW: Bottom line, it’s COVID-19 that’s going to kick Trump’s carcass out of the White House. But it’s a damned tragedy that it’s going to take over a quarter of a million people dying to do it.

  113. 113.

    Kay

    @Brachiator:

    Problem is, you can’t maintain a lockdown indefinitely.

    Agreed. I know I harangue on this but the lockdowns harm children. They are going to pay a huge price for this. If that’s the risk/reward we’re going with, fine, but denying the cost is not the way to approach it either. At the very least we owe them honesty. They are going to pay. The only question is how much and how long. We’re triaging and they came out on the short end.

  114. 114.

    Brachiator

    @Amir Khalid:

    I want to ask Abbott: is it worse to force poverty on people, or to force the risk of a potentially fatal illness on them?

    Neither option is acceptable. Neither option is necessary.

    And unfortunately, here in the US, we have to deal with the fact that Trump and his right wing idiot allies have made the problem worse by encouraging defiance of health authority directives.

    But even states like my California which had a more comprehensive lockdown is seeing a new surge in cases as we try to re-open. It is going to be tough to get a handle on things, but I don’t think that another full lockdown is an option. People are finding it hard to adapt to the isolation, and many absolutely need to return to work.

  117. 117.

    Amir Khalid

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    But 11 staff members have. There was a new case just last week. Half of them were asymptomatic. None of them was hospitalized.

    This astounds me. I’ve mentioned before that in Malaysia, everyone who tests positive, symptomatic or not, is taken straight to hospital for isolation.

  118. 118.

    JPL

    How soon before Joe is the Manchurian Candidate and a Russian agent?    Projecting his own failures to someone else is what trump does.

  119. 119.

    Another Scott

    @RSA: I noticed that too.

    The story is that the GOP had the majority in 2016, the Democrats took the majority in 2018 (in a huge swing in an off-year election), and now in 2020 the GOP is running farther away.  One would expect, in a normal political year, for the Democrats to lose House seats (reversion to the mean).  The GOP running away in the House is another indication of how big the wave may be in November.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  120. 120.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Gin & Tonic: Just ask Bob Gibson how today’s pitcher’s measure up to the old guys.

    ( tbh, I think it’s a bit of an apple’s and oranges comparison, not without validity but there are differences)

  121. 121.

    Brachiator

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Who said that was his only option? There are many middling steps he could have taken, such as allowing Houston to mandate masks, but Noooooooooo… FREEDUMB!!!

    We are on the same page. I have family in Texas, and I want them to be safe. The Texas governor is an idiot.  They need to find a better way, including wearing masks. And they need to shut down the morons.

  122. 122.

    mad citizen

    @Gin & Tonic: Thanks for this diversion into baseball history.  It was my #1 topic of interest growing up in the 1960s, although I was 2 and 1/2 when this game happened.  I suppose leaving the starters in was a combination of letting the starter finish what he started; perhaps nobody in the bullpen was better (back then wasn’t the bullpen essentially all the inferior pitchers?); and recognition of how great these two pitchers were.

    I’m also betting the game didn’t last 4 or 5 hours either.

  123. 123.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Sab: Two different police departments, but only 35 miles apart on the same state.

    “Only,” you say? 35 miles as the crow flies SW of my home in majority-AA, solidly-Democratic Baltimore City gets you to the DC district line. 35 miles as the crow flies ENE & you land in Cecil County, MD:

    Cecil County has a long, difficult history with the Ku Klux Klan, including rallies in the 1960s as well as more modern attempts to breathe new life into the white supremacist group by outsiders in the past 25 years

    Not a trivial distance, culturally speaking.

  124. 124.

    Cameron

    I have to go to west Bradenton today, and I’m not looking forward to it.  I don’t understand why fewer and fewer people on the bus are wearing masks; COVID-19 numbers here in FL keep going up, and that’s no secret.  It’s very widely reported.  How do people think this disease is spread, anyway?  Coronavirus elves?

  125. 125.

    Spanky

    @OzarkHillbilly: As a Pittsburgher who was 13 that summer, I still remember this:

     On July 15, 1967 Bob Gibson suffered a broken fibula on a line drive off the bat of Roberto Clemente. He pitched to three more batters, issuing two walks and coaxing a flyball before the leg gave out and he was replaced. Gibson returned on September 7 after just under eight weeks. The Cardinals went on to win the pennant soon after and faced Boston in the World Series.

  127. 127.

    gene108

    @Brachiator:

    Both here and around the world, figuring out the best way to deal with local outbreaks is tricky, even with the best intentions.

