Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

“Just close your eyes and kiss the girl and go where the tilt-a-whirl takes you.” ~OzarkHillbilly

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

The real work of an opposition party is to oppose.

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

Hey Washington Post, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” is supposed to be a warning, not a mission statement.

Days Since JD Vance Insulted Women Across America: Zero

Let’s finish the job.

American History and Black History can not be separated.

Washington Post’s Catch and Kill, not noticeably better than the Enquirer’s.

You can’t love your country only when you win.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

Don’t expect peaches from an apple tree.

The Giant Orange Man Baby is having a bad day.

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

I conferred with the team and they all agree – still not tired of winning!

Republicans don’t trust women.

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

Republicans: “Abortion is murder but you can take a bus to get one.” Easy peasy.

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Saturday Morning Open Thread: Doing What We Can

Saturday Morning Open Thread: Doing What We Can

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The GOP Death Cultists genuinely find it difficult to imagine a politician who works to keep his promises:

In recent days, Republicans have tried to project confidence that they’ve found a killer attack line on President Biden: They can use the increasing anger of parents over the failure of schools to reopen to win back the suburban voters they’ve lost.

As Republicans describe this, it’s a twofer: They can channel the genuine hardships this has imposed on countless Americans to their advantage while also tarring Democrats as in the pocket of teachers unions, casting them as tools of their special interests.

The Republican calculation appears to be that, by pushing now for the schools to reopen quickly, they will have placed themselves on the right side of the issue early on…

But the complication here is that if and when that happens, the party in power is likely to get a large bulk of the credit for it.

The truth of the matter is that Democrats’ political fortunes in 2022 will turn, at least in part, on whether they actually deliver on getting us back to normal, or not. If they don’t, then they’ll probably be in serious political trouble next year.

If so, perhaps the Republican strategy will appear prescient. But if Biden and Democrats do tame the pandemic and schools reopen — and normalcy resumes relatively smoothly — the GOP strategy will not only have been shortsighted.

It will also backfire. It will have left Republicans in the position of having contributed little to nothing of actual value to a large national success story that most Americans will be celebrating.

Reader Interactions

359Comments

  8. 8.

    JAFD

    Well, since this be an open thread…

    Hath any of you jackals purchased prescription eyeglasses online ?  Any companies you’d recommend – or disparage ?  Other tips or recommendations ?

    Thanks very much for your help with this !  Have great weekend, happy Washington’s Birthday, and joyful Purim.

  9. 9.

    waspuppet

    That’s assuming Republicans are even trying to get most people to vote for them. If things are relatively normal next year, the Republican line will be “See? Trump was right; this virus wasn’t that big a deal.” Which will be enough of an excuse to keep their 40% in line. Throw in voter suppression and it’s another crapshoot.

  21. 21.

    David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch

    It’s been a full month and there’s been no drama, no scandals, actual vaccinations have more than tripled, deaths have plummeted 44%, and 2,000,000,000,000 dollars is a 10 days away.We should all be getting cigarette holders and start signing “Happy Days Are Here Again”​​

  23. 23.

    Chyron HR

    Ted Cruz named his dog after a Republican epithet for liberals? What does he call his cat, “Soyboy”?

  25. 25.

    randy khan

    About that Republican strategy – a week or so ago, there was a bunch of righty caterwauling about how the Biden Administration would interfere in the CDC guidance on when and how schools could reopen.  That didn’t happen.  (And, of course, wasn’t going to happen, for many reasons.)

    Now they’re making another push about school reopenings just as the Dems are going to pass a relief bill, likely with almost no Republican votes, that contains a ton of money to help schools implement the CDC guidance.  (And Biden and his team already have talked about that money.)

    This does not seem like a well conceived strategy.

  27. 27.

    Betty Cracker

    @Baud: I worried that Turnip would start yapping again once the impeachment trial was over and get wall-to-wall MSM coverage. He did hit the Newsmax and ONAN circuit and maybe Fox News? But it didn’t draw major coverage from the non-wingnut press, which is a great sign. The Twitter deplatforming really did cut off that shit-stain troll’s oxygen.

  31. 31.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @debbie: And all others:

    I knew we were getting close 2 weeks ago. I had a vet appointment and insisted my wife come with (I usually do this alone) X-rays showed his left lung was 80% scar tissue and any activity started him hacking. One morning I let him out for morning biz and he went and wandered, by the time he came back he struggled to breath for a good 15 mins. All I could do was hold him as he shook with the effort and tell myself he was never going out by himself again. Weds eve he stopped eating, not even treats from his Momma, or his ham wrapped meds.

    Yester morn I told my wife that Woof was telling us it was time. She wanted to talk to the vet first. We called. He told her it was time. We took him in. He breathed his last with his head in her lap.

    His Momma is bereft. I am not much better.

  33. 33.

    zhena gogolia

    Damn, the caption on that first tweet. “For the first time in his presidency, Biden ventured outside Washington . . .”

    FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU

    Yeah, he didn’t “venture” on a helicopter to play golf and scheme to overthrow the government. I know it’s hard on you fucking reporters, but try to get a grip.

  37. 37.

    Freemark

    @Chyron HR:  I doubt that is why this small fluffy white dog was named Snowflake. I’d be willing to bet Fled Cruz doesn’t even know they have a dog. And Snowflake wanted to keep it that way. Damn journalists!

  39. 39.

    Marmot

    Why do the Repubs always speak of school reopenings and the economy as somehow separate from the pandemic? It’s insane!

    Are there really that many parents who want to force their kids into school while this disease is raging? Is the polling pointing that way?

  45. 45.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Japanese website maps neighbourhoods that have noisy children

    Chatty neighbours and children letting off steam on the street have become the target of a controversial website in Japan that identifies neighbourhoods where noise levels may be too much for those in search of a quieter life.

    The Dorozoku (street tribe) map is ablaze with colourful circles indicating places to avoid because, it says, they reverberate to the sound of children at play and adults gossiping within earshot of their neighbours.

    The site appears to have struck a chord in a country where even packed commuter trains are often oases of quietude, with information about almost 6,000 hotspots across Japan posted by irritable locals.

    Clicking on the icons reveals the nature of the nuisance, from children “playing noisily with balls” to adults engaging in marathon gossip sessions.

    “Primary school children are always playing and romping around the street, causing trouble to people living nearby,” reads a typical submission, while another user complains of having to dodge children while driving in the neighbourhood.

    Older schoolchildren are not the only group being singled out, with other gripes directed at crying babies and kindergarten pupils raising their voices in the evening and during weekends.

    The horror, children having fun.

    But the site’s operator, a man in his 40s who asked not to be named, is now under fire himself, accused of fomenting intolerance of children who are only doing what comes naturally, and in a country that needs many more young people if its economy is to survive in the coming decades.

    Hmmmmmmm… Maybe there is a God after all.

  46. 46.

    Freemark

    @debbie: To be fair, it could be any number of disinfectants. Bleach was just one example used. Or maybe even stick a UV light in the lungs if you didn’t like needles.

  49. 49.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @Marmot:

    Are there really that many parents who want to force their kids into school while this disease is raging? Is the polling pointing that way?

    From my observations of co-workers, the Republicans at national, state, and local levels have made everything just confusing enough that even normally-sane people are at wits end. It’s nearly impossible to get everyone on the same page, with a united purpose, with understood rules after a year of utter chaos wrt the pandemic and four years of utter chaos and cruelty for everything else.

    And it is ALL the faulty of the Republican party.

  50. 50.

    zhena gogolia

    @Freemark:

    I agree. We’re being a little crazy if we accuse him of having some ulterior motive for the dog’s name.

    On the other hand, what a soulless weasel to leave the poor doggie alone in the cold and dark.

  52. 52.

    RandomMonster

    @Betty Cracker: I was just remarking to RandomMrs just how healthy it is being unaware of what Dump says or does to ruin people’s lives. We both raised a glass.

  53. 53.

    Nicole

    @OzarkHillbilly: I’m so sorry.  Woofie clearly had a great life with you and your wife, right to the end.  A friend of mine once said, we should all get to be as fortunate as our pets, and be able to leave life with our head resting in the lap of someone who loves us.   Woofie was lucky to have you as his people.

  59. 59.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Late last year, as winter approached and power companies prepared for cold weather, Gov. Greg Abbott’s hand-picked utility regulators decided they no longer wanted to work with a nonprofit organization they had hired to monitor and help Texas enforce the state’s electric reliability standards.

    The multiyear contract between the Public Utility Commission and the obscure monitoring organization, the Texas Reliability Entity, was trashed. Over the next months, right up until the crippling storm that plunged millions of Texans into the dark and cold, the state agency overseeing the power industry operated without an independent monitor to make sure energy companies followed state protocols, which include weatherization guidelines.

