God, this is stupid:
.@VP told @mikeallen that “there was no national strategy or plan for vaccinations” and that Biden admin was “starting from scratch.” That’s wrong. The Trump admin had a plan to distribute to locations chosen by states and let them take it from there. https://t.co/0MoQ8OnpoN pic.twitter.com/nYb8r5gPKz
— PolitiFact (@PolitiFact) February 15, 2021
Basically, they’re saying “lol fuck it, let the states figure it out” counts as a “national strategy,” which is self-evidently dumb. Fact checking is useful in some instances. Journos like Daniel Dale did absolutely heroic work during the stump error. Empty gotcha bullshit like the above is worse than useless.
Open thread!
PS: I had to go to The Villages this weekend, and I got lost because the community roadways were designed by a basket of meth-addled weasels. While trying to find my way back to a main road, I came upon a giant field with drive-thru vaccination tents and lanes mapped out by traffic cones. Cops were guarding the entrances, and there wasn’t a line. It wasn’t even clear it was open for business yet. The site gave me a dystopian chill AND hope that maybe this goddamned pandemic will end someday.
I also had to wonder if our shitty T***p mini-me governor is funneling vaccine supplies to the wingnut hotspot that elected his incompetent ass. My 81-year-old mother-in-law hasn’t been able to make a vaccine appointment yet, nor have my 76-year-old dad and assorted aunties and uncles. I suppose it’s possible a Republican-controlled county could have its shit together on vaccine distribution, but that would definitely be the exception rather than the rule in this state, so I suspect shenanigans.
zhena gogolia
I HATE THEM WITH THE FIRE OF A THOUSAND SUNS
The way they keep pecking at Jen Psaki for stupid trivial stuff, too. At least she isn’t at all fazed by it.
zzyzx
I have a plan for becoming rich. I will hope that people will randomly decide to give me large amounts of money without me doing anything or even asking. That’s a plan!
zhena gogolia
Some good replies there. I like this one:
Old School
The Trump administration had a plan for the end of COVID-19: Like a miracle, it would just go away.
See? A plan.
Nate Combs
This reminds me of an old Book of Knowledge encyclopedia set I had once… if you looked up “Christianity”, it was defined as the oldest organized religion in the world. I didn’t think that sounded right, since most Eastern religions and even Judaism are obviously older. It turned out the Book of Knowledge defined “organized religion” as a religion having a Pope-like head figure, and a descending hierarchy of Cardinals, Bishops, and Priests.
oldster
The bank is saying I had no plan to pay my mortgage.
That’s wrong.
My plan was to not send them any money, and pray they wouldn’t notice.
Mike E
Politifact often miss the forest for the trees, and count angels dancing on pinheads while ignoring the pricks
Major Major Major Major
Makes me think of the Simpsons episode where the judge asks Hutz if he has any actual evidence and he says “we have plenty of hearsay and conjecture, those are… kinds of evidence…”
Jeffro
@zzyzx: it’s not a bad plan
GOP donor sues True The Vote for return of his $2.5M
trumpov and the GQP fundraised over a quarter billion dollars between the election and Jan 6th.
No wonder they still won’t admit that Biden won…they’d be giving up the graviest of gravy trains(!)
LOL, suckas!!!
Scout211
Speaking of fact-checking, this AP article investigated the “top super-spreaders” of COVID-19 misinformation and conspiracy theories.
https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/superspreaders-top-covid-19-conspiracy-theories-75898559
lollipopguild
@zzyzx: Ask everyone in the country to send you $1.
jeffreyw
Checking for stump errors
Renie
I don’t post much anymore but had to say “stump error” had me in stitches!!
WaterGirl
@oldster: Perfect.
Lyrebird
@zhena gogolia: TRUTH.
I respect some of the folks I hear saying, don’t give the Biden admin a pass just bc Trmp was so awful. Okay fine. Then f’ing ask about the federal prisons or what not, but don’t give cover to the Doocys of the world and the stupid petty garbage.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Nate Combs: Christianity isn’t even the oldest monotheist religion, that goes to the Zoroastrians.
Bill Arnold
Separate the hacks away from their keyboards.
“a plan to distribute to locations chosen by states and let them take it from there” is NOT a National plan for vaccinations, any more than letting Free Enterprise/The Invisible Hand (with grudgingly allowed, minimal regulatory involvement) solve the entirety of the vaccinations-in-arms problem would be a “plan”.
NotMax
Trickle down inoculation.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Betty, Mr DAW’s sister and BIL, who live near Ft. Myers, were able to get vaccination appointments off what I think was a state website. Here’s what he says:
“The Florida state signup worked. I got a call Monday morning to set up an appointment for each of us for Wednesday, February 10. We drove to Port Charlotte, had a brief wait in line in our cars, our papers were checked, stuck our arms out the car window and were given dose 1 of the Moderna vaccine. The drive-thru vaccination worked well and minimized contact with others.”
I don’t know how accessible that website is to your relatives, but apparently it functions to some degree (much to Mr DAW’s realtives’ shock)
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Jeffro: How do guys like this get rich in the first place if they are this gullible? Inherited it from dad like Trump?
Bill Arnold
@Scout211:
See also the related piece, also today.
Anatomy of a conspiracy: With COVID, China took leading role (ERIKA KINETZ, 15 Feb 2021)
Both are excellent as introductions to disinformation as it is often currently done.
cope
First, condolences on having to brave The Villages. Just driving past that area on 441 the few time I have had to gives me the creeps.
As for DeSantis, he did do a photo op at one of the first public vaccine events in said Villages with Republican operatives from the area being first in line. I don’t think, however, he can manage to actually pull of an effective quid pro quo with voters directly using the vaccine as quid. I do believe he is doing so with corporate entities with which he has arranged for distribution. Publix, I’m looking at you. I suspect he is more interested in getting the funds from them then votes from the rubes.
Brachiator
@lollipopguild:
Years ago, you could not place a classified ad in a newspaper just asking for money. So one guy came up with the following angle
Fortunately, he wasn’t allowed to pull this one either.
terraformer
The idea of ‘fact checking’ is a good one, and that’s why Republicans and others who are out there lying quickly installed their own “fact checkers” or otherwise made sure that friendly checkers have their perch on which to throw out gotcha drivel like this.
