Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

We will not go back.

“Perhaps I should have considered other options.” (head-desk)

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson is the bland and smiling face of evil.

How stupid are these people?

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

If you voted for Trump, you don’t get to speak about ethics, morals, or rule of law.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

I would try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

The “burn-it-down” people are good with that until they become part of the kindling.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

Republicans got rid of McCarthy. Democrats chose not to save him.

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

Wake up. Grow up. Get in the fight.

The willow is too close to the house.

The fight for our country is always worth it. ~Kamala Harris

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

It’s pointless to bring up problems that can only be solved with a time machine.

Human rights are not a matter of opinion!

If you don’t believe freedom is for everybody, then the thing you love isn’t freedom, it is privilege.

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

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As if the gators and bugs weren’t bad enough…

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One of Florida’s many curses is the giant, indestructible flying cockroach, but something much worse will soon be winging its way to the state. From the Tampa Bay Times:

As President Donald Trump’s last-ditch efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election fail, his actions and words are increasingly pointing to one likelihood: When his presidency ends, Trump will return to South Florida and remain a force in Republican politics…

“If the president says he’s going to run in 2024, he’ll probably clear the field. He’ll be the Republican nominee, and he’ll spend the next four years running,” U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, viewed widely as a potential 2024 candidate, said Sunday on NBC’s “Impact” with Jackie Nespral.

Though Trump’s influence is already waning and will weaken further once he is out of office, his rally this past weekend in Georgia displayed his continued importance for Republican politics. Trump’s remaining power comes from his populism, and his unique ability to amass a coalition of previously apathetic voters, blue-collar workers and Latinos…

I’m not sure we fully know the makeup of that coalition yet (exit polls are hot garbage), but it seems to be uniquely Trump’s. Valued commenter H.E. Wolf passed along a link to a plausible explanation of why that is here. That said, some good could come out of Trump’s loser retreat to the peninsula:

Trump’s potential as a 2024 candidate is also disrupting the plans of presidential hopefuls. His presence in Florida would complicate the upward mobility of Rubio, Gov. Ron DeSantis and U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, all of whom reportedly have Oval Office aspirations.

If Trump cock-blocks those three pricks, he’ll have accidentally done the country a service. DeSantis in particular is a danger, combining Trump’s stupid prejudices and weakness for flattery with dogmatic Reaganism and just enough competence to pull off a coverup.

Also:

I don’t think a run would be successful, at least not for a statewide office. The Trumpenprolitariat like Trump’s personal crudeness and bluster, and the vapid, breathy-voiced daughter can’t credibly convert into a South Beach Sarah Palin. But yeah, Steve is right, she’ll probably try. Le sigh.

Open thread!

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Look at that curve!

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The above graph is part of the vaccine efficacy data that is being submitted to the FDA by Pfizer.  The blue line is the number of cases over time for people in the vaccine arm. The red line is the number of COVID cases by time for people in the placebo/control arm.

Looking at the curves, it looks like vaccines provide little to no protection within the first ten days.  The height of the blue line is about the same as the height of the red line.

By Day 14 there is starting to be a gap.

By Day 28 the gap is a chasm.

After Day 28, it seems like the vaccinated arm will get infections here and there, but no huge leaps.

This is an amazing curve.

And from an infection breaking perspective, this is probably good enough to break infection chains and crush the reproductive rate even if we made the completely unnatural and unsupported assumption that the immunity is very short term  and fades after three or four months.  This would require frequent re-vaccination/boosters and fire break strategies, but even in a fairly bad case scenario that is not supported by the data, this is very good news.

Assuming that immunity lasts longer and the news gets even better assuming that the logistics of distribution and the trust issues around vaccination are resolved.   Those are huge and challenging issues.

But the take-away is that Spring 2021 has the chance to be a much more open and active season than Spring 2020.  That is dependent on getting vaccines distributed and in peoples arms. That is dependent on masking up and minimizing interactions. That is dependent on minimizing the number of hospitals that are overwhelmed as well as the duration of the surge.  But there is a pretty good chance that Spring 2021 is better than Spring 2020.

And a very good chance that Summer 2021 is better than Summer 2020.

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On The Road – Steve from Mendocino – Provincetown

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Steve from Mendocino

1978 was a year of particularly high drama, even for me.  I had just gotten my MBA, I was uncertain in my personal relationships, I was feeling a need to vastly expand my liberal arts education, and I wanted to explore life on my own, without oversight from all those whom I’d grown up with.  At the beginning of January, I packed my 66 VW bug with a large orange crate of books, a nice collection of cassettes, some pot, and a huge sense of adventure, and drove from Los Angeles to Provincetown.  I’d rented a tiny room in the back of a house that was unoccupied during the winter, and I settled into a routine of reading 8 hours a day, 7 days a week for the two months I was there – mostly classical literature from the late 19th century and first half of the 20th century.  I made no effort to get to know anybody — just settled into an increasingly isolated world of American, British, Russian, and French writers.  It got rather strange.

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On The Road - Steve from Mendocino - Provincetown 7

I arrived at night, in the middle of s snow storm to a strange little town at the tip of Cape Cod, chosen for its extreme contrast from the Los Angeles world I needed a break from.  VW bugs don’t do real well on slippery surfaces, so when I arrived after more than 2 days on the road with only a couple of quick naps, I was both exhausted and terrified of sliding off the road in an unknown world.  I found the house ok, and managed to let myself in, and collapsed.  The next morning, I woke up to this.

Late Night Horrorshow Open Thread: Speaking of Aliens…

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Not entirely sure what’s going on here, but it seems clear enough that the GOP Death Cultists, backed into an increasingly small ‘safe space’, are starting to turn on each other. Why not Ted Cruz, Stephen?!?

If it weren’t so horrifying, it would be mildly entertaining.

Late Night Horrorshow Open Thread: Speaking of Aliens…Post + Comments (97)