My husband just entered the U.S. for the first time, and the U.S. CBP agent who interviewed him was an Arab who joyfully shouted "Salaam aleikum, welcome to America" at the top of his lungs while stamping his passport, so I'd say it's pretty clear the atmosphere has changed.
— Sulome (@SulomeAnderson) February 8, 2021
P.S. there is still so much work to do, but we have been trying to get my husband a visa since 2017. We moved three countries and maybe a dozen houses. Every time we thought they couldn't screw us around anymore, they did. We're tired and numb, but we're coming home. It's a start
— Sulome (@SulomeAnderson) February 8, 2021
This is one of those times when living well is the best revenge, so it's weird to see it framed this way. "Punishing" the GOP is just a byproduct of passing something voters really like without their help. https://t.co/wt6zs0mHpq
— Liam Donovan (@LPDonovan) February 8, 2021
Wait, actions are gonna have consequences?!? For Republicans?!?…
… Already, there’s talk about midterm attack ads portraying Republicans as willing to slash taxes for the wealthy but too stingy to cut checks for people struggling during the deadly pandemic. And President Joe Biden’s aides and allies are vowing not to make the same mistakes as previous administrations going into the midterms elections. They are pulling together plans to ensure Americans know about every dollar delivered and job kept because of the bill they’re crafting. And there is confidence that the Covid-19 relief package will ultimately emerge not as a liability for Democrats, but as an election year battering ram.
“This is one of those rare instances — maybe not exceedingly rare, but it doesn’t happen often — where the best policy perfectly aligns with the politics,” said Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.), a Biden ally. “If I’m a candidate in 2022 running for the House or Senate, I think I’d want to be able to say we’ve had a robust Covid-19 relief bill, we raised the minimum wage, we made progress on health care, we’ve started to make progress on combating climate change and a whole range of issues candidates would want to run on.”…
Biden and advisers insist they would prefer Republican cooperation on the $1.9 trillion legislation, which calls for direct checks, money for school reopenings and funds for a robust vaccine effort. But their eyes have also started to drift toward what comes after the package becomes law: a major political undertaking to cement the bill’s popularity among voters.
The effort will include a giant outreach effort touting the package’s benefits as well as pledges from the Democratic House and Senate campaign arms to promote it in their own messaging. The Democratic National Committee, working with state parties across battlegrounds, is mobilizing to highlight Biden’s legislation as helping to save lives and create jobs, which officials expect to ramp up in the coming months….
In October, 68% of Republicans said democracy was working well. The number is now 36%.
Dems went from 37% to 70%.https://t.co/amRtW45RMf
— Aaron Blake (@AaronBlake) February 8, 2021
.@PressSec on what Biden meant by unity, and how it didn't mean that he was going to do what Republicans in Congress wanted him to do: "the president ran on uniting the country, not creating one political party"
— Edward-Isaac Dovere (@IsaacDovere) February 8, 2021
NotMax
Supreme loss.
Baud
Democracy held up against the onslaught. I wouldn’t say it’s working well yet.
Baud
But that’s not what the Village hears. They have given the GOP sole power to declare unity.
mrmoshpotato
@Baud: GOP unity – noun “my way or the highway”
Jay
MJS
@Baud: It’s also noted that Politico believes that “running on your record” equates to “punishing Republicans.”
Baud
@MJS:
Beating them in free and fair elections is cruel and unusual punishment.
Baud
@Jay:
Ok, I have no love loss for Trump or Republicans. But it’s a pet peeve of mine when people get outraged about things that are being contemplated or considered. It’s more often an attack line that gets successfully used against Dems than the GOP.
NotMax
For your viewing pleasure.
What to Stream on Each Service During Black History Month.
debbie
According to Colbert last night, Jason Miller’s putting it out there that Trump is enjoying his retirement very much: he’s happy to be off social media and he’s never felt so relaxed. Why am I not buying this?
NotMax
@debbie
“Now he’s finally got time to golf.”
//
Immanentize
Otherwise known as “telling the truth.”
I see this discussion as a political counterpoint for some Republicans to the “MAGAs gonna crush you” strategy of the Trumpers. The timing is a threat about their COVID bill vote.
rikyrah
@NotMax:
RIP??
Jay
@Baud:
It’s not outrage, it’s exposure.
Dolt 45 seriously advanced the idea of putting Flynn, a convicted felon, in charge of the FBI.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone???
mrmoshpotato
@debbie:
Yes, that why he abused the entire country (and world) with four years of his Twitter bullshit.
Retirement, eh? I look forward to his retirement to a supermax.
rikyrah
@Immanentize:
Telling the truth
Whaddya think about that????
rikyrah
@debbie:
??????
Immanentize
@NotMax: There is a great youtube of the Marvelettes singing “Postman” that I was watching in which the Supremes — including Mary Wilson I’m pretty sure — get cameos bopping along.
Baud
@Jay:
But he didn’t. Take it outside the Trump context. If the Dems consider doing something bad but decide not to do it because it’s bad, I wouldn’t support condemning them because they reached the correct decision in the “wrong” way.