“It rained today.” FACT CHECK: partly true – liquids, but some solids, transferred from the lower stratosphere, through the troposphere. And even then, it was a misting.
Hungry Joe
All the speculation on possible GOP prez candidates got me thinking about where such (early) speculation would have gotten us in election cycles past. For example, who would have predicted …
McGovern (nominee in 1972) in ‘69? Or Carter (nominee in ‘76) in ‘73? Or Dukakis (‘88) in ‘85? Or Clinton (‘92) in ‘89? Or Bush II (2000) in ‘97? Or Obama (‘08) in ‘05? Or Trump (‘16) in ‘13?
Or Xxxxxxxx (‘24) in ‘21?
Jeffro
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: either lucky by birth or lucky in his (business) timing
How does someone with $2.5M to burn think to themselves, “You know…I could be funding scholarships here…I could be handing $100 bills to random people in the street all day long…or I could just buy myself a Lambo…but you know what I really wanna do? I wanna ship all that cash off to some ‘voter integrity’ outfit with a really badass name and yeah! That’s what I’ll do!”
Not a doubt in my mind this dude was Fox-poisoned, though.
raven
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Same for my Ft Meyers peeps.
Major Major Major Major
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I was able to get a 3/9 appointment on the NY website yesterday. Was surprised it worked and even more surprised there was an opening…
raven
@cope:
Well, it was kind of cold that night
She stood alone on her balcony
Yeah, she could hear the cars roll by
Out on 441
Like waves crashin’ on the beach
Hungry Joe
@Jeffro: “It is immoral to allow a sucker to keep his money.” — Canada Bill Jones
Brachiator
@Hungry Joe:
People never let facts or uncertainty get in the way of a good speculation.
germy
Biden: “Water is wet”
Politifact: “What is water?” [swims away]
comrade scotts agenda of rage
Your ability to turn a phrase like that is why I keep a separate file of your quotes because they’re soooo usable elsewhere.
A Ghost to Most
The Villages are the center of hell.
The Thin Black Duke
@NotMax: And NotMax drops the mic.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Hungry Joe: I remember a display of calendars around the end of 2007 that included one pair: One with the presumed 2008 Democratic candidate (Hillary Clinton) and one with the presumed Republican candidate (Giuliani).
NotMax
@Hungry Joe
Obama’s keynote speech at the 2004 D convention, even without being shown on the commercial broadcast networks (was covered live on PBS, C-SPAN and cable), cemented him as a contender of the first water.
cope
@raven: Indeed.
Another Scott
Cheers,
Scott.
Major Major Major Major
@germy:
“While it’s true that liquid water is wet, there are over twenty forms that H2O can take, and not all of them are what a human would consider to be ‘wet’. We rate this claim Mostly False.”
germy
We lived out in the exurbs about twenty years ago (it was a case of “drive ’til you qualify) and I was always getting lost in the winding roads. An ariel view of the towns’ layouts looked like the roads had been planned by ants.
In the city, I was used to an easily-navigatible grid pattern. But the city was full of… those people… and I began to suspect the exurbs had been designed to baffle and discourage invaders (of color).
tom
Dear Politifact: Wishful thinking is not a plan.
germy
@Major Major Major Major:
“Four Pinocchios”
NotMax
@Major Major Major Major
“It depends on what the meaning of ‘is’ is.”
//
Hungry Joe
@NotMax: You may be right. But as I remember it, the buzz about the young, up-and-coming Barack Obama was that he could make a real move toward the nomination in ‘16 — maybe as soon as ‘12. Not a lot of people saw him going for it, much less succeeding, in 2008.
Sure Lurkalot
@Jeffro: I just read this Wapo story of the mark who got grifted to the tune of $2.5MM, looked up at my spouse and said, “now here’s a story that makes me smile.”
Also, a strong argument for a 75% top tier tax rate. We’re just saving them from themselves and their own gullibility.
Betty Cracker
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Good to know, thanks! I told MIL and my dad about the new state site when I first read of it. I don’t know if their counties have gotten their shit together to use the site yet, but I will check with them on that.
germy
@germy:
Pardon me.
“Aerial View”
Major Major Major Major
@Hungry Joe: 2004 Obama himself would have been surprised if you’d told him he would run in 2008, it was a pretty late decision as I recall.
James E Powell
@Hungry Joe:
I am on record – at least among my friends who were with me at the time – that at the conclusion of Obama’s 2004 DNC speech, I said, that’s the next president of the United States.
West of the Rockies
@Hungry Joe:
Didn’t Trump run in ’12? I have a recollection of that and him being so bad that I thought we were done with him.
John Revolta
@Hungry Joe:
Fair Economist
@Hungry Joe:
Exactly. Generally, if there is an obvious nominee – VP, strong runner-up, or party leader, with a good base, they get it (Mondale 84, HW Bush 88, Dole 96, Gore 00, McCain 08, Clinton 16), with some exceptions (Hart 88, Clinton 08). If there’s not, like with the Republicans now, then it could be just about anybody and, as you point out, is often somebody you’d never have considered.
NotMax
@Major Major Major Major
Formal announcement of candidacy was made early February of 2007.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Hungry Joe: it’s hard to project myself back in time, to remember what I thought, and what others were saying, about Obama’s campaign in ’07, but it was Iowa, and the subsequent consolidation around him of Black voters, the Kennedys, etc that pushed him into real competition with HRC, as I recall. And he raised (again IIRC) record-shattering amounts of money, but again I can’t remember if that was before Iowa or only after.
In his memoir, he mentions Harry Reid, who really comes across as an interesting character (and I say that as somebody who has always found him interesting and underrated) as IIRC one of the most important of his early supporters, one of the most influential in his decision to run.
There was some talk of a BJ book club about A Promised Land. I’d be up for that.
Just Chuck
@James E Powell: I remember saying something like “Damn, he sounds downright Presidential”. I also predicted T would lose by a giant landslide, so ??
germy
Sometimes I feel like I must go mad.
I’m always reading about the newer COVID strains, and all the hospitalizations and deaths…
And then this morning I visit the supermarket and see a customer come walking in with his mask down around his neck. He seemed acquainted with some of the employees, because they were all talking and joking with each other. (Employees were masked, fortunately)
I’m at the checkout (self checkout was closed) and the cashier is telling me she was out for three months and on a ventilator. Had to spend three weeks learning how to walk again.
