If I have to choose between getting help right now to Americans who are hurting and getting bogged down in a lengthy negotiation — it’s an easy choice.
I'm going to help the American people who are hurting.
— President Biden (@POTUS) February 6, 2021
Given that Biden's $1.9T COVID relief plan has roughly 70% support among Americans, it seems to me that the fewer GOPers who vote for it, the better Biden and Dems look in comparison.
— Daily Trix (@DailyTrix) February 7, 2021
Biden is enjoying an unexpected honeymoon with the left flank of his party. Progressives were worried he would govern like a moderate & close them out.
But now say the admin's early outreach gives them reasons to be optimistic for now.
w/ @lbarronlopez https://t.co/UaHyXV8FIV
— Eugene Daniels (@EugeneDaniels2) February 5, 2021
One ‘constituency’ remains distraught: Our Very Celebrity Media Villagers…
Biden's not-so-wild weekend in Wilmington: no Twitter outbursts, no golfing and no major fanfare to greet the new president https://t.co/6bECm8lBzU
— Thomas Kaplan (@thomaskaplan) February 7, 2021
On The Road – Albatrossity – Winter in Flyover Country 4
Baud
I’ll be pleasantly surprised if the love from the left lasts.
The Kaplan tweet didn’t seem negative, but I haven’t read the article.
debbie
It’s certainly encouraging to see Democrats this united.
Baud
@debbie:
Agreed. We are good when people put ego aside.
satby
Haven’t heard from Tom Petty in a while, and what a great song / video for me to get reacquainted.
danielx
But policy is sooooo boring!
Baud
p.a.
It’s easy to stay united when the opposition has a 2-play playbook: NO! or String Along > NO!
Interesting that the most influential opposition is the deficit media scolds and pseudo-republicans like Larry Summers
VOR
After Trump, the bar is pretty low. But the fact Biden is not chasing marginal Republican votes on proposals makes me happy. Finally, finally learning Lucy is going to pull the football away every time.
debbie
@danielx:
They’ll be rending their robes and ripping out their hair when they hear the Dems’ detailed evidence showing that Trump incited the insurrection.
Nicole
@VOR: Yeah, I’ve been happy about the “You’re welcome to participate, GOP, but if you don’t want to, we’re still going forward without you” attitude.
satby
@VOR: This framing is annoying. Democrats in Congress have known for a long time (probably decades)that Republicans deal in bad faith. A noise media and lackluster voter support with most of the low info voters insisting “both sides”, plus being the minority party, plus blue dogs limited what Democrats could accomplish. What changed is us, our voter turn out, our demand for better policy; and that gives our elected Dems some room to accomplish it in spite of a media still bleating about bipartisanship.
Edited to add: and after the last disastrous four years, voter turnout in 2020 in the US zoomed to just under 67%. Still not enough, but if we end voter suppression it may get better.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone ???
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
rikyrah
@satby:
Pretending that they don’t bargain in bad faith seems to be over. And, I welcome that.
RandomMonster
@debbie: Oh yeah, we have some impeaching to do this week.
satby
@rikyrah: We’re very partisan, and it took destruction for four years plus mass murder for a lot of average folks to get off their asses and give Dems the backing. It shouldn’t have had to come to that.
Baud
@satby:
@rikyrah:
IMHO, McConnell’s hypocrisy on Amy Comey Barrett was the final straw for some.
Baud
@satby:
I still remember how Obamacare was under water in approval rating until the GOP took over everything in 2017. By then, it was too late, but for McCain.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@rikyrah:
Good morning
debbie
I stopped watching long before the half-time show, but I’m gathering I missed nothing.
danielx
@rikyrah:
Biden has one vast advantage over Obama – he already knows there’s no point in spending a lot of time in negotiating with people who are determined to see him fail.
Ken
@debbie: I didn’t even start watching, and I gather the same. Some friends had proposed a zoom party, but it didn’t go anywhere. Probably best, those who just wanted to chat would have annoyed those who wanted to watch the game and yell at the referees.
prostratedragon
A post from Spocko about incitement vs free speech that might come in handy this week. (Mentioned here yesterday perhaps?)
Mary G
Somehow I doubt that a massive program that gives people things like a check, continued unemployment boost, a $3000 child benefit and competent handling of vaccines is going to be as unpopular as Obamacare was.
I’m personally thrilled to bits with Biden so far. He talks the unity, but he’s governing to the middle left, like Kamala’s slogan “For the People.” You unify with us, Republicans, or get out the way.
I want him to publicize exactly who got how much PPE money when Munchkin was handing it, and claw back everything from people and companies who laid workers off anyway. Republicans are down and it’s the perfect time to metaphorically kick them in the teeth.
By the way, Merrick Garland needs confirming and a much larger budget for DOJ. The insurrectionists alone are thousands of people.
Geminid
@satby: Two states that Democrats flipped last year had very large increases in turnout. Georgia went from 3,950,000 votes cast in 2016 to 4,830,000 in 2020. The increase in Arizona was proportionally even greater: 2,400,000 in 2016, 3,330,000 in 2025. An increase of over 33%.
satby
@Baud: My (endless) point. The majority of people, including news media people, don’t dig into information or analyze policy the way we political junkies do; they rely on whatever headlines they see or hear. And what they hear is “both sides (at) fault”. It took an insane president* and such a lopsided obviously untrue set of circumstances for enough reality to set in that even Jake fucking Tapper started calling bullshit. Until then the both siders outweighed the outraged. As Obama said “make him”; he meant back him so he could.
Baud
@satby:
Agree. Everyone over the last 20 years who said there’s no difference between the parties was doing the work of fascists.
satby
@Geminid: And thank g_d for that. I’ve never understood not voting (other than being a victim of deliberate suppression) and I had to drive back to my legal residence in another state for 8 years to do it.
TS (the original)
And Biden’s appointment of Merrick Garland highlighted this truth. That Lindsey Graham refused to take the nomination to committee showed how much the trumpists recognized that Garland is well up in understanding of how the GOP operates.
Seeing Garland at Justice and Barrett on the SCOTUS will be a continual reminder of what McConnell has done to the US justice system.
Skepticat
I agree. I was discouraged when during the campaign he talked about reaching across the aisle, knowing how futile it would be, but I’m pleased with his current position. Any reaching across the aisle now might be best with only a slap.
Baud
@Skepticat:
He has been reaching across the aisle though. It’s the GOP that has refused to reach back. It’s not like Biden has changed his position.
Geminid
@Geminid: Speaking of voter turnout: over the weekend Politico had an article about Florida Democratic politics that reviewed potential candidates for the 2022 race against Gov. Desantis. That got me curious about past races. I found that in 2010 Rick Scott beat Alex Sink by 60,000 votes out of 5,170,000 cast. In 2014, Scott beat Charlie Crist by 64,000 votes out of 5,660,000. In 2018, turnout jumped to 8,020,000, and DeSantis edged out Andrew Gillum by 33,000 votes. Regardless of who the Democratic challenger to DeSantis is next year, it seems likely to be another close race.
