Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

The revolution will be supervised.

Trump should be leading, not lying.

Come on, man.

This fight is for everything.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

Since we are repeating ourselves, let me just say fuck that.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

The republican caucus is covering themselves with something, and it is not glory.

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

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

Prediction: the gop will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

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

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

Disappointing to see gov. newsom with his finger to the wind.

When you’re in more danger from the IDF than from Russian shelling, that’s really bad.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Greetings, Earthlings

Greetings, Earthlings

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Some rare good news. Approximately 24 hours after Fox got hit with a lawsuit that had some real teeth to it, this happened:

Lou Dobbs, by far the highest-rated host on the Fox Business Network, has just been canned by the network.
Friday night was his final broadcast, a Fox spokesperson told The Los Angeles Times.

Fox representatives did not immediately respond to CNN Business requests for comment, but a source close to Dobbs confirmed that he has been benched by the network.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Dobbs “remains under contract at Fox News but he will in all likelihood not appear on the company’s networks again.”

His wiki entry made me laugh:

Greetings, Earthlings

Reader Interactions

163Comments

  4. 4.

    lofgren

    Lawsuits like this are extremely hard to win, right? Because you have to prove both that the slanderer was lying and also that they knew (or didn’t care) that they were lying? For Fox to be this nervous is very surprising. Can the voting machine company cite the fact that Fox News was reporting the election one way, but Fox opinion commentators were saying the opposite?

  12. 12.

    RSA

    Indeed good news!

    Off-topic bias: Not that I know anything about Dobbs’s kids, but I think that list of names (Hillary, Chance, Buffie, Michelle, Heather, Jason) is about as white upper-middle class as one could get before the year 2000.

  14. 14.

    West of the Rockies

    Old man Dobbs gets the boot.  Excellent.

    (I use that name because he’s basically the crank neighbor or Scooby Doo villain in personality.  Not tryna be ageist.)

  16. 16.

    debbie

    According to the Los Angeles Times, Dobbs “remains under contract at Fox News but he will in all likelihood not appear on the company’s networks again.”

    I wonder if keeping him under contract is a way to shut him up but good?

  18. 18.

    SiubhanDuinne

    I’ve mentioned before that my office (Canadian Consulate) used to be located in CNN Center, so we were used to running into CNN on-air talent, executives, even Ted Turner (and later Jane Fonda) fairly often.

    During the Olympics in 1996, because traffic was severely curtailed coming into downtown Atlanta, CNN provided charter buses for their entire staff to commute every day, and as a tenant our office was entitled to use those buses. The one for my part of town also happened to be the bus for Lou Dobbs (who worked for CNN at the time). I ended up sitting next to him one morning, and I have never encountered a ruder, more dismissive person in my life. Arrogant, cold, and just gave off waves of being vastly superior to everyone else on the bus. Shouldered his way through the other passengers like a common Donald Trump at a NATO meeting.

    Prick. I’m glad Fox got rid of him.

  21. 21.

    Nelle

    Iowa governor, a Trump mini-me, has dropped all mask requirements, social distancing requirements, and, yee-haw, open up them bars with no restrictions.  She’s complaining that we aren’t getting enough vaccines and why is Biden punishing us, though half of the vaccines delivered to Iowa are still in the freezers.

  22. 22.

    Jay

    @debbie:

    keeping him under contract is a way to prevent him counter suing and minimize the fallout and public scrutiny.

    Kinda like in the Soviet Union people just disappeared, personally, politically, historically and from photos.

  25. 25.

    Mary G

    Also, more consequences for bad action. Midland TX outlet mrt.com says that Jenny Cudd, the woman who got permission to go to Mexico yesterday, was indicted by the federal grand jury on five additional charges, which are all felonies. Much more serious than the misdemeanors she was charged with before.

    Midlanders Jenny Cudd and Eliel Rosa have been indicted on five federal charges for their participation in riots at the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6, according to a grand jury indictment filed Wednesday.

    They’re each facing charges of obstruction of an official proceeding, remaining in a restricted building or grounds, disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly conduct in a Capitol building and parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building.

    Cudd and Rosa were previously charged with misdemeanors for entering and remaining on restricted grounds and disorderly conduct or violent entry. Grand juries are required for the indictment of felonies at the federal level.