She rings me up and I swipe my credit card, and then she asks me if I’d like to round up the total and give the extra to charity. “Yes,” I reply. And then she spends fifteen minutes trying to figure out how to round it up. No problem, but I’m sort of anxious to get out of there because the maskless dude is now in line with his two items.
I told her nevermind if it was too difficult, but she was determined. Apparently, she had to relearn a lot of her job, so I wasn’t going to be impatient with her. But the dude made me nervous.
But no one else seemed bothered by him. Not the employees, managers, or cashier who’d spent months in the hospital.
And then I come home and see this photo:
https://dailygazette.com/2021/02/14/lennon-mohonasen-girls-basketballs-lone-senior-embracing-mentor-role-on-young-team/
My news programs are full of impatient students and parents who want school sports again. “We want to play sports!” “My kids want to play sports!” Everyone insists they’ll be safe. Uh, okay.
But am I the only one who sees a problem with the photo?
Fair Economist
@germy:
Oh, it’s quite intentional.
JoyceH
Something I started noticing way back during the Katrina debacle – when a Republican government fails at a basic governmental function, Republican opinionators begin arguing that that is a function that government shouldn’t even be doing. “Why is the federal government getting involved in hurricane relief anyway? Let the states handle that.”
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@James E Powell: legend has it that at the back of the convention hall, after Obama’s speech, a friend put his arm around the shoulder of the mayor of Newark and said, “It’s okay, Book. You can be the second black president”.
James E Powell
@Brachiator:
Reminds me of an infomercial from many years ago where a guy claimed you could get rich by putting “tiny little ads” in newspapers all over the country. I never paid attention to how it was supposed to work, but I remember the infomercial with him on a beach and camera tilting right and left for some reason.
germy
@Fair Economist:
I remember back in the ’80s I used to listen to Joe Frank on the radio. One of his monologues, he talked about a woman he dated who insisted on owning a handgun. He said she had a theory that someday mobs of inner-city people would invade her small suburb, and she wanted to be ready for them.
(I don’t remember how long he said the relationship lasted)
LongHairedWeirdo
I could be wrong, but I think Politifact is the one that said Michelle Obama wasn’t entirely truthful for saying that her husband had supported a bill, as a Senator, because people might assume she meant “as President”.
(NB: she simply said he “supported” it – never said when, or how. They just assumed that if someone found he *only* supported it as a senator, and it had been signed into law before his inauguration, they’d say “SHE DIDN’T TELL THE WHOLE TRUTH!”)
It seems clear that some fact checkers let Republicans say stone-cold stupid stuff on “deep background” and rather than saying “this is asinine BS that a competent high school journalist would reject as such, and for having obvious, objective, bias,” instead say “hey, that’s a good point….”
As such, they should be called “opinion checkers”.
NotMax
@germy
It’s the ones which have a Spotted Toad Avenue, Spotted Toad Road, Spotted Toad Lane and Spotted Toad Circle – too often nowhere near one another – that get my goat.
Fair Economist
@germy: My brother keeps a *loaded* semiautomatic assault rifle next to his bed and fantasizes about using it in a home invasion. I’ve tried to explain to him that home invasions just don’t happen in upscale suburban communities like his and that the only people that gun might kill are him or his family via suicide or accident. To no avail.
West of the Rockies
@West of the Rockies:
He considered running and gave interviews and opined ludicrously… I think that’s what I recalled. He seemed (and actually WAS) a woeful lightweight.
zhena gogolia
@germy:
People are idiots.
germy
@NotMax:
And no streetlights or sidewalks.
I tried being a pedestrian and I’d get suspicious looks.
NotMax
@James E Powell
The concerns behind the small print “Earn BIG MONEY stuffing envelopes at home!” ads in the nether pages of magazines must have done all right, as that continued for years and years.
Sallycat
I am livid with the governor for using the vaccinations for political gain. I live in Florida and I am seventy years old. I have not been able to make an appointment, although I have tried several times. The process of trying to make an appointment is time consuming and incredibly frustrating. This morning the website gave me an appointment date and time, but by the time I had filled out the required paperwork, the appointment was gone. This happened three times-I had to fill out the same paperwork three times. (I had pre-registered also.) If we could impeach or recall our governor, I would be first in line to sign up for the effort.
Ken
@Jeffro: Definitely one of those cases where I don’t care how it comes out, I just want to see what turns up in discovery.
Jay
It’s no “Epoch Times”, but it is something,
https://amp.abc.net.au/article/12830824?__twitter_impression=true
zhena gogolia
@Sallycat:
I’m so sorry.
It’s pretty chaotic here in CT too, if that helps any, and we have a good governor. Being an employee of Yale seems to get you to the head of the line, for one thing, which kind of bugs me.
randy khan
It turns out that Politifact didn’t notice that Axios corrected its original tweet, and that what Harris actually said was “There was no national strategy or plan for vaccinations, we were leaving it to the states and local leaders to try and figure it out.”
So, in other words, what they describe as the national strategy is exactly what she said happened.
I’m guessing we won’t see a correction from them, though.
Peale
@Jay: Yep. Its a win win for everyone. The GOP gets to promote the idea that the Democrats are communists to moot any gains they may have had with Chinese American voters. China gets a nice list of Anti-communist Party Chinese immigrants.
laura
?Special Report? – our nieghborhood Junior Scout just dropped off Thin Mints, Lemonades and Shortbread cookies. It’s like we won the lotto.
Baud
@randy khan:
We need to fact check the fact checkers!
NotMax
@laura
Eschewed ordering the Bleacheroos*?
:)
*available in red states only
Miss Bianca
@Fair Economist: Yeah, my friend D also keeps a loaded shotgun by his bedside. Gave me quite a turn when I first saw it. Now, I understand that it’s to some degree a relic of his thinking from his time living in Atlanta (home invasion prevention!! = White Panic! They’re After My Stuff!!), but out in the mountains, we actually are occasionally subject to home invasion – by bears. Or other dangerous fauna. So, I let it slide, particularly since I *have* called on him to shoot rattlesnakes with the thing whenever they get too close to the house/dogs.
