Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

If you can’t control your emotions, someone else will.

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

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

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

This country desperately needs a functioning fourth estate.

Books are my comfort food!

Finding joy where we can, and muddling through where we can’t.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

Everybody saw this coming.

So very ready.

In after Baud. Damn.

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

To the privileged, equality seems like oppression.

There are some who say that there are too many strawmen arguments on this blog.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

Not loving this new fraud based economy.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

Text STOP to opt out of updates on war plans.

Cancel the cowardly Times and Post and set up an equivalent monthly donation to ProPublica.

Republicans do not trust women.

You are here: Home / Archives for 2020

Archives for 2020

This is what optimism sounds like in Arizona

by | 51 Comments

This post is in: ,

The Arizona modeling team has been running models to predict hospital demand from both COVID and non-COVID demand drivers. On November 27th, they wrote to the Arizona state government about their most recent model runs. The results are dire:

No matter what actions are taken, Arizona will experience a hospital crisis in the coming weeks. However, if action is not immediately taken, then it risks a catastrophe on the scale of the worst natural disaster the state has ever experienced. It would be akin to facing a major forest fire without evacuation orders….”

This is a dire half paragraph from academics.

And it is based on modeling that has a key assumption that is probably optimistic:

The models that are projecting a baked in crisis and a catastrophic outcome under a no-change scenario are assuming that there is no change in transmission dynamics from the Thanksgiving holiday. That is a shaky assumption. We know that Thanksgiving has lots of people traveling, even if travel was down significantly this year compared to 2019. We know that Thanksgiving tends to have a lot of talking and loud voices in confined, interior spaces. We know that Thanksgiving tends to have a good amount of drinking. I think that making the assumption that Thanksgiving will not change infection trends is a key assumption that requires significant sensitivity analysis.

However, I also think that the modeling exercise with data that probably was fresh on Tuesday or Wednesday of the week for a Friday release is useful. The model is putting out a floor. Thanksgiving could be a nothingburger but business as usual is still a catastrophe by Christmas. Thanksgiving could produce a significant bump in transmission which moves up the no-intervention hospital overload by days or weeks. The model and its results gives a meaningful floor from which action can be taken to divert from the projected outcomes.

But right now, this is what “optimistic” modeling looks like in some states.

This is what optimism sounds like in ArizonaPost + Comments (51)

Sunday Morning Open Thread: Soothing

by | 169 Comments

This post is in: , ,

show full post on front page

Sunday Morning Open Thread: SoothingPost + Comments (169)

Late Night Schadenfreude Open Thread: TP-USA Is Having A Bad Cycle

by | 90 Comments

This post is in: , , ,

It was only a year ago that Charlie and Jerry Falwell Jr. were both riding high, announcing their new ‘Falkirk Center for Faith and Liberty’ — “a national think tank with the mission of equipping “courageous champions to proclaim the Truth of Jesus Christ, to advance His Kingdom, and renew American ideals.” And yet for some reason (professional jealousy, perhaps), the Falkirk Center was eyed askance by more traditional education institutes.

Then Falwell’s ‘Poolboy Scandal’ broke. If you need a refresher, TPM has an interview with the young dude at the (ahem) heart of the story: “Sex, Lies, And Regret: Giancarlo Granda Reels From Eight Years With The Falwells”.

Now all the GOP Death Cult machers are pointing bony fingers at poor pitiful young Charlie…

show full post on front page

Late Night Schadenfreude Open Thread: TP-USA Is Having A Bad CyclePost + Comments (90)

Saturday Evening Open Thread: #TrumpFailShow Still Workshopping New Routines

by | 201 Comments

This post is in: , ,

show full post on front page

Saturday Evening Open Thread: #TrumpFailShow Still Workshopping New RoutinesPost + Comments (201)

Celebrating Jackals: Narya – Kitchen Reveal (finally . . .)

by | 98 Comments

This post is in: , , ,

Time for the big reveal! And apologies for taking so long to organize this; I was so stressed about the election that I couldn’t think, much less try to write coherently. It’s not that big a space—but I was also having trouble fitting things into the frame (not least because I’m not a good photographer). Of course, that will make the tour easier.

Things I would have done a little differently: I might have replaced the butcher block with new butcher block and with a little more of an overhang. The cabinet handles stick out a bit, and I occasionally snag a hipbone on them. The light over the sink shines directly in my eyes—I should have had that light under the cabinets. The microwave kinda sucks—the light over the stove is too dim AND it gets very hot (it might be halogen, which would be stupid); I had no idea that that was something I needed to even think about. The fridge is only adequate—there’s no light in the freezer and no cheese drawer in the fridge—but it was really the best I could find that wasn’t French doors or freezer on the bottom. It is SUPER quiet, though, so I now realize just how close to dead the old one was.

Things I like even more than I thought I would: all of the storage space! The stacked cabinets were totally the way to go. The stone counter—it is so nice to not have to watch my countertop rot. Three racks in the oven—awesome. The floor is wonderful, and the light color means I end up cleaning it WAY more often, so there’s that. And the tile—I love having some color in the kitchen. May I point out that the tiles are all the fault of John G. Cole: after his last trip to the Fiesta factory outlet, I was noodling around on their site and discovered that I could get tiles in licensed Fiesta colors, from a factory in Pittsburgh. I have Fiesta dinnerware, in multiple colors, so spending the extra on that tile was a no-brainer. 

And now that I’ve been using it for a couple of months, I realize just how many workarounds I had in place. I’ve added a curtain to the window (I MacGyvered a roman shade that looks . . . okay, but I will make a new one when I get the sewing machine fixed), which, in the two days it’s been up has already improved the temperature in there. All in all, the whole thing is such an awesome upgrade—definitely a thing for which I am grateful this year.

Celebrating Jackals: Narya – Kitchen Reveal (finally . . .)Post + Comments (98)

Celebrating Jackals: Narya - Kitchen Reveal (finally . . .) 5
DR to porchNovember 27, 2020

First up: This is looking from the doorway into the kitchen; the fridge is out of frame on the left, as is the long counter. Here you can see that there’s now a stone countertop where there was once rotting butcher block, and you can see there’s an undermount sink, as well as a faucet that doesn’t leak. (There’s also no garbage disposal, because it turns out the sink is too deep and there was no room; I don’t really care.) You can also see the floor, and the new storm door.