    I didn’t know that felonies require grand jury indictment. I am sure somewhere US Attorneys are running people through as fast as they can so they can pile on the additional counts, and it gives me a thrill up the leg to think about all the deplorables currently only charged with misdemeanors suddenly realizing that actions sometimes have delayed consequences.

  28. 28.

    AWOL

    Time for his cousin, the Rev. Bob Dobbs from the Church of Subgenius, to get his own Fox Hate Show.

  29. 29.

    trnc

    @lofgren: ​
     

    Can the voting machine company cite the fact that Fox News was reporting the election one way, but Fox opinion commentators were saying the opposite?

    Hard to say, especially since they have apparently managed to scuttle some lawsuits by arguing in court that all of their shows are entertainment, not news. I hope this will be more difficult to wiggle out of because the number of people who seem to believe the election was stolen is pretty high, which seems like prima facie evidence that the slander could have a real effect on the company since a significant number of those people are in a position to decide on voting equipment purchases. Also, no amount of pink slips signed by a Murdoch can unring that bell.

    But you have a good point. Having a division that makes calls about election results would seem to make it difficult to claim they didn’t know whether the lies were lies or not, and I would hope they wouldn’t get the same benefit of the doubt as a crazy uncle who stumbled onto a facebook thread.

  30. 30.

    burnspbesq

    @lofgren:

    The killer fact in the Smartmatic case is that defendants knew or should have known that Smartmatic systems and software were not used in any of the states where the results were questioned.

  33. 33.

    Jay

    @eponymous:

    ruminate as in attempt to think on it, I don’t think so.

    ruminate as in chew on her cud and make mournful, whiny, lowing sounds, sure.

  34. 34.

    PsiFighter37

    Ever since that fucker got his rocks off on being anti-brown people during the Bush administration, I felt he should never be on a TV show again. I hope Fox realizes this won’t save them, and I hope Smartmatic (and Dominion) take Fox to the house – they are a company that has real money to take.

  35. 35.

    JustRuss

    @lofgren: Not so much.  One of the standards is reckless disregard for the truth, so “sure, I made it all up, but for all I knew it could have been true!” isn’t a defense.

  39. 39.

    A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)

    @SiubhanDuinne: I remember Lou Dobbs having a show on MSNBC (!) when we first started watching the network in order to see the Keith Olbermann “Worst Person in the World” show.   I caught a bit of LD’s show, which I thought had to be liberal since it was on MSNBC.  But it wasn’t.  Hmmm.  I never saw it again and it disappeared shortly after we started watching, IIRC. I can also remember when Rachael Maddow was a guest commentator.  Was not surprised when she got her own show.

  44. 44.

    Another Scott

    @SiubhanDuinne: I’m not at all surprised that he was like that.  It looks like he was 50 then.  People don’t change – especially not people in their 50s – especially not people who continuously fall upward – unless there’s a reason for them to do so.

    Change is hard.  Change is scary.  People hate it unless they realize there are big benefits.

    Why would Lou change?

    Thanks for posting the story.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  50. 50.

    John S.

    @Scout211: White privilege is a helluva thing. I mean, why should an insurrectionist be denied a work-related bonding retreat in Riviera Maya after a long day of sedition?

  52. 52.

    burnspbesq

    @John S.:

    Accommodations like that aren’t unusual in white collar cases, but this isn’t one of those and shouldn’t be treated like one.

  53. 53.

    eponymous

    @Scout211:

    Well, damn. Between that, the snotnose nazi murderer Rittenhouse, the nice young woman with her life ahead of her (Riley something) – lots of white privilege on display.

  55. 55.

    trollhattan

    ZOMG his kid names make it sound like he’s casting a dead teenager movie (H/T Roger Ebert):

    Hillary, Chance, Buffie, Michelle, Heather and Jason.

  56. 56.

    Mary G

    Grifters gotta grift:

    Rep. Boebert paid off nearly $20K in state tax liens in 2020. Right after she reimbursed herself $20K for mileage. https://t.co/OAFYpC1UcP— Mark Elliott (@markmobility) February 6, 2021

    Hope some enterprising Twitterattx lives near her restaurant and say how many miles it is from her house and just how much less she was entitled to.

  58. 58.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Another Scott:

    A former colleague just shared this memory:

    When our offices were still at the CNN Center, I ran into Dobbs late one afternoon at one of the lobby bars. I remember it was a barstools height place. Something appeared on one of the ubiquitous TV monitors which prompted an exchange of remarks. Halfway into his second or third sentence I thought to myself “Sheeet, I’ve got an obnoxious, resentful, full of himself, opinionated asshole here.” Aware that he was a CNN host, I pressed him on nothing and left soon after.