Brachiator
@James E Powell:
A lot of these ads have moved to YouTube, with promises that you can get rich from “passive income.”
Almost Retired
I am curious about the socio-economic structure of The Villages, although not curious enough to actually ever go there. I know the city is divided into a bunch of individual quasi-self-governing Community Development Districts within the overall community. Are they all mixed income, or are some CCD’s on the wrong side of the track? And are the Democrats, few though they may be, self-sorted into any particular CCD’s (is there a The Villages Santa Monica or Berkeley), or are they also distributed somewhat randomly? I can’t imagine living in such a place, btw.
SiubhanDuinne
@Jay:
I was certain that was some bizarre typo or autocorrection of a word I couldn’t figure out, but nope — it’s Aussie slang.
(spruːk) intransitive verb. Austral slang. to make or give a speech, esp. extensively or elaborately; spiel; orate.
Someday I’ll learn how to speak Strine ??
(Lightly edited for clarity)
Chief Oshkosh
@Fair Economist:
Probably so, but in many cases street layouts like that were made so that car traffic is either cut way down or forced to go slowly. Lot’s of post-WWII housing tracts or subdivisions were very purposefully designed so that neighborhood streets were not cut-throughs to larger arteries.
Another Scott
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: There’s a meme out there that Obama didn’t get serious black support until he showed he could win white votes in Iowa. I think the story is more complex than that. E.g. Pew from December 2007:
This survey was done November 7-25, 2007. It says Obama and Clinton were tied in Iowa at the time – the final results were Obama 37.6%, Edwards 29.7%, Clinton 29.4%.
(The Iowa Caucus was January 3, 2008.)
Cheers,
Scott.
Gravenstone
That they know of. Little do they know about the shelf of voodoo dolls in their various likenesses…
Ruckus
@zzyzx:
All you have to do is act like a rabid prick, or republican, they are interchangeable after all, and seemingly insane humans will stand in line to give you money.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Jay:
Huh. I thought it was an especially weird typo, but apparently spruik is an Australian word meaning to speak in public, especially as a showman or salesman.
Geminid
@germy: I was visiting my Atlanta friend, and we out driving around suburbs on the Northwest side. There were several small new subdivisions that had fancy signs with names like “Grenville Plantation,” or “Montrose Plantation.” Not hard to figure out which homebuyers they’re trying to encourage, and which they want to discourage. Fulton County should really try to find a way to ban this practice.
NotMax
@NotMax
Omitted the kicker.
“They’re full of nuts.”
:)
catclub
@Jay:
new word to me.
ETA: I am too slow.
dmsilev
Pelosi moving to set up full investigation of the insurrection
Major Major Major Major
@NotMax: I’m aware. This was of course several years after the convention speech.
Jay
@Peale:
yeah, they were big promoters of “Covid escaped from a Chinese Bioweapon lab”, and Hunter Biden’s “laptop”.
still no “Epoch Times” the Falun Gong “newspaper” full of CT available at every transit stop.
Miss Bianca
@SiubhanDuinne: How do you pronounce it, anyway, I’m wondering – “sprook-ing”? “Sproo-icking”? “Sprike-ing”?
o/t, my condolences about your nephew. I didn’t catch the thread in real time yesterday.
Miss Bianca
@dmsilev: Good, good.
Steeplejack (phone)
@SiubhanDuinne:
Same.
NotMax
@Gravenstone – @zhena gogolia
Beavis and Butthead syndrome.
“Heh, heh. She said ‘[X].'”
Major Major Major Major
@dmsilev: Yeah I think doing years of Benghazi-style hearings (but for an actual scandal) is a much better bet politically than impeachment witnesses.
SiubhanDuinne
@SiubhanDuinne:
@Steeplejack (phone):
Great minds…
catclub
@dmsilev:
I just want her to add: “And no, its not going to be some waste of space fucking bi-partisan commission with GQP members throwing bombs the whole time.”
Ken
@Brachiator: I’m surprised all those scams haven’t been gobbled up by GoFundMe. Your one-stop-shop for convincing people to give you money.
catclub
@Major Major Major Major: As long as Trump is threatening to run again, the tax committee should be demanding his tax returns.
Cameron
@Sallycat: No question it’s a mess down here – every county is different, pharmacy chains are different….I’m 69 and have COPD, but I’m not holding my breath (hmmm….maybe I should start doing that) expecting anything to happen. Have tried signing up at the county website, Publix and Winn-Dixie. To no avail.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Gravenstone:
And flipping them the bird under the podium. Psaki said in an interview that Dana Perino said she used to do that to maintain her calm.
Gravenstone
@Scout211: I notice one very conspicuous absence from that list…
Major Major Major Major
It begins…
...now I try to be amused
@Sallycat:
Did the governor consider the possibility that his political gain would be exceeded by a political loss from angry voters like you?
cope
@Sallycat: Seminole County where we live is very well organized and the online reservation process worked easily and quickly for us. My sister-in-law in Orange County had the same problems as you. She would find an open time but by the time she answered her questionnaire, the slot was full. I got her an appointment in Seminole County. As a result, all three of us have had both shots.
Check the other counties around you. Each one is different and there is no county residency requirement as it is a state program.
Good luck and keep trying.
Steeplejack (phone)
@SiubhanDuinne:
Some of them hampered by slow phone typing.
Ken
Who leaves their house after dark? And who walks anywhere?
NotMax
@SiubhanDuinne
Gimme old fashioned fandangle or highfalutin any day.
;)
catclub
Too late to ask everyone to send you one bitcoin.
SiubhanDuinne
@Miss Bianca:
Pick your choose:
https://youtu.be/HGz_mkzKIxQ
https://youtu.be/JRWFjBVb7W4
https://youtu.be/Ta6MIEjhbYs
catclub
@cope:
heck, Lousiana residents are using Mississippi for vaccine tourism. You need an ID, but it doesn’t have to be a state DL.
trollhattan
Per Johns Hopkins California has administered 6M vaccine doses. Since they don’t break it down between one and two-dose recipients we’re left to guess how many total folks, but if it’s 4M that’s 10% of the population. The vaccination rate is increasing so we should make good progress over the coming month.