Betty Cracker
@Geminid: That’s an amazing increase! I hope we can pull off similar miracles for 2022 and 2024. Republicans at the state level are redoubling their suppression efforts, but the examples of Abrams in Georgia and Wikler in Wisconsin are excellent blueprints for others to follow. They prove it can be done, even with corrupt, anti-democracy state officials in charge.
danielx
@Baud:
Truth. But again unlike Obama, he knows the fallacy of negotiating with yourself. He is not going to start by trying to figure out what his opponents are willing to accept in the name of bipartisanship, since that leads to the trap of “negotiating in good faith”.
They are never going to negotiate in good faith – see McConnell, Mitch.
Immanentize
@Baud: one of my favorite cartoons from the Obama age was in two panels. Panel one — Obama is standing on the left, hand outstretched and face to face with Boehner who is standing on the right. Obama says, “I’ll meet you half way.” In panel two, Obama is in the same posture, but Boehner has taken a huge step backwards further to the right leaving a big space between them.
Brachiator
@satby:
Voter turnout was the highest in 120 years. It may be tough to improve on that.
danielx
@Immanentize:
Exactly.
ETA: if “Fuck those guys” isn’t a rotating tag line, it ought to be.
OzarkHillbilly
I has a big ol’ sad: No baby girl today. My daughter in law has the day off (she’s been doing 5/12s running a compounding pharmacy ever since the start of the pandemic) and being the selfish bitch that she is has decided to spend the day with my granddaughter. Who does she think she is, the mother?
Some people.
eta: on the other hand she is pregnant again so I am looking at another grandchild in 7 months or so. Maybe I can forgive her egregious sin this time.
Immanentize
Dorothy A. Winsor
So the impeachment trial starts some time today. I look forward rather grimly to reminders of exactly what happened on Dec. 6. Maybe we can get some pics of Rs looking bored while a video of a mob invading the capitol is played.
satby
@Brachiator: Oh, c’mon, for most of those 120 years a majority of citizens wasn’t even allowed to vote at all. Voting was a bitterly fought and hard won right, turnout should be higher.
Immanentize
@danielx: one take away from that ‘toon is that even the commenters of the moment knew the Republicans were acting in bad faith
WaterGirl
Is there an impeachment schedule anywhere? I looked at all 3 C-SPAN stations and I don’t see it.
Is the whole thing streaming somewhere?
Immanentize
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I thought the trial was starting tomorrow, but maybe they have to gather this evening for a campfire and s’mores?
OzarkHillbilly
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I’ve been hearing it starts on Tuesday.
Immanentize
@satby: It’s so easy for people to forget even the recent past. I asked my students Friday why DC had such strict gun control laws. I said it was from an event in the ’80s. One student said, “9/11?”
Low Key Swagger
@WaterGirl: That’s what I like about you. Thinking ahead, planning to keep relevant events posted. Thanks for the time you put in. (Anne Laurie as well)
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Immanentize: @OzarkHillbilly: You’re undoubtedly right. I can’t decide if I’m sorry or relieved to have to wait.
satby
@Immanentize: I live among them ?. Most aren’t deliberately ignorant, just busy with surviving in a culture that doesn’t value knowledge. And some are malignantly ignorant and proud of it.
Edit: of course, to us the 80s are recent, to most of your students it was before they were born, i.e. ancient history.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Immanentize: Oh lordy. Yeah, they were infants, if that.
I once asked a class who ruled England when Shakespeare wrote and the first guess was Caesar.
ETA: Today is my 205th day in a row of doing Duolingo Spanish. I am still sadly ignorant.
Ken
En Español, por favor.
satby
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I self-pwnd when I took my Mennonites to the Museum of Science and Industry last year. We stopped at the lunar landing exhibit, the mom was enthralled watching the video. I asked her, “you mean you don’t remember it” , and she said “no, I wasn’t born yet”. And she wasn’t for almost 20 more years. ?
Baud
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Usted mejorará con practica.
Another Scott
@danielx: I think that’s an unfair history. The ACA was written the way it was because HillaryCare failed when it was written in the White House. The lesson learned was that Congress had to write it. They did, and there were exactly enough votes to pass it.
Obama didn’t negotiate against himself there.
YMMV.
Cheers,
Scott.
Brachiator
@satby:
Should be higher? Based on what?
Maybe number of votes cast is a better way of looking at things, as opposed to voter turnout. The 2020 turnout was astounding, but so too was the raw number of votes cast.
But voter turnout percentage has not been particularly high even in the modern era, even since women suffrage, voting rights legislation and votes for 18 year olds.
And this does not take away the need to fight voter suppression and gerrymandering or the need to increase the franchise to former felons, etc.
The Dark Avenger
@Baud: The hate will come from the Radical Centralists in the media, asking why the Republicans aren’t allowed to
Have their say and run things, as usual.
Soprano2
Yes, thus their constant “Congress hasn’t done anything on covid relief” headlines since May of last year, when the truth is that it was the Republican Senate that refused to do anything for months! They didn’t want to frame it that way because it would put all the blame on Republicans, and God forbid they do that, even if it is the truth! This kind of lazy reporting makes people throw up their hands and say “What’s the use, they never do anything anyway so why should I vote, it won’t matter”.
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: Heh.
Immanentize
@satby:
Ha! ❤️
Ken
@satby: I saw the moon landings, though I was a little young to appreciate what was happening, and was mostly irritated that they were taking off my cartoons to show this. Then within a few years the rest of the country came around to my point of view.
satby
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Watch Spanish language TV and listen to radio in Spanish. It helps train your ear even when you can’t quite catch what they’re saying.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Ken: Didn’t you see where I said I was ignorant???? Verbs are going to kill me.
@Baud: That seems to be true. It’s just painfully slow. Oh well. It’s a good pandemic project.
WaterGirl
@WaterGirl: I just looked at C-SPAN TV channels more closely.
TUESDAY
1:00PM
Impeachment Trial of Former President Trump Impeachment Trial
8 hours
9:00PM
U.S. Senate Impeachment Trial Highlights
5 hours
Nothing yet for the other days.
satby
@Immanentize: I’m the “English” Gramma ???
Betty Cracker
@Immanentize: Cry harder, kitty. Cry harder. Hahahaha! :)
satby
@Soprano2: Exactly, and thank you!
O. Felix Culpa
@OzarkHillbilly: Condolences on the (temporary) theft of granddaughter and CONGRATULATIONS on the pending arrival!
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Ken: I remember because it was the day before my 21st birthday, which seemed equally important to me.
@satby: A friend told me she does that with Norwegian, which she’s been trying to learn. I notice that when I start the day’s lesson, the first few sentences are much harder to understand. Then my ear catches on.
Immanentize
@Betty Cracker: A well deserved YAY! OH YEAHHHH! for the Buc beating? Buc crushing? the Chiefs received. Congrats.
geg6
Fetterman is in!
https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/08/politics/john-fetterman-pennsylvania-senate-race-2022/index.html
zhena gogolia
@WaterGirl:
I thought it started tomorrow.
zhena gogolia
Omnes doesn’t show up in the morning, does he? I need to continue an argument with him.
WaterGirl
@zhena gogolia: It does!
Immanentize
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Your birthday then, is only a couple days before mine! A couple of days and well, (add the 7 carry the 5 divide by 2) — those other things, how do you say in Spanish? Años?
Brachiator
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
As some have noted, watching Spanish language TV might help. Specifically, watching the news might be fun and useful. You will have a context for what is being said, especially when they do international stories.