  59. 59.

    Mary G

    Here are key changes to Microsoft’s PAC following listening sessions w/ employees. We will suspend donations for the 2022 election cycle for elected officials and organizations who supported the election being overturned https://t.co/mcz8fQZUiV— Frank X. Shaw (@fxshaw) February 5, 2021

  60. 60.

    Jay

    @Mary G:

    the State Board is looking into it, as she claimed massive Campaign Milage during a period where she had no campaign events.

  61. 61.

    debbie

    @Jay:

    Dominion and Smartmatic are not fucking around. Their businesses have been destroyed, so they have nothing to lose.

  63. 63.

    debbie

    @burnspbesq:

    That’s what I can’t get over. Even after it was made known Smartmatic  had no business in AZ or GA, those clowns continued to say they did.

  64. 64.

    HypersphericalCow

    There are some elderly men whose faces tighten as they age. My family is full of them.

    and then there are elderly men whose faces melt.

    Lou is in the latter category.

  65. 65.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    “Kids, Lou has been taken to a farm upstate where he can run free and be happy and play with all the other aging white supremacists….”

  67. 67.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan):

    i definitely watched Keith O every night, but don’t remember seeing Loud Obbs. Remember Rachel as guest, remember when Morning Joe was on at night (“Scarborough Country,” I think it was called then), even remember Phil Donahue and Aaron Brown (whom I adored).

  68. 68.

    Ken

    @WaterGirl: Better timing would be to file the new charges while she was on the way to the airport, pick her up there, and add “attempting to flee the jurisdiction” to the charges.

  71. 71.

    Another Scott

    One for our Oregonners – ProPublica:

    Oregon lawmakers have filed a spate of bills aiming to reverse decades-old timber tax cuts that deprived counties of billions of dollars and to eliminate a quasi-governmental state agency that has acted as a lobbying arm for the industry.

    The measures follow an investigation published last year by Oregon Public Broadcasting, The Oregonian/OregonLive and ProPublica. The newsrooms found that timber companies, increasingly dominated by Wall Street real estate trusts and investment funds, have benefited from tax cuts that cost counties at least $3 billion over the past three decades. Half of the 18 counties in Oregon’s timber-dominant region lost more money from tax cuts on private forests than from the oft-blamed reduction of logging on federal lands stemming from environmental protections for the northern spotted owl.

    The investigation also documented how the state-funded Oregon Forest Resources Institute, which has an annual budget of $4 million, worked to discredit climate research deemed harmful to the timber industry and appeared to skirt legal constraints against lobbying. By law, the organization is prohibited from attempting to influence policy. Its role is to educate residents about forestry.

    In response, Gov. Kate Brown requested an audit of OFRI, and a group of citizens proposed a ballot initiative to restore timber taxes. Now, lawmakers are weighing additional actions.

    “We as a state must be able to assure, to the greatest extent possible, that we maintain an unbiased, balanced and fair taxation system,” said Brad Witt, a state representative who leads Oregon’s House Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources. The committee will be the first stop for many of the bills proposed during the legislative session that ends in June.

    […]

    Fingers crossed.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  72. 72.

    PsiFighter37

    I do wish the Democrats had treated the $1.9tn offer as the compromise, and had a backup for even more stimulus (basically the HEROES Act) to go when it came to reconciliation. Alas, I hope Biden, Schumer, and Pelosi have plenty of other things lined up for the next time they use reconciliation this fall.

  73. 73.

    Ascap_scab

    FOX Business recently signed Larry Kudlow. It’ll be his show in a week. Hopefully they will also sign Rick Santelli away from CNBC.

  74. 74.

    Ilieitz

    Louis Dobbs was not he is now when he was on MSNBC. Then he got the immigrant bug and he went insane. Loved Olberman and if he didn’t support Rachel today we would still be asking Rachel who?

  76. 76.

    Kent

    @Another Scott: Not said in the article, it was Democratic lawmakers and a Democratic governor who first signed this monstrosity into place at the request of the multi-national timber industry and at the expense of Oregon communities.

    I grew up in Oregon and they sometimes have a very special bipartisan way of fucking things up.  Environmental protection laws are also far weaker in OR than any other west coast state for the same reason.

