Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Conservatism: there are some people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

This blog will pay for itself.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

Let there be snark.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

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

I was promised a recession.

I really should read my own blog.

Republicans in disarray!

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

After roe, women are no longer free.

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

In my day, never was longer.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / I Didn’t Know What Time It Was

I Didn’t Know What Time It Was

by | 128 Comments

This post is in: 

This is from the front page of the Post. The message here is simple, soothing and reassuring. We’re back as the arbiters of all that is good and right in DC, and what’s good and right is comment on personality and style. What kind of a bubble do you need to live in to witness yesterday’s press conference and file this horseshit?

Anyway, I know it gets tedious to keep talking about this stuff, so another topic. The headline is one of my favorite standards, a Rogers and Hart tune composed for Too Many Girls but also featured in Pal Joey. I like this cover by Cécile McLorin-Salvant. Second favorite is Sarah Vaughan’s version. Unfortunately, Ella’s cover is fully of 50’s syrupy strings. I like the more world-wise tone of the Salvant and Vaughan versions.

The other day, I was watching Ella at Montreaux ’69 and just marveling at her absolute mastery on stage. I wondered how old she was then, so I looked her up in Wikipedia (she was 52). I was struck by this sentence:

She was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing, timing, intonation, and a “horn-like” improvisational ability, particularly in her scat singing.

That got me thinking about how rare it is for someone to have a sentence like that written about them, and for that sentence to be true.

Well, whether you like the high road or the low road free from grief and strife, here’s an open thread.

Reader Interactions

128Comments

  2. 2.

    Jerzy Russian

    I keep coming back to this, but stupidity needs to become physically painful if we are to advance as a society. Ms. Parker seems to make the case for this pretty well.

  4. 4.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    RIP Larry McMurtry. Ever since Cloris Leachman died, I’ve been thinking I should rewatch The Last Picture Show. And it’s been at least ten years since I last re-read Lonesome Dove.

  5. 5.

    The Moar You Know

    Ashley Parker – what a perfect name for a Karen of the first water, or a porn star (why can’t it be both?) – is a national treasure, our nation’s pre-eminent bootlicking robot.

  6. 6.

    Betty Cracker

    I don’t comment on articles at The Post much; I prefer this wretched hive of scum and villainy.  But I left the following under Parker’s dumbass article about Biden “returning to Trump:”

    Let’s say someone — we’ll call him “45” — poops the bed. And stipulate that another person — let’s call him “46” — is tasked with unpooping that bed. It’s a messy job that takes a while to complete. If someone asks 46 why there’s still poop on the bed shortly after he’s taken over from 45, there’s really no other honest way to explain all the poop except by referring to 45. I hope this parable is helpful!

    You know, there are serious insights one could glean from Biden’s references to the Predecessor. Ms. Parker did not find them.

  7. 7.

    LurkerNoLonger

    Turnip was there for 4 years and messed up a lot of stuff. It’s only accurate to say he’s the cause of many of the troubles that Biden is attempting to fix. Is he supposed to ignore the last 4 years, like it seems Parker is doing?

  8. 8.

    VOR

    @hells littlest angel: I wonder how long it will take for the conventional wisdom to conclude that yes, Trump was a historically bad president. I think actual historians have already come to that conclusion. Probably not until after 2024 elections, if ever. We’ll know once Fox starts talking about how Trump was really a liberal from New York City.

  9. 9.

    MisterForkbeard

    @hells littlest angel: Parker’s take is just the worst. Seriously.

    Trumped fucked up the pandemic. Trump fucked up the border. Both of these problems started a long time ago, and Biden telling reporters that the problems are big and not yet solved is not ‘scapegoating’, for crying out fucking loud.

  11. 11.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    I discovered Ella Fitzgerald late in life. I sing in a mostly-classical chorus, and the director is fond of lightening up the more serious concerts with arrangements of jazz literature. I’ll often go looking for other recordings after we perform one of those. Almost universally I’ve found that my favorite version of those songs is by Ella.

    (The Ella Fitzerald – Memorex commercials were around when I was a kid, but all I knew from those was that she was obviously a singer.)

    Speaking of choral music, I was hanging out virtually with The King’s Singers this week (I’m one of I think 900 people recording a virtual choral accompaniment for a song with them). OK yeah it was Zoom and we were mostly muted, but still I was surprised how cool it was to be interacting live with them, hearing them rehearse, and listening to them tell stories.