WaterGirl
I totally agree with this statement:
Ken
@geg6: And so our brief moment of respite ends, and the 2022 election season is upon us.
WaterGirl
@zhena gogolia: Are you Irish? :-)
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Immanentize: So like many aging New Englanders, Tom Brady moved to Florida. Then he departed from stereotype and kicked butt.
Soprano2
@satby: Several years ago I was standing in a room with a few other co-workers talking about the silliness of the Fox channel “fake moon landing” stuff, and I realized that I was the only person in the room who had actually seen the moon landing live on TV! I think that was the first time I realized how old I actually was, and that was when I was in my late 40’s!
Immanentize
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Immanentize: Muchos anos, chico
satby
Completely off topic but.. I made two of the best freaking soaps I ever have and I can’t decide which one to use for the shower I’m about to take: ruby red grapefruit or a complex woodsy-musk-tobacco one called Radar Love. You just know the formulator had Golden Earing in mind.
Decisions…
Spanky
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
I think you should work at becoming happily ignorant. I don’t know how I’d have gotten through life any other way.
Ken
Yes, and that’s one of the words where the tilde is very important.
(Forty years since I took high-school Spanish, and what do I retain? Of course….)
Soprano2
@satby: You’re welcome, it was driving me crazy all last year that every Democrat didn’t say in interviews every chance they got that the House had passed covid relief, but the Republicans in the Senate refused to even negotiate on the bill. Sometimes I wonder if they realize how many times they have to say something to the public until it seeps through. Every time the topic came up in any kind of conversation I would always mention that it was actually just the Senate blocking things, and most of the time people had no idea of that.
Betty Cracker
@Immanentize: We thought the Bucs had a chance to win but did not foresee them dominating as they did. Pleasant surprise!
@geg6: Excellent news! Fetterman is awesome, and what a great seat pickup opportunity!
WaterGirl
@satby: ruby red!
rp
@WaterGirl: Who are “some Dems”?
satby
@WaterGirl: I don’t know why, he’s as full of shit as he always is. Grandstanding for his cult.
Ken
More information required. What are you planning to do the rest of the day?
zhena gogolia
@geg6:
Re Eilish, it was precisely people like you I was addressing. I wasn’t doing the “onion-on-the-belt-kids-these-days” thing that OO was accusing me of. I didn’t expect a 16-year-old girl to explain Billie Eilish to me. I knew there were people here, well over 16, who like her, so I was hoping one of them would explain to me analytically what they see in her. I just don’t see it. I don’t like rap and never will, but my students have educated me about the artistry involved in it. I was hoping someone here would explain to me what her artistry is.
WaterGirl
@rp: Janet Yellen for one was discussing lowering the amount yesterday.
OzarkHillbilly
@Spanky: Well said, well said indeed.
zhena gogolia
@WaterGirl:
Not that I know of, although my mother made potato pancakes in the Irish fashion, I learned as an adult.
Spanky
Michigan Man!
satby
I lean Ruby Red now too. But the last several comments have returned the “duplicate” b.s. so I’m done anyway.
It’s not just FF. I think it’s ads or refresh or cache, but I don’t care much which. I just leave for hours.
WaterGirl
@satby: I think he is right in describing exactly how that will go over. I am not one to agree with Bernie.
satby
@zhena gogolia: She’s joking about how my people carry arguments and grudges ?
jonas
It’s not like they’re even reaching back with reasonable points of negotiation. Biden’s position is: we have to help people, and help them now. GOP position: we’d rather not.
Geminid
@rp: The notorious Joe Manchin has advocated a cap of $50,000 for the full benefit. This won’t be in the final version of the bill, and I expect Manchin will vote for it anyway. This dispute has a kind of good cop/bad cop aspect. The $75,000 dollar cap tracks last years relief bills
zhena gogolia
@satby:
Oh, I know. One of my best friends is Irish :)
Immanentize
@satby:
I have a (broken) 45 of “Coming on Strong” because of Radar Love. And I love Brenda Lee.
satby
@WaterGirl: ok, last comment: he’s gassing, it’s not going to happen. But thanks to his ass, people will start to think it will and the stabbed in the back meme gets another refresh.
raven
@Immanentize: It’s too bad it’s not in the clip but, at about 11:49 Spike explains a bit about using Aron Copeland’s music in He Got Game.
I’ve seen where he explains that he wanted to expose kids to thongs they had never been before. “They don’t even know who Muhammad Ali is”! (And this was 1998)
WaterGirl
@satby: @zhena gogolia:
satby is right, I was teasing you because you wanted to carry over the argument, though you may have been joking about that.
Ah, I see that you knew that already. :-)
Betty Cracker
@WaterGirl: I agree. It’s not outrageous or unthinkable to talk about caps, IMO; that’s an honest policy debate, and all honest policy debate takes place within the Democratic Party since the Republicans aren’t interested in governing. But Sanders isn’t wrong about how it will be perceived if cap-lowerers win the argument.
df
I am cautiously optimistic about the continued plummeting of case numbers, but I also keep seeing center-to-left ink being spilled waiting for the other shoe to drop. I know the UK variant is supposed to be dominant by March, but at least the vaccines still seem to work against it somewhat, as opposed to the South African variant. But even then, buried within all of these articles is a line like “Moderna and Pfizer remind everyone that they can crank out a new vaccine in weeks, so…” Admittedly, getting a new vaccine into everyone again isn’t a cake walk, but it’s not like we’re back to square one.
I don’t know. I guess I just want something to be more permanently optimistic about. I generally trust the media that’s to the left of Fox Qs, (alternatively: Foqs News), but it seems like as soon as there are any positive signs, the Atlantic has a front page story like “Here’s Why We’re Actually All Fucked”, and I’m not sure how truly optimistic/pessimistic I should feel. But every single COVID denialist seems to trot out “the media are SCAREMONGERING” constantly, and I don’t want to do that either. I need an actual epidemiologist to weigh in or something.
tl;dr: When can I start feeling optimistic?
WaterGirl
@df:
Things are WAY better than they were a month ago. Maybe focus on that to get some optimism back?
Immanentize
@raven: If I could pick our national song, it would be Copeland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man.” But I think “2001” ruined that for many, but now the new people don’t remember that movie.
Saw graffiti in Munich once: “In 100 years, all new people.”
df
@WaterGirl: That’s true. Hospitalizations are down, and at least in my state, deaths are way down too. I hope there isn’t another surge, but that’s good news either way.
grandmaBear
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I’ve read that for many Spanish or Mexican soap operas are the best for practice – everyday language, idiomatic usage and fairly easy to figure out from the visual context.
JCJ
@Dorothy A. Winsor: The suggestions of Spanish language TV news reports are good. You can probably find some on YouTube. When my daughter took a German pronunciation class in college the students were given video links to listen to. She would ask me to listen as well. Some were really hard to understand for her and her classmates. I found some difficult as well and had to listen a couple of times.
prostratedragon
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Thanks for the motivation: I’d been meaning for a while now to track down an educational telenovela I used to watch occasionally. A search of “spanish educational telenovela” turned it up immediately.