  78. 78.

    Miss Bianca

    @dmsilev:

    I mean, ‘Buffy’ would have been fine, long and honorable vampire-slaying heritage there. But spelled that way? Fail.

    I agree. (possibly prejudiced as I am in the middle of a BtVS rewatch right now).

  80. 80.

    CaseyL

    I bet the reason Dobbs was canceled, and not any of the other named defendants, is because his show was billed as being actual news rather than opinion.

    I also bet Fox’s defense against both the Smartmatic and Dominion lawsuits will be that all those other shows are “opinion,” not “news,” and therefore fact-finding standards of journalistic ethics don’t apply. I don’t know if that’ll work, but it’s all they have to go with.

  81. 81.

    burnspbesq

    A friend of mine whose birthday is today reminds us that today would have been Trayvon Martin’s 26th birthday.

  82. 82.

    Miss Bianca

    @trnc: I think it’s also the case that since these are private companies, rather than, say, political figures, the standards for libel are different – easier to prove. (Standard disclaimer: IANAL)

  83. 83.

    Jay

    Currently both parties are talking about giving police more funding to combat "domestic terror." What do you think these police will do with more money and who do you think they'll use it against? https://t.co/n6FJIKXKNP— It's Going Down (@IGD_News) February 5, 2021

    EXCLUSIVE: For years, high-profile members of the Solano County Sheriff’s Office have shown support for a far-right extremist group linked to terrorist plots around the country, an Open Vallejo investigation has found. https://t.co/hJYaT67h9F— Open Vallejo (@OpenVallejo) February 5, 2021

  84. 84.

    HumboldtBlue

    @WaterGirl: ​
     

    That’s my understanding as well, because these folks weren’t just casting doubt on the machines and such, they were openly declaring the corporations were in on massive voter fraud.

  85. 85.

    Ken

    @Another Scott: [The Oregon Forest Resources Institute’s] role is to educate residents about forestry.

    “Cut them all down as quickly as possible” is kind of like education.

  90. 90.

    cain

    @Mike in NC:

    He will be heading to OANN. Unless of course they crash and burn. But I suspect that lawsuit is going to follow him everywhere. He’s better off retiring. Dick.

  91. 91.

    Inventor

    @Just Some Fuckhead: I was thinking the same thing. Perhaps feed him disinformation to pass on the the Russians. The problem, of course, is that he would get it all wrong and might accidentally give good info by mistake.

  92. 92.

    Inventor

    @cain: The “Only Anglo Nutbags Network” may not be able to afford good enough lawyers to put Dobbs on the payroll.

  96. 96.

    cain

    @Another Scott:

    They’ll need to be careful about the messaging. The money coming from that should be used to benefit timber folks in some way otherwise it will be demagogued by the right/GOP. They are getting crazier now – just like in all the other states.

  98. 98.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @lofgren: ​
     

    Because you have to prove both that the slanderer was lying and also that they knew (or didn’t care) that they were lying?

    This is only the case if the victim is a “public figure.”

  99. 99.

    mrmoshpotato

    via Kurt Eichenwald

    RIP

    Breaks my heart that the names of officers Jeffrey Smith and Howard Liebengood are not mentioned in the Capitol deaths. They took their own lives as a direct result. Why do we have to demonize the hardest decision a human can take? Why can't we understand the desperation? pic.twitter.com/70dt6e6OtM— Becs Rambaling ??? (@labecs) February 5, 2021

  101. 101.

    cain

    @Kent:

    Yeah, in fact most of the environmental protections was by a Republican governors back in the 70s. There were some excellent Republicans back then.

  102. 102.

    cain

    @CaseyL:

    It’s not going to work this time because they also are involved in election stuff. So they can’t claim entertainment if people go to them for election news.

    Even if you are entertainment, you still can’t be talking whatever shit. I think Dominion have them by the balls.

  103. 103.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    Great news, Biden put the guy who ran the incredibly efficient and successful FEMA death camps in charge of the nation’s Covid-19 supply chain.

  105. 105.

    Aziz, light!

    @Ken: Actually the OFRI is very good at “greenwashing” in the array of well-designed publications they put out, many of them aimed at teachers. These put an environmental gloss on timber industry goals.

  109. 109.

    Jay

    A quick story about bloodlust, QAnon and Facebook:

    There's a picture going Facebook right now that refers to the 10 Days of Darkness.

