And boy do we need a rescue…or at least a plan.
I know you guys could probably use a good respite post, but I’m just not feeling it. I keep trying to do anything but obsess on current events to no avail. But I do hear WereBear has a new housemate and she’s going to share with us soon, that’ll be good for a bit of a break.
Meanwhile, let’s relish in our new and improved President and try and keep this post sedition-free (but I’ll understand if we drift).
Open thread
Old Dan and Little Ann
Hockey is back! Go SABRES!
Cheryl Rofer
I have a respite post, will put it up a while after this one.
Baud
Baud
Let it all come out.
MisterForkbeard
The plan looks pretty good, from what I can tell. Lots of vaccine distribution money. Money for schools to re-open, though I’m not sure how that will happen. $1400 stimulus, and additional money to unemployment ($400/week now). Lots more money for test/trace.
Haven’t dug all the way through it, but it’s $1.9 trillion total and more than I was expecting. Just really happy we’re not going with austerity.
debbie
@Baud:
I hope the Rich family sues his ass to hell and back.
Citizen Alan
Off topic, but would someone please explain to me how expressing a hope that an insurrection participant “dies in prison” can be construed as a call to violence? Because that’s the basis Twitter gave for suspending me.
Joe Falco
My only quibble is it should be a full $2,000 instead of a $1,400 (because add that to the distributed $600 and it’s $2,000!), but I’ll be glad if we can get everything that’s on Biden’s plan passed through.
Baud
MisterForkbeard
@Citizen Alan: Because they didn’t bother to read it and just saw that you hoped someone would die?
dmsilev
“Waiting for Joe Biden”
Aren’t we all. 5 days 16 hours 43 minutes to go.
Baud
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Kid posted a pic on FB getting her second jab(she said she didn’t grow an extra toe, so it’s safe).
Ken
@Baud: I can never remember the difference between malfeasance and misfeasance. Just charge him with both.
Baud
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Nice. I can’t wait to cross over to the other side.
dmsilev
@?BillinGlendaleCA: But what if we _want_ an extra toe?
Gin & Tonic
@debbie: They did. That’s why these guys are publicly recanting. It’s part of a settlement agreement.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@dmsilev: She did note that might have been kinda cool.
dmsilev
“Joe Biden Will Actually Do Infrastructure Week”
Baud
dmsilev
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Could we at least get a prehensile tail?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@dmsilev: Then we’d all have to get new chairs.
Baud
@dmsilev:
Already part of the Baud! 20XX! platform.
dmsilev
@?BillinGlendaleCA: See? Economic stimulus!
HumboldtBlue
@Old Dan and Little Ann:
Sabres are in an online battle with the Red Winds for best looking home jersey.
Neither are as good as the Flyers, but the Sabres are second best. I always loved that sweater.
jackmac
What a pleasure to hear from a real President!
The Moar You Know
@MisterForkbeard: money does not seem to be the issue. In places where schools have stayed distant, an absolute lack of vaccine would be the problem. In areas where they have stayed open, finding enough not-sick qualified people to staff them is the problem.
Vaccine solves both problems.
Here in CA, Newsom just shoved all the teachers to the back of the line to get it out to over 65s, many of which are retired and virtually none of which are working with the public.
I will vote for his recall. Wasn’t going to do it, but as always his political ambitions have triumphed over his common sense. Been the theme of his life.
Yutsano
If you really want respite. you can’t do worse than a friendly Scottish mum making you soup for tea. Or whatever else she’s making. Half the joy here is just listening to her talk. She’s like a warm sweater on a cold day.
Punchy
Hows Biden going to get any of this done once the 3 Name Trollop files articles of impeachment against him? Doesnt that expel him from office immediately? Isnt how all of this works?
Hoodie
@Baud: Big Government!
About damn time. I am so tired of infantile dolts that think you can run a country with 350 million people and a 25 trillion dollar economy like it’s 18th century Virginia. Small government types are just another strain of religious fundamentalists.
dmsilev
@jackmac: Remember the “Joe Biden is senile” attack line from the campaign? Yeah, that’s aged well…
Yutsano
@HumboldtBlue: I want a Stars alternate jersey so stinking bad. Gonna have to wait until I recover more from the holidays but yeah.
Better yet…I need the Kraken to do one.
Chetan Murthy
@The Moar You Know: I think Newsom is stupid and wrong on a lot of things re: covid. But this isn’t one of them.
Inoculating teachers will not fix the problem with schools. Which is that children infect each other, and then they go home and infect their families. The evidence is clear that children are efficient vectors of covid transmission, and indeed with B117 in the wild, it will only get worse: much, much worse.