Jay
@Immanentize:
yurp. We will see if it moves a few ReThug votes.
I think the fear of the Maggats trumps everything in the GQP.
Jay
@rikyrah:
Good Morning.
Ohio Mom
I could imagine Trump being kept extremely doped up, if you call that “relaxed” and “happy.”
They are all users, every one of them (well, probably not Barron).
Jay
@Baud:
it’s norm crushing.
Jay
@Ohio Mom:
Other’s say he’s raging.
We will know when Maggie’s next book comes out, or Woodwards.
NotMax
@MomSense
I expect Barron is with his grandparents in Maryland until the end of the school term. Don’t care enough one way or another to research it.
satby
For once this is a duplicate comment (that I made on the covid thread) because one of the tweets embedded was significant good news:
For those who don’t click on the embedded tweets, that one showing reduced viral loads 12 days after the first Pfizer shot is significant if further testing bears it out. That, plus the preliminary testing showing Pfizer’s vaccine reaching 90% immunity 21 days after the first shot (again, if those results hold up) may mean that vaccinations can double as they schedule more people to get first doses only since it may be enough. Boosters tweaked for known variants can be the second doses later.
satby
@Jay: in other words a day ending in “y” during the Dump admin.
satby
@rikyrah: Hey lady ?!
Immanentize
@satby: That is good news! Keeping my fingers crossed that it is more than just a press release.
Immanentize
@Ohio Mom: Extremely doped up certainly can, in the right circumstances, be called “relaxed” and “happy.”
Amir Khalid
@NotMax:
It’s not like Trump ever let his presidential responsibilities get in the way of his golf.
Jay
satby
@Immanentize: following the link, it got lots of happy anticipation from science types, and then someone shared the pre-print. If it all holds up it would not only speed things up here, but allow us to help the other countries who need it, like the one on our southern border. Where a lot of Americans come and go. Until Mexico has better immunity (Canada too) we won’t get all the way to it.
Dorothy A. Winsor
My publisher posted the front cover for my new book. It has a dog!
For now they give you 10% off if you preorder from their website. It’s not on Amazon yet. I think they make more money if you order directly from them.
evodevo
@Baud:
Well, there is the legal concept of “intent” to consider…
germy
Even Republican senators are noticing the improvement:
Jay
@satby:
in some regards yes, other regards no.
Through out the Dolt 45 Maladministration, there was a constant “spiralling down”, lower and lower bars,
and not just an acceptance of it, but for many Americans, a celebration of it.
satby
@Jay: Not news.
Dorothy A. Winsor
I don’t know if I can stand watching or listening to today’s impeachment activities. Outrage is kind of satisfying, but then it turns into rage.
evodevo
@Jay:
that might be a male bumblebee…can’t really see the back legs, which is how you tell…
Dorothy A. Winsor
@evodevo: Well, that’s an esoteric piece of knowledge
Jay
@satby:
Vaccine roll out is for the most part, going okay in Canada. Supply doesn’t meet the demand yet,
As a result, there is lot’s of fake “fauxrage” in the Media.
I am scheduled to get my first shot at the end of March.
My only qualifier is as an “essential” retail worker.
And it will be administered at work, for free, with a $300 bonus for getting the shot.
Second shot in May, also free, also at work.
Betty Cracker
@Jay: Sweet story, and worth listening to for the accent alone! :)
Baud
@Immanentize:
I don’t think Trump experiences emotions the way normal people do.
And that’s the first and last thing I’ll say about him as a person, because winning means not having to care about him anymore.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Jay: Excellent. I think satby said she suggested that her employer pay their workers for getting vaccinated too.
It’s bizarre. On one hand, we have this sullen, angry minority that flounce around about how they won’t take that shot (and sometimes destroy vaccine or shut down vaccination sites so other people can’t get it either). On the other hand, we have a large majority eager to get the shot. I wonder if the minority thought most people agreed with them and are now confronting reality?
Steve in the ATL
@NotMax: zing!
Steve in the ATL
An hour in and no Arabic pendant has said it should be “As salaam aleikum”? B-J won’t ever make top-10,000 at this rate….
satby
@Steve in the ATL: It can be either, one is more formal. But I’ve heard both used.
Gin & Tonic
That’s a nice story in the first tweet, but it would also be great if visa processing returned to normal levels. My son took a look at the statistics for Juarez, and they are still positively crawling. He does not expect that his wife’s GC will be issued this year at this rate. Would be nice if she could enter the country.
SFAW
@germy:
I am waiting with bated breath for their votes affirming such.
Or, as we used to say in the NYC-adjacent areas: That and a quarter (or nickel or dime or whatever it was in the 1960s) will get you on the subway.
OzarkHillbilly
@Gin & Tonic: IIRC, it took my wife 3 years to get her green card back in the ’80s. Don’t know how that compares.
Steve in the ATL
@satby: satby=Arabic pedant. Dossier updated. Shukran, habibi!
That was my understanding as well, though my knowledge of Arabic is extremely limited (wouldn’t want to end up on a watch list!).