    The Public Utility Commission’s decision in November to end its contract with the Texas Reliability Entity didn’t cause the historic grid failures that this week transformed Texas into an undeveloped country, leaving large swaths of the state without power or water as temperatures dropped and stayed below freezing. A PUC spokesman said the agency still had ample protections to ensure energy companies followed state rules and guidelines.

    On Thursday, Abbott called for a state law requiring power plants to be better weatherized. Yet over the past quarter-century, state leaders have refused to require the companies to prepare for severe weather, even as once-in-a-lifetime storms have arrived with increasing frequency.

    Critics say the utility commission’s move to strip away a regulatory layer, especially with potentially severe weather approaching, was just the latest example of the consistently light touch Texas politicians have used to oversee the complex industry that generates and distributes power.

    “It’s astonishing to me that the PUC would get rid of the independent reliability entity with no plan to replace it,” said state Rep. Rafael Anchía, D-Dallas, who sits on the Texas House Energy Resources Committee. “No staff, no oversight on reliability.”

    SNATFU.

  63. 63.

    Betty Cracker

    Another story about Republicans and dogs: when horrid US Senator Rick Scott (R-FL) was running (successfully, unfortunately) to be horrid FL Governor Rick Scott, his publicists urged him to get a dog to ameliorate the impression that Scott is a reptilian alien life form who finds his human skin suit itchy.

    Scott acquired a shelter dog and named the poor thing “Reagan.” But after the election, reporters noticed Reagan wasn’t at the governor’s mansion in Tallahassee anymore. After multiple inquiries about the missing dog threatened to blow up into a full-fledged scandal, Scott admitted the dog was too “rambunctious” to be in the governor’s mansion and said he’d given the dog back to the organization from which he’d acquired it. The end.

  70. 70.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Betty Cracker: If a name like Reagan doesn’t scream “Animal abuse!” I don’t know what does. The poor dog was better off back in the shelter where a real family could adopt him.

  72. 72.

    Another Scott

    @JAFD:  I’ve done so twice. Most recently with EyeBuyDirect. Worked great for me. Progressives, metal frame, antiscratch coating, proper nose pads, etc. They were perfect, fit great, and cost 1/3 of what my previous pair cost.

    Make sure to get your pupil distance when you get your prescription.

    HTH a little. Good luck!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  75. 75.

    Ken

    @RSA: Not just Japan, according to that article:

    1.84 in the United States, 1.92 in France, 1.85 in Sweden, 1.80 in Britain, 1.50 in Germany, 1.35 in Italy, 1.24 in Singapore and South Korea, 1.20 in Hong Kong and 1.18 in Taiwan

    Taiwan is a real surprise. I wonder what factors are in play there?

  76. 76.

    Betty Cracker

    @Baud: This was about 10 years ago, but IIRC, reporters were able to confirm that shelter took the dog back, but the shelter wouldn’t say if he had been re-homed, which was probably the right thing to do. The dog deserved a fresh start!

  81. 81.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Baud:

    Has anyone tracked down the dog? I hope Rick Scott didn’t eat it. 

    C’mon man!  That’s even out of line for Batboy Scott!

  83. 83.

    OzarkHillbilly

    A defamation lawsuit brought against CNN by the California Republican Devin Nunes, a leading ally of former president Donald Trump, was tossed out by a Manhattan judge on Friday.

    The lawsuit seeking more than $435m in damages was rejected by US district judge Laura Taylor Swain, who said Nunes failed to request a retraction in a timely fashion or adequately state his claims.

    Nunes alleged the cable news company intentionally published a false news article and engaged in a conspiracy to defame him and damage his personal and professional reputation. His lawsuit said CNN published a report containing false claims that Nunes was involved in efforts to get “dirt” on then-Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden.

    I find it hilarious that Nunes thinks his “personal and professional reputation” could be anymore damaged.

  84. 84.

    Ken

    @OzarkHillbilly: Stupendous timing on the cancellation of the contract to monitor utility companies. You can almost imagine Karma perking up and telling Fate, “Hold my beer.”

    What next? Texas cancels their equivalent of JULIE – or do they even have one? Around here it’s pretty simple, if you don’t call first, then sever a cable when digging, you’re fined and can be on the hook for the cost of repair.

  85. 85.

    Marmot

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I get that, to some degree—I’m losing my mind having to proctor virtual  school and whatnot for a year now! We’re considering putting the kids in school again.

    but goddamn! The vaccines will really clear the way, not pig-headed insistence. I have a hard time grasping the ploy here, I guess.

    Maybe Oshkosh is right—they want it confusing?

  86. 86.

    Ken

    @OzarkHillbilly: I could swear I saw reports of Nunes bragging that he was looking for something to smear Biden with.  And I may be misremembering, but wasn’t he one of the ones who gloated that they were damaging Clinton with the neverending Benghazi investigations?

  89. 89.

    mrmoshpotato

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I find it hilarious that Nunes thinks his “personal and professional reputation” could be anymore damaged. 

    Especially after trying to sue one of his cows.

  92. 92.

    ixnay

    ​  Oh, my very deepest condolences. As someone who has let loose any number of beloved pets, including my own, all I can say is that you have done the right thing. Mr. ixnay has let me howl on his shoulder after a euthanasia. Again, be well in the knowledge that you took the right path.

  94. 94.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Baud: One of the guys in a frat house where I roomed for my one year in grad school at Cornell had emigrated from Poland with his family in his early teens. He told me about one of their former neighbors, who had a dog named Stalin. Casual acquaintances thought the guy was an admirer of the Vozhd. In fact he despised the former Dzugashvili & took it out on the poor animal.

    (Yeah, that warn’t right.)

    You wonder if Raffy Cancruz beats Snowflake. Check that, you wonder how frequently he beats Snowflake…

  95. 95.

    OzarkHillbilly

    I have been remiss:

    “I got out there and sat down on the toilet and immediately something bit my butt right as I sat down,” Shannon Stevens told the Associated Press. “I jumped up and I screamed when it happened.”

    Stevens, her brother Erik and his girlfriend had taken snowmobiles into the wilderness 13 February to stay at his yurt, located about 20 miles north-west of Haines, in south-east Alaska.

    Her brother heard the screaming and went out to the outhouse, about 150ft (45.72 meters) away from the yurt. There, he found Shannon tending to her wound. They at first thought she had been bitten by a squirrel or a mink, or something small.

    Erik had brought his headlamp with him to see what it was.

    “I opened the toilet seat and there’s just a bear face just right there at the level of the toilet seat, just looking right back up through the hole, right at me,” he said.

    “I just shut the lid as fast as I could. I said, ‘There’s a bear down there, we got to get out of here now,”’ he said. “And we ran back to the yurt as fast as we could.”

    Once safely inside, they treated Shannon with a first aid kit. They determined it wasn’t that serious, but they would head to Haines if it worsened.

    “It was bleeding, but it wasn’t super bad,” Shannon said.

    Meant to put that up earlier.

  96. 96.

    Gravenstone

    @Baud: You knew they’d be too stupid and full of themselves to hide behind Trump’s pardon and stay out of trouble. Here’s hoping they both reap the whirlwind.

  97. 97.

    germy

    Good news:

    Rep. Katie Porter has been elected to serve as Chair of the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. The Subcommittee is responsible for holding polluters accountable and rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse in areas under the Committee's jurisdiction.

    — Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) February 19, 2021

  98. 98.

    Fair Economist

    Update on my mother’s housekeeper husband: He got COVID after insisting it wasn’t especially dangerous and ended up as an invalid with severe lung damage after 2 weeks in the hospital. His wife caught it from him and had a moderate case but fortunately did not give it to my end-stage COPD mother.

    Well, just a few days after discharge he had a heart attack, went back to the hospital, and died. COVID probably caused that, indirectly, although of course there’s no way to know for sure. Just awful for everybody concerned.

  101. 101.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Fair Economist:COVID probably caused that, indirectly, although of course there’s no way to know for sure.

    If they do an autopsy, the heart should show if there was any recent Covid damage.

  103. 103.

    Fair Economist

    @JAFD: I’ll second the recommendation for EyeBuyDirect. I’ve bought glasses from them for years without trouble, and they are far cheaper than any brick and mortar store. I can get indoor glasses with complicated prescriptions for less than $40.

  104. 104.

    Geminid

    @OzarkHillbilly: The Waynesboro, Virginia Dupont plant put out enough mercury before 1970 that there are still health advisories on fish taken from the South Fork of the Shenanandoah. Adults are advised not to eat the fish more than twice a week, and pregnant women and children none at all.                  The Waynesboro plant is huge, but now only twenty percent is utilized. Koch Industries bought it ten years ago.

  105. 105.