Prioritizing by risk of death and utility for combating the pandemic is the right call. So: older people and immunocompromised, and health care workers go first. Until you can immunize the children OR completely suppress community spread, you cannot reopen schools for in-person education.
MisterForkbeard
@The Moar You Know: The over 65 thing doesn’t bug me that much, it really doesn’t. Every over 65 person I know is hugely at risk. They have greater consequences if they catch it and I understand the idea to give them the vaccine first.
But the school-opening thing just seems wrong. With very few exceptions I don’t think we CAN open schools safely. I have a teacher friend up in Oregon who’s been teaching in-person for 5 months and they’ve had exactly one sick staff member and only a few students. No idea how they did it, but the evidence seems to show that it’s not reproducible.
Maeve
I just had a phone call with an old friend and we kept swearing to get off politics but couldn’t keep off it. She just had a cousin who was in his 70s in an assisted living home die of COVID and was trying to help write his obituary. She has been spitting mad at those who don’t wear masks for a while but now she’s just exhausted. But we agreed we just need to carry on ( not just about COVID but about politics e.g. continuing to GOTV in off season state and local elections etc. ). OTOH we also discussed sea shanties.
Barbara
@The Moar You Know: Vaccinating teachers without vaccinating children is incredibly risky for the parents and family members of those children. Right now, we are in vaccine purgatory, because there is simply not enough of it. My county is going to try to vaccinate teachers as its next priority after 70+, but there are definitely going to be different states adopting different approaches.
HRA
Over here in Sabres country we were sent a message today that making an appointment will not be available for a vaccine until April. I hope that will be wrong once Biden is in charge.
bemused senior
Beating a cop with a flagpole because he thought the cop was antifa. https://extremism.gwu.edu/sites/g/files/zaxdzs2191/f/Peter%20Francis%20Stager%20Criminal%20Complaint.pdf
Chacal Charles Calthrop
@dmsilev: me and my polydactyl cat agree! Extra toes for everyone!
Elizabelle
I love Joe’s voice. And it is an ambitious package, but pandemic times (and rebuilding after
trump) call for extraordinary responses.Audacious responses.
HumboldtBlue
@Yutsano:
Well if you wanna look like a highlighter that’s your sweater!
nevsky42
Listening to Joe from another room, I thought I was listening to a man thirty years younger. Man, he has energy. It’s almost as if he’s been waiting thirty years for this job. ;)
And I love that he addressed the debt complaint up front; if Trump had done something big in March it would have been a helluva lot cheaper that the economy limping along for the past year…
CaseyL
Biden’s speech was a delight to hear.
You know what’s even more delightful?
With unified Democratic control of Congress, we might even get that package passed!
Yeah, there’s Manchin, and a few Blue Dogs in Congress. But not nearly as many as there were in 2009, when Biden and Obama were working to get their anti-recession package through.
NotMax
Incitement to sanity.
;)
Brachiator
@The Moar You Know:
You need to prioritize those most likely to get sick or die. This includes all people age 65 or older. You need to get the vaccine into Hispanic neighborhoods along with getting the jab to hospital and medical staff, and other frontline workers.
The recall movement vents a lot of anger, but accomplishes nothing. The people crawling out from under rocks to test the candidacy waters would have fucked things up more.
HumboldtBlue
Another QAnon letters home from the battle of the Capitol is out.
jnfr
I listened to him kind of in the background. I find his cadences soothing. And I totally trust that he will find a way to put together a competent Administration. It will take longer because he’s dealing with such a mess left behind, but we’ll get this done.
CarolPW
@MisterForkbeard: If you look at the cases/100,000 residents Oregon had very low numbers before Thanksgiving, and their Thanksgiving increase was a swell rather than a rocket taking off. Same for Washington where I am. Our schools opened too, without disaster.
We had a Thanksgiving swell too, and now we are having the Christmas addition to it. Don’t know if they will open the schools again this month; I hope not until our numbers get back down.
Eunicecycle
Today was the first day to call the county health department to get an appointment for the vaccine where I live in Ohio. Although it was limited to those 65 and over, predictably the phone lines were overwhelmed. My husband and I are planning to just hunker down longer until we can get the vaccine. I expect it will be another 2 months at least.
Chetan Murthy
@Brachiator:
TL/DR “What Brachiator said”
But with a little more detail: I’m pretty goddamn disappointed with Newsom: he fucked up big time in May/June. But we have to remember Duverger’s Law, which tells us that if we recall Newsom, we’re just helping the GrOPers. Who would have done what? Let EVERY SMALL BUSINESS, EVERY RESTO open and stay open. As bad as things are, they’d have done a lot fuckin’ worse.