The story follows Mexican attorney Raquel Rodriguez as she investigates a family matter for a client. Her research takes her to Spain, Argentina, Puerto Rico … (I think there were even a few episodes in New York City), all places where the vernacular and accents are somewhat different. There are over 50 episodes and I only caught a few back then, but found it very involving. Think I’ll watch the whole thing myself.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@grandmaBear: @JCJ: These and all the other suggestions are very helpful. Thanks, jackals.
raven
@Immanentize: And here it is from He Got Gam
God I wish I could still play.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@prostratedragon: Thanks, I bookmarked that.
Geminid
@Geminid: The “good cop/bad cop aspect to the cap debate is that while the $75,000 cap tracks that of last year’s bills, some people are now arguing that there should be no cap at all. As many of these complaints are coming from “progressives,” Sanders helps protect his and other Democrats’ left flank by standing up to the centrist ogre from West Virginia.
geg6
@zhena gogolia:
Well, I happen to like her singing. And she sings about things that young, intelligent, unconventional and somewhat alienated women have sung about for years and years. Her music speaks to young people in a way that punk spoke for me at that age…I looked to Blondie and Patti Smith for those sake things. I just try to be open to things musically and am often surprised by what I discover. There is some great rap out there. My absolute least favorite sort of music is country music. Just the worst. But even there, I have some artists who I think are great, like Dolly and Chris Stapleton and a small number of others. I still think country, as a genre, is the worst of all of them though, no contest. I’d listen to death metal before most country.
Baud
Google brought up this handy looking article about how the different stimulus proposals would work, with charts and all. One useful thing to remember is that the income limit is not a hard limit — it’s when the stimulus check begins to phase out.
Also, while it doesn’t necessarily help with the politics if some people don’t get checks, as far as I am aware, the money “saved” would be used to make the bill more progressive, because more lower income people would benefit from other programs in the bill.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
I am amazed to what exterimes people in our society in general will go to forgive useless incompetents and frauds while at the same time demanding perfection from the able. It took Donald daughter fucking Trump letting a million Americans die because he couldn’t be bothered to do his job for most of the population to realize crap like the color of a politician’s suit is just so much frivolous BS.
geg6
@Immanentize:
I only wish I could forget that movie. It certainly ruined the song for me, but not in a good way. It’s my hall of infamy worst movie ever that everyone claims is genius but is really stupid. LOL! Worse than country music even!
rikyrah
My money’s still on the Spawn of Satan’s Valet.
Trump Jr. says he will campaign against Liz Cheney in Wyoming in revenge for her attacks on his father after Trump loyalists fail to get her booted from GOP leadership
Donald Trump Jr. will go to Wyoming to campaign against Liz Cheney
‘I hear it’s lovely during primary season,’ he told Politico’s Playbook
Cheney was one of 10 Republicans to vote to impeach President Donald Trump Wyoming’s primary isn’t until August 2022 but Trump Jr is sending a warning sign his family won’t forget those who were disloyal
His warning also comes as Senate prepares to start impeachment trial Tuesday
Cheney has been under fire from conservatives since her impeachment vote
She survived a challenge and remained a member of GOP leadership in House
But she was censured by Wyoming state party and already faces one primary challenger with more mulling a run against her
By EMILY GOODIN, SENIOR U.S. POLITICAL REPORTER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 09:12 EST, 8 February 2021 | UPDATED: 09:29 EST, 8 February 2021
montanareddog
@satby: Golden Earring have just announced they are hanging up their plectra after 50 years, following the guitarist’s ALS diagnosis
End of an era for Golden Earring
gene108
@Brachiator:
Voter turnout percentage, I believe, is based on the percentage of the eligible voters that vote.
Since who can vote has been steadily expanded, the number of eligible voters increases, therefore comparing voting percentage in the election of 1820 to 2020 isn’t an apples to apples comparison
The Thin Black Duke
It’s no big deal; you’re either tuned in to her frequency or you’re not. “Good” or “Bad” has nothing to do with how you respond to Ellish. For example, I know Bruce Springsteen is a great musician, but his music has always left me cold; I hear static. It’s a frequency I can’t hear clearly. It’s not his fault or mine, however. It’s just the way it is.
mrmoshpotato
I see the Superb Owl wasn’t that superb. Anyway, here’s Gene’s Super Bowel. (Bob’s Burgers)
sab
I am curious about how other jackals are doimg on hetting signed up for Corona vaccines. Izf you aren’t living or working in a nursing home Ohio’s seems to be really sucky.
The only for people I know who managed to get them as olds just happened to wander into a pharmacy late in the day and late in the week, so they got the about to be wasted units.
I don’t know anyone who has successfully signed up for an appointment, and God knows we are all trying.
Chyron HR
@rikyrah:
Imagine thinking people don’t support the GOP because they aren’t getting enough of Don-Don.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@The Thin Black Duke: Books are like that for me. I’m always surprised when a friend doesn’t like a book I love, but I guess that’s why there are lots of different books.
prostratedragon
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Just found used copies of the written materials are available from you-know-where.
mrmoshpotato
@rikyrah:
I need one of those 5-gallon cans of cheddar, caramel and butter popcorn.
Shoot him in the face, Liz! Then make him apologize for it!
H.E.Wolf
@Immanentize:
Aaron Copland wrote some wonderful music! However, he was (metaphorically) vision-impaired: unable to see the full range of women’s musical talents.
From an April 2013 article by Alex Ross in The New Yorker (he’s their music expert):
“…as recently as 1978, Aaron Copland suggested that women had an innate block against creating large-scale musical structures”.
Ah well. I remind myself, when I run into examples of cultural inertia, that my own most forward-thinking viewpoints will eventually seem antiquated. :)
gene108
@Betty Cracker:
Bucs defense was amazeballs in the post-season. I know Brady’ll get all the praise, but the defense played lights out against Rodgers and Mahomes.
Just One More Canuck
@Immanentize: I only know it from Emerson Lake and Palmer, but then I’m Canadian
The Thin Black Duke
@Dorothy A. Winsor: For sure. A monochromatic rainbow would be pretty boring.
mali muso
Suggestion for those working on a second language (from my experience in acquiring a few), watching some TV in the target language with the subtitles turned on in that same language has always been helpful to me. Mainly because I can recognize the words visually (having studied them) but connecting that knowledge to the corresponding sounds, particularly in how the words flow together, is more difficult. YMMV.
Second thing, can anyone steer me in the direction of good, evidence-based (science!) advice that is current for best practices on treating COVID at home? My dad’s case has not gotten better and he was diagnosed with pneumonia last night (thanks to me sending my parents an at-home oximeter which prompted them to go ahead and see a doctor). Any links to reputable resources would be appreciated.
Betty Cracker
@The Thin Black Duke: The great Molly Ivins expressed a similar sentiment in defense of country music back in 1988.
Soprano2
I noticed, when I signed us up on the vaccination sites in my locality to get in line, that they cite Type 2 diabetes as a risk factor for COVID, not just diabetes. That seems odd to me, that Type 2 would be a risk factor but Type 1 wouldn’t. Plus, I’ve heard that having asthma also makes you at higher risk, but all I’ve seen cited is COPD. I feel like I’m getting conflicting messages, big surprise huh?
PAM Dirac
@sab:
I don’t know if it is because my wife works in a hospital and knows the process or because Maryland has things well organized, but I had no trouble making an appointment and the first dose went very smoothly. Second dose on Friday (if it isn’t snowed out)
mrmoshpotato
@Chyron HR:
LOL
The Thin Black Duke
@Betty Cracker: Kewl. Thanks!