  12. 12.

    The Moar You Know

    I keep coming back to this, but stupidity needs to become physically painful if we are to advance as a society. Ms. Parker seems to make the case for this pretty well.

    @Jerzy Russian:  I think any device; desktop, laptop, cell phone, tablet, whatever – that has any kind of input method that can be converted to text – should be equipped with a hammer that smashes the fingers of the user that inputs anything stupid into it.

    Some people would say that this will make portable devices very cumbersome to carry about, but I see that as an unmitigated plus.

    Some people would say that this is inhumane, to which I would challenge them to read any Facebook or YouTube comments section, or the editorial section of the WSJ, or any portion of the NYT, and then come back and try to make that as a good faith argument.

  15. 15.

    Albatrossity

    @Betty Cracker: Excellent comment. Here’s what I said, not nearly as earthy!
    —

    It is simply a factual statement that Trump created lots of problems that Biden now has to focus on.

    It is neither scapegoating nor an expression of personal animus for Biden to tell us that. Just about every time he is asked a question about a problem that this country faces, it will be a problem that The Former Guy either created or exacerbated.

    Hopefully the press will figure that out someday, and focus more on the message than on the messengers.

  16. 16.

    Another Scott

    @Betty Cracker: +1

    “Biden talked repeatedly about X…” leaving out the context that he was asked by a reporter about X.

    Recent example, “OMG!! Biden called Putin a Killer!!11”

    Stephanopoulos asked: “So you know Vladimir Putin. You think he’s a killer?”

    “Mmm hmm, I do,” Biden replied.

    They love putting words in people’s mouths. Especially when they demand a simple answer to a multi-faceted question.

    Grr…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  17. 17.

    catclub

    horn-like

    Ethel Merman’s voice was described as trumpet-like.

    And as Robin Williams noted, ideal for singing ‘Silent Night’

  18. 18.

    Jerzy Russian

    @The Moar You Know:   I was thinking an army of junk-kicking robots, but your method has promise.   Given that the scope of this problem is so large, a variety of pain-inducing methods will be probably be needed.

  21. 21.

    hells littlest angel

    @VOR: Probably not until he dies, which, because I fervently hope it will be soon, will probably not happen for decades.

  23. 23.

    West of the Rockies

    Parker got dragged in the comments, except for some chump named Bladerunner.  Weird how wingnut men are always using self-aggrandizing nyms.  Pretty sure no one else calls this person Bladerunner.

  28. 28.

    Butch

    I worked on Capitol Hill for a while and the idea that someone would describe the “rhythm of Washington” as if that’s a thing and didn’t burst into flames after writing it….I just have no words.

  29. 29.

    hueyplong

    Not sure it’s a fact important enough to know, but if in Jojo Rabbit they’d stuck with the big band song Jojo’s mother dances to in the kitchen for a few more seconds, the vocalist would have been Ella Fitzgerald.

  31. 31.

    Roger Moore

    @hells littlest angel:

    I don’t think it will take Trump dying to get Republicans to turn on him. As soon as his people admit he’s suffering from severe dementia- which may come as soon as the first indictment- they’ll know they don’t have to fear him anymore.

  32. 32.

    UncleEbeneezer

    Remember all those “GOP Obsessively Blames Obama/Hillary” headlines? Me neither…

  36. 36.

    Mike in NC

    I honestly can’t recall reading anything by Ashley Parker in the Washington Post. On the other hand, Kathleen Parker is reliably cringe-inducing. I still suspect she held her nose and voted for the Orange Clown just because he had the “R” next to his name.

  37. 37.

    NotMax

    Peggy Lee’s version works its way up to being pretty ring-a-ding-ding swingy.

    BTW, first recording of “I Didn’t know What Time It Was,” with the Benny Goodman orchestra.

  40. 40.

    jl

    For a sundowning, senile, old fool, Biden sure showed a mastery of detail. The GOP and their lapdog corporate news media will claim that when Biden rounded 7.8 billion to 8 billion, that was either a depraved lie, or proof of dementia, or both.

    Biden should have brought a chart showing the lie that there is any unusual surge of arrivals at the border at all, and then a lot of the obsession with dishonest GOP propaganda about that topic could have been answered by pointing at a poster board. Save a lot of time.