    Test, trace, and quarantine for people in contact with an infected person.

    We’ve put very, very little effort into setting up this capacity.

    The USA has basically given up trying to constrain the spread of novel coronavirus.

  129. 129.

    Ohio Mom

    The little I know of Texas is that it has a skimpy social safety net. Funny that Governor Abbott doesn’t much care about that being a cause of people being ”forced into poverty.”

    On the Ohio Family homefront, Ohio Dad cut short his business trip to the north Las Vegas warehouse he was helping to automat after the ER told him he was doubled over in pain because of two kidney stones. He’s home now, masked except when guzzling water, isolated and on pain killers, and strategizing about his professional future. I think I’m ready for him to retire early, even if it brings a permanent financial hit.

    narya: I’m living vicariously through your kitchen remodel, same as I did with Cole’s whole house rehaul. It’s a metaphor for intentionally reshaping one’s life and starting anew.

  130. 130.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @Amir Khalid:

    These folks all “recovered at home,” probably exposing the rest of their family in the process.

    This place does test and trace, maintains social distancing, and requires masks, and that all seems to work on campus. I have almost no contact with staff right now. Most of the staff cases seem to be in the kitchen crew, which works side by side for hours.

  131. 131.

    JPL

    @Another Scott:  In some area the  republicans are running candidates that are to the right of david duke..   Mull on that.   There’s no doubt in my mind that Marilyn Green will win in GA.   She was suppose to run in the 6th district, and I believe still lives here, although has said she’d move.   The republican party didn’t want to endanger Karen Handel’s chance in the primary, so encouraged her to run in a district that would be an easier win for her.

  133. 133.

    Brachiator

    @Kay:
    RE: Problem is, you can’t maintain a lockdown indefinitely.

    Agreed. I know I harangue on this but the lockdowns harm children.

    I think that kids might be a little more resilient, but your concerns are absolutely right.
    We will need to focus a lot of social recovery efforts on children as we get through this thing.

  134. 134.

    Jeffro

    @rikyrah: they can try, but this cake is just about baked.

    (see link in my post just above)

    This is what happens when a) you ONLY think of your ‘base’, and b) lie constantly.

    I think it was Josh Marshall who was pointing out yesterday that not only would trumpov have to win all ‘undecideds’ or ‘uncommitted independents’ (bless their hearts!) at this point, but with Biden starting to go over 50%, trumpov will also have to – somehow! – sway people who are already planning to vote for Biden.

    GOOD LUCK WITH THAT, MR ‘DEATH STAR’!

  136. 136.

    jonas

    @Brachiator: Lol — the TX Lt. Gov — the guy who actually pulls the levers in Austin as opposed to the Gov. — was saying that Dr. Fauci was full of shit because NY locked down and they had way more deaths than TX does now. Of course, he was also saying a few months ago that if we had to let our grandparents die to get a haircut, he was good with that, so not surprising. But the gobsmacking lack of logic is, shall we say, striking.

  137. 137.

    Brachiator

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    This place does test and trace, maintains social distancing, and requires masks, and that all seems to work on campus. I have almost no contact with staff right now. Most of the staff cases seem to be in the kitchen crew, which works side by side for hours.

    Very interesting. This seems to be a thorny problem which has lead to outbreaks. Social spaces where workers are close together for extended periods.

  138. 138.

    Jinchi

    @Brachiator: Neither option is acceptable. Neither option is necessary.

    And it’s a completely false choice. Republicans were peddling the economy vs safety line in March and the result has been catastrophic for both.

    As long as the pandemic is surging the economy will suffer. Trump, Abbott and his fellow governors aren’t the ones who shut down the economy: people stopped going to bars, gyms, movie theaters and restaurants, because they learned that a plague was spreading. This is true even in places that never officially shut down at all. Business won’t return to normal as long as major cities are being overwhelmed by outbreaks.

    With the rightwing actively hiding the extent of the pandemic, while discouraging the wearing of masks, or taking basic measures like testing and tracing, recovery is going to take a very long time.

  139. 139.

    PST

    @gene108: Most favored nation status for China passed 83 to 15, with overwhelming senate support from both parties. Several Republicans who are still around, like Moscow Mitch, voted yea as well. Trying to pin it to Biden makes no rational sense, but of course that doesn’t matter. I wonder if Trump will run that ad in Ohio, where then-Senator Mike DeWine voted for it. My guess is he will.

  140. 140.

    Steeplejack

    @zhena gogolia:

    Reading on the cell phone (or tablet) is a godsend in those situations. If you can find a shady spot, 77° is not too bad. Or drive someplace else and come back. Good luck to your husband!