Our county new infection rate has fallen back to the pre-Thanksgiving level, big progress there.
Hoodie
@Geminid: Northwest side with new subdivisions probably isn’t Fulton County, more likely Cobb or even a more outlying county. I’m not sure that people pay all that much attention to the name of the subdivision they live in and that’s probably more just moronic marketing of “southern” themes for transplants moving to Atlanta from elsewhere. Of course, those themes themselves are racist, but the systemic racism has more to do with school districts and other perks than subdivision names.
catclub
Important if true! I suspect that testing has gone down with emphasis now on vaccines.
NotMax
Reminder: Z minus 3 hours (more or less) for Zoom room.
Ken
He’s got that covered with the secondary plans of (1) purge voter rolls and (2) don’t vaccinate Democrats.
Major Major Major Major
@trollhattan: Bloomberg says California has given 1+ shots to 11.4% and both shots to 3.3%.
SiubhanDuinne
@Steeplejack (phone):
But interesting that you and I both originally assumed “weird typo.”
evodevo
@NotMax: Tell me about it…try delivering mail on a route with those roads, with the address reading Spotted Toad….only
dmsilev
@trollhattan: CDC has the one-dose vs. two-dose data for all of the states (expand the data table to see it). Lags a day or so behind the CA state dashboard for the overall total number of shots administered, but the state doesn’t publish the breakdown, so looking at both is useful.
SiubhanDuinne
@NotMax:
Will cattywampus do?
trollhattan
@Major Major Major Major:
Thanks, so nearly 15% of 40M folks. Nice! ETA we have had 3.4M cases, so the vaccinated outnumber the infected.
Speaking of nice, LA weather ATM. Watching BYU at USC women’s soccer and it’s tshirt and shorts weather. (USC 1-0)
evodevo
@Fair Economist:
Yeah, there have been a couple of those over the last decade or so in Scott Co…..teen son trying to sneak in late at night….etc.
trollhattan
@SiubhanDuinne:
Only if the wampus does not have cat allergy.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Bill Arnold:
Chinese Embassy in DC: “bUt WhAtAbOuT aMeRiCa!?
zhena gogolia
@NotMax:
I’m not sure what time I’ll be able to be there — probably not right at the beginning. (Not that you were asking!)
Steeplejack (phone)
This shocked me. I had never considered that it could even be a thing. I know, silly me.
Major Major Major Major
@trollhattan: You can’t add them together, the first figure includes the second.
Betty Cracker
@cope: It never occurred to me that you could just go to a neighboring county — kinda figured you had to stick with the one where you live! Good to know, and thanks for the tip, which I will pass along to eligible relatives.
Winston
In Polk County, FLA it was pretty easy (for me) to get a vax appointment. I get my second shot next Tuesday. BTW it just hit 84 degrees here and my AC has kicked on.
Betty Cracker
@Major Major Major Major: Dear God in heaven, it’s a gerontocracy! ETA: I guess I knew that? But amazing to see it illustrated graphically like that.
magicunicornpowder
Me mum lives in a memory care facility in San Francisco. She tested pos for Covid in Dec but never developed symptoms. She got a vaccine last week.
Jeffro
@Hungry Joe: true! At least this kind of scam gets money out of rich RWNJ’s pockets and back into the economy.
But still – the nerve of this clown. “GIMME MAH MONEY BACK!”
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Betty Cracker:
The World’s Most Deliberative Retirement Home!
Jeffro
Yup. Keep getting more and more steeply progressive until it’s something like 90% for folks making over $10M a year. They just spend it on things like buying politicians, yachts, Cambridge Analytica, etc.
Steeplejack
@SiubhanDuinne:
Usually slang, or even “colorful” language, is kept out of straight news reporting, and I was surprised that something so odd would show up. I would have expected “his role in touting a number of dangerous conspiracy theories” or some such. The only other example that comes quickly to mind is that it took a long time for hyping as a synonym for touting to become mainstream enough for the straight news columns. But that was years ago, of course.
Steve in the ATL
@Ken:
Even the muggers are off the street by eight
@Ken:
Only a nobody
/’80’s music
Old School
@Betty Cracker:
And it looks like it always has been!
Jeffro
@Fair Economist: that’s just fucking nuts, wow.
Even my RWNJ dad knows to (only) keep a baseball bat handy, and that’s mostly just to make the bat owner feel better.
You can always check your swing if it’s a family member who got up in the middle of the night for a glass of water, but you can’t call back a bullet.
Also hard to commit suicide by bat.
Jeffro
@Major Major Major Major: jesus look at all. those. Boomers! ugh. ;)
Let’s try to cap the number of (my fellow) GenXers too, please, American voters.
NotMax
@Betty Cracker
Old news.
:)
“My God. It’s full of liver spots!”
Steeplejack
@evodevo:
In my neighborhood there is a Figby Drive that intersects with Figby Place at a 90-degree angle. That would be fine, except that the big brains started the address numbers for both at the same origin: 2100s, 2200s, 2300s, etc. It would have made more sense to have Figby Place numbered completely differently, like 8000s, 8100s, etc. Neither is a particularly long street, and this is not a “grid” area where 2100 means you’re 21 blocks from Big Main Drag. So if someone just wrote “8123 Figby” you’d know where to go.
And don’t get me started on “Peachtree everything” in Atlanta, where West Peachtree Street runs parallel to Peachtree Street. I once tracked down the point where Peachtree Street becomes Peachtree Road, and I was none the wiser for having done so.
trollhattan
BYU equalizes on a gorgeous sequence, only to have USC claw the lead back two minutes later. Damn good soccer for early season (they’re 10 and 14 ranked so should be good).
Ken
Someone, somewhere: “Hold my beer.”
schrodingers_cat
@Major Major Major Major: I bought myself an xpen pro. I am excited. I still have to use it though.
Punchy
That PollyFax shit is golden. The plan was to give it others and let them deal with it. So SOLID.
Further, my plan to educate my 3rd grader is to give her a differential equations textbook and a supercollider….
Betty Cracker
@Jeffro: I’m honestly surprised Boomers take up such a SMALL share; the generations that precede them dominate!