  43. 43.

    Lyrebird

    @JAFD: Thanks!

     

    And Mistermix, did you take out part of your post?

     

    I TOTALLY AGREE with what I think I saw as your suggestion that they have TONS of town halls and forget this ridiculous bs.

  46. 46.

    jl

    My theory of Biden’s faltering start and inconsistent performance at the outset of the primary is that he had the yips. It was his last chance, and he realized that he had to change his initial pitch, which started to sound too much like an Obama nostalgia tour. I think he needed some of that, but it wasn’t enough and he relied too much on it. He needed to supplement his pitch on the fly. And he did, which showed he can adjust in real time.

    So, I put it down to nerves, and that concern is obviously put to rest now: he won. Because Biden is relatively normal. If he were like Trump, those kind of doubts could never be put to rest, and there would still be severe disfunction.

  52. 52.

    VeniceRiley

    I think Biden should just have staff put slides on an overhead projector and just point. Heh.
    The media that helped elect Trump is garbage that cost us over half a million lives. They want us to forget that in a hurry. Nope.

  57. 57.

    patrick II

    @Betty Cracker:
    There are a couple of things that are very irritating about that type of reporting.

    1. It’s partisan.  When Democrats become president they have to pretend the last presidency didn’t happen.  See Obama and Bush.  But when a Republican comes in, for instance Trump, it is clear that he is there to “fix” (read that as unfix) everything done by the last administration.
    2. Running a country is not flipping a light switch. The amount of effort, particularly in a democracy, to organize, build a consensus, and do the logistics to make any change is immense, and even more difficult when following a “president” who purposely screwed things up at the end to make the next guy look bad.  We aren’t in grade school, Biden isn’t running in from the playground saying Donnie did mean things to me.  We are living in the context of a failed Trump presidency, in a real, grownup, complex world. It would be nice if reporters were grownups who understood that or at least stop pretending they don’t.​

    ​
    ​

  61. 61.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @patrick II: Also, Dem Presidents must GIVE CREDIT to their predecessor Republican Presidents (see the calls for Biden to praise Trump for vaccine) but never, ever, EVER the other way around.  Did any press member ever ask Trump why he hadn’t thanked Obama for inheriting a robust economy?

  62. 62.

    L85NJGT

    Oh.. it’s a crisis. The attempted beat seems to be a 1980 redux, with Tukker in the role of Ted Koppel, giving nightly updates on the ongoing crisis.

  63. 63.

    thruppence

    @Betty Cracker: I’m getting my second Pfizer shot on Tuesday too. Woohoo! I’ve scheduled the next two days off for any reactions but the first shot had no reactions at all. Light at the end of the tunnel but we’re not out yet.

  64. 64.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @patrick II: Running a country is not flipping a light switch.

    Look, these Villager idiots can’t think in anything but a binary mode.  They’re just not wired to transcend their self-imposed narrative.

  66. 66.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @West of the Rockies: Mine was on Wednesday, and yes, shoulder is a bit sore, but not overly so.  I have to press against the injection spot to actually feel it.

    Fortunately, Her Serene Highness is unaware of this, or I’d complain more.

  68. 68.

    Betty Cracker

    @thruppence: Yep. I’m strangely psyched about it even though I really really REALLY hate shots. (My parents claim I went on a rampage though a pediatrician’s office at 3-years-old while getting a shot. I have no memory of it.)

    I don’t know what kind of vaccine I’m getting. The preregistration form allowed users to express a preference for Pfizer, Moderna, J&J or “first available.” I was tempted to say J&J so I wouldn’t have to go back, but I chose first available. My hubby got Moderna, and my MIL got Pfizer. Neither had a reaction at all.

  70. 70.

    KrackenJack

    Caught the very end of Psaki’s press conference. Seemed like an unforced error on the prioritization question when she responded (paraphrasing) that “like all admins we have to walk and chew gum at the same time when dealing with all these crises.” I thought she mentioned immigration when listing them. Did I mis-hear?

  72. 72.

    JMG

    Has anyone besides me noticed that more and more each day, Ted Cruz is coming to resemble Waylon Jennings in Waylon’s half-pound of cocaine a day period?

  75. 75.

    Brachiator

    We’re back as the arbiters of all that is good and right in DC, and what’s good and right is comment on personality and style.