Another Scott
@zhena gogolia: You mean Billie Eilish Pirate Baird O’Connell?
I don’t know anything about her either. I might recognize one of her songs if I heard it on the radio, but that’s about it.
Sorry!
Cheers,
Scott.
Geminid
@Baud: I trust Speaker Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, and their respective caucuses on this legislation. So long as they serve up a $1.9 trillion dollar sausage, I’m not getting strung out over the exact ingredients.
Nelle
@PAM Dirac: My son works for the city and heard some scuttlebutt in the hallway that in our county alone, they were going to allow 65 and older to sign up immediately. He called and we signed up within the hour. But the news kept giving the state category of 75 and older. I think it takes some inside information in some places. We didn’t jump the line but I’m not pleased that it took inside info. A little guilty, I guess.
Brooklyn Dodger
@Dorothy A. Winsor: 205 days is a good run! I’m kind of a by-rote learner and I depended on memorizing verb tenses but that obviously has its limits. Also my discipline, which is poor. I’ve been listening to the Hoy Hablamos podcast and finding it engaging. There’s even homework in the premium subscription.
The Dark Avenger
@H.E.Wolf: That’s funny, seeing as he studied with Nadia Boulanger in Paris as did his buddy Lennie Bernstein.
frosty
@geg6: Try Halestorm, “Here’s to Us”. Not death metal but hard rock with a female singer. I also really like Evanescence in that genre.
ETA and Steve Earle for country, especially the album he did with Del McCoury.
topclimber
@Geminid:
@WaterGirl: I am open to a less than 75K compromise, as long as they give taxpayers the option to use estimated 2020 income rather than 2019. Claw back amounts if those estimates prove incorrect.
Lots of folks saw their incomes fall in Covid Year 1.
Ramalama
@OzarkHillbilly: A compounding pharmacy rather that what? I don’t know what that is.
Omnes Omnibus
@zhena gogolia: There is no argument. You don’t get her. That’s fine; as I said last night, you aren’t meant to get her. She and her brother aren’t writing and performing for you.
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
@Baud: perhaps they should read about this weekend partial collapse of a Himalayan glacier and the subsequent river flash flood and dams it took out. Any politician who insists climate disasters are something that’s going to happen “eventually” is an idiot.
WaterGirl
@mali muso:
I’m sorry to hear that your Dad’s case has not gotten better.
But go you for sending your parents the pulse oximeter, so there is at least a diagnosis for the pneumonia.
Japa21 was first diagnosed with COVID, with pneumonia, and then he got a negative result on COVID, but of course still had the pneumonia.
Japa’s wife is a retired nurse, so I know he got the best possible care, and he is fully recovered. Would it be helpful if I wrote to Japa21 to see if his wife would have some suggestions for you for your Dad’s pneumonia?
prostratedragon
@The Dark Avenger:
(along with everyone else)
OzarkHillbilly
@Betty Cracker: That’s a great column from Molly, but than there all good, aren’t they?
Ramalama
@mrmoshpotato: I love Bob’s Burgers. I don’t recall this episode. But now I’m thinking that “my Butt Water broke” is going to be a phrase that stays with me.
Tenar Arha
@Brachiator:
@satby: For every advance in the right to vote, there’s been laws passed that reduced the effect of voting. Voter registration isn’t new, but it became widespread just about the time when voting rates dropped.
WaterGirl
@OzarkHillbilly: My response:
Good for her, how dare she (!), congratulations!
In that order.
PAM Dirac
@Nelle: Yes, it’s disappointing that there isn’t more clarity and it does feel a bit wrong to luck into the inside information. I just hope that with competent and committed federal leadership, the locals can make specific plans that don’t have to be modified so much that no one can follow.
Subsole
@Geminid: That’s why they fight like raging hell to keep folks off the voter rolls. That’s why the poll taxes and felon disenfranchisement. Same as TX.
geg6
@frosty:
Love Evanescence! Not familiar with Halestorm, but will look into them.
Steve Earle is definitely one of my exceptions among country artists.
OzarkHillbilly
@Ramalama: Compounding pharmacy:
WaterGirl
@Geminid:
I generally feel the exact same way. But if some people who got checks under Trump Don’t get them under Biden… there is an easy narrative that will catch on and make its way around the world, regardless of whether it represents the whole story or not. It will remove help from many people who need it, and it will hurt us in 2022.
I would be one of the people who would not get the check this time. My income is down 20k in 2020 because my summer client couldn’t do his summer program in 2020 b/c of COVID.
For many people, 2019 income is not representative of 2020 income, so by reducing from 75k to 50k, or even somewhere in between, they will be missing a while bunch of people who need help. That would be an own goal, I think.
Baud
@WaterGirl: Why are you assuming that they will use 2019 income, or use it exclusively? That’s a separate issue from the income level at which the payment phases out.
Timill
@Immanentize: Can’t think why, since “Fanfare” isn’t used in the film…
Another Scott
@Just One More Canuck: I thought I first heard it in some gigantic Cinamascope western, but maybe that was the Marlborough theme or something.
FftCM was born in Cincinnati.
Cheers,
Scott.
The Thin Black Duke
@frosty: Kudos to Steve Earle. Listened to a recent concert of his on NPR.
WaterGirl
@topclimber:
Yes. I am one of those people. But the estimated 2020 income won’t help in time for checks to arrive – it could take 6 months and tax filings in order to factor that in.
OzarkHillbilly
Don’t. In a perfect world there would be no inside info. We don’t live in that world. Just share the info as widely as you can.
MomSense
@frosty:
He just did a video with a song he wrote in honor his his son Justin Townes Earle who died last year. It had me sobbing at my desk.
Subsole
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I remember an old Doonesbury cartoon in which the teacher asks where Korea is:
“Um, it’s the one after Neptune, right?”
“It may as well be, yes.”
WaterGirl
@Baud:
Why? Because that’s what they used for the previous two checks. Also because it would take time to apply for / identify the people who fall into a different income range in 2020 as compared to 2019.
I have not seen anything about this new bill to indicate that they would change any factor other than the 75k/150k income level. Did I miss something?
Baud
@WaterGirl: I thought the issue as being discussed. I don’t know how quickly they would be able to implement it for 2020 income though. The bill probably won’t pass until mid-March at the earliest.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
We need a Balloon Juice colony in Wyoming. Its a pretty state with a low population.
WaterGirl
@Baud:
If that is supposed to be “was being discussed”, then I did not know that.
I did see that Nancy Pelosi said something about thinking this could be passed in two weeks. Much more optimistic than anything Biden or Jen Psaki is saying.
Omnes Omnibus
@WaterGirl:
The first stimulus actually used either 2018 or 2019 tax information depending on when people filed their taxes.
Barbara
@mali muso: So sorry to hear about your dad. Honestly, it seems like most of the actual treatments require inpatient intervention. I suppose you can get home based oxygen treatments — certainly, people use oxygen at home, but everything I have read suggests that simply giving oxygen is rarely sufficient to overcome what Covid is doing inside a person’s lungs. I would definitely keep measuring oxygen, but I wouldn’t delay going to a hospital if his condition worsens. Best of luck to you and your dad.
mali muso
@WaterGirl:
Yes please! I would really appreciate that. :) Thanks.
