Hello.
[[waves]]Good to see you.
I’m back home for a bit, will be turning right around to drive back to help out my folks in a few days. My dad is doing well. Better than I expected after the initial call. I won’t share his private medical information, considering this is An almost top 10,000 blog! But I will tell you it really looks like he dodged a very big bullet. So keep a good thought. He should be home, with luck, in about 2-3 weeks.
That being said, can we discuss medical emergencies and elderly parents in the age of Covid-19?? We are daily faced with impossible choices, especially in a state where the governor has threatened to cut funding to any city/county that requires face masks.
I’m too exhausted and working on solutions to be angry. But most of the past week has been making decisions with my fingers-crossed no one gives my mom (who is on O2) or my dad Covid while we scramble to make provisions for both of them.
Right now I’m working off of pure adrenaline. I’m sure the crash will be spectacular.
I want you to know I read every comment you left for me and saw the lovely thread Watergirl started for diversions. Unfortunately, I’ve been going flat out, and have barely even glanced at the blog. I’m leaving it to all of you to be outraged daily for me.
Meanwhile, when I was gone, the most excellent Governor Polis issued a mandatory mask order. I had to pick up milk, juice and few other essentials last night when I got back and am happy to report 100% compliance. Coloradoans stepping up.
If only we had done this in March…
That’s it, I’m off for a busy day and probably won’t be around much, so I hope everyone is doing as well as you can. If your parents are around, virtually hug them.
Open thread.
Old School
Glad to hear your dad is doing better. Here’s hoping you get some time for yourself to relax soon.
Amir Khalid
Glad to hear the good news about your dad and the bullet dodged. How are you and the furry/feathery fam holding up?
trollhattan
Very happy for your dad and everybody involved. Deep breaths, take care of yourself.
Obvious Russian Troll
Glad to hear he’s doing well.
raven
My schoolteacher friends are updating their wills.
Wag
I hope that your dad continues to recover. Keep your head up!
And yes, Polis is doing the right thing. And Denver Public Schools is making the right choice in backing off of their 100% in person school year. Now if we could just beat some sense into the count commissioners in Douglas and El Paso counties… but I guess that’s the job for the virus
Dorothy A. Winsor
Good to hear from you, especially with positive news. Be kind to yourself too.
The headline in the Tribune today is “Illinois’ Growing Unease” because of case numbers creeping back up. Thanks, idiot neighbors.
rikyrah
Prayers for you and your family.
RedDirtGirl
That is good news. I was able to take the month of July to spend with my mom in Maine. And by spend time with mom I mean sitting in a folding chair outside the sunroom of her retirement community, hanging out with glass between us. My sister lives near by and has had the burden of care for a long time now. Mom is almost 88, and definitely getting more senile as the time passes, but thankfully, it doesn’t seem to be worse than general old age. I sent her a care package before I got here that had a book of MadLibs, a bunch of crossword puzzles, both of which we do together. I also found these cool tempera paint sticks. I have a set as well, and we have been playing Tic-tac-toe and Hangman on the glass pane. She is also a word queen, so we both have dictionaries at our disposal, and we go down long rabbit holes investigating derivations. When I am particularly sassy, I go to the back of the dictionary and test her memory of latin phrases she learned in her Scottish boarding school back in the 1940’s. I feel so lucky to be able to take this time. Work is slow in NY and I have some money socked away for this. It is great for my mom, and a nice break for my sister. Plus I get to swim everyday which I couldn’t do in NY due to Covid-19.
rikyrah
@raven:
Yeah..that…
and, of my sister’s teacher friends, a whole lot of them are taking a serious look at the hit they would take financially if they retire now, versus the 2-3 years they thought they would be teaching.
A LOT of them.
And, I don’t blame them.
rikyrah
@RedDirtGirl:
So happy you are getting to spend this time with your mother.
And, I miss swimming :(
CarolDuhart2
@rikyrah: And the corona means that you won’t live to get the benefits of those extra years anyway. Between closures and this, why not retire? If things get better, some folks could come back for a couple of years or so.
I predict that everybody who can retire will retire, and a lot of school systems won’t be able to open anyway because nobody else is going to take their place. Substitutes aren’t going to cut it, especially if they too are older and are working to fill in for the teachers.
eclare
Glad your dad is on his way home, that must be so hard on your mom.
eclare
@rikyrah: Me too, I don’t know when I’ll be able to swim again.
laura
So glad to hear your good news – and keep taking care of your own self.
i had a very simple decision making process in caring for my mom as her dementia progressed beyond our abilities and for dad as his copd was outrun by the melanoma that raced to his brain, and the brothers had my back the whole time; for every question and decision I needed to know if it would increase joy or minimize suffering. Hard, heartbreaking decisions and so many tears, but knowing that I’d tried my best to minimize suffering and maximized the possibility of joy allowed me to live with myself and account for my actions- to the Court, to my siblings, to family, to my parents friends. I hope that this may be helpful to you Tamara and to fellow jackals as well.
SiubhanDuinne
Thanks for the update, TaMara. Have been thinking about your dad (and you and the rest of your family, of course!) and am glad to read positive news. Do get what rest you can — you’ll need physical, mental, and emotional reserves in the coming weeks. Virtual {{{hugs}}} to you.
geg6
So glad to hear your dad is doing better. I cannot imagine how I’d cope if my parents were still alive now and, since one died from cancer and the other a massive heart (after one less severe one and at least a dozen years of angina treatment), how we’d figure out how to care for them. It’s bad enough that I worry so much about my sister with Crohn’s and her husband with MS and my brother, who is being treated for cancer. At least they are still able to care for themselves, but I spend a lot of time begging them to stay home and worrying about what they might be doing. I know they are taking this seriously and they aren’t stupid Trumpers, but I still worry inordinately about them.
Miss Bianca
You’re in Boulder County, right? I would expect mask compliance to be good there. If only because here in the sticks, where now the wingnuts have figured out that by turning every special event they would need a permit for into a “protest”, they can escape all restrictions and just gather maskless willy-nilly and our local authorities will do precisely jack and shit about it, the same local authorities sneer about “Boulder” dictating to the rest of the state.
Meanwhile, our positive test count, which was at 2 – 2! – for months, has started to go up, up, up…
You can’t fix stupid. But the stupid people never seem to get hurt as badly as they hurt others
ETA: Glad to hear your dad is doing better.
Palindrome
So happy your dad is better – hug the critters for me!
narya
Sending good thoughts to you and your parents!
geg6
@rikyrah:
Although I’m not a teacher, I am an administrator at a University campus that expects students from at least 28 states to be on campus in a few weeks. I was planning on retiring in about 4-5 years. But I am seriously looking at what would happen if I decided to go sooner. I love my job, but I’m not sure how willing I am to die or be permanently disabled due to it.
Jay Noble
Something I’ve been watching since early on is that being on oxygen may be a good thing. Covid doesn’t seem to like it and seems to be helping keep people off ventilators.
Hope all stays positive for you annd yours.
StringOnAStick
I’m glad to heard your father us doing better. If you need help with the ducks I am probably 5 to 7 miles away.
I retired early due to Covid but I was a dental hygienist, not a teacher. I talk every week to my coworker, who at age 35 doesn’t have that choice. She’s doing 11 hour days due to increased cleaning requirements after each patient and to keep from having more than one day where they overlap with the other practice that shares the office space. Now she tells me the other practice has dropped all the extra precautions of not allowing anyone but patients in the office and letting those patients and family hang out in the waiting room, plus many other previously agreed to practices. Her boss hates confrontation so he won’t call out the other dentist, and the other dentist and his employees want more work days. Oh, and the idiot dentist is both well thought of in the dental community and is a long time clinical instructor at the dental school. He’s also one of the most skinflint dentists I’ve ever met, and that’s saying something.
Elizabelle
TaMara: glad to hear that your father is doing better than expected. Silver lining: his doctors will monitor him forever on risk factors for this. He may never have another stroke. At least, we hope not! Best for a full recovery.
@rikyrah: Maybe some of the new university graduates can divert into teaching, although I realize it takes years to build the skills the retirees will take with them.
Cannot respect our teachers enough. We must protect their health.
hedgehog mobile
Good news. Thanks, TaMara.
zhena gogolia
I’m glad for your good news. May he continue to recover swiftly.