Freemark
Politifact was even worse than I thought. They quoted “there was no national strategy or plan for vaccinations” . The full quote is ““there was no national strategy or plan for vaccinations, we were leaving it to the states and local leaders to try and figure it out.”
Politifact: “That’s wrong. The Trump admin had a plan to distribute to locations chosen by states and let them take it from there.
Complete and total pieces of excrement.
danielx
@Jeffro:
And good luck with that, yo. Neither the RNC or Trump are famed for letting money go once it’s in their hands, Trump in particular.
NotMax
@Steeplejack
Bro-man get the X-torch? Also IIRC you ordered the mini-vac for yourself. Taken it for a test suck?
Just Some Fuckhead
A fool and his money are soon parted.
trollhattan
@Ken:
[Applies five vampire bats to neck, and waits….]
raven
@Geminid: That’s silly.
ljdramone
@Chief Oshkosh: The specific example at the link is a neighborhood about 2-3 miles south of where I live in Baltimore, MD. Guilford was developed in the 1920s, and Greenmount Avenue separates it from what would have been an exclusively white (though lower-class) neighborhood back in the day. The idea of preventing Those People from driving into the neighborhood was probably not a factor before WWII, since you had to be relatively wealthy to own a car.
Guilford and other expensive Baltimore neighborhoods like Roland Park had exclusive real estate covenants that made it pretty much impossible for the wrong sort of people (including Jews) to buy property until the 1970s.
Steeplejack
@NotMax:
Not Bro’ Man, the other one (RWNJ in Las Vegas) got the fancy flashlight. The solar aspect scored with him, as he can charge it when he is out in the desert.
I did get the mini-vac, but I have not even taken it out of the box yet. Another symptom of my dysthymic inertia (or inertial dysthymia, I can’t decide) during the pandemic.
Steeplejack
@Just Some Fuckhead:
Nelson Muntz “Ha-ha!”
Jay
Steve in the ATL
@Steeplejack:
It’s where Peachtree crosses over the Connector (I-75/I-85), which separates Midtown from Buckhead. Duh.
And then Peachtree Road begets Peachtree Industrial Boulevard (“PIB” in local parlance), which begets Peachtree Boulevard, which reverts to Peachtree Industrial Boulevard (“PIB” in local parlance), which splits into Peachtree Industrial Boulevard (“PIB” in local parlance), which retains that name until its terminus (the original name of Atlanta, prior even to Marthasville) and Peachtree Parkway. Peachtree then encounters a cross street called Medlock Bridge and assumes that name for a couple of miles, then reverts to Peachtree Parkway just because. After that, it leaves the friendly confines of Fulton County and enters Forsyth County, the last home of the Klan in Georgia (other than the statehouse), and a bridge too far for me (the Chattahoochee River wends through metro Atlanta, so there are bridges everywhere).
FIN
Shana
@Sure Lurkalot: Between the idiot who gave $2.5 million to the R recount efforts because the vote totals changed overnight after Election Day, and the dipshit on The View explaining how she got sucked into QAnon, it makes you wonder how these people managed to make it to adulthood.
jl
The fire department did not have a municipal strategy to put out fires.
FALSE! The fire department had a very efficient plan to drive a big tank of water to each address.
Example: There were ten big tanks of water parked in the street by the huge paint factory fire last week. Not the fire department’s fault it didn’t go out until it burned to the ground.
trollhattan
@Steeplejack:
We have an intersection of Sunrise and Sunset that puts Fiddler on the Roof songs in your head whether you want them or not.
sab
@tom: Hope is not a plan.
jl
@trollhattan: You in Sacramento area?
I think several Central Valley towns have a Sunset and a Sunrise Avenue. One on the west side and one on the east side of town Most of them don’t manage to meet, though.
But Sacramento is the big city, which can do lots of interesting things that yokels in the sticks can’t manage.
Shana
@James E Powell: Me too. I have a SIL who grew up in Iowa who always went home for a couple of weeks around Christmas and New Years who did what she called Election Tourism to see all the contenders when you could just see them in someone’s living room. She is an old school feminist who was all in for Hillary in ’08 but came back after seeing Obama and changed her mind.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Major Major Major Major: It took me far too long to find the pink rectangle.
Major Major Major Major
@schrodingers_cat: Ooh, hope you like it!
sab
@Fair Economist: My husband almost clubbed his kid’s best friend with a baseball bat when the very drunk idiot came through my upstairs office window thinking it was my stepson’s bedroom window. 2: 45 a.m., right after the bars all closed for the night.
House was dark. We were asleep. Why we don’t have a gun.
Ken
@jl: My town has an East St. and a West St. West is interestingly fractal – on the map it looks like it was once a single road, but it’s been chopped up by development and is now in five disconnected pieces.
It also has a Main and a Central, neither of which are the major street.
Geminid
@Hoodie: Yeah, probably Cobb. The neighborhoods were close in, like infills. That naming just struck me as strange, but you are probably right. Colonial names are common across Virginia, too.
Patricia Kayden
catclub
also higggledy-piggledy.
mrmoshpotato
WRONGSAD!
The plan was to tell each state of the nation that it’s on its own! Especially the hater and loser states!
Check and mate, libtards!
Steeplejack
@Geminid:
There’s a lot of Dominion this and Dominion that around me here in NoVA. “The Old Dominion” is, of course, Virginia’s nickname, but I can never suppress an eyebrow raise when I see “Dominion Hills” or “Dominion Road,” etc. Or, worse, “Dominion Plumbing” or some such on a truck.
NotMax
@trollhattan
Rising Sun Avenue in Philadelphia. House numbers go up high (don’t know how high but did once have to seek out a house with a number above 10,000).
But – it is not contiguous. Runs some some number of blocks, then stops. Picks up several blocks later (as if in an uninterrupted straight line). Repeats that behavior again and again for miles.
Then there was the house of a college friend’s parents in Minnesota. When they retired they bought property and put up a house in what now is probably fully developed but then was cornfields. Miles and miles of cornfields, but with cross streets already laid out precisely every tenth of a mile, each one numerically named and with signage in place.
Theirs was on 250th Street (again, the only structure visible in any direction). 250th because it was exactly 25 miles from the state Capitol building in St. Paul.