    It’s odd. These dopes are “reviewing” Biden’s press conference as though it was a performance. But since they are third rate hacks, they aren’t interested in what Biden has accomplished, or what he wants to do in the future, but only in whether he has made them happy.

    It is all a stupid waste of time. The modern presidential press conference has degenerated into a farce in which the press asks dumb questions, followed by empty punditry and “analyses” in which idiots weigh in on whether Biden gave them their money’s worth.

  79. 79.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Brachiator: These dopes are “reviewing” Biden’s press conference as though it was a performance.

    Sometimes literally. When I lived in the DC area, it used to piss me off no end that they would have their TV critic (at the time Tom Shales) review anything that appeared on TV, including political things.

    That was back in the Clinton era but I doubt they’ve changed much since then.

  81. 81.

    Brachiator

     

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    RIP Larry McMurtry. Ever since Cloris Leachman died, I’ve been thinking I should rewatch The Last Picture Show. And it’s been at least ten years since I last re-read Lonesome Dove.

    RIP. I have never read his works, but I love the adaptations of his novels, especially Lonesome Dove.

  83. 83.

    Brachiator

    @catclub:

    horn-like.

    Ethel Merman’s voice was described as trumpet-like.

    But the idea here is that Ella’s voicing made her sound like one of the instruments in the orchestra. With Merman, it’s more often about volume of sound.

    Great jazz singers like Ella, Sara Vaughan, Sinatra, Carmen McCrae don’t just sing a pretty melody. It’s like they are are weaving the song into the orchestration, dancing with the lyrics. It’s magic.

  86. 86.

    Kent

    @UncleEbeneezer:@patrick II: Also, Dem Presidents must GIVE CREDIT to their predecessor Republican Presidents (see the calls for Biden to praise Trump for vaccine) but never, ever, EVER the other way around.  Did any press member ever ask Trump why he hadn’t thanked Obama for inheriting a robust economy?

    And remember when Trump thanked the Obama Administration for leaving a detailed turn-key Pandemic Plan or “Playbook” for them to implement?

  87. 87.

    Jeffro

    @UncleEbeneezer:Did any press member ever ask Trump why he hadn’t thanked Obama for inheriting a robust economy?

    You’re kidding, right?  President Obama utterly DESTROYED the American economy, and it was only by the goodness of our mighty orange emperor that we even had sparrows to put on our curtain rods.

  88. 88.

    Kent

    @thruppence:@Betty Cracker: I’m getting my second Pfizer shot on Tuesday too. Woohoo! I’ve scheduled the next two days off for any reactions but the first shot had no reactions at all. Light at the end of the tunnel but we’re not out yet.

    I got my second Pfizer shot on Wednesday.   Didn’t detect any side effects at all, other than a bit of soreness on the shoulder such as one gets from any shot.

  89. 89.

    BruceFromOhio

    @trollhattan: ​

    @Another Scott: ​
      Bunnies in the news, what a relief.

    I’m interpreting the paid drivel as “holy shit I gotta churn out 900 words before deadline” and it’s attendant freshman charm.

    And I’m grateful to mistermix, Betty Cracker, Anne Laurie, et al, to read and offer interpretation this crap so I don’t get my feets dirty.

  90. 90.

    Another Scott

    One for Uncle Cosmo – SciTechDaily:

    NIH-funded findings point to a role for saliva in SARS-CoV-2 transmission.

    An international team of scientists has found evidence that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, infects cells in the mouth. While it’s well known that the upper airways and lungs are primary sites of SARS-CoV-2 infection, there are clues the virus can infect cells in other parts of the body, such as the digestive system, blood vessels, kidneys and, as this new study shows, the mouth.

    The potential of the virus to infect multiple areas of the body might help explain the wide-ranging symptoms experienced by COVID-19 patients, including oral symptoms such as taste loss, dry mouth, and blistering. Moreover, the findings point to the possibility that the mouth plays a role in transmitting SARS-CoV-2 to the lungs or digestive system via saliva laden with virus from infected oral cells. A better understanding of the mouth’s involvement could inform strategies to reduce viral transmission within and outside the body. The team was led by researchers at the National Institutes of Health and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

    […]

    25 March 2021, Nature Medicine. DOI: 10.1038/s41591-021-01296-8

    With the caveat that all science is tentative and incremental, it doesn’t sound like a nose-only mask is a good idea.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  91. 91.

    japa21

    @Betty Cracker: My parents told the story of how, when I was around that age, I was all set to get a butt shot, pants down around my ankles, when I bolted out of the office and through the waiting room. I was almost out the front door when they caught up with me.