TaMara (HFG)
That would be an excellent development. I cannot tell you how many people “popped by” to see how my mom was doing, and were not wearing masks. As long as I was home, they did not get past the front porch.
tinare
Glad to hear the good news. It is hard enough to handle caring for your parents without it being in the middle of a pandemic. Sending good thoughts for continued improvement. Try to find some time to take care of you too.
Kattails
(Waves back) That is good news, good for you to have made it happen, take a bit of time to let those stress levels down.
Cheryl Rofer
Take care and stay well, TaMara! Good thoughts to you and your family.
Benw
Some good news! Best wishes for continued improvement.
I remember ~15 years ago now the harrowing early days of my own health scare. I can only imagine doing it masked and with every encounter a potential time bomb. Yeesh
oldster
Can we have a front page post about the protests in Portland?
Some very brave people are putting their lives on the line in order to stand between us and the fascist feds.
The way we win if we make it as big of a PR blunder as the Lafayette Square debacle.
The way the fascists win is to do it in silence.
So please, make some noise!!
Kristine
More good thoughts for you and your folks. Best outcomes all around!
Mom Says I*m Handsome
I’m a Denver resident and think Gov Polis is doing an outstanding job. We’ve been locked down hard since March 13 due to my wife’s respiratory health, and have managed to keep our own travels to a bare minimum, with good success.
Now my 12-year-old daughter wants to participate in a 2-day, 3-hr/day, volleyball clinic that her school is putting on. She LOVES volleyball & it’s been an obsession for a year. The clinic is doing many things right: All outdoors in a park, no spectators, masks for everyone when they’re not actually on the field, and volleyball is generally a low-contact sport. But there are risks: No masks when they’re playing. Of the 3 hours each day, 1 will be actually scrimmaging, where contact is possible.
My wife (who also says I’m handsome) and I desperately want her to go, for the mental & emotional boost it’ll provide. My daughter doesn’t want to cause the impact it’ll have in our home — my wife will quarantine herself further in our bedroom for 2 weeks, my daughter & I will take covid tests 5 days after the clinic, and we’ll treat our indoors like we would a visit to the grocery store. It’s a question of managed risk, and I think the risk is worth it. Any comments from the jackaltariat?
WaterGirl
TaMara, so glad to hear the good news about your dad!
I know you need to take care of them, and you will, but please make sure you take care of yourself because you surely don’t have your usual reserves because you are still recovering from COVID.
Remember, your health for the rest of your life is just as important as your Dad’s. Such happy news about him. Take care.
rikyrah
@Mom Says I*m Handsome:
No no and more no
See the clinic next year.
Nope.
Eric NNY
Thanks for the update TaMara. We’ll take any good news we can get.
rikyrah
1. Like these kids LIVE ALONE
2. Who do you think they’ll be taking the DISEASE HOME TO
3. Not going to the hospitals….DA PHUQ?
The Democratic Party needs to get this on the air as an ad LIKE YESTERDAY.
SiubhanDuinne
@Mom Says I*m Handsome:
Well, with the proviso that you should listen to Dr. Fauci, not me, it sounds as though you and your family are taking all reasonable precautions and have planned things out well. Everything else being equal, I think I’d go for it.
Good luck, and please let us know what you decide.
JPL
Tamara, So glad for good news and I hope that he continues getting better. I’m sure that just having you available to help out is a relief for all.
@Mom Says I*m Handsome: Wow that is a tough situation and if you were in GA, I’d say no. You’re not and you have to identify the risks nearby. If someone else at the clinic visited states that have high numbers of infections, you might consider that. This really sucks.
arrieve
TaMara, so glad to hear the news about your father. Rest up, stay well, and get what respite you can.
Elizabelle
@Mom Says I*m Handsome: Why not masks while they’re playing? They will be exhaling, heavily. Prime time for spreading any virus.
Can they play in gloves? Would be good if they showered, shampooed and changed clothes after playing, too.
All the best to you 3.
WaterGirl
@Mom Says I*m Handsome: As someone who loves volleyball and used to play any chance I got, 3 or 4 times a week, my recommendation re: your daughter, and I say it with sadness, is not this year.
Think about how your daughter would feel if one of the family got COVID and she felt responsible? That’s something that would probably stick with her for the rest of her life. Even if you’re super careful about things if she goes, there is a definite risk.
I’m sorry that you and so many families have to make the heart-wrenching choices.
It’s like when it’s the end of the road for your dog or your cat, and you have to make the decision to take them to the vet for that last visit. It breaks your heart to do it, because the last thing you want to do is let them go, but you do it out of love for them, even as it breaks your heart.
Keeping your kid as safe as possible is your number one job, right? If the answer to that is yes, then I think your decision is clear.
But that’s easy for me to say, even if I do have tears in my eyes while I say it.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Mom Says I*m Handsome: I’m not a doctor or a parent, so FWIW: outside, mostly masked, non-contact sport. Like Elizabelle, I wonder why they aren’t masked while playing. Not fun and they probably would have to hold themselves back a bit, but I would want them to take that extra precaution– I watched some baseball over the weekend and was surprised how many players were unmasked and close together in the dugouts.
and I just read this in the Boston Globe by four profs at the Harvard School of Public health:
it doesn’t push me into the “open the schools” camp, because neither trump nor any Republicans are talking about putting in the money it would take to open schools safely, as the authors acknowledge, but food for thought
Ruckus
@laura:
I had to be the one to take responsibility for my parents. Amazingly enough they both chose me to be the responsible one on their directives. Had one sister who helped with dad and his Alzheimer’s, but she thought she could house him and that he could not possibly live in a home. She lasted 6 weeks before it broke her and she had a live in helper. He lived 19 yrs with this, the first few he could manage, the last 14 or so, he couldn’t. But she found an amazing couple of Vietnamese women who ran 5 homes, and I mean residential homes with 3 to 4 patients each, manned 24/7 with caring family members. They came to his funeral and were as involved with him as a human as any family member, more than what I saw from many over those years.
Mom lived by herself till she was 93, strong and independent as always. Last 2 yrs in a home pissed off that she didn’t get more time. She left me with the goal of 100 yrs, just because that’s how we roll. Old is hard. Many can’t ask for help because they are/have been independent their entire lives. Folks in my parents generation had a lot going against them, they were both born just before the last pandemic this world saw. Both had to work to help support their families during the depression, and dad served in WWII.
Life isn’t fair or easy, ever. Some end up with too much money, some end up without enough. Some end with dementia, some don’t make it to old age. Some end up in old age without the ability to cope, some make it look easy. My aunt had an infant die at 6 months, had another kid and died herself a year later. Life is a gamble, life is work, life is good, life is hard. We are at a time when life is different than it has been for eons, better medicine, something that resembles a retirement income, sort of, but it has it’s downsides as well, more living longer, needing care, support, and yet politics are not really better at all. We still have selfish, needy, illness, humanity, support, and none, regardless of where we live, who we are, how much money we have.
rikyrah
Thirteen nuns from a Michigan convent die from COVID-19 in deadly wave that claimed 12 in just one month and left more than a dozen seriously ill
By EMILY CRANE FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 11:53 EDT, 20 July 2020 | UPDATED: 11:55 EDT, 20 July 2020
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8541287/Thirteen-nuns-Michigan-convent-die-COVID-19.html?ito=push-notification&ci=23866&si=733427
Jim, Foolish Literalist
open thread?
Amir Khalid
@Mom Says I*m Handsome:
You want your daughter to go because taking part in the clinic will be really good for her. But she is aware of the risks and not keen to impose on the family the onerous post-clinic precautions you describe. She might not be able to benefit from the clinic as much as you hope, with that weighing on her mind. I agree with Rikyrah; it’s best to wait for next year’s clinic.
Ruckus
@Mom Says I*m Handsome:
I’m not a dad. I’ve helped take care of dying parents, been the responsible one, literally – name on the paper, had to make the tough decisions – when to let go.
And it’s your kid, you want the best for her, you want her to thrive. Personally I don’t think I could let her do this, at this time. There will be other times, this time is different, the risk is a lot higher to her and to everyone else because of what this is, a pandemic. It doesn’t care that she loves volleyball. It doesn’t care that you love and cherish her. This virus, it’s an extremely selfish thing. It wants everything, and takes everything it can. There is only two things any of us can do, and that’s limit exposure and hope that works.
Amir Khalid
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I’m not aware of such a thing, but does anyone sell a mask you can wear while playing sports?