    Some Q people believe Trump is still in power and has been secretly executing the Deep State for the last 10 days in front of the White House. pic.twitter.com/JqzqAU4Q77— Ben Collins (@oneunderscore__) February 4, 2021

  110. 110.

    Eunicecycle

    @Just Some Fuckhead: I was just watching a clip of him on Rachel, and suddenly flashed back probably 20 years when a rubber glove factory in my town closed. It was said at the time to be the last maker of medical gloves in the country, which could be dangerous in a global health emergency. The manufacturing was sent overseas (maybe Malaysia?)

  111. 111.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @cain: I imagine they will try to get him back on the air at some point as he is their highest rated show host.

  114. 114.

    raven

    @HumboldtBlue: Some friends found a doggie on a hike yesterday and I put pix on a couple of local Facebook Pages. A friend saw it and realized there was a post from a Hispanic Car dealership who had lost their dog and they were reunited!!! The post was in Spanish so we were lucky someone saw it and put 2 and 2 together!

  115. 115.

    raven

    I’ve posted about the young man who lost his mom, grandmother and sister in a fire. The community (and some people here, thank you) raised over $200K for him. Now he’s getting to go to the Super Bowl!!!’

    Atlanta Falcons defensive tackle Grady Jarrett helped surprise 12-year old Taeden Johnson of Athens with a trip to Tampa for Sunday’s Super Bowl.
    Johnson lost his mother Penyada Fields, sister Mariah Fields and grandmother Penny Fields in a predawn fire on Jan. 27 at an Athens mobile Home Park.
    Taeden escaped the blaze and Jarrett became the latest sports star to reach out to Johnson this week.

    He did it on a Zoom call Thursday that aired Friday on CBS This Morning. The network that is televising the game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Tampa Bay Buccaneers helped arrange for Johnson and his mentor, former UGA student, Zach Hendrix to get a trip to the game.

    “Me and my friends at the NFL, we want to grant you two tickets to the Super Bowl this year,” Jarrett told Taeden who was wearing a Georgia “G’” shirt. “The NFL and the Falcons are going to take really good care of you this year and you’re going to have a memorable time, man.”
    Taeden told Jarrett, who plays for a local youth team: “I want to play in the NFL, too!”

    Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan also sent a video message to Taeden this week.
    Former Georgia basketball star Anthony Edwards spoke to him via a FaceTime call on Monday.
    More:Anthony Edwards offers inspiration to Athens boy who lost family in fire. ‘Never give up’
    Georgia football players signed a football as well that Taeden was presented outside the Butts-Mehre building at UGA.
    A GoFundMe account that Hendrix set up for Taeden and his half-sister Sha’Niyah has raised $217,524.

  117. 117.

    Miss Bianca

    @Jay: WTF with these people. “Secretly executing ‘the Deep State’ in front of the WH”? How fucking secret could that execution be? WTF does that even mean?

    I really worry about these people. There’s just no there, there anymore.

  119. 119.

    StringOnAStick

    @Miss Bianca: The blood lust is just plain creepy.  I mean who imagines stuff like what they claim happens to child victims? How could you even come up with such a hideous idea.   Sick, sick, sick.

  120. 120.

    SFBayAreaGal

    @Miss Bianca: I love BtVS. One of my favorite lines from Season 7

    “Of course I’m scared. Last time we were here, 33.3 bar percent of us were flayed alive.”

  125. 125.

    SWMBO

    @StringOnAStick: My niece got into QANON for a while. She joined a few of the pages and read some of the most stomach churning stories. She kept trying to whip me into a frenzy over child trafficking.  This went on for a couple of months. I read some of their soft core pedophilia.  And I started pointing out to her that this was the pedophile equivalent of letters to the editor at Hustler magazine. She was furious with me for not believing these horrible people. Then the FTFNYT story broke about it being a scam and all. Took a couple of weeks to talk her into really looking at this. She eventually came around and dropped the group. Shortly thereafter several people in that  group were arrested. At least I talked her out of blindly following these assholes.

  129. 129.

    brantl

    I’ve probably only seen Lou Dobbs 3 times in my life, and inside of  watching him for 30 seconds the first time, I could tell he was an ignorant, condescending asshole. Glad he’s dust, and bad dust, at that.

  134. 134.