    Fair Economist

    @RSA:

    The country’s total fertility rate — the average number of children born per woman during their reproductive years — stood at 1.45 in 2015.

    The rate needed to maintain a population is about 2.1, worldwide. Japan has been in trouble on that front for a while now.

    A shrinking population is not a problem. There’s a certain faction that rants about a “pension crisis” but it’s mostly a cover to push for cutting Social Security. The cost of educating and caring for the young is almost as high as that of health care and supportive services for the elderly. Over almost any range of population change we see in the world the burden of carrying dependents barely changes.

    If the population gets small enough, then there could be problems, but that would take centuries. IMO the problem is mostly driven by high housing costs so once the population actually starts to shrink substantially the birth rates will go back up. If not, our great-great-great-grandchildren can figure out a way to deal with it, if climate change hasn’t already wiped them out.

  108. 108.

    Tdjr

    @OzarkHillbilly: There is a house nearby me that is one of those that attracts all the neighborhood kids. The dad is often out with the kids, throwing a ball or hosing them down in the summer heat. I’m single and like my quiet life, but their joyful noises are musical. ?

  111. 111.

    citizen dave

    @JAFD: Although lately I’ve been using costco, I have in the past done a few from Zenni (seems like one of the very cheapest).  I think they are fine.  I noticed one day one of my old Zennie pair’s lenses are now noticeably yellow, but they’re, like, 10 years old.

    Only writing to say be sure to get the +/- sign correct on your prescription.  One time I had the wrong one and received these really think bulbous convex lenses (like my wife has!) and there was no recourse, it was my mistake.

  114. 114.

    zhena gogolia

    @Tdjr:

    I hate noise in general, but when all the neighborhood kids were little, I just loved the sound of them playing.

  115. 115.

    Baud

    @germy:

    I’ll never be a fan, but for a lot of voters keeping him in his chairmanship will hopefully be motivation for them to turn out in 2022 Senate elections.

  119. 119.

    citizen dave

    @OzarkHillbilly: I’ve heard many times about the Texas reliability construct and have never heard of the Texas Reliability Entity.  Sounds like maybe it was more for the distribution area rather than generation.  Their resource adequacy construct was an “energy-only” market, but the reserves needed and created by the magic of the marketplace–incented by the chance to receive revenues during high price events.  This event is truly a black swan event, and some of the main faults are no weatherization of the gas power plants was done (as should have been after the 2011 event), and of course weatherizing the gas supply system–easier said than done.  But if a plant can’t get gas it can’t generate.  I doubt the entity above had any authority to order power plants to do anything.  I’m guessing whatever it said was advisory to the PUC.  (Willing to learn more about it, but hey I deal with this for my region; it’s enough)

  124. 124.

    citizen dave

    @karen marie: I missed the whole grocery thread last night.  They invaded Indiana 20 years ago; I say Miejer.  Lately I’ve been saying Krogers some, but am mostly a Kroger person, and many times work in Krogering, as in Let’s Go Krogering.

    “Save Big Money in Menards”  Can’t escape their songs after thousands of listens.

  125. 125.

    NetheadJay

    @Ken: You bet there’ll be people doing that. I hadn’t even seen that XKCD (I check my webcomics bookmarks every 2-3 days), but was watching the day-after press conerence last night and when they talked about the microphones and mars sounds my first thought was about downloading some into the synth soundbanks.

  130. 130.

    Immanentize

    @Geminid:

    The Waynesboro plant is huge, but now only twenty percent is utilized. Koch Industries bought it ten years ago.

    This is where the Koch Industry Axlotl tanks are.

  131. 131.

    germy

    ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) – An Alaska woman had the scare of a lifetime when using an outhouse in the backcountry and she was attacked by a bear, from below.

    “I got out there and sat down on the toilet and immediately something bit my butt right as I sat down,” Shannon Stevens told The Associated Press on Thursday. “I jumped up and I screamed when it happened.”

    Stevens, her brother Erik and his girlfriend had taken snowmobiles into the wilderness Feb. 13 to stay at his yurt, located about 20 miles northwest of Haines, in southeast Alaska.

    Her brother heard the screaming and went out to the outhouse, about 150 feet (45.72 meters) away from the yurt. There, he found Shannon tending to her wound. They at first thought she had been bitten by a squirrel or a mink, or something small.

    Erik brought his headlamp with him to see what it was.

    “I opened the toilet seat and there’s just a bear face just right there at the level of the toilet seat, just looking right back up through the hole, right at me,” he said.

    “I just shut the lid as fast as I could. I said, ‘There’s a bear down there, we got to get out of here now,'” he said. “And we ran back to the yurt as fast as we could.”

    Once safely back inside, they treated Shannon with a first aid kit. They determined it wasn’t that serious, but they would head to Haines if it worsened.

    “It was bleeding, but it wasn’t super bad,” Shannon said.

    https://wnyt.com/news/alaska-woman-using-outhouse-attacked-by-bear-from-below/6017617/?utm_campaign=thumbnails&utm_medium=onsite&utm_source=zetaglobal

  134. 134.

    Immanentize

    @Baud: Sadly vice versa too.  He will be on every Republican poster as the enemy.

    That said, the Republicans spent six years building up Bernie, so maybe that won’t work?

  138. 138.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @RandomMonster:

    He doesn’t like dogs, and dogs don’t like him:

    “Donald was not a dog fan,” Ivana Trump wrote in her 2017 memoir, Raising Trump, recounted his resistance to her bringing a poodle named Chappy home. “It’s me and Chappy or no one!” she said to him.

    The poodle, however, soon showed that the feeling of dislike was mutual. When the real estate developer went near her closet, “Chappy would bark at him territorially,” Ivana Trump wrote.

  140. 140.

    Eolirin

    @Fair Economist: It’s not a problem for the US, because we easily make up the difference via immigration. It’s a looming issue for Japan because their demographics are even more heavily skewed to old and they don’t really allow much in the way of immigration at all. They’re going to suffer a more acute population contraction in a smaller period of time, and it’s going to fuck with their economy if they don’t do something to mitigate the loss in consumer spending. And their economy still has issues from the 90s deflationary trap they got stuck in.

    There are relatively simple fixes, like allowing immigration, but their government and presumably a good chunk of the population seems really opposed to that.

  145. 145.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @citizen dave:I’m guessing whatever it said was advisory to the PUC.

    Yes, that is all they were. They got kicked because they were a bunch of Chicken Little’s who kept advising the PUC put some teeth into their regs and get this shit done to avoid another 2011. The sky was never going to fall. Just a few clouds and the magic of the free market would take care of that.

  146. 146.

    BC in Illinois

    @Fair Economist:

    A shrinking population is not a problem.

    Yes. This is worth a lot of thought and re-thinking. It may not be totally necessary that, for example, the BC family increase and populate the earth. There are plenty of other people to carry that responsibility. And if they don’t all live in my community, well, people can move in. This is not necessarily a bad thing.

    A few years back, the Gutter literary magazine of Edinburgh did a special issue called The Freedom Papers.  Fifty-one essays on freedom of religion, freedom of speech, various life-freedoms, etc.  What struck me was the first essay, a freedom to which I had not given much thought. Freedom of movement.

    As with other freedoms [cf. Freedom of Speech], there needs to be some regulation around the edges, but it is best that there be the most freedom possible. The International Organization for Migration does what it can to get people to think of migration — not only refuge and asylum, but simple migration — as a good thing.

    I think they’re right. Don’t worry about the depleted numbers of the BC clan: let freedom of movement populate the earth.

  149. 149.

    debbie

    @zhena gogolia:

    I live next door to a church with a child care center, and I’m really looking forward to spring when I can open my windows and hear their shrieks and giggles.

  152. 152.

    Geminid

    @NetheadJay: After Mike Pompeo left the Army, the Koch brothers invested in the airplane components company Pompeo and partners bought. It was located in Wichita, Kansas, headquarters of Koch Industries. A few years later, Pompeo was Congressman from Wichita. When Pompeo runs for President, he will have plenty of money backing him.                                  In the meantime, the Kochs will spend their money on the 2022 midterms, hoping to put Katie Porter and the rest of the Democratic Representatives in the minority. Job one will be influencing redistricting later this year, trying to gerrymander Democrats like Lucy McBath (GA) and Sharice Davids (KS) out of their seats.

  153. 153.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Immanentize:

    My grandmother, as a young girl in the 1890s, had a black-and-white dog named Helen. Whenever she called the dog, she was able to get away with what sounded like, but technically wasn’t, a swear:

    “HELEN DALMATIAN!”

  156. 156.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Immanentize: Yes, it’s been 2 weeks (1st, Momma was shellfish, 2nd, the weather Gods hate us) The weather is going to be cooperative this week. We’ll see if Mommy and Daddy are.