Soprano2
I work for city government; in an e-mail they said they were going to give employees an incentive to get vaccinated. That could be money, or something else like 4 hours of paid leave. It’s good that they’re offering encouragement for people to get vaccinated. I hope it’s not 4 hours off, though, because I’m in the position of having a lot of leave time already.
Patricia Kayden
Yep.
germy
@SFAW:
Being Republicans, they say one thing and do another.
McTurtle: “The president incited a violent invasion of the Capitol!”
Us: “So he should be convicted then, right?”
McTurtle: “What?? No!”
Betty Cracker
@debbie: Same — I don’t believe that for a minute either. Trump is like the Crystalline Entity in Star Trek, parasitically sucking the life force out of surrounding creatures, in his case because he lacks a core sense of self apart from reflected emotions from others. Being abruptly cut off from the attention he craves must be pure hell.
My only misgiving about the impeachment trial is that maybe the prospect of it is the reason Trump is lying low instead of blabbing in our faces 24/7. I don’t want the current, blessed silence from that quarter to ever end.
satby
@Dorothy A. Winsor: To be fair, I suggested a small bonus as an inducement. This is an at-will state, and my personal inclination is to tell anyone who refuses to get it to submit their resignation. It’s a doctor’s office, if they don’t want to be properly vaccinated to protect our patients they need another line of work.
So we’re trying a carrot, but the stick will be coming.
satby
@Steve in the ATL: wullah
debbie
@Betty Cracker:
A very apt comparison! Thanks for the chuckle.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Betty Cracker: Yeah, he was quiet before his last trial too. Then once they failed to convict him, he was out there seeking revenge.
@satby: I find it bizarre that health care workers won’t get vaccinated. It’s like they have no understanding of how the body works
Gin & Tonic
@OzarkHillbilly: But she was presumably in the country. My DIL is, unfortunately, not in the US, so she can’t enter.
Jay
@Betty Cracker:
Dumph’s channels have been cut off on social media, the MSM, ( because of the Coup attempt and loser stink),……
some reports have him desperately trying to find a microphone, through others social media platforms, but it doesn’t have the amp of the blue checkmark.
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: Hey, congrats on the impending new grandbaby!
Jay
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
they are burnt out, scared, and are hesitant because of the rush to approve.
I see it a couple of times a week at work. Somebody just breaking down from the whole shit show. And we are just retail.
Betty Cracker
@Dorothy A. Winsor: My sister is a healthcare worker who has had both shots, and I asked her what’s behind the vaccine reluctance of some healthcare workers. She said some are straight-up Trump zombies who buy all the garbage about the pandemic being overplayed to harm Trump — even though they work in hospitals and therefore know that COVID-19 is a serious illness. She said others are worried that the vaccines haven’t been vetted as fully as they should have been and are waiting for more people to get the shots to see if there’s some unknown side effect that turns up. She also pointed out that the healthcare sector contains just about as many belligerent fools and superstitious ninnies as any other industry.
OzarkHillbilly
No, she wasn’t. She came here after her marriage on a tourist visa for app 6 months then they had to go back to Majorca where they lived for 3 years.
Again, I know the whats and the wheres, but my recollections of the whens and how longs might be off.
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: My wife and I reacted with appropriate horror at the news but for some reason or other our smiles are permanently pasted on our faces.
SiubhanDuinne
@Steve in the ATL:
~~Shutter~~
Jay
@Gin & Tonic:
yeah, pre-pre-pre covid, once my SIL and my Brother got married, she couldn’t enter the country for the first 6 months, even on a visa, and then after, only on a 2 week visitor visa, until her PRS was approved. Only took a year and a half.
Gin & Tonic
@OzarkHillbilly: Oh, sorry for assuming. I’d sure hate to have this turn into three years. It’s been close to a year and a half already.
Ken
@Steve in the ATL: The wikipedia page for the greeting notes a lot of variation, and specifically that native English speakers often omit the “as-“. Which I see is the definite article “al-“, and Arabic has a rather poetic phrase for the assimilation of the “l” by the next consonant. Cool.
satby
Yep. Pretty much this. The previous manager selected staff with an eye to how she could manipulate them, not for brains. I’m working on retraining the trainable and replacing the butt-heads.
Matt McIrvin
@Betty Cracker: I’ve noticed that the reluctance to get the vaccine is gradually eroding–I think a lot of it is just that many people don’t want to be first; scientific papers aren’t enough; they want direct experience of other people they know getting the shots. Once they see that, some will jump.
And it’s true that we literally can’t know whether the new vaccines will cause some delayed bad side effect 20 years down the line, because they’re new. All we have there are theoretical arguments, if quite plausible ones. But this is true of any new drug.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@OzarkHillbilly: You’re having another grandchild? Congrats!
OzarkHillbilly
@Gin & Tonic: I would suspect it is worse now than it was then but don’t know. My wife had her daughter over there so being the mother of a US citizen may have helped, or not.
Nelle
@OzarkHillbilly: Way off topic, Ozark, but are you familiar with Underland, by Robert MacFarlane. He is, by far, one of my favorite writers but I’ve picked up the book quite gingerly, since I’m extremely claustrophobic. He’s still a fantastic writer, even if I cringe while he squeezes through passageways. I prefer him to stride down ancient routes or to scramble up mountains.