    TS (the original)

    @Jay:

    begosh!! Everyone in Australia is getting a “free” vaccination (we pay through taxes) – mind you nothing happening until the end of this month at the earliest.

  143. 143.

    Arclite

    @CaseyL:

    I also bet Fox’s defense against both the Smartmatic and Dominion lawsuits will be that all those other shows are “opinion,” not “news,” and therefore fact-finding standards of journalistic ethics don’t apply. I don’t know if that’ll work, but it’s all they have to go with.

    The flip side of that is that libel requires that you know you’re wrong when you make the statement.  It’s going to be hard for the opinion blowhards at Fox to argue they didn’t know it was wrong when the news part of the company was saying the opposite thing.

  145. 145.

    Suzanne

    @Jay: I would presume that if some people actually thought executions were occurring in front of the WH, at least someone would go watch and report back? WTF. I can in no way climb into the mind of people who literally have zero factual basis in reality.

  146. 146.

    Gvg

    @Roger Moore: read further. He didn’t of course. Just that it is apparently less justifiable after he lost.  Some of it was after but it started in 2017. As anyone here would have expected.

  147. 147.

    Another Scott

    ScienceMag – Lyme disease bacteria like white-footed mice, don’t like skinks:

    […]

    Lyme disease is one of the most devastating tick-borne infections in the United States, affecting more than 300,000 people each year. It’s also one of the most mysterious: The creature that spreads it—the black-legged tick—lives throughout the country. Yet the northeastern United States is home to far more cases than anywhere else. Now, researchers have identified an unexpected reason: lizards.

    Black-legged ticks (Ixodes scapularis), also known as deer ticks, carry corkscrew-shaped bacteria that cause Lyme disease. The ticks pick up the pathogens—spirochetes that belong to the genus Borrelia—when they suck the blood of animals like mice, deer, and lizards. In the next stage of their life cycle, the ticks may latch onto an unlucky human. But every host transmits the microbes differently. Reptiles are worse transmitters than mammals, so ticks that have lived on reptiles are less likely to make people sick.

    The north-south divide in Lyme cases is a fairly sharp line right along the border of Virginia and North Carolina. Researchers have hypothesized that disparity in cases stems from ticks feeding on different hosts in the two regions.

    To test the idea, Jean Tsao, a disease ecologist at Michigan State University, and colleagues conducted an extensive study of eastern ticks—their abundance, behavior, and hosts—over 2 years at eight field sites across the United States. They found a clear divide in ticks’ preferred hosts and behavior south of Virginia, matching the pattern of both tick infections and Lyme disease.

    [ graphic ]

    The stark difference seems to be tied to one host in particular. In the northeast, black-legged ticks latch onto small mammals like the white-footed mouse, which are notorious for transmitting the Lyme disease bacteria to the bugs. But in the south, the ticks prefer to feed on lizards, particularly skinks. These sleek, smooth-scaled reptiles often live in leaves and twigs that have fallen on the ground—so-called leaf litter—and are particularly poor transmitters of the Lyme pathogens. So fewer southern ticks are infected and fewer people get sick—the team reported last week in PLOS Biology.

    […]

    Naturally, climate change is upsetting the boundaries, with implications for Lyme disease infections…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  150. 150.

    Yutsano

    I’mma let y’all finish, but this is my first comment from my brand new computer. I’m quite chuffed.

  151. 151.

    WaterGirl

    @something fabulous: Not sure what that means, but it did send me looking to see if there was a long string of text above that might be breaking the margins.

    Found a naked URL from Jay that looked like a good candidate, so I fixed that.

  153. 153.

    HumboldtBlue

    @Yutsano:

    I’mma let y’all finish, but this is my first comment from my brand new computer. I’m quite chuffed.

    It’s like lotion on chapped skin, I learned that with new laptop.

  159. 159.

    Arclite

    @Ivan X: I just listened to an interview with the lawyers representing Smartmatic on The Daily podcast.  They went after Fox because they can prove that with the widest audience, Fox did the greatest damage.  It took months of research to put the complaint together.  So they’re still considering action against OANN and Newsmax.

    This lawyer is the same one that won the “pink slime” suit against ABC.

  160. 160.

    Death Panel Truck

    @cwmoss: Neither. It’s from “Zilch,” a track from the Monkees’ Headquarters LP. Each Monkee repeats a nonsense phrase over and over, faster and faster.

Comments are closed.