  157. 157.

    Another Scott

    @germy: I’m not surprised.

    Who is supposed to be impressed by a Tweet like that?

    “Ack!  You have slain me with your ripost!  Forsooth, now I die!!1”

    :-/

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  158. 158.

    debbie

    @Immanentize:

    I don’t work for or with the CFPB, but I do have to deal with them. You would be amazed at the increase in numbers of complaints. People have high hopes for them.

  163. 163.

    Immanentize

    @debbie: I’m just surprised you have day cares allowing kids to run around freely in COVID times.  Daycares here are pretty darn quiet — those that manage to stay open.

  165. 165.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Chief Oshkosh: ​

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: ​
     

    People do want the schools reopened, and Biden has said repeatedly that we’re not going to be able to get the economy going until we can SAFELY get kids back in school.

    But also can we not kill the teachers while we’re doing it? We reviewed the CDC guidance on reopening schools, and my wife (a university prof) was underwhelmed by the apparent lack of consideration to teacher safety while discussing reopening criteria.

    The conversation has been completely muddied by a year of inattention at the federal level, leaving the conversation open to confusing and contradictory advice from everyone else. I’m glad to see the CDC document beginning the process of laying out one single set of standards, but I don’t think anybody has a real reopening plan yet.

    Also while kids have much lower rates of serious infections, it’s not zero. There are kids with long-term health effects caused by Covid.

    Also, can we stop casting teacher concerns about “I’d like not to die please” as “those whiny selfish teachers unions are putting themselves ahead of our poor students”?

  166. 166.

    debbie

    @Immanentize:

    Kids mask up. This year, their Halloween costume parade was a couple of laps around the parking lot rather than a march around the neighborhood. Cute as hell.

  168. 168.

    trollhattan

    @Geminid:

    California (and other parts of the West) continues to wrestle with mercury in the environment from the Gold Rush. Stuff is relentless (and IIUC transitions from metallic to methylmercury in order to enter the food chain).

    There’s at least one reservoir fed by a Sierra river that was built specifically to keep mining waste from reaching the Sacramento River system–the system that is the source of both the federal and State water supply systems.

    A problem that began nearly 150 years ago.

  174. 174.

    germy

    Donald Trump was cultivated as a Russian asset over 40 years and proved so willing to parrot anti-western propaganda that there were celebrations in Moscow, a former KGB spy has told the Guardian.

    Yuri Shvets, posted to Washington by the Soviet Union in the 1980s, compares the former US president to “the Cambridge five”, the British spy ring that passed secrets to Moscow during the second world war and early cold war.

    Surprise, surprise… (as Gomer Pyle used to say.)

  175. 175.

    Anoniminous

    @Fair Economist:

    Covid-19 is a disease of endothelium cells.  These cells line the interior walls of blood vessels and lymphatic vessels.  It has been known for some time it can attack the heart causing dysfunction or death.

  178. 178.

    citizen dave

    @OzarkHillbilly: Thanks for this reply!  I was just thinking, instead of consumers on real time rates with bills in the thousands, what if we made the utilities pay the $9000/MWh to their customers who suffer the rotating blackouts.  I think they would ensure a more reliable supply in this incentive structure.  Rates would be a little higher.

  179. 179.

    Fair Economist

    @Eolirin: No, it’s not a problem for Japan either. As their population ages, their healthcare cost will go up, and their education costs will go down, and the total burden on society barely changes. The optimum is at very slow growth, but you need fertility rates below 1 or above 4 before the effect is large enough not to be completely swamped by productivity changes.

    The other thing people don’t mention is that if the population growth rate increases, things get *worse* for 40 years before returning to approximately where they are now. And, unlike the small changes at equilibrium, the short-term changes from higher birth rates are quite large, because the extra children aren’t balanced out by fewer elderly. I suspect this is why drops in fertility rate frequently precede major jumps in economic growth – fertility drops unburden the economy.

  180. 180.

    germy

    I get it now.

    I get it now. Ted and Heidi Cruz wanted their children to be safe, to have basic sanitary services like heat and running water, to leave behind a third-world apocalyptic nightmare for a safer place. Like so many parents before them, they decided to cross the Mexican border.

    — Julie Roginsky (@julieroginsky) February 19, 2021

  185. 185.

    Another Scott

    @Fair Economist: +1

    Dean Baker occasionally comments on Japan and its demographics. Prospect.org (from 2009):

    This is very fashionable to say in all the news coverage on Japan (a “worrying rise of the world’s oldest population,” according to the Post), but it’s not clear what it means. The concern is that Japan will not have a large enough workforce to support its dependent elderly population. There is no evidence of that problem at present, when the unemployment is a historically high (for Japan) unemployment rate of 5.7 percent. As a more general issue, a relative decline in the size of the labor force would simply mean that the least productive jobs go unfilled. This could mean, for example, that jobs held by the pushers who shove people into Tokyo’s overcrowded subways may go unfilled. There may be fewer people working as parking lot attendants, custodians in office buildings and convenience store clerks. As an offset, this densely populated country, with very high land prices, will become less densely populated and have lower land prices. It will also be much easier for Japan to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants. It is difficult to see where the crisis lies. Of course one reason that Japan has such an old population is that its life expectancy is so long. At 82.1 years its life expectancy at birth is four years longer than that of the United States. It is also worth noting that, dispute a debt to GDP ratio of more than 180 percent, its annual interest burden is less than that of the United States.

    Unbridled growth is also called “cancer”. Humans have to figure out ways to reduce and some cases even reverse population growth rates. Japan and other countries are figuring that out and it can be a good thing.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  187. 187.

    raven

    @BlueGuitarist: A common misbelief is that her name was originally “god” (with a small “g”), and was only later changed to “China”. However, Jeff Tamarkin‘s 2003 book on the history of Jefferson Airplane, Got a Revolution: The Turbulent Flight of Jefferson Airplane, explains this resulted from a sardonic remark made by her mother to a nurse.[4] In San Francisco County, a birth was registered for January 25, 1971, for a female child with the surname Kantner. The mother’s maiden surname was Wing. No given name was registered for the child at that time

    And if anyone was god in the Airplane it was Jorma!

  189. 189.

    Honus

    @Geminid: and they have a trout fishing contest right next to that DuPont plant every year.
    speaking of naming dogs for your rivals, former UVA basketball coach Terry Holland did it it right. Back in the 1980s the Hollands had a beloved golden retriever they named Dean after UNC coach Dean Smith because when she was a puppy one time she cried all night.

  191. 191.

    BlueGuitarist

    @raven: Jorma has been doing some great quarantine concerts from Fur Peace Ranch!

    What is your favorite stripe on the flag? (I’m guessing the one that says “Fuck LBJ”)

  193. 193.

    Ken

    @sdhays: Why is Taiwan particularly surprising?

    Just that I hadn’t heard they had such a low birthrate; so surprising to me, perhaps not to those who pay attention to such things.  I do wonder what the causes are.  Also a bit of surprise that it was only a little above 1, so halving the population each generation.

  194. 194.

    Ken

    @NetheadJay: Going from Dupont to Koch brothers, damn, that’s like a hellmouth of evil.

    Usually you only hear about that sort of thing on Captain Planet reruns.

  196. 196.

    Raoul Paste

    @OzarkHillbilly: I went back and took a look at some of the photos of Woofmeister

    Some dogs can absolutely smile .  And who knew he could drive a car?  Sincere condolences

  202. 202.

    Ruckus

    @randy khan:

    This does not seem like a well conceived strategy.

    They are after all, republicans in the 21 century. They don’t want government, they want to be able to plunder and pillage the business world, sell crap that doesn’t work for 10 times the cost, pay workers crap – literally, pay billionaires for all that hard work of counting their money instead of taxing them at all, pay police departments to beat the crap out of minorities, build walls around the country so that no one can leave and therefore not pay them to live here and to keep the minorities out because ick…. I’m sure I left out a few of their policy issues that are even more disgusting.

  207. 207.

    Jeffro

    OT but just have to say I’m still thrilled (in a quiet, amateur policy nerd kind of way) at Congress getting ready to beef up IRS funding and their auditing of the wealthy and large corporations.  Something that never occurred to the “populist “ GQP for some reason ?

  209. 209.

    Ruckus

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    So sorry.

    You gave him a good life. He gave you back more. He was a friend, a companion, a member of the family. You were the same for him. You were his pack and he was glad to be a member. You did good for another animal on the planet. So did Woofie. Know that he was glad to be your friend.

  212. 212.

    Honus

    @raven: my nephew used to play with some guys in band called 1937 Flood that used Jorma’s studio.  Jorma actually came to his HS graduation party at my sister’s house In huntington. She told me “yeah, there was some old guy here that was in the Jefferson Airplane”

  214. 214.