Immanentize
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Outrage is the new Inrage?
SFAW
@SiubhanDuinne:
Nicely done
Barbara
I read the piece that Chris Hayes authored for The Atlantic — and it’s worthwhile — and although I disagreed to some extent with his examples of policy alignment, his overall message was pretty damn depressing. Basically, it’s all tribal. The “difference” between hoi polloi Republicans (as opposed to donor class Republicans, who are pretty transparent about what they want) and hoi polloi Democrats isn’t policy driven and won’t be overcome by policy based campaign appeals. They are simply and only tribal. They want people “like them” to be in power. Donald Trump was “like them” in some way that attached them emotionally like no other.
Okay, we all know this, it’s just hard to read it so plainly stated. His take away is that the most important thing is to enhance voting rights in a way that makes it much more difficult for Republicans to stifle the civic participation of people who are or perceived to be “not like them.”
Two other things I read this morning — no linky ‘case I know how many of you hate the NYT — one being the radical militia based politics that is increasingly working its way into the official Michigan Republican party, and the second was an article about West Virginia as a case study in what kinds of policies might overcome the increasing disparity between rural and non-rural counties. Michigan Republicans might as well come out and say that they hate dark skinned people, especially if they are not Christian. It’s just chilling to see how close to the surface violence is, and how quickly they rationalize it when it’s perpetrated by one of their own.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@NotMax: Sad news. The Supremes were great. There’s a Showtime documentary on the making of Motown Records that just popped up free on Amazon Prime this month. I’m going to watch that tonight I think.
Another pretty good documentary on Motown is Standing in the Shadows of Motown which focusses on Motown’s excellent studio band – their answer to Booker T and the MG’s (Stax Records), or the Wrecking Crew, etc.
prostratedragon
“You Can’t Hurry Love,” The Supremes, first take.
WaterGirl
@Patricia Kayden: Only the senators and not the house?
Jeffro
I think this is pretty accurate. If he gets convicted and is barred from running for office again…bye-bye, “trumpov 2024” grifting operation (and hello, history books for realz)
Maybe they have him tweeting into some sort of internet void (or even a play phone)? He’s not smart, but he’s smart enough to know that if he can keep his yap shut for a week or two, he might grab another couple hundred mil from the rubes down the road.
Just One More Canuck
@Steve in the ATL: I’m literally shocked
Kathleen
@Immanentize: I read her memoir years ago and couldn’t put it down Great read. So sad. She was gorgeous!
Ken
Amplified in some cases, as the old joke has it: “What’s the difference between God and a brain surgeon? God doesn’t think he’s a brain surgeon.”
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
I for one am looking forward to having my new mutant powers.
satby
@WaterGirl: Senate didn’t convict on the last impeachment, which would have removed him before the election.
germy
Steve in the ATL
@Just One More Canuck: I have a feeling that my tombstone will read “Born [xxx] Literally Died [xxx]”
@Ken: from what I have heard IRL, some speakers seem to swallow the initial “as”, in the way speakers do in most if not all languages
@SiubhanDuinne: my fault for giving my autocorrect decaf this morning. And wherefore art thou, Cornerstone?
Steve in the ATL
@germy:
the proper response to which is “Bring it on, fat boy!”
Another Scott
@Barbara: I think Hayes is very close. Fukuyama, OTOH…
DeLong’s excerpt:
:-/. Forest, Trees, etc.
(Sorry for the formatting – on my phone.)
Cheers,
Scott.
Omnes Omnibus
@germy: What relevance would their testimony have?
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Jay: If you like cross-species friendships, check out the film “My Octopus Teacher” on Netflix. Very touching. So many amazing moments.
artem1s
@mrmoshpotato:
so he’s finally conceded? and it’s OK to call him ex-POTUS to his face now?
Betty Cracker
@germy: I hope they call his bluff if they actually need witnesses to make their case, which they probably don’t since everything is on video. Seems obvious Graham’s threat is more about gumming up the legislative works than hearing relevant facts.
rp
@Betty Cracker:
Hahahahaha…I never made that connection, but it’s perfect.
satby
@Steve in the ATL: I miss CornerStone ?
Omnes Omnibus
@Steve in the ATL:
I don’t think that CS ever told us why he chose his ‘nym.
WaterGirl
@satby: I know that, but this is what I was responding to, and it seems to fit the House as well as the senate.
WaterGirl
@germy: Call their bluff.
Another Scott
@Betty Cracker: Given that each side gets the same limited amount of time, at least in the pre-witness phase (hard to see that it would be different if they vote to have witnesses), I can’t see what’s scary about his threat…
He’s playing the MSM refs, because he knows that Donnie is guilty. And the country does, too.
Cheers,
Scott.