  141. 141.

    Another Scott

    @Jinchi: +1

    Bill McBride at CalculatedRiskBlog.com has been saying that for months as well – There will be no recovery until we get COVID-19 under control.  It’s not either/or – it’s both.

    It’s criminal that people in authority refuse to recognize that.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  142. 142.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Spanky: Damn, I had forgotten about that one.

    He pitched in 3 World Series, 3 complete games in each them, while posting an ERA of 3.00 in ’64, 1.00 in ’67, and 1.68 in ’68.

    From his Wiki page:

    The overall pitching statistics in MLB’s 1968 season, led by Gibson’s individual record-setting performance, are often cited as one of the reasons for Major League Baseball’s decision to alter pitching-related rules.[61] Sometimes known as the “Gibson rules”, MLB lowered the pitcher’s mound by five inches in 1969 from 15 inches to 10 and reduced the height of the strike zone from the batter’s armpits to the jersey letters.[57]

    I remember some famous hitter saying that the most terrifying thing in the world was facing Gibson on the mound, and for good reason:

    “Between games, Mays came over to me and said, ‘Now, in the second game, you’re going up against Bob Gibson.’ I only half-listened to what he was saying, figuring it didn’t make much difference. So I walked up to the plate the first time and started digging a little hole with my back foot…No sooner did I start digging that hole than I hear Willie screaming from the dugout: ‘Noooooo!’ Well, the first pitch came inside. No harm done, though. So I dug in again. The next thing I knew, there was a loud crack and my left shoulder was broken. I should have listened to Willie.”

    —Jim Ray Hart[22]

    “(Hank Aaron told me) ‘Don’t dig in against Bob Gibson, he’ll knock you down. He’d knock down his own grandmother if she dared to challenge him. Don’t stare at him, don’t smile at him, don’t talk to him. He doesn’t like it. If you happen to hit a home run, don’t run too slow, don’t run too fast. If you happen to want to celebrate, get in the tunnel first. And if he hits you, don’t charge the mound, because he’s a Gold Glove boxer.’ I’m like, ‘Damn, what about my 17-game hitting streak?’ That was the night it ended.”

    —Dusty Baker[82]

  143. 143.

    Brachiator

    @jonas:

    Of course, he was also saying a few months ago that if we had to let our grandparents die to get a haircut, he was good with that, so not surprising. But the gobsmacking lack of logic is, shall we say, striking.

    There are also quite a few Texas grandparents who are healthy and active enough to kick this guy’s ass.

  144. 144.

    narya

    @Ohio Mom:  I admit to great anxiety around the whole thing: dispensing a big pile of money (even though I’ve saved up a lot for it, and my parents were generous at the holidays last year), having strangers in my house (even though a door separates us and we all wear masks in each other’s presence), changes at work (my boss is leaving, and I’m going to be reporting to someone who cannot support 85% of my work), and worry that it won’t look or function the way I hope it will. But nearly all of the appliances were dead or dying, I’ve hated the floor (cork tile, now GONE) since I moved in, the cabinets were fugly and not functional in important ways . . . it just made sense to do the whole thing. Anxiety does not always respond to “made sense,” of course, though it turns out that having two big “this could add to the bill” things turn out WELL is very nice. On HGTV that never happens.

  147. 147.

    Ohio Mom

    The subset of school-aged children especially effected by their schools closing are the 10+ percent on IEPs. I’m selfishly glad Ohio Son is past his public school days, that he got his full benefit of his special education.

    A second group is the young people who just graduated college this spring and other people in their twenties who were still finding their way, experimenting and searching for their adult niche.

    I know a handful of them and they are completely at sea. I think they will be marked by this experience for life, just as the so-called Depression Babies were by the defining event of their young lives.

    Their slightly older siblings who were already settled in their jobs and relationships/living situations are facing their own challenges but it is easier to imagine them eking through.

  148. 148.

    Jinchi

    @Another Scott: One would expect, in a normal political year, for the Democrats to lose House seats (reversion to the mean).

    That would only be true if the incumbent president was expected to win re-election.

  149. 149.

    Brachiator

    @gene108:

    The USA has basically given up trying to constrain the spread of novel coronavirus

    This is true of Trump and the federal government, but not the states.

    In my fantasies, Trump cedes authority to Biden right after the November election, so that an intelligent response to the pandemic can be organized.

  151. 151.

    Jeffro

    @Brachiator: If the GOP psychos could join the rest of us trying to fix/flatten this thing, we could be back to nearly normal across the country by Labor Day.  All of these crazy K-12 school scenarios would just be bad dreams.