Another Scott
@mali muso:
MayoClinic might be a good starting point.
Good luck!
Cheers,
Scott.
Geminid
@H.E.Wolf: Copland is one of many high acheiving men who have tried to rationalize the absence of accomplished women in their fields with theories of biological inferiority. In his time, a professional woman who was allowed to excel was a rarity. Rachel Carson Carson was one who did, but it was not easy for her, and for every Rachel Carson there were innumerable women who were kept back. It took the rest of Copland’s century just to make a dent in this kind of patriarchy. It’s pervasive still, obvious in some ways, hard to see in other ways.
lurkypants
@WaterGirl:
The Congressional floor schedules and calendars are here: https://www.congress.gov/calendars-and-schedules
and you can find the Senate committee schedule here: https://www.senate.gov/committees/hearings_meetings.htm
Though it doesn’t look like there’s a Rules Committee meeting scheduled for tomorrow, which seems odd. They need to do that before they get underway.
Baud
@WaterGirl:
CarolDuhart2
@Soprano2: Diabetes is a risk factor, one or two. And Asthma, Heart Conditions, and High Blood Pressure. And I know this by having all of this. Of course, this is not the end of all the conditions that can make a person vulnerable. Which is why I’m daily going to my hospital portal looking for when my age group and conditions finally qualify. (I’m 64).
Subsole
@satby: This.
The media amplifies THIS, not the actual outcome. So people forget the outcome (yes, even if they’re holding the check in their hand) and are left with a vague sense of distrust.
Keep. The. Kayfabe kabuki. Behind. The. Goddam. Curtain.
The refs are hostile. They work for the bad guys for whatever reason. Don’t show them ANYthing they don’t absolutely have to see.
WaterGirl
@mali muso: email sent. Will let you know when I hear back on this.
Baud
@Subsole: I agree.
Remember the “Cornhusker Kickback” that everyone hated in the ACA. It actually was taken out of the final bill.
WaterGirl
@Omnes Omnibus: I did not know that! What I don’t know contains multitudes.
Ramalama
@mali muso: I got the ‘Rona along with my spouse. We rode it out at home. I have a friend who got Covid in the early days in the US and has since made it out alive but has pretty extreme long-haul symptoms. She’s been obsessed with both anecdotes from survivors and published research (note: ain’t a lot of that yet) since April, and gave me these recommendations. Perhaps they’ll help your Dad:
Vitamin C
Vitamin D3
Quercetin + 50 mg Zinc – apparently those two together inhibit viral replication.
Zyrtec and Pepcid – both work on two different kinds of histamines that cause inflammation. Pepcid helped me for a few days. Both helped spousey.
Mucinex thins mucous – Helps you get it out of your lungs, lessens chance of pneumonia. This helped my spouse immensely. I didn’t need it.
Other things we did – lots of hot showers / baths. Steam and deep breathing exercises. The exercises from this video / pulmonary wellness site was a game changer for me (it’s the “Managing that Miserable SOB!!! (Shortness of Breath)”. I had no breathing problems, per se, while being ill. But I have asthma. So I did preventative stuff and… possibly as a result of following along for the first hour of the video got my sense of taste back. I mean, it literally happened within minutes of the video. And, surprise, no asthma.
Kept the house super warm – I had fire blazing just about 24 hours a day. I normally like a cool house, but a respiratory therapist posted on a facebook Covid survivors page that the body needs to spend energy on fighting the virus, not warming up the body.
Kept a pot on the stovetop for a week with on-going chicken soup. When depleted, I kept adding more water, lemon, garlic, ginger, and a rotation of chicken fat, bones, chicken, a vegetables.
My partner had it worse than me, so I kept her fed and watered, and supplemented.
Melatonin – this was also key. The Atlantic has a great article about this as a preventative but also a treatment for Covid.
Another friend of mine got Covid in February. She thought it was a bad bout of pneumonia. Wasn’t until well after the pandemic had been declared when she got an X-Ray and a formal diagnosis. Said that for her exercise (walking) helped a lot even when it felt like it was going to kill her.
I’ve got some other tidbits but these are the main takeaways. I don’t want to hog up the comments section here. But if you want more please reach out, and I’ll give you more. Or anyone else out there. Good luck.
WaterGirl
@lurkypants: Thanks. That’s all greek to me, though. :-)
Another Scott
@lurkypants: My impression is that stuff shows up on Congressional web pages very slowly (a day or two later after it shows up elsewhere). It’s unfortunate – they really should work on automating more of that (maybe they do and there’s a holdup somewhere upstream – dunno).
Cheers,
Scott.
zhena gogolia
@geg6:
Thanks. It probably just comes down to taste. Her voice is like nails on a chalkboard to me.
WaterGirl
@Ramalama: Can I send mali muso your email address?
Mike S (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!)
@prostratedragon: Thanks for the Destinos Spanish learning links. I am going to use that. I’m so looking forward to traveling again to Latin America and I want to know a little bit more than What I remember from long ago HS Spanish classes. I did Duolingo for a Month last summer and felt I was getting nowhere; something about it’s systems just didn’t seem to advancing me much. Then the election came and I couldn’t focus much on anything else. I hope watching and following this helps me.
zhena gogolia
@Omnes Omnibus:
So I should just get on the ice floe? Here’s my clarification:
“Re Eilish, it was precisely people like [geg] I was addressing. I wasn’t doing the ‘onion-on-the-belt-kids-these-days’ thing that OO was accusing me of. I didn’t expect a 16-year-old girl to explain Billie Eilish to me. I knew there were people here, well over 16, who like her, so I was hoping one of them would explain to me analytically what they see in her. I just don’t see it. I don’t like rap and never will, but my students have educated me about the artistry involved in it. I was hoping someone here would explain to me what her artistry is.”
I’ve gotten replies from geg and Thin Black Duke. Still not grasping what the nature of her artistry is, but I give up.
Subsole
@geg6: Far too much country has gotten locked into explicitly conservative “small town and fuck y’all sentimentality”. Granted all genre music is a little formulaic, but I feel like country’s fanbase has really locked it into this tired sort of paint-by-numbers, just marking time, sort of place. It’s just pop that wants to grow old and die in the cornfield.
Old outlaw country is pretty amazing. A lot of folks forget, Willie and Waylon and Johnny knew plenty of smalltown good ol’ boys. They didn’t feel the need to romanticize shitheads.
Ramalama
@WaterGirl: As they say ’round my parts: Mais Yeah
Translation: but of course!
zhena gogolia
@Timill:
Haha, I’ve been puzzling over that too. I guess it’s Also Sprach Zarathustra that is being mistaken for Copland.
MomSense
@MomSense:
Here is the link to the video. Last song is devastating.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lwhis0dVzko&feature=youtu.be
Topclimber
@WaterGirl: Taxpayer could claim max benefit based on estimated earnings. Super easy, barely an inconvenience. Pay if you are wrong in 2022,with no interest or penalties.
Omnes Omnibus
@zhena gogolia:
I didn’t say anything remotely like that. Stop trying to make this a fight. It isn’t.
WaterGirl
@Topclimber:
Oh, i get the general idea of how it could be done. Sounds simple enough, but logistically I think it would be a nightmare.