Steve in the ATL
@Omnes Omnibus: no, but it must has been a misnomer as the blog has not collapsed in his absence. [Insert joke about how it couldn’t get any lower]
Ceci n est pas mon nym
I consider myself pretty good at hearing and imitating subtleties in pronunciation of other languages. But a long ago attempt to learn Arabic ended badly on lesson 1 when a Lebanese friend was trying to teach me. We got stuck on two consonants that I simply could not hear the difference in or pronounce to his satisfaction. We both gave up in frustration. (As I recall, they were something that sounded like DOD and… well… DOD)
I still hope to get back to Arabic one of these days. Always wanted to be able to read it.
germy
@WaterGirl:
Will there be witnesses? I haven’t read anything about who’ll be testifying.
Spanky
@germy: Then the House managers’ first witness called should be … Lindsey Graham. ‘Cause he’s got some ‘splainin’ to do.
WaterGirl
@germy: They have left open the possibility of calling witnesses. That’s the last I heard, anyway.
Another Scott
@germy: The House managers can propose to have witnesses. If they do, there has to be a Senate vote.
That’s my understanding, anyway.
Cheers,
Scott.
germy
@WaterGirl:
I’d like to hear from some of the Capitol police who were attacked. And then I’d like to hear from Lindsey so he can go under oath to describe his phone call.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
OT – Cats are so weird. Three cats, four litter boxes, two of which are in nice, quiet, private places, yet they all insist on using the same box which is closest to the kitchen in the utility area. Even worse, they’re monsters to a point where it seems like an untidy construction zone manned by nonunion felons and the addicted homeless.
Soprano2
I find it bizarre that anyone would risk getting a widespread disease that has been shown to kill rather than getting a vaccine that’s been shown to be relatively safe.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Soprano2: I’ve sometimes made a joke about anti-maskers and how they don’t believe in the germ theory of disease.
Then I read a post by one who was railing against, among other things, the germ theory of disease.
I sure hope there’s a path back to literacy in this country.
Omnes Omnibus
@Soprano2: I find it bizarre that anyone would vote for Trump, but there we are.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
the people who let trump wreck the damn country for fear of his mean tweets are now going after Neera Tanden for mean tweets
Once again, real DC imitates Veep.
J R in WV
I saw this in a comment last night and laughed out loud — then I read it to Wife, who also laughed out loud. This is how entry to America should be for everyone. And we should have a Biden Plan to enrich every country in the world, so that health care, higher education, and good working conditions are everywhere around us.
So that Americans would be able to move elsewhere, anywhere to work, so that people wouldn’t have to be desperate to make it into America because their home country would be peaceful and prosperous. Everywhere should be peaceful and prosperous!!
And here in the richest nation in the world, I can’t figure out how to get my disabled wife vaccinated against the Trump Plague…???
Dorothy A. Winsor
Mr DAW is actually listening to the Palm Beach city council meeting about whether Trump can continue to live at Mar-a-lago.
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Why is Portman highlighting Tanden’s perceptiveness?
Betty Cracker
@WaterGirl: Klobuchar was on CNN last night to talk about the trial, and Cooper kept trying to get her to say whether or not the House would call witnesses. She said she doesn’t know and also said that there will be new video shown in the trial from police sources that has not been seen before.
J R in WV
@Immanentize:
Is pot legal in Florida? Or even just so commonplace that everyone can make a phone call and have a half delivered like in NYC??
That might help Trump relax and be happy. Or it might just make him paranoid, I hear it does that to some folks. I would rather he be angry and paranoid, personally, if that make me a meany, so be it.
He doesn’t deserve a good happy buzz while watching ESPN Golf channel…
WaterGirl
@germy: I’m on board with both of those things. I think there should be witnesses.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Baud:
Betty Cracker
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Here’s what I wonder: will the fabric of the space-time continuum rip with a giant farting sound when Senator Sanders votes for Tanden?
WaterGirl
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: The Republican senators are a bunch of big fucking babies.
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I didn’t realize just how good a pick she was.
WaterGirl
@Betty Cracker:
Looking forward to that, even though it is guaranteed to be upsetting.
LurkerNoLonger
Here’s a good news politically adjacent story this morning. https://apple.news/AMvzy9KPXSdaKhKwF3BsEUA
WaterGirl
@LurkerNoLonger: Do you have a non Apple News app version of that story? Or at least a title so I could search for it.
Timill
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Cats are big on feng shui. Maybe if you put some of the boxes at an angle?
LurkerNoLonger
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: is Portman trying to make her the most popular member of Biden’s cabinet?
Immanentize
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I hope they read every tweet about Cruz into the record. Every one of those nine pages.
LurkerNoLonger
@WaterGirl: yes, here’s a different link : https://people.com/politics/journalist-talks-relationship-with-biden-press-secretary/
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@WaterGirl: I clicked on it. It forward me to a People story.
Citizen Alan
My working theory is that health care professionals are far more likely than others to have seen severe reactions to the vaccines, and those personal experiences trump knowledge of the statistics. I suffered absolutely no side effects from my first shot, not even a sore arm the next day. But the nurse who went over the list of potential side effects with me was so wide-eyed that I thought she was afraid my arm would rot off or something.
WaterGirl
@LurkerNoLonger: @Ceci n est pas mon nym:
Thank you!
Ruckus
@Immanentize:
Not hearing or seeing anything about shitforbrains makes me relaxed and happy. And really which of us equate relaxed and happy as a personal goal over some shitbrained narcissistic loser who has caused us no end of pain and death?