SiubhanDuinne
@Mom Says I*m Handsome:
I see I’m very much in the minority (at #39), and that’s because I somehow completely missed the part where the kids would be maskless while actually playing. That changes the risk assessment considerably. Sadly, because I know it’s a wrench to deny your daughter something she wants, I’m moving over to the “not this year” side.
Elizabelle
@Mom Says I*m Handsome:
Have to agree with WaterGirl:
Not worth it.
Maybe they could take up golf, masked? That seems to be a pretty safe sport. Tennis (singles) is better too. The distancing. Even cross country, at a distance.
And the more I think about the volleyball without masks: WTF? They will exhale fiercely as they play. And inhale too.
More than that choir in Washington State ever did.
Brachiator
Great to hear that your dad is doing better. I hope that everything continues to be good.
Take care.
Mary G
@Mom Says I*m Handsome: Sounds like you want this more for yourself. She doesn’t want to go and will worry and stress if you make her. Stay home.
susanna
Stay strong. Best energies to you and your family.
From SF area.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Mom Says I*m Handsome: Are people masked except for the actual playing? If so, could she do part of the clinic and skip the play?
opiejeanne
@WaterGirl: TaMara had COVID-19? I missed that somehow.
Dang, I thought we were going to get off light here, with Baud’s Covid Toe.
Amir Khalid
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
She’d still be in some contact with the players, and thus at some extra risk of catching the virus.
sempronia
TaMara talked about having elders in the hospital during this time. My hospital has not allowed any family members in past the ER (and even there in a limited context) since March, with the exception of patients who are minors or are dying. It’s especially hard for patients who don’t speak English or have some dementia, because there is no family to help interface with the care team. We call families with updates every day, and they call in to the nursing units, and we set up FaceTime between patients and families on the units’ mobile iPads. But I definitely think that care decisions have been delayed and length of stay has increased in part because families cannot physically see how well or how badly their person is doing, and cannot help their person out.
To be honest, it’s been nice not to have families around too. You can get your work done faster, sit down afterwards, and call everyone all at once. It’s hard to have a family conference, but the social workers and case managers have gotten good at setting up virtual meetings, even with an interpreter on the phone. I still prefer doing conferences in person because it’s easier to read the room and adjust your meeting accordingly, but everyone understands.
opiejeanne
TaMara, I’m so glad to hear about your dad. I hope he continues to recover well.
JPL
OT Apparently a person who committed suicide today could be tied to the murder of the judge Salas’ son. From ABC News
The deceased suspect was an attorney who had a case before Judge Salas in 2015, sources said.
A FedEx package addressed to Judge Salas was discovered in the car, sources said. The suspect who opened fire at the New Jersey home of US District Judge Esther Salas died by suicide near Liberty, NY, multiple law enforcement sources told ABC News.
polyorchnid octopunch
@Wag:
No it isn’t. That’s your job. You guys need to get started on it.
Elizabelle
COVID on Aisle 8. And: they are doing it to protect their employees from their customers’ wrath, should they require masking. Thanks, Fox News!
Washington Post: Deep South supermarket Winn-Dixie takes a stand: No masks required
THEY BLEW IT. TRUMP. HIS MALADMINISTRATION. FOX NEWS. AND RED STATE AMERICA.
And now: to stop shouting: think of how vulnerable W-D’s customer-facing employees are. They might be intimidated out of wearing a mask to protect themselves and their families. They may get hassled by these Trump-humpers for trying to do the right thing. And then they take the viral load home to their families. In poor and underserved states.
For shame, Winn-Dixie. Maybe that company has decided that bankruptcy is more appealing than running grocery stores in a pandemic out of control, with no signs of ending.
Kay
Wow. It makes sense. Kasich’s entire appeal in Ohio was suburbanites. It made him really difficult to beat because D’s so need the population centers in 3 counties to carry the state and he cut into that. The Kasich-type Republican will be extinct if Trumpism prevails.
Baud
@Kay:
He’ll be out Zell Miller.
The Thin Black Duke
@Kay: I’m glad Kasich is doing this. I still don’t want him anywhere near a Biden administration, however.
mrmoshpotato
Good to hear your dad is doing well. Hope things continue to improve.
polyorchnid octopunch
@oldster:
I have been making quite a bit up here in Canada on Twitter. It’s insane what’s going down here and is clearly a dry run to work this in many US cities in the lead up to, during, and after the election. It looks a lot like the police forces have decided to go all in on Trumpism and are getting ready to retain power after November. I foresee the possibility of serious conflict between them and the military/secret service because I think those guys actually take their vows seriously, whereas the police unions seem to think their vow consists of “what’s mine is mine, what’s yours is mine (ed note: c.f. civil forfeiture) and I get to fuck with brown people whenever I feel like it, which is most of the time”.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Kay: @The Thin Black Duke: when Biden thanks Kasich for his kind words, he ought to throw in a line about how much he admires Kasich for bringing ObamaCare to Ohio
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
Despite Beshear’s efforts, we’ve lost the plot in Kentucky. Louisville proper has 10 family court judges. six are in quarantine.
Bars were apparently packed with 20 somethings this weekend, and although I skipped my 40th reunion (I knew that I wouldn’t maintain any discipline), I saw the photos – about 25 people, many of whom I count among my oldest, closest friends and their partners, shoulder to shoulder, not a mask in sight. At least three flew in from Florida.
WASF
James E Powell
@Kay:
I was in Cleveland the week of the RNC in 2016. Took my mom to church, then out to breakfast with her Roman Catholic, educated, suburban, country club Republican friends. They were all furious with Kasich for refusing to come to the convention.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
On another note, I’ve actually drawn three days of Facebook suspension for mocking our valiant militia dudes for failing to use their rifles to poke some holes in CBP/DHS paramilitaries.
The irony is that the NRA continues to maintain an account.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
Glad to hear your father is doing ok, TaMara
Ruckus
@Elizabelle:
What I like is that in so many parts of this country, a store like Winn-Dixie might be the only grocery store for miles. You need food, that’s where you shop. In my travels around this country I’ve run across this many, many times, there might be only one choice for miles, one store. People that live there work in the store, that sells all the groceries for miles. Those people are usually not wealthy, the area isn’t wealthy, although it may not be poor, but there are not choices, people can’t say screw this even if they wanted to. Walmart doesn’t even open a store unless there are 50,000 customers within a certain number of miles.
mrmoshpotato
@rikyrah: Well it’s not murder in the first degree. Negligent homicide?
Baud
@Baud: out = our
ETA: autocorrect is especially mad at me today.
Baud
Best wishes to your father, TaMara.
Taken4Granite
@Mom Says I*m Handsome: I’ll join the crowd who says don’t do it. Your daughter may say she wants to do this, but it sounds from the fact that she doesn’t want to cause the associated disruption that she is not entirely comfortable with the risk.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
in other news, the Intercept’s chief Tara Reade correspondent wants 2020 to amuse him, so a man’s bipolar disorder should provide comic relief for him
I was actually a fan of Grim’s when he was at the Huffington Post (and outlet that I feel a little silly typing the name of). What’s in the water cooler at the Intercept?
Baud
@JPL: Hmm. I wonder if that was the plan all along, or he realized he shot an innocent kid instead of his intended target.
Either way, it’s sad to admit this, but I’m glad to hear it does not appear to be a politically motivated hit.
rikyrah
@JPL:
How are you going to write that with a straight face.
They think that we were born LAST NIGHT.
Like we haven’t been fed Law and Order and Mob Drama for the past 20 years.
THIS WAS A MUTHAPHUCKIN’ HIT.
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
FTFY, Ryan.
rikyrah
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Stay away from all of them. Tell them you’ll see them in a month
rikyrah
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Get the ENTIRE PHUCK OUTTA HERE.
Yutsano
I’m so glad things are getting better for you TaMara. I hope he does continue to improve. Has there been any discussion about doing inpatient rehabilitation for him? If he’s not already there you might want to explore that option for him.
I just saw this interview in the Post from one of the founders of the Lincoln Project. I’m taking all this with huge amounts of salt, but it looks like they’re professing to be on the side of good. The balk over the tax cuts being reversed came as a bit of a tell, but trust needs to be very much earned here.
Yutsano
@Baud: You know what you did. :P
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Yutsano: I only know him through twitter, but Weaver seems to be undergoing a more complete political metamorphosis, like Rubin or Wallace. I think he was one of the people exiled from McCain-world– told to stay away from the funeral, IIRC– because he talked to reporters about Palin.