Even if you make a website (that works) how many people don’t have access to internet access or aren’t savvy enough or informed enough to be able to do it.
Everything takes time, and time is what we don’t have. That’s why they should leave it as it was for the previous checks, and just get the checks out the door.
Just my two cents.
Another Scott
@Subsole: Willy is an amazing talent. Such a great songwriter.
You were always on my mind
Blue eyes crying in the rain
Crazy
Cheers,
Scott.
(“Who doesn’t like ‘country music’.”)
mali muso
@WaterGirl:
Yes, please on the email address and thanks to everyone for all the great tips! [sorry to the rest of you for clogging up the comments]
Geminid
@WaterGirl: I think the Democrats will be very circumspect as to the political ramifications of this legislation. They’ll certainly get plenty of feedback in the next two weeks. The House goes into recess soon, may have already, and that gives members a chance to get out and about in their districts. The commitee staffs will still be working. I think the deadline for passage is a date mid-March when the current unemployment benefit expires.
J R in WV
@OzarkHillbilly:
Has no one explained to her how that happens? ;~)
The Thin Black Duke
@Omnes Omnibus: One of the biggest steps towards maturity in my life was when I realized that there was going to be times when people I knew didn’t get at all what I was passionate about and it was OK that they didn’t. The next step was recognizing that it was important to show them the same courtesy. As you said, it’s not a fight. It’s a disagreement.
WaterGirl
@The Thin Black Duke: It’s a difference of opinion. :-)
mrmoshpotato
@Subsole: Dark country is pretty awesome too. Check some out on YouTube.
Subsole
@Another Scott: Yeah. It really feels like a post 9-11 thing to me. Even George and Garth had a certain bittersweet ‘easy come, easy go’ kind of joy. Just simple songs about simple things
Today it feels very much like cultural virtue signaling. Some of it is just being a raging hardon in sweatpants. Looking directly at you Toby Keith…
Geminid
@WaterGirl: And a difference of sensibility.
Omnes Omnibus
@The Thin Black Duke: It’s not even that much of a disagreement. I don’t mind Eilish, but I also won’t go out of my way to listen to her. Then again, I am not her intended audience, so I doubt she will be at all hurt my benign indifference.
Miss Bianca
@frosty: @geg6: Halestorm, yes. Also: Lacuna Coil. Indika. Night Wish. Stolen Babies. All great metal/death metal/goth metal bands with great female vocalists (Indika, alas no longer playing together, all-female band from Finland. One of my all-time fave raves now).
ETA: Isn’t Halestorm from PA, actually? So, they’re kind of hometown honeys for geg6! Aren’t you in PA too?
WaterGirl
@Omnes Omnibus: @The Thin Black Duke:
Bob Dylan. Some love him, some can’t stand to listen to him because they say he is tone deaf.
?♀️
Brachiator
@Baud:
I saw stuff on tax and accounting sites that Biden wanted to have the bill signed as quickly as possible and checks sent out by March 14.
If you base it on 2020 income, wouldn’t this introduce a new delay factor, since people would not get checks until they filed a 2020 tax return?
You also still have to deal with the situation that affected the previous stimulus. People who do not otherwise have to file had to file a stimulus only tax return.
zhena gogolia
@The Thin Black Duke:
@Omnes Omnibus:
I never called it a “fight,” I called it an “argument,” and I wasn’t referring to the virtues of Billie Eilish but to my right to even ask people who like her to explain to me what it is about her that they like. I didn’t realize there was an age limit for wanting to understand the popularity of currently popular artists.
gvg
@Baud:
the checks so far have used 2019 income. That way the government didn’t have to slow down to ask questions. Using 2020 would be difficult anyway, this is kind of early and the IRS isn’t going to have many peoples new info. Asking people is going to slow things down and would require some kind of web designing that could screw up.I suspect they can’t do it in a timely manner. We may be looking at automatic rebates after 2020 taxes are filed. Pay on 2019, add on the newly struggling after taxes filed. Set up IRS funding and staff to handle a surge of early filers who need the rebate quick.
Which reminds me I should file this weekend. 2nd check was sent to me by paper because the IRS didn’t have my bank account # anymore. If I file early, presumably they will have that.
J R in WV
@Geminid:
Hatred of the female performer in classical music was so intense they have had to make auditions for positions in orchestras blind, and the performers take their shoes off so that typical shoes worn by female performers don’t indicate which performers are women by the hard sound made by high heeled shoes on the floor of audition spaces.
So evaluators cannot see the player in competition, nor hear their footsteps, in order for female performers to have a fair shot at a seat in the orchestra.
I suppose composers could use their initials, as in Wg. Mozart or C.P.E. Bach… but in reality reviews would spill the secret of their gender pretty quickly.
I’ve never understood male hatred of females, so bizarre, something about Mother perhaps?
Brachiator
@Another Scott:
I had no idea that Nelson was such a prolific songwriter. Wow!
However, You were always on my mind was written by Wayne Carson, Johnny Christopher and Mark James.
mrmoshpotato
@Miss Bianca: Stolen Babies? Yoink!
WaterGirl
@gvg: I think this site is the one I used for the first payment to make sure they had my bank account info.
GetMyPayment
If that’s not the right spot, I bet you can get there from that link.
topclimber
@WaterGirl: In the case of first Covid check, there was an IRS link for those who did not file taxes in 2019-18. I know because that was the case for my son.
You had to answer a few questions. IRS could do the same for a simple yes or no: Do you want to either claim your 2020 estimate makes you eligible for max benefit, or specify the income you expect (anything lower than 2019) to be eligible for a scaled back check?
Some folks lack the computer skills to do this, but almost anyone with family or friends will get help when $1400 (or more for a family) is on the line.
Subsole
@mrmoshpotato: Nice! Thanks.
Another Scott
@Brachiator: Ah, right you are.
He sings it like it’s always been his. I shouldn’t have assumed.
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
WaterGirl
@topclimber: I hope you are right.
Brachiator
@J R in WV:
Yeah, this kind of stuff is nuts.
Music history tidbit: Vivaldi wrote many of his compositions for an all-female group who lived in an orphanage, the Ospedale della Pietà.
I don’t get this one either, especially since many men love their mothers, or claim that they do.
And sadly, I have observed a number of men who “love” their wives and girlfriends, but who don’t like them as human beings or respect them. This is damned odd, but seems to pop up a lot in many human societies throughout history.
Brachiator
@gvg:
This is not that easy. The IRS is already down staff and is dealing with a backlog of work because of Covid. And it takes time to hire and train staff.
Yep. Do it if you can.
The start of tax season was delayed because of the pandemic. People can e-file their tax returns starting February 12. Make sure you have received all your necessary documents.
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
@geg6: Lucy Hale of Halestorm also as a cool duet with The Hu called The Song of Women
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
@J R in WV: women and their accomplishments are often seen as lesser. There was an study published in PNAS by Corinne Moss Racusin that took the same application materials , from a student applying for a lab manager position who intended go onto grad school. Half the scientists were give the application materials with a male name half were give the exact same materials with a female name. Female applications were rated significantly lower than males in competence, hire ability, and whether the scientist would be willing to mentor the student. Female applicants were also offered lower starting salaries than males (26507.94 versus 30238.10) “Mother” has nothing to do with it.