    When I am asked about allergies my response is always, “Only to needles.” So when I got my first Moderna shot, I said that to the NG medic who was to administer it. He responded that he is the same way, which is why he turns his head away whenever he gives one.

  92. 92.

    Jeffro

    @JMG:Has anyone besides me noticed that more and more each day, Ted Cruz is coming to resemble Waylon Jennings in Waylon’s half-pound of cocaine a day period?

    All I know is, the man (and I use the term loosely) was complaining about “political theater” just two days ago…and then was creeping around the bushes on the banks of the Rio Grande at 1:00 a.m.*, claiming he and a bunch of other GQP senators were “there to investigate the CRISIS”.  Uh-huh.

    *Twitter is having a field day with this, noting that ol’ Insulting-My-Wife-Is-Fine was probably just reporting from the pool at the Cancun Hilton

    Oh and this also from the guy who wrapped bacon around the barrel of a machine gun to ‘cook’ it for laffs.  Complaining about “political theater” my ass.

  94. 94.

    charluckles

    I’d be more forgiving of this press framing if the Trump administration hadn’t so obviously sabotaged the transition.  Treasonous bastards should be run out of this country on a rail, not treated with the respect afforded to previous administrations.

  95. 95.

    Lapassionara

    @Brachiator: I saw Ella Fitzgerald live at the taping of a TV program, maybe the Ed Sullivan Show. This was in the 1960’s, and she was mesmerizing. She sang a song that had the following opening lines: “what a night, no moon at all. Even fireflies have dimmed their lights . . ..” I searched for a recording of her singing this song for years, but never found it, alas.

    I am not musical, but I think she was the best in her field, by far.

  96. 96.

    Another Scott

    Speaking of the dangers of talking to the press…

    Well, that'd speed up the process of Democrats reaching 0% of the vote in some rural counties. https://t.co/LYzmaCfK8b

    — Chaz Nuttycombe (@ChazNuttycombe) March 26, 2021

    Points to a Sec. Buttigieg interview talking about ways to raise revenue, presumably for highways. Presumably in the context of electric vehicles (which obviously don’t pay gas taxes). In other words, a complex topic reduced to “OMG! Democrats are doing Teh Stupid To The Rural Areas Again!!11”

    (sigh)

    Our team has to be prepared for “hot takes” like this and to have sensible answers.

    (via NotLarrySabato)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  102. 102.

    karen marie

    @trollhattan:

     

     close to the cottage on the island, best known as a home to spectacular seabird colonies.

     

    Do all seabird colonies have a cottage or is that limited to Welsh seabird colonies?

  103. 103.

    Baud

    @Another Scott:

    Rural voters already pay by miles driven in the form of a gas tax. I thought it was actually conservatives who were pushing for this change in order to tax hybrid and electric cars more.

  104. 104.

    karen marie

    @JMG:  When I was getting instructions and waiting to be released after shot 1 (Pfizer), I was told to move the injected arm as much as possible. It’s intramuscular, so the movement helps the vaccine to disperse, resulting in less soreness.  I rotated my arm on the 20 minute drive home, then forgot about it. The next day I noticed a mild soreness when moving my arm but nothing significant.  Shot 2 is April 12. Yay!

  105. 105.

    SWMBO

    @Betty Cracker: ​
      My son-in-law is getting his tonight!
    My son and I get the second shot a week from today!
    My husband got his second shot last Friday.
    My daughter got her first shot last Sunday!
    These are all in Florida.
    https://www.wesh.com/article/florida-vaccine-eligibility-all-adults/35936042#

    Beginning Monday, March 29, all individuals age 40 and older will be eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. Beginning the following Monday, April 5, all individuals age 18 and older will be eligible to receive the vaccine.

    This content is imported from Twitter. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.
    Vaccine info
    Where to get a COVID-19 vaccine in Florida

    The governor says over 70% of the roughly 4.4 million seniors living in Florida have been vaccinated. He says the state has also made progress with people between 50 and 64.

    Floridians are encouraged to pre-register at http://www.myvaccine.fl.gov. Once pre-registered, they’ll be contacted when the vaccine is available in their area. Floridians can also call the vaccine pre-registration phone number for their county, listed here.