  152. 152.

    Another Scott

    The overall unemployment rate fell, and yet the unemployment rate for Black men is now at its highest point in this recession, rising last month to 16.3% in June. pic.twitter.com/klW7q36rY2

    — Elise Gould (@eliselgould) July 2, 2020

    On a monthly basis, this was actually the worst month yet for new permanent job losses. Nearly 600K pic.twitter.com/tg46MLvX7D

    — Joe Weisenthal (@TheStalwart) July 2, 2020

    Don’t let them gaslight you.

    Eyes on the prizes.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  153. 153.

    Kay

    @Ohio Mom:

    One of our employees has a special needs 6th grader. He cannot home school himself. We can pretend he is, but he is fact, not. What he is an unattended special needs 12 year old who has effectively ended his education. That’s the price. He’s paying it.

  155. 155.

    Kay

    At the same time, many adults — at least the lucky ones that have held onto their jobs — are supposed to be back at work as the economy reopens. What is confusing to me is that these two plans are moving forward apace without any consideration of the working parents who will be ground up in the gears when they collide.
    Let me say the quiet part loud: In the Covid-19 economy, you’re allowed only a kid or a job.
    Why isn’t anyone talking about this? Why are we not hearing a primal scream so deafening that no plodding policy can be implemented without addressing the people buried by it?

    Huge political opening here for Democrats. They don’t even have to “fix it”. They could be the only political actors talking about it.

  156. 156.

    Brachiator

    @gene108:

    The USA has basically given up trying to constrain the spread of novel coronavirus

    BTW, this is a typical stupid Trump move.

    The US has bought up virtually all the stocks for the next three months of one of the two drugs proven to work against Covid-19, leaving none for the UK, Europe or most of the rest of the world.

    Trump is stupid and selfish. And he has a fetish for looking for a magical pill which will immediately solve a problem. But his selfishness puts the entire world at risk.

    The drug, which was trialled in the Ebola epidemic but failed to work as expected, is under patent to Gilead, which means no other company in wealthy countries can make it. The cost is around $3,200 per treatment of six doses, according to the US government statement.

    A smarter president might work to make this drug more widely available, if it would do some good. Instead Trump wants to show that he only cares about America, fuck the rest of the world.

    Trump is short-sighted as well as stupid.

  157. 157.

    danielx

    @Kay:

    A lot of that kind of thing going around. Daughter unit is a 27 year old special needs child who had to give up her job at Goodwill, about which she is not happy at all. But she is at heightened risk due to health issues, and spousal unit and I as well. We are her primary care providers so we cannot be exposed. I’m proud of her for how she is dealing with things, but she is furious at Rona and even more pissed about the unmasked.

  158. 158.

    Dupe1970

    @Betty Cracker: This is very much true. But as we all know the traffic stop is a pretext to find further violations and potentially take someone in. Cops really love to run warrant checks for unpaid fines and tickets.

  159. 159.

    Jinchi

    @Jeffro: If the GOP psychos could join the rest of us trying to fix/flatten this thing…

    I think the problem is that when we talk about “flattening” the curve, Republicans thought that meant the number of cases per day instead of the cumulative number of cases, and they were high-fiving each other when the numbers stabilized below 25,000 between May and mid June.

  162. 162.

    Leto

    @Kay: the whole thrust of that article is: I want to go back to work. I need my free daycare to open so I can go back to work. She spends maybe 2-3 throwaway paragraphs talking about education, but the majority of that article is: I need my free daycare open so I can go back to work. She doesn’t give a shit about the teachers/staff, doesn’t address the fact that the majority of new cases in states are young people spreading this shit… nope, gimmie my free daycare!

    Covid is exposing the same thing about our education system as Trumpov exposed about our institutions: they’re shit.

  163. 163.

    Jinchi

    @Brachiator: Instead Trump wants to show that he only cares about America

    Is he actually distributing these drugs to the states or do they get locked away in Jared’s stash of ventilators and PPE?

    And seriously, I don’t see how any company can claim proprietary rights on a drug during a pandemic.

  165. 165.

    TS (the original)

    @Brachiator:

    Trump wants to show that he only cares about America, a quick fix to get him re-elected, fuck the rest of the world.

    Not noticed him caring about America any time recently.

  166. 166.

    zhena gogolia

    @Steeplejack:

    I don’t have a smart phone or tablet. I considered bringing the laptop, but I have a crossword puzzle book and that’s just as good.