Ksmiami
@Shana: I think they’re such morons that I’m surprised they don’t strangle themselves tying their shoes…
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Major Major Major Major:
I think it’s interesting that there are fewer Baby Boomers than the GI Gen and Lost Generation. This continues more dramatically with Gen X and Millennials. Based on that chart, it seems like previous generations were able to dominate and be elected sooner (younger).
I’m guessing this is a result of various factors, including the fact that people are living longer and staying relatively healthy
Patricia Kayden
trollhattan
@jl:
Yep, IIRC it’s inside the splendid boundaries of Citrus Heights, where there may have been orchards pre-shopping mall era. Now it’s the land of the triple left-turn lane.
Another Scott
@Steve in the ATL: You reminded me of my dad driving his ’55 Chevy across some one lane bridge across a river down there between Cobb County and the city. Maybe somewhere around the governor’s mansion? It wasn’t fully paved – just a couple of maybe 12″ wide tracks for the cars to drive on. Cars would have to take turns because it was a total of one lane wide. Always scared the crap out of me when we went across it.
I was in the area in the ’80s and we drove by that area from the airport back to the homestead in Marietta and I saw the bridge was still there, just 50 feet away and maybe 50 feet down from the 4-6-8? lane road that replaced it.
Cheers,
Scott.
Brachiator
@Patricia Kayden:
“We support treason and opposition to treason.”
Baud
@Patricia Kayden:
Fixed.
NotMax
@Patricia Kayden
“It’s like having one wife who is a whiz at cooking, another who burns water.”
//
Ken
“But we’re not saying which of those is Romney and which is Lee.”
Ken
@Another Scott: There was a bridge near my parents’ house that was two lanes, technically, provided a truck or a Buick wasn’t involved. I think that was worse than the one-lane bridges.
mrmoshpotato
@germy:
And then it’s just assclowns all the way down.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Patricia Kayden:
Interesting. An R state party in a safe red state are able to subtly criticize Trump and his cult, yet R state parties in purple/swing states are unable/unwilling to.
Still speaking out both sides of their mouths
Mary G
Need some phone-buying advice. My ancient Samsung, which was selling for $59 until they stopped selling it at all, has given many years of loyal service, but has started to behave badly, so I’ve decided to splurge on a new one. I use Tracfone because it’s only $15/month and I hardly ever go anywhere, especially in the last year, and have rolled over 163,221 minutes so far in the 20+ years I’ve used them. Not that it matters anymore, of course.
They have a Samsung A21 for $269.00 with 32GB memory. Looked on Amazon and I can buy the same one with 64GB memory for $228.00, but it is an “international model” that only works on GSM networks but not CDMA networks and has no US warranty. I checked and Tracfone does use GSM. Amazon will sell a 2 year warranty for $69.00. Is this a better deal or should I spend more for a US model that works on all networks? I know a lot of people here were raving about the Pixel 4a a while back, but I like my Samsung things.
Also. Here is a dog reunion video if you need a good weep.
mrmoshpotato
@Sure Lurkalot:
That’s the truth!
pat
@Mary G:
I have tracfone too, for calls exclusively. I bought a new flip phone for less than $40 on the website. i do not use it for anything but phone calls and I have a lot of minutes!
I buy two years at a time for $150.
Jeffro
@Steeplejack: almost as prevalent as “Blue Ridge X” or “Cavalier Y” here in central VA ;)
raven
@Another Scott: The gov’s mansion is on West Paces Ferry just up from Buckhead.
raven
@Steve in the ATL: And, of course, the original name of Atlanta was Terminus! Ever eat at Aunt Fanny’s Cabin?
Miss Bianca
@Patricia Kayden:
“A diversity of thought” on sedition? Jesus. The mind reels.
“Ladies, ladies, you’re BOTH right! It’s a floor wax AND a dessert topping!”
NotMax
@Jeffro
More Lees than in Seoul.
:)
Freemark
Freemark
'Niques
@raven:
@Cameron: Keep trying at Publix. Make sure your window remains open … i.e: don’t move to a different tab (I kept two windows open so I could browse while waiting). Site will refresh itself every minute or so (I think doing a manual refresh puts you at the end of the line). I got in my second try after making these adjustments. Good luck.
Geminid
@Mary G: My old phone conked out last year, and I picked up a Samsung phone at Target for less than $100. It does everything I need or know how to do. I get prepaid service by the month from AT&T, $30 plus tax with autopay. I like AT&T’s service.
J R in WV
Neighbors (he’s retired USAF, she trains service dogs, both probably in their upper 50s) went to Mercer Co WV — all the way south against Virginia — to get their vaccination shots. I dunno if they have pre-appointments for second shots.
My next door neighbor works for the Kanawha Co health dept as an inspector/enforcement officer — she got a shot from the first batch received by the county, and rightfully so!! She told me that the state web site was the best way to get vaccine… I told her I did that a month ago, as soon as I heard they had one.
I hear that WV appears on top of many charts about great use of the available vaccine doses, perhaps because most received doses have been injected into arms. But how to get in line, to sign up, what about older people with NO internet service, no ability to use a computer??? Who cares?
I guess that doesn’t count, too subjective, hard to evaluate difficulty of navigation? I am a veteran, never signed up for VA health care as I have always had coverage via employers of mine or the wife’s. But I have a DD214, maybe I could visit a VA hospital with paperwork and get in line for a vaccination?
Or just stay at home until I get contacted by — someone — about getting a shot. And my wife…. Getting old, tho, I’ll tell you!!
I went to town yesterday, stopped at Aldi’s first, which is the first grocery I passed with the power on, got what I was looking for there, intended to go to Kroger’s next and then head home. But while I was sitting in the SUV it started to drizzle pretty hard. And the dash told me it was already 30 degrees, and then dropped to 29, so I headed back home.
This afternoon I tried to take more bags of trash down to the pick-up location. It’s nearly 80 yards down a gravel path to the SUV parking place, and it was so slick I was afraid to walk on the gravel, left my little wagon full of trash bags and very carefully walked back to the house. Really slick when a gravel path is too risky to walk on!! It does go downhill after a few yards. Not too much snow, but the ice is both slick AND invisible.
Freemark
@Mary G:
Get this one Moto G Power The newer version isn’t quite as nice so make sure to get 2020 model. It is durable, very long battery life, and extremely well reviewed. I own it and love it.Here it is on TracFone for only $150. Great deal and value.