J R in WV
@zhena gogolia:
I’m pretty old — 70 now, and wasn’t that familiar with the actual sounds Billie Ellish makes, so I went to Youtube and watched some of her stuff. The first thing was a video production, lots of effects, not impressed at all.
So then I picked a video clip that had a pic of her holding a microphone, expected it to be pretty straight singing, and it was, just her and a pianist who also sang a little harmony. That was pretty good, i thought.
She’s very emotionally over the top, changing her vocal presentation from a full sound to a thin and reedy sound to convey emotion — I guess. Not really my thing, Emo sound, but I can certainly see why young people are attracted to her work. Let me list some of the folks I do like, a lot:
Los Lobos
Willy Nelson
Miles Davis
Eric Satie
Claude Debussy
Santana
David Grismon (and Jerry Garcia, they were neighbors and recorded playing together in David’s basement studio, great stuff!)
Buddy Guy (& all of the Blues folks!)
ZZ Top
Rachmaninoff
Sarah McLachlin,[ Linda Ronstadt, Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton, the Trio singfers!] Norah Jones…so a pretty wide variety of styles and types of music.
We go to the local Symphony for several performances each season, pre-plague. Not the Xmas show, once or twice for the Nutcracker was plenty! Not the Pop concerts, just the straight classical performances, esp piano performers, violin and cello concertos.
Billie Ellish has plenty of time to mature. I hope she takes care of herself, she appears to be growing up, which is a good thing. I certainly don’t dislike her voice. She should listen to Norah Jones some.
J R in WV
@WaterGirl:
Bob has performed so long he has passed through half a dozen different styles. I didn’t much care for his “Christian rock” phase, but when we have seen him live, he is really, really gifted.
“Tone Deaf” is not a valid description of his music at all. Though when he and Johnny Cash attempted to record duet songs, neither of them was ready for that. A shame, they should have gotten back together 20 or 30 years later on and done a second take.
NotMax
@J R in WV
A two-cassette set of the music of Satie was among the collection lost when the case where the tapes were kept was stolen from the car.
99.99999% sure whoever snatched it did not much enjoy them.
J R in WV
@EmbraceYourInnerCrone:
There is obviously something bad wrong in the heads of misogynist men. I am not a doctor of mental problems, and was attempting to suggest that some relationship failure in the early ages of these people (ie, mother) causes their hatred and denigration of women.
IIRC, Sigmund Freud thought many men had issues with their mothers. On the other hand, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. I note you don’t propose any theory of causation of misogyny, just propose a rejection of my suggestion.
Thanks for all your help with this horrible issue!!
J R in WV
@NotMax:
I hate to think what must have been recorded over your Satie tapes. . .
Geminid
@J R in WV: Economic territoriality accounted for much sexual discrimination. Good jobs were more or less scarce, and men wanted to see other men have jobs instead of women, and this was a norm. That changed during the Second World War, when women entered the work force to take the place of men serving in the military.
Woman flyers were an example of this. A shortage of pilots led to the formation of what became the Women’s Auxiliary Service Pilots, staffed by experienced woman pilots. Over 1000 WASPs flew 60 million miles ferrying aircraft and towing targets. Thirty eight were killed, including one who, while flying in formation with male pilots, had her wing knocked off by a man trying to haze her.
There was much resistence to the WASPs, not least among male pilots. General Hap Arnold, commander of the Army Air Corp, believed in woman pilots, though. When a group of pilots were balking at flying the new B-29 because they feared it was unsafe, Arnold made a point of having two WASP pilots deliver B-29s to their base so as to build up the men’s courage.
But there came a surplus of trained male pilots, and politicians and journalists like Drew Pearson began to agitate against woman flyers. The WASPs were disbanded in December 1944.
The WASPs were civilians and received no veterans benefits. This changed in 1977, when Jimmy Carter sign a law that gave them recognition and benefits as veterans. Senator Barry Goldwater was a key proponent of this legislation. He had flown with WASP pilots during the war.
Geminid
@Geminid: There is a National WASP WWII Museum located at an airport on the western edge of Sweetwater, TX. Just off I-20 on the road to Lubbock. It’s a nice place to visit, and the calenders are great.
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
@J R in WV: patriarchal attitudes are part of our society and very hard to shake, example people treat infants differently depending whether they are told the baby is a boy or a girl, clothing and toys are marketed to and for boys and girls differently and clothes and toys for boys may be used by either(there are more than 2 rigid genders in my opinion but that’s a subject for another day) BUT if a boy prefers toys and clothes “meant” for girls he may suffer some pretty serious societal blow back because female is seen consciously or unconsciously as weaker, whinier, smaller and lesser ( usually involving words expressing how not equal being female is- wussy, pussy, girly, girly-man )
Women as well as men often have these attitudes because they are steeped in a society that is full of them.
I don’t know what the answer is.
smedley the uncertain
@Timill: Thus spake Zarathustra…
Geminid
@EmbraceYourInnerCrone: I sometimes wonder how much patriarchy informs basic institutions. How much is hierarchy a neccessay form, and how much is it an outgrowth of patriarchy? Would the normal structure of organizations be more cooperative and collaborative if woman and men were truly equal in status? I am sometimes an optimist, and I’d like to think there will be a time when people look back and understand how much patriarchy held back human progress.
zhena gogolia
@J R in WV:
Thank you! Very informative answer.
Brachiator
@Geminid:
Black women were prohibited from becoming pilots. Not all women of color. Just black women.
And WASPs and other women pilots were eliminated from consideration as potential astronauts, even though many of them passed tests similar to those given to men.
In the UK during WW 1, women served in a number of jobs previously held by men. In some cases they were promised consideration after the war was over.
Of course, they were lied to. The same happened again after WW 2, when women were encouraged to go back to being wives and mothers.
I cannot find the story now (absolutely need to find it again), but I recall reading about a British woman who could not become a director because male studio heads did not believe that men would ever accept her authority and do what she told them to do.
Some of this insanity seems to be less about competition for jobs than blind bigotry.
Geminid
@Brachiator: Yes, according to the Wikipedia article from which I drew my information, at least two qualified African American pilots were not allowed to join the WASPs. The article also listed two Chinese Americans and two Hispanic Anericans who flew with the WASPs. The space program selected it’s astronauts from active duty Navy and fighter pilots. Woman did not fly military fighter jets until the 1990’s. So women were shut out of the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs.
I wish somebody would make a good movie about the WASPs.
Origuy
I’ve been doing the Duolingo Spanish for almost 3 years. I took Spanish in junior high and high school, but that was a long time ago. I reviewed it a little back in 1995 before I went to Spain for 3 years. It was enough to get me around with no big problems. I started Duolingo with Russian and tried a little bit of Spanish. Unlike some other methods, Duolingo lets you test out of lessons that you already know. I like Duolingo better than Rosetta, but you do have to use other methods. It also has a podcast series with opportunities for listening, but I think I’m going to try the Destinos series. It looks well constructed.
I’m on the sixth section of Spanish, which has seven. Some languages have fewer sections. I should finish it before the summer. Then start seriously on German, which I took in college, but don’t remember much.
JanieM
@Geminid: Thread’s probably dead, but Fannie Flagg did write a novel about the WASPS: The All-Girl Fillling Station’s Last Reunion.