FelonyGovt
Send healing thoughts to your parents, TaMara, and a request that you try to take care of yourself as well.
@Mom Says I*m Handsome: I wouldn’t let her go this year. And I say this as a parent of a former avid young athlete who went to tennis summer camps, tournaments etc. It’s just too much risk for her and for your family.
Gin & Tonic
@rikyrah: Suicide? Like shot himself in the back of the head three times suicide?
Somebody is cleaning up loose ends quickly.
SiubhanDuinne
@JPL:
Suicide as in shot himself in the back while pitching headfirst down a steep flight of stairs, or suicide as in drowned in a bathtub while falling from a seventh-floor window?
I’m suspicious of everything about this tragic story. And desperately sad for the judge and her husband.
ETA: Or what @rikyrah said at #81.
ETA2: And @G&T at #89. I really should learn to read the whole thread before commenting, but that wouldn’t be any fun.
p.a.
@ddale8
Trump says he’s bringing back 5 PM pandemic briefings as of tomorrow: “We had very successful briefings. I was doing them and we had a lot of people watching. Record numbers watching. In the history of cable television — television — there’s never been anything like it.”
?Poor Fauci, having to stand there again with this idiot. Poor us. But keep in mind while resisting the temptation to smash your tv: tRump is burying himself.
JPL
@Elizabelle: I have a friend that shops at Winn-Dixie because it’s the only store. She lives at the GA/SC border and no one is wearing masks. It’s shameful that they are making them mandatory.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Apparently Homeland Security is planning to send 150 of their goons to Chicago this week. There is nothing going on here! But if they show up, there likely will be.
This is intimidation, pure and simple.
narya
I’m having my own small dilemma . . . my boss left a few weeks ago, and one of their other direct reports (a) lives near me and (b) is having a small backyard gathering tomorrow. Even with masks and distancing, I’m not sure how I feel about it (boss actually had the virus awhile ago). I want to see them–they’re about to move across the country–but . . . even thinking about it makes me anxious. I will likely walk there, say hi for a few minutes, and then leave; I just can imagine hanging around for any length of time.
JPL
@rikyrah: Well my well formed conclusion was that Salas’ husband probably represented one or two mobsters during his career, and someone ordered a hit. I wish LAO would weigh in.
Mike in NC
@p.a.: The only thing this imbecile ever thinks about are his “ratings”.
The Washington Post article about the recent Chris Wallace interview has commenters once again asking, “Why can’t Trump sit in a chair like a normal human being, instead of hunching over the edge like an old man perched on a toilet?”
Sab
@Kay:I bet that will irk Mary Taylor.
raven
@Dorothy A. Winsor: The Columbus statue ain’t nothing.
dmsilev
@p.a.:
That was likely true. Lots of people watch car wrecks, after all.
More seriously, it’s always about him, isn’t it? Nothing, not piles of dead Americans or anything else, is more important than Trump’s ego.
Brachiator
@Mom Says I*m Handsome:
Smart daughter. I would support her decision and look for some alternative activity that might be a safe reward.
Best wishes to you and your family.
ETA: a local public radio host noted that his son had come back home when college was closed down and voluntarily limited activities with his friends because of family members with underlying conditions. The host was justifiably proud of his son, and appeared to tear up a bit. No problem with that at all.
mrmoshpotato
@rikyrah:
Republican debates?
“we’ve suffered so much, we’ve earned it.”
Hey! After years of Dump’s bullshit, here’s an extra serving of bullshit!
These clowns should fire themselves into the Sun.
CaseyL
That’s great news, TaMara! Best wishes to you and your family for his ongoing recovery. And yours! – you’re still recovering from Covid, so please get as much rest as you can!
I would buy the “gunman committed suicide” a lot more if the judge wasn’t newly named to work on a DeutchBank case that involved Epstein, who also “committed suicide.” Is there any news whether Judge Salas will be able to continue her work, particularly in the DB case?
Mom Says I*m Handsome
Thanks, everyone, for the feedback. It’s been tough to navigate this shutdown with the kids (my daughter has 3 brothers who also want a return to some normalcy), but you’re right: I should let Hannah’s doubts take the lead. And she’s the kind of thoughtful kid who wouldn’t be able to live with herself if she brought the Rona home.
narya, I’d take my masked self to your work event, make an appearance at responsible distance, be seen by everyone who “needs” to see you, and beg off early with an obligation at home.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@rikyrah:
Christ on a stick – I just got the email. This quarantine is going to shutter 60% of the family court dockets for two weeks, minimum. They’re all set up for remote dockets in their chambers and on the bench, but not at home.
And that’s before it spreads.
rikyrah
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Like, where the phuck are they going to go. I work in downtown. There’s no protests here.
Kay
@The Thin Black Duke:
I’m more big-tenty than a lot of you guys. It comes from living in a ruby red county, I think.
We’re desperate to be liked :)
Always Be Closing.
rikyrah
@narya:
Once again…
Nope nope nope.
You can see them next year.
Ruckus
@SiubhanDuinne:
We’d have to have you excommunicated if you read the entire thread before commenting.
Besides I think you’d be the only one…..
Ruckus
@Mike in NC:
Because he’s an old man who’s always taking a shit out of one end or the other.
Ruckus
@mrmoshpotato:
These clowns should fire themselves into the Sun.
I’d pay to see that. But only if it was every last one of them.
Kay
@Mom Says I*m Handsome:
I have no advice but I am sorry kids are suffering, and they are suffering. This is taking a toll.
My youngest is 17 and he’s taking a summer online course with his well-loved high school english teacher- the teacher all the parents want. It’s a composition course they take in the summer so they can take electives during the school year. I heard him check in on Zoom and she starts with sort of a mental health check- asks them how they’re doing. Right out of the box I heard a boy’s voice “this sucks” :)
It does suck for them. I’m so, so sorry we did this to them.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Kay: I’m pretty big-tent, too. If I were in charge, the Never Trumpers could have their own virtual convention, call it the Lincoln Convention, and they could condemn trump and endorse Biden, which I guess would just be generating a lot of on-line content that would fuel a lot of Joe and Mika type commentary, which is not without its uses. But I’m not gonna throw sticks at Biden for accepting endorsements from people who offer them instead of chasing the people who are still glaring at him across the fields of twitter, demanding bent knees. And who thought we should all listen to Joe Rogan.
frosty
@narya: Your plan sounds reasonable to me. I’d be comfortable sticking around longer if your area has a low infection rate and everyone is local.
Kay
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I also welcome the Bernistas, though :)
In fact, that’s a condition. You can’t just make it bigger in one direction. For one thing, it will fall down :)
Amir Khalid
@narya:
If merely thinking about being at this gathering makes you anxious, that tells you what your decision needs to be: don’t go.
Betty Cracker
If Kasich can create a permission framework that will allow moderate Republicans to vote for Biden (or at least not for Trump), great — glad he’s endorsing Biden. Not super-thrilled about Kasich speaking at the convention, though. That’s a high honor and a privilege — not just from Biden but from the party.
In other news, The Daily Beast is reporting that the man who shot the judge’s son and husband in NJ has been found dead of suicide, and he was an extremely litigious men’s rights douchebag.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Kay:
So do I. Or I will, as soon as they stop calling Biden a senile rapist. I will say Sanders himself has given them the model to follow, even if a lot of them still refuse to
ETA: an obvious point, but not obvious enough for me to have made (and I love this guy’s twitter handle)
Kay
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I know this doesn’t matter because Bernie actually hired some of the worst Bernistas, so it’s his fault, but a lot of them are just standard issue Democrats who either liked Bernie Sanders or are Left of the Party, generally. That’s who I mean. I don’t care about the pros on Twitter.
JPL
@Betty Cracker: He was also suing MSM for not covering trump fairly. After reading about him and realizing there are others out there, I hope Sally Yates has adequate security.
Leto
TaMara: I’m so glad your dad is well, and that it’s going better than expected. Wishing for him to be home soon, and for his rehab time to be quick and relatively painless.