    My nephew in Arkansas got J&J last Tuesday.

  106. 106.

    Anotherlurker

    Speaking of Ella Fitzgerald, the 3 duet albums that she cut with Joe Pass are all complete and total masterpieces!

    Joe and Ella, just the 2 of them, produce more music and artistry than most other ensembles that boast 3X, 4X, 5X , etc. musicians.

    These albums illustrate, perfectly, what can be produced if the artists are not only the best in their craft, but also have an amazing chemistry.

  107. 107.

    SWMBO

    @SWMBO: ​
      Can’t seem to edit. The comment about my nephew is not part of the article on vaccine rollout in Florida.

  110. 110.

    Ken

    @West of the Rockies: Pretty sure no one else calls this person Bladerunner.

    “Can you call me ‘Buck’? I’m trying to get a nickname to stick.”

    “But you’ve got a nickname, everyone calls you — ”

    “OK, OK, I’m trying to replace that one.”

  111. 111.

    Juju

    @Kent:  I got my second Monday and I started feeling it in my 15 minute wait time. It felt as if a warm  marshmallow was moving through my arm and by the time I left I couldn’t close my right hand all the way. I took some ibuprofen for the aches that started to develop and completely lost my appetite and didn’t have anything but tea or water for two days. I got chills that made my teeth chatter and I aches in my muscles and to my bones. My nephew who has had Covid said except for not losing my sense of smell and taste that’s what his mild case of Covid was like for about  two weeks. My sister also got hers Monday and had similar side effects plus diarrhea. She recovered a day before I did. I felt like myself yesterday, but a little tired. I feel fine today. My mother had no side effects the first shot and her arm hurt for a day the second shot. She’s 88. It was probably a whole lot better than getting Covid, so I’m not complaining. My brother, a physician said it seems to hit hard, second shot with Pfizer, or it doesn’t. Pfizer is what’s being used in my area. Ibuprofen helps. Take it after if you need it.

  112. 112.

    dmsilev

    @Juju: I felt kind of dizzy and light-headed after my second shot, both immediately after the shot and the afternoon of the following day. One of my coworkers reported being basically bedridden for a day after his second, but the second day after he was fine. Another coworker was laid low for a day by the first shot and he is very much not looking forward to his second next week. My parents had absolutely nothing except some muscle soreness right around the injection area. Etc. It’s pretty random.

  113. 113.

    Jay C

    Not that I’m a huge fan of Jennifer Rubin’s (WaPo) opinion pieces much, but she was spot-on with her précis of the “MSM” coverage of Pres. Biden’s press conference.

    Short version: the press whined for two months about Joe not doing an in-person presser, and once he did, proved him right to have avoided it by their shallow and unserious questions.

     

    And I just got my second (Pfizer) vaccine shot on Monday: reaction was basically the same  as the first one (3/1): barely-perceptible soreness at the injection site, a bit of fatigue over the next couple of days. I consider myself quite lucky.

  114. 114.

    Another Scott

    @Baud: Indeed.  That’s what happened here in VA.  Hybrid and electric cars got preferential treatment on carpool and toll lanes (didn’t need as many people to use the express lanes).  So, Gov. Grifty Bob McDonnell and the Teabaggers imposed a $75 fee to register hybrid/electric cars because they don’t pay as much/any gas tax.  (Then they also “eliminated” the gas tax by making wholesalers pay it instead of paying at the pump – unsurprisingly, the pump price didn’t change.)

    It’s all about punching the hippies that want to prevent the world from turning into a hellscape.  And making Democrats lose, somehow.

    Transportation taxes could be bad or could be sensible depending on how they’re done.  It would be easy to base it on miles driven, since the states can get that information during annual car/truck inspections.  As more of the fleet is electrified, gas taxes are going to be even less effective at funding roads than they are now.

    (I haven’t listened to the Sec. Mayor Pete interview.)

    Thanks.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  115. 115.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Another Scott: With the caveat that all science is tentative and incremental, it doesn’t sound like a nose-only mask is a good idea.

    For all-purpose wear when out & about, probably not. But that’s not what I was thinking of, and I’m sorry if you presumed otherwise.