NotMax
OT.
Extremely noticeable how many PSAs are running on what otherwise would be paid ad spot time all of a sudden on MSNBC.
Advertisers pulling back? Whatever for, now?
Brachiator
The Biden plan is a good start. He should concentrate more on small business and employed folks who are hanging on, and put infrastructure on the back burner.
The stuff about restoring manufacturing is nice but wrongheaded. Coal jobs ain’t coming back, nor is a lot of manufacturing.
The goal is simple. Help people maintain and prime the pump to stimulate the economy as we hopefully come out of the pandemic shutdown.
JMG
@Brachiator: Remember what items in this plan are specifically designed to keep Joe Manchin on board.
M31
@Yutsano: that is so great! I love listening to her talk. Watching the individual chicken pie one now
Auntie Anne
I can’t tell you how relieved I am to hear that Biden has a plan to bring the full force of the Federal government on this pandemic. I wanted a plan more badly than I knew.
Benw
@Elizabelle: there you go again with the hopey audacity stuff.
:)
I think I stole this from Slate but Joe and Kamala should “move fast and fix things”. Just go for it
thruppence
Good plan, but I think Joe’s writers need to write more to the average American attention span. Short. Direct. Out.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@The Moar You Know: California Vaccination Plan:
Looks like teachers are with the 65+ group, hardly the back of the line.
NotMax
@Brachiator
Sidebar.
The Capitol power plant* continues to use coal. Granted, now down to about 5% of the fuel used (which translates to around 40,000 tons per annum, IIRC ), but still….
*(Primarily steam for heating and refrigeration for a/c. Electricity for the Capitol is generated from outside sources.)
Leto
@?BillinGlendaleCA: well, not everyone can read easily available sources. Whatcanyado?
Ruckus
@Joe Falco:
What $600? I’ve gotten nothing yet. The last time we were supposed to get money It was deposited in my bank before I knew it was coming. I’ve not seen hide nor hair of the the $600.
geg6
@Brachiator:
“The Biden plan is a good start. He should concentrate more on small business and employed folks who are hanging on, and put infrastructure on the back burner.”
Maybe where you live, but there are roads and bridges falling apart and lead in the water in lots of places around here and, even if our GOP majority in the legislature wanted to fund these projects, COVID and the malevolence and incompetence of McConnell and Trump has led to the emptying of our state’s coffers. Not to mention the job creation possibilities. These projects take time to plan, so why not fund them to get them started? And the ones that are “shovel ready” may be something that can be done even during this crisis.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Ruckus: I got a debit card in the mail today, that’s how they’re delivering it, it seems(I got a paper check last time).
(I also got my new DL, good cause the old one expires in a week.)
Joe Falco
@Ruckus: That sucks. I’m sorry to hear that.
Mary G
@The Moar You Know: I signed up on the Othena app that Orange County is using. You give your information, check your category out of dozens (mine was 65+ with comoridities). Then every day I log in and see that no appointments are available for me yet. My housemate and her extended family are all in one health care category or the other and the ones that checked that they work face to face with patients got appointments right away and the ones that checked a lower category have not got them yet. So at least here they are getting the line set up so as new batches of vaccine arrive they just notify that number in line to come and get it. I think it’s a good system. I was second to last – last are healthy 65 year olds. Everyone else has to wait.
trollhattan
@The Moar You Know:
That is not correct. He added the 65-75 cohort to the tier that includes educators.
Supporting the recall is your own business but do not do it for false reasons. Also know it’s being funded primarily by an Orange County Republican and that’s how we got governor Arnold–Republican shenanigans.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@trollhattan: When I went out to Amboy and stopped in Victorville for gas, a closed gym there had a huge “Recall Newsom” banner.
Mike S (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!)
@Ruckus: We got a check for $1200 last Saturday. Last year’s was a direct deposit.
Ruckus
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
If you are on a federal payment system, like SS, you would be rare without a bank for that monthly deposit. They do not like to send checks. So that is the way I got the $1200 last time and how most get their SS payment. I’m expecting that rather than a debt card, which costs something to produce and distribute. Of course that something is probably going to some bank that is owned by conservatives who get a cut.
JanieM
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I got mine by direct deposit.
Ruckus
@Mike S (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!):
Hmmmm. Seems strange to go backwards. Oh wait it’s the shitforbrains maladministration, bassackwards is the only direction it knows.