I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about how Covid would’ve affected my situation. Instead of waking up surrounded by my parents, I would’ve been alone in a room with no one around me. Instead of having Avalune, my son, and my parents there in the hospital helping me with every aspect of my new life, I would’ve been alone trying to figure everything out. Even with everyone there, it was a rollercoaster that I don’t wish anyone to ever go through. But having to go through any of this in the time of Covid… I become a combination of sad and enraged because none of this had to happen. Vote like your life depends on it, because it literally does.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Kay: the O’Bros, of all people (though they do seem to have some very mixed feelings about Biden, and vice-versa, given his refusal to go on their podcast since he announced his candidacy) had Rebecca Traister on one of their podcasts, and she talked as if Biden were down five points and needed to chase the Professional Left. I don’t really associate her with Bernie, but she hates Biden with a passion. She has an argument, but is now the fucking time?
Kay
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Of course they will! I would be shocked if they didn’t. I still think Bernie not being a Democrat is entirely self-serving and a tactic to ensure he keeps his flinty New England “independent” cred and manipulates the primary process for his senate seat. In that sense it’s gross because he lies about it. I wouldn’t even care if he did it for that- I’m a practical person- I just resent being lied to.
I’m sick of independents. Pick a side.
JPL
The GA democratic party is going to choose Nikema Williams to run for John Lewis’ seat. It’s a democratic district so she should be the next representative.
The AJC now has an article up about her… link
Kay
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
They’re definitely a pain in the ass but it’s so much a part of Democratic politics- the factions- that I long ago stopped fighting it. “Centrists” are a faction too.
rikyrah
@Betty Cracker:
I don’t buy it. Come on now – this was a HIT.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Kay:
that flinty New England mythology might well save Susan Collins
can’t they just eat Pepperidge Farm cookies and lobster rolls and get that two-faced fraud out of office?
rikyrah
@JPL:
She’s a member of the Georgia State Senate. She’s only 41.
Kay
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
They overthink this. It’s counting. They can “vote for the man” all they like but it doesn’t fucking matter because in Congress we’re talking about counting. Can they count? Good. Done. No more agonizing required. She adds one to the other side.
Gin & Tonic
@rikyrah: I saw somebody on Twitter post a screenshot of the guy’s resume – which included two years working for Kroll Associates in Moscow.
Nothing to see here, move along.
Baud
The NYT, but good news.
JoyceH
@rikyrah: “Like, where the phuck are they going to go. I work in downtown. There’s no protests here.”
And I hope there won’t be. Trump wants to say that the cities are wracked with violence and then tries to make that true. It will be true if protesters show up to protest the storm troopers. The best thing everyone could do would be to stay home. The Trumpist brown shirts would look mighty darn silly milling around downtown in all their gear, with nothing to do.
Brachiator
@narya:
The problem for me would be a gathering that included too many people whose infection status is unknown or uncertain.
If it were just a visit to the contact, maybe.
I might do a Zoom call. This might be a compromise to many similar situations.
Otherwise, I would skip this, especially if the gathering would involve more than 10 people.
Yutsano
@JPL: @rikyrah: I assume nothing. She sounds great and probably should win, but we still need to GOTV for her and every Democratic representative. You know the Republicans would love to steal this seat.
JPL
@Yutsano: The republican running is a trump toady, but you are correct that nothing is a given.
gwangung
@JPL: And this is Georgia….
polyorchnid octopunch
I’ve stopped reading comments and gonna make my meta-comment now. I’m glad to hear that your folks are doing all right with the situation at hand Tamara; my parents are in their 80s and facing a set of their own health challenges, including a profoundly aphasic stroke that my father had about a year ago. I too am facing serious health challenges right now; I’ve had a half dozen or so heart attacks over the last week and will be getting open-heart surgery on Thursday. There is a small but non-zero chance that I’ll not be posting here again, not that I’ve posted all /that/ much here over the years but I’ve been reading this place faithfully for a long long time, and think a lot of all you folks.
I’m a Canadian, and live just north of NY at the head of the St. Lawrence River. I’ve been watching the US for the vast majority of my life and I have a couple of things to say.
You guys are in serious trouble. Americans are globally known for being pretty self-absorbed and having many unconscious assumptions about their situation wrt the Rest Of Humanity, and I’m going to tell you that right now they are killing you. You think you’re still the “leader of the free world”. Well, you’re not. That ship has sailed and it’s gonna take years for it to return if it ever does… and you should be considering the possibility that it won’t, that that ship has moved on to Asia and will be there for the next century or so and that America will dwindle into a self-absorbed backwater that tells lies to itself about its greatness.
I don’t think you appreciate the transformation this century has wrought in how the rest of us see you. Yeah, we Canadians have always appreciated taking the mickey out of the States, but at the same time there was and still is a great reservoir of affection and good will towards the US here, but you guys seem bent on chopping a hole in the side of that cistern to drain it even faster than it’s going down already. You MUST GET YOUR FASCISTS UNDER CONTROL AND YOU MUST DO IT NOW. Remember that scene at the end of Starship Troopers where fascist Doogie Hawser mind-reads the brain bug and gleefully announces “It’s Afraid!” to the assembled soldiers? You need to put your home-grown fascists into that place. You need to crush the Republican party utterly this fall, see their ratfsckers driven before you, and hear the lamentations of the McEnanys and Conways. No more of this look forward not back bullshit; there is in fact a crime wave in America and its perpetrators and their collars are white, and you need to do something about it now… and that most definitely includes taking the money back from the people who took it. You need to break up your oligarchs and their vehicles; sure it’ll be a bit rough on Bezos, Gates, and Buffet, but you know what? they can afford it. None of those guys are gonna be lacking in groceries so fuck ’em if they can’t take a joke.
I’m in the hospital just 11 miles north of you. I’m going to be getting major surgery in a few days. None of this is going to put me in a position of destroying my family’s fortune. Our hospitals are being able to comfortably accommodate cases like mine because when people here in my community have started trying to pull this ‘mah freedumb’ bullshit they’ve been met with an avalanche of scorn and vituperation, up to and including a complete refusal of service for not being willing to do the bare fuckin’ minimum to protect the people working in the stores bars and restaurants, generally enforced strongly and even gleefully by the owners of those establishments who will happily tell customers to get the fuck out (and yes, those are some direct quotes as seen on facebook here in my town from business owners to patrons who seem to think they get to be shitty to their servers) because in our business culture we still recognise that a business is nothing without its people. Your culture needs to do the same.
Finally you need to collectively dump this idea that you live in a <koff koff> “meritocracy”. You don’t. It’s just bullshit that’s being reproduced and reinforced to hide the true aristocratic nature of your society and economy. The US has become a joke, and its punchline is “The Aristocrats!”
Fix it! Fix it! Fix it!
Kay
I just knew he was a minor celebrity Rightie. Literally the worst judges of character on the planet.
rikyrah
@polyorchnid octopunch:
Clap clap clap clap
Tell that truth
Kent
Update FB post from Uncle John in Tennessee for those who were amused by the rabid insanity yesterday. This is how he responded to me when I suggested that TN was at the wrong end of the curve:
Kay
All we need now is the Q Connection and you know it’s there.
SiubhanDuinne
@polyorchnid octopunch:
I hope your surgery goes well. I for one look forward to reading more of your comments for many years to come. Please check in with us as you’re able.
Can’t disagree with any of your observations. Be assured, there are a lot of us who are screaming to the heavens, taking to the streets, and doing whatever else we can to halt this slide into fascism or whatever this particular brand of authoritarianism is called.
SiubhanDuinne
@Kent:
Good lord.
JPL
@polyorchnid octopunch: I take you words to heart and I’m scared at what trump will do before the election. Unleashing brown shirts on citizens is wrong, and we appear to be helpless to prevent it.
Now take care of yourself and post when you are back on the mend.
Kay
@Kent:
There’s a middle aged lawyer here who got it, “recovered”, and he told me today he thinks it has had a lasting cognitive effect. He’s pretty far Right and we don’t actually get along but his real sadness got to me. He’s really worried. Two kids in college, at least ten years to retirement and he’s having trouble managing an 8 hour day. He’s wearing a mask.
L85NJGT
@JoyceH:
It’s a Qanon fantasy – not sure if the nutters are driving Trump to chase his own tail, or the WH is walking them to the Flavor-Aid stand by planting this crap.
JPL
@Kent: holy shit
Calouste
@mrmoshpotato: I think even the British newspaper of page 3 girls and “Freddie Starr are my hamster” fame has higher standards than the Intercept.
Yutsano
@polyorchnid octopunch: First things first: I hope things go well for you surgery-wise. Open heart surgery is no joke, but the techniques have advanced so far in this day and age that it’s amazing what can be accomplished now. I sincerely hope you get your issues fixed and we hear from you again.