    Thanks for all the good wishes! He’s doing fine. It’s just a long process.

  168. 168.

    eclare

    @OzarkHillbilly: Interesting, thanks.  I used to watch a lot of baseball, I moved to Atlanta the year the Braves went from worst to first, but changes over the years leave me meh on watching.

  170. 170.

    Eric U.

    I can’t believe people watch the news and make trades based on what Trump says.  Almost seems like a trading opportunity, since he’s always going to say something stupid.

  172. 172.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Jeffro: …with Biden starting to go over 50%, trumpov will also have to – somehow! – sway people who are already planning to vote for Biden.

    “Somehow?” C’mon, man! You don’t think they’re capable of dredging up (& coaching up) another Tara Reade (or maybe someone amenable to “suddenly remembering” that Joe molested her as a 13-year-old?) to splash all over the tame MSM just before Halloween, when it’s too late for anyone to look into the allegations & blow the story up? Or for that evil fuck Barr to suddenly file charges against Hunter, or Joe himself, on the Friday before the election, complete with lurid “details” (which will, too late, turn out to be completely bogus) gleefully poured out to the tame MSM?

    Won’t shake most of Biden’s vote? Doesn’t have to. Peel off a few % in crucial states, stand back & let voter suppression, voter intimidation at the polls, whackos messing with vote-by-mail drop boxes or postal workers, make it close enough for the Boys From Sankt-Peterburg to steal.

    Work for a landslide. Run up the score. We could really use it. We may need it. I won’t be happy till the Emperor Tang®’s support is down to the bare mental of goosestepping drones. Last I looked that was 27%,

  173. 173.

    Brachiator

    @TS (the original):

    RE: Trump wants to show that he only cares about America, a quick fix to get him re-elected, fuck the rest of the world.

    Not noticed him caring about America any time recently.

    Fair Point.

    @Jinchi:

    Is he actually distributing these drugs to the states or do they get locked away in Jared’s stash of ventilators and PPE?

    Good question. I don’t trust Trump at all here.

  176. 176.

    JR

    @RSA: The attrition rate does exceed 2010. This isn’t polling or anything else with statistical uncertainty. There’s no significance threshold here.

  177. 177.

    Brachiator

    From BBC News. How Scotland is handling re-opening. It’s not just a matter of “returning to normal.”

    The use of face coverings will become mandatory in shops in Scotland as coronavirus restrictions are eased, Nicola Sturgeon has said.
    Non-essential shops have reopened in Scotland and bars and restaurants are due to open up again later this month.

    The first minister said the 2m physical distancing rule would be eased for some premises when the country enters the next phase of its routemap on 10 July.

    And she said face coverings would be mandatory in shops from that date.

    Ms Sturgeon also announced that children under the age of 12 would no longer need to maintain physical distancing from other households while outdoors from Friday….

    The first minister said the “general advice will remain unchanged” and that “as far as possible” people should remain 2m away from other households.

    But she said in view of the “serious economic implications” of maintaining the rule in all circumstances, she would allow “exemptions for specific sectors” where a 1m (3ft 3in) distance could be used if other safety measures are introduced.

    An example of this would be a pub or restaurant being allowed to relax the physical distancing rule when they can reopen from 15 July if plastic screens are used to separate customers, or better ventilation is installed.

    Businesses will also be expected to display “clear signage to show people are entering a 1m zone”, and to collect a list of customers and their contact details to help trace them if there is an outbreak.

    A consistent complaint in the US is that the 6 ft social distance rule might be devastating to businesses. Scotland’s approach (also used in France) might be a reasonable compromise.

  178. 178.

    Jeffro

    @Another Scott: 

    Biden could get HALF of the light blue EVs and still win.

    His Orangeness is a goner, GOP, and probably your Senate majority too. So…NOW can we talk about a serious plan to flatten the Covid curve right into the fucking ground? Or is the goal to ‘keep America sick’ for four years?

  179. 179.

    Kay

    @Leto:

    the whole thrust of that article is: I want to go back to work. I need my free daycare to open so I can go back to work. She spends maybe 2-3 throwaway paragraphs talking about education, but the majority of that article is: I need my free daycare open so I can go back to work.

    Yeah, I disagree. I don’t think she’s selfish for wanting her kids to go to school. This is what scares me, actually. The idea that a free public education is now a luxury we can’t afford.
    How is she supposed to raise this issue? Pretend she doesn’t have to work? She does. The vast, vast majority of people do.
    It’s not impossible. Every other country in the developed world is addressing this. We’re just pretending it’s not happening. IMO this needs to be addressed like this “Kids need an education and 99% of parents have to work. How are we going to do that?”
    Just telling them to go away isn’t a plan.
    Would it be better if she pretends she doesn’t need a job and her concern is she’ll be a subpar homeschooler instead of an absent homeschooler? Why? That’s not true.
    We have pulled out the single public support we give to parents and children and we’re just like “suck it up!”