Also my gas and electric bills took 12 and 13 days to travel 20 miles in the USPS system.
caphilldcne
@Old Dan and Little Ann: Go CAPS!!
Fair Economist
@The Moar You Know:
Why would you recall Newsom for implementing an absolutely bog-standard prioritization that’s done the same in every polity I know of? I can’t think of one place that’s vaccinating teachers before >65.
When you’re far below herd immunity the benefit is maximized by giving it to those most likely to die, and at present the increased risk of being older considerably outweighs the risk of jobs with public exposure. Maybe when we’re >50% vaccinated it makes more sense to vaccinate high exposure people than high risk people, but by then the elderly willing to be vaccinated all should be.
Ruckus
@JanieM:
So they really, really don’t have a damn clue do they?
Patricia Kayden
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Ruckus: I should note, the IRS has my bank account info.
Brachiator
@JMG:
I think that some of the rhetoric was for him, not the plan details.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Patricia Kayden: The refusal to wear masks while in lockdown would lead one to that conclusion.
Ruckus
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Well I see that you are not the only one, so whatever is the issue, it seems that in the age of trump SNAFU is the normal state of things.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Ruckus: One advantage of the debit card is no signature from shitforbrains. It’s also more secure since you have to provide the last 4 digits of your SSN to activate it. There was an alert going around on the Ring app of folk stealing mail to get stim checks, that won’t work with a debit card.
cain
It’s interesting how in speeches especially the last 4 years that you never hear about biparitsanship at all.. Trump has never talked about how he is going to work with both parties. But it wasn’t particular that much during Bush 2 from what I remember. Only Obama and now Biden have been talking about working together.
ETA – it just pisses me off that 75 million people don’t two shits about all that unity.
Brachiator
@Ruckus:
The debit cards are relatively cheap. The government eats the costs. Unemployment compensation and what used to be food stamps are paid on debit cards.
Tax refunds from places like HR Block are paid on cards. A lot of people are used to them. People avoid having to pay check cashing fees.
JanieM
@Ruckus: I don’t know. In the spring there was a published priority list that gave some idea of who would get the $ first, next, etc. I don’t remember what that system was, but I didn’t get mine right away, to the point where I was wondering if something had gone wrong. But also, there was a direct statement that $ would go directly to your bank account if you had given direct deposit info with your last tax return, which I had.
This time, either they haven’t published a priority list or I missed it
ETA: Ruckus, here’s an article that might shed light. I didn’t do more than a quick skim.
jnfr
I was happy to see that in its latest schedule, Colorado moved teachers up to Phase 1b. They are finishing 1a now and starting 1b.
I am 67 with medical conditions, and Mr J also has medical conditions, but we are safe to work from home and shelter here, and I do think schools (and all frontline workers) are more important in spite of my age.
Subsole
@Brachiator: Joe barely won union households.
When we lose Unions, we lose the blue wall. That’s a buttress job, if I had to guess.
Also a chance to fuck the GOP royal by letting them vote against labor measures.
Subsole
@thruppence: The Reverend Senator from GA may be able to help there, beimg a preacher and all.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Subsole: Democrats didn’t leave the unions, the unions left the Democrats starting with the Teamsters endorsing Nixon in 1972. You also have to remember, unions includes the police unions.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@cain: Democrats are always supposed to be bipartisan and concern over the deficit becomes a central issue. This NEVER happens with Republicans.
Geminid
@Subsole: A prospering working class- in both the service and industrial sectors- makes for a stronger middle class and a better funded government. I’ve seen college educated Democrats who just do not get this.
trollhattan
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
IMHO there’s blood in the water and the recall campaign could get legs. Plenty of Dems are slagging him too but as always, it’s mostly Republicans feeling their oats. (They did okay here in November, reclaiming House seats.)
I’m not a big fan but don’t find anything he’s done to remotely warrant removal from office.
Geminid
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Did you know the Teamsters endorsed Biden this year? And unions include the SEIU, nurses, flight attendants, teachers, the UAW, letter carriers and others. A lot more than police unions.
Hoppie
@Ruckus: $1200 in the joint account we pay taxes out of/get SS direct deposited to posted January 4th.
Also to everyone, Moar may have been misled by KPBS misreporting that 65+ers would go ahead of rather than along with others in the queue. But with more than 1 million people in San Diego county in tier 1, there will still be rationing,
And adding 65+ers was on advice of the feds, we are told.
thalarctosMaritimus
@Chacal Charles Calthrop: Four thumbs up, from my polydactyl Daphne!