Matt McIrvin
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Once you get away from actual MDs, the level of alt-med sentiment and general wariness in the health-care profession seems to be about the same as in the general population.
Just One More Canuck
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Her answer should be, “Show me where I’m wrong”
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@germy:
So Lindsey thinks sitting Senators can be put under oath as witnesses? Be careful what you wish for…
Matt McIrvin
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: “Pasteur recanted on his deathbed” (and germ theory is therefore bullshit) is a really common mythical belief among alt-med people. Bill Maher was parroting it some time ago (he seemed to get to alt-med woo via animal-rights extremism).
Soprano2
@Another Scott: I listened to a “Hidden Brain” podcast from October 2020 that’s not yet available in their archive that helped me understand what’s happening with Trump supporters like evangelicals. It was about what people will do to achieve things that are deeply held beliefs. His guest talked about how people will do almost anything if they think it will help them achieve a goal that’s deeply held, like banning abortion. That includes embracing someone who is the anthesis of everything they claim to believe in, if they think that person will actually help them achieve what they want. It clarified a lot of things about Trump supporters for me.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@WaterGirl: Adding to the nice things in that story is that both people followed their ethical obligations and reported the potential conflict of interest to their employers.
Remember living in the world where people took ethics serious and cared about conflicts of interest?
Matt McIrvin
@Ruckus: I had a strange dream last night in which I met Donald Trump, and… not much happened. I think we had some banal exchange in which he was generically friendly.
I interpret it to mean that I was accepting that this guy can’t hurt us any more. (For the time being, at least.)
Betty Cracker
@Soprano2: There was a recent Michelle Goldberg column in the NYT where Hillary Clinton was asked her thoughts about QAnon. I meant to do a post on it — it was really interesting! — but I was too busy. Anyhoo, she echoed some of the thoughts you describe from the Hidden Brain episode, linked the impulse to demonize opponents from the Salem witch trials to the present and pointed out that one thing that’s changed is tech platform algorithms now automatically serve up ever-more-extreme content to promote “engagement,” thereby radicalizing people. She called addressing the latter one of the biggest challenges of our time.
Miss Bianca
@germy: Shorter GOP Senator: “Wow, is that what a President is *supposed* to act like?”
mrmoshpotato
@germy:
I believe the only response to this “threat” is “Bring it on, fascist fucknuts!”
skerry
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Wonder what Maxine Waters, Eric Holder and Cory Booker have in common…
mrmoshpotato
@artem1s: I guess. Though I don’t really give a damn.
Hoppie
@MJS: And telling the absolute unvarnished truth is an “attack ad”.
Super Dave
It’s not as if the Democrats are holding a gun to their heads. It’s the GOP’s voters who are holding the gun. Pass the popcorn, and let the games begin.
mrmoshpotato
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Makes me want to create a Twitter account just to call them whiny bitchass babies.
UncleEbeneezer
@NotMax: We just watched Mangrove, the first film in the Small Axe series and it was superb. We also watched an interesting PBS documentary called Hollywood’s Architect about legendary, Black architect Paul R. Williams who designed many famous buildings in Los Angeles and for Hollywood stars.
The Billie Holiday and Fred Hampton flicks are probably next up on our list.
There’s also a documentary called Black Art: In The Absence of Light that is about to be released on HBO that looks great.
Barbara
@LurkerNoLonger: This demand for decorum from everyone else except yourself, your followers, your fellow Republican lawmakers and your Republican ex-president is risible. Rob Portman is a walking joke.
Lyrebird
@germy: EXCELLENT!!!!!
Madam Speaker would not waste that opportunity! Nor would any of the others… that would be fantastic!
mrmoshpotato
@Immanentize: “C’mon! Ted! is a whiny assclown who’s possibly the Zodiac Killer, and whose dad possibly killed JFK.”
Barbara
@germy: So Nancy Pelosi can testify about how her staffers had to cower under a table in a conference room they barely managed to barricade while people outside the door bayed for her blood? And Cory Booker can testify to how Lindsay Graham nearly wet his pants in fear and anger and demanded that the sergeant at arms use force against the thugs until someone told him to shut up? Yeah, Graham, you have become an act in self-parody to the marrow of your bones. I hope they do testify.
mrmoshpotato
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
You Democrat! ?
J R in WV
@germy:
And what exactly does Mr Graham think these witnesses will bring to Trumps defense? Really, how will anything they can be asked forward Trump’s plea of innocent of incitement of insurrection?
Mr Graham reveals his inner stupidity with this if you ask me.
Off topic, one of our elderly cats has taken to showing up at the head of our bed around dawn, and purring while trying to smother me with her belly. The kitties are getting old, I’m getting old. Everyone really needs a trip to the vet, but I’m trying to hold off until vaccinations happen. I hold her away from my face while scritching her, to keep her whiskers out of my eyes.
She’s very affectionate, and grateful for being rescued all those years ago.
They never forget that.
Ohio Mom
Immanentize @ 31:
Oh, I completely agree that one can have wonderfully ecstatic experiences brought on by various substances; I have some very fond memories of such occasions.