  180. 180.

    Jeffro

    @Uncle Cosmo: I know perfectly well of what they’re capable of/going to do, thanks.  And I’m with you on ‘working for a landslide’.

    But sometimes you have to take a little break, look at how this is all trending, and allow yourself a little smile.  That’s all.  =)

  181. 181.

    Jeffro

    @Jinchi: they’re STILL trying to keep it as close as they can…unbelievable.

    That’s it: two more SCOTUS judges added, minimum.

  182. 182.

    Bluegirlfromwyo

    @SFAW: First thing I thought was “I don’t want this snowflake being a cop. I hope he quits.”

  183. 183.

    Kay

    @Leto:

    Leto, if I go to a grocery store does that mean I don’t give a shit about the people who work there? I went to the eye doctor yesterday. Every employee in that building is taking a risk. I went because I need food and I need glasses.

    Are schools essential? Yes. They have to open. We have to do whatever we need to do to reduce risk but just sending 55 million kids off with a laptop and saying “thoughts and prayers!” isn’t going to cut it. We’ll be taking a catastrophe and turning it into a generational deficit.

  184. 184.

    Gravenstone

    @debbie: It’s an extension of the “us vs. them” mindset that has been inculcated in police departments nationwide. Any pushback is seen as an attack both on police as a group and the officer as an individual. It’s going to take a lot of time and effort to undo that.

  188. 188.

    zhena gogolia

    @Joe Falco:

    Well, I was thinking that thanks to twitter, tiktok, etc., people are getting much more used to reading subtitles, at least for short videos. I think it’s brilliant!

  190. 190.

    L85NJGT

    Trump’s job approval is converging on his dismal likeability numbers. Likeability is a key metric for incumbents, and Trump’s were shit from the day he took office.

  191. 191.

    Leto

    @Kay:

    They have to open.

    So here’s your problem to solve. Each classroom has 40 kids, each grade has 1100. You don’t have extra space to send them off to. You don’t have the funds to hire extra teachers/staff. You need to 1) social distance them 2) ensure they all wear masks 3) ensure proper hygiene is enforced and 4) if a kid gets sick, test/trace every person they’ve come into contact with.

    So far the US, as a whole (federal/state/local level), has pretty much failed all four. When you talk about the daycares in NYC staying open, you fail to mention what they did: limited # of kids per room, with only 1 adult. We also have teachers/spouses of teachers bringing up multiple issues with this, in other threads specifically to you, and you basically just gloss over it. For some reason you’re not listening to the experts on this.

    “We have to do whatever we need…” that’s great sloganeering. It does nothing to reduce the risk of right now or this fall. The example of above of 40 kids per room x 1100 kids per class is what my high school was in 1994. In the 25 years since then, there’s now a total of four high schools in the district with… 40 kids per class. And you’re not even addressing the systemic disadvantages POC have with schools and their health as related to Covid. The wealthy NYC blogger sure as hell wasn’t.

    Again, you’re not discussing the educational aspect of it, you’re dismissing teachers, and you’re wanting free childcare so people can get back to work. If this isn’t what you’re stating, reframe your arguments because this is what it’s coming off as.

  193. 193.

    SFAW

    @The Thin Black Duke:

    Bottom line, it’s COVID-19 that’s going to kick Trump’s carcass out of the White House. But it’s a damned tragedy that it’s going to take over a quarter of a million people dying to do it.

    Completely agree.

  194. 194.

    RobertB

    @Gin & Tonic: Hanging this here for the baseball subthread, about 300-inning pitchers and the Good Old Days.

    I remember this from the days before sabermetrics.  Small ball looks good, but Earl Weaver believed in one of the keys of modern baseball; that your most precious commodity was your 27 outs.  That small ball didn’t win games – that pitching and three-run homers win games.

    I also remember Trip Hawkins, founder of EA Sports and a big Strat-o-Matic baseball fan, holding forth in the mid 1980’s against what he thought were risky pitcher changes.  That too much starter->setup man->closer would hurt you because sooner or later you’re going to run into a pitcher’s bad day.  This wasn’t exotic baseball strategery back then, I think it was the conventional thought of the day.  Closers were just starting to be a thing.