    Geminid

    @Honus: Trout fishing is big in the Valley. Now that acid rain has been reduced, native brook trout are coming back to the mountain streams. And there are creeks and rivers near Waynesboro that are stocked with rainbow trout. Waynesboro has a park on the South River, upstream from DuPont, where people fish.  And some people own a spring fed pond near Fishersville that they stock, and charge people for what they catch. I tell people with kids about it because the trout are so easily caught.

  217. 217.

    Another Scott

    re AOC’s fundraising for Texas**.

    Several of you are saying she's doing the right thing and leave politics out of it. She is absolutely doing the right thing. And she's doing it while standing on the neck of the fellow who's singled her out as a monster. Why not both?

    — Richard M. Nixon (@dick_nixon) February 19, 2021

    Yup.

    ** –

    She’s the real damn thing. https://t.co/sueFza9U3U

    — Charles P. Pierce (@CharlesPPierce) February 20, 2021

    Yup.

    Walking the talk is important. Beto and AOC and lots of others are doing it too.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  220. 220.

    Jay

    Outrageous and worthy of more attention: Indian police jailed 21yo Disha Ravi over a protest "toolkit" after Greta Thunberg shared it. The document is a guide to supporting Indian farmers' protests, and police have used it to accuse Ravi of sedition https://t.co/TJEgfHEcnm— Versha Sharma (@versharma) February 19, 2021

  221. 221.

    James E Powell

    @Baud:

    Speaking of evil women, where’s Elizabeth Warren? She’s been quiet lately.

    Undoubtedly, she is planning to betray us.

  222. 222.

    cain

    @Freemark: ​

    @Chyron HR: I doubt that is why this small fluffy white dog was named Snowflake. I’d be willing to bet Fled Cruz doesn’t even know they have a dog. And Snowflake wanted to keep it that way. Damn journalists!

     

    My thought was that he was actually fleeing the poodle. I mean that pic of the poodle at the door.. modify the environs a bit, add a bit of red color to the eyes.. and hell yeah, I’ll be running to Cancun! /joke

  224. 224.

    James E Powell

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:

    Also, can we stop casting teacher concerns about “I’d like not to die please” as “those whiny selfish teachers unions are putting themselves ahead of our poor students”?

    Teachers, especially those of us who work in the large districts, know the huge gaps between what schools districts are supposed to do, what they say they will do, and what they actually do.

  225. 225.

    cain

    @RSA: ​
     
    In general, I’ve been greeting the entire “world population going down” to be a good thing for the planet. We’ll generate less waste and consume less overall. Sometimes growth is a bad thing – coupled with renewable energy, electric cars – I think it is good. Never mind the advent of robotics + AI – less manual labor. Sucks to be a billionaire though. :P

    Now if that can happen in China and India – that would be a good thing too. The more education we push the better it will be.

  226. 226.

    J R in WV

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    My most sincere condolences for your loss.

    It is always so hard, their lives are so fleeting, their presence so glorious, they are so happy to be with us. Take care, Hillbilly!

  227. 227.

    Ken

    @Another Scott: I’m sure Cruz would have started fundraising if he’d thought of it.  He just didn’t think of it.  Starting it now would look like the only reason he’s doing it was because of AOC. Which is true, but looks bad for him.

    But if he does start fundraising, I hope some enterprising reporters follow the money, just to make sure it’s not all spent on flying his friends and donors to Cancun.

  231. 231.

    EmbraceYourInnerCrone

    @Jay: thank you for posting this. Made me smile.  Just got some bad news and I needed to hear a little good news. Every little sunbeam helps!

  232. 232.

    Jay

    @James E Powell:

    here, in the Abbotsford School District, teachers in old wings and portables, took to opening the windows for better air circulation, due to an absence of HVAC or MRIN-16 filters.

    The School Board responded by screwing the windows shut.

    On the one hand, by late spring, Parents will be able to send their kids off to School, 5/8.

    On the other hand, there won’t be any Teachers in the class rooms because they don’t want to die.

  233. 233.

    J R in WV

    @RSA: ​
     

    The country’s total fertility rate — the average number of children born per woman during their reproductive years — stood at 1.45 in 2015.

    The rate needed to maintain a population is about 2.1, worldwide. Japan has been in trouble on that front for a while now.

    Perhaps this could be related to the fact that their culture has been deeply misogynistic for centuries, even more so than our own somewhat misogynistic situation? Or not, I’m no expert in Japanese culture…

    But if you treat a group of people, women, poorly, you perhaps shouldn’t expect their wholehearted participation in your well-being.

  235. 235.

    EmbraceYourInnerCrone

    @James E Powell: I bring that up every time people I know who have kids complain about teachers.  There are already vast disparities between the rich and poor school districts in my state. And the ones with the most students are pro the ones that can least afford to implement the needed safety measures to protect teachers.

  236. 236.

    Jinchi

    @waspuppet: That’s assuming Republicans are even trying to get most people to vote for them.

    They aren’t. They’ve gone back to the tried and true method of making it harder to vote at all.

  237. 237.

    EmbraceYourInnerCrone

    @Jay: Thank you! We think you are beautiful! my favorite sis in law just told me she has stage four metastatic breast cancer. I don’t even know what to do. She is halfway across the country…this sucks. Just trying to process right now. We won’t know how bad until the brain scan next week. I want to break something.

  238. 238.

    Jay

    @J R in WV:

    like much of the West, it’s probably economic.

    Salarymen have no time to have relationships, no money for a home, no money for children, just an hour after their 12-14 hours, in which to get cheaply hammered, go home, pass out and start the 7 day work week again.

  241. 241.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Jay: Curiously, just yesterday I read about and ordered a novel with a similar theme (Too Loud a Solitude, by Bohumil Hrabal). Haven’t read it yet, but it’s a theme I find very appealing.

    Haňtá has been compacting trash for thirty-five years. Every evening, he rescues books from the jaws of his hydraulic press, carries them home, and fills his house with them. Haňtá may be an idiot, as his boss calls him, but he is an idiot with a difference—the ability to quote the Talmud, Hegel, and Lao-Tzu. In this “irresistibly eccentric romp,” the author Milan Kundera has called “our very best writer today” celebrates the power and the indestructibility of the written word (The New York Times Book Review).

  242. 242.

    ellie

    @JAFD: Hi JAFD! I bought glasses from Warby Parker and I really like them. Just like the commercial, you pick five pairs to try on and then find the pair(s) you like and send all the samples back postage-free. And then you order them. I have progressive lenses so my order took about a month.

  244. 244.

    Jay

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    I know, who the hell throws away books.

    They can be collected, resold, traded, given away, donated, small libraried, ….. turned into art, made into small safes,……

    other than Regenrion Press (Wingnut Welfare) and it’s ilk, who the hell puts a book in the trash?

  247. 247.

    laura

    @EmbraceYourInnerCrone: I am so, so sorry. When there is little to do, please tell her how much you love her, tell her all the wonderful things about who she is and how she matters to you and your family. Love is sometimes the sole answer when facing impossible circumstances. I wish you and your family grace and love in this hard, hard time.

  248. 248.

    bertintx

    Regarding schools, in Texas the state has declared that any parent who wants to send their child to school may do so.  There are also no limits on the number students who may be in any one classroom. So, the in-person attendance varies greatly across the state.  I teach in Austin ISD, and my school in particular has had pretty low attendance, less than 20%, but other district schools are well over 50%. Texas has teacher organizations, but no teacher unions that make contracts with districts. The state has told the districts if they don’t offer in-person teaching, they won’t fund the schools, so almost all of us are back on my campus.  Class attendance for most of us ranges from 2 to 10 or so.  It seems that our principal sends out an average of one COVID -19 notice of infection each week.

    My room has three windows that I open every morning (adjusting the height based on outside temp), I wear KN95 masks all day and hand them out to anyone who will take one. Being a science teacher I dug out some CO2 sensors that work with Vernier software and started measuring CO2 levels in my room, with plans to distribute more to others around the building.  We can use CO2 levels as a measure of ventilation.  From checking info resources it looks like anything under 1000 ppm is pretty good (atmospheric CO2 is around 415 ppm).

    One of the many frustrations about this is that many of our own staff members don’t wear better masks, nor do the students.  It’s still mostly surgical masks or cloth masks. As others have said upthread, the guidance and material support from the district is inadequate, but not surprising given that we are in Texas. Our school community has voted with their attendance choices, and we can work with 200 to 300 students on campus every day, and we are taking everything one day at a time.

  250. 250.

    Jay

    @germy:

    “Biden’s dogs attack NewsMax guest for being an asshole”.

    not all dogs are “good boys”,………….

     

     

     

     

     

    some are “good girls”.

     

     

    Biden said he liked kids better than “people”,….