Second: you’re right. The Republicans need to be banished to the wilderness until they become a sane party again. I tell you what though: something is happening down here. (Up here in my case as I’m in Washington state but still.) There has been a sea change in attitudes. It’s the late 1960s with civil rights all over again. There are certainly no guarantees and it could go even further south in these parts. But we’re fighting. And if worst comes to worse I have a friend in the Canadian Forces who I can probably talk into invading Washington as an occupying force for liberty. I for one would welcome our Canadian overlords.
tybee
@Kent:
well, all righty then.
SiubhanDuinne
@rikyrah:
Yup. The attack on the judge’s family was a hit, and the suspect’s “suicide” was a hit to keep him from talking. At this point, and given who’s in charge, any other explanation is just a leeeetle too convenient.
VeniceRiley
@polyorchnid octopunch: *ovation* Hope you emerge well and return to us. Everything you wrote is truth.
TaMara I have well wishes for you and your fam.
Team: No Volleyball
Gin & Tonic
@Kent: Your Uncle John is really special.
Betty Cracker
@polyorchnid octopunch: Amen to all of that. As you know, most of us (here anyway) are trying to turn the tide. I share your lack of confidence that it’s doable, but one has to try. Best of luck with your surgery. Let us know how you do when you’re able!
noname
@rikyrah:
@polyorchnid octopunch:
I second rikyrah’s comment. Best of luck to you this week.
Uncle Cosmo
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Hey, ya can’t spell Illinois without “Ill.”
For that matter, pandemic is an anagram for “med panic.”
Betty Cracker
@Kent: Facebook’s democracy-destroying money-grubbing was the reason I deleted my account, but relatives like that are why I don’t miss it.
rikyrah
@Kay:
This isn’t talked about enough.
Folks think this is
DEATH
or
You’re ok and it’s a ‘mild flu’.
IT’S NOT THE FLU.
We haven’t even begun to study the long term effects on those who have had this disease. How folks are damaged by it.
It’s part of my rage. There is literally nothing good that we’ve found out about this disease. NOTHING.
Fleeting Expletive
Seems to me that the doctors and public health officers and mayors have as their goal the preservation of lives, fending off a lethal contagion by keeping as many people away from exposure as possible.
That is not the goal of the federales at this time. They are not about saving lives and preserving the health and well being of the populace. Not really an element of their plan. Acquire and maintain power and wealth, and purge anyone who doesn’t assist that goal
And yes, I know I’m just stating the obvious.
Kent
Yup. These are my people. Both my dad and mom were raised in large rural families and they were the two that escaped to college in the 1950s (where they met each other) and have never looked back. I have a few other educated liberal relatives but the rest are rural MAGA bible thumpers.
Family reunions are a riot. On both sides of the family. The women cook and “visit” while the guys play hooky at least once to escape to the nearest gun show then spend the afternoon gathered around their tailgates admiring the latest haul.
And yes, some really do homeschool their kids to avoid them “catching the gay” or learning about evolution. Some of the kids are actually all right. The daughter of one of my rural PA cousins went to nursing school then to a mission project in Africa and recently returned with an African husband who is super cool and amused by the redneck family he married into. They moved to Philly.
Flanders' Other Neighbor
@Mom Says I*m Handsome: Any comments from the jackaltariat?
Same situation in Berkeley except no VB camp and mine is 15. I hope the school cancels sports for the fall so we don’t need to debate a most painful question. I’m a no, I think my wife is a no and I think my daughter is mature enough to realize it’s not worth anyone dying over.
Luckily, I talked her into mountain biking as a way to stay fit for summer, and I think it’s likely riding has taken root. So one silver lining, I guess.
Jinchi
@Kent: That’s quite the collection of right wing crazy in a single FB post.
Uncle Cosmo
@mrmoshpotato: Depraved indifference? Accent on depraved?
Amir Khalid
@Calouste:
As a Liverpool fan, I can tell you that The Sun — the newspaper that printed the most heinous of lies about The 96 — has no standards at all.
Miss Bianca
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: My Dem sis in Maine says “Collins is toast”.
From her mouth to FSM’s noodly ear…
Jinchi
Facebook is Hotel California, you can try to delete your account, but you can never really leave.
Kent
You have to admire the unified field theory of crazy that they are reaching.
Kay
@rikyrah:
He always worked really hard and he has a busy practice. He asked me to prepare something Friday for today’s hearing that is technically (our local custom) “his” to prepare, and I was surprised because he’s not usually someone who pushes off work. Anyway, I did it and brought it and that’s when he told me he’s having a difficult time drafting. He’s not “tracking” properly. I knew he quarantined- was gone for quite a while, because I spoke with him when he was working from home but I didn’t know he had been sick enough to be hospitalized. Anyway. “Better”. But not so good and really scared, because three other people are relying on his income.
VeniceRiley
@Jinchi: That’s the truth. They own WhatsApp and Instagram. They’ll buy whatever refuge the youngsters flee to.
But I met my finance on FB. So I’m cutting them some slack.
J R in WV
@polyorchnid octopunch:
I agree with your criticism of the US… we deserve little or no respect from the free world after the shithole we have jumped into and rolled around in.
Best wishes on your personal health problems — the good thing is that modern cardiac care is far advanced over the past few years, so you have every reason to be optimistic. Please do let us know how you are, if you can.
I always enjoy your comments, which usually seem wise. Love your nym too!
Good luck friend!!
Kay
Nothing to see here. Just federal secret police ginning up violent clashes to help Dear Leaders re-election campaign.
Disgusting.
We’re still two months out. I shudder to think what we’re going to endure before this is over. We haven’t seen everything they’ll do to retain power. I just hope we’re up to it.
Miss Bianca
@Kay: That is a sad story. A chilling story, even. Unfortunately for him and his family and all of us, it may take a critical mass of guys like him getting the disease and suffering these types of hellish effects for the needle to move on the essential asshole-ishness of RW America.
oldster
@polyorchnid octopunch:
Thanks for getting the word out about the Portland protests.
By the way, your nym sounds familiar to me from blogging long ago, like maybe old obsidianwings threads?
Or maybe it was just someone else of the same name.
Kay
If we win it’s good to know Homeland Security has become Donald Trump’s militia. It’s stuffed to the gills with taxpayer largess. A huge, bloated police agency behemoth which is now wholly “political”. We’ll need plenty of money to rebuild after this disaster. Let’s zero that out. Bye bye, fellas. Maybe Donald Trump has some employment for you.
Miss Bianca
@polyorchnid octopunch: Best of luck to you on your surgery and recovery and…as for the rest, well, you ain’t telling no lies.
Kent
I don’t know how they do football. Especially in front of crowds. Here in Camas WA (suburban Portland) it is still on, at least in theory but starting 2 weeks late and will likely be played without fans if it happens, with the games streamed on YouTube.
I have two HS age daughters. Both are in marching band and one runs cross country. It sounds like cross country will still happen more or less as normal which makes sense as it is pretty socially distanced in both practice and meets.
I don’t know how they do marching band. It’s not really separate from regular band so maybe they will have some sort of outdoor performances in the fall that are separate from football. I guess while the weather is still good they can go outdoors to the big fields and just spread out and play instead of packing 150 kids into a band hall for practice. Marching band camp is supposed to start August 7 and so far still sounds like a go.
raven
“Just days after the death of U.S. Rep. John Lewis, Georgia Democrats selected party chairwoman Nikema Williams, a state senator who framed herself as a protégé of the civil rights giant, to replace his name on the November ballot.
Facing an urgent legal deadline, the state party’s executive committee met on a virtual Zoom call Monday to select Williams over four other finalists filtered from dozens of applicants who sought the seat after Lewis’ death on Friday.
Williams is seen as a virtual lock to win the Atlanta-based district, which is so heavily Democratic that Lewis often drew only token Republican opposition since he won the seat in 1986. She will face Republican Angela Stanton-King, an ally of President Donald Trump, in November.”
raven
@Kent: If there are no fans they could spread the band out.
Calouste
@VeniceRiley:
Disney, the largest advertiser on Facebook in the first half of 2020, has pulled their ads. Facebook has a structural problem: their business model is centered around maximizing user engagement by manipulating their users, that leads to extremism, and advertisers don’t want to advertise next to extremism. So either they cut back on manipulating their users and crackdown on extremism, or they will lose advertisers. My bet is they won’t do the first, and delude themselves the second won’t happen.