    So, fast forward to now.  Earl Weaver was right, in that outs are precious.  Moneyball is a thing.  And Trip Hawkins was wrong; we’ve even seen schemes now around multiple pitchers – unless this guy is pitching a no-hitter, the starter is getting pulled early.  And conventional strategy now is get to the 7th, go all lefty/righty for one or two innings, then bring out your closer.  Strategy gets in the way of 300-inning pitchers now.

    Also, these days pitchers can get a lot more use than they used to, before they get to the majors.  Year-round travel baseball for good players is common, and arms have a limit on how many pitches are in them.  I’ve even read about preemptive Tommy John surgery for young men who’ve overused their arms by age 20.

  195. 195.

    Kay

    @Leto:

    Social distancing is impossible in schools. But social distancing is impossible in a lot of places, and has been for months. You do masks, you do temperature checks and you do track and trace within the school, which schools already do for flu outbreaks. Schools have a huge advantage there because they have a static population – the same people every single day- and records on each and every child which will make them much safer than your average Costco.  They can also do increased ventilation with HVAC systems which the big three automakers are doing, right now. That was actually discussed in the House education committee- federal funding to mechanically alter school buildings systems.

     

    You can’t just continue to tell an entire generation that they won’t be getting an education. That’s not acceptable.

  196. 196.

    scribbler

    @Leto: I don’t think that’s a fair summation of Kay’s position.  She’s been writing a great deal about this subject lately, and it’s clear that her main concern is the loss of a real education by real teachers to millions of children.  She also points out that many European countries have been sending their kids back to school with pretty good success, but we haven’t made that a priority.  You have important points of disagreement, but I don’t think it’s fair to denigrate what Kay’s been saying throughout the multi-day discussion.

  197. 197.

    Kay

    @Leto:

    Schools know EXACTLY who is in the building and there’s very little change. Few or no new people drom Day 1 to Day 200. They are IDEAL for track and trace, because they not only have the information on each kid, they have the information and the ability to reach entire families. They are almost uniquely suited to a single location track and trace at each school.

  198. 198.

    Kropacetic

    @Betty Cracker: No more stops for minor issues like failure to signal, broken tail lights or not coming to a complete stop at a sign before proceeding. Instead, the cop forwards a photo of the license plate and indicates the infraction time/date, etc., for an automated ticket issuance, which the citizen could contest. How many of these nothingburgers escalate every day? It’s not worth it.

    I don’t like the idea of automated ticket issuance, either this way or by things like cameras on stoplights.  By the time you have a chance to appeal the ticket, you may not remember what happened.  Also contesting these tickets necessitates taking a day to go to court; which often entails taking time off work, finding a babysitter, or putting off other obligations

    ETA: Most people will probably choose to simply pay, which should give a boost to the policy of financing our local governments through policing rather than through taxation.

  199. 199.

    Joe Falco

    @zhena gogolia: It is brilliant. I was being facetious. As someone who sometimes watches foreign films, I don’t understand the attitude that other Americans have about not wanting to watch anything that’s subbed.

  200. 200.

    Kay

    @Leto:

    We also have a ton of information. We have every single other developed country that went ahead of us.

    If kids will wear a school uniform they’ll wear a mask. Japanese kids seem to be managing. Ours are so different?

  201. 201.

    Kay

    @Leto:

    I’m also thrilled there are “wealthy bloggers” in public schools. The worst thing that can happen to non-wealthy kids in public schools is all the wealthy bloggers decamp for private schools. Wealthy bloggers have platforms like the NY Times to advocate for a focus on public schools and they demand a lot from their elected representatives. They get listened to.

  204. 204.

    Kay

    @Leto:

    Too, Leto, I don’t really think it’s her job to manage how schools deliver education. She has (understandably) outsourced that to schools to figure out. It’s not her duty to come up with a 12 point plan. She has a job. That’s not it.

    She is reasonably demanding that federal, state and local lawmakers address a national problem that impacts 55 million families. If they want her to do it they’ll have to pay her.

  205. 205.

    WaterGirl

    @Kay: I am not understanding the “wealthy bloggers” reference.  What am I missing?

    4 other points / questions

    1.
    I agree with you that other countries are staring to open up.  But nearly every other country on earth has done a better job of handling and adjusting to the realities of COVID than we haveI.

    2.
    I think that Leto raises a good point about the safety and distancing in US – greatly on the rise, and we are back to where we were in March, or worse – how do you handle all the kids in the school, when there is no space to provide distancing for kids?

    3.
    I also agree that there is not enough attention being paid to the safety of the teachers.  How would you address that?