NotMax
FYI.
mrmoshpotato
@Punchy:
Do they still sell Kiddo’s First Supercollider? Let’s call up Toys R Us!
raven
@J R in WV: To get a vaccination you need to be registered in the VA health system. I have never used the Va for health care but I did get glasses and hearing aids based on my “in country” status. You can register no matter where and when you service was and then you get put in a tier for bennies.
Major Major Major Major
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Boomers are excellent at clinging to power. I’m not big on generational generalizations but it’s true of the powerful members.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Steve in the ATL: That only applies to LA.
jeffreyw
@Mary G: Tracphone operates on Whichever network is predominate in your area, Verizon needs CDMA phones but the others (ATT, etc)work on the GSM bands. Do you know which you had?
slightly_peeved
@Miss Bianca:
sprook, as in spook with an r thrown in, would be the right pronunciation.
And to spruik, in my experience, is not just to make a speech – it’s specifically to advocate, tout or sell something. It’s a sales pitch.
Wayne
I live in Ocala Florida, Marion county and we ended up going north a short ways to Gainesville, alachua county. Took us over 2 weeks for a Publix appointment with a phone some tablets and a laptop at the same time.
Oh, and the villages is a scary place.
Another Scott
@Mary G: If you like Samsung, stick with Samsung.
I would avoid the international versions – you want GSM/CDMA in your case and don’t want to have issues activating it on your carrier.
I wouldn’t get an aftermarket warranty, myself. Especially not for a lower-end phone.
If you want to save some money, check out Swappa.com. My “mint” S20+ was purchased there from a well rated vendor with absolutely no issues. (I just did a very quick look around there, but didn’t see anything obvious to recommend to you. Maybe check out the A50 as well (but make sure you get one with both GSM and CDMA).)
I HTH a little. Good luck!
Cheers,
Scott.
Sallycat
I got an appointment for my vaccination-a friend texted me a phone number to call in a different city. I called and everything was smooth and easy. Yipee.
Mary G
@jeffreyw: AT&T, here.
leeleeFL
@NotMax: I knew I would vote for him as soon as he ran nationally. Said it out loud, actually! My 85 y. o. Mom loved him immediately! Roosevelt with a great tan, she said. Roosevelt was her first vote, Barack was her last. Said she did right by her country both times. God, I miss her!
Mary G
@Major Major Major Major: Not to excuse most of my generation, many of whom whipped a 180 from 70s hippie to 80s greed is good, let’s make a lot of money so fast they gave themselves whiplash, but this is very much not a problem that started with the boomers. All the olds serving now had to wait impatiently for people like Tip O’Neill, who served from 1953 to 1987, Robert Byrd, who served in the Senate for over 51 years, from 1959 until his death in 2010 (after 6 years in the House), and on the Republican side, the infamous Strom Thurmond, who served as a United States senator from South Carolina from 1954 to 2003 (when he was 101 years old) to GTFO. So boomers are just continuing the tradition because they feel like they weren’t allowed to move up when they were ready, and like the old thing with parents’ “I had to walk 12 miles in the snow to school up hill each way, don’t bitch about bringing the trash cans in” they want what the people before them had and feel kids should pay the same dues they did. It’s bullshit, but it’s human nature, too.
Mary G
@Another Scott:
@Freemark:
@Geminid:
@pat:
Thanks for the phone help. I need more memory because I listen to a lot of audiobooks and while Overdrive is OK, the Audible app is a memory hog, even with the micro SD card installed.
Amir Khalid
@mrmoshpotato:
Isn’t Toys R Us one of those companies that had the bad luck to encounter Bane Capital in a dark aley one night?
Major Major Major Major
@Mary G: People used to retire. It seems like a lot of corporate and political power is skipping Gen X entirely, as a result of this changing.
Sm*t Cl*de
@catclub:
Obligatory.
leeleeFL
@Fair Economist: A friend of mine talked like that around 2011. I laughed at her BS and she was pissed. Seriously, she thought her “stuff” was endangered by …… someone. She moved to the wilds of Arkansas! Bet she’s got a closet full of guns
leeleeFL
@Another Scott: I remember Mom and I having dinner at our fave Italian place and there being an older Black couple sitting near us. We were watching the TV and Obama was the subject of the report so they showed a clip of him speaking. Mom and I were over the moon and the Black couple asked if we really thought he could get elected, if nominated? We both said he’d had our votes since 2004, and we didn’t think we were alone. The Wife was kind of misty-eyed and the Husband said maybe he would see a Black president in his lifetime. We were all stoked! Good memory!
leeleeFL
@Ken: We need to figure out who our Floridian Stacy Abrams is! I know there has to be one! It could be me, or Betty or Emma. Or…..
The purging of eligible voters, plus a concentrated funding to pay off felon fines. I know Dems have some rich guys who get it. Maybe Bloomberg could find his wallet
leeleeFL
@Winston: Lucky you! Mine is borked. Maybe not fixed till Saturday! Lucky I grew up with no a/c , so I will manage. Thank dog for ceiling fans and showers!
leeleeFL
@trollhattan: MIC DROP! FUNNY AF
Another Scott
@Mary G: Remember that “storage” is different from “memory”. E.g. this S20+ has 12 GB of RAM (“memory”) and 512 GB of “storage” (flash memory). (Plus it has a micro sd storage slot.). If Audible is a RAM hog, then make sure that your new phone can handle it.
HTH!!
Cheers,
Scott.
Winston
@leeleeFL: Well it kind bounces around this time of the year. Tomorrow the high is forecast to be 69, then 80, then back to 84, then 64, so by Saturday the heater might be on.
leeleeFL
To Steeplejack:
At least the plumbing connection makes you know that crap is involved
leeleeFL
@Major Major Major Major: See also, Prince Charles of Great Britain.
leeleeFL
@Winston: Yeah, same system! I will freeze, or look like the Michelin Tire Man
Villago Delenda Est
Politifact is made up of Rethuglican slime molds.
Fuck them.
rikyrah
This is bullshyt?
They had the same national plan for vaccines that they did for PPE
There was no NATIONAL PLAN
STATES WERE ON THEIR OWN??