     

    I like dogs better than people.

  251. 251.

    trollhattan

    @germy:

    What in the actual fuck? Can we get a moment of silence for the ex-presidential badger? How was the level of badger-grooming in the TR White House? Good enough to be presidential?

    I loathe these people. They are too stupid to understand that  though; thus, a German face-slapping is called for.

  258. 258.

    Jay

    Breaking NYT: Erik Prince, the ex-head of Blackwater and prominent Trump supporter, violated a United Nations arms embargo on Libya by sending weapons to a militia commander who was attempting to overthrow the government, according to U.N. investigators. https://t.co/OGWHo854kK— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) February 19, 2021

  260. 260.

    Kirk Spencer

    @Jay: Me.

    Oh, I try to sell or donate or such. But in the end what is left is trash.

    Part of it is I spent too many years as a librarian sorting through donations that couldn’t be put on the shelves. Missing pages, mold, broken spines, umpteenth copy of a once popular tale that simply no longer circulates, and more. Put into the booksale they sit, sale after sale.

    I will not burden my former peers that way, so sometimes I throw them away.

  264. 264.

    cain

    @opiejeanne: ​
    @cain: Like the killer rabbit in The Holy Grail?

     
    Yes! I was wondering where that imagery was coming from – yes I must have unconsciously thought of the rabbit from The Holy Grail.

  267. 267.

    Brachiator

    Coming late to the thread.

    The truth of the matter is that Democrats’ political fortunes in 2022 will turn, at least in part, on whether they actually deliver on getting us back to normal, or not. If they don’t, then they’ll probably be in serious political trouble next year.

    This is so much bullshit. There is no such thing as “getting us back to normal,” but pundits love flogging a simplistic narrative.

    Conservatives (and fools) previously were hot to get the economy started again, as the definition of normalcy. They still believe in that, but have now shifted to reopening schools as the bright line of normalcy.

    I wonder how many conservatives and pundits, if they have children at all, have them in union-free private schools?

    Anything that Biden achieves will be dependent on what happens with respect to the virus. And no one controls what the virus may do. And even here, controlling the pandemic is not just dependent on Biden, but on the ability of the public to do the right goddam thing. And here, of course, conservative leaders (and fools) insist on doing stupid shit that puts lives at risk.

  268. 268.

    FlyingToaster

    @Jay:

    This!

    Up heah in the Commonwealth, the teachers’ unions are laser-focussed on the testing and vaccine distribution failures of the Baker administration.  Possibly in retaliation or because MA can’t get additional vaccines, Baker moved the teachers and retail and service workers out of phase 2.  So no, we won’t see full time school before fall (which has the teachers at WarriorTeen’s school tearing their hair out).

    Most of the local public middle & high schools are remote.  Some are coming back after break to 2 days live podded, 3 remote.  The grade schools are in better shape, but stil an effin mess of hybrid and remote.

    WarriorTeen’s private school has been live since September, but the MS is only half days live; the afternoons you either go home  to zoom, or zoom in from your pod.  Middle School teachers leave at 12:30.  And we’re fortunate in having the HVAC, filtration, and CO2 detectors (open the window indicator).

    Republicans are nuts if they think that teachers unions don’t know which party is screwing them, and which locals to focus on.

  269. 269.

    cain

    @J R in WV: ​
     

    But if you treat a group of people, women, poorly, you perhaps shouldn’t expect their wholehearted participation in your well-being.

    I don’t think anyone can beat the Wahabi Islam folks in Saudi Arabia when it comes to misogyny. Literally treat them as possessions and have an entire secret police dedicated to keeping that social order. Affects the men too.

  270. 270.

    bertintx

    @Jay: Thanks for the information.  My students are fairly well spaced out and masked, as I am also. The CO2 levels when I first checked them ranged from the 450s with me in an empty room up to 850 with a few students in there also. Window opening size make an immediate difference. We missed all of last week from the weather and next week in my district will also be totally remote, but when I get back I want to check out levels in the cafeteria and parts of the school that don’t have windows that open. Again, teachers in Texas are in the situation of show up to work, or leave the job.  Not a good thing, but those are the facts.

  271. 271.

    Jay

    @Kirk Spencer:

    recycling, not trash.

    did a “secret door” for a customer. Fake bookshelf/door, in a “family room”, that lead to a kids room.

    840 “dead books”, epoxied, trimmed and cut to mimic the other bookshelves, with less weight.

    I’ve made furniture out of books, ( dead).

    I have known artists who have made art out of salvaged pages.

  272. 272.

    Brachiator

    @OzarkHillbilly: ​
     

    “I opened the toilet seat and there’s just a bear face just right there at the level of the toilet seat, just looking right back up through the hole, right at me,” he said.

    So, perhaps we now know that the bear does not always shit in the woods.

  275. 275.

    Jay

    @bertintx:

    sorry, be safe, quit your fucking jerb when it get’s dangerous.

    some of the best people I have ever met are teachers,

    the rest were either librarians, machinists or fisherpeople.

  276. 276.

    Brachiator

    @Jay: 

    I know, who the hell throws away books.

    I know younger people who have rarely, if ever, bought a book that was not a text book.

    Some years ago, when I was moving, one of the people helping me, seriously asked why I had books.

  278. 278.

    Ruckus

    On a personal note, last night, after my second shot I can say, with confidence that I have been inoculated for Covid, both shots. My arm stopped aching about 2 hrs ago, after a night with little sleep and an arm that felt like it was easily twice it’s size and had been run over by a truck. If this is the worst of it, it is not fun but also not that bad, for the protection. Now I get to wait another couple of weeks, continuing to mask up and go on as if nothing else has changed, until the epidemic is over.

  281. 281.

    Brachiator

    @WhatsMyNym: ​
     

    Towards the end of the chart it spells it out – the higher the income, the less children.

    Yep. The higher the income, the fewer children.

    Also, I think that higher income women have their first child significantly later in life compared to lower income women.

    The decline of the fertility rate is probably also related to the development and use of the birth control bill, and more reliable access to effective contraception.

    Another chart shows that survival to age 65 for females has increased steadily since 1960. I wonder how much of this is related to a decline in deaths during childbirth?

  284. 284.

    PST

    @ixnay: My deepest sympathy also to Ozark on the loss of Woofie. In line with what ixnay said, I don’t think I have ever had regrets or second thoughts about putting a pet to sleep. If maybe with perfect knowledge I could have waited a week or two longer, I can live with that. My regret is for the time I waited too long and caused unnecessary suffering.

  285. 285.

    NoraLenderbee

    @Kirk Spencer: ​ You are doing a service by tossing those books. Nothing’s more annoying* than getting to the last chapter of a mystery novel only to find that the key pages are absent. Things made of paper don’t last forever, and it’s OK to recognize when a book’s physical material has reached the end of its lifespan.
    I would love to have a fake bookcase/door to a secret room. Heck, it could even be the door to an ordinary room. “Where’s the bathroom?” “Oh, behind the bookcase.”

    Or how about a door that opens to reveal, not a room or a hall, but a bookcase full of real books? Keeps the dust off.
    *Well, lots of things are more annoying, but, you know.​

  286. 286.

    Brachiator

    Since this is an open thread. Watched the Australian Open

    Naomi Osaka is damned impressive.

    I love this quote from a recent interview.

    “I feel like the biggest thing that I want to achieve is playing long enough to play a girl that said that I was once her favourite player,” said Osaka.

    I hope she has a long and productive career.

  289. 289.

    J R in WV

    @WaterGirl: ​
     

    February 20, 2021 at 9:18 am

    Beautiful guest post from OzarkHillbilly in August:

    OzarkHillbilly and His Beloved 4-Footed Friends

    A great set of stories about a great dog. Thanks, OzarkH for sharing those pictures of your dawgs. As cute as they can be. Our Alice looks just like Woofie, only white, and doesn’t mind water at all. Big dogs, Labs are, and all full of love.

  294. 294.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @NoraLenderbee:

    My brother has owned two houses, and in both of them he constructed elaborate secret rooms. He’s been fascinated by them since he discovered, at about age four, a tiny hidden room in our attic.

  303. 303.

    The Pale Scot

    I’m sure that 5 minutes after I post this a new open thread will appear,

    I need a culinary consult, I want to make braised short ribs, which requires a dutch oven I don’t have.

    Can I braise the ribs and do the other stovetop actions in a pan, and then put it into a corning ware dish? Or am I overlooking something?

    Thank you Jackals

  304. 304.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Jay:

    here, in the Abbotsford School District, teachers in old wings and portables, took to opening the windows for better air circulation, due to an absence of HVAC or MRIN-16 filters.

    The School Board responded by screwing the windows shut teachers.

    Fixed.

  306. 306.