    4.
    What would it hurt if we had a global “gap year” where every student has the same experience, so no kid is left behind.  Not where rich schools can afford what it takes to keep kids safe but poor schools can not.  There’s nothing magic about what is covered in geography in the 4th grade that couldn’t be covered in the 5th grade.

  206. 206.

    Leto

    @Kay:

     

    Social distancing is impossible in schools

    Yet everything is predicated on that.

    They can also do increased ventilation with HVAC systems

    With what money? CARES money isn’t being distributed and the tax base in most places won’t be able to handle an increase like this. On top of the fact that in most places a major school improvement will have to go through a referendum to help raise funds, and all of that takes TIME. It would’ve been great to have this discussion/planning back in February, when we had time to do this. But we’re on Earth-1, so you have TODAY (2 Jul) and when school starts for most places, which is roughly 1 Sep. Fuck, in the south they’ll be headed back in about a month.

    You can’t just continue to tell an entire generation that they won’t be getting an education. That’s not acceptable.

    And you can’t tell an entire workforce, fuck you, you’re daycare, do it. You’re still doing it now. Not addressing teachers concerns. Still not doing it.

    @scribbler:

    She also points out that many European countries have been sending their kids back to school with pretty good success, but we haven’t made that a priority.

    They’re able to send their kids back because they have functioning governments at all levels. Their citizens responded to the lock down orders with, we’ll do it. Wear masks? We’ll do it. They followed the science. We don’t have that here, and pretending otherwise is lunacy. By the time school starts we’re probably going to have Fauci levels of infection.

    @Kay:

    We also have a ton of information. We have every single other developed country that went ahead of us.

    And yet we’re still leading the world in infections and deaths, because we’re really good at following other countries lead, right? That’s something the US is known for, integrating other countries ideas into ours.

    @Kay:

    If kids will wear a school uniform they’ll wear a mask. Japanese kids seem to be managing. Ours are so different?

    Yes, next silly question.

    They get listened to.

    Well as long as you’re not listening to the teachers, I guess it’s cool.

  207. 207.

    Ohio Mom

    Kay and Leto,

    We have three wildly different types of school systems: rural, suburban and urban.

    Their circumstances are wildly different and I suspect we will need three varying approaches to reopening. Contact tracing for one example, will be more challenging in an inner-city school where students move in and out of the district frequently.

    Add to that the different need of primary, middle and high schools, plus the ridiculous modern architecture of sealed buildings with no windows that can be opened.

    As always, the children already identified as at-risk are at the most risk from this upheaval.

    In contrast, in my relatively privileged suburban subdivision, I’m seeing all the kids who typically spend their summers in camps and other enriching activities (the parents are all aiming for fancy colleges) finding their own adventures and pleasures in small groups. They are having a very old-fashioned summer, and I don’t think they will be worse off for it.

    But they are just one small subgroup. As already discussed, the special needs kids in my neighborhood are regressing. They are losing ground that won’t be regained easily.

    And again, I am describing one small set of circumstances. As a country, we have GOT to get some semblance of schooling in gear.

  208. 208.

    Leto

    @Kay: Then what she’s asking for is daycare, because if she’s abdicating that role via just handing her child off, then the fed/state/local is responding how they see fit and she needs to shut the fuck up and accept it.

    @Ohio Mom:

    Contact tracing for one example, will be more challenging in an inner-city school where students move in and out of the district frequently.

    John Oliver covered this last week when he talked about the housing crisis that happening right now. Renters not being able to pay rent and the impact that has on a family, including school. Know what’s more fundamental than education? Having a stable place to live. That has more of an impact than school. When you have migratory kids popping in and out of the school system, that kind of blows up Kays stable population contact tracing system.

  209. 209.

    Leto

    Here, I’m going to put up an article about one of the largest schools systems in the US that nobody ever talks about (161 schools, 71k students k-12, almost 50 countries), and is always ranked in the top school programs in the country:

    Learning Continues for DOD School System Students Despite COVID-19 Restrictions

    Why can’t we do that here? What are the differences between DODES schools and the typical US schools? We don’t need to look to Japan or Europe, we have the models right here.

  210. 210.

    oatler.

    Watching T’s “Spirit of America Showcase at the White House” It is to puke.

  212. 212.

    colleeniem

     

     

    @Leto: I will tell you why.  That is a population with health care, housing and basic necessities provided for–such that the spouse is less likely to work.  You want an answer–there it is.

  213. 213.

    eddie blake

    @Leto:

    thank you. well said, and to the point. how will they make it safe for the teachers and custodial staff?

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