Kay
@Miss Bianca:
We’re going to be talking about the downstream effects of this disaster for the next 20 years.
Nothing is free. We’re going to be paying for this incredibly selfish action by Republicans for years. I hope they enjoyed the “Lock Her Up” rallies. They were incredibly, ruinously expensive.
Bleary eyed, hungover, they start to survey the wreckage. That was some party they had. Now it’s time to pay the bill.
Kent
I had not heard of Angela Stanton-King before so I googled here. Wow…what a piece of work. She was convicted in a car theft ring and serving a 2-year sentence when Trump pardoned her in Feb 2020, right before the pandemic. She sounds like another Candace Owens.
Gin & Tonic
@raven: The question is by how much? Most marching band instruments are blown into, and I frankly have no idea how far particulates spread from a kid playing the trumpet loudly.
J R in WV
@Kent:
From Facebook by “john”
Pretty obvious racist as well as theocratic nutjob (TCNJ for those curious) to an extreme.
Hope he really did have a non-serious covid case, ’cause he will sure as shit die from it at home if he gets is — whining all the way about the hoax that’s killing him and his family. Actually I don’t give a shit if he dies at home, will save health care workers from exposure on his behalf.
I had a cousin who I was really close to as a kid. He suffered a serious head injury, and later on became religiously afflicted. Hadn’t heard from him in years when out of the blue he called to pray with me for Reagan’s election… you can imagine how well that went.
Kent
Yeah, I’m sure they’ll figure out how to do *something*. It’s just not going to be the same. I know in the grand scheme of things these are trivial hurts with people dying and families out of work and losing their homes. But it really sucks that my kids lost last semester and now their senior year looks to be tanked as well. All because we have a narcissistic sociopath for president because so many racist white folk were butthurt by Obama in 2016.
pamelabrown53
@Kay:
Why Chicago?! My educated speculation is its about Trump’s belief that Chicago is an American stand-in for “shit hole country”. Totally racist.
About Portland, according to folks like Josh Marshall of TPM, there has been an on-going problem with minor violence in Portland. IF, Trump was serious about getting THAT under control why wouldn’t he have deployed his goons to just guard/protect federal property?
Makes it all the more certain that Trump is using his office to foment violence to help his re-election. I believe that this too will negatively boomerang.
Ruckus
@Kent:
True, they never delete your stuff, at least not in a rather long time. Hell you might have a stroke and come back.
However if you delete and don’t attempt a come back in 30 days your login info is gone. Inside that 30 days, used to be 15, you can log in and nothing changes. I cut back my visits to maybe once every 5 to 6 months for a little over 2 yrs and watched my page actually get much less active and then I deleted. If there is no data to mine you pretty much become useless to them. BTW I went from 20-30 contacts a day to that much over the entire 5-6 months and most of those were group page notices. I was very active because of my professional sports contacts but that just wasn’t worth it.
MagdaInBlack
@pamelabrown53:
Black Democratic Mayor ( who told him to pound sand)
J R in WV
@Jinchi:
I think he hit all the bases except for the Qanon child pedophile drug dreams. My cousin was as bad… and projection is what they’re doing, really, it is!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@pamelabrown53:
This. Also, Chicago is Obama and Obama is always in trump’s head
gwangung
@MagdaInBlack: Yeah, but a very supportive police union chief.
Wonder if a repeat of Mom Protest will work here?
WaterGirl
@polyorchnid octopunch: First, your health. All those heart attacks in a week, and facing open heart surgery… sending good wishes and holding you in my heart.
You are passionate and smart and tough, all of which will help get you through this. I am joining the ranks of people who are asking you to let us know how the surgery goes.
You keep kicking our butts to take America back, and fix this, and we’ll support you in what will no doubt be an annoying long recovery. Deal?
Mallard Filmore
@Gin & Tonic:
Good question. There is a spit valve near the end of the tube that you need to open and allow to drain. Maybe tape a tissue or bandanna over the end and see how wet it gets after a practice session?
Kent
I still do it mostly for a couple of groups that I’m on that there is no other way to be in touch with otherwise. For example, there is an active Peace Corps Guatemala alumni group on FB with 1500+ members that I participate in. It was active in helping the current volunteers find homes and jobs when they were all jerked out of the country with 2-days notice back in March. And they network to do things like find Mayan language translators for refugees caught in various immigration courts and such. And do both refugee work for Central American refugees in the US as well as small scale development projects back in Guatemala.
I wish there was an alternative but FB is still the easiest way to do that sort of thing.
It also lets me peer into the jaws of the abyss in a way that living in the Portland metro and reading mostly mainstream media sources will never provide. One needs to know what one is dealing with.
WaterGirl
@Jinchi: Read the one from last night about how if you get a vaccine and then I’m around you, your vaccination leaks out and gets me.
Ruckus
@raven:
The woman running as the republican seems nice. Did a 2 yr federal conspiracy stint in prison. At least she has all the necessary republican qualifications for office.
J R in WV
@Kay:
These “storm trooper” cowards won’t have an easy time of it in Chicago. Portland is full of pacifists, Chicago is not. If they try to intimidate people, they might find they’ve bit off more than they can chew.
And the people in charge have no legal or government background, don’t know what is legal and what could be legal if approached quite correctly, and what won’t be legal ever never.
pamelabrown53
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Thank you! Don’t know how I totally forgot the salient Obama connection.
mali muso
@Mallard Filmore:
@Gin & Tonic:
Some of my musician colleagues posted a recent study about this very thing today. Interesting reading.
Kay
Chad likes to dress up like a soldier but he’s a lobbyist. They’re following a reality tv show conman and a lobbyist, attacking fellow citizens. Whatever limited utility this giant money pit of a federal police force ever had, it’s past time to dismantle it.
MagdaInBlack
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
And he hates Pritzker.
WaterGirl
@J R in WV: Drone strikes on Chicago, brought to you by Donald J. Trump
For Trump it would be a hat trick: Obama, FEMALE mayor who disrespected him, and a governor who dared to call Trump out on his hijacking of PPE, etc.
Just One More Canuck
@polyorchnid octopunch: Good luck on your surgery – I too live in the great socialist hell of Canuckistan, a couple of hours down the 401 from you in suburban Toronto.
What a lot of Americans (no-one on this site) don’t seem to realise is how Trump’s (and Republicans in general) handling of the virus is affecting the relationship between the US and the rest of the world. You speak of the affection we have for the US, which is true, but that affection is certainly being strained. Few people I know have any desire to visit the states in the next few years. My daughter is in competitive soccer (U15) and her team planned to go to a showcase tournament in Minnesota next year with a lot of NCAA scouts in attendance. But that is probably not going to happen now – who is going to want to potentially expose their kids to the virus for a soccer tournament. And more broadly, who would send their kid to a university in the US unless there’s some indication that the government at all levels and the citizens are taking it seriously. Unless this happens, no one is going to want to have any kind of relationship with the US
J R in WV
@Kay:
Chad is the perfect name for leadership in this hoax of a federal police agency!! Last ruler of a zeroed out agency, spending the rest of his life in prison for that one youngster who got shot in the face with resulting skull fractures. He’s directly responsible for that injury.
Ruckus
@polyorchnid octopunch:
I’ve had one, several HA in a week, damn that’s rough. Very glad you have great healthcare available. Good luck and as many have said heart surgery has progressed a massive amount in the last 50 yrs and usually it’s pretty routine anymore.
And I do remember your name, it’s not like something not memorable at all. Hope to see you back here soon
And yes what you wrote is spot on about what we’ve become, or worse have always been, just under the covers.
Jinchi
@Kay: “Homeland Security” always had a creepily Orwellian sound to it.
Bluegirlfromwyo
@Kent: Every time I see one of those, a simple question comes up. Why do these people talk about treatments for a hoax/just the flu? There’s not a single complaint in any of these screeds on that waste of time and resources. They know it’s real. They just think they’re special.
Brachiator
@Kent:
Well, that certainly covers all the bases.
I always wonder how people come up with this, whether there preachers or conspiracy nuts who focus on taking particular bits of nonsense and combining them into the official conspiracy dogma.
ETA. Also, they always get a key evolution idea wrong. They always talk about man evolving from apes, rather than a common ancestor. Maybe this nonsense gets passed down to each generation with new add-ons.