    The Fat White Duchess

    @Immanentize: My great-aunt volunteered teaching Head Start after she retired from the NYC public schools. It was in a Latino neighborhood and (according to my father) she really enjoyed saying, “Now, Jesus, you cut that out!”

  307. 307.

    germy

    https://nymag.com/intelligencer/amp/article/maya-wiley-nyc-mayor-race.html

    Maya Wiley is running for mayor of NYC, and she just won a big union endorsement.

    So far, Wiley’s biggest concrete proposal is her New Deal New York package, modeled on Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration. Except, unlike the original New Deal, which initially left out agricultural and domestic workers, Wiley’s plan specifically aims its aid toward the city’s most vulnerable residents. It’s a $10 billion recovery proposal that would borrow from the capital construction budget to stimulate the city’s economy, focusing on infrastructure repairs of bridges, tunnels, and NYCHA housing and investing a billion dollars in the arts, climate construction, and job creation.

  313. 313.

    Kent

    @bertintx: I taught HS science for a decade in Texas at Midway HS in Waco.  My classroom had no windows.  The corridors were 2-hallways wide and each hallway had interior and exterior classrooms.  Ventilation and HVAC systems were iffy.  Not something I ever tested.

    Here in WA I taught for 3 years in one district with a 1970s era science building with windows that didn’t open.  I’m now semi-retired and mostly do long-term science subbing at a couple of different schools which are all over-crowded.  There is one AP-Environmental Science teacher I long-term sub for (maternity leave) where the classroom is accessed by walking through two separate math classrooms.  It’s basically a converted storeroom with no outside access or windows and smaller than the average classroom.  All I would accomplish by putting a fan in the doorway would be blow our contaminated air into the math classroom next door.

    One school I teach at has been added onto and remodeled at least 10 times since the 1950s.  It’s a rat maze of interior corridors and classrooms without windows or adequate ventilation.  Some rooms still have steam radiators for heat (no-AC as this is western WA where it doesn’t get hot).

    Bottom line?  I’m not setting foot in a classroom until I get vaccinated.  I’m 57 and just had heart surgery.  Not going to put myself at the mercy of the most asshole MAGA parent in the school district who might send sick kids to school because fuckit.

    But here in WA, teachers are nowhere near the top of the list when it comes to vaccines.  They are getting vaccinated in OR but no one knows when we might make it onto the list here in WA.  I honestly can’t even get on the list as a 1A (medical staff) as there are no appointments.

    My pet theory is that it is racial.  Here in WA (and nationwide) the public health authorities are getting a LOT of grief about how vaccinations of people of color are lagging behind those of white people.  Which, of course, makes sense, because the 1A priority criteria for medical staff and nursing home residents are two populations that are more white than the general population.

    My guess is that they don’t want to push 4 million or so teachers to the front of the line because that will be 4 million or so mostly white middle class folks (teachers are heavily white).  And that will make their vaccine diversity stats look even worse.  I have no evidence this is the case.  But it is what I suspect is in the back of the minds of the public health decision-makers who are trying to get teachers to go back to school without being vaccinated.

  314. 314.

    Ken

    @Brachiator: Some years ago, when I was moving, one of the people helping me, seriously asked why I had books.

    “Because Google can’t electronically cancel my right to read this paperback.”

  315. 315.

    Martin

    So I’ve been reading up a bit on how people with power experience empathy.

    There’s got to be something more to why Joe Biden and Barack Obama behave so differently than Ted Cruz, beyond the R and D label.

    I realize the story of Joe losing his wife and daughter, and then Beau is not signaling that Joe should be sympathized with as a way of drumming up votes, but a signal (that many of us seem to be generally unaware of) to people that he’s retained his ability to be empathetic, something that would appear Ted Cruz has utterly lost and can’t regain.

    Surely that also means that Joe could never see himself as a Republican and Ted couldn’t pass as a Democrat these days.

    I don’t think we consider the degree to which ones immediate circumstances affect how they express emotion.

  316. 316.

    TomatoQueen

    @OzarkHillbilly: ​
     
    So sorry about Woofie’s passing. He’s had an enviable life and was loved by his humans and online friends, a story we’d wish for all the doggies. He was a very good boy.

    Woofie on the Bridge!

  317. 317.

    LuciaMia

    to people that he’s retained his ability to be empathetic, something that would appear Ted Cruz has utterly lost and can’t regain.

    I doubt Cruz ever  had the ability.

  319. 319.

    Ruckus

    @debbie:

    I don’t know, I didn’t try, it was late when it started hurting and I was tired. Went to bed, sort of slept. Now it’s back to normal. So really about 10-12 hrs of not quite “Holly Shit Batman,” to Ok, let’s move on.  I’ve heard that it varies depending on the individual so from descriptions I’ve heard my experience was maybe on the high side of normal. My temp went up a tenth of a degree, still stayed in my normal range at 97.6. It’s 97.9 right now. So it will vary a bit, but the RN who administered my second shot said if you have no reaction it’s not doing anything for you. It worked, I can tell you that.

  321. 321.

    TomatoQueen

    @The Pale Scot: ​
     

    Short ribs can be braised in the corningware pan (my ex-MiL used her corningware on the electric stovetop all the time), then transferred to the oven for more low and slow.

  324. 324.

    Ken

    @zhena gogolia: Stupid spherical planet.

    (I was bemused to learn a few years ago that , because of Kiribati’s decision to use UTC +14:00, there are a couple of hours each day when three different calendar dates are in use.)

  325. 325.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Kent:

    I don’t blame you. Here in Ohio, teachers were included 1B at least. I know DeWimp called out specific school districts such as Akron and Youngstown (Gee, I wonder what those two have in common? ?) for supposedly dragging their feet with fully reopening. To me, this push to reopen is completely political. The R controlled state leg has repeatedly tried to strip the governor of his ability to issue health orders and place that within the purview of the legislature. It’s insane. And just yesterday, restaurants where I live were packed full of people. I just don’t know what people are thinking

  328. 328.

    J R in WV

    @Geminid: ​
    There is a duPont plant in the Parkersburg WV area that produces chemistry vital to the production of Teflon, one of the foundation products of duPont’s fortune. That chemistry is primarily composed of “forever chemicals” that do not break down, ever.
    Teflon and its precursor chemicals are so hardy, so strong, nothing breaks them down. So the whole surrounding area is contaminated with C8, short for perfluorooctanoic acid aka pentadecafluorooctanoic acid.
    A brief quote from the linked article:

    The stability of PFOA is desired industrially but is a cause of concern environmentally.
    A study of workers living near a DuPont Teflon plant found an association between PFOA exposure and two kinds of cancer as well as four other diseases. A positive exposure-response trend for kidney cancer is supported by many studies. PFOA has been detected in the blood of more than 98% of the general US population in the low and sub-parts per billion (ppb) range, and levels are higher in chemical plant employees and surrounding subpopulations. How general populations are exposed to PFOA is not completely understood. PFOA has been detected in industrial waste, stain-resistant carpets, carpet-cleaning liquids, house dust, microwave popcorn bags, water, food, and Teflon (PTFE) products.
    As a result of a class-action lawsuit and community settlement with DuPont, three epidemiologists conducted studies on the population surrounding a chemical plant that was exposed to PFOA at levels greater than in the general population. Studies have found correlation between high PFOA exposure and six health outcomes: kidney cancer, testicular cancer, ulcerative colitis, thyroid disease, hypercholesterolemia (high cholesterol), and pregnancy-induced hypertension.

    I’m sure most Balloon Juice jackals have routine contact with products related to this group of chemicals… everyone does.
    Evidently 3M used to make these chemicals as well but ceased production in the early 2000s. duPont spun off the manufacture of these chemicals a few years ago, and have offered to settle for $600+ billion in a class action suit related to the manufacture of C8 and closely related substances.​
     

    ETA: Of course, nothing breaks mercury down, either…

  329. 329.

    The Pale Scot

    @raven:

    cast iron frying pan

    nope

    I do have the solid steel pan I brought here to pan roast. The braising isn’t an issue. I’m thinking about the temperature drop when I transfer it into the corning ware. figuring on setting the ribs aside before the transfer

     

    @TomatoQueen:

    The interboobs are saying take you can’t put corning ware on a stovetop. I’m visiting my parent’s house and this isn’t mine to break.

  331. 331.

    Martin

    @Kent: Maybe, though teachers aren’t being pushed to the front in other states either.

    I think the more likely explanation is that the vaccine has been prioritized for people that are in jobs they are currently exposed to the public. But there’s a choice with teachers – continue teaching remotely and give those 4 million doses to others, either more front-line or seniors, or give them to teachers and reopen schools.

    I think right now the sense is that we have a Covid solution for teachers – Zoom, which scales nicely – and we’re just trusting we aren’t fucking kids up too badly with this solution.