    I wouldn’t argue with this report without having a chance to review it, but it does seem clear that infection of mouth cells is noted in addition to whatever’s in the nasal passages. In which case frequent use of a mouthwash with viricidal properties might be indicated (in addition to whatever goes in the nose). E.g., I have sitting beside me a bottle of Fixodent CPC Antigingivitis/Antiplaque Oral Rinse whose active ingredient (Cetylpyridinium chloride) in that concentration (0.07%) has been reported** to kill SARS-CoV-2 in vitro. I’ve been shpritzing this on my inner mask before donning, maybe I should be rinsing with it instead – or in addition.

    For someone eating and/or drinking in public a nose-only mask would beat the hell out of no mask at all. Together with some discipline – mouth used for ingestion only, no chewing with the mouth open, no talking, singing, shouting or spitting – it would function almost as well as a full mask.

    (I know, I know, asking for discipline from our countrymen…)

    I’m trying to envision a workable full mask designed for eating & drinking where the wearer could easily free the mouth during ingestion & have it snap back again while chewing, swallowing or speaking. Probably still too much to ask a large percentage of people to learn how to use them & remember to use them properly. OTOH something with an entry port for a straw shouldn’t be all that hard.

    ** And I regularly kick myself for not having bookmarked the link.

  116. 116.

    Villago Delenda Est

    As one might imagine, the cretinous shitmuffin that is Rich Lowery is calling the Biden presser “a train wreck”.

  119. 119.

    Uncle Cosmo

    BTW I was in a supermarket Monday & saw a fellow who was a dead ringer for the college buddy I watch The Expanse with, but before I could say hi, his wife came up (my friend is a bachelor). Near-whoops.

    I was reminded that there are two types of people in the world**: Those who recognize faces from the bottom of the nose up, and those who recognize faces from the bottom of the nose down – and the latter sort have been in agony for 15 months and counting.

    About a half-hour later I was in another supermarket and a guy walked up to get in the queue behind me & I said to him, You know you look just like a cousin of mine, & he looked at me and replied That’s because I am, Cos!. (ETA: We spent the next 20 minutes catching up on fambly noose.)

    Reminds me of running into H. sap antipodeus while vactioning in Yerp – I asked a middleaged couple if they were Australian and they looked sad and said Naow, we’re from New Zealand & so the next guy that sounded like them I asked if he was from New Zealand & he snarled

    Wha, I sound like a fookin Kiwi ta yew?!

    ** We all know there are two kinds of people in the world – those who think there are two kinds of people in the world, and everyone else. But in fact there are 10 kinds of people in the world – those who grok binary and those who don’t. :^p)​

  120. 120.

    prostratedragon

    Soon as I saw the name, guessed the song in one — never really internalized where it came from. That will always be one of her best, and one of the best versions.

  121. 121.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Another Scott  Thanks, but it doesn’t look familiar – don’t recall the toothpaste results. Same difference though.

    Zinc (in tablet form) is well established as a topical treatment for sore throat. I wonder if zinc supplements inhibit viral invasion of mouth cells. I vaguely recall findings that they (along with vitamin D3) might be helpful, but Google disagrees. (Of course Google is routinely disagreeable…)
    ​

  122. 122.

    Ken

    @Villago Delenda Est: As one might imagine, the cretinous shitmuffin that is Rich Lowery is calling the Biden presser “a train wreck”.

    I thought we were agreed on that. Or do you mean he’s blaming Biden, not the press?

  124. 124.

    Another Scott

    An excellent long read from our friends at ProPublica – The coal plant next door:

    Georgia’s Plant Scherer and its neighboring pond, where the plant has dumped nearly 16 million tons of toxic coal ash. Credit:Dustin Chambers for ProPublica

    Environment

    The Coal Plant Next Door

    Near America’s largest coal-fired power plant, toxins are showing up in drinking water and people have fallen ill. Thousands of pages of internal documents show how one giant energy company plans to avoid the cleanup costs.

    by Max Blau for Georgia Health News

    […]

    A good, infuriating, read.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  125. 125.

    J R in WV

    We got our second Moderna shot last Thursday. I slept all weekend, have had odd muscle spasms and cramps in places I don’t usually have cramps.

    No complaint, better than the ICU~!!!~ Just describing my situation.

  126. 126.

    Brachiator

    My brother-in-law recently got his second shot. Not sure which. He was okay early in the day, then got chills and a low grade fever. After covering up and resting, he was better the second day.

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