Brachiator
@polyorchnid octopunch:
Good luck with your heart surgery.
Take care.
Chief Oshkosh
@rikyrah:
South Side. Too many people breathing while black there.
J R in WV
@Just One More Canuck:
I don’t know where you got the idea that we’re unaware of the disgust most of the world has for despicable Trump and our election of him not long ago. I’ve traveled a little bit, and back then Americans were welcome nearly everywhere.
I’m sure that won’t be the case for quite a while, even if we elect Joe and get him into office with a strong congressional majority. Refugee status maybe?
Uncle Cosmo
(Just FTR this is for everyone except J R, who claims to have pied me:)
But but but I thought Jeffro uses it as “Trump Cult Nut Job” – ? Can you guys settle on one consistent definition? Otherwise you’ll have to define the acronym again every time you use it…
You understand what “a serious head injury” can do to a human mind?
Completely understandable if that injury happened before they got to know him. But you – You knew him when. You should’ve “shed a tear” for the kid you used to be close to. No matter how intolerable he’d become. It might not have been something he had much control over.
Kent
Yes, I’m a science teacher. Don’t get me started. I taught biology in Waco TX so I know all about it. Honestly it is only human evolution that ever gets their panties in a wad. I can teach plant and animal evolution all day long without the slightest peep. But stray into the origins of man and the fundies come out of the woodwork.
As for where they get this stuff? They sit in their tractors listening to talk radio all day long and then come home and find the rest on the internet at night. There is some crazy shit on talk radio, especially in the rural red parts of this country.
Elizabelle
@SiubhanDuinne:
I wince at stories that say that Judge Esther Salas was not “hurt” in the attack. Which took her only child, 20-year old son Daniel.
Do better, media. The word is “wounded”, but even that falls short. I guess saying she was not shot would be the most accurate.
WRT a suicide: I hope the FBI is dubious until all possible other ties are eliminated. But this is a neighboring office to the Clinton-hating FBI NYC office though, right?
I can see Judge Salas’s judicial colleagues pressing to have this fully investigated. Could happen to any of them, too.
Mom Says I*m Handsome
A little late to the party, but I’m reading Rick Perlstein’s “Nixonland”, and I swear to baby jeebus every couple of pages I forget whether I’m reading about 1967 or today, right down to using militarized government agents to provoke angry-but-peaceful protesters into violence. Herr Octopunch is right, America needs a good reckoning — maybe 8 blows to the nethers? Shame on us.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Mom Says I*m Handsome: that is such a good book. Someday I’ll read his other stuff, but these days I’m so overloaded and angry from all the political input I need to retreat to more distant history and lighter fare to distract myself
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Uncle Cosmo:
Nobody fucking cares
Ruckus
@Just One More Canuck:
And dipshit shitforbrains had no idea how fast and how far the Chinese (hell the rest of the world) have come over the last 20-30 yrs or he wouldn’t have done his asinine tariffs. He thinks that our massive manufacturing business still has no competition or that our food production massively out produces every other economy. He and his ilk think that it’s 1950 still.
Just One More Canuck
@J R in WV: Like I said, I wasn’t referring to anyone here (well almost no-one). But there are a lot of Americans who don’t see any issue with America’s image around the world. That’s who I was talking about – the common clay of Americana. You know, morons
Miss Bianca
@Uncle Cosmo: Oh my, a lecture on compassion and tolerance from Uncle Cosmo. That shows about as much self-awareness as a Republican prating about “personal responsibility.”
satby
@polyorchnid octopunch: Best wishes for a full recovery. In the last thread and this, as an American I sadly agree with all you say.
I hope we can fix it. Rooting for us and you!
lgerard
@Kent:
Jesus, this is beyond crazy
If you have any further conversation with him (and why would you), please ask him where he got this nugget from. It is always instructive to ask to this question of wingnuts…..you get some interesting answers
rikyrah
@Kay:
I couldn’t agree more. Fire all of them, and have them re-apply. I’m sure they’ll qualify…not.
When I say that there are NO PROTESTS. I work downtown. The very center of downtown where all protests happen.
There’s nothing here.
rikyrah
@Chief Oshkosh:
Ain’t nobody going to be playing with these muthaphuckas.
rikyrah
@Just One More Canuck:
We are pretty much banned from entering 85% of the world. …and, you don’t think we know?
gbbalto
@polyorchnid octopunch: First – Best luck to you for your surgery and your recovery.
As a dual citizen who has lived here since 1995, I have been in a long-lasting state of shock about what the US has become in this time. I am still hopeful that this country can start to climb out of the pit, but it will take a lot of work.
The Pale Scot
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
The Clown Brigades need to be called up and deployed. Can get a twofer out of it by ridiculing The Creature known as trump at the same time.
ColoradoGuy
One striking thing that other nations have surely observed is that the US Constitution is way overdue for revision, but Americans are terrified of a Constitution Convention because the right-wingers could strip away the few remaining freedoms we have. So we’re stuck with archaic, slave-era features like the Electoral College, a grossly undemocratic Senate, a House that is rural-weighted, and no representation at all for Washington DC. All of these keep a bigoted white rural minority in power, while the multicultural urban majority becomes more and more enraged at the rural minority abuses of power.
It’s this white rural minority that drag US politics into far-right territory, and a Constitution that is urgently overdue for revision. Just think, without the slave-era EC, neither GWB nor Trump would have gotten in, and without a grossly unrepresentative Senate, Moscow Mitch would not be setting the agenda nor selecting judges. The problem has been slow-growing, but is now threatening the functioning of the Republic itself.
All of this is far more visible to outsiders than Americans, because this is an inward-looking nation that is (very) poorly served by its media. We have been abused for so long it’s taken the Trumpian descent into fascism, along with an ongoing national calamity, to finally get the attention of the public … and even then, ejecting the GOP is going to be a heavy lift, because the Constitutional scales are so heavily tilted in one direction.
The Pale Scot
@Yutsano:
More like 40% of Americans need to be rounded up, put on a reservation and recreate the Middle Ages. No electricity, no internal combustion engines, medicine ‘d be booze honey and leaches.
Justification? Those things aren’t in the Booble and we’re just saving you from Satanic temptations
Uncle Cosmo
My post was not inconsistent with who I am.
Some years ago, one of my cousins was in a fearsome automobile accident (his passenger was killed) and emerged (miraculously) from a coma a month later – and he has never been the same. Likewise for a formerly mild-mannered fellow I knew from the contra dances, who was hit by a car while bicycling & woke up in the hospital.
Instead of taking a personal shot at me over my reply to J R in WV, why don’t you tell everyone what I said that was wrong? Maybe we can all learn something from it.
(I’m still trying to figure out why what seemed to me an eminently reasonable request for the definition of an acronym has some of you furious…but I’m not going to lose sleep over it.)
evodevo
@Gin & Tonic: Kent’s Uncle John has a lot of friends up here in Ky…just talked to a pair of them on the phone yesterday. Family friends of ours for 50 years, but man! they are way out there in right wing la la land. Their bubble keeps them insulated from ANYTHING resembling facts or reality.
MomSense
I’m really happy to hear your dad’s situation is looking better. Will keep all of you in my thoughts. Please try and rest and take care of yourself.
MomSense
@RedDirtGirl:
Picturing you and your mom spending time together, even with glass between you, makes me happy.
WaterGirl
@MomSense: How is your new dishwasher?
polyorchnid octopunch
@oldster: I’ve used this nym for as my polinym for a long time, so yeah, you may well have seen me there back then. I’ve never seen anyone else use it, that’s for sure.
I have some others, for music and/or games blogging/social media. I’ve been on the internet since the early nineties and have other nyms that have fallen into complete disuse and don’t even appear any more; after dejanews went belly up and there was that massive loss of its archives a lot of them went into the bitbucket. In those days I was largely getting myself into the Desktop Wars as well as the Editor Holy Wars. Nowadays all that seems quaint; I guess that’s part of getting older and watching priorities change as I gain experience and dare I hope some wisdom. Did you ever hang out on the old IWeThey forums (i.e. InfoWorldElectric’s Terrible Horde of Electronic Yammerers)? I spent a huge amount of time there back in the nineties.
polyorchnid octopunch
And as my last note on this post, thank all of you for your kind words and well wishes. I hope that when I emerge from ICU in a week or so I’ll be back and yakking again. I look forward to further calumny of the Republican goof party.