    I’m pleased that Joe/Kamala are pushing hard to reopen schools because when the vaccine is approved for kids, administering it through the schools solves so many problems I can’t list them all here, and that option only works if schools are in session. I’ve said before that public schools are the only real public health infrastructure we have in this country because they are well organized, have authority, and reach 100% of the population.

    Sometime in the next month we’ll have more vaccine coming in than I think we will be able to administer. Turning on the schools goes a long way to solving that problem.

  332. 332.

    smith

    @LuciaMia: ​

     

    I doubt Cruz ever had the ability.

    Blame toxic masculinity. In some subcultures, here and elsewhere, little boys are trained not to experience empathy, in some cases having it beaten out of them.

    But, not all, to be sure. While I was struggling to clear the last of the foot+ of heavy snow from my driveway today, a kid of about 15 came by, and offered to do it for me. He whipped through it in a few minutes and refused any payment. Clearly some people are raising their boys right.

  335. 335.

    The Pale Scot

    My response comment got eated; FYWP

    @R , I don’t have an iron pan, I do have a heavy steel pan I use to pan roast fish

    @TQ I’m at my parent’s house, the web says you can’r put corning ware on a stovetop. This stuff isn’t mine to break. so looking for work arounds

     

    Gotta go to the store, thanks

  337. 337.

    Jinchi

    @rikyrah: ​
     

    can’t stop laughing at these early jim henson commercials where one guy just kills another for not liking wilkins coffee

    Yikes! Who knew Kermit was a serial killer?

  338. 338.

    PST

    @Kirk Spencer: I dislike throwing books away, but as I prune my shelves for the sake of my marriage and and to ease the burden on my posterity there are simply some books that have no value to anyone. I used to resist getting rid of books of great merit, thinking I might reread them someday. But scores of them were the cheapest of cheap paperbacks, now with brown and brittle pages. They are almost all in the public domain now, easy to read online for free, and widely available used or in libraries. Everyone should read Tocqueville’s Democracy in America, but I can’t imagine that tossing my cheap Vintage Paperbacks, with the lousy glued binding that split and lost pages so easily, had a chance of finding the old boy one more reader. I recently watched the Martin Scorsese series on Fran Leibowitz, which is grand. She says she can’t throw away a book, but I’ll bet she bought rarer and more durable books than I did.

  340. 340.

    Kent

    @Martin: It’s not that.

    What we have now is the Biden Administration pushing for in-person schools while at the same time saying that it can be done safely without vaccines.  You have Biden Administration people going on Maddow and CNN talking about their school re-opening plans and how it can all be done safely without vaccines.  Even when Chris Cuomo says “why not just take 3 days and vaccinate all the teachers” they hem and haw and don’t commit to any national plan to vaccinate teachers.

    Which of course, is something that Biden could do.  He could order all the states to push teachers to the front and get it done in a week so schools across the country could fully re-open.  But they don’t want to take that step.   I’m convinced it is at least in part due to race.  They don’t want to rush another 4 million mostly white middle class folks to the front of the line and make their vaccine diversity stats look way worse than they already do.

  342. 342.

    cain

    @Kent:

    I guess in that case, I’m kind of happy that we started off with teachers first here. I’m still a little upset that it’s going a bit slow here – in other states it seems like the 60+ people are already done (eg Indiana and Arizona) – I wonder if there is a correlation of blue vs red states in terms of initial supplies?

  343. 343.

    Another Scott

    @The Pale Scot: Eh? Corningware:

    From braising meats to baking cobblers, this classic CorningWare® casserole set will be a go-to. A favorite for more than 50 years, the glass-ceramic fusion is safe for gas or electric stovetops and in the oven, broiler or microwave. Glass lids let you steam foods or keep them warm on the table.

    If you have something like that (I know there are different kinds of Corningware sets), you should be good to go.

    Good luck!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  348. 348.

    J R in WV

    @Immanentize:

    I am so often, so frequently, the last poster.

    I’m willing to comment on a dead thread, just so I can type my opinion out and get into Internet eternity…    ;~{)

  350. 350.

    WaterGirl

    @Kent: They also keep saying “we listen to the science”, and the CDC is saying it’s safe to open without teachers being vaccinated.  They are in a bind.

    Biden can SAY that he thinks teachers should be vaccinated, and he does say that, but he is boxed in because the CDC took the position they did.

  351. 351.

    Another Scott

    @WaterGirl: I think Biden has plenty of room to maneuver. There’s good evidence, like the ScienceMag.org story that has been passed around here a few times, that schools can be open even without vaccines. BUT it means doing things very differently – much smaller classes, pods that don’t interact with others, etc. Things that require many more people, much more floor space, and much more money. Biden knows this and it’s why he stresses Safely when he talks about opening.

    The press and pundits talking about reopening with nothing changed except (maybe!) putting plexiglass around the teacher’s desk either are uninformed or are arguing in bad faith.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  352. 352.

    Kent

    @WaterGirl:

    @Kent: They also keep saying “we listen to the science”, and the CDC is saying it’s safe to open without teachers being vaccinated.  They are in a bind.

    Biden can SAY that he thinks teachers should be vaccinated, and he does say that, but he is boxed in because the CDC took the position they did.

    The CDC says it is safe to re-open schools with proper mitigation by which they mean things like modern ventilation, universal masks, isolated pods, and 6 ft. social distancing.  None of which are remotely possible in most schools.  At least not without billions of dollars of investment that for sure isn’t happening in the next month or so.

  353. 353.

    TomatoQueen

    Re corningware on the stove top: I had to track this down & it turns out Vintage corningware is a yes, the modern stuff no. So my strong visual memory of that dreadful ex-MiL of mine doing hideous things in the kitchen isn’t so much hallucinatory as just old. She was using the corningware from the 1970s and earlier, made of Pyroceram, which never wore out and was safe on the stovetop. So if you have the old white with blue cornflowers on the side, you’re fine. The modern stuff not fine. “…That’s why the “original” Pyroceram Corningware dishes can go directly from freezer to stove top or oven without breaking. They were designed to withstand sudden temperature changes.” is from this blog post: https://barbaracasey.com/stovetop-safe-corningware-is-back/
    and of course you can find the old pieces on eBay.
    The stainless steel pan you’ve got should be fine on the stovetop too, if we’re just talking about the material–but I’m imagining it’s a stainless steel roasting pan, in which one would make pan gravy, or is it something else?

  354. 354.

    WaterGirl

    @Another Scott: @Kent:

    I agree with both of you on what you’ve said.  The point I was trying to make, and apparently didn’t do well, was that he is in a bind re: doing something to push teachers to the head of the line. Biden can say that he wants to see teachers vaccinated, but I think his hands are tied as far as trying to make that a formal recommendation because of what the CDC is saying.

  355. 355.

    Kent

    @WaterGirl:I agree with both of you on what you’ve said.  The point I was trying to make, and apparently didn’t do well, was that he is in a bind re: doing something to push teachers to the head of the line. Biden can say that he wants to see teachers vaccinated, but I think his hands are tied as far as trying to make that a formal recommendation because of what the CDC is saying.

    The problem that the Biden Administration has, is that there aren’t any quick fixes available to make schools universally safe across the country short of universal vaccination.  We could rebuild 50% of the schools the country from the ground-up to be pandemic-safe structures.  But that would take 20 years and trillions of dollars.  So they are basically in a bind.

    If you read through the CDC stuff top to bottom they basically hedge their bets and put out a lot of guidelines and best practices that simply aren’t possible to fully implement in 75-90% of American schools.

    The quickest way to bring schools back to normal is to end the pandemic and get to universal vaccination.  I don’t really see any other shortcuts.

    As for science?  Iowa has re-opened schools.  They have a Covid death rate of 169 per 100,000 population.  Oregon hasn’t re-opened schools. They have a death rate of 50 per 100,000 or about 3.5-times lower.   Oregon could have followed Iowa’s lead and killed another 6,000 to 10,000 of its citizens.  Would that have been worth it?

  358. 358.

    The sun is the same in a relative way

    @Ken: Taiwan has a decreasing birthrate for several reasons. Here are two big ones. First, people are delaying or choosing not to get married. Many Taiwanese women don’t want to get married they are enjoying their lives as single women. Some Taiwanese men, particularly those who make less money or live in the countryside go to South East Asia for brides because the locals won’t marry them. Second, having children is increasingly expensive. Many families only want one child because that’s all they can afford. Taiwan’s ancestor worshiping culture is not enough to encourage people to have more than one child. The price of housing and education in particular mean that it is not easy to have a large family unless you have a lot of money. China and Japan are going through the same thing for similar reasons.

    I am a long time lurker that finally decided to comment.

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