I was thinking Trump might be experiencing the sort of “doped up” more like the ones I’ve had after surgeries: leaden and inert. Would certainly be easier on everyone around him.
Or maybe he is raging (as suggested above), or careening between the two. Whatever, I’m sure his state is unenviable.
Steve in the ATL
@J R in WV:
From what the news reports about Florida Man and Florida Woman, it sounds like Florida is more crack, meth, and bath salts than pot.
Of course, anyone who lives near a public high school should have access to pot.
Baud
When will Biden lead on this issue?
(NYT Magazine link)
Kathleen
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Kroger is paying employees 100 when they get vaccinated.
Baud
@Kathleen:
And here I was going to take it for free. No more!
sab
@J R in WV: She is telling you that you are at least an hour late with breakfast.
Baud
@J R in WV:
I know it’s none of my business, but you really should see a people doctor.
BruceFromOhio
Republicans feeling “punished” because Democrats are trying to fix the economy, slow the pandemic, bring order to chaos is the ultimate embodiment of Cleek’s Law.
Republicans being portrayed as being “punished” in the Twatterverse, and that portrayal being mimicked in popular media demonstrates the obvious bias of popular media.
Live well, indeed.
BruceFromOhio
@Baud:
Look for Steve Doocy to ask this in a DPB.
zhena gogolia
@BruceFromOhio:
Peter Doocy, please. He’s his own man!
zhena gogolia
@Baud:
I don’t know, my vet is so nice it’s tempting to ask him to help me out.
stacib
@UncleEbeneezer: My brother saved the newspaper article when Fred Hampton was murdered. We still have it in an old photo album.
Barbara
@BruceFromOhio: It really makes me furious, this expectation that other people should be braver, more generous, more understanding, more civil than they have ever shown any inclination to be.
Lyrebird
@Baud: Thank you for the much needed laugh.
Matt McIrvin
@BruceFromOhio: The thing that strikes me is how this can be used to paint popular policies as unpopular. Most people want to get big checks from the government to get them through this crisis. I’m sure they understand that there are costs associated with this, but nevertheless, they want that to happen. But paint it as “Democrats abandon bipartisanship” and then it sounds like some unpopular, radical move, because who doesn’t want bipartisanship?
JWR
@Baud:
Kurt Vonnegut hated them, thought they were pointless.
CaseyL
@Betty Cracker:
@Matt McIrvin:
My Mom – not a HC worker, or any kind of essential worker, but 85 yo and with co-morbidities – at first wanted to wait to see how other reacted before she got the shot, but when she was contacted and told she could have an appointment, she grabbed it. I’m not sure what changed her mind: maybe enough people with conditions similar to hers all around the country have been vaccinated with no ill effects she decided to go ahead.
I think she might be typical of many who were reluctant but not opposed: “Let’s see what happens to everyone else first.”
different-church-lady
1…
The DC press whisperers have become addicted to the mindset of abusers. The emotional manipulator does what he/she does because they have a singular conception of how the world operates: everyone manipulates, and you are either the manipulator or you are the one being manipulated. There are no other possibilities. They simply assume everything you do is towards the end of manipulation. So it’s natural to them that Democrats would do everything they do to try to harm Republicans, because it’s what Republicans would do, and they’ve been assimilated into that culture. Any other behavior is something they simply can’t make any sense out of.
2… Apparently functional democracy is now defined as, “My team won.”
3… Nothing new, but Republicans now define unity as, “You do what I want.”
different-church-lady
@germy: BRING IT!
JWR
CNN:
I see what he did there.
Origuy
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
I had the same problem with Arabic. There are consonants called emphatics; I couldn’t distinguish them. I decided Russian was easier.
different-church-lady
@Patricia Kayden: Problem being they will never vote to convict themselves.
different-church-lady
@Betty Cracker: The genius of Star Trek is that every alien species is actually an isolated or concentrated aspect of human nature.
different-church-lady
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
There’s a way to do that favorably?
Uncle Cosmo
Concur – & my bet is he’ll be there for a lot longer than that. Given Trumplthinskin’s documented history of mistreating his sons, you gotta think
MelanomaMelamineBarron’s mama wants her boy as far away from the Y-chromosome donor as she can keep him, for his own good.satby
@Citizen Alan: your working theory fails because most of the people refusing started refusing before they ever witnessed a single vaccine given. In Kansas, one entire country’s health department was just “not comfortable” giving the vaccines, so they gave none.
Another Scott
@Origuy: When I was in college I had a friend in physics classes who was thinking about taking Chinese. I was taking far-eastern civ at the time and heard a little about the language.
German indicates to move a vowel sound to the front of your mouth with an umlaut.
(Mandarin) Chinese (IIRC) doubles that, with no fancy symbols. So a “ho” noise becomes 4 different words depending on how far back your tongue is in your mouth.
I told him I would take Japanese as it’s “easier”.
“Ho vs. Mitsubishi!”
Cheers,
Scott.
Elizabelle
Two minute warning for WH press conference.
Some press corpse correspondent is doing a standup now.
Starboard Tack
@germy:
Lindesy (not a typo) Graham is pissy, little bitch. He’s way worse since John McCain died.
Elizabelle
Jen Psaki is in the house. First up, the rescue plan. $2,000 into the hands of working families …
ETA: I love that they are calling it The Rescue Plan. Well done. Jen’s used that term about 7 times now in this briefing.
J R in WV
@Baud:
We haven’t skipped a single medical appointment; I wear my industrial mask for the whole appointment except when Doc gets into my mouth.
Anyway, I have my next Dr appointment next week. Seeing the same family practice guy since the late 1970s, when he was just a year or two into his career. Also a gerontologist, which is good since many of his patients are now getting old. The Vet appointments are for the furry babies…
But thanks for your concern!
… . . . ;~)
sab
Well, lost out in this week’s mad rush to register for vaccine appointment, but I learned a lot. Someone I happen to know who has ties to the mayor’s office, the police department and county government told us that the county health department uses timetap for scheduling. I charged in when their slot opened, actually got an appointment slot, but it wouldn’t save because I wasn’t pre-registered in their system. So I registered me and my husband. So maybe luck next week.
Also too, I went in to try again, and it had a notice that the online was full, but possible to sign up at the Covid vaccine register hotline number. So now I have that too. Progress!
Also tried my grocery pharmacy. No luck. All booked. But now I know when they give shots where. So we can try the wander in late in the day approach. Progress!
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Betty Cracker:
I asked the kid about other nurses(the kid’s had both jabs) not getting the shot and that was pretty much her answer, adding “nurses are a skeptical group”.
Another Scott
Understanding that free opinions from a dead guy’s lawyers are worth as much as one pays for them…
dick_nixon:
Interesting.
With the side benefit that if Donnie decides to fight it, he can spend the rest of his life on lawyers while the US Government takes its own sweet time…
Will it happen? Who knows.
Cheers,
Scott.
OzarkHillbilly
@Nelle: No, I’m not. Looks interesting and worth a read. Added to the list, thanx.
Elizabelle
This press corpse. Framing straight outta RepublicanWorld. Last one was basically, how can we be sure Biden family members are not going to abuse their position as much as the last president’s family? And how will we know?
Fucker.
I am just listening. No idea who the questions come from.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Of course she’s a good pick, she’s a Bruin.
df
@Elizabelle: I loved the last question from the deficit hawk. I also loved Psaki’s answer: “Well, we could roll back those tax cuts on the wealthy now that there’s this newfound concern for the deficit.” When will they learn not to come for Jen Psaki unless they’re called?
That’s one media narrative that I wish would change: the handwringing about the deficit. I’m sure 99% of people (myself included) don’t adequately understand it, but because it involves the word “debt”, people imagine Biden with a 24.99% Amex just ringing stuff up from the Oval Office every time we have Infrastructure Week. There’s a lot of room for nuance with government spending, but the body politic can’t even handle things like mask-wearing, so I’m not holding my breath.
Brachiator
@NotMax:
Very cool. Thanks for this link.
BruceFromOhio
@Matt McIrvin: Exactly!! It’s this twisted lens of the twatterverse and it’s mirror-funhouse of major news outlets and opinion pages that can take a positive and warp it into not-so-positive. This chaps me because Dems are trying to fucking do something, in contrast to the previous administrations plan to just let everybody die.
sab
@sab: Holy cow! Husband just got us two appointments at the grocery store pharmacy. Apparently somebody cancelled right after it told me they were full.
Tomorrow.
BruceFromOhio
@Elizabelle:
What the last presidents family did was enrich themselves at the cost of American lives. That was wrong. Easy way to be sure!
Watch closely, and take notes and screenshots if you need to!
misterpuff
@Kathleen: Yet they closed two stores down in Long Beach CA because the city council wanted Ralph’s management (Kroger) to pay temporary COVID HERO pay (extra $4/hr) to supermarket workers.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@sab: Happy dance for you!
MisterForkbeard
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: So… what would they ask any of those people? “Did you incite insurrection? No? Oh.”
Not to mention that Graham is literally not part of the defense. If he IS, he needs to recuse from voting.
Matt McIrvin
@JWR: Vonnegut rejected semicolons with an argument that has not aged well at all, calling them “transvestite hermaphrodites”.
Thinking about that makes me wonder how much of the “muscular prose” instruction I absorbed was built on some form of toxic masculinity. There were decades when creative-writing teachers wanted all writers to write macho like Hemingway. It could have also been an overreaction to the sesquipedalian, overcomplicated prose of Victorian writers.
(I used to try to write science fiction. The last story I actually completed was several years ago, and when my wife read it, she said the prose style came off as strangely macho, in this mannered way that wasn’t reflected in most of the things I said or wrote. And I think it was the result of me trying to apply what I’d been told was good, “muscular” writing, in repeated edits.)
But I am also a major-league semicolon abuser.
Matt McIrvin
@J R in WV: Our vet has an arrangement where, for checkups, they take the cats in curbside and the owners never even enter the building.
Ruckus
@Betty Cracker